Chrétien-Guillaume Riebesthal
In continuity with the ceremonies that appeared in the 1770s , but in a typically nineteenth-century systematic spirit , Masonic Ritual for All Rites firstly proposes models of ceremonies for the Inauguration of a New Masonic Temple , for the Affiliation of Two Lodges , and a Funerary Rite . But it is surprising to also discover within its pages rituals for the Festival of the Reawakening of Nature at the Spring Equinox , the Festival of the Triumph of Light at the Summer Solstice , the Festival of the Repose of Nature at the Fall Equinox , and the Festival of the Regeneration of Light at the Winter Solstice . Nature , Regeneration … the very titles of these Festivals , entirely unheard of in eighteenthcentury Masonry , of course recall the religious endeavors of the Revolution : the Cult of the Supreme Being , and then Theophilanthropy . 148 This association and the religious orientation that it supposes are confirmed in two other rituals detailed by Riebesthal : the Masonic Baptism of a Louveton ( aged at least three years ) and the Confirmation of a lowton ( who has arrived at the age of eighteen years ). Lowton designates the child of a Freemason . Riebesthal thus transfers onto a Masonic plane some of the classic ceremonies of institutional religion . Finally , the work concludes with a list of Common Festivals of the Year , which also irresistibly brings to mind the republican calendar . Each of the 52 Sundays of the year are assigned a moral or philosophical theme to celebrate , within a framework of a Festival of Honor , of Sincerity , of Fraternal Love , of Wisdom , of Patriotism , of Candour , of Reason , of Patience , of Indulgence , of Concord … . Riebesthal explains what these ceremonies are meant to achieve : “ better to feel the effect and sense the advantage of the reasonable , natural , and purely moral cult that Freemasonry must profess […] The ceremonies that it practices and the emblems with which it adorns its temples aim to inspire in man the purest morals , to interest him in the good of humanity , to unveil to his eyes the truth , and to render him attentive to the phenomena of nature , to raise his soul and to excite him to contemplate the starry sky where myriads of heavenly bodies , resplendent with light , announce to him and prove to him the existence of the incomprehensible Being who possesses the ne plus ultra of power , of greatness and of all perfections .” 149
These propositions echo , almost word for word , the maxims of the period of the revolutionary Directorate . For “ Theophilanthropism is the cult of natural religion . Nature , always as simple as it is sublime in its progress […] gives us occasion only to celebrate diversely the benefactions of the creator , according to the different seasons of the year and the various stages of human life .” 150
Here Riebesthal is , in fact , representative of the Freemasonry of the first third of the nineteenth century . For if in the eighteenth century most French Masons are likely to be sincere Catholics if not zealots , 1789 marks a rupture in the religious sensibility of the lodges . Just like the bourgeoisie of the Revolution , of whom they were to a great extent the offspring , the Masons of the Napoleon Empire and the Bourbon Restoration were won over to Voltairean deism . Recall the famous couplet that sums up the religious ideas of the Patriarch of Ferney : “ The universe confounds me ! I cannot imagine / that such a “ clock ” can exist without a Clockmaker .” 151
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 148 See Albert Mathiez , La Théophilanthropie et le Culte décadaire , essai sur l ’ histoire religieuse
de la Révolution 1796 – 1801 ( Paris : Alcan , 1903 , reprinted Geneva : Slatkine Reprints , 1975 ). 149 Chrétien-Guillaume Riebesthal , Rituel maçonnique pour tous les rites ( Strasbourg : Silbermann , 1826 ), 8 , viii . 150 J .-B. Chemin , Rituel des Adorateurs de Dieu et Amis des Hommes , contenant l ’ ordre des exercices de la Théophilanthropie ( Paris : An VII ), 81 . 151 Voltaire , Les Cabales , 1772 .
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