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diff --git a/77856-0.txt b/77856-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..65d2ccd --- /dev/null +++ b/77856-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10205 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77856 *** + + + + + THE + WAR OF ANTICHRIST WITH THE CHURCH + AND + CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION. + + A Review of + THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF ATHEISM; ITS EXTENSION THROUGH + VOLTAIRE; ITS USE OF FREEMASONRY AND KINDRED SECRET SOCIETIES + FOR ANTICHRISTIAN WAR; THE UNION AND “ILLUMINISM” OF MASONRY BY + WEISHAUPT; ITS PROGRESS UNDER THE LEADERS OF THE FIRST FRENCH + REVOLUTION, AND UNDER NUBIUS, PALMERSTON, AND MAZZINI; THE + CONTROL OF ITS HIDDEN “INNER CIRCLE” OVER ALL REVOLUTIONARY + ORGANIZATIONS; ITS INFLUENCE OVER BRITISH FREEMASONRY; ITS + ATTEMPTS UPON IRELAND; OATHS, SIGNS, AND PASSWORDS OF THE + THREE DEGREES, ETC., ETC. THE SPOLIATION OF THE PROPAGANDA. + + LECTURES + DELIVERED IN EDINBURGH IN OCTOBER, 1884, + + BY + MONSIGNOR GEORGE F. DILLON, D.D., + Missionary Apostolic, Sydney. + + “_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._”—ENCYCLICAL HUMANUM GENUS OF LEO XIII. + + DUBLIN: + M. H. GILL & SON, UPPER SACKVILLE-STREET. + LONDON AND NEW YORK: BURNS AND OATES. + 1885. + + + + + Nihil Obstat. + + W. FORTUNE, D.D., + _Censor Theologus Deputatus_. + + _Die 3 Mensis Maii, 1885._ + + Imprimatur. + + GULIELMUS J. CANON. WALSH, + _Vic. Cap. Dublin_. + + _Die 4 Mensis Maii, 1885._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + PREFACE vii + + I.—INTRODUCTION. 1 + + Reasons for selecting the Subject—“Catholic Institute,” + a Society such as those commended by Leo XIII., in the + Bull, _Humanum Genus_.—Necessity of keeping Youth from bad + Associations—Necessity of unmasking Secret Societies—Words + of Leo XIII.—Freemasonry and Secret Societies with us—On + the Continent—All Secret Associations Atheistic, and + intensely hostile to the Church, Christianity, and Social + order—Union of all Secret Societies—All knowingly, or + otherwise, under a central direction and control—Fraud and + Force—Review of Atheistic Organization since the first French + Revolution—Features of its Progress. + + II.—THE RISE OF ATHEISM IN EUROPE. 5 + + The Spirit of Private Judgment advocated by Protestants ends in + doubt—Disbelief in the Divinity of Christ—Bayle, Spinosa—Deism, + Pantheism, Atheism—Atheism Absolute—Infidelity in England and + Germany—Supreme in France through + + III.—VOLTAIRE. 6 + + His efforts to advance Atheism—His Parentage, Education and + Early Life—Corruption of the Age—European Courts, Nobles, and + People—Gallicanism, Jansenism, and finally Infidelity welcomed + in France—Voltaire in Society—His banishment to England and + its Consequences—His return as a confirmed Disbeliever and + Freemason—His power as a Writer—His attacks upon Religion, + Morality and Honour—His watchword, “Crush the Wretch”—His + determination to destroy Christianity—His Conceit—His part in + the Suppression of the Jesuits—Industry—Disciples—Frederick + II.—Policy planned for the Destruction of Catholicity—His + advocacy of Lying—Hypocrisy—Impure, adulterous Life—Every + form of Christianity doomed by him—Proofs—Faith shown in + sickness—Final impenitence and terrible Death—Voltaire + perpetuated in Freemasonry and Secret Societies. + + NOTES.—Correspondence between Frederick II. and Voltaire 10 + Letter of Voltaire to Damilaville 12 + + IV.—FREEMASONRY. 16 + + Coincidence of the spread of Freemasonry with that of Atheism + in Europe—Its Origin from Lælius and Faustus Socinus—The + Conspiracy of Vicenza—Doctrines and migrations of the + Socinians—Oliver Cromwell a Socinian and Freemason—Judaism + in Masonry—Ancient Catholic Guilds of real Masons—Papal + Charters—Degeneracy consequent on the Reformation—Charter of + Cologne—Freemasonry in Scotland—Obscurity of its history, until + the time of Elias Ashmole, its real Modern Founder—Use of + English and Scotch Freemasonry, by the Stuart partisans—Reason + of its adoption by Atheism. + + NOTE.—Connection of the Jews with Masonry 20 + + V.—THE UNION AND “ILLUMINISM” OF MASONRY. 26 + + Different “Obediences” in Masonry—Philip Egalité, Grand + Master of the Scotch Obedience in France, unites it + with the English and French to form the Grand Orient of + France—Formation of Lodges, “_Androgyne_” or “Adoption” for + women—Consequences—“Illuminism” of Saint Martin—Horrible + corruption and assassination—Various affiliations of + “Illuminated” Lodges—Designs—Suppression of the Jesuits before + “Illuminism.” + + VI.—THE ILLUMINISM OF ADAM WEISHAUPT. 29 + + History and Character of Weishaupt—Weishaupt and the School + of Voltaire—His use of Masonry for the eradication of + Christianity—Manipulation of Masons by his Illuminati—The + Novices, the Minervals and other degrees of Illuminati—Method + of forming and perfecting Minervals—The Art of bringing + Religion into ridicule—Instructions given to the perfected + Minerval on attaining the degree of Scotch Knight, or Epopte or + Priest. + + VII.—THE CONVENT OF WILHELMSBAD. 35 + + Masonry a dark parody on the Church—Its general Councils + or “Convents”—Convent of the Gauls in the “Holy City”—More + general convent projected by Weishaupt—It is held in + Wilhelmsbad—Weishaupt causes his own “Illuminism” to be + adopted, through Barons Knigg and Dittfort—The French + Revolution there determined on. + + VIII.—CABALISTIC MASONRY OR MASONIC SPIRITISM. 37 + + Cabalistic character of Freemasonry from its earliest + stages—Development of that character prior to the French + Revolution—Cagliostro, his real name and character—Weishaupt + knowing him to be an impostor employs him to spread + Illuminated Masonry—His Success—His Women-Lodges—His rite of + Misraim—Impostures all over Europe—The “Diamond Necklace”—His + Prophecy, knowing the determination at Wilhelmsbad regarding + the French Revolution—His end—Antichrist essentially a + Cagliostro. + + IX.—THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 39 + + Knowledge of the designs of the Freemasons by various Courts of + Europe—Reason of inaction—Warnings from Rome unheeded—Resources + of Masonry—Its Propaganda amongst the masses—Union with + Weishaupt—Perseverance—Testimony of Robison on the connection + of Masonry with the Revolution—Rise of a Dictator. + + NOTE.—Testimony of Louis Blanc and Monsgr. Segur regarding + the effects of Freemasonry on the Revolution. 41 + + X.—NAPOLEON AND FREEMASONRY. 44 + + Napoleon’s desire to seem separated from the Revolution—In + reality, and in his conduct to the Church, a Freemason + from beginning to end—His use of the Church political and + hypocritical—Testimony of Father Deschamps—Reasons of his being + sent to Egypt, Masonic—His Proclamations to the Egyptians + and French professing his Mahommedanism—His indifference to + every Religion manifested to the last—Testimonies from St. + Helena—From Napoleon III.—His selection as Ruler of France made + to exclude the Bourbons—His encouragement of Masonry—Fidelity + of his Ministers to Illuminism—The cause—The persecutions of + the Church—End of Pius VII.—Freemasons betray Napoleon. + + NOTE.—Progress of Freemasonry during the reign of Napoleon 49 + The Templars “resuscitated.” Napoleon’s Fall 51 + + XI.—FREEMASONRY AFTER THE FALL OF NAPOLEON. 52 + + Weishaupt still living, Continental Masonry changes front + to meet the Christian reaction in Europe—Illuminati, + Ministers in every Court of Europe, and faithful to him—The + Tugenbund—Masonry hypocritically working in France—Talleyrand + and other Illuminati seek a Protestant King for France—Failing, + they succeed in governing Louis XVIII.—They gain Freedom for + Atheistic literature—They overthrow the elder Bourbons for the + Son of their Grand Master, Egalité. + + NOTE.—Valuable Speech of Baron Haugwitz on the connection of + Freemasonry with the Revolution 54 + + XII.—KINDRED SECRET SOCIETIES IN EUROPE. 56 + + Use made of Freemasonry by Atheists—Its Construction—Objects + of Atheism—Various forms of Illuminated Masonry encouraged, + and Masonry made more elastic and hypocritical at + Wilhelmsbad—Permitted to insinuate itself as a Religious + Society, provided its secrecy and hierarchical secret + government be preserved—The hidden Chiefs thus always able to + bend any Secret Society to Atheistic ends—Willingness of the + French Illuminati to help Catholics in Ireland—Reasons—Attempts + of the Illuminati upon Catholic Italy—Temporal Power of the + Pope, the first thing to be destroyed—State of the Italian + population—Active Faction of Revolutionists left by the French + in Italy—Formation of the Carbonari. + + XIII.—THE CARBONARI. 63 + + Original Carbonari, similar to United Irishmen—Intense + Catholicity and loyalty of the first Carbonari—They fall under + the government of the Illuminati—Are made wholly Infidel—The + Supreme Directory, or Alta Vendita, governs all the Secret + Societies of the World—Its special action against the Pope. + + XIV.—PERMANENT INSTRUCTION OF THE ALTA VENDITA. 65 + + Value of Italy for purposes of the Revolution—Necessity of + overcoming the Papacy—“Our end, that of Voltaire and the French + Revolution”—Hypocrisy of Carbonarism—Hope of a Revolutionist + Pope—Ganganelli and Borgia—How to make a faithful Cardinal or + Prelate unpopular—“Crush the enemy by lies and calumny”—How + to corrupt Schools, Youths and Families—Intervention of + Austria—How to deceive the Clergy by patriotism—Nubius + and other leaders of the Alta Vendita—Piccolo Tigre—His + instructions to the Piedmontese Carbonari. + + XV.—LETTER OF PICCOLO TIGRE. 73 + + Carbonari ordered to found “Societies” of any kind—Corrupt + the Members—Manner of procedure—Corruption first, and + Freemasonry after—Folly of Freemasonry—Its use for + Carbonarism nevertheless—Seduction of Princes—Their use as + decoys—Carbonari recruited from Masonry—Treason punished + by death—“The Revolution in the Church, the Revolution _en + permanence_”—Resources from England, &c.—Necessity for + cold hatred—Principles of Piccolo Tigre actuating Secret + Societies all over the World—Proofs—Letter of Vindex to Nubius + advising Demoralization instead of Assassination—Mazzini, + the advocate of Assassination—Plan of the _Alta Vendita_ + for Demoralization—Legalization and popularization of + Prostitution—Corruption of Literature—Of University + Education—Licence for Blasphemy and Immoral Language—Corruption + of Middle Class and Female Education—Mazzini masters the _Alta + Vendita_—Suspicious death of its Leader, _Nubius_. + + NOTE.—Mazzini on Organization 74 + Rules of Mazzini for the Carbonari 82 + + XVI.—THE INTELLECTUAL AND WAR PARTY IN MASONRY. 87 + + Existence of these departments—Preparation of all Masons to + assist War Party in Distress—Charge of the Venerable to all + Apprentices—Examples—Victor Hugo—Fate of the _Alta Vendita_. + + XVII.—LORD PALMERSTON. 91 + + Incredulity natural regarding the role attributed to + Palmerston by Father Deschamps—Proofs from Henry Misley and + Louis Blanc—History of Palmerston—Change from Conservative + to Ultra-Liberal—His policy against the Pope and Europe, + Masonic—Not in the interests of England—Unites Italy and + Germany—Palmerston, Mazzini, and Louis Napoleon—Palmerston + defies the Queen, Cabinet, and Country for Masonic + ends—Inutility of his Dismissal for acting without authority, + and interpolating Dispatches—Isolation of England made + inevitable by his policy. + + NOTES.—Testimony of Eckert 91 + Jewish Illuminated Lodges in London 94 + Testimony of Mr. F. Hugh O’Donnell, M.P. 96 + + XVIII.—WAR OF THE INTELLECTUAL PARTY. 97 + + Diffusion of Atheism and Immorality during the reign of + Palmerston—Attacks on the Christian Marriage Laws—On the + Sabbath—On the Christian Customs of Social and Public Life—On + Primary Education—On Religious Instruction—Queen’s Colleges in + Ireland—Attacks commenced on Religious Education in England, + successful by the aid of Masonry—Education of Females in purely + Secular and Master Schools—University Education—Contempt for + Religion made fashionable. + + NOTE.—Monsigr. Dupanloup on the Freemason War against Christian + Education 100 + + XIX.—THE WAR PARTY UNDER PALMERSTON. 105 + + Mazzini prepares Europe for the Revolutions of 1848—Napoleon + III. obtains influence with the Chief—War for the weakening + of Russia, for the severance of Austria from Russia, and for + the unification of Italy—War on the Temporalities of the + Pope—Consequences following the Revolutionary action of Masonry + under Palmerston all over the World—Death of Palmerston—Rise of + Bismarck—Fall of Napoleon—France and Napoleon abandoned by the + Sectaries—Consequences. + + XX.—THE INTERNATIONAL, THE NIHILISTS, THE BLACK HAND, &C. 111 + + Differences in Masonry between the “Conservative Republicans” + and the “Logical” Party—Consequences to the masses from the + victories of the Freemasons—State of the people in Italy after + a quarter of a century of Masonic rule—Misery of the Peasants + reduced to semi-starvation and to slavery by taxes and the + anti-religious laws—Denial to the mass of Italians of the + Franchise—Exorbitant taxes on the poor—Happy condition of the + peasantry under the Popes—Masons in power bound to advance the + Atheistic Programme against their will—The Secret Directory and + their Anarchist War Party—The International and its division + into National and International Brothers—The Black Hand—The + Nihilists—The Anarchists with ourselves—Duty of our Government + in the face of Dynamitards, &c. + + XXI.—FREEMASONRY WITH OURSELVES. 121 + + Union between Continental and British Masonry—Vanguard cries + of Atheism supported by the latter—The Sabbath observance + attacked—Granting the alleged freedom of British Masonry from + the dark aims of the Continental, can a conscientious Christian + join it?—Oaths taken essentially immoral—Oaths, Grips, + and Passwords of the three Degrees of British Masonry—The + Apprentice—The Fellow-Craft—The Master—British Masonry meant to + wean Christians to Atheism in its “higher” developments—Proof + from the inauguration of Knights of the Sun—God, “the Grand + Architect,” reduced to a CIRCLE—Immorality fostered by British + Masonry—American Masonry murders Morgan for telling its + Ritualistic secrets—Its practical inconveniences. + + NOTES.—Names of Delegates from Irish to Continental Lodges + preserved in Dublin Castle 121 + Masonry in favour of Cremation, &c. 123 + + XXII.—FENIANISM. 136 + + The Atheistic Directory and Ireland—Attempts in the last + Century—Consequences—Attempts in this—First Fenian leaders + go to Paris to study the Secret Society system on which to + found Fenianism—This step taken during Palmerston’s rule of + the Sect—Consequences—Fenianism, perfected in Paris as Black + Masonry—Accordingly, hypocritical like Carbonarism—Its advances + among the good, Catholic Irish—Movements against England + supposed to be Catholic—Efforts of A. M. Sullivan, Smith + O’Brien, the _Nation_ and the Clergy to save the Irish people + from the seduction of Fenianism—The Fenian Newspaper permitted + by Palmerston to talk Treason—Its attacks on the Clergy and the + consequences—Even the Irish Fenian Leaders, at heart Catholic, + terribly demoralized by the Sect—Heartless seduction of Irish + youth to certain ruin—History of James Stephens as given by Mr. + A. M. Sullivan—Of the movement, and its insensate and criminal + absurdity—Traitors, Informers—Seducers amongst working men + in England, Scotland, and America—Evil consequences to those + deceived by them. + + XXIII.—SAD ENDING OF THE CONSPIRATORS. 147 + + This compared with the deaths of the faithful Irish people, who + perished in the worst recorded miseries—The martyr’s crown in + persecution and famine—Proofs—The Career of the Secret-Society + Seducer—Its sad ending. + + XXIV.—THE TRIUMPH OF IRISH FAITH. 150 + + Inutility of every attack upon Irish Faith—Testimony of + Archbishop Moran—GOD SAVE IRELAND from Secret Societies—Counsel + needed from God’s Virgin Mother—Advance of Atheism everywhere + withstood solely by Ireland—Noble conduct of the Irish people + in every English-speaking country—They win others to Christ + while defeating the machinations of His enemy—Position of + Ireland in the triumph of Christ and His never-ending reign. + + XXV.—CATHOLIC ORGANIZATION. 155 + + Review of the past—When all human hope is gone God appears—Pius + VI., Pius VII., Pius IX., and Leo XIII.—Providence in sending + us the latter Pontiff—His Acts and Condition—Bull _Humanum + Genus_—“Tear the mask off Freemasonry”—“Establish Pious + Societies”—Obedience to his commands. + + XXVI.—CATHOLIC TOTAL ABSTINENCE SOCIETIES. 160 + + Condition of the Irish abroad—Drink—Position in Scotland and + England—Respectability of many—The unsuccessful ruined by drink + alone—Consequences of drink in Edinburgh—Can a working man + drink and be honest to his family?—Conclusion. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The following pages contain the substance of two Lectures given a few +months ago in Edinburgh. The selection of the subjects upon which they +treat, and, indeed, the fact of their being delivered at all, were, it +may be said, accidental. The author, a missionary priest, was, after over +twenty years’ labour in Australia, compelled for health reasons to visit +Europe; and during the past season took advantage of an opportunity to +make a tour through Scotland. His object in visiting that historic land +was first to gratify his Scotch friends and converts in Australia by a +sojourn, however brief, in a country, and in several special localities +of it, which he knew to be very dear to them; and next to satisfy his +own desire of seeing the progress of religion in that as well as in the +other portions of the British Islands which he had already visited. The +condition of the Church in Ireland, and her advance amidst the adverse +influences with which she has to contend in England and Scotland, are of +intense interest to Australian Catholics; and an Australian missionary +who visits these countries is supposed to bring back much information +regarding the state of religion in each one of them. Scotland besides +is so full of historic reminiscences, and so favoured by nature with +splendid scenery, that a visit to Europe is incomplete without a look +upon its rugged hills, its romantic lakes and lovely valleys, now made +so interesting by the works of Sir Walter Scott and other writers. The +land once evangelized by Columba and his bands of missionary saints, +has besides an indescribable charm for a Catholic missionary. He went, +therefore, with great pleasure to Scotland, and he cannot speak too +highly or too thankfully of the kindness which the Venerable Archbishop +of Glasgow, the Bishops and the Clergy he happened to meet with showed +him. But, with the exception of a Sunday sermon to oblige the good pastor +of whatever locality he happened to pass through, it was his fixed +intention not to speak publicly during his rather rapid progress through +the country. It happened, however, that on coming to Edinburgh he found +an old and very dear friend and College companion in charge of the most +populous Catholic district of the metropolis, and in deference to the +earnest solicitations of that friend, he departed from his resolution +and gave during the few days his stay lasted, first, a lecture on Secret +Societies for the benefit of a large and flourishing Catholic Association +for men; and secondly, as a sequel to that, a lecture on the Spoliation +of the Propaganda. + +Both lectures were delivered extemporaneously; that is to say, so far +as the language which conveyed their substance was concerned. The +matter, however, had been made familiar to the speaker by many years +of observation and reading. Very flattering, and, in some cases, very +full reports of them appeared in Catholic newspapers. The report of +the principal Protestant organ of public opinion in Edinburgh (the +_Scotsman_) was very