CHAPTER XXI.—A. PIKE, THE KING AND POPE OT THE

FREEMASONS.
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The question in this chapter is not if Pike was one of the many aping Melchisedechs, one of the many Magician
Kings and High Priests but if he was THE KING and THE’
POPE of Freemasonry. No doubt he combined in his person the two species of Royalty and High Sacerdotalism ; one he shared with many other Masons, the other with none: this last species we shall examine in this chapter. W. J. Hughan wrote in the Freemason, Mar. 14, 18096 :
’ “My beloved fellow student, General Pike, the UN- “CROWNED KING of the Hautes”—Hauts—“Grades. ... His
“monument is enshrined in the hearts and memories of his .
“brethren of the ‘Ancient and Accepted Rite,’ as was his “constant and final wish. He has lived; the fruits of his “labors live after him....If his monument you seek, look at “his work.”
A. E. Waite and Bro. John Yarker, acraft’s Don Quixote, have proclaimed Pike THE MASONS’ POPE. Sce the Devil Worship in France, pp. 214, 215, 216. A. E. Waite says:
“Mr. Yarker is a member of the 33rd degree of the A .-. “A .*.S.°.R.*,and he is also the Grand Master of the “only legitimate body of the Supreme Oriental Rite of Mem- “phis and Misraim in England, Scotland and Ireland. More- “over, in most Masonic countries of the world he is either “Honorary Grand Master or Honorary member in the gsth “degree of Memphis, goth degree of Misraim, and 33rd degree “Scottish Rite, the last honorary membership including bodies “under PIKE REGIME as well as its OPPONENTS. He is per- “fectly well acquainted with the claim of the Charleston “Supreme Council to SUPREME POWER in Masonry, and that “it is a usurpation founded on a forgery. Ina letter which “he had occasion to address some time since to a Catholic “priest on this very subject, he remarks: ‘The late Albert “Pike, of Charleston, as an able Mason, was undoubtedly a “MASONIC POPE, who kept in leading strings all the Supreme “Grand Councils of the world, including the Supreme Grand ‘Councils of England, Ireland and Scotland, the first of “which includes the Prince of Wales, Lord Lathom and other “peers, who were in alliance with him and in actual submis- “sion. Its introduction into America arose from a temporary
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“schism in France in 1762, when Lacorne, a disreputable “panderer to the Prince of Clermont, issued a patent to a “Jew, named Stephen Morin. Some time after, in 4802, a “pretended constitution was forged and attributed to Fred- “eric the Great, of Prussia. This constitution gives power to “members of the 33rd degree to elect themselves to rule all “Masonry, and this custom is followed....The good feeling “of Masonry has been perpetually destroyed in every country “where the Ancient and Accepted Rite exists ; and it must “be so in the very nature of its claims and its laws.’ Mr. “Yarker has no connection with a Supreme Dogmatic Direc- “torate in any other form than this disputed and perfectly “well known assumption of the Charleston Supreme Council. “The term, ‘Supreme Dogmatic Directorate, was not used by “Pike, and the confidence enjoyed by the American was never “extended to Lemmi, though he may have desired it. In- “stead, therefore, of all Masonry being ruled by a central “authority unknown to the majority of Masons, we have “simply a bogus claim which has no effect outside of the “Scottish Rite, and of which all Masons may know if they “will be at the pains to ascertain.”
Bro. Yarker sides with the two sides, with the Pikeans and Charleston, and with the anti-Pikeans against Charleston; he is honorary member of “bodies under Pike’s regime and “its opponents”. He agrees with the anti-Pikeans who do not admit the claim of Charleston DE JURE, but he agrees with the Pikeans by admitting it DE FACTo. Let us hear what Pike and his beloving fellow students have to say. They admit that the patent granted to Morin was authentic and valid, and that the claim of Charleston was good and valid, both DE JURE and DE FACTO.
