de "rite d'Herodom" (z. d.)
de "rite ecossais ancient et accepte" (z. Schots systeem);
de "rite philosophique_ (z. philosophie) ;
de "rite du régime rectifié" (z. Schotse ritus) ;
de "rite Mizraïm" (z.Mizraïm).
De Huidige structuur (1880) van de Franse Gr.°. Or.°. is als volgt;
De Officieren van de Loge zijn alle drie jaren herkiesbaar. De MM.°. van de LL.°. kunnen niet langer dan drie jaren in functie blijven
Nadat het aantal Loges, onder het bestuur van het Gr.°.O.°., in 1833. tot 263 was, gezonken, klom dit voor 1841weer tot 431 . De stelsels onder het Gr.°. O.°. bewerkt zijn voornamelijk het zogenoemde Franse of nieuwe stelsel (Rit,Français of Rite moderne), bestaande, derhalve uit de drie blauwe gr.°., vier hogere, namelijk: ELU, SCHOT, RlDDER VAN HET OOSTEN, SOUVEREIN PRINS VAN HET ROZENKRUIS.
Nadat in 1788 de Raad der Keizers van het Oosten en Westen (Conseil des Empereurs d`Orient en d`Occident) met zijn nieuwe Hooge graden was komen opdagen, verscheen in 1766, juist hetzelfde jaar, waarin de oude Groote L.°. die oppergraden had afgewezen, een afgescheiden deel van die graad met zijn stelsel, ten gevolge waarvan de Gr.°. L.°. die in 1756 reeds de naam had aangenomen van G.°. L.°. van Frankrijk, ook deze .graden ter. bewerking toeliet, onder de naam van oud of volmaakt stelsel (Rite ancien ou de perfection), bestaande toen uit vijfentwintig graden, verdeeld in zeven klassen, en wel; (1835)
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 1.Leerling | 4.Maître.secret | 9.Elu.des.neuf |
| 2.Gezel | 5.Maître.parfait | 10.Elu.des.quinze |
| 3.Meester | 6.Secretaire.intieme | 11.Chef.des.des.douze |
| ..................... | 7.Intendant.des.Batiments | 9.tribus |
| ............ | 8.Prevot et Juge | |
| 4 | 5 | |
|---|
| 12.Grand.Maître.Arch. | 14.Grand.Elu.ancien | . |
| 13.Royal.Arch | 15.Chevalier.de.l`epee | . |
| 14 Grand.Elu.ancien | 16.Prince.de.Jerusalem. | . |
| ........... | 17.Chevalier.d`orient.et.d`occident | . |
| ........... | 18.Rose.croix | . |
| ............ | 19.Grand.Pontife. | . |
| 6 | 7 | . |
| 20.Grand.Patriarche | 23.Prince.Adepte | . |
| 21.Grand.Maître.de.la.clef | 24.Commandeur.de.l`aigle.blanc.et.noir
| . |
| 22.Royal.hache. | 25.Commandeur.du.Royal.secret | . |
Later werden deze vijf en twintig graden vermeerdert met acht andere, en zo tot drie en dertig gebracht. De acht bijgevoegde graden bestonden in :
| 1.Chef.du.Tabernacle. | 5. Grand.Inquisiteur Commandeur |
| 2.Prince.du.Tabernacle | 6.Noachite |
| 3.Chevalier.du.cerpent.d'airain.. | 7.Commandeur.du.Temple |
| 4.Prince.de.merci. | 8.Drie.en.dertigste.graad |
De Prins Adept, die eerst de 23e. graad was geweest, werd de 28e; de Kadosch-graad, die de 24e. was geweest, werd de 30e, en de Royal secret, die eerst.de 25e. was geweest, werd nu de 32e.zodat nu na enige hervormingen de lijst thans is zamengesteld:
1e klasse 1 Apprenti. Leerling.
...........2.Compagnon.Medgesel.
...........3.Maître. Meester
Kort overzicht Mystiek 4-18
Geschiedenis !Mystiek!
