The Knight Commander of the Temple is the first of the truly chivalric degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. After several degrees of philosophy and comparative religion, it brings the member sharply back to everyday conduct: a Mason is not only a thinker but a soldier of honour, loyalty and duty, and the old knightly virtues are needed as much today as in the age of the Crusades. Most Supreme Councils confer it as the 27th degree, as the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States once did; that jurisdiction’s Revised Standard Pike Ritual (completed in 2000 and reflected in the 2010 edition of A Bridge to Light) now places it 28th.
The degree at a glance
- Body: Council of Kadosh (19°–30°). The meeting of this degree is called a Chapter of Commanders.
- Degree: Knight Commander of the Temple, 27° in most jurisdictions (including England and Wales, Canada and the Prince Hall Supreme Councils) and in the older Southern Jurisdiction ritual; 28° in the Southern Jurisdiction’s Revised Standard Pike Ritual.
- Setting: a circular chapter hung in scarlet with black columns, recalling the knightly orders of the Middle Ages, in particular the Teutonic Knights.
- The candidate: still bears the name Constans from the Prince of Mercy, and seeks knighthood as a sign of his zeal for Masonry.
- In the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction: the 27° is “Knight of Jerusalem”, built around the historic clash between Pope Honorius III and Emperor Frederick II. Its lesson is to avoid hasty judgements.
Why the numbering changed
Albert Pike deliberately put this practical, knightly degree in the middle of the long run of philosophical degrees. In Morals and Dogma he explains that it breaks “the continuity of these, to relieve what might otherwise become wearisome”, and reminds the member that while busy with philosophy and creeds he must stay “engaged in the active duties of this great warfare of life”. When the Southern Jurisdiction prepared its Revised Standard Pike Ritual, the editors chose a different logic. According to the introduction to A Bridge to Light, the 27° and 28° were reversed “to ensure a logical progression in the Chivalric Degrees”, so that the philosophical Knight of the Sun now comes first and the Knight Commander of the Temple leads directly into the 29° and 30°. This page follows the traditional order, while the regalia pictured is the Knight Commander’s own, as A Bridge to Light illustrates it. The Knight of the Sun is described on the next page.
The lesson
Rex Hutchens opens his chapter in A Bridge to Light with the romance of chivalry, from the Crusades of roughly 1100 to 1400 to the legends of King Arthur, whose fellowship of virtuous knights collapsed through jealousy and the frailty of the flesh. Real knighthood ended in much the same way, through greed and political and religious corruption. Yet the chivalric ideal survived as one of the noblest ideas of the human spirit, and it still supports the values Masonry teaches: family, moral education, honour and courtesy.
The drama of the degree turns these ideals into a test of character. Before he can be received, the candidate must show that he is willing to put right any wrong he has done and humble enough to seek reconciliation with a brother he has quarrelled with. The story then follows Constans through a night of vigil before his knighting. He is tempted to leave his post by a message from the woman he loves, by news that his castle is under attack, and by a monk who urges him to abandon the world for the safety of the cloister. He refuses each time. Finally he hears that the city itself is being attacked by a merciless enemy, and he leaves his vigil to help defend it. The city is saved by an unknown knight. When Constans returns, he is at first condemned for breaking his watch, until he is recognised as that mysterious defender. The presiding officer admits his own error with the line that gives the degree its reflection: it is nobler to err and make amends than never to err at all.
Pike’s lecture applies the lesson to modern life. “Times change, and circumstances,” he writes, “but Virtue and Duty remain the same.” The Knight Commander’s special enemy is falsehood. He must not profess opinions he does not hold, slander even an enemy or twist what others say, and Pike’s standard is blunt: he must speak “the Truth, and all the Truth, no more and no less; or else speak not at all.” The true knights of the present age, Pike adds, are the people who stay at their posts in an epidemic to nurse the sick and bury the dead, the captain who leaves his sinking ship last, and the firefighter who risks his life for strangers.
Duties of the degree
- Duty: be devoted to truth, honour, loyalty, justice and humanity.
- Lesson: Masonry is practical, and asks its members to take an active part in the life around them, not only to study it.
- Lesson: virtue and duty have been the same in all ages, even though the evils to be fought change their shape.
- The knightly qualities named in the degree are humility, temperance, chastity, generosity and honour. Of these, honour is the life of a knight, and the path of honour is the path of duty to God, to the fraternity and to humanity.
Symbols and regalia
The Knight Commander’s regalia is in red, white and black. According to A Bridge to Light, the apron is square, of scarlet lambskin lined and edged in black, with a white flap bearing a Teutonic cross described in the language of heraldry. In the middle of the apron is a black key within a wreath of laurel, the laurel standing for the good opinion of one’s brethren. The collar is white watered ribbon edged with red, and the jewel is the same Teutonic cross. Red stands for zeal, white for purity of motive and fidelity, and black for mourning a martyr of Masonry who is named only in a later degree.
At his knighting the new Commander receives symbolic gifts: a garland of laurel for victory over the weaknesses of the flesh, a sword for justice and the defence of right, spurs for active virtue, and a red mantle bearing the Teutonic cross as a reminder of his duty to God, the fraternity and the poor. In the chapter itself, a crossed sword and key express the knight’s double loyalty to temporal and spiritual authority, and the many circles and globes stand for the equality and brotherhood of the Order.
The images on this page show this regalia as it is illustrated in A Bridge to Light: the square scarlet apron edged in black, with the white flap, the Teutonic cross and the black key in its laurel wreath; the white collar with its Teutonic crosses; the Teutonic cross jewel; and the gloves.
Reflections
A Bridge to Light poses a sharp question for this degree: it is nobler to err and make amends than never to err at all. Is this statement contrary to the virtue of prudence? Constans was imprudent by the letter of his vow, yet right in spirit. The degree invites each member to think about when rules must give way to a higher duty, and to have the humility to admit it when he has judged another too quickly.
Pike closes his lecture with a roll-call of the qualities the degree asks for: “Soldier of the Truth and of Loyalty! Protector of Purity and Innocence! Defier of Plague and Pestilence! Nurser of the Sick and Burier of the Dead!” (Morals and Dogma, lecture XXVII).
Please view the video on the left, for a more detailed explanation of the 27th° Degree.
Sources:
– Rex R. Hutchens, A Bridge to Light: The Revised Standard Pike Ritual, 4th edition, edited by Arturo de Hoyos (Washington, D.C.: The Supreme Council, 33°, S.J., 2010), introduction and chapter “The 28th Degree – Knight Commander of the Temple”. Purchase ‘A Bridge To Light‘ by Rex R. Hutchens
– Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871), lecture XXVII “Knight Commander of the Temple”. Purchase ‘Morals & Dogma‘ by Albert Pike.
– Wikipedia, “Scottish Rite” (table of degree names by jurisdiction).
– Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, “Scottish Rite 27th Degree”: https://scottishritenmj.org/degrees/degrees-27