The Dead Rites of
Masonry
by Bro. Burton E. Bennett
The Master Mason - August 1925
THE MASONIC paths of time are strewn with the bleaching bones
of dead Rites.
Out of the many dead ones only one of them has ever been worked
in America and that is the Rite of the Emperors of the East and
West, or, as it is popularly known, the Rite of Perfection. It was
brought here from France in 1761 by Etienne (Stephen) Morin. It
cannot be traced as a separate Rite, through any of its classes here,
later than 1807.
France furnishes more dead Rites than any other country. The
Chapter of Clermont was formed in Paris in 1754 by the Chevalier
de Bonneville. It consisted of seven degrees and was the first Rite
of the so-called "high degrees." It lasted until 1758. The Knights of
the East was formed in 1757 by the Masonic middle classes as a
protest against the Chapter of Clermont, which was composed of
the nobility. It lasted but a short time. The Emperors of the East
and West dates from 1758. It was destroyed by the French
Revolution. It flashed up during the Napoleonic Empire, but died
out completely in 1804.
THE SCOTS Philosophic Rite dates from 1766. It was completely
established by Lazare Bruneteau. Streams of it go as far back as
1740 to different schools of Hermeticism that worked under
Masonic forms. In 1776 it constituted itself the "Mother Lodge." It
consisted of eleven degrees. First came the three Craft degrees -
Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason, then Perfect
Master 4d, Select Philosophic Knight 5d, Knight of the Sun 6d,
Grand Scots Mason 7d, Knight of Iris 8d, Knight of the Luminous
Ring 9d , Knight of the White and Black Eagle 10d, and Grand
Inspector Commander 11d. The philosophy of Pythagoras was
taught in this Rite. Dr. Anderson says that "his (Pythagoras')
mysteries were the most perfect approximation of the original
Science of Free Masonry which could be accomplished by a
philosopher without the aid of revelation." On account of its
splendid membership and their fine literary labors it is just as well
to overlook its hermetic and theosophic degrees. It heroically held
out against the 33d, but succumbed in 1826, when it peacefully
passed away.
The Rite of Strict Observance is one of the anomalies of Masonry.
Rites with mythical founders, Rites based upon ancient mysteries,
Rites founded by the patriarchs before the flood, Rites based upon
forged constitutions, Rites possessing Ineffable Words, stolen from
the Temple that enabled the possessor to perform the miracles that
Christ performed - for it was averred that Christ stole them from
the Temple and through them performed His miracles - are
amazing enough to satisfy the most foolish and at the same time
blasphemous enough to delight the most wicked; but here the
members were obedient to unknown superiors, that they never saw,
and that no one ever saw, because they did not exist. And all of this
caused at last really honest men to fall through clouds of shame to
unknown depths that are only realized by those with the most
fervid imaginations. The Rite of Strict Observance was founded in
Germany in 1761 and is based upon the supposition that the
Ancient Knights Templar were not actually destroyed, but
continued to exist secretly in Scotland, and that they joined the
guilds of Masons there and thus really founded Freemasonry. The
Observance Rite publicly proclaimed what was secretly said to be
a fact, that is, that the Ancient Order of the Temple still existed. It
is probable that it was in its inception a Jacobite scheme to further
the cause of the Stuarts to regain the English throne and was
dropped after the defeat of Culloden in 1746 . When Von Hund
revived it in 1761, without any knowledge of the true facts, he was
deserted by his supposed backers. It died out in Germany in 1792
and in France in 1811. The origin of many things often seem
unaccountable as is attested in the present Swedish Rite of
Freemasonry. In 1765 the Rite of the Strict Observance was
transferred to Denmark, where it was modified in 1782. It was
reformed, and by Royal Edict in 1855, this Reformed Rite became
the Swedish Rite of Freemasonry.
