 |
| Rivista di Massoneria - Revue de Franc-Maçonnerie - Revista de Masonerìa - Revista de Maçonaria |
|---|
| History Literature Music Art Architecture Documents Rituals Symbolism |
|
|
| Rivista di Massoneria - Revue de Franc-Maçonnerie - Revista de Masonerìa - Revista de Maçonaria |
|---|
| History Literature Music Art Architecture Documents Rituals Symbolism |
|
|
 ÉTUDES MAÇONNIQUES - MASONIC PAPERSby W.Bro. ALAIN BERNHEIM 33°RAMSAY AND HIS DISCOURS REVISITED |
Ramsay’s life
We don’t
have a single portrait of him and we do not know when he was born (1681, 1688
or, more likely, 1686, June 9 [1] ),
and where. Brought up in Ayr, a small village near Kilwinning in Scotland, he
was educated at Ayr Grammar school but we are not sure when and where he
studied further. Possibly at Glasgow and then at Edinburgh University. A deeply
religious young man,[2] he was
supposed to become a minister but never did. In 1708,
Ramsay accepted the position of tutor to the two children of David, 3rd
Earl of Wemyss.[3] About April
1710, Ramsay unexpectedly left the Wemyss estate in Thistleworth and went to
Holland to meet Poiret [4]
who will be responsible for the publication of Madame Guyon’s writings.[5]
Shortly
afterwards, Ramsay left for Cambrai where he arrived in August 1710 [6]
and made the acquaintance of the local archbishop Fénelon. Ramsay converted to
Roman Catholicism six months later and stayed at the archbishop’s house until
1714. Ramsay went afterwards to Madame Guyon’s in Blois where he remained two
years as a disciple as well as a private secretary. He left Blois for Paris
toward the end of 1716 and became tutor to the son of the Comte de Sassenage,
first gentleman of the chamber to the Regent.[7]
While
living at the Sassenage’s house in Paris, Ramsay entered in contact with Stuart
exiles.[8]
His name first appears in the Stuart Papers in a letter from Dec. 16,
1720, in which Lord Landsdowne [9]
described him to James as « a gentleman entirely attached to your
Majesty’s service... [who] made it his request to me to introduce to your
favourable acceptance his last edition of the labours of that great
prelate » [10] herewith
alluding to Fénelon whose life Ramsay was to publish in 1723. About
that time, Ramsay wrote to James adressing him as « the King of Great
Britain » and ending his letter with the words « Be pleased to accept
it as a tribute of my loyalty, as a mark of my duty, and as an earnest of that
most profound respect, with which I have the honour to be, Sr, your Majesties most
humble, most faithfull and most obedient servant and subject. »[11]
Ramsay
left the tutorship of Sassenage’s child during the Summer of 1722. His Paris
friends interceded by the Regent, then head of the Order, to have him knighted chevalier
de St Lazare, May 20, 1723,[12]
herewith qualifying him to receive a pension on the Abbey of Signy in France.
Four days later, James III. granted Ramsay a patent of nobility written in
French which reads thus translated into English : It
having been certified to us by several Lords of our Realm living in Paris that
Andrew Michael Ramsay Esquire, a gentleman of Scotland, is descended through
his father from the noble and ancient house of Dalhousie Ramsay, Peer of
Scotland and through his mother from the most noble and very illustrious house
of the Duke of Mar, Duke of Erskine and Peer of Scotland, we have been
graciously pleased to grant him this our authentic declaration of the nobility
of his descent, that it may be of service and of value to him whenever he may
have need of the same.[13] However
when a French historian wrote in 1999 to Sir Malcolm Innes of Edingight, kcvo, the Lord Lyon King of Arms in
Edinburgh, in order to ascertain whether Ramsay’s claim to nobility had any
ground at all, he became the following answer : I have not come
across this person in my reading and researches. I note that the Old Pretender
confirmed certain genealogical matters for this person. This having been done
at some distance the reliability of such a certificate or diploma might be
questioned.[14] James seems
to have hold Ramsay in high esteem [15]
and, alluding to the possibility that Ramsay may sometimes come to Rome, wrote
to him : « I believe it will be easy for me to employ you in a way
equally fitting my service and your genius ». A little later, Ramsay was
appointed a tutor to the Old Pretender’s first child, Charles Edward, who was
born in Rome on New Year’s eve 1720. He left Paris, Jan. 3, 1724, and arrived
in Rome after a three weeks journey. However he was to stay only a few months.
