Paris. The Almanack des Cocus was published in Paris from 1741 to 1743. Pinkerton states that it was no doubt a vile and obscene publication -- If so, it merely reflected the lascivious tendencies of the age and country, and Gould sees no reason on that account to declare that Ramsay could be the author of no part of its contents. It naturally treated of the subjects of the day, and might have published his oration without previously consulting the writer. In the edition of 1741 appeared "Discourse pronounced at the reception of Freemasons by Monsieur de R--, Grand Orator of the Order." The next publication of the same oration was in 1742 by De la Tierce, who describes himself as a former member of the Duke of Lorraine's Lodge, London, and whose book is in substance a translation of the Constitutions of 1721, supplemented by the new articles of 1738, with various introductions by the author. He claims to have produced facts omitted by Anderson, and indeed gives a very detailed account of the Grand Masters, from Noah onwards, reserving a distinguished place for Misraim. (It would therefore be quite as just to lay the blame of the creation of the rite of Misraim on Tierce, as to hold Ramsay responsible for all the other innovations in the body of Masonry. -- Gould.) That the speech was Ramsay's own, we have his own admission to Geusau. It was published many times, including its inclusion in Gould's History of Freemasonry, Volume III, Chapter XXIV, pp. 338 - 343 (1902 Edition).
13 November. Saxony. Bischoffswerder born at this time. He had been in the active service of the Duke of Courland before he was employed by the King, and before he became a Rosicrucian, he belonged to the Strict Observance and many of the Secret Rites.
It is said that the Grand Master (Harodim) had held his office since 1741, so that is probably the date when the Rite was reconstituted as here given.
1741, by the way, is the year given as the first year of the Order, in the Gold RC/Fraters Lucis Dating system.
Metz. Jonathan Eybeschuetz elected rabbi of Metz.
Miessen. Lessing enters the St. Afra School for Princes, and in this fine secondary school he received a thorough humanistic education.
Paris. Ramsay told Geusau, when occasionally visiting him at Paris in 1741, that General Monck had used the Lodges as meetings at which to promote the return of Charles II. Geusau's Diary passed into the keeping of the Prince of Reuss, and it is held that at this period it was sought to further ally the Hermetic associations of London with the Craft for the same purpose.
When the Harodim Rosy Cross was carried to France by the followers of James II, the title was translated into Rose Croix of Heredom, and the Red Cross was designated Knight of the East, and in 1744, Knight of the Sword, whilst the Rosy Cross is the Rose Croix.
In 1741 Field Marshall von Marshall was admitted a Knight in the Chapter of Clermont.
Baron von Hund initiated into the three degrees of Craft Freemasonry in Germany.
Templar Degrees first heard of in France under the name of "Scots Masonry."
Baron von Marschall arrives in Paris with a plan for reviving the Templar Order.
Lyons. In France, some of the Scots Lodges would appear to have very early manufactured new degrees, connecting these very distinguished Scots Masons with the Knights Templars, and thus given rise to the subsequent flood of Templarism. The earliest of all are supposed to have been the Masons of Lyons, who invented the Kadosh degree, in 1741 (according to Gould). From that time new rites multiplied in France and Germany, but all those of French origin contain knightly, and almost all, Templar, grades. In every case the connecting link was composed of one or more Scots degrees.
Philadelphia epidemic of yellow fever.
9 December. London. Horace Walpole, Britain's former Prime Minister, discussed the enormous fee England was asked to pay for renting 16,000 Hanoverian troops:
"...there is a most bold pamphlet come out...which affirms that in every treaty made since the accession [to the British throne] of this family [Hanover], England has been sacrificed to the interests of Hanover..."
The pamphlet mentioned by Walpole contained these words:
"Great Britain hath been hitherto strong and vigorous enough to bear up Hanover on its shoulders, and though wasted and wearied out with the continual fatigue, she is still goaded on.... For the interests of this island [England] must, for this once, prevail, or we must submit to the ignominy of becoming only a money-province to that electorate [Hanover]."
Opposition to the subsidy treaties failed. England became Hanover's money-province. Walpole continues:
"We have every now and then motions for disbanding Hessians and Hanoverians, alias mercenaries; but they come to nothing."
Graf von Schmettau introduces the Clermont Rite into Germany.
Saxe-Weimar. Duke Ernest Augustus of Saxe-Weimar brought out some Theosophical Devotions in 1742, in which work he is said to have affirmed that he had been received into the Order (RC) and refers to "the last great union of Brethren."
Paris. Von Hund comes to Paris to consecrate a Lodge. According to Von Hund's own account, he was then received into the Order of the Temple by an unknown Knight of the Red Feather, in the presence of Lord Kilmarnock (executed in 1746 as a partisan of the Stuarts), and was presented as a distinguished Brother to Prince Charles Edward Stuart, whom he imagined to be the Grand Master of the Order. This was all later proven to be a fabrication; Charles Edward denied all knowledge of the affair; and Von Hund admitted later that he did not know the name of the Lodge or Chapter in which he was received, but that he was directed from a "hidden centre" and by Unknown Superiors, whose identity he was bound not to reveal. Von Hund tried to enroll Charles Edward in the new German Order. HBHG:
"Hund claimed to have been initiated in 1742 -- a year before Ramsay's death, four years before Radclyffe's. At his initiation, he claimed, he had been introduced to a new system of Freemasonry, confided to him by "unknown superiors." These "unknown superiors," Hund maintained, were closely associated with the Jacobite cause. Indeed, he even believed at first that the man who presided over his initiation was Bonnie Prince Charlie. And although this proved not to be the case, Hund remained convinced that the unidentified personage in question was intimately connected with the Young Pretender. It seems reasonable to suppose that the man who actually presided was Charles Radclyffe."
