French Rite

The French Rite is a Rite of Freemasonry that was founded in France, in 1786.

The French Rite is intimately linked to the birth of Freemasonry in France and was founded in France in 1786. British exiles brought the Modern rite to France and this was little by little passed onto the French Rite. Though this hybrid form is no longer known as the French Rite, it sometimes takes that name to distinguish it from the Scottish Rites from which it was initially formed. In order to guarantee that French Freemasonry would have a national dimension, the Grand Orient de France organised the standardisation of "Modern" hexagonal (or French, from the perceived shape of the country) rites from 1782 onwards, and in 1785 the model was fixed for the first three degrees in a "blue lodge", which showed a strong English influence in contrast to the Scottish Rites. However, it was only in 1801 that the Grand Orient de France printed the rules of this rite under the title Régulateur du Maçon, containing several additions and amendments to the former version, which had circulated from lodge to lodge in discrete manuscript form. The Rite underwent several further reforms, and in 1858 the "Murat French Rite" (returning to the foundations of the Constitutions of Anderson without making lasting change to the rite) was imposed.

As well as the sub-rites already mentioned, there is also a "French Rite of 1801".

After the 1877 Great Schism, the Grand College of Rites of the Grand Orient de France decided on a new reform. This took place in 1879 and removed from the French Rite any formulas with religious connotations (such as the reference to the Grand Architect of the Universe and the duties towards God). An 1886 commission headed by Louis Aimable concluded an adogmatic form of the rite, giving it a hint of positivism — after this date the rite is known as the "Aimable French Rite". It underwent less important reforms in 1907, and then remained unchanged until 1938. In that year Arthur Groussier (Grand Master of the Grand Orient de France) began a new reform initiative in an attempt to return the rite to its roots after the sum of additions and suppressions which had rendered it hard-to-understand and soulless. The definitive version — known as the "Groussier French Rite" — was completed in 1955 under the authority of Paul Chevalier.

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