The Grand Lodges and Modern Freemasonry 265spreading those maxims that will gradually render incredulity ridicu-
lous, vice odious, and ignorance shameful. I am convinced that if one
placed at the head of these assemblies wise men chosen by Your
Eminence, they could prove quite useful to the religion, the State, and
to letters." It seemed Ramsay had not forgotten his conversations with
Fenelon in Cambrai. He concluded his letter by recounting these dis-
cussions with words borrowed from his interlocutor: "One cannot be
sensibly a Deist without being a Christian, and one cannot be philo-
sophically a Christian without becoming a Catholic."^20
This was both a well-intentioned and laudable beginning. Still, it
was necessary for Freemasonry to act as the centralizing factor of Deist
sentiments and the catalyst of their transcendental unity around aspira-
tions for betterment. Eventually, a surprising development occurred
within this presumptuous objective: Excess acted as compensation for
doubt. Under the pretext of reforging its bonds with the order's origins,
this spiritualist Catholic Freemasonry fabricated during the eighteenth
century and beyond a veritable swarm of degrees and rites. Every his-
torical or legendary delusion of mysticism found a home therein. This
movement was followed next by Protestant and Catholic Germany and
ultimately supplied a source of inspiration for Romanticism. This was
in turn relayed to the Americas in the form of the dreams of chivalry
held by Caribbean colons.^21 The Light became the selva oscura of
Dante. Everyone was to seek a clear view of this in order to discover the
origin and goals of the Masonic order—that is, its tradition.
The more pragmatic English, who were closer to the sources of
Freemasonry, knew full well that this tradition was to be found among
the builders of an earlier era. Brother Preston asserted this fact in 1722
in his book Illustrations of Masonry. But no one took it any further. The
quarrels between the Moderns and the Antients were based on a heav-
ily obscured tradition. The authentic ritual passed down by a necessar-
ily oral tradition had become lost over time and the way it was received,
even by self-declared Christians, had ceased to be comprehended and
perceived, thus it could no longer be fully preserved in its form or in
thought.
The more serious Masons on the Continent, however, did not fail
to demonstrate curiosity about the origins of the order and its tradition.