The Origins of the Rectified Scottish Rite: from Strict Templar Observance to the Lyon Reform

The Rectified Scottish Rite holds a singular place in the history of Freemasonry. Born in the eighteenth century, it unites the spirit of the Enlightenment with the impulse of a Christian mysticism, at the very moment when most obediences were moving toward an affirmed rationalism. This fertile tension between reason and faith — between symbolic construction and inner quest — makes the Rectified Scottish Rite a rare bridge between two visions of the Masonic world: that of spiritual reform and that of moral reform.

Unlike the French Rite, which arose from a desire for simplification, or the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, marked by the expansion of High Degrees, the Rectified Scottish Rite claims a unity of both doctrine and initiation. It is rooted in the intertwined influences of the Freemasonry of the Moderns, of Scottish Masonry, of Martinezism, and of the Templar legend — four sources that Jean-Baptiste Willermoz knew how to harmonise within a work that was both mystical and structured: the Rectified Scottish Regime.

Born of a long process of reform, this Rite was not an isolated invention, but the result of a progressive rectification — that of a Masonry seeking to recover its inner dimension, under the light of the Reform of Lyon (1778) and the Convent of Wilhelmsbad (1782). More than a system of degrees, it remains a spiritual path — a chivalry of the soul, where the building of the Temple becomes an art of reintegration.

What Is the Rectified Scottish Rite, and Why Does It Still Fascinate Today?

The Rectified Scottish Rite is one of the rare Masonic systems that has managed, through the centuries, to preserve such a clear spiritual coherence. Its originality lies in the way it unites the operative symbolism of traditional Freemasonry with the moral discipline of an interior Christianity. Where other Rites chose the paths of reason, philosophy, or deism, the Rectified Scottish Rite remained faithful to the notion of Reintegration — the return of man to his divine source, a central theme in the doctrine of Martinès de Pasqually.

This orientation explains why it often unsettles Freemasons from other traditions. Far from any religious dogma, it does not offer a catechism but a method of spiritual work — a discipline of the soul. Faith is not imposed but internalised: it is lived through silence, meditation, humility, and service. The Rectified Scottish Rite never separates initiation from ethics: every symbol, every word, every gesture is directed toward inner transformation.

In the eighteenth century — a time marked by the coexistence of rationalist and illuminist currents — the Rite represented a unique attempt at reconciliation. Between the spirit of the Enlightenment and the Christian tradition, it traced a middle path: neither superstitious nor sceptical, but profoundly symbolic. That is what still makes it, even today, a model of initiatory coherence — a Freemasonry both intellectual and mystical, faithful to the ideal of the Knight Beneficent, servant of the Holy City and artisan of peace.

What Are the Sources of the Rectified Scottish Rite?

The Rectified Scottish Rite was not born of an isolated creation. It is rooted in several spiritual and Masonic traditions that, in the eighteenth century, nourished the search for a more interior and better-ordered Masonry. Each of these currents helped shape an original synthesis, in which symbolic rigour was joined with a profound moral demand.

The Freemasonry of the Moderns: the Common Matrix of All Rites

At the beginning stands the Freemasonry that came from the Grand Lodge of London, founded in 1717. Spread throughout Europe from the 1720s onward, it offered the tripartite structure of the Craft degrees: Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason.

The Rectified Scottish Rite directly inherits this structure but gives it a distinctive tone, characteristic of the French genius: spiritual sobriety, a restrained form, and a measured sense of symbolism — almost classical in nature. Where the English rituals remained more operative, closer to the usages of the craft, the French tradition of the eighteenth century favoured a more interior, less demonstrative expression. Within this framework, the Rectified Scottish Regime preserved, in its Blue Lodges, the reflection of a simple, purified, yet deeply inhabited Masonry.

How Did Scottish Masonry Shape the First Higher Degrees?

During the 1740s and 1750s, Freemasonry saw the emergence of a multitude of Higher Degrees, gathered under the term Scottish Masonry. This movement developed mainly in France, Germany, and Sweden, driven by Freemasons fascinated by sacred history, chivalry, and the theme of fidelity.

A decisive part of this evolution came from the Jacobites, supporters of the Stuart dynasty, deposed from the English throne in 1688 during the “Glorious Revolution.” Faithful to King James II Stuart, a Catholic, and to his descendants, many of them found refuge in France, particularly at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where an exiled court was formed. These Scottish nobles and officers, sometimes initiated into French lodges, introduced into Masonry a symbolism of loyalty — to the lost kingship and to the destroyed spiritual Temple. They transformed political allegories into initiatory symbols: the restoration of the throne became an image of the reintegration of man.

