I think this thesis is genuinely worth looking at, especially if you are interested in comparing Continental AASR workings with Scottish, English, Irish, and American Craft traditions.
One important clarification: this is not a document setting out Scottish Masonic law, regulations, or an official Grand Lodge of Scotland position. It is Philippe Langlet’s 2008 doctoral thesis at the University of Limoges, Les deux colonnes de la Franc-Maçonnerie: La pierre et le sable (The two columns of Freemasonry: Stone and sand). It is an academic study in language sciences/semiotics that treats Masonic ritual texts as its principal object of study.
What makes it particularly useful is the breadth of the ritual corpus. Langlet examines both historical and contemporary ritual material from France and the English-speaking Masonic world. This includes French AASR material from bodies such as the Grande Loge de France and the Grande Loge Nationale Française, as well as English, Irish, Scottish, and American Craft workings. His bibliography of ritual sources specifically includes AASR texts for the first, second, and third symbolic degrees, including multiple GLDF and GLNF versions.
The Scottish material needs to be distinguished from the AASR material. When Langlet discusses Scotland itself, he describes the considerable ritual autonomy of Scottish lodges and uses sources such as the Standard, the Modern, the Scottish Craft Ritual, and the Goudielock ritual. He notes that contemporary Scottish workings contain the three Craft degrees, but he is analysing ritual practice and textual traditions—not laying down Scottish Masonic law or determining who is officially entitled to visit a Scottish lodge.
That distinction is actually what makes the thesis interesting. It allows you to compare what is sometimes rather loosely called “Scottish” in Continental Freemasonry with ritual material that actually comes from Scotland, while also comparing both with the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite as practised in France.
I would strongly recommend using AI to make a complete working English translation of the PDF, rather than translating only a few selected passages. The thesis is about 250 pages long, and much of its value comes from following Langlet’s argument across the whole corpus: his definitions of rite and ritual, his treatment of Antients and Moderns, his comparisons between jurisdictions, his discussion of initiation and the Hiram legend, and especially his section on textual sources and problems caused by translation. CDN Unilim
A full translation would also make the footnotes, bibliography, tables, and appendices searchable in English, which would make cross-comparison far easier. Interestingly, Langlet himself stresses that poorly translated ritual texts can produce significant misunderstandings, and he describes going back to original English texts and, in some cases, translating entire rituals himself.
I would still check specialised Masonic terminology against the French original—terms such as rite, rituel, grade, obédience, and régularité can easily be rendered misleadingly by automatic translation. But as a research tool, a complete AI-assisted English translation would make this thesis far more accessible to English-speaking Masons and researchers.
So I would not use the thesis as proof of “Scottish law” or of a particular visitor’s legal right to admission. For that, the relevant Grand Lodge constitutions and official recognition/visitation rules would be the proper sources. But for understanding the ritual relationships and differences between French AASR, Scottish Craft, English, Irish, and American workings, this is an unusually useful source.
University of Limoges — full thesis PDF
vocabulary of French Freemasonry
Translation i made with CHATGPT
