HAROLD ^l
BRIG1 !T^
PROVO, UTAH
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011 with funding from
Brigham Young University
http://www.archive.org/details/generalhistoryofOOrebo
I
.1
I
\
GENERAL HISTORY
OF
FEEEMASONEY,
BASED UPON
THE ANCIENT DOCUMENTS RELATING TO, AND THE MONUMENTS
ERECTED BY THIS FRATERNITY, FROM ITS FOUNDATION
IN THE YEAR 715 B. C. TO THE PRESENT TIME.
TRANSLATED AND COMPILED FROM THE MASONIC HISTORIES OF
EMMANUEL REBOLD, M. D.,
PAST DEPUTY OF THE GRAND ORIENT OP FRANCE, PRESIDENT OF THE ACADEMY OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCES,
AND A MEMBER OF MANY PHILOSOPHIC AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES,
By J. FLETCHER BRENNANT,
EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN FREEMASON.
ILLUSTRATED WITH FORTY ENGRAVINGS.
CINCINNATI:
AMERICAN MASONIC PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION,
114 MAIN STREET.
1872.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
J. F. BRENNAN,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of Ohio.
BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVBBfrv
PROVO. UTAH
FRATERNALLY DEDICATED
TO THE
GRAND ORIENT OF FRANCE,
AND THE
SUPREME COUNCIL FOR FRANCE,
AT THE EAST OF PARIS;
TO THE
GRAND ORIENT AND SUPREME COUNCIL OF BELGIUM,
AT THE EAST OP BRUSSELS ;
TO THE
NATIONAL GRAND LODGE OF HOLLAND,
AT THE EAST OF THE HAGUE ;
TO THE
NATIONAL ALPINE GRAND LODGE,
AT THE EAST OF ZURICH ;
AND TO
ALL THE LODGES OF THEIR ALLIANCE,
BY
the; author.
FEATERNALLY DEDICATED
TO THE
GRAND AND OPERATIVE LODGES
OP
3frcc -1ZM(x&ori&
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
THE TRANSLATOR.
TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION.
A connection of several years with the Masonic press, during two
of which he edited and published The American Freemasons Mag-
azine, afforded the translator of this work opportunities for reading
all that in the English language had been published concerning the
origin and history of Freemasonry, of valuing all that was reason-
able, and rejecting much that was traditional, apochryphal, romantic
and false. In 1861, and after he had, in consequence of the then
disturbed condition of the country, suspended the publication of his
magazine, he accidentally became introduced by a brother of rank
and education in the Fraternity at New York to the earlier work of
Bro. Rebold, and after a hasty perusal, stored it among the few
effects of a citizen soldier for future and, should opportunity offer,
more leisure study. From that study, within the past year, the
decision to translate and publish had been evolved, when he became
possessed of the later work of Bro. Rebold, and from both he has
compiled that which he now presents and dedicates to the Fraternity
in America. In doing so, his conviction is fixed that at no previous
time has he been able to benefit that Fraternity to so great a degree
ad he now does, by translating and publishing this work.
LIST OF LLLUSTKATIOWS.
Ancient Athens, to face Title.
Forum Romanum, as it is, " p. 27
Egyptian Sacrifice to Isis, " 32
Cathedral op Rouen, " 48
Cathedral of Strasburg, " 52
Cathedral of Burgos, " 58
Cathedral of Freiburg, " 64
Mosque at Cordova, " 72
Battle-Gallery, Palace of Versailles, ... "78
Church of the Magdalene, Paris, " 94
Interior of the Church of the Magdalene, Paris, . " 117
St. Peter's Church at Rome, ...... " 145
Interior of the Mosque at Cordova, .... "152
Interior of the Church of Notre Dame, .... "176
Palace of the Tuilleries, "192
Interior of the Collegiate Church, Manchester, . . " 208
Interior of the Church of St. Simon, .... " 224
Interior of Melrose Abbey, Glasgow, .... " 240
Interior of Crypt, Abbey of St. Denis, ... " 240
Cathedral of Cologne, " 250
Vestiges of Roman Art, " 259
Trajan's Triumphal Arch, " 274
Cathedral of York, " 350
Ancient Mexican Sacrifice, " 359
Ruins of the Temple of Jupiter, " 364
Celebration of the Persian Eucharist, .... " 367
Chinese Worship of the Toku Nafir, .... " 368
Mysteries of Isis and Osiris, " 370
The Parthenon at Athens, " 375
Temple of Minerva at Athens, " 376
Lamaistic Funeral in Chinese Tartary, ... " 380
Worship of Fo, in Canton, " 384
Druid Worship of the Mistletoe, " 386
German Worship of the Mistletoe, " 388
Interior of a Hindoo Rock-Temple, .... " 393
Ruins of the Temple of Neptune, .... - " 398
Pyramids of Ghizza, " 401
Egyptian Temple of Karnak, " 403
Hindoo Penitents, "413
Court of the Mosque of Osman, "416
Ruins of the Great Temples at Baalbec, ... " 421
(vi)
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Title, Author's Dedication, Translator's Dedication and Introduction, Table of
Contents, Preface, and Report of Examining Committee pp. 1-26
General History of Freemasonry..
Introduction 27
Origin of all the worships 28
" of Hieroglyphics and Symbols 29
" of Mysteries, Sybils, Oracles, Magi 30
" of the Roman Colleges of Builders, the Cradle of Freemasonry 34
The organization and privileges of these colleges 35
Origin of the expression " Grand Architect of the Universe " 35
Introduction and development of the colleges in Britain 36
Charter of St. Alban, A. D. 292 40
Origin of the qualification "Free Mason" 41
" of the title "Worshipful Master" 46
Charter of York, A. D. 926 48
Origin of the dedication of lodges to St. John 49
Masonic corporations of Lombardy 50
Monopolies accorded to the Masonic corporations by the Popes 51
Organization and development of the Fraternity in Germany 52
The stone-cutters of Strasburg, A. D. 1459 53
Influence of the " Reformation " upon the Masonic corporations 54
Importance of the Fraternity in England in the 17th and 18th centuries... 54
Origin of the "higher" degrees 54
" of the title " Royal Art " accorded to Freemasonry 55
Transformation of the Fraternity to a philosophic institution 56
Its new constitution as such 57
Its influence upon social progress 5
Persecutions directed against it 57
Divers opinions as to the origin of Freemasonry 59
Explanation of the two Forms of its initiations 60
It is an imitation and not a continuation of ancient mysteries 61
Object of the initiation into the mysteries of antiquity 62
Object and doctrine of modern Freemasonry, , 62
Approaching ideal of Freemasonry 63
(vii)
Vlll CONTENTS.
Historical Summary of the Movements op the Masonic Corporations in Gaul,
fkom their Introduction, in the year 60 B. C, to their Dissolution, in
the 16th Century.
Establishment of the Roman Colleges of Builders in Trans-Alpine Gaul after
its conquest 64
Establishment of the great military roads from Rome to Gaul 66
Erection of Romo-Gallic cities 67
Re-erection of the destroyed cities and towns. 68
Vestiges of ancient Romo-Gallic monuments in France.. , 69
Separation of the Colleges of Builders into different bodies 71
Erection of the first Christian churches and monasteries 71
Architectural knowledge of monastic refugees 72
Celebrated architects who go out from the Masonic schools 72
Architecture in France under Charlemagne 72
The Masonic corporations directed by the religious orders 73
Architecture paralyzed by the terrors of the year 1000 73
General renewal of all the religious edifices , 73
The Masonic corporations of Lombardy extend over Europe 74
Their monopolies renewed by all the Popes 74
League of mutual succor among the Masonic brethren 74
The architect fraternity of bridge and road builders 74
Conception and erection of the great cathedrals of France 75
Unity of plans visible in all buildings by Freemasons 76
Effect of the "Reformation" upon the Masonic corporations 77
Disintegration of the corporations the origin of trade unions 77
Consequences of the disintegration of the Masonic corporations 78
Celebrated French architects who succeeded those of the corporations 78
Abridgment op the History op Modern or Philosophic Freemasonry in
France, from its Introduction in 1721 to the Establishment of the
Grand Orient in 1772.
First lodges founded at Dunkirk and at Paris 80
Lord Derwentwater first Provincial Grand Master for France 81
Establishment of a Provincial Grand Lodge for France 81
Baron Ramsay introduces his Jacobite Masonry 81
Lord Harnwester the second Provincial Grand Master for France, 82
He is succeeded by the Duke of Autin 83
The P. G. L. of France takes the title of English G. L. of France 83
Difficulties follow and increase constantly 83
Origin of the chapters of Arras and of Clermont 84
Origin of the Rite of Perfection 85
Incongruities in the accepted history of the A. and A. S. Rite 85
Continued disgust and disagreeability among the Fraternity 86
English G. L. of France becomes the National G. L. of France 86
The Grand Master, to avoid d'»ty, selects deputies 87
They misbehave, and their commissions are revoked 87
Consequent schism of the (Deputy) Lacorne faction 87
Stephen Morin is patented for America 88
CONTENTS. IX
A reconciliation but engenders subsequent dissension , 89
The G. L. revokes all ad vitam and other patents , 90
Lacorne's party is expelled and proceed to extremes 90
The government interferes and interdicts Freemasonry 90
Each party misbehaves in a grievous manner „ 91
Events consequent upon the Grand Master's death 91
Election of the Duke of Chartres to the vacant position 92
He is induced to accept the direction of all the bodies 93
Establishment of the Grand Orient 94
.Abridgment op the History op Modern or Philosophic Freemasonry in
England, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Germany, Holland, Bel-
gium, Switzerland, Italy and Portugal, from its introduction into
those countries to the present time.
Circumstances attending the establishment of the G. L. of London..., -. 95
Compilation of "Anderson's Constitutions" 96
The G. L. of London assumes the initiate and sole authority 97
The Freemasons of York and Edinburgh protest 97
The G. L.'s of Ireland and Scotland are established 98
Exceptions made by the lodge of Canongate Kilwinning 99
Origin of the Rite of Harodim of Kilwinning , 100
Pope Benedict XIV and others interdict Freemasonry 101
In London the Grand Lodge of Ancient Masons is organized , 102
Origin of the Royal Arch degree 103
Union of the two Grand Lodges in 1813 104
What English Freemasons have accomplished at home 105
Present organization of the G. L. of England 105
" " of the G. L. of Scotland '. 107
" " of the G. L. of Ireland 107
Present condition of Freemasonry in Great Britain 107
Introduction of Freemasonry into Denmark 108
" " into Sweden 110
Jesuitical interference with Freemasonry in Sweden Ill
The Templar system introduced by Jesuit emissaries 112
Introduction of Freemasonry into Russia 113
Catharine II protects and encourages it 114
Jesuitical interference causes it to be abused 115
Interdiction of Paul I revoked by Alexander I, and afterward confirmed.... 115
Introduction of Freemasonry into Poland 116
The Jesuit system of strict observance is introduced 117
Introduction of Freemasonry into Belgium 118
Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, interdicts it 119
When Belgium becomes a French province it is revived 119
Prince Frederick, as Grand Master, becomes its protector 120
King Leopold unites the lodges into a Grand Orient 121
Masonry triumphs over Jesuitism 121
The new Grand Master, Verhaegen, recommends general discussions in the
lodges ' 122
X CONTENTS.
Introduction of Freemasonry into Holland 123
The Jesuits preach against it and excite the people 124
Establishment of the Grand Lodge of Holland 125
" of the G. L. for the Low Countries 126
The charter of Cologne is discovered 127
Introduction of Freemasonry into Germany 128
Freemasonry in Prussia 129
Initiation of Frederick the Great at Brunswick 130
Present condition of Freemasonry in Prussia 131
Freemasonry in Saxony 132
" in Hanover 132
" in Bavaria 133
" in the Grand Duchy of Baden 134
" in Wurtemburg and Hesse Darmstadt 135
" in Hesse-Cassel and Brunswick 136
Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick becomes head of the Templar system 137
He convokes various Masonic congresses 138
The Jesuits cause Freemasonry to be interdicted in Austria 139
Freemasonry in Bohemia 140
Recapitulation of Masonic lodges in Germany 140
Introduction of Freemasonry into Switzerland 141
Masonic Directories at Basle and Lausanne 142
Erection of " Hope " Lodge at Berne to a Prov. G. L. of England 143
Establishment of the Alpine Grand Lodge , 144
Introduction of Freemasonry into Italy 145
" " into Sardinia 146
Establishment of the Grand Orient at Naples , 147
General Garibaldi is elected chief the Sup. Council for Sicily 148
Introduction of Freemasonry into Portugal 149
Acts of the Portuguese " Holy Office " 150
Freemasonry is interdicted by John VI, King of Portugal 151
Introduction of Freemasonry into Spain 152
Ferdinand VI, King of Spain, interdicts its operations 153
European countries in which Freemasonry is now interdicted 154
History op the Origin of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and
Organization op the Supreme Council for France.
Partisan evidence as to the origin of the rite 158
Reflections upon this evidence 159
Impartial evidence as to the origin of the rite 160
Proof adduced that Frederick II was not its chief , 162
Extract from the Book of Gold 165
Real origin of the rite 166
Its contemptuous disownment by the G. L. of Scotland , 169
Introduction of the rite into France 172
Remarks in connection with the history of this rite , 174
CONTENTS. xi
Origin and History op the " Egyptian Rite op Misraim," prom its creation
in 18i)6 to the present time.
Account of its origin by its French agent, M. Bedarride 178
Mark and Michael Bedarride its propagandists 180
Its real author Lechangeur of Milan 181
He denies his highest degrees to the brothers Bedarride 182
They surreptitiously obtain them and establish a council at Paris 183
Description of the rite 185
Difficult to organize lodges — France in mourning (1815) 186
Grave abuses appear in the administration of the executive 187
The rite is interdicted by the G. 0. of France 188
The brothers Bedarride obtain a new patent 189
The rite is interdicted by Frederick, G. M. of Netherland lodges 189
The administration and its constituents at war 190
Expulsion of a whole lodge „ 191
Misappropriation of the funds by the executive 192
The Grand Oiientis exhorted to suppress the rite »... 193
The brothers Bedarride present their little bill of charges 195
It amounts to only $20,550 195
They arrange anew obligation, binding all to pay it 196
Objectors to this obligation are expelled , 197
The death of Mark Bedarride lets up nobody 197
The rite is ridiculed by the " MasonicGlobe " 198
Funds are demanded to bury a brother 199
Michael Bedarride requires all the funds to pay his bill 200
The applicants protest and denounce the whole swindle 201
Dying, M. Bedarride bequeaths his bill to his successor 201
The successor, an honest man, arranges M. B.'s debts 201
Then stigmatizing the little bill as "a debt accursed," he cancels it 202
Reflections upon the history of this rite , 202
Concise History op the Rite op Memphis, from its creation in 1838 until
its fusion into the Grand Orient op France in 1862.
The author's account of the rite 203
Strictures upon this account , 204
Introduction of the rite into France 205
Its author an expelled member of the rite of Misraim 206
Extracts from the Constitution , , 207
The author begins to operate with his rite in France 208
Meets with difficulties and goes to London 209
In the latter city the rite explodes , , 210
He then goes to America and founds a lodge at Troy, N. Y , 211
Marshal Magnan's magnanimous decree covers the rite 211
The Grand Orient adopts it, and M. Marconis, its author, is happy 211
A Concise History op the Origin op all the Rites for High Degrees intro-
duced into Freemasonry from 1736 to the present time.
The only true traditional Freemasonry has but three degrees 212
Xll CONTENTS.
The Jesuits first break this arrangement 213
To support the " Pretender " they create new degrees 214
They extend their nets over Germany and France 215
Investigation elicits some important discoveries 216
They denaturalize the institution in France 217
They construct the system of Strict Observance 218
The College of Clermont the nest in which new rites are hatched ,. 219
The Jesuits divide continental Europe into provinces 220
They erect "Unknown Superiors " for their system 220
Investigation unmasks the Order of Loyola 221
" Modern Freemasons are not the successors of Knights Templar " 222
What the Congress of Wilhelmsbad provoked 223
Fruits of the Jesuits' Masonic systems 224
The Order of Modern Templars 225
The Rite of Rigid Observers 226
Introduction of Knight Templarism into America 226
The Rite of Unitarian Masonry , 227
Names of Masonic Rites extant , 228
Rites extinct or absorbed into existing rites 229
Documentary and Historical Evidence bearing directly upon the Ori-
gin and General History op Freemasonry in Europe.
Documentary Evidence 232
Historical Evidence, chronologically arranged 234
Indications of the causes for diversity of opinions, etc 244
Historical Enumeration op the Principal Masonic Congresses and Con-
ventions WHICH HAVE HAD PLACE IN EUROPE. „
York, Strasburg, and Ratisbonne 251
Ratisbonne, Spire, Colonge and Basle 252
Strasburg, London and Dublin 253
Edinburgh, the Hague, Jena and Altenburg 254
Kohlo, Brunswick, Leipsic and Lyons 255
Wolfenbuttel and Wilhelmsbad 256
Paris, Zurich, Berne, Basle and Locle 257
Paris in 1848 and in 1856 258
Chronological arrangement op the History op Freemasonry, based upon
the Ancient Documents and the Principal Monuments erected by
this Fraternity, Divided into three epochs.
First Epoch, from 715 B. C. to A. D. 1000, comprising the establishment of
the Colleges of Builders at Rome ; the construction of all the monuments
of Ancient Rome ; the founding of many cities ; the results of the perse-
cutions of such of the builders as became Christians, and, subsequently,
the results of the invasions and international wars, and dispersion of the
Christian builders into the East ; the state of architecture in Gaul and
Britain under the Romans, and, after their retreat, under the free and An-
glo-Saxon kings ; the reconstruction of the Masonic corporations at the
CONTENTS. Xlll
general assembly in York A. D. 926, and the distress of the Masonic cor-
porations during the terrors invoked by the clergy at the close of the tenth
century 259-295
Second Epoch, from A. D. 1000 to A. D. 1717, comprising all the most re-
markable facts which signalized this period as connected with the arts
and philosophy ; the epoch of the construction of all the great cathedrals
and other religious monuments in Europe ; the organization of the Ma-
sonic corporations in Germany, its Grand Lodges, its congress and results ;
the influence of the Reformation upon religious architecture ; the dissolu-
tion successively of all the Masonic corporations except those of England;
and the transformation there, in 1717, of the Masonic corporations into a
philDsof hie institution 296-311
Third Epoch, from A. D. 1717 to A. D. 1850, comprising all the most remark-
able occurrences connected with Philosophical or Modern Freemasonry
during this period ; the causes and results of the schisms ; the different con-
gresses and their results ; the dates, the places, and the countries where
Freemasonry was persecuted ; and the statistics indicating its numbers
wherever its exists , 312-339
Text of the Edict of Pope Pius VII against the Freemasons 340
Primitive Masonic Laws and Charters.
Observations concerning the Charter of York 847
Its non-recognition of a Divine Trinity 348
Its evident religious tolerance 348
It became the basis of all modern Masonic constitutions 349
Its caption and opening prayer 350
Note explanatory of its text 351
Its" Fundamental Laws of the Brother Masons" .352-355
Summary of the Ancient Masonic Charters, comprising the Roman Charter, Char-
ter of St. Alban, Charter of York, Charter of Edward III, Charter of Scot-
land, Charters of Strasburg, Charter of Cologne, Charters of Scotland and
London 355-558
Epitome op the Worship and the Mysteries of the Ancient Eastern World.
Introduction — Origin of all the worships 359
Sabeism, or sun worship, and its legends 363
The Mysteries of India 364
Mysteries of the Persians 367
Mysteries of Isis and Osiris 370
Mysteries of the Hebrews. 373
Mysteries of Eleusis 375
Mysteries of Samothracia 376
Mysteries of the Phrygians and Phenicians 377
Mysteries of the Romans 377
Sybils and Oracles most celebrated 379
Legislators, Reformers and Founders of Worships and Mysteries, with
a summary of «their doctrines in India, China, Persia, Ethiopia,
Egypt, Greece, Rome and Judea 380-383
XIV CONTENTS.
Notes illustrative and authoritative of sundry passages in the text
op the Worships and Mysteries op the Ancient Eastern World.
Worships and Mysteries 384
Theology of the Ancients 384
Sacred Books of all the peoples 385
Cosmogonies 386
Symbols 389
Hiram of the Freemasons , 392
The Angels 393
Magnificent monuments of the Hindoos 393
Bhudda (Bood, Boudd) 393
The Magi 394
Temple of Bel, or Tower of Babel 394
Ecbatana, Babylonia, Persepolis , 396
Caves or Retreats of Mithra 397
In the throat of a bull 397
Zoroaster 398
Zendavesta 399
Temple of Ammon 399
Ethiopia, once a powerful state 400
Egypt in civilization 400
Pyramids of Ghizza 401
Hermes 402
Sybils 402
The avenues of Thebes 403
Subterranean cities 403
Jehovah - 403
Tyre 404
The Jews driven from Egypt , 404
The Pentateuch 405
The Prodigies of Moses 408
Dogma of an only God 408
Worship of the Stars 413
The Essenians 413
Christianity 418
Mysteries of Christianity 419
Eleusis, Athens 420
Temple of Balbek 420
Temple of Tadmor (Palmyra) 420
Janus • ..•••• 421
Appendix.
Becapitulation , , 422
The Commandments of the Ancient Sages 425
The Precepts of Modern Freemasonry 426
Genebal His toby
op
FREEMASONRY.
PREFACE.
Before I make known to the reader the motives which inspired
this history of Freemasonry, I beg permission to give here a suc-
cinct confession of faith.
Since the moment when the principles of Freemasonry were
shown me, I have made this institution a particular study, with
much more fervor than that with which I have studied the relig-
ion taught me in my youth; because, by the light of reflection
and experience, I found the latter crowded with contradictions and
puerilities, while the former offered logic and harmony according
with the idea of a Divinity imbued with wisdom, clemency, power,
and love.
When circumstances occasioned me to take up my residence in
this celebrated city, (Paris), at a time when its Masonic temples
were recovering from the effects of the political tumults of 1847,
my heart found itself going out toward that fraternal society,
wherein, of all others, I most expected to enjoy the pleasures of
morality and brotherly love. But I am free to confess, as then
conducted, the labors of the lodges left much to desire; and I
found that the reproaches addressed to Masonry in Paris by the
most serious authors, such as Thory, Bazot, Chemin-Dupontes,
Ragon, Clavel, Des Etangs, Juge, and Moreau, were entirely justi-
fiable.
And, notwithstanding that there are few places upon the globe
where the Masonic fraternity has produced results more powerful
and efficacious than at Paris — where the concentration of sixty .
2 (xvii)
KVlll PREFACE.
one lodges in the' same locality permit the most complete unuy
in a financial point, and present moral and intellectual resources
so powerful to accomplish so much, not alone in the connection
of educating the people, but also of founding other humanitarian
institutions — yet it is necessary to state that there is no place in
the world where the dissipation of moral strength is so manifest,
and where the Masonic fraternity has done so little for suffering
humanity, as in this same Paris, when we consider the great number
of Freemasons who here reside.
But that which struck me above all, in assisting at the work
of the lodges of Paris, was the total want of intelligent Masonic
instruction — a reproach which the authors named have so often
made — the labors of the lodges being altogether confined to the
ceremonies of initiation, the regular lectures, and the administra-
tion of their affairs. And it is to this circumstance, principally,
that it is necessary to attribute the indifference so generally mani-
fested for Freemasonry among the wealthy and intellectual Paris-
ians ; for the greater portion of the intellectual initiates, finding
nothing in the society, such as they expected, to attract their
attention, after attending a few meetings, fall off, in the belief
that Freemasonry has no moral signification to justify the consid-
eration they had been induced to accord to it.
These observations are painful to Freemasons convinced of the
high object and deep signification of Freemasonry, and who believe
it destined to become one day the religion of all nations ; and these
observations apply happily but to Paris, for, in all other portions
of France, Masonry is much better estimated, and consequently its
value is much better appreciated than in the capital.
This lack of instruction of which I speak is more apparent in
the superior initiations called "high degrees," or, to speak more
correctly, it is there entirely absent. By all, however, by whom
Masonry is estimated, Masonic instruction is looked upon as a
sacred duty due to those who are received into its bosom, and that
PREFACE. XIX
instruction should be extended not only to all that concerns its
history, its object, and the doctrines of the institution, but to all
that is interesting to the friend of humanity and the lover of his
race. And here we can not refrain from quoting a passage which
we find proceeding from the pen of brother Cesar Moreau, of Mar
seilles, and published in his journal, The Masonic World:
"From this state of things there resulted an Order1 which,
while it embraced the universality of the nations, and drew within
its bosom many of the notabilities of all races, is compelled to
ignore its nature, its origin, its spirit, and its object ; and to
acknowledge that its traditions are forgotten or altered; that we
have substituted some novelties contrary to the genius of Masonry;
that the initiated fail to perceive any thing of mystery beyond the
ceremonies and the ornaments of the lodge, and do not suspect
that a hidden meaning is attached to the knowledge conveyed by
the symbols. Thus Masonry in unfaithful to its high destiny.
This society, which, according to the ideas of its founders, is
entitled to the first place in the system of civilization, is allowed
co march in the rear of that system. While progress in every
other condition is manifest, it alone is stationary, if not falling
behind in the march of human improvements. The most powerful
of all human agencies, by reason of its immense association and the
facilities afforded by its multiple correspondence, Freemasonry is
i The editor of the Masonic World is the only French author who has
admitted that material architecture has probably given birth to moral archi-
tecture; and yet, making of Freemasonry an Order, finds himself -in accord
•with all of his predecessors. This opinion, however, so generally that of
the French Masons, is entirely erroneous; for Freemasonry never was an
Order. Its origin was a fraternity; and that its transformation, from a cor-
poration of artisans to a philosophical institution, did not change its char-
acter, is proven in the most incontestible manner by its own Constitution,
which, adopted in 1717, and published by the Grand Lodge of England in
1723, is entitled "Constitution of the Ancient and Respectable Fraternity of
Freemasons."
XX PREFACE.
to-day utterly powerless to enlighten its own members, to say
nothing of enlightening the rest of mankind."
All the French authors, except Moreau, have placed the origin
of Freemasonry in the mysteries of the East; and the Masters of
our lodges, as well as the commonly received lecture of its history,
tend to perpetuate this erroneous idea. The work of Alexander
Thory, entitled "Acta Latomorum" and that of B. Clavel, entitled
" Histoire Pittoresque de la Franc-magonnerie" must he placed
among the most remarkable of Masonic publications; but they
are, nevertheless, incomplete and fragmentary. In the history by
B. Clavel, it is true he mentions the colleges of Roman architects;
but, always preoccupied, in common with his predecessors, in
seeking a remoter origin for Freemasonry in the mysteries of the
East, he fails to perceive that it was precisely within these colleges
that the birth of Freemasonry took place.
The authors who pretend — and their number is very great — that
Masonry originated at the construction of Solomon's Temple, are
led into this error by the numerous allusions to that construction
which have place among the lectures of our lodges of to-day.
Those authors who believe that Freemasonry proceeded from the
society of the Rose-Cross, founded in 1616, by Valentine Andrea,
a profound philosopher,1 who, in founding it, had in view the
beautiful design of reforming the world — a society which was
propagated by Christian Rose-Croix,2 renewed afterward by the
renowned philosopher, Lord Bacon, and put in practice by the
famous antiquary, Elias Ashmole, in 1646 — are led into this error
by the fact that this society was resuscitated, under Masonic forms,
i See his work, " La Reformation" etc.
2 There appeared, in 1616, a new work, entitled " La Noce Chemique dt
Christian Rose-Croix? This name of Rose-Cross is itself allegorical. The
cross represented the sanctity of union, and the rose the image of discretion;
ihese two words united signifying a holy discretion.
PREFACE. XXI
in Germany, in 176T; and yet others, who attribute its foundation
to the partisans of the Stuarts,1 or to Christopher Wren, architect,
in 1690, are led into this error by the transformation of Free-
masonry from an exclusively operative to an exclusively philo-
sophic institution having taken place about this time.
Independently of the serious authors mentioned, there may b
found a certain number of pretending historians, who, concerning
the origin of Freemasonry, have advanced assertions as absurd as
ridiculous. Among them we find those who represent God him-
self as the first Freemason,2 and Paradise as the first sanctuary
of the lodge! We find another author who pretends that the
archangel Michael was Grand Master of the first lodge that the
children of Seth held after the murder of Abel ! 3 Others, who
maintain that Noah was the founder of Masonry ; and yet others,
who as- stoutly assert that it originated at the construction of the
Tower of Babel on the plains of Shinar. From this mass of con-
tradictory opinions, A. Thory, in the preface to his work already
named, deduced an opinion which he thus expresses:
" The general opinion among the most distinguished Freemasons
is, that it is impossible to write a general history of Freemasonry
which will bear any approach to correctness in dates and authen-
ticated facts. M. De Bonnville has asserted that ten ages of man-
kind would not suffice for such a work. Others have expressed,
and yet others have repeated the same idea, while to-day those of
i See, in the "Acta Latomorum" by A. Thory, the fragment upon the origin
of the Society of Freemasons, translated from the second volume of the
work " Versuck iiber die Beschuldigungen wider den Tempelherrenorden" etc., by
Nicolai*. This fragment of a German work, extracted and admitted by
Thory, proves that he himself had no settled opinion upon the origin of
Freemasonry; for otherwise we can not comprehend how, to give a just idea
in his work of the origin of the institution, he could have chosen to copy
from a work which, in his opinion, had no historic value in this connection.
2 See the work of Le Franc, entitled " Voile leve pour les Curieuz."
3"Z« vrai Franc-Magon" by Enoch, 1773.
XX11 PREFACE.
the members of the association who, by their talents and theii
lights, could be expected to undertake the task with success, have
never essayed it, persuaded that it is beyond their strength.
" In seeking for the true cause of such discouragement, we
believe it consists in the extreme difficulty of procuring the
proper documents, the secret memoirs, . the polemic and didactic
writings; in fact, the necessary manuscript and printed informa-
tion as to the history of the institution. This obstacle, if not
insurmountable, is certainly exceedingly difficult; and we are free
to state that, were it not that the extensive library of the mother
lodge of the Scotch Rite had, with its rare and valuable manu-
scripts, been placed at our disposal, we never would have attempted
the labor of which this our work is the result."
It is, in fact, to the insufficiency of the materials that it is
necessary to attribute the fact that since the work of Dr. Ander-
son, first published in London in 1723, and subsequently to the
number of five separate editions, no writer has attempted to pro-
duce a general history of Freemasonry, believing the problem of
its origin insoluble ; and, therefore, they have been forced to treat
it from a philosophical point of view, and place its origin among
the mysteries of antiquity.
It is these considerations which determined me to extract from
the numerous materials which I have gathered, during a number
of years, with the intention of one day filling a void in Masonic
literature, and publish a history of our institution free from the
superstitions and traditions with which it has been continually
surrounded; and, in this object, I have resolved to unite, in a
synoptic table, all that is afforded the most interesting, to the end
that the erroneous opinions upon its origin may be dissipated, and
a just and instructive idea of the principles and object of Free-
masonry be afforded.
In treating in a manner indicative of my own convictions this
PREFACE. XX111
general hlstoir wf Freemasonry, I have endeavored to demon-
strate—
1. Tl*a* InJi4 ii not only the cradle of the human race, but the
country wherein may be found the source of all the religions of
the world.
2. That, iu her antiquities, India offers us a civilization th
most advanced, as >s abundantly proven by her colossal monu-
ments, which have existed for at least six thousand years.
3. That from Ittdia have proceeded science and philosophy.
4. That we find in her sacred books, the Vedas, a sublime
aoctrine, practiced by the Buddhist Samaneens, and which pre-
sents the most striking resemblance to the primitive Christian
doctrine. ~ ~ :
5. That these same Yedas recount the creation of the world in
a manner corresponding to the description contained in the sacred
books of the Persians and the Hebrews, but with the difference
that in the Vedas the description has an entirely figurative sense,
while the sense conveyed by the Hebrew Scriptures, as given to
us, is actual.
6. That the religion of the Hindoos — their science and philos-
ophy— passed into Persia and Chaldea, and subsequently to Ethi-
opia, and from thence to Egypt. Afterward, returning invested
with other forms, it is found to exist at present in the former
countries.
My readers may be assured that intentions the most pure have
guided me in this work, and that, while I have communicated
the results of the philosophical researches of the most profound
thinkers, I have to my readers awarded the task of harmonizing
these truths with their own Masonic and religious ideas.
In this work I believe I have omitted nothing which would
interest a young Mason. Herein he will find the origin of the
mysteries of antiquity, as also the origin of all religions, and the
connections which the ancient religions and mysteries bear to
XXIV PREFACE.
those of the present day; also, the degrees of civilization of the
ancient peoples, the true origin of Freemasonry, its history, and
in that history each historic fact, each important monument —
whether of antiquity or of the middle ages — which appertain to
that history, each document, each usage, each important name of
which mention should be made; and, having done this, I leave to
tho reader to judge of the actual condition and importance of this
institution from the tables of the lodges existing on the globe,
and the countries wherein Freemasonry has spread and its doo-
trines are practiced.
Emmanuel Rebold.
East of Paris, November, 1860.
REPORT
OF THE COMMITTEE INTRUSTED WITH THE EXAMINATION
OF THE WORK OF BRO. REBOLD, ENTITLED "GEN-
ERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY."
Bro. Rebold having requested the undersigned to examine hia
History of Freemasonry, and report their opinion thereof, it is
with the most lively interest that we comply with his wishes.
In our opinion it is impossible to put together, in a manner
more instructive and more concise, so many facts and dates in so
few pages. All is comprised in the work of Bro. Rebold — facts,
historical and geographical, as well as chronological ; all is arranged
by the hand of a master; and we can, without exaggeration, say
that it is the first Masonic history truly worthy of this name which
has ever appeared in France.
All the works that we possess speak of Masonry as an institu-
tion of an illusory character, and its origin merely traditional, if
not apocryphal; but Bro. Rebold, on the contrary, taking hold
of it at its birth, follows its growth and extension through the
different phases of its career, from nation to nation, and from cen-
tury to century, and supports his every statement with facts and
dates and names, and the edifices and monuments of antiquity.
Many pages might be profitably filled with even a cursory
analysis of the work of our brother, but this we will leave to the
reader, being satisfied with saying, for ourselves, that nearly every
line is the substance of a volume; every word carries with it a
portion of instruction. We have read and re-read the manuscript
with the most intense interest, and we can return to it again and
again with pleasure, for it nobly fills the deplorable vacuum that
exists in all of our Masonic libraries.
An immense success is reserved for this book — we had almost
(25)
26 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
said this library in epitome — a success enthusiastic, merited, and
durable. To every brother who, animated with true religious sen-
timents, seeks instruction at the source of the most solid informa-
tion, we recommend this work; and, after the most conscientious
examination — after the most attentive study, and with our hands,
as Freemasons, upon our hearts, we express this our opinion of
the work of Bro. Rebold; and regret our inability, by so limited
an expression of our feelings, to do that justice to this really merit-
orious production that it is so richly entitled to.
Du Planty, M. D.,
Wor. Mas. of Trinity Lodge.
AUGUSTE HUMBERTE,
Wor. Mas. Star of Bethlehem Lodge.
B. LlMETH,
Wor, Mas. of Commanders of Mt. Lebanon Lodge.
East of Paris, June, 27 1860.
1
&
v
1 §
I v
GENEEAL
HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
INTRODUCTION.
When man, placed upon this earth, saw himself sur-
rounded with so many differently formed beings, of which
the producing cause and motive for their existence were
to him unknown, his thoughts were necessarily concen-
trated in one sentiment — intense admiration. Unable to
comprehend the cause, he attached more importance to
the effect. He studied the physical qualities of all, to the
end that he might be enabled to select for his use those
which were useful, and reject those which were hurtful.
But that which struck him with most surprise was the
constant return of day and night, light and darkness — the
brilliance and warmth of summer, and the cold and gloom
of winter — to see the earth for a season ornamented with
flowers and fruits, whilst during a corresponding period it
languished and labored in sterility. He sought to ascer-
tain the cause of those phenomena which regularly repro-
duced themselves around him, and to whose influence he
found his own nature subjected; and little by little, in the
laws, first of physics, and next of astronomy, he discov-
ered the explanation.
He saw that, regulated by these laws, nature existed;
that the sun and moon and earth moved in common
accord. In fact, whilst all else lived and died around
(27)
28 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
him — and died forever — these alone abated not in the
regularity of their movements nor perpetuity of their
existence: without beginning, and, apparently, without
end, they seemed uncreated and immutable. To feelings,
therefore, of admiration for all, were added feelings of
gratitude and thanks for the beneficence of that star of
lay whose brilliance and heat ripened for his use fruits
and vegetables; for that lesser light which seemed ar-
ranged, when the greater disappeared, to take its place;
and for the earth, the great nurse, always attentive, sup-
porting all living creatures, and offering each year, for
their use, the abundance of her varied and bounteous
products.
Those sentiments of admiration and gratitude begot yet
another — their natural product — worship ; and from that
time man began to reverence good and evil. He made
of light and darkness spirits of good and spirits of evil,
regarding the former as the good being, and the latter
as the evil one; light the benefactor; darkness the de-
stroyer. And this worship of light of every-degree neces-
sarily led to sun worship or Sabeism, which we see diffused
among all the primitive peoples of the earth — as well in
Europe as in Asia, in Africa, and among the Incas ot
America.
It is thus that the Hindoos adored in Brahma the sun
of summer, the creator, the genius of good; and in Shiva
the sun of winter, the destroyer, the genius of evil ; that
the Persians reverenced the good principle in Oromaze,
and the bad in Ahrimane ; that the Egyptians adored
these same principles in Osiris and Typhon ; and the
Israelites in Jehovah and the Serpent, without stopping
to consider that this adoration was a worship of stars, or
a worship of the changes of nature. Every- where, in
fact, and among all peoples — even among the Jews them-
selves— we find, from the earliest times, man prostrated
INTRODUCTION. 29
before material nature, confounding continually, in one
and the same worship, the being who suffers the action
and the principle that caused it.
This primitive worship was not entirely abolished, but
maintained itself among the elect, and was, consequently,
the fundamental dogma taught in the mysteries of an
tiquity by the gymnosophists of India and the hierophant
of Memphis. And, as it was the duty of those sages to
notice and record natural phenomena, to the end that the
dates of feasts and the movements of the planets should
be known, as well as a record kept of memorable events,
and the knowledge of their doctrines, sciences, and dis-
coveries be communicated among themselves, the system
of hieroglyphics and symbols was invented — a system
which has been found to exist, as the earliest style of
record, among priests and peoples of the most remote
ages.
These priests were the intercessors before the divinities,
the counselors and guides of the people; and to perpetu-
ate their numbers, men were admitted who proved them-
selves capable and worthy of the position by submitting,
after a long and careful training, to the ordeal of a severe
examination. It was in this manner that the initiations,
so celebrated among the peoples of antiquity, were insti-
tuted.
These civilizers and early instructors of the human
race, believing that it was impossible for the mass of man-
kind— the ignorant and illiterate — to perceive the truths
of science, religion, and philosophy, except when repre-
sented by material symbols, instituted such symbols for
that purpose, and, in consequence, two forms of religion
began to prevail; viz.: the one the religion of the multi
tude, who, in great numbers, perceived nothing beyond
the exterior object or symbol; and the other the religion
of the learned, who perceived in the symbol but the
SO GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
emblem of the moral truth or natural effect, of which the
symbol was but the type.
All these mysteries and their initiations, having a common
object, resembled each other in their rites and symbols,
and differed but in degree, according to the genius and
manners of the particular peoples among whom they were
practiced, and the talents, more or less brilliant, of their
priests and founders. Those among the Chaldeans, the
Ethiopians, and the Egyptians taught the arts and sci-
ences in secret, particularly architecture. Among the
Egyptians the priests formed a distinct class, and devoted
themselves to teaching special branches of human knowl-
edge. The youth who by them were instructed were
initiated into the mysteries of religion, and during their
novitiate formed an outer class or corporation of arti-
sans, who, according to the designs drawn by the priests,
erected the temples and other monuments consecrated to
the worship of the gods. It was this class that gave
to the people kings, warriors, statesmen, and useful citi-
zens.
The favor shown to the priests by the people of Egypt
was due in part to their wisdom, in part to the elevated
conditions of science and morality which they taught,
but more particularly to their study and application of an
occult science practiced by the magicians of Persia. In
this study they were aided by a class of assistants, called
sybils or oracles, to whom they were indebted for the
knowledge of a great number of plants and their thera-
peutic properties — of which the priests affixed the names
at the gates of their temples — as, also, for their knowl-
edge of chemistry, anatomy, and many of the secrets of
nature.1
lThis occult science, designated by the ancient priests under the name
oi regenerating fire, is that which at the present day is known as animal
magnetism — a science that for more than three thousand years was the
peculiar possession of the priesthood, into the knowledge of wl ich Mosea
INTRODUCTION. 31
Thus we see the most illustrious raeu of Greece — Thales,
Solon, Pythagoras, Democritus, Orpheus, Plato, Theodo-
eius, Epicurus, Herodotus, Lyeurgus — these great philos-
ophers of antiquity, binding their stoutest sandals upon
was initiated at Heliopolis, where he was educated, and Jesus Christ
among the Essenian priests of Jerusalem.
This science, that an illustrious Dominican calls "a piece broken from
a grand palace, a ray from the Adamic power, destined to confound
human reason and to humiliate it before God, a phenomenon belonging
to the prophetic order" — is that same science which has been resusci-
tated by Bro. Mesmer, whose disciples to-day spread every-where, and, by
the application of it as a therapeutic agent, are every-where alleviating
the physical condition of the sick and the afflicted.
Magnetism, the vital principle of all organized beings, soul of all who
respire, made a part, under various names, of the secret teachings of the
priests. The titles of regenerating fire, living fire, magic, were given to
it by them, and the initiation into this divine science was participated
in but by a small number of the elect. Believing it to be our duty to
define the meaning of this science in as clear and distinct a manner as
possible, we have chosen for this purpose to select a passage that we find
in the work of our friend and brother Henry Delage, entitled "Perfec-
tion of the Human Race," in which he expresses himself upon this
subject as follows:-
"The knowledge of this magnetic fluid is the most precious gift of
Divine Providence. It is the mysterious key that opens to our dazzled
intelligence the world of truth and of light, and joins the finite to the
infinite. It is the chain of gold so often chanted by the poet, the basis
of that secret philosophy that Democritus, Plato, and Pythagoras trav-
eled to Egypt to demand of the hierophants of Memphis and of the
gymnosophists of India. Invisible to the eyes of the senses, it must be
studied by the vision of the soul as seen in the rapt gaze of the som-
nambulist. In other days the truth was heard proceeding from the lips
of the initiating priest; to-day we see it in the eyes of the clairvoyant.
A magnetic fluid, very subtle, placed in the human race between the soul
and the body, it circulates in all the nerves; and, particularly abundan
in the great sympathetic of the healthy subject, it constitutes the spin
of the living being. Its color, that of fire or the electric spark, induced
the name of living fire given to it in the works of the magicians of
Persia, and of intimate star in those of the alchymists and astrologers of
32 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
their feet, and taking the pilgrim's staff within their
hands, leaving their country and going forth to visit the
vast sanctuaries of Egypt, there to be initiated into the
mysteries of Isis and Osiris.
These mysteries were transported into Greece, where
Orpheus founded those of Samothracia, and Triptoleme
those of Eleusis. The Greeks drew upon these mysteries
and initiations for a part of their mythology. Homer
drew upon them for his ingenious fictions, and clothed his
songs with their allegories. The descent into a well, made
by the aspirant for initiation, led to the saying that truth
was concealed at the bottom of a well. The judges of the
dead, before whom they were conducted by the ferryman
Charon across the lake Acheron, the urn that contained
the ballots, and after an examination of which the judges
pronounced sentence and again intrusted the initiates to
the care of Charon, who alone appeared to have the right
or ability of traversing the subterranean obscurity through
which they passed, the barking of dogs, the monsters, the
hideous specters, the flitting shades, the furies, the dog
Cerberus — the sight of all those objects which the Egyp-
tians and the Greeks had invented to try the nerves of
the initiates — made in their imagination a real hell. While
the Elysian fields, lighted up by a mimic sun, was evi-
dently the place to which the initiate was conducted after
his initiation; and Tartarus, where shades groaned plain-
tively at their own feebleness, the place where those who
had succumbed in terror before these hideous spectacles
were congregated. The braziers and flames, between
which the initiate was compelled to pass, evidently gave
the middle ages. One of its principal virtues is the generative power;
nence the sacred books give it the name of regenerating fire. Soul of
the world, universal spirit permeating all nature, it is the essence and
the vital spark of all that it animates, of all orders of beings, classes,
and races in which it is incarnated, and is profoundly modified by all
through which *.t passes."
?■!
JN
<N
<S
1
1
•I
INTRODUCTION. 33
rise to the saying that men who would be elevated to
the rank of the gods must first pass through fire and be
purified of all of earth that attaches to humanity. In
fine, to descend into hell, and to be initiated into the mys-
teries, were, among the ancients, one and the same opera-
tion.
FOUNDATION OF THE COLLEGES OF BUILDERS,
THE CRADLE OF FREEMASONRY.
The mysteries of the Egyptians, passing through Moses
to the Jewish people, afterward disseminated among the
Greeks and the Romans, were, among the latter, intro-
duced in part into the Colleges of Builders, instituted by
Numa Pompilius, in the year 715 before our era.1
These colleges were, at their organization, as well relig-
ious societies as fraternities of artisans, and their connec-
tion with the state and the priesthood were by the laws
determined with precision. They had their own worship
and their own organization, based upon that of the Dyo-
nisian priests and architects, of whom many were to be
found anterior to this period in Syria, in Egypt, in Persia,
and in India; and the degree of sublimity to which they
had carried their art is revealed to us by the ruins which
yet exist of the monuments which they there erected.
Besides the exclusive privilege of constructing the temples
and public monuments, they had a judiciary of their own,
and were made free of all contributions to the city and state.
The members of these colleges, usually after the labors
of the day, convened in their respective lodges — wooden
houses, temporarily erected near the edifice in course of
construction — where they determined the distribution and
1Nuina Pompilius also instituted Colleges of Artisans {Collegia Artifi-
cum) to the number of one hundred and thirty-one; at the headof which
were the Colleges of Architects or Constructors, otherwise Builders (Col-
legia Fabrorum.) The latter were designated under the name of Frater-
nities (Fraternitates.)
(34)
FOUNDATION OF THE COLLEGES OF' BUILDERS. 35
execution of the work upon such edifice, the decisions
being made by a majority of votes. Here, also, were ini-
tiated the new members into the secrets and particular
mysteries of their art. These initiates were divided into
three classes : apprentices, companions or fellow- workmen,
and masters; and they engaged themselves by oath to
afford each other succor and assistance. The presidents
of those colleges, elected for five years, were named mas-
ters or teachers (magistri); their labors in their lodges
were always preceded by religious ceremonies, and, as the
membership was composed of men of all countries, and
consequently of different beliefs, the Supreme Being neces-
sarily had to be represented in the lodges under a general
title, and therefore was styled "The Grand Architect of
the Universe" — the universe being considered the most
perfect work of a master builder.
In the beginning the initiations into these corporations
appear to have been confined to but two degrees, and the
ritual of these degrees limited to, 1st, some religious cere-
monies ; 2d, imparting to the initiate a knowledge of the
duties and obligations imposed upon him ; 3d, to explain-
ing certain symbols, the signs of recognition, and the
inviolability of the oath : the workman or fellow-craft
being, in addition, carefully instructed in the use of the
level and the square, the mallet and chisel. To become a
master, the elected had to submit to proofs such as were
exacted at the initiation of the priest architects of Egypt,
and in which he underwent a searching examination of
his knowledge of art and moral principles.
By the protection that these colleges of builders ac-
corded to the institutions and worships of other countries,
there were developed among them doctrines and rules of
conduct very much in advance of their age, and which they
clothed in symbols and emblems, which were thus charged
with a double signification ; and, like the Dyonisian priest
architects, they had words and signs of recognition.
36 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY
These colleges of artisans, and principally those who
professed excellence in ability to execute civil and relig-
ious, naval and hydraulic architecture, at first extended
from Rome into Venice and Lombardy, afterward into
France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Britain; and more lately
into Spain, Arabia, and the East ; and a great number of
these colleges, which at this time were known by the
name of Fraternities, followed the Roman legions. Their
business was to trace the plans of all military construc-
tions, such as intrenched camps, strategic routes, bridges,
aqueducts, arches of triumph, etc. They also directed the
soldiers and the laborers in the material execution of their
works. Composed of artisans, educated and studious men,
these corporations extended the knowledge of Roman
manners and a taste for Roman art wherever the legions
carried victorious the Roman arms. And as, in this way,
they contributed more largely to the victories of peace
than to those of war, they carried to the vanquished and
to the oppressed the pacific element of the Roman power —
the arts and civil law.
These colleges existed, in all their vigor, almost to the
fall of the Roman empire. The irruption of the peoples
called barbarians dispersed and reduced their number, and
they continued to decline while those ignorant and fero-
cious men continued to worship their rude gods; but when
they were converted to Christianity, the corporations flour-
ished anew.
The Masonic Corporations in Britain.
Many of the corporations of builders who were with the
Roman legions in the countries bordering on the Rhine
were sent by the Emperor Claude, in the year 43, into the
British Isles, to protect the Romans against the incursions
of the Scots. Before their arrival in that country, there
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN BRITAIN. 37
were to be found neither towns nor villages. Here, as
elsewhere, the Masonic corporations constructed for the
legions camps, which they surrounded with walls and
fortifications; and, as time advanced, the interior of these
colonies was beautified with baths, bridges, temples, and
palaces, which, in a great degree, rivaled even those of
Rome herself.
Wherever the legions established intrenched camps, the
Masonic corporations erected cities more or less import-
ant. It is thus that York, called by the Romans Ebora-
emu, and subsequently celebrated in the history of Free-
masonry, became one of the first that acquired importance
and elevation to the rank of a Roman city.
The native population who aided the Romans in those
different constructions were incorporated into the opera-
tive bodies of workmen, and taught their art; and, in
a short time, towns and villages were in course of erec-
tion on every side. The rich inhabitants of the country,
imitating the Romans, constructed equally sumptuous
habitations, which the architects ornamented with the
same sentiments of art they had exhibited on- the temples
of the most powerful Romans. Daily in contact with the
most elevated people of the civilized world, the inhabit-
ants acquired a humanitarian tolerance for the manners of
foreigners, and for religious ideas so different from their
own. And, in their turn, the Romans discovered that
there existed in every people a portion of true humanity;
and this they sought to increase rather than unveil the
barbaric and disagreeable in local manners and national
prejudices.
The irruptions of the mountaineers of Scotland obliged
the Romans to erect on the north of Britain three im-
mense walls, in three different directions,1 one of which
traversed the country from the east to the west.
*The first great wall was constructed by the Masonic Corporations,
38 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
The corporations being inadequate for the construction
of such immense works, the Britons, who were devoted to
their service, aided them in their labors, and thus became
partakers of all the advantages and privileges which were
enjoyed by the corporations themselves. Their constant
intercourse, during the execution of the same construc-
tions, and particularly in foreign countries, always resulted
in individual advantage, and the enjoyment in common of
the same privileges cemented this intercourse. The same
art, the unity in plans of action, combined to create in
their intimacy the greatest tolerance for religious and
national peculiarities, and a feeling of common brother-
hood was thus developed among them. All the work-
men of every degree employed upon a construction called
themselves a lodge — sleeping and taking their meals in
buildings resembling tents, which were temporarily erected
in the vicinity of the work in course of construction, and
which served them as dwellings until its completion only.
The erection of these houses and palaces, bridges and
aqueducts, castles and walls, contributed to elevate archi-
tecture in Britain to a degree of perfection it had not
attained in any other Roman province; so that, as early
as the third century, this country was celebrated for the
great number and the knowledge of her architects and
of their workmen; and their services were called for
wherever, upon the continent, great constructions were
about to be erected. Christianity, too, from the first hour
of its introduction, spread in Britain, and gave to the
Masonic lodges the peculiar characteristics which distin-
guished them at this period. These same military roads,
under the orders of Agrippa, the Roman general in command of the
legions in Britain, in the year 90 of our era. The second under the
Emperor Adrian, A. D. 120. This crossed the country from the river
Tyne to the Gulf of Sol way, and thus traversed Britain from east to
west. And the third was constructed further north, by order of Septi-
mus Severus, in the year 207.
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN BRITAIN. 39
so immense in their extent, and upon which chains and
slavery had been carried to people as free as they were
ignorant, served now to carry to enslaved humanity, wea-
ried of life, that new and inspiring liberty preached by
Chriet. Men now traveled these roads who, filled with
the new faith, believed it to be their mission to impart to
11 whom they met or overtook in their journeyings a
knowledge of the true God and the gospel of his Son.
And although, when alone, these missionary converts were
exposed to bloody persecutions in the towns and villages
through which they passed, they were invariably per-
mitted to accompany unmolested the Masonic corpora-
tions, who now, sometimes alone and sometimes in the
retinue of the Roman legions, were continually threading
the immense empire.
Britain, too, by a favorable fortune, had more kind and
humane governors at this period than any other Roman
province. The example of the nobility, in becoming con-
verts to the new faith, was swiftly followed by the people.
If, in consequence, in the other provinces, the persecutions
of the Christians were, by order of the emperors, executed
with rigor the most appalling, in Britain a certain refuge
was offered to the persecuted, by the connivance of her
governors, among the building corporations. Hence it was
that many among those who became advocates and public
propagandists of the gospel, for the certain protection
afforded them by these corporations, sought for and ob-
tained admission among those fraternities of builders; and
thus, in the hearts of the lodges, they associated with aud-
itors more freely disposed to listen to their doctrines, at
once so humane and so pure; for that love of the human
race which characterized the primitive Christians entirely
accorded with the spirit of those cultivated workmen who
composed the Masonic corporations. When, therefore, a
humane governor shrank from the disagreeable function
of ordering the execution of Christians under imperial
40 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
decree, those who were thus menaced sought refuge among
the Scots, or in the Orkney Islands ; or, aided by the build-
ers who accompanied them, they fled to Ireland, and there
remained until the death of the emperor who had ordered
their execution.
In this manner Scotland became the most accessible
esort of these refugees, who, in return for the security
awarded them, carried into that country a knowledge of
Roman architecture; and from this period may be dated
the construction of those magnificent castles of the Ro-
manesque or Etruscan style of architecture, whose grand
remains, braving even until to-day the destructive hand
of time, attest the architectural knowledge and artistic
genius of their builders.
When Carausius, as commander of the Roman navy,
found himself upon the coast of Belgium, he revolted,
and, making sail for Britain, landed on that island in the
year 287, when he declared his independence of Rome and
took the title of emperor; but, ever fearful of an attack
by the Emperor Maximilian, whom Diocletian had chosen
for co-emperor, and to whom he had awarded the west-
ern empire, Carausius sought, above all, to conciliate that
society — then the most influential and important in the
island — the Masonic corporations. These were then com-
posed not alone of the descendants of those Greeks and
Romans whom the Emperor Claude had, in the year 43,
ordered into the country, as already mentioned, but, in
major part, of the natives of Britain.
"With this object in view, Carausius, at the ancient city
of Yerulam, afterward known as St. Albans, where he had
taken up his abode and established his court, conveyed
and confirmed to the Masonic corporations — through the
instrumentality of Albanus, a Roman knight, and Amphi-
abulus, a Roman architect — all those ancient privileges
accorded to them by Numa Pompilius, and the kings, his
successors, more than a thousand years before, but which
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN BRITAIN. 41
in later years had been greatly curtailed by the subsequent
Roman emperors. And it is to this renewal of those privi-
leges— the greatest among which was the right of making
laws for their own government, and thus, in establishing
their own judiciary, becoming independent of all other
legal tribunals — to which may be attributed the title Free-
mason, which, since that time, has distinguished the mem-
bers of these corporations in contradistinction to the other
workers in wood and stone who composed no part of such
bodies.
Not having been interfered with by the Emperor Maxi-
milian, Carausius employed all his wealth to augment the
well-being of the country. He engaged the Masonic cor-
porations in the erection of magnificent public edifices,
which were rivaled but by those of Rome herself. His
death, however, which occurred by assassination, in the
year 295, brought these plans to an abrupt close.
Immediately after the death of Carausius, Maximilian
appointed Constance Clorus to the vacant governorship of
Gaul and Britain. He, selecting JEboracam, subsequently
known as the city of York, for his residence, found there
the oldest and most influential lodges of the Masonic cor-
porations; and this city, from that time, became the center
of all the lodges of Freemasons in Britain.
After the death of Constance, called the Great, an event
that took place in the year 306, his son Constantine suc-
ceeded him. He stopped at once the persecution of the
Christians, and declared himself their protector. After
his victory over his rival, Licinius, he adopted Christianity
himself — more, it is believed, from political motives than
from a conviction of its truth — and declared it the religion
of the state.
Among the earliest Christian communities the true doc-
trines of Christ were, from the first, exhibited in the lives
of their members — the first apostles having been found
in Britain among the Masonic corporations. These true
42 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
priests and propagandists of the religion of Jesus were
entire strangers to all thought of temporal power ; and the
unfortunate disputes of the four bishops who had arro-
gated to themselves the government of all Christendom
had not, as yet, affected the primitive doctrine recognized
in that declaration of the Redeemer : " He who serves me
with most devotion upon earth shall be greatest in the
kingdom of heaven." The confiding and susceptible spirit
of the artist easily became impressed with the beauties of
that morality which embraced humanity as a whole. The
sentiments of art with which his soul was imbued repulsed
all sophism, and the social life of the lodges resembled
the earliest Christian associations, with this exception,
that, instead of that contemplative idleness that saw no
religious labor save in fasting and prayer, was exercised a
robust and manly energy that found, in the acquirement
of useful knowledge and the engagement in actual labor,
a fitting outlet for that love of beauty and perception of
the sublime which are never better directed than in the
creations of art when employed for the glory of God.
The early Christian missionaries, not being actuated by
feelings of ambition, their doctrines were simple, pure,
and easily understood and appreciated by those whom
they addressed. Hence, to make themselves intelligible
and beloved by their companions in the lodge, they had
but to unfold before them the pure ordinances of primi-
tive Christianity; and when, as was often the case, they
were obliged to seek refuge in Scotland, in Ireland, or
among the Orkney Islands, there to live the lives of Coul-
deans,1 it was necessary, when the most simple interpreta-
iMany Christians who had sought refuge in Ireland, in Gaul, and the
Orkneys, habituated to every privationduring their apostolical excursions,
lived in solitude in those same caves and grottoes, in the sides of rocka
and mountains, which had been, before their time, inhabited by the
Druids, who there assembled to celebrate their religious rites; and from
which those Christians went forth only for the purpose of spreading the
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN BRITAIN. 43
tion of their doctrines was desired, to seek for it among
those northern heroes of the truth. It was in this man-
ner that Christianity in its greatest purity was better
preserved in Great Britain than in any other country.
As Christianity, in its new relations to the state, daily
increased in power, and demanded for its exercise the
erection of suitable buildings, the Freemason corpora-
tions found ample employment. Every-where Christian
Churches sprang up under the direction and active opera-
tions of these workmen. Constantine himself, who, imi-
tating his father in many of his acts and determinations,
made York his residence during the first years of his
reign, knew personally the principal members of those
corporations, extended to them every privilege they had
ever possessed or were at any time deprived of, and thus
they became the most effective and influential arm of the
public service.
The approaches of the Germans upon the Roman Em-
pire of the West became from day to day more menacing.
They did not content themselves, as was once their cus-
tom, with pillaging and retiring from such provinces as
they overran, but commenced to definitely establish them-
selves therein. Succeeding hordes pushed past those who
had arrived before them, and penetrated even beyond the
country possessed by the Romans; and it was from this
cause that Britain, rinding herself more and more isolated
from the protection of the continental empire, began to
look forward with more of fear than pleasure upon a day
of freedom from tKe Roman sway.
From the beginning of the third century the Romans
had to contend almost constantly with the mountaineer
of Scotland, a warlike people, the aborigines of their
Gospel among the people. It was from the name of those solitary
habitations that the title of Couldeans was given to those preachers
of Christianity; as, in the Gaelic language, the word couldean signifies
"hermit," or dweller in solitude
44 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
country, and who, like the "Welsh or Cambrians, had
never been conquered;1 and at length, menaced on every
hand, and wearied with the continued strife, the Western
emperor considered it prudent to remove to the southern
portion of his empire those forces which had hitherto
been reserved for the protection of Britain; and, by de-
crees, as they were required to protect his empire from
the inroads of the Goths, he withdrew his legions, and
with them his jurisdiction over the country — a jurisdic-
tion which he finally abdicated in the year 406. Thus
deserted by the Romans, the Britons called to their assist-
ance the Anglii and the Saxon pagans of the neighboring
continent, to protect them from the assaults of the Picts
and Scots and the northern pirates who infested their
coasts. These auxiliaries, however, became as injurious in
one sense as they were useful in another. They repulsed
the Scots, it is true, but they also fixed themselves in
the land and founded the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
Their gross barbarities made them the enemies of all
civilization. Cities and villages were destroyed, and the
flourishing prosperity that Britain enjoyed under the
Roman sway disappeared. The Christian and civilized
inhabitants fled to the mountains of Wales, to Scotland, or
to the isles beyond. It was among these refugees that the
ancient language of Britain was preserved, and with it
primitive Christianity and the knowledge of architecture
as practiced by the Masonic corporations.
After the first barbarous impetuosity of the Anglo-Sax-
ons had been calmed, and the more peaceful pursuits of
agriculture replaced the wars of robbers, some of these
Christian refugees withdrew from their mountain caves and
fortresses, and, returning to what were once their homes,
converted many among the pagan nobles and people,
xIt was not until between the years 1273 and 1307 that the Welsh
were finally conquered by Edward I, son of Henry III, and grandson
of John, the Nero of English kings. — Trans.
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN BRITAIN. 45
but as yet dreaded to approach the kings. And thus,
toward the close of the sixth century, the mild and fruit-
ful light of the primitive Christian doctrine began to
diffuse its gentle rays almost to the center of the seven
kingdoms. It was reserved for the Benedictine monks,
whom Pope Gregory I sent to England, to convert th
Anglo-Saxons, and at whose head presided Austin, a cele
brated priest-architect, to succeed in gradually converting
all the kings. It is true that these monks, prompted by
that spirit of temporal dominion which even at that early
age began to manifest itself in the Church, exerted their
best efforts to strengthen the power of the Pontiff and
enhance the possessions of the Holy See; but in these
operations they were at once met by the returned refu-
gees and their pupils, who had kept the early faith, doc-
trine, and practices of the primitive Church; and thus,
to a great extent, were the encroachments on that early
doctrine prevented, and abuses of power corrected. And
to this preservation of the primitive teachings of Chris-
tian apostles, in the midst of the Masonic corporations,
it is proper to attribute that better and more liberal spirit
that rendered the converts of the British Isles more fa-
vorably disposed toward the arts and sciences of those
days than were the inhabitants of the neighboring conti-
nent.
In accordance with the teachings of their founder, the
Benedictine monks worked more than they fasted or
prayed. Austin himself, the apostle of England and first
Archbishop of Canterbury, was no less celebrated for his
knowledge of architecture than for his other powers of
mind and varied acquirements; and it was he who, at
this time, began to rebuild and re-establish the ancient
Masonic corporations, now reduced, it may well be be-
lieved, to a very small number — indeed, entirely inade-
quate for those immense constructions projected by the
new apostles of Christianity. It was in this manner that
46 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY
at this time, in England as upon the continent, the lodges
became attached to the convents, and were more or less
governed by monks, according as the leading architects
were monks or lay brethren; and from this fact arose the
condition that lodges held their meetings almost exclu-
sively in the convents, where, if an abbot was proposed as
Master or Warden of a lodge, they addressed him as Wor-
shipful Brother or Worshipful Master, thus establishing a
mode of address which has descended even to our own
day as the usual one in speaking to or of the first officer
within a lodge.
After the close of the seventh century, both bishops and
abbots made frequent journeys to Rome, as well for the
purpose of collecting pictures and relics of saints as to in-
duce superior workmen to return with them and settle in
England. Such as did so, and all others who erected for
the nobles their castles and for the clergy their convents
and churches, were treated with the greatest consideration
by the principal men of the country, who concerted means
for establishing a taste for the arts and sciences. And in
this undertaking it was soon discovered that the senti-
ments of early art, as taught by Vitruvius, in the reign
of Csesar Augustus, had been better preserved among the
Masonic refugees from Anglo-Saxon murder and robbery
in the mountains of Wales and of Scotland, than among
any other of the peoples of either islands or continent.
In consequence of this discovery, it became necessary to
arrange anew the British lodges, and to compose them not
alone of companion architects and masons, but also of
influential men; and men who, advanced in civilization,
protected and loved the arts, began to take a position in
these lodges as accepted masons. The lodge at York was
revived and became the most important one in the coun-
try, and into it none were received as companions but free
men — thus establishing what is yet the principal charac-
teristic of this institution, to the end that no person, when
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN BRITAIN. 47
once admitted into its membership as an equal, could in
any manner be impeached in his possession of Masonic
privileges. It was at this time, also, that he who desired
elevation to the rank of master or teacher had to make
three voyages into strange countries, and prove to the
chief workmen, when he returned, that he had perfected
limself in a knowledge of the architecture peculiar to
.hose countries.
The superior knowledge of the workmen who had prac-
ticed their art among the early refugees in Scotland began
to be generally recognized at the beginning of the eighth
century, and to stamp its expression upon the buildings
erected in Britain. This fact produced a particular modi-
fication in the constitution of the lodges. While the gen-
eral assemblies of Masons occupied themselves with archi-
tecture of a general character, particular members of the
fraternity formed themselves into a separate organization,
that aimed to copy exclusively after the Scottish models,
and, for each important work, these admirable models
were most rigorously followed. From York, therefore,
these select masters, as they might properly be called,
made frequent journeys to Scotland, where a rendezvous
was fixed upon at which each of them might deliberate,
after he had arrived, upon the observations made by others
during their travels in the country, and record his own.
For this purpose was chosen the valley of Glenbeg, on the
north-east coast of Scotland, opposite the Isle of Skye.
Here there were two old castles, built in a remarkable
manner, of stone, with neither lime nor mortar, and which
appeared to have served as places of refuge in the wars
of earlier times. It was in these castles that the masters
assembled in council, and consequently they received th(
name of Masters of the Valley, or Scottish Masters. In
lodge assembled, when they returned, all deference was
paid them, as the most learned members of the fraternity,
and to them were intrusted the most particular parts of
48 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONRY.
each construction, or, in other words, the conscientious
adaptation and rendering of the Scottish models.
In this way, the Masonic corporations, in connection
with the convents and abbeys, became, after the fall of
the Roman empire, the great conservators of science and
art; and in so great esteem were the members of these
corporations held, that, notwithstanding the political in-
feriority of Britain at this time, these corporations were
found to create, by their invincible hardihood, a circle of
activity and influence that embraced nearly the whole west
of Europe. Whenever an apostle of the Christian religion
was sent to a distant mission, a body of builders invariably
accompanied him, and thus it was that a material edifice
soon bore witness to the advent of the spirit of truth.
During the invasion of the Danes, between the years
835 and 870, nearly all the convents, churches, and monas-
teries were destroyed by fire, and with them the records
and ancient documents of the lodges which had been
preserved in those convents. Fifty years afterward, the
king, Athelstan, desirous to rebuild these monuments of
the religion of his heart, directed his adopted son Edwin,
who had been taught the science of architecture, to as-
semble, in the year 926, in the city of York, all the lodges
of Freemasons scattered throughout the country, to the
end that they would reconstitute themselves according to
their ancient laws. This done, he confirmed to them all
the privileges which were possessed by the free Roman
colleges in the time of the republic. The constitution
that was at this time presented by the king to the assem-
bly of Masons, and which is called the Charter of York,
is imbued with the spirit of the first Christian communi-
ties, and proves, in its introduction, that the Masonic
corporations at this time were but little affected by any
of the peculiar doctrines which subsequently were pro-
mulgated by councils of the Church dominant.1
lSee the text of this Constitution, under the title "Charter of York.'
I
r
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN GAUL. 49
In those days it was customary to dedicate and conse-
crate to some saint every erection intended for the wor-
ship of God, and with the like idea all the corporations
of artists, artisans, and trades chose patron saints. The
Freemasons chose St. John the Baptist for theirs, because
his feast fell on the 24th of June, date of the summer
solstice. This day had always been celebrated by the
peoples of antiquity and by the Masons, since the founda-
tion of their fraternity, as the period of the year when,
the sun having attained its greatest height, nature is
clothed and disports herself in the greatest abundance of
her richest products. As successors of the ancient col-
leges of the Romans, the Freemasons of England con-
served these cherished feasts; but, not to come in conflict
with the dominant clergy, they were obliged to give their
celebration a name not calculated to give offense. It was
on this account they were known not exclusively by the
name of Freemasons, but often as the Fraternity of St.
John, and, upon the continent, almost exclusively as St.
John Brothers, or Brothers of St. John.
The Masonic Corporations in Gaul.
In the transalpine provinces of Gaul, the Masonic cor-
porations, cotemporaneous with those of Britain, increased
in a no less extraordinary manner. After the Roman
provinces were abandoned in the year 486, all the coun-
tries which had been subject to the Roman sway received
with delight the attention of these builders. In those
countries they were called Free Corporations, their mem-
bership being composed entirely of brother Masons.1 Com-
1See, for all that relates to the history of the society in France, first
tne Chronological Table, and then the Summary of the History of Free-
masonry in Gaul.
4
50 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
posed of the remains of the ancient colleges of constructors,
they maintained their antique organization in Lombardy,
where Cosmo had a celebrated school of architecture.
Here they multiplied to such an extent that they failed
to find occupation in that country, and consequently
spread over the continent. After obtaining from the
Popes the renewal of their ancient privileges, and the
exclusive monopoly of erecting, in ail Christendom, the
monuments dedicated to religious worship, they spread
into all Christian countries. And although the members
of these corporations had but little fear of, or respect for,
either the temporal or spiritual power of the Popes — a
fact which they took no care to hide — so useful were they
in enhancing the grandeur and dignity of religion, this
monopoly was, nevertheless, renewed and confirmed by
Pope Nicholas III, in the year 1277, and continued until
the year 1334, when Pope Benedict XII accorded to them
special diplomas. These diplomas made them free of all
local laws, all royal edicts, all municipal regulations, and
every other obligation to which the other inhabitants of
the country had to submit, thus rendering the title by
which they were known, of free corporations, peculiarly
appropriate. In addition to this freedom, these diplomas
conceded to them the right of communicating directly
with the Popes, of fixing the amounts of their own sal-
aries or wages, and of regulating in their general assem-
blies all subjects appertaining to their interior government.
All artists and artisans who were not members of these
corporations were interdicted from every act which would
in any wise interfere with the work of the builders, and
all sovereign rulers were commanded, as they dreaded the
thunders of the Church, to suppress, with the strong arm
of their power, any combination of such artists and art-
isans as might rebel against this provision.
During the middle ages, in all the kingdoms and princi-
palities of Europe, do we find these corporations or frater-
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN GAUL. 61
nities — in Germany, in France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal,
where, under the title of St. John Brothers, or Brothers
of St. John, they have erected these sublime monuments,
which, for all time, seem destined to remain as memen-
toes of their architectural skill and genius. Wherever
these corporations established themselves, they there in-
creased their influence by adopting, as patrons, the emi-
nent men of the locality, and initiating them as accepted
Masons into the bosom of their society. These, generally
laying aside the material object of the institution, which
for them had no charms, attached themselves to its mys-
tical sense, and founded, outside of the lodges of work-
men, lodges whose labors were entirely moral and philo-
sophic. But, almost immediately after becoming known
to the clergy, these lodges were met by that intolerant
spirit which superior knowledge, if unauthorized by the
Church, did, in those days of general ignorance, receive at
their hands, and the members of these lodges were ac-
cused of introducing schisms among the laity, and troubles
and sedition into the temporal sovereignty, disaffection
toward the Pontiff and all other sovereigns, and, in fine,
of the wish to re-establish the Order of the Knights Tem-
plar, and to revenge the death of the last Grand Master
and other officers of that Order upon the descendants of
the kings and princes who were accessory thereto. In
consequence of these charges, it is stated by a document
the authenticity of which has not yet been entirely estab-
lished, that the representatives of nineteen of those philo-
sophic lodges, located in different portions of Europe,
assembled at Cologne, in the year 1535, under the direc-
tion of Hermann V, Bishop of Cologne.1 At this meeting
there was prepared a confession of faith, in which were
enunciated the purposes and doctrines of these Masonic
societies. This document, called the " Charter of Cologne,"
1For presiding at this assembly, he was, some years subsequently, put
under the ban of the Church.
52 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
is dated 24th of June, 1535, and thereto are signed nine-
teen illustrious names, among which appear Philip Me-
lancthon, Bruce, Coligni, Falk, Yisieux, Stanhope, Jacobus
Prepositus, Yan Koock, and Noble — names of those pres-
ent at this assembly, as delegates from the Masonic lodges
of London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Paris, Vi-
enna, and other cities, to assist at this general assembly
convoked at Cologne. This charter is written upon a
sheet of parchment in Masonic characters, which are con-
tracted into the Latin of the middle ages, and the writ-
ing of which is so much defaced as to render some of the
words unintelligible. This charter, together with a docu-
ment, said" to be the records of a lodge called the " Lodge
of the Valley of Peace," from its organization to the year
1519, after the death of a member of the lodge, named
Boetzlaar, fell into the hands of Prince Frederick, Grand
Master of the lodges of Holland, who had copies of them
prepared and sent to the principallooges of Europe. The
persecutions of the ultramontane clergy, however, event-
ually destroyed the philosophic lodges of Southern and
Western Europe.
The Masonic Corporations in Germany.
During the fifteenth century there existed in Germany
a great number of lodges of operative Masons which,
following the example of the English lodges of the same
period, recognized a few principal lodges of master work-
men and architects, to whom they accorded the title of
high or grand lodges. These were in number five, and
were established at Cologne, Strasburg, Vienna, Zurich,
and Madgeburg. That at Cologne was from at first con-
sidered the most important, and the master of the work
upon the cathedral at Cologne was recognized as the chief
of all the masters and workmen of Lower Germany, as was
. 'S/zs fV/////vA /// f/', //?//,////?#
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN GERMANY. 53
the master of the work on the cathedral of Strasburg1
considered as occupying a similar position of honor in
Upper Germany. Subsequently there was established a
central mastership, and Strasburg, ' when the work upon
its great cathedral was continued to its completion, dis-
puted the pre-eminence with Cologne, whose cathedral is
yet unfinished, and became the seat of the grand master-
ship. The grand lodge of Strasburg counted within her
jurisdiction the lodges of France, Hesse, Swabia, Thurin-
gia, Franconia, and Bavaria ; while to the grand lodge of
Cologne were subordinate the lodges of Belgium and
neighboring portions of France. The grand lodge of
Vienna exercised jurisdiction over the lodges of Austria,
Hungary, and Styria; while those of Switzerland were
attached to the grand lodge of Berne during the con-
struction of the cathedral in that city, and subsequently
to that of Zurich, where its seat was transferred in 1502.
The lodges of Saxony, which from at first recognized the
supremacy of the grand lodge of Strasburg, were subse-
quently placed under that of Madgeburg.
These five grand lodges had a sovereign and inde-
pendent jurisdiction, and adjudged, without appeal, all
causes brought before them, according to the statutes of
the society. These ancient laws, revised by the chiefs of
the lodges, assembled at Ratisbonne on the 25th of April,
1459, and, for the first time, printed in 1464,2 were en-
titled "Statutes and Rules of the Fraternity of Stone-cutters
of Strasburg" Sanctioned by the Emperor Maximilian
in the year 1498, the constitution, composed of those
statutes and rules, was confirmed by Charles V in, 1520,
by Ferdinand in 1558, and their successors.
aErwin of Steinbach. He called together, at Strasburg, the Masonic
Congress of 1275. His seal is mentioned by Brother Clavel as being the
oldest arrangement of the compass, square, and letter G extant.— ^Trans.
2 This was about twenty-five years after the discovery of the art, o/
printing with moveable types. — Trans.
54 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Toward the close of the fifteenth century, however, the
crying abuses of the clergy and the Popes having cooled
the religious fervor and unsettled the faith of the people,
the construction of many churches was arrested for want
of necessary means to erect them. This led to the dis-
persion of the men engaged in erecting them, and imme-
diately following this change in public sentiment, burst
forth the reformation, led by Luther, which rent for the
time, almost to its foundation, the temporal and spiritual
power of the Popes, and, forever arresting the work upon
the vast monuments of worship, gave the death-blow to
the Masonic corporations in every portion of the European
continent. Gradually thenceforth the German lodges dis-
solved— those of Switzerland had been by an order of the
Helvetian Diet disbanded in 1522 — the jurisdiction of the
five grand lodges was narrowed to very confined limits,
and with nothing to construct, and nothing to adjudicate,
the Diet of the Empire, sitting at Patisbonne, abrogated,
by a law of the 16th of March, 1707, the authority of
these lodges, and ordained that the differences between
the workmen builders which might thereafter arise should
be submitted to the civil tribunals.
General Transformation of Freemasonry from an Opera-
tive to a Speculative or Philosophic Institution.
During the troubles which desolated England about the
middle of the seventeenth century, and after the death of
Charles I, in 1649, the Masonic corporations of England,
and more particularly those of Scotland, labored in secret
for the re- establishment of the throne destroyed by Crom-
well; and for this purpose they instituted many degrees
hitherto unknown and totally foreign to the spirit and na-
ture of Freemasonry, and which, in fact, gave to this time-
honored institution a character entirely political. The dis-
GENERAL TRANSFORMATION OF FREEMASONRY. 55
cussions to which this country was a prey had already pro-
duced a separation between the operative and accepted Ma-
sons. The latter were honorary members, who, according
to long established usage, had been accepted into the society
for the advantage which their generally influential position
in the country might effect; but this very position made
them at this time naturally the adherents of the throne
and the strong supporters of Charles II, who during his
exile was received as an accepted Mason by their election,
and, in consequence of the benefits he derived from the
society, gave to Masonry the title of Royal Art; because
it was mainly by its instrumentality that he was raised to
the throne and monarchy restored to England.
Notwithstanding, however, the favor with which it was
regarded by the king, Freemasonry, during the latter part
of the seventeenth century, decreased to such a degree
that in 1703 but four lodges existed in the city of Lon-
don, while throughout Great Britain at that time none
other were known to the members, who, reduced to the
smallest number, attended the meetings of these. In fact,
with the completion of St. Paul's Cathedral, the city of
London was considered rebuilt, and the occupation of the
operative Masons seemed to have been brought to a close;
while the accepted Masons, having obtained the object of
their desire in the restoration of the monarchy, neglected
the communion they had previously kept up with the
operative members of the institution. Hence we find that
in the year 1703 the lodge of St. Paul — so named because
the operative Masons engaged in the erection of the cathe-
dral held their lodge in a building situated in the church-
yard or grounds thereof — passed an important resolution
the object of which was to augment the numbers of the
fraternity, and to give the Masonic institution some of its
former importance in public estimation. Here, having
agreed that they should continue the existence of so
praiseworthy an institution to be used as the conservator
56 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
of religion and tradition, and perpetuate, by the beautifu,
allegories of its legends and symbols, its eminently hu-
manitarian doctrines, they for this purpose adopted the
following memorable resolution:
" Resolved, That the privileges of Masonry shall no longer
be confined to operative Masons, but be free to men of all pro-
fessions, provided that they are regularly approved and ini-
tiated into the fraternity."
This important decision changed entirely the face of the
society, and transformed it into what we find it to-day;
but many difficulties had to be removed, many years of
probation had to be passed before this form of its work-
ings could be successfully adopted. This was owing, first,
to the want of union among the four lodges; second, to
the exceedingly disreputable character which, for many
years, had attached to the society — it having degenerated
from an influential and privileged institution to little
better than a pot-house companionship, with here and
there a proud few who remembered its glories of other
days — but perhaps, above all, the determined oppositioa
of the Grand Master, Sir Christopher Wren, the archi-
tect of the new city of London, to the spirit of the inno-
vating resolution. This opposition he maintained until
his death; so that it was not until after that event, which
occurred in 1716, that the four lodges which still existed,
more in name than in fact, felt themselves at liberty to
assemble their membership with the primary object of
electing a new Grand Master, but more particularly to
detach themselves from all connection with the lodge at
York, that had for fifty years enjoyed but a nominal exist-
ence, and to put into active operation the decision involved
in the resolution of 1W3.
In that assembly, after electing the Master of St. Paul's
Lodge, Anthony Sayre, to the office of Grand Master,
there were gathered up the " Constitution and Charges of a
Freemason" which, subsequently prefaced by a " History of
GENERAL TRANSFORMATION OF FREEMASONRY. 57
Freemasonry," prepared by Dr. Anderson, were accepted,
sanctioned, and printed in 1723, under the title of "The
Constitution and Charges of the Ancient and Hespectable Fra-
ternity of Freemasons." And it is the date of this publica-
tion that may properly be considered the commencement
of exclusively speculative or modern Freemasonry. The
principle of civilization indwelling in the doctrines and
pursuits of Masonry, after having burst the bonds which
kept it grasped in the stiff embrace of a mechanical asso-
ciation, at once abandoning itself to all its powers of ex-
pansion, almost immediately penetrated the heart of the
social system, and animated it with a new life. The new
Freemasonry, in the short space of twenty-five years,
spread itself in a manner but little less than miraculous
into nearly every portion of the civilized world. It
passed from England to France as early as 1725, thence
to Belgium, to Holland, to Germany, to America, subse-
quently to Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, to Sweden,
and to Poland; and, as early as 1740, were to be found
lodges in Denmark, in Bohemia, in Russia, in the Antilles,
in Africa, and in the British possessions in Hindostan.
If Freemasonry has ceased to erect temples ; if it has
ceased to engage in material architecture; if it no longer
exhibits itself in the elevation of spires and turrets as
points from which eyes may be directed and hopes ascend
toward a better and a happier world, it has not less con-
tinued its work of moral and intellectual culture; and its
success in this respect has been far more satisfactory than
those who planned its design as a speculative institution
ever hoped to achieve. In all time it has exercised a power-
ful and happy influence upon social progress; and if to-
day, instead of holding itself at the head of all secular
societies, it is known in some countries but to be rejected
and despised, this condition is owing to the destruction of
that uniformity and oneness of purpose which constituted
its fundamental recommendation; and this destruction ia
58 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
due to the innovations introduced by ambitious and design-
ing men for motives of personal influence and advancement,
and in defiance of their solemn asseverations that it was
not within the power of its membership to introduce inno-
vations into the body of Freemasonry. But even here it
has shown the immortality of its spirit; for, notwithstand-
ing the multiplicity of rites which have been forced upon
it, and the ceremonial degrees which have been added to
it — thus dividing its strength, causing grave inconvenience,
choking the sources of accurate information as to its origin
and history, and creating useless and unsatisfactory dis-
tinctions among its members — that excellent spirit which
its earliest teachings engender and subsequent culture
fosters is ever exhibited in a fraternal regard for each
other when the brethren meet in their popular assembly,
and there lay aside " all distinctions save that noble dis-
tinction, or rather emulation, of who can best work and
best agree."
^ </£n*f£*£
DIVERS OPINIONS UPON THE ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY. 59
DIVERS OPINIONS UPON THE ORIGIN OF FREEMA-
SONRY— ITS DOCTRINES, ITS OBJECT,
AND ITS FUTURE.
The origin of Freemasonry has been, for a long time,
vague and obscure. And while it is to this obscurity in
its history, augmented by the multiplicity of systems
which have been introduced, that it is necessary to attrib-
ute the contradictory opinions as to its origin held by
those who have written upon that subject, it is, however,
due to the scientific researches of a few Masonic historians
who have entered this field of darkness with the deter-
mination to lay aside all the commonly received opinions
and traditions upon the subject, that at the present day
this obscurity has disappeared.
By the connection that its forms of initiation present
with the Egyptian Mysteries, and with many societies and
philanthropical schools of antiquity — the Dyonisian, the
Therapeutic, the Essenian, the Pythagorean — some authors
have believed that within one or several of those societies
might be found the cradle of Freemasonry; while others,
led into error by the symbols and passwords of Hebrew
origin, have pretended that its birth had place at the build-
ing of Solomon's Temple, of which the books of Kings
and of Chronicles, as found in the Old Testament, afford
us such precise details. This temple, erected in the year
1012, before the Christian era, by king Solomon, who was,
no doubt, Master of the Hebrew Mysteries — a type of the
Egyptian — and nine years afterward dedicated by him to
60 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
the glory of the one only and ever-living God, was the first
national manifestation of an only God ever erected. From
the pointed bearing of this fact, and as a masterpiece of
gorgeous architecture, representing in perfection the image
and harmony of the universe, this temple has ever sym-
bolized in Freemasonry the moral excellence to which
very brother is in duty bound to carry his perfected
work. Losing sight, however, of this aspect of the mat-
ter, as well as of the fact that all the teachings of an-
tiquity were invariably clothed in allegories and illustrated
by symbols, many authors, and following them the mass
of the brethren, have accepted the teachings of Masonry
and the legends of the degrees not as allegories, but as
actual occurrences, and have inextricably entangled them-
selves in their endeavors to explain them as such.
Another peculiarity which has, above all, contributed to
induce error in the researches into the origin of the so-
ciety, is the difference presented by the forms of initiation;
that of the first degree being evidently borrowed from the
Egyptian, while those of the second and third belong en-
tirely to the Hebrew mysteries. This difference, however,
will be easily understood, when it is known that Numa
Pompilius organized his colleges of constructors as a fra-
ternity of artists and artisans, and, at the same time, as
a religious society. When so organized, the greater num-
ber of the colleges, finding themselves composed of Greeks
who had been initiated into the mysteries of their country,
imitated in their worship the form of initiation practiced
in those mysteries; but when, some seven hundred years
afterward, in the time of Julius Csesar, the Jews were pro-
tected at Rome and granted many immunities, among
which were the privilege of setting up their synagogues,
a great many Hebrew artists and artisans were affiliated
in those colleges, and in their turn introduced a part of
the Hebrew mysteries, and with them their own beautiful
allegories, among which that of the third degree was chief.
DIVERS OPINIONS UPON THE ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY. 61
It is true that the forms of initiation practiced in our
day probably bear very little resemblance to those which
were in use among the Roman colleges of builders, and
that these forms have often been changed or modified to
suit the country and the men who found themselves at
the head of the fraternity ; nevertheless, it is certain tha
a fixed and unchanged foundation has always religiously
been preserved. The rituals which were established at
London in 1650, as well as those of 1717, seem to have
been based upon the Anglo-Saxon documents, arranged
by the General Assembly at York in the year 926. It
will be remembered that the fraternity in 1650, the year
after the bloody execution of Charles I, and when the
accepted Masons had acquired such influence in the insti-
tution, had, to some considerable extent, and, in 1717, to
a far greater degree, abandoned the material object of the
association, and the members thereof having submitted, at
their initiation into the two first degrees, to all the proofs
required of the Master, the allegory of Hebrew origin and
the summit of Hebrew mystery was always preserved as
the proper illustration for the third degree, susceptible,
as it is, of a local interpretation that satisfies men of
every worship.1
Notwithstanding the connection that so evidently exists
between the ancient mysteries and the Freemasonry of
our day, the latter should be considered an imitation
1 Such historians as attribute to the partisans of the Stuarts the in-
stitution of Freemasonry, and who constantly believe that this allegory
portrays the violent death of Charles I, are in error; for it requires but
a very limited knowledge of the ancient mysteries to see in Hiram, the
master workman, the Osiris of the Egyptians, the Mithras of the Per
sians, the Bacchus of the Greeks, the Atys of the Phrygians, or the
Balder of the Scandinavians, of whom these people celebrated the pas-
sion, violent death, and resurrection as the Roman clergy of to-day, in
the sacrifice of the Mass, celebrate the passion, violent death, and resur-
rection of Jesus Christ. Otherwise, this is the type eternal of all the
religions which have succeeded each other upon the earth.
