The term "Ecossism" refers in general to any organised and structured Masonic system comprising grades beyond the Master's degree and inspired mainly by the Chivalric Tradition.

In this respect, three of the Rites practised today in regular French Freemasonry come under the heading of Ecossism: the Rectified Scottish Rite (1782), the French Rite (1786) and the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (1801).

Scottishism is a continental phenomenon, mainly French and partly German.

In these societies, which were much more rigid than the English, and in order to attract the upper classes (aristocracy and upper bourgeoisie) to Masonry, degrees with a noble pretence quickly flourished, as did, despite the spirit of the Enlightenment, numerous degrees with an occultist pretence.

This anarchic chaos gradually became ordered and organised into systems, while with Louis de Bourbon, Count of Clermont as Grand Master, the first Grand Lodge of France was organised.

1725: First mention of a "Scottish" Lodge in the records of the Grand Lodge of London. Historians consider that the term referred more to a different Masonic status from the simple Mastery than to the geographical origin of its members.

1736: Chevalier Michel de Ramsay, a Scottish Jacobite exiled in France, probably gave a speech to the Louis d'Argent Lodge in Paris tracing the origin of Freemasonry back to the Crusades (there is a second speech that was to be given at a Grand Lodge Assembly in 1737, which was forbidden by the authorities) These texts constitute the starting point of the chivalric vein of the degrees of Scottishism, which will develop in the years that followed.

1737: First mention in France of the degree of Master Scotsman in the Journal of the Parisian lawyer Barbier (quoted by Amadou).

1743: on the occasion of the election of the Comte de Clermont, Prince of the Blood, as Grand Master of the Lodges of France, General Orders are published, Article 20 of which vigorously condemns the degree of Scottish Master.

1744: publication of the disclosure book The Perfect Mason, of which a chapter is devoted to the Secret of the Scottish Masons.

1744-1745: foundation in Bordeaux of the Lodge La parfaite Harmonie, the first Lodge in France of Scottish Masons. Among its members, the merchant Etienne (Stephen) Morin.

1745: the statutes of the Lodge of St. John of Jerusalem (Grand Lodge of France) presided over by the Comte de Clermont recognize the role of Scottish Masters as superintendents of the work.

1747: foundation of the first Scottish Lodge of Paris, which in 1752 became the Sovereign Council of the Sublime Mother Lodge of Scotland of the Grand Globe Français.

1748-1749 : appearance of the degree of Knight of the East or of the Sword.

around 1750 : Baron von Hund spreads in Germany (then in France) a Masonic system, the Strict Observance Templar, based on the fable that Masonry is the successor and heir of the Order of the Temple.

Around 1760: the rank of Grand Inspector Grand Elected Knight Kadosh appears, while the title of Knight Rose Croix replaces that of Knight of the Eagle.