加载中…共济会历史资料——拿破仑与共济会
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Freemasonry under the French
First Empire
http://www.napoleon-empire.com/freemason.php
Chart of the Bonaparte Masonic
Lodge, c. 1810
Emblem of the Supreme Council
of France http://www.scdf.net/
Receipt of a young woman in a
Lodge of Adoption under the First
Empire
Jean-Jacques Régis de
Cambaceres, Grand Commander of the AASR in France from 1806 to
1821.
Was Napoleon Bonaparte a member
of the Masonic Brotherhood? Multiple hypotheses have been advanced
on the subject, and although the probability is high, it has never
been definitely established that he was made a Freemason, either in
Valence (French Department Drome), Marseille, Nancy ("St. John of
Jerusalem" Lodge, December 3, 1797?), Malta, Egypt or
elsewhere.
What is certain is that members
of the expedition he commanded during the Egyptian campaign brought
the Freemasonry to the banks of the Nile. General Kleber founded
the "Isis" Lodge in Cairo (was Bonaparte a co-founder?), while
Brothers Gaspard Monge (member, among others, of the "Perfect
Union" Military Lodge, Mezieres) and Dominique Vivant Denon (a
member of Sophisians, "The Perfect Meeting" Lodge, Paris) were
among the scholars who would make this strategic and military
setback a success that the young General Bonaparte would exploit
upon his return to France.
What is also undeniable is
that, beginning with Bonaparte's coup of 18 Brumaire, the
Freemasonry would thrive for 15 extraordinary years, multiplying
the number of lodges and members. The First Consul Napoleon
Bonaparte, understanding the advantages he could derive from the
obedient Freemasonry, invested in these reliable men, hoping to be
rewarded with faultless servility. He was not
disappointed.
Freemasonry under the
Consulate
When Napoleon Bonaparte came to
power, a text of nine articles was signed on June 22, 1799 (the
21st day of the third year of the V:. L:. 5799) that unified the
Great Lodge of France (Grande Loge De France: GLDF) and the Great
Orient of France (Grand Orient De France: GODF). The text provided
for the assembly of archives of both organizations, removed the
privileges of the masters of the lodges of Paris, entrenched the
tenure of Worshipful Masters, and established a system of election
of officers. However, some "Scottish" lodges rejected this
arrangement.
In 1801, while in Paris,
Brother Jean Portalis ("Friendship" Lodge, Aix-en-Provence)
actively participated in negotiating the Concordat with the Holy
See and drafting the Civil Code with Brothers Jean-Jacques Regis de
Cambaceres and Claude-Ambroise Regnier, a page of Freemason history
was written on May 31 in Charleston, South Carolina. There, Colonel
John Mitchell, a merchant born in Ireland, and Frederick Dalcho, a
physician born in London of Prussian parents, "opened the Supreme
Council 33° for the United States of America", the first Supreme
Council of rite in 33 grades that would take the name Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite (AASR) of France. It would announce its
creation through a circular distributed "across both hemispheres"
on January 1, 1803.
The Master Masons of the two
great rival systems (Ancients and Moderns) were eligible
indiscriminately, regardless of religion (hence perhaps the term
"Accepted"). The motto Ordo ab Chao was adopted which, in
organizational terms, expressed the desire to create a coherent
system of degrees and to end the chaotic profusion of high grades.
The rite, whose ranks were all of French origin, synthesized the
influences initially spun by the English lodges, Scottish Lodges of
Perfection, dissident structures such as the Council of the Eastern
Knights of Brother Pirlet, the Order of Scottish Trinitarians, and
the Order of the Flamboyant Star of Baron Tschoudy, and of the
administrative system of the Mother Lodge of the Scottish Social
Contract, which was a member of Count Auguste de Grasse-Tilly
(started in 1783 in the "Saint John of the Scottish Social
Contract" Lodge, Paris).