Why Did the Templar Legend Take Root in Freemasonry?

Around 1750, the Templar legend appeared — the idea that Freemasons had sheltered and protected the Templars persecuted by Philip IV of France, thus ensuring the continuity of their Order.

This legend did not necessarily claim to establish a historical lineage, but rather a spiritual bond. It expressed the dream of a regenerated chivalry, in which the construction of the material Temple became the symbol of the inner reconstruction of man. The Rectified Scottish Rite would draw deeply from this inspiration, making the Temple the mirror of the soul and the knight the image of the transfigured Mason.

Martinès de Pasqually and the Birth of a Christian Esotericism

In the 1760s, another current would leave a lasting influence on continental Freemasonry: that of Martinès de Pasqually (1727–1774). Probably of Portuguese or Spanish Jewish origin, descended from a family of Marranos converted to Catholicism, Martinès was both a theurgist and a mystic. He founded the Order of Knight-Masons Elect Cohens of the Universe, whose doctrine rested on the idea of Reintegration — the return of fallen beings to their original state through knowledge, prayer, and the invocation of angelic powers. 

Joachim Martinès de Pasqually (1727-1774), theurgist and founder of the Order of Knight-Mason Elect Cohens of the Universe

His teaching, profoundly Christic, influenced two of his major disciples: Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, the “Unknown Philosopher,” and Jean-Baptiste Willermoz. Through them, Martinezism entered Freemasonry, offering it a theological language and a spiritual purpose. The Rectified Scottish Rite would integrate this inspiration in a disciplined form, purified of all magic yet nourished by the same aspiration: the reconciliation of man with God.

The Strict Templar Observance: How Did It All Begin?

It is impossible to understand the birth of the Rectified Scottish Rite without mentioning the Strict Templar Observance, from which it originated. This Masonic system, born in Germany in the mid-eighteenth century, sought to give historical grounding to the Templar legend by claiming to restore the Order of the Temple in a Masonic form. Its founder, Karl Gotthelf von Hund (1722–1776), known as Baron von Hund, would build an organisation of unprecedented scope, blending mystical fervour, chivalric nobility, and political ambition.

Baron von Hund: Between Legend and the Project of Restoration

Coming from the small landed nobility of Germany — the Junkers — Hund was initiated into Freemasonry at the age of nineteen in Frankfurt an der Oder. Between 1742 and 1743, he stayed in Paris, attending the most prominent lodges and converting to Catholicism.It was there, according to his own account, that he was received into a mysterious Templar Chapter, in the presence of Lord Kilmarnock, a Scottish peer loyal to the Stuarts, and a veiled figure known as the Eques a Penna Rubra — the Knight of the Red Feather — whom Hund later claimed was Charles Edward Stuart himself, the Young Pretender to the throne of England.

If such a reception did occur, it was charged with political symbolism: to restore the Order of the Temple was to restore the Stuart monarchy, deposed in 1688. The alliance between Templar chivalry and Jacobite loyalty offered Hund an ideal framework — one that united political struggle with spiritual quest. He claimed to have received from Unknown Superiors — that is, these exiled princes — a charter authorising him to found a new Order.

The Organisation of a Masonic Templar Order

Back in Germany, Hund established his lodge on his estate at Unwürde, in Saxony, and joined forces with Wilhelm Marschal von Bieberstein, Provincial Grand Master of Upper Saxony. Together they drafted the Red Book, the true charter of the Strict Templar Observance, defining the rules, provinces, and hierarchy of the Order. After Marschal’s death, Hund proclaimed himself Grand Master of the Seventh Templar Province, claiming to act under the secret mandate of his Unknown Superiors.

Through the strength of its legend, the splendour of its ceremonies, and the implicit promise of a Templar restoration, the Order enjoyed swift success among the German aristocracy. Several princes were initiated. The Craft lodges and the lodges of Saint Andrew were attached to Scottish Directories, but the real structure, hidden from view, remained that of the Prefectures of the Order. The chivalric degrees, reserved for nobles or wealthy bourgeois, conferred considerable social prestige.

