sign in sign up
<<
Home , Grand Lodge, Knights Templar

An Historical Overview of the Masonic Templar and the Era and Events Which Inspired Its Creation

Robert G. Davis, PGC Grand of Knights Templar of Oklahoma

There are few stories in human history that have been repeated more often in written works than the saga of the Christian . From the time Helena, mother of Constantine, made it fashionable for followers of Christ to go to the to visit those places that scripture sanctified, there has always been a deep urging for to make a to and Bethlehem. Such journeys of devotedness have sustained courage and heightened one’s devotion to their Faith for generations after generations. have a deep symbolic significance in all religions. But to Christians of the West, who have almost always been unhappy in their own countries, the journey, whether it has been to Jerusalem or to Rome, is felt as a long voyage where one loses the sense of his secular ways by seeking upon earth the traces of a consoling and helpful divinity within the remaining artifacts of the era. Sometimes it is a memorial to some holy personage, a or apostle; in others, a sacred such as the bone or Temple remnant; but in all cases, the intent is to give us hope that our own lives can also become a miracle. Because these journeys tended to be wrought with peril during the first millennium after Christ, one of the greatest merits in the eyes of the faithful, next to that of the pilgrimage itself, was to devote oneself to the service of the pilgrims. This formed the basis of the knightly orders; and the birth of the Knights Templar, or the Poor Fellow Soldiery of Christ. They selected as their Patroness, Mary, Mother of , and called themselves Brothers, or Fraters, and their guests, Christ’s Poor, or the Poor. Since then, one of the great questions of all time has been whether or not there can be traced a lineage from the original Templars to the Templars of our own time. As many of you know, this is one of the major theories of origin of our own fraternity of Freemasons. And it turns out we weren’t the only organization that had an interest in such a glorious past. Some two hundred knightly grades originated in the 18th century; all enamored with the speculation that their group could be the connection with the chivalries of . In our own case, this hypothesis can be traced to Chevalier Ramsay, who put forth the chivalric origin theory of Masonry. But, in so doing, he made no actual reference to the Knights Templar. The first definite attempt to derive speculative Masonry from the Templars was made by the Rite of Strict Observance which was inaugurated in 1754. This is the Rite from which we get our story that the original Templars not arrested by Phillip the Fair fled to and joined up with the Builders’ Guilds and eventually established through the Guilds. Then there is the legend of the Charter of Larmenius, claiming there has been a French Order of the Temple with a succession of Grand Masters through the transmission of the original Charter from DeMolay to one Johannes Marcus Larmenius through DeMolay’s General Council of the . It turns out this document was forged somewhere around 1705 and is now in the hands of the Great Priory of England and Wales. Yet another theory of transmission is that DeMolay committed the Order into the hands of his nephew, who carried it to Sweden along with the ashes of DeMolay himself. Then there is one of Pike’s favorite heroes, Eliphas Levi, who claimed DeMolay created an occult Order from his dungeon as and erected four Metropolitan lodges; in Naples, Edinburgh, Stockholm, and Paris, from which the Templar lineage was preserved. It was Levi who postulated that the defense of the Holy Sepulchre by the Templars was concealed as an allegory for the rebuilding of the Temple of Jerusalem; that this was the real object of all Crusaders. Of course, this would make the mission of the Knights Templar very Masonic indeed. The fact is there are many mysteries surrounding chivalry, which is the reason so much has been written on the topic in literature, in symbolism, and even in intention of purpose. The glamour is in the hidden mystery itself. It is just one part of a plethora of images of the secret life which characterized the . In reality, Speculative Masonry can find no traces of Templarism that predates Scotland in 1689; where an Order of the Temple was purported to exist with one John Claverhouse serving as Grand Master. However, this Order never had an association with Masonry except to the extent that some of their Templars may have chosen to become Masons in Scotland. For all Templar Bodies that originated after 1740, these were likely prompted by Ramsay’s Oration of 1736 promoting knighthood as one of the central themes of the High Grades. From a Masonic perspective, we can then say only that the soul of the original Order of Templars has survived in our own higher Degrees and Orders through their