Frankfurt-am-Main. William Bramley, in The Gods of Eden, states:
"Many historians writing about the Rothschild family focus on the fact that Mayer Amschel was Jewish. The Rothschilds have been important supporters of Jewish causes throughout the family's history. Less frequently mentioned is the fact that the Rothschilds were also associated with German Freemasonry. This association apparently began with Mayer Amschel, who accompanied William IX on several trips to the Masonic Lodges. Whether or not Mayer actually became a member is uncertain. It is known that his son Solomon (founder of the Rothschild bank in Vienna), had become a Freemason. According to Jacob Katz, writing in his book, Jews and Freemasons in Europe, 1723-1939, the Rothschilds were one of the rich and powerful Frankfurt families appearing on a Masonic membership list in 1811.
"The Scottish degrees used in the German lodges were Christian in nature. This created problems for Jewish men like Rothschild who may have wanted to participate. To solve the dilemma, efforts were made in Jewish communities to change certain rituals in order to make Freemasonry acceptable to Jews. Special Jewish lodges were created, such as the 'Melchizedek' lodges named in honor of the Old Testament priest-king whose importance we discussed in an earlier chapter. Those who belonged to the Melchizedek lodges were said to be members of the 'Order of Melchizedek.' This was an extremely interesting development, for across the Atlantic Ocean the name of Melchizedek was about to be resurrected on the American continent during what some people believe to have been a series of significant UFO episodes."
Gerard Labrunie's father returns from the Army campaigns he was on, and beside Greek and Latin, taught the boy (a mere three years old, to boot!) modern languages and the elements of Arabic and Persian. Gerard found his favorite reading in old books on mysticism and the occult sciences. Hmmmm.... So was Hippolyte his father or his kindly uncle who lived in the country?
New York. Cerneau established a Supreme Council. It is said of Cerneau that he was a member of the Lodge Reunion des Coeurs at Port-au-Prince, chartered by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, and one of the Founders of the Lodge des Vertus Theologicales, of the Ancient Constitution of York, at Havana. While in the more secret documents of the AASR, Pike tends to give preference to the Ancient Masons, over the Hanoverians, or Moderns, it seems that with Cerneau, it is a black mark. So, if Lodge of Theological Virtue at Havana was based upon the Ancient Constitution of York, then it has some claim to antiquity which the Grand Lodge of England and the rest do not possess, since it is now a matter of history that the Ancient Masons possessed a history that can place them in existence long prior to Ashmole and company creating the associations which made the Grand Lodge of England. Ancient Masonry was pure Scottish Masonry. This is a bone of contention that will never, it seems, die down. And, Ancient Scottish Masonry goes all the way back, past the R+C, to the survivals of the Knights Templars in Scotland, in 1314, after the Order was crushed by the Church. It was probably because of this that the Union of 1813 was effected, in order to neutralize and nullify the claims of the Ancients.
25 June. Michel Bedarride, 77.
Paris. According to Nesta Webster, it was in 1811 that the Order of the Temple published the Manuel des Chevaliers de l'Ordre du Temple. Also, in 1811, the Order of the Temple replied to the Grand Orient that they were independent of Masonic organization and no longer connected with the Grand Orient of France. However, their connection with the Chevaliers de la Croix remained, and the definite nature of their break with masonry is in some doubt. By comparison with the Stricte Obzervanz the French Neo-Templars were a very modest body. They made almost no progress in proselytizing the Masonic world, save for some activity in eastern France (which would be the Alsace-Lorraine region, and perhaps the SION-Vaudemont region... this would make perfect sense in the context of the way in which events develop during the course of this story.
A few of the Knights of St. John had become members of the Neo-Templars. One, according to Gregoire, named Via-Cesarini, became 'Primate' of the New-Templar Order.
Demise of the First National Bank.
1 September. Michel Bedarride, 90, by someone named Polacq, in Venice. This was a rival body, so that the story that the rite was invented by Lechangueur comes under suspicion. The truth is probably that Lechangueur and "Polacq" both received their commissions from Cagliostro or one of his representatives. Who is this Polacq? Could this be a clue to Polish connections, such as from the Shabbetean/Frankist quarter, or from Hoene-Wronski? Anyhow, Brother D. G. gives the event as follows:
"In 1812, Marc Bedarride was given a charter for the 90 by Theodoric Cerbes who was acting as Lechangueur's delegate for northern Italy? It was this document which authorized Marc and his brother Michel to organize the Rite in France."
