Rosicrucian and Masonic 4

Rosicrucian and Masonic 4

Tried by the Inquisition for founding a Masonic lodge in the city of Rome, Cagliostro

was sentenced to die, a sentence later commuted by the Pope to life imprisonment in the old castle

of San Leo. Shortly after his incarceration, Cagliostro disappeared and the story was circulated that

he had been strangled in an attempt to escape from prison. In reaUty, however, he was liberated and

returned to his Masters in the East. But CagUostro-the idol of France, surnamed "the Father of the

Poor," who never received anything from anyone and gave everything to everyone— was most

adequately revenged. Though the people little understood this inexhaustible pitcher of bounty which

poured forth benefits and never required replenishment, they remembered him in the day of their

power, [pp 407-408]

 

Cagliostro founded the Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry, which received into its mysteries many of

the French nobility and was regarded favorably by the most learned minds of Europe. Having

estabhshed the Egyptian Rite, Caghostro declared himself to be an agent of the order of the Knights

Templars and to have received initiation from them on the Isle of Malta. (See Morals and Dogma,

in which Albert Pike quotes Eliphas Levi on Cagliostro's affiliation with the Templars.) Called upon

the carpet by the Supreme Council of France, it was demanded of Cagliostro that he prove by what

authority he had founded a Masonic lodge in Paris independent of the Grand Orient. Of such

surpassing mentality was Cagliostro that the Supreme Council found it difficult to secure an

advocate qualified to discuss with Cagliostro philosophic Masonry and the ancient Mysteries he

 

 

 

claimed to represent. The Court de Gebelin~the greatest Egyptologist of his day and an authority on

 

ancient philosophies-was chosen as the outstanding scholar. A time was set and the Brethren

convened. Attired in an Oriental coat and a pair of violet-colored breeches, Cagliostro was haled

before this council of his peers. The Court de Gebelin asked three questions and then sat down,

admitting himself disqualified to interrogate a man so much his superior in every branch of

learning. Cagliostro then took the floor, reveaUng to the assembled Masons not only his personal

qualifications, but prophesying the future of France. He foretold the fall of the French throne, the

Reign of Terror, and the fall of the Bastille. At a later time he revealed the dates of the death of

Marie Antoinette and the King, and also the advent of Napoleon. Having finished his address,

Cagliostro made a spectacular exit, leaving the French Masonic lodge in consternation and utterly

incapable of coping with the profundity of his reasoning. Though no longer regarded as a ritual in

Freemasonry, the Egyptian Rite is available and all who read it will recognize its author to have

been no more a charlatan than was Plato, [pp 408-409]

 

Then appears that charming "first American gentleman," Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who together with

the Marquis de Lafayette, played an important role in this drama of empires. While in France, Dr.

Franklin was privileged to receive definite esoteric instruction. It is noteworthy that Franklin was

the first in America to reprint Anderson's Constitutions of the Free-Masons, which is a most prized

work on the subject, though its accuracy is disputed. Through all this stormy period, these

impressive figures come and go, part of a definite organiz:ation of political and religious thought--a

functioning body of philosophers represented in Spain by no less an individual than Cervantes, in

France by Cagliostro and St.-Germain, in Germany by Gichtel and Andreae, in England by Bacon,

More, and Raleigh, and in America by Washington and Franklin. Coincident with the Baconian

agitation in England, the Fama Fraternitatis and Confessio Fraternitatis appeared in Germany,

both of these works being contributions to the establishment of a philosophic government upon the

earth. One of the outstanding links between the Rosicrucian Mysteries of the Middle Ages and

modern Masonry is Elias Ashmole, the historian of the Order of the Garter and the first Englishman

to compile the alchemical writings of the English chemists.

