Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
In Touraine , the Château de Veretz is the center of an intense intellectual milieu . In the wake of the Duke and Duchess Louis Armand d ’ Aiguillon , an agreeable society of great noblemen , lesser abbots , philosophers , and poets assemble and make of this magnificent residence a very prestigious salon .
Situated close to Saumur in Anjou , on the banks of the confluence of the Loire and the Vienne , the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud , from the year 1101 , boasts the peculiarity of welcoming both men and women ( in separate quarters , of course ). According to the wishes of its founder , this abbey , which includes under its authority the men ’ s monastery , has since its foundation been directed exclusively by an Abbess . The abbesses who succeed to the post all belong to an aristocratic milieu . Among them we find princesses , including some from the Bourbon family .
We know from the well-known examples of Marseille , Brioude , 26 and La Rochelle 27 that women are welcomed into Masonic lodges alongside men around 1745 . The first rituals of “ Women ’ s Masonry ” we know of today are officially dated 1761 . 28
Thus one can hardly be truly surprised to discover at least one woman in a lodge in the Maine-et-Loire region .
This woman , who is called Louët de Cordaiz , belongs to the nobility of the region . She is learned , and she certainly does not lack character .
Content of Louët de Cordaiz ’ s Letters : The Life of a Lodge The manuscript letters comprise 10 missives written by Sister Louët de Cordaiz and addressed to Father Giroust , and two letters of convocation signed by two successive secretaries of the lodge , Brothers Perrin and Demoru ( or Demotu ). 29 Eight letters are dated from 1760 to 1763 , and four are undated . All include , at the head or as a post scriptum , phrases in hermetic characters , which remain undeciphered to this day .
Reading Louët de Cordaiz ’ s letters 30 reveals that in 1760s Anjou , somewhere between Longué and Beaufort , a Masonic lodge with both male and female members , was active . The convocation dated July 18 , 1763 , and written by a secretary of the lodge , Brother Perrin , attests that this woman is the Grand Mistress of the lodge .
Other letters demonstrate clearly that Louët de Cordaiz exerts her authority incontestably over the men of the lodge . These letters are thus of singular interest with regard to the presence of women in eighteenth-century French Freemasonry .
Reception , convocation , the presentation of future members , the creation of the lodge , attendance of those summoned , discretion in relation to the profane world , agapes — all of these themes are broached in the various letters .
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 26 E . Gautheron , Les loges maçonniques dans la Haute-Loire ( Yssingeaux : Paul Michel ,
1937 ), 15 . 27 Actes du CHMAS , 1 , 27 . 28 Bibliothèque Nationale , Paris : Collection Baylot , FM4 18 . 29 The letters have already been cited by Raymond Meyer in La lettre de la GLDF , 16 , 25
May 1992 , 4 ; and by Gisèle and Yves Hivert-Messeca , Comment la franc-maçonnerie vint aux femmes ( Paris : Dervy , 1997 ), 131-133 . 30 Transcribed by Jan A . M . Snoek , researcher at the Institute for Religious Studies at the
University of Heidelberg .
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