Traces of a Hidden Tradition in Masonry and Medieval Mysticism

[Trisha Sinclair]

St. John of the Cross; Philippe Paracelsus; The Fire Philosophers; Militia Crucifera Evangelica, under Simon Studion; The Mysteries of the Hermetic Masters.

Fifteenth century: The Fratres Lucis at Florence, also the Platonic Academy; The Alchemical Society; Society of the Trowel; The Templars; The Bohemian Brothers, or Unitas Fratrum; The Rosicrucians.

Fourteenth century: The Hesychasts, or the precursors of the Quietists; The Friends of God; German Mysticism, led by Nicholas of Basle; Johann Tauler; Christian Rosencreutz; The great Templar persecution; The Fraticelli.

Thirteenth century: The Brotherhood of the Winkelers; The Apostolikers; The Beghards and the Beguinen; The Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit; The Lollards; The Albigenses, crushed out by the Catholic Church; The Troubadours.

Twelfth century: The Albigenses appear, probably derived from Manichæans, who settled in Albi; The Knights Templars, publicly known; The Cathari, widely spread in Italy; The Hermetists.

Eleventh century: The Cathari and Patarini, condemned by the .Roman Church, both derived from Manichæans; The Paulicians with the same tradition, also persecuted; The Knights of Rhodes and of Malta; Scholastic Mystics.

Tenth century: Paulicians: Bogomiles; Euchites; Manichæans.

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From the Ninth century to the Third century the following organisations and sects appear: Manichæans; Euchites; Magistri Comacini; * Dionysian Artificers; Ophites; Nestorians; Eutychians.

In the Fourth century the central figure for all occult students is the great Iamblichus; the forerunner of the Rosicrucians; and in the Third century we find Manes, the widow's son, the link for all of those who believe in the great work done by the "Sons of the Widow" and the Magian Brotherhood.

The various sects and bodies here detailed should not, of course, be understood as belonging exclusively to the century under which they appear in the above classification. All that this list is intended to convey is that such sects were more markedly prominent during the century in which they are placed.

The possibility of dealing with mysticism and the real mystic societies consists in the fact that we are dealing with a certain definite teaching, its difficulty consists in the fact that the outward presentation is constantly changing according to the exigencies of


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the period. New teachers are sent to build new forms, for the tendency to crystallize and to petrify is the natural inclination of the human mind; the emotional nature clings fondly to familiar conditions, but these belong to the "natural body" and we are following the evolution of the "spiritual body." Through forms and phases many and painful does the soul acquire experience. Hence all these many societies have been but the schools through which the souls have been passing, and wherein they have acquired knowledge.

Thus the study of mysticism in the Middle Ages places before us a landscape flickering with shadow and with light, and the people who travel across that tract are alternately in light and shade, and their experiences, bitter as well as sweet, belong to all pilgrims who are seeking truth in the perplexities of the changing phases of human life.


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Footnotes
8:* This "Science of the Soul" is the fact against which the Roman Church waged such bitter war, and formed the basis for the attack upon the various sects such as the Albigenses, Patarini, and Vaudois, all remnants of Gnostic sects.

10:* "The favour and success of the Paulicians in the eleventh and twelfth centuries must be imputed to the strong, though secret, discontent which armed the most pious Christians against the Church of Rome. Her avarice was oppressive, her despotism odious; less degenerate, perhaps, than the Greeks in the worship of saints and images, her innovations were more rapid and scandalous."--Gibbon (E.), Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. IX., chap. liv., p. 289. In Italy the descendants of the Manichæans were termed Cathari, sometimes Gazari, or "The Pure." A good account, with many references, is to be found in Fuesslins (Johann Conrad), Neue and unpartheyische Kirchen and Ketzerhistorie der Mittlern Zeit. Frankfurt u. Leipzig, 1770.

12:* King (C. W.), The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 13. London, 1887.

12:† Lecky (W. E., M.A.), History of European Morals, Vol. II. p. 167. Third Edition. London, 1877.

13:* Says Lea: "Transmigration provides for the future reward or punishment of deeds done in life." Lea (Henry Charles), A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, Vol. I., p. 91, 98. Schmid (C.), Histoire et Doctrine de la Secte des Cathares ou Albigeois, Vol. II., p. 256. Paris, 1849. Says: "La Metempsycose enseignée par l’une les écoles Cathares se retrouve également dans le Manichéisme."

14:* The principal secret societies take St. John as their patron saint as we shall see when dealing with the details of many of these bodies. Notably is this the case with many of the Masonic bodies. See the articles on "Johannesbrüder" and "Johanneschristen" in Allgemeines Handbuch der Freimaurerei, Zweite völlig umgearbeitete Auflage; ii. p. 68. Leipzig, 1865.

15:* The Life and Times of John Reuchlin or Capnion, by Francis Barham (editor of the Hebrew and English Bible. London, 1843), p. 17.

16:* The Kali-Yuga of the Hindus.