 

The foregoing may seem to be a useless recital of inanities, but its purpose is to impress upon the

reader's mind the philosophical and political situation in Europe at the time of the inception of the

Masonic order. A philosophic clan, as it were, which had moved across the face of Europe under

such names as the "lUuminati" and the "Rosicrucians," had undermined in a subtle manner

the entire structure of regal and sacerdotal supremacy. The founders of Freemasonry were all men

who were more or less identified with the progressive tendencies of their day. Mystics, philosophers,

and alchemists were aU bound together with a secret tie and dedicated to the emancipation of

humanity from ignorance and oppression. In my researches among ancient books and manuscripts, I

have pieced together a little story of probabilities which has a direct bearing upon the subject. Long

before the establishment of Freemasonry as a iratemity, a group of mystics founded in Europe what

was called the "Society of Unknown Philosophers." Prominent among the profound thinkers who

formed the membership of this society were the alchemists, who were engaged in transmuting the

political and religious "base metal" of Europe into ethical and spiritual "gold"; the Qabbalists who,

as investigators of the superior orders of Nature, sought to discover a stable foundation for human

government; and lastly the astrologers who, from a study of the procession of the heavenly bodies,

hoped to find therein the rational archetype for all mundane procedure. Here and there is to be

found a character who contacted this society. By some it is believed that both Martin Luther and

also that great mystic, Philip Melanchthon, were connected with it. The first edition of the King

James Bible, Bible, which was edited by Francis Bacon and prepared under Masonic supervision,

bears more Mason's marks than the Cathedral of Strasburg. The same is true respecting the Masonic

symbolism found in the first Enghsh edition of Josephus' History of the Jews, [pp 409-410]

 

For some time, the Society of Unknown Philosophers moved extraneous to the church. Among the

 

 

 

fathers of the church, however, were a great number of scholarly and intelligent men who were

 

keenly interested in philosophy and ethics, prominent among them being the Jesuit Father,

Athanasius Kircher, who is recognized as one of the great scholars of his day. Both a Rosicrucian

and also a member of the Society of Unknown Philosophers, as revealed by the cryptograms in his

writings, Kircher was in harmony with this program of philosophic reconstruction. Since learning

was largely limited to churchmen, this body of philosophers soon developed an overwhelming

preponderance of ecclesiastics in its membership. The original anti-ecclesiastical ideals of the

society were thus speedily reduced to an innocuous state and the organization gradually converted

into an actual auxiliary of the church. A small portion of the membership, however, ever maintained

an aloofness from the literati of the faith, for it represented an unorthodox class— the alchemists,

Rosicrucians, Qabbalists, and magicians. This latter group accordingly retired from the outer

body of the society that had thus come to be known as the "Order of the Golden and Rose Cross"

and whose adepts were elevated to the dignity of Knights of the Golden Stone. Upon the withdrawal

of these initiated adepts, a powerful clerical body remained which possessed considerable of the

ancient lore but in many instances lacked the "keys" by which this symbolism could be interpreted.

As this body continued to increase in temporal power, its philosophical power grew

correspondingly less, [pp 410-411]

 

The smaller group of adepts that had withdrawn from the order remained inactive apparently,

having retired to what they termed the "House of the Holy Spirit," where they were enveloped by

certain "mists" impenetrable to the eyes of the profane. Among these reclusive adepts must be

included such well-known Rosicrucians as Robert Fludd, Eugenius Philalethes, John Heydon,

Michael Maier, and Henri Khunrath. These adepts in their retirement constituted a loosely

organized society which, though lacking the solidarity of a definite fraternity, occasionally initiated

a candidate and met annually at a specified place. It was the Comte de Chazal, an initiate of this

order, who "raised" Dr. Sigismund Bacstrom while the latter was on the Isle of Mauritius.

In due time, the original members of the order passed on, after first entrusting their secrets to

carefully chosen successors. In the meantime, a group of men in England, under the leadership of

such mystics as Ashmole and Fludd, had resolved upon repopularizing the ancient learning and

reclassifying philosophy in accordance with Bacon's plan for a world encyclopedia. These men had

undertaken to reconstruct ancient Platonic and Gnostic mysticism, but were unable to attain their

objective for lack of information. Elias Ashmole may have been a member of the European order of

Rosicrucians and as such evidently knew that in various parts of Europe there were isolated

individuals who were in possession of the secret doctrine handed down in unbroken line from the ancient Greeks and Egyptians through Boetius, the early Christian Church, and the Arabians, [p 411]The efforts of the English group to contact such individuals were evidently successful.