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At the beginning of the 19th century, when the "Antients" and the "Moderns" moved from rivalry towards union, the role and purpose of the Royal Arch became a sticking point. The Antients viewed the Royal Arch as a fourth degree of Craft Freemasonry and worked it as part of the Craft ceremonies, while the Moderns almost totally ignored it. The latter held the opinion that Craft Freemasonry consisted of three degrees only and that the Royal Arch was at the most an extension of the third (Master Mason's) degree which was to be administered separately. In addition, the Moderns embedded certain teachings in their third degree ritual that the Antients only revealed to those joining the Royal Arch.

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In 1813, the Antients and Moderns agreed on an Act of Union and formed the United Grand Lodge of England. This was possible only after reaching a compromise on the role and purpose of Royal Arch Masonry. The compromise was that after the union, the Royal Arch degree would be fully recognised by the United Grand Lodge (to placate the Antients), but become a separate order (to placate the Moderns) while all Craft Lodges would be given sanction to work the ceremony (to placate the Antients). At the same time, no compromise could be reached on the role and purpose of the Mark degree. It was effectively proscribed from the Union until the 1850s, until it became organised in an independent Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of England and Wales. In most countries outside England and Wales, however, Mark Masonry became attached to Royal Arch chapters. In its Book of Constitutions, the United Grand Lodge of England therefore declared that "...pure Antient Masonry consists of three degrees and no more, viz. those of the Entered Apprentice, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch."

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In 1817, four years after the Antients and Moderns had united their Craft grand lodges, the new United Grand Lodge oversaw the formation of a "Supreme Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of England" to govern the Royal Arch in England and Wales. By that time, the Grand Chapter of the Antients had effectively ceased to exist (only a few meetings are recorded for the time after 1813), so their remaining members were simply absorbed into what had previously been the Grand Chapter of the Moderns.

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Another significant constitutional development in English Royal Arch Masonry occurred in 1823, when Master Masons were allowed to join Royal Arch Chapters without having previously passed through the chair of a Craft lodge. In 1835, the ritual was reformed, when part of the ceremony known as "Passing the Veils" was dropped. It was re-adopted by Bristol Chapters at the turn of the 20th century.

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Development since the union

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While the Act of Union of 1813 recognised the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch as part of "pure, antient masonry", the wording in the United Grand Lodge of England's Book of Constitutions that "...pure Antient Masonry consists of three degrees and no more, viz. those of the Entered Apprentice, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch" was subsequently often interpreted to suggest that the Royal Arch was not an additional degree, but merely the completion of the Master Mason degree. That view was so widely held among freemasons in England and Wales that in the Royal Arch ritual the newly exalted candidate was informed that he must not think that he had taken a fourth degree but that he had in fact completed his third.  While expressing a compromise position between the traditional views of the Antients and Moderns, this interpretation put the Royal Arch in opposition to masonic practice in most countries outside England and Wales. No other masonic constitution ever claimed that the Third Degree and the Royal Arch are two parts of a single whole. The Supreme Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of England eventually questioned its own reasoning.

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In December 2003, the United Grand Lodge of England acknowledged and pronounced the status of the Supreme Order of the Royal Arch to be "an extension to, but neither a superior nor a subordinate part of, the degrees which precede it". On 10 November 2004, after deliberations by a special working party, the Supreme Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of England at its regular meeting in London formally overturned the compromise position of 1813, and declared the Royal Arch to be a separate degree in its own right and the completion of "pure ancient Masonry", which consists of the three Craft degrees and the Royal Arch. Words in the ritual which propounded the earlier compromise position and led to misinterpretations were removed by mandatory regulation. The official position of the Supreme Grand Chapter today is that the "Royal Arch is the continuation of Craft Freemasonry” as taught in the three degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason; in that sense, ""pure ancient Masonry" can be seen as a journey of self-knowledge and discovery with the Royal Arch completing the practical lessons of the Craft by a contemplation of man's spiritual nature."