16:† Marras (P.), Secret Fraternities of the Middle Ages, pp. 19-21. London, 1865.

17:* In his last years the Pope had leisure to turn his arms against the Manichæan heretics, who, starting from the mountains of Bulgaria, carried their pure but stern religion westwards in a constant stream which never lost touch with its fountain-head, and under the names of Paterini, Ketzer, and Albigenses, earned the execration of their contemporaries, and the respect of posterity. Browning (Oscar), Guelphs and Ghibellines: a short History of Mediæval Italy from 1250-1409, p. 10, 1893.

18:* One curious fact which makes a further identity between these bodies is given by H. C. Lea, in his History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, Vol. I., p. 92. London, 1888. "A further irrefragable evidence of the derivation of Catharism from Manichæism is furnished by the Sacred thread and garment which were worn by all the Perfect among the Cathari. This custom is too peculiar to have had an independent origin, and is manifestly the Mazdean kosti and saddarah, the sacred thread and shirt, the wearing of which was essential to all' believers, and the use of which by both Zends and Brahmins shows. that its origin is to be traced to the prehistoric period anterior to the separation of those branches of the Aryan family. Among the Cathari the wearer of the thread and vestment was what was known among the inquisitors as the hæreticus indutus or vestitus, initiated into all the mysteries of the heresy."

19:* See the execution and trial of Servetus, 1553, Willis (R., M.D.) Servetus and Calvin. A Study of an important Epoch in the early History of the Reformation; p. 480. London, 1877.

20:* History of the Christian Church, by the Rev. Henry Stebbing, A.M. (London, 1834), ii., 301.

21:* Barruel: Mémoires pour servir à l’Histoire du Jacobinisme, 4 vols. London, 1797.

21:† Le Philosophe Inconnu, the leader of the Martinists.

23:* La Correspondance inédite de L. C. Saint-Martin et Kirchoerger, Baron de Liebistorf (1792-1797). Paris, 1862; pp. 195, 196.

24:* The Nicolaïtes.

25:* Disquisitions on the Anti papal Spirit which produced the Reformation, by Gabriele Rossetti, Prof. of Italian Literature at King's College (London, 5834), ii. 156. He is here referring to a secret language, the existence of which was known to many writers.

26:* Says Lea in speaking of Calabria: "The Heretics sought and obtained in 1497 from King Frederic the confirmation by the crown of agreements. . . . They were visited every two years by the travelling pastors or barbes, who came in pairs, an elder known as the reggitore, and a younger, the coadiutore, journeying with some pretence of occupation, finding in every city the secret band of believers whom it was their mission to comfort and keep steadfast in the faith  Everywhere they met friends acquainted with their secret passwords, and in spite of ecclesiastical vigilance there existed throughout Italy a subterranean network of heresy disguised under outward conformity."--Lea (H. C.), History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; II., pp. 268, 269. New York; 1888.

26:† Op. Cit., I. 148.

27:* Founded in London, 1767, by Benedicte Chastamer, a mystic mason.

29:* Llorente (J. A.). Hist. of the Inquisition. London, 1826. Merzario (Giuseppe, Prof.); I Maestri Comacìni; Milano; 1893. This author says: "In this darkness which extended over all Italy, only one small lamp remained alight, making a bright spark in the vast Italian necropolis. It was from the Magistri Comacini. Their respective names are unknown, their individual works unspecialized, but the breath of their spirit might be felt all through those centuries, and their name collectively is legion. We may safely say that of all the works of art between 800 and 1000, the greater and better part are due to that brotherhood--always faithful and often secret--of the Magistri Comacini."



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[Trisha Sinclair]

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TOWARDS THE HIDDEN SOURCES OF MASONRY.
As researches into its history are pursued, it appears more and more probable that the Masonic movement, to state it generally, was a sort of broad, semi-mystic and largely moral movement, worked from certain unknown centres, and deriving its origin from some ancient and not generally known basis. That is to say, its basis was, and is, unknown to all of those who do not recognise a definitely spiritual guidance in the practical, mental, and moral developments which from time to time change the surface of society by the introduction of new factors into the evolving processes of which life consists. Researches into Masonic literature must be made in many languages and countries before this view can be firmly established for the general world, but to the student of Theosophy who is also a student of Masonry it

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becomes more and more apparent that the movement which is generally termed Masonic had its roots in that true mysticism which originated, as an ideal effort, from the spiritual Hierarchy which guides the evolution of the world; and that, however much the branches may be separated from the root-idea, there is nevertheless a mystic teaching in Masonry for those who will seek below the surface.

