booknetsaWebster-secretSocietiesAndSubversiveMovements

eighteenth century stands alone, and it alone can with any probability be attributed to Scottish Jacobite inspiration.
It was not, in fact, until three or four years after Lord Derwentwater or his mysterious successor
Lord Harnouester (45) had resigned the Grand Mastership in favour of the Duc d'Antin in 1738 that the additional
degrees were first heard of, and it was not until eight years after the Stuart cause had received its
deathblow at Culloden, that is to say, in 1754, that the Rite of Perfection in which the so-called Scots Degrees
were incorporated was drawn up in the following form: Rite of Perfection
1. Entered Apprentice. 2. Fellow Craft. 3. Master Mason. 4. Secret Master. 5. Perfect Master. 6. Intimate
Secretary. 7. Intendant of the Buildings. 8. Provost and Judge. 9. Elect of Nine. 10. Elect of Fifteen. 11.
Chief of the Twelve Tribes. 12. Grand Master Architect. 13. Knight of the Ninth Arch. 14. Ancient Grand
Elect. 15. Knight of the Sword. 16. Prince of Jerusalem. 17. Knight of the East and West. 18. Rose-Croix
Knight. 19. Grand Pontiff. 20. Grand Patriarch. 21. Grand Master of the Key of Masonry. 22. Prince of
Libanus or Knight of the Royal Axe. 23. Sovereign Prince Adept. 24. Commander of the Black and White
Eagle. 25. Commander of the Royal Secret.(46)
We have only to glance at the nomenclature of the last twenty-two of these degrees to see that on the
basis of operative Masonry there has been built up a system composed of two elements: crusading chivalry
and Judaic tradition. What else is this but Templarism? Even Mr. Gould, usually so reticent on Templar influence,
admits it at this period: In France... some of the Scots lodges would appear to have very early manufactured
new degrees, connecting these very distinguished Scots Masons with the Knights Templar, and thus
given rise to the subsequent flood of Templarism. The earliest of all are supposed to have been the Masons
of Lyons, who invented the Kadosch degree, representing the vengeance of the Templars, in 1741. From
that time new rites multiplied in France and German but all those of French origin contain Knightly, and almost
all Templar grades. In every case the connecting link was composed of one or more Scots degrees.(47)
The name Kadosch here mentioned is a Hebrew word signifying "holy " or " consecrated," which in the
Cabala is found in conjunction with the Tetragrammaton.(48) The degree is said to have developed from
that of Grand Elect,(49) one of the three " degrees of vengeance " celebrating with sanguinary realism the
avenging of the murder of Hiram. But in its final form of Knight Kadosch-later to become the thirtieth degree
of the " Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite "-the Hiramic legend was changed into the history of the
Templars with Jacques du Molay as the victim.(50) So the reprobation of attack on authority personified by
the master-builder becomes approbation of attack on authority in the person of the King of France.
The introduction of the upper degrees with their political and, later on, anti-Christian tendencies thus
marked a complete departure from the fundamental principle of Freemasonry that " nothing concerning the
religion or government shall ever be spoken of in the lodge." For this reason they have been assailed not
only by anti-masonic writers but by Freemasons themselves."(51) To represent Barruel and Robison as the
enemies of Freemasonry is therefore absolutely false; neither of these men denounced Craft Masonry as
practised in England, but only the superstructure erected on the Continent. Barruel indeed incurs the reproaches
of Mounier for his championship of English Freemasons: He vaunts their respect for religious
opinion and for authority. When he speaks of Freemasons in general they are impious, rebellious successors
of the Templars and Albigenses, but all those of England are innocent. More than this, all the Entered Apprentices,
Fellow Crafts, and Master Masons in all parts of the world are innocent; there are only guilty
ones in the higher degrees, which are not essential to the institution, and are sought by a small number of
people.(52)
In this opinion of Barruel's a great number of Masonic writers concur-Clavel, Ragon, Rebold, Thory,
Findel, and others too numerous to mention; all indicate Craft Masonry as the only true kind and the upper
degrees as constituting a danger to the order. Rebold, who gives a list of these writers, quotes a masonic
publication, authorized by the Grand Orient and the Supreme Council of France, in which it is said that "
from all these rites there result the most foolish conceptions,... the most absurd legends,... the most extravagant
systems, the most immoral principles, and those the most dangerous for the peace and preservation of
States," and that therefore except the first three degrees of Masonry, which are really ancient and universal,
everything is " chimera, extravagance, futility, and lies."(53) Did Barruel and Robison ever use stronger
language than this?
To attribute the perversion of Masonry to Jacobite influence would be absurd. How could it be supposed
that either Ramsay or Lord Derwentwater (who died as a devout Catholic on the scaffold in 1746)
could have been concerned in an attempt to undermine the Catholic faith or the monarchy of France? I
would suggest, then, that the term " Scots Masonry " became simply a veil for Templarism-Templarism,
moreover, of a very different kind to that from which the original degree of the Rose-Croix was derived. It
was this so-called Scots Masons that, after the resignation of Lord Derwentwater, " boldly came forward and
Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I
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