THE BUILDER JUNE 1926

The Great Frederick or the God of the Fable

By ALBERT LANTOINE--Translated by A. L. KRESS

AT various times articles have appeared in THE BUILDER dealing with
Frederick the Great and his supposed connection with the Scottish
Rite. I have translated the following chapter from Albert
Lantoine's Histoire de La Franc-Masonnerie Francaise (History of
French Freemasonry), 1925, pages 245 - 254, for two reasons. First
of all, the chapter is important as presenting the negative side.
And secondly to call attention to Bro. Lantoine's excellent work
itself. All Masonic scholarship is by no means confined to England
and America. This book itself is a witness to the fact. It is
unfortunate indeed for both the cause of Masonic research and of
Masonic universality that English-speaking Masons cannot become
familiar with such current foreign Masonic work as Lantoine has
produced. Speaking from no little acquaintance with original French
Masonic literature, the best advice I can give those who wish to
quote from any of it is to forget Thory, forget Clavel, Ragon and
a score more, and see what Albert Lantoine, official
historiographer of the Grand Orient of France, has to say in this
work.

In one or two places I have kept the French word "Ecossaism" or
"Ecossais", which literally mean Scottish, as better designating
the scattered High Grades before the advent of the Scottish Rite.

FREDERICK AND THE HIGH DEGREES

Frederick of Prussia! What has Frederick the Second of Prussia to
do with this affair? Again we demand it. The High Grades made use
of the mysterious Superiors; Charles-Edward had excused himself,
but Frederick could do so no more: he was dead! It is quite
difficult to imagine today the motives which decided the ascription
of such a patronage. Were the Americans deceived by Etienne Morin
who, aware of Frederick's initiation before his departure, played
it up before the New World to interest it in this Masonic line? Or
did these Americans, in their democratic respect for the great ones
of the earth consider that such a king could not tarry with the
others in the "Middle Chamber," and that a "Sublime Apartment" was
better suited to the loftiness of his position and character? Or
again, to avoid the innovations of imaginative inventors, and this
scattering abroad of Ecossaism which had marked the 18th century,
was it deemed necessary to call to the rescue one of those men who
were not to be disobeyed to put each grade into its place again? We
do not know. But behold, after Charles-Edward, Frederick introduced
into the history of the High Grades. Shall we expel him--the one as
we have the other ? Alas ! we cannot do otherwise; we have no proof
whatever of his collaboration on the new statutes of Ecossaism, and
on the contrary we have almost too much that contradicts it.

It is not through a comparison of the sentimental order, we say it
at once, that we have connected Frederick the Second with the
Pretender Charles Edward; this connection the Ecossais have made to
enter the domain of reality. The Bro. Pyron addressed to Napoleon
First an historic note (!) in which he asked him as "Sovereign of
sovereigns" to support an Institution which had passed from the
family of the Stuarts into the hands of the Great Frederick. This
idea was accepted with enthusiasm by the Supreme Council which
embodied it with ultra fantastic details in its Encyclical letter
of March 5, 1813:

Charles-Edward, last scion of the Stuarts, was the chief of Ancient
and Modern Masonry. He nominated Grand Master Frederick II to
succeed him. Frederick accorded to Masonry a careful attention, it
was the object of his constant solicitude. At this period the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite comprised but twenty-five
grades, of which Prince of the Royal Secret was the highest.
Certain new projects, certain discords which unexpectedly arose in
Germany in 1782, inspired him with fear lest Masonry become the
prey of anarchy and the victim of those who, under the name of
Masons, might be tempted to let it fall into decay or annihilate
it. When in 1786 Frederick saw his life had almost run its course,
he decided to transmit the sovereign powers with which he was
clothed to a Council of Grand Inspectors General who after his
death would take over the direction of High Masonry, conformably to
the Constitution and Statutes. On May 1, 1786, he increased to
thirty-three the number of the grades of the hierarchy of the
Scottish Rite, which till then had counted but twenty-five, and
assigned to the thirty third the designation of Puissant and
Sovereign Grand Commander General. The powers conferred under this
degree, for the government and direction of the Rite, were
concentrated in a Sovereign Chapter called the Supreme Council,
etc. On May 1, 1786, Frederick established the Constitution and
Regulations for the Grand Inspectors General, of which article VIII
provided that after the death of Frederick the Supreme Councils
would be the Sovereigns of Masonry.

A tiny glimmer of truth is at the bottom of this legend. In
distinction to the Scottish Pretender, Frederick had actually been
initiated. It will be outside our task to repeat here, from Baron
de Bielfeld, (1) the details of this initiation, which took place
when Frederick was only prince and heir-apparent.

