The Grand Lodge of Slovenia

THE FRENCH-ILLYRIAN LODGE
"FRIENDS OF KING OF ROME AND NAPOLEON"
("LES AMIS DU ROI DE ROME ET DE NAPOLEON")

ost data that can be used to write the history of Freemasonry in Slovenia, can be found for the period of time, when in Ljubljana, the capital of the Napoleonic Illyrian Provinces, the Lodge "Friends of King of Rome and Napoleon" was working.


The first to write about this Lodge was the Slovenian literary historian France Kidrič who published his dissertation in the periodical Slovan in 1914. His second paper "Masonic Lodges in Croatian Regions of the Napoleonic Illyria" was published in the anthology Rad jugoslovenske akademije znanosti i umetnosti in 1915 in Zagreb. Both dissertations were based on documents from the police archives in Vienna and a number of confidential reports on members of Illyrian Lodges that several civil servants and officials were sendingto the Police Headquarters in Vienna in the period 1813 to 1833.

Kidrič himself warned that caution should be applied when evaluating police reports. Thus the final picture of the echo of Masonic ideas in areas, occupied by the French, can be painted only when archives of the Grand Orient of Paris are accessible, since most Lodges in Illyrian Provinces worked under its jurisdiction.

A very valuable contribution to the history of this Lodge is the paper "The Masonic Lodge 'Friends of King of Rome and Napoleon' in Ljubljana in the Light of the French Documents", published by the historian Peter Vodopivec in the periodical Kronika (1988). Because his sources are very reliable, the description of the history and operation of this Lodge is based on this particular paper, and the most important data in it.

Historians of the former Yugoslavia did not notice for quite a long period of time that, after the World War II, the French Grand Orient opened a large part of its archives to the public. This also applies to documents on Lodges in the Illyrian Provinces. In 1945 and 1946, these documents were moved to the National Library in Paris.

Vodopivec states that Zoran Nenezić was the first to use these documents, when writinghis book "Masons in Yugoslavia in the period 1764 to 1980". In his book, Nenezić dedicated a shorter chapter to Illyrian Provinces, and listed the membership of the Illyrian Lodges according to the Paris documents. However, these lists were published without any critical comment. In fact, they are a transcript that Nenezić uncritically compared only with police records, known from the dissertations by France Kidrič, without takinginto account documents, reportingthe foundation of individual Lodges, and their correspondence with Paris and other Lodges. For some Lodges, archival documents are very well preserved, and can be used to supplement the Kidrič papers. This also applies to the Lodge "Friends of King of Rome and Napoleon" from Ljubljana.

Initiators and founders of the Lodge in Ljubljana first met on 12 June 1811 in the Orient of Ljubljana, and decided to establish a new Lodge "in a country that only recently became an area of Freemasonry" (quotation from a letter). On 29 July 1811 they sent a letter to this end to the Grand Orient of France, askingfor support and protection, and enclosed the collected membership fee (3 francs per person) and as well as two membership lists. There is no evidence in the archival documents that, on the occasion of the establishment of the Lodge, the Statutes, dated 8 June 1811 were discussed, as Kidrič states in his paper. It is, however, evident from the letter to the Grand Orient that, at the end of July 1811, the Lodge already had its seal.


All founding members of the Lodge in Ljubljana were French. According to the membership list from 1811, of which two copies, written with the same hand are preserved, there were 36 foundingmembers, mostly French officials and military persons. Other professions were represented by one surgeon, one apothecary and two merchants. The most eminent on the membership list of 1811 was Charles Godfray Redon de Belleville, commissary general of the Illyrian Provinces, who had the title "Vénérable d'honneur" though he was only a Master Mason of the 3o Laurent Etienne Carré d'Haronville, deputy inspector of the imperial treasury, who was the Worshipful Master ("Vénérable") of the Lodge, however, was a Knight of the Pelican and Eagle and Prince Rose-Croix. The same list states Victor Germain as the First Inspector; he was a military commissioner by profession, and a "Sovereign Prince Rose-Croix", which accordingto the French Rite that the Lodge in Ljubljana has adopted, was the highest possible - seventh - degree.

