Painting by Jacques-Louis David. Napoleon in his office'.

5 May marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte. He is still the most famous ruler France has ever had. Despite his contradictory nature, he is undoubtedly one of the most important personalities in history. Many generations of French people have been filled with admiration, pride and unremitting interest in studying the life of the "little corporal" who became emperor.

Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769 on the island of Corsica. He became a successful and popular military leader and came to power in France in 1799. This was not enough for the ambitious Napoleon: he later crowned himself emperor.

With his armies, he conquered large parts of Europe in those years. However, the campaign in Russia in 1812 ended in defeat. Napoleon was exiled to Elba. But he escaped and within 100 days he was back in power in France. In 1815 he was finally defeated at Waterloo.
The English bring him to the remote island of Saint Helena, where he finally dies in 1821, at the age of 51.

Was Napoleon a Freemason?
Historians have no document that could confirm this, but there are some undeniable facts that show Napoleon's strong affiliation with Freemasonry. It was thanks to Napoleon that Freemasonry spread in Europe. He changed Freemasonry from a secret society, as it was until then, to almost an official state religion and united all French Lodges in the Grand Orient de France. On his native island of Corsica, Bonaparte grew up surrounded by Freemasons. His father and all three of his brothers were Freemasons, so there was undoubtedly a lot of talk about Freemasonry.

• The youngest brother, Jerome Bonaparte (1784-1860) was initiated into Freemasonry at the age of 17 in the Mir Lodge in the east of Toulon.
  His Masonic career developed rapidly. A year later, in 1801, he became Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Westphalia, and in 1807 Napoleon made him King.
• The elder brother, Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844), was initiated into the Loge La Parfaite Sincérité (The Perfect Sincerity) in the east of Marseille. In 1804 he became Grand Master of the Grand Orient de France and King of Naples, then King of Spain.
• Finally, Louis Bonaparte (1778-1846), father of the future Napoleon III, served as Deputy Grand Master from 1803 to 1806, before being succeeded by Jean-Jacques Regis Cambasseres.
• Napoleon's wife, Empress Josephine de Beauharnais (1763-1814), was initiated into a women's lodge in Strasbourg and held the position of Grand Master for some time.
• Eugène de Beauharnais, Josephine's only son from her first marriage, at the age of 24, who had been given the title of Viceroy of Italy by her stepfather, became the founder of the Grand Orient of Italy and the High Council of Italy.

The support of Freemasonry in Europe by Napoleon, caused an unprecedented stir. Many soldiers, politicians, nobility and citizens wanted to become members of Freemasonry. Twenty-two of Napoleon's thirty Marshals, five of the six members of the Imperial Military Council and six of the nine government ministers were Freemasons. The reign of Bonaparte can be called the golden age of Freemasonry. In the 18 years that he was in power, the number of Masonic lodges in France increased from 300 to 1220, of which a large part were military lodges. Napoleon saw in Freemasonry a powerful tool to unite the army, which was very useful for his European ambitions.

Napoleon's Grande Armée, crosses the Berezyna River.

During his military operations in Europe, the International Brotherhood was an ideal instrument. Freemasonry, however, responded to the Emperor with reciprocity. Busts of the emperor were installed in many Masonic temples and any criticism of his rule was considered provocation.
In 1801, the Loge Bonaparte was founded in Paris with the main task of glorifying the emperor's name. The lodge successfully survived exile and Napoleon's death and was not closed until 1871. It withstood the reactionary years thanks to the fact that it was carefully renamed Moderation Lodge.

It was the military officers, subordinates of Bonaparte, who took part in the Egyptian expedition that brought Freemasonry to the banks of the Nile. General Kleber founded Loge Isis in Cairo, also founded by Napoleon.

But the question remains. Although Napoleon made Freemasonry a part of his government policy, was he an active Mason?
If he wanted to become a member, he would immediately receive the highest and most honourable title in the Order.
If we know the character of Napoleon, the answer to this question is quite clear: it was not enough that he was "first among equals", he had to be "above" equality. The Bonaparte family came from an old Florentine aristocratic family. Napoleon had every right to add the title of Count to his family name, but he never took advantage of this opportunity.
But neither did he want to be called a friar.
For the same reason Napoleon once renounced the title of Marshal - it was enough for him that he was "de facto" commander-in-chief of the French army. Ranks and titles were in no way attractive to him. Napoleon was only interested in absolute power.
After he was crowned Emperor of France, Napoleon got his ambition.
He called the imperial throne, "a piece of wood" and sitting at the dinner table with the nobility of Europe, he would sometimes remark,
"When I had the honor of being a junior lieutenant..." .

