Notes
All the Masonic systems in Russia were foreign in origin,
except for the Melissino system, established around 1765-1768
by P. I. Melissino. Melissino himself was Greek, but was an
artillery general in Moscow, and had apparently occupied an
important place in the Provincial Grand Lodge, of which Elagin
was a member. He developed his own system, which has been described
as "one of the very strange systems with higher degrees" in the
"Modesty" lodge in St. Petersburg, and was considered to be
similar to some European systems at that time. Melissino was
reported to have conducted the lodge in four languages (Pypin,
p.118-9). In addition to the four higher degrees, the system
also had a secret chapter called the "Conclave".
Melissino�s secrecy, even among other Masons, and
his attention to alchemy closely resemble the Rosicrucian
Order (Ryu, p.202).
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One of her corespondents in Germany,
Dr. J.G. Zimmermann, exacerbated the situation for the Moscow Masons
by telling Catherine of the "conspiratorial political and revolutionary
activities" of the Bavarian Illuminati. This offshoot of Freemasonry
had been founded in 1776 by A. Weishaupt but was banned in 1784 because
of the anti-monarchical and anti-religious ideas of its members.
However, the name "Illuminati" was often confused with the Moscow
"Martinists" and Rosicrucians who "advocated knowledge of God and
self-improvement by means of spiritual illumination" ($$$$$$$).
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The term "Martinist", referring to a
particular type of mystical Masonry, is believed by some to come from
Saint-Martin, while others maintain that it is from the converted
Sephardi, Don Martinez de Pasqually, who worked with Saint-Martin
for a time. The main concern of the Martinists was to return man to
his initial state "before the fall", using symbolic rites and
communion with God. Because Saint-Martin was critical of the Church
and the State, the Martinists were seen as revolutionaries. Even
though there were no revolutionary or anti-religious sentiments in
the teachings of the Moscow Freemasons, they were nonetheless
mistakenly labelled Martinists, simply because of their mystical
and alchemical tendencies.
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It is interesting to note that Novikov,
who was obsessed with ferreting out the one true Masonry, did not
himself follow what he was told about it: in publishing his series
of Masonic journals, as well as late establishing, with his
Rosicrucian compatriots, certain groups to disseminate their
teachings, he was proselytizing.
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Platon classified Novikov�s publications
as either useful, mystical (which he "did not understand"), or "works
of the French Encyclopedists, which he considered harmful". What is
interesting to note is that he, just like the mystical Freemasons,
targeted the philosophes as anti-Christian. Thisis probably due to
his own leanings toward Pietism, which arose largely in tandem with
Freemasonry (treadgold, pp.126-7).
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