Chapter IV.

Freemasonry a Grand Revolutionary Society.

A terrible charge, truly, is this, against loyal subjects of Her Gracious Majesty who are enroled in this mysterious Society. Many, indeed, will repudiate it with all the vehemence possible. But I beg the reader to recall what he has learned in the preceding pages of the existence of "Amateur" Masonry. I will remind him also of what I have already reiterated, namely, that our study now is of things, not of persons. Again and again I would repeat that we do not include in our censure under the head of Revolution all who belong to the Craft. As the estimable work, "The Secret Warfare of Freemasonry," says, "there are many men, in the lowest grades especially, who, being loyal subjects of authority, would not for a moment hesitate to abandon all connection with this Society if the scales which have grown over their eyes were only removed. Such persons may be frequently heard to complain that the door leading to the higher grades of the Order is kept closed against them; and not a few, grown weary of the perpetual delay, have quitted an association in which they expected to learn so much, and have in reality learnt so little."

It is marvellous how this body shields itself under mystery, and appeals to pretence, hypocrisy, and the caution of the serpent, in order to deceive the Governments and dupe its followers. In its constitutions it will prescribe "that the Lodges do not occupy themselves with political matters"; but, to the student of the history and working of Masonry, it is clear that such a statute is a contradiction and a lie.

The reader has, indeed, already got some insight into the revolutionary proclivities of Freemasonry. He will remember that it enters into its scheme—"to be ever on the watch to make all changes in the State serve our own ends; political parties, cabals, brotherhoods, and page 21 unions—in short, everything that affords an opportunity of creating disturbances must be an instrument in our hands; for it is only on the ruins of society as it exists at present that we can hope to erect a solid structure on the natural system, etc." Here we have meditated a world-wide revolution of the most sweeping and abominable kind. We are justified, in fact, in proceeding so far as to say, that it is the distinguishing characteristic of this Society that it incessantly pursues a line of political, social, and revolutionary action on the world. M. Henri Martin, in his history of France, says, "Freemasonry is the laboratory of the Revolution"; and, according to Br. Felix Pyal, "it is the Church of the Revolution."

Again—"When I look at the past history of our institution, do I not see that Freemasonry has been the attentive look-out man who watches the course of the political ships"?

Later on the same orator says, "In all political crises, whenever it was needful, the centre, the mainstay of resistance was there, in Freemasonry."

He continues : "If our (revolutionary) ideas have triumphed I say that it is to Freemasonry we owe it."

"Freemasonry has taken an active part in all political struggles."

These quotations must suffice; they are explicit as can be, in showing that the article of the Constitution, which prohibits political interference, is a perfect sham and meant only to deceive.

The supreme aim of Freemasonry is the annihilation or extirpation of all authority and the establishment of what it represents as the "Golden Age." Let us listen to the words of the Mason Gregoire: "All governments are our enemies, all nations are our friends; either page 22 we shall be destroyed or they emancipated, and emancipated they shall be. When the axe of freedom has struck down the throne, it will fall upon the head of anyone who strives to piece together its fragments."

This "benevolent" Society bears a deadly hate to all forms of authority, nay, to the very idea of subjection. We learn much on this point from a secret publication called the "Disclosures." From it I shall cull a few extracts, some lengthy, but all more or less useful in revealing the destructive designs of Masonry, as well as the artful measures it uses in their pursuance. At page 28 there are the following sentences :—"Let us keep our eyes continually fixed upon the Temple of Solomon (the reconstruction of society) and upon our emblems, but never let us permit the real significance of our teaching to be known, except in the Lodge of a few select brethren! . . .. Courage, Fraternity, Unity, Perseverance! Let us arm ourselves with the invisible light, and cherish within our hearts a courage worthy of the loftiest souls. My Brethren, let it be our firm conviction that we represent the lantern of Diogenes, that we are fiery meteors of terrible omen to tyrants." Surely, this is gnashing the teeth at every species of government.

