The text below was published in the broadsheet ‘Journal des débats‘ on November 6, 1803.
“M. de Saint-Martin, who had founded in Germany a religious sect known as the Martinists, has just died at Aunay, near Paris, at the home of Senator Lenoir-Laroche. He had acquired some celebrity for his bizarre opinions, his attachment to the dreams of the illuminated and his famous unintelligible book ‘Errors and Truth’.
It is generally believed that French mystic Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin did not transmit a personal ritual initiation, and founded no society, nor any order of any kind. Saint-Martin did not found the ‘Martinist Order’ either, which was in fact created by Papus in 1887-1891. Clearly, however, his death announcement suggests otherwise, and that there was indeed a contemporary German group in existence surrounding St Martin calling themselves ‘Martinistes‘ during his lifetime. What became of this German group?
Stewart Clelland 