The Secrets of The Rose Croix Brotherhood had
found initial refuge in the Palatinate or Rhine of Germany
which is near the Northern French boarder in the 1500’s.
This was also a bastion of Calvinist and Free Celtic
Catholic thinking and spiritual reform. Dynamic religious
thinking had begun to flourish under Frederick V (Elector
of Palatine of the Rhine) in the 1600s. Wars and battles
over boundaries and Catholic Orthodoxy plagued the central
European regions for over 100 more years. Masonic and
Rosicrucian activities had been documented and more open
since the liberations and movements by Martin Luther and
other free thinkers. Enhanced mystical degrees had been
established in Bordeaux, France. Around 1744, the a French
trader, by the name of Estienne Morin became involved in
Bordeaux chapter. Around 1747, Morin
became determined to found an "Ecossais" lodge (Scots
Masters Lodge) in the new world. It is now
generally accepted that this Rite of twenty-five degrees
was compiled by Estienne Morin and is therefore more
properly titled "The Rite of the Royal Secret", or
"Morin's Rite".
The
one man who was most important in assisting Morin in
spreading the degrees in the New World was a naturalized
French subject of Dutch origin named Henry Andrew
Francken.
Francken worked closely with Morin to produced a
manuscript book giving the rituals for the 4th through
the 25th degrees. During this time,
The Les Loge
de Parfaits d' Écosse was formed on 12 April 1764 at New
Orleans, becoming the first high degree lodge on the
North American continent. Its PUBLIC life, however, was
short, as the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded New Orleans
from France to Spain, and the Catholic Spanish crown had
been historically hostile to Freemasonry. Soon
thereafter, Francken travelled to New York in 1767 where
he granted a Patent, dated 26 December 1767, for the
formation of a Lodge of Perfection at Albany. This marked
the first time the Degrees of Perfection (the 4th through
the 14th) were conferred in one of the thirteen British
colonies. Although the
Orleans Chapter of Perfection and Royal Secrets remained
clandestine, it never died. This book addresses the
philosophies and teachings of the Secret Lodge as
delivered by its’ Supreme Magus.
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