Frédéric Desmons

Frédéric Desmons

Frédéric Desmons (born October 14, 1832 in Brignon ( Département Gard ), † January 4, 1910 in Paris ) was a Calvinist pastor, Deist , Freemason and advocate of absolute freedom of conscience .

Life

Frédéric Desmons was born in Brignon, a small community in the Gard department , in 1832 . At first he studied in Nîmes , then he continued his studies at the theological University of Geneva founded by John Calvin . In 1856 he submitted his doctoral thesis to the Protestant faculty in Strasbourg . His thesis was: “Essai historique et critique du Mormonisme.” Shortly after his return to France, he became a pastor in Nerdes (near his birthplace), then in Saint-Geniès-de-Malgoirès . On January 16, 1860, he married Juliette Bernis in Brignon.

Freemasonry

In 1857 Firmin Fatalot founded the Masonic lodge L'Echo du Grand Orient in Nîmes under the obedience of the Grand Orient de France . On March 8, 1861 Desmons was there as a Masonic apprentice initiated , promoted to journeyman and finally raised to the master. In 1867 he left his mother's box to found the Le Progrès lodge in his home town of Saint-Géniès-de-Malgoirès with Freemason brothers .

From 1869 he regularly requested the admission of women to work in the Masonic lodges. In 1871 the Grand Orient de France replaced the title of Grand Master with that of President of the Grand Council. Two years later, Desmons became a member of the Board of Governors. During this time he was open to the desire of some lodges to abolish the obligation to believe in God and the belief in the immortality of the soul. He repeatedly opposed the conservative forces in the Greater Orient, who viewed him only as a troublemaker. The Freemason Combes proposed the separation of church and state and dignitaries demanded the neutrality of the church at the political level. Desmons was appointed Rapporteur for the Convention in 1877 at the proposal of the Lodge La Fraternité Progressive of Villefranche-sur-Saône with the aim of revising Article 1 of the Constitution of the Grand Lodge. There the Calvinist pastor gave a speech to the representatives of the lodges in which he argued that Freemasonry is scientific and rational and therefore does not need any religious references, and, on the basis of freedom of conscience, he called for the abolition of the symbol of the Almighty Builder of All Worlds . The lodge delegates approved over two-thirds of such a change. From now on the Grand Orient de France confirmed in its constitution: “ Freemasonry has as its principles unconditional freedom of conscience and human solidarity. It does not exclude anyone for the sake of their faith. “In 1877 there was another meeting with the Grand Orient de Belgique, Greater Orient of Italy, the Grand Lodge of Buenos Aires and the Grand Lodge of Hungary, which had taken over this decision. As a result of this reform in 1877, Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry broke off contact .

President of the Grand Council

Frédéric Desmons has been elected President of the Grand Council of the Grand Orient de France five times:

1. from 1889 to 1891
2. from 1896 to 1898
3. from 1900 to 1902
4. from 1905 to 1907
5. 1909

politics

In addition to Freemasonry and his pastoral office, Desmons began a career in local politics from 1877, which forced him to involuntarily resign from his pastoral office in 1881. From 1881 to 1894 he was a member of the Gard department; from 1894 to 1909 senator of the department. He was continually re-elected until he became Vice President, eventually President of the Senate. On October 28, 1886, as Vice President of the Senate, he represented France at the opening of the Statue of Liberty in New York.

Funeral and commemoration

Throughout his life he campaigned for the separation of church and state. When he died on January 4, 1910, a memorial service was held shortly afterwards under the chairmanship of the First Vice-President of the Order Council Bouley in the Grand Orient de France. On January 7th and 9th, he was civilly buried in Paris at the ( Gare de Lyon ) with a large crowd . On the door of his grave is the symbol of Freemasonry, square measure and compass. In his memory, a bronze statue was erected at the entrance to Brignon, which was removed from its base in 1943 after the war and replaced with a memorial plaque.

literature

• John Bartier: Laïcité et Franc-Maçonnerie. Études . Édition de l'Université, Brussels 1981, ISBN 2-8004-0749-2 .
• Cédric Bompard: Un maçon «exemplaire»: Frédéric Desmons - La Franc-Maçonnerie sous la IIIème République, Mémoire en histoire contemporaine Université d'Avignon, 2001.
• André Combes: Histoire de la Franc-Maçonnerie au XIXème siècle, vol. 2 . Editiond. du Rocher, Paris 1998, ISBN 2-268-03163-2 .
• Mildred J. Headings: La Franc-Maçonnerie française sous la III République, 1949 ("French Fremdansonery under the Third Republic"). Édition du Rocher, Paris 1998, ISBN 2-268-02783-X .
• Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: International Freemasons Lexicon . Revised Ed. Herbig Verlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-7766-5036-5 .
• Daniel Ligou: Frédéric Desmons et la Franc-Maçonnerie sous la IIIème République . Édition Gedalge, Paris 1966.
• Alec Mellor: Lodges, rituals, high degrees. Handbook of Freemasonry (“La Franc-Maçonnerie à l'heure du choix”). Styria Verlag, Graz 1985 (reprint of the Graz edition 1967).
• Robert A. Minder: Freemason Politicians Lexicon. From Salvador Allende to Saad Zaghlul Pascha (edition on the rough stone; 8). Studienverlag, Innsbruck 2004, ISBN 3-7065-1909-7 .
• Humanisme, Des Francs-Maçons du Grand Orient de France , issue 235 (1997).
• La Pensée et les Hommes, Chrétiens et Francs-Maçons dialoguent , issue 23 (1993), ISSN  0774-2754 .

Web links

• Biography (french)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ is considered to be the second volume by John Bartier: Libéralisme et socialisme au XIXe siècle. Études . Édition de l'Université, Brussels 1981, ISBN 2-8004-0749-2 .