Proof of the Falsehoods?

The rite called Scottish is a bastard child of Freemasonry, to which the policy of the Stuart interest gave birth. It was introduced in France, between 1736 and 1738, by the Baron Ramsay, who was an instrument of the Jesuits.
1. This partisan of the Stuart interest was the first propagandist of this rite in France, wherein he extended it to many parts, in a few years, by the aid of his delegates and those of the Jesuits; but it was not until after the arrival in France of the Pretender, Charles Edward, that the rite called Scottish assumed any importance. The Pretender created the Chapter of Arras, and the noblemen of his suite immediately be sought of this chapter warrants with which to propagate the rite. His scale had then augmented, and from seven degrees it successively arose to twenty-five ; for we find, in 1758,
2. A chapter or council of Emperors of the East and West, furnished with this number of degrees, established at Paris.

From this time all the fabricators of new rites, although they increased to a, frightful extent, had the good sense not to augment the number of the degrees, but, on the contrary, gradually reduced them the Scottish Rite alone containing the highest number, and it, from 1755 to 1802, being limited to twenty-five. After the congress of Wil- helmsbad the principal Masonic rites were subjected to great changes, and were every-where modified and reduced to seven, to ten, and to twelve degrees.
From these facts which are incontestable it followed that during the space of time that we have named (from 1755 to 1802), there did not exist in any country no more in England than in France, no more in Prussia than in Sweden councils of the Scottish Rite of thirty-three degrees.

Now, the report that we have quoted explicitly says: "These sublime degrees are at this moment (1802) as they were at the time of their first formation ; they have not undergone the slightest alteration the least addition." This assertion is doubly inexact ; because, in the first place, previous to 1801, no Scottish Rite of thirty-three degrees was known ; and, in the second place, all the rites and degrees, without regard to name or number, were created between 1736 and 1800, and they had nothing in common with the primitive English Rite.

If, then, there did not exist, before 1802, neither a Scottish Rite of thirty-three degrees, nor councils of Grand Inspectors General and Commanders, it follows that the Prince of Sudermanie could not be the Grand Master of the rite in Sweden, nor, for the same reason, could Frederick the Great be its chief in Prussia.

As to another allegation in the same report that the King of Prussia had been recognized chief of these councils upon the two hemispheres, conformably to the grand constitutions of this Order, which were ratified on the 25th of October, 1762, at Berlin it is, like all the others, destitute of foundation in fact ; and this we will proceed to prove.

The king, Frederick of Prussia, was initiated into Masonry on the 15th of August, 1738, at Brunswick, being then prince royal. 1. The lodge at the Three Globes in Berlin, founded by some French artists whom the king had invited to Prussia, was elevated by him to the rank of a Grand Lodge in 1744, and of which he became there- upon Grand Master a dignity that he exercised until 1747. 2. After that time he never occupied himself actively with Masonry. In his interviews with the brethren who directed the Grand Lodge at the Three Globes, and who kept him informed as to what occurred of a Masonic character, he continued to exhibit his attachment to our institution ; but when the different new systems, brought into Prussia by the Marquis of Berny and the officers of the army of Broglie, disseminated themselves in the German lodges, he exhibited himself the enemy of these innovations, and expressed his disdain for these high degrees, as was his manner, freely and in hard terms, prophesying that they would one day be a fruitful source of discord among the lodges and the systems. It seemed that his prediction was to be verified ; for these divers systems soon engendered anarchy within the lodges, even in the lodge at the Three Globes itself, to such an extent that disgusted him with Masonry, without, however, changing his preconceived opinions of the institution. After this he authorized the creation of two other Grand Lodges at Berlin ; but he never had any other connection with them than to respond with thanks to their complimentary expressions on the occurrence of his birthday.

The last letter that King Frederick wrote, under these circumstances, is addressed to the Grand Master of La Goaneric, and bears date 7th February, 1778. As has been well remarked, this letter is written in a style very different from what he had been accustomed to use in addressing the lodges. 1. After this letter, he abstained from even thanking him.