fair, but another paper bitterly resented what it +chose to consider an attack on “Freemasonry and Freedom.” It was not, +however, so much in the hope of diverting Protestants from Freemasonry +as in the desire to show to Catholics that all kinds of secret societies +were as bad as, if not worse than, Freemasonry—were, in fact, united +with, and under the rule of the worst form of Freemasonry—that the +lecturer essayed to speak at all upon the subject. If what he said could +influence anyone outside the Church from joining the worse than folly +of British Masonry, he would rejoice at the result; but his principal +aim was to save his own co-religionists from an evil far more pernicious +to them than British Masonry has ever been to Protestants. In this +latter design, he was glad to learn that he had considerable success; +and amongst those who heard or read his utterances, very many expressed +a desire to see what he happened to have said in a permanent form. +Notwithstanding the difficulties of doing this with any effect during a +vacation tour, he determined, at whatever cost to himself, to gratify +their wishes, and therefore took advantage of a few weeks’ rest, while +spending Christmas in his _Alma Mater_—All Hallows’ College, Dublin—to +put both lectures into the shape in which he now presents them to such as +may desire to read them. + +It must, however, be remembered that these lectures are nothing more +than what they were originally; that is, casual discourses, and not +formal and exhaustive treatises on the subjects upon which they touch. +For convenience he has divided each one into separate headings; and +where necessary to illustrate the text, he has added notes. These are +necessary in order to form a clear idea of the whole matter treated. +Notes, however, are not always proofs; and proofs however difficult to +be obtained against opponents intent on concealment, must, nevertheless, +be forthcoming in order to convince. He has, therefore, embodied in the +text several documents which were only referred to, or but partially +quoted in the spoken lectures. Those now occupy many pages of the lecture +upon Secret Societies, and will, he believes, be read with considerable +interest by such as have not previously been acquainted with them. “The +Permanent Instruction” and the letters of _Vindex_ and _Piccolo Tigre_, +originally published by M. Cretineau-Joly from the archives of the _Alta +Vendita_, after they were fortunately discovered by the Roman 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. Robison on Freemasonry as the cause of the first French Revolution, +is taken from a translation from the English into French, re-done into +English, as it was impossible to find the original English work of Mr. +Robison, which, though extremely valuable, is, he believes, long out of +print. The documents regarding the Spoliation of the 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. + +The first lecture, which he has entitled the war of Antichrist with 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 his 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, Freemasonry; or the Infidel war upon Christian +education and Christian institutions; or the Revolution 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 which was 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 which protects it—of the supreme +direction given to the universality of secret societies from a guiding, +governing, and—even to the rank and file of the members of the secret +societies themselves—unknown and invisible junta ceaselessly 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 consists in blind 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. +For instance, Infidelity, as it is now known in the world, never, it may +be said, existed to any appreciable extent before the time of Voltaire. +Voltaire devoted his whole life to spread Infidelity and destroy +Christianity. When we see Voltaire and his disciples eagerly seize upon +Freemasonry, 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 organization seized +upon as the basis of further and more complex planning for the avowed +purposes of ruining Christianity and placing Atheism in its stead. French +Atheism using Masonry thus perfected, produced what it aimed at during +the Reign 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 instrumentality of +Weishaupt, and has shown the immediate consequences of the organization +and influence of that arch-conspirator in the first French Revolution +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 +Revolution, and to represent 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 Robespierre’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 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 Revolution 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 Foreign Minister of England, and which leaves that country now +without an ally in the world. This policy suited the conspirators 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 recurrence 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 organization 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 +inexplicable. It explains how ministers like Cavour can sometimes—in +play, of course—imprison generals like Garibaldi, how Thiers could crush +the Commune, and how Ferry 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 outrage, 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 +Revolution. 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 religion +and order than this one fact. In 1870, the society had on its rolls ten +millions 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 + times 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 + sufferings 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 were we to cease, + even for a second, to pursue the monsters who have tortured us. + + “Down, then, 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. + +From 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—Fenianism. + +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 conspirators, +and the wonderful indestructibility of Irish Faith rest upon their 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, connected with the Catholic +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 bring 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 employment 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 and continued to practise those virtues which +Catholic 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 families educated, +fairly provided for, and 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 inadequately considering their claims to attention. He has, +however, given as much fact and matter as he could, even at the risk of +occasionally sacrificing 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. Facts, 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 whole_; 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 their 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 description of its action in Dublin in his +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 “public 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 business 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 conscience 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 ruses 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 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 dying 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 Rome, 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 the 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 ruling 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 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 Father, in his late celebrated Bull, _Humanum Genus_, has, +therefore, manifested his desire that the bishops, the clergy, and even +the laity of the Church should join in exposing Freemasonry and other +such societies. But 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 to 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 _Civiltà Cattolica_ +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 ecclesiastical 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 Freemasonry, 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.” + +Furthermore, it must be remembered that secret societies have little +dread of mere denunciation. Exposition, 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 +mourning over the ruin and yearning for the return of her children, +put before them, will do wonders to win back Irish victims from secret +societies. Mere abuse does no good. For 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—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 associations, 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 Fold of Christ. + + + + +THE WAR OF ANTICHRIST WITH THE CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION. + + +MONSIGNOR SMITH, REV. FATHERS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, + +It gives me, indeed, great pleasure to find the Catholic body in this +great city possessed of such a valuable, and, 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 work 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 enjoying 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 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 and 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 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, “to 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 influence. “But,” he says in the +Encyclical already quoted, “as it befits our pastoral office 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 Freemasonry 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 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 believe 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 therefore 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 itself 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 +Freemasonry for its propagandism, and for its contemplated destruction +of Christianity. We shall see its depravity perfected by what is called +Illuminism. 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 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 affection 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 Reformation, 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 weapons 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. + +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 many 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 _élite_ 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 wickedness 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 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 corruption 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 +royalty infected the nobles and all others who were so unfortunate 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, within 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 Joly[1] very +justly calls “the most perfect incarnation of Satan that the world ever +saw.” The Society of Freemasons was just then perfected 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 +Government 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 condemned his excesses, and to the +overthrow of both he devoted himself with 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-public 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 watchword, the concluding +lines of all his letters to his Infidel confederates was for fifty years +_ecrasons nous l’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 watchword. + +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 l’infame, ecrasez l’infame_.’ ‘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 +protested 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 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, _Delenda 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[2] with him, was not to commence 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 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, and 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 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.[3] 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 the guest and the inmate of the +Court of Frederick of Prussia, where crime reached proportions impossible +to speak of. And lastly, coward, liar, hypocrite, and pander to the +basest passions of humanity, he was 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 +whenever 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 destruction 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 followers 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. +They place, of course, the Church and the Vicar of Christ in the first +line of attack, well knowing that if the great Catholic unity 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 spectacle.”[4] 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 accomplished, 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 lifetime, 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 Debats_, 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 first 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 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 I 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 were 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,[5] 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 +celebrated Lælius Socinus, the heresiarch and founder of the sect of +Unitarians or, as they are generally called after him, Socinians. Both +were of the 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 tranquillity they enjoyed in these troublesome times, he fled to +France. While in that country at Lyons, and when only twenty years of +age, he heard of the death of his uncle at Zurich, and went at once to +that city to obtain the papers and effects of the deceased. From the +papers he found that Lælius 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 Levè_, +by the Abbé 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, Lælius Socinus, Peruta, +Gentilis, Jacques Chiari, Francis Lenoir, Darius Socinus, Alicas, and +the Abbé 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 which any +enemy of orthodoxy might freely enter. In this temple every 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-Maçons +Ecrasés,”—the Abbé 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 Rationalism. 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. + +The Abbé Lefranc believes (_Le Voile Levè_, 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 rebuilding +the temple of Nature as it had been before. + +Mgr. Segur, moreover, connects modern Freemasonry with the Jews and +Templars, as well 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 unquestionable 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 Masonry.[6] Then, as to its +British History, we have seen that numbers of the secret brotherhood of +Socinus made their way to England and Scotland, where they found friends, +and, perhaps, confederates. I have, therefore, no doubt but that the +Abbé 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 cosmopolitan, and knew more of the ceremonies of +religion at a period when the arts of reading and writing were not very +generally understood. They travelled over every portion of England and +Scotland, and frequently crossed the Channel, to work at the innumerable +religious houses, castles, fortifications, great abbeys, churches and +cathedrals which arose over the face of Christendom in such number and +splendour in the middle and succeeding ages. To keep away interlopers, +to sustain a uniform rate of wages, to be known amongst strangers, and, +above all, amongst foreigners of their craft, signs were necessary; and +these signs could be of value only in proportion to the secrecy with +which they were kept within the craft itself. They had signs for those +whom they accepted as novices, for the companion mason or journeyman, +and for the masters of the craft. In ages when a trade was transmitted +from father to son, and formed a kind of family inheritance, we can very +well imagine that its secrets were guarded with much jealousy, and that +its adepts were enjoined not to communicate them to anyone, not even to +their wives, lest they may become known to outsiders. The masons were, +if we except the clockmakers and jewellers, the most skilled artisans +of Europe. By the cunning of their hands they knew how to make the +rough stone speak out the grand conceptions of the architects of the +middle ages; and often, the delicate foliage and flowers and statuary +of the fanes they built, remind us of the most perfect eras of Greek +and Roman sculpture. So closely connected with religion and religious +architecture as were these “Brothers Masons,” “Friar,” “Fra,” or “Free +Masons,” they shared to a large extent in the favour of the Popes. They +obtained many and valuable charters. But they degenerated. The era of +the so-called Reformation was a sad epoch for them. It was an era of +Church demolition rather than of Church building. Wherever the blight of +Protestantism fell, the beauty and stateliness of Church architecture +became dwarfed, stunted, and degraded, whenever it was not utterly +destroyed. The need of Brothers Masons had passed, and succeeding Masons +began to admit men to their guilds who won a living otherwise than by +the craft. In Germany their confraternity had become a cover for the +reformers, and Socinus seeing in it a means for advancing his sect—a +method for winning adepts and progressing stealthily without attracting +the notice of Catholic governments, would desire no doubt to use it for +his purposes. We have to this day the statutes the genuine Freemasons +of Strasbourg framed in 1462, and the same revised as late as 1563, +but in them there is absolutely nothing of heresy or hostility to the +Church. But there is a curious document called the Charter of Cologne +dated 1535, which, if it be genuine, proves to us that there existed at +that early period a body of Freemasons, having principles identical with +those professed by the Masons of our own day. It is to be found in the +archives of the Mother Lodge of Amsterdam, which also preserves the act +of its own constitution under the date of 1519. It reveals the existence +of lodges of kindred intent in London, Edinburgh, Vienna, Amsterdam, +Paris, Lyons, Frankfort, Hamburg, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Madrid, Venice, +Goriz, Koenigsberg, Brussels, Dantzic, Magdeburg, Bremen and Cologne; +and it bears the signatures of well-known enemies of the Church at that +period, namely—Hermanus or Herman de Weir, the immoral and heretical +Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, placed for his misdeeds under the ban +of the Empire; De Coligny, leader of the Huguenots of France; Jacob +d’Anville, Prior of the Augustinians of Cologne, who incurred the same +reproaches as Archbishop Herman; Melancthon, the Reformer; Nicholas +Van Noot; Carlton; Bruce; Upson; Banning; Vireaux; Schroeder; Hofman; +Nobel; De la Torre; Doria; Uttenbow; Falck; Huissen; Wormer. These names +reveal both the country and the celebrity of all the men who signed the +document. It was, possibly, a society like theirs, which the Venetian +Government broke up and scattered in 1547, for we find distinct mention +of a lodge existing at Venice in 1535. However this may be, Freemason +lodges existed in Scotland from the time of the Reformation. One of +them is referred to in the Charter of Cologne, and doubtless had many +affiliations. In Scotland, as in other Catholic countries, the Templars +were suppressed; and there, if nowhere else, that Order had the guilds of +working masons under its special protection. It is therefore possible, +as some say, that the knights coalesced with these Masons, and protected +their own machinations with the aid of the secrets of the craft. But +while this and all else stated regarding the connection of the Templars +with Masonry may be true, there is no real evidence that it is