Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Europe PDF
Preview Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Europe
Living the Enlightenment Living the Enlightenment Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Europe MARGARET C. JACOB New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1991 Ox ford University Press Oxford Delhi New York Bombay Petaling Jaya Nairobi Toronto Calcutta Singapore Dar es Salaam Melbourne Madras Karachi Hong Kong Tokyo Cape Town Auckland and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright© 1991 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York. New York 10016-4314 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means. electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jacob, Margaret C., 1943- Living the enlightenment : freemasonry and politics in eighteenth-century Europe I Margaret C. Jacob. p. em. Includes index. ISBN 978.0-19-506992-1 (Goth) ISBN 978.0-19-50705 1-4 (Paper) I. Freemasons-Europe-History-18th century. 2. Freemasonry-Political aspects-Europe-History-18th century. 3. Enlightenment-Europe. 4. Europe-Politics and government-1648-1789. I. T itle. HS416.J33 1991 366'.1'096609033-dc20 91-8354 Photographic reproductions of books in its collection were kindly supplied by the library of the Grand Lodge of The Netherlands and its librarian, E. Kwaadgras. T hese appear in plates 1-9. 9 8 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper To Christopher Hill and Lynn Hunt guides in matters revolutionary Acknowledgments The historian who works in many countries incurs more than the usual number of debts. Al though mine mounted by the day through the late 1980s, first and foremost remained the G uggenheim Foundation and the N ew School for Social Research, both of which provided the financial support for a y ear of l eave time. Al so a t the N ew School my assistant, Ursula Level t, provided superb l inguistic skill s, patience, a nd care. Because I am writing here a bout a private society that is still very much al ive, particularly in Continental Europe, I have been unusually dependent upon private archives a nd archivists. By far my grea test debt is to the members of La Bien Aimee, the l odge in Amsterdam with its extraordinary set of records. N one of the chapters that depend on those archives woul d have been possibl e without the gracious a ssistance of Hil co Rodermond, who photocopied the entire eighteenth-century archive for me; a nd J. Kistemaker, who provided conversation and wisdom. N ot l ea st, I have been hel ped by the earl ier historical studies of the Dutch historian W ill em Kat. Of course the history of European freemasonry in the eighteenth century coul d barely be written without the spl endid l ibrary of the G ra nd Lodge of the N etherlands a nd its l ibrarian emeritus, B. C. van Uchel en. Readers wishing to consul t that coll ection, which is strong in French and G erman freemasonry, as well a s Dutch, shoul d know that a t this time (1990) efforts are being made to rel ocate it at the Royal Library in The Hague. Wherever it is housed, scholars can only be a ssisted by its enormous a nd rich coll ection and the will ingness of the G rand Lodge to hel p a nd encourage them. In Bel gium, L. Verl ee provided gracious a ssistance in l ocating priva te archives, which, due to l ocal circumstances, are not a utomatically availabl e to the general publ ic. At the Bibl iotheque National e in Paris the l ibrarian of the masonic coll ection, Florence de Lussy, gave assistance far a bove the call of duty. At the Central Library, Dundee, Scotland, I was a ssisted with bibl iographical material , a nd I al so want to thank lain Fleet, archivist, Archive a nd Record Centre, City Chambers, Dundee. Permission to use the primary source material at Dundee came from B. N . Bowman, cl erk to the Three United Trades, Dundee; they hol d the copyright on GD/GRW/M 1/1, Sederunt book 1736-1807; GD/GRW /M 2 /1 Boxmaster's a ccount book 17061760; and GD/GRW/M 3/1 Register of entries of masters a nd journey men 165 91779. The Lockit Book, still in use, is in the possession of the cl erk. Vlll ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Some publishers and libraries need to be thanked for permission to reprint or to cite manuscript material . E. J. Brill Inc . allowed me to reprint portions of chapter 2, which had appeared in an earlier version, originally a lecture at the Clark Library given in 1981 and then collected in a volume edited by Richard H . Popkin . Haworth Press, Inc . , gave me permission to publish portions of chapter 5 , which first appeared in an essay in Women and the Enlightenment, a collection published by Haworth, Binghamton, New York, in 1976 for The Institute for Research in History. Dr. Williams's Library, London, and its librarian, John Creasey, gave permission to quote from one letter in the Kenrick-Wodrow correspondence. The archivist at the municipal library in Namur, Rene Leboutte, also made every effort to assist . Various American and European scholars shared their knowledge of archives or read portions of the text: Herbert Rowen, Ferenc Feher, Hugo de Schampheleire, Els Witte, N. Luitse, Gordon DesBrisay, and not least, Wijnand Mijnhardt, with whom I have had many important conversations . Martin Weiner read a portion of chapter I and said very helpful things . Larry Stewart located an important masonic manuscript at the Royal Society of London. J. Appleby read, queried, and inspired. The editors at Oxford University Press have been prompt and efficient. None of these generous and helpful people are responsible for any of the errors that may still exist. Janja Lalich proved to be a supremely competent editor for the opening chapters . Carroll Joynes, Don Scott, and the members of the Pro-Seminar on Knowledge, Culture and Power at the New School were good and kind critics . Janet M . Burke has been willing to share her important work o n women freemasons . The book's dedication speaks from my own history, intellectual and personal . Contents Abbreviat ions, xi Int roduct ion: The European Enlightenment: The Birth of Modem Civil Societ y, 3 1. The Public Becomes the Privat e: The English Revolution and the O rigins of European Freemasonry, 23 2. Temples of Virtue, Palaces of Splendor: British Masonic Visions, 52 3. Cultural Encount ers: Freemasonry on the Continent, 73 4. Creat ing Constitutional Societies, 96 5. Freemasonry, Women, and the Paradox of the Enlight enment, 120 6. Speaking t he Language of Enlightenment, 143 7. Living t he Enlight enment: Cosmopolit an Reformers and Amsterdam Brot hers, 162 8. Dissension and Reform in t he New "Civil Societ y " : The Strasbourg Lodges of the Lat e Eighteenth Cent ury, 179 9. Le Regime Ancien et Mar,;onnique: The Paris G rand Lodge and t he Reform of Nat ional G overnment , 203 Conclusion: The Enlight enment Redefined, 215 Notes, 225 Index, 295
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