of the movement was Frederick the Great? No, it is significant to find that in the history of the Ordre du Temple, published at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Frederick the Great is cited as one of the most distinguished members of this Order in the past, and the Abbé Grégoire adds that he was "consecrated" at Remersberg (Rheinsberg?) in 1738, that is to say in the same year that he was initiated into Masonry at Brunswick. There is therefore a definite reason for connecting Frederick with Templarism at this date.
I would suggest, then, that the truth about the Templar succession may be found in one of the two following theories:
- That the documents produced by the Ordre du Temple in the nineteenth century, including the Charter of Larmenius, were genuine; that the Order had never ceased to exist since the days of the Crusades; that the Templar heresy was Johannism, but that this was not held by the Templars who escaped to Scotland; that the Rose-Croix degree in its purely Christian form was introduced by the Scottish Templars to Scotland and four hundred years later brought by Ramsay to France; that the Master of the Temple at this date was the Regent, Philippe Duc d'Orléans, as stated in the Charter of Larmenius. Finally, that after this, fresh Templar degrees were introduced from Germany by von Hundt, acting on behalf of Frederick the Great.
- That the documents produced by the Ordre du Temple in the nineteenth century were, as M. Matter declares, early eighteenth-century