Unhappy about the Roman atmosphere - he was considered an agent of the Paris
Stuart coterie [16] - Ramsay
asked permission of James to return to Paris and left middle of November.
Altogether Ramsay’s association with the royal family at Rome was rather a
failure.[17] Ramsay lived
then at the duke of Sully who had married one of Madame Guyon’s daughter in
1719. He began to write Les Voyages de Cyrus.[18] The novel issued in 1727 was a
great success. However clever people noticed that Ramsay borrowed a lot.
Lantoine [19] found an anonymous pamphlet printed
in 1728, Entretiens sur les Voyages de Cyrus, [20] which listed all the sentences
culled by Ramsay in Fénelon and Bossuet, or in less famous authors like Jacques
de Tourreil (an obscure member of the Académie Française) and The improvement
of human reason, exhibited in the life of Hai Ebn Yokdan from Abu Ibn
al-Tufail, translated from the Arabic by Simon Ockley and printed in 1708 in
London by E. Powell & J. Morphew ! Translated by Nathaniel Hooke, the Travels
of Cyrus chiefly contributed to turn English attention to Ramsay. In 1727,
George II. succeeded to the English throne. A ‘general act of pardon’ seems to
have been expected from the next Parliament but did not materialise. George
merely did some pardoning, which possibly explains why Ramsay was able come to
England toward the middle of 1729.[21]
Highlights of his one year stay was his election (together with Montesquieu) as
a Fellow of the Royal Society, Dec. 11, 1729 ; his membership of the
Spalding Club, March 12 (O.S.), 1730 [22];
his initiation in the Horn Lodge of which the Duke of Richmond was WM, March 16
(O.S.), 1730,[23] a few weeks
after Montesquieu ; and his reception as a Doctor of Civil Law at Oxford,
April 10, 1730. Back in
Paris in July 1730 [24]
Ramsay was employed by the Bouillon family as tutor of the young Godefroi
Geraud, Duke of Château-Thierry (nephew of the Comte d’Evreux) and when the lad
died, March 1732, of Evreux’s grand-nephew, Godefroi Charles, Prince of
Turenne, born 1728.[25]
Ramsay kept that position until June 1741.[26]
James awarded Ramsay the title of Knight and Baronet, March 23, 1735,[27]
on the recommendation of the Duchess of Bouillon and of Sir David Nairne whose
younger daughter, Marie, then aged 34, Ramsay married in June.[28] One and a
half year later, Ramsay appears as out of nowhere on the French masonic scene.
The title-page of a manuscript version of his Discours states the date
of its delivery : 1736 Discours de Mr Le Cher de
Ramsay Prononcé a la Loge de St jean le 26 Xbre, that
is, December 26, 1736. From then on, documents concerning Freemasonry in Paris
multiply whereas the last mention of Ramsay in a masonic context, besides his
talks with Geusau in 1741, is a letter he wrote to a Jacobite friend on August
2, 1737. It is quoted below. Ramsay
died, May 6, 1743. The next day, his burial in St. Germain was attended by two
freemasons : the Earl of Derwentwater, elected Grand Master of France one
day after Ramsay delivered his Discours in Paris, and Alexander of
Montgomerie, 10th Earl of Eglinton, then aged nineteen, who was made
a mason by the Earl of Kilmarnock in the Lodge of Kilwinning on January 20,
1742 and became Master of the Lodge as well as Grand Master Mason in Scotland
in 1750. Ramsay’s death certificate [29]
was signed by both of them, together with Eglinton’s tutor, Michel de Ramsay
who was Andrew Ramsay’s cousin, Alex. Home - likely a member of the Douglas
family - and Geo de Leslie who belonged to the Roth family.[30]
The
beginnings of French freemasonry [31]
Along the
20th Century, early important French masonic documents were
discovered and published. The main ones are : 1. the French Regles et Devoirs approved by the French Grand
Lodge on December 27, 1735 under Grand Master Macleane and stating they are a
modified version of those given by Philip, Duke of Wharton, described in the Approbation
as having been Grand Master of the Lodges of the Kingdom of France. 2. A French gazette manuscrite, dated January 4, 1737, stating
that a general assembly of the most ancient and honourable society of
freemasons, held December 27, 1736, at a place called Le Grand St Germain,
rue du Paon, elected « the most high and mighty Lord Charles Ratcliff,
