Freemasonry and Antimasonry
Sources from the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, "Fonds Valentin Brifaut"
Sources from the Université
catholique de Louvain, Belgium, "Fonds Valentin Brifaut"
Valentin Brifaut was de oprichter van de Ligue antimaconnique belge, en de
uitgever van het Bulletin Antimaconnique, waarvan hij de belangrijkste
redacteur was. Ook al was hij een tegenstander van de vrijmetselarij, hij
distantieerde zich van andere opponenten, die zich bezighielden met het
publiceren van namen en die tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog steun zochten bij de
bezetter en in de collaboratie stapten.Hij verzamelde documentatie over geheime
verenigingen en gaf hierover vaak voordrachten met lichtbeelden.Zijn
documentatie, evenals andere, is samengebracht in het Fonds Brunfaut, dat
berust in de bibliotheek van de UCL in Louvain-La-Neuve.
The most remarkable feature of the sources presented in this collection from the “Fonds Valentin Brifaut” in the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, comes from their coupling. Why would a collector bring together such quantities of Masonic and anti-Masonic material? The answer probably lies in right-wing fantasies at work in Continental Europe early in the twentieth century. In a line of reasoning drawn out of the nineteenth-century opponents of the French Revolution, twentieth-century extremists came to the conclusion that a vast Masonic conspiracy existed and the only way to address its machinations required evidence. Hence a collection with a mission: to find evidence for the conspiracy from the Freemasons themselves and their opponents.
The collector
The collector, Valentin Brifaut (born in Brussels in 1875), was a militant catholic and politician, being president of the Jeunes Gardes catholiques de Belgique, president of the Conceil central de l’enseignement primaire catholique, and a senator of the Belgian parliament. He was also active in the Catholic Scout Movement in Belgium (becoming its first president in 1929), but is perhaps best known as the founder of the Ligue antimaçonnique and the journal Le bulletin antimaçonnique. Brifaut further became famous for his antimasonry conferences, which attracted great crowds. He died in Ixelles in 1963.
Scholarly relevance
Researchers will find much that could be justifiably called paranoid in the writings assembled in part two (Antimasonry) of this collection. They reflect and document right-wing fantasies at work in Continental Europe early in the twentieth century. In part one (Freemasonry), many of the histories of the Order were written by amateur historians and tell us as much, if not more, about the moment of their being written as about the actual history of the lodges. Nevertheless, they are valuable to the historian of Freemasonry and for the historian of right-wing mentalities in many European countries. Materials in this catalogue expand on IDC Publishers' offerings in "Freemasonry – Early sources", which also contains a section on Antimasonry.
Margaret C. Jacob
Language note
Texts mostly in French, but also in English and German; small number of titles in other languages.
Freemasonry and Antimasonry
Sources from the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, "Fonds Valentin Brifaut"
Sources from the Université
catholique de Louvain, Belgium, "Fonds Valentin Brifaut"
Valentin Brifaut was de oprichter van de Ligue antimaconnique belge, en de
uitgever van het Bulletin Antimaconnique, waarvan hij de belangrijkste
redacteur was. Ook al was hij een tegenstander van de vrijmetselarij, hij
distantieerde zich van andere opponenten, die zich bezighielden met het
publiceren van namen en die tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog steun zochten bij de
bezetter en in de collaboratie stapten.Hij verzamelde documentatie over geheime
verenigingen en gaf hierover vaak voordrachten met lichtbeelden.Zijn
documentatie, evenals andere, is samengebracht in het Fonds Brunfaut, dat
berust in de bibliotheek van de UCL in Louvain-La-Neuve.
The most remarkable feature of the sources presented in this collection from the “Fonds Valentin Brifaut” in the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, comes from their coupling. Why would a collector bring together such quantities of Masonic and anti-Masonic material? The answer probably lies in right-wing fantasies at work in Continental Europe early in the twentieth century. In a line of reasoning drawn out of the nineteenth-century opponents of the French Revolution, twentieth-century extremists came to the conclusion that a vast Masonic conspiracy existed and the only way to address its machinations required evidence. Hence a collection with a mission: to find evidence for the conspiracy from the Freemasons themselves and their opponents.
The collector, Valentin Brifaut (born in Brussels in 1875), was a militant catholic and politician, being president of the Jeunes Gardes catholiques de Belgique, president of the Conceil central de l’enseignement primaire catholique, and a senator of the Belgian parliament. He was also active in the Catholic Scout Movement in Belgium (becoming its first president in 1929), but is perhaps best known as the founder of the Ligue antimaçonnique and the journal Le bulletin antimaçonnique. Brifaut further became famous for his antimasonry conferences, which attracted great crowds. He died in Ixelles in 1963.
Researchers will find much that could be justifiably called paranoid in the writings assembled in part two (Antimasonry) of this collection. They reflect and document right-wing fantasies at work in Continental Europe early in the twentieth century. In part one (Freemasonry), many of the histories of the Order were written by amateur historians and tell us as much, if not more, about the moment of their being written as about the actual history of the lodges. Nevertheless, they are valuable to the historian of Freemasonry and for the historian of right-wing mentalities in many European countries. Materials in this catalogue expand on IDC Publishers' offerings in "Freemasonry – Early sources", which also contains a section on Antimasonry.
Texts mostly in French, but also in English and German; small number of titles in other languages.
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