so. Much +is said about the building of the Temple of Solomon; and that the Hiram +killed, and whose death the craft is to avenge, means James Molay, the +Grand Master, executed in the barbarous manner of his age for supposed +complicity in the crimes with which the Templars were everywhere charged. +There is tall talk about such things in modern Masonry, and a great +deal of the absurd and puerile ritual in which the sect indulges when +conferring the higher grades, is supposed to have reference to them. +But the Freemasonry with which we have to deal, however connected in +its origin with the Templars, with Socinus, with the conspirators of +Cologne, or those of Vicenza, or with Cromwell, received its modern +characteristics from Elias Ashmole, the Antiquary, and the provider, +if not the founder, of the Oxford Museum. Ashmole was an alchemist +and an astrologer, and imbued consequently with a love for the jargon +and mysticism of that strange body so busied about the philosopher’s +stone and other utopias. The existing lodges of the Freemasons had an +inexpressible charm for Ashmole, and in 1646 he, together with Colonel +Mainwaring, became members of the craft. He perfected it, added various +mystic symbols to those already in use, and gave partly a scriptural, +partly an Egyptian form to its jargon and ceremonies. The _Rosecroix_, +Rosicrucian degree, a society formed after the ideal of Bacon’s New +Atlantis, appeared; and the various grades of companion, master, secret +master, perfect master, elect, and Irish master, were either remodelled +or newly formed, as we know them now. Charles I. was decapitated in +1649, and Ashmole being a Royalist to the core, soon turned English +Masonry from the purposes of Cromwell and his party, and made the craft, +which was always strong in Scotland, a means to upset the Government +of the Protector and to bring back the Stuarts. Now “Hiram” became the +murdered Charles, who was to be avenged instead of James Molay, and the +reconstruction of the Temple meant the restoration of the exiled House +of Stuart. On the accession of Charles II., the craft was, of course, +not treated with disfavour; and when the misfortunes of James II., drove +him from the throne, the partisans of the House of Stuart had renewed +recourse to it as a means of secret organization against the enemy. + +To bring back the Pretender, the Jacobites formed a Scotch and an English +and an Irish constitution. The English constitution embraced the Mother +Lodge of York and that of London, which latter separated from York, +and with a new spring of action started into life as the Grand Lodge +of London in 1717. The Jacobite nobles brought it to France chiefly to +aid their attempts in favour of the Stuarts. They opened a lodge called +the “Amity and Fraternity,” in Dunkirk, in 1721, and in 1725, the Lord +Derwentwater opened the famous Mother Lodge of Paris. Masonry soon spread +to Holland (1730), to Germany in 1736, to Ireland in 1729, and afterwards +to Italy, Spain, and Europe generally. All its lodges were placed under +the Grand Lodge of England, and remained so for many years. + +I mention these facts and dates in order to let you see that precisely at +the period when Freemasonry was thus extending abroad, the Infidelity, +which had been introduced by Bayle and openly advocated by Voltaire, was +being disseminated largely amongst the corrupt nobility of France and of +Europe generally. It was, as we have already seen, a period of universal +licence in morals with the great in every country, and the members of the +Grand Lodge in England were generally men of easy virtue whose example +was agreeable to Continental libertines. + +Voltaire found, that the Masonry to which he had been affiliated +in London, was a capital means of diffusing his doctrines among the +courtiers, the men of letters, and the public of France. It was like +himself, the incarnation of hypocrisy and lying. It came recommended +by an appearance of philanthropy and of religion. Ashmole gave it the +open Bible, together with the square and compass. It called the world to +witness that it believed in God, “the great Architect of the Universe.” +It had “an open eye,” which may be taken for God’s all-seeing providence, +or for the impossibility of a sworn Mason escaping his fate if he +revealed the secrets of the craft or failed to obey the orders he was +selected to carry out. It made members known to each other, just as did +the ancient craft, in every country, and professed to take charge of the +orphans and widows of deceased brethren who could not provide for them. +But, in its secret conclaves and in its ascending degrees, it had means +to tell the victim whom it could count upon, that the “Architect” meant +a circle, a nothing;[7] that the open Bible was the universe; and that +the square and compass was simply the fitness of things—the means to make +all men “fraternal, equal and free” in some impossible utopia it promised +but never gave. In the recesses of its lodges, the political conspirator +found the men and the means to arrive at his ends in security. Those +who ambitioned office found there the means of advancement. The old +spirit breathed into the fraternity by Socinus, and nourished so well by +the heretical libertines of the England and Germany of the seventeenth +century, and perfected by the Infidels of the eighteenth, was master +in all its lodges. Banquets, ribald songs and jests, revelling in sin, +constituted from the beginning, a leading feature in its life. Lodges +became the secure home for the _roué_, the spendthrift, the man of +broken fortunes, the Infidel, and the depraved of the upper classes. +Such attractive centres of sin, therefore, spread over Europe with great +rapidity. They were encouraged not only by Voltaire, but by his whole +host of Atheistic writers, philosophers, encyclopædists, revolutionists, +and rakes. The scoundrels of Europe found congenial employment in them; +and before twenty years elapsed from their first introduction, the lodges +were a power in Europe, formidable by the union which subsisted between +them all, and by the wealth, social position, and unscrupulousness of +those who formed their brotherhood. The principles fashionable—and indeed +alone tolerated—in them all, before long, were the principles of Voltaire +and of his school. This led in time to— + + + + +V. + +THE UNION AND ILLUMINISM OF MASONRY. + + +With the aid of Voltaire, and of his party, Freemasonry rapidly spread +amongst the higher classes of France and wherever else in Europe the +influence of the French Infidels extended. It soon after obtained +immense power of union and propagandism. In France and everywhere else +it had an English, a Scotch, and a local obedience. These had separate +constitutions and officers, even separate grades, but all were identical +in essence and in aim. A brother in one was a brother in all. However, +it seemed to the leaders that more unity was needed, and aided by the +adhesion of the Duke de Chartres, subsequently better known as the Duke +of Orleans, the infamous Philippe-Egalité, who was Grand Master of the +Scotch Masonic Body in France, the French Masons in the English obedience +desiring independence of the Mother Lodge of England, separated, and +elected him the first Grand Master of the since celebrated Grand Orient +of France. Two years after this, the execrable “Androgyne” lodges for +women, called “Lodges of Adoption,” were established, and had as Grand +Mistress over them all, the Duchess of Bourbon, sister of Egalité. The +Infidels, by extending these lodges for women, obtained an immense amount +of influence, which they otherwise never could attain. They thus invaded +the domestic circle of the Court of France and of every Court in Europe. +Thus, too, the royal edicts, the decrees of Clement XII. and Benedict +XIV. against Freemasonry, and the efforts of conscientious officers, +were rendered completely inoperative. After the death of Voltaire, the +extension of Freemasonry became alarming; but no State effort could then +stop its progress. It daily grew more powerful and more corrupt. It began +already to extend its influence into every department of state. Promotion +in the army, in the navy, in the public service, in the law, and even to +the fat benefices “in commendam” of the Church, became impossible without +its aid;[8] and at this precise juncture, when the political fortunes of +France were, for many reasons, growing desperate, two events occurred to +make the already general and corrupt Freemasonry still more formidable. +These were the advent of the Illuminism of Saint Martin in France, +and that of Adam Weishaupt in Germany, and the increased corruption +introduced principally by means of women-Freemasons. + +A Portuguese Jew, named Martinez Pasqualis, was the first to introduce +Illuminism into the Lodge of Lyons, and his system was afterwards +perfected in wickedness by Saint Martin, from whom French Illuminism took +its name. Illuminism meant the extreme extent of immorality, Atheism, +anarchy, levelling, and bloodshed, to which the principles of Masonry +could be carried. It meant a universal conspiracy against the Church and +established order. It constituted a degree of advancement for all the +lodges, and powerfully aided to make them the centres of revolutionary +intrigue and of political manipulation which they soon became in the +hands of men at once sunk in Atheism and moral corruption. + +An idea of these lodges may be obtained from a description given of that +of Ermanonville, by M. Le Marquis de Lefroi, in _Dictionnaire des Errors +Sociales_, quoted by Deschamps, vol. ii., page 93. + +“It is known,” he says, “that the Chateau de Ermanonville belonging to +the Sieur Girardin, about ten leagues from Paris, was a famous haunt +of Illuminism. It is known that there, near the tomb of Jean-Jacques, +under the pretext of bringing men back to the age of nature, reigned the +most horrible dissoluteness of morals. Nothing can equal the turpitude +of morals which reigns amongst that horde of Ermanonville. Every woman +admitted to the mysteries became common to the brothers, and was +delivered up to the chance or to the choice of these true ‘Adamites.’” +Barruch in his _Memoires sur le Jacobinism_, t. iv., p. 334, says, “that +M. Leseure, the father of the hero of La Vendee, having been affiliated +to a lodge of this kind, and having, in obedience to the promptings of +conscience, abandoned it, was soon after poisoned.” He himself declared +to the Marquis de Montron that he fell a victim to “that infamous horde +of the Illuminati.” + +The Illuminism of Saint Martin was simply an advance in the intensity +of immorality, Atheism, secrecy, and terror, which already reigned +in the lodges of France. It planned a deeper means of revolution and +destruction. It became in its hidden depths a lair in which the Atheists +of the period could mature their plans for the overthrow of the existing +order of things to their own best advantage. It gave itself very +captivating names. Its members were “Knights of Beneficence,” “Good +Templars,” “Knights of St. John,” &c. They numbered, however, amongst +them, the most active, daring, and unscrupulous members of Masonry. They +set themselves at work to dominate over and to control the entire body. +They had no system, any more than any other sort of Masons, to give the +world instead of that which they determined to pull down. The state of +nature, goods and the sexes in common, no God, and instead of God a +hatred for everything sustaining the idea of God, formed about the sum +total of the happiness which they desired to see reign in a world, where +people should be reduced to a level resembling that of wild cattle in the +American prairies. This was the Illumination they destined for humanity; +yet such was the infatuation inspired by their immoral and strange +doctrines that nobles, princes, and monarchs of the period, including +Frederick II. of Prussia and the silly Joseph II. of Austria, admitted +to a part of their secrets, were the tools and the dupes, and even the +accomplices, of these infamous conspirators. + + + + +VI. + +THE ILLUMINISM OF ADAM WEISHAUPT. + + +But the Illuminism of Lyons was destined soon to have a world-wide and +ineradicable hold on the Masonry of the world by means of an adept far +more able than Saint Martin or any of his associates. This was Adam +Weishaupt, a Professor of Canon Law in the University of Munich. I shall +detain you a while to consider this remarkable individual who, more than +any of the Atheists that have arisen in Masonry, has been the cause of +the success of its agencies in controlling the fate of the world since +his day. Had Weishaupt not lived, Masonry may have ceased to be a power +after the reaction consequent on the first French Revolution. He gave +it a form and character which caused it to outlive that reaction, to +energize to the present day, and which will cause it to advance until its +final conflict with Christianity must determine whether Christ or Satan +shall reign on this earth to the end. + +Voltaire’s will to do God and man injury was as strong as that of +Weishaupt. His disciples, D’Alembert, Diderot, Damilaville, Condorcet, +and the rest, were as fully determined as he was, to eradicate +Christianity. But they desired in its stead a system with only a +mitigated antipathy for monarchy, and which might have tolerated for +a long time such kings as Frederick of Prussia, and such Empresses as +Catherine of Russia. But the hatred for God and all form of worship, +and the determination to found a universal republic on the lines of +Communism, was on the part of Weishaupt a settled sentiment. Possessed +of a rare power of organization, an education in law which made him a +pre-eminent teacher in its highest faculty, an extended knowledge of men +and things, a command over himself, a repute for external morality, and +finally, a position calculated to win able disciples, Weishaupt employed, +for fifty years after the death of Voltaire, his whole life and energies +in the one work of perfecting secret associations to accomplish by deep +deceit, and by force when that should be practical, the ruin of the +existing order of religion, civilization, and government, in order to +plant in its stead his own system of Atheism and Socialism. + +He found contemporary Masonry well adapted for his ends. His object was +to extend it as far as possible as a means of seducing men away from +Christianity. He well knew that Masonry and the Church were in mortal +conflict, and that the moment a man became a Mason, he, that instant, +became excommunicated; he lost the grace of God; he passed into a state +of hostility to the Church; he ceased to approach the Sacraments; he was +constituted in a state of rebellion; he forfeited his liberty to unknown +superiors; he took a dreadful oath—perhaps many—not to reveal the secrets +then, or at any after time, to be committed to his keeping; and finally, +he placed himself amongst men, all of whom were in his own position, and +in whose society it was possible and easy for the astute disciples of +Weishaupt to lead him farther on the road to ruin. + +Weishaupt’s view, then, was first to entice men into Masonry—into the +lowest degree. A great gain for evil was thus at once obtained. But a +man, though in Masonry, may not be willing to become an Atheist and a +Socialist, for some time at least. He may have in his heart a profound +conviction that a God existed, and some hope left of returning to that +God at or before his death. He may have entered Masonry for purposes of +ambition, for motives of vanity, from mere lightness of character. He may +continue his prayers, and refuse, if a Catholic, to give up the Mother of +God and some practice of piety loved by him from his youth. But Masonry +was a capital system to wean a man gradually away from all these things. +It did not at once deny the existence of God, nor at once attack the +Christian Dispensation. It commenced by giving the Christian idea of God, +an easy, and, under semblance of respect, an almost imperceptible shake. +It swore by the name of God in all its oaths. It called him, however, +not a Creator, only an architect—the great Architect of the universe. +It carefully avoided all mention of Christ, of the Adorable Trinity, of +the Unity of the Faith, or of any faith. It protested a respect for the +convictions of every man, for the idolatrous Parsee, for the Mahommedan, +for the Heretic, the Schismatic, the Catholic. By-and-by, it gave, in +higher degrees, a ruder shock to the belief in the Deity and a gradual +inducement to favour Naturalism. This it did gradually, imperceptibly, +but effectually. Now, to a man who meditated the vast designs of social +and religious destruction contemplated by Weishaupt, Masonry, especially +the Masonry of his period, was the most effective means that could be +conceived. In its midst, therefore, he planted his disciples, well +versed in his system. These consisted of three classes, each class +having subdivisions, and all of which were high degrees of Masonry. The +first class of Illuminati, was that of preparation. It consisted of two +degrees, namely, the degree of Novice and that of Minerval. The Minervals +formed the great body of the order, and were under the direction of +certain chiefs, who themselves were subjected to other agencies invisible +to those instructed by themselves. Weishaupt instructed the teachers of +the Minervals to propose each year to their scholars some interesting +questions, to cause them to write themes calculated to spread impiety +amongst the people, such as burlesques on the Psalms, pasquinades on the +Prophets, and caricatures of personages of the Old Testament after the +manner of Voltaire and his school. It is surprising with what exactitude +these Minervals follow out the instructions of Weishaupt to this day. +At this moment, in London, under the eyes of the Lord Chancellor, +pamphlets, with hideous woodcuts, ridiculing David, “the man after God’s +own heart,” are weekly published. One of these, which was handed to +me in a public place, had a woodcut representing the “meek Monarch of +Judea,” with a head just severed from a human body in one hand, and the +sword that did the deed in the other. Another represented him amidst a +set of ridiculous figures dancing. From this we can easily judge that +illuminated Masonry is at work somewhere even in London, and that the +Masonry in high quarters is blind to its excesses, exactly as happened in +France a few years before the French Revolution. Now these Minervals, if +they manifested what the German Masons call “religionary” inclinations, +might indeed receive the first three Masonic degrees, but they were not +to be further promoted in Illuminism. They were relegated to the rank +and file of Masonry, who were of use in many ways for the movement, +but they were never to be trusted with the real secret. The teacher, +without seeming to do so, was ordered to encourage, but not to applaud +publicly, such blasphemies as the Minervals might make use of in their +essays. They were to be led on, seemingly by themselves, in the ways of +irreligion, immorality, and Atheism, until ripe for further promotion in +evil progress. Finally, in the advanced grades of Illuminated Major and +Minor, and in those of Scotch Knight and Epopte or Priest they were told +the whole secret of the Order as follows, in a discourse by the initiator. + +“Remember,” he said, “that from the first invitations which we have +given you, in order to attract you to us, we have commenced by telling +you that in the projects of our Order there did not enter any designs +against religion. You remember that such an assurance was again given to +you when you were admitted into the ranks of our Novices, and that it was +repeated when you entered into our Minerval Academy. Remember also how +much from the first grades we have spoken to you of morality and virtue, +but at the same time how much the studies which we prescribed for you +and the instructions which we gave you rendered both morality and virtue +independent of all religion; how much we have been at pains to make you +understand, while making to you the eulogy of religion, that it was not +anything else than those mysteries, and that worship degenerated in the +hands of the priest. You remember with what art, with what simulated +respect we have spoken to you of Christ and of his Gospel; but in the +grades of greater Illuminism, of Scotch Knight, and of Epopte or Priest, +how we have known to form from Christ’s Gospel that of our reason, and +from its morality that of nature, and from its religion that of nature, +and from religion, reason, morality, and nature, to make the religion and +the morality of the rights of man, of equality, and of liberty. Remember, +that while insinuating to you the different parts of this system, we have +caused them to bud forth from yourselves as if your own opinions. We +have placed you on the way; you have replied to our questions very much +more than we did to yours. When we demanded of you, for example, whether +the religions of peoples responded to the end for which men adopted them; +if the religion of Christ, pure and simple, was that which the different +sects professed to-day, we knew well enough what to hold. But it was +necessary to know to what point we had succeeded to cause our sentiments +to germinate in you. We have had very many prejudices to overcome in you, +before being able to persuade you, that the pretended religion of Christ +was nothing else than the work of priests, of imposture, and of tyranny. +If it be so with that religion so much proclaimed and admired, what are +we to think of other religions? Understand, then, that they have all the +same fictions for their origin, that they are all equally founded on +lying, error, chimera, and imposture. Behold our secret! + +“The turns and counter-turns which it was necessary to make; the eulogies +which it was necessary to give to the pretended secret schools; the fable +of the Freemasons being in possession of the veritable doctrine; and our +Illuminism to-day, the sole inheritor of these mysteries, will no longer +astonish you at this moment. If, in order to destroy all Christianity, +all religion, we have pretended to have the sole true religion, remember +that the end justifies the means, and that the wise ought to take all +the means to do good, which the wicked take to do evil. Those which we +have taken to deliver you, those which we take to deliver one day the +human race from all religion, are nothing else than a pious fraud which +we reserve to unveil some day in the grade of Magus or Philosopher +Illuminated.”