M. Cretineau- Joly from the archives of the Alta Vendita,

after they were fortunately discovered by the Eoman police, are of this class. Certain extracts are also given of equal value. Most of those documents have been translated into English from French translations of the original Italian and German ; and one passage, that of Mr. Eiobison on Ereemasonry as the cause of the first Erench Eevolution, is taken from a translation from the Englisli into Erench, re-done into English, as it was impossible to find the original English worK of Mr. Kobison, which, though extremely valuable, is, he believes, long out of print. The documents regarding the Spolia- tion of tlie Propaganda have been translated from the Latin and Italian originals. He has endeavoured to translate all such documents as literally as possible, so as to preserve their value as evidences.\
PREFACE. xi
The first lecture, which he has entitled the war of Antichrist wdth the Church and Christian Civilization, is intended to treat, in as brief space as possible, the whole question of Secret, Atheistic Organization, its origin, its nature, its history in the last century and in this, and its unity of satanic purpose in a wonderful diversity of forms. To do this with effect, it was necessary to go over a large area of ground, and to touch upon a great variety of topics. The writer was conscious that much of this ground and many of these topics would be very much better known to a large number of Ins readers than to himself. Nearly every matter he had to speak about had been already very frequently handled ably and exhaustively in our Catholic reviews, magazines and newspapers. But notwithstanding this fact, very few, if any, attempts have been made in our language to treat the subject as a whole. Many articles which he has seen, proposed to treat some one feature only of the Atheistic conspiracy — for example, Preemasonry ; or the Infidel war upon Christian education and Christian institutions ; or the Kevolution in Italy ; or the efforts of sectaries against the Temporal Power of the Pope, and against the welfare of Christian States generally. Several writers appeared to assume as known that wdiich w^as really unknown to very many ; and few touched at all .upon the fact — a fact, no doubt, difficult to prove from the strict and ably guarded secrecy wdiich protects it — of th^e supreme direction given to the univer- sality of secret societies from a guiding, governing, and — • even to the rank and file of the members of the secret
Xii PREFACE.
societies themselves — unknown and invisible junta cease- lessly sitting in dark conclave and guiding the whole mass of the secret societies of the world.
If it be difficult at this moment to point out the place of meeting and the members of that powerful body its existence can be proved from past discoveries of the secret workings of the Order, and from present unity of action in numberless occurring circumstances amongst a vast multitude of men, whose essential organization con- sists in bUnd obedience to orders coming down through many degrees from an unknown source which thinks and orders for the purposes of the whole conspiracy. The great object, in order to understand the nature of such a conspiracy, is to find out the ends for which those who framed or adopted it, took it up. Por instance, Infidelity, as it is now known in the world, never, it may be said, existed to any appreciable extent before the time of Yoltaire. Voltaire devoted his whole life to spread Infidelity and destroy Christianity. When we see Yoltaire and his disciples eagerly seize upon Treemasonry, and zealously propagate it, as a means to their ends, we may reasonably infer, it was because they judged Masonry fitting for their Infidel and anti-Christian purposes. This is further confirmed when we see Masonry adopted by all men of their principles without exception. And it becomes proved to demonstration when we see its organ- ization seized upon as the basis of further and more complex planning for the avowed purposes of ruining Christianity and placing Atheism in its stead. Erench
PREFACE. XIU
Atheism using Masonry thus perfected, produced what it aimed at during the Eeign of Terror in France, which, as we shall see, is only a prelude to what it means one day to accomplish throughout the entire world.
In order to make these facts clear, the writer, so far as the form of a single lecture would allow, has given as much of the history and character of both Voltaire and Freemasonry, as might serve to show the adaptability of the latter to the designs of the former. He has spoken of the union and illuminism of Masonry through the instru- mentality of Weishaupt, and has shown the immediate consequences of the organization and influence of that arch-conspirator in the first French Eevolution and its outcome, the Consulate and the Empire. He deemed it a duty to dispel the glamour of false glory which many Christian writers have aided in throwing over Napoleon I., a real child of Freemasonry and Eevolution, and to re- present him in his true colours. For though it cannot be denied that Napoleon restored the Church, it is equally true that his half-hearted measures in favour of religion tended to deaden that strong reaction against Atheism which even Eobespierre's attempts could not control ; while the encouragement he gave to Freemasonry caused that organization to so powerfully permeate Europe that it has since controlled the civilized world with a subtle, powerful force which nothing has been able to stay save the Catholic Church alone.
Under the headings mentioned, the author has given the salient phases of the action of the whole dread
XIV PREFACE.
conspiracy. He has dwelt at considerable length on its efforts in Italy and in Europe generally. He has given in extenso documents of the dark directory which rules all the secret societies of the world. These documents give the key to that satanic policy which guides the Eevolution to this day. He adopts the opinion of Eckert, Deschamps, Segur, and other grave Continental authorities, as to the fact that Lord Palmerston succeeded Nubius as Chief of the " Inner Circle," and consequently Grand Patriarch of all the secret societies of the world ; and he judges this not only from the testimony of Henry Misley, one of the Alta Vendita under Nubius and Palmerston, but much more from the suicidal, revolutionary policy which Palmerston adopted when Eoreign Minister of England, and which leaves that country now without an ally in the world. This policy suited the con- spirators of Europe ; but no man should have known better than Palmerston that it could not suit Great Britain. It was the reversal of all that the best British statesmen had adopted as safeguards against the recur- rence of Bonapartism and revolution, after the peace obtained at Waterloo. But Palmerston was made a monarch to become a slave to the secret sects, and for their views he unceasingly laboured, regardless of country or of any other consideration.
The existence of two parties in secret-society organi- zation is a fact not generally known ; but it explains many things in events daily occurring both on the Continent and at home, which would be otherwise
PREFACE. XV
inexplicable. It explains how ministers like Gavour can sometimes — in play, of course — imprison generals like Garibaldi, how Thiers could crush the Commune, and how Eerry can make show of being adverse to anarchists in Paris. Nevertheless, the anarchists are the children of the Sovereign Directory. Their highest leaders are men of the '-Inner Circle." If policy requires a revolution or an outraofC, anarchists of the rank and file are led on to make it ; and are generally left also to their fate — a fate, in its turn, made use of for the purposes of the general Kevolution. The Inner Circle of high conspirators, in the solitude of their dark plottings, manage all and find uses for all. Politics, with them, are mere playthings. Upon great social movements, upon discontented populations, upon corruption, distraction, and contention, they rely to bring their one redoubted enemy, the Catholic Church, to what they call the tomb.
There are few people on earth more concerned with this fact than the Irish people.
