The fourth tome of the memoir of the marquise de Créquy is a veritable goldmine of information for the student of esotericism, the occult, and royal court gossip from late 18th century and early 19th century France. The memoir, which is available in its full form from the Bibliothèque nationale de France, contains detailed anecdotes on nearly every major personage in the French royal court between the years 1710 and 1803.
Although the official attribution of the memoir is given to Charlotte-Victoire de Froullay de Tessé, Marquise de Créquy de Heymont de Canaples d'Ambrières, it was likely assembled by her grandson, Maurice Cousin de Courchamps. Most experts agree that his information was taken from Madame de Créquy’s voluminous notes of her life and times at the courts of Louis XV, XVI and Napoleon I.
Madame de Créquy’s memoir is filled with first-hand accounts of her relations and correspondence with such illustrious figures as the Count of St. Germain, Cagliostro, and many others. In a letter purportedly addressed to her cousin Louis Cardinal de Rohan, the Prince-Archbishop of Strasbourg, Madame de Créquy gives a rather detailed explanation of documents which she read from the collection of her visitor, the Count Cagliostro.
She noted:
The Grand-Master of the Templars, Jacques du Bourg-Molay, who was tortured to death in 1314 and whose family surives to this day in Nivernais, had created, during his capitivity in the Bastille, four mother lodges: for the east, Naples; for the west, Edinburgh; for the north, Stockholm; and Paris for the middle.
The day following the execution of the Templars in Paris, Sir Nicolas of Aumont and seven other Templars disguised as stonemasons came to collect the ashes of their brothers. Fifteen days later, Sir Usquin of Floriau, who had denounced the order, was murdered in Place d’Avignon; Pope Clement V had done him a magnificent funeral and declared him a "Venerable Servant of God"; but it appears certain that the Templars removed his body and deposited it in the tomb of Jacques de Molay. Then the four lodges founded by him began to organize themselves, and all the Templars took an oath to destroy the power of the Pope, to exterminate the Capetian dynasty, and all monarchs; to excite the peoples to revolt, and to establish a universal republic.
Madame de Créquy lived through the French Revolution relatively untouched, apart from a short stay in a convent. Her opinion of Protestants, Alchemists and other “undesirables” clearly illustrates her strong belief in the ruling class structure and the Roman Catholic Church to which she adhered. Still, her memoirs are a fascinating, eyewitness recollection of the inner-workings of France’s last royal court.
In spite of her negative views on esotericism and Johannite theology, Madame de Créquy corroborated the story of the discovery of The Lévitikon. In her Souvenirs de la marquise de Créquy (Tome IV. Chapter V.) the marquise wrote that the 8th century manuscript was discovered at a bookstall on the Quai des Gesvres by Dr. Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat. The author goes on to explain that Fabré-Palaprat purchased the gilt volume for 25 francs, and showed it to a certain Monsieur Dacier who dated the vellum incunable to the reign of the Byzantine emperor Constantine V (741 to 775). Although an opponent of the Johannites, the marquise also mentions that “Dr. Fabré-Palaprat at last found a conscientious translator who left everything blank that was no longer legible.” (See p. 125 of the BnF version) In her commentary on The Lévitikon, Madame de Créquy condemns the “Gnostic and Manichean” ideas contained in the manuscript, and falsely claims that it is filled with “hymns in honour of the devil.” Nevertheless, Madame de Créquy is an important, contemporary and independent source which confirms that as a result of the re-emergence of the Templar Order and the discovery of The Lévitikon, the Abbé Châtel was installed as the Primate of the Gauls according to the tradition of the Johannite Church - the Secret Church of John.
Notes:
Many thanks to the Bibliothèque nationale de France for providing digital copies of the primary sources for this article.
A digital copy of Souvenirs de la Marquise de Créquy from the University of Chicago.