earl of Derwent-Waters, a peer of England, in the place of Lord Hector Macleone
(sic), baronet of Scotland ». [32] 3. A document [33]
stating that Derwentwater delivered a Warrant for a new lodge in Paris,
February 14, 1737, in consequence of a temporary one issued by his predecessor
MacLean, November 29, 1736. Derwentwater’s Grand Officers are listed by name as
well as the WM and both wardens of the new lodge : Louis Collins,
[Jean-Pierre] Le Lorrain and Joseph Agard. The lodge met at the hôtel de Bussy,
also known as Landelle’s. 4. The earliest-known Minute Book of a Parisian Lodge whose WM was the
famous John Coustos.[34]
It covers the period from December 18, 1736 to July 17, 1737. The Duke of
Villeroy was made a mason in that lodge and chosen as WM in February. Coustos’
Senior Warden was a ‘D. Errembault Dudzeele’, whereas a ‘Denis Erembault,
Marquis du Dyes’ was signatory to Document Nr. 3 from February 14, 1737, as
Deputy Master p. t. of GM Derwentwater. 5. A slightly different version of Document Nr. 1, delivered November
25, 1737, by Grand Master Derwentwater to the Baron of Scheffer, then a member
of Coustos’ Lodge, together with a power to constitute lodges in the Kingdom of
Sweden.[35] Paris
and the first lodges
How many
lodges existed then in Paris is still a conjectural matter. The above documents
mention three only : ·
Coustos’ lodge which met every other
Tuesday à la ville de tonnerre dans la rue des boucheries. ·
The
lodge at the hotel rue de Bussy (Document 3) whose WM Collins (replaced
in April 1737 for a short time, by the Duke of Aumont) and wardens visited
Coustos’ lodge, February 17, 1737. ·
The
Grand Master’s (Derwentwater’s) lodge, mentioned in Document 4, March 12, 1737,
in the following words : WM Gousteau [Coustos], in the place of My Lord, the Duke of Villeroy,
moved that the Masters and Wardens meet with the Grand Master of the lodges in
France concerning some innovations made in the said Grand Master’s lodge, such
as to hold a sword during the receptions [and] to find in the ballot-box more
balls than the number of attendants. The brethren have unanimously said that
nobody was allowed to make laws in freemasonry, since the offices of Grand
Master, Master and Wardens merely consist in enforcing those laws which are
transmitted by tradition.[36]
Such uniformity distinguish masons from all other sects and made them respected
in the whole of Europe, without which one is not acknowledged as such in
another land, since one cannot wear any metal during a reception, the brethren
added further that the order was not an order of chivalry but a sociable one,
wherein any man of probity may be accepted without wearing a sword
notwithstanding the fact that many lords and princes enjoy being a member
thereof.[37] According
to the lists of lodges, printed in London since 1722, a lodge meeting at the
King’s Head or Louis d’Argent, was warranted under Nr. 90 in Paris,
April 3, 1732, by the premier Grand Lodge. It can hardly be
Derwentwater’s, it cannot be the Bussy lodge warranted in 1736-37 nor Coustos’,
since the latter met every other Tuesday whereas Nr. 90 met on the first
Monday.[38]
According to an undated note found in police archives, WM of the Louis d’Argent
was Thomas-Pierre Le Breton [39]
who was present on December 18, 1736, at the first meeting recorded in Coustos’
lodge Minute-Book. The
two main versions of the Discours
Until
1964, the interpretations given by various scholars of Ramsay’s Discours
had one thing in common : they all commented ‘the’ Discours as if
there had been one only. My friend
Pierre Chevallier was the first historian of French Freemasonry to bring out
parts of an earlier hitherto unknown manuscript version of the Discours.[40]
He followed indications given by Albert Lantoine [41]
who mentioned its existence in the archives of a small French town, Epernay,
located in the heart of Champagne’s vineyards. Lantoine wrote the manuscript
copy was an ‘incomplete’ one,[42]
suggesting it was a first sketch of the printed version. This was a
mistake : both texts are quite different from another.[43]
The date
mentioned on the manuscript of the Discours, December 26, 1736, was one
day before the Earl of Derwentwater [44]
was elected Grand Master by a general assembly of freemasons in Paris.
