Una Pope 1911
*
THE spiritual life of nations, if it could be fully revealed, would alter many of the judgments of posterity. New interpretations of ancient tragedies and crimes, new motives for speech and action, new inspirations for revolution and war might then present themselves for the consideration of the historian. If it needs divination to discern the aspiration and desire enclosed within the ordinary human soul, how much more does it need divination to read aright the principles and incentives that lay behind historic actions ? Diviners have not written history, and professional historians have generally chosen to deal with facts, rather than with their psychological significance. Because of this preference, certain conventions have grown up amongst the writers of history, and certain obvious economic and social conflicts and conditions have been accepted as the cause of events, at the cost of repudiating that mystical and vague, but ever constant idealism, - 3 - which spurs man on towards his unknown destiny.
Especially has this been the case in dealing with the origin of the French Revolution. Nearly all secular historians have ignored the secret Utopian societies which flourished before its outbreak ; or have agreed that they had no bearing, direct or indirect, upon the actual subversion of affairs. Since the world has always been at the mercy of the idealists, and since human society has ever been the object of their unending empiricism, it is hard to believe that the greatest experiment of modern history was engineered without their co-operation. More than any other age does the eighteenth century need its psychologist, for more than any other age, if interpreted, could it illumine the horizons of generations to come.
Amongst the historians who have attempted to explain the forces which brought about the great upheaval of the eighteenth century there have been priests of the Catholic Church. To the elucidation of the great problems involved they have brought to bear knowledge and diligent research, but we must recognise that the black cassock is the uniform of an army drilled - 4 - and maintained for a specific purpose, and that purpose is war against much that the Revolution stood for. Two priests, Barruel and Deschamps, who feared the cryptic confederacies, wrote books to prove that the purpose of the secret societies before and after the great Revolution was not the betterment of the condition of the people, but the overthrow of the Church, the destruction of Christian society, and the re-establishment of Paganism. However much preparation may have been required to enfranchise thought, no great measure of organisation or mystery was or is needful to enable men to live as Pagans if they so desire, and little meaning is to be extracted from this theory unless it be realised that in some of these works freedom of thought and Paganism are interchangeable terms. Secular amateurs of the curious and unexplained have written desultory books on the same secret societies, and in the early nineteenth century the works of Mounier, de Luchet, and Robison attracted a good deal of attention ; but save for these special pleaders it has been accepted that there is little of practical moment to be noted of the connection between secret societies and the Revolution. In the - 5 - books which have appeared since that date there has been a conspicuous absence of any new material or of any fresh treatment of old theories. Many general histories of masonry have been published exalting masonic influences; but, speaking solely with reference to France, no effort has been made by any scientific or unprejudiced person outside masonry to explain the increasing membership of secret societies, the greater activity of lodges of all rites during the years that preceded the Revolution, and the sudden disappearance of those lodges in the early months of 1789. Nor has it been attempted to place these important factors in progress in right relation with the other inducements and tendencies which drove eighteenth-century France to accomplish her own liberation.
Le Couteulx de Canteleu, who wrote on the general question of the secret societies of the eighteenth century^1 <#sdfootnote1sym>,* professed to have access to documents that gave his words importance and weight, and his book, though slight in character, is one of the most interesting studies on the subject. *Papus (Gerard Encausse)* has written - 6 - on individual founders of rites and on some mystical teachers of the day, and Amiable, an eminent mason, has published a pleasant record of a particular lodge up till the year 1789, as well as a short summary of the influence of masonry on the great Revolution. The published information is fragmentary, as is to be expected in view of the nature of the subject, and the difficulty of grasping the work of the confederates as a whole is insurmountable until further light is cast upon their methods and instruments ; for though the general drift of the underground social currents has frequently been discussed, and though occasionally a microscopic inquiry has been made into ceremonial and the lives of individuals, owing either to lack of material or lack of sincerity, books dealing with these matters are incomplete and partial accounts of what, properly investigated, might prove to be a vast co-ordinated attempt at the reconstruction of society.
It has been the convention for most historians to ignore such activities, just as it has been the practice of priests to recognise in them the destroyers of all morality. Louis Blanc and Henri Martin, in their respective histories, - 7 - each devote a chapter to the discussion of secret societies. The former speaks of masonry as "a denunciation indirect but real and continuous of the miseries of the social order," as " a propaganda in action," a living exhortation." With the exception of these and a few other authors who from time to time allude to the secret societies, historians have elucidated the crisis of the eighteenth century with no estimate of their influence. Taine, of whom it may be said that his thesis occasionally determined the choice of his facts, does not number them among the origins of the new conditions in France.
The Great Revolution has been assumed to be a spontaneous national uprising against oppression, privilege, immorality in high places, and conditions of life making existence a burden for the proletariat. Such a theory would cover the rebellion that razed the Bastille and caused the clamour at Versailles, that destroyed the country houses and killed the nobles; but it does not cover the intellectual and social reforms which were the kernel of the Revolution, and its true objective. These, on the other hand, have been too easily attributed to the publication of the " Encyclopaedia," and of certain other volumes - 8 - by Beccaria, Rousseau, or Voltaire. Books were undoubtedly partially responsible for the awakening of the educated classes. The rationalist presses in Dublin, the Hague, and London, poured pamphlets into France to be sold by itinerant booksellers, who hawked them in country districts concealed beneath a thin layer of prayer-books and catechisms. But the pamphlets and books more often found their way to the public pyre than to the domestic hearth, and it can hardly be argued that these irregularly distributed volumes were directly responsible for the Revolution, though they too formed one of the contributory agencies of that cataclysm.
Men have said that liberal ideas were in the air, and that no one could so much as breathe without inhaling them ; but this suggestion is meaningless, for to say ideas are " in the air " is to say many people hold them, which is hardly a way of accounting for their being held by many people. A suggestion so unsatisfying constrains us to seek the causes of contagion in a theory of more direct contact. If a book would not set a midland village on fire to-day, how much less would it have done so in the - 9 - olden days when the poorest classes were completely unlettered ? The "Encyclopaedia " and the works of economists and philosophers made their appeal in intellectual circles, and those words of reasonableness and light scarcely could have illumined the mental twilight of the lower bourgeoisie, much less have penetrated the darkness in which the peasant classes lived. Yet the Revolution, as its results testify, was a national movement towards a new order of affairs, and not a general declension towards anarchy. Therefore, since a spontaneous upheaval is unthinkable, and the history of smaller revolutions leads us to infer that revolution is always the result of associative agitation, it probably originated in a certain co-ordination or ideas and doctrines. These ideas and doctrines must have been widely diffused and widely apprehended, yet they could not have been spread by ordinary demagogic means ; for not only was freedom of speech prohibited, but it was illegal to publish unorthodox books. The publication of the " Encyclopaedia " was forbidden in 1759, and both Frederick the Great and Catherine of Russia offered asylum to its authors. Till a few years before the Revolution - 10 - it had been the custom to silence murmuring minorities by sword or fire. In 1762 the pastor Rochette died for his opinions, and the three Protestant brothers Grenier were decapitated, ostensibly for street brawling, but in reality for their faith. Monsieur de Laraguais was presented with a "lettre de cachet" for the citadel at Metz, for reading a paper in favour of inoculation before an assembly of the Academy in Paris.^2 <#sdfootnote2sym>* His defence was that by his advocacy he hoped to preserve to France the lives of the fifty thousand persons who died annually of small-pox. So associated had imprisonment and execution become with the holding of liberal ideas that when Boulanger died almost coincidently with the publication of his book " Les Recherches sur le Despotisme Oriental," men speculated whether his death could be attributed to natural causes^3 <#sdfootnote3sym>. "Belisaire," a moral and political romance by M. de Marmontel, provoked a tumult. Bachaumont relates that the Sorbonne saw fit to protest against Chapter XV., "which treats of Tolerance."^4 <#sdfootnote4sym> In consequence the book was suppressed. "La Confession de – 11 -
Foi d'un Vicaire Savoyard " exerted an extraordinary influence in unseating existing authorities. It was what the publication of the Bible had been to Germany, an obligation to private judgment. The author of this book after this effort fell back on making laces since he could not take up his pen without making every power in Europe tremble.
How is it possible that, when such penalties threatened the efforts of writers and speakers, ideas of progress could be cherished in thousands of minds, and the passion for social regeneration flame in countless souls ? Though there was no enunciation of liberal hopes in the market-places, yet an invisible hand, as in the day of Daniel, had written in flaming letters the word " brotherhood " across the tablets of French hearts. Was the dissemination of ideas, and the diffusion of enthusiasm, to be accounted for by the spirit of the age ; or did the theory of the modern State generate spontaneously in the minds of Frenchmen ? Was the great Revolution a mere accident, or was it the inevitable result of coordinated ideas in action ? Taine was of the opinion that the doctrines propagated themselves, carried like thistle-down upon the winds of chance.
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The obvious inference to be drawn from his opinion is that the social idealists of the eighteenth century lacked either the courage or the zeal to further their beliefs ; and that they, unlike their forerunners or their successors, were ready to entrust their hopes to the written word, and leave the rest to the gods. It is making too great a demand on human credulity to ask man to believe this, and many significant facts witness to the hitherto unestimated work of the secret societies in furthering the cause of popular emancipation. Ideas are not suddenly converted into swords. Men must have hammered patiently and hard upon the anvil of the national soul to produce the keen-edged, swift-striking blade of revolution.
"The aim of all social institutions should be the amelioration of the physical, mental and moral condition of the poorest classes," said one whom Barruel alluded to as " a demon hating Jesus Christ." The speaker was Condorcet,^5 <#sdfootnote5sym>* a man acquainted with the ideals of the secret societies. In announcing the eventual publication of the " History of the Progress of the - 13 - Human Mind," a work interrupted by his death, he spoke of the destruction of old authorities by invisible associations. " There are moments in history," said George Sand, "when Empires exist but in name, and when their only life lies in the societies that are hidden in their heart." Such a moment for France was the reign of Louis XVI.
Legends of secret societies survived in every part of Europe at the opening of the eighteenth century. They existed for the prosecution of Theurgia as well as Goetia, for masonry as well as mystical philosophy. Speaking generally, their interest did not lie in the region of politics or polemics, but in that of study, experiment, and speculation ; and their chief care was the preservation and elucidation of ancient hermetic and traditional secrets. As a rule the Church had persecuted such societies, though her prelates had frequently condescended to the study of magic, and a few among them like Pope John XXII. had spent long nights in alchemical experiment. It remained for the Utopians of the eighteenth century so to interpret the symbolism of the secret societies, so to affiliate them, and so to organise the forces of masonry, mysticism and magic, as - 14 - for a few years to unite them into a power capable not only of inspiring but of precipitating the greatest social upheaval of Christendom.
It is difficult to believe or understand, that bodies holding differing doctrines, adherents of many rites, disciples of divergent masters, ever commingled for a day in their enthusiasm for the common cause ; yet this singular and Hegelian amalgamation seems in practice to have taken place.^6 <#sdfootnote6sym> The principal force in the trinity of masonry, mysticism, and magic was masonry, and it, like many other innovations, was introduced into France from England. Just as Voltaire and Rousseau derived their philosophy from English sources, and applied the theories they absorbed in a direct manner to the life of their own country, so did the French people derive their masonic institutions from England, and apply them for purposes of social regeneration in a fashion never even contemplated in the land of their origin. The English Deists, Hume, Locke, and Toland, were responsible for the intellectual regeneration of France, just as the Legitimist lodges planted in that country after the Stuart downfall were responsible for the – 15 - many lodges of tolerance, charity, truth, and candour which disseminated the seeds of the humanitarian movement on French soil. The Pantheisticon became the model of French societies.
Until the sixteenth century masonic corporations in England and other countries consisted of three purely professional grades holding the secrets of the architectural craft, the mysteries of proportion, and the true canon of building. The epics in grey stone our cathedral towns enclose memorialise the tradition of the older masonry, and testify to the inviolability of its secret formulae. In every Catholic land, from Paris to Batalha, from Salisbury to Cologne, rise the superb conceptions of the masonic mind: serene, unchallengeable symbols of doctrines, mysteries, and myths, the venerable shrines of uncounted memories. During the sixteenth century England became the motherland of a newer masonry. Another spirit then permeated the craft; mysteries as ancient as the canon of building and the lost word of the Temple, Egyptian rites and Greek initiations, were blended with the purer traditions of the past. Rosicrucians, like Francis Bacon and Elias - 16 - Ashmole, joined the hitherto exclusively professional body. Out of this marriage of thoughts and aims arose the modern masonic system, of which England at the end of the sixteenth century alone knew the secret. So thoroughly was the old system transfused with speculative ideas that by 1703 it had been decided that the antique guild model of masonry should be abandoned for a scheme of wider comprehension, embracing men holding certain common ideals and aspirations irrespective of craft or art. By this decision masonry became really free ; though the actual bases on which the future of the new " speculative," as the development of the old " operative" masonry, was to be established, were not laid down till 1717 by a commission of the Grand Lodge of London. Sir Christopher Wren, the last of the Grand Masters of the older organisation, was followed in his great office in two successive years by foreigners A. Sayer and Desaguliers, who inaugurated a more cosmopolitan era, and assisted in weaving the strands of brotherhood between England and foreign lands.
