Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society - Volume 2 - Number 2 - Winter 2014
The 1764 Santo Domingo Manuscript : A Reflection of the French Original of the Francken Manuscript
Pierre Mollier A
The “ Francken Manuscript ” is the
reference text for the series of high
Masonic degrees that was spread by Henry Andrew Francken ( c . 1720 – 1795 ) in Jamaica and then on the East Coast of the United States at the end of the eighteenth century . It is therefore an important document on the origins of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite , which is currently the world ’ s most practiced system of high degrees . Francken owed his Masonic system to Étienne ( Stephen ) Morin , a very active French dignitary in the Caribbean ( where there were many French people in the eighteenth century ). Morin had received a patent to spread these high degrees in the New World in Paris in 1761 , and established them in Santo Domingo ( Haiti ) between his arrival on the island in January 1763 and his death in 1771 . The Masons at the time knew them as the Masonry of Perfection or Order of the Royal Secret . Since the nineteenth century , historians have adopted the name Rite of Perfection , which can be found at the top of the Francken Manuscript .
Nobody doubted that the Francken Manuscript had French sources . In fact , it offers degrees that are shown by all the archives to have developed in France before being exported widely , and particularly into American Masonry by Morin and Francken and via the Antilles . However , the document that I wish to bring to the attention of historians here is much more than a collection of eighteenth-century French high degrees . By its very nature , it shows strong analogies with the Francken Manuscript . Whole sections of the text are identical to that of the Francken Manuscript . This even applies to the errors , such as that stating that Clement VI ( not Clement V ) was the pope who abolished the Order of the Temple . This document comes from Jean Baylot ’ s collection , and is now kept in the Masonic section of France ’ s National Library , under the reference “ Baylot FM 4 15 ” 1 . The specific nature and interest of this document have already been pointed out . In 1972 , Paul Naudon identified it as a major source on the Rite of Perfection in the Antilles in the eighteenth century . 2 In 1997 , I highlighted
A
Director of the Grand Orient de France Library and of the Museum of Freemasonry ( Paris ).
1
In issue 2891 of the Bibliotheca Esoterica ( Dorbon ), there is a Masonic manuscript with great similarities to the 1764 manuscript . A happy accident put me in touch with its current owner , who was kind enough to make it available to me . After an in-depth examination , I can state that it is undoubtedly an early nineteenth-century copy of the 1764 Santo Domingo Manuscript .
2
Paul Naudon , “ Nouvelles recherches sur les origines du Rite de Perfection ,” Travaux Villard de Honnecourt 7 ( 1972 ): 71 – 76 ; and Naudon , Histoire , Rituels , et Tuileur des Hauts-Grades Maçonniques , Le Rite Écossais Ancien et Accepté ( Paris : Dervy-Livres , 1978 ), presented on page 122 and transcription of an extract on pages 423 – 427 .
3