The Arcane Schools - Part 6 of 7

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Part 6 of 7 (Chapters XI)

THE ARCANE SCHOOLS

BY

John Yarker

CHAPTER XI.

THE SYSTEM TERMED HIGH-GRADE

SPECULATIVE FREEMASONRY.

        God bless the King! I mean our Faith's Defender,

        God bless — no harm in blessing — the Pretender,

        But who Pretender is, or who is King,

        God bless us all! that's quite another thing.

JOHN BYROM, Manchester.

THE general opinion of Freemasons will be that this Chapter should conclude the next on the establishment of a Grand Lodge in 1717. The reason for placing it before that event is a reasonable belief in the assertions of the ANCIENTS, as opposed to the MODERNS, who admitted themselves the characteristic by which the former distinguished the latter. The subject of these degrees is a very intricate one and I am rather puzzled how to put it clearly to the reader without much repetition.

With Chapter IX. the Gothic Builders died out and their Lodges relaxed into small social gatherings, but in the North of England where there were Lodges in the jurisdiction of York, the Lodges continued the Harodim, or Masters' Fraternity, of which Gould in his large history affords ancient proofs. What became of these bodies, for Grand Lodge has no knowledge of them? But on the death of the Gothic Builders and the attenuation of their Lodges there arose, temp. Jas. I., a young Englishman of the name of Inigo Jones, whom the Earl of Pembroke took into Italy. He studied with much interest, amongst the disciples of Palladio and the Comicini, the classic works of Italy, and on his return reorganised such bodies as existed on the model of the {421} Italian academies, and brought over Italians to instruct the Guilds in the classical Masonry of old Rome, and it became a fashion to term the magnificent Gothic erections a barbarous style? Our principal authority for this statement is Anderson who says that the account was recorded in a MS. by Nicholas Stone which was burnt in 1720, in order, we may suggest, that it might not fall into his hands. He further states that Jones held Quarterly Meetings, and Lodges of Instruction; now there is no reason why Anderson should have falsified history on this matter, and his statements are accepted by Preston, and by so careful a writer as the German Findel; but the known ceremonies of the Guild is a confirmation strong enough in itself, for they certainly represent a Guild of the classical style. They had also the old Jewish Menatzchim or Intendents, and Harods, termed Passed Masters, of which rank Grand Lodge has no knowledge.

The best work on the Comicini is by "Leader Scott," she shows that on the sack of Rome by the Goths they settled at Como, and spread their Guilds over the whole of Italy and even to France; and retained the same style of architecture and ornamentation for centuries. Her impression seems to be that they had added to the Collegia a reference to Solomon's temple, and this is not improbable when we remember that the Roman Emperor Justinian after he had completed Agia Sofia in Constantinople exclaimed: "I have surpassed thee, O! Solomon." These Italian Academies had their "Caput Magistrum," and their "Arch Magister," who according to Leader Scott had to be a grandee. The head-master was no doubt the Master of the Level Men, the Arch-Master of the Guild working curved work. At the same time any authority that had central jurisdiction was termed an "Arch Fraternity," and M. H. Shuttleworth mentions a reprint of 1776 at Paris, of the 13th century Statutes of the Knights of St. John which mentions their "Archiconfrere Royale. . . de Jerusalem." {422}

Every country had a special class to "Pass" Masters; Scotland had its "Six Men of Ancient Memory"; Saxon England its "Elders"; France its "Masters' Fraternities"; Germany its "Old Masters"; who assembled "Chapter-wise." The establishment of the Grand Lodge of England and its depletion of the technical parts of the Guild, in time destroyed the power of these Harods, Rulers, or Passed Masters, and sought to occupy their place in a very perfunctory manner. The dissatisfaction against the Grand Lodge was everywhere great and England, Ireland, and Scotland had its Arch Masons in or about 1740, France had its Menatzchim, its Harods, its Provosts and Judges, its Architects, and its Royal Arch. They were the real Grand Lodge, with secret Rites and tokens, they formed a Court of Award, as they united the Geomatic and Domatic Sections, until the law and the Grand Lodge rendered their functions obsolete; chiefly held in cathedral towns, we may find the sacred name over its gates.

Besides the feeling, engendered by members of the old Operative Guilds, that Modern Masonry was an imperfect system, various other ideas operated in the development of a system of "Masters' degrees," at a later period termed High-grade Masonry. English Masonry, in the course of ages had gathered much Christian Symbolism upon its Semitic ceremonies, which, in certain parts, would intensify the dislike to the Modern system.

1. On this question of teaching it may be noted that whilst the Jacobite Masonic faction sought to strengthen the Christianity of our Rites, the Southern Masons, had sought from the time when Cromwell readmitted the Jews, to broaden its lines

2. In politics again there existed great, but suppressed, antagonism between North and South; the Grand Lodge of all England at York was essentially Jacobite, that of London, Hanoverian.

3. There was an Hermetic element, from early times in the Guilds, and we shall see that this was well understood {423} in 1721; for there was, as we have indicated in previous Chapters, a very early quasi-connection.

4. There were in existence from the time of the Reformation in the 16th century, many mystical societies, and as these passed along the ages, they influenced the Masonic Lodges, and in some instances were drawn upon to establish high-degrees; and we will preface the information we can give upon some of these.

England seems to have first began an innovation upon the system of the Modern Grand Lodge, but the hot-bed of the high-grades was France. From 1688 when a quantity of English, Irish, and Scottish Masons emigrated with James II. there was an ancient Masonry in France of which Hector MacLean was Grand Master, and who was succeeded in 1725 by the Earl of Derwentwater who held that position until the Elector of Hanover decapitated him in 1745. But a little earlier, namely in 1737, the Duke of Richmond, who had been G.M. of England, opened a Lodge in which he initiated the Duc d'Antin who in 1743 became Grand Master of the English Grand Lodge of Paris; we will leave him there for the present and take a survey of earlier matters. There is a Carbonari Certificate of 1707, printed by St. Edme (Paris, 1821) as authentic, which says that a Count Theodore born at Naples in 1685 had already obtained the High Grades of Free Masonry in France.

We cannot doubt, upon the evidence afforded in Chapter VI. that the Epoptae, or higher Initiates, of the first ages of Christianity, transmitted their Mystical Rites; these were taken up and carried forward by Monks, Dervishes, Manichees, Catharoi, Templars, Albigensis, Ghibellines, Friends of God, Militia of the Cross, Rosicrucians, and sects too numerous to mention; and that such secret Schools were in existence long prior to the Reformation in the church, as witness the labours of such men as Fiscini, Pico de Mirandolo, Reuchlin, Erasmus, Agrippa, Rudolphus Agricolo, and many more, and that educated Free Masons, in their Masters' Fraternities and Fellow {424} craft Lodges, were more or less conversant with Pythagoreanism, Platonism, Cabalism, Rosicrucianism, and that these Societies interested themselves in Germany and elsewhere in the spread of the doctrines of the Culdees, of Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, and other Reformers, and the Secret Society established by Cornelius Agrippa in London, in 1510, may have been of this nature. How far these adapted the Craft guild ceremonies, or at what date if they did so, can only be plausible conjecture.

These Secret schools, which the Church of Rome would term Gnostic, must have permeated the whole of Europe and entered into the Guild life of the traders and artizans, and we cannot, well otherwise, account for the friendliness shewn to Luther, when in 1517 he began his fearless crusade against the overwhelming force of Rome. It is supposed that Luther himself was a Guild member and he actually uses Guild terms in 1527, when he says that he is "already passed-Master in clock-making." It is stated that about 15 days after the holocaust which he had the temerity to make of the Pope's Bull, he was waited upon by a member of some Guild holding a meeting at Wiittemberg, and induced to go to an Assembly at the Guild Hall, where after Reception "by ancient ceremonies," he received a medal bearing Mystic characters, and was then placed under the protection of the Brotherhood.<<"National Freem.," Washingtorn, 1863; Row's "Masonic Biographs," 1868; "Canadian Craftsman," 1893.>> It is quite certain that Secret Societies of Mystics, united by ceremonies with signs, then existed; and it may be that the Reformers strengthened themselves by such Societies, intended for mutual protection, and the Charter of Cologne, 1535, if genuine, may represent such Assemblies. The early Secret Societies of the Albigensis and the Ghibellines usually represented their position under the symbol of an Egyptian or Babylonish captivity, for both forms are used, and Luther himself adopts this in his book entitled the "Babylonish Captivity." He says, -- "The Christian {425} people are God's true people, carried away captives into Babylon, where they have been robbed of that which they received at their baptism." Salandronius the Swiss, thus writes to Vadian, -- "Oh! saw you how the inhabitants of the mountains of Rhetia, cast away from them, the Yoke of the Babylonish Captivity." Melancthon, in 1520, says, -- "the finger of God is to be seen in what Luther is doing, even as the King of the Egyptians refused to acknowledge what was done by Moses." We can even find language amongst them, which forms the most secret part of certain Masonic high-grades, but which we cannot repeat. Luther in 1520 thus writes to the Elector. -- "With one hand I hold the sword, and with the other I build the walls of Zion"; similar language was used in Paris and Toussaint Farrel, 1525, says, -- "The 70th year will come at last, the year of deliverance, and then we shall have freedom of mind and conscience." Nor is this symbolic language absent from the works of the English Rosicrucians for John Heyden, writing in 1663, has an allusion to it, particularly forced; speaking of Christian Rosenkreutz, circa 1400 he says (p. 18), -- "After five years came into his mind, the wished return of the Children of Israel out of Egypt, how God would bring them out of bondage. Then he went to his Cloyster, to which he bare affection, and desired three of his brethren to go with him to Moses." These he explains were Brothers G.V., I.A., and E.O., who constructed a "Magical language." This may be traditional or found in MSS. to which Heyden had access, if history, it indicates a company of four working in a like direction to Luther a century and a half before his days.

We find this symbolic language reduced to emblems, two of these brought from Nuremberg are engraved in the Transactions of the Newcastle College of Rosicrucians. One of these has, on one side, the figure of a Pontiff in the act of blessing, also the figure of a Monk with a lighted taper in his hand, and between the two an Altar with an open Bible upon it, around the {426} border is the inscription VERBUM DOMINI (irradiated) MANETINAETER (nitate); the obverse has an armed man, with a drawn sword, holding the scales of justice, in the heavier pan is a human figure, and in the lighter pan a writhing serpent; several inscriptions appear in the centre but are indistinct, the legend is JOSUA CONFIDE NON DIRELINQUAMTE. In the Peasants' league against the Nobles, 1524-5, the motto of Munzer was "we must like Joshua destroy all the nations of Canaan with the sword," and in one of his letters he signs himself, "Munzer, armed with the sword of Gideon," possibly this medal is Anabaptist. The Roman Catholic clergy are very fond of making Faustus Socinius the founder of Freemasonry, this, of course, is false, but Socinius seems to have established a secret Society by which he spread his views in Poland. The second medal we have named is a Jubilee one of 1617, the obverse being precisely the same as that just described; on the reverse we find a bee-hive, the (irradiated), a serpent twined round a cross, three other indistinct emblems, at the top EGYPTUS ET ISRAEL; at the bottom ANNO JUBILAEI OM; around the border, in two lines is the legend DEMSCHWERN EGYPTISCHEN DIENSTH AUS WIE MOYSES GEUHRTAUS VNS CFURTAVS DESBAEST FINIS TEKNU, ALSOHATT MARTIN LUTHERUS. The Jubilee date of 1617 is about the period when the Rosicrucian Societies began to supersede the Mystic Schools mentioned in Chapter VI., of which, to a slight extent, this is a continuation. Although the Clerical enemies of Masonry in France pointed out last century the bearing of all this upon the Masonic Rites then practised, it is not in the province of a Mason to do so, but those who have the Red Cross and its analogous grades will comprehend.

We have alluded to the Harodim, which in France became the nucleus of the high grades, and the secret Societies from which these latter drew some of their material. There is, however, another Order, which the Romish Church associates with a Secret Discipline, and {427} an enlightened purpose, which they suppose has been embodied in Freemasonry -- we allude to the Order of the Temple. The Templar origin of Masonry, or at least one of its Rites, was quite a cardinal doctrine abroad last century; and we have already given the facts leading to this view. Philip le Bel before he undertook the suppression of the Templars in 1310, had, two years before this, interdicted the trade Fraternities. Two branches of the Templars escaped destruction, the one in Scotland the other in Portugal, and a third is mentioned in Hungary down to 1460, these would correspond with each other, and they could not feel any friendship for Rome. The difficulty of a widespread continuation would arise from the vigilance, after 1313, of the priesthood, but the Order may have been continued in spirit under other names; and we must ask what became of the numerous bodies of Artisans expelled by this action from the Preceptories of the Templars. Starck in his reply to Dr. Beister<<Anti Saint Nicasse, 1786, ii, pp. 181-202.>> says: "Had he been somewhat better acquainted with ecclesiastical history he would have found, not only one, but several religious bodies which under far more violent oppression than those endured by the Knights Templar, have secretly continued to exist for a far longer period." In Scotland there was a strong leaven of Culdee opinion to preserve the Templars, and Papal opinion was always more lightly considered by the independent Scot than his English neighbour. Hence Scotland preserved the name of the Templars even after the dissolution of the Chivalric Orders in that country in 1560. These Knights were often addicted to Hermetic studies, and may have become amalgamated with some of these. Thory points out, in writing of the times of Lord Bacon, what he calls the singular fact that here and there in works of the time are found allusions to the Templars, and that Alchemical works have references to their red-cross banner.

Mere denial of some such connection does not admit {428} of being loosely made, and Aberdeen had its share of support as a seat of Masonic Templary. Baron Hunde inherited some such traditionary belief and sent emissaries to investigate the belief. When the lands of Maryculter were surrendered in 1548 the Knights took up their residence in the city, where an old Lodge existed which embraced the noble and gentle; and we find this Lodge meeting in Tents, or Encampments under canvas, designated "Outfield Lodge," or held in the Bay of Nigg, "where no one could see or hear," and hence believed to have included Templar rites. It is also alleged that certain Templars, before 1600, united with the ancient Stirling Lodge. For some time after the Reformation the orthodox party would seem to have recruited themselves secretly with the sanction of the Grand Master at Malta, and it is very probable that the same thing had place in England when James I. was the "Mason King" and the craft included men of learning and gentlemen. The first assimilation of Chivalry and Freemasonry would arise within the Domus or Preceptory, amongst the Artisans and Lay-brothers there employed; and when they were expelled together in the 16th century, there would be a desire amongst both parties to continue the connection, and still stronger amongst the Protestant parties; gradually, in the course of a century, the Temple began to be looked upon as a Masonic appanage, owing to the chief members belonging to both orders. Finally, in order to make the Orders homogeneous, the craft and other degrees were treated as the necessary gradation by which to become a Templar. There was undoubtedly an ancient traditionary connection besides this, even if the Templars, as seems most probable, did not in the 12th and 13th centuries, introduce the Rites of Freemasonry now practised.

We will now consider the participation of the Freemasons themselves in the aims of the old Hermetic Schools of "Sons and Masters." We must all admit that the builders of our ancient religious houses were men {429} of great intelligence, who would seek to increase their knowledge from all available sources, and amongst these sources from the Societies of Alchemists and Rosicrucians, including Astrologers and Mathematicians. We have given instances in 1450 where Hermetic Symbolism was identical with that of Freemasonry; but the "Ordinall of Alchemy" compiled by Thomas Norton of Bristol, "In the yeare of Christ, 1477" (83 pp. of MS.), commences as follows: —

"To the honour of God, one in persons three,

This Boke is made that laie men shouldn't see."

He undertakes, "To teach by Alkimy great riches to winn," and enumerates the great personages who have worked in the Mysteries of Hermes, Popes, Cardinals, Byshopes, Priests, Kings, Lords, Merchants, and adds: —

"And goldsmithes whome we should lest repreve,

For sights in their Craft move them to beleeve."

