Freemasonry is a fraternal organization; it confers in its lodges rites that embody universal ethical and moral tenets. Many principles of Speculative Freemasonry reflect teachings of the Enlightenment and consequently attracted in Europe and America members from numerous realms: namely, the aristocracy, the middle class, and the cultural world. I have written about the lodge to which I was admitted. My doctoral dissertation about the intimate ties between Freemasonry and the Enlightenment was done in the History Department of the University of Pittsburgh, later revised and published as a part of Columbia University Press’s East European Monograph Series, and this is a new edition with some major changes.
Important features of the Masonic order are found in this book. It is a comparative analysis of the Craft or Freemasonry in four European urban centers and one American city during the eighteenth century. The book revolves around an analysis of doctrines embodied in Masonic rites and degrees; it also discusses pertinent members in Masonic lodges in terms of their social composition and their achievements. In illustrating the intimate ties between the doctrines of Freemasonry and those of the Enlightenment, this work especially reveals that tenets of several civil religions were appealing to lodge members in London, Paris, Prague, Vienna, and Philadelphia. It also explains the significant contributions of Masonic learned societies to the Enlightenment in Paris and in Vienna.
This edition includes new appendices about Philadelphia, which help explain Franklin’s role as a Masonic enlightener in Paris. This book investigates Masonic leaders and activities in this revolutionary Pennsylvania city and in Vienna in light of the Enlightenment issue of Jewish emancipation. Thus, Freemasonry, which marked its three-hundredth anniversary in 2017, is intimately involved with salient Enlightenment issues and with transnational Atlantic history.
The close connections between Masonry and the Enlightenment in four different urban settings are examined in this study. Early eighteenth-century London was the city in which the order was established. The scientific demonstrator John Theophilus Desaguliers, who graduated from Oxford and was a Huguenot minister, and James Anderson, who was a Presbyterian minister, emerged as the founding fathers of Speculative Freemasonry. Enlightenment doctrines concerning classical deism, Newtonianism, Whiggism, and Palladianism were incorporated into the first three degrees of British Modern Freemasonry. These Masonic tenets and ethical doctrines seemed to serve as the basis of a civil religion and explained why aristocratic and middle-class members were attracted to the new order’s lodges. Many Modern Masons in the British capital were scientists, physicians, writers, artists, and political leaders; many of these Masons were associated with the Royal Society of London, with the Society of Antiquaries, and with other learned societies. Meeting in taverns and in coffeehouses, London Masons were predominantly Protestant, but a few were Jewish. It is fair to say that additional studies should be done about the concept of sociability in these London lodges. Future studies as well might suggest why tenets of the moderate British Enlightenment were appealing to Modern London Masons.
Masonry in Paris was somewhat different than that in London. This study especially accentuates the importance of the Lodge of the Nine Sisters, the first of the Masonic learned societies. The noble and bourgeois members of this learned society were Catholics and Huguenots and in many instances were recruited from the salon of Madame Helvétius. The astronomer Jerome Lalande, who was its founder in 1776, and its numerous members, who were French, European, and American, became activists in many realms of the French Enlightenment: they promoted Newtonian science, medicine, ballooning, literature, poetry, history, and art. Some members as well might have written essays for Diderot’s Encyclopédie or might have assisted in its financing. Many lodge members during the mastership of Benjamin Franklin vindicated the cause of the American Revolution and French political reforms. This learned society too sponsored lycées and musées—two educational institutions that should be further investigated.
Masonry also loomed as a significant institution in the Habsburg Empire. Prague emerged as an eighteenth-century Masonic capital; its lodges attracted both Protestants and Catholics. Prague Masons established cordial relations with such German enlighteners and Masons as Goethe and Lessing. Masons from Prague promoted Enlightenment projects and well might have helped to encourage the revival of Czech culture. My study illustrates that the most significant Masonic learned society operated during the reign of Emperor Joseph II, who legally permitted Masonry to function during the early 1780s. Established in 1781 by the scientist Ignatz von Born, the Viennese True Harmony Lodge consisted of Catholics, former Jesuits, members of other Catholic orders, and Protestants. This learned society became known for Born’s scientific journal that contains many important studies about geology. This lodge also issued an Enlightenment journal; it was edited by Alois Blumauer and contains literary articles, poems, and also essays relating to germane Josephinian state reforms. My belief is that the True Harmony Lodge’s role as a moderate and even as a radical Enlightenment institution requires further explication.
Other major issues concerning Freemasonry and the Enlightenment remain either unanswered or ignored. Lodges in London operated somewhat differently than their counterparts in European cities; Modern London lodges were ritual and social centers for noble and middle-class Masons, but for unexplained reasons did not become learned societies. For reasons discussed in this book, Parisian and Viennese lodges did confer degrees and attracted into their ranks members from different classes and religions; two lodges in these two cities, moreover, functioned as significant Masonic learned societies, thus assisting in the diffusion of Enlightenment tenets. It should be suggested that studies be written, illustrating the similarities and differences of Masonic ritual systems; likewise, there should be studies of lodges in terms of their social composition. Finally, it would be revealing to know more about the Masonic Atlantic and also about Masons who at first were enlightened reformers and who later became radical revolutionaries.