New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-06-18

the wives and sisters OF the brethren were
duly accredited participants in the ser.
vices and ceremonies. In the collected re-
| turns in Smiths .English Guide" the
names of female members occur pretty
| frequently. There can also be no doubt
that women obtained entrance within the
ranks of the Vehmgericht with their male
| relatives, the sturdy Westphalian burghera
and peasants who composed the tribunal
which SCOTT has 30 graphically described in
Quentin Durward." 81.
The promoters of the eighteenth century
Masonic revival, however, placed such
ritualisvic and other restrictions against the
admission Of women into the craft that but
very few overcame the difficulty. The
portrait of the Hon Mrs Aid worth. second
daughter of Arthur st. Leger, Viscount
Doneraile, still adorns the walls of the
Grand Lodge room in Dublin, and is ponies
to with pride by transatlantic Irish MasODs
as that Of the only femals who was ever mi
tiated into Ancient and Accepted Freema-
sOnry. The narration Of the circumstances
Of her initiation is given in the following
language by Maso. 10 authority:
"LOrd Donersile, Mrs. AldwOrth's father,
who was q very Jealous Mason, held war
rant mo. 1907 in his own hands, and COCA
sionslly opened lodge at Doneraile House,
in the county Cork, his sons and some inti-
mate friends in the neghborhOOd assisting.
Ii appears that previous to the initiation OF
q gentleman to the first steps OF Masonry,
Mrs. AldwOrth, who was then young
girl, happened to Do in an apartment adj
joining The room usually used as lodge
room, this room at the time undergoing
some repair and alteration. Among other
things the wall was considerably reduced
in one part for the purpose Of making sa-
loon. The young lady having distinctly
heard the voices, aud prompted Dy the Gu
riOsity natural to all to see somewhat Of
this mystery, SO long and so secretly locked
up kfroH public view, had the courage
with her scissors to pick brick from tho
wall, and actually witnessed the aw-
full and mysterious ceremony through
the two first steps. Curiosity graft
fed, fear at once took possession OF her
mind, and those who understand this Dass-
age we'll know what the feelings must be OF
any person who could have the same Oppor-
tunity Of unlawfully beholding that cere-
mony; let them judge what mnst be the
feeling of q young girl. Being discovered
while the concluding part OF the second
etep was still performing, in the hrst par
oxysm of rage and alarm it is said her
death was resolved on, but that from the
moving and earnest applications OF her
younger brother her lie was spared, on
condition Of her going through the two
steps she had already seen. This she
agreed to, and they conducted the beautiful
and terrified young creature through those
trials which are sometimes more than
enough for masculine resolution, little
thinking they we're taking into the bosom
of the craft Q member that would after ward
reflect q lustre on the annals of Masonry. .
Although the initiation of women was OF
the rarest occurrence in the Masonic lodges,
vet system of female Masonry appears to
have been in existence early in the eight
zenith century in France, styled LA Ma
connerie d'Adoption," which counted nu-
merOus "Loges q Adoption" on its r.stere.
and which were so.called from having been
taken charge of or adopted by craft lodges.
A good deal of uncertainty hangs over the
origin of the Adaptive Rite. F. Roubee. .
French writer, aeserts 1t was founded by
Queen Henrietta Maria, fourth wife of King
Charles l., of England, but this theory has
been cast aside as absurd, as also that of it's
having been derived from the Russian
chivalric Order of St. Catherine, founded
by Gar Peter in l712, in honor of his wife,
and which consisted, when first started, of
composed of females only. The year 1870
can be only certainly fixed az that when q
number of such lodges working various
rituals were positively known to have been
in existence. In l745 an order was founded
in France called the knights ana Ladies of
the Anchor.
A Masonic charlatan, the Chevalier Beau
chaine, ia l747, started q rite known as the
Order of WoOdcutters. which was patron
lied by the most fashionable people in
France, and it was deemed an honor by
women of the highest rank to become ini-
tiated therein. Lodges of Adoption, after
the year 1850, appear to have spread pretty
rapidly over Germany, Poland and Russia;
one also existed in Holland in IVA. to
which the Prince of Waldeck and the Prin-
cess of Orange belonged. The Duchess of
Bourbon was ins, allied Grand Mistress, and
the Due a'Orleans, "Egalits," Grand Mas
ter. in the Partisan Lodge of ST. Antoine, in
IT'S, the year after the Grand Orient of
Of these lodges. Il should be of interest
just low to know what gorgeously en-
broidered apron and collar, worked by the
female adopted Masous Of France, was for
warded through Lafayette. q brother of
the craft, to their grand patron, Washing
ton. One Of the first evolutionary victims,
the lovely Princess de Lamballe, belonged
to the Lodge of La Candeur, Is did al 20 the
Comtesse de Genlis, the memoir writer,
Pamela, married the ill fated Lord Edward
Fitzgerald. Benjamin Franklin was pub
licly received by the widow Of Helvetius
in the historical Lodge of the Nine Sisters,
held ut her residence in Psris.
CagliOstrO made use of female Masonry to
aid his schemes, and his countess wife, La
renSa FelicianA, was authorized by bin to
act a. "Grand Priestees of all the Egyptian
Female Masonic Lodge" under his domin-
ion. When men were received, Cagliostro,
"the man of brass and pinchbeck," as Car
lyle styles him, presented them with q pair
of gsrters for their mistressess, and on the
occasion of the admission of women the
Grand COphta gave them q cOckade, which
they had to present TO the man they loved
best The ceremonies on the reception of
q female candidate were very curious. On
presentation Of the novice, the Grand Mis-
tress breathed upon her face from forehead
to chin. After other peculiar rites, Csgl
OstrO used to conclude the ceremonies of
initiation by the following expression, sup.
posed to have q magical or cabalistic i'm
port:
''In virtue of the power which have re.
ceived from the Grand Cophta, the founder
of our order, and by the particular grace of
God, hereby confer upOo you the honor of
being admitted into our lodge, in the name
Of Helios Meme, Tetraganimaton."
On the breaking out OF the great French
the leading brethren of the Illu-
minai having considered the great service
women had always done in assisting their
cause, began the formation of new female
lodges, acting in harmony with the prin-
ciples of their societies. Among the mem
bers of these bodies were Nine. Beauhar-
nails, atterward the Empress Josephine;
her daughter Hortense, Nine. TallieD,
and other nOtables. The sudden ter. |
in 1895, of Csgliostro's career
In the lnquisition dungeons of St. Leon,
in the Duchy Of Urbino, near Rome, put an
end to the female orders founded by him,
but the old adopted rite flourished nearly
everywhere in Europe, but particularly in |
France and under the empire. where we |