He styles Alchemy a "Noble Craft," and says (page 2) in allusion to the Freemasons: —

"But wonder is it that Weivers deale with such worke,

Free-Masons, and Tanners, and poore P'issh Clarkes,

Stayners, and Glasiers will not thereof cease,

And yet seely Tinkers will put them in prease."

He closes his instruction in the Noble Art thus: —

"All that hath pleasure in this Boke to reade,

Pray for my soule, and for all both quick and dedde;

In this yeare of Christ, one thousand four hundred seaventy seaven,

This warke was begun, honour to God in heaven."

This participation may have gone on for centuries, and we may feel sure that it did; various Societies of Oriental origin then existed using symbols by which Masons would be attracted to them, and it is in evidence that the early Rosicrucians were Initiated by the Moslem sectaries. In 1630 we find Fludd, the chief of the Rosicrucians, using architectural language, and there is proof that his Society was divided into degrees, and from the fact that the Masons' Company of London had a copy {430} of the Masonic Charges "presented by Mr. fflood," we may suppose he was a Free-Mason before 1620. From the language of Eugenius Philalethes or Thomas Vaughan we may assume that he also was a Mason. Sir Robert Moray and Elias Ashmole, who were received Masons in 1641 and 1646 respectively, were both of them diligent students of Occult matters, and it is within the bounds of probability that the Rosicrucians may have organised a system of the Craft degrees, upon which they superadded their own Harodim receptions long before Free-Masonry passed to the Grand Lodge in 1717.

"The Wise Man's Crown", 1664, has the following: "The late years of tirany admitted stocking weavers, shoemakers, millers, masons, carpenters, bricklayers, gunsmiths, hatters, etc., to write and teach Astrology." This latter Society Ashmole terms the Mathematicians; it held an annual festival, which was active in London in 1648 and again in 1682. Even Wren was, more or less, a student of Hermeticism, and if we had a full list of Freemasons and Rosicrucians we should probably be surprised at the numbers who belonged to both systems. It included a study of the Jewish Cabala, and a Dutch Jew was exhibiting a model of Solomon's temple in 1675, and he would be likely to draw upon the Talmud and Cabala in his explanatory lectures; for the Cabala has a branch which possesses a semi-Masonic character in Architectonic Gematria, which refers to the construction of words from the numbers given in the Bible when describing the measurements of the Temple, and the Ark of the Covenant, in relation to man himself. Brother W. W. Westcott, M.B., has translated a very curious passage entitled "The Secrets of Initiation, by J. J. Casanova, born 1725, Fr. R.C. circa 1757," in which he says: "The secrets of Initiation are by their very nature inviolable; for the Frater who knows them, can only have discovered them by himself. He has found them whilst frequenting well-instructed Lodges, by observing, comparing and judging the doctrines and symbols. Rest assured then, {431} that once he has arrived at this result, he will preserve it with the utmost care, and will not communicate it, even to those of his Fraters in whom he has confidence, for since any Frater has been unable to discover the secret for himself, he would be equally unable to grasp their real meaning, if he received them only by word of mouth."

There can be no reasonable doubt from the evidence of numerous degrees of high-grade Masonry, and their symbolism, that what we have here described has contributed to the development of the systems now worked, though it must always be difficult to trace the development seriatim. These Mystical Societies had survived in various centres of Europe down to the period when Craft Masonry underwent a revival, and such traditional and mystical ceremonies were revised in many cases to adapt them to a new basis in new Rites. This is proved by identity of aims and emblems, but the system has such scant influence on the general work of the Craft that few consider these things worthy of notice; and moreover their ancient value as a means of uniting the forces of sectarian Brotherhoods, ceased to exist in their new form, with the general acceptance of freedom of conscience. The enquiry is of interest, but the secrecy of the old Mystic Societies will ever be an obstacle to full elucidation. Thus amongst Masons meeting together in Lodge, there were members of other Societies which had similar Rites to themselves, and therefore every probability that one would influence the other. The "Modern" historians, the word is used in its double sense, have always conceded scant justice to this section of Freemasonry, and it has been their effort to assign all degrees, above the three first, of which the Grand Lodge, at its start, adopted two, to a foreign origin; and although French and German systems were introduced into this country in the 18th century; the evidence goes to show that with our Craft system went the nucleus of all the high-grades which were carried from England as early as 1688 and afterwards {432} manipulated abroad. There is far more probability for the continuous transmission of secret societies of mystics in this country than on foreign soil, and nothing is gained by the contention. We cannot be a party to the insinuations that truth is found only amongst English Masons, who are usually more ignorant than those abroad, nor concede an allseeing infallibility to the conceited critic who imagines that he knows everything.

In affinity with this subject of the high-grades must further be noticed, in one section at least, the essentially Christian character of its ancient ritual. Thus in a printed Catechism we find after a question of "How many lights?" the farther question, "What do they represent? A. The three persons; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Q. How many pillars? A. Two, Jachin and Boaz. Q. What do they represent? A. A strength and stability of the Church in all ages. Q. Who is greater than a Freemason! A. He who was carried to the highest pinnacle of the Temple of Jerusalem." This Christian character is found, in its strength, in the "Dumfries MS." from which we have had quotations, and was probably the system of such bodies as possessed the old Christian Masters' Grade of Harodim-Rosy Cross.

The earliest printed evidence of something beyond the then new speculative Craft is a work by Robert Samber, written in 1721 under the nom-de-plume of Eugenius Philalethes, Junior, and which he dedicated to the Grand Lodge of London in 1722; and there is no doubt that much has passed out of existence that would have enlightened us upon the writer's views, inasmuch as he claims, as did the Carpocratian Gnostics, that Jesus established an esoteric doctrine which he communicated to his disciples, and the possibility of such views implies a much broader field to survey than most writers wish to concede.

This Preface of "Long Livers" clearly refers to certain high-grades then known, and is written in the easiest of three keys used by the Hermetic Societies, namely, the operative, philosophic, and religious; it bears entirely {433} upon the latter, and has no reference to operative Alchemy but uses the terms of this Craft, after the mode of Fludd, to convey Theosophic and Masonic truths. Almost whilst we write Brother Edward Armitage has discovered in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, fragments of a Ritualistic nature which bear upon the printed Preface, and is admitted to be in the handwriting of Samber. It is the preparatory application of a Rosicrucian formula to something missing. It embraces a trial by water, in washing; of fire in purification; of light as a symbol carried to its extinguishment; of giving the coal and chalk; the cord, or girdle, binding the recipient to the brotherhood; the incense, the symbolism of knocking at a door; of entrance; and the Oath which is that of secrecy, extending even to the persons acting, and treats of the Aspirant's duties in general.<<Vide"Ars Quat. Cor.">> As a Preparation, which it says that it is, it may bear some relation to that which follows, as there is verbiage in common.

In the Preface of 1721, Samber alludes to the grades of the Arcane Discipline of the early Christians as comparable with Masonry; to a spiritual cube, and he associates Masons spiritually with the three principles of the Hermetic Adepts, namely, salt, sulphur, and mercury, and there are other comparisons which agree with three Masonic grades. He claims that in all time there was a Brotherhood which preserved true religion, essentially what Dermott claims for the Royal Arch, and he goes on to demonstrate the doctrine of the Unity, passing from Moses through the Schools of the Prophets, and the Rabbis. He has also three traitors who correspond with the Cain, Achan, and Enni (Annas) of Harodim-Rosy Cross who slew the "Beauty" of the world. He ends by making Christ the reorganiser of a Masonic Brotherhood, and "holy brother St. Paul," is alluded to with a marked emphasis which shews that he had a Masonic theory respecting him. He thus leads us through the natural law exemplified in the Craft, the Jewish law in the Arch {434} or Red Cross, to the law of grace in Christian Masonry; for these things are fully implied though no such grades are alluded to by name. He says that he is addressing "a higher class who are but few," and this is done in Hermetic language, which shows that he perfectly understood the mystic language of that body. He speaks of those who ought to be "erased from the Book M.," which implies here Masonry, but remotely that mentioned in Chapter VI. We are rather concerned in defending Samber against his critics of the last 20 years, who represent him as little better than an idiot; the fault is theirs, for they "have eyes but see not." We will now follow with some extracts which shew that it was a well understood thing that there were certain degrees above the Craft system.

The learned Dr. Stukeley states in his "Autobiography," "7 Novr. 1722. The Order of the Book instituted," he terms it also "Roman Knighthood," and says, 28th December that he admitted to it Lords Hertford and Winchelsea. There is nothing to shew the nature of it, and it is not probable that it survived as a Masonic degree.

Bro. R. F. Gould has stated, in one of his papers, that there is an advertisement in the Daily Mail of 1724 announcing that a new Lodge is to be opened at St. Alban's Tavern for regulating the modern abuses which had crept into the fraternity, and "all the old real Masons are invited to attend." It is evidently the beginning of the agitation which led to "Ancient" Masonry, and the role of the Royal Arch.

In the years 1724 and 1725 there appeared two editions of a pamphlet entitled "Two Letters to a Friend," in which are allusions to Dr. Thomas Rawlinson, a leading Freemason, who left the Craft some documents referring to this period. In this print it is stated that the Brother styles himself R.S.S. and LL.D., and "he makes wonderful Brags of being of the Fifth Order. . . . The Doctor pretends that he has found out a mysterious hocus pocus {435} Word . . . that against whomsoever he (as a member of the Fifth Order) shall pronounce the terrible word the person shall instantly drop down dead." To whatever degree Rawlinson really belonged it is certain that the allusion is to the Jewish tetragrammaton, and that the worthy doctor had been incautiously airing his knowledge of the "Essays" of Reuchlin and Agrippa upon the "Cabala," and the Mirific Word. There is no reason why the "fifth order," should not mean the 5th Degree which it is known the Arch was a little later. The nom-de-plume of the writer of the pamphlet is "Verus Commodus," and he mentions that some of the Masons "write themselves STP," after their names, which in his blatant fashion he tries to make a profanation of the Trinity; from this it may be inferred that a civil reference was not to be understood by him but that it represented something Masonic, and we know, later on in the Century, that the Templar grade was abbreviated T.P. either as here, or with the crossed {symbol: "P" with vertical extended below and crossed as a Greek cross} and is so found on the 1791 Seal of Grand Conclave. The writer also says: "they tell strange foppish stories of a tree that grew out of Hiram's tomb."

In Ireland there seems an incipient reference to the Christian grades in the newspaper report of the Installation at Dublin of Lord Rosse as Grand Master, 24th June, 1725. The representatives of six Lodges of "Gentlemen Masons" were present, and it is said: "The Brothers of one Lodge wore fine Badges painted full of crosses and squares, with this Motto Spes meo in Deo est, which was no doubt very significant, for the Master of it wore a yellow jacket and Blue Britches."<<"Caementaria Hibernica," fasc. II.>> It was well known that the clothing refers to the brass handle and steel legs of a pair of compasses. The reporter also speaks of the "Mystical table" being in form of a Mason's square.

There is a burlesque advertisement of the tailors, 24 Dec. 1725, which accuses their "whimsical kinsmen of {436} the hod and trowel," with having changed their day of meeting and Patron, "on new light received from some worthy Rosicrucians."

On the 31st Dec. 1728, Brother Edward Oakley delivered an address at London, in which he quotes largely from Samber's Preface to "Long Livers," so that it must have had some Masonic importance given to it, and its references understood. Also, in 1729, Ephraim Chambers mentions in his "Cyclopoedia" that there are certain Free-Masons who "have all the characters of Rosicrucians," or "as retainers to the art of building."

There is a still more precise statement signed A.Z. in the "Daily Journal" of 5th Septr., 1730, from which we extract a small portion: -- "It must be confessed that there is a society abroad, from which the English Freemasons have copied a few ceremonies, and take pains to persuade the world, that they are derived from them. These are called Rosicrucians from their Prime Officers (such as our Brethren call Grand Masters, Wardens, etc.), being distinguished on their High days by Red Crosses."

The "Gentlemans' Magazine," April 1737, contains a long attack upon Masonry signed JACHIN, in which he says: -- "They make no scruple to acknowledge that there is a distinction between Prentices and Master Masons, and who knows whether they have not a higher Order of Cabalists who keep the grand secret of all entirely to themselves." It looks very like an intimation of the Royal Arch degree.

All this points out that prior even to 1717 the mixed Lodges possessed a higher section, whether known to the Grand Lodge or not, which could be spoken of in Rosicrucian Jargon, thus raising the question whether there was not then a Freemasonry that had been passing as Rosicrucian during the previous century; even the Chapter of Clermont, a Templar system, asserted that the system of Solomon, contained 7 degrees, and other books asserted that they had received a 7 degree system "from the very heart of Albion, the sanctuary of the high degrees." {437}

One of the earliest bodies of which we know something was the following:

THE GORMOGONS.

It is possible that the Gormogons had some relations with the Jacobite Lodges of Harodim, as they used pseudonyms like the latter, and were equally attached to the Stuarts. Prichard, who wrote in 1730 hints that they had pre-1717 or Ancient Masons in their ranks. Particulars of the body is found in the 1724 pamphlet entitled "Two Letters to a Friend," from which it appears that they had an Emissary at Rome, and Samber the author of "Long Livers," is identifiable under the designation of a "Renegade Papist." Ramsay was with the Pretender at Rome in 1724, and the Duke of Wharton, P.G.M. of England is evidently alluded to as a Peer who had suffered himself "to be degraded" by having his apron burnt in order that he might join the Gormogons, was with the Pretender at Parma in 1728, and had received the title of Duke of Northumberland from him about fourteen years previously. They had a secret reception and cypher of their own, and Kloss considers, no doubt rightly, that in their jargon "China" meant Rome.

Brother R. F. Gould has been at great pains to disentangle the history of the Gormogons, and has made it clear that not only was Wharton a member, but probably founded the Society on an older Jacobite plan; and he shows that the dates of its activity syncronises with the events of Wharton's life; and the lampoon may very probably be Wharton's own composition, in which case it throws added light upon the matter in reference to Dr. Rawlinson. The "two unhappy busy persons" who obtained their idle notions . . . "about Adam, Solomon, and Hiram being Craftsmen," and who abused, "a venerable old gentlewoman under the pretence of making her a European Hiramite," is interpreted to signify Anderson and Desaguliers in the new Constitution, whilst the venerable old gentlewoman is the old Operative {438} Charges. The whole satire was embodied by William Hogarth in a plate designated "The Mystery of Masonry brought to light by ye Gormogons." which went through three editions, the last about 1742; in this plate the old woman upon an ass who is about to be saluted by a man with his head in a ladder is thus explicable. As to Duke Philip, his father Thomas was somewhat to blame, Dr. Johnston flings the most opprobrious epithets at him.

THE NORTHERN HARODIM.

This degree was at one time very popular in the County of Durham, and may be supposed to be a part of the work of the Gateshead body to whom the Count Bishop granted a Charter in 1681. Bro. F. F. Schnitger was well acquainted with the last surviving Harod Bro. R. R. Read, a D.P.G.M. of the Mark, who received the degree from his father at Gateshead, where his grandfather also conferred it, and he had been received in the Lodge in youth as an Apprentice and it is said that the Lodge possessed his operative Indentures. Bro. Read made over all his privileges "free from Harodim," to the Newcastle high grades.

Bro. Robert Whitfield first mentioned the Swalwell Minutes of the degree in the "Freemason" of 11th Decr., 1880, and says that the Lodges claimed important privileges from former ages; the appointment of the P.G.M., and the wearing of hats at the P.G.L. meetings.

The first mention of it, if it can be called so, is the quotation by Bro. Joseph Laycock, who brought the Swalwell, and the Gateshead Lodges under the G.L. in 1735, and was appointed P.G. Master of the Co. of Durham in that year. On these occasions he gave a quotation, in an Oration he then made, and which is printed in the "Book M., or Masonry Triumphant," in 1736 at Newcastle. He terms these "old verses," and they are yet a part of the 4th section of the Jacobite Harodim-Rosy-Cross.