The universality of the AASR
was founded on the basis of 33 successive degrees of initiation and
the content of its various grades that encompassed almost all
sources of ancestral spirituality in the West and Middle East. It
was, therefore, not possible to claim the AASR without rigorously
following its initiation rites and trusting the consistency of its
gradual evolution.
In 1801, the Vatican reiterated
its ban on priests receiving Masonic initiation.
The same year, the Freemason
Rulebook, on the Modern French Rite of the Great Orient of France,
was published, in line with the first Moderns, House of Grades of
the Great Orient and some aspects of the Rectified Scottish Regime
(RSR) that were made in 1795 by the Great Worship Master
Alexander-Louis Ro?ttiers de Montaleau.
This document was consistent
with decisions made in 1785, but in 1796 was repudiated by the
Grand Orient, which had opted for communication of rituals to be
exclusively in handwritten, not printed, form. The ritual of the
French Rite was subsequently revised several times.
Regarding the Rectified
Scottish Rite, 1801 saw the beginning of a three-year
correspondence between Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, of Lyon ("founder"
of the RSR in France and general counsel of Department Rhone by the
First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte since June 1, 1800) and
Claude-Fran?ois Achard, of Marseille (Worshipful Master of The
Triple Union, which resumed its work on June 1, 1801). In September
1802, Brother Taxil was received in Lyon by Willermoz and tasked to
copy the "new rituals," which took five years.
On November 12, 1802 (the 12th
day of the ninth month of the year of the V:. L:. 5802), a circular
from the Grand Orient of France condemned the "so-called Scottish"
Lodges and invited Brothers to "turn from our Temples a seed of
discord that, during the most tempestuous times, seemed to have
been respected." So as to maintain "regular lodges in France," the
GODF began to write off all lodges practicing a rite other than the
French Rite of seven degrees – an action that specifically targeted
Scottish Mother Lodges.
The year 1804 saw, in the
atmosphere following the global exclusion of the Grand Orient, the
Count of Grasse-Tilly returning to France and founding the Supreme
Council of the 33rd Degree on September 22. It met on October 22 at
the Scottish General Grand Lodge of France with the participation
of the Scottish Mother Lodge of Marseilles. Both lodges had refused
the merger with the Grand Orient in 1799, and were "blacklisted" by
the Big East because of "discrepancies" - that is, for practicing
the Scottish Rite – as representatives of Santo Domingo lodges
followed the rite of Ancients, and, according to some sources, the
Prince of Rohan, who had signed the Morin patent in 1761. Louis
Bonaparte became the Grand Master.
Seeing the Supreme Council
extended de facto authority over the lodges' first three degrees,
the Grand Orient suddenly had the power to sign a contract that
merged the Scottish Grand Lodge with the Grand Orient, but left in
existence a Sublime Council of the 33rd degree, which remained the
sole authority to confer this level and to "decide on everything
that was a point of honor."
Freemasonry under the
Empire
It was during this period that
French Freemasonry would experience its first golden age, as the
number of lodges grew from 300 to 1,220 in ten years.
Bonaparte (initiated in "The
Perfect Sincerity" Lodge of Marseilles) became Grand Master of the
Grand Orient, which was entirely devoted to Napoleon and rarely
failed to criticize the fiercely independent Scottish
lodges.
Napoleon's relationship with
the Grand Orient was all the more excellent that Ro?ttiers de
Montaleau undertook to purify anti-Bonapartists, and that there
were then among the dignitaries of the obedience:
Prince Louis
Bonaparte
The Chancellor of the Empire
Jean-Jacques Régis of Cambaceres
Marshals Andre Massena
(initiated in Toulon in 1784 by "The Students of Minerva," a member
of many lodges, including "The Real Friends Meeting" in Nice and
the military lodge "The Perfect Friendship," GODF administrator and
member of the Supreme Council), Joachim Murat, Fran?ois Etienne
Christophe Kellermann ("Saint Napoleon" Lodge, Paris), Charles
Augereau (initiated in the lodge "The Children of Mars" in The
Hague during his assignment in Holland, then a member of the
Parisian Lodge "The Candor" before becoming Worshipful Master of
the "Friends of the Arts and Glory" regimental Lodge), Fran?ois
Joseph Lefebvre ("Friends Meeting," Mainz), Catherine Dominique de
Perignon, Jean-Mathieu Philibert Serurier (Parisian lodges "St.
