By Eric Vandenbroeck and co-workers
The Masonic Gold- and Rosenkreutz
Coming to fame by
Masonic societies and modern occultism as earlier
described the manuscript copies of the Fama Fraternitatis were initially circulating among very few
readers, of a circle of friends in Tübingen.
In the decades
following the establishment of English Freemasonry a, Rosicrucian variety in Germany, was marked by an
emphasis on alchemy, secret-occult gnosis, and theocratic sentiments.
Evidence of the
emergence of this latter tendency according to early on René Le
Forestier, Karl H. Frick, also English authors like Christopher Mc Intosh and Tobias Churton occurs
in a Czech manuscript of 1761, which draws from the lureum
Vellus (`Golden Fleece,' 1749) of Hermann Fictuld a
correspondent with the famous theosopher Friedrich
Christoph Oetinger (1702-1782), and has been touted as a possible `founder' of
the Gold- and Rosenkreutz.
In the Aureum Vellus he made mention of die goldenen
Rosenkreutzer as the inheritors of the `Golden
Fleece' sought by Jason and the Argonauts; the work as a whole dealt with the
alchemical significance of Greek and Egyptian mythology and a alchemical
treatment of pagan mythology drawing from Michael Maier's Arcana Arcanissima, Symbola Aureae Mensae and Atalanta Fugiens. This text is to
be found in the Fables Egyptiennes et Grecques Devoilees (1758) of Antoine Joseph Pernety,
who would become librarian to the most prominent member of the Gold- and Rosenkreutz, King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia
(1786-1797).
Pernety later returning to France, would start his own group
called ‘Illumines d’Avignon" (the Illuminate of
Avignon).
Following the
collapse due to scandal of Baron von Hund's `Strict Observance' Templar strain
of Freemasonry in 1782, the Gold- and Rosenkreutz
became the dominant force within the German Craft, alongside the 'Illuminati'
joined by many former Templars including the second in command and creator of
its higher degrees, Baron Knigge.
The Gold- and Rosenkreutz was marked by its anti
Enlightenment stance and its emphasis on Christian piety and alchemy.
Alchemical ideas and symbols were incorporated into the rituals of initiation
and the teachings that accompanied each grade; laboratory alchemy was also an
important part of the work of the order from the third degree onwards. Paracelsian and Valentinian alchemy were the order of the
day, although there were some members denied the tria
prima of Paracelsus and worked with the traditional sulphur-mercury
theory as Maier had done.
There was a believe in the vitalistic
conceptions of a correspondence between gold, the sun and God, and a belief in
a vital spirit conveyed by the blood which is the basis of a miraculous
medicine and tincture for metals.
Members of the Gold-
and Rosenkreutz also defended the complementarily of
pagan and Christian belief in the manner of their predecessors; thus Biblical
authority was upheld alongside the authority of a Tradition stretching back to
ancient Egypt.
The Asiatic Brethern and Sabbatian Masonry
In the early 1780s
there emerged an organization, known initially as Die Ritter des Lichts
(Knights of the Light) and later as Die Brueder St. Johannes
des Evangelisten aus Asien in Europa (the Asiatic Brethren of St. John the
Evangelist in Europe). Although it did not use the word “Rosicrucian” in its
name, it can be considered part of the neo-Rosicrucian current for three
reasons. First, the founder, Hans Heinrich von Ecker und Eckhoffen,
was an ex-member of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz.
Secondly, the order drew on the same well of symbolism and esoteric tradition
as the Gold- und Rosenkreuz. Thirdly, the initiates
to the highest of the five grades of the order, the grade of Melchisedeck, were known as “Royal Priests” or “True Rosicrucians.”
The order of the
Asiatic Brethren stands out among German masonic and para-masonic organizations
of its day, chiefly on account of the way in which it welcomed Jewish members
(at least for a time) and was steeped in Jewish esoteric lore. Because of this
it has attracted the attention of writers on Jewish history, notably Jakob
Katz, who includes a detailed chapter on the order's history in his Jews and
Freemasons in Europe 1723-1939. For the same reason it presents particular
difficulties for the historian who is inclined to categorize the whole
Rosicrucian phenomenon as anti-Aufklaerung. Before
attempting to assess the Asiatic Brethren in the context of the Aufklaerung and in relation to the issue of Jewish
emancipation, it is necessary to know the outlines of the order- history.
Whether or not Hans
Heinrich von Ecker und Eckhoffen was identical with
Magister Pianco, author of Der Rosenkreuzer
in seiner Bloesse, it is generally agreed that he had
been a member of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz, with the
order name of Nichneri Vekorth.
