Napoleon and Freemasonry are the meeting of two great myths: that of the “savior” and that of the secret society. Favorable to the institution, which he made docile and whose growth he favored, the Emperor used it to extend his influence and control over the Empire. On the contrary, he made her one of the pillars of his regime. There are, in fact, rare imperial dignitaries who have not been initiated.
At the dawn of the revolutionary upheavals that would soon shake France, there were nearly a thousand lodges throughout the kingdom around 1770, divided into two obediences, the Grand Lodge known as "de Clermont" (named after its former Grand master) and the Grand Orient, the most important (nearly 700 lodges including 84 in Paris). Established among the nobility and the richest bourgeoisie, Freemasonry is in the hands of dignitaries whose behavior shows the gap that can separate the cultural liberalism manifested by these elites and the political liberalism advocating the abolition of privileges to which most of these Freemasons remain attached. Added to this are the difficulties linked to the cultural gap existing between revolutionary sociability and Masonic sociability, based on practices of secrecy and co-optation, which the revolutionaries condemn.
The difficult times of the Revolution
This appears clearly in the resignation letter of Grand Master Philippe Égalité, who joined the Revolution. Cousin of Louis XVI, whose death he voted for, the now ex-Duke of Orléans has been since 1771 the Grand Master of the first Grand Lodge of France (which became the Grand Orient de France in 1773), without him taking any elsewhere a large part of its activities. His letter, published in the Journal de Paris of February 22, 1793, justifies his conduct: "As I do not know the way in which the great Orient is composed and moreover I think that there must be no mystery nor any secret assembly in a republic, especially at the beginning of its establishment, I no longer want to interfere in any way with the Grand Orient, nor with the assemblies of Freemasons. »
The slumber under the Revolution did not prevent the maintenance of a Masonic life which owed everything to the determination of its followers. In the Parisian workshops, for example, we can highlight the initiatives of Alexandre Roëttiers de Montaleau (former venerable of the Reunited Friends and future director of the Paris Mint) who founded, at the risk of his life, the Reunited Friends Center, workshop into which a clandestine life retreated from 1793. Most of its elements came from the old Guillaume-Tell lodge, made up of officers of the Swiss Guards massacred during the day of August 10, 1792. The lodge even agreed to initiate General Willot, who declared counter-revolutionary. In the provinces, this determination of the Freemasons is perfectly symbolized by the former venerable of the Le Havre lodge La Fidélité, the merchant Jean-Baptiste Allègre, who did not hesitate to create, after his arrest in year II, a lodge prison! The lodges of Toulouse which, in 1793, still had mass said for Saint-Jean, believed they could constitute themselves as “republican lodges of France” before the representatives on mission ordered their closure. Often, the premises are occupied and looted, the archives dispersed or burned by masons themselves, driven by fear of denunciations.
The Revolution lastingly modified Freemasonry. The first transformation concerns the relationship which links the lodges to politics and we see this in the context of imperial masonry. Changes also concern religious behavior. In France committed to the expression of religious diversity, Masonic practices are characterized by the religious neutralization of the temple. Finally, the Revolution accelerated the transformations of the Masonic philanthropic gesture, the primary mission of the lodges. By opening the doors of the temple under the Consulate and the Empire to initiates who are strongly involved in revolutionary philanthropy marked by social utility (charity offices for example), Freemasons can then engage in popular education movements and contribute to consolidating the liberal identity of French Freemasonry.
Bonaparte's Masonic links
In Corsica, the “Babbu di a Patria”, Pascal Paoli, who was a long-time friend of the Bonaparte family, is a great Freemason. Within the clan, Charles, Napoleon's father, was initiated. Later, it will be the four brothers of the future Emperor (Joseph, Lucien, Louis, Jérôme) as well as one of his sisters (Caroline) who will be. Sent to garrison in Valence, Lieutenant Bonaparte befriended young Aurel, the son of a bookseller who was a major Masonic figure in the city.
