The word hermit comes from the Greek god Hermes and we can go back in history to the first monastic schools that existed around Alexandria in Egypt at the beginning of Christianity. We have various sects such as the Gnostics, the Essenes, the Therapeutae and the ascetic hermits who lived out in the desert and who are associated with those who built the first monasteries that belonged to the beginning of Christianity. In these circles around the Alexandrian school we also see a mixture of Christianity with Plato’s teachings but also with Gnosticism. We can also see the beginnings of mysticism with its allegorical interpretation of the Bible.

One of the first orders in the monastic religious orders was the Order of Saint Benedict which was created under Saint Benedict of Nursia (480-547) in the year 529 and he wrote his Benedictine Rules which later spread in the western monasteries up into Europe.

Æthelberht of Kent (550-616) was a pagan king in Kent in England and he was one of those who laid the first stones as the foundation of Christianity in England. Æthelberht married Bertha (c.565-601) who was the granddaughter of the reigning King Chlothar I who was king of the Franks of the Merovingian dynasty. It was through Bertha’s influences that the Anglo-Saxon kingdom became Christian. With her she also had Liudhard who was a Frankish bishop. Pope Gregory the Great also sent a monk who became Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597. He was called Augustine of Canterbury.

Æthelberht converted to Christianity and donated land for the construction of a monastery outside Canterbury. The monastery was probably founded in the year 598. The monastery then introduced rules that came from St. Benedict of Nursia (480-547). One of those who later introduced reforms under Benedictine Rule was St Dunstan (910-988) who was Abbot of Glastonbury and who later became Archbishop of Canterbury. The monastery was later named St Augustine’s Abbey.

Æthelstan (894-939) was a King of the Anglo-Saxons between 924 and 927 and King of the English from 927 until his death in 939. Æthelstan was also one of those who introduced the Benedictine monastic reforms during his time as king.

Suspicion existed that these monasteries acted as fronts for the occult. Through these monasteries also came occult teachings such as mysticism, gnosticism, hermeticism, astrology and magic. Hermes Trismegistus which was the Greek Neo-Platonic name for the Egyptian god Thoth was the founder of alchemy and geometry and the prototype of the “hermit”.

“The Merovingian Franks (450-741) built monasteries as a means of infiltration…for Merovingian monasteries later became Benedictine/Cistercians… Pope Gregory the Great… promoted Benedictine monasticism. His feast day is the day he became pope, September 3 [590 AD]. This was accomplished by the infiltration of the Church, for Gregory was part of that infiltration. Sept. 3 became a day of victory for the Red Movement when he was installed as their pope, for Gregory marks the history of the papacy in that he was the very first ‘MONK’ to become a pope.” (text from Merovingian Infiltration of the Church Through Monasticism)

During the 13th-14th century at the Benedictine Abbey of St Augstine in Canterbury we find magical texts among the bookshelves of the monks who had one of the largest collections of books in England. These books were moved to places such as Oxford but also across the sea. Some of these monks had studied down in France, probably at the College of Sorbonne, a theological college of the University of Paris before being entered at St Augstine and they brought books with them from France to England.

Books that we can find at St Augustine’s included Plato’s Timeaus, Ars Notoria (solomonic magic), De imaginibus, Liber Razielis (Kabbalah text), books about Platonic Cosmology, the hermetic Liber Imaginum Lunae, Liber Vaccae, Secreta Philosophorum and Liber de Essential Spirituum and many more.

Many of these magical texts later ended up in the hands of the Rosicrucian John Dee (1527-1609) and he was especially interested in the texts Ars Notoria and Liber Razelius which came from Solomon and the Kabbalah. Between 22 to 27 manuscripts of magical texts from St Augustine ended up in Dee’s library and we can see that these were a source for his own views on magic.

Liber de essentia spirituum was a revelatory text about God and the spiritual hierarchy with an emphasis on Neoplatonic cosmology and Arabic image magic tradition where the author was in communication with spirits. Through communication with these spiritual hierarchies, one could be assigned a spirit at one’s side who could assist one with various magical skills and purposes.