Under this name he published in 1782 a defence
against Phoebron's attack on him in Der im Lichte der Wahrheit
strahlende Rosenkreuzer,
denying his authorship of the Pianco book. Ecker,
with the help of certain collaborators, founded the order of the Ritter des
Lichts in Vienna in about 1780 or 81. The main document on its origins is a
history of the order written by one of its members.the
kabbalistic scholar Franz Josef Molitor, who describes the creation of the
order as follows:
“Probably he [Ecker]
had already conceived the idea of founding a new order when in Vienna he made
the acquaintance of K Justus. This Franciscan monk, whose civilian name is said
to have been Bischof, was the apothecary of his monastery and either belonged
himself to the order of the Rosicrucians or at least
was engaged in alchemical work. He possessed also other knowledge, which he had
brought with him from the East, since he had spent a long time at a monastery
in Jerusalem. Here or elsewhere in the Orient he had become acquainted with
kabbalistic Jews and especially with a certain Asaria,
originally a merchant, who had handed his business over to his sons to devote
himself entirely to study. Asaria belonged to a
kabbalistic Jewish sect which is spread throughout the three parts of the old
world and, after giving up his trade, travelled around in various countries on
behalf of his order. Through Justus Eckhoffen was initiated
into mystical Jewish knowledge, without, however, making particular progress in
its theoretical aspects. On the other hand he had brought correspondingly more
practical knowledge of alchemy and magic with him from the Rosicrucians.
It is uncertain whether he immediately formed an association for such secret
work in Vienna or whether Justus had already founded one. Ecker, however,
brought it fully to life, initially under the name of the Brothers of Light.
Its ritual was kabbalistic; thus, for example, the two pillars bore the sephirotic names of Netlzach and
Hod. When this form was found no longer suitable the order was given a
different one and emerged under the name of the Asiatic Brethren of Saint John
in Europe.”
A picture of the
order in its first incarnation as the Ritter des Lichts can be found in the Signatstern, a collection of miscellaneous masonic material
from Woellner-Nachlass, which was published in
1803-15. From the details given here it is clear that, although at this stage
Ecker had not yet developed the full Jewish-Christian syncretism that
characterized the later version of the order, he had already begun to introduce
certain Jewish touches. The fourth of the five grades, for example, was that of
“Levite.” The same source gives details of the elaborate organizational
structure that Ecker envisaged. Each grade was to have its own chapter, and the
chapters themselves were arranged into provinces with seven chapters each.
The premises where
the elections to the office of Provincial Administrator were to take place are
described as follows:
“The building where
the knights and brethren assemble for the election should be spacious, well
located and appropriate for this purpose, that is to say it should have at
least four moms, the first being an ante-room.
... The entry to the
Chapter Room should be through a large doorway. The walls of the room should be
bright red with green borders. On each wall should be seven candelabra, each
with three arms, and in the centre of the room should
hang a seven-branched candelabrum, all the candelabra being of gold.”
The passage goes on
to describe an elaborate throne for the Provincial Administrator in front of a
sanctum flanked by golden pillars in which is displayed the word
"Jehovah" in a triangle surrounded by flames.
A similar type of
room must have been used for the regular ceremonies of the fifth grade, that of
the Priests or True Rosicrucians, judging by the
diagram and description given of the layout. Once again, there is a throne in
front of a sanctum, and the other features of the room include a vessel with
myrrh and salt dissolved in water, a golden ox covered with a black cloth, an
arrangement of the golden pillars and a vessel for the “sacred fire” of
seven different fuels, on which was to be burned an incense made of ten spices.
The rituals of the
various grades have a loosely masonic framework, and the regulations stipulate
that no one who has not been initiated in a regular masonic lodge can be
admitted to the order.
The symbolism of the
rituals owes much to the Gold- und Rosenkreuz, as can
be seen in the initiation ritual for the first grade where regular masonic
symbols are interpreted in an alchemical sense, just as they are in the Gold-
und Rosenkreuz. The familiar masonic emblem of the
star, for example, is represented as standing for the word Aesch-Majim
“the watery fire or fiery water, which we know how to obtain from our
substance.”
Ecker hoped to
present his new order to the masonic world at the Wilhelmsbad
convention of 1782. To this end he travelled to Schleswig early in 1782 to
visit the Landgraf Carl von Hessen-Kassel, a prominent freemason and an avid
explorer of mystical and esoteric rites who will be encountered again. Whatever
took place between Ecker and the Landgraf, he did not succeed in his aim, since
a protest against his appearance at Wilhelmsbad was
registered by a group of leading members of the Berlin lodge Friedrich zum goldenen Moewen,
headed by Woellner. Curiously, it is reported that Woellner later became a member of Ecker's order, along with
Bischoffswerder and Crown Prince Frederick William,
but at the time he and his co-protestors clearly felt acute resentment against
Ecker. The letter that this group wrote to Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig,
Grand Master of the Strict Observance, speaks of the “danger that fearfully
threatens the Convention and so many lodges in Germany” and continues:
“We know that Satan's
emissaries are coming there to work their mischief We know that a totally new
bogus order, the Knights of the True Light, has been created and is divided
into the following five grades: Novices of three, five and seven years, Levites
and Priests. All are said to be conferred free of charge and performed with
acts of the blackest diabolic magic.”
