Orders of Wisdom
The Orders of Wisdom is the contemporary designation for one of the oldest systems of high Masonic degrees in Freemasonry. Originally designated as ordres supérieurs, they were codified between 1783 and 1785 by the Chamber of Grades and the Grand Chapter General of France under the impetus of Alexandre Roëttiers de Montaleau, and were subsequently integrated into the Grand Orient de France on February 17, 1786. The rituals of the Orders of Wisdom continue the degree of "master", extending and deepening a symbolic and initiatory journey that begins in the "blue lodge". The Orders were originally divided into four initiatory and philosophical orders and a fifth administrative and conservatory order.
The rituals of the superior orders are very old and were gathered from a large body of rituals by a special commission, they are found organized into four Orders, as "Orders of Widom" in early texts such as the 1787 Manuscrit de Moûtiers Hauts-Grades du Rite Français and published in 1801 in a compendium entitled Le Régulateur des Chevaliers maçons or Les Quatre ordres supérieurs, issued under the authority of the Grand Orient de France.
Today, the Orders of Wisdom are practiced, with local variations, in several Masonic obediences and jurisdictions in Europe and the Americas. Their structure and ritual derive from the 1801 Régulateur des Chevaliers maçons but have been adapted to different historical and doctrinal contexts.
In January 1782, the GODF established a "Chamber of Grades", which initially codified the first three symbolic degrees to standardize the practices of Masonic lodges. This was followed by the creation of the "Grand Chapter General of France" on February 2, 1784. This grand chapter promptly established "General Statutes and Regulations" and "Specific Regulations and Disciplines." Implementing the orders’ codification involved the selection, merging, or elimination of the numerous high-degree rituals practiced in the 18th century. This resulted in the establishment of the four orders of the French Rite between 1784 and 1785. Additionally, the organization of the centralization of high-degree chapters in France was also a consequence of this process. Despite various oppositions, the Grand Chapter General was integrated into the Grand Orient de France on February 17, 1786, thereby establishing a symbolic, philosophical, and initiatory "regime" in three degrees and four orders, within the Grand Orient de France that systematized the main families of high degrees circulating in 18th-century Free-Masonry.
The dissemination of the orders was interrupted by the French Revolution; they reached their peak during the First Empire and underwent a gradual transformation during the 19th century, merging with the practice of the high degrees of the Ancient and the accepted Scottish Rite. This slow transformation led to the suspension of the first three orders in their original forms. After over 100 years of being forgotten, the orders were reactivated in France, starting in 1963. In the second half of the 20th century, the orders were renamed the "Orders of Wisdom."
History
The internal and profound transformation of the first Grande Loge de France, which became the Grand Orient de France in 1773, saw the Masonic obedience devote itself to the organization of symbolic lodges and their centralization. Initially, this process left the issue of high degrees and chapteral lodges practicing them in abeyance. However, by 1780, the Grand Orient established a commission of grades whose low activity revealed the need for specific codification of high degrees. The obedience thus resolved to establish a "Chamber of Grades" to accomplish this task. The chamber members were charged with examining the Masonic practices of the time to establish a version of high-degree rituals that could serve as a common reference. The texts were required to be reliable, without historical approximations, and to establish a usage for the generality of French Freemasons. While maintaining the visual elements and symbolic representations of the ceremonies, there was a desire to secularize the 18th-century Masonic rituals to reduce the overly pronounced religious connotations present to some degree.Chamber of Grades
The establishment of this fourth chamber was recorded during the 120th assembly of the GODF on January 18, 1782. The chamber was given a regulation with sixteen articles defining its mission and mode of operation. Article 1 stated that the chamber was responsible for drafting the degrees beyond the three symbolic degrees. No other chamber of the GODF was authorized to intervene in matters related to high degrees, thereby ensuring a strict separation between the management of symbolic lodges and high degrees.The chamber of grades comprises three grand officers, three honorary officers, ten officers representing the administrative chambers of Paris and the provinces, and six general officers. It also reserved the right to include venerable masters of lodges who had a deliberative voice. The chamber met twice a month, every other Tuesday. The regulation specified that the officers had no special rank outside this chamber and that they resumed their functions in their workshop or another chamber without any other prerogative. This stipulation remains a constant in the philosophy of the high degrees of the Grand Orient de France as of 2017. The 121st assembly of the Grand Orient, held on February 1, 1782, elected the officers, including Alexandre Roëttiers de Montaleau, the Marquis de Savalette de Langes, and Bacon de la Chevalerie. The first assembly was held on February 19, 1782, during which the statutes were read, the organization's composition was presented, members took the oath, and the governing body was elected. Bacon de la Chevalerie was elected president, de Montaleau orator, and Savalette de Langes, first overseer.In its second session, the chamber engaged in a debate and ultimately determined the methodology for future work. They unanimously endorsed the conclusions of the orator, Roëttiers de Montaleau, who recommended studying the Masonic reality of the time and bringing order to it first, without creating a new system. To do this, it was decided to follow the "known analytical order", which, among the many grades of all kinds in that verbose era, revealed a number recognized by the generality of Freemasons. The methodology proposed by the chamber in its second session served as the foundation for the codification of the high degrees of the Grand Orient of France's rite. To facilitate this process, members were invited to present all the rituals of the elect degrees at upcoming assemblies, analyze them, and provide their observations.
