Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
of his talk from the history of the Knights Templar , a society which , in their early days and for as long as they adhered to their founding rule , was universally loved and praised but which later on — when it gave itself up to debauchery and extravagance — became an abomination to the human race and the object of universal persecution .
Geusau concluded his summary of Ramsay ’ s remarks by noting that he had decided to render them in some detail because the nature of Freemasonry was still shrouded in mystery .
During the following few weeks , the German visitors met with Ramsay a number of times . Geusau ’ s diary documents their wide-ranging conversations on literature , religion , education , and contemporary history . On 21 March , Ramsay ’ s own writings were discussed , such as his biography of Fénelon , of which the author said that he would like to revise and expand it . Ramsay also promised to furnish the two travellers with useful addresses in Rome , Turin , and elsewhere in Italy . Among the Stuart Papers kept at the Royal Archives in Windsor there is indeed a letter of recommendation to the pretender ’ s surgeon , James Murray , in which Ramsay extolled the virtues of both the young count and his tutor . 23
In the morning hours of March 28 , the Germans received both a printed copy of Ramsay ’ s oration and one of the Voyages de Cyrus . While these two books were meant to be returned , a copy of the Fénelon biography ( in French ) was for Geusau to keep – it is the one still preserved in Greiz today . In the afternoon , Henry and Geusau met with the author once again . Now that they had read his discourse he confided to them
that the Restoration of King Charles II to the English throne was first plotted in a society of Freemasons because the wellknown [ general ] Monck had been a member of them and thus could bring his secret project to fruition while arousing as little suspicion as possible . He said he had deliberately omitted this passage so as not to expose the brotherhood to the suspicion that it interfered in such important matters of state , since at that particular time it did so only accidentally and because its statutes do in fact demand the abstention from all matters political . Of their initiation ceremonies in general he said that even an otherwise spirited man might be a trifle embarrassed by them ; but from everything else we felt we could certainly conclude that the secret most likely consists of just a couple of words of gibberish , which in turn further strengthened our resolve to practise in freedom whatever good that there might be in this institution rather than to pay for the knowledge of a secret of
23 See André Kervella , Le chevalier Ramsay : Une fierté écossaise ( Paris : Vega , 2009 ), 328 – 329 . 34