One such searcher into the origin of Masonry gives the following interesting and suggestive passage in his study on the discoveries respecting the obelisk made by Commander Gorringe, which tend to "prove that an institution similar to Freemasonry existed in Egypt," and the writer proceeds:

According to our reading of history, the priesthoods of Belus, or Baal in Assyria, of Osiris in Egypt, of Jehova in Palestine, of Jupiter in Greece and Rome, of Ahura-Mazda in Persia, of Brahma in India, and of Teutates in Britain, were primitive secret societies, who instructed and governed the primitive families and races. It little matters whether we call the members of those priesthoods Belites, Pastophori, Levites, Curetes, Magi, Brahmins, or Druids; they were connected by secret ties, and intercommunicated from the Indus to the Tiber, from the Nile to the Thames. Hence there ever has been, is, and ever will be Freemasonry on our planet. Masonry was ever more or less connected with priesthoods till about the thirteenth century of our era, when Masons declared themselves Freimaurer (Freemasons). Since about that period priesthoods have ever denounced and persecuted Freemasonry. *


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The evidences of the basic mystic teaching can be largely traced by watching the eddies and undercurrents which constantly break the smooth stream of ordinary Masonry. Frequently do we find other and smaller bodies, whose mystic aim was more marked and whose occult tendencies were more decidedly definite, springing up within the larger organization. Some few members with deeper insight gather round themselves others with the same tendencies, and thus we find formations of smaller societies constantly taking place. It is the main features of some of these that we are now going to outline, and after we have briefly reviewed the sources from which some of the leading Masons draw their historical Masonic tradition, we can pass from the general outline to the smaller societies, and it will be seen that the same traditions reappear in them.

And in corroboration of the hypothesis just enunciated, the words of a well-known Mason may be quoted, who in summing up an admirable lecture which had just been delivered by a Brother Mason spoke as follows:

A thoughtful consideration of our principal ceremony irresistibly leads us to the doctrine that was typified by the pastos in the King's Chamber of the great Pyramid, and connects with the main characteristic of all the mysteries, which embodied the highest truths then known to the illuminated ones.

. . . The twelfth century witnessed an outbreak of mystic symbolism, perhaps unparalleled in our era, and gave us the religious legends of the Holy Grail, which point to

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an eastern origin; this period coincides with the greatest popularity of the Templars, whose fall is contemporaneous with the decadence noticed by the lecturer.

Without pressing the argument, I may suggest that some portion, at least, of our symbolism may have come through a Templar source, Romanist yet deeply tinged with Gnosticism; while at a later date the Lollards (supposed to be inheritors of Manichæism) and who were but one of the many religio-political societies with which Europe was honeycombed, possibly introduced or revived some of these teachings. . . . One thing is certain, that satisfactory renderings of our symbols can only be obtained by a study of eastern mysticism: Kabalistic, Hermetic, Pythagorean and Gnostic.

Down the centuries we find enrolled the names of philosophic teachers who veiled their doctrines in figures similar to those in vogue among the Rosicrucians and still more recent students, and often identical with the signs we blazon on the walls of our Lodges and Chapters. *

Many Theosophical students will find such utterances of immense value, as showing the view held by a Masonic authority of such well-known repute as Mr. E. Macbean, I.G., with regard to some, at any rate, of the Eastern links with modern Masonry. † Mr. Gould, the lecturer, also made the following suggestive remarks:



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With regard to the derivations of Masonry, there are, briefly, three possibilities.

It may have come down to us

I.
 Through a strictly Masonic channel.
 
II.
 Through the Rosicrucians.
 
III.
 Through a variety of defunct societies, whose usages and customs have been appropriated, not inherited, by the Freemasons.
 

The views thus put forward by these two authorities coincide perfectly with those of many German and Italian mystic writers of the last century and those preceding it. We will, therefore, investigate the early traditions in order to trace the links which bind them together, and join the chain to the yet more remote spiritual centre hidden, though not lost, in the clouds of time, and in piecing together

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the fragments of these esoteric links it is better to begin with the views of a well-known Italian Mason, for it is to the "Sons of the Widow" we must look for help in revivifying the ancient spiritual truths of a once esoteric Masonry. The writer from whom we quote believed profoundly in Masonry and writes of it as one who knows that it was a vehicle for conveying spiritual mysteries to the people: Thus he writes * of the early history of Masonry:

Three centuries had passed since the origin of Christianity when at this epoch of barbarism there arose in the same Persia whence so many teachings had gone forth, a philosopher who wished to lead back the confused spirit of men to the cult of the only true God. He was called Manes. Some of the uninstructed have regarded him as the first originator of our Order, and the creator of our doctrines.

Manes lived under the Persian King Sopares. He endeavoured to recall to life in their entire purity the mysteries and the religion of Zoroaster, uniting them with the pure compassionate teachings of Jesus Christ. The teachings of Manes were liberal, whereas superstition and


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despotism governed Europe. It is easy to believe that those who professed demagogic principles and a religion free from all that was chimerical would be persecuted. Thus the Manichæans from about the fourth century were persecuted to the fullest by all the despots and by the Romish Priests. . . . The Holy Augustine, brought up in the mysteries of Zoroaster adapted to the holy teaching of Jesus, became his bitterest persecutor and the greatest enemy to the teaching of Manes which was known under the name of the religion of the Child of the Widow.