ideals, aspirations, traditions, and secrets. Among the multitude of chivalric grades established during the 18th century, we can certainly distinguish between those that represent a renewal of the old historical orders of chivalry, namely the Knights Templar, Knights of Malta, and the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre; and those which are purely fanciful, such as the Knights of the Eagle, Knights of the Swan, Knights of the Diamond, and such. The bulk of these make no claims on history. We can also set aside those which have ceased to exist, like the original Rite of Strict Observance; those where the Templar element has almost been expunged, such as the Kadosh degrees; and those who have no real importance historically or symbolically, such as the Templar Priests. What is left is the Military and Religious Order of the Temple, chivalric in theme, Christian in ethic, Masonic in nature, and working in England, Scotland, Ireland, and America during the 18th century. And this brings us to our historical Masonic beginnings. The earliest references of a Masonic Knight Templar activity in the British Isles are to be found in Ireland, where a Body of Irish Templars, working under a Craft Lodge charter, applied to Kilwinning in 1770 and obtained a Templar charter under the name of Kilwinning Lodge of High Knights Templar. We do not know the basis upon which such a charter could have been issued, and it is only a claim made by Kilwinning Lodge itself in 1779. Chetwode Crawley claims the earliest record of Knights Templar to be that of St. John’s Day in the summer of 1774 when “the Knights Templar of Ireland, Royal Arch, Excellent and Super Excellent Masters, and Free and Accepted Masons” all dined together in Dublin. We find other warrants issued between 1773 and 1778 in Irish Lodges working the High Knight Templar Degree. Records of Templar degrees can be dated to 1777 in England. In every case, the degree was worked in Irish formed “Ancients” lodges. The “Moderns” did not work degree. The Order of Knights Templar received formal recognition from the Grand Lodge of York in 1780; and we find bodies working under the title of Supreme Grand and Royal Encampment of the Order of Knights Templar, St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitallers, and Knight of Malta working under rules of subordinate Encampments. By 1790, there were a number of encampments in England, Ireland, and Scotland. In most instances the rituals worked under the authority of existing Royal Arch Chapters as appendent degrees, and were not organized Masonically at that time. It was not until 1791 that Thomas Dunckerly assumed the Grand Mastership of the Knights Templar in Bristol and organized a Grand Conclave under the title of the Royal Exalted Religious and Military Order of Heredom, Kadosh, Grand Elected Knights Templar of St. John of Jerusalem, , and Malta. It comprised seven independent encampments. Thus, Templarism was firmly launched as a Masonic venture. In America, the first authentic record of the conferring of the Order of the Temple is found in the minutes of St. Andrews Royal Arch Lodge in Boston dated August 28, 1769. We know from this record that the Excellent, Super Excellent, Royal Arch and Knight Templar degrees/orders were performed. In December of that same year, St. Andrews lodge elected Paul Revere to become a Royal Arch Mason. In 1770, it worked the degree on Joseph Warren. Thus, it was the last decade of the 18th century that encampments were formed in America. By the turn of the century, we find encampments in eight states along the eastern seaboard. A Grand Encampment which didn’t last long was organized in Philadelphia in 1797. But the most important event in American Templarism was the organization in 1805 of the Grand Encampment of Massachusetts and Rhode Island; because the Templars responsible for this Body were the same who subsequently in 1816 participated in the organization of our present Grand Encampment of the United States. We all know the rest of the story. So, having provided the most concise outline of our Masonic history associated with Templarism, and established that there is no actual lineage to speculative Masonry from the original Templars of the Crusades, it is left only to postulate on the reason for the organization of the Knights Templar as Masonic Body in the first place. This has always been an enigma to many Masons, who are told in the beginning that Masonry is non-sectarian and should operate wholly independent from any sanctioned religious identity. Well, the answer to that enigma is that it hasn’t always been that way. The de- Christianization of Masonry did not occur with the 1723 Constitutions. Rather, it was a 19th century innovation which we will get to in a minute. Furthermore, the inspiration of the precedes Masonry by a few centuries. There is no question that our Judeo- Christian Order was inspired by a 500 year division caused by religion itself—by Eastern Christianity