“Dee began to envisage himself as a new Adam recieving the perfect wisdom possessed only by angels and prelapsarian man. Over a period of months in 1584, the angel Nalvage dictated to him “angelic keys” that he was told would enable him to understand all of creation and communicate with all creatures. The angelic keys were said to contain within them the whole of human knowledge and to possess great power…” (p139, Magic in the Cloister, Sophie Page)

“De Heptarchia Mystica, or On the Mystical Rule of the Seven Planets, is a book written in 1582-83 by English alchemist John Dee. It is a guidebook for summoning angels under the guidance of the angel Uriel and contains diagrams and formulae.” (wikipedia)

“Enochian magic is a system of ceremonial magic based on the 16th-century writings of John Dee and Edward Kelley, who wrote that their information, including the revealed Enochian language, was delivered to them directly by various angels.” (wikipedia)

After this time under John Dee we later see how these magical and alchemical ideas spread further through societies such as the Royal Society and also into Freemasonry and later in time these magical systems developed into an Enochian ceremonial magic under Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (1854-1918), William Wynn Westcott (1848-1925) and William Robert Woodman (1828-1891) who were founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the 1880s.

The Regius Poem which is supposed to be one of the first known and oldest Masonic texts shows how Freemasonry was brought to England under King Athelstan from 924 to 939. Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076 which is a Masonic lodge of research took its name from the Regius Poem and takes its name from the Four Crowned Martyrs mentioned in the document. According to the history books, the Four Crowned Martyrs or Four Holy Crowned Ones were some of the nine martyrs of early Christianity. The Freemasons adopted them as patron saints of “Operative Masonry”.

“Told at its simplest, the story refers to four stone masons who were asked to carve the image of Æsculapius for Emperor Diocletian but refused because as Christian converts they were forbidden to produce an image of a pagan god. Diocletian consequently ordered their execution.”(quatuorcoronati.com)

The Research Lodge Quatuor Coronati was founded in 1884 and inaugurated in 1886. The founders were Sir Charles Warren (1840-1927), William Henry Rylands (1847-1922), Robert Freke Gould (1836-1915), Adolphus F. A. Woodford (1821-1887), Sir Walter Besant (1836-1901), John Paul Rylands (1846-1923), Sisson Cooper Pratt (1844-1919), William James Hughan (1841-1911) and George William Speth (1847-1901).

Freemason Charles Warren (1840-1927) was a member of the Palestine Exploration Fund which excavated Jerusalem with Captain Wilson and a team of Royal Engineers and he was one of the founders of the Quatuor Coronati which was based at Freemasons Hall in London. In 1884 he also became a member as a Fellow of the Royal Society. Warren became the first Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati in 1886.

William Henry Rylands (1847-1922) was initiated in 1872 in Faith and Unanimity Lodge, No. 417 in Dorchester and joined the Lodge of Antiquity, No. 2, London in 1881 and was elevated to the Chapter of St. James, No. 2, in London in 1882 and became Grand Steward in 1887. Rylands became Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati in 1891.

Robert Freke Gould (1836-1915) became a Freemason in 1855 in Royal Navy Lodge, No. 429. He then held membership in several lodges such as Friendship Lodge, No. 345 and later became Senior Grand Deacon of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1880. Robert Freke became Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati in 1887.

The Revd Adolphus Frederick Alexander Woodford (1821-1887) was a Church of England priest who was also a Freemason and was a member of, among others, the Lodge of Friendship, No. 278 and was a Grand Chaplain of United Grand Lodge.

Walter Besant (1836-1901) was Secretary to the Palestine Exploration Fund between the years 1868-1885 and a Freemason within the Lodge of Harmony, No. 1143 (later, No. 841 and erased 1868). He became Master of the Marquis of Dalhousie Lodge in London in 1873, of which he became a member in 1869. Walter’s brother William Henry Besant (1828-1917) was a mathematician and a Fellow of the Royal Society. His other brother Frank was married to the theosophist Annie Besant.