FREDERICK AS A FREEMASON

This title of Freemason would not seem displeasing to a critical
youth who took no part in religion and who entered the Order at a
time when every secret society touched by the breath of liberty
which had then begun to blow over Europe, had less and less honor
and sanctity. On becoming King, he did not at once lose interest in
the Institution, and he continued for a long time to receive with
fraternal courtesy the homage addressed to him by the National
Grand Lodge at the Three Globes and other Prussian Masonic
organizations. At the beginning of his reign, he still amused
himself in his Masonic capacity, and he had not forgotten those
hazardous escapades he had perpetrated incognito in his realm--as
for example when on the right bank of the Rhine, he levelled a
pistol at an abbe traveling in a post-chaise and cried with a
savage air "Become a Freemason or die." Dieudonne Thiebault (2) who
relates this prank, adds that the King allowed the poor frightened
abbe to go, telling him his fear made him unworthy of being a
"brother"--which shows at least some esteem for the Masons.

Even if Frederick patronized Freemasonry, even if he founded The
Three Globes, he was never Grand Master--or at least he was never
a Grand Master in partibus ("never having particularly occupied
himself with organization and legislation") as that function is
recognized and understood. His Masonic activity (and this word
activity should not be given the meaning of assiduity) lasted not
much more than seven years from the date of his initiation, that is
from 1738-1744. But the participation of Frederick II in the work
and development of the Order has been very fully investigated by
German authors--there is an extensive bibliography on the question-
-but all of them, even though they disagree on certain points, are
unanimous in exonerating his memory from the creation of the high
grades. Circumstantial details regarding this are to be found in
Lenning's Masonic Encyclopedia. Doctor Adolph Kohut in Die
Hohenzollern und die Freimaurerei (Berlin, 1909) tells us that "he
was disgusted with the grotesque practices and hazy doctrines of
the Strict Observance and that he spared no sarcasm in speaking of
it. He thought Freemasonry should have no other end save the
perfection of human society and he disapproved any act which might
demean the high standard of such precepts." He even went so far on
Nov. 13, 1780, as to blame the lodge Royal York for having
organized a charitable concert, which seemed to him beneath the
character of the Institution. Treutel in his Vie de Frederic II roi
de Prusse (Strassburg, 1787) gives us some Masonic details of our
hero. appears that during the early days of his reign, summoned a
lodge, where, in the capacity of Master in the chair, he received
Prince William, Margrave Schwedt and Duke of Holstein.

Although Frederick was a Freemason, he did not wish the usages of
Masonry to be extended outside the lodge. Some Masons having sent
him a petition during the war of succession in Bavaria took it into
their heads to append to their signatures their titles and grades
in the Order. The King at once sent the petition to the Lieutenant
of Police and forbade them to further use these titles.

An upholsterer who was working one day in the King's apartments
tried to make himself recognized as a Freemason; but Frederick
turned his back on him and withdrew.

Lord Dover, author of History of the Private, Political and
Military Life of Frederick II King of Prussia, which seems
admirably documented, writes:

Although having become a member of the Fraternity, Frederick was
not very kind to the Freemasons during his reign; he seems even to
have discouraged them. Shortly after the death of his father, he
presided over one of their assemblies and in the capacity of Grand
Master initiated his brother, Prince William, Margrave of Schwedt
and Duke of Holstein, there is no evidence that he took any further
interest in the actions of this society.

We read in the third volume of La Monarchie Prussiene by Mirabeau:

It is unfortunate that Frederick II did not have sufficient zeal
even to become Grand Master of all the German lodges, or at least
of the Prussian lodges; his power might have acquired a
considerable growth . . . and even some military enterprises might
have taken another turn if he had never fallen out with the leaders
of this society.

One might object that all these arguments are of a psychological
nature, so to say, and that the secret of the relations of
Frederick with his brethren may have been religiously, or better,
Masonically guarded. But even if we accept this improbable
hypothesis, we come now against a material impossibility. Here once
more Mirabeau furnishes us with evidence. It is to be found in the
Histoire secrete de la cour de Berlin, ou Correspondance d'un
Voyageur Francais depuis le 5 Ju 1786, jusqu'au 19 Janvier 1787:

His (Frederick's) malady, which would have killed ten men had
lasted eleven months without interruption and almost without
respite, since the first attack of suffocating apoplexy from which
he recovered through an emetic, and uttering with an imperious
gesture as his first sound these two words: "Be quiet . . ."
[Letter XXVIII dated from Dresden, Sept. 24, 1786.]

This information carries weight as coming from a witness who was
there and who saw for himself. We have proof of it in the preamble
with which he saw fit to preface his Lettre remise a Guillaume
Frederic II roi regnant de Prusse . . . where these lines may be
found:

Frederick II summoned me before him voluntarily when I hesitated to
importune his last moments with my natural desire of seeing so
great a man, and of obviating the regret of having been his
contemporary without knowing him. He deigned to welcome me, to
distinguish me, even though a stranger such as I had not been
admitted to his conversation

Frederick II died Aug. 17, 1786--he would have revised the
Constitutions May 1, 1786, that is to say three months and a half
before his death. Now how  can anyone believe that this man, who
according to Mirabeau suffered for eleven months "without
interruption," could apply himself to a task so foreign from all
his habitual activities and duties under the constant anxieties
that the charges of royalty imposed upon him? From January, 1786,
he was condemned, and he himself, according to his family, had not
the slightest illusion about the fatal outcome of his malady.