62 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
rather than a continuation of those ancient mysteries ; for
initiation into them was the entering of a school wherein
were taught art, science, morals, law, philosophy, philan-
thropy, and the wonders and worship of nature; while
the mysteries of Freemasonry are but a resume of divine
md human wisdom and morality — that is to say, of all
hose perfections which, when practiced, bring man nearest
to God. Freemasonry of to-day is that universal morality
that attaches itself to the inhabitants of all climes — to the
men of every worship. In this sense, the Freemason re-
ceives not the law, he gives it ; because the morality Free-
masonry teaches is unchanging, more extended and uni-
versal than any native or sectarian religion can be; for
these, always exclusive, class men who differ from them
as pagans, idolaters, schismatics, heretics, or infidels; while
Masonry sees nothing in such religionists but brothers, to
whom its temple is open, that by the knowledge of the
truth therein to be acquired they may be made free from
the prejudices of their country or the errors of their
fathers, and taught to love and succor each other. Free-
masonry decries error and flies from it, yet neither hates
nor persecutes. In fine, the real object of this association
may be summed up in these words : To efface from among
men the prejudices of caste, the conventional distinctions
of color, origin, opinion, nationality; to annihilate fanat-
icism and superstition ; extirpate national discord, and
with it extinguish the firebrand of war; in a word, to ar-
rive, by free and pacific progress, at one formula or model
of eternal and universal right, according to which each
individual human being shall be free to develop every
faculty with which he may be endowed, and to concur
heartily and with all the fullness of his strength in the
bestowment of happiness upon all, and thus to make of
the whole human race one family of brothers, united by
affection, wisdom, and labor.
Slowly and painfully does the highest condition of
DIVERS OPINIONS UPON THE ORIGIN OP FREEMASONRY. 63
human knowledge accomplish its great revolution around
the glittering axis of truth. The march is long, and since
it began nations and peoples have lived and died ; but
when that journey is accomplished, and the incarnation of
truth, now robed but in its symbol, shall appear in all
the splendor of its brilliant nudity, truth's torch itself
hall then enlighten the world, the doctrine that has just
been announced shall become the religion of all the peo-
ples of the earth, and then, and not till then, will be
realized that sublime ideal now mysteriously hidden in
the symbol of Freemasonry.
That day is, without doubt, yet far distant; but it will
arrive. Its coming is marked by destiny and in the order
of the centuries. Already, in the sacred balance of eter-
nal justice, is seen each day to diminish a portion of the
errors of the people, and to increase the body of light,
of principle, and those truths which are preparing the
way for its triumph, and which, one day, will give assur-
ance of its reign.
^^t**<^^^i^2^o^
/f ;r?-^
64 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY OF THE MASONIC CORPORA-
TIONS IN GAUL, FROM THEIR INTRODUCTION IN
THE YEAR 60 B, C, TO THEIR DISSOLUTION
IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
After ten years of unavailing war, the old Gallic na-
tionality perished. All had to submit to the great genius
of Julius Caesar — the most beautiful devotion as well as
the most indomitable courage. It was in vain that the
three hundred and fifty tribes of the Gauls, the Bellovici
and the Carnutes, the Aedui and the Bituriges, the Treviri
and the Arverni, had disputed with him, step by step, the
possession of their territory. The Roman legions, sur-
mounting every obstacle, filling up swamps, breaking out
roads, and traveling securely through dense forests, took
possession of nearly every town and village to which they
laid siege, and gained nearly every battle which they
fought. After having exhausted themselves in vain ef-
forts for the defense of Alise and TJxellodunum,2 Gaul
1 Shortly before this period, some brigades of Companion Constructors,
with their masters at their head, accompanied the Roman legions into
the middle of Gaul and into Spain, and there had erected some towns :
Cordova, for example. But it was not until Caesar's time that the col-
leges, complete in all their appointments, were called by him to recon
Btruct the destroyed cities.
%Alise is supposed by some to be now called Iselburg, or, according to
Junius, Wesel, in the duchy of Cleves, but more probably Elsen — Index
to Casars Comments. The situation of TJxellodunum is not now known,
though, in the opinion of some geographers, it was the modern Ussoldun.
'—Ibid. (Note by Translator.)
' 6%
%r rrf////Y/fY// ar<J?4€tt
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN GAUL. 65
forced into her last intrenchments, was obliged to submit
to the yoke of the conqueror; and thus, despite of her-
self, she became one of the most rich and beautiful prov-
inces of the vast Roman Empire.
According to Plutarch, Csesar, for the purpose of bring-
ing to a successful conclusion his long and perilous enter-
prise, had taken more than eight hundred towns, con-
quered more than three millions of men — of whom one
million perished in battle, and another million was re-
duced to captivity — but, finally, in the year 60 B. C, the
work of conquest was achieved.
Csesar treated the conquered country with extreme mod-
eration. He left to Gaul her territory, her habitations,
and the essential forms of her government. He accorded
to her people even the title and rights of Roman citizens,
with the sole condition that they should pay tribute.
Little by little the old Gauls abandoned their rude and
savage manners for those soft and polished of their con-
querors. They forsook their antique oppida, difficult of
access, for cities embellished and adorned with elegant
constructions, and upon favorable spots, desolated by war,
arose cities and towns equaling those of Italy. Augusto-
dunum replaced Bibracte, and Augusto-nemetum was built
near Gergovia. The new cities, built under the direction
of the corporations of constructors, who were partly at-
tached to the Roman legions, took names from the lan-
guage of their builders, and received from Rome priests
and magistrates. Immediately sumptuous edifices arose
upon the sacred places; beautiful statues, modeled by
Graeco-Latin art, are substituted for the rude effigies of
the Celtic divinities; swamps filled with reeds, and lands
covered with briars, are converted into beautiful fields and
meadows; the forests are cleared and the soil cultivated
to rival the most beautiful countries on the thither side
of the Alps. Numerous roads open up communication
with all parts; the rivers are furrowed with boats, and
5
66 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
the ocean with richly-laden ships, like those of the Medi-
terranean; commerce is extended, fabrics of every kind
begin to be manufactured; and, in fine, the various prod-
ucts of the country are carried into every province of
the vast empire.
Since the time of Csesar, Gaul had been furrowed with
oads, but it remained until the reign of Augustus to con-
nect them with those which had been constructed in the
neighboring provinces. That Emperor, for the immense
work that the conquest reclaimed, ordered from beyond
Cisalpine Gaul, (Venice and Lombardy,) and even from
Rome itself, all the builders and artisans, members of the
colleges of constructors, which could be spared. These
corporations conserved their important privileges, and in
Gaul considerably augmented their organization. One
portion occupied themselves with the construction of the
roads, and directed the Roman soldiers in their labors.
Another was more particularly charged with the work on
fortifications and intrenched camps, and the latter were
generally attached to the legions. Other colleges, com-
posed of artist constructors in wood, and mechanics,
built, at Massilia (Marseilles), and at Frejus, ships and
boats for the service of the state; while another class of
those colleges were occupied exclusively in the erection
of public temples and monuments; and, finally, yet an-
other in constructing bridges and aqueducts. It was
under the orders of Agrippa that the latter class con-
structed the most beautiful paved roads which crossed
Gaul in every direction. Among these may be reckoned
the Via Domitia, that traversed Savoy and Provence (this
road was originally constructed under the directions of
Pompey, in the year 45 B. C, and extended from Italy
almost into Gaul, toward the Alps) ; the Via Aurelia, which
starting from Civita Yecchia (Forum Aurelia), to Aries;
that of Emporium, from near the Pyrenees to the passage
of the Rhone; finally the road which, ending at Lyons,
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN GAUL. 67
after having passed through the valley of Aosta, contin-
ued, by order of Agrippa, in four different directions — .
viz.: the first into Aquitania (Guienne and Gascony), by
the Auvergne; the second to the Rhine, by the mouth
of the Meuse; the third to Laon, by Burgundy and Pi-
cardy, and the fourth to Marseilles, by Carbon ne. These
were the principal roads; but there were a great many
others which connected the different towns and villages.
Lugdunum (Lyons) was to Gaul what the City of Home
was to the rest of the universe, the center wherein termi-
nated all the principal roads of the country. As at Rome
was there to be seen at Lyons the great milestone or col-
umn from which all roads were measured, and upon which
the distance to every point along each road was marked.
The great Roman roads were marked at regular distances,
by milestones (milliarii lapides), of from five to eight feet
high, upon which was indicated the number of the stone,
and the distances given in miles and leagues.
A means of pacification employed by the Roman Em-
peror was to found a great number of military colonies.
Entrusted with the task of keeping quiet their most tur-
bulent neighboring countries, and with the defense of
their frontier against the aggressions of the Germans,
these colonies, which have given birth in nearly all the
provinces to the cities of the present day, were in daily
communication with the inhabitants of the neighboring
country, transmitting to them their ideas of taste and
cultivation. Composed of Roman citizens, they enjoyed
the same rights and privileges to which they were accus-
tomed in Italy.
The Emperor Augustus, after having regulated, at Narbo-
Martms fNarbonne), in the year 27 B. C, the assessment
of imposts and the administration of the interior, after
having established schools and adapted the laws to the
wants of the people, occupied himself in directing the
construction, in many of the cities, in Narbon ne and Lyons,
68 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
particularly, by the colleges of architects, roads, aqueducts,
entreDclied camps, etc. From that date the prosperity of
Lyons may be said to have begun. Under the Roman
rule this city became the capital of Gaul, the seat of gov-
ernment, the imperial residence during the voyages of
Augustus, and those of most the successors to his reign.
Caesar and Augustus, moreover, accepted the patronage
of a number of towns which took their names from the
Julian and Augustan families, and which enjoyed many
privileges.
The ancient cities, such as Marseilles, Aries, Aix, !N~ar-
bonne, etc., were ornamented, in a considerable degree,
by monuments; while, by the prodigious activity of the
colleges of constructors, upon the sites of ancient towns,
destroyed in the wars, arose new cities, in the construction
of which both Roman soldier and native population lent
their aid.
Among this crowd of cities, the most important were
Rheims, Rouen, Bourges, Sens, Bourdeaux, Besan^on,
Lyons, Yienne, Toulouse, Paris, and Treves, and the last-
named was chosen latterly as the residence of the gover-
nors of Gaul. Those cities were organized exactly upon
the plan of Rome, wherein reposed the center of govern-
ment. Each of them had its forum, its capitol, its thea-
ters, its amphitheater, its temples, its cathedrals, its streets
and aqueducts, and also its schools, wherein were taught
polite literature, science, and art with a success that ri-
valed that of Athens under Pericles, and Rome under Au-
gustus himself.
The spectacle that Gaul presented under the dominion
of the twelve Caesars is of the highest interest. The col-
leges of architects, composed generally of artists and men
versed in all the sciences, had contributed to this elevated
degree as much by the great number of monuments which
they had erected in the principal Gallic cities, under the
reign of Augustus, as by their learning and their humani-
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN GAUL. 69
tarian principles. In this manner the fraternity had at-
tained to a condition of such consideration that men the
most distinguished regarded it a high privilege to be ac-
cepted among them as honorary members. At this time
many of the most illustrious patricians, prefering Gaul to
Italy as a residence, Agrippa, Drusus, Tiberias, and the
richest among the citizens of Rome, sought governorships
in that country preferably to any other. In fine, the
Roman institutions, manners, letters, and arts transplanted
to this soil attained a development as abundant as in the
most flourishing of the years known to Italy herself.
It should be remarked that all of these productions of
intelligence were forwarded or retarded, however, by the
condition of reigning emperor — the good ruler working
for the good of the provinces as well as for that condition
of Rome herself, while the evil-disposed ruler burdened
them with imposts and vexatious grievances.
Almost to the fourth century the arts, and particularly
architecture, were very flourishing in the province of
Gaul. From the time of Constantine, almost to the defeat
of Syagrius, the emperors continued to visit the country
to defend it against the incessant invasions of the Ger-
mans, Saxons, Burgundians, Herulians, etc. But the
Franks, of all its invaders, appeared to be the most re-
doubtable and persistent. No defeats damped their cour-
age until the year 355, of our era, when Julian, having
overthrown them in the most signal manner, removed his
residence to Lutesia (Paris), and caused there to be con-
structed an immense palace, the ruins of the baths of
which may be seen, in the Rue de la Harpe, to this day.
Under the emperors who succeeded him, however, the
aggressions became more active and audacious, and the
ravages more terrible. The imperial power lost each
year, each day, a portion of its prestige. Stilicon yet sus-
tained the power of Honorius, in Gaul; but, after him,
the Sclaves, the Alans, and the Huns pillaged and devas-
70 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
tated the country without pity and without mercy. The
Visigoths and the Burgundians undertook even to estab-
lish themselves in the land. Adolph, king of the Goths,
fought the German hordes for some time with variable
success, but he was, in his turn, chased from Narbonne
and finally driven from the south by Constance, a gen-
eral commanding the army of Honorius. It was in this
war that the greater portion of the beautiful monuments
erected by the Roman colleges were destroyed — monu-
ments the beauty and symmetry of which we can yet
judge by the existing remains of the amphitheaters at
Aries, at Frejus, Nemes, etc., the aqueducts of the Pont
du Gard, at Lyons, and those of neighboring cities.
Honorius reorganized the Gauls, and Aries became the
capital. In a proclamation, he invited the people to con-
struct twenty-four of their destroyed cities, to rebuild
their bridges, and re-establish their roads. For this pur-
pose, he sent into all parts of the country which had
been overrun by the barbaric hordes artist constructors, to
guide the workmen and direct them in their labors. But
all of these ameliorations endured for but a short time;
the barbarous nations continued their invasions, and the
Franks finally triumphed. It was in vain that Actius
fought the Visigoths, repulsed the Burgundians, defied
Attila. It was in vain that Majorien retook Lyons from
Theodoric; the Franks seized upon Mayence, Treves, and
Cologne, destroyed their principal edifices, and heaped
ruin upon ruin. They established themselves at Tour-
nay, and from thence advanced, step by step, over the
territory of the empire. In fine, Clovis appeared, and
Gaul was forever withdrawn from Roman domination.
Then it was that a new art erected itself upon the old
ruins, established itself upon a new basis, and developed
itself, marked with some material elements of the past,
but reinvested with another sjmbol.
The Masonic corporations which had been formed out-
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN GAUL. 71
side of the legions who settled in Gaul — and their number
was considerable — after the retreat of the Romans in the
year 486, remained in the country. For years they had
been in the habit of receiving into their membership many
of the Gauls. Many members of these corporations em-
braced Christianity, which, in Gaul, since the beginning
of the third century, had numerous partisans. No longer
exclusively employed by the government, and their privi-
leges consequently having decreased, a change operated in
their organization. The different arts and trades which,
almost to that time, had been united in one fraternity,
separated and formed distinct corporations; and it was
among these corporations that, much degenerated, were
found to exist the manners and customs of the Roman
colleges of constructors, and which, subsequently, served
as a basis for the communes of the middle ages. Among
them the corporations of Masons were at all times the
most important, because they conserved their primitive
organization and privileges, and continued to devote them-
selves particularly to the construction of religious edifices.
Intrusted by the new apostles, who, in the year 257, came
from Rome, bearing the. title of bishops, with the construc-
tion of the religious edifices then in course of erection at
Amiens, Beauvais, Soissons, Rheims, and Paris, these
Christian Masons, guided by those apostles, and inspired
by them with a horror of pagan temples, wrought with
zeal in the destruction of the enormous number of edifices
and works of art that the wars and the invasions had not
yet destroyed, and of which there existed many remains.
In this manner the earth became the sepulcher of all the
remains of centuries of early art.
. Under the reign of Childeric (460-481), of Clovis (481-
511), of Clothaire (511-561), many churches were built
upon the ruins of the pagan temples, and, at the close of
the sixth century, a great many existed. During the in-
ternational wars, the invasions of barbarians and social
72 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
struggles of the people, the study of science and the prac-
tice of the divers branches of the arts, found place alone
in the monasteries, wherein, above all, were cultivated
architecture, sculpture, and painting. So that wherever
the erection of a church was contemplated, the plan was
furnished by an ecclesiastic — a member of the Masonic
corporations — and the work was executed under his direc-
tion. St. Eloi, Bishop of Noyen (659), St. Eerol, of Limo-
ges, Dalmac, Bishop of Rhodes, and Agricola, Bishop of
Chalons (680-700), were the celebrated architects. But
the corporations had equally good from among the laity,
of which the most renowned had gone to England, having
been engaged by the Bishop of Weymouth, who came to
Gaul to seek such ; and, later, Charles Martel, who ruled
(740) in France under the title of "Major of the Palace,"
sent many masters and workmen to England upon the
demands of the Anglo-Saxon kings.
The invasion of the Arabs (718) arrested the flight that
the arts had taken in the seventh century, and it was
not until the reign of Charlemagne (768-814) that stone-
cutters and sculptors were ordered from Lombardy, and
architecture was again cultivated with success. The quali-
fication of stone-cutter, or master of the work, was then
given to the greatest architects of Europe, and whoever
wished to become an architect found it necessary to be
received into the corporation to learn the art of stone-
cutting — that branch of architecture being considered the
basis of the art — not, however, to be considered or re-
ceived as a master until he had passed through many de-
grees of apprenticeship. It was in the Latin style that
all edifices of the time were erected. The Roman and
Roman-ogee, or transition, styles succeeded it.1
1A11 the monuments constructed by Masonic corporations were erected
after certain forms and rules which are called style. The style was
adopted by the architects or chiefs, and all the masters had to conform
I-
&
I
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN GAUL. 73
The year 1000, so much dreaded, arrived. It should
have brought the reign of Anti-Christ and the end of
the world's existence ; but no inundation had flooded nor
earthquakes shaken our globe from its axis, although the
terror entertained by the Christian world, that its destruc-
tion was merely deferred, was not dissipated for near!}
three years afterward. At the expiration of that time,
however, the most skeptical felt they had nothing further
to fear, and this belief was hailed as the aurora of a new
earth. Art as well as humanity arose from its long leth-
argy and gave evidence of the vitality of its being. The
desire to repair the disasters of years became general, and
soon made itself felt in the reconstruction of nearly all
the religious edifices of the Christian world. William
the Conqueror, King of England in 1054, influenced in
some degree by the stream of Norman priests and archi-
tects that flowed into England during his reign — gradu-
ates all of the school of the Lombards — built the finest
and most stupendous cathedrals of England. A great
number of Masons had, at this time, formed an Italian
school in Lombardy, which, in the seventeenth century,
was an active center of civilization, and where some frag-
ments of the ancient Roman colleges of builders had lo-
cated themselves, and enjoyed their antique organization
to it. There may be enumerated four periods in which each style is
marked by a form or style different from the other.
In the first period, it was the Latin style that prevailed, from the fourth
to the eleventh century; subsequently the Roman style, during the elev-
enth and first half of the twelfth.
In the second period, it is the Roman-ogee, or transition Roman style,
that prevailed, from 1150 to 1200.
In the third period, it was the primary ogival style that prevailed ii
the thirteenth century, the secondary in the fourteenth, and the tertiary
in the fifteenth centuries.
In the fourth period, it was the style called the Renaissance, or an-
cient Latin revived, that prevailed to the close of the sixteenth and dur«
ing the seventeenth centuries.
74 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
and privileges, under the name of Free Corporations. The
most celebrated were those of Como, which had acquired
so great a degree of superiority that the title of "Magistn
Comacini" or Masters of Como, had become the generic
name of all the members of the architect corporations.
They always taught in secret, and had their own judiciary
and mysteries.
While they had been laboring to cover Lombardy with
religious edifices, their number had so greatly increased
that, this work accomplished, the country failed to afford
employment foi\ all, and, in consequence, many united in
the formation of a great Fraternity, having for its object
to travel into all Christian ^countries, and therein erect
religious edifices. This design was earnestly and ably sec-
onded by the Popes, who conferred upon the corporations
and upon those who, with the same object, followed in
their train, the exclusive monopoly — mentioned in an-
other part of this work — which was respected and sanc-
tioned by the kings of such countries.
In the eleventh century we find them again in France,
where they are known under the name of Brother Masons
and Brother Bridgers, and sometimes, also, under that of
Freemasons. Employed and directed almost exclusively
by the religious orders, the abbots and prelates held it an
honor to enter into membership with the Fraternity, and
to participate in their secrets, and thus greatly promoted
the stability and consideration accorded to the institution.
The numbers of the Mason Fraternity were united by
mutual obligations of hospitality, succor, and good offices,
and thus they were enabled to make, at small expense,
the most lengthy journeys in the pursuit of employ
ment.
The Bridgers, or Bridge-building Fraternity, who formed
a community, civil and religious, resembling that of the
ancient Roman colleges, occupied themselves more par-
ticularly with that which concerned bridges. It was them
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN GAUL. 75
who built the bridge at Avignon (1180), and nearly all the
bridges of Provence, Lorraine, and Lyons.
The architect-in-chief of the corporation of Freemasons
was generally a Benedictine monk, and supported by men
of all the principal nationalities — Italy, England, France,
Holland, Germany, and Greece — who, during the construe
tion of some more masterly production than usual, found
it necessary to travel much from country to country.
The workmen dwelt, upon these occasions, in barracks
erected for their convenience, near by the edifice in course
of construction, and generally upon a high or rising
ground. The master directed all. Ten men were always
under the surveillance of a chief, and none but actual
Freemasons participated in the work, and who, when
their task was in that locality accomplished, sought their
fortunes elsewhere. In nearly every instance they were
ably seconded by the people of the neighborhood, who
freely carried to the spot the necessary materials in the
rough which were used in the construction of the edifice,
and also by the nobles, who gave them money and pro-
visions necessary for their support. AH of the principal
cities had their corporations of workmen, who, in addition
to their rights as citizens, had their own fundamental and
special laws, as corporate societies.
It was in the reigns of Philip Augustus (1180 to 1223),
and of St. Louis (1226-1270), that were conceived the
majority of these magnificent cathedrals that can be called
by no lesser name than sublime sanctuaries of an all-pow-
erful God ; grand conceptions of Christian genius as poems
written out in the faith and by the hand of those Mason
philosophers. In the eyes of the vulgar, these monuments
are but masses of stone regularly heaped together; their
forms present to such nothing beyond the expression of
an idea indicating a temple, a palace, or other form of
edifice; but to the eye of the philosopher, this form had
a mission more noble and elevated — that of transmitting
76 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
to future generations the ideas, manners, and civilizing
progress of the day and generation, and of faithfully re-
flecting the image and sentiments indicative of the then
civil and religious knowledge of the peoples. Thus the
varied genius which had conceived and executed the tem-
ples, as well of antiquity as the middle ages, gave expres-
sion to the spirit of the times, while each of these monu-
ments seems animated with the soul of its author.
Without entering into the details of these gigantic con-
ceptions, such as we find expressed in the cathedrals of
Cologne, Strasburg, Paris, and many others, let us pause
a moment to grasp their grandness as majestic edifices,
and we will discover ourselves lost in surprise at the
hardihood evinced by the builder in his harmonious blend-
ing of diametrically opposite elements. But, when we
perceive that a principle — individual, original, and in-
genious, disposing of even the smallest parts and descend-
ing to the arrangement of the most minute details — rules
and imparts to the whole an unrivaled strength and
beauty, our souls are ravished with unbounded admira-
tion.
The principle of repetition and regular variation from
a fundamental form that is observable in the interior of
these monuments, has been uniformly followed in the
formation of all the other members in the exterior of the
edifice. By all the type of the whole is represented in
the parts; and thus we find, in the compositions of these
architect philosophers, a marvelous principle of develop-
ment from a few fundamental forms, proceeding from the
simple to the composite, such as Haiiy, in his treatise on
Mineralogy, demonstrates as the principle of crystalliza-
tion, and such as Goethe, in his " Naturwissenschaft und
Morphologie," discovered in plants, as the principle of
vegetable metamorphosis.
The ties of union which existed among the member-
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN GAUL. 77
ship of Freemasons, explains how and why there appears
such a striking identity of expression among the various
monuments erected by them in the different countries of
Europe, and above all, among those erected during the
thirteenth century. The masters of the work (architects)
of all the religious edifices of the Latin Church had ob-
tained their knowledge at the same central school ; they
were obedient to the laws of the same hierarchy; they
were directed in their constructions by the same prin-
ciples, and what was known to one immediately became
the property of the whole body. They were obliged to
conform to a general plan adopted for all religious edifices,
and therefore were not permitted to follow their individual
ideas of form, even if the result of their inspirations, as to
details, would have been more beautiful in effect or har-
monious in ornament. And it is thus that the cotem-
porary monuments of Alsatia, Poictiers, Normandy, Bur-
gundy, and the province of Auvergne present, in point of
decoration, a particular physiognomy, which is generally
attributed to local circumstances, and to the nature of the
materials, rather than to the facts we have indicated.
The enormous sacrifices that the population had made
to erect churches, joined to the crying abuses of the clergy
and the popes, had, in the fifteenth century, weakened
the popular ardor, and dispelled the popular faith to so
great a degree, that new church edifices ceased to be
erected, and the work even on these in course of con-
struction was stopped. Then the Reformation completed
the destruction of papal power, and forever arrested the
erection of vast religious edifices. No more enjoying the
protection of the popes, the privileges of the Masonic
corporations became of little value, and, having no more
religious edifices to construct, the corporations dispersed;
and, by the beginning of the sixteenth century, they found
occupation but in the erection of civic edifices. Finally,
78 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
in 1539, Francis I suspended all the corporations of work-
men, and thus Freemasonry, in the ancient sense of the
term, was extinguished in France.
Since that time, the architects have, in their individual
capacity, undertaken and finished, by the aid of workmen
engaged in the usual manner, such erections as was or-
lered or required. The tie of fraternity that heretofore
had united master, workman, and apprentice was gradu-
ally dissolved, and the workmen formed themselves into
separate societies which were imitated by other bodies of
tradesmen. This was the origin of the trades-unions
which were so prevalent in the seventeenth century, and
which at the present day exists, in more or less influence,
in every city of Europe and America.
The consequences of the dissolution of the Masonic so-
cieties were such that in a few years the art of building
the pointed arch was lost, as also the art of constructing
those voluted elevations which characterizes the great ca-
thedrals of the middle ages. The Gothic style, prevalent
from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, gave place to
the style called the Renaissance, as that of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries; and it is to this last school
that belonged the celebrated architects, Delorme and Bul-
lant, who built, in 1577, the Tuilleries; Lescot and Goryon,
who built, in 1571, the Louvre; Lemercier, who built the
national palace of St. Rock; Blondel and Bullet, who built,
between the years 1674 and 1686, the gates of St. Denis
and St. Martin ; Mansart, who built the castles of Versailles
and the Invalides, between the years 1700 and 1725; and
J. Soufflot, who built the Pantheon. These architects were
not members of the Freemason corporations.
The Masonic corporations never presented in France
that distinctive character that they had in England, and
more particularly in Scotland; and consequently their in-
fluence upon civilization there has been much less than in
the latter countries. The practice adopted by the corpora-
THE MASONIC CORPORATIONS IN GAUL. 79
tions ill those countries of affiliating, in the capacity of
honorary members or patrons, some eminent men, had,
however, in France, the same result; that is to say, the
formation of lodges outside of the corporations, whose
object was the propagation of the humanitarian doctrines
of the institution ; for it is certain that, since the Masonic
orporations were dissolved in France, there have existed
lodges of this character at Marseilles, Lyons, and Paris,
similar to those which existed at Anvers, Gland, Brus-
sels, Amsterdam, and Florence. All of these lodges are
believed to have had entered into relations of correspond-
ence with each other; but, since the middle of the seven-
teenth century, no trace of such relationship is discover-
able.
The final transformation of this fraternity of artists and
artisans to a moral institution, such as went into operation
in London in 1717, and as it exists in our own day, took
place in France in 1721.
80 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
ABEIDGMENT OF THE
HISTORY OF MODERN OR PHILOSOPHIC FREEMASONRY
IN FRANCE, SINCE ITS INTRODUCTION, IN 1721, TO THE
ORGANIZATION OF THE GRAND ORIENT
OF FRANCE, IN 1772.
In the abridgment of the General History of Freema-
sonry previously given, we have shown how this ancient
fraternity of arts was transformed, in 1717, at London,
from a corporation mechanical and philosophic to an insti-
tution purely philosophic, abandoning forever its material
object — that is to say, the construction of buildings of
every kind — but otherwise scrupulously conserving its
traditional doctrines and symbols. The first cities of the
continent of Europe to which Masonry, thus regenerated,
was carried, were Dunkirk,1 in 1721, and Mons.2
It was not until 1725 that the first lodge was founded
at Paris, by Lord Derwentwater and two other English-
men, under the title of " St. Thomas," and constituted by
them, in the name of the Grand Lodge of London, on the
12th of June, 1726. Its members, to the number of Hve
or six hundred, held their lodge at the house of the traitor
Hurre, in the street of the St. Germain meat-market. A
second lodge was established, by the same English gentle-
xThe lodge at Dunkirk was named "Friendship and Brotherly Love,"
and was reconstituted by the Grand Lodge of France in 1756.
2 The lodge at Mons was constituted by the Grand Lodge of England.
on the 24th of June, 1721, under the title of "Perfect Union." Subse-
quently it was erected into an English Grand Lodge of the lower country
of Austria, and has constituted or chartered lodges since 1730.
FREEMASONRY IN FRANCE. 81
men, on the 7th of May, 1729, under the name of " Louis
d' Argent." Its meetings were held at the house of the
traitor Lebreton, who kept the same as an inn, under the
name of Lords d* Argent. Upon the 11th of December of
the same year a third lodge was constituted, under the
title of "Arts Sainte Marguerite." Its meetings were held
at the house of an Englishman named Gaustand. Finally,
on the 29th of November, 1732, a fourth lodge was consti-
tuted, under the name of "Buci," the same being the name
of the hotel wherein its meetings were held. This house
was located in the Rue de Buci, and kept by the traitor
Landelle; and the lodge "Buci," after having initiated the
Duke of Aumont, took the name of "Lodge of Aumont."
Lord Derwentwater, who had, in 1725, received from
the Grand Lodge of London plenary powers to constitute
lodges of Freemasons in France, was, in 1735, invested by
the same Grand Lodge with the functions of Provincial
Grand Master; and when he subsequently quitted France
to return to England, (where he perished upon the scaffold,
a victim to his adherence to the fortunes of the Stuarts,)
he transferred those plenary powers which he possessed to
his friend Lord Harnwester, whom he authorized to repre-
sent him, during his absence, in the quality of Provincial
Grand Master.
The four lodges then existing at Paris resolved to found
a Provincial Grand Lodge of England, to which such lodges
as should be organized in the future should address them-
selves directly, as the representative of the Grand Lodge
of London. This resolution was put into execution aftei
the death of Lord Derwentwater, and this Grand Lodge
regularly and legally constituted itself, in 1736, under the
presidency of Lord Harnwester.
Beside the lodges constituted by Lord Derwentwater,
under the powers and after the forms of the Grand Lodge
of London, there were constituted other lodges by a Scotch-
man named Ramsay, who styled himself Doctor and Baron
6
82 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
of Ramsay, also a partisan of the Stuarts. This celebrated
Mason filled for some time the office of Orator to the Pro-
vincial Grand Lodge of whose organization we have just
spoken, and during that time he sought to introduce and
to establish a system of Masonry called Scottish, and which
he stated had been created at Edinburgh by a chapter of the
lodge " Canongate Kilwinning," but which had a political
object no less than to make Masonry subservient to the Stu-
art party, and an aid to the Catholic Church by the resto-
ration of the Pretender to the throne of England. Not wish-
ing to avow its true origin, the founders of this system
attributed its creation to Godfrey de Bouillon, the last
Grand Master of Knights Templar. This rite, styled Ma-
sonic, had not, however, at this time been accepted either
in Scotland or England; but, introduced by Ramsay in
France, it served as a basis for all the Masonic systems
invented and propagated from that time in France, and
exported into the different countries of the globe.
In 1737, Lord Harnwester, the second Provincial Grand
Master of Freemasons in France, wishing to return to
England, demanded, before his departure, to be replaced
in his office by a Frenchman, and the Duke of Autin, a
zealous Mason, succeeded him in the month of June, 1738. l
1 The Duke of Autin was chosen from among the lords of the Court
of Louis XV, as that one who had shown the greatest zeal for Freema-
sonry. He had, in fact, braved the anger of the King, who had inter-
dicted the lords of his court from attending the meetings of the Freema-
sons; and he, above all, had shown, in accepting the position of Grand
Master, an unusual degree of courage, as he knew that the King had
threatened him with arrest and condemned him to the Bastile for so
doing. The King, however, contrary to general expectation, took no
6teps to carry out his threat; but the police of the court continued the
proscription against the lords in attendance who would not oppose the
weight of their names and influence against the institution. After hav-
ing, in 1737, condemned the inn-keeper Chapelot to pay a fine of one
hundred francs, and to close his tavern, because he had allowed a meet-
ing of Freemasons to take place therein, the year following they brutally
dispersed a lodge which had met at the Hotel of Soissons, in the street
FREMASONRY IN FRANCE. 83
After the death of the third Grand Master, which took
place in 1743, the Masters of the lodges, at a meeting that
was held on the 11th of December of that year, named in
his place the Duke of Bourbon, Count of Clermont, and
from this time the organization over which he presided
took the title of the "English Grand Lodge of France,"
always recognizing, as it did, the supremacy of the Grand
Lodge of London.
From the period of its organization, this English Grand
Lodge created difficulties for itself which became the prin-
cipal cause, eventually, of spreading disorder in the Ma-
sonic ranks, by giving, according to the usage of the Grand
Lodge of York at this time, and also of chapters estab-
lished by its lodges, powers to permanent Masters,1 of
of the Two Crowns, and imprisoned many of its members in the Fort
L'Eveque. The nomination, in 1743, of the Duke of Bourbon to the
Grand Mastership did not even weaken their pursuit of the brethren;
for, on the 5th of June, 1744, they issued an order which prohibited the
Freemasons to meet in the capacity of a lodge, and by virtue of this
order they condemned, shortly afterward, the hotel-keeper Leroy to pay
a fine of three thousand francs, for having allowed a lodge session to
take place at his house.
1 Alexander Thory, in his Acta Latamorum, affords us a very vivid pic-
ture of these disorders. On page 70 he says: "The Grand Lodge of
France, which was established at Paris, in 1743, under the title of the
'English Grand Lodge of France,' declared itself the Grand Lodge of
the Kingdom, and released from the authority of the Grand Lodge of
London; but it conserved in the charters which it gave, in like manner
with the Grand Lodge of York, the authority to dispose of personal titles
to brethren under the style of permanent Masters, or Masters ad vilam,
and thus empowered such Masters to govern their lodges continually,
and according to their individual caprice. These Masters were permitted
to dispose of charters to other Masters of lodges, at Paris and in the
provinces, who, in their turn, constituted other bodies, which rivaled, in
the expression of their authority, the Grand Lodge; and which bodies
organized themselves, under the titles of chapters, colleges, counsels, and
tribunals, at Paris and in many of the cities of France, wherein they
established additional lodges and chapters. From these disorders there
resulted such a complication of evil consequences, thai it soon became
84 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
whom a great number had already been created by the
first delegates of the Grand Lodge of York. The Eng-
lish Grand Lodge of France also organized local and fed-
eral administrations, under the name of Provincial Grand
Lodges, which were presided over by the Masters of sub-
ordinate or operative lodges. These Provincial Grand
Lodges, equally with the power that created them, had
the right to create lodges and grant charters. From this
general distribution of the creative power, it resulted that
at this time there existed in Paris more than sixty lodges,
and over one hundred in the provinces.
Independently of these Provincial Grand Lodges, there
were also established in Prance other constituent bodies,
some professing the rite introduced by Eamsay, and others
analagous rites under other names. From among these
we will mention the Chapter of Arras, constituted on the
15th of April, 1747, by the Prince Pretender, Charles Ed-
ward Stuart; and another, under the title of the "Mother
Lodge of St. John of Scotland," organized at Marseilles,
in 1751, by a Scotchman of the Pretender's suite. Subse-
quently there was established the Chapter of Clermont,
founded at Paris, in 1754, in the college of the Jesuits at
Clermont, the refuge of all the partisans of the Stuarts.
For the purpose of hiding the true authorship of the sys-
tem of the Templars, mentioned as having been propa-
gated at Paris by Pamsay, this system was at this time
called Strict Observance, and the chevalier Bonnville, also
a partisan of the Stuarts, was announced as its founder,
when he was nothing in connection with it but its propa-
gator. Finally, in 1758, the chapter called "The Em-
perors of the East and the West," of which the members
impossible to ascertain with any readiness what body was really the head
of Masonry in the kingdom. The history of Masonry at this period is
much more obscure than at any other, as none of these Masters of lodges
and chapters kept any minutes of their proceedings or operations — a
formality that was often neglected by the Grand Lodge itself.
FREEMASONRY IN FRANCE. 85
gave themselves the titles of Sovereign Prince 31ason$, Sub-
stitutes General of the Royal Art> and Grand Wardens and
Officers of the Sovereign Grand Lodge of St. John of Jeru-
salem— a chapter created by the Jesuits of Lyons.1
1 According to the work of Alexander Thory, it should be by this chap
ter that the Consistory of Princes of the Royal Secret was founded, h
1758, at Bordeaux, and by the members of which the thirty-five articles
comprising the rules and regulations of the system styled a Lodge of Per-
fection were prepared. This system comprised the twenty-five degrees
which, under the direction of its founders, had been for some short time
practiced in France. This assertion of Thory is incorrect ; for no proof
can be found that a Consistory of Princes of the Royal Secret existed at
Bordeaux before the year 1789. No authority of this name existed either
in 1758 or in 1761 at Bordeaux; and consequently its membership could
not have aided in the compilation of the famous thirty-five articles upon
which the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite for France founded its
origin and its rights to the exclusive administration of this rite, and
which it called "The Grand Constitutions." How, otherwise, is it reason-
able to admit that the council, constituted and composed of the " Em-
perors of the East and West," created in 1758, at Paris, who are said to
have established this Consistory of the Royal Secret in 1759, at Bor-
deaux, had called in the aid of their members to compile rules and regu-
lations which already were compiled, and under which this very Con-
sistory was organized? All that there is of truth in connection with
these "Grand Constitutions" is, that they had no existence in any form
prior to 1804, when the Supreme Council was organized by Grasse de
Tilly ; and they were, in all probability, fabricated by him as comple-
mentary to the history of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, invented
at Charleston, South Carolina, and carried by him to France. Other-
wise the facts which should have been advanced against the authenticity
of these Regulations, which we unworthily dignify by calling them Con-
stitutions, would have completely crushed them out of existence. Of
these facts, one is. that there was not a printed or manuscript copy of
these regulations prior to 1804, and the manuscript that appeared at that
date rendered it necessary for the reader to suppose that it had beei
prepared at Berlin ; for the name of that city, where a name of produo
tion should have appeared, was indicated by the letter B, followed by the
three points, (.".). Now, as this manuscript assured the leader that the
king, Frederick of Prussia, had ratified it in his capacity as supreme
chief of the rite — an assertion completely and in every particular false,
as we shall prove in our history of the Supreme Council — this initial
86 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
The establishment of all these independent bodies created
gradually such confusion and such disorder that these coun-
cils, consistories, tribunals, and chapters knew not them-
selves which was the true constituting body in France.
Constantly disquieted by these " sovereign" chapters and
tribunals, founded, as we have indicated, for the most part
by Scotch gentlemen, partisans of the Stuarts, the Eng-
lish Grand Lodge of France resolved, in 1756, to detach
itself from all connection with the Grand Lodge of Lon-
don, and by thus declaring itself independent, hoped to be
able to rule the different isolated bodies. In pursuance
of this resolve, it declared itself independent of all foreign
Masonic alliances, and took the title of "National Grand
Lodge of France." Its hopes, however, were not realized,
for it continued to be tormented by new creations of Ma-
sonic authority it could not impeach, and which, like all
elder organizations, attributed to themselves the right
of supremacy over it. The Grand Lodge, they asserted,
in conformity with its character, delivered to it by Lord
Derwentwater and confirmed by Lord Harn wester, con-
ferred but the three degrees of symbolic Masonry, while
these " chapters and lodges of perfection " believed them-
selves alone possessed of the right to confer what they
styled the " higher " degrees. Following their lead, many
councils and chapters were constituted by masters ad vitam,
who obtained, and very often purchased, their privileges
from others of their own rank; and these last affected
equally a supremacy toward the Grand Lodge of France,
by reason of their pretended knowledge and their right
to confer " high" degrees — a right which, though usurped,
the no less obtained general recognition. Repeatedly did
should have indicated Berlin, and not Bordeaux. Was it by design, or
through ignorance, that subsequently the word was completed by writing
it Bordeaux? We are unable to decide. But it is plain that Thory has
believed and repeated the fable invented by the creators of the rite, to
give it an importance that age alone would confer.
FREEMASONRY IN FRANCE. ' 87
the Grand Lodge denounce the administration and the
acts of these usurpers, as abusive of the trust reposed in
those who enabled them to act in this manner; but this de-
nunciation, as also the efforts put forth by the Grand Lodge
from time to time, to demonstrate the inutility of these
"higher" degrees, were all in vain; for a great many of
the lodges, recognizing its authority and jurisdiction, had
adopted those degrees, and conferred them in chapters or-
ganized by and under the control of those lodges.
The Grand Lodge, unhappily, was powerless to enforce
the execution of its edicts against these illegitimate powers.
The chapters continued to issue charters, and the Grand
Lodge, in consequence of the carelessness of its Grand
Master, the Count of Clermont, fell into anarchy. To re-
lieve himself from the administration of its affairs, the
Grand Master substituted a deputy named Baure, who,
soon misbehaving himself, was replaced by a person even
less worthy — a dancing-master named Lacorne. Impressed
with the belief that the possession of all the degrees in vogue
was necessary to add to his dignity, in the new position
into which he was thrust, Lacorne had himself initiated
into a lodge of perfection. He then convoked many as-
semblies, from which every member of the Grand Lodge
abstained to attend. Irritated at this desertion, he as-
sembled a number of lodge masters, whom he recruited in
the taverns, to organize a Grand Lodge, and of these he
chose his officers in accordance with his caprice. Finally,
upon the representations which were made to the Count
of Clermont on the subject, he revoked the appointment
of Lacorne, and named in his stead the brother Chaillou
de Joinville, as his substitute or Deputy General. From
this state of things there arose a schism in the Grand
Lodge, and it became divided into two parties who occu-
pied themselves in tearing each other, each pretending to
represent the constituent body of French Masonry and
perform its functions. To aid the disorder, each party
88 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
published constitutions,1 and the masters of the lodges,
composing a portion of the party of Lacorne, and equally
desirous of gain, sold the right of holding lodges, and
thus the mysteries and the constitutions becoming an ob-
ject of traffic, outside of the lodges Masonry fell into
contempt, while inside anarchy reigned supreme.
'We believe it proper here to give in full one of these constitutions,
which was delivered, in 1761, to Stephen Morin, an Israelite, both because
that it is at once a document authentic and curious, as well as that it
served, some forty years afterward, as the foundation of the " Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite of Thirty-three Degrees," created at Charleston,
South Carolina, by five other Jews, and introduced into France, in 1804,
by the establishment of the Supreme Council for France, situated at
Paris, and which is to-day the rival authority of the Grand Orient of
France. This constitution reads as follows:
"To the glory of the Grand Architect of the Universe, etc. Under
the good pleasure of his serene highness, the very illustrious brother,
Louis of Bourbon, Count of Clermont, prince of the blood, Grand Master
and protector of all the lodges at the Orient, etc., the 27th of August,
1761. Lux e tenebris, unitas, concordia fratrum. We, the undersigned,
Substitutes General of the Royal Art, Grand Wardens of the Grand and
Sovereign Lodge, President of the Grand Council, a request to us made
by the brother Lacorne, substitute of the T. M. G. M., read at a meet-
ing: That our dear brother Stephen Morin, grand elect, perfect and
ancient sublime Master of all the orders of the Masonry of Perfection,
member of the Royal Lodge of the Trinity, etc., having, upon his de-
parture for America, desired the power to travel regularly, etc. ; that it
has pleased the Supreme Grand Council and Grand Lodge to accord to
him letters patent for constitutions, etc. For these causes, etc., are given
plenary and entire powers to the said brother to form and to establish
a lodge for to receive and to multiply the royal art of the Freemasons
in all the degrees perfect and sublime, etc. ; to regulate and to govern all
the members who may compose the said lodge which he may establish
in the four quarter parts of the world whither he shall arrive or he may
reside, under the title of 'Lodge of St. John,' and surnamed 'Perfect
Harmony;' giving him power to choose such officers to aid him in the
government of his lodge as he shall judge suitable; deputing him, in
the quality of our Grand Inspector in all parts of the new world, for to
reform the observance of our laws in general; constituting him our Grand
Master Inspector; giving him full and entire power to create inspectors
in all places where the sublime degrees shall not be established.
FREEMASONRY IN FRANCE. 89
After remaining in this condition for some time, a re-
conciliation took place between the two parties composing
the Grand Lodge, and a union was ratified on the 24th of
June, 1762. But the old masters, who made no portion of
the Lacorne faction, and who were persons belonging some
to the nobility of the kingdom, some to the bar, and some
to the most distinguished of the people, seeing themselve.
confounded with mechanics and men of no education, as
also men infamous and utterly unworthy of a place in the
Grand Lodge, took exceptions constantly to such men being
members of that body; and hence constant dissensions
arose, and which were envenomed by the pretensions,
growing more and more intolerable, set up by the other
constituent bodies. Finally, worn out with the inces-
" In witness of which we have delivered these presents, signed by the
Substitute General of the Order, Grand Commander of the Black and
White Eagle, Sovereign Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret, and Chief of
the eminent Degree of the Royal Art, and by our grand inspectors,
sublime officers of the Grand Council and of the Grand Lodge estab-
lished in this capital, and have sealed them with the great seal of his
serene highness, our illustrious Grand Master, and with that of our
Grand Lodge and Sovereign Grand Council at the Grand East of
Paris, the day and year, etc.
[Signed] "Chaillou de Joinville,
" Substitute General of the Order, Worshipful Master of the first Lodge in France, called ' St.
Thomas/ Chief of the eminent Degrees, Commandant and Sublime Prince of the Royal
Secret.
" Prince de Rohan,
" Member of the Grand Lodge ' Intelligence,' Prince Mason.
" Lacorne,
"Prince of Masonry, Substitute of the Grand Master.
" Savalette, De Buckoly, Taupin, and
" Brest de la Chaussee,
"Grand Knights and Prince Masona,
" De Choiseul,
"Count, Grand Knight, Prince Mason, and Orator.
"Boucher de Lenoncourt,
"Grand Knight and Prince Mason, by Order of the Grand Lodge; and
" Daubantin,
'♦Grand Knight and Prince Mason, Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge and of the Sublinw
Council of Perfect Masons in France, etc."
90 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
sant complaints which were addressed to it by a great
number of the lodges organized by councils, colleges, and
tribunals of the " high " degrees, the Grand Lodge resolved
to choke all these pretensions, and on the 14th of August,
1766, decided to publish a decree by which was revoked
all the capitulary constitutions, and all the symbolic lodges
prohibited from recognizing the authority which was
arrogated to themselves by these councils and chapters.1
A certain number of the members of the Grand Lodge of
the old Lacorne party, infamous men, and who were, at the
same time, members of the chapters, protested against this
decree and compromised the authority of the Grand Lodge.
Consequently, in the re-election of the officers of the lodges
which took place in 1766, in accordance with the regula-
tions, those members who belonged to the Lacorne faction
were not renominated. From that sprang protestations
on their part and defamatory writings against the Grand
Lodge and against the acts of its officers, until, finally, it
became incumbent upon the Grand Lodge to expel these
factious members, and publish them as deprived of all
their Masonic rights.
The brethren thus expelled from the Grand Lodge re-
sponded to its decision by new libels, personalities, and
other injuries, and even went so far, at the feast of St.
John, 1767, as to make it necessary for the government to
interfere and forbid, after that day, the meetings of the
Grand Lodge.
This rigorous measure, which struck as well at the inno-
cent as the guilty, paralyzed all the efforts of the Grand
1 Though the Grand Lodge of France, in 1756, declared itself inde-
pendent of the Grand Lodge of London, which had, through its agent,
Lord Derwent water, constituted it, it nevertheless subsequently sought
to renew its amicable relations with the latter, and in 1767 proposed and
concluded an agreement, by the terms of which each of these constituent
Masonic bodies agreed to respect the rights of the other, and constitute
no Masonic organization within each other's jurisdiction.
FREEMASONRY IN FRANCE. 91
Lodge membership. The expelled brethren who had been
the cause of the interdiction, and who were always under
the direction of Lacorne, profiting by the dispersion of a
great many members of the Grand Lodge, held secret
meetings and constituted operative lodges, to which they
delivered constitutions ante-dated to a time previous to the
division in the Grand Lodge. Upon the other hand, the
legal party of the Grand Lodge, represented by the brother
Chaillou de Joinville, Substitute General of the Grand
Master, the Count of Clermont, also delivered constitu-
tions to organize working lodges in the provinces, which
documents were also ante-dated, and of which no less than
thirty-seven of these constitutions, so delivered by the lat-
ter party during the period of the interdiction, were sub-
sequently annulled.
' The Lacorne party eventually conceived the plan of
overthrowing the Grand Lodge and replacing it by a new
power, in order to re-establish in their Masonic rights all
the honorable members who should once more compose
such authority ; and they awaited but a favorable occasion
to put this design into execution. Some approaches made
to the Lieutenant-General of Police were not attended
with success; and the state of interdiction was prolonged
until the death of the Count of Clermont, which took place
in 1771. This event raised the courage of the factions,
who had not ceased to intrigue; and, in the hope of reas-
suming power, they addressed the Duke of Luxembourg,
falsely announcing that they had formed the nucleus of
the ancient Grand Lodge of France, interdicted since 1767,
and desired to offer the Grand Mastership to the Puke of
Chartres. The proposition was agreed to, and the Duke
of Chartres, nephew of the Count of Clermont,1 designated
the Duke of Luxembourg for his substitute. The faction
who had thus obtained so important a success convoked
1 Since Duke of Orleans, Philip Equality,
92 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
a general assembly of the Masters of all the lodges of Paris,
and even invited the members of the Grand Lodge who
had expelled them. At this assembly they submitted the
acceptance of the Grand Mastership, signed by the Duke
of Chartres, and offered to present this document to the
Grand Lodge, provided that it would revoke its decree of
expulsion made against them. The unfavorable circum-
stances in which the Grand Lodge found itself at this
time, joined to the advantageous considerations which
would result to it by its acceptance of the Duke of Char-
tres as its Grand Master, determined the members to accept
the conditions which were proposed; and they decided
that a report should be submitted to the Grand Lodge,
upon the demand for a revocation of the decrees rendered
against the expelled brethren, in order that these decrees
should be revoked in due form. This being done, at the
feast of St. John, in the year 1771, the Duke of Chartres
was nominated for the Grand Mastership, and the Grand
Lodge thereupon proceeded to annul all the charters, or
constitutions, delivered during the suspension of its privi-
leges, in the name of the Grand Lodge of France. A
commission, composed of eight members, was thereupon
appointed to elaborate a project of reorganization of the
Masonic fraternity. There were also named twenty-two
Provincial Grand Inspectors, with the mission to visit all
the lodges in the kingdom and direct the administration
of the rules and regulations, etc.
The party who had obtained the revocation of the de-
crees of expulsion had, in the reorganization of the Grand
Lodge, exerted their influence to obtain the admission of
their partisans; and the success which had attended their
first operation favored the accomplishment of the latter
designs. Therefore, in the interval, this party, reinforced
by all the councils and chapters of the Scottish Rite, who
had reserved to themselves the privilege of avenging the
injury they had sustained from the decrees directed against
FREEMASONRY IN FRANCE. 93
them by the Grand Lodge, resolved to equally offer to the
Duke of Chartres the honorable position of Grand Master
of all the lodges, chapters, and councils of the Scottish
Rite in France. This honor the Duke accepted.1
In submitting this request to the Duke of Chartres, they
made him believe that he had already attained the posi-
tion, by his nomination in 1771, to the Grand Mastership
of the Grand Lodge of France. The Duke knew nothing-
of Masonic forms, and never supposed that any nomina-
tion of this kind should be made in an assembly of the
Grand Lodge, an authority that had repudiated and pro-
scribed the "high" degrees. He, therefore, accepted the
office which to him was offered, and signed the article of
acceptance presented to him by the Duke of Luxembourg,
on the 5th of April, 1772. The latter, as substitute of
the Duke of Chartres, wished to concentrate in his own
hands the control of all the Masonic bodies in the king-
dom, as, by the parties who had proposed the matter, he
had been advised ; but he did not perceive that he had made
1 We here give the text of this acceptance, because this document is
not without historic interest:
"The year of the great Light, 1772, third day of the moon John, 5th
day of the 2d month of the Masonic year 5772, and from the birth of
the Messiah the 5th day of April, 1772, in virtue of the proclamation
made in Grand Lodge assembled the 24th day of the 4th month of the
Masonic year 5771, of the very high, very powerful, and very excellent
prince, his most serene highness Louis Phillipe Joseph d'Orleans, Duke
of Chartres, prince of the blood, for Grand Master of all the regular
lodges of France; and of that of the Sovereign Council of the Emperors
of the East and West, sublime mother lodge of the Scottish (rite), of the
26th day of the moon Elul, 5771, for sovereign Grand Master of all the
Scottish councils, chapters, and lodges of the great globe of France,
offices which his said most serene highness has been pleased to accept
for the love of the royal art, and in order to concentrate all the Masonic
labors under one only authority.
"In guarantee of which, his said most serene highness has signed this
minute of the transaction of acceptance.
[Signed] "Louis Philippe Joseph d'Okleans."
94 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
himself, in this respect, the instrument of but a faction.
Unhappily having once lent himself to such a scheme, all
the remonstrances addressed to him by the enlightened and
respectable portion of the Grand Lodge, who pointed out
to him the awkwardness of his position, and his stultifica-
tion of theirs, were not sufficient to induce him to resign
.he powers thus accorded to him, and his adhesion to
which ultimately caused the extinction of the Grand Lodge
of France, and the organization of the Grand Orient,
whose history we propose to give an another volume.
FREEMASONRY IN ENGLAND. 95
ABRIDGMENT OF THE
HISTORY OF MODERN OR PHILOSOPHIC FREEMASONRY
IN ENGLAND, DENMARK, SWEDEN, RUSSIA, POLAND, GER-
MANY, HOLLAND, BELGIUM, SWITZERLAND, ITALY,
AND PORTUGAL, FROM ITS ORGANIZATION IN
THOSE COUNTRIES TO THE PRESENT DAY.
England.
We have seen, at the conclusion of our summary of the
origin and general history of Freemasonry, in what man-
ner the transformation of the corporation of Freemasons
from an operative to a philosophic institution took place
in England, in the year 1717, and under what circum-
stances the Grand Lodge of London, in constituting itself,
put into execution the decision made, in 1703, by the Lodge
of St. Paul.
The new Grand Lodge directed George Payne, who had
been elected its Grand Master, to collect all the docu-
ments, manuscripts, charters, rituals, etc., relating to the
ancient usages of the fraternity, for the purpose of con-
necting them with the registers and Anglo-Saxon deeds
written in the, Gothic and Latin languages, and of the
whole to form a body of laws and doctrines, and to pub-
lish so much of the same as might be judged proper and
necessary.1
'Some members of the Lodge of St. Paul, alarmed at the prospective
publicity of their archives, believed it to be their duty, imposed upon
them by the oath which they had taken, to publish nothing which par-
96 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
After the careful examination of all these deeds, and a
report made of their subjects by a commission composed
of fourteen brethren, chosen from the most erudite Ma-
sons of London, the Grand Lodge directed the brother
Anderson, a doctor of philosophy and eminent minister
y£ the Presbyterian Church at London, to compile from
liese documents a constitution, to be preceded by a his-
tory of the corporation, which would in the future, serve
as a guide to modern Freemasonry.
Brother Anderson, having acquitted himself of the task,
in 1722 submitted his work to the commission, who ap-
proved it, and caused it to be sanctioned by the Grand
Lodge on the 25th March, 1723. This constitution is en-
titled, " The Book of Constitutions for Freemasons, con-
taining the History, Charges, and Regulations, etc., of that
Most Ancient and Right Worshipful Fraternity, for the use
of the Lodges."
This constitution is based upon the charter of York,
which, of all others, has served as a guide for all those
which have been established since A. D. 926. Into this
constitution were carried otherwise the changes and the
developments which were rendered indispensable by the
new object of the society, and properly above all was
caused to predominate the supremacy of the Grand Lodge
of London. This last tendency, so much to be, in this
our own day, deprecated, but proves that its authors were
not penetrated by the true spirit of the Charter of York.
This collection of laws, published for the first time in
1723,1 has been printed many times, and for the last time
.ook of the character of corporate information, delivered the greater part
f the documents in the possession of their lodge to the flames, thus
causing, by their exaggerated scruples, an irreparable loss to the Ma-
sonic historian.
translations of this work were made and published in Germany in
the years 1741, '43, '44, '62, '83, and 1805. In London it was reprinted
in 1756, '57, and '75.
FREEMASONRY IN ENGLAND. 97
by the Grand Lodge of England, in 1855. Beginning with
the year 1723, the organization of the new Masonry was
seated upon a solid foundation, and its prosperity con-
tinued to increase. By virtue of this constitution, the
new Grand Lodge of England placed itself in legitimate
and sole authority over the entire Masonic fraternity, and
settled from that time all contradictions on the part of
English lodges constituted previous to that date. This
constitution in fact attainted the ancient liberties of Free-
masons, and in particular prohibited the formation of any
lodges which should not receive the confirmation of the
Grand Lodge of London. In this manner protests against
this new authority were excited in the Grand Lodges of
York and Edinburgh.
The activity displayed by the Grand Lodge of London,
and the great number of operative lodges that it consti-
tuted, stimulated the zeal of the Masons of Ireland and
Scotland, who, up to this time, had not assembled but at
distant and irregular periods. Soon Masonic temples
opened on all sides in the two kingdoms, and the initia-
tions were multiplied in great number, which fact resulted
in the convocation of a general assembly of the Masons of
Ireland by the lodges of Dublin, with the object of organ-
izing Freemasonry upon the same basis as sustained the
lodge of London. A central power was constituted at
this assembly, which took place in 1729, under the title of
the Grand Lodge of Ireland, and the Yiscount Kingston
was elected Grand Master.
The Grand Lodge of York, jealous of the prosperity of
the Grand Lodge of London, and pretending that it was
the most ancient and legitimate power, and solely endowed
with the right to direct Freemasonry, contested the su-
premacy claimed by the latter, and thereby caused for a
time some considerable embarrassment; but it could not
arrest the progress of that body, nor interrupt its success,
and soon found itself under the necessity of revising its
7
98 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
laws and conforming its regulations to the object of the
modern Freemasonry, as had already been done by its suc-
cessful rival, the Grand Lodge of London.
The ancient Grand Lodge of Scotland, at Edinburgh,
considering the prosperity and aggrandizement of the new
English lodges as the consequence of their adoption of
lew regulations and the election of new Grand Masters,
desired to introduce these changes into its system ; but
the hereditary trust of patron, of which James I had con-
ceded the honor to the family of Roslin, in 1430, was an
obstacle to this innovation. However, the Baron Sinclair
of Roslin, then Grand Master under this concession, ac-
ceded to the general wish expressed for him to renounce
this authority, and the four oldest lodges of Edinburgh
convoked, on the 24th of November, 1736, all the other
lodges and all the Masons of Scotland in a general as-
sembly, with the object of organizing a new Masonic
power. After reading the act of renunciation of the Baron
Sinclair of Roslin to the dignity of hereditary Grand
Master, as also to all the privileges thereto appertaining,
the assembly, composed of the representatives of thirty-
two lodges, constituted itself the "Grand Lodge of St.
John of Scotland," and named the Baron Sinclair of Ros-
lin its first Grand Master for 1737. Some of the ancient
lodges, that of Kilwinning among others, had conserved
the two political degrees — Templar and Scottish Master—
and by so doing introduced troubles which had agitated
England from 1655 to 1670, and which degrees were not
conferred at this time but upon brethren adjudged to be
worthy of being initiated into the political designs favor-
able to the Stuarts, and they had been maintained subse-
quently, by a decision of King Charles II, from the time
of the general assembly of Masons at York, in 1663. It
was the chapter named Canongate Kilwinning, composed
of partisans of the Stuarts, who propagated, between the
years 3728 and 1740, these anti-masonic degrees, created
FREEMASONRY IN ENGLAND, 99
with a political object, and delivered to their partisans —
among whom was the Doctor Baron Ramsay, and other
emissaries — by diplomas, authorizing them to confer those
degrees wherever they found suitable persons to receive
them. It is in this manner those degrees became to be
known as the Scottish Rite. Ramsay, not finding the col-
lection extensive enough, added to it, and others who
succeeded him continued so profitable an occupation,
until the Scottish Rite comprised in France lodges, chap-
ters, and councils, the membership of which being com-
posed mainly of intriguing politicians.
After the organization of the Grand Lodge of Scot-
land, the thirty-two lodges of which it was constituted
ranked by number in the order of their claims to age, and
the lodge " Mary's Chapel," exhibiting an act in due form,
which carried its origin to the year 1598, was placed at
the head of the list of operative lodges, and took the
rank of No. 1. The lodge " Canongate Kilwinning" had
claimed this first place, stating that its origin went back as
far as the year 1128 — a circumstance very generally ad-
mitted in the country; but this lodge, having lost its pa-
pers during a sleep of a century and a half, could not now
produce them, and consequently was refused the prefer-
ence ; and this refusal caused this lodge to desire no con-
nection with the new Grand Lodge, but, on the contrary,
to set itself up as an independent constituent power,
which it did, at Edinburgh, in 1744, at first under the
name of the " Mother Lodge of Kilwinning," and subse-
quently as the " Royal Grand Lodge and Chapter of the
Order of Herodim of Kilwinning," abandoning the admin-
istration of the three symbolic degrees to the Grand
Lodge of Scotland, and reserving to itself the right to
confer the two high degrees (Templar and Scottish Mas-
ter) that it already possessed, and also those which by this
time were in use, the invention of Ramsay and others, in
France. !Not meeting with any success at home in its as-
100 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
sumption of the right to propagate its high degrees, thia
lodge created, through its emissaries upon the continent,
a number of chapters, and thus returned to France the
degrees which it had imported, by establishing at Rouen,
on the 1st May, 1786, in the lodge of "Ardent Amitie," a
Grand Chapter of Herodim, to propagate, as a provincial
grand lodge, this false Masonry.
Such is the origin of the Rite of Herodim of Kilwin-
ning, about which, as an important and valuable adjunct
to Freemasonry, so much noise has been made. Finally,
after having, during half a century, been instrumental in
producing as much disorder as it could in the Masonic
ranks at home and abroad, this lodge of " Canongate Kil-
winning" quietly proposed a union with the Grand Lodge
of Scotland, and in the year 1807 was placed on the list of
the operative lodges of Scotland, under the jurisdiction of
the Grand Lodge of Scotland, as " Canongate Kilwin-
ning, No. 2."
The three Grand Lodges of Great Britain, thus consti-
tuted, propagated the new Freemasonry upon every por
tion of the globe, so that, in 1750, we find it extended into
nearly every civilized country ; but its humanitarian doc-
trines, like the dogma of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,"
which it exhibited, frightened the kings and the clergy,
who sought to arrest its progress by issuing decrees and
edicts against it. In Russia, in 1731, in Holland, in 1735,
in Paris, in 1737, 1738, 1744, and 1745, the meetings of
lodges of Freemasons were interdicted by the government;
while at Rome and in Florence its members were ar-
rested and persecuted, and in Sweden, Hamburg, and Ge-
neva they were prohibited from meeting or assembling
themselves in the capacity of lodges. The Holy Inquisi-
tion threw Freemasons into prison, burnt; by the hand of
the public executioner, all books which contained Masonic
regulations, history, or doctrines ; condemned at Malta to
perpetual exile, in 1740, a number of knights who had or-
FREEMASONRY IN ENGLAND. 101
ganized a lodge on that island ; in Portugal it exercised
against them cruelties of various kinds, and condemned
them to the galleys ; while in Vienna and Marseilles, as
also in Switzerland, in the canton of Berne, the iron hand
of that "Holy" institution was felt in 1743. In 1748, at
Constantinople, the sultan endeavored to destroy the Ma
sonic society. In the states of the Church, the King of
Naples prohibited Masonry, and Ferdinand VII, King of
Spain, issued an edict that prohibited the assembly of
Freemasons within his kingdom, under penalty of death.
In 1751, Pope Benedict XIV renewed the bull of excom-
munication promulgated against the Fraternity by Clem-
ent XII, while the threat of death menaced all who should
be known to attend Masonic meetings.
But all these exhibitions of the rage of kings, princes,
and potentates were ineffectual to stop the onward course
of Freemasonry, which continued to be propagated upon
all the surface of the earth with a rapidity that no power
could arrest. Braving the bull of Benedict XIV, Free-
masonry is openly practiced in Tuscany, at Naples, and in
many other parts of the Italian peninsula. At Rome
even the partisans of the Stuarts founded some lodges,
which they took but feeble pains to hide from the au-
thorities.1
The activity of the three Grand Lodges of Great Brit-
ain, and, above all, of that of London, was not confined
to the establishment of lodges in Europe between the
years 1727 and 1740 ; they had already transplanted Ma-
sonry to Bengal, to Bombay, the Cape of Good Hope,
New South Wales, New Zealand, and Java, and as early
as 1721, lodges of Masons were established in Canada.
Before 1740 Masonry existed in the principal colonies of
1 It may well be believed that the reason for the blindness which pressed
upon the vision of the authorities at Rome, in connection with these
lodges, was, that the Jesuits, whose cause those lodges served, did not
wish to sea
102 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
the now United States of America, such as Massachusetts,
Georgia, South Carolina, and New York. In those colo-
nies the lodges had created Grand Lodges independent of
the Grand Lodges of England, of whom they had in the
beginning received their authority. Massachusetts had a
Grand Lodge in 1777, Vermont in 1774, Virginia and North
Carolina in 1778, Maryland in 1783, Pennsylvania, Georgia,
and New Jersey in 1786, and New York in 1787.
The Lodge of London, notwithstanding its astonishing
prosperity, was not permitted to enjoy that prosperity
without great internal struggles, caused first by the Grand
Lodge of York, and subsequently by the schism of a
great many brethren, who, adhering to the claims of the
latter, went out from the former and took the name of
"Ancient Masons," in contradistinction to the member-
ship of the Grand Lodge of London, who remained true
to their engagements, and whom this schismatic party
styled "Modern Masons." These schismatic lodges, com-
posed in great part of Irish Masons — who accused the
Grand Lodge of altering the rituals and introducing in-
novations— and of Masons who had been expelled, in 1751,
constituted a rival power to the Grand Lodge, under the
title of "The Grand Lodge of Ancient Masons of Eng-
land/' Notwithstanding its inferiority, and the few lodges
which it represented or was enabled to establish, this
schismatic party, in 1772, requested the Duke of Athol,
who had already filled that office in the Grand Lodge of
Scotland, to become its Grand Master, a request with
which he complied.
To give itself importance, and to influence to its ranks
the nobility, this schismatic party added to the degrees
with which it had started some of the high degrees cre-
ated in France by the partisans of the Stuarts, and which
they imported into England about the year 1760, and com-
bined them with the symbolic degrees into a rite of seven
FREEMASONRY IN ENGLAND. 103
degrees, the highest of which they called the Royal Arch.1
This Grand Lodge of self-styled Ancient Masons trans-
planted its rite into the lodges which it constituted in
Ame^ca, and there produced the same disorders and the
same schisms among the Fraternity that the "high" de-
grees had already provoked in all the states of Europe.2
1 This degree is founded entirely upon the biblical legend of the Jew-
ish ark of the covenant; but, in England, they give it another significa-
tion, and call it the " Holy Arch."
2 In this statement I beg leave to correct brother Rebold. The only dis-
orders or schism 3 created by "Lawrence Dermott's Grand Lodge'' — by
which name the schismatic organization styled "Ancient Masons" is
known, at this time, in America — were at an early stage checked in their
growth by the organization of what is also known as the "American
System of Freemasonry," comprising a rite of twelve degrees, in which,
while the different State Grand Lodges have exclusive jurisdiction over
the three degrees of symbolic Masonry, the operative Royal Arch Chap-'
ters, Councils, and Encampments, (or, as more lately styled, Command-
eries), have in charge the conference of the other degrees known as
Capitular, Cryptic, and Christian Masonry ; and they, in their turn, are
subject to State organizations, and the latter to a general organization
for each, styled, respectively, the "General Grand Chapter of Royal
Arch Masons for the United States," organized in 1808, and the "Gen-
eral Grand Encampment of Knights Templar for the United States,"
organized in 1816. In this manner the different degrees are utilized and
kept apart, every Master Mason being allowed to "take" as many or as
few of them as he may deem necessary for his enlightenment.
While the object of these higher degrees in Europe, according to our
author, was entirely of a political character, in this country no such
character, or even tendency, has ever been attributed to them. The
anti-masonic excitement, which prevailed in this country from 1826 to
1836, or thereabouts, had no effective origin within a Masonic body of
a*iy rite. William Morgan, it is true, in the former year, took umbrage
at being refused membership in a Royal Arch Chapter about to be or-
ganized in the town of Batavia, his residence, in the State of New York
and thereupon resurrected an old copy of " Jachin and Boaz," published
in London in 1750, and republished shortly afterward in the then colony
of New York. With this book, and what he knew of Masonic rituals,
he made an "Exposition of Freemasonry;" and, by the aid of an evil-
disposed person named Miller, published the same. His subsequent
104 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
This unhappy division in the bosom of English Ma-
sonry, commenced in 1736, was continued for a long time,
by the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland recognizing
the schismatic " Grand Lodge of Ancient Masons," to which
they in this manner gave a character that it did not
merit, but which continued until the year 1813, when at
his time it ceased, by the schismatic Grand Lodge, which
then had as its Grand Master the Duke of Kent, and
the Grand Lodge of London, styled by these schismatics
" Modern Masons," and which had as its Grand Master
his brother, the Duke of Sussex, uniting under the title
of the " United Grand Lodges of England." In this
union the ancient laws, as well written as traditional, were
taken as the basis, and the spirit that influenced the or-
ganization of 1717 was recognized, and it was then and
there announced and proclaimed that the ancient and
true Freemasonry was composed of but three degrees, viz :
Apprentice, Fellow-craft, and Master Mason, Unhappily,
however, the legitimate Grand Lodge conceded to the
party self-styled "Ancient Masons," who necessarily had
to abandon their rite of seven degrees, a division of the
degree of Master Mason practiced by this party, and taught
as a supplementary portion of this degree, under the name
sudden disappearance from the town of his residence was made use of
by what was then in this country a lesser political party, for the pur-
pose of increasing its strength and numbers, by raising a cry against
the Freemasons, and branding them as a secret society which stopped
not even at the sacrifice of human life to accomplish its purposes. The
cry was successful ; the life of Morgan was asserted to have been taken
by the Freemasons, and, in the summer of 1828, the body of a drowned
man having been found in the neighborhood of Morgan's disappear-
ance, it made, in the language of one of the leaders of the anti-masonic
party ' a good enough Morgan until after the [then pending presiden-
tial] election." For some years after this the Fraternity remained in
comparatively a dormant condition; but, during the last twenty-five
years, its progress has been as rapid and its ranks as united as its raoet
ardent admirers could desire. — Translator
FREEMASONRY IN ENGLAND. 105
of Royal Arch. This concession, which the schismatic
party exacted as a sine qua non of their union with the
legitimate Grand Lodge and surrender of their rights to
that body, was an act of feebleness, on the part of the
Grand Lodge of London, which has destroyed, in a great
degree, the unity and the basis of true Masonry, as it had
been practiced by that body, up to that time, with a laud-
able firmness.
If English Freemasonry has remained, for a long time,
in a consumptive condition, and has not, as it did for the
first century of its existence, continued to extend its civ-
ilizing and progressive character, it has practiced always
in a generous manner one of the essential dogmas of the
institution ; viz., solidarity. Among the numerous benef-
icent establishments created by it, we may particularly
mention three which are due to the efforts of the Grand
Lodge of London.
1. The Royal School of Freemasons for girls, of which
the capital fund, in March, 1863, amounted to about
$145,000.
2. The Royal Masonic Institute for the sons of indigent
Freemasons, which possessed, at the same date, a capital
fund of over $100,000.
3. The Royal Beneficiary Institution for aged Free-
masons and their widows, of which the capital was, at the
same date, about $75,000 for the men's department, and
$35,000 for that of the women.
After having recorded the most important events in the
history of English Freemasonry, we will now briefly indi-
cate the composition of the three Grand Lodges and their
importance as Masonic powers.
The Grand Lodge of England is composed of a Grand
Master and his deputy, of all the Past Grand Masters and
Provincial Grand Masters, of all the officers of the Grand
Lodge, and of all the Past and Acting Worshipful Mas-
ters. In it resides the legislative and judiciary power for
106 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
jurisdiction of England and the British colonies. A gen-
eral committee, composed of twenty-four masters of lodges,
of a first Professor {Expert), of the Grand Master and his
representative, exercise the administrative and executive
power. The decisions are made by a majority of votes.
All the offices, even that of Grand Master, are submitted
to an annual election. The Grand Lodge holds quarterly
communications upon the first Wednesday of the months
of March, May, September, and December; in the latter,
the election for Grand Master takes place. Charles, Earl
of Zetland, who has filled the office of Grand Master since
1850, has been re-elected for the thirteenth time since his
first nomination. The Earl Grey and Ripon is the Deputy
Grand Master.
Under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of London
there are sixty-three Provincial Grand Lodges, of which
forty-two are in the counties of England, and twenty-one
are elsewhere in British possessions. Under these there
are nine hundred and eighty-nine operative lodges, who
report themselves in the manner following : Four hundred
and ninety-one in the counties, one hundred and fifty-four
in London, one hundred and forty-three in America, twenty
in Africa, eighty-seven in Asia, eighty-three in Oceanica,
and fourteen in other countries. It possesses a Grand
Chapter of Royal Arch Masons — a degree which, as we
have stated, comprehends the second part of the degree
of Master Mason, but which forms really a fourth degree,
having its own officers and its special meetings. This
Grand Chapter directs two hundred and eighty-seven
operative chapters in England and sixty-one in the British
possessions. No advantage or privilege is accorded to its
members in the ordinary or extraordinary meetings of the
Grand Lodge.
Independently of the Grand Chapter, there also exists
at London, but having no connection with the Grand
Lodge, a Grand Conclave of "High Knights Templar,"
FREEMASONRY IN ENGLAND. 107
at the head of which presides the brother F. W. Stuart.
Neither this authority nor any other of the kind are recog-
nized by the Grand Lodge ; they are the remains of the
systems which were imported from France to England by
the partisans of the Stuarts, and by whom these poisonous
germs have been introduced into the body of English Ma-
sonry.
The Grand Lodge of Scotland, sitting at Edinburgh, which
has for its Grand Master the Duke of Athol,1 counts under
its jurisdiction thirty-eight Provincial Grand Lodges, and
two hundred and ninety-seven operative lodges in Scot-
land and elsewhere in British possessions. Like the Grand
Lodge of London, it tolerates the Royal Arch Chapters,
which have been engrafted upon a great number of its
lodges from the time that the schismatic Grand Lodge at
London propagated its rite of the Royal Arch, and for
the direction of which there was established, in 1817, a
Supreme Grand Chapter; but, like the Grand Lodge of
London, it does not accord to the members of these chap-
ters the least privilege; for, like the lodges which consti-
tute it, the Grand Lodge does not practice, confer, or
recognize but the three symbolic degrees.
The Grand Lodge of Ireland, held at Dublin, of which
the Duke of Leinster is the Grand Master, has under its
jurisdiction ten Provincial Grand Lodges, with three hun-
dred and seven operative lodges in Ireland and other
countries outside of Great Britain. Independently of the
Grand Lodge of Ireland, which confers, in like manner
with the other Grand Lodges, none but the symbolic de-
grees, there is established, at Dublin, a Supreme Council
of Rites, founded in 1836, which confers all the "high"
degrees of such rites, a Grand Royal Arch Chapter, which
is under the direction of the same Grand Master, and
constitutes, like those of England and Scotland, operative
George Augustus Frederick John, Duke of Ath< 1, died ai Blair
Castle, his residence, on the 16th of January, 1864.
108 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
chapters of the Royal Arch degree ;l also a Grand Con-
clave of Knights Templar; but these three authorities
have no connection with the Grand Lodge of Ireland.
The three Grand Lodges of Great Britain, consequently,
control one hundred and nine Provincial Grand Lodges,
with one thousand five hundred and ninety-seven operative
lodges under their jurisdiction, which extend their con-
nections to every part of the globe.
In the connection of its moral effects and civilizing in-
fluence, English Freemasonry — we say it with sorrow — has
made but slight advances in the last half century ; while,
as we have seen, it was once the active pioneer every- where.
It exercised by its introduction into France an immense
influence upon the principles of 1789, and started the de-
velopment of liberal ideas throughout the whole of Eu-
rope; while in Oceanica, Hindostan, and China its prin-
ciples have modified the religious beliefs of the sectaries
of Brahma, of the Persians and the Mussulmans, of whom
are composed the majority of the lodges founded in those
countries ; yet to-day the Grand Lodge of England, like its
sisters, those of Scotland and Ireland, seems satisfied to re-
pose under its glories of the past and rest upon its laurels
Denmark.
Freemasonry was introduced into the capital of this
kingdom, in 1783, by the Baron of Munich, Secretary of
the Ambassador of Russia, who organized the first opera-
1 Besides these three grand colleges, all conferring a species of high
degrees, there is in Dublin, to complete the hierarchy, a Supreme Coun-
cil of the Scotch Rite of Thirty-three Degrees, established in 1808, of
which the Duke of Leinster is also nominally the Grand Master. A
similar institution is established at Edinburgh, founded in 1846, while a
third is situated at London since 1845. At the head of the last are the
brethren H. B. Leison, Esq., and Colonel Vernon; but these authorities^
not being recognized as Masonic, are of very little importance and mereij
enjoy a vegetating existence.
FREEMASONRY IN DENMARK. 109
tive lodge, under the name of " St. Martin s Lodge."
Shortly afterward several others were established, and, in
1749, the Grand Lodge of London there constituted a Pro-
vincial Grand Lodge, of which Count Damekiold Laurvig
was named Grand Master, and who, in 1780, erected the
same into a Grand Lodge of Denmark. The simplicity
)f English Masonry had to give way here, as every-where
else, to the system of high degrees, which had invaded all
Europe and blinded the good sense of the brethren. The
system of Strict Observance, invented, as we have seen, by
the Jesuits in France, to forward the interests of the Stuart
party, was introduced by the Baron of Bulow at Copen-
hagen, who organized there a prefectship, or commaudery,
having for Grand Master the Duke Ferdinand of Bruns-
wick. After the Congress of Wilhelmsbad, in 1782, the
Grand Lodge of Denmark abandoned the rite of " Strict
Observance," or Templar system; but, in returning to the
English system, besides the three degrees of symbolic Ma-
sonry, she preserved of the abandoned rite two degrees,
those of Scottish and Past Master. Immediately after
this reformation, lodges were established in all the cities
of any importance in the kingdom, and even, in 1785, ex-
tended to the Danish colonies, in the archipelago of the
Antilles, the islands of St. Croix and St. Thomas.
King Christian VIII, after having named the landgrave,
Charles of Hesse, Grand Master for life, solemnly recog-
nized Freemasonry by an official act, dated 2d of Novem-
ber, 1792.
At the death of the landgrave of Hesse, in 1836, the
Prince Royal, afterward King Christian VIII, declared
himself protector and Grand Master. In 1848, the Grand
Mastership passed to King Frederick VII, under whom
Danish Masonry has attained a very flourishing condition.
The intimate connection of this country with Sweden,
where the Masonry of Swedenborg, subsequently that of
Zinnendorf, had taken deep root, and, at an early period,
110 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
manifested a religious tendency that it has held from the
first in a remarkable manner, and toward which evidently
the Masons of Copenhagen, including the king, have in-
clined, decided the Grand Lodge of Denmark to adopt
officially, on the 6th of January, 1855, the Swedish rite,
or that of Zinnendorf, of seven degrees, and to enforce ita
adoption upon all the lodges under its jurisdiction.
Danish Masonry enjoys great consideration in the coun-
try, and, under the Grand Mastership of the reigning
king, prospers from day to day.
In 1863, the Grand Lodge of Denmark exercised juris-
diction over nine operative lodges, of which four are in
the capital and five in the provinces.
Sweden.
Masonry was introduced at Stockholm in 1736 ; but th&
interdictions pronounced against it by nearly every Euro-
pean state affected in a similar manner the Swedish gov-
ernment against it, and the Masonic meetings were pro-
hibited in 1758. Nevertheless, new operative lodges were
subsequently established, and, in the year 1764, a provin-
cial Grand Lodge for Sweden was organized at Stock-
holm. One of the first acts of the Freemasons of this
country was the establishment of an orphan asylum,
which is to-day the glory and crown of Swedish Masonry.
One donation of $30,000, which was made it by Brother
Bohmann, permitted it to be greatly enlarged. As else-
where, the true Freemasonry did not long exist in this
country before the importation from France of the Kite
of Perfection of twent}r-five degrees ; but the progress of
this rite was checked by the crusade entered into against
the system of Strict Observance. The chivalrous char-
acter of the Templars, from the first approaches of that
ey stern, met none of the favor in Sweden it had enjoyed
FREEMASONRY IN SWEDEN. Ill
in France and Germany. The King, Gustavus III, and
his brother, the Duke of Sudermanie, were initiated in
1770 ; and believing the statement made to him by the
officials of the rite, that Sweden was the first country into
which it was introduced, the king undertook to re-estab-
lish the order of Knights Templar. He was named
Grand Master, and exercised the functions of that office
until 1780, when the provincial Grand Lodge, declaring
itself independent, took the title of Grand Lodge of Swe-
den, and the king designated his brother, the Duke of
Sudermanie, to replace him as Grand Master.
The importers of the system of Strict Observance into
Sweden — of wThom history has not preserved the names —
deposited in the archives of the Grand Chapter of the sys-
tem, at Stockholm, many documents which, according to
them, were of the highest importance to the order of the
Templars, and among which they exhibited a will, in the
Latin language, wThich they said was the last will and tes-
tament of Jaques de Molay, the last Grand Master; as also
an urn, said to contain his ashes, collected, according to
the same authority, by his nephew, the Count of Beaujeu.
These statements engaged the attention of the Duke of
Brunswick, who had been nominated at this time Grand
Master of the system, and he repaired to Sweden to exam-
ine the documents; but the result proved satisfactory in
but a very trifling degree.
The King Gustavus had in the beginning favored the
establishment of the system of the Templars, and in some
degree discouraged the lodges practicing the English rite;
but, having immediately discovered the secret plans which
lay hidden under the system of Strict Observance, he mis
trusted its tendency ; and it is to this fact — thanks to the
efforts of the independent Masonic lodges located in the
country — that he afterward successfully confounded the
projects of the Jesuits, and liberated himself from the tu-
telage under which he was held by them. Assassinated
112 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
the 27th March, 1792, his son succeeded him, under the
title of Gustavus IV, and was initiated, though yet a mi-
nor, into Masonry upon the 22d March of the year follow-
ing, after he had renounced his right to the throne. His
uncle, the Duke of Sudermanie, already Grand Master of
Swedish Freemasonry since 1780, succeeded him, under
the title of Charles XIII, and exercised the Grand Master-
ship until 1811, when he delegated the office to Prince
Charles Jean Bernadotte.
In Sweden the endeavor was, as it also was in Germany,
to discover the truth in relation to the system of the Tem-
plars, of which the chiefs had heen expelled from the lat-
ter country. These researches wrought in the system
some modifications, which were due, in great part, to one
of the most eminent Masons of the time — the brother
Swedenborg — intimate councilor of the king, who had
introduced religious principles, impressed with his own
mystical creed, and which, in consequence, has imprinted
upon Swedish Masonry a particular character, which dis-
tinguishes it to the present day.
Beside the Templar system thus transformed, Zinnen-
dorf, surgeon-in-chief of the Swedish army at Berlin, and
Grand Prior of the system of the Templars, having aban-
doned the chiefs of the rite after he had exposed their jug-
gleries, established, in Sweden, a rite of seven degrees,
which bears his name, founded, in part, upon the same
religious principles, but less mystical than those of Swe-
denborg. It is this rite that now is found to predominate,
and is known in Europe as the Swedish Rite, or Kite of
Zinnendorf.
The protection of the king, and the official recognition
of Masonry by the government, in 1794, has given to the
institution in Sweden an importance which it does not
possess elsewhere. On the 27th May, 1811, King Charles
XIII founded an order exclusively for meritorious Free-
masons, of which the insignia is publicly worn, and thus
FREEMASONRY IN SWEDEN. 11$
proved his respect for the institution. The foundation of
this order, created from a noble sentiment that greatly
honored the king, is, nevertheless, in contradiction to the
spirit of Freemasonry, and in opposition with its princi-
ples. The same day this order was established, the king
announced as his successor the brother Bernadotte, Prince
of Ponte-Corvo, and the announcement was sanctioned by
the government, and he was proclaimed at the same time
Grand Master of Swedish Masonry. Since coming to the
throne, in 1818, the new king delegated the Grand Mas-
tership to his son Oscar, Duke of Sudermanie, subsequently
Charles John XIV, who directs in person, as the actual
king, (Charles XV,) the Masonic labors of the Grand
Lodge. The Grand Lodge of Sweden has under its juris-
diction three provincial Grand Lodges, with. twenty-four
operative lodges. The reigning king is Grand Master in
his own right.
Russia.
It was the Grand Lodge of London that established the
first lodge at Moscow, in 1731, under the reign of the
Empress Anna Ivanowa, and, for the purpose of constitut-
ing others in the country, patented John Phillips, Provin-
cial Grand Master. Freemasonry made but little progress
in Russia, and it was not until the year 1771 that the
first lodge was organized at St. Petersburg. In 1772, the
Grand Lodge of London delivered to John Yelaguine, a
Senator and Privy Councilor, a patent constituting him
Provincial Grand Master for Russia ; and, after his death,
he was succeeded by the Count Roman Woronsow. At
this time the lodges increased to a greater extent in St.
Petersburg than in any other portion of the empire, the
membership belonging in great part to the nobility. Un-
der the reign of Catherine II, it would have been difficult to
find in St. Petersburg a noble who was not a Freemason.
8
114 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
It is true that the Empress often manifested some chagrin
when, often finding but a single chamberlain in attendance
upon her, she inquired for such and such a one whom she
missed, and was told that he had gone to the lodge ; but,
nevertheless, she was well enough disposed toward the
fraternity to have her son, Paul I, initiated immediately
upon his becoming of age.
The high degrees, and, above all, those of the system
Strict Observance, had invaded, about the year 1775, Rus-
sian Masonry, and in which it lacked nothing of creating
the same disorders it every- where caused ; for many of the
lodges, professing only the English Rite, had no desire to
accept this Templar parody, which was principally the
cause of the interdiction of Freemasonry in 1798.
The system of Strict Observance, under the patronage
and Grand Mastership of the Duke of Brunswick, had
organized at St. Petersburg a power, under the title of
Grand Lodge of the Order of Vladimir, which pretended
to direct all the lodges of Russia, and thus came in conflict
with a great many operative lodges which practiced only
the English Rite.
In few countries did Masonry rise to the splendor it at-
tained under Catharine II, for the Masonic temples at St.
Petersburg were indeed palaces. Many beneficial estab-
lishments were also founded by her directions and under
her patronage.
During the sojourn of the King of Sweden, Gustavus
III, at St. Petersburg, who, in his own country, was Grand
Master of the Templar lodges, or lodges of the system of
Strict Observance, the lodges of this system gave him the
most superb feasts, at which he assisted with his whole
euite, composed entirely of Freemasons.
Notwithstanding these brilliant appearances, the true
Freemasonry, so far from making corresponding progress
in Russia, had, on the contrary, degenerated to such a
point that the Empress Catharine not only openly ex-
FREEMASONRY IN RUSSIA. 115
pressed her discontent thereat to the gentlemen of her
court, in respect to the abuses which were being intro-
duced, but published a pamphlet very severe in its strict-
ures against Freemasons. This pamphlet has been trans-
lated into French and German.