THE GOLD Rosicrucians was founded in Germany in 1756 and
this was joined the next year by a stream from the Chapter of
Clermont of France. It took possession of the Grand Lodge of the
Three Globes of Berlin in 1771. It is hard to understand this
perversion of Freemasonry, but as we have some now that differ
from it only in kind, study makes it understandable. The
Rosicrucians maintained, of course, that they were the founders of
Freemasonry. They maintained that knowledge of some one of
their degrees enabled its possessor to make the elixir of life, of
another to manufacture gold, of another to summon "the spirits
from the vasty deep," of another to partake of the knowledge of
God, etc. All of these degrees were obtainable for a price. The
initiate never got the necessary degrees to do all of these things, or
to do any of them, and was at the proper time refused advancement
and dropped, unless he developed rascality of a high order so as to
make himself useful in duping others, in which case he joined its
leaders and became "high and mighty" with them.
The Philalethes was organized by Savalette de Longes in Paris in
1770 to probe the value of the different Masonic degrees. The plan
was excellent. The system consisted of twelve degrees and worked
the three first Masonic degrees, but did not recognize as Masonic
the remaining ones. These were considered only for the purposes
of study. The order joined with the Rite of Narbonne in 1784, a
society formed for a, similar purpose, forming one body which was
absorbed by the Grand Orient in 1806 and finally ceased to exist.
The Society of the Illuminati goes back to 1766. Its members were
not at first Freemasons but later on were initiated into the order.
The system was arranged into three classes and Freemasonry is
found in the second class, the degrees of which were (1)
Apprentice, (2) Fellow Craft, (3) Master and (4) Scots - divided
into Major Illuminates and Directing Illuminates. It had as
members many great men, but the Jesuits, as well as some other
branches of Freemasonry, made war upon it and it was finally
suppressed by the government. This ended Freemasonry in South
Germany and it has never since gained any permanent foothold
there.
THE ASIATIC Brothers was an Hermetic Rite and the Order of
True Masons was an offshoot of an Hermetic Rite.
The Order of the Temple claimed a regular descent from the
Knights Templar of Palestine.
THE SWEDISH Rite of Freemasonry dates from about 1775. The
three first degrees are Ancient Craft Masonry and to this is added
some of the "high degrees." It contains a strain from the Rite of
Strict Observance in its Templarism and has elements taken from
Rosicrucianism.
Gustavus III, King of Sweden, formed the Rite and the King of
Sweden has ever since been the head of it. The Rite consists of
twelve degrees. The King is Grand Master of the Order and is the
only one who takes the twelfth degree. It is called the "Vicar of
Solomon." Only high nobles take the eleventh degree, called
"Dignitary of the Chapter," and only persons of great prominence
can receive the tenth degree, "Member of the Chapter." These three
degrees really form a class by themselves. This class is called the
"Illuminated Chapter" and the members of it "Brethren of the Red
Cross."
The really working part of the Swedish Rite consists substantially
of only nine degrees. The three Craft degrees are, of course,
Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason. The fourth
degree is called the "Scottish Fellow Craft" and is preliminary to
the fifth degree, known as "Master of St. Andrew." This is what is
known in the Modern French Rite as "Scotch Master," or Eccosais
degree. The Eccosais system of degrees depicts the losing and the
finding of the true word. They are what is known to us as Scottish
degrees, or to be exact "Scots" degrees, for they are not Scottish at
all. The degree of "Select Master" of the York Rite is an Eccosais
degree. It is, also, seen in the instruction of the Royal Arch degree.
The fifth degree entitles the recipient to official rank, which shows
how closely Masonry in Sweden is bound up in the government.
THE SIXTH degree is "Friend of St. John," or "Knight of the
East." The "Knight of the East," proper, depicts the erection of the
Second Temple by the Israelites at Jerusalem when they were
released from captivity at Babylon by Cyrus the Great, King of
Persia. This degree is the "Knight of the Red Cross," the tenth
degree of the York Rite. It is one of the degrees founded on the
Revelation of St. John depicting the New Jerusalem with its twelve
gates. It is the fifteenth degree of the Scottish Rite and the sixth
degree of the French Rite.
