Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
Chrétien-Guillaume Riebesthal is born at Schiltigheim , a suburb of Strasbourg , on March 28 , 1769 . 145 He enrolls in the army young , and there follows the classic path of his generation . On July 1794 , we see him at the head of his company scaling the walls of Liège to free the French prisoners , capturing on the same occasion a detachment of Austrians . 146 He then roams with the 10th Line Infantry Regiment to which he belonged , and which traversed Europe during the five years of the Revolutionary and Imperial Wars . We find him at Fleurus , then in Germany , and above all in Italy , where he arrives in 1799 and remains almost 10 years . He is made a Knight of the Legion of Honor . A Captain , he retires to Strasbourg in 1812 , and becomes Controller in Chief of the Imperial Tobacco Factory , an occupation he will pursue until the mid-1820s , after which we hear nothing of him except as a “ retired captain .” We do however see him cropping up subsequently , several times , as “ secretary of the Strasbourg Skippers Association ”… He also lives on the quayside , the Quai des bateliers … A controversy within Strasbourgian Masonry tells us that he is , by this time , of modest means — sometimes in financial difficulties , even . 147 Doubtless he was one of those innumerable ex-soldiers on half-pay who were richer in memories than in money ! One element stands out as rather interesting in regard to his political sensibility : in 1833 , he was a member of the Lower Rhine Republican Association .
As far as Freemasonry is concerned , Riebesthal ’ s situation before his arrival in Strasbourg in 1812 is unclear . We know that he was received as a Mason and passed different degrees in the late eighteenth century , since a certificate ( issued some time later ) by the Geneva Chapter La Prudence attests that he was received as a Rose Croix in 1799 . At the time of the establishment of the higher Scottish degrees at Strasbourg in the middle of the 1820s , he will claim to have received the 33rd and final degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite in January 1806 by the Supreme Council of Italy . In view of the documents he was able to present , the Grand Collège des Rites-Supreme Council was to recognize him in this degree , before a rather petty controversy complicated the situation . As a consequence , he would not rise above the 30th degree . Curiously , we do not find him in the several archives of the La Vraie Fraternité Lodge dating from the time when it is a military lodge formed on the basis of the 30th Line Infantry Regiment . He is not affiliated with it until March 4 , 1812 , when the group installs itself at Strasbourg . From this moment onward , his Masonic life is well documented . After a short stay at La Concord , he will belong for almost 30 years to La Vraie Fraternité , and is made a member of honor of the Frères Réunis and of several German and Swiss lodges . He is the Most Wise Athirsata ( President ) of the Rose-Croix Chapter of La Vraie Fraternité upon its reactivation on October 28 , 1821 . He joins the Council of the Grand Elect Knights Kadosh ( 30th degree of the Scottish Rite ) of the Frères Réunis , and will participate in the Consistory of the 31st and 32nd degrees that are created subsequently . In parallel , the Rite of Mizraim raises him to its 90th and highest degree in July 1822 . Chrétien-Guillaume Riebesthal was indeed , as he indicates on the title page of his book , a “ Knight of all the Masonic Orders .” We no longer find his name in the archives after 1842 , which thus seems to have been the year of his demise .
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 145 Archives of the Grande Chancellerie de la Legion d ’ honneur , dossier Riebesthal , Archives
Nationales , Paris , LH 2327 / 40 . 146 Letter of recommendation to the Grand Collège des Rites , Bibliothèque nationale de France , Archives of the Council of Kadosh Les Frères Réunis , FM 2 425 , folio 75 . 147 Bibliothèque nationale de France , Archives of the Conseil de Kadosh Les Frères Réunis , FM 4 425 , folio 76 , verso .
47