This hatred shown towards Manes by St. Augustine, and his zeal for the Christian Trinity doctrine, may have originated in the vexation which Augustine experienced at having been only admitted into the first degree of the mysteries of Manes. The Magi, who had recognized in him an ambitious and restless spirit, were thereby induced to refuse to him all advancement, and this in spite of his nine years study, which he made in order to be raised to the higher degree. This fact is sufficiently confirmed by Fleury, Baronius, and by Augustine himself in his confessions. After the death of Manes, twelve of his pupils went forth into all the parts of the earth and imparted his teachings and his mysteries to all people. They illumined as with a lightning-flash Asia, Africa, and Europe, as may be seen from Baronius, Fleury, Bayle, and others. . . . . . We have already said that still in the lifetime of Manes, his pupil Herman had spread his teaching in Egypt, where the Coptic priests and other Christians mingled it with the mysteries adopted from the Jews. . . . . It was through these same Coptic priests and the Eastern Christians that both the mysteries of the Children of the Widow, and the cult of the great Architect came to us in consequence of apparently unforeseen events, and it will be seen that it was principally by means of the Crusades that they obtained a secure footing in the West. The mysteries maintained their existence under the name of the cult of

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the Great Architect of the Universe, a name that has its origin in the allegory of Hiram, which represented, in the mysteries, "the unknown God," the Eternal, and sole creator of all things and the Regenerator of all beings.

Thus does Reghellini da Schio write, as he traces the Masonic ancestry back to the pre-Christian period, and he continues:

Bossuet in his Histoire des Variations, IV., says that in the middle ages the Christian sects, and especially the Manichæans and Gnostics, had concealed themselves as much as possible in the Orthodox Church itself: the remainder of the Manichæans who had maintained themselves only too well in the east, crowded into the Latin Church. Montfaucon, VII., p. 271, says when he speaks of the religion of the Egyptians, that the heresy of the good and evil principles which had been upheld by Manichæans, had at various times brought forth in the Church great disorder, and he asserts that in the East . . . . . . these doctrines existed at the time of the Crusades, . . . . the long time that elapsed during the wars of the Crusaders gave them the opportunity of being admitted into all the mysteries of the Children of the Widow, the teachings of the Great Architect of the world, and of both principles . . . . the Crusaders who had been admitted to the mysteries of the Children of the Widow and initiated therein, imparted them, on their return home, to their pupils in Europe . . . . during the sojourn of the Crusaders with the Mussulmans, all kinds of theological investigations were instituted. These led the Crusaders deeper into the faith in the Great Architect of the world. . . .

And again in another passage (p. 46) he adds:

In spite of the religious and political changes that followed upon the conquests of the Saracens in Asia, Africa, and Europe; in spite of the persecutions introduced by

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them, the doctrines as to the unity of God was able to maintain itself by means of the Mysteries in Palestine, Syria, and Egypt, more especially, however, in the neighbourhood of Thebes; for here the Christians and Coptic priests preserved, in the lap of their solitude, the teachings communicated to them by Hesman, the pupil of Manes, a teaching which later passed over into Europe. *

Passing on from these important and interesting indications to the more detailed aspect of our subject we find that at a later period many of the semi-Masonic bodies had "Unknown Heads," and more especially those whose aims were avowedly occult, this being the term which was applied in Germany, Austria and Hungary to those organizations that did not make public the sources from which their teachings were derived, nor say from whom their inspiration came. To find the origin of such secrecy we must turn back to the early history of the Masonic tradition and sketch briefly what is told us by a Mason of the early part of this century, when dealing with this historic secrecy. He tells us:

We find among all the priests of ancient peoples, and in order that none but really capable and worthy men should be associated with their offices and studies, they instituted forms of probation and examination upon which followed some kind of initiation. Now as the oldest writers ascribed such mysteries and initiations to the Egyptian Priests, it is very probable that they already 'existed before the downfall of that people, for we find traces of them in equally ancient


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nations and perceive from the likeness of their fundamental principles and of the teaching and customs of their priests, that they must have had a common origin. Among the Chaldeans the Magi dwelt on the summits of the mountains, and among the Celtic races the Druids lived in the quiet solitude of the forests. Among the Indians and Ethiopians the Brahmins and Gymnosophists had localities specially dedicated to them, and among the Egyptians the Priests had intricate dwelling-places far beneath the surface of the earth. All had their symbols and distinctive signs, and owed their fame only to the secrecy of their initiation.

