He was initiated on 21 March 1879 into the Union et Bienfaisance lodge of the Grande Loge de France.
He was one of the founders of France's "Symbolic Scottish Grand Lodge".
He assisted in the initiation of Maria Deraismes on 14 January 1882 into Les Libres Penseurs lodge in Pecq, and together, they founded the first mixed-sex lodge in 1893, the Grande Loge Symbolique Écossaise "Le Droit Humain".
This mother-lodge became the basis for the creation of Le Droit Humain lodge, the origins of Co-Masonry; he devoted himself to the national and international development of this from 1883 to 1916.
In 1901, he created "Le Droit Humain"'s Supreme Council under the authority of which all the lodges were placed.