Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
Convent of Bordeaux in 1762 , as well as a very small number of degrees used in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite , which was copied from the above rite and organized only in 1804 . 5
Clearly , this note was written at least forty years later than the manuscript . Nevertheless , it was written in a period that is much closer to the manuscript ’ s era than our own , and above all at a time when in France , particularly in Paris , there were many people who had lived in Santo Domingo at the end of the eighteenth century . It is for all these reasons that I propose to refer to it hereafter as the “ 1764 Santo Domingo Manuscript .”
It describes the rituals for the degrees of : Secret Master ; Perfect Master ; Secret Master by Curiosity or Intimate Secretary ; Provost and Judge or Irish Master ; Grand Master Architect ; Scottish Trinitarian ( Apprentice , Fellow , and Master ); Master Elect or Little Elect ; Master Elect of the Fifteen ; The Elect of the Twelve — Sublime Elect — Council of the Illustrious Elect ; Knight of the Royal Arch ; Patriarch and Knight of the Sun Grand Master of the Light ; Knight of the Lion ; Knight of the Orient ; Knight of the Orient and the West Prince of Jerusalem ; Grand Master and Venerable of all the Lodges ; Knight of the Eagle and the Pelican ; Noachite Knight ; second degree of Rose-Croix or Clavi Masonry ; degrees of Postulant , Champion , and Great ; Sublime Scottish Last Point of Perfection ; Master ad Vitam of the Lodges of France and England ; Prince of Jerusalem ; Knight of the Royal Axe ; Knight of the Eagle and of the Sun or the Managed Chaos ; Grand Inspector of the
Lodges Grand Elect Knight Kadosh ; Assembly of the Sublime Princes ; Discourse , Catechism of the Apprentice and Fellow Elect Cohen .
The poor quality of the manuscript , with its generally confused and rough appearance , cramped writing that is hard to read , terrible use of capitals , crossings out , overcrowding , and multiple cross-references , probably explains why this document has never been studied in detail , despite having been known to exist for forty years . It feels more like a working document , or the personal notes of a dedicated Mason , than a traditional collection of degrees . In any case , it is very different from the well-organized 1783 Francken Manuscript , with its rituals and careful calligraphy , presented in the exact order of the hierarchy of the Rite . Analyzing the 1764 Santo Domingo Manuscript presents many difficulties . Several objections can be made to contest its relationship to the Francken Manuscript . For example , interposed in the traditional scale of the Rite of Perfection are degrees not seen in the Francken Manuscript , such as the “ Scottish Trinitarian ,” the “ Patriarch of the Crusades ,” the “ Knight of the Lion ,” or even , at the end of the work , rituals of the theurgical Order of the Elect Cohens . The traditional degrees of the Rite Perfection sometimes have a significantly different name , which makes their identification somewhat uncertain upon a first reading . Examples include “ Master Elect , Little Elect ,” which is in fact a classic “ Elect of the Nine ;” or “ Elect of the Twelve-Sublime Elect ,” which is the “ Sublime Knight Elect ” of the Francken Manuscript . Only an in-depth analysis of the texts reveals the extreme proximity of the 1764
5
This comment also shows that at the start of the nineteenth century , Masonic contemporaries of the establishment of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in Paris saw the 1764 Santo Domingo manuscript as a founding document for their tradition .
5