A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT AND PRIMITIVE RITE FROM ITS ESTABLISHMENT DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME, TOGETHER WITH TRANSLATIONS OF ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS AND ILLUSTRATED Reginald Gambier Mc Bean M.V.O. of His Britannic Majesty’s Consul Service Late Council at Palermo 1925 Rui Alexandre Gabirro M.D.R. High Commissioner of Cabinda London England 2002 FROM THE ARCHIVES OF THE SOVEREIGN SANCTUARY OF THE 95 th AND LAST DEGREE OF THE ANCIENT AND PRIMITIVE RITE REGULAR MASONIC BODY OF FREEMASONRY PUBLISHED BY KIND PERMISSION OF HIS GRACE THE Sovereign Grand Conservator General of the Rite 1 OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT AND PRIMITIVE RITE Table of Contents - First Preamble - Second Preamble - The Ancient and Primitive Order of Freemasons - Legendary and Traditional History - Historical Chronological - History of the Ancient and Primitive Rite, from its first organization in America - Officers of the American Sovereign Sanctuary 1874 - Appendices I German Manuscript of 1864 - Appendices II Historical Summary and official resignation of the Grand Hierophant S.A. Zola - Appendices II – A The original publication in Italian and its seals. - Appendices III Letter and Charter from Egypt to Palermo Brethren - Appendices IV Declaration by the Ex Grand Hierophant Zola - Regarding Brother Pessina Claims and Italian Obedience - Appendices V Recent History of the Rite in France - Appendices VI Notes on the Irregular Body in Spain - Appendices VII Notes in the Rite in Romania - Appendices VIII Extracts from the Knep 1 Romania 2 America and Canada 3 Italy, Egypt and the Gran Hierophancy 4 Egypt, an interesting letter from the Grand Hierophant Marconis 5 Historical summary on the cover of the Kneph of February of 1886 - Appendices IX Grand Lodges Recognitions 1 Letter of the Grand Lodge of Ecuador 2 Letter from the Grand Lodge of Andres Quintana Roo, Mexico & Belize. 3 Letter from the Grand Lodge of the Dominican Republic. - Appendices X RIT PRIMITF 1790 Tableau de la première Du Rit Primitif en France et pièce d’architecture sur le même Rit Adresse Directe, A.M. Jean Philadelphe - Appendices XI The Philalethes, Karl R. H. Frick First Preamble Reginald Gambier Mc Bean M.V.O. of His Britannic Majesty’s 2 Consul Service Late Council at Palermo 1925 “On this manner, through good wit of geometry, Began first the craft of masonry; The clerk Euclid on this wise it found, This craft of geometry in Egypt land. In Egypt he taught it full wide, In divers lands on every side; Many years afterwards, I understand, Ere that the craft came into this land. This craft came into England, as I you say, In time of good King Athelstane's day” The Regius Manuscript "A Poem of Moral Duties" The oldest English known Masonic Document in Poetic Meter 1390 The mystery which surrounds the origin of modern speculative freemasonry constitutes perhaps not the least of its attractions in the more or less accepted history of the institution dates one may say from the eighteenth century in each one the nucleus of the present symbolic and speculative United Grand Lodge of England was started in London in 1717. A number of Rites of a more or less chivalrous philosophic mystical or occult nature working higher degrees as well arose especially in France which probably played a not unimportant part in the preparation of the great, but undesignedly sanguinary, French Revolution. All these Rites laid claims to origins of which it would have been difficult to produce documentary proofs, even when they were not purely legendary, traditional, fanciful or perhaps even self- contradictory. It is enough to recall the supposed chronological history of Freemasonry since the creation of man, given in the preamble to the Constitutions which Anderson compiled for the Grand Lodge of England in 1723, and the not unchallenged regularity and authority of the Grand Lodge itself until the Union in 1813; or the discredited Charter of Frederic the Great on which was founded in Charleston, in 1802, the first Supreme Council of the now flourishing Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, for one to feel that, if Freemasonry has for centuries exercised so deep a fascination and lasting influence, this must be due not so much to its external history, which indeed often leaves much to be desired, as rather to such innate qualities as belong to all great spiritual movements, having for their true aim the helping of mankind to ascend, in its anxious search for truth, the steep and arduous ladder of ultimate human perfection. 