This then is the "Theodore Gerber" of the following two entries. What more can be ascertained regarding this person? Why is this person referred to by Gould as Polacq?
September-October. Lechangueur dies, is replaced by Theodore Gerber of Milan.
12 October. Patent granted by Theodore Gerber of Milan to Michel Bedarride.
Paris. In 1812 Wronski published a work claiming to show that every equation had an algebraic solution, contradicting Ruffini's results which were already published. Wronski's work here, although of course wrong, nevertheless still has important applications.
Spandau. Karl William Naundorff settles at Spandau in 1812 as a clockmaker.
The War of 1812 with England. Treasury issues notes to finance war.
Alfred Krupp, German arms manufacturer, born.(Trufax...even though they just said a couple of years ago...that the Krupp Works open...)
Napoleon awards Legion of Honor to Benjamin Dellesert for discovering how to process the beet into sugar (which replaces dependence on the sugar cane).
France has mass planting of sugar beets and 500 refineries open. Over 8 million pounds of sugar are produced in one year.
Death rate from TB in New York 700:100,000.
16 January. Berckheim writes again to the Minister of Police:
"Monseigneur, they write to me from Heidelberg...that a great number of initiates into the mysteries of Illuminism are to be found there.
"These gentlemen wear as a sign of recognition a gold ring on the third finger of the left hand; on the back of this ring there is a little rose, in the middle of this rose is an almost imperceptible dint; by pressing this with the point of a pin one touches a spring, by this means the two gold circles are detached. On the inside of the first of these circles is the device: 'Be German as you ought to be'; on the inside of the second of these circles are engraved the words 'Pro Patria.'"
Lechangueur provides François Joly with a Charter to propagate the Rite of Misraim in France. Additionally, Joly was admitted into the Arcana Arcanorum by Lechangueur, the summit of the Rite, which contained the inner secrets of Egyptian Freemasonry. Bedarride, despite his control of the Rite, and work in expanding its degrees, was never admitted into the Arcana Arcanorum.
Joseph Bedarride joins his brothers. They establish the Rite of Misraim at Paris under partly real, partly invented authority. They established a Supreme Puissance (Power) for France and organized a large number of Lodges. They gain the protection of Count Muraire, confer degrees on many members of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. They find rivals in Garcia and Decollet, who had arrived some time previously. Rivals?
At the time of the Union of "Ancients" and "Moderns" into the United Grand Lodge of England, William Henry White and Edward Harper are Joint Grand Secretaries of the reorganized Body.
Cerneau Consistory seeks recognition by the Supreme Council in France.
Mexico City. The first Grand Lodge under the Scottish Rite, having for its Grand Master Don Felipe Martinez Aragon. A number of subordinate Lodges sprang up through the country.
01 January. Paris. The Order of the Temple. On New Year's Day, 1814, Fabre-Palaprat happened to be in a second-hand bookstall at a waterfront in Paris, and came across a work called the Evangelicon, a vellum manuscript in Greek, which he purchased for 25 Francs. It was a version of the Fourth Gospel, preceded by an introduction and a commentary that carried the name of Levitikon. According to Rene Le Forestier, Fabre-Palaprat, having had the revelation of the secret Johannite Religion, seduced by his rationalist Christianity, he began immediately to compose the Johannite Legend of the Templars, combining the "claimed Masonic Tradition on Egyptian origins of the Secret Society with the Socinian thesis, the fable of the Disciplina Arcani, and the inherited anticlericalism of the encyclopedists..." After the July Revolution, Fabre Palaprat pronounced the institution of a new worship, that of the Primitive Christian Church.
Isn't it funny how many second-hand bookstalls figure into the Authentic Tradition?
"At first the members of the order professed the Roman Catholic religion, and hence, on various occasions, Protestants and Jews were denied admission. But about the year 1814, the Grand Master having obtained possession of a manuscript copy of a spurious Gospel of St. John, which is supposed to have been forged in the fifteenth century, and which contradicted in many particulars the canonical Gospel, he caused it to be adopted as the doctrine of the Order; and thus, as Clavel says, at once transformed an Order which had always been perfectly orthodox into a schismatic sect. Out of this spurious Gospel and an introduction and commentary called the "Levitikon," said to have been written by Nicephorus, a Greek monk of Athens, Fabré and his colleagues composed a liturgy, and established a religious sect to which they gave the name of "Johannism."
