The Order of the Scarlet Cord

The Victorian Order, 1889–1929

The story begins with the Order of the Secret Monitor, which was formally organised in England in 1887. One of its leading figures was Judge Frederick Philbrick KC (1835–1910), its first Grand Chancellor. He was a barrister who became a county court judge and was also one of the founding fathers of stamp collecting as a serious hobby. Philbrick soon decided that the young Order needed an appendant order, as several other Masonic bodies already had. Such an order would strengthen the Secret Monitor and help raise money for its benevolent work. Drawing partly on eighteenth-century documents preserved in the Masonic archives of Amsterdam, he created the Royal Order of Knights of the Scarlet Cord in 1889.

The Order was ruled by a body called the Senatus, presided over by the Summus. Philbrick composed the ritual for its six grades himself from several sources, including expanded material from the Secret Monitor’s own new second degree. (J. S. M. Ward, writing in 1921, counted seven degrees.) Promotion depended above all on giving: each step up required a donation to the Secret Monitor’s Benevolent Fund, and in the higher grades the sums expected were very large indeed. It is no surprise that membership stayed small. The first three grades were worked in a Consistory. There was only ever one Metropolitan Consistory, in London, but the first two grades could also be given in sub-Consistories. The Order’s own account names five: a Northern Consistory working in Yorkshire, and others in South Africa, Central India, Madras and Burma. Some other accounts say four.

What the Order lacked in size it made up for in rank. In 1915 its Summus was the Earl of Warwick, its Past Summus the Earl of Halsbury, its Regent Vicarius the Earl of Londesborough, and its King of Arms Field Marshal Lord Methuen. The Metropolitan Consistory met regularly until 1914, went into abeyance during the First World War, revived in 1919, and stopped working altogether in 1929.

Nobody knows exactly why the Order stopped. The present Grand Summus has suggested several possible reasons. Costs may have become too high after the war and amid the economic troubles that followed. Its Victorian pageantry, with members in court dress, may simply have gone out of fashion. Its founders had all died, and it may already have raised the capital it set out to provide for the Benevolent Fund. The Secret Monitor’s new Grand Supreme Ruler, Charles Napier-Clavering, may not have been an enthusiast. Probably it was a mix of these causes. Whatever the reason, the Scarlet Cord then lay dormant for more than seventy years.

The revival, 2001–2010

Interest returned on 8 June 2001. Peter Glyn Williams, Grand Supreme Ruler of the Order of the Secret Monitor, read a paper on the old Order to Supreme Rulers Conclave No. 123 at Mark Masons’ Hall. He explained that he had written it because brethren kept asking about it when he visited Conclaves in the Provinces. The paper circulated widely in Britain and overseas and stirred up more curiosity, but for the moment nothing more happened.

The trigger turned out to be money. In 2005 the Secret Monitor’s Executive Committee discussed a plan in which the Benevolent Fund would match the charitable donations of Provinces and Districts. The Grand Treasurer supported the idea but warned that, if demand was high, the interest on the Fund’s capital would not cover it, and the Fund would need topping up. Brian Wareham, the Deputy Grand Supreme Ruler, then suggested reviving the Scarlet Cord along with its old rule that contributions to the Benevolent Fund be made on entry and on each promotion, though at far more modest levels than in Victorian times. Williams and Wareham tried the idea on several senior members during a visit to South Africa in February 2006, found them all in favour, and spent many hours searching the archives at Mark Masons’ Hall and Freemasons’ Hall, Great Queen Street, for the old documents and rituals.

On 17 November 2006 Williams, as Grand Supreme Ruler and therefore guardian of the dormant rite, admitted a small group to the Order and worked a revised first grade. A special Secret Monitor Conclave was set up to bring Princes (members who had taken the Secret Monitor’s second degree) into the Order and later lead them through its grades. Scarlet Cord Conclave No. 500 was formed on 5 December 2006. Throughout 2007 it travelled the length of England, and into Scotland, admitting candidates. Demand was so strong that from January 2008 further Scarlet Cord Conclaves were consecrated in England and overseas. They took over most of the admissions and left No. 500 free to introduce the higher grades as each was revised or newly written.

By April 2009 the Order was growing so fast that a steering committee was formed to plan its future. The Grand Recorder, John Brackley, soon made a bold proposal: that the Scarlet Cord should become a sovereign order in its own right, independent of the Secret Monitor. The idea was warmly received, and the committee was renamed the Way Forward Committee. The work ahead was enormous. Besides finishing the grade rituals, it had to write an inauguration ceremony and a set of Constitutions, set up governing structures at Grand, Provincial and District level, design regalia and make appointments. A relatively small team did it all in a remarkably short time.