—_Segur Le Secret de la Franc-Maçonnerie_, p. 49. + +The above extract will serve to show you what manner of man Weishaupt +was, and the quality of the teaching he invented. His organization—for +the perfection of which he deeply studied the constitution of the then +suppressed Society of Jesus—contemplated placing the thread of the whole +conspiracy, destined to be controlled by the Illuminati, in the hands +of one man, advised by a small council. The Illuminati were to be in +Masonry and of Masonry, so as to move amongst its members secretly. +They were so trained that they could obtain the mastery in every form +of secret society, and thus render it subservient to their own Chief. +Their fidelity to him was made perfect by the most severe and complex +system of espionage. The Chief himself was kept safe by his position, +his long training, and by his council. It thus happened that no matter +to what office or position the Illuminati attained, they had to become +subservient to the general aims of the Order. Weishaupt, after being +deprived of his professorship in Bavaria, found an asylum with the +Prince of Coburg-Gotha, where he remained in honour, affluence, and +security, until his death in 1830. He continued all his life the Chief +of the Illuminati, and this fact may account, in large measure, for the +fidelity with which the Illuminati of the Revolution, the Directory, +the Consulate, the Empire, the Restoration, and the Revolution of 1830, +invariably carried out his programme of perpetual conspiracy for the +ends he had in view. It may also account for the strange vitality of +the spirit of the Illuminati in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Spain, +and of its continuance through the “Illuminated” reigns of Nubius and +Palmerston, the successors of Weishaupt to our own day. This we shall +see further on; but, meanwhile, we shall glance at the first step of +Weishaupt to rule over Masonry through his disciples. This was by calling +together the famous “General Council” of Freemasonry, known as— + + + + +VII. + +THE CONVENT OF WILHELMSBAD. + + +From its rise Freemasonry appears as a kind of dark parody of the +Church of Christ. The names taken by its dignitaries, the form of its +hierarchy, the designations affected by its lodges and “obediences,” the +language of its rituals, all seem to be a kind of aping after the usages +of Christianity. When Saint Martin wished to spread his Illuminism +in France, he managed to have a meeting of deputy Masons from all the +lodges in that country. This was designated the “Convent of the Gauls;” +and Lyons the place of its meeting was called “The Holy City.” Weishaupt +had more extended views. He meant to reach all humanity by means of +Masonry, and looked for a “Convent” far more general than that of Lyons. +When, therefore, he had matured his plans for impregnating the Masonry +of the world with his infernal system, he began to cast about for +means to call that Convent. The Illuminism of Saint Martin was in full +sympathy with him, but it could not effect his purpose. What he wanted +was, that a kind of General Council of the Masonry extended at the time +throughout the earth, should be called together; and he hoped that, by +adroitly manipulating the representatives whom he knew would be sent +to it by the lodges of every nationality of Masons, his own Illuminism +might be adopted as a kind of high, arch, or hidden, Masonry, throughout +its entire extent. He succeeded in his design, and in 1781, under the +official convocation of the Duke of Brunswick, acting as Supreme Grand +Master, deputies from every country where Freemasonry existed were +summoned to meet at Wilhelmsbad in council. They came from every portion +of the British Empire; from the newly formed United States of America; +from all the nations of Continental Europe, every one of which, at that +period, had lodges; from the territories of the Grand Turk; and from +the Indian and Colonial possessions of France, Spain, Portugal, and +Holland. The principal and most numerous representatives were, however, +from Germany and France. Through the skilful agency of the notorious +Baron Knigg, and another still more astute adept of his, named Dittfort, +Weishaupt completely controlled this Council. He further caused measures +to be there concerted which in a few years led to the French Revolution, +and afterwards handed Germany over to the French revolutionary Generals +acting under the Girondins, the Jacobins, and the Directory. I would +wish, if time permitted, to enter at length into the proofs of this fact. +It will suffice, however, for my present purpose, to state, that more +than sufficient evidence of it was found by the Bavarian Government, +which had, some five years later, to suppress the Illuminati, and that +one of the members of the convent, the Count de Virene, was struck with +such horror at the depravity of the body, that he abandoned Illuminism +and became a fervent Catholic. He said to a friend:—“I will not tell +you the secrets which I bring, but I can say that a conspiracy is laid +so secret and so deep that it will be very difficult for monarchy and +religion not to succumb to it.” It may be also of use to remark that +many of the leaders of the French Revolution, and notably most of those +who lived through it, and profited by it, were deputy Masons sent from +various lodges in France to the Convent of Wilhelmsbad. + + + + +VIII. + +CABALISTIC MASONRY OR MASONIC SPIRITISM. + + +Before proceeding further with the history of Freemasonry, I shall +stay a moment to consider a very remarkable feature in its strange +composition, without which it scarcely ever appears. The world was never +without wizards, witches, necromancers, jugglers, and those who really +had, or through imposture, pretended to have, intercourse with demons. +Masonry in its various ramifications is the great continuator of this +feature of a past which we had thought departed for ever. Spirit-rapping, +table-turning, medium-imposture, etc., distinguish its adepts in +Protestant countries and in Catholic ones. We have almost incredible +stories of the intercourse with the devil and his angels, which men +like the Carbonari of Italy maintain. However, from the very beginning, +Freemasonry has had a kind of peculiar dark mysticism connected with it. +It loves to revel in such mysteries as the secret conclaves of the Jews +used to practise in the countries in which they were persecuted, and +which were common amongst those unclean heretics, the Bulgarians, the +Gnostics, the Albigenses, and the Waldenses. The excesses alleged against +the Templars, were also accompanied by secret signs and symbols which +Masonry adopted. But whatever may have been the extent of this mysticism +in Masonry before, a spurious kind of spiritism became part of its very +essence since the advent of the celebrated Cagliostro, who travelled all +over Europe under the instructions of Weishaupt, and founded more lodges +than did any individual Freemason then or since. + +The real name of this arch-impostor was Balsamo. He was an inveterate +sorcerer, and in his peregrinations in the East, picked up from every +source, the secrets of alchemy, astrology, jugglery, legerdemain, and +occult science of every kind, about which he could get any information. +Like the Masonry to which he became affiliated at an early period, he +was an adept at acting and speaking a lie. He suited Weishaupt, who, +though knowing him to be an impostor, nevertheless employed him for +the diffusion of Illuminism. Accompanied by his no less celebrated +wife, Lorenza, he appeared in Venice as the Marquis Pelligrini, and +subsequently traversed Italy, Germany, Spain, England, the Netherlands, +and Russia. In the latter country he amassed, at the Court of Catherine +II., an immense fortune. In France, assisted by the efforts of the +Illuminati, he was received as a kind of demigod, and called the divine +Cagliostro. He established new lodges in all parts of the country. +At Bordeaux he remained eleven months for this purpose. In Paris he +established lodges for women of a peculiarly cabalistic and impure kind, +with inner departments horribly mysterious. At the reception of members +he used rites and ceremonies exactly resembling the absurd practices +of spirit mediums, who see and speak to spirits, etc., and introduced +all that nonsense with which we are made now familiar by his modern +followers. He claimed the power of conferring immortal youth, health, and +beauty, and what he called moral and physical regeneration, by the aid +of drugs and Illuminated Masonry. He was the father and the founder of +the existing rite of Misraim—the Egyptian rite in Masonry. The scoundrel +became involved in the celebrated case of the “Diamond Necklace,” and was +sent to the Bastile, from which he managed to pass to England, where, in +1787, he undertook to foretell the destruction of the Bastile, and of the +Monarchy of France, the Revolution, and—but here he miscalculated—the +advent of a Prince who would abolish _Lettres de Cachet_, convoke the +States General, and establish the worship of Reason. All these measures +were resolved on at Wilhelmsbad, and Cagliostro of course knew that +well. His only miscalculation was regarding the Prince Grand Master. +The Revolution went on a little too far for the wretched Egalité, who +ended his treason to his house by losing his head at the guillotine. As +to Cagliostro, he made his way to Rome, where the Inquisition put an +end to his exploits on detecting his attempts at Illuminism. His secret +powers could not deliver him from prison. He died there miserably, in +1795, after attempting to strangle a poor Capuchin whom he asked for as +confessor, and in whose habit he had hoped to escape. This impostor is +of course made a martyr to the Inquisition accordingly. Masonry does +much to disown Cagliostro; but with a strange inconsistency it keeps the +Egyptian rite founded by him, and clings to mysticism of the debased kind +he introduced. It is wonderful how extremes thus meet,—how men who make +it a sign of intellectual strength to deny the existence of the God that +made them bow down stupidly and superstitiously before devils, real or +imaginary. Necromancy is a characteristic of Antichrist, of whom we read, +“that he will show great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if that were +possible, even the elect.” He will be when he comes both a Cromwell and a +Cagliostro. + + + + +IX. + +THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. + + +I may here remark that the conspiracy of the Illuminati, and of +Freemasonry generally, was far from being a secret to many of the Courts +of Europe. But, then, just as at the present moment, it had friends, +female as well as male, in every Court. These baulked the wholesome +attempts of some rulers to stay its deadly intrigues against princes, +governments, and all order, as well as against its one grand enemy, +the Church of Jesus Christ. The Court of Bavaria found out, as I have +said, but only by an accident, a part of the plans of the Illuminati, +and gave the alarm; but, strange to say, that alarm was unheeded by the +other Courts of Europe, Catholic as well as Protestant. A Revolution +was expected, but, as now, each Court hoped to stave off the worst +consequences from itself, and to profit by the ruin of its neighbours. +The voice of the Holy Father was raised against Freemasonry again and +again. Clement VIII., Benedict XIV., and other Pontiffs, condemned it. +The Agents and Ministers of the Holy See, gave private advices and +made urgent appeals to have the evil stopped while yet the powers of +Europe could do so. These were all baffled, and the Court of the Grand +Monarch and every Court of Continental Europe slept in the torpor of a +living death, until wakened to a true sense of danger at a period far +too late to remedy the disasters which irreligion, vice, stupidity, and +recklessness hastened. The lodges of the Illuminati in France meanwhile +carried on the conspiracy. They had amassed and expended immense sums in +deluging the country with immoral and Atheistic literature. + +Mirabeau, in his _Monarchie Prussienne_ (vol. 6, page 67), published +before the Revolution, thus speaks of these sums:— + + “Masonry in general, and especially the branch of the + Templars, produced annually immense sums by means of the cost + of receptions and contributions of every kind. A part of the + total was employed in the expenses of the order, but another + part, much more considerable, went into a general fund, of + which no one, except the first amongst the brethren, knew the + destination.” Cagliostro, when questioned before the Holy Roman + Inquisition, “confessed that he led his sumptuous existence + thanks to the funds furnished him by the Illuminati. He also + stated that he had a commission from Weishaupt to prepare the + French Lodges to receive his direction.”—_See Deschamps_, v., + p. 129. + +Discontent was thus sown broadcast, amongst every class of the +population. Masonic Lodges multiplied, inspired by the instructed +emissaries of the remorseless Weishaupt; and the direct work of +Freemasonry in subsequent events is manifest not only in the detailed +prophecy of Cagliostro, founded on what he knew was decided upon; but +is still more clearly evidenced by a second convent, held by the French +Illuminati, where everything was arranged for the Revolution. The men +prominent in this conclave were the men subsequently most active in every +scene that followed. Mirabeau, Lafayette, Fouché, Talleyrand, Danton, +Murat, Robespierre, Cambaceres, and in fact every foremost name in the +subsequent convulsions of the country were not only Illuminati, but +foremost amongst the Illuminati.[9] Some disappeared under their own +guillotine; others outlived the doom of their fellows. Constantly, the +men of the whole conspiracy had understandings and relations with each +other. Weishaupt, at the safe distance of Coburg-Gotha, gave them his +willing aid and that of the German Freemasons. This concert enabled them +to float on every billow which the troubled sea of the Revolution caused +to swell; and if they did not succeed in making France and all Europe +a social ruin, such as that contemplated at Wilhelmsbad, it was from +want of power, not from want of will. Position and wealth made many of +them desire to conserve what the Revolution threw into their hands. But +they remained under all changes of fortune Freemasons, as they and their +successors are to this day. Perhaps, under the influence of oaths, of +secret terror, and of the sect, they dare not remain long otherwise. One +or two individuals may drop aside; but some fatality or necessity keeps +the leaders Illuminati always. They as a whole body remain ever the same, +and recoil before political adversity, only to gather more strength for a +future attack upon religion and order still wider and more fatal than the +one which preceded it. They are not at any time one whit less determined +to plunge the world into the anarchy and bloodshed they created at the +French Revolution, than they were in 1789. On this point let one of +themselves speak:—“I have had,” says a Scotch Freemason, horrified at the +results achieved by the Fraternity in their work up to 1797, “I have had +the means to follow all the attempts made during fifty years under the +specious pretext of enlightening the world with the torch of philosophy, +and to dissipate all the clouds by which superstition, religious and +civil, used to retain the people of Europe in the darkness of slavery. +I have observed the progress of these doctrines mixing themselves and +allying themselves more and more closely with the different systems of +Masonry; finally, I have seen them forming an association having for +its sole object the destruction, even to the very foundations, of all +the religious establishments, and the overthrow of all the existing +governments of Europe. I have seen that association extend its systems +with a zeal so sustained that it became almost irresistible, and I have +remarked that the personages who have had the greatest part in the French +Revolution were members of that association, that their plans had been +conceived upon its principles, and executed with its assistance. I am +convinced that it exists always, that it works always silently, and all +appearances prove that not only its emissaries strongly endeavour to +propagate amongst us its abominable doctrines, but that there are, even +in England, lodges which, since 1784, correspond with the mother lodge. +It is, in order to unmask these, to prove that the ringleaders are knaves +who preached a morality and a doctrine of which they knew the falsehood +and the danger, and that their real intention was to abolish all forms +of religion, to overthrow all governments, and to make of the entire +world one scene of pillage and murder, that I offer an extract of the +informations I have taken on this matter.” + +I have quoted these words of Robison to show, that as early as 1797, +the connection between Freemasonry and the French Revolution was well +understood. Since then Louis Blanc, and other Masonic writers, have +gloried in the fact. “Our end,” said the celebrated _Alta Vendita_, to +which I shall have to refer presently, “is that