gorgons, gormogons, medusists and masons

Gorgons, Gormogons, Medusists and MasonsAuthor(s): J. L. CarrSource: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Jan., 1963), pp. 73-78Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3720400 .

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Notes Notes 73 73

metamorphoser les pauvres animaux en un vague concept abstrait et a tout prendre sans interet.

Le contraste revelateur dans le vocabulaire des vers suivants:

...Vous leur fites, Seigneur, En les croquant, beaucoup d'honneur

ne laisse aucun doute sur l'enormite de la flatterie hyperbolique mais la juxtaposi- tion du mot trop concret, trop evocateur, 'croquant', et des termes charges de

dignit6, 'seigneur', 'honneur', se fait a l'int6rieur d'une phrase dont le rythme est tout empreint lui aussi d'elegante dignite; si bien que l'action de croquer acquiert une qualite delicate et parait tout naturellement un plaisir de roi.

Quant a la derniere phrase du renard, elle enferme un double renversement des valeurs: le berger, cet etre probablement assez humble et sans lettres, apparait avec la stature colossale d'un tyran universel plein d'arrogance; le pouvoir in- deniable que possedent les hommes sur les animaux est present6 comme une absurde chimere. Mais il est impossible de dissocier la valeur comique et la beaute poetique d'un tel renversement des valeurs. Le dernier vers et en particulier les derniers mots 'un chimerique empire' donnent a l'affirmation du renard une amplitude de resonance telle qu'elle embrasse une autre sorte de r6alite: ce long reve de revanche ne d'une hostilite millenaire entre les animaux et l'homme. C'est peut-etre une des

plus belles r6ussites de l'ironie poetique que de pouvoir exprimer non seulement un

decalage entre l'irreel et le r6el, mais encore un contraste entre deux realites dont l'une n'existe, semble-t-il, que par le pouvoir magique des mots.1

CAMBRIDGE ODETTE DE MOURGUES

GORGONS, GORMOGONS, MEDUSISTS AND MASONS

In the British Museum there is a rare book, printed at Marseille in 1730, under the

intriguing title, Les Agreables Divertissemens de la table, ou les Reglemens de l'illustre Societe des Freres et Sceurs de l'Ordre de Meduse, an opuscule which makes quite clear that, being associated not only with Medusa but indirectly with Minerva also, the Order in question, composed principally of naval officers, was conscious of

representing an intellectual elite. The very first Chanson de Meduse exhorts: 'Freres, celebrons dans nos chants, | Notre aimable Deesse, | Et respectons dans ses

Serpens, Sa profonde sagesse', and another poem extolling the virtues of the patron, claims that 'Elle n'imprime qu'aux Elus I Ses charmans caracteres, | Et les Profanes sont exclus, | De ses plaisans Mysteres.'

What are these 'mysteries'? In the first place, there is a special vocabulary for members. Since vin, verre, boire, monsieur, madame are forbidden, they are to be

replaced by 'Huile de Lampe, lamper, mes Freres, mes Seurs', oil symbolizing gentleness, lampe suggesting vigilance, lamper proclaiming reverence for their

patron and the fraternal designations serving to distinguish 'Medusists' from

society at large. Even neologisms like meduser are offered and, taking a leaf from the literature of the precieux, a brother using the word lumiere conveys to his lady 'en t'approchant mon ame est eclairee'.

1 Extract from Muse, fuyante proie..., e'tude sur la poesie de La Fontaine, in course of publication.

metamorphoser les pauvres animaux en un vague concept abstrait et a tout prendre sans interet.

Le contraste revelateur dans le vocabulaire des vers suivants:

...Vous leur fites, Seigneur, En les croquant, beaucoup d'honneur

ne laisse aucun doute sur l'enormite de la flatterie hyperbolique mais la juxtaposi- tion du mot trop concret, trop evocateur, 'croquant', et des termes charges de

dignit6, 'seigneur', 'honneur', se fait a l'int6rieur d'une phrase dont le rythme est tout empreint lui aussi d'elegante dignite; si bien que l'action de croquer acquiert une qualite delicate et parait tout naturellement un plaisir de roi.