Berlin. Members of the "Three Globes of Berlin" erected the Scots Lodge "Union" to work the fourth or Scots degree.
London. Arrival of Hayyim Samuel Jacob Falk, the Ba'al Shem, in London, from Podolia. He was regarded by his fellow Jews as an adherent of Shabbetai Zevi. In Westphalia at one time Falk was sentenced to be burned as a sorcerer, but escaped to England. On his arrival in London, Falk appeared to be without means, but soon after he was seen to be in possession of considerable wealth, living in a comfortable house in Wellclose Square., where he had his private synagogue, whilst gold and silver plate adorned his table. His Journal, still preserved in the library of the United Synagogue, contains references to "mysterious journeyings" to and from Epping Forest, to meetings, a meeting-chamber in the forest, and chests of gold there buried. It was said that on one occasion when he was driving thither along Whitechapel Road a back wheel of his carriage came off, which alarmed the coachman, but Falk ordered him to drive on and the wheel followed the carriage all the way to the forest.
In general, Falk appears to have displayed extreme caution in his relations with Christian seekers after occult knowledge, for the Jewish Encyclopaedia goes on to say: "Archenholz mentions a royal prince who applied to Falk in his quest for the philosopher's stone, but was denied admittance."
Among those who were attracted to him, was the international adventurer, Theodore De Stein, who claimed to be king of Corsica and hoped to obtain through Falk's alchemical experiments sufficient gold to enable him to "regain" his throne.
He was also in touch with, among others, the Duke of Orleans, the Polish Prince Czartoryski, and the Marquise de la Croix.
On one occasion, Falk is said to have saved the Great Synagogue from destruction by fire by means of a magical inscription which he inscribed on the doorposts. On the other hand, he was denounced as a Shabbetean heretic and fraud by his embittered contemporary Jacob Emden.
He was, at the outset, on the worst possible terms with the official London community. However, in the end he became reconciled with it and received the support of the Goldsmid family.
As a result of this, or possibly of success in a lottery, he died in relatively affluent circumstance, leaving a considerable legacy to Jewish charities and an annual payment for the upkeep of the chief rabbinate in London. See other entries throughout this Timeline for connections between Falk and other London circles.
18 January. Amboise. Louis Claude de Saint Martin belonged to the French Nobility, as indicated by his armorial bearings and the coronet superposed thereon... He has been described as the Marquis de Saint-Martin, but according to Waite it does not appear that there was any title in his branch of the family. Though he suffered little inconvenience when the French Revolution came, he was included among the proscribed, meaning the noble classes. He was of Touraine stock, and was born at Amboise in that district on 18 January 1743. It is said that his mother died soon after and that the father married again. We have his own evidence that filial respect was a sacred sentiment of his infancy, that all his happiness was perhaps due to his stepmother, that her teaching inspired him with love for God and man, and that the intercourse of their minds took place in perfect freedom.
6 May. St. Germain-en-Laye. Death of Andrew Michael Ramsay. Charles Radclyffe was chief signatory at his funeral.
8 June. Palermo, Sicily. Joseph Balsamo, son of Pietro Balsamo, and Felicia Braconieri, both of mean extraction, born. Pietro Balsamo was a Sicilian tradesman of Jewish ancestry. Upon the death of his father, he was taken under the protection of his maternal uncles, who caused him to be instructed in the elements of religion and learning, by both of which he profited so little that he eloped several times from the Seminary of St. Roch, near Palermo, where he had been placed for his instruction. After the death of his parents, Balsamo escaped from the monastery in which he had been placed at Palermo and joined himself to a man known as Altotas, said to have been an Armenian, with whom he travelled to Greece and Egypt. At some point along the way, he adopted the name Cagliostro... His travels later took him to Poland and Germany, where he was initiated into Freemasonry, and finally to France. According to Friedrich Bülau, Cagliostro's father was Peter Balsamo, the son of a bookseller in Palermo -- Antonio Balsamo -- who appears to have been of the Jewish race, but Joseph (i.e. Cagliostro) was brought up in a seminary as a Christian. Bülau adds that it was Cagliostro who brought about the admission of Jews to the masonic lodges. Cagliostro himself pretended to know nothing of his origin, declaring that he was brought up in Arabia, in the palace of the Muphti at Medina.
26 December. London. Contract Year beginning 26 December 1743, the British House granted 393,733 pounds for 16,268 Hanoverian troops. To raise some of the money, Parliament authorized a lottery... At the same time that England was fighting the War of Austrian Succession, it was also fighting the Jacobites....
London. In l743 the names "Mr. and Mrs. Blake" appeared on the register of the Fetter Lane Society, at a time when seventy-two members formed "The Congregation of the Lamb," a society "within the Church of England in union with the Moravian Brethren."
The Blake couple were perhaps William's grandparents, for James Blake (his father) married a widow, Catherine Armitage, in l752. Catherine's maiden name was Wright, and a Mr. Wright (her father?) was included among the married men in the l743 register.
According to the early Blake facsimilist William Muir, who was "a near contemporary of several people who had been personally acquainted" with the artist, his parents "attended the Moravian Chapel in Fetter Lane."