Schema geschiedenis
2e klasse 4.Maître secret. Geheim Meester
...........5.Maître parfait. Volmaakt Meester.
...........6.Secretaire intime. Geheim Secretaris.
...........7.Prevot et Juge. Provoost en Rechter.
...........8.Intendant des Batiments Intendant der. gebouwen
3e. klasse 9.Maître Elu et neuf. Uitverkoren Meeser der negen
. ...........10 Maître Elu des quinze. Uitverkoren Meester der vijftien;
...........11 Sublime Chevalier Elu. Verheven Uitverkoren Ridder
4e klasse 12 Grand Maître Architece Grootmeester Architect.
...........13 Royal Arche. Koninklijke Ark of Kist.
...........l4. Grand Ecossais de la voute sacrée de Jaques Vl Groot Schot van het heilige gewelf van Jacob Vl
5e klasse 15 Chevalier de l`Orient ou de l`Epée Ridder van het Oosten of van de Degen.
...........16 Prince de Jerusalem, Prins van Jerusalem
...........17.Chevalier d`Orient et d`Occident. Ridder van het Oosten en Westen
...........18 Souverein Prince de Rose croix Souverein Prins van het Rozenkruis.
6e klasse 19 Grand Pontife ou sublime Ecossais. Groot Opperpriester of verheven Schot.
...........20 Vénerable Grand Maître de toutes les Loges. Achtbaar Grootmeester van alle Loges
...........21 Noachite ou Chavalier Prussien. Noachiet of Pruiss. Ridder.
...........22. Royale Hache ou Prince de Libanon Koninkl. Bijl of Prins van de Libanon.
...........23. Chef du Tabernacle. Opperhoofd van de Tabernakel.
...........24. Prince du Tabernacle. Prins van de Tabernakel
...........25. Chevalier du Serpent d`Arain. Ridder van de koperen Slang.
...........26. Prince de Merci. Prins van genade.
...........27 Souverain Commandeur du Temple. -Souverein Kommandeur van de Tempel
7e klasse 28 Chevalier du soleil. Prince Adapt. Ridder van de Zon; Ingewijde Prins
...........29 Grand Ecossais de Saint André d`Ecosse' Groot-Schot van St.André van Schotland
...........30 Grand Elu Chevalier Kadosch . Groot Uitverkoren Ridder Kadosch.
...........31 Grand Inquisiteur Souverain Commandeuer . Groot- Inquisiteur Souverein Kommandeur.
...........32 Souverain Prins de Royal secret. Souverein Prins van het koninklijk geheim
...........33. Souverain Grand-lnspecteur Général Souverein Groot- Inspecteur-Generaal
FREEMASONRY IN FRANCE
A study of Freemasonry in France within the present limits must be concerned with broad and general principles. It is not of palmary historical consequence at this day to determine when the Order was established originally in that country, who carried the warrants and whether there were any warrants in our modern understanding of the terrn. The question of Jacobite Freemasonry in France has been discussed in another section. The French story of the Craft Degrees is the story of a Rite which was overshadowed on all sides by the developments of the High Grades and was modified or transformed by these; but their particular history is that of the great Rites, each of which must be taken of necessity apart. We are concerned therefore
(I) with the facts of the foundation of French Freemasonry, leaving rival claims and hypotheses for final determination as and when more satisfactory evidence may be forthcoming;
(2) with the principles of transformation at work, being those governing the institution of the High Grades;
(3) with the body of Ritual and Symbolism which has issued therefrom;
(4) with the religious and political aspects of existing predominant Rites; and
(5) with their relation to Freemasonry at large in other parts of the world, but more especially in the Untted Kingdom and the Colonies and Dependencies of the British Crown. It will be seen that these heads of consideration might outline the subject-matter of a substantial volume, of which however I can give only a first draft in shorthand.