Quant a la derniere phrase du renard, elle enferme un double renversement des valeurs: le berger, cet etre probablement assez humble et sans lettres, apparait avec la stature colossale d'un tyran universel plein d'arrogance; le pouvoir in- deniable que possedent les hommes sur les animaux est present6 comme une absurde chimere. Mais il est impossible de dissocier la valeur comique et la beaute poetique d'un tel renversement des valeurs. Le dernier vers et en particulier les derniers mots 'un chimerique empire' donnent a l'affirmation du renard une amplitude de resonance telle qu'elle embrasse une autre sorte de r6alite: ce long reve de revanche ne d'une hostilite millenaire entre les animaux et l'homme. C'est peut-etre une des

plus belles r6ussites de l'ironie poetique que de pouvoir exprimer non seulement un

decalage entre l'irreel et le r6el, mais encore un contraste entre deux realites dont l'une n'existe, semble-t-il, que par le pouvoir magique des mots.1

CAMBRIDGE ODETTE DE MOURGUES

GORGONS, GORMOGONS, MEDUSISTS AND MASONS

In the British Museum there is a rare book, printed at Marseille in 1730, under the

intriguing title, Les Agreables Divertissemens de la table, ou les Reglemens de l'illustre Societe des Freres et Sceurs de l'Ordre de Meduse, an opuscule which makes quite clear that, being associated not only with Medusa but indirectly with Minerva also, the Order in question, composed principally of naval officers, was conscious of

representing an intellectual elite. The very first Chanson de Meduse exhorts: 'Freres, celebrons dans nos chants, | Notre aimable Deesse, | Et respectons dans ses

Serpens, Sa profonde sagesse', and another poem extolling the virtues of the patron, claims that 'Elle n'imprime qu'aux Elus I Ses charmans caracteres, | Et les Profanes sont exclus, | De ses plaisans Mysteres.'

What are these 'mysteries'? In the first place, there is a special vocabulary for members. Since vin, verre, boire, monsieur, madame are forbidden, they are to be

replaced by 'Huile de Lampe, lamper, mes Freres, mes Seurs', oil symbolizing gentleness, lampe suggesting vigilance, lamper proclaiming reverence for their

patron and the fraternal designations serving to distinguish 'Medusists' from

society at large. Even neologisms like meduser are offered and, taking a leaf from the literature of the precieux, a brother using the word lumiere conveys to his lady 'en t'approchant mon ame est eclairee'.

1 Extract from Muse, fuyante proie..., e'tude sur la poesie de La Fontaine, in course of publication.



74 Notes

Once the postulant has acquired this secret vocabulary, he is ready for initiation. Glass in hand, he must praise his sponsor in a speech to the Grand Prieur. If accepted, he becomes Frere Anonyme until his fellows discern idiosyncrasies suggesting a suitable nick-name, like that of a certain Marquis (Frere Distingue), a judge (Frere Amphion), a baron (Frere Commode), an artist (Frere Virtuose) and a poet (Frere Biby). In this way he may soon find himself paying court to an attrac- tive married woman (Soeur Aimable), a frigid beauty (Soeur Brillante) or a young lady given to love and laughter (Soeur Gracieuse).1 If fortunate, he will be nomi- nated Celerier, Superieur, Grand Guidon, Provincial, Grand Maitre or merely Pere.

In the process of initiation he will be shown symbols of the Order, such as winged figures suggestive of Medusa's mythical transformation into a horse or a bird, and may smile at three humorous engravings by Frere Virtuose on the Perseus-Gorgon story. He will also learn about Medusa's 'caskets' and discover what they contain, and will be obliged to bring his own to future meetings. It is upon this box that he will be expected to swear undying fidelity to the sovereign, honouring this 'Jeune Heros, issu de mille Rois, I Qui vient regner sur l'Empire de l'Onde' and thus responding to the injunction:' Lampons a la sante du Roi: | Tous Freres qui suivent sa Loi....' Following this initial formality the members settle down to the main business of club meetings, wine-drinking, the great leveller and creator of equality. The handbook is explicit: ' gaux en tout, ils sont 1a Sceurs et Freres; I Le premier rang n'est jamais affect6; I Qui lampe mieux est le plus respecte.'