Blake's family was associated with the Moravians during the turbulent "Sifting Period" a series of experiments in social egalitarianism, magical practices, and sexual antinomianism.
Count Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, the chief of the "United Brotherhood," was determined to act out the Kabbalistic theories of earthly and heavenly copulation that he had learned from Kabbalistic Christians and heterodox Jews.
Under the name of Macons Ecossais, Harodim, the Parfait Maçon, 1743, gives the degree of Knight of the Sword, or of the East, our Red Cross, as of the time of Darius and Zerubbabel...
There are French tracing boards of the Craft for 1743, which contain the word Jehovah, and the Rituals of that period say that a word was substituted out of fear lest Hiram should have been induced to reveal the genuine one.
The actual earliest mention of the Royal Arch in print is at Youghall in 1743, where there was a procession of Lodge 21, with display, amongst these particulars we have: "Fourthly, the Royal Arch, carried by two Excellent Masons."
If these grades were given at York before 1740, it is curious to note that degrees, or systems, called Scotch Masters, are alluded to in minutes.
The Baron von Hunde admitted to the Clermont system in 1743.
The Baron von Weiler claimed to have received the degrees at Rome, by someone whom he terms Lord Raleigh, the reception being made in a church of the Benedictines with two Monks in attendance. Out of this sprang the German Rite of Strict Observance, worked jointly by Marshall and Hunde, the latter of whom said he had been created by Lord Kilmarnock, the Grand Master of Scotland, and that Lord George Clifford acted as Prior, that he was then introduced to the Knight of the Red Feather, whom he believed to be Prince Charles Edward Stuart, and the Supreme Grand Master. At a later period he sent two members to England and Scotland, who returned with a charter in cypher, creating him the head of the Seventh Province.
Between the years 1743-7 Sir Samuel Lockhart constituted Lodges of a Rite called the Vielle Bru, or Faithful Scots, at Toulouse, at Montpelier, and at Marseilles in 1751. The Rite drew on the legends of the old operative Guilds and did not proceed in its instruction beyond the 2nd Temple. It consisted of 9 degrees of which the last was Menatzchim, or Prefects.
England. St. Germain's first documented appearance in European society occurred in England in 1743. At that time, the Jacobite cause was very strong and the 1745 invasion of Scotland was only two years away. During those two years prior to the invasion, St. Germain resided in London. Only glimpses of his activities during that time are available. Lyons.
According to the History of the A&P Rite, the Rite of Heredom or Perfection was introduced here at this time. Also, it was introduced at Marseilles.
Paris. Baron von Hunde received the High Degrees from the adherents of the Stuarts, and received power to propagate them in Germany, but was not very active upon his return there. According to Gould, Von Hund left France for the last time in 1743.
Toulouse. The Rite of the Vielle-Bru, or "Faithful Scottish Masons" established at Toulouse by Sir Samuel Lockhart, an adherent of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, in 1743. There were nine degrees, in three chapters: I. Chapter symbolic -- 1,2,3. 4. Secret Master. II. Chapter Elect -- 5,6,7,8. Four elu degrees similar to Templar Masonry. III. Chapter -- Scientific Masonry. At the head of the Rite was a Council of Menatzchim. It was twice refused recognition by the Grand Orient of France: in 1804 and in 1812, on the grounds that it represented nothing of importance...
At this time, Lambert de Lintot, allegedly the founder of a famous Girls School, was initiated, probably in the Vielle Bru or Ramsay system, perhaps the Clermont system. Stories affirm that he was a political agent of Charles Edward Stuart, and that he worked for many years, seemingly in England, seven alleged Templar degrees of the French Clermont Chapter. He was still alive in 1788. See Mackey's Encyclopaedia (1924 ed.), where several of his interesting engravings are to be found. They contain more than one reference to SION. SEE THIS.
According to Eco, the first public appearance of Comte de Saint-Germain.
Lyons. The degree of Chevalier Kadosh originates, its task being to vindicate the Templars. See, however, 1741, where Gould places the origin of the Kadosh degree in Lyons in 1741.
In his Journal of Dreams (1744-45), Swedenborg described the difficult discipline required to control and manipulate the sexual energies. Despite the intensely erotic character of the images he visualized (while meditating upon the male and female Hebrew letters and sephiroth), he must not dissipate his sexual energies in masturbation, nocturnal emission, or premature ejaculation. By maintaining the "pure intention" (kawwanah), he must resist the tempting visions produced by evil spirits. During the early stages of his training, he noted that "I could not keep control of myself so as not to desire the sex, although not with the intention of proceeding to effect." The Register Books of the Royal Society reveal Swedenborg's previously unknown attendance and contacts with the Masonic scientists J.T. Desaguliers, Martin Folkes, Hans Sloane, and Cromwell Mortimer in 1740 and 1744-45, as well as a shadowy network of British scientists, physicians, and authors (Theobald, Stuart, Hampe, Smith, Marchant, Morton, Woulfe, etc.), who shared his interest in Hermetic, Rosicrucian, and Kabbalistic studies.
In his Journal of Dreams (1744), Swedenborg wrote a veiled description of his Kabbalistic-style ecstatic experience, which he achieved through meditation on the Hebrew letters; ...during the whole night something holy was dictated to me, which ended with "sacrarium et sanctuarium."
Hamburg. A Scots Lodge is said to have existed here at this time, and shortly afterwards a second.
