By the mid-19th century, the story had gained currency. The well-known English Masonic writer, Dr. George Oliver (1782–1867), in his "Historical Landmarks",
1846, carried the story forward and even claimed that King Charles II was active in his attendance at meetings—an obvious invention, for if it had been true, it
would not have escaped the notice of the historians of the time. The story was then repeated by the French writers Jean-Baptiste Ragon (1771–1862) and
Emmanuel Rebold, in their Masonic histories. Rebold's claim that the high degrees were created and practiced in Lodge Canongate Kilwinning at Edinburgh are
entirely false.
James II died in 1701 at the Palace of St. Germain en Laye, and was succeeded in his claims to the British throne by his son, James Francis Edward Stuart (1699–
1766), the Chevalier St. George, better known as "the Old Pretender", but recognized as James III by the French King Louis XIV. He was succeeded in his claim by
Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charles"), also known as "the Young Pretender", whose ultimate defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 effectively put an
end to any serious hopes of the Stuarts regaining the British crowns.
The natural confusion between the names of the Jesuit College of Clermont, and the short-lived Masonic Chapter of Clermont, a Masonic body that controlled a
few high degrees during its brief existence, only served to add fuel to the myth of Stuart Jacobite influence in Freemasonry's high degrees. However, the College
and the Chapter had nothing to do with each other. The Jesuit College was located at Clermont, whereas the Masonic Chapter was not. Rather, it was named
"Clermont" in honor of the French Grand Master, the Comte de Clermont (Louis de Bourbon, Comte de Clermont) (1709-1771), and not because of any
connection with the Jesuit College of Clermont.
A French trader, by the name of Estienne Morin, had been involved in high degree Masonry in Bordeaux since 1744 and, in 1747, founded an "Ecossais" lodge
(Scots Masters Lodge) in the city of Le Cap Francais, on the north coast of the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). Over the next decade, high degree
Freemasonry continued to spread to the Western hemisphere as the high degree lodge at Bordeaux warranted or recognized seven Ecossais lodges there. In
Paris in the year 1761, a Patent was issued to Estienne Morin, dated 27 August, creating him "Grand Inspector for all parts of the New World." This Patent was
signed by officials of the Grand Lodge at Paris and appears to have originally granted him power over the craft lodges only, and not over the high, or "Ecossais",
degree lodges. Later copies of this Patent appear to have been embellished, probably by Morin, to improve his position over the high degree lodges in the West
Indies.
Early writers long believed that a "Rite of Perfection" consisting of 25 degrees, the highest being the "Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret", and being the
predecessor of the Scottish Rite, had been formed in Paris by a high degree council calling itself "The Council of Emperors of the East and West". The title "Rite of
Perfection" first appeared in the Preface to the "Grand Constitutions of 1786", the authority for which is now known to be faulty. It is now generally accepted that
this Rite of twenty-five degrees was compiled by Estienne Morin and is therefore more properly titled "The Rite of the Royal Secret", or "Morin's Rite".
Morin returned to the West Indies in 1762 or 1763, to Saint-Domingue, where, armed with his new Patent, he assumed powers to constitute lodges of all degrees,
spreading the high degrees throughout the West Indies and North America. Morin stayed in Saint-Domingue until 1766 when he moved to Jamaica. At Kingston,
Jamaica, in 1770, Morin created a "Grand Chapter" of his new Rite (the Grand Council of Jamaica). Morin died in 1771 and was buried in Kingston.
Henry Andrew Francken and his Manuscripts
The one man who was most important in assisting Morin in spreading the degrees in the New World was a naturalized French subject of Dutch origin named Henry
Andrew Francken. Morin appointed him Deputy Grand Inspector General as one of his first acts after returning to the West Indies. Francken worked closely with
Morin and, in 1771, produced a manuscript book giving the rituals for the 15th through the 25th degrees. Francken produced at least two more similar
manuscripts, one in 1783 and another about 1786. The second and third of these manuscripts included all the degrees from the 4th through the 25th.
A Loge de Parfaits d' Écosse was formed on 12 April 1764 at New Orleans, becoming the first high degree lodge on the North American continent. Its life, however,
was short, as the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded New Orleans to Spain, and the Catholic Spanish crown had been historically hostile to Freemasonry. Documented
Masonic activity ceased for a time and did not return to New Orleans until the 1790s.
