Preface
The Netherlands has contributed its fair share of endeavouring to record the history of Freemasonry, regardless of how daunting and arduous a task this was - and is! Compiling such a history is all too easily narrowed down to a formal recording of facts and events related to the formation and structure of the organisation as such. However, of far greater significance - especially to the historian - is Freemasonry as a cultural-historical phenomenon in the Netherlands during a period of more than 250 years.

The strength of a private organisation like the Order of Freemasons lies sui generis in the fact that it is defined by and based on ideals; its form and structure are derived from these ideals and are characterised by a set of standards that were accepted as the correct means of expressing the intended ideals when the organisation was founded. However, a newly-founded society stands at the beginning of its development, a process which may encompass tumultuous growing-pains of unpredictable consequences.

Besides, if the history of an organisation is described and researched on the basis of information derived from formal historical sources, the result may well be a completely one-sided picture of what happened in reality. Various matters have at times set many pens in motion, which caused them to be highlighted out of all proportion to the complete course of events.

This aspect is of major importance for cultural history, which - without ignoring factual knowledge and the way this is recorded - tries to trace the underlying motives which eventually develop into the network of facts commonly called the pattern of history. Cultural history is prepared to accept people as they are, incorporating the dichotomy of high moral and ethical standards and the flesh that will be weak. Cultural history tries to retrace motives and emotions and to apprehend as closely as possible the reactions of the individual human beings as they lived their own lives in their own time, with their knowledge, skills, and possibilities. Its main objective is to understand, and to avoid condemning circumstances and situations.

A Flourishing period
The initial phase of Freemasonry in the Netherlands was difficult. The first recorded evidence of its existence was 1731, when the Duke of Lorraine, the future Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor and married to Maria Theresa of

Austria, was 'made an Enter 'd Apprentice and Fellow Craft, by virtue of a deputation for a Lodge there,' at the home of Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, the English Ambassador at The Hague.

The first Lodge 'L'Union Royale' was founded on 8 november 1734 in the tavern the 'Lion d'Or', at The Hague by Vincent la Chapelle, 'chef de cuisine' of the Prince of Orange (the future stadtholder William IV), assisted by six brethren. Louis Dagran, draper at The Hague, was initiated on this occasion together with three other candidates. On 24 October 1735 a second lodge 'Le Véritable Zèle' was founded, also at The Hague, in the 'Nieuwe Doelen', with Dagran as its first Master of the Lodge. He had published an announcement of this foundation in the 'Amsterdamsche Saturdagsche Courant' of 3 November 1735, and apparently this had drawn the Government's attention to the activities of Freemasonry. The fact that Rademacher; the first Grand Master (1735) was steward of the Prince of Orange's estates whereas Vincent la Chapelle and other members were also members of the Prince's household undoubtedly worried the Government in this 'Tweede Stadhouderloze Tijdperk' (Second Period without a Stadtholder).

Unpredictable orangist campaigns might be carried on disguised as masonic activities, and this will have caused the proclamations against Freemasonry. The 'Procureur Generaal' (Public Prosecutor in the Province of Holland) confiscated Kuenen's translation of Anderson's Constitutions, because of 'the offensive passages unsuitable for the Sovereign's Standing' . The Order requires an oath demanding submission to an authority which puts disloyalty on a par with high treason, which implies that this authority pretends to power which actually is only a sovereign's prerogative. In the Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands the very principle of sovereign power was an extremely sensitive point. No wonder, therefore, that a supposed infringement of the principle of the sovereignty of the state caused action against a society that engaged upon activities that could not be checked and controlled by the government.

It was not until 1744 that masonic activities in the Netherlands were resumed, at the instigation of Louis Dagran, more or less tacitly consented to by Rademacher, who had meanwhile appointed Dagran as his Deputy. Dagran had recorded all masonic activities in the Netherlands in the intervening years in his 'Annales et Archives des Franc-Maçons sous la Grande Maître des Provinces Unies et du Ressort de la Généralité en Forme de Journal', at present in the archives of the Dutch Grand Lodge at The Hague.