DISCREPANCIES IN THE STORY


The fabricators of novels of adventure are not accustomed to
consult sources and their imagination never considers anachronisms
. . . The pamphleteers of the High Grades had not the benefit of
being corrected by an informed editor. For not only is the date
more than open to suspicion but even the city where the generous
deed was done, Berlin. Here again the larger history refuses to
confirm the little history. Frederick II lived at Potsdam, and he
died there, at his chateau Sans-Souci, without having set foot in
Berlin after his last visit of Sept. 9-10, 1785, when his movements
. . . have been carefully reported by his biographers. Now a
sentimental argument which deserves consideration because it
upholds the other, is this--why did not Frederick II give his
compatriots some share in the harvest of the High Grades? Why was
not his lodge The Three Globes given some part in their
distribution? And even were it a case of an exclusion prompted by
some resentment or other, would not his subjects have hastened
eagerly to adopt a reform extolled by their king?

What a bizarre idea, moreover, for this fanatic Prussian, so
zealous for the glory of his own nation to do this -- and for what
a reason! To transmit his famous powers to certain Americans
instead of simply delegating them to his eldest son and heir
Frederick William!

THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUTIONS LOST

As for these Constitutions, where are they? Vanished in air! As
attestation for their authenticity we have almost nothing; only the
discourses of Dalcho to which we have referred, where among other
equally fantastic allegations we find this:

In 1762 the Grand Masonic Constitutions were expressly ratified by
the government of all lodges of Perfect and Sublime Masonry.

There is also the formal affirmation of Pyron in his Abrege
historique de l'organisation en France, jusqu'a l'epoque du ler
Mars 1814, des trente-trois degrees du rit Ecossais ancien et
accepte . . . where he says:

At the same time in 1786, Frederick II, King of Prussia, Sovereign
of Sovereigns of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and Grand
Master, successor of the Kings of England and Scotland, wished to
weld together forever the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for
which he had a special affection. He wished to invest it, in every
State and Empire where it might practiced, with the necessary power
to free it from any obstacles which it might meet with on the part
of this crude ignorance which misrepresented everything, etc....

Consequently, Frederick II presiding in person [these words are
italicized by Pyron himseif. Tr.] over the Supreme Council by the
aid of which he ruled and governed the Order, on May 1, 1786,
raised to thirty-three degrees the hierarchy of twenty-five degrees
sanctioned by the Grand Constitutions of 1762.


Later General Albert Pike repeated this affirmation on his own
account; but this citizen of free America has every interest in
making us believe it an affirmation which at the same time
legalized the Council at Charleston, which had only been created,
it seems, on May 21, 1802, while the patent of de Grasse-Tilly was
dated Feb. 21 of the same year. We prefer the text, but the High
Grades are pursued by an improbable misfortune. It is with the
Constitutions of Frederick as with the Bull of Charles-Edward
installing the Chapter at Arras, as with the Charter of the
Templars, as with the patent of Dr. Gerbier, as with so many other
documents by which so many fables have been supported: the original
is lost. What a loss! Albert Pike in his Memoirs to be of service
to the history of Freemasonry in France, which the New Age
published, tries to calm our anxiety:

We possess, writes he, the copy of the Constitutions of Frederick
the Great, and I certify that it conforms with the original which,
through misfortune, has disappeared and on which the august
signature had been effaced by the water of the sea.

The sea respects nothing. Misfortunes never come singly; behold,
after the august signature, even the document itself disappears. So
the ambassador who carried so precious a document lost it! And we
do not even know the name of this wretch, who not only exposed the
manuscript to the spray but who also let it be borne away by the
wind! No not by the wind at large --for the statement would seem
too suspect. No! Some fine fellows have seen the marvelous paper,
and they cite the names of other signatories, hardly decipherable,
but decipherable just the same. Bro. Jottrand wrote in 1888: (3)

According to the description of the authentic copy submitted in
1834 to the Supreme Council of France with the names of those who
had constituted at Berlin the first Supreme Council of 33d only
four are legible; in the fifth the initial D is still legible; the
others, so runs the descriptive process, verbal, are illegible
owing to rubbing or to the water of the sea to which, written on
parchment, they have accidentally been exposed several times. The
initial D is certainly that of the Italian Denina, professor at the
University of Tusin, author of a history of Italian and Greek
Revolutions, whom Frederick had called to join his Academy. The
legible names are those of Stark, Woellner Willelm and d'Esterno.

