History of Freemasonry in Belgium
The source of this fragmentation was to be found particularly in the complexity of its institutions, the influence of the government or surrounding powers, and its very deeply rooted local sense of identity.
After the Treaty of la Barrière in 1715, Batavian troops (also including English and Scottish troops) occupied the strongholds of the Austrian Netherlands (notably Namur, Tournai, Veurne, Ypres, Warneton) for a long and difficult period, and it was probably this that led to the creation or confirmation of more lasting lodges.
It was centred on de Gage's own lodge "la Vraie et Parfaite Harmonie" in Mons, the most brilliant of the 18th century Austrian Netherlands.
Also the ULB (Université Libre de Bruxelles) was also founded by several Masons, many of whom were also Catholics, following an appeal by the Lodges of Belgium.
An imperial edict of Joseph II of January 1786 reduced the number of lodges in Brussels to 3 and banned them in all the other towns and cities.
In 1760, the prince-bishop banned freemasonry, but his successor François-Charles de Velbrück (1772–1784) belonged to and protected the Order (during the 18th century, several Catholic priests were also Freemasons.
The La Tour d'Auvergne family in this era was strongly linked to the House of Stuart, deposed from the English throne (the Duke was the brother-in-law of James III of England), as well as being enthusiastic freemasons.
This Grand Orient was represented by one lodge, the "Saint-Charles de la Parfaite Harmonie", situated in Bouillon.
They were above all, at least in appearances, strongly submitted to French imperial power – Napoleon, as emperor, favoured Freemasonry only because he controlled it.
This period came to an end with Napoleon's final defeat at the battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815, by which time Belgium had 27 lodges.
The treaty of Paris and the Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars annexed Belgium to the kingdom of the Netherlands, with Belgian Freemasonry coming under Dutch instead of French influence.
In effect, the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was formalised in 33 grades in 1801 in Charlestown, to return to France in 1804.
It was proposed that he become its Serenest Grand Master, but he declined the offer and instead gave that post to baron Goswin de Stassart, one of his closest collaborators.
[11] "La Bonne Amitié" took number one on the tablet of the Grand Orient of Belgium until 1898, when it ceded that position to the "Parfaite Union" lodge of Mons.
Some lodges remained faithful to the Grand-Orient des Pays-Bas -, the "Septentrion" in Ghent did so until 1883 and only joined the Grand Orient of Belgium late on.
The lodges in Liège, Huy and Verviers created the "Fédération maçonnique belge" before joining the Grand Orient of Belgium in 1854.
For example, the old "Bonne Amitié" lodge at Namur came to be held at arm's length by its "ancients", members of the Primitive Scottish Rite, and so did not disappear despite the importance of the disaffiliations and dissensions caused by the encyclical.
The main defining feature of 20th century freemasonry was the creation of several female lodges, of mixed obediences.
A large part of Belgian Freemasonry as it stands today derives from this Grand Orient – Suprême Conseil unity at the start of the 20th century.
These lodges of adoption formed the basis for the creation of the Grande Loge féminine de France after the Second World War.
On 21 November 1910, the "les Amis Philanthropes" lodge, under the presidency of Henri Lafontaine, welcomed the founder of Le Droit Humain along with Maria Deraismes, Georges Martin and other male and female Freemasons to a conference.
The Grand Orient quietly condemned the move, and the "Les Amis Philanthropes" lodge split, speeding up the formation of the first Le Droit Humain lodge in Belgium out of the pro-female masons who had split from "Les Amis Philanthropes".
[15] Unfortunately the death of Isabelle Gatti de Gamond meant the new lodge had no high-profile woman to recruit for it and so was mainly made up of men.
[16] This autonomy came with the 1928 formation of the Fédération belge du Droit Humain as a mixed-sex Grand Lodge, and saw a continuing expansion (while the Grand Orient of Belgium seeing its numbers neither rise nor fall during the inter-war period and remaining hostile to the Droit Humain until after the Second World War).
Magnette relapsed on 7 November 1915 to prevent the massive deportation of Belgian workers to Germany and was arrested and imprisoned by the occupying authorities for subversion for the duration.
[17] The lodges resumed their work when peace came, but found new enemies in the dictators of the right and left (with the former finding Masonry's emphasis on free thought dangerous, and the latter reproaching it for "class collaboration").
With the aid of a list of Freemasons published in a conservative Catholic newspaper,[citation needed] the occupiers arrested, deported and assassinated several Masons, such as Georges Pêtre, president of the supreme council in 1942, and Jules Hiernaux, Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Belgium in 1944.
Even Belgium's male-female Droit Humain and the Grande Loge Féminine have their own systems of Upper Degrees.
At the end of the 20th century, Belgian freemasonry thus had a very diversified appearance and a great wealth of practices, with a number of female and male freemasons that it has not reached since its origins.