The next reference is a minute of the Swalwell Lodge {439} as follows: "July 1st 1746. Enacted at a Grand Lodge held this evening that no brother mason shall be admitted into the dignity of a Highrodiam under less than a charge of 2s. 6d.; or as Domaskin or Forin as John Thomson of Gateside paid at the same night 5s. Memorandum: Highrodiams to pay for making in that order only 1s. 6d." (8 names follow and 9th line closes) Paid 2s 6d. English, William Ogden. N.B. The English Masters to pay for entering into the said Master-ship 2s. 6d., per Majority."

Of course the "English Masters" refers to the Master Mason of the Grand Lodge of London, introduced by Laycock, and as they style themselves a Grand Lodge, and as the name of Joseph Laycock does not appear as a Harod at any time, it seems very clear that the object was a semi-rebellion of the old operative Masons against the innovations of 1735. A man who spells Harodim as Highrodiam may be excused for spelling Domatic as Domaskin, but Bro. Schnitger seems to think it may mean Damascus. The Lodge was mostly composed of the men employed at Cowley's foundry, and he brought over from Solingen, steel workers who claimed that they had inherited their method of working the metal from Damascus, as the Markgrave had brought instructions thence in the time of the Crusades.

The Ceremonial was a system of secret receptions in points, similar to the Jacobite Harodim-Rosy-Cross to which we will shortly refer. They were the custodians of the Ritual of all Masonry, which was what Oliver invariably termed the "Old York Ritual," and which certainly contains Harodim points, and no doubt York at one time had the ceremony. The two Trollopes who were part of the Gateshead foundation of 1681 were Stone-Masons of the city of York. Its position in Masonry is precisely that which we have described as Passed Masters, in the old pre-1717 London Guild. In operative times the Ritual, of which they claimed to have been the custodians, was doubtless the yearly Drama; it is the key {442} to all York Masonry after 1725, and begins with the 7th Degree and goes down even to the Apprentice.

They had oversight of all the Lodges of their jurisdiction, there were 9 of them, and they travelled in groups of 3 to punish irregularities, and reconcile differences. At receptions there were to be 9 present, but 6 and 3 candidates would suffice in emergencies.

At Sunderland Bro. Hudson states that the Harodim was conferred from the first establishment of the Phoenix Lodge, and that between 1755 and 1811 they received 150 members. In 1787 R. Markham "Passed the Bridge," and a month later was made a Royal Arch Mason. Bro. Logan has shown that Palatine Lodge, 97, had the Harodim. In each case members visited from neighbouring towns.

HARODIM-ROSY-CROSS.

This was a London version, clearly of Jacobite derivation, which in 1743 claimed a time immemorial origin; we would suggest that it might have been carried to France from the North by Derwentwater who belonged to this part of the country. It is clearly the grade which Baron Scheffer had from him, in two sections, when he gave him authority to establish Lodges in Sweden 25 Nov. 1737. Ramsay in his speech of 1737 alludes to the old Arcane Discipline of the Alexandrian Church when he says: "We have amongst us three classes of confreres, the "Novice or Apprentice; the Companion or Professed; the Master or the Perfected. We explain to the first the moral virtues; to the second the heroic virtues, and to the last the Christian virtues. . . the fourth quality is a taste for the useful sciences and the liberal arts. . . . Religious discords caused us to change and to disguise, and to suppress, some of our Rites and usages, which were opposed to the prejudices of the times." He also alludes to the Jews working with the sword in one hand and the trowel in the other, which are the lines quoted by Laycock in 1735. Dean Swift must have had some {441} knowledge of this, and he was acquainted with Ramsay in 1728; and he thus writes in 1731, -- "the famous old Lodge of Kilwinin, of which all the Kings of Scotland have been, from time to time, Grand Masters without interruption," and he speaks of the adornment of "Ancient Jewish and Pagan Masonry, with many religious and Christian Rites," by the Knights of St. John and of Malta.

It is quite possible that Scotland may have had the Rite of Harodim-Rosy-Cross at an early date. There is a curious passage in the "Muses Threnody," a metrical account of Perth, published in 1638 for Henry Adamson, M.A. The extract may mean much or little in the argument, according to the idea in the mind of the student, for he says:<<"Ars Quat. Cor.," 1898, p. 196. Vide also the writer's paper in A.Q.C., 1903.>>

"For we be brethren of the Rosie Cross,

We have the Masons word and second sight,"

The claim is made for this Metrical system of Lectures that it is of Culdee origin, and had I-colm-Kill for its birth place.

The following list of London Chapters has been carefully preserved at Edinburgh, and does not come down later than 1744:

1. Grand Lodge at the Thistle and Crown in Chandos Street,

                                                 Immemorial.

2. Grand Chapter        "           "         "      "

3. Coach and Horses in Welbeck St.               Immemorial.

4. Blue Boar's Head, Exeter St.                      "

5. Golden Horse Shoe, Cannon St., Southwark, December 11th, 1743.

6. The Griffin, Deptford, in Kent, December 20th, 1744.

In 1750 there is a petition of Sir William Mitchell, FDLTY to Sir Robert RLF, Provincial Grand Master of the Most Ancient and Honourable Order of the HRDM of KLWNNG in South Britain; Sir Henry Broomont, FRDM, Deputy Grand Master; Sir William {442} PRPRTN; and Sir Richard, TCTY Grand Wardens; and the rest of the Right Worshipful Grand Officers of the said orders."

It is said that the Grand Master had held his office since 1741, so that is probably the date when the Rite was reconstituted as here given. A Charter was granted to the Hague in 1751, and this was carried to Edinburgh in 1763, since which period the Rite has handed down the Lectures intact. It is likely however that some revision may have been made about 1740 say in the last section and the title. It has since 1767 been termed the "Royal Order of Scotland." In 1786 they Chartered a body at Rouen, when an interesting correspondence ensued between Wm. Mason the Grand Deputy Master, and Murdoch the Grand Secretary, in which the latter speaks of the dormancy of the Order for some time in Scotland, in a light that scarcely agrees with the facts of the case. Rebold says that the ceremonies of the Royal Order were revived on the formation of the Grand Lodge of St. John's Masonry the Mastership of the Jacobite Lodge Canongate Kilwinning, and it is a fact that in 1735 that Lodge had, as is proved by the Minutes, a Masters' Lodge quite distinct from the Craft, and which in its work and organisation, was identical with the London Lodge, No. 115, designated in 1733 a "Scotts Masons Lodge," and Brother John Lane holds that this was identical in Constitution with certain Lodges established as "Master Masons Lodges" conferring that degree only of the English Ritual, that therefore the so called Scotts Lodges differed only in this that their members were Scottishmen. But though this be so it is no proof that the Rituals were the same, and it may well be that the actual Scots Lodges had a special ceremony such as the Mastership of Harodim. It is probable therefore that there is truth in Rebold's statement that the Cannongate Kilwinning Lodge, which was a Jacobite Lodge, was the Christian Harodim which expired, as the Scotch Rite contends with the ruin which befel that political sect. Thory who was {443} Atharsata, or Most Wise, of the French Branch in 1807 makes the Mason of Heredom; the Knight of the Tower; and the Rosy Cross to correspond. — as they clearly do, — with the degrees of Scotch Master; Knight of the East; and the Prince Rose Croix; the fourth and last step termed the Sanhedrin he considers "the figurative banquet of the Pascal lamb," we rather consider it was converted into the Templar Kadosh.

RED AND ROSY CROSS.

In the absence of any old Minutes of these two degrees, it may perhaps be thought idle to express an opinion that they may have had an existence amongst Hermetic Masons long prior to the establishment of Modern Freemasonry. Ramsay told to Geusau, when occasionally visiting him at Paris in 1741, that General Monck had used the Lodges as meetings at which to promote the return of Charles II. Geusau's Diary passed into the keeping of the Prince of Reuss, and it is held that at this period it was sought to further ally the Hermetic associations of London with the Craft for the same purpose. There is this further to be said on the matter that the quaint old rhyming ritual of Heredom-Rosy Cross would seem to be a system of Lectures referring to these two degrees, which constituted with the Craft a Rite of themselves, the only qualification for the Rosy Cross being the Red Cross, -- sometimes termed the "Mysterious Red Cross of Babylon." When Harodim-Rosy Cross was carried to France by the followers of James II. the title was translated into "Rose Croix of Heredom," and the Red Cross was designated Knight of the East, and in 1744, Knight of the Sword, whilst the Rosy Cross is the Rose Croix. In the Red Cross there are three points, namely: -- (1) The Obligation of the 3 Sojourners, Shadrach, Mesech, and Abadnigo, who have escaped the "fiery furnace of affliction"; (2) the Arch Chapter of Jerusalem, which includes the Passing of the Bridge on the way to and from Darius; (3) the Council of the Persian Monarch. There are many points {444} in the degree which have reference to the Harodim Lectures; such as passing the Bridge; the dungeon of the Tower; the journey of Zerrubabel, and the essays on the respective strength of Wine, Women, and the King, when Truth is said to be mighty above all things. Would that it applied to Masonry and Masons! There is one curious thing in this portion, in which it is said that the Lord will provide a victim, and it probably alludes to the ancient Guild Rite of a human sacrifice. Whilst the Red Cross is a mystery of the second temple added to that of Solomon, the Rosy Cross of Harodim is the erection of a spiritual temple not made with hands, the Mystery of the ancient Gnostics -- "God with us" in the bodily temple. There is an ancient alphabet given in Barrett's Magus called "Passing the River," having much similarity to Masons' Marks, which may be allied with "Passing of the Bridge."

It is, to say the least, somewhat singular that so favourite a symbol, in all time, as the Rose has been, in both religious and civil architecture, should have been neglected by the modern Freemasons, and proves that it must have lost much of its symbolism. We have mentioned that Bishop Theodoratus connects mystically Ros with the Rose, which was a Gnostic emblem of the Saviour; and applies equally to the Arcane Discipline and the Rosy Cross — Ros, or dew, implying regeneration, and the Rose the thing regenerated. Shall I say it? The writer has seen an old Rosy Cross ritual, where the Adonisian fable that a drop of blood from the slain god, sprang up a rose, is applied to the Christian Saviour. In Egypt the Rose was consecrated to Isis or Mother Nature, and Apuleius fables himself as drawn from brute nature, or an Ass, by eating roses. Chaucer translated the Romance of the Rose, wherein a pilgrim is represented as going in search of roses. We have mentioned the Girdles of the Guild Mason, John Cadeby, of Beverley: a much worn one contains the letters J and B, whilst another is embroidered with roses, in the manner of modern Rose {445} Croix clothing. The Arms of William of Wykeham were two carpenters -- couples between three roses. The emblem was often carved in the centre of the ceilings of mansions to symbolise that what passed at the table was "under the rose." One other example we will mention: the Chapter House of York Minster, which is octagonal, and therefore based on the eight pointed Cross of the Temple, has upon the lintel of the entrance door the following Latin couplet, which, though it looks modern, is said to be ancient, but renewed when necessary: —

"Ut Rosa flos florum

Sic est domus ista domorum."

As the Rose is the flower of flowers, so this house is the house of houses.

Under the name of Macons Ecossois, Harodim, the "Parfait Macon," 1743, gives the degree of Knight of the Sword, or of the East, our Red Cross, as of the time of Darius and Zerrubabel, but in 1766 "Le Plus Secrets des Hauts Grades," omits Darius and adopts Cyrus, and terms the degree a military ceremony, which goes to prove that the Army was employed to spread these degrees. Out of these two versions arose the Royal Arch, and other degrees.

The 4th point of Harodim-Rosy Cross was made Scottish by claiming Bruce as founder of it as a Knighthood, but Gould has shown that in ancient times, in the primitive Guilds of Paris, the Masters and Wardens were Esquires, and the Provosts (our Harods) Chevaliers. They also elected a Chief who had the title of Prince or King.

HOLY ROYAL ARCH, KNIGHT TEMPLAR, PRIEST.

This Rite is that of the Ancient Masons of York and London; yet although we have information that in or about 1740, it was known in London, Dublin, York, Stirling, very little that is reliable has appeared to show its actual origin. It is usually held that it originated with the dissident Ancients; yet as there was no Ancient Grand Lodge at the time when it had some prominence, it could {446} only have been established by the numerous Lodges of Masons which then existed, and which did not recognise the Grand Lodge of London. When Rawlinson brags of a 5th Order in 1724 it is just possible he may have belonged to such degree whether then termed the Red Cross or the Royal Arch. Only one thing is historically certain, sometime between 1723 and 1740 there were ancient pre-1717 Guild Masons, who were dissatisfied with the "digestive" faculties of Anderson and Desaguliers, and made up their minds to restore to Modern Masonry some part of what it had lost. There are so many features in common between the Red Cross of Babylon and the modern Royal Arch degree, that we are quite safe in assuming that there was a primitive Ritual from which both were evolved, and we can easily prove what that primitive ritual was. The term Red Cross seems to be far the most appropriate name for the degree, and for this reason that the term Royal Arch refers to a special Guild which members of this degree are not, they are essentially Craft Masons.

Both York and Dermott practised the Templar degree, but it seems never to have assumed the rank of Masonry, but was occasionally, in all parts, at times, conferred on non-Masons; whilst the Priest was essentially a Protestant ceremonial.

THE ARCH. We have previously alluded to the ancient drama, or annual Commemorative Ceremonies, of the primitive Guilds. We have also mentioned that in laying the Foundation Stone of the temple of Solomon, a vault was constructed 1 Reed, or 6 cubits, below the floor, where, over the centre, was erected a Pedestal, in which were the plans and a scroll with the first lines of Genesis. This Foundation is laid on the "Five point method," and the instant the centre is fixed it is guarded by four men armed with swords in one hand and building tools in the other. When the fugitives returned from Babylon the centre of Solomon had to be found, and the labourers were set to find the vault and report to the duly Passed Masters {447} who had to report to the three Grand Masters. The vault being found, three Passed Masters descended and brought away the plans and the scroll which every modern Arch man brings away also. Nor did these revisers end here; they could not understand why modern Masons had only one Grand Master, whilst the Guilds had three, and they therefore gave the three Principals all the attributes of the original builders of the first temple; these held as their attributes three Rods by which to form a square building, or oblong as the 3 to 1 temple; the Arch Principals instead of rods have sceptres; the private receptions of these principals, and their secrets, are all but identical with those possessed by the representatives of S.K.J., H.K.T., and H.A.B. Masons are so utterly careless about historical truth, that we might safely have left them to puzzle out the origin of the Arch degree for themselves, but what we have written, we have written.

There is no doubt that the old northern Harodim gave much of this information owing to their having been of Operative origin before they joined the Grand Lodge of London. The author of "The Illustrations of Masonry," William Preston, who was sometimes a Modern and sometimes an Ancient, reorganised the system of the Lectures in 1786 under the designation of the "Grand Chapter of Harodim," and established them in London 4th January, 1787; he claims that "it is of ancient date in different parts of Europe. . . . The Mysteries are peculiar to the Institution, and the Lectures of a Chapter include every branch of the Masonic System." The Rulers were a General Director and a Grand Harod, of which Harodim is the plural. The members were divided into Clause-holders, Sectionists and Lecturers. Thus the 5 first sections would carry a member to the Royal Arch; and four more sections conducted to the Ne plus ultra, in a total of 81 points.

The Arch of the Ancients represents the Sanhedrin, composed of 72 members, as a Supreme Court of Judicature amongst the ancient Jews, so also does the Red Cross, {448} Knight of the Sword, and Prince of Jerusalem. Hence it is supposed to have a standing superior to that of a Grand Lodge which has irregularly usurped its functions. Although the ritual has undergone many changes, since none of its tinkers seem to have understood what it was, there is no doubt that it had developed into a stately reception before the year 1750. Brother A. J. Cooper Oakley has gone so far as to suggest a more ancient origin for the Arch Pedestal than any previous writer, namely, that it is the Yantram or symbol of the Temple of Jehovah, for the temple of every Hindu deity is bound to have a Yantram composed of a geometrical or monogrammatic emblem upon which the god is placed.

