part in Masonic labors.

This mother lodge suffered itself to be from an early period invaded by the high degrees of the rite of " Per- fection," as also by those of the rite " Strict Observance." In 1773, desiring to organize a lodge whose membership would be composed entirely of the nobility, it requested permission to do so from the king, Frederick II, but was refused. Such an institution could no better carry out the object of Masonry than those which were charged with the propagation of its doctrines.
Although, like Hamburg, some parts of Germany had received Masonry direct from England, and the lodges thus constituted worked the English Rite, others had re- ceived it by the intermediation of France. The institu- tion soon extended in a most extraordinary manner. The 9
130 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONRY.
lodges there, finding themselves composed, in great part, of the nobility and men devoted to art and the sciences, having a weakness for the French language, many of them conducted their labors in that language, and, for the most part, even took French names. This tendency favored the introduction into the German lodges of the high de- grees which the officers of the army of Broglie had im- ported from France ; and it is from this period these innu- merable follies which culminated in the introduction of the Templar system may be dated. It was not until after the Congress of Wilhelmsbad that these disorders ceased. The discussions which took place in that assembly broke the chains of the Templar hierarchy, believed to be so firmly riveted by the Jesuits, and relieved the fraternity in all Germany from their drunken enthusiasm for the systems of high degrees.
In no country, had the Templar system been extended so generally as in Germany, linearly all the lodges had adopted it, under the belief that its object was the re- establishment of the ancient Order of Knights Templar. The most elevated classes of society and people the most honorable, among whom were the greater portion of the nobility, became its partisans, notwithstanding the doubts which were thrown out of the sincerity of the assertions of its chief officials. Twenty-six princes of Germany had been initiated into those degrees, and thus became pro- moters more or less zealous ; while many of them took position at the head of the Templar Order in their respect- ive States.
Since Frederick the Great, all his successors have been Freemasons, or have declared themselves in favor and the protectors of Freemasonry. Frederick William III, who had been initiated, confirmed and recognized from the throne, in 1798, the three Grand Lodges of Berlin. At the second Congress of Vienna, in 1833, when Austria and Bavaria demanded, in terms not in any wise equivocal, the
FREEMASONRY IN GERMANY. 131
extermination of the society of Freemasons, this king de- clared that they were and always should be in his king- dom, under his protection ; and, by his warm defense of the institution, he prevented the other powers represented at this congress from exhibiting any leaning towards the project of extermination advanced by the two powers just named.
It was by his desire and with his consent that the present king, William I, proclaimed himself, during his life, protector of Masonry in Prussia. The latter, without partaking of the favorable opinion of the institution en- tertained by his father, imitated him, as well from politi- cal motives as to continue the custom consecrated by his predecessors of the royal family, in consenting that his son, the prince royal Frederick William, should be ini- tiated and should represent Prussian Masonry. This ini- tiation took place on the 5th of November, 1853. The principles of this prince are known to be at variance, how- ever, with those of his father.
The three Prussian Grand Lodges located at Berlin have each founded some humanitarian establishments in favor of Freemasons and their families.
The Grand Lodge at the Three Globes has under its ju- risdiction ninety-nine operative lodges.
The National Grand Lodge of Germany, founded in 1773, registers under its jurisdiction sixty-seven operative lodges.
The Royal York Grand Lodge, founded in 1798, regis- ters twenty-seven operative lodges under its jurisdiction.
Each of these three Grand Lodges has its Grand Mas- ter and Deputy Grand Master. The Prince William of Baden has been, since 1859, Grand Master of the Royal York Grand Lodge.
132 (JENEEAL HISTORY OF FKEBMASONRT.
Kingdom of Saxony. — A lodge was established at Dres- den, in 1738, by the Count Rotowsky, under whose direc- tion a Provincial Grand Lodge was organized in 1741. This Grand Lodge, with the operative lodges under its jurisdiction, experienced the same embarrassments, by their connection with the high degrees^ as all the other legislative Masonic bodies of Germany. "We shall pass them by without further notice.
In 1755, this lodge took the title of Grand Lodge of Saxony; and, after having, in 1807, abolished all the de- grees above that of Master Mason, it united, yd. 1811, with the ]!!?'ational Grand Lodge of Saxony, which then had been established.
Under the auspices of the first Grand Lodge, there was founded, in 1792, on the 22d of September, at Frederick- stadt, a philosophic establishment, which is directed at the present time by the Lodge of the Three Swords, at Dresden, and in which two hundred children are edu- cated.
The Grand Lodge of Saxony has at present under its jurisdiction fifteen operative lodges.
Kingdom of Hanover. — The capital of this country ad- mitted Freemasonry in 1746, and the Grand Lodge of London established there, in 1755, a Provincial. Grand Lodge, under the Grand Mastership of Count Kielman- segge. Having detached itself from the Mother Grand Lodge, in 1828 it declared its independence as a Masonic authority, under the Grand Mastership of the reigning king. Its history is intimately connected with that of Ger.man Masonry in general.
' The king, George V, on ascending the throne on the 18th E"ovember, 1851, declared himself — like his father, who was a Freemason — the protector of Masonry in Han- over, and was initiated, on the 14th of January, 1857, in the "Lodge at the Black Bear," in Ilanover. From that
FEBEMASONEY IN GERMANY. 133
time he has directed, as Grand Master, the Ereemasonry of the country, and taken a very active part in Masonic labors.
The Grand Lodge of Hanover numbers at the present time upon its register twenty-one symbolic lodges.
Kingdom of Bavaria. — In no country of Germany has Freemasonry been subjected to as many restrictions and vexations as in the kingdom of Bavaria. It did not pene- trate, until very lately, into the elder Bavaria; and it was not until 1777 that the Eoyal York Grand Lodge organ- ized a lodge at Munich. But for a long time it has ex- isted in operative lodges, located in countries which, iu 1810, were annexed to this kingdom. A lodge had been organized by Prince Frederick of Brandenburg, on the 21st June, 1741, at Beyreuth, the ancient capital of Fran- conia, where other lodges were said to have existed at this time, but concerning which we know nothing.
The society of the lUuminati, founded by the professor "Weisshaupt, and to which was intrusted the noble task of causing virtue to triumph over folly and ignorance, and of carrying instruction and civilization into all classes of society, had found access into some lodges located in the Elder Bavaria, and particularly those of Munich ; and thereupon Prince Charles Theodore, moved by the influ- ence of the Jesuits, issued two decrees, the one dated 2d March, and the other 16th August, 1785, interdicting the assemblies of the Illuminati, and also those of the Free- masons. Following these prohibitions, which were re- newed from at first by the king, Maximilian Joseph, on the 4th N'ovember, 1799, and subsequently on the St! March, 1804, the lodges of Munich and of Manheim ceased their labors.
Within the Protestant countries annexed to Bavaria — at Beyreuth and Ratisbonne — the lodges were allowed to continue their labors, but under most intolerable restric-
134 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
tions. N'o employ^ of the government, either civil or military, was permitted to attend the meetings of or be initiated into them. In a word, these lodges had to con- tend with the Jesuitical tendencies of the government, and were consequently paralyzed in their actions.
Notwithstanding this pressure, however, the lodge at Beyreuth — constituted, on the 3d of August, 1800, as a Provincial Grand Lodge, under the jurisdiction of the Eoyal York Grand Lodge at Berlin — made a stand, under the Grand Mastership of Count Giech and Brother Voel- dendorf, prefect of the government; and finally, in 1811, it, with four other lodges, created an independent power at Beyreuth, under the title of " Grand Lodge of the Sun." This authority has at present under its jurisdiction, in the northern portion of Bavaria, eleven operative lodges, while in the southern portion, which is entirely Eoman Catholic, Freemasonry is completely interdicted.
Grand Duchy of Baden. — The most ancient lodge of this country is the lodge " Charles of Concord," established on the 24th E'ovember, 1778, at Manheim, by the Royal York Grand Lodge of Berlin. Its labors were suspended in 1785, in consequence of the interdiction of Masonic as- semblies in the states of the elector of Bavaria, in which Manheim was at that time situate. But when this city was, in 1803, incorporated in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Freemasonry awoke, under the direction of the Marquis of Dalberg, and founded, in 1806, a Grand Orient of Ba- den, of which Prince Charles of Ysenberg was chosen Grand Master.
Another power, under the title of the " I^Tational Union of the Lodges," was, upon the 23d of May, 1809, consti- tuted at Manheim by t'le lodges of Carlsriihe, Friburg, Heidelberg, etc., of which the Marquis Charles Frederick Schilling, of Constadt, was nominated presiding officer.
After the death of the Grand Duke, Charles Frederick,
FREEMASONRY IN GERMANY. 135
his successor, under the pressure of political events, on the 16th February, 1813, and on the 7th March, 1814, promulgated two ordinances, prohibiting all assemblies of secret societies, among which, of course. Freemasonry stood first. After this the lodges remained closed for thirty years; and it was not until in 1845 that the reign ing Grand Duke authorized anew the assembling of Free masons. The greater part of the old lodges began their labors, and to-day they are at work, under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Beyreuth and the Grand Lodge at the Three Globes, in Berlin, respectively.
Kingdom of Wurtemherg. — In 1774 a lodge was insti- tuted at Stuttgart, under the title of " Charles of the Three Cedars," which practiced the rite of " Strict Ob- servance," and having at its head Brother Taubenheim, privy councilor ; but it failed to sustain itself, and, by a circular, dated the 16th July, 1784, it was announced that its labors were suspended. It was not until the year 1835 that w;e see Freemasonry reappear at Stuttgart. ' The late- ness of this reappearance is due to the unfriendly disposi- tion for the institution entertained by the sovereigns who governed Wurtemherg since 1784. To-day we see lodges in active operation, working under the direction of va- rious German Grand Lodges.
Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt. — The first traces of Free- masonry were exhibited in this country in 1764, when a lodge, under the name of the " White Pigeon," had been organized by the !N"ational Grand Lodge of Germany ; but this lodge disappeared immediately, and left no sign of Masonic life in Hesse-Darmstadt, where, as in many other portions of Germany, the reigning sovereigns did not have much love for the institution. It was not until the year 1816 that it awoke, thanks to the particular protec- tion of the landgrave Christian of Hesse. A lodge, under
136 GBKERAL HISTORY OE FRBBMASONRT.
the title of " St. John the Evangelist," was constituted at Darmstadt, on the 5th of August of that year, and in- stalled on the 23d of the following October, by the Grand Lodge of the Eclectic "Union at Frankfort. This lodge established a fund for the relief of the widows and or- phans of deceased brethren.
