Mackey – Encyclopedia Of Freemasonry Vol. 1

92 SECRET SOCIETIES"What was it before? Nothing." The members met everyyear in the chapel of the Castle of Gnadenstadt, and alsokept the 15th March and 16th April as holy days .Nearly all the degrees of the Scotch rite are schismatic .In like manner, all the English and American orders ofchivalry, and their conclaves and encampments, are parodiesof ancient chivalry .In 1958, Lacorne, a dancing-master, and Pirlet, a tailor,invented the degree of the " Council of the Emperors ofthe East and West," whose members assumed the titles of" Sovereign Prince Masons, Substitutes General of the RoyalArt, Grand Superintendents and Officers of the Grand andSovereign Lodge of St. John of Jerusalem ." The ritualconsisted of twenty-five degrees, and as it was calculatedby its sounding titles and splendour of ritual to flatter thevanity of the frivolous, it was at first very successful ; andLacorne conferred on one of his creatures, a Hebrew, thedegree of Inspector, and sent him to America to spreadthe Order there . In 1797, other Jews added eight newdegrees, giving to this agglomeration of thirty-three pompousdegrees the title of "Ancient and Accepted ScotchRite ." The Grand Orient of France, seeing its own influencedeclining, proposed advantageous and honourable terms tothe Supreme Grand Council which was at the head of theScotch rite, and an agreement was come to in 18o4 . TheGrand Orient retaining the first name, received into its bosomthe Supreme Grand Council and the rich American symbolism .But the connection did not prosper, and was dissolved in18o5 . Again, what is called Mark-Masonry in England is,by some masonic authorities, considered spurious ; whilst inScotland and Ireland it is held to be an essential portion ofFreemasonry. These are curious anomalies. About 1869His Imperial Highness the Prince Rhodocanakis introducedinto England the " Order of the Red Cross of Constantineand Rome," which, however, being violently opposed by theSupreme Grand Council of the 33rd, came to an untimelyend soon after. The S .G .C . threatened any member of the" Ancient and Accepted " who should dare even to merelyvisit this new Order with expulsion from the fraternity .And the S .G.C . actually sent a" Sovereign Tribunal " toManchester to try a brother, who had snapped his fingersat the Council and said he did not care for the " Sovereign ."How it all ended is pleasantly related in the pages of TheRectangular, January and April 1871 .479 . Farmassoni .-There is a Gnostic sect in Russia whom