The Irish people are now found not only in Ireland, but outside Ireland in large centres of industry, where the action of the International Association of Workmen, and other kindred working men's associations, have most influence. It must be borne in mind that the amelioration in the condition of the working-man is never attempted by the International without coupling with it the strongest hatred for Christianity. Nothing proves more clearly its origin and its connection with the Supreme Directory of the Cosmopolitan Atheistic Conspiracy against
XVI PREFACE.
religion and order than this one fact. In 1870, the society liad on its rolls ten milhons of members. Its numbers have yearly increased since. At the famous International Congress, held in Geneva in 1868, it formulated the following declaration, which has since been more than once acted on by its members on the Continent :
"Manifesto.
*' The object of the International Association of " Workmen, as of every other Socialist Association, is to " do away with the parasite and the pariah. Now, what *' parasite can be compared to the priest who takes away " the pence of the poor and of the widow by means of *' lying. What outcast more miserable than the Christian " Pariah.
" God and Christ, these citizen-Providences have " been at all tioies the armour of Capital and the most " sanguinary enemies of the working classes. It is owing " to God and to Christ that we remain to this day in " slavery. It is by deluding us with lying hopes that *'the priests have caused us to accept all the sufferiogs " of this earth.
" It is only after sweeping away all religion, and " after tearing up even to the last roots every religious " idea. Christian and every other whatsoever, that we can " arrive at our political and social ideal.
" Let Jesus look after his heaven. We believe " only in humanity. It would be but to fail in all our " duties w^ere we to cease, even for a second, to pursue " the monsters who have tortured us.
PREFACE. X\ll
" Down, tlien, with God and with Christ ! Down " with the despots of heaven and earth ! Death to the " priests ! Such is the motto of our grand Crusade."
This address gives the true spirit and aim of the International League, which has emissaries everywhere striving to decoy working men into secret- society intrigues. In America it has already led Irish Catholic labourers into lamentable excesses. It has under its control some seemingly laudable benefit societies which it uses as a means to draw Catholics gradually from the influence of the Church. The necessity therefore of being prepared for its efforts must be evident to everyone.
Erom the general consideration of secret societies, the author turns to their action amongst ourselves. He gives the most salient features of British Freemasonry, its oaths, passwords, and signs. He shows to what extent it differs from Continental Masonry, and how it is essentially unlawful and dangerous. He then passes to the principal point of his lecture, so far as his auditory were concerned — Eenianism.
All that he had stated before, here becomes of use as explanatory of the nature of that mischievous conspiracy, which had its rise, development, and ending — if, indeed, it has ended — while the author was engaged upon the Australian mission. But he has given ample proof of its designs from admitted authorities. The history of its founders he has taken from a source that cannot be impugned, the works of the late Mr. A. M. Sullivan, of the Nation. The other articles, on the sad ending of
XVlll PREFACE.
conspirators, and the wonderful indestructibility of Irisli Taith rest upon tlieir own merits.
A discourse which aimed at illustrating the words of our Holy Father Leo XIII. could not be complete without a reference to such societies as the wisdom of the great Pontiff has pointed out as fitted for Christian men. The author, therefore, speaks in favour of the excellent Temperance Society he found already in action, con- nected with the Catliolic Institute, as a sovereign antidote against secret societies of every description, and as the best remedy for those ills he could not help witnessing when passing through Edinburgh, and other great centres of population in England and Scotland. He plainly refers to the evil which certain idle agitators brinsf in those cities amongst poor, good-natured, but credulous, Irish Catholic working men. He believes that nine-tenths of the pabulum which keeps such pernicious seducers in employ- ment would be destroyed if Irish working men could be removed from the influence of persons who make profit out of their unfortunate drinking habits ; and that misfortune of nearly every temporal kind would cease for them, if they became temperate aiid continued to practise ttiose virtues which Cathohc confraternities with strict sobriety as a first rule, foster. He has therefore given his aid in advocacy of such societies as are calculated to keep the Irish in England and in Scotland, and indeed everywhere, sober, — a quality which, with habits of industry, economy, and thrift, enables them to live happily, and to bring up famihes educated, fairly provided for, and
PREFACE. XIX
a credit, instead of a shame, to the country and the religion of their parents.
The necessity of compressing a large amount of matter into the small space at his disposal, has caused many of the topics touched upon to be treated very in- adequately considering their claims to attention. He has, however, given as much fact and matter as he could, even at the risk of occasionallv sacrificins: smoothness and ease in writing. His desire was to give within the shortest limits, as full, complete, and consecutive a view as possible of the whole subject he undertook to treat. Under any one of the headings given, a volume, and in some cases, a very large and interesting volume, could be written. Pacts, however, tell for themselves, and in most instances he has left to the intelligent reader the task of drawing the inferences.
Indeed, his principal object in printing these lectures at all, and his chief hope, has been to direct the attention of those whom it most concerns to the question of secret organization as a wJwle ; to point out the fact that there exists an able, vigilant body of men, trained for years in the work of conspiracy, who never cease to plot for the destruction of Christianity, and of Christian social order amongst mankind ; and that the success of these men has hitherto arisen mainly from tliek astute and ceaseless efforts to remain concealed. The world in all its past history has never been accustomed to deal with such a body. The sworn secret society anywhere, is, what Mr. A. M. Sullivan tells us it is, in his admirable descrip-
XX PREFACE.
tion of its action in Dublin in liis time. Its policy, then, was to stifle every form of Irish public opinion except that which supported its own views. Every other expression was to be prevented by emissaries, who found their way into every popular gathering, and by secret concert, known to themselves alone, and not even so much as suspected by others, were able to make "pubhc opinion " seem to be in favour of the policy of their chiefs. If these emissaries failed, others of the secret brotherhood menaced the adverse popular leaders with loss of busiuess and character, with violence, and even death. With every one of these evils the secret-society men of the time threatened Mr. Sullivan. He, however, foiled their astuteness, and braved their menaces. He succeeded in escaping ; but it was much more owing to the con- science remaining amongst some of the Irish Fenians than to the mercy of the organization itself.
This incident, which is related at length in Mr. Sullivan's " New Ireland," gives a true idea of the action of every secret-society organization, working, under many apparent public pretences, for the ends of its chiefs. The rases of a bird to draw away attention from the nest of its young, is but a faint resemblance of what every secret society does to avoid detection, either of itself or of its intentions or doings. It scruples to commit no crime, not even murder, to divert suspicion, and to remain concealed. Concealment is, and has been from the beginning, the very essence of its inward organism and of its outward
PREFACE. XXI
policy. It is vain therefore to suppose that because no visible manifestation of its presence appears, or because some evidences — always suspicious when they are shown — of its (lying out, or becoming ridiculous, impotent, or dead, appear, that there is no further danger to be dreaded from its attempts. It has the cunning of the serpent, and the patience too. It can feign itself dead to save its head from being crushed. The author of these pages was assured in Eome, that it was all nonsense to suppose that secret societies any longer existed in Ireland; that they were things of the past which Irish Faith had banished. In a few days after, however, the world was startled by the deeds of tho Invincibles, led on, as was subsequently discovered, by a miscreant who had used the cloak of the most sacred practices of religion to conceal his real character, and to win confederates, and then victims, to his infernal designs.