In 1846 was established at Darmstadt, under the title of "The Union," a Grand Lodge, which now numbers upon its register seven operative lodges, besides the lodge " St. John the Evangelist."
Hesse-Cassel. — IS'otwithstanding all the members of the ducal family of this duchy were Freemasons, as were also the ruling princes, in this country, Freemasonry has never made any progress. The lodges have never sought to form a central power, but work in an isolated manner, and without ranking under any jurisdiction.
When the country was transformed into a kingdomy under Jerome Buona;parte, in 1808, the lodges organized a legislative authority at Cassel, under the title of the " Grand Orient of Westphalia ;" but this organization was dissolved after the events of 1815. Another Masonic au- thority was constituted at Cassel in 1817. We have no documents to inform us as to what occurred since that date.
Duchy of Brunswick. — Through the agency of the cham- berlain De Kisselben, who was by it named Provincial Grand Master for life, the Provincial Grand Lodge of Hamburg, on the 12th of February, 1844, instituted a lodge at Brunswick which was called "Jonathan," and at the installation of which Prince Albert of Brunswick was present. After the introduction of the Templar system into the lodges of Germany, a number of the members of this lodge refused to recognize it as Masonic, or admit the system into the lodge. This circumstance, in 1765, led to a division of the membership into two factious,
FREEMASONRY IN GERMANY. 137
which, while they continued to work each independent of the other, ceased not to criminate and war upon each other. A third lodge, named " St. Charles of Concord," organized in 1764 by some Frenchmen, who worked in the French language, and conferred the high degrees brought by them from France, having, notwithstanding the protection of the reigning duke, been authorized by the two dissenting lodges just mentioned, Duke Charles, to put an end to this strife and disorder, closed up all the lodges, and subsequently ordered their membership to re- organize into two new lodges, the one to work in the French language, and the other in the German.
In 1770, the Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, having been nominated, by the Grand Lodge of London, Provin- cial Grand Master for the lodges of the Duchy of Bruns- wick, installed the officers of these two lodges on the 10th and 11th of October of that year, in presence of the Duke Charles of Sudermanie, brother of Gustavus III, King of Sweden ; Prince Frederick Augustus of Brunswick-Lune- burg, and General Rhetz, Deputy Grand Master.
As the Templar system lacked in Germany an influen- tial chief, who could facilitate its propagation and sup- port the secret plans of its founders, the emissaries of the Jesuits sought, not in vain, to gain the Duke Ferdinand to such position. After having consented to their propo- sition, and being initiated in the Convent of Kohlo in 1772, by the, chapter there assembled for that purpose, he was nominated Grand Master of all the lodges of the Templar system in Germany. On the 18th January, 1773, he es- tablished a Supreme Directory of Strict Observance at Brunswick, and within the very locality of those lodges which his predecessor had closed to prevent them from practicing the rite of which he now announced himself as chief. Deceived, however, as had been Gustavus III of Sweden, and his brother the Duke of Sudermanie, as to the origin of the Templar system, by the emissaries, who
138 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
pretended that the object of that system was to re-estab- lish the Order of the Knights Templar, and to claim res- titution of the property of that order from the power that had confiscated i"", Duke Ferdinand assembled in 1775 at Brunswick, and in 1778 at Wolfenbuttel, conventions of Freemasons, to ascertain the facts in this connection. The consequences were, that while many of the emissaries of the Templar system were unmasked and imprisoned, the object of the inquiry was no further advanced than before. Finally, the Duke Ferdinand convoked, in 1782, a congress at Wilhelmsbad, to which were invited all the Masonic authorities of Europe, in order, first, to ascertain if the Templar system was really directed by the Society of Loyola ; second, to discuss the merits of the system, as also its demerits ; and, third, to reform it, to the end that Freemasonry might be extricated from the political com- plications into which this system had drawn it, not alone in all Germany, but also in Sweden, Italy, Poland, and Russia. The discussions which took place during the thirty days this congress continued in session, while they led to no positive assurance beyond the fact that the Tem- plar system was a totally anti-masonic institution, carried the conviction to the minds of thfe majority present that there was no Freemasonry beyond that of the English Rite, or the three symbolic degrees. The consequences were that all the systems of high degrees were rejected and cast aside as worthless, except ,the rite of Strict Ob- servance, which was changed into the " Refined Scottish Rite."
The "Supreme Directory" at Brunswick, after the death of Duke Ferdinand, on the 3d July, 1792, returned to the practice of the English Rite, and assumed what it claimed as its original name of " St. Charles of Concord ;" and thereafter, f^r some time, continued to exist isolated and independent.
While Westphalia was a kingdom this lodge was in
FRBEMASONKY IN GERMANY. 139
danger of losing its independence, in consequence of the Grand Lodge of "Westphalia, instituted in 1808 at Cassel, attempting to register it under its direction. But the in- terference of the king presented this consummation, and, for the purpose of having some recognized Masonic au- thority to lean upon, it returned to its obedience to the an- cient mother lodge of Hamburg. The 11th and 12th Feb- ruary, 1844, were employed by this lodge — "St. Charles of Concord" — in celebrating the centennial feast of the introduction of Freemasonry into Brunswick.
Empire of Austria. — In all countries wherein the Roman Catholic and apostolic clergy predominate. Freemasonry experiences great difficulty in attaining a permanent foot- hold. Of this fact Austria is a striking illustration. All the lodges constituted in the Austrian States have had but a brief term of existence, the persecutions on the part of the clergy and the prohibitions of the sovereigns having never given them time to take root.
The Empress Maria Theresa, notwithstanding her hus- band, the Emperor Francis I, was a Freemason, inter- dicted Masonry, in 1764, within the Austrian States. It was not until the reign" of Joseph II that we find the in- stitution again existing in that country; but, as before, an object of suspicion, and under the strict superintend- ence of the police.
The system of Strict Observance had been established in all its hierarchy at Vienna; but some very grave com- plications caused it, in a short time, to abandon its seat. In 1784, however, there were established some ten lodges in Vienna, all working under this system, and which — to judge from the language of a Masonic journal which was there secretly published from 1784 to 1786, and edited with marked ability — were composed of worthy men, and progressive in their principles and practices.
After the death of Joseph II in 1790, his successor.
140
GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Francis II, prohibited Masonry anew, and used the great- est severity in enforcing this prohibition, even to demand ing a decision from the German Diet, in 1794, then sit- ting at Ratisbonne, to interdict the institution throughout all Germany. But the representatives of Prussia, Bruns- wick, and Hanover responded to this demand by saying, that as he was protector of the rights and liberties of his own subjects, they claimed the same privilege with re- gard to theirs.
Freemasonry penetrated into Bohemia in 1769, and in 1770 four lodges were actively engaged in Prague. They were composed of the most prominent citizens. In 1786, a Provincial Grand Lodge for Bohemia was organized; but the interdiction of Francis II caused the total suspen- sion of Masonic labor in this portion of his empire ; and, since 1794, Austria has been shut out from Masonic light
Reoapitulation of the Lodges Existino in the Several States of
Gbemant.
Prussia, with 3 G. L 187
Saxony, " 1 " 16
Hanover, « 1 " 20
Bavaria, " 1 " 10
Baden 5
Wurtemberg 6
Hesse-Darmstadt, 1 G. L 7
Hesse-Cassel 2
Luxembourg, 1 G. L 2
Mecklenburg-Sohwerin 9
" Streliti 2
Saxe-Weimar. 2
Oldenbourg ■ 2
Nassau.... 1
Brunswick 8
Altenburg 1
Holstein 1
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha 2
Meiningen 1
Anbalt Dessan 2
" Bernbourg 1
BeuBS (the elder) 1
Reuss (the younger) 1
Waldeck 1
Lippe-Detmold 1
Schwartzbourg-Sohwfiriu 2
Lubeck 2
Bremen 2
.Frankfort^on-the-Main and its de- pendencies, with 1 G. L 10
Hamburg and dependencies, 1 G. L. 21
Total 10 G. Ls.und 823 Ls.
febemasonrt in switzerland. 141
Switzerland.
Freemasonry penetrated into Switzei-land in 1737, when a Provincial G-rand Master of England, named George Hamilton, founded the first lodge at Geneva^ and shortly afterward the second at Lausanne ; but in consequence of its interdiction, in 1738, by the magistracy of Berne, the latter was dissolved. In 1740 a new lodge was organized at Lausanne; but a second prohibition by the govern- ment of Berne, dated the 3d March, 1745, closed it. It was not until about 1764 that lodges were organized in Lausanne and in the canton of Vaud ; but a third edict, issued by the government, in 1770, against the assembling of Freemasons, dispersed these lodges also.
The Provincial Grand Lodge of Genera maintained it- self with much difficulty ; for nearly all the lodges that it constituted, particularly those in the canton of Vaud, were dispersed by the edicts mentioned. Having sought, however, to establish- lodg'.^i in the cities of German Switzerland, and others in Geneva, it seemed necessary that a Grand Orient of Geneva should be established; and, in 1786, this authority was instituted; but the French Revolution of 1789 caused it to suspend opera- tions. In 1796 it resumed its functions ; but, by the union . of Geneva with thf^ Empire of France, its operations were set aside by th«! ';4rand Onont of France, which imme- diately commerced instituting lodges within its jurisdic- tion. In 1765> Masonry having extended into German Switzerland, a lodge was e-'tablished at Basle, and another at Zurich in 1771. Both of these lodges were instituted by the Provincial Grand Lodge of Geneva.
The system of Strict Observance soon found its way ■into the valleys of Lclvetia; and its anti-masonic distinc* tions, while produc/'i>g the same disorder there which they produced elsewYpy,^ culminated in dividing the Masons of Switzerland i-j'to two camps. In 1775, the system of
142 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Strict Observance, having organized a Helvetian Scottish Directory, divided itself into two factions. The one, hav- ing its seat at Basle, assumed authority over German Swit- zerland ; while the other, sitting at Lausanne, and styling itself the Scottish Directory of Roman Helvetia, took charge of French Switzerland. But this last had to sub- nit to a like fortune with all the lodges of the canton of Vaud ; and in consequence of the edict of the Lords of Berne, issued in E'ovember, 1782, it suspended its opera- tions. This edict, for the fourth time, prohibited Masonic assemblies in every portion of the canton. The Directory of Basle was not more fortunate ; for, in 1785, under the stringent requirements of an edict of the magistrates of Berne, it also had to suspend operations. During the French Revolution all Masonic labors in Switzerland were suspended ; and, in 1818, the seat of the Scottish Directory of Basle was transferred, after the death of the Grand Master Burhardt, from that city to Zurich.