Such was the situation of Masonry in Russia upon the
accession of Paul I to the throne, in 1796. Although he
had been initiated, this prince had allowed himself to be
prevailed upon by intriguants, who obtained of him an
interdiction, under the most severe penalties, of Masonic
assemblies, as well as those of all other secret societies.
Subsequently, regarding the Order of Knights of the Tem-
ple as the true possessors of Masonic science, he desired
t£ re-establish that Order, and, in fact, in the object of
hastening this pretended regeneration of Masonry, he had,
the 16th of December, 1798, taken the title of Grand
Master of the Order of Malta, as a means of more effect-
ually accomplishing his purpose; afterward, however, he
renounced the project, which was, in fact, otherwise im-
practicable.
To Paul I, assassinated the 23d of March, 1801, suc-
ceeded Alexander I. At first he confirmed the interdiction
pronounced by his predecessor against Freemasonry ; butt
in 1803, consequent upon a circumstantial report which he
ordered to be made upon the object and principles of Free-
masonry, he revoked it, and was himself initiated. We
have been unable to ascertain the exact date of this cere-
mony, the place, or the lodge in which it took place, nor
do we know that he ever took any part in the labors of
the Fraternity. On the contrary, although he never re-
stricted in any way its existence, he always exhibited a
certain degree of mistrust in the institution.
The Grand Lodge of Vladimir, which, with the opera-
tive lodges under its jurisdiction, were suspended by the
interdiction pronounced by Paul I, after 1803 awoke to
renewed activitv. From that time the struggle recom-
116 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
menced. The lodges of the English system established a
new Masonic code for all the lodges of Russia; but not
wishing to recognize certain privileges that the Grand
Lodge Vladimir revindicated, and to withdraw forevei
from the systematic domination of it, they founded, in
1815, another Grand Lodge, under the title of "Astrea,"
of which the rules and regulations were approved by the
government, and which from that time directed all the
lodges of Russia.
Though Freemasonry had not greatly extended, it ap-
pears that it afforded some unquiet to the Emperor Alex-
ander ; for, by a ukase, dated the 21st of August, 1821, he
interdicted anew all Masonic assemblies ; and, in the auto-
graph rescript that he addressed to his minister charged
with the execution of this ukase, he based its promulga-
tion upon the assertion that the lodges occupied themselves
with the discussion of political subjects.
None of the successors of Alexander, who died in 1825,
having revoked this prohibition, Masonry remains in Rus-
sia under the ban of this interdiction.
Poland.
In consequence of the political troubles which have con-
stantly agitated it, Freemasonry has never attained a per-
manent position in this country.
In 1839, some nobles, resident at the court of King
Frederick I, established a lodge at Yarsovia, which was
shortly dissolved by the bull of Clement XII; but, not-
withstanding this prohibition, the Count Stanislaus Mnis-
zek, Andrew Mocranowski, and Constantine Jablonowski
founded, at Viennavitz, in Wolhania, a lodge, in which
men the most eminent for their virtue and patriotism
came from all parts of Poland to be initiated. In 1744, a
French lodge was organized at Lemberg, by a man named
V
•v
FREEMASONRY IN POLAND. 117
Francis Longchamps, the labors of which were subse-
quently directed by another Frenchman, named Colonel
Jean de Thoux de Salverte. After many vicissitudes,
there was organized, at Varsovia, on the 24th June, 1769,
under the reign of Stanislaus Augustus — who protected
Masonry — a Grand Lodge of Poland, of which the Count
Augustus Moszynski was nominated Grand Master. This.
Grand Lodge organized operative lodges at Cracovia,
Wilna, and Lemberg ; but, after the first division of Po-
land, their labors were interrupted.
The system of Strict Observance here, as elsewhere,
soon appeared, and established, at Varsovia, a Directory,
under the authority of the Duke of Brunswick. Many
French lodges were also established at Varsovia, and,
among others — by the Grand Orient of France — the lodge
"Perfect Silence," which, aspiring to the title of Grand
Lodge, sought to win to, its direction operative lodges;
afterward, by virtue of a patent delivered to it by the
Grand Orient of France, and dated 14th May, 1781, it
proclaimed itself Mother Lodge, or Grand Lodge of Po-
land. But it failed in its project, as did many others,
which obtained, for this purpose, from the Grand Lodges
of England and Germany, patents, constituting them legal
powers, for which the necessity was recognized. Finally,
thirteen lodges united, and, on the 26th February, 1764,
constituted definitely a Grand Orient of Poland, by vir-
tue of a patent delivered to them by the Grand Lodge of
England. This Lodge was installed on the 4th of the
following March, and chose for its Grand Master the
Count Felix Potoski. Its existence was of short dura-
tion; for, after the second partition of Poland — which
took place in 1784 — this Grand Lodge, together with all
the operative lodges under its jurisdiction, suspended op-
erations.
The Lodges which were subsequently established in the
Grand Duchy of Poland were then organized, under the
118 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Grand Lodges located at Berlin. Finally, on the 22d
March, 1810, the Grand Orient of Poland awoke and took
charge of the lodges in the country. The political events
of 1813 but slightly modified their condition, and but mo-
mentarily interrupted their labors; and, in 1818, we find
the Grand Orient of Poland directing the labors of thirty-
four operative lodges. The ukase of the Emperor Alex-
ander, however, struck with death the lodges of Poland,
in common with those of Russia, and since that time (12th
August, 1822,) all Masonic labors have ceased in Poland.
The heroic courage with which our Polish brethren
fought for their liberty and their nationality, against a
despotism the most arbitrary and revolting that any power
calling itself Christian ever exercised against a civilized
people, has acquired for them the sympathy and admira-
tion of the Freemasons of the whole world.
Belgium.
The history of Freemasonry in Belgium is divided into
many periods : that during which Belgium was part of the
low country of Austria ; that during which it was incor-
porated in the Empire of France; that of its re-union
with Holland ; and, finally, the period since the independ-
ence of Belgium was established. This was the first con-
tinental country that received the new Freemasonry of
England. The first lodge was instituted at Mons, the 4th
of June, 1721, under the title of "Perfect Union," by the
Duke of Montague, then Grand Master of the Grand
Lodge of London. It was this lodge that was subse-
quently erected into an English Grand Lodge for the low
countries of Austria ; but, in 1785, it shared the fortunes
of all other Austrian lodges by the edict of the Emperor
Joseph I.
Another lodge was established, in 1730, at Gaud, under
FREEMASONRY IN BELGIUM. 119
the Austrian direction. In common with other lodges
organized about the same time, in consequence of the per-
secutions of the Catholic clergy, who were armed with
the hulls of excommunication launched at Freemasons by
the popes, it labored in the most profound secrecy. The
membership of these lodges were, in most part, composed
of the nobility, animated, in a great degree, by the demo-
cratic tendencies of that period, and seeking to extend
the principles of political liberty among the people. The
most zealous patriots were to be found at the head of the
lodges — many of the clergy themselves, who then were
liberal, exhibiting a strong partisan trait for Masonry.
To such a degree was this feeling expressed, that even the
Bishop of Liege, and many of his ecclesiastics, were in-
itiated into and directed the labors of the lodges. The
Duke of Aremberg, the Duke of Ursel, the princes of Ligne
and of Gavre, all took a very active part in the labors of
Masonry. At one time fifteen lodges were in operation ;
but, unhappily, the political manifestations of the popula-
tion of the low countries of Austria caused, in 1785 and
in 1786, the Emperor Joseph I to interdict Masonic assem-
blies, though elsewhere — in Brussels, for instance — he per-
mitted the lodges to continue their labors. In 1787, how-
ever, he ordered, by a new edict, that all the lodges in the
empire, without exception, be closed, under the most se-
vere penalties.
When Belgium was incorporated into the French Em-
pire, the Belgian lodges — which at that time, in conse-
quence of the edict of 1787, were in a state of suspended
animation — were ordered to place themselves under the
jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of France ; and, from that
time, Masonry in Belgium became an integral part of that
of France, which there organized some twenty-two lodges.
In 1814, there were in Belgium, in active operation,
twenty-seven lodges, which, after the re-union of Belgium
with Holland, for three years vainly endeavored to erect
120 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
a central authority at Brussels. Finally, Prince Freder-
ick, of the Low Countries, second son of the king — who,
after the enfranchisement of Holland, had therein consti-
tuted a new Grand Orient — proposed to the Belgian lodges
the creation of two independent Grand Lodges, which
should direct all the operative lodges, each having its own
administration and particular jurisdiction : the one to be
located at the Hague, to exercise jurisdiction over all the
northern lodges and those of the East Indies ; the other
having its seat at Brussels, to direct the southern lodges
and those of the West Indies — the Grand Orient of Hol-
land, thus divided into three sections, to form a Supreme
Council, whose object would be to take cognizance of all
the great principles affecting Freemasonry in general, etc.
This treaty of union was concluded in 1817, and the
installation of the Provincial Grand Lodge at Brussels took
place on the 11th April, 1818, at which time Prince Fred-
erick was elected Grand Master of the three independent
Grand Lodges, and named, as his representatives,. Brother
Falk, Minister of State, for the Provincial Grand Lodge of
the Hague, and the Prince of Gavre for that of Brussels.
From this time the history of Belgian Freemasonry is
confounded with that of Freemasonry in Holland. We
will only add that from 1817 to 1832, strenuous attempts
were made to establish in Belgium, particularly at Brus-
sels, the different systems of high degrees.
The separation of Belgium from Holland — which took
place in 1831 — modified anew the condition of Masonry
in the former country. The provincial Grand Lodge of
Brussels becoming, by the separation, isolated from the
Grand Orient of Holland, invited, by a circular, dated the
16th of December, 1832, all the lodges of the new king-
dom to recognize it as an independent authority, to unite
under its recognition, and to send up their delegates to a
general assembly convoked for the 25th of February, 1833.
Only four lodges, however, were represented ; but the dele-
FREEMASONRY IN BELGIUM. 121
gates present, nevertheless, decided to declare the provin-
cial Grand Lodge of the Low Conn tries dissolved, and to
constitute in its place a Grand Orient of Belgium. This
new authority, placed under the protection of the king,
Leopold I — himself a Freemason — succeeded in uniting
under its jurisdiction, but not without difficulty, all the
lodges of Belgium except four, which were then declared
irregular. On the 1st May, 1835, the Baron of Stassart
was nominated Grand Master.
The flourishing condition of Masonry, and the influence
that its members were exercising over all classes of society,
provoked the hate of the Catholic clergy, who recom-
menced their persecutions ; and the Bishop of Malines, in
1837, published a sentence of excommunication — a strange
proceeding in our day — against all the Belgian Freemasons.
The struggle became more and more lively, and the Cath-
olic party, of whom the "Journal of Belgium'' is the or-
gan, surpassed the part it took in the revolution of 1830,
in its pretentions to rule the country, and exhibit the in-
tolerance that elsewhere and always is exhibited in seasons
of triumph by this party.
The Masonic lodges, pursued, excommunicated, tor-
mented, in their material interests and social position, al-
most up to the family hearth ^stones, by their implacable
enemies, who sought to drive to destitution the President
of the Senate and the Governor of Brussels himself, be-
cause of their adherence to Freemasonry, though the king
himself was known to be a member of the institution,
were constrained to take an attitude, through their Grand
Orient, which was no less an exhibition of dignity and
moderation than it was of strength. They opposed uni
versal liberty to universal Romanism, free publications and
loyal to anathemas, and the preaching of the eternal truth
of their faith to the intolerance of a theocratic ambition.
By this course the Freemasons finally triumphed.
To brother, the Baron of Stassart, who abdicated in 1841,
122 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
succeeded Brother Defacqz d'Ath, Counselor to the Court
of Appeals, and to him succeeded, in 1854, the brother
Theo. Verhsegen, Advocate and President of the Chamber
of Representatives.
The new Grand Master, seeing the institution over
which he was called to preside the constant object of the
attacks of obscure politicians, backed by the clergy, in-
sisted, in a discourse pronounced upon St. John's day,
1854, and which reflected the profound convictions and
eminent talents of the distinguished speaker, that there
existed an absolute necessity for Freemasonry to oppose
itself more and more energetically to the antagonistic
party, and discuss within its lodges such religious and po-
litical questions as affected the condition of the country;
and, for this purpose, that the regulations of the Grand
Orient be so amended as to repeal the laws forbidding
such discussion to take place within the lodges. His ad-
vice was approved by all the brethren who assisted at the
feast, and they decided to publish his discourse. This
declaration, consequently, being printed and promulgated,
provoked the protest of a portion of the Grand Lodges
of Germany, and also that of Sweden, who not only
ceased, in consequence of this manifestation, all connection
with the Grand Orient of Belgium, but even prohibited
their operative lodges from receiving Belgian Masons.
This movement was attended by another deplorable
consequence. The chiefs of the Supreme Council of the
Scottish (33d) Rite, located at Brussels — a rival authority
of the Grand Orient — and some lodges under the jurisdic-
tion of the latter body, protested against the new inter-
pretation of the principles and the rights of Freemasons
as inculcated by the Grand Master Verhsegan, and mad
it the occasion of their passing over to the jurisdiction of
the Supreme Council. This factionist condition has re
mained nearly the same up to the present time.
The statutes of the Grand Orient, promulgated the 19th
FREEMASONRY IN HOLLAND. 123
of January, 1838, contained but fifteen articles, and made
no mention of any other style of Masonry except that of
the three symbolic degrees. Each lodge of the union is
represented by three delegates, who in general assemblies
exercise the legislative power. The Grand Orient of Bel-
gium exercises jurisdiction over sixty operative lodges
while the Supreme Council of the Scottish (33d) Rite,
which was instituted the 1st of March, 1817, and had for
a long time a precarious existence, now counts thirteen
lodges within its jurisdiction. These two authorities hold
their meetings in the same city, Brussels.
Holland.
This country was for a long time preserved from the in-
novations due to intriguing politicians and other schemers,
who every- where have provoked deplorable schisms in the
Masonic ranks ; nevertheless it finally had to submit to
the consequences of allowing the English Rite, which was
for years the only one known, to be encroached upon by
those anti-masonic productions which have denaturalized
our beautiful institution, and which, in place of hastening
us forward to the goal of its ideal, have but advanced that
goal farther from us.
A lodge was founded at the Hague, in 1725, composed
of the elite of Dutch society; but the clergy, ever hostile
to Freemasons, not having permitted it to be openly con-
stituted, its labors during many years were conducted in
the most profound secrecy; and it was not until 1731,
when Lord Stanhope, Duke of Chesterfield, was English
embassador at the court of William, Prince of Orange,
that it was officially constituted. This lodge owed its ex-
istence to Brother Vincent de la Chappela, who had been
authorized for the purpose of organizing it by the Grand
Lodge of England. It was by it that the Emperor Francis
I, then Duke of Lorraine, was initiated.
124 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
In 1834, many lodges united in a general assembly for
the purpose of regularly organizing Freemasonry in Hol-
land, by constituting a provincial Grand Lodge. This
Grand Lodge, of which the Count of Wagenaer was pro-
posed as provincial Grand Master, after having been regu-
larly patented by the Grand Lodge of England, was inau-
gurated in 1735, in an assembly held at the hotel of
Niewe-Doelen, under the presidency of the titulary pro-
vincial Grand Master, Brother John Cornelius Radema-
cher. It took the title "Grand Masters' Lodge of Gen-
eral Appeal for the United Provinces;" and, in 1749, it
took the name of " Mother Lodge of the Royal Union."
Another lodge, founded in 1734 at the Hague, and com
posed of eminent men, announced, in the public newspa-
pers of the 24th October, 1735, a Masonic assembly which
would be presided over by the new provincial Grand
Master Rademacher ; but the magistracy of the Hague,
on the 30th of the following November, issued an ordi-
nance interdicting all such assemblies.
Notwithstanding this prohibition, a lodge of Amster-
dam, which numbered among its members the most em-
inent men in the city, dared to continue its labors. The
Catholic clergy, by the aid of calumnious reports, suc-
ceeded in stirring up the ignorant class of the people
against it; and its place of meeting being invaded by a
crowd of those fanatics, they burned the property of the
lodge and exhibited otherwise a disposition, upon any re-
sistance being offered, to proceed to the most violent
measures. The general government, with the object of
preventing a recurrence of such action, intervened and
prohibited Masonic assemblies. One lodge, having, in de-
iiance of this prohibition, continued to meet, it was sur-
rounded, by the order of the magistracy, and its mem-
bers captured and imprisoned. The master of the lodge
and his officers, when brought before the court, explained
FREEMASONRY IN HOLLAND. 125
so clearly the object and principles of the institution, that
they were immediately set at liberty, and all the judges
of the tribunal solicited the honor of being initiated.
Since that time, a great many lodges have been established
m the country; but, in 1746, new persecutions, on the
part of the Catholic clergy, forced the lodges of the
Hague, Nimegue, and Amsterdam to demand the inter-
vention of the general government, which obliged the
clergy to retract their calumnies.
The Holland lodges — which held their constitutions,
some from the Grand Lodge of England, and others from
those of Germany and France — existed isolated from and
independent of the provincial Grand Lodge created in
1735. With the object of a more intimate union, the
lodge styled " Royal Union " convoked a general assem-
bly, which was attended, on the 27th December, 1756, by
representatives from thirteen lodges, and then and there
organized, under the patronage of the Grand Lodge of
London, a Grand Lodge for the United Provinces, of
which the Baron Yan Aersen Beyeren was nominated
provincial Grand Master.
This Grand Lodge proclaimed, the following year, its
general statutes in forty-one articles. In 1770 it declared
itself independent; and, by virtue of an agreement with
the Grand Lodge of London, it took the title of Grand
Lodge of Holland, and notified all the Grand Lodges of
Europe of the fact. It at once organized a provincial
Grand Lodge, at Brussels, for the low countries of Aus-
tria, and nominated the Marquis of Gages provincial
Grand Master; but this lodge was obliged, in 1789, in
consequence of the edict of the Emperor Joseph I, to
suspend active operations. After the removal of this in-
terdiction, in 1798, the Grand Lodge of Holland decreed,
on the 17th May of that year, a new administrative code,
according to which it ruled only the three symbolic de-
126 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
grees, and intrusted a special chxpter, directed by the
Grand Master, Baron Van Teylingen, with the conference
of the other degrees of its rite.
In 1810, by the aid of the subscriptions made up by the
Holland lodges, an asylum for the blind was instituted at
Amsterdam.
After the union of Holland with the French Empire,
in 1811, the existence of the Grand Orient of Holland
was attacked and compromised, by the Grand Orient of
France assuming to extend its authority over all the Ma-
sons and all the Masonic institutions of Holland. To the
decree published by it on the 3d March, 1812, the Grand
Orient of Holland responded, on the 21st of the same
month, in a manner so dignified that the Grand Orient
of France renounced its project of assumption, and the
Grand Orient of Holland continued its jurscliction as be-
fore, save that the nine operative lodges, instituted by the
Grand Orient of France at Amsterdam and the Hague,
remained, from 1812 to 1814, under the jurisdiction of
the latter.
At the time of the events of 1814, which changed anew
the position of Freemasonry in Holland, the Grand Orient
had under its jurisdiction, in Holland and the two Indies,
seventy-one operative lodges. The direction of the lodges
of the Low Countries having been offered to it, the Grand
Orient proposed, in 1814, a treaty of union among all the
northern and southern lodges of the Low Countries, for
the purpose of organizing a Grand Lodge for that king-
dom, with the Provincial Grand Lodges,1 of which the one
should be located at the Hague, and comprising within its
jurisdiction all the northern lodges, together with those
in the East Indies ; and the other should be located at
Brussels, to take charge of all the southern lodges of the
kingdom, together with those of the West Indies. Of the
latter, Prince Frederick was elected Grand Master, and
'See Masonry in Belgium, ante.
FREEMASONRY IN HOLLAND. 127
the Minister of State, Brother Falk, Grand Master of the
former.
In 1819, Prince Frederick sent to all the lodges of Eu-
rope copies of two documents found in the papers of the
defunct Grand Master Boetzelaar. The first of these docu-
ments is a species of charter,1 dated at Cologne, the 24th
)f June, 1535, and signed hy nineteen persons, hearing
illustrious names, and who therein are presented as dele-
gates from nineteen Masonic lodges of different countries
in Europe. The second is the record-hook of the meetings
of a lodge which, according to it, should have existed at
the Hague in 1637, and whose date of organization is 8th
May, 1519. These documents, particularly the charter,
have been submitted to the examination of learned Free-
masons, some of whom have pronounced them authentic,
while others have decided that both documents have been
produced for some purpose best known to the manufactur-
ers. The latter decision seems to be best supported.
The lodges under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient
of the Low Countries numbered, in 1820, one hundred and
five, of which forty-five in Holland, and fourteen in the
East Indies, were borne upon the register of the Grand
Lodge of the northern provinces at the Hague ; and thirty-
two in Holland, and fourteen in the West Indian colonies,
on that of the Grand Lodge of the southern provinces
at Brussels. The number of operative lodges organized
from that time to 1829 augmented the foregoing by thirty-
one lodges, thus making the total number one hundred
and thirty-six.
The events of 1830 changed anew the Masonic organ-
ization in Holland, placing it as we found it in 1818; and
the Grand Orient of Holland took under its direction the
lodges of the new Dutch territory and the Dutch colonies
m the two Indies. As in the past, it continues to fill with
dignity, under its noble chief, Prince FrecleFick William
*See General History of Freemasonry, p. 51.
128 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Charles, the position that it occupies as one of the most
ancient departments of Freemasonry in Europe.
The Grand Orient of Holland at present directs, in all,
the labors of sixty-seven operative lodges, of which about
twenty are in the East and West Indies.
Germany.
We must give the history of Freemasonry in this vast
country, which contains an empire, five kingdoms, and
twenty-one principalities, in a manner more succinct than
that of any other of the States of Europe. We will com-
mence, therefore, by speaking of that city which, of all
others in Germany, was the first in which Freemasonry
took root.
Hamburg. — On the 3d of December, 1737, the first Ma-
sonic lodge in Germany, under the English dispensation,
was established in this city. It was named "Absalom
Lodge," and was placed under the direction of Brother
Charles Sarey. On the 30th of October, 1740, this lodge
was raised, by the Grand Lodge of England, to the rank
of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Hamburg and Lower
Saxony, and having for its Grand Master, Brother Lutt-
man. It was by a deputation of this lodge that the Prince
Frederick of Prussia, subsequently Frederick II, was in-
itiated, in 1738, at Brunswick — a circumstance that has
contributed much to the propagation of Freemasonry in
Germany. From Hamburg, Freemasonry passed, in 1738,
to Dresden; in 1740, to Berlin; in 1741, to Leipsic; in
1744, to Brunswick, and in 1746, to Hanover. The Pro-
vincial Grand Lodge established up to 1795 but five lodges,
and in that year these united in founding a hospital for
house servants, and, subsequently, created a fund for the re-
lief of foreign brethren who might require it. This Grand
Lodge had extended its jurisdiction, in 1807, over sixteen
lodges, all working the English Rite and remaining faith-
FREEMASONRY IN GERMANY. 129
ful to its mother lodge of London. In this respect it
shone as a bright example of fidelity in comparison to
other Provincial Grand Lodges, which, although estab-
lished under like circumstances and by the same authority,
generally took the first favorable opportunity to become
independent of the authority that created them. It was
not until the year 1811 that the Provincial Grand Lodge
of Hamburg decided to assert its independence. To-day
it directs a Provincial Grand Lodge and twenty-one oper-
ative lodges, all practicing the English Rite, together with
a chapter, created by Shroede/, who was, during many
years, its Grand Master.
Prussia. — The " Lodge at the Three Globes," in Berlin,
composed of French artists, was constituted on the 23d of
September, 1740. This was the first lodge established at
that time. On the 24th of June, 1744, Prince Frederick
elevated it to the rank of a Grand Lodge, under the title
of "Royal Grand Mother Lodge." He was, as a natural
consequence, elected Grand Master, and filled the office
as such until 1747, from which date he ceased to take any
part in Masonic labors.
This mother lodge suffered itself to be from an early
period invaded by the high degrees of the rite of "Per-
fection," as also by those of the rite " Strict Observance."
In 1773, desiring to organize a lodge whose membership
would be composed entirely of the nobility, it requested
permission to do so from the king, Frederick II, but was
refused. Such an institution could no better carry out the
object of Masonry than those which were charged with
the propagation of its doctrines.
Although, like Hamburg, some parts of Germany had
received Masonry direct from England, and the lodges
thus constituted worked the English Rite, others had re-
ceived it by the intermediation of France. The institu-
tion soon extended in a most extraordinary manner. The
9
130 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
lodges there, finding themselves composed, in great part,
of the nobility and men devoted to art and the sciences,
having a weakness for the French language, many of them
conducted their labors in that language, and, for the most
part, even took French names. This tendency favored
the introduction into the German lodges of the high de-
grees which the officers of the army of Broglie had im-
ported from France; and it is from this period these innu-
merable follies which culminated in the introduction of the
Templar system may be dated. It was not until after the
Congress of Wilhelmsbad that these disorders ceased. The
discussions which took place in that assembly broke the
chains of the Templar hierarchy, believed to be so firmly
riveted by the Jesuits, and relieved the fraternity in all
Germany from their drunken enthusiasm for the systems
of high degrees.
In no country had the Templar system been extended
so generally as in Germany. Nearly all the lodges had
adopted it, under the belief that its object was the re-
establishment of the ancient Order of Knights Templar.
The most elevated classes of society and people the most
honorable, among whom were the greater portion of the
nobility, became its partisans, notwithstanding the doubts
which were thrown out of the sincerity of the assertions
of its chief officials. Twenty-six princes of German}' had
been initiated into those degrees, and thus became pro-
moters more or less zealous ; while many of them took
position at the head of the Templar Order in their respect-
ive States.
Since Frederick the Great, all his successors have been
Freemasons, or have declared themselves in favor and the
protectors of Freemasonry. Frederick William III, who
had been initiated, confirmed and recognized from the
throne, in 1798, the three Grand Lodges of Berlin. At
the second Congress of Vienna, in 1833, when Austria and
Bavaria demanded, in terms not in any wise equivocal, the
FREEMASONRY IN GERMANY. 131
extermination of the society of Freemasons, this king de-
clared that they were and always should be in his king-
dom, under his protection ; and, by his warm defense of
the institution, he prevented the other powers represented
at this congress from exhibiting any leaning towards the
project of extermination advanced by the two powers just
named.
It was by his desire and with his consent that the
present king, William I, proclaimed himself, during his
life, protector of Masonry in Prussia. The latter, without
partaking of the favorable opinion of the institution en-
tertained by his father, imitated him, as well from politi-
cal motives as to continue the custom consecrated by his
predecessors of the royal family, in consenting that his
son, the prince royal Frederick William, should be ini-
tiated and should represent Prussian Masonry. This ini-
tiation took place on the 5th of November, 1853. The
principles of this prince are known to be at variance, how-
ever, with those of his father.
The three Prussian Grand Lodges located at Berlin
have each founded some humanitarian establishments in
favor of Freemasons and their families.
The Grand Lodge at the Three Globes has under its ju-
risdiction ninety-nine operative lodges.
The National Grand Lodge of Germany, founded in
1773, registers under its jurisdiction sixty-seven operative
lodges.
The Royal York Grand Lodge, founded in 1798, regis-
ters twenty-seven operative lodges under its jurisdiction.
Each of these three Grand Lodges has its Grand Mas-
ter and Deputy Grand Master. The Prince William of
Baden has been, since 1859, Grand Master of the Royal
York Grand Lodge.
132 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Kingdom of Saxony. — A lodge was established at Dres-
den, in 1738, by the Count Botowsky, under whose direc-
tion a Provincial Grand Lodge was organized in 1741.
This Grand Lodge, with the operative lodges under its
jurisdiction, experienced the same embarrassments, by
their connection with the high degrees, as all the other
legislative Masonic bodies of Germany. We shall pass
them by without further notice.
In 1755, this lodge took the title of Grand Lodge of
Saxony; and, after having, in 1807, abolished all the de-
grees above that of Master Mason, it united, in 1811, with
the National Grand Lodge of Saxony, which then had
been established.
Under the auspices of the first Grand Lodge, there was
founded, in 1792, on the 22d of September, at Frederick-
stadt, a philosophic establishment, which is directed at
the present time by the Lodge of the Three Swords, at
Dresden, and in which two hundred children are edu-
cated.
The Grand Lodge of Saxony has at present under its
jurisdiction fifteen operative lodges.
Kingdom of Hanover. — The capital of this country ad-
mitted Freemasonry in 1746, and the Grand Lodge of
London established there, in 1755, a Provincial Grand
Lodge, under the Grand Mastership of Count Kielman-
segge. Having detached itself from the Mother Grand
Lodge, in 1828 it declared its independence as a Masonic
authority, under the Grand Mastership of the reigning
king. Its history is intimately connected with that of
German Masonry in general.
The king, George V, on ascending the throne on the
18th November, 1851, declared himself — like his father,
who was a Freemason — the protector of Masonry in Han-
over, and was initiated, on the 14th of January, 1857, in
the " Lodge at the Black Bear," in Hanover. From that
FREEMASONRY IN GERMANY. 133
time he has directed, as Grand Master, the Freemasonry
of the country, and taken a very active part in Masonic
labors.
The Grand Lodge of Hanover numbers at the present
time upon its register twenty-one symbolic lodges.
Kingdom of Bavaria. — In no country of Germany has
Freemasonry been subjected to as many restrictions and
vexations as in the kingdom of Bavaria. It did not pene-
trate, until very lately, into the elder Bavaria; and it was
not until 1777 that the Royal York Grand Lodge organ-
ized a lodge at Munich. But for a long time it has ex-
isted in operative lodges, located in countries which, in
1810, were annexed to this kingdom. A lodge had been
organized by Prince Frederick of Brandenburg, on the
21st June, 1741, at Beyreuth, the ancient capital of Fran-
conia, where other lodges were said to have existed at
this time, but concerning which we know nothing.
The society of the Illuminati, founded by the professor
"Weisshaupt, and to which was intrusted the noble task of
causing virtue to triumph over folly and ignorance, and
of carrying instruction and civilization into all classes of
society, had found access into some lodges located in the
Elder Bavaria, and particularly those of Munich ; and
thereupon Prince Charles Theodore, moved by the influ-
ence of the Jesuits, issued two decrees, the one dated 2d
March, and the other 16th August, 1785, interdicting the
assemblies of the Illuminati, and also those of the Free-
masons. Following these prohibitions, which were re-
newed from at first by the king, Maximilian Joseph, on
the 4th November, 1799, and subsequently on the 5tr
March, 1804, the lodges of Munich and of Manheim
ceased their labors.
Within the Protestant countries annexed to Bavaria —
at Beyreuth and Ratisbonne — the lodges were allowed to
continue their labors, but under most intolerable restric-
134 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
tions. No employe of the government, either civil or
military, was permitted to attend the meetings of or be
initiated into them. In a word, these lodges had to con-
tend with the Jesuitical tendencies of the government,
and were consequently paralyzed in their actions.
Notwithstanding this pressure, however, the lodge at
Beyreuth — constituted, on the 3d of August, 1800, as a
Provincial Grand Lodge, under the jurisdiction of the
Royal York Grand Lodge at Berlin — made a stand, under
the Grand Mastership of Count Giech and Brother Voel-
dendorf, prefect of the government; and finally, in 1811,
it, with four other lodges, created an independent power at
Beyreuth, under the title of " Grand Lodge of the Sun."
This authority has at present under its jurisdiction, in the
northern portion of Bavaria, eleven operative lodges,
while in the southern portion, which is entirely Roman
Catholic, Freemasonry is completely interdicted.
Grand Duchy of Baden. — The most ancient lodge of
this country is the lodge "Charles of Concord," established
on the 24th November, 1778, at Manheim, by the Royal
York Grand Lodge of Berlin. Its labors were suspended
in 1785, in consequence of the interdiction of Masonic as-
semblies in the states of the elector of Bavaria, in which
Manheim was at that time situate. But when this city
was, in 1803, incorporated in the Grand Duchy of Baden,
Freemasonry awoke, under the direction of the Marquis
of Dalberg, and founded, in 1806, a Grand Orient of Ba-
den, of which Prince Charles of Ysenberg was chosen
Grand Master.
Another power, under the title of the "National Union
of the Lodges," was, upon the 23d of May, 1809, consti-
tuted at Manheim by tie lodges of Carlsruhe, Friburg,
Heidelberg, etc., of which the Marquis Charles Frederick
Schilling, of Constadt, was nominated presiding officer.
After the death of the Grand Duke, Charles Frederick,
FREEMASONRY IN GERMANY. 135
his successor, under the pressure of political evonts, on
the 16th February, 1813, and on the 7th March, 1814,
promulgated two ordinances, prohibiting all assemblies of
secret societies, among which, of course, Freemasonry
stood first. After this the lodges remained closed for
thirty years ; and it was not until in 1845 that the reign
ing Grand Duke authorized anew the assembling of Free
masons. The greater part of the old lodges began their
labors, and to-day they are at work, under the jurisdiction
of the Grand Lodge of Beyreuth and the Grand Lodge
at the Three Globes, in Berlin, respectively.
Kingdom of Wurtemberg. — In 1774 a lodge was insti-
tuted at Stuttgart, under the title of " Charles of the
Three Cedars," which practiced the rite of " Strict Ob-
servance," and having at its head Brother Taubenheim,
privy councilor ; but it failed to sustain itself, and, by a
circular, dated the 16th July, 1784, it was announced that
its labors were suspended. It was not until the year 1835
that we see Freemasonry reappear at Stuttgart. The late-
ness of this reappearance is due to the unfriendly disposi-
tion for the institution entertained by the sovereigns who
governed Wurtemberg since 1784. To-day we see lodges
in active operation, working under the direction of va-
rious German Grand Lodges.
Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt. — The first traces of Free-
masonry were exhibited in this country in 1764, when a
lodge, under the name of the u White Pigeon," had been
organized by the National Grand Lodge of Germany ; but
this lodge disappeared immediately, and left no sign of
Masonic life in Hesse-Darmstadt, where, as in many other
portions of Germany, the reigning sovereigns did not
have much love for the institution. It was not until the
year 1816 that it awoke, thanks to the particular protec-
tion of the landgrave Christian of Hesse. A lodge, under
136 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
the title of " St. John the Evangelist," was constituted at
Darmstadt, on the 5th of August of that year, and in-
stalled on the 23d of the following October, by the Grand
Lodge of the Eclectic Union at Frankfort. This lodge
established a fund for the relief of the widows and or-
phans of deceased brethren.
In 1846 was established at Darmstadt, under the title
of "The Union," a Grand Lodge, which now numbers
upon its register seven operative lodges, besides the lodge
" St. John the Evangelist."
Hesse-Cassel. — Notwithstanding all the members of the
ducal family of this duchy were Freemasons, as were also
the ruling princes, in this country, Freemasonry has never
made any progress. The lodges have never sought to
form a central power, but work in an isolated manner,
and without ranking under any jurisdiction.
When the country was transformed into a kingdom,
under Jerome Buonaparte, in 1808, the lodges organized a
legislative authority at Cassel, under the title of the
" Grand Orient of Westphalia ;" but this organization was
dissolved after the events of 1815. Another Masonic au-
thority was constituted at Cassel in 1817. We have no
documents to inform us as to what occurred since that date.
Duchy of Brunswick. — Through the agency of the cham-
berlain De Kisselben, who was by it named Provincial
Grand Master for life, the Provincial Grand Lodge of
Hamburg, on the 12th of February, 1844, instituted a
lodge at Brunswick which was called "Jonathan," and at
the installation of which Prince Albert of Brunswick was
present. After the introduction of the Templar system
into the lodges of Germany, a number of the members of
this lodge refused to recognize it as Masonic, or admit
the system into the lodge. This circumstance, in 1765,
led to a division of the membership into two factions,
FREEMASONRY IN GERMANY. 137
which, while they continued to work each independent
of the other, ceased not to criminate and war upon each
other. A third lodge, named " St. Charles of Concord,"
organized in 1764 by some Frenchmen, who worked in
the French language, and conferred the high degrees
brought hy them from France, having, notwithstanding
the protection of the reigning duke, "been authorized b\
the two dissenting lodges just mentioned, Duke Charles,
to put an end to this strife and disorder, closed up all the
lodges, and subsequently ordered their membership to re-
organize into two new lodges, the one to work in the
French language, and the other in the German.
In 1770, the Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, having
been nominated, by the Grand Lodge of London, Provin-
cial Grand Master for the lodges of the Duchy of Bruns-
wick, installed the officers of these two lodges on the 10th
and 11th of October of that year, in presence of the Duke
Charles of Sudermanie, brother of Gustavus III, King of
Sweden ; Prince Frederick Augustus of Brunswick-Lune-
burg, and General Rhetz, Deputy Grand Master.
As the Templar system lacked in Germany an influen-
tial chief, who could facilitate its propagation and sup-
port the secret plans of its founders, the emissaries of the
Jesuits sought, not in vain, to gain the Duke Ferdinand
to such position. After having consented to their propo-
sition, and being initiated in the Convent of Kohlo in 1772,
by the chapter there assembled for that purpose, he was
nominated Grand Master of all the lodges of the Templar
system in Germany. On the 18th January, 1773, he es-
tablished a Supreme Directory of Strict Observance at
Brunswick, and within the very locality of those lodges
which his predecessor had closed to prevent them from
practicing the rite of which he now announced himself as
chief. Deceived, however, as had been Gustavus III of
Sweden, and his brother the Duke of Sudermanie, as to
the origin of the Templar system, by the emissaries, who
138 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
pretended that the object of that system was to re-estab-
lish the Order of the Knights Templar, and to claim res-
titution of the property of that order from the power that
had confiscated i% Duke Ferdinand assembled in 1775 at
Brunswick, and in 1778 at Wolfenbuttel, conventions of
Freemasons, to ascertain tbe facts in this connection.
The consequences were, that while many of the emissaries
of the Templar system were unmasked and imprisoned,
the object of the inquiry was no further advanced than
before. Finally, the Duke Ferdinand convoked, in 1782,
a congress at Wilhelmsbad, to which were invited all the
Masonic authorities of Europe, in order, first, to ascertain
if the Templar system was really directed by the Society
of Loyola ; second, to discuss the merits of the system, as
also its demerits ; and, third, to reform it, to the end that
Freemasonry might be extricated from the political com-
plications into which this system had drawn it, not alone
in all Germany, but also in Sweden, Italy, Poland, and
Russia. The discussions which took place during the
thirty days this congress continued in session, while they
led to no positive assurance beyond the fact that the Tem-
plar system was a totally anti-masonic institution, carried
the conviction to the minds of the majority present that
there was no Freemasonry beyond that of the English
Rite, or the three symbolic degrees. The consequences
were that all the systems of high degrees were rejected
and cast aside as worthless, except the rite of Strict Ob-
servance, which was changed into the " Refined Scottish
Rite."
The " Supreme Directory" at Brunswick, after the death
of Duke Ferdinand, on the 3d July, 1792, returned to the
practice of the English Rite, and assumed what it claimed
as its original name of " St. Charles of Concord ;" and
thereafter, f)r some time, continued to exist isolated and
independent.
While Westphalia was a kingdom this lodge was in
FREEMASONRY IN GERMANY. 139
danger of losing its independence, in consequence of the
Grand Lodge of Westphalia, instituted in 1808 at Cassel,
attempting to register it under its direction. But the in-
terference of the king prevented this consummation, and,
for the purpose of having some recognized Masonic au-
thority to lean upon, it returned to its obedience to the an-
cient mother lodge of Hamburg. The 11th and 12th Feb-
ruary, 1844, were employed by this lodge — " St. Charles
of Concord" — in celebrating the centennial feast of the
introduction of Freemasonry into Brunswick.
Empire of Austria. — In all countries wherein the Roman
Catholic and apostolic clergy predominate, Freemasonry
experiences great difficulty in attaining a permanent foot-
hold. Of this fact Austria is a striking illustration. All
the lodges constituted in the Austrian States have had but
a brief term of existence, the persecutions on the part of
the clergy and the prohibitions of the sovereigns having
never given them time to take root.
The Empress Maria Theresa, notwithstanding her hus-
band, the Emperor Francis I, was a Freemason, inter-
dicted Masonry, in 1764, within the Austrian States. It
was not until the reign of Joseph II that we find the in-
stitution again existing in that country ; but, as before,
an object of suspicion, and under the strict superintend-
ence of the police.
The system of Strict Observance had been established
in all its hierarchy at Vienna; but some very grave com-
plications caused it, in a short time, to abandon its seat.
In 1784, however, there were established some ten lodges
in Vienna, all working under this system, and which — to
judge from the language of a Masonic journal which was
there secretly published from 1784 to 1786, and edited
with marked ability — were composed of worthy men, and
progressive in their principles and practices.
After the death of Joseph II in 1790, his successor,
140
GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Francis II, prohibited Masonry anew, and used the great-
est severity in enforcing this prohibition, even to demand
ing a decision from the German Diet, in 1794, then sit-
ting at Ratisbonne, to interdict the institution throughout
all Germany. But the representatives of Prussia, Bruns-
wick, and Hanover responded to this demand by saying,
that as he was protector of the rights and liberties of his
own subjects, they claimed the same privilege with re-
gard to theirs.
Freemasonry penetrated into Bohemia in 1769, and in
1770 four lodges were actively engaged in Prague. They
were composed of the most prominent citizens. In 1786,
a Provincial Grand Lodge for Bohemia was organized;
but the interdiction of Francis II caused the total suspen-
sion of Masonic labor in this portion of his empire ; and,
since 1794, Austria has been shut out from Masonic light.
Recapitulation op the Lodges Existing
Germany.
in the Several States op
Prussia, with 3 G. L.
187
16
20
10
5
Saxony, " 1 "
Hanover, " 1 "
Bavaria, " 1 "
Baden
Wurtemberg 6
Hesse-Darmstadt, 1 G. L 7
Hesse-Cassel 2
Luxembourg, 1 G. L 2
Mecklenburg-Schwerin 9
" Strelitz 2
Saxe-Weimar 2
Oldenbourg 2
Nassau 1
Brunswick 3
Altenburg 1
Holstein .- 1
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha 2
Meiningen 1
Anhalt Dessan 2
11 Bernbourg 1
Reuss (the elder) 1
Reuss (the younger) 1
Waldeck 1
Lippe-Detmold 1
Schwartzbourg-Schwerin 2
Lubeck 2
Bremen 2
-Frankfort-on-the-Main and its de-
pendencies, with 1 G. L 10
Hamburg and dependencies, 1 G. L. 21
Total 10 G. Ls. and 323 La.
freemasonry in switzerland. 141
Switzerland.
Freemasonry penetrated into Switzerland in 1737, when
a Provincial Grand Master of England, named George
Hamilton, founded the first lodge at Geneva, and shortly
afterward the second at Lausanne ; but in consequence of
its interdiction, in 1738, by the magistracy of Berne, the
latter was dissolved. In 1740 a new lodge was organized
at Lausanne; but a second prohibition by the govern-
ment of Berne, dated the 3d March, 1745, closed it. It
was not until about 1764 that lodges were organized in
Lausanne and in the canton of Vaud ; but a third edict,
issued by the government, in 1770, against the assembling
of Freemasons, dispersed these lodges also.
The Provincial Grand Lodge of Geneva maintained it-
self with much difficulty ; for nearly all the lodges that
it constituted, particularly those in the canton of Vaud,
were dispersed by the edicts mentioned. Having sought,
however, to establish lodgre in the cities of German
Switzerland, and others in Geneva, it seemed necessary
that a Grand Orient of Geneva should be established;
and, in 1786, this authority was instituted ; but the
French Revolution of 1789 caused it to suspend opera-
tions. In 1796 it resumed its functions ; but, by the union
of Geneva with th/» Empire of France, its operations were
set aside by the Grand Orient of France, which imme-
diately commerced instituting lodges within its jurisdic-
tion. In 1765., Masonry having extended into German
Switzerland, a lodge was established at Basle, and another
at Zurich in 1771. Both of these lodges were instituted
by the Provincial Grand Lodge of Geneva.
The system of Strict Observance soon found its way
into the valleys of Jjolvetia; and its anti-masonic distinc-
tions, while producvg the same disorder there which they
produced elsewh *>}•'>> culminated in dividing the Masons
of Switzerland rAo two camps. In 1775, the system of
142 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Strict Observance, having organized a Helvetian Scottish
Directory, divided itself into two factions. The one, hav-
ing its seat at Basle, assumed authority over German Swit-
zerland ; while the other, sitting at Lausanne, and styling
itself the Scottish Directory of Roman Helvetia, took
charge of French Switzerland. But this last had to sub-
nit to a like fortune with all the lodges of the canton of
Vaud ; and in consequence of the edict of the Lords of
Berne, issued in November, 1782, it suspended its opera-
tions. This edict, for the fourth time, prohibited Masonic
assemblies in every portion of the canton. The Directory
of Basle was not more fortunate; for, in 1785, under the
stringent requirements of an edict of the magistrates of
Berne, it also had to suspend operations. During the
French Revolution all Masonic labors in Switzerland were
suspended; and, in 1818, the seat of the Scottish Directory
of Basle was transferred, after the death of the Grand
Master Burhardt, from that city to Zurich.
The Directory of Roman Helvetia at Lausanne awoke
to renewed activity in 1810 ; but the system of Strict Ob-
servance having been abolished after the congress of Wil-
helmsbad, it took the title of Grand Orient of Roman
Helvetia, on the 15th October of that year, and from that
time governed the lodges of the canton of Vaud, until
its fusion, in 1822, with the Provincial Grand Lodge of
Berne, which then became an independent Grand Lodge.
At Berne Masonry had been introduced, about the year
1740, by the Provincial Grand Lodge of Geneva ; but, in
consequence of the interdiction of the magistrates of
Berne, it had disappeared, and no traces of it could be
found in the canton until about 1798, when some Bernese
officers, in the service of France, established three lodges,
styled, respectively, "Friends of Glory," "Foreign Coun-
try," and "Discretion." The first two had but a short
existence, and from the remains of the last was formed
the " Lodge of Hope," which was constituted by the Grand
FREEMASONRY IN SWITZERLAND. 143
Orient of France, on the 14th of September, 1803, and
which was then the only lodge in active operation in the
whole Swiss Confederation.
A new era now appeared to dawn for Masonry in Switz-
erland, which, no more persecuted, developed with won-
derful rapidity, and lodges were established, within a short
time, in the principal towns of the country ; but the wars
of the empire once more arrested this new growth. The
Lodge of Hope was composed of eminent men of all
classes of society — nearly all foreign diplomatists, resident
at Berne as representatives of foreign powers, having be-
come members of this lodge. In 1812 it initiated Prince
Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, since King of the Belgians. On
the 12th July, 1818, this lodge applied for a patent to the
Grand Lodge of England ; and on the 24th June, 1819, it
was installed as a Provincial Grand Lodge of England, by
the brother Louis de Tavel de Kruiningen, who had been
elected to the position of Provincial Grand Master. From
that time it abandoned and discredited the chapters and
high degrees of all kinds which it had received from
France, and thenceforward recognized nothing as Ma-
sonic but the three symbolic degrees.
Thenceforth the eminent brethren who directed this
authority sought to unite, under one alliance, all the
lodges of Switzerland. Having announced their desires
upon this subject to the Helvetian Scottish Directory at
Zurich, without meeting any favorable response, on the
24th June, 1822, the Provincial Grand Lodge of Berne
concluded a treaty of union with the Helvetian Grand
Orient1 at Lausanne, by virtue of which both of these au-
thorities were dissolved, and in their place was instituted
a National Grand Lodge of Switzerland, to which, by vir
tue of the treaty, the six lodges of the Grand Orieut and
1 This Grand Orient was, in some sort, the successor of the Tloiua"j
Helvetian Directory, that suspended operations in 1782.
144 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
the three lodges of the Provincial Grand Lodge yielded
obedience. In this manner but two Masonic authorities
came to exist, viz : the National Grand Lodge of Switzer-
land, and the Helvetian Scottish Directory at Zurich.
Such new lodges as were subsequently instituted in
Switzerland took rank under the National Grand Lodge ;
and notwithstanding the Zurich Directory had at various
times, and particularly in 1830, after the death of the
Grand Master De Tavel, made overtures of union to the
National Grand Lodge, in consequence of the pretensions
to the right of conferring high degrees retained by the
former, the latter, having abolished such pretension, would
never consent to such union.
Finally, the feelings which prompted a desire for union
were renewed in 1835, and, at the twenty-fifth anniver-
sary of the re-opening of the lodge "Liberty with Mod-
esty," in Zurich, the Swiss lodges were invited, and the
feast took place on the 20th August, 1836. It was then
agreed that the "Lodge of Hope," at Berne, should con-
voke, in the year 1838, all the lodges of Switzerland in a
congress, in which should be discussed the basis of a
future union. In accordance with this decision the con-
gress met, the basis of union was discussed, and the decis-
ion arrived at that a third congress should assemble at
Basle in 1840, to continue the discussion. Subsequently,
a fourth congress assembled at Locle in 1842, and finally a
fifth, at which were assembled the representatives of four-
teen lodges, who ratified the union on the 22d June, 1844,
and established the new Alpine Grand Lodge, with the
brother Professor Hottinger as Grand Master.
The place of meeting of this body is changed every two
years. Governed by a council of administration, having
the Grand Master for president, and composed of the
members united in a general assembly, this authority ex-
ercises legislative powers. Its jurisdiction extends over
twenty-seven lodges, which form the Swiss union.
i
1
v
&
freemasonry in italy. 145
Italy.
In no country has Freemasonry been subjected to such
changes of fortune as in Italy. It is at Florence that we
find the first traces of the institution. Introduced there
in 1729, by the Grand Lodge of England, which estab-
lished many lodges in Tuscany, in 1731 we find a Pro-
vincial Grand Lodge instituted. But Gaston, the last
Grand Duke of the family of the Medici, in 1737 inter-
dicted all Masonic meetings, and not until after his death
did Freemasons again meet in a lodge capacity. Then,
the clergy having complained to Pope Clement XII, he
sent an inquisitor to Florence, who arrested and impris-
oned all the Masons he could discover, and ceased not in
his persecutions until ordered so to do by the successor
of Gaston, Francis, Duke of Lorraine, who was subse-
quently Emperor of Austria. This prince, who had been
made a Mason in Holland, protected the institution. Un-
der his reign Masonry extended into all Italy — to Milan,
Padua, Venice, and Yerona. It existed even at Kome,
where, unknown to the Pope, a lodge worked in the Eng-
lish Rite. The bull of excommunication of the 27th April,
1738, published on the 29th of the following May, and
which prohibited Masonic meetings in all Catholic coun-
tries, under the most severe penalties, closed a portion of
the Italian lodges. A new edict of the Cardinal Farras,
dated 14th January, 1739, confirmed this bull, and ordered
to be burned, by the hands of the public hangman, a pam-
phlet written in favor of Freemasons. These persecu-
tions, however, had but little effect in interrupting the
spread of Masonry in Italy, particularly at Naples; and
it was but by the promulgation of the bull of Pope Bene-
dict XIV, on the 18th March, 1751, that the lodges were
obliged to close their meetings.
In 1760, the Grand Lodge of Holland instituted a Pro-
vincial Grand Lodge at Naples, which, in a short time
10
146 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
had organized eight operative lodges. Then detaching it-
self from the Grand Lodge of Holland, this lodge took
rank as a Provincial Grand Lodge, under the Grand
Lodge of England. In 1767 this body declared itself in-
dependent, under the title of tne National Grand Lodge
of Italy, with the Duke Demetrio della Rocca in the office
of Grand Master ; in which condition it existed until 1790,
when it was dissolved by the French Revolution.
Masonry was cotemporarily introduced into the king-
dom of Sardinia, lodges having been organized at Turin
and Chambery , while, in the latter city, the Grand Lodge
of London founded a Provincial Grand Lodge.
In 1762 Masonry was imported from England to Venice,
where many lodges were established, under the direction
of the Provincial Grand Master Manuzzi.
The partisans of the Stuarts, and other political schemers,
found in Italy, as elsewhere, means to establish their ille-
gitimate Masonry. In 1775 they had installed at Turin a
commandery of the eighth department of the system of
Strict Observance, under the direction of the Count of
Bernez, steward to the King of Sardinia; and by him
were established priories of this system in all the principal
towns of that kingdom, as well as in many cities of Italy.
At Chambery English Freemasonry had soon to gi\e
way to the system of Strict Observance, and the Provin-
cial Grand Lodge, instituted in that city by the Grand
Lodge of London, transformed itself, in 1775, into a Pi-
rectory of the Masons of Lombardy ; but which was dis-
solved in 1794. At Naples the Prince of Caramanca was
placed at the head of the Templar system, which there, as
elsewhere, very soon displaced the English Rite.
The interdictions of the Papal authority, as also the clan-
destine persecutions of the clergy and government, little
by little, dispersed the majority of the lodges, and those
which survived were closed during the French Revolution.
Under the French government, however, a new era
FREEMASONRY IN ITALY. 147
seemed to dawn for Masonry in Italy. A lodge, organized
at Milan in 1801, was followed by the establishment of
another at Mantua, and others in the principal cities ;
when the Scottish Rite, introduced at Paris in 1804, and
imported to Milan in 1805, by virtue of a constitution
dated at Paris, and bearing the signatures of De Grasse-
Tilly, Pyron, Benier and Vidal, organized a Supreme
Council for Italy, which extended its ramifications to
Sicily. It was this Supreme Council of Milan which gave
to one of its members, named Lechangeur, the idea of
creating, in 1806, the Rite of Misraim, in accordance with
which councils of high degrees were instituted at Naples
and Venice.1
The Grand Orient, created at Naples in 1807, and hav-
ing the Prince Eugene for Grand Master, subsequently
united itself to the Grand Orient of Italy, which was or-
ganized on the 24th June, 1809, under the auspices and
Grand Mastership of the king, Joachim Murat.
With the fall of Napoleon I, this portion of the history
of Freemasonry in Italy closes. Thereafter all the inter-
dictions, bulls, and edicts were renewed. The decree of
Pope Pius VII, dated 15th August, 1814, carried infamy
and bodily torture as the penalty incurred by all convicted
of assembling as Freemasons. Immediately following this,
similar decrees were promulgated by all the crowned
heads of Catholic countries, all repeating the absurd
charges contained in the decree of the Pope, Pius VII,
and prohibiting in their respective states all Masonic as-
semblies. Finally, on the 8th August, the King of Naples
issued his interdiction, and, under penalty of seutence to
the galleys, prohibited all participation in the assemblies
of Freemasons.
After that time the lodges continued closed in Italy,
1This rue was imported to Paris in 1814, where it yet exists, and has
given, in its turn, birth in that city to the Rite of Memphis.
148 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
and it was not until 1856 — an interval of forty years — .
that the Grand Orient of France instituted lodges at
Genes and at Livorne. Since th«n the lodges have mul-
tiplied and extended into all the principal cities of the
peninsula. These lodges soon decided to institute an in-
dependent Grand Lodge; and, after the elaboration by
their delegates of a suitable constitution, on the 1st Janu-
ary, 1862, the Grand Orient of Italy was organized, with
its seat at Turin, and the brother Nigra nominated Grand
Master. This brother, however, having declined the nomi-
nation, the brethren Cordova and General Garibaldi were
put in nomination, and the former elected.
In consequence of the severity practiced against it by
the new central power, the lodge "Dante Alighieri,"
which professed the Scottish (33d) Rite — a profession that
was unhappily entertained by several other lodges — de-
tached itself from the Grand Orient, and declared itself
independent. Similar tendencies having manifested them-
selves in other parts of Italy, and a Supreme Council for
Sicily having been constituted at Palermo, with General
Garibaldi as its chief, and some twelve lodges ranking
themselves under its banner, on the 12th August, 1863, a
convocation of all the Masonic bodies of Italy was called,
to meet at Turin, to take into consideration the tendency
of these disorders, and devise means to check them. Not
being able to agree, the brethren who represented the
Grand Orient of Turin withdrew from this assembly, and
thus allowed their places in the commission, appointed to
draft a new constitution, to be filled by brethren who
were all partisans of the Scottish Rite. We know not,
at the present time, (close of 1863,) the result of this
labor; in no case, however, can we believe this result will
be favorable to the interests of true Freemasonry.
The Grand Orient of Italy, having rejected the high
degrees which, during the past century, had produced
much discord among the lodges of that country, and,
FREEMASONRY IN PORTUGAL. 149
under its constitution, recognized nothing as Masonry but
the three symbolic degrees of the English Rite, many
Masonic authorities hesitated to recognize it, in the belief
that the political agitation of the country might cause its
early dissolution. The desire to found a Polish and a Hun-
garian Grand Orient, at the head of which, respectively,
should be placed a political chief of these countries, has
not a little contributed to strengthen such a belief.
At the close of 1863 the Grand Orient of Italy reckoned
under its jurisdiction sixty-eight operative lodges, among
which are to be found lodges in Alexandria and Cairo, in
Egypt ; at Constantinople, in Turkey, and Lima, in South
America.
Portugal.
There is one country where Masonic light has pene-
trated but with the greatest difficulty; for it is the seat
of ignorance and superstition. This country is the para-
dise of monks, who there cease not to build convents,
and exercise the exclusive privilege of directing the minds
of the people, the king, and his councilors. That coun-
try is Portugal.
From the Book of Constitutions, first published by the
Grand Lodge of London, in 1723 — and subsequently at
later periods, to the extent of five separate editions, the
last of which was published by order of the Grand Lodge
of England, in 1855 — we learn that the Grand Lodge of
London instituted at Lisbon, in 1735, a Provincial Grand
Lodge, by the agency of Bro. George Gordon ; but th
seeds thus sown fell on barren soil. In the matter of per
secution, undergone by all who attempted to disseminate
Freemasonry in this country, it stands without a rival, if
we may except Spain ; but latterly this condition is dis-
appearing.
150 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
The Inquisition, here under the protection of the king,
tracked every person from far and near who were sus-
pected of being Freemasons. Thus, two lapidaries — the
one named John Custos, originally a Protestant from
Berne in Switzerland, and the other, named Alexander
James Monton, originally a Catholic from Paris — having
been accused of having expressed the desire to see a lodge
organized in Lisbon, fell into the snares set by the "Holy
Office*" and were thrown into prison in 1743. The accu-
sation charged them with seeking to introduce Freema-
sonry into Portugal, in violation of the bull of the Pope,
which condemned this detestable doctrine as a heresy, and
all Freemasons as impious, sodomists, etc. Under the
order of the Cardinal Dacunha, grand inquisitor, they
submitted nine times in three months to the most abomi-
nable torture that it is possible to imagine; subsequently
they were forced to assist at an aiito-da-fe, and finally
condemned to the galleys for life. Thanks to the aid of
English Freemasons, however, they were enabled to es-
cape and seek refuge in England. Of the many other
Masons who, like those unfortunates, fell into the traps of
the Inquisition, and who, no doubt, sunk under the tor-
ture inflicted by that detestable institution, we have been
unable to discover the least trace.
The Inquisition was no less severe with the natives of
the country; for, in 1776, two Portuguese nobles, Major
D'Alincourt and Don Oyres D'Ornelles-Parracao, were
also imprisoned and tortured, because they were Free-
masons. Although all vestige of Masonry had disappeared
for twenty-five years, in 3802 an inquest was ordered
against Freemasons in Portugal, and all who were sus-
pected even, by this inquest, were charged with conspiracy
against the king and the church, and sentenced to the
galleys without trial or form of law.
Notwithstanding these severe measures, we find, in 1805,
a Grand Orient at Lisbon, with a Grand Master, named
FREEMASONRY IN PORTUGAL. 151
Egaz-Moniz ; but its. ramifications were not very extended.
Dissolved after the events of 1814, it was formed again in
1817, and sought to animate some lodges; but Freema-
sonry continued to inspire the monks with terror, and,
yielding to their solicitations, King John VI issued a de-
cree, dated at Rio Janeiro, the 30th March, 1818, inter
dieting Freemasons from assembling together, under pain
of death. We know nothing of the lives destroyed under
this decree ; but, about five years afterward, it was modi-
fied by another, which, dated Lisbon, June 20, 1823, stated
that it was issued in consequence of remonstrances upon
the subject having been, during the interval, addressed to
the government by many of the resident embassadors.
By the terms of this last decree, the penalty was changed
from capital punishment to five years' labor in the galleys
in Africa. ISTo proof beyond mere suspicion was necessary
to cause the arrest of persons who were punished under
the penalties of those edicts. Foreigners as well as na-
tives were proceeded against without any attempt to dis-
guise the act, or the least attention being given to the
many protests which were made by the agents of their re-
spective countries.
Notwithstanding these interdictions, however, as well
as the cruelties which were exercised under their au-
thority, a Masonic body was constituted at Lisbon, under
the title of the Grand Orient of Lusitania, as also a Su-
preme Council of the Scottish (33d) Rite. The later sov-
ereigns of Portugal, without having revoked the prohibi-
tory decrees against Freemasons, appeared to tolerate the
Fraternity; for there has been established another au-
thority at Oporto, under the name of "Pattos- Manuel;"
and subsequently a Provincial Grand Lodge of Ireland.
But in a country where — as in Spain and at Rome — the
clergy rule every thing, we can entertain but little hope
for the extension or well-being of Freemasonry.
152 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Spain.
In no country, Portugal excepted, has Freemasonry-
been exposed to persecutions more atrocious than in the
Roman Catholic kingdom, par excellence, of Spain — perse-
cutions based upon the bulls of Clement XII, of the 27th
April, 1738; of Benedict XIV, of the 18th May, 1751,
and the edict of Cardinal Consalvi, of the 13th August,
1814, which, as we have seen, pronounced all Freemasons
excommunicated, and condemned them to the most severe
penalties, even to death itself.
From the Book of Constitutions we learn that in 1727
and in 1728, under the Grand Mastership of the Count of
Inchquin and Lord Coleraine, the first warrants were de-
livered to establish lodges at Gibraltar and Madrid. In
1739 a number of lodges were instituted at these places,
and the Grand Lodge of London patented Captain Com-
merford Provincial Grand Master for all Andalusia.
The Catholic clergy of Spain exhibited themselves at
a very early period here, as elsewhere, the bitter enemy of
Freemasonry. The better to enable them to discover the
members of the Fraternity, and the secret practices and
doctrines of the institution, the monk Joseph Torrubia,
censor of the Holy Office of the Inquisition at Madrid, was
ordered, in 1750, to assume a false name, pass himself as a
layman, and be initiated into a Masonic lodge. For this
purpose he received from the Pope's legate the dispensa-
tions necessary to relieve him from the obligations of the
oaths he should have to take upon being made a Freema-
son. After having thus been enabled to visit the lodges
in different parts of Spain, he presented himself before the
supreme tribunal of the Inquisition, denounced Freema-
sonry as the most abominable institution that existed in
the world, accused its members of every vice and crime re-
volting to religion, and submitted a list of ninety-seven
&
i -
:
8
$
FREEMASONRY IN SPAIN. 153
lodges established in the kingdom, against which he so-
licited the most rigorous action of the Inquisition.
The importance of the great number of brethren who
were members of these lodges, belonging, as they did, to
the nobility and to the rich and influential classes, induced
the Holy Office to reflect upon the matter, and decided i
to request the king to interdict the institution of Freema
sonry. In response to its promptings, Ferdinand VI is-
sued a decree, dated the 2d July, 1751, prohibiting the in-
stitution of Freemasonry throughout the extent of his
kingdom, under the pretext that it was dangerous to the
state and to religion, and pronouncing the penalty of
death against all who should profess it. Under this de-
cree many persons were sacrificed by the order of the In-
quisition. These cruelties were calculated to suppress all
idea of introducing Masonry within the country, and also
of restraining any exhibition of life on the part of the
lodges already established ; so that it was not until after
the French Revolution that they emerged again into the
light, and began to spread more rapidly than before.
After having founded at Xeres a Grand Lodge for Spain,
there was established, on the 3d November, 1805, under
the government of Joseph Napoleon, a Grand Orient of
Spain, having its seat at Madrid, the very stronghold of
the Inquisition. The same year was constituted a Su-
preme Council of the Scottish (33d) Rite, and subsequently
a Grand Orient, at Grenada, the Athens of Spain.
In 1814, Ferdinand VII re-established the Inquisition,
and, by a decree dated 24th May of that year, ordered all
the lodges to be closed, and pronouncing all participation
in Masonry a crime against the state. Many lodges, par-
ticularly those of Grenada, having braved this ordinance,
all their members were arrested and thrown into prison.
Of their number was the Marquis of Toulouse, and Gen-
eral Alvada, Adjutant-General to the Duke of Welling-
ton, together with many Frenchmen, Italians, and Ger
154 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
mans. The provisional government of 1820 released them
all, and in that year many lodges resumed their labors ;
but, on the 1st August, 1824, the King, Ferdinand VII,
renewed his decree of interdiction, and pronounced the
penalty of death against all who, being Freemasons,
should not announce themselves as such within thirty
days; while, after that time, those who should be recog-
nized as such, and had not so declared themselves, should
be hung within twenty-four hours without form of law.
So stringent a measure as this would have informed
that government, which held no obligations sacred, that
eighty thousand of its subjects were banded together as
a brotherhood, had any of those subjects been disloyal to
his obligations to that brotherhood ; but, strange to say,
the Inquisition found very few victims.
In 1825, the clergy of Grenada, under the authority of
this interdiction, distinguished themselves by the bloody
execution of seven Freemasons ; and subsequently, in 1829,
new traces of Masonry having been discovered in Barce-
lona, the unhappy brethren fell into the hands of the In-
quisition, which ordered the execution of one of them, the
brother Galvez, a lieutenant-colonel in the Spanish army,
and sentenced the other two to the galleys for life.
Notwithstanding these rigorous measures, there were
many Freemasons in Spain ; and even a Masonic authority,
styled the " Grand Directory," is known to exist some-
where in the kingdom, but where, or what may be the
plan of its labors, we are unable to say.
At Cadiz there is a lodge composed entirely of English-
men, with which the government does not interfere ; and
at Gibraltar there are four, like that in Cadiz, under the
protection of the Grand Lodge of England, at London.
The countries in which Masonry is at present prohib-
ited are: Spain and her colonies, Catholic Bavaria, Austria
and its dependencies, and Russia, with the countries under
her rule.
HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN
OF THE
ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE,
AND ORGANIZATION OF THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF
THAT RITE FOR FRANCE. *
The Masonic authority which directed a fraction of
French Masonry, under the title of the " Supreme Council
of Sovereign Grand Inspectors General of the 33d and
last degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for
France," was organized at Paris, on the 22d of Septem-
ber, 1804, by the Count Alexander Francis Augustus de
Grasse- Tilly, son of the admiral of that name; and this
organization was formed under a warrant, dated and de-
livered to him at Charleston, South Carolina, on the 21st
February, 1802, by a body styling itself the " Supreme
Council of Grand Inspectors General for America," etc.,
sitting in that city. This warrant conferred upon the
brother De Grasse plenary powers to initiate Masons into,
and constitute lodges, chapters, and consistories of, this rite
in the then (February, 1802,) French colony of St. Domingo.
1 Knowing how much importance will attach to this portion of th
General History of Freemasonry, assuming, as it does, to give the real
origin of "the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite" of thirty -three de-
grees— how earnestly it will be studied, discussed, and commented upon
by some, and probably disbelieved by others of the brethren, who have
taken the commonly-received history of the rite and the "grand consti-
tutions" as truth in every particular — I have followed the author so
(155)
156 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Without proceeding, in this place, with the history of
the first Masonic power created in France under this war-
rant, and the forms of this rite — the title of which we
have already given — and to chronicle the acts of such
body from 1804 to the present time — which we propose to
do in another volume — we will at this time give our atten-
tion to the origin of the Masonic authority by which it
was instituted.
"We will begin with quoting from the document submit-
ted to the Masonic Fraternity by the partisans of this rite,
giving an account of its origin :
" It appears, from authentic documents, that the establishment
of the sublime and ineffable degrees of Masonry took place in Scot-
land, France, and Prussia immediately after the first crusade ; but,
in consequence of circumstances which to us are unknown, they
were neglected from 1658 to 1744. Then a Scotch gentleman vis-
ited France, and re-established the Lodge of Perfection at Bour-
deaux.1 ... In 1761, the lodges and councils of the superior
degrees having extended over the continent of Europe, his majesty
the King of Prussia, who was Grand Commander of the degree of
closely in this department — sentence for sentence and word for word — that
I may be said to have waived the right of a translator, and rendered the
author's language at the expense of my own. I trust, however, the object
will justify the action. — Translator.
1 According to this recital, it would be necessary to admit that the propa-
gation of the Scottish Rite of "these sublime and ineffable degrees'' is due
to a "Scotch gentleman," unknown both as to his own name as well as the
lodge or Masonic authority that authorized him to "re-establish" this rite In
France! The fact is, that before 1789 there never was a lodge of the Scot-
tish Rite, neither of twenty-five nor thirty-three degrees, established at
Bourdeaux; while that which existed at Arras — a Grand Chapter — waa
founded by Charles Edward Stuart, in 1747. Subsequently there was, in
1751, a mother lodge of what was then called the Scottish Rite, founded at
Marseilles; and in 1756 the Grand Chapter of Clermont was founded, in the
convent of Clermont, at Paris. In addition to these so-called Masonic bodies,
the dates of whose institution are well known, there were numerous chap-
ters, tribunals, etc., founded by Dr. Ramsay, between the years 1736 and
1740, no details of which are known to us.
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE. 157
Prince of the Royal Secret,1 was recognized by all as chief of the
sublime and ineffable degrees of Masonry in the two hemispheres.
His royal highness Charles, hereditary prince of the Swedes,
the Goths, and the Vandals, Duke of Sudermanie, etc., was and
continued to be the Grand Commander and protector of sublime
Masonry in Sweden ; and his royal highness Louis of Bourbon,
prince of the blood, the Duke of Chartres, and cardinal prince of
Rohan, Bishop of Strasburg, were at the head of these degrees in
France. * * *
" On the 25th of October, 1762, the grand constitutions were
finally ratified at Berlin, and proclaimed for the government of
all the lodges of sublime and perfect Masons, chapters, councils,
colleges, and consistories of the royal and military art of Free-
masonry upon the whole surface of the two hemispheres, etc.
" In the same year some constitutions were transmitted to our
illustrious brother Stephen Morin, who, on the 27th of August,
1761, had been appointed Inspector General of all the lodges, etc.,
of the New World, by the Grand Consistory of Princes of the
Royal Secret, convoked at Paris, and at which presided the deputy
of the King of Prussia, Chaillou de Joinville, Substitute General
of the Order, Worshipful Master of the first lodge of France, called
St. Anthony, Chief of the eminent degrees, etc. Being present
the brethren Prince of Rohan, etc.3
" By the constitutions of the Order, ratified on the 25th of
October, 1762, the King of Prussia had been proclaimed Chief of
the high degrees, with the rank of Sovereign Grand Inspector
General and Grand Commander. The high councils and chapters
not being able to work but in his presence, or in that of the sub-
stitute who he might designate; while all the transactions of the
Consistory of Princes of the Royal Secret had to be sanctioned
by him, or his substitute, for the establishment of their legality;
and many other prerogatives being attached to his Masonic rank.
No disposition had, however, been inserted in the constitution for
the nomination of his successor ; and, as this was an office of the
highest importance, the greatest precautions were necessary to
1 This was the name of the last degree of the Rite of Perfection, which waa
composed of twenty-five degrees.
2 See page 88 for a transcript of this appointment.
158 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
protect it, that none but a person entirely worthy should be ap-
pointed to it. Kealizing the importance of this fact, the king es-
tablished the thirty-third degree.1 Nine brethren of each nation
formed the Supreme Council of Grand Inspectors General, who,
Bince his decease, have possessed all the Masonic powers and pre-
rogatives enjoyed by him. They constitute the exclusive body of
the Society, and their approbation is now indispensable to the
acts of the Consistory, to which it gives the force of law. From
their decisions there is no appeal. The sublime degrees are at
this moment (1802) as they were at the time of their first forma-
tion ; they have not undergone the slightest alteration — the least
addition. The same principles and the same ceremonies have
been from all time observed; and this we know by the documents
of our archives, which have existed for many centuries of years
in their original condition."
The author of these passages has forgotten, no doubt,
to quote the documents mentioned in the introduction, as
also those extracts from the archives to which he alludes
at the close.
This recital we extract from a report which, accompa-
nied by some historical notes, seems to have been sub-
mitted to the Supreme Council at Charleston, in 1802, by
one of its members, named Frederick Dalcho, and which,
in 1808, were printed in Dublin. This curious document
is the first that has given the pretended history of the
Scottish Rite, and all that has been published since then
as to the origin of the rite has been extracted more or
less literally from it. The object for which this document
was produced is therein explained — it was to be distributed
and sent, in the form of a circular, to all the Masonic au-
thorities upon the globe; and to render it more worthy
of belief, and to give it greater importance, the Supreme
Council at Charleston had it affirmed, or sworn to, by the
brethren Isaac Auld and Emmanuel de la Motte, approved
1 It will be remembered that the rite of which it is stated he was chief had
but twenty-five degrees.
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE. 159
by the Grand Master, ad vitam, Colonel Mitchell, and cer-
tified to, as in all particulars true and sincere, by Abraham
Alexander, Secretary of the Holy Empire.1
The preceding recital concerning the Scottish Bite, so
far as quoted, is well worthy of taking rank among the
products of that noble army of Masonic authors and fab-
ricators of new rites, who, to give their creations some
importance, invent with the greatest facility, time, place,
and honorable circumstances attending their origin. If
the authors of this new Scottish Rite have not considered
it necessary to assign to it a greater antiquity; if they
have not, as is customary with most writers upon Ma-
sonry, placed the birth of their rite in the cradle of the
world, or thereabouts, it is because they have reasoned a
little more logically than their imitators. The name of Scot'
tish not being any better known to antiquity than was that
of Freemason, it reasonably became necessary to place the
origin of this rite at an epoch which had some connection
with history. The majority of our self-styled Masonic
historians, in their statements as to the origin of our in-
stitution, trouble themselves to the smallest possible ex-
tent as to its connection with written history; for, in
speaking of its antiquity, they appear to think it entirely
unnecessary to describe how it was possible for it to de-
scend intact to our time through forty or fifty centuries,
which, they glibly inform us, have elapsed since its birth.
The name of Freemason, as indicating with decision and
in the most incontestable manner the origin of the insti-
tution, is not, to this class of writers, of the slightest con-
sequence.
If the inventors of the Scottish Kite of thirty-three de-
grees have not been as careless as the generality of theii
predecessors, they have not been much more happy in their
xIt is by this title that the "Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite"
qualifies the country over which it extends its authority.
160 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
exposition of its origin. Not being able to found their
creation upon any act more or Jess authentic, or upon any
fact of history, the scaffolding erected by them to support
it necessarily gives way at the first shock, in the way of
an earnest examination, to which they submitted it; and
thus left unsupported, it shares the fortune of the creations
")f their predecessors in the same kind of speculation.
In overturning this scaffolding, we need but advance
the facts of history and compare them with the assertions
contained in the fragment of the report that we have
quoted. As to an examination of the question of fact
whether or not the report which he produced, signed by
Frederick Dalcho, had not been fabricated by himself
subsequently to 1802, in order to destroy the doubts which
attached themselves at a later period to the authenticity
of this rite, we leave that to one side.
In the beginning, ancient Freemasonry (from 715 B. C.
to the year 400 of our era), that of the middle ages (from
400 to 1500), and that which was practiced after that time
in England, had never but three degrees of initiation.
From 1640 to 1660 the partisans of the Stuarts, abusing
the trust reposed in them by the Masonic Fraternity, and
using their meetings as a cloak under cover of which to
elaborate their schemes of monarchical restoration, created
two superior degrees, viz : that of Scottish Master as the
fourth, and that of Templar Mason as the fifth degree.
When the society was transformed, in 1717, at London,
and, from being a corporation more or less mechanical,
became an institution entirely philosophic, it adopted but
the three primitive or symbolic degrees. Before the year
1717 the lodges of Freemasons had no affiliations outside
of England, and it is proven incontestably that the first
lodge of the modern or philosophic Freemasonry estab-
lished outside of Great Britain, was established at Dun-
kirk, in 1721, with a ritual of three degrees. A third
lodge was established in 1725 at Paris. From that time
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE. 161
Freemasonry extended rapidly into all the other countries
of the north of Europe, first into Belgium, and subse-
quently into Holland and Germany.
The rite called Scottish is a bastard child of Freema-
sonry, to which the policy of the Stuart interest gave birth.
It was introduced in France, between 1736 and 1738, by
the Baron Ramsay, who was an instrument of the Jesuits.1
This partisan of the Stuart interest was the first propa-
gandist of this rite in France, wherein he extended it to
many parts, in a few years, by the aid of his delegates and
those of the Jesuits; but it was not until after the arrival
in France of the Pretender, Charles Edward, that the rite
called Scottish assumed any importance. The Pretender
treated the Chapter of Arras, and the noblemen of his
suite immediately besought of this chapter warrants with
which to propagate the rite. His scale had then aug-
mented, and from seven degrees it successively arose to
twenty-five; for we find, in 1758,2 a chapter or council of
Emperors of the East and West, furnished with this num-
ber of degrees, established at Paris.
From this time all the fabricators of new rites, although
they increased to d> frightful extent, had the good sense
not to augment the number of the degrees, but, on the
contrary, gradually reduced them — the Scottish Rite alone
containing the highest number, and it, from 1755 to 1802,
being limited to twenty-five. After the congress of Wil-
helmsbad the principal Masonic rites were subjected to
great changes, and were every-where modified and reduced
to seven, to ten, and to twelve degrees.
From these facts — which are incontestable — it followed
that during the space of time that we have named (from
1755 to 1802), there did not exist in any country — no more
in England than in France, no more in Prussia than in
Sweden — councils of the Scottish Rite of thirty-three de-
lSee the History of the origin of all the Rites. 2Ibid.
11
162 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
grees. Now, the report that we have quoted explicitly
says: "These sublime degrees are at this moment (1802)
as they were at the time of their first formation ; they have
not undergone the slightest alteration — the least addition."
This assertion is doubly inexact ; because, in the first
place, previous to 1801, no Scottish Rite of thirty-three
degrees was known ; and, in the second place, all the rites
and degrees, without regard to name or number, were
created between 1736 and 1800, and they had nothing in
common with the primitive English Rite.
If, then, there did not exist, before 1802, neither a Scot-
tish Rite of thirty-three degrees, nor councils of Grand
Inspectors General and Commanders, it follows that the
Prince of Sudermanie could not be the Grand Master of
the rite in Sweden, nor, for the same reason, could Fred-
erick the Great be its chief in Prussia.
As to another allegation in the same report — that the
King of Prussia had been recognized chief of these coun-
cils upon the two hemispheres, conformably to the grand
constitutions of this Order, which were ratified on the 25th
of October, 1762, at Berlin — it is, like all the others, desti-
tute of foundation in fact ; and this we will proceed to prove.
The king, Frederick of Prussia, was initiated into Ma-
sonry on the 15th of August, 1738, at Brunswick, being
then prince royal.1 The lodge at the Three Globes, in
Berlin, founded by some French artists whom the king
had invited to Prussia, was elevated by him to the rank
of a Grand Lodge in 1744, and of which he became there-
upon Grand Master — a dignity that he exercised until
1747. 2 After that time he never occupied himself actively
with Masonry. In his interviews with the brethren who
directed the Grand Lodge at the Three Globes, and who
kept him informed as to what occurred of a Masonic
1 See Lenning's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, book 4, page 453, 2d ed.
aHi8 name, nevertheless, was borne upon the register of the "Grand
Lodge at the Three Globes," as its Grand Master, until 1755.
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE. 163
character, he continued to exhibit his attachment to our
institution; but when the different new systems, brought
into Prussia by the Marquis of Berny and the officers of
the army of Broglie, disseminated themselves in the Ger-
man lodges, he exhibited himself the enemy of these in-
novations, and expressed his disdain for these high degrees,
as was his manner, freely and in hard terms, prophesying
that they would one day be a fruitful source of discord
among the lodges and the systems. It seemed that his
prediction was to be verified ; for these divers systems soon
engendered anarchy within the lodges, even in the lodge
at the Three Globes itself, to such an extent that dis-
gusted him with Masonry, without, however, changing
his preconceived opinions of the institution. After this
he authorized the creation of two other Grand Lodges at
Berlin ; but he never had any other connection with them
than to respond with thanks to their complimentary ex-
pressions on the occurrence of his birthday. The last
letter that King Frederick wrote, under these circum-
stances, is addressed to the Grand Master of La Goanerie,
and bears date 7th February, 1778. As has been well re-
marked, this letter is written in a style very different from
what he had been accustomed to use in addressing the
lodges.1 After this letter, he abstained from even thank-
1 We extract from Lenning's Encyclopedia a transcript of this letter, as
it appears on page 455 of that work :
" The king has been sensible of the homage that the Lodge of Friend-
ship at Berlin has rendered to His Majesty in the discourse pronounced
by its orator on the anniversary of the day of his birth. His Majesty
has found such expressions very conformable to the sentiments which ht>
has always attributed to that lodge as sustained toward his person; and
he readily assures that lodge, in his turn, that he will always interest
himself with pleasure in the happiness and prosperity of an assembly
which, like it, places its first glory in the indefatigable and uninter-
rupted propagation of all the virtues of the honest man and the true
patriot. [Signed] u Frederick.
" Potsdam, 7th February, 1778.
"To the Royal York of Friendship Lodge of Freemasons "
164 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
ing the lodges, when they felicitated him upon the recur-
rence of the occasion we have mentioned. During the
last thirty years of his reign, King Frederick took no
active part whatever in Masonry ; this is a notorious fact,
and proven by the minutes of the Grand Lodges of Ber-
lin. l Then it follows that the revision of the high degrees
and the Masonic constitutions which they attribute to him,
and which should have taken place, according to the re-
port in question, in 1786 — the year of his death — is no
more correct than is his augmentation of the degrees.
As to the rituals which he should have prepared him-
self for these high degrees the same year,2 they could not
1 We can support these assertions with not only the letters which we
have received from the Secretary of the Grand Lodge at the Three Globes
in Berlin, but also with the minutes of this authority, bearing date, re-
spectively, the 17th August, 1833, and 19th December, 1861, which de-
clare, in the most formal and positive manner, that the documents sent
to it at different times, styled " Grand Constitutions of the Scottish Rite
of thirty-third," as well those written in Latin and in French as those
written in the English language, and attributed to King Frederick II —
documents of which the authenticity is doubtful — are all apocryphal, as,
in general, are all the other acts relating to this rite which pretend to
have emanated from that prince. (See Lenning's Encyclopedia of Free-
masonry, edition of 1862, pages 455 and 456.)
There is other proof not less authentic, which puts to flight the fa-
bles invented by the partisans of the Scottish Rite. It is that it is well
known that the King Frederick II, on the 9th September, 1785, went to
Berlin for the last time, to visit his sister, the Princess Amelia, and the
next day he reviewed the artillery at Wedding. From thence he re-
turned to Potsdam, where he passed the whole winter in bodily suffering
from the malady that eventually caused his death. He was moved in a
very unquiet state, on the 17th April, 1786, to his retreat of Sans Sonci,
and there died four months afterward. (See the same work, page 456.)
We will abstain from any other reflections upon this subject, and
merely add, as a last fact in support of our assertions, that, to the knowl-
edge of every lodge in Berlin, the King Frederick II in no manner occu-
pied himself with Masonry during the last thirty years of his life.
2 See the Book of Gold of the Supreme Council for France, printed in
1807, page 7. It is in direct contradiction with the report of the brother
Dalcho, who does not attribute to King Frederick but the creation of the
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE. 165
in any case have been drawn up by him, as he was at this
time in a dying condition ; and, long before his death —
which took place on the 17th August, 1786 — he was to-
tally incapable of any species of labor.
With regard to the assertions relating to the grand con-
stitutions, or rules and regulations of the rite, of 1762
that King Frederick II should have himself ratified on
the 1st of May, 1786, they are equally destitute of founda-
tion, since these rituals did not exist at this time, but were
evidently fabricated in 1804. In a word, every thing con-
nected with this rite that pretends to be historic has been
invented in part by its creators, and finished by its propa-
gandists.
To all these simple facts, which are truly historic, de-
structive as they are of the truth of the principal asser-
tions contained in the report of Frederick Dalcho — though
that report is affirmed, approved, and certified as true by
many high dignitaries of this rite — we could add others
not less conclusive, did we not believe such addition su-
perfluous.
We will now enumerate the facts which preceded the
establishment of this authority in Paris, and indicate the
origin of the Masonic power which constituted it ; but to
do this we must go back nearly a century.
thirty-third degree, and not that of the eight degrees from the twenty-
fifth to the thirty-third. This Book of Gold (it would be better named
the book of brass) thus explains the creation of these degrees:
"It would appear that the institution of the Supreme Council of the
thirty-third and last degree is the work of this prince (Frederick II), who,
upon his ascent to the throne, declared himself the protector of the Order
in his states; that the dignity of Sovereign of Sovereigns, in the Consis-
tories of Princes of the Royal Secret, resided in his person ; that it was
him who augmented to thirty-three the twenty-five degrees of the ancient
and accepted rite, as they were decreed in 1762; and, finally, that he
delegated his sovereignty to the Supreme Council, who named it ' of the
thirty-third and last degree,' for the purpose of exercising it after his
death."
166 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
In 1761, a brother named Stephen Morin, by confession an
Israelite, a member of the then National Grand Lodge of
France, and also of a chapter of high degrees, having
been called to America by some private interests, mani-
fested the desire to establish in those countries the Masonry
of the higher degrees, then called " Masonry of Perfec-
tion ;" and, with this object, he addressed himself to the
brother Lacorne, dancing-master, and at that time a de-
posed substitute of the Grand Master, the Count of Cler-
mont. Upon the proposition made by the latter for this
purpose to the Sovereign Grand Council of Princes of the
East and West, there was, on the 27th August, 1761, de-
livered to the brother Morin a patent or warrant, by which
he was created Inspector General of all the lodges of the
New World, etc. !
Arrived at St. Domingo, the brother Stephen Morin
named, by virtue of his patent, one of his co-religionists,
the brother Moses M. Hayes, Deputy Inspector for North
America. He afterward conferred the same dignity upon
a brother Frankin for Jamaica and the English windward
islands, and upon the brother Colonel Prevost for the
English leeward islands and British army. Some time af-
terward the brother Frankin transferred his authority to
the brother Moses Hayes, Grand Master at Boston, Mass.
In his turn, the brother Moses M. Hayes named, as In-
spector General for South Carolina, another of his co-re-
ligionists, the brother Isaac Da Costa, who established, in
1783, a Sublime Grand Lodge of Perfection at Charleston.
To this brother, after his death, succeeded another Israel-
ite, named Joseph Myers. There were successively cre-
ated by these self-styled Grand Inspectors General other
inspectors for the different States of America. .The brother
Bush was appointed for Pennsylvania, and the brother
Barend M. Spitzer for Georgia.
*See the text of this patent in the History of Freemasonry in France,
page 88.
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE. 167
On the 15th May, 1781, these brethren assembled in
council, at Philadelphia, the different inspectors for those
States. It was by this council that the degree of Inspector
General was conferred for Jamaica on the brother Moses
Cohen. It also appointed to this dignity Isaac Long and
the brethren De La Hogue, Croze-Magnan, St. Paul, Petit
and Marie — all residents of Charleston — to propagate the
rite in the different countries of America.
There existed, as we have already stated, at Charleston,
a Grand Lodge of Perfection, with a Council of Princes
of Jerusalem, founded by the brother Da Costa in 1783.
To this Grand Lodge, on the 27th February, 1788, was
united the Royal Arch Chapter, founded by authority of
a chapter of this title at Dublin; and it was by this body
that the brother Colonel Mitchell was appointed, on the
2d of August, 1795, a Deputy Inspector General for the
State of South Carolina, who, in the plenitude of his
powers, in 1797 conferred this title on the Count De
Grasse-Tilly, a resident of St. Domingo, and assigned to
him the same power for the French colonies of America.
This council of Inspectors General styled itself the Grand
Council of Princes of Jerusalem, and all the constitutions
delivered by it to its inspectors were always given in this
name, seeing that the first patent delivered to Stephen
Morin, in 1761, emanated from an authority which had
given itself this name.
