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The Origin of Freemasonry and Its Connection to the French and American Revolutions - by Horst Tran

The theory of the origin of modern Freemasonry (in the following: FM) from the Templar Order was put into circulation in 1737 by the Scottish Freemason Andrew Michael Ramsay and has remained persistent until today, but according to the current state of knowledge it cannot be proven beyond any doubt. It is known that the wealthy and highly respected Templar Knights, formed in the early 12th century as a military protection force for the conquered Jerusalem, fell out of favour with the French King Philip IV, called "the Fair", at the beginning of the 14th century, because he was refused admission and, no less motivating, the riches of the Order represented a temptation that "the Fair" could not resist.

In cooperation with Pope Clemens V., the king suppressed and forbade the order and had numerous members, including its leader Jacques de Molay, tortured to grotesque ́satanistic ́ confessions and burned in Paris, after most of them, including Molay, had revoked their confession with reference to torture. According to legend, many Templars fled to Scotland disguised as Freemasons (from that time, notabene), where the Templar Knights managed to survive in the following four centuries as part of Freemasonic groups and under the protection of the Scottish kings and increasingly influenced the FM in a Templarian way, which, however, as already mentioned, is not concretely provable, even though the factual traditional appreciation of FM by the Stuart dynasty speaks for the alleged protective attitude of the Scottish kings. Also the theory that the prohibition of the order is connected with an allegedly in the Orient acquired ́esoteric ́ and thus heretical knowledge is unprovable. There is nothing to suggest that the Templars defended a doctrine that differed from Orthodox Catholicism.

A different theory of origin, presented by Robert Freke Gould, a co-founder of the English research lodge Quator Coronati in the 1880s, distinguishes between a medieval ́operative ́ Freemasonry and a ́speculative ́ Freemasonry, founded by Jean-Theopile Desaguliers and James Anderson in 1717. The former was the appearance of FM up to the beginning of the 18th century and did not contain any religiously symbolizing ́speculative ́ elements. The latter, on the other hand, as the name suggests, introduced the speculative moment into Freemasonry, i.e. interpreted masonry and its tools religiously and symbolically in the course of the lodge admission of many educated aristocrats.

The Gould distinction was undisputed until a few decades ago, but today is also regarded by Masonic historians as excessive simplification. It was probably the other way around: Precisely because FM contained speculative elements right from the start (but not only because of this), it attracted numerous aristocrats and some monarchs in the 18th century, e.g. Frederick II of Prussia and Emperor Joseph II. Either way, the activities of Desaguliers and Anderson from 1717 marked an important turning point in the history of Freemasonry.

As was to be expected for the Middle Ages, the original Masonic worldview had a strictly Christian orientation. However, because only texts from the Old Testament (especially from ́Kings ́ and ́Chronicles ́) were explicitly used as a basis, it was wrongly assumed in the early 19th century that the ideological basis of Freemasonry was in fact Jewish and not Christian and that FM was therefore a product of Judaism. Therefore, around 1830, following Napoleon's emancipating revaluation of Judaism (1807) which was prepared by the Masonic Emperor Joseph II with his ́Patent of Toleration ́ from 1782, anti-revolutionary circles formed the theory of a Jewish-Masonic world conspiracy and, as a result, thus brought forth the anti-Jewish paranoia of later National Socialism. However, the following speaks against Masonic Judaism in the 18th century: There were no relations in FM, not even literary, to rabbinical Judaism of that time, and it was not quoted from the Tanach, but from the Old Testament of the King James Bible. The Jewish core myths Exodus and Sinai Revelation were never alluded to. The weak social position of the Jews prior to Napoleon's intervention would not have allowed a culturally and politically influential institution such as the FM of the 18th century to be created or at least decisively shaped.

(According to unconfirmed rumors, Napoleon was a Freemason; at least three of his four brothers were; his wife Josephine - her first husband was a Freemason - most likely joined a Strasbourg (women) lodge. The proportion of Freemasons among Napoleon's marshals and officers was very high.)

A core Masonic term is the ́Great Architect of the Universe ́ (G.A.O.T.U.), whom Jean- Theopile Desaguliers, an associate of Isaac Newton, inspired by Thomas of Aquin, Johannes Calvin and Newton, coined. He allegorically describes the ́Highest Being ́ in his function as a builder of the universe. Escalating conflicts between the Roman Catholic Church and French Freemasonry in the 19th century led the French grand lodge ́Grand Orient de France ́ in 1877 to abolish the ritual confession to a GAOTU (and to the immortality of the soul) as a condition for joining a lodge in order to also allow atheists to join, which in turn brought about a break with the English grand lodge ́United Grand Lodge of England ́, which was conservative in this respect. The allegory of ́architecture ́ is of course due to the origin of FM from the building industry.
Another central Masonic symbol is the mythical ́Temple of Solomon ́ described in ́Kings ́, as an allegory for the Masonic community or, more comprehensively, for a cosmopolitan humanity built of living stones and the utopian goal of every FM activity. The picture implicitly goes back to Pauline ideas, as explained, for example, in 1 Cor 3:16 ("Do you not know that you are God's temple?").

