20th Degree: A Matter of Justice

by Roderick M. MacDonald, 32°, Valley of Portsmouth-Dover

I have found the 20th degree to be one of the most challenging to address in short essay form. Not because it is difficult to understand or interpret, but rather there are so many different aspects to this degree that I find it difficult to focus on any particular one. In this essay, I am going to concentrate on the issue of the Core Values addressed in the 20th degree —in particular, one that does not seem to be designated to the degree.

There ways to determine the Core Value(s) for any of the 29 degrees of the Scottish Rite: check the script to see if the values are named, look the values up in the NMJ Degrees Core Values 2019 file included in the Hauts Grades Academy resources center, or read the text/script of a degree and determine for one’s self which values are being addressed. Obviously, the first two methods should consistently be in agreement with each other. The third method, however, may result in different values or additional values being added based on the reader’s interpretation of the degree.

The 20th degree, Master Ad Vitam (2007 version), is an example of this. No specific Core Value is addressed by name in the degree’s script, but on the NMJ Degrees Core Values 2019 checklist, Devotion to Country and Integrity are marked as the specific Core Values of the degree. However, in conducting a personal review of the degree’s script, it would seem a third Core Value should be included that is not only clearly identifiable but perhaps the most strongly expressed value in the script: Justice.

The importance of Devotion to Country is clearly outlined throughout the degree in the words of George Washington and other historic figures of the American Revolutionary era— Henry Knox, Israel Putnam, and John Sullivan—during the dramatic, albeit fictitious, meeting that is the 20th degree’s setting. To these men, whose integrity was well established during America’s quest for independence, Benedict Arnold, who appears before them pleading for their forgiveness, represents an antithesis of both devotion and integrity forged from his betrayal of the American Revolutionary cause. And although the tense confrontation that makes up this drama is supposed to be a Masonic meeting and not a courtroom, Washington shifts the meeting’s emphasis more to that of a legal hearing when he puts the lodge “at refreshment” to hear Arnold’s plea.

George Washington notes in his address to those assembled, “However abhorrent his [Arnold’s] offense, it is our duty to let no man go unheard who bases his plea on Masonic justice, toleration and charity.” This line not only uses the term justice but also reflects the primary definition of justice as found in Black’s Law Dictionary (2nd edition): “[justice is] the constant and perpetual disposition to render every man his due.”

A third Core Value should be included that is not only clearly identifiable but perhaps the most strongly expressed value in the script: Justice.

Arnold himself adds to the idea that Justice is the primary Core Value being addressed and tested in the 20th degree when he notes he is, “seeking justice from those who have pledged themselves to always give justice.”

Although there may be some argument that Arnold was stuck in a position where those judging him were already biased (and not without good reason), Arnold’s own “defense” in this drama is poor at best. He tries to persuade those present by argument and by confrontation with the British officer, Belltower, that he was the victim of a grave injustice. However, no matter how Arnold argues his case or who he accuses of leading him astray, the evidence and testimony presented in the allegory leave the viewer with little room for any conclusion other than Arnold is a victim only of his own conscious actions and decisions. This is summed up by Washington at the end of the allegory when he says, “You yourself have done what has been done, and this is the price to pay—you are a man without a country.”

In the last line of the 20th degree, Washington makes the concluding remark, “Let me say again what never must be forgotten: treason is a crime over which Masonry casts no mantle of charity.” Without doubt, this brings the Core Values of Devotion to Country and Integrity right back to the forefront. What should not be overlooked, though: it was an act and a test of justice at this Masonic meeting-turned-hearing that allowed that conclusion to be drawn. Without doubt, Justice is the “working” Core Value in this degree.

George Washington