Belgium.
Belgium. Only fragmentary records are available of the early history of Freemasonry in Belgium, and all writers on the subject are notable for their reserve in stating any facts about that period. This is partly due to frequent changes in sovereignty over the rich and thrifty country formerly called Flanders. From the Peace of Utrecht (1714) to the French Revolution (1789), Flanders or Belgium was the Austrian Netherlands; from that time to 1814, it was a province of France; from 1814 to 1830, it was part of Holland; and from 1830 to the present, an independent kingdom.
It has repeatedly been asserted, without authority, that the English Grand Master, Lord Montagu, warranted a lodge at Mons, Belgium, June 21, 1721, and even that the lodge developed into a Provincial Grand Lodge. Also a lodge is alleged to have been formed at Ghent in 1730. Since Maria Theresa of Austria was so opposed to Freemasonry that even her Royal Consort, Francis of Lorraine, a Freemason, could maintain contact with his lodge only by stealth, (see AUSTRIA etc.) it is reasonably certain that, until the accession of Joseph II in 1765, when the austerity of the Empress was somewhat ameliorated, there could have been no open Masonry in Belgium, although there is mention of Unity Lodge there between 1757 and 1794. Gould had no confidence in any statements about Belgian Masonry prior to 1765, saying (History of Freemasonry, Vol. IV, pp. 16, 17):
”England undoubtedly had much to do with Freemasonry in the Low Countries; and had our Grand Lodge paid less absorbing attention to its festivals and processions, and a little more to its records and archives--had it been less lavish in creating Provincial Grand Masters, and more diligent in insisting upon their responsibility to the home authorities, we should probably find all the information we require in the official documents at Freemasons’ Hall. But, alas, the archives of the oldest (and richest) Grand Lodge in the world, the virtual parent of every Freemason in existence, the most stable Grand Body of the Craft, which has never been disturbed by internal convulsions, political revolutions, or military invasions, afford us scarcely a scintilla of evidence with regard to the proceedings of its offshoots beyond the seas.”
The Engraved Lists of Lodges of the Grand Lodge of England show lodges in Belgium as follows: No. 341 at Alost, constituted June 5, 1765; No. 427 at Ghent, July, 1768; and No. 394 at Mons, Jan. 20, 1770. In 1769, Francis Dumont, Marquis of Gages, was made Provincial Grand Master of the Austrian Netherlands. Upon the accession of Joseph II (not a Freemason) as Emperor of Austria and Germany, Freemasons throughout the Empire had more, though not complete freedom. Other English lodges were warranted and, in 1770, the Grand Lodge of Scotland warranted Loge De la Parfait Union at Namur. It is said that there were 16 English lodges in Belgium in 1784. As stated under AUSTRIA etc. (q.v.), an edict in 1786 restricted lodges to 3 in a city and forbade lodges where no provincial government existed. But, later in 1786, all lodges in Belgium were closed, except 3, and those were closed the following year. Two years later, came the French Revolution.
In 1795, 5 Belgian lodges reopened and came under the Grand Orient of France, to which were added 22 established thereafter by the Grand Orient of France. During this period, the French degrees or Rite Moderne and also the Royal Order of Scotland gained footholds. In 1817, the Rectified Rite of Strict Observance created a central governing body, and, in the same year, a Supreme Council of the A. & A. S. R. was formed. In December, 1817, a branch of the Grand Lodge of the Netherlands took control of the Craft lodges in Belgium and, until 1830, the history of Belgian Masonry was that of the Netherlands. By 1820, there were 33 lodges.
Belgium obtained its independence in 1830 and, by May 23, 1833, political disturbances had reduced the lodges to 4 in number. These met and formed the Grand Orient of Belgium on that date. It received the protection of King Leopold I, who had been made a Mason in Lodge of Hope in Berne in 1813. Then, a peculiar rule was enacted to the effect that the lodges, so long as they maintained allegiance to the Grand Orient, could work any rites they desired, with odd results, for there were lodges conferring, not only the Craft Degrees, but the Scottish Rite of 33 degrees, the French Rite of 7 degrees, the Scottish Philosophic Rite, which had expired in France, and the Rite of Heredom or Royal Order of Scotland. Great disturbance flowed from the repeal in 1854 of the rule against political discussions in the lodge, for it not only resulted in severance of relations with several other European Grand Lodges, but divided the Belgian Fraternity, so that some lodges d*fected to the A. & A. S. R. Even more curious were the conditions when the Grand Orient of Belgium left its lodges free to make and enforce their own religious dogma or preferences, so that some even now require a belief in a Supreme Being and some do not. In 1922, the Grand Orient had 23 lodges with 2500 members.
Belgian Masonry has not stood well with English-speaking Grand Lodges on account of its loose views on religion, particularly its action in 1867 in leaving the matter of belief to the individual lodges. It also allowed its lodges to choose whether they would confer the three Craft Degrees of the seven of the French Rite. The United Grand Lodge of England severed relations with the Grand Orient of Belgium about 1877. The Grand Lodge of New York did so in 1925 and the Grand Lodge of Scotland soon followed. In 1934, a lodge at Brussels left the Grand Orient and took a charter from the Grand Lodge of Scotland as Wellington Lodge No. 1385 and later the Grand Master Mason of Scotland with his assistants went to Belgium and there constituted Allegiance Lodge No. 1465.
Customarily Belgian lodges have required one year to elapse between the E. A. and the F. C. degrees and the same between the F. C. and the M. M., and, the Scottish Rite bodies confer degrees but once every three years, these usually being the 4th, 9th, 14th, 18th, 22nd, 26th, 29th, and 30th. The 31st degree is limited to a membership of 72 and the 32nd to a membership of 45. The Royal Family of Belgium is Roman Catholic but the government is mixed Catholic and Masonic.
The h*locaust of World W*r II closed up and practically wiped out Belgian Freemasonry, the demolition being carried out under the auspices of a clique called The P*rification. A Masonic committee which went to Europe after the w*r was unable to find a single member of the Grand Orient, though there must have been some still in hiding, for, on May 10, 1946, the Grand Orient sent out a circular to all Grand Lodges, asking them to establish fraternal relations with it. The circular stated that the Nazis had completely looted the temples and taken or d*stroyed works of art, furniture, books, and various collections, and had m*rdered the leading Freemasons, including Grand Master Hiernaux, Past Grand Master R. Engel, Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite G. Petre, and his Lieutenant Lartigue, with approximately 100 other Freemasons, including eleven of the twelve members of the Supreme Council. See ANTI-MASONRY.
By 1951 only 8 Grand Lodges, all in the Western Hemisphere, recognized the Grand Orient of Belgium.
Freemasonry in Belgium has been going through stressful times. Members of the Grande Loge de Belgique, the Droit Humain (Co-Masonry), the Grand Loge Feminine, Grand Loge Memphis-Misram, and other minor orders, do not conform to the more fundamental requirements of what is considered regular Freemasonry. These bodies do not entirely recognize each other.
As a result, in 1979, a small number of Masons formed what is now called Regular Grand Lodge of Belgium. Headquarters is in Brussels and the 1994 List of Lodges Masonic states there are 24 lodges, one of which, Chevalier Ramsay No. 4, is Englis speaking. The RGL is now accorded recognition by many Grand Lodges throughout the world.
