The Rosicrucian Society 

The Secrets of The Rose Croix Brotherhood had found initial refuge in the Palatinate or Rhine of Germany which is near the Northern French boarder in the 1500’s. This was also a bastion of Calvinist and Free Celtic Catholic thinking and spiritual reform. Dynamic religious thinking had begun to flourish under Frederick V (Elector of Palatine of the Rhine) in the 1600s. Wars and battles over boundaries and Catholic Orthodoxy plagued the central European regions for over 100 more years. Masonic and Rosicrucian activities had been documented and more open since the liberations and movements by Martin Luther and other free thinkers. Enhanced mystical degrees had been established in Bordeaux, France. Around 1744, the a French trader, by the name of Estienne Morin became involved in Bordeaux chapter. Around 1747, Morin became determined to found an "Ecossais" lodge (Scots Masters Lodge) in the new world. It is now generally accepted that this Rite of twenty-five degrees was compiled by Estienne Morin and is therefore more properly titled "The Rite of the Royal Secret", or "Morin's Rite".

The one man who was most important in assisting Morin in spreading the degrees in the New World was a naturalized French subject of Dutch origin named Henry Andrew Francken. Francken worked closely with Morin to produced a manuscript book giving the rituals for the 4th through the 25th degrees. During this time, The Les Loge de Parfaits d' Écosse was formed on 12 April 1764 at New Orleans, becoming the first high degree lodge on the North American continent. Its PUBLIC life, however, was short, as the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded New Orleans from France to Spain, and the Catholic Spanish crown had been historically hostile to Freemasonry. Soon thereafter, Francken travelled to New York in 1767 where he granted a Patent, dated 26 December 1767, for the formation of a Lodge of Perfection at Albany. This marked the first time the Degrees of Perfection (the 4th through the 14th) were conferred in one of the thirteen British colonies. Although the Orleans Chapter of Perfection and Royal Secrets remained clandestine, it never died. This book addresses the philosophies and teachings of the Secret Lodge as delivered by its’ Supreme Magus.

The Supreme Magus is active with the Research Society of the Loge de Parfait Est. 1764. ARO ⊕America's Rosicrucian Order......