new splendour and visible on earth install Christianity into its old peacemaking office.” Novalis claims finally that other continents await the reconciliation and resurrection


of Europe and that the time of eternal peace is near “when the new Jerusalem becomes the capital of the world”. At the end of his prophetical essay he conclusively calls in the soul-less representatives of pure and secular reason “into the peace-founding lodge”. It is there they will receive “the kiss of brotherhood” in order to reunite them with religion and ina newsynthesis of enlightenment paired with holy sense initiate a new and shining future for Europe and humanity.


Conclusion: two Readings of Cosmopolitanism The cosmopolitan foundations of freemasonry are not to be found in a direct use of


the word within freemasonry. It would be easy to assume cosmopolitan foundations if, say, Anderson or Ramsay had claimed: “the brotherhood of freemasonry is cosmopolitan in essence”. The article in Journal für Freymaurer from 1785, referred to above, creates – to the best of my knowledge – for the first time a direct link between freemasonry and the concept of cosmopolitanism. This has to take into account that this masonic periodical was edited by a lodge of


intellectuals in one of the epicentres of European enlightenment. During the first half of the century “cosmopolitanism” does not even occur in any titles of printed publications, neither in German nor in English28.On the other hand, the term “citizen of the world” or “world citizen” is widespread and most likely known by educated men such as Anderson and Ramsay. The Constitutions claim a united source of human knowledge, to be found in all ages and among all people, transferred through freemasonry. The Charges furthermore open up for the idea that all men who share certain moral values, can through freemasonry experience unity in a potentially global community. This claim is expressed vividly in Ramsay’s Oration, inwhich he creates the image of a world republic made up of different nations, founded upon principles of peace and a mutual exchange of knowledge for the benefit of all (of course he is not the first doing that, but it is remarkable that this is pronounced on the occasion of a masonic meeting). He explicitly defines the establishment of a world republic, a “new people” as one of the main intentions of freemasonry. Like Anderson, Ramsay’s concept of knowledge does not only embrace the chosen few in an esoteric circle of initiated. He claims that the grand masters of freemasonry in Europe encourage the collection and spread of knowledge in form of an encyclopaedic project, accessible to all people. As already mentioned, this is notably early. At the time, most European states would not even have educated academies and societies. The reprint of parts ofRamsay’s oration in the flagship of English masonic press sixty years later triggers the question of how confined his ideas actually were in the context


28 Checked in the bibliographical databases copac.co.uk and www.ubka.uni- karlsruhe.de/kvk.html as well as in books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html.


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