of Voltaire and the +French Revolution.” In fact, what Freemasonry did in France, it now +labours, with greater caution, to effect on some future day throughout +the entire world. It then submitted, with perfect docility, to a great +military leader, who arose out of its own work and principles. Such +another leader will finally direct its last efforts against God and man. + +That leader will be Antichrist. + + + + +X. + +NAPOLEON AND FREEMASONRY. + + +I shall have to ask your careful attention for a few moments to the +leader who arose out of the first French Revolution, and whose military +and diplomatic fame is still fresh in the recollection of many of the +present generation. That leader was Napoleon Bonaparte. In the days +of his greatest prosperity, nothing was so distasteful to him as to +be reminded of his Jacobin past. He then wished to _pose_ as another +Charlemagne, or Rudolph of Hapsburg. He wished to be considered the +friend of religion, and of the Catholic religion in particular. He did +a something for the restoration of the Church in France, but it was as +little as he could help. It, perhaps, prevented a more wholesome and +complete reaction in favour of the true religious aspirations of the +population. It was done grudgingly, parsimoniously, and meanly. And when +it had been done, Napoleon did all he could do to undo its benefits. He +soon became the persecutor—the heartless, cruel, ungrateful persecutor +of the Pontiff, and an opponent to the best interests of religion in +France, and in every country which had the misfortune to fall under +his sway. The reason of all this was, that Napoleon had commenced +his career as a Freemason, and a Freemason he remained in spirit and +in effect to the end of his life. It is known that he owed his first +elevation to the Jacobins, and that his earliest patron was Robespierre. +His first campaign in Italy was characterized by the utmost brutality +which could gratify Masonic hatred for the Church. He suppressed the +abodes of the consecrated servants of God, sacked churches, cathedrals, +and sanctuaries, and reduced the Pope to the direst extremities. His +language was the reflex of his acts and of his heart. His letters +breathe everywhere the spirit of advanced Freemasonry, gloating over the +wounds it had been able to inflict upon the Spouse of Christ. Yet this +adventurer has, with great adroitness, been able to pass with many, and +especially in Ireland, as a good Catholic. Because he was the enemy of +England, or rather that England led by the counsels of Pitt and Burke +constituted herself the implacable enemy of the Revolution of which +he was the incarnation and continuation, many opposed to England for +political reasons, regard Bonaparte as a kind of hero. No one can doubt +the military genius of the man, nor indeed his great general ability; but +he was in all his acts what Freemasonry made him. He was mean, selfish, +tyrannical, cruel. He was reckless of blood. He could tolerate or use the +Church while that suited his policy. But he had from the beginning to the +very end of his career that thorough indifference to her welfare, and +want of belief in her doctrines, which an early and life-long connection +with the Illuminati inspired. + +Father Deschamps writes of him: “Napoleon Bonaparte was in effect an +advanced Freemason, and his reign has been the most flourishing epoch +of Freemasonry. During the reign of terror, the Grand Orient ceased its +activity. The moment Napoleon seized upon power the lodges were opened in +every place.” + +I have said that the revolutionary rulers in France were all +Illuminati—that is Freemasons of the most pronounced type—whose ultimate +aim was the destruction of every existing religion and form of secular +government, in order to found an atheistic, social republic, which +should extend throughout the world and embrace all mankind. Freemasonry +welcomes, as we have seen, the Mahommedan, the Indian, the Chinese, +and the Budhist, as well as the Christian and the Jew. It designs to +conquer all, as a means of bringing all into the one level of Atheism +and Communism. When, therefore, its Directory, in their desire to get +rid of Napoleon, planned the expedition to Egypt and Asia, they meant +the realization of a part of this programme, as well as the removal of +a troublesome rival. A universal monarchy is, in their idea, the most +efficacious means for arriving at a universal republic. Once obtained, +the dagger with which they removed Gustavus III. of Sweden, or the +guillotine by which they rid France of Louis XVI., can at any moment +remove Cæsar and call in Brutus. They are not the men to recoil before +deeds of blood for the accomplishment of their purposes. + +Now Napoleon, who was, as Father Deschamps informs us, a member of the +lodge of the Templars, the extreme Illuminated lodge of Lyons, and had +given proof of his fidelity to Masonry in Italy, was the very man to +extend the rule of Republicanism throughout Asia. He appeared in Egypt +with the same professions of hypocritical respect for the Koran, the +Prophet, and Mahommedanism, as he afterwards made when it suited his +policy for Catholicism. His address to the people of Egypt will prove +this. It ran as follows, with true Masonic hypocrisy:— + +“Cadis, Chieks, Imans, tell the people that we are the friends of true +Mussulman; that we respect more than the Mamelukes do, God, His Prophet, +and the Alkoran. Is it not we who have destroyed the Pope, who wished +that war should be made against the Mussulman? Is it not we who have +destroyed the Knights of Malta, because these madmen thought that God +willed them to make war upon the Mussulman? Is it not we who have been in +all ages the friends of the Grand Seigneur—may God fulfil his desires—and +the enemy of his enemies. God is God, and Mahomet is his Prophet! Fear +nothing above all for the religion of the Prophet, which I love.” + +The cool hypocrisy of this Address is manifested by a proclamation he +made on that occasion to his own soldiers. The same proclamation also +shows the value we may place on his protestations of attachment to, and +respect for, the usages of Christianity. The following is a translation +of it:— + +“Soldiers! the peoples with whom we are about to live are Mahommedan. +The first article of their faith is this: ‘There is no God but God, and +Mahomet is his Prophet.’ Do not contradict them. Act with them as you +have acted with the Jews and with the Italians. Have the same respect for +their Muftis and their Imans, as you have had for Rabbis and Bishops. +Have for the ceremonies prescribed by the Alkoran, for the Mosques, the +same tolerance you had for Convents, for Synagogues, and for the religion +of Moses, and of Jesus Christ.” + +We read in the correspondence of Napoleon I., published by order of +Napoleon III. (t. v., pp. 185, 191, 241), what he thought of this +proclamation to the very end of his career:— + +“After all, it was not impossible that circumstances might have brought +me to embrace Islam,” he said at St. Helena. “Could it be thought that +the Empire of the East, and perhaps the subjection of the whole of +Asia, was not worth a turban and pantaloons, for it was reduced to so +much solely. We would lose only our breeches and our hats. I say that +the army, disposed as it was, would have lent itself to that project +undoubtedly, and it saw in it nothing but a subject for laughter and +pleasantry. Meanwhile you see the consequences. I took Europe by a back +stroke. The old civilization was beaten down, and who then thought to +disturb the destinies of our France _and the regeneration of the world_? +Who had dared to undertake it? Who could have accomplished it?” + +Neither prosperity nor adversity changed Napoleon. He was a sceptic to +the end. He said at St. Helena to Las Cases: + +“Everything proclaims the existence of a God—that is not to be +doubted—but all our religions are evidently the children of men. + +“Why do these religions cry down one another, combat one another? Why has +that been in all ages, and all places? It is because men are always men. +It is because the Priests have always insinuated, slipped in lies and +fraud everywhere. + +“Nevertheless,” he continued, “from the moment that I had the power, I +had been eager to re-establish religion. I used it as the base and the +root. It was in my eyes the support of good morality, of true principles, +of good manners. + +“I am assuredly far from being an Atheist; but I cannot believe all that +they teach me in spite of my reason, under penalty of being deceitful and +hypocritical. + +“To say whence I come, what I am, where I go, is above my ideas. And +nevertheless all that _is_, I am the watch which exists and does not know +itself. + +“No doubt,” he continued, “but my spirit of mere doubt was, in my quality +of Emperor, a benefit for the people. Otherwise how could I equally +favour sects so contrary, if I had been dominated over by one alone? How +could I preserve the independence of my thoughts and of my movements +under the suggestions of a confessor who could govern me by means of the +fear of hell. + +“What an empire could not a wicked man, the most stupid of men, under +that title of confessor, exercise over those who govern nations? + +“I was so penetrated with these truths that I preserved myself well to +act in such a manner, that, in as far as it lay in me, I would educate my +son in the same religious lines in which I found myself.” + +Two months later the ex-Emperor said that from the age of thirteen he had +lost all religious faith. + +Thiers (_Histoire du Consulatet de l’Empire_, iv. p. 14), says: that +when Napoleon intended to proclaim himself Emperor, he wished to give +the Masons a pledge of his principles, and that he did this by killing +the Duke d’Enghien. He said, “They wish to destroy the Revolution in +attacking it in my person. I will defend it, for I am the Revolution. I, +myself—I, myself. They will so consider it from this day forward, for +they will know of what we are capable.” + +A less brave but still more accomplished relative of his, Napoleon III., +in his _Idées Napoleoniennes_, says:— + +“The Revolution dying, but not vanquished, left to Napoleon the +accomplishments of its last designs. Enlighten the nations, it would have +said to him. Place upon solid bases the principal result of our efforts. +Execute in extent that which I have done in depth. Be for Europe what I +have been for France. That grand mission Napoleon accomplished even to +the end.” + +When Napoleon obtained power, it was we know principally by means of the +Illuminated Freemason, Talleyrand.[10] By him and his confederates of +the Illuminati, he was recalled from Egypt and placed in the way of its +attainment. His brothers were—every one of them—deep in the secrets of +the sect. Its supreme hidden directory saw that a reaction had set in, +which, if not averted, would speedily lead to the return of the exiled +Bourbons, and to the disgorgement of ill-gotten goods on the part of the +revolutionists. As a lesser evil, therefore, and as a means of forwarding +the unification of Europe which they had planned, by his conquests, they +placed supreme power in the hands of Bonaparte, and urged him on in his +career, watching, at the same time, closely, their own opportunities for +the development of the deadly designs of the sect. Then, they obtained +the first places in his Empire for themselves. They put as much mischief +into the measures of relief given to conscience as they could. They +established a fatal supremacy for secularism in the matter of education. +They brought dissension between the Pope and the Emperor. They caused +the second confiscation of the States of the Church. They caused and +continued to the end, the imprisonment of Pius VII. They were at the +bottom of every attack made by Napoleon while Emperor upon the rights of +the Church, the freedom and independence of the Supreme Pontiff, and the +well-being of religion. + +But the chief mistake of Napoleon was the encouragement he gave to +Freemasonry. It served his purpose admirably for awhile, that is so +long as he served the present and ultimate views of the conspiracy; for +a conspiracy Masonry ever was and ever will be. Even if Cambaceres, +Talleyrand, Fouché, and the old leaders of the Illuminati, whom he had +taken into his confidence and richly rewarded, should be satisfied, there +was a mass of others whom no reward could conciliate, and who, filled +with the spirit of the sect, were sure to be ever on the look out for +the means to advance the designs of Weishaupt and his inner circle. That +inner circle never ceased its action. It held the members of the sect, +whom it not only permitted but assisted to attain high worldly honours, +completely in its power, and hence in absolute subjection. For them as +well as for the humblest member of the secret conclave, the poisoned +_aqua tophana_ and the dagger were ready to do the work of certain death +should they lack obedience to those depraved fanatics of one diabolical +idea, who were found worthy to be selected by their fellow-conspirators +to occupy the highest place of infamy and secret power. These latter +scattered secretly amidst the rank and file of the lodges, hundreds of +Argus-eyed, skilled plotters, who kept the real power of inner or high +Masonry in the hands of its hidden masters. Masonry from this secret +vantage ground ceaselessly conspired during the Empire. It assisted the +conquests of the victor of Austerlitz and Jena; and if Deschamps, who +quotes from the most reliable sources, is to be trusted, it actually did +more for these victories than the great military leader himself. Through +its instrumentality, the resources of the enemies of Napoleon were never +at hand, the designs of the Austrian and other generals opposed to him +were thwarted, treason was rife in their camps, and information fatal +to their designs was conveyed to the French commander. Masonry was then +on his side, and as now the secret resources of the Order, its power of +hidden influence and espionage were placed at the disposal of the cause +it served. But when Masonry had reason to fear that Napoleon’s power +might be perpetuated; when his alliance with the Imperial Family of +Austria, and above all, when the consequence of that alliance, an heir to +his throne, caused danger to the universal republic it could otherwise +assure itself of at his death; when, too, he began to show a coldness +for the sect, and sought means to prevent it from the propagandism of +its diabolical aims, then it became his enemy, and his end was not far +off.[11] Distracting councils prevailed in his cabinet. His opponents +began to get that information regarding his movements, which he had +obtained previously of theirs. Members of the sect urged on his mad +expedition to Moscow. His resources were paralyzed; and he was, in one +word, sold by secret, invisible foes into the hands of his enemies. In +Germany, Weishaupt and his party, still living on in dark intrigue, +prepared secretly for his downfall. His generals were beaten in detail. +He was betrayed, hoodwinked, and finally led to his deposition and ruin. +He then received with a measure, pressed down and overflowing, and shaken +together, the gratitude of the father of lies, incarnate in Freemasonry, +in the Illuminati, and kindred Atheistic secret societies. Banished to +Elba he was permitted to return to France only in order to meet the fate +of an outcast and a prisoner upon the rock of St. Helena, where he died +abandoned and persecuted by the dark sect which had used, abused, and +betrayed him. So it has continued, as we shall see, to use, to abuse, and +to betray every usurper or despot whom it lures into its toils. We shall +now glance at its action, the action of— + + + + +XI. + +FREEMASONRY AFTER THE FALL OF NAPOLEON. + + +It would be very interesting, if we had time, to enter into the many +intrigues of that very same body of Illuminati who had planned and +executed the Revolution, and had then created successively the Directory, +the Consulate, and the Empire in France, as they now _posed_ in a new +capacity as friends to the return of Monarchy in Europe generally. +This they did for the purposes of the Freemasons, and in order to keep +the power they wielded so long in their own hands, and in the hands of +their party. Now, I wish you to note, that Weishaupt, the father of the +Illuminati, and the fanatical and deep director of all its operations, +was even then living in power and security at Coburg-Gotha, and that his +wily confederates were ministers in every Court of Europe. Then, as +now, the invincible determination with which they secreted their quality +from the eyes of monarchs as well as of the general public, enabled them +to _pose_ in any character or capacity without fear of being detected +as Freemasons, or at least as Illuminati. Since the reign of Frederick +the Great, they filled the Court of Berlin. Many minor German Princes +continued to be Freemasons. The Duke of Brunswick was the central figure +in the first Masonic conspiracy, and though, with the hypocrisy common +to the sect, he issued a declaration highly condemnatory of his fellows, +it is generally believed that he remained to the end attached to the +“regeneration of humanity” in the interests of Atheism. The Court of +Vienna was more or less Masonic since the reign of the wretched Joseph +II. Alexander of Russia was educated by La Harpe, a Freemason, and at the +very period when called upon to play a principal part in the celebrated +“Holy Alliance,” he was under the hidden guidance of others of the +Illuminati. Fessler, an apostate Austrian religious, the Councillor of +Joseph II., after having abjured Christianity, remained, while professing +a respect for religion, its most determined enemy. He founded what is +known as the Tugenbund, a society by which German Freemasonry put on +a certain Christian covering, in order more securely to outlive the +reaction against Atheism, and to de-Christianize the world again at a +better opportunity. The Tugenbund refused to receive Jews, and devised +many other means to deceive Christians to become substantially Freemasons +without incurring Church censures or going against ideas then adverse to +the old Freemasonry, which, nevertheless, continued to exist as satanic +as ever under Christian devices. + +In France, the Illuminati of the schools of Wilhelmsbad and Lyons +continued their machinations without much change of front, though they +covered themselves with that impenetrable secrecy which the sect has +found so convenient for disarming public suspicion while pursuing its +aims. Possessing means of deceiving the outside world, and capable of +using every kind of hypocrisy and _ruse_, the Freemasons of both France +and Germany plotted at this period with more secure secrecy and success +than ever. There is nothing which Freemasonry dreads more than light. It +is the one thing it cannot stand. Therefore, it has always taken care to +provide itself with adepts and allies able to disarm public suspicion in +its regard. Should outsiders endeavour to find out its real character +and aims, it takes refuge at once under the semblance of puerility, of +harmless amusement, of beneficence, or even of half-witted simplicity. +It is content to be laughed at, in order not to be found out. But it +is for all its puerility, the same dangerous foe to Christianity, law, +legitimacy, and order, which it proved itself to be before and during the +first French Revolution, and which it will continue to be until the world +has universal reason to know the depth, the malignity, and the extent of +its remorseless designs.