Germany. Martinez Paschalis (Pasqually) born, of poor but respectable parentage. Other sources say he was a Portuguese Jew. We have inside information that would confirm the latter.
October. Jerusalem. The aliyah of the Hasidim to Jerusalem in 1700 represented the peak of Shabbetean activity and expectations, and in the great disappointment of its failure as after the earlier failure of Shabbetai Zevi, several of his followers embraced Christianity or Islam. Judah Hasid died almost immediately after his arrival in Jerusalem in October 1700, and conditions in Jerusalem shattered the movement. Dissension broke out between the moderates, some of whom seem to have buried their Shabbetean convictions altogether, and the more radical elements led by Malakh. He and his faction were expelled but even the moderates could not maintain their foothold in the Holy Land and most of them returned to Germany, Austria, or Poland. One influential Shabbetean who remained was Jacob Wilna, a kabbalist of great renown.
Turkey. The Doenmeh Sect. During the 18th Century the sect was joined by various Shabbetean groups, particularly from Poland. Jacob Querido demonstrated his outward allegiance to Islam by making the pilgrimage to Mecca with several of his followers - a course of action which the original Doenmeh community opposed. He died on his return from this journey in 1690 or 1695, probably in Alexandria.
Internal conflicts caused a split in the organization and resulted in the formation of two sub-sects: one, according to Doenmeh tradition, was called Izmirlis (Izmirim) and consisted of members of the original community, and the other was known as the Jacobites, or in Turkish, Jakoblar. A few years after Querido's death another split occurred among the Izmirlis when around 1700 a new young leader, Baruchiah Russo, appeared among them and was proclaimed by his disciples to be the reincarnation of Shabbetai Zevi.
Transylvania. It is said that after Francis II of Transylvania married Charlotte Amalie of Hessen-Reinfels in 1694, they had three children. Two of them were known and accounted for, the third allegedly dying around the year 1700. This one, a son, was named Leopold-George. He was allegedly born around 1691 or 1696. It is said that his death was staged to save him from deadly intrigues which were about to destroy the Transylvanian dynasty and end the independence of Transylvania. Leopold-George is believed to have been the Count of St. Germain.
Of his early life, it is said that he had been raised in childhood by the last of the powerful Medici family of Italy. The Duke of Medici was involved in mystical philosophies prevalent in Italy at the time. While under Medici care, St. Germain is said to have studied at the university in Siena.
London. The Masons' Company of London and the Lodge or Society of Freemasons, mainly speculative, are said to have separated about this date.
By the year 1700, an estimated 70% of all Freemasons were people from other occupations. They were called "Accepted Masons" because they were accepted into Lodges even though they were not masons by trade.
From 1700 to 1830, the East India Company would gain control of India and wrestle control of the opium monopoly.
British Isles importing 20 million pounds of sugar per year.
Deaths from tuberculosis increase dramatically in England and other sugar consuming countries as the body environment changes to accommodate it.
Refined sugar is the most important export of France.
29 September. Alnwick, Northumberland. A Lodge met at Alnwick, Northumberland. It was an operative Craft Lodge, and may have kept more closely to old customs from its nearness to Scotland, where the ceremonial work was practically extinct though the legal basis of Masonic Guilds was still in force. The Orders to be observed by the Company and Fellowship of Freemasons settled at a Lodge held in Alnwick on 29 September of this year are purely speculative in character.
22 December. Scotland. In the Minute Book of the Haughfoot Lodge, Scotland, there is an entry under date 22 December 1701, after a missing leaf, which clearly alludes to Fellow Craft work, as it says, "Of entric as the Apprentice did leaving out the common Juge; they then whisper the word as before, and the Master Mason grips his hand after the ordinary way."
From the middle of the 17th Century the Scottish minute books show
numerous admissions of military men, and of Lairds who are designated by their
lands. The Kelso Lodge, to shoch Sir John Pringle's name appears in 1701, in
1705 imposes a fine for absence upon "Cornet Drummond and Lovetenant Benett."
York. There are other documents at York, but none older than the reign of Anne, 1702 - 1714.
15 May. Marlborough discussed the need to pay the Hanoverian troops so that they would fight:
"If we have the Hanover troups, I am afraid there must be one hundred thousand crowns given them before they will march, so that it would be very much for the Service if that money were ready in Holland at my coming."
Four days later, 22,600 pounds were allocated by the English government to pay the mercenaries.
The Haughfoot Lodge, opened in 1702 by John Pringle or Torsonce, leaves us
in no doubt that it then conferred and "Passed" Apprentice and Fellow Craft,
the Master Mason occupying the chair. Sometimes both degrees were given at one
meeting, at others after an interval. The annual meeting was held for business,
and a "Commission" given each year to 5 members to initiate others.
First appearance of yellow fever in the United States. It would appear 35 times between 1702 and 1800 and would appear almost every year between 1800 and 1879.
Moravia. Judah b. Jacob, commonly called Loebele Prossnitz, caused upheaval after his "awakening" as a Shabbetean Prophet, traveling through the communities of Moravia and Silesia and finding many followers, some of whom persisted even after his fraudulent "magical" practices were unmasked and he was put under a ban, during these years.
26 March. The Hague. Prussia and Hesse were also supplying mercenaries to Britain during the War of Spanish Succession. Marlborough's woes in getting them paid continued. He lamented:
"Now that I am come here [the Hague] I find that the Prussians, Hessians, nor Hanoverians have not received any of their extraordinaries [fees]...."
Strasbourg. According to the Souvenirs of the Marquise de Créquy the Baron de Breteuil discovered from the archives of his Ministry that the pretended Comte de Saint-Germain was the son of a Jewish doctor of Strasbourg, that his real name was Daniel Wolf, and that he was born in 1704. Francois Bournand (Histoire de la Franc-Maçonnerie, p. 106) confirms this story: "The man who called himself the Comte de Saint-Germain was in reality only the son of an Alsatian Jew named Wolf." Mackenzie's account can be given as follows: "His origin is doubtful; one account says he was born at Letmeritz in Bohemia; by the Marquis de Crequy he was pronounced to be an Alsatian Jew, of the name of Simon Wolff, born at Strasburg, about the beginning of the eighteenth century; others affirm that he was a Spanish Jesuit, named Aymar; while others again state that the true name of this remarkable personage was the Marquis de Betmar, and that he was born in Portugal. But the most reasonable theory makes him the natural son of an Italian princess, born at San Germano, in Savoy, about 1710; his father being one Rotondo, a tax-collector of the district. That this would seem to be true, is borne out by the fact that he spoke all the languages he knew with a strong Italian accent." Who knows? Until we have more proof, we will keep the "Wolf" Theory.
Massachusetts. The celebrated Jonathan Belcher, Governor of Massachusetts, was made a Mason in the year 1704, for he writes to a Boston Lodge, in 1741, "It is now thirty-seven years since I was admitted in the Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons." There is a record at Newport, U. S. A., "That ye day and date (1686 or 1688) We mett at ye House of Mordecai Campunall and after synagog We gave Abm. Moses the degrees of Masonrie." If this took place it would be Operative Masonry...
