A Civil Society

Front matter

a A Civil Society

The Public Space of Freemason Women in France, 1744-1944

James Smith Allen

Contents

List of Figures and Table xi List of Illustrations xiii List of Abbreviations / Acronyms xv List of French Masonic Orders / Obediences / Rites xvii

Preface xix

INTRODUCTION FRENCH WOMEN IN PUBLIC SPACE 1 Freemasonry Writ Large 2 How Else Civil Society—and Freemason Women—Matter 11

Chapter 2 The Craft’s Long March

TO MIXED ORDERS, 1799-1901 57 Variations on Mixed Orders and Adoption Lodges 59 Freemason Women’s Expanding Social Networks in the Nineteenth Century 69

Revolution(s): The Successive Redefinitions

of Women’s Masonic Communities 81

CHAPTER 3 WOMEN’S MASONRY AND THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT FROM THE FIN DE SIÈCLE TO 1944 93 Renewed Mixed Orders and Adoption Lodges, at Home and Abroad 96 Freemason Women’s Feminist (and Labor) Networks 106 The Communities of Freemason Women across Two World Wars 116

CHAPTER 4 CONTESTING IMAGINARIES OF FREEMASON WOMEN 129 Serafina, Comtesse de Cagliostro 131 Pamina and Balkis 139 Consuelo, Comtesse de Rudolstadt 148 Diana Vaughan and Others 157

CONCLUSION CIVIC MORALITY IN MODERN FRANCE 170 Themes 174 A Social Conscience 180

1. Glossary of Masonic Terms 187 2. Mixed and Adoption Lodges in France (c. 1745-1790): Table 191 3. Madame Helvétius’s Masonic Network (1771-1800) 193 4. Genealogy of the Saint-Simonian Family: Figure 194 5. George Sand’s Masonic Network (1840-1850) 196 6. Le Droit Humain in the World (2018) 196 7. Louise Michel’s Masonic Network (1850-1904) 197

FIGURES AND TABLE

FIGURES 1. Estimated Number of Mixed and/or Adoption Lodges and Women Initiated into French Masonry (1750-1950) 23 2. Mixed and Adoption Lodges in France (c. 1745-1790): Map 42 3. Feminist Networks of Freemason Lodges in Paris (c. 1900) 179

TABLE 1. Leadership of Associations in Fédération Francaise des Sociétés Féministes (1892) 116 xi

ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Initiation d'adoption (c. 1810) 9 2. Jacques-Louis David, Portrait de Marie Antoinette, Reine de France, conduite au supplice (1793) 53 3. Fête d'adoption de la loge, Belle et Bonne, soirée (1843) 73 4. Les Illustrations Féminines de la Poësie Maconnique (1894) 75 5. Les Soeurs Maconnes Indépendantes (1892) 80 6. Louis-Ernest Barrias, Maria Deraismes (1898, recast 1983), bronze statue 99 7. Tony Johannot and Maurice Sand, Au fond de cette pièce dont l'aspect . . . (1856) 153 8. Asmodée brandissait de la main droite un sabre... (1892) 163 9. Jacques France [Paul Lecreux], Marianne Maçonnique (1879), bronze bust 175 xiii abrv.

ADCO

ADRML a.k.a.

AMB ANF ANFP/S

APP app.

art.

AVES BAGLF

BC BCF

BGOF BHVP BIF BLUL BMD

BMDijon BML

ABBREVIATIONS / ACRONYMS abbreviation

Archives Départementales de la Céte-d’Or (Departmental Archives of the Côte d’Or)

Archives du Département du Rhéne et de la Métropole de Lyon (Archives of theDepartment of the Rhone and the Metropole of Lyon) also known as

Archives Municipales de Beaune (Municipal Archives of Beaune) Archives Nationales de France, Paris (National Archives of France) Archives Nationales de France, Pierrefitte-sur-Seine (National Archives of France)