Alexander of Scotland" and "The Imperial Bee"), Guillaume Brune
("Saint-Napoleon", Orient of Paris and "The Constant Friendship"),
Adolphe Edouard Casimir Joseph Mortier (33°), Jean-de-Dieu Soult
and Jean Lannes
Senators Antoine-César de
Choiseul-Praslin ("The Candor," Paris), Arnail-Francis de Jancourt,
Louis-Joseph-Charles Amable de Luynes and Dominique Clement de
Ris
Deputy Luc Duranteau de
Baune
Grand Chancellor of the Legion
of Honor Bernard Germain Etienne de Lacepede (member of the "Nine
Sisters" and "Saint Napoleon" lodges in Paris)
Scholar Joseph Jér?me
Lefran?ois de Lalande (the first Worshipful Master of the "Nine
Sisters" Lodge in Paris)
Generals Etienne Macdonald and
Horace Sebastiani
Contre-Admiral Charles Rene
Magon de Medine
Ambassador Pierre Riel de
Beurnonville
Interior Minister Jean-Baptiste
de Nompere de Champagny
Constable Joseph Fouché
(initiated in the "Sophie Madeleine, Queen of Sweden" Lodge in
Arras) and the first president of the Court of Appeal Honoré
Muraire (in original records of the secularization of the Civil
State).
Brother Jean-Antoine Chaptal
("The Perfect Union," Montpellier) was in charge of
agriculture.
Clearly the Freemasonry was
still in power, and its influence not hidden.
Napoleon I, whether he had been
initiated or not, was wary of Freemasonry, which he monitored
through Joseph Fouché, and although the lodges displayed his bust
in their temples and considered any challenge to his regime a
serious Masonic error, some workshops were devoted mainly to
celebrating the glory of the Emperor ("Napoléomagne", "The French
Saint-Napoleon"), while others used the distinctive Masonic signage
to conceal the work of subversive royalist activities ("St.
Napoleon", in Angers).
There was a strong development
of Masonic military lodges under the Empire, and Napoleon saw in
that Masonic presence a powerful means of military cohesion and a
tool for his European ambitions (using his own passionate feelings
to unite the Brotherhood).
As for Lodges of Adoption
(women's lodges attached to men's lodges by a ritual called
"adoption"), most weakened under the Empire, except for those of
the Empress Josephine, who was a Grand Mistress ("Free Knights" and
"Sainte Caroline" Lodges of Adoption, in Paris). In 1808, Lodges of
Adoption were banned by the male Masons as "contrary to its
constitution". The Masonic practice of adoption did not survive
into the nineteenth century, except marginally.
Trade guilds, which had been
banned during the Revolution – a prohibition reinforced by the
Consulate – were tolerated, but closely monitored, under the
Empire. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the guilds were
organized around three rites. The rite of Father Soubise included
roofers, plasterers and carpenters. Those seen as heirs to the Holy
Duty to God (Catholic, royalist and Bonapartist), followers of
Master Jacques, gathered stonemasons, smiths and tanners, as well
as some otherprofessions (rope makers, basket makers, hatters,
etc.).
Under the rite of Solomon,
which welcomed Protestant or agnostic members with a Republican,
left-leaning political sensitivity, one found foreign stonemasons
(C:.E:.) and the Journeymen of the Duty of Freedom (I:.N:.D:.G:.),
which separated from the Duty of Freedom in 1804 under the pressure
of freethinking and anticlerical trade union members. It was during
that period that a French Freemason journeyman introduced the third
grade in the Duty of Freedom (which now included affiliates of
members), and an aristocratic body (the "insiders") composed mainly
of members established as Masters was formed.
