French Rite
title: French Rite slug: french-rite category: History description: The French Rite, an ancient and widespread Masonic rite, direct heir of 18th-century English speculative Freemasonry, codified by the Grand Orient de France. tags: [french rite, freemasonry, grand orient de france, masonic ritual, masonic history]
French Rite
Definition
The French Rite is a Masonic rite, one of the oldest and most widespread in the world, dominant in France and Belgium. It is the direct heir and one of the best-preserved rituals of speculative Freemasonry as practiced by the Premier Grand Lodge of London in the early 18th century. It constitutes the historical rite of the Grand Orient de France, which counts approximately forty-five thousand Masons, and is also one of the principal rites of the Grande Loge Nationale Française and other French obediences. Its presence is significant in South America and Africa.
Origins and Establishment in France
Freemasonry was established in France around 1725, brought by British emigrants fleeing political and religious persecution. These emigrants, often of noble origin and from London, brought with them the ritual of the Premier Grand Lodge created in 1717. It is therefore the French translation of the ritual known as that of the “Moderns.”
The first documented lodge was established in Paris by English Masons. According to the testimony of astronomer Jérôme de Lalande in his Mémoire historique sur la Maçonnerie (1777), among the founders were “Lord Dervent-Waters, Sir Maskelyne, d’Heguerty, and several other Englishmen.” This lodge met at the Hurre tavern, an English establishment located on Rue des Boucheries. Within a decade, the lodge attracted between five hundred and six hundred members, leading to the creation of other lodges: Goustaud’s, run by an English lapidary; the Louis d’Argent lodge; and the Bussy lodge, later renamed the Aumont lodge when the Duke of Aumont became its Master.
Early French Masonic practices are documented in a 1737 police report commissioned by René Hérault, Lieutenant General of Police of Paris. The report, obtained through surveillance with the collaboration of an informant known as Mademoiselle Carton, reveals that the early French Masonic ritual closely followed the practices of the Premier Grand Lodge of England.
The expansion of Freemasonry faced opposition from civil and religious authorities. In 1737, a police ordinance was issued against Masonic meetings, and in 1738, Pope Clement XII promulgated the bull In Eminenti, condemning the institution. Despite these restrictions, by 1742 there were twenty-two lodges in Paris and a similar number in the provinces.
Codification and Development (1773-1786)
On December 27, 1773, the Grand Orient de France established a Commission charged with studying the rituals to safeguard their regularity. Between 1781 and 1786, the institution undertook the systematic codification of ritual practices, led primarily by Alexandre-Louis Roëttiers de Montaleau (1748-1808), initiated in 1774 into the Paris Lodge of Friendship.
The Chamber of Degrees (Chambre des Grades) was created with the purpose of harmonizing ritual practices while preserving their “ancient purity.” Standardized rituals for the three symbolic degrees were adopted in July and August 1785. In 1784, a group of eighty brothers, including twenty-seven officers of the Grand Orient de France, created the Grand General Chapter of the French Rite. This body was formally integrated into the Grand Orient on February 17, 1786, by a vote of thirty-nine in favor against seven against. The integration established a complete system of seven degrees: three symbolic degrees plus four Orders of Wisdom (Élu, Écossais, Chevalier d’Orient, and Rose-Croix).
The work culminated with the vote in the 1780s and the printing in 1801 of the notebooks of the three symbolic degrees under the title Regulator of the Mason. This work is characterized by its great fidelity to the original rituals circulated between 1740 and 1760, and has since been considered the reference text for the French Rite.
Revolutionary Period and First Empire (1789-1815)
Masonic activity diminished during the French Revolution. Nevertheless, the Grand Orient de France resumed its operations under the Consulate and the Empire, a period described by some historians as a “golden age” for French Freemasonry.
Transformations in the 19th and 20th Centuries
The French Rite, practiced by the vast majority of lodoes in France, underwent modifications under the influence of positivism between 1860 and 1880. The Murat (1858) and Amiable (1885) versions reduced the presentation of symbols and replaced them with moral and allegorical discourses. In 1877, religious requirements were removed, establishing the principle of absolute freedom of conscience.
Before World War II, Grand Master Arthur Groussier promoted a return to symbolic sources. The text established under his direction and adopted between 1938 and 1955 marks the beginning of a return of symbolism in the reference ritual of the Grand Orient de France. The “restorers” of the traditional French Rite called it “Modern French Rite Restored”: “modern” for the tradition of the “Moderns”; “French” for the version established in France in 1725; “restored” for being the result of a work of restitution.
In 1970, an edition of the French Rite was produced that considerably simplified the trials and left the incorporation of ceremonial elements to the free choice of the lodges. This is the reference French Rite practiced today by many lodges of the Grand Orient de France.
Degree Structure
The French Rite consists of seven degrees: three “blue” or symbolic degrees (Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master) and four Orders of Wisdom. These Orders are not properly degrees, but orders or higher degrees, reflecting the Premier Grand Lodge’s spirit of having only three degrees.
Distinctive Characteristics
Among the ritual particularities of the French Rite are the placement of both Wardens in the West and the use of three large candlesticks in specific positions within the lodge.
Current Versions
Various versions of the French Rite exist today:
- Regulator of the Mason Rite: the closest to the original rite of the Moderns.
- Modern French Rite Restored: an update of the 1801 Regulator of the Mason.
- Reference French Rite: current ritual construction.
- Groussier Rite: version of the Grand Orient de France.
- Philosophical French Rite: the most recent version.
Presence in Spain
The French Rite is practiced by regular lodges of the Grand Lodge of Spain. It is also practiced by lodges federated to the Grand Orient de France in Valencia (Logia Blasco Ibáñez), the Canary Islands (Logia Luz Atlántica), and Asturias (Logia Rosario de Acuña). It is also present in Spanish lodges of the Gran Logia Simbólica Española: in Valencia (Logia Palmira Luz), Barcelona (Logia Mediterrània), and Alicante (Logia Hypatie).
Study Sources
For the study of the French Rite, notable sources include the blog Mandiles Azules, which offers authorized translations by members of the Grand Orient de France, and the blog RitoFrances.net, edited by the Circle of Studies of the French Rite “Roëttiers de Montaleau” of Spain.
Documentary Sources: