1.
Unveiling the Copiale-manuscript:
layers of fraternalism, ritual and politics in
eighteenth century Germany
Dr. Andreas Önnerfors, Reader in the History of Sciences
and Ideas, Gothenburg university, SWEDEN
andreas.onnerfors@gu.se

2.
Copiale-manuscript, Order of Oculists, 1740s

3.
Copiale-manuscript, facts
• 105 pages (preserved in Uppsala, Sweden)
• Multiple substitution cipher, cipher with
logograms and other elements of coding (e.g.
blank spaces)
• De-ciphered in 2011 by Swedish-American
data-linguists (Uppsala - LA)
• First content analysis carried out by Andreas
Önnerfors
• International media coverage (WIRED
magazine, NY Times, El País etc.)

4.
De-ciphering the code

5.
Homepage with articles and resources
http://stp.lingfil.uu.se/~bea/copiale/

6.
The anatomy
of the
manuscript
• Oculist-Order, p. 1-27
• Masonic degrees I-III, p. 27-68
• Scottish Master, p. 68-99
• “Key lodge”, p. 100-104
• Alchemical lodge, s. 104-105

7.
Seal of the Oculist-Order

8.
Samuel Prichard’s
Masonry Dissected, 1730

9.
Third degree exposure
(Bernigeroth, Leipzig 1745)

10.
Scottish Master
• Practiced in the “French” lodge (which?
L’Union in Berlin?)
• In the “other German lodges” (which?)
• In Braunschweig and Berlin (names?)
• “Key-lodge”: a continuation of the
Scottish Master?

11.
Scottish Master (SM) - motifs I
• SM is the original fourth degree, as the
Royal Arch in Britain, a narrative
continuation of the Third degree
• Main theme: the re-discovery of the lost
Master-word in the debris of Solomo’s
Temple (during Christian mediaeval
times)
• Approximately simultaneously another
degree is developed, “Maître èlu” =
selected Master, centred around the
discovery and punishment of
Adoniram’s murderers. This degree is
later placed in between III and the
original IV as an intermediate motif.
• IV turns into degree V or VI, with clear
chivalric (and sacerdotal?) motifs.

12.
Socttish Master – motifs II
• For the so-called ”French lodge” (most
likely L’Union in Berlin, established 1742,
working in French) a tracing board is
described that is very similar to the one a
Danish brother Dahle took with him to
Copenhagen in 1747.
• Main theme: Hiram’s identity as a priest
with access to the Holiest of Holy. The
candidate is purged with water as a Levite
and is granted access. Hiram is, according
to different versions of the legend, buried
in the Sanctum Sanctorum.

13.
Scottish Master - motifs III
• German Scottish lodges: fixed number of members,
previous activity as lodge officers (past rank). Number 4 is
central.
• Tracing board is different from the earlier description and is
more like this (Mollier 2015).
• Initiation starts with Levite water purification in order to get
access to the Holiest of Holy.
• Subsequently, accolade and anointment as knight with a
”battle sword” (”Schlachtschwert”)
• Apron is described very similar to the one depicted below
(Mollier 2015)
• Motto: ”Dulcia post Amara”, ”The Sweet after the Bitter”
• Is this Scottish Master a combined sacerdotal-Chivalric
degree?

14.
Scottish Master- motifs IV
• Lodges in Berlin and Braunschweig work similarly
• Tracing board most in accordance to the
”conventional” Master’s degree with some
elements from the ”French”, however temple
debris in the centre (maybe like this one, another
Danish from 1748)
• In this version we receive the most
comprehensive account of how the old Master’s
word was re-discovered. This account is in
principal in accordance with the one Dahle in 1747
received for Copenhagen. Curiously it appears to
be a continuation of the English version of the
Hiramic legend where 15 Fellow craft search for
Hiram (whereas in L’Ordre and all French/Swedish
versions it is 9 masters).
• Also here it is evident that Hiram is buried in the
Sanctum Sanctorum.

15.
The “Key-Lodge” (Schlüsselloge) I
• What makes the Copiale-manuscript unique is the continuation of the SM-degree,
the so-called ”key-lodge” (Schlüsselloge)
• Main theme: tyranny has taken natural liberty from man, freemasons/the Order are
called at arms to regain it (liberty)
• Tracing board: olive branch, drum, Fama with her trumpet, calling the freemasons,
a three-headed monster (Cerberus?) and a mountain symbolizing tyranny, three
snakes (an elaborated caduceus?) standing for positive qualities (nature,
righteousness, fearlessness), spears, pistols, flags (the masonic coats of arms)
• Who exactly is referred to in the catechism of the degree?
• Q: How were you accepted into the Key-lodge (auf- und angenommen)?
• A: I am born out of the body of a women [womb?], which is: free, subjected to no
one and not placed under any human law, but only following and subordinate to
God himself.
Mere speculation:
• Is this a Christocentric interpretation of freemasonry, focussing on Passion?
• Is this a form of liberation theology?
• Does the degree relate to the Jacobite rising 1745/46?

16.
“Lodge of Consolation”
• Alchemical workings in a lodge (Konsolations-Loge) with a separate
tracing board, ceremonies and signs are described
• Their aim is the ”fixation of Mercury”
• Works currently only in Halle

17.
Summary
• Why did the Oculists use the organizational form of a secret society in order to expose
another secret/society? A Trojan horse/false flag operation? A double play with secrecy and
sociability?
• How do the Oculists relate to Anti-Masonic societies at large? Starting from the 1720s
Britain (Gormogons) to Pietist anti-masonry.
• The exposure of craft degrees, if real and based upon true accounts from German lodges at
the time, demonstrates that German freemasonry in the early 1740s was exposed to both
English and French influences and hence a double stream of inspiration pointing at future
divisions.
• The SM-degrees exposed demonstrate that non-printed exposures circulated at the time
and can fill in “blank spots” in our knowledge about the circulation of ideas within
freemasonry.
• The SM-degrees circulated point at influence from both French and more surprisingly
English sources (needs to be researched closer)
• The SM-degrees demonstrate that the sacralisation of higher degrees into a distinctly
Christian character occurred before both the Strict Observance and the Swedish Rite and
hence probably prepared the ground for their introduction. (sacerdotal and chivalric
elements, pointing at the future development of pure Chapter-degrees)
• The continuation of the SM-degree within the Key-lodge point clearly at the circulation of
political ideas within freemasonry
• The description of a lodge working with alchemical motifs points at the early prevalence of
hermetic ideas circulating in German freemasonry even before the introduction of SO and
Swedish rite