Preceptory
Sovereign Order of St John of Jerusalem
Knights Hospitaller
Royal Black Knights
Political background
The coloured degree system itself was more of a product of anti-Jacobitism, though it can be seen from early Black information that the same motivations behind the Orange Order against the French Revolution and United Irishmen were those of the "New System" and Black Order, namely, that anti-Jacobitism had developed into anti-Revolutionism.
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Taking by increments steps backward, the modern struggle between Irish Republicanism and Radicalism (e.g. 1980s), was the struggle against the United Irishmen and Revolutionaries (e.g. 1797), which was before that the struggle against the Jacobites (e.g. 1745), which was before that the struggle of King William against the Catholics (e.g. 1688), which before that was the struggle against the Irish Confederates and Royalists (e.g. 1643).
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In the context of Protestant history, the Black Order was first in a struggle with Roman Catholic political power, but since the French Revolution of 1789, and the history of the Black Order in Australia in the same period, the struggle has more and more manifested, not as a struggle with politico-religious Roman Catholicism, but with the anti-religious revolutionary political left.
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Anyone analysing the Black Order since the turn of the millennium would conclude that by the 21st century the Black Order was in terminal decline. The overwhelming reason for this, despite all the other side issues about modern technology etc., is that the dominant paradigm is against the religious nature and associated political agenda of the Black Order.
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The Black Order is unashamedly what could be labelled variously "conservative", "the Christian right", "right wing" etc. The Black Order has a religious and a political agenda. This is a carry on of the fact that the Order of St John itself has always had a religious and political agenda, whether fighting in the crusades, defending the Turks at sea and at home or resisting Napoleon Bonaparte's French Empire.
Militancy and political action are not unrelated. To put it another way, the Order of St John and the Black Order, which some rightly see as really the same Order, is to take the offensive in the modern day ideological war, while on the other hand has a healing balm for the nations.
Practically, the Black Order has supported Reformed and Evangelical Christianity, and has supported the monarchy, specifically, the idea of a Protestant monarchy.
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Political connections
Preceptory has a deep political history in Australia. The basis for Australia’s political history is first to turn back to events in Britain. The Irish rebels who had attempted to resist British rule were deported to Australia. The Orange Order was formed first in Ireland primarily to maintain the freedom and prosperity of Protestant citizens.
In 1800 and ensuing years, because of the threat of an internal Irish rebellion (greater than a French invasion) in the Colony of New South Wales (Australia), the Governors officially organised a standing citizens’ militia, known as the Loyal Associations. When the Irish did rebel in 1804, the Loyal Associations took part in the action, quickly suppressing the rebels. Incidentally, this tradition of citizen reserves lived on, so that over the years Victoria and Australia raised and maintained volunteer units.
In Victoria, Melbourne was torn between Catholics and Protestants from the outset, and so in 1843, the Grand Protestant Confederation of Australia Felix was founded. This was essentially an Orange Lodge. The use of the term “Australia Felix” in relation to the activities of Preceptory pays homage to these beginnings. The first Orange Lodge founded Australia was in Sydney in 1830, and second connected one began in Hobart in 1832.
Orangeism grew in Victoria throughout the 19th century, with various riots and conflicts with Roman Catholics over the years. In 1867, the Orange Order in Victoria and the Grand Protestant Confederation amalgamated. Orangeism was particularly strong around Ballarat.
The Orange Order had already obtained land on the corner of Exhibition St and Little Collins St in Melbourne, at 104 Exhibition St (formerly Stephen St), building Protestant Hall on the site in 1847. Reference to the higher “Loyal Black” Order can be found in the Melbourne Argus from 1852, being No. 87 Black Preceptory at Protestant Hall (i.e. 104 Exhibition St).
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BELOW: Lord Hopetoun, first Governor General of Australia and member of the Orange Order, and Oswald Snowball, Grand Master of the Orange Lodge in Victoria and Member of State Parliament.
The Black grows in Australia
In a report from 1876, the Geelong Black (No. 329) was under the jurisdiction of New South Wales (Irish Black). In 1880, the New South Wales Black reported that a Provisional Grand Chapter Warrant had been granted to A. G. C. Ramsay in Melbourne with four Preceptories.