After his resounding military successes in Italy, General Bonaparte, who was not yet thirty years old, needed support in the Parisian political world. His meeting with Rose (future Joséphine) thus proves decisive. Close to Barras, the strong man of the Directory, the widow of General Beauharnais is also close to Freemasonry (her late husband was an initiate) and she benefits from a very powerful network of influence that she knows how to use perfectly since his correspondence shows that most of his letters are letters of recommendation.
Now at the heart of masonry, Bonaparte will strengthen his ties, particularly from the expedition to Egypt, a country so fascinating for initiates. They are often illustrious scholars who are very numerous to accompany him. It is obvious that for these cultivated minds, steeped in encyclopedism and Enlightenment ideas, going to the Orient is an initiatory journey. It is to go to the place where the Enlightenment which illuminates masonry was born, where civilization, as it is understood in 18th century society, appeared. In the words of Emmanuel Pierrat, historian of Freemasonry, “The Pyramids – which the masons of the expedition will discover – represent for them the summit of architecture, a technical feat that no one can explain to the end of the 18th century, the source of knowledge, science and the idea of Light which makes it possible to irrigate the world. All happening towards the East in the direction of the rising sun which is a priori the Masonic symbolism par excellence. » It was following this campaign that a true Egyptomania was born in France.
Finally, the beginnings of what would develop throughout Napoleonic Europe, the members of the expedition brought masonry to the banks of the Nile: General Kléber founded the Isis lodge in Cairo, a lodge open to foreigners (of which Bonaparte would have been the co-founder?), while the masons Gaspard Monge and Dominique Vivant Denon were among the scientists who made this military failure a scientific success that Bonaparte was able to exploit upon his return to France in 1799.
An Imperial Golden Age?
The coup d'état of 18 and 19 Brumaire Year VIII (9-10 November 1799), which saw Bonaparte take power, was described as "quasi-Masonic" by Jean Tulard. Indeed, both in the entourage of the new strong man of France and among the members of the Council of Five Hundred (one of the assemblies of the Directory), there are many masons who wish for the arrival of a “providential man ". The latter played a determining role during these decisive days, like Cambacérès, Lucien Bonaparte or General Murat. No doubt there are opponents among them. One of the most vindictive is Michel Louis Talbot, a member of the Five Hundred and recently initiated. On 19 Brumaire, he did not hesitate to urge his colleagues to resist by exclaiming that “Bonaparte has no right to enter this enclosure without being summoned.” He was imprisoned in the Conciergerie and then in the Temple before being released in 1801.
Having become First Consul, Bonaparte is perfectly aware of the debt he has just contracted with Freemasonry which will then experience its first golden age. To a perfectly meshed network, we must also add the military lodges (around 90 regimental workshops identified). The latter played a very important role throughout the Consulate and the Empire because Napoleon, who had to lead several campaigns, saw in masonry a powerful means of cohesion for the army and a tool at the service of his European ambitions. Thus, masons represent a quarter of the line infantry management. Nearly three hundred and fifty generals were initiated as well as fourteen of the eighteen marshals (Brune, Kellermann, Lannes, Sérurier, Soult...). Wherever the French army triumphed and in the kingdoms ruled by Napoleonides (Spain, Holland, Naples, Westphalia...), lodges were created. It is estimated that two hundred the number of lodges were created abroad by the French who met thousands of masons, including among the vanquished or their future conquerors. For example, during the Russian campaign in 1812, French officers and soldiers were rescued by their Russian “brothers” during the retreat. The tsar's officers, of noble origin, were often masons whose members owed each other mutual assistance and assistance. Showing the Masonic sign of distress could save the life of anyone who happened to be an initiate in the opposite army. For the anecdote, at the Battle of Waterloo, Marshal Ney and General Cambronne were beaten by the Duke of Wellington and Blücher, also masons. Other notable adversaries of Napoleon I were initiated such as the Englishman Nelson, the Russian Kutuzov, or the “defector” Moreau. Now integrated into the workings of the army and the Napoleonic empire, Freemasons can meet in complete peace of mind.
