262 FROM THE ART OF BUILDING TO THE ART OF THINKINGlodges. The political and religious usefulness of the "Scots" Lodges had
become quite weak with respect to the new impregnation they had
taken on.
It is true that the papal bull of 1738 makes scant mention of doc-
trine and faith. It notes that the Freemasons should be regarded as
"strongly suspect" of heresy for reason of masonic secrecy and its
corollary, the oath. If Freemasons were not doing evil, it seems to con-
tend, they would not have such hatred of the light. There were addi-
tional reasons for suspicion of heresy added to this primary one,
reasons described as "just and reasonable, known to Us," though it
appears these were of a temporal nature and touched on the danger
Freemasonry posed to the order and peace of nations.^16 This papal con-
demnation was confirmed on several occasions, but it was not until Leo
XIII delivered the Humanum genus encyclical that it truly took on a
doctrinal and theological basis. It was at this time that the doctrine of
modern Freemasonry was declared to be incompatible with that of the
Catholic religion.
The Autonomy of French MasonryWhat was to happen in France in 1738, the eldest daughter of the
Church ruled by the descendent of Saint Louis and the land where the
Scottish lodges, faithful to Catholicism, remained in the majority? Not
what we are likely to imagine. The kingdom of France ignored the
pope. The king, after all, received his crown from God. All justice
issued from him. The papal bull was not registered by the Parliament of
Paris as required by the fundamental laws of the kingdom in order for
it to be applicable in France. Lex non promulgata non obligat. The bull
remained a dead letter for the French lodges.
It was determined that French Freemasonry should be independent
and Catholic. So it should therefore come as no surprise that it was also
in 1738, for all these reasons, inluding that Gallic pride found its voice
and had its own role to play, the French lodges of English origin openly
freed themselves from any oversight on the part of the Grand Lodge or
London. It was true that the preparations for this had been laid well in
advance. Indeed, it was not until 1732 that "English" lodges with a