Now, if the following pages prove anything, it is that over the whole world there exists a formidable conspiracy — the War of Antichrist — carried on by a secret directory rulino- every form of secret society on earth, and losing no chance of seducing men from God by first bringing them, under some pretence or other, within its ranks. It is certain that this directory will not lose sight of the Irish race in the future, any more than in the past ; that most likely in the future its plans for seducing them from, or turning them, for political or other reasons, against the Church, will be laid more astutely and less visibly than ever. The methods by which these high conspirators
XXU PREFACE.
deceive, change continually; and in the constantly recurring political agitations of Ireland, a wide field is open which they are certain to cultivate to the best advantage for the ruin of souls. Unceasing vigilance is required, therefore, to guard against their machinations and unceasing diligence in exposing their aims.
The Holy Pather, in his late celebrated Eull, Humanmn Genus^ has, therefore, manifested his desire that the bishops, the clergy, and even the laity of tlie Church should join in exposing Freemasonry and other such societies. Eut without a proper knowledge of the conspiracy as a whole that cannot be done. The author attempts to give such knowledge ; but he hopes that his efforts may be improved upon by others more able than himself, and that he may have the happiness before long of seeing some compendium of the whole subject in English which might form a text book for seminarists and others to whom the future fate of the people of God in dangerous days is co be committed. All he could do in the time at his disposal was to give a popular idea of the subject. The works which he has chiefly used for this purpose are those of Cretineau Joly, Eckert, Segur, Dupanloup, and Deschamps (as edited by M. Claude Janet), together with the current information given in the Civilta CattoUca and other Catholic reviews and periodicals. He believes moreover, that, as philosophical studies of the soundest kind on the basis of St. Thomas have, through the care of the Holy Father, assumed their proper influence in ecclesi-
PREFACE. XXIU
astical education, seminarists, and others also, should study the practical growth of those Pantheistic and immoral principles to which that philosophy is opposed. The fundamental basis of rreemasonry, as perverted or " illuminated," by Weishaupt, is Pantheism ; and Positivism and all the "isms" which the philosophers of the sect have since introduced, are meant ultimately to cause Pantheism and its attendant practical immorality to dominate over the earth. It is a new form of the oldest seduction : " eat the forbidden fruit and ye shall be as gods knowing good from evil," and is always accompanied with that other lie, of " the liar and the murderer from the beginning," " No, ye shall not die the death."
Purthermore, it must be remembered that secret societies have little dread of mere denunciation. Exposi- tion, calm and just, is that of which they are most afraid. The masses in them are nearly always in that sad condition through deception. The light thrown vividly upon the real nature of the secret sect; the gentle, kind indulgence of the Church mournino^ over the ruin and yearning for the return of her children, put before tliem, will do wonders to win back Irish victims from secret societies. Mere abuse does no good. Por the rest, prevention is better than cure ; and the time seems to have arrived when in schools, in preparation for first communion, in constant, well-judged recurrence in the instructions given to the people, in lectures and articles in our Catholic newspapers, the evil of secret societies — too sure to manifest itself in many countries —
XXIV
PREFACE.
should be made known to all classes of the faithful, who can thus be easily trained in such a way as to treat the secret society or any emanation from it as their ancestors treated heresy, and reject, even at the peril of their lives, the " unclean thing." Sound Catholic asso- ciations, temperance, and pious confraternities, are the remedies pointed out by the Holy Father, and these will preserve the portions of the flock already untainted, and retain those whom grace and zeal may bring back to the Eold of Christ.
THE
WAR OF ANTICHRIST WITH THE CHURCH
AND
CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION.
MoNSiGNOR Smith, Eev. Fathers, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It gives me, indeed, great pleasure to find the Catholic body- in this great city possessed of such a valuable, 9nd, I may add, magnificent block of buildings as that which forms this " Catholic Institute," and to know that over nine hundred of the Catholic young men of Edinburgh are gathered together by its means for mutual improvement and for moral and religious aims. I feel proud of it as the Avork of my friend and fellow-student. Father Hannan, your respected pastor. I am sure his energies, which have been in other directions — in the erection and sustenance of your extensive Parochial Schools, for instance — so well employed, could not be afterwards put to better purpose than in forming and watching over such an institution. A Catholic Society founded on the spiritual lines of this Society, and enjoy- ing its advantages in a temporal sense, is in fact, now-a-days, a necessity. It takes up and protects the Catholic boy at the most perilous and decisive period of his life — that is, when he leaves the employments and restraints of his school days to learn some trade or profession. It keeps him until manhood, well removed from those dangerous and seductive associations, so common in all large cities. It gives him rational amusement and the means of self-improvement. It causes him to frequent the sacraments, to practise prayer, to be provident^ temperate, industrious, and, above all, religious. It places him in constant communication with, and therefore under, the special care of his
B
2 WAR OF ANTICHRIST WITH THE CHURCH.
Pastor. It is, in fact, the special antidote -which our present Holy- Father — -whom may God long preserve to us — advises the Bishops of the Catholic Church to employ throughout the -world against the poisonous influence of those secret societies, -which the demon has rendered so general and so disastrous in our days. Speaking of the operative classes, Leo XIII. says, in his celebrated Encyclical Humanum Genus of this year, '^ Those who sustain themselves by the labour of their own hands, besides being by their very condition most worthy above all others of charity end consolation, are also especially exposed to the allurements of men whose -ways lie in fraud and deceit. Therefore, they ought to be helped with the greatest possible kindness, and be invited to join societies that are good, lest they be drawn away to others that are evil."