"The consequence of this change of religious views was a schism in the Order. The orthodox party, however, appears to have been the stronger; and after the others had for a short time exhibited themselves as soi-disant priests in a Johannite church which they erected, and in which they publicly chanted the liturgy which they had composed, the church and the liturgy were given up, and they retired once more into the secrecy of the Order." -- II Mackey's 773.
According to Nesta Webster, the LEVITIKON contained the Charter of Larmenius, said to have been preserved in the secret archives of the Temple, as well as another document drawn from the same repository describing the origins of the Order. This manuscript, written in Greek on parchment, dated 1154, purports to be partly taken from a 5th century MS. and relates that Hugues de Payens, first Grand Master of the Templars, was initiated in 1118 -- that is to say, in the year the Order was founded (of course, there are contending opinions on the year of this important event) -- into the religious doctrine of 'The Primitive Christian Church' by its Sovereign Pontiff and Patriarch, Theoclet, 60th in direct succession from St. John the Apostle. [We must inject this note: None of this is impossible, after all. The term Primitive Christian Church we see mirrored years later when Theodor Reuss makes use of it in his literature concerning the Gnostic Neo Christians, and we see it in such institutions as the Antient and Primitive Rite, etc.] A great deal of the material is based upon the Jewish Talmudic text, the Sepher Toledoth Yeshu, which is the Talmudic legend concerning Yeshu ben Pandiru, whom the Christians worship as Jesus the Christ. It is one of those texts, like our Johannite text, and like the Protocols, and like any other texts which calls into question the historical origins of Christianity, which causes a lot of controversy. It is available on-line.According to Nesta:
"According to the Abbés Grégoire and Münter the authenticity and antiquity of these documents are beyond dispute. Grégoire, referring to the parchment manuscript of the Levitikon and Gospel of St. John, says that 'Hellenists versed in palaeography believe this manuscript to be of the thirteenth century, others declare it to be earlier and to go back to the eleventh century.'..."
Fabré-Palaprat somehow came into the possession of a manuscript written in Greek entitled the Levitikon; according to one version he picked it up from a second-hand bookstall. The Levitikon contained a heavily modified version of the Gospel according to John, in which the orthodox presentation of Christ had been excised in favor of a version which eliminated the miracles and the Resurrection, and presented Christ as an initiate of the higher mysteries, trained in Egypt. God is understood as existence, action, and mind, and morality as rational and benevolent conduct. The cosmos, in the ancient Gnostic tradition, is viewed as a hierarchy of intelligences. The part played by privileged initiation in the transmission of divine knowledge is central. Christ conferred the essential knowledge of this Gospel on John as the best-loved apostle, and it was transmitted thence through the Patriarchs of Jerusalem until the arrival of the Templars in 1118, after which the secret teaching was kept by the Templar Grand Masters. The esoteric doctrine was passed down through the official medieval order until its fall in 1312, and then through their successors who extend the chain down to the present time. The part played by 'Levites' in this religion is essentially secularizing. Knights who were also initiates were 'Levites' with the power of pronouncing the words which declare the pardon of the Spirit to the repentant sinner. Since Levite-knights could create other Levite-knights the religion is in the hands of the initiate laymen; there is provision for 'Bishops' or 'Primates', but the function of these prelates is very different from their function in Christianity, since the part played by apostolic succession has been usurped by the Johannite succession of the initiates.
This will ring a bell when we get to the latter part of the 19th Century and the 20th Century, with the emergence and development of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, or Gnostic Catholic Church. It is clear from the start that we are dealing with the very same thing, only changed through transmission. The document published in 1906, by the Chevalier Clement de Saint Marcq on the Eucharist, seems to be a description of this same sense of absolution from Original Sin, of the same kind of special interpretation of the Gospel of John, in the light of the Gnosis. And after him, Theodor Reuss picked it up, in his description of the Neo-Gnostics and Oriental Templars....
By 1814, the Harmony Society was farming some 3000 acres of land, with 3000 sheep and 600 cattle. But with all this worldly success, the group did maintain its Sophianic spirituality, as can be seen in a well-known image carved at the time by Frederick Rapp above a wine-cellar, a head with wings.
In 1814, the society decided to move to a new location in Indiana, and their Pennsylvania holdings, now comprising 7000 acres and many buildings, were sold. By 1815, the entire community had moved to Indiana, to a 25,000 acre location along the Wabash River.
