booknetsaWebster-secretSocietiesAndSubversiveMovements

the rise of German influence. Would it not therefore appear probable that, except in the case of the Rose-
Croix degree, the authors of the upper degrees were not Scotsmen nor Jacobites, that Scots Masonry was a
term used to cover not merely Templarism but more especially German Templarism, and that the real author
and inspirer of the movement was Frederick the Great? No, it is significant to find that in the history of the
Ordre du Temple, published at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Frederick the Great is cited as one of
the most distinguished members of this Order in the past,[15] and the Abbé Grégoire adds that he was " consecrated
" at Remersberg (Rheinsberg?) in 1738, that is to say in the same year that he was initiated into Masonry
at Brunswick.[16] There is therefore a definite reason for connecting Frederick with Templarism at
this date.
I would suggest, then, that the truth about the Templar succession may be found in one of the two following
theories:
1. That the documents produced by the Ordre du Temple in the nineteenth century, including the
Charter of Larmenius, were genuine; that the Order had never ceased to exist since the days of the Crusades;
that the Templar heresy was Johannism, but that this was not held by the Templars who escaped to
Scotland; that the Rose-Croix degree in its purely Christian form was introduced by the Scottish Templars
to Scotland and four hundred years later brought by Ramsay to France; that the Master of the Temple at this
date was the Regent, Philippe Duc d'Orléans, as stated in the Charter of Larmenius. Finally, that after this,
fresh Templar degrees were introduced from Germany by von Hundt, acting on behalf of Frederick the
Great.
2. That the documents produced by the Ordre du Temple in the nineteenth century were, as M. Matter
declares, early eighteenth-century fabrications; that although, in view of the tradition preserved in the Royal
Order of Scotland, there appears to be good reason to believe the story of the Scottish Templars and the origin
of the Rose-Croix degree, the rest of the history of the Templars, including the Charter of Larmenius,
was an invention of the " Concealed Superiors " of the Stricte Observance in Germany, and that the most important
of these " Concealed Superiors " were Frederick the Great and Voltaire.
I shall not attempt to decide which of these two theories is correct; all that I do maintain is that in either
case the preponderating role in Templarism at this crisis was played by Frederick the Great, probably with
the co-operation of Voltaire, who in his Essai sur les Mours championed the cause of the Templars. Let us
follow the reasons for arriving at this conclusion.
Ramsay's oration in 1737 connecting Freemasonry with the Templars may well have come to the ears of
Frederick and suggested to him the idea of using Masonry as a cover for his intrigues-hence his hasty initiation
at Brunswick. But in order to acquire influence in a secret society it is always necessary to establish a
claim to superior knowledge, and Templarism seemed to provide a fruitful source of inspiration. For this
purpose new light must be thrown on the Order. Now, there was probably no one better qualified than
Voltaire, with his knowledge of the ancient and mediæval world and hatred of the Catholic Church, to undertake
the construction of a historical romance subversive of the Catholic faith-hence the urgent summons
to the philosopher to visit Frederick. We can imagine Voltaire delving amongst the records of the past in order
to reconstruct the Templar heresy. This was clearly Gnostic, and the Mandæans or Christians of St.
John may well have appeared to present the required characteristics. If it could be shown that here in Johannism
true " primitive Christianity " was to be found, what a blow for the " infâme " ! A skilful forger could
easily be found to fabricate the documents said to have been preserved in the secret archives of the Order.
Further we find von Marschall arriving in the following year in France to reorganize the Templars, and von
Hundt later claiming to be in possession of the true secrets of the Order handed down from the fourteenth
century. That some documents bearing on this question were either discovered or fabricated under the direction
of Frederick the Great seems the more probable from the existence of a masonic tradition to this effect.
Thus Dr. Oliver quotes a Report of the Grand Inspectors-General in the nineteenth century stating that:
During the Crusades, at which 27,000 Masons were present, some masonic MSS. of great importance were
discovered among the descendants of the ancient Jews, and that other valuable documents were found at different
periods down to the year of Light 5557 (i.e. 1553), at which time a record came to light in Syrian
characters, relating to the most remote antiquity, and from which it would appear that the world is many
thousand years older than given by the Mosaic account. Few of these characters were translated till the
reign of our illustrious and most enlightened Brother Frederick II, King of Prussia, whose well-known zeal
for the Craft was the cause of so much improvement in the Society over which he condescended to preside.
[17]
I suggest, then, that the documents here referred to and containing the secrets claimed by von Hundt may
have been the ones afterwards published by the Ordre du Temple in the nineteenth century, and that if unau-
Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I
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