THE BUILDER FEBRUARY 1929

NAPOLEON A MASON

In reference to the article by Bro. E. E. Murray entitled "Napoleon
the Mason and the Pope," which appeared in THE BUILDER for last
September, I would like to know what grounds there are for
believing Napoleon to have been a member of the Masonic Fraternity.

C. L. Y., Colorado.

This was referred to Bro. Murray, who wrote to our correspondent as
follows:

As you will see I am away from home and do not expect to get back,
except between trains, for a couple of weeks, and I am without any
books here to refer to, so am writing this that you may not think
I am discourteous in not replying, and as soon as I get back home
I will quote chapter and verse. However, speaking from memory, you
will find that Mackey in his Encyclopedia quotes French authors
that Napoleon was made a Mason in, I think, Malta. Gould, in his
history of the Netherlands, mentions that when he placed his
brother on the throne of Holland, in 1805, he instructed him to be
Patron on Masonry in that country. I had this before me recently
when digging into Netherlands' history. Then there is in existence
an old engraving showing Napoleon giving the grip and word to a
Tyler at the door of a lodge. If my memory does not sadly forsake
me, within the past two years one of the descendants of Napoleon
presented to some museum in France his apron or other Masonic
regalia. This is not conclusive evidence, I admit and it may be
very hard to place the finger on a lodge minute recording his
admission to the Order. About four years ago Bro. Rae Lemert, of
Helena, editor of the Montana Mason and Grand Historian of the
Grand Lodge of Montana, and who has a very large library of French
Masonic books, several of the 18th century, went into the matter
fully, as he does in all things, and wrote an article in that
magazine. As soon as I get back home I will look it up and copy it
out and send it to you.

In a second letter he supplemented this with the following
information:

In the issue of the Montana Mason of September, 1922, there
appeared a cut of a picture of Napoleon entering his lodge wearing
his apron and sash. In the issue there was the following article:

NAPOLEON AND THE CRAFT

"The Great Napoleon, the famous Emperor of the French, was a member
of the Masonic Fraternity, and many anecdotes are current regarding
his admiration for the Institution, and his attachment to it.
Engravings showing him in Masonic garb are rare, but this magazine
presents to its readers this month a reproduction of one taken from
a French work showing Napoleon at the entrance to his mother lodge
demanding admittance, accompanied by several of his officers. Close
observers will discern certain interesting features in the print."

If you desire more direct evidence than I have quoted as to his
being a Mason, I am confident that Lemert will be very pleased to
supply it. Similarly it is stated that some if not all of his
brothers were Masons, so were some of his marshals and generals.
That he was approached by the Grand Orient, when he was Emperor, to
give the Fraternity his protection; that he named one of his
brothers Grand Master; that he asked his brother when made King of
Holland, to be protector of the Craft, and several other acts are
those of a member and not merely a sympathizer.

There was an important article on this same subject in THE BUILDER
for March, 1924, by Bro. D. E. W. Williamson, "Where Was Napoleon
Made a Mason?" In this some evidence that had hitherto been unknown
to English and American students was brought forward. This was
found in a French work by Charles Bernadin, Notes to Serve as a
History of Freemasonry at Nancy up to 1805, in which is quoted a
statement by M. Noel, "historian of Lorrain," himself a Freemason.
Bro. Bernadin says that Napoleon paid a visit to the lodge at Nancy
in November, 1797, on his way, via Switzerland, from Milan to
Paris.

Bro. Williamson also refers to the paper by Bro. J. E. Tuckett
which is to be found in A. Q. C., vol. xxvii, p. 96, in which an
exceedingly strong ease is made out for Napoleon's membership in
the Fraternity, so strong that though the evidence is mostly
circumstantial it only just falls short of complete demonstration.
Bro. Tuckett's own summary of his conclusions are as follows:

(1) That the evidence in favor of a Masonic initiation previous to
Napoleon's assumption of the Imperial Title is overwhelming.

(2) That the initiations took place in the body of an Army
Philadelphia Lodge of the (Ecossais) Primitive Rite of Narbonne,
the third "initiation" of the "Note Communiquee" being an
advancement in that Rite.

(3) That these initiations took place between 1795 and 1798.

Hitherto one of the chief objections to admitting that Napoleon was
a Mason has been found in the fact that when he was asked to become
the Patron of the Craft in 1804 he requested from Prince Cambaceres
to have a report "on the objects and principles of the association,
especially as to what is caned the secret of the Freemasons." The
question was raised by the Masonic historian Findel, and repeated
by later students. Findel said:

If the Emperor Napoleon was a Mason . . . he ought properly
speaking to have been well acquainted with the Institution and its
tendencies without making any special enquiries on the subject.

Bro. Tuckett clears this difficulty away very easily by pointing
out that in the many Ecossais rites, the symbolic degrees were
regarded only as stages of the novitiate, and it was impressed upon
the initiates that even the Master Mason was comparatively yet in
a state of darkness, and that the true secret was known only in the
more exalted grades. No one has ever suggested that Napoleon had
"advanced" beyond the degree of Master, and it therefore seems not
only natural, but obvious, that as Emperor he should want to know
what these reserved secrets were before giving his countenance to
the Institution in so definite a manner.
