What are the rites of memphis

The Rite of Memphis, also known as the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Freemasonry, claims a derivation from Egyptian traditions and an incorporation of various eighteenth-century rites, particularly the Primitive Rite of Philadelphes of Narbonne 1.

Gabriel Mathieu Marconis and others constituted the Disciples of Memphis as a Grand Lodge at Montauban, France, in 1814 1. After going dormant in 1816, the system was reorganized in 1838 under Jacques Etienne Marconis as Grand Hierophant, who structured its workings into ninety degrees 1. A paper read before Quatuor Coronati Lodge records that the Rite was established in France in 1838 and worked in England between 1838 and 1870, with a French lodge active in Ballarat, Australia, during the 1853 gold rush.

Operating outside mainstream Grand Lodge systems as a high-degree rite, its system eventually expanded to ninety-five degrees divided into three series, beginning with the three basic Craft degrees 1. Marconis united the Rite with the Grand Orient of France in 1862, resulting in an 1865 concordat that settled the equivalence of their degrees 1. In 1872, a Sovereign Sanctuary was established in England under John Yarker as Grand Master General 1.

According to its official journal, The Kneph, the Rite was open to any Master Mason in good standing under a constitutional Grand Lodge and taught the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man 1.