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| André Hercule de Fleury (1653 – 1743). Oil on canvas by Hyacinthe Rigaud, Palace of Versailles. |
Jacobite freemasons settled in France introduced Cardinal de Fleury, de facto prime minister of Louis XV, into the masonic ritual as the man who led the Elus in their search for the first assassin of Hiram Abiff.
From the Glorious Revolution of 1688 onwards, a series of Jacobite uprisings in the British Isles resulted in a Jacobite diaspora, which lasted from the Flight of the Wild Geese (after the defeat in the War of the Two Kings, 1689) to the final debacle at Culloden (1746). Most of these Jacobites were Roman Catholics and many were freemasons. Although there were also Hanoverian lodges on French soil, the Jacobite freemasons sought to obtain royal and ecclesiastical blessing.
At the stage when Freemasonry began to take root in France, the most powerful man after Louis XV was Cardinal André-Hercule de Fleury, born on 22 June 1653 in Lodève, France, and died on 29 January 1743 in Paris. De Fleury served as de facto prime minister to King Louis XV from 1726 to 1743, although due to his age he never formally accepted the appointment of premier ministre. He is colloquially known as the Richelieu of Louis XV. De Fleury was a brilliant man, whose greatest achievements were in foreign policy. He established a close working relationship with the British prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, and worked to reduce the growing tensions between Britain and Spain. His efforts prevented the hostilities that broke out between Spain and Britain in 1727 from escalating into a European conflict, while strengthening relations between France and Austria.
The Jacobite Freemasons tried to seek protection, or at least some leniency, from the crown and the church in France. The key person in this matter was Cardinal de Fleury, who, despite the Masons' good intentions, banned the regular meetings and did nothing but make difficulties for Freemasonry.
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| On the left, Louis XV. On the right, Cardinal de Fleury. |
On 17 March 1737, Cardinal de Fleury asked the Lieutenant General of Police, Hérault, to suspend Masonic gatherings and to prohibit hoteliers and innkeepers from serving meals at these assemblies. The best known attempt to remedy this situation was made by the Chevalier Ramsay.
Upon learning of the ban, on 20 March 1737 Ramsay sent his first version of the Address to De Fleury, inviting him to support the society of Freemasons. Ramsay focused on portraying Freemasons as loyal citizens within the community, working to improve morals and promote virtue and science.
Two days later, on 22 March, Ramsay sent his second version of the Discourse to De Fleury. This second version also had a markedly more Christian character than the first, and the oft-quoted passages linking Freemasonry to the medieval crusaders could be seen as a tool used by Ramsay to corroborate that the Order was not only in accordance with orthodox Christianity, but also in accordance with the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Furthermore, Ramsay asks De Fleury for advice on how to proceed in order to have the Masonic regular meetings legalised, but De Fleury's reply is as simple as it is clear: in the margin of the first page of the discourse he wrote "The king does not wish it" (Le roi ne le veut pas).
Masonic meetings were forbidden until De Fleury's death in 1743, although this does not imply that they did not take place.
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| The Duke of Antin, Grand Master between 1738 and 1743, sword in hand prevents the police from entering the lodge. |
Examination of the handwritten rituals in the Kloss Collection reveals that a group of Jacobites had an idea that we do not know whether it was nonsense or genius: they tried to honour Cardinal de Fleury by making him the guide who would lead the Elus to the cave where the first of Hiram Abiff's assassins is to be found. We suppose that the aim of this measure was to try to soften the Cardinal's opposition to the Masons.
Let's take it one step at a time.
The Elu of the Nine degree (current 9th degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite) was created by merging two previous degrees: Little Elu (Petit Élu) and Elu of Perignan (Élu de Pérignan), also called Elu of the Unknown (Élu de l'Inconnu).
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| First and second boards of the Elu of the Nine degree, featuring the dog. Boards from the collection of Baron von Löwen. |
In the story of the Little Elu and Elu of the Nine, it is a dog that guides the Elus to the cave of the first murderer of Hiram Abiff. The legend of Hiram Abiff is a transcript of the astronomical events that gave rise to the story of the Osiris myth (the Hiram Abiff myth is the Osiris myth in Hebrew terminology). The dog is the Dog Star, which the Hebrews called Caleb Anubach (the barking dog) and is none other than Sirius. The nine Elus following the dog are the Pleiades following Sirius, and when the Elus are fifteen, on the 10th degree, they are the Pleiades and the Hyades. However, the authors of these rituals were unaware of this fact. They thought that behind the figure of the dog there was a person, whom they called the Unknown (l'Inconnu).