A European Success Built on Fragile Foundations

The Strict Templar Observance spread rapidly — to Switzerland, Strasbourg, France, Denmark, and even the Austrian Empire. It offered an aristocratic vision of Freemasonry: hierarchical, ordered, and very different from the urban and philosophical lodges stemming from the Grand Orient of France.

For many, this Order represented the meeting of the Templar myth and Christian chivalry — an ideal of honour, fidelity, and embodied faith. But for others, it already marked a subtle shift: from a Freemasonry conceived as a path of moral edification toward a system dominated by prestige, hierarchy, and obedience.

This displacement of balance — where form tended to outweigh substance — would soon weaken the whole edifice. The Strict Templar Observance carried within itself the seeds of its own rectification.

Why Did the Strict Templar Observance Collapse?

The system imagined by Baron von Hund had captivated the European aristocracy with its splendour and its promise of a Templar restoration. But behind the magnificence of its ceremonies, the Strict Templar Observance rested on fragile foundations. Its authority relied on an unverifiable narrative and on a hierarchy so narrow that it gradually stifled Masonic inner life.

As enthusiasm waned, questions multiplied: who were the Unknown Superiors? What legitimacy did Hund truly possess to lead an Order that claimed to descend from the ancient Templars?

The Convent of Kohlo (1772): The First Cracks in the System

The first major challenge came during the Convent of Kohlo, held in 1772. Delegates from several provinces asked Hund to present the famous charter he claimed to have received from the Unknown Superiors. The document, written in cipher, proved unreadable, and Hund refused to provide any explanation. His evasive answers deepened the mistrust.

Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1721-1792), Grand Superior General of the Strict Observance of the Temple and architect of the Convent of Wilhelmsbad

Nevertheless, the Convent did not dare openly disavow its founder: it maintained the structure while transferring effective power to Ferdinand of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1721–1782) — an enlightened prince, a humanist, and a respected Freemason. Hund was relegated to the role of Grand Master of the Seventh Province, under the supervision of the new Grand Superior General.

This compromise already marked a turning point: the Order was depriving itself of its founding myth without finding a spiritual substitute.

The Convent of Brunswick (1775): The Fall of the Templar Myth

Three years later, the Convent of Brunswick confirmed the disintegration of the system. The dignitaries once again demanded that Hund produce a readable charter and clearly name the Unknown Superiors. Cornered, Hund finally admitted that no one could verify his claims.

After his death in 1776, Ferdinand of Brunswick ordered a thorough inquiry. It revealed that Charles Edward Stuart, who was said to have delivered the charter, had never been a Freemason and was not even in Paris at the dates claimed.

The veil was lifted: the Strict Templar Observance, built upon a captivating legend, was revealed to be without foundation.

A Rectification Becomes Necessary

Doubt spread throughout the system. The Economic Plan developed by Hund, meant to ensure fixed incomes for the dignitaries, provoked further criticism: the Order was reproached for its taste for pomp and its excessive financial demands.

The lower lodges, excluded from decision-making, gradually turned away from a structure that had become sterile. Yet some Brothers sensed that, beyond the fallen legend, a deeper substance might still be saved. It was in this context that, in France, the movement of reform led by Jean-Baptiste Willermoz arose. He perceived in the failure of the Strict Templar Observance not a defeat, but an opportunity for rectification — to restore to Templar Masonry its true spiritual vocation.

The Convent of Wilhelmsbad (1782): A Decisive Turning Point

Under the impulse of Ferdinand of Brunswick-Lüneburg, a circular sent to the Chapters as early as 1780 raised a series of crucial questions: Did the Order truly have Unknown Superiors? Did it descend from the Templars, and could that Order be restored? Were the rituals adequate? Should the aims of the Order be public or secret? Did the Order possess a knowledge that no other body held?

The conclusion was clear: the Strict Templar Observance, weakened by recent revelations, had been emptied of its spiritual substance; several adventurers and occult charlatans — Johnson, Rosa, Gugomos — had even tried to exploit it. A rectification had become necessary.

The French Response to the Crisis of the Strict Templar Observance

The French delegates arrived at Wilhelmsbad with a fully accomplished reform: the Reform of Lyon, adopted at the Convent of the Gauls (1778). They proposed an organic re-organisation of the entire system:

• a Craft Masonry structured in four degrees (Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, Master Mason, and Scottish Master of Saint Andrew);
• an Inner Order of chivalry, composed of the Squire Novice and the Knight Beneficent of the Holy City;
• a secret class of Professed and Grand Professed, where the mystical teaching inherited from Martinès de Pasqually was transmitted;
• a Masonic Code and a Rule in Nine Points, setting forth the discipline, moral conduct, and spiritual purpose of the Regime.

