‘Weird Fact Wednesday: Amity with the Grand Orient’

     
I hope to make Weird Fact Wednesday a regular feature here on The Magpie Mason, but I also said that of Throwback Thursday, and that isn’t working out. Anyway, today’s Masonic Weird Fact comes from 100 years ago.

You know that the Grand Orient of France became estranged from the mainstream Masonic world in the 1870s after deleting from its constitution an affirmation of belief in deity,* but did you know that grand lodges in the United States re-established relations with the Grand Orient during and after World War I?

(Actually, nearly every grand lodge in the United States broke off relations with the Grand Orient in 1867 on account of the GOF’s meddling in Louisiana Masonry, but that’s another story.)

The First World War transformed Western Civilization and many parts beyond, and it made lasting changes on Freemasonry as well. In the United States, there took place a membership boom that caused the chartering of lodges throughout the then 49 grand lodges, as newly sworn military men sought the rights and benefits of Masonic membership in anticipation of being sent overseas. Plenty of civilians petitioned for the degrees of the Craft as well, of course, and the cumulative effect of all this prompted the construction of who-knows-how-many Masonic temples, Scottish Rite cathedrals, Shrines, and other infrastructure nationwide—those grand marble or limestone or brick, etc. edifices that today have been or are being abandoned as we speak.

In Masonic international relations, the influx of more than a million Americans into France created situations where U.S. soldiers sought lodge memberships in France. The National Grand Lodge of France was only a few years old, but enjoyed the approbation of the United Grand Lodge of England because, frankly, the English created it. There also existed the Grand Lodge of France, which too had been delegitimized and then found itself embraced anew because of the war, but this Masonic Weird Fact concerns the Grand Orient, into whose lodges a number of Americans sought entrance.

“New York set the ball rolling in September 1917 by granting to its members the right to fraternize with the Masons of France during the war,” says a 1918 report by the Grand Lodge of Nevada. “New Jersey went further and unequivocally recognized the Grand Lodge of France and repealed its edict against the Grand Orient. In December 1917, the District of Columbia recognized the Grand Lodge of France without a dissenting vote. California appointed a committee to devise plans for renewing relations with the French brethren, and extended the right to its brethren to visit any lodges in France, Belgium, and Italy. In Kentucky, Utah, Florida, Texas, Georgia, and Alabama also favorable action has been taken enabling their members to fraternize with the craftsmen of France. With the return of peace, this will make easy the establishment of permanent relations of amity and good will.”

Nevada itself joined that list of U.S. grand jurisdictions in 1918. Others, as far as I know (there may be others), would include Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Rhode Island. (Louisiana rescinded recognition after a couple of years.)

In New Jersey, on May 18, 1918, MW Bro. William M. Thompson was appointed Grand Representative to the Grand Orient of France near New Jersey. On July 25, RW Bro. Justin Sicard de Plauzoles was appointed Grand Representative of New Jersey near the Grand Orient. Plauzoles writes:


Dear Brother and Most Worshipful Grand Master,

I have received with joy and gratitude the patent by which the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of New Jersey has constituted and appointed me its representative to the Grand Orient of France. I am very happy and proud of the title, and of your trust and confidence. The Freemasons of France and of the United States possess the same ideals for which formerly Lafayette and now Pershing have crossed the ocean.

At that time, at this time, at all times, we have fought together the same battles for right and liberty.

Henceforth, nothing shall be able to break the bonds of friendship which unite our nations.

The admiration and gratitude for your heroes make more precious the title which you have conferred upon me.

I thank my beloved brethren of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of New Jersey most heartily, and beg you to believe me to be your faithful and devoted brother.

Maréchal Bernard Magnan

Further correspondence between New Jersey and the Grand Orient ensued. In October 1918, the secretary of the GOF’s Council of the Order (in 1871, after France’s defeat by Germany, and the fall of the Second French Empire, the office of grand master was abolished—its final grand master being Bernard Pierre Magnan, Marshal of France—and was replaced by a President de l’Ordre) wrote to ask if GLNJ would object to the Grand Orient conferring the degrees of Freemasonry upon New Jersey natives currently located in France. New Jersey’s response was to say no blanket approval was possible, but that a waiver of jurisdiction would have to be granted on an individual basis. New Jersey’s Grand Master, speaking to the 132nd Annual Communication of his Grand Lodge in Trenton on April 16, 1919, said:


The resumption of our former friendly relations with the Grand Orient of France by the rescission of the interdict of non-intercourse led to correspondence which has indicated not only a lively appreciation of our action, but as well an apprehension of conditions arising from the war and American participation therein and a sense of the Masonic properties involved, that justifies making it in part a matter of record in this address.

And later:

The great war has convulsed nations, cost emperors and kings their heads, and disturbed the great heart of mankind, but Freemasonry emerges from the conflict stronger than ever in her history. The eyes of all the world are upon the craft. They realize the tremendous possibilities for good that rest in our organization, and expect great things from us in the reorganization of society. I have no hesitation in affirming that we will live up to every expectation.

Ours in an order that shall stand

A light upon a nation’s hill,

A voice forbidding all that’s ill—

A source of strength for all that’s good

In Justice, Love, and Brotherhood.

In the Grand Lodge of New York it was said: “We still question, nevertheless, the wisdom of the move, from a Masonic standpoint, and we trust New Jersey will, before long, reconsider the matter. We love her too much to see her go astray unwarned.” (The Grand Orient had chartered a lodge in New York City, which didn’t sit well with GLNY.)

I do not know when the American grand lodges resumed their fraternal divorce from the Grand Orient—or maybe they never did, and everyone forgot? Maybe the amity lasted to 1940, when the Grand Orient was shuttered during the Nazi occupation? I’ll keep reading.





*The story is more complicated than that. Writing his Modern Masonry, Joseph Fort Newton explains:

As a matter of fact, from its foundation till 1849, the Constitution of the Grand Orient contained no declaration of belief in deity, yet during all those years it was fully recognized by the Masonic world. In August 1849, the following clause was inserted in the Constitution: “Freemasonry has for its principles the existence of deity and the immortality of the soul.”

As this declaration brought the Grand Orient into direct conflict with the Church—on the ground, as the clerical party affirmed, that it was setting up a rival religion—in September 1877, the following words were substituted:

Bro. Frédéric Desmons

“Masonry has for its principles mutual tolerance, respect for others and for itself, and absolute liberty of conscience.” For making this change, the Grand Orient was disfellowshipped by nearly every Grand Lodge in the world, especially in English-speaking lands, whereas it was only a return to its original position, when, as has been said, it was regarded as truly Masonic. The change was proposed, not by an atheist—if there be such a thing outside an insane asylum—but by Brother [Frédéric] Desmons, a Protestant Christian minister, the object being to parry the criticism that Masonry was trying to foster a spurious religion. At the same time it was left optional with the lodges to display or not to display the Bible in their ceremonies.