Freemasons in civil work
Having come to power, Bonaparte displayed his desire to put an end to the divisions born of the Revolution and to better regulate society. For this, he relies on two long-standing masons, Jean-Jacques Régis de Cambacérès and Charles François Lebrun, respectively Second and Third Consuls (then archchancellor and archtreasurer under the Empire). The first, a provincial magistrate, initiated in 1773 in Montpellier, would become the true “protector” of Freemasonry. A very active mason, Cambacérès is a free spirit who has the ear of Napoleon. He also played an important role in the major internal reorganizations that Freemasonry was experiencing during this period. True number two of the imperial regime, the First Consul found in Cambacérès his main relay with the lodges, especially as Bonaparte wished to codify the rules of society and rebuild a social bond after the destruction of the society of order of the Old regime. He thus wishes to base his regime on these “granite masses”, institutions capable of uniting the country’s elites.
The Civil Code, envisaged since the Revolution and in which the masons Cambacérès, Claude Ambroise Régnier, and Jean Étienne Marie Portalis actively participated, was completed in 1804. It was a matter of synthesizing the different rights of the Ancien Régime and the rights of revolutionaries to unify the country. The text, imbued with secularism, is deeply inspired by Masonic principles.
At the same time, the consular regime tried to come to an understanding with the Church which had emerged bruised from the revolutionary years marked by dechristianization. In 1801, it was again the mason Portalis (from the L'Amitié lodge in Aix-en-Provence) who actively participated in the negotiation of the Concordat with the Holy See. The Pope naturally took a very dim view of Freemasonry and in the same year reiterated the ban on priests receiving Masonic initiation.
The reorganization of the masonry
This had already begun at the end of the Directory after the merger, on June 22, 1799, of the Grand Lodge with the Grand Orient de France (GODF), both weakened by the Revolution. On November 12, 1802, a circular from the GODF condemned the “so-called Scottish” lodges and invited the brothers to “divert a seed of discord.” Now "agent of the regular lodges of France", the GODF begins to deregister all lodges practicing a rite other than the French rite in seven degrees, which particularly targets Scottish lodges and Mother Lodges.
The year 1804 saw the discord between the GODF and the Scottish lodges reignite, particularly after the foundation on September 22 of the Supreme Council of the 33rd degree in France.
A month later, a convent (1) brought together the Grand Scottish General Lodge of France with the participation of the Scottish Mother Lodge of Marseille, lodges which refused the merger with the Grand Orient in 1799 as well as those which were " blacklisted” by the GODF because of their “discrepancy,” that is, their practice of the Scottish Rite. Louis Bonaparte becomes its Grand Master. Seeing the Supreme Council de facto extending its authority over lodges of the first three degrees, the Grand Orient refers to the power which decides in its favor. On December 5, 1804, the GODF and the Scottish Grand Lodge signed an act of union which made the first city the only obedience of the Empire recognized by the government. Thus, the Scottish Grand Lodge must merge with the Grand Orient which, however, allows the persistence of a Sublime Council of the 33rd degree which remains the only one authorized to confer this grade and to “pronounce on everything which concerns the point of honor”.
From this moment, French Freemasonry almost regained unity. Napoleon's relations with the Grand Orient were all the more excellent since Roëttiers de Montaleau, a great figure in French masonry (2), had previously agreed to carry out the purge of the regime's adversaries.
Under the Ancien Régime, imperial masonry places at its head high personalities who guarantee its tranquility if not its independence. On September 30, 1803, the first appointment of officers took place, including Murat as first Grand Supervisor and the Count of Lacépède, Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor, as second Grand Supervisor. The First Consul having refused the dignity of Grand Master, it fell to his brother Joseph (initiated into the La Perfecte Sincerité lodge in Marseille in 1793). Louis Bonaparte becomes Deputy Grand Master. Cambacérès and Lebrun are, for their part, appointed general administrators. The archchancellor even became deputy grand master on December 13, 1805, making him, de facto, the real leader.