Turning to page 6 we read : "Therefore, we must hold in our hands the tools entrusted to us by that great Master (Solomon), labouring incessantly to keep them in good condition, and to put them to a worthy use, until the unexpected denouement shall arrive to startle the world with the most terrible, but at the same time most felicitous, of all revolutions, and confer immortal glory upon that most sagacious enemy of all crowned heads. In order to achieve this, no effort must be spared to attract, by the deceptive bait of Brotherhood, an immense multitude of persons, and unite them in the same views, without allowing differences of taste, character, and religion, to offer any obstacle. Our teaching must be regulated with consummate skill, in order to animate and keep up this Association, and extend it beyond the limits of its own members to all the inhabitants of the world . . .This exalted doctrine, the soul of our Union, and the animating spirit of all its members, consists in that radical instinct, the law engraved by nature in every heart, which must be ever the basis of all our transactions, athirst for liberty and equality." Yes, universal liberty and absolute equality, this is the twofold object of Freemasonry. Liberty! what a much abused page 23 word! But what is the nature of the liberty which Masonry promises? "It is," says the author of "The Secret Warfare," a "casting off of all restraints of religion, political and social life; that emancipation of the will and of the passions, which never fails, ultimately, to result in the enslavement of all that is best in man."

"We must hold fast," says the "Disclosures," "to the fundamental principle of our Order, that all our brother Masons" (of the lower grades) "are only our soldiers and workmen, whilst we are their generals and the great architects commissioned by Freedom to construct a vast edifice—that is, the reform of the human race, through the destruction of kings, those scourges of humanity." This secret document advises that the Order be recruited as far as possible from the youth of the upper classes, even from the aristocracy, and then proceeds :—"In education, we must gently instil the essence of our teaching in its most attractive form, and, without exciting the least suspicion, insensibly prepare those in high places for the blow which will [unclear: nihilate] them, endeavouring to weaken their prestige and destroy the power they have usurped over their fellow-men, by means of well-known writers, whose views are in harmony with our plans. We must inspire inferiors with ambition, and with jealousy of their superiors, teaching them to despise and hate all whom chance has placed over them. They must thus be gradually led on to insubordination, by being skilfully shown that to require loyalty and fidelity proves an immoderate thirst for power, and is an unwarrantable outrage on the rights of man. . . . . Thus we shall induce young hearts, who are incapable of discerning our real end, to help us in accomplishing our great work, and in restoring to man the whole independence bestowed on him by his Creator." Is not this shocking? Do we not plainly see how intimate is the connection, between modern educational legislation and the designs of Masonry?

What respect for the rulers this Society inculcates! Barruel states that at his admission he was asked under oath : "My brother, are you prepared to execute every command you may receive from the Grand Master, even should contrary orders be laid on you by King or Emperor, or any other ruler whatsoever?" Hence this Order is actually a school of insubordination and conspiracy.

Listen to the testimony of M. Louis Blanc, who had ten years' experience as a Mason; he speaks of the spirit and system of Masonry page 24 thus: "Darkness, mystery, an awful oath to pronounce, a secret to learn for each trial courageously borne, a secret to keep under pain of execration and death, particular signs whereby the brothers recognise one another at the uttermost ends of the earth, ceremonies referring to the history of a murder and seeming to hatch and foster ideas of vengeance—what more fit to form conspirators?" "Such," says Bishop Dupanloup, "is the essential object of Masonry, to mine all social and religious order. It pushes its work of sapping and destruction in careful parallels, and at equal depths, under altars and thrones—those, at least, which are still standing; and he is blind who does not see it! It says that it carries a torch to light the world, but it is the torch of an incendiary."

It was precisely these terrible revolutionary designs of Freemasonry which induced the Provincial Grand Master, the Prussian Minister, Count Von Hangevitz, to leave it. In the memorial written by him, he bids the rulers of Europe to be on their guard against this "Hydra." "I feel at this moment firmly persuaded," he writes, "that the French Revolution, which had its first commencement in 1788, and broke out soon after, attended with all the horrors of regicide, existed Heaven only knows how long before, having been planned, and having had the way prepared for it, by associations and secret oaths."

It is, indeed, but a matter of history that Freemasonry has had an active part in the French Revolutions. The dreadful one of 1793 was nothing more than Masonry in power. All the principal leaders had been initiated into its highest grades. But let us again hear Louis Blanc as, in his history of the French Revolution, he conveys to us an idea of the manner in which Freemasons laboured at their revolutionary work. "It is necessary," he says, "to conduct the reader to the opening of the subterranean mine, laid at that time against thrones and altars by revolutionists, far more deep and active than the Encyclopédistes. An association had been formed, composed of men of every land, every religion, and every class, bound together by mysterious signs agreed upon amongst themselves, pledged by a solemn oath to observe inviolable secrecy as to the existence of this hidden bond, and tested by proofs of a terrible description. These men busied themselves with the performance of fantastic ceremonies, and the practice of works of benevolence, recognising amongst themselves no difference of rank, except the Masonic distinctions of Apprentice, Fellow-Craft, and Master Mason, Thus, we find Masonry to have been widely page 25 diffused before the outbreak of the Revolution. Spreading over the whole face of Europe, it poisoned the thinking minds of Germany, and secretly stirred up rebellion in France, showing itself everywhere in the light of an association resting upon principles diametrically opposed to those which govern civil society.