At Wilhelmsbad (1782), the essence of this reform was ratified: the assembly explicitly abandoned the literal Templar lineage and refocused the Order on an inner chivalry of the spirit. The only notable exception was that the secret classes of Professed and Grand Professed were not adopted throughout the system, their mystical content seeming too remote from the Johannism prevalent in the North.

After Ferdinand’s death in 1792, the old structure disintegrated. The Rectified Scottish Regime survived and spread mainly in France and Switzerland, in the reformed version born of Lyon and confirmed at Wilhelmsbad.

Jean-Baptiste Willermoz and the Reform of Lyon

At the heart of the creation of the Rectified Scottish Rite stands one dominant figure: Jean-Baptiste Willermoz (1730-1824). A Lyonnais bourgeois and silk merchant, he was also one of the most passionate and erudite Freemasons of his century. His temperament — both methodical and mystical — made him the architect of a remarkably coherent initiatory system.

Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, Seeker of the Masonic Secret

Willermoz entered Freemasonry at nineteen and soon displayed exceptional fervour. In 1760, he took part in the founding of the Grand Lodge of the Regular Masters of Lyon, a provincial structure attached to the Grand Lodge of France, which in 1773 became the Grand Orient de France after a national reorganisation.

Jean-Baptiste Willermoz (1730-1824), founder of the Rectified Scottish Rite and author of the Lyon Reform

From the very beginning, Willermoz sought to grasp the deeper meaning of initiation. Convinced that a “true secret” must lie behind the ritual forms, he undertook to collect the oldest rituals, comparing and annotating them with remarkable rigour. His approach — at once intellectual and devotional — made him both a historian and a mystic of Freemasonry.

Martinès de Pasqually and the Influence of the Elect Cohens on the Rectified Scottish Rite

In 1767, Willermoz was received into the Order of Knight-Masons Elect Cohens of the Universe, founded by Martinès de Pasqually, probably descended from a Portuguese or Spanish Marrano family. This singular master taught the Reintegration of beings: every fallen creature must, through virtue and prayer, regain its original state in the presence of the Divine.

The encounter profoundly transformed Willermoz. It changed his vision of Masonry, which he henceforth perceived as a path of spiritual regeneration. After Martinès’s death in 1774, he became the discreet guardian of his teaching, seeking to transmit it within a viable Masonic framework.

Integrating the German System of the Strict Templar Observance

In the early 1770s, Strasbourg brethren affiliated with the Strict Templar Observance praised to Willermoz the grandeur of this German Templar system. Intrigued by its hierarchical organisation, he requested the affiliation of his Lyon lodges.

In 1773, Baron Weiler, delegate of the Fifth Province (Burgundy), based in Strasbourg, came to Lyon to install the Second Province of the Order, called Auvergne. Willermoz and some twenty brethren were received Knights, then Professed Knights. He nevertheless obtained two essential guarantees:

– the Craft Lodges would remain under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient de France;

– his workshops would preserve the French degrees of Knight of the East and Knight Rose-Croix.

From that time, he perceived the gap between the brilliant outward form of the system and its doctrinal emptiness. The rituals seemed superficial, the chivalric ceremonies devoid of true spiritual depth.

The Convent of the Gauls (1778) and the Reform of Lyon

Aware of the need for a thorough refoundation, Willermoz soon undertook to rewrite the rituals of the Strict Templar Observance, instilling into them an inner meaning inspired by Martinès de Pasqually.This work produced a synthesis: Templar discipline now served as a framework for a Christian spiritual chivalry.

In 1778, the Convent of the Gauls brought together in Lyon the three French provinces of the Order. The delegates adopted the reform proposed by Willermoz — to refocus the Order on virtue, reintegration, and beneficence. The Templar references were symbolically preserved but stripped of all historical pretension.

The system officially took the name Rectified Scottish Regime, designating by that title a Masonry “rectified,” or restored to its moral and spiritual purpose.

Conclusion – The Spiritual and Doctrinal Legacy of the Rectified Scottish Regime

By bringing Templar Masonry back to its Christian and moral dimension, Willermoz transformed a legend into a doctrine. His reform destroyed nothing — it rectified. This word, essential to the system, signifies both moral restoration and initiatory purification.