An old catechism printed in 1723 asks the question, "Whence comes the pattern of an Arch?" and the answer is, "From the rainbow." Another printed Catechism of 1730 but grounded on the modern system of 1717, speaks of a word "which was lost, is now found," and there are French tracing boards of the Craft for 1743, which contain the word "Jehovah," and the Rituals of that period say that a word was substituted out of fear lest Hiram should have been induced to reveal the genuine one. We must bear in mind that the work of the Grand Lodge was not that of the Harods, though Anderson's Constitutions of 1723 has the representation of an Arch.

Oliver in his "Discrepancies" embodies the excellent authority of the late Peter Gilkes that the lost secrets of the Moderns, for the Guild had no lost secrets, were anciently given to the newly received Master after an interval of 15 days, and the old French ritual, before quoted, gives them at the close of the ceremony. There is a symbolism at York and Stirling which seems to make the Arch and the Rainbow synonymous. The minutes of Dermott's Grand Lodge in 1752 mentions the "absurdities" of Dr. Macky, of London, "one of the leg of mutton Masons," so called because they made Masons for that useful joint, "who gave a long story about twelve marble stones, &c., and that the rainbow was the Royal {449} Arch." Yet Oliver in confirmation of this quotes "an old Masonic work," in which the Royal Arch is carried up from the building of the second temple to Moses, Aholiab, and Bezaleel, and from thence to the Altar and Sacrifice of Noah, under the Rainbow as an Arch, and with the Altar as a Pedestal, thence to the expulsion of our first parents from the Garden of Eden.<<"Landmarks," ii, p. 350.>> Similar matter is referred to in the Old York Lectures, and its 2nd Degree has a legend of 12 stones erected in the river Jordan.

Dr. Crawley thinks that an incipient form of the Arch degree can be traced in Anderson's Constitutions of 1723,<<"Cem. Hib.">> and that this is hinted at in two parts of the ceremony of Installation of Master, sanctioned by the Duke of Wharton in 1722, where he speaks of the "cement of the Brotherhood," and of the "cement of the Lodge," when the "well built" Arch was formed, and the word may have been then given. It is a very plausible theory and the only thing against it is that the oldest rituals we have give no hint of it. The Arch degree, by written evidence, first consisted of three steps or Veils, entitled the Excellent, Super-Excellent, and the Royal Arch itself.

In the "Impartial Enquiry" of Dr. D'Assigny, printed at Dublin in 1744, he makes allusions to the Arch degree as composed of a body of men who had passed the Chair of Master, and alludes to some propagator of degrees in Dublin who claimed to have the York system "a few years before" (1744), and that his want of knowledge was exposed by some brother who was acquainted with the Royal Arch degree as it was practised in London, which is prima facia evidence that it was widely spread. He adds in a note: "I am told in that city (York) is held an assembly of Master Masons, under the title of Royal Arch Masons, who as their qualifications and excellencies are superior to others, they receive a larger pay than working Masons, of which more hereafter." This seems to allude to an Operative Arch Guild at York, as it is doing violence to his language to read it that whilst the Craft was the {450} initiation of working Masons, the Arch was intended for Initiates and Rulers of a higher standing.

At the "General Assembly on St. John's day," there may have been practised ceremonies of which we are allowed to have no written knowledge, and which may have been discontinued in the sleep into which it fell between 1740 and 1760; their old Lectures ask the question: "Who amongst Masons are entitled to knowledge?" A. "Those who are justly considered Free and Accepted, and have been Exalted to the Royal Arch Degree, and Knighted in a Masonic Encampment."

D'Assigny goes on to say that there had lately arrived in Dublin some itinerant Mason, evidently a different person to those he had mentioned, who offered to add three more degrees to the Craft, of some "Italic" Order, and he warns his brethren against foreign schemers. When Lord Sandwich asked a definition of "Orthodoxy" from Bishop Warburton, the latter wittily replied, "Well, my Lord, Orthodoxy is my doxy, but Heterodoxy is another man's doxy." Hence we need not worship D'Assigny's doxy; what we learn from his remarks is that about 1740 there had entered Dublin two systems of working the Arch, one of York, and a London one which D'Assigny favoured, and that these were, in some respects, opposed to each other. The three grades of an "Italic" system may have been Clermont Templary, Jacobite and Romish.

For some 15 or 20 years the Grand Lodge of all England at York was dormant, but was revived in 1762 by one of its old Grand Masters., Francis Drake, Jacobite in his leanings. The Grand Lodge formally recognised the Arch, and there are minutes which show that in 1778 the Templar was a ceremony equally recognised. It would seem, however, that the officers named, 7th Feb., 1762, are H.Z.J., so that the Arch degree related to the 2nd temple as with Dermott, but that in 1776 it referred to Solomon's temple, and would therefore be the "Arch of Enoch," and Oliver says that he saw an old {451} ritual of 1778 in which this ceremony appears as introductory to the Arch of the 2nd temple, and that after his own Exaltation in 1813 he saw another ritual in which the portion relating to Enoch's Arch was struck out. At a later period, however, the officers are those of the 2nd temple as in Dermott's System.

The actual earliest mention of the Royal Arch in print is at Youghall in

1743, where there was a procession of Lodge 21, with display, amongst these particulars we have: "Fourthly, the Royal Arch, carried by two Excellent Masons."<<"Faulkner's Dublin Journal," 10-14, Jany. 1743 (1744) quoted by Dr. Crawley.>>

If these grades were given at York before 1740, it is curious to note that degrees, or systems, called "Scotch Masters," are alluded to in minutes. Thus in Royal Cumberland Lodge, 41, Bath, appears the following, 8th January 1746: "Brothers Thomas Naish and John Berge were this day, made Scotch Masters, and paid for makeing 2s. 6d."; five others were received 27th Novr., 1754. In the minutes of the Salisbury Lodge, 19th October, 1746, we find this: "At this Lodge were made Scotts Masons, five brethren of the Lodge," one of them being the W.M. The Lodge of Longnor, Co. Derby, claim that they received the method of the secrets from the rebel Army whilst in Derby. Kloss quotes J. F. Pollett as saying, 25th April, 1763, that the Scotts' degree was the same as that known as the Royal Arch of France, where it dates from the raising of the Scottish Regiment Ogilvy in 1746, and he gives the clothing as green and red, which is that of the Red Cross, and the two, crossed, of Harodim-Rosy Cross. This would render it probable that "Scotts" in England went with the rebellion of 1745. The old Scottish Minute books show Initiations of military men, many of whom joined James II., and established these degrees in the Army and on the Continent.

Lawrence Dermott, to whose labours London was indebted for the establishment of the Grand Lodge of the "Ancients," who termed themselves York Masons also, {452} had no doubt received the London version of the Royal Arch in Dublin apparently in 1746. In his "Ahiman Rezon" of 1764 is a note, not found in any earlier or later edition<<Reprinted "Ars Quat. Cor." vi.>> in reference to the Arms, quarterly, a lion, ox, man, and eagle, which he says were found in the collection of the Architect and Brother, Rabbi Jacob Jehudah Leon, who had constructed in 1641 a model of Solomon's temple, for the States of Holland, which he exhibited in Paris, Vienna, and in London under the great seal and the signature of Killigrew. At the same time Leon published a description of his labours entitled "A relation of the most memorable things in the Tabernacle of Moses, and the temple of Solomon, 1675," and dedicated it to King Charles II., and Dermott adds that in 1759 and 1760 he had examined and perused such curiosities, and he concludes, "As these were the Arms of the Masons who had built the Tabernacle and Temple, there is not the least doubt of their being the proper Arms of the most Ancient and Honourable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, and the continual practice and formalities, and tradition, in all regular Lodges, from the lowest degree to the most high, "i.e.," THE HOLY ROYAL ARCH, confirms the practice thereof."

Dermott in his "Constitutions" seems to follow the lines indicated by Samber in 1721, and he informs us that the Arch degree possessed (circa 1740) the peculiar square alphabet, which he says that he had known for over 30 years. A similar alphabet was in use amongst the Occultists, who termed it the "Aiq Bekar," or Cabala of nine chambers; it is found in Barrett's "Magus," and when dissected gives an alphabet of 9 characters increased to 27 by adding to the first series one and two dots respectively; Trithemius, the friend of Cornelius Agrippa, is known to have possessed it.

In reference to Dermott's claim to the Arms used by Rabbi Leon, it is easy to prove that they were not used by Craft Lodges, unless it might have been by some unknown {453} Speculative branch. All the ancient Guild MSS., which add Arms, use those granted to the London Company of Masons in 1472, or a variation of them. Randal Holme gives these in his "Acadamie of Armorie," with triple towers, according to the original grant, but he adds as supporters, which are not in the Grant, two pillars of the Corinthian Order, "or," or gold. But we cannot hastily dismiss Dermott's contention, for Leon's Arms of the Masons were used by the Grand Chapter of York, and Bro. W. H. Rylands posesses an old panel brought from St. Albans, of date circa 1675-80 which gives these Arms over the interlaced square, level, and plumb of the Masons. There are moreover Rosicrucian and Cabalistic works which treat of these symbols, and it is probable, as they represent the banners of the four leading Hebrew tribes, that Leon might derive them from the Cabala or Talmud, or he might have been a member of the ancient Jewish Guild. In Masonry peculiar systems are taken up by small bodies, then die out, to be revived in another part of the country. The "Book of Razael," alluded to by Cornelius Agrippa in his book on Magic, affords evidence of the signs used in the Arch degree, and the Exagogue of the Jew Ezekiel, written, so Wharton thinks, after the destruction of Jerusalem, and translated into Latin by Fr. Morellus at Paris in 1580, gives details which have reference to the Signs of the Veils, omitted from the modern ceremony, but which gave the titles of Excellent and Super-excellent. Clemens and Eusebius give portions of the drama, so its great antiquity is unquestionable. The following seems to have been the general practice before the modern revision; Masons under the G.L. of the Ancients prefaced the Arch ceremony by the Mosaical Veils; those under the G.L. of the Moderns prefaced it with the Arch of Enoch. France at the same period had a degree said to refer to the time of Vespasian which they termed the Royal Arch of York.

A London Lodge of 1754 practised degrees to which the ordinary Mason was not admitted; Dermott terms it {454} Ancient Masonry held every third Lodge night, on account of extraordinary benefits its members had received abroad. The Lodge met at the Ben Johnson's Head in Spitalfields, and Grand Lodge censured them. Moderns, however, became members of both the Royal Arch and Templar, but without the sanction of their Grand Lodge. They sought and obtained from Lord Blaney, 22nd July, 1767, a Charter of Institution and Protection, formulated a "Charter of Compact" in 1778, and printed an "Abstract of Laws for the Society of Royal Arch Masons in London," 1778, and followed by a 2nd edition in 1782. Bristol had a Lodge founded in 1757 and erased in 1769, in which the Arch degree was worked. A Charter was granted in 1769 to Manchester under the title of "The Euphrates Lodge, or Chapter of the Garden of Eden, No. 2"; the writer tried to save it from erasure in 1854, but the old members were indifferent to its fate. At Bristol on 7th August, 1758. Bro. Henry Wright gave a "Crafts Lecture," and on the 13th of the same month "Brothers Gordon and John Thompson were raised to the degree of Royal Arch Masons"; on the 31st of the same month, "Brother Peter Fooks requested to be raised to the degree of Royal Arch and accepted," and this was done on the 3rd Septr., 1758, along with two others, "and a Lecture on the degree was given by Brother James Barnes"; the minutes are headed "A Royal Arch Lodge,"<<W. J. Hughan, "Freemason," 17 Dec. 1898.>> and there are other receptions down to 1759.

From recent discoveries it appears that Brother Thos. Dunckerley, a scion of royalty on the wrong side of the blanket, was Exalted to the Royal Arch degree at Portsmouth in 1754, as he states in a letter of 14th January, 1792. Bro. Alexr. Howell discovered at Portsmouth, in recent years, an old Minute book in cypher of the Chapter of Friendship, No. 3, chartered 11th August, 1769. We read: 1st Septr., 1769 -- "The Bro. G.M. Thomas Dunckerley bro't the Warrant of the Chapter, and having lately received {455} the Mark, he made the Bre'n Mark Masons and Mark Masters, and each chuse their Mark, &c. He also told us of this mann'r of writing which is to be used in the degree, which we may give to others, so that they be F.C. for Mark Masons, and Master M. for Mark Masters." In Novr. 1770, the degrees of Excellent and Super Excellent Masons are mentioned, to pay 10s. for two steps and two guineas for the Arch as before. In Octr. 1778, the term Companion is used, and Dunckerley gives the Chapter permission to make Knights Templars.

In 1769 the Arch was known at Darlington, Co. of Durham. as the "Hierarchal Lodge"; and Lodge 124, Durham possessed the Mark as we read 21st Decr., 1773, "Brother Barwick was also made a Mark'd Mason, and Bro. James MacKinlay raised to the degree, of a Master Mason, and also made a Mark Mason, and paid accordingly."

In Scotland the Mark was usually recognised by the Arch authority, and Stirling has a very old Chapter named the "Stirling Rock Chapter" which possesses two old and rudely engraved brass plates which alludes to the REDD-CROSS or ARK. The Chapter has been admitted to date from 1743, and they had minutes from that period, but we will allude to this when we reach the Templar.

At Dumfries some interesting matter has been discovered by Bro. James Smith. The Register of Passings to the Royal Arch degree begin in 1756, with a form of Certificate after a Minute of "Passing the Chair," and the "Sublime degrees of Excellent, Super-Excellent, and Royal Arch Mason" of the 8th October 1770, in which the degree of Mark Mason is mentioned. <<"Freemason," 17th March, 1894.>> There was also a Royal Arch Chapter at Montrose in 1765. In the "Pocket Companion" of Joseph Galbraith, printed at Glasgow in 1765, is a song of which a verse follows; it also contains a letter on the Acts of the Associated Synod, which first appeared in the "Edinburgh Magazine" for October, 1757, under the signature of "R.A., M.T.L., Edin. {456} Oct. 25th, 1757." The Chapter mentioned in this verse would be the "Enoch": —

"May every loving Brother,

Employ his thoughts, and search,

How to improve, in peace and love,

The GLASGOW ROYAL ARCH."

A Glasgow Templar was "remade" in the Manchester Royal Encampment in 1786, the year chartered by the G.L. of All E. at York.<<Notes on the Temple and St. John, 1869 - Yarker.>> There are minutes at Banff, 1765-78, of the Arch and of the Mark, when the two steps of the latter were conferred on F.C. and M.M. The Scoon and Perth Lodge, which claims our "British Solomon," James I. of England, as one of its members, had these degrees, as we learn from the Minutes of the Edinburgh Chapter, No. 1, 2nd Decr. 1778, when they were conferred on members of the St. Stephen's Lodge. Certain brethren were made Passed Masters, and 4th Decr. 1778, the Officers received — "Ex. and Sup. Ex. Mason, Arch and Royal Arch Masons," and lastly Knights of Malta.<<"Scoltish Freem.," Aug. 1894.>>

In Ireland it has hitherto been difficult to obtain information as to Lodge work, but we have already mentioned allusions to it, in Dublin, circa 1740, and elsewhere four years later. It was generally worked under the Craft Charter, as was equally the case, under authorisation of Dermott's G.L., from 1751. The Red Cross was required, but it has now been divided into three sections since they accepted the Scottish Rite of 33 degrees, and they professed to claim it from the 1515 Order of Kt. of the Sword of Gustavus Vasa.