L'empereur had a nose for propaganda. When it was necessary to demonstrate the wealth and power of his empire, he was not stingy. His palaces were richly decorated with gold and the court was the most refined in Europe.

Coronation of Napoleon I as Emperor of France. Notre Dame, Paris. December 2, 1804.

After he became Emperor, Napoleon remained closely involved in Masonic affairs.
At the execution site of King Louis XVI, he ordered an obelisk to be erected with a Masonic symbol, a five-pointed star. A bee, a Masonic symbol, was used in the creation of his personal imperial coat of arms. The bee is a very old symbol. In ancient Egypt, it accompanied the goddess Isis and had many meanings. For Napoleon, the bee meant a willingness to sacrifice for the country and the ability to rebirth.

Shortly after Napoleon came to power, on 22 June 1799, a nine-article memorandum was signed between the two largest French Grand Lodges, laying down specific
rules. In particular, the Honorable Master was stripped of his exclusive privileges. A system for the election of officials was made compulsory for all lodges. Only a few Lodges in the Scottish Rite refused to join the Memorandum.

Thus, the fragmented French Freemasonry became a unified and homogeneous system, fully supported by Napoleon. Soon the 'Regulator of Freemasonry' was published - a set of rules and rituals for the lodges of Le Grand Orient de France.
The Lodges under the Scottish Rite also made appropriate changes to their rules, but this took three years. As a result, the rituals were still not identical, but there was one Supreme Council of the 33rd degree. The decisions of this council were binding. The Emperor could influence every decision, as the High Council was meanwhile headed by his elder brother Joseph, who had become the Grand Master.

The 'Regulator of Freemasonry', which unified the activities of Freemasons, became a document that organically continued the reforms of Napoleon, along with the Constitution, the Civil Code, the system of universal education, a single award system of the state (the Order of the Legion of Honour), etc.

An engraving with a list of members of Loge Bonaparte. On the left is Bonaparte and on the right is Jean-Baptiste Willermose (1730-1824), who designed a system of High Degrees for Freemasonry in France and Germany.

Following France, the Freemasons of other European countries began to combine their rituals into one system. Marshal of the realm, Freemason Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, who became crown prince of Sweden, reformed the Swedish rite. The system of 12 Masonic degrees still exists.

Friedrich Ludwig Schröder, Grand Master of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Hamburg, inspired by the ancient rites of the Knights Templar, developed his Rite, limited to three symbolic degrees. Today it is practised in some lodges in Germany, Hungary, Austria and Switzerland.

In Spain, the Grand Master Count François Joseph Paul de Grass also established a Masonic hierarchy under the leadership of the Supreme Council.

In 1806, to celebrate his triumph at Austerlitz, Napoleon decided to build the Arc de Triomphe. A team of builders and architects, composed entirely of Freemasons, was set up to carry out the project. Brother Jean-Baptiste Nomper de Champagny proposed the concept and chose the building site. The original plan was designed by the architect Charles-Louis Balzac (Loge Le Grand Sphinx, Paris) and the architect Jean-Francois Chalgren (Loge L'etoile Polaire, Paris).
Freemasons created the relief on the arch. The sculptors François Rueud (north side, composition "Marseillaise") and Jean-Pierre Corto (south side, composition "Le monde viennoise"). The official government architect, Maison Pierre Fontaine, supervised the construction.

On the engraving from 1860, under the shadow of the emperor above whom The Eye of the Providence shines, are 61 historical figures from his time. On the left are Désé, Cambassaire, Kleber and the commanders Davaux, Lannes, Murat, Lasalle, Mathieu Dumas, among others. On the right: Washington, Frederick the Great, Alessandro Volta, Diderot, Lased, Lafayette, Parmatier, Helvetia.