This would mean that the majority of the re-absorbed Malta Knights coming back into Irish Black in New South Wales would have been in communion with the Victorian Preceptories up to 1880 with the founding the Victorian Provincial Chapter. A second Protestant Hall was built at 104 Exhibition Street in Melbourne in 1882.
The No. 470 “William Johnson” Royal Black Preceptory first came into being in 1884 at Protestant Hall (104 Exhibition St, Melbourne). In 1924, there were Royal Black Preceptories in Geelong, Mildura, Shepparton and Footscray. There had also been one in the Ballarat area.
The Black from the First World War
​​As the First World War was taking a heavy toll on the young Australian volunteers, a Referendum about conscription was put to people in October 1916. The bigoted Irish Catholic Archbishop Mannix was blamed for the defeat of the Referendum. In the aftermath, in November that year, the Colac Shire President, Cr Johnstone, proposed the Australian Loyalist League which would help to win the war, continue Australian rule under British sovereignty, cultivate a spirit of patriotism, train young people and undertake propaganda work. News of this Loyalist League spread around the country with the message that there were foes within the gates.
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In July 1917 the Victorian Protestant Federation was formed in Ballarat, and consequently by December this was replacing the Loyalist League in Colac. The guest speaker at Victoria Hall, Colac, said that people were falling over themselves in Geelong to join up. The next Referendum on conscription failed a few days later, and blame was squarely put onto Archbishop Mannix who had obviously worked to ensure that Catholics would not support the vote. Anti-Catholic material was published under the name of the Australian Loyalist League.
Herbert Brookes, who was a confident of Australian Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, became an animated supporter of Protestantism during the course of the First World War. When Irish Catholic Archbishop Mannix openly stirred up anti-British feeling in 1916, the reaction was strong. Loyalists sprang into action everywhere. Herbert Brookes supported a Melbourne-based periodical called Vigilant, as run by Rev. W. Albiston from the Victorian Protestant Federation, which championed the Loyalist cause. Brookes supported the Victorian Protestant Federation, which was basically a political movement drawn from the Orange Order.
​​Brookes worked with government officials in the Australian Protective League, but this movement became ineffective, and was superseded by other right-wing groups from the end of the War. Brookes went on to support right-wing politics to Sir Robert Menzies.
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Brookes was also instrumental in furthering the Loyalist League which earned the thanks of King George V. Brookes was convenor of the preliminary meeting at his home, “Winwick”. The Loyalist League prepared and published literature which was distributed mainly through the branches of the Victorian Protestant Federation.
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Another prominent leader of the Orange Movement in Victoria was Oswald Snowball, a member of Victorian Parliament and Grand Master of the Lodge. He was involved with the Nationalist Party. This same party had Robert Menzies as leader of its youth wing.
As communism began to arise as a national threat, the connection between the hardened Catholic Irish and the socialists was noticed. The emphasis began to change into resisting the threat of communism, with a protective movement organised across Australia, known as the secret armies. Tens of thousands of ordinary citizens were involved.
Orangemen supported conservative political parties, and this fed through into supporting Robert Menzies’ Liberal Party. The conflict between Catholic and Protestant waned, instead being a conflict between conservatism and socialism or communism. The eventual organisation of the Liberal Party by Robert Menzies meant that this threat could be addressed from a central national leadership. The connection of the Liberal Party to loyalism and Protestantism was no coincidence.
In the late 1960s, while seismic shifts were occurring in society with a great ideological war on tradition, a former Liberal politician, Sir Hubert Opperman, was a diplomat in Malta who subsequently was knighted into King Peter’s Order of St John of Jerusalem in Queensland in 1974. He was instrumental in promoting the Order of St John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller in Victoria in the 1980s.
As the loyalists and Menzian Liberals began to dissipate with the broad societal shift to the Left, monarchist groups, loyalist groups (like the Orange and the Black), the Conservative faction of the Liberal Party and the King Peter Order were fighting what seemed to be a losing war. The concerted movement of the Left into “political correctness”, and with the progress of “progressives” excusing Islam, it was increasingly necessary to reassert an undercurrent of conservative right-wing thinking. This began to emerge coherently in 2016.
