Affaire Des Fiches

"La dégoulinade des Fiches", anti-masonic caricature by Fertom (1904).

L'Affaire des Fiches de délation (“affair of the cards of denunciation”) was a political scandal in France in 1904–1905 in which it was discovered that the militantly anticlerical War Minister under Emile Combes, General Louis André, was determining promotions based on religious behavior. Using members of the Freemasons to watch officers, André assembled a huge card index on public officials, detailing which were Catholic and who attended Mass, with a view to preventing their promotions.^{[1][lower-alpha 1]}

Both Combes and André were Freemasons,^[2][3] and much of the information had been collected by the Masonic Grand Orient de France.^[4]

L'Affaire

According to Piers Paul Read, "The information, as it came in, was entered on cards or fiches. These would be marked either Corinth or Carthage—the Corinthians being the sheep who should be promoted and the Carthaginians, the goats who should be held back. An officer reported to be 'perfect in all respects; excellent opinions,' would be marked as a Corinthian: another who, 'though a good officer, well reported on, takes no part in politics,' would nonetheless be designated a Carthaginian because he, 'went to Mass with his family,' and sent his six children to Catholic schools. A bachelor officer who went to Mass was by definition of a reactionary disposition. Officers loyal to the republican ideals were encouraged to report the opinions voiced by their colleagues in the mess."^[5]

In 1904, Jean Bidegain, the Assistant Secretary of Grand Orient de France, secretly sold a selection of the Fiches to Gabriel Syveton of the Ligue de la Patrie Francaise for 40,000 francs. The resulting scandal led directly to the resignation of French Prime Minister Emile Combes.^[6]

See also

• Anticlericalism and Freemasonry

Notes

1. It is also called in French "L'Affaire des casseroles"; casserole being slang for spy (see fr:Affaire des fiches)

1. Franklin 2006, p. 9 (footnote 26) cites Larkin, Maurice. Church and State after the Dreyfus Affair. pp. 138–41.: "Freemasonry in France". Austral Light. 6: 164–72, 241–50. 1905.
2. Burke 1979, p. 304.
3. McKeown 2011 quotes Williams 2005, p. 568
4. Smith 2003, p. 18.
5. Piers Paul Read, The Dreyfus Affair: The Scandal that Tore France in Two, Bloomsbury Press, 2012. page 339.
6. Read (2012), pages 339-340.

References

• Burke, Peter (1979), The New Cambridge Modern History, Cambridge University, p. 304
• Franklin, James (2006), "Freemasonry in Europe", Catholic Values and Australian Realities, Connor Court Publishing Pty Ltd, pp. 7–10, ISBN 9780975801543
• McKeown, Trevor W. (11 January 2011) [2007], Masonic references in the works of Charles Williams, The Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon, retrieved 27 October 2016 quotes:
  • Williams, Charles (2005), Pétain, London: Little, Brown, p. 568, ISBN 0-316-86127-8
• Smith, Leonard B.; et al. (2003), France and the Great War, 1914-1918, Cambridge University Press

Further reading

• Larkin, Maurice (2002), Religion, Politics and Preferment in France Since 1890: La Belle Epoque and its Legacy, Cambridge University Press, pp. 45–48, ISBN 0-521-41916-6
• Larkin, Maurice (1974), Church and State after the Dreyfus Affair, pp. 138–41
• Porch, Douglas (1981), "Ch. 6 "The affaire des fiches"", The March to the Marne: The French Army, 1871-1914, Cambridge University Press, pp. 92–104