Living the Enlightenment in an Age of Revolution: Freemasonry in Bordeaux (1788-1794)

摘要

Despite the assumed connections between Freemasonry and the French Revolution, the historiography of the brotherhood during this period remains remarkably thin. Using newly available archival holdings, this microhistory reconstructs Masonic life in Bordeaux, focusing specifically though not exclusively on the Anglaise lodge, from the calling of the Estates General to the fall of Robespierre. It demonstrates the remarkable vitality of this city's lodges and argues that while some aspects of Masonic associational culture may be construed as republican, Freemasonry's reaction to revolutionary events was no different from that of the wider public. It is thus more useful to study the movement as a laboratory where an institution of the Enlightenment encountered and adapted to a new political order rather than seek the origins of the Revolution in Masonic activities.