Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

176 CONSTITUTIONS
CONSTITUTIONS
ulations, which have always been deemed of
importance in the history of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite ; although the Constitutions
of 1762 have really nothing to do with
that Rite, having been adopted long before its
establishment. In the year 1758, there was
founded at Paris a Masonic body which assumed
the title of the Chapter, or Council, of
Emperors of the East and West and which
organized a Rite known as the 'Rite of Perfection,
consisting of twenty-five degrees, and
in the same year the Rite was carried to Berlin
by the Marquis de Bernez . In the following
year, a Council of Princes of the Royal Secret,
the highest degree conferred in the Rite, was
established at Bordeaux . On September 21,
1762, nine Commissioners met and drew up
Constitutions for the government of the Rite
of Perfection, which have been since known
as the Constitutions of 1762 . Of the place
where the Commissioners met, there is some
doubt . Of the two copies, hereafter to be
noticed, which are in the archives of the
Southern Supreme Council, that of Delay
hogue refers to the Orients of Paris and Berlin,
while that of Aveilh6 says that they were
made at the Grand Orient of Bordeaux .
Thory also (Act. Lat ., i ., 79) names Bordeaux
as the place of their enactment, and so does
Ragon (Orthod. Mag ., 133) ; although he
doubts their authenticity, and says that there
is no trace of any such document at Bordeaux,
nor any recollection there of the Consistory
which is said to have drawn up the Constitutions
. To this it may be answered, that in the
Archives of the Mother Supreme Council at
Charleston there are two manuscript copies
of these Constitutions-one written by Jean
Baptiste Marie Delahogue in 1798, which is
authenticated by Count de Grasse, under the
seal of the Grand Council of the Princes of the
Royal Secret, then sitting at Charleston- and
another, written by Jean Baptiste Aveili6 in
1797 . This copy is authenticated by Long,
Delahogue, De Grasse, and others . Both documents
are written in French, and are almost
substantially the same . The translated title
of Delahogue's copy is as follows :
"Constitutions and Regulations drawn
up by nine Commissioners appointed by the
Grand Council of the Sovereign Princes of the
Royal Secret at the Grand Orients of Paris and
Berlin by virtue of the deliberation of the
fifth day of the third week of the seventh
month of the Hebrew Era, 5662, and of the
Christian Era, 1762. To be ratified and observed
by the Grand Councils of the Sublime
Knights and Princes of Masonry as well as by
the articular Councils and Grand Inspectors
ly constituted in the two Hemisp
eres . ' The title of Aveilh6's manuscript
differs in this, that it says the Constitutions
were enacted "at the Grand Orient of Bordeaux,"
and that they were "transmitted to
our Brother Stephen Morin, Grand Inspector
of all the Lodges in the New World." Probably
this is a correct record, and the Constitutions
were prepared at Bordeaux .
The Constitutions of 1762 consist of thirty-
five articles, and are principally occupied in
providing for the government of the Rite established
by the Council of Emperors of the
East and West and of the bodies under it .
The Constitutions of 1762 were published
at Paris, in 1832, in the Recueil des Actes du
Supreme Conseil de France . They were also
published, in 1859, in America; but the best
rimed exemplar of them is that published in
ench and E lish in the Book of Grand Constitutions,
edited by Bro . Albert Pike, which is
illustrated with copious and valuable annotations
by the editor, who was the Sovereign
Grand Commander of the Southern Supreme
Council .
Constitutions of 1786 . These are regarded
by the members of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite as the fundamental law
of their Rite. They are said to have been established
by Frederick II ., of Prussia, in the
last year of his life - a statement, however,
that has been denied by some writers (see
Findel's History of Freemasonry under "Declaration
of the Grande Lodge of the Three
Globes at Berlin" ; also Gould's History of
Freemasonry under "The Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite "), and the controversies
as to their authenticity have made them a
subject of interest to all Masonic scholars .
Bro. Albert Pike, the Grand Commander of
the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction
of the United States, published them,
in 1872, in Latin, French, and English ; and
his exhaustive annotations are valuable because
he has devoted to the investigation of
their origin and their authenticity more elaborate
care than any other writer .
Of these Constitutions, there are two exemplars
one in French and one in Latin, between
which there are, however, some material
differences. For a long time the French exemplar
only was known in this country. It is
supposed by Bro. Pike that it was brought to
Charleston by Count de Grasse, and that
under its provisions he organized the Supreme
Council in that place. They were accepted by
the Southern Supreme Council, and are still
regarded by the Northern Council as the only
authentic Constitutions . But there is abundant
internal evidence of the incompleteness
and incorrectness of the French Constitution,
of whose authenticity there is no
proof, nor is it likely that they were made at
Berlin and approved by Frederick, as they
profess.
The Latin Constitutions were probably not
known in France until after the Revolution .
In 1834, they were accepted as authentic by
the Supreme Council of France, and published
there m the same year . A copy of this was
published in America, in 1859, by Bro . Pike .
These Latin Constitutions of 1786 have been
recently accepted by the Supreme Council of
the Southern Jurisdiction in preference to the
French version . Most of the other Supreme
Councils-those, namel
, of England and
Wales, of Italy, and of South America-have
adopted them as the law of the Rite, repudiating
the French version as of no authority .