The representative of the Lodge with the Grand Orient was Jacques Mercier, a high ranking official and member of the Lodge "Immortal Peace" ("La Paix Immortelle") in Paris. He made his best efforts to obtain the recognition of the Lodge in Ljubljana and a confirmation of its Constitution as soon as possible.

The Grand Orient obviously did not find the name of the Lodge in Ljubljana Masonic enough, and it took quite long before the Lodge was installed. It was only on 7 July 1812 when David, the speaker of the Grand Orient, notified Mercier that "yesterday, when I caught a favourable moment, I managed to obtain a confirmation for the Constitution of the Lodge in Ljubljana, in spite of some irregularities" (quotation from his letter). Even then some months had to pass before the solemn installation took place. It happened on 12 October 1812 accordingto the prescribed Ritual and in presence of guests from some other Lodges from Illyrian Provinces. A comprehensive report on this installation, dated 20 October 1812, was sent to Paris. In his dissertation, Vodopivec quotes this document in detail.

The first locals - "Illyrians" - appear in the list, dated (in pencil) 7 January 1812. Three of them were Fellow Crafts: Sigismund Pagliarucci, a known Francophile and owner of the castle Cekinov grad during the French occupation, Jože Globočnik, listed as a "garde magasin du casernement", and Anton Kalan, attorney and councilor at the court of appeal. Further two Illyrians are listed as Apprentices: Franc Xaver Repeschits, notary public in Ljubljana, and Johann (Jean) Kupferschein, born in Triest, also a councilor at the court of appeal. The next Illyrian, Lustrig (Luštrek?) is listed among affiliated members (affiliés) of the Lodge; the only information about him is that he was born in Illyria. Later lists do not mention him any more, while the other five also appear in the lists of October 1812 and June 1813. On the list that was written on the day of the solemn installation of the Lodge, they all are Master Masons already. The same list states two additional Illyrians from the Province Carniola: Apprentice Bernard Klobus, secretary to the mayor, and Master Mason Bruno Müller, official in the then Road Administration. As members at the time of foundation of the Lodge three Croatian respectively Serbian officers are mentioned as well, originating probably from the military frontier: Simeon Todorović, Fran Ilinić and Vasilij Ostojić. In the report on the solemn installation of the Lodge another name from the Province Carniola appears: on 12 October 1812 Johann (Jean) Wondraschek, apothecary, was accepted into the Lodge.

The last membership list of the French-Illyrian Lodge, kept in the archives of the Grand Orient of Paris, is dated 26 June 1813. This list shows that some Masons from Carniola were elevated very fast: Repeschitz, for example, is already a "Sovereign Prince Rose-Croix"; Kupferschein, too, was a Master Mason of a high degree, and Kalan and Pagliarucci as well probably were not just Master Masons any more, though their higher degrees are not mentioned specifically.

Among Master Masons, all "Illyrian" members of the Lodge appear, who were accepted in 1812 - Globočnik, Klobus, Müller and Wondraschek, as well as new members, Maksimiljan Wurzbach, "procurer impérial" of the first degree, Janez Pohlin, parish priest of St. Jakob, and Rudolf (?), banker and merchant, who were obviously accepted in 1813. Another three Carniolans are listed amongApprentices: Anton Heberle, as well as the brothers Matevž and Anton Babnik, all three of them famous musicians, mentioned in the Masonic membership list as "artist" ("artistes").

All three membership lists (dated from January 1812 till June 1813) of the Lodge in Ljubljana combined state 14 "Illyrian" Masons (or 15, taking into account Lustrig-Luštrek as well). The list that Kidrič put together on the basis of police reports from Vienna, shows 64 names or 65, if Pagliarucci "as the only doubtlessly proven" Mason is added. The comparison of both lists proves again the old truth that police often see ghosts behind every bush when they are lookingfor adversaries or enemies. Austrian officials and police informants squeezed amongMasons many individuals who were in favour of the French government, and were listed as Francophiles. This, however, did not make them necessarily Masons, as Vodopivec points out. On lists that are beingkept in the archives of the Grand Orient of Paris, there are no Franc and Jožef Abborghetti, Baron Codelli, coffee-house owner Colloredo, merchant Gale, printer Korn, castle housekeeper Perko and tax-collector Rosman. Similarly we would look in vain for 42 other suspects, especially for Valentin Vodnik.

