Masonic Notes And Queries.

as well as the Supreme Council itself , was established by Frederick II ., King of Prussia , just before his death in 1786 , and tbe Constitutions as revised by him , which we are all bound to sivoport and maintain & e . ' The first authentic document in wliich we find any mention of Frederick II ., as chief of the Rite , is the Circular published at Charleston , by Frederick Palcbo , Dec . i ; 1 S 02 , and issued for the purpose of ' explaining the origin and nature of the high and sublime degrees of

Masonry . ' In this remarkable document it is stated , that " ' In 5761 ( 1761 ) Lodges and Councils of the Sublime degrees , existed all over the continent of Europe , His Majesty , the King of Prussia , who was the Grand Commander of the Order of the Royal Secret , was proclaimed as Chief of the Sublime , and ineffable , degrees of Masonry for the two hemispheres . * * , On the 1 st May , 1786 the constitution of the 33 rd degree , " called the Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand Inspectors General , was finally ratified by his Majesty the King of Prussia who as Grand Commander of the Order of Princes of the

Boyal Secret , possessed the Sovereign Masonic power over the whole craft . ' "' Dalcho , in his Orations p . 94 , in explanation of this fact , says that' by the Constitutions of the order , which were ratified at Berlin , on the 25 th October , 1762 , the King of Prussia was proclaimed as Chief of the eminent degrees , with the rank of S . G . I . G ., and Grand Commander . ' Now the fact is , that these constitutions of 1762 make no mention whatever of the King

, of Prussia , nor is there the slightest proof that they were ever -ratified at Berlin , or anywhere else . "In the 'Extra-its dtt Lime d' Or du Supreme Conseil pour la France , tyc' of 1806 , 1807 and 180 S , we find these facts 'incidentally alluded to without going into any particulars . "On the 5 th March , 1813 , the Duke Bernhard , of Saxe Weimarand his friend Count Albert Edlinghaving previousl

, , y received the degrees , from the 18 th to the 31 st , by communica'tion , were initiated into the 32 nd degree at Paris , by the ¦ Grand Commander Cambaceres . On this occasion Pyron , the Grand Secretary of the Holy Empire , delivered a discourse ' on tbe history nf Freemasonry and of the Supreme Council of the 33 ° / which was published in the Extrait du Livre d' Ordu Supreme Conseil pour la France , cfe . Seance du 5 , 1 , 5813 , Paris ,

1813 , and in the course of which he asserted , that ' Charles Edward , the last descendant of the Stuarts , was Chief of Ancient Modern Masonry . He appointed Frederick II ., King of Prussia , as his successor and Grand Master . At that time the Ancient and Accepted Rite consisted of only 25 degrees , of which the Prince of the Royal Secret was the last . On the 1 st May , 17 S 6 , 3 ? rederick revised the high degrees and Constitutions of the Ancient and Accepted Rite , added eight degrees , to the twentylive already recognised in Prussia , and formed a Supreme

Council of the 33 rd degree , the laws of which , he drew up himself in eighteen articles . ' " Kloss , in his Geseh der Freimaitreri in Franlcreich , alluding to this discourse , says that it must have been a source of national pride to the Prussians , that the French masons at any time prior to the battle of Jena , should have adopted the Conqueror of Rosbach , as their Supreme Masonic Chief . "In the Abrege Idstorique de i ' organisation en France des 33

degres du , Rit Ecossais ancienne et accepte , Paris , 1814 ( by Pyron ) , we find the following account : " 'In 1786 , Frederic II ., King of Prussia , Sovereign of Sovereigns , of the Ancient and Accepted rite , and Grand Master , successor of the Kings of Scotland and of England , foreseeing that his days would not be of long duration , desired to consolidate for ever the Ancient and Accepted Rite , for which he had an

especial affection . He wished to invest it in each state or empire , where it might be practised , with the necessary power to free it from the clogs which it might sustain on the part of that brutal ignorance which alters everything , from the ainbititious pretences of other systems , and from a destructive pre-eminence reprobated by the principles of universal equality , and of the reciprocal system of toleration , which should make of the different

masonic systems one union , as emanating from the same stock . Consequently , on 1 May , 1786 , Frederic II ., presiding in person over the Supreme Council , through which he ruled and governed the Order , increased to 33 degrees of the hierarchy of the 25 degrees ordained by the Grand Constitutions of 1762 . ' "Vassal , in his Essai historique sur Vinstitution du , Sit Ecossais cf-e ., Paris , 1827 , p . 19 , alluding to the various impositions of De Grasse , Tilly , and others , says : They had recourse to fraud , and , in order to impose with more safety , it was declared that these Constitutions had been

