Description:
Was the Masonic enlightenment antichristian ? The openly Christian credo of the immense majority of 18th-century European Freemasons cuts little ice in the face of prejudices and phantasms. Freemasonry, seen erroneously as a secret society (while it is essentially a society of secrets), is still suspected of having encouraged the dissolution of social, family and religious ties and weakened Christian and monarchical identity. Nevertheless, Freemasons rapidly limited their universal republic, excluding irreducible others like Jews, Blacks and Moslems. Their universal republic soon corresponded to the frontiers of Christian Europe. The development of the high Masonic grades, inspired by Christianity and chivalry, reinforced the Christian character of European Masonry. Thus we can look at the relationships which developed within this Christian cosmos between catholic and protestant Freemasons, in particular during the crisis of crypto-catholicism.