by John Belton and Roger Dachez
Purchase
The writing is effective, never jargony, but rejects anachronisms and the brilliance of artificial constructions, taking a back seat to the Masonic work and its craftsmen in order to highlight them. The result is delightful.
-Prof Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire, Université Côte-d’Azur (Nice)
The study of the development of the ‘Higher Degrees’ after 1730 has, for the past century, failed to produce new insights. Previous research has been geographically narrow or limited to one degree or order and thus failed to offer new insights. The authors decided to take a holistic approach, and so geographically covered England, Ireland, Scotland, and of course France, along with Germany and the Netherlands. The study adopted a forensic approach to the available evidence by undertaking detailed reading of the documents found. The discoveries exceeded expectations and the book details their ‘archaeological finds’ – and offers a novel perspective on the development of the Higher Degrees during the eighteenth century.
Bro John Belton was initiated in 1980 and currently also a member of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076 UGLE. Early research interests focused on the post 1947 decline of freemasonic membership across the English speaking world, leading to many papers, and the book, The English Masonic Union of 1813: A Tale Antient & Modern. By education Bro. Belton was a microbiologist, by profession a marketer and exporter working for a major multinational pharma company. In retirement, and by inclination, a masonic searcher out of curiosities, and of mislaid history. He has recently moved to Scotland to be near family.
Roger Dachez was born in Paris in 1955. Professionally a doctor and academic, he has been President of the Institut Maçonnique de France since its founding in 2002. He is also a member of the Scientific Committee of the Museum of Freemasonry in Paris and a Contributing Member of the Scottish Rite Research Society (Washington). Since 1992, he has directed the masonic research journal, Renaissance Traditionnelle. He is the author of nearly thirty books, including De Salomon à James Anderson – L’Invention de la franc-maçonnerie, and La véritable histoire du grade de Maître – Hiram et ses Freres.
Westphalia Press 