The secrets of Antiquity had a twofold aim. In the first case religion was chosen as the object of care; the greater the mysteries the more eternally secret were they to be kept from the people. The aim in the second case was to guard the Wisdom of all things. He who would be initiated must be a man of upright character and true mental power. The sacred mysteries fell into decay with the Roman Empire, the flourishing and spread of the Christian religion being the chief cause of this decadence. The initiation into the mysteries of the Wisdom was however of much longer duration. They changed only from time to time either the name, the inner constitution, the degrees and various kinds of knowledge bound up in these, or even the nature of the union itself. The men, who were known under the name of Magi, or the White Masters, made one of their most important aims the true knowledge of the human heart, which lay always open before their eyes. To them alone was entrusted the bringing up of Kings and the great of the earth, for they alone could understand science as well as art, and careless of all prejudice taught a simple and natural theology, which based itself upon the worship of a Supreme Being.

Because, however, their method of teaching was symbolical, many errors of which they were entirely incapable were ascribed to them on account of their numerous

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hieroglyphics. The Magi of Memphis and Heliopolis were held in such esteem, and their renown was so widespread that the greatest heroes of war, philosophers, and strangers of the highest rank journeyed to Egypt and sought to be initiated by the Priests in order to learn the secrets of the Priesthood. From among these priests Lycurgus and Solon drew a part of their system of philosophy; and Orpheus was also initiated by them, and by this means enabled to introduce into his own land, festivals from which the Greek mythology afterwards arose. Thales also was instructed by them, Pythagoras received from the same source his doctrine of Metempsychosis, Herodotus obtained much information, and Democritus his secrets. Moses also, who was brought up by the Magi, used his knowledge of the mysteries to free the Israelites from Egyptian bondage and lead them to the service of the true God. It is well known that Moses prescribed certain probation for his Levites, and that the secrets of the Priesthood were inaccessible to the rest of the Israelites, and this principle ruled till the time of Solomon. *

And this policy of silence was a wise one, for the bitter vituperations which were showered on the heads of the few who were the exoteric leaders in such organizations, demonstrated the wisdom which guarded the personalities of the real leaders. Such


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work was better done by small groups, and this appears to have been the view held by those leaders with whom the student does come into contact. Some few of these groups in the last century have already been cited, * but it will be as well to repeat their titles, which run as follows:

The Canons of the Holy Sepulchre.

The Canons of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem.

The Beneficent Knights of the Holy City (The Strict Observance).

The Clergy of Nicosia in the Island of Cyprus.

The Clergy of Auvergne.

The Knights of Providence (The Order of the Knights of St. Joachim).

The African Brothers.

The Knights of Light (The Order of Fratres Lucis).

The Asiatic Brothers (The Order of the Knights of St. John of Asia).

These Societies do not belong to any one country in particular, for we find ramifications of them appearing, disappearing and re-appearing, like beacon lights, in Austria, Hungary, Italy, France, Sweden, and Russia. England was the least prolific soil in the early centuries for the implanting of this mystic seed. In Scotland and Ireland, however, that light shone more clearly than in England. But in Austria and the Danubian Provinces mysticism grew apace for a short and happy while, and so a few words about Austria in particular may be said before passing on.


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Says Ludwig Abafi, in his Introduction to Pre-Historic Freemasonry in Austria and Hungary: *

It is proved that the Emperor Rudolph I., even in the year 1275, authorized an Order of Masons, whilst Pope Nicholas III., in the year 1278, granted to the Brotherhood of Stonemasons at Strassburg, a letter of Indulgence which was renewed by all his successors down to Benedict XII. in 1340. The oldest order of German Masons arises in the year 1397; next follow the so-called Vienna Witnesses of 1412, 1430, and 1435; then the Strassburg Order of Lodges of 1495; that of Torgau of 1462, and finally sixteen different Orders on to 1500, and to the following centuries for Spires, Regensburg, Saxon-Altenburg, Strassburg, Vienna, and the Tyrol.

At this period the Roman Church appears to have made various futile efforts to retain a hold upon these Masons, but without tangible result. For the forces at the back of these movements prevented the destruction of a new free spiritual growth by the Roman power. At this period also came those great souls, burning for freedom, who worked the Reformation, † and although that work and those reforms were



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dwarfed of their full growth by the natural crudity and narrowness of the human mind, nevertheless the dogmatic and mind-killing power of Rome was materially thwarted, and the spirit in the teaching of the Master Christ set free from those trammels. At all events, Abafi proceeds:

Equally important in the formation of Freemasonry . . . . were certain religious communities and brotherhoods of the Middle Ages, which for the most part aimed at a return to the pure teaching of Christ, and at making its ethical form familiar to their adherents. One of these brotherhoods was that of the Waldenses, established by Peter Waldo in the year 1170 at Lyons. Their aim was the restitution of the original purity of the Church through the adoption of voluntary poverty, and other ascetic practices. But because of the doctrine of Transubstantiation they soon came into conflict with the Catholic Church, and as early as 1134 Pope Lucius III. excommunicated them, and Sextus IV. in 1477 proclaimed a Crusade against them. In spite of these attacks they have kept alive up to the present day, and have spread into several countries, namely into Italy, France and Bohemia, and in this latter country we shall meet them again under the name "Bohemian Brothers."