Having failed in his
attempt to appear at Wilhelmsbad, Ecker returned to
Austria and resided for some two years at Innsbruck in the Tyrol where he
gained support for his order from Franz von Gumer
(1734-1794), a prominent Tyrolean citizen, freemason, former mayor of Bozen and one of the leading opponents of the Josephine
reforms in the Tyrol. Gumer had converted part of his
house at Bozen into a masonic temple for meetings of
the Bozen lodge. This room is still preserved, and
the ceiling painting has a Rosicrucian touch in the form of a painting
featuring the alchemical symbols of salt, sulphur and
mercury. Probably Gumer was a member of the
Gold- und Rosenkreuz before (or even after) joining
forces with Ecker, but in any event he was clearly cast in the Rosicrucian mould, as is shown by his papers, which are preserved at
Innsbruck. These contain, among other things, magical talismans, kabbalistic
alphabets, numerological keys and detailed records of alchemical processes.
Also among the papers
is a letter to Gumer from Ecker, written in 1783.
This letter, which deals with practical matters relating to the order, is
evidence that the grades of Ecker's system were actually being worked at this
time, since Ecker was evidently in the course of preparing working texts of the
rituals. The letter also implies that Gumer was
supporting him financially. Ecker writes:
“I would, Your
Excellency, have handed over the first grade, together with the appropriate
work to be undertaken ... except that I do not know which brethren are still
affiliated to the Province, and, since no one answers my enquiries, there is
nothing I can do. Would Your Excellency ... have the kindness to request
Brother [illegible] to furnish me with the [illegible] of the brethren at
Innsbruck. ... The second grade, which is now ready, contains about 70 sheets
... together with 30 painted hieroglyphs. For each of these I had to pay the
painter F1 [1 florin].”
There follows a list
of expenses, adding up to 43 Florins and 48 Kreuzer, and Ecker adds: “This,
therefore is the sum to be paid for the second grade.”
While in the Tyrol,
Ecker made the acquaintance of a Jew named Joseph Hirschfeld, who was to play a
key role in the re-shaping of the order. Molitor writes:
“Hirschfeld, a native
of Karlsruhe, had first attended the Gymnasium of his native town and then
studied medicine at Strassburg. Since, however, he
was lacking in support he left the university and went to the Tyrol, where he
was employed in salt-mining. As Eckhoffen found in
him an able man, he took him as his secretary, especially on account of the
Hebrew language, which he [Ecker] did not know but needed because of the fact
that the order was founded on Hebrew documerits.”
Molitor leaves out
the fact that between leaving Strassburg and going to
the Tirol Hirschfeld had a sojourn in Berlin where he was befriended by Moses
Mendelssohn and his circle but did not accept their rationalist doctrines. As
Ecker's secretary he was employed to copy out the documents of the Ecker's
order. This led to an interest in their content, and soon Hirschfeld became a
member of the order.
In 1784 Ecker took up
residence in Vienna, and the following year he and Hirschfeld reorganized the
order as the Asiatic Brethren. Another important collaborator was one Baron
Thomas von Schoenfeld, an apostate Jew and prolific writer who was to end his
life on the guillotine during the Reign of Terror in Paris. He had been a
follower of the Sabbatian movement, the cult of the 17th-century pseudo-Messiah
Sabbatai Zevi, and incorporated certain Sabbatian
doctrines into the orders teachings. Other members of the order at this time
included, according to Molitor, many distinguished individuals such as the
Prince of Lichtenstein, the Austrian Minister of Justice (no name given), the
Count von Westenburg and the Count von 711un. Other
Christian members listed in a different source included three army officers,
two court officials and a doctor of medicine.
As for Jewish
members, at least three wealthy Viennese Jews belonged to the order: Arnstein, Eskeles and Hoenig. Arnstein's brother-in-law in Berlin, Isaac Daniel Itzig, also became a member.
The order as it now
emerged was unique among German masonic and paramasonic
orders in its total openness to Jewish members. Its symbolism and ritual pratice were an extraordinary amalgam of Jewish elements,
Christian mysticism, alchemy and mystical Freemasonry. From Judaism it took the
basic terminology of its hierarchy. The supreme council of the order was known
as the Synedrion (Sanhedrin), and the officers carried Hebrew titles. Prince
Carl von Hessen, for example, who became titular head of the order, had the
title of Chacharn Hackolel,
while Ecker- title was Rosch Hamdabrim. As Gershom Scholem points out in his article on Hirschfeld, this
terminology was different from the purely biblical Hebrew terminology that
pervaded ordinary Freemasonry, and must have stemmed from Hirschfeld's
knowledge of rabbinical Hebrew.
