The History of the Dionysian Artificers E-Book

Hipólito José Da Costa

• Herausgeber: Edizioni Aurora Boreale
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

This small book by Hipólito José Da Costa, a great Brazilian writer, journalist, diplomat and freemason, universally considered to be the “father of Brazilian press”, in fact little more than a pamphlet, represents a real milestone in the history of Masonic literature, a precious book that all seeker of Truth should read and jealously keep in their library.
The author draws a parallel between Masonic initiation and that practiced by the ancient mystery cults, in particular the Orphic and the Dionysian Mysteries. In his historical reconstruction, Hiram Abiff, a key figure in Masonic symbology, would have belonged to a very ancient secret society called “Dionysian Artificers”, which arose around 1000 BC, just before the construction of the Temple of Solomon began. These Dionysian Artificers, according to Da Costa, were associated with another initiatory brotherhood of builders called “The Ionians”, which had built the majestic Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.
Once settled in Jerusalem, the Dionysian Artificers, who were masters in the art of Sacred Geometry and keepers of an ancient initiatory wisdom, would call themselves the “Sons of Solomon”.
All the great mystery and initiatory traditions of Mediterranean antiquity, from Egypt to Greece, from Italy to the Near East, had their own secret brotherhoods of builders under their control. Secret brotherhoods that held the secrets of geometry and sacred geography, which with their silent work have achieved over the centuries the mirroring of heaven on earth, building the largest and most majestic temples of human spirituality. And this precious book by Hipólito José Da Costa provides us with important keys to reading and understanding this fascinating and mysterious context.

Leseprobe

Symbols & Myths

HIPÓLITO JOSÉ DA COSTA

THE HISTORY OF THE

DIONYSIAN ARTIFICERS

Edizioni Aurora Boreale

Title: The History of the Dionisian Artificers

Author: Hipólito José da Costa

Series: Symbols & Myths

With a preface by Nicola Bizzi

Editing and illustrations by Nicola Bizzi

ISBN: 979-12-80130-11-2

Edizioni Aurora Boreale

© 2020 Edizioni Aurora Boreale

Via del Fiordaliso 14 - 59100 Prato - Italia

[email protected]

www.auroraboreale-edizioni.com

PREFACE BY THE PUBLISHER

Hipólito José da Costa Pereira Furtado de Mendonça was a great Brazilian writer, journalist, diplomat and freemason, universally considered to be the “father of Brazilian press”.

He was born in Colonia del Sacramento, a town on the borderland between the Spanish and the Portuguese colonies in South America, nowadays in the southwestern Uruguay, in August 13 1774, from Félix da Costa Furtado de Mendonça, an officier of the Army, and Ana Josefa Pereira. His brother was José Saturnino da Costa Pereira, who became a senator of the Empire of Brazil and the commander of the Brazilian Army.

Soon after the birth of Hipólito José, in 1777, following the signature of the Treaty of Santo Ildefonso that finally established the new borders, the Da Costa family moved to Pelotas, in Rio Grande do Sul, a state in the southern region of Brazil, where he would spend his adolescence. Hipólito José received his primary schooling in Porto Alegre, where he came under the tutorship of his uncle Pedro Pereira Fernández de Mesquita, who prepared him for the entrance examinations to the university.

According to Leon Zeldis¹, on October 29 1792, at the age of 18, he enrolled in the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, and a month later he also entered the Faculty of Philosophy. On October 18 of the following year he entered the Faculty of Law, graduating on 5 June 1798, being 24 years old.

In Coimbra, Hipólito José was influenced by the liberal reforms introduced into university studies by the Marquis of Pombal. A year earlier his family was awarded a coat-of-arms by King John VI.

Even in 1798, three months after graduation, Da Costa was sent on a semi-secret (officially “diplomatic”) mission to the United States of America by the Portuguese Minister of the Navy and Commerce, Rodrigo de Souza Coutinho, Count of Linhares, to study in the new Republic various aspects of agriculture and industry that might be of use to the Portuguese kingdom.