The following list of London Chapters (Harodim) has been carefully preserved at Edinburgh, and does not come down later than 1744:
1. Grand Lodge at the Thistle and Crown in Chandos Street, Immemorial.
2. Grand Chapter " " " " " " "
3. Coach and Horses in Welbeck St. Immemorial.
4. Blue Boar's Head, Exeter St. "
5. Golden Horse Shoe, Cannon St., Southwark, 11 December 1743.
6. The Griffin, Deptford, in Kent, 20 December 1744.
Dublin. In the Impartial Enquiry of Dr. D'Assigny, printed at Dublin in 1744, he makes allusions to the Arch degree as composed of a body of men who had passed the Chair of Master, and alludes to some propagator of degrees in Dublin who claimed to have the York system a few years before, and that his want of knowledge was exposed by some brother who was acquainted with the Royal Arch degree as it was practised in London, which is prima facia evidence that it was widely spread. He adds in a note:
"I am told in that city (York) is held an assembly of Master Masons, under the title of Royal Arch Masons, who as their qualifications and excellencies are superior to others, they receive a larger pay than working Masons, of which more hereafter."
This seems to allude to an Operative Arch Guild at York, as it is doing violence to his language to read it that whilst the Craft was the initiation of working Masons, the Arch was intended for Initiates and Rulers of a higher standing. D'Assigny goes on to say that there had lately arrived in Dublin some itinerant Mason, evidently a different person to those he had mentioned, who offered to add three more degrees to the Craft, of some Italic Order, and he warns his brethren against foreign schemers.
When Lord Sandwich asked a definition of Orthodoxy from Bishop Warburton, the latter wittily replied, "Well, my Lord, Orthodoxy is my doxy, but Heterodoxy is another man's doxy." Hence we need not worship D'Assigny's doxy; what we learn from his remarks is that about 1740 there had entered Dublin two systems of working the Arch, one of York, and a London one which D'Assigny favored, and that these were, in some respects, opposed to each other. The three grades of an Italic system may have been Clermont Templary, Jacobite and Romish.
Nicolai asserts that after the Society of Jesus was dissolved in 1744 by Pope Clement XIV it began to permeate the Rosicrucian Order.
Some historians believe that Frederic the Great ceased his Masonic activities in 1744 when the demands of war occupied his full attention. His general cynicism later in life eventually extended to Freemasonry.
In Bucharest, Jacob Frank began to earn his living as a dealer in cloth, precious stones, and whatever came to hand. Between 1745 and 1755 his trade took him through the Balkans and as far as Smyrna.
Early. London. In London, Swedenborg received reinforcement for his Kabbalistic-Yogic interests from Dr. James Parsons, an Irish- and French-educated physician and Fellow of the Royal Society, who met Swedenborg when both attended meetings of the society in early l745. Martin Folkes, the president, introduced Swedenborg to the Fellows and asked Parsons to study his treatise on The Animal Kingdom and present a report. Parsons was a peculiarly appropriate evaluator of Swedenborg, for he was well versed in Hermetic, Talmudic, and Zoharic lore, and he was an expert on the physiology of the genital organs and the phenomenon of hermaphroditism, which he explored from an anatomical and Kabbalistic perspective. Like Swedenborg, he studied the reports of Strahlenberg and earlier Swedo-Gothic scholars, which led him to perceive similarities between Kabbalistic, Tibetan, Nordic-Gaelic, and Christian beliefs in a triune godhead.
February. London. St. Germain was a gifted musician and several of his musical compositions were publicly performed in the Little Haymarket Theatre in early February 1745. He also had several of his trios published by the Walsh company of London.
12 September. Charles Edward Stuart led his famous invasion of England by way of Scotland.
17 September. Bonnie Prince Charlie captured Edinburgh and was approaching England with the intent of taking London. That meant more money for Hesse.
Bonnie Prince Charlie landed in Scotland and embarked on his quixotic attempt to reinstate the Stuarts on the British throne. In the same year Radclyffe, en route to join him, was captured in a French ship off the Dogger Bank. A year later.
Lambert de Lintot made a Mason at this time in France.
9 December. Horace Walpole writes to Sir Horace Mann, stating that
"the other day they seized an odd man who goes by the name of Count St.-Germain. He has been here these two years, will not tell who he is or whence, but professes two very wonderful things, the first that he does not go by his right name, and the second, that he never had any dealings, or desire to have any dealings, with any woman -- nay, nor with an succedaneum [substitute]. He sings, plays on the violin wonderfully, composes, is mad, and not very sensible."
St. Germain is said to have been in England for two years and had confessed that he was not passing under his real name, while refusing all information as to his origin and identity. Walpole acknowledged his great musical abilities but testifies otherwise that he was mad.
We hear from a later source that he was arrested because some one who was "jealous of him with a lady slipt a letter in his pocket as from the Young Pretender...and immediately had him taken up."
St. Germain is next heard of at Vienna, from 1745 - 1746, with Prince Ferdinand von Lobkowitz, first minister of the Emperor, as his intimate friend. He became acquainted with the Marechal de Belle-Isle, who "persuaded him to accompany him on a visit to Paris."
St. Germain was arrested on suspicion of being a Jacobite agent. After his release he departed England and spent one year as a guest of Ferdinand von Lobkowitz. He then is introduced to the French court. Here is a man who is a suspected enemy of England, goes to a country allied with England, befriends a minister of a country {France] hostile to Austria, which is allied to England.