The Reform of Lyon enabled the Rectified Scottish Rite to become a path of reintegration, uniting Masonic symbolism, chivalry, and Christian theosophy. As Willermoz wrote to his correspondents, “The Temple is not to be rebuilt of stones, but of just men.”

By Ion Rajolescu, Editor-in-Chief of Nos Colonnes — serving a Masonic voice that is just, rigorous, and alive.

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Read the full transcript of the episode here for those who prefer reading or want more detail.

Podcast — The Origins of the Rectified Scottish Rite: from the Strict Templar Observance to the Reform of Lyon

The Rectified Scottish Rite holds a unique place in the history of Freemasonry.

Born in the eighteenth century, it combines the spirit of the Enlightenment with the impulse of a Christian mysticism, at a time when most obediences were turning toward an affirmed rationalism.

This fertile tension between reason and faith, between symbolic construction and inner quest, makes the Rectified Scottish Rite a rare bridge between two Masonic visions: one of spiritual reform, and one of moral reform.

Unlike the French Rite, born from a desire for simplification, or the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, marked by the expansion of the Higher Degrees, the Rectified Scottish Rite claims a unity both doctrinal and initiatory.

It is rooted in the intertwined influences of the Freemasonry of the Moderns, of Scottish Masonry, of Martinezism, and of the Templar legend — four sources that Jean-Baptiste Willermoz harmonised within a work both mystical and structured: the Rectified Scottish Regime.

Born of a long process of reform, this Rite was not an isolated creation, but the fruit of a progressive rectification — that of a Masonry seeking to recover its inner dimension, under the light of the Reform of Lyon, in seventeen seventy-eight, and the Convent of Wilhelmsbad, in seventeen eighty-two.

More than a system of degrees, it remains a spiritual path — a chivalry of the soul, where the building of the Temple becomes a work of reintegration.

The Rectified Scottish Rite is one of the few Masonic systems that have maintained such spiritual coherence through the centuries.

Its originality lies in the way it unites the operative symbolism of traditional Freemasonry with the moral discipline of interior Christianity.

Where other Rites chose the paths of reason or deism, the Rectified Scottish Rite remained faithful to the doctrine of Reintegration — the return of man to his divine source, central to the teaching of Martinès de Pasqually.

This orientation explains why it often unsettles Freemasons from other Rites.

Far from religious dogma, it does not offer a catechism, but a method of spiritual work — a discipline of the soul.

Faith is not imposed but internalised; it is lived through silence, meditation, humility, and service.

The Rite never separates initiation from ethics: each symbol, each word, each gesture aims at inner transformation.

In the century of the Enlightenment, divided between reason and mysticism, the Rite sought reconciliation: neither superstitious nor sceptical, but profoundly symbolic.

That is what makes it, even today, a model of coherence — a Freemasonry both intellectual and spiritual, faithful to the ideal of the Knight Beneficent, servant of the Holy City and craftsman of peace.

The Rectified Scottish Rite was not born of a single man.

It grew from several traditions: the Freemasonry of the Moderns, Scottish Masonry, Martinezism, and the Templar legend.

From the Grand Lodge of London, founded in seventeen seventeen, it inherited the tripartite structure of the symbolic degrees: Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason.

But it gave that structure a French tone — one of spiritual sobriety and measured elegance.

Where the English rituals remained more operative, close to the craft, the French tradition preferred an interior voice — a simplicity that breathes.

Then came Scottish Masonry, born in the seventeen-forties, when numerous so-called “Higher Degrees” appeared.

The Jacobites played a major role.

Faithful to King James the Second Stuart, deposed in sixteen eighty-eight and exiled in France, they introduced into Freemasonry a symbolism of loyalty and restoration: the lost throne became the image of man’s reintegration.

Around seventeen fifty, the Templar legend took shape — the idea that Freemasons had sheltered and protected the Templars persecuted by Philip the Fourth of France.

This legend, more spiritual than historical, expressed the dream of a regenerated chivalry, where the construction of the material Temple became the symbol of the reconstruction of the soul.

Finally, in the seventeen-sixties, Martinès de Pasqually founded the Order of Knight-Masons Elect Cohens of the Universe.

Probably descended from a Portuguese or Spanish Marrano family, he taught the Reintegration of beings — the return of fallen souls to their original state through prayer and knowledge.