Hipólito José sailed to Philadelphia, at that time the Capital of the United States, on October 16 1798, arriving at the City of Brotherly Love on December 13, after 59 days of travel. He remained in the United States for two years. Apart from observing the methods used for the extraction and processing of minerals, the cultivation of various plants, such as tobacco and cotton, the building of wooden bridges, the production of silk and other aspects of the economy, Da Costa wanted to get from Mexico the Cochineal insects and plants, intending to introduce them in Portugal.

During his journey he moved among the highest circles of American society. He met President Adams and was impressed by his simplicity, so different from the Portuguese stiff court protocol. He also had the opportunity to meet Thomas Jefferson, the Secretary of State Timothy Pickering and Oliver Walcott, who succeeded Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury, and also made contact with French émigrés, who had escaped from the Revolution, the Terror and, later, from Napoleon.

He lived in America for about two years, but did not remain in Philadelphia. He made extensive trips in the United States and Canada and wrote monographs and lengthy reports on all his observations, delivered personally to the Portuguese Minister. As pointed out Leon Zeldis², some of his reports remained forgotten in dusty archives, and were published only in 1955 by the Brazilian Academy of Letters under the title Diário de Minha Viagem para a Filadélfia (Diary of my Voyage to Philadelphia).

According to many sources, including William Almeida de Carvalho³, Da Costa was initiated to Freemasonry in Philadelphia, in Lodge George Washington No. 59 on March 2 1799, at the age of 25 years. Not long after, he requested a Demit (official release from the lodge), probably contemplating his return to Portugal and fearing – with good reason, at it turns out – the persecution of Masons instigated by the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, the archives of the George Wahington Lodge concerning 1799 were lost in a fire in 1819.

After returning to Portugal in 1800 from his mission in the United States, Hipólito José contacted Portuguese Freemasons, like the Worshipful Master of Lodge Concórdia, José Joaquim Monteiro de Carvalho e Oliveira, who requested his assistance in opposing the persecutions of Pina Manique. At the same time, he was appointed as literary director of the Impreçao Régia (Royal Printers) receiving the authority to decide all what would be published.

On April of 1802, the Portoguese Minister of Navy and Commerce again sent him abroad on a mission, this time to England, in order to purchase machinery for the press and books for the Royal Library. This appears to be the source of his later enthusiasm for journalism.

While in London on official business, Da Costa attended the Premier Grand Lodge on 12 May, 1802. He was received as the plenipotentiary representative of four Portuguese lodges that wanted to receive from the Grand Lodge of England regular authority to practice the rites of the Order under the English banner and protection. This is definite proof that he was a regular Mason at the time, since otherwise the Grand Lodge would have refused all contact with him. Some writers claim that the Portuguese wanted to establish a Grand Lodge of Lusitania to work in amity with the British one, but they provide no supporting evidence for this claim. After deliberation, the Grand Lodge decided to encourage the Portuguese Brethren, who might enroll their names in its records, and conform to the constitutions of the Order, but on condition that a list of their names be sent to England as well as a recommendation from their local government officials before their request could be approved.

Rumors of his Masonic activities in London reached quickly Portugal. Although forewarned that he risked arrest if he returned, Da Costa paid no heed and went back to Lisbon at the end of June. The warnings were justified, as he was promptly accused of spreading Masonic ideas through Europe and arrested by José Anastácio Lopes Cardoso, Court Crimes Corregidor, following the instructions of the infamous Chief of Police Diogo Ignacio de Pina Manique, that was virulent in his hatred of Masonry. In a letter to the Regent, John (who had to take power because of his mother’s madness), he claimed that the Freemasons were declared enemies of all and any religion, but in particular the Christian one, and that in Masonic meetings «an image of crucified Jesus was mocked, manhandled, spit upon and dragged». According to the Brazilian writer José Castellani, he also declared that he had «a thirst that could be slaked only with the blood of Freemasons». Portugal was ruled at the time by Queen Maria I “the Mad” who was a fanatic persecutor of Masons and conducted a veritable witch-hunt against them.

