Heritage

History of the Order

A short history of the Masonic and Military Order of the Red Cross of Constantine and the Northumberland Division.

The full title of the Order — the Masonic and Military Order of the Red Cross of Constantine and the Appendant Orders of the Holy Sepulchre and of Saint John the Evangelist — points to its character as a Christian degree system within Freemasonry. It is open only to subscribing Royal Arch Masons who profess the Trinitarian Christian faith, and its ceremonies draw heavily on the ideals of early Christian chivalry and the devotional life of the medieval Church.

The Order takes its central imagery from a celebrated episode of late Roman history. On the eve of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, fought on 28 October AD 312, the Emperor Constantine is said to have seen a cross of light above the sun, accompanied by the Greek words later rendered in Latin as In Hoc Signo Vinces — “in this sign, thou shall conquer.” Marching beneath the labarum, a standard bearing the Chi‑Rho monogram of Christ, Constantine defeated his rival Maxentius and, in time, set the Empire on the path to its Christian future. The cross, the monogram and the motto remain the principal emblems of the Order.

The eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries

A number of fraternal bodies bearing the words “Red Cross” appeared in Britain during the late Georgian and Regency periods, and disentangling them is a notorious puzzle for masonic historians. A working of the degree is associated with Charles Shirreff in the late 1770s, and a further reorganisation is attributed to Waller Rodwell Wright in 1804. None of these earlier workings, however, was placed under a continuous and recognised governing authority.

Revival under Robert Wentworth Little

The Order in its present and continuous form dates from 1865, when Robert Wentworth Little (1838–1878), a clerk at Freemasons’ Hall in London, gathered the surviving threads of the degree and established a Grand Conclave to govern it. The same indefatigable figure was instrumental in founding the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia two years later. Once placed on a settled footing, the Order grew quickly: more than a hundred Conclaves were chartered within its first decade, and warrants soon followed in the British provinces and overseas.

Degrees and Appendant Orders

The Red Cross of Constantine itself comprises three degrees, completed by the two appendant Orders of the Holy Sepulchre and of Saint John the Evangelist. The two appendants are conferred separately but are customarily worked on the same day, and a Knight Companion is required to receive them before progressing beyond the first degree. Including the appendants, a member is admitted through five distinct ceremonies in all.

Governance

In England and Wales, the Order is constituted under the Grand Imperial Conclave of England and Wales and its Districts and Conclaves Overseas, with subordinate Divisions and Districts that oversee local Conclaves. Northumberland is one such Division, led by its Intendant‑General.

In Northumberland

The Division of Northumberland has long enjoyed a strong fraternal life, with Conclaves meeting in venues across the county. Detailed historical notes for each Conclave are gathered on the Conclaves page.

“In this sign, though shall conquer.” — the words said to have appeared to Constantine before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, AD 312.