New Views on the Revival. Without forestalling conclusions which will be reached at a later stage, the development of Emblematic from Operative Freemasonry took place either within the bosom of the London Grand Lodge of I7I7 or that foundation registered and published the accomplished fact of the development. In either case Emblematic Freemasonry emerged with a claim to antiquity and an immemorial past behind it. Both virtually and ostensibly its bid for recognition was made on the basis of this prestige, and however little antecedently it had dwelt within the common ken, such prestige was at once its warrant and the title of its future fortune. The more obscure and hidden it had been, the greater was the impression that it produced. As Paris woke up one morning and found to its amazement that the COMPAGNONNAGE had existed for centuries in France, substantially unknown outside its own trade circles, so London was awakened by the meeting at the Apple-Tree Tavern-and all that which followed-to the fact of Freemasonry in its midst, and, unlike the COMPAGNONNAGE, to an institution of wider appeal than the guild of any City Company. It was this which brought ducal and afterwards royal Grand Masters to the head of its affairs in England; it was under such auspices that it began to pass very quickly, but at first in a casual or spasmodic manner, across the English Channel into continental countries; so also it went overseas to the colonial possessions of England; while so also and speedily it came about that the London GRAND LODGE had an irresistible claim upon the vestiges of Operative Lodges all over the United Kingdom. It had something to give which was at once old and new, something cx hypothesi which had been always theirs but of which unaccountably and save in splintered fragments they had known nothing till now. With all its defects and all its preposterous fables, indeed because of the latter, which in the main was an hentage from the past, Anderson's first BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS liveted the claims, and there is nothing to compare with its influence on the future story of the Order until there arose in France itself those pregnant developments which gave it a new motive, a new aspect, destiny and horiton. These were the circumstances under which Emblematic Freemasonry was carried across the Channel.
Early French History. Under what conditions and by what ambassadors the Masonic glad tidings were first carried into France lies behind something more than the usual uncertainty which involves most foundations abroad. It is easy to set aside the obviously lying inventions, as-for example-that a Lodge was founded at Arras in I687 and at Bayonne about the same penod. I pass over also some loose statements of French writers the author of LE SÇEAU ROMPU, who aflirms that Freemasonry entered France in 1718; of Abbé Robin, who says that it can be traced no further back than 1720; and so forth. More circumstantial stones are as follows: (I) that a Lodge of BROTHERHOOD AND FRIENDSHIP was established at Dunkirk in I72I;
(2) that Lord Derwentwater, at an uncertain date between I7I6 and I736, was the first to open a Lodge, which he did in La Rue des Bouchenes, St. Germains, with some other Englishmen;
(3) that this event has been referred to I725, to April 3, I732, and to I736;
(4) that he became Provincial Grand Master, which is impossible, since he was under the sentence of death for his share in the Jacobite Rebellion of I7I5 and would have been beheaded at that time except for his escape to France-as he was on his return to England in I7I6;
(5) that on June, 24, I738, there was a Masonic Festival at Luneville, and the Duc d'Autin was then installed as Grand Master in place of Derwentwater. As a point of comparative certitude amidst all this medley, it appears from the FREEMASON'S POCKET COMPANION for I736 that a French Lodge No. 90, on the Register of the GRAND LODGE OF LONDON, was in existence at this date; that it met every Wednesday at the Louis d'Argent Restaurant in La Rue des Bouchenes; and that it was constituted on April 3, I732. Other accounts connect it with the name of James Hector Maclean. We hear also of a Paris Lodge in the Rue de Bussy and of a Lodge at Valenciennes. There seems no question that in I738 the Duc d'Autin was in a position of authority similar to that of Grand Master or that he bore this title and had presumably a certain number of Lodges under his obedience. He died in I743 and was succeeded by the Comte de Clermont. In that year also it is said that the London GRAND LODGE authorised and warranted for the first time a French Masonic headship under the denomination of LA GRANDE LOGE ANGLAISE DE FRANCE. I assume that this legitimised the position of the Comte de Clermont, supposing that it ever occurred.
