questions, had written a rather fierce critique of one of Herder’ s first experiments in the philsophical genre, Aelteste Urkunde des Menschengeschlechts, from 1773 and 1776. In spring and summer 1782, shortly after the death of their common mentor and intellectual father-figure Lessing, the two former friends went at it again. Once more, the context was the problem of Enlightenment, its goals and means; the topic, however, was the history and the practices of secrecy.
In the beginning of 1782 Nicolai had published a book in Berlin, with the title:
Versuch über die Beschuldigungen, welche dem Tempelherrenorden gemacht worden, und über dessen Geheimnis; nebst einem Anhang über das Enstehen der Freimäurergesellschaft. Only a few months later, first in March and then in April and June, Herder published five letters in the Teutsche Merkur, in which he criticizes Nicolai’ s book. Upon a closer look these letters consist in a full-fledged attack on Nicolai. In part they can be read as Herder’ s attempt to vindicate himself after Nicolai’ s criticism of his Aelteste Urkunde – but obviously there is something else at stake as well. During most part of his life Nicolai was a practicing Freemason. He was a prominent member of the Berlin lodge“ Zu den drei Weltkugeln” as well as the founder of the“ Mittwochsgesellschaft”. Furthermore, he had a scholarly interest in the history and rituals of Freemasonry, as can be seen in the book on the Knights Templar. As the title shows, Nicolai is out to answer two questions, one regarding the accusations made against the order of the Templars by the Inquisition in the 14 th century, and the other regarding the origin of Freemasonry. On the one hand, Nicolai wants to show that the accusations against the Templars were in fact not fabricated, as had been claimed in a recently published book by Karl Anton, but true, to the extent that the Templars were indeed a kind of Gnostic sect worshipping an arcane and esoteric knowledge,“ ein Weisheitsgeheimnis”. 3 Secondly, he reconstructs a complex genealogy for 18th century Freemasonry, going back to the order of the Rosecrucians founded by the famous Silesian author Johannes Valentin Andrea in the 17 th century. Other scholars commenting on Herder’ s critique have all concluded that Herder generally makes a fool out of himself, unable to match Nicolai’ s rhetorical powers and knowledge of the subject. However, the question I want to ask is what Herder is trying to do in writing these letters against Nicolai and in what sense they can be said to anticipate his reflexions on Freemasonry. In his letters, Herder – it would seem – is out to disprove all of Nicolai’ s attempts to find the historical and esoteric content of the secret of the Templars: Neither the Gnostic secret of wisdom –“ eine geheime Tinktur der Weisheit” – or the alchemic secret of gold-making –“ die Goldtinktur” – have – according to Herder – any reality or relevance for the history of the order. To illustrate how Nicolai have been fooled, Herder considers the etymology of the name“ Baphomet” that appears several times in the documents from the case against the Templars. Nicolai takes this name and the bearded head, to which it refers, to be a symbol of a secret, a piece of secret knowledge, common to Templars and Gnosticists. Against this idea, Herder argues – over several pages – that“ Baphomet” was just another version of the name of the Muslim prophet“ Mohamed”
3
Herder, 15, s. 82
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