The Masonic Degree of Rose-Croix and Chrstianity
A . The Theological Virtues
The reception ceremony for the degree of Rose-Croix opens with peregrinations that lead the recipient to discover faith , hope , and charity , or the three theological virtues of the Christian tradition . He is invited to meditate on these virtues that are — he is told — the three pillars of a new law . Etymologically — Theo and Logos — the theological virtues are those that derive from the divine word . In the 18th century each person of course had in mind the classical theology by which everyone was sustained . Even if the force of Thomism had weakened over the course of the centuries , it remained one of the principal structures of Christian dogmatics . Moreover , this conception of the “ virtues ” had been in part forged by the medieval theology of the “ angelic doctor .” For Thomas Aquinas , a virtue was a habit that leads to the good . “ Habit ” must be read not in the everyday and banal sense that the word might have acquired today but in the sense , inherited from Aristotle of “ disposition ” or “ tendency ” such as , for example , in the expression “ tendency of the spirit .” Well within the systematic spirit of the philosophy of the Middle Ages , Thomas Aquinas distinguishes four cardinal or moral virtues : prudence , justice , temperance , and fortitude as well as three theological virtues : “ Faith , hope , and charity are virtues directing us to God [...] I . II . 62 Beyond the virtues that help man to reach his natural end , there are other infused virtues that raise him to his supernatural end : these are theological virtues 21 [... They ] place the intelligence and will of man in relation with supernatural happiness .” 22 Thus “ Charity is a virtue , because it reaches God by uniting us with him .” 23 If it is by will that man can acquire the moral virtues , on the other hand , his nature is powerless to obtain for him the theological virtues , nature being unable to lead to the supernatural that surpasses it : “ The moral virtues are given by nature [...] the theological virtues , on the contrary , do not come from nature , but from an external principle .” 24 And so “ God gives the theological virtues by supernatural infusion .” 25 It is therefore only by divine grace that man can acquire them ; reprising Augustine , these are , Thomas Aquinas explains , “[ virtues ] which God works in us without us .” 26 At the end of their route , since this degree is the Nec plus Ultra , despite all their efforts —” confusion slipped into our works ”—“ the works ” of the Masonic Knights are powerless to enable them to rediscover this lost word that will dissipate the Shadows . The new law that will set them on the way , the three virtues that unite with the divine logos , are infused in them by “ grace .” Analyzed by way of the religious ideas of the 18th century , through that primacy of grace , the ritual of the Rose- Croix clearly leans toward the Reformation ( and Jansenism ). The Rose-Croix chapter is therefore the locus where is represented “ allegorically what happened upon the death and the resurrection of J . C .”— an event that , in the Christian tradition , surpasses histor-
21
Thomas Aquinas , Summa Theologica , Ia IIae , qu . 62 , art . 1 . [( Translator ' s Version : tr . Fathers of the English Dominican Province , The Summa Theologica of St . Thomas Aquinas , the Second and Revised Edition ,
1920 . …]
22
Idem , art . 3 .
23
Thomas Aquinas , Summa Theologica , IIa IIae , qu . 23 , conclusion .
24
Thomas Aquinas , Summa Theologica , Ia , IIae , qu . 63 , art . 1 .
25
Idem , art . 3 .
26
Idem , art . 4 . [ see 21 for translator notes ]
19