York. The Rolls in possession of the Lodge at York have also been printed by subscription; one of these, dated 1704, is headed with the same Anagram on Masonrie as that of 1600, but addressed by Robert Preston to Daniel Moult. It also appears in a Newcastle Roll, but addressed by Richard Stead to his friend Joseph Claughton.
York. It seems that George Benson was President in 1705, and that he was followed by other gentlemen at each annual election. We learn also from an old copy of the Charges which has passed into the possession of the Grand Lodge of Canada, that a Private Lodge was held at Scarborough, Yorkshire, 10th July 1705, with Wm. Thompson, Esq., as President, when six members were received whose names will be found in the facsimiles executed for the West Yorkshire Masons.
This Year is the presumed date of the earliest preserved Roll of Masons belonging to the Ancient York Lodge. Then, if not earlier, it is said to have been the home of Speculative Masonry and without any Operative Character.
Paris. It is quite certain that there was at this period in France an Ordre du Temple, with a charter from John Mark Larmenius who claimed appointment from Jacques de Molay. Philip of Orleans accepted the Grand Mastership in 1705 and signed the Statutes. Its enemies have asserted that these Statutes were forged by the Jesuit Father Bonani, and that it was actually the resuscitation of a 1681 Society entitled the Little resurrection of Templars, and that it had as one of its members the learned Fenelon who converted Ramsay to Orthodoxy. In any case, if of 1705, the Charter proves the existence of a branch of Scottish Templars, because it was considered necessary to place them, with the Knights of St. John, "outside the bounds of the Temple, now and for ever."
Many believers (Shabbeteans) had proclaimed 1706 as the year of Shabbetai Zevi's return and the disappointment weakened a movement that had lost its active drive. It was driven completely underground, a process hastened by the spreading rumors of the extremist antinomian and nihilist teachings of Baruchiah. Increasingly, although wrongly, Shabbeteans were identified with this extreme wing whose followers were not satisfied with mystical theories and visionary experience, but drew consequences in their personal adherence to the Law. Malakh went to Salonika, then spread the gospel of secret antinomianism in Podolia, where he found fertile ground especially in the smaller communities.
Lund, Sweden. Emmanuel Swedenborg was initiated and progressed to the higher degrees of the Templars as practiced in Sweden. In 1718, Col. Balteer Wedmar, in a Stockholm Lodge Lecture, said that Swedenborg was a Mason and that he had seen his signature at the Lodge at Lund. These assertions were confirmed by King Gustavus III.
Sweden. Brother Samuel Beswick, in his work on the Rite, asserts that Emanual Swedenborg was made a Mason at the University of Lunden in 1706, and that this date appears on a minute of 1787 when King Gustavus III presided, but that it is erroneously entered London. He also asserts that Charles XII, who was assassinated in 1718, had Lodges, and Chapters or Encampments in his army. The ancient Guilds may have been continued in Sweden, and with reference to higher degrees we have already mentioned the existence of Rosy Cross in the 15th Century, and there was a similar non-Masonic Society in the 18th with the King as Chief.
According to Eco's Chronology, this is the year of Claude-Louis de Saint-Germain's birth.
Scotland. As illustrating the state of things in Scotland at this date we may instance a dispute which occurred with the Mary's Chapel Lodge in 1707. A portion of these withdrew and established without permission the Lodge "Journeymen." Lodge St. Mary's Chapel objected to their meeting to take fees and give the "Mason's Word," and the dispute ran on for some years. The Masters' Incorporation was the legal head of such bodies, and the Journeymen obtained leave to sue St. Mary's Chapel for such Masonic rights as the latter possessed. The Incorporation agreed in 1715 that the Journeymen should have an "Act of Allowance" to give the Mason's Word. From this circumstance Bro. R. F. Gould is inclined to think that the custodians of this privilege were the Incorporations, and that this case is the old survival of a claim that the private Lodges were Agencies or Deputations of the Incorporations for that purpose.
There is a Carbonari Certificate of 1707, printed by St. Edme, (Paris, 1821) as authentic, which says that a Count Theodore born at Naples in 1685 had already obtained the High Grades of Free Masonry in France.
Strasbourg. The Imperial Diet abolished the supremacy of the Strasbourg "Head Lodge" over German Stonemasons.
Mannheim. Another center of Shabbeteanism active here, where some members of Judah Hasid's society found refuge in the newly established bet ha-midrash. About the same time, Elijah Taragon, one of Cardozo's pupils, made an unsuccessful attempt to publish his master's Boker Abraham in Amsterdam in 1712.
21 January. A minute of 21 January 1708, decrees, "that for the future no Master, Warden, or Fellow shall appear on St. John's day, or attend the church service at Alnwick, without his apron, and common square fixt in the belt thereof."
9 June. The Tatler for 9 June 1709 has an article upon a class of Londoners termed "Pretty Fellows"; the paper is believed to be by Sir Richard Steele, and alludes to matters with which he seems to be acquainted, for he says: "they have signs and words like Free Masons," and a similar reference can be found in the same journal for 1710. There is no record of Steele being a Mason, but there evidently was such an impression that such was the case.
Conversion of the Chevalier Ramsay to Latin Christianity.
Plague in Turkey, Russia, Scandinavia and Germany through 1710.
Nehemiah Hiyya Hayon had been educated in Jerusalem, served as a rabbi in his home town, and was in contact with the sectarians in Salonika and with Cardozo's circle before he returned to Erez Israel. There he composed an elaborate double commentary on Raza di - Meimanuta, Shabbetai Zevi's last exposition of the mystery of the Godhead, which Hayon now claimed to have received from an angel or, on other occasions, to have found in a copy of the Zohar. Forced to leave Erez Israel because of his Shabbetean activities, he stayed for several years in Turkey, where he made enemies and friends alike and, about 1710, arrived in Venice, either on his own initiative or as an emissary. With the support of some secret sympathizers, but in general posing as an orthodox kabbalist, he succeeded in obtaining the approbation of rabbinical authorities to publish his three books: Raza di-Yihuda (Venice, 1711), Oz le-Elohim (Berlin, 1713), and Divrei Nehemyeh (ibid, 1713).
Galicia. Birth of Samuel Jacob Hayyim Falk, Kabbalist and adventurer, aka "The Baal-Shem of London." Falk, who was born in Galicia, was intimately connected with leaders of the Shabbetean sectarians for many years, e.g., Moses David of Podhajce. He became known early as a magician, escaped burning as a sorcerer in Westphalia, was banished by the archbishop elector of Cologne, etc...
Breslau. Brothers of the Golden and Rosy Cross, established by Sigismund Richter (Sincerus Renatus). His printed book, A True and Complete Preparation of the Philosopher's Stone by the Order of the Golden Rosicrucians, gave the laws of the Order. Commentators say that this was a Jesuitical institution, but we see it as a) a front organization, like the Illuminati, for the P.S; b) A legitimate continuation of the old German R+C, which was beginning to die out as Freemasonry became popular. A possible and likely c) is : The same Golden Rosicrucians were the chief source of influence for the Bavarian Illuminati. This can be seen in the literature of both orders. And, The Golden Rosicrucians survived through the Golden Dawn and OTO lines of descent. Follow this time-line to its conclusions, and you will see this to be the case.1716. In Richter's volume we find a series of 52 rules for the guidance of Rosicrucian members; these rules are such as were likely to lead to useful and orderly lives.
