History of the Rites APRMM & FLC

In effects a secret connection existed between the Illuminati Order of Weishaupt and the Egyptian Freemasonry of Cagliostro that was officially founded in 1785, year of the suppression of the Illuminati Order. Besides, Napoleone Bonaparte was initiated by Cagliostro to the Egyptian Freemasonry and the Masonic Rites of Memphis, of Misraïm and of Memphis-Misraïm come down from it.

Between 1810 and 1813, in Naples (Italy), the three brothers Bédarride (Michel, Marc and Joseph) received the Supreme Powers from the Order of Misraïm and they developed the Rite of Misraïm in France. They made it official in Paris in 1814. The Rite was composed of 90 degrees, taken from the Scottish freemasonry, from Martinism and other Masonic currents, and the last four degrees received the name of "Arcana Arcanorum."

In 1815, in Montauban (France), the Mother Lodge of the Rite of Memphis was constituted with the Grand Master Samuel Honis as head, whom followed, in 1816, Gabriel-Mathieu Marconis.                                        
                           

In 1838, Jean Etienne Marconis de Nègre, son of this last one, took over the Rite of Memphis. The Rite, for J. E. Marconis de Nègre, was a continuation of the ancient Mysteries practised in the Antiquity, in India and in Egypt. The Constitutions of the Rite said: "... the masonic rite of Memphis is the continuation of the Mysteries of the Antiquity. The Rite taught the first men to pay homage to the divinity... ". The Rite of Memphis reached the 92 and 95 degrees.

In 1881, the Italian general Giuseppe Garibaldi reunified the Rites of Memphis and Misraïm and became the Grand Hierophante of both. After the death of Garibaldi, in 1882, the Rites entered in a "dark" period up to when, in 1890, various lodges of both Rites were federated and the Rite of Memphis-Misraïm appeared. In 1900, the Italian Ferdinando Francesco degli Oddi became Head of the Memphis-Misraïm and was replaced, by the English John Yarker, in 1902. The Rite reached the 97 degrees.

In 1902, the German Theodor Reuss established the Sovereign Sanctuary of Memphis-Misraïm in Germany and in 1913, after the death of Yarker, he became the International Head of the Rite. In 1924, T. Reuss passed to Eternal East and the succession was interrupted, except in the O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis), the neotemplar order founded by Reuss, in 1905, in Germany. In reality, the O.T.O. had included the Rite of Memphis-Misraïm, although in a reduced version, where its principals degrees were incorporated.