This council of Princes of Jerusalem, sitting at Charles-
ton, created some inspectors of lodges and chapters, whom
it liberally remunerated. In 1801 it was composed of the
brethren Colonel Mitchell, Frederick Dalcho, Abraham
Auld, Isaac Auld, Emmanuel de la Motte, and some others
of less mark, who all belonged to the Jewish religion.1
It may readily be believed that the constitutions granted
by this council, composed, as we have indicated, of breth-
xSee Ragon's Masonic Orthodoxy, page 181, which represents the mem-
bers of this council as audacious jugglers.
168 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
ren belonging to the Jewish religion, were not as exten-
sive as they probably desired; and it was this feeling,
without doubt, that suggested the idea of creating some-
thing new— something striking, and of a nature to procure
them some advantage not offered by their position. The
abuse that they had already made of the powers conferred
upon them — although the conferring authority itself was
more or less illegal, emanating, as it did, from a self-
created body — should have induced all earnest Masons and
honest men to have shunned a similar work, and particu-
larly one that they dared not avow ; but personal ambition
and self-interest prevailed over the Masonic principles and
common honesty which these brethren had sworn to ob-
serve, the speculation was engaged in, and, unhappily for
the character of Freemasonry, it has, to some extent,
proved a success.
A new Masonic power was combined and created under
the title of " Supreme Council of the Grand Commanders
Inspectors General of the thirty-third and last degree of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite."
This new creation naturally bore the same illegal char-
acter, and was accompanied by the same deplorable cir-
cumstances which had already signalized the factious pe-
riod from 1740 to 1770 — a period of false titles, illegal
constitutions, antedated regulations, etc.
The new authority lost no time in constituting itself.
It elected its own members to the highest dignities of
their new order of knighthood, and delivered to them
patents with which they were empowered to institute this
new rite wherever their fortunes should carry them. The
brother Colonel Mitchell was nominated the first Grand
Commander. He died at Charleston, in 1841.
But to facilitate the progress of the new rite, it was
necessary to give it a respectable origin, and support it
with some historic names as those of its originators and
pxotectors. This trust was committed to the brethren
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE. 169
Dalcho, Auld, and La Motte, and we have seen by the re-
port from which we have quoted how they discharged it.
Probably among the first deliverances of the new power
was the warrant sent to De Grasse-Tilly — who had some
time previously been appointed as Inspector General of
the Rite of Perfection for the French colonies in Amer-
ica— to enable him to establish, in the Island of St. Do-
mingo, a Supreme Council of the new rite. This patent
conferred upon him the title of Lieutenant Commander of
the new rite, and is dated the 21st February, 1802.
Having little hope of being recognized as a Masonic
authority in America, this new power sought the recog-
nition of the different Masonic powers established in Eu-
rope ; and, with this object, it sent to all the Grand Lodges
of Europe a circular, dated the 11th of December, 1802,
by which it informed them of its installation, and gave
them the names of the degrees which it conferred itself,
and authorized its Grand Commander to confer in its
name.
The Grand Lodge of St. John of Scotland, located in
Edinburgh — which was generally regarded, though wrong-
fully, as the mother lodge of all the Scotch Rites, and
which, on this account, had the greatest interest in pro-
testing against this new creation — was indignant upon sight
of this circular, and, in the response that it made thereto,
declared "that such a number of degrees could not but
inspire the most profound surprise in those professing
Scottish Masonry; that it could never recognize such a
collection, seeing that it had always preserved the Scot-
tish Rite in the simplicity of its primitive institution, and
that it would never disarrange its system in this respect."
This Grand Lodge of Scotland, sitting at Edinburgh
and directing all the lodges of Scotland, has, in fact, never
practiced any other rite but that of the three symbolic de-
1 See History of Freemasonry, by Alexander Laurie
170 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
grees ; l and, upon many occasions, it has disowned, in the
most formal manner, the charters and patents which have
been attributed to it, and' by which it was accused of hav-
ing authorized the exercise of the high degrees called
Scottish. In view of this fact, we believe it to be im-
portant and necessary to the better understanding of
Freemasonry every-where, and to dissipate the opinion
that prevails upon this subject, to here state that the
Grand Lodge of St. John of Scotland, sitting at Edin-
burgh, is an utter stranger to all the systems called Scot-
tish Masonry, practiced as well in France as elsewhere in
Europe and America.2
lrThe regulations that it published in 1836 were entitled "The Laws
and Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of the Ancient and Honorable
Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland;" while article
four contained a passage thus expressed: "The Grand Lodge of Scot-
land practices no other degree of Freemasonry but those of Apprentice,
Fellow-craft, and Master Mason."
2 It was by a patent of this same Charleston Council — father of all the
bastard children of Freemasonry — that the first Supreme Council estab-
lished in Great Britain was organized, at Dublin, in 1808. The latter was
the only Supreme Council that existed on English territory prior to 1846.
In that year, however, there were organized one at London and another
at Edinburgh. The first was instituted by Dr. Crucifix, editor of the
Freemason's Magazine, by authority of a patent obtained by him from a
Supreme Council sitting at New York ; and the last was instituted by
Walter Arnott d'Arlary, who fabricated for himself a constituting power.
The title of this council being in consequence disputed, it was reconsti-
tuted on the 14th July, and installed on the 17th, by the brother Mor-
rison of Greenfield, a member of the Supreme Council for France, who
was invested with powers, called regular, for this purpose.
The most deplorable fact in regard to all these creations, the regular
as well as the irregular, is, that they are constantly fighting, criminating,
recriminating, and anathematizing each other. Thus, the Supreme Coun-
cil at Edinburgh (which must not be confounded with the Grand Lodge
of Edinburgh, the only regular Masonic authority in Scotland, and
which recognizes but the three symbolic degrees,) declared, immediately
after its reconstitution in the manner indicated, that it would not recog-
nize the letters or diplomas emanating from the Supreme Council at-
tached to the Grand Orient of France; and also interrupted all commu-
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE. 171
These pretended high degrees, into which have been in-
troduced the reveries of the Templars, the speculations of
the mystics, the deceptions of the alchemists, the magii, and
many other idealists more or less dreamy, and the greater
part of which repose upon legends absurd and contra-
dictory with the truths of history, are, in fact, a mass of
informal and undigested matters. Those of the Scottish
Bite, in particular, are a monument of folly, and which
would have been derided as nonsense long ago but for
man's vanity, which is gratified by the titles and decora-
tions of which this rite is the parent.
After this exposition of the origin of the Scottish (33d)
Rite, let us cast our eyes over the condition of Masonry in
Paris, immediately before this rite was brought to that
city by the Count De Grasse-Tilly.
The compromise which took place, in 1799, between the
Grand Lodge and the Grand Orient of France had not
been joined in by all the brethren, and the intolerance ex-
hibited by the Grand Orient gave occasion to a consider-
nication with the Supreme Council of Dublin, until the latter had ceased
connection with the Supreme Council established, since 1815, within the
Grand Orient of France. We have already stated how this Supreme
Council of Edinburgh was healed. Since then it has set itself up to be
the most regular of all the Supreme Councils, and has declared schis-
matic the council in London, which, as we have shown, was established
by virtue of a constitution delivered by the Supreme Council existing, in
1813, at New York.
These Supreme Councils established in Great Britain enjoy but little
reputation — so little, indeed, that some brethren of merit who have been
elected by them honorary members, have refused to accept the distinc-
tion
Unhappily, this mercenary creation, as unmasonic as it is illegal, has,
since 1846, been extended into and has established its Supreme Coun
cils in many countries The Supreme Council at Charleston was re-
vived in 1845, after a sleep of nearly forty years. And although in no
case are the bodies composing the rite recognized by the Grand Lodges,
they are by the Grand Orients, which confer, in common with them, their
high degrees.
172 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
able number of those members of the Grand Lodge, who
did not wish to recognize the Grand Orient, to reject the
terms of the compromise. It was more particularly the
party called Scottish who exhibited this disposition most
bitterly; and their reason was, that as the Grand Orient,
by the terms of the compromise, recognized only a rite of
)ut seven degrees — the highest of which was that of Rose
Cross — their higher degrees, with their decorations and de-
vices, could not be worn by them or made available in the
assemblies or exhibitions of the legislative body.
The Grand Orient acted in this case, as in many others,
not as a Masonic authority, but as an oligarchical power,
and excluded the Scottish Rite Masons from the lodges of
its jurisdiction, by an order dated the 12th November,
1802. This new act of intolerance served no other pur-
pose than to irritate the brethren excluded, and was the
principal reason that induced them to propose founding a
new Masonic power. Some preparatory meetings were
held, and many lodges of Paris, and particularly the Lodge
of St. Alexander of Scotland, embraced openly the cause
of the dissenters.
Following these inclinations, there was at first formed a
new authority, established by virtue of a patent that a
brother named Hackett — who had been a notary in St.
Domingo — had brought from America, and which had
been delivered to him by a Supreme Council sitting at New
York, and professing the Rite of Perfection of twenty-five
degrees that Stephen Morin had taken to America in 1761.
This authority took the title of " Supreme Council of
America."
But some months afterward, also from St. Domingo,
the brother Count De Grasse-Tilly arrived, bringing with
him the patent of the Supreme Council of Charleston, and
the history of which we have already given. This patent
conferred upon him the right to constitute chapters, coun-
cils, and consistories in the leeward and windward islands,
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE. 173
that is to say, in St. Domingo and the other French colo-
nies of America ; but, in consequence of the political events
which, occurring about this time, occasioned the loss of
this island to France, he had no opportunity of realizing
his projects. He had then returned to France, where, re-
gardless of the conditions of his patent, he announced
himself as supreme chief of a new Masonry of thirty-three
degrees. Having been informed of the large body of ex-
cluded brethren who, since 1802 — being prohibited by the
Grand Orient from participating in the meetings of the
fraternity in consequence of their refusal, for the reasons
already given, to sign the compromise of that year — had
assembled themselves in a cellar of the Fisherman's Walk,
he approached these brethren, and immediately arranged
to organize, with these elements and, by virtue of the pat-
ent delivered to him on the 21st February, 1802, at Charles-
ton, to constitute a Masonic power, under the pompous
title of the " Supreme Council for France of Sovereign
Grand Inspectors General of the 33d and last degree of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite." This done, on
the 22d of October, 1805, the new authority organized and
installed a Scottish Grand Lodge, as we have stated at the
beginning of this history. l
1 We regret much to find, in a work that we consider as one of the
most important among those composing the literature of Freemasonry,
styled "The Philosophical History of Freemasonry" by the brethren Kauff-
man and Cherpin, the voluntary omission these authors have made,
contrary to the duty of an historian, in not mentioning at this date
(1805) the foundation of the Scottish Grand Lodge, nor that of the Su-
preme Council, and in feigning to be completely ignorant that there ex-
isted at this time any Masonic authority in France of the name of Su-
preme Council. If the brethren K. and C. have believed it their duty to
respect the oath that they have taken to the Grand Orient — to recognize
it as the sole legislative authority of Freemasonry in France, and to not
admit that there can exist any other — we shall not follow their example,
first, because we have not taken any such oath ; and, second, because that
we believe it ever to be the duty of the historian, in his relation of facts,
to flinch not, from any cause whatever, in his object of relating the truth.
174 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
As our view of Masonry is similar to that of these brethren, and as we
find ourself in communion with them, in a more or less degree, in ideas,
sentiments, and in nearly every matter connected with the institution, we
are truly pained to find in their book, so praiseworthy and meritorious
in almost every respect, the omission that we have mentioned; and,
in addition thereto, a general partiality very significant in favor of the
Grand Orient — a partiality of which we distinctly comprehend the good
ntention, but which our conscience will not permit us to imitate. On the
eonlrary, to seek the truth and to disseminate it with courage, has always
been our motto. We believe that Masonry will be better served by
speaking the truth without reserve, though that annunciation may seem
to its detriment, than in expressing the accepted views of those who, like
the brethren K. and C, may have some reason or weakness for failing
to represent facts as they know them.
Remarks in connection with the foregoing History of the Origin op
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
Brother Rebold, in his preceding history of a rite that during the
past fifteen years has gradually increased in importance in America, can
not be said to have gratified the brethren who have given their thoughts
and time to its dissemination in the United States or elsewhere. He has
given us a plain narrative of unvarnished statements of fact; he has
proved conclusively that this rite was either created by parties named
in Charleston, S. C, or, from the twenty-five degrees of the Rite of Per-
fection as known in 1761, and which Brother Stephen Morin brought to
America, it was, in 1802, there and by those persons extended to the
thirty-three degrees of the present Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite;
and he has furnished most conclusive circumstantial evidence to support
the belief entertained by at least every learned German Freemason in
America and elsewhere, that Frederick the Great never had any knowl-
edge of the rite in its present form, whatever knowledge he might have
had of it as the Rite of Perfection of twenty-five degrees.
Under these circumstances, the friends of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite find themselves in the predicament Sir William Drummond
describes, in his preface to Origenes, when he says, "In questions un-
connected with sacred and important interests, men are rarely very anx
ious to discriminate exactly between truth and fiction; and few of us
would, probably, be much pleased with the result, could it now be certainly
proved that Troy never existed, and that Thebes, with its hundred gates,
was no more than a populous village. It is perhaps still with a secret
wish to be convinced against our judgment, that we reject as fables the
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE. 175
stories told us of the Grecian Hercules, or of the Persian Rustem ; and
that we assign to the heroes and giants of early times the strength and
stature of ordinary men." So it is with our Ancient and Accepted Scot-
tish Rite. It is proven to be neither an ancient rite nor one accepted by
or acceptable to but a very small portion of the Masonic Fraternity, nor
is it a Scottish — otherwise Jacobin — rite; and yet we wish to be con-
vinced, even against our judgment, that it comes up to the mark set by
these conditions, because our prejudices have long cherished so pleasing
an idea.
But, although shorn of what has been considered its brightest attri-
bute, viz., its creation by Frederick the Great; and although deprived of
6uch regal parentage by being proven, instead, to be the progeny of five
mercenary Israelites of Charleston, S. C, the rite, so far as it can subserve
any useful purpose in connection with Freemasonry, can not lose any of
its excellence. If its claims to regal parentage are not well founded, its
advocates are maintaining a fallacy in their advancement of such claims,
and do constantly find themselves in a dilemma when proofs are de-
manded which it is impossible for them to produce. And as the case
has been candidly stated by Brother Relvold, and with the fewest possible
offensive reflections upon the creators of the rite, and none at all upon
those who — its present friends and patrons — conscientiously believe that
it is calculated to confer dignity upon Freemasonry, no exceptions can be
taken to the object I have had. in view in the translation and publication
of this work, which was to disseminate the truth1 with regard to every
portion of the history of Freemasonry in Europe.
I fear, however, that the patrons as well as the propagators of the
rite, in our own day, have given too much significance, in their regards
for it, to that remark of Horace, in his "Ars Poetica," beginning with —
" Intererit multum Davusne loquatur an heros" —
and not enough to whatever inherent excellence the rite itself may pos-
sess. If this should be the fact, as a S. P. R. S., I have no better propo-
sition to suggest to the chiefs of the rite than the following:
1. Remove all equivocality as to its origin by excising the present
statements upon that subject from the work, lectures, and history, wher-
ever they occur ; and,
2. Then take the thirty degrees of the rite (all of which are given in
America) and compress them into twenty-one, which done, fit these
twenty-one to the present American system or rite of twelve degrees.
1 Brother Heboid has been officially pronounced by the highest Masonic au-
thority in France, the Grand Orient — through its Deputy Grand Master, the
Chevalier Heullant — a careful and impartial Masonic historian.
176 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
By this arrangement, all doubt as to the origin of what might then
be called the Reformed and Accepted American Rite of Thirty-three De-
grees will be removed, and such rite will, in a short time, be gener-
ally understood and appreciated as a work which, being necessary for
the satisfaction and unity of the Fraternity in America, was undertaken
by enlightened American Freemasons, and successfully accomplished.
J. F. B.
^
I
-
A
r
A CONCISE HISTORY
OF THE
EGYPTIAN RITE OF MISRAIM,1
SINCE ITS CREATION, IN 1806, AT MILAN, TO THE
PRESENT TIME.
In a work published in Paris, in 1848, under the title
of " The Masonic Order of Misraim" the brother Mark Be-
1 Reflections on the Rites of Misraim and Memphis. — The history
of the Rite of Misraim, as also that of the Rite of Memphis, which we
are about to record, is calculated to suggest to enlightened Masons re-
flections of sadness in more than one connection. But it would be im-
possible for us to pass by in silence these works of feebleness, of error,
and of pride, inasmuch as the profane as well as the initiated ought to
be informed of the truth.
If the individuals who have created these rites were but few, unhap-
pily those who participated in the result of such aberrations of the hu-
man mind may be called a multitude. It is the duty, therefore, of the
historian to notice the side-tracks upon which these jugglers have at
times drawn our institution, in order that their example may teach us,
and preserve us from falling into new errors.
That the Jesuits, that powerful association, aided by a legion of
active emissaries, should have been enabled, in the last century, to form
associations and knightly orders enveloped in Masonic forms, with the
iutention of at first turning men aside from the pure Masonry of Eng
land, which extended itself rapidly upon the continent, and of which th
object was contrary to their desires and operations, and subsequently to
extend their dominion, under cover of Masonry, to the re-establishment
of the Stuarts, is nothing astonishing. That some impostors, encour-
aged by their success, should, in their turn, and in a spirit of pecuniary
gain-, conclude to create rites and orders of chivalry, and, having found
12 (177)
178 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
darride, Grand Conservator of this Masonic heresy, com-
mences its history in the following manner :
" Since the first age of the world, the period when our venerable
Order was created by the All-Powerful, no Grand Conservator has
ever taken the pencil to trace and reunite the perfect plans of his
scientific labors, and thus enrich the human race : some for the
want of the necessary documents,1 and others from the fear of
perjuring themselves or of impairing in any manner the sublime
heritage which they had been delegated to transmit to their dis-
ciples in all its purity. But if these celebrated Grand Conserva-
tors, [names not given,] our predecessors, have not performed this
sacred duty, they have not failed to leave to their successors the
traditions of our mysteries, in hieroglyphic characters, in a man-
ner intelligible to none but the initiated, and thus these documents
have been preserved from all profane indiscretions."
JThe reader will easily comprehend the cause of this dearth of documents;
for, according to the language of our author, Adam, installed by the "All-
Powerful" as the first Grand Conservator, could not have bequeathed the
manuscript transactions of his direction of affairs of this " venerable Order"
to his descendants, seeing that he had not learned the useful accomplishment
of writing, hieroglyphically or otherwise, and that he had no one to direct
in such transactions but Eve, his wife, and subsequently their children.
One thing, however, the author does not explain, and the omission on his
part leaves us with a very feeble comprehension of the matter; and it is that
Adam, or the "All-Powerful," baptized this order with the name of an Egyp-
tian king who, if we take the commonly received Hebraic Genesis for au-
thority, was born eight hundred years after Adam appeared upon the earth!
in France — where a passion for the chivalry of the middle ages favored
their projects — a country propitious to this species of speculation, did
create such rites and orders, is not difficult to comprehend. But this
which appears inexplicable is, that after having recognized the illegiti-
mate source of all these rites and high degrees, of which the fabricators
had been unmasked, hunted, and imprisoned in Germany; after having
reformed all these rites, (between 1782 and 1790,) and having reduced
the numerous scale to three, seven, ten, and, at most, twelve degrees,
Freemasons in the present century should have been the dupes of jug-
glers of a like category, and accept of individuals without character,
without legal or any other recognized public distinction, new rites of
THE RITE OF MISRAIM. 179
Commencing in this manner, the author, M. Bedarride,
continues the history of his "venerable Order," traversing,
by forced marches, whole series of centuries, and stopping
every two or three hundred years to indicate the existence
of some Grand Conservators, without designating where,
how, or by what means they were initiated. He pursues
this romance until the beginning of the present century,
when he begins to make a little history ; but even of this
his recital is so much mutilated that he fails in his search
to discover the truth, though he attempts to ascend to the
sources of his facts.
We deem it impossible to unite in one book a greater
similar value, but much more extravagant, the one counting ninety and
the other ninety-five degrees — this is utterly beyond our comprehension.
What makes the matter more strange is, that all enlightened Masons
of the present time know very well that true Freemasonry — such as is
practiced by every Grand Lodge in Great Britain and America, and such
as was practiced by the first and last National Grand Lodges of France,
and the operative lodges under their jurisdiction — is composed of but
three degrees. It is true they do not offer to the initiate, as do the rites
of the higher degrees, gilt-lace cords or brilliant decorations. — [The au-
thor very suddenly stops here in his reflections. That he does so be-
cause he will not believe, or, believing, will not say, that men enlight-
ened and seriously earnest in the business of elevating the condition
of the human race by means of Masonry, can be affected by these "gilt-
lace cords or brilliant decorations," or that he stops so suddenly to al-
low his readers the privilege o^ thus believing and of finishing his ab-
rupt period with such a conclusion, I can not determine. My own opin-
ion, as one of his readers, is well known to those for whom I wrote and
published from 1858 to 1861 ; and, though it may be unacceptable to
some for whom I write at present, I will take the liberty of here ex-
pressing it. So long as human nature remains constituted as it is, glitter
will attract and decorations will incite men to desire their possession
and it is a pleasure taken in the exhibition of the decorations recognized
by these rites and orders, as indicative of higher rank in confessedly a phi-
losophical institution, and, presumably, a higher degree of intelligence,
rather than any actual advantage derived from the possession of their
degrees, that induces wise and serious men to seek for atd obtain
them. — Translator.]
180 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
mass of absurdities than its author has collected and ex-
hibited in his history of this rite: and we believe we will
render our readers good service by not fatiguing them
with a refutation of all the inaccuracies with which this
Look is filled.
It is generally believed in the Masonic world that the
brothers Mark and Michael Bedarride, who were the chiefs
of this rite, also were its inventors ; but it has been re-
cently discovered that they were but its propagators.
Commencing by stating that this rite is composed of an
aggregation of monstrous legends, stolen from all the rites,
including those taken from the Scottish, Martinist, and
Hermitic Rites, we will add that after the sixty-seventh
degree, it runs but upon wheels supplied by Bible subjects;
and that so purely is it Israelitish in its bearings, that it
would with more correctness be called the " Jewish" than
the " Egyptian Rite." We also find that this collection
of degrees is divided into four series, in manner similar
with the rite called Egyptian, created by Joseph Balsamo,
surnamed Cagliostro, l which had been professed by the
mother lodge " Wisdom Triumphant," founded by him at
Lyons, in 1782. This Egyptian Rite2 had but an ephem-
eral existence ; and it is probable enough that some of
Cagliostro's rituals have served to complete the deplorable
work of the Rite of Misraim, whose author was the brother
Lechangeur of Milan, as we shall proceed to demonstrate.
A Grand Orient of Italy had been founded at Milan
1 This extraordinary man, born at Palermo in 1743, acquired a celeb-
rity rarely attained by impostors. Arrested at Rome on the 25th Decem-
ber, 1789, he was condemned to death by the Holy Office on the 21st
March, 1791 ; but Pius VI commuted his punishment to perpetual im-
prisonment in the castle of St. Angelo, where he died.
2 Cagliostro, in a voyage that he made to London, bought a manu-
script which belonged to a man named G. Coston, in which he found
the plan of a Masonry founded upon a system which was part magical,
part cabalistic, and- part superstitious. From this work he arranged th«
plan of his Egyptian Rite.
TIIE RITE OF MISRAIM. 181
shortly after the organization of that at Naples, and the
prince Eugene Beauharnais had been invested with the
dignity of Grand Master. Some superior officers, resident
at Milan, who had been initiated, in Paris, into the high
degrees of the Scottish (33d) Rite, resolved to establish a
Supreme Council of that rite, at the suggestion of breth-
ren, in Paris. A person named Lechangeur, an officer or
master of an operative lodge in Milan, demanded to be-
come a party in this arrangement, and his demand was
complied with. They conferred upon him certain degrees;
but having some motive for keeping him out of the or-
ganization of their Supreme Council, they refused to give
him the superior degrees. Vexed at this refusal, Lechan-
geur informed the members of this Supreme Council that
he would get the better of them, in creating a rite of
ninety degrees, into which he should not admit them.
He accomplished his threat in fact, and it is to him that
is to be attributed the creation of this self-styled oriental
rite.
The first thing Lechangeur did, after having elaborated
his rite, was to elevate himself to the highest office recog-
nized by it — in this respect imitating all the other fabri-
cators of rites — that of ."Superior Grand Conservator of
the Order of Misraim," and in this capacity to deliver
patents of authority to all who offered to propagate this
new rite to his profit. These delegates, being thus author-
ized, were confined in their operations to the organization
of chapters in the cities of the Italian peninsula, more
particularly to Naples ; and those chapters should, in their
turn, create delegates, and deliver to them patents of au-
thority, to their profit.
We will now explain how and by whom this Rite of
Misraim was first introduced into France.
Bro. Michael Bedarride, a native of Cavaillon, in the de-
partment of Vaucluse, and belonging to the Jewish re-
ligion, was initiated into Freemasonry on the 5th of July,
182 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
1802. in the lodge " Candor," at Cezena, in Italy, and affili-
ated, in the year 1805, with the lodge "Mars and Themis,"
in Paris, which conferred upon him, as it did also upon
his brother, Mark Bedarride, the degree of Master.
Michael Bedarride, who was a merchant in Naples,
obtained the position of commissary of subsistence in the
service of the Italian army, upon the staff of which army
his brother Mark had a position. During their sojourn in
Italy, the two brothers had affiliated with several lodges of
that country. On the 3d December, 1810, through the in-
tervention of one of the patentees of Lechangeur, Michael
Bedarride obtained a similar patent, authorizing him to
confer the degrees of the Misraimites up to the 73d degree.
Subsequently, at Milan, he received of the brother Lechan-
geur himself an increase of the degrees, and a patent,
dated 25th June, 1811, conferring upon him the degree of
" Grand Hazsid," or 77th degree, with the right of con-
ferring all the degrees to that point. A similar patent had
already been delivered, on the 3d of January, 1810, by
Lechangeur to Mark Bedarride.
It seems that, for some reason not known, the brother
Lechangeur did not wish the brothers Bedarride to possess
the degree of " Grand Conservator," or 90th degree, of his
rite; but, notwithstanding, the possession of this degree
became absolutely necessary, to enable them to succeed in
their projects. With this object, Michael Bedarride ad-
dressed a delegate named Polack, an Israelite — resident at
Venice — who, usurping the rights claimed by Lechangeur,
had proclaimed himself Superior Grand Conservator, or
independent Grand Master — and obtained of this person,
on the 1st September, 1812, a patent conferring upon him
the title he so greatly desired. This document, however,
did not appear to be sufficiently authoritative for his pur-
pose, as it bore but one signature, and consequently lacked
evidences of authenticity ; for, immediately after the death
of Lechangeur he sought at the hands of the brother
THE RITE OF MISRAIM. 183
Theodore Gerber, of Milan — to whom Lechangeur had be-
queathed the powers he had given to himself — another
patent. The application was successful, and on the 12th
October, 1812, Michael Bedarride procured this new au-
thority, signed by Theodore Gerber, and conferring upon
Michael Bedarride the title of Superior Grand Conservato
of the Order of Misraim in Italy. Besides the signature
of Gerber, this document bore also the signatures of Mark
Bedarride, who, as we have shown, had not then obtained
but the 77th degree, and seven or eight other brethren who
were reputed to compose the u Sovereign Grand Council
<">f the 90th degree of the Grand Masters absolute;" and
it is by virtue of the powers that they having arrogated
to themselves, in concert with the chief of this rite, that
they delegated to Michael Bedarride the same powers and
all their supreme rights as therein expressed by this pat-
ent, to " create, form, regulate, dissolve, whenever desirable,
lodges, chapters, colleges, directories, synods, tribunals,
consistories, councils, and general councils of the Order of
Misraim" — a prerogative that this brother, as therein ex-
pressed, has merited " by the most profound study of the
sciences, and the most sublime 'practice of every virtue that is
known to but a very small number of the elect — inviting all
brethren, of every degree and every rite, to assist the
puissant and venerable Grand Conservator, Michael Bedar-
ride, with their council, their credit and their fortune, him
and the rejected of his race," etc., etc.
It is by virtue of this curious document, which we con-
sider it unnecessary further to explain, that the brother
Michael Bedarride, through the organ of his brother Mark
Bedarride, announced himself, in Paris, chief of this self-
styled Oriental, Ancient, and Sublime Order, which, he
says, is the stem of all the Masonic rites in existence, al-
though he must have suspected by whom it had been fab-
ricated. The text of this proclamation aflbrds some idea
of the arrogance of these Jewish Masons, and recalls to
184 • GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
our mind the five Masons, also Jews, who, at Charleston,
fabricated the Scottish Rite of thirty- three degrees; and
had it not been for the success of which the Rite of Mis-
raim never would have seen the light, and but for which
the obstacles to the unity of Freemasonry in France, aa
well as in other countries, would have been easily re-
moved.
When the brother Mark Bedarride, then a retired officer
of the army of Italy, arrived in Paris in 1813, where he
was joined shortly afterward by his brothers Michael and
Joseph Bedarride, the latter of whom had also, at Naples,
received some patents from a delegate patented by Le-
changeur, these three brothers found four others— two of
whom were named respectively Joly and Gaborea — who
had likewise procured in Italy some patents which con-
ferred upon them also the right of creating lodges, coun-
cils, etc., up to the ninetieth degree ; while the other
two, named respectively Garcia and Decollet, bore patents
giving them authority to the seventy-seventh degree. As
the brothers Bedarride had decided to fix their residence
in Paris for the purpose of working up this new branch
of Masonry, the competitors whom we have named incom-
moded them in the execution of their project. Having
arranged matters with them, they next proceeded to ob-
tain the protection of the brother Count Muraire. Suc-
ceeding in this as in the other, Michael Bedarride was
not long in gaining the consent of several other brethren,
nearly all of whom were members of the Supreme Coun-
cil of the Scottish (33d) Rite, among whom we may name
Count Lallemand, Thory, Colonel Martin, Count Chabran,
General Monier, Barbier de Finant, the Chevalier Chalon
de Collet, Vidal, Perron, General Teste, etc., to receive
the highest degrees of the rite, in order to enable him to
organize a Supreme Council of the ninetieth degree, nec-
essary for the definite establishment of the Supreme Power
of the Order for France. On the 9th of April, 1815, the
THE RITE OP MISRAIM. 185
brothers Bedarride, taking the title of Grand Conservators
of the Order, issued their circular, by which they declared
"the supreme power constituted in the valley of Paris to
govern the Masonic Order of Misraim upon all the globe" —
and, the reader will carefully observe — " for France by the
Supreme Council of Most Wise Grand Masters for life of
the 90th and last degree." It will be observed, in pass-
ing, that all the decisions of this council could be revoked
by the Superior Grand Conservator of the Order, con-
formably to the constitution that he had given, in his ca
pacity of autocrat, to the future Misraimite people.
To make acceptable a rite with a scale of degrees so
numerous, and of which the chiefs had given themselves
titles so pompous, certainly no city of the world afforded
better facilities than Paris, the center of all folly and
extravagance, as well as of much that was really great.
We will here observe that the ninety degrees composing
the Rite of Misraim should have comprised every known
science, divided into four series, forming seventeen classes.
The first series was called symbolic, the second philosophic,
the third mystic, and the fourth cabalistic. After this clas-
sification, the neophytes, upon their initiation into the dif-
ferent degrees, should have received instruction embracing
all that was known of the sciences involved in each series.
Such a course of instruction would, if faithfully given,
have been frightful to any earnest mind, so imposing
a task being so much beyond the grasp of an ordinary
human life. But, in reality, the neophyte had nothing
to fear from this vast vocabulary ; it was merely a recital
of fables more or less absurd, and embraced not a word of
science or philosophy outside of what truths were implied
in the first symbolic degrees. How could it be otherwise ?
The brothers Bedarride, no more than the creator of the
rite, Lechangeur — not possessing even the most elementary
notions of the sciences enumerated in their four series and
186 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
seventeen classes of degrees — could not, in consequence,
teach to others what they did not know themselves.
After taking possession of this prospectively lucrative
field of labor, the brothers Bedarride found the great-
est difficulty in organizing a working lodge ; for France
was then in mourning. However, with great labor, they
succeeded in establishing a first lodge, the "Rainbow,"
which became the mother lodge of the rite ; but it did not
enter upon active duty until the month of June, 1816.
Then the proselytes quickly augmented. The brethren
Baucalin de Laroste, the chevalier Larrey, Auzon, Ragon,
Clavet-Gaubert, Redarets, Chasseriau, and Beaurepaire be-
came Misraimites, and immediately constituted themselves
into a new lodge, of which the meetings were most brill-
iant, under the name of "Disciples of Zoroaster." In this
assembly the brother Dr. Ganal, who presided, and who
understood, much better than the brothers Bedarride, the
exigencies of the rite, called to his aid physic and chem-
istry to render his initiations imposing, and thus succeeded
in gathering in many new members.
When they arrived in Paris, the brothers Bedarride had
only some incomplete rituals which they had copied from
those in the possession of the persons who gave them the
degrees, and not one of the ninety lectures which the rite
required to explain its degrees ; for neither Lechangeur
nor Gerber possessed them. To produce these, the breth-
ren Mealet and Joly, erudite and capable men, drew upon
their imaginations. So slowly, however, did these lectures
appear, that in 1816 they were enabled to exhibit but ten,
having borrowed from the lodge "Hope," at Berne, the
lectures of the first three degrees, and these alone express-
ing all of a Masonic spirit which the rite exhibited; and
thus, like the Grand Orient and the Supreme Council,
they jumped, in their initiations, from the third to the
eighteenth, and from the eighteenth to the thirtieth, or
twelve degrees at a time. The brothers Bedarride were
THE RITE OF MISRAIM. 187
obliged, for the reasons that we have indicated, to confer a
series of degrees at a time, giving it as their reason that
such a course was most convenient, and explaining the in-
termediate degrees as best they could.
From the beginning, grave abuses appeared in the ad-
ministration as conducted by the brothers Bedarride. The
members of the rite, tired with submitting to the caprices
of the three Israelitish chiefs, demanded a code of laws.
They openly accused the Grand Conservators of making a
scandalous traffic in communicating the degrees, and, in
fact, of speculating with the rite as a manufacturing prop-
erty, and seeking to retire the principal part of the profits
to their own use, though they had shown a laudable desire
to hide such a diversion of the funds. Then a .certain
number of brethren resolved to create a new power,
founded upon the plenary powers which the brother Joly
had received at Milan, and, with a number of the dissatis-
fied, they did form a Supreme Council of ninety degrees,
composed of the said Joly, an author, the brethren Auzon,
private secretary to His Majesty King Charles IV, Gabo-
rea, a clerk in the Bureau of Finance, Mealet, Secretary
of the Academy of Sciences, Ragon, chief of the StaiF Bu-
reau of the National Guard, Richard, Lange, Decollet,
Amadieu, Pigniere, and Clavet-Gaubert, colonel of artillery.
In September, 1816, this new organization requested
permission to rank under the jurisdiction of the Grand
Orient, and, to allow them to do so, proposed to abandon
the administration of the first two series of the rite, com-
prising sixty-six degrees, and reserve to themselves but
the power to control those from sixty-seven to ninety.
Some commissioners were named on the part of each body
to arrange the particulars ; but the Grand Orient, though
at first very well disposed to conclude the arrangement,
after a more mature examination of it, rejected the propo-
sition on the 14th January, 1817, and, on the 27th of the
following December, addressed to the lodges of its corre-
188 General history of freemasonry.
spondence a circular, by the terms of which it prohibited
them from receiving the members of the Rite of Misraim
in their assemblies.
Unlike the generality of such documents as issued by
the Grand Orient, the motives expressed in this edict were
logical. It stated thai" the patentees had not furnished
the titles required to authenticate the origin and the au-
thenticity of the Rite of Misraim •, that the assertion of its
introduction into Italy, under the pontificate of Leo X, in
the sixteenth century, by Jamblicus, a platonic philosopher
who lived in the fourth century, eleven hundred years be-
fore Leo X, was destructive in the nature of dates; that
this rite was never practiced at Alexandria nor at Cairo, as
it pretended to be, etc., etc. ; that for these reasons this rite
could not be admitted into the Grand Orient." ! The Grand
Orient having thus brought to public notice the irregular-
ity of the powers claimed by the brothers Bedarride, the
latter sought, as much as it was possible, to destroy the
doubts thus engendered. Michael Bedarride had, on the
3d May, 1816, exhibited a document, signed by seven breth-
ren, which detailed all the Masonic titles he had obtained ;
that is, the dates of his receipt of them in Italy ; but this
document, though in it he was named "Superior Grand
Conservator," gave him no legal power; and to meet this
contingency it was necessary to produce another document.
This latter soon appeared, signed by thirteen brethren of
the rite, and among them the Count De Grasse-Tilly,
founder of the Supreme Council of the Scottish (33d) Rite
at Paris, the Count Muraire, the Count Lallemand, the
Duke of St. Aignan, the Chevalier Lacoste, etc. These
brethren in this patent styled themselves "Sovereign Grand
Masters absolute of the Rite of Misraim," a title which
had been conferred by Michael Bedarride, after he had or-
1 It is to be regretted that similar cogent reasons did not exclude, in
1862, the Rite of Memphis from admission into that body.
THE RITE OF MISRAIM. 189
ganized his Grand Council of ninety degrees ; and it was
by virtue of the powers which this title conferred, and
with which they had been invested by Michael Bedarride,
that they, in their turn, by means of this patent, bestowed
upon him the title and powers of Supreme Grand Con-
servator of the Order for France.
The new patent which we have just mentioned was
dated the 7th of September, 1817 ; but, unlike the other, it
bore no mark of having been produced at Milan, and this
fact somewhat invalidated its use at Paris ; nevertheless,
as the brothers Bedarride had the whole world to operate
in, this circumstance merely induced them to change
slightly the field of their operations. In 1818, Joseph
turned up at Brussels, and Michael in Holland. It would
appear, however, that the means which they employed
were not the most laudable; for, upon^the 18th of Novem-
ber, 1818, the Prince Frederick, Grand Master of the
Netherland lodges, addressed a circular to all the lodges
of that country, pointing out the brothers Bedarride, who
by that time were running about the kingdom, as dishon-
orable men, who, to attain their objects, had recourse to
very reprehensible tricks and means unworthy of true Ma-
sons, and which had already brought them into discredit
at Paris. This circular wound up its charges with inter-
dicting the exercise of the Kite of Misraim in all the
lodges under his authority, and supported this interdiction
with the reasons advanced by the Grand Orient of France
on the 29th December, 1817, and which we have men-
tioned.
Notwithstanding these prohibitions ; notwithstanding all
the difficulties which opposed them, the brothers Bedar-
ride succeeded in establishing in Paris, besides the lodges
" Rainbow" and " The Disciples of Zoroaster," four other
lodges, namely, " The Twelve Tribes," " The Disciples of
Misraim," "The Burning Bush," and "The Children of
Apollo," all of which were in active operation toward the
190 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
close of the year 1818. This increase of lodges permitted
them to give, on the 19th January, 1819, a brilliant feast
of Adoption, which was presided over by the Count Mu-
raire and the Countess of Fouchecourt. Notwithstanding
their seeming success, the brothers Bedarride were con-
stantly at war with their own lodges, which complained of
their administration and demanded an account of the
funds. The brothers responded to these demands by ex-
pelling the most clamorous of the claimants. It was thus
that, by the decision of a self-styled Council, which the
brothers Bedarride directed as they wished, bearing date
the 15th August, the brethren Marie, Richard, Chasseriau,
Beaurepaire, Ragon, Mealet, and Joly were expelled from
the rite. But this despotism but increased the indigna-
tion. The lodge "Disciples of Zoroaster" separated itself
from the Rite of Misraim by a unanimous decision, dated
the 30th of April, 1819.
In the minutes of this occasion, and which this lodge
published at the time, the motive for separation is thus ex-
pressed :
1. — They had vainly called for the correction of many
articles, contained in the general regulations, in conse-
quence of their despotic and unsatisfactory character; and,
2. — The suppression of the word " absolute" in connec-
tion with the title of " Sovereign Grand Master ;" as, " in
the present century, such a distinction is a usurpation and
an offense to free men."
3. — In nearly all of the general regulations the Grand
Conservator has arrogated to himself powers as obscure as
they are arbitrary.
4. — And, finally, according to a judgment of the tribunal
of commerce of the Seine, the firm of Joseph Bedanide &
Co., (the brothers Mark and Michael were the associates
not named,) living in Moon street, at ~No. 37, was in a con-
dition of open bankruptcy.
This proceeding was signed by the Worshipful Master
THE RITE OF MISRAIM. 191
and by all the officers of the lodge, to the number of
twenty. The supreme power confined itself to striking
the Worshipful Master, and, by an edict dated 11th June,
1819, Dr. Ganal was expelled.
The mother lodge "Rainbow" also revolted against the
administration of the Grand Conservators, which its mem-
bers unanimously declared to be most deplorable, and
brought this declaration before the chiefs of the Order, in
the hope that they would require the brothers Bedarride
to render an account of the receipts and expenses.
In the position in which they found themselves, the
brothers Bedarride could not satisfy the demands which
were addressed to them in connection with the finances,
because the revenues of all kinds which they received
through their connection with the rite were necessary
to pay their debts and support their personal expenses.
They, in consequence, made use of their omnipotence to
declare all the members of the lodge " Rainbow," who had
taken part in the revolt against them, as disturbers of the
peace of the Order ; and this done, they dissolved the lodge
for the purpose of reconstructing it with more non-dissent-
ing materials, and its president, the Count Lallemand,
sharing the fortunes of the opposing members, by an edict
of the Grand Council, of 7th July, 1810, was expelled.
It is necessary and proper here to state that the brothers
Bedarride based their refusal to render an account of the
revenues of the rite upon the statement that they had
withdrawn but sufficient to cover the interest of the capi-
tal which they pretended to have spent in organizing the
rite in Paris, 1 together with what they were properly en-
titled to for conducting the affairs of the Order.
lrTo support this statement the brethren exhibited an account, which
was dated the 11th June, 1818, for the sum of $550, incurred by them
for engravings, cyphers, diplomas, etc., and indorsed as correct by —
among other members of the General Council of the ninetieth degree —
the Count Muraire.
192 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
The lodges founded, in 1818, in the Low Countries hav-
ing enjoyed but an ephemeral existence, the brothers
Michael and Joseph Bedarride again withdrew from Paris,
in 1820, to propagate their rite. They first appeared in
England, from whence Michael went to the Low Countries
and Joseph to Switzerland. In 1821 and 1822 they made
other voyages into the departments of France, and about
the close of the latter year they had organized twelve
lodges, with several councils, all of which, like the former,
lived but a short time.1
The progress made by the brothers Bedarride in the
propagation of their rite, although slow, nevertheless dis-
quieted the Grand Orient, and that authority labored to
interrupt it. The circular edict already mentioned, with
another, dated the 21st December, 1821, not having ar-
rested, either in Paris or in the provinces, the creation of
Misraimite lodges, the Grand Orient continued to pro-
nounce severely against the brethren who had embraced
their cause. Thus, at the solstitial feast, celebrated the
24th June, 1822, the brother Richard, orator of the Grand
Orient — who, in 1817, had been advanced to the highest
degrees of the Rite of Misraim, and consequently had taken
a solemn oath,2 written by his own hand, of the most abso-
lute fidelity to that Order, but who subsequently had been
stricken from the list of members — made a long report
against the system of the brothers Bedarride, etc., and
concluded by urging the Grand Orient to close the meet-
ings of the Misraimites, as irregular, illicit, and dangerous,
and to renew its edict of interdiction, enforcing compliance
xTbe author here gives the names and locations of these lodges, etc.;
but as they are all extinct, we believe our readers will not miss their
omission. — Translator.
2 The author here gives a transcript of this oath; but as the transla-
tion of this transcript would be offensive to members of the rite in
America, and in nowise beneficial to those who are not, I respectfully
suppress it. — Translator.
ft
K
^
K
A
V
X-
$
THE RITE OF MISRAIM. 193
with the same, under most severe penalties. ±n this report
we find, among others equally severe, the following pas-
sage:
" * * * But toleration has a limit, the Grand Orient has
duties to perform, and longer silence to the call of such duties
would render this legislative hody amenable to the charge of com-
plicity in the disorders which have distinguished the administra-
tors of the Rite of Misraim. These men, who, investing them-
selves with functions which they hold to be the most important of an
Order that they proclaim superior to all Masonic rites, forgetful of
their dignity, run over the departments of this kingdom, armed
with their ninety degrees, which they offer to all purchasers at any
price and in the most public places, and thus, by their mysteri-
ous forms, compromise the state, as also the security, honor, and
even peace of our citizens, trouble the repose of the magistrates,
awaken the attention of the authorities intrusted with the secu-
rity of the state, and, above all, provoke such suspicions of their
designs as cause them, in their travels from city to city, to be
sometimes imprisoned : these are excesses committed by men call-
ing themselves Masons, for which, it is true, they can not be im-
peached, but for which they should be held up to the indignation
of every worthy brother," etc., etc.
We believe that this report exaggerated facts in some
of its particulars.
The report of this feast, including the protest of Brother
Richard, was sent to all the lodges and even to the public
authorities. The latter, desirous of assuring themselves of
the truth or falsehood of these accusations of the Grand
Orient, ordered the police to investigate the subject; and
the latter, for this purpose, made a descent upon the dwell
ing of the brother Mark Bedarride, on the 7th September,
1822 ; but a minute examination thereof elicited no charge,
except a slight one under the terms of the penal code bear-
ing upon persons assembling themselves together for secret
purposes. For this the brother Bedarride and some others
13
194 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
held themselves to answer on the 18th January, 1823, and
submitted to some small fine. The result, however, of the.
general dissemination among the lodges of the report of
the feast, was to induce the authorities' to close the lodges
of the rite in Paris and those in the provinces, to the num-
ber, in all, of seventeen ; and they remained in this condi-
tion until 1831.
During this long period the brother Mark Bedarride re-
mained unemployed. After the revolution of 1830, he
sought for restoration to the military rank he had in 1814;
but he failed in this object. From the Minister of the
Interior, however, he obtained permission to reopen the
lodges of his rite.
From that auspicious moment the two brothers Mark
and Michael Bedarride made strenuous efforts to avail
themselves of the advantages of this permission. Their
first act was to inform the partisans of the rite of the
happy circumstances which once more allowed the lodges
to resume their labors, and to demand that all the repre-
sentatives of the rite assemble the divers classes of the
Order, and forward a list of their members, accompanied
by a gift of thirty cents for each brother, as a voluntary
offering of dues for the years in arrear, or those during
which the lodges had been closed.
The primary meetings of the old lodges took place at
No. 41 St. Mary street, and the brothers Bedarride suc-
ceeded in reconstructing, under their original names, the
lodges "Rainbow," "Pyramids," and "Burning Bush."
This reconstruction accomplished, the chiefs judged it nec-
essary to prevent the attacks to which their administration
had been subjected, and, for this purpose, convoking the
brethren composing the General Council, they directed
THE RITE OF MISRAIM. 195
the recognition in their own favor of an account for
services, etc., amounting to $20,550. !
Thus the account, which in 1818 was hut $550, had been
increased to $20,550, as well by the interest which had ac-
crued upon the original sum as by the additional grants
claimed, to the extent of $12,000, for administration of the
affairs of an Order while its lodges were closed and its busi-
ness totally suspended. As a set-off to this demand, the
sums received by the brothers Bedarride for fees and diplo-
mas from 1816 to 1822, while the lodges were in operation,
ought to have amounted to a very handsome figure, and
they did, as they appeared in the cash-book of the brothers ;
but the whole of this amount was absorbed, as further ap-
peared by the same, in defraying the rent of lodge-rooms,
etc., and all other necessary running expenses, for nineteen
years.
To put an end to all further disputes upon the sub-
ject, the chiefs of the rite prepared an oath to be admin-
istered, sine qua non, to the receipt of the higher degrees,
by which every member taking such degrees obligated
himself in language very enigmatical, but the real mean-
ing of which was to never question in any manner, under
penalty of being blotted from the list of honorable mem-
1 This sum of $20,550 was made up in the following manner:
1. Amount of the obligation of 11th June, 1818 2,735 fr. 37
17 years' interest at 5 per cent, per annum 2,324 fr. 93—5,060 fr. 30
2. Claim of 2,500 fr. per annum from the 25th
May, 1816, to 25th May, 1822-6 years 15,000 00
6 years' interest at 5 percent, per annum 4,500 00 — 19,500 00
3. Claim of 3,500 fr. per annum, from the 27th
May, 1822, to 27th May, 1828—7 years 24,500 00
7 years' interest at 5 per cent, per annum 6,475 00 — 30,975 00
4. Claim of 5,000 fr. per annum, from the 27th
May, 1828, to the 27th May, 1835—7 years.... ~ 85,000 00
7 years' interest at 5 per cent, per annum 12,250 00—47,250 00
Total 102,785 fr. 30
196 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
bership, the accuracy of this account or the justness of its
claims. *
When this matter was thus arranged, the Council made
it conditional that the brothers Bedarride should render
true accounts from that time of all their receipts and ex-
penses, to the end that the excess of the former should be
appropriated to the reduction of their account against the
Order of Misraim, and the same be liquidated at as early a
day as possible.
It is a sacred principle in Freemasonry that, with the
exception of the office of Secretary of a lodge, or Grand
Secretary of a Grand Lodge, all other offices are filled gra-
tuitously and for the honor they confer upon the incum-
bent. This being a fact well known, it is not difficult to
decide, from what we have shown, that the charges made
against the brothers Bedarride, of speculating with their
rite, were not devoid of foundation.
Notwithstanding the activity of the brothers Bedarride,
their rite has made but little progress since that time. It
has but a sort of vegetating existence in Paris, and it is
extinct every-where else in which they succeeded in plant-
ing it. A great many eminent men, whose names figure
upon the list of membership, have long since withdrawn
from it, and others have died. They never did, in fact,
take any active part in the labors of the rite, and the ma-
jority of them had not even assisted at a single meeting
of Misraimites : they had accepted the high degrees offered
them simply because their pompous titles tickled their
vanity. The brothers Bedarride had never expected to
derive any advantage from conferring their degrees upon
such men, except that which their names would afford in
the propagation of their rite among strangers. When we
look over the list of membership, published in 1822, we are
1 Our author gives the text of this oath ; but, for the reason already
given* I do not translate it. — Translator.
THE RITE OF MISRAIM. 197
astonished to find thereon so great a number of distin-
guished persons, and occupying the highest social positions.
Such of these brethren as belonged to the Supreme Coun-
cil or the Grand Orient of France never allowed them-
selves to be initiated into the fearful catalogue of the Rite
of Misraim; they confined themselves simply to the ac-
ceptance of a diploma conferring upon them the rank of
the ninetieth degree.
Many of these brethren, if not all, resigned their posi-
tion between 1817 and 1822, when the chiefs of the rite
were attacked on all sides. After the revival of the rite
in 1832 — thanks to the political changes which the revolu-
tion of 1830 effected in France — its chiefs were unable to
enroll the names of important men, such as figured upon
their register of 1822 ; even the meetings of the latter pe-
riod were few and insignificant. To remedy this failure,
the brothers Bedarride resolved to hold a Grand Lodge of
Adoption, which took place on the 25th August, 1838.
The following passage of the discourse, addressed to the
sisters and brethren present, will give our readers some
idea of the arrogance of the language of their claims:
"The Masonic Order of Misraim has this advantage over
all other rites : it furnishes to the initiate scientific com-
pensations which afford him an abstract knowledge of our
Order." So far is this from the truth, that, it is believed,
the meetings of the Misraimites are more devoid of any
thing pertaining to science or philosophy than are those
of any other rite. Notwithstanding all the pomp, magnifi-
cence, and expense attending this exhibition of a " Grand
Lodge of Adoption," it had not the least effect in forward-
ing the fortunes of the Order.
If any questions were put to the brothers Bedarride
upon the condition of the funds, they would reply that the
supreme authority had no accounts to render to any per-
son. If changes were desired in the general regulations,
they replied that the regulations were unalterable, and all
198 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
the members had solemnly sworn to be governed by them.
Should a brother publicly attempt to decipher the riddle
which veiled their power, the chiefs would cry out that
their authority was being questioned, and threaten the of-
fender with arrest and trial. In 1839, the brother Terne-
sien Leserne, advocate at the court of the king, having
made some remarks in his lodge — the "Rainbow" — upon
-the administration of the chiefs of the rite, he was, by order
of the supreme power of 3d January, 1840, arraigned for
contumacy. In his defense, he published his accusations,
under the title of "The Morality of the General Regu-
lations and Administration of the Rite of Misraim."
The brothers Bedarride endeavored to refute the charges
contained therein, but their response served rather to con-
firm than to destroy the accusations of the brother Tern-
esien.
The adversaries of the Rite of Misraim, or, more prop-
erly, those of the brothers Bedarride, rapidly increased.
In an article in the " Globe," entitled "Archives of Ancient
and Modern Initiations," in which the utility of Masonic
decorations is questioned, Brother Juge, the senior editor,
expresses himself thus : " This poor Rite of Misraim, which
so piteously exhibits its distress in its slender report of
lodges and members, and so audaciously parades its wealth
of degrees — a wealth so excessive that it is not only un-
known in all its fullness to the highest dignitaries, but
even to its inventor, M. Bedarride, who has not the ability,
I do not say to communicate all the degrees without read-
ing from his manuscripts, but who can not recite without
this help, and in the order in which they occur, even the
names of his frightful vocabulary." — This article brought
on, between the brothers Bedarride and the editor of the
" Globe," a war which terminated very much to the disad-
vantage of the former ; for the latter applied himself with
so much ability to his task, in the last numbers of his
paper for 1840, that he demonstrated to the intelligence of
THE RITE OF MISRAIM. 199
all that the Rite of Misraim was but " a miserable parody
on Freemasonry, and the creation of a juggler."
The chiefs continued to impose upon their lodges the
burden of an honor of $1,000 a year as the price of their
administration ; and, pretending that the receipts had
gradually fallen off, so that now there were not enough
to pay even the interest upon the obligation of 1835, they
induced their ever-devoted General Council to make them
a second letter of credit for the sum of $26,358, 1 dated the
20th of September, 1840, and bearing interest from that
date.
After that time a treasurer controlled the receipts and
the expenses, and in this manner the lodges were enabled
to ascertain the excess of the former and apply it to the
liquidation of this letter of credit. Thereafter the lodges
assembled peaceably, and submitted to the despotic gov-
ernment of the supreme power; but the members gradu-
ally diminished each year.
In the month of April, 1856, the brother Mark Bedar-
ride died. His death effected no change in the situation
of the rite, which pursued its unsteady course, affording
nothing incidental worthy of note.
A reproach of a very grave character had been ad-
dressed to the chiefs of the Hite of Misraim, viz., that no
acts of charity had ever been known to be performed by
them, and in this respect they had failed to comply with
the first duty of Freemasons. In 1851, a fact of this na-
ture occasioned a new schism. A brother, an officer of the
empire, possessed of all the high degrees of the rite, died
1 This obligation was made up as follows :
1. Amount of the claim October 1, 1835 102,785 fr. 3(
2. For the direction of the Order for five years,
at 5,000 fr. a year, from 1835 to 1840 25,000 fr.
Five years interest at 5 per cent, per annum 1,250 — 26,250 00
8. Interest on the principal of 102,785 fr 2,757 70
131,793 fr. 00
200 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
in a hospital. Several brethren, desirous of defraying the
expenses of his funeral, and aiding his widow, who was in
deep poverty, sought the chief, Michael Bedarride, who
responded to their request by saying, coldly, "The Order
has no funds. All the receipts are absorbed in defraying
necessary expenses, and in paying the interest due upon a
etter of credit delivered to me by order of the General
Council." The majority of the members, even those who
possessed the eighty-seventh degree, had never heard of this
obligation of the General Council, although they had signed
the oath by which it was recognized. They were surprised,
and, after some conference among themselves, they dele-
gated one of their number to wait upon the chief, and pro-
pose to him that if he would renounce his claim under
this letter of credit, they would pay him four thousand
francs a year. This proposition, as might be expected,
was rejected with disdain by the Grand Conservator.
Then, thirty-three members, led by the brother Boubee, re-
solved to detach themselves from the Order, and to found
another Masonic assembly professing the same rite. With
this object they addressed, on the 22d of May, 1851, to the
Minister of the Interior, a petttion, and supported the same
with the following reasons for separating themselves from
what they styled " the supreme power of the Order of Mis-
raim:" 1. — The facts we have mentioned. 2. — That the
chiefs had prepared an oath guaranteeing the payment of
a claim which was unknown to the petitioners, although
they, by subscribing to such oath, became responsible for
the payment of this claim. 3. — That by virtue of the ab-
solute power with which he pretended that he was in-
vested, the brother Michael Bedarride not only retained all
the money received for initiations and degrees ; but, con-
trary to the regulations, conferred at his own residence all
kinds of degrees upon whoever would pay him the money
demauded for them. 4. — That ashamed to state they had
been enslaved so long, they had given in their demission,
THE RITE OF MISRAIM. 201
and formed the design of founding a lodge under the title
of " Grand Orient of the Valley of Egypt."
The prayer of the petition having been refused, the thirty-
three dissenters conferred with the brother Voury, an officer
of the Grand Orient of France and Worshipful Master of
the lodge " Jerusalem of Constance," then suspended, and
decided to reorganize this lodge, under the title of " Jerusa-
lem of the Valley of Egypt." It was in this manner that
the anti-masonic sentiments which animated the chief of
the Rite of Misraim detached from that rite its valuable
members and diminished the revenues of its jurisdiction.
The Lodge of Adoption, created from the foundation of
the rite, very rarely gave any sign of life. It had been
organized, we regret to say, with an entirely speculative
object, which should have been repugnant to the feelings
of the worthy and respectable ladies who, at the order of
the brother Bedarride, filled its offices on certain occasions.
The ladies who successively filled the office of Grand Mis-
tress of this Lodge of Adoption are the respectable sisters
Gabrielle Pernet, Courtois, Breano, Maxime, of the Theater
Francais, and Block de Berthier.
The death of the brother Michael Bedarride, which took
place on the 10th February, 1856, put an end to the lacera-
tion of feelings endured for so long a time by the mem-
bers who remained faithful to the rite. Feeling his end
approaching, Michael Bedarride, by his will, dated the 1st
January, 1856, created the brother Hayere1 Grand Con-
servator of the Order ; but, on the 24th January, he named
him his representative, legatee, and successor, and, upon
condition that he would pay his debts, placed in his hands
the letter of credit of which we have spoken.
By a decree of the new supreme power, dated 27th
March, 1856, it was decided that they would not leave, as
1 Brother Hayere, a physician and chemist, was initiated into the Kite
of Misraim on the 13th October, 1840, and created Grand Master of the
ninetieth degree on the 11th June, 1855.
202 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONRY.
a charge upon the lodges of the Rite of Misraim, a debt,1
styled by Brother Hayere as " accursed," and which had
caused so much perjury, seeing that, with the actual reve-
nues of thirty years, it had not been extinguished. By
the General Council this debt was then declared extinct,
while that body, nevertheless, charged itself with the set-
tlement of the debts, amounting to about $1,000, of the
deceased chief. This decision, honorable in all its bear-
ings, proves that true Masonic sentiments animated the
brethren of the Rite of Misraim.
The lodges of Misraim, thus discharged from a debt
amounting to $15,589, and a yearly tax of $1,000, were
made easy in their finances, and their receipts enabled
them in a few years to pay the debt of their chief, and re-
imburse gradually Brother Hayere the advances made by
him, with a generous disinterestedness upon this debt, to
the most pressing creditors.
The new chief strove, as much as possible, to meet all
the exigences, abolish the abuses, and introduce reforms.
None of the numerous complaints made against the ad-
ministration of his predecessor were heard, and the loyal
character of Brother Hayere guarantee us in believing
they will never be renewed so long as he controls the ad-
ministration of the rite.
But no effort that can be put forth by the new chief can
long arrest the certain dissolution of this Order. The
germs of its mortality are borne within its bosom; and
when it shall descend, like its brother rite of Memphis, to
the tomb, nothing but its total regeneration can ever rec-
ommend it to the Masonic Fraternity.
JThe debt as recognized by the last letter of credit, amounting, in the
month of September, 1840rto $26,358, was found, at the death of Michael
Bedarride, by the excess of receipts which had been applied by the
treasurer to its liquidation, and credited by M. Bedarride, to be reduced
to $15,589.
A CONCISE HISTORY
OF THE
RITE OF MEMPHIS,
SINCE ITS CREATION, IN 1838, TO ITS FUSION WITH THE GRAND
ORIENT OF FRANCE, IN 1862.
The Bite of Memphis, next to that of Misraim, is the
most recent creation of Masonry. Its author is the brother
Marconis de Negre, who has copied it from the Rite of
Misraim, to which it principally belongs.
In a book entitled "The Sanctuary of Memphis," the
brother Marconis, who therein discovers himself as the
creator of this rite, briefly touches up its history as fol-
lows:
" The Kite of Memphis, or Oriental Rite, was carried to Europe
by Ormes, seraphic priest of Alexandria and Egyptian sage, who
was converted by St. Mark, in the year 46 of Jesus Christ, and
who purified the doctrine of the Egyptians according to the prin-
ciples of Christianity.
" The disciples of Ormes remained until 1118 sole possessors
of the ancient wisdom of Egypt, purified by Christianity and the
science of Solomon. This science having been communicated to
the Templars, they were then known as Knights of Palestine, or
Rose- Cross Brothers of the East. It is the latter who may be re-
cognized as the immediate founders of the Rite of Memphis." * *
" The Masonic Rite of Memphis is the continuation of the mys-
teries of antiquity. It taught the first men to render homage to
(203)
201 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
the divine principle ; its dogmas repose upon the principles of the
human race ; its mission the study of wisdom, which seeks to dis-
cover the secrets of nature. It is the beatific aurora of the devel-
opment of reason and intelligence ; it is the worship of the best
qualities of the human heart and suppression of its vices ; it is,
finally, the echo of religious tolerance, the union of all beliefs, the
bond that unites humanity, the symbol of the happy illusions of
hope, preaching faith in Grod, who preserves, and charity, which
blesses."
As will be seen, from what we have quoted, this rite has
all the pretension possible to be claimed for it, in giving it
to us as the continuation of the mysteries of antiquity, and
more than was ever claimed for any condition of Freema-
sonry. Nevertheless, its founder is the first to contradict
his preachings by his practice ; for one of the principal du-
ties of his adepts consists in being always truthful. His
book — which is but a frame-work of absurdities invented
by himself with the object of deceiving the credulous — will,
in the passages quoted and in the following, prove this :
" The Rite of Memphis is the only depository of high Masonry,
the true primitive rite, the rite par excellence. It has come down
to us without alteration, and, consequently, is the only rite justified
by its origin, by its constant exercise of all its rights, and by its
constitutions, which it is impossible to revoke or doubt their au-
thenticity. The Rite of Memphis, or Oriental Rite, is the true
Masonic tree, and all the Masonic systems, such as they are, are
nothing but the branches detached from this respectable and
highly antique institution, whose birth took place in Egypt — the
real depot of the principles of Masonry, written in Chaldean, and
preserved, in the venerated ark of the Rite of Memphis, in the
Grand Lodge of Scotland, at Edinburgh, and in the convent of the
Maronites, on Mount Lebanon."
To this extract we subjoin the first article of the organic
statutes, and by which we may judge the remainder :
THE RITE OF MEMPHIS. 205
"Brother Mar cords de Negre, the Grand Hierophant, is the
only sacred depositary of the traditions of this Sublime Order."
After that it would be superfluous to ask what are the
constitutions "which it is impossible to revoke, or doubt
their authenticity;'7 or what are these precious documents,
"written in the Chaldean language, and preserved in the
venerated ark of the Rite of Memphis," etc. With those
in the Grand Lodge of Scotland and in the convent on
Mount Lebanon, it is simply necessary to say that, like
those upon which the Supreme Council for France was
founded, they never existed.
It is ever thus the same language, the same tactics are
employed, by the inventors of rites, wherewith, during the
last century and a half, to delude their proselytes.
Concerning the introduction of this rite into France, the
brother Marconis de !Negre, and, after him, some of his
credulous adepts, recounted that the brother Honis, a na-
tive of Cairo, had brought it from Egypt in 1814, (but
without saying by whom it had been there communicated
to him,) and had, with the father of Brother Marconis de
Negre, (the brother Gabriel-Mathew Marconis,) Baron
Dumas, and the Marquis de la Roque, founded a lodge of
this rite at Montauban, on the 30th April, 1815 ; that this
lodge had been closed on the 7th March, 1816, (they did
not say why,) and that, in consequence, the archives had
been confided to the father of Marconis de RTegre, named
(they did not say by whom) Grand Hierophant of the
Order, or, otherwise, Grand Master.
The incorrectness of these assertions is easily demon-
strated, Brother James Stephen Marconis was initiated
at Paris into the rite of Memphis on the 21st of April,
1833. He was then twenty-seven years of age. He re-
ceived on that day thirteen degrees; for the ladder of
Misraim is quickly mounted. In consequence of the com-
plaints made against him by some of his brethren, he was
expelled on the 27th June, 1833. He shortly afterward
206 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
quitted Paris and went to Lyons, where, under the name
of Negre, he founded a lodge of the Rite of Misraim, under
the style of " Good Will," and of which he was the presi-
dent. While occupying this position, he was elevated to
the sixty-sixth degree hy the brothers Bedarride, who were
not aware that Brother Negre and Brother J. S. Marconis
were one and the same person. In consequence of some
new complaints addressed to the brothers Bedarride, as
chiefs of the rite, by the brethren at Lyons, Brother Mar-
conis was again expelled, under the new name of Negre,
on the 27th May, 1838.
After this latter expulsion, having no hope of again
being able to play any part either in the Rite of Misraim
or any other rite then practiced, and feeling conscious that
he possessed much more capacity to direct a lodge, or even
a rite, than the brothers Bedarride, he did as was done by
Lechangeur of Milan, and by the five Israelites at Charles-
ton— he created a Masonic power.
The ladder of Misraim, as fabricated by Lechangeur,
and augmented by the addition of a few more rounds, gave
him his Rite of Memphis with but little labor. The work
finished, he constituted himself its chief. To give his rite
an origin and a history was not difficult. In this depart-
ment he exhibited, however, more respect for the opinions
of mankind, and the good sense of the Fraternity, than did
the brother Michael Bedarride, who, in his history of the
" Order of Misraim," was not content, as Lechangeur had
been, with stating that this Order was the work of a king
of Egypt named Misraim, but went much further for its
origin, even to God himself. Brother Marconis dated his
rite from but the commencement of the Christian era. By
this exhibition of modesty he probably expected to disarm
inquiry, convert the credulous and religiously disposed,
and inspire them with faith in the "precious documents
written in the Chaldean language," which he announced
were to be found in the "venerated ark of the Rite of
THE RITE OF MEMPHIS. 207
Memphis," whenever he would think proper to exhibit
those documents to their admiring gaze.
As Brother Marconis was much the superior, both in
education and talents, of the fabricator of the Rite of
Misraim, he found it very easy to vary the degrees of that
rite, change their names, and give them a signification
sufficiently different to destroy the identity of their origin.
To give the reader an idea of the extravagance of this
creation, we will present here an extract from the constitu-
tion of the Rite of Memphis :
" The Rite of Memphis is regulated by five Supreme Councils,
viz. : 1. The Sanctuary of the Patriarchs, Grand Conservators of the
Order. 2. The Mystic Temple of Sovereign Princes of Memphis.
3. The Sovereign General Grand Council of Grand Regulating
Inspectors of the Order. 4. The Grand Liturgical College of
Sublime Interpreters of Masonic Sciences and Hieroglyphics. 5.
The Supreme Grand Tribunal of Protectors of the Order.
"The Sanctuary is divided into three sections, viz.: 1. The
Mystic Section, in which reposes the venerated ark of the tradi-
tions. 2. The Emblematic, Scientific, and Philosophic Sections ;
and, 3. The Governing Section.
" The Mystic Section, in which are to be found the traditions,
rituals, documents, instructions, and general archives, etc., is com-
posed of the Grand Hierophant and his organ.
" The Emblematic, Scientific, and Philosophic Section is com-
posed of seven lights, viz. : 1. The Grand Hierophant, Sublime
Master of Light, (Brother Marconis.) 2. The organ of the
Grand Hierophant. 3. The Grand Master, President of the
Sanctuary, (particular executive of the Order.) 4. The Grand
Master, President of the Mystic Temple (general executive.) 5.
The Grand Master, President of the Sovereign Grand General
Council. 6. The Grand Master, President of the Grand Liturgi-
cal College. 7. The Grand Master, President of the Supreme
Grand Tribunal.
" This Section exercises no authority in the government of the
Order, its action being purely doctrinal and magisterial."
208 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
It might be readily believed that such an organization
as the above might be sufficient to regulate the affairs of
an Asian or African Empire, comprising millions of human
beings. Ridicule will, therefore, be pushed to its utmost
when it is known that this formidable construction was
organized to govern an association of men who are believed
to be devoted to the development of their reason and in-
telligence, and to the study of wisdom.
After having completed the rituals of his rite, in 1838,
Brother Marconis presented himself in Belgium as the suc-
cessor of his father in the high office of Grand Hierophant,
and entered into some negotiations to establish his rite,
lie then returned to Paris, where, under the name of Mar-
conis Letuillart, he succeeded in enrolling some isolated
brethren, and, with them, organizing a lodge which he
named " Disciples of Memphis ;" and, on the 22d March,
1838, he organized a Grand Lodge, under the title of
" Osiris," to which was intrusted the direction of all the
operative lodges which he hoped he might establish. On
the 23d May, 1839, he organized a chapter of "Philadel-
phics," and on the 29th February, 1840, the lodge " Sages
of Heliopolis."
On the 7th April, 1839, he published his organic stat-
utes, and organized two lodges in Brussels.
Immediately following the organization of his first lodge
in Paris, the brothers Bedarride wrote the prefect of
police, informing that officer that Brother Marconis had
been twice expelled, for malfeasance, from the Rite of
Misraim, and requesting that he be prohibited from en-
gaging in Masonic labors thereafter in that city. The pre-
fect not having immediately complied with their demand,
on the 2d November they issued a circular, warning their
lodges and councils against Brother Marconis, and stating
the reasons of his duplicate expulsion. Thereupon the
police visited the lodges organized by Brother Marconis ;
but it was not until the 17th May, 1840, that permission to
THE RITE OF MEMPHIS. 209
assemble their membership was refused him ; and, without
any reason being assigned, those lodges had to suspend
their meetings.
From that time Brother Marconis devoted his attention
to Masonic literature. !
Favored by the political events of 1848, Brother Marco
uis labored to revive his lodges in Paris, and succeeded in
reorganizing, in 1849, three of them, and afterward a coun
cil and chapter ; but the lodges which he had established
in Belgium refused resurrection.2
During the short time Brother Marconis de Negre — for
it is under this name he is best known — maintained his
lodges in activity, he followed the example of the brothers
Bedarride, and obtained adherents among the members of
the Grand Orient and the Supreme Council, who, although
remaining attached to these bodies, accepted of him diplo-
mas conferring upon them the high degrees of Memphis.
Finding that his rite was not obtaining any consistence
at Paris, Brother Marconis repaired, in 1850, to London,
in the hope there to find some person disposed to accept
its distinctions ; and, not without considerable effort, he
succeeded in establishing a lodge, under the title of " The
Sectarians of Menes," which was instituted on the 16th
July, 1851, and which was charged with the responsibili-
ties of a Supreme Council for the British isles. Brother
xThe principal works published by Brother Marconis (de Negre) are:
"The Sanctuary of Memphis," "The Hierophant," "The Mystic Sun,"
"The Mystic Temple," and "The Masonic Pantheon." As explanatory
of the symbols and principles of Masonry, these works have undisputa-
ble value; but as history they are worthless, being principally drawn
from the imagination of their author.
2In common with all other fabricators of rites, Brother Marconis sold,
to all who offered to buy them, his constitutions with which to establish
lodges, chapters, councils, grand lodges, etc. It was by these constitu-
tions, and in this manner, that his rite was made known and established
at a few points on the continent of Europe, and in New York.
14
210 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
J. P. Berjean was nominated Grand Master of it, and rep-
resentative of the Grand Hierophant.
The accusations which, in 1850, dissolved the new Na-
tional Grand Lodge of France, equally affected the lodges
of the Rite of Memphis, and, for a second time, caused
their suspension. Hence, Brother Marconis, finding his
Masonic activity completely paralyzed in France, was, in a
manner, forced to transmit the government of his rite to
the lodge at London, as the principal authority extant;
and, on the 30th November, 1853, in accordance with this
arrangement, Brother J. P. Berjean was solemnly installed
"Grand Master of Light" of the new mystic temple and
General Grand Council, and, at the same time, as organ of
the Grand Hierophant.
Starting with hut thirty members, the labors of these
were sufficiently arduous, when devoted to the administra-
tion of so extensive a form of government as the rite of
Brother Marconis required; but this Grand Lodge soon
found its ranks freely recruited from among the political
refugees who, about this time, sought England as a place
of safety. Such a class, however, possessed few of the ele-
ments suitable to harmoniously carry on the work of the
rite, and it was soon found necessary to dissolve the lodge:
Brother Marconis himself considering it prudent to an-
nounce that he had retired from all participation in its la-
bors, and, consequently, that he declined all responsibility
for its actions.
These circumstances, so little conducive to the success
of the Rite of Memphis, induced Brother Marconis, by the
aid of the author of this work, to propose, in 1852, to the
Grand Orient, its affiliation of the lodges of Memphis.
This proposition being refused, Brother Marconis there-
upon ceased all further effort on behalf of the lodges of his
rite, and confined his labors to the publication of his many
Masonic books.
Having for some time meditated a voyage to America,
THE RITE OF MEMPHIS. 211
Brother Marconis de Negre, in 1860, embarked for that
country, and, on the 14th July of that year, organized at
Troy, in the State of New York, a lodge, under the title of
" Disciples of Memphis," and of which Brother Durand, a
professor of languages, was nominated Grand Master.
After the publication of the circular of the 80th April
1862, addressed by the Grand Master, Marshal Magnan,
to the dissenting Masons of France, Brother Marconis
solicited, in the name of one of his suspended lodges, (the
"Sectarians of Menes,") his affiliation with the Grand
Orient of France. This request was complied with, and,
on the 18th October, 1862, this lodge was formally installed
by commissioners appointed for that purpose by the Grand
Orient. On the 30th December following, a similar action
took place with the lodge " Disciples of Memphis."
Thus despoiled of its government, its councils, and of
all its peculiar attributes, the Rite of Memphis finds itself
transformed into, at best, the Scottish Rite, as recognized
by the Grand Orient ; and yet, by a strange anomaly, the
lodges which we have named have been permitted to re-
tain the name of practicing the Rite of Memphis. Other-
wise, for the honor of Masonry, we consider the work of
Brother Marconis extinct in France, and we trust that
wherever else it exists it may shortly be consigned to the
tomb of its race.
A CONCISE HISTORY
OF THE
ORIGIN OF ALL THE RITES FOR HIGH DEGREES,
INTRODUCED INTO FREEMASONRY FROM 1736 TO THE
PRESENT TIME.
Freemasonry, after its transformation at London, in
1717, from a partly mechanical and partly philosophical
institution to one purely moral and philosophic, retained
the three traditional degrees of Ajoprentice, Fellow Craft, and
Master Mason; and all the lodges organized since that time,
as well by the Grand Lodge of London as by the Grand
Lodges of Scotland and Ireland, have been so constituted,
and have never conferred any other than the three sym-
bolic degrees above named, and which constitute the Rite
of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of England —
the only true traditional Masonry.
It was not until the partisans of the Stuarts had come
to France, in the suite of the Pretender, that English
Masonry was denaturalized by them, and used as a cloak
to cover their revolutionary projects.
The desire to restore the family of the Stuarts to the
throne of England, and thus to favor the interests of
Roman Catholicism, suggested to the partisans of that
family and those interests the idea of forming secret asso-
ciations, by which to carry out their plans; and it was
with this object that they obtained entrance into the Ma-
sonic lodges on the continent.
(212)
ORIGIN OF ALL THE RITES FOR HIGH DEGREES. 213
They commenced in France, through the agency of one
of their most eminent emissaries, the Doctor, Baron of
Ramsay,1 to spread a rite of five degrees which they had
vainly endeavored to make acceptable in London. This
Doctor or Baron of Ramsay, between the years 1736 and
1738, augmented this rite by the addition of two degrees
and then called it " Scottish," because, as he maintained,
it proceeded from a powerful Masonic authority in Scot-
land. He delivered to the proselytes, whom he had
known himself to have made in France, personal consti-
tutions or patents, emanating from a self-styled chapter of
Masons sitting at Edinburgh. This chapter was composed
of partisans of the Stuarts, who had constituted them-
selves into a Masonic authority before the Grand Lodge
of Scotland existed, with the sole object of forwarding
the projects of the uncrowned princes. According to the
Baron of Ramsay, and other emissaries, this chapter alone
possessed the true science of Masonry, which science, as
1 Baron .Ramsay was converted to the Roman Catholic religion by
Fenelon, and afterward became preceptor at Rome to the son of the
dethroned king, James III. He came to France in 1728. After having
failed in London in his attempt to organize, in the interests of the
Stuarts, a new Masonry calculated to annihilate the influence of the
Grand Lodge of London, he addressed himself to a like work in France,
and presented himself in Paris, furnished with powers from a Masonic
authority represented to be sitting at Edinburgh. It was not until about
1736 that he appears to have succeeded in establishing in some lodges
his political system.
It is true that Lord Derwentwater, and also Lord Harnwester, who
succeeded each other as the first Grand Masters of the Provincial Grand
Lodge of France, were also partisans of the Stuarts ; but they do not
appear to have been initiated into the revolutionary projects of the
Jesuits, as was Doctor Ramsay; for it was not until after their departur
for England — where both perished on the scaffold, victims of their at-
tachment to the Pretender — that Baron Ramsay introduced his system
among the lodges. While Lord Derwentwater was Grand Master of
the Provincial Grand Lodge of France, in 1729, Baron Ramsay filled the
office of orator. He died in 1743, aged fifty-seven, at St. Germain-en-
Laye
214 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
was apparent from the history of it which they had es-
tablished, had been created by Godfrey de Bouillon. "We
have no account of any of the chapters founded by Baron
Ramsay, and they do not appear to have been of much
importance ; but, in 1743, another partisan of the Stuarts
founded at Marseilles a lodge of " St. John of Scotland,"
with eighteen degrees, which subsequently took the title
of Scottish Mother Lodge of France, and constituted many
lodges in Provence, and even some in the Levant. An-
other system, probably Ramsay's, was established at Lyons
by a partisan of the Stuarts, and afterwards worked by the
Jesuits.
It was not, however, until after Charles Edward Stuart,
born at Rome, the son of the Pretender, had been ini-
tiated, and had founded, by a charter granted by himself,
as patron, a chapter of high degrees at Arras, in 1747,
under the title of " Scottish Jacobite Masonry," that the
lodges to which were attached high degrees increased in
France. At Toulouse, in 1748, an attache of the Pre-
tender, named Lockhart, organized a chapter which prac-
ticed a rite of nine degrees, under the name of " Faithful
Scots." In 1766 another adherent constituted the mother
lodge of the county Venaissin, in Avignon, which, in its
turn, in 1776, organized the "Grand Lodge of the Philo-
sophic Rite in Paris," and then united itself with that
Grand Lodge.
Another partisan of the Stuarts, the Chevalier Bonne-
ville, one of the most zealous emissaries of the Jesuits —
under the patronage of the Chapter of Clermont, which
was, in 1754, created by the Jesuits of the College (Con-
vent) of Clermont1 — organized several chapters, and which,
for the purpose of more fully working this system of Ma-
sonry, they installed in a magnificent locality, outside the
walls of Paris, called New France. In 1756, these chap-
1 It was in this college that the Pretender lived for many years.
ORIGIN OF ALL THE RITES FOR HIGH DEGREES. 215
ters elaborated a new Masonic system, which they styled
"Strict Observance" — an arrangement which has been
wrongly attributed to the Chevalier Bonneville, he being,
with others, nothing more than one of its most zealous
propagators in France, while a person named Stark acted
in a like capacity in Germany, between 1756 and 1758.
An extravagant and ambitious man named Pirlet, the.
presiding officer of a lodge in Paris, and who had recog-
nized the true authorship of these new Masonic systems,
sought their injury, if not destruction, by the creation of
an opposing system. For this purpose, in 1757, by the aid
of some Masons to whom he imparted his knowledge, he
created a chapter of "Knights of the East." Not meeting
with the success he had expected, he concluded to accept
the office of propagator of a new rite elaborated by the
Jesuits at Lyons, with a scale of twenty-five degrees, and
to .which was given the pompous title of "Emperors of
the East and West, Sovereign Prince Masons." The
propagators of this rite announced to their proselytes that
it was the most elevated of all Masonry practiced in the
East, and from whence it had been imported to France.
This was the rite subsequently called "Perfection, or Har-
odoin." Pirlet, directed secretly by the Jesuits, who were
not seen in the management, gave, like all the propaga-
tors, inventors, and importers of rites, who make of them
a species of property, a fabulous origin to this new rite ;
and several officers and members of the Grand Lodge of
France were initiated, though bound by an oath, under its
constitution, not to recognize any degrees as Masonic ex-
cept those of their Grand Lodge, which consisted of the
three symbolic degrees alone. These initiates became
officers of the " Council of Emperors of the East and
West, Sovereign Prince Masons ;" and it was this council
that, in 1761, delivered to Stephen Morin a patent where-
with to enable him to propagate the rite in America. This
Rite of Perfection, of twenty -five degrees, was propagated
216 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
in Germany by the officers of the army of Broglie. bul
more particularly by the Marquis of Berny, a French gen-
tleman, and his deputy Rosa, a Lutheran priest, who in a
short time orgauized seventeen lodges of the rite in the
States-general, or parliament of the country. This rite
infiltrated itself, in this manner, into the Grand Lodge at
the Three Globes in Berlin ; and when the king, Freder-
ick the Great, who had been Grand Master of this lodge
from 1744 to 1747, was advised of this fact by one of the
officers of the lodge, his minister of war, he was so en-
raged that he manifested his discontent by a great oath.
Many of the Grand Lodges of Germany, and those of
Hamburg and Switzerland more particularly, who for a.
long time resisted the admission of these innovations,
closed and became dissolved after the high degrees had
insinuated themselves among and into their constituent
lodges. But these degrees were not always so successful
in their object to destroy primitive Masonry; for as soon
as, by pushing inquiry, it was found from whence they
had emanated, and their source discovered to be impure,
they fell into disrepute and contempt.
It was thus that this Rite of Perfection became unpopu-
lar in Paris in 1780, and unable to sustain itself, and its
membership obliged to unite their scattered fragments
into a chapter of " Knights of the East" — the rite created
by Pirlet. Notwithstanding this union, however, so low
had the reputation of the possessors of these degrees fallen,
that they were forced to recruit their ranks and the mem-
bership of this chapter from among any persons who could
pay them the price of their degrees. Such action, per-
sisted in, caused the death of this chapter, but not with-
out leaving some unhappy traces of its labors ; for while
some of its members endeavored to organize a General
Grand Chapter of the Rite of Perfection for France, others
became discontented, discordant, and, in this condition of
mind, became willing assistants of De Grasse-Tilly, who,
ORIGIN OF ALL THE RITES FOR HIGH DEGREES. 217
in 1804, arrived in Paris from St. Domingo, bearing a
patent from a Supreme Council sitting at Charleston, em-
powering him to organize a council of a rite of thirty-three
degrees, and, by the aid of such malcontents, he did or-
ganize the " Supreme Council for France of Sovereign
Grand Inspectors General of the 33d and last degree of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite."
It will be easily perceived that, at an early stage of its
popularity, the Jesuits found Freemasonry an institution
they would have to use or destroy. Finding it impossible
to use it, they concluded to destroy it ; and to do so, they
adopted the plan of inventing and propagating rites and
high degrees calculated to confuse a correct knowledge of
its history, and create discords and dissatisfaction among
(ts members. As creators of these rites and degrees, they
freely, through their partisans and emissaries, disposed of
patents and constitutions which empowered the holders
not only to organize bodies of men whom they might
initiate into these degrees, but to sell to any person so
initiated other patents and constitutions empowering them
to do the same. In this manner the very object desired
by these Jesuitical inventors was attained in a multiplied
result ; for a rivalry sprang up between these opposite
authorities, who soon found that the best recommendation
for their wares was an increase in their variety; and to
give such variety it was necessary to fabricate additional
degrees and additional rites, which they might offer, as
something entirely new, to satisfy the eager appetite ex-
hibited, and which they appeased in restaurants and tav-
erns, and wherever they could find a purchaser. By ref-
erence to our history of Freemasonry in France about this
time, (1736 to 1772,) the reader will perceive how com-
pletely the object desired by the Jesuits was effected.
"Confusion worse confounded" reigned among the Fra-
ternity— false titles, antedated constitutions, charges of
fraud well sustained, and even exhibitions of violence,
218 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
characterized the Masonic institution, and the civil gov-
ernment had to interfere to prevent worse results. It was
during this period that there might he seen systems called
Masonic and new degrees bursting almost daily into the
light — systems incoherent, crude, and unfledged, having
nothing to recommend them save their very dreamy or
mystical tendency — the work of fabricators, who cared for
no vow or obligation, but sought only to dispose of their
trumpery and valueless commodities.
These combinations, the work of such impostors and
political hucksters, produced, in about twenty years, such
a result of doubt and uncertainty, that scarcely any one
could determine which of the numerous pretending bodies
was the true or legitimate Masonic authority in France.
Yet, notwithstanding the confusion they had thus created,
the Jesuits had accomplished but one of their designs, viz.,
denaturalizing and bringing into disrepute the Masonic
institution. Having succeeded, as they believed, in de-
stroying it in one form, they were determined to use it
in another.
With this determination they arranged the system styled
" Clerkship of the Templars," an amalgamation of the
different histories, events, and characteristics of the cru-
sades, mixed with the reveries of the alchemists. In this
combination Catholicism governed all, and the whole fab-
rication moved upon wheels representing the great object
for which the " Society of Jesus" was organized. The
emissaries, De Bonneville, in France, and Professor Harck,
in Germany, were immediately engaged in the dissemina-
tion of this system ; but, in consequence of the very condi-
tion of disrepute then enjoyed by Masonry in that country,
the emissary for France had little if any success.
With their knowledge of the human heart, the Jesuits
brought into this system a series of inferior degrees proper
to engage the curiosity of the neophyte, and assure them-
ORIGIN OF ALL THE RITES FOR HIGII DEGREES. 219
selves of his unlimited obedience. Beyond all else, this
condition of unlimited obedience was always exacted be-
fore the advancement promised to the new revelations of
yet higher degrees was accorded. In this manner were
the brethren decoyed away from the pure and simple doc-
trine of English Freemasonry, to throw their aid and in
fluence into the object of enlarging Jesuitical influence, bj
the hope of gaining ten degrees of exaltation above their
fellows. In order further to assure themselves of the faith
of their adepts, and to strike deeper the roots of that
faith into the soil of their spirits, the doctrine of obedience to
unknown superiors was advanced, and the chiefs directed to
communicate the real plans to none but those whom they
should initiate into the last and highest degree of the
system.
As the monastic institution and ecclesiastic tendency
of this false Masonry could not adapt itself to the feelings
of all whom they desired to influence, they next resolved
to create another association, much more extended, and
which would be susceptible of establishment in Protestant
countries. The project succeeded better than any or ail
the others. It was this system styled " Strict Observance "
that, originating, like all the others created by the Jesuits,
in their College of Clermont at Paris, was transported to
Germany, and there propagated by the Baron of Hund,
and other emissaries, instruments of the Jesuits, but igno-
rant of being such. The fundamental belief connected
with this system, as entertained by those propagators, was,
that "the Masonic fraternity is nothing but a continuation
of the Order of Knights Templar, propagated by members
of this Order while sheltered from persecution in the fast-
nesses of Scotland." Otherwise the propagators of this
system held forth to and indulged their proselytes in the
dangerous hope of gaining possession of the riches and
property of the Order of Knights Templar, confiscated by
220 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Philip the Fair and his abettors, after the execution of
Jacques de Molay.