Following the military leaders, Napoleonic Freemasonry was enthusiastically received by the most prominent figures of science and culture in France:

• Pierre Simon de Laplace - mathematician, physicist and astronomer, one of the creators of probability and differential equations,
• Charles Louis Cadet de Gassicourt - chemist, pharmacist and writer, founder of one of the first  scientific journals, Le Bulletin Pharmalogique,
• Artist Pierre Prudon (Loge Charity, Bonn),
• Artist Francois Gérard (Loge Le Grand Sphinx, Paris),
• Portrait painter Jean-Baptiste Isabé (Loge Saint Napoleon, Paris),
• Actor Francois-Joseph Talma, reformer of theatrical art (Loge Union, Paris),
• Academician Pierre Jean Georges Cabanie, physiologist and philosopher (Loge Les Neuf Sœurs, Paris),
• Academician Joseph Lacanal, professor of philosophy, member of the monastery, organiser of the education system in France (Loge Le Point Idéal, Paris),
• writer, publicist and politician Henri-Benjamin Constant, the most important representatives of French Romanticism in literature,
• sculptor Claude Claudion (Les Amis Fidèles, Paris),
• Alexander Bognard, professor of natural sciences, chemist, pharmacist, geologist, zoologist, botanist and palaeontologist (Loge Saint-Jean-du-Contrat, Paris),
• architect Pierre Fontaine,
• composer André Gretry, creator of the French comic opera,
• Composer Luigi Cherubini, creator of the genre "opera salvage" (Loge Saint Jean de Palestine, Paris).

The legacy of Napoleon.

When you get into your car now, you drive on the right side of the road. Thanks to Napoleon. In earlier times, knights on horseback rode on the left, so that they could more easily wield their sword or lance with their right hand. The rich French bourgeoisie stuck to the left. The common people usually walked on the right. But since the French Revolution in 1789, everyone was officially equal. Therefore, Napoleon decreed that right-handedness became the norm. It was also more convenient with the carriages and carts in those days. Countries which he did not conquer, such as Great Britain, continued to drive on the left.

Thanks to the French, we also have street names with even and odd house numbers. This system was first used in Paris, and later in all conquered regions. We also owe paved roads to Napoleon, who wanted straight lines between cities. Handy for moving his troops, of course. In France, these roads were called the Route Nationale; in Europe they are called Napoleon roads. The Amsterdamsestraatweg in Utrecht is an example of this. It was built by order of Napoleon in 1812, as part of the Route Impériale between Paris and Amsterdam.

A kilo of potatoes, a litre of milk, and, let's say, a metre of beer. Standard measures and measurements. Napoleon introduced the metric system in 1799. Before that, all kinds of different measures were used in Europe, such as inches, ells and feet. Napoleon found this inconvenient and confusing in his empire. And even if you don't realise it, you probably have to deal with it every day.

According to Napoleon himself, his most important legacy: the Code Napoleon, or the Code Civil. The French Civil Code, which laid down the principles of 'liberty, equality and fraternity', but also the separation of church and state, served as inspiration for law books in many countries. Napoleon eventually made his code compulsory in the Netherlands as well. By the way, equal rights did not apply to women in those Napoleonic days.

Abattoir, desk, purse, all words that came into vogue during the French era here in the Netherlands. From 1810 to 1813, French was even an official language here, alongside Dutch. It was also compulsory in education. Napoleon also carried out reforms there. Teachers became obliged to teach in class. Parents had to pay school fees. And he introduced the final exam.

Napoleon appointed his brother Louis king of the Netherlands in 1806, in order to retain as much influence as possible. This makes the Netherlands a kingdom for the first time. It forms the basis for the later monarchy. Iek ben konijn van Olland', said the French Louis when he took office, as he had difficulty with the Dutch pronunciation.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Brother Louis Napoleon took up residence in the Town Hall on Dam Square, which has since become known as the Palace on Dam Square. He made Amsterdam the capital, and founded institutions that we still know today, such as the Rijksmuseum, the Royal Library and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and  Sciences (KNAW).

Another striking structure that we owe to the Napoleons: the Pyramid of Austerlitz, near Woudenberg in Utrecht. A 17 metre high homage to Napoleon, constructed by French troops who were stationed there for a few months in 1804. The name Pyramid of Austerlitz was actually invented by Louis Napoleon. It is the place in the Czech Republic where his imperial brother defeated Russian and Austrian armies in a legendary battle.

