In the Southern Jurisdiction, the degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite are worked in five bodies:
- (1) Lodge of Perfection – 4th° to 14th°
- (2) Chapter of Rose Croix – 15th° to 18th°
- (3) Council of Kadosh – 19th° to 30th°
- (4) Consistory – 31st° to 32nd°
- (5) Supreme Council – the 33rd°, conferred as an honour
Consistory
31st° to 32nd°
+ the Court of Honour
The Knight Commander of the Court of Honour, usually shortened to KCCH, is an honour of the Scottish Rite’s Southern Jurisdiction, not a degree. It is conferred on selected Masters of the Royal Secret (32° Masons) in recognition of outstanding service to the Rite, to Freemasonry in general or to the wider community, and it is the usual first step towards the 33rd degree. A KCCH is easily recognised at Scottish Rite gatherings by his red cap.
What the KCCH is
The Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction recognises exceptional service through a “Court of Honour”, which an 1890 history of the Rite called “the Vestibule to the Thirty-third Degree”. Mackey’s Encyclopedia of Freemasonry explains that the Court has two ranks: Knight Commander and the much rarer Grand Cross. Its members are all 33° Masons, active or honorary, together with the 32° Masons the Supreme Council chooses to honour. According to Wikipedia’s account of the Southern Jurisdiction, the honour was established by Albert Pike in 1878.
Being made a KCCH is not like taking a degree. There is no new legend or lesson to learn. The recipient is invested, at a ceremony held in his Orient (broadly, his state), with the “rank and decoration” of Knight Commander, and he keeps his standing as a 32° Master of the Royal Secret. Because it rewards service rather than study, it is a mark of the respect of the brethren who nominated him.
One rule applies to the KCCH, and to every higher honour of the Rite, without exception: it cannot be asked for, and if it is asked for it must be refused. Both Mackey and the 1890 history state this, and Scottish Rite Valleys still repeat it today.
How it is conferred
- Eligibility: the candidate must be a Master of the Royal Secret who has held the 32° for at least 46 months before the session at which he is elected. In practice most recipients have waited much longer.
- Nomination: members are put forward from the Consistories of an Orient for special service to Masonry or to humanity, through the Sovereign Grand Inspector General or Deputy who heads that Orient. Mackey records that the number of nominations each Orient may make was tied to the number of new members it had raised, which keeps the honour scarce.
- Election: the Supreme Council elects Knights Commander at its biennial (two-yearly) session in Washington, D.C.
- Investiture: the new Knight Commander is invested in his own Orient, receiving the decoration and the red cap.
- What follows: since 1890 at least, the rank of KCCH has been a requirement for the 33rd degree. After a further 46 months as a Knight Commander, a member becomes eligible to be elected to the 33° Inspector General Honorary, which is more limited still.
A real example shows the usual pace. Rex Hutchens, author of A Bridge to Light, was invested a KCCH in 1987, coroneted a 33° Mason in 1989, and received the Grand Cross in 1995.
Regalia
A Knight Commander continues to wear the regalia of the 32°, shown above, with the addition of the KCCH jewel and the distinctive red cap. The Wikipedia article on the Southern Jurisdiction describes the cap as red with a passion cross embroidered on it. The Supreme Council’s own statutes list the KCCH cap as one of the eight official caps of the Southern Jurisdiction, alongside the black cap of the 32°, the white cap of the 33° and the caps of the higher offices.
Other jurisdictions
The KCCH belongs to the Southern Jurisdiction. The Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States also requires 46 months before a member may receive the 33rd degree, but it has no KCCH; it awards a Meritorious Service Award and a Distinguished Service Award instead, and neither is a required step towards the 33°. Other Supreme Councils around the world have their own arrangements.
Please view the video on the right, to understand more about the KCCH.
Sources:
– Albert G. Mackey, Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, entry “Court of Honor”.
– Brief History of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1890), section on the Court of Honor.
– 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), “About the Author”. Purchase ‘A Bridge To Light‘ by Rex R. Hutchens
– The Supreme Council, 33°, S.J., “What is the significance of the Scottish Rite cap?” (official caps, Statutes Art. XIII §§15–22).
– Wikipedia, “Supreme Council, Scottish Rite (Southern Jurisdiction, USA)” (Scottish Rite Honors) and “Scottish Rite” (Northern Jurisdiction).
– Orange County Scottish Rite, “Our honorary hats explained”: https://www.ocscottishrite.org/our-honorary-hats-explained