Though legend ascribes the English Revolution and the ascendency of Cromwell to masonic - 17 - *influence, records reveal and attest that the associative facilities masonic gatherings afforded were found favourable during the Civil War to the contriving of Royalists' plots rather than to the promotion of Republican schemes. Charles II. was a mason, James II. was championed by lodges, and both the Pretenders instituted rites with the object of accomplishing their own restoration*.
The Legitimists first introduced Freemasonry into France. Lord Derwentwater, the brother of the Lord Derwentwater who had been beheaded in 1716, was one of the earliest masonic missionaries. Together with Maskelyne, Heguerty, and others, he founded the first lodge in France at Dunkerque in 1721, the year in which the Regent died. Other lodges were inaugurated in Paris in 1725, all with the intention of rallying supporters of the Stuart cause. These were granted charters from London, and were ruled over by a Grand Master, called Lord Harnwester, of whom little is known. The most interesting personality among the Legitimist votaries was Andrew Michael Ramsay, commonly called the Chevalier. The son of a baker, he was educated at Edinburgh University, -18 - and became tutor to the two sons of Lord Wemyss ; then going to the Netherlands with the English auxiliaries, he made friends with the mystical theologist Poiret, and in consequence of the latter's quietist influence, gave up soldiering, and went to consult Fenelon about his future. He soon became the Archbishop's intimate friend, as well as a convert to his Church, and remaining with him till his death found himself the legatee of all his papers, and thus the designated chronicler of his life. This life was published at the Hague in 1723, and in the following year Ramsay went as travelling tutor to the two sons of James Francis Edward. On his return to Paris he continued his tutorial work in other families, combining it with the most strenuously active masonic life. He professed to have derived his elaborate and numerous rites from Godfrey de Bouillon, and managed to popularise masonry and exalt it into a fashionable pursuit. Gradually the English lodges in Paris became a subject of curiosity and conversation in society, and so long as they remained concerned with the affairs of a foreign kingdom they were left undisturbed by the officials of their adopted – 19 - country. When, however, Frenchmen began to enrol themselves as masons, and some exclusively French lodges were founded, the newspapers alarmed the public by announcing that Freemasonry had become the vogue. Police regulations were at once issued to prohibit meetings, and Louis XV. forbade gentlemen his Court, and even threatened with the Bastille those who attended lodge gatherings. A zealous commissary of police, Jean de Lespinay, spying on a meeting held at Chapelot's inn, ordered the assembly to dissolve ; but the Duc d'Antin responded by commanding the official interloper to retire. He went meekly enough, but Chapelot was deprived of his licence a few days later, and fined a thousand francs. Masons surprised at the Hotel de Soissons were imprisoned in Fort l'Eveque, and notice was given to innkeepers that on sheltering such gatherings they made themselves liable to a fine of three thousand francs. These edicts stimulated the curiosity of the public, and every one became inquisitive as to the aims and objects of the mysterious association. Mademoiselle Cambon, an opera-singer, managed to extract a document from - 20 - her lover containing instruction on masonic ritual. It was easy then to parody their practices. Eight dancing-girls executed at her instigation a " Freemason ballet," while the Jesuits of the Dubois College at Caen made their rites the subject of a pantomime.
In 1737 the old and amiable councillor of Louis XV., Cardinal Fleury, forbade good Catholics to attend at the lodges, and the next year Clement XII. condemned Freemasonry in a bull. Notwithstanding this opposition the craft grew numerically, and under the protective influence of the Grand Master, the Duc d'Antin, some of the educational work which forms their greatest claim to historic recognition was undertaken. In 1738 the Grand Master urged all masons to help in the work of the great Encyclopaedia, and to assist in forming " that library which in one work should contain the light of all nations." He alluded in his speech to the experiment made previously in London, and appealed for subscriptions for the furtherance of the French work. His secret correspondence with enlightened sympathisers in all parts of Europe enabled him to announce to the lodges in 1740 that the advent of the great – 21 - work was eagerly awaited in every foreign land. Masonic subscription made possible the commencement of the work by Diderot in 1741. It proof were needed to show that in France, in its most corrupt days, men existed who were preaching brotherhood, love, equality, and freedom, the proof exists in the speeches of the Duc d'Antin, who was a Revolutionary half a century before the Revolution. A discourse delivered by him at the " Grande Loge solennellement assemblée, Paris " reveals his attitude and that of his associates towards the feudal society of his day ;
"Les hommes ne sont pas distingués essentiellement par la différence des langues qu'ils parlent, des habits qu'ils portent, des pays qu'ils occupent, ni des dignités dont ils sont revêtus. Le monde entier n'est qu'une grande république, dont chaque nation est une famille et chaque particulier un enfant. C'est pour faire revivre et répandre ces essentielles maximes, prises dans la nature de l'homme, que notre société fut d'abord établie. Nous voulons réunir tous les hommes d'un esprit éclairé, de moeurs douces, et d'une humeur agréable, non seulement pour – 22 - l'amour des beaux-arts mais encore plus par les grands principes de vertu, de science et de religion, ou 1'intérêt de confraternité devient celui du genre humain entier, ou toutes les nations peuvent puiser des connaissances solides, et ou les sujets de tous les royaumes peuvent apprendre à se chérir mutuellement, sans renoncer à leur patrie. . . . Quelle obligation n'a-t-on pas à ces hommes supérieurs qui, sans intérêt grossier, sans même écouter 1'envie naturelle de dominer ont imagine un établissement dont 1'unique but est la réunion des esprits et des coeurs pour les rendre meilleurs, et former dans la suite des temps une nation toute spirituelle ou sans déroger aux divers devoirs que la différence des états exige, on créera un peuple nouveau qui étant composé de plusieurs nations, les cimentera toutes, en quelque sorte par le lien de la vertu et de la science."^7 <#sdfootnote7sym>*
A well-informed person revealed to the world some of the masonic secrets of equality and tolerance.^8 <#sdfootnote8sym> The author, whose ladyhood was - 23 - probably fictitious, was merely printing and making public the aspirations of all those who were longing to assist at the eventual social regeneration of France :
" Il est très naturel de deviner le secret des francs-maçons par l'examen de ce qu'on leur voit pratiquer constamment. Ils entrent sans distinction les grands et les petits : ils se mesurent tous au même niveau ; ils mangent ensemble pèle-mêle ; ils se répandent dans le monde entier avec la même uniformité. II est donc plus que probable, concluais-je, qu'il n'est question chez eux que d'une maçonnerie purement symbolique, dont le secret consiste à bâtir insensiblement une république, universelle et démocratique, dont la reine sera la raison, et le conseil suprême 1'assemblée des sages."
When the Duc d'Antin's grand mastership ceased, a temporary debasement of masonry resulted. Great abuses crept into the craft, for under his successsor, the Comte de Clermont, lodges were irregularly established, and dignities were sold. Androgynous societies, the cause of continual scandal, were established. The Society of Jesus also endeavoured to disrupt masonic - 24 - organisation, and very speedily the " Grande Loge " split up into factions. The Comte de Clermont possibly was the servant of the Church and the real promoter of the schisms of his society. He had blended the careers of cleric and soldier in a curious manner, for though tonsured at nine years old, and subsequently dowered with rich abbeys, he was enabled later, through a Papal dispensation, to enter the army, where he quickly rose to commanding rank, and showed himself as useless a general as he afterwards proved himself a Grand Master. As his working substitutes in the " Grande Loge de France " he nominated a financier named Baure, and a dancing-master named Lacorne. For eighteen years the " Grande Loge de France " was convulsed by discord and evil practice, justifying only too accurately the strictures of the Church. It obeyed with something like relief the order of the civil authorities in 1767 to hold no further meetings, and remained quiescent till the Comte de Clermont's death in 1771. In this year it was proposed to reform its organisation thoroughly. Emissaries were sent into all parts of France to take count of the situation, and to prepare reports for the - 25 - central committee. In consequence of these reports it was decided that the association should be reorganised on a more democratic basis, every office being made annually elective. The Duc de Chartres was chosen as Grand Master, and the Duc de Luxembourg as general administrator. As the Duc de Chartres did not at once accept the Grand Mastership, he never in point of action was Grand Master of the " Loge de France," though in 1773 an assembly met, which, after confirming the elections of 1771, installed him with great solemnity in his office as head of the " Grand Orient." The meeting convened for this occasion at Folie-Titon, a " maison de plaisance," constituted the parliament of masonry, though not all the lodges consented to send representatives to it.
" Le Grand Orient n'est plus qu'un corps forme par la réunion des représentants libres de toutes les loges : ce sont les loges elles-mêmes, ce sont tous les maçons membres de ces loges, qui par la voie de leurs représentants donnent les lois ; qui les font observer d'une part et qui les observent de l'autre. Nul - 26 - n'obéit qu'à la loi qu'il s'est imposée lui-même. C'est le plus libre, le plus juste, le plus naturel, et par conséquent le plus parfait des gouvernements^9 <#sdfootnote9sym>."*
The council of the new organisation sat in the former Jesuit novitiate of the rue Pot de Fer, and worked with increasing power and industry until the outbreak of the Revolution that was to realise their ideals. A section of the "Grande Loge de France" refused to obey the " Grand Orient," and continued to operate independently. The "Empereurs d'Orient et d'Occident" and the "Chevaliers d'Orient" also worked separately, nor would they take part in the amalgamation. Later on, however, great changes took place in masonic opinion, while bonds of common interest drew together lodges that would, without the political interest, always have been divided.
* Not only was France the home of many masonic lodges, but its social system was riddled with mystical societies which gathered their initiates from among the adepts of masonic grades, and owned allegiance to no supreme - 27 - council. Swedenborg and Martinez de Pasqually always regarded masonry as a school of instruction, and considered it the elementary and inferior step that led to the higher mysteries. In consequence of their teaching it came about that a great number of sects and rites were instituted in all parts of Europe, whose unity consisted in a common masonic initiation, but whose aims, doctrines, and practices were often irreconcilable. The Martinezists, or followers of Martinez de Pasqually, were a distinctively French sect; they had lodges in Paris in 1754, and also at Toulouse, Poitiers, Marseille, and other places. The term " Illuminates " is applied to them equally with the Swedenborgians, Martinists, and several germane societies. *
Pasqually is said to have been a Rosicrucian adept. His teaching was theurgic and moral, and his avowed object was to develop the somnolent divine faculties in humanity, and to lead man to enter into communication with the invisible, by means of "La Chose," the enigmatic name he gave to the highest secret. He is chiefly interesting as having been the first to permeate the higher grades of French masonry with illuminism, an example followed afterwards - 28 - with conspicuous success by the disciples of Weishaupt. When Pasqually died in Haiti his teaching was taken up by Willermooz, a Lyonese merchant, also by the celebrated Louis Claude de Saint-Martin. Saint-Martin absorbed and developed his master's teaching in a peculiar and personal manner, and through his philosophy became an important influence on then current affairs. He had been an officer in the regiment of Foix at Bordeaux when he first became acquainted with Pasqually, and soon after meeting him he threw up his commission in the army with the object of devoting his life to meditation, and the study of Jacob Boehme. He became the mystical philosopher of the Revolution, and the book he published in 1775, " Des Erreurs et de la Vérité," produced an immense sensation, comparable to that created by the publication of " La Profession de Foi d'un Vicaire Savoyard." Like Rousseau, he believed in the infinite possibilities of man, holding that Providence had planted a religion in man's heart " which could not be contaminated by priestly traffic, nor tainted by imposture." Rousseau gave the name of conscience to " the innate principle of justice and virtue which, - 29 - independently of experience and in spite of ourselves, forms the basis of our judgments" ; Saint-Martin thought it the divine instinct. On the belief in man's essential goodness both founded their demand for social revolution, claiming an opportunity for men to be indeed men and not slaves, a chance for climbing back to that old God-designed level of happiness from which they had descended. Saint-Martin saw in such a movement the awakening of men from the sleep of death, and with deep conviction he responded to the cry " All men are priests," uttered three centuries earlier by Luther, with the cry "All men are kings!" The answer to the social enigmas of the century was whispered by him in the " ternaire sacré " of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity ; and it echoed with reverberating clangor through all the lodges of France. Martinist societies were everywhere founded to study the doctrines contained in his book, and to expound the teachings of the mystical philosopher who, like Lamartine in a later day, contemplated the Revolution as Christianity applied to politics.