This idea of fraternal goodwill confers an ethical and almost religious character to lodge-meetings. Thus the Regency poet, Jacques Vergier, originally in Holy Orders and now Medusist 'Prior of Dunkirk', writes to the Abbe de V... of 'fraternelle union' and 'zele tout divin'. This 'divine zeal' is, of course, to be tempered by the sense of restraint commended by contemporary Epicureans, devoted to the classi- cal middle way, to the notion of reason current in the 1680's when the movement was instituted; and members who rashly think that to appreciate Rabelais is to be dissolute are expelled with the stricture: 'Loin d'ici, crapuleux Yvrognes, I Lourdauds Pilliers de Cabaret, I Notre Huile excellente n'est pas fait [sic] I Pour

1 Speculating upon initials and idiosyncrasies suggested in Medusist poems, I offer the following possibilities: Le Ms. de L. .., Frere Distingue, a great lover, soldier and toper, is almost certainly the Ms. de Lassay; Le Ms. de S..., Grand Guidon is probably the Ms. de Sainte- Aulaire, a member of the Temple Society, a poet and frequenter of the salons of Madame de Lambert and the Duchesse du Maine. Other habitues of the Cour de Sceaux may be Monsieur L. . . G..., Celerier de l'Ordre, Frere Ardent, who could be Lagrange-Chancel, though a good case could be made out for the young naval officer. La Galissonniere; and Monsieur de M... could be Malezieux, whose taste for magnificence and high-life would earn him the title of Frere Magnifique and who was prominent in a similar Ordre de l'Abeille at Sceaux. I am inclined to think that Monsieur D ..., Grand Maitre and Frere Necessaire might be Rene Duguay-Trouin of naval fame. Le Comte de G. .., Protecteur de l'Ordre fits the Comte de Grammont, governor of Aunis in which important ports like La Rochelle were located; in which case Monsieur H... could refer to his brother-in-law, Hamilton, that refined aristocrat of Scottish origin who found poetic fame in France. There is no doubt at all that Monsieur de V..., Frere Bienfaisant et Grand Prieur de Provence was the founder of the Medusa Society in Marseille, M. de Vibraye. Le President de B. .., Frere Amphion is almost certainly de Brosses, who was an amateur rhymster and was to write a history of navigation in the Antipodes. Monsieur G...., Frere Sensible might conceivably be either J.B.L. Gresset or Grecourt; and the artist, Frirere Virtuose, could well be Jean Raoux of the Temple Society. Of the 'Sisters', Madame G... is perhaps Madame Guereau, whose husband was a Commissaire de la Marine; Mademoiselle d'H.... Sceur Bonne a Tout is probably Mlle d'Hervart to whom Vergier sends some of his poems; Madame d'A ... Sour Aimable could perhaps fit Madame d'Aulnoy, who wrote La Belle et la bete; and Mile de L..., Sceur Parfaite, might by her description be Mlle de Launoy of the Cour de Sceaux and the Temple, who later became the Baronne de Staal.



Notes 75

oindre vos vineuses trognes.' The fact is that, at lodge-meetings, 'l'on goute les vrais plaisirs, I Qu'on goutoit a Theleme', 'l'yvrognerie etant sur toutes choses la plus deplaisante a notre Mere Meduse'; and there are analogous regulations regard- ing songs and poetry performed at Manses, where 'aucun Frere ne dira, ni ne chantera aucune chanson qui puisse blesser la modestie des Sceurs'. This new Abbaye de Theleme has a ritual formulated to consecrate refined, tasteful hedonism.

The centre of this ritual is petrification. After the repaissance, the bonnet de Meduse, garlanded with serpents, is donned by all in turn, except the Insulat, who pours drinks, acts as umpire and has in common with his counterpart on the cricket-field the fact that his headgear is different from that of the players them- selves. And he is stage-manager of the grand scene which, like all dramatic per- formances in France, begins with a succession of blows. These may be struck by any member present, provided he does not knock accidentally. In any case, the flame rises right in the centre of the group, from a goblet, the bust of Medusa is lit up for a brief period and gentlemen must keep rigid until the flame subsides. Then accusations begin and forfeits are paid. Payment hardly ever varies. 'Ne vous troublez pour la faute commise, | Frere, lampez, faute vous est remise', explains the poem Meduse. Consequently brothers must drink wine for using forbidden expres- sions, for moving during petrification, for knocking accidentally, for leaving five or more drops in a glass, for not declaring in advance that the libation is in atonement for such and such a 'crime', for failing to excuse a sneeze with the time-honoured formula 'Honneur a Meduse!', for overturning or breaking a glass (the latter demands a paltry monetary mea culpa as well), for making false accusation or idle protest, or for losing an appeal against the majority decision.

