User:JASpencer/Higher

Anti-Catholicism of Higher Degrees
It is alleged that anti-Catholicism becomes more pronounced in the appendant bodies, commonly called "higher" degrees, of Scottish Rite Masonry. Masonic sources from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries state that the initiation to the "Kadosh", or thirtieth degree of Masonry, involves trampling on a crown and a papal tiara to deliver mankind "from the bondage of Despotism and the thraldom of spiritual Tyranny". The "spiritual tyranny" is explained as the Catholic faith. It is unclear whether the Kadosh initiation currently involves anti-clerical oaths.

Catholic critics of Freemasonry claim that Freemasons in craft lodges, or "lower" degrees, are deceived as to the authority of the appendant bodies over craft lodges and the power that the appendant lodges have over them. A related allegation is that lower degree initiates could be manipulated into directions - particularly against either Catholicism or Christian belief - of which they are unaware. This allegation denies the Masonic teaching that there is no higher degree than the third, or Master Mason degree