A volume might easily be written upon the - 30 - lodges and rites in France during this time ; and their very number makes choice of those deserving peculiar mention bewildering. The well-known "Loge des Amis Réunis," or " Philalèthes," inaugurated by " the man of all conspiracies/' Savalette de Lange, and his friends, carried on an important correspondence with lodges in every quarter of Europe. Under the pretext of pleasant gatherings and luxurious dinners these " friends of truth " prosecuted the dark and dangerous work of preparing that reformation of society which in practice became Revolution. One of the most famous, if not the most interesting, of the intellectual lodges, was that of the " Neuf Soeurs " in Paris, founded in memory of Helvetius, which, if it held a secret, held the secret of Voltaire, " Humanity and Tolerance." It was intended to be an encyclopaedic workshop, a complement to the already existing Lodge of Sciences. Since all the secondary education in France was in the hands of a clerical corporation, and the Sorbonne was dedicated to theology, the " Neuf Soeurs " organised^10 <#sdfootnote10sym> * " la Société Apollonienne." This society arranged for courses of lectures - 31 - to be given by its more eminent members ; Marmontel and Garat, for example, lectured on history, La Harpe on literature, Condorcet and De la Croix on chemistry, Fourcroy and Sue on anatomy and physiology. The improvised college did not shut its doors during the Revolution, but changed its name to " Lycée Républicain." Its professors conformed to Republican usages, and La Harpe was to be seen lecturing in a red cap.
Some useful institutions seem to have been evolved out of the conclaves of the " Neuf Soeurs," including the reformed laws of criminal procedure embodied in the Code Napoleon.^11 <#sdfootnote11sym>* The Duc de la Rochefoucauld, translator of the American Constitution, was an associate of the lodge, so was Forster, who sailed round the world with Captain Cook; Brissot, who was later condemned as leader of the Girondins, Camille Desmoulins, Fauchet, Romme, Bailly, Rabaud Saint Etienne, Danton, Andre Chénier, Dom Gerle, Paul Jones, Franklin, Guillotin, Cabanis, Petion, Siéyès, Cerutti, Hanna, and Voltaire. Together they form an illustrious company who, all in their varying ways, took [32] conspicuous shares in the work of reformation. Commemorative assemblies and processions were organised by this lodge on the occasions of the deaths of Franklin, Voltaire, and Paul Jones, the liberators. The lodge has received historic consecration at the hands of Louis Blanc, Henri Martin, and Amiable. Having accomplished a great work, it disappeared, like all the other lodges, at the opening of the Revolution.
The share that women took in promoting social changes has not received the attention it deserves. Readers of Dumas are familiar with the fact that in country districts fraternal societies welcoming members of both sexes met regularly in barns and farms ; but it does not seem to be usually recognised that apart from the " Loges de la Félicité," which had been the occasion of frequent scandal, many regular and well-conducted " lodges of adoption" for women were recognised by the " Grand Orient." *The Duchess de Bourbon, Egalite's sister*, was Grand Mistress of the adoptive lodge of " la Candeur " in 1775, and Princesse de Lamballe and Madame de Genlis also wielded the hammer. The work of these fashionable dames cannot, however, be taken seriously. It was a pastime - 33 - for them, just as were the decorous fetes held within the lodges in which both men and women participated. The entertainments were elegant and refined, often taking the form of the illustration of a virtue such as benevolence, or of homage to some humanitarian quality. For example, one day a lady discovered that a poor working woman with nine children had added to her burdens by adopting the orphan of a friend. The ladies of her lodge were enthusiastic at such generosity, and caused the poor woman to be exhibited at one of their reunions in a tableau surrounded by the ten children. After considerable acclamation she was allowed to go her way with clothes and money presented by her admirers. " Bienfaisance " was a paricularly fashionable virtue. Women of society raised altars in their rooms dedicated to this quality. The tone of society, however, was not wholly sentimental ; it was also reasonable, and it became the vogue for ladies to attend scientific lectures ; classes in drawing-rooms on mineralogy, chemistry, and physics were well attended ; ladies were no longer painted as goddesses, but as students, in laboratories, surrounded by telescopes and retorts ; Countess Voyer attended - 34 - dissections, and one of her friends wielded the scalpel with grace ; Madame de Genlis, whose self-satisfaction is almost priggish, alludes in her memoirs to the intense pleasure she derived from some geological lectures.
While the world of fashion was playing with science and masonry, the opinions and beliefs of its social inferiors were gradually crystallising into action. Serious women of the bourgeoisie and farmer classes attended meetings and discussions and taught their sons and their husbands what it meant to fight for an ideal ; and how the ternaire sacré could be translated into fact.
At the lowest computation there were seven hundred lodges in France before the Revolution, and a very large proportion of them had acknowledged " lodges of adoption " for women. It is impossible from the material published on the subject, however, to form even an approximate estimate of the number of members of either sex belonging to these associations. It was very large, but the claim to a million adherents made by the " Loge de la Candeur " in 1785 is clearly greatly in excess of actual fact. At Bayonne "La Zélèe," at Angers the " Tendre Accueil," at Saint-Malo – 35 - the "Triple Esperance," at Reims the " Triple Union" at Tours the "Amis de la Vertu" flourished. Poignant satires on credulity were delivered at the " Loge de la Parfaite Intelligence " at Liege to which the Prince Bishop and the greater part of his chapter belonged, and of which all the office-bearers were dignitaries of the Church. The system seems to have permeated every section of French national life.
Pernetti, a Benedictine, librarian of Frederick the Great, had founded a Swedenborgian brotherhood at Avignon, in company with a Polish noble Gabrionka, who by some is supposed to have been Cagliostro, and Pernetti is but an example of dozens of other missionaries. Everywhere gatherings and associations existed, separated by rites and by practices, but united in intention by their common love for and faith in the creed of brotherhood.
One thing only was needed to transform this heterogeneous collection of lodges, sects, and rites into a powerful political lever upon society, and that was a mind which could devise a common course of action or a common political understanding to unite them. Secret idealistic societies had done a wonderful work in fostering - 36 - principles and hopes and ideals, but in order to become effective in action transmutation of some kind was necessary.
Masonic writers have of late made but little allusion to the influence of the German " illuminates " on the French lodges, and are disposed to detract from the reputation of the marvellous organiser Weishaupt, Professor of Canon Law at the University of Ingoldstadt. Barruel, Louis Blanc, and Deschamps unite, however, in regarding him as the most profound of conspirators. Le Couteulx de Canteleu considers the young professor of Ingolstadt as the originator of a remarkable system, of which Von Knigge was the most able missionary. With Weishaupt alone lay the credit not only of realising the cause of the ineffectiveness of societies upon society, but of elaborating an homogeneous scheme which was destined to embrace and eventually absorb all lodges and all rites. He was no free-mason when he invented his design, but in order to study masonic methods he was received as a mason in Munich, where one Zwack, a legal member of the lodge, afterwards one of Weishaupt's confederates, sold him the ultimate secrets of masonry. Equipped with this knowledge [37] he allied himself with Von Knigge of the "Strict Observance" and caused all his own disciples to become masons. " Every secret engagement is a source of enthusiasm," said Weishaupt ; "it is useless to seek for the reasons ; the fact exists, that is enough." In conformity with this belief he recruited the new secret society which he intended should absorb all the others.
In 1776 the order of the Perfectibilists was founded. They began by creating a new world, for they purposed to work independently of existing conditions. They invented their own calendar, with new divisions of time and new names for days and periods ; they took unto themselves the appellations of Greece and Rome. Weishaupt became Spartacus, after the leader of the servile insurrection in the time of Pompey ; Von Knigge became Philo ; Zwack, Cato ; Costanzo, Diomedes ; Nicolai, Lucian. The map of Europe was re-named ; in their correspondence Munich was Athens; Austria Egypt ; and France Illyria. The organisation of the Perfectibilists was designed to enlist all professions and both sexes. It consisted of two large classes, that of "preparations" and that [38] of " mysteries." In the former there were four grades : novice, minerval, illuminate minor, and illuminate major. In the latter there were also four grades : priest, regent, philosopher, and man-king. There was also a "plant-nursery" for children, and a class in which women were trained to influence men. The associates who possessed the full confidence of Weishaupt were called Areopagites.
The order was designed as the directing instrument of that social revolution which Weishaupt and many others knew to be imminent. France was the country selected for the great experiment, and Weishaupt faced with courage the problem that students of social questions realised in the latter half of the eighteenth century would be the difficulty in any revolution. He saw like them that the future class struggle for survival and supremacy in France would lie between the bourgeoisie and the people, that the nobles would count for nothing in the contest. He knew that the commercial classes were extremely rich, that in so far as the actual administrative work went it was in the hands of the third estate, that in the event of revolution it would become the - 39 - first and perhaps the only power in the country. A consideration of the representative institutions of France before the Revolution convinces us of the fact that the actual people were unrepresented, and moreover that it was unlikely that they would ever have a voice in the management of affairs, unless their claims were enforced by well organised and wide reaching secret societies. Weishaupt's scheme was intended to prevent the bourgeoisie reaping all the revolutionary harvest. As a disciple of Rousseau he did not favour the establishment of commercial supremacy as a substitute for the old system of autocracy. "Salvation does not lie where shining thrones are defended by swords, where the smoke of the censors ascends to heaven, or where thousands of starving men pace the rich fields of harvest. The revolution which is about to break upon us will be sterile if it is not complete." He feared that the concessions of kings, and the removal of food taxes, might delude the people into the belief that all was well, and he imparted his fear to his disciples. His object in establishing the Perfectibilists was the literal realisation of Rousseau's theories. He dreamt of and schemed for a day when the - 40 - abolition of property, social authority, and nationality would be facts, when human beings would return to that happy state in which they form but one family^12 <#sdfootnote12sym>.* Being an ex-Jesuit and acquainted with the organisation of that order, he determined to adapt its system to his own scheme, to make as it were a counter-society of Jesus. All the maxims and rules of Jesuit administration were to be pushed further and applied more rigorously than had been contemplated by their inventors. Passive obedience, universal espionage, and all the dialectic of casuistry were his chosen tools, and so successful was the undertaking that in four years a system of communication and information with every part of Europe had been established. The unseen hands of the society were in all affairs, its ears in the cabinets of princes and cardinals. The Church was regarded unrelentingly as a foe, for the Perfectibilists were the enemies of institutional Christianity, and represented themselves as professors of the purest Christian Socialism. Weishaupt classed the theological and sacerdotal systems among the worst enemies of man, and in his instructions to his disciples urged that - 41 - they should be contended with as definite evils. And the Church feared him, for did he not declare that men were still slaves because they still knelt ? Did he not command the people to rise from their knees ? Abbé Deschamps, in " Les sociétés secrètes et la société," expresses his dread of the machinations of so terrible an Order, and points out that "once dechristianised the masses will claim absolute equality and the right to enjoy life ! "
Weishaupt, on the other hand, said: "He who would work for the happiness of the human race, for the contentment and peace of man, for the diminishing of discontent, should examine and then enfeeble the principles which trouble that peace, that content, that happiness. Of this class are all systems which are opposed to the ennobling and perfecting of human nature ; all systems which unnecessarily multiply the evils of the world, and represent them as greater than they really are ; all systems which depreciate the merit and the dignity of man, which diminish his confidence in his own natural forces, which decry human reason, and so open the way for imposture."
The candidate for the grade of epopt, or - 42 - priest, among the Perfectibilists was, before his initiation into the higher mysteries, introduced into a hall, wherin stood a magnificent dais surmounted by a throne. In front of the throne stood a table laden with jewels, gold coins, a sceptre, crown, and sword. " "Look,' said the epopt chief, ' if this crown and sceptre, monuments of human degradation and imbecility, tempt thee ; if thy heart is with them ; if thou wouldst help kings to oppress men, we will place thee as near a throne as thou desirest ; but our sanctuary will be closed to thee, and we shall abandon thee for ever to thy folly. If, on the contrary, thou art willing to devote thyself to making men happy and free, be welcome here. . . . Decide ! '
After decision the would-be initiate had to make a frank and detailed confession of all the actions of his life. Weishaupt thought this a very important preliminary to higher knowledge, because it gave him cognisance of personal secrets which would make betrayal of the order on the part of the novice dangerous and often impossible. The verification of the confession was proceeded with in a dark room, decorated with symbols and emblems of mystery. A - 43 - book called the " Code Scrutateur " was opened, and all the faults of the candidate, his hates, loves, confidences, and fears were read out loud. These had been extracted from the unconscious victim, or from his friends, by the " insinuating brethren," whose business it was to find out everything about every member of their society. When all this was over a curtain was drawn aside, revealing an altar surmounted by a large crucifix. The candidate was tonsured, vested with sacerdotal garments, and given the red Phrygian cap of the epopt, with these words : "Wear this cap ; it means more than the crown of kings" a prophecy verified by the Revolution.