In America the Arch degree was practised early. At Virginia, U.S.A., there is a record that, 22nd Dec., 1753, a "Royall Arch Lodge" was held, when "three brethren were raised to the degree of Royal Arch Mason." Philadelphia has had a Chapter since 1758. At Boston. U.S.A., the "St. Andrews" has a Minute that Wm. Davies was {457} "made by receiving the four steps, that of an Excellt., Sup.-Excellt., Royal Arch, and Kt. Templar," and it is afterwards said these are "the four steps of a Royal Arch Mason."<<Hughan's "Englsh Rite.">> Brother Benjamin Deane, Past Gd. Master of Templars, has lithographed a certificate which says that, 1st Augt., 1783, a brother was "pass'd, been raised to the Sublime Degrees of an Excellent, Super-Excellent, Royal Arch Mason, Red Cross, Knight Templar." Bro. G. W. Bain, of Sunderland, has printed the copy of a certificate issued by the Dominica Lodge, No. 229, of the Ancients. It was given by the High Priest of an Arch Chapter, 22nd Decr., 1785, and records that John Lucas was appointed to constitute the Lodge and proved himself -- "Past Master in the Chair, Grand Alarm, Signs and Summons, Ark, Excellent, and Super-Excellent, Arch, and Royal Arch, Super-Excellent Mason in the Royal Art . . . a Sir Knight of the Red Cross."<<"Freemason," 31st Jany. 1891.>>

These notices might have been very greatly extended from English Minutes of bodies that worked these degrees under Craft Warrants, but we have said enough to show the nature of the system, which had not "one" central organisation. The Ancient Masons of the 1751 Grand Lodge of London, printed Royal Arch Regulations in 1771, which they again revised in 1789 and 1791. The members frequenting the Modern body of 1717, issued a 3rd edition in 1796, and a 4th in 1807.

There is a peculiar duplication of Rites, alluded to in these last pages which we may point out before proceeding further. We have two separate and distinct rites as follows: —

I.	1. Craft Masonry in 3 degrees.	II.	1. Craft Masonry in 3 degrees.
	2. Red Cross (passage of the Bridge).		2. Royal Arch (Enoch etc.)
	3. Rosy Cross (Harodim, etc.).		3. Templar.

If to the first we add the Kadosh, and to the second the Templar Priest, we have (including the required Past Master) a double Rite each of seven degrees, practically {458} distinct, yet all through identical in ceremony, or almost so, and yet no evidence that either Rite is derived from the other.

TEMPLAR PRIEST.

All the Templar bodies of the 18th century in England, Ireland, and Scotland, possessed this degree, which was at one time in esteem; it is now entirely abandoned; in Ireland because the Orangemen obtained it, at a time when there was a close alliance between that body and Freemasonry. The ceremony is an embodiment of Fludd's idea that: "It is under the type of an Architect that the prophet warns us -- 'Let us go up to the mountain of reason and there build the Temple of Wisdom.'" Again, its laws have: "Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out the seven pillars thereof." The rite had seven steps, or journeys, with seven passwords, and seven species of refreshment, seven seals, and seven emblems. Its certificates sometimes gave the era as "the year of revival 1686." In the French Ordre du Temple the Profession of Knight exacted the tonsure, and conferred clerical functions; and it is a reasonable conjecture that conscientious convictions led to the establishment of the degree, in or about the date named. The Early Grand Lodge of Ireland dated its Era from 32 A.D. York Templars did the same.

KNIGHT TEMPLAR.

The early history of this degree, or Order, is shrouded in much mystery, and all that we can do in the elucidation of it in this country is to give such views as have some probability.

The writer suggested in "Notes on the Order of the Temple, etc," 1869, that it entered England with the followers of James I., after 1603. Bro. F. F. Schnitger, in a Lecture given at Newcastle, sought to show, and with some force, that all the charges brought against the actual {459} Knights of the Temple in 1311 can be explained by a forced and false view of certain Rites in the modern ceremony, which proves an actual descent of the ritual from the ancient body.

In a lecture by the late Bro. T. B. Whitehead, of York, some years ago, he advocated the probable connection of the Templars, whom Archbishop Greenfield placed in the Monastery of St. Mary's Abbey, and the York Guild Masons. Through the Knights of St. John and the Temple some such connection is feasible, as Masonic history asserts that in 1500 the Knights in London and the Guild Masons were under the protection of Henry VII. Lessing advocates the chivalric union through a certain house at which Wren assembled, with his Masons, during the erection of St. Paul's. Bro. Henry Sadler<<"Facts and Fictions.">> shows that numerous independent Lodges existed termed "ye Holy Lodge of St John," and the Grand Lodge list of 1723, contains a Lodge held at St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell, the old property of the Knights, and the Lodge must have withdrawn itself at once, as it is not mentioned in later lists. Hogarth in his burlesque of the "Scalde Miserable Masons," has the Tyler of "His Grace of Wattin, Grand Master of the Holy Lodge of St. John of Jerusalem at Clerkenwell." By Whattin does he allude to the Duke of Wharton? It would seem so. During the 18th and 19th century the "Gate" was a favourite meeting place for conferring the high grades and was much frequented by the adjacent Lodges. The Grand Master at Malta in 1740 expelled six of his Knights for being Freemasons.

The late Bro. Col. W. J. B. McLeod Moore, of Canada, a Past G.M. of Templars, had a theory, which he had received from an aged Danish Physician, and which included Templars and Masons. He asserts that the Benedictines, who date circa 600 A.D., practised the sacred mysteries of the Arcane Discipline of the Alexandrian Church. The aged Dane informed him that the King of {460} Denmark was head of a secret non-Masonic Society in the 18th century, of which he himself was a member in 1785. It had seven degrees. When the United Orders of St. John and the Temple were suppressed in the 16th century, and Torphican and its Knights dissolved, these fugitives carried their mysteries to Denmark, and that he belonged to the body at Copenhagen 60 years previously. These sacred Mysteries represented the Fall of Man; his Redemption by sacrifice; and the Resurrection.<<"Canadian Craftsman," vol. 19- 22, 1885-8.>> They saw Christ by Faith and represented his doctrine by symbols; they taught that none can claim the right of eternal life beyond the grave, but those that "believe on Him that liveth, and was dead, and is now alive for evermore." The object, the end, the result of the great speculations of antiquity, was the ultimate annihilation of evil, and the restoration of man to his first state by a Redeemer, a Master, a Christus, the Incarnate Word.

Of course this view as to the Mystery of the Templars has been advocated by many writers, and has been equally applied to Masonry by Samber in 1721, by Ramsay in 1737, and is the same thing as the claim to a Culdee origin by the Harodim-Rosy-Cross. There were, as we have indicated, many similar Societies and the following may be noted. On 6th Dec., 1623, John Chamberlain wrote to Sir Dudley Carlton, a letter which appears in the "Court and Times of James the First" (London, 1848), from which it appears that Lord Vaux's regiment had brought from the Low Countries a Society the members of which had become numerous in London, and "under colour of good fellowship have taken certain oaths and Orders, to be true and faithful to the Society, and conceal one another's secrets . . . having a Prince . . . wearing blue or yellow ribbons, having certain nicknames for their several Fraternities." Apparently all the formula of Freemasonry.

The Stuarts in the 17th century made an effort to revive the Order of St. John and the Temple, then of Malta, and {461} a North Convent seems to have existed about Montrose, and it is alleged, on the authority of Dom Calmet, that Viscount Dundee was Grand Master of "the Order of Templars in Scotland," and that when he fell at Killiekrankie he wore the Grand Cross which was given to Dom Calmet by his brother. It is also asserted that Mar and Athol succeeded him, and that Prince Charles Edward Stuart was installed Grand Master at Holyrood in 1745, and that John Olivant of Bachilton succeeded him, and held the office until his death, 15th Oct., 1795.<<"Scottish Statutes of the Temple.">> After this the remnant of the Order is said to have united with some Scoto-Irish Templars, of whom Alexander Deuchar, Lyon Herald, was Grand Master, and who said, no doubt truthfully, that he could trace the Order back in Scotland to 1740, by means of living members.

It is quite certain that there was at this period in France an Ordre du Temple, with a charter from John Mark Larmenius who claimed appointment from Jacques de Molay. Philip of Orleans accepted the Grand Mastership in 1705 and signed the Statutes. Its enemies, in recent years, have asserted that these Statutes were forged by the Jesuit Father Bonani, and that it was actually the resuscitation of a 1681 Society entitled the "Little resurrection of Templars," and that it had as one of its members the learned Fenelon who converted Ramsay to Orthodoxy. In any case, if of 1705, the Charter proves the existence of a branch of Scottish Templars, because it was considered necessary to place them, with the Knights of St. John, "outside the bounds of the Temple, now and for ever." In 1766, de Tschoudy speaks well of these French Knights as the "Fraternity of Jerusalem," nicknamed "Freres de Aloya" from the compositon of their suppers.

At Stirling a system of Masonic Templary prevailed which they attributed, rightly or wrongly, to certain Knights of St. John and the Temple who became protestants, and joined the Masonic Lodge at that place, {462} whence an order of "cross-legged masons" arose. We should put it that the Knights continued the superintendence of the Masons of their Domus. In confirmation of this they show two rudely-cut brass plates about 9 x 3 inches, which they believe to date into the 17th century. The first of these has on one side, the words STIRLING ANTIENT LODGE, and the Apprentice Symbols; -- the obverse having the Fellow Craft emblems. The 2nd contains on one side the Masters' symbols, -- two pillars, sun, moon, figures 1 to 12 in a circle (a clock); obverse, at top the words REDD-CROSS OR ARK, with a cross, a dove, and an ark; at bottom, a series of concentric arches, like a rainbow, but with a Key-stone in place, within a border of three equal divisions the inscription SEPULCHRE, with an adze, stone, and sarcophagus. KNIGHTS OF MALTA, with lamb, &c., and three tapers joined, KNIGHT TEMPLAR, with what appears to be a serpent, and 12 tapers in 7 and 5. Name of Lodge as 1st plate.<<Vide Plates. "Ars Quat. Cor." xiii, p. 34>>

Allusions to the bye-laws appear in the Lodge Minutes in 1745, and a copy appears of 14th May, 1745, signed by Jo. Callender M. The 8th bye-law reads: —

"Entered Apprentice 10s.		To Grand Lodge 2s. 9d.
Passing Fellow-Craft 2s. 6d.		Passing Master 7s. 6d.
Excellent and super excellent 5s.		Knight of Malta 5s. <<Hughan's "Pref." to D'Assigny, Leeds 1898.>>

And that each Entered Apprentice shall treat the Lodge to the extent of 5s. if demanded."

It is possible the plates may date about 1743. There is a minute of 1784 that Alexr. Craig then conferred on certain brethren the Order of Malta, and that about 10 years previously he had conferred the degrees of Excellent, super Excellent.

The objection is sometimes made that as Masonry was an Operative Guild they were not a likely body to have continued difficult Rites and ceremonies, or to have appreciated anything but simple tokens of recognition. But this is a very shallow view to take as will be apparent {463} when we remember that Masons, and other trade Guilds, were engaged for ages in the spectacular dramas entitled the Mystery plays, and they were therefore, from ancient times, the very men who were most likely to appreciate such Rites in their own secret Assemblies. With the Reformation the sacred drama came to an end in this country, and it is to the feeling thus engendered that we owe such a Minute as that at Melrose, enacting that the Rites were to be administered "free from superstition."

Dublin seems to have the most steady continuation of the Templar of St. John, though we have no written proof of the accuracy of its claims. There is a valuable paper on this subject by Bro. C. A. Cameron.<<A.Q.C., 1900.>> It appears that the Early Grand Encampment of Ireland on the 29th Augt. 1805, issued a document contesting a proposal of the Grand Lodge to take over the control of that body, in which it is said, -- "Our Early Grand Encampment of Ireland has subsisted in the City of Dublin for above a century," and additional currency was given to this by Caesar Gautier, who says, -- "its age was above a century, as appears by its books." Some of its Warrants established bodies of non-Masonic Templars of St. John, and the like is known to have been the case, from time to time, in England, Ireland, Scotland, and in America as says Dr. Folger; and although all the Ancient Masons in these countries gave the Templar in succession to the Arch degree, there seems equally a feeling everywhere, that it was not looked upon as a Masonic degree. There was formerly an Early Grand body at Carisbrooke, I. of Wight; they also existed in Lancashire, and I have supplied to enquirers copies of a Ritual of 1800. The body ceased to meet about 1836. The "Freemasons' Quarterly" (1846 p. 176) gives information in regard to an Early Grand Encampment of England, the minutes of which passed into the hands of the Duke of Sussex, G.M. It contained a curious document of 1312 in the shape of a Prayer, or supplication {464} of the ancient Knights, at the time of their trial, at the hands of the two scoundrels Bertrand de Goth, and Philip le Bel, a coiner of false money. This ancient document is said to have been deposited under the high-altar of the Temple Church London, where it was discovered in 1540. Then it passed, -- how is not stated, -- into the hands of Jacob Ulric St. Clair of Roslyn, in whose family it was handed down, until it came to William St. Clair, the Scottish Grand Master of 1736, who gave it to his nephew John St. Clair, M.D., of Old Castle, Co. of Meath, who translated it, with assistance, and forwarded this copy to the said E. C. E. of England.

There was however a second body of Templars in Ireland termed the "High Knights Templar," who conferred the Rite under their Craft Charter. These men applied in 1770 to the Kilwinning Lodge of Scotland for a Charter under the designation of the "High Knights Templar Kilwinning Lodge," who granted the same without any enquiry. It is said that Baron Donoughmore was their G.M. in 1770, and that these said H.K.T. of Ireland's Kilwinning Lodge in 1779 conferred the degrees of E., S.E., H.R.A. The Knights Templar are mentioned in 1786, 1792; and the Rose Croix, is said to have been carried to Dublin by the Chevalier St. Laurent.

The Early Grand has been extinct for half a century but at the present moment is represented in Scotland by an independent body working the degrees of Red Cross of Rome and Constantine; Kt. of St. John; Knt. of the Holy Sepulchre; the Christian Mark; the T. I. O. of the Cross; Pilgrim, Templar, Mediterranean Pass, and Knight of Malta. Besides which they recognise other side degrees formerly practised in Scotland. It appears that after the Early Grand Encampment of Ireland had issued some 30 Charters to Britain they gave to Brother Robert Martin as Grand Master, in 1822, a Charter of renunciation of rights and of Erection under which this body works to the present time quite unattached to the ordinary history of Templary in Scotland. {465} At York the Templar was formally recognised by the Grand Lodge, and they chartered several subordinate "Royal Encampments" before 1780, when a Charter was granted, 6th July, to Rotherham.

We have mentioned that the "Modern" members of the Royal Arch had established themselves under a so-called Charter of Compact, and the Templars of Bristol executed a similar Charter, 20th Decr., 1780, with Joshua Springer as G.M. Its 20 rules will be found in W. J. Hughan's "English Rite;" in which they style themselves, -- "The Supreme Grand and Royal Encampment of the Order of Knights Templars of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitallers, and Knights of Malta, &c.;" these Regulations settle the question of Costume, &c., but we have not the "Charter of Compact" itself, nor the bodies thus compacted.

About the year 1790 Thomas Dunckerley, who had long taken a very important part, in every degree of Freemasonry, and was Grand Superintendent of the Royal Arch for Bristol &c., and he himself writes to the York Encampment of Redemption, 24th July, 1791, that the Bristol Knights had requested him to take the Grand Mastership of their Order, which of course would include all the bodies which had "Compacted," no doubt Bath and Salisbury. There was an Encampment termed the "Observance" of London, which had evidently a Foreign origin, as Lambert de Lintot, who was a P.M. of Lodge "St. George of Observance," and who had been initiated in 1743, had for many years been working the seven degree system of the French Templary of Clermont, ostensibly as "Agent of Prince Charles Edward Stuart." A Rose Croix ritual in French was printed at London which says that a member of the degree had "power to assemble Masons, and perfect them up to the 6th degree of Ecossaise Knight of the East;" qualifying for the 7th Degree of R.C.

