The Bédarride brothers
The Bédarride brothers, Marc, Michel and Joseph, established the Rite of Misraïm in France in the early nineteenth century. Their work belongs to the history of Misraïm before its later association with the Rite of Memphis. Ellic Howe dates their introduction of the rite to France to 1814–1815.[1]
The brothers and the French rite
Marc Bédarride (1776–1846) wrote De l’ordre maçonnique de Misraïm, published in 1845. Michel Bédarride (1778–1856), whom the Bibliothèque nationale de France identifies as a co-founder of the rite, had worked in military provisioning in Naples. Joseph is named alongside them in histories of the French establishment.[2][3][4]
The surviving Statuts généraux de l’ordre maçonnique de Misraïm et de ses quatre séries pour la France, printed in Paris in 1816, provide a contemporary record of the organisation. The BnF copy includes a dedication by Bédarride identifying the 90th as the final degree. This is evidence for a defined French system at that date, separate from later arrangements combining Misraïm and Memphis.[5]
The rite attracted official suspicion during the Bourbon Restoration. Howe records a police search of Marc’s home in September 1822 which found nothing incriminating. His account places the brothers within the political and Masonic disputes of their time, rather than treating their activities solely as a history of esoteric teaching.[1]
Reading their history
Marc’s book is a participant’s account: its claims about the rite’s remote antiquity should be distinguished from contemporary evidence such as statutes and correspondence. The brothers’ nineteenth-century organisation is also distinct from the later union associated with Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1881.[6]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ellic Howe, “Fringe Masonry in England, 1870–85”, paper dated 14 September 1972, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum; transcription hosted by the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon.
- ↑ Bibliothèque nationale de France, catalogue record for Marc Bédarride, De l’ordre maçonnique de Misraïm, Éditions d’Aujourd’hui reprint, 1985.
- ↑ Bibliothèque nationale de France, authority record: Michel Bédarride (1778–1856).
- ↑ Wikimedia Commons, portrait of Marc Bédarride from De l’ordre maçonnique de Misraïm (1845), image description and provenance.
- ↑ Bibliothèque nationale de France, catalogue record for Statuts généraux de l’ordre maçonnique de Misraïm et de ses quatre séries pour la France, Paris: A. Bobée, 1816; including the copy’s dedication by Bédarride, 90th degree.
- ↑ Grand Ordre Égyptien Mixte, “Histoire du RAPMM en 33 degrés”, sections on the union and the modern revival.
Memphis-Misraïm: Overview · Misraïm · Memphis · History · Degrees and organisation · Egyptian symbolism · Organisations and recognition · Regalia and imagery · Sources and further reading
People: Bédarride brothers · Marconis de Nègre · John Yarker · Giuseppe Garibaldi · Papus · Jean Bricaud · Constant Chevillon · Robert Ambelain
Background: Hermeticism · Martinism · Masonic glossary · Comparison with related traditions