FRENCH MASONIC HISTORY AND ITS HISTORIOGRAPHY
by Pierre Mollier
Transcript of the Public Lecture given at the CMRC on 9 June 1999
When I start giving a lecture about masonic history in France, I usually
quote, as a precious advice, this wonderful sentence of the great French
historian Marc Bloch: "There is a mortal sin for historians: anachronism". Being
a Freemason in France is of course a quite different thing at different times -
1760, 1830, 1905 or 1999. When, in circumstances similar to this one, where I am
giving a public lecture in France, I tell those present "Please, if you want to
understand this lecture, forget what you know as a Freemason living in Paris in
1999". Of course anachronism is a danger in all fields of historical research,
and it is worth noting that Marc Bloch never dealt with masonic history. But I
do think that masonic historians are, more than their colleagues in other
branches of historical research, exposed to this "mortal sin"… especially in
France. There is another difficulty which we face here today - I have heard that
here in Britain, there is an organisation which is also called Freemasonry even
if it appears to be quite different from what we, the French consider
Freemasonry to be! So the word Freemasonry could be a concept that the French
and English do not agree about. Of course, I am teasing the audience - but
scholars should be careful about the differences which exist between the various
masonic traditions. So, what could be the origin of interest for a British
scholar to study French masonic history? I will try to convince you that there
are some good reasons for you to look at French masonic history.
- The first reason is the study of an original institution which played an
important role in the development of one of the leading countries in Europe
during the last three centuries. French Freemasonry was involved in the
political, artistic and philosophical life of France. Even if French
professional historian discovered it only twenty years ago, in most of the
fields of French Modern History [XVIII to XX centuries] you cannot make a
serious study without considering the role of Freemasonry.
You cannot study French Enlightenment without a glimpse at the history and
work of the lodge Les Neuf Soeurs (The Nine Sisters) in the 1780s. You cannot
understand the Napoleon adventure without considering the Grand Orient at that
time, and so on. August Viatte, a historian of literature who wrote Les
sources occultes du Romantisme demonstrated the great influence of
esoteric masonry on Romanticism.
But, at this academic Centre for the study of Freemasonry [CMRC], I presume
the public will be more concerned about the motives to study French
Freemasonry which are linked more to the general history of Freemasonry.
- Most of continental Europe discovered Freemasonry through French
Freemasonry. So in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland,
Spain, masonic brothers practice masonry which is influenced by the French
system. Their rituals have strong French origins. Masonic meetings are
organised around lectures and debates on a philosophical or symbolic matter. A
good knowledge of French masonic history is very useful if one wishes to get
some key information about the history of the lodges in general in continental
Europe. Moreover Latin-American Freemasonry could not be understood without
taking into account the strong French influence in the 19th century. Masonry
has played quite an important role in politics in Mexico and Argentina and you
will find a bust of Voltaire [an embodiment of French Freemasonry] in the Hall
of the Grande Lodge of Chile.
- Even for British masonic history, the studying of French Freemasonry is
very interesting. With original documents on lodges being so rare in Britain,
French masonic archives from the period around 1740s to the beginning of 19th
century could be very important.
The origins of most of the oldest masonic traditions are of course British,
but the first testimonies are often French, especially regarding the history
of rituals. The great Harry Carr has made brilliant proof of this in his
"Early French Exposure". Just as an example, the oldest knight Templars
rituals in Britain are the Sheffield rituals circa 1790. In France the oldest
ritual, recently discovered, dates 1750 and there are tens of manuscript
copies dating before the 1790s.
- As a final point by which I will try to persuade you of the importance of
studying the history of French Freemasonry, I will mention the development of
the higher degrees. I truly believe that the oldest higher degrees which are
part of the first British Speculative Freemasonry have their origin between
1740 and 1760 and this phenomenon is particularly linked to French
developments. All the documents on the higher degrees before 1760-70 are
French, even the first rituals of Royal Arch degrees, for instance.
Petit résumé historique
The classical historiography of French Freemasonry relies on three names:
Thory, Ragon and Clavel … even if we know today that their books are quite
unreliable, historically speaking! Thory published in 1812 Histoire de la
Fondation du Grand Orient de France and in 1815 Acta Latomorum.
Clavel is the author of Historie Pittoresque de la Franc-Maçonnerie
published in 1843, and Ragon wrote in 1853 the Ortodoxie Maçonnique.
For many years the three authors have been regarded as the main source of
research by those who investigated Freemasonry in France. Masonic authors - I
intentionally do not say historians - took all their historical informations
from the three mentioned works. The story of French Freemasonry and its
historiography is the chronicle of how historical researchers authenicate or
invalidate the work of Thory, Ragon and Clavel.