John Paul Rylands (1846-1923) became a member of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1873 and became vice-president and belonged to The Honorable Society of the Middle Temple (Inns of Court). He became a Freemason in 1872 in Lodge of Faith and Unanimity No. 417 belonged to Marquis of Lorne Lodge, 1354, Lodge of Lights, No. 148 and Elias Ashmole Chapter, No. 148 in the year 1880.

Sisson Cooper Pratt (1844-1919) was initiated in the year 1876 in Bayard Lodge, No. 1615, London and joined Kiser-i-Hind and Moira Lodges. Pratt became Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati in 1889.

William James Hughan (1841-1911) had membership in many different lodges such as Grand Lodge of Quebec, Grand Lodge of Egypt, Grand Representative of the Grand Chapter of Pennsylvania, “Kilwinning Chapter” Ayr, No. 80, Phrenix Lodge, Truro, No. 331, in 1864, and Fortitude Lodge, Truro, No. 131, in 1866 and many more. William was a member of Societas Rosicruciana in Scotia.

George William Speth (1847-1901) was initiated in the year 1872 in the Lodge of Unity, No. 183 in London and became WM in 1876.

William Wynn Westcott (1848-1925) was Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge in 1893. He became a Freemason in 1871 and joined a number of different Lodges in the early years and during this time he also came into contact with various occult networks with people such as Benjamin Cox (1828-1895), Francis George Irwin (1828-1893), Frederick Hockley (1809-1885), Kenneth Mackenzie (1833-86), Rev William Alexander Ayton (1816-1909) and John Yarker (1833- 1913).

Westcott joined the Swedenborgian Rite in 1876 in Emanuel Lodge 1 and in 1880 was initiated into the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia of the Metropolitan College and later became a Supreme Magus of that order. He was one of the founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn along with Samuel MacGregor Mathers (1854-1918). He was also a member of the Theosophical Society in the Blavatsky Lodge and also founded the Adelphi Lodge in London.

Edward MacBean (1845-1919) was Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge in 1895. He was a member of several Masonic lodges such as St. John’s Lodge, No. 3, The Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary’s Chapel) No. 1, Glasgow Royal Arch Chapter No. 50 and Grand Steward in the Grand Lodge of Scotland. He joined the Isis-Urania Temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and was also a member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (Scotland and England). MacBean also practiced the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis Misraim founded in England by John Yarker.

Sydney Turner Klein (1853-1934) was Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge in 1897. He was a Freemason and also held membership in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the Isis-Urania Temple in London. He also became a member of the Linnean Society in 1887 and several scientific institutions such as the Entomological Society, the Royal Microscopic Society, the Royal Institution and the Royal Astronomical Society.

The Linnean Society was founded by botanist Sir James Edward Smith (1759-1828). He was a student of John Walker (1731-1803) who was one of the founders of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783. James Edward Smith was a friend of Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet (1743-1820) who was president of the Royal Society of London for more than 41 years. Among other members of the Linnean Society and the Royal Society we find Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895). Among Charles Darwin’s best friends we find Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911) who also became a president of the Royal Society of London.

Thomas Bowman Whytehead (1840-1907) was Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge in 1899. Thomas was also a member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and was Chief Adept of York College.

Frederick Joseph William Crowe (1864-1931) was Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge in 1909 and for a short time was also a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn with his initiation in 1893. He is said to have also known William Wynn Westcott and William Eliot Thomas (1866-1929) who were both members of the Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn through theirFreemasonry. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1906 and a member of the Royal Astronomical Society. His membership in Freemasonry was in the year 1887 in Ashburton Lodge number 2189 and also Royal Arch Masonry Pleiades Chapter number 710, Jordan Lodge 1402 and St John’s number 328.

