York Masonry and the York Rite

by

Edward M. Selby (PGHP Ohio)

1905 - 1976

Albert Pike was a great leader in American Masonry and perhaps its greatest intellect. He was not, however, noted for charity to an opponent. The Scottish Rite in both Southern and Northern Jurisdictions got off to a slow start in the early years of the 19th century. The Southern Jurisdiction, which Pike headed (1859 – 1891), was torn asunder by the Civil War and Pike himself was attainted as a former Confederate General. In addition, segments of the York Rite, which were by then firmly entrenched, persisted in a policy of regarding Scottish Rite Masons as a small body of Masonic elite, in which membership was predicated on previous York Rite affiliation. Born out of impatience with this situation, Pike displayed his temper with this statement (Allocution 1876):

Our American Masons generally have heretofore seemed to imagine that there is no Masonry entitled to the name, in the world, outside the United States; and that there is but one legitimate Rite of Masonry, the “York” Rite. There neither is nor ever was a York Rite. The very name asserts a falsehood. There never was any grand lodge of York.

Ill-humored as this statement was it nonetheless contained an element of truth, particularly if Pike is permitted to define a Masonic Rite as he once did:

A Rite is an aggregation and succession of any number of degrees given by one or more bodies, but under the authority of a single supreme Government.