Cambrai. Andrew Michael Ramsay seeks the advice of Fenelon, on religious matters. Fenelon secured his conversion to the Catholic religion. Fenelon was a Quietist, and, though he had been censured by Rome for his views, he was considered one of the Pillars of the Faith in France. Fenelon received his training at St. Sulpice. The liberal breadth of his views was so widely spread as to incur the enmity of Bossuet and the open hostility of the Jesuits. Ramsay remained in Cambrai until the death of his master, Fenelon, in 1715. At some time, probably prior to his meeting with Fenelon, he would have been a member of the Philadelphian Society (of Pordage, Leade, Lee, etc.), and it might be in this group, which lasted until 1705, in both England and in the Benelux region, that he got the urge to seek out Fenelon. Some of the members of the Philadelphians, it is remembered, were not only students of the works of Jakob Böhme, some of these students of the poor cobbler's son of Gorlitz, were Quietists, such as Antoinette Bourignon, Pierre Poiret, Fenelon's influence, Madam Guyon, and her influence, Miguel de Molinos. The Angelic Brotherhood of Gichtel and the Philadelphian Society of Pordage and Leade have parallels, and might just be related. There is an undercurrent in Christian Mysticism in Europe, and though they've all been denounced by the Fundamentalists as devil worshippers and by the Catholics as heretics, they are the true carriers of the Tradition through the Dark Ages and on to the Age of Enlightenment. The practices of the Angelic Brotherhood, in particular, will be seen to have parallels in the Frankist and Shabbetean movements, in the Church of Carmel and so forth.
Savoy, Italy. Allegedly this is where the Comte de St Germain was born, to an Italian Princess in the town of San Germano. (See above, 1704. Strasbourg.)
Brother Clement E. Stretton, who is eminent as a writer of books on his own line as a C. E., has stated in the journals of the day and confirmed to Yarker by letters that Dr. James Anderson was made chaplain of the St. Paul's Guild in 1710, in succession to Dr. Compton, who had been in the habit of holding a daily service.
Cork. Viscount Deneraile held a Lodge at his mansion, Cork, about the year 1710. At one of these assemblies, some repairs were in progress in the Library when his daughter Elizabeth secreted herself to watch the ceremonies, but was detected and forced to undergo the Rites of Making and Passing. As she was born in 1693, and married to Richard Aldworth in 1713, we may reasonably fix 1710 as about the date of the reception.
Death of J. G. Gichtel, who founded a Mystical Society called the Angelic Brethren, having points of analogy with the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, though varying in its objects. According to Ennemoser's History of Magic, there were connections between Gichtel's group in Holland, and the group of Jane Leade, John Pordage, aka the Philadelphians. In fact, the Dutch Group was regarded as the Dutch Group, to the English Group, i.e., the Philadelphians. Going from Molinos, to people like Fenelon, Bourignon, Gichtel, and then the Philadelphians, we get a continuity going from Jakob Bohme to the period of Swedenborg, Pasqually and Pernetty.
Venice. We hear of a Countess von Gergy who met St. Germain at Venice, in 1710, looking about 45 years of age, and 50 years later she talked to him at the Court of Louis XV, no older to outward seeming by a single day. When she said he must be a devil he was "seized with a cramp-like trembling in every limb, and left the room immediately." The Baron de Gleichen also bears witness to the Count's presence in Venice at this time, but makes it clear that he has derived it second hand. Perhaps the Count was a member of the Brothers of the Holy Land?
Leibniz, Secretary of the R+C, dies at Nuremberg.
Before coming to America, Conrad Beissel became involved with German associates of the Philadelphian Society when he went to Strasbourg around 1711. The ideas and writings of German mystic Jakob Boehme were then being promoted by this fraternity founded in England. From Strasbourg, he traveled as a journeyman baker to Mannheim, where he had an affair with his master's wife. When spiritual inspiration caused him to turn from her, she became jealous and went into a violent rage, to which he responded by calling her a Jezebel. She took the tale to her husband, and Beissel made a hurried exit from Mannheim, heading for Heidelberg. And with that incident behind him, "he bade good-night to earthly women" and became a "wooer of the Virgin Sophia," the figure of divine Wisdom revered in theosophical circles.
There is an Irish MS., amongst the Molyneux papers endorsed "Feb., 1711," which clearly indicates a 3-Degree System.
19 March. On the 19th of March, 1712, we read that several members were "sworne and admitted into the honourable Society and fraternity of free Masons by George Bowes, Esq., Deputy President."
First record of vaccinations for smallpox in France.
Amsterdam. After arriving in Amsterdam, Nehemiah Hiyya Hayon at the end of 1713, obtained the protection of Solomon Ayllon, himself a former adherent of Shabbeteanism. At this time the heretical character of his books was recognized by Zevi Hirsch Ashkenazi, the rabbi of the Ashkenazi community in Amsterdam. In the ensuing quarrel between the Amsterdam Sephardi and Ashkenazi rabbis, Shabbetean theology was for the first time discussed in public.
Bradford. In 1713 the Ancient Lodge held a meeting at Bradford, "when 18 gentlemen of the first families were made Free-Masons." Meetings were held each succeeding year at York, those on St. John the Baptist's Day, in June, being termed a "General Lodge on St. John's Day," whilst the others are designated "Private Lodges." This was four years before any movement was made in London, and the meetings at Scarborough and at Bradford are in agreement with the ancient Constitutions which state that the Masons were to hold an Assembly "in what place they would"; and it seems very apparent that where the term "General Lodge" is used, as distinct from a "Private Lodge", it is the tradition of the ancient Assembly continued.
2 December. Halberstadt, Germany. At Halberstadt there is a copy of the German Statutes of 2 December 1713, from which we gather that there were still four Overmasters at Koln, Strasburg, Wien, and Zurich. These are designated Old-Masters, as distinct from the Old-Fellows who governed the Craft. The first were a Chief or Arch-Fraternity, the second were Masters of Lodges. A Master who made his Apprentice Free of the Craft had to bind him to keep the Word concealed in his heart, under the pain of his soul's salvation.
September. Anderson proposed that men of position should be admitted to a species of honorary membership, which was carried by one vote, and the accounts, in that and the following year, show seven fees of 5 guineas each. All the time St. Paul's work was in operation the Guilds met at High 12 on a Saturday, but Anderson changed the period of meeting to 7 o'clock on a Wednesday evening, at the Goose and Gridiron, and in September, 1715, the Operatives found that their old pass would not admit them, and they complained to Wren and Strong and the dissidents were struck off the Rolls; and this is probably why Anderson complained that Wren "neglected the Lodges." Under such circumstances, no honorable man can say that Anderson acted a creditable part. We can see what he actually "digested." He made the Apprentice in a month, in place of seven years, struck out everything technical, including the ceremonies of conferring the Mark Mason; and left a fine moral institution on the lines of the Mystic Societies of the Ancients, but it is not Free Masonry, but an imitation of it; he retained as much of the Old Rites as suited his purpose, and could be worked into the modern system, but it lacked the explanation the Guild Rites afforded.