vs. a western multitude of religions; by a Catholic vs. Protestant England, by a Celtic vs. Catholic vs. Protestant Scotland. One needs only to understand the politics of church and state during the Renaissance and the eras to see why a Christian Order of fraternity came to be. Men simply craved a form of expression which was not bound by church dogma and restrictions, but one in which men of faith could meet together to practice and study the Brotherhood of Man in a setting free from the paradigms of parochial rule. The York Rite has always been a social institution born in religion. We have always understood that religious forces are human forces; moral forces. And a religious life is one to be lived not only in the church, but out in the world. Leading Masonic authorities of the 18th century (and even to a great extent in the 19th century) held a rather distinctive interpretation of Freemasonry. Such leaders as Reverend James Anderson, Dr. Desaguliers, William Hutchinson, Rev. George Oliver, and many others had a deep-seated Christian view of the craft. Hutchinson in particular noted that Jesus Christ was the example for the Master Mason. He stated “The Master Mason represents a man under the Christian doctrine saved from the grave of iniquity and raised to the faith of salvation. As the great testimonial that we are risen from a state of corruption, we bear the emblem of the Holy Trinity as the insignia of our vows and of the origin of the Master’s order.” We can read many examples of this form of piousness from the works of early Masonic writers. For instance, in most of the early ritual manuscripts, 12 lights of the lodge were mentioned and three of these were always the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Entered Apprentice Prayer of which we all are familiar ended with the admonition “endue him with Divine Wisdom, that he may, with the Secrets of Masonry, be able to unfold the Mysteries of Godliness and Christianity. This we humbly beg in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.” Indeed, it is hard to find a Masonic ritual in the first 100 years of Speculative Masonry that does not have overt Christian implications. But it is also important to understand that Christian overtones in Masonic ritual had roots in another equally important cultural revolution in which Freemasonry found itself firmly centered during its own formative years. The religious focus of Masonic ritual was just as much a product of the Enlightenment as it was a product of the Reformation. Freemasonry came to be at the same time Europeans themselves were changing faster than the old institutions from whence they came. The Church had long insisted that it was the only source of truth, that all who lived outside its bounds were damned. But any reasonably sophisticated person knew that most human beings on earth were not and had never been Christians—yet they had built these great civilizations. Writers and orators grew resistant to this omnipresent censorship of authority and sought whatever means they could to evade, or write, or speak around it. From a Masonic perspective, England was ahead of everyone else in its own Enlightenment. Our own founders were at the center of this new form of expression. Dr. Anderson was an accredited minister of a church that did not look favorably upon the creeds of the Church of England. Dr. Desaguliers was a refugee from Roman Catholic intolerance. These Masonic founders were certainly not the followers of the acknowledged mainline religion. But they were devout Christians who simply resisted placing any denominational bars on those like them who were also men of faith. England’s passion for intellectual freedom set a real fire among the many leaders of the American Revolution—men like Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and Paine. These men were powerfully influenced by the English Enlightenment. To them, the God who underwrote the concept of equality in the Declaration of Independence was the same Deist God Rousseau worshipped--not that kind of God venerated in the traditional churches which still supported and defended monarchies all over Europe. The language of natural law, of inherent freedoms, of self determination was the language of the Enlightenment. Yet it was often coated with a glaze of traditional religious reverence, which we almost universally adopted in Masonic ritual. As early as 1722, in a work translated from the French under the title of Long Livers, the author set out what the aims and ideals of the fraternity should be……”to avoid politics and religion…the religion we profess which is the best that ever was, or will or can be…it is to love God above all things, and our Neighbor as ourself; this is the true, primitive, catholic and universal Religion, agreed to be so in all Times and Ages, and confirmed by our Lord and Master Jesus Christ.” I hope, through these few examples, I have made the point that it was not Christianity which