Among the Masonic systems born in the eighteenth century, the Rectified Scottish Rite has a particular feature: it preserves, in veiled form, the doctrine of Martinès de Pasqually's Élus Coëns. The architect of this synthesis was a Lyon merchant, Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, who devoted much of his long life to building an order capable of uniting Freemasonry, a reinterpreted Templar chivalry and an esoteric Christian teaching.
A silk merchant
Jean-Baptiste Willermoz was born in Lyon in 1730 and died in the same city in 1824. He worked in the silk trade, the city's most important business, and from an early age devoted himself passionately to Freemasonry, into which he was admitted around 1750.
His spiritual quest led him to frequent various high-degree systems. In 1767 he was received among the Élus Coëns and later reached the degree of Réau-Croix. He was one of Martinès's most loyal disciples, although the theurgic operations never gave him the results he hoped for.
Joining the Strict Observance
In the 1770s Willermoz and his Lyon brethren joined the Templar Strict Observance, the German system that claimed descent from the Templars. Willermoz saw in it a solid structure widespread across Europe. But the doctrine of the Strict Observance seemed thin to him: it promised Templar secrets that never arrived.
His project therefore became to reform this system from within, replacing the Templar genealogical claim with a spiritual content, that of the Élus Coëns.
The Convent of the Gauls, 1778
In 1778 the so-called Convent of the Gauls met in Lyon, an assembly of the French provinces of the Strict Observance. Under Willermoz's influence fundamental decisions were taken:
- abandoning the presentation of the order as a historical restoration of the Templars;
- adopting for the knights the name of Knights Beneficent of the Holy City;
- drafting new rituals and a code of the order;
- introducing into the rituals teachings inspired by the doctrine of reintegration.
The Convent of Wilhelmsbad, 1782
In 1782 the general convent of the Strict Observance was held at Wilhelmsbad, near Hanau. Willermoz took part and succeeded in having the Lyon reforms adopted more widely. The thesis of Templar descent was officially abandoned: the order would keep the memory of the Templars as a moral and spiritual ideal, not as a genealogy. Thus was born the system now called the Rectified Scottish Rite.
The structure of the Rite
The Rite is organised in successive classes:
| Class | Degrees |
|---|---|
| Symbolic Masonic order | Apprentice, Fellow, Master |
| Transitional degree | Scottish Master of St Andrew |
| Inner order | Novice Squire, Knight Beneficent of the Holy City |
| Secret class | Professed and Grand Professed |
The degree of Scottish Master of St Andrew acts as a hinge: it completes symbolic Freemasonry and prepares the passage to the chivalric order.
The secret profession
The heart of Willermoz's system was the class of the Professed and Grand Professed, instituted in 1778. It was a reserved class, unknown even to many members of the inner order. In its instructions Willermoz explicitly transmitted Martinès's doctrine of reintegration: the fall of the spirits, the fall of man, his mission and his return.
Unlike the Élus Coëns, however, the profession involved no theurgic operations. The doctrine was passed on as teaching, to be meditated on and lived, not as a ritual technique. In this sense Willermoz drew closer, at least in part, to Saint-Martin's inner way.
An openly Christian order
The Rectified Scottish Rite stands out for its explicitly Christian character. Candidates must profess the Christian faith, and the rituals refer directly to Christ and the Gospel. This choice distinguishes it from many other forms of Freemasonry, open to members of any religion.
Decline and revival
The French Revolution struck the Lyon lodges hard, and Willermoz himself risked his life during the siege of Lyon in 1793. The Rite survived above all in Switzerland, where the Grand Priory of Helvetia preserved the tradition without interruption. During the twentieth century the Rite was revived in France and other countries, and it is now practised by several obediences.
Willermoz's legacy
Willermoz was neither a mystic nor a great writer, but a patient and tenacious organiser. His historical merit was to find an institutional form in which a complex spiritual teaching could be preserved and handed on. Those who study initiatory traditions today find in his work a rare example of how an idea can cross the centuries thanks to a well-built structure.
In short
- Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, a Lyon merchant (1730-1824), was an Élu Coën and Réau-Croix.
- He joined the Strict Observance in order to reform it from within.
- The Convent of the Gauls in 1778 created the Knights Beneficent of the Holy City.
- At Wilhelmsbad in 1782 Templar descent was abandoned and the Rectified Scottish Rite was born.
- The class of the Professed preserved the doctrine of reintegration without theurgic operations.