In the lower grades of Illuminism recruits had no knowledge of such ceremonies. They were allowed to think that they were supporting orthodox Christianity and old authorities, and in this way time was gained for studying the character of recruits, and unsuitable members were weeded out. Later on, as they gradually climbed the ladder of initiation, it was revealed to them that Jesus had come to teach men reasonableness and not superstition, and that His only precepts were love of God and love - 44 - of humanity. Camilla Desmoulins invoked the "Sans-culotte Jesus " during the Revolution, claiming Him as the pattern Socialist. Jesus, the Illuminists said, came to dissipate prejudice, to spread light and wise morality, to show men how to govern themselves. He was the true liberator of man, and the teacher of equality and liberty.
It has been argued with some plausibility that since such harmless and conservative people as the Duke of Sachs-Gotha and Prince August of Sachs-Weimar were illuminates, Louis XVI. and Frederick the Great masons, the secret societies could have had no direct influence on the social upheaval, and therefore are not worthy of the serious consideration of the historian. The study of the organisation of the great secret service reveals the reason of this contention and also its futility. The lower grades of masonry and Illuminism served a double-edged purpose : that of concealing the existence of the higher grades, and that of proving the worthiness of earnest searchers after social regeneration to enter those higher grades. Mystery of any kind always attracts the weak-minded, and Illuminism allured many dupes whom it was necessary to - 45 keep at arm's length from realities. The existence of serious purpose had also studiously to be concealed from royalties and prelates, for hierarchical religion is dear to all supporters of autocracy. Yet it was politic to lull the suspicions of the conservative and governing classes by admitting them with apparent freedom and joy into the Order. It was a policy of disarmament, and Weishaupt was quite candid as to this, for anything was better for the cause than open enmity.
" If it is to our interest to have the ordinary schools on our side, it is also very important to win over the ecclesiastical seminaries and their superiors ; for in that way we should secure the best part of the country, and disarm the greatest enemies of all innovation ; and what is still better, in winning the ecclesiastics, we should have the people in our hands."
To many Perfectibilists, illuminism and masonry were but charming social amusements, signifying nothing. The doctrines of social subversion, the creeds and dogmas of sudden death, all seemed but quaint and often crude allegories ; assemblies were but the occasion of [46] fun and feasting ; men played at the comedy of equality with zest and good temper, just because it was all so impossible and unlike life. And may not autocrats like Frederick the Great and the Emperor of Austria have blindly served the enterprise of the people and have assisted in converting their own comedy into tragedy ?
Recruits for the secret service were not difficult to attract. The Lisbon earthquake had unsettled many minds. The theurgists Saint-Germain and Cagliostro flitted hither and thither like brilliant Oriental birds against the neutral background of a Europe at peace but in travail. Eagerly watched and eagerly worshipped, they performed miracles and cures that dazzled the imagination. Their magical shows, displaying sometimes conspicuous charlatanry, amazed the gaping crowds, and served to disguise their primary mission from the Courts and the governing classes.
People of all classes became nervous and disturbed. Suzanne Labrousse of Perigord^13 <#sdfootnote13sym>,* being in chapel, threw herself at the foot of the Crucifix and announced precisely the date of the convocation of the States-General. The Queen - 47 - of Prussia and her waiting-women had seen " the white lady." Crowds in the market-place of Leipzig awaited the ghost of wonder-working Schroepfer, who had shown Louis XV. in a magic mirror his successor decapitated ; for had he not promised to reappear to his disciples at a given moment after death ? Interpretations of the Apocalypse were published, and it was asserted that yet more ancient prophecies were about to be fulfilled. Men asked themselves as they met in their lodges and their homes, or as they sat round the pool of Mesmer, or consulted Cazotte, " What would be the end thereof?" Great changes were in the air; men felt the fluttering of unseen wings and the breath of unrecognised forces, their expectations kept them restless and eager.
One mind at least in France was able to contemplate with calmness the weaving of strange threads into the texture of society ; and in that mind was clearly reflected the spirit and tendency of the agitated world of action. Undismayed by portent or prophecy, the unknown philosopher meditated as he watched the shuttles darting through the giant loom of the social system, and gazed on that living tissue through [ 48 ] which in the weaving " shimmered unceasingly the irrefragable justice of God. " Saint-Martin^14 <#sdfootnote14sym> had already formulated that ternaire sacré which many were diligently and in different ways seeking to attain. Men grasped eagerly after the fruit of the travail of his soul and were satisfied. By studying his doctrines their apprehension was quickened and their efforts enhanced and spiritualised. To a great extent he transfused the masonic thought with that faith which makes the movement of mountains no impossibility. The ternaire which proved the miraculous seed-corn of the revolutionary harvest had been scattered by him broadcast over the land to germinate in the furrows of France against the reaping-time.
Meanwhile the ambassadors of Weishaupt surveyed the countries which were to be the stage of the great drama. Long before accredited Illuminist agents were sent to instruct the lodges of the Grand Orient, inaugural work seems to have been undertaken by Cagliostro and Saint-Germain. Weishaupt was too shrewd an organiser to neglect any instrument of advantage, and, estimating justly the credulity of the day, he saw the extreme importance of - 49 - securing such men as the magicians for the furtherance of his purpose.
One of his emissaries, Cagliostro, was known all over Europe as the" " Priest of Mystery," and nearly every one, however sceptical of his powers, fell before his personal charm. The Perfectibilists annexed him and initiated him into their ritual, as he himself describes, in an underground cave near Frankfort-on-the-Main. At the initiation he learnt that the first blows of the Illuminates would be aimed at France, and that after the fall of that monarchy the Church herself would be assailed. After receiving instructions and money from Weishaupt (a secret which he is said later to have confessed to the Inquisition), he proceeded to Strasburg, and there led a life of philanthropy, giving to the poor his money, to the rich his advice, to the sick his help. He was veritably adored by the people. When he went to Paris in 1781 his elegant house in the Rue Saint Claude was soon besieged by admirers. His portrait was in great request on medallions and fans, and his bust in marble and in bronze figured in the houses of the great with this inscription : "Le divin Cagliostro." He received his clients in a large room furnished with Oriental – 50 - luxury, which contained the bust of Hippocrates, the " Universal Prayer " of Pope, together with objects of necromantic design and thaumaturgic virtue. His mysterious device L.P.D. (Lilia pedibus destrue) was reputed to be full of sinister meaning for the kings of France. Marie Antoinette was deeply interested in matters and men of this nature. De Rohan entertained her with tales of Cagliostro ; she consulted Saint-Germain, and was one of the visitors who clustered round the mysterious fluid of the hypnotic doctor Mesmer, which was calculated to heal all ills, and who listened to his dictum, " There is but one health, one illness, and one remedy." Though Mesmer's experiments were rejected by the French savants of the day as worthless, they were eagerly taken up in other parts of Europe. Mesmer enforced the law of mutual dependence and of unity in the natural world, as Saint-Martin enforced the laws of mutual dependence and of unity in the spiritual world. It might well have been Saint-Martin and not Mesmer who said, "that the life of man is part of the universal movement" for they were both exponents of the truth of the solidarity of the race.
- 51 -
The Comte de Saint-Germain, another of Weishaupt's ambassadors, emerges at intervals upon the surface of affairs a brilliant and accomplished personage, and sinks again to work in the great secret service, or to sit, as tradition has it, upon his golden altar in an attitude of Oriental absorption. Saint-Germain was probably not only the secret missionary and entertainer of Louis XV., but also the agent of masonic and other societies working for the regeneration of humanity ; one life was probably only the cloak for the other.
At the great Convention of Masonry held at Wilhelmsbad in 1782 the Order of the Strict Observance was suspended, and Von Knigge disclosed the scheme of Weishaupt to the assembled representatives of the masonic and mystical fraternities. Then and there disciples of Saint-Martin and of Willermoz, as well as statesmen, scientists, magicians, and magistrates from all countries, were converted to Illuminism. Perfectibilist doctrines percolated everywhere through the lodges of Europe, and when the " Philalèthes," at the instigation of Mirabeau, became the missionary agents of Illuminism, they preached to already half- - 52 - converted audiences. The fact that Mirabeau had any connection with such schemes has been occasionally denied, partly on account of the bitter pamphlet he launched against Cagliostro and partly because in " La Monarchic Prussienne " he denounced all secret societies and asserted that they should be tolerated by no State. This proves no more than the work which Nicolai produced explaining that secret societies existed for no other purpose than to serve the Stuart cause, when all the while he was founding a club and gaining possession of newspapers, like the " Berlin Journal " and the "Jena Gazette," to further the views of the initiates. It must be remembered that everything that conduced to the welfare of the society and the furtherance of the mission was justifiable, and that by subterfuges such as these Mirabeau and Nicolai sought to avert suspicion from themselves, and to obtain peace to work with greater efficiency and freedom. Mirabeau, owing to his friendship with Nicolai while in Berlin, is said to have been initiated into the last mysteries of the Perfectibilists at Brunswick. On returning to Paris he, together with Bonneville, introduced the German doctrines at the lodge of the " Amis - 53 - Réunis."^15 <#sdfootnote15sym>* Among his auditors were the Duke of Orleans, Brissot, Condorcet, Savalette, Gregoire, Garat, Petion, Baboeuf, Barnave, Sieyes, Saint-Just, Camille Desmoulins, Hebert, Santerre, Danton, Marat, Chénier, and many other men whose names are immortalised in the annals of the Revolution. The charge of actually disseminating the doctrines throughout France was given to Bode (Aurelius) and Busch (Bayard). So well did the Perfectibilist missionaries work that by 1788 every lodge under the Grand Orient and they numbered in that year 629 is said to have been indoctrinated with the system of Weishaupt.
From the time or the inoculation of the Grand Orient of France with the German doctrines, masonry, from being a simple instrument of tolerance, humanity, and fraternity, acting in a vague and general manner on the sentiments of its adherents, became a direct instrument of social transformation. Plans of the most practical nature were discussed. A scheme for recruiting a citizen army was drawn up, and Savalette de Lange, of the royal household, is said to have been responsible for [54] its execution. At the opening of the Revolution he appeared before the municipal councillors of Paris, followed by a few men crying, " Let us save the country," thereby exciting no little emulation. "Messieurs," he said :
" Voici des citoyens que j'ai exerces a manier les armes pour la défense de la patrie ; je me suis point fait leur majeur ou leur général, nous sommes tous égaux, je suis simplement caporal, mais j'ai donne 1'exemple ; ordonnez que tous les citoyens le suivent, que la nation prenne les armes, et la liberté est invincible.^16 <#sdfootnote16sym>"*
The next day the army of the " gardes nationaux " was formed. Barruel relates that at the outbreak of the Revolution two million hands, holding pikes, torches and hatchets, were ready to serve the cause of humanity, and that this body of zealots had been created by the adepts. Whether this be a true estimate or not, many an arm which was ready in 1789 to strike a blow for liberty had been nerved by the teachings of the secret societies.
Nearly all the masonic and illuminist lodges - 55 - shrank to their smallest esoteric dimensions in 1789, and expanded exoterically as clubs and popular societies. La Loge des Neuf Soeurs, for example, became "La Société Nationale des Neuf Soeurs," a club admitting women. The Grand Orient ceased its direction of affairs. The old theoretical discussions within the lodges as to how the Revolution should be conducted, produced in action the widest divergences, and Jacobins, Girondins, Hebertists, Dantonists, Robespierrists, in consequence destroyed each other.
