ARRAS, PRIMORDIAL CHAPTER OF

Arras is a town in France in the department of Pas de Calais, where, in the year 1747, Charles Edward Stuart, the Pretender, is said to have established a Sovereign Primordial and Metropolitan Chapter of Rosicrucian Freemasons. A portion of the charter of this body is given by Ragon in his Orthodoxie Maçonnique. In 1853, the Count de Hamel, prefect of the department, discovered an authentic copy, in parchment, of this document bearing the date of April 15, 1747, which he deposited in the departmental archives. This document is as follows:

We, Charles Edward, King of England, France, Scotland, and Ireland, and as such Substitute Grand Master of the Chapter of H., known by the title of Knight of the Eagle and Pelican, and since our sorrows and misfortunes by that of Rose Cross, wishing to testify our gratitude to the Masons of Artois, and the officers of the city of Arras, for the numerous marks of kindness which they in conjunction with the officers of the garricon of Arras have lavished upon us, and their attachment to our person, shown during a residence of six months in that city.

We have in favor of them created and erected, and do create and erect by the present Bull, in the aforesaid city of Arras, a Sovereign Primordial Chapter of Rose Crox, under the distinctive title of Scottish Jacobite, to be ruied and governed by the Knights Lagneau and Robespierre; Avocats Hazard, and his two sons, physician ; J. B. Luoet, our upholsterer, and Jérome Cellier. our clockmaker, giving to them and to their successors the power not only to make knights, but even to create a Chapter in whatever town they may thank fit, provided that two Chapters shall not be created in the same town however populous it may be.

And that credit may be given to our present Bull, we have signed it with our hand and caused to be affixed there unto the secret seal, and countersigned by the Secretary of our Cabinet, Thursday, 15th of the second month of the Year of the Incarnation, 1747.