The 80 Luminaries in their History, p. 649, style A. Pixe Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of Sovereigns, “Grand Inspector General of the 33rd degree Southern “Jurisdiction of the United States. ...The Mother Council of “the world....A.°.A.°.S.°. Rite;” they then quote at length from one of his reports:
“We can soon learn how it was that the Council degrees “came about 1766 from France, not from Prussia. In 1761, “the Lodges and Councils of the Superior degrees being ex- “tended throughout Europe, Frederic II. (or the Great) King “of Prussia, as Grand Commander of the Order of Princes of “the Royal Secret, or 32nd degree, was by general consent
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“acknowledged and recognized as Sovereign and Supreme “HEAD of the Rite. On the 25th October, 1762, the Grand “Masonic Constitutions were finally ratified in Berlin and “proclaimed for the government of all Masonic bodies work- “ing in the Scotch Rite over the two hemispheres ; and in “the same year they were transmitted to Stephen Morin, “who had been appointed in August, 1761, Inspector General “for the New World, by the Grand C “of the Royal Secret, convened at Paris, under the presidency “of Chaillon de Joinville, representative of Frederic and Sub- “stitute-General of the Order. It will be remembered that “the 33rd degree was not then created ; and under Frederic “the Great there was no rank higher than the 32nd, nor any “body superior to a consistory. When Morin arrived in the “West Indies, ie, agreeably to his patent, appointed Mr. “Hayes a Deputy Inspector-General, with the powe: of ap- “pointing others when necessary. It was under this authority, “coming, it is true, from the Consistory at Paris, held by that “Consistory as the Delegate and Representative of Frederic “the Great, that the Lodges of Perfection in Albany and “Charleston were established, with authority to confer these “detached degrees.”
In the same History by the 80 Luminaries, pp. 799, 800, SOI, we read :
“Early in 1803 a circular, dated December 4, 1802, was “published announcing the organization, on May 31, 1801, of “a new governing body of a newrite....The name of this “new body was ‘The Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand “Inspectors-General of the Thirty-Third Degree for the “United States of America’....It recognized the ‘Constitu- “tion of 1762,’ the ‘Secret Constitution, and the ‘Constitution “of 1786.’
“The latter are the supreme law of the Rite. They pur- “port to have been sanctioned by Frederic the Great, of “Prussia, as the SUPREME HEAD and GOVERNOR of the Rite ; “their purpose was to vrovide for the succession, after his “death, in the government of the Rite. By their terms, “Frederic’s power was vested in a Council of nine in each “nation....It has been vigorously asserted that these con- “stitutions were never sanctioned by Frederic, and even that “they were forged at Charleston, and until quite recently, this “has been generally accepted....But Brother Albert Pike, in “his Historical Inqniry, has most completely overthrown
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“these assertions....It is difficult, after closely studying “Brother Pike’s presentation of his reasons, to avoid agreeing “with him in his conclusions. ... FIRST SUPREME COUNCIL.— “The first body organized under them was the Supreme “Council established at Charleston, May 31, 1801, by John “Mitchel and Frederic Dalcho.... Brother Pike shows that “in the ‘Institutes’ attached to the ‘Constitutions of 1762,’ as “published in France, it is provided that, in a country in “which there is no Grand Consistory or Grand Council of :
*“Princes of Jerusalem, the oldest Grand Inspector is invested “with DOGMATIC power, and consequently with the title of “Sovereign,—whence undoubtedly came the title, ‘Sovereign “Grand Inspector-General.’”
We read in the Freemason, Aug. 29, 1896:
“All Supreme Councils claim to be derived from the “Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction of the United “States, and it claims to be the Mother Supreme (ouncil of “the World, established in Charleston, South Carolina, on the “31st of May, 1801.”
It is R. F Gould, a Past Grand Deacon of Englanc:, who wrote the above quotaticn. The 80. Luminaries, p. 806, say :
“The Mother Supreme Council, (‘Mother’ in fact, but not “claiming on that account to be more than the peer of her “daughters), commands the respect and affection of all Scot- “tish Masons,.and, by its publications, has gained an immense “influence, the world over, in all matters relating to the “Ancient and Accepted Rite.”
We have enough of Masonic quotations to form a pretcy fair idea of Charleston and its Pope aping Rome and the Pope. The aping is remarkable ; a few traits will prove it.