Two essential prerequisites for the development of modern FM were (1) the European Enlightenment and (2) the exodus of the French Calvinists (= Huguenots).

(1)
Around the middle of the 17th century a philosophical development began in Europe, which is known as ́Enlightenment ́ and was first expressed in the writings of Thomas Hobbes and Herbert von Cherbury (both England) and Baruch Spinoza (Holland). Their very different approaches have in common the criticism of the ́superstitious ́ aspects of Christian faith, which in a century that the natural sciences have rediscovered could no longer satisfy the demands of rational reason, i.e. reason based on argument. From the point of view of these thinkers and their follower, the only things in the Bible that could be accepted was what was reasonable and not dependent on any mysterious ́revelation ́. On this basis, Deism emerged, to which some protagonists of the

Enlightenment attached (e.g. Collins and the Freemasons Voltaire and Montesquieu), as well as a pantheism following Spinoza (e.g. Toland, de Missy) and a vitalistic- materialistic atheism inspired by Newton's ́Principia ́ (1687) (e.g. the masonic affiliated Diderot and d ́Holbach).

(2)
The second condition resulted from Louis XIV's decision to revoke the 1598 Edict of Nantes, which at least on paper granted the Huguenots (= French Calvinists) a limited freedom of religion, in 1685 by the Edict of Fontainebleau, and to criminalize the Huguenots in this way, unless they converted to Catholicism. To escape the prohibition of religion by emigration was forbidden by punishment of galley or ex*****on, which did not prevent several 100,000 Huguenots from setting themselves apart in the neighboring countries Switzerland, Germany, Holland, England/Scotland as well as to America and South Africa. The reason for the ban on emigration was the feared economic losses caused by the loss of the Huguenots known for their business acumen.

The connection between Protestantism and capitalism postulated by Max Weber in his "Protestant Ethics" is, as Weber unmistakably points out, not directly in Protestant doctrine, but of a purely external nature. By calling for the renunciation of secular luxury, this ethics favors the investment of profits earned in the company instead of in ́lavish ́ lifestyle and thus optimizes economic effectiveness. The ethics of ́hard work ́ has also been reflected in the masonic ritual designed by Protestants and their demand for discipline, determination, perseverance, conscientiousness and interpersonal decency.

Jean-Theophile Desaguliers (1683-1744) is the important founding figure of modern Freemasonry. His father, a Huguenot pastor, had emigrated with his family from France to England, where Jean-Theophile had a steep career: in 1709 he studied Newtonian natural philosophy in Oxford and took over Newton ́s lectureship there in the same year. Back in London he gave successful lectures on experimental physics. In 1714, at the age of 31, Desaguliers became Newton's assistant and a member of the Royal Academy headed by Huguenot friend Newton. Desaguliers ́ studies on electricity later influenced the physical research of ́Declaration of Independence ́ co-author Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), who was friends with Desaguliers ́ assistant Greenwood and joined the Freemasons in Philadelphia in 1731.

On 24 June 1717, four English Freemason lodges united to form the first grand lodge, the ́Grand Lodge of England and Westminster ́, with Desaguliers being the driving force as a member of one of the lodges. A quarter of the members of the Grand Lodge consisted of only superficially Anglicanised Huguenots. In 1723 Desaguliers - now ordained Anglican pastor - wrote "The Constitutions of the Free-Masons" together with the Presbyterian (= Scottish Calvinist) John Anderson, which for a long time formed the standard set of rules for the English FM. In research, Desaguliers is regarded as a possible main author of ́Constitutions ́. The authors largely derived the rituals laid down therein from the Calvinist Bible of Geneva.
As is to be expected in view of the author's background, ́Constitutions ́ rejects any form of atheism and obliges the lodge members to a fundamental monotheism, but also to tolerance towards all specific forms of monotheism as expressed in Catholicism, Protestantism (with its subforms), Judaism and Islam (Constitutions, Charge I).