In subsequent assemblies, the elect and Scottish degrees were studied. The 10th assembly of the chamber commenced work on the chivalric degrees, which continued throughout the summer of 1782. Following the study of the chivalric degrees, on August 20, 1782, the "Knight of the Eagle – Rose-Croix" degree was rejected. The members present at this assembly determined that its ceremonies were too similar to religious ceremonies. Despite the proximity of the two degrees, other rituals of the Knight Rose-Croix degree were retained.
From the end of 1782, the work on high degrees slowed down as the chamber of grades received a new mission from the GODF to draft a codification for the first three symbolic degrees. Of the 26 members, only about 10 were very active, driven by Roëttiers de Montaleau, whose knowledge and investment were recognized as crucial by the other members. The work of the Chamber of Grades concluded on February 4, 1783, without the concrete result of codifying the high Masonic degrees. However, the chamber did retain and study 38 high degrees. The codification of the three symbolic degrees was completed, and they were definitively validated during the 149th plenary assembly of the Grand Orient de France on July 15 August 19 and 12, 1785. The codification of the rite was made public in 1801 through the publication of a printer under the name Régulateur du maçon.
Grand Chapter General of France
The first mention of the existence of a "Grand Chapter General" within the chamber of grades was made through correspondence dealt with during the meeting on November 23, 1784. An inquiry through commissioners tasked with informing about the nature of this suddenly appearing chapter was recorded. This grand chapter was previously born from a circular dated February 2, 1784, notifying its creation by the association of seven sovereign Masonic chapters of Rose-Croix. The seven chapters, collectively known as the "Grand Chapter General of France", were established through the union of the following chapters: "The Meeting of Intimate Friends", "The Intimate Friends", "The United Brothers of Saint Henry", "Of Friendship", "Of Harmony", "Of Solomon", and "Of the Trinity". The newly formed Grand Chapter General of France announced itself as the general assembly of all existing chapters in France. A detailed history of the seven founding chapters and the trajectory of all the founding members, most of whom were officers of the Grand Orient of France, cannot be provided based on the study of known documents from 2017.This newly established institutional body, which announced its intention to create its statutes and entrusted the task of drafting them to Alexandre Roëttiers de Montaleau, Jean-Pierre Saurine, and Louis Georges Salivet, positioned itself as the federating organ of high Masonic degrees in France. This body was restricted by only admitting lodges that were constituted under the auspices of the Grand Orient de France and that had resolved to draft and codify the high degrees to establish uniformity of practice within the chapters under its jurisdiction.
The individuals assigned to draft the statutes fulfilled their duties expeditiously, and the statutes were adopted on March 19, 1784. The newly established institution explicitly stated, in its inaugural article, its intention to federate the high-degree chapters of the lodges of the Grand Orient and constituted itself as a second chamber of grades. The rationale behind this constitution, which replaced the chamber of grades without consultation and expeditiously, is not elucidated by historians in 2017. Nevertheless, the members of the Grand Chapter General were unequivocal in their desire to integrate the GODF once the codification of the degrees and the administration of the chapters in France had been completed.
From its inception, the Grand Chapter was dedicated to incorporating chapteral lodges within its ranks. Initially, this was achieved through simple letters of affiliation, and subsequently through "letters of constitution", which strengthened its assertion as a federative body of high degrees. Between 1784 and 1788, it united sixty sovereign chapters in France and the dependent territories, which appeared to historians as the first true obedience of high degrees. Despite its obedient function, the Grand Chapter continued to perform all the functions of a chapteral lodge, admitting new members and renowned Freemasonry personalities to reinforce its authenticity. These included Jean Henry Hengelhart, a doctor of medicine and member of the Scottish lodge Mary's Chapel No. 1. Another task of the Grand Chapter was the codification of high degrees, continuing the work of the chamber of grades, and working on finalizing the establishment of the orders of the rite. They resumed the studies and approaches previously undertaken, determining that the four orders were not unique degrees but groupings of degrees that were custodians of a family of rituals. Historical documentation highlights that the work of the Grand Chapter, like that of the chamber of grades, underscored the preeminence of Alexandre Roëttiers de Montaleau in the drafting and establishment of the orders, as well as in the orientations of the Grand Chapter.