It has been the habit for so long to regard the Revolution as an undefined catastrophe that it is hardly possible to persuade men that at least some foreknowledge of its course and destination existed in the mind of the Illuminists. When Cagliostro wrote his celebrated letter from England in 1787 predicting for the French people the realisation of the schemes of the secret societies ; foretelling the Revolution and the destruction of the Bastille and monarchy ; the advent of a Prince Egalite, who would abolish lettres de cachet ; the convocation of the States-General ; the destruction of ecclesiasticism and the substitution of the religion of - 56 - Reason; he probably wrote of the things he had heard debated in the lodges of Paris. Prescience might also explain the remark attributed to Mirabeau, " Voilà la victime," as he indicated the King at the opening of the States-General at Versailles^17 <#sdfootnote17sym>.* Two volumes of addresses, delivered at various lodges by eminent masons, prove how truly the situation had been gauged by Condorcet and Mirabeau. In fantastic phraseology the philosopher announced at Strasbourg that in France the " idolatry of monarchy had received a death-blow from the daughters of the Order of the Templars," while the states-man uttered in the recesses of the lodge of the " Chevaliers Bienfaisants " in Paris, the levelling principles and liberal ideas which he afterwards thundered from the tribune of the Assembly.^18 <#sdfootnote18sym> The path to the overthrow of religious authority had to a great extent been made smooth by the distribution, through the lodges, of Boulanger's "Origines du Despotisme Oriental," in which religion is treated as the engine of the State and the source of despotic power. " Des Erreurs et de la Vérité," springing as it did out - 57 - of the self-consciousness of the philosopher of the Revolution, represents, more than any other book, the feeling of the mystical aspirants after a reign of brotherhood and love. It became the Talmud of such people and the classic whence they drew their opinions. Religions ? their very diversity condemns them. Governments ? their instability, their foolish ways prove how false is the base on which they rest. All is wrong, especially criminal law, for it upholds the monstrous injustice of not only killing guilt but also repentance. Saint-Martin spoke to eager ears when he spoke thus to men, men willing to believe that man alone has created evil, that God at least must be exonerated from so monstrous a charge, men willing to work for that reign of brotherhood which meant the restoration of man's lost happiness. A very curious symbol is preserved in the National Library in Paris which illustrates the decline of the sentiment and principle and faith wherein the Revolution originated. It consists of a medal struck under the Convention in which two men regard each other without demonstration of affection, and all around runs the inscription : " Sois mon frère ou je te - 58 - tue." The doctrine of brotherhood can no further go.
After considering presently available materials we must conclude that at the lowest estimate a coordinated working basis of ideas had been established through the agency of the lodges of France ; that thousands of men, unable to form a political opinion or judgment for themselves, had been awakened to a sense of their own responsibility and their own power in furthering the great movement towards a new order of affairs. It remains to the eternal credit of the workers in the great secret service to have elicited a vigorous personal response to the call of great ideals, and to have directed the enthusiasm excited to the welfare, not of individuals, but of society as a whole. The conjectural realm of the inception of political ideas is a morass into which few historians care to venture. Proved paths are lacking, the country is dark and unmapped, and a false step may ruin the reputation of years. It is to be hoped that one day a contribution to the spiritual history of the eighteenth century will be made which will neither ignore the Utopian confederacies nor attribute to them, as is the - 59 - habit of ecclesiastics, influences altogether malign.
At the great Revolution the doctrines of the lodges were at last translated from the silent world of secrecy to the common world of practice ; a few months sufficed to depose ecclesiasticism from its pedestal and monarchy from its throne ; to make the army republican, and the word of Rousseau law. The half-mystical phantasies of the lodges became the habits of daily life. The Phrygian cap of the " illuminate " became the headgear of the populace, and the adoption of the classic appellations used by Spartacus and his Aréopagites the earnest of good citizenship. Past time was broken with, and a calendar modelled on those in use among the secret confederates became the symbol of the new epoch. The ternaire Liberty, Equality, Fraternity instead of merely adorning the meeting-places of masonic bodies, was stencilled on all the public buildings of France ; and the red banner which had symbolised universal love within the lodges was carried by the ragged battalions of the people on errands of pillage and destruction.
The great subversive work had been silently - 60 - and ruthlessly accomplished in the face of popes and kings. Though the Church spread the report that Illuminates worshipped a devil, and named it Christ, and denounced masonry as the " mystery of iniquity " ; though Saint-Germain and Saint-Martin were decried by the Jesuits; though Cagliostro died in the Inquisitors' prison of Sant Angelo, and Cazotte, Egalite,
and many another agent of the secret service were guillotined ; though Weishaupt was persecuted and the German Perfectibilists suppressed ; yet the mine which had been dug under altar and throne was too deep to be filled up by either persecution or calumny.
The true history of the eighteenth century is the history of the aspiration of the human race. In France it was epitomised. The spiritual life of that nation, which was to lift the weight of material oppression from the shoulders of multitudes, had been cherished through dark years by the preachers of Freedom, Equality, and Brotherhood. From the Swedenborgian stronghold of Avignon, from Martinist Lyons, from Narbonne, from Munich, and many another citadel of freedom, there flashed on the grey night of feudalism, unseen - 61 - but to the initiates, the watch-fires of great hope tended by those priests of progress who, though unable to lift the veil that shrouds the destiny of man and the end of worlds, by faith were empowered to dedicate the future to the Unknown God.
End of chapter
1 <#sdfootnote1anc>* " Les Sectes et les Societes Secretes."
2 <#sdfootnote2anc> Memoires Secret de Bachaumont," vol. i. p. 286
3 <#sdfootnote3anc> Ibid. vol. ii. p. 292.
4 <#sdfootnote4anc> Ibid. vol. iii. p. 168
5 <#sdfootnote5anc> At the Loge des Philalethes, Strasbourg, p. 41. Robison.
6 <#sdfootnote6anc> p. 344, vol. iv. Barruel
7 <#sdfootnote7anc> "Une Loge Maçonnique d'avant 1789," p. II
8 <#sdfootnote8anc> La Franc-Maçonnerie, ou révélations des mystères des
franc-maçons." Par Madame * * *
9 <#sdfootnote9anc> Une Loge Maçonnique d'avant 1789," p. 29
10 <#sdfootnote10anc> November 17, 1780.
11 <#sdfootnote11anc> " Une Loge Maçonnique d'avant 1789," p. 243.
12 <#sdfootnote12anc> Letter of Spartacus to Cato, p, 160. Robison
13 <#sdfootnote13anc> En 1784.
14 <#sdfootnote14anc> No proof of such a thing in the known papers of
Saint-Martin
15 <#sdfootnote15anc> Le Couteulx de Canteleu," p. 168.
16 <#sdfootnote16anc> Le Couteulx de Canteleu," p. 211.
17 <#sdfootnote17anc> Mémoires de Weber," vol. i. chap, ix, p. 335
18 <#sdfootnote18anc> p. 41. Robison.
¶ 2:39 AM
Calais, pendant les guerres révolutionnaires.*
*Pour être né à Saintes en 1738 il ne fut pas, pour autant, et ce malgré
les rumeurs persistantes, guillotiné pendant la révolution, ni après. Il
mourut, d'un anthrax, le 26 mars 1814 à Paris.*
*S'il est connu du plus grand nombre par SA guillotine, laquelle fut
très peu son invention, il a d'autres titres dont ceux de médecin (à la
faculté de médecine de Paris) et d'homme politique (élu député du tiers
état en 1789).*
*La trace la plus marquante de sa carrière révolutionnaire est autant
d'avoir proposé que le nombre de députés du tiers-état soit égal en
nombre à ceux des députés de la noblesse et du clergé, réunis, que
d'avoir proposé la réunion dans la salle du jeu de paume quand les
députés du tiers-état trouvent leur salle fermée le 19 juin 1789.*
*L'intérêt que nous portons à Guillotin commence en 1784, quand ces
messieurs de l'académie de médecine doivent rendre leur avis au roi sur
les pratiques de Mesmer.*
*Le magnétisme animal est condamné, par Guillotin, Bailly... au titre
d'immoralité publique!*
*Guillotin sera le médecin personnel du comte de Provence futur Louis
XVIII, frère du roi pendant un an.*
*Il se marie à 49 ans avec Élise Saugrain.*
*Dans les réformes proposées par les députés, la peine de mort et la
technique de la peine de mort avaient leur cahier des charges !*
*En premier, la technique varie selon le rang des personnes et leurs
finances.*
*Le noble est décapité à l'épée ; le roturier est décapité à la hache,
il n'est pas rare que l'on ne s'y reprenne en plusieurs fois, ni que la
hache ne soit émoussée parce qu'il fallait bien payer le rémouleur...
pour qu'il vous fasse le fil tranchant !*
*L'hérétique est brûlé ; le voleur roué de coups sur la roue, ou pendu ;
le régicide écartelé. *
*Rien que de petites choses qui distrayaient le badaud badaudant en
badauderie. *
*La discussion des députés, Mirabeau, Guillotin, …, porta sur l'égalité
des peines en fonction des crimes et sur une technique qui permette
d'éviter les souffrances inutiles. *
*L'idée d'égalité enclenche l'idée d'une machine à tuer, cette machine
existe déjà. Elle ne s'appelle pas, alors, la guillotine !*
*Comment situer l'objet dans le temps ?*
*Les romains, férus d'objets à trucider, l'auraient utilisée.*
*Les génois l'auraient utilisée vers 1507. *
*Elle se serait faite appeler Mannaja, Maiden, Halifax Gibbet...*
*D'où leur vint cette idée très humaine?*
*Il semble bien que Guillotin, humaniste, soucieux de la souffrance des
condamnés..., ait lui comme d'autres raisonné de ce raisonnement qui
conduit inéluctablement à une « Terreur », une « dictature », une «
tyrannie » ...*
*Ouvrons ici la parenthèse de ce raisonnement et suivons ledit
raisonnement dans sa simplicité:*
*_L'objectif _: atteindre au bonheur*
*(le bonheur est considéré comme une norme de l'existence.)*
_*Le moyen:*_
*le groupe, le pouvoir du groupe*
*(le groupe est censé représenter la collectivité, l'ensemble de
l'humanité),*
*_La prémisse_ suppose que le bien est collectif. *
*[la prémisse est la proposition faite au début du raisonnement, on en
déduit des conséquences ou des conclusions, elle est rarement démontrée
parce qu'elle est acceptée comme évidence (la prémisse a un sens précis
en logique, deux prémisses permettent de conclure un syllogisme; tout
syllogisme vrai obéit à des règles précises de fonctionnement)],*
*De là, nos humanistes, ici Robespierre en tête, mettent en place un
système qui conduit « le groupe » (en fait, un groupe parmi d'autres
groupe) à prendre le pouvoir et à donner à la collectivité (en fait une
collectivité parmi d'autres collectivités) la capacité d'être heureuse.*
*Ce premier raisonnement est suivi d'un deuxième:*
*Le raisonnement suivant consiste à chercher une cause ou des causes au
malheur de la collectivité : pendant la révolution la réponse est
simple, les nobles, le clergé.*
*De tels raisonnements ne répondent pas aux principes de l'ordre
naturel, lequel repose sur une possibilité simple: je dois survivre pour
assurer la survie de mon groupe. Quand mon groupe est en survie, comme
moi, je peux passer au stade suivant, lui assurer un confort de vie. Si
ce groupe est en confort de vie et génère des surplus, il est
intéressant de les partager avec d'autres groupes qui n'ont pas encore
atteint le stade de la survie ou le stade du confort de vie et
pourraient désirer « piller » les biens de mon groupe.*
*Que puis-je offrir à un homme en état de besoin ?*
*Mon temps, mes connaissances, mes capacités à lui apprendre les
techniques nécessaires pour qu'il devienne autonome face à ses besoins. *
*(donner un poisson, apprendre à pécher, s'assurer qu'il y a du poisson
en quantité nécessaire et suffisante...)*
*Se fixer comme idéal le bonheur des hommes, le progrès de l'humanité,
sans poser la borne de l'autonomie, s'est enclencher une dynamique de la
Terreur.*
*Se fixer un objectif de partage constitue une illusion tant que le
moyen du partage n'est pas possible.*
*Pour faire simple et concret: il est possible de partager des
connaissances avec ceux qui se donnent les moyens de les acquérir, et
qui ont été préparés pour acquérir (et utiliser) des connaissances.*
*Ainsi, je partage, librement, le temps dont je peux disposer; les
connaissances qui m'appartiennent ou les moyens de les acquérir.*
*Si je veux faire plus, il me faut plus de temps, des jours de 24 heures
relèvent de l'ordre naturel.*
*Si je veux faire plus, il me faut plus de connaissances, je reconnais
des limites à mes capacités!*
*Si je veux partager la production de mon jardin, il me faut être en
surplus et assurer une capacité à maintenir cette production!*
*Nous trouvons rapidement à nos démarches « charitables » des limites.*
*Revenons après cette digression pour comprendre la marche des
révolutionnaires, hommes des lumières, philosophes, amants de la Raison,
…, à notre guillotine.*
*Celui qui a préparé sa mise activité s'appelle Antoine Louis,
secrétaire de l'académie de chirurgie.*
*Puységur nous rappelle que sa première utilisation en France fut sur
Henri II de Montmorency, maréchal de France, à Toulouse en octobre 1632.*
*Guillotin qui avait été arrêté pendant la terreur retourne à la liberté
après la chute de Robespierre.*
*En 1794, il sert à l'Armée du Nord, il est en poste à Arras et tient
son office dans l'abbaye Saint-Vaast d'Arras*
*jusqu'à sa mort, notre humaniste se consacre à la médecine, il vaccine
contre la variole, il est chargé par le Consulat de mettre en place un
programme de santé publique, il est surtout le fondateur de la Société
des premiers médecins de Paris, ancêtre de notre Académie de médecine.*
"C'est le système mystico-philosophique de Martinez Pasqualis,
repris et modifié plus tard par son disciple Saint-Martin, le
/philosophe inconnu/, Martinez prétendait trouver dans la Cabale juive
la science révélatrice de Dieu et des intelligences créées par lui.