Shabbetean propaganda thus polarized around two different centers. The moderates who conformed to traditional practice and even overdid it could produce a literature which, avoiding an open declaration of their messianic faith, reached a wide public unaware of the convictions of the authors. The radicals, who became particularly active between 1715 and 1725 after Baruchiah had been proclaimed as "Señor Santo" and an incarnation of the Shabbetean version of the "God of Israel," had to be more careful. They worked through emissaries from Salonika and Podolia and circulated manuscripts and letters expounding their "new Kabbalah." The circles in Poland known as Hasidim before the advent of Ba'al Shem Tov, which practiced extreme forms of ascetic piety, contained a strong element of Shabbeteanism, especially in Podolia.
Prague. Jonathan Eybeschuetz, a child prodigy, studied in Poland, Moravia, and Prague. In his youth, after the death of his father, he studied in Prossnitz under Meir Eisenstadt and Eliezar ha-Levi Ettinger, his uncle, and in Vienna, under Samson Wertheimer. He married the daughter of Isaac Spira, the av bet din of Bunzlau. After travelling for some time he settled in Prague in 1715, and in time became head of the yeshivah and a famous preacher. When he was in Prague he had many contacts with priests and the intelligentsia, debating religious topics and matters of faith with them. He became friendly with Cardinal Hasselbauer and also discussed religious questions with him. Through his help, Eybeschuetz received permission to print the Talmud with the omission of all passages contradicting the principles of Christianity. Aroused to anger by this, David Oppenheim and the rabbis of Frankfort had the license to print revoked. The people of Prague held Eybeschuetz in high esteem and he was considered second only to David Oppenheim.
Paris. Andrew Michael Ramsay moves to Paris, following the death of Fenelon. Here he remains until 1723. He became tutor to the young Count Chateau-Thierry. He won the friendship of the Regent, Philippe d'Orleans, who was Grand Master of the Order of St. Lazarus, to which he admitted Ramsay. Hence he is sometimes called Chevalier, and sometimes Sir Andrew M. Ramsay. He remained in Paris until 1723, editing and publishing his Life of Fenelon, and, on difficulties being thrown in his way by the "Sorbonne" and the Jesuits, threatened to leave Paris and publish in London.
As a result of the bans against him, Nehemiah Hiyya Hayon was forced to leave Europe at the end of 1715. He went to Turkey.
Philadelphia. It is said [Voice of Masonry, 1887,] that one John Moore settled in South Carolina in 1680 from England, thence removed to Philadelphia, and in a letter which he writes in 1715, he speaks of having "spent a few evenings in festivity with my Masonic brethren."
Bar-le-Duc. The Stuart Cause was commenced with the "Old Pretender," James III, then in exile and residing at Bar-le-Duc, under the special protection of the duke of Lorraine. Charles Radclyffe and his elder brother James, both participated in the Scottish rebellion of that year. Both were captured and imprisoned, and James was executed. Charles, in the meantime, apparently aided by the earl of Lichfield, made a dashing and unprecedented escape from Newgate prison and found refuge in the Jacobite ranks in France. In the years that followed he became personal secretary to the "Young Pretender," Bonnie Prince Charlie.
British East India Company opens its first trading office in Canton; China begins trading in opium.
York. Again in 1716 it is minuted on the parchment roll as follows: "At St. John's Lodge in Christmas, 1716. At the house of Mr. James Boreham, situate Stone-gate in York, being a general Lodge held then by the Honoble. Society and Company of Free-Masons in the City of York, John Turner, Esqure., was sworne and admitted into the Said Honoble. Society and Fraternity of Free-Masons."
In 1716, Baruchiah Russo's disciples proclaimed him as the Divine Incarnation. Russo was apparently of Jewish birth and the son of one of the early followers of Shabbetai Zevi. After his conversion he was called "Osman Baba." A third sub-sect was organized around him. Its members were called Konyosos (in Ladino) or Karakashlar (in Turkish). This was considered to be the most extreme group of the Doenmeh community. It had the reputation of having founded a new faith with a leaning toward religious nihilism. Its adherents embarked on a new missionary campaign to the chief cities of the Diaspora. Representatives were sent to Poland, Germany and Austria, where they were a source of considerable excitement between 1720 and 1726. Branches of this sect, from which the Frankists later emerged, were established in several places.
24 June. London. English Grand Lodge founded by James Anderson, J. T. Desaguliers, Calvert, James King, Elliot, Lumden Madden, and George Payne. These men are said to have all been members of the English R+C, J. T. Desaguliers at the head.
Representatives from four British Lodges met at the Goose and Gridiron Alehouse and created a new Grand Lodge. The new Grand Lodge, which was called by some "The Mother Grand Lodge of the World," officially dropped the guild aspect of Freemasonry ("operative Freemasonry") and replaced it with a type of Freemasonry that was strictly mystical and fraternal ("speculative Freemasonry"). The titles, tools, and products of the mason's trade were no longer addressed as objects that members would use in their livelihoods. Instead, the items were transformed entirely into mystical and fraternal symbols. These changes were not made suddenly, but were the result of a trend which had already begun well before 1717. A number of histories incorrectly state that the Mother Grand Lodge of 1717 was the beginning of Freemasonry itself.
Inoculation against smallpox instituted in England by Lady Mary Montague after she returns from Turkey, where it was in a popular experimental stage at the time
"In light of the Machiavellian nature of Brotherhood activity, if we were to view the Mother Grand Lodge as a Brotherhood faction designed to keep alive a controversial political cause (i.e., Hanoverian rule in Britain), we would expect the Brotherhood network to be the source of a faction supporting the opposition. That is precisely what happened. Shortly after the founding of the Mother Grand Lodge, another system of Freemasonry was launched that directly opposed the Hanoverians!
"When James II was unseated by the Glorious Revolution of 1688, he fled England. His followers promptly formed organizations to help him recover the British throne. The most effective and militant group was the Jacobite organization. Headquartered in Scotland and Catholic Ireland, the Jacobites were able to rally widespread support for the Stuarts. They staged many uprisings and military campaigns against the Hanoverians, although they were ultimately unsuccessful in recrowning the Stuarts. When the unsuccessful James II died in 1701, his son, the self-proclaimed James III, continued the family struggle to regain the British throne. A new branch of Freemasonry was created to assist him. That branch was patterned after the old Knights Templar.
"The man who reportedly founded Knights Templar Freemasonry was one of James III's loyal supporters, Michael Ramsey [sic). Ramsey[sic] was a Scottish mystic who had been hired by James III to tutor James' two sons in France.
"Ramsey's[sic] goal was to re-establish the disgraced Templar Knights in Europe. To accomplish this, Ramsey[sic] adopted the same approach used by the Mother Grand Lodge system of London: the resurrected Knights Templar were to be a secret mystical/fraternal society open to men of varied occupations. The old knightly titles, uniforms, and "tools of the trade" were to be used for symbolic, fraternal and ritual purposes within a Masonic context. In keeping with these aims, Ramsey[sic] dubbed himself the Chevalier (Knight) Ramsey[sic].