was discarded at the beginning of Speculative Masonry. It was dogmatism, bigotry and intolerance. Anyone who has read the early ritual workings from the exposures published from 1696 forward can see there were strong Christian allusions in Masonic workings for at least 100 years. The fact is the practice of Christianizing our symbols and allegories was an old habit which persisted in our Masonic ritual workings up to the Union of the two English Grand Lodges in 1813. This all changed largely because of one man. His name was Prince Augustus Frederick. He held the title of the Duke of Sussex for 70 years. And he happened to be Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the Moderns in 1813; just when a new ritual compromise between the two English Grand Lodges was being worked out. The Duke had been exalted a Royal Arch Mason three years earlier and vested with the title of “Most Excellent Zerubbabel, First Grand Master of Royal Arch Masons.” He was a devout Christian but a man of tolerance. He took Masonry very seriously. He regularly attended meetings of the Lodge of Reconciliation and, by the time their work was completed, the ritual had been almost completely de-Christianized. The Duke single- handedly moved Masonry to a more inclusive form of association by removing all Christian references to the lectures, thereby setting the stage for a more universal Freemasonry. And he did it for a reason of paramount importance. He was a close friend of many Jewish families that were coming into prominence at that time. Particularly, the Duke of Sussex was a close friend of the Chief Rabbi of the Great Synagogue, who taught him Hebrew. The Duke became a Hebrew and Biblical scholar, but he was not a lover of dogma; or in using the Holy Scriptures as a front for political aims. We can see this conviction in an anecdote that has been saved for posterity. On , 1813, he was invited to occupy the chair as president of a new Bible society northwest London. In the course of his remarks to the company assembled he said: I express my hope that no discourse whatever of a political tendency will be holden…for it is upon this understanding that I come forward, that an institution might be formed to promote the publication of the Christian doctrine, through the medium of the Bible, without any comment whatsoever.” We can see here the Duke was eager to promote religious truth but he was adamant about its private nature. Years later, we find a further Enlightenment sentiment where he remarked; “I hope every poor man in this country will possess a Bible. I conceive that when a man comes to a certain age he has a right to pronounce his own ideas on the subject of religion…without disparaging other modes of religious improvement. I have considered that the individual communication between man and his Creator is always most effectually carried on in private by reading and meditation. I conceive it to be an immediate conversation, face to face with our Creator. It is this impression which has created in my mind a conviction of the necessity there is for this sacred book to be put into the hands of everyone.” Is it any wonder then that such a man, with a keen religious sense, a strongly tolerant outlook, an eye fixed on the text of the Scripture, critical of bigotry, and wanting to avoid political controversy, would have been so eager at the very same time to have sought in Freemasonry the very vehicle which would achieve for men of all faiths what he would later describe as “what I call a truly Catholic meeting?” It was the Duke of Sussex who felt bound to take steps to ensure the eventual combination of the Royal Arch degree with the two Grand Lodges when they united. This was finally achieved in March 1817. And that made all the difference to the promulgation of York Rite Masonry worldwide. In total, the evolution of Masonic ritual, the proliferation of literally hundreds of side Orders and degrees, and the enthusiasm of portraying religious lessons and biblical characters in plays which resembled the morality plays of the Middle Ages were really all about the Enlightenment’s gift of allowing men to represent their most religious self in a safe and private ritual setting with their brothers, free from all sectarian differences, teaching and learning lessons about the very nature of morality itself. This was the setting in which the side degrees and Orders of Masonry were born. Masonic Templarism has as its principle goal the defense of the Christian religion. And the perspective which gives this premise Masonic credibility is that we have always championed the Old Charges which clearly stated that men of fraternity should be “of the religion of the country or nation in which they live.” Therefore, while there has been a pretense of universality in Freemasonry since 1813, the fact is that 95% of the Freemasons in the world belong to the Christian faith. We do not have to apologize for that. It is, in fact, our lineage.

______