En: Grand Lodge "Sun" at Bayreuth

Grand Lodge "Sun" at Bayreuth

Source: Robert Freke Gould THE HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY

unintentionally, limiting its own representative character. And at the revision of the Statutes in 1872, the distinctively Christian requirements for initiation were modified, so that Jewish candidates are now accepted.

Little remains to be added except statistics. Lodges warranted :— in 1S03, 1 ; 1812, 2 ; 1813, 1; 1816, 4; also the Provincial Grand Lodge of Silesia; 1817, 2; 1818, 2; 1820, 1821, 1823, 1824, 1826, 1827, 1828, 1836, 1840, 1843, 1846, 1 each. Later lists I have not been able to procure.

In 1810— March 18— G.M. Klein died, and— April 30— J. H. A. Hey was elected to the office. In 1832 Hey resigned from sickness and old age, and died December 17, 1838. He was succeeded by Prof. H. F. Link as G.M., who died in office — January 1, 1851. On June 2 ensuing, Dr C. von Kloeden was elected G.M., and also died in office — January 10, 1856. A similar fate befel the next G.M. — Dr C. W. F. Amelang — who died December 3, 1858; and on the following year — March 26 — Prince Louis William Augustus of Baden, a brother of the Grand Duke, was installed as G.M. The G.M.'s tenure of office being terminable with the periodica] revisions of the Constitutions, the Prince declined re-election at the revision of 1863, but was appointed Hon. G.M., a position which he still holds. In 1864 Dr J. F. Schnakenburg was installed Grand Master, 1 and in 1873 Professor Chr. Fr. L. Herrig, who was re-elected in 1882, and still holds the office.

In January 1885 the Grand Lodge "Koyal York of Friendship" ruled over 62 Lodges with 6102 members, or an average of 99 members per Lodge. Of these Lodges 4 are outside the limits of Prussia, 3 in Alsace-Lorraine, and 1 in Bremen. It has 1 Provincial Grand Lodge — that of Silesia — and 8 Inner Orients.

VI. The Gkand Lodge " Sun " at Bayreuth.

On January 21, 1741, the Margrave Frederick of Brandenburg-Kulmbach erected in his own castle at Bayreuth, the capital of his dominions, a Lodge under the name of the " Sun," of which he remained Master till his death in 1763. On December 5, 1741, this Castle " Sun " instituted in Bayreuth a City " Sun " with much pomp, the Margrave himself taking- part in the procession. The Castle " Sun " soon grafted on itself a Directory of Scots Masters, which in some respects discharged the functions of a non-representative Grand Lodge.

In 1757 — October 24 — this Directory opened the Lodge " Lebanon of the Three Cedars," in Erlangen ; and in 1758— May 17— that of the " Three Stars," in Anspach, the capital of the Onolzbach or cadet line of Brandenburg.

In 1763 the Margrave was succeeded by his uncle, the Margrave Frederick Christian, both in his civil and Masonic capacity.

In 1769, the elder line being extinct, the Margrave Frederick Carl Alexander of Branden- burg-Onolzbach (the younger or Anspach line) united the two Principalities. The Anspach Lodge of 1758 being also possessed of a Scots Directory, the new ruler caused it in 1772 to amalgamate with the {Castle) Sun Directory, and removed the seat of this conjoint Direc- tory to Anspach, granting it jurisdiction over the two Sun Lodges in Bayreuth, the Lebanon Lodge in Erlangen, and the Three Stars Lodge in Anspach. From 1774 therefore the Sun ceased to work as a Mother-Lodge. In 1776 the City Sun went over to the Strict Observance,

1 Under him in 1872 the Statutes were altered to admit of Jews being initiated.

which the Margrave himself had joined in the same year, being the first reigning Prince who ever signed the act of Implicit (or Unquestioning) Obedience. He himself was the son of the Margrave Carl who had espoused the sister of Frederick the Great, and been initiated by that king in 1740 in Frederick's Eoyal Lodge. 1 The Margrave Frederick dying childless in 1799, the Brandenburg Principalities reverted to Prussia.

By the Eoyal Edict of October 20, 1798, all Prussian Lodges were required to hold from one of the three Berlin Grand Lodges. Accordingly, in 1799— November 19— the Anspach and Erlangen Lodges joined the " Three Globes ; " whilst the two Suns joined the Eoyal York in 1800, the Castle Sun being made a Provincial Grand Lodge. It naturally accepted the Fessler Eite, and was granted an Inner Orient, April 1, 1802. The Lodge of Truth and Friendship at Ftirth, warranted by the Eoyal York — March 4, 1803— was placed under its rule, and also the " Morning Star " at Hof, constituted June 9, 1799.

In 1806 Anspach fell to the new kingdom of Bavaria. It had meanwhile been raised to the rank of a Provincial Grand Lodge " Anacharsis," under the Three Globes, with several daughter Lodges, and at the time of these all becoming Bavarian, Freemasonry was under an interdict in that country by virtue of decrees issued March 2 and August 16, 1785 ; 2 renewed by the Elector — afterwards King of Bavaria— Maximilian Joseph, himself a Free- mason, November 4, 1799, and March 5, 1804. In 1807, however— May 8— the King issued an edict of toleration, to which were attached very stringent conditions. A list of all members was to be forwarded to the authorities every three months, all changes of officers or by- laws to be notified, correspondence with Berlin to cease, etc. A further edict was published January 17, 1808, forbidding all State servants to join the Craft. As this deprived the Lodges of all their best members, judges, notaries, professors, military officers, and even schoolmasters and clergymen, the blow was a severe one ; but many of the Lodges nevertheless continued to struggle on as independent communities, until in better times they were able to join one of the Grand Lodges of Germany. 3

In 1810 — June 30 — Bayreuth also was acquired by the kingdom of Bavaria, and the Lodges had to conform to the same rules, the Sun losing not less than fifty of its best members.

The Provincial Grand Masters meanwhile, under the Eoyal York Grand Lodge, were Count von Giech, Von Volderndorf, and Schunter.

In 1811 — December 13— the Provincial Grand Lodge of the Sun declared itself an inde- pendent Grand Lodge, with four daughters, viz., the City Sun under a new name — Eleusis of Silence— the Truth and Friendship at Fiirth, the Morning Star and the Golden Balance at Hof— which was warranted February 20, 1804, by the National Grand Lodge of Berlin. By slow degrees and in spite of difficulties, it added to this number. The ritual was naturally the so-called " Fessler," that is, as we have seen, the " Schroeder " slightly modified, and which does not differ materially from our own. The first G.M.— Schunter— was followed by Munch, Birner, and in 1844 by S. Kolb— under whom, in 1847, the constitutions were amended so as

1 An(e, p. 242. *Ibid., p. 123.

3 By an English patent— dated June 6, 1806— " Charles Alexander, Prince of Thurn and Taxis, Principal Com- missary to His Imperial Majesty in Germany," was appointed "Provincial Grand Master for Bavaria. " This description, however, is vague and misleading, since with the exception of Ratisbon— which was not permanently incorporated with the new kingdom until 1810— Bavarian Masonry was extinct. Cf. post, pp. 277 (note 3), 279.

See also:

• En: Freemasonry in the German Empire
• En: Grand Lodge of Prussia, called Royal York of Friendship