In 1804, the system of
Beneficent Knights of the Holy City (the final stage of the
Rectified Rite or Regime), which had been dormant during the French
Revolution, was revived in Besan?on.
In 1805, the first of two
series of the rite of Mizraim (symbolic degrees 1-33° and
philosophical degrees 34-66°) developed in France and Italy,
borrowing various high levels from the eighteenth century (to
compete with the AASR):
The rite of the Metropolitan
Chapter of France
The Rite of Perfection of the
Council of Eastern and Occidental Emperors (also used for
AASR)
The Adonhiramite
rite
The rite of the Grand Lodge of
the Regular Masters of Lyon
The rite of the Scottish Mother
Lodge of Marseilles
The Strict Templar Observance
(SOT) and the Rectified Scottish Rite (RSR),
The Primitive Rite of Namur,
the Scottish Philosophical Rite of Avignon, the Golden Rosicrucian,
the Inside Brothers of Asia and the Egyptian Rite of
Cagliostro.
Specific contributions rose
from the gradations of Chaos (49-50°) and Key Masonics
(54-57°).
That same year, Charles-Maurice
de Talleyrand-Perigord was introduced to the Imperial Lodge of the
Free Knights in Paris, where he remained apprenticed throughout his
life.
It was also in 1805 that the
Grand Orient created a Grand Executive Board of Rites, where some
Brothers received the 33rd degree, in violation of agreements with
the Sublime Council. The latter reacted by denouncing the text,
restoring the Grand Lodge and Scottish General, and reinstating its
authority over the entire AASR. But again, the imperial power
intervened on behalf of the Grand Orient and forced the signing of
a power-sharing agreement that gave it authority over the first
eighteen degrees, with the Supreme Council of France overseeing the
nineteenth to thirty-third.
Contrary to the wishes of
Napoleon, there were now two rival Masonic powers in France, so the
next year, to ensure control of the Supreme Council, he named
Chancellor Jean Jacques Régis de Cambaceres the Sovereign Grand
Commander instead of Grasse-Tilly or one of several dignitaries of
the Grand Orient (Dominique Clement de Ris, Pierre Riel de
Beurnonville, Catherine Dominique de Pérignon, Honoré Muraire,
D'Aigrefeuille, etc.).
In the next decade, the Supreme
Council dedicated itself to developing the "Guide to Scottish
Freemasons", which took its roots from the Scottish Mother Lodges
and Freemasonry of English and American Ancients (particularly
Three Distinct Knocks of 1760) but also in the Freemason Regulator
of the Modern French Rite. For the blue lodges (the first three
workshops degrees), there was the "Journal of Symbolic three grades
of the Ancient and Accepted Rite".
On February 18, 1806, two
months after the battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon I decided to build
a triumphal arch, a project that involved several Freemasons.
Brother Jean-Baptiste Champagny Nompère convinced the Emperor to
choose the site of the monument in these terms: "An Arch of Triumph
that features the most majestic, superb and picturesque view, of
the imperial palace of the Tuileries ... It will strike admiration
in the traveler entering Paris ... It will imprint in any visitor
to the French capital an indelible memory of its incomparable
beauty ... Although the visitor has gone away, he will always have
in front of him the triumphant arch. Your Majesty will cross it on
your way to Malmaison, St. Germain, St. Cloud and even to
Versailles ..."
Brother Jean Chalgrin ("The
Simple Hearts of the North Star" Lodge, Paris), an architect, drew
up the plans, based upon an initial draft prepared by Brother
Charles Louis Balzac ("The Great Sphinx" Lodge, Paris). Under the
July Monarchy (constitutional monarchy in France under King
Louis-Philippe, starting with the July Revolution of 1830), two
Brothers were to be in charge of the sculpture in bas-relief of the
North Face - Francois Rude (The Marseillaise) and Jean-Pierre
Cortot (The Peace of Vienna).