Francken travelled to New York in 1767 where he granted a Patent, dated 26 December 1767, for the formation of a Lodge of Perfection at Albany. This marked
the first time the Degrees of Perfection (the 4th through the 14th) were conferred in one of the thirteen British colonies. This Patent, and the early minutes of the
Lodge, are still extant and are in the archives of Supreme Council, Northern Jurisdiction.
While in New York, Francken also communicated the degrees to Moses Michael Hays, a Jewish businessman, and appointed him a Deputy Inspector General. In
1781, Hays made eight Deputy Inspectors General, four of whom were later important in the establishment of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in South Carolina: Isaac
Da Costa Sr., D.I.G. for South Carolina; Abraham Forst, D.I.G. for Virginia; Joseph M. Myers, D.I.G. for Maryland; and Barend M. Spitzer, D.I.G. for Georgia. Da
Costa returned to Charleston, S.C., and established the "Sublime Grand Lodge of Perfection" in February 1783. After Da Costa's death in November 1783, Hays
appointed Myers as Da Costa's successor. Joined by Forst and Spitzer, Myers created additional high degree bodies in Charleston and, by 1801, the Charleston
bodies were the only extant bodies of the Rite in North America.
Birth of the Scottish Rite
Although most of the thirty-three degrees of the Scottish Rite existed in parts of previous degree systems,[16] the Scottish Rite did not come into being until the
formation of the Mother Supreme Council at Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1801.
Isaac De Costa, one of the deputies commissioned to establish Morin's Rite of the Royal Secret in other countries, formed constituent bodies of the Rite in South
Carolina in 1783, which eventually became, in 1801, The Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction. All regular Scottish
Rite bodies today derive their heritage from this body.
Subsequently, other Supreme Councils were formed in Saint-Domingue in 1802, in France in 1804, in Italy in 1805, and in Spain in 1811.
In either 1813 or 1867 the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States, was formed.
Albert Pike
Born in Boston, Massachusetts on December 29, 1809, Albert Pike is asserted within the Southern Jurisdiction as the man most responsible for the growth and
success of the Scottish Rite from an obscure Masonic Rite in the mid-1800s to the international fraternity that it became. Pike received the 4th through the 32nd
Degrees in March 1853 from Dr. Albert G. Mackey, in Charleston, S.C., and was appointed Deputy Inspector for Arkansas that same year.
At this point, the degrees were in a rudimentary form, and often only included a brief history and legend of each degree as well as other brief details which usually
lacked a workable ritual for their conferral. In 1855, the Supreme Council appointed a committee to prepare and compile rituals for the 4th through the 32nd
Degrees. That committee was composed of Albert G. Mackey, John H. Honour, W. S. Rockwell, C. Samory, and Albert Pike. Of these five committee members, Pike
did all the work of the committee.
In March 1858, Pike was elected a member of the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, and in January 1859 he became its Grand
Commander. The American Civil War interrupted his work on the Scottish Rite rituals. After the War, he moved to Washington, DC, and in 1868 his revision of the
rituals was complete. Pike also wrote lectures for all the degrees which were published in 1871 under the title Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
1846, carried the story forward and even claimed that King Charles II was active in his attendance at meetings—an obvious invention, for if it had been true, it
would not have escaped the notice of the historians of the time. The story was then repeated by the French writers Jean-Baptiste Ragon (1771–1862) and
Emmanuel Rebold, in their Masonic histories. Rebold's claim that the high degrees were created and practiced in Lodge Canongate Kilwinning at Edinburgh are
entirely false.
James II died in 1701 at the Palace of St. Germain en Laye, and was succeeded in his claims to the British throne by his son, James Francis Edward Stuart (1699–
1766), the Chevalier St. George, better known as "the Old Pretender", but recognized as James III by the French King Louis XIV. He was succeeded in his claim by
Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charles"), also known as "the Young Pretender", whose ultimate defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 effectively put an
end to any serious hopes of the Stuarts regaining the British crowns.