Archives de la Préfecture de la Police, Paris (Archives of the Prefecture of Police)

appendix

article

Archives de la Ville et de l’Eurométropole de Strasbourg (Archives of the City and the Eurometropolis of Strasbourg)

Bibliothèque et Archives de la Grande Loge de France (Library and Archives of the Grand Lodge of France)

Bibliothèque Calvet, Avignon (Calvet Library) Bibliothèque-Musée de la Comédie Française (Library-Museum of the Comédie Française)

Bibliothèque du Grand Orient de France (Library of the Grand Orient of France)

Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris (Historical Library of the City of Paris)

Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France (Library of the Institute of France)

Brotherton Library, University of Leeds

Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand (Marguerite Durand Library) Bibliothèque Municipale de Dijon (Municipal Library of Dijon) Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon (Municipal Library of Lyon)

XV

CEDIAS CNFF

DH

FFSF

Abbreviations / Acronyms

Bibliothèque Municipale de Nancy (Municipal Library of Nancy) Bibliothéque Nationale de France (National Library of France) Centre des Archives du Féminisme, Angers (Center for the Archives of Feminism)

Bibliothéque du Musée Social, Paris (Social Museum Library) Conseil National des Femmes Frangaises (National Council of French Women)

Droit Humain (Ordre Maçonnique Mixte International), Fédération Française (Human Duty: International Mixed Masonic Order, French Federation)

Fédération Française des Sociétés Féministes (French Federation of Feminist Societies)

Fonds Maçonnique (Masonic Collection)

figure

French

Grand Architect of the Universe

Grande Loge de France (Grand Lodge of France)

Grande Loge Féminine de France (Grand Feminine Lodge of France) Grande Loge Mixte Symbolique de France (Grand Mixed Symbolic Lodge of France)

Grande Loge Symbolique Écossaise (Grand Scottish Symbolic Lodge) Grand Orient de France (Grand Orient of France)

illustration

Ligue des Droits de |’ Homme (League for the Rights of Man) Musée d'Histoire de Lyon (Historical Museum of Lyon)

Mixte et Maintenue (Mixed and Continuous)

Ordre Maçonnique Mixte International (International Mixed Masonic Order)

plural

Rite Écossais Ancien et Accepté (Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite) Supréme Conseil de France (Supreme Council of France)

social network analysis

Union Fraternelle des Femmes (Women’s Fraternal Union)

Union Frangaise pour le Suffrage des Femmes (French Union for Women’s Suffrage)

United Grand Lodge of England

FRENCH MASONIC ORDERS / OBEDIENCES / RITES

(Principal masonic governing bodies in chronological order of founding, 1738-1945)

1. *Grande Loge / Grande Loge de France / de Clermont (1738-94) Grand Lodge / Grand Lodge of France / of Clermont

2. “Grand Orient de France (since 1773) Grand Orient of France

3. Supréme Conseil de France, Rite Ecossais Ancien et Accepté (1804-1964, since 2004) Supreme Council of France, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite

4. Grande Loge Symbolique Écossaise de France (1880-96) Grand Scottish Symbolic Lodge of France

5. “Grande Loge du Rite Ancien et Primitif de Memphis-Misraim (since 1881) Grand Lodge of the Ancient and Primitive Memphis-Misraim Rite

6. *Ordre Mixte Français et International: Droit Humain (since 1893) Mixed French and International Order: Human Duty

7. “Grande Loge de France (since 1894) Grand Lodge of France

8. Grande Loge Nationale Indépendante et Régulière / Grande Loge Nationale Frangaise (since 1913) Grand National Independent and Regular Lodge / French Grand National Lodge

9. *Union Maconnique Féminine de France / Grande Loge Féminine de France (since 1945) Feminine Masonic Union of France / Grand Feminine Lodge of France xvii xviii French Masonic Orders / Obediences / Rites

MINOR RELATED ORDERS 1. *Ordre des Chevaliers Maçons Élus Coéns de l’ Univers (1760-84) Order of the Masonic Knights, Chosen Priests of the Universe

