Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
On 4 January 1741 , Henry XI and Geusau met Godefroy de La Tour d ’ Auvergne , the young prince of Turenne ( 1728 – 1792 ), for the first time and noticed that he spoke some German . Andrew Michael Ramsay , his main tutor , though certainly not his German teacher , was not present that day . When the two visitors from Germany and the young prince met again two months later , he had only just returned to Paris .
It is sur prising that Ramsay freely identified himself as being the “ Grand Chancellor ” of the French Free masons , i . e . chancellor of the Grand Lodge of France , when talking to the two Germans , of whom he knew perfectly well that they weren ’ t Masons themselves . Freemasonry , he explained to them ,
was in fact originally formed as a brotherhood in the Holy Land during the time of the Crusades to rebuild the Christian churches ruined by the Saracens . Because these barbarians hindered the brotherhood ’ s efforts in every conceivable way and , indeed , even infiltrated its ranks disguised as Christians to obstruct them in an even more recondite fashion , it developed certain secret signs to distinguish its genuine brethren from the infiltrators . Also , since most of those Christians who had come to the Holy Land during the Crusades were very ignorant about religion , the brotherhood thought it desirable , when a new brother joined them , to organize all sorts of symbolic ceremonies to
32 pain lessly instruct such a novice in what he should believe and also in how he should act , thus dispensing with the need for lengthy sermons . As the power of the Saracens increased and the brotherhood ’ s good intentions were no longer able to make any impact in those regions , a King of England invited them to his country . They accepted the invitation and , in their new home , they busied themselves not just with the instilling of good morals and with the promotion of general human welfare , but especially with the advancement of architecture , music , painting and sculpture , since many great men had become involved with this institution and , from time to time , held their customary conferences to further this their stated goal . To Queen Elizabeth however these gatherings looked like papist conventicles , because their initiation ceremonies had certain features in common with the ceremonies of the Roman Church . Around that same time therefore the brotherhood felt itself obliged to allay the queen ’ s suspicions by changing the old ceremonies . These changes , however , led to them becoming a confused mishmash , and now much went on in them which had neither rhyme nor reason . He had in fact complained about this both to the English and French grand masters , urging a return to the older forms of ceremony , and