NEW ORLEANS: THE CORNERSTONE OF SCOTTISH RITE MASONRY IN THE NEW WORLD

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NEW ORLEANS: THE CORNERSTONE OF SCOTTISH RITE MASONRY IN THE NEW WORLD By Clayton J. Borne III PGM 33º Personal Representative to the SGIG Valley of New Orleans, Orient of Louisiana

The Scottish Rite is one of the two dominant branches of Freemasonry in which a Master Mason may proceed. It is separate and distinct from the other branch commonly referred to as the York Rite. At various places in the world, other Rites are in use by the Brotherhood. The factual history of the Rite changed dramatically with the 1926 discovery in Paris of the Sharp Bordeaux Documents which report and define the formative years of the Rite namely 1750 to 1765. Since its beginning in 1732 in Bordeaux, France, to its establishment in 1756 in New Orleans of a 14 Degree, Rite of Perfection to its 1764 expansion in Hispaniola, (Domican Republic, Haiti) and Kingston, Jamaica, of the 25 Degree, Master of the Royal Secret to its expansion in 1801 in Charleston, South Carolina (Southern Jurisdiction) and the 1813, New York Cerneau, De La Motta, Supreme Councils (Northern Jurisdiction) of the 33 Degree Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite to the 1839, Supreme Council for the United States of America sitting in New Orleans (now the Louisiana Supreme Council), the Scottish Rite has spread throughout the world. The Northern Masonic Jurisdiction specifically covers the fifteen states East of the Mississippi River and North of the Mason-Dixon Line and the Ohio River including Delaware. Its headquarters, originally in New York, is in Lexington, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. The other Supreme Council is that of the Southern Jurisdiction. It’s remains where it began in Charleston, South Carolina however its headquarters are in Washington, D.C., and covers the 35 states, the District of Columbia, and the United States territories and possessions. An overview of events as a predicate to more detailed historical examinations of the supporting evidence is tendered herein. The Scottish Rite, before its formal recognition as a Rite, was exclusively French. The Rite’s name “Scottish” was the result of Chevalier Andrew Ramsay’s 1737 Lecture delivered in the Provincial Grand Lodge of England in Paris wherein he states that Freemasonry was the secret organization to which the Knights Templar, after their persecutions in 1307, took refuge in Scotland. Ramsay stated that Masonry was founded in Antiquity with affirmative affiliations to certain ancient mysteries, especially Isis in Egypt and was restored in the Holy Lands at the time of the Crusades. Ramsay, an Oxford University graduate stated “Masonry was a Universal Brotherhood of cultured men, a spiritual empire that would change the world”. Ramsay’s theory gave rise to numerous Chivalric degrees in the French traditions, such as Sublime, Elect Soverign, Ecossais or Scottish Master, and Supreme or Superior Grades. The First “Ecossia” or Scottish Lodge was established in 1732 in Bordeaux, France, one of the oldest and most influential Masonic venues in the world. These movements developed in France and in other parts of Europe however for our study, migrated to the French colonies in the Americas, specifically Martinique, Santa Domingo, Jamaica and New Orleans. The degrees were created as specific elaborations upon the three degrees of British Craft Masonry. The higher degrees were viewed by some as a superior form of masonry. Its proponents initiated and thereafter advocated advancement into higher degrees which accentuated the separation or divisions created in society. Their convictions were that these divisions were those resulting from man’s aggressive pursuit of his spiritual advancement or enlightenment. Progress is and was


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