2. *Stricte Observance / Templiére (1772-90, 1808-40) Strict Observance / Templar

3. “Rite Écossais Philosophique (1776-1844/49) Philosophical Scottish Rite

4. *Iluminés d’Avignon (in France, 1782-96) Illuminati of Avignon

5. Rite Ecossais Rectifié (1782-1814) Rectified Scottish Rite

6. *Haute Maçonnerie Égyptienne (in Paris, 1785) High Egyptian Masonry

7. “Rite de Misraim (1810-30/60) Misraim Rite

8. Rite de Memphis (1815-62) Memphis Rite

9.*Temple des Familles (1860-63) Temple for Families

10. *Ordre Martiniste (since 1884/96) Martinist Order

11. Grande Loge Symbolique Ecossaise II (1897-1911) / *Grande Loge Symbolique Ecossaise II Mixte et Maintenue (1901-11) Grand Scottish Symbolic Rite Lodge II / Mixed and Continuous

*The asterisk indicates that for a period, at least, the order, obedience, or rite recognized the initiation of women in either lodges of adoption, mixed lodges, and/or feminine lodges under their jurisdiction.

Preface

AS I COMPLETED THIS BOOK, George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis. With the impassivity of tying his shoelace, a police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck, suffocating him for eight excruciating minutes. Such overt brutality, exercised by law enforcement against unarmed African Americans, was nothing new. But this incident in May 2020 was caught on a witness-video whose viral distribution revived Black Lives Matter activism in the United States. Protests rippled outward, far and wide, reaching Paris within a week. In France Floyd’s case resembled that of Adama Traoré, a young Malian who had been arrested in July 2016 for not carrying his national identity papers. A few hours later, he died in police custody under similarly cruel circumstances. A fter a lengthy investigation, the implicated public officials were exonerated just four days after Floyd’s death. Suddenly the French were gripped by the same issue: a state condoning the use of deadly force against its inhabitants of color (fifteen of them a year on average).

It seemed like an odd time for me to be correcting endnotes. But after two decades of researching and teaching civil society, I recognized the essential components of a social movement supported by voluntary associations and their coordinated activities. The pattern was unmistakable, despite its new guise in an international quest for racial justice sustained by non-profit organizations like SOS Racisme and Les Indivisibles. Online reporting by cable outlets and newspapers contributed to widespread awareness of an issue raised by minority voices. Unlike local expressions of concern years earlier in Ferguson near Saint Louis or in Beaumont-sur-Oise north of Paris, the numerous, large-scale demonstrations on behalf of George Floyd and Adama Traoré realigned, however briefly, the relations between the state, the economy, and the third sector.

My longstanding fascination with the public space of women in freemasonry, albeit in previous centuries, had been transposed to the present. In the midst ofa pandemic compounded by political dysfunction and economic failure, I sensed a potential watershed moment. At a minimum, it evoked the civic morality of freemason women on the eve of the French Revolution of 1789 and again before World War I. In their solidarity, these women also realized causes of their own making. They honored obligations to their lodges and more: they proposed to xix

XX Preface raise money to outfit a frigate for American independence from Britain; and, most notably, they campaigned for women’s equality during the belle époque. The exemplary freemason Marie Bonnevial, for instance, was not all that different from Adama Traoré’s dynamic sister, Assa. These two women resorted to the same means—organization, publicity, and action—and for the same reasons— to pressure the state and to harness the economy in the name of human rights. It is hard to fathom the outcome of efforts to eradicate structural racism. As with women’s emancipation, progress will wax and wane episodically for a long time, perhaps never to prevail. But the constituent community of activists will persist, as have others like freemasons for the past three centuries or so of the third sector’s existence in France and the United States. I have experienced a comparable fraternity of fellow historians at scholarly conferences and in university settings, along with capable librarians and archivists, for the twenty years it took to write this book. It elicited the collaboration, cooperation, and assistance on the part of such varied enablers. Their role in a civil society of another sort, one that makes humanistic scholarship possible, feels much like a social movement with its many willing hands, such as those of an artist, the cartographer Rick Britton in Charlottesville, Virginia, who drew the two-page map of France in Chapter 1.

