Freemasonry in Sweden Freemasonry in Sweden

168 Chapter 22 Chapter 22 Freemasonry in Sweden Freemasonry in Sweden Henrik Bogdan The French Period Freemasonry arrived in Sweden as early as 1735, when the lieutenant Axel Wrede Sparre opened a so-called private lodge on Riddarholmen in Stockholm. Like many other young Swedish aristocrats during this period, Wrede Sparre had been initiated into Freemasonry abroad – in Wrede Sparre’s case he had been initiated into a French-Jacobite lodge in Paris at the age of 23, in 1731. It was also in Paris that the future first Swedish National Grand Master, Carl Fredrick Scheffer, was initiated in 1737, and Scheffer would in November of that year receive a charter from Charles Radclyffe, Earl of Derwentwater, to open one or more lodges in Sweden under French obedience. In addition to this charter, Radclyffe provided a set of Règles générales (Sw. Allmänna frimurar- lagar), which regulated the work in Sweden. The 1740s marked a chaotic period in Swedish Freemasonry, with several different lodges competing for recognition, often either founded by foreign masons in Sweden (such as General Keith’s lodge 1743–44, and the Lodge of Kilwinning [Sw. Kilwinningska logen], set up temporarily in Ystad in 1746 by officers from the army of Charles Edward Stuart), or by Swedish Masons who had been initiated abroad. In 1752 Knut Posse founded the lodge S:t Jean Auxiliaire at Stockholm, which is usually credited as the first regularly consti- tuted lodge in Sweden (with a charter from count Clermont-Tonnerre), and in 1753 Wrede Sparre, who had opened the first lodge in Sweden, would join the lodge and turn over his charter from Radclyffe. S:t Jean Auxiliaire became known as the Mother Lodge and was the most dominant lodge in Sweden during the 1750s, and it was through this lodge that much of the work in Sweden was organised and regulated. Carl Fredrick Scheffer also affiliated with the lodge, and in 1753 he was elected the first National Grand Master (Sw. landsstormästare), while the Swedish king Adolf Fredrik a few months later became the royal protector of Freemasonry (Sw. övermästarskap över alla frimurarsamhällen i landet). Free masonry would from then on enjoy royal patronage in Sweden. It was also during this period that an increasing number of high degrees were introduced from abroad. These were in 1759 regulated by the creation of a national ruling body, the so-called Swedish Grand Chapter © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2016 | doi 10.1163/9789004325968_024 Freemasonry in Sweden 169 (Sw. Svenska storkapitlet), with the influential Mason Carl Friedrich Eckleff as its first Grand Master. Eckleff played a key role in introducing the high degrees that later would be used by Duke Charles when creating the Swedish Rite. The so-called Acts of Eckleff consisted of S:t Andrew’s or Ecossais degrees which Eckleff allegedly had received from Strasbourg in 1756, and Chapter or Templar degrees received from Geneva in 1759. During the 1760s the nascent Swedish Rite consisted of nine degrees in total: three Craft degrees, three St. Andrew’s degrees, and three Chapter or Templar degrees. These degrees would be revised a number of times, and eventually a uniform system was created, in which each degree was connected to each previous degree in a systematic and pedagogical way. In par- ticular, it was Duke Charles, later King Charles XIII, who together with fellow Freemasons such as Reuterholm, was responsible for creating the Swedish Rite and giving it the form and content that it maintains to this day. The remainder of this chapter will thus focus on Duke Charles, the creator of the Swedish Rite, and his friend Reuterholm, the latter being an illustrative example how esoteri- cism and Freemasonry often were interpreted as being inseparable during the eighteenth century. Duke Charles and Creation of the Swedish Rite Duke Charles (1748–1818), later King Charles XIII, of Sweden from 1809 and King of Norway from 1814 until his death, became a Freemason together with his two brothers Gustavus and Duke Fredrik Adolphus in 1771 through the Craft lodge The Swedish Army’s Lodge (Sw. Svenska arméens loge), and two years later, on 4 May 1773, Charles was initiated into the Grand Chapter, in which he chose the knightly name Eques A Sole Vivificante. Charles became a dedicated Freemason for the rest of his life, and he was instrumental in shaping the Swedish Rite which is still being worked in Scandinavia and parts of Germany. On 8 April 1774, Charles founded a Scottish (St. Andrew’s) lodge that met until 1777 in his private rooms at the royal palace in Stockholm. The lodge was called The Scottish Lodge of Duke Charles of Södermanland and later changed its name to The Blazing Star (Sw. Glindrande Stjärnan) (Thustrup 1892: 75). In the same year Duke Charles became the head of Swedish Freemasonry: on 14 May 1774 he succeeded Carl Friedrich Eckleff as head of the Saint Andrew’s lodges in Sweden (Sw. ordensmästare); on 7 June he succeeded Eckleff as head of the Grand Chapter (Sw. storkapitlets styresman); and finally 30 November he succeeded Count Carl Fredrik Scheffer as Master of the Grand Lodge (Sw. ordförande i landslogen). The latter body consisted of all Worshipful Masters, .

Load more