Now, these words of the Holy Father came very forcibly to my mind when I was shown, on last Saturday, the fine hall in which we are now assembled — the library and study-rooms, and the various means for recreation and improvement attached to this building. I was specially pleased to see so many young men innocently enjoying themselves, or usefully employed, on a day, which, of all other days of the week, is the one which most invites the youth of our cities to dissipation and sin. And so it happened that when Father Hannan asked me to say " a few words " — by which, I suppose he meant the lecture advertised in this morning's papers — on this Monday evening, I could not well refuse ; and as the time for preparation was very short, I determined to say ^' the few words" on the conflict which during this, and the last century, has taken place between the Church of Christ and Atheism. My reason was, because I knew, that Atheism, closely masked, and astutely organized, not only has sought, but still seeks, the destruction of the Church, and the destruction of the souls which it is her mission to save ; and as the Catholic Young Men's Society of Edinburgh is one of those beneficent associations pointed out by the Vicar of Christ as the special means for defeating the designs of Atheism, I
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 3
believe I cannot do a more appropriate, or indeed a greater service, than by unfolding what these designs really are. In this, as in all matters of importance, 'Ho be forewarned is to be forearmed," and it is specially necessary to be forewarned when we have to contend with an adversary who uses secrecy, fraud and deceit. We shall see then, that all the organizations of Atheism appear at first as does their author, Satan, clothed in the raiment of angels of light, with their malignity, their Infidelity, and their ultimate designs always most carefully hidden. They come amongst all the faithful, but more especially amongst young men, to seduce and to ruin them, never showing, but when forced to do so, the cloven foot, and employing a million means to seem to be what they are not. It is, therefore, first of all, necessary to unmask them ; and this is precisely what the Supreme Pontiff asks the pastors of the Universal Fold to do as the best means of destroying their in- fluence. ''But," he says in the Encyclical already quoted, ''as it befits our pastoral ofiice that we ourselves should point out some suitable way of proceeding, we wish it to be your rule, first of all, to tear away the mask from Freemasonry, and to let it be seen as it really is, and by instructions and pastoral letters to instruct the people as to the artifices used by societies of this kind in seducing men and enticing them into their ranks, and as to the depravity of their opinions and the wickedness of their acts."
In this- extract the Holy Father makes special mention of Freemasonry ; but, remember, not of Freemasomy only. He speaks of " other secret societies." These other secret societies are identical with Freemasonry, no matter by what name they may be called ; and they are frequently the most depraved forms of Freemasonry. And though what is known in these Islands as Freemasonry may not be so malignant as its kind is on the Continent — though it may have little or no hold at all upon the mass of Catholics in English-speaking countries, still we shall see that like every secret society in existence it is
4 WAR OF ANTICHRIST WITH THE CHURCH.
a danger for the nation and for individuals, and has hidden within it the same Atheism and hostility to Christianity which the worst Continental Freemasonry possesses. These it develops to the initiated in the higher degrees, and makes manifest to all the world in time. The truth is that every secret society is framed and adapted to make men the enemies of God and of his Church, and to subvert faith; and there is not one, no matter on what pretext it may be founded, which does not fall under the management of a supreme Directory governing all the secret societies on earth. The one aim of this directory is to uproot Christianity, and the Christian social order as well as the Church from the world — -in fact, to eradicate the name of Christ and the very Christian idea from the minds and the hearts of men. This it is determined to do by every means, but especially by fraud and force ; that is by first using wiles and deceit until the Atheistic conspiracy grows strong enough for measures as violent and remorseless in all countries as it exercised in one country during the first French Revolution. I ])elieve this secret Atheistic organization to be nothing less than the evil which we have been long warned against by Our Blessed Lord Himself, as the supreme conflict between the Church and Satan's followers. It is the commencement of the contest which must take place between Christ and Antichrist ; and nothing there- fore can be more necessary than that the elect of God should be warned of its nature and its aims. With your permission then, I shall glance to-night, first, at the rise and the nature of Atheism itselfi* and its rapid advance amongst those sections of Christians most liable from position and surroundings to be led astray by it ; and then at the use it has made of Free- masonry for its propagandism, and for its contemplated destruc- tion of Christianity. We shall see its depravity perfected by what is called lUuminism. And we shall see that however checked it may have been by the reaction consequent upon the excesses of its first Revolution, it has not only outlived that reaction, but has grown wiser for doing an evil more extended
THE RISE OF ATHEISM IN EUROrE. 5
and more complete. We shall see how its chiefs have succeeded in mastering and directing every kind of secret association whether springing from itself or coming into existence by the force of its example only ; and have used, and are using them all to its advantage. We shall see the sleepless vigilance which this organized Atheism exercises ; and thus come to know that our best, our only resource, is to fly its emissaries, and draw nearer in aifection and in effect to the teachings of the Church and her Supreme Visible Head on earth who can never deceive us, and whom the hosts of Satan never can deceive. We shall see that the voice of the Vicar of Christ has been raised against secret associations from the beginning to this hour, and that the directions which we receive from that infallible voice can alone save us from the wiles and deceits of a conspiracy so formidable, so active, so malignant, and so dangerous,
II.
The Rise of Atheism in Europe. In order, then, to comprehend thoroughly the nature of the conspiracy I speak of, it will be necessary to go back to the opening of the last century and contemplate the rise and advance of the Atheism and Anti-Christianity which it now spreads rapidly through the earth. As that century opened it disclosed a world suffering from a multitude of evils. The so-called Refor- mation, which arose and continued to progress during the two preceding centuries had well nigh run its course. It had ceased to be a persecuting force on the Continent, and only for reasons of plunder continued to use the Aveapons of oppression in Ireland. Scarcely a shred of the original doctrines of Luther remained as he had left them ; yet no signs of return to the Church were to be observed amongst his followers. Malignant hatred of the Spouse of Christ continued, when the reasons alleged for the malignity had departed. Amidst the multitude at that time calling themselves Protestants little remained certain in Christian belief.
6 WAR OF ANTICHRIST WITH THE CHURCH.
The principle of private judgment introduced in apparent zeal for the pure worship and doctrine of Christ, had ended in leaving no part of the teaching of Christ unchallenged. It had rendered His Divinity disbelieved in, and His very existence doubted, by ID any who yet called themselves His followers. Socinus and his nephew had succeeded in binding the various groups of Polish and German Protestants in a league where nothing was required but undying hatred and opposition to the Catholic Church. Bayle threw doubt upon everything, and Spinosa destroyed the little respect left for the Deity in the system of Socinus, by introducing Pantheism to the world. In effect, both the Deists and the Pantheists of that period were Atheists. Whether they held that everything was God, or that God was not such a God as Christians hold Him to be, they did away with belief in the true God, and raised up an impossible being of their own imagination in His stead. In life, in conduct, and in adoration of God, they were practical Atheists, and soon manifested that hatred for the truth which the Atheist is sure to possess. Their theories made headway early in the century throughout Central Europe and England. Bolingbroke, Shaftesbury, and, the elite amongst the statesmen and literary aristocracy of the reign of Queen Anne were Infidels. Tindal, Collins, Wolston, Toland, and Chubbs were as advanced as Tom Payne was, later on, in the way of Atheism. But however much England and Germany had advanced their Protestantism to what was called Free- thinking, both were soon destined to be eclipsed in that sad progress by Catholic and monarchical France. France owes this evil pre-eminence to one individual, who, though largely assisted in his road to ruin by Bayle, and subsequently by association with English Infidels, had yet enough of innate Avicked- ness in himself to outstrip them all. That individual was —
III.