1. We extract from Lenning's Encyclopedia a transcript of this letter, as it appears on page 455 of that work : " The king has been sensible of the homage that the Lodge of Friend-ship at Berlin has rendered to His Majesty in the discourse pronounced by its orator on the anniversary of the day of his birth. His Majesty bas found such expressions very conformable to the sentiments which he has always attributed to that lodge as sustained toward his person; and he readily assures that lodge, in his turn, that he will always interest himself with pleasure in the happiness and prosperity of an assembly which, like it, places its first glory in the indefatigable and uninter- rupted propagation of all the virtues of the honest man and the true patriot [Signed] " FREDERICK. " POTSDAM, 7th February, 1778. "

To the Royal York of Friendship Lodge of Freeming the lodges, when they felicitated him upon the recurrence of the occasion we have mentioned. During the last thirty years of his reign, King Frederick took no active part whatever in Masonry ; this is a notorious fact, and proven by the minutes of the Grand Lodges of Berlin.
1. Then it follows that the revision of the high degrees and* the Masonic constitutions which they attribute to him, and which should have taken place, according to the re- port in question, in 1786 the year of his death is no more correct than is his augmentation of the degrees. As to the rituals which lie should have prepared him- self for these high degrees the same year,
2. They could not.
1. We can support these assertions with not only the letters which we have received from the Secretary of the Grand Lodge at the Three Globes in Berlin, but also with the minutes of this authority, bearing date, respectively, the 17th August, 1833, and 19th December, 1861, which declare, in the most formal and positive manner, that the documents sent to it at different times, styled "Grand Constitutions of the Scottish Rite of thirty-third," as well those written in Latin and in French as those written in the English language, and attributed to King Frederick II documents of which the authenticity is doubtful are all apocryphal, as, in general, are all the other acts relating to this rite which pretend to have emanated from that prince.

(See Lenning's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, edition of 1862, pages 455 and 456.)
There is other proof not less authentic, which puts to flight the fables invented by the partisans of the Scottish Rite. It is that it is well known that the King Frederick II, on the 9th September, 1785, went to Berlin for the last time, to visit his sister, the Princess Amelia, and the next day he reviewed the artillery at Wedding. From thence he returned to Potsdam, where he passed the whole winter in bodily suffering from the malady that eventually caused his death.
To lie was moved in a very unquiet state, on the 17th April, 1786, to his retreat of iSans Sot'd, and there died four months afterward. (See the same work, page 456.)

We will abstain from any other reflections upon this subject, and merely add, as a last fact in support of our assertions, that, to the knowl- edge of every lodge in Berlin, the King Frederick II in no manner occupied himself with Masonry during the last thirty years of his life. 2. See the Book of Gold of the Supreme Council for France, printed in 1807, page
7. It is in direct contradiction with the report of the brother Dalcho, who does not attribute to King Frederick but the creation of the THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE.

In any case have been drawn up by him, as he was at this time in a dying condition ; and, long before his death winch took place on the 17th August, 1786 he was totally incapable of any species of labor. "With regard to the assertions relating to the grand constitutions, or rules and regulations of the rite, of 1762, that King Frederick II should have himself ratified on the 1st of May, 1786, they are equally destitute of foundation, since these rituals did not exist at this time, but were evidently fabricated in 1804. In a word, every thing connected with this rite that pretends to be historic has been invented in part by its creators, and finished by its propa- gandists.
To all these simple facts, which are truly historic, destructive as they are of the truth of the principal asser- tions contained in the report of Frederick Dalcho though that report is affirmed, approved, and certified as true by many high dignitaries of this rite we could add others not less conclusive, did we not believe such addition su- perfluous. We will now enumerate the facts which preceded the establishment of this authority in Paris, and indicate the origin of the Masonic power which constituted it; but to do this we must go back nearly a century. thirty-third degree, and not that of the eight degrees from the twenty- fifth to the thirty-third.

This Book of Gold (it would be better named the book of brass} thus explains the creation of these degrees : " It would appear that the institution of the Supreme Council of the thirty-third and last degree is the work of this prince (Frederick II), who, upon his ascent to the throne, declared himself the protector of the Order in his states; that the dignity of Sovereign of Sovereigns, in the Consistories of Princes of the Royal Secret, resided in his person ; that it was him who augmented to thirty-three the twenty-five degrees of the ancient and accepted rite, as they were decreed in 1762: and, finally, that he delegated his sovereignty to the Supreme Council, who named it 'of the thirty-third and last degree,' for the purpose of exercising it after his death."

1 See Lenning's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, book 4, page 453, 2d ed. *His name, nevertheless, was borne upon the register of the "Grand Lodge at the Three Globes," as its Grand Master, until 1755.


From: "A General History of Free-Masonry in Europe"
By: Rebold, Emmanuel 1868