Freemasonry: A Very Short Introduction - Andreas Önnerfors 2017

Knighthood imagined
Historical legacies

In a widely disseminated speech delivered to French freemasons in the late 1730s (Ramsay’s ’Discours’), the claim was made that freemasonry had descended from the chivalric orders of the crusades. Although this speech made a passionate case for cosmopolitan ideas and a pan-European masonic initiative to produce a joint encyclopaedia of sciences and arts, it was the link to medieval knighthood that was presented as the central inspiration of freemasonry. Around 1740, the idea started to circulate that freemasonry represented a secret continuation of the Order of the Knights Templar. The story was that, due to the suppression of the Order by the king of France and the pope between 1307 and 1314, the Knights Templar had sought refuge in Scotland where they had attached themselves to the brotherhood of masons and begun to share in their secret practices.

This story is not backed up by any reliable historical evidence whatsoever. However, by the fact or through the fact that it was told and had a strong impact, we can see more clearly how freemasonry was fashioning itself, with men belonging to the elite of society in the European Enlightenment constructing a link back to an order of knighthood from the medieval period. This apparent link sparked off a considerable explosion in masonic degrees, rituals, and motifs that continued to unfold over the subsequent five decades. The development was encouraged by a stream of publications on medieval monastic and chivalric orders, which occurred in parallel with a surge in the establishment of honours systems offering a range of knighthoods for various purposes in Europe. Between 1748 and 1772, for instance, Sweden introduced no less than four state orders of merit offering the prospect of ’knighthood’ for exceptional achievements.

A leading expert in the area, Pierre Mollier, claims that the introduction of new chivalric ideas and the popularity of these ideas resulted in the creation of new legendary tales (a so-called ’legendary circle’). The epic tale of the persecution of the Knights Templar, the injustice of their Order’s termination, their escape to Scotland, their alleged secret knowledge and immense wealth, their unification with the freemasons, and their plans for revenge was fleshed out with new details. Versions of the Templar legend multiplied, adding new details to the imaginary world of masonic chivalry. In organizational terms, chivalric degrees were added to the first three craft degrees, and separate masonic Orders were also established, in which the Templar legend formed the basis for the supreme hierarchy.

There are four major traditions in freemasonry. From France, the Templar motif was transported to the USA and became what is known today as the ’Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite’ (AASR) with thirty-three degrees. In Great Britain, the Knights Templar were established during the 1780s and 1790s, eventually leading to the formation of an independent fraternal order strongly affiliated to freemasonry. In the ’York Rite’ (mostly practised in the Americas) Christian Knights Templar degrees are also prevalent. Starting around 1750, a number of rites developed in continental Europe, where the Knights Templar motif is still practised at higher degree levels. Most prominent in this regard was the pan-European masonic rite of ’Strict Observance’ (1751—82), which sub-divided Europe into different provinces of the Order. After 1782, the chivalric heritage of the Strict Observance was transformed into the ’Scottish Rectified Rite’, which had a strong theosophical dimension.

A still-existing independent tradition of Templar masonry developed in Scandinavia (with offshoots in Germany and the Baltics): the so-called ’Swedish rite’. The Swedish semi-official decoration ’Order of Charles XIII’ has strong connections to Templar motifs.

It is also important to take the political context of the 18th century into account. The Jacobite Stuart monarchy was ousted from Britain at the end of the 17th century and the deposed king and his heirs were forced to live in exile in France, from where several unsuccessful attempts were launched to recapture the throne. The Hanoverian dynasty that ruled Britain from 1714 onwards was perceived as illegitimate by the Jacobites. In the masonic Templar legend, the Stuart monarchy occupied an important position; hence, it was possible to project the unjust fate of the Knights Templar upon the entire Jacobite cause, not least through the imagined nexus to Scotland. Although this sub-text to the Templar legend ceased to play any significant practical role after the failed Jacobite uprising of 1746, the Templar myth was charged with a political dimension from that point on. In the aftermath of the French Revolution, freemasonry’s imagined link with the Templars was used as proof for a presumed conspiracy against Church and Crown. Outside of freemasonry, neo-Templarism has subsequently served as a projection screen for various ideas on alternative chains of historical events, forcefully illustrated by books such as Holy Blood, Holy Grail (1982), a significant source of The Da Vinci Code (2003). The Templar motif has even inspired French surrealist tradition; writer Guillaume Apollinaire identified with their fate:

Flamboyant Templars, I burn amongst you / together Grand Master let’s prophesy I am / The desirable fire that consigns itself to you / and the Catherine wheel turns around / o lovely lovely night. (From ’The Betrothal (to Picasso)’ in the poetry collection Alcools, 1913)

Modern freemasonry united two features of medieval culture, one real and one imagined: the historical link to the craft guilds (symbolized by the trowel) and the imagined link to chivalry (symbolized by the sword). Whereas architecture and construction could symbolize the perfect ideal of bringing peaceful change to the world, the association with the martial culture of knighthood is more complex. On the one hand, the idea of chivalry was apparently attractive to the elite of the Enlightenment, as a metaphor of refined morality. On the other hand, the question remains of what function references to the violent history of a defunct and suppressed order of knighthood could occupy. Pierre Mollier has pointed out two dimensions: first, that of the occult and myth, according to which the Knights Templar were yet another secret community in which arcane mysteries were kept and transferred; and, second, the political dimension, which calls for the restoration of justice and law. The alleged heresy of the order thus provides a link between esotericism and social protest.