past master ancien vénérable maitre passé passé maître Past. An epithet applied in Masonry to an officer who has held an office
for the prescribed period for which he was elected, and has then
retired. Thus, a Past Master is one who has presided for twelve months
over a Lodge, and the Past High Priest one who, for the same period, has
presided over a Chapter. The French use the word passé in the same
sense, but they have also the word ancien, with a similar meaning. Thus,
while they would employ Maître passé to designate the degree of Past
Master, they would call the official Past Master, who had retired from
the chair at the expiration of his term of service, an Ancien Vénérable
or Ancien Maître.

Past Master. An honorary degree conferred on the Master of a Lodge at
his installation into office. In this degree the necessary instructions
are conferred respecting the various ceremonies of the Order, such as
installations, processions, the laying of comer-stones, etc.

When a brother, who has never before presided, has been elected the
Master of a Lodge, an emergent Lodge of Past Masters, consisting of not
leas than three, is convened, and all but Past Masters retiring, the
degree is conferred upon the newly elected officer.

Some form of ceremony at the installation of a new Master seems to have
been adopted at an early period after the revival. In the ''manner of
constituting a new Lodge," as practised by the Duke of Wharton, who was
Grand Master in 1723, the language used by the Grand Master when placing
the candidate in the chair is given, and he is said to use "some other
expressions that are proper and usual on that occasion, but not proper
to be written." (Constitutions, 1738, p. 150.) Whence we conclude that
there was an esoteric ceremony. Often the rituals tell us that this
ceremony consisted only in the outgoing Master communicating certain
modes of recognition to his successor. And this actually, even at this
day, constitutes the essential ingredient of the Past Master's Degree.

The degree is also conferred in Royal Arch Chapters, where it succeeds
the Mark Master's Degree. The conferring of this degree, which has no
historical connection with the rest of the degrees, in a Chapter, arises
from the following circumstance: Originally, when Chapters of Royal Arch
Masonry were under the government of Lodges in which the degree was then
always conferred, it was a part of the regulations that no one could
receive the Royal Arch Degree unless he had previously presided in the
Lodge as Master. When the Chapters became independent, the regulation
could not be abolished, for that would have been an innovation; the
difficulty has, therefore, been obviated, by making every candidate for
the degree of Royal Arch a Past Virtual Master before his exaltation.

[Under the English Constitution this practise was forbidden in 1826, but
seems to have lingered on in some parts until 1850.]

Some extraneous ceremonies, by no means to their inventor, were at an
early period introduced into America. In 1856, the General Grand
Chapter, by a unanimous vote, ordered these ceremonies to be
discontinued, and the simpler mode of investiture to be used; but the
order has only been partially obeyed, and many Chapters still continue
what one can scarcely help calling the indecorous form of initiation
into the degree.

For several years past the question has been agitated in some of the
Grand Lodges of the United States, whether this degree is within the
jurisdiction of Symbolic or of Royal Arch Masonry. The explanation of
its introduction into Chapters, just given, manifestly demonstrates that
the jurisdiction over it by Chapters is altogether an assumed one. The
Past Master of a Chapter is only a quasi Past Master; the true and
legitimate Past Master is the one who has presided over a Symbolic Lodge.

Past Masters are admitted to membership in many Grand Lodges, and by
some the inherent right has been claimed to sit in those bodies. But the
most eminent Masonic authorities have made a contrary decision, and the
general, and, indeed, almost universal opinion now is that Past Masters
obtain their seats in Grand Lodges by courtesy, and in consequence of
local regulations, and not by inherent right.

The jewel of a Past Master in the United States is a pair of compasses
extended to sixty degrees on the fourth part of a circle, with a sun in
the center. In England it was formerly the square on a quadrant, but is
at present the square with the forty-seventh problem of Euclid engraved
on a silver plate suspended within it.

The French have two titles to express this degree. They apply Maitre
passé to the Past Master of the English and American system, and they
call in their own system one who has formerly resided over a Lodge an
Ancien Maître. The indiscriminate use of these titles sometimes leads to
confusion in the translation of their rituals and treatises.

  ¶ 18:19