Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry

167."The Brother Templars,"' says Roessler, "were, according to their statutes as Hospital Brothers, divided into three classes: 1, into the class of the serving, who, without distinction, nursed sick pilgrims and Knights Templars; 2, into that of the spiritual Brothers destined for the service of pilgrims; 3, into that of Knights who went to war.

168."We find in the Instructions of the Chevalier ^[107] d 'Orient, where are celebrated the foundation of the Knights Templars and the spread of their teachings in Europe, the following declaration on the matter is given:

169."Eighty-one Masons under the leadership of Garimonts, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, went, in the year 1150, to Europe and betook themselves to the Bishop of Upsala, who received them in very friendly fashion and was consequently initiated into the mysteries of the Copts which the Masons had brought with them; later he was entrusted with the deposit of the collection of those teachings, rites and mysteries. The Bishop took pains to enclose and conceal them in the subterranean vaults of the tower of the 'Four Crowns,' which at that time was the crown treasure chamber of the King of Sweden. Nine of these Masons, amongst them Hugo de Paganis, founded in Europe the Order of the Knights Templars; later on they received from the Bishop the dogmas, mysteries and teachings of the Coptic Priests, confided to him.

170."Thus in a short time the Knights Templars became the receivers and depositors of the Mysteries, Rites and Ceremonies which had been brought over by the Masons from the East — the Levites of the true Light.

171."The Knights Templars, devoted entirely to the sciences and to the dogmas brought from the Thebaid, wished, in course of time, to preserve this doctrine in solemn fashion by a token. The Scotch Templars served as pattern in the matter, they having founded the three degrees of St. Andreas of Scotland, ^[108] and adapted them to the allegorical legend to be found in the instructions referred to.

172." Scotch Templars were occupied in excavating a place at Jerusalem in order to build a temple there, and precisely on the spot where the temple of Solomon— or at least that part of it called the Holy of Holies — had stood. During their work they found three stones which were the cornerstones of the Solomon temple itself. The monumental form of these excited their attention; this excitement became all the more intense when they found the name of Jehovah engraved in the elliptical spaces of the last of these stones — this which was also a type of the Mysteries of the Copt — the sacred word which, by the murder of the Master Builder, had been lost, and which, according to the legend of the first degree, -Hiram had had engraved on the foundation-stone of Solomon's Temple. After such a discovery the Scotch Knights took this costly memorial with them, and, in order eternally to preserve their esteem for it, they employed these as the three cornerstones of the first temple at Edinburg.

173.''The works began on St. Andreas' day; and so the Templars who had knowledge of this fact, of the secret of the three stones, and of the re-discovered word, called themselves Knights of St. Andreas; they appointed degrees of merit in order to attain, and these are present in the Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master degrees, known under the name of the Little Master-Builder, the Great Master-Builder and the Scotch Master.

^[109] 174. "By the instruction common to all Knightly Orders the Crusaders were under obligation to make many journeys and pilgrimages where, as is said, they had to see themselves surrounded by dangers. Therefore, they founded those degrees in order to recognize each other and to assist each other in need. For these journeys they took signs, words, and particular touches or grips, and imparted to all Brothers a principal sign in order to find help in case of a surprise.

175."In order to imitate the Christians of the East and the Coptic Priests, these Knights Preserved among themselves the verbal law which was never written down, and took care that it should remain concealed to the initiated of the lower degrees. All this is preserved with exactitude in the philosophic rite of our days, although this rite does not precisely seek to derive its origin from the Knights Templars.