20 December. King George II announced that he had sent for 6,000 Hessian troops to fight in Scotland against Charles Edward. King George presented Parliament with a bil for the Hessian troops. It was approved.
8 February. The Hessians landed in Scotland.
Lawrence Dermott, to whose labours London was indebted for the establishment of the Grand Lodge of the Ancients, who termed themselves York Masons also, had no doubt received the London version of the Royal Arch in Dublin apparently in 1746.
In his Ahiman Rezon of 1764 is a note, not found in any earlier or later edition in reference to the Arms, quarterly, a lion, ox, man, and eagle, which he says were found in the collection of the Architect and Brother, Rabbi Jacob Jehudah Leon (i.e., Templo) - who had constructed in 1641 a model of Solomon's Temple, for the States of Holland, which he exhibited in Paris, Vienna, and in London under the great seal and the signature of Killigrew.
At the same time Leon published a description of his labors entitled A relation of the most memorable things in the Tabernacle of Moses, and the Temple of Solomon, 1675, and dedicated to King Charles II; and Dermott adds that in 1759 and 1760 he had examined and perused such curiosities, and he concludes,
"As these were the Arms of the Masons who had built the Tabernacle and Temple, there is not the least doubt of their being the proper Arms of the most Ancient and Honourable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, and the continual practice and formalities, and traditions, in all regular Lodges, from the lowest degree to the most high, i.e., THE HOLY ROYAL ARCH, confirms the practice thereof."
Leipzig. In 1746, Lessing matriculated to the University of Leipzig, where he set out to study theology and graduated from this school with a Master of Arts degree in theology. At Leipzig he discovered that "books might make him learned, but could never make him a man." Gradually he became more and more imbued with the spirit of rationalism and enlightenment, with the social life in Leipzig, and with the theatre, this last due chiefly to the great influence which Madame Neuber and her theatrical company exerted upon him. The result was that he decided to abandon theology and earn his living as a free-lance writer.
Culloden Moor. The Young Pretender was disastrously defeated at the Battle of Culloden Moor. A few months thereafter, Charles Radclyffe, reputed Grand Master of the Priory of SION, died beneath the headsman's ax at the Tower of London. During their stay in France the Stuarts had been deeply involved in the dissemination of Freemasonry. Indeed, they are generally regarded as the source of the particular form of Freemasonry known as Scottish Rite. (See references above). It promised initiation into greater and more profound mysteries -- mysteries supposedly preserved and handed down in Scotland. It is probable that Scottish Rite Freemasonry was originally promulgated, if not indeed devised, by Charles Radclyffe.
According to Holy Blood, Holy Grail:
"The more we considered Hund's assertions, the more plausible they sounded and he appeared to have been a hapless victim -- not so much of deliberate betrayal as of circumstances beyond everyone's control. For, according to his own account Hund had been initiated in 1742, when the Jacobites were still a powerful political force in continental affairs. By 1746, however, Radclyffe was dead. So were many of his colleagues, while others were in prison or exile -- as far away, in some cases, as North America. If Hund's 'unknown superiors' failed to reestablish contact with their protégé, the omission does not seem to have been voluntary. The fact that Hund was abandoned immediately after the collapse of the Jacobite cause would seem, if anything, to confirm his story."
Leipzig. A Scots Lodge said to be here at this time.
Naples. The first recorded instance of Misraim being used in connection with a Masonic Lodge is in Naples, Italy, where there are records of a Misraim Lodge in 1747 that was working a series of high-degree rites.
Also, around this time, we are told that there was a Society of Misraim in Rome...
Prince Charles Edward Stuart granted a Rosy Cross warrant to Arras in 1747. (Hist. A&P.)
The three degrees of Irish Master were invented in 1747 (Hist. A&P.)
Philadelphia epidemic of yellow fever.
The notion of a Chinese "pre-Kabbala" was promulgated by the Chevalier Andrew Michael Ramsay, who had a major influence on Écossais and Swedish Freemasonry; see [A.M. Ramsay], The Philosophical Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion (Glasgow: Robert Foulis, l748-49).
6 February. Birth of Adam Weishaupt. His early training by the Jesuits had inspired him with a violent dislike for their Order, and he turned with eagerness to the subversive teaching of the French philosophers and the anti-Christian doctrines of the Manichaeans.
October. Swedenborg was torn between his attraction to the Moravian and Jewish arcana of visionary sex and his guilt at its libertine ramifications. According to Idel, some Shabbeteans (including the more radical disciples of Falk, Eibeschütz, and Frank) turned "orgiastic practices" into a "via mystica of the new aeon."
Toulouse. The Three Elu degrees invented at Toulouse in 1748 (Hist. A&P) Berlin.
From 1748 until 1760, Lessing was active in Berlin most of the time as a journalist and author. While there, he formed lasting friendships with men such as Friedrich Nicolai, the well-known bookdealer and Illuminatus to be(and rationalist); Moses Mendelssohn, whom he later immortalized as the prototype for his Nathan, also an Illuminatus to be; Ewald von Kleist, a Prussian officer in the armies of Frederick the Great, who fell in the Seven Years' War at the Battle of Kunersdorf; and other scholarly men with rationalistic views. In Berlin he also made the acquaintance of Voltaire, who was regarded in the court circles of Frederick the Great as the greatest man of the age. Lessing admired Voltaire at this time, but he did not submit blindly to him if he deemed him in error.
The Society of True and Ancient Rosicrucians became extinct in the Fatherland after the death of a leader named Abraham von Bruna or Brun in 1748. This is taken from Waite, but most other sources place Brun's death at 1768.