Mayence. Berckheim draws up his great report on the secret societies of Germany. The opening paragraphs finally refute the fallacy concerning the extinction of the sect in 1786:
"The oldest and most dangerous association is that which is generally known under the denomination of the Illuminés and of which the foundation goes back towards the middle of the last century.
"Bavaria was its cradle; it is said that it had for founders several chiefs of the Order of the Jesuits, but this opinion, advanced perhaps at random, is founded only on uncertain premises; in any case, in a short time it made rapid progress, and the Bavarian Government recognized the necessity of employing methods of repression against it and even of driving away several of the principal sectaries.
"But it could not eradicate the germ of the evil. The Illuminés who remained in Bavaria, obliged to wrap themselves in darkness so as to escape the eye of authority, became only the more formidable: the rigorous measures of which they were the object, adorned by the title of persecution, gained them new proselytes, whilst the banished members went to carry the principles of the Association into other States.
"Thus in a few years Illuminism multiplied its hotbeds all through the south of Germany, and as a consequence in Saxony, in Prussia, in Sweden, and even in Russia.
"The reveries of the Pietists have long been confounded with those of the Illuminés. This error may arise from the denomination of the sect, which at first suggests the idea of a purely religious fanaticism and of mystic forms which it was obliged to take at its birth in order to conceal its principles and projects; but the Association always had a political tendency. If it still retains some mystic traits, it is in order to support itself at need by the power of religious fanaticism, and we shall see in what follows how well it knows to turn this to account.
"The doctrine of Illuminism is subversive of every kind of monarchy; unlimited liberty, absolute levelling down, such is the fundamental dogma of this sect; to break the ties that bind the Sovereign to the citizen of a state, that is the object of all its efforts.
"No doubt some of the principal chiefs, amongst whom are numbered men distinguished for their fortune, their birth, and the dignities with which they are invested, are not the dupes of these demagogic dreams: they hope to find in the popular emotions they stir up the means of seizing the reigns of power, or at any rate of increasing their wealth and their credit; but the crowd of adepts believe in it religiously, and, in order to reach the goal shown to them, they maintain incessantly a hostile attitude towards sovereigns.
"Thus the Illuminés hailed with enthusiasm the ideas that prevailed in France from 1789 to 1804. Perhaps they were not foreign to the intrigues which prepared the explosions of 1789 and the following years; but if they did not take an active part in these manoeuvres, it is at least beyond doubt that they openly applauded the systems which resulted from them; that the Republican armies when they penetrated into Germany found in these sectarians auxiliaries the more dangerous for the sovereigns of the invaded states in that they inspired no distrust, and we can say with assurance that more than one general of the Republic owed a part of its success to his understanding with the Illuminés.
"It would be a mistake if one counfounded Illuminism with Freemasonry. These two associations, in spite of the points of resemblance they may possess in the mystery with which they surround themselves, in the tests that precede initiation, and in other matters of form, are absolutely distinct and have no kind of connexion with each other. The lodges of the Scottish Rite number, it is true, a few Illuminés amonst the Masons of the higher degrees, but these adepts are very careful not to be known as such to their brothers in Masonry or to manifest ideas that would betray their secret.
[Berckheim goes on to describe how the Illuminati maintains its existence: learning from the events of 1786, their organization is carried on invisibly, so as to defy the eye of authority:]
"It was thought for a long while that the association had a Grand Mastership, that is to say, a centre point from which radiated all the impulsions given to this great body, and the primary motive power was sought for successively in all the capitals of the North, in Paris and even in Rome. This error gave birth to another opinion no less fallacious: it was supposed that there existed in the principal towns lodges where initiations were made and which received directly the instructions emanating from the headquarters of the Society.
"If such had been the organization of Illuminism, it would not so long have escaped the investigations of which it was the object: these meetings, necessarily thronged and frequent, requiring besides, like masonic lodges, appropriate premises, would have aroused the attention of magistrates: it would not have been difficult to introduce false brothers, who, directed and protected by authority, would soon have penetrated the secrets of the sect.
"This is what I have gathered most definitely on the Association of the Illuminés:
"First I would point out that by the word hotbeds [foyers] I did not mean to designate points of meeting for the adepts, places where they hold assemblies, but only localities where the Association counts a great number of partisans, who, whilst living isolated in appearance, exchange ideas, have an understanding with each other, and advance together towards the same goal.