D'accord sur certains points avec la tradition chrétienne, il s'en
séparait par la croyance à un état élémentaire de la nature avant la
création divine. Cazotte, raconte Gérard de Nerval, dans la belle
préface qu'il a consacrée à l'auteur du Diable amoureux, venait de
publier ce dernier ouvrage, lorsqu'il reçut la visite d'un mystérieux
inconnu, qui lui reprocha d'avoir révélé le secret des initiés et lui
conseilla de s'abstenir désormais de pareilles divulgations. Pour
innocent qu'il fut, le pauvre Cazotte dut être d'autant plus porté à
réparer la faute qui lui était attribuée, que ce n'était pas alors peu
de chose que d'encourir la haine des Illuminés, nombreux, puissants et
divisés en une foule de sectes, sociétés et loges maçonniques qui se
correspondaient d'un bout à l'autre du royaume. Accusé d'avoir révélé
aux profanes les mystères de l'initiation, il s'exposait au même sort
qu'avait subi l'abbé de Villars qui, dans /le Comte de Gabalis/, s'était
permis de livrer à la curiosité publique, sous une forme demi sérieuse,
toute la doctrine des rose-croix sur le monde des esprits. L'abbé fut un
jour trouvé assassiné sur la route de Lyon et l'on ne put qu'accuser les
sylphes ou les gnomes de cette expédition. On sait que cet épisode a
fourni à M. Anatole France le dénouement de /la Rôtisserie de la reine
Pédauque. "
/
Selon PORTAL
*
Au Moyen-âge comme dans l'antiquité, le choix de telle ou telle nuance
n'était pas l'effet d'un caprice; chaque couleur avait une signification
aussi tranchée qu'énergique pour s'en convaincre, il suffit de lire
l'ouvrage écrit /ex professo /sur la Symbolique des couleurs par M.
Frédéric Portal. Son livre, dont on ne saurait trop louer l'érudition et
les aperçus de haute philosophie, ressuscite cette langue primitive et
développe avec bonheur ses principes élémentaires. Grâce à cette
nouvelle voie d'investigation dans l'étude des monuments et des
peintures antiques, il est permis d'atteindre au-delà des stériles
appréciations de forme et de coloris; sous l'enveloppe matérielle et
morte, l'oeil de l'esprit découvre la pensée vivante exprimée par le
symbole.
Avant d'aborder les détails, il est nécessaire d'établir quelques
principes généraux sans lesquels il nous serait malaisé de nous faire
comprendre.
Les couleurs eurent la même signification chez tous les peuples de
l'antiquité, et l'histoire de ces mêmes peuples démontre que toutes les
religions doivent parcourir et parcourent en effet trois phases
successives : /La /première où la divinité se manifeste à l'homme sans
aucun alliage de superstition, à l'état de complète pureté; la seconde
où le culte est forcé de recourir à la majesté des temples et à la pompe
des cérémonies pour revêtir une forme sensible aux yeux des nations
qu'environnent déjà les ténèbres ; enfin la troisième, où l'homme arrivé
au dernier degré de l'abrutissement se méprend sur la valeur du symbole
qu'il divinise. De là dans la symbolique, trois langues^1
<#sdfootnote1sym> bien distinctes :
La /*langue divine*// /s'adresse d'abord à tous les hommes et leur
révèle l'existence de Dieu. La symbolique est la langue de tous les
peuples, comme la religion la propriété de chaque famille. Le sacerdoce
n'existe pas encore; chaque père de famille est roi et pontife.
La /*langue sacrée*// /prend naissance dans les sanctuaires. Elle règle
la symbolique de l'architecture, de la statuaire et de la peinture,
comme les cérémonies du culte et les costumes des prêtres : cette
première matérialisation emprisonne la langue divine sous des voiles
impénétrables.
C'est alors que la /*langue profane*// /s'empare de l'expression
matérielle des symboles ; les nations livrées à l'idolâtrie ne savent
plus remonter jusqu'à Dieu au-delà du symbole ou de l'image grossière
qui leur frappe la vue.
La couleur fut le premier moyen de transmettre la pensée et d'en
conserver la mémoire. Les Quipos du Pérou et les Cardelettes de la
Chine, teintes de/ /diverses nuances, formaient les archives de ces
peuples enfants. Les couleurs jouent un rôle encore plus important dans
les peintures mexicaines. Mais cette écriture symbolique arriva dans les
hiéroglyphes égyptiens à son plus haut degré de perfection. Vint aussi
la dégradation nécessaire ; la langue sacrée tomba dans l'oubli et la
langue profane , dernier reflet de ce brillant langage, popularise les
symboles en les matérialisant.
Si nous envisageons l'ère chrétienne, nous ne voyons pas sans surprise
les vitraux de nos cathédrales procéder de la même manière que les
peintures égyptiennes; mêmes couleurs exprimant mêmes symboles à double
signification, l'une mystique et l'autre populaire. Quand vient la
renaissance, le génie symbolique s'éteint ; la peinture n'est plus la
naïve expression du dogme sacré, elle se fait le superbe interprète de
toutes les passions humaines. La symbolique bannie de l'Église se
réfugie à la cour, et là se réveille avec une nouvelle splendeur sur les
chevaleresques armoiries. Le blason perpétue dans les familles le
glorieux [50] souvenir des actions d'éclat, mais le plus souvent la
signification primitive est méconnue et faussement appliquée^2
<#sdfootnote2sym>. A l'ère aristocratique succède la galanterie /des
/Maures, et leur mysticisme amoureux donne naissance à la langue
symbolique, telle qu'elle s'est conservée jusqu'à nos jours; les débris,
tout défigurés qu'ils sont, attestent encore sa haute origine ; mais
c'est une dernière lueur qui s'obscurcit de plus en plus, si bien que
les peintres modernes qui en ont recueilli à peine quelques traditions,
la plupart ne sauraient dire pourquoi saint Jean porte une robe verte,
le Christ et la Vierge des draperies rouges et bleues, et Dieu des
vêtements blancs comme la neige.
D'après la symbolique, deux principes donnent naissance à toutes les
couleurs, la lumière et les ténèbres, le blanc et le noir. La lumière
n'existe que par le feu dont le symbole est le rouge. Partant de cette
base, la symbolique n'admet que deux couleurs primitives : le rouge et
le blanc. Le noir, négation des couleurs, fut attribué à l'esprit des
ténèbres.
Le rouge est le symbole de l'amour divin; le blanc, le symbole de la
divine sagesse. Les couleurs secondaires ne sont autre chose que les
diverses combinaisons des deux principes : amour et sagesse.
Une particularité importante à noter, c'est que la symbolique
considérant les couleurs au point de vue mystique, idéal, les associe,
non pas d'après le résultat matériel, mais d'après leur signification
emblématique. Voilà comme, exprimant par le jaune la révélation de
l'amour et de la sagesse de Dieu, elle fait émaner cette couleur du
rouge et du blanc, bien que l'expérience démontre le contraire.
Le bleu émane de même du rouge et du blanc ; il désigne la sagesse
divine manifestée par la vie, par l'esprit ou le souffle de Dieu ; il
est le symbole de l'esprit de vérité.
Le vert formé par l'union du jaune et du bleu, indique la manifestation
de l'amour et de la sagesse dans l'acte ; c'est le symbole de la charité.
Telle est la signification des cinq couleurs primordiales dont deux
seulement sont élémentaires: La règle de leurs combinaisons ne sera pas
difficile à saisir. Les teintes secondaires reçoivent leur signification
des couleurs qui les composent ; celle qui domine donne à la nuance sa
signification générale, et celle qui est dominée la modifie. Ainsi, le
pourpre qui est d'un rouge azuré signifie l'amour de la vérité, et
l'hyacinthe qui est d'un bleu pourpré représente la vérité de l'amour.
Il est une autre règle qui prête à la langue symbolique une énergie
inconnue aux langues vulgaires, c'est la règle des oppositions. Le noir
uni aux autres couleurs leur donne une signification toute contraire.
Symbole du mal et du faux, cette couleur devient la négation de toutes
les nuances auxquelles on la mélange ; *ainsi le rouge (amour divin),
mêlé de noir, exprime l'amour infernal, l'égoïsme , la haine, enfin
toutes les passions de l'homme dégradé.*
* *Ces principes, dont on ne peut s'empêcher d'admirer le mécanisme
aussi simple qu'ingénieux, vous conduirait à trouver sans peine le sens
exprimé par les autres nuances admises dans le catalogue symbolique.
Revenons aux deux couleurs primitives pour les considérer dans les trois
langues divine, sacrée et profane.
*DU BLANC*.
/* Langue divine*. /Le blanc, unité d'où émanent les couleurs
primitives, est le symbole de Dieu, unité qui embrasse l'univers. Les
prophètes, dans leur langage toujours symbolique, voient la Divinité
revêtue d'un manteau blanc comme la neige. Dans toutes les religions de
la terre à la couleur blanche se rattache la même idée. Le dieu Pan est
aussi blanc que la neige; Osiris a des bandelettes étincelantes de
blancheur ; Jupiter est vêtu de blanc, et lorsque Jésus-Christ se
transfigure sur le Thabor, ses vêtements sont blancs /comme la neige.
/Cette couleur exprime aussi la vérité absolue.
/ *Langue sacrée*. /Le sacerdoce représente Dieu sur la terre, et dans
toutes les religions le souverain pontife porte des vêtements blancs,
symbole de la lumière incréée. Jéhovah ordonne à Aaron de n'entrer dans
le sanctuaire que vêtu de blanc. Les brahmes,les mages, les parsis, les
prêtres égyptiens,romains,scandinaves, celtes et germains, adoptèrent le
même costume. Dans la langue sacrée de la Bible, les vêtements blancs
signifient la régénération des âmes et la récompense des élus. Partout,
et dans tous les temps on a enseveli les morts d'un linceul blanc,
symbole du triomphe de l'âme sur l'empire des ténèbres. Au Japon, quand
une femme se marie, elle est censée mourir pour revivre dans son époux;
aussi elle porte la robe mortuaire blanche et son lit est disposé comme
pour les morts. Triste cérémonie qui semble dire aux parents : vous
venez de perdre votre fille.
/*Langue profane*. /Les Romains notaient les jours heureux avec de la
craie, et dans le langue grecque, /leukos, /blanc, signifie encore
heureux, agréable, gai. Les Maures désignaient par cet emblème la
pureté, la sincérité, l'innocence, la candeur. Nous tenons, dit en
France un auteur héraldique, la blancheur de nos lis pour un symbole de
pureté aussi bien que de franchise. Enfin le blanc, dont le symbole se
modifie d'après l'objet ou la personne auxquels on l'applique. peut
exprimer un grand nombre d'idées ; adressé à la/ /femme, il^- veut dire
chasteté ; à la jeune fille, virginité; au juge, intégrité ; au riche,
humilité; au prêtre, sagesse ; à l'accusé, innocence, etc.
[51]
*DU JAUNE.*
/* Langue divine*. /La chaleur et l'éclat du soleil désignent l'amour de
Dieu qui anime le coeur, et la sagesse qui éclaire l'intelligence. Le
jaune doré exprime à lui seul les deux symboles du rouge et du blanc
amour divin, sagesse divine ; mais il y joint un caractère de
manifestation et de révélation. Le soleil, l'or et le jaune, dans la
langue symbolique, sont analogues, mais non pas synonymes; ils marquent
différents degrés. Le/ /soleil naturel était l'image du soleil
spirituel, l'or figurait le soleil naturel, et le jaune était l'emblème
de l'or. Ce n'est pas sans surprise que nous voyons dans la religion
chrétienne , comme dans toutes les religions antiques, le dogme divin se
révéler par des symboles; d'où résulte une parfaite identité de/
/croyances. Unité sublime! qui, loin de/ /déposer contre le
christianisme, prouve au contraire qu'il résume en lui l'élément
impérissable de l'éternelle vérité.
/ *Langue sacrée*. /L'or et le jaune reçurent dans la langue sacrée
l'acception particulière de révélation faite par le prêtre, ou de
doctrine religieuse enseignée dans tes temples. Par ce métal et par
cette couleur on représentait encore l'initiation aux mystères, ou la
lumière révélée aux profanes. Cette signification se retrouve dès la
plus haute antiquité les pommes d'or du jardin des Hespérides ne
sont-elles pas les fruits de l'intelligence qui naissent de l'amour de
Dieu ? Saint Pierre, comme chef de l'Église, fut revêtu d'une robe
jaune, symbole de la foi. Les aliments de couleur jaune héritèrent du
même privilège; les gâteaux de miel offerts dans les sacrifices étaient
l'emblème de l'amour et de la sagesse de Dieu dont les justes font leur
nourriture. Par opposition, le soufre devint l'image énergique des
passions dépravées qui consument le coeur des impies.