In 2016, all such groups seemed to be scattered to the wind, torn apart with splits and fracturing. The King Peter Order in Australia suffered a massive split in 2011, where most of the Victorian Priory aligned itself with the Russian-Malta group. While the King Peter Order has faced particular antagonism from the Roman Catholic hierarchy (who claimed that only their own Vatican-based and Alliance Orders of St John were genuine), the Geelong Commandery of the Russian-Malta group became overtly aligned with Roman Catholic figures and clergy.
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BELOW: The front door of Protestant Hall, Geelong and the filled in wall of Victoria Hall, Colac.
Once bastions for Protestantism, Protestant Halls were now used for other purposes. The building at 104 Exhibition St had consistently been used for Orange meetings, Black meetings, the Protestant Alliance Friendly Society and other such meetings. Other Protestants used the hall for their own purposes, and even the renowned evangelist, Smith Wigglesworth, preached there as part of his 1922 visit to Australia. The current building was constructed in 1934, called Centenary Hall.
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This building remained for a few years used by those groups who were then beginning to decline. Centenary Hall then became Victorian Government property, and then used by the Liberal Party. The Orange Order also operated meeting rooms and a bookshop at 524 Elizabeth St, Melbourne until the early 1990s. The halls in Geelong and Colac are now used by businesses.
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All Royal Black Preceptory items in Victoria, including honour boards made out of marble, were destroyed and dumped at a Geelong tip by the leadership as part of their bid to close it down.
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BELOW: Protestant Hall, Yarra St, Geelong and Centenary Hall (Protestant Hall) 104 Exhibition St, Melbourne.
While the old loyalist organisations seem to have practically disappeared in Victoria, there were a number of members of the Victorian Liberal Party (based in 104 Exhibition St) who were involved with King Peter’s Order of St John of Jerusalem, including several candidates in elections.
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Preceptory has been founded with some of these members, and the identifies itself as having full right to the possession of the conservative heritage. In building on this, Preceptory is working with the intention of counteracting and offsetting the undermining of the proper tradition.
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BELOW: Centenary Hall, 104 Exhibition St, Melbourne with the Art Deco style lobby with Williamite Star; King William III above the stage on Level 1 and picture of Sir Robert Menzies hanging for many years where the Black Preceptory and Orange Order once met.​
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Summary of the Black
The following is directly derived from the literature of the Royal Black Preceptory from Canada. This testimony is important because they admit that the history and origins of their organisation linked back to the “Black Knights of Malta.”
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The Canadians asserted that while earliest days of the Royal Black Knights were little known, their organisation evolved from the brotherhoods which flourished in the Crusades, and in the early Reformation days, particularly the Order of St John of Jerusalem.
Around 1900, Sir Knight John F. Buchanan presented a history of the Royal Black Knights, indicating that trying to link the RBK Association with other fraternal societies (i.e. Freemasonry) was not satisfactory.
Buchanan referred to the Order of St John of Jerusalem, stating, “The most celebrated of all military and religious orders of the Middle Ages originated in 1048 where a hospital was dedicated to John the Baptist, which the merchants of Amalfi were permitted by the Caliphs of Egypt to build for the friendly reception of the pilgrims from Europe who visited the Holy Sepulchre.”
Buchanan then showed that the Black Orders had existed through a series of name changes: The Knights of Rhodes, The Knights of Malta, The Knights of the Imperial Black Encampment of the Universe, The Knights of the Imperial Black Encampment of Ireland, then the Royal Black Knights of the British Commonwealth, which evidently materialised into what was known in Canada in the 20th century as the Royal Black Association of the British Commonwealth, with the Canadian branch then named, The Grand Black Chapter of British America.
Accordingly, many of the above mentioned branches of the Black were virtually branches of the St John of Jerusalem, whose developed strength and membership became increasingly strong in Scotland. In 1559 Scotland changed her religion from Roman Catholicism to Protestantism, and that allegedly the Imperial Grand Black Encampment of the Universe was then first inaugurated with official public recognition.
