usalem. Declaring that they were the descendants of the masons who
had worked on the Temple of Solomon, they professed to concern
themselves with "speculative architecure," which served to disguise a
more glorious point of view. From this time they took the name of Free
Masons, presented themselves under this title to the crusading armies
and assembled under their banners.[373]

It would of course be absurd to regard any of the foregoing accounts as
historical facts; the important point is that they tend to prove the
fallacy of supposing that the Johannite-Templar theory originated with
the revived _Ordre du Temple_, since one corresponding to it so closely
was current in the middle of the preceding century. It is true that in
these earlier accounts the actual words "Johannite" and "Templar" do not
occur, but the resemblance between the sect of Jews professing the
Christian faith but possessing a "particular liturgy" and a "sublime
treatise"--apparently some early form of the Cabala--dealing with occult
science, and the Mandaeans or Johannites with their Cabalistic "Book of
Adam," their Book of John, and their ritual, is at once apparent.
Further, the allusions to the connexion between the Knights who had been
indoctrinated in the Holy Land and the Scottish lodges coincides exactly
with the Templar tradition, published not only by the _Ordre du Temple_
but handed down in the Royal Order of Scotland.

From all this the following facts stand out: (1) that whilst British
Craft Masonry traced its origin to the operative guilds of masons, the
Freemasons of France from 1737 onwards placed the origin of the Order in
crusading chivalry; (2) that it was amongst these Freemasons that the
upper degrees known as the Scottish Rite arose; and (3) that, as we
shall now see, these degrees clearly suggest Templar inspiration.

The earliest form of the upper degrees appears to have been the one
given by de Berage, as follows:

1. Parfait Macon Elu.
2. Elu de Perignan.
3. Elu des Quinze.
4. Petit Architecte.
5. Grand Architecte.
6. Chevalier de l'Epee et de Rose-Croix.
7. Noachite ou Chevalier Prussien.

The first of these to make its appearance is believed to have been the
one here assigned to the sixth place. This degree known in modern
Masonry as "Prince of the Rose-Croix of Heredom or Knight of the Pelican
and Eagle" became the eighteenth and the most important degree in what
was later called the Sc