Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society • Vol . 6 , No . 2 • Fall 2018 / Spring 2019
The Universal League of Freemasons ( ULF ): A Little-Known History
By Denis Lefebvre
Our desire is to encourage contact between brothers . Personal discussions with brothers from all countries should help us better understand each other and strengthen our resolve to fight for our ideal .
These lines come from a publication by the Universal League of Freemasons ( ULF ) in 1935 . This document defined the aims of this structure created thirty years earlier that , since 1905 , wanted to allow brothers from throughout the world to connect , get to know each other , and work together away from the contacts between lodges and obediences , with the fierce desire of preserving peace .
The ULF is therefore the Universal League of Freemasons and not the Universal League of the Freemasons . Created under the auspices of Esperanto , it faced from its very beginning the rise of nationalisms and extremism , and the effects of the divisions of freemasonry .
Esperanto was the starting point for the idea of this league when the first World Esperanto Congress was held in Boulogne-sur-Mer in August 1905 . The freemasons participating in this congress decided to form a masonic Esperantist group called Esperanto Framasona , 1 because they were convinced that a neutral and universal language would promote mutual understanding and lead to more fraternal international relations .
In its first years , Esperanto Framasona only appeared at Esperantist congresses ( Geneva in 1906 , Cambridge in 1907 , Dresden in 1908 , and Antwerp in 1911 ) as a “ specialized association ,” just like the Catholic , Buddhist , masseur , stamp collector , and blind Esperantists . The Bulletin international de relations maçonniques ( January – March 1907 ) listed eighteen original members . Nevertheless , by 1907 , there were ninety-three members distributed as follows : one in Africa ( Senegal ), one in
1 This “ group ” did not exist in the legal sense and was therefore not an association . The Bulletin international de relations maçonniques ( BIRM ) presented it , in its sixth issue , in January 1906 , as a “ club ” with “ the goal of seeking to spreading knowledge of Esperanto as energetically as possible in the masonic circles of the world and moreover of working to make the relationships between freemasons of different countries more frequent and more cordial .”
45 doi : 10.18278 / rscs . 6.2.6