The Russian Masonry and the Convent of Wilhelmsbad (1782)
The Convent of Wilhelmsbad Freemasonry (1782) is considered the largest Congress of Jewish masons of the 17th century. The participants had to solve the problems that arose inside masonic movement and to determine further fate of the Order of Knights Templars acting within masonry. The Congress of Wilhelmsbad was open on June 16, 1782, to held 32 meetings. The Russian masons also took part in the activity of the Congress. Their primary goal was to release from subordination to the Swedish masons Ekaterina II disliked very much. Finally, the Convent adopted a multipage document of 12 chapters. It was stated that upon sustained examination, the Convent adopted a resolution, by which the Order of Knights Templars was derived from the Order of Free Masons. The masons refused from the politically dangerous name. However, it was mentioned that communications with the Templars was not broken, their heritage to be honored through the ranks of the “Benevolent Knights” (within the “Revised Scottish Charter” created by Jean Baptist Willermoz). The instructions for symbolic degrees according to the sample of those adopted at the Lion Convent were approved. It was proposed to adopt the Scottish degree as an intermediate one between symbolic and knight degrees. For Russia, the Congress of Wilhelmsbad became the most important event, which was to change the Russian masons life for the following decades. In Russia, an independent Grand Provincial Lodge was open. From then on, the Russian masons, who were under jurisdiction of that Lodge, were not subordinate to foreign center any more, nor they transferred money to them. The Russian masons entered the new Ninth Province of the Order to receive the new masonic system “Revised Scottish Charter”. For the first time ever, the Russian masonry became independent from foreign centers. Repressions taken by the government authorities hindered further development of the Russian masonry.