/*Langue profane*. /Les langues divine et sacrée désignaient par l'or et
le jaune l'union de l'âme avec Dieu, et par opposition, l'adultère
spirituel. Dans la langue profane , cet emblème matérialisé représente
tantôt l'amour légitime, tantôt l'adultère charnel. Chez les Maures, le
jaune doré signifiait sage et bon conseil; le jaune pâle, trahison et
déception. Dans le blason l'or était l'emblème de l'amour, de la
constance, de la sagesse, et par opposition, le jaune dénote encore de
nos jours inconstance, jalousie, infidélité. — En France, on
barbouillait de jaune la porte des traîtres.
*DU ROUGE.*
/* Langue divine*//. /Le blanc est le symbole de Dieu, l'or et le jaune
indiquent le verbe ou la révélation ; le rouge et le bleu, la
sanctification ou le Saint-Esprit./ /Le rouge, pris isolément, est le
symbole du baptême de feu et d'esprit ; mais là se révèle dans toutes
les cosmogonies une triade divine dont il est impossible de/ /séparer un
seul terme. Dans son unité, Dieu crée l'univers (blanc); comme fils de
Dieu, il se révèle aux hommes (jaune) ; comme Saint-Esprit, il les
régénère par l'amour et la vérité (rouge et bleu). Qui ne serait frappé
de cette merveilleuse coïncidence Dans le bouddhisme, le brahmanisme,
dans les livres sacrés de l'Inde, de la Chine, de l'Égypte et de la
Perse, comme dans la Bible,, partant sa retrouve ce même dogme d'un seul
Dieu en trois personnes exprimées par les mêmes couleurs.
/* Langue sacrée.*// /Le feu du sacrifice était le symbole du feu
céleste qui repose dans le coeur. La couleur rouge chez les Égyptiens
était consacrée aux bons génies ; c'est pour la même raison que Jupiter
et Bacchus étaient drapés de rouge. Les artistes du Moyen-âge, fidèles
aux traditions, donnèrent toujours à Jésus-Christ des vêtements blancs
ou rouges après sa résurrection. Le rouge était donc le symbole de la
divinité et du culte. Le labarum de Constantin était pourpre ,
l'oriflamme de saint Denis pourpre azuré. Mahomet portait des robes
rouges le vendredi et les fêtes du Beyram. Le rouge, comme emblème de
droit divin, fut toujours l'attribut des pontifes, des rois, des
empereurs, des généraux et des classes privilégiées. Les cardinaux en
ont conservé les insignes. Par opposition, le symbole de l'amour divin
deviendra la marque de l'égoïsme, de l'amour infernal ; le démon sera
vêtu de rouge. De même, dans le blason, le gueule ou rouge dénote
l'ardent amour comme la haine, le courage comme la fureur, etc.
/*Langue profane*/. Dans la langue populaire de toutes les nations, la
couleur du sang fut l'emblème des combats; au Pérou, les quipos teintes
en rouge désignaient les gens de guerre. Les Spartiates, qui ne
connaissaient d'autre vertu que le courage militaire, étaient ensevelis
dans des linceuls rouges. Le rouge était nécessairement l'attribut du
dieu Mars dont le symbole spirituel, comme celui du dieu des armées chez
les Juifs, exprimait le combat de la vertu contre le vice. Il y a loin
de cette image consolante au dieu, sanguinaire dont on invoque le nom un
glaive à la main.
*DU BLEU.*
/* Langue divine.*// /L'air, dont la couleur est l'azur, le bleu
céleste, exprime dans la Bible le symbole de l'esprit saint, de la
vérité divine qui éclaire les hommes. Dans l'antiquité, le feu éthéré,
ce qui veut dire le bleu et le rouge réunis, figurait l'identification
de l'amour et de la sagesse dans le père des dieux et des hommes. Sur
les verrières du moyen fige, pendant les trois années de prédication, de
vérité et de sagesse, [52] le Messie porte une robe bleue. Le dieu Agni
dans l'Inde, symbole du feu céleste, est monté sur un /bélier /bleu,
Jupiter-Ammon a un corps bleu avec une tête de /bélier, /et Jésus,
/l'agneau /mystique, est vêtu d'une robe bleue. Rapprochements
singuliers, mais qui démontrent clairement l'unité de ce grand drame
religieux dont la manifestation, obscurcie de ténèbres par intervalles,
se renouvelle invariablement dans sa pureté primitive.
/*Langue sacrée*//. /La symbolique distingue trois cou-leurs bleues ;
l'une qui émane du rouge ; l'autre du blanc, et la troisième qui s'unit
au noir. Le bleu émané du rouge représente le feu éthéré et signifie
amour /céleste de la vérité. /Dans les mystères, il se rapporte au
baptême de feu. Le bleu émané du blanc indique les vérités de la foi ;
il se rapporte aux eaux vives de la Bible, symbole du baptême d'esprit.
Le bleu uni au noir désigne l'esprit de Dieu planant sur le chaos, il se
rapporte au baptême naturel. Ces trois nuances expriment les trois
degrés de l'initiation antique et le triple baptême chrétien. — « Pour
moi, dit saint Jean-Baptiste, je vous baptise /d'eau /pour vous porter à
la repentance ; mais celui qui vient après moi est plus puissant que moi
; c'est lui qui vous baptisera du /saint esprit /et du /feu. »
/Néanmoins ces trois degrés sont plus particulièrement figurés par le
rouge, le bleu et le vert.
/ //*Langue profane.*// /L'azur fut dans la langue divine le symbole de
la vérité éternelle ; dans la langue sacrée, de l'immortalité; et dans
la langue profane, de/ /la fidélité. Dans le blason , le bleu signifie
chasteté , loyauté, fidélité et bonne réputation.
*Du NOIR.*
Le blanc étant le symbole de la vérité absolue, le noir devait être
celui de l'erreur, du néant, de ce qui n'est pas. Lorsque Jésus-Christ
lutte contre le génie du mal, les enlumineurs du Moyen-âge le
représentent drapé en noir. La vierge Marie, qui est le symbole de
l'Église chrétienne, a souvent le visage noir sur les peintures du
douzième siècle. Dans les cérémonies de l'initiation antique, la
divinité, symbole de la beauté morale, avant de revêtir les vêtements
éclatants en signe de régénération, était d'abord drapée d'une robe de
deuil. En Égypte, cette déité s'appelait la ténébreuse Athor ; en Grèce,
Vénus la noire (symbole de l'amour divin). Par un de ces rapprochements
que nous voyons constamment se reproduire dans la religion chrétienne ,
la couleur noire de la Vierge indique le degré qui précède la
régénération ou le combat de l'Église contre les ténèbres. Chez les
Maures, le noir désignait la douleur, le désespoir, l'obscurité et la
constance. Dans le blason, la prudence, la sagesse et la /constance
/dans la tristesse et les adversités. Rouge sur noir, suivant M. Portal,
se rapporte aux divinités bienfaisantes, c'est ce qui expliquerait
l'emploi constant de ces deux couleurs dans les peintures des vases
étrusques.
*Du VERT*
/* Langue divine*//. /D'après les prophètes , de Dieu émanent trois
sphères qui remplissent les cieux ; la première sphère, ou sphère
d'amour, est rouge ; la seconde, ou sphère de sagesse, est bleue ; la
troisième, ou sphère de création, est verte. Ces trois sphères,
répondent aux trois degrés d'initiation. Sur la Bible latine du dixième
siècle, Jésus-Christ est enveloppé du limbe rouge bordé d'une bande
bleue, son auréole est rouge ; des chérubins et des anges l'environnent;
leurs auréoles sont, les unes rouges, les autres bleues, les autres
vertes. Sous les pieds du Christ est une sphère pourpre, et le
marche-pied de la divinité e,st séparé en trois bandes rouge, bleue et
verte. — Ce sont toujours les mêmes symboles reproduits sous une autre
forme.
/* Langue sacrée*//. /Quatre couleurs sont attribuées aux quatre
éléments; le rouge représente le feu, l'azur l'air, le vert l'eau, le
noir la terre. Le vert est l'image du premier degré d'initiation au
sortir du chaos et des ténèbres. Plus haut nous avons parlé de Vénus la
noire, il y avait aussi la verte Vénus, la Vénus /régénératrice, /la
Vénus Aphrogénie. Ici nous retrouvons encore les rapprochements les plus
curieux. L'apôtre saint Jean, l'initiateur aux combats spirituels , est
presque toujours vêtu d'une robe verte. Dans l'islamisme, Ali,
l'initiateur par la conquête matérielle, porte également le turban vert.
Par opposition, le vert désigne la folie. Satan et Minerve, les deux
extrêmes, sont dépeints avec des yeux verts.
/* Langue profane.* /Les légendes populaires conservent les traditions
sacrées en les matérialisant; le vert, symbole de la régénération de
l'âme, de la nouvelle naissance spirituelle, fut l'emblème de la
naissance matérielle. On a prêté à l'émeraude la vertu de hâter
l'enfantement. Le vert, symbole de l'espérance, dans l'immortalité ,
devint celui de l'espérance dans le monde ; symbole de la victoire
spirituelle, il devint celui de la victoire matérielle, et, par
opposition, il désigna chez les Grecs défaite et trahison ; chez les
Maures, il signifiait espérance, joie et jeunesse ; dans le blason,
civilité, amour, joie et abondance. Enfin dans toutes les religions
antiques et modernes, il fut et demeure le symbole de la bonne doctrine.
*COULEURS MIXTES.*
*Rose, pourpre, Hyacinthe, écarlate, Violet. Orangé, tanné, gris.*
Nous allons glisser rapidement sur les nuances dérivées des six couleurs
principales. la règle des [53] combinaisons est du reste un moyen clair
et facile de prévoir leur valeur symbolique.
*Le rose*, par exemple, est un mélange du rouge et du blanc ; le rouge
désigne l'amour divin, le blanc la sagesse divine, la réunion de ces
deux couleurs devra donc signifier : Amour de la sagesse divine. Nous
trouvons ici une analogie avec le jaune, qui exprime le même symbole,
mais à un degré supérieur. L'or, le jaune se rapportant à Dieu, à sa
révélation ; le rose indique l'homme régénéré qui reçoit la parole sainte.
*Le pourpre et l'hyacinthe* sont deux nuances d'une même couleur qu'il
serait facile de confondre, et qui cependant ont deux significations
différentes. Le pourpre était dans l'antiquité une couleur nuancée de
bleu ; dans l'hyacinthe, au contraire, c'est le bleu qui domine ;
l'hyacinthe se rapportera donc à la vérité de l'amour, et le pourpre à
l'amour de la vérité.
*L'écarlate* est une nuance composée de rouge avec une teinte de jaune;
il est, par conséquent, le symbole de l'amour spirituel, de l'amour du
Verbe ou de la parole divine. Cette couleur dans la langue symbolique
est d'un degré au-dessus du pourpre.
Jusqu'à présent, dans les couleurs mixtes, nous avons trouvé une
dominante ; mais lorsque les deux couleurs s'équilibrent comme dans le
violet, où le rouge et le bleu se font également sentir, la
signification découle des deux nuances primitives. Ainsi *le violet*
comprendra à la fois le sens du pourpre et de l'hyacinthe, l'amour de la
vérité et la vérité de l'amour ; il exprimera l'union de la bonté et de
la vérité, de l'amour et de la sagesse.
Les couleurs *safranée et orangée*, composées de jaune et de rouge,
désignèrent dès la plus haute antiquité la révélation de l'amour divin.
Bacchus, dont le mythe spirituel, et non matérialisé comme il le fut
plus tard, est le symbole de l'esprit saint, de la sanctification des
âmes, portait dans les représentations scéniques un manteau orangé. Dans
le christianisme, l'orangé désigne encore la divinité embrasant le coeur
et illuminant l'esprit des fidèles. C'est par opposition que dans la
langue profane cette couleur est devenue l'emblème de l'adultère
matériel, et dans le blason l'emblème de la dissimulation et de
l'hypocrisie.
Sous le nom de *couleur fauve, tannée*, la pauvreté des langues humaines
nous force de réunir une foule de nuances qui varient à l'infini depuis
le marron jusqu'au /feuille-morte. /Toutes ces couleurs brunes ont une
signification funeste ; dans l'antiquité et le Moyen-âge, elles furent
portées en signe de deuil. Chez les Maures, le tanné était l'emblème de
tout ce qui est /mal; /allié aux autres nuances, il leur donnait un sens
néfaste. Ainsi, vert et tanné signifiait rire et pleurs ; bleu et tanné,
patience dans l'adversité, etc.