The Modern Grand Lodge condemned members of the Ancient (Scottish-rite) system as "irregular" Masons. The Ancient system was an outgrowth of Jacobite Freemasonry, and it attracted British and international members who opposed the Hanoverian court and the governments of Walpole and Pitt. In l749 Blake's father voted for the anti-court, Tory candidate of the "Westminster Independents; see Davies, "William Blake's Mother." In Jacobitism and the English People (Cambridge UP, l988), p. 230, Paul Monod argues that the Independent Electors of Westminster "may have become an exclusively Jacobite club" by l749. Among their supporters were many whose disafffection went far beyond mere loyalty to the Stuarts. The name James Blake appears among Ancient Masons in the Atholl Register, lodge #38, in l757 (Freemasons' Hall, London). This Masonic schism possibly inspired Blake and his later circle of artistic friends to call themselves "the Ancients."
St. Germain reappears in European society again at this time, as a guest of King Louis XV. France was actively supportive of the Jacobite cause against the Hanoverians of England. France was also involved in many other foreign intrigues.
"From 1749, the King [Louis XV] employed him [St. Germain] on diplomatic missions and he acquitted himself honorably in them."
Over the next decade, Swedenborg charged Zinzendorf with increasing megalomania, and he turned away from the Moravians. At the same time, he maintained a love-hate relationship with the Jews who continued to instruct him in Kabbalistic techniques of meditation and Bible interpretation.
During Swedenborg's early Moravian participation, one of the missionaries to the Jews also recruited East Indians from Malabar who came to London. In his Spiritual Diary, he later described the deceased Zinzendorf conversing with "some of the gentiles in Western India," whom he had converted to Moravianism.
Swedenborg acquired a book, La Crequinière's Agreement of the Customs of East Indians with Those of the Jews (l705), that claimed an Asian origin for the "priapic rites" of the Jews, which were represented by erotic sculptures of male and female fertility figures.
Metz. Jonathan Eybeschuetz became rabbi of the "Three Communities," Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbek. Both in Metz and in Altona he had many disciples and was considered a great preacher. His position in the Three Communities was undermined when the dispute broke out concerning his suspected leanings toward Shabbeteanism.
This controversy accompanied Eybeschuetz throughout his life, and the quarrel had repercussions in every community from Holland to Poland. His main opponent was Jacob Emden, a famous talmudist and his rival in the candidature to the rabbinate of the Three Communities.
The quarrel developed into a great public dispute which divided the rabbis of the day. While most of the German rabbis opposed Eybeschuetz, his support came from the rabbis of Poland and Moravia. A fruitless attempt at mediation was made by Ezekiel Landau, rabbi of Prague.
Most of Eybeschuetz' own community was loyal to him and confidently accepted his refutation of the charges made by his opponent, but dissension reached such a pitch that both sides appealed to the authorities in Hamburg and the government of Denmark for a judicial ruling. The king favored Eybeschuetz and ordered new elections, which resulted in his reappointment.
Yet the literary polemic continued, even prompting several Christian scholars to participate, some of whom, thinking that Eybeschuetz was a secret Christian, came to his defense.
Berlin. The Baron von Printzen, WM of the Mother Lodge, "Three Globes of Berlin" for 1750-1751. This means that he was ex officio Grand Master of all the Lodges constituted by that Body.
At this time Voltaire is said to have gone to spend three years with Frederick the Great.
In 1750 there is a petition of Sir William Mitchell, FDLTY to Sir Robert RLF, Provincial Grand Master of the Most Ancient and Honourable Order of the HRDM KLWNNG in South Britain; Sir Henry Broomont, FRDM, Deputy Grand Master; Sir William PRPRTN; and Sir Richard, TCTY Grand Wardens; and the rest of the Right Worshipful Grand Officers of the said Orders.
Dutch shipping more than 100 tons of opium per year to Indonesia.
Scandinavia experiences a 15 year epidemic of Pertussis (whooping cough) which takes 45,000 lives.
The dispute over Eybeschuetz grew more virulent when some amulets written by him were opened in Metz and Altona. Jacob Emden deciphered them and found that they contained unmistakable Shabbetean formulae.
Eybeschuetz denied that the amulets had any continuous logical meaning, maintaining that they consisted simply of "Holy Names", and he even put forward an interpretation of them based on his system. His opponents retorted that the real interpretation of the amulets could be discovered from the work attributed to him, Va- Avo ha -Yom el ha-Ayin, and that they could and should be interpreted as having a meaningful content.
Scholarly historical research has advanced three views concerning Eybeschuetz' relationship with the Shabbeteanism: that he was never a Shabbetean and that suspicions on this score were completely unfounded; that he was a Shabbetean in his youth but turned his back on the sect around the time of the herem of 1725; that he was crypto-Shabbetean from the time he studied in Prossnitz and Prague until the end of his life.
Unwurde. Templar Order of the Strict Observance founded by Von Hund. This would be Hund's first Templar Chapter.
A Harodim Charter was granted to the Hague.
Paris. At this time, a derivation of the Vielle Bru existed at Paris, denominated the Knights of the East, and ruled by a de Valois. It was democratic in nature, whilst the Clermont Chapter was aristocratic.