Derwentwater, an Englishman, succeeded James Hector McLean, knight, baronet of
Scotland. MacLean was several years Grand Master in France.[45] Both
versions are divided into three parts whose respective length is quite different :
Whereas
the ms version is about 2’200 words long and the printed one 2’700, both have
only 500 words in common. Some 1’000 words of the ms version were left out of
the printed one to which about 1’500 new words were added. Except
for minor variations, later printed versions are similar to the earliest one
from 1738.[46] Accordingly
the ms text and the printed one must be discussed separately. Both versions begin with identical words : the speaker addresses men who are about to be, or have just been, made Masons. NOTES [1] According
to the Anecdotes (see Bibliography, I. Primary sources,
Manuscript). [2] In
1708, « he had become one of a most interesting group of sincere religious
persons in Scotland who turned with distaste from the prevailing forms of
Christianity and sought satisfaction in mystical union with a loving God and
worship of Him in spirit and in truth. » (Henderson 1952 : 16). [3] Wemyss’
son James (1699-1756) became 4th Earl and had two sons. The elder,
David, was attainted after the 45’. His younger brother James became 5th
Earl and was elected Grand Master Mason in Edinburgh, November 30, 1743,
succeeding William, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock. [4] Pierre
Poiret (1646-1719). Edited from 1711 to his death Mme Guyon’s Oeuvres
complètes in 39 vol. [5] Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte
(1648-1717) became famous as Madame Guyon. Author of mystical Commentaires
on the Bible, « une folle pour les libertins et une hérétique pour les
dévots » (Roger Priouret, La Franc-Maçonnerie sous les lys, 1953,
p. 28), a « religious adviser to a host of earnest and completely
unfanatical Christians in many lands and in different sects. Her writings had been commended
to Ramsay before he left England » (Henderson1952 37). See Le
Quiétisme (1973) by J.-R. Armogathe. [6] Ramsay, Histoire de la vie de
Messr. François de Salignac de la Motte Fénelon, p. 102. The book was first published in
1723. My quotes are from the 1724 ed. printed in Bruxelles. Fénelon was one of
the greatest French theologians. [7] Louis
XIV died September 1, 1715. His great-grandson, Louis XV, heir to the French
throne, will act as King from June 16, 1726, at the age of 16. In the meantime,
power was in the hands of the Regent, the Duc d’Orléans, succeeded after his
death (1723) by the Duc de Bourbon. [8] Among
those, the Duke of Mar who was Secretary of State to James III and lived in
Paris. Mar mentioned Ramsay’s name in several letters to James (Henderson
1952 : 59-60). [9] Made
a peer under Queen Anne, sent to the Tower in 1715, he went to live in France.
Formed there a group called the ‘Triumvirate’ with Mar and Dillon. [10] Henderson
1952 : 85-86. [11] A
couple of years later, Ramsay wrote to James: « My greatest ambition as
well as greatest happiness shall ever be to sacrifice all I am and all I have
to your interests » (Henderson 1952 : 87-89). [12] Facsimile
of the ms Minutes, Renaissance Traditionnelle 114 (April
1998) : 110-111. [13] Stuart
Papers, Misc. 21/26 (Windsor Castle), facsimile in AQC 81
(1968) : 283. Bro. Tunbridge found the document and put it at Bro. Batham’s disposal (ibid. : 313). [14] Renaissance Traditionnelle 117
(Jan. 1999) : 2. However
Naudon and Lamoine wrote imprudently: « In spite of Voltaire’s assertions,
reproduced without control by numerous historians, Ramsay belonged to a noble
and great Scottish family » (Naudon 1960 : 78), « Ramsay, of
genuine noble Scots stock » (Lamoine 2002 : 237). Both could not read
very well either : quoting a sentence of Ramsay’s Discours after
Lantoine, Naudon writes (ibid. p. 82, note 2) – but here, he seems to be
copying Daruty 287 inaccurately ! - he could not find it in La Tierce 1742,
whereas the sentence stays p. 136. Lamoine ascribes the imaginary date 1740 to
an edition of La Tierce (Lamoine ibid. : 226). [15] « I
have heard a great deal of good of him of all sorts of people and never any
ill, and I believe he will answer my expectation » James to Southcott
(Henderson 1952 : 93). [16] Henderson
1952 103. James must have become suspicious of Ramsay and in April 1724
wrote to Murray: « Ramsay is not to be anyways concerned in writings or
politics » (Henderson 1952 104). [17] Henderson
1952 :108. [18] The
French edition was dedicated to Sully, the English one to Lord Landsdowne. A
Dublin edition appeared in 1728. [19] Lantoine
1927 : 122. [20] Likely
the source of Voltaire’s entry ‘Plagiat’ in his Dictionnaire Philosophique :
« Dans ces voyages, il [Ramsay] copie les phrases, les raisonnemens d’un
ancien auteur anglais qui introduit un jeune solitaire disséquant sa chèvre
morte, et remontant à Dieu par sa chèvre. Cela ressemble fort à un plagiat.