The Directory of Roman Helvetia at Lausanne awoke to renewed activity in 1810 ; but the system of Strict Ob- servance having been abolished after the congress of Wil- helmsbad, it took the title of Grand Orient of Roman Helvetia, on the 15th October of that year, and from that time governed the lodges of the canton of Vaud, until its fusion, in 1822, with the Provincial Grand Lodge of Berne, which then became an independent Grand Lodge.
At Berne Masonry had been introduced, about the year 1740, by the Provincial Grand Lodge of Geneva ; but, in consequence of the interdiction of the magistrates of Berne, it had disappeared, and no traces of it could be found in the canton until about 1798, when some Bernese officers, in the service of France, established three lodges, styled, respectively, "Friends of Glory,'" "Foreign Coun- try," and "Discretion." The first two had but a short existence, and from the remains of the last was formed the " Lodge of Hope," which was constituted by the Grand
FEEBMASONET IS SWITZEELAND. 143
Orient of France, on the 14tli of September, 1803, and which was then the only lodge in active operation in the whole Swiss Confederation.
A new era now appeared to dawn for Masonry in Switz- erland, which, no more persecuted, developed with won- derful rapidity, and lodges were established, within a short time, in the principal towns of the country ; but the wars of the empire once more arrested this new growth. The Lodge of Hope was composed of eminent men of all classes of society — nearly all foreign diplomatists, resident at Berne as representatives of foreign powers, having be- come members of this lodge. In 1812 it initiated Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, since King of the Belgians. On the 12th July, 1818, this, lodge applied for a patent to the Grand Lodge of England ; and on the 24th June, 1819, it was installed as a Provincial Grand Lodge of England, by the brother Louis de Tavel de Kruiningen, who had been elected to the position of Provincial Grand, Master. From that time it abandoned and discredited the chapters and high degrees of all kinds which it had received from France, and thenceforward recognized nothing as Ma- sonic but the three symbolic degrees.
Thenceforth the eminent brethren who directed this authority sought to unite, under one alliance, all the lodges of Switzerland. Having announced their desires upon this subject to the Helvetian Scottish Directory at Zurich, without meeting any favorable response, on the 24th June, 1822, the Provincial Grand Lodge of Berne concluded a treaty of union with the Helvetian Gran4 Orient^ at Lausanne, by virtue of which both of these au- thorities were dissolved, and in their place was instituted a ifational Grand Lodge of Switzerland, to which, by vir tue of the treaty, the six lodges of the Grand Orient and
■■ This Grand Orient was, in some sort, the successor of the Roiaa''j Helvetian Directory, that suspended operations in 1782.
144 GENERAL HISTORY OF FEBEMASONRT.
the three lodges of the Provincial Grand Lodge yielded obedience. In this manner but two Masonic authorities came to exist, viz : the E'ational Grand Lodge of Switzer- land, and the Helvetian Scottish Directory at Zurich.
Such new lodges as were subsequently instituted in Switzerland took rank under the National Grand Lodge; and notwithstanding the Zurich Directory had at various times, and particularly in 1830, after the death of the Grand Master De Tavel, made overtures of union to the iN'ational Grand Lodge, in consequence of the pretensions to the right of conferring high degrees retained by the former, the latter, having abolished such pretension, would never consent to such union.
Finally, the feelings which prompted a desire for union were renewed in 1835, and, at the twenty-fifth anniver- sary of the re-opening of the lodge "Liberty with Mod- esty," in Zurich, the Swiss lodges were invited, and the feast took place on the 20th August, 1836. It was then agreed that the "Lodge of Hope," at Berne, should con- voke, in the year 1838, all the lodges of Switzerland in a congress, in which should be discussed the basis of a future union. In accordance with this decision the con- gress met, the basis of union was discussed, and the decis- ion arrived at that a third congress should assemble at Basle in 1840, to continue the discussion. Subsequently, a fourth congress assembled at Locle in 1842, and finally a fifth, at which were assembled the representatives of four- teen lodges, who ratified the union on the 22d June, 1844, and established the new Alpine Grand Lodge, with the brother Professor Hottinger as Grand Master.
The place of meeting of this body is changed every two years. Governed by a council of administration, having the Grand Master for president, and composed of the members united in a general assembly, this authority ex- ercises legislative powers. Its jurisdiction extends over twenty-seven lodges, which form the Swiss union.
^
1
freemasonry in italy. 145
Italy.
In no country has Freemasonry been subjected to such changes of fortune as in Italy. It is at Florence that we find the first traces of the institution. Introduced there in 1729, by the Grand Lodge of England, which estab- lished many lodges in Tuscany, in 1731 we find a Pro- vincial Grand Lodge instituted. But Gaston, the last Grand Duke of the family of the Medici, in 1737 inter- dicted all Masonic meetings, and not until after his death did Freemasons again meet in a lodge capacity. Then, the clergy having complained to Pope Clement XII, he sent an inquisitor to Florence, who arrested and impris- oned all the Masons he could discover, and ceased not in his persecutions until ordered so to do by the successor of Gaston, Francis, Duke of Lorraine, who was subse- quently Emperor of Austria. This prince, who had been made a Mason in Holland, protected the institution. Un- der his reign Masonry extended into all Italy — to Milan, Padua, Venice, and Verona. It existed even at Rome, where, unknown to the Pope, a lodge worked in the Eng- lish Eite. The bull of excommunication of the 27th April, 1738, published on the 29th of the following May, and which prohibited Masonic meetings in all Catholic coun- tries, under the most severe penalties, closed a portion of the Italian lodges. A new edict of the Cardinal Farras, dated 14th January, 1739, confirmed this bull, and ordered to be burned, by the hands of the public hangman, a pam- phlet written in favor of Freemasons. These persecu- tions, however, had but little efiect in interrupting the spread of Masonry in Italy, particularly at Naples; and it was but by the promulgation of the bull of Pope Bene- dict XTV, on the 18th March, 1751, that the lodges were obliged to close their meetings.
In 1760, the Grand Lodge of Holland instituted a Pro- vincial Grand Lodge at Naples, which, in a short time 10
146 GENERAL HISTORY OE FREEMASONRY.
had organized eight operative lodges. Then detaching it- self from the Grand Lodge of Holland, this lodge took rank as a Provincial Grand Lodge, under the Grand Lodge of England. In 1767 this body declared itself in- dependent, under the title of tne National Grand Lodge of Italy, with the Duke Demetrio della Rocca in the office of Grand Master ; in vsrhich condition it existed until 1790, when it was dissolved by the French Eevolution.
Masonry was cotemporarily introduced into the king- dom of Sardinia, lodges having been organized at Turin and Chambery , while, in the latter city, the Grand Lodge of London founded a Provincial Grand Lodge.
In 1762 Masonry was imported from England to Venice, where many lodges were established, under the direction of the Provincial Grand Master Manuzzi.
The partisans of the Stuarts, and other political schemers, found in Italy, as elsewhere, means to establish their ille- gitimate Masonry. In 1775 they had installed at Turin a commandery of the eighth department of the system of Strict Observance, under the direction of the Count of Bernez, steward to the King of Sardinia; and by him were established priories of this system in all the principal towns of that kingdom, as well as in many cities of Italy.
At Chambery English Ereemasonry had soon to give way to the system of Strict Observance, and the Provin- cial Grand Lodge, instituted in that city by the Grand Lodge of London, transformed itself, in 1775, into a Di- rectory of the Masons of Lombardy ; but which was dis- solved in 1794. At N'aples the Prince of Caramanca was placed a,t the head of the Templar system, which there, as elsewhere, very soon displaced the English Rite.
The interdictions of the Papal authority, as also the clan- destine persecutions of the clergy and government, little by little, dispersed the majority of the lodges, and those which survived were closed during the French Revolution.
Under the French government, however, a new era
SBBEMASONRT IN -ITALT. 147
seemed to dawn for Masonry in Italy. A lodge, organized at Milan in 1801, was followed by the establishment of another at Mantua, and others in the principal cities; when the Scottish Rite, introduced at Paris in 1804, and imported to Milan in 1805, by virtue of a constitution dated at Paris, and bearing the signatures of De Grasse- Tilly, Pyron, Benier and Vidal, organized a Supreme Council for Italy, which extended its ramifications to Sicily. It was this Supreme Council of Milan which gave to one of its members, named Lechangeur, the idea of creating, in 1806, the Rite of Misraim, in accordance with which councils of high degrees were instituted at lifaples and Venice.^
The Grand Orient, created at llfaples in 1807, and hav- ing the Prince Eugene for Grand Master, subsequently united itself to the Grand Orient of Italy, which was or- ganized on the. 24th June, 1809, under the auspices and Grand Mastership of the king, Joachim Murat.
With the fall of itTapoleon I, this portion of the history of Freemasonry in Italy closes. Thereafter all the inter- dictions, bulls, and edicts were renewed. The decree of Pope Pius VII, dated 15th August, 1814, carried infamy and bodily torture as the penalty incurred by all convicted of assembling as Freemasons. Immediately following this,, similar decrees were promulgated by all the crowned heads of Catholic countries, all repeating the absurd charges contained in the decree of the Pope, Pius VII, and prohibiting in their respective states all Masonic as- semblies. Finally, on the 8th August, the King of Naples issued his interdiction, and, under penalty of sentence to the galleys, prohibited all participation in the assemblies of Freemasons.
After that time the lodges continued closed in Italy,
'This rite was imported to Paris in 1814, where it yet exists, and liaa pven, in its turn, birth in that city to the Eite of Mempb's.
