Cénacles libertins ou premières loges ? Les débuts de la franc-maçonnerie hollandaise

Abstract

Christiane Berkvens-Stevelinck : Libertin groups or early lodges ? The beginnings of dutch freemasonry. The beginnings of Dutch Freemasonry are very difficult to establish. In the first quarter of the 18th Century, there were numerous groups meeting regularly in cafés or private houses to listen to serious or joculer speeches from one of their members or indulge in a sort of dining "liturgy", in an atmosphere redolent of both the tradition of chivalric orders and Rabelaisian licentiousness. The organisation of these meetings, their vocabulary and rites are reminiscent of the first Masonic lodges, but such a conclusion is over-hasty. Libertine circles should not be confused with early Masonic lodges, and should not be seen as the origin of the first lodges. They are two very different, although close, cultural manifestations.