[12] + +At the period of the reaction against Bonaparte it seems to have taken +long and wise counsel. When Talleyrand found that Weishaupt and the +inner Masonry no longer approved of Napoleon’s autocracy, he managed very +adroitly that the Emperor should grow cold with him. He was thus free +to take adverse measures against his master, and to prepare himself for +the coming change. The whole following of Bonaparte recruited from the +Illuminati were ready to betray him. They could compass the fall of the +tyrant, but the difficulty for them was to find one suitable to put in +his place. It was decreed in their highest council that whosoever should +come upon the throne of France, should be as far removed as possible +from being a friend to Catholicity or to any principle sustaining true +religion. They therefore determined that, if at all possible, no member +of the ancient House should reign; and as soon as the allied sovereigns +who were for the most part non-Catholic, had crushed Napoleon, these +French Masons demanded the Protestant and Masonic King of Holland for +King in France. This failing, they contrived by Masonic arts to obtain +the first places in the Provisional Government which succeeded Napoleon. +They endeavoured to make the most of the inevitable, and to rule the +incoming Louis XVIII., in the interests of their sect, and to the +detriment of the Church and of Christianity. + +Notwithstanding the fact that they had shown open hostility to himself +and to his house, Louis XVIII., strange to say, favoured the Illuminati. +Talleyrand was made minister, and the other advanced Freemasons of the +Empire—Seyies, Cambaceres, Fouché, and the rest—obtained place and +power. These men at once applied themselves to subvert the sentiment of +reaction in favour of the monarchy and of religion. Soon, Louis XVIII. +gave the world the sad spectacle of a man prepared at their bidding +to cut his own throat. He dissolved a Parliament of ultra loyalists +because they were too loyal to him. The Freemasons took care that his +next Parliament should be full of its own creatures. They also wrung +from the King, under the plea of freedom of the press, permission to +deluge the country anew with the infidel and immoral publications of +Voltaire and his confederates, and with newspapers and periodicals, +which proved disastrous to his house, to royalty, and to Christianity, +in France. These led before long to the attempt upon the life of the +Duke of Berry, to the revolution against Charles X., to the elevation +of the son of the Grand Master, Egalité, as Constitutional King, and to +all the revolutionary results that have since distracted and disgraced +unfortunate France. But much as Freemasonry effected in that country, it +was not there but in peaceful Italy that its illuminated machinations +produced the worst and most wide-spread fruits of death. We shall see +this by a brief review of the Freemasonry which formed the + + + + +XII. + +KINDRED SECRET SOCIETIES IN EUROPE. + + +We have seen that the use made of Freemasonry by the Atheists of the +last century was a very elastic one. As it came from England it had +all the qualities required by the remorseless revolutionists, who so +eagerly and so ably employed it for their purposes. Its hypocritical +professions of Theism, of acceptation of the Bible, and of beneficence; +its terrible oaths of secrecy; its grotesque and absurd ceremonial, to +which any meaning from the most silly to the deepest and darkest could be +given; its ascending degrees, each one demanding additional secrets, to +be kept not only from outsiders, but from the lower degrees; the death +penalty for indiscretion or disobedience; the system of mystery capable +of any extension; the hidden hierarchy; in a word, all its qualities +could be improved and elaborated at will by the Infidels of the Continent +who had made British Masonry their own. Soon the strict subjection of +all subordinate lodges to whatever Grand Orient or Mother Lodge they +spring from, and on which they depend; and, above all, the complete +understanding between the directors of the Masonic “powers,” that is of +the different rites into which the Masonry is divided, placed its entire +government in a select ruling body, directed in turn by a small committee +of the ablest conspirators, elected by and known to that body alone. +The whole rank and file of Masonry receive their orders at present from +this inner body, who are unknown to the mere masons of the lodges. The +members of the committee deputed by the lodges are able to testify to the +fact of the authenticity of the orders. Those who rule from the hidden +recesses take care that these deputies shall be men worthy of confidence. +A lodge, therefore, has its master, its officers, and management; but +its orders come through a channel that appears to be nothing, whereas +it is everything in the movement of the whole mass. Thus it happens +that the master of a lodge or the grand master of a province, or of a +nation, whose high-sounding titles may make him seem to outsiders to be +everything, is in reality often nothing at all in the actual government +of Masonry. The real power rests with the hidden committee of direction, +and confidential agents, who move almost invisibly amongst the officers +and members of the lodges. These hidden agents of iniquity are vigilant +spies, secret “wire pullers,” who are seldom promoted to any office, but +content themselves with the real power which they are selected to use +with dexterity and care. + +It was through this system that Weishaupt obtained the adoption +of illuminated Masonry at the convent of Wilhelmsbad. Through the +machinations of Knigg, he obtained from the delegates there assembled, +the approval of his plan that the ultimate end of Freemasonry and all +secret plotting should be—1ᵒ, Pantheism—a form of Atheism which flatters +Masonic pride. 2ᵒ, Communism of goods, women, and general concerns. 3ᵒ, +That the means to arrive at these ends should be the destruction of the +Church, and of all forms of Christianity; the obliteration of every kind +of supernatural belief; and, finally, the removal of all existing human +governments to make way for a universal republic in which the utopian +ideas of complete liberty from existing social, moral, and religious +restraint, absolute equality, and social fraternity, should reign. When +these ends should be attained, but not till then, the secret work of the +Atheistic Freemasons should cease. + +At the convent of Wilhelmsbad, Weishaupt had the means taken to carry out +this determination. There Masonry became one organized Atheistic mass, +while being still permitted to assume many fantastic shapes. The Knights +Rosicrucian, the Templars, the Knights of Beneficence, the Brothers of +Amity were strictly united to Illuminated Masonry. All could be reached +through Masonry itself. All were placed under the same government. +Masonry was made more elastic than ever. When, as in the cases of Ireland +and Poland, an enslaved nationality should be found, which the supreme +Invisible Directory wished to revolutionize, and when, at the same time, +the existing respect for the words of the Vicar of Christ made Masonry +hateful, a secret political society was ordered to be formed on the +plan of Freemasonry, but with some other name. It was to put on, after +the example of Masonry itself, the semblance of zeal and respect for +religion, but it was bound to have horrible oaths, ascending degrees, +centres, the terrible death penalty for indiscretion or treason, to be, +in essence, and in every sense, if not in name, a society identical with +Freemasonry. The supreme direction of the Revolution was to contrive +by sure means to have adepts high and powerful in its management; and +the society was, even if founded to defend the Catholic religion, thus +sure, sooner or later, to diverge from the Church and to become hostile +to religion and to its ministers. The Atheistic revolutionists of the +Continent in the last century, learned to perfection the art to effect +this; and hence the ready assistance which men who were murdering +priests in Paris and throughout France and Italy, gave to the Catholics +of Ireland in ’98. Was it to relieve the Catholics of Ireland from +persecution, while they themselves were to a far more frightful extent +oppressing the Catholic Church, the Catholic priesthood, Catholic +religious, and Catholic people, for no other reason than the profession +of the Catholic faith in France and Italy? By no means. They, at the very +time, had already corrupted Irishmen. Some of these were open Infidels +and others were Jacobite Freemasons of no particular attachment to any +form of Christianity. They shared in Napoleon’s indifference to religion, +and were as ready to profess zeal for their Catholic fellow-countrymen, +as he and his soldiers were ready to profess “love” for the Alkoran and +the Prophet in Egypt, or for St. Januarius, in Naples. But they and their +leaders in Black Masonry knew that once they could unite even the very +best and truest Catholic men in Ireland into a secret society on such +lines as I have described, they would soon find an entrance for Atheism +into the country. They would not be wanting in means to win recruits +by degrees from the best intentioned Catholics so bound by oaths, and +so subjected to hidden influences. They were adepts at proselytism, +especially amongst those who gave up liberty and will to unknown masters. +If Irishmen, few indeed, thank God, but still Irishmen and Catholics, +had lost their faith in France at the period of the Revolution, what +could save the Irish Catholics in Ireland from the efforts and example +of French and Irish Atheistic liberators? Catholics suffered terribly +under the Protestant domination, but they nobly kept their faith through +the whole of that dreadful period. Their condition was bad during the +penal days, but if the French obtained the mastery, even for a decade, +at the Revolution, it would be worse, I believe, for the Faith and +liberty of Irish Catholics, than the previous two centuries of heretical +persecution. Providence, moved by the prayers of God’s Mother, of St. +Patrick, and of the innumerable host of Irish Saints and Martyrs, no +doubt, saved the country; and the agency of the Atheists of France was +carried to work the mischief it intended for Ireland upon other Catholic +lands. It forced its tyranny very soon upon Italy, Spain, Portugal, +Switzerland, and the Rhenish provinces of Germany. That was bad enough, +but it was not all. When the French revolutionary armies had departed +from these countries, after the fall of Bonaparte, they left, a deadly +scourge that could not be removed, behind them. That was the system of +Atheistic organization of which we have been speaking, and which was not +slow in producing its malignant fruits. + +In Catholic Italy, where the scourge of the Revolution fell most +heavily, the misfortune happened thus: The discontent consequent upon +the multitude of political parties in that country gave the secret +machinators of the Weishaupt school a splendid opportunity of again +renewing their intrigues; while the miserable Government of the Bourbons +in France, in permitting Freemasonry to flourish, afforded its supreme +direction an opportunity to assist them in many ways. Public opinion in +Germany was unripe for any Atheism unless veiled under the hypocritical +pretences of the Tugenbund. In Italy, however, though religion was +strong amongst all classes, the division of the country into small +principalities caused the hopes of the revolutionists to be more +sanguine than anywhere else, and the opportunity of dealing a blow at +the temporal power of the Pope under the national pretext of a united +Italy, was too great a temptation for the Supreme Masonic Directory to +resist. Besides, it could not be forgotten by them, that in making +past efforts the power of the Pope was the principal cause of their +many failures. They rightly judged that the complete destruction of his +temporal authority was essential to Atheism, and the first and most +necessary step to their ultimate views upon all Christianity, and for +the subjugation of the world to their sway. The temporal power was the +stronghold, the rallying point of every legitimate authority in Europe. +With a sure instinct of self-preservation, the Schismatical Lord of +Russia, the Evangelical King of Prussia, the Protestant Governments of +England, Denmark, and Sweden, as well as the ancient legitimate Catholic +dynasties of Portugal, Austria, Bavaria, and Spain had determined at +the Congress of Vienna on the restoration of the temporal dominions of +the Pope. The Conservatives of Europe, whether Catholic, Protestant, +or Schismatic, felt that while the States of the Church were preserved +intact to the Head of the Catholic religion, their own rights would +remain unquestioned—that to reach themselves his rights should be first +assailed. The Atheistic conspiracy, guided now by old, experienced +revolutionists, saw also that the conservatism of the world which they +had to destroy in order to dominate in its stead, could not be undermined +without first taking away the foundation of Christian civilization +upon which it rested, and which unquestionably, even for Christian +schismatics and heretics, was the temporal and the spiritual authority +of the Pope. Having no idea of a divine preservation of the Christian +religion, they judged that the destruction of the temporal power would +lead inevitably to the destruction of the spiritual; and as experience +proved that it would be useless to attempt to destroy both altogether, +they then set all their agencies at work to destroy the temporal power +first. They, therefore, determined to create and ferment to the utmost +extent a political discontent amongst the populations of the different +states into which the Italian Peninsula was divided. Now this was a +difficult task in the face of the experience which the Italian people had +gained of the revolutions and constant political changes brought by the +French from the first attempt of the Republic to the last of the Empire. +The Congress of Vienna restored most of the ancient Italian States as +well as the States of the Church to the legitimate rulers. Peace and +prosperity beyond what had been known for years began to reign in the +Peninsula. The people in mass were profoundly contented. They were more +Catholic than ever, notwithstanding all that the revolutionary agents +of France did to pervert them. But there remained a dangerous fraction +amidst the population not at all satisfied with the change which had so +much improved the nation generally. This fraction consisted of those +individuals and their children who benefitted by the revolutionary +régime. They were the men who made themselves deputies in Rome, Naples, +and elsewhere, and by the aid of French revolutionary bayonets seized +upon Church property and became enriched by public spoliation. These +still remained revolutionary to the core. Then, there was the interest +effected by their party. And finally, there was that uneasy class, +educated by the many cheap universities of the country in too great +number, the sons of advocates and other professional men, who, tinged +with liberalism, easily became the prey of the designing men who still +remained addicted to the principles and were leagued in the secret +organizations of Weishaupt and his fellow Atheists. Even one of these +youths corrupted and excited to ambition by the adroit manipulation of +these emissaries of Satan, still active, though more imperceptible than +ever, would be sufficient to kindle a flame amongst his fellows capable +of creating a wide discontent. Aided then by such elements, already at +hand for their purposes, Weishaupt and his hidden Directory determined +to kindle such a flame of Revolution in Italy, as in its effects should, +before long, do more harm to religion and order, than even the French +Revolution had caused in its sanguinary but brief career. They effected +this by the formation, on the darkest lines of “illuminated” Masonry, of +the terrible sect of— + + + + +XIII. + +THE CARBONARI. + + +In this sect, the whole of the hitherto recognized principles of +organized Atheism were perfected and intensified. In it, from the +commencement, a cunning hypocrisy was the means most used as the best +calculated to lead away a people Catholic to the very core. The first of +the Carbonari that we have any distinct notice of, appeared at a season +when Atheism, directed by Weishaupt, was busy in forming everywhere +secret associations for apparently no purpose other than political +amelioration. He determined to try upon the peasantry of Italy the +same arts which the French had intended for the Catholic peasantry of +Ireland. The United Irishmen were banded together to demand, amongst +other things, Catholic Emancipation. Never had a people greater reason +to rise against oppression than the Catholics of Ireland of that period. +They were urged on to do so, however, by leaders who, in many instances, +were not Catholic, and who had no political grievance, and whose aim was +the formation in Ireland of an independent republic ruled, of course, +by themselves, on the model of the one which was established then in +France. That seemed to the Catholic the only way to get out of the +heretical domination which had for such a lengthened period oppressed +his country. Now, the Carbonari of Italy were at first formed for a +purpose identical with that of the United Irishmen. They conspired +to bring back their national independence ruined by the French, the +freedom of their religion, and their rightful Bourbon sovereign. With +them it was made an indispensable obligation that each member should be +not only a Catholic, but a Catholic going regularly to the Sacraments. +They took for their Grand Master, Jesus Christ Our Lord. But, as I +have said before, it is impossible for a secret society having a death +penalty for breach of secret, having ascending degrees, and bound to +blind obedience to hidden masters, to remain any appreciable length +of time without falling under the dominion of the Supreme Directory of +organized Atheism. It was so with Carbonarism, which, having started +on the purest Catholic and loyal lines, soon ended in being the very +worst kind of secret society which Infidelity had then formed on the +lines of Masonry. Very soon, Italian adepts in black Masonry invaded +its ranks, the loudest in the protestation of religion and loyalty. +Equally soon, these skilled, experienced, and unscrupulous veterans in +dark intrigue obtained the mastery in its supreme direction, won over +proselytes from fit conspirators, and had the whole association in +their power. It was then easy to find abundant pretexts to excite the +passions of the rank and file, to kindle hopes from revolution, to create +political dissatisfaction, and to make the whole body of the sect what +it has actually become. Italian genius soon outstripped the Germans in +astuteness; and as soon, perhaps sooner, than Weishaupt passed away, the +supreme government of all the secret societies of the world was exercised +by the _Alta Vendita_ or highest lodge of the Italian Carbonari. The +_Alta Vendita_ ruled the blackest Freemasonry of France, Germany, and +England; and until Mazzini wrenched the sceptre of the dark Empire from +that body, it continued with consummate ability to direct the revolutions +of Europe. It considered, with that wisdom peculiar to the children of +darkness, that the conspiracy against the Holy See was the conspiracy in +permanence. It employed its principal intrigues against the State, the +surroundings, and the very person of the Pontiff. It had hopes, by its +manipulations, to gain eventually, even the Pope himself, to betray the +Christian cause, and then it well knew the universe would be placed at +its feet. It left unmeasured freedom to the lodges of Masonry to carry on +those revolutions of a political kind, which worked out the problems of +the sect upon France, Spain, Italy, and other countries. It kept still +greater movements to itself. The permanent instruction of this body to +its adepts, will give you an idea of its power, its policy, and its +principles. It says— + + + + +XIV. + +PERMANENT