It was probably also in 1806
that Pierre-Joseph Briot, Governor of Abruzzo (under the authority
of Joseph Bonaparte), introduced the Carbonari in Italy and started
a "Secret Society of Philadelphian Republicans" at Besan?on, "Good
Cousin Carbonari" of the woodsman rite of Alexander the Great's
Order of the Forger, which became affiliated at the rite of Mizraim
in 1810.
Meanwhile, Filippo Buonarroti,
a French revolutionary from Pisa and an old friend of Gracchus
Babeuf, who knew Briot at Sospel, spent 30 years serving the
lodges, especially within his own organization ("The Perfect
Sublime Masters", under the direction of a "Great Firmament"), to
cover up the spread of revolutionary ideas, Babouvist ideals and
communism. Although its incidence was relatively limited, this
unfortunate confusion between Freemasons and Carbonari ideas would
quickly be interpreted as the politicization of the
lodges.
The same year, 1806, saw the
demise of the Strict Templar Observance (SOT), which did not
survive the Revolution, as well as the introduction of the RSR and
the loss of interest of its great master Charles of Hesse-Cassel,
who became much more passionate about his research and mystical
theurgics than about the Freemasonry.
Not counting the Anderson texts
(The Constitutions of the Free-Masons of Pastor James Anderson,
published in 1723), which defined the Freemasons of British
influence, the statutes enacted in 1806 by the Grand Orient of
France merely noted that "the Masonic Order in France was composed
only of Freemasons recognized as such, assembled at regular
workshops for camaraderie".
Also in 1806, archaeologist
Alexandre Du Mège (or Dumège) founded an Egyptian rite, the
"Sovereign Pyramid of Friends of the Desert", in Toulouse. There
were some spin-offs in the region (Auch, Montauban), but they
didn't last. The Friends of the Desert came into contact with the
neighboring Napoleomagne Lodge, whose members had revived the
Jacobite Scottish Rite of "Scottish Faithful," brought to Toulouse
in 1747 by George Lockhart, aide to Charles Edward Stuart. The
Grand Executive Board of Rites of the Grand Orient of France
rejected this rite, based on Eastern occultism, in
1812.
In 1808, Brother Michel Ange de
Mangourit, Grand Officer of the Scots Philosophical rite (who was
temporary Foreign Minister in the Government of the Convention in
November 1794), revived the Masonic "adoption" practice by creating
the "Sovereign Metropolitan Chapter of the Ladies Scottish Hospice
of France in Mount Tabor, Paris", which consisted mainly of women
of imperial nobility. This highly esteemed lodge, which would
operate until 1830, had a "class of choice" (Novice Freemason and
Discreet Companion), two grades of Perfection, or "Great Mysteries"
(Mistress Adonis and Mistress Moralist), and two highest grades
(Historical and Philosophical).
In Naples, where Joachim Murat
became king on August 1, 1808, the (military) Franco-Italian lodges
saw a blossoming of the Rite of Mizraim, which would last until the
end of the Empire. In 1811, Murat required the Grand Orient and
Supreme Council of Naples to unify, and became their Grand
Commander. It was doubtless during this period that the first
attempts were made to establish the Rite of Mizraim in France. The
rite thus received its third series (67-77° mystic degrees) the
last (78-90°) would be introduced only until about 1812 in
Naples.
In 1809, the Pope Pius VII was
arrested by order of Napoleon, in anger over his excommunication
because of the capture of Rome and the despoliation of the Papal
States. It seemed the Emperor had not lost the support of the Grand
Orient when he introduced a certain anticlericalism in the lodges,
but the Pope did not forget how the Freemasons supported
Napoleon.