.Sketch of Later Events. The Order spread in France amidst the usual feuds and rivalries of an inchoate period: there were also the disturbing elements arising from Papal Bulls and occasional-if rare intervention on the part of the police in Paris. According to French historians, an independent GRANDE LOGE NATIONALE DE FRANCE was created in I756, With the Comte de Clermont still at the head of affairs. In I77I Philippe Égalite, Duc de Chartres and subsequently Duc d'Orléans, became Grand Master, and two years later, or on December 27, I773, the GRAND ORIENT DE FRANCE Was founded, hypothetically to replace the GRANDE LOGE, but they continued to subsist side by side till all Masonic workings were suspended by the French Revolution. Thereafter they rose from their sleep together, but on June 28, I799, an Act of Union absorbed the GRANDE LOGE into the bosom of the GRAND ORIENT.
Conclusion on this Part. Such, and in barest outline, is the general history of Freemasonry in France prior to the dawn of the nineteenth century, but separated purposely from the debate of factions, the embroilments of competitive obediences, the dejections and disillusions resulting from negligent or incompetent Grand Masters and from detested substitutes like Lacorne. It brings me to my proper point of departure for the purposes of this section.
The Growth of Rites. That which went over to France was simple Craft Masonry, a fragmentary observance in Three Degrees, which proclaims loudly at the end of all that its experiment is not finished, which is left in expectation of coming time and circumstance to unfold that which will complete it. It is to be observed in this connection that at whatever period of Masonic evolution in England the HOLY ROYAL ARCH came into being there is no record that it visited France as such, taking up a local habitation and making those claims with which we are acquainted, at least until long after the eighteenth century had melted into the past of the ages. This notwithstanding, there is no question that either its traditional history went over or that the root-matter was met with independently and was woven into another ceremonial, as will be found when I come to the consideration of the ROYAL ARCH OF ENOCH; but this fact is beside the present question. My point is that the ROYAL ARCH, or any other Degree claiming to finish the quest of Craft Masonry and to restore all things, never travelled from England into France prior to the French Revolution, by which time the whole continent of Europe had done its work, so far as Ritual and Symbolism are concerned. Once more, therefore, that which went over to France was simple Craft Masonry; but that which arose therefrom was the most mighty growth of Rites, Grades, ceremonial observances and symbolism that the world has ever seen. There is more, however, than this, for that which arose in France flowed over into Germany, and between these two countries were colonised Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and afterwards the habitable globe, though not in the eighteenth century. It should be understood that I am not concerned here in affirming that the whole growth was valuable, for I am dealing at the moment with the bare question of fact, and if I speak of it generically almost in superlative terms it is because of the pearls of great price which are found in the shells of the Rites and the beauty of the mother-of-pearl; it is because of the great and glorious intent which motived many of the schemes. I care nothing at all if the fourteen hundred Grades in the chaos of Ragon's numeration are mostly dust and scattermeal; but there is the Grade of ROSE-CROIX; the Grades of Spiritual Chivalry are also there; the mighty portent of the STRICT OBSERVANCE shines amidst clouds of false seeming; the Mystic City of the KNIGHTS BENEFICENT lights up the waste of symbolism, " as a moon on the lost through obscurity dawns."