Dagran records that on 22 November 1734 a certain brother, François Liégois, was sent to London to ask for 'une légitieme constitution', According to Dagran he had sent him this constitution together with a copy of Anderson's Constitutions in march 1735, Dagran then being secretary of the Lodge. Another entry relates that on 24 June 1735 the new lodge proclaimed itself Grand Lodge, Brother Jean Corneille Rademacher being elected Grand Master. From that time the lodge acquired the by-name 'Loge du Grand Maître des Provinces Unies et du Ressort de la Généralité.'

Despite the proclamations, the Craft continued working, at first very cautiously, after 1744 somewhat more openly. Rademacher died in 1748 and was succeeded as Grand Master by Baron Juste Gérard van Wassenaer, who appointed Br. Du Sauzet as his Deputy. For some years Dagran receded into the background, but he came to the fore again when van Wassenaer, probably disappointed by internal difficulties resigned in 1752, putting him in charge as Grand Master ad interim. Dagran remained Grand Master till the end of 1756 when he installed Baron Albrecht Nicolaas van Aerssen Beijeren, seigneur of Hogerheyden as first Grand Maître National.

The number of lodges had gradually increased since 1744. Some working under English or Scottish constitution, others had received their warrants from the 'Loge du Grand Maître des Provinces Unies et du Ressort de la Généralité'. Louis Dagran tried to manage affairs as best he could as Grand-Maître ad interim, but he was faced with great problems and he had no authority. He was up against so-called 'Scottish-degrees' which were becoming increasingly active in those years, and whose members presumed to more and more privileges over the Craft Lodges. It appeared also difficult to maintain authority because nobility and army officers were becoming interested in Freemasonry. Dagran was a mere draper, not a nobleman. Eleven founding lodges took the initiative in 1756 to undertake 'restoration of the Grand-Mastership.' He was allowed to save his face and install the new Grand Master.

In the 'Groote Loge' of 1757, the foundation was laid for a sound and effective organisation of the national Grand Lodge. It was decided that publication of the constitutions of the national Grand Lodge was imperative. In 1761 the book appeared, edited by the Grand Secretary J.P.J. Du Bois. It was an excellent edition containing Dutch and French parallel versions, soon to be known as the 'Code Du Bois', its official title being 'De Pligten, Wetten, of Algemeene Reglementen der Vrijemetzelaaren; in een nieuwe order geschikt, en goedgekeurt bij de Groote Loge der Zeeven Vereenigde Nederlanden.' (The Charges, Constitutions, or General Regulations of Free Masons; newly arranged, and approved by the Grand Lodge of the Seven United Provinces).

The declaration of independence of the Grande Loge de France in 1768 was an opportunity to start renewed consultations with the English Grand Lodge, which eventually led to the arrangement of 2 march 1770, when the English Grand Lodge recognised the Grand Lodge of Holland as the National Grand Lodge of the United Provinces, Territories of the States General, and dependent Colonies. On this occasion the Code Du Bois was approved, while it was agreed upon that in the Netherlands the taking of the oath at the initiation ceremony would deviate from procedures in other countries.

Meetings normally took place once a month in a tavern or an inn, where a special room was fitted up for the purpose of these meetings. Most important were the floor-cloth and the Worshipful Master's throne. The lodge meeting was opened with a short ritual, followed by the reading and confirmation of the minutes of the previous meeting. Thereafter domestic business was dealt with: incoming messages read and discussed, prospective candidates or visitors balloted. After this had been settled, visitors, if any, were ushered in and welcomed. Next came the initiation of candidates, usually two or more at the same time, who were accepted in accordance with masonic rites after having 'provided satisfactory proof of resisting trials' as it is called in the minutes. This was followed by the Orator explaining the floor-cloth, and the so-called working of the catechism, when every brother in turn was to answer one or more questions. Visitors were then solemnly ushered out, followed by a second session of domestic business, where the matter of granting certificates to Brethren intending to leave the lodge was discussed. This masonic passport was never issued if outstanding debts had not been paid.