"Ramsey[sic] did not work alone. He was assisted by other Stuart supporters. Among them was the English aristocrat, Charles Radcliffe[sic]. Radcliffe[sic] was a zealous Jacobite who had been arrested with his brother, the Earl of Derwentwater, for their actions in connection with the failed rebellion of 1715 to place James III on the British throne. Both brothers were sentenced to death. The Earl was beheaded, but Radcliffe[sic] escaped to France." - Bramley, Gods of Eden, 235-6. Note, Charles Radclyffe was beheaded in 1746, after the failure of Bonnie Prince Charlie to regain the Throne. This must be a family tradition.
First bank notes in England.
Germantown, Pennsylvania. The German Baptist Brethren (Dunkers) arrive, from Krefelt, Germany, under the leadership of Peter Becker.
Georg von Welling (Gregorius Anglus Sallwigt) publishes Opus - Mago - Cabalisticum, with many diagrams used by the Gülden ünd Rosenkreuzer. Welling dies in 1725. His works are used in the later versions of the R+C, as is the Geheimen Figuren der Rosencreuzer, published at Altona in 1789. These works were instrumental in the doctrines taught by the RR et AC, including the R+C which inspired the SRIA and Golden Dawn forms.
The Antiquities of Berkshire, 1719, by Elias Ashmole, has a paragraph which includes the information given by Plot and Aubrey... and we add some interesting particulars from the letters of Dr. Thomas Knipe, who flourished between 1660 and 1711, in which year he died, and which were used by the compilers of Ashmole's Biography in 1748. This writer repeats the statement in regard to the Papal Bull of the time of Henry III, and goes on to say: "But this Bull, in the opinion of the learned Mr. Ashmole, was confirmative only and did not by any means create our fraternity, nor even to establish them in this kingdom." He then proceeds to give an account of the statements gathered from the old Charges from St. Alban to the ratification of the Constitution by Henry VI, and closes with a statement that in the Civil Wars the Free-Masons were generally Yorkists, and abuses Plot for his injurious comments.
One of the earliest and most influential Grand Masters of the Mother Lodge system was the Rev. John T. Desaguliers, who was elected Grand Master in 1719. Desaguliers had earlier written a tract stating that the Hanoverians were the only legitimate sovereigns of England under the "laws of nature."
Outbreak of the plague in Marseilles, France through 1720.
Swedenborg also learned about Tibetan and Chinese Yoga from Swedish soldier-scholars and prisoners of war in the Siberian and Tartar areas of Russia who returned to Sweden in the l720s. Hallengren argues that Swedenborg's "Great Tartary" was actually Tibet, and that he had access to rare Asiatic manuscripts and oral traditions brought back by returning relatives and colleagues. In his Spiritual Diary, Swedenborg drew on the travel journal of Philip Strahlenberg, a Swedish officer and former prisoner, to describe the spiritual relation between the Tibetans, Tartars, Chinese, and Siberians.
Arriving in Pennsylvania in the autumn of 1720, Beissel found that Kelpius's Society of the Woman in the Wilderness had dissolved, and Kelpius had passed away some years before. He subsequently set up a cabin in the Conestoga wilderness with several other hermits, but his magnetism combined with his missionary efforts eventually served to turn hermitage into commune. Seekers trickled to the remote cabin, and established themselves near him. Yet the lure of the hermit's life would always beckon, since his dealings with others invariably led to some type of conflict. Just as he had alienated himself from the bakers of Heidleburg by imposing his rigid principles on them, he similarly brought himself into conflict even with his spiritual friends. Ephrata historian James Ernst notes that Beissel "was hard to live with. His egotism and fiery temper could brook no dissent. His spiritual pride led him into bitter quarrels with all his friends."
Metz. Louis Theodore Tschoudy (the Baron de Tschoudy) was born at Metz in 1720. He was descended from a family originally of the Swiss canton of Glaris, but which had been established in France since the commencement of the 16th century. He was a counselor of State and member of the Parliament of Metz; but the most important events of his life are those which connect him with the Masonic institution, of which he was a zealous and learned investigator. He was one of the most active apostles of Ramsay, and adopted his theory of the Templar origin of Masonry.
According to John Yarker, Arcane Schools, 420-1:
"...the Gothic Builders died out and their Lodges relaxed into small social gatherings, but in the North of England where there were Lodges in the jurisdiction of York, the Lodges continued the Harodim, or Masters' Fraternity, of which Gould in his large history affords ancient proofs. What became of these bodies, for Grand Lodge has no knowledge of them? But on the death of the Gothic Builders and the attenuation of their Lodges, there arose, temp. Jas. I., a young Englishman of the name of Inigo Jones, whom the Earl of Pembroke took into Italy. He studied with much interest, amongst the disciples of Palladio and the Comacini, the classic works of Italy, and on his return reorganised such bodies as existed on the model of the Italian academies, and brought over Italians to instruct the Guilds in the classical Masonry of old Rome, and it became a fashion to term the magnificent Gothic erections a barbarous style? Out principal authority for this statement is Anderson who says that the account was recorded in a MS., by Nicholas Stone which was burnt in 1720, in order, we may suggest, that it might not fall into his hands. He further states that Jones held Quarterly Meetings, and Lodges of Instruction; now there is no reason why Anderson should have falsified history on this matter, and his statements are accepted by Preston, and by so careful a writer as the German Findel; but the known ceremonies of the Guild is a confirmation strong enough in itself, for they certainly represent a Guild of the classical style. They had also the old Jewish Menatzchim or Intendents, and Harods, termed Passed Masters, of which rank Grand Lodge has no knowledge."
Baruchiah Russo died in 1720 while still young and his grave was an object of pilgrimage for members of the sect until recent times.
British government issues instruction that American colony governors consent to no Act emitting Bills of Credit.
Rite of Swedenborg, or Illuminati of Stockholm, founded. First carried to England by Chastanier, Springer (Swedish Consul), C. F. and August Nordenskjold and others who were members of the first Swedenborgian Society in London, known as the Theosophical Society of the New Jerusalem, not to be confused with the Rite of the French Theosophists. Chastanier, it can be said, was an associate of Pernetty.
We are told by Anderson that the 1721 Meetings of the Grand Lodge were made very interesting by the Lectures of old Masons.
According to Yarker, the following points can be stated regarding Masonry at the time:
"Besides the feeling, engendered by members of the old Operative Guilds, that Modern Masonry was an imperfect system, various other ideas operated in the development of a system of "Masters' Degrees," at a later period termed High-grade Masonry. English Masonry, in the course of ages had gathered much Christian symbolism upon its Semitic ceremonies, which, in certain parts, would intensify the dislike to the Modern system.
"1. On this question of teaching it may be noted that whilst the Jacobite Masonic faction sought to strengthen the Christianity of our Rites, the Southern Masons, had sought from the time when Cromwell readmitted the Jews, to broaden its lines.
