Royal Arch Purple

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The Royal Arch Purple is a "higher degree" of initiation within most of the Orange Order although it is still outlawed by the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, the degree[1] is believed to be of Masonic origin.[2]

It was started in 1798. The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland disliked the ritualism and tried to suppress it as being incompatible with Protestantism. The degrees were practised in great secrecy for fear of expulsion from the Order. The Grand Lodge maintained this position throughout the nineteenth and into the early 20th century, which was mirrored throughout Great Britain.[3]

Although the Royal Arch Purple is officially forbidden in Ireland it is now widely practised as a natural step of advancement from the Orange Institution to the Royal Black Institution.

[edit] Notes and References

  1. ^ Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland Laws and Ordinances
  2. ^ "The ritualists were those renegade Orangemen who adhered to the neo-Masonic Royal Arch Purple Order and Royal Black Preceptory degrees. Their unflinching aim was to introduce these ritualistic degrees into the Orange Institution and as a consequence make it a mirror of Freemasonry." GRAND ORANGE LODGE OF IRELAND hostility towards the RAP and Black degrees from the Evangelical Truth website
  3. ^ The Orange Order from the Evangelical Truth website
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[edit] External links