Voltaire. I shall have to occupy your attention, for some little time, with the career of this abandoned, unhappy, but most
VOLTAIRE. 7
extraordinary man. It was in his day and by his means that the Atheism which occupies us this evening became perfected, generalized, and organized for the destruction of Christianity, Christian civilization, and all religion. He was the first, and remains still, the greatest of its Apostles. There is not one of its dark principles which he did not teach and advocate ; and from his writings, and by their means, the intellectual and every other form of war against the Catholic Church and the cause of Christ are carried on to this day and will be to the end. His real name was Francis Mary Arouet, but, for some reason which has never been clearly explained, he chose to call himself Voltaire. - He was the son of good parents, and by position and education should have been an excellent Catholic. He was trained by the very Jesuits whom he afterwards so hated and persecuted. He was destined for the profession of the law, and made, good progress in literary studies. But the cor- ruption of the age in which he lived soon seized upon him, overmastered him, and bore him along in a current which in his case did not end in vice only, but in vice which sought its own justification in Infidelity. From the beginning, the fool said in his heart "there is no God," and in the days of Voltaire the number of these fools was indeed infinite. Never before was vice so rampant in countries calling themselves Christian. If the Gospel was preached at all in that age it was certainly to the poor ; for the rich, as a rule — to which there were, thank God, many exceptions — seemed so sunk in vice as not to believe in a particle of it. The Courts of Europe were, in general, corrupt to the core ; and the Court of the Most Christian King was perhaps the most abandoned, in a wide sense, of them all. The Court of Catherine of Russia was a scene of unblushing lewdness. The Court of Frederick of Prussia was so corrupt, that it cannot be described without doing violence to decency, and even to humanity. The Regent Orleans and Louis XV. had carried licence to such an extent, as to render the Court of Versailles a veritable pandemonium. The vices of
8 WAR OF ANTICHRIST WITH THE CHURCH.
royalty infected the nobles and all others who were so unfor- tunate as to be permitted to frequent Courts. Vice, in fact, was the fashion, and numbers of all classes, not excepting the poorest, wallowed in it. As a consequence, the libertines of the period hated the Church, which alone, amidst the universal depravity, raised her voice for purity. They took up warmly, therefore, the movements which, witliin or without her pale, were likely to do her damage. With a sure instinct they sided in France with Gallicanism and Jansenism ; and they welcomed the new Infidelity which came over from England and Germany, with unconcealed gladness. Voltaire appeared in French society at this most opportune moment for the advancement of their views. Witty, sarcastic, gay, vivacious, he soon made his way amongst the voluptuaries who then filled Paris. His conduct and habit of ridiculing religion and royalty brought him, however, into disfavour with the Government, and at the age of twenty-seven we find him in the Bastile. Liberated from this prison in 1727, but only on condition of exile, he crossed over to England, where he finally adopted those Infidel and anti- Christian principles which made him, for the half century through which he afterwards lived, what Cretineau Jolyi very justly calls "the most perfect incarnation of Satan that the world ever saw." The Society of Freemasons was just then per- fected in London, and Voltaire at the instance of his Infidel associates joined one of its lodges ; and he left England, where he had been during the years 1726-27 and '28, an adept in both Infidelity and Freemasonry. He returned to the Continent with bitterness rankling in his breast against Monarchical Govern- ment which had imprisoned and exiled him, against the Bastile where he was immured, and, above all, against the Catholic Church and her Divine Founder. Christ and His Church con- demned his excesses, and to the overthrow of both he devoted
1 L'Eglise Romaine en face de la Revolution Par J. Cretineau-Joly, ouvrage compose sur des documents inedits et orne des portraits de Leurs Saintetes Les Rapes Rie VII. Et Rie IX dessines par Stall. Paris : Henri Plon, Libraire-editeur, Rue Garanciere, 8. — 1861.
VOLTAIRE. 9
himself "^vitli an ardour and a malignity more characteristic, certainly, of a demon than of a man.
A master of French prose hardly ever equalled and never perhaps excelled, and a graceful and correct versifier, his writings against morality and religion grew into immense favour with the corrupt reading-pul)lic of his day. He was a perfect adept in the use of ridicule, and he employed it with remorseless and blasphemous force against everything pure and sacred. He had as little respect for the honour or welfare of his country as he had for the sanctity of religion. His ruffian pen attacked the fair fame of the Maid of Orleans with as little scruple as it cast shame upon the consecrated servants of Christ. For Christ he had but one feeling — eternal, contemptuous hatred. His watch- word, the concluding lines of all his letters to his Infidel con- federates was for fifty years ecrasons nous I'infame, ''let us crush the wretch," meaning Christ and his cause. This he boasted was his delenda est Carthago. And he believed he could succeed. " I am tired, said he, of hearing it said that twelve men sufficed to establish Christianity, and I desire to show that it requires but one man to pull it down." A lieutenant of police once said to him, that, notwithstanding all he wrote, he should never be able to destroy Christianity. " That is exactly what we shall see," he replied. Voltaire was never weary of using his horrible watch-word.
Upon the news of the suppression of the Jesuits reaching him, he exclaimed : " See, one head of the hydra has fallen. I lift my eyes to heaven and cry 'crush the wretch.' " We have from himself his reason for using these blasphemous 'words. He says, "I finish all my letters by saying, Ecrasons Vinfame, ecrasez IHnfame.'' ' Let us crush the wretch, crush the wretch,' as Cato used one time to say, Delenda est Carthago^ Carthage must be destroyed." Even at a time when the miscreant pro- tested the greatest respect for religion to the Court of Rome, he wrote to Damilaville: "We embrace the philosophers, and we beseech them to inspire for the wretch all the horror
10 WAR OF ANTICHRIST WITH THE CHURGH.
which they can. Let all fall upon the wretch ably. That which most concerns me is the propagation of the faith of truth, and the making of the wretch vile, Deleiida est Carthago.''
Certainly his determination was strong to do so ; and he left no stone unturned for that end. He was a man of amazing industry ; and though his vanity caused him to quarrel with many of his confreres, he had in his life time a large school of disciples, which became still more numerous after his death. He sketched out for them the whole mode of procedure against the Church. His policy as revealed by the correspondence of Frederick II. and others^ with him, was not to com- mence an immediate persecution, but first to suppress the Jesuits and all Religious orders, and to secularize their goods ; then to deprive the Pope of temporal authority, and the Church of property and state recognition. Primary and higher-class
1 To show how early the confederates of Voltaire had determined upon the gradual impoverishment of the Church and the sujipression of the Religious orders, the following letters from Frederick II., will be of use. In the first dated 13th August, 1775, the Monarch writes to the then very aged "Patriarch of Ferney," who had demanded the secularization of the Khine ecclesiastical electorates and other episcoj^al benefices in Germany, as follows : —
" All you say concerning our German bishops is but too true ; they grow fat upon the tithes of Sion. Bwt you know, also, that in the Holy Roman EmjDJre the ancient usage, the Bull of Gold, and other antique follies, cause abuses established to be respected. If we wish to dimhiish fanaticism we must not touch the bishops. But, if we manage to diminish the monks, especially the mendicant orders, the people will grow cold and less superstitious, they will permit the powers that be, to dispose of the bishnjjs in the manner best suited to the good of each State. This is the only course to follow. To imdermine silently and without noise the edifice of infatuation is to oblige it to fall of itself. The Pope, seeing the situation in which he finds himself, is obliged to give briefs and bulls as his dear sons demand of him. The power foimded upon the ideal credit of the faith loses in proportion as the latter diminishes. If there were now found at the head of nations some ministers above vulgar prejudices, the Holy Father would become bankrupt. Without doubt posterity will enjoy the advantage of being able to think freely."