Le mélange du blanc et du noir, ou *le gris*, fut dans le christianisme
l'emblème de la mort terrestre et de/ /l'immortalité spirituelle. De
plus, comme le blanc est le symbole de l'innocence, le noir celui de la
culpabilité, le gris, en modifiant et atténuant ces deux significations,
devient le symbole de l'innocence calomniée, noircie, succombant sous le
poids de l'injustice des hommes.
De cette longue et curieuse énumération de/ /la symbolique des couleurs,
M. Frédéric Portal s'élève jusqu'à des considérations philosophiques et
religieuses. Il est certain que si la symbolique des couleurs venait à
se populariser de nouveau, ce qui n'est pas impossible, les couleurs
dont seraient peints les vêtements de tel ou tel personnage offriraient
une ressource de plus pour frapper l'imagination et préciser d'une
manière saillante l'idée que l'artiste s'efforce de traduire aux yeux.
On ne peut refuser à la langue symbolique des couleurs une grande
souplesse jointe à une grande énergie ; par son intermédiaire, l'idée
prend un corps qui la rend plus accessible à toutes les intelligences.
Aussi la joie, le deuil, le triomphe, le mépris, la puissance, l'amour,
la haine, le désespoir, toutes les grandes passions du coeur humain
ont-elles employé cette langue expressive pour se manifester plus
vivement aux regards. Nous n'hésitons pas à le dire, si les peintres
voulaient approfondir quelque peu cette musique du coloris dont chaque
ton exprime une idée, ils en tireraient des effets aussi heureux
qu'inattendus. Les artistes du Moyen-âge ne manquaient jamais dans leurs
peintures religieuses d'accommoder la couleur des vêtements de chaque
personnage à la signification intime du fait représenté. Tout dans leurs
compositions était symbolique, jusqu'à la couleur des cheveux du Christ,
qui ils faisaient d'un blond doré, comme symbole de la plus haute
expression du divin amour.
Eugène VILLEMIN
1 <#sdfootnote1anc>Pourquoi trois ? Comment TROIS ? En pédagogie, on
faisait faire, autrefois, mais il est toujours d'actualité dans sa
simplicité, le test des trois commissions. Ce test permettait, avec
d'autres de déterminer les capacités des élèves. Être apte à faire trois
commissions sans en oublier relève souvent de l'exploit quand l'intérêt
n'y est pas, ou que la consigne est imparfaite. Notez pourtant, que même
avec des individus performants, plus vos consignes sont nombreuses,
moins elles sont exécutées, et que tout « chef » devrait se limiter à
deux « ordres ou consignes ou commissions » s'il veut être certain
qu'elles seront exécutées. La division de données en trois, limite
intellectuelle fréquente, relève d'un bon sens élémentaire, au-delà, la
majorité des individus va « oublier » la série de tâches qu'il doit
exécuter.
2 <#sdfootnote2anc> Les armoiries étaient différenciées en cinq couleurs
: azur (bleu), gueules (rouge), sable (noir), sinople (vert), et pourpre
(violet).
un abus contre lequel on réclame depuis très longtemps est celui de voir
des cimetières dans l'enceinte des villes. Il en existe un dans la ville
de Paris, appelé le « charnier des innocents ». Suivant un usage qui
fait horreur, on y creuse des fosses de quinze à vingt pieds de
profondeur, dans lesquelles on entasse les cadavres, ensevelis ou non,
jusqu'à ce qu'elles soient remplies.
Il y a peu de temps qu'un cordonnier de cette ville, traversant ce
cimetière à l'heure où on en ferme les portes, tomba dans une de ces
fosses, qui était encore ouverte: la violence de la chute ou plutôt la
révolution subite que lui causa l'horreur de sa situation lui fit, sans
doute, perdre connaissance. Il passa la nuit dans ce cloaque de
contagion et fut trouvé mort le lendemain.
Le pied est une unité de mesure sa conversion en « centimètres » pose en
premier l'origine du pied: romain, anglais, de France, de roi... on peut
l'estimer à 30 centimètres pour un calcul approché ne nécessitant comme
ici aucune précision 20 x 30, soit 600 et nous avons des fosses de 4
mètres à 7 mètres, ce qui peut se comparer à une maison avec ou sans étage !
1743; d. at Paris Oct. 13, 1803. After studying law, he entered the army
and at Bordeaux became acquainted with a Portuguese^1 <#sdfootnote1sym>
Jew named Martinez de Pasqualis, whose freemasonry increased St.
Martin's tendency to mysticism. At Lyons and Paris St. Martin
communicated, in mysterious phraseology and ceremony, his "revelation"
on *God, the spirit world, the fall, and original sin*. Among his
hearers was a Count d'Hauterive, on whom St. Martin tried all sorts of
experiments^2 <#sdfootnote2sym> at Lyons (1774-76) *to gain fellowship
with the Logos.* Meanwhile, he gradually withdrew from Pasqualis and his
followers, formed a cautious friendship^3 <#sdfootnote3sym> with
Cagliostro, and read Swedenborg. At this period he published his first
work, under the pseudonym of "un philosophe inc(onnu)" Des erreurs et de
la vérité, ou les hommes rappelés au principe universel de la science
(Lyons, 1775), a book which aroused the anger of Voltaire.
To propagate his views St. Martin now removed to Paris, where he moved
in aristocratic circles, writing his emanational tenets in his Tableau
naturel des rapports qui existent entre Dieu, l'homme et l'univers
(Lyons [ostensibly Edinburgh], 1782). His travels gained him new
acquaintances. In England he met William Law and Best; he accompanied
Prince Gallitzin to Italy in 1787; in 1788 he resided in *Montbéliard*
with Duchess Dorothea of Württemberg. Until 1791 he lived in Strasburg,
where he studied the writings of Jacob Bohme, but in the latter year his
father's illness forced him to return to Amboise, where his theories
found little sympathy. To this period of his career belong his L'Homme
de désir (Lyons, 1790), Ecce homo (Paris, 1792), and Le Nouvel Homme
(1792).
St. Martin's last close friendship was formed with Baron Kirchberger of
Bern, through whom he was kept informed of mystic movements abroad
during the French Revolution. This latter upheaval was greeted by him
with joy, and after being appointed tutor, with Condorcet, Sieyès, and
Bemardin de St. Pierre, to the Dauphin in 1791, he became one of his
jailers two years later. St. Martin himself was later imprisoned^4
<#sdfootnote4sym> and exiled to Amboise. Before long, however, he was
sent back to Paris as a teacher^5 <#sdfootnote5sym> [178] at the new
normal school there. This position he held until his death, and during
his incumbency he wrote Lettre à un ami, considérations politiques,
philosophiques et religieuses sur la révolution française (Paris, 1795);
Eclair sur l'association humaine (1797); Esprit des choses ou coup
d'oeil philosophiques sur la nature des êtres et sur l'objet de leur
existence (1800) ; Ministère de l'homme esprit (1802), besides
translating a number of the works of Boehme.
St. Martin's views, *a mixture of cabalistic, Gnostic, and neoplatonic
doctrines^6 <#sdfootnote6sym>* on a Christian basis, can scarcely be
reduced to a system. At the same time, he bitterly hated^7
<#sdfootnote7sym> the Church, yet fell into all sorts of clairvoyance,
conjuring, and juggling with numbers and the tetragrammaton. His
favorite sphere was anthropology; he held it the aim of man to be still
higher than Christ, the highest type of humanity; i*n his daily life St.
Martin sought simply to live like a pious Christian*. For his following
see *Martinist Order*.
(C. Pfender.^8 <#sdfootnote8sym>)
/*Bibliography*/ : La Correspondance inédite de L. C. de Saint-Martin .
. . ed. L. Schauer and A. Chuquet, Amsterdam, 1862, cf. Mystical
Philosophy and Spiritual Manifestations. Selections from the ...
Correspondence between . . . Saint-Martin . . . and Kirchberger, Exeter,
1863;
J. B. M. Gence, Notice biographique sur L. C. de Saint Martin, Paris, 1823;
L. Moreau, Réflexions sur lee idées de L.C de Saint- Martin, ib. 1850;
E. M. Caro, Du mysticisme au 18e siècle. Essai sur la vie et la doctrine
de Saint-Martin, ib. 1852;
J. Matter. Saint-Martin, le philosophe inconnu, ib. 1862;
A. Franek, La Philosophie mystique en France à la fin du 18e siècle.
Saint-Martin et son maître Martinez Pasqually, ib. 1866.
1 <#sdfootnote1anc>Affirmation habituelle, non validée.
2 <#sdfootnote2anc>La source historique de cette donnée pourrait être
intéressante, mais d'où cela vient-il? Des leçons aux élus coëns, des
sommeils selon le système de Mesmer?
3 <#sdfootnote3anc>Lcsm semble ne jamais avoir apprécié Cagliostro...
4 <#sdfootnote4anc>Le terme emprisonné est inexact, les nobles étaient
éloignés de Paris décret du 24 germinal (16 avril 1794)
5 <#sdfootnote5anc>La durée de vie de l'école normale fut courte, lcsm
n'exerça jamais, il ne fut donc jamais « titulaire »
6 <#sdfootnote6anc>Données véhiculées par l'ordre martiniste, encore
faut-il prouver ces éléments!
7 <#sdfootnote7anc>Il me paraît inexact de parler de haine, comme d'une
utilisation superstitieuse des nombres... la suite de la phrase est «
particulière »!
8 <#sdfootnote8anc>Pfender Charles, Pastor of St. Paul's Evangelical
Lutheran Church, Paris pasteur luthérien, de l'exemple du Christ,
faculté de théologie de Strasbourg; la confession d'Augsbourg; Martin
Luther; ...
founded by Martinez de Pasqualis, a Portuguese emigrant to France at
[217 vue 242] the end of the eighteenth century, who selected
individuals, some of them of prominent position, who seemed to him
adapted to the purpose and taught them by a severe, systematic, and
persistent discipline to develop their inner and hidden powers. To his
initiates Pasqualis applied the name "elect priests"." As he left the
system it had seven degrees^1 <#sdfootnote1sym>. After his death two of
his pupils, Jean Baptiste Willermoz and Louis Claude de Saint-Martin
(q.v.), assumed direction^2 <#sdfootnote2sym> of the order and reduced
the degrees to three^3 <#sdfootnote3sym>. Willermoz devoted his energies
to founding lodges; Saint-Martin applied himself to personal
development, and gave to the ritual the name of *the rectified rite^4
<#sdfootnote4sym> of St. Martin*. There are two parts in the order^5
<#sdfootnote5sym>: the inner or spiritual, open to those who become
adepts; and the exterior or practical and scientific, open to "men of
desire." The government is in five degrees: the supreme council located
at Paris, France; president. Dr. Gérard Encausse); inspectors, appointed
by the supreme council; delegates, appointed by the inspectors; lodges,
and groups. It differs from free-masonry in that it admits men and women
on equal footing; does not require fees for initiations, dues, or
instruction; aims to bring man into pristine relations with God; and it
receives orders from the unknown philosopher and thus depends from the
invisible world. It was introduced into America in the year 1894, the
government there being by an inspector- (inspectress-) general.
Margaret B. Peek^6 <#sdfootnote6sym> ✝
1 <#sdfootnote1anc>Le nombre de degrés semble avoir varié, toutefois on
considère généralement que l'ordre comptait 10 degrés.
2 <#sdfootnote2anc>Ils n'ont jamais présidé l'ordre de Martinès, lequel
avait désigné Caignet de Lester mort en 1778 qui désigne Las Casas
dernier grand maître (officiel) clôt les activités des 8 temples encore
actifs en 1781. Une activité coën persistera quelques temps, certains
émules pouvant revendiquer une succession, mais ni lcsm, ni Willermoz.
3 <#sdfootnote3anc>L'affirmation est de la responsabilité de Papus Teder
et s'imprime dans le rituel martiniste de 1912.
4 <#sdfootnote4anc>Ce n'est pas le Régime écossais rectifié de
Willermoz! est-ce un signe de plus sur la piste d'un rite écossais
réformé de Saint-martin... ? Les articles contiennent trop d'erreurs
pour être affirmatif!
5 <#sdfootnote5anc>Cela rappelle les distinctions des années 50 du 20e
siècle par Philippe Encausse et Ambelain, et l'ordre selon Papus.
6 <#sdfootnote6anc>Edouard Blitz was the "Souverain Délégate" for the
'Ordre Martiniste' in America; in 1902 Blitz broke with the Martinists
in France and founded the "AMERICAN RECTIFIED MARTINIST ORDER. Margaret
B.Peeke was chosen by the 'Supreme Council' to replace Blitz (it is said
Blitz do not want to be associated with a clandestine masonic order!