Mais en conduisant Cyrus en Egypte, il se sert, pour décrire ce pays singulier,
des mêmes expressions employées par Bossuet ; il le copie mot pour mot
sans le citer. Voilà un plagiat dans toutes ses formes. ». [21] Ramsay
spent Christmas 1729 at the Duke of Orrey’s (John Heron Lepper, AQC 35 :
78) [22] Not
1729, as Gould wrote (II : 284n & III : 81), since
Ramsay signs as a FRS (Henderson 1952 : 140). [23] The
date of Ramsay’s initiation was first ascertained by the Rev. Oxford (No 4,
An Introduction to the History of the Royal Somerset House and Inverness Lodge,
1928, p. 16). Sitwell was immediately aware of it that same year (Transactions
for the year 1928, Lodge No. CC, p. 42). In 1913, Chetwode Crawley did not
believe in it (« He cannot have been initiated during the visit... »
AQC 26 : 61). Neither
Lantoine who states Ramsay was initiated in 1736 (Lantoine 1930 : 48), nor
Henderson (Henderson 1952 : 166), nor Pierre Chevallier (Chevallier 1964:
140) were aware of it. [24] Pierre
Chevallier 1964 : 136. Henderson ignored how long Ramsay stayed in England
(Henderson 1952 : 147). According to Coil’s Masonic Encyclopedia
(1961 ed.), Ramsay went in 1728 to England and spent 8 years there and in
Scotland ! [25] Godefroi
Geraud was born 1719, his mother was Marie Charlotte Sobieska, sister of James’
wife, Marie Clémentine. Godefroi Charles was born 1728. Head of the house was
the Duc de Bouillon. [26] He
wrote many pamphlets and books during that time, his most important work being
l’Histoire du vicomte de Turenne, maréchal général des armées du roy,
issued in March 1735. [27] Henderson
1952 : 181-182. [28] Marie
was born January 6, 1701. According to a gazette dated July 10, 1735, the
wedding had taken place « about a month ago » (Chevallier 1968 :
135). Their first child, Isaac, born Dec. 1737, died June 1740. A daughter,
Marie Catherine, born Jan. 1739, died in 1758 (Henderson 1952 : 185-186). [29] Parochial
register quoted in French by Henderson (Henderson 1952 : 197). [30] ‘Lesley,
comte de Rooth’ is listed in Bord 1908 : 118 as a member of the Lodge said
by him to have existed in the Regiment of Dillon between 1700 and 1730. See
also Philip Crossle in Transactions for the year 1928, Lodge No. CC, pp.
61-73 & 73-75 (translation of Bord 1908 : 491 and ff.) and his
foot-note, p. 74. [31] Writing
in 1968, Bro. Tunbridge stated: « Very little is known of Freemasonry in
France prior to 1737 » and added in a fit of pure imagination :
« In 1735 five French Lodges appeared on the English Registers » (AQC 81: 92) whereas they were
only three : Paris, Aubigny and Valenciennes. [32] For
the references to the first two documents, respectively published by Etienne
Fournial in 1964 and George Luquet in 1956, see Bernheim 1968 :
120-121. [33] First
published in Juvanon 1926 : 134-135. [34] Transcribed, published and commented
by Daniel Ligou in Bulletin du Centre de documentation du Grand Orient de
France 51 (1965) : 33-68. [35] Originally
transcribed and published by Arthur Groussier, GM of the Grand Orient of
France, in 1932. Republished by Fournial in 1964 (see note 35).
