About the Order

Like any company, charity or country we possess a Constitution in which is contained our Ancient Articles of Association. It is a modern document to regulate the running the Order, and it details the authority and authenticity of the Order tracing it back to the year 1048 AD and the original Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem. This ancient title has passed down through the centuries to the present day with a line of Christian knights who at times in public Crusade or through private perseverance has maintained the Order for almost one thousand years.

The Order has been known by many names over the centuries often associated with its location and work, first the Hospital of St. John in Jerusalem, then known as Knights of Rhodes when they held that island and subsequently as Knights of Malta when they made it their home and headquarters. In later times especially after the fall of Malta the order was identified by its colour, or langue and in due course as we see its survival and growth in Britain it is there associated with and named the Black Order, or Scotch Black in tribute to its survival in Scotland.

The order form its earliest days was structured in national bodies or langues  the old word for languages. The governing body of each division was called a Grand Priory, and the chief officer the Grand Prior. The supreme council being called the Chapter General, and the supreme ruler the Grand Master

The Langues of the Order were 

1st. –Provence.
2nd.–Auvergue.
3rd. –France.
4th. –Italy.
5th. –Arragon.
6th. –England.
7th. –Germany.
The 8th. –Castile, being subsequently added 

England included Scotland and Ireland, while Castile included Portugal and Leon. The first protestant Grand Prior was James Sandilands, Lord St John later Lord Torphichen. It is through this lineage that we reach the modern Order.  

At the Reformation only the Order in Scotland became protestant and elsewhere in Britian it remained Roman Catholic and like other religious orders it was deprived of its property and dissolved by Henry VIII. Scotland as a separate Kingdom continued and by 1643 the Order was able to reconstitute a Grand Priory In Ireland. 

From that time the Scottish Order took precedence, and while it slips from the pages of history we see glimpses of its existence and work. The loss of lands and titles turned the Order inwards and the Reformation had meant that while knights could not be expelled or denied their place their offers of assistance in the defence of Malta were declined. The Order in Scotland therefore became insular, and focused on its survival and the protection of its secrets and degrees.

Those knights who did not convert to Protestantism split from the Order and  left in1572, led by David Seaton.  He retired to Germany where he died in 1591, the remnant of the seceders associated with the first lodge of Scottish Masons at Kilwinning, Ayrshire, where they introduced the Orders of St. John, which are still given in connection with (Blue) Masonry. It is here we see the origins of Masonry take shape and how that in turn led to a greater degree of secrecy amongst the Knights of Malta.

This encroachment by Masonry, and the trends of the times led to the dropping of the title of Knights of Malta in public at least, this change was evidenced in the development of the Order taking the title Royal Black. However that Crusader heritage was never forgotten as a set of Rules for the Third Grand Priory of Lodge that was set up in Ireland as early as the 1790s affirms

“Whereas our Christian forefathers, the Knights of Malta, who joined in a holy bond of brotherhood, to support all kings and states against Turks and infidels.–We, the members of the Royal Black Institution, will as far as in our power lies, imitate their glorious acts and great achievements, with our lives and fortunes, to support and defend his present majesty George IV, his heirs and successors, so long as he or they maintain and defend the Protestant religion and the present Constitution.”

The ruling body now styled itself the Royal Black Association and had from the early years of the 1800s met as a Grand Lodge of Scotland. By 1830 it was felt necessary to reorganise this Grand Lodge 

ROYAL BLACK ASSOCIATION.

HELD IN GLASGOW.

GOD IS OUR GUIDE.’

In name of the Most Glorious and Undivided Trinity. Amen.

We, the Grand Master and Officers of the Grand Black Assembly of Scotland, &c., held in Glasgow, do hereby authorise and empower our well beloved brother, Sir George Donaldson, to establish a lodge of true and worthy Black Men, and to act as Grand Master thereof, this being his Warrant; also to issue out Warrants.

Given under our hand and seal of our grand Assembly, at our Lodge Room, 24th June, A.D. 1831, and of Royal Black, 4344.