"Freemasons did, indeed, make great outward display of obedience to law, of respect to the outward forms and usages of society, and of reverence towards rulers. At their banquets, they did, indeed drink the health of kings in the days of monarchy, and of presidents in the times of the republic; such caution being indispensable on the part of an association which threatened the existence of the very governments under whose eyes it was compelled to work, and whose suspicion it had already aroused. This did not counteract the radically revolutionary influence continually exercised by Masonry, even while it professed nothing but peaceful intentions." (Vol. ii., c. 3.) And this, dear reader, from a Mason. Could you desire a more plain-speaking and powerful quotation from me?

Barruel, who was an eye-witness of the events of the period and acquainted with many Freemasons in Paris, declares that, upon the success of the Revolution and after the capture of the unfortunate king, the brethren, considering that the time had come when they were free to publish the secret which they had sworn to keep, shouted aloud, "At last our goal is reached. From this day France will be one vast Lodge, and all Frenchmen Freemasons. The rest of the world will soon follow our example." He says that he himself heard some of the most guarded and reticent of the Masons proclaim publicly: "At last the object of our League has been attained—Equality and Freedom; 'all men are brothers and equals, all men are free,' was the whole purport of the law, the goal of our wishes, in fact, our great secret."

Brother Lamertine, by no means the reddest of the red, president of the Provincial Council in 1848, expressed his conviction that the great ideas which were at the bottom of the popular risings of 1789, 1830, and 1848 were the offspring of Freemasonry.

In the first days of the French Revolution of 1848 the Freemasons might be seen, to the number of three hundred of every rite, marching through Paris to the Hotel de Ville, and offering their banner to the Provincial Government of the Republic, proclaiming aloud the part page 26 they had taken in the "glorious" Revolution. This was not sufficient : fifteen days later another deputation, adorned with Masonic scarfs, repaired to the same hotel where they were received by the Masons, M. Crémieux and M. Gasnier-Pagès, members of the new Government, who likewise wore the emblems of the Craft. Thus spoke the representative of the Grand Master : "French Masonry could not contain her universal burst of sympathy with the great social and national movement which has just been effected. . . . The Freemasons hail with joy the triumph of their principles, and boast of being able to say that the whole country has received through you a Masonic consecration. Forty thousand Freemasons, distributed in five hundred workshops" (Lodges) "cheer you with one heart and soul!" And Brother Crémieux replied : "Citizens and Brothers of the Great Orient, the Provincial Government accepts with pleasure your useful and complete adhesion. . . . The Republic exists in Freemasonry. . . . The Republic will do as the Freemasons have done; it will become the growing pledge of union with all men in all parts of the globe, on all sides of our triangle." Yes, after the deplorable upheaval of society, Masons sang songs of joyous triumph at the open success of their secret endeavours.

Now, let us see the conduct of this body in favour of the horrible Communist insurrection in 1871, which, according to the Freemason Thirifocq, was "the greatest revolution which it has been given to the world to contemplate," On the 29th April, 1871, in response to an appeal made to all the Lodges of the Orient of Paris, an immense crowd of Freemasons, carrying sixty-two banners, proceeded from the Court of the Louvre to the Hotel de Ville, preceded by fire members of the Commune. The whole body of the Commune presented themselves on the Balcony of Honour to receive them. The bearer of the sixty-two Masonic banners placed themselves in order on the steps of the staircase, while the rest of the brethren grouped themselves In the Court. "As soon as the Court was filled," writes the Official Journal, "cries of 'Long live the Commune!' 'Long live Freemasonry!' 'Long live the Universal Republic!' were heard on all sides." Then, after an exchange of speeches, in which the inseparable union of the Commune and Freemasonry were again and again proclaimed, and after Br. Thirifocq had made the declaration "If we should fail in our attempt to make peace, we will go altogether, and, joining our companions in arms, take part in the battle," the page 27 Freemason deputies, accompanied by the members of the Commune, went out of the Hotel de Ville, the band playing the "Marseillaise."