The intention behind
these practices, as Molitor explains, was to bring about religious unity by
leading Christianity back to its Jewish form. Molitor states that this unifying
spirit also Jay behind the practice of giving Jewish names to Christian
members, and vice versa. Thus Ecker became Abraham, and his younger brother
Carl became Ismael. Hirschfeld, however, as an exception, was given the Hebrew
name Elias. Another practice was to celebrate Christian holidays, such as
Christmas and the Day of Saint John the Apostle, as well as Jewish festivals, such
as the anniveraries of the birth and death of Moses,
of the Exodus and of the Giving of the Law.
As Katz points out,
this mingling of Christian and Jewish observance must have been easier for the
Christian members to accept than for their Jewish brethren.
The former could
regard themselves as merely re-establishing contact with the Jewish roots of
Christianity, whereas the latter must have been strongly aware that they were
breaking their own religious code, especially when, as at certain gatherings of
the order, they were required to eat pork with milk. Katz attributes such
antinomian practices partly to the Sabbatian strain in the order, but he also
detects an Aufklaerung influence in the willingness
of theGold- und Rosenkreuz,
was Georg von Welling- Opus Mago-Cabbalisticum et Theosophicum.
From Welling's work
came most of the alchemical notions and terminology used by the order, such as
the idea of the Aesch-Majim, or fiery water, thought
to be the primal substance of creation, which, as already mentioned, was
represented by the six-pointed star, Signatstern.
From Welling also came the gnostic-dualistic outlook, which again we found in
the Gold- und Rosenkreuz, in which the Fall of
Lucifer was seen as being responsible for the emergence of the material realm
and its separation from the spiritual. As Scholem
points out, these ideas, although fully in the Christian theosophical spirit of
Boehme and Paracelsus, could quite easily be combined with legitimate
kabbalistic doctrines, which Hirschsfeld also incorporated
into the order's teachings. Scholem also states
that the order-documents contain an unmistakeably
Sabbatian element, namely the doctrine relating to the separation of the
thinking and unthinking lights in God, that is to say the separation of the
lights in which the thought of creation was present, from those in which this
intention was not and is not present.
The rituals and
information of The Asiatic Brethern/Fratres Lucis later became an
inspiration for the Rose of Perfect Silence in Paris of which P.B.
Randolph became a member and obtained a charter to run his own Rosicrucian
organization. Randolph sold scryer’s mirrors from the Paris motherlodge
to the members of his USA branch. In London Francis Irwin S.R.I.A. members
A.F.A. Woodford and S.C. Bingham had the material, and later the Golden Dawn in
England and Francesco Brunelli’s Arcana Arcanorum in
Italy, yes even Theodor Reusse’s original O.T.O.
idea, all were inspired by the overrated Fratres Lucis. So here now the second part of Chris McIntosh Study:
With Vienna as their
base, the Asiatic Brethren flourished and spread, but their success soon
aroused the animosity of certain prominent freemasons of the established rites
and of two individuals in particular. One was Prince Johann Baptist Karl von Dietrichstein, Grand Master of the Austrian lodges and
reported to have been a member of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz.
The other was the prominent mason and Aufklaerung
figure Ignaz von Born. In order to regulate Austrian Freemasonry, and partly to
suppress the Asiatics and other idiosyncratic
tendencies, Dietrichstein (perhaps by now a
disenchanted Rosicrucian), with the encouragement of Ignaz von Born, proposed
to Joseph 11 that he pass a law imposing stricter controls on masonic activity.
When Ecker heard of this plan he and three other representatives of the order
held a meeting with Dietrichstein and Baron von
Kressel, another leading freemason, to try to persuade them not to take action
against the Asiatic Brethren. Following the meeting Ecker, writing under his
order name of Abraham, issued a circular, preserved in the Gumer
Nachlap and dated 14 January 1745 (i.e. 1785), in
which he declared:
"As various
false rumours concerning ... unbrotherly proceedings
have been concocted and spread abroad, the wise and venerable lesser Sanhedrin
of the Order of the Asiatic Knights and Brethren of Saint John the Evangelist
in Europe has com missioned me, the undersigned Brother, to make known to the
Brethren of our order, by means of a circular, the discussions which Brothers
von Ziegler, von Pichel, von Wiesenthal and the
undersigned held with his Princely Grace von Dietrichstein
as national Grand Master ... and His Excellency Baron von Kressel as Provincial
Grand Master. ...
