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1762—Morin receives the first constitution of the Ancient and Accepted rite. The
council of the Emperors of the East inaugurated.
1763—Morin in the West Indies.
1765—Willermoz completes the Rose-Croix ritual in Lyon.
1781—Publication of the ritual of the Knight Kadosh degree.
Surviving manuscripts held in the library of the United Grand Lodge of England
demonstrate that the Council of Emperors of the East and West had no part in issuing
a patent to Morin and that their degrees were absorbed into the Ancient and Accepted
at a later date.
3. The Templar Tradition. A big subject that has kept some dubious authors in royalties
for years. Indeed it was, of course, a central feature of the Congress of Wilhelmsbad in
1782 which debated Baron Von Hund’s contention that the Order of the Temple had
survived and was the creative force behind freemasonry. This claim had been seriously
undermined in 1782 when it had been formally denied by Charles Edward Stuart,
Duke of Albany. The outcome of the Congress was that the case was not proven.
Willermoz attended the Congress and was a member of Von Hund’s Order of the
Strict Observance. When the Congress concluded with a decision to drop the Templar
Claim Willermoz renamed his “Templar Group” the “Knights Beneficent of the Holy
City” leaving the Ancient and Accepted quite separate and unaffected.
4. Martinism. John Day is correct in the sense that “Martinism” as it now exists has
been hugely influenced by Louis Claude de Saint-Martin and Papus. In the beginning
there was no initiatic ceremony—Pasqually would have directly transmitted initiation
and the ideas that underpin the Cohen workings. Willermoz both knew Pasqually and
accommodated Saint-Martin at a time when he was directly involved in the preparation
of the Rose-Croix ritual. My point is that Willermoz would have communicated his
concern with esoteric Christianity into the 18 th degree. That degree is the one that
largely informs the modern ritual. In France the exoteric symbols of Christianity were
removed in the 1880s.
5. Crowley. I would refer John Day to the Ars Quatuor Coronatorum Vol. 108 where
Crowley’s masonic activities are discussed in some length by Martin Starr.
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