the Oration of Ramsay. It was out of one little seed that- directly or indirectly-all this forest of a mystical Broceliande sprang up in the short space of something like fifty years. That seed was a now world-famous ORATION delivered by Chevalier Andrew Michael Ramsay in I737 at the ORIENT OF PARIS, in that LODGE OF ST. THOMAS to which I have referred previously. The account of it belongs to a later section, and I can say here only that it represented Emblematic Freemasonry as originating in Palestine during the Crusades among the cross-bearing knights, and presumably-for it is not altogether clear-under the bannner of St. John of Jerusalem or otherwise of those Knights of Lazarus to which Ramsay himself belonged. All Masonic Chivalry arose out of this very curious affirmation, delivered ex cathedra by a cultured Christian gentleman who was the tutor of royal princes and behind whom stood the saintly and illustrious Fenelon. No hypothesis seeking to account for Masonry was more utterly at issue with all that stands for likelihood, none was more apart from evidence, and none moved the Brethren of its period or the unborn multitudes to come like this most fond dream. It has to be remembered that-as in the case of Craft Masonry, so in the High Grades and the Great Additional Rites-the false claim of a manufactured legend was the basis, almost invariably, on which every particular House of Symbolism was built up by its architects. We have to look at this fact from a different angle of vision than historical research can be regarded from at this day, though even a historian like Froude must have believed presumably that he yvas presenting an accurate picture of Mary Queen of Scots and a poet like Swinburne must have apologised successfully to himself for his dead and villainous dramas on the same illustrious lady. We adjudicate rightly when we relegate things like these at this date of the world to their proper place in the brothels; but there is a sense within certain limits in which the early craftsmen, who fashioned Masonic antiquities out of the available rough ashlars, call to be judged differently. I do not doubt that the father of lies in Masonry, and prototype of all historical procedure in that most clouded region, accepted many old fables of the Operative period as true in fact and believed that some of his own inventions were accurate inferences from the past. In the second edition of his BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS he produced a List of Grand Masters by request of the GRAND LODGE which cannot belong to such category, though it is difficult to determine how far his muddled head may not have deceived himself, even in this case. So did the great Fraternity emerge before the public eye amidst a maze of fables, even as early Rosicrucianism originated with a traditional history, comparatively sober indeed but an excursion into pure romance, though not untinctured with allegory. The factitious aspect of the Rosy Cross was accepted as literal truth and the symbolical aspect never came into view. When Desaguliers or others of that circle produced the Craft Grades, less or more in their present form, sincerity was doubtless saved by a mental relegation of the traditional history within the allegorical veil: it was not intended to be literal, but again it was taken literally, with such results that no one in the eighteenth century could have placed his hand on the allegory and shewn its exact location.
Masonic Historical Myths. The traditional histories of the High Grades may be classed broadly thus:
(I) those which are drawn by expansion from the Craft Legend and by which it is embedded deeper on the literal side: arising out of a fatal misconception, they are nothing and convey nothing;
(2) those which are concerned with the building of the Second Temple, being that of Zerubbabel, and these contain very curious symbolical material vested in the guise of history;
(3) those which are represented by certain GRADES OF ST. ANDREW;
(4) those which are concerned with the restoration of the Master-Word in Christian Symbolism, like the GRADE OF ROSE-CROIX;
(5) those Grades innumerable of Masonic Chivalry which are lineal descendants of Ramsay's epoch-making Oration, but are not Templar Grades;
(6) those which exist to establish a connection between Freemasonry and the Order of the Temple. I set aside the traditional and pseudo-historical elements in Hermetic, Kabalistic and Magical Grades, as they are no part of our present concern; but most of them dispensed with histories, and their traditions such as they are-belong to their subject-matter. Of all and sundry in the classes which I have listed otherwise, it should be understood that they are historical in the antithetical and counter sense, meaning that they are false history; they are traditional furtherrnore in the sense of manufactured myth, being stories foisted On the past and not grown out of it, except in a few very rare instances where a root is found in ancient lore, as in the case of the Pillars of Enoch, desaibed in the ROYAL ARCH OF HENOCH from Talmudic sources. Finally, of all and singular, with perhaps this one exception, they form no part of a veil of allegory, and they are not an illustration of symbolism, though it may happen that a few of them can be read and taken as such-so to speak, at the interpreter's own risk.
Scope of the Criticism. The great Rites of French origin and the great Grades are analysed at their proper points in these volumes: there is no need to specify them here, even by their titles. Had France produced nothing but the ROSE-CROIX of Heredom and Kilwinning it would have added to Masonry that kind of transforming tincture which it could not have received in England during the eighteenth century, and such a completion under the Chnstian aegis as the literati of that period in these islands had not the faith to offer. But there were many others, and there was the kind of inspiration which went to the making of the whole, the kind of influence which-as we have seen-prevailed so far and wide that its results are found everywhere, even to this day. I have dwelt upon what is called conventionally " the seamy side " that I may not ~ppear-as in this place only-an indiscriminate apologist. The historical criticism that applies in respect of the RITE OF THE STRICT OBSERVANCE-which was French in its motive and to some extent in its origin, although German in development-obtains, caxtais paribus, in the case of other Rites. There are some also in which mendacity and nothing else lay to the root of all. I should place the EGYPTIAN MASONRY of Caglaistro in this category, though he may have believed that he was reflecting truly the wisdom and mystery of Egypt. Hereof are the blots on the 'scutcheon of High Grade Masonry, and hereof is the substance of its priestcraft-a story of false decretals, as one might say, world without end. And yet it transformed Masonry, the witnesses of which in Great Britain are the Grand Obediences outside the Grand Craft Lodge, which that Lodge does not recognise as Masonry, though the Head of the Craft in England is the head also of important High Grades.