First, the Brethren
explained that the order ... is not a new order but the one that has been known
for more than a thousand years in Europe under the name of the Brethren of
Saint John, transmitted from individual to individual. Thus, for example,
Brother von Ziegler, among others, has been in the order, in its old form, for
21 years. By the old order we mean the one which was not constituted as a
systematic body but, as I have said, was passed on by word of mouth to those
who were worthy. Thus any Brother who knows the original source of the
hieroglyphs knows also the source of their meaning,
Secondly, we read out
our rules, and after the worshipful Brethren Prince von Dietrichstein
and Baron von Kressel had seen that there was nothing in them that was contrary
to religion and good morals or to the duties of a faithful subject, they
declared that they had not the slightest objection to them and indeed wished
that they could be generally applied." (Tiroler Landesarchiv, Gumer Nachlas, Circulare, issued by
Abraham (Ecker und Eckhoffen), fol.90, recto and
verso.)
On the subject of the
proposed law, Ecker wrote:
"Would not such
a law be totally contrary to the fundamental principles of Freemasonry? Can I
demand of a man that, from his childhood to his 30th year, he remain in school,
a school in which they talk of knowledge and wisdom but where the teachers
hardly know the names of these things. That would truly be despotic tyranny
like the schemes of the Jesuits who strictly forbid their pupils to go near any
stream that leads to true Aufklaerung."
Here Ecker is
referring to the notion of ordinary masonry as a Pflanzschule
for the higher degrees where the true wisdom is to be found. It is striking
that he invokes the word Aufklaerung and the bete noire of the Jesuits.
Unfortunately Ecker's
representations to Dietrichstein were of no avail,
for in December of 1785 Joseph 11 issued his Freimaurerpatent,
which brought Freemasonry under the Emperor's protection but greatly reduced
the number of lodges that were permitted to operate and struck a blow against
the Asiatics; and other higher degree systems as well
as the Illuminati. In the event the Freimaurerpatent
went a good deal further in its restrictions on Freemasonry than Dietrichtstein and Born had intended. After the passing of
the edict, Ecker remained for a time in Vienna (perhaps until 1786 or 87), but
then moved to north Germany.
Meanwhile the order
had spread far and wide, and there are records of lodges in Prague, Innsbruck,
Berlin, Frankfurt, Wetzlar, Marburg and Hamburg. The
Hamburg lodge was run by Hans Heinrich von Ecker's younger brother Hans Carl.
It had 24 members including bankers, merchants, physicians and a clergyman, but
no prominent aristocrats or people of great distinction. Six of the members
were Jews: two merchants, one a court agent and one a physician.
The elder Ecker came
to Hamburg to attend the inauguration of his brother's lodge in December, 1785,
but he had another reason for making the journey north from Vienna. This was
just the time when the Freimaureredikt was being
promulgated (it came into effect early in 1786), and Ecker was now hoping that
his order would find new protection in the north. He found it in two prominent
freemasons, Prince Ferdinand of Braunschweig and the Landgraf Carl von
Hessen-Kassel.
The former, who has
been encountered before as the former head of the Strict Observance, a
high-ranking member of the Illuminati and an ardent alchemist, became Generalobermeister of the Asiatics
in 1786. Carl von Hessen, however, played a more important role. Carl was the
son-in-law of the Danish King Frederick VI, held lands in Schleswig, Holstein
and Norway and played a leading role in Freemasonry in both Denmark and
northern Germany.
He had been in touch
with Ecker since 1782, and now he accepted the title of supreme head of the
order. Like Ferdinand of Braunschweig, Carl von Hessen was one of those
aristocrats who had a finger in every masonic pie, including the Illuminati,
which he joined in 1782, becoming Nationaloberer for
Denmark, Sweden and Russia. Also like Ferdinand, he evidently saw no conflict
between his position in the secular, rationalist Illuminati and his fervent
devotion to the mystical side of Freemasonry. He was constantly preoccupied
with a search for the "hidden superiors" and the "true secret",
and this search led him into numerous high-degree systems including the Gold-
und Rosenkreuz, the French order of the Philaletes and the Asiatics. He
was an indefatigable devotee of alchemy and possessed his own laboratory. In
this he was guided by the mysterious French Comte de Saint-Germain, whom
he harboured on his estates during the last years of
Saint-Germain's life.
Under the protection
of Carl von Hessen, Ecker and Hirschfeld now moved to Schleswig, which became
the headquarters of the Asiatic Brethren. However, if Ecker thought he
had found a safe haven he was wrong, for the order now found itself under
attack from masons who disapproved of its policies. The first attack came from
certain masons in Hamburg who were incensed by the activities of Carl von
Ecker's lodge and issued an anonymously written eight-page pamphlet entitled Unpartheiische und grundliche Nachricht von der Freymaurerloge
der Juden und anderen geheimen Geselischaften in
Hamburg (1786), which deplored the admission of Jews on the grounds that Jesus
Christ had always been the cornerstone of Masonry.