His doctrine, transmitted to Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin and to Willermoz, gave the Rectified Scottish Rite its theological depth and its interior purpose.

One cannot understand the birth of the Rite without mentioning the Strict Templar Observance, founded in Germany in the middle of the eighteenth century.

Baron von Hund, Karl Gotthelf von Hund, claimed to restore the Order of the Temple in a Masonic form.

Initiated in Frankfurt at nineteen, converted to Catholicism in Paris, he declared he had been received into a mysterious Templar Chapter, in the presence of Lord Kilmarnock and a Knight of the Red Feather, whom he said was Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender.

Whether real or not, that reception symbolically bound the Templar cause to that of the Stuarts: to restore the Temple was to restore the lost monarchy.

Hund claimed to have received from them a charter authorising him to found a new Order.

Back in Germany, he established his lodge at Unwürde, wrote with Marschal von Bieberstein the Red Book, and proclaimed himself Grand Master of the Seventh Templar Province.

The Strict Templar Observance quickly attracted German princes, fascinated by its pomp and its promises.

But behind the splendour hid a spiritual void: obedience had replaced quest.

At the Convent of Kohlo, in seventeen seventy-two, the doubts became public.

Hund was asked to produce his charter: the text was unreadable, his explanations confused.

Ferdinand of Brunswick took the head of the Order; Hund was set aside.

The myth began to crack.

Three years later, at the Convent of Brunswick, the deception was confirmed.

Charles Edward Stuart, supposed to have signed the charter, had never been a Freemason and was not even in Paris at the time.

The edifice collapsed: the Strict Templar Observance no longer had any foundation.

Yet from that failure a new light was to be born.

Some, including Willermoz, sensed that a spiritual essence could be saved: the time for rectification had come.

Under the guidance of Ferdinand of Brunswick, the Convent of Wilhelmsbad, in seventeen eighty-two, sought to rebuild the system.

The French arrived with the Reform of Lyon already achieved.

It proposed a symbolic Masonry of four degrees, an inner chivalric Order — Squire Novice and Knight Beneficent of the Holy City — a secret class of Professed and Grand Professed, a Code and a Rule in Nine Points.

The assembly adopted the essentials, abandoned the literal Templar lineage, and refocused the Order on a chivalry of the spirit.

After Ferdinand’s death, in seventeen ninety-two, the German structure dissolved.

But the Rectified Scottish Regime endured — in France, and then in Switzerland.

At the centre of this reform stands Jean-Baptiste Willermoz.

Born in seventeen thirty, a silk merchant from Lyon, he entered Freemasonry at nineteen and never left it.

A seeker of hidden meaning, he founded in seventeen sixty the Grand Lodge of the Regular Masters of Lyon, attached to the Grand Lodge of France, which thirteen years later became the Grand Orient de France.

Methodical and mystical, he collected rituals, compared and annotated them, convinced that a true secret lay within.

In seventeen sixty-seven, he was received into the Order of Knight-Masons Elect Cohens of the Universe.

His meeting with Martinès de Pasqually transformed his outlook: Freemasonry became, for him, a path of spiritual regeneration.

After the master’s death, he preserved his teaching, seeking to transmit it within a stable Masonic framework.

Attracted by the German Strict Templar Observance, he affiliated his Lyon lodges in seventeen seventy-three.

The Baron Weiler, delegate of the Fifth Province, based in Strasbourg, installed in Lyon the Second Province, called Auvergne.

Willermoz obtained two guarantees: that his Blue Lodges would remain under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient de France, and that they would retain the French degrees of Knight of the East and Knight Rose-Croix.

Very soon, he perceived the doctrinal emptiness of the German system.

In seventeen seventy-eight, he gathered in Lyon the three French provinces during the Convent of the Gauls.

The delegates adopted his reform: to refocus Masonry on virtue, reintegration, and beneficence.

The Templar references were preserved, but only symbolically.

Thus was born the Rectified Scottish Regime — a Masonry corrected, restored to its moral and spiritual aim.

Willermoz destroyed nothing: he rectified.

This word, essential to the Rite, expresses both initiatory purification and inner renewal.

The Reform of Lyon turned the Rite into a path of reintegration, uniting Masonic symbolism, chivalry, and Christian theosophy.

As Willermoz wrote to his correspondents, “The Temple is not to be rebuilt of stones, but of just men.”