Now, although women are not admitted to full participation in this basic rite, they are evidently most welcome, and a particularly chivalrous Medusist stanza explains: 'Quand aupres d'une aimable Soeur, I On a sa Lampe pleine, | On sent une double douceur, I Qui nous tient en haleine.' Thus this naval secret society reflects both the somewhat 'precious' gallantry of the salon and the more masculine hedonism flourishing under the sign of the Gorgon, as depicted, for instance, in Verrio's ceiling of 1700 at Hampton Court, where Minerva displays Medusa's head on a buckler surrounded by cupids, satyrs and other erotic and bacchanalian symbols.

The mention of an English parallel is perhaps propitious in the case of an Order which appears to have so many features in common with Freemasonry; and the Masonic historian, Gould, tells us that this association of hedonism with gallantry is characteristic of Masonic (and usually all-male) lodges following 'knightly or Templar grades'. This suggests some intriguing possibilities. In the first place, British Freemasonry is traditionally reputed to have spread into France precisely via the port of Dunkirk, the home of Vergier's Medusist Manse. Secondly, we know that Vergier was also a member of the Temple Society in Paris, a group of men and women dedicated to the cult of Bacchus and Venus and presided over by a Grand Prieur. Already, then, a threefold comparison is suggested, and some evidence is available to support it. The drinking-songs and Anacreontic verses of Vergier and other Temple poets closely resemble not only Medusist ditties but Masonic songs of the day. Then there are common details of organization, nomen- clature and general principles for, apart from Convents, Chapters, Grand Masters and the like, we find in all three obligations to honour the sovereign, to extend



hospitality to members away from home, the same horse-play at initiation cere- monies, the same ruling that lodge matters should take precedence over private affairs.

Furthermore, the 'Prior of Dunkirk' Vergier, had visited England in 1688, had sought an English lottery ticket in 1713, had corresponded in the following year with Madame V... of London and later still with Lieutenant-General Walef. He had, moreover, been in touch with the French plenipotentiary in the British capital during the Utrecht negotiations-the very Duc d'Aumont who was to bequeath his name to one of the earliest French Masonic lodges. So Vergier's British contacts were numerous and included Freemasons. Bearing in mind then that the Prior of the Medusa Society was also a Templar and perhaps a Mason, we may perhaps assume an early conjunction of esoteric movements during the latter part of the Grand Siecle and during the Regency through the port of Dunkirk. This anticipates the accepted moment of impact on French aristocratic society of British Masonic ritual (1725) and underlines Gould's remark that Masons of Dunkirk owed their origin not specifically to the Grand Lodge across the Channel, but to 'the ambition of members' since 'lodges were held on the Continent previous to our earliest records in an informal and irregular, perhaps even spasmodic manner'.

Indeed, the London Grand Lodge was by no means the only possible source of British inspiration. Established, says Gould, about 1724 or earlier, there existed in London a heretical Masonic group called the Gormogons-a title which in itself suggests exciting possibilities to the student of Gorgon cults-and, like the Medusists, founded just two years before Huguenots fled to England, possessing Chapters, Statutes and a frivolous secret ritual. On these grounds one might be tempted to suspect the Gormogons of having been a Protestant association, were it not for accusations of Jacobitism and Jesuitism levelled at them during their brief existence. Indeed, in 1725 it was stated that 'the whole Sacred College of Cardinals will commence Gormogons'.

Since Protestantism will not suit the case, we must find a Catholic link. Appro- priately, since Freemasonry is also involved, it is a Scottish link. Andrew Michael Ramsay of Ayr, who was to become a Grand Master of French Masons, had already served as (Ecumenical Volgi (Grand Master) of the Gormogons and had lived in France, on and off, since the beginning of the eighteenth century. Thus he was ideally prepared for the role of middleman between English and French esoteric movements. Moreover, he was a convinced Jacobite and, if we accept Fay's sugges- tion that 'en France, la franc-ma9onnerie vient d'Angleterre et renforce certaines societes secretes anterieures.. ..Une loge jacobite se fonda la premiere'; that 'en France, a la fin du XVIIe siecle et tout au debut du XVIIIe on trouve des loges ma9onniques ecossaises qui paraissent bien se rattacher a cette origine', we may appreciate the probable importance of Ramsay in making contact, for instance, with Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth and former mistress of Charles II, who had organized a Jacobite cell at Aubigny, or with the exiled James II who, at Saint-Germain, maintained a Masonic lodge chiefly for political reasons. It was certainly Ramsay who wrote into the General Statutes of the Gormogons a scheme devoted to charitable ends, 'the little Forfeitures and Fines... deposited in the Hands of the Hupu, or Treasurer, to be disposed of either to Charitable Uses, whenever the calamitous Case offers, or for the Encouragement of Art and Sciences'. There speaks the true disciple of the Abbe de Saint-Pierre who 'invented' bien-

76 Notes



faisance, and who was a prominent member of the Club de l'Entresol, closed down in 1731 by the same decree that temporarily abolished French Freemasonry. There speaks also the precursor of the Encyclopaedists, shortly to adopt a form of Masonry which was neither Catholic nor Protestant but essentially secular and deistic.

