Jean Théophile Désaguliers (1683-1744): Scientist, Mason, and Dreamer by W. Br. Dr. Jacques G. Ruelland
Who was Jean T. Désaguliers? Many Masons do not know him. It is no more than justice to give him honour by retracing his life and his work. A difficult youth Jean Théophile Désaguliers is one of the principal organisers of the speculative Freemasonry. He was born the 12th March 1683 in France at Aytre, in the vicinity of La Rochelle. He is the son of Jean Désaguliers, pastor of the small protestant community of his village. The French Huguenots were living in an era of difficult moments. From the start of the XVIth century, La Rochelle was a very prosperous town, profiting from the trade with America; it became, after 1535, a very active Calvinist centre.
In the second half of the XVIth century, the battles between Catholics and Protestants become more and more virulent; in the night of 24 August 1572 takes place the massacre of St. Bartholomew, more than thirty thousand persons find their death there. In the hope of making the existence of the Reformed Church in France legal and appeasing the tensions, King Henry IV, at first Protestant, converted to Catholicism one week before the massacre of St. Bartholomew and reconverted to Protestantism in 1576, signs on 13 April 1598 the Edict of Nantes. READ THE REST

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