To have the system correspond, as much as possible,
with its hierarchical object, the country over which they
expected their Order to reign was divided into nine prov-
inces, viz. : 1. Lower Germany, consisting of Poland and
Prussia; 2. Auvergne; 3. Western France; 4. Italy and
Greece ; 5. Burgundy and Switzerland ; 6. Upper Ger-
many; 7. Austria and Lombardy; 8. Russia; and 9.
Sweden.
The governing Grand Lodge of the system was estab-
lished at Brunswick, and was to be ostensibly directed by
the Duke of Brunswick, but who really was but the
mouth-piece of the "unknown superiors." Each province
had its heermeister, or general, a provincial chapter, many
priories, prefectures, and commanderies — names and estab-
lishments belonging to the Ancient Order of Knights
Templar; while the three degrees of St. John uniformly
comprised the Freemasonry, properly so called, of the
lodges governed by a Meister vom Stuhl, or Worshipful
Master, and six officers.
The system of " Strict Observance" was so called because
of the severe monastic subordination which it enjoined, in
contradistinction with the liberal system of English origin,
styled " Observance at Large ;" and, under the notorious
nonsense of alchemy, mysticism, and the mysteries of the
Rose Cross, which were by its members professed, this
"Strict Observance" system for a long time hid the secret
intentions and objects of its unknown chiefs. In Ger-
many, however, both clerical and secular systems remained
under secret direction until 1772, when dissatisfaction and
dissensions having taken place, the King of Prussia or-
dered the union of the two systems, and, after 1767, the
clerical system had place but in the seventh province, viz.,
Austria and Lombardy.
The excessive extravagance of enthusiasm with which
ORIGIN OF ALL THE RITES FOR HIGH DEGREES. 221
the Templar system was regarded speedily abated, as soon
as the unknown superiors were identified. Suspicion en-
gendered investigation, and investigation elicited the fact
that these " unknown superiors " were no other than lead-
ing Jesuits and partisans of the Stuart interest. Up to
this time the Baron of Hund himself seems to have been
a victim of the general deception.
Thereafter the Jesuits, unmasked in the persons of their
chiefs, and deceived in their hopes, appear to have retired
from the field ; for we hear no more about the " unknown
superiors." It was then that the investigation began to
be seriously directed to the consideration of how far this
" Strict Observance " system departed from the spirit and
principles of the lodges working under the system of the
Grand Lodge of England, and which latter had been con-
temptuously represented by the Jesuits as the bastard
offspring of the working corporations of the middle ages.
This investigation was not confined to Germany, but ex-
tended throughout the country occupied by the Templar
systems. The general inquiry seemed to be whether these
systems were charged with any abstract science, or any
doctrines of a purely moral or secret character, relating to
art, history, or to the sciences generally. The French
Templar lodges met at Lyons, in 1778, in a convent, and
undertook the total revision of their system, from which
resulted a new plan of constitution. This advance move-
ment gave an impulse to the German lodges, and induced
them, in their turn, to examine the entire Templar system,
and to manifest a disposition to return to the Masonry of
England, in case their investigation should develop the
improper tendencies of which this hierarchical system had
been accused.
The Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, who, in 1772, was
chosen General Grand Master of all the " Strict Observ-
ance" lodges, seriously occupied himself with this investi-
gation ; and, for this purpose, having called, in 1772, the
222 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Congress of Kohio, and, in 1775, that at Brunswick, with-
out eliciting any satisfactory result, he yielded to the
views expressed by many German lodges, and, in 1782,
convoked a third congress at Wilhelmsbad, to which he
invited all the Freemasons of Europe.
The first assembly of this congress took place on the
16th July, 1782. All the Grand officers of all the prov-
inces of the Templar system, and delegates from all their
lodges were present, as also many delegates of other rites
then extant in Germany and France. After thirty sit-
tings, none of the questions upon the origin, doctrines,
etc.,1 had been resolved in a satisfactory manner; when,
finally, upon the proposition of the French delegates of
the Templar system from the province of Burgundy, the
views of the congress were thus expressed :
" Modern Freemasons are not only not the true success-
ors of the Knights Templar, but, as worthy recipients of
the three symbolic degrees, they can not be."
Notwithstanding this decision, however, the assembly
decided that a lecture, giving a synopsis of the history of
the Templar Order, should be added to, and incorporated
with, the last degree of symbolic Freemasonry.
"We should have remarked that the exterior organization
of the Templar system, which established union and har-
mony among the parts of this system, was worked with
care, and conformably to a vast plan. The interior ties,
founded upon the position of the employes and the pre-
rogatives of the chapters, composed a powerful band. The
whole might be assimilated to a system of nerves extend-
ing from a central organ of life — which, in this case, was
the convent of Clermont — to the most distant periphery of
the organism, to communicate movement to all parts of
the body, and to bring up to a general and common con-
science, as it were, the impressions received, and the ob-
See these questions in the historical notice of Masonic conventions.
ORIGIN OF ALL THE RITES FOR HIGH DEGREES. 223
servations made, by each part, wherever situated, outside
of the great center.
After the congress of Wilhelmsbad had changed the
Templar system, they baptized their modification of it with
the name of " Refined Scottish Rite," a name as improper,
however, as that which it displaced. At first, this new
rite was not adopted but by the lodges of the province of
Burgundy, and it was not until after the lapse of some
years that it extended elsewhere. Many of the German
operative lodges, and even several grand lodges, aban-
doned completely the system of high degrees, and returned,
in great part, to the simple forms of English Masonry. The
Provincial Grand Lodges of Frankfort and of Wetzlar,
who created the Eclectic Rite, of three degrees, were the
only Grand Lodges which radically adopted the reform,
all the other Grand Lodges having retained some frag-
ments of the high degrees. In this manner, the svstem of
"Strict of Observance" or " Templar System," transformed
to the " Refined Scottish Rite," existed for a long time
in Germany and France, under the name of Scottish Ma-
sonry, with a more or less number of degrees constituting
the rite, and there may be found at the present day
some lodges in Belgium still practicing it.
In France, neither the National Grand Lodge nor the
Grand Orient were successful in striving with the high
degrees, which they had both anathematized, seeing that
neither of these grand bodies practiced but the three sym-
bolic degrees. The Grand Lodge always remained faith-
ful to its principles ; but the Grand Orient, on the con-
trary, sought connection with the lodges professing the
high degrees, and finally, in 1786, arranged a rite of seven
degrees, which it called the French Rite, and by means of
which it hoped, but in vain, to suppress the other high
degree systems.
Thus, as wc have shown, it resulted that, apart from
the two Templar systems created by the Jesuits for their
224 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
own purposes, an infinite number of rites were produced,
for quite as unworthy purposes, the names of many of
which will be found at the close of this chapter.
These rites, it is true, had but a short existence. Most
of them were changed after the congress of Welhelmsbad,
or disappeared during the revolution; but they, neverthe-
ess, largely contributed to the disrepute into which Free-
masonry had fallen in the latter part of the eighteenth
century, and the results of which condition remain to be
contended with to the present day.
It is, however, but just to mention here one exception
among the crowd of extravagant and anti-masonic rites,
that of the " Philaletes," created in 1773, in the lodge of
" United Friends," at Paris, by the brethren Savalette of
Langes, Court of Gibelin, and the archeologist Lenoir, who,
to approach nearer to the English Rite, had abolished all
distinctions of degrees,1 and proposed as their object the
perfection of man, and his nearest approach to the Great
Being from whom he emanated. It was by these " Phila-
letes " that there were convoked at Paris the two conven-
tions of 1785 and 1787, and at which the founders just
named exhibited so remarkably the true philosophy of
Masonry.
Wherever Masonry was introduced prior to 1750, whether
in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Prussia, Poland,
Turkey, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, or America,
there was not produced the slightest collision, nor could
there be so long as the three degrees of the English Rite
alone were practiced, and a unity of purpose in the Ma-
sonic system by such practice preserved. But as soon as
this unity was destroyed in France, in the manner we have
1 In that celebrated lodge the Nine Sisters, founded in 1776, and in
which had been initiated Voltaire, Helvetius, Lalande, Court of Gibe-
lin, Benjamin Franklin, etc., no desire has ever been expressed for the
attainment of any degree above that of Master Mason. (See Masonic
Oxthodoxy, by Rayon, p. 111.)
' 0
/,' , ;'
/
/ .Vf/// S///f.
//. 'M
/rv/.
ORIGIN OF ALL THE RITES FOR HIGH DEGREES. 225
shown, by the introduction of high degrees, and political
objects as well as mercenary tendencies began to charac-
terize our beautiful institution, the suspicions of the gov-
ernments were aroused, and inquiry provoked prohibitions
the most severe, even under pain of death, against assem-
blies of Freemasons.1
Since the beginning of the present century, the princi-
pal rites created have been the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Kite, the Rite of Misraim, and the Rite of Mem-
phis. The origin and history of these rites having been
given in previous chapters of this work devoted thereto,
it is unnecessary to say any thing further about them in
this one. Regarding some two or three others, however,
as worthy of notice, we will mention them :
1. The Order of Modern Templars, constituted the 4th
of November, 1804, by virtue of an old constitution2 found
in the possession of a brother, and according to which the
founders afterward pretended to be the legitimate succes-
sors of the Knights of the Temple. This association at-
*It is in great part, if not entirely, to the introduction of the high de-
grees, whose history so far we have just recorded, that the numerous
literary attacks, from which Freemasonry has so greatly suffered during
the latter half of the last century, are due. The works of Luchet, of
Robison, the Abbe Barruel, Payard, Cadet-Gassecourt the Abbe Lefranc,
and many others, would probably have never seen the light, had not
Masonry become adulterated with objects as improper as they were un-
suited to mix with its principles, while preserved in the fervor and faith
of their primitive simplicity. The writers named, not being able to dis-
tinguish the true from the false, endeavored to involve all in a common
ruin, and for a time they were successful. " Resurgmn,'1 however, is
written upon every page of truth immortal; and no more fitting front
for the emblazonment of this glorious motto has ever been afforded than
that presented to-day by English Freemasonry.
8 This constitution was written in Latin, and its object is thus expressed :
"To reestablish the Order of the true successors of the Knights of the
Temple, in its primitive purity, as it had been instituted by Hugh de
Payen, in 1118, and in accordance with the laws of 1605, under the
Grand Mastership of Montmorency, etc."
15
226 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
tained in France some degree of stability. The brother
Fabre-Palaprat, a distinguished physician, became, under
the assumed name of " Bernard Raymond," the first Grand
Master. After his death, which occurred on the 18th of
February 1838, the " Order of the Temple " met, at a con-
vent, in general assembly, and voted itself a new constitu-
tion and laws; and, on the 13th of January, 1841, the
members united in the election of Sir Sidney Smith to
the office of Grand Master. He subsequently took the
title of Regent of the Order; and this, so far as we are
aware, was the last manifestation of this last parody on
the Order of Knights of the Temple, as in 1843 no trace
of it could be found in France.1
2. The " Rite of Rigid Observers," created in 1819, by
seven officers of the Grand Orient of France,2 with the ob-
ject of bringing Freemasonry back to its primitive purity
and simplicity, by re-establishing the modern English
1 It was by members of this "association" that Knight Templarism,
as known in America — comprising the three degrees, viz: Knight of the
Ked Cross, Knight Templar, and Knight of Malta — was introduced into
the United States in 1808, and which degrees now compose the highest
grades of the American Masonic system. Delegates from seven Encamp-
ments of Knights Templar, and one Council of Red Cross — none of
which were located south or west of New York — organized in New York
city, on the 20th of June, 1816, a General Grand Encampment for the
United States. At this assembly, Hon. De Witt Clinton, of New York,
was elected General Grand Master, and Thomas Smith Webb, Esq., of
Boston, his Deputy. On account of the conservative stand then taken
by the few brethren representing this Order at that time in America, it
has, during the half a century now drawing to its close, kept suitable
pace with the other divisions of the American Masonic system, and at-
tained to a degree of popularity it would not, probably, if left to stand
alone, or to stumble against those other divisions. This, and the addi-
tional reason that the American mind is notably Christian and spiritual
in its tendencies and aspirations, will continue to accord to the Order of
Knights Templar, as a Christian attachment to the Masonic Institution,
the full meed of value to which it may be entitled. — Translator.
2Renon, Borie, Caille, Delaroche, Geneux, Pages, and Vassal.
ORIGIN OF ALL THE RITES FOR HIGH DEGREES. 227
Kite. Notwithstanding their position and their talents,
these brethren failed in their project, for no other reason,
we believe, than that they had neither decorations nor
pompons titles to offer to their adepts.
3. The " Rite of Unitarian Masonry," adopted by the
National Grand Lodge of France, after its organization, in
1848. This lodge, not to wound the susceptibility of its
membership, by this title denominated the symbolic rite
of three degrees. Notwithstanding its tenderness in this
respect, however, it had no better fortune than the preced-
ing rite, as the National Grand Lodge of France expired
in 1851.
After this succinct exposition of the history of the prin-
cipal systems for high degrees, we hope that the good
sense of the brethren, who are yet partisans of these high
degrees, will induce them to regard them as useless and
embarrassing baggage, borne along in opposition to the
spirit of true Freemasonry, and only calculated to excite
discord and impede the march of our humanitarian insti-
tution. We hope that they will abandon these works of
a foolish and ambitious imagination, and degrading and
mercenary spirit of speculation, and return or confine
themselves to the practice of the true Masonic rite, that
of three symbolic degrees, the only primitive rite of the
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of England.
We shall add, in closing this chapter, that Brother
Kagon has published, in his "Manual of Initiations" — we
presume to exhibit the tendency to aberration of the human
mind — the names of seventy-five different styles of Ma-
sonry, fifty-two rites and thirty-four orders called Masonic,
twenty-six androgynous orders, six Masonic colleges, and
more than fourteen hundred degrees, while, in reality,
there has never existed any other rite entitled to the name
of Freemasonry than th* modern English rite of three
symbolic degrees. Upon this rite, as the stock of Free-
masonry, the Jesuits and partisans of the Stuarts grafted
228 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
their clerical and secular orders of chivalry, which we
have described ; and it is this stock upon which has been
grafted every other species of jugglery assuming to be
Masonry which has had place within the last century.
Names of Masonic Rites Extant, and Where Practiced.
Rite of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, practiced by
nine-tenths of all the lodges of the globe, the same being
the Modern English Rite of three symbolic degrees, as
arranged by the Grand Lodge of London in 1717
Rite of Zinendorf, practiced by the National Grand Lodge cf
Germany, at Berlin, comprising seven degrees, arranged in 1767
Rite practiced by the Grand Lodge of Stockholm, com-
monly called the Swedish Rite, or System of Swedenborg,
comprising eight degrees, and arranged in 1773
Rite practiced by some lodges in Belgium, called the Scotch
Philosophic Rite of eighteen degrees, arranged in 1776
Rite known as the Royal Arch or York Rite of seven de-
grees, practiced in the United States of America, and the
higher degrees of which are believed to have been arranged,
by Lawrence Dermott, in 1777
Rite practiced by some lodges in Belgium, known as the
Refined Scottish or Reformed Ancient Rite, arranged as
the successor of the Rite of Perfection, after the Congress
of Wilhelmsbad, in 1782
Rite practiced by the Grand Lodge of Frankfort and Ham-
burg, known as the Eclectic Rite, comprising three degrees,
arranged, in conformity with the opinion expressed by the
Congress at Wilhelmsbad, in 1782, by Baron Knigge, in 1783
Rite practiced by the Grand Orient of France, commonly
called the Modern French Rite, comprising seven degrees,
and which was arranged by a commission of that body as
a basis of compromise between it and the " General Grand
Chapter of the Rite of Perfection," organized, in 1783, as
the successors of the " Grand Council of Emperors of the
East and West, Sovereign Prince Masons," and adopted in 1786
ORIGIN OF ALL THE RITES FOR HIGH DEGREES. 229
Rite practiced by the Grand Royal York Lodge of Berlin,
known as Fessler's Rite, comprising three degrees and a
chapter, arranged in 1796
Rite of the Grand Lodge at the Three Globes, in Berlin,
comprising twenty-five degrees, as arranged to admit, in
1760, the high degrees then prevalent, but which was
reduced to ten degrees in 1798
Rite known as the Ancient and Accepted Scottish, practiced
in various countries and by all Supreme Councils, com-
prising thirty-three degrees. It is believed to have been
extended from the Rite of Perfection of twenty-five de-
grees to its present number, in Charleston, S. C, in 1802,
and mainly arranged, as it now exists in France and else-
where, in 1804
Rite known as the Order of Modern Templars, or Knights
Templar, comprising three degrees, practiced in the United
States of America and Great Britain. As the successor
of the secular Templars of the Jesuit system of Strict
Observance, this rite was arranged in France in 1804
Rite of Misraim, practiced in Paris, comprising ninety de-
grees, invented by Lechangeur, of Milan, in 1806, and
introduced into France by Mark and Michael Bedar-
ride, in 1815
Rite of Memphis, now practiced only in the United States of
America, comprising ninety-five degrees, the same being
an extension and improvement of the last-named rite,
made by Marconis de Negre, in 1838
Rites, called Masonic, which have become Extinct, or
which have become absorbed into some existing rlte.
Rite of Noah, arranged as the Order of the Noahchites in 1735
Scottish or Jacobin Rite of Ramsay, first known in 1736
Rite of Herodom of Kilwinning, first practiced in 1740
Rite or Order of Fidelity, by Chambonet 1742
Rite or Order of the Anchor 1744
Rite of the Areopagists 1746
Scottish Jacobin Rite, created by the Pretender, in 1747
Rite of the Elect of Truth, at Rennes, in 1748
230 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Rite of the Old Daughter-in-law, by Lockhart, an emissary
of the Jesuits, in , 1749 or 1750
Rite of the Illuminati of Stockholm, founded in 1621, and
resuscitated in France, under Masonic forms, in 1750
Rite or Order of Prussian Knights 1756
Rite of the Clerks of Strict Observance, or clerical Templar
system, founded by the Jesuits, and united, in 1776, with
the Secular Templars, also a creation of the Jesuits 1756
Rite of Knights of the East, by Pirlet 1757
Rite of the Emperors of the East and West, Sovereign Prince
Masons. This was the Rite of Herodom extended to the
Rite of Perfection of twenty-five degrees, by the Jesuits,
and propagated by Pirlet about 1758
Rite of Strict Observance, or modified Templar system of
seven degrees, known as the Secular Templars 1760
Rite of the African Architects 1762
Between 1762 and 1766 there were introduced five rites,
named respectively the Asiatics, the Patients, the Seekers,
the Princes of Death, and the Reformed of Dresden.
Rite of the Flaming Star, founded by Baron Schudy, an
emissary of the Jesuits, in 1766
Rite of the Rose Cross, founded by Valentine Andrea in
1616, and resuscitated, under Masonic forms, in 1767
Rite of the Knights of the Holy City, by an emissary of the
Jesuits, in 1768
Rite of the Elected Cowans, by Martinez Paschalis 1768
Rite of the Black Brethren 1770
Scandinavian Rite, and the Hermitic Rite, in 1772
Rite of the Philalethes, founded in Paris by Lavalette de
Langes, Court de Gebelin, the Prince of Hesse, etc 1773
Rite of the Illuminati of Bavaria, by Professor Weisshaupt. 1776
Rite of the Independents, and Rite of the Perfect Initiates
of Egypt 1776
Rite of the Illuminati of Avignon, being the system of Swe-
denborg, in 1779
Rite of the Philadelphians of Narbonne, a rite of ten degrees,
founded by some pretended superior officers, major and
minor, of " the Order of Free and Accepted Masons " . . . . 1780
Rite of the Martinists, founded by St. Martin 1780
ORIGIN OF ALL THE RITES FOR HIGH DEGREES. 231
Rite of the Sublime Masters of the Circle of Light 1780
Rite of Knights and Nymphs of the Rose (one degree) .... 1781
Rite of the Masons of the Desert 1781
Egyptian Rite, by Cagliostro • 1781
Rite of Universal Harmony, by Dr. Mesmer 1782
Rite of the Illuminati of the Zodiac 1783
Rite of Zoroaster 1783
Rite of High Egyptian Masonry (adoptive), by Cagliostro.. 1784
Rite of Adonhiramite Masonry 1787
Rite of the Holy Order of the Sophists, by Cuvelier of
Treves 1801
Rite or Order of Modern Templars, founded by Drs. Ledru
and Fabre-Palaprat l 1804
Rite or Order of Mercy 1807
Rite or Order of Knights of Christ, founded by E. de Nunez. 1809
Rite or Order of French Noachides, or Napoleonic Masonry. 1816
Rite of Rigid Observers, founded by some officers of the
Grand Orient in 1819
Persian Philosophic Rite, created in Erzrum in 1818, and
introduced in France in 1819
1 This rite is not extinct in Great Britain and United States of America,
it being, in those countries, fitted on to the York Rite, as high degrees.
DOCUMENTARY AND HISTORICAL EVIDENCE
BEARING DIRECTLY UPON THE
ORIGIN AND GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY,
TOGETHER WITH
INDICATIONS OF THE CAUSES FOR THE DIVERSITY OF OPINIONS
WHICH EXIST AS TO SUCH ORIGIN.
I. — Documentary Evidence.
For all which relates to the foundation of the Roman
Colleges of Builders, {collegia fabrorum,) created by ISTuma
Pompilius, in the year 715 B. C, their constitution and
the modifications made in their privileges after the fall of
the Roman Republic — particularly in the second century
of the Christian era, under the emperors Trajan and
Adrian — consult the following works, viz. :
1. — The Laws of the Twelve Tables, instituted in the
year 451 B. C. The eighth of these tables refers particu-
larly to those colleges.
2. — The Body of Roman Rights.
3. — First and second Epistles of Cicero to his brother
Quintus.
4. — Architecture by Vitruvius. This work has been
often translated.1
*In the edition of Anderson's Constitution for 1725, Vitruvius is
stated to be, in the year 29 B. C, the representative of Cesar Augustus
in the corporations of Builders.
(232)
DOCUMENTARY AND HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. 2S3
5. — History of Architecture. By Schoell. Vols. 1 and 2.
6. — Pollion. By De Bugny.
As containing the text of many historic documents, as
also the history and doctrines of the Masonic institution,
consult the following works, viz. :
7. — The Book of Constitutions. By Dr. James Ander-
son. First published in 1723, and subsequently to the
extent of five separate editions.
8. — The History of Freemasonry, Drawn from Authen-
tic Sources of Information. By Alexander Laurie. Lon-
don: 1804.
9. — Illustrations of Freemasonry. By William Preston.
London : 1772 and 1812.
10. — The Three Oldest Documents of the Fraternity of
Freemasons. By K. C. F. Krause.
11. — The Three Oldest Historical Documents of the
Fraternity of Freemasons of Germany. By Professor
Heldmann.
12. — History of Freemasonry. By Professor Bobrick.
Zurich.
13. — The Actual Condition of Freemasonry Discovered.
By De Hammer.
14. — Encyclopedia of Freemasonry. By Denning. Leip-
sic.
15. — Memoirs of the Architecture of the "Middle Ages.
By Widdekind.
16. — The German Colonies and Division of Lands in the
"Western Roman Provinces. By Gaup. 1844.
17. — Handbook of the Different Masonic Symbols. By
Dr. Schauberg. Zurich : 1861.
18. — History of Freemasonry. By Kloss. Frankfort:
1861.
19. — Freemasonry, its Origin, Development, etc. By
Hanau. 1862.
20. — History of Freemasonry, from its Origin to the
Present Day. Leipsic : 1862.
234 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
21. — History of Freemasonry. By J. G. Findel. Leipsic :
1863.1
In addition to the works named, we find some valuable
teachings in the following books, the productions of au-
thors who, as they have themselves informed us, are not
Freemasons, and whose opinions, on that account, should
be of more weight, as they must be disinterested writers
upon the subject of Freemasonry:
22. — The Monumental Art. By Baptissier. Paris. (See
pp. 466, 469.)
23. — History of the Cathedral of Cologne. By J. Bois-
gerre. Paris.
24. — General History of Architecture. By Daniel Pamee.
Paris : 1843. (See vol. 2, p. 234.)
These three authors, who are architects, unite in recog-
nizing the fact that it is to the Freemasons of the middle
ages we are indebted for all the monuments erected during
that period.
II. — Historical Evidence. — {Chronologically arranged)
A. D. 52. — The corporations of Constructors are estab-
lished at this time in Great -Britain. This fact is proven
by the inscription upon a tubular stone found at Chichester
in 1725, and whereon was chronicled the erection at that
place of a temple to Neptune, and another to Minerva.
(See the London Freemason's Magazine for 1862.)
A. D. 290. — The constitution or ancient privileges ac-
corded by Kuma Pompilius to the colleges of Constructors,
and which were considerably restricted and diminished
since their primitive concession, were this year renewed,
fully and without any restriction, by Carausius, commander
of the Poman fleet, who, after possessing himself of Great
xFrom No. 10 to No. 21, inclusive, the works named are in the Gei*
man language.
DOCUMENTARY AND HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. 235
Britain, and declaring his independence of Rome, in 287,
had taken the title of emperor. By this favor, accorded
to the Builders, he sought to assure himself of the assist-
ance of that association, then the most powerful in the
country.
The architect Albanus, originally a pagan, but converted
to Christianity, was named by Carausius, Inspector of the
Masonic Corporations of Great Britain. Two years after-
ward he was beheaded by his protector for having preached
the doctrine of Christ. He was the first martyr in Britain,
and he is, according to authentic documents, ranked first
on the historical list of the inspectors of Freemasonry in
Britain. It was to these inspectors that subsequently was
given the name of Grand Masters.
A. D. 296. — After the death of Carausius, which took
place in 295, Constantius Chlorus, who succeeded him,
chose for the place of his residence the city of York,
(Eboracum,) where he found the most important lodges or
colleges of Builders in Britain.
From A. D. 350 to 430. — During this period the first
corporations of Artists and Operatives were instituted,
with particular rules and regulations, out of the remains
of the general association, dissolved after the retreat of
the Romans in 426. These statutes, of which many libra-
ries in France possess manuscript copies, evince, with more
or less distinctness, the marks of the old association, as
well in the connection of their humanitarian principles as
in their secrets of art.
A. D. 557. — In this year Austin, an architect and Bene-
dictine priest, was nominated to the dignity of Grand
Inspector of the Masonic Fraternities. It was by this
priest that the Anglo-Saxon kings were converted to
Christianity. He died in 610, and was canonized under
the name of St. Augustine.
A. D. 614. — Pope Boniface IV conferred, by diploma,
upon the Masonic corporations the exclusive privilege of
236 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
erecting all religious buildings and monuments, and, by
the same document, made them free from all local, royal,
or municipal statutes, taxes, etc.
A. D. 620. — During the international and civil wars,
which had paralyzed their development, the Masonic cor-
porations sought refuge in the monasteries, which thus
became the schools of architecture, and from which sub-
sequently went out the most celebrated architects, among
whom may be named St. Aloysius, bishop of Noyen (659),
St. Ferol, of Limoges, Dalmac, bishop of Rhodes, Agricola
of Chalons (680 and 700).
A. D. 680. — In this year the King of Mersey nominated
Bennet, Abbot of Wirral, to the dignity of Inspector Gen-
eral and Superintendent of Freemasonry.
From A. D. 700 to 900. — The Anglo-Saxon documents,
emanating directly from the Masonic Fraternity, during
this period, owing to the continual wars and pillagings,
in great part disappeared or were destroyed. A large
portion of what were saved became, possibly, the property
of the lodges in London, and, in 1720, were nearly all
burned by brethren of these lodges, in the belief that it was
improper to have the information they contained dissemi-
nated by publication in the work of Dr. Anderson. In
some of the Anglo-Saxon documents which exist in the
libraries of England, the Masonic fraternities are some-
times designated as "Freemasons."
A. D. 850. — The Saxon king, Ethelwolf, promotes the
priest-architect, St. Swithin, to the directorship of the
Freemasons, the assemblies of whom were much inter-
rupted during this century.
A. D. 900. — The successor of Alfred Edward, King of
Mersey, named, as grand inspectors of the Fraternity, his
son Ethel ward and his brother-in-law Ethred, both having
become, through attendance in the schools of the Free-
masons, practical architects.
A. D. 925. — All the Masonic lodges of Great Britain
DOCUMENTARY AND HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. 237
were this year convoked in a congress by the king, Ath-
elstan, grandson of Alfred the Great, who had been
prompted thereto by some priest-architects. The object
of this assembly was to reconstitute the Fraternity, accord-
ing to the laws and written documents saved in the con-
vents from destruction during the wars, and afterward
disseminated through the country, divided, as it had been
during five hundred years, into seven kingdoms. This
assembly discussed and accepted the constitution sub-
mitted to it by Edwin, son of King Athelstan, and the
city of York was chosen for the future seat of the Grand
Mastership.
A. D. 926. — In this year the charter of York, adopted
at the assembly of 925, was promulgated, and this charter
from this time became the basis of all Masonic constitu-
tions. Prince Edwin is nominated to the dignity of Grand
Master. (See the text of this charter, suppeto.)
A. D. 960.— The Archbishop of Canterbury, St. Dun-
stan, is named Grand Master of the Fraternity.
A. D. 1040. — Edward the Confessor, King of England,
declares himself the protector of Freemasons, and names
Leofrick, Count of Coventry, as his substitute, and, by
his intervention, reestablishes the Abbey of Westminster.
A. D. 1066. — Nomination of the Count of Arundel,
Roger of Montgomery, to the Grand Mastership.
A. D. 1100. — King Henry IV, of England, accepts the
Grand Mastership of the Fraternity.
A. D. 1145. — The Archbishop of Rouen publicly blesses
the Freemasons assembled at Rouen, who came from
upper Normandy at the call of those who were engaged
in the construction of the cathedral of Chartres, and who
desired their help to more speedily complete that work.
These brethren made a triumphal entry into the city,
accompanied by the brethren of neighboring corporations,
particularly those of Caen and Bayeux. (See History of
France. By Henry Martin. Vol. 2.)
238 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
A. D. 1155. — Richard Coeur de Leon, Grand Master of
the Knights of the Temple, is nominated to the Grand
Mastership of the Masonic Fraternity of Great Britain.
A. D. 1185. — Gilbert of Clare, Marquis of Pembroke,
is nominated Grand Master.
A. D. 1199. — It was under the Grand Mastership and
direction of Colechurch, Chaplain to King John, that the
work on the first London bridge was begun, and finished
under the direction of his successor, "William Allemain,
in 1212.
A. D. 1250. — The Grand Lodge of Cologne is instituted.
The master of this lodge, and director of the work on the
cathedral of this city, is regarded and obeyed as the mas-
ter of all the Freemasons of Germany.
A. D. 1275. — A Masonic congress is convoked by Erwin
of Steinbach, with the object of concerting measures to
continue the work, which for a long time was interrupted,
on the cathedral of Strasburg. This assembly organized
itself into a Grand Lodge, (JETaupt-hiitte,) and nominated
Erwin architect-in-chief of the work, and chair-master,
(Meister vom Stuhl.)
A. D. 1277. — Pope Nicholas III confirms, by diplomas
in favor of the Masonic corporations, the monopoly ac-
corded to them by Pope Boniface IV, in the year 614.
A. D. 1314. — Documents, the genuineness of which has
not been established, assert that in this year Robert Bruce,
King of Scotland, founded the Order of Harodom of Kil-
winning, and also elevated to the rank of a Grand Lodge
of Harodom of Kilwinning the lodge founded in 1150, at
the time of the erection of the Abbey of Kilwinning.
A. D. 1334. — Pope Benedict II confirms, by diploma,
to the corporations their exclusive privileges for the con-
struction of religious edifices.
A. D. 1358.— Under Edward III the charter of York
of 926 is submitted to revision. In an appendix to this
charter, which contains only some new regulations re-
DOCUMENTARY AND HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. 239
lating to the rights and emoluments accruing to Grand
Masters, there is prescribed that, in future, at the recep-
tion of a brother, the constitution and old instructions
shall be read to him by the master of the lodge. A char-
ter in verse, written upon parchment, and bearing the
title, "Hie incipiunt constitutiones artis geometries secundum
Tfiuclidem" — (Here begin the constitutions of the art of
Geometry, according to Euclid) — has been found in the
British Museum by an antiquary named J. 0. Halliwell,
and published by him in 1810, under the title of " The
Early History of Freemasonry in England," and trans-
lated into German by Brother Afher, of Hamburg, in 1842.
This document, submitted to the examination of experts,
has been recognized, from its favorable comparison with
the statutes of the parliament of 1425, as having been
produced in the latter part of the fourteenth century, and,
consequently, may be considered as based upon the charter
of Edward III.
A. D. 1360. — At this time Germany had five grand
lodges : Cologne, Strasburg, Berne, Vienna, and Madge-
burg, upon which were dependent the local lodges of
France, Belgium, Hesse, Swabia, Thuringia, Switzerland,
Franconia, Bavaria, Austria, Hungary, and Styria.
A. D. 1425. — The English Parliament passed a bill this
year suppressing the assemblies of Freemasons. The Gen-
eral Assembly which, notwithstanding, took place at York
in 1427£protested against this bill, and annulled its effect.
The manuscript register in the Latin language, containing
all the names of the Master Masons who signed this pro-
test, is to be found in the library of Oxford, and is dated
with the year 1429.
A. D. 1438. — James II, King of Scotland, accords juris-
diction to the Grand Masters of the lodges of his kingdom,
and authorizes them to establish special tribunals in the
principal cities, by which are to be recognized the privi-
leges of Freemasons. For this privilege the Grand Mas-
240 GENERAL HISTORY- OP FREEMASONRY.
ter is charged with the payment into the state treasury
of a tax of four pounds, to he collected from each Mason
passing to the degree of Master ; and such Grand Master
is further authorized to impose upon each new member a
right of reception (fee). These two documents are to be
found in the Law Library in Edinburgh.
A. D. 1439. — James II, King of Scotland, nominated
William Sinclair (St. Clair) to the dignity of Grand Mas-
ter adjunct for the lodges of Scotland.
A. D. 1442. — Initiation of Henry VI, King of England,
into the Masonic Fraternity — an example followed by
nearly all the gentlemen of his court, admitted as "Ac-
cepted Masons." The number of these latter-named had
already increased so as to exceed the " Freemasons."
A. D. 1459. — A Masonic congress is held at Ratisbonne
(the seat of the German Diet), devoted principally to the
discussion of the new constitution compiled at Strasburg
in 1452, which was based upon the laws of the English
and Italian corporations, and which constitution was
styled "Statutes and Regulations of the Fraternity of
Stonecutters of Strasburg." The text of this constitution
is to be found in many German wrorks.
A. D. 1464. — Second congress of Freemasons assembles
at Ratisbonne.
A. D. 1469. — A congress of Freemasons assembles at
Spire. (The object of this congress will be found in our
Historical Summary of Masonic Conventions, supp^jp.)
A. D. 1498. — The Emperor Maximilian sanctions the
Masonic constitution of Strasburg, and renews the ancient
privileges accorded to the Freemasons.
A. D. 1502. — A Grand Lodge of Master Masons is held
at London on the 24th June of this year. It is presided
over by Henry VII of England, who lays the corner-stone
of Westminster Chapel, or chapel of Henry VII.
A. D. 1522. — By a decree of the Helvetian Diet, the
Grand Lodge of Zurich is dissolved. This Grand Lodge
'////'///y r/ c 'ft f Y'/ts/Je'
>/;//,'!■//> J s/, // s///'js' (//■/>,
WL,
W Vfe/Jt////
DOCUMENTARY AND HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. 241
had been transferred to Zurich from Berne in 1502, after
the cathedral of the latter city was finished.
A. D. 1539. — By an edict, Francis I dissolves the ancient
corporations of Freemasons, because they had vindicated
their ancient rights and privileges, and, by meeting in
secret, gave offense to the clergy.
A. D. 1540. — Thomas Cromwell, Count of Essex, be-
headed for political offenses, i3 succeeded, in the Grand
Mastership of Freemasons, by Lord Audley.
A. D. 1550. — The Duke of Somerset, who succeeded
Lord Audley as Grand Master, is decapitated — a victim of
his attachment to the Stuarts.
A. D. 1561. — Queen Elizabeth, indignant that the Free-
masons had not offered the Grand Mastership to her con-
sort during his life, on the 27th of December of this year,
ordered the dissolution of the Masonic assembly which on
that day commenced its semi-annual meeting, and ordered
the execution of her edict to be enforced by a detachment
of armed men ; but, upon a report having been made to
her by the commanding officer of the detachment express-
ive of the politically harmless character of the assembly,
the Queen revoked her order. Subsequently Queen Eliza-
beth became the protectress of the Freemasons of her
kingdom, and confirmed their choice of Thomas Sackville
for Grand Master.
A. D. 1563. — Congress of Swiss and German Masons
takes place at Basle.
A. D. 1564. — Congress of Masons at Strasburg.
A. D. 1590. — Charter of James IV, King of Scotland,
granted, on the 25th November of this year, to Patrick
Copland of Urdaught, and which conferred upon him the
right of filling the office of senior warden of Freemasons
in the districts of Aberdeen, Banff, and Kinkardine.
A. D. 1598. — Acceptance of the new statutes for all the
lodges of Scotland in a general assembly, which took
place at Edinburgh, on the 29th December.
16
242 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
A. D. 1607. — James I, King of Great Britain, having
proclaimed himself the protector of Freemasonry in his
kingdom, affords much brilliancy and importance to the
institution ; and the high consideration which it enjoys at
this time is greatly augmented by the election of the
celebrated architect Inigo Jones to the dignity of Grand
Master. The new direction that he initiated in the Eng-
lish lodges developed a spiritual movement in their Ma-
sonic life that compared favorably with that of the art
academies of Italy. From this time, also, the Accepted
Masons greatly preponderated over the Freemasons.
A. D. 1630. — A document is signed by all the repre-
sentatives of Scottish lodges, by which are confirmed to
the successor of William St. Clair, Baron of Eoslin, the
dignity and hereditary rights of Grand Master of the
lodges of Scotland, and which were conferred upon the
head of that family by James II of Scotland, in 1439.
This document may be found in the law library of Edin-
burgh.
A. D. 1650. — This was the year of mourning for all
true Freemasons, it being signalized by the political ten-
dencies into which many of the lodges were precipitated
by the decapitation of Charles I. The Masons of Eng-
land, and particularly those of Scotland, partisans of the
Stuarts, labored in secret to reestablish the throne over-
turned by Cromwell. Not being able to induce all the
Masons to become adherents of their propositions, they
invented two superior degrees, viz. : Templar and Scottish
Master, into the secrets of which they initiated those who
were favorable to their secret plans.
A. L>. 1663. — A general assembly of the Masons of Eng-
land takes place at York, and which is presided over by
King Charles II. At this assembly the king confirmed
the Grand Master, Henry Germain, Count of St. Albans,
in the dignity of his office, and decorated him with the
ribbon of the Order of the Bath. This assembly passed a
DOCUMENTARY AND HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. 243
series of regulations, conceived entirely with reference to
passing and past political events, and confirmed the con-
tinuance of the two superior degrees of Scottish Master
and Templar.
A. D. 1666. — The great fire of London destroys forty
thousand dwellings and eighty-six churches. As there
did not exist at this time but seven lodges in London,
nine-tenths of the members of which were "Accepted
Masons," it became necessary to invite the Freemasons of
Europe generally to England to reconstruct the city. All
the Freemasons, as also the Masons and architects which
did not belong to the Masonic association, put themselves
under the direction of a central lodge, governed by Chris-
topher Wren, the Grand Master, and architect of St. Paul's
Cathedral, and in accordance with whose plans the city
was rebuilt.
A. D. 1685. — James III reestablished the Order of
Knights of St. Andrew, which, established by Robert
Bruce, King of Scotland, in 1314, in favor of the Freema-
sons who fought for him, had been suppressed, and the
property of the Order confiscated, during the Reformation.
This order, according to the intention of the king, should
be conferred as a sign of distinction and recompense
awarded to the Freemasons who had stood by his house ;
and it is probable, had fortune favored James III, he
would have reinstated this Order in its possessions.
A. D. 1703. — At this time there existed but four lodges
of Freemasons in London ; and, notwithstanding the zeal
exhibited by the aged Grand Master, Christopher Wren,
the members of these lodges gradually decreased. The
annual feasts were completely neglected and the lodges
deserted. Under these circumstances, the Lodge of St.
Paul, (known at the present time as the Lodge of An-
tiquity,) with the object of retarding the continually
decreasing number of its membership, as also to give some
importance to its existence, passed a resolution that en-
244 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
tirely changed the face of the society. (This resolution
will be found on page 56, ante,)
A. D. 1717. — This memorable year, from which it is
necessary to date the era of modern Freemasonry, was
marked by the death of Christopher Wren. (The Masonic
events of this year will be found first given at pages 51
and 57, ante, and subsequently often referred to in this
work.)
III. — Indications of the Causes for the Diversity op
Opinions which exist as to the Origin of Freemasonry.
The opinion that has generally prevailed, as well in
Europe as in America, that Freemasonry is indebted for
its origin to the religious mysteries of the Jews, or to the
initiations of India, Persia, or Egypt, is owing, to a great
extent, to the numerous writings of an eccentric char
acter which have been published, principally in France,
by designing persons, for political purposes, during the
last century.
This opinion, however, has never had supporters among
such English Masonic writers as have produced histories
of Freemasonry, of whom the number, however, has been
few. These writers remain faithful to their ancient tra-
ditions and documents in their possession, and, according
to which, Freemasonry existed under this name since the
occupation of Great Britain by the Roman legions; and,
therefore, the}7 very logically determine that the institu-
tion was brought to that country by the Romans.
Within the present century, two works have appeared
which have helped to strengthen French Masons in the
errors into which they have fallen upon the subject of the
origin of Freemasonry. The first is the work of Brother
Lenoir, a distinguished antiquary, published at Paris in
1814, and bearing the title, "Freemasonry Restored to its
True Origin, or the Antiquity of Freemasonry proven by
DOCUMENTARY AND HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. 245
the Explanation of its Ancient and Modern Mysteries;"1
and the second is the work of Brother Reghelini de Chio,
entitled "Freemasonry in its Connection with the Relig-
ions of the Egyptians." The first of these works has dis-
plaj' ed a rare quality of research for proofs to support the
opinions of its author, while the second exhibits less care
in establishing, by the aid of science and history, the con-
nections which its author believes he has discovered be-
tween the religions of the Egyptians and Freemasonry.
It is but doing justice to both authors, however, to believe
that they earnestly desired to seek the truth. But while,
in the forms, symbols, doctrines, and principles of Free-
masonry they have discovered the true secrets of the philo-
sophic schools of Greece, Egypt, and India, introduced,
during many centuries which have preceded our era, into
the Roman colleges of constructors, and which latter were,
from their foundation, the theater of all initiations, and
open to all mysterious doctrines, it may not be concluded
that Freemasonry sprang by direct issue from these schools
of antiquity. If these doctrines have been religiously pre-
served by the corporations, as we have stated, and by them
as religiously transmitted, with little alteration, to those
which succeeded them in Gaul and Britain, these corpora-
tions alone should not monopolize the merit of such trans-
mission; for the Greeks and Jews, and particularly the
primitive Christians, have equally propagated these doc-
trines. Now, notwithstanding the connection that Free-
masonry presents, in its forms of initiation, with the
1 In the work of Brother J. G. Findel of Leipsic, entitled " History of
Fieemasonry from its Origin to the Present Day" — one of the best Ger
man works of its kind — in speaking of the diversity of opinion prevalent^
particularly in France, upon the origin of Freemasonry, the author re-
marks that all the French Masonic writers have aceepted and followed
the opinion of Alex. Lenoir, with the exception of Brother Rebold and
Brother Moreau. These brethren, he continues, coincide in the opinion
of all our (German) earnest and thorough historians, such as Krause,
Boberich, Heldmann, and others.
246 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
ancient mysteries — a connection that has induced error
among most writers — it can not be considered more than
a feeble imitation, instead of a continuation, of these
mysteries; because, from the beginning, initiation into the
mysteries of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Hindoos
was the teachings of the worship, philosophy, philan-
thropy, and morality, as well as art, science, and legisla-
tion of these peoples, while Freemasonry should be con-
sidered as a purely philosophic school of perfection, having
for its leading object universal fraternity.
We will refrain from quoting much that has been pub-
lished upon this subject by writers more or less convinced,
and which has contributed greatly to mislead the minds
of brethren, even the most enlightened. l
Can it be wondered that among Masons, such as Brother
Garon, who would bid historians look into their own
hearts for authentic materials with which to construct a
history of any human institution, there will be found to-
day— notwithstanding the consistent, straightforward, and
authentic productions on this subject which have been
given to the brethren during the past ten years — orators
of lodges in France, and probably elsewhere, misleading
the minds of young Masons and disgusting those of the
old with their Masonic romances and absurd histories, as
gathered from their favorite Masonic authors?
To discover the cradle of the institution, it should suf-
fice to seek it in the history of England, and at the time
1 In the report that Brother Garon, president of the Chamber of Cor-
respondence, made to the Grand Orient of France, upon the General
History of Freemasonry — the earlier production of the author of the
present work — he says, in closing: "All Masons who may read the
learned work of this historian will find therein much valuable informa-
tion and historical instruction ; but they will also be convinced, as I am,
tnat if Brother Rebold had sought the History of Freemasonry in his
heart, in place of taking it from books, he would not have landed this
almost divine institution from among an association of workmen con-
structors."
DOCUMENTARY AND HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. 247
wheu are first mentioned the corporations known by the
name of Free Masons. Then, after having consulted all
the documents of this period, go back still further, by the
aid of such marks as can be found, to the place or first
appearance of the persons among whom the society ap-
pears; then follow it down through the wars and inva
sions to which that country has been subject. If, aftet
this process of investigation, and notwithstanding the
changes of its primitive name, the identity of the affilia-
tion is established, or successively developed, it is not
necessary then to have recourse to hypothesis to indicate
with certainty its origin. It is by proceeding thus that
we have found that Freemasonry is the issue of an ancient
and celebrated corporation of artists and mechanics, united
for the prosecution of civil, religious, naval, and military
architecture, founded at Rome in the year 715 B. C, by
the celebrated legislator, Numa Pompilius ; and which,
during the eleven hundred years which elapsed subsequent
to its foundation, had been known, in all the countries
subject to Roman rule, under the designation of Corpora-
tions or Fraternities of Roman Builders; but, after the re-
treat of the Roman legions of the Gauls, and being no
longer sustained by the Roman powers, these associations
were forced to dissolve and divide themselves into separate
corporations, (between A. D. 486 and 500,) from which
sprang the artists and mechanics of the middle ages, as
the new corporations of mason builders, and preserving
only their ancient laws and the artistic and philosophic
secrets of their art.
The members of these corporations, remaining in Brit-
ain after their transformation, were called Free Masons, to
distinguish them from the masons and stone-cutters who
were not in the enjoyment of the privileges extended to
them by written constitutions and diplomas. These Free-
masons have had, since that time, an immense political
and scientific influence; they communicated their secrets
248 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
but to those whom, according to traditional forms, they
initiated into their mysteries; they had a liberal organi-
zation, and a philosophic code of laws which had governed
them from ancient times. This association, dissolved in
the sixteenth century in consequence 'of the peculiar cir-
cumstances of the Protestant Reformation in the countries
where it then principally subsisted, is subsequently main-
tained without interruption in England, under its tradi-
tional forms, even after having abandoned its material
object. Numerous fractions of it, called lodges, continue
to exist until the beginning of the eighteenth century,
disseminated throughout the country, and meeting only
once a year, at the feast of St. John, to distribute aid
among the brethren, and elect their officers; while, be-
yond the control of any state laws, they conserved the
privilege unabated of uniting in public processions and
laying the corner-stones of all public buildings and monu-
ments. This corporation of Freemasons, finally trans-
formed at London in 1717, declares its wish to continue
and to propagate the philosophical principles which, from
all time, have been the basis of the society ; and, renoun-
cing forever material architecture, to thenceforth employ
itself wholly with moral architecture and philosophy. Such
is the origin of Modern or Philosophical Freemasonry.
And why should not such an origin be acceptable to all
Freemasons ? Because, simply, it is repugnant to their
self-love to acknowledge the descent of their society from
an association of practical masons, or, in the language of
Brother Garon, from "an association of workmen-con-
structors ;" and this, too, notwithstanding the very name
Freemason indicates no other source or origin.
Examine more closely this association of which they are
ashamed.
By its antiquity alone — an antiquity which they at all
times desire most heartily to endorse and extend beyond
all reasonable limit — is it not respectable?
DOCUMENTARY AND HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. 249
By its having been based upon the laws of the Diony-
eian priest-architects, admitted by Solon in his legislation,
and subsequently inscribed by him upon the Roman ta-
bles— is it not respectable ?
By its having been composed, from the beginning, of
the most eminent men of the most eminent nations — of
Greeks, of Egyptians, of Phenicians — initiates into the
mysteries of their respective countries, and experts in all
branches of human knowledge — is it not respectable ?
Did not these corporations collect and adopt all the
philosophic and humanitarian truths taught and implied
in the doctrines of the greatest thinkers of antiquity ; and,
by having, long before the birth of Christ, practiced those
principles pointing to the emancipation and elevation of
woman, as the fountain of our existence, and to the abol-
ishment of human slavery — are they not respectable ?
Can we point to any other association which for twenty-
five centuries has preserved in their primitive simplicity
and purity, and written, as it were, with a pen of steel in
the rock forever, those humanitarian principles of love to
God and to our neighbor ?
Was it an association of no importance which erected
those thousands of majestic temples, those superb monu-
ments whose very ruins to-day involuntarily excite our
admiration ?
Were they simple associations of workmen-constructors
who, possessing all the art, science, and knowledge of any
value acquired at that time, exercised so great an influence
upon Roman civilization, that it may be considered in-
debted to them for all of art and civil law disseminated
wherever the legions fixed themselves, and who thus be-
came the forerunners of Christian teaching and civiliza-
tion?
Was it a simple association of practical masons who,
during the middle ages, constructed those numerous and
sublime religious edifices, which shall be forever the ad-
250 GENERAL HISTORY ^P FREEMASONRY.
miration of posterity — those master-pieces of Christian
genius,- those grand, gigantic conceptions of religious faith
and zeal — the cathedrals of Strasburg, Cologne, Rouen,
Paris, etc.? Could such monuments be the work of ordi-
nary masons and stone-cutters ? If 30, where shall we
find their like to-day ?
These sanctuaries of the Great Architect of the Universe,
as they are avowed to be by the most distinguished archi-
tects— strangers to the Masonic institution — are due to the
Freemasonry of the middle ages: to "these philosophic,
learned, modest, pious, and truly Christian Freemasons,"
as they are called by the author of one of the best and
most recent works upon architecture. l
Was it a simple association of workmen-constructors
who by their protest annulled an act of the Parliament of
England of 1425 ?
Is that an association of no importance which, since the
sixth century, can count as its presidents, thirteen bishops
and archbishops, twelve dukes of the kingdom, and four-
teen princes and kings ?
And should we, as Freemasons, blush to descend from
those corporations of mason philosophers, because they
wrought, in their time, as workmen-constructors?
No associations of any period of the world's history
have produced works so remarkable as those which are
due to these corporations; and no society that ever had
place on the world's surface can be compared to them
either as to length of years or value of principles.
Far from contemning so respectable an origin, we should
seek glory in acknowledging it, at all times and in all
places; and endeavor to render ourselves worthy of it by
continuing, in our own persons, that sublime work of
which the Roman constructors, in the spiritual darkness
of twenty-five hundred years ago, laid the foundation stone.
'See "General History of Architecture," by Daniel Rarnee, p. 234.
^
V
\
H1ST0EICAL ENUMEKATION
OP THE
PRINCIPAL MASONIC CONGRESSES AND CONVENTIONS
WHICH HAVE HAD PLACE IN EUROPE SINCE THAT OF YORK,
A. D. 926, TO THAT OF PARIS, A. D. 1856.
York, in 926.
Convoked by Edwin, son of King Athelstan, for the
reconstitution of the Masonic corporations. A new con-
stitution, based upon the ancient laws, is at this time pro-
mulgated.
Strasburg, in 1275.
Convoked by Erwin of Steinbach for the continuation
of the work on the cathedral of Strasburg. A great num-
ber of architects and workmen from Germany, England,
and Lombardy are assembled at this congress. At the
instance of the lodges of England, they constituted them-
selves under the rule of the Freemasons, and each took the
oath to faithfully observe the ancient laws and regulations
of the Fraternity of Freemasons.
Eatisbonne, in 1459.
Convoked by Job Dotzinger, working master of the
cathedral of Strasburg, to discuss the affairs of the Fra-
ternity generally, and sanction the new laws and regula-
(251)
252 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY
tions prepared at a meeting that took place at Strasburg
in 1452.
Ratisbonne, in 1464.
Convoked by the Grand Lodge of Strasburg with the
following objects: 1. General affairs, and to receive re-
ports concerning the edifices then in course of construc-
tion, with the intention of overcoming or removing the
difficulties which prevented their completion. 2. To de-
fine more precisely the rights and attributes of the four
Grand Lodges, viz. : those of Cologne, Strasburg, Berne,
and Vienna. 3. The nomination of Conrad Kuyn, work-
ing master, to the Grand Mastership of the Grand Lodge
of Cologne, etc.
Spire, in 1469.
Convoked by the Grand Lodge of Strasburg, with the
following objects, viz. : 1. To receive and act upon com-
munications concerning all the religious Edifices finished,
as well as in course of construction, and also as to those
the work upon which has been arrested. 2. To hear re-
ports upon the situation and condition of the Fraternity
in England, Gaul, Lombardy, and Germany.
Cologne, in 1535.
Convoked by Hermann, bishop of Cologne, to take
measures to meet the accusations and dangers which men-
aced the Freemasons. The " charter of Cologne " is stated
to be the offspring of this congress ; but the authenticity
of this statement is not believed by those who have criti-
cally examined that document.
Basle, in 1563.
Convoked by the Grand Lodge of Strasburg, with the
following objects, viz. : 1. To receive and act upon a
general report of the condition of architecture and that of
MASONIC CONGRESSES AND CONVENTIONS. 253
the Fraternity. 2. To discuss and amicably terminate the
differences which had arisen concerning the rights of some
of the twenty-two lodges subordinate to the Grand Lodge
of Strasburg. 3. To sanction the revised statutes pre-
pared by a commission of the Grand Lodge of Strasburg,
to date from the feast of St. Michael, 1563.
Strasburg, in 1564.
Convoked as an extraordinary convention by the Grand
Lodge of Strasburg, with the objects, viz. : 1. To explain
definitely all the subjects in dispute among the lodges,
and to decide that the difficulties which should hereafter
arise among them should be submitted directly to the
Grand Lodge of Strasburg, and adjudged (decided) by
that body without appeal. 2. To continue the customary
reports, etc.
London, in 1717.
Convoked by the four lodges which at this time ex-
isted in London, at the head of which was the old lodge
of St. Paul. Approving and ratifying a resolution adopted
by this lodge in 1703, viz. : "That the privileges of Ma-
sonry shall no longer be confined to operative Masons, but
be free to men of all professions, provided that they are
regularly approved and initiated into the Fraternity,"
they constituted themselves, in accordance with this de-
cision, a Grand Lodge of England of Free and Accepted
Masons, with a rite consisting of three primitive degrees,
called symbolic.
Dublin, in 1729.
Convoked by the lodges of Dublin, with the object of
organizing Freemasonry upon the basis adopted in Eng-
land in 1717, and to institute a Grand Lodge for Ireland.
At this convention the viscount Lord Kingston was elected
Grand Master.
254 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Edinburgh, in 1736.
Convoked by the baron Sinclair of Roslyn, Grand Mas-
ter of the Masons of Scotland by appointment of King
James II in 1439, with the object of abdicating his dig-
nity of hereditary Grand Master, and organize Masonry
upon the new basis recognized and sanctioned by the
Grand Lodge of England and Ireland. There were pres-
ent at this convention the members of thirty-two lodges,
who instituted the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and elected
Baron Sinclair Grand Master for the year 1737.
The Hague, in 1756.
Convoked by the mother lodge "Royal Union," of the
Hague, with the object of instituting a national Grand
Lodge for the United Provinces, under the auspices of the
Grand Lodge of England. The object of this convention
was consummated by the thirteen lodges assembled, and
the baron of Aersen-Beyeren was elected Grand Master.
Jena and Altenburg, in 1763, 1764, and 1765.
In the first of these conventions, Johnson, the self-styled
plenipotentiary of the "Unknown Superiors" resident in
Scotland, assembled at Jena, on the 25th October, the
lodges established under the system of Strict Observance,
for the purpose of recognizing him in his office of Supe-
rior. A second convention was convoked by him at Jena
to establish his system. To this was invited Baron Hund,
and the lodges of the same rite founded by him; but
Hund, who had at first believed in the mission of John-
son, discovered and declared him to be an impostor. At
the third convention, held at Altenburg, near Jena, the
following year, Baron Hund was proclaimed Grand Mas-
ter of all the lodges of this system.
MASONIC CONGRESSES AND CONVENTIONS. 255
KoHLO, IN 1772.
Convoked by some lodges of the system of Strict Observ-
ance, with the object of opposing a new rite established
by Zinnendorf. At this convention the duke Ferdinand
of Brunswick was elected Grand Master of Strict Observ-
ance lodges.
Brunswick, in 1775.
Convoked by Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, with the
object of ascertaining which, if any, of the rites pretend-
ing to the possession of the true Masonic science, really
possessed it. Baron Hund, and twenty-three lodges of the
system he had instituted in the convention of Altenburg,
assisted at this convention, in which the discussions took
place daily, from the 22d May to the 6th July, without
any decision having resulted.
Leipsic, in 1777.
Convoked by the lodges of the system of Strict Observ-
ance located in Berlin, with the object of putting into
operation the resolutions passed at a meeting, or succes-
sion of meetings, which took place at Hamburg, from the
4th to the 16th June, relative to the establishment of a
compact of union among all the lodges of the system, both
in Sweden and Germany, and to nominate a new Grand
Master, for which office they proposed the Duke of Suder-
manie. This convention lasted from the 16th to the 22d
of October, and then dissolved without having decided on
any thing.
Lyons, in 1778.
Convoked by the lodge of the "Benevolent Knights"
at Lyons, under the pretext of reforming Freemasonry,
throwing light upon all obscurity, and correcting the
256 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
rituals; but the real object of which was to establish the
Martinist rite over that of the Templars. Only oue of
their objects was accomplished : they changed the rituals.
The convention remained in session from the 23d Novem-
ber to the 27th of December.
WOLFENBUTTEL, IN 1778.
Convoked by Frederick, Duke of Brunswick, with the
like object of the convention at Brunswick in 1775. It
lasted from the 15th July to the 22d August; and the
assembly not seeing any clearer on the last of those days
than they did on the first through the chaos into which
the mystical systems had plunged Freemasonry, decided
that they should make a general appeal to all the Masonic
bodies, and convoke at Wilhelinsbad a convention of all
the Masons of Europe.
WlLHELMSBAD, IN 1782.
(This convention was at first fixed for the 15th October,
1781, afterward for Easter week, 1782, and finally for the
16th July, 1782.)
Convoked by Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, agreeably
to the decision of the convention at Wolfenbuttel, in 1778,
with the following objects, viz. : 1. The general reforma-
tion of Freemasonry; 2. To discuss, with the object of
obtaining light as to the origin of the different systems
and doctrines; and, above all, 3. To solve the following
questions: Is Freemasonry a modern society? Is it, on
the contrary, derived from an ancient society? If so,
from what ancient society is it derived? Has Freema-
sonry Superior Generals? Who are they? What are their
attributes? Do these attributes enable them to command
or to instruct ?
All these questions, submitted to the assembly during
its thirty meetings, were unanswered. The congress suc-
ceeded, however, in exposing a number of mystical sys-
MASONIC CONGRESSES AND CONVENTIONS. 257
terns, and in remodeling the system of Strict Observance.
Ji also caused the creation of the Eclectic Rite.
Paris, in 1785.
Convoked by the Philaletes of the Lodge of United
Friends of Paris, for the purpose of assembling all the
learned Masons in France to clear up the fog produced by
the numerous systems introduced into Freemasonry; to
discuss and arrange the essential points of Masonic doc-
trine, origin, and historical affiliation, and determine the
actual condition of Masonic science. This congress con-
tinued in session from the 15th February to the 26th May,
without determining any thing.
Paris, in 1787.
Also convoked by the Philaletes, to continue the discus-
sions opened at the previous congress upon many dogmatic
and historic points already settled by the congress of Wil-
nelmsbad ; but none of the questions which induced the
assembly of this congress were at this time determined,
and the origin, nature, and object of perpetuating Masonry
continued to remain an insoluble problem to the greatest
number of the Masons of the continent.
Switzerland, in 1836 to 1842.
The first of these conventions was held at Zurich in
1836, the second at Berne in 1838, the third at Basle in
1840, and the fourth at Locle in 1842. Their object was
the fusion of the Masonic powers of Switzerland, the
abolishing of high degrees, and the organization of one
Masonic authority, to be called the Alpine Grand Lodge.
The constitution of union was signed at Locle in 1842,
ratified in 1843, and became the law of the Fraternity in
1844.
17
258 general history of freemasonry.
Paris in 1848.
Convoked, after the revolution in February 1848, by a
few members of the "Supreme Council for France" calling
all the lodges of France to constitute a new power, to elab-
orate a constitution based upon the broadest democratic
principles, and to adopt exclusively the modern English
rite. The result of this congress was the organization of
The National Grand Lodge of France.
Paris, in 1855.
Convoked by Prince Lucien Murat, Grand Master of the
Grand Orient of France, who had extended an invitation to
all the Grand Orients and Grand Lodges of the world to
unite in a Universal Masonic Congress, the object of which
would be to cement more closely the bonds of union among
all the Masonic powers wherever dispersed. A very small
number of those powers responded to this call; and the
propositions discussed and adopted were of so feeble a na-
ture that they are not worth mentioning. The result ot
this congress has been nothing.
§
wl
J
Wy~h ■■■■■■■^■"■,; '■"■■'■■'
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 259
CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT
OF THE
HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY,
BASED UPON THE ANCIENT DOCUMENTS, AND UPON THE PRIN-
CIPAL MONUMENTS ERECTED BY FREEMASONS:
DIVIDED INTO THREE EPOCHS.
dFtrst lEpocf).
From the year 715 B. C. to the year 1000 A. D.
715 B. C.
Foundation of the colleges of Roman Constructors (col-
legia fabrorum), composed of all the arts and trades necessary
for the execution of religious and civil, naval and hydraulic
architecture, with their own laws and lawgivers — laws at
this time based upon those of the priest architects of Greece,
whose mysteries, under the name of Dyonisian, had spread
among the principal peoples of the East. Numa Pompil-
ius, in organizing these colleges, constituted them at the
time as a civil and religious society, with the exclusive
privilege of erecting the public temples and monuments in
Rome. Their connection with the State and the priesthood
was determined by the laws with precision;1 they had
1 Consult on the subject of these associations the Body of Roman Rights;
Cicero's Second Epistle to his Brother Quintus ; The Pollion of De Bugny ; Schoell's
History of Architecture, vol. 1 ; De Hammer's Discovery of the Actual State of Free-
masonry; Lenning's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry ; C. Krauser's Three Oldest
Landmarks of Freemasonry ; De Widdekind's Memoir upon the State of Architectwr*
in the Middle Ayes ; and Heldmann's History of Freemasonry
260 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
their own jurisdiction, their own worship : at their head
were to be found presiding officers called magidri (masters),
wardens, censors, treasurers, keepers of the seals, archivists
secretaries, etc.; they had special physicians, serving broth-
ers, and they paid into their treasury monthly collections.
The number of members of each college was fixed, and de-
termined by law. Composed principally of Greek artists,
they, surrounding the secrets of their art and of their doc-
trines with the mysteries of the worship of their country,
enveloped them in the symbols borrowed from these same
mysteries, and of which one of the characteristic traits was
the employment, in a symbolical sense, of the tools of their
profession.1
710 B. C.
Numa, the wise lawgiver, who founded the colleges, im-
mediately assigned to them their work : at first the en-
largement of the Capitol ; next the completion of the tem-
ples dedicated to the Sun, to the Moon, to Saturn, Rhea,
and Yesta, to Mars, and the other pagan divinities, which
were begun under Romulus and the king of the Sabines.
These monuments finished, Numa ordered them to erect
temples to Faith, to Fidelity, to Romulus, and to Janus
the god of Peace, whom Numa particularly adored. He
ordered them to fortify the city and surround it with walls ;
and this work accomplished, he directed them to continue
the construction of that famous temple that Romulus erected
to Jupiter Stator, upon the spot where his army, when
nearly vanquished, recovered their strength and courage,
after Romulus had addressed a prayer to Jupiter,2
1 By virtue of these privileges, all the public monuments which were con.
structed from the organization of these colleges until the reign of Constan-
tiue the Great, (330 years after Christ,) in Rome and the provinces, were ex-
clusively erected by them, or under their direction; but of which nothing
exists to-day but ruins of more or less importance.
2 The great number of temples which were subsequently erected in Rome
are due to the practice which was thus originated by Romulus — that the
commander in chief should erect a temple to the god whom he invoked dur-
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 261
650 B. C.
The population increases muck under Ancus Martius,
who fortifies the city anew and surrounds it with new walls ;
and a considerable aqueduct, that takes his name, is con-
structed by his orders. He orders the colleges of con-
structors to erect at Ostia a port of entry, or harbor, to en-
courage maritime commerce; and they there constructed
some ships.
610 B. C.
Under the reign of Tarquin the Elder, some temples were
erected; upon the Capitoline Hill one to Jupiter, one to
Juno, and one to Minerva. He had constructed within the
city a wall of cut stone, a subterranean canal (the cloaca
maxima) for the drainage of the city, and a great many
other public monuments. Under his orders the first circus
was constructed.
580 B. C.
Home is further aggrandized under the reign of Servius
Tullius, and increased in size by taking within its limits
the Virinal, Quirinal, and Esquiline Hills, which, by his or-
ders, are surrounded with walls. He erected a temple to
the idea Manly Fortune, and another to the goddess Diana.
530 B. C.
The monuments and temples begun under Tarquin the
Elder are completed under Tarquin the Superb, who also
continues the famous cloaca maxima, in which a person
might row a boat. He finishes the temple of Jupiter Cap-
itoline, and the circus begun by his predecessor; while an-
other circus, dedicated to the exercises of the Roman youth,
is constructed by his orders.
ing the progress of a battle won. This custom explains the great numbei
of monuments erected to the same divinity.
262 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
500 B. C.
The temples of Yesta and Hercules are ere^ed upon
the Aventine Hill, and the temples of Pallas and Minerva
Medica are erected under Junius Drusus.
490 B. C.
The Consuls Sempronius and M. Minucius order tho
erection, by the colleges of constructors, of two temples;
the one dedicated to Saturn, the other to Mercury. They
also establish the Saturnalian feasts.
480 B. C.
The temples of Castor and Pollux are erected under the
dictator Posthumius, who, after his victory over the
Latins, also ordered the erection of two other temples — the
one in honor of Ceres, the other of Bacchus. The most
remarkable of all that he had erected, however, was the
temple to the idea Better Fortune.
451 B. C.
Creation of the laws of the Twelve Tables, the eighth
of which is confined to provisions concerning the colleges
of builders.
396 B. C.
Furius Camillus, during his consulate, orders the erec-
tion of temples; one to Queen Juno, after a victory; also,
one to Jupiter, and one to Concord.
390 B. C.
Destruction of a part of the public monuments at the
sacking of Rome by the Gauls.
385 B. C.
Re-erection of the destroyed monuments under Flavius
Quintus, who also orders the erection of new temples,
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 263
which he dedicates; one to Mars, another to Juno Moneta;
while two others are consecrated to Salus (health) and
Concord.
312 B. C.
The first stone road is constructed by the colleges, under
the orders of Appius Claudius, who directed that it be
continued to Capua. The first great aqueduct was con-
structed at this time.
290 B. C.
The temple of Romulus, who was, by order of the Senate
of Pompilius, deified, under the title of Quirinus, is erected,
and in it is placed the first solar dial. The consul, Spur.
Carvilius, also ordered the erection of a temple to Fortis
Fortuna, to contain the spoils taken from the Etruscans.
He also ordered the construction of a temple in honor of
-4£sculapius, to be situate upon the island of the Tiber.
285 B. C.
The Fraternities of Constructors, as they are called at
this time, attached to the Roman legions, locate them-
selves in that portion of Cisalpine Gaul known to-day as
Venice and Lombardy, whither they had followed the
conquest of the Roman arms. To these fraternities — of
whom a brigade was attached to each legion, and which
they accompanied every-where — was entrusted the design-
ing of the plans of all the military constructions, such as
intrenched camps, strategic routes, bridges, aqueducts, and
dwellings. They directed the labors of soldiers and the
more ignorant workmen in the mechanical execution of
these works; and it was them who also manufactured the
implements of war. They were submissive to the gen-
erals or chiefs of the legions in such matters as related
directly to the movements of the army, but in all else they
remained in the enjoyment of their privileges. Composed
of artists and learned men, these fraternities spread the
264 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
ideas of Roman taste, and the knowledge of Roman man-
ners, literature and art, wherever the Roman nation carried
its victorious arms ; while, at the same time, they insured
the vanquished in the possession of the pacific element of
Roman favor, her arts and civil laws.
280 B. C.
Under the consulate of Caius Duilius new temples are
erected, one of which, after having vanquished the Cartha-
ginians at sea, he dedicated to Janus. Another temple,
erected by order of Actilius, he dedicated to Hope.
275 B. C.
The conquest of nearly all of Cisalpine Gaul- now
known as the Sardinian States — was followed by this
country being at once taken possession of by the frater-
nities of constructors, who, never remaining inactive, re-
erected every-where and always in better manner, those
monuments which the legions had destroyed.
250 B. C.
While Cisalpine Gaul was covered over with military
colonies, surrounded with fortifications executed by the
fraternities of constructors, who likewise erected in their
midst habitations and palaces for the principal commanders,
other legions carried their conquering arms beyond the
Alps into Transalpine Gaul and Spain. The first great
highway is constructed about this time across Gaul, and
leading from Rome to the valley of Ostia.
225 B. C.
The fraternities of constructors, who followed the le-
gions into Gaul and Spain, completed their mission. In
Spain they founded Cordova; in Gaul, Empodorum. Those
of Rome there constructed the famous Flaminian Circus,
to which the Consul, C. Flaminius, attached his name.
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 265
220 B. C.
The Romans, attacked by Hannibal, erected after his
retreat, in commemoration of that event, a temple to the
god (idea) Ridicule. Under the direction of the colleges,
and by order of the censor Flaminius, the Roman soldiers
construct a great strategic route. Flaminius also orders
the erection of a circus in Rome.
210 B. C.
During the second Punic War the colleges had no em-
ployment at Rome, there being nothing for them to con-
struct; they, therefore, went into the conquered provinces.
Subsequently they returned, and under the orders of Mar-
cellus, they constructed two temples, bearing the titles
respectively, of Virtus and Juno Hospita.
200 B. C.
The Roman people having decided, in the year 202, to
erect a temple to the god Mars, and another to the
founders of Rome, Romulus and his brother Remus, both
of these temples are completed during this year.
148 B. C.
The first temple in marble is ordered to be erected by
the general Metellus, who, after his victory over the king
of Macedonia, dedicated it to Jupiter Stator. Afterward
he ordered the erection of another temple at his own ex-
pense, which he dedicated to Juno; also, a remarkable
sepulcher, that bears his name.
125 B. C
The legions, become masters of Helvetia, there fortified
themselves, and gradually enriched the country with
camps and the cities Augusta Basilia and Aventicum, the
latter of which became of some importance.
266 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
121 B. C.
A Roman colony, commanded by Marsius, founded
Narbo 31arsius, (Narbonne,) which became the principal
head-quarters of the Roman armies until the time of
Augustus. The consul Opinius ordered the construction
at Rome of the first court of justice or city hall. He also
ordered the erection of a temple, which he dedicated to
Concord.
101 B. C.
After the victory over the Cimbrians and the Teutons,
vanquished by Marius, he ordered the erection in Rome,
under the special direction of the architect C. Musius, a
temple in honor of the divinities Honor and Virtue.1
79 B. C.
The ancient city of Herculaneum, in which were erected
by the fraternities of constructors numerous monuments of
art, is overthrown and buried in the lava of an eruption of
Mount Vesuvius. The magnificent monuments with
which Pompeii, no less celebrated than Herculaneum, had
been ornamented by the Roman constructors, crumbled
and disappeared, in great part, in consequence of the earth-
quake that accompanied the eruption which destroyed the
latter city, and all that remains is covered with the ashes
and lava thrown out by the eruption mentioned.
75 B. C.
A great number of towns are erected in Gaul in the dis-
trict of Narbonne. Military colonies are every- where es-
tablished to maintain the conquered country against the
1 Up to this time architecture partook of the Etruscan style, and the at-
tempts made to embellish the public temples and edifices consisted but in
the ornamentation of statues and other objects erected in conquered coun-
tries, particularly in Greece; but from this time the predilection of tho
■Romans for Greek art and architecture became dominant, and the Etruscan
Style of architecture was abandoned, as being too severely simple.
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 267
neighboring peoples, and principally in the neighborhood
of the ancient Massilia (Marseilles) founded by the Pho-
necians in 549, and of Arelate (Aries), of which the origin
goes back to 2000 years before Christ. Among those
are Aqua Sexlia (Aix) and Nemausus (Mmes), which be-
came important cities. Arelate, before mentioned, subse-
quently became the capital of the kingdom of Aries, and
attained the rank of a powerful city, wherein the Masonic
fraternities constructed some sumptuous monuments. The
ruins of an amphitheater, an obelisk, a temple, an arch of
triumph, and an aqueduct, reveal to us the ancient impor-
tance of the residence of Constantine in this city.
60 B. C.
After ten years of almost continual war, during which,
according to Plutarch, 800 villages were devastated, Julius
Caesar made himself master of all Transalpine Gaul. He
at once put the numerous fraternities of constructors at-
tached to his legions at work, and ordered the attendance
of many others scattered throughout the provinces, to re-
erect, with the aid of his soldiers, the towns and cities
destroyed, and to render more beautiful and ornamental
the monuments of the people. By his orders and those of
his successors, the following named cities became important,
viz.: Treviri (Treves), Remi (Rheims), Hothomagus (Rouen),
Cesarodunum (Tours), Avaricum (Bourges), Senones (Sens),
Burdigala (Bordeaux), Vesontio (Besancon), Lugdunum
(Lyons), Vienna, Tolosa (Toulouse), and Lutetia or Parisie
(Paris). A great many other cities are erected by the
colleges, such as Gergobia, Xelodunum, Avaricum, etc., but
none of them attained the importance of the above.
Treves was subsequently chosen as the residence of the
prefect or governor of the Gauls.
55 B. C.
Britain, conquered in part at this time, some reinforce-
268 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
ments of constructors were sent there to establish more ex-
tended fortifications. Under the command of Julius Caesar,
one of his legions pushed further into the country, and, to
hold its ground, there constructed an intrenched camp, with
walls, inside of which the constructors immediately erected,
as elsewhere, habitations, temples, aqueducts, etc., and in
this manner gave birth to Eboracum (York), a city cele-
brated in the history of Freemasonry.
50 B. C.
"While Julius Caesar pushed his conquests, and destroyed
druid altars and Celtic monuments, Pompey erected in
Rome numerous temples and the famous amphitheater,
built of white marble, capable of containing thirty thou-
sand persons. He also, under the direction of the fraterni-
ties of architects, constructed the not less famous road which
led from Rome through Italy across the Alps into Gaul.
Julius Csesar, upon his return to Rome, also ordered the
construction of many temples, of which he dedicated one
each to Mars, Venus Genitrix, and Apollo. All the col-
leges located in the cities of Cisalpine Gaul (actual Italy)
are called together by him and sent to Carthage and Cor-
inth to reerect those ruined cities.
45 B. C.
The Roman senate, after the civil war, ordered to be
erected, by the colleges of constructors, many monuments
of different kinds, in honor of Julius Csesar, among which
were four temples, dedicated respectively to Liberty, Con-
cord, Happiness, and Mercy. In the year 42 the triumvirs
of Rome erected a temple to Isis and another to Serapis.
41 B. C.
A military colony is established on the site of a Gallic
village, at the confluence of the Rhone and Saone, and
there is founded Lugdunum (Lyons.) [It was burnt, re-
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 269
erected by Nero, and beautifully embellished by Trajan.
Lugdunum became afterward the capital of Gaul, the seat
of government, and the imperial residence during the voy-
ages of the emperor Augustus and the majority of hia
successors.]
37 B. C.
The Roman legions, stationed along the Rhine to pro-
tect Gaul against the continual aggressions of the German
peoples, formed at many points intrenched camps, which
became strong colonies. Colonia Agrippina (Cologne) had
its origin in this manner. It was enlarged at this time,
and invested with the rights of a Roman city, under the
emperor Claudius. -
35 B. C.
The Pantheon, at Rome, is finished under Marcus
Agrippa, who also constructed some superb hot baths,
which bore his own name. The great road from Rome,
crossing Cisalpine Gaul and the valley of Ostia to Lyons,
is continued by his orders, under the direction of the
fraternities of constructors, in four main directions, viz. :
First, to Aquitaine, by Auvergne; second, to the Rhine;
third, to Laon, by Burgundy and Picardy; fourth, to
Marseilles, by Narbonne.
32 B. C.
The Roman legions who located themselves at Lutetia,
(Paris,) under Julius Caesar, there, side by side with the
Gallic altars erected to Teuton gods, erected temples to
Isis and Mithra.
30 B. C.
The reign of Augustus is fruitful in great constructions.
The fraternities of architects are greatly increased, and a
certain number form themselves into special colleges for
270 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
the branches which occupy their attention more particu-
larly, viz.: naval and hydraulic architecture. The ex-
tensive knowledge of these men, initiated into the mys-
teries of every art, the humanitarian principles which they
profess, their tolerance and their mysterious oganization,
surround them with such consideration, that all the dis-
tinguished men seek admittance into their association.
The most considerable monuments at this time erected
by them, at Rome, are the temple of Jupiter Tonans, the
theater commenced under the consulate of Claudius Mar-
cellus, the mausoleum that bore the name of Augustus,
two arches of triumph, also named after him, and two
Egyptian obelisks. In the Roman provinces we are un-
able to mention others among the monuments erected by
them at this time, beyond the temple of Clitum at Foli-
gui, that of Jupiter at Pouzzoli, of Sibyl at Tivoli, and
the arch of triumph at Suza. In Gaul a great number of
somewhat less sumptuous constructions ornament the cities
erected and founded by the Romans. A great many
roads, and particularly that of Emporium, situate near the
Pyrenees, to the crossing of the Rhone, are due to the
orders of Augustus. The friends of this emperor rivaled
him in the construction of magnificent monuments. Sta-
titius Taurus constructed an amphitheater ; Marcus Phil-
lippus a temple to Hercules Musagetes ; Munatiu» Plancus
one to Saturn; Lucius Carnifucius one to Diana; and
Lucius Cornelius Balbus finished his great theater in
stone.
A. D. 1.
Augustus erected at Nimes, in the first year of the
Christian era, a temple in honor of his friends Caius and
Lucius.1
1 The remains of this temple are now known under the name of the
Square House.
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 271
A. D. 5.
The Jewish architects are protected at Rome, where
they have been authorized, under Julius Caesar, to estab-
lish synagogues. Admitted into the colleges of con-
structors, which, at this time, were the theater of all for-
eign initiations, they instructed them in the knowledge
of the Hebrew mysteries — a type of the Egyptian.
D. 10.
The celebrated architect Yitruvius Pollio establishes in
his writings upon architecture — works translated into all
languages — the nourishing condition in which this art
existed at this time at Rome. He depicts the humanita-
rian doctrines which go hand in hand with the material
objects of the Fraternity, and which, enveloped in allego-
ries and illustrated by symbols, formed the basis of the
teachings of these colleges.
A. D. 14.
The palace of the Caesars is commenced during the
reign of Tiberius. It was continued under that of Cali-
gula, and finished under Domitian. Tiberius erected an
arch of triumph in honor of his brother Claudius Drusus,
and another in honor of Augustus. That consecrated to
Castor is also due to his orders.
The cities of Pergamus, Nicomedia, Mylassa, Cesarea,
Pouzzolea, and Pola, brought architects and companions
from Rome to erect in their midst temples in honor of
Augustus.
A. D. 25.
The bridge of Rimini, commenced by Augustus, ia
finished under Tiberius, who also ordered the erection
of temples in honor of Proserpine, Juno, and the goddess
Concord.
272 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONRY.
A. D. 41.
A superb aqueduct, which bears his name, is constructed
under the reign of Claudius.
A. D. 43.
Some brigades of constructors are detached from the
fraternities which are stationed on the banks of the
Rhine, and led by the emperor Claudius to Britain, where
the legions experience difficulty in maintaining their
ground against the incursions of the Scots. The better to
enable them to hold their position, these brigades of con-
structors erect a line of fortified camps and a certain
number of strong castles.
A. D. 50.
Architecture at Home has attained, at this time, its
culminating point. The colleges of constructors, deprived
of encouragement under the despotism of the Emperors,
who by turns gradually took from them their privileges,
seem to have lost their powers of architectural conception.
The monuments of this time are greatly inferior in the
elevation of their character to those which placed them
at the summit of human intelligence. The same deca-
dence is observed in the monuments of Greece, of which
the Romans had borrowed their most beautiful models.
What contributed to bring about this fall in the architec-
ture of Rome was the absence from that city of all the
principal men of talent that the colleges of constructors
had produced, and who had become celebrated in some
branch of the art. Those men had been sent by Julius
Csesar and Augustus into the conquered provinces, there
to erect temples; and, in fact, to give to those conquered
peoples an elevated idea of the science and art of their
conquerors, and to inspire them with admiration for the
latter. The colleges of constructors, who concentrated
within their membership a great amount of the knowl-
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 273
edge acquired at this period, thus contributed, by their
science and the magnificence of their constructions, aa
much as did the arms of Rome to the consolidation and
glory of the Roman power.
Among the architects or magistri, as they are called —
such as Cossutius, Caius, Marcus Stallius, Menallippus,
Cyrus, Clautius, Chrysippus, Corumbus — who belonged to
those times, there were a certain number who especially
occupied themselves with making known, by their writ-
ings, the theory and rules of their art. In this manner
was the time of Yitruvius Pollio, Tulfitius, Yarron, Pub-
lius, and Septimus occupied; and they were thus enabled
to communicate with the brethren situated at a distance
from the principal center of their schools of architecture.
Of these writings those of Yitruvius Pollio alone have
come down to us.
A. D. 54.
The temple of Bellona; that of Roman Charity; also,
some baths and aqueducts are constructed at Rome by the
orders of Nero, and bear his name. This emperor, after
having set fire to the capital, by which the most beautiful
monuments were destroyed, ordered the construction of
his famous palace, called the palace of gold, upon which
the two masters, Severus and Celler, directed the work.
Under the preceding reign — of the emperor Claudius —
Rome was greatly increased ; an arch of triumph was dedi-
cated to the Tiber, and a beautiful aqueduct, which bore
the name of Claudius, was begun.
A. D. 70.
At this time were constructed, under the reign of F.
Yespasian, the famous temple of Peace, and the Colos-
seum, or Flavian amphitheater, capable of containing one
hundred and ten thousand persons, and upon which were
forced to labor twelve thousand Jews, carried captive to
Rome after the overthrow of Jerusalem*
18
274 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Tins amphitheater was not finished until the year 80,
when, under Titus, it was completed.
A. D. 80.
Under the emperor Titus public baths, which bear his
name, are completed; he also constructed a palace. The
houses and public edifices, destroyed by fire the preceding
year, are not rebuilt until the reign of his brother
Domitian.
A. D. 85.
The emperor Domitian greatly enlarged and embellished
the palace of the Csesars ; a new theater and many temples
are erected by his orders at Rome, and a number of tem-
ples in Gaul. He finished the famous military road that
crosses Savoy and Provence.
A. D. 90.
The fraternities of constructors in Britain, by order of
the general Agricola, constructed fortifications which ex-
tended from the Grulf of Solway to where he had pene^
trated in repulsing the Scots, and there, with his legions,
he fixed his residence to hold the country.
A. D. 98.
Of numerous celebrated temples, among others those of
Faunus and Diana, that of Quirinus, with its sixty-six
columns, is, under the reign of Trajan, constructed at
Home, and many others in the Roman provinces. At
Amonias is erected to his honor an arch of triumph, while
he himself orders the erection of one in honor of Vespa-
sian Augustus, and another to Pautanus. He also built
hot baths, and the famous circus, capable of containing
two hundred and sixty thousand persons,
A. D. 120.
New temples are erected at Rome, under the reign of
ST
I.
8"
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 275
Adrian — that of Venus, among others. He orders the
erection of the Trajan column, in honor of that emperor,
and also constructs a mausoleum, known to-day as the
castle of St. Angelo. The celebrated architect Apollo-
dorus, to whom were due the plans of that building, is
banished for having spoken the truth. This emperor,
with indefatigable ability, visited the most distant prov-
inces of his vast empire. In Britain he ordered the con-
struction, by the fraternities of architects, of an immense
wall, which, extending from the Tyne to the Gulf of
Sol way, thus crossed the country from east to west, to
protect the military colonies from the continual invasion
of the Scots. In Spain he finished temples begun by
Augustus; and it is to his orders are due several temples
erected in Africa, particularly those which to-day are to
be seen in Algiers and Tunis. Asia is equally indebted
to him for numerous public monuments; but it was
Greece that was particularly favored by his constructive
genius, and in which country he ordered the erection of
the most celebrated of her temples, such as the Pantheon
and the temples to Jupiter Panhellenes, and that to
Jupiter Olympus, with its one hundred and twenty-two
columns.
A. D. 130.
After the fall of the Roman Republic, all the other
corporations founded at the same time as the colleges of
constructors by Numa Pompilius, have lost their ancient
privileges, in consequence of the distrust entertained for
them by the despotic emperors. The colleges of con-
structors are also restrained by Trajan and Adrian, but
their love of glory and luxury made it necessary that these
colleges should be allowed to retain their privileges nearly
intact; for, without the aid of the artist constructors, all
hope of transmitting to posterity the grandeur of their
names and actions would have been vain.
276 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
A. D. 140.
Under Antoninus the temples of Mars, of Faustinas and
Antoninus Pius are erected at Rome, besides many others
already begun are finished. He orders the construction of
another wall in Britain, where the legions are unceasingly
menaced by the Scots. This immense wall, which ex-
tended from the Forth to the Clyde, required the aid of
the natives for its completion, many of whom became in-
corporated in the fraternities of the Romans, and learned
their art. But that which, above all, distinguished the
reign of Antoninus are the magnificent edifices of colossal
dimensions which he constructed at Balbec, (Heliopolis,)
of which the two principal temples, dedicated to the sun,
are inexplicable marvels of masonry. It was by the
Masonic fraternities, remains of the ancient Roman col-
leges, who, in the time of the Christian persecutions
ordered by Nero, Domitian, and Trajan, sought refuge in
those provinces the most distant from Rome, and which
were governed by men more humane than the emperors,
that those masterpieces of architectural grandeur were
erected.
A. D. 166.
The famous road which, leading from Civita Yecchia,
— at the Aurelian Forum — to Aries, is commenced by the
colleges of constructors, under the orders of Marcus Au-
rehus, and finished during his reign. Most of the mem-
bers of the colleges of constructors embrace Christianity.
At this time their number had greatly increased, as well
in Rome as in the provinces. The emperor Marcus Au-
relius, greatly irritated in view of the astonishing progress
made by the new doctrine, and wishing to destroy it by
force, followed the example of his predecessors, and this
year ordained new persecutions against the Christians.
In consequence many took refuge in Gaul and Britain —
particularly within the latter country — where they found,
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 277
among the Masonic corporations, that protection they
sought for in vain elsewhere.