Vodopivec states that documents from the archives of the Grand Orient of Paris put the assumed membership of Valentin Vodnik in the French-Illyrian Lodge definitively under a question mark. Allegations as to his close connections with Masons were probably a result of an overgreat zeal of the police. On the other hand it has to be admitted that police informants did, in spite of their exaggeration, correctly identify all the "Illyrian" Masons, stated in the French lists; the same 14 "Illyrian" members of the Lodge in Ljubljana also appear on the Kidrič's list. Even more so: the police rightly suspected of Freemasonry some other officials, servingthe French, for example Bosizio from Gorizia, the Italians Comarolla, Crivellio and Lombardi, and Jager from Tirol. From the suspected Frenchmen only the police commissioner Toussaint actually was a member of the Lodge in Ljubljana. Surprisingly, however, the police missed Charles Nodier, chief editor of the Télegraphe officiel, the leadingnewspaper of the Illyrian Provinces, who appears among the members of the Lodge in Ljubljana in 1813.

Accordingto the correspondence, lists of members of the Lodge in Ljubljana, sent to the Grand Orient of Paris in 1812 and 1813, are not preserved in full. It may be assumed that the Lodge also had several temporary members who do not appear in lists available, and who just visited the Orient of Ljubljana for a shorter period of time, and then left the capital of Carniola, as their military units were moved somewhere else. According to rules, quoted by Kidrič, the Lodge in Ljubljana would only be able to have 60 members at the most, and amongthem at least 12 "Illyrians". The Lodge came close to this ratio only in 1813. In January 1812, amonga total of 74 members there were 6 "Illyrians", in October 1812 there were 7 out of 44, and in June 1813 14 out of 42.

Kidrič describes in detail the organization of the Lodge, its way of operation and its rules. His description is based upon the Statutes of the Lodge that, however, can be found neither in Paris nor in Ljubljana. It seems that the only existingcopy is the one in the police archives in Vienna. Vodopivec adds some new data: the Lodge in Ljubljana in fact got the "Constitutions" for a Ritual system of three degrees. In spring 1813 it applied to the Grand Orient of France for beingallowed to operate accordingto the "Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite", and to work in higher degrees. A positive reply to this end from France could not be found in any archives.

Vodopivec presumes very freely that the Grand Orient might have granted this permission on the eve of the downfall of the Illyrian Provinces, because the Festival of St. John on 26 June 1813 (which is, in addition to the installation ceremony, the only Ritual of the French-Illyrian Lodge in Ljubljana that is described in detail) was carried out accordingto the French Rite. In favour of the presumption that the Lodge worked according to the then Scottish ritual of the Knight of the Pelican and Eagle and Prince Rose-Croix, is the jewel of the eighteenth Masonic Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, decorated with precious stones, kept by the National Museum of Slovenia.

In the Paris archives there are only letters, membership lists and the correspondence by J. Mercier, but no working tools of the French-Illyrian Lodge in Ljubljana. The seal of the Lodge is preserved in full on only one letter. As to symbols, workingtools and printed matters, except for the Statutes, which Kidrič found in the police archives in Vienna, everything that still exists is kept by the National Museum in Ljubljana. The modest collection consists of a seal that has already been described by the Austrian historians H. Costa and A. Dimitz, several invitations to meetings, an acceptance certificate and two aprons (Apprentice and Fellow Craft).

The last object of this collection is listed as "insignia of the Grand Master of the Illyrian Masonic Lodge". Together with some other Masonic symbols of unknown origin it was donated to the Museum by the Baroness Antonija Codelli, born Schmidburg, in 1884. She found them in the legacy of her father. There are no data available as to how and where from they came into his possession.

We know nothing about the fate of the members of the French-Illyrian Lodge after the downfall of the Illyrian Provinces. Except for Pagliarucci, who continued to show openly his sympathies for Freemasonry after the French have left Carniola, the "Illyrians" kept silent after the Austrian restoration. We do not know what was their attitude towards their membership in the former Lodge, after the Austrian restoration took place. Was Freemasonry only a short episode for them, which they tried to forget as soon as possible because of some pressure or possible difficulties? Or did they, on the contrary, still maintain contacts with their Brethren and continued to meet secretly?

Perhaps some day in some forgotten file in some archives new documents will be found that can answer these questions . . .