Bath, it has already been noted, had the practice of "Scotts' Masonry" in 1746, nor was it then abandoned, {466} for there are other minutes of 1754. But whatever degrees Bath had, with Bristol, under the Charter of Compact, Dunckerley commissions in 1791 Charles Phillpott, a Banker of Bath, to confer his system, and in 1793 he writes to T. West, who had been present at Phillpott's initiation in 1784, -- that he expects he will have conferred upon him "the 1st section of the 5th degree, viz.: Rosae Crucis"; and there is a 1790 Minute at Bath with an evident Dunckerley reference, -- "William Boyce took all the degrees of the Red Cross, also Royal Ark Mariners, and many other sections and degrees, having first a Dispensation afterwards a Warrant thereby to act." Dunckerley had at once under his Grand Conclave, of which Prince Edward was Patron, at least four subordinate bodies to which he assigned "time immemorial" rank, the Observance of London; the Redemption of York; the Eminent of the seven degrees at Bristol; and the Antiquity of Bath. His order was styled "Royal, Exalted, Religious, and Military Orders of HRDM-KODSH, Grand Elected Knights Templar of St. John of Jerusalem, &c." His history of the "Seven Steps of Chivalry" is crude, but his views are shown to be after the minor series of the Arch; 4th Degree, Rosae Crucis; 5th Degree, Templar of St. John; 6th Degree, K. of the E. & W. -- T.P.; 7th Degree Kadosh-Palestine. There was also a Grand Inspector, but the whole series was often conferred in one ceremony, and the titles combined in the K.H. Varying fortunes followed this G.C. Dunckerley died in 1795, and was succeeded by Thomas, Baron Rancliffe, 3rd Feby., in 1796; he by Judge Waller Rodwell Wright, 10th April, 1800; he by Edward Duke of Kent 2nd Janry., 1805; and he by the Duke of Sussex 6th Augt., 1812. Judge Wright gave prominence to a degree termed "Red Cross of Rome and Constantine" which has been revived as a special Rite in recent years.

It also appears that French Masons had introduced into London various degrees, of which the members belonged to a Lodge chartered by the G. L. of London {467} in 1754. On the death of Lambert de Lintot, about 1775, an Inventory was taken of his effects in which numerous references are found to French high-grades, which are not now practised.<<Vide "Knept," viii, p. 22.>> The Initiation of Lintot must have taken place about 1743, when the Jacobites were very active, and meditating a descent on England, to enforce the rights of the Stuarts. In circularising a plate dedicated to the foundation of the Girls School in 1788, he states that he had been made a Mason 45 years previously, and that he was Past Master of the Lodge "St. George de l' Observance," No. 53, and he speaks mystically of the "Seventh and Ninth heavens." One of his plates also has reference to the Rose Croix, and Kadosh.

CONTINENTAL ECOSSAISISME.

We have already alluded to the existence in France of two species of Masonry the earlier of which was that of the Jacobites and termed Ecossaisme, the ritual of Modern Masonry was later by a generation.

Two works published in France in 1727 and 1731 had some influence upon the high-grades; the first was the "Travels of Cyrus" by the Chevalier Andrew Michael Ramsay; and the other was the "Life of Sethos" by the Abbe Terasson; but they founded no degrees.

There need be no mystery in regard to Ramsay's degrees, but there is much as to where he received them. Born in 1680 it is pretty clear that the system to which he belonged was not that of the Grand Lodge of London and though he was in England and Scotland, 1728-36, there is no record to show that he mixed with the Modern Lodges, but we have given a quotation from a work of Dean Swift's that has some affinity.

French writers seem to be of the opinion that the earliest additions to the Craft degrees were three, termed Irlandais, and included a Potent, or Powerful Irish Master. Then succeeded Ecossais degrees; usually assumed to be {468} a 4th Degree voted by the Craft Lodge, to which Professor Robison, who was a member, assigns the date 1690; but if, at an early date, it had reference to one degree only, it ended in being applied to all degrees of the "Ancient" system. The first step in the increase of the degrees was this: In old pre-1717 Guild Masonry there was a trial of three traitors, and this system applies it in the best form; and as old Jacobite Masonry was that of the old Scottish Operative Lodges, and as the portion was omitted by the "Moderns," though adopted by the Ancient-Moderns, so, as the Modern Rituals became known, three degrees of Elect -- of 9; of 15; and of Sublime, were established. The Heredom-Rosy Cross was the old Guild Passed Master or Harodim. Out of these sprang the high-grade system, but most of these degrees were soon permeated by Hermetic influence -- and I will therefore first speak of it.

ROSICRUCIANISM.

One of the first Societies to make use of the Craft as a basis for their own operations was the Rosicrucian, and it may even date from the time of Agrippa, and Fludd. Abroad the same view was adopted by the Golden Rosy Cross, and, once inaugurated, the Hermetic culte expanded. In 1714 a German pastor of the name of S. Richter published a book entitled "Sincerus Renatus," which contains the basis of the order of the "Golden Rosicrucians," and which, itself, contains many points which resemble Modern Freemasonry. About the year 1730, when the two Societies had been associated publicly, some of the former joined the latter. In 1716 Richter published at Breslau, -- "The true and complete preparation of the Philosopher's Stone of the Brotherhood of the Golden Rosy Cross for the benefit of the Sons of the Doctrine." In this he says that "some years ago the Masters of the Rosicrucians went to India, and since that time none of them have remained in Europe." {469}

Mr. "Karl Kisewetter," to whom we referred in a previous chapter, has stated that his grandfather was Imperator of the Order between 1764 and 1802, and that amongst his papers is mentioned, under the Cypher of F.R.C. an Adept who lived in honourable imprisonment at Dresden, and who made four quintals of gold for the Prince of Saxony, and that he vanished, in a mysterious way, leaving some "tincture of health." His serving brother Johann Gotleib Fried, was afterwards employed at Taucha, near Leipzig, and had some of the tincture which "was of lead and quicksilver and found to give true results." The last mentioned Imperator of the operative craft was admitted at Amsterdam by Tobias Tschultze. In religious matters the then members seemed to have sympathised with Boehme, and were in touch with the "Emanation" theory of the Cabala, and therefore with the ancient Gnostics. Then arose an amalgamation with the Masonic Rite founded by Martines Pasqually in 1754, and that of his pupil the Marquis de St. Martin, and which was instituted after a journey which the former made to the East. Schrepper, St. Germain, and Cagliostro, are said to have been connected with this Order of the Golden Rosy Cross; but the Masonic element, and a connection with the Illuminati of Germany, would seem, says "Keiswetter," to have forced it out of its grooves, and in 1792 it was decided to relieve the members from their vows, and to destroy their archives.

THEURGIC.

Martines Pasqually was making proselytes between 1754 and 1762 under a Jacobite authority of 20th May, 1738, which describes Charles Stuart as King of Scotland, Ireland, and England, and Grand Master of All Lodges on the face of the earth. According to the book "Martinesisme," (Paris, 1899) which seems to be written on the evidence afforded by contemporary writers, he added three degrees of Apprentice Coen, Companion Coen, and {470} Master Coen. A letter says, -- "I have been received Master Coen, in passing from the triangle to the circles." The seventh degree was that of Rose Croix. His work was Theurgic and sought union with deity, as in Oriental Societies. He traced the Initiatory Circles, and the Sacred Words himself; and prayed with great humility and fervour in the name of Christ. Then the super-human beings appeared in full light to bless the labours. After these had departed Martines instructed his Disciples how to obtain like results, and it was to these only to whom he gave the 7th Degree of Rose Croix. Females were not refused admission. Jean Baptist Willermoz organised the Rite at Lyons about 1760 and the Marquis de St. Martin was a member between 1785 and 1790, when he resigned, having first made a system of his own by extending the degrees.

The Rite of Cagliostro was clearly that of Pasqually, as evidenced by his complete ritual which has recently been printed in the Paris Monthly -- "Initiation;" it follows so closely the Theurgy above noted, that it need leave no doubt as to whence Cagliostro derived his system; and as he stated himself that it was founded on the MS. of a George Cofton, which he had acquired in London, it is pretty certain that Pasqually had Disciples in the Metropolis. Chastannier was at one time acting with Cagliostro, and left a Rite termed Swedenborg in London.

Amongst the Masonic Rites which dabbled more or less in Hermeticism and Theurgy may be mentioned the Beneficent Knights of the Holy City; the Philalethes; the Philadelphes; the Unknown Philosophers; the Philosophic Scotch rite; the True Mason; the Hermetic Rose Croix; the Cabalistic Rite; the Illuminees of Avignon, founded by Dom Pernetti; a system of Masonic Rosicrucianism and Alchemy was worked in Hungary by the Knights of St. Andrew in 1773. There was also the Fratres Lucis, or Brothers of Light, of which an {471} interesting ritual appears in the "Theosophical Review" of 1899.

THE HOMUNCULI.

Some of the Lodges appear to have gone in for the creation of the Homunculi of Paracelsus, and Dr. Hartmann in his "Life of Paracelsus," gives a very lengthy and curious account from a MS. diary printed in the "Sphinx" of Dr. Emiel Besetzay published at Vienna in 1873, and which is shortly as follows. The Count Joh. Ferd. Von Keuffstein, in Tyrol 1775, carried these bodies in bottles to the Lodge of which he was Master, where they were seen by Count Max. Lemberg, Count Franz Josef Von Thurn and others. These Homunculi were created by Keuffstein, and the Abbe Geloni, or Schiloni. Owing to the bottle being overturned one of the objects died, and the Count attempted to make another, but in the absence of the Abbe he only succeeded in making something of the nature of a leech, which soon died.

It is however impossible to dwell at length upon the numerous Rites which sprang out of the Hermetic and Mystic culte, and we must return to the basis upon which the existing and popular Rites are founded, and which we have already pointed out is to be found in the "Elect" degrees, and in the "Harodim," and, as well, in the legends of the old operative Guilds.

CUMULATION OF RITES.

Although Rites were being established with feverish haste, their cumulation into one Rite of numerous degrees was gradual. Though Derwentwater was considered, as we have shown, to be Grand Master of the Scottish system, yet the real claim to rule was in the hands of the Masters' Fraternity. There is little truth to be gathered from the pretended history of Modern Masonry, and when Past G. M. Richmond had brought the Duc d' Antin into the Modern system in 1737, and made him G.M. until his death 11th Decr. 1743, the Venerables assembled and {472} elected the Comte de Clermont as G.M. of a new Grand Lodge Anglais, and a law was passed that the claims of the Ecossaise had recently arisen and were not to be recognised. Kloss gives an extract from an address published in the "Franc Maconne" of 1744, thus translated.<<"Frem. Quart." 1853. K. R. H. Mackenzie.>> -- "Ignorance is so common that the Masters and Wardens do not know that Masonry consists of seven degrees and the "Loge Générale," in its blindness, resolved, on the 11th Dec. 1743, to regard the Masons of the fourth degree, that is to say the Scotch Masters, only as common Apprentices and Fellow Crafts." This refers to the law of the English Grand Lodge just mentioned, and if, it has any meaning it is, that the Modern Masons were ignorant legislators who considered the Scots' degrees as the equivalent of the Modern Craft, and some historians of to day fall into the same error.

The French Hérédom-Rosy-Cross consisted of three steps:— (1) Lectures on the Craft; (2) the temple of Zerubbabel; (3) the Rosy Cross; (4) the Knighthood which is attributed to Bruce, and which it was sought to tack on to the Order of the Thistle. Out of these an Order of Templars, of which Bruce had assumed the protection in 1314 was established at Clermont, and with which Ramsay, a disciple of Fenelon, who belonged to the Temple, is supposed to have had some connection about the year 1740

CHAPTER OF CLERMONT.

The original degrees of this Chapter were Scotch Master Elect; Knight of the Eagle; Illustrious Templar; and a little later a 4th degree was added viz.: that of Sublime Knight. Graf von Schmettau introduced these claims into Hamburg in 1742. In 1741 Field Marshal Von Marshall was admitted a Knight; the Baron Von Hunde followed in 1743. The Baron Von Weiler claimed to have received the degrees in 1743 at Rome, by some one whom he terms Lord Raleigh, the reception being {473} made in a church of the Benedictines with two Monks in attendance. Out of this sprang the German Rite of "Strict Observance," worked jointly by Marshall and Hunde, the latter of whom said that he had been created by Lord Kilmarnock, the Grand Master of Scotland, and that Lord George Clifford acted as Prior, that he was then introduced to the "Knight of the Red Feather," whom he believed to be Prince Charles Edward Stuart, and the Supreme Grand Master. At a later period he sent two members to England and Scotland, who returned with a charter in cypher, creating him the head of the Seventh Province.

Between the years 1743-7 Sir Samuel Lockhart constituted Lodges of a Rite called the Vielle Bru, or Faithful Scots, at Toulouse, at Montpelier, and at Marseilles in 1751. The Rite, if we know it, drew on the legends of the old operative Guilds and did not proceed in its instruction beyond the 2nd temple. It consisted of 9 degrees of which the last was Menatzchim, or Prefects. In 1751 a similar Rite, and evidently derived from it, existed at Paris under the designation of "Knights of the East," and ruled by a de Valois. It was democratic in its nature, whilst the Clermont Chapter was aristocratic. This Clermont Chapter in 1754 had added, to its degrees, under an unknown de "Bonneville" some of those of the Vielle Bru, as well as others of an Apocalyptic character, that we may find amongst the Friends of the Cross, the Militia Crucifera, and the Christian Fraternity of Andrea, previously referred to.

Brunswick received the degrees of the Clermont Chapter before any great change was made, and the following account has recently appeared from the pen of Archivist and Librarian F. Kistner.<<A.Q,C., 1904, p. 233.>>

"According to the legend of the Order it is said to have passed through five periods of time, and to have been founded by Adam. The 2nd period deals with the time of Nimrod. The 3rd period with Moses, who {474} brings the knowledge from Egypt. The 4th period begins with Solomon, and contains the division into seven grades, and the distribution of the arts and sciences among them. The 5th period begins with the Order of Templars." The Chapter concerned itself with the 4th and 5th periods. The 1754 version of the degrees in Brunswick was as follows; after the three Craft degrees: —

4°, Maitre Ecossais. (Scotch Master).

5°, Maitre Eleu. (Master Elect, or Knight of the Eagle).

6°, Maitre Illustre. (Illustrious Master, or Knight of the Holy Sepulchre).

7°, Maitre Sublime. (Sublime Master, and Knight of God).

"A legend of Solomon's revenge was omitted from the Masters' degree and woven into the high-grades. The Maitre Illustre had to take vengeance on the murderers." (Jewel a dagger struck into a skull, a white black edged apron, a black sash worn from left to right with a dagger at the end. In the 7°, a hexagonal star of mother of pearl, suspended from the neck by a black ribbon).

Bro. Kistner goes on to say that the Jesuits created clerical grades for the Jerusalem ones; and that in 1758 certain French Officers, prisoners of war, introduced the degrees into Berlin, with some changes, the organisation consisted of three grades, — Capitulum Electum; Illustrious; Sublime. Pastor Philip Samuel Rosa introduced it into Brunswick, where he received seven members into it.

It cannot be denied that between 1725-47 the Irish, English and Scottish Jacobites were making political capital out of Masonry, and the eventual changes may be thus summarised. Their first essay, though the evidence is slight, would seem to have been, after the Craft degrees, -- 4°, Irish Master; 5°, Perfect Master; 6°, {475} Powerful Master. The system then became divided into two branches: —

II.

The Vielle Bru, 1743-7.

1-3°, Jacobite Lodges.

4-7°, Four "Elects"

8°, Ecossaise.

9°, Menatzchim.

The System of Clermont, 1740.

1-4°, St. John's Lodges.

5°, Knight of the Eagle, Elect.

6°, Illustrious Templar.

7°, Sublime Illus. Knight.

III.

In 1751-5, College de Valois,

Kts. ofthe East, de Tschoudy a

Member. Statutes signed 15

Janry. 1758, in 15 articles. . .

1-3°, M. Grand Lodge.

4°, Perfect lrish Master.

5°, Master Elect.

6-8°, Scotch App., Fellow and .

Mr. .

9 °, Knight of the Orient.

In 1754 a certain Chev. de

Bonneville devised the Grades

of the Chapter of Clermont and

increased them.

1-3°, M. Grand St. John's

Lodge.

4-5-7-9°, Ecoss. of Valois

College.

10 °, Knight of the Eagle, Elect.

11°, Illustrious Templar.

12 ° Sublime Illus. Knight.