Numbers of Christian Masons, finding themselves unable
to leave Rome, sought in the catacombs a secret asylum,
in which to sustain themselves against the bloody edicts
launched at them, and to escape the punishment to which
they are condemned. It is in the dark bosom of these
subterranean caverns that they often met in fraternal em-
brace with their fellow religionists, with whom they found
refuge. During the ten years of continued persecution
against the Christians, under Marcus Aurelius, these cata-
combs are transformed by those Christian artists into
churches, ornamented with sarcophagi, paintings, and
encaustic adornment — the faith that inspired them induc-
ing them to there erect chapels over the graves of martyred
fellow- Christians, and thus the tombs which covered their
precious remains became altars for sacrifice and prayer.
The number of the martyrs augmenting, these chapels
were subsequently replaced by sarcophagi, which, in later
times marked the places in which their remains reposed.
A. D. 180.
Some temples and hot baths are constructed by order of
the emperor Titus. He also ordered the erection of pillars
in honor of Antonius and Marcus Aurelius. The members
of the corporations of constructors are atrociously perse-
cuted anew for their doctrine, and of them those who
escaped fled to the east. In this manner the constructors
were driven from the city of their birth, and none re-
mained but the few who had not been converted to
Christianity.
A. D. 193.
A temple to Minerva, an arch of triumph to Rome, and
another to Valabro, in honor of Septimus Severus, are the
only important monuments erected at Rome under the
reign of this emperor. In Britain, in the year 207, he
278 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
commenced a third wall, further north, with the old
object of protecting the legions; but the fraternities, find-
ing themselves unequal in numbers to the task of under-
taking a work so gigantic, accorded to the Britons, who
had learned their art, to assure themselves of their assist-
ance, the same advantages and the same privileges which
they enjoyed themselves.1
A. D. 211.
The construction of many temples, baths, and a circus,
marked the reign of Caracalla.
A. D. 222.
Under the reign of Alexander Severus, who openly pro-
tected architecture, and secretly Christianity, some new
monuments are erected at Rome. He ordered the restora-
tion of many ancient edifices, and the erection of a city
hall and magnificent baths. He desired also to consecrate
a temple to Christ, but was restrained in so doing by the
representations made to him that, were he to do so, the
other temples would go to ruin.
A. D. 235.
Numerous new temples are erected at Rome and in the
provinces, under Maximin and Gordian. By the former,
amphitheaters were erected in various cities in Italy, and,
by the latter, baths at Rome, that bore his name.
A. D. 250.
No construction of any importance signalized the reigna
of Decius or Valerian, except the baths which were con-
structed by order of the former. The new persecutions
directed by them against the Christians greatly diminished
1 The most important of the military colonies at this time in Britain was
Eboracum — the city of York — which became celebrated in the history of
Freemasonry.
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 279
the colleges of constructors, and dispersed such of their
members — a great number — as had embraced the tenets
of that faith which inculcated the doctrine of fraternity.
Flying from Rome, they sought refuge in that country
wherein they would be least persecuted, viz., Britain,
where the new doctrine had already numerous partisans.
Those who could not leave the city took refuge in the cata-
combs, the asylum of the Christians.
A. D. 260.
Reformation of the colleges or fraternities of constructors
iL Gaul and Britain. The new doctrine, notwithstanding
its affinity with that professed by the artists, produced,
however, some schisms among them — a portion of those
who belonged to different professions separating themselves
from the general association, as it had existed until that
time, to form separate associations, composed of one art or
one trade.1
A. D. 270.
The Masonic fraternities in Gaul, as in Britain — whose
members had generally adopted the Christian doctrine,
devoting themselves, particularly in Gaul, to the construc-
tion of religious edifices — undertook to build the new
churches that the apostles, who came from Rome in the
year 257, desired to erect at Amiens, Beauvais, Soissons,
Rheims, and Paris, where these apostles have established
themselves in the capacity of bishops.
A. D. 275.
This epoch is marked in the history of architecture by
1 It is these associations that we subsequently find organized under the
name of corporations of arts and trades, the laws of which exhibit more or
less traces of the ancient constitution of the Roman colleges, from which they
have descended. The Masonic Fraternity preserved only its antique organ-
ization, together with rts humanitarian and artistic secrets, and its privileges,
all of which, however, were very much modified.
280 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
one of the most sublime conceptions of the artistic genius
of the philosopher constructors, executed under the reign
and by the orders of the emperor Aurelian. They are the
two temples of the sun at Palmyra, which surpass in
beauty and grandeur those of Heliopolis. The principal
one of these temples has four hundred and sixty-four col-
umns, many of which are composed of a single block of
marble. The whole number of columns which ornament
the two temples and the galleries attached to them is four-
teen hundred and fifty. Aurelian employed the last two
years of his short reign to, among other peaceful measures,
the revival of architecture at Rome, and in this project
was ably assisted by the Byzantine architects, Cleodamus
and Athenacus.
A. D. 280.
Architects who have acquired great celebrity in Britain
are called by Diocletian to construct the monuments he
has designed to erect in Gaul.
A. D. 287-290.
Carausius, commanding the Roman navy, takes posses-
sion of Britain and proclaims himself emperor. To con-
ciliate the Masonic fraternities, then wielding an immense
influence in the country, he confirmed to them at Verulam,
(Saint Albans,) the place of his residence, in the year 290,
all their ancient privileges, as they had been established
by Numa Pompilius, in the year 715 B. C. ; and it is from
this time that the Freemasons began to be distinguished
from those who were not free, or upon whom these privl-
eges had not been bestowed.
A. D. 293.
Albanus, architect and first grand inspector of the Free-
masons in Briton, who represented the Masonic societies
in their negotiations with Carausius, originally a pagan,
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 281
is converted to Christianity; and, at the risk of his life,
he preaches the doctrines of the new faith to the emperor,
and is consequently beheaded. In this manner a grand
master of Freemasons became the first Christian martyr
in Britain.
A. D. 296.
The city of York, in which are found the most impor-
tant lodges of Freemasons in the country, is chosen as his
residence by the under-emperor, Constantius Chlorus, who,
upon the death of Carausius, came to Britain by order of
Maximin, to assume the government of that country.
A. D. 300.
At this epoch Rome counted within its walls more than
five hundred temples, thirty-seven gates and arches of
triumph, six bridges, seventeen amphitheaters and theaters,
fourteen aqueducts, five obelisks, and of monumental col-
umns a great number, such as military, warlike, statuary,
honorary, legal, (upon which were engraved the laws,) and
lactary, (at the base of which were laid children found
astray,) and, finally, palaces, mausoleums, baths, and
sepulchers in proportionate number. All of these monu-
ments, without exception, were erected by the fraternities
or colleges of architects and builders.
A. D. 303.
The emperor Diocletian — under whose reign were erected,
in many of the Roman provinces, temples, aqueducts, and
baths — distinguished himself particularly by the most
atrocious persecution of the Christians, and whom were
executed with cruelty in the more distant provinces.
Notwithstanding the humanity of the (at this time) gov-
ernor of Britain, the Christians, of whom a great number
were members of the Masonic fraternities, found it neces-
sary to seek refuge in Scotland and the Orkney Islands,
and there they carried Christianity and architecture. It
282 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
was by them that those strong and admirably-constructed
castles — built in a style so peculiarly appropriate to the char-
acter of the country and the people — were erected for the
clans of the Scots. The artist constructors attached to the
colleges established at Rome also fled to the east, or buried
themselves within the catacombs — their usual refuge in
times of religious and social persecution — where many of
them perished.
The last monuments of any importance which were
erected at Rome were due to Diocletian — the baths which
he built surpassing, for grandeur and magnificence, even
those of Alexander Severus; but the most remarkable
monument of the times of this emperor was the palace he
had erected for himself at Salona, in Dalmatia, and wherein
he passed the remainder of his life after he had resigned
his government of the empire.
A. D. 313.
This year closed the persecutions of the Christians, and
by the edict of Milan, rendered by Constantine the Great,
Christianity was declared the religion of the State. Sub-
sequently, (A. D. 325,) by the Council of Nice, in Bythnia,
the forms and doctrines of the Christian religion were
arranged, and thereupon, with the advent of peace, the
Masonic corporations awoke to new life.
A. D. 325.
The fraternities, no more persecuted in the persons of
their membership, multiplied in Rome with extraordinary
activity, and displayed great ability and alacrity in the
construction of the Christian churches ordered by Con-
stantine. In the year 323 the first Christian church was
built upon the Lateran Hill, and thereafter are erected, upon
the ground occupied and in great part with the materials
afforded by the pagan temples and halls, the cathedrals of
Saint Lawrence of Sessomanca, of Saint Marcellus, of
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 283
Saint Agnes, and of Saint Constance. Constantine ordered
the erection of an obelisk to Saint John of Lateran, and
also the erection, upon the Vatican, of a church, which
was by him dedicated to Saint Paul. This church was
built in the form of a cross, in commemoration of that
cross1 which had been seen by him in the heavens, and
to which he attributed his victory over Maxentius. The
people subsequently erected an arch of triumph, which
they dedicated to Cons.tantine the Great.
A. D. 330.
Constantine the Great changes the name of Byzantia to
Constantinople, and raises it to the rank of capital city of
the Eastern Roman Empire. At this place the building
brethren concentrate, to engage in the immense construc-
tions which he projects there. The church of St. Sophia,
begun in the year 326, was the first Christian church
Byzantia saw erected within her walls. The foundations
of many others are laid. A new style of architecture is
1The Greek cross, which was copied by Christian architects as the model
upon which to erect all edifices devoted to Christian worship, was chosen by
them, not because Constantine had prescribed this form, but because this
cross mysteriously attached itself to the worship of every people, and made
part of the symbolism of their art, and a knowledge of which formed a por-
tion of the secret teachings of the colleges. This cross exhibits, in its pro-
portions what are known as the sacred numbers, and which numbers are the
basis of geometry. It was also the form and base of the Holy of Holies, in
the temple of Solomon ; and, in a word, it represents the unity and the
trinity. For the other dispositions, proportions, and details of the religious
edifices, the temple at Jerusalem — of which the holy books of the Hebrews
contained precise details — served always as a model; that temple being
recognized as the great masterpiece of architecture, as it was also the first
temple erected and consecrated to an only God. It is this temple which even
yet, and in our own day, is considered the most significant symbol of Free-
masonry. The plans of Christian churches, from the fourth century to the
present time, following those which have preceded them, are derived from a
mixture of Jewish and pagan elements. The form of the cross was subse-
quently adopted for the foundation of nearly all the religious edifices of the
Christian world.
284 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
formed — the Latin and Greek intermixing with the Arab,
and giving birth to what was subsequently known as the
Byzantine, which was not distinctly developed until the
eighth century.
The emperor Constantine, who had proclaimed that the
sign of the cross should ornament the imperial standard,
continued, nevertheless, to sacrifice to the gods of pagan-
ism. He despoiled Rome, Athens, Rhodes, Chios, Cyprus,
and Sicily of their riches and their monuments of past-time
art; and thus the cities of Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor
furnished him with works of art wherewith to adorn the
new capital of his empire.
The Masonic fraternities, who, during the persecutions
of the Christians, had taken refuge in Syria and in Pales-
tine, are now, by the orders of Constantine, occupied in
those provinces in the erection of churches. Heliopolis,
Jerusalem, and the village of Bethlehem are the places
wherein the first of these churches were constructed; and
subsequently he ordered the erection of the church of the
Holy Sepulcher, at Jerusalem. In Syria and Palestine the
Masonic corporations greatly increased, and extended into
the borders of Arabia and countries beyond the Roman
empire.
A. D. 340.
The Masonic fraternities continued to increase in By-
zantia. All those who had acquired celebrity in religious
architecture, such as constructors, sculptors, and painters,
sought occupation within this great city, and therein
helped to complete the twenty- three churches which, in
ten years, were erected inside its walls.
A. D. 355-360.
The emperor Julian, who at this time commanded in
Gaul, ordered the construction at Paris, which had become
the capital of the Parisians, a magnificent temple, with vast
baths, the ruins of which may be seen in the Rue de la
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 285
Harpe at the present day. After his victory over the
Franks, he arranged to reside at Paris, and therein ordered
the construction of churches unon the ruins of pagan
temples.
A. D. 380.
During the incessant invasions of the Germans, Saxons,
and Burgundians, followed by the Alans and Huns, who
pillaged and devastated the country, the Masonic fraterni-
ties were dispersed, while art of all kinds, and more par-
ticularly architecture, took refuge within the monasteries,
where the ecclesiastics, who had affiliated with the frater-
nities of architects, studied and preserved the artistic and
humanitarian doctrines of their art.
A. D. 410.
The Scots and the Picts, continuing to disturb the peace
of the Romans in Britain, and to destroy their walls and
fortifications, the latter are rebuilt by the great concourse
of Masons from all parts of the island of Britain. Even
the new constructions not proving adequate, however, to
defend them from the constant inroads of these barbarous
tribes, and the Romans being attacked upon all sides, and
their legions being enfeebled by the withdrawal of num-
bers of their forces from Britain to the continent, they
judged it prudent to abandon the island of Britain entirely,
a decision which they carried out, according to some au-
thorities, in the year 411, and according to others in the
year 426. After their retreat, the fraternities, who found
themselves composed of various elements — that of native
Britons not being the least — took refuge where they might
be protected by the Romans, upon the continent, in Gaul,
and in Scotland. Here, as in the time of the first Chris-
tian persecutions, they propagated Chrstianity and archi-
tecture, and, above all, religiously preserved the antique
organization of their lodges.
286 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY
A. D. 430.
The Masonic fraternities, dispersed and dissolved since
the beginning of barbarian invasions, which devastated
Gaul, Italy, and even Rome, experience great difficulty,
notwithstanding the encouragement offered them by the
clergy, led by the Popes, to reestablish themselves in the
latter city. They commenced, however, to repair and re-
construct some churches, and for this purpose freely helped
themselves with the materials composing pagan temples.
A. D. 455.
Under Genseric new invasions of the barbarians every-
where destroyed the public monuments, and for a long
time arrested, in Rome and Italy, all new constructions.
A. D. 476.
Rome is invaded for the sixth time within the fifth cen-
tury. During these invasions — those of Alaric in 410, of
Genseric in 455, and, at this time, of Odoacre — the cities
were sacked and burnt, and their temples and monuments
destroyed, the greater number of them never to be replaced,
and the masterpieces of art buried beneath their ruins.
The fraternities of builders, finding themselves, in these
times of war, without occupation, and unprotected in the
west by the Roman power, dispersed into Greece and
Egypt, and many of them took up their residence perma-
nently in Syria. All the masterpieces of art, which were
at this time buried beneath the ruins of temples overthrown
or destroyed, subsequently served to ornament Christian
churches, and the palaces and museums of the affluent in
various parts of the continent.
A. D. 500.
The remains of ancient fraternities, who had sought
refuge in other countries, appear in Rome, and endeavor
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 287
to revive the colleges of builders. Architecture revives,
and some of the churches are repaired and reconstructed.
A. D. 525.
The example of Rome is imitated in Gaul; and every-
where such beautiful temples as were erected to the gods
of the Romans, and which hitherto have escaped the de-
structive tendency of the international invasions, are de-
stroyed to give place to and with the remains of which
churches are built and consecrated to the saints. Under
the reign of Childeric (460-481), of Clovis (481-511), of
Clothaire (511-561), who have protected the Masonic cor-
porations and encouraged their labors, there are erected
many churches. The fraternities of Roman architects, as
well as those of Gaul, who remained in the country after
the retreat of the Romans (486), are recognized and con-
firmed in their ancient privileges.
A. D. 530.
Some fragments of the Roman colleges, which had taken
up their residence in Syria, are called, at different times,
by the kings of Persia to erect monuments of a public
character, bearing the characteristics of the Persian taste.
Latin, Greek, and Byzantine styles here enter into a new
intermarriage, with the pomp and display of Persian
magnificence.
A. D. 550.
By order of Justinian I, the great church of St. Sophia,
at Constantinople, is constructed by a fraternity of Greek
architects, over the remains of that erected by Constantine
the Great, which had been destroyed by fire.
This monument, converted by the Turks into an impe-
rial mosque, is the most magnificent conception of our
time, as it was of that most flourishing period when art
288 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
received its most powerful impulse.1 The Masonic frater-
nities of Byzantia and other provinces of the empire,
spreading themselves at this time into Italy, Sardinia,
Corsica, and a part of Africa, submitted once more to be
swayed by the scepter of their ancient masters. These
countries, relieved of the rule of the Goths and Vandals,
encouraged the erection of religious monuments, for which
the great church of St. Sophia served as the model.
Subsequently (726) all these monuments were destroyed
during the revolutions which prevailed under the icono-
clastic emperors.
A. D. 557.
Austin, a Benedictine monk and architect, arrived in
England for the purpose of converting the Anglo-Saxons
to Christianity. He placed himself at the head of the
Masonic fraternities, and lifted them out of the many
difficulties into which they had fallen during the last
wars.
A. D. 580.
At this time the Freemasons became fully recognized
in Britain, by the fact that their numbers were insufficient
to execute the immense constructions projected by the
1 Justinian I, in reconstructing the great church of St. Sophia, con-
fided the general direction to two Greek architects. These were assisted
by one hundred master workmen, who had each one hundred workmen
to execute their orders, and each of whom had ten laborers under their
direction. Five thousand men were, in this manner, employed on each
side of the building; and in the sixteenth year from the commencement
of its construction it was finished, and inaugurated by the slaughter of
one thousand oxen, ten thousand sheep, six hundred stags, one thousand
hogs, ten thousand hens and' ten thousand pullets, which, with thirty
thousand measures of grain, were distributed to the people. Justinian,
having expended enormous sums for the erection of this construction,
was forced to order taxes to be levied for its completion. It is said
that before the walls had risen three feet above the ground, he had
expended four hundred and fifty-two hundred weight of golden coin
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 289
new apostles of Christianity. In their voyages to Rome,
whither they went to collect statues and pictures where-
with to adorn the churches in Britain, these apostles
always returned bringing with them workmen, sculptors,
and painters; and the bishop of Weymouth imported from
Gaul into Britain men of like professions in great number.
A. D. 600-602.
During these years the cathedrals of Canterbury and
Rochester were erected.
A. D. 607.
The cathedral of St. Paul, at London, begun in 604, is
finished, and that of St. John, at Winchester, begun in
605.
A. D. 610.
Death of Austin, grand inspector of the Freemasons.
He is subsequently canonized under the name of St.
Augustine.
A. D. 620.
The Masonic corporations at this time, although gov-
erned by the same laws and characterized by the same
principles, partook not every-where of the same qualifi-
cations, or rather they were known by different names in
different countries. For instance, in Italy they were
known as the Colleges of Architects or Builders, and
oftentimes simply as the Masonic Fraternities; while in
Gaul they were called Brother Masons, Brother Bridgers,
(bridge -builders,) or Free Corporations; and in Britain,
by reason of their well-known privileges, they were called
Freemasons. At this time they are all employed exclu-
sively by the religious orders, directed by them, and even
quartered in the monasteries. The abbot, or such other
ecclesiastic as may be sufficiently acquainted with the
rules and practice of architecture, upon this account, pre-
19
290 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
sides over the meetings of the lodges — general assembly
of all the artists and workmen — and, consequently, is ad-
dressed in such assembly as Worshipful Master, [To the
present time does this title attach to the presiding officer
in a lodge of Freemasons.]
A. D. 660.
The arts and architecture take refuge within the mon-
asteries, whenever their progress is arrested or paralyzed
by international wars. There they are cultivated with
success by the most distinguished ecclesiastics, who are.
admitted as members of the Masonic fraternities. It was
also, in great part, according to the designs and plans
drawn by these ecclesiastics that the corporations executed
the religious monuments of this time. The monastic
schools of architecture not only produced some ecclesiastics
celebrated as architects, such as St. Eloi, bishop of Noyon
(659); St. Ferol, bishop of Limoges; Dalmac, bishop of
Rhodes ; Agricola, bishop of Chalons (680-700) ; but they
also gave to the profession of architecture laymen not lees
distinguished, and under whose direction numerous public
monuments were erected in Gaul and Britain.
A. D. 680.
The Freemasons of Britain, having remained without
a chief since the death of Austin, the king of Mersey,
grand protector of the Fraternity, appointed Bennet, abbot
of "Wirral, inspector-general and superintendent of Ma-
sonry. Nevertheless, the labors of the Fraternity were
conducted with but little spirit during a century.
A. D. 685.
The Masonic fraternities of Roman origin, who had
been ordered into the East, and many of whom had re-
mained in Constantinople, acquired great reputation, and
were successively sought for by Persian, Arabian, and
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 291
Syrian potentates. Among others, the caliphs of Damas-
cus and Medina intrusted to them the erection of the
mosques of those cities.
A. D. 700.
Architecture has attained at this time a high degree
of perfection in England,1 the style and expression of the
edifices presenting exclusively the characteristics of what
was then known as Scottish architecture, which, at this
time, was considered among the Fraternity the most per-
fect in outlines and details, and the masters of it the most
learned of any of the brethren. On this account they
were called Scottish Masters.
A. D. 720.
The progress that architecture had made in Gaul, in the
course of the last century and the early part of the present,
was arrested by the incursion of the Arabs, in the year
718, and remained in a paralytic condition for many
years.
A. D. 740.
Upon the demand of the Anglo-Saxon kings, Charles
Martel, who had at this time governed Gaul as " Mayor
of the Palace," sent to Britain many architects and
Masons.
A. D. 750.
Under the reign of the caliph of Bagdad, architecture
1 When Honorius abandoned Britain, in 426, in consequence of his inability
to hold the country against the invasions of the Picts and Scots, the Britons
called to their aid, for that purpose, the Angles and the Saxons. After mak-
ing themselves masters of the country, the latter founded within it four
kingdoms, and the former founded three, which in 827 were united, under the
general name of Angle-land, with the Saxon king Egbert as ruler. In 835
the Danes and Normans desolated the country, but between 871 and 900
Alfred the Great forced them to terms of peace. Shortly afterward, however
they invaded the country anew, and nearly all the public monuments
churjhes, and monasteries became a prey to fire and pillage.
292 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMAN*? RT.
and the arts generally attained to a high degree of per-
fection. Arabia, at this time, exhibited a degree of civil-
ization far in advance of that known in Asia or Africa.
The fraternities of architects who, after the fall of the
Roman Empire of the West, remained in Syria and Arabia,
contributed in a great degree, by their knowledge of ait,
to the splendor and reputation Bagdad at this time
enjoyed.
A. D. 775.
Arabian architecture is introduced into Spain, under the
rule of the caliphs of the East, and directed, as it was
every-where, by the Masonic associations. These corpora-
tions, called from Bagdad by the viceroys of the caliphs
to Cordova — a city founded by the Romans 252 years
before the birth of Christ — there successively erected a
series of marvelous monuments, inspired by Byzantine
art. The organization of these corporations is unknown,
and they were, no doubt, subjected — in contradistinction
to those of the Roman colleges, from which they de-
scended— to modifications according with the manners
and character of the people among whom these associa-
tions had place; but it is not probable that there was any
essential difference. The Mussulmans were, at this time,
more advanced in the scale of art and civilization than
the Christians, and consequently they exercised very con-
siderable influence in the various provinces of the Penin-
sula.
Abderam I, viceroy of Cordova under the caliph of
Damascus, having declared his independence of the Da-
mascene, enriched his caliphate, the city of Cordova, with
so great a degree of splendor that the character of the
architecture therein exhibited created a school of archi-
tecture, whose reputation was only equaled by the mag-
nificence of its monuments. From this time that city
became the center of Moorish art.
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 293
A. D. 780.
Under the reign of Charlemagne architecture flourished
anew in France, that monarch having invited from Lom-
bardy numbers of architects and workmen, who were then
generally called stone-cutters
A. D. 850.
Many religious edifices, burnt or destroyed by the Danes,
are reconstructed by the corporations under the Saxon
king Ethelwolf, and the immediate direction of the priest
and architect St. Swithin. At this time were renewed
the meetings of the brethren, which were much inter-
rupted during the previous century.
A. D. 875.
Under the reign of that most illustrious of Saxon kings,
Alfred the Great, the arts, and particularly architecture,
flourished. The fraternities rebuilt the towns, castles,
monasteries, and churches, which were destroyed during
the Danish wars.
A. D. 900.
The successor of Alfred, Edward king of Mersey, ap-
pointed, as grand inspectors of the fraternities, his brother
Ethelward, and his brother-in-law, Ethred, who had be-
come practical architects in the school of the Freemasons.
A. D. 925.
At this time all the more important towns in England
had their lodge of Freemasons ; but, notwithstanding the
general conformity of their laws and principles, but little
connection existed between them. The cause of this is
explained by the fact that, for the five centuries in which
existed the heptarchy, or seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms,
there was little connection between those brethren scat*
294 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
tered throughout the kingdoms ; and, following the union
of the government, the wars of the Danes kept the coun-
try in a condition into which the arts of peace entered
but in the smallest proportion. During these wars the
monasteries being burnt, the fraternities suffered an irre-
parable loss in the destruction of all their documents,
written in various languages and at various times, brought
into the country by the Romans, Greeks, Syrians, Lom-
bards, and Gauls. Athelstan, the grandson of Alfred the
Great, who at this time governed England, with his palace
at York, having been elected as their chief by the priest
architects — himself an architect before he ascended the
throne — had also inductedhisyoungerson (Edwin) into the
mysteries of art, and appointed him chief or grand master
of the Fraternity. In this position the latter convoked
all the lodges scattered throughout the country to a general
assembly, to be held at York, and there to present all the
documents and deeds which they had saved from the fire
of the invaders, to the end that the Fraternity be regu-
larly constituted anew, according to the forms of those
written laws. It was at this assembly that a constitution,
prepared and submitted by the king, was discussed and
accepted by the representatives of the lodges, and thence-
forth proclaimed as the law. Promulgated the following
year, this constitution, styled the Charter of York, formed
the basis of all subsequent Masonic constitutions. Thence-
forth York became the seat of the grand mastership of
English Masonry.
A. D. 930.
Henry I (the Fowler) invites from England to Germany
the corporations of Freemasons, for the purpose of con-
structing edifices projected by him, such as the cathedrals
of Madgeburg, etc. These edifices were not erected, how-
ever, until the subsequent reign — that of his son, Otho
the Great.
FIRST CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 295
A. D. 936.
The Arabian fraternities of Masons and artists, of Ro-
man origin, commence this year the construction of that
famous royal castle Alcazar, that was built for the caliph
Abderam at Zara, near Seville, and ornamented with four
thousand three hundred columns of purest marble. This
prince invited the most skillful and learned architects of
Bagdad and Constantinople to direct and aid the frater-
nities of the country in their labors upon this important
and magnificent edifice.
A. D. 940.
The queen — Bertha of Burgundy — wishing to renew
the prosperity of her country, which had been devastated
and demoralized by the wars, sent to England for masters
and workmen, who, under the direction of a Scottish
master named Mackenbrey, undertook a series of con-
structions to be consecrated as churches and convents,
which they executed with astonishing rapidity, and con-
summate skill. The abbot, Majolus of Cluny, had the
superior direction of these great erections, which were
commenced in the year 930. The grandest and most
magnificent of these constructions were the abbey and the
church of the Benedictines at Payerne. From this time
the Masouic corporations of England spread themselves
upon the continent, under the name of St. John Brothers.
A. D. 960.
The death of king Athelstan again disperses the Free-
masons of England. Some of the most important con-
structions are, however, undertaken during the reign of
Edgar, under the grand mastership of Dunstan, (St. Dun-
stan,) archbishop of Canterbury. Many of the brethren
pass over to Germany, and there permanently locate
themselves, under the name of St. John Brothers, and
Brothers of St. John.
296 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Second lEpocJ).
From the year 1001 to the year 1717.
A. D. 1001.
In the course of the tenth century the Christian popu-
lation of the west found themselves under the influence
of an unhappy discouragement, which had seized upon
their spirits, in consequence of the predictions that the
end of the world might be expected at this time, and the
result of which was their abandonment of all works of
art. The artists, and principally the fraternities of Ma-
sons, condemned to inaction, fall into the miseries and
unhappiness of the times. The schools of architecture of
Lombardy, at Padua, and at Como, are not, however,
entirely deserted. The learned architects of these schools,
initiated — as had been those of Egypt — into the secrets
of nature and the study of astronomy, happily did not
partake of this general terror, which was invented by the
priests, for selfish purposes; and such schools continued
to teach, as in times past.
A. D. 1003.
No unnatural movement havings thrust our planet from
its course, the people welcomed with joy the aurora of a
new world; and it is from this epoch it is proper to date
modern civilization. The terror of the Christian world
had continued to the close of this year, as the reign of
Antichrist, it was believed, would continue for two years
and a half subsequent to the year 1000; and now art and
society in general awoke from their long trance, to re-
newed life and usefulness.
SECOND CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 297
A. D. 1005.
It was necessaij that nearly all the religious edifices of
the Christian world should be renewed. Up to this time
such buildings were principally composed of wood and
plaster; but now these are razed to the ground, and re-
built in more enduring material.
A. D. 1010.
A great number of ecclesiastics repair to Lombardy,
there to study religious architecture, and to form an
Italian school. Lombardy is, at this time, an active
center of civilization, where the fragments of the ancient
colleges of constructors reside, having lived through the
ordeal of international wars, and maintained their ancient
organization and their privileges, under the name of Free
Corporations. The most celebrated of these was that of
Como, which had acquired such superiority that the title
of magistri comacini (Masters of Como) had become the
generic name of all the members of the architect corpo-
rations. Always teaching in secret, they had their mys-
teries, their judiciary and jurisdiction. The architects from
distant countries, from Spain, Greece, and Asia, at this time
were accustomed to repair to their school at Como for in-
struction, to attain a knowledge of the new combinations
of the Latin and Greek styles of architecture, which had
been modified by intermixing with that style which was
developed during the nimh century at Constantinople, and
which was considered the most suitable for religious build-
ings. It was this combination that gave birth to the style
cailed " Roman." l
1 It was in this style that were erected the religious edifices of the 11th
century and part of those of the 12th, and following which succeeded the
newer style, called Roman ogee, which latter prevailed but from the year
1150 to the year 1200, or thereabouts.
298 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
A. D. 1040.
The Masonic corporations covered Italy, &m( more par-
ticularly Lombardy, with religious edifices, and to such an
extent did the membership of the corporations increase
that the country could no longer offer occupation to all.
Then they formed particular corporations, which traveled
into foreign countries ; and a large number of thorn, united
in forming a general association, and constituting them-
selves into a great fraternity that should travel into all
Christian countries wherein the necessary churches and
monasteries had not yet been erected, and demanding for
this object authority from the pope, and the confirmation
to them by him of all the ancient immunities which had at
any time attached to the building corporations, as also the
protection necessary to so grand an enterprise. The pope,
without delay, seconded this design, and conferred upon
them the exclusive monopoly of erecting all religious mon-
uments, as also making them free of all local laws, all
royal edicts and municipal regulations concerning statute
labor, together with immunity from every other obligation
imposed upon the inhabitants of whatever country, city,
or town they might be employed in. These monopolies
are respected and sanctioned by all the kings and all the
governments.
A. D. 1060.
The Masonic fraternities of Lombardy extend themselves
into Germany, into France, and into Brittany and Nor-
mandy. William the Conqueror, king of England (1054,)
sent from Normandy a crowd of prelates and architects, grad-
uates of the school of the Lombards, such as Mauserius, Le
Franc, Robert of Blois, Remy of Fecamp, and many others,
to plan and construct the most magnificent cathedrals in
England. Every-where, in all Christian countries, the
same passion for religious edifices seemed to prevail at this
SECOND CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 299
time, and, in consequence, religious architecture made great
progress.
A. D. 1080.
Some Masonic corporations fixed themselves in the Low
Countiy, and there erected churches and monasteries.
The bishop of Utrecht, desirous of constructing a great
cathedral, sought the aid of the leading architect of that
city, a man named Plebel, and obtained from him the neces-
sary plans for the proposed construction. Having obtained
possession of these papers, the bishop dismissed Plebel, and,
desirous of passing himself as the author of the plans, and en-
gage in directing the labors of the workmen without having
been initiated into the secrets of the art, sought, by all sorts
of menaces and promises, to wring from the son of the archi-
tect Plebel, a young master mason, the secrets and manner
{arcanum magisterium) of laying the foundations. These
rules, applied to the construction of religious edifices, were
held in the most inviolable secrecy by all members of the
association of Freemasons — a secret solemnly imposed upon
them by their oath. The architect, indignant at a perfidy
so base on the part of one whom the people regarded as
their supreme spiritual adviser, on learning of the perjury
of his son, determined to prevent the divulging the secret
of his art, and thereupon, having obtained an opportunity,
killed the bishop.
A. D. 1100.
During the century just closed, the Masonic corporations
completed the construction of more than one hundred cathe-
drals, churches, monasteries, abbeys, and c*astles, scattered
over the five principal European countries of that time,
viz. : England, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland.
A. D. 1125.
The Masonic corporations, under the style and name of
Brothers of St. John, extend themselves over civilized
300 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Europe anew, and give their assemblies the name of Lodges
of St. John. This qualification, which was first known in
England, goes back to the sixth century, and originated as
follows : In those days the Freemasons' feasts, following
the ancient usage of the Roman colleges, were held upon
the return of the }7early solstices, particularly upon that of
summer. Christianity having taken the place of pagan-
ism, induced them to invest the occasion of their feasts
with another sign, more in keeping with the wishes of the
clergy. They, therefore, chose St. John for their patron,
because it was the ancient Janus, a god of the Romans,
whose feast fell upon the 24th of June, which was also the
epoch of the solstice of summer, and which anniversary
they could thus continue to celebrate under the name of
St. John's day. From the importance they attached to
these party assemblies, they came to be called St. John
Brothers — a name under which they were universally
known upon the continent during the twelfth century.
A. D. 1150.
A fraternity of Masons, called from Lombardy direct to
England, in the reign of Alexander III, erect, under this
prince and his successors, a great many beautiful monu-
ments of their art, the major part of which are apparent
but as ruins. Among the others, the town and abbey of
Kilwinning, where subsequently were held the general as-
semblies of this fraternity, were constructed by them.
A. D. 1155.
The grand master of the Templars, Richard, king of
England, surnamed the Lion Heart, is elected by the
lodges of English Freemasons to the like position over
them ; and he governs the two fraternities until his death.
A Masonic fraternity, of Syrian origin, detained in Europe
by the immense constructions which were then erected, in
this year construct for the Templars their church in Fleet
SECOND CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 301
Street, London. This fraternity had preserved intact the
ancient initiation practiced among the Romans.
A. D. 1175.
A Masonic fraternity, to which was given the name of
Brother Bridgers, and which occupied itself particularly
with the construction of bridges and roads, located itself
in the midst of France, where, at Avignon, in 1180, it con-
structed the bridge of that name, and, subsequently, all the
bridges of Provence, of Lorraine, and of Lyons.
A. D. 1200.
During the century which this year closed, the fraterni-
ties of builders have added to the numerous magnificent
erections of the preceding period some of the finest con-
structions of the middle ages. In England, France, Ger-
many, Italy, and Spain such of the oldest ecclesiastic and
monastic erections as have survived the decaying touch of
time, were completed during the twelfth century.
A. D. 1225.
Lombardy has attained its preeminence as the principal
European school of architecture. Thither, from all coun-
tries, the master masons repair for new ideas and new
knowledge. The Scottish artists, the Byzantine, and also
those of Cordova, who affected more of pomp, and what
was known as the style Arabesque, in their details of deco-
ration, there modified their art; while, in their turn, the
Lombards, recognizing the beauties of these different forms,
intermix them with the more severe simplicity of their
Roman ogival, from which intermixture there results a
new combination, inappropriately styled Gothic,1 which is
'We find in that most remarkable work, published in 1843, and of which
the architect Daniel Rameo is the author, some passages bearing upon thia
fact, one of which we will take the liberty to quote. After having enumer-
ated the different opinions upon the origin of the ogival style, the author, in
302 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
distinguished by the most harmonious reunion of opposite
elements, by hardihood of conception and solidity of exe-
cution. This style is immediately adopted in all Christian
countries, and totally changes nearly all the established
plans which, up to this period, prevailed in the construc-
tion of religious edifices.
A. D. 1250.
The changes which have been introduced within the
past twenty-five years in the outlines and details of Chris-
tian architecture, stamp this period as the most remark-
able of any preceding time. The striking analogy which
the monuments of this time afford when contrasted with
those of the fifteenth century, is explained by the tie of
the Fraternity which, uniting the Masonic brethren of
every nation, afforded them identity of progress and
knowledge in their art. Lombardy, that central school
of art, had its prototype in the fifteenth century at Stras-
burg and Cologne ; while, ever obedient during the past
three hundred years to the lessons taught in those central
schools of their art, the knowledge of one became the
property of the whole, and individual promptings of
beauty in ornament or decoration were not admissible, as
none were free from that obedience which involved the
use of a similar style of ornament. The symbolic and
satirical markings which distinguished the architectural
monuments of the fifteenth from those of the twelfth
century are indicative of the gradual change that had
been wrought by the abuses of the clergy, and by those
attempts to enslave the popular mind in ignorance and
his turn, although very desirous of claiming the credit of the invention for
France, is compelled by his regard for truth to say: "There is no doubt that
the employment of the ogee, or pointed arch, and the style which resulted
therefrom, was first practiced among the learned, modest, pious, and truly
Christian Freemasons of foreign countries, and the knowledge of which they
communicated to their brethren in Germany, England, France, Spain, and
Italy.'
SECOND CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 303
superstition, which subsequently culminated in the Prot-
estant Reformation.
A. D. 1251.
Louis IX, called St. Louis, directs the architect Eudes,
of Montreuil, to fortify the harbor and town of Joppa,
and he is accompanied thither by a certain number of
Freemasons.
A. D. 1272.
The construction of Westminster Abbey is completed
this year, under the direction of the grand master Giffard,
archbishop of York.
A. D. 1275.
Erwin of Steinbach1 evoked at Strasburg a Masonic
congress, for the purpose of adopting measures to continue
the labors which for a long time had been interrupted,
upon the cathedral of that city, and to enlarge the dimen-
sions of that structure to a plan more extended than that
by which the foundations had been laid in the year 1015,
and upon which latter plan a part of the church was
erected. The architects from all countries of Europe
repaired to Strasburg, and there, according to their usage,
organized a general assembly, or grand lodge, at which
each representative renewed the oath to observe the laws
and rules of the Fraternity. Near the foundations of the
cathedral is constructed a wooden building, wherein are
held the meetings of the assembled brethren, and the ob-
jects of that assembly discussed and adopted. Erwin of
Steinbach is elected, by the architects and directors of the
1 Since the thirteenth century the names of some of the most celebrated
architects who conducted the labors upon the most remarkable cathedra's
of the middle ages are known to us ; but, for the chief part, their names
remain unknown, and this is easily explained : these monuments were the
creation of a general association, and it was not necessary that the proper
names of persons comprising its membership, no matter how important,
ihould be publicly mentioned.
304 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
edifice, president (chair master) ; and, as a sign of the
judicial character delegated to him by these brethren, he
is seated under a canopy, with a sword in his hand. Signs
and tokens which enable the workmen upon the cathedral
to distinguish themselves from others not so engaged are
adopted, and made known to all the brethren assembled,
some of which words and signs being those in use among
the brethren in England. Apprentices, fellow- crafts, and
masters are initiated with particular symbolic ceremonies,
under which are indicated the most profound secrets of
architecture.
A. D. 1300.
The number of< monuments commenced or finished
within the thirteenth century, just closed, far exceed any
previous similar period. Among the most remarkable
were, in England, Westminster Abbey, at London, and
the cathedral of Litchfield, at Exeter. In France, the
cathedrals of Paris,1 of Rheims, of Chartres, of Rouen, of
Amicus, Bruges, Beauvais, and Strasburg; the holy chapel
at Paris, and the church and abbey of St. Denis. In
Germany, the cathedrals of Cologne, Friburg and Breslau;
the domes of Madgeburg and Halberstadt; the churches
of Notre Dame of Cologne and St. Elizabeth, at Marburg,
and of St. Catharine, at Oppenheim. In Belgium, the
churches of St. John at Tournay, those of the Dominicans
1 This cathedral was built, according to undisputed authority, with the
money that Maurice, bishop of Paris, obtained from the sale of indulgences,
and of which he had sufficient to also erect four abbies. The French
bishops, following the example set in 1016 by the pontifical bishop of Aries,
who was the first to preach this matter, established this principle, viz.: that
whoever consecrated a small sum of money to the erection or restoration of
a church or a chapel, received, in the name of the Lord, remission of the
third to the fourth part of the penitential punishment awarded them in
the confessional. When Pope Julian II wished to build St. Peter's church
at Rome, he followed the example det by the French bishops, and promul-
gated his order for the sale of indulgences. The Protestant Reformation
was the result.
SECOND CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 305
at Gand and at Louvain; of St. Paul and of Sante Croix
at Liege; of St. Gudule and Our Lady of the chapel, at
Brussels. In Italy, the cathedral of Venice, the dome of
Arezzo, and the churches of St. Francis of Padua, and
those of Campo Santo and St. Marie della Pina ; of St.
Margaret at Crotona, of St. Mary the New, of St. Croix,
and of St. Mary of the Flowers, at Florence ; of St. John
and of St. Paul, at Venice ; of St. Francis, at Bologna ;
the lodge of the public palace at Padua; the old palace
at Florence; and the ducal palace at Venice. In Spain,
the cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo ; the monastery of
Pobelt, and the churches of St. Thomas and St. Maria
Blanca, at Toledo.
A. D. 1310.
The construction of the magnificent cathedral of Co-
logne, commenced in 1248, elevates the fraternity engaged
in this work to a high degree of superiority — in fact,
raises it to the rank of a school to which repair brethren
from all countries for the purpose of studying this master-
piece of architectural genius. The lodges of Germany,
recognizing this superiority, regard the master of this
work as the master of all the German masons, and the
brethren engaged upon it as the Grand Lodge, (Haupt-
hiltte.)
A. D. 1312.
During the persecutions directed by Philip the Fair,
king of France, and Pope Clement V, against the Knights
Templar, many of the latter sought refuge in the fast-
nesses of Scotland, where, until after the death of their
grand master, Jaques de Molay, they found security for
their persons in the bosom of the Masonic lodges.
A. D. 1360.
At this time nearly every city in Germany had its
lodges, for wherever religious edifices were being con-
20
306 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
structed, there the fraternities of builders were congre-
gated. These lodges had accorded to and recognized a
superiority as existing among some of their numbers, and,
in consequence, characterized them, as in England, by the
title of grand lodges. That at Cologne was from at first
the most important of all, and continued to be the central
lodge for a long time after that at Strasburg was elevated
to the same rank ; and the master of the work was equally
recognized as chief of the Masons of upper Germany, as
him of Cologne was of those of the lower country.
A. D. 1380.
The fortress and palace of the Alhambra at Grenada,
the capital of the kingdom of this name, which was
founded by the Moors, under Mahomet I, creator of the
dynasty of the Alhamarides, in 1235, and the construction
of which fortress and palace was begun in 1248, is finished
during this year.
This marvelous monument is the most beautiful that
Moorish architecture has produced in Spain. If we exam-
ine this edifice in all its details, we will find that it is un-
surpassed in luxury and taste by any construction of mod-
ern times. The palace of the Alhambra is the work of a
happy congregation of artists of every kind, such as com-
posed the Roman colleges until after the third century of
our era; and this fact allows us to believe that this mon-
ument of human genius, like others in Grenada, was
equally the work of Masonic and artistic associations, or-
ganized and directed in manner similar to those of other
countries at the same period, of whom, however, history
has failed to furnish us with any record.
A. D. 1400.
The monuments the most remarkable which have been
erected, begun, or finished by the Masonic fraternities
within the century just closed, are, in England, the cathe-
SECOND CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 307
drals of York and Exeter, and the King's College at Cam-
bridge. In France, the cathedrals of Perpignan, Meanx,
Auxerre, Toul, Tours, and Metz ; the churches of St.
Owen at Rouen, and of St. James at Dieppe. In Bel-
gium, the belfry, the cloth hall, the city hall, and acad-
emy of line arts at Tournay ; the church of the Domin
cans, and the cloth hall at Louvain ; the city hall at
Brussels, and the cathedral of Malines. In Germany, the
dome of Gefurth, as also those of Prague and of Ulm; the
church of Notre Dame at Nuremberg, and that of St. Nich-
olas at Stralsund. In Italy, the cathedrals of Como and
Milan ; the dome of Orvita ; the churches of Anastasia and
St. Peter at Verona, of St. Mary at Pome, and of St. Stephen
at Venice ; the ducal palace at Venice, and those of Flor-
ence and of Bologna. In Spain, the cathedrals of Seville
and Barcelona ; and the church of St. Mary at Toledo. In
Switzerland, the cathedrals of Berne, of Lausanne, of Fri-
burg, and of Zurich.1
A. D. 1480.
The astonishing sacrifices which the people had made
to erect so many magnificent churches, joined to the cry-
ing abuses of the clergy and of the popes at this time,
have relaxed the religious ardor and weakened the popu-
lar faith to such an extent as not only to preclude the idea
of erecting new church edifices, but also to stop opera-
tions upon many of those which were yet unfinished for
want of funds. In consequence of this condition, and
notwithstanding the renewal, in 1459, by the emperor
Maximilian, of their ancient privileges, and his sanction to
their constitution, the number of the Masonic corpora-
tions established in every continental country declined,
and their privileges became of little value; so that, hav-
ing no more religious edifices to construct, they disperse
1 For the years 1425, '37, '42, '59, '64, aud '69, see those dates at pp. 239
and 240, ante.
308 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
and seek employment at such places and of such kind as
hitherto had been occupied and executed by men not con-
nected with the fraternities of builders. More particularly
was this the case in France ; while in Germany they still
preserved some consistence and connection among them-
selves— the fortune of their French brethren not having
overtaken them until later; and in England they con-
tinued to flourish with unabated prosperity.1
A. D. 1500.
During the century just closed, the Masonic fraternities
may be said to have finished their labors in church archi-
tecture, and dispersed to find occupation in their individ-
ual capacities as constructors of public buildings for civic
and municipal purposes.
A. D. 1575.
Since the beginning of this century, when the greater
part of the fraternities found it necessary to dissolve their
associations, the more wealthy architects undertook the
erection of public buildings, and employed the others to
construct the same, in the capacity of hired workmen.
The tie of brotherhood which, up to this time, had
closely united master and workmen, was gradually dis-
solved, and they assumed such relationship toward each
other as was habitual with other bodies of tradesmen
since the fourth century. In this manner, and at this
time, the trades unions appear to have had their origin.
A. D. 1600.
With the close of the sixteenth century, the Masonic
corporations had entirely disappeared in continental Eu-
1 It was not until the middle of the seventeenth century that the Masonic
corporations- in England abandoned, to some extent, the material object of
their organization, and admitted to honorary membership many persons not
artists as accepted Masons. It was this element that subsequently caused
their entire dissolution as operative Masonic bodies.
SECOND CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 309
rope, as long before that time all religious constructions
had been abandoned. After this date no traces of any
regular Masonic organization can be found outside of the
kingdom of England.
A. D. 1646.
The Masonic corporations in England are found to be
composed for some time and in great part by learned per-
sons, artists, and men eminent for their knowledge of sci-
ence and art, as well as their influential positions in
society, who had been received into the corporations as
honorary members, under the designation of Accepted
Masons. It was at this time that the association, no more
occupied with the material object of its organization, in-
itiated as an accepted Mason the celebrated antiquary Elias
Ashmole, who founded the museum at Oxford, and who
re-arranged and composed the forms of the society of the
Rose Cross Brothers, which had been organized in Lon-
don, after the model of the new Atlantis of Lord Bacon,
and held its assemblies in the hall which had been hitherto
used by the Freemasons. To the rituals of reception of
the Rose Cross Brethren, which consisted of some cere-
monies having a historical foundation, and the commu-
nication of the signs of recognition, and which, to some
extent, resembled those used among the Freemasons, Ash-
mole added some others. This labor inspired him with
the idea of arranging also a new ritual for the Freemasons,
and he therefore composed and substituted for the ritual
then in use another mode of initiation, copied in part
from the ancient manuscripts and the Anglo-Saxon and
Syrian rituals, and in part from the mysteries of Egypt,
and otherwise, as he supposed, most resembled the initia-
tion ceremony, as it was conducted in the colleges of Ro-
man architects and builders. These rituals were at once
adopted by the lodges in London, and subsequently by
those every-where in England.
310 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
A. D: 1670.
The progress of Masonry having been suspended by the
civil wars which during the previous twenty years had
been desolating England, Charles II sought its revival
by assuming its protectorship; and the lire of London,
which took place four years previous, gives employment
to the lodges, of which, at present, seven exist in the city
of London.
A. D. 1685.
When James II ascended the throne in 1683, his lean-
ing toward Roman Catholicism greatly agitated a num-
ber of his subjects ; but in this year, having accorded
freedom of conscience in religious matters the most com-
plete to all within the bounds of his kingdom, the Free-
masons divided into two camps, which, arrayed against
each other, threw their whole influence into the political
rather than the architectural or philosophical arena. The
Scottish Masons, having at its head the knights of St.
Andrew, adhered to James II, or the Catholic party,
while the English Masons ranged themselves among the
ranks of that party which decided to remove the Catholic
king. This latter party succeeding; James was forced
into exile, and, accompanied by many of the nobles of his
court and the leading Jesuits, took up his residence in
Paris, in the convent of Clermont. [The revival of the
order of St. Andrew1 engendered the Templar system, sub-
sequently called Strict Observance, which gave birth to
various fashions of exclusive Christian Freemasonry dur-
ing the last century, with the hierarchical forms of the
Knights of the Temple, and the ancient titles of grand
commander, etc.2]
A. D. 1695.
The revolutions in England which succeeded the exile
1 See pages 238 and 243, (A. D. 1314 and 1685.)
2 See History of all the Rites for High Degrees, p. 212.
SECOND CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 311
of James II having completely suspended the labors of
the Masonic institution, king William III afforded it some
protection and character by being himself initiated, and
often presiding in the lodge he assembled at Hampton
Court.
A. D. 1700.
At this time, except in England, the Masonic corpora-
tions were every- where dissolved. The close of the sev-
enteenth century, in consequence of the active part taken
by the fraternity in politics, wars, and revolution, saw
them scattered, their lodges dissolved, and the operative
members of the Masonic lodges exerting no influence upon
architecture, and had no rank or importance in the land.
Having ceased their labors as operative Masons, the vast
crowd of oj^ratives, the protectors, the friends of art and
of humanity, who, during fourteen centuries, had contrib-
uted, through the organization of the Masonic fraternity,
so much to the increase of civilization in Europe, are to-
day represented by a few persons, who resolve to perpetu-
ate the name of their ancient organization by remodeling
it as a purely philosophic institution ; and at a meeting
of the lodge of St. Paul, held on St. John's day,
A. D. 1703,
Resolve, " That the privileges of Masonry shall no longer
be confined to operative Masons, but be free to men of all
professions, provided they are regularly approved and in-
itiated into the Fraternity." At this time Christopher
Wren, Knt., was grand master of Freemasonry, nearly all
the operative Masons in England being employed under
him upon the construction of St. Paul's cathedral. Ri
opposed the execution of this famous resolution while he
lived ; so that it was not until after his death, which oc-
curred in 1716, that the brethren were at liberty to en-
force their new regulation.
312 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
From the year 1717 to the present time.
A. D. 1717.
After the death of the grand master, Oiaiftkopher
Wren, the four lodges of London resolve to elect a new
grand master, detach themselves from the:*/ connection
with the brethren at York, of whom they h jld their con-
stitution, for the purpose of forming a new grand lodge,
and thus be at liberty to put into execution the resolution
of 1703. The four lodges, with these objects in view, in-
voked in general assembly all the Masons of London and
vicinity, and constituted a central authority, under the
title of the Grand Lodge of England, and recognizing in
the three symbolic degrees alone all the principles of
Masonry.
It is from this time we must date the era of modern
or philosophic Freemasonry.
A. D. 1720.
The Grand Lodge of England has, since its installation,
organized a certain number of lodges, in which many
persons of distinction have been initiated. The Grand
Lodge of York, suddenly excited with sentiments of jeal*
ousy at the growing prosperity of its young rival, the
Grand Lodge of England, and in defiance of the principles
of the Fraternity, proscribes those members as illegitimately
made. An irreparable loss has been perpetrated by some
too jealous brethren of the lodge of St. Paul, who, fear-
ing that improper use may be made of them, burn all
THIRD CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 313
the ancient manuscripts, charters, rituals, and documents
of all kinds.
A. D. 1721.
Freemasonry begins to extend upon the continent.
The grand lodge organize a lodge at Dunkirk, and an-
other at Mons, and the rules and regulations of the Fra-
ternity are revised. George Payne, bei ug reelected grand
master, compiled from the ancient charter documents a
series of " charges " and " regulations " more suited to the
present condition and objects of the Society, and, prefaced
by a history of the Fraternity as an association of arch-
itects, he submitted the same to the grand lodge. This
work being submitted by that body to the examination
of a committee composed of fourteen of its members,
was intrusted to the critical revision of Dr. James Ander-
son, with directions to prepare the same for publication,
as a body of law and doctrine, for the use of the lodges
of England.
A. D. 1722.
The manuscript, with the revision of which he was in-
trusted, is presented by Dr. Anderson to the grand lodge,
and upon reception of the report of the commission of
fourteen, it is adopted and ordered to be printed under
the title of " The Constitutions of the Freemasons, con-
taining the History, Charges, Regulations, etc., of that
Most Ancient and Eight Worshipful Fraternity."
From this time the organization of the new Freema-
sonry was established in prosperity. In accordance with
the constitution — which is, in fact, but an adaptation of
that of York of 926, more suited to the people and pres-
ent time — the new grand lodge of England took up its
position as the only legitimate Masonic authority in Eng-
land, and thus excited the ill-will of such scattered bodies
as assumed to be invested with inherent rights, because
antedating the grand lodge in authority. This constitu-
tion, in fact, deprived Freemasons in their lodge capacities
314 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
of their ancient privileges, in prohibiting, among other
restrictions, the formation of any lodge without being au-
thorized in such act by this grand lodge. The conse-
quence of this assumption of authority on the part of the
grand lodge promptly occasioned the protest and denial
of such rights by the grand lodges of York and Edin-
burgh.
A. D. 1725.
This year the new Freemasonry is introduced into Paris,
where many lodges are organized within a few years.
A. D. 1728.
Baron Ramsay, a Scotchman, and a partisan of the
Stuarts, sought to introduce in London a new style of
Masonry, created in the interest of " the Pretender," and
which he asserted had descended from the crusades, as it
was created by Godfrey of Bouillon, and of which the
lodge of St. Andrew, at Edinburgh, was the principal
modern authority. The political character of this Ma-
sonry caused it to be very promptly rejected, and he
returned to France without meeting with any success.
A. D. 1729.
The activity displayed by the lodges holding under the
Grand Lodge of England, and the brilliancy which attached
to their labors, stimulated the zeal of the Masons of Ire-
land and Scotland, who previously had assembled them-
selves together, but at irregular and uncertain periods.
The Masonic temples are opened in all parts of the king-
dom, and the initiations greatly multiplied. A convoca-
tion of Irish Freemasons resolve to organize a grand
lodge upon the basis and constitution of that of London ;
and thus a central power is constituted under the title of
the Grand Lodge of Ireland.
THIRD CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 315
A. D. 1730.
The lodges greatly increase^as well in England as upon
the continent — the latest being those at Hamburg and
the Hague. A provincial grand master, named Pemfrees,
is employed to go to India, and in a short time he organ-
ized in Bengal eleven lodges. A central committee of
charity is instituted in London to succor brethren in dis-
tress, and the funds for this institution are raised by a
voluntary annual contribution of four shillings from each
member of a lodge in London, and two shillings from
each member of a lodge elsewhere in England.
A. D. 1732.
The Grand Lodge of York, representing the ancient
system of operative Masonry, and of which the regula-
tions conform more readily to the free system of the an-
cient Masonic corporations, recognized the necessity of
changing this system to correspond in greater degree with
the object of the new Freemasonry.
A. D. 1733.
The first provincial grand lodge in America is insti-
tuted at Boston. During this year lodges have been or-
ganized in Italy, at Rome and Florence; in Spain, at
Gibraltar and Malta; in Hussia, at St. Petersburg. The
lodges in Bengal have sent abundant aid to the charity
fund in London.
A. D. 1734.
A general assembly of the Masons of Holland is con-
voked at the Hague, for the purpose of organizing a pro-
vincial grand lodge, which being done, the same is char-
tered regularly by the Grand Lodge of England, in 1735.
A. D. 1735.
The Grand Lodge of England nominate provincial grand
masters for South America and Africa. Lodges are or-
316 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
ganized at Madrid and at Lisbon. This year is rendered
memorable by the commencement of persecutions directed
against the Fraternity by the general government of Hol-
land, which interests the Masonic assemblies.
A. D. 1736.
The Grand Lodge of Scotland, at Edinburgh, believing
the great prosperity of the new English lodges to be con-
sequent upon the more liberal constitution of the new
grand lodge, is desirous to introduce similar changes into
its own system ; but the hereditary charge of patron that
James I had, in 1430, conceded to the family of Roslin
prevented. The baron Sinclair of Roslin, the grand mas-
ter, being approached by the grand lodge upon the subject,
acceded readily to the request; and, in an assembly con-
voked by the four oldest lodges of Scotland, at Edinburgh,
after reading his renunciation to the rights and privileges
of patron, George Sinclair, baron of Roslin, was duly
elected grand master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland for
1737, and the same was property organized under a con-
stitution, charges, and regulations similar to those of the
Grand Lodge of England.
In this year, also, a provincial grand lodge of England
was organized as the governing body of the lodges in
Paris.
The Grand Lodge of England named the count SchefFer
provincial grand master for the lodges of Sweden.
A. D. 1737.
During this year the English provincial grand lodges
of Switzerland and Saxony are founded, respectively at
Geneva and Hamburg ; and the Grand Lodge of England
nominates William, king of Prussia, provincial grand
master for the lodges of Lower Saxony.
THIRD CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 317
A. D. 1738.
Pope Clement XII promulgates his bull of excommuni-
cation against the Freemasons ; and it is followed by the
edict of the emperor Charles VI, who interdicts the
assemblies of Freemasons in the Low Country. Prince
Frederick subsequently, as Frederick II, king of Prussia,
±a initiated, at Brunswick, on the night of August 15 of
this year.
A. D. 1739.
The Grand Lodge of England is accused, by many of
the brethren, with having suppressed some of the cere-
monies, altered the ritual, and introduced innovations;
also of having appointed provincial grand masters to or-
ganize lodges in towns under the jurisdiction of the Grand
Lodge of York — a measure that of itself was considered suf-
ficiently offensive. From these charges there resulted some
new divisions among the lodges of the north and south of
England. Many of the discontented separated themselves
from the grand lodge at London, and declared themselves
adherents of the grand lodge at York, and then formed a
new grand lodge, neither of England nor York, which they
styled the Grand Lodge of "Ancient and Accepted Ma-
sons." The grand lodges of Ireland and Scotland, having
recognized this body as truly representatives of the ancient
rite, refused to correspond with the elder jurisdiction, con-
temptuously styled by this new body as modern. Never-
theless, the so-called modern grand lodge augmented in
importance and consideration, while the latter organization,
though styling itself ancient, remained in obscurity, and
was but little known outside of London city.
A. D. 1739.
The cardinal Ferraro, in his edict, published on the 14th
January, wishing to remove all doubt and equivocation in
the interpretation of the bull of excommunication of his
holiness the pope, launched against the Freemasons on the
818 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
27th of April of the preceding year, explained that docu-
ment in the following manner: "That no persons should
assemble or meet in any place in the capacity of a society,
nor be found present at such assemblies, under the penalty
of death and confiscation of all their goods, and also incur
damnation without hope of grace" By the same edict it is
expressly directed that "all house-holders are prohibited
from allowing meetings of Freemasons to take place within
their houses, under penalty of having the same demolished,
and themselves mulcted in a line of one thousand crowns of
gold, and being condemned to the galleys."
A. D. 1740.
The Grand Lodge of England named a provincial mas-
ter for the lodges founded in Russia. At this time France
had two hundred lodges, twenty -two of which were located
in Paris. The provincial grand lodges instituted, to the
present time, in different countries, by the Grand Lodge of
England, in their turn now began to organize themselves
into independent grand lodges.
A. D. 1741.
.Foundation of the provincial grand lodge of Hanover,
at Hanover ; and the provincial grand lodge of Saxony, at
Dresden, by the Count Rutowski, who is elected grand
master, and which became an independent grand lodge in
1755.
A. D. 1742.
Founding of the provincial grand lodge of the Sun at
Beyreuth, and a provincial grand lodge at Antigua, for
the English West Indies.
A. D. 1744.
The grand lodge at the Three Globes, in Berlin, which
was organized in 1640 by Baron Bielfeld is this year ele-
vated to the rank of a grand lodge by Frederick the Great,
THIRD CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 319
king of Prussia, and he i3 elected its permanent grand
master, a position which he filled until 1747. (In 1849
this grand lodge had organized fourteen operative lodges.)
A. D. 1746.
Lord Derwentwater, the first grand master of the prov-
incial grand lodge of France, perishes upon the scaffold, a
victim of his attachment to the Pretender, Charles Edward
Stuart.
A. D. 1747.
The Grand Lodge of Scotland institutes, at Copenhagen,
a provincial grand lodge for Denmark, which, shortly after-
ward, proclaimed its independence of the Grand Lodge of
Scotland. In this year Charles Edward Stuart, known as
"the Pretender," son of James II, deposed king of Eng-
land, institutes the chapter of Arras, and delivers to the
Masons who are attached to his person a bull of institution,
or letters patent, for a governing chapter of what he named
the Scottish Jacobite Rite.
A. D. 1751.
Freemasonry, as constituted in London thirty years ago,
has now extended into nearly every civilized country. Its
humanitarian doctrines and the civilizing principles it
manifested, together with its radical leaning toward the
dogma of " Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," had, by this
time, intimidated kings, popes, and princes to such an ex-
tent that they seek to arrest its progress. As early as 1731
edicts had been promulgated against it in Russia, while in
1735, in Holland* and in 1737-'38-'44-'45, at Paris, similar
interdictions had been ordered. At Rome and in Florence,
the meetings of Freemasons were prohibited, as also in
Sweden, Hamburg, and Geneva the bull of Pope Clement
was enforced. The Holy Inquisition, as the court accusa-
tive in those countries wherein it existed, caused the breth-
ren to be imprisoned, and their books and papers to be
320 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
burned by the hands of the public executioner. But tc
crown all these persecutions, King Charles of Naples, as
also Ferdinand VII, king of Spain, wishing to interdict
Masonry within their States, rendered edicts prohibiting
the assemblage of Freemasons, under pain of death ; and
the pope, Benedict XIV, renewed this year the bull of
excommunication of Clement XII, in 1738, against the
Freemasons, whose assemblies he interdicted under penalty
of death. But all these violent measures had but slight
effect in stopping the progress of Masonry, which finds it-
self propagated upon the civilized globe with a rapidity
that nothing can arrest. Notwithstanding the bull of
Benedict XIV, Freemasonry is practiced at this time openly
in Tuscany, at Naples, and in many other parts of the Ital-
ian peninsula. At Borne, even, there are lodges which
adopt but feeble measures to keep themselves hidden.
A. D. 1753.
The Masonic Orphan Asylum is established at Stock-
holm. Its fund is the accumulation of special collections
taken up in the Swedish lodges. (At the present time this
institution is very rich.)
A. D. 1754.
Under a patent or charter from the Grand Lodge of Scot-
land, the provincial grand lodge of Sweden is organized.
The Grand Lodge of England transmits charters to organize
lodges in South Carolina, Guadaloupe, and Gibraltar, and
in this year many new lodges are instituted in England.
The Templar system, created by the partisans of the Stuarts,
is revived at Paris by the institution of the chapter of Cler-
mont, in the convent of that name, under the direction of
the Chevalier de Bonneville.
A. D. 1753.
The Grand Lodge of England, in consequence of the
THIRD CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 321
schism that lias taken place in its ranks, establishes the cus-
tom of granting diplomas to the brethren under its jurisdic-
tion, to distinguish them from those initiated by the seceders.
A. D. 1756.
The English grand lodge in France, instituted in 1736,
and which took the title in 1743, detaches itself from the
Grand Lodge of London, and proclaims itself the Grand
Lodge of France. The confusion manifested under the
grand mastership of the Duke of Clermont, however, does
not abate, but rather increases. By constitutions delivered
to masters of lodges, securing them in the enjoyment of
such office for life, Masonic authorities never contemplated
are established in France. The practice, begun with a
political motive by the lodge of St. Andrew of Scotland,
situate at Edinburgh, was continued by the English pro-
vincial grand lodge of France, and the confusion thus en-
gendered the new Masonic authority, into which that body
has resolved itself, now finds it impossible to correct.
Those masters of lodges, for the sake of gain, vend the
privileges accorded to themselves; and, to do this the more
easily, they fabricate false titles, and antedate charters and
diplomas. In shaking off the control of the Grand Lodge
of England, and in proclaiming itself the grand lodge of
the kingdom of France, that body declared in its constitu-
tion to sacredly continue the custom of granting personal
titles to these lodge masters ad vitam and, by so doing, in-
creased the existing confusion ; for the result was that these
masters governed their lodges not more by the forms laid
down by the grand lodge than by their individual caprices,
and this, taken with the vending of authorities to open
lodges, which lodges, in their turn, felt at liberty to organize
grand lodges, (or bodies in authority amounting thereto,)
chapters, councils, and tribunals embracing the objects and
practice of all the degrees then known, created, at this time,
so chaotic a condition that it was apparently impossible
21
322 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
to determine the legal governing Masonic authority in
France.
A. D. 1756.
In this year the national grand lodge of Italy was or-
ganized at Naples. (In 1790 this body was dissolved.)
At the Hague the representatives of thirty lodges in the
Netherlands constitute a grand lodge of the United Prov-
inces, and elect the Baron of Aersen-Beyeren first grand
master.
A. D. 1758.
The Grand Lodge of Scotland, at Edinburgh, in adopting
and conferring the high degrees, and establishing rituals
for each of these degrees, renders herself liable to the same
charges of unmasonic conduct which she had but a short
time before directed against the Grand Lodge of England,
viz. : of changing the basis of Freemasonry and altering
the rituals. These high degrees give her, however, an in-
fluence not before enjoyed, and creates a corresponding
energy in the work of the Scotch lodges. Perceiving the
increasing prosperity of her sister grand lodge at London,
occasioned mainly by the custom, originated by the latter,
of establishing, every-where, provincial grand lodges, the
Grand Lodge of Scotland, for the purpose of initiating a like
proceeding, authorized a Colonel Young as provincial
grand master of such lodges as he might organize, as well
as those already existing and holding their charters from
the Grand Lodge of Scotland in North America and the
British West Indies, with plenary powers to introduce the
high degrees then known to Scottish Masonry into those
countries.
A. D. 1760.
At Avignon, the mother lodge of the Rite of Swedenborg
is instituted by the Benedictine monk Dom Pernetti, and
a Pole named Grabianca. The philosopher Swedenborg,
one of the most loarned and illustrious Freemasons of his
THIRD CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 323
time, in instituting this rite, had in view a desire to reform
the Roman Catholic religion. The dogmas of the reform
of Swedenborg are adopted by a good many influential
persons in Sweden, England, and Germany, where societies
which practice his religious system have been formed by
these persons.
A. D. 1760.
In this year Freemasonry in Germany was greatly con-
fused and injured by the introduction of the high degrees
of every kind known to and having their inception in
France. Chapters of Emperors of the East and West,with
a rite of twenty-five degrees, (subsequently known as the
Rite of Perfection,) founded in Paris in 1758 by the estab-
lishment of the Chapter of Clermont, are the children of
this parent, and they are introduced by the Marquis of
Berny, a French gentleman, into the lodge at the Three
Globes, in Berlin. This lodge propagates this right by the
aid of its deputy Rosa, a Lutheran priest, who in a short
time has organized seventeen lodges. Subsequently the
army of Broglie introduced the other rites, such as Tem-
plarism, Rosecrucianism, etc., until, in a few years, the
brethren in Germany are in as great confusion, as to what
is and what is not Freemasonry, as they are in France.
A. D. 1762.
At this time Freemasonry had attained great progress,
the different grand lodges of Europe having instituted
lodges in nearly every part of the world. The baron of
Hund introduces into Germany the Templar system known
as "Strict Observance," which he has studied at Paris,
where he was initiated into the high degrees of the chapter
of Clermont.
A. D. 1763.
The two parties into which the Grand Lodge of France
had been divided, in consequence of the maladministration
324 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
of the grand master, the duke of Clermont, reunited m
1762, after having, during their separation, injured the
Masonic institution almost beyond repair, by their crea-
tions of moveable lodges and immoveable matters. Not-
withstanding the union, confusion, consequent upon their
previous misconduct, continued, and the effects of the high
degrees are as apparent for evil as they are lamentable, not
only in France, but wherever they have been introduced.
A. D. 1764.
A man named Johnson, a secret agent of the Jesuits,
who styled himself Envoy and Plenipotentiary of the un-
known superiors of Strict Observance, establishes at Jena
some chapters of this system. He announced, in an assem-
bly that he convoked at this place on the 25th December,
1763, that he alone had the power of conferring the de-
grees of the system and organizing chapters, by virtue of
the documents, patents, and briefs granted to him by the
unknown superiors of his system in Scotland. At a sec-
ond convention, assembled on the 14th of June of this year
(1764), he invited the presence of Baron Hund, who had
been engaged in similar duty elsewhere in Germany since
1762. At this convention the baron, who had never heard
of unknown superiors, requested the privilege of inspecting
the documents, patents, etc., possessed by Johnson, which
request being refused, the baron denounced this self-styled
plenipotentiary as an arrant imposter.
A. D. 1765.
The baron of Hund is elected at Jena, grand master of
the Templar System of Germany, styled " Strict Observ-
ance."
A. D. 1766.
By an edict of the Grand Lodge of France, all charters
granted by chapters, councils, colleges, and tribunals of the
high degrees are declared void and of no effect. The at-
THIRD CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 325
tempt to enforce this decree causes greater confusion than
ever among the Masons in France. The Grand Lodge of
England organizes a provincial grand lodge for the country
of the Lower Rhine.
A. D. 1770.
At Avignon is organized the grand Scottish lodge of the
county Venaissin, which adopts the Hermetic Rite of Sweden-
borg. The Grand Lodge of the United Provinces, sitting
at the Hague, proclaims itself the National Grand Lodge
of Holland, in accordance with an agreement entered into
with the Grand Lodge of England, and notifies all the grand
lodges of Europe of this fact.
A. D. 1772.
Under the grand mastership of Louis Philippe Joseph
D' Orleans, duke of Chartres, the National Grand Lodge of
France is dissolved, and the Grand Orient of France organ-
ized.1 Ferdinand, duke of Brunswick, is elected grand
master of the lodges organized under the Templar system
of Strict Observance.
A. D. 1773.
Under letters patent from the Grand Lodge of England
is organized the National Grand Lodge of Germany. This
grand lodge had been in course of organization since 1770,
and this year, representing twelve operative lodges, its first
act was to adopt the ritual of Ziennendorf, its most intelli-
gent and able friend and chief officer.
A. D. 1775.
A grand lodge is organized at Basle, under the name of
1 The Grand Orient at first adopted the modern English rite of three sym-
bolic degrees, and called it the French Rite. Five years afterward, in its
circular of the 3d of August, 1777, it exhibited all that was dangerous and
anti-masonic in the rituals of the high degrees, and refused to recognize
them; and yet, ten years afterward, it is obliged, perhaps unwillingly to
constitute chapters of those very high degrees'
326 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
the Scottish Helvetian Directory. The grand master, Ferdi-
nand of Brunswick, convoked in that city a congress, to
consider the idea of uniting all the rites. The baron of
Hund, and the representatives of twenty-two lodges of the
system propagated by him, w^ere present at this assembly.
The discussions began on the 23d of May, and closed on
the 6th of July, with no result.
A. D. 1775.
A mother lodge of the Scotch Philosophic Rite, under
the name of " Social Contract," is constituted by the grand
lodge of the county Venaissin.
A. D. 1778.
Under the pretext to reform Masonry, and throw light
upon many obscure points in the rituals, the lodge styled
Benevolent Knights of the Templars (Strict Observance)
System, convoke a congress at Lyons; but as there was
nothing discussed but a proposed change of rituals, it was
evident that the real object of the assembly was to substi-
tute the Martinist for the Templar ritual, which was so
done.
The congress of Wolfenbuttel, convoked by Ferdinand,
duke of Brunswick, grand master of the Templar system
in Germany, assembled at Brunswick for the same object
that had been discussed at the previous meeting, called by
him in 1775. The congress remained in session from the
15th July to the 27th August ; and the assembly, finding
it impossible to work their way through the chaos of mys-
ticism into which the numerous systems of high degree8
had plunged Freemasonry, decided that there should
oe convened, the following year, at Wiesbaden, a gen-
eral congress of all the most intelligent Masons in Ger-
many.
In this year is instituted a grand lodge at St. Petersburg,
Russia.
THIRD CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 327
A. D. 1779.
This year the Masonic Benevolent School is instituted at
London, by some members of the Grand Lodge of England.
The object of the society is to help and support the iufirm,
the aged, and those in prison; also to protect the wives,
children, or orphans of deceased members.
A. D. 1780.
A council of the high degrees, called the Emperors of
the East and West, take the title of Sublime Scottish
Mother Lodge of the great globe of France, and Sovereign
Grand Lodge. This authority sets itself up as the rival of
the National Grand Lodge, and the Grand Orient disgraces
itself by a shameful commerce of the Masonic degrees.
A. D. 1782.
The congress of Wilhelmsbad, convoked by Ferdinand,
duke of Brunswick, agreeably with the decision of the con-
gress of 1778, invites all the grand lodges of Europe to
participate. Proposed to convene, at first, on the 15th of
October, 1781, it was postponed until Easter week, 1782,
and finally assembled on the 16th July of this year. In
this congress, the way for which was opened by those of
Wolfenbuttel and Lyons, where a general reform of Free-
masonry, as practiced generally upon the continent, was
urgently recommended, a great many questions were pro-
posed for discussion and decision, among which were the
following :
Is Freemasonry a modern society ? Is it, on the con-
trary, derived from an ancient society ? If so, what society
is it the descendant of? Has the present society unknown
superiors? If so, what are their privileges and attri-
butes ?
These questions, and others of minor importance, sub-
mitted, during a session of thirty daily meetings, though
freely discussed, elicited no satisfactory solution. The con-
323 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
gress, however, succeeded in extinguishing a number of so-
called Masonic systems, and altering others.
It was in this year that Joseph Balsamo, better known as
Count Cagliastro, succeeded in organizing at Lyons the
mother lodge of his rite, styled Egyptian, under the title
of " Wisdom Triumphant."
A. D. 1783.
A grand lodge of the Eclectic Rite, composed of the
provincial grand lodges of Frankfort and Wetzlar, is or-
ganized at Frankfort. This rite was the creation of mem-
bers of this grand lodge, who, selecting from all the rites
and systems, as exhibited at the congress of Wilhelmsbad,
such points and parts as seemed to them most rational,
styled their creation the " Eclectic Rite." In the circular
addressed by this grand lodge to the Masonic authorities
of Europe, announcing the reform they had instituted, it
was distinctly declared that all speculation in magic, cabal-
istics, Templarism, and other follies of the day, were by
this grand lodge renounced and forbidden to its jurisdiction,
and that Freemasonry, in the purity of its institution, ac-
cording to the regulations of the Grand Lodge of England.,
as promulgated in 1723, was the only style of Freemasonry
it would thereafter recognize.
A. D. 1784.
A new grand orient of Poland is organized at Varsovia.
A grand lodge of Austria is organized at Vienna. A
mother lodge of adoption of the Egyptian masonry of
Count Cagliastro is instituted by him, of which the prince
of Montmorenci Luxembourg accepts the grand master-
ship.
A. D. 1785.
The congress of the Philaletes is convoked at Paris to
disentangle Freemasonry from the mass of high degrees
THIRD CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH.
329
and mystic systems ; but though in session from the 15th
February to the 26th May, it failed in its object.
A. D. 1786.
A Grand Orient of Geneva is organized by the seven
lodges in that city. (This grand lodge was dissolved in
1790 by the incorporation of this city into the territory of
France.) A provincial grand lodge is instituted at Rouen,
by the Grand Lodge of St. John, at Edinburgh, with a
chapter of the order of Harodim, of Kilwinning.
A. D. 1787.
The second congress of the Philaletes is convoked at
Paris, to continue the discussions begun at that of 1785,
upon such dogmatic and historical points as had been sub-
mitted to the congress of Wilhelmsbad. None of the
questions, however, were satisfactorily decided, and the
origin, nature, and object of Freemasonry continued to be
an insoluble problem to the greater number of the Free-
masons of the continent.
A. D. 1800.
During the past century the modern or philosophic
Freemasonry, as instituted by the Grand Lodge of London
in 1717-'23, was introduced at the dates given in the
various countries and states named below :
England 1717.
Ireland 1720.
Scotland 1721.
France 1721.
Belgium 1721.
Holland 1725.
Gibraltar 1726.
Spain 1728.
Hamburg 1736.
Sweden 1731.
Naples 1732.
Europe.
Tuscany, 1732.
Russia 1732.
Florence 1733.
Portugal 1733.
Switzerland 1736.
Sardinia 1737.
Saxony 1738.
Bavaria 1738.
Prussia 1738.
Austria 1738.
Turkey 1738.
Poland 1739.
Malta 1741.
Denmark 1742.
Kome 1742.
Bohemia 1744.
Hungary 1744.
Norway 1744.
Guernsey 1 753.
Jersey 1753
Hanover 1754.
330
GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Benga 1727.
Bombay 1728.
Madras 1752.
Java.
Asia.
Surinam 1771.
Ceylon 1771.
OCEANICA.
, 1730. Sumatra....
Prince of Wales
Islands 1780.
Persia 1789.
,1772.
Cape of Good Hope, 1733.
Cape Coast 1736.
Canada 1721.
Massachusetts 1733.
Georgia 1734.
South Carolina 1736.
New York 1737.
St. Christopher 1738.
Martinique 1738.
Antigua 1742.
Africa.
Senegambia 1736.
Mauritius 1744.
America.
Jamaica 1743.
St. Vincent 1745.
Porto Rico 1746.
St. Domingo 1746.
Barbadoes 1750.
Guadaloupe 1751.
Pennsylvania 1753.
Trinidad 1760.
North Carolina.. ..1788.
Isle of France 1778.
St. Helena 1798.
Grenada 1764.
Newfoundland 1765.
Dutch Guiana 1770.
Vermont 1770.
Bermuda 1771.
Louisiana 1780.
Maryland 1781.
Nova Scotia 1762.
Freemasonry was interdicted or prohibited during the
past century in the countries and cities named, and at the
different dates given below, viz.:
Russia 1731, '94, '97.
Holland ..1735, '37.
Paris 1737, '38, '44.
Sweden 1738.
Hamburg 1738.
Geneva 1738.
Roman States 1739, '51.
Portugal 1739, '42, '76, '92.
Florence 1739.
Marseilles 1742.
Vienna 1743.
Canton of Berne 1743, '70, 82.
Austrian States 1742, '64.
Turkey 1748
Spain 1751.
Naples 1752, '75.
Dantzic 1763.
Aix-la-Chapelle 1779.
Morocco 1784.
Basle 1785.
A. D. 1804.
The Count De Grasse Tilly organizes a central grand
odge of France, with a supreme council, at Paris.
A. D. 1805.
The Grand Orient of Lusitania is organized at Lisbon ;
also the Grand Orient of Italy at Milan.
THIRD CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 331
A. D. 1806.
The Grand Lodge of Scotland organizes at Xeres a grand
lodge for all Spain. The Grand Orient of Baden is organ-
ized at Mannheim.
A. D. 1807.
The Grand Lodge of Harodim of Kilwinning, acknowl-
edged to have existed as Canongate Kilwinning lodge of
Freemasons since the construction of the abbey of Kil-
winning, in 1150, surrenders its independence as a self-
constituted grand lodge, and takes rank with the lodges
of its creation, under the Grand Lodge of Scotland, as Can-
ongate Kilwinning, No. 2.
A. D. 1809.
A grand orient of Naples is organized under the direc-
tion of Prince Joachim, duke of Berg. Also a grand
orient of Spain is organized at Madrid.
A. D. 1811.
A grand orient of Westphalia is organized at Cassel.
Charles XIII, king of Sweden, institutes a civil order,
which he confers upon deserving Freemasons.
A. D. 1813.
The two grand lodges of England — that of York, the
legitimate successor of the organization of 926, and which
in 1755 merged into the schismatic grand lodge, under the
title of the " Grand Lodge of Ancient York Masons," and
that of London, founded in 1717, under the title of the
" Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons " — are this
year united. By this union are terminated all the differ-
ences which had caused so much bitterness during the
past fifty or sixty years. In the act of union, dated De-
cember 1, 1813, the ancient laws, as well written as tra-
ditional, are explicitly recognized, and taken for the basis
332 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
of this act, and it is drawn up in that spirit of fraternity
which dictated the charter of York, A. D. 926. It also
recognized and proclaimed that the ancient and true Free-
masonry is composed of but three degrees, viz.: those of
apprentice, fellow-craft, and master mason.
A. D. 1814.
On the 15th of August of this year Pope Pius YII pub-
lishes his edict against the Masonic society, in which he
pronounces corporal punishment, even to death, and the
confiscation of all his property, upon any person who
should join or be known by the authorities to belong to
this society. This edict is immediately followed with like
prohibitions by the regent of Milan, Henry IV of Venice,
Maximien Joseph, king of Bavaria, the emperor of Aus-
tria, the king of Spain, the grand duke of Baden, and
finally by the duke of Parma. All these edicts repeat, in
their turn, accusations similar to those contained in the
bull of Pius VII, and interdicted, in their several States,
all Masonic assemblies, under whatever name they might
be held. All the lodges existing in these countries are
immediately closed.
The famous edict of Pius VII is a document as curious
as it is incomprehensible for the time at which it was pub-
lished; for the accusations it contains against the Frater-
nity are without a shadow of foundation. The tendency
of the Masonic society being continually toward the ame-
lioration of the moral and intellectual condition of the
people, it is a natural but free auxiliary of an enlightened
government desiring progress, and desiring it gradually.
This same pope reestablished the order of the Jesuits,
which had been abolished by Clement XIV.
A. D. 1816.
Foundation, in Paris, of the mother lodge of the Rite of
Misraim, under the title of the " Rainbow."
THIRD CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 333
A. D. 1817.
The Fraternity in Holland mark the bounds of their
grand lodge jurisdiction by the organization of two grand
lodges independent of the grand orient situate at the
Hague. One of these is located at the Hague ; the other
at Brussels.
A. D. 1818.
Prince Frederick, grand master of the lodges of the Low
Countries, interdicts the exercise of the Rite of Misraim.
A. D. 1822.
The emperor of Russia publishes a ukase which inter-
dicts the meetings of Freemasons within the empire.
A. D. 1824.
The king of Portugal interdicts Freemasonry in his
kingdom.
A. D. 1825.
General Lafayette is welcomed to Boston, is feasted by
the brethren and citizens, and attends at the laying of the
corner-stone of the monument subsequently erected near
that city to perpetuate the remembrance of the defense of
the rights and liberties of America.
A. D. 1827.
Renewal by the pope of the edict of Pius YII against
the Freemasons.
A. D. 1827.
The Mexican Congress, provoked by the calumnies of
the clergy, take measures to retain the Freemasons of that
country from increasing their meetings, which were be-
lieved to be devoted more to political discussions than to
any other business.
In the United States some circumstances take place, in
the State of New York* calculated to fix the public mind
334 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
upon the Fraternity, and, for the first time, public notice
is taken of the society in the Congress of that country.
A. D. 1828.
The king of Spain renews his edict against the Free-
masons.
A. D. 1832.
The Grand Orient of Belgium is instituted at Brussels,
and a Masonic authority, styled the Supreme Council for
Belgium, is also organized. At Frankfort, a Jewish lodge,
styled the " Frankfort Eagle," is instituted, under the
authority of the Grand Orient of France. In Germany,
obedient to the injunctions of the authorities which insti-
tuted them, the operative lodges refused to acknowledge
the members of the Jewish lodge, and, contrary to the
principles of Masonry, they close their doors against them.
A. D. 1836.
Some disputes spring up among the lodges of Germany,
principally in Berlin, with regard to the admission of Is-
raelites into the lodges. The refusal of many of the lodges
to affiliate, or to admit them to seats in their assemblies,
notwithstanding they have been regularly initiated, pro-
duced numerous controversies. In a sort of congress of
Jewish Masons, held at Berlin, they prepare an address to
the mother lodges of Berlin, and adjure them, in the name
of Masonic principles, in the name of justice and reason,
to withdraw the restrictions against them. This important
question, introduced and discussed at divers meetings of
grand lodges of Berlin, Dresden, and Frankfort, can not be
decided satisfactorily. To the assertion of those lodges
which refused to admit the Israelites, upon the principle
that Masonry is essentially a Christian institution, with the
Holy Bible its greatest symbol, and upon which no Jew
can be sworn, was opposed by the counter assertion that
Masonry is not a Christian but a universal institution, hav-
THIRD CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 335
ing for its object to rally under one banner and unite un-
der one bond all religionists ; that, following the standard
of no prophet, neither Moses, Christ, nor Mahomet, it
adopts the sublime doctrine of the second of these law-
givers, seeing that such doctrine embodies more nearly than
any other the universal spirit of charity and brotherly
love which Freemasonry would inculcate, to the end that
by opening her temples to men of every worship she may
therein free them from the prejudices of their country and
the errors of their religious education, and teach them to
regard each other but as brethren all united in the bonds
of peace, science, and labor.1
A. D. 1841.
The three grand lodges of Berlin adopt measures to ex-
clude Jews from their assemblies, and the benefit and
privileges of Freemasonry.
A. D. 1844.
Formation of the Alpine Grand Lodge at Zurich, by
the union of the two Swiss Masonic authorities, viz. : the
Scottish Helvetian Directory, at Zurich, and the National
Grand Lodge, at Berne. The new grand lodge is consti-
tuted in conformity with a charter signed and accepted by
fourteen lodges at Zurich, on the 22d June, 1844.
A. D. 1845.
On the 30th of August, of this year, agreeably to the in-
vitation extended by the lodge " United Brothers," of Stras-
burg, there assembled at Steinbach, the birth-place of Er-
win, architect of the cathedral of Strasburg, Masons from
many parts, to inaugurate a statue to his memory, as the
first grand master of the Masons of Germany and France.
1 The true principles of Freemasonry, as herein set forth, have not, how-
ever, even to the present time, removed those absurd gotbic prejudices; for
to this hour Jewish Masons are excluded from many German lodges.
336 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Before the dedication of the statue, it was decreed, at a
general assembly which had taken place in the town hall,
which was wreathed and adorned for the occasion as a Ma-
sonic temple, that a Masonic congress should thereafter
take place, in succession, in the village, town, or city repre-
sented by every brother assenting to this proposition.
A. D. 1847.
The law of exclusion of 1841, by which the three grand
lodges of Berlin had prohibited certain brethren from par-
ticipation in the privileges of intercommunion with the
lodges of their jurisdiction, is at this time again brought
up in those grand lodges. The formal declaration of the
Grand Lodge of England to cease all correspondence and
relations with them, if the paragraph relating to the exclu-
sion of the Israelites was not effaced from their statutes,
produced this result.
A. D. 1848.
In conformity with the constitution discussed and agreed
to in December of this year, in a congress to which had
been invited all the lodges of France, a National Grand
Lodge for France is organized. Based upon the demo-
cratic system in its largest conception, this grand lodge
adopted the modern English rite, and gave it the name of
Unitary Rite. It notified all the lodges of Europe of its
organization and decision as to a rite.
A. D. 1849.
After the political discussions of the preceding year,
which shook a great part of Europe, the necessity for re-
forms in the Masonic institutions was felt more than ever.