Again, this curious compound of warrior, despot, Protestant free-thinker, poet, and mocker, writes to Voltaire, on the 8th September, 1775 : —
"It is to Bayle, your predecessor, and to you, without doubt, that the glory is due of that revolution which has taken place in minds, but, to say the truth, it is not complete. The devotees have their party, and never will that be crushed except by a greater force. It is from the Governments that the sentence must go forth . . . Without doubt this will be done in time, but neither you nor I will be spectators of an event so much desired."
" I have remarked," he says, also, " and others with me, that the places where there are most convents and monks are those wherein the people are most given to superstition. It is not doubtful that if we could succeed in destroying these
VOLTAIRE. 11
education of a lay and Infidel character was to be established, the principle of divorce affirmed, and respect for ecclesiastics lessened and destroyed. Lastly, when the whole body of the Church should be sufficiently weakened and Infidelity strong enough, the final blow was to be dealt by the sword of open, relentless persecution. A reign of terror was to spread over the whole earth, and to continue while a Christian should be found obstinate enough to adhere to Christianity. This, of course, was to be followed by a Universal Brotherhood without marriage, family, property, God, or law, in which all men would reach that level of social degradation aimed at by the disciples of Saint Simon, and carried into practice whenever possible, as attempted by the French Commune.
In the carrying out of his infernal designs against religion and society, Voltaire had as little scruple in using lying and hypocrisy as Satan himself is accredited with. In his attacks upon religion he falsified history and fact. He made a principle of lying, a.nd taught the same vice to his followers. Writing to his disciple Theriot, he says (Oeuvres, t. 52, p. 326) : *' Lying is a vice when it does evil. It is a great virtue when
asykuns of fanaticism, the people would shortly grow indifferent and lukewarm regarding the thiu'gs which form at present the objects of their veneration. It would be necessary then to destroy the cloisters, or at least to commence to diminish their number. The moment is arrived because the French Government and that of Austria are so indebted that they have exhausted the resources of industry without being able to pay their debts. The list of rich abbeys and of convents, with a good rent-roll, is seducing. In representing to them the evil which the cenobites do tlie population of their States, as well as the abuse of the great nmnber of religious who fill their provinces, and, in the meantime, the facility of paying a part of their debts, by applying to that purpose tlie treasures of communities which have no natm-al succession, I think they could be brought to determine upon commencing that reform. It is to be presumed that after having enjoyed the secularization of some benefices their avidity would soon swallow up tlie rest. Every Government, which determines upon that operation, will desii'e the spread of philosophers and be a partisan of all the books which attack popular superstitions and the false zeal of hypocrites, who wish to oppose them. Behold a little project which I wish to submit for the examination of the Patriarch of Ferney. It is for him, as the Father of the Faithful, to rectify and to execute it. The Patriarch may demand of me, perhaps, what is to be done with the bishops. I answer that it is not yet the time to touch them, that it is necessary to commence by destroying those who inflame with fanaticism the hearts of the people. When the people shall have grown cold the bishops will become little boys, whom the Sovereigns will dispose of iu the course of time at their good pleasm-e."
12 WAR or ANTICHRIST WITH THE CHURCH.
it does good. Be therefore more virtuous than ever. It is necessary to lie like a devil, not timidly and for a time, but boldly and always."
He was also, as the school he left behind has been ever since, a hypocrite. Infidel to the heart's core, he could, whenever it suited his purpose, both practise, and even feign a zeal for religion. On the expectation of a pension from the King, he wrote to M. Argental. a disciple of his, who reproached him with his hypocrisy and contradictions in conduct. " If I had a hundred thousand men I know well what I would do; but as I have not got them, I will go to communion at Easter, and you may call me a hypocrite as long as you like." And Voltaire, on getting his pension, went to communion the year following.^ It is needless to say that he was in life, as well -as in his writings, immoral as it was possible for a man to be. He lived without shame and even ostentatiously in open adultery. He laughed at every moral restraint. He preached libertinage and practised it. He was
1 In 1768 Voltaire wrote as follows to the Marquis de Villevielle : — " No, my dear Marqixis, no, the modern Socrates will not drink the hemlock. The Socrates of Athens was, between you and me, a pitiless caviller, who made himself a thousand enemies and who braved his judges very foolishly.
" Our modern i^hilosophers are more adroit. They have not the foolish and dangerous vanity to put their names to their works. Theirs are the invisible hands which pierce fanaticism from one end of Eiu-ope to the other with the arrows of truth. Damilaville recently died. He was the author of ' Christianism unveiled,' and many other writings. No one ever knew him. His friends preserved the secret of his name as long as he lived with a fidelity worthy of philosophy. No one yet knows who is the author of the work given under the name of Fieret. In Holland, during the last two years, they have printed more than sixty volumes against superstition. The authors of them are absolutely unknown, although they could boldly proclaim themselves. The Italian who has written the ' Reform of Italy,' has not cared to present his work to the Pope, but his book has a prodigious effect. A thousand pens write and a hundred thou- sand voices arise against abuses and in favour of tolerance. Be assirred that the revolution which has taken place in minds during the past twelve years has served, and not a little, to drive the Jesuits from so many States, and to strongly encourage princes to strike at the idol of Rome which caused them all to tremble at another epoch. The people are very stupid and, nevertheless, the light has penetrated even to them. Be very sure, for example, that there are nottwenty persons in Geneva who do not abjure Calvin as well as the Pope, and that there axe philosophers even in the shops of Paris.
" I shall die consoled in seeing the true religion, that of the heart, established on the ruins of affectations. I have never preached but the adoration of one God, beneficence and indulgence. With these sentiments I brave the devil who does not exist and the true devils who exist only too much."