We can therefore speak of an “official” Freemasonry since it was Cambacérès who inspired and published the statutes of the Masonic Order in France in 1806. The College of the Order, composed of one hundred and forty-eight great officers, included among its members imperial dignitaries such as Fouché, Maret (minister secretary of state), Régnier (grand judge, minister of Justice), twenty-four marshals, and generals. There are also many senators. We also find a man of the church in the person of Alès d’Anduze, vicar general of the archbishop of Arras. Even Talleyrand was initiated in 1805 into the Imperial Lodge of the Francs Chevaliers in Paris but he remained an apprentice all his life... Thus, under the protection of Cambacérès, ten years began of development of the most diverse rites but unified around the cult of the Emperor within the Grand Orient. The archchancellor even revealed himself to be a “cumulated” since he became Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of Rites and Grand Master of Honor of the Supreme Council of the 33rd degree of the Scottish Rite (August 1806), Grand Master of Honor of the Heredom Rite ( October 1806), Grand Master of the Mother Lodge of the Philosophical Scottish Rite (March 1807), Grand Master of the Primitive Rite (March 1808), Grand Master of the Rite of the Beneficent Knights of the Holy City (March 1809). In a few years, he became the “patriarch” of all rites.
We see it with Cambacérès, it is also a very rich period that sees the development and emergence of numerous rites. In 1805 the first two series of the Misraïm rite were developed in France and Italy. Let us also cite the rite of the Metropolitan Chapter of France, the rite of Perfection of the Council of Emperors of the East and West, the rite of the Grand Lodge of Regular Masters of Lyon, the rite of the Scottish Mother Lodge of Marseille, without forget the Strict Templar Observance (SOT) and the Rectified Scottish Rite (RER), the Primitive rite of Namur, the Philosophical Scottish rite of Avignon, the Golden Rosicrucian, the Initiated Brothers of Asia and the Egyptian rite of Cagliostro…
What about the masons in all this? Most adoption lodges, that is to say, female lodges attached to male lodges and practicing a so-called “adoption” ritual, declined although Empress Joséphine was their grand mistress. In 1808, they even ended up being banned by men as “contrary to their constitutions”. The practice of Masonic adoption only survived marginally during the 19th century.
A masonry of notables
Napoleon deliberately favored the “Masonic concordat”. Having undertaken to constitute intermediary bodies dedicated to bringing together elites and supporting his regime, he wishes to take advantage of a controlled revival of the activity of lodges, mistreated and then banned during the first years of the Revolution before reappearing unofficially. under the Directory. The counterpart of this rebirth and the concentration of lodges in a single official obedience and under the orders of the imperial power.
This controlled masonry merges elites from the most diverse backgrounds within the same workshops while diverting them from political action, at least we hope. It is one of the tools for managing the mass of notables. However, this does not establish an equivalence between initiation and unconditional support for the regime: opponents continue to wear the apron, like Jean-Pierre Basterrèche, a Bayonne merchant and... relative of Cambacérès. But they remain supervised and confined in an institution under the influence.
The different tables of the lodges and the results of a vast investigation ordered by the government in 1811 show that the "columns" are mainly populated by soldiers and administrators, even if the presence of merchants and lawyers should not be neglected. There are fewer farmers and even owners in a France that is nevertheless predominantly rural. If the presence of “workers” is sometimes reported, it remains rare enough to be an exception (as in La Perfect Union d’Albi).
With this masonry of notables, we will have understood, that as long as the successes are there, the masons celebrate the power to benefit from its benevolence. The bust of the Emperor sits in temples, the victories of the regime are celebrated, just like Saint-Napoléon and the name of the Emperor is given to numerous workshops: Saint-Napoléon, in Angers, Châteauroux and Montargis; Saint-Napoléon de la Bonne Amitié, in Lyon; The Faithful Friends of Saint-Napoleon, in Marseille, etc. Any challenge to the regime is considered a serious Masonic offense. Certain workshops are essentially dedicated to celebrating the glory of the Emperor. Many Freemasons even compete in lyricism to praise Napoleon: “Grace be to you, oh immortal hero whom we are all proud to call our Brother. […] Among the sons of Light, Bonaparte was the only one chosen. And, to pacify the Earth, a single Freemason was enough. » Thierry Lentz stressed that we can hardly go further in praising Napoleon than the texts adopted in the boxes.
