MARTINISTS. - They are the followers of the Masonic sect whose principal exponents were Martinez de Pasqualis (b. at Grenoble in 1727, d. at Santo Domingo on 20 Sept. 1774, author of *Traité de la réintégration des êtres* [Paris 1819]), Louis-Claude de St-Martin (b. at Amboise on 18 Jan. 1743, d. at Aulnay on 13 Oct. 1803, author of numerous writings including *Ecce homo* [1792]), and Jean-Baptiste Willermoz (b. at Lyon on 10 July 1730, d. there on 20 May 1824).
This sect is of notable importance for the study of the transition from rationalistic Enlightenment to Romantic mysticism; always within the framework of Freemasonry, it represented a significant reaction against the humanitarianism and deism of the rationalistic Masonry of the 18th century. It sought to do this by strangely blending theism, Neoplatonic mysticism, Cabala, and magic, affirming that even exorcisms aim at the definitive emancipation of humanity. The principal manner of feeling this is of a mystical nature, for, they say, the tendency and approach to the Absolute is not of an intellectual kind. God, moreover, cannot be known, yet there exists a sympathy throughout the universe, and between God and matter there are mediating spirits. In the theory of this sect, St-Martin sought to place in the foreground the *voie intérieure*, insisting not only on the divine dignity of primitive man but also on the attempt to return to the divinity of primitive man, for in St-Martin’s view man before original sin possessed special supernatural powers. St-Martin perceived the problem of expiation and fought against the concept of tolerance held by the *philosophes*; he hoped that from the French Revolution (permitted by God for human expiation) there would arise a new spiritual Christianity and a religious society upon the ruins of the secular society.
Martinism enjoyed considerable diffusion at the beginning of the 19th century; even in distant St. Petersburg, J. De Maistre was a follower of Martinist theories, which helped him to conceive the dream of a grand religious palingenesis with a unifying confessional backdrop. Masonic Martinism still survives in France today.