"The Association had, it is true, assemblies at its birth where receptions (i.e. initiations) took place, but the dangers which resulted from these made them feel the necessity of abandoning them. It was settle dthat each initiated adept should have the right without the help of anyone else to initiate all those who, after the usual tests, seemed to him worthy.
"The catechism of the sect is composed of a very small number of articles which might even be reduced to this single principle:
"'To arm the opinion of the peoples against sovereigns and to work by every method for the fall of monarchic governments in order to found in their place systems of absolute independence.' Everything that can tend towards this object is in the spirit of the Association...
"Initiations are not accompanied, as in Masonry, by phantasmagoric rituals...but they are preceded by long moral tests which guarantee in the safest way the fidelity of the catechumen; oaths, a mixture of all that is most sacred in religion, threats and imprecations against traitors, nothing that can stagger the imagination is spared; but the only engagement into which the recipient enters is to propagate the principles with which he has been imbued, to maintain inviolable secrecy on all that pertains to the association, and to work with all his might to increase the number of proselytes.
"It will no doubt seem astonishing that there can be the least accord in the association, and that men bound together by no physical tie and who live at great distances from each other can communicate their ideas to each other, make plans of conduct, and give grounds of fear to Governments; but there exists an invisible chain which binds together all the scattered members of the association. Here are a few links:
"All the adepts living in the same town usually know each other, unless the population of the town or the number of the adepts is too considerable. In this last case they are divided into several groups, who are all in touch with each other by means of members of the association whom personal relations bind to two or several groups at a time.
"These groups are again subdivided into so many private coteries which the difference of rank, of fortune, of character, tastes, etc., may necessitate: they are always small, sometimes composed of five or six individuals, who meet frequently under various pretexts, sometimes at the house of one member, sometimes at that of another; literature, art, amusements of all kinds are the apparent object of these meetings, and it is nevertheless in these confabulations that the adepts communicate their private views to each other, agree on methods, receive the directions that the intermediaries bring them, and communicate their own ideas to these same intermediaries, who then go on to propagate them in other coteries. It will be understood that there may be uniformity in the march of all these separated groups, and that one day may suffice to communicate the same impulse to all the quarters of a large town....
"These are the methods by which the Illuminés, without any apparent organization, without settled leaders, agree together from the banks of the Rhine to those of the Neva, from the Baltic to the Dardanelles, and advance continually towards the same goal, without leaving any trace that might compromise the interests of the association or even bring suspicion on any of its members; the most active police would fail before such a combination....
"As the principal force of the Illuminés lies in the power of opinions, they have set themselves out from the beginning to make proselytes amongst the men who through their profession exercise a direct influence on minds, such as littérateurs, savants, and above all professors. The latter in their chairs, the former in their writings, propagate the principles of the sect by disguising the poison that they circulate under a thousand different forms. These germs, often imperceptible to the eyes of the vulgar, are afterwards developed by the adepts of the Societies they frequent, and the most obscure wording is thus brought to the understanding of the least discerning. It is above all in the Universities that Illuminism has always found and always will find numerous recruits. Those professors who belong to the Association set out from the first to study the character of their pupils. If a student gives evidence of a vigorous mind, an ardent imagination, the sectaries at once get hold of him, they sound in his ears the words Despotism -- Tyranny -- Rights of the People, etc., etc. Before he can even attach any meaning to these words, as he advances in age, reading chosen for him, conversations skilfully arranged, develop the germs deposited in his youthful brain; soon his imagination ferments, history, traditions of fabulous times, all are made use of to carry his exaltation to the highest point, and before even he has been told of a secret Association, to contribute to the fall of a sovereign appears to his eyes the noblest and most meritorious act...
"At last, when he has been completely captivated, when several years of testing guarantee to the society inviolable secrecy and absolute devotion, it is made known to him that millions of individuals distributed in all the States of Europe share his sentiments and his hopes, that a secret link binds firmly all the scattered members of this immense family, and that the reforms he desires so ardently must sooner or later come about.
"This propaganda is rendered the easier by the existing associations of students who meet together for the study of literature, for fencing, gaming, or even mere debauchery. The Illuminés insinuate themselves into all these circles and turn them into hot-beds for the propagation of their principles.