Da Costa spent six months in the Limoeiro jail, and was then turned over to the Inquisition, remaining in its prison for almost three years: «in a small eight by twelve feet room, furnished with a straw mattress, a jug and a glass, replaced every eight days when I went to Mass», he wrote⁴. He finally escaped with the help of the Masons, who assisted him to stay in hiding until he could make his way to freedom disguised as a servant of Brother Fillipe Ferreira de Araújo Castro, going first to Spain, then to Gibraltar and finally reaching England.

In 1811 Da Costa published a relation of his experiences with the Inquisition, in two volumes bearing a long title, as customary at the time: Narrative of the Persecution of Hippolyto da Costa Pereira Furtado de Mendonça, a native of Colonia-de-Sacramento, on the River La Plata; imprisoned and tried in Lisbon, by the Inquisition, for the pretended crime of Free-Masonry, to which are added The By-Laws of the Inquisition of Lisbon, both Ancient and Modern (never before published), Taken from the Originals in one of the Royal Libraries in London.

One of his comments was: «Nothing irritates more the inquisitors, than a man who reasons».

Once in London, Hipólito José joined the Lodge of the Nine Muses (now No. 235) in 1807 and the Lodge of Antiquity (now No. 2) in 1808. In this last lodge he became Deputy Master in 1812 and 1813, serving under the Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, the sixth son of King George III and his Queen consort, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. He became a personal friend of the Duke, and Augustus Frederick was a witness to his marriage in 1817. Da Costa is also registered as one of the founders of Lusitania Lodge 184 in 1812 and of Royal Inverness Lodge in 1814.

Hipólito José joined the small inner circle of assistants to the Duke of Sussex when this became, in January 1813, the Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England (and in December of that year his brother, Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, became Grand Master of the Antient Grand Lodge of England). In the same year he was appointed by the Duke as Provincial Grand Master for Rutland, although no lodges could be found in his province. Most writers claim that the Province of Leister and Rutland was split in order to create the honorary post for Hipólito José. However, Professor Aubrey Newman, in his inaugural paper as Master of Quatuor Coronati Lodge N° 2076, points out that Da Costa was only the fourth to be appointed to that sinecure; he was preceded by Robert Boyle Walsingham (1780), Thomas Boothby (1789) and Richard Barker (1798), so Da Costa’s appointment followed a well-trodden path.

On 27 December 1813, at the Freemasons’ Hall in London, the two Grand Lodges became joined to form the United Grand Lodge of England with Prince Augustus Frederick as its first Grand Master. Immediatly he appointed Hipólito José as a member of the Lodge of Reconciliation in 1814. According to John M. Hamill, Da Costa played an active role in the work of the lodge devising the uniform rituals to be used by lodges in the United Grand Lodge. He was also a member of the Lodge of Promulgation that prepared the ground for the union of the two Grand Lodges.

The activity of this marvellous Portuguese in Grand Lodge was not restricted to all this. He was also Chairman of the Finances Committee from 1813 until his death in 1823.

Da Costa was also active in the Royal Arch, presumably in a lodge under the Antients. As John M. Hamill reported, «He was re-obliga-ted in the Chapter of St. James (now N° 2) under the Original Grand and Royal Arch Chapter. When the Duke of Sussex was to be installed as First Grand Principal, in 1810, Da Costa was one of those appointed to examine him in the Royal Arch. In the original Grand Chapter he held the appointments of Assistant Grand Sojourner in 1810, Grand Scribe N in 1811 and 1812, and Grand Recorder for Foreign Correspondence from 1812. He was given the rank of Past Grand Scribe E and was accorded special responsibility for Foreign Correspondence on the formation of Supreme Grand Chapter in 1817»⁵.

In 1819 the Supreme Council of France conferred the 33rd Degree on him and on the Duke of Sussex. A manuscript of the patent appears in Oxford’s The Origin and Progress of the Supreme Council 33° for England (1933). According to A.C.F. Jackson, the Duke of Sussex, together with the Duke of Leinster and Da Costa, received the 33° Degree with full ceremony but then took no action to establish a Supreme Council for Great Britain, as the French expected.