Although not his invention, Napoleon did provide the impetus. In 1800, he offered a cash prize to anyone who could think of a way to keep food fresh for longer. After all, he needed this for his soldiers during their campaigns. French cook Nicolas Appert discovered pickling. By boiling vegetables in sealed bottles to kill the bacteria, they stayed good longer. Glass was too fragile for soldiers, so the canning jar was invented.

After the battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon lost his power and began his exile on the island of Elba, the golden age of the French Lodges came to an end. The restoration of the Bourbons as rulers and the persecution of the Bonapartists made activities of most Masonic Lodges downright dangerous.
But even the dissolved Lodges were not closed. According to Masonic tradition, they were only declared as "sleeping Lodges". After the deposition of Louis Napoleon III and the proclamation of the Third Republic in 1870, French Freemasonry experienced its second golden age, thanks to the Napoleonic era.

From Venite Prandete

Tradition tells us that amongst the treasures of the Church entrusted to St. Lawrence was the Holy Grail, the chalice used by Our Lord at the Last Supper.

Valencia’s sacred chalice

To protect this precious relic from the prefect of Rome, St. Lawrence entrusted it to a friend, the Spanish soldier Proselius, whom he knew would travel back to Huesca and asked him to give it to his parents for safe keeping.

In turn, St. Lawrence’s family sent the Holy Chalice to the monastery of San Juan de la Peña (north of Huesca) for preservation and veneration. In 1399, the relic was handed over to the King of Aragon, Martin “The Human” who kept it in the Royal Palace of Zaragoza and then in the Royal Palace of Barcelona in 1410 when he died.

Towards 1424, his successor King Alfonso the Magnanimous kept it in the Valencia Palace. Because of his stay in Naples, it was given with the rest of the royal relics to the Valencia Cathedral in 1437.

Since the 15th century, the Holy Grail has been kept and venerated in the Cathedral of Valencia and it was carried during the procession of Holy Thursday up to the 18th century. During the Napoleonic Wars, between 1809 and 1813, the chalice was taken to Alicante, Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca, escaping from Napoleonic invaders. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), it was hidden in the city of Carlet, south of Valencia.

Today, traditions tell us the Holy Grail is located and venerated in a special chapel in the cathedral of Valencia in Spain.’

***

ST LAWRENCE

FEAST DAY 10th AUGUST

The authors of The Bad Catholics Guide to Good Living (1) tell us, of St Lawrence:

“This early Church administrator is known both for his courage and his snarky sense of humour. When the increasingly intolerant Roman government demanded that Lawrence collect all the supposed wealth of the persecuted underground Church, St Lawrence distributed all the wealth to the poor, then gathered the widows, orphans, beggars, cripples and lepers who lived on Catholic charity and presented them to the emperor saying: “Here are the treasures of the Church.”

Charmed by his wit, Valerian condemned Lawrence to be slowly, agonisingly burned to death over a grill.

As the Roman guards stoked the fires, Lawrence displayed the power of grace, and his irresistible comic timing, by telling the Romans: “I am done on this side, you may turn me over.”

Infuriated, they did just that (neglecting to baste).

As he breathed his last, Lawrence whispered: “I am done, now you may eat.”

The history above is recorded by St Ambrose – St Lawrence was one of the seven deacons of Rome under Pope Sixtus II, who was also martyred a few days prior to the martyrdom of St Lawrence. Both of these illustrious names form part of the Invocation of the Saints in the Canon of the Mass as Martyrs of the early Church, now in heaven, together with the other six deacons and Pope St. Sixtus II who had preceded him in martyrdom.

Several senators who were present at his death were so powerfully moved by his heroic fortitude and piety that they became Christians on the spot.

These noblemen took the martyr’s body and gave it an honorable burial in the Veran field, near the road to Tivoli, on the 10th of August, 258.

Within 50 years of his martyrdom, the Christian Emperor Constantine had a patriarchal church built over his tomb, the site now known as the Basilica of St. Lawrence-Outside-the-Walls, (San Lorenzo Fuori Le Mura), where his relics can be venerated today.

The Catholic Church has declared him to be the Patron Saint of chefs, and his feast day is traditionally celebrated by a grill or a barbecue.

(1) John Zmirak & Denise Matychowiak, Crossroad, New York, (2005), at p. 119.