"Such then is the Association's continual mode of progression from its origins until the present moment; it is by conveying from childhood the germ of poison into the highest classes of society, in feeding the minds of students on ideas diametrically opposed to that order of things under which they have to live, in breaking the ties that bind them to sovereigns, that Illuminism has recruited the largest number of adepts, called by the state to which they were born to be the mainstays of the Throne and of a system which would ensure them honours and privileges.
"Amongst the proselytes of this last class there are some no doubt whom political events, the favour of the prince or other circumstances, detach from the Association; but the number of these deserters is necessarily very limited; and even then they dare not speak openly against their old associates, whether because they are in dread of private vengeances or whether because, knowing the real power of the sect, they want to keep paths of reconciliation open to themselves; often indeed they are so fettered by the pledges they have personally given that they find it necessary not only to consider the interests of the sect, but to serve it indirectly, although their new circumstances demand the contrary....
"There is more than exaggeration in this accusation: [i.e. that of writers on Illuminism that declared political assassinations were commanded by the Order...] those who put it forward, more zealous in striking an effect than in seeking the truth, may have concluded, not without probability, that men who surrounded themselves with profound mystery, who propagated a doctrine absolutely subversive of any kind of monarchy, dreamt only of the assassination of sovereigns; but experience has shown (and all the documents derived from the least suspect sources confirm this) that the Illuminés count a great deal more on the power of opinion than on assassination; the regicide committed on Gustavus III is perhaps the only crime of this kind that Illuminism has dared to attempt, if indeed it is really proved that this crime was its work; moreover, if assassination had been, as it is said, the fundamental point in its doctrine, might we not suppose that other regicides would have been attempted in Germany during the course of the French Revolution, especially when the Republican armies occupied the country?
"The sect would be much less formidable if this were its doctrine, on the one hand because it would inspire in most of the Illuminés a feeling of horror which would triumph even over the fear of vengeance, on the other hand because plots and conspiracies always leave some traces which guide the authorities to the footsteps of the prime instigators; and besides, it is the nature of things that out of twenty plots directed against sovereigns, nineteen come to light before they have reached the point of maturity necessary to their execution.
"The Illuminés' line of march is more prudent, more skilful, and consequently more dangerous; instead of revolting the imagination by ideas of regicide, they affect the most generous sentiments: declamations on the unhappy state of the people, on the selfishness of courtiers, on measures of administration, on all acts of authority that may offer a pretext to declamations as a contrast to the seductive pictures of the felicity that awaits the nations under the systems they wish to establish, such is their manner of procedure, particularly in private. More circumspect in their writings, they usually disguise the poison they dare not proffer openly under obscure metaphysics or more or less ingenious allegories. Often indeed texts from Holy Writ serve as an envelope and vehicle for those baneful insinuations....
"By this continuous and insidious form of propaganda the imagination of the adepts is so worked on that if a crisis arises, they are ready to carry out the most daring projects."
Another Association closely resembling the Illuminés, Berckheim reports, is known as the Idealists, whose system is founded on the doctrine of perfectibility; these kindred sects "agree in seeing in the words of Holy Scripture the pledge of universal regeneration, of an absolute levelling down, and it is in this spirit that the sectarians interpret the sacred books."
The Supreme Council for the Northern Jurisdiction was established in 1814, by Emanuel de la Motta, Active Member of the Supreme Council of the United States at Charleston, which confirmed and ratified his action in January, 1815.
The Supreme Council for Ireland was established by Charleston; that for Scotland by Morison de Greenfield, a 33d, affiliated with the Supreme Council of France. Another Supreme Council of importance in later years, in our story, is that of England, which was established by the Supreme Council of the Northern Jurisdiction, and another one, is that of Mexico, which was established by the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction at Charleston. This will be important, when we get to discussing Crowley's 33 Patent, which came from Mexico by a special dispensation, but was never recognized in the United States or in England, the United States being the Northern Jurisdiction of the United States. For orthodox Masonry to deny Crowley his Rights as a 33rd is not exactly regular, even though there are many who will say that it is. In fact, to deny the Rite of Memphis is not exactly proper either, since it has legitimate roots. Another interesting myth or superstition is the Masonic claim that Pike was only Sovereign Grand Commander of one small part of the Masonic community, that of the Southern Jurisdiction, but as anyone even remotely aware of Masonic law knows the importance of the Southern Jurisdiction and its absolute rule over all other Supreme Councils of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Since most Freemasons end up becoming AASR, then Pike had considerable power during his long and controversial tenure. Writers like Robinson and other defenders of the craft should have come out in the open and reveal this rather than deny it, in their works on the Craft, because the enemies that we all defend our traditions against, namely the Southern Baptists, the Christian Coalition, and all Fundamentalist Christians and Roman Catholics of every type and sect, seem to be better educated on this point at least, than most Freemasons. This is a very sad thing to admit. Albert Pike was the Pope of Universal Freemasonry, at least up to the 33rd, and that is why he lashed out vehemently against Rites like Memphis and Mizraim, since that meant there were Sovereign Pontiffs of Grades yet higher than he, and that could never be!