INSTRUCTION OF THE ALTA VENDITA. + + +“Ever since we have established ourselves as a body of action, and that +order has commenced to reign in the bosom of the most distant lodge, as +in that one nearest the centre of action, there is one thought which has +profoundly occupied the men who aspire to universal regeneration. That +is the thought of the enfranchisement of Italy, from which must one day +come the enfranchisement of the entire world, the fraternal republic, and +the harmony of humanity. That thought has not yet been seized upon by +our brethren beyond the Alps. They believe that revolutionary Italy can +only conspire in the shade, deal some strokes of the poinard to sbirri +and traitors, and tranquilly undergo the yoke of events which take place +beyond the Alps for Italy, but without Italy. This error has been fatal +to us on many occasions. It is not necessary to combat it with phrases +which would be only to propagate it. It is necessary to kill it by facts. +Thus, amidst the cares which have the privilege of agitating the minds of +the most vigorous of our lodges, there is one which we ought never forget. + +“The Papacy has at all times exercised a decisive action upon the affairs +of Italy. By the hands, by the voices, by the pens, by the hearts of its +innumerable bishops, priests, monks, nuns, and people in all latitudes, +the Papacy finds devotedness without end ready for martyrdom, and that +to enthusiasm. Everywhere, whenever it pleases to call upon them, it +has friends ready to die or lose all for its cause. This is an immense +leverage which the Popes alone have been able to appreciate to its full +power, and as yet they have used it only to a certain extent. To-day +there is no question of reconstituting for ourselves that power, the +prestige of which is for the moment weakened. Our final end is that +of Voltaire and of the French Revolution, the destruction for ever of +Catholicism and even of the Christian idea which, if left standing on the +ruins of Rome, would be the resuscitation of Christianity later on. But +to attain more certainly that result, and not prepare ourselves with +gaiety of heart for reverses which adjourn indefinitely, or compromise +for ages, the success of a good cause, we must not pay attention to +those braggarts of Frenchmen, those cloudy Germans, those melancholy +Englishmen, all of whom imagine they can kill Catholicism, now with an +impure song, then with an illogical deduction; at another time, with a +sarcasm smuggled in like the cottons of Great Britain. Catholicism has a +life much more tenacious than that. It has seen the most implacable, the +most terrible adversaries; and it has often had the malignant pleasure +of throwing holy water on the tombs of the most enraged. Let us permit, +then, our brethren of these countries to give themselves up to the +sterile intemperance of their anti-Catholic zeal. Let them even mock +at our Madonnas and our apparent devotion. With this passport we can +conspire at our ease, and arrive little by little at the end we have in +view. + +“Now the Papacy has been for seventeen centuries inherent to the history +of Italy. Italy cannot breathe or move without the permission of the +Supreme Pastor. With him she has the hundred arms of Briareus, without +him she is condemned to a pitiable impotence. She has nothing but +divisions to foment, hatreds to break out, and hostilities to manifest +themselves from the highest chain of the Alps to the lowest of the +Appenines. We cannot desire such a state of things. It is necessary, +then, to seek a remedy for that situation. The remedy is found. The Pope, +whoever he may be, will never come to the secret societies. It is for the +secret societies to come first to the Church, in the resolve to conquer +the two. + +“The work which we have undertaken is not the work of a day, nor of a +month, nor of a year. It may last many years, a century perhaps, but in +our ranks the soldier dies and the fight continues. + +“We do not mean to win the Popes to our cause, to make them neophytes of +our principles, and propagators of our ideas. That would be a ridiculous +dream, no matter in what manner events may turn. Should cardinals or +prelates, for example, enter, willingly or by surprise, in some manner, +into a part of our secrets, it would be by no means a motive to desire +their elevation to the See of Peter. That elevation would destroy us. +Ambition alone would bring them to apostasy from us. The needs of power +would force them to immolate us. That which we ought to demand, that +which we should seek and expect, as the Jews expected the Messiah, is a +Pope according to our wants. Alexander VI., with all his private crimes, +would not suit us, for he never erred in religious matters. Clement XIV., +on the contrary, would suit us from head to foot. Borgia was a libertine, +a true sensualist of the eighteenth century strayed into the fifteenth. +He has been anathematized, notwithstanding his vices, by all the voices +of philosophy and incredulity, and he owes that anathema to the vigour +with which he defended the Church. Ganganelli gave himself over, bound +hand and foot, to the ministers of the Bourbons, who made him afraid, +and to the incredulous who celebrated his tolerance, and Ganganelli is +become a very great Pope. He is almost in the same condition that it is +necessary for us to find another, if that be yet possible. With that we +should march more surely to the attack upon the Church than with the +pamphlets of our brethren in France, or even with the gold of England. +Do you wish to know the reason? It is because by that we should have no +more need of the vinegar of Hannibal, no more need the powder of cannon, +no more need even of our arms. We have the little finger of the successor +of St. Peter engaged in the plot, and that little finger is of more value +for our crusade than all the Innocents, the Urbans, and the St. Bernards +of Christianity. + +“We do not doubt that we shall arrive at that supreme term of all our +efforts; but when? but how? The unknown does not yet manifest itself. +Nevertheless, as nothing should separate us from the plan traced out; +as, on the contrary, all things should tend to it,—as if success were +to crown the work scarcely sketched out to-morrow,—we wish in this +instruction which must rest a secret for the simple initiated, to give +to those of the Supreme-Lodge, councils with which they should enlighten +the universality of the brethren, under the form of an instruction or +memorandum. It is of special importance, and because of a discretion, +the motives of which are transparent, never to permit it to be felt that +these counsels are orders emanating from the Alta Vendita. The clergy +is put too much in peril by it, that one can at the present hour permit +oneself to play with it, as with one of these small affairs or of these +little princes upon which one need but blow to cause them to disappear. + +“Little can be done with those old cardinals or with those prelates, +whose character is very decided. It is necessary to leave them as we +find them, incorrigible, in the school of Consalvi, and draw from our +magazines of popularity or unpopularity the arms which will render useful +or ridiculous the power in their hands. A word which one can ably invent +and which one has the art to spread amongst certain honourable chosen +families by whose means it descends into the _cafés_, and from the +_cafés_ into the streets; a word can sometimes kill a man. If a prelate +comes to Rome to exercise some public function from the depths of the +provinces, know presently his character, his antecedents, his qualities, +his defects above all things. If he is in advance, a declared enemy, +an Albani, a Pallotta, a Bernetti, a Della Genga, a Riverola? Envelope +him in all the snares which you can place beneath his feet; create for +him one of those reputations which will frighten little children and +old women; paint him cruel and sanguinary; recount, regarding him, +some traits of cruelty which can be easily engraved in the minds of +the people. When foreign journals shall gather for us these recitals, +which they will embellish in their turn, (inevitably because of their +respect for truth) show, or rather cause to be shown, by some respectable +fool those papers where the names and the excesses of the personages +implicated are related. As France and England, so Italy will never be +wanting in facile pens which know how to employ themselves in these lies +so useful to the good cause. With a newspaper, the language of which they +do not understand, but in which they will see the name of their delegate +or judge, the people have no need of other proofs. They are in the +infancy of liberalism; they believe in liberals, as, later on, they will +believe in us, not knowing very well why. + +“Crush the enemy whoever he may be; crush the powerful by means of lies +and calumnies; but especially crush him in the egg. It is to the youth +we must go. It is that which we must seduce; it is that which we must +bring under the banner of the secret societies. In order to advance by +steps, calculated but sure, in that perilous way, two things are of +the first necessity. You ought have the air of being simple as doves, +but you must be prudent as the serpent. Your fathers, your children, +your wives themselves, ought always be ignorant of the secret which you +carry in your bosoms. If it pleases you, in order the better to deceive +the inquisitorial eye, to go often to confession, you are, as by right +authorised, to preserve the most absolute silence regarding these things. +You know that the least revelation, that the slightest indication escaped +from you in the tribunal of penance, or elsewhere, can bring on great +calamities, and that the sentence of death is already pronounced upon the +revealer, whether voluntary or involuntary. + +“Now then, in order to secure to us a Pope in the manner required, it +is necessary to fashion for that Pope a generation worthy of the reign +of which we dream. Leave on one side old age and middle life, go to the +youth, and, if possible, even to infancy. Never speak in their presence +a word of impiety or impurity. _Maxima debetur puero reverentia._ Never +forget these words of the poet for they will preserve you from licences +which it is absolutely essential to guard against for the good of the +cause. In order to reap profit at the home of each family, in order to +give yourself the right of asylum at the domestic hearth, you ought to +present yourself with all the appearance of a man grave and moral. Once +your reputation is established in the colleges, in the gymnasiums, +in the universities, and in the seminaries—once that you shall have +captivated the confidence of professors and students, so act that those +who are principally engaged in the ecclesiastical state should love +to seek your conversation. Nourish their souls with the splendours of +ancient Papal Rome. There is always at the bottom of the Italian heart +a regret for Republican Rome. Excite, enkindle those natures so full of +warmth and of patriotic fire. Offer them at first, but always in secret, +inoffensive books, poetry resplendent with national emphasis; then little +by little you will bring your disciples to the degree of cooking desired. +When upon all the points of the ecclesiastical state at once, this daily +work shall have spread our ideas as the light, then you will be able to +appreciate the wisdom of the counsel in which we take the initiative. + +“Events, which in our opinion, precipitate themselves too rapidly, go +necessarily in a few months’ time to bring on an intervention of Austria. +There are fools who in the lightness of their hearts please themselves in +casting others into the midst of perils, and, meanwhile, there are fools +who at a given hour drag on even wise men. The revolution which they +meditate in Italy will only end in misfortunes and persecutions. Nothing +is ripe, neither the men nor the things, and nothing shall be for a long +time yet; but from these evils you can easily draw one new chord, and +cause it to vibrate in the hearts of the young clergy. That is the hatred +of the stranger. Cause the German to become ridiculous and odious even +before his foreseen entry. With the idea of the Pontifical supremacy, mix +always the old memories of the wars of the priesthood and the Empire. +Awaken the smouldering passions of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, and +thus you will obtain for yourselves the reputation of good Catholics and +pure patriots. + +“That reputation will open the way for our doctrines to pass to the +bosoms of the young clergy, and go even to the depths of convents. In a +few years the young clergy will have, by the force of events, invaded +all the functions. They will govern, administer, and judge. They will +form the council of the Sovereign. They will be called upon to choose +the Pontiff who will reign; and that Pontiff, like the greater part of +his contemporaries, will be necessarily imbued with the Italian and +humanitarian principles which we are about to put in circulation. It is +a little grain of mustard which we place in the earth, but the sun of +justice will develop it even to be a great power; and you will see one +day what a rich harvest that little seed will produce. + +“In the way which we trace for our brethren there are found great +obstacles to conquer, difficulties of more than one kind to surmount. +They will be overcome by experience and by perspicacity; but the end +is beautiful. What does it matter to put all the sails to the wind in +order to attain it? You wish to revolutionize Italy? Seek out the Pope +of whom we give the portrait. You wish to establish the reign of the +elect upon the throne of the prostitute of Babylon? Let the clergy march +under your banner in the belief always that they march under the banner +of the Apostolic Keys. You wish to cause the last vestige of tyranny and +of oppression to disappear? Lay your nets like Simon Barjona. Lay them +in the depths of sacristies, seminaries, and convents, rather than in +the depths of the sea, and if you will precipitate nothing you will give +yourself a draught of fishes more miraculous than his. The fisher of +fishes will become a fisher of men. You will bring yourselves as friends +around the Apostolic Chair. You will have fished up a Revolution in Tiara +and Cope, marching with Cross and banner—a Revolution which it will need +but to be spurred on a little to put the four quarters of the world on +fire. + +“Let each act of your life tend then to discover the Philosopher’s Stone. +The alchemists of the middle ages lost their time and the gold of their +dupes in the quest of this dream. That of the secret societies will be +accomplished for the most simple of reasons, because it is based on the +passions of man. Let us not be discouraged then by a check, a reverse, or +a defeat. Let us prepare our arms in the silence of the lodges, dress our +batteries, flatter all passions the most evil and the most generous, and +all lead us to think that our plans will succeed one day above even our +most improbable calculations.” + +This document reveals the whole line of action followed since by the +Italian Revolutionists. It gives also a fair insight into tactics with +which other European countries have been made familiar by Freemasonry +generally. But we are in possession of what appears to me a still more +striking document, written for the benefit of the Piedmontese lodges of +Carbonari, by one of the _Alta Vendita_, whose pseudonym was _Piccolo +Tigre_—Little Tiger. I may here mention that the custom of taking these +fanciful appellations has been common to the secret societies from the +very beginning. Arouet became Voltaire, the notorious Baron Knigg was +called Philo, Baron Dittfort was called Minos, and so of the principal +chiefs of the dark Atheistic conspiracy then and since. The first leader +or grand chief of the _Alta Vendita_ was a corrupt Italian nobleman who +took the name of _Nubius_. From such documents as he, before his death, +managed, in revenge for being sacrificed by the party of Mazzini, as we +shall see, to have communicated to the authorities of Rome; or which +were found by the vigilance of the Roman detective police; we find that +his funds, and the funds for carrying on the deep and dark conspiracy in +which he and his confederates were engaged, came chiefly from rich German +Jews. Jews, in fact, from the commencement, played always a prominent +part in the conspiracies of Atheism. They do so still. _Piccolo Tigre_, +who seems to have been the most active agent of _Nubius_, was a Jew. +He travelled under the appearance of an itinerant banker and jeweller. +This character of money-lender or usurer disarmed suspicion regarding +himself and such of his confederates as he had occasion to call upon in +his peregrinations. Of course he had the protection of the Masonic body +everywhere. The most desperate revolutionists were generally the most +desperate scoundrels otherwise. They were gamblers, spendthrifts, and the +very class with which an usurious Jew would be expected to have money +dealings. _Piccolo Tigre_ thus travelled safely; and brought safely to +the superior lodges of the Carbonari, such instructions as the _Alta +Vendita_ thought proper to give. In the document referred to, which I +shall now read for you, it will be seen how anxious the Secret Directory +were to make use of the most common form of Masonry notwithstanding the +contempt they had for the _bons vivants_ who only learned from the craft +how to become drunkards and liberals. Beyond the Masons, and unknown to +them, though formed generally from them, lay the deadly secret conclave +which, nevertheless, used and directed them for the ruin of the world +and of their own selves. The following is a translation of the document +I speak of, called “an instruction,” and addressed by _Piccolo Tigre_ to +the Piedmontese lodges of the Carbonari:— + + + + +XV. + +LETTER OF PICCOLO TIGRE, &C. + + +“In the impossibility in which our brothers and friends find themselves, +to say, as yet, their last word, it has been judged good and useful to +propagate the light everywhere, and to set in motion all that which +aspires to move. For this reason we do not cease to recommend to you, +to affiliate persons of every class to every manner of association, no +matter of what kind, _only provided that mystery and secrecy should +be the dominant characteristics_. All Italy is covered with religious +confraternities, and with penitents of divers colours. Do not fear to +slip in some of your people into the very midst of these flocks, led +as they are by a stupid devotion. Let our agents study with care the +_personnel_ of these confraternity men, and they will see that little +by little, they will not be wanting in a harvest. Under a pretext the +most futile, but never political or religious, create by yourselves, +or, better yet, cause to be created by others, associations, having +commerce, industry, music, the fine arts, etc., for object.