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Minutes from Second Order Adepts
21 April 1900
A meeting of the Society of the R.R. et AC. in London was held on Saturday, the 21st of April, 1900. The chair was taken at 3.45 P.M. After V.[ery] H.[onourable] Frater L.O. [Levavi Oculos—Percy Bullock] had read the minutes of the previous meetings, V.H. Soror Vigilate [Helen Rand] proposed, and V.H. Frater Causa Scientiae [Julian L. Baker] seconded, the adoption of the report.
Thereon, V.H. Frater D.E.D.I. [Demon Est Deus Inversus—W.B. Yeats] gave an address on the history of the Order, and explained the illegalities which had crept in, in recent years. At the commencement of the Order there were three Chiefs, the G.[reatly] H.[onoured] Fratres M.E.V. [Magna Est Veritas—William Woodman], N.O.M. [Nom Omnis Moriar—William Wynn Westcott], and D.D.C.F. [MacGregor Mathers], but at the G.H. Frater M.E.V.'s death, no Chief was appointed in his place, and again upon the G.H. Frater S.A.'s [William Wynn Westcott] resignation some four years ago, no one was appointed in his place. Therefore, instead of the three Chiefs required by the Constitution there came to be only one Chief-the G.H. Frater D.D.C.F. The speaker spoke of the personal sorrow that it gave him to describe the actions which the G.H. Frater D.D.C.F. had taken. The G.H. Frater D.D.C.F. had gradually become entirely autocratic, and furthermore, moved as it seems by jealousy, he had made a charge against the V.H. Frater S.A., of forging, or causing to be forged, the documents on which the Warrant was based and the Order established. This charge, when requested to do so, the G.H. Frater D.D.C.F. absolutely refused to substantiate or to withdraw. He then referred to the not less lamentable, though altogether ludicrous, proceedings of the past week, which were referred to in the Committee's report, and went on to say, that although he was sure we should all agree in our gratitude for what the G. H. Frater D.D.C.F. had done for us, yet his amazing actions showed that a change must be made in our Constitution. He then referred to the legal aspects of the matter and to the property of the Order, and explained the pecuniary transactions which had taken place between 1892 and 1896. He then went on to refer to the resolutions which the Committee proposed for the reconstruction of the Order.
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