granted by Frederic II ., rung of Prussia , who in granting them , instituted the 32 nd and 33 rd degrees on 1 May , 1786 ; and in order to give color to this fable , it was asserted that Frederic was Grand Master of the universality of the Scotch Rite ; and we will add that he could not have been Grand Master of the Scotch Rite , because , since 1750 , only reformed Masonry was professed in Prussia . We know that the King of Prussia protected the Order , but he was never Grand Master ; and , had he

been that prior to the 1 May , 1786 , he was afflicted with an apoplexy , which was followed by paralysis , and which deprived him of a portion of his intellectual faculties . This malady continued eleven months without intermission , and he died in the course of this year , from whence it follows that he could not create the 32 nd and 33 rd degrees , and still less sign the pretended Grand Constitutions on 1 May , 1786 .. The opinion which we express is the more precise , for if we consult vol . iii . of the

Histoire de la Monarchic Prussienne , published by Mirabeau in 1788 , we find the following passage : 'It is a pity that Frederic II . did not push his zeal to become Grand Master of all tbe German lodges , or at least , of all the Prussian lodges ; his power would thereby have been considerably increased and many military enterprises would have resulted differently if he had never embroiled himself with tbe heads of this association . ' ( Note . —A consideration which cannot have escaped even

the least observant masons , is , that if the 32 nd degree had been created by the King of Prussia , this degree would , at least , have retained some analogy with the reformed masonry which was practised m Prussia ; while , on comparing this degree with the 25 th degree of Herodnn , wefindjso perfect anidentity between the two degrees , that they contain the same doctrines , the same ritual , and the same historical points ; wdience it results that the Prince of the Royal Secretis nothing but tbe 25 th deg . of

, the Rite of Herodim , which has been transposed to the 32 nd degree ) . These documents demonstrate that the King of Prussia was never Grand Master of the Scotch Rite , and that in 1786 he was physically unable to create any degrees , or to institute these pretended Grand Constitutions ; and we regret that the authors of the circular of the Grand Orient of 1819 should have entertained an erroneous principle by recognising that Frederic II ., had given Grand Constitutions forthe Scotch Rite .

Notwithstanding this formal assertion , we persist m believing that these Grand Constitutions never existed . Brother de Marguerrites has gone even further , he asserts , in a memoir published in 1818 , that a Scotch knight had in his possession the original of these Constitutions , signed mamt , propria by the great Frederic , King of Prussia . We may observe that the Knight must have been of high birth to have been so intimately connected with the great Frederic , that this monarch should

have confided to his care the grand constitutions signed by his own hand , and that he must have been ivell advanced in years , because he must have been a 33 rd in 1786 , in order to be entrusted with a document which was inherent to the Cahier of this degree . * * * We can also affirm that since 1814 the Grand Comistory of Rites in France has conferred the 33 rd degree upon many Prussian officers who were old masons , and none of them had any knowledge of the existence of a Supreme

Grand Council at Berlin . Therefore , if the 33 rd degree and the Scotch rite arc actually unknown at the place where they were created how can it be asserted that the great Frederic instituted this degree and gave a Masonic charter , which other kingdoms should enjoy and his own be deprived of ? " In the ' Official Proceedings of the Centennial Celebration of the Initiation of Frederick the Great King of Prussia , into the Fraternity of Masons , by the Grand National Lodge of the

Three Globes , Berlin , 1838 , ' the orator of the occasion endeavoured to correct the assertions advanced in regard to Frederic , by several French systems of Masonry , and positively declared that he never actively participated in any work except in that of the real Masonic degrees , and that he was opposed to the high degrees . " Lenning , in his Encyelopadie , gives the following

information concerning Frederic : —¦ " Frederick II . third King of Prussia , known as Frederic the Great , born in Berlin Jan . 24 th , 1712 , died at the Chateau of Sans Souci , August 17 th , 1786 . He was made a Mason at Brunswick on the evening of August 14 th , 1738 , by a Masonic deputation from the lodge " Absolom " at Hamburg , consisting of the Barons Von Oberg , Von Bielfeld , Von Lowen , the Count of Lippe-Bruckeburg , and some others . On the death of his father in 1740 he ascended the throne o £ Prussia , and in June of the same year we find him presiding as Master over a