An anonymous rebuttal
published the same year and probably written by Carl von Ecker, defended the
practice of admitting Jews and pointed to the example of English Masonry which
had never discriminated against Jews.( Ein Wort zum Nachdenken aber die
sogenannte Unpartheiische und grundliche
Nachrichten von der Freimaurer-Loge der Juden und andere geheimen
Gesellschaften in Hamburg).
The following year, 1787,
came another work attacking the Asiatics. This was entitled Authentische Nachricht von den Ritter- und Bruder-
Eingeweihten aus Asien, zur Beherzigung der Freymaurern.
Although this was published anonymously,
the author is known to have been a Dane of German origin named Friedrich Muenter, a distinguished theologian, scientist and eminent
freemason, who later became bishop of Seeland. What makes the authorship
interesting is that Muenter is generally regarded as
an Aufaurung figure.
He was, for example,
a member of the Illuminati and was in correspondence with Weishaupt
and Bode as well as with Bom and the Vienna Illuminati. He was a strong
advocate of enlightened religion and in masonic matters normally strove to
avoid intolerance towards any system.
The Authentische Nachricht, as the
foreword explains, was based on documents of the Asiatic Brethren which had
come into Muenter's hands. In the foreword Muenter laments the theosophical, magical and Rosicrucian
strains in Freemasonry which had become stronger in recent years, threatening
to turn people away from philosophy and enlightenment. He affirms the link
between these strains and the suppressed Jesuit order, and goes on to attack
the Rosicrucians for the way in which they
nonsensically mix alchemy and theology and for the hierarchical nature of their
system and the blind obedience and belief that they demand of their followers.
He continues:
"If the Rosicrucians continue for another half century in the way
that they have begun, then philosophy and enlightened science will be ousted;
we shall have no more history or philosophical theology; monkish legends,
priestly hocus-pocus and superstition will possess the thrones; the princes,
already deceived by swindlers, will all become royal priests and will learn
from the despotism of the order yet more fearful despotism. ..."
It has long been
known that the Rosicrucians are divided into many
sects that, to all appearances, hate each other, which to some extent they do
... but whose heads are all united and strive towards a common goal. ... Ibis
is partly to confuse the world and make them seem weaker than they are, partly
to lure people into the various societies through the appeal of novelty ... and
partly, through the apparent enmity between sects, to discover and nullify
secret attacks against their whole structure. (no place of publication given,
1787, pp. xviii-xxi.)
Muenter becomes even more lurid when he writes of initiation
ceremonies in a secret cave at the monastery of Monte Senario
near Florence, formerly used by the Etruscans for sacrifices. These Florentine Rosicrucians, he says, are in correspondence with those in
Munich. The fact that a man of Muenter’s erudition
could write in this vein is another indication of just how powerful a bete noire the Rosicrucians could
be to the Aufklaerer.
Turning to the
Asiatic Brethren, Muenter writes:
"A new branch of
the Rosicrucians, which only emerged a few years ago,
is the order of the Initiated Asiatic Knights and Brethren. That these belong
to the same class as the Rosicrucians, even though
they pretend to be enemies of the latter, becomes clear as soon as one knows
their constitution. They claim to have their great Sanhedrin in the East,
probably the Middle East, but are in close touch with the priests of the
Egyptian .%risdom in the Pyramids, from whom they
often receive secret letters. (pp. xxii-xxiii.)
Muenter goes on to reproduce the rules for admission to the
order:
(1) Any brother, of
whatever religion, class or system, can enter the order, provided that he is a
right-thinking, honest and genuine citizen. ...
(2) Such a brother
must, however, have been made a Knight and Master in an ordinary and regular Melchisedeck or St. John's lodge of freemasons.
(3) Ile name Melchisedeck lodges refers to those lodges in which Jews,
Turks, Persians, Armenians, Copts etc. labour.
..."( pp. 1-2.)
These Melchisedeck lodges were a device to enable the Asiatics to admit Jews while at the same time insisting
that they be already initiated as masons. Since nearly all regular masonic
lodges in Germany administering the Craft (or St. John's) degrees were
exclusively Christian, it was necessary to claim the existence of an
alternative Craft-degree system for Jews. In fact, the Melchisedeck
lodges existed only in name, and the conferring of the Melchisedeck
degrees was probably a formality. Mueinter, in a
footnote, deplores this practice: "It is, as every Entered Apprentice
knows, the first rule of a regular working lodges of all systems, that only
Christians can be accepted." And he adds, quite incorrectly, that no
lodges under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of London admit Jews. In fact,
as already mentioned, the English lodges were at pains not to be exclusively
Christian.