The natural confusion between the names of the Jesuit College of Clermont, and the short-lived Masonic Chapter of Clermont, a Masonic body that controlled a
few high degrees during its brief existence, only served to add fuel to the myth of Stuart Jacobite influence in Freemasonry's high degrees. However, the College
and the Chapter had nothing to do with each other. The Jesuit College was located at Clermont, whereas the Masonic Chapter was not. Rather, it was named
"Clermont" in honor of the French Grand Master, the Comte de Clermont (Louis de Bourbon, Comte de Clermont) (1709-1771), and not because of any
connection with the Jesuit College of Clermont.
A French trader, by the name of Estienne Morin, had been involved in high degree Masonry in Bordeaux since 1744 and, in 1747, founded an "Ecossais" lodge
(Scots Masters Lodge) in the city of Le Cap Francais, on the north coast of the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). Over the next decade, high degree
Freemasonry continued to spread to the Western hemisphere as the high degree lodge at Bordeaux warranted or recognized seven Ecossais lodges there. In
Paris in the year 1761, a Patent was issued to Estienne Morin, dated 27 August, creating him "Grand Inspector for all parts of the New World." This Patent was
signed by officials of the Grand Lodge at Paris and appears to have originally granted him power over the craft lodges only, and not over the high, or "Ecossais",
degree lodges. Later copies of this Patent appear to have been embellished, probably by Morin, to improve his position over the high degree lodges in the West
Indies.
Early writers long believed that a "Rite of Perfection" consisting of 25 degrees, the highest being the "Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret", and being the
predecessor of the Scottish Rite, had been formed in Paris by a high degree council calling itself "The Council of Emperors of the East and West". The title "Rite of
Perfection" first appeared in the Preface to the "Grand Constitutions of 1786", the authority for which is now known to be faulty. It is now generally accepted that
this Rite of twenty-five degrees was compiled by Estienne Morin and is therefore more properly titled "The Rite of the Royal Secret", or "Morin's Rite".
Morin returned to the West Indies in 1762 or 1763, to Saint-Domingue, where, armed with his new Patent, he assumed powers to constitute lodges of all degrees,
spreading the high degrees throughout the West Indies and North America. Morin stayed in Saint-Domingue until 1766 when he moved to Jamaica. At Kingston,
Jamaica, in 1770, Morin created a "Grand Chapter" of his new Rite (the Grand Council of Jamaica). Morin died in 1771 and was buried in Kingston.
Henry Andrew Francken and his Manuscripts
The one man who was most important in assisting Morin in spreading the degrees in the New World was a naturalized French subject of Dutch origin named Henry
Andrew Francken. Morin appointed him Deputy Grand Inspector General as one of his first acts after returning to the West Indies. Francken worked closely with
Morin and, in 1771, produced a manuscript book giving the rituals for the 15th through the 25th degrees. Francken produced at least two more similar
manuscripts, one in 1783 and another about 1786. The second and third of these manuscripts included all the degrees from the 4th through the 25th.
A Loge de Parfaits d' Écosse was formed on 12 April 1764 at New Orleans, becoming the first high degree lodge on the North American continent. Its life, however,
was short, as the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded New Orleans to Spain, and the Catholic Spanish crown had been historically hostile to Freemasonry. Documented
Masonic activity ceased for a time and did not return to New Orleans until the 1790s.
Francken travelled to New York in 1767 where he granted a Patent, dated 26 December 1767, for the formation of a Lodge of Perfection at Albany. This marked
the first time the Degrees of Perfection (the 4th through the 14th) were conferred in one of the thirteen British colonies. This Patent, and the early minutes of the
Lodge, are still extant and are in the archives of Supreme Council, Northern Jurisdiction.
While in New York, Francken also communicated the degrees to Moses Michael Hays, a Jewish businessman, and appointed him a Deputy Inspector General. In
1781, Hays made eight Deputy Inspectors General, four of whom were later important in the establishment of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in South Carolina: Isaac
Da Costa Sr., D.I.G. for South Carolina; Abraham Forst, D.I.G. for Virginia; Joseph M. Myers, D.I.G. for Maryland; and Barend M. Spitzer, D.I.G. for Georgia. Da
Costa returned to Charleston, S.C., and established the "Sublime Grand Lodge of Perfection" in February 1783. After Da Costa's death in November 1783, Hays
appointed Myers as Da Costa's successor. Joined by Forst and Spitzer, Myers created additional high degree bodies in Charleston and, by 1801, the Charleston
bodies were the only extant bodies of the Rite in North America.
