History of Freemasonry in Belgium - 1795 To 1814

1795 To 1814

The French Revolution decimated freemasonry in France itself - from around 700 lodges and 30,000 masons during the ancien regime, only around 30 lodges and a few thousand masons remained. - but led to a new start for Belgian freemasonry. This was due to the new French republic's annexation of the Austrian Netherlands in 1794, and its merger into France from 1795 to 1814. From 1798, thanks to French military lodges, the "Les Amis Philanthrope" lodge was created in Brussels, giving second wind to Belgian freemasonry and forming the basis for the most important Belgian Masonic works of the following century. The military lodges also caused a massive expansion in the number of new lodges (see the list below).

The French period was characterised by an important expansion in Freemasonry in what would become Belgium. These lodges were perhaps revolutionary, anticlerical and Francophile. They were above all, at least in appearances, strongly submitted to French imperial power - Napoleon, as emperor, favoured Freemasonry only because he controlled it. It was at this time largely Deist, if not Catholic, even if anti-clericalism was never really absent, and experience little tension with the Roman Catholic Church. This period came to an end with Napoleon's final defeat at the battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815, by which time Belgium had 27 lodges.