The serving brother, often the landlord of the public house, was room-and-table servant at the same time, committed to secrecy, acting as Outer Tyler in open lodges, doing odd jobs during initiations and helping to dish up at table lodges. In some lodges they wore liveries. During New Year he sometimes approached the brethren with 'a seasonal greeting' like the night-watchmen and lamp-lighters in those days.

Although the Grand Lodge of 1757 had decreed that henceforth no 'painted lodge board' was to be used, but that the brethren had to train themselves to draw it properly, painted floor-cloths mostly based on illustrations from exposures like 'De Vrij Metselaar ontmomd' (Wolson's Le Franc-Maçon démasqué) were very soon in general use. One of the most drastic changes in the furnishing of the lodge must have taken place about 1775. The Throne of the Master was no more a mere ornamental piece of furniture, but had become a masonic symbol. The Master presided in a porch in the East at the entrance of the Middle Chamber, or the 'temple de la sagesse et de la vertu' in classicist terms. The Wardens were placed near the Pillars 'J' and 'B' to pay the labourers their due, and very soon these Pillars belonged to the furniture of the lodge, which itself now became a 'temple'. The altar did not serve anymore as a table for the Master, but to support the Three Great Lights. What actuated the changes was a masonic print from about 1770 which represents the 'temple de la sagesse et de la vertu' as a typically classicist temple, surrounded by figures like Wisdom, Strength and Beauty, its tympanum containing the sacred , mysterious Name, and behind a looped veil of the porch the blazing star with the letter G which, according to an old catechism, 'shows us the way as the pillar of fire guided the children of Israel through the wilderness'.

Towards a bourgeois craft
In the age of reason, preceding the French Revolution, research had promoted interest and knowledge concerning the religious ideas and conceptions of other people on earth. The French Revolution itself, elevating Reason to man's supreme quality, launched a searching for analogies in all religions, an attempt to discover a universal religious awareness. The inevitable result was that people lost certainty of their former unchallenged religion and now had to see it in perspective, in relation with other religions. It generated a tendency to syncretism, it generated forms of mysticism and occultism, a religious experience in order to fill the empty place in religious life caused by rational approach. Theosophy spread rapidly after 1875 also among freemasons. This was sometimes reflected in the working of the Craft.

While these evolutions were in progress Prince Willem Frederik Karel der Nederlanden was Grand Master since 1826, a veritable 'royal citizen' whose prudent rule kept developments well under control for more than 65 years. Far from being a royal figure-head he had definite opinions of his own and would impart, and if necessary defend, them to his brethren. At the end of Prince Frederik's term of office (1881) two developments set in which have had a decisive influence on the working of the Craft in the Netherlands. To begin with, individual lodges were now trying to obtain their own buildings. Halfway through the 19th century only a few lodges had a building of their own: at the end of the century not having one was exceptional. Having a building and using it only once a month is highly un-economical, resulting in weekly or fortnightly meetings instead of coming together once a month. This inturn led to a change of procedures. As long as meetings had taken place once a month it had mostly been in 'Open Loges' , formal meetings and there had been no need to prepare a programme. Very soon they started to have 'comparities', informal meetings, which were held in the ante-room, an ordinary meeting room and a regular item on the programme of these meetings was a 'bouwstuk' (a piece of architecture), an introductory paper on a subject considered to be of interest to the brethren, which might lead to a fruitful discussion afterwards.