"Ten thousand Freemasons were there," says Bishop Dupanloup, "and proceeded from the Hotel de Ville to the Bastile; going down the whole line of the Boulevards, and crossing the Champs Elysées, their immense column arrived at the ramparts, planted there their sixty-two banners, and had a parley with the generals, in the hope of obtaining a peace based on the programme of the Commune. And after the necessary failure of such a step, a call to arms was sent out by means of balloons, from the 'Federation of Freemasons and their companions in Paris' to all the Freemasons of the departments. This appeal to arms ended with the cry, 'Long live the Republic!' 'Long live the Commune of France united with those of Paris!"'

The Latomia, an organ of the Craft, makes the admission, with evident reluctance, indeed, but greatly to our purpose, that kinship exists between Socialism and Freemasonry. Nay, it explains (Vol. xii., p. 237) how "Socialism, Freemasonry, and Communism have, after all, a common origin."

More than once have I striven to impress upon the reader that it is by those who are admitted to the highest degrees, that the complete convulsion of the present social organisation of the world is contemplated. Hear how a member of the Lodge of Metz explains this :—"Freemasonry is socialistic in the highest degree; it has outrun the principles of Fouvier in organising a new order of things. We must not imagine that these socialistic ideas are nowadays only beginning to strike root in our temples; they have thriven ever since the time when the first fruits of Liberalism appeared. If you would convince yourselves of this, look through the higher grades, and you will find that in them man is led up by gradual steps to those advanced views which have only been embraced by a few select spirits."

But, hark! there comes an objection. Some one says :—Surely it cannot be that Freemasonry has such revolutionary proclivities, since we see the heir to the English throne, the Prince of Wales, accepting the position of Grand Master of English Masonry. Or is it possible that eminent personages, including kings, princes of royal blood, distinguished statesmen, diplomatists, men of high position and, perhaps, of still higher character, should remain in a body whose proposed object it is to overthrow the thrones, and trample under foot the crowns, of supreme rulers?

The following quotations will serve to reply to this difficulty, and to explain the phenomenon which it notices. Louis Blanc, in his history of his ten years' connection with the Craft, speaks as follows:—"Thanks to its clever system of mechanism, Freemasonry found in princes and aristocrats, patrons rather than enemies. It pleased certain sovereigns, Frederick the Great amongst the rest, to take the trowel and to gird themselves with the apron. Why not? The existence of the higher grades being carefully concealed from them, they knew of Freemasonry only what could be revealed without danger. . . . They had no need to trouble their heads ahout it, kept down as they were in the lower grades, where they saw but an opportunity of amusement, joyous banquets, principles taken up and laid down at the thresholds of the Lodges, formulas that had no-reference to ordinary life; in a word, only a comedy of equality. But in these matters comedy borders closely on tragedy, and princes and nobles were brought to sanction with their names, and blindly to serve with their influence, the hidden enterprises directed against themselves."

The Vienna Freemason's Journal (p. 66, 2nd year) prints a manuscript for circulation amongst Masons in which appears this boasting passage :—"We wander amidst our adversaries shrouded in three-fold darkness. Their passions serve as wires whereby, unknown to themselves, we set them in motion, and compel them unwittingly to work in union with us. Under the very shadow of authority, Masonry carries on the great work entrusted to her."

It should, indeed, be no subject for surprise that the genial, Prince of Wales is found holding an honorary position in a body whose system or organisation is permeated with the most consummate serpentine cunning. That dear gentleman tastes of the hilarity and jolification that attend Masonic banquets, as well as the gratification of being recognised as head of this super-excellent club—these considerations suffice for him. As to examination into the real nature and object of this Association, or looking behind the screen, this is a matter that troubles him, like many others, exceedingly little.

We have seen from Masonic documents that the plan of this, arch-enemy of authority is to avail of "every opportunity of creating a disturbance, etc." Meagre, then, are the chances of success in England and its dependencies. It has there undertaken a difficult page 29 task; for the English are naturally a loyal people, who cling to the traditions of the past, and have an intuitive respect for the authority of the law. Hence, its mode of action will be to mine and to sap. And Bishop Dupanloup says, "The essential object of Freemasonry is to mine all social and religious order, etc."