Marseilles. The foundation of the Mere-Loge-Ecossais at Marseilles, said to have been founded by a travelling Scotsman in 1751 under the title of St. John of Scotland. This Lodge warranted a great number of Lodges throughout France, and even in Paris itself, also in the Levant, and the Colonies. The Mere Loge du Comtat-Venaissin at Avignon, the original of the Scots Philosophic Rite, was probably of this class originally. Many of these Mother Lodges then developed extended systems of degrees of their own, which were worked in Chapters, all independent of each other.
Jacob Frank marries Hanna, the daughter of a respected Ashkenazi merchant in Nikopol (Bulgaria). Two Shabbetean emissaries from Podolia were at the wedding. Shabbetean scholars like these, some of whom Frank mentions in his stories, accompanied him on his travels, and initiated him into the mysteries of "the faith." There is no doubt that these men were representatives of the extremist wing formed by the disciples of Baruchiah Russo, one of the leaders of the Doenmeh in Salonika. It was in the company of these teachers, themselves Ashkenazim, that Frank visited Salonika for the first time in 1753, and became involved with the Baruchiah group of the Doenmeh, but he followed the practice of the Polish disciples and did not convert to Islam. After his marriage it seems that trading became secondary to his role as a Shabbetean "prophet" and as part of his mission he journeyed to the grave of Nathan of Gaza in Skopje, Adrianople, and Smyrna, and again spent a great deal of time in Salonika in 1755.
Italy. Having obtained permission from the king of France to travel, the Baron de Tschoudy went to Italy in 1752, under the assumed name of the Chevalier de Lussy. There he excited the anger of the papal court by the publication at The Hague, in the same year, of a book entitled Etrenne au Pape, ou les Francs-Maçons Vengés; i.e., "A New Year's Gift for the Pope, or the Free Masons Avenged." This was a caustic commentary on the bull of Benedict XIV excommunicating the Freemasons. It was followed, in the same year, by another work entitled Le Vatican Vengé; i.e., "The Vatican Avenged"; an ironical apology, intended as a sequence to the former book. These two works subjected him to such persecution by the Church that he was soon compelled to seek safety in flight. He next repaired to Russia, where his means of living became so much impaired that, Michaud says, he was compelled to enter the company of comedians of the Empress Elizabeth. From this condition he was relieved by Count Ivan Schouwalon, who made him his private secretary. He was also appointed the secretary of the Academy of Moscow, and governor of the pages at the Court. But this advancement of his fortunes, and the fact of his being a Frenchman, created for him many enemies, and he was compelled at length to leave Russia and return to France. There, however, the persecutions of his enemies pursued him, and on his arrival at Paris he was sent to the Bastille. But the intercession of his mother with the Empress Elizabeth and with the Grand Duke Peter was successful, and he was speedily restored to liberty. He then retired to Metz, and for the rest of his life devoted himself to the task of Masonic reform and the fabrication of new systems.
After his reelection as rabbi of the Three Communities, some rabbis of Frankfort, Amsterdam, and Metz challenged Eybeschuetz to appear before them to reply to the suspicions raised against him. He refused, and when the matter was brought before the Council of the Four Lands in 1753, the council issued a ruling in his favor.
Willermoz founds the Lodge of Parfait Amitié.
22 December. Virginia. In America the Arch degree was practiced early. At Virginia, there is a record that on 22 December 1753, a Royall Arch Lodge was held, when "three brethren were raised to the degree of Royal Arch Mason." Philadelphia had a Chapter since 1758. At Boston, the St. Andrews has a Minute that Wm. Davies was "made by receiving the four steps, that of an Excellt., Sup.-Excellt., Royal Arch, and Kt. Templar," and it is afterwards said that these are "the four steps of a Royal Arch Mason."
Paris. Lacorne the dancing master collected out of the degrees then known, a Rite of 25 degrees, called the Emperors of the East and West, which was later amplified into the AASR, by a charter forged at Charleston in 1802. (Hist A&P)
Frankfurt. A Scots Lodge said to be here at this time. The development of the Scots Degree was arrested in Germany, by the introduction of the Clermont system, becoming the stepping stone to the Chapter degrees, and then the Clermont Chapters were annihilated by the Strict Observance. But between 1742 and 1764 no less than 47 such Lodges were erected in Germany, of which 15 may be ascribed to Rosa and the Chapter of Clermont. Some of these Scots Lodges form the basis of what may be called in some German Grand Lodge systems the "Inner Orient."
Vienna Stock Exchange founded.
24 November. Paris. A certain Chevalier de Bonneville founded a chapter of high decrees. He caused a very fine building to be constructed for its use in a suburb of Paris, La Nouvelle France; and it took the name of Chapitre de Clermont.. Rite of Perfection founded in France. The Chapter was based on the three degrees of Freemasonry; and the Scots or St. Andrew's Degree; and worked three higher: 5, Knight of the Eagle or Select Master; 6, the Illustrious Knight or Templar; 7, the Sublime Illustrious Knight. The first French historian of Freemasonry, Lalande, in his article in the Encyclopédie, Yverdon, 1773, vol. iv., has the following passage: "As late as 1760 there existed in the Nouvelle France, to the north of Paris, a celebrated Lodge, which was brilliantly conducted and visited by persons of the first rank; it was founded by the Count of Benouville." (Gould assures us that Benouville and Bonneville are one and the same, which we accept; others actually thought this referred to someone else.)