148 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
and it was not until 1856 — an interval of forty years— that the Grand Orient of France instituted lodges at GSnes and at Livorne. Since then the lodges have mul- tiplied and extended into all the principal cities of the peninsula. These lodges soon decided to institute an in- dependent Grand Lodge; and, after the elaboration by their delegates of a suitable constitution, on the 1st Janu- ary, 1862, the Grand Orient of Italy was organized, with its seat at Turin, and the brother Mgra nominated Grand Master. This brother, however, having declined the nomi- nation, the brethren Cordova and General Garibaldi were put in nomination, and the former elected.
In consequence of the severity practiced against it by the new central power, the lodge "Dante Alighieri," which professed the Scottish (33d) Rite — a profession that was unhappily entertained by several other lodges — de- tached itself from the Grand Orient, and declared itself independent. Similar tendencies having manifested them- selves in- other parts of Italy, and a Supreme Council for Sicily having been constituted at Palermo, with General Garibaldi as its chief, and some twelve lodges ranking themselves under its banner, on the 12th August, 1863, a convocation of all the Masonic bodies of Italy was called, to meet at Turin, to take into consideration the tendency of these disorders, and devise means to check them. Not being able to agree, the brethren who represented the Grand Orient of Turin withdrew from this assembly, and thus allowed their places in the commission, appointed to draft a new constitution, to be filled by brethren who were all partisans of the Scottish Rite. We know not, at the present time, (close of 1863,) the result of this labor ; in no case, however, can we believe this result will be favorable to the interests of true Freemasonry. '
The Grand Orient of Italy, having rejected the high degrees which, during the past century, had produced much discord among the lodges of that country, and.
FREEMASONRY IN PORTUaAL. 149
under its constitution, recognized nothing as Masoliry but the three symbolic degrees of the English Kite, many Masonic authorities hesitated to recognize it, in the belief that the political agitation of the country might cause its early dissolution. The desire to found a Polish and a Hun- garian Grand Orient, at the head of which, respectively, should be placed a political chief of these countries, has not a little contributed to strengthen such a belief.
At the close of 1863 the Grand Orient of Italy reckoned under its jurisdiction sixty-eight operative lodges, among which are to be found lodges in Alexandria and Cairo, in Egypt ; at Constantinople, in Turkey, and Lima, in South America.
Portugal.
There is one country where Masonic light has pene- trated but with the greatest difficulty; for it is the seat of ignorance and superstition. This country is the para- dise of monks, who there cease not to build convents, and exercise the exclusive privilege of directing the minds of the people, the king, and his councilors. That coun- try is Portugal.
From the Book of Constitutions, first published by the Grand Lodge of London, in 1723 — and subsequently at later periods, to the extent of five separate editions, the last of which was published by order of the Grand Lodge of England, in 1855 — ^we learn that the Grand Lodge of London instituted at Lisbon, in 1735, a Provincial Grand Lodge, by the agency of Bro. George Gordon ; but th seeds thus sown fell on barren soil. In the matter of per secution, undergone by all who attempted to disseminate Freemasonry in this country, it stands without a rival, if we may except Spain; but latterly this condition is dis- appearing.
150 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONET.
The Inquisition, here under the protection of the king, tracked every person from far and near who were sus- pected of heing Freemasons. Thus, two lapidaries — the one named John Gustos, originally a Protestant from Berne in Switzerland, and the other, named Alexander James Monton, originally a Catholic from Paris — ^having been accused of having expressed the desire to see a lodge organized in Lisbon, fell into the snares set by the "Holy Office," and were thrown into' prison in 1743. The accu- sation charged them with seeking to introduce Freema- sonry into Portugal, in violation of the bull of the Pope, which condemned this detestable doctrine as a heresy, and all Freemasons as impious, sodomists, etc. Under the order of the Cardinal Dacunha, grand inquisitor, they submitted nine times in three months to the most abomi- nable torture that it is possible to imagine; subsequently they were forced to assist at an auto-da-fi, and finally condemned to the galleys for life. Thanks to the aid of English Freemasons, however, they were enabled to es- cape and seek refuge in England. Of the many other Masons who, like those unfortunates, fell into the traps of the Inquisition, and who, no doubt, sunk under the tor- ture inflicted by that detestable institution, we have been unable to discover the least trace.
The Inquisition was no less severe with the natives of the country; for, in 1776, two Portuguese nobles. Major D'Alincourt and Don Oyres D'Ornelles-Parracao, were also imprisoned and tortured, because they were Free- masons. Although all vestige of Masonry had disappeared for twenty-five years, in 1802 an inquest was ordered against Freemasons in Portugal, and all who were sus- pected even, by this inquest, were charged with conspiracy against the king and the church, and sentenced to the galleys without trial or form of law.
!N"otwithstanding these severe measures, we find, in 1805, a Grand Orient at Lisbon, with a Grand Master, named
FREEMASONRY IN PORTUGAL. 151
Egaz-Moniz ; but its ramifications were not very extended. Dissolved after the events of 1814, it was formed again in 1817, and sought to animate some lodges; but Freema- sonry continued to inspire the monks with terror, and, yielding to their solicitations, King John VI issued a de- cree, dated at Rio Janeiro, the 30th March, 1818, inter dieting Freemasons from assembling together, under pain of death. We know nothing of the lives destroyed under this decree ; but, about five years afterward, it was modi- fied by another, which, dated Lisbon, June 20, 1823, stated that it was issued in consequence of remonstrances upon the subject having been, during the interval, addressed to the government by many of the resident embassadors. By the terms of this last decree, the penalty was changed from capital punishment to five years' labor in the galleys in Africa. No proof beyond mere suspicion was necessary to cause the arrest of persons who were punished under the penalties of those edicts. Foreigners as well as na- tives were proceeded against without aipy attempt to dis- guise the act, or the least attention being given to the many protests which were made by the agents of their re- spective countries.
Notwithstanding these interdictions, however, as well as the cruelties which were exercised under their au- thority, a Masonic body was constituted at Lisbon, under the title of the Grand Orient of Lusitania, as also a Su- preme Council of the Scottish (33d) Rite. The later sov- ereigns of Portugal, without having revoked the prohibi- tory decrees against Freemasons, appeared to tolerate the Fraternity; for there has been established another au- thority at Oporto, under the name of " Patios- Manuel ;" ;and subsequently a Provincial Grand Lodge of Ireland. But in a country where — as in Spain and at Rome — ^the clergy rule every thing, we can entertain but little hope for the extension or well-being of Freemasonry.
152 general, history op freemasonry.
Spain.
In no country, Portugal excepted, has Freemasonry been exposed to persecutions more atrocious than in the Roman Catholic kingdom, far excellence, of Spain — ^perse- cutions based upon the bulls of Clement XII, of the 27th April, 1738; of Benedict XIV, of the 18th May, 1751, and the edict of Cardinal Consalvi, of the 13th August, 1814, which, as we have seen, pronounced all Freemasons excommunicated, and condemned them to the most severe penalties, even to death itself.
From the Book of Constitutions we learn that in 1727 and in 1728, under the Grand Mastership of the Count of Inchquin and Lord Coleraine, the first warrants were de- livered to establish lodges at Gibraltar and Madrid. In 1739 a number of lodges were instituted at these places, and the Grand Lodge of London patented Caj)tain Com- merford Provincial Grand Master for all Andalusia.
The Catholic clergy of Spain exhibited themselves at a very early period here, as elsewhere, the bitter enemy of Freemasonry. The better to enable them to discover the members of the Fraternity, and the secret practices and doctrines of the institution, the monk Joseph Torrubia, censor of the Holy Office of the Inquisition at Madrid, was ordered, in 1750, to assume a false name, pass himself as a layman, and be initiated into a Masonic lodge. For this purpose he received from the Pope's legate the dispensa- tions necessary to relieve him from the obligations of the oaths he should have to take upon being made a Freema- son. After having thus been enabled to visit the lodges in diflferent parts of Spain, he presented himself before the supreme tribunal of the Inquisition, denounced Freema- sonry as the most abominable institution that existed in the world, accused its members of every vice and crime re- volting to religion, and submitted a list of ninety-seven
^.
^^
-^
FBEEMASONRT IN SPAIN. 153
lodges established in the kingdom, against which he so- licited the most rigorous action of the Inquisition.
The importance of the great number of brethren who were members of these lodges, belonging, as they did, to the nobility and to the rich and influential classes, induced the Holy Office to reflect upon the matter, and decided i to request the king to interdict the institution of Freema Bonry. In response to its promptings, Perdinaud VI is- sued a decree, dated the 2d July, 1751, prohibiting the in- stitution of Freemasonry throughout the extent of his kingdom, under the pretext that it was dangerous to the state and to religion, and pronouncing the penalty of death against all who should profess it. Under this de- cree many persons were sacrificed by the order of the In- quisition. These cruelties were calculated to suppress all idea of introducing Masonry within the country, and also of restraining any exhibition of life on the part of the lodges already established ; so that it was not until after the French Revolution that they emerged again into the light, and began to spread more rapidly than before. After having founded at Xeres a Grand Lodge for Spain, there was established, on the 3d November, 1805, under the government of Joseph Napoleon, a Grand Orient of Spain, having its seat at Madrid, the very stronghold of the Inquisition. The same year was constituted a Su- preme Council of the Scottish (33d) Rite, and subsequently a Grand Orient, at Grenada, the Athens of Spain.
In 1814, Ferdinand VII re-established the Inquisition, and, by a decree dated 24th May of that year, ordered all the lodges to be closed, and pronouncing all participation in Masonry a crime against the state. Many lodges, par- ticularly those of Grenada, having braved this ordinance, all their members were arrested and thrown into prison. Of their number was the Marquis of Toulouse, and Gen- eral Alvada, Adjutant-General to the Duke of Welling- ton, together with many Frenchmen, Italians, and Gei
154 GENERAL HISTCRT OF FREEMASONRY.
maus. Tbe provisional governmont of 1820 released tliem all, and in that year many lodges resumed their labors ; but, on the 1st August, 1824, the King, Ferdinaud VII, renewed his decree of interdiction, and pronounced the penalty of death against all who, being Freemasons, should not announce themselves as such within thirty days; while, after that time, those who should be recog- nized as such, and had not so declared themselves, should be hung within twenty-four hours without form of law.
So stringent a measure as this would have informed that government, which held no obligations sacred, that eighty thousand of its subjects were banded together as a brotherhood, had any of those subjects been disloyal to his obligations to that brotherhood ; but, strange to say, the Inquisition found very few victims.
