Committed to the Flames
Committed to the Flames
The History and Rituals of a Secret Masonic Rite
Direct to Purchase
Arturo de Hoyos and S. Brent Morris
Description
In 1826, Robert Benjamin Folger, a recent graduate of medical school and a new Master Mason, filled a book with the enciphered Craft rituals of the Rectified Scottish Rite (Knights Beneficent of the Holy City or CBCS), a high-grade revision of the Rite of Strict Observance, well-known in Europe but unknown in the United States. His introduction directed that the rituals be “committed to the flames” upon his death. Fortunately for Masonic historians these instructions were not followed.
Folger went on to prepare at least two other books of rituals, including one of the earliest versions of the American Knight Templar rituals. A man of tremendous talents, strong passions, and curious contradictions, Folger was twice expelled from Masonry by the Grand Lodge of New York and participated in at least six clandestine Supreme Councils, but died a Master Mason in good standing.
This book gives full transcriptions of all of his rituals, an analysis of their place in Masonry, and biographies of Folger and his major contemporaries in his Masonic work.