Now, in the manuscripts of the Prince of Hesse published by Lecouteulx de Canteleu it is said that this man Johnston, or rather Johnson, who proclaimed himself to be "Grand Prior of the Order," was a Jew named Leicht or Leucht.[407] Gould says that his real name was either Leucht or Becker, but that he professed to be an Englishman, although unable to speak the English language, hence his assumption of the name Johnson.[408] Mr. Gould has described Johnson as a "consummate rogue and an unmitigated vagabond ... of almost repulsive demeanour and of no education, but gifted with boundless impudence and low cunning." Indeed, von Hundt himself, after enlisting Johnson's services, found him too dangerous and declared him to be an adventurer. Johnson was thereupon arrested by von Hundt's friend the councillor von Pritsch, and thrown into the castle of Wartburg, where sudden death ended his career.
It is, however, improbable that Mirabeau could be right in indicating Johnson as one of the "Unknown Superiors," who were doubtless men of vaster conceptions than this adventurer appears to have been. Moreover, the manner of his end clearly proves that he occupied a subordinate position in the Stricte Observance.
Here, then, we have a very curious sequence of events which it may be well to recapitulate briefly in order to appreciate their full significance:
| 1737. | Oration of Chevalier Ramsay indicating Templar origin of Freemasonry, but making no mention of upper degrees. |
| 1738. | Duc d'Antin becomes Grand Master of French Freemasonry in the place of Lord "Harnouester." |
| 1738. | Frederick, Crown Prince of Prussia, initiated into Masonry at Brunswick. |
| 1740. | Voltaire pays his first visit to Frederick, now King. |
| 1741. | Baron von Marschall arrives in Paris with a plan for reviving the Templar Order. |
| Templar degrees first heard of in France under name of "Scots Masonry." | |
| 1743. | Arrival in France of Baron von Hundt with fresh plans for reviving the Templar Order. |
| Degree of Knight Kadosch celebrating vengeance of Templars said to have been instituted at Lyons. | |
| 1750. | Voltaire goes to spend three years with Frederick. |
| 1751. | Templar Order of the Stricte Observance founded by von Hundt. |
| 1754. | Rite of Perfection (early form of Scottish Rite) founded in France. |
| 1761. | Frederick acknowledged head of Scottish Rite. |
| " | Morin sent to found Rite of Perfection in America. |
| 1762. | Grand Masonic Constitutions ratified in Berlin.[409] |
It will be seen then that what Mr. Gould describes as "the flood of Templarism," which both he and Mr. Tuckett attribute to the so-called Scots Masons,[410] corresponds precisely with the decline of Jacobite and the rise of German influence. Would it not therefore appear probable that, except in the case of the Rose-Croix degree, the authors of the upper degrees were not Scotsmen nor Jacobites, that Scots Masonry was a term used to cover not merely Templarism but more especially German Templarism, and that the real author and inspirer of the movement was Frederick the Great? No, it is significant to find that in the history of the Ordre du Temple, published at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Frederick the Great is cited as one of the most distinguished members of this Order in the past,[411] and the Abbé Grégoire adds that he was "consecrated" at Remersberg (Rheinsberg?) in 1738, that is to say in the same year that he was initiated into Masonry at Brunswick.[412] There is therefore a definite reason for connecting Frederick with Templarism at this date.
I would suggest, then, that the truth about the Templar succession may be found in one of the two following theories:
1. That the documents produced by the Ordre du Temple in the nineteenth century, including the Charter of Larmenius, were genuine; that the Order had never ceased to exist since the days of the Crusades; that the Templar heresy was Johannism, but that this was not held by the Templars who escaped to Scotland; that the Rose-Croix degree in its purely Christian form was introduced by the Scottish Templars to Scotland and four hundred years later brought by Ramsay to France; that the Master of the Temple at this date was the Regent, Philippe Duc d'Orléans, as stated in the Charter of Larmenius. Finally, that after this, fresh Templar degrees were introduced from Germany by von Hundt, acting on behalf of Frederick the Great.
2. That the documents produced by the Ordre du Temple in the nineteenth century were, as M. Matter declares, early eighteenth-century fabrications; that although, in view of the tradition preserved in the Royal Order of Scotland, there appears to be good reason to believe the story of the Scottish Templars and the origin of the Rose-Croix degree, the rest of the history of the Templars, including the Charter of Larmenius, was an invention of the "Concealed Superiors" of the Stricte Observance in Germany, and that the most important of these "Concealed Superiors" were Frederick the Great and Voltaire.
I shall not attempt to decide which of these two theories is correct; all that I do maintain is that in either case the preponderating rôle in Templarism at this crisis was played by Frederick the Great, probably with the co-operation of Voltaire, who in his Essai sur les Mæurs championed the cause of the Templars. Let us follow the reasons for arriving at this conclusion.
Ramsay's oration in 1737 connecting Freemasonry with the Templars may well have come to the ears of Frederick and suggested to him the idea of using Masonry as a cover for his intrigues--hence his hasty initiation at Brunswick. But in order to acquire influence in a secret society it is always necessary to establish a claim to superior knowledge, and Templarism seemed to provide a fruitful source of inspiration. For this purpose new light must be thrown on the Order. Now, there was probably no one better qualified than Voltaire, with his knowledge of the ancient and medieval world and hatred of the Catholic Church, to undertake the construction of a historical romance subversive of the Catholic faith--hence the urgent summons to the philosopher to visit Frederick. We can imagine Voltaire delving amongst the records of the past in order to reconstruct the Templar heresy. This was clearly Gnostic, and the Mandæans or Christians of St. John may well have appeared to present the required characteristics. If it could be shown that here in Johannism true "primitive Christianity" was to be found, what a blow for the "infâme"! A skilful forger could easily be found to fabricate the documents said to have been preserved in the secret archives of the Order. Further we find von Marschall arriving in the following year in France to reorganize the Templars, and von Hundt later claiming to be in possession of the true secrets of the Order handed down from the fourteenth century. That some documents bearing on this question were either discovered or fabricated under the direction of Frederick the Great seems the more probable from the existence of a masonic tradition to this effect. Thus Dr. Oliver quotes a Report of the Grand Inspectors-General in the nineteenth century stating that: