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"Three small lapel badges of the Royal Arch Purple Degree, that depict a 2½ number within an arch as its emblem. The number 2½ represents the biblical tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh who helped lead the people of Israel across the river Jordan to the Promised Land.

The Royal Arch Purple Degree were founded 1795 at Loughall in County Armagh and continued as part of the Orange Order. They are a Protestant fraternal organisation predominantly based in Northern Ireland but also with many Lodges in Scotland. Some Lodges were also founded in the US and amongst the Commonwealth countries.

The badge's elements are the Royal Arch with the number 2½, an eye, snake and a star."

Origins

The exact origins of Royal Arch Masonry in general, and of the Holy Royal Arch in particular, are unknown except that it dates back to the mid 18th century.

Although glimpses of Royal Arch vocabulary appear in Masonic literature from the 1720s, the first verifiable appearance of Royal Arch Masonry is in Ireland in the 1740s during a Dublin procession. According to Lodge No. 21’s records, the “Royal Arch” was carried in a procession by “two excellent Masons” through Youghal, Ireland, on December 27, 1743.

The degree is also mentioned disapprovingly in Dassigny's "A serious and impartial enquiry into the cause of the present decay of Free-masonry in the Kingdom of Ireland" published in Dublin in 1744.[5][6] Separate notes in this work indicate that the rite was practised in Dublin, London and York, and described it as an "organis'd body of men who have passed the chair" (i.e. served as the Master of a Craft lodge).[7]

In 1749, the Grand Lodge of Ireland issued warrants to Lodges 190 and 198 to establish “Royal Arch Lodges”.

History

It was first used in 1795 shortly after the formation of the Orange Order and was the original system put together by the founding members of the Orange Order. The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland disliked the ritualism and tried to suppress it as early as 1798 however, the main reason for the opposition to the Royal Arch Purple Degree was that many rural Lodges were practising other degrees in addition to the Royal Arch Purple degree and the gentry deemed this as unacceptable and realised the need for a central system of degrees. The Royal Arch Purple degree was practised in secrecy for a period after the Grand Lodge (in Dublin) deemed the degree illegal, however it was kept alive by the Lodges around County Armagh as it was the system of 'travel' closest to the original ritual put together by the founding members of the Orange Order in 1795. The Grand Lodge maintains their position in not recognising the degree to this day although it now, rather grudgingly, recognises the Royal Arch Purple as an official Order.

It was re-constituted in 1911, with the explicit intentions of promoting the Reformed Faith, Charity amongst all men and maintaining historic Orangeism. It was granted its Royal title by the Duke of Cumberland, King Ernest Augustus of Hanover,[citation needed] who was the fifth son of King George III, and brother to King George IV and King William IV, whom he succeeded as King of Hanover. As Duke of Cumberland Ernest Augustus had been Grand Master of the Orange Order in England until it dissolved itself at the request of the King William IV following a government inquiry into public disorder in Ireland caused by Orange marches.