VOLTAIRE. 13
the guest and the inmate of the Court of Frederick of Prussia, wliere crime reached proportions impossible to speak of. And lastly, coward, liar, hypocrite, and pander to the basest passions of humanity, he Avas finally, like Satan, a murderer if he had the power to be so. Writing to Damilaville, he says, " The Christian religion is an infamous religion, an abominable hydra which must be destroyed by a hundred invisible hands. It is necessary that the philosophers should course through the streets to destroy it as missionaries course over earth and sea to propagate it. They ought dare all things, risk all things, even to be burned, in order to destroy it. Let us crush the wretch ! Crush the wretch !" His doctrine thus expressed found fatal effect in the French Revolution, and it will obtain effect when- ever his disciples are strong enough in men and means to act. I have no doubt his teachings have led to all the revolutions of this century, and will lead to the final attack of Atheism on the Church. Nor was his hatred confined to Catholicity only. Christians of every denomination were marked out for des- truction by him ; and our separated Christian brethren, who feel glad at seeing his followers triumph over the Church, might well ponder on these words of his: " Christians," he says, "of every form of profession, are beings exceedingly injurious, fanatics, thieves, dupes, impostors, who lie together with their gospels, enemies of the human race." And of the system itself he writes : " The Christian religion is evidently false, the Christian religion is a sect which every good man ought to hold in horror. It cannot be approved of even by those to whom it gives power and honour." In fact, since his day, it has been a cardinal point of policy with his follow^ers to take advantage of the unfortunate differences between the various sects of Christians in the world and the Church, in order to ruin both ; for the destruction of every form of Christianity, as well as Catholicity, was the aim of Voltaire, and remains as certainly the aim of his disciples. Thay place, of course, the Church and the Vicar of Christ in the first line of attack, well knowing that if the great Catholic unity
14 WAR OF ANTICHRIST WITH THE CHURCH,
could be destroyed, the work of eradicating every kind of separated Christianity would be easy. In dealing, therefore, with such a foe as modern Atheism, so powerfully organized, as we shall see it to be, Protestants as well as Catholics should guard against its wiles and deceits. They should, at least, regarding questions such as the religious education of rising generations, the attempted secularisation of the Sabbath and state-established. Christian Institutions, and the recognition of religion by the State, all of which the Atheism of the world now attempts to destroy, present an unbroken front of determined union. Nothing less, certainly, can save even the Protestantism, the national, Christian character of Great Britain and her colonies from impending ruin.
Although Voltaire was as confirmed and malignant a hater of Christ and of Christianity as ever lived, still he showed from time to time that his own professed principles of Infidelity were never really believed in by himself. In health and strength he cried out his blasphemous " crush the wretch !" but when the moment came for his soul to appear before the judgment-seat of ''the wretch," his faith was shown and his vaunted courage failed him.
The miscreant always acted against his better knowledge. His life gives us many examples of this fact. I will relate one for you. When he broke a blood vessel on one occasion, he begged his assistants to hurry for the priest. He confessed, signed with his hand a profession of faith, asked pardon of God and the Church for his offences, and ordered that his retractation should be printed in the public newspapers ; but, recovering, he commenced his war upon God anew, and died refusing all spiritual aid, and crying out in the fury of despair and agony, "I am abandoned by God and man." Dr. Fruchen, who witnessed the awful spectacle of his death, said to his friends, " Would that all who have been seduced by the writings of Voltaire had been witnesses of his death, it would be impossible to hold out, in the face of such an awful
VOLTAIRE. lA
spectacle." ^ But that spectacle was forgotten, and consequently, before ten years passed, the world saw the effects of his works.
Speaking of the French Revolution, Condorcet, in his "Life of Voltaire," says of him, " He did not see all that which he accom- plished, but he did all that which we see. Enlightened observations prove to those who know how to reflect that the. first author of that Great Revolution was without doubt Voltaire."
I have thus far spoken of Voltaire and his teachings in order to introduce with greater clearness the important subject to which I ask the favour of your attention this evening. It never was the intention of this man to let his teachings die, or beat the air, so to speak, with mere words. He determined that his fatal gospel should be perpetuated, and should bring forth as speedy as possible its fruits of death. Even in his life-time, we have evidence that he constantly conspired with his associates for this end, and that with them he concocted in secret both the means by which his doctrines should reach all classes in Europe, and the methods by which civil order and Christianity might be best destroyed. St. Beauve writes of him and of his, in the Journal des Dehats^ 8 November, 1852 : — "All the correspondence of Voltaire and D'Alembert is ugly. It smells of the sect, of the conspiracy of the Brotherhood, of the secret society. From whatever point it is viewed it does no honour to men who make a principle of lying, and who consider contempt of their kind the fu'st condition necessary to enlighten them. * Enlighten and despise the human race.' A sure watchword this, and it is theirs. ' March on always sneering, my brethren, in the way of truth.' That is their perpetual refrain.' " But not only did he and his, thus conspire in a manner which might seem to arise naturally from identical sentiments and aims, but what was of infinitely greater consequence, the demon, just as their sad gospel was ripe for propagation, called into existence the most efficacious means possible for its extension amongst men, and
^ See Le Secret de la Franc-Ma^oiuierie^ par Monsigneur Amand Joseph Fava, Eveque de Grenoble. Lille, 1883, p. 08.
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for the wished-for destruction of the Church, of Christian civilization, and of every form of existing Christianity. This was the spread amongst those already demoralized by Voltaireanism, of Freemasonry and its cognate systems of secret Atheistic organization.
This is the point upon which 1 am most anxious to fix your attention this evening.
IV.
Freemasonry. Freemasonry, we must remember always, appeared generally and spread generally, too, in the interests of all that Voltaire aimed at, when it best suited his purpose. The first lodge established in France under the English obedience was in 1727. Its founder and first master was the celebrated Jacobite, Lord Derwentwater. It had almost immediate acceptance from the degenerate nobility of France, who, partly because of the influence of English and Scotch Jacobite nobles, and partly because of its novelty, hard swearing, and mystery, joined the strange institution. Its lodges were soon in every considerable city of the realm. The philosophers and various schools of Atheists, however, were the first to enter into and to extend it. For them it had special attractions and special uses, which they Avere not slow to appreciate and to employ. Now, though it very little concerns us to know much of the origin of this society, which became then and since so notorious throughout the world, still, as that origin throws some light on its subsequent history, it will not be lost time to glance at what is known, or supposed to be known, about it. Monsignor Segur,^ Bishop of Grenoble, who devoted much time to a study of Freemasonry, is persuaded that it was first elaborated by Faustus Socinus, the nephew of the too cele- brated Laslius Socinus, the heresiarch and founder of the sect of Unitarians or, as they are generally called after him, Socinians.