A few words may be summarised from the same writer about some of the other mystic bodies in Bohemia and Hungary, lands full of occult tendencies. Among them are the following: "Die Brüder von Reif and Hammer," or the "Brothers of the Circle and Hammer," "Die Hackebrüdershaft," "The Brotherhood of the Hatchet," "Die Freunde vom Kreuz," or the "Friends of the Cross." This last

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society spread into the Netherlands, and had its greatest success in the latter part of the 17th Century. The "Brothers of the Cross" * were still holding their meetings in 1785: they had many members in Wallachia, and still more in Transylvania. † Brabbée in his Masonic studies says: It consisted principally of

Older men and those who were generally reputed wise, and therefore of the prominent leaders of the Brotherhood, who here, in the Metropolis of the Kingdom, formed a kind of stronghold of the "inner East."

The last expression is worthy of our notice, for it shows how the minds of men were turning, even in Masonic circles, to the Eastern teachings. Abafi also says that a great and moulding force was exercised at this period on the form of Freemasonry by Jan Amos Komensky (latinized Comenius) who was born at Brünn, in Bohemia, in 1592, and who became a chaplain of the Bohemian Brothers in 1618. When the civil wars began Komensky lost wife, child, and property, and was exiled from Austria like all other non-Catholics. He escaped to Poland, turned his thoughts to educational matters, and became famous in Sweden, Hungary, and England.

Komensky was actively interested in the Rosicrucian movement, and joined John Valentinus Andreas in his work in that body. In 1650 Komensky was



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invited to Hungary and Transylvania by the Prince Ragozcy, where he stayed four years. It is doubtless partly owing to his influence that the Rosicrucian movement spread so widely in these countries. His philosophical and metaphysical views were so widely spread, that when Anderson * wrote his book on Freemasonry, he, according to Abafi, incorporated in his work a compilation of the most essential portions of the plans of Komensky. As Abafi phrases it:

It was reserved for an Austrian, a Moravian schoolmaster, the Chaplain of the Bohemian Brothers, to bestow ethical treasures upon a brotherhood in proud Albion, the home of the boldest intellects; to formulate the ideas, and to point out the way for a league which--after its transformation--was destined to embrace the noblest of all nations, and being brought to perfection by them, ordained to influence the whole of humanity.

The spread of mysticism in Austria and Hungary during the last century was astoundingly rapid; according to one authority † about five per cent. of the entire population belonged to the Freemasons, Rosicrucians, and other allied societies.

The vast majority of these Lodges must, he thinks, have been secret, for at the death of the



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[paragraph continues] Empress * only three legitimate and perfect Lodges existed. That is to say, only three Lodges in which Freemasonry as such existed without any more extended search into occultism. Another authority, Dr. Otto Henne-am-Rhyn, † promptly doubles this number, saying that there were 20,000 mystic students in Vienna. As this writer was an avowed enemy of mysticism, his views may be taken as not likely to exaggerate the numerical value of occult students.

In Austria mysticism had been aided by the kindly interest taken in such subjects by the Emperor Francis I. He had protected and favoured a very remarkable man called Seefels--or Sehfeld--a Rosicrucian and Mason, who had an alchemical laboratory at Rodaun, a small village about a mile from Vienna. This man was loved and respected by the whole neighbourhood for his kindliness, as well as feared for his powers, which were most remarkable. Seefels is mentioned by Schmieder in his valuable History of Alchemy, ‡ as one of the "Seven true Adepts" who should appear in Europe in the course of the century. Schmieder also gives some very interesting proofs of his powers. But in spite of the Emperor's protection he was seized by




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the police and placed in the fortress at Temeswar in Hungary. A careful study of Schmieder's work would more than repay any student who desires to have evidences for occult powers made certain by history.

The following interesting notes * are quoted as showing the connecting link between the Continental mystic Masonry and England, of which but little has been heard in the outer world.

In a German tract, printed about 1803, and bound up with another tract of Fessler's, called Geschichte der Freimaurerei, occur the following startling statements, which I give to Masonic students for what they are worth.

1. The Templars worked with the so-called "Magical Brethren" at an early period of their existence.

2. A Rosicrucian MS. states that at Cologne, with the motto, "non omnis moriar," this Magical Union was created there in 1115.

3. A MS. of Michael Mayer's still exists in the University Library at Leyden, which sets forth that in 1570 the Society of the old Magical Brethren, or "Wise Men" was revived under the name of Brethren of the Golden Rosy Cross.

4. It is asserted that in 1563 the statutes of the Brotherhood were, on the 22nd of September, at Basle, at a meeting of seventy-two Masters of Lodges, revised, set forth, and printed; that the Lodges of Swabia, Hesse, Bavaria, Franconia, Saxony, Thuringia, and those on the Moselle acknowledged the headship of the Grand Lodge of Strassburg. That in the eighteenth century the Lodges of Dresden and Nuremberg were fined by the Grand-Master of Strassburg, and that the Grand Lodge of Vienna, of Hungary,


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and Stirrmark, the Grand Lodge of Zürich, which ruled the Swiss Lodges, referred to the Mother Lodge of Strassburg in all difficult and doubtful matters.