In 1825, the clergy of Grenada, under the authority of this interdiction, distinguished themselves by the bloody execution of seven Freemasons ; and subsequently, in 1^29, new traces of Masonry having been discovered in Barce- lona, the unhappy brethren fell into the hands of the In- quisition, which ordered the execution of one of them, the brother Galvez, a lieutenant-colonel in the Spanish army, and sentenced the other two to the galleys for life.
Notwithstanding these rigorous measures, there were many Freemasons in Spain ; and even a Masonic authority, styled the " Grand Directory," is known to exist some- where in the kingdom, but where, or what may be the plan of its labors, we are unable to say.
At Cadiz there is a lodge composed entirely of English- men, with which the government does not interfere ; and at Gibraltar there are four, like that in Cadiz, under the protection of the Grand Lodge of England, at London.
The countries in which Masonry is at present prohib- ited are : Spain and her colonies, Catholic Bavaria, Austria and its dependencies, and Russia, with the countries under her rule.
HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN
ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE,
AND OEGANIZATION OF THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF THAT RITE FOE FRANCE, i
The Masonic authority which directed a fraction of French Masonry, under the title of the " Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand Inspectors General- of the 33d and last degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Eite for France," was organized at Paris, on the 22d of Septem- ber, 1804, by the Count Alexander Francis Augustus de Grasse- Tilly, son of the admiral of that name; and this organization was formed under a warrant, dated and de- livered to him at Charleston, South Carolina, on the 21st February, 1802, by a body styling itself the " Supreme Council of Grand Inspectors General for- America," etc., sitting in that city. This warrant conferred upon the brother De Grasse plenary powers to initiate Masons into, and constitute lodges, chapters, and consistories of, this rite in the then (February, 1802,) French colony of St. Domingo.
'Knowing how much importance will attach to this portion of th origin of "the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Eite" of thirty-three de grees — ^how earnestly it will be studied, discussed, and commented upon by some, and probably disbelieved by others of the brethren, who hav« taken the commonly-received history of the rite and the "grand consti- tutions" as truth in every particular — 1 have followed the author so
(155)
156 GENKRAL HISTORY OP FREBMASONKY.
■Without proceeding, in this place, with the history of the first Masonic power created in France under this war- rant, and the forms of this rite — ^the title of which we have already given — and to chronicle the acts of such body from 1804 to the present time — which we propose to do in another volume — we will at this time give our atten- tion to the origin of the Masonic authority by which it was instituted.
We will begin vrith quoting from the document submit- ted to the Masonic Fraternity by the paptisans of this rite, giving an account of its origin :
" It appears, from authentie documents, that the establishment of the sublime and ineffable degrees of Masonry took place in Scot- land, France, and Prussia immediately after the first crusade ; but, in consequence of circumstances which to us are unknown, they wiere neglected from 1658 to 1744. Then a Scotch gentleman vis- ited France, and re-established the Lodge of Perfection at Bour- deaux.^ ... In 1761, the lodges and councils of the superior degrees having extended over the continent of Europe, his majesty the King of Prussia, who was Grand Commander of the degree of
closely in this department — sentence for sentence and word for word — that I may be said to have waived the right of a translator, and rendered the author's language at the expense of my own. I trust, however, the object will justify the action. — Translatok.
1 According to this recital, it would be necessary to admit that the propa- gation of the Scottish Kite of "these sublime and ineffable degrees' is due to a "Scotch gentleman," unknown both as to his own name as well as the lodge or Masonic authority that authorized him to "re-establish" this rite in France! The fact is, that before 1789 there never was a lodge of the Scot- tish Rite, neither of twenty-five nor thirty-three degrees, established at Bourdeaux; while that which existed at Arras — a Grand Chapter — was founded by Charles Edward Stuart, in 1747. Subsequently there was, in 1751, a mother lodge of what was then called the Scottish Rite, founded at Marseilles; and in 1756 the Grand Chapter of Clermont was founded, in the convent of Clermont, at Paris. In addition to these so-called Masonic bodies, the dates of whose institution are well known, there were numerous chap- ters, tribunals, etc., founded by Dr. Ramsay, between the years 1736 and 174C, no details of which are known to us.
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE. 157
Prince of the Koyal Secret,' was recognized by all as chief of the sublime and ineffable degrees of Masonry in the two hemispheres.
His royal highness Charles, hereditary prince of the Swedes, the Goths, and the Vandals, Duke of Sudermanie, etc., was and continued to be the Grand Commander and protector of sublime Masonry in Sweden; and his royal highness Louis of Bourbon, prince of the blood, the Duke of Chartres, and cardinal prince of Bohan, Bishop of Strasburg, were at the head of these degrees in France. * * *
" On the 25th of October, 1762, the grand constitutions were finally ratified at Berlin, and proclaimed for the government of all the lodges of sublime and perfect Masons, chapters, councils, colleges, and consistories of the royal and military art of Free- masonry upon the whole surface of the two hemispheres, etc.
" In the same year some constitutions were transmitted to our illustrious brother Stephen Morin, who, on the 27th of August, 1761, had been appointed Inspector General of all the lodges, etc., of the New World, by the Grand Consistory of Princes of the Koyal Secret, convoked at Paris, and at which presided the deputy of the King of Prussia, Chaillou de Joinville, Substitute General of the Order, Worshipful Master of the first lodge of France, called St. Anthony, Chief of the eminent degrees, etc. Being present the brethren Prince of Bohan, etc'
" By the constitutions of the Order, ratified on the 25th of October, 1762, the King of Prussia had been proclaimed Chief of the high degrees, with the rank of Sovereign Grand Inspector General and Grand Commander. The high councils and chapters not being able to work but in his presence, or in that of the sub- stitute who he might designate; while all the transactions of the Consistory of Princes of the Boyal Secret had to be sanctioned by him, or his substitute, for the establishment of their legality ; and many other prerogatives being attached to his Masonic rank. No disposition had, however, been inserted in the constitution for the nomination of his successor ; and, as this was an office of the highest importance, the greatest precautions were necessary to
1 This was the name of the last degree of the Rite of Perfection, which was composed of twenty-five degrees.*
2 See page 88 for a transcript of this appointment.
158 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
protect it, that none but a person entirely worthy should be ap- pointed to it. Realizing the importance of this fact, the king es- tablished the thirty-third degree. ' Nine brethren of each nation formed the Supreme Council of Grand Inspectors General, who, since- his decease, have possessed all the Masonic powers and pre- rogatives enjoyed by him. They constitute the exclusive body of the Society, and their approbation is now indispensable to the acts of the Consistory, to which it gives the force of law. From their decisions there is no appeal. The sublime degrees are at this moment (1802) as they were at the time of their first forma- tion ; they have not undergone the slightest alteration — the least addition. The same principles and the same ceremonies have been from all time observed ; and this we know by the documents of our archives, which have existed for many centuries of years in their original condition."
The author of these passages has forgotten, no doubt, to quote the documents mentioned in the introduction, as also those extracts from the archives to which he alludes at the close.
This recital we extract from a report which, accompa- nied by some historical notes, seems to have been sub- mitted to the Supreme Council at Charleston, in 1802, by one of its members, named Frederick Dalcho, and which, in 1808, were printed in Dublin. This curious document is the first that has given the pretended history of the Scottish Rite, and all that has been published since then as to the origin of the rite has been eKtracted more or less literally from it. The object for which this document was produced is therein explained — it was to be distributed and sent, in the form of a circular, to all the Masonic au- thorities upon the globe; and to render it more worthy of belief, and to give it greater importance, the Supreme Council at Charleston had it affirmed, or sworn to, by the brethren Isaac Auld and Emmanuel de la Motte, approved
^ It will be remembered that the rite of wtich it is stated he was chief had but twenty-five degrees.
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH BITE. 159
by tlie Grand Master, ad vitam, Colonel Mitchell, and cer- tified to, as in all particulars true and sincere, by Abraham Alexander, Secretary of the Holy Empire.'
The preceding recital concerning the Scottish Eite, so far as quoted, is well worthy of taking rank among the products of that noble army of Masonic authors and fab- ricators of new rites, who, to give their creations some importance, invent with the greatest facility, time, place, and honorable circumstances attending their origin. If the authors of this new Scottish Rite have not considered it necessary to assign to it a greater antiquity ; if they have not, as is customary with most writers upon Ma- sonry, placed the birth of their rite in the cradle of the world, or thereabouts, it is because they have reasoned a little more logically than their imitators. The name of Scot- tish not being any better known to antiquity than was that of Freemason, it reasonably became necessary to place the origin of this rite at an epoch which had some connection with history. The majority of our self-styled Masonic historians, in their statements as to the origin of our in- stitution, trouble themselves to the smallest possible ex- tent as to its connection with written history; for, in speaking of its antiquity, they appear to think it entirely unnecessary to describe how it was possible for it to de- scend intact to our time through forty or fifty centuries, which, they glibly inform us, have elapsed since its birth. The name of Freemason, as indicating with decision and in the most incontestable manner the origin of the insti- tution, is not, to this class of writers, of the slightest con- sequence.
If the inventors of the Scottish Rite of thirty-thvee de- grees have not been as careless as the generality of theii predecessors, they have not been much more happy in their
'It is by this title that the "Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite" qualifies the country over which it extends its authority.
160 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
exposition of its origin. Not being able to found their creation upon any act more or less authentic, or upon any fact of history, the scaffolding erected by them to support it necessarily gives way at the first shock, in the way of an earnest examination, to which they submitted it; and thus left unsupported, it shares the fortune of the creations -)f their predecessors in the same kind of speculation.
,In overturning this scaffolding, we need but advance the facts of history and compare them with the assertions contained in the fragment of the report that we have quoted. As to an examination of the question of fact whether or not the report which he produced, signed by Frederick Dalcho, had not been fabricated by himself subsequently to 1802, in order to destroy the doubts which attached themselves at a later period to the authenticity of this rite, we leave that to one side.