Already at different periods, since 1820 more particularly,
views had been expressed by a great many lodges and sub-
mitted to their grand lodges, for the purpose of obtaining
changes in the laws, and particularly in the exceedingly
aristocratic organization of the mother lodges ; and also
THIRD CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 337
demanding to be represented near these governing bodiea
in a manner more in harmony with the ancient Masonic
device of " Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." These
views, however, were provocative of little response and
no result
The political events, joined to the symptoms of discon-
tent which generally became manifest, and which appeared
likely to lead to complete revolution, determined some
grand lodges to undertake some degrees of reform.
A. D. 1850.
At this time Freemasonry has extended into all parts of
the civilized world. In Europe it is in a most nourishing
condition, protected and respected. England, Scotland,
Ireland, Sweden, Denniark, Holland, Prussia, Saxony, and
the German States, France, Switzerland, and the Protest-
ant part of Bavaria, number nearly three thousand lodges,
governed b}^ twenty-one grand lodges.
In Russia, Austria, and their dependent States, it is, on
the contrary, prohibited ; also, in the kingdoms of Naples,
Sardinia, Rome, Tuscany, Spain, and Portugal.
In Africa we find lodges in Algiers, at Alexandria,
Senegal, Senegambia, Guinea, the Cape of Good Hope,
Mozambique, Canaries, and St. Helena, Bourbon, and
Mauritius; while there are no lodges in Tunis, Morocco,
or the Barbary States.
In America it is every- where prosperous, there being few,
if any, of the States of the American Union which has not
its grand lodge. Freemasonry has penetrated into every
portion of this vast continent. The British possessions of
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Canada, and Newfound-
land have each their provincial grand or independent grand
and operative Masonic lodges; while all the more south-
ern and western States which latterly have been received
into the Union have each their grand and operative lodges.
The West India islands, Cuba, Porto Rico, have their
22
338 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
lodges, and that of Hayti its grand and operative lodges.
In Central America it is to be found in the French, Dutch,
and British Guianas, and also in the republics of Venezuela,
Guatemala, Columbia, Bolivia, and Peru, and the united
provinces of La Plata, Uruguay and Paraguay; while in
Rio Janiero, capital of the empire of Brazil, there is a
grand lodge with twenty-five operative lodges under its
jurisdiction.
In Asia, Freemasonry has existed for more than a
century in Hindostan. Lodges are to be found in Bombay,
Pondicherry, Alahabad, Bejapoor, Chazepoor, Carnute,
Darrely, Concan, Futteghur, etc. At Agrah is to be found
the Grand Lodge of Bengal ; while in China, at Canton, and
the islands of Ceylon and Prince of Wales, in Persia and
in Turkey, lodges exist. There is no lodge in Japan.
In Oceanica, Freemasonry was introduced in 1730, into
the island of Java. At the present time, Sumatra, New
Holland, New South Wales, New Zealand, and Van Die-
man's Land have all their Masonic lodges.
The number of lodges upon the globe, at present, has
been variously estimated as high as five thousand ; of this
number, three thousand are in Europe, fifteen hundred in
America, and five hundred in Asia, Africa, and Oceanica.
Thus, within a century and a half, the modern or Phil-
osophic Freemasonry has been propagated over the whole
surface of the earth, and in its progress always spreading
seeds of civilization and friendly intercourse. From habits
practiced in the lodges, have gone out principles of peace,
fraternity, freedom, and equality, which have softened the
asperities of social intercourse, given birth to a greater
breadth of charity for the prejudices of mankind, and ex-
panded the human mind beyond the exclusiveness of caste,
origin, national education, and religion. Is it, then, aston-
ishing that the Roman Catholic clergy, who are notorious
as partisans of the stationary order of things, and bitter
opponents of all progressive views in human affairs, should
THIRD CHRONOLOGICAL EPOCH. 339
be opposed to an institution that operates so insensibly in
transforming and enlightening man to a knowledge of his
true manhood ; and that they should, from so early a pe-
riod in its history, have perceived the true tendency of
the Masonic institution, and opposed, with all their power,
its establishment? On the contrary, the wonder is that
they have not carried its persecution more fully to the
bitter end, as it was and has been the only institution of
a non-clerical or lay character which has stood between
them and unlimited power; but, fortunately for it, and
unfortunately for them, it had assumed shape and consist-
ence in a country where, and at a time when, their power
was not in the ascendant. Upon the continent, however,
whither the institution rapidly extended, the clergy, being
very powerful, had more success; yet here, finding it im-
possible, from the peculiar nature of its constitution, to
use Freemasonry, they resolved to abuse it, ban it, and ex-
communicate its adherents from religious privileges here
and hope of heaven hereafter. This failing, they finally
resolved to introduce into its lodges a number of rites with
their degrees, appealing to the weaker points in the human
character, and thus they succeeded in denaturalizing the
institution to such an extent that its original constitution
became, in a great measure, lost sight of. So intense, how-
ever, did Jesuitism labor in this regard, that it overdid
itself; for this very denaturalization led to inquiry and in-
vestigation which, in evolving the true condition, unmasked
the perpetrators of these wrongs inflicted on the institution,
and restored it, in a great degree, to its primitive simplicity
and usefulness.
340 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONRY.
EDICT
or
POPE PIUS VII AGAINST THE FREEMASONS.
EDICT.
If the ancient legislation of the Roman States has inter-
dicted, under penalties the most rigorous, all secret and
hidden assemblies, by reason that their jealous clandes-
tineship induced the belief that, in such assemblies, the
well-being of the state and public tranquillity were en-
dangered, and that therein were formed schools of de-
pravity, the sovereign pontiffs, in like manner, are equally
bound to entertain a similar opinion as to the object of
those assemblies of Freemasons, Illuminati, Egyptians and
others, who, surrounding their hidden operations with
forms, ceremonies, and oaths to guard secrets which they
must believe are, at least, liable to be suspected ; and as
their assemblies are particularly composed of persons of
divers nations and conditions, worships and degrees of
morality, admitted without distinction, they can not free
themselves from the suspicion that their assemblies are
gotten up to arrange the destruction of not only thrones
and governments, but even religion itself, and particularly
the only true religion of our Lord Jesus Christ, of which
the Roman pontiff was constituted chief, master, and
guardian by its divine founder and legislator himself.
Informed as to these facts, and animated by their evan-
gelical zeal — although then they had not foreseen, as has
been since generally remarked, the murderous develop-
ment and hidden designs of these secret assemblies and
EDICT OF POPE PIUS VII. 341
infernal conventicles — the pontiffs Clement XII and Bene-
dict XIV, of glorious memory, who have since appeared
at the bar of God, opposed all their force and their apos-
tolic ministry to the debauchery which these assemblies
every-where threatened. The first, by his decree, which,
commencing " In eminenti avostolatus- specula" published
the 27th April, 1738, not only forbade, but condemned in
all their extent, the meetings or assemblies of these so-
styled Freemasons, or other similar societies, of whatever
denomination or by whatever designation they might be
known ; and, subsequently, by the thunders of excommunica-
tion, to be incurred by the act, without regard to any decla-
ration made by the accused, and from the effects of which
none other than the Roman pontiff could absolve him, ex-
cept at the point of death, promulgated against all indi-
viduals proscribed, whether such accusation proceeded from
their being initiated into any of the degrees of these so-
cieties or from being accessorv to the initiation of others.
His immediate successor, Benedict XIV, knowing the
great interests involved and the necessity for this dispo-
sition, particularly as regarded the well-being of the Cath-
olic religion and the public security, did, by a new decree,
which, commencing in these words, " Providias Roman-
orum Pontificum" published on the 18th of May, 1751,
confirmed in its fullest extent the decree of his prede-
cessor, not only in the insertion of it, word for word, in
his own decree, but in explaining and expounding with
his usual wisdom (§7) the motives which determined all
the powers of the earth to prohibit Freemasonry, which
motives it would be here unnecessary to enumerate, but of
which the justness is demonstrated by experience, as they
are well known to most enlightened people.
The foresight of these two pontiffs was not confined to
this measure. They were not ignorant that the horror
of crime and the thunders of the Church were ordinarily
sufficient to convince and advantageously secure the con-
342 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
sciences of the good, but that these means must, when di-
rected toward the wicked, be aided by afflictive penalties.
Hence the pontiff, Clement XII, by his edict, published by
the cardinal Joseph Ferraro, his secretary of state, on the
14th January, 1739, inflicted the most severe temporal
punishments against the contumacious, and ordered even,
among other dispositions, their effective execution ; and to
which His Holiness, Benedict XIV, by his published de-
cree, gave a new and additional force, charging all magis-
trates for the prosecution under these decrees to employ
their most active and energetic assistants to fully execute
the penalties therein prescribed.
However, in the general overthrow of the order of things
which has been accomplished during the unhappiness of
the Holy See and of the Church, these dispositions have
been treated with impunity, notwithstanding their justness,
wholesomeness, and indispensability; and the meetings and
assemblies interdicted by them have had all sorts of fa-
cilities of communication, not only at Rome, but also in all
parts of the pontifical states.
His Holiness, Pope Pius VII, wishing to administer a
prompt and efficacious remedy to an evil which it is neces-
sary to extirpate immediately, and opposing himself to
the spread of this pernicious cancer ere it takes root
throughout the state, does enjoin and ordain, and by this
present edict makes known, to all his supreme wish, which
should have the force of law, and should so serve in the
tribunals of justice both civil and spiritual, in all coun-
tries, cities, lands, and provinces which appertain or n
an}7 wise recognize allegiance to the temporal dominion
of the Holy Apostolic See.
By these dispositions it is intended to say that, for those
who regard the pains and penalties to be incurred by these
unhappy persons who, during the lapse of time which they
have had wherein to have allowed their tendency to favor
these assemblies to subside, (God forbid that this be not a
EDICT OF POPE PIUS VH. 343
question with our well-beloved subjects,) or at tne present
or in the future shall have the unhappiness to become, in
any manner, a party to or connected with the Masonic or
other similar assemblies, His Holiness relinquishes them
entirely and without exception to the penalties and dispo-
sitions pronounced by the aforesaid decrees of his prede
cessors of glorious memory; hereby recalling and maintain-
ing the same in their fullest force and tenor, as his special
care.
The Hol}r Father, moved by the energetic sentiments of
his pontifical zeal, and by the affections of his paternal
heart, warns all the faithful who shall fall into this de-
plorable error to seriously consider the state of damnation
into which they have plunged their souls, by incurring the
penalty of major excommunication with which they are
afflicted, as also of being deprived of all the advantages of
communion in the Church, and to pass away in this condi-
tion to that awful tribunal where nothing is hidden, and
before which vanish the vain supports which they may
find to lean upon in this world. That they humble them-
selves, therefore, by a sincere repentance, and be taken
once more into the arms of the holy Church, that compas-
sionate mother who calls them, and who would receive
them tenderly, to the end that she may reconcile them
with the Father of all mercy, whom they have abandoned
with ingratitude.
With regard to the outside world and the feelings which,
under these imperious circumstances, should animate the
general police of a well-ordered state, His Holiness wishes
also to be understood as to the measures of clemency which
may have been adopted for those times of disorder and
impiety which preceded his happy return to the holy city,
and the promulgation of this edict. Now this detestable
pest has but to little if any extent infected the territory
and the subjects of the pontifical state, but many individ-
uals have allowed themselves to be entrapped by circum-
344 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY
stances. The Holy Father deplores their unhappy blind-
ness, and would remove them from its influence forever;
it is for them, however, to render themselves worthy, by
a return prompt and permanent, at least so far as concerns
their outward conduct, for which every citizen is respon-
sible to society. Otherwise, that they hold themselves in
readiness to inform and not seek to hide from the knowl-
edge of the government officers, the places wherein they
may be assembled at any time, that the same may be
watched; and that, to prevent the return of similar offenses,
the names of the principal persons among them should be
communicated to the chiefs of the tribunals, in order that,
in case of relapse, the old offenses should be aggregated
with the new. Nobody, then, at the present or any future
time, can allege, for a pretext, that he has found no evil
in this following of preparatory scenes, sometimes indif-
ferent and sometimes ridiculous, but by which is arti-
ficiall}r held in suspense the curiosity of the initiate, the
better to dispose and enlist him in mysteries of greater
atrocity. In consequence we decree, as follows, the meas-
ures which we believe necessary and just to prevent such
offenses in the future :
1. In conformity with the dispositions of the edict of
the 14th January, 1739, it is forbidden, in the first place,
to all persons, as well in Rome as in the other parts of the
pontifical domain, to continue, extend, renew or establish
the said assemblies of Freemasons, or any similar society,
whether instituted under ancient or modern denomina-
tions, or under the newly-imagined title of Carbonari, tht.
latter of which have exhibited a pretended pontifical letter
of approbation which bears upon its face evidence of its
own falsity. It is also forbidden to all persons to act in
the capacity of clerk or scrivener to these societies, or to
assist in such capacity one single time, from any reason or
pretext whatever; or to invite or solicit any body within
the room wherein such assemblies may take place, or to
EDICT OF POPE PIUS VJ[. 345
receive into his house, or any other place, any member of
such societies, or bail or loan money to, or favor such per-
sons in any manner whatever.
2. The dispositions of the present edict bear also upon
those persons who may transgress its requirements, in
entering into any relations direct or indirect, immediate
or remote, with the aforesaid associations which are now
established, or which may at any future time be established,
outside of the pontifical state
3. It is forbidden to all persons to have in possession
or under their charge or care, within their dwelling or
elsewhere, instruments, weapons, emblems, laws, records,
patents, or any other thing used by or in any manner ap-
pertaining to the societies aforesaid.
4. Whoever shall know of the existence of such secret
and clandestine meetings, or shall have been engaged
therein, either as assistant or scrivener, shall be held as a
witness against such assembly — for that which concerns
the capital to the governor of Rome, and, for the other
parts of the state, to the commandants of provinces or to
the apostolic delegates. Those who, in view of the require-
ments of this article, shall be obliged to inform against
and denounce such assemblies may be certain that they
shall be held entirely blameless and unknown to the ac-
cused; that they shall be free from all penalty which they
would otherwise incur as accessories or accomplices, and
that they shall receive, at the expense of the delinquent,
a recompense corresponding to the value of the informa-
tion conveyed by them tending to convict the accused.
And, upon this subject, His Holiness desires to be fully
understood to announce and decide, that nothing improper
or dishonorable can attach to a revelation to. the proper
authorities of that which may prevent to the government
and to the state the consequences of a conspiracy menac-
ing good order and religion itself; and that all oaths, in
opposition to this principle, become a bond of iniquity, in
o46 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
no degree binding, and leaving the obligated as free as if
he had never taken such oath or obligation.
5. The penalties to be undergone by all who may contra-
vene the dispositions of the present edict shall be corporeal
and afflictive, and even very serious, according to the impor-
tance or malignity of the circumstances attending the trans-
gression ; and, in addition thereto, there shall attach partial
or entire confiscation of the property of the condemned, or fine,
to be paid in money, of which the judges and agents of the
tribunals shall receive a part, in proportion to the extent
of their labors and exercise of care in discovering and
establishing the guilt of the delinquent, who shall be con-
victed according to law.
6. His Holiness especially orders and decrees that all
edifices, such as palaces, public and private residences, or
any other description of inclosed building, wherein an as-
sembly of any of the societies aforesaid, under whatever
name, may have taken place, shall be immediately, and
without any delay being incurred to prove the offense, de-
clared confiscated, and put in charge of the Government
treasurer; and if the fact of offense can not be proved
satisfactorily, then a fine may be levied and collected from
the owner of the property.
7. Finally, it is enjoined upon all the chiefs of tribunals,
as well as all local judicial authorities, to use every care
in the execution of the dispositions of this edict; and
should they, upon any point, entertain doubt as to the
proper understanding of such dispositions, they shall
address, without delay, the Cardinal Consalvi, Secretary
of State, who will communicate to them the decision of
the Sovereign Pontiff.
Done at the Secretariat of State, this 15th day of
August, 1814
P. Card. Pacca,
Chamberlain of the Holy Church,
and Assistant Secretary of State.
MASONIC LAWS AND CHARTERS. 347
PRIMITIVE
MASONIC LAWS AND CHARTERS
In examining the basis of the charter of York, the text
of which follows these observations — and which charter,
although presented to the Masonic lodges as emanating
from the king, could not be other than the production of
the chiefs of the lodges — we find it imbued with the spirit
of the first Christian communities, whose members, having
separated themselves from those who were animated by
totally different feelings, had surrendered themselves to
such apostolic teaching as might present to them the pure
doctrines of the new faith. The fraternal and uniformly
equable principles of the ancient laws of the Roman col-
leges were very intimately known to those who preached
the primitive doctrine of Christ. The teachings of the
Hermit schools, the most prominent instructors at that
time in the doctrines of the new faith in Britain, were
found by the assembly of Freemasons convened at York
so identical with the principles professed by them and
their predecessors, for nearly live hundred years, that
they did not believe it necessary to envelope such teach-
ings in new forms, and the more so as already there ex-
isted great divergence among the various creeds of the
new church, consequent upon the spirit of investigation
which even at that early day had place. The assembly,
therefore, adopted, as the basis of its new constitution, its
ancient humanitarian principles, which were in entire
harmony with universal morality, and in entire conformity
with the early Christian doctrine.
348 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
The freedom from Roman Catholic influence of the
Masonic lodges at this time exhibits itself in this charter
in a very striking manner, in the prayer or invocation
which begins thus: "All powerful and eternal God, Fa-
ther and Creator of heaven and earth," etc. In this
prayer we perceive no mention made of a Trinity, the
Deity invoked being none other than the great Arch-
itect of the Universe, that great first cause recognized by
the Noachidean doctrine, and the belief in the eternal
existence of which can readily be concurred in by men of
every confession.
The third and fourth articles of this constitution sup-
pose, in fact, and with a degree of tolerance very humane,
that the true religion, inborn in the hearts and consciences
of all men, can not fail to harmonize characters the most
diverse, seeing that it is to the conscience of every man,
and to that alone, that the religion of justice strictly ap-
peals. The other articles of this constitution or charter
are confined to the consideration of the state of art, and
to the simple and dignified oversight and arrangement of
Masonic affairs proper, but always imbued with this same
spirit, embracing humanity as an entire whole.
The constitution or charter of York is not only the
basis of the British Masonic corporations, from the time
of its promulgation to the separation of the lodges of
Freemasons from the companionship of ordinary stone
dressers and masons, (which virtually took place, as we
have shown, in 1717,) and as the different ordinances,
published under the reigns of different kings, relating to
the affairs of these corporations, distinctly prove; but it
became the model of the Masonic corporations, which,
subsequent to its promulgation, were gradually organized
upon the continent. The ancient corporations of Lom-
bardy, of which the principal branches were at Como and
at Pavia, and which should have conserved the laws as
they were known to the ancient Roman colleges, adopted
MASONIC LAWS AND CHARTERS. 349
this charter immediately, as did also those of Germany
and France ; for we find it the basis of that printed con-
stitution of the Freemasons of Strasburg which was
adopted in 1459, and into which it is copied in all its ex-
tent, except the opening prayer, which, in accordance
with the Roman Catholic influence of that period, is
changed to read : " In the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and the Worthy Mother
Mary," etc. This influence was inevitable ; for the Ger-
man Masons at this time were organized, and in great
measure controlled, by the ecclesiastic architects of the
convents and monasteries ; and it was not until the latter
part of the fifteenth century they obtained from the popes
the confirmation of the exclusive privileges accorded at
the beginning to the corporations of Lombardy. More
favored than the latter, however, they were in receipt of
special diplomas which made them free of royal edicts,
and conceded to them the right of communicating directly
with the popes in all matters connected with operations
of any magnitude. This clerical influence, however, did
not protect the clergy from complaint, rendered in a man-
ner at once spirited and daring, against their tendency to
vice and immorality; and this fact has come to us in the
shape of numerous marks which figure upon the religious
edifices of the period, sometimes symbolic, sometimes satiric,
expressive of their criticism of the abuses of the clergy,
as contrasted with their own religious belief and doctrine.
The charter of York also served as the basis of that
constitution of modern Freemasonry which was adopted
at London in 1717, and altered but in those points neces-
sary to make that constitution correspond with the new
object of the society, and the changes and developments
wrought by the lapse of eight centuries in the condition
of British law, customs, and usages. This constitution of
the Grand Lodge of London has, in its turn, served as
the model for the constitutions of all the grand lodges
350 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
which have been formed since 1717 upon onr globe; and
it is only to be regretted that, among this great number
of lodges, there should be found so few who have had the
courage and the Masonic spirit to reform that part of the
constitution of the Grand Lodge of England which pro-
vides for the predomination of that body, and replace it
by a form in harmony with the fundamental principles of
the Masonic institution.
The small number of documents which the Masonic
society possess besides its charters, of which the most an-
cient have been destroyed, is easily accounted for by the
fact that absolute silence had been imposed by oath upon
every member of the society, solemnly binding them not
to communicate* in any manner except verbally, and in
that way only to each other, any of the secrets confided
to them ; while, as an association, the society imposed
upon itself similar restrictions. Its existence is engraved
upon the fronts of the monuments of its art, in the orna-
ments and symbols reproduced upon the stones which
have entered into their construction. True Freemasonry
has never had any secrets other than those which have
been connected with its art, its humanitarian doctrines,
and its signs of recognition.
CHARTER OF YORK.
A. D. 926.
Fundamental laws of the Fraternity of Masons, based upon the
ancient writings concerning the laws and privileges of the ancient
corporations of Roman builders, as they were confirmed to
Albanus, in the year 290, by the emperor Carausius, at his resi-
dence at Verulam (St. Albans), received, discussed, and accepted
by the lodges of England, convoked for this object in a general
assembly at York, in the year 926, by prince Edwin, son of king
Athehtan.
The omnipotence of the Eternal God, of the Father
and Creator of heaven and earth, the wisdom of his Di-
'ZLS,
MASONIC LAWS AND CHARTERS. 351
vine Word, and the cooperation of his Spirit sent among
us, may be witb our commencement, and grant ns grace
so to govern ourselves in this life, as to obtain bis appro-
bation now, and, after our death, life eternal.1
*1* *1* vt» *>!* "J-" *1* *>l-*
*j% *j-» *f *T* •!* *r* 1*
Finally, peace is restored, and the bishop of Rome con-
verts the Angles and the Saxons to the Christian faith,
among which are found to be many native craftsmen in
Britain who had been instructed by those vigilant old mas-
ters wTho remained in this country. Then they erected the
churches of Canterbury (600) and of Rochester (602), and
they repaired the ancient houses of God. Subsequently,
the king, Charles Martel, sent masons from beyond the
sea, upon the demand of the Saxon kings, and it was then
that architecture flourished anew, under the direction of the
ancient master masons of Britain, It is to be regretted that
many Roman edifices should have been devastated upon
the occasion of the incursions of the Danes, and that many
documents and records of lodges, which in those times were
held and preserved in the convents, should have been burnt,
under like circumstances. But the pious king Athelstan
(925), who has much esteem for the art, and wTho has es-
tablished many superb edifices since the peace concluded
with the Danes, has desired to make up this deficiency.
He has ordained that the institution founded in the time of
the Romans by St. Alban should be reestablished and con-
firmed anew. It is in this intention that he has remitted
1 After this introduction, or prayer, follows a long history, in two parts,
of architecture in Great Britain and other countries; a historic abridge-
ment of the art of building from the most ancient mythical times to that
of Athelstan; and, after that, the particular rules which served as funda-
mental laws to the Masonic corporations. To convey an idea of the man-
ner in which this history is written, we submit its closing passages. Its
similarity of style to that which is given by Dr. Anderson, in his "Consti-
tutions/' etc., of 1723, will doubtless be remarked by the reader, and con-
vince him of the truth of our statement, that the charter of York was the
model as it was the basis of these " Constitutions/' etc.
352 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
to his son Edwin (member of the association) an edict by
which the Masons can have their own government, and establish
all proper rules to render their art prosperous. He has also
invited Masons from Gaul, and appointed some chiefs. Fi-
nally, he has examined the -Greek, Roman, and Gallic
institutions which these last have brought in writing with
them, and compared them with those of St. Alban, and it
is after such that all the Masonic corporations ought to be
organized.
Behold, then, in the pious prince Edwin, your protector,
who will execute the orders of the king, and who would
encourage and exhort you no more to fall into past faults.
Thus, each year, the masters and the chiefs of all the
lodges shall assemble themselves together, and make a re-
port of all the constructions and ameliorations which they
have produced, and such assembly shall be convoked here
at York, and the chiefs shall proclaim the laws which are
to be found in the ancient writings, and which they have
found good, and useful to observe. The following are the
obligations which you are to accept, and which, when you
shall have accepted, you must promise to observe by placing
your hand upon the holy book of the Gospel, which the
chief shall present to you. Each master, also, must cause
the same to be read in his lodge, and he must likewise
cause the same to be read at the reception of a new brother,
as he must require him, upon the authority of the Gospel,
to observe the same.
Fundamental Laws of the Brother Masons,
Article L
Your first duty is that you reverence God with sincerity,
and submit to the laws of the Noachides, because these
are the divine laws to which all the world should submit.
For this reason you should also avoid following false doc-
trine and offending against God.
MASONIC LAWS AND CHARTERS. 353
Article II.
You should be faithful to your king, without treason,
and obedient to constituted authority, without deception,,
wherever you may find yourself, to the end that high trea-
son should be unknown to you; but if you should be ap-
prised of it, you must immediately inform the king.
Article III.
You should be serviceable to all men, and a faithful
friend, to the extent of your ability, without disquieting
yourself as to what religion or opinion they shall hold or
belong to.
Article IV,
You should be, above all, faithful among yourselves, in-
structing each other and aiding each other, not calumniating
one another, but doing to each other as you would have
done to yourself; so that, according as a brother shall
have failed in his engagement with his fellow, you ought
to help him to repair his fault, in order that he may reform.
Article T.
You should assist assiduously at the discussions and la-
bors of your brethren in the lodge, and keep the secret of
the signs from all who are not brethren.
Article VI.
Each should guard himself against infidelity, seeing that
without fidelity and probity the fraternity can not exist, and
a good reputation is a valuable property. Also constantly
hold to the interests of the master whom you may serve,
and honestly finish your labor.
Article VII.
You should always pay honorably that which you owe,
and, in general, do nothing that will injure the good repu-
tation of the Fraternity.
23
354 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Article VIII.
Furthermore, no master ought to undertake a work which
he may be unable to perform, for, by doing so, he puts his
fellows to shame. Masters, however, ought to demand
that a sufficient salary be paid them, so that they can live
and pay their fellow- workmen.
Article IX.
Furthermore, no master ought to supplant another, but
leave him to finish the work that he has found to do ; at
least to the extent of his ability.
Article X.
Furthermore, no master ought to accept an apprentice
for less than seven years, and not until after the expiration
of that time ought he to be made a Mason, after the advice
and consent of his fellows.
Article XI.
Furthermore, no master or fellow-craftsman should ac •
cept indemnity for admitting any person as a Mason if he
be not free-born, of good reputation, of good capacity, and
sound of limbs.
Article XII.
Furthermore, no fellow-craftsman ought to blame another
if he does not know better than him whom he may repri-
mand.
Article XIII.
Furthermore, each master, when he is reprimanded by
the architect (chief of the lodge), or each fellow-craftsman,
when he is reprimanded by the master, should listen re-
spectfully, correct his work, and conform to instructions.
Article XIV.
Furthermore, all Masons should be obedient to their
MASONIC LAWS AND CHARTERS. 355
chiefs, and execute with good will that which may be
ordered.
Article XV.
Furthermore, all Masons should receive their fellows
coming from abroad, and who will give the signs; but they
ought to be careful, and as they have been taught. They
also ought to come to the relief of brethren who may need
assistance, as soon as they shall learn, in manner as they
have been taught, that such assistance is necessary, and the
distance be within half a league.
Article XVI.
Furthermore, no master or fellow-craftsman shall admit
into a lodge another who has not been received a Mason,
to learn the art of dressing stones, or allow him to dress;
neither shall he show him how to use square or compass.
These are the duties which he well and truly ought to
observe. Those which shall yet be found good and useful
in the future ought always to be written and published by
the chiefs of the lodges, for all the brothers to learn the
same, and to be sworn to their performance.
SUMMAEY
ANCIENT MASONIC CHARTERS.
Roman Charter, 715 B. C.
Containing the laws relating to and governing the Col-
leges of Builders, founded by Numa .Pompilius. These
laws are to be found on the 8th of the Twelve Tables of
the Roman Laws, created in the year 451 B. C.
356 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Charter of St. Alban, A. D. 290.
Based upon the ancient laws of the Roman colleges, as
collected by Albanus, an architect, and sanctioned by the
emperor Carausius.
Charter of York, A. D. 926.1
The original of this charter, preserved during many
centuries in the archives of the grand lodge at York, was
probably destroyed during the wars of the Roses, of which
York was the theater. Its contents have come to us
through the constitution of Edward III, which is simply a
copy of it, with some additional articles concerning the
rights and privileges of the grand masters, and their duties
in connection with the government of the country. Au-
thentic copies of this charter were to be found in the
beginning of the 18th century, in the lodges of London and
York, and one of them served the grand master, George
Paine, as the basis of that collection which he had been
charged to present to the new grand lodge, and which
collection, as subsequently arranged and compiled by Dr.
Anderson, was printed in 1723. In 1720, it is believed,
members of the lodge of St. Paul, alarmed at the publicity
that promised to be made of papers which they believed
very private, burnt many documents, and, among the num-
ber, such copies of the charter of Edward III as they could
discover.
Charter of Edward III, A. JD. 1350.
Fundamental laws of the charter of York revised, with
some slight changes, and the addition of some articles con-
cerning the rights of grand masters, and the emoluments
appertaining to their office.
1 See preceding article.
MASONIC LAWS AND CHARTERS. 357
Charter of Scotland, A. D. 1439.
This document, which is rather a diploma than a charter
proper, recounts the privileges and the duties which attach
to the position of grand master, that James II conceded,
in 1430, to William Sinclair, baron of Roslin, and to his
heirs — a position that the lodges of Scotland, through the
representatives whose signatures it bears, recognize, under
the terms of this instrument, to attach to the said Sinclair
and his descendants. This document, as contained in a
manuscript of the year 1700, may be seen in the Advocates'
Library at Edinburgh.
The Charters of Strasburg, of 1459 and 1563.
These are entitled " Statutes and Rules of the Fraternity
of Stone Cutters, founded upon those of the year 1275,
revised, and,, their publication ordered by the Masonic
Congress of Ratisbonne in 1464, and by that of Basle in
1563." The charter of York formed the basis of these
charters. Many lodges in Germany are in possession of
copies of the 1464 edition.
Charter of Cologne, A. D. 1535.
Laws and Doctrines of Philosophic Freemasonry, or a
profession of their principles, rendered by a number of Ma-
sons assembled at Cologne in the year 1535. The Grand
Lodge of Holland, at the Hague, is in possession of the
original of this charter. It is upon parchment, written in
Masonic characters rendered into the Latin of the middle
ages. The authenticity of this document is disputed. Ex
perts in the examination of ancient documents are divided,
some believing it an original, and others a spurious pro-
duction, written at a much later date than that which it
bears. [See pp. 51 and 127 for further details as to this
charter.]
858 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Charter of Scotland, A. D. 1630.
This charter contains nothing beyond the confirmation
of the privileges, etc., enumerated in that of 1439, granted
to William Sinclair, baron of Roslin, by the lodges of Scot-
land. This confirmation was rendered necessary in conse-
quence of the document of 1439 having been destroyed by
fire in the conflagration of Roslin Castle, and the privileges
acceded thereby having been subsequently denied to the
heirs of " St. Clair of Roslin." The original of this charter
or diploma is to be found in the Law Library at Edinburgh,
with the copy of that which was burned.
Charter of London, A. D. 1717.
This charter, the basis of modern Freemasonry, is con-
tained, as revised by George Paine, in 1717, from the charter
of Edward III, in the work first published by order of the
Grand Lodge of England in 1723, and which is generally
known as Anderson's " Constitutions," etc.
J-'P^^
I
i
i
^
ANCIENT WORSHIPS AND MYSTERIES. 359
EPITOME
OF THE
WORSHIPS AND THE MYSTERIES* OF THE ANCIENT
EASTERN WORLD.
"The wise man brings all to the tribunal of reason — even reason
itself."— Kant.
INTRODUCTION.
Feom amidst the thick darkness which covers their
nature, we propose to deduce the origin and the history
of the opinions which have been taught us by the instruct-
ors of the peoples, and which, imposed by the force of
authority-inculcated by education and example-have been
perpetuated from age to age, and their empire established
by habit and inattention.* But when man, enlightened by
reflection and experience, turns to a close examination of
these prejudices of his infancy, he immediately finds a
crowd of disparities and contradictions which challenge
his sagacity and provoke his reason.
Remarking the diversity and opposition of the beliefs
which distinguish different peoples, he naturally doubts
that infallibility each of them arrogate to themselves;
and, falling back upon his own sense and reason, which
must have emanated immediately from God, he conceives
that the result of such a combination, when brought to
bear upon this, as upon all other subjects, can not be a
law less holy or a guide less certain than the mediatorial
codes and contradictions of priests and prophets. For,
1 See Notes, 1 to 38, illustrative of this text, commencing at page 384.
360 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY
when lie examines the fabric of these codes, he perceives
that these laws, pretended to be divine — that is to say, im-
mutable and eternal — are but begotten by circumstances
.of time, of place, and of person ; and that they are de-
rived from each other in a special order of genealogy,
since that there is imprinted upon their derivation a re-
semblance of ideas modified by the taste of each people
to more fully satisfy its own intelligence.
If we mount to the source of these ideas, we find they
are lost in the night of time, in the very infancy of the
human race, and that to reach them we must approach
almost the origin of the world itself; and there, in the
obscurity of chaos and the fabulous empire of tradition,
they are presented to us, accompanied by a condition of
things so superhuman that they interdict all approach to
judgment or reason. But even this very superhuman
condition resuscitates a train of reasoning which resolves
the difficulty ; for, if the prodigious existences which are
presented to us in the theological systems of the world
have really existed— -if, for example, the metamorphoses,
the apparitions, the conversations held by one or by sev-
eral gods with man, traced in the sacred books of the
Hindoos, the Persians, and the Hebrews, are historical
events — it necessarily follows that the nature of these gods
of the two former, or the one god of the latter, at that
time differed entirely from that which now exists ; that
the men of our day have nothing in common with those
of that period ; and that such men as then existed exist
no longer, nor have they existed for ages of time. If, on
the contrary, these prodigious occurrences and existences
have not really had place in physical order, we will nat-
urally believe that they existed only in and were the crea-
tions of the imagination of those who penned them; and
our own natures, capable as they are to-day of executing
fantastic compositions, immediately recognize a reason for
such monstrosities to appear in a history of the world.
ANCIENT WORSHIPS AND MYSTERIES. 361
No longer, then, does the student agitate himself with
efforts to explain the why and the wherefore of the sub-
jects of these pictures, or in analyzing the ideas they
combine and associate; but, putting together all the cir-
cumstances that they allege, he thinks he ought to dis-
cover a solution conformable to the laws of nature. Yet
he does not arrive at such a solution. He perceives that
these recitals of a fabulous character have a figurative
sense other than the sense apparent; that these pretended
marvels are physical facts, simple as the elements of na-
ture, but which, ill conceived and badly painted, have
been denaturalized by accidental causes independent of
the human spirit : by the confusion of the signs which
were employed to represent the objects, by the equivo-
cality of the words which described them, the degeneracy
of language, and the imperfection of writing. He finds
that these gods, for example, who play such singular
parts in all the theological systems of the eastern world,
are no other than the physical powers and play of the
elements of nature, which, by the necessary mechanism
of language, have been personified ; that their lives, their
manners, and their actions are nothing but the play of
their operations, and that all their pretended history is
nothing but the description of their phenomena, traced
by such of their first observers as were competent to do
so, and these descriptions taken in a literal sense by the
ignorant and vulgar who understood not the spiritual or
real sense, and wThich sense, in consequence, was by sub-
sequent generations forgotten and lost; in fine, he will
observe that all the theological dogmas about the origin
of the world, the nature of God, the revelation of his
laws, the apparition of his person, are nothing but the
recitals of astronomical facts— nothing but figurative nar-
ratives of the movements of the solar system. It is by
such a course of reasoning that one becomes convinced
that the idea of the Divinity, which even at present is
862 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
with us so obscurs, was not, in its primitive state, but
that of the physical powers of the universe, considered
sometimes as multiples, by reason of their agents and
their phenomena, and sometimes as a single being, by the
complete connection of all their parts; in short, that the
being called God has been sometimes the sun, sometimes
the stars, the planets and their influences ; sometimes the
matter of the visible world — the universe as a whole;
sometimes the abstract and metaphysical qualities of the
universe, such as time, space, movement, and intelligence;
and always with this result, that the idea of the Divinity
has not been a miraculous revelation of invisible beings,
but a natural production of the reasoning faculty, an
operation of the human spirit, in which it has followed
the progress and been influenced by the revolutions which
have taken place in our knowledge of the physical world
and of its agents.
Thus, then, the ideas of God and religion — ideas which
absorb all others — have their origin in physical objects,
and have been, in the mind of man, the product of his
sensations, his cares, the circumstances of his life, and the
progressive state of his knowledge.
Now, as the ideas of a Divinity had for their earliest
models physical beings, it resulted that the Divinity was
at first varied and multiplinary, as were the forms under
which he appeared to act. Each being was a power, a
genius ; and in the eyes of the first men the universe was
filled with innumerable gods. Then, as the affections of
the human heart and its passions became enlisted, there
was superinduced an order of division of these gods, based
upon pleasure and pain, love and hate : the natural pow-
ers, the gods, or geni, were separated into benefactors and
malefactors — workers of good and workers of evil; and
hence the uniformity with which these opposite charac-
ters appear in all systems of religion.
ANCIENT WORSHIPS ANP MYSTERIES. 363
SAJBEISM, OE SUN WOESHIP, AND ITS LEGENDS.
And first, among these systems may be found Sabeism,
or the worship of the Sun.
From what has been already stated, it necessarily re-
sulted that the theologies2 of all the peoples, after those
of the Hindoos and the Persians, down to those of the
Egyptians and the Greeks, as we find them in their sacred
books3 — their cosmogonies4 — were nothing but a system
of physics — a tabular arrangement of the operations of
nature, enveloped in mysterious allegories and enigmatic
symbols.5 Thus we find the worship of the Sun to be
the primordial basis of all the worships and mysteries of
antiquity. The Sun is, in fact, to every living thing upon
the earth, the most attractive and interesting of all the
heavenly bodies. He constantly directs our attention and
attracts our admiration to the magnificence of the solar
system. As the innate fire of the body, the fire of nature,
author of light, heat, and ignition, he is the efficient
cause of all generation ; for without him there can be no
movement, no existence, no formation. He is immense,
indivisible, imperishable, and ever-existing. It is this
want of light — it is his creative energy which has been
felt by all mankind, who see nothing more frightful than
his continued absence. Thus he becomes their divinity.
His presence is the happy influence that revives every
thing, and thus has he become the basis of all worship,
whether ancient or modern — then directly, now indi-
rectly— under symbolic forms; and the Brahma of the
Hindoos, the Mithra of the Persians, the Osiris of the
Egyptians, the Adonai of the Phenicians, the Adonis and
Apollo of the Greeks are but representatives of the Sun,
the principles of beauty, generation, and perfection— the
images of that principle of reproduction which perpetu-
ates and rejuvenates the world. The Sun is likewise the
physical representative of that Supreme Being that the
364 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONRY.
Hindoos named Baghaven, the Persians Zerouane-Akcrene,
the Hebrews Jehovah, the Egyptians Ammon and Youpiter,
the Greeks Zeus, the Mohammedans Allah, and the Chris-
tians Lord and God.
The legends upon which repose the worships of the
ancients, like that of Hiram among the Freemasons,6 are
founded upon the apparent progress of the Sun, which,
to speak figuratively, having ceased to ascend when he
attains his highest point in the southern horizon, begin3
to descend, and finally is vanquished and put to death by
darkness, which is represented in the same language as
the spirit of evil ; but, returning toward our hemisphere,
he appears as the revived conqueror. This death and this
resurrection thus prefigure the succession of day and
night — of that death which is a necessity of life — of that
life which is the child of death — in fact, of the combat of
those two principles, directly the antagonists of each
other, and which may be discovered every-where — in Ty-
phon, in opposition to Osiris, of the Egyptians ; in Juno,
in opposition to Hercules, among the Greeks; in the
Titans against Jupiter, in Ohromaze against Ahrimane,
among the Persians ; and in Satan, among the Chris-
tians, against God7 — do we perceive the types of evil as
opposed to good exhibited among the peoples of every
clime and worship, whether they be more or less advanced
in the scale of civilization.
THE MYSTERIES OF INDIA.
Bhuddist Priests, Brahmins, or Gymnosophists.
It is in India, the cradle of the human race, that the
history of the world began ; to that vast and fruitful
country are we indebted for the first families of man ; for
no other portion of the world offered to him a dwelling-
>>
$
ANCIENT WORSHIPS AND MYSTERIES. 365
place so rich and so delicious. In these regions, the most
elevated of the globe, may be found vegetation the most
luxuriant, and the products of the soil the most useful
and varied. All science, then, as well as all history, indi-
cate the fact that it was in the highest lands of India man
first appeared upon our earth.
The Hindoos adored in Bhagavan, the eternal being
who, in his own person, fills all worlds, comprises all the
forms and all the principles of living creatures, and who
acted through Brahma, Yishnu, and Shiva the triple man-
ifestation of himself. Menou, a Hindoo legislator, is the
founder of the doctrine of the three principles or gods ;
the first of whom, named Brahma, being the creator (the
sun of spring-time); the second, named Shiva, being the
destroyer (sun of winter); and the third, named Yishnu,
being the preserver (the sun of autumn, middle, or ripen-
ing sun) ; all three powers being distinct, but forming the
representatives of an only god or power.
The doctrines of the immortality of the soul, of future
rewards and punishments, and transmigration of souls
after death, composed the secret teachings of the priests ;
and it was from them that the neighboring peoples bor-
rowed these doctrines and the idea of an only all-powerful
and eternal God. After Menou, the most anicent re-
former of the religion of the Hindoos (sun worship) whose
name has been transmitted to us, came Bhudda-Shauca-
sam, who announced himself as the mediator and expiator
of the crimes of man (3600 B. C), to whom succeeded,
about 1000 years apart, three others of the like name,
and of whom Bhudda-Guatama was the most celebrated
(557 B. C.) These four moral reformers differently modi-
fied the principles of Menou, and deduced therefrom
some mystic doctrines. Men of rare genius, without
doubt, these four reformers were regarded by the Hindoos
as incarnations cf the Supreme intelligence, and, in this
quality, divine. Following this example, the other nations
366 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
elevated their great citizens and reformers to the rank
of gods.
In India, as subsequently in Persia, Ethiopia, and Egypt,
the priests were the sole depositaries of scripture knowl-
edge, and exercised power without bounds ; for every
thing was founded upon religion. The great monuments
of India8 are immeasurably ancient. The immense grot-
toes, believed to be the most ancient Hindoo temples, the
caverns of Elephanta, of Elora, of Salcette and of Carli,
the temple of Kailaca — a most prodigious monument, cut
in the bosom of a rock mountain, an open and roofless
pantheon of Indian divinities — presuppose in the people
who have produced them a knowledge of art and a degree
of civilization far in advance of that of the Egyptians, as
evinced in their works, and exhibit the magnificence of a
highly enlightened people. All that mind could invent
and heart appreciate of the grand and the beautiful, the
noble and the elevated in conception, the elegant in design,
and the perfect in execution, are found united in these
groups of sanctuaries. These works recall far distant
periods, going back to the night of time, and since which
immense intellectual development has wrought a gradual
change in the history of the Hindoo people. The bas-reliefs
the figures, and the thousands of columns which ornament
those Hindoo temples, scooped out and graven in the solid
rock, indicate at least three thousand years of consecutive
labor, and their present appearance indicates the lapse of
a like number of years since they were finished.
The doctrine of Bhudda,9 or Brahma, passed into Asia
Minor and became the basis of the Persian worship, and
subsequently that of the Ethiopian. Bhuddism penetrated
into China; in that country Bhudda was called Fot (Boodj,
and his priests bonzes. His worship spread over all Thibet,
where it was known as Lamaism, from the title of Dalai-
Lama given to the supreme pontiff of the worship, who
resided at Lahsa. The higher classes of the Chinese have
I
S
I
^
a
V
ANCIENT WORSHIPS AND MYSTERIES. 367
generally adopted the doctrine of Confucius (Kong-Tseu),
the reformer of the degenerate Bhuddism, or Lamaism,
which, in our day, fills a part of China and Japan with
the most ridiculous and revolting superstitions.
MYSTERIES OF THE PERSIANS.
Worship of Fire; worship of the Magi; worship of Mithra;
worship of Zoroaster. (Assyria, Babylon, and
Chaldea.)
The ancient Persians adored a being unrevealed, and
who, self-consuming, self-absorbing, lost his individuality
under the name of Zerouane-akerene. The worship of
fire, among the Persians, preceded the worship of the
sun. Horn, their first prophet, was its founder. After
him came Djemschid, who brought them the worship
of the Hindoos, founded upon the three principles or
gods personified by Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, mani-
fested by the principles of generation, preservation, and
destruction. But the astrological doctrine of the magi
was developed by time, and after they had acquired a gen-
eral knowledge of the use of the globes, they observed
vegetable and animal nature from a single point of view.
Afterward, perceiving that this nature was susceptible of
division, composed, as it was, of a principle of life which
was the presence of the sun, causing heat and light, and a
principle of death, caused by his absence, and consequent
cold and darkness, they divided it. Then the priests, aban-
doning the system of the Hindoos, and admiring nothing
but the principles of good and bad, or the struggle between
light and darkness, life and death, supplied with their im-
agination a personification of each of these principles.
The good principle received the name of Ohromaze and
368 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
the bad that of Ahrimane. The priests of this worship,
called magi,10 were celebrated for their mathematical and
astrological knowledge, which they had imbibed from their
neighbors the Hindoos; all the occult sciences were prac-
ticed by them, and by the exercise of which they attained
the name of being possessed of supernatural power, and,
indeed, among the people and their kings, they were all-
powerful. The most ancient and the most celebrated of
their temples was that consecrated to Belus, god of light,
at Bab}4on. This temple, called the Tower of Babel,11 was
erected by them, with a great number of other monuments,
at Persepolis, at Ecbatane, and at Babylon,12 and to-day is
buried under a vigorous vegetation ; but their mausoleums,
cut into the everlasting rock, yet exist, to remind present
generations of their science, their morals, and respect for
their dead.
A reformer, named Mithra (2250 B. C), born in Midia,
overthrew among the Medes the system of the magi, and
founded a worship more austere. Deified, Mithra was re-
garded by the Medes as the personification of Ohromaze
and Ahrimane, the divine duality of the Persians, and
consequently became himself the object of a special wor-
ship. The mysteries of this worship were celebrated in
subterranean temples, as among the ancient Hindoos, and
were called " Retreats of Mithra."13 The aspirants for the
privileges of these mysteries submitted to proofs so terrible
that many became insensible. In the initiation there were
seven d:stinct degrees. Mithra, regarded as the sun-god,
is represented in Persian art under the form of a young
man with a Phr}rgian bonnet, armed with a sword, which
he is in the act of plunging into the throat of a bull.14
Another religious legislator, named Zoroaster, (1220 to
1200 B. C.) who came after Mithra, renewed his worsjiip.
Zoroaster15 having found it necessary to quit his country,
then subjugated, retired with some disciples into a cavern
of the neighboring mountains in Persia, which he there-
"N
^
\
v.
^
ANCIENT WORSHIPS AND MYSTERIES. 369
upon consecrated to Mithra (the sun), creator of all things.
This retreat he partitioned into geometrical divisions, which
represented the climates, the elements, the plants, and, in
fact, imitated the universe. There he studied, with his
disciples, the movements of the heavenly bodies and the
mechanism of the world. His theology was that of the
Hindoos — the study of nature and its original contriver
in the movements of the celestial and terrestrial bodies.
Zoroaster, after having passed twenty years in this re-
treat, returned to his country, and began to promulgate hia
doctrine at Bactria, the capital of the kingdom of the Bac-
trians. There he became their prophet, and the grand
master of the priest magicians, who were then more power-
ful than ever. He reassembled the remains of the ancient
laws of the magi, which dated back to the highest anti-
quity, and formed with his own theology a new body of
doctrines, contained in the Zendavesta,16 of which he is the
author, and which became the religious code of the Medes
and the Bactrians, and, subsequently, that of the Persians,
Chaldeans, and Parthians.
The great institutions of the primitive races — those
learned corporations in which they took so much pride —
have disappeared; and we are pained to recognize, in the
unhappy Parsees of to-day, disgraced and persecuted, the
scattered remains of an ancient enlightened people, and
the last inheritors of much that was glorious. Neverthe-
less, by the practice of some simple symbolic ceremonies,
to which the Parsees themselves are no less attached than
their opponents are zealous to proscribe, we are assured
that they are the successors of the ancient Mithraiques.
Their meetings — imitations of those of the retreat of
Mithra — have caused them to be accused, according to
modern custom, of the most atrocious crimes, and to re-
ceive the epithet of Guebers — a term that, from all time,
designates that moral turpitude attributed by the igno-
rant to the members of all secret societies.
24
370 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
MYSTERIES OF ISIS AND OSIRIS.
Ethiopia and Egypt
The worship of the ancient Ethiopians and Egyptians
>s a sort of pantheism, in which all the forces of nature are
personified and deified. Superior to all the gods, however,
is placed a God eternal and infinite, who is the source of
all things.
The most ancient trinity of the Ethiopians and the people
of that part of Abyssinia adjoining Arabia, the blest, and
of Chaldea, was Cneph-Ammon (Youpiter), god creator, of
which the emblem was a ram; Ptha (Brama-Theos), god
of matter, primitive earth, the emblem of which was an
egg or sphere ; Neith, god of thought, the emblem of
which was light, which germinates all things. Thus was
comprised a triple manifestation of an only G-od (Iehov),
considered under three connections, the creative power,
goodness, and wisdom — merely the Hindoo trinity, with
other names.
The number of super-celestial gods augment by follow-
ing those of Fta, the god of fire and of life, representing
the generative principle ; of Pan-Mendes, the male prin-
ciple, and Athor, the female principle, which are the aux-
iliaries of Ftay generator ; of Frea or Osiris, the sun ; of
Pijoh or Isis, the moon. But, besides these which we
have mentioned, they had twelve other celestial and three
terrestrial gods. Of these the celestial gods were called
respectively Zeous, Rempha, Artes, Surot, Pi-Hermes,
Imuthes, corresponding to the mythological Jupiter, Sat-
urn, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and one other known but to
the Ethiopians, viz. : Starry Heavens. These were all male
gods ; and after them came six females, viz. : Rhea, or the
Earth, the Moon, Ether, Fire, Air, and Water. Then, in
the third rank, were placed the terrestrial gods, viz. : Osiris,
X
K
IS
&
V
1
Is
I
^X
I
V
ANCIENT WORSHIPS AND MYSTERIES. 371
genius of good, whose brother, Typhon, was genius of evil :
Isis, the wife of Osiris, and Horus, their son, and genius
of labor. This trinity subsequently became the principal
object of the Egyptian worship. Isis, as the generative
divinity, was sister and wife of Osiris, the sun-god, and
figured as the earth, which latter, in fact, is simply
londered productive by the action of the former; and
hence that worship which, at a later day, merged, in the
eyes of other nations, into bestiality, though held very
sacred among the Egyptians.
The gymnosophist priests who came from the banks of
the Euphrates in Ethiopia brought with them their science
and doctrines, and cultivated the knowledge of them among
this people. They formed colleges known as the colleges
of the priests, the principal one of which was at Meroe, the
capital of Ethiopia, and the mysteries of their worship were
celebrated in the temple of Amnion 17 (You-piter), renowned
for its oracle. Ethiopia, then a powerful State,18 and which
had preceded Egypt in civilization,19 had a theocratic gov-
ernment. The priest was more powerful than the king,
and could put him to death in the name of the divinity.
The magnificence of the ruins of Axom, with its obelisks,
hieroglyphics, temples, tombs, and pyramids which sur-
round ancient Meroe, with a hundred other pyramids in
Ethiopia, are evidently of a period prior to that of the
eight pyramids of Ghizze,20 near ancient Memphis, and
which date from the sixth to the twelfth centuries before
Christ. It then becomes certain that the Theban priests
went forth from the colleges of Ethiopia. Hermes,21 priest
king, the deified author of the castes, and who, bound by
the legends of Isis and Osiris, taught to the Egyptian priests
the occult sciences. The priests committed to the only
books which at this early time were to be found among
them the sciences called to-day hermetic, and to them
added their own discoveries and the relations which were
made to them by their sybils.22 They occupied themselves
372 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY,
particularly with the more abstract sciences, by which they
discovered those famous geometric theorems which Pytha-
goras subsequently obtained a knowledge of from them,
and by which they calculated the eclipses three hun-
dred years before Caesar, and regulated the year that we
call Julian. Sometimes they would descend to engage in
some practical researches upon the cares of life, and read
to their associates the fruits of their investigations ; and
sometimes they would, in the cultivation of the fine arts,
inspire the enthusiasm of the people who constructed the
avenues of Thebes,23 and the Labyrinth, the admirable
temples of Karnak, of Dendorah, of Edfou, and of Philae;
those people who sat up so many monolythic obelisks, who
hollowed, under the name of lake Moeris, an ocean, to
guarantee fertility to the country ; who constructed subter-
ranean cities,24 the wonders of which equaled those of any
sunlit city ; who, prodigal of their labor, and caring for
the residence of the dead as much as for that of the living,
hid under ground the colors of the most beautiful paintings
in the tombs of .their ancestors ; to this people, finally,
whose monuments delight in collossal proportions only be-
cause the ideas which inspired them were grand.
The wisdom of the initiates, the high degree of morality
and science which they taught excited the emulation of
the most eminent men, irrespective of rank or fortune, and
induced them, notwithstanding the terrible proofs to which
they had to submit, to seek admission into the mysteries of
Isis and Osiris.
The worship and the mysteries of the Egyptians at first
passing through Moses among the Hebrews, where the
primitive god of the Ethiopians, Youpiter or Jupiter, re-
ceived the name of You or Jehova,25 and Typhon, the genius
of evil, was called Satan, and represented under the form
of a serpent, passed subsequently into Phenicia, where they
were celebrated at Tyre.26 There the name of Osiris was
changed to Adonai or Dyonisius, which also meant the sun
ANCIENT WORSHIPS AND MYSTERIES. 373
Then these mysteries were successively introduced into
Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, Sicily, and Italy. In
Greece and in Sicily Osirus took the name of Bacchus, and
Isis that of Ceres, of Cybele, of Rhea, and of Yenus; while
at Rome she was called the good goddess.
MYSTERIES OF THE HEBREWS.
This worship was founded by Moses, a son of the tribe
of Levi, educated in Egypt and initiated at Heliopolis into
the mysteries of Isis and Osiris, of which he became a
priest. Informed of his origin, he forsook the court of
Pharaoh at the age of forty years, and, it is said, passed
the subsequent forty years of his life in exile, after which
he abode with the Hebrews. Driven from Egypt,27 under
the reign of Amenophis, because they were infected with
the leprosy, this people elected Moses as their chief. He
became their legislator and adapted to the ideas of his peo-
ple the science and philosophy wThich he had obtained in
the Egyptian mysteries ; proofs of this are to be found in
the symbols, in the initiation, and in his precepts and com-
mandments. Moses passes for the author of the first five
books of the Old Testament of our Bible, or the Penta-
teuch.28 The wonders which Moses narrates as having
taken place upon the mountain of Sinai, upon the occasion
of his reception of the tables of the law, are, in part, a dis-
guised account of the initiation of the Hebrews. Moses
formed with his priests a separate caste or class, who were
alone possessed of scientific knowledge, and who stole
the knowledge of their sacred books from the " gentiles :"
who forbade their own people to enter their dwellings,
and punished with death the Levites who, being placed in
charge of the sanctuary, neglected that charge night or day,
as also the timorous person, unknown to their order, who
374 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
should dare to approach the entrance to the tabernacle.
Moses wished to separate the Hebrew nation from every
other, and to form of it an empire isolated and distinct;
and, for this purpose, he conceived the design of fixing its
foundation upon the religious prejudices of his people, and
erecting around them a sacred rampart of opinions and
rites. But in vain did he prescribe the worship of symbols;
the dogma of an only God,30 which he taught, was equally
the Egyptian god, the invention of the priests of whom he
had been a disciple. In the construction of the tabernacle,
likewise, Moses observed the manner of the Egyptian
priests, and its proportions and measurements were an imi-
tation of their system of the world. This tabernacle was
divided into three parts : the holy of holies, the sanctuary,
or court of the priests, and the court of the people. Within
the holy of holies none but the high priest was admitted,
and he but once a year ; within the sanctuary, or court of
the priests, none but the Levites and the priests ; and the
people were confined to the outer court of the people.
Moses, who had, not only in the construction of the taber-
nacle, but in many other matters, imitated the symbolism
of the Egyptian priests, sought, however, to efface from
his religion all that recalled the worship of the stars,31 but
in vain; for a crowd of its characteristics remained. The
twelve signs of the zodiac were but repeated on the ban-
ners of the twelve tribes, and on the twelve jewels in the
urim of the high priest; the Pleiades, or seven stars, in the
seven lights of the sacred candlesticks ; the feast of the
two equinoxes, openings and closings of the two hemi-
spheres, the ceremony of the lamb or celestial ram ; finally,
the name of Osiris, preserved in his canticles, and the ark
or coffer, imitated from the tomb within which this god
was inclosed, all served as witnesses of the birth-place of
these ideas and to their extraction from an Egyptian source.
Subsequently we find in the construction of the temple at
Jerusalem but a repetition, on a grander scale, of the same
N
>i *
\>\
ANCIENT WORSHIPS AND MYSTERIES. 375
proportions and measurements which characterize the tab-
ernacle of the fugitive Israelites in the wilderness.
All the doctrines of the Hebrews were not written ; they
had oral traditions which were known to but a few among
them. These traditions were preserved in the arcance of
divers secret Hebrew associations — among the Kasedeens
the Therapeuies, and the Essenians.Z2 It was in this lattei
sect that Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity,33 was
educated, and wherein he imbibed the sublime doctrine
which he revealed to the world. In the beginning, the
initiation into the mysteries of Christianity,34 which was
composed of three degrees, was similar to that of the pa-
gans,' and the connection between the Christian legend and
all those by which the priests allegorically represented the
annual revolution of the sun are very striking, as they can
not fail to excite the thought that the disciples of Christ
had prefigured his birth, his life, and his death under solar
appearances.
Araoiw tho secret societies who best resisted the uni-
versal tendency, and transmitted an uninterrupted succes-
sion of the mysteries, after the fall of Jerusalem, should be
placed, after the Essenians, those called the Cabbalists, who
have never ceased to exist, and of whom there are to-day
numerous branches among the Jews of the eastern world,,
in Germany and Poland.
MYSTEEIES OF ELEUSIS.
The worship of Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, (the
Is.s of the Egyptians,) was established at Eleusis, after its
initiation in Egypt, toward the .fifteenth century before
Christ. This worship was founded upon that of Isis and
Osiris and the Egyptian gods, and subsequently became,
among the Greeks, so fertile in imagination, the beginning
376 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
of the errors of Polytheism. By the abuse of the figura-
tive language, the phenomena of the heavens and the earth
became, in this system, a record of human events, births,
marriages, adulteries, combats, flights, and murders — in a
word, fables and myths, in the representation of which
their original meaning was lost.
The initiation into the mysteries of Ceres was divided
into greater and lesser mysteries; the latter were celebrated
at the time of the vernal equinox, and the former at that
of autumn. The lesser mysteries were a preparation for
the greater mysteries by the young, of purifications and
expiations, to be followed by a historic interpretation of the
fables. In submitting to them, the youths were purged of
the polytheism of their principal fancies and immoralities.
In the greater mysteries was begun the allegorical explana-
tions of the most abstruse mysteries. By the initiation
into these greater mysteries, polytheism was destroyed at
its root, and the doctrine of the unity of God and the im-
mortality of the soul was taught, together with a revelation
of philosophical truths more extended, more profound, and
more mysterious than those of any other known worship.
In lapse of time these mysteries were altered and corrupted,
like all the others.
MYSTEEIES OF SAMOTHKACIA.
The worship and the mysteries of the Cabires (Egyptian
gods), established in the island of Samothracia, by Or-
pheus (1330 B. C), were originally from Egypt, having
passed through Phenicia and there taken other names.
The four principal gods of this worship were called, in
Samothracia, Axieros, Axiokersa, Axiokersos, and Cad-
millus. The initiation was based upon a solar legend, like
that of Osiris and Typhon, Adonis and Venus. Subse-
>v
V
|
s
^
^
I)
|
v
ANCIENT WORSHIPS AND MYSTERIES. 377
quently the names of the Cabires was again crianged to
that of Ceres, Proserpine, Pluto, and Mercury (Hermes).
MYSTERIES OF THE PHRYGIANS AND PHENICIANS
The mysterious worship of the Phrygians in honor of
Cybele (the goddess of nature or reproduction), and of
her son Atys, had two temples, the one upon Mount Ida,
and the other in the city of Pessinuntus. Atys was a
deified priest, who taught the Phrygians the mysteries
of nature. He represents the sun, and in the legend
which forms the basis of the initiation, he is subjected to
the same fortune as Osiris and Adonis — always the fictitious
death of the sun and his resurrection.
The worship and the mysteries of Adonai, among the
Phenicians and the Syrians, is identically the same.
Cybele there takes the name of Adonai, (of which the
Greek was Adonis,) always indicative of the goddess
Nature, who, as widow of him in whom she had her joy
and her fruitfulness, renews with haste her vows at that
moment when, conqueror of darkness, he has again as-
sumed the heat and brilliancy which he had lost.
The feasts which were celebrated among the Phrygians
and Phenicians took place at the time of the equinoxes.
Their most celebrated temples are to be found at Balbek38
and at Tadmor, known to-day as Palmyra.37
MYSTERIES OF THE ROMANS.
The most ancient god of Latium — brought from the
East, however, and not aboriginal with the Latins — was
Janus38 or Saturn, who took many names and many attri-
378 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
butes, without ceasing to be recognizable. He presided
over revolutions in nature, and particularly that principal
and most remarkable of all revolutions, the year or circle of
the months. He is sometimes regarded as time, sometimes
as astronomy, and often the sun himself, the great regu-
lator of the seasons and the cycles. Janus, with his
double face, with the keys which also served him as a
more distinctive mark, represented the end and the begin-
ning of a period : he opened and closed the year, which
commenced with the equinox of spring-time and ended
with the shortest day in December. The eagle, given a3
a companion to Janus (the St. John of the Freemasons),
is the famous cock of the Guebers.
The myth upon which reposed the worship of Janus or
Saturn was very mysterious, and was explained but to the
highest initiates. The saturnalian feasts were the cele-
bration of the winter solstice.
The worship of the good goddess, which followed that
of Janus, was brought to Italy by a colony of Phrygians.
The mysteries of Eleusis were imported by Roman in-
itiates from Greece. This worship, adopted and propa-
gated by the great legislator Numa Pompilius, became
the basis of the religious ceremonies and the initiation of
the colleges of builders founded by him.
The mysteries of Mithra and of Isis, which, under the
reign of the emperors, were established at Home, were
polluted with corruption from the beginning, and at many
times their abuse caused them to be proscribed. They
were a bad resemblance of the old Egyptian or Persian
ceremonies from which they were borrowed, and like
them only in name.
Rome, which had received from the East gods, legends,
and religious customs, having become the conqueror of
that vast country, returned to it more than one new
divinity and new forms of worship.
ANCIENT WORSHIPS AND MYSTERIES. 379
SYBILS AND OKACLES
The Clairvoyants and Ecstatic Somnambulists of Our Day.
The name of sybils was given by the Egyptians to
those priestesses who were endowed with the gift of clair-
voyance, whether acquired naturally or by means of mag-
netism, and who revealed to the priests a portion of the
secrets of nature; while the name of oracles was given to
those who, plunged into an ecstatic state, predicted future
events. There were generally reckoned ten of the first,
viz.: the Cumean, the Lybian, the Chaldean, the Delphic,
the Erythrean, the Samnian, the Lucanian, the Phrygian,
the Hellespontine, and the Tiburtine. The most famous
oracles were those of Fta at Memphis, of Frea at Heliop-
olis, of Isis at Bubaste, of Trephonius at Boetia, of Ani-
phiarus at Oropus, of Fortune at Atium, of Serapis at
Alexandria, of Hercules at Athens, of ^Esculapius at
Epidorus and Rome, of Pan at Arcadia, of Diana at
Ephesus, of Minerva at Mycenus, of Venus at Paphos, of
Mercury at Patras, of Mars in Thrace, of Apollo at Del-
phos, at Claros, and at Miletus, and of Minerva at Saos.
The Jews also had their sybils, of whom Huldah, in the
time of the king Josias, was the most celebrated.
380 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
THE
LEGISLATORS, REFORMERS AKD FOUNDERS
OF
WORSHIPS AND MYSTERIES
India.
Bhudda (celestial man), the three most ancient reform-
ers to whom this name is given by the Hindoos, and whose
memory they venerate, belong to that period when, ac-
cording to the hieroglyphic accounts, the stars were per-
sonified. The Hindoos had arrived at a high degree of
civilization a long time before the advent of Menou, as is
proven by their monuments; and centuries before his
coming they communicated their science and their astro-
nomical knowledge to the Persians and the Egyptians, see-
ing that the establishment of the Hindoo zodiac belongs
• to the century that elapsed between 4700 and 4600 B. C.
The three first Bhuddas should then be classed at from
5500 to 5000 B. C.
Menou, Hindoo legislator, founder of the doctrine of the
three principles or God, (the sun of spring-time, the sun
of summer, and the sun of winter,) all three distinct and
yet forming an only god, which were subsequently personi-
fied by Brahma, Yishnu, and Shiva (the sun in its three
forms of action as the source of all triune systems). The
doctrine of Menou is contained in the book, the Manava-
Dharma-Shastra, of which a second Menou was the author.
He disappeared between 4000 and 3800 B. C.
Bhudda-Shaucasam, reformer and founder of the doctrine
contained in the Bhagavat-Ghita, the most ancient book
>
i
I
ft:
I
I
1
I
ANCIENT WORSHIPS AND MYSTERIES. 381
of the Hindoos, which goes back to from 3400 to 3100
B. C. This reformer is considered as the first incarnation
of the Supreme Being, and at the same time the mediator
and expiator of the crimes of men. He disappeared be-
tween 3600 and 3500 B. C.
Bhudda-Gonagom, a reformer, who was also deified as the
econd incarnation of the Supreme Being. He disappeared
about the year 2366 B. C.
Bhudda-Gaspa, a reformer, who was also deified as the
third incarnation of the Supreme Being, and who disap-
peared about the year 1027 B. C.
Bhudda-Somana-Guatama, a profound philosopher, author
of the Guadsour (Khghiour), which contained his doctrines
and precepts. He was deified as the fourth incarnation
of the Supreme Being. Born in the year 607, he died in
the year 557 B. C.
Persia.
Horn, founder of the worship of fire, between 3800 and
4000 B. C.
Djemschid, founder of the worship of the sun, between
3700 and 3600 B. C.
The Magi Priests, reformers of the worship of the sun,
about 3600 B. C.
Mithra, reformer of the degenerate worship of Media,
deified as the representative of the sun, about the year
2550 B. C.
Zoroaster, prophet of the Persians, grand master of the
Magi priests, and founder of an austere worship, between
1400 and 1300 B. C.
Ethiopia.
Osiris, warrior and civilizer, reformer of the worship of
Cneph-Ammon, of Fta and Neith, the most ancient trinity
of the Abyssinians, above which was placed an eternal
and infinite god (Iehov), who is the source of all things.
Osiris appeared about 5000 B. C.
382 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
Priests of Meroe, founders of the worship of the twelve
celestial gods, the same being the powers of nature, the
planets, and the elements personified. The celestial bull,
which opened the equinox of spring-time (from between the
years 4580 and 2428), was the object of a special worship.
The temple of Meroe was erected between the years 4700
and 4600 B. C, and the zodiac of the temple of Esneh
was erected between 4600 and 4500 B. C.
Egypt.
Priests of Egypt, reformers of the worship of the twelve ce-
lestial gods of the subordinates — You-piter, supreme god —
to the trinity of Osiris (god of the sun), of Isis (the moon),
and Horns their son (the earth), which became the prin-
cipal worship of the Egyptians. Besides the worship of
the bull (Aphis), they also celebrated that of the celestial
ram, which, in its turn, and by the precession of the equi-
noxes, opened the equinox of spring-time, from the years
2540 to 323 B. C. These priests ruled in Egypt between
the years 4200 and 4000 B. C.
Hermes, priest-king, reformer, author of charts and oc-
cult sciences, who taught and introduced them into the
mysteries. His doctrine and science are contained in the
books which bear his name. He disappeared in the year
3370 B. C.
Moses, a priest of Heliopolis, chief and legislator of the
Hebrews, founder of their worship, and the doctrines of
which are contained in the first five books of the Old Tes-
tament; born in 1725 B. C.
Greece.
Orpheus, philosopher and legislator, initiated in Egypt,
founded the mysteries in the island of Samothracia in the
year 1530 B. C.
Triptoleme, son of the king Eleusis, initiated in Egypt>
founded the mysteries of Eleusis in the year 1500 B. C.
ANCIENT WORSHIPS AND MYSTERIES. 383
Pythagoras, a celebrated philosopher, initiated into the
mysteries of Egypt and Persia, founded at Crotona his
mysterious school in which were united the characteristics
of worship and initiation. His doctrine embraced all the
sciences known in his time.
Eome.
Numa Pompilius, the great legislator and civilizer, in-
troduced into Rome the mysteries of Greece. He founded
the colleges of architects and builders (the cradle of Free-
masonry) in the year 715 B. C.
China.
Confucius (Kong-Tseu), a celebrated philosopher and re-
former of the ancient degenerated worship. His philo-
sophical religious doctrine is contained in the Chou-King,
the morals of which are among the most beautiful. Born
in 600, he died in the year 550 B. C.
Lao- Tseu, a reformer, who preached a mystical doctrine
which is to be found in the Tao-te-King (primitive reason),
was considered by the Chinese as an incarnation of the
Supreme Being. He lived in the sixth century B. C.
Judea.
Jesus Christ, founder of Christianity, and author of
evangelical morality, breathing peace and charity, the
most simple and the most sublime which has ever been
taught to man. It is to be found contained in the books
of the New Testament. His birth gives us a new era, and
his death took place A. D. 33.
884 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
NOTES.1
1. — Worships and Mysteries.
Mystery properly signifies that portion of the doctrines of any
form of religion for which reason is unable to account, and which,
consequently, is dependent upon faith. Thus the life of Christ
presents, as we find it in the Evangelists, many mysteries, as the
incarnation, the nativity, his passion, his resurrection ; and, in the
earlier days of Christianity, baptism, the eucharist, and the other
sacraments, were all called holy mysteries. In the mysteries of
Egypt and that of some other nations, the exterior worship, the
processions, etc., all that took place outside of the temples, and
in the courts of the temples, constituted the feasts. In these
every body, even the slaves, could participate and assist ; but the
initiated alone were admitted to the mysteries.
2. — Theology of the Ancients.
All the ancient peoples having their colleges of priests and
astronomical and astrological books cotemporaneously, were alike
affected by the discoveries, disputes, errors, or perfections that in
all times have agitated the students of nature and philosophy.
The more we have penetrated, during the past thirty or forty
years, into the secret sciences, and especially into the astronomy
and cosmogony of the modern Asiatics, the Chinese and Burmese,
the more we are convinced of the affinity of their doctrine with
those of the ancient peoples from whom they have descended.
Indeed, in certain particulars it has been transmitted more pure
than with us, because it has not been altered by those anthro-
pomorphical innovations which has denaturalized every thing else.
This comparison of ancient and modern theology is a fruitful
mine, which, if entered in the right spirit and with the mind
divested of prejudice, will afford a crowd of ideas equally new
and historically correct; but to appreciate and welcome them, it is
necessary that the reader should also be free from prejudice.
When the Chaldean priests were seeking a general knowledge
of the earth's phenomena, as appears by researches in the books
of the Hindoos, they studied from a single point of view the
1 Serving to illustrate and authorize sundry passages of the text of the
Worship and the Mysteries of the Ancient Eastern World.
§
~x
NOTES. 385
*
operations of vegetable and animal nature, and, concluding upou
the hypothesis that the sun represented the principles of heat
and life, and darkness those of cold and death, from this basis,
true as it most assuredly is, have beeu built up the innumerable
fictions which disfigure all ancient theology.
3. — Sacred Books of all the Peoples.
The Vedas or Vedams are the sacred books of the Hindoos, as
the Bible is ours. They are three in number, the Rig-Veda, the
Yadj our- Veda, and the Sama-Veda. These books are very rare,
beiug written in the most ancient known language of the Brah-
mins. Those who count four Vedas have added the Attar-Veda,
which treats of the ceremonies. In addition to these books there
are a collection of commentaries upon them which is called the
Oupanashada, of which a French translation has been published
by Anquetil Duperron, under the title of Oupen akhat— a curious
book in this, that it gives an idea of all the others. The date
of the Vedas, twenty-five to thirty centuries before our era, and
their contents, show that all the reveries of the Greek metaphy-
sicians came from India. After the Vedas come the Shasters, to
the number of six. They treat of theology and science. Then,
to the number of eight, come the Pouranas, which treat of mythol-
ogy and history. The book entitled Manava-Dharma-Shastra con-
tains the laws of the first reformer Menou.
After the sacred books of the Hindoos come those of the Per-
sians, the Sadder and the Zend-Avesta, the religious code of the
Bactrians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Medes. They contain the
doctrine of Zoroaster. The Boun-Dehesch, the book of Genesis
of the Parsees, successors of the ancient Persians, is a compila-
tion of the ancient laws of the Magi. After these come the five
books of Hermes, the priest-king of Egypt, founder of the castes,
who lived about 3370 B. C. Then the Taote-King and Ghou-King
of the Chinese, the first of which contains the metaphysical doc-
trines of Lno-Tseu, and the second the sublimely moral doctrines
of Kong-Tseu (Confucius.) Then, in point of time, may be
ranked our Bible, the Old Testament of which contains the cos-
mogony of the Jews and Christians, and the laws of Moses, with
a history of the Hebrew people, and the New Testament of which
contains the Gospels of evangelical morality, peace, and charity
of Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity. The Koran of Ma-
homet, containing the precepts and doctrine transmitted by him
to his followers, would necessarily follow, to make the list com-
plete.
Egypt is the only country which possessed a complete code of
doctrines of great antiquity. Clement of Alexandria has trans-
mitted to us a curious detail of forty-two volumes which were
25
386 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
carried in the processions of Isis. " The chief, or singer," says
he, " carries an instrument symbolical of music, and two books
of Mercury (Hermes), one of them containing the hymns of the
gods, and the other the list of the kings. After him comes the
horoscopist, observer of the seasons, carrying a palm-branch and
a time-piece symbolic of astrology. He has to know by heart the
four books of Mercury (Hermes), which treat of astrology : the
first of which treats of the order of the planets, the second of the
ising and setting of the sun and moon, and the third and fourth
of their movements in their orbits, and the aspects of the stars.
Then comes the sacred writer, having some feathers stuck into
his hair, and in his hand a book, an ink-bottle, and a reed for
writing, according to the manners of the Arabs. This officer has
to understand the language of the hieroglyphics, the description
of the universe, the courses of the sun, moon, and planets, iho
division of Egypt into thirty-six districts, the course of the Nile,
the sacred ornaments, the holy places, etc. Then comes the stole-
bearer, who carries the gauge of justice, or measure of the Nile,
and a chalice for libations, together with ten volumes containing
the sacrifices, the hymns, the prayers, the offerings, and ceremo-
nies of the feasts. Finally appears the prophet, carrying in his
bosom, but exposed, a pitcher. He is followed by those who
carry the bread, as at the marriage feast of Cana. This prophet,
in his position as keeper of the mysteries, must know by heart
the ten volumes which treat of the laws, of the gods, and of all
the discipline of the priests, etc., which are outside of the forty-
two volumes. Thirty-six are known by these persons, and the
other six, treating of medicine, of the construction of the human
frame, of sickness, of medicaments, and of surgical instruments,
belong to the pastophores.
4. — Cosmogonies.
The recital of the creation of the world, as it is expressed in
Genesis, is to be found almost literally in the ancient cosmogonies,
and more particularly in those of the Chaldeans and Persians,
proving that the Jews but borrowed it from these people. That
our readers may judge for themselves, we here give a faithful
translation — much more faithful than that which we have from
the Greek and Latin :
" In the beginning, the gods (Elohim) created (bard) the heav-
ens and the earth. And the earth was confused and desert, and
darkness was upon its face. And the wind (or the spirit) of the
gods acted upon the face of the waters. And the gods said : Let
the light be ! and the light was ; and he saw that the light was
good, and he separated it from the darkness And he called the
V.
"N.
"V.
i
NOTES. 387
light day and the darkness night ; and the night and the morning
were a first day.
" And the gods said : Let the void (ragid) be (made) in the
middle of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the
waters ; and the gods made the void, separating the waters which
are under the void, and he gave to the void the name of heavens;
and the night and the morning were a second day.
'* And the go Is said : Let the waters under the heavens collect
themselves intc one place, and let the dry earth appear. That
was so, and he gave the name of earth to the shallows and the
name of sea to the body of waters; and he said: Let the earth
produce vegetables with their seeds; and the night and the morn-
ing were a third day, etc.
"And the fourth day he made the bodies of light (the sun and
the moon) for to separate the day from the night, and to serve as
signs to the times, to the days and to the years. At the fifth day
he made the reptiles of the water, the birds and the fishes. At the
sixth day the gods made the reptiles of the earth, the four-footed
and wild animals, and he said : make man to our image and to our
likeness ; and he created (bard) man to his image, and he it created
to his image, and he them created (bara) male and female ; and he
rested himself at the seventh day.
" Now, it rained not upon the earth, but an abundant moisture
arose from the earth, and sprinkled all its surface.
"And he had planted the garden of Eden (anteriorly or to the
East) ; he there placed man. At the middle of the garden was the
tree of life and the tree of the science of good and evil. And from
the garden of Eden went forth a river which divided into four
streams, called Phison, Grihon, Tigris, aud Euphrates.
"And Jehouh the gods said : It is not good that man should be
alone, and he sent him a sleep, during which he withdrew from him
a rib, of which he built the woman," etc.
If such a recital as this was presented to us by the Brahmins or
the Lamas, it would be curious to hear our doctors censure these
anomalies. What a strange condition of physics, they would say, to
suppose that light existed before the sun was created, before the stars,
and independently of them, and, what is more offensive to reason,
to say that there was a night and a morning, when the night and
the morning were nothing but the appearance or disappearance of
that body of light which makes the day.
We quite agree with our doctors on this subject, and can no
more than they control these anomalies; but because the account
resists the laws of sober reason, we must turn to the consideration of
the allegorical explanation of it. The reader is, no doubt, surprised
with this translation of the creative gods ; nevertheless, such is the
value of the text, in the view of all grammarians. But why this plural
governing the singular? Because the Jew translator, pressed by two
388 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
contradictory authorities, had no other way of relieving his embar-
rassment. The law of Moses prescribed but an only God, while the
cosmogonies, not alone of the Chaldeans, but of nearly all known na-
tions, attributed to the secondary gods, and not to the one great God,
the creation of the world. The Jewish translator had not courage
enough to reject a word sacred to law and usage. Among the
Egyptians these Elohim were the deacons, and, among the Persians
and Chaldeans, the geni of the months and the planets, as we are
informed by the Phenecian author Sanchoniathon.
Now observe how the Vedas, the sacred books of the Hindoos,
account for the creation of the world.
" In the beginning there was an only God, self-created and self-
sustaining. After having passed an eternity in the contemplation
of his own being, he desired to exhibit his perfections beyond
himself, and created the matter of the world. The four elements
having been produced, but, as yet, in a confused condition, he
blew upon the waters and they became inflated like an immense
bubble in the form of an egg, and which, developing, became the
vault and orb of heaven which surround the world. Then, having
made the earth and the bodies of living beings, this God, essence
of movement, to animate these bodies, distributed among them a
portion of his own being, and this portion, as the soul of all that
respire, being a fraction of the universal soul, can not perish, but
must pass successively into divers bodies. Of all the forms of
living beings, that which pleased the Divine Being most was the
form of man, as approaching the nearest to his own perfections; so
that when a man, by an absolute abnegation of sense (reason) becomes
absorbed in the contemplation of himself, he attains to the dis-
covery of the deity, and actually becomes divine. Among the
incarnation of this species which God has already clothed, the
most solemn and holy was him who appeared in the twenty-eighth
century in Kachemire, under the name of Bhudda, to teach the
doctrine of the new birth and the renunciation of self." And the
book, retracing the subsequent history of Bhudda, continues to
say :
" That he was born from the right side of a virgin of the blood
royal, who, in becoming a mother, did not cease to be a virgin.
That the king of the country, disquieted by his birth, wished to
destroy him, and therefore massacred all the male children born
at that time ; but that he, saved by shepherds, took refuge in
the desert, where he remained until he had attained his thirtieth
year, when he commenced his career of enlightening man and
casting out devils. That he performed a number of the most
astonishing miracles ; spent himself by fasting and self-denial the
most severe ; and that, in dying, he left to his disciples a book
which contained his doctrine " — a doctrine which is summed up in
the following passages :
NOTES. 389
" He who abandons his father and mother to follow me, says
Bhudda, becomes a perfect Samaneen (celestial man).
" He who practices my precepts to the fourth degree of perfec-
tion acquires the faculty of flying through the air, of moving heaven
and earth, and of prolonging or shortening his life.
" The Samaneen despises riches ; he uses but the most simple
necessaries ; he mortifies the body ; his passions are mute ; he de
sires nothing, is attached to nothing ; he meditates my doctrine,
he patiently suffers injuries; he bears no hate toward his neighbor.
" Heaven and earth shall perish, says Bhudda ; despising, then,
your body, composed as it is of four perishable elements, think of
nothing but your immortal soul.
" Hearken not to the promptings of the flesh ; the passions pro-
duce fear and vexation. Subdue the passions, and you will anni-
hilate fear and vexation.
" He who dies without embracing my religion, says Bhudda,
returns among men until he does practice it."
The Vedas of the Hindoos which contain these accounts of the
creation, and the incarnation and doctrine of a deified man, are
believed to have existed at least three thousand years before the
Christian era ; and this doctrine, presenting, as it does, the most
striking analogy to that of Christ, as we find the latter in the
gospels, was spread throughout the eastern world more than a
thousand years before Jesus Christ appeared upon the earth. In
reading these passages does it not seem more probable that the
teachings of Christ have come to us rather through Hindoo than
Hebrew writings?
5. — Symbols.
From that moment when the eyes of the people who cultivated
the earth were directed toward the heavens, the necessity of ob-
serving the stars, of distinguishing them singly or in groups, and
of naming them properly, in order to designate them clearly, be-
came apparent. Now this object, seemingly so simple, was really
very difficult ; for the celestial bodies, being nearly identical in
form, offered no special characteristic whereby to distinguish them
by name ; this on the one hand, while, on the other, the language
of these people, from its very poverty of words, had no expressions
for new and metaphysical ideas. But the ordinary spring to
genius, necessity, surmounted these difficulties. Having remarked
that, in the annual revolution of the earth, the periodical appear-
ance and renewal of terrestrial products became constantly asso-
ciated with the rising and setting of certain stars, and their position
relatively with the sun, a fundamental form of comparison was
established, which, by a purely natural mechanism, connected in
thought those terrestrial and celestial objects which were connected
in fa?t; and, applying to represent them the like signs, they gave
390 GENERAL flISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
to the stars singly, and to the groups which they formed, the namea
of the terrestrial objects to which they responded.
Thus, the Ethiopian of Thebes, called the constellation of inun-
dation, or water-flow, that under which the Nile began to rise ; the
constellation of the ox or bull, that under which he began to till
the earth ; the constellation of the Hon, that under which that
animal, driven from the desert by thirst, showed himself upon the
banks of the river ; the constellation of ripe corn, the virgin har-
vester, which brought the return of the harvest ; the constellation
of flocks and herds, or the ram, that under which these precious
animals gave birth to their young ; and, in this manner, the first
part of the difficulty was removed.
As to the other part, man had remarked in the beings around
him qualities distinct and peculiar to each species. By a primary
operation he selected the name of this quality to designate the
being it distinguished; and, by a secondary operation, he found an
ingenious means of generalizing these characteristics, in applying
the name thus invented to all things which presented similar traits
or actions, and thus he enriched his language with an enduring
metaphor.
Thus the same Ethiopian, having observed that the return of
the inundation or overflow of the Nile constantly corresponded
with the appearance of a very beautiful star, which at this time
was always to be seen in the direction of the head-waters of that
river, and which seemed to warn the laborer to prepare for its
overflow, he likened this action to that animal which, by its timely
barking, warns of approaching danger, and he called this con-
stellation the dog, the barker (Sirius). In like manner he named,
from the movement of the crab, the constellation cancer, which
marks that point in the heavens when the sun, having attained
the tropical limit of his course, returns by a backward and side-
ward movement similar to the motion of that animal. By the title
of wild goat he distinguished the constellation capricornus, which
marks the point at which the sun, having attained the greatest
altitude in his course, pauses, and, as it were, grips the height, as
the wild goat grips the surface of the giddy height to prevent his
fail. By the title of the balance, he distinguished the constella-
tion libra, which marks the period when, as to time, day and night
are equally divided or balanced ; and by the name of the scorpion,
he distinguished that constellation which marks the period when
certain winds carry the burning sand across the plain, and cause
it to strike with a stinging pain, resembling the stroke of a scor-
pion. And in this manner, also, was applied the name of rings,
rounds, or serpents to that form by which was expressed an orbit,
circle, or complete revolution of the planets, whether taken singly
or in groups, according to their connection with the operations of
the field and cultivation of the earth, and the analogies that each
NOTES. 391
nation found presented by their agricultural labors, and the pecu-
liarities of their soil and climate.
From this process, it resulted that the inferior and terrestrial
beings became intimately associated with the superior and celestial;
and this association each day gained strength from similar consti-
tution of language and mechanism of mind. Using this natural
metaphor, they said : The bull scatters upon the earth at his
coming (spring-time) the seeds of fertility; he returns with abun-
dance and the creation of plants. The ram delivers the heavens
from the evils of winter; he saves the world from the serpent
(emblem of the rainy season), and he brings back the reign of
good (the joyful summer-time). The scorpion cast his venom
upon the earth, and scattered sickness and death, etc., and thus of
all similar appearances.
This language, then understood by all the world, presented
nothing inconvenient; but, by the lapse of time, when the calendar
had been regulated, and it became no longer necessary for the
people to observe the heavens, the motive that prompted these
expressions was lost, and their allegorical sense being suppressed,
their use became a stumbling-block to the understanding of the
people. Habituated to join symbols to their models, this misun-
derstanding caused them to confound them. Then these same
animals, which in thought had been placed in the heavens, in fact
returned to earth, but clothed in the livery of the stars, and im-
posed themselves upon the people, as possessing the influences
attributed to them by their sponsors ; and the people, believing
themselves within sight and hearing now of their gods, readily
addressed to them their prayers. They demanded of the animal
ram an abundance of the influences which attended the appearance
of the celestial ram ; they prayed the scorpion no more to scatter
his venom, entailing sickness and death, upon the earth ; they rev-
erenced the crab of the sea, the scarabaeus of the mud, the fishes
of the river; and, by a series of enchanting but vicious analogies,
they lost themselves in a labyrinth of consequent absurdities.
Here we behold the origin of that antique and fanciful worship
of animals, and how, by the progress of ideas, the characteristics
of divinity passing to the most vile brutes, was fashioned that
vast, complicated, and learned theological system which, beginning
on the banks of the Nile, was carried from country to country by
commerce, war, and conquest, and invaded all the ancient world
and which, modified by time, circumstances and prejudices, yet
exhibits itself among hundreds of peoples, and exists as the in-
timate and secret basis of the theology of even those who 3Corn-
fully reject it.
In the projection of 'he celestial sphere, as traced by the as-
tronomer priests of that time, the zodiac and the constellations,
disposed circularly, presented their halves in diametrical opposition.
