Taking shape starting in 1717 , speculative , modern Freemasonry originally practiced the two degrees inherited from operative masonry : “ entered apprentice ” and “ fellow craft ”; added to these , in the 1730s , was a third degree called “ master .” Between then and the 1760s , Freemasons would discover and go about practicing “ other degrees .” As customary usage has had it , the “ other degrees ” go by names that are inexact in a literal sense , but now established : “ high degrees ” or “ Scottish degrees .” These other degrees were the means by which Freemasonry was to incorporate parts of the the symbolic Western corpus , and would be one of the privileged forms of expression of the esoteric and Illuminist currents of the century of the Enlightenment . In the second part of the 18th century , the degree of the Knight Rose-Croix would become one of the most esteemed and most practiced of these upper degrees . So , this Masonic ritual raises particularly interesting questions for the historian of ideas about the complex links between Freemasonry and religion .

I . A Masonic Christian Degree during the Century of the Enlightenment

If the transcription of a document updated by Gustave Bord is to be believed — though it seems to be missing now — the first attestation of the existence of the degree of the “ Chevalier Rose-Croix ” goes back to the year 1757 and takes place in France . There is a Masonic diploma delivered to Brother Targe by the lodge Enfants de la Sagesse et Concorde [ Children of Wisdom and Concord ] on April 9 , 1757 . One of the signatories , Brother Itéguiemme , follows his paraph with his Masonic attributes : “ ex-maître , substitut A . S . P . Chev . de l ’ Orient et de Rose-Croix .” ¹ The second oldest evidence of this degree ’ s existence is the renowned letter that the Masons of Metz ( France ) wrote to those in Lyon ( France ) in June 1761 . The object of this valuable message ² was to exchange information between the order ’ s dignitaries about the degrees known or practiced in the two cities . There it was discovered that the last of the 25 degrees of the Lyon brothers was the “ Chevalier de l ’ Aigle , du Pélican , Cher de St André ou maçon d ’ Heredon ” [“ Knight of the Eagle , of the Pelican , Knt of Saint Andrew or Mason of Heredon ”] another classic name for the Knight Rose-Croix . It must be not-

Gustave Bord , La Franc-Maçonnerie en France des origines à 1815 , Paris , 1908 , reprint Slatkine , Geneva-Paris , 1985 , p . 538 .

Transcribed in : Steel-Maret , Archives Secrètes de la Franc-Maçonnerie , reprint Slatkine , Geneva-Paris , 1985 , 72-78 .