Edward Armitage (1859-1929) became Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge in 1913. He married in 1892 Catherine Amy Passingham who was initiated into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn at the Isis-Urania temple in London in 1889. Edward Armitage was in in his youth a member of Isaac Newton University Lodge number 859 and so was George Frederick Rogers who was also a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden and also of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia Metropolitan College and the Theosophical Lodge in Cambridge. Edward’s wife Catherine Amy Passingham was also a Theosophist and president in 1888-89 of the Cambridge Lodge and she also shared membership with George Frederick Rogers in the Society for Psychical Research. Cathrine also attended meetings of the London Spiritualist Alliance.

Ernest William Malpas Wonnacott (1868-1926) shows membership of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. In 1915 he was a Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge and is said to have also been Grand Librarian of the United Grand Lodge of England.

The following year Frederick William Levander (1839-1916) was a Grand Master (1916) and he also shows membership of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. He was involved in Masonic lodges such as Wiltshire Lodge of Fidelity, No. 663 and Campbell Lodge in 1415 and he had an interest in astronomy, archeology and antiquarian. Also his brother Henry Charles Levander (-1885) is said to have been a member of the SRIA London, of the Metropolitan College and the Order of the Red Cross of Constantine. The brothers’ neighbor was a certain Robert Palmer Thomas (1851-1918) who was a member of the Isis Urania Temple of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and the Theosophical Society and also the August Order of Light.

Gordon Pettigrew Graham Hills (1867-1937) was Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge in 1918. He shows membership in the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia in London.

Arthur Lionel Vibert (1872-1938) was born in St. Petersburg in Russia and he shows membership in a large number of Masonic lodges such as Somerset Masters Lodge No, 3746, e Royal Alfred Lodge (No. 877) in Jersey, Lodge Perfect Unanimity (No. 150), Madras, revived Lodge Southern Cross ( No. 2298) at Palamcottah in 1894, becoming its W.M. in 1896 and 1897. Founder of St. Alphege Lodge (No. 4095) and became a member of the Somerset Masters’ Lodge (No. 3746) in 1920, where he served as W.M. in 1930. Lodge of Rectitude, No. 335, Corsham, In 1928, he was appointed as one of the Assistant Grand Directors of Ceremonies of the United Grand Lodge of England.

He joined the Quatuor Coronati Correspondence Circle in 1895 and became a full member in 1917 and for the year 1921 he became a Grand Master. He was also a Knights Templar and in 1919 joined the Robert Fludd College in Bath in the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. Later in 1929 he became a member of London Metropolitan College. He also shows membership in the Red Cross of Constantine, the Royal Order of Scotland, the Order of Eri, and K.T.P. He wrote three books on Freemasonry. Freemasonry before the Existence of Grand Lodges (1913), The Story of the Craft (1921) and The Rare Books of Freemasonry (1927).

John Heron Lepper (1879-1952) became a Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge in 1924. He wrote extensively about secret societies in the book Famous secret societies (1932). John was a VII degree member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia.

Dr John Stokes (1865-1935) became Grand Master of the Coronati in 1925. He was also interested in secret societies and shows membership in the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia at York College.

The English Priest Walter William Covey-Crump (1865 -1949) was Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati in 1926. He was in the Order of the Red Cross of Constantine at Mark Masons’ Hall in London and Assistant Grand Chaplain of England. He wrote about “The Craft and the Kabbalah” in publications of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge.

George Norman (1848-1938) was a Grand Master of Coronati in 1927. He shows membership in the Masonic lodge Royal Cumberland Lodge No. 41, at Bath and also in other orders such as the Order of the Red Cross cf Constantine, the Cryptic Rite, the Royal Order of Scotland and also the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (Junior Substitute Magus, IX).

David Flather (1864-1948) was Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati in 1932 and shows membership in the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (IX J.S.M as Grand Celebrant).