In the beginning, ancient Freemasonry (from 715 B. C. to the year 400 of our era), that of the middle ages (from 400 to 1500), and that which was practiced after that time in England, had never but three degrees of initiation. From 1640 to 1660 the partisans of the Stuarts, abusing the trust reposed in them by the Masonic Fraternity, and using their meetings as a cloak under cover of which to elaborate their schemes of monarchical restoration, created two superior degrees, viz : that of Scottish Master as the fourth, and that of Templar Mason as the fifth degree. When the society was transformed, in 1717, at London, and, from being a corporation more or less mechanical, became an institution entirely philosophic, it adopted but the three primitive or symbolic degrees. Before the year 1717 the lodges of Freemasons had no affiliations outside of England, and it is proven incontestably that the first lodge of the modern or philosophic Freemasonry estab- lished outside of Great Britain, was established at Dun- kirk, in 1721, with a ritual of three degrees. A third lodge was established in 1725 at Paris. From that time
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH EITB. 16t
Freemasonry extended rapidly into all the other countries of the north of Europe, first into Belgium, and subse- quently into Holland and Germany.
The rite called Scottish is a bastard child of Freema- sonry, to which the policy of the Stuart interest gave birth. It was introduced in France, between 1736 and 1738, by the Baron Eamsay, who was an instrument of the Jesuits.' This partisan of the Stuart interest was the first propa- gandist of this rite in France, wherein he extended it id many parts, in a few years, by the aid of his delegaties and those of the Jesuits ; but it was not iintil after the arrival in France of the Pretender, Charles Edward, that the rite called Scottish assumed any importdncie. The Preteiider treated the Chapter of Arras, and the noblemen of his suite immediately besought of this chapter warrants with which to propagate the rite. His scale had thfen aug- mented, and from seven degrees it successively arose to twenty-five; for we find, in 1758,^ a chapter or council of Emperors of the East and West, furnished with this num- ber of degrees, established at Paris.
From this time all the fabricators of new rites, although they increased to a frightful extent, had the good sense not to augment the number of the degrees, but, on ihe contrary, gradually reduced them — the Scottish Rite alone containing the highest number, and it, from 1755 to 1802, being limited to twenty-five. After the congress of "Wil- helmsbad the principal Masonic rites were subjected to great changes, and were every-where modified and reduced to seven, to ten, and to twelve degrees.
From these facts — which are incontestable — it followed tJiat during the space of time that we have named (frorcL 1755 to 1802), there did not exist in any country — no mote in England than in France, no more in Prussia than in Sweden — councils of the Scottish Rite of thirty-three de-
'See the History of the origin of all the Rites. "Ibid. 11
162 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
grees. • liTow, the report that we have quoted explicitly says: "These sublime degrees are at this moment (1802) as they were at the time of their first formation ; they have not undergone the slightest alteration — the least addition." This assertion is doubly inexact; because, in the first place, previous to 1801, no Scottish Rite of thirty-three degrees was known ; and, in the second place, all the rites and degrees, without regard to name or number, were created between 1736 and 1800, and they had nothing in common with the primitive English Rite.
If, then, there did not exist, before 1802, neither a Scot- tish Rite of thirty-three degrees,- nor councils of Grand Inspectors General and Commanders, it follows that the Prince of Sudermanie could not be the Grand Master of the rite in Sweden, nor, for the same reason, could Fred- erick the Great be its chief in Prussia.
As to another allegation in the same report — that the King of Prussia had been recognized chief of these coun- cils upon the two hemispheres, conformably to the grand constitutions of this Order, which were ratified on the 25th of October, 1762, at Berlin — it is, like all the others, desti- tute of foundation in fact ; and this we will proceed to prove.
The king, Frederick of Prussia, was initiated into Ma- sonry on the 15th of August, 1738, at Brunswick, being then prince royal.* The lodge at the Three Globes, in Berlin, founded by some French artists whom the king had invited to Prussia, was elevated by him to the rank of a Grand Lodge in 1744, and of which he became there- upon Grand Master — a dignity that he exercised until 1747. ' After that time he never occupied himself actively with Masonry. In his interviews with the brethren who directed the Grand Lodge at the Three Globes, and who kept him informed as to what occurred of a Masonic
' See Leuning's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, book 4, page 453, 2d ed. 'His name, nevertheless, was borne upon the register of the "Grand Lodge at the Three Globes,'' as its Grrand Master, until 1755.
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH EITE. 163
character, he continued to exhibit his attachment . to our institution; but when the different new systems, brought into Prussia by the Marquis of Berny and the officers of the army of BrogUe, disseminated themselTes in the Ger- man Ipdges, he exhibited himself the enemy of these in- novations, and expressed his disdain for these high degrees, as was his manner, freely and in hard terms, prophesying that they would one day be a fruitful source of discord among the lodges and the systems. It seemed that his prediction was to be verified ; for these divers systems soon engendered anarchy within the lodges, even in the lodge at the Three Globes itself, to such an extent that dis- gusted him with Masonry, without, however, changing his preconceived opinions of the institution. After this he authorized the creation of two other Grand Lodges at Berlin ; but he never had any other connection with them than to respond with thanks to their complimentary ex- pressions on the occurrence of his birthday. The last letter that King Frederick wrote, under these circum- stances, is addressed to the Grand Master of La Ooanerie, and bears date 7th February, 1778. As has been well re- marked, this letter is written in a style very different from what he had been accustomed to use in addressing the lodges.' After this letter, he abstained from even thank-
'We extract from Lenning's Encyclopedia a transcript of this letter, as it appears on page 455 of that work :
" The king has been sensible of the homage that the Lodge of Friend- ship at Berlin has rendered to His Majesty in the discourse pronounced by its orator on the anniversary of the day of his birth. His Majesty has found such expressions very conformable to the sentiments which ht has always attributed to that lodge as sustained toward his person; and he readily assures that lodge, in his turn, that he will always interest himself with pleasure in the happiness and prosperity of an assembly which, like if, places its first glory in the indefatigable and uninter- rupted propagation of all the virtues of the honest man and the true patriot [Signed] " Frederick.
"Potsdam, 7th February, 1778. "To the Boyal York of Friendship Lodge of FreemaBona "
164 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONRY.
ing the lodges, when ttey felicitated him upon the recur- rence of the occasion we have mentioned. During the last thirty years of his reign, King rrederick took no active part whatever in Masonry ; this is a notorious fact, and proven by the minutes of the Grand Lodges of Ber- lin. * Then it follows that the revision of the high degrees and the Masonic constitutions which they attribute to him, and which should have taken place, according to the re- port in question, in 1786 — the year of his death — is no more correct than is his augmentation of the degrees.
As to the rituals which he should have prepared him- self for these high degrees the same year, ^ they could not
' We can support these assertions with not only the letters which we have received fron» the Secretary of the Grand Lodge at the Three Globes in Berlin, but also with the minutes of this authority, bearing date, re- spectively, the 17th August, 1833, and 19th December, 1861, which de- clare, in the most formal and positive manner, that the documents sent to it at different times, styled " Grand Constitutions of the Scottish Eite of thirty-third," as well those written in Latin and in French as those written in the English language, and attributed to King Frederick II — documents of which the authenticity is doubtful — are all apocryphal, as, in general, are all the other acts relating to this rite which pretend to have emanated from that prince. (See Lenning's Encyclopedia of Free- masonry, edition of 1862, pages 455 and 456.)
There is other proof not less authentic, which puts to flight the fa- bles invented by the partisans of the Scottish Rite. It is that it is well known that the King Frederick II, on the 9th September, 1785, went to Berlin for the last time, to visit his sister, the Princess Amelia, and the next day he reviewed the artillery at Wedding. From thence he re- turned to Potsdam, where he passed the whole winter in bodily suffering from the malady that eventually caused his death. He was moved in a very unquiet state, on the 17th April, 1786, to his retreat of Sang Sowei, and there died four months afterward. (See the same work, page 456.)
We will abstain from any other reflections upon this subject, and merely add, as a last fact in support of our assertions, that, to the knowl- edge of every lodge in Berlin, the King Frederick II in no manner occu- pied himself with Masonry during the last thirty years of his life.
"See the Book of Gold of the Supreme Council for France, printed in 1807, page 7. It is in direct contradiction with the report of the brother Dalcho, who does not attribute to King Frederick but the creation of the
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH EITB. 166
in any case liave been drawn up by him, as he was at this time in a dying condition ; and, long before his death — which took place on the 17th August, 1786— he was to- tally incapable of any species of labor.
With regard to the assertions relating to the grand con- stitutions, or rules and regulations of the rite, of 1762 that King Frederick 11 should have himself ratified on the Ist of May, 1786, they are equally destitute of founda- tion, since these rituals did not exist at this time, but were evidently fabricated in 1804. In a word, every thing con- nected with this r-ite that pretends to be historic has been invented in part by its creators, and finished by its propa- gandists.
To all these simple facts, which are truly historic, de- structive as they are of the truth of the principal asser- tions contained in the report of Frederick Dalcho — though that report is affirmed, approved, and certified as true by many high dignitaries of this rite — we could add others not less conclusive, did we not believe such addition su- perfluous.
"We vdll now enumerate the facts which preceded the establishment of this authority in Paris, and indicate the origin of the Masonic power which constituted it; but to do this we must go back nearly a century.
thirty-third degree, and not that of the eight degrees from the twenty- fifth to the thirty-third. This Book of Gold, (it would be better named the book of hrass) thus explains the creation of these degrees :
"It would appear that the institution of the Supreme Council of the thirty-third and last degree is the work of this prince (Frederick 11), who, upon his ascent to the throne, declared himself the protector of the Order in his states ; that the dignity of Sovereign of Sovereigns, in the Consis- tories of Princes of the Royal Secret, resided in his person ; that it was him who augmented to thirty-three the twenty-five degrees of the ancient and accepted rite, as they were decreed in 1762; and, finally, that he delegated his sovereignty to the Supreme Council, who named it ' of the thirty-third and last degree,' for the purpose of exercising it after his death."
