‘Let’s revive this defunct Masonic order!’

     
Or maybe it’s not defunct after all. Maybe it’s so secret that only Lindez knows of it. I’ll have to ask him.

But in the meantime, I’ll need to find a copy of the 1915 edition (Vol. XXVIII) of Ars Quatuor Coronatorum for its research paper that describes this group, but based on what little I know, I am fully prepared to restart a long neglected French Masonic fraternity named the Order of Nicotiates!

Coil’s Masonic Encyclopedia says:

Nicotiates, Order of. Also called Order of Priseurs, the former meaning smokers and the latter snuff dippers; a secret order of prominent French Freemasons, which existed at Paris about 1817-33.


I tried snuff once. Didn’t go well.

Mackey’s encyclopedia offers even less: “A secret order mentioned by Clavel, teaching the doctrines of Pythagoras.”

I hardly think Pythagoras would endorse smoking, but okay.

Arthur Edward Waite, in his A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, gives more, that actually is less:

The authority is Clavel, who terms the foundation Masonic, and says that the doctrines of Pythagoras were taught therein. It is without date or place, father or mother, and is devoid of all history, so far as his information goes.


So, who is Clavel? Getting back to Albert Mackey, he writes:

CLAVEL, F.T. BEGUE – An abbé. A French Masonic Writer, who published, in 1842, a Picturesque History of Freemasonry and of Ancient and Modern Secret Societies. This work contains a great amount of interesting and valuable information, notwithstanding many historical inaccuracies, especially in reference to the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, of which the author was an adversary. For the publication of the work without authority, he was suspended by the Grand Orient for two months, and condemned to pay a fine. Clavel appealed to the intelligence of the fraternity against this sentence. In 1844, he commenced the publication of a Masonic journal called the Grand Orient, the title subsequently changed to the Orient. As he had not obtained consent of the Grand Orient, he was again brought before that body, and the sentence of perpetual exclusion from the Grand Orient pronounced against him.

Rebold says that it was the act of a faction, and obtained by unfair means. It was not sustained by the judgment of the Craft in France, with whom Clavel gained reputation and popularity. Notwithstanding the Masonic literary labors of Clavel, an account of the time of his birth, or of his death, appears to be obscure. His desire seemed to be to establish as history, by publication, those views which he personally entertained and formed, gathered from sources of doubtful character, he desired they should not be questioned in the future, semel pro semper, once for all.


Anyway, I envision bespoke fezzes as regalia. We can meet here. To enter the sacred humidor:

GUARD: Avez-vous le mot de passe?
YOU: I will syllable it with you.
GUARD: Commencez!
YOU: All right then: BLAZ
GUARD: DE
YOU: OH
GUARD: EE
YOU: SUX
TOGETHER: DeBlasio sucks!


And remember to tip the waitresses.