The Rev. Walter Kelly Firminger (1870-1940) was Grand Master of Coronati in 1933. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a missionary of the UMCA in Zanzibar and became a Freemason in Calcutta in Fortitude No. 229, Chapter No. 234, Lodge No. 80 etc. He was a Knight Templar and in the Royal Order of Scotland. He was in The Red Cross of Constantine, the Allied Degrees, the Cryptic Degrees and in the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia.

William John Songhurst (1860-1939) was Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati in 1934 and he was also secretary of the lodge between 1906-1928. William was a Supreme Magus of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia from 1925 until his death in 1939. He also shows membership of the British Numismatic Society.

Douglas Knoop (1883-1948) was Grand Master of Coronati in 1935. This professor of economics at the University of Sheffield was a member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and wrote the book The Genesis of Freemasonry (1947).

Col. Cecil Clare Adams (1891-1963) was Grand Master of Coronati Lodge in 1939. This student of the occult joined Arthur Edward Waite’s Independent and Rectified Rite in 1913 and in the early 1920s became a Freemason and member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia’s Metropolitan College. Cecil was associated with members of the Golden Dawn that lectured on the Kabbalah and the Aquarian Age.

Arthur Edward Waite’s (1857-1942) was a British poet and mystic who joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1891 and later became a Freemason in 1902 and joined the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia the following year.

William Ivor Grantham (1898-1986) became Grand Master of Coronati Lodge in 1942 and was Treasurer of Quatuor Coronati Lodge for several years. He shows membership in the William Wynn Westcott College of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia.

Fred Lomax Pick (1898-1966) was Grand Master at Coronati in 1944. Fred became a member of “The Society of Blue Friars” which is a Masonic organization especially for writers within Freemasonry. It is based in the USA but has several members from England who also belong to the Quatuor Coronati Lodge.

“Of a total of 98 Blue Friars to date only seven English Brethren have previously been proclaimed into the Order. They are Brothers Arthur E. Waite (1857-1942); Fred Lomax Pick (1898–1966); Harry Carr (1900-1879); Bernard E. Jones (1879-1965); Frederick H. Smyth (1919- ); Roy A. Wells (1908–1990); John M. Hamill (1947-) and Cyril N. Batham (1909-1996).” (Friar homepage)

Col Frank Martyn Rickard (1873-1953) was a Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati in 1944 and shows membership of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia as a Supreme Magus.

Fulke Rosavo Radice (1888-1987) was Grand Master at Coronati in 1946. Fulke’s grandfather is described as a secretary to Prince Charles Albert (1798-1849) and a member of the Carbonari (secret revolutionary society) during the 1820s. Fulke was initiated into Freemasonry in 1925 in Old Bedfordian Lodge, No. 4732 and became a Master in 1936. He was in Stuart Chapter No. 540, Public Schools Lodge (Mark Degree), A. & A. Rite (Studholme Chapter). He also became a Knights Templar and a member of the Red Cross of Constantine, the Cryptic Degrees and the Royal Order of Scotland. He also shows to be a ninth degree of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. Fulke also wrote about the Carbonari in An Introduction to the History of the Carbonari and Les Philadelphes et les Adelphes.

Henry Christopher Bruce Wilson (1875-1963) was a Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati in 1949 and held the ninth degree of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. Darcy Kuntz published a book in 2009 entitled The Origins of the Rosicrucian Society in England. It contains older articles written by Bruce Wilson, John Frederick Birrell (1911-1994) and Robert William Felkin (1853-1926) on the history of the society.

Herbert Coulson Booth (1877-1962) was a Grand Master of Coronati in 1950. This author of an article on The Culdees (members of ascetic Christian monastic and eremitical communities) is said to have also been a member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia at Newcastle College.

John Richard Rylands (1898-1983) became Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge in 1952 and he was a Freemason of the highest degree in The Wakefield Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, No. 495, Supreme Council 33° (Rose Croix) and also shows membership in the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia as a Substitute Magus.

