La Iniciación · Año IV, Nº 37 · May 1945

1March — In spite of the rapid progress of the Strict Observance in Europe, many dissensions and struggles between the members of the Order and the profane, and among the members themselves, provoked little by little a slow disgregation and decadence of the Order.

2Ferdinand of Brunswick strove, convoking meeting after meeting, to obtain, if not the cohesion that was lacking, at least a little order and tranquillity; and that is why, in this month, he had manifested to J. B. Willermoz, through the baron de Durkeim, his desire that the brothers of France should gather in a national congress, during which the French provinces would elect their Grand Master and try to resolve all internal affairs, thus preparing themselves to take part in a future general congress of the Order.

31778 —28 August — J. B. Willermoz — after this request of the duke of Brunswick and the reiterated insistences of the count de Lutzelbourg, dean of the Chapter of Strasbourg, who believed it extremely urgent to establish order and take resolutions of importance — became convinced that it was indeed indispensable to convoke a national congress; the more so as for some time he had been awaiting a propitious occasion to carry into effect a vast programme he silently cherished.

4In an important session held on 28 August 1778, he set forth to the brothers of the Grand Chapter of the Province of Auvergne the situation of the Order, and stated the reasons that counselled the convocation, at Lyon, of a national congress in which all the French provinces should take part.

5All were in agreement and decided to convoke that congress, which was denominated the Grand Congress of the Gauls, for 28 October 1778.

6__________________ Before continuing our chronological exposition and occupying ourselves with this Congress and the results obtained in it, we must open a parenthesis to set forth what were the secret designs that J. B. Willermoz desired to realise.

7It was not only the longing to establish order and consolidate the organisation of the Strict Observance that made him take the resolution of convoking the congress.

8For a long time already, Jean-Baptiste had cherished the project of infusing into masonry the doctrinal content of the Order of the Elect Cohens, and only waited patiently for the opportunity to present itself.

9That opportunity presented itself at last in 1778, and he, as we shall see, very skilfully took advantage of it.

10Already during the stay of Rodolphe Saltzmann in Lyon, between December 1777 and January 1778, Willermoz had communicated to him — besides the whole programme of the administrative and liturgical reform of the Order — that idea of his kept in the most absolute secrecy for a long time: that of wishing to add a new degree to the symbolic ones that already existed, a degree in which the doctrine of Martines de Pasqually was to be taught. Rodolphe Saltzmann — a deeply religious spirit and a man of exemplary seriousness, Master of the Novices [Sic: the Spanish prints 1os, with a numeral] in the Directory of the Chapter of Strasbourg — had gone to Lyon to discuss with Willermoz all those modifications it was suitable to bring to the Strict Observance, of administrative as well as of liturgical character.

11Willermoz and Saltzmann understood each other perfectly — to such a point that Willermoz not only initiated him into the Order of the Elect Cohens, but communicated to him, as we have said, what he proposed to obtain at the congress of the Gauls.

12From the conversations exchanged there arose a whole programme of action to be realised.

13Willermoz would help Saltzmann and the brothers of Strasbourg to obtain the · 5

Our translation, period-faithful. Citable as our translation, never as the source.