The Grand Orient de France in 1877
The Grand Orient de France's decision of 1877 removed the constitutional requirement that its members believe in God and the immortality of the soul. It affirmed freedom of conscience and opened membership to non-believers. The decision applied to the Grand Orient de France, one of France's Masonic governing bodies, and prompted opposition from several other Grand Lodges.[1][2]
The debate and vote
The change followed debates extending back into the 1860s. A proposal to revise the constitution went to the lodges for discussion before the 1877 convent, the Grand Orient's general assembly. Opinion in the Masonic press was divided: Le Monde Maçonnique supported reform, while Esprit-Eugène Hubert of La Chaîne d'Union opposed it.[2]
Frédéric Desmons, a Protestant pastor, presented the commission's report when debate opened on 13 September 1877. The assembly adopted the amendment by a large majority. Combes notes that the final vote was not a roll call; figures for earlier lodge responses should therefore not be presented as an exact count of votes at the assembly.[2]
Freedom of conscience
The amendment removed a test of belief. It did not make atheism a condition of membership. In its later account of the decision, the Grand Orient identifies freedom of conscience as the principle that allowed non-believers to be admitted.[1] Desmons's role also reflects the participation of liberal Protestants in nineteenth-century French Freemasonry.[3]
This was a decision about the constitution of a Masonic organisation. It was not French legislation and did not determine the rules of every French lodge or governing body.
Responses from British Grand Lodges
The United Grand Lodge of England considered the change through a committee appointed in December 1877. Its report was presented on 6 March 1878 and rejected recognition of men admitted in lodges that denied or disregarded belief in a supreme being.[2]
Scotland's response can be followed in a circular dated 14 May 1878, reproduced in The Freemason. It reported the adoption of the Scottish committee's recommendation on 6 May and instructed lodges to exercise caution in admitting visitors from the French constitution. Its stated objection likewise concerned lodges that denied or ignored belief in the Great Architect of the Universe.[4]
These were decisions by particular Grand Lodges. The history of the disagreement should distinguish the French amendment from the subsequent responses and their dates. See Masonic regularity and recognition for the distinction between an organisation's principles and another body's decision to recognise it.
See also
- Affaire des fiches
- Freemasonry in the nineteenth century
- Early French Freemasonry
- Masonic regularity and recognition
- The Landmarks of Freemasonry
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Grand Orient de France, Liberté de conscience, sécularisation ou laïcité, 13 December 2017, introduction to the 140th-anniversary conference.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 André Combes, Le convent de 1877, ses causes, ses conséquences, La Chaîne d'Union, no. 81 (2017/3), pp. 38–49.
- ↑ Musée protestant, Les protestants français et la franc-maçonnerie, section on nineteenth-century Protestant participation. Accessed 30 September 2026.
- ↑ Grand Lodge of Scotland, circular of 14 May 1878, reproduced under Grand Lodge of Scotland, The Freemason, 25 May 1878, p. 8 of the digitised issue, Masonic Periodicals Online.
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