In 1761 a Ritual was printed in France entitled, -- "'Les Plus Secrets. . . . ou le vrai Rose Croix Traduit de l' Anglais; suivi du Noachite traduit de l' Allemande." The grades given resemble those of the College de Valois and are: -- I-3°, Craft; 4 °, Perfect Mason Elect; 5 °, Elect of Perignian; 6 °, Elect of 15; 7 °, Little Architect; 8 °, Gd. Architect; 9 °, Knight of the Sword and Rose Croix, really the Red Cross; 10th °, Noachite, which is thought to be the Alitophilote of the German Rite of "African Architects." The true Rose Croix is not given, yet its Jewel of a Pelican feeding its young is engraved therein. The true Rose Croix appeared in French at London in 1770, and is distinct from the English Ritual of Rosy-cross, and the present Rose Croix is a translation of it. It speaks of seven degrees, or 4 besides the Craft. The 6 ° is Ecossaise Chevalier d'Orient (East or Red Cross); 7 °, Knight of the Eagle, Perfect Prince Mason, Free {476} from Heredom, Sovereign of the Rose Croix. The dedication is "on behalf of a Lodge of the Royal Art."

Nicolai in 1783, and N. de Bonneville in 1788, London, repeat a general, but an old tradition, that the Rosicrucian Society in London and Craft Masonry were united by General Monk for the purpose of aiding the return of Charles II., and as rallying signs they added 5 symbols to be found in "Typotii Emblematii," 1601, which were abandoned in England, after they had served their purpose. The Abbe Barruel says that they were used by the Chapter of Clermont, and we know that in 1764 they designated the Seven Templar Provinces in Germany. They are engraved for the "Francs-Macons Ecrasse," 1747, 1772. 1778, &c, -- placed crosswise, with a crouching lion in the centre, a fox, an ape, a dove, and a pelican feeding its young, de Bonneville also gives a Kadosh circular of England 1788.

A certain Lord de Berkley granted to Arras on the 13th Feby. 1747, in the name of Prince Charles Edward, to the Lodge "Jacobite Scots" at Arras, a charter for the Rose croix, in which he speaks of the degree having first been named -- Chapter of H, (Harodim), then the Eagle and Pelican, (which was the standard of his father James III. in 1715), and "since our misfortunes (of 1745) Rose Croix." The Charter is signed Berkley and is not unassailable, for we know of no authenticated copy. Some writers say that Charles Edward is termed King Pretendant, his father James III. being then alive; Ragon in his "Orthodoxie Maconnique," gives a copy which omits the word Pretendant, and uses the term "substitue G.M."

Considerable change must have taken place in the feelings of the Grand Lodge of France since 1743, for they abandoned the English title, and in the 1755 Statutes testified by Louis de Bourbon, G.M. the following appears as the 42nd Article: "The Scot's Masters shall be Censors of the labours, they only may correct faults. They shall at all times have liberty of speech, and that of carrying arms, and remaining covered, and can only {477} be called to order, if they fall into error, by Scot's Masters."

There is some analogy between the Culdee legend of the Quest of the Sangrael, and the Rose Croix Masons search for the Word. In the old Harodim-Rosy-Cross it ends in the discovery of J.M. and J., in the modern Rose Croix in the discovery of the word I.N.R.I., and has drawn upon the Catholic Miserere, which is thus described by Lord Beaconsfield in his Lothair. He says: "The altar was desolate, the choir dumb; the service proceeded in hushed tones of sorrow and even of suppressed anguish. As the psalm and canticle proceeded all lights were gradually extinguished. A sound as of a distant and rising wind was heard and a crash as it were of the fall of trees in a storm. The earth is covered with darkness, and the veil of the Temple is rent. But just at the moment of extreme woe, when all human voices were silent, and it was forbidden even to breathe 'Amen '; when everything is symbolical of the confusion and despair of the church at the loss of the expiring Lord, a priest brings forth a concealed light of silvery flame, from a corner of the Altar. This is the Light of the World, and announces the Resurrection, and then all rise up and depart in peace." In former times the degree of Rose Croix, or Rosy Cross, was considered and practised as the Easter celebration of the Templars of England.

IV.

In 1758 we have the "Em-

perors of the East and West;"

a Council which practised a

revised version of the degrees of

the Chapter of Clermont, now

increased to 25 degrees of which

the original Grades were the two

last, 24th Degree-25th Degree.

1-18° Ineffable to Rose Croix.

19° Grand Pontiff.

20° Grand Patriarch.

21° G.M. of the Key of

Masonry.

22° Prince of Libanus.

23° Sov. Prince Adept.

24° Kadosh, Black & White

Eagle.

25° Sublime Prince of the

R.S.

Though the Grand Lodge of

France claimed possession of

these degrees, the "Emperors"

remained a separate Council for

28 years, when they united with

the G.L., as did the Knights of

the East.

The system of the "Em

perors," about 1760 entered the

Grand Lodge of France as the

Rite of Perfection of Heredom,

25°. We need not repeat the

names as they are found in any

Cyclopaedia.

In 1761 the Count of Cler-

mont, G.M. appointed as his

Deputy an objectionable char-

acter of the name of Lacorne.

{478}

The Grand Lodge refused him

a seat and he, and Challon de

Joinville, who was Venerable of

the Lodge founded by the Duke

of Richmond, assembled their

adherents, and 25th Augt. 1761,

conferred the 25° by Patent

upon Stephen Morin who was

proceeding to San Domingo.

In the course of a year the Count

of Clermont restored peace, by

the withdrawal of Lacorne, and

the substitution of de Joinville.

The primitive Scottish Rite of 33 degrees was established at Namur in 1770, of which Oliver gives a list of its degrees in his "Historical Landmarks." (ii p. 89). It was constituted by a Brother of the name of Marchot, and it is necessary to mention it here, because several of its degrees went to swell the "Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite" of 33 Degrees, which was known at Geneva before 1797, as Chemin Dupontes gives a certificate of it at that date, granted to Villard Espinasse, an officer of the Grand Orient of France: the 33° title of Grand Inspector General was acquired by the G.L. of France from the dignatory Officers of the "Emperors" when, together with the "Knights of the East," the remains of these Orders united with the Grand Orient in 1786, and into which de Tschoudy had introduced the "Noachite."<<Thory.>>

Between 1762 and 1780, this de Tschoudy was working a Rite of his own termed "Adoniramite Masonry," of which the last is the 13° or Noachite; but it is not a Rite of any importance in this enquiry.

THE MORINITE RITE OF PERFECTION, 25°.

We are now approaching a subject which in every way is discreditable to Freemasonry. Stephen Morin {479} proceeded to San Domingo, as we have said, with a patent of the 25° as Grand Inspector of Lodges, but there is no evidence of what he did until later. On the 17th August, 1766, he was accused in Grand Lodge of "propagating strange and monstrous doctrines," and his patent of a Grand Inspector was withdrawn; and the rank conferred on Henry Martin, who was proceeding to San Domingo. Upon this Morin, no doubt with revenge in his heart, proceeded to Kingston, Jamaica, where in 1767 he established a Grand Consistory of the 25°, off his own bat. We know quite well, on the evidence of his own rituals what the changes which he made were.

The "Freemasons' Magazine" for 1885 (p. 506-7) gives a full description of his ritual of 1767. He had with him, or they were sent after him, certain statutes of 1762, enacted and agreed to at the East of "Paris and Bordeaux," and are so designated, even in the reprint of them which the late Bro. Albert Pike made. In 1767 Morin terms them of "Berlin and Paris," and says they were of the "Grand East of France and Prussia." To give a colour to this lie he introduced the degree of Prussian Noachite, which had been translated, from the German, at Paris in 1757. This he ranked as 21°, and added the degree of "Key of Masonry" which he had on his patent of 1761, to the 23° "Knight of the Sun." He shows his ignorance of Prussian heraldry by using the double headed Eagle of the "Emperors," and retaining the mantling of the French Royal Arms. He probably -- ignorant charlatan as he was -- mistook Frederick II., Grandson of Barbarossa, an actual King of Jerusalem, for his contemporary Frederick II. of Prussia.

He seems to have shown ability in selecting energetic and pugnacious individuals as his disciples. He first conferred the degrees of his irregular Consistory at Kingston upon Henry Andrew Franken in 1767, who admitted M. M. Hayes, of Boston, who conferred the {480} same on Spitzer of Charleston, who received others until we find them in possession of Mitchell and Dalcho. In 1802, when these latter issued to the world their Manifesto, they had certainly heard of the increase of the rite by 8 degrees, though they would seem to have been ignorant of their very names. In this Manifesto all the falsities of Morin are accepted without question, and others are added to them, as for instance, Challon de Joinville is termed "Deputy of the King of Prussia," instead of what he actually was, Deputy of the Count of Clermont. When they forged the name of Frederick of Prussia to a charter they had discovered that several of the 8 added degrees were taken from the "Primaeval Rite," or that of Namur 1770. On the 21st February, 1802, Mitchell and Dalcho signed a patent of the 33° on behalf of de Grasse Tilly, and also for Pierre Delorne of San Domingo.

Franken also conferred the 25° upon Augustin Prevost, as Deputy Inspector of the Windward Islands and the British Army; and this Brother in 1776 conferred the degrees upon J. P. Rochet of Scotland, who is understood to have established them there. Prevost also conferred the degrees upon Major Charles Sherriff of Whitchurch, who was propagating them between 1783-8, and who gave Laws and a Charter for the Ineffable degrees to Grand Treasurer Haseltine, and Grand Secretary White, through whom they entered the Templar Conclaves. One important fact is little known. When de Grasse Tilly was a prisoner of war in England, one or two French Lodges were established by him and his confreres, and in 1811 Ben Plummer and six other "Noble Knights" -- the requisite seven -- were received members of the Conclave at Bath. Plummer had been member of a Lodge held at Wincanton in Somersetshire, and on the 20th, 5th month, 1813, Tilly certificated him as a member of Lodge "Les Mars et de Neptune" of which he was Master at Abergavenny, and terms him "a Royal {481} Grand Commander of Templars," which he had attained before his membership at Bath, where he was regularised.

THE MARTIN RITE OF THE GRAND LODGE, 25°.

In the meanwhile the Grand Lodge of France was asserting itself, and as Henry Martin was proceeding to the West Indies he was appointed a Grand Inspector to supersede Morin, and Rituals, stamped, signed, and sealed, were ordered 17th August, 1766, to be prepared and handed to him. He laboured at the Consistory previously established by Morin, though little is recorded. He was succeeded in his office by Matthew Dupotet, with whom was the Frenchman Joseph Cerneau. In 1801 it is believed that Dupotet and German Hacquet had converted the Consistory of San Domingo into a S. G. C. of the 33° of the Scottish Rite. Towards the end of 1802 a second insurrection of the blacks occurred, and Cerneau fled to Cuba, and Hacquet to France by way of New York. Dupotet would seem to have appointed, 1st July, 1806, Joseph Cerneau, as Grand Inspector for Cuba. Hacquet revived the Rite in the Grand Orient of France in 1803, and Cerneau established a S.G.C. 33° in New York 22nd October, 1807, yet flourishing. Emanuel de la Motta, of Charleston, in 1813 gave him trouble by establishing his S.G.C. there; Folger treats him as a crazy lunatic; he acted it well.

It may be mentioned that the Lacornites continued to give trouble to the G.L. of France, and in 1766 a dozen of them were expelled. The Count of Clermont died 16th June, 1771, and with the aid of the Duke of Luxemburg, and the recognition of the Grand Lodge of London, Philip Egalite was elected G.M. of a new Grand Orient, which in 1786 reduced the degrees to seven, or 8 with the Kadosh.

Now we have the Martinites, the Morinites, and the French Rite; and the chief distinction between the two former is this: in the Rite of Morin the 33rd Degree claims to govern all Masonry under the pretended charter of {482} Frederick of Prussia; with the Rite of Martin the bodies are governed chiefly by the 32°, the 33° forming a Supreme Court of Appeal.

CHANGES ON THE CRAFT UNION OF 1813.

Considerable changes arose in the Constitution of the High grades on the Union of the two rival bodies denominated "Ancient" and "Modern" Masons. The Duke of Sussex had been received into the Royal Arch degree in 1810. In the Templar Order -- HRDM -- KDSH -- His Royal Highness was proposed as Grand Master 5th May, 1812, and duly installed 6th August of the same year, but he seems at no time to have shown interest in aught but the Craft.

In 1813 the Modern Grand Chapter had issued to its members 183 separate Charters for the Royal Arch, whilst on the other hand the Ancient-Modern Grand Lodge of 1751 empowered the working of the Arch under their Craft Charters, and it was now stipulated in the Articles of Union that the Royal Arch should be considered as the completion of the degree of Master Mason, and the members allowed to join the Chivalric Orders under separate governance. As a completion of the 3°, however, the statement is more imaginary than real. Up to 1813 if a Mason had not been a Chair Master the Past Master's degree was conferred upon him, as is yet done in America.

Accordingly it was resolved by the United Grand Lodge, 30th November, 1813, that a United Grand Chapter should be constituted with the Craft Grand Officers as its Rulers; and unlimited powers were given for this purpose. An Assembly was held on the 18th August, 1817, with the Duke of Sussex as First Principal. There is no doubt that many old Chapters, previously held under Craft Warrant, neglected to renew their privileges by applying for Charters, as they were required to do; and that such bodies gradually passed out of working. In August, 1826, it was decreed that none but Past Masters were eligible as Principals. The ceremonial of the {483} degree was revised, and reduced to its present form in the year 1835 by the Duke's Chaplain, the Rev. Bro. Adam Brown, under a Committee of nine, appointed 5th February, 1834.<<"Freem. Mag." ii, 1860, p. 471.>> A Chapter of Promulgation, consisting of 27 members was chartered May 1835. Also a new edition of Regulations of the United Grand Chapter, was published in 1817, and was followed by one with plates of Jewels, and a list of Chapters, in 1823; since which there have been editions printed in 1843, 1852, 1864, 1869, 1875, 1879.<<Hughan's "English Rite," 1884.>>

The death of the Duke of Sussex, in 1843, caused further changes in the rule of the High-grades; he had held the Supreme power of the Orders of Knight Templars, HRDM-KDSH, since 1812, though he gave scant countenance to the High-grades. At one time he accepted a Patent as Grand Prior of the French Ordre du Temple, and it is said that Paul of Russia made him Grand Prior of the Order of Malta; he had also the degrees of the Rite of Mizraim conferred upon him. Ragon gives a ritual of the early time of the Duke's rule granted to a subordinate body at Porte-au-Prince, from which it appears that the ceremony was assimilated to the Templar Kadosh. The Jerusalem Conclave at Manchester, which had originally been chartered by the Grand Encampment of All England at York in 1786, and had gone under Gd. Master Dunckerley in 1795, issued its own certificates during the neglect of the Duke. It installed certain brethren from Liverpool in 1813 who constituted the St. Patrick Conclave; and there was also in 1830 a Conclave entitled the Jacques de Molay emanating from Scotland and which in that year went under the banner of the French Ordre du Temple, at the instance of Brother W. H. Stewart, a Grand Cross of the Scottish Conclave who sought recognition at Paris, and was made Commander, Bailly, and Grand Cross for the Liverpool Convent,<<"Letters" of Dr. Morison to Bro. Michael Furnivall, 33°.>> and printed, in 1830, a full {484} translation of the French Statutes.<<"Manual of the Knights of the O. of the Temp.," by Frater H. Lucas of the Jacques de Molay, Liverpool. 12mo. Printed by D. Marples, 71 Lord St., Liverpool, 1830.>> Brother Dr. Robert Bigsby was a member of the Metropolitan Convent of the Order, and nominally received a few members into the Order, after it had ceased to exist.

THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED RITE.