"2. In politics again there existed great, but suppressed, antagonism between North and South; the Grand Lodge of all England at York was essentially Jacobite, that of London, Hanoverian.
"3. There was an Hermetic element, from early times in the Guilds, and we shall see that this was well understood in 1721; for there was, as we have indicated in previous chapters, a very early quasi-connection.
"4. There was in existence from the time of the Reformation in the 16th Century, many mystical societies, and as these passed along the ages, they influenced the Masonic Lodges, and in some instances were drawn upon to establish high-degrees; and we will preface the information we can give upon some of them."
"The earliest printed evidence of something beyond the then new speculative Craft is a work by Robert Samber, written in 1721 under the nom-de-plume of Eugenius Philalethes, Junior, and which he dedicated to the Grand Lodge of London in 1722; and there is no doubt that much has passed out of existence that would have enlightened us upon the writer's views, inasmuch as he claims, as did the Carpocratian Gnostics, that Jesus established an esoteric doctrine which he communicated to his disciples, and the possibility of such views implies a much broader field to survey than most writers wish to concede." - YAS, 432.
"In the Preface of 1721, Samber alludes to the grades of the Arcane Discipline of the early Christians as comparable with Masonry; to a spiritual cube, and he associates Masons spiritually with the three principles of the Hebrew adepts, namely, salt, sulphur, and mercury, and there are other comparisons which agree with three Masonic grades. He claims that in all time there waas a Brotherhood which preserved true religion, essentially what Dermott claims for the Royal Arch, and he goes on to demonstrate the doctrine of the Unity, passing from Moses through the Schools of the Prophets, and the Rabbis. He has also three traitors who correspond with the Cain, Achan, and Enni (Annas) of Harodim Rosy Cross who slew the "Beauty" of the world. He ends by making Christ the reorganiser of a Masonic Brotherhood, and "holy brother St. Paul," is alluded to with a marked emphasis which shews that he had a Masonic theory respecting him. He thus leads us through the natural law exemplified in the Craft, the Jewish law in the Arch or Red Cross, to the law of grace in Christian Masonry; for these things are fully implied though no such grades are alluded to by name. He says that he is addressing "a higher class who are but few," and this is done in Hermetic language, which shows that he perfectly understood the mystic language of that body. He speaks of those who ought to be "erased from the Book M.," which implies here Masonry... We are rather concerned in defending Samber against his critics of the last 20 years, who represent him as little better than an idiot [i.e., we might be referring to writers like Waite, here] the fault is theirs, for they 'have eyes but see not.'..." - YAS, 433-4.
It is asserted by Bro. Ragon that at this time, Emanuel Swedenborg established a Theosophic Rite of "Elected Cohens or Priests" at Stockholm, consisting of seven degrees, the last being Kadosh Templar or Holy Man.According to Eco, at this time Anderson drafts the Constitutions of English Freemasonry; also,
Peter the Great, initiated in London, founds a Lodge in Russia.
In the United States, a clergyman named Cotton Mather attempts to introduce a crude form of smallpox vaccination by smearing smallpox pus into scratches in healthy people. Over 220 people are treated during the first six months of experimentation. Only six had no apparent reaction. Mather was bitterly attacked for recommending this practice. Boston, Massachusetts.
Southern France. Another and obscure body of Illuminés came to light in the South of France in 1722, and appears to have lingered until 1794, having affinities with those known contemporaneously in this country as "French Prophets," an offshoot of the Camisards of the Cevennes. Could it be that this group is a connecting link between the ancient Illuminati and the Illuminati of Avignon and other groups that flourished in the South of France during this important period? Perhaps they were connected to the Lodge at Lyons, which was taken over by Cagliostro for his Egyptian Rite, and which was then succeeded by the Disciples of Memphis... Or, perhaps the Chevaliers Bienfaisants de la Sainte Cité...??? It is possible, too, that Martinez Pasqually was connected to this, or to the Spanish version. It is also possible that these Illuminist groups were descended from original Jewish groups, for the highest among the Jews who studied and circulated Kabbalah were known as the Maskilim, or Illuminati. (See Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah.) These might be related to Chastanier's Illuminated Theosophists, or one of Pernetty's groups, or even related to the predecessors of Adolphe Garrigou, who was a Cathar Master.
The learned Dr. Stukely states in his Autobiography, "7 Novr 1722. The Order of the Book instituted," he terms it also "Roman Knighthood," and says, 28th December that he admitted to it Lords Hertford and Winchelsea. There is nothing to show the nature of it...
In Wales, a Dr. Wright refers to inoculation against smallpox in the British Isles as "an ancient practice". A citizen of Wales, 99 years old, states that inoculation had been known and used during his entire lifetime, and that his mother stated it was common during her life, and that she got smallpox through her "inoculation".
Wissahickon Creek, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The first new Dunker converts in America were baptized in the Wissahickon Creek. The first Love Feast was also held, and Becker was made Bishop. Soon after, another church was set up at Pottstown, PA (the Coventry Church).
An old catechism of 1723 asks the question, "Whence comes the pattern of the Arch?" and the answer is, "From the rainbow."
Paris -- London. Andrew Michael London forced to leave Paris, settles in London, where he publishes his famous work, The Life of Fenelon.
Johann Peter Rockefeller arrives in the US colonies from Germany.
First record of smallpox immunization in Ireland, when a doctor in Dublin inoculates 25 people. Three died, and the custom was briefly abandoned.
In the years 1724 and 1725 there appeared two editions of a pamphlet entitled Two Letters to a Friend, in which are allusions to Dr. Thomas Rawlinson, a leading Freemason, who left the Craft some documents referring to this period. In this print it is stated that the Brother styles himself R.S.S. and LL.D., and 'he makes wonderful Brags of being of the Fifth Order....The Doctor pretends that he has found out a mysterious 'hocus pocus' Word....that against whomsoever he (as a member of the Fifth Order) shall pronounce the terrible word the person shall instantly drop down dead.' To whatever degree Rawlinson really belonged it is certain that the allusion is to the Jewish tetragrammaton, and that the worthy doctor had been incautiously airing his knowledge of the Essays of Reuchlin and Agrippa upon the Cabala, and the Mirific Word.
The appearance of a manuscript entitled, Va-Avo ha-Yom el ha-Ayin, which the Shabbeteans, and several of Eybeschuetz' own students, ascribed to him. This book is a Shabbetean work. Even after he had signed the herem against the Shabbeteans, suspicion was not allayed and apparently it prevented his election to the rabbinate of Prague.
London. Ramsay is persuaded by his friends in London to accept the post of Tutor to the two young sons of the Pretender(the Old Pretender) at Rome. He only remained there fifteen months. He is said to have resigned because the constant intrigue of the deposed family disgusted him. Gould is not sure what the authority is for this statement, but he says that Ramsay's short stay does not argue for the depth of his attachment to the Cause.
From 1724 onward several manuscripts were circulated from Prague which contained kabbalistic explanations couched in ambiguous and obscure language but whose gist was a defense of the doctrine of the "God of Israel." his indwelling in Tiphereth, and his intimate connection with the Messiah, without explicitly mentioning his character as a divine incarnation. The testimony pointing to Eybeschuetz as the author is overwhelming.