Harry Carr (1900-1983) was Grand Master of the Coronati Lodge in 1958. This author held a large number of memberships in various Masonic lodges around the world mostly connected to research in history and was also a member of “The Society of Blue Friars”. He wrote the foreword to the book King Solomon’s Temple in the Masonic Tradition written by Alex Horne.

Joseph Ryle Clarke (1896-1983) was Grand Master of the Coronati Lodge in 1967. Clarke is said to have been a colleague of Douglas Knoop (1883-1948) at Sheffield University and both were members of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia.

Cyril E K Northwood Batham (1909-1996) was Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati in 1972. Batham holds membership in a large number of Masonic Lodges and was first initiated in Bristol in 1955. He is a Past Assitant Grand Sojurner of the Supreme Gand Chapter of England and also a Knights Templar and in the Masonic Order of St Thomas of Acon where he was the first High Council Representative. The Order of Saint Thomas of Acon was founded in 1974 by John E. N. Walker who was also Secretary General of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia where we can also find Batham.

Batham had theories about the rise of Freemasonry:

“Early in 1991, I was honored by an invitation to the annual banquet of the Philalethes Society, a Masonic research and education organisation. The principal speaker was Cyril Batham, long a member of the prestigious Quatuor Coronati Lodge of Research in England, the premier Masonic research lodge of the world. Mr. Batham surprised us all by explaining his own theory of Masonic origins, a totally original concept.

Mr. Batham believes that Masonry began in a secret society formed by dispossessed monks after the dissolution of the monasteries in England. As a major part of his break with the church hierarchy in Rome, Henry VIII of England dissolved the smaller monasteries in his realm in 1536 and dismantled the larger ones in 1538. The crown seized all their properties, and those acts, Mr Batham believes, drove the monks and the friars of the monastic orders to band together in a secret society of mutual help and protection. His talk was later published in two parts in The Philalethes magazine.” (A Pilgrim’s Path: Freemasonry and the Religious Right, John J. Robinson)

Robert Arthur Roy Wells (1908-1990) who was Grand Master at Coronati in 1973 was an expert on the Royal Arch and also in “The Society of Blue Friars” together with other members of the Quatuor Coronati.

Alexander Cosby Fishburn Jackson (1904-) was Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati in 1974. He wrote the book Rose-Croix: The history of the Ancient and Accepted Rite for England and Wales (1980) which describes the motifs of the rite inspired from Rosicrucianism and alchemy. He also published ‘Rosicrucianism and its Effect on Craft Masonry’, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum 97 (1984).

“The emblems of this Degree are the Eagle and the Pelican, the Cross and the Rose. The Eagle is a symbol of Christ in his divine character … The Pelican is an emblem of our Saviour shedding his blood for the salvation of human kind.” (symbols from alchemy)

William Read (1903-1993) was Grand Master at Coronati in 1976. He is said to have also been with the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia.

Ellic Paul Howe (1910-1991) was Grand Master of the Quatuor in 1978. Howe was an author who wrote about the occult and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Among other things, he wrote the article “Fringe Masonry in England 1870-85” (Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, volume 85, 1972). He was the author of the books Urania’s children: The strange world of the astrologers (1967), The magicians of the Golden Dawn: A documentary history of a magical order, 1887-1923 (1972), The black game: British subversive operations against the Germans during the Second World War (1982), Astrology and the 3rd Reich (1985) and Astrology and psychological warfare during World War II (1972). Howe is said to have also been part of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia.

Frederick Henry Smyth (1919-?) was Grand Master of the Coronati in 1979 and was (probably) a member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia.

Rev. Neville Barker Cryer (1924-2013) was a Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati in 1981. This Church of England clergyman was a Freemason with membership in York Lodge No. 236 (the oldest lodge in York), Past Grand Chaplain UGLE and member of Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, The Royal Order, The Operatives, The Order of Eri, The Holy Royal Arch Knight Templar Priests and Order of Holy Wisdom. He was also secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Neville wrote several books such as York Mysteries Revealed (with a foreword by Michael Baigent who is famous for the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, 1982), Belief And Brotherhood, Tell Me More About the Mark Degree, The Royal Arch Journey and The Arch and the Rainbow and more.