Certain members of the Templar Order and of the Rite of Perfection of 25th Degree, which continued to be conferred under Templar Charters, and in that form is not yet quite extinct, applied to Brother John James Joseph Gourgas, of New York, for a Charter to practise the Ancient and Accepted Rite of 33rd Degree -- the pupil and amanuensis of the notorious Emanuel de la Motta in 1813. The Rite, as we have seen, dates from Charleston in 1802; Ireland had obtained a Charter from Charleston in 1825, Scotland from France in 1843. Accordingly the following English brethren obtained a Gourgas Charter 26th October, 1845, namely: -- R. T. Crucifix; George Oliver, D.D.; Henry Udall; D. W. Nash, of Bristol, who was expelled by his confreres in 1858 because he had the audacity to attend meetings of the Templar bodies from which they had each and all received what degrees they individually possessed when the Charter was granted. Brother D. W. Nash then reorganised the old Templar body and pushed it as a System of seven degrees. The S.G.C. is said, however, to have freed itself from the Morin-de la Motta frauds by registration as a Limited Liability Company. The reader may consult the two exhaustive Histories of Robert Folger, M.D., and Wm. H. Peckham, of New York, as to the discord created by Charleston.

The seven degrees of Nash in 1858 were as follows: -- 1st Degree, Knight Templar; 2nd Degree, Knight of St. John; 3rd Degree, Knight of Palestine; 4th Degree, Knight of Rhodes; 5th Degree, Knight of Malta; 6th Degree, Rosae Crucis of Heredom; 7th Degree, Grand {485} Elected Knight Kadosh. To obtain a union of Bristol Knights with the Grand Priory of England that body in 1866 agreed to allow the practise of the old degrees of Heredom Kadosh, by its older Encampments, now termed Preceptories. Manchester revived the old Dunckerley degrees of Red Cross, Heredom, Kadosh, 1869-70. The trouble with Bristol led to a similar trouble at Bath in 1871, and they revived their old degrees together with the whole of the degrees which they had had from 1811 Of the Scottish Rite. In 1872 they received and certificated seven "Noble Knights" of the Manchester Chapter, and formed an alliance with them, their Certificates including the whole of England, Scotland, and Ireland and an alliance was formed.

When Harry J. Seymour, the S.G.C. of the Cerneau S.G.C. of New York, was over in Manchester in 1872 he received as 33rd Degree of that System the writer, John Yarker, and on his return to New York had him created an Honorary Member, 15th November, 1872, and Representative of Amity, and the same was renewed in 1880 by his successor W. H. Peckham, S.G.C. 33rd Degree. On the other hand Dr. R. B. Folger established a S.G.C. in Canada with Bro. G. C. Longley as S.G.C. 33rd Degree, and, 23rd July, 1882, Hon. Membership was conferred upon Yarker with a request that he would send on two other names for the same rank. Again on the 11th July, 1882, Peckham established a 2nd S.G.C. 33rd Degree in Canada with Bro. L. H. Henderson as G.C. 33rd Degree. Canada had also two bodies of the Rite of Memphis which were united in 1882, and from the combined bodies Theo. H. Tebbs visited Manchester, and formal documents were drawn 12th January, 1884, since which time the Scottish Rite has been in occupation.

It may be mentioned here that, January, 1903, Mrs. Annie Besant established in London a S.G.C. 33rd Degree, conferring all degrees from the 1st to the 33rd indiscriminately upon Men and Women; she received her constitution {486} from India, a S.G.C. which had its authority from a dissension in the S.G.C. of the 33rd Degree for France, Tilly's constitution.

THE TEMPLAR.

The new Templars assembled a Grand Conclave 27th February, 1846, and elected Sir Knight Charles Kemeys Kemeys Tynte as Grand Master, and revised their ritual, as a single ceremonial in 1851. On his death, 22nd November, 1860, the ensuing Grand Conclave elected Brother William Stuart who was Installed Grand Master 10th May, 1861. On the death of this brother in 1870 the Order was placed under H.R.H the Prince of Wales with H.M. the Queen as Grand Patron, and attempts were made to unite with Ireland and Scotland under a General Chapter, or Convent General, with National Grand Priories in each country, but Scotland posed as a superior System though they had accepted a Patent in 1811 from Edward Duke of Kent, the Grand Patron of English Templary during the Grand Mastership of Bro. Alex. Deuchar, and hence the full scheme fell through. Other changes in clothing, nomenclature, and ritual were introduced, which met with scant approval. On the 12th December, 1895, the Prince of Wales dissolved Convent General, which had been utterly without success, and was proclaimed Sovereign of the National Great Priory, and the Statutes of the Order were revised accordingly. England has had as Gd. Priors, Earl of Limerick, 2nd April, 1873; Shrewsbury, 8th December, 1876; Lathom, 5th October, 1877; Euston, 8th May, 1896.

THE RITE OF MIZRAIM.

As to its origin and history something may be gathered from the French historians of the Rite. It may be added that the Hermetic Scottish body named the Illuminati of Avignon was founded by Dom Pernetti, and Gabrianca, and thence spread to Montpelier in 1760. Gad Bedarride {487} of Cavillon went in 1771 to Avignon, where (he says) he was Initiated into Masonry by one Israel Cohen surnamed Carosse; and, after a few years, he obtained (the equivalent) 77th Degree, at Toulouse. In 1782 an Egyptian of the name of Ananiah visited Cavillon, and gave Gad an "Augmentation of Salary," which means a higher degree, and perhaps we owe to this "augmentation" the Talmudic and Cabalistic degrees of the Rite. In the troubles of the time, Gad became a Captain of Artillery at Nice, and here he united himself with G. M. Blanc, and became 87th Degree, and was afterwards made a Sovereign Grand Master, 90th Degree, at Naples, by G. M. Palambo. The great authority of the Rite, Marc Bedarride, together with his brothers Michael and Joseph were born at Cavillon in 1766, and Marc became a soldier, and was Initiated at Cesina, 5th January, 1801; at Paris he received the 18th Degree Of Rose Croix (his 46th Degree), and also the 31st Degree Of the A. & A. S. Rite, and he says the 70th Degree of the Rite of Mizraim.

At this time the Chief of the Rite was Bro Le Changeur, of Milan, who is said to have systematised the 90th Degree in the year 1805. Ragon seems to have examined a certificate granted to B. Clavel in 1811 by a Chapter of Rose Croix meeting in the Abruzzes, and which Marc Bedarride signs as 77th Degree. In 1813 Milan granted Patents of the 90th Degree to a few brethren in Paris, and the Grand Orient accepted the authority, but on the 22nd December, 1817, the Rite assumed independence. Marc Bedarride himself states that he received the 90th degree at Naples, and he seems to have taken an active part in the Masonic Lodges of Italy and France. With varying fortunes the Rite continues to meet in Paris, and has recently exchanged Representatives of Amity with this country. Rebold says Jacques Etienne Marconis (surnamed de Negre), and founder of the Rite of Memphis, was at one time a member of Mizraim.

The "Rite of Mizraim" was first cumulated and established in Italy in 1804- 5, and consists of 90 degrees, collected from all sources, and is not without value; it {488} was then taken to Paris by the brothers Bedarride. At one time it was looked upon favourably in this country, the Duke of Sussex was its recognised head in England; the Duke of Leinster in Ireland; and in Scotland the Duke of Athol was succeeded by Walker Arnott of Arleary, Esqre.; but eventually they came to an agreement to abandon the Rite. No doubt they were influenced in this step by financial difficulties in Paris; some one has observed that it needs the fortune of a kingdom to carry on a Rite of ninety degrees with the necessary splendour. Some of the Templar Conclaves continued to confer it till recently; in Italy and some other parts it has been reduced to 33 degrees, and designated the "Reformed Rite of Mizraim." In a quiet way it is still conferred in this country under its own Supreme Council.

THE ANTIENT AND PRIMITIVE RITE.

The "Rite of Memphis" has a similar record to that of Mizraim, and was established on the basis of the Rites of Primitive Philadelphes and the Primitive Philalethes; occult branches of the systems of Paschalis and St. Martin, in which the grades were not clearly defined, but each of the three sections into which they were divided had power to add any suitable degrees useful for its aims. An Egyptian system of Masonry was foreshadowed in the pamphlet of "Master of Masters," Paris 1815. Freemasonry had been introduced into Egypt by the armies of Buonaparte, and from thence, where it gathered some additions, was transplanted to Montauban in France, 1816, by the Brothers Marconis, Baron Dumas, Petite, Labrunie, Sam Honis of Cairo etc. After an interval of sleep it was revived at Brussels and Paris by Jacques Etienne Marconis, surnamed de Negre, son of Grand Master Marconis; its revival at Brussels took place in 1838, and at Paris in 1839, with the assistance of the elder Marconis, under the designation of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis divided into three Sections, and 95 or 97 degrees. At an early period it was introduced {489} into America, Egypt, and Roumania, the former Chartered a Sovereign Sanctuary for Great Britain and Ireland in 1872, and in the two latter countries it is the only Rite held in much esteem. It requires, in this country, that its neophytes should already be Master Masons, and in this year of grace is spread into almost all countries, with whom Representatives are appointed. It introduced the Rite into Germany in 1905, where it has numerous Craft Lodges, and Paris is in course of re-establishing itself.

THE SWEDENBORGIAN RITE.

The Swedenborgian Rite was revived in the United States and Canada by Brother Samuel Beswick. It consists of three elaborate and beautiful ceremonies for which the Craft is required. A Supreme Grand Lodge and Temple for G.B. & I. was chartered by Brother Colonel W. J. B. McLeod Moore, 33rd Degree, &c., of the Canadian body, on 1st October, 1875, with Bro. John Yarker as G.M. A Charter has recently been issued by this country for a body in Paris, and previously to Roumania and Egypt.

MARK MASTER.

In the old arrangement there were, as we saw, two ceremonies of Mark Man and Mark Master, and at its early establishment a cubic stone of the Craft was used, then changed to an arch key stone. There was also a Fugative Mark conferred upon Royal Arch Masons, as well as a Christian Mark. It has also been worked in conjunction with the degrees of the Wrestle, the Link, and the Ark. One version which was practised in Yorkshire last century, say 1780, is based upon the older Red Cross of Babylon and the Second Temple. The ceremonies must have arisen from the discontinuance by the Speculative Masons of the old Operative Mark. A Grand Lodge of the Degree was established by Lord Leigh in June 1856, and has now a very numerous following. {490} The present Ritual is a revisal of an old Aberdeen one; in Scotland the Marks are often hereditary.

RED CROSS OF CONSTANTINE.

This Order was revived in 1870; it had been formerly worked under Lord Rancliffe, and Judge Waller R. Wright; it enjoys consideration. Newcastle has not been dormant.

ROSICRUCIAN ORDER.

The Rosicrucian Order in IX. degrees was revived in 1866, chiefly by the exertions of Brother Kenneth Mackenzie, who had resided in Germany; it has made itself most useful to Freemasons by the publication of papers upon occult and abstruse subjects, of a superior kind, emanating from Scotland, Newcastle,

York, and London. The first Supreme Magus was Bro. R. W. Little, whose successor was Dr. Woodman, and the present Chief is Dr. W. Wynn Westcott.

THE CRYPTIC RITE.

This is an American importation, and is the revision and rearrangement of certain ceremonies of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, as well as those of Mizraim and Memphis, and therefore was scarcely necessary in this country.

THE ORDER OF ST. MARTIN.

This Order has its Supreme Council in Paris, and its members are scattered all over the world. It has bodies in this country and a Sovereign Inspector and Delegate. Each of its members are supposed to contribute a paper annually upon the aims of the Order, and in affinity with those of its founder the Marquis de St. Martin. In Paris, its members are republishing the works of that author.

ALLIED DEGREES.

In 1884 a Grand Council of the Allied Masonic {491} degrees was constituted in London; taking over the Red Cross of Babylon; the Knight of St. Lawrence, which claims an operative origin; the Knight of Constantinople, an American invention; the Grand High Priest, a degree in part referring to the Head of a Chapter prior to 1838, and in part to the Chief officer of Knight Templar Priest; there is also the Secret Monitor, and other degrees have recently been added, such as the Red Branch Knights of Ulster.

ORIENTAL SOCIETIES.

THE SAT B'HAI. This is a Hindu Society organised by the Pundit of an Anglo-Indian Regiment, and brought into this country, about the year 1872, by Major J. H. Lawrence Archer. The name alludes to the bird "Malacocercis Grisis," which always fly by "sevens." It has seven descending degrees, each of seven disciples, who constitute their seven; and seven ascending degrees of Perfection, Ekata or Unity. Its object is the study and development of Indian philosophy. Somehow its "raison d'etre" ceased to be necessary when the "Theosophical Society" was established by the late H. P. Blavatsky, which at one time at least had its secret signs of Reception.

AUGUST ORDER OF LIGHT. This Order was introduced here in 1882 by Bro. Maurice Vidal Portman. The Altar is that of Maha-Deva, and had a Ritual of 3 degrees -- Novice, Aspirans, Viator. The writer arranged with Bro. Portman to amalgamate it with the Sat B'hai Rite of Perfection, but it seems to be continued separately at Bradford, Yorkshire, as the "Oriental Order of Light." Its early certificate adopted the forms of the Cabala, with which the Theosophy of India has some affinity. In the East ceremonial degrees are not valued, the object being the development of practical Occultism, which was the purpose of the establishment of the Order of Light, governed by a Grand Master of the Sacred Crown or Kether of the Cabala. The writer has a letter from Bro. Portman in which he says: "The Sat B'hai rituals are {492} without exception the finest and best suited to an Occult Order of anything I have ever read," and he leaves all arrangements in the writer's hands.

ADOPTIVE MASONRY.

This Chapter would be incomplete without some mention of Adoptive Masonry. Societies admitting females as members were established in France early last century, and spread to other countries. One of the first to admit ladies were the Mopses, who reorganised after the Papal Bulls of 1738 against Freemasonry. The Felicitaires had a nautical character, and existed in 1742. In 1747 Brother Bauchaine, the Master of a Paris Lodge, instituted an Order, admitting ladies, called the Fendeurs or Woodcutters, modelled on the Carbonari a class of men who would seem to be a branch of the ancient Compagnnonage; the popularity of this Order led to the creation of others, to wit, of the Hatchet, of Fidelity, etc. This popularity induced the Grand Orient of France, in 1774, to establish a system of three degrees called the Rite of Adoption, with the Duchess de Bourbon as Grand Mistress of All France; the Rite has been generally adopted into Freemasonry, and various degrees added from time to time, to the number of about 12 in all. The Ladies Hospitallers of Mount Tabor added to the original plan, a recondite System called the Lesser and Greater Mysteries. The French Lodges of Adoption were patronised by the highest ladies in the land; and there is evidence that the Rite of Mizraim held androgynous Lodges in 1819, 1821, 1838, 1853; and the A. & P. Rite of Memphis in 1839; of these two last there are handsome certificates in the museum of the Lodge of Research, Leicester. America has a system of her own called the Eastern Star in 5 points. In all systems admissions are usually restricted to the wives, widows, sisters, or daughters of Master Masons. Scotland has attempted {493} the working both of the "Order of the Eastern Star" and "Adoptive Masonry," but not successfully.

SUMMARY.

To sum up this chapter, it advances that prior to Grand Lodges there were Masters of Masters and duly Passed Masters or Harods, who had controlling power over the ordinary Craftsmen, and that the chief Rites of the speculative system of which there is evidence may be thus summarised: --

1. The Guild Rite of four working and three official degrees -- Judaic.

2. The Craft and their ruling Harods in the Co. of Durham.

3. Three Craft degrees, and the Red and Rosy Cross, Judaic and Christian.

4. Ancient Masonry of the Moderns, three Craft, and the higher degrees of Holy Royal Arch, Knight Templar, Priest.

But outside all this, numberless degrees which we have not space to mention, in some cases derived from the Mystic Schools and adopted into the Masonic System. In many cases new degrees were but variants of the different Rites, readopted by others with a new name; the ruling degree of one Rite becoming a mere ritualistic ceremony in another. In other words, a constant revision by ignorant Rulers, making confusion worse confounded.

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Part 6 of 7 (Chapters XI)

BY

John Yarker

CHAPTER XI.

THE SYSTEM TERMED HIGH-GRADE

SPECULATIVE FREEMASONRY.