Rebold's Histoire des Trois Grandes Loges, Daruty's Histoire du
Rite Ecossais Ancien et Accepté and Jouaust's Histoire du Grand Orient
de France (1866) represent the second step in the development of masonic
bibliography in France. These authors tried to be a little more scientific then
their predecessors, but for most of the time and whenever in doubt, they still
referred to Thory. Rebold is a good source of information for the study of
Freemasonry in XIX century France, as he was quite a reliable witness. Darury's
book is an honest compilation of what has been written on the high degrees
during the XVIII century. For the study of the Scottish Rite, Daruty is an
interesting account. His book presents the oldest version - not the original -
of Patente Morin that Pike sent him; this is quite a valuable account
as other versions of Pike's document have been lost. Jouaust wrote his short
book as if he was in the Grand Orient Archives for one day only! His book is
probably the first historical essay on Masonry made at a quasi- professional
standard.
Looking further for the sources to study French Freemasonry we come to the
strange book of an antimasonic millitant. In 1912, La Franc-Maçonnerie en
France des origines à 1815, les ouvriers de l'idée révolutionnaire
appeared, written by Gustave Bord. This work quotes many new sources, but very
unfortunately without giving any references. When the documents which refer to
this work, however, are discovered from time-to-time, they usually show that
Bord was right. His book is difficult to use, but the information given should
be taken into account in a serious study of French Freemasonry.
With all these books we come closer to the issue of studying Freemasonry from
the archival sources.
Arthur Groussier, The Grand Master of the Grand Orient was a socialist MP and
an engineer, who in 1931 published the first book using modern historical
methodology. When in 1931 he published Constitution du Grand Orient de
France par la Grande Loge Nationale - 1773, for the first time a special
point in masonic history was studied with critical examination through the use
of the archives. Moreover, this work gave for the first time in the appendix a
full transcription of many important masonic documents which nobody seems to
have seen since the eighteen century. Arthur Groussier's work is in this sense a
model for historical methodology in the study of French Freemasonry. What he
wrote might have been evident for a classical historican, but it was very new in
the field of masonic history.
Two further works have introduced high levels of research standards in French
masonic erudition - Roger Priouret's book La Franc-Maçonnerie sous les lys
and especially George Luquet's wonderful book La Franc-Maconnerie et l'Etat
en France au XVIII siècle. Georges Luquet was an acclaimed scholar in
Philosophy and the Grand Chancellor of the Grand Collège des Rites (The Grand
Orient Supreme Council). Both of the afore mentioned authors, but particularly
Luquet, discovered new information on masonry in the classical sources of the
Enlightenment. They studied diaries and memoirs of the XVIII century,
correspondence available in the archives, Police Archives etc. and found
numerous quotations on Freemasonry which gave direct testimony on the
development of the Craft in France. For the first time Priouret and Luquet took
masonic history out of the masonic ghetto. Even if Luquet's book is not known as
it deserves to be, he is as important an author for French history as Knoop,
Jones and Hammer were for masonic scholarship in Britain. His work is especially
important for giving hundreds of XVIII century testimonies and quotations on the
establishment of the first lodges in France.
It is quite peculiar that the two most important historians of French masonry
of the late XX century were not masons. During the 1960's Pierre Chevallier
published two master-pieces with Les Ducs sous l'Acacia and La
Première Profanation du Temple Maçonnique. Those books extended the
research of Priouret and Luquet. Chevallier was a qualified historian
specialising in the XVIII century. He had a deep knowledge and insight into the
classical sources and especially of the police archives. His book gave for the
first time a quite accurate description of the development of French masonry
between 1725 and 1750. The information contained in this work is about who
joined masonry, where and when, where the first lodges were etc.. But, as the
atypical scholar Robert Amadou once said - we will learn very little in those
books about our predecessor's Freemasonry. The question of rituals, masonic
systems used, what was the regarded substance of Freemasonry in those times,
what the people were looking for when joining - these are the questions which
were left unanswered. Pierre Chevallier give very little information on these
questions and it may be that as a professional historian he limited himself to
the traditional methods of historical erudition and did not find that kind of
information in the sources he most usually consulted - police archives. There is
a part-truth in the following bad review of Chevallier's book given by Amadou:
Book superficially perfect… but perfectly superficial!
Nevertheless Chevallier's books are essential for masonic scholars looking at
French Freemasonry. Chevallier published also a classical and enchanting -
although maybe not academic - Histoire de la Franc-Maçonnerie Française in three
volumes.
Another author who advanced scholarly research into Freemasonry in France was
Alain Le Bihan. Franc-Maçons et ateliers parisiens de la Grande Loge de
France au XVIII siècle and Loge et Chapitres de la Grand Loge et du
Grand Orient de France are the daily tools of the French masonic scholars.
If Pierre Chevallier got the maximum of information from the classical
historical resources of the XVIII century, Alain Le Bihan for the first time
gave a global approach and showed the treasure of French masonic archives. Alain
Le Bihan was the first modern scholar to work on the Grand Orient Archives.
The resources for the study of French Freemasonry are:
- The Grand Orient Archives
- The Grand Orient Library
- Masonic department of the National Library
Regional and local monographs:
- Tours and Touraine - Fénéant
- Toulouse - Taillefer
- Normandie-Le Havre - Lecureur-Pringard
- Aix-en-Provence
Information on bibliographical resources may be gained from La Lettre de
l'IDERM, a monthly newsletter of the Institute for the study of Freemasonry
at the Grand Orient.
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