392 GENERAL KISTOHjT of freemasonry.
The hemisphere of winter is the antipodes of that of summer-
adverse, opposed, contrary they stood toward each other. From
a metaphorical and necessary, this position passed into a moral
sense ; and to angels were opposed adverse angels, who, having
revolted, were cast out, and became their enemies. In this manner,
from being simply an astronomical history, the account and repre-
sentation of the constellations came to be a political history.
Heaven was a country subject to and wherein events transpired
s upon the earth. And as at th#t period monarchy was the pre-
vailing style of government upon the earth, a similar style must
obtain in the heavens; and of the hemisphere of summer, empire
of light, and heat, and joy, and peopled with white angels, it was
apparent the sun was king — a brilliant, intelligent, and good crea-
tor; so, opposed to summer was the hemisphere of winter, that
underground empire of darkness, cold, and sadness, peopled with
black angels, giants, and demons, and having for ruler the prince
of darkness, who was recognized by the different peoples by the
name of that sign whose appearance was attended with most of evil
among them. In Egypt this was from at first the scorpion, being
the first sign of the zodiac after the balance, and, for a long time,
chief of the signs of winter. Afterward it was the bear, or the
polar ass, called Typhon, otherwise Deluge, by reason of the cold
rains which inundated the earth during the rule of this constella-
tion. In Persia, at a later time, it was the serpent, who, under the
name of Ahrimane, formed the basis of the system of Zoroaster;
and it is this same serpent who, among the Jews and the Chris-
tians, tempted Eve, the celestial virgin, and brought sin into the
world, as also the serpent of the cross, and which, in both cases,
is the emblem of Satan.
6. — Hiram of the Freemasons.
The long history of Hiram, the architect of Solomon's temple,
which forms the basis of the degree of master mason, is repre-
sented by most authors, and in all the lectures which prevail in
the lodges in France and elsewhere, as a fact, and not as an alle-
gorical fiction, while in all the higher degrees it is positively re-
cognized as the former. A very limited knowledge of the history
of primitive worships and mysteries is necessary to enable any
person to recognize in the master mason Hiram, the Osiris of the
Egyptians, the Mithras of the Persians, the Bacchus of the Greeks,
the Atys of the Phrygians, of which these people celebrated the
passion, death and resurrection, as Christians celebrate to-day that
of Jesus Christ. Otherwise this is the eternal and unvarying type
of all the religions which have succeeded each other upon the
earth. In an astronomical connection, Hiram is the representative
of the sun, the symbol of his apparent progress, which, appearing
at the south gate, so to speak, is smote downward and more down
^
^
if
I
NOTES, 393
ward as he advances toward the west, which passing, he is imme-
diately vanquished and put to death by darkness, represented, in
following the same allegory, by the spirits of evil ; but, returning,
he rises again, conqueror and resurrected.
7. — The Angels.
The names of the angels and of the months, such as Gabriel
and Michael, Yar and Nisan (March and April), etc., as we are
informed by the Talmud, were brought from Babylon by the Jews.
Beausobre, in his History of the Manicheans, (vol. 2, p. 624,)
proves that the saints of the calendar are imitations of the three
hundred and sixty-five angels of the Persians; and Jamblicus, in
his Egyptian Mysteries, (sec. 2, chap. 3,) speaks of the angels, arch-
angels, and seraphims, etc., like a true Christian Catholic.
8. — The majestic Monuments of the Hindoos.
The most celebrated Hindoo temples, cut in the bosom of the
solid rocks, are to be seen in the vicinity of Bombay and in the
island of Ceylon. That of Elora is considered the most curious.
No one can regard without astonishment a whole mountain of por-
phyry, covering nearly six miles of superficial measurement, con-
verted into a mysterious succession of halls, chambers, anticham-
bers, vestibules, courts, saloons, etc. In the midst of these apart-
ments is the great temple of Elora, a single apartment of five
hundred feet in circumference, hollowed out of the solid granite.
Its side galleries are supported by sculptured pillars ; its walls are
polished, and cut into which are forty-four niches extending from
floor to dome, ana in which stand forty-four gigantic statues of
Hindoo divinities. But the monument of all others the most pro-
digious in Hindostan is the temple of Kailaca, cut in the solid
rock, and without roof or dome, cut open to the heavens. In the
vicinity of this temple there are ten or a dozen similar but much
smaller sanctuaries. At Dhoumar, in the province of Malva, may
be counted seventy of these temples, the circuit of which compose
what may be called a troglodyte city. Upon the coast of Coro-
mandel, not far from Madras, there are a series of labors of the
eame kind not less remarkable.
9. — Bhudda, (Bood, Boudd^)
This is the name that the Hindoos have given to the seven re-
ligious legislators who have successively revived and reformed the
laws and doctrines of their first civilizer of this name, and of whose
existence there remains no account, except in the traditions of fab-
ulous time. Of these seven reformers the four last alone are known
394 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
by tlieir doctrines, which are contained in the sacred books of the
Brahmins, called Vedas, or Vedam. These are Bhudda-Shauca-
sam, whose doctrine is found in the Bhagavat-Ghita, and who lived
between the years 3200 and 3100 B. C. Bhudda Gonagom,
who appeared 1366 years B. C. Bhudda-Gaspa, who appeared
1027 years B. C. ; and Bhudda-Somana- Gautama, who lived 557
years B. C. A final Bhudda is to appear five thousand years after
the death of the last named.
All these reformers are considered by the Brahmins to have
been incarnations of the Supreme Being, and as such they are
adored by eastern people under different names. Among the
Chinese, for example, Bhudda becomes Fot and Fota. that people
having neither b nor d in their language.
10.— The Magi,
The Asiatic rendering of this word signifies consecrated man, a
man devoted to the worship of God, exactly as the Hebrew Naza-
rene or Hindoo Samaneen ; consequently the word magic originally
signified the practice of worship, and magi those who devoted
themselves to science and worship.
11. — Temple of Bel, or Tower of Babel.
By consent of the best authors and the geography of Strabo
and Berose, there existed a Babel or Babylon — that is to say, a
palace or temple — consecrated to (the sun) Bel, titulary god uf this
country, from whom it received its name of Babylonia, and whose
temple, according to ancient Asiatic usage, was the rallying point,
the goal of pilgrimage, the metropolis of all the people who sub-
mitted to his laws ; and, at the same time, this temple was the
asylum, the fortress of the priests, the astronomical studio of this
astrological judiciary, who were celebrated and who rendered famous
the name of Chaldean in far-distant ages of the past.
According to Philo, the Phenician, as cited by Joscphus, the
foundation of this temple, or tower of Babel (Belus), was laid
between the years 3195 and 3190 B. C. The oriental name of
Babel for Babylonia signifies a court; and there existed from that
time a primitive court or palace, which that wonderful woman,
Semiramis, surrounded with her vast constructions when she con-
ceived the project of building a great commercial and military
city, even that Babylon which she surrounded with immense walls
and fortifications, and which she ornamented with castles, palaces,
temples, and bridges, and in the midst of which caused to be
erected for the priests that famous tower or pyramid called the
Tower of Babel.
This opinion is supported by Ktesias, who, in speaking on thia
NOTES 395
subject, says: "When Ninus attacked Babylonia, the city of Bab-
ylon, which at present exists, was not then built." The same his-
torian states "that Semiramis, inspired by her love of grandeur,
and desirous of surpassing the glory of the kings who preceded
her, conceived, between the years 1195 and 1180 B. C, the
project of building in Babylonia an extraordinary city. For this
purpose she gathered from all parts a multitude of architects and
artists of all kinds, and she provided great sums of money and all
the necessary materials; then, having made in the extent of her
empire a levy of two millions of men, she employed them to form
the surroundings of the city by constructing a wall of three
hundred and sixty stadia (about twenty miles) in length, flanked
with many towers, and leaving the river Euphrates to flow through
the midst of the inclosure.
This assemblage of men, levied under the laws of statute labor,
of divers colors, clothing, habits, worships, and language, presented
a strange spectacle. More than eighty dialects were spoken in the
vast empire of Semiramis ; and the assembling of bodies of men,
each of whom spoke one of these dialects, naturally engendered
that confusion which, when these men came to close quarters in
the building of the tower, naturally might and probably did in-
crease to a degree most inconvenient, and hence the real source
of the vicious origin the Jews have given to the word Babel, or
Babylon.
In the account which Herodotus gives of the war of Kyrus
against Babylon, he says: "But after the subversion of Nineveh
she became the capital of Assyria." And then, from ocular evi-
dence, he describes this immense city, the extent and dimensions
of its walls and fortifications, the direction of its streets, the palace
of the king, and the great temple of Bel ; and, in describing the
latter, he says : " The center of the city is remarkable for the
temple of Jupiter Belus, which actually yet exists. (Herodotus
wrote 480 years B. C.) It is square, regularly built, and its court
is fastened by gates of brass. Each square of the inclosure is two
stadia in length (about two hundred yards). In the middle of
this inclosure is to be seen a massive tower, one stadium on each
square of its base, and one stadium in height." Thus, then, the
temple of Belus in Babylon was a strong place, a sort of citadel,
resembling the temple of the sun at Balbek, and most of the other
temples of the ancients, who, for the better security of the priests
and the sacred treasures which had been gathered within their
temples, protected them by high and strong outer walls. " Upon
this tower," continues Herodotus, "there is erected a second, upon
the second a third, and others above that to the number in all
of eight, each being proportionately smaller in its dimensions than
the other, and giving to all the appearance, when viewed from a
distance, of a pyramid, In the highest of these towers is a chapel j
396 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
in this chapel a great bed, well furnished; and near this bed a table,
the surface of which is gold." What was the object of this singu-
lar edifice? What could it be but an astronomical observatory?
This chapel, in the highest tower, elevated to a height of nearly fif-
teen hundred feet above the surface of the earth, served the astron-
omer priests as a look-out from which to observe the solar system,
and to learn exactly the movements of the heavenly bodies. The
golden table, upon which was no doubt traced a map of the solar
system, enabled them to direct their studies, and the well-furnished
bed served for repose when wearied by observation and close appli-
cation of mind. No other furniture was necessary, and no other
was there. Astronomy was the important mystery which they
guarded with jealous care, since it was the basis of that theocratic,
religious, and political power which enabled the priests, by predic-
tions of eclipses and other solar actions, to astonish both kings and
people, and lead them to believe that they held immediate com-
munication with the gods.
Behold, then, what was the object of that famous tower of
Babel, the hearthstone of that Chaldean science vaunted by the
most ancient Greeks as being, even in their time, very ancient.
And yet this grand and simple monument, as described by the
perverted historians of the Jews, has given birth in modern times,
as well as in what we call ancient, to the most singular, extra-
ordinary, and grossly-stupid accounts of its origin and of its
object.
12. — Ecbatana, Babylon, Persepolis.
Of the immense citadel of the palace of the king of the Medes,
Ecbatana, which was seven hundred yards in outer extent, noth-
ing remains but rubbish, in vast quantities, to indicate palace, cit-
adel, or capital of the Median people ; while an enormous quantity
of ruins, heaped about in the most frightful confusiou, mark to-
day the spot where Babylon, the city of palaces, once stood.
Ranks of columns, separated by ravines, mark the streets ; while
masses of rubbish show where once stood the grandest edifices.
In the plain where once stood the city of Persepolis, and which
extended behind Tschil-Minar, nothing remain to mark the great-
est architectural conceptions of any age, but ruins of column and
wall, pillar and porch, heaped in undistinguishable confusion. The
most important ruins are upon the terraces of the mountain of
Rachmed, upon the locality where stood the palace of the kings
of Persia, and upon the flank of that mountain there appear many
funereal monuments of the Persian kings, such as that of Darius,
son of Hystaspe, and of Xerxes. Under the terraces which sup-
port the palace of Persepolis, there extend vast subterranean pas-
sages, of which it is impossible to verify the destination, purpose,
or extent, but which, in the opinion of the Arabs, conducted to
NOTES. 397
the mountain of sepulture, nearly six leagues distant, and in
which may be found the four royal tombs, cut in the rock to the
height of one hundred feet, and which are believed to be those
of Darius Nothus, Artaxerxes I, Ochus, and Artaxerxes II, ot
Memnon.
13. — The Caves or Retreats of Mithra.
Zoroaster, according to Justinius, composed in the cave or grotto
of Mithra, which he inhabited for twenty years, a great armillary
sphere to aid him in the study of the heavenly bodies. Accord-
ing to Celsus, it was after this model that the Persians, in the
ceremonies of Mithra, represented the double movement of the
fixed stars and the planets, with the passage of the soul in the
celestial circles or spheres. To describe the properties or attri-
butes of the planets, they exhibited a scale or ladder composed
of seven steps, or stages, with an eighth at the upper extremity.
The first step was composed of lead, and indicated Saturn ; the
second, of tin, denoted Venus ; the third, of copper, denoted Ju-
piter ; the fourth, of iron, denoted Mars ; the fifth, of divers metals,
denoted Mercury ; the sixth, of silver, denoted the moon ; the
seventh, of gold, denoted the sun, then the highest heaven.
Without doubt this was the ladder of Jacob's dream, and upon
which he saw angels ascending and descending ; and yet all these
Egyptian and Chaldean ideas and allegories existed centuries be-
fore Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. From thence comes the custom
of consecrating caves to the celebration of the mysteries, a custom
that we find among the Christians of the first centuries ; and from
thence have Plato and Pythagoras designated the world as a cave
or cavern.
In the mysteries of the ceremonies of Mithra, as they subse-
quently became developed, we find all the principal ceremonies
observed in administering the rites and sacraments of the Chris-
tian church, even to the slap on the ear given by the bishop in
" confirmation." The priests of Mithra promised their initiates,
through confession and baptism, remission of their sins, and a
life of happiness and delight instead of pain and torment. They
also celebrated the oblation of bread, the image of the resurrec-
tion ; and, finally, their baptism of infants, application of extreme
unction, confession of sins, celebration of the mass (the mysteries),
and many other practices analogous to those of the Christian re
ligion, all proving that what we have to-day as religious ceremo-
nies are but the modified prolongation of religious opinions and
practices which prevailed centuries before our era.
14. — In the throat of a Bull.
This is the bull of the zodiac, which sometimes, by the preces-
sion of the equinoxes, has occupied the place of the ram. This
398 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
is the bull that we find represented in India as opening an egg
with his horn, and who already had opened the age of creation,
that is, the vernal equinox. This is the bull Apis, adored by the
Egyptians, as subsequently the Israelites adored the golden calf.
The bull or ox of the Apocalypse, with his wings, symbolic of his
celestial nature, has a similar origin ; while the lamb of God, im-
molated as the bull of Mithra, for the salvation of the world, is
nothing more than an emblem of the sun in the sign of the celes-
tial ram, which in an after age opened, in his turn, the vernal
equinox, and was moved to deliver the world from the reign of
evil enjoyed by the serpent or great adder, mother of winter and
emblem of Ahrimane, the evil spirit or Satan of the Persians. It
will be observed that the contemporaneous worship of the sign
Taurus by the Egyptians, Persians and Japanese, indicates a com-
munion of ideas among these peoples at this time ; and of this
worship there has descended to us nothing but the May festival
of the fat ox, crowned with flowers.
15. — Zoroaster.
The religious legislator called Zoroaster by the Greeks, and
Zerdast or Zerdust by the Orientals, was born, according to He-
rodotus, about 1250, and according to other authors between 1400
and 1300 B. C, in Aderbijan (ancient Media). He commenced
to promulgate his doctrine at Bactria, the capital of the kingdom
of the Bactrians, about the year 1220 B. C., after a "retreat,"
according to Pliny, of twenty years' duration. He propagated a
new system of theology, which he pretended, according to the
custom of the time among men of his profession, to be the only
true theology, and revealed of God. Zoroaster, according to the
recital of the Parsees, perished with many of the magi, in the
last battle fought at Ninus by the king Keshtasy, one of his
numerous disciples, who wished to convert his subjects and the
neighboring kings.
According to Anquetil Duperron, the principal collection of the
traditions of the Parsees concerning Zoroaster is the book entitled
Zerdust-Narnah, which, they say, was translated from the ancient
Pehlevic idiom into the modern Persian by Zerdust- Behram, scribe
and Persian priest, about the year 1176 of our era.
Theodore of Mopsuestus, in his work concerning the magi of
Persia, explains the doctrine of Zoroaster in the following remark-
able passage : u He is one of those who believes in the existence
of two gods — one good, the other evil. He names them Oromazc
and Ahrimane, and has said that one is best represented by light,
and the other by darkness. The Persians maintained that Oro-
maze was formed from light the most pure, and Ahrimane from
darkness the most obscure Oromaze made six other good gods
"N
I.
S
II
i
NOTES. 399
like himself, and Ahrimane six wicked ones like himself. Oro-
maze then made twenty-four gods, which he placed in an egg ;
but Ahrimane, after making twenty-four evil gods, broke the egg,
and thus caused that blending of good and evil which exists in
the world.
Theopompus believes, in accordance with the magii books, that
one of these gods ruled three thousand years, during which the
other is deposed ; the succeeding three thousand years they fight
and reign equally ; but finally the evil one has to succumb, and
is forever destroyed.
In reducing these allegories to their natural and simple sense,
it is apparent that Zoroaster, after his physico-astronomical med-
itations, considered the world, or the universe, governed by two
principles or powers — the one of production, the other of destruc-
tion ; that the first governed during the six thousand parts, or six
months of summer, or from the vernal equinox to that of Libra,
and the second during the six thousand parts or six months of
winter, or from Libra to Aries. This division of each sign of the
zodiac into a thousand parts is found among the Chaldeans ; and
Anquetil, who has happily explained the allegory, speaks, in more
than one place, of the twelve thousand of Zoroaster as of the
twelve months of the year.
The egg is, as is well known, the emblem of the world among
the Egyptians ; the twenty -four gods are the twelve months divided
into quinzaines, or fortnights — the one of increase, the other of
decrease — a usage that is found among the Hindoos as also among
the Romans, and the result is that the whole system of Zoroaster
was nothing but a system of astronomy and astrology, like all
other ancient systems ; and that its disciples, notwithstanding this
fact, received and applied this system, especially among the Jews,
for moral and political purposes, and this application led to the most
singular consequences, and resulted in a system entirely new.
16. — Zend-Avesta.
This sacred book of the Persians was mostly written in immense
and very complicated characters, and covered twelve thousand
skins of parchment, manufactured from the hides of oxen.
17. — The Temple of Amnion.
The construction of this celebrated temple, according to Herod-
otus, took place between the years 2400 and 2300 B. C, and its
ruins may be found in the oasis of the Lybian desert. Alexander
the Great visited this temple, and caused himself to be proclaimed,
by its oracle, son of Jupiter Memnon.
400 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
18. — Ethiopia, then a powerful State.
During many centuries Egypt was governed by the Ethiopian
sacerdotal caste, of Arab origin, which was replaced by the caste
of warriors. This revolution was brought about by Menes I,
king of the first Pharaonic dynasty, and took place, according to
some authors, nearly 6000 years B. C. Menes is said to have
built ancient Thebes, the"n the capital of the country.
In the earliest known times Egypt consisted but of the Theban
country. At that time Middle Egypt and the Delta composed a
part of the Mediterranean gulf. The Nile, carrying in its over-
flows an enormous quantity of mud, in time filled up that portion
of the gulf into which it emptied, and eventually created an im-
mense tract of swampy land, which, by the aid of man, seconded
by nature, was drained, and formed what then became known as
Middle Egypt, or Heptanomis, and Lower Egypt or the Delta.
19. — Egypt in Civilization.
The chronology of Egyptian history, according to Diodorus,
Manethon, and Herodotus, the last of whom visited Egypt 460
years B. C, is as follows :
B. C. 13300.— From this date until the year 4600 B. C, when
the zodiac was constructed and set up in the temple of Esneh,
there occurred four periods, to the first of which is ascribed the
reign of the gods, to the second the first historic period, during
which Egypt was inhabited by a barbarous people, and was con-
fined to the Theban country, or Upper Egypt ; to the third, the
second historic period, during which began to be formed the states
and kingdoms, of which there were thirty, forty, or more, and the
colleges of the priests were established ; and to the fourth, the
third historic period, when the different states were consolidated
into three large kingdoms, comprising Upper Egypt, or the Theban
country, Middle Egypt, or Heptanomis, and Lower Egypt, or the
Delta. To this latter period belongs the construction of the
temple of Esneh, and the establishment of the worship of the bull
Aphis, symbolical of Taurus or the sun, which at this time began
to mark the vernal equinox. Subsequent to this period there
reigned a series of unknown kings, eighteen of them being Egyp-
tians.
B. C. 3360. — Hermes, priest king, observes the star Aldebaran.
B. C. 2454. — The sun enters the ram,1 and from this date Aries
1 By the precession of the equinoxes, allowing 71 years for each degree
and 50 seconds for each year, it is estimated that 2130 years are required
for the sun to pass through a zodiacal sign. Thus, in the year 4586 B. C,
that body having entered Taurus, it was not until ttte year 2455 that he
passed through that sign, and entered Aries in 2454. From that time until
the year 323 B. C, the latter sign marked the vernal equinox.
s
\1
NOTES. 401
becomes the constellation of the vernal equinox, and the worship
of the ram begins. ,
B. C. 2400. — Foundation of the temple of Ammon in the desert
of Lybia.
B. C. 2400 to 2300. — Construction of the monuments of Karnak
and the avenue of the Rams.
B. C. 2056. — Construction of the zodiac of Denderah.
B. C. 1810. — Invasion of the kingdom of Memphis (Middle
Egypt) by the pastoral Arabs, presumed to be the tribes of Tamoud,
Madian, Amalek, etc.
B. C. 1800. — The pastoral Arabs found Heliopolis.
B. C. 1556. — Tethmos expels the Arabs.
B. C. 1500. — Foundation of the new Memphis.
B. C. 1450. — Re-union of all Egypt under one monarchy.
B. C. 1430. — Construction of Lake Moeris.
B. C. 1420. — Construction of the cities of Ramasses and He-
roopolis, by the Hebrews.
B. C. 1410. — Under the king Amenophis the Hebrews are driven
out of Egypt, and, under the direction of Moses, whom they elect
as their chief, they are organized into a nation.
B. C. 1390 to 1350. — Reign and conquests of Sesostris.
B. C. 1080. — Ramsinite orders the construction of the great
obelisk at Heliopolis.
B. C. 974. — Sesach, king of Egypt, ransoms Jerusalem.
B. C. 790. — Daring the past two hundred years a succession of
obscure kings governed Egypt, and their reign ends with the
capture of Thebes by the Carthaginians.
B. C. 750. — Seva, the Kushite, or Ethiopian, invaded Egypt, and
reigned with justice and wisdom for nearly twenty-five years.
B. C. 722. — Sethon, priest of the temple of Vulcan, governs
Egypt, now falleu into anarchy.
Between Menes and Sethon three hundred and forty-one kings
in succession governed Egypt. After him a series of kings ruled
whose names are all known.
20. — Pyramids of Ghizza.
" During twenty years," says Herodotus, " one hundred thousand
men worked daily to build the great pyramid or tomb of the king
Cheops, who, like all Egyptians, attached much importance to the
construction of his eternal home." The eight pyramids which
surround ancient Memphis, the principal seat of the mysteries of
Isis and Osiris, communicated with the twelve temples which are
found in this vast city. Of this group of pyramids, three are
particularly distinguished, which are the largest in Egypt as they
were the last which were constructed. At Meroe, the ancient
seat of the priests of Egypt, are to be seen a group of twenty-
four pyramids, the magnificence and imposing simplicity of which
26
402 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
exhibit a degree of elegance very superior to the pyramids of
Ghizza. In Ethiopia, at Nouri, may be seen a group of thirty-five
pyramids; at Dhibbel-el-Barkal, capital of Ethiopia, another group
of seventeen • and at Dhel-Bellal, the remains of a group of forty
pyramids.
21. — Hermes.
The Egyptian priests inform us that Hermes, in dying, said :
' Until now I have been exiled from my true country, to which I
am about to return. Shed no tears for me. I return to that
celestial country whither all must repair in their turn. There is
God. This life is but a death." (See Chalcidius in Timeeum.)
Now this doctrine is precisely that of the ancient Bhuddists or
Samaneens, who believed that at certain periods impersonations
of deity would be sent to earth to reform man, withdraw him
from vice, and teach him the way of salvation. With such a
dogma spread over India, Egypt, Persia, and Judea, we can easily
perceive how readily its believers could accredit the appearance
of such an impersonation did he appear at the proper time.
22.— Sybil*.
This was the ancient name signifying prophetess, given by the
Greeks and Bomans to those women to whom were attributed
knowledge of the future and divine inspiration. Many temples
had their sybil or oracle ; for, wherever the priests had established
their colleges, they found it necessary to engage these persons, to
strengthen their power and augment their influence among the
people. The vital or physical force to which we give the name
of animal magnetism was better known to the magi priests of
Chaldea and Egypt than it is at present among us. It was to the
study and application of this occult science to which the priests
owed much of their great reputation ; for they enriched their
astronomical knowledge with the addition of botanical, medical,
chemical, and anatomical knowledge, from the revelations made to
them by their sybils.
The Essenian priests, who were intimately connected with an-
other sect, called Therapeutes, resident in Egypt, and who formed
the connecting link between the Egyptians and the Hebrews, as
the Essenians continued the affiliation between the Jews aud the
Christians, without doubt initiated Jesus Christ, who was educated
by them, into this sublime science, and thus can we explain how
he wrought many of the miracles attributed to him in the Scrip-
tures.
The sybils of antiquity who were most celebrated were those of
Ionia and Italy. It is said that this last, to whom are given
different names, came to Borne in the reign of Tarquin the elder,
and sold him the books (Sybilline leaves), in which were written
\
^
I
V
X
NOTES. 403
the future of Rome and that he deposited them in the capitol,
confiding their care to two priests named Duumvirs, whose number
was subsequently increased to fifteen. Therein were found, it is
said, some very useful revelations. The Sybiiliue leaves were
destroyed at the burning of the capitol, which took place in the
time of Scylla. The senate, immediately upon the loss becoming
known, sent into the cities of Italy and Greece to gather up such
of the predictions of the Sybils as could be found, for the purpose
o-f making a new collection ; but this afforded an opportunity to
fabricate many, and from that cause the Sybilline books fell into
disrepute. The last collection was burnt in the year 399, by
Stilicon, general of the Arcadians.
23. — The Avenues of Thebes.
At Karnak, a village that is built upon the west bank of the
Nile, may be seen the most imposing monuments at present extant,
where once stood ancient Thebes. The approach to these monu-
ments, in coming from Luxor, is announced by the remains of a
flagstone pavement which unite the edifices of Karnak with those
of Luxor. This avenue, more than a mile long, was once deco-
rated, on the right hand and on the left, with one thousand two
hundred sphinxes and six hundred rams, cut in granite, and con-
ducted to a magnificent temple, from which two other ranks of
sphinxes reached to the greater and lesser temples at the south,
the ceilings of which were supported by some hundreds of columns,
seventy feet in height.
24. — Subterranean Cities.
In ancient Egypt there were entire cities under ground which
have been discovered during the past centuries, and accounts of
them imparted to us. A chain of limestone which borders the
Nile, protected the works of these subterranean cities, and the
fcumulary marvels hidden in the necropoli of Thebes and Memphis
equal the sunlit masterpieces of Egyptian art which rest upon the
banks of that river.
The underground passage of the great pyramid, not far from
Memphis, communicates with immense inclosures, wherein may be
found delicious gardens, where priests and priestesses reside with
their families, including all the population necessary for the service
of the mysteries. These subterranean residences and their sur-
roundings, which are nearly six miles in circumference, communicate
with the seven other pyramids and the twelve temples which en-
viron the city.
25. — Jehovah.
This word, as here spelled, is unknown to any Asiatic Jew or
aboriginal Arab. Its origin even amcig Europeans, who have
404 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
sanctified it, is neither clear nor authentic. When transcribed
into the letters of the Arab alphabet, the sound of the four letters
which express the name is iahouah, or ya-ho-wa-hoh. Doctor
Robert Walton, one of the most learned and rational biblists who
has written upon this matter, expressly objects to the pronunciation
Jehovah, as unknown to the ancients. He states that "the editors
of the Bible have had the audacity to falsify even the manuscripts
in this particular; as, for instance, in the eighth Psalm, when
Jeremiah says that he will read the name of the Lord in a certain
manner, the editors have put the word Jehovah, when the manu-
script obliges Frobenius to give the word Jao."
It appears that it was the German theologians, the first disciples
of the Rabbins, who gave involuntary place to this reading, by
their j and u.
The Greek, Philo, translator of the Phenician, Sanchoniathon,
concurs with Diodorus of Sicily, Strabo, and other authorities,
when he says that the god of the Hebrews was called Jeuo, as we
learn from Eusebius, in his "Evangelical Preparation." It is
evident, then, that the Hebrews never knew this pretended name, so
emphatically styled Jehovah by our poets and theologians ; and they
have to pronounce it as the Arabs of to-day, iehouh, signifying to
be, the essence, existence, the principle of life. Their word jehouh,
therefore, is equivalent to our paraphrase Him who is himself, the
Existing Being.
If the word jehouh had been deprived, according to the genius of
the Greek language, of the two h letters, it would have remained
jou, base of you-piter, or jou-pater (jou, generator, essence of life).
You-piter (Jupiter) was regarded by the Egyptians, according to
Manethon, a priest of Memphis, as the father, the generator of
living beings. The god of Moses, Jehouh or Jehovah, and whom
he called the soul of the world, is no other than the You-piter of
the Egyptians.
26.— Tyre.
According to the chronology of Herodotus, there was a temple
founded to the Phenician Hercules (the sun) in the year 2760
B. C, at ancient Tyre, upon the rock facing the island upon which
the city stood some thirteen hundred years afterward. The ancient
city destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in the year 572 B. C., was re-
built a few years after by the remnant of the Tyrian people..
27. — The Jews Driven from Egypt.
According to Manethon, the Egyptian priest prievously quoted,
uthe ancestors of the Jewish people were a mixture of divers classes
of men, among which were even Egyptian priests, who, from causes
of impurity, canonical defilement, and especially for leprosy, were
NOTES. 405
by command of an oracle, expelled from Egypt by a king named
Amenophis."
In Exodus it is stated that many strangers followed Israel out
of Egypt.
28. — Tlie Pentateuch.
A crowd of circumstances tend to prove that Moses was not the
author of the Pentateuch, as these books have come to us. Hel-
kiah, the high priest, who, under the reign of the young king Jo-
siah, made this king of eight years old, and also the Jewish people,
believe that he had found the book of the law in the temple of the
Lord, is, in the sense that he collected and arranged these books
and prefaced them with a cosmogony, the real author of them as
they were presented to the Jewish king, priests, and people. About
this time, it will be noticed, the Jews had generally abandoned the
worship of the true God for the worship of Baal (the Belus or sun
of the Chaldeans), and the high priest conceived the project of re-
animating the national spirit by resuscitating the laws of Moses,
comprised in the four books containing the precepts, command-
ments, prohibitions, rites, and ordinances which constitute that
law. It was the mode then to have cosmogonies explanatory of the
origin of all things, as well of nations as of the world itself, and
each people had their sacred books, commencing with a cosmogony.
The Greeks had that of Hesiod, the Persians that of Zoroaster, the
Phenicians that of Sanchoniathon, the Hindoos had their Vedas
and Pouranas, and the Egyptians had the five books of Hermes.
Helkiah desired to give to the Jewish people a book that would
serve as their standard, and, so to speak, to promote national con-
cord, he believed it necessary to arrange a cosmogony. Both by
nature and education Helkiah was peculiarly fitted for this work;
his people, originally Chaldean, had preserved many traditions, and,
like his agent, Jeremiah, he had a political preference for Chaldean
tradition. He therefore adopted, with modifications, the Babylon-
ish cosmogony. Here we observe the true source of the remarkable
resemblance which the historian Josephus, as also all the ancient
Christian fathers, have noticed between the first twelve chapters of
Genesis and the Chaldean antiquities of Berose.
There is another portion of the Jewish history no more worthy of
credence, as it is given in subsequent books ; this is what is called
ihe Book of Judges, covering from 1551 to 1080 B. C, and the
Book of Joshua, which afford us so vague a record of the history of
this time, when contrasted with the exact details of the Books of
Kings, that we can not determine but that, previous to the appear-
ance of the high priest, or prophet, Elias, the history of the Jews
is broken, dissolved; that all is uncertain and confused, and that
their annals really go back no further than 1131 B. C. So much
is this the case that it is impossible to determine within twenty or
406 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
thirty years when Moses died, and that it is only permitted by a
reasonable calculation of probabilities to fix the date of that event
at from 1450 to 1420 B. C.
From this condition of their history, it naturally results that if
the Jews had no exact notions of the time which elapsed between
Moses and Elias, nor of the time of the sojourn in Egypt — for
nothing is clear in this regard — how could they pretend to have
better knowledge of the time previous to their existence as a people
in Egypt, or, more anterior far, the time when no nation existed, or
about the time man was created, of which no testimony existed, but
of which their Genesis give us the recital of events as if the writer
had the process passing before him? The Jews say that this was a
revelation made by God direct to their prophet Moses. We reply
that many nations have held to like language — the Egyptian, the
Phenician, the Chaldean, and the Persian peoples all have equally
had the history of the creation revealed to their prophets. In
our day the Hindoos have presented to our missionaries their Vedas
and Pouranas, with some pretensions to an antiquity more remote
than Genesis or any other of the books attributed to Moses. It
is true that our learned biblists reject, or at least contest the
authenticity of these books ; but the Brahmins, retorting, use our
own arguments, and contest the authenticity of our Bible.
The most convincing proof that the author of the Hebrew
Genesis drew his cosmogony from that of the Chaldeans is afforded
us by the recital of the details that we therein find of the deluge,
in comparing it with the text of two fragments, the one of Alex-
ander Polyhistor, a learned compiler of the time of Scylla, and the
other that of Abydene, another compiler, who, Eusebius has in-
formed us, consulted the monuments of the Medes and the As-
syrians. That which the Hebrew Genesis recounts of Noah, or
Noe, these authors recount of Zisuthrus ; and it is plain that the
history, from the beginning of the deluge to the account of the
rainbow, is purely Chaldean ; that is to say, that chapters 6 to
11, inclusive, are taken from the legends of the priests of that
nation, of an infinitely remote period of time.
These texts upon the deluge would afford matter for a volume
of commentaries, but we will confine our remarks to what will be
necessary for sensible men. The three recitals mentioned are a
tissue of moral and physical impossibilities; but here simple good
sense does not suffice; it is necessary to be initiated into the
astrological doctrine of the ancients to interpret the language
employed, and to know that the deluges of the Hebrews, Chal-
deans, Greeks, Persians and Hindoos, as having destroyed the
world under Noah, Ogyzes, Inachus, Zisuthrus, or Satyavrata,
are one and the same physico-astronomical event which is repeated
every year, and concerning which the principal wonder is the me-
taphorical language in which it is expressed.
NOTES. 407
In that language the great circle of the heavens is called mun-
dus, of which the analogue mondola also signifies, in the Sanscrit,
a circle, and of which the orbis of the Latins is the synonym.
The revolution by the sun of this circle composed the year of
twelve months, and was called orbis, the world, the celestial circle.
Consequently, every twelve months the world was finished aud the
world was begun, the world was destroyed and the world was re
newed. The time of this remarkable event varied, according to the
usage of the peoples in commencing their year with the solstices
or the equinoxes. In Egypt the year began with the solstice of
summer. At this time the Nile exhibited the first symptoms of its
annual overflow, and in forty days thereafter the water covers all
the land of Egypt to the depth of five cubits. This was then, as
it is now, for that low-lying country, an ocean, a deluge most de-
structive in the early times, and before the people, becoming nu-
merous aud more intelligent, had drained the swamps, and with
dykes defended themselves from the effects of this overflow. Ex-
perience proved to them that a group of stars occupied the heavens
coincident with the first symptoms of the rise, and this group they
called the ship or bark, as it indicated that now they must be ready
to embark ; another group was called the dog, and the appearance
of which indicated that the flow had attained its greatest height ;
a third was called the crow, a fourth the dove, a fifth the laborer,
and, not far from him, was the virgin harvester. All these persons
tfho figured in the deluge of Noah and Zisuthrus are also in the
celestial sphere, which was a true table or calendar, of which the
two texts from which we have quoted furnish a description more
or less faithful.
The most remarkable difference between the Chaldean and the
Hebrew recital is, that the one preserves the astrologico-mytho-
logical character, while the other is turned into a sense and toward
an object exclusively moral. In fact, according to the Hebrew
version — of which there are in the text more than a hundred verses,
and so well known that it is not necessary here to quote them —
the human race, having become perverted, "giants," the progeny
of the "sons of Cod" and " daughters of men," exercised all sorts
of violence. Then Cod repents having made man. He speaks ;
he deliberates upon this subject, and finally he concludes to ex-
terminate the whole race, not only of man, but, by the manner of
their destruction, necessarily of every living thing upon the earth.
One man, however, he is content to save, because he is a just man
and worthy of preservation. To this man Grod makes kuown his
design; he announces the coming deluge; he directs him how to
build a ship, etc. When the deluge has destroyed all else, this man,
being saved, offers up a sacrifice of clean animals, according to the
law of Moses, as announced by him to the Hebrews in the wilder-
ness Cod is so greatly propitiated by this that he promises to
408 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
make qo more deluges; he imparts to Noah his blessing, some pre-
cepts, and an abridgment of the law of Moses; he enters into an
alliance with all living beings, and, as a sign of this alliance, he
invents the rainbow, etc. All this is represented in other parts of
the text with some contradictions, viz. : it rained forty days — the
waters remained one hundred and fifty days, when the winds blew
and the rain ceased. On the first day of the tenth month the tops
of the mountains are visible, and, forty days afterward, a dove was
ent forth, but returns, having found no place whereon to rest her
foot, etc.
What is this recital but a moral drama ; such a lesson in conduct
as might be given to the people by a religious legislator — a. priest?
29. — The Prodigies of Moses.
Moses, or rather Moushah, according to the true pronunciation,
conceived the project of becoming ruler of and legislator fcr the
Hebrew people, and this design he executed with means appro-
priate to the circumstances and a force of character very remark-
able. His people, ignorant and superstitious as they have always
been, and as were the wandering tribes of the Arabs, believed in
magic — a belief that even yet obtains in the East. Moses is said
to have executed miracles and prodigies ; that is, he produced
natural phenomena which the priests of Egypt, by long study and
happy chance, discovered the means of executing. It is impos-
sible to account by natural means for the miracles which Moses is
said to have performed; but it is plain that the writers who
described them exaggerated and corrupted the facts, with the de-
sign of magnifying the acts of their prophet, priest, and king
30. — Dogma of an Only God.
The Jews, the Christians, and the Mussulmans, founding th^ir
belief upon the same books, all admit the existence of a first man,
who ruined the whole human race by eating an apple. The prin-
cipal difference between them consists in this, that after having
admitted one indivisible God, the Christians divided the same into
three persons, each of whom they maintained was a God entire
aud complete, without ceasing to form, with the others, an iden-
tical whole. And they maintained, further, that this being who
filled the universe, assumed the form of an individual man, with
a body composed of like perishable materials, without ceasing to
be immortal, eternal, and infinite. The Mussulmans, who can not
comprehend these mysteries, notwithstanding they believe- in the
mission of their prophet, reject the Christian doctrine as the fruit
of an unsound mind ; and among the Christians themselves the
disagreement widens by as much as the problems upon which they
NOTES. 409
differ is impossible of demonstration, and inaccessible to the ap-
proach of common sense and human reason.
Thus, while they admit that God is an incomprehensible and
unknown being, they nevertheless dispute as to his essence, the
causes of his actions, and his attributes ; admitting his transform-
ation into a human body to be an enigma beyond their compre-
hension, they dispute about the confusion or the distinction of the
two natures, upon the change of substance, or trausubstantiation,
the real or fancied presence, and upon the manner of the incarna-
tion, etc.; and from these differences innumerable sects have
sprung up, and, to the extent of two or three hundred, have
become extinct, while two or three hundred others yet exist.
The Bible, which is the common authority of all these sects, in
substance, says that God (after having passed an eternity doing
nothing) conceived the design of producing the world out of
nothing ; and, having accomplished this labor and completed his
creation in six days, he rested upon the seventh ; that having, as
the crowning part of his creation, made a pair of human beings,
the first of their kind, he placed them in a garden very delicious,
to the end that they might be perfectly happy, but prohibiting
them, however, from eating a certain fruit which he placed within
easy reach of their hands ; that this first pair having disobeyed
this prohibition, all their kind, none of which were yet born, were
condemned to expiate a fault which, as they had no existence,
they could not commit ; that after having allowed the human race
to be thus condemned during four or five thousand years, this
God of mercy, goodness, and justice proposed to his only begot-
ten yet co-existent and well-beloved son to assume the form of a
man, by being born of a woman upon the earth, to the end that
he should suffer death to save man from eternal death ; that hav-
ing accomplished these things, and thus saved all men who had
existed upon the earth, from the fall of the first pair until his
death, this oaly-begotten son, co-existent with the Father, or-
dained, at his last supper upon earth, a plan by which those who
should be born after his death might be saved, and for this pur-
pose he instituted a sacrament, named after that event, and by
which a little bread is said to compose the body of this sacrificed
God, and be endowed, for the benefit of its consumer, with all
the efficacy of the real body, and become the oblation or atone-
ment for the sins of future men.
Now, is it not enough to upset all ideas of justice or reason to
admit that a God, just and holy, should have condemned the
whole human race because a man and a woman, four or five thou-
sand years before, ate an apple? Was there ever a tyrant who
made the children suffer for their parents' crimes? What man
can atone for the crimes of another man ?
The following picture, extracted from their sacred books, proves,
410 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
in fact, that it is not God who has made man to his image, but,
upon the contrary, it is man who has made God to that image
and in that likeness which most satisfies himself and suits his
purposes.
The God of the Israelites, their Jehouh, or Jehovah, as Moses
•distinguished the You-piter of the Egyptians, is, if we judge from
the manner in which he is represented in the Bible, a despot, a
revengeful God, and exterminator of the peoples. The human
race was perverted, and he repents of having created the species,
he speaks, he deliberates, he decides upon a violent means of de-
stroying all that has life, thus involving not only the offending
race, but all others in a common death ; he has pity upon but a
single family of man, which he saves. After the execution of this
decision, this same God, who then had entered into an alliance
with all the living, is stated to have said to the Hebrew people
(See Exodus, chap, xxvi): "I will not exterminate the Cauaanites
before your face in one single year, for fear that the country
should be reduced to a desert." It will be observed that his
reason for exterminating the Canaanites at all was, that he is said
to have promised their land to the Hebrews. Subsequently this
same God, through the mouth of their prophet Saniuel, ordered
the Jews to exterminate all the people of Amalek, sparing neither
man, woman, child, or beast for food or burden ; and why ? Be-
cause, four hundred years previously, the Amalekites opposed the
passage of the Hebrews through their country. Then the same
God, furious at the temerity of five thousand persons who look
upon the ark of the covenant, strikes them all dead. Elsewhere
this same God, among many other trifling acts, dictates to Moses
the wood with which he shall make the ark ; he has interviews
with the prophets, speaking to them in their chambers, and re-
penting one day of what he ordered done the day previous. This
is the God of the Jews. But where are the witnesses and proofs
of these things which are alleged and reasserted in the Old Tes-
tament? There are none.
Now, observe what are the qualities of the God of the Chris-
tians. This God was at first a God of. peace, goodness, and char-
ity. Christ exhibits him to us as a being the most holy and
perfect, and, at the same time, as the most affectionate father of
all mankind ; but Christ dies, and immediately the priests, who
preach what they call Christ's doctrine, change God into a despot,
burning with revenge for man's incorrigible wickedness. While
assuming to be the successors of Christ, unlike him they preach
neither liberty, toleration, nor peace; but, in his name, and with
the emblem of his death upraised in their hands, they have led
crusades against Arianism, Manicheanism, and Protestantism, under
the assertion that the peoples who defended and indulged these
doctrines were heretics, and, consequently, accursed of God It is
NOTES. 411
ill the name of jtheir God that the aboriginal people of America
have been exterminated, Mexico and Peru have been conquered,
and their inhabitants destroyed; that Africa has been devastated,
and its inhabitants sold like beasts j and, in the same name, that
the priests of the " Holy Inquisition" persecuted the sects of the
Christian church in Europe until nearly a million of persons were
destroyed, over thirty thousand of whom were roasted to death.
Now take the Koran, and see what is the god of the Mussul-
mans. Their god, as created by Mahomet, his prophet, and called
Allah, is, according to the holy books of Islamism, a god opposed
in many things to the god of the Jews and the Christians. This
god, they say, after having sent twenty-four thousand prophets
to the nations which had become idolatrous, finally sent a last
prophet, the most perfect of all, Mahomet, upon whom should be
impressed the salutation of peace. Then, in order that the infidel
should not change the divine word, supreme clemency itself traced
the leaves of the Koran, and thus it became immortal, uncreated,
eternal as the source from which it emanated ; page by page and
leaf by leaf, as it was composed, was it sent by the angel Gabriel
to the prophet, and was entirely delivered to him in twenty-four
thousand nocturnal visits. These visits were announced by a cold
sweat seizing upon the prophet. That in the vision of a night he
reached the nineteenth heaven, seated upon the back of the animal
Barak, half horse and half woman ; that, owing to the gift of
miracles, he reached the sun without protection from the intensity
of his light, made trees grow with a single word, filled cisterns
with water, split the disk of the moon in two ; and, charged with
the commission of God, sword in hand, Mahomet propagated a re-
ligiou the most worthy of God by reason of its sublimity, and
the most suitable for man by reason of its simplicity, since it con-
sists of but nine points, viz.: 1. To profess the oneness of God.
2. To recognize Mahomet for his only prophet. 3. To pray five
times a day. 4. To fast one month in the year. 5. To go to
Mecca once in a lifetime. 6. To give the tenth of your property
to the faithful. 7. To drink no wine. 8. To eat no pork. 9. To
make continual war upon the infidels. By practicing these pre-
cepts during life, all Mussulmans would, like himself, enjoy this
world with great satisfaction, and at their death, also, like him,
become apostles and martyrs, whose souls, borne in the balance of
their works, and absolved by the two black angels, after having
traversed hell, by crossing that bridge which is straight as a hair
and sharp as a saber, would be received into a place the most de-
licious— a land flowing with milk and honey — where, embalmed
with all the perfumes of India and Araby, chaste virgins, celestial
houris, would minister constantly to their pleasure, and, with them,
continue forever young.
Here we behold the god Allah of the Ishmaelites, and the para-
412 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
disc promised to the believers of his prophet aud those who obey
his laws, the first precept of which is murder aud war. It is under
the banner of this doctrine that, during twelve centuries, its
fanatical partisans have spread the horrors of war and carnage
among the neighboring nations. It is Islamism that has plunged
the people of Asia, once flourishing and intelligent, into the realm
of barbarism and ignorance.
It is thus that these self-styled prophets and priests of God
have elevated themselves into doctors of the peoples, and opened
the ways of wickedness and iniquity. Attaching merit to prac-
tices inconsequent and, in fact, ridiculous, their virtue consists in
gesticulating in certain postures, in the expression of certain words,
in articulating certain names, in eating and drinking certain kinds
of food and drink, and refraining from others. How low are
man's ideas of the most elevated of beings ! It would seem, in
hearkening to the priests of these different religions, that their
god, whimsical and capricious, eats and drinks like a man ; that,
in turn, he loves and hates, casts down and uplifts ; that, weak as
wicked, he nurses his hate ; that, contradictory as perfidious, he
sets snares for the unwary ; that, after permitting evil, he punishes
it; that, foreseeing crime, he permits it; that, a venal judge, he is
propitiated by bribes ; that, an imprudent despot, he makes laws
which he immediately revokes; that, ferocious tyrant, he holds or
confers his favors without a cause, and bends but to the strength
of meanness !
Now that we have seen, as exhibited by their priests and
prophets, the God of the Jews, of the Christians, and the Mussul-
mans, let us examine him who is revered by Freemasons. Here
is their idea of a Supreme Being. From at first they have called
him the Grand Architect of the Universe, regarding the universe
as that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, and}
conformably to this idea, they comprehend under this denomination
a universal and eternal intelligence, gifted with all power, all
science, all love; ruling the worlds and the beings which compose
the universe by regular and uniform laws to the close of their
existence. It is this God, that they reverence as the Only Master,
who is seen and made manifest in all the wonders of his works,
which they behold amazed; and, as the author and father of all
men, he gives to all intelligence and life. Thus regarding the
Supreme Being, the religion of Masonry can be but a summary of
human wisdom — of all those perfections the practice of which
render man nearly divine ; and it is, in a word, that universal
morality which attaches to the inhabitants of every country — to
the man of every worship. This morality is more extended and
more universal than that of any national religion, for these, always
exclusive, class those who do not believe nor worship at their
shrines as unbelievers, as idolaters, schismatics, sectarians, and
1
1
i
NOTES. 413
infidels, while Masonry sees nothing in religionists of every kind
but brethren, to whom she opens her temple and admits them,
to be therein freed from the prejudices of their country or the
errors of the religion of their fathers, by learning to love one
another, and to sustain each other. Bearing on high her torch,
she would have it shed its pure beams to enlighten and not to
destroy ; but while she flies from error she neither hates nor
persecutes: her object being, in fine, to blend the whole family of
nan into one band of brothers, united by love, science, and labor.
This being the true Masonic doctrine, it becomes necessary that
masonry should open its temples to all men — to the Jew as to
the Mohammedan, to the adorer of Bhudda or Fot as to the
adorer of God in Christ ; and this without seeking to identify
itself with the rites of any of these religionists, or to follow the
standard of any prophet. Without permitting herself to descend
to such an adoption, Freemasonry can select from their best doc-
trines, and cull from their commandments all that conforms to
the rule of her existence ; that is, the practice of universal morality.
31. — The Worship of the Stars.
The worship of the sun has given to the Jewish and Roman
Catholic priests the tonsure, which represents the disk of the sun,
of which the stole is the zodiac, and the chaplets are the emblems
of the stars and planets ; the miter of the pontiff, together with
the crozier and mantle, are those of Osiris ; and the cross, the
mysteries of which are extolled without being understood by the
priests, is the cross of Serapis, traced by the hand of the Egyptian
priests upon their symbolic plan of the world, which, passing by
the equinoxes and the tropics becomes the emblem of the resur-
rection and a future life.
32. — The Essenians.
This religious and philosophic sect, of which Christ had been a
member, was composed of learned Jews who lived in the form of
a society similar to that of Pythagoras. Love of labor, sobriety,
love of truth, the absence of all oaths, fidelity, love of peace, hor-
ror of violence, complete equality in all social relations, property
in common, (of which the first Christian community of Jerusalem
affords an example,) or, at the least, disinterested aid afforded to those
members who were in need ; in general, love to God and man,
made manifest by intense honesty — these were the principles
which distinguished the Essenians. It was in this celebrated
philosophical sect that, among numbers of ancient traditions, that
of a future savior — a great mediator who would reestablish the
nation in all its ancient glory — was conserved and principally
propagated. This prediction was founded as follows :
414 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
After the Assyrians had destroyed the kingdom of Samaria,
some prudent persons, foreseeing the same destiny for Jerusalem,
predicted and announced it, and their predictions had all the ap-
pearance of prophecies. The hierophants, in their enthusiasm,
had conceived a kingly liberator, who would reestablish the nation
in its ancient glory, and the Hebrew people again become a
powerful people, conquering and to conquer, with Jerusalem the
capital of an empire, coextensive with the whole earth.
Events having realized the first of these predictions, viz., the
ruin of Jerusalem, the people attached to the second much more
implicit belief than accorded with the event; and the afflicted
Jews looked with an impatience corresponding with their need for
the coming of that victorious king and liberator who should re-
build the nation fashioned by Moses and reestablish the empire
of David.
Otherwise, the sacred mythological traditions of the previous
time had spread over all Asia an entirely analogous dogma.
They had spoken of a Great Mediator, a final Judge, a future
Savior, who, as God, king, and legislator, should bring the golden
age to earth, deliver his empire from evil, and render to man the
reign of blessing, peace, and happiness. These ideas found place
in the hearts of the people the more as they became oppressed
by successive devastation and saddened by the barbarism of their
despotic governments; and this conformity between the oracles of
other nations and the prophets of their own excited the attention
of the Jews. There is little doubt that those prophets had been
artful enough to calculate their events after the manner employed
in the pagan mysteries; for in Judea general attention had been
attracted to the coming of a final savior, when a singular circum-
stance determined the period of his advent.
It was written in the sacred books of the Chaldeans and
Persians that the world, composed of a total revolution of twelve
thousand?- was divided into two partial revolutions, one of which,
the age and reign of good, terminated at the close of the first
six thousand, and the other, the age and reign of evil, terminated
at the close of the second six thousand. By these recitals, the
first authors had extended the annual revolution of the celestial
orbit called the world, and the two systematic periods of each
year, viz., winter and summer, each divided into six thousand
parts. These expressions, in which the thousands were taken in
the sense of years, instead of parts, and the whole taken in a
literal rather than in an astrological sense, together with the fact
that in these latter days the Jews were unhappily situated, sub-
1 This, it will be remembered by the reader, was the division of the zodiac
of Zoroaster into twelve thousands, or tweNe months, of a thousand parts
each.
NOTES. 415
ject to and severely taxed by the Roman power, induced them to
believe that the age of evil was about to close, and be succeeded
by the age of good.
Now, in the calculations of the Jews, they commenced to count
their first six thousand years from their (fictitious) creation of
the world. This time was certainly about to close, and this co-
incidence produced an agitation in the minds of leading men
among them. They talked of nothing but the approaching time ;
they interrogated the hierophants and their mystic books; they
expected the advent daily of that restorer of their ancient great-
ness. Jesus Christ, educated among the Essenians, appears and
preaches his doctrine. It is not satisfactory to those in power ;
he is arrested, tried, condemned, executed. After his death, his
disciples and partisans, deprived of their chief by an incident,
true, without doubt, gave place by their recitals to a rumor which
gradually grew into a history, and immediately all the circumstances
of the mythological traditions have place, and afford us a system
authentic and complete, and which we can not doubt.
These mythological traditions set forth that, " In the beginning
a woman and a man having, by their disobedience and consequent
fall, introduced sin into the world." (Take an ancient celestial
globe, and follow the explanation.) Here we perceive the astro-
nomical fact that the virgin harvester and the cowherd (Bootes),
occupying positions obliquely to the equinox of autumn, seem to
deliver the heavens to the constellation of winter, and, falling
under the horizon, introduces into the world the genius of evil,
Ahrimane, symbolized by the constellation of the serpent.
The traditions continue : " That the woman, having fallen, se-
duced the man;" and, in fact, the virgin, descending first, seems
to drag Bootes toward her. " That the woman, holding him, pre-
sents him with fruits beautiful to look upon and good to eat, and
which impart the knowledge of good and evil;" and, in fact, the
virgin holds in her hand a branch of fruit, which she seems to
be extending toward Bootes, while the bough or branch, emblem
of autumn, placed in the zodiac of Mithra upon the frontier of
winter and of summer, seems to open the door and bestow science,
which is the key of good and evil.
The traditions continue : " That this couple had been chased from
the celestial garden, and that a cherubim, with a flaming sword, had
been placed at the gate to keep them from returning;" and, in
fact, when the virgin and Bootes fall under the horizon, Perseus
rises upon the other side, with a sword in his hand, and seemingly
chases them from the heaven of summer, the garden and reign of
fruits and flowers-
The traditions continue: "That of this virgin would be born--
put forth a shoot — an infant who would crush the head of the
serpent, and who would deliver the world from sin;" and by
416 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
this figure they designated the movement of the sun, which, in
fact, at the time of the summer solstice — at the precise moment
when the magi of the Persians cast the horoscope of the new
year — is found resting in the bosom of the virgin and obliquely
with the eastern horizon, and which, on this account, was symbol-
ized in their astrological pictures under the form of a suckling
infant resting in the bosom of a virgin, and became afterward, at
the equinox of spring-time, the ram or lamb, couqueror of the
constellation of the serpent, which at this time disappears from the
heavens.1
These mythological traditions further state : " That in his in-
fancy, this restorer, of divine or celestial nature, lived humble, ob-
scure, cast down, and indigent;" and thus may be seen the sun of
winter low in the horizon, and the first of these four ages or
seasons, winter, a time of consequent obscurity, want, fasting, and
privations. Further : " That, put to death by wicked ones, he
was gloriously resurrected ; that he went up from hell to heaven,
where he reigns eternally;" and thus they retraced the way of the
sun, who, closing his career at the solstice of winter, while Typhon
ruled and the angels rebelled, he seems to be put to death by
them, but immediately after reappearing, he mounts toward the
vault of heaven, where he remains.
Finally, these traditions, in citing the astrological and myste-
rious names of this infant, say that he was sometimes called Oris —
that is to say, the preserver — and sometimes Iesus. Can a closer
analogy be traced between the leading features of two accounts of
any event which has ever had place than this which we have just
recounted, when compared with the Scriptures detailing the birth,
life, and death of Christ?
Like Osiris, Adonis, or Mithra, Christ came upon the earth to
destroy death and darkness, and, like them, he was born on the
25th of December. This is the solstice of winter, the moment
when the sun passes from the inferior to the superior signs ; and,
in the cosmogony of the ancients, he enters Taurus ; but, by reason
of the precession of the equinoxes, he began, about the year 330
before the birth of Christ, to enter by the sign of the ram or
lamb, and through which he opened the year effectually at the
time when Christ appeared preaching his doctrine in Judea. Thus
Christ calls himself the lamb who removeth the sins of the world.
With the sphere of Coronelli in his hand, let the reader now
observe what takes place at the time of the birth of Christ.
On the 25th December, to a minute, the sun is at Capricorn, in
1ln the explanation of the Persian sphere spoken of by Ben-Ezra, in the
Poetical Heaven of Blaen, p. 71, occurs this sentence : " The first square rep-
resents this beautiful virgin with long hair, seated on a lounge, with two
swords in one hand, suckling an infant, called Jesus by some nations and
Christ in Greek."
X
*s
N
V
\
N
X
>
£
\
*»
•X
^
^
V
•s.
•N. x
^
, V
Nn
N
i
S
^
'W
NOTES. 417
the stable of iEgeus, son of the sun; at the highest meridianal
point is the ass of Bacchus and the crib or manger ; behind him
is the water bearer or cherubim ; before him is the eagle of St,
John. In the superior hemisphere is the bull and the celestial lion;
in the east the virgin reposes, holding an infant in her arms, and
under her feet is the dragon. Near her is Bootes, the foster-
father of Horus, and near him Janus, with his key in his hand
and mounted upon his ship — chief of the twelve months Janus
appears ; and upon the same line, toward the horizon, is the star
Stephen. The lamb is couching, and in front of him is that con-
stellation composed of three beautiful stars which Christian astron-
omers call the Magi.
This is the condition on the 25th December in the astronomical
cosmogony. In the Christian cosmogony, upon the 25th Decem-
ber, at the same moment, Christ is born of a virgin, in a stable,
between an ox and an ass; he is laid in a manger, and is called
Jesus, because he is to deliver his people ; then an angel appears,
who announces the birth of Christ, whom he styles Lord; on the
eighth day he is called Savior; near Jesus and his mother is the
foster-father Joseph, the carpenter. Upon the next day is cele-
brated the feast of St. Stephen by the Catholic church, and upon
the day following that of St. John the Evangelist, whom the
sacred books represented accompanied by an eagle. Peter, chief
of the twelve apostles (months), is represented carrying the keys
of heaven, and, afterward Jesus is known as the Lamb of God
who redeems the world. The analogy, it will be observed, is
striking. Let us complete it.
No sooner is Christ born than three kings, or magi, guided by
the star in the East, come to salute and bring him presents,
which, according to immemorial usage were consecrated to the
sun. Three months after the solstice of winter occurs the solstice
of summer, viz.: on the 25th of March. At this instant the sun
triumphs, and day and night becomes of equal length. At the
moment when Gabriel, upon this day, salutes Mary, in the Chris-
tian cosmogony, Osiris, in the Egyptian, was reputed to salute the
moon, to the end that she might fructify the earth. On the 24th
of June, feast of St. John, and precise period of the solstice of
summer, St. John the Baptist should have baptized Christ to fit
him for his work. This St. John — the Latin Janua means gate or
door — has his peer in the St. John of the 27th of December,
whose feast opens the solstice of winter. Here it is plain that the
St. Johns are no other than the Janua inferi and Janua coeli of
the Romans, the doors to the inferior and superior places. These
are, in fact, the two precise points when the sun, having arrived
at the culminations of his ascending and descending courses, pass
from the superior signs into the infericr, and from the latter return
into the former.
27
418 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
"We come to the death of Christ. Following the Evangelists, it
took place on Good or Holy Friday ; and he arose three days after-
ward. From the 25th December, the sun having entered the su-
perior signs, remains insensible to our horizon until the 21st March.
Well, at that instant, upon the 25th March, when he crossed the
line, was celebrated by the Jews the feast of the Passover ; for then
this feast was not as it is to-day, a moveable one; on the contrary,
"t occurred invariably at the instant of the vernal equinox. Now
equinox signifies equal days as nights; for during the three days
which elapse from the 21st to the 25th March, the nights over all
the earth are of equal length with the days — before the 21st the
nights are longer ; afterward they are shorter. The same phenom-
enon occurs at the autumnal equinox. At these two periods of the
year the equator is found perpendicularly under the sun.
Now what is the result of this examination? That the disciples
of Christ have surrounded his birth, life, and death with miracles
which never took place, but which are, rather, symbolized under
solar appearances. That the doctrine of Christ, which is a sum-
mary and code of all the truths which were known at this period,
is similar to that of the Essenian school from which he graduated,
as it is similar to that of the hierophants of Egypt and the gym-
nosophists of India. In a word, that the Christian religion came
out from the mysteries of initiation; and that the creation, the gods,
the angels, the occurrences, dogmas, and ceremonies, such as we
find them in the sacred books, are nothing but resemblances, more
or less faithful, of the ancient gods, angels, dogmas, and ceremonies
of the Brahmins, the magi, and the Egyptian priests.
During the first three centuries of our era the Christian religion
existed but in anarchy and chaos. Opinions as fanciful as ridi-
culous divided those who assumed the direction of it, and their opin-
ions were sustained by their supporters with fervor, and an abid-
ing faith that caused the destruction of myriads, because they
were based upon traditions equally as ancient and equally as sacred
as those which were offered to replace them. After three hundred
years the government became associated with one of these sects,
and made its doctrines the religion of the State, to the exclusion
of all the others; and these, consequently, became heresies and their
holders heretics, to be cursed and destroyed by the dominant
party.
33. — Christianity.
This religion, having gone forth out of Judea, spread rapidly
upon the earth. At first propagated by men whose only object
was to reform and simplify the worship of nature, and to make
universal morality the basis of that worship, by blotting out for-
ever the numerous and horrible sacrifices which every-where in-
NOTES. 419
undated the altars with blood, under a solar allegory they exhibited
a single victim, worthy of divinity, immolated each year for the
preservation and regeneration of nature. This religion was sub-
sequently perpetuated by priests, who altered its simple and natural
forms, and substituted therefor certain mysteries, ceremonies, and
above all, assumed a sacerdotal power totally unknown to its first
ministers, the disciples of Christ, whose only power consisted in
appeals to the consciences of men. In its primitive condition,
this religion formed the allegorical complement to the worship of
nature — a worship which of itself was at first nothing more than
a grand and beautiful allegory.
In the earlier times, and after the death of Christ, the priests of
his religion were strangers to all thought of human dominion.
Entirely animated by that idea to which he gave expression in
the words, "He who devotes himself most diligently to my service
here shall be greatest in my kingdom hereafter," they were humble,
modest, charitable, and constant in their endeavors to imbue those
to whom they preached with a similar spirit. Their early meetings
were devoid of either parade or show, being nothing but sponta-
neous reunions of all the Christians resident in any certain locality.
A pure and simple morality marked their religious enthusiasm, and
excited even the admiration of their persecutors. They shared
every thing in common — property, joys, and sorrows. In the silence
of night they met in secret to teach and pray. The agapes, or fra-
ternal repasts, terminated these meetings, in which differences of
social rank and position were effaced by the belief of a paternal
divinity being present. It was thus that Christianity prepared
two changes which gradually found place in the manners and
customs of all those countries into which this religion extended.
Women obtained the rank and importance to which, as the mothers
of families, they are justly entitled; and the slaves, as participants
at the agapes, were gradually elevated above that oppression under
which one half of the whole human race, anterior to the advent of
Christianity, had bowed itself.
34. — The Mysteries of Christianity.
At the beginning Christianity was an initiation similar to that
of the pagans. None were admitted but upon certain determined
conditions, and, these conditions complied with, they were received
and a complete knowledge of the doctrine and mysteries conveyed
to them in three degrees of instruction. The initiates were, con-
sequently, divided into three classes: The first class was composed
of the hearers, the second of the catechumens, or those who, having
taken the first degree, were in possession of the rudiments of the
Christian doctrine, and the third class was composed of the faithful.
The hearers constituted the novices who, prepared by certain prac-
420 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
tices, and after having listened and assented to certain instructions,
were initiated into the rudimentary degree, and brought to a knowl-
edge of a part of the degrees of Christianity. Having attaine.d,
in this manner, to the condition of a catechumen, the initiate, having
purified himself by the practice of certain ordinances, was baptized,
or initiated into the degree of divine generation; and subsequently
a knowledge of the mysteries of Christianity, viz., the incarnation,
nativity, passion, death, and resurrection, were conveyed to him,
and this instruction composed his initiation into the class of the
faithful. The mysteries were divided into two parts ; the first part
was called the mass of the catechumens, and corresponded to the
low mass of the Catholic Church of the present day, and the second
part was called the mass of the faithful, corresponding to the high
mass of the same church. Of these mysteries the celebration of
the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, beyond all others, was held
as the most inviolable secret, and known only to the faithful. All
the mysteries and ceremonies which constituted the early Christian
worship are to be found in the worship of Mithra, or solar worship,
and the celebration of these mysteries was likewise called the mas»,
35. — Eleusis, Athens.
Of all the magnificent monuments which ornamented " beautiful
Athens," among those possessing any merit there now remains but
the ruins of the Pantheon, the temples of Jupiter, Olympus, The-
seus, the Winds, and Victory ; the theaters of Bacchus and Herodua
Atticus ; the gate of Adrian, and the Erechtheum.
36.— The Temple of Balbeh.
Balbek signifies city of Baal, or city of the sun, and corresponds
with the Greek term Heliopolis. Of this ancient city time has
spared but the ruin'« of a few temples, which may be seen at some
distance from anti-Libanus. Of these two are very remarkable,
being, in their dimensions, colossal, and erected with huge stones
which surpass in the extent of their superficial measurement any
thing to be found among the monolithic works of Egypt ; while,
scattered about may be found the remains of masterpieces of ma-
sonic art.
37 — The Temple of Tadmor (Palmyra).
The edifices of Palmyra surpass in beauty and grandeur even
those of Heliopolis. According to the historian, Josephus, this
city was founded by Solomon, who gave it the name of Tadmor, or
city of Palms. It is situated in the desert of Arabia, between
Syria and the Euphrates. Having fallen into the possession of the
Romans, it was considerably aggrandized by them, under the reign
of the Emperor Aurelian (275 A. D.), who ordered the colleges
V
^5
NOTES. 421
of Roman architects to construct therein, among other monuments,
many temples of such surpassing beauty and colossal dimensions,
that they exceeded all of that character which had ever been
erected in previous time.
From the remains of the temple of Helios it is apparent that
it was supported by four hundred and sixty-four columns, of fifty
feet high, which sustained the long galleries and porches on either
side to the extent of seven hundred feet. Other columns, each
composed of a single block of marble, were arranged in four ranks
and formed superb avenues. Westwardly is found another temple,
which is connected with that which has been described by a long
street of columns, making, as it were, a continuous temple, or two
temples connected by a colonnade, which it is evideut, contained
in all one thousand four hundred and fifty columns of from forty
to fifty feet high each, something over a hundred of which yet
exist in more or less perfection, and brokenly mark the outlines
of this magnificent work of art. These ruins have been known
to European travelers since 1691.
38. — Janus.
When the worship of idols was abandoned and that of Christ
erected upon its ruins, mauy of the pagan divinities were appro-
priated by the priests of Christianity, aud became saints, more or
less distinguished, in the Christian calendar. For instance, Dio-
nysiua merged into St. Denis, and Bacchus into St. Demetrius.
Of Perpetua and Felicitas were made St. Perpetua aud St. Feli-
city. Saints Rogation, Donatian, Floris aud Lucius, also St.
Apollonarius, were all of pagan origin. Of Janus, with his double
face and bearing the keys, significant of the duty assigned him
by the Romans — that of opening the inferior and superior places,
otherwise opening and closiug the year — the Christians made that
St. John who represents the summer solsticial feast, which the
pagans celebrated on the 24th of June, and that other St. John,
who represents the winter solsticial feast, which the pagans cele-
brated on the 25th of December. To favor the mechanism of the
new dispensation, two Saints John, instead of one Janus, became
necessary ; and thus was a saint provided for the members of the
corporations of Roman builders, when, forsaking paganism, they
attached themselves to aud became members of the Christian re
ligion. Hitherto, and as pagans, these colleges had invariably
celebrated those feasts, in common with all ancient peoples ; and
the transition from a pagan to a Christian festival was, as we have
shown, made remarkably easy. It was this motive that induced
the Fraternity to adopt the Saints John as patron saints, aud not,
as is generally supposed and declared, because they were the fore-
runner aud best beloved of Christ.
422 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY,
APPENDIX.
Recapitulation
In the introduction to this, our work, we went back to the first
ages of the human race, to the source of all religions, to the
origin of hieroglyphics and symbols, and to the mysteries of an-
tiquity, because not only were many of the truths of the sciences
which were cultivated in those mysteries transmitted to the colleges
of Roman builders, but because they were intimately connected
with architecture, and, in that manner, allied to the history of the
human race. Subsequently, in unfolding before the reader the
history of the Masonic institution in so succinct a manner as we
have done, we paused, in the recital, but at that period of its de-
velopment in England when the colleges of architects and builders
were established and consolidated with a particular character, and,
pure and intact, their original privileges and freedom were guar-
anteed to them. In our statements concerning the foundation
of this institution, and in those concerning its organization, its
object, its labors, its vicissitudes, and its days of glory, we were
forced to pass by all that does not really belong to its history ;
for this condition we religiously engaged to comply with when
we began this our task. Adhering to this condition has been,
we believe, as well our merit as our salvation ; for, unlike most
authors who have entered this field of investigation, we have not
been befogged by the obscurity that must ever attend a search
for the origin of Freemasonry among the Hindoos, Persians, or
Egyptians , nor have we rendered our history ridiculous by orna-
mentation borrowed from the history, manners, or customs of these
peoples or, instead of a history, transformed it into a romance, as
is commonly done by those who have heretofore produced what
they are pleased to offer us as the veritable history of ancient Free
APPENDIX. 423
masonry. The road that we have followed was in part already
opened by many historians, and in pursuing it, as we have indi-
cated, it led us to the cradle of this institution ; but until now,
and it is with some degree of pride we make the assertiou, no
author before us has ever had the courage to approach this vast
subject, and in treating it historically, deliver it from the body
of that enchantment with which they have, on the contrary, sought
to envelope it.
In presenting, for the first time in a history of Freemasonry,
the works of this singular association, and in enumerating the
most remarkable monuments erected by them, from their founda-
tion to the sixteenth century, we have constantly followed the
course of time and events. We have accompanied the colleges of
constructors, the free corporations, and the Freemasons, into which
the former successively merged, through and across centuries,
revolutions, invasions, and international wars ; we have traversed
the ashes of ancient cities and nations, the remains of thrones and
of empires, to the more calm era of the middle ages, when art, and
that creative spirit of the human mind elevated towards the
heaven of its hopes and desires those sublime edifices consecrated
and forever the admiration of posterity. We have evoked from
their tombs not only the philosophers and civilizers of the ancient
peoples which have passed from earth, and the sages who have
enlightened them, but also the statesmen, the warriors, the philos-
ophers who have made Freemasonry their boast and their pride,
and whom, in its turn, Freemasonry has rendered illustrious.
The epitome of the worships and mysteries with which we have
closed our history, accompanied by the list of the philosophers,
reformers, and founders of this worship and those mysteries,
from the highest antiquity, proves conclusively that India is the
cradle of the human race, and source of all the religions of the
world ; while, at the same time, these worships and mysteries
present us with a curious museum where are found arranged, so
to say, in chronological and exact order, the doctrines, ideas, and
institutions of centuries, and among which we discern the origin
of what we now estimate as our most useful teachings. In the
notes which serve to explain and illustrate these mysteries we
have extended our quctations and reflections, to the end that
424 GENERAL HISTORY OP FREEMASONRY.
Freemasons would have an opportunity of comparing the religious
ideas which they may possess with those which were held by the
men who for thousands of years have preceded them ; and also
for the purpose of accounting to them for the very evident connec-
tion which they must see exists between Freemasonry add these
ancient religious beliefs and mysteries.
This examination will demonstrate to them that, because the
members composing the colleges of builders were initiated into
the mysteries of Greece or of Egypt, and introduced into the new
institution certain forms and doctrines borrowed from these mys-
teries, it is not therefore necessary to conclude that these colleges
of builders became the successors of the hierophants of Egypt or
the gymnosophists of India. If certain truths have been con-
served and transmitted to us by these colleges, they otherwise
have no peculiar merit, for the Greek and Hebrew philosophers,
as also the primitive Christians, have likewise propagated and
transmitted such truths and many ceremonies. We repeat, there-
fore, that which we have more than once already asserted, that
the ancient initiation was instruction in all the then known sci-
ence and philosophy, while that which was practiced in the colleges
was confined mainly, if not entirely, to the study and the secrets
of all the branches of architecture.
Moral architecture, or Modern Freemasonry, the issue of the
Masonic corporations of Britain, is, without doubt, more closely
allied by its object to the ancient initiations than was that prac-
ticed among the colleges of builders; but it can never become a
school of science and philosophy, seeing that science and philosophy
have become the common attainment of all who are now situated
and disposed to their study. While, however, this position is
happily denied it, Freemasonry should be grander, mors sublime,
than any form of ancient mysteries, inasmuch as while they were
exclusive and confined to classes and peoples, it may embrace the
whole race of man, and transform that race into a society of brothers,
united by love, science, and labor. It is to such an object every
phase of the Freemasonry of to-day should tend, and for the ac-
complishment of which each of its initiates should solemnly
engage his efforts and influence.
APPENDIX. 425
The Commandments of the Ancient Sages, as contrasted with
the Precepts of Modern Freemasonry.
Having thus retraced the general history of Freemasonry, we
do not consider our task completed unless we furnish, for the
benefit of our younger, and, mayhap, some of our older brethren,
a list of the commandments of the wise men of the past ages, and
contrast the same with what is known to us as the precepts of Mod-
ern Freemasonry. These precepts, being based upon morality and
virtue, it is the study of the one and the practice of the other
that will render a Mason's life irreproachable. The good of hu-
manity being the principal object of Masonry, disinterestedness is
one of the first virtues imposed upon its members ; for this is the
source of justice and benevolence.
To contribute to the happiness of others ; to be humble without
degradation; to abjure all sentiments of hate and vengeance; to
exhibit magnanimity and liberality without ostentation or dissi-
pation ; to be the enemy of vice; to render homage to wisdom
and virtue; to respect innocence; to be constant and patient in
adversity and modest in prosperity, to avoid all irregularity which
may stain the soul or dishonor the body : such are the precepts
which, when followed, will make of every Freemason a good citizen,
a faithful husband, a tender father, submissive son, and true
brother.
Commandments op the Ancient Sages.
1. God is eternal wisdom, omnipotence, immutable and supreme
intelligence.
2. By the practice of virtue, honor thyself. Thy religion should
be to do good as a pleasure, and not as a duty. In observing
their precepts, become the friend of the wise. Thy soul being
immortal, do nothing to dishonor it. Cease not to make war upon
vice.
3. Do to others that which thou wouldst desire them to do to
thyself. In submitting to fortune, thou but followest the light ot
the wise.
4. Thou shouldst honor thy parents and aged persons. Thou
shouldst enlighten the young and protect children.
5. Thou shouldst cherish thy wife and little ones. Thou
shouldst love thy country and obey her laws.
426 GENERAL HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY.
6. Thy friend being to thee as a second self see that thou
bringest no misfortune upon hiin. Thou shouldst regard hia
memory as thou wouldst his life.
7. Thou shouldst shun false friendships, avoid all excesses, and
fear to stain thy good name.
8. Thou shouldst subdue thine own passions and utilize the
passions of others. Be indulgent to error.
9. Hear much, speak little, and weigh well that which thou
Bpeakest.
10. Forget injuries ; render good for evil, and abuse not power
or authority intrusted to thee.
11. Thou shouldst learn the nature of man, to the end that
thou learnest thine own nature.
12. Seek the truth. Be just. Avoid idleness.
Precepts op Modern Freemasonry.
1. Be just ; because equity sustains the human race.
2. Be good ; because goodness enchains all hearts.
3. Be indulgent ; because, feeble thyself, thou shouldst bear
with the feebleness of others.
4. Be kind ; because kindness secures affection.
5. Be grateful ; because gratitude is the food that nourishes
liberality.
6. Be modest; because pride is offensive to your fellow-beings.
7. Pardon injuries; because vengeance perpetuates hate.
8. Bender good for evil ; because in this way you will rise su-
perior to the evil-doer and make him your friend.
9. Be forbearing, temperate, chaste ; because voluptuousness,
intemperance, and sensuality are destructive of thy existence, and
will render it miserable.
10. Be a citizen; because thy country is necessary for thy
security, thy happiness, and thy well-being.
11. Defend thy country with thy life; because it is her who
secures thee in thy property, and in the possession of all those
beings dear to thy heart ; but never forget that humanity has
rights.
12. If thy country wrong thee — if she refuse thee happiness,
and suffer thee to be oppressed — leave her in silence ; but never
trouble her. Support adversity with resignation.
428 REMARKS ON THE VIEWS OF BRO. REBOLD,
REMARKS on the Views maintained, by Bro. Heboid,
as exhibited in his Notes to his Epitome of the Wor-
ships and Mysteries of the Ancient Eastern World.
In his explanation of the origin of Christianity, in Note 32, Bro. Rebold
has adopted views not in accordance with the belief of Christians, as
comprised in the Nicene Creed. He would lead us to believe that the
accepted legends concerning the birth and death of Jesus can be ex-
plained by astronomical data, and that no miraculous intervention need
attach. to those occurrences — that his birth was but the birth of any
man; his death that of one who had offended the laws of his country,
and his life, at least during the term of his itinerant pastorship, alone
worthy of our admiration, as fruitful with preaching the most acceptable
to mankind, because expressive of all that can ennoble the human race.
In this regard, the translation and publication of some of Bro. Rebold' s
"Notes" have given offense, and a few of those who have felt themselves
offended by Bro. Rebold' s views being introduced into a history of Free-
masonry, have expressed their dissatisfaction in some of the Masonic
newspapers of the country, as also their desire that the circulation and
sale of the u General History of Freemasonry in Europe" should be sup-
pressed by all who think with them, as a book dangerous to the Church >
and subversive of the teachings of the Holy Scriptures.
To all such brethren, and we believe few but Freemasons purchase
this book, we would respectfully recommend the fact that the incidental
allusions in it, expressive of its author's religious belief, can do no harm
to those who do not believe as he does, and certainly they can not be
regarded as hurtful to any other person. If Bro. Rebold has discovered
what he conceives to be the true meaning of certain legends, express-
ions, and assertions contained in the Scriptures, and denies the existence
of miracles, he but asserts his own individuality without depriving any
other brother of that condition, and at the same time, as a historian, he
takes his position among the members of that advanced school who, as
to miracles, argue as follows:
"It is an absolute rule of criticism to deny a place in history to nar-
ratives of miraculous circumstances; nor is this owing to a metaphys-
IN NOTES TO WORSHIPS AND MYSTERIES. 429
ical system, but is simply the dictation of observation No miracle has
ever been really proved. All the pretended miracles near enough to
be examined are referable to illusion or imposture. If a single miracle
had ever been proved, we could not reject those of ancient history; for,
admitting that very many of the last were false, we might still believe
that some of them were true. But it is not so. Discussion and exam-
ination are fatal to miracles at the present day, and therefore we are
authorized to believe that those miracles which date many centuries
back, and regarding which there are no means of framing a contradictory
debate, are also without reality. In other words, miracles only exist
when people believe in them. The supernatural is but another term for
faith. Catholicism, in yet maintaining that it possesses miraculous pow-
ers, subjects itself to the influence of this law. The miracles of which
it boasts never occur where they would be most effective. Why should
not this fact be brought more prominently forward? A miracle at Paris,
London, or New York, for instance, performed to the satisfaction of
learned men, would put an end to all doubt. But, alas for miracles ! such
a thing never happens. A miracle never takes place before skeptical or
incredulous people, who are the most in need of such a convincing proof
of the supernatural. Credulity on the part of the witnesses is the essen-
tial condition of a miracle."
There is not a solitary exception to the rule that miracles are never
produced before those who are able or permitted to discuss and criticise
them. Cicero, with his usual good sense and penetration, asks, in his
De Divinatione, "Since when has this secret force disappeared? Has it
not been since men have become less credulous?"
In support of the reality of miraculous agency, appeal is made to phe-
nomena outside of natural laws, such, for instance, as the creation of
man. This creation, it has been said, could only have been compassed
by the direct intervention of God; and why could not this intervention
be manifested at other decisive crises, and after the development of the
universe? Without at all entering upon the domain of theology, it is
easy to show hoAV defective is this argument. It is equivalent to main-
taining that every thing which does not happen in the ordinary condi-
tions of nature, every thing that can not be explained by science, or per-
formed by man upon scientific or philosophic principles, is a miracle, or,
in other words, a direct intervention of Deity. While we heartily ac-
knowledge that God may be permanently in every thing, particularly in
every thing that lives, we deny the reality of the supernatural until we
are cognizant of a demonstrated fact of this nature. In far distant
epochs there occurred without doubt phenomena which, on the same
scale at least, are not repeated in the world of to-day. But there was at
the time they happened a cause for those phenomena* In geological forma-
430 REMARKS ON THE VIEAVS OF BRO. REBOLD,
tion may be met a great number of minerals and precious stones which
nature seems no longer to produce. Yet they have all been artificially
produced by manufacturers of minerals and precious stones. If life can
not be artificially produced, it is because the reproductions of the condi-
tions in which life commenced (if it may be said ever to have commenced)
are beyond human knowledge to attain. The formation of humanity, if
we think of it as a sudden, instantaneous thing, is of all things in the
world the most shocking and absurd; but if it is viewed as the result of
a long continued progress, lasting through incalculable ages, it maintains
its place in general analogies without losing its mystery. The laws of
natural life are not applicable to embryotic life. The embryo develops
all its organs one after another. It creates no more, because it is no
longer at the creative age ; just as language is no longer invented, be-
cause there is no more to invent.
But why continue an argument wherein the adversary but begs the
question? We ask for a proven miracle, and are told that such took
place anterior to history. Certainly if any proof were wanting of the
necessity of belief in the supernatural to certain conditions of the soul,
it would be found in the fact that many minds gifted in all other points
with due penetration have reposed their entire faith in an argument as
desperate as this.
The objectors to Bro. Rebold's views are further content to reject what
nearly all of its readers have acknowledged to be the most reasonable and
apparently correct history of the origin of Freemasonry that has ever been
published, because, in those "Notes," he evinces a disbelief in the accepted
legends of the origin of Christianity. In view of this condition, Bro. K.
may exclaim as did John Huss on sight of an old woman whom he observed
perspiring under the weight of a faggot she was dragging to his stake, "O
sancta simplicitas /" Let these good brothers repress their breath and their
heat, however, for, according to a beautiful expression of Scripture, God
is not in the wind, nor in the fire. If the annoyance which they have ex-
perienced, in reading what they object to, proved instrumental in aiding
the cause of truth, there would be something of consolation in it But
Truth is not for the angry or passionate man. She reserves herself for
those who, free from partisan feeling, from persistent affections, and
enduring hates, seek her with entire liberty, and with no mental reser-
vation referring to human affairs. These problems form only one of the
innumerable questions with which the world is crowded and which the
curious are fond of studying; and their introduction into Notes explana-
tory of the Mysteries and Worships of Antiquity is certainly not im-
proper. No one should be offended by the announcement of a mere
theoretical opinion. Those who would guard their faith as a treasure
can defend it very easily by ignoring all works written in an opposing
IN NOTES TO WORSHIPS AND MYSTERIES. 431
spirit. The timid would do better by dispensing with reading alto-
gether.
In writing the works which he has produced, Bro. Rebold, it must be
acknowledged, has been influenced by a desire to find the truth, and to
make the events of the past of Freemasonry known with the greatest
possible exactness. In doing so we do him but justice to believe he had
no thought of shocking the religious preferences of any one. He has
written with no desire to proselytize, except for truth, and evidently in
the conviction that every concession made to the scruples of those who
had written on this subject before him was a derogation from the dig-
nity and culture of truth. It can at once be seen that, when conducted
in such a spirit, any writer must sink his individuality in his composi-
tions.
The first principle of the critical school is the allowance, in matters
of faith, of all that is needed, and the adaptation of beliefs to individual
wants. Why should we concern ourselves about things over which no
one has any control ? If any person should adopt the principles of Bro.
Rebold, as evinced in his "Notes," it is because that person has the mental
tendency and the culture adapted to those principles ; and all that Bro.
R. or any brother might write during the term of their natural lives
could not impart this tendency and this culture to those who do not nat-
urally possess them. Philosophy differs from faith in this: that faith
is believed to operate by itself, independently of the intelligence ac-
quired from dogmas. Bro. Rebold, on the contrary, holds that truth
only possesses value when the order of its ideas is comprehended. He
does not consider himself obliged to maintain silence in regard to those
opinions which may not be in accord with the belief of some of his
readers. He makes no sacrifices to the exigencies of differing orthodox-
ies, but, instead of attacking them, he evidently does not allow them to
influence him in any manner. To use his own language (at pp. 423-4),
he has "extended his quotations and reflections to the end that Free-
masons would have an opportunity of comparing the religious ideas
which they may possess with those which were held by the men who, for
thousands of years, have preceded them; and also for the purpose of
accounting to them for the very evident connection which they must
see exists between Freemasonry and these ancient religious beliefs and
mysteries" which those quotations and reflections merely serve to il-
lustrate.
The men who believe Bro. Rebold has offended in the first instance,
and his American translator in the second, evidently are unfamiliar
with the speculative tendencies of Freemasonry, and do not comprehend
that such tendencies lead to the study of that which those men believe
should not be questioned. They would repel, yea, excommunicate those
432 REMARKS ON THE VIEWS OF BRO. REBOLD.
who dare to think outside of the accepted groove of their own thoughts.
The Heavenly Father, upon the contrary, only excommunicates the self-
ish and narrow-minded. The spirit of liberty in the realm of thought,
like the wind, bloweth where it listeth. Theory is not practice. Do
those who freely speak when they believe duty dictates equal, after all,
in merit, those who in secret cherish and restrain the doubts known only
to God?
In the language of an eloquent modern writer,45- we say " Peace, then,
in the name of God ! Let the different orders of men live and pass their
days, not in doing injustice to their own proper spirits by making con-
cessions, but in mutually supporting each other. It is well known what
follows when orthodoxy succeeds in overpowering free thought and sci-
ence. Stupidity and mediocrity are the bane of certain Protestant
countries where, under the pretense of maintaining the spirit of Chris-
tianity, art, science, and freedom of opinion are degraded. Lucretia of
Rome and Saint Theresa, Aristophanes and Socrates, Voltaire and Fran-
cis of Assissi, Raphael and Saint Vincent de Paul, all enjoyed to an
equal degree the right of existence in the world, and humanity would
have been lessened had a single one of their individual elements been
wanting." J. F. B.
• Ernest Ttenan author of the " Origins of Christianity," etc.
I
3 1197 00302 2057
Date Due
All library items are subject to recall at any time.
n: n* n
Brigham Young University
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11