To these notes by a "Masonic Student" the following editorial note is appended:

There can be no doubt that the Theosophical and Magical Union above mentioned did exist as an organized Secret Society. The correspondence of Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim shows that he was a member of such a secret society, and it is further asserted that when he was in London he established a branch of it in that city. Fludd, as showing that secret societies existed in the Universities, has the passage "notwithstanding any allegiance which I may have vowed by a ceremonial Rite to Aristotle * in my youth." These societies used the double Triangles, or Seal of Solomon, and in the ruins of one of the old Temple Preceptories in France was found a copper medallion with the Lamb surmounted by this Cabalistic symbol.

Two points in this interesting note can be corroborated by further evidence. The Rosicrucian MS. mentioned in para. 2, is also mentioned on page 56 of a most valuable German book (to which reference has already been made) by Friedrich Gottlieb Ephraim Weisse, or Magister Pianco; it is called Der Rosenkreutzer in seiner Blösse (Amsterdam; 1781). Some extracts from it will not be without interest, for it refers to the older body of "Wise-Men," who were known as the "Unknown Heads" of many of the


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[Trisha Sinclair]

small societies. The conditions of entrance are briefly given as follows:

3. Whosoever wished to be admitted to the secrets, and afterwards to be initiated, must be a man of honour and of true spiritual power; and he must be already of considerable learning; for only those were accepted, of whom it could be hoped that they would be of great service to the Sacred Alliance. . .

10. The Initiates wore a triangle, symbolical of the three qualities of the Demiurgos--Power, Wisdom and Love. . . .

The Masters of the second secret were Masters in the knowledge of all nature, and her forces, and divisions.

11. They were called Philosophers or the World-Wise. Their science was called the World-Wisdom. . . .

12. These World-Wise occupied themselves in secret. No one knew where they met, or what they did.

14. But they had also secret sciences known only to the highest among them--called Magos, Mage, or the Wise Master, who taught the people of Divine things. He could do things which appeared quite supernatural. *

The author, speaking of the relation of Masonry to this older and more secret body, says:

Those Brother Masons (of the highest degrees) knew that they owed their brotherhood to the Initiations of the old Wise-Men; that the great part of their (the Masons') knowledge came from Them, and that without Their help they could do nothing. †

In another passage he says:

Long before the year 111S, there was a society which in the mysteries of the ancients took the place of the last and



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youngest grade, and which had the same position with the Tempelherren, who had adopted it with the other teachings of the Wise Ones.--They were the novices from all time. As in the time of the Inquisition against the Templars no one knew anything about the lower and last grades, and those who belonged to them had no public connection with them and thus lived without attracting any attention, they were overlooked in the cruelties of the time. One did not think of them. As the members of the Templars who escaped were few in number and died one after the other, the remaining members drew together to form a bond of friendship, to which end they drew up certain rules. This new society appeared in different forms and under different names, Cross Society or Brothers of the Cross, Noaites, and in later days adopted the name of Freemasons.

Length of time and the involved issues consequent thereon made those initiated into the Mysteries at length perceive that they must introduce an entirely different organization into the community, in order to bring it into line with Christianity.

Those associates who still remained over from the collapse * of the community of Initiates, and who were scattered about the world, began to make fresh projects for a general union. They took the laws of their community and the laws of the Christians, which are known under the name of the Bible, into a real assimilation. They began to institute a parallel between the books of Moses and the memorials of the Magi, and from all this they evolved a kind of association, provided with certain laws, which could fit in with the Christian.

The association was, as is always the custom with innovations, in the beginning somewhat dark and involved; it was saddled with various meanings and names, which it


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[Trisha Sinclair]

would be quite unnecessary to repeat here, but which were all of short duration, so that the first ones called it the association of Magi and its members the Magi Brotherhood and associates. And this first association was formed in the year 1115 and lasted till the year 1117, though it underwent changes from time to time. The Crusaders had given rise to many societies and orders amongst the profane, and associations had sprung up which had quite differing objects. Amid innumerable ones there arose in the year 418 the Knights, with whom the Magi Brotherhood united and shared their principles and secrets with them.

The writer speaks "as one having authority'' and knowledge also.

Turning to the particular date mentioned in the notes from The Kneph, we find that about this period, or a few years earlier, the first documentary evidence of the appearance of the Asiatische Brüder is mentioned by the Baron Hans Ecker von Eckhoffen in his treatise, Authentischen Nachrichten von den Ritter-und Braider-Eingeweihten aus Asien (Hamburg; 1788). These writings, he says, date from 1510; showing that a body of mystics was known at that period; these Knights of Asia also called themselves the Knights of St. John, and it is a curious fact to notice that one of the Masonic records which has caused an infinity of discussion, and also of dissension, amongst Masons, is the celebrated "Cologne Record" which is dated 1535, and in which an Order of St. John is noticed. This charter has been a veritable bone of contention between materialistic and mystic Masons, and much polemical literature

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has been published on the subject. The mystics hold it to be true on external and internal evidences; while the materialists reject it, as they reject all such evidence.