The Order was inaugurated on 21 July 2010 at Freemasons’ Hall in Great Queen Street, London. In the morning Scarlet Cord Conclave No. 500 met for the last time in Temple 10 and admitted a large group of candidates who wanted to see the inauguration. The Secret Monitor’s Grand Conclave was then opened in the Grand Temple, and its 64 Scarlet Cord Conclaves were formally removed from its roll. A Scarlet Cord Consistory was opened, and Brian Wareham constituted, dedicated and consecrated the Grand Senatus, made up of 64 Consistories. Michael Herbert installed Michael Guest, the Grand Supreme Ruler of the Secret Monitor, as the first Grand Summus. Guest then invested his Grand Officers, including the Provincial and District Grand Summi, before the day ended with dinner at the Connaught Rooms. The whole occasion was organised by Roy Leavers.

The Order has grown steadily ever since. Michael Guest was succeeded as Grand Summus by Andrew Sweeney in 2012, and Sweeney’s successor took office in 2018 (Wikipedia names the current Grand Summus as Ian Currans). The Grand Recorder Ryan Williams has called it a new order, which in its present form it is. By 2026 the Order had more than eighty Consistories in England, Wales and overseas, including India. The first Australian meetings were held in 2010.

The videos below tell more of the story.

Membership

Every candidate must be a Master Mason and a Prince of the Order of the Secret Monitor, meaning he has taken its second degree, and in some jurisdictions he must also subscribe to its Benevolent Fund. A Royal Arch Chapter is not required. Princes may take the first two grades. Further progress depends on service: a member must have been installed as Supreme Ruler of a Secret Monitor Conclave, and later on hold successively higher ranks. The old requirement to make a charitable contribution for each promotion has since been dropped. In England the Scarlet Cord is governed separately from the Secret Monitor. In the Grand Council for Southern Australia it is run directly by the Grand Supreme Ruler acting as Grand Summus, and in Canada the Secret Monitor’s Grand Conclave also has jurisdiction over it. Traditionally the Order’s charitable giving had three pillars: the aged, the sick and infirm, and education.

Structure and officers

The ruling body is the Grand Senatus, organised much like the governing bodies of other Masonic orders. A Province, or a District overseas, is ruled by a Provincial or District Grand Summus with the usual team of officers. The local unit is the Consistory. Its head, the President, leads the Consistory and confers the third grade. His equivalent of a Senior Warden is the Primus of Lectores, who confers the second grade, and the equivalent of a Junior Warden is the Primus of Ostiarii, who confers the first. A member who reaches the chair has therefore usually performed two ceremonies already. Each Consistory also has four Lecturers, who deliver demanding passages in the first and second grades retelling the Old Testament stories behind them.

Several of the Latin titles survive from the Victorian Order: Primus of Lectores, Primus of Ostiarii, Episcopus (the chaplain) and, at Grand level, the Summus and the Grand Regent Vicarius. The last is an honour given to only a handful of members ranking above the head of a Province or District. Members address one another as Companion rather than Brother. In the same way, Craft Freemasons are Brothers and Royal Arch Masons Companions, so the Scarlet Cord stands in that relationship to its parent Order. Many Consistories meet just before, or sometimes just after, a Secret Monitor Conclave and then dine together, which keeps costs down.

The six grades

The descriptions below follow the Order’s published outline of its grades. Different jurisdictions describe some grades a little differently.

First grade: Ostiarius (Doorkeeper)
Conferred in a Consistory on a Prince of the Secret Monitor, this grade tells the story of Rahab of Jericho. She hid the spies Joshua had sent into the city, and to protect her household when the city fell she tied a scarlet cord in her window. Tradition makes Rahab something of an innkeeper or worse, and some have even linked her scarlet cord with the later phrase “red light district”. She went on to live among the Israelites, and the Gospel of Matthew names her as the mother of Boaz, the same Boaz who is mentioned so briefly in Craft Freemasonry. The candidate receives the title Ostiarius, meaning doorkeeper, and the scarlet cord itself stands for discretion and loyalty.

Second grade: Lector (Reader)
This grade turns to Boaz and his marriage to Ruth, told in the Book of Ruth, the eighth book of the Bible. Their son Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of King David, so the Scarlet Cord shows Boaz to be David’s great-grandfather. The grade also dwells on Ruth’s devotion to her mother-in-law Naomi. The candidate becomes a Lector, or reader, and one of the “Chosen and Elect”.

Third grade: Fellow
According to the Grand Summus, this grade is the only one not built on an Old Testament story. Much of it is taken directly from the third grade of the original Order, and it is concerned with honour and the hope of resurrection in the life to come. Australian descriptions say it draws its inspiration from the courage of the Maccabees and from reflection on death and resurrection. Holders become Fellows, a grade also styled “Healer and Exorcist”. These first three grades are all conferred within a Consistory.