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| Ritual of Little Elu (of the Nine) degree [Petit Élu (des Neuf)]: He (the recipient) then takes his place and sits by the dog (there is a picture of a dog). The story tells that Solomon wished to know who was the murderer of Hiram, and that an Unknown, represented by a dog, promised to discover the murderer. It also tells that it was necessary to choose by ballot, lest envy should arise, who would be the nine Elus; and that zeal snatched away Stolkin, who ran there the first, and slew Abiram. Kloss Ms. XXX.5. |
As we can see, the Masons who created this ritual thought that the dog represented a person. And this is where the witticism comes in: they called that unknown person Pérignan.
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Elu of the Unknown (also called of Perignan), Élu de l'Inconnu [dit de Pérignan]. Question - Why did the Unknown warn Solomon? Answer - To satisfy the edict which this wise king had caused to be issued, and to obtain the reward offered for this edict. Q - How did the Unknown feed Abiram and for how long? A - Seven whole days. Q - What do you call this Unknown? A - Perignan. |
Pérignan is Fleury
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| Location of Fleury (Pérignan) in Languedoc. |
It was Cardinal de Fleury who changed the name of the town of Pérignan to his surname Fleury. This is the story of how this happened. The original website is this.
Why are the inhabitants of Fleury called Pérignanais? Historians have found the answer through history.
The Chroniques Pérignanaises tell us: "Our village changed its name by testamentary decision due to the lack of direct heirs; on 9 January 1651, Hercule de Thézan, lord and baron of Pérignan and other places, sold the lands and the barony of Pérignan to his brother-in-law, Pierre de Fleury, originally from Lodève. Pierre de Fleury, with no heir, bequeathed his barony to his brother Jean's eldest son, Gabriel, who was baron until 1693. Childless, he bequeathed his property to his brother Henri. Once again, with no direct descendants, the will is made in favour of his brother, (Cardinal) André Hercule de Fleury, then Bishop of Fréjus. The new Baron de Pérignan immediately decided on his succession, as he was thinking of a Versailles career. He then appointed his sister Marie's eldest son, Jean Hercule, as Baron de Pérignan. In 1715, Monsieur de Fréjus, as he was sometimes called, left his episcopal see and returned to Versailles, where he became tutor to the young Louis XV. In 1726, the king appointed him prime minister and proposed to the pope that he grant him the title of cardinal. The new minister had not forgotten Pérignan; by adding the barony of Pérignan, his properties in Lodève and the estates of Jean Hercule's father, he founded a duchy, and so that his patronymic would not disappear, he decided that Pérignan would be called Fleury and that Jean Hercule and his future heirs would be dukes of Fleury. He proposed this to the king, who ratified the cardinal's intentions. Thus it was that in 1736 Pérignan became Fleury. "The historical events between the Revolution and the reign of Louis XVIII made Fleury become Pérignan again and Pérignan became Fleury again... on several occasions!
It is clear that the Jacobite Freemasons who created the Elu of Perignan degree were thinking of Cardinal de Fleury.
How do we know that the Freemasons who created the Elu of Perignan degree were Jacobites? The answer is simple:
1) Because the name of one of the assassins is Runvel (Cromwell).
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Question - What were their names? Answer - H(K)umvel, Gravelot and Abiram. |
2) Because Hiram Abiff's killers took refuge in Cabul. Jacobite rituals use the words Cabul, Capule, Capulist, etc. to refer to England. To put it simply: in Romeo and Juliet the Capulets were Guelphs (supporting the Pope), while the Montagues were Ghibellines (supporting the Emperor). The Jacobites identified the House of Hanover with the Emperor, and themselves with the Capulets. By using the word Cabul to refer to England they are claiming a papist England. And by asserting that the murderers of Hiram Abiff took refuge in England (Cabul), they are accusing their own nation of regicide, for the assassination of Charles I.
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Question - What became of Humvel and Gravelot? Answer - Solomon learned, some time after the avenged death of Hiram, that they had not perished, but had taken miserable refuge in the country of Cabul. |
3) Finally, because of the degree board:
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| The Jacobite origin of the degrees of Elu of Perignan and Elu of the Fifteen is evidenced by the fact that the heads of the assassins of Hiram Abiff are impaled on the degree boards, just as Charles II decapitated the corpse of Cromwell and stuck his head on a pike, thus avenging the death of his father, Charles I. On the left, board of the Elu of Perignan degree (Kloss Ms. XXXVI.7); in the centre, board of the Chosen of the Fifteen degree (Maçonnerie des Hommes). On the right, Cromwell's impaled head, which was finally buried in 1960. |
These are the facts, although we cannot really be sure why these Jacobite Masons incorporated Cardinal de Fleury into the ritual. After all, we are almost 300 years away from these events.