Three Bodies, and the Christian Requirement

The York Rite is a route rather than an order, and an American candidate normally works three separate bodies in sequence. The Royal Arch Chapter completes the story the craft degrees leave unfinished, recovering what was lost in the third degree. The Council of Royal and Select Masters, the Cryptic degrees, fills in the concealment of that secret. The Commandery confers the orders of Knight Templar and its companions.

The Commandery is where the rite differs sharply from craft Masonry. It requires a Christian profession, where a craft lodge requires only belief in a supreme being and admits Jews, Muslims, Hindus and others without distinction. A Mason may therefore be barred from the Commandery while being perfectly regular in his own lodge. That is a real constraint and it is often left out of summaries.

The naming causes constant confusion. In England the Royal Arch is attached to craft Masonry as its completion and is not part of a separate rite, the Cryptic degrees are worked under a different body, and the Masonic Knights Templar are separate again. The York Rite as a single sequence is largely an American arrangement, and its name refers to the legendary founding of English Masonry at York rather than to any historical connection with the city.