John McKenzie Hamill (1947-) was Grand Master at Coronati in 1985. John was a Librarian and Curator of the Library and Museum of the United Grand Lodge of England and wrote on Freemasonry and occult subjects such as Rosicrucianism. He was an editor of The Rosicrucian Seer: Magical Writings of Frederick Hockley (2009), The Craft: A History of English Freemasonry (1986), ‘John Yarker: Masonic Charlatan’, AQC 109 (1996) and “The Jacobite Conspiracy,” Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, 113 (2000).

Christopher Haffner was the Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati in 1990. He was initiated into Freemasonry during the 60s while being involved in a church within Christianity where conflicts arose between the different teachings. Chrisopher later published the book Workman Unashamed (1989) where he is said to have written about the compatibility of Freemasonry with Christianity and comes to the defense of attacks on Freemasonry by various anti-Masonic publications. He describes anti-freemasonry publications as lacking substance and described as sensational and without sufficient research on the subject.

Robert J Gilbert (1942-) was a Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati in 1993. This expert on Freemasonry has written several books on Rosicrucianism and has been a former Librarian and Archivist of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. He has written books on the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Christian Esoteric as A.E. Waite A Bibliography (The Aquarian Press, 1983), The Golden Dawn: Twilight of the Magicians (Aquarian Press, 1983), Revelations of the Golden Dawn: The Rise and Fall of the Magical Order (1997), Casting the First Stone: Hypocrisy of Religious Fundamentalism and Its Threat to Society (1993) and Gnosticism and Gnosis: An Introduction (2012). Gilbert is also a trustee of the Yarker Library Trust and of the Hermetic Research Trust.

Adam McLean (1948-), who grew up in Glasgow, founded the Hermetic Journal in 1978, which he published until 1992, and in the late 80s he founded the Hermetic Research Trust.

Yasha Beresiner (1940-) was a Grand Master of the Quatuor in 1997. Yasha became a member of “The Society of Blue Friars” (which also has several members from Coronati) in 2009. In 2003 he became Past Grand Standard Bearer of the United Grand Lodge of England.

Trevor Stewart Was Grand Master of Coronati in 2001. A member of a large number of orders such as the Grand Lodge of the Royal Order of Scotland and the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (High Council) and also the Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis (USA) as a Ninth Grade Magus. With an interest in esotericism, he has done an English translation of Martinez de Pasqually’s Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings and written articles such as Aspects of Freemasonry and the Western Hermetic Tradition and A Mild Case of Victorian Pornography? (on William Wynn Westcott).

Jacques Litvine was a Grand Master at Coronati in 2005 and he was initiated in 1958 in Lodge Promethée of the Grand Orient of Belgium. Jacques, like several members of the Coronati, has written on anti-Masonry and has published the article Anti-Masonry: A Neglected Source,” AQC, Volume 104 (1992).

David Peabody was Grand Master of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge in 2006 and he co-wrote with Bro. Richard Gan and Susan Snell the article “Robert Wentworth Little: A Duplicitous Freemason, Wordsmith and Mystic, Part I and II. Robert Wentworth Little was the driving force and progenitor of the Red Cross of Constantine (RCC) in 1865, the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (SRIA) in 1867, Ancient and Primitive Rite of Misraim (Misraim) in 1870 and the Ancient Archaeological Order of Druids (AAOD) in 1874.

Freemason Richard Gan is also a member of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge and belongs to the Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees together with Brian Wareham, deputy supreme ruler, Order of the Secret Monitor; Peter Glyn-Williams, supreme ruler, OSM; John Paternoster, supreme magus, SRIA; Roy Leavers, intendant general, Surrey Red Cross; and Tommy Thompson, grand tyler, Mark Masons Hall .