In the record there is the name of Philip Melancthon--the friend and co-worker of Martin Luther--who appears as a Brother in the Order of the Freemasons. This document bears witness also that a secret society was known in various parts of the world, which existed before 1440 under the name of the "Brotherhood of St. John," and since then, and up to 1535, under the title, the "St. John's Order of Freemasonry" or "Masonic Brotherhood."

This Society * was reformed and re-arranged in the year 1717, the generally accepted modern date of the materialistic and non-mystic Masons. It became more atheistic in its views, and more democratic in its tendencies. Amongst other deeply interesting matter, the "Charter of Cologne" contains the following passage:

The Brotherhood, or the order of Freemason Brothers, bound together according to St. John's holy rules, traces its origin neither from the Templars nor from any other spiritual or temporal Knightly Order, but it is older than all similar Orders, and has existed in Palestine and Greece, as well as in various parts of the Roman Empire. Before the Crusades our Brotherhood arose; at a time when in consequence of the strife between the sects teaching Christian morals, a small number of the initiated--entrusted with the true


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[Trisha Sinclair]

teaching of virtue, and the sensible exposition of the secret teaching--separated themselves from the mass. *

According to the record, the following reason was given for the adoption of the name: The Masters of this confederation were called the St. John's Brethren, as they had chosen John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Light of the World . . . as their original and example. †

There is a curious similarity between this document in its phrasing and style, and the remarks made in the book by Weisse, in his Der Rosenkreutzer in seiner Blösse, some passages of which have already been summarised.

Yet another well-known Masonic authority bears witness to the value of the Cologne Record. Thus Mackenzie writes:

The documents are still preserved in one of the Lodges at Namur. They have been very hotly debated. On the one hand, Oliver, Reghellini, and some others treat them as authentic, and the antiquaries of the University of Leyden certify that the paper on which the register of the Lodge at the Hague is written is of the same kind as that used in Holland in the beginning of the seventeenth century. Now this register refers to the Charter of Cologne as being in existence, so that the fraud, if a fraud, is two centuries old. ‡

Our chief interest in all this detailed evidence lies in the ever-recurring testimony that it bears to that older Fraternity, which was the inspiring body at the




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back. But we must now turn to some of the societies which had " Unknown Heads," as given in our list.

J. M. Ragon, in his Orthodoxie Maçonnique, gives the following interesting account of one of these bodies, more information on which will be added from other sources.

Order of the Architects of Africa, or the African Brothers
(1767).

[Trisha Sinclair]

This Order was composed of educated and well-principled brothers. Their lodges, in Europe, were all closed, excepting perhaps that of Constantinople (at Berlin).

Only one of their Grand-Masters was known; this was the councillor of war, Köppen.

Their first degree offered a more extensive and complete instruction than all the degrees of the Scotch systems together. They said that the Lodges of St. John neglected the great end, and that instruction was hardly to be had there, and that the Strict Observance did not know the grounds of the continuation of the Masonic Order. They occupied themselves with hieroglyphics, especially with those relating to Freemasonry, which they sought to know well. They made a mystery of their goal up to the seventh degree, which could only be gained by zeal, perseverance and discretion. Their secondary occupations were the sciences, especially history and antiquities, the study of which they considered indispensable for the true Freemason.

Their first degree was symbolically called the Architect or Apprentice of Egyptian secrets.

They called themselves the Africans, * because their


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studies began with the history of the Egyptians, in whose mysteries they found indications of Freemasonry, although they placed its origin much later, as to which the Crusades gave them no light.

Their customs were simple and noble. They never laid any stress on decorations, aprons, ribbons, jewels, etc., but they liked a certain luxury, and sententious inscriptions with a sublime but hidden meaning. In their assemblies they read treatises and communicated to each other the result of their researches.

Their banquets were simple, decorum prevailed, and instructive and scientific discourses were given at them.

Admissions were given without any fees. Earnest brothers who fell into distress received much assistance.

They have published many important documents in Germany on Freemasonry.

This Order was established in Prussia, in 1767, with the assent of Frederick II., called the Great.

Its degrees, to the number of eleven, were divided into two temples, viz.:

First Temple.


1. Apprentice.
2. Companion.
3. Master.

Second Temple.


4. Architect, or Apprentice of the Egyptian secrets (Manes Musæ).
5. Initiate in the Egyptian secrets.
6. Cosmopolitan Brother.
7. Christian Philosopher (Bossinius).
8. Master of the Egyptian secrets, Aléthophilote . (Friend of Truth).

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