Freemasonry In France.

this Chapter in 1780 , and they were already in accord , when De Gorbier , calling himself President of a Rose Cvoix Chapter , said to be Grand Chapter of France , claimed a right of precedence and supremacy in virtue of a document dated 21 March ,

1721 . The Grand Lodges disdained to take the necessary steps to prove the falsity of a title anterior to the introduction of Masonry into France , perhaps ef yielding to a desire to avoid all controversy , aud to rally its dissentient brethren . However

that may be , on the 17 th February , 1786 , the Grand Chapter General and the Chapter of Rose Croix were united to the Grand Orient of France .

A commission of the High Grades was instituted by the Grand Orient in 1773 . The labours of this commission resulted , in 1786 , after the re-union of the Grand Chapters , the "Rite Francais" in three grades and four orders , elu , ecossais , chevalier d'Orient and Rose Croix . There now

remained iu Paris but the Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Rite , called the " Contrafc Social . " The documents published in 1875 by the Chapter of Marseilles establishes , in the most emphatic manner , that the "Loge

du Contrat Social' derived its Scottish origin under the Lodge of Avignon , which itself was the creation of the Mother Scottish Lodge of Marseilles ; but without casting a doubt upon this origin , the Grand Lodge had concluded with this Lodge a

concordat , by which its supremacy was acknowledged , and imposed on this Lodge an obligation to no longer constitute Lodges within the extent of the French dominion .

This Lodge and this rite , of which we shall have more to say hereafter , have now disappeared . Although the Grand Orient had thus established its supremacy in Paris , it continued to treat with the bodies of the Scottish Rite established in the provinces

, according to the Rite of Reformed Masonry . The three directories established at Lyons , Bordeaux and Strasburg , signed on the 13 th April , 1776 , an act of aggregation ; and a Septet treaty was entered into the 6 th March , 1781 .

There exist no longer in France : 1 . The Mother Lodge of the Scottish Rite of Marseilles , which , during its whole existence , would not recognize the supremacy of

neither the Grand Lodge , the Giand Orient and later still the Supreme Council , which became extinct in 1815 , but its influence is still felt in the South of France , and especially in the Orient of Marseilles . 2 . A Lodge constituted at llouen b y the Mother Lodge of Edinburgh , under the title of "TArdenfce A initio . "

This Lodge , or Chapter , of which the charter appears to hove been granted b y Bro . Matthews , placed several difficulties in the way of the Grand Orient , but it seems never to have attained to any great importance , aud has disappeared without

leaving any trace of its existence . The other Rites and Lodges which were created during this period existed no later than 1799 , the date of the reunion . We shall mention amongst others those of "l'Etoile flatnboyante" " Elus coens "

, , "la Maeonnerie Adonhiramite , " "Illu mines d'Avignon , " "la Toison d ' or , " " Chevaliers de la Cite Sainte , " " la Stricte observance , " " le Rite Priinitif , " etc . Also , by an interpretative agreement executed lie 24 th day of the 10 th month ,

5801 , when the report of Bro . Bordas , and upon the request for union b y the Chapter of Arras , the Grand Orient declared common to all the Chapters of the Hi gh Grades the Concordat entered into with the Grand Lodge in 1799 and proclaimed

, truly the unity of French Freemasonry . It had absorbed within itself and the Symbolic Rite , the only one which had been imported from England iu 1725 , and all the so-called Scottish Rites , which were united to itnotably the two which

, only had attained to any importance , viz ., the Grand Chapter of the Rose Croix , and that of ITeredom of Kilwinning , or Prince of the Royal Secret , also called the Rite of Perfection .

We shall see in the Second Period how the efforts of Roefctiers de Montaleau aud of all the members of the Grand Orient were neutralised by the ambition of some foreign masons , who sought to renew the forgotten struggles and usurping once more the name of Scottish Masonry and throw

discord into the Rite Anglais , the veritable Rite ancien , and the Rite Francais ( called the Rite Modern—of seven degrees ) , which was instituted by the Commissioners of the Grand Orient , which would have reformed all High Grade Masonry-