FREEMASONRY IN THE SOUTH.

I. SWITZERLAND.

The pillars of our Brotherhood were first erected in Switzerland by Br. George Hamilton, Esq., who, as English Provincial Grand Master, in 1737, established a Provincial Lodge in Geneva, under the name of "Grand Loge de Genève".1 Many other Lodges sprang up from this one, in and around Geneva. Two years later the Lodge of "la Parfaite Union des Étrangers" was founded at Lausanne, chiefly composed of English nobles. They received their warrant of constitution signed by the Duke of Montagu, Febr. 2nd, 1739, direct from the Grand Lodge of England, and as in other places several Lodges were opened in the Waadtland, which at that time owed allegiance to Bern, the Lausanne Lodge was advanced in the same year to be a superior masonic authority (Directoire Helvétique Roman).

Masonry had scarcely begun to flourish when here, as elsewhere the Fraternity was slandered and persecuted, so that in 1740 they published in a Zurich newspaper, the

1 See Dr. Th. Zschokke, "Umrisse der Freimaurerei in der Schweiz im 18. Jahrhundert", in the "Asträa for 1849". Page 226 &c. Further: Heldmann, “Die 3 ältesten geschichtl. Denkmale &c." P. 522 &c., and Lenning, Encycl. in many passages.

Brachmane) a public refutation of the calumnies uttered against them. Notwihstanding this, in 1743 the government in Bern ordered that all the Lodges in the country should be closed. The Waadtland Lodges did not long submit to this ordinance; for on March 3, 1745, a second command went forth from the inferior court, summoning every one known as a Freemason to break off from all connection with the Confederacy. Whoever was initiated, or visited the meetings, should pay a fine of one hundred thalers and forfeit his situation and salary. This prohibition, founded solely on supposition and false statements, deeply wounded the Swiss masons. They1 had, therefore, a respectful answer printed in Frankfort and Leipzig, in 1746, in which they defended themselves from all the charges brought against them by the government. This publication produced great excitement in Berne, and effected this result, that the superiors exacted from their officials the promise not to attend any masonic meeting within the jurisdiction of Berne; but the decree was not carried out any farther. All the Lodges in Waadtland, however, remained closed for nineteen years, till at length, in 1764, the old Lodge of Lausanne again revived, and by degrees the others too awoke in succession to new life. But after five years again a judicial decree caused the discontinuance of all masonic work. On occasion of the marriage of the Princes Carignan, when many influential foreign brethren were present in Lausanne, a fresh impulse was given to the Lodge "Parfaite Union", only for a short time, it is true, for in the following year the old prohibition was fulminated against her.

While Freemasonry was being subjected to these vicissitudes in Waadtland, it flourished undisturbed in Geneva, and was further planted into German Switzerland. From the Grand Lodge in Geneva, one was formed in Vevey (l'Union Helvétique) and 1771', one in Zurich

1 Zschokke, L. c. Findel, History of FM.

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(la Discrétion), which at first worked in the French language, but two years later in a simplified form of the German ritual.

This last mentioned Lodge was not the only one in German Switzerland. In 1765 the Modestia had been constituted in Basel by German Brethren according to the system of the Strict Observance. In 1775 the Waadtland Lodges were again permitted to work; they however abandoned the English system, in which they had worked hitherto, and took up with the Strict Observance. In the same year the high degrees were introduced into the Basel Lodge, which the Swiss Lodges had hitherto forborne to meddle with; in consequence of this, she raised herself from the position till now assumed of a Commendam, to a prefecture, which rank was likewise bestowed on the Parfaite Union in Lausanne. Both Lodges were the seats of masonic superior authorities, with the name of Scottish Directories, having the province of Burgundy under their jurisdiction, the provincial chapter of which held its sittings at Lyons. Both the Swiss Directories took an active share in the Congress in Wiesbaden.

The Swiss Lodges were spared the deplorable errors and impositions with which German Masonry was visited, although there existed amongst them a difference of ritual and of language. Suddenly there awoke a strong desire to be more intimately bound together, when in Lausanne, in 1777, one Sidrac, to the great regret of the brethren, erected a spurious Lodge. In the above mentioned year a conference took place in Basel, to which, besides those of the Waadtland Lodges of the Strict Observance, representatives were sent from Zurich, who worked after the English Rite. Amongst other things, it was determined in this assembly that of the two masonic superior administrations of the Strict Observance, the one should be the representative of the German division, and the other of the French. The former, in Basel, was called Swiss Directorium of Scotch Masonry, the other in Lausanne,

Directoire Écossais Helvétique Roman. The longer they existed, the more sensibly was the necessity everywhere felt of exterminating the numerous errors and abuses which had acquired the upper hand, and of restoring to the Royal Art its pristine simplicity and purity. For this purpose, in 1778, the French Lodges attached to the Strict Observance met at the congress in Lyons, to which the Swiss Directories likewise sent representatives. A Statutebook for the Order (now the rectified Scotish Rite) was brought forward, the Code Maçonnique. The results of this congress as affecting Switzerland were that it was raised to a Sub-Priorate, and Basel was recognised as a Prefecture; while the Swiss Directories had many important privileges conferred on them, as for example an independent freedom in the disposal of their funds, and the right to constitute or rectify Lodges in Switzerland, independent of the provincial superiors, but not out of their own land.

In the following year, 1779, after the Lodge Modestia in Zurich had adopted the Scottish Rite, a Provincial Chapter of Switzerland was convened in Basel, wherein. Zurich was chosen to be the seat of the German Directory of the rectified Scottish Masonry of Switzerland, and Br. Diethelm Lavater, M.D., installed as Sub-Prior of Helvetia.

The Directoire du Rite, &c., rect. Helvétique Roman in Lausanne had, in the meanwhile, been unsuccessful in their attempts to disperse Sidrac's spurious Lodge. To effect this, they were, in 1780, obliged to enter into a treaty of alliance with the Grand Lodge of Geneva, and together they brought about the annihilation of this irregular Lodge. Some of its members entered the Lodge of St. John, in Lausanne, others the Lodge Parfaite Amitie, which had been founded in 1778, by the students of the Academy of that place. In this latter Lodge these spurious Masons sowed the seeds of discontent and mischievous dissension, so that a decree of the Academy in

1781 ordered the Lodge to be closed. The aristocracy of Berne, unfavourably disposed from the very beginning to an institution which endeavored to restore that equality originally the inheritance of every man, in 1782 eagerly seized on this pretext to prohibit the exercise of Freemasonry in their country, after it had been tolerated and had flourished there for seven years.

The Directoire Helv. Roman, under whose guidance were not only the Waadtland Lodges, but likewise fourteen others, most of them in the Italian States, in order to accommodate themselves to this decree of the Government, declared that all the Lodges within the jurisdiction of Berne were dissolved. The Directory itself set an example of obedience by suspending all its meetings. They had, however, chosen a directorial committee of three members to regulate their affairs, and these being furnished with the necessary authority, conducted the correspondence, which had to be subscribed in symbolic characters. Grand Inspectors were likewise empowered by them to conduct the foreign Lodges under their jurisdiction.

The Swiss Directories also sent representatives to the Wilhelmsbad Convention; at their head was the ancient Scottish Grand Master, Dr. Lavater. The revised rules and rituals were here introduced, but on the whole this convention had not any special lasting consequences for Switzerland.

II. ITALY.

As Scotland for a long time was esteemed the seat of the High degrees, so was Italy of the unknown superiors, and the source whence originated secret masonic wisdom. Here flourished architecture, as in so many other countries, in the earlier ages. The Fraternity of builders here held their meetings and practised their ceremonials.