Supremo Consejo del Grado 33 y último

del Rito Escocés Antiguo y Aceptado para Bolivia

History of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite

The actual roots of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry go deep into ancient times. Our
teachings precede our formal organization by thousands of years. The Scottish Rite
Degrees give us a sense of historical values and standards. Today is the child of yesterday.
No one can understand the significance of the events which shake the world in every
epoch unless they see them from the vantage point of history. Out of crises of the past,
man has discovered principles that are as solid as the mountains and as enduring as the
stars.

The Scottish Rite is formed from an accumulation of Masonic lessons and experiences.
Artifacts of the Scottish Rite are scattered throughout the history of many races, cultures,
and societies. The signs, symbols, inscriptions, concepts, and teachings can be found in the
studies of most of the ancient world. They are inscribed on tombs and temples of India,
the ruins of Nubia, and down through the Egyptian Valley of the Nile to its very delta. They
are also found in Chaldea, Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome and even ancient Mexico and
Yucatan.

The origin of the Rite can be traced to France in the early 18th Century, although some of
its rituals may have a legacy dating to the 1600’s. There are early allusions to “Scottish”
Masonry, i.e., degrees with a “Scottish” title, dating back to 1741. The use of the word
"Scottish" has led many to believe that the Rite originated in Scotland and that Scotland
remains the fountainhead of its activity. Such is not the case.

Masonry, having been founded in England as a symbolic fraternity, was introduced in

France by those Scots fleeing the strife in the British Isles at that time. France was a very
fertile environment for the spread of Masonry and by the very nature of France's flair for
royal courts and honors developed "Higher" degrees to honor Masons who came into their
midst.

The record shows that a 4th degree was created entitled "Chevalier Macon Ecossais" or
Scottish Knight. It is believed that from this stems the term "Scottish Rite". As it became
popular to create degrees, each with its own purpose and moral, there appeared upon the
scene efforts to form these into a system of degrees. One such system was known as the
"Rite of Perfection" and had twenty five degrees and was located in Bordeaux. However
the most likely beginning of the Scottish Rite as is now practiced can be traced to the
establishment of the Chapter of Clermont in 1754 outside of Paris, by Chevalier de
Bonneville, honoring the Duc de Clermont, then Grand Master of the English Grand Lodge
of France. This Chapter may have worked as many as 25 degrees during its four year
period of existence.
The Chapter of Clermont was replaced by the Knights of the East and Emperors of the East
and West, the latter becoming known in France as the Rite of Heredom during the 1750’s.
This Rite organized the Rite of Perfection, comprising 25 degrees, 22 of which were called
the haut grades, or high degrees, with the three degrees of the symbolic lodge added. A
document pertaining to the Rite of Perfection, known as the Secret Constitutions of 1761,
designated officers as Inspectors General of the Thirty-third degree.

With the emergence of this document, a joint patent was issued from the Grand Lodge of
France and the Emperors of the East and West to a merchant named Etienne (Stephen)
Morin, for the purpose of establishing the Rite of Perfection in the Americas. Morin’s home
was in Bordeaux, the oldest provincial Masonic center in Europe. He was made a Mason
there in Loge Francaise, which had been created December 13, 1740 and later was named
La Francaise Flue Ecossaise. This was the oldest of more than fifty daughter Lodges of
Loge L'Anglaise, a Lodge that British Masons founded at Bordeaux in 1732. These daughter
Lodges gave birth to a proliferation of degrees that resulted in the progenitors of our
Scottish Rite. This patent granted Morin the title of Inspector General, with the authority to
create other inspectors and to establish lodges to work in “the perfect and sublime
degrees.” His first appointment was that of Henry Andrew Francken in the West Indies. A
year later, the Grand Constitutions of 1762 were adopted, providing for 25 degrees,
including the three degrees of Craft Masonry, with authority to establish lodges and work
the degrees under Inspectors General and their Deputies. From Morin’s original authority,
patents were granted establishing the Rite of Perfection in the West Indies, Albany, New
Orleans, Philadelphia, and Charleston.

The Grand Constitutions of 1786, adopted in Berlin on May 1, 1786, provided for a Rite
consisting of Thirty-three degrees, from one to thirty-three, under the title of the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite and governed by a Supreme Council. This Constitution created
the structure and governance of the Scottish Rite as it is practiced today.

The original reason for the organization of separate Lodges to confer these "higher"
degrees may have been a desire to limit the membership to those of the Christian faith.
Anderson's Constitutions of 1723 had widened the field of Masonry to men of all religious
denominations that believed in the Deity and in the hope of immortality. In this connection
it should be observed the ultimate Scottish Rite Constitutions of 1786 similarly opened the
doors to men of all religions and provide that only four of the governing nine need profess
the prevailing religion.