Mackenzie says Misraim reaches France in 1814. Ragon, Gaborria, Decollet, Meallet and others united under the presidency of Joly to create and establish the Rite of Misraim in its 4 series and ninety degrees. In virtue of powers obtained from Naples in 1813. Placed under Aegis of the Grand Orient, who accepted it. Mackey says it failed to obtain the recognition of the Grand Orient.
Samuel Honis, a native of Cairo, Egypt, brings the Rite of Memphis to Montaubon, France. Gabriel Mathieu Marconis 'de Negre' its founder, first Grand master and Grand Hierophant of the Rite. Originally known as the Disciples of Memphis, incorporates several rites, especially that of the Philadelphes. Also, the Disciples of Memphis acquire the Lodge of Perfect Wisdom at Lyons, originally a Lodge belonging to Cagliostro's Egyptian Rite.
The Primitive Rite (Philadelphes) of Narbonne absorbed into the Antient and Primitive Rite. It is said that the Philadelphes were the foundation of the A&P Rite.
[Isn't it interesting that the year the Levitikon shows up and inspires the chiefs of the Order of the Temple to establish a Primitive Christian Church, the Disciples of Memphis are established in Montaubon, in the Languedoc, and the Philadelphes are absorbed into the A & P Rite, another Rite which had for its base a prominent city in the Languedoc. Perhaps it is all coincidence, but is it? Perhaps there were certain items in the possession of the Philadelphes, or the Disciples of Memphis, which were passed on to the Order of the Temple... That's just conjecture, of course, and by the time this sees the printing press we may have more critical information.]
Joseph Cerneau declared an impostor by the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite at Charleston.
Suspension of Gold and Silver payments.
American Edward Everett goes to Prussia (Germany) to get his doctorate degree, returns to the United States and evntually becomes governor of Massachusetts.
30 April. Montaubon. The Lodge of the Disciples of Memphis was founded, 70 Rue Lacapelle, by the Brothers Honis, Gabriel Mathieu Marconis de Negre, the Baron Dumas (any relation to the man of letters?); the Marquis de Laroque, Hippolyte Labrunie (The surname of Gerard de Nerval, by the way; this might be a relative, since Gerard Labrunie was not born until 1808, he was too young to be involved in these early exploits, which includes Ambelain's mention of Nerval being involved in the Cairo Mission in 1799 c.e.); J Petit, etc... Arose from French Primitive Rite of Philadelphes; brought from Egypt by Brother Sam Honis of Cairo in 1814, with the aid of the fine gentlemen listed above.
19 May. Paris. The first Misraim Lodge was created, l'Arc-en-Ciel. This Lodge was an instant success and would be in continuous operation into the twentieth century.
23 May. Montaubon. The Disciples of Memphis constituted on this date.
Douai, France. Academy of Sublime Masters of the Luminous Ring established for France.
Paris. Thory, of the Grand Orient, Supreme Council 33, Scots Philosophic Rite, etc., inducted into Misraim; Count de Cazes, Minister of Police also. In 1815, Thory gives the following list of the degrees of the Scots Philosophic Rite: 4, Perfect Master; 5, Select Philosophic Knight; 7, Grand Scots Mason; 8, Knight of the Sun; 9, Knight of the Luminous Ring; 10, Knight of the Black and White Eagle; 11, Grand Inspector Commander.
Meanwhile, in the Misraim Rite the Brothers Bedarride attempt to recruit eminent Freemasons, but are only temporarily successful. One person they recruit is Joseph Chabran, who was a general in Napoleon's army, born in Cavaillon and a friend of the Bedarride family.
Cuba. The Grand Lodge of Louisiana charters Lodges in Cuba.
Income tax ends in England. Resumes in 1842.
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All Original Material (i.e., arrangement and interpretation),Copyright 1998-2001 e.v., Jonathan Sellers. All Rights Reserved.