166 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
In 1761, a brother named Stephen Morin, by confession an Israelite, a member of the then itfational Grand Lodge of France, and also of a chapter of high degrees, having been called to America by some private interests, mani- fested the desire to establish in those countries the Masonry of the higher degrees, then called " Masonry of Perfec- tion ;" and, with this object, he addressed himself to the brother Lacorne, dancing-master, and at that time a de- posed substitute of the Grand Master, the Count of Cler- mont. Upon the proposition made by the latter for this purpose to the Sovereign Grand Council'of Princes of the East and "West, there was, on the 27th August, 1761, de- livered to the brother Morin a patent or warrant, by which he was created Inspector General of all the lodges of the I^ew "World, etc. '
Arrived at St. Domingo, the brother Stephen Morin ' named, by virtue of his patent, one of his co-religionists, the brother Moses M. Hayes, Deputy Inspector for I^orth America. He afterward conferred the same dignity upon a brother Frankin for Jamaica and the English windward islands, and upon the brother Colonel Prevost for the English leeward islands and British army. Some time af- terward the brother Frankin transferred his authority to the brother Moses Hayes, Grand Master at Boston, Maes. In his turn, the brother Moses M. Hayes named, as In- spector General for South Carolina, another of his co-re- ligionists, the brother Isaac Da Costa, who established, in 1783, a Sublime Grand Lodge of Perfection at Charleston. To this brother, after his death, succeeded another Israel- ite, named Joseph Myers. There were successively cre- ated by these self-styled Grand Inspectors General other inspectors for the different States of America. ,The brother Bush was appointed for Pennsylvania, and the brother Barend M. Spitzer for Georgia.
'See the text of this patent in the History of Freemasonry in France, page 88.
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE. 167
On the 15th May, 1781, these brethren assembled in council, at Philadelphia, the different inspectors for those States. It was by this council that the degree of Inspector General was conferred for Jamaica on the brother Moses Cohen. It also appointed to this dignity Isaac Long and the brethren De La Hogue, Croize-Magnan, St. Paul, Petit and Marie — all residents of Charlest'>n — to propagate the rite in the different countries of America.
There existed, as we have already stated, at Charleston, a Grrand Lodge of Perfection, with a Council of Princes of Jerusalem, founded by the brother Da Costa in 1783. To this Grand Lodge, on the 27th February, 1788, was united the Eoyal Arch. Chapter, founded by authority of a chapter of this title at Dublin ; and it was by this body that the brother Colonel Mitchell was appointed, on the 2d of August, 1795, a Deputy Inspector General for the State of South Carolina, who, in the plenitude of his powers, in 1797 conferred this title on the Count De Grasse-Tilly, a resident of St. Domingo, and assigned to him the same power for the French colonies of America.
This council of Inspectors General styled itself the Grand Council of Princes of Jerusalem, and all the constitutions delivered by it to its inspectors were always given in this name, seeing that the first patent delivered to Stephen Morin, in 1761, emanated from an authority which had given itself this name.
This council of Princes of Jerusalem, sitting at Charles- ton, created some inspectors of lodges and chapters, whom it liberally remunerated. In 1801 it was composed of the brethren Colonel Mitchell, Frederick Dalcho, Abraham Auld, Isaac Auld, Emmanuel de la Motte, and some others of less mark, who all belonged to the Jewish religion. ^
It may readily be believed that the constitutions granted by this council, composed, as we have indicated, of breth-
'See Kagon's Masonic Orthodoxy, page 181, which represents the mera- bera of this council as audacious jugglers.
168 GENERAL HISTORY OF FKBBMAS6NRY.
ren belonging to the Jewish religion, were not as exten- sive as they, probably desired; and it was this feeling, without doubt, that suggested the idea of creating some- thing new — something striking, and of a nature to procure them some advantage not offered by their position. The abuse that they had already made of the powers conferred upon them — although the conferring authority itself was morfe or less illegal, emanating, as it did, from a self- created body — should have induced all earnest Masons and honest men to have shunned a similar work, and particu- larly one that they dared not avow ; but personal ambition and self-interest prevailed over the Masonic principles and common honesty which these brethren had sworn to ob- serve, the speculation was engaged in, and, unhappily for the character of Freemasonry, it has, to some extent, proved a success.
A new Masonic power was combined and created under the title of " Supreme Council of the Grand Commanders Inspectors General of the thirty-third and last degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite."
This new creation naturally bore the same illegal char- acter, and was accompanied by the same deplorable cir- cumstances which had already signalized the factious pe- riod from 1740 to 1770 — a period of false titles, illegal constitutions, antedated regulations, etc.
The new authority lost no time in constituting itself. It elected its own members to the highest dignities of their new order of knighthood, and delivered to them patents with which they were empowered to institute this new rite wherever their fortunes should carry them. The brother Colonel Mitchell was nominated the first Grand Commander. He died at Charleston, in 1841.
But to facilitate the progress of the new rite, it was necessary to give it a respectable origin, and support it with some historic names^as those of its originators and protectors. This trust was committed to the brethren
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE, 169
Dalcho, Auld, and La Motte, and we have seen by the re- port from which we have quoted how they discharged it.
Probably among the first deliverances of the new power was the warrant sent to De Grasse-Tilly— who had some time previously been appointed as Inspector General of the Rite of Perfection for the French colonies in Amer- ica— to enable him to establish, in the Island of St. Do- mingo, a Supreme Council of the new rite. This patent conferred upon him the title of Lieutenant Commander of the new rite, and is dated the 2l8t February, 1802.
Having little hope of being recognized as a Masonic authority in America, this hew power sought the recog- nition of the different Masonic powers established in Eu- rope ; and, with this object, it sent to all the Grand Lodges of Europe a circular, dated the 11th of December, 1802, by which it informed them of its installation, and gave them the names of the degrees which it conferred itself, and authorized its Grand Commander to confer in its name.
The Grand Lodge of St. John of Scotland, located in Edinburgh — which was generally regarded, though wrong- fully, as the mother lodge of all the Scotch Eites, and which, on this account, had the greatest interest in pro- testing against this new creation — was indignant upon sight of this circular, and, in the response that it made thereto, declared "that such a number of degrees could not but inspire the most profound surprise in those professing Scottish Masonry; that it could never recognize such a collection, seeing that it had always preserved the Scot- tish Rite in the simplicity of its primitive institution, and. that it would never disarrange its system in this respect."
This Grand Lodge of Scotland, sitting at Edinburgh and directing all the lodges of Scotland, has, in fact, never practiced any other rite but that of the three symbolic de-
'See History of Freemasonry, by Alexander Laurie,
170 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
grees;' aud, upon many occasions, it has disowned, in the most formal manner, the charters and patents which have been attributed to it, and" by which it was accused of hav- ing authorized the exercise of the high degrees called Scottish. In view of this fact, we believe it to be im- portant and necessary to the better understanding of Freemasonry every-where, and to dissipate the opinion that prevails upon this subject, to here state that the Grand Lodge of St. John of Scotland, sitting at Edin- burgh, is an utter stranger to all the systems called Scot- tish Masonry, practiced as well in France as elsewhere in Europe and America.^
' The regulations that it published in 1836 were entitled " The Laws and Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland;" while article four contained a passage thus expressed: "The Grand Lodge of Scot- land practices no other degree of Freemasonry but those of Apprentice, Fellow-craft, and Master Mason."
' It was by a patent of this same Charleston Council — father of all the bastard children of Freemasonry — that the first Supreme Council estab- lished in Great Britain was organized, at Dublin, in 1808. The latter was the only Supreme Council that existed on English territory prior to 1846. In that year, however, there were organized one at London and another at Edinburgh. The first was instituted by Dr. Crucifix, editor of the Freemason's Magazine, by authority of a patent obtained by him from a Supreme Council sitting at New York ; and the last was instituted by AValter Arnott d'Arlary, who fabricated for himself a constituting power. The title of this council being in consequence disputed, it was reconsti- tuted on the 14th July, and installed on the 17th, by the brother Mor- rison of Greenfield, a member of the Supreme Council for France, who was invested with powers, called regular, for this purpose.
The most deplorable fact in regard to all these creations, the regular as well as the irregular, is, that they are constantly fighting, criminating, recriminating, and anathematizing each other. Thus, the Supreme Coun- cil at Edinburgh (which must not be confounded with the Grand Lodge of Edinburgh, the only regular Masonic authority in Scotland, and which recognizes but the three symbolic degrees,) declared, immediately after its reconstitution in the manner indicated, that it would not recog- nize the letters or diplomas emanating from the Supreme Council at- tached to the Grand Orient of France; and also interrupted all commu-
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE. 171
These pretended high degrees, into which have been in- troduced the reveries of the Templars, the speculations of the mystics, the deceptions of the alchemists, the magii, and many other idealists more or less dreamy, and the greater part of which repose upon legends absurd and contra- dictory with the truths of history, are, in fact, a mass pf informal and undigested matters. Those of the Scottish Rite, in particular, are a monument of folly, and which would have been derided as nonsense long ago but for man's vanity, which is gratified by the titles and decora- tions of which this rite is the parent. '
After this exposition of the origin of the Scottish (33d) Rite, let us cast our eyes over the condition of Masonry in Paris, immediately before this rite was brought to that city by the Count De Grasse-Tilly.
The compromise which took place, in' 1799, between the Grand Lodge and the Grand Orient of France had not been joined in by all the brethren, and the intolerance ex- hibited by the Grand Orient gave occasion to a consider-
nication with the Supreme Council of Dublin, until the latter had ceased connection with the Supreme Council established, since 1815, within the Grand Orient of France. We have already stated how this Supreme Council of Edinburgh was healed. Since then it has set itself up to be the most regular of all the Supreme Councils, and has declared schis- matic the council in London, which, as we have shown, was established by virtue of a constitution delivered by the Supreme Council existing, in 1813, at New York.
These Supreme Councils established in Great Britain enjoy but little reputation — so little, indeed, that some brethren of merit who have been elected by them honorary-members, have refused to accept the distinc- tion
Unhappily, this mercenary creation, as unmasonic as it is illegal, has, since 1846, been extended into and has established its Supreme Coun oils in many countries The Supreme Council at Charleston was re- vived in 1845, after a sleep of nearly forty years. And although in no case are the bodies composing the rite recognized by the Grand Lodges, they are by the Grand Orients, which confer, in common with them, their high degrees.
172 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
able number of those members of the Grand Lodge, who did not wish to recognize the Grand Orient, to reject the terms of the compromise. It was more particularly the party called Scottish who exhibited this disposition most bitterly ; and their reason was, that as the Grand Orient, by the terms of the compromise, recognized only a rite of )ut seven degrees — the highest of which was that of Rose Cross — their higher degrees, with their decorations and de- vices, could not be worn by them or made available in the assemblies or exhibitions of the legislative body. ^ The Grand Orient acted in this case, as in many others, not as a Masonic authority, but as an oligarchical power, and excluded the Scottish Eite Masons from the lodges of its jurisdiction, by an order dated the 12th November, 1802. This new act of intolerance served no other pur- pose than to irritate the brethren excluded, and was the principal reason that induced them to propose founding a new Masonic power. Some preparatory meetings were held', and many lodges of Paris, and particularly the Lodge of St. Alexander of Scotland, embraced openly the cause of the dissenters.