Gould stated that there is an advertisement in the Daily Mail of 1724 announcing that a new Lodge is to be opened at St. Alban's Tavern for regulating the modern abuses which had crept into the fraternity, and "all the old real Masons are invited to attend." It is evidently the beginning of the agitation which led to "Ancient" Masonry, and the role of the Royal Arch.
First record of vaccination for smallpox in Germany. It soon fell into disfavor due to the number of deaths. Years later, doctors were able to reintroduce it. 1727 Coffee planted in Brazil.
Prague. Eybeschuetz was among the Prague rabbis who excommunicated the Shabbetean sect.
Rome/Paris. Ramsay, probably mid 1725, returned to Paris. The length of his sojourn there is uncertain.
Paris. Charles Radclyffe is said to have founded the first Masonic Lodge on the continent, in Paris. During the same year, or perhaps in the year following, he seems to have been acknowledged grand master of all French Lodges and is still cited as such a decade later, in 1736. The dissemination of 18th Century Freemasonry owes more, ultimately, to Radclyffe than to any other man, including Hund.
Nehemiah Hiyya Hayon returns to Europe at this time. His arrival coincided
with another Shabbetean scandal and brought his efforts to naught. This upheaval
was connected with the propaganda of the extremist followers of Baruchiah who
had gained a strong foothold in Podolia, Moravia and especially in the yeshivah
of Prague, where the young and already famous Jonathan Eybeschuetz was widely
considered their major supporter.
Frankfurt. When the propaganda of Eybeschuetz and other Shabbetean
writings from Baruchiah's sect were discovered in Frankfurt in 1725 in the luggage
of Moses Meir of Kamenka, a Shabbetean emissary to Mannheim from Podolia, a
great scandal ensued. A whole network of propaganda and connections between
the several groups was uncovered, but Eybeschuetz' reputation as a genius prevented
action against him, particularly as he placed himself at the head of those who
publicly condemned Shabbetai Zevi and his sectarians in a proclamation dated
16 September 1725. In many other Polish, German, and Austrian communities similar
proclamations were published in print, also demanding that all who heard them
should denounce secret Shabbeteans to the rabbinical authorities. The atmosphere
of persecution which then prevailed led the remaining Shabbeteans to go completely
underground for the next 30 years, especially in Poland.
Durham. A similar operative Lodge [Note: Similar to the Alnwick
Lodge...] existed in Durham, and is supposed to have been first established
at Winlaton circa 1690, by a German iron Master, which art had been established
at Solingen from early centuries, from Damascus, thence it removed to Swalwell
in 1725.
"England seems to have first began an innovation upon the
system of the Modern Grand Lodge, but the hot-bed of the high-grades was France.
From 1688 when a quantity of English, Irish, and Scottish Masons emigrated with
James II., there was an ancient Masonry in France of which Hector MacLean was
Grand Master, and who was succeeded in 1725 by the Earl of Derwentwater who
held that position until the Elector of Hanover decapitated him in 1745. But
a little earlier, namely in 1737, the Duke of Richmond, who had been G.M. of
England, opened a Lodge in which he initiated the Duc d'Antin who in 1743 became
Grand Master of the English Grand Lodge of Paris; we will leave him there for
the present and take a survey of earlier matters..." - Yarker, Arcane
Schools, 423.
24th June. Dublin, Ireland. In Ireland there seems an incipient reference to the Christian grades in the newspaper report of the Installation at Dublin of Lord Rosse as Grand Master, 24th June, 1725. The representatives of six Lodges of Gentlemen Masons were present, and it is said: "The Brothers of one Lodge wore fine Badges painted full of crosses and squares, with this Motto "Spes meo in Deo est," which was no doubt very significant, for the Master of it wore a yellow jacket and Blue Britches."
24 December. There is a burlesque advertisement of the tailors, 24 Dec 1725, which accuses their 'whimsical kinsmen of the hod and trowel,' with having changed their way of meeting and Patron, 'on new light received from some worthy Rosicrucians.'
France.
"In France Radcliffe[sic] assumed the title of Earl of Derwentwater. He presided over a meeting in 1725 to organize a new Masonic lodge based on the Templar format being revealed by Ramsey[sic]. The Derwentwater lodge was instrumental in getting the new Templar system of Freemasonry going in Europe. Derwentwater claimed that the authority to establish his Lodge came from the Kilwinning Lodge of Scotland - Scotland's oldest and most famous lodge. Templar Freemasonry is therefore often called Scottish Freemasonry because of its reputed Scottish origin." - Bramley, pp. 236-7.
Venice. Giacomo Casanova born.
Normandy. Reported birth year of Pierre Lambert de Lintot.
Korolowka, Podolia. Birth of Jacob Frank. Born Jacob b. Judah Leib. His family was middle class, and his father was a contractor and merchant, apparently well respected. His grandfather lived for a time in Kalisz, and his mother came from Rzesow.
London. Death of Sir Isaac Newton, reputed Grand Master of the Priory of SION. He is replaced by Charles Radclyffe...
London. Gould thinks that Ramsay returned to England in 1727, and probably that he returned to Paris in 1737. The Biographia Britannia states that he went to Scotland in 1725, and lived there nine or ten years, which agrees pretty well with respect to dates, but scarcely as regards locality. Rees' Cyclopaedia tells us that he lived during that time with the Duke of Argyle and Greenwich.
Scotland. The Scots Magazine gives a Dundee Initiation of 1727 and has, - "How got you that Mark?" Answer, - "I took up one Mark, and laid down another."
France. Two works published in France in 1727 and 1731 had some influence upon the high-grades; the first was the Travels of Cyrus, by the Chevalier Andrew Michael Ramsay; and the other was the Life of Sethos by the Abbe Terasson... There need be no mystery in regard to Ramsay's degrees, but there is much as to where he received them.
Hamburg. Hermann Samuel Reimarus is professor of Hebrew and Oriental Languages in the high school of this city, from this time until his death in 1768. His house was the centre of the highest culture, and a monument of his influence in Hamburg remained in the Haus der patriotischen Gesellschaft, where the learned and artistic societies partly founded by him continued to meet.
London. It would appear probable that Ramsay was Initiated in London circa 1728 to 1729. Among his fellow members of the Gentlemen's Society of Spalding (See 1729, below), were no less than seven very prominent Freemasons, and among his brother Fellows of the Royal Society, from 1730 to 1736 (the probable limit of his stay in England), were Martin Ffolkes, Rawlinson, Desaguliers, Lord Paisley, Stukely, the Duke of Montagu, Richard Manningham, the Earl of Dalkeith, Lord Coleraine, the Duke of Lorraine (afterwards Emperor of Germany; this would be Francois, Duke of Lorraine, whose brother Charles was to become Grand Master of the Priory of SION after Radclyffe), the Earls Strathmore, Alexander Pope, Crawford, Aberdour, Martin Clare, Francis Drake, and, until his death in 1727, Sir Isaac Newton. In such a company of distinguished Freemasons, we can scarcely doubt that Ramsay soon became a prey to the fashion of the hour, and solicited admission to the Fraternity, also that the Lodge to which he is most likely to have applied was the "Old Horn," of which Desaguliers and Richard Manningham were members. This supposition cannot be verified, because that Lodge has preserved no list of its members for 1730.