But the archives left behind by Woellner, who was at this period
Supreme Scots Master, have been searched and nothing found relating
to this so important consultation with Frederick. Stark lived at
Wismar, and in his Justification, published in 1787 at Leipzig and
Frankfort-on-Main, he confessed the small part taken by him since
1777 in the work of the Freemasons and even (an avowed sin is
easily pardoned) his indifference to the work. So far as Denina is
concerned he was not only the author of a history of the Revolution
of Greece and Italy as Bro. Jottrand says, but he wrote an Essai
sur la vie et regne de Frederic II, roi de Prusse (Berlin, 1788),
where he describes in a few words his initiation into Freemasonry
"a society recognized today which begins to make some noise in the
world" (pages 36-37), and (page 453) he devotes these few words to
the Freemasons:

The Freemasons into which society Frederick had been received ten
years before he ascended the throne, did not meet with any marked
favor, as perhaps they had hoped. But while they were persecuted in
Italy, Bavaria and other countries, they enjoyed complete freedom
in Prussia. If the King did not do any more for them, it was
because he feared to favor them too much lest they meet the end of
the religious and holy fraternities of the Middle Ages. However,
assured of his protection by a letter of July 16, 1774, the
Freemasons counted in Berlin five lodges under different names, and
they had a large enough number in the provinces.

If Denina had collaborated with Frederick at the elaboration of the
Grand Constitutions would there not be an allusion or at least
would he not have spoken of the Masonic Order with a more apparent
interest?

The vexatious thing, however, is that all the authors who uphold
this belief have forgotten to agree among themselves. It was in
1887 that Albert Pike announced the crime of lese majeste committed
by the water of the sea, and in 1818 one named Marguerite asserted
that the Constitutions were in the hands of a Scottish Knight and
that they were signed in the very hand of Frederick the Great, King
of Prussia.

INCONSISTENCIES IN THE TRADITION

Search has been made everywhere, even where it seemed most likely
proofs might be found, namely in Prussia. Wasted effort ! The
National Mother Grand Lodge of the Three Terrestrial Globes at
Berlin, questioned in a letter from Bro. De Marconnay dated at New
York, May 26, 1833, made a reply which Findel saw and of which he
records this passage: (4)

The National Mother-Grand Lodge of the Three Terrestrial Globes was
founded Sept. 13, 1740, under the authority of Frederick the Great,
who was also its first Grand Master. This monarch did not, however,
occupy himself particularly with organization and legislation. None
of the assertions concerning his own acts or those of the supreme
Masonic Senate that he may have founded in 1785 . . . have the
least historical basis.

It is even today necessary to prove what The Three Globes affirmed,
because "this great falsehood of the Order," using the words of
George Kloss, (5) has even been repeated in our own time by the
Very Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Scottish Council,
Bro. J. M. Raymond, who says in his Resume historique de
l'organisation des travanx du Supreme Conseil du Rite Ecossais
ancien et accepte pour la France et ses dependances: ( Paris, 1908)

On May 1, 1786, Frederick II, King of Prussia, in his Masonic
capacity as Sovereign of Sovereigns, definitely established the
Constitutions, Statutes, and Regulations of the Scottish Masonic
Order.

How can such a legend help but gain credit among Freemasons when it
finds itself still propagated by their very "luminaries" ?

NOTES

(1) de Bielfeld--Lettres Familieres et autris . . . 1763.
(2) Thiebault--Souvenirs de vingt ans de sefour a Berlin.
(3) Jottrand--Sur le Constitutions de 1786 du Rite E. A. et A.
1888.
(4) Findel--Histoire--p. 486-487.
(5) Kloss--Geschichte der Freimaurerei in Frankreich, etc. 1852-3.

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL

To explain to themselves the existence of Evil and Suffering, the
Ancient Persians imagined that there were two Principles or Deities
in the Universe, the one of Good and the other of Evil, constantly
in conflict with each other in struggle for the mastery, and
alternately overcoming and overcome. Over both, for the Sages, was
the One Supreme, and for them Light was in the end to prevail over
Darkness, the Good over the Evil, and even Ahriman and his Demons
to part with their wicked and vicious natures and share the
universal Salvation. It did not occur to them that the existence of
the Evil Principle, by the consent of the Omnipotent Supreme,
presented the same difficulty, and left the existence of Evil as
unexplained as before. The human mind is always content, if it can
remove a difficulty a step further off. It cannot believe that the
world rests on nothing, but is devoutly content when taught that it
is borne on the back of an immense elephant, who himself stands on
the back of a tortoise. Given the tortoise, Faith is always
satisfied; and it has been a great source of happiness to
multitudes that they could believe in a Devil who could relieve God
of the odium of being the Author of Sin.--Morals and Dogma, Albert
Pike.

