Appeared with the speculative lodges, the “rites” , from the Latin Ritus , were set up in order to standardize and harmonize the practices in Masonic lodge . It is therefore the definition of all the uses and the order in which they must be performed during the various outfits and ceremonies. Inspired by ancient or operative traditions and by the Bible , the rites prescribe gestures, language, movements and attitudes. However, despite a similar ideal, Freemasons carry out their work in a plural way. And this, from the middle of the xviii century, in particular with the quarrel of the Old ones and theModerns within English Freemasonry . Since then, each century has seen the appearance of different rites. A lodge, or a "workshop" , generally practices one and the same rite while a Masonic obedience can observe several.
The rites are made up of symbols, words, gestures and signs. If it appears impossible to list all the rites one day practiced, authors and historians commonly admit the existence of about fifty relatively distinct rites. However, only half a dozen are mostly practiced.
In the xvii th century , Masonic rituals were not supposed to be written and were never printed. They are only known today thanks to a very small number of handwritten notes that have escaped the rule and time, as well as some old disclosures. The oldest known Masonic rituals date back to the last years of the xvii th century and the first two decades of the xviii th and have a Scottish 2 . The study of these documents shows that they evolved quite considerably over time. The ceremonies were very simple and very short 3 .In the xviii th century , after the reorganization of consecutive practices in the founding of the first great lodges, Ancients and Moderns practice again quite similar rituals, which differ only by a relatively small number of outstanding issues, such as the place certain symbolic elements, the manner of transmitting passwords, or a more or less important reference to the Christian religion.However, as early as the 1740s , we see new divergences appear, alongside the traditional rituals of the first three degrees , in the form of several hundred rituals of additional degrees known as " high ranks ", many of which were only variants of the first three degrees. from each other, or remained in the draft stage, or in reality were never really practiced. This multiplication of Masonic rituals leads to various initiatives aimed at standardizing practices and bringing them together in coherent and stable sets: Masonic rites .