.An Age of Eclipse. Having established in this manner the glory of Freemasonry in France a word must be added concerning its occultation, which ended in the eclipse of I877. Notwithstanding an anti-catholic spirit that was growing from generation to generation and could not do otherwise than grow, having regard to the sad estate of the sacred Gallican Church, the Freemasonry of France was Christian in the eighteenth century. Outside Blue Masonry, the Great Rites were almost militantly Christian: witness in particular the RITE OF PHILALETRES, the COUNCIL OF EMPERORS, the RITE OF ELECT COHENS-all the chief obediences. Masonic, Kabalistic, Hennetic Grades, even the things called Magical were flowed over by this light. The liberty, equality, fraternity were strands of the yoke of Christ; the Christian Mysticism of Saint-Martin was pertmeating in many directions, and a day dawned when it took over the magnificent Templar chivalry of the STRICT OBSERVANCE and worked thereon as great a transformation as the catholic scheme of the High Grades had worked on the Craft itself. We meet of course with minor and mostly negligible obediences which represent Voltairean free thought, but they never emerged into prominence.
Descensus Averni. It came about, however, that the leaden epoch of the early nineteenth century fell upon the world of France, as it fell also on England: it came about also as a consequence that the Christian Grades were pbilosophised and that a colourless theism replaced Trinitanan dogma; an invertebrate doctrine of universal good-wilI was brawled from every rostrum and every oratorical chair; but it was of that kind which bids one look to one's pockets and for a jack-knife in the boot of the other man. Yet a little while and the Revolution of I848 uncovered advanced politics seething in the Lodges of Paris. Yet a little while and the Official Bulletins of Masonic obediences proclaimed war on religion; and presently to such a pass came the great objects and sublime principles of brotherly love, relief and truth that a grave social stigma attached to those who perIIiitted themselves to be made Masons under the obedience of the GRAND ORIENT, or even the GRAND LODGE OF FRANCE. It may seem almost incredible, but the thing could be done no longer in a social order with certain pretensions to self-respect-little as, generally speaking, it recked of religion or God.
France Alters its Constitutions. The bourgeois dynasty of Napoleon fell for ever in I870 and the infidel republic rose, widowed of the Divine Spouse and without God in the world. It transpired therefore in I877 that as no one in the GRAND ORIENT believed in God, that as religion was synonymous with priestcraft, while the Bible was a sacerdotal charter, the Name and Symbols of the Great Architect of the Universe were removed from all the Lodges, and no one exacted from another that faith which he repudiated himself. The Mother-Lodge of the whole world, in common with other obediences, remembered what Masonry stood for and from what it was held to have descended: they left French Freemasonry, as later on that of the Latin countries at large, to the intellectual Ishmaels and Pariahs.
Present Position of French Freemasonry. The Masonic Obediences are
(I) THE GRAND ORIENT OF FRANCE, ruling about 465 Lodges and numbering about 35,ooo Members;
(2) THE GRAND LODGE OF FRANCE, dating from I895 and working the Craft Grades only. The Lodges under its obedience are a little over 150, the Roll of Membership being about 8500;
(3) THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE THIRTY-THIRD DEGREE, ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE;
(4) THE GRAND LODGE, NATIONAL, INDEPENDENT AND REGULAR, OF FRANCE AND ITS COLONIES, instituted in November, I9I3, for the purposes of French Freemasons who desire a rapprochement with Masonic Obediences in other countries." The conditions of membership include belief in the Grand Architect of the Universe, and the Bible is placed on its altars. It was recognised immediately by the GRAND LODGES of England and the United States. There are very few Lodges at present under this Obedience. See DEUX SLACLES DE LA FRANC-MAÇONNERIE, published at Berne by the Bureau International de Relations Maçonniques, I9I7.