Muenter's attack drew counter-attacks from both of the Ecker
brothers. Heinrich replied under
his own name in a work entitled Abfertigung an den
ungenannten Verfasser der verbreiteten sogenannten: Authentischen Nachricht von
den Ritter- und Bruder-Eingeweihten aus Asien, published
at Hamburg in 1788. In this work, Ecker
denied that his order was an off-shoot of the Rosicrucians
and contradicted Muenter's assertion that Jews were
never admitted into regular lodges.
Carl von Ecker's
counter-attack was written under the pseudonym of "Carl Friedrich von Boscamp, called Lasopolski"
and was entitled Werden und koennen
Israeliten zu Freymaurern aufgenommen werden? (Hamburg, 1788). Carl von Ecker here laments the
prejudices against Jews in Germany, using language that is strongly redolent of
Aufklaerung views, as for example when he writes of
the Jews not being able to enjoy "the original rights of a free man,
resting on the indisputable law of nature". At the same time he holds the
Jews partly responsible for their own condition. He deplores, for example, the
fact that many of them preserve what he calls superstitious and absurd opinions
instead of simply obeying the pure mosaic teachings of their religion.
Freemasonry,
according to Carl von Ecker, provides perhaps the only route to enlightenment
for the Jews, and therefore it must be open to them.
Although the Eckers had thus defended the admission of Jews, the issue
continued to be a cause of dissension within the order. Some of the Schleswig
members, for example, felt that, although existing Jewish members should be
allowed to remain, new ones should be restricted. There was trouble also in the
Hamburg branch of the order. Carl von Ecker applied for masonic authorization
from Duke Ferdinand of Braunschweig, who agreed only on condition that Jewish members
be expelled from the group. Carl von Hessen proposed a compromise in which
Jewish Asiatic Brethren would form a separate lodge called the Melchisedeck lodge, but the Hamburg Jewish members rejected
this proposal and left the order.
Hirschfeld, meanwhile,
was having his own problems in the Schleswig branch, culminating in a legal
battle which began when he sued Ecker for payment of a debt. Ecker retaliated
by claiming that Hirschfeld had threatened his life, and the affair quickly
escalated. Hirschfeld was placed under house arrest and expelled from the order
in a circular that accused him of having gone too far in imposing Jewish
kabbalistic elements on the rituals of the order. Although kabbalistic
meditation was valuable, the circular argued, its object was to lead the
Christian beyond the limits attainable by a Jew.
In the midst of
Hirschfeld's troubles Heinrich von Ecker died in August 1791, while the trial
was still in progress. Hirschfeld was released and restored to favour with Carl von Hessen, but he was not allowed to
resume his former position in the order. Resentment against him still simmered,
and he was suspected of having written an anonymous polemic against the Asiatics entitled Der Asiate in
seiner Bloesse oder gruendlicher Beweis: dass die Ritter und Brueder Eingeweihten aus Asien echte Rosenkreuzer
sind, which appeared in 1790. This repeated the claim
that the Asiatics were merely the Rosicrucians
in a new disguise and castigated them for their unjust treatment of Hirschfeld
.
In February 1792 a
mysterious person, referred to as I. Ben Jos. appeared in Schleswig and was
presented by Hirschfeld as a leading member of the order. Katz identifies him
as none other than Tliomas von Schoenfeld, the
Viennese Jew who had played a seminal role in the foundation of the order. He
paid 550 Taler to settle Hirschfeld's debts, and the two of them travelled to
Strasbourg where they made the acquaintance of Louis Claude de Saint-Martin,
the "Philosophe Inconnu", whose work had exerted such a strong influence
on highdegree masonry. From here Schoenfeld went on
to Paris where he tragically died on the guillotine on 5 April 1793. With the
Asiatic Brethren in a state of collapse, Hirschfeld went back to his native
Karlsruhe and eventually settled at Offenbach, near Frankfurt.
In 1796 he and his
brother Pascal published a book entitled Biblisches
Organon oder Realuebersetzung
der Bibel mit der mystischen Begleitung und kritischen Anmerkungen, which
evinces the same mixture of Kabbalism and Christian theosophy as had pervaded
the Asiatic Brethren.
As late as 1817
Hirschfeld was still dreaming of resurrecting the order.
Although the order of
the Asiatic Brethren was short-lived its echoes affected a Jewish masonic lodge
founded in Frankfurt in the wake of the Napoleonic conquest. While it is not
within the scope of this study to enter into a fun discussion of this lodge,
which has been dealt with in detail in Jacob Katzs
Jews and Freemasons in Europe,'s it is relevant to
give a brief outline of its history based largely on Katzs
account. Apart from the Asiatic Brethren, various attempts had been made by
German Jews to enter Freemasonry, either by setting up lodges of their own or
by entering existing lodges. Any lodges with Jewish members were, however,
branded as irregular by the mainstream of German Masonry, which remained, as we
have seen, resolutely Christian. This changed, however, with the Napoleonic
conquest, during which French affiliated lodges were established on German
soil, in which the admission of Jews was given official approval in line with
the policy of the Grand Orient in Paris. It was under these circumstances that
a Jew named Sigismund Geisenheimer founded, under
French aegis, the Loge de I’Aurore Naissante or, in German, Zur aufgehenden Morgenroethe (translated:Golden Dawn ), often called simply the Judenloge.