Movements thus tend to overlap, sometimes to merge-thanks above all to men like Ramsay and Vergier who found time to belong to more than one group at a time. This confraternity of esoteric cults is demonstrated in similarities of signs and symbols. For instance, the Medusist book of rules contains vignettes in which birds and serpents predominate. The combination is not unexpected, of course, since, in the first place, Perseus is often portrayed wearing winged sandals or even wings on his shoulders as he quests for the Gorgons; and, in the second place, since without her snakes, Medusa herself would be as incomprehensible as she became in Arabic art. Much more surprising is the discovery of the same symbol in a Gormogon medallion bearing the inscription: 'Volg. Ord. Gormogo. C.O. Ky Po Oleum Versa Benevolentia Universus Splendor' which, particularly with the reference to oil, reminds of a Medusist caption 'Turbam hilarem in rupes subito jubet ire Medusa I Mox oleum, vitam, quam rapit illa, dabit'. It is intriguing to note that the same emblematic combination is to be found on the font of the 'Church of the Golden Ball' erected at West Wycombe by the infamous Dashwood. It is also to be discovered in a curiously contrived hanging lamp in a Manx museum, but formerly in the George and Vulture in Conduit Street, where the real Hell-Fire Club met before its suppression in 1721.

Perhaps these different groups with similar symbols and a common attachment to secrecy, to good cheer and to freethinking had as much reciprocity and con- sistency as had the contrasting forms of Freemasonry. In the case of the French Masons we are bound sooner or later to ask: what had society nobles to do with fraternity, and what sympathy could Jesuits and Jacobites have with Epicurean deism? The answer appears to lie partly in the dichotomy of early eighteenth- century Masonry, explained by Limousin in his Precis d'histoire de la Ma(onnerie franqaise. First, there was an indigenous stream which, after many meanderings, was to find full flood in 1773 by the creation of the predominantly Parisian, rational- istic, pseudo-democratic and national Grand Orient de France. This stream may well stem from guild traditions, from the compagnonnages, from provincial hedon- istic societies and clubs, and it flows on to Mirabeau and Revolutionary liberalism. Secondly, however, there was introduced at a somewhat later date Scottish Masonry, and in particular the Rite of Strict Observance which evolved into an order that is aristocratic, ceremonious, hierarchical, mystic in its devotion to Templar cults, hermetic, cosmopolitan and very probably a Jesuit promotion for political purposes, and, as Martin claims, embodying 'la doctrine d'une Contre-Magonnerie jesuite, incorpore dans l'ordre meme'. This serious conception of Freemasonry capitalizes upon the wave of mysticism represented after 1727 by the Convulsion- aries and is later incarnated in charlatans like Cagliostro or strong supporters of Catholic unity like the reactionary Joseph de Maistre.

How, then, does the Order of Medusa fit into this complex picture? By its rela- tively early foundation, by its naval associations, its sheer joviality and parody of censorious mysticism the movement is truly Gallic, and consequently a minor precursor of the Grand Orient and of military Masonry that was to loom large at the approaches to the Revolution of 1789. At the same time we cannot overlook the

Notes 77



78 Notes

intellectual snobbery of the Medusists, the many resemblances between the rules of the Order and those of standard Freemasonry on the British pattern. Nor can we forget Ramsay and the Gormogons, or Vergier of the Templars in his Medusist Manse at Dunkirk, so conveniently situated for contact with Britain. So, even in an organization as Gallic as Rabelais himself, there was room for foreign ideas, and perhaps British Catholicism had some part in determining the character of a society that grew to strength during that fascinating age of restless transition and nascent aristocratic revolt which spans the latter years of a declining despot and the early reign of his irresolute successor.. L. CARR

~~~~~~~GLASGOW~~J.. AR

GLASGOW



gorgons, gormogons, medusists and masons

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