Rectified Scottish Regime
Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, born in Lyons, France on 10th July 1730, was 20
years old when he became a Freemason. In 1752, he was appointed Worshipful
Master of his Lodge. In 1753, he founded the Lodge "La Parfaite Amitié",
of which he was elected Master on the feast day of St. John, 24 June 24
1753. In 1756, this Lodge joined the Mother Lodge of Lyons - its charter
from the Grand Lodge of France is dated 21 November 1756. On 4 May 1760,
with the approval of the Grand Lodge of France, a Provincial Mother Lodge
called "Grand Loge des Maîtres Réguliers de Lyon"
was founded and Willermoz was its Provincial Grand Master from 1762 to 1763
afterwards becoming the Archivist and Keeper of the Seals. In 1763, he founded
the "Souverain Chapitre des Chevaliers de L"Aigle Noir - Rose-Croix".
In May of 1767, Willermoz went to Paris, where he met Bacon de la Chevalerie,
Deputy Grand Master of the Elus Cohen. He was initiated by Martinez de Pasqually
himself in Verailles, France. In 1772, Willermoz learned of the existence
of a German Masonic Order called the "Strict Templar Observance"
and on 14 December 1772, Willermoz applied by letter for affiliation. He
received an answer dated 18 March 1773 from Count Weiler. The Duke of Brunswick
replaced Baron von Hund as the head of the Strict Observance. From the 11th
through the 14th of August 1772, Count Weiler was in Lyons where he had
come to personally establish a Strict Observance Lodge called "Loge
Ecossaise Rectifiée 'La Bienfaisance'". In December 1777, three
years after the death of Martinez de Pasqually, Rudolphe Saltzmann, "Master
of the Novices of the Directoire of Strasbourg" arrived in Lyons, where
he was received as an Elu-Cohen. We know that at the time, the Order of
Elus-Cohen was suffering from internal dissentions and from a lack of leadership.
Like many other sincere members, Willermoz saw that the Order was doomed
and was anxious to preserve all that could be saved. With the help of Saltzmann,
and with the approval of Bacon de la Chevalerie, Willermoz conceived a plan
to implement the Secret Doctrine of the Elus-Cohen in the Rite of the Strict
Observance. This he planned to do by adding to the degrees of the Strict
Observance, a higher degree, called "La Profession", called such
because its members would be "professed", i.e. under chivalric
vows. It contained two secret degrees in which the doctrine of the Elus-Cohen
would be transmitted, thus alleviating the disparition of the Réau-Croix
but not implanting the theurgic operations of the Elus-Cohen into the Strict
Observance.
A general meeting called the Convent of Gaul was held in Lyons from 25 November
to 10 December 1778 at the instigation of Willermoz. It was decided to reform
the Auvergne Province of the Strict Observance, the French Templars taking
the name of "Chevaliers Bienfaisants de la Cité Sainte"
or "Knights Beneficent of the Holy City", commonly referred to
as "C.B.C.S.". It was absorbed into the "Rectified Scottish
Rite" as follows:
1st Degree - Apprentice
2nd Degree - Fellowcraft
3rd Degree - Master
4th Degree - Maître Ecossais/Scottish Master
5th Degree - Ecuyer Novice/Squire Novice
6th Degree - C.B.C.S.
7th Degree - Chevalier-Profès/Professed Knight
8th Degree - Chevalier-Grand Profès/Grand Professed Knight
After this reformation, Willermoz decided that it would be right to expand
this revision into the bosom of the Mother branch of the German Strict Observance.
It was with this initiative in mind, that he went to the Convent of Wilhemsbad
in 1782. He found supporters of his plan in the Princes Ferdinand of Brunswick
and Charles of Hesse, but found stiff opposition on the part of the Illuminati
of Bavaria (founded by Adam Weishaupt) and met hostility in the character
of Francois de Chefdebien de Saint-Amand, representative of the Order of
the Pilalethes, as well as resistance from Savalette de Lange. After heated
arguments, Willermoz and his supporters won the day, and succeeded in having
the title of C.B.C.S. adopted by all members of the Inner Order. A committee
was formed under Willermoz to prepare the high degree rituals and those
of the secret degrees of the Profession. This work was well advanced when
the French Revolution interrupted Willermoz' task. The "Rectified"
temples of the C.B.C.S. and the temples of the Elus-Cohen which were still
active had to suspend their works, the brethren being dispersed by the events
of the period. After the Revolution, in 1806, the C.B.C.S. became active
again in France and they soon joined the Grand Orient with which the Strict
Observance had friendly relations. The Elus-cohen had not 'officially' resumed
their Work. Their last Grand Master, Sebastian de las Casaa, had the archives
of the Order handed over to the Philalethes. In 1806 moreover, Bacon de
la Chevalerie, "Deputy Grand Master of the Northern Hemisphere",
sat in this capacity in the Grand College of Rites of the Grand Orient of
France. He tried to obtain the authorization to re-organize the Order of
Elus-Cohen within the Grand Orient, but was refused. The Rite of Knights
Beneficent passed into Switzerland when the Directoire of Burgandy transmitted
its powers to the Directoire of Helvetia. It is from this Swiss Jurisdiction,
now headed by the Grand Priory of Helvetia, that the C.B.C.S. would be re-activated
in France after World War II. On 5 May 1824, Jean-Baptist Willermoz died
in Lyons.
For the famous occultist A.E. Waite, the Rectified Scottish Rite was the
one Rite he craved the most. He "had come to see the Régime
Ecossais et Rectifié as maintaining, more than any other rite, the
essence in ritual form of that secret tradition that 'tells us not alone
that the Soul "cometh from afar" and that the Soul returns whence
it came, but it delineates the Path of Ascent'." It was, for him, truly
the secret tradition in practice.
There are, at present, officially recognized bodies working the R.E.R. in
France, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, U.S.A. and Spain, and now Brazil the
There is much interest in the Rite being practiced elsewhere has been duly
noted.