I WISH TO THANK dozens of generous mentors, masons, and colleagues, but my doing so here is neither feasible nor necessary. They already know of my deep gratitude. So I will focus instead on those whom I cannot thank enough. Let me start with Heather Stauffer, who coordinates the production of such handsome books at the University of Nebraska Press. Kudos to her and Ihsan Taylor at Longleaf Services. Although we have never met, my wise editor Matt Bokovoy has made me a better historian as well as a better writer. He called on two specialist readers whose patience exceeded all bounds. They carefully read two unruly drafts of the manuscript. Karen Offen, hearty soul, provided copious comments on her hard copies as well as in her formal critiques. I wish I knew the second reader, but she was equally forbearing and insightful. (Make no mistake: all remaining errors, indiscretions, and misjudgments in 4 Civil Society are solely my responsibility, as are the translations from other languages unless otherwise specified in the notes.)

The bulk of the research occurred in Paris with the help of good friends. For some fifteen years, Roger and Danielle Bensky shared their apartment just two strolls and a city bus from either the old or the new Bibliothèque Nationale de France. How fondly I recall our long meals together. Yes, the spirited repartee of French conversation is an art form, every bit as sophisticated as Roger's passion for the theater and Dany’s well-wrought sculptures and paintings. The late

Preface xxi

Daphné Doublet-Vaudoyer is also worth remembering here. For years, while she guided my work on her grandmother's diary, Daphné told me about the other members of her accomplished family, including an uncle, the historian Daniel Halévy. Her keen insights into his mercurial character, as his sensibilities about women shifted over the course of his long life, informed my thinking about the contradictions of gender relations and public space. He typified the community of Parisian elites contemporary with Charles de Gaulle.

Oddly enough, I began this book while my wife was in residence at the Freie Universitat Berlin. References and bibliographies in the libraries there were more than adequate for my purposes then. We later moved operations to Freiburg-im-Breisgau where we had already established contacts. It did not take long for me to discover the intriguing collection of the Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene. Less unforeseen but still more welcome was the amiable spirit embodied by Martina Backes and Michael Hardung-Backes, our hosts on countless occasions. The libraries and archives in Colmar, Strasbourg, Nancy, Dijon, and Lyon were not far from the Alsatian crémants we drank together on the German side of the Rhine. Also in Freiburg, Ingrid and Werner Hôfel provided us another second home. Their sweetness to us has been immeasurable, as have been their commitments to associations like Caritas (where Ingrid worked until retirement) and a tennis club in Sankt Georgen (where Werner was an active member). I have long admired their civic-mindedness.

Ofcourse, the closest ofkindred spirits is my dear spouse, Anne Winston-Allen. For the past three years, as I drafted this study, she painstakingly traced the many textual variants of the Saint Alexius legend. Much have I heard about the legend’s two versions, the papal and the bridal, the latter of which Anne firmly believes was redacted for a female religious audience in the wake of the Hirsau conventual reforms. This work’s connection to French freemason women is surely the sumptuous Saint Alban’s Psalter (c. 1123), which contains an incipient bridal version in Norman French. The book’s architectural features, detailed in its exquisite illuminations, would have pleased the medieval stonemasons who inspired the symbolic craft many centuries later. Like Alexius and his bride—“now he has her with him, their souls are together: I cannot tell you how great is their joy’—Anne and I have made our scholarly endeavors for the better, collectively, collaboratively, for more than thirty-five years of felicitous partnership. This book is happily dedicated to her because she, too, understands how profoundly our work matters.

August 2020 Union Hill, Makanda Township, IL

A CIVIL SOCIETY