Gloucestershire and Herefordshire Provincial Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons

The Mark and Royal Ark Mariners Degrees Although Freemasonry has always been associated with stonemasons, Craft masonic ceremonies make very few references to the working of stone. The Mark Degree, historically an extension of the Craft's Fellowcraft degree, is explicitly related to stone working and building in stone.  It takes its name from the medieval mason's "mark" (illustrated left). Unlike all other medieval trades, the stonemason was a free man. He was not bound to any Lord or Bishop; his employment was effectively piece-work. Each man had his own mark which he carved into every stone he worked, in order to secure payment. Many distinctive marks can be found in the fabric of cathedrals and castles throughout the medieval western world. The Mark degree ritual is a strong link between "operative" (i.e. real working stone-masons) and "symbolic" masonry. Scottish operative lodge minute books and other surviving documents bear many "marks", which would therefore have been familar to the earliest symbolic masons. Records also show that a form of the Mark Degree was worked as early as 1599. The earliest record of the Degree being worked in a speculative body was in 1759 in Portsmouth. It was thereafter worked in Craft Lodges and Royal Arch Chapters, particularly under the Grand Lodge of York (Antients), who permitted any Masonic degree to be worked in a Craft lodge. The 1813 articles of the United Grand Lodge of England specified three Craft degrees only (including the Royal Arch), the Mark degree being excluded.  Even so, many English lodges continued to work it, some obtaining Scottish warrants from the Bon Accord Chapter. The situation was eventually resolved by the creation of a Mark Grand Lodge in 1856, who agreed a common ceremonial by 1860. The origins of the Royal Ark Mariner degree are less well-documented. Its ritual is also linked to the task of construction - of the wooden Ark of Noah rather than the stone Temple. Many of the stories in masonic ritual are thought by masonic scholars to have been based on medieval legends of the building of the Ark and the Temple in various Mystery Plays. Early documents suggest that Noah was considered to be one of the "original Grand Masters" and the prototype of other traditional Masonic figures. His brother Tubalcain, "the first artificer in metals", features in ancient Craft ritual. The jewel of the Mark degree (above right, obverse and reverse) is shaped as the keystone of a stone arch, while that of the Royal Ark Mariners (left) represents the arc and colours of the rainbow, and the dove returning the olive branch to Noah. The Mark degree is conferred in separately warranted Lodges under the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of England and Wales and its Districts and Lodges Overseas. Candidates for advancement into Mark Lodges must be Master Masons. The Royal Ark Mariner degree is conferred on Mark Master Masons. Each Royal Ark Mariner Lodge, although separately warranted, is "moored" to a Mark Lodge, and is under the control of the Mark Grand Master's RAM Council. Mark Grand Lodge recently celebrated its 150th anniversary in the Royal Albert Hall, presided over by H.R.H. Prince Michael of Kent, Mark Grand Master (left).  The 150th Anniversary jewel, illustrated right was commissioned for the anniversary meeting.  It bears the arms of Mark Grand Lodge on the ribbon.