The rule of tolerance goes back on the one hand to ethical demands of philosopher John Locke, but is also based on the historical persecution experiences of Protestantism, to which the authors of ́Constitutions ́, especially Desaguliers, belong. Both derivations are connected inasmuch as Whig-follower Locke, who was persecuted for an alleged antimonarchic plot participation, was friends with emigrated Huguenots during his five-year stay in Holland in 1683-88 and was inspired by them to his concept of tolerance. Some of these Huguenots had belonged to the circle of Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), whose ideas of religious tolerance and rational religion mediated through his Huguenot circle of friends now also influenced Locke's thinking. It is obvious that all three parties involved (the Jew Spinoza, the Calvinists and the monarchy critic Locke) developed their ideas of tolerance out of their oppression situation.

The next article on ́Constitutions ́ (Charge II) calls for any renunciation of participation in political-revolutionary activities or civil wars. However, violations are not to be punished with exclusion from the lodge, but are to be clarified internally in accordance with the principle of loyalty. In fact, through their involvement in the American and French revolutions many Freemasons seem to have violated this rule, which only prohibits "plots and conspiracies against the peace and welfare of the nation", which can be interpreted flexibly and is at least not necessarily applicable to the French revolution, which - in its claim - first intended to establish the not really existing "peace and prosperity of the nation".

The foundation of the English Grand Lodge in 1717 was the starting signal for the expansion of Freemasonry on a grand scale. In 1723 the first Irish grand lodge was built and in 1726 the first lodges in France, in 1727/28 in Germany and Spain, in 1730 in Portugal and North America (Boston, Philadelphia), in 1733 in Italy and in 1734 in Holland.

In the context of the two great revolutions, the lodge ́Les Neuf Soeurs ́ (The Nine Sisters, founded in 1776), affiliated to the French Grand Lodge ́Grand Orient de France ́, is of the utmost importance due to the involvement of many of its members and guests in revolutionary activities in North America and France. To avoid misunderstandings, a distinction must be made between the Masonic attitude to the American Revolution in England, America and France. Only in France did the FM support this revolution without dissent; in England it served the opponents of the revolution, i.e. the British, which is symptomatic of the conservative orientation of the English FM, see also Charge II of ́Constitutions ́ and the conflict mentioned above concerning G.A.O.T.U. with ́Grand Orient de France ́; in America the Freemasons formed two camps, one pro and one contra revolution.

Among the more prominent active pro-American revolutionary members of the Neuf Soeurs were Benjamin Franklin and the Marquis de La Fayette. An occasional guest was the FM-near Thomas Jefferson to help organize the support of the American Revolution through the Lodge. In the context of the French Revolution, the encyclopedists Denis Diderot and Jean Baptiste d ́Alembert, the revolutionary leader Mirabeau and the philosophers Condorcet and Condillac should be mentioned as guests and FM sympathizers. The Comte de Mirabeau (1749-1791) had also been a member of an Amsterdam lodge since the 1770s as a Freemason. As an advocate of a constitutional monarchy, he belonged to the moderate revolutionary faction and could perhaps have prevented the excesses of the reign of terror if he had not died of an illness in 1791.

Some of the Neuf Soeur Masonic members relevant to the French Revolution were Voltaire (1694-1778, initiated seven weeks before his death in the presence of 250 Freemasons), the revolutionary politician Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, the writer Nicolas de Chamfort and the doctor Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, famous for inventing the hatchet. Other prominent revolutionaries with Freemason membership were Georges Danton ( ́Neuf Soeurs ́, controversial affiliation), Maximillien Robespierre ( ́Grand Orient ́, unsecured), Jean Paul Marat ( ́Grand Lodge of England ́), the head of the National Guard, Santerre ( ́Loge du Contrat sociale ́), and Duke Philipp d ́Orléans (cousin of Louis XVI, Grand Master of ́Grand Orient ́ and ambitious throne aspirant in a post- revolutionary constitutional monarchy). Marat became a member of ́Grand Lodge ́ in London in 1774 and in the same year either joined an Amsterdam lodge or was a guest there (unproved).

Ten Basic Rules for Better Living (1953) by Manly P. Hall

This book outlines ten fundamental principles, including self-discipline, kindness, and humility, to guide individuals towards a harmonious, balanced, and fulfilling life.

A concise guide for spiritual living in the modern world, this book of practical philosophy was written in an accessible and direct style for clear application to daily life. This book will guide you through most of life’s quandaries by drawing upon ancient wisdom and applying it to the unique challenges of contemporary life.

You can also find the book als PDF in our Masonic Library:

Ten Basic Rules for Better Living (1953) by Manly .. Ten Basic Rules for Better Living (1953) by Manly P. Hall This book outlines ten fundamental principles, including self-discipline, kindness, and humilit

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