Brent Morris was the Grand Master of Coronati in 2007. This 33rd degree Freemason from the USA was an Editor of the Scottish Rite Journal of the Supreme Council 33° of the Southern Jurisdiction, a member of the Philalethes Society, the Royal Order of Scotland and the Society of Blue Friars. He is also a member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Civitabus Foederatis at Maryland College where he holds the IX degree.

Robert L. D. Cooper was Grand Master at Coronati in 2012. He holds membership in the Grand Lodge of Scotland, The Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland and The Great Priory of Scotland (the Knights Templar) and in several esoteric societies. He is connected with lodges such as The Lodge of Light (Lodge No. 1656), Lodge Edinburgh Castle (Lodge No. 1764), Lodge Sir Robert Moray (Lodge No. 1641) and is also a Free Gardener and a Hammerman (Esoteric). He has written books such as The Masonic Magician: The Life and Death of Count Cagliostro and His Egyptian Rite (2008), Cracking The Freemasons Code (2007), The Rosslyn Hoax? (2007) and The Red Triangle: A History of Anti-Masonry (2020). He is one of several Quatuor Coronati members writing about Anti-Masonry throughout its history.

Brian Price became a Grand Master at Coronati in 2016. He has a 32nd degree in the Ancient and Accepted Rite. A member of numerous lodges and titles such as the Order of the Allied Masonic Degrees when he received his Red Cross of Babylon Degree, Greene Commandery of Knights Templar No. 81 (Ohio), Past Great Warden of Regalia in the Great Priory of Knights Templar, Past Grand Seventh Pillar in the Grand College of Holy Royal Arch Knight Templar Priests, Orders of the Secret Monitor and the Red Cross of Constantine. He has also written the book In The Steps Of The Templars. The name Brian Price appears in official papers of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia so it is likely that he is also a member of that order.

Ric Berman was a Grand Master of the Coronati Lodge in 2018. An author of several books, one of which is Espionage, Diplomacy & the Lodge: Charles Delafaye and The Secret Department of the Post Office (2017).

“Berman provides a unique glimpse into Britain’s early secret intelligence service and outlines for the first time the interconnections between freemasonry, espionage and diplomacy.” (cover)

Andreas Önnerfors was a Grand Master at Quatuor Coronati in 2019. Andreas grew up in Germany and later studied at the University of Lund in Sweden. He was initiated into the Swedish Rite in 1996 and has reached degree X. He is a member of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Scania and the research lodge Carl Friedrich Eckleff located in Uppsala. Carl Friedrich Eckleff (1723-1786) is called the father of Swedish Freemasonry and this research lodge was inaugurated in 1997.

Andreas has also been involved in the Swedish state and the “Swedish Agency for Community Protection and Preparedness”, where he has written a study on “conspiracy theories and covid-19” and he is involved in a research project on conspiracy theories in Europe within the network COMPACT (Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories in Europe). He has been involved in the “Agency for Psychological Defense” where he has given lectures at their events about conspiracy theories as a threat to democracy. He has also written several articles about the radical right at the think tank The Center for Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR), which is located in England.

Andreas has contributed to the publication Mystical brotherhood – powerful network: studies in Swedish 18th-century Freemasonry which has been co-authored by three writers, one of whom is Henrik Bogdan who has authored and co-authored a large number of books and publications in Occultism and the Esoteric and on the Ordo Templi Orientis such as Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation (2007), Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism (2012), Sexuality and New Religious Movements (2014) and The Carfax Monographs (Steffi and Kenneth Grant) etc. He is also secretary of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE).

“The Phoenix bird rises from the burning ashes upwards towards the light, the brightly shining sun. On the ash heap rests an angle hook among six thistles, wrapped around a rope or ribbon. “The oppressed virtue must rise again” is the motto of this title vignette that adorns the publication “Freemason News” from the year 1770.” (from Mystical brotherhood – powerful network, explaining a symbol of alchemy)