Facsimile of the original document, extant in the Library of the Swedish
Masonic Order, in Feddersen 1989 : 585-605. [36] Words
very similar to those included in the Minutes of the Grand Lodge meeting in
London, June 24, 1723 : « And the Question was moved. That it is not
in the Power of any person, or Body of men, to make any Alteration, or
Innovation in the Body of Masonry without the Consent first obtained of the
Annual Grand Lodge. » (Quatuor Coronatorum Antigrapha X,
50), as well as to Regulation XXXIX printed in Anderson’s The Constitutions
of the Freemasons 1723. [37] When masonic ceremonies will be revealed to
the French public in December 1737, Derwentwater is reported by a member of
Collins’ Lodge, abbé le Camus, as having « strongly protested against the
French and stated they had been admitted in spite of his desires » (Luquet
1963 : 176). [38] After
meeting every Wednesday au Louis d’Argent dans La Rue de Boucherie a
Paris (1734 list), Nr. 90, according to the engraved lists issued from 1735
to 1740, met on the first Monday at the Hotel de Bussy, rue de Bussy
(1735 & 1736 lists) and afterwards at the Ville de Tonnerre, Rüe des
Boucheries (1738, 1739 and 1740 lists, in the latter one under Nr. 78).
Strangely enough, another French Lodge, warranted by the premier Grand
Lodge, August 12, 1735, with Nr 133 At the Castle at Aubigny (a castle
which belonged to the Duke of Richmond) always met on the First Monday (1735,
1738-1740 lists). [39] Chevallier
1964 : 51. This lodge was never called Saint-Thomas until the 1760s, a
fact brilliantly demonstrated in 1985 by Etienne Fournial, although most
historians, from Thory to Sitwell (Transactions for the year 1928, Lodge
No. CC, p. 41) as well as Pierre Chevallier asserted the contrary. [40] In Les Ducs sous l’Acacia
(1964). Paul
Tunbridge wrote Pierre Chevallier was a Mason (AQC 81: 93). He never was. [41] Lantoine
1927 : 117-118 (the text quoted there by Lantoine is that of the printed
version of 1738, not the manuscript one, in spite of what his comments suggest)
& 1930 : 32. [42] A
word which Sitwell changed into ‘imperfect’ (Sitwell 1928 : 43).
Also : « March 1737, the Discours is written in its definitive
version » (Chevallier 1964 : 144). Printed versions are also termed
‘more complete’ by Lamoine. [43] Only
the third part of the ms version was transcribed
in Chevallier 1964 : 147-149. Cyril Batham who issued both versions in
English (AQC 81 :
298-304) names the printed version « Grand Lodge », which is
misleading since it was not delivered in Grand Lodge by Ramsay. Batham admits
he copied Gould’s translation (AQC 81 : 282, note 2), which
is why one reads identical French words rendered differently in both English
versions of the Discours printed in parallel columns in AQC 81.
For instance : Oui, Messieurs translated as ‘Yes, gentlemen’ (ms)
and ‘Yes, sirs’ (printed version). The last-issued volume 114 of
AQC (October 2002) includes a further translation of the Epernay
manuscript version by Georges Lamoine together with the translation of another
ms version (originally located in the Bibliothèque Municipale of Toulouse by
Jacques Léglise, see Bibliography). [44] James
Ratcliff, Earl of Derwentwater (1693-1746), and his son James Bartholomew
embarked from Dunkirk to Montrose, November 22, 1745, in order to take part in
the 45’ in Scotland. The boat was captured by the Sheerness. Imprisoned at the
Tower, James was beheaded in London,
December 8, 1746. [45] Neither
the date of MacLean’s first election nor that of the foundation of the Grand
Lodge of France have been ascertained yet. It is well to remember that we do
not know the date of the foundation of the GL of Ireland either and that the
only testimony we have of the premier Grand Lodge being formed in London
on June 24, 1717, is the uncorroborated one of Anderson in the New Book of
Constitutions, issued 1738, some twenty years after the event. [46] See
Bibliography. |