Madrid. Lodge of Freemasons founded.
York. Lists of the Grand Masters are found in any Modern Masonic Cyclopaedia, but Brother Whitehead recently discovered in an old Armorial MS., that the name of Sir Wm. Milner, Bart., 1728, has been omitted, "being the 198th Successor from Edwin the Great," apparently claiming an annual election of Grand Masters from the year 930.
31 December. London. Brother Edward Oakley delivered an address at London, in which he quotes largely from Samber's Preface to Long Livers, so that it must have had some Masonic importance given to it, and its references understood.
In 1728, according to A Sketch of the History of the Antient and Primitive Rite of Masonry in France, America and Great Britain, etc., published by the authority of the Duke Alexandre of Cabinda, Sovereign Grand Conservator General of the Rite of Memphis etc., Ramsay propagated a Rite of seven degrees, and asserted that his Scottish Mason, Novice, and Templar had been practised from time immemorial in the Lodge of St. Andrew, Edinburgh. The Jesuit College of Clermont in France took up this Rite of Heredom, or Perfection...
22 January. Kamenz, Lusatia. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing born; son of a Lutheran clergyman. He was a contemporary of Voltaire and the French philosophes, of Frederick the Great and his academy of scholars in Berlin, and, later in life, of the young Goethe and Schiller. He was born into the Age of Reason...
29 March. London. However Ramsay's purported stay in Scotland may be accounted for, it is certain that he spent some time in the southern half of the Island, for on this date, (some accounts differ, and say the 12th of March), he was made a member of the "Gentlemen's Society of Spalding."
11 December. London. Ramsay elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
18 December. London. Ramsay admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society. According to the Assistant Secretary, Walter White, replying to Gould's query as to why his signature does not appear in the Charter-Book, White replies: "It is possible that the worthy gentleman was one of those admitted into the Society without signing the Charter-Book." Interesting admission.
Nuremberg. Schrepfer born.
In 1729, Ephraim Chambers mentions in his Cyclopoedia that there are certain Free-Masons who 'have all the characters of Rosicrucians,' or 'as retainers to the art of building.'
Emperor Yung Cheng prohibits opium smoking in China.
Early 1730s - mid 1740s.
Czernowitz. Frank's family moved here at this time. His father is depicted as a scrupulously observant Jew. At the same time, it is possible that he already had connections with the Shabbetean sect, which had taken root in many communities in Podolia, Bukovina, and Walachia. Frank was educated in Czernowitz and Sniatyn, and lived for several years in Bucharest.
Apparently Frank's teacher in Czernowitz belonged to a Shabbetean sect and promised that Frank would be initiated into their faith after marriage, as was often customary among Shabbeteans. He began to study the Zohar, making a name in Shabbetean circles as a man possessed of special powers and inspiration.
10 April. London. Ramsay received the degree of D.C.L. at Oxford. Before visiting Oxford in 1730, he was obliged to obtain a Salvum Conductum from King George. Although his name is on the books of St. Mary's Hall, buttery book, charged for "battels", on this date, his name does not appear after this date, and he seems not to have taken up residence there.
5 September. There is a precise statement signed A. Z., in the Daily Journal of 5th Septr., 1730: "It must be confessed that there is a society abroad, from which the English Freemasons have copied a few ceremonies, and take pains to persuade the world, that they are derived from them. These are called Rosicrucians from their Prime Officers (such as our Brethren call Grand Masters, Wardens, etc.), being distinguished on their High days by Red Crosses."
It is possible that the Gormogons had some relations with the Jacobite Lodges of Harodim, as they used pseudonyms like the latter, and were equally attached to the Stuarts. Pritchard, who wrote in 1730 hints that they had pre-1717 or Ancient Masons in their ranks. Particulars of the body is found in the 1724 pamphlet entitled Two Letters to a Friend, from which it appears that they had an emissary at Rome, and Samber, the author of Long Livers, is identifiable under the designation of a Renegade Papist. Ramsay was with the Pretender at Rome in 1724, and the Duke of Wharton, P.G. M., of England is evidently alluded to as a Peer who had suffered himself "to be degraded" by having his apron burnt in order that he might join the Gormogons, was with the Pretender at Parma in 1728, and had received the title of Duke of Northumberland from him about fourteen years previously. They had a secret reception and cypher of their own, and Kloss considers, no doubt rightly, that in their jargon "China" meant Rome.
On the authority of M. Sedir, there was renewed activity in Rosicrucian Lodges about 1730 and the Ram appeared on the jewel, recalling the Golden Fleece of the Chemical Wedding...
A printed Catechism of 1730 but grounded on the Modern System of 1717, speaks of a word "which was lost, is now found...
Montesquieu, passing through London, is initiated.
Paris. According to HBHG, by 1730, Ramsay was back in France and increasingly active on behalf of Freemasonry. He is on record as having attended lodge meetings with a number of notable figures, including J. T. Desaguliers. He received special patronage from the Tour d'Auvergne family, the viscounts of Turenne, and dukes of Bouillon -- who 75 yrs earlier had been related to Frederick of the Palatinate. In Ramsay's time the duke of Bouillon was a cousin of Bonnie Prince Charlie and among the most prominent figures in Freemasonry. He conferred an estate and a town house on Ramsay, whom he also appointed to tutor his son.
France. As early as 1730 lodges for women are said to have existed in France, and towards the end of the century several excellent women, such as the Duchess de Bourbon and the Princesse de Lamballe, played a leading part in the Order. But this Maçonnerie d'Adoption, as it was called, retained a purely convivial character; a sham ceremonial, with symbols, pass words, and a ritual, was devised as a consolation to the members for their exclusion from the real lodges. These mummeries were, as Ragon observes, "only the pretexts for assemblies; the real objects were the banquet and the ball, which were their inevitable accompaniments."
We are told that Irish Chapters existed in Paris as early as 1730, and held their Constitutions from the Grand Chapter of Dublin. They were divided into Colleges, and their degrees were pretty generally spread throughout France. They fell into disuse since the institution of Scots Chapters. According to Gould, this is untrue.
England. The Chevalier Ramsay attempted to introduce, in either 1728 or 1730, hs Rite, known as Ramsay's Rite,based on the Templar theory. There were six degrees: 1,2,3, the Symbolic Degrees. 4. Scottish Master. 5. Novice. 6. Knight of the Temple. It was repudiated by the Grand Lodge of England, but was received by the French, and formed the substratum upon which the High Degrees were constructed through the Council of Emperors of the East and West.
The first published account of Fly Agaric appeared in 1730, the work of a Swedish colonel who spent twelve years as a prisoner in Siberia. He indicated that the Koryak tribe would buy a mushroom "called, in the Russian Tongue, Muchumor," from Russians in exchange for "Squirils, Fox, Hermin, Sable, and other Furs."
Zinc smelting begins in England.
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