Certain groups in society made their stand against Freemasonry in a biassed and inferior way, based on insinuations and gossip. The root of all difficulties was the struggle between the newly established kingdom of Italy and the Papal State, more in particular after 1870: among enthusiastic champions and originators of Italian national unity had been many Freemasons of high standing, and they made no attempts to keep their membership of the Craft a secret. Pope Leo XII, opposing the curtailment of his secular power, had on several occasions severely attacked Freemasonry, and the effect of this attitude was felt in Catholic areas such as Belgium and the southern part of the Netherlands. Leo Taxil, pseudonym of the Frenchman Gabriël Jogand Pagès, grasped the opportunity to publish several books in which he very cunningly exploited these emotions by providing 'information' about the diabolic and heretical malpractices of freemasons. His books have been translated into many languages including Dutch. His 'De geheimen van de Vrijmetselarij ontsluierd', Leiden 1890, (The secrets of Freemasonry unveiled), has for a long time influenced people's ideas about Freemasonry.

This takes us to an other problem around the same time, that of the pseudo-scholarly approach to the Craft. Members became interested in the Craft per se and wanted to know more about it; however, they didn't know where to obtain the relevant information and tried to find it by applying methods of research of their own, and publishing the results that had thus been discovered, in an endless and confusing stream of publications that can only be qualified as misleading, for often the premise of their research was wrong, so that they were easily led astray. Add to this the fact that in those days the search for universality of religious concepts and for a rational explanation of myths related to nature and natural phenomena strongly predominated religious-historical research, and the possibilities to go off the rails were legion.

It cannot be denied that the ritual as used by many lodges was far from appealing, so there was a great demand for new and better rituals. One of the many suggestions was the proposal to introduce a brand-new ritual meant to substitute one ceremony for the traditional forms of Initiation, Passing and Raising. The ritual for this ceremony, known as the 'eenheidsrituaal Helder'. When the subject was put before Grand Lodge at its meeting in 1906 the proposal was rejected by a very large majority of votes, at the last moment sound judgement prevailed. This decision marked the end of an era, an era in which bourgeois- in the sense of 'civilis'-influence characterised the Craft as worked in the Netherlands.

A period of re-orientation
After 1906 a process of introspection and contemplation set in, soon effected by outside circumstances, such as the impact of World War I. New bearings were taken. First of all, Craft legislation was completely revised in 1917 with the introduction of a new Book of Constitutions together with a series of Regulations. The first chapter of the Book of Constitutions (Ordegrondwet) contains the notorious 'declaration of principles', formulating the conditions under which the Craft can flourish. This was quite an achievement.

As to attempt to revalue traditional forms and usages, much energy was devoted to revision of the existing rituals during the first quarter of this century. Therefore it is small wonder that a period of intensive study and research started, resulting for instance in the foundation of the Society for Masonic Research, which after World War II was to merge with the Society for Temple-building, and to become the 'Maçonnieke Stichting Ritus en Tempelbouw' (Masonic Foundation for Rites and Temple-Building), publishing its own periodical Thoth from 1951 up to the present day.

No sooner had the Netherlands been forced to surrender in May 1940, or the occupying forces from Germany started to liquidate the Order of Freemasons. Buildings, archives and funds were confiscated, masonic belongings of private brethren were requisitioned. Temples were literally destroyed, archives and libraries carried off to Germany, buildings and furniture sold by public auction. These were years of darkness indeed. The Grand Master Bro. H. van Tongeren, was taken to Germany, and died only three months later in a prison camp. In the years that followed more brethren fell victim to the ruthlessness of the occupier's forces.

When at last liberation came, the situation was one of unimaginable misery and chaos. It took years before some order was restored. But when the Dutch Grand Lodge celebrated its bicentennial in 1956 the worst wounds of war were healed and masonic life was active in the Netherlands as before, full of energy and enthusiasm. Celebrations were held in grand style, maintaining old traditions, such as 'when assembling in good cheer, being mindful of needs of those who are in need and distress' by practising charity in its proper way. What stands out very clearly, however, is an obvious re-orientation inside the Craft, an awareness of the value of tradition, without ignoring the changes taking place in society at large. Most important perhaps, is the realisation that deeply hidden in the Craft are values that are of fundamental importance for young people.