Areopagus; Areopagite

Areopagus; Areopagite. The Areopagus was the great tribunal of ancient Athens, noted for its supreme judicial power and the outstanding ability and character of its judges. This institution was used in the French ritual of the Kadosh degrees as the Third Apartment, and it seems that the name (in French Areopagite) was used also to indicate the administrative council of that degree, which was one of the most honored of degrees in all rites of which it formed a part, commencing with the Rite of Perfection. The Degree of Prince or Knight Kadosh was, however, much worked upon and worked over from time to time. No Areopagus or any other Third Apartment appears in the degree as contained in early American rituals of the Scottish Rite, and the Pike revision of about 1854-60, still current, uses the tribunal of the Frank Judges in the Third Apartment.