The Grand Orient and American Masonry. ..In the year I9I9-owing chiefly to new relations brought about by the war-it is on record that five American Grand Lodges recognised the GRAND LODGE OF FRANCE and also the GRAND ORIENT; that six others acknowledged the GRAND LODGE of France only; that seven permitted their members to visit Lodges under the obedience of both Bodies, while four had licensed the practice only in respect of Lodges under the junsdiction of the GRAND LODGE OF FRANC E. On the other hand, four American Grand Bodies had made a decided stand against any measure of recognition, eleven had considered the matter without taking definite steps in either direction, and finally there are thirteen in which the subject does not appear to have been brought forward. Such a position is anomalous and in operation may prove difficult; but these objections pass out of sight in the face of those other and higher considerations on which it is to be regarded as not less than deplorable that recognition has been extended at all, until French Freemasonry has consented to revise its constitutions.
The French Rites. I have said that the GRAND LODGE OF FRANCE works only the Craft Degrees. It is an offshoot of the SUPREME COUNCIL, and according to one account it has never recognised the constitutional modification of I877. The SUPREME COUNCIL has of course the custody of the SCOTTISH RITE, comprising Thirty Degrees outside those of the Craft; it communicates by word of mouth those which intervene between MASTER MASON and the Eighteenth Degree of ROSE-CROIX, as also those in like manner which intervene between the Eighteenth and the Thirtieth. The ROSE-CROIX and KADOSH are philosophical Grades so called-that is, nonChristian. As regards the three highest Degrees of the Rite, no information belonging to recent times is available. The GRAND ORIENT, under various modifications, has worked what is called the Modern French Rite since I786. It comprises
(I) APPRENTICE,
(2) COMPANION,
(3) MASTER,
(4) ELECT,
(5) SCOTTISH MASTER,
(6) KNIGHT OF THE EAST, AND
(7) ROSE-CROIX.
The ritual and ceremonial state of these Degrees, apart from Divine sanctions and apart from forms of prayer, must be left to the imagination, for no particulars are available in respect of some, nor is there space or need to consider them in this section. The NATIONAL GRAND LODGE works the Craft Degrees and, I believe, the HOLY ROYAL ARCH; it is said to be in communion with the RÉGIME ÉCOSSAIS ANCIEN ET RECTIFIÉ, which culminates in the KNIGHTS BENEFICENT OF THE HOLY CITY; but I have not heard that it has adopted on its own part any High Grades.
.Bibliography.-Thory's ACTA LATOMORUM Of I825 is still an useful if not a very accurate work for the story of Freemasonry in France up to that date; but it should be taken in connection with ANNALES ORIGINIS MAGNI GALUARUN ORIENTIS, otherwise I Histoirc de la FondaSion du Grand Orient de Fransc, Paris, I8I2, by the same author. For the introduction of Masonry into France, see also L ENCYCLOPEDIE MÉTHODIQUE, S.V. Francmaçonncrie; the article was written by the astronomer Lalande. Other works of moment in the same connection are (I) L INSTRUCTION HISTORIQUE of I783, issued by the GRANDE LOGE DE FRANCE; (2) Abbe CIaude Robm: RECHERCHES SUR LES INITIATIONS ANCIENNES ET MODERNES, I779; (3) T. G. KLOSS: GESCHICHTE DER FREIMAUREREI IN FRANKREICH, 1852, characterised by the exhaustive patience of German research; (4) Findel's HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY. There is no need to add that the two histories of Gould are sources of information which are ready tot the hand of every one. On the circumstances which led the GRAND ORIENT in I877 to ' amend the first Article of its Constitution of Masonry see RAPPORT DU F.: DESMONS sur un voeu tendant a supprimer, dans la Constitution du GRAND ORIENT DE FRANCE, toute affirmation dogmatique: Paris, I901.