[13] Reunite +in one place or another,—in the sacristies or chapels even,—these tribes +of yours as yet ignorant: put them under the pastoral staff of some +virtuous priest, well known, but credulous and easy to be deceived. +Then infiltrate the poison into those chosen hearts; infiltrate it in +little doses, and, as if by chance. Afterwards, upon reflection, you will +yourselves be astonished at your success. + +“The essential thing is to isolate a man from his family, to cause him +to lose his morals. He is sufficiently disposed by the bent of his +character to flee from household cares, and to run after easy pleasures +and forbidden joys. He loves the long conversations of the _café_ and the +idleness of shows. Lead him along, sustain him, give him an importance +of some kind or other; discreetly teach him to grow weary of his daily +labours, and by this management, after having separated him from his wife +and from his children, and after having shown him how painful are all +his duties, you will then excite in him the desire of another existence. +Man is a born rebel. Stir up the desire of rebellion until it becomes a +conflagration, but in such a manner that the conflagration may not break +out. This is a preparation for the grand work that you should commence. +When you shall have insinuated into a few souls disgust for family and +for religion (the one nearly always follows in the wake of the other), +let fall some words from you, which will provoke the desire of being +affiliated to the nearest lodge. That vanity of the citizen or the +burgess, to be enfeodated to Freemasonry, is something so common and so +universal that it always makes me wonder at human stupidity. I begin to +be astonished at not seeing the entire world knock at the gates of all +the Venerables, and demand from these gentlemen the honour to be one of +the workmen chosen for the reconstruction of the temple of Solomon. The +prestige of the unknown exercises upon men a certain kind of power, that +they prepare themselves with trembling for the phantasmagoric trials of +the initiation and of the fraternal banquet. + +“To find oneself a member of a lodge, to feel oneself called upon to +guard from wife and children, a secret which is never confided to you, +is for certain natures a pleasure and an ambition. The lodges, to-day, +can well create gourmands, they will never bring forth citizens. There is +too much dining amongst the right worshipful and right reverend brethren +of all the Ancients. But they form a place of depot, a kind of stud +(breeding ground), a centre through which it is necessary to pass before +coming to us. The lodges form but a relative evil, an evil tempered by +a false philanthropy, and by songs yet more false as in France. All +that is too pastoral and too gastronomic; but it is an object which it +is necessary to encourage without ceasing. In teaching a man to raise +his glass to his lips you become possessed of his intelligence and of +his liberty, you dispose of him, turn him round about, and study him. +You divine his inclinations, his affections, and his tendencies; then, +when he is ripe for us, we direct him to the secret society of which +Freemasonry can be no more than the antechamber. + +“The _Alta Vendita_ desires, that under one pretence or another, as many +princes and wealthy persons as possible should be introduced into the +Masonic lodges. Princes of a sovereign house, and those who have not +the legitimate hope of being kings by the grace of God, all wish to be +kings by the grace of a Revolution. The Duke of Orleans is a Freemason, +the Prince of Carignan was one also. There are not wanting in Italy and +elsewhere, those amongst them, who aspire to the modest-enough honours +of the symbolic apron and trowel. Others of them are disinherited and +proscribed. Flatter all of their number who are ambitious of popularity; +monopolize them for Freemasonry. The _Alta Vendita_ will afterwards see +what it can do to utilize them in the cause of progress. A prince who has +not a kingdom to expect, is a good fortune for us. There are many of them +in that plight. Make Freemasons of them. The lodge will conduct them to +Carbonarism. A day will come, perhaps, when the _Alta Vendita_ will deign +to affiliate them. While awaiting they will serve as birdlime for the +imbeciles, the intriguing, the _bourgeoisie_, and the needy. These poor +princes will serve our ends, while thinking to labour only for their own. +They form a magnificent sign board, and there are always fools enough +to be found, who are ready to compromise themselves in the service of a +conspiracy, of which some prince or other seems to be the ringleader. + +“Once that a man, that a prince, that a prince especially, shall have +commenced to grow corrupt, be persuaded that he will hardly rest upon +the declivity. There is little morality even amongst the most moral of +the world, and one goes fast in the way of that progress. Do not then be +dismayed to see the lodges flourish, while Carbonarism recruits itself +with difficulty. It is upon the lodges that we count to double our ranks. +They form, without knowing it, our preparatory novitiate. They discourse +without end upon the dangers of fanaticism, upon the happiness of social +equality, and upon the grand principles of religious liberty. They +launch amidst their feastings thundering anathemas against intolerance +and persecution. This is positively more than we require to make adepts. +A man imbued with these fine things is not very far from us. There is +nothing more required than to enlist him. The law of social progress is +there, and all there. You need not take the trouble to seek it elsewhere. +In the present circumstances never lift the mask. Content yourselves +to prowl about the Catholic sheepfold, but as good wolves seize in the +passage the first lamb who offers himself in the desired conditions. The +burgess has much of that which is good for us, the prince still more. For +all that, these lambs must not be permitted to turn themselves into foxes +like the infamous Carignan. The betrayal of the oath is a sentence of +death; and all those princes whether they are weak or cowardly, ambitious +or repentant, betray us, or denounce us. As good fortune would have it, +they know little, in fact not anything, and they cannot come upon the +trace of our true mysteries. + +“Upon the occasion of my last journey to France, I saw with profound +satisfaction, that our young initiated exhibited an extreme ardour +for the diffusion of Carbonarism; but I also found that they rather +precipitated the movement a little. As I think, they converted their +religious hatred too much into a political hatred. The conspiracy +against the Roman See, should not confound itself with other projects. +We are exposed to see germinate in the bosom of secret societies, ardent +ambitions; and the ambitious, once masters of power, may abandon us. The +route which we follow is not as yet sufficiently well traced so as to +deliver us up to intriguers and tribunes. It is of absolute necessity +to de-Catholicise the world. And an ambitious man, having arrived at +his end, will guard himself well from seconding us. The Revolution +in the Church is the Revolution _en permanence_. It is the necessary +overthrowing of thrones and dynasties. Now an ambitious man cannot really +wish these things. We see higher and farther. Endeavour therefore to +act for us, and to strengthen us. Let us not conspire except against +Rome. For that, let us serve ourselves with all kinds of incidents; let +us put to profit every kind of eventuality. Let us be principally on +our guard against the exaggerations of zeal. A good hatred, thoroughly +cold, thoroughly calculated, thoroughly profound, is of more worth than +all these artificial fires and all these declamations of the platform. +At Paris they cannot comprehend this, but in London I have seen men who +seized better upon our plan, and who associated themselves to us with +more fruit. Considerable offers have been made to me. Presently we shall +have a printing establishment at Malta placed at our disposal. We shall +then be able with impunity, with a sure stroke, and under the British +flag, to scatter from one end of Italy to the other, books, pamphlets, +etc., which the _Alta Vendita_ shall judge proper to put in circulation.” + +This document was issued in 1822. Since then, the instructions it gives +have been constantly acted upon in the lodges of Carbonarism, not only in +Italy but everywhere else. “Prowl about the Catholic sheepfold and seize +the first lamb that presents himself in the required conditions.” This, +and the order to get into Catholic confraternities, were as well executed +by the infamous Carey under the influence of “No. One,” as they were by +any Italian conspirator and assassin, under the personal inspiration of +_Piccolo Tigre_. Carey, the loud-spoken Catholic—the Catholic who had +Freemason or Orange friends able to assist him in the truly Masonic way +of getting members of the craft as Town-Councillors, or Aldermen, or +Members of Parliament—was, we now know, a true secret-society hypocrite +of the genuine Italian type. He prowled with effect round the Catholic +sheepfold. He joined “with fruit” the confraternities of the Church. +Well may we pray that God may guard from such satanic influences the +noble, generous-hearted, faithful young men of Ireland at home and in +all the lands of their vast colonization. The scoundrel that presents +the “knife” or the “prayer-book” ready to swear them in, is a murderer +in intention, and in effect whenever he dares to be, with a chance of +impunity. He is ready to drag them in the toils of the Carbonari, for +whether a secret society be Irish, English, or American; whether Fenian +or Invincible, no matter by what name it may be called, it is still black +Masonry—Carbonarism pure and simple. And the lost hypocrite and assassin +who tempts incautious youth, under the pretence of patriotism, to join +any such society, is ever, like Carey, as ready to betray as he is to +“swear in” his victim. + +Another curious instruction given by the _Alta Vendita_ to the Carbonari +of the lower lodges, is the way to catch a priest and make the good, +simple man, unconsciously aid the designs of the revolutionary sectaries. +In the permanent instruction of the _Alta Vendita_, given to all the +lodges, you will recollect the passage I read for you relative to the +giving of bad names to faithful Prelates who may be too knowing or +too good to do the work of the Carbonari against conscience, God, and +the souls of men. “Ably find out the words and the ways to make them +unpopular” is the sum of that advice. Has it not been attempted amongst +ourselves? But the main advice of the permanent instruction is to seduce +the clergy. The ecclesiastic to be deceived is to be led on by patriotic +ardour. He is to be blinded by a constant, though, of course, false, +and fatal popularity. He is to be made believe that his course, so very +pleasant to flesh and blood, is not only the most patriotic but the best +for religion. “A free Church in a free State,” was the cry with which the +sectaries pulled down the altars, banished the religious, seized upon +Church property, robbed the Pope, and despoiled the Propaganda. There +were ecclesiastics so far deceived, at one time, as to be led away by +these cries in Italy, and ecclesiastics have been deceived, if not by +these, at least by cries as false and fatal elsewhere to our knowledge. +The seduction of foremost ecclesiastics, prelates, and bishops, was the +general policy of the sect at all times, and it remains so everywhere to +this day. + +The rank and file of the Carbonari had to do with local priests and local +men of influence. These were, if possible, to be corrupted, unnerved, +and seduced. There was a method for that, “the corruption of the clergy +by ourselves” devised. Each Carbonaro was moreover ordered to try and +corrupt a fellow Christian, a man of family, by means that the devil +himself incarnate could not devise better for the purpose. + +At the end of his letter, _Piccolo Tigre_ glances at means of corruption +which he hoped then—and his hopes were soon realized to the full—to have +in operation for the scattering of Masonic “light” throughout Italy. We +have another document which will enable us to judge of the nature of +this “light.” It is contained in a letter from _Vindex_ to _Nubius_, and +was meant to cause the ideas of the _Alta Vendita_ to pass through the +lodges. It is found in that convenient form of questioning which the +Sultan propounds to the Chiek-ul-Islam when he wants to make war. He +puts his reasons in a set of questions, and the Chiek replies in as many +answers. Then the war is right in the sight of Allah, and so all Islam go +to fight in a war so sanctified. The new Islam does the same. A skilfully +devised set of questions are posed for the consideration of one member +of the _Alta Vendita_ by another, and the answer which has been well +concocted in secret conclave, is of course either given or implied to be +given by the nature of the case. The horrible quality of the diabolical +measures proposed by Vindex to Nubius in this form for the desired +destruction of the Church, cannot be surpassed. If he discountenances +assassination, it is not from fear or loathing of that frightful crime, +but simply because it is not the best policy. He certainly did fall in +upon the only blow that could—if that were possible, which, thank God, it +is not—destroy the Church of God, and place, as he well says, Catholicity +in the tomb. This a translation of the document:— + + “CASTELLAMARE, _9th August, 1838_. + + “The murders of which our people render themselves culpable + now in France, now in Switzerland, and always in Italy, are + for us a shame and a remorse. It is the cradle of the world, + illustrated by the epilogue of Cain and Abel, and we are + too far in progress to content ourselves with such means. + To what purpose does it serve to kill a man? To strike fear + into the timid and to keep audacious hearts far from us? Our + predecessors in Carbonarism did not understand their power. It + is not in the blood of an isolated man, or even of a traitor, + that it is necessary to exercise it; it is upon the masses. Let + us not individualize crime. In order to grow great, even to the + proportions of patriotism and of hatred for the Church, it is + necessary to generalize it. A stroke of the dagger signifies + nothing, produces nothing. What does the world care for a few + unknown corpses cast upon the highway by the vengeance of + secret societies? What matters it to the world, if the blood of + a workman, of an artist, of a gentleman, or even of a prince, + has flown in virtue of a sentence of Mazzini, or certain of + his cut-throats playing seriously at the _Holy Vehme_. The + world has not time to lend an ear to the last cries of the + victim. It passes on and forgets; it is we, my Nubius, we + alone, that can suspend its march. Catholicism has no more fear + of a well-sharpened stiletto than monarchies have, but these + two bases of social order can fall by corruption. Let us then + never cease to corrupt. Tertullian was right in saying, that + the blood of martyrs was the seed of Christians. It is decided + in our councils, and we do not desire any more Christians. Let + us, then, not make martyrs, but let us popularise vice amongst + the multitudes. Let us cause them to draw it in by their five + senses; to drink it in; to be saturated with it; and that land + which Aretinus has sown is always disposed to receive lewd + teachings. Make vicious hearts, and you will have no more + Catholics. Keep the priest away from labour, from the altar, + from virtue. Seek adroitly to otherwise occupy his thoughts and + his hours. Make him lazy, a gourmand, and a patriot. He will + become ambitious, intriguing, and perverse. You will thus have + a thousand times better accomplished your task, than if you + had blunted the point of your stiletto upon the bones of some + poor wretches. I do not wish, nor do you any more, my friend + Nubius, is it not so? to devote my life to conspiracies, in + order to be dragged along in the old ruts. + + “It is corruption _en masse_ that we have undertaken; the + corruption of the people by the clergy, and the corruption of + the clergy by ourselves; the corruption which ought, one day, + to enable us to put the Church in her tomb. I have recently + heard one of our friends, laughing in a philosophic manner at + our projects, say to us: ‘in order to destroy Catholicism it is + necessary to commence by suppressing woman.’ The words are true + in a sense; but since we cannot suppress woman, let us corrupt + her with the Church, _corruptio optimi pessima_. The object + we have in view is sufficiently good to tempt men such as we + are; let us not separate ourselves from it for some miserable + personal satisfaction of vengeance. The best poniard with which + to strike the Church is corruption. To the work then, even to + the very end.” + +The horrible programme of impurity here proposed was at once adopted. It +was after all but an attempt more determined than ever, to spread the +immorality of which Voltaire and his school were the apostles. At the +time the _Alta Vendita_ propounded this infernal plan they were resisting +an inroad upon their authority on the part of Joseph Mazzini, just then +coming into notoriety, who, however, overcame them. + +Mazzini developed and taught, in his grandiloquent style, as well as +practised the doctrine of assassination[14] which formed, we know, a +part of the system of all secret societies, and which the _Alta Vendita_ +deprecated because they feared that it was about being employed, just +then, against the members of their own body. Mazzini speaks of having +arisen from his bed one morning fully satisfied as to the lawfulness +of removing whomsoever he might be pleased to consider an enemy, by +the dagger, and fully determined to put that horrible principle into +execution. He cherished it as the simplest means given to an oppressed +people to free themselves from tyrants. But however much he laboured to +make his terrible creed plausible, as being only permissible against +tyrants and traitors, it was readily foreseen how easily it could be +extended, until it became a capital danger for the sectaries themselves. +Human nature could never become so base and so blinded as not to revolt +against a principle so pernicious. It may last for a season amidst the +first pioneers of the _Alta Vendita_, amongst the Black Hand in Spain, +amongst the Nihilists in Russia, amongst the Invincibles in Ireland, +amongst the Trade-Unionists of the Bradlaugh stamp in England, or +amongst the Communists of Paris. It may serve as a means to hold in +terror the unfortunate prince or leader who may be seduced in youth or +manhood to join secret societies from motives of ambition; and when that +ambition was gratified, might refuse to go the lengths for Socialism +which the _Alta Vendita_ required. But otherwise assassination did not +by experience prove such a sovereign power in the hands of the Carbonari +as Mazzini expected. His more astute associates soon found out this; +and, not from any qualms of conscience, but from a strong sense of its +inexpediency for their ends, they determined to reject it. They found +out a more effective, though a far more infamous, way for attaining the +dark mastery of the world. It was by the assassination not of bodies but +of souls—by the deliberate systemization and persevering diffusion of +immorality.[15] + +The _Alta Vendita_, then, sat down calmly to consider the best means to +accomplish this design. Satan and his fallen angels could devise no more +efficacious methods than they found out. They resolved to spread impurity +by every method used in the past by demons to tempt men to sin, to make +the practice of sin habitual, and to keep the unhappy victim in the state +of sin to the end. They had, being living men, means to accomplish this +purpose, which devils could not use without the aid of men. Christian +civilization established upon the ruins of the licentiousness of Paganism +had kept European society pure. Vice, when it did appear, had to hide +its head for shame. Public decency, supported by public opinion, kept it +down. So long as morality existed as a recognized virtue, the Revolution +had no chance of permanent success; and so the men of the _Alta Vendita_ +resolved to bring back the world to a state of brutal licentiousness +not only as bad as that of Paganism, but to a state at which even the +morality of the Pagans would shudder. To do this they proceeded with +caution. Their first attempt was to cause vice to lose its conventional +horror, and to make it free from civil punishment. The unfortunate class +of human beings who make a sad trade in sin, were to be taken under the +protection of the law, and