Now, the principles, the foundation, the safeguards of authority are to be sought for in Religion. But we have already seen that Masonry aims at the extinction of all religious element from life—from the cradle, the school, the family or household, nay, the grave. The system of godless education is the child of Masonry. Civil marriage, the Divorce Law—these also are her product and bear the Masonic stamp. On the whole, then, it must be conceded that she has so far remarkably succeeded in insidiously forging strategetic means for sapping and mining the foundations of even English Monarchy.

A striking and, indeed, most contemptible feature in this Association is the cringing submission she exhibits towards any existing authority which she has not the power to overthrow. When, on the crash of the French Revolution, Napoleon appeared as the child of fortune, the brethren worshipped him in a manner that was absolutely romantic; but no sooner had this conqueror fallen, than they covered his name with the mire, and fell at the feet of Louis XVIII. So also was Brother Napoleon III. their puppet for a while, and compelled "to work unwittingly with them "; by-and-bye, however, they exulted in his downfall, and ardently embraced the Commune as something more in harmony with their views.

I trust the reader is now convinced that this secret Society of Freemasonry, which, to the uninitiated and the "profane," is clothed with the garb of philanthropy, has at heart as its grand aim and ultimate object, the wholesale levelling of the human race, the annihilation of all distinctions and of that order amongst mankind which the great God has sanctioned, the sweeping away of all thrones as well as altars, and the establishment of universal liberty, equality, and fraternity. Listen to what the ex-Master Mason Barruel says of its designs: "To whatever creed, to whatever government, to whatever-class of society you belong, as soon as the plans and sworn designs of the secret Society (Freemasonry) comes into operation, there is an end to your clergy, your government, and your laws, your property, and your authority. All your possessions, your lands, and your page 30 houses, your very families and your fire-sides; all these, from that day forward you can no longer call your own."—(" Memoires," Vol. !., p. 20.)

Read also the sketch which De Lamenais gives of the disasters to which this apparently benevolent Order would lead the world : "In virtue of his sovereign prerogative, man rises up against God, and declares himself to be free and equal to Him. In the name of Freedom, all political and social institutions are overthrown; in the name of Equality, all hierarchies are destroyed, all religion and political ascendancy is abolished. Then the reign of violence, of hatred, and of terror, begins over the corpse of priest and king—a fearful fulfilment of the prophecy—'A whole nation shall rise up, man against man, neighbour against neighbour, amidst terrible confusion, the child shall rise against the old man, and the people against their great ones.' In order to depict those terrific scenes of horror and crime, of license and butchery, this carnival of error, this choas of outlawry and debauchery, these blasphemous shouts and devilish songs, the dull and unceasing sound of the destroyer's hammer, and the executioner's sword, the explosion of bursting mines, and the yells of exultant joy which hail the wide-spread carnage; in order to depict scenes such as these, it were necessary to borrow the language of demons, as such human monsters seem to have rivalled them in fury."—(Journal de Bruxelles, December 3rd, 1849.)

Good God! shall this appalling picture be at any time realised? No, no; Providence will surely be mindful of the human race. The onward destructive progress of the beast shall be checked. This forerunner of anti-Christ, like the kingdom of that wicked one, shall come to nought, and Christ our Lord shall be victorious.

But speak forth boldly still, holy Pope! Condemn, denounce, anathematise this hydra of irreligion, revolution, and disorder. You would be false to conscience, false to your charge, false to your Master were you to fail to do so.

Excuse me, non-Catholic reader, if I make here an assertion which to some may not be quite pleasing. Perhaps even you will not be in accord with me on the point, but let us not therefore "fall out." I say with fullest deliberation that I count this very attitude of the Catholic Church towards this anti-Christian Association, and this tone of denunciation in its regard, as one more proof that this Church page 31 penetrates into the essence of institutions with the perspicacity of the Holy Spirit of God, and throbs for Divine and human interests with the solicitude of the Heart of Jesus Himself. Yes, I am induced to venerate her with new fervour as, in very truth, the Christian Church. It was the meek Lamb of God who fearlessly addressed the Pharisees, who had been high in the estimation of the people, with the epithets, "Ye hypocrites!" "Ye brood of vipers!" etc. I shall not pursue this subject further, for comparisons are, indeed, sometimes most odious; but I cannot forbear from reflecting how unfavourable appears the contrast when we see so-called Christian clergymen, not merely regarding this secret Society as the noli me tangere, and offering it no opposition, but linking in fellowship with it.