Innovations In Masonry.

Knights Templars had associated themselves together , for the purpose of rebuilding the churches and other sacred edifices , which had been destroyed by the Saracens . These latter , however , having discovered this

lioly design , and being determined to thwart it , had employed emissaries , who , secretly mingling with the Christian workmen , materially impeded , and often entirely paralysed their labours . The Christians , as a security against this species of

treason , then found it necessary to invent signs and other modes of recognition , by which intruders might be detected . When compelled by the failure of the Crusades , to leave the Holy Land , these pious as well as

warlike Knights were invited by the King of England to his dominions , where they devoted themselves to the cultivation of architecture and

the fine arts . Ramsay pretended that the degrees thus originally established by the Knights Templars were those of Scotch Master , Novice , and Knight of the Temple , aud he even had the audacity to

propose , in the year 1728 , to the Grand Lodge of England , to substitute them for the three primitive degrees of symbolic Masonry , a proposition which met with no more success than it deserved . In Paris , however , he was more fortunate , for

there his degrees were speedily adopted , not indeed as a substitute for , but as an addition to Ancient Craft Masonry . These degrees became popular on the continent of Europe , and in a short time gave birth to innumerable others , which attempted by the splendour of external decorations , and gorgeousness of

ceremonies to compensate for their want of consistency with the history , the traditions , and the principles of the Ancient Institution . Happily , however , the existence of these innovations has been but ephemeral . They are no longer worked

as degrees , but remain in the libraries of Masonic students as subjects of curious inquiry , as instances of intellectual ingenuity , and as relics of an important era in the history of Freemasonry . Among the innovators who were thus engaged

in throwing meretricious ornaments around the simple edifice of Ancient Freemasonry , Martin Paschalis is another who , perhaps , next to Ramsay , is entitled to our attention . In the year 1754 , he instituted a series of nine degrees , out of which he formed a system , which he called the " Rite of the Elected Cohens . "

The science , legend , or history of tM-s system , was very extensive , embracing nothing Jess than the creation , the fall , and the subsequent punishment of man . Clavel says , that the object of the initiation was the regeneration of the candidate ,

and his restoration in his primitive innocence to the rights that he had lost by his original sin . For this purpose , the temptation and the error of the garden of Eden were enacted in the person of the aspirant , who , violating the command imposed

upon him to abstain from tasting the fruit of the tree of science , is precipitated into flames . Subsequently , however , he passes through many laborious ceremonies , by which he is supposed to repair his fault , and having entered upon a new

life , he is animated by a divine spirit , and becomes acquainted , in the highest degrees of the Order , with the hidden secrets of nature , and is invested with a knowledge of alchemy , the Cabbala , and other abstruse sciences . This system it will be

perceived , partook very little , if in any thing , of the nature of Masonry , and although it extended through several of the cities of France , and was even adopted in 1767 , by many of the Lodges of Paris , and embraced some learned men among its

disciples , it did not long flourish . In dying , however , it was speedily replaced by other systems , which , like itself , bore no resemblance to Freemasonry , except in the names of the first three degrees , which they all assumed as a part of their

series . Among them were the rite of Martinism , invented by the Marquis of St . Martin ; the imposture of Egyptian Masonry , devised by the celebrated Cagliostro ; the systems of Schrober , Zinzendorf , and Fessler ; and the Order of African

Architects . Of the most important of them , we shall , from time to time , take opportunities to say something in the course of these pages . At present , we shall conclude with a brief notice of the last of these innovations that we have above enumerated .

In the year 1767 , one Baucherren , instituted in Prussia , with the consent of Frederic II ., a society , which he called uhe " Order of African Architects . '" The object of the institution was historical research , but it contained a ritual which partook of Masonry ,

Christianity , alchemy , and chivalry . It was divided into two temples , and was cemposed of eleven degrees . In the first temple were contained the three degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry . In the second , were the degrees of Apprentice of Egyptian Secrets ; Initiate into Egyptian Secrets ; Cosmo-