The lodge, chartered
in 1807 and ceremonially inaugurated the following year, was of mixed Jewish
and Christian membership, and among the Christian members was Franz Joseph
Molitor, the kabbalistic scholar who had been an important member of the
Asiatic Brethren and had remained in close touch with Hirschfeld. At the
inauguration he made a speech welcoming the event as symptomatic of the dawn of
a new era in which all classes of men would look upon each other as brothers.
"And so," he declared, mixing theosophical language with the
vocabulary of Aufklaerung, "the illumination of
the Enlightenment penetrates to all classes of society, and estates that
diverge in the State return united in the world of the spirit”. (J. Katz, Jews
and Freemasons in Europe, p.58)
All went well for the
lodge until the German reconquest, when the Parisian affiliation became a
liability and it was forced to seek authorization elsewhere. An attempt was
made, through the mediation of Hirschfeld, to obtain authorization from Carl
von Hessen. This was at first agreed, but later the arrangement broke down over
Carl's ambivalent attitude towards the question of Jewish members, in other
words over the same problem that had bedevilled the
Asiatic Brethren. While Carl was willing to recognize the importance of the
Jewish tradition of esoteric wisdom, he still clung to the belief that
Christianity was the ocean into which all true initiatory traditions flowed.
Thus, for example, he
insisted that no Jew should hold the office of master in the lodge, and it was
a dispute on this point that led to a severing of relations with Carl. Molitor
was influenced by Carl into shifting his ground away from his original
humanistic position, and he came to share the view that the upper levels of
Masonry were accessible only to those who accepted the symbols of Christianity.
In the end, as Katz writes, "he developed a philosophical system
consisting of a synthesis of the Jewish Cabala and the beliefs and ideas of the
Catholic Church". (Katz p. 66)
After the break with
Carl von Hessen the Judenloge succeeded in obtaining
authorization from the English Grand Master, the Duke of Sussex, to operate
under the auspices of the Grand Lodge of London. Henceforth its position was
secure, but it remained isolated and ostracized by the mainstream of German
Masonry.
Meanwhile Hirschfeld
had tried to introduce the rites of the Asiatic Brethren into the Frankfurt
lodge, but the lodge would have none of it. When an anonymous pamphlet, Das Judenthum in der Maurerey, was
published in 1816 attacking the lodge in venomous terms and pointing to its
links with Hirschfeld, the members published a rebuttal of the pamphlet's
allegations, stating that the lodge had never pursued alchemical speculations
and denying that anyone called Hirschsfeld had ever
been a member.
With regard to the
lodge's attitude to the higher degrees, Katz writes: "It is almost obvious
that, in choosing between limiting their degrees to the first three and
instituting the higher ones, or between humanistic aspirations and mystic or
quasi-mystic doctrines, the lodge decided in favor of the former in each
instance." This assertion, however, is contradicted in a most surprising
way by a communication from the lodge to the Grand Orient in Paris during the
Napoleonic phase, which is now preserved in the Bibliotheque
Nationale. The communication, which was in reply to
an enquiry concerning the position of Jewish masons in Germany, states, among
other things:
"Jews are eager
to possess the degree of Rose-Croix, and there are many who do possess it and
who have received it from French chapters and even from the Grand Orient of
France. ...
The Jewish Rose-Croix
members take part in all the workings and observe all the ceremonies of this
degree. ...
They receive the
French Rose-Croix degree because in Germany there are no chapters.
The ostensible reason
that German masons give for rejecting Jews is that the latter cannot swear on
the Gospel, but in fact the real motive is commercial jealousy."
The four signatories
of the letter include the Jewish founder Geisenheimer
and F.J. Molitor, both of whom sign themselves "S P R", Souverain
Prince RoseCroix. (Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Fonds Maconnique,
"Note du Comite Secret des Relations Exterieures de ]a Loge Aurore
Naissante de Francfort-sur-le-Mein adressee an Frere Furtier du Grand Orient de
France.)
These French
Rose-Croix grades were different in character from the Gold und Rosenkreuz degrees, but were no less Christian and mystical
in emphasis. The fact that Geisenheimer and other
Jewish masons took part in them, in apparent contradiction to the humanistic
leanings of the Frankfurt lodge, demonstrates once again how difficult it is to
draw a dividing line between Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment strains in
masonry.
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