Birth of the Scottish Rite
Although most of the thirty-three degrees of the Scottish Rite existed in parts of previous degree systems,[16] the Scottish Rite did not come into being until the
formation of the Mother Supreme Council at Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1801.
Isaac De Costa, one of the deputies commissioned to establish Morin's Rite of the Royal Secret in other countries, formed constituent bodies of the Rite in South
Carolina in 1783, which eventually became, in 1801, The Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction. All regular Scottish
Rite bodies today derive their heritage from this body.
Subsequently, other Supreme Councils were formed in Saint-Domingue in 1802, in France in 1804, in Italy in 1805, and in Spain in 1811.
In either 1813 or 1867 the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States, was formed.
Albert Pike
Born in Boston, Massachusetts on December 29, 1809, Albert Pike is asserted within the Southern Jurisdiction as the man most responsible for the growth and
success of the Scottish Rite from an obscure Masonic Rite in the mid-1800s to the international fraternity that it became. Pike received the 4th through the 32nd
Degrees in March 1853 from Dr. Albert G. Mackey, in Charleston, S.C., and was appointed Deputy Inspector for Arkansas that same year.
At this point, the degrees were in a rudimentary form, and often only included a brief history and legend of each degree as well as other brief details which usually
lacked a workable ritual for their conferral. In 1855, the Supreme Council appointed a committee to prepare and compile rituals for the 4th through the 32nd
Degrees. That committee was composed of Albert G. Mackey, John H. Honour, W. S. Rockwell, C. Samory, and Albert Pike. Of these five committee members, Pike
did all the work of the committee.
In March 1858, Pike was elected a member of the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, and in January 1859 he became its Grand
Commander. The American Civil War interrupted his work on the Scottish Rite rituals. After the War, he moved to Washington, DC, and in 1868 his revision of the
rituals was complete. Pike also wrote lectures for all the degrees which were published in 1871 under the title Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
| Copyright © 2010 Orient of North Carolina, A.& A.S.R., S.J., USA No part of this web site may be reproduced without written permission from Orient of North Carolina |
| History of The Scottish Rite |
As taken from Wikipedia
The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (the Northern Masonic
Jurisdiction in the United States often omits the and), commonly known as simply the
Scottish Rite, is one of several Rites of the worldwide fraternity known as Freemasonry. A
Rite is a series of progressive degrees that are conferred by various Masonic
organizations or bodies, each of which operates under the control of its own central
authority. In the Scottish Rite the central authority is called a Supreme Council.
The thirty-three degrees of the Scottish Rite are conferred by several controlling bodies.
The first of these is the Craft Lodge which confers the Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft,
and Master Mason degrees. Craft lodges operate under the authority of Grand Lodges,
not the Scottish Rite. Although most lodges throughout the English-speaking world do not
confer the Scottish Rite versions of the first three degrees, there are a handful of lodges
in New Orleans and in several other major cities that have traditionally conferred the
Scottish Rite version of these degrees.
The Scottish Rite is one of the appendant bodies of Freemasonry that a Master Mason
may join for further exposure to the principles of Freemasonry. In England and some other
countries, while the Scottish Rite is not accorded official recognition by the Grand Lodge,
there is no prohibition against a Freemason electing to join it. In the United States,
however, the Scottish Rite is officially recognized by Grand Lodges as an extension of the
degrees of Freemasonry. The Scottish Rite builds upon the ethical teachings and
philosophy offered in the craft lodge, or Blue Lodge, through dramatic presentation of the
individual degrees.
There are records of lodges conferring the degree of "Scots Master" or "Scotch Master"
as early as 1733. A lodge at Temple Bar in London is the earliest such lodge on record.
Other lodges include a lodge at Bath in 1735, and the French lodge, St. George de
l'Observance No. 49 at Covent Garden in 1736. The references to these few occasions
indicate that these were special meetings held for the purpose of performing unusual
ceremonies, probably by visiting Freemasons.
History
The seed of the myth of Stuart Jacobite influence on the higher degrees may have been a
careless and unsubstantiated remark made by John Noorthouk in the 1784 Book of
Constitutions of the Premier Grand Lodge of London. It was stated, without support, that
King Charles II (older brother and predecessor to James II) was made a Freemason in the
Netherlands during the years of his exile (1649–60). However, there were no documented
lodges of Freemasons on the continent during those years. The statement may have
been made to flatter the fraternity by claiming membership for a previous monarch. This
folly was then embellished upon by John Robison (1739–1805), a professor of Natural
Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, in an anti-Masonic work published in 1797. The
lack of scholarship exhibited by him in that work caused the Encyclopedia Britannica to
denounce it.
