Jospeh de Maistre (1753-1821) was a man of politics, a writer and one of fathers of French counter-revolutionary and anti-enlightenment philosophy.
Taught by the Jesuits, they inspired in him a profound attachment to religion. He became a senator by the age of 35 and was present in Paris during the Revolution. He became disillusioned when he realised the irreversibility of the revolutionary process. Fleeing the capital, he started a series of journeys to Aosta, Lausanne, Sardinia and Saint Petersburg, where he alternately served in various functions, including spy and ambassador for the King of Sardinia.
A member of the Masonic Lodge “Saint-Jean des Trois Mortiers”, at the Orient of Chambéry, created in 1749 under the auspices of the Grand Lodge of England, he tried to reconcile his Freemasonry with his Catholic faith. A contemporary of Jean-Baptiste Willemoz and Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, he went on to become initiated into Illuminist Freemasonry, from which he drew numerous elements that can be found in his work, such as a belief in providence, prophecy, etc.
He is the author of "Lettres d'un royaliste savoisien à ses compatriotes (Letter of a Savoyard Royalist to his Compatriots), "Etude sur la souveraineté" (A Study of Sovereignty), "Du pape" (The Pope), "Les soirées de St-Pétersbourg ou Entretiens sur le gouvernement temporel de la Providence" (The St –Petersburg Dialogues or a Discussion on Providence’s Temporal Government), etc.
|
