booknetsaWebster-secretSocietiesAndSubversiveMovements

1782 an English Freemason writes: " I have found some rather curious MSS. in Algiers in Hebrew relating
to the society of the Rosicrucians, which exists at present under another name with the same forms. I hope,
moreover to be admitted to their knowledge."[39]
It has frequently been argued that Jews can have played no part in Freemasonry at this period since they
themselves were not admitted to the lodges. But this is by no means certain; in the article from The Gentleman's
Magazine already quoted it is stated that Jews are admitted; de Luchet further quotes the instance of
David Moses Hertz received in a London lodge in 1787; and the author of Les Franc-Maçons écrasés, published
in 1746, states that he has seen three Jews received into a lodge at Amsterdam. In the " Melchisedeck
Lodges " of the Continent non-Christians were openly admitted, and here again the Rose-Croix degree occupies
the most important place. The highest degrees of this rite were the Initiated Brothers of Asia, the Masters
of the Wise, and the Royal Priests, otherwise known as the degree of Melchisedeck or the true Brothers
of the Rose-Croix.
This Order, usually described as the Asiatic Brethren, of which the centre was in Vienna and the leader a
certain Baron von Eckhoffen, is said to have been a continuation of the " Brothers of the Golden and Rosy
Cross," a revival of the seventeenth-century Rosicrucians organized in 1710 by a Saxon priest, Samuel
Richter, known as Sincerus Renatus. The real origins of the Asiatic Brethren are, however, obscure and
little literature on the subject is to be found in this country.[40] Their further title of " the Knights and
Brethren of St. John the Evangelist " suggests Johannite inspiration and was clearly an imposture, since they
included Jews, Turks, Persians, and Armenians. De Luchet, who as a contemporary was in a position to acquire
first-hand information, thus describes the organization of the Order, which, it will be seen, was entirely
Judaic. " The superior direction is called the small and constant Sanhedrim of Europe. The names of
those employed by which they conceal themselves from their inferiors are Hebrew. The signs of the third
principal degree (i.e. the Rose-Croix) are Urim and Thummim.... The Order has the true secrets and the explanations,
moral and physical, of the hierogyphics of the very venerable Order of Freemasonry."[41] The
initiate had to swear absolute submission and unswerving obedience to the laws of the Order and to follow
its laws implicitly to the end of his life, without asking by whom they were given or whence they came.
" Who," asks de Luchet, " gave to the Order these so-called secrets? That is the great and insidious
question for the secret societies. But the Initiate who remains, and must remain eternally in the Order, never
finds this out, he dare not even ask it, he must promise never to ask it. In this way those who participate in
the secrets of the Order remain the Masters."
Again, as in the Stricte Observance, the same system of " Concealed Superiors "-the same blind obedience
to unknown directors !
Under the guidance of these various sects of Illumines a wave of occultism swept over France, and
lodges everywhere became centres of instruction on the Cabala, magic, divination, alchemy, and theosophy
[42]; masonic rites degenerated into ceremonies for the evocation of spirits-women, who were now admitted
to these assemblies, screamed, fainted, fell into convulsions, and lent themselves to experiments of the
most horrible kind.[43]
By means of these occult practices the Illumines in time became the third great masonic power in
France, and the rival Orders perceived the expediency of joining forces. Accordingly in 1771 an amalgamation
of all the masonic groups was effected at the new lodge of the Amis Réunis.
The founder of this lodge was Savalette de Langes, Keeper of the Royal Treasury, Grand Officer of the
Grand Orient, and a high initiate of Masonry-" versed in all mysteries, in all the lodges, and in all the plots."
In order to unite them he made his lodge a mixture of all sophistic, Martiniste, and masonic systems, " and
as a bait to the aristocracy organized balls and concerts at which the adepts, male and female, danced and
feasted, or sang of the beauties of their liberty and equality, little knowing that above them was a secret
committee which was arranging to extend this equality beyond the lodge to rank and fortune, to castles and
to cottages, to marquesses and bourgeois " alike.[44]
A further development of the Amis Reunis was the Rite of the Philalèthes, compounded by Savalette de
Langes in 1773 out of Swedenborgian, Martiniste, and Rosicrucian mysteries, into which the higher initiates
of the Amis Reunis-Court de Gebelin, the Prince de Hesse, Condorcet, the Vicomte de Tavannes, Willermoz,
and others-were initiated. A modified form of this rite was instituted at Narbonne in 1780 under the
name of " Free and Accepted Masons du Rit Primitif," the English nomenclature being adopted (according
to Clavel) in order to make it appear that the rite emanated from England. In reality its founder, the Marquis
de Chefdebien d'Armisson, a member of the Grand Orient and of the Amis Reunis, drew his inspiration from
certain German Freemasons with whom he maintained throughout close relations and who were presumably
Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I
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