Following these inclinations, there was at first formed a new authority, established by virtue of a patent that a brother named Hackett — who had been a notary in St. Domingo — had brought from America, and which had been delivered to him by a Supreme Council sitting at New York, and professing the Rite of Perfection of twenty-five degrees that Stephen Morin had taken to America in 1763. This authority took the title of " Supreme Council of America."
But some months afterward, also from St. Domingo, the brother Count De Grasse-Tilly arrived, bringing with him the patent of the Supreme Council of Charleston, and the history of which we have already given. This patent conferred upon him the right to constitute chapters, coun- cils, and consistories in the leeward and windward islands,
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE. 173
that is to say, in St. Domingo and the other French colo- nies of America; but, in consequence of the political events which, occurring about this time, occasioned the loss of this island to France, he had no opportunity of realizing his projects. He had then returned- to France, where, re- gardless of the conditions of his patent, he announced himself as supreme chief of a new Masonry of thirty-three degrees. Having been informed of the large body of ex- cluded brethren who, since 1802 — being prohibited by the Grand Orient from participating in the meetings of the fraternity in consequence of their refusal, for the reasons already given, to sign the compromise of that year — ^had assembled themselves in a cellar of the Fisherman's Walk, he approached these brethren, and immediately arranged to organize, with these elements and, by virtue of the pat- ent delivered to him on the 21st February, 1802, at Charles- ton, to constitute a Masonic power, under the pompous title of the " Supreme Council for France of Sovereign Grand Inspectors General of the 33d and last degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite." This done, on the 22d of October, 1805, the new authority organized and installed a Scottish Grand Lodge, as we have stated at the beginning of this history.*
'■ We regret mucli to find, in a work that we consider as one of the most important among those composing the literature of Freemasonry, Btyled "The Philosophical History of Freemasonry" by the brethren KaufiT- man and Cherpin, the voluntary omission these authors have made, contrary to the duty of an historian, in not mentioning at this date (1805) the foundation of the Scottish Grrand Lodge, nor that of the Su- preme Council, and in feigning to be completely ignorant that there ex- isted at this time any Masonic authority in France of the name of Su- preme Council. If the brethren K. and C. have believed it their duty to respect the oath that they have taken to the Grand Orient — to recognize it as the sole legislative authority of Freemasonry in France, and to not admit that there can exist any other — we shall not follow their example, first, because we have not taken any such oath ; and, second, because that we believe it ever to be the duty of the historian, in his relation of facts, to flinch not, from any cause whatever, in his object of relatiBg the trutL
174 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
As our view of Masonry is similar to that of these brethren, and as we find ourself in communion with them, in a more or less degree, In ideas, sentiments, and ill nearly every matter connected with the institution, we are truly pained to find in their book, so praiseworthy and meritorioHS in almost every respect, the omission that we have mentioned; and, in addition thereto, a general partiality very significant in favor of the Grand Orient — a partiality of whick we distinctly comprehend the good ntention, but which our conscience will not permit us to imitate. On the contrary, to seek the truth and to disseminate it with courage, has always been our motto. We believe that Masonry will be better served by speaking the truth without reserve, though that annunciation may seem to its detriment, than in expressing the accepted views of those who, like the brethren K. and C, may have some reason or weakness for failing to represent facts as they know them.
Remarks in conneotion with the foregoing History of the Origin of THE Ancient and Accepted Scottish Kite.
Brother Resold, in his preceding history of a rite that during the past fifteen years has gradually increased in importance in America, can not be said to ^lave gratified the brethren who have given their thoughts and time to its dissemination in the United States or elsewhere. He has given us a plain narrative of unvarnished statements of fact; he has proved conclusively that this rite was either created by parties named in Charleston, S. C, or, from the twenty-five degrees of the Rite of Per- fection as known in 1761, and which Brother Stephen Morin brought to America, it was, in 1802, there and by those persons extended to the thirty-three degrees of the present Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite; and he has furnished most conclusive circumstantial evidence to support the belief entertained by at least every learned German Freemason in America and elsewhere, that Frederick the Great never had any knowl- edge of the rite in its present form, whatever knowledge he might have had of it as the Rite of Perfection of twenty-five degrees.
Under these circumstances, the friends of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite find themselves in the predicament Sir William Drummond describes, in his preface to Origenes, when he says, "In questions un- connected with sacred and important interests, men are rarely very anx ious to discriminate exactly between truth and fiction ; and few of us would, probably, be much pleased with the result, could it now be certainly proved that Troy never existed, and that Thebes, with its hundred gates, was no more than a populous village. It is perhaps still with a secret wish to be convinced against our judgment, that we reject as fables the
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH BITE. 176
stories told us of the Grecian Hercules, or of the Persian Rustem; and that we assign to the heroes and giants of early times the strength and stature of ordinary men." So it is with our Ancient and Accepted Scot- tish Rite. It is proven to be neither an ancient rite nor one accepted by or acceptable to but a very small portion of the Masonic Fraternity, nor is it a Scottish — otherwise Jacobin — rite; and yet we wish to be con- vinced, even against our judgment, that it comes up to the mark set by these conditions, because our prejudices have long cherished so pleasing an idea.
But, although shorn of what has been considered its brightest attri- bute, viz., its creation by Frederick the Great; and although deprived of such regal parentage by being proven, instead, to be the progeny of five mercenary Israelites of Charleston, S. G, the rite, so far as it can subserve any useful purpose in connection with Freemasonry, can not lose any of its excellence. If its claims to regal parentage are not well founded, its advocates are maintaining a fallacy in their advancement of such claims, and do constantly find themselves in a dilemma when proofs are de- manded which it is impossible for them to produce. And as the case has been candidly stated by Brother Rel-old, and with the fewest possible offensive reflections upon the creators of the rite, and none at all upon those who — its present friends and patrons — conscientiously believe that it is calculated to confer dignity upon Freemasonry, no exceptions can be taken to the object I have had in view in the translation and publication of this work, which was to disseminate the truth' with regard. to every portion of the history of Freemasonry in Europe.
I fear, however, that the patrons as well as the propagators of the rite, in our own day, have given too much significance, in their regards for it, to that remark of Horace, in his "Ars Poetica," beginning with —
" Intererit multum Davuene loquatur an heros" —
and not enough to whatever inherent excellence the rite itself may pos- sess. If this should be the fact, as a S. P. R. S., I have no better propo- sition to suggest to the chiefs of the rite than the following :
1. Remove all equivocality as to its origin by excising the present statements upon that subject from the work, lectures, and history, wher- ever they occur ; and,
2. Then take the thirty degrees of the rite (all of which are given in America) and compress them into twenty-one, which done, fit these twenty-one to the present American system or rite of twelve degrees.
' Brother Eebold has been ofBoially pronounced by the highest Masonic au- thority in France, the Grand Orient — through its Deputy Grand Master, the Chevalier HeuUant — a careful and impartial Masonic historian.
1?6 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
By this arrangement, all doubt as to the origin of what might then be called the Reformed and Accepted American Bite of Thirty-three De- grees will be removed, and such rite will, in a short time, be genei:- ally understood and appreciated as a work which, being necessary for the satisfaction and unity of the Fraternity in America, was undertaken by enlightened American Freemasons, and successfully accomplished.
J. F. B.
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A CONCISE HISTORY
07 THE)
EGYPTIAN RITE OF MI8RAIM,*
SINCE ITS CREATION, IN 1806, AT MILAN, TO THE PRESENT TIME.
In a work published in Paris, in 1848, under the title of " The Masonic Order of Misraim," the brother Mark Be-
' Eefleotions on the Eites op Misraim and Memphis. — The history of the Rite of Misraim, as also that of the Eite of Memphis, which we are about to record, is calculated to suggest to enlightened Masons re- flections of sadness in more than one connection. But it would be im- possible for us to pass by in silence these works of feebleness, of error, and of pride, inasmuch as the profane as well as the initiated ought to be informed of the truth.
If the individuals who have created these rites were but few, unhap- pily those who participated in the result of such aberrations of the hu- man mind may be called a multitude. It is the duty, therefore, of the historian to notice the side-tracks upon which these jugglers have at times drawn our institution, in order that their example may teach us, and preserve us from falling into new errors.
That the Jesuits, that powerful association, aided by a legion of active emissaries, should have been enabled, in the last century, to form associations and knightly orders enveloped in Masonic forms, with the intention of at first turning men aside from the pure Masonry of Eng land, which extended itself rapidly upon the continent, and of which th object was contrary to their desires and operations, and subsequently to extend their dominion, under cover of Masonry, to the re-establishment of the Stuarts, is nothing astonishing. That some impostors, encour- aged by their success, should, in their turn, and in a spirit of pecuniary gain, conclude to create rites and orders of chivalry, and, having found 12 (177)
178 GENERAL HISTOEY OF FREEMASONKT.
darride, Grand Conservator of this Masonic heresy, com- mences its history in the following manner :
" Since the first age of the world, the period when our venerable Order was created by the All-Powerful, no Grand Conservator has ever taken the pencil to trace and reunite the perfect plans of his scientific labors, and thus enrich the human race : some for the want of the necessary documents,' and others from the fear of perjuring themselves or of impairing in any manner the sublime heritage which they had been delegated to transmit to their dis- ciples in all its purity. But if these celebrated Grand Conserva- tors, [names not given,] our predecessors, have not performed this sacred duty, they have not failed to leave to their successors the traditions of our mysteries, in hieroglyphic characters, in a man- ner intelligible to none but the initiated, and thus these documents have been preserved from all profane indiscretions."
'The reader will easily comprehend the cause of this dearth of documents ; for, according to the language of our author, Adam, installed by the "All- Powerful" as the first Grand Conservator, could not have bequeathed the manuscript transactions of his direction of affairs of this " venerable Order" to his descendants, seeing that he had not learned the useful accomplishment of writing, hieroglyphically or otherwise, and that he had no one to direct In such transactions but Eve, his wife, and subsequently their children. One thing, however, the author does not explain, and the omission on his