1 Opus Cit. p. 8.
FREEMASONRY. 1 7
Both were of tlie ancient family of the Sozini of Sienna. Faustus, like many of his relatives, imbibed the errors of his uncle, and in order to escape the vigilance of the Inquisition, to which both Italy and Spain owed much of the tran- quillity they enjoyed in these troublesome times, he fled to France. While in that country at Lyons, and when only tAventy years of age, he heard of tlie death of his uncle at Zurich, and went at once to that city to olitain the papers and effects of the deceased. From the papers he found that L^lius had assisted at a conference of Heretics at Vicenza, in 1547, in which the destruction of Christianity was resolved upon, and where resolutions were adopted for the renewal of Arianism — a system of false doctrine calculated to sap the very foundations of existing Faith by attacking the Trinity and the Incarnation. Feller, an authority of considerable weight, in his reference to this conference, says: ^'In the assembly of Vicenza, they agreed upon the means of destroying the religion of Jesus Christ, by , forming a society which by its progressive successes brought on, towards the end of the eighteenth century, an almost general apostasy. When the Republic of Venice became informed of this conspiracy, it seized upon Julian Trevisano and Francis de Rugo, and strangled them. Ochinus and the others saved themselves. The society thus dispersed became only the more dangerous, and it is that which is known to-day under the name of Freemasons." For this information Feller refers us to a work entitled '^The Veil Removed," Le Voile Leve, by the Abbe Le Franc, a victim of the reign of terror, in 1792. The latter tells us that the conspirators whom the severity of the Venetian Republic had scattered, and who were Ochinus, La3lius Socinus, Peruta, Gentilis, Jacques Chiari, Francis Lenoir, Darius Socinus, Alicas, and the Abbe Leonard, carried their poison with them, and caused it to bear fruits of death in all parts of Europe. The success of Faustus Socinus in spreading his uncle's theories was enormous. His aim was not only to destroy the Church, but to raise up another temple into
c
18 WAR OF ANTICHRIST WITH THE CHURCH.
which any enemy of orthodoxy might freely enter. In this temple eyerj heterodox belief might be held. It was called Christian but was without Christian faith, or hope, or love. It was simply an astutely planned system for propagating the ideas of its founders ; for a fundamental part of the policy of Socinus, and one in which he well instructed his disciples, was to associate either to Unitarianism or to the confederation formed at Vicenza, the rich, the learned, the powerful, and the influential of the world. He feigned an equal esteem for Trinitarians and anti-Trinitarians, for Lutherans and Calvinists. He praised the undertakings of all against the Church of Rome, and working upon their intense hatred for Catholicity, caused them to forget their many " isms " in order to unite them for the destruction of the common enemy. When that should be effected, it would be time to consider a system agreeable to all. Until then, unity of action inspired by hatred of the Church should reign amongst them.
He therefore wished that all his adherents should, whether Lutheran or Calvinist, treat one another as brothers ; and hence his disciples have been called at various times " United Brethren," " Polish Brothers," " Moravian Brothers," " Brother Masons," and finally "Freemasons." Mgr. Segur informs us, on the authorities before quoted, as well as upon that of Bergier, and the learned author of a work entitled, " Les Franc Magons Ecrases," — the Abbe Lerudan — printed at Amsterdam, as early as the year 1747, that the real secret of Freemasonry consisted, even then, in disbelief in the Divinity of Christ, and a determination to replace that doctrine, which is the very foundation of Christianity, by Naturalism or Eationalism. Socinus having established his sect in Poland, sent emissaries to preach his doctrines stealthily in Germany, Holland, and England. In Germany, Protestants and Catholics united to unmask them. In Holland, they blended with the Anabaptists, and in England, they found partisans amongst the Independents and various other sects into which the people were divided.
FREEMASONRY. 1 9
The Abbe Lefranc believes {Le Voile Zt^i'e, Lyons, 1821). that Oliver Cromwell was a Socinian, and that he introduced Freemasonry into England. Certainly, Cromwell's sympathies were not for the Church favoured by the monarch he supplanted, and were much with the Independents. If he was a Socinian, we can easily understand how the secret society of Vicenza could have attractions for one of his anti-Catholic and ambitious sentiments. He gave its members in England, as Mgr. Segur tells us, the title of Freemasons, and invented the allegory of the Temple of Solomon, now so much used by Masonry of every kind, and which meant the original state of man supposed to be a commonwealth of equality with a vague Deism as its religion. This temple, destroyed by Christ for the Christian order, was to be restored by Freemasonry after Christ and the Christian order should be obliterated by conspiracy and revolution. The state of Nature was the " Hiram " whose murder Masonry was to avenge ; and which, having previously removed Christ, was to resuscitate Hiram, by re-building the temple of Nature as it had been before.
Mgr. Segur, moreover, connects modern Freemasonry with the Jews and Templars, as Avell as with Socinus. There are reasons which lead me to think that he is right in doing so. The Jews for many centuries previous to the Reformation, had formed secret societies for their own protection and for the destruction of the Christianity which persecuted them, and which they so much hated. The rebuilding of the Temple of Solomon was the dream of their lives. It is un- questionable that they wished to make common cause with other bodies of persecuted religionists. They had special reason to welcome with joy such heretics as were cast off by Catholicity. It is, therefore, not at all improbable, that they admitted into their secret conclaves some at least of the discontented Templars, burning for revenge upon those who dispossessed and suppressed the Order. That fact would account for the curious combination of Jewish and conventual allusions to be found in modern
20 WAR OF ANTICHRIST WITH THE CHURCH,
Masonry/ Then, as to its British History, we have seen that numbers of the secret brotherhood of Socinus made their way to England and Scothmd, where they found friends, and, perhaps, confederates. I have, therefore, no doubt but that the Abbe Lefranc is correct, when he says that Cromwell was connected with them. At least, before he succeeded in his designs, he had need of some such secret society, and would, no doubt, be glad to use it for his purposes. But it is not so clear that Cromwell was the first, as Lefranc thinks, to blend that brotherhood with the real Freemasons. The ancient guild of working masons had existed in Great Britain and in Europe for many centuries previous to his time. They were like every other guild of craftsmen — a body formed for mutual protection and trade offices. But they differed from other tradespeople in this, that from their duties they were more
^ M. Goixgenot-Demousseaiix, iu his work on the Jew, Judaism, and the Judaiza- tion of Christian people (Paris 18G9), has brought together a great number of indications on the relations of the high chiefs of Masonry with .Judaism. He thus concludes : — " Masonry, that immense association, the rare initiates of which, that is to say, the real chiefs of which, whom we must be careful not to confound with the nominal chiefs, live in a strict and intimate alliance with the militant members of Judaism, princes and imitators of the high cabal. For that elite of the order — these real chiefs whom so few of the initiated know, or whom they only know for the most part mider a nom de guerre, are employed in the profitable and secret dependence of the cabalistic Israelites. And this phenomenon is accomplished, thanks to the habits of rigorous discretion to which they subject themselves by oaths and terrible menaces ; thanks also to the majority of Jewish members which the mysterious constitutiou of Masonry seats iu its sovereign coimsel."