In 1810, there arose in France
a groundswell of opposition to republican secret societies such as
the Carbonari founded by Arnaud Bazard, Jacques Flotard and Brother
Jacques Buchez. In the region of Besan?on, a revolutionary movement
of Carbonari Cousins tried to infiltrate the lodges to let in
opposing ideas and recruit workers to participate in a republican
uprising. The Carbonari were organized into groups of twenty
members, coordinated by a "High" group that belonged to Brother
Lafayette (it also housed the venerable "Friends of Truth" of Rosoy
and member of Supreme Council).
At the other end of the
political spectrum, Count Ferdinand de Bertier in 1810 founded the
"Knights of the Faith" ("Banner Association"), an ultra-royalist
political movement based on ancient and medieval orders and the
more recent and concrete experience of the Philanthropic Institute.
The order had five grades: Charity Partner, Squire, Knight, Knight
of Hospitality, and Knight of Faith. Several of its members also
belonged to the religious congregation of the "Blessed
Virgin".
In 1811, several Masonic events
occurred:
Brother Jean-Baptiste Jules
Bernadotte - Marshal of the Empire, who the previous year had
become hereditary prince of Sweden - reformed the Swedish rite,
whose organization still exists in twelve degrees in the 21st
century.
The Provincial Grand Lodge of
Hamburg adopted the rite developed by Brother Friedrich Ludwig
Schroeder, limited to three symbolic grades, inspired by the
ancient "Templar" Freemasonry - a rite still practiced today in
some lodges in Germany, Austria, Hungary and
Switzerland.
In Egypt, the "Mother Lodge of
Paris of the Scottish Philosophical Rite" was founded in Cairo
("Knights of the Pyramids") and Alexandria ("Friends of the
Concorde").
In Spain, the Count of
Grasse-Tilly installed the Spanish Supreme Council.
In 1813, the Rite of Mizraim
was endowed from 90 degrees from the impetus of Charles Lechangeur,
Theodoric Cerbes and brothers Marc, Michel and Joseph Bédarride.
Pierre Lassalle, grand master of Mizraim in Naples, was probably
the one who introduced the Arcana Arcanorum in the "Plan of Naples"
to the primitive rite of Mizraim. At the same time, the occultist
Lodge of the "Commanders of Mount Tabor", linked to the Scottish
Philosophical Rite, was founded, while a lodge of Egyptian Rite of
Cagliostro ("The Vigilanza") continued its work independently of
Mizraim.
The same year in England, after
more than half a century of conflict, the Union Act put an end to
the quarrel between the Ancients and Moderns, merging them into a
universal masonry at three degrees (Emulation rite), in which
explicit references to Christianity were removed.
After the first abdication of
Napoleon and his exile to Elba, the Grand Orient provided support
to King Louis XVIII, affirming the position that the Empire was
only tyranny. This led many Freemasons to resign, especially as the
Grand Orient changed its position again during the Hundred
Days.
The Battle of Waterloo saw the
end of the First Empire and of the great period of military lodges.
The units commanded by Brothers Michel Ney (initiated in 1801 at
the "St. John of Jerusalem" Lodge in Nancy, then a member of "The
Candor" Lodge of the 6th Corps of the Grand Army), Pierre Cambronne
and Emmanuel de Grouchy (of the "Heroism" Lodge in Beauvais and the
"Candor" Lodge in Strasbourg) were defeated by those headed by
Brothers Arthur Wellesley of Wellington (of the "Wellesley Family
Lodge # 494" of Trim, Ireland) and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher
("Archimedes" Lodge in Altenburg). Most of the marshals of the
Empire were Freemasons, as were many of their opponents, including
the English Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson (York Union Lodge # 331),
Sir John Moore, Marshal Mikha?l Illarionovitch Kutuzov ("The Three
Keys" Lodge, Regensburg) and General Jean-Victor Marie
Moreau.