14 December. London. Loge de l'Esperance No. 254 constituted on this date, at the Crown, corner of Great St. Andrew Street, Seven Dials, and died out about 1821, its final erasure being in 1830. It bore several names during its life of seventy years, such as the French Lodge or Ancient French Lodge, the Cumberland Lodge, Loge des Amis Reunis, and finally Loge de l'Esperance, taking the last title in 1799 on absorbing another Lodge of that name which met at the Thatched House Tavern. Its membership about the year 1770 was both English and French; no less than nine Brethren of the British Lodge now No. 8 joining it in that year. Afterwards it became entirely French, from 1781 onwards, and its Minutes were written in the French language. Fortunately these records are preserved in the muniment room at Grand Lodge. Several members of St. George de l'Observance joined this Lodge, no note of the dates being entered in the Grand Lodge register.
Baron Johann Christian von Wolff, Grand Master of the R+C, dies. Next is Abraham van Brun, a wealthy Freemason and Rosicrucian, and very active in the R+C.
A London Lodge of 1754 practiced degrees to which the ordinary Mason was not admitted; Dermott terms it Ancient Masonry held every third Lodge night, on account of extraordinary benefits its members had received abroad. The Lodge met at the Ben Johnson's Head in Spitalfields, and Grand Lodge censured them. Moderns, however, became members of both the Royal Arch and Templar, but without the sanction of their Grand Lodge. They sought and obtained from Lord Blaney, 22 July 1767, a Charter of Institution and Protection, formulated a Charter of Compact, 1778, and printed an Abstract of Laws for the Society of Royal Arch Masons in London, 1778.
From recent discoveries it appears that Bro. Thomas Dunckerley, was Exalted to the Royal Arch degree at Portsmouth in 1754, as he states in a letter of 14 January 1792.
The Clermont Chapter in 1754 had added to its degrees, under an unknown de Bonneville, some of those of the Vielle Bru, as well as others of an Apocalyptic character, that we may find amongst the Friends of the Cross, the Militia Crucifera, and the Christian Fraternity of Andrea.
The Heredom Rite introduced to Paris by the Chevalier Bonneville; and the Baron Hunde having obtained the degrees in 1743 propagated a similar Rite at the same time, according to the History of the A & P Rite.
According to Waite, in 1754 there arose in Paris a Masonic grade entitled Rose-Croix. It is first heard of under the obedience of a Council of Emperors of the East and West, for which see other entries in this Timeline.
France. Martinez Paschalis founds the Rite des Elus Cohens. Introduced into Lodges at Bordeaux, Marseilles, and Toulouse. Did not attain full vigor until 25 years later. 9 Degree System.
Juges Ecossais : Martinez de Pasqually.
Inoculation for smallpox introduced in Rome. The practice was soon stopped because of the number of deaths it caused. Later, the medical profession would successfully reintroduce it.
3 December. Podolia. Frank, accompanied by R. Mordecai and R. Nahman, crossed the Dniester River and spent some time with his relatives in Korolewka. After this he passed in solemn state through the communities in Podolia which contained Shabbetean cells. He was enthusiastically received by "the believers," and in the general Jewish community the news spread of the appearance of a suspected "frenk" - which was the Yiddish term for a sephardi. Frank, who had spent about 25 years in the Balkans and was thought to be a Turkish subject, actually conducted himself like a Sephardi and spoke Ladino when he appeared in public. Subsequently he assumed the appellation "Frank" as his family name.
Podolia. Paraphrasing Nesta Webster,
the most important of these Kabbalistic groups was that of the Frankists, who were sometimes known as the Zoharists or the Illuminated, from their adherence to the Zohar, or the book of Light, or in their birthplace Podolia as the Shabbethan Zebists, from their allegiance to Shabbetai Zevi, the pretended Messiah who caused quite an uproar among the Jews a hundred years previously. Shabbeteanism had been kept alive in secret circles which had something akin to a masonic organization. The founder of this sect was Jacob Frank, a brandy distiller profoundly versed in the doctrines of the Kabbalah, who in 1755 collected around him a large following in Podolia and lived in a style of oriental magnificence, maintained by vast wealth of which no one ever discovered the source. The persecution to which he was subjected by the Rabbis led the Catholic clergy to champion his cause, whereupon Frank threw himself on the mercy of the Bishop of Kalminick, and publicly burnt the Talmud, declaring that he only recognized the Zohar, which, he alleged, admitted the doctrine of the Trinity. Thus the Zoharists "claimed that they regarded the Messiah-Deliverer as one of the three Divinities, but failed to state that by the Messiah they meant Shabbetai Zebi." The Bishop was apparently deceived by this manoeuvre...
On his own testimony, Saint-Germain went to India for a second time in 1755. He went with English Commander Robert Clive who was on his way there to fight the French. India was a major theatre of war in which a great deal was at stake. Commander Clive was an important leader on the British side. One theory has it that St. Germain was sent to India with Clive as an intelligence agent for the King of France.
France. In 1755, the Grand Lodge of France admitted the superiority of, and the privileges claimed for, the so-called Scots Masons. This is supposedly due to the influence in the Grand Lodge of France of the Chapter of Clermont. From all that is known of this Chapter, it was probably composed only of high nobility, courtiers, military officers, and the élite of the professions. Under these circumstances we might expect to find a rival association formed by the middle classes, and less highly placed officials. See entry under 1756.
|[HOME]|[CONTENTS]|[PREVIOUS]|[NEXT]|[MAIL]|
All Original Material (i.e., arrangement and interpretation),Copyright 1998-2001 e.v., Jonathan Sellers. All Rights Reserved.