Preparation and installation
Before an elected Companion can be installed as President, he must pass through a Preparation ceremony based on the early life of the prophet Samuel. This is normally held at Provincial level and gives him the style “Eminent”. Installation as President follows and brings the style “Distinguished”.

Fourth grade: Councillor
Three years after his installation, a Past President may be recommended by his Province or District for the fourth grade, sometimes called “Courtly Companion”. It is conferred by the Grand Summus and the Grand Officers of the year, with major parts taken by the four Grand Lecturers. The story returns to the Israelites’ entry into the Promised Land, from the crossing of the Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant to the capture of Jericho. With colour, music, singing and pageantry, it is the Order’s great set-piece, and the Grand Summus likened it to a Ben-Hur production. This grade is required for Grand Office.

Fifth grade: Keeper of the Hidden Secret
In contrast to the fourth grade, the fifth is an intimate ceremony that reflects how few receive it. It is given only to Grand Officers of at least three years’ standing, on the recommendation of their local rulers, and to no more than two in each Province or District each year. Its subject is the prophet Jeremiah, whose name comes up almost in passing in the Royal Arch, and his part in saving the Temple treasures, the Ark among them, before the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem. Its lessons are steadfast faith, service and perseverance.

Sixth grade: Prince of Jerusalem
The highest grade is conferred very rarely, only when there is need, and entirely at the discretion of the Grand Summus. It is drawn from episodes of the wars of the Maccabees, the Jewish resistance fighters of about 150 years before Christ. Their victory gave the Jewish people peace and control of their own affairs until the Romans arrived roughly a century later. It is the most dramatic of all the grades, and its holders are styled Prince of Jerusalem.

Some jurisdictions give the bodies that confer the higher grades their own names: the fourth grade in a Council of Elders, the fifth in a Council of the Entrusted and the sixth in a Council of Princes.

Regalia

The badge of the Order is the scarlet cord itself, worn either around the waist or across the body depending on grade. In the first grade it is tied at the waist with the tassels on the left hip, and a small bronze key hangs from a scarlet thread at the neck. In the second grade the tassels move to the right hip and the key gives way to a small bronze scroll. In the third grade the cord passes over the left shoulder, and a black ribbon bearing a tiny skull and crossbones is worn on the breast as a reminder of mortality. A serving President adds a silver anointing horn to it. Holders of the fourth grade wear the cord over the right shoulder and a breast jewel of a gilt Ark of the Covenant on a red, white and black ribbon.

Holders of the fifth and sixth grades wear large sixteen-pointed stars bearing the Ark, silver for the fifth grade and gold for the sixth. They are handsome, if a little showy, and are known affectionately as “sheriff’s badges” or “marshal’s badges”. Officers of a Consistory wear sashes. The President, the Primus of Lectores and the Primus of Ostiarii also wear collarettes, which reflect their roles in conferring the three grades. Provincial and District officers wear bright yellow sashes, and Grand Officers wear scarlet sashes braided in gold with an embroidered Ark of the Covenant, together with a scarlet collarette. The Grand Summus has a personal bodyguard, the Tzaddikim, who wear purple sashes and carry special swords. He himself wears a collarette and chain, carries a baton and has a purple robe for great occasions.

Why members join

In his talk, the Grand Summus set out what he saw as the Order’s main attractions:

• It fills gaps in the story. The grades cover ground that the Craft and Royal Arch pass over, so members gain a much clearer idea of where the second and third Craft degrees, the Royal Arch exaltation and the installation ceremonies sit in biblical history, even though Royal Arch membership is not required.
• The ritual is modern. Every ceremony was written or rewritten in the twenty-first century, so it is clear and concise, free of obscure jargon, and full of drama: colour, music, candlelight, flashing swords and stories told in flashback.
• Its lessons are moral. The Order is based mainly on Old Testament history, and its teaching concerns conduct and character, not doctrine.
• There is always a next step. Progress is possible through the grades and through Provincial, District and Grand rank.
• Its leaders are approachable. Provincial, District and Grand officers make a point of being friendly and enthusiastic, and of talking with ordinary members.

For more information or if you would like to join, please visit the following URLs:
– https://scarlet-cord-ea.com/the-six-grades.php
– https://markmasonshall.org/orders/scarlet-cord/215-the-ancient-and-masonic-order-of-the-scarlet-cord
– https://osmnorthernaustralia.org.au/scarlet-cord/
– http://www.surreyscarletcord.org.uk/history.html

Or ask a Supreme Ruler or the Recorder of your Secret Monitor Conclave, who can put you in touch with a Consistory in your jurisdiction.