Buchanan stated that, “The fraternity was known in 1643, two years after the massacre of the Irish Protestants in 1641, when it was said that the society was formed to protect the Protestants who so providentially escaped, being an organisation of men of high Christian faith.”
The Canadians admitted that there was not a great deal of information from that year until the year 1795 when the Order appeared with some association to the Orange bodies in Ireland. “Independent Black Knight Preceptories (lodges) had been in existence in Ireland for many years before they developed, by the formation of the Grand Black Chapter of Ireland on September 16, 1797, into the Order as we know it today.”
According to “Orangeism in Ireland 1688 – 1938”, the first special centennial celebration of the GBC of Ireland was held at Ballygawley on September 16, 1897, and later the Grand Black Chapter of Dublin held a commemorative meeting. It seems that the division between the Scottish Knights and the Irish Knights was healed by having Sir Knight William Johnson MP officially recognised as the Most Worshipful Imperial Grand Master of all branches of the Black.
(All Sir Knights of the British Commonwealth commemorate the relief of Londonderry on August 12th by parades and special ceremonial functions, in memory and observing the actions of the thirteen apprentice lads who closed the Derry Gates in the face of the opposing army of James the Second on December 7th, 1688. The cry of “NO SURRENDER” which was heard from the walls of Derry is a very unique and effective slogan in the minds and hearts of all the members of the Protestant organisations.)
The Grand Black Chapter of Ireland spread its Protestant fraternal influence throughout the British Commonwealth, England, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America and Canada.
The first local Royal Black Preceptory or chapter in Canada was instituted in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1848 under the number of 62, followed with the second chapter officially registered in Toronto as number 96 in the year 1854. This started the growth of the Royal Black Chapters.
It is worth recognising that the Royal Black and the Orange Societies have always been very loyal and patriotic to their country, for historic records clearly state and reveal the membership of the loyalist movement have effectively and influentially displayed a very unique segment of planning and shaping the Great British Empire, and certainly were at work in the shaping of the foundation of Canada, as verified by government documents.
Among early Canadian settlers, hundreds of Orangemen and Sir Knights exemplified themselves as Christianised men of the highest calibre. There has always been a close fellowship between the Royal Black and the Orange, for one is informed that no application can be made by a proposed Sir Knight unless he is paid up member in good standing and without any mark of discredit to denote his Christian status. Only then with those characteristics mentioned can a member of the Orange Association become a Sir Knight of the Royal Black Order.
The Royal Black Association was clearly a religious and Christian institution in which the membership, who are called Royal Black Knights, wholly and completely accepted both Testaments of the Bible, the Old and the New, as God’s inspiration to man, promoting the continuation of the Biblical teachings into this Christian area accepting the challenge to defend the Cross against the Crescent (and other enemies).
The aim and purpose of the Royal Black Institution, according to their own documents, was to:
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afford instruction in Holy Scripture,
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confirm men in the Protestant faith, and
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make its members better citizens.
Members claimed to meet together regularly to study God’s divine plan for mankind. This, they asserted, was accomplished through the teachings of the various degrees of the RBP. They also argued that membership in the Institution provided men with the opportunity to join with others of like mind in carrying out noble works of charity and in aiding each other to increase their knowledge of Christian ideals, thereby making them better citizens of Canada.
Sir Knights of the Order believed in the Holy Trinity. “They believe in God the Father, the Creator of all things and giver of all goodness. They believe that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world and that He alone can mediate between God and man. They believe in the power of God’s Holy Spirit to save and direct our lives.”
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They also believed “in freedom of speech, the press, assembly and religion. Every person has a right to worship God as they see fit. Inculcating these ideals, and this foundation of faith, is the function of the Royal Black Institution within the Orange family.”
In their qualifications for membership, they stated that a member shall:
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be a God-fearing, loyal subject of the Queen.
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be a law abiding citizen.
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be a Christian and an active supporter of the Protestant faith.
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be an active member of the Loyal Orange Association, who has attained the Royal Arch Purple Degree.
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believe in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, as held by the Protestant churches.
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have a sincere desire to receive knowledge and enlightenment in the principles of the Protestant faith.
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“The glory of God, the welfare of Man, the honour of his Sovereign and the good of his country should be the motives of all his actions.”