The seventh degree is called "Knight of the West," or "True
Templar." Templarism, until very recently, has been hard to
understand because it is based wholly on fiction. In the Templar
system the origin of Freemasonry is attributed to the templars of
the Crusades. After the Moslems had conquered the Holy Land
they profaned the holy places and the crusaders that were left were
at the mercy of the Saracens and were cruelly persecuted by them.
The Templars built up a system of Masonry in the Temple of
Solomon and through it concealed the mysteries of the Christian
religion. When the Templars were completely driven out of the
Vast some of them took refuge in Scotland, where they established
Masonry, and from there it was carried to England and to France.
The moving cause of all this fabricated nonsense was to give
Masonry ("High Degrees") a most commanding rank in both the
political and religious world and make those who possessed these
"high degrees" high and mighty Masons, to whom the great and
noble, even, must look up.
The eighth degree, "Knight of the South," is an Hermetic degree
and comes from the Gold Rosicrucians, who flourished during the
last quarter of the eighteenth century, when they permeated
Masonry. They claimed to be able to make gold, to prolong life
and restore youth, to summon spirits from the vasty deep, and to
partake of the power and knowledge of God. Outside of this
mesmeric, spiritualistic and witchcraft society, only possible (to
any great extent) in a superstitious age, there was no other, or real,
Rosicrucian society, no matter what some Masonic writers have
claimed. There were only men who believed along occult lines,
and joined Masonry for the purpose of finding "lost secrets."
The ninth degree is called the "Favorite Brother of St. Andrew."
This is another one of the mythical crusading degrees and was
formed in France, probably, about the middle of the eighteenth
century. This degree comes from one found in the Rite of
Perfection. The twenty-ninth degree of the Scottish Rite comes
from the same source.
OF ALL THE Orders of Knighthood only one is confined
exclusively to Freemasons. When the Duke of Sundermanland, a
zealous Freemason, ascended the Swedish throne he instituted the
Order of Charles XIII, to which only Freemasons are admitted. The
King of Sweden is the perpetual Grand Master and the number of
Knights in it is limited to twenty-seven.
There are only five Orders of Knighthood in Sweden, and one of
them was founded more than six hundred years ago. They are as
follows: (1) Order of the Seraphims, founded in 1285; (2) Order of,
the Sword, founded by Gustave I in 1522; (3) Order of the Polar
Star, created in 1748 by King Christian I; (4) Order of Wasa,
founded in 1772 by King Gustave III, and (5) Order of Charles
XlllI founded by King Charles XIII in 1811.
FOR THE information of the curious, we also mention the
following Rites: Order of African Architects, The Clerics, Rite of
Elected Cohens, Rite of St. Martin, Elect of Truth, Reformed Rite
or Order of Charitable Knights of the Holy City, Adoniramite Rite,
Persian Philosophic Rite, The Order of the Mustard Seed, an order
of religious Freemasons among the Moravian Brothers, the Rosaic
Rite, Bahrdt's Rite, and the Electic Rite that had for its object the
abolition of the high grades.
There are, of course, many other so-called Masonic Rites, and
some of them have had both men and women members, but it
would only burden the reader to enumerate them. Those who
desire to pursue this subject further can delve into purposelessness
to their heart's desire.
WHEN the phrase "Masonic Rites" is used its true meaning must
not be confounded with its popular one. As a matter of fact
Masonry has nothing to do with these Rites, but, unfortunately,
they have much to do with Masonry. They have used Masonry
only for their own selfish purposes, and to aggrandize themselves
and to deceive honest men. They are manufactured out of whole
cloth - generally stolen - and simply veneered with Masonry, to
which the attention of the deluded is, hypocritically, constantly
called. (The attention is called to the Masonry and not to the
veneer.) Some are declared to be founded by mighty kings, some
by valiant princes, some by powerful potentates, some by Holy
Patriarchs, and some are declared to reach back into the dim and
distant past-far into no man's time. back to top
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