3 The following Official History on the legendary, traditional and exoteric history of the Memphis Rite, are complete and are revised English version of some French and Italian Notes, published in Palermo in 1923 and intended to answer provisionally, and specially for that Obedience, the many enquiries to which the recent revival of the Rite in Italy, in 1921, had naturally given rise. Second Preamble Rui Alexandre Gabirro M.D.R. High Commissioner of Cabinda London England 2002 Our current civilisation is greatly influenced by the works of those Greeks and Roman writers and philosophers who examined the recorded works of the Egyptian civilisation such as Plato Aristotle and Pythagoras. Our current civilisation is inevitably influenced by the Egyptian civilisation. The greatest disaster to the Egyptian civilization was the irresponsible and criminal destruction of the great library at Alexandria. Everything not examined and translated has been lost for ever. The Alexandra library took three months to burn. For 1400 years, no one knew how to read Egyptian hieroglyphs. Virtually all understanding of this mysterious script had been lost since the 4th century AD. The breakthrough to the decipherment of hieroglyphs came in 1799 when a French officer of engineers discovers the Rosetta Stone in the town of Rashid on the western delta of the Nile. The notice of this important discovery reached Napoleon and he ordered it to be placed in the Institute National which he had founded in Cairo. Napoleon ordered copies of the stone, which was covered with hieroglyphics and rows of Demotic and Greek text to be distributed among the learned of Europe, and through this action the lost language of the Ancient Egyptians was recovered from oblivion. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………..………………………………………………………………….. 4 The Ancient and Primitive Rite has always acknowledged the Supremacy of the State or National Grand Lodges over the symbolic first three degrees of a Blue Lodge, and engrafted the same into its constitution. The Ancient and Primitive Rite, does not countenance, confer degrees upon, or retain within its bosom any person not in good standing in a Blue or Symbolic Lodge of F ∴and A ∴M∴. The Sovereign Sanctuary Recognizes all Regular Masonic Rites such as the Ancient York Rite, the French Rite, the Misraim Rite, the Scottish Rectified Rite, the Ancient and Accepted Rite and so on. The Sovereign Sanctuary does not initiate in the Craft Degrees of Masonry. The Sovereign Sanctuary respects all Grand Lodges of the Craft, and only works from the 4 th Degree onwards to the 95 th and last of the Masonic Scale of High Degree Masonry. The Ancient and Primitive Rite as always only charged for the first 7 Initiations, all other initiations have no charge. The difference between the Sovereign Sanctuary and other groups is that our Order is the perpetual connection to the original bodies of which regular Masons were members. The Ancient and Primitive Rite is a Masonic body. Some groups, which claim to be "Masonic- like", seem unaware that you cannot confer or hold Masonic Degrees if you are not a Master Mason. The Sovereign Sanctuary is the only regular Order in the world which Master Masons can belong to, which has the Ancient and Primitive Rite lawfully within its bosom. Other groups are non Masonic and unauthorized. The Rite is Christian in its nature due to the majority of the Rituals Degrees being based upon the Christian Tradition of the New Testament, the Rite reserves the Right to only admit those that have a firm believe in Jesus The Christ, such as any Christian 5 Master Mason, Muslim Master Mason or Messianic Jew Master Mason. The Ancient and Primitive Order of Freemasons The Ancient and Primitive Order of Freemasons is a detached independent body of men from all walks of life. They meet regularly initially to work on their personal development. These meetings which are based on Christian thought are conducted with dignity and bound in tradition. The idea and aim of Freemasonry is to influence the process of ennoblement and personal improvement by promoting humility, tolerance and compassion. Those qualities which the members master in the lodge should be practised in their daily lives. These human qualities can of course be attained and practised by others who are not freemasons, but the Order of Freemasons in an organisation where this thought has taken a practical form which enable its members to develop it through ancient rituals, and with dignity. The Ancient and Primitive Order of Freemasons does not engage itself in national or international political issues, nor does it engage itself in religious or social disputes. The members shall show loyalty to the authority and laws of the land. They shall show respect for the Order itself and the aims of Freemasonry. A short history Our present day Freemasonry grew forth in Germany, France, 6 Scotland and England in the 1600´s as an ethical and philosophical system based on the art of building, its symbolism and history. The Order, in its original form, was established in 1705 by the Grand Assemby or Grand Lodge at York. The system was quickly adopted and became predominant in continental Europe. What is a lodge? It is the name given to the assembly room or building where the Masonic brothers meet.