The Bishop of Rome has no more power conferred on him by the Sacrament of order than any other Bishop whose ordination is valid. Likewise, the Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand Inspectors-General, of Charleston, has not received from the Scottish Rite any more power than any other Grand Commander of any other Su- preme Council.
Rome is the Mother Church of all other churches (dio- ceses); likewise Charleston is the Mother of all Supreme Councils.
The Bishop of the Mother Church of Rome has the PRIMACY over all the other churches (dioceses), over their bishops and their diocesans ; likewise the Grand Commander
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of the Mother Supreme Council of Charleston has the primacy over all the other Supreme Councils, their subordinate lodges, and their members.
The Catholics believe that the Bishop of Rome has DE JURE and DE FACTO a primacy of real jurisdiction over all the Christians. Some schismatics say that the Rishop of Rome has only a Primacy of Honor, while other schismatics refuse to acknowledge any primacy, whether of honor or of real jurisdiction.
Likewise there were Pikeans who believed in the primacy of the Grand Commander of the Mother Supreme Council, of Charleston, and were in alliance and submission to the un- crowned King and the untiared Pope, as were the future King of Great Britain and future Emperor of [ndia, with many British peers. Naturally there were schismatics of different sorts opposing the Pike regime and by their opposition prov- ing the claim of Charleston to not be a mere chimera of Leo Taxil, Dr. Bataille, etc.
We must remark that among the Kadosh Princes and Sovereigns who were in submission to the Masonic Pope and King, I did not find two having the same views on the Masonic Royalty and Popery. In the Review of St. Louis, Mo,, U. S. of A., October 29, 1896, I wrote: “I have read the “Revelations Humbug of the Cologne Volkszeitung. Permit
“me to ask a few questions : “If A. Pike ‘was never anything else but Grand Com- mander of the 150 (?) independent organizations of Free-
“masonry, how is it that W. J. Hughan, the foremost Masonic “scholar of England, writing in the great organ of the British “craft, the Freemason, (March 14, 1896), calls his beloved “fellow student, Genera! Pike, ‘the uncrowned King of the “Hautes-Grades? Are all the commanders of the 150 or- “ganizations so many uncrowned Kings? Or, are the 150 “Masonic organizations so many independent Masonic “kingdoms ?
“Why should the Volkszeitung proclaim those humbug- “gers who call Albert Pike ‘untiared Pope,’ and not those “who, like W. J. Hughan, of Torquay, Devon, England, call “him the ‘uncrowned King’ ? Does not the Vicar of Satan “in the secret society in which is offered, since the Middle ‘Ages, the Black Mass, deserve the title of ‘Satanic Pope’ ?
“Could not a central direction be organized and Pike “elected ‘uncrowned King,’ or ‘untiared Pope,’ and still be
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“unable to exercise a directive influence upon some Provinces “or Grand Lodges, even in America?
“..,.. They promise us a brochure from Kerlin, in which “all these things will be treated in detail. Would it not have “been wiser to wait for this brochure and the proofs, than to “launch serious accusations under the pretense of defending “other people, without any more proof than give those whom “they accuse? Is it better to mistake in favor of the Devil “than against him ?”
The Freemason, August 26, 1896, published under the heading, “The Kaiser and Freemasonry’ :
“Considerable interest has been aroused by the publica- “tion of correspondence between the Kaiser and Prince Fred- “eric Leopold. The latter wrote in behalf of the Freemasons “Lodges in Prussia, complaining to the Emperor of the way “in which their organization was continually attacked by the “Catholic press and also by the Adelsblatt newspaper. The “Emperor replied through his secretary that he had com- “municated with Duke Ernest Gunther, proprietor of the “Adelsblatt, with the object of stopping the attacks in that “paper, but he abstained from making any reference to the “attitude of the Catholic press in the matter.”
I have not the pretension to know the reasons for the silence of the Kaiser in regard to the attitude of the Catholic press, but, surely, His Prussian Majesty could be informed at that time, that part of the Catholic press in Germany, and even in France, would do the work of protecting the craft against the attacks of the anti-Masonic press, and save him from unnecessarily meddling with the Catholic party.