We, the Grand Master and Officers of the Grand Black Assembly of Scotland, &c., held in Glasgow, do hereby authorise and empower our well beloved brother, Sir George Donaldson, to establish a lodge of true and worthy Black Men, and to act as Grand Master thereof, this being his Warrant; also to issue out Warrants.

Given under our hand and seal of our Grand Assembly, at our Lodge Room, 24th June, A.D. 1831, and of Royal Black, 4344.

(Signed) Sir GEORGE DONALDSON, G. M.
Sir ANDREW KETING, D.G.M.
Sir WILLIAM JOHNSTONE, H.P.
Sir ANDREW WILLIAMSON, G.T.

On Black and Scarlet Sir JOHN ALLAN, G.S.
Ribbon. Sir JAMES HENRY, G.P.M.”

This body to note its seniority in terms of age and continuous existence  took the title Imperial Grand Black Lodge of Scotlands and  sept about over the next two decades regulating its practices and the conferment of degrees. 

This led to  a “Commission of the Imperial Grand Black Lodge of Scotland, &c., to Brother Adam Thompson, to hold a meeting of the Council of the Ancients.” 

‘LOYAL BLACK LODGE ROOM, GLASGOW, January 5th, 1853.

“By virtue of this authority Sir Knight Companion Adam Thompson, of the Imperial Grand Black Lodge, is authorised to call and hold a meeting of the Council of the Ancients, and the said Council to use all lawful means to arrange the Lectures, &c., of the Imperial Grand Black Lodge of Scotland, &c.”

On 7th March, 1853, the Grand Lodge of Scotland did by public proclamation establish their right to the Supreme Government of the Religious and Military Order of Knights of Malta, and has since been known as the Imperial Parent Grand Black Encampment of the Universe, and Grand Black Lodge of Scotland.

In 1854 it produced “Laws and Statutes of the most Ancient, Exalted, Illustrious, Royal Grand Black Order of Knights of Malta, carefully selected and diligently revised from the most ancient authentic records of the Order.

The explanation of the claim is outlined in the 1905 Edition of the Constitution, as defined and promulgated in Imperial Convocation held at Glasgow 10 June Anno Domini 1905, et Anno Ordinis 857.

They had by this time returned to their chivalric origins and emerged from the shadows of the previous century which had seen societies outlawed and now reaffirmed their name and reclaimed their heritage. 

 

“ The Ancient and Illustrious Order of Knights Of Malta in Imperial Convocation Assembled doth hereby declare and confirm that whereas the Knights Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem otherwise known as the Knights of Malta is the most ancient knightly order in existence and whereas six of the original languages have become extinct, and whereas the English and Irish Grand Priories have been dissolved the Grand Priory of Scotland having a continuous existenceis thereby entitled to claim that it is the Imperial Parent Grand Encampment of the Universe and the only legitimate heir to the sovereignty the Order, heir to its greatness and fully endowed with all its ancient Rites and Ceremonies.

The Ancient and Illustrious Order of Knights Of Malta doth moreover affirm from the nature of the Institution as a Sovereign Body of Christian Knights, no language extinct can be revived, except by permission of the surviving language in which the sovereignty resides.

Therefore the Imperial Parent Grand Encampment of the Universe, the only legitimate heir and lawful successor of the Grand Priory of the Sixth Language, in Imperial Convocation assembled for the good government of the fraternity of Knights of Malta were ever dispersed, and for the propagation and prosperity of the Protestant religion, doth ordain and declare the following Articles as the Constitution for the government thereof.”

The Constitution outlined Qualifications of Membership, the Authority of the Order, how it was structured and the roles of officers. The Title adopted was the Ancient and Illustrious Order of Knights of Malta commonly called the Knights of Malta, and the Order consists of the Imperial Parent Grand Encampment of the Universe which exists in dual capacity as the Parent Body of Knights of Malta throughout the world and as the Supreme Encampment of whatever local jurisdiction in which it sits. Below that sits Supreme Encampments in any Kingdom, Country or State in which it has been granted a commission. Below that sits Grand Encampments and finally Subordinate or local Encampments.

In the United States the term Commandery was chosen instead of Encampment. The link with the ancient structure of the Order was maintained through Grand Priories here entitled the Great Cross Priory which exists as an Order of Merit with the Order.