from Templarism and chivalry with Egyptian and alchemical mythology. It had at least two lodges (“Osiris” and “Des Philadelphes”) at Paris, two more (“La Bienveillance” and “De Heliopolis”) in Brussels, and a number of English supporters. The Rite gained a certain success among military Lodges. It took on a political dimension and in 1841 it became dormant, probably because of the repression following the armed uprising of Louis Blanqui’s Société des Saisons in 1839. With the overthrow of Louis-Philippe in 1848, the Order was revived on March 5, with its most prominent member being Louis Blanc, a socialist member of the provisional government with responsibility for the National Workshops. In 1850 Les Sectateurs de Ménès was founded in London which proved popular with refugees fleeing France for London at that time. About ten lodges were set up by French refugees, the most important being La Grand Loge des Philadelphes chartered in London on January 31, 1851, which continued to exist until the late 1870s. During this time it had about 100 members, often called Philadelphes. Between 1853 and 1856 other lodges of the Rite of Memphis were established. In 1856, Benoît Desquesnes, the exiled secretary of the Société des Ouvriers Typographes de Nord proposed that the higher degrees of the Rite of Memphis were not only superfluous, but undemocratic and inconsistent with the Masonic ideals of equality. Despite the attempts of Jean Philibert Berjeau to dissolve the Philadelphes, they implemented this proposal and elected Edouard Benoît as master. This group became renowned for their involvement in revolutionary politics. However the Gymnosophists and the L'Avenir lodges remained with Berjeau. In 1860 the number of degrees was reduced to 33 in France, The other bodies of the Rite did not agree to this truncation of the degrees, and by 1866 Berjeau dissolved them (in France), most of the Gymnosophists joining the Philadelphes. The Rite of Memphis-Misraïm In 1881, General Giuseppe Garibaldi prepared to fuse the two Rites, to be effective as of 1889. Its popularity was greatly increased owing to the works of German Masonic scholar Theodor Reuss, the agent of John Yarker, who became Deputy Grand Master in 1902 and Grand Master in 1905. Reuss succeeded Yarker in this office in 1913. Reuss' lineage was reduced into a nine degree structure which eventually became the original, Mixed (male and female) Masonic Ordo Templi Orientis with a tenth degree for the position