We know that Da Costa was also an Officer of the Grand Conclave of Knights Templar (under the Duke of Sussex) and a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Red Cross of Palestine.

It is said that Hipólito owned a copy of Preston’s Lectures that may be the oldest extant copy, presently held by the Library of the United Grand Lodge. In fact, during his London sojourn, Da Costa formed close relations with personalities such as William Preston and Francisco Miranda. He caused the initiation in 1812 of the Brazilian Domingos José Martins, who worked in London, and later became the head of the Pernambuco Revolution of 1817.

Settling down in the city of London, he then founded what would be the first Brazilian journal: the Correio Braziliense, which ran from 1808 to 1823. Through this journal, Costa would spread Liberal ideas. How-ever, the Portuguese ambassador in London, Bernardo José de Abrantes e Castro, Count of Funchal, was an extreme combatant of Costa’s journal, and would create one of himself, entitled O Investigador Português em Inglaterra (The Portuguese Investigator in England), which ran from 1811 to 1819. Many other journals which fought the Correio Braziliense were created.

He was also famous for translating into Portuguese works by Benjamin Thompson and Benjamin Smith Barton.

Hipólito José Da Costa died on September 11 1823 in his home, at 7, Lower Philimore Place, Kensington, London, soon after ending publication of his journal and before he could receive the letters-patent as Consul General in London and Counselor of the Legation of the Brazilian Empire. He was buried in the church of St. Mary the Virgin in the small town of Hurley, near Maidenhead. On the wall near the tomb is a memorial plaque ordered by the Duke of Sussex, and above it is the Da Costa’s coat of arms. At the initiative of Brazilian journalistic personalities and diplomats his remains were exhumed and transported to Brazil, where he was buried with full ceremony in Brasilia, in the gardens of the the Itamaraty Palace, the National Brazilian Press Museum, on April 24 2001.

Da Costa married an Englishwoman, Mary Ann Troughton. They had two daughters, Augusta Carolina and Anne Shirley, and one son, Augustus Frederick (born on May 3 1821), Captain in the Royal Engineers Regiment, who was killed by Chinese pirates in Hong Kong in 1849, without leaving descendants. The daughters, on the other hand, married and left numerous descendants.

There is a small oil portrait of him in the Grand Lodge of England’s Museum, showing Da Costa wearing the regalia of his office, which he kept until his death. Four other portraits of Hipólito José are known, of which one that belonged to the Duke of Sussex, was eventually donated to the Brazilian Government and is now displayed in the Itamaraty Palace in Brasília, head office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Da Costa played a leading role in persuading the British government to recognize the independence of Brazil in 1823 and, in issue number 58 of his journal, in 1813, indicated the place where Brasilia, the present Capital of Brazil, would be built: «This central point between parallels 15 and 20 is at the head of the famous San Francisco river. In the vicinity are sources of mighty rivers that flow to the north, the south, the north-east and the south-east, several ranges to raise cattle and rich mines of plentiful metals. It can be compared with the description we have of the earthly Paradise». Brasilia was in fact built in the central plateau by President Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, and was officially inaugurated in 1960.

Elmano Cardim, editor of the Jornal do Commercio of Rio de Janeiro and member of the Brazilian Academy of Letter, had this to say at a ceremony on April 30 1942, to baptize an aircraft with the name of Hi-pólito da Costa: «He was an intransigent liberal, but without the doctrinal sectarianism that claims that public salvation is only possible with preconceived formulas. He opposed a republic for Brazil, because, like Evaristo de Veiga, he had a clear vision that such a form of government was premature. “The people that wants to be free and happy”, he wrote in January of 1820 in the Correio Brasiliense, “must ensure that liberty and that happiness it wants with its own virtue, because if it expects the help of other nations to enjoy these benefits, it will slave, will be unhappy… a people without morals, if it has no freedom, will never attain it, and if it has it, will certainly lose it”».

As Leon Zeldis pointed out, we find here the echoes of those principles that inspired all Masons who fought for the liberation of their homeland⁶.

The History of the Dionisian Artificers was published in London in 1820, exactly 200 years ago.