From light to darkness
Tied to Napoleonic power, French Freemasonry offers, according to historian François Collaveri, the face of a “vast network of associations spread across the entire national territory”. Pierre-François Pinaud adds that “imperial masonry, like so many other institutions, burns incense before the imperial altar; it has never been so brilliant, never more sonorous and more empty […]. Cambacérès was not an innovator or a leader of men, he assumed his mandate as first supervisor by obeying Napoleon's instructions: to monitor and protect all the masonry so that they served the glory of the Empire. » This is indeed the price to pay for unprecedented development. On Saint Helena, however, Napoleon will pass a harsh judgment on the masons who, according to him, are only “a bunch of imbeciles who sit around to make good food and carry out some ridiculous follies”.
The fall of the First Empire indirectly led to changes within Freemasonry. The White Terror of 1815, in which the Knights of the Faith participated, a royalist secret society that took Freemasonry as its organizational model, decimated the lodges. The police chief of Restoration Paris, Élie Decazes, a member of the Supreme Council of France, tried painfully to stop the attacks against the masons. In the years that followed, the latter, like most public figures, demonstrated political opportunism. The lodges that survive this political purge will take refuge in clandestinity, favoring, without a doubt, the development of republican ideas within the lodges. It was not until the Second Empire and, even more so, the Third Republic that Freemasonry experienced a second “golden age” in France. But whatever the regimes, the question of the relationship between masonry and political power remains raised.
(1) The general meeting.
(2) The GODF owes its survival to him during the Revolution as well as the founding of numerous lodges. The testimonies of his contemporaries prove that the archives of the Grand Orient were saved thanks to Roëttiers. He also played an important role in establishing the modern French rite.
Under the Revolution
By breaking down social “barriers” while developing an egalitarian ideology, Freemasonry contributed in part to the destabilization of the Ancien Régime and the disintegration of discipline in the armies, in which there were numerous lodges. Likewise, theories of natural religion borrowed from the Enlightenment contributed to the anticlerical policies of the Revolution. But she was quick to disavow her excesses. In a circular addressed to its lodges, the Grand Orient noted that France had adopted equality as the basis of its regime but that it nonetheless remained populated by men subject to passions and error. It is appropriate, he says, that “those who are imbued with true principles should set an example and remind their fellow men of the rules of equality, righteousness, fairness, and reason.” From 1792, Freemasonry became suspect to the most radical elements. A large number of masons also experienced the horrors of the guillotine during the Terror. From there, the lodges went dormant and gradually reactivated under the Directory where, however, they were only tolerated and placed under surveillance.
Was Napoleon Initiated?
Despite the multiple presumptions put forward, it has never been established with certainty that Napoleon Bonaparte was initiated, whether in France, Egypt, or elsewhere. For most of his contemporaries, his affiliation is a certainty. He himself never said he was, but he never said he wasn't either. Throughout his career, he remained in contact, and sometimes very intimately, with masonry. We must remember the fascination that it was able to exert on the young people of the nobility and the bourgeoisie at the end of the Ancien Régime, as long as they were seduced by the Enlightenment. Since his youth, Napoleon lived in an atmosphere marked by masonry.
This is the number of lodges at the end of the Empire. The regime corresponds to fifteen years of exception during which the number of lodges varies from around 300 to more than 1000. In 1800, there were approximately 70 civil lodges, 114 in 1802, 300 in 1803, and 667 in 1810 (including 626 in the provinces).
Under surveillance
The Emperor was wary of Freemasonry, which he had monitored through Fouché. It would be utopian to think that the very efficient Minister of Police is not aware of what may be going on in the workshops. He nevertheless appears benevolent. The prefects must also report on the activity of the lodges. The survey is interesting because many prefects are masons and they are asked to have a point of view on the activity of the lodges to which they belong! Naturally, in most cases, they report completely peaceful activities, with one exception: that of the prefect of Lake Geneva (Geneva) who sees in the boxes a possible place for opposition. Quite a relevant report because we find in a certain number of lodges a penetration or at least an attempt, republican (Carbonari), royalist (like that of Saint-Napoléon d'Angers), or a reluctance to follow a regime continually in war which sometimes ruins hitherto prosperous economic activities as in Bordeaux.
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