These Lodges also may have been set up as a refuge and bypass from cruel operations
under the famous papal Bull "In Eminenti" of 1738 that decreed a ban and punishment on
Masons and Masonry and any who helped them. Morin was a Roman Catholic, as were
most of these early French Masons.

Later, these Lodges flourished and blossomed in the fertile fields of Masonry for more
important reasons. They became repositories for revelations through sequential degrees of
great truths derived from the arcane wisdom of the ages, including discoveries original
Freemasonry concealed in the secret knowledge, symbology and Lesser and Greater
Mysteries that came down across drifting centuries, even long before the riddle of the
Mystic Sphinx first puzzled men's minds.

Ancient French manuscripts contemporary to the period prove that since about 1740
Bordeaux was the mother and controller of these Scottish Degrees and had warranted
daughter organizations under various regulations. These descendants included the
following: Paris 1747; Capital- Santo Domingo 1748; St. Pierre-Santo Domingo 1750; Port
La Pair- Santo Domingo 1752; St. Marc- Santo Domingo 1753; Les Caye de Fond L’ Isle a
Vaches- Santo Domingo 1757; Ferigueux- France 1759; New Orleans- U.S.A. 1763
(pursuant to request of 1756).

The development and expansion of degrees into those of our Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite thus evolved out of Bordeaux's Rite of Perfection, out of Paris' aristocratic
Chapter of Clermont that the Chevalier de Bonneville founded at the College of the Jesuits
in 1754, out of the Council of Emperors of the East and West, and out of several other
tributary systems. Later, the renowned Sovereign Grand Commander and classical scholar,
Albert Pike, brought order out of chaos and edited or rewrote the rituals for these degrees.

A Supreme Council of nine members was opened for the first time in Charleston, South
Carolina, in May, 1801, thus establishing the “Mother Council of the World.” Today, all the
regular and recognized Supreme Councils that exist in the world stem from this source.

On February 21, 1802 the Charleston Supreme Council granted to de Grasse a Patent as
Sovereign Grand Inspector General and declared that he was Grand Commander for life of
the Supreme Council of the French West Indian Islands with power to establish other
Scottish Rite organizations under the Grand Constitutions.

In 1802, de Grasse returned to Saint Domingue, serving as a Captain of Cavalry under

General Leclerc, Napoleon's brother-in-law, and later under the Comte de Rochambeau,
and it was from there that a year later a British blockader took him as a prisoner to
Jamaica.

After spending about seven months at Kingston, Jamaica, he established a Supreme

Council of the Windward and Leeward Islands at Port-au-Prince in 1803. Returning to
France in 1804, he went to Bordeaux and established the Supreme Council of France in the
same year, of Italy in 1805, of Spain in 1809, and of Belgium in 1817.

All legitimate workings of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, now
provide for a system of Thirty-three degrees. In most jurisdictions, the authority over the
first three degrees is relinquished to the Grand Lodges of Ancient, Free, and Accepted
Masons within each state, thus providing a homogenous partnership in promulgating a
progressive system of moral and ethical lessons, which is the true mission of Freemasonry.

In view of the labors, leadership and promotional successes of Morin and Francken, they
deserve lasting tribute and recognition. Their zealous endeavors over so many years
furnished a springboard that truly launched the Scottish Rite into a creative and developing
orbit, first in the United States and then around the world. With prophetic vision they
aroused in key men a dynamic impulse for an expanding Scottish Rite. They carried into
the darkness and passed into other hands a Living flame that continues to illuminate
Scottish Rite Freemasonry with ever-increasing brilliance. This led to the outstanding
achievements we enjoy and for which we are so grateful today, just as though we were
inheritors of great wealth bequeathed to us in a will.

The first Supreme Council in South America was established in Colombia in 1827, later in
Brasil in 1832, Uruguay in 1855, Argentina in 1858, Peru in 1875, Paraguay in 1896 and
Chile in 1899.

A Supreme Council of the 33º of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
was founded in Bolivia on the 21st of June of 1931 by nine Illustrious Brothers: William A.
Hermanowicz, Norberto Galdo, Federico Martins, Julio Mariaca Pando, Gabriel Palenque
Guzmán, Carlos V. Sampson, Anselmo López Hidalgo, William A. Pickwood and Justo
Quevedo; having received its Letter Patent from the Supreme Council of Chile on the 17th
of October of 1931.

Supremo Consejo del Grado 33 y último

del Rito Escocés Antiguo y Aceptado para Bolivia

Calle Obispo Cárdenas # 1480

Apartado de Correos 580 La Paz, Bolivia