A German bookseller and Freemason, living in Paris, working under the assumed name of
C. Lenning, embellished the story further in a manuscript titled "Encyclopedia of
Freemasonry" probably written between 1822 and 1828 at Leipzig. This manuscript was
later revised and published by another German Freemason named Friedrich Mossdorf
(1757–1830). Lenning stated that King James II of England, after his flight to France in
1688, resided at the Jesuit College of Clermont, where his followers fabricated certain
degrees for the purpose of carrying out their political ends.
Jurisdiction in the United States often omits the and), commonly known as simply the
Scottish Rite, is one of several Rites of the worldwide fraternity known as Freemasonry. A
Rite is a series of progressive degrees that are conferred by various Masonic
organizations or bodies, each of which operates under the control of its own central
authority. In the Scottish Rite the central authority is called a Supreme Council.
The thirty-three degrees of the Scottish Rite are conferred by several controlling bodies.
The first of these is the Craft Lodge which confers the Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft,
and Master Mason degrees. Craft lodges operate under the authority of Grand Lodges,
not the Scottish Rite. Although most lodges throughout the English-speaking world do not
confer the Scottish Rite versions of the first three degrees, there are a handful of lodges
in New Orleans and in several other major cities that have traditionally conferred the
Scottish Rite version of these degrees.
The Scottish Rite is one of the appendant bodies of Freemasonry that a Master Mason
may join for further exposure to the principles of Freemasonry. In England and some other
countries, while the Scottish Rite is not accorded official recognition by the Grand Lodge,
there is no prohibition against a Freemason electing to join it. In the United States,
however, the Scottish Rite is officially recognized by Grand Lodges as an extension of the
degrees of Freemasonry. The Scottish Rite builds upon the ethical teachings and
philosophy offered in the craft lodge, or Blue Lodge, through dramatic presentation of the
individual degrees.
There are records of lodges conferring the degree of "Scots Master" or "Scotch Master"
as early as 1733. A lodge at Temple Bar in London is the earliest such lodge on record.
Other lodges include a lodge at Bath in 1735, and the French lodge, St. George de
l'Observance No. 49 at Covent Garden in 1736. The references to these few occasions
indicate that these were special meetings held for the purpose of performing unusual
ceremonies, probably by visiting Freemasons.
History
The seed of the myth of Stuart Jacobite influence on the higher degrees may have been a
careless and unsubstantiated remark made by John Noorthouk in the 1784 Book of
Constitutions of the Premier Grand Lodge of London. It was stated, without support, that
King Charles II (older brother and predecessor to James II) was made a Freemason in the
Netherlands during the years of his exile (1649–60). However, there were no documented
lodges of Freemasons on the continent during those years. The statement may have
been made to flatter the fraternity by claiming membership for a previous monarch. This
folly was then embellished upon by John Robison (1739–1805), a professor of Natural
Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, in an anti-Masonic work published in 1797. The
lack of scholarship exhibited by him in that work caused the Encyclopedia Britannica to
denounce it.
A German bookseller and Freemason, living in Paris, working under the assumed name of
C. Lenning, embellished the story further in a manuscript titled "Encyclopedia of
Freemasonry" probably written between 1822 and 1828 at Leipzig. This manuscript was
later revised and published by another German Freemason named Friedrich Mossdorf
(1757–1830). Lenning stated that King James II of England, after his flight to France in
1688, resided at the Jesuit College of Clermont, where his followers fabricated certain
degrees for the purpose of carrying out their political ends.
Human progress is our cause, liberty of
thought our supreme wish, freedom of
conscience our mission, and the guarantee
of equal rights to all people everywhere
our ultimate goal. The Scottish Rite Creed
thought our supreme wish, freedom of
conscience our mission, and the guarantee
of equal rights to all people everywhere
our ultimate goal. The Scottish Rite Creed
| Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite ORIENT OF NORTH CAROLINA Southern Jurisdiction of the United States of America |
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