Among the famous Freemasons of
the Empire were:
Prince Jerome Bonaparte
(acknowledged as Wolf Cub when he was 17 years old at the "Peace"
Lodge in Toulon, then serving as Grand Master of the Grand Mother
Lodge of Westphalia)
Prince Eugene de Beauharnais,
Viceroy of Italy (founder of the Grand Orient and Supreme Council
of Italy)
Prince Marshal Jozef Antoni
Poniatowski ("Bracia Polacy Zjetnoczeni" Lodge,
Warsaw)
Marshal Bon Adrien Jannot de
Moncey, Duke of Conegliano
Marshal Nicolas Charles
Oudinot, Duke of Reggio ("Saint Napoleon" Lodge,
Amsterdam)
Marshal Louis-Gabriel Suchet,
Duke of Albufera
Grand Marshal of the Palace
Géraud-Michel Duroc, Duke of Friuli
General Jean Andoche Junot,
Duke of Abrantes (initiated in Toulon in 1794 by "The Children of
Mars and Neptune" and member of "The Great Master" Lodge,
Paris)
General Armand de Caulaincourt,
Duke of Vicenza ("Friends Meeting" and "Candor" lodges,
Paris)
General général Jacques
Alexandre Law de Lauriston ("Sully" Lodge, regiment of Toul, and
deputy Grand Master of the GODF)
General Louis Bertrand de
Sivray
General Charles Tristan de
Monthollon
General Remi Joseph Isidore
Exelmans
General Joseph Leopold
Sigisbert Hugo ("Friends of the French Honor" Lodge)
Admiral Charles-Henri
Verhuell
Joseph Simeon (Attorney for
GODF, then Grand Master of the Kingdom of Westphalia)
Astronomer Pierre-Simon de
Laplace
Baron Jean-Domique Larrey
("Children of Mars" Lodge at the 27th RI)
Sir Charles-Louis Cadet de
Gassicourt
Painters Pierre Prud'hon ("The
Charity" Lodge, Beaune), Fran?ois Gerard ("The Great Sphinx" Lodge,
Paris) and Jean-Baptiste Isabey ("Friends Meeting" and
"Saint-Napoleon" lodges, Paris)
The tragedian Fran?ois-Joseph
Talma ("The Union" Lodge, Paris)
Academic Georges
Cabanis
Writer and politician Benjamin
Constant
Architects Alexandre Brongniart
("Saint John of the Social Contract" Lodge, Paris) and Pierre
Fontaine
Composers Luigi Cherubini
("Saint John of Palestine" Lodge, the GODF) and Andre
Gretry
Sculptor Claude Clodion
("Friends Meeting" Lodge, Paris)
Academic Joseph Lakanal ("The
Perfect Point" and "The Triple Harmony" lodges, Paris)
Industrialist Christophe
Oberkampf ("The Perfect Harmony" Lodge, Paris)
Privateer Robert Surcouf
(initiated in 1796 to the "The Triple hope" Lodge in Port Louis,
Mauritius and a member in 1809 of "The Triple Essence" Lodge in
Saint-Malo)...
The fall of Napoleon caused to
a large extent that of French Freemasonry. Louis XVIII was returned
to power, and during the subsequent White Terror, people suspected
of having ties with the government of the French Revolution or
Napoleon – including the military and Freemasons – saw their armies
and lodges decimated by "Knights of Faith," led by General Amédée
Willot de Gramprez, a freemason himself. Duke Elie Decazes, Prefect
of Police and a member of the Supreme Council of France, was hardly
able to limit attacks against the Freemasons. The Freemasons would
later, like many public figures, capitalize on political
opportunism. But they would have to wait until the Second Empire
and, more importantly, the Third Republic, before the Freemasonry
would know a second "golden age" in France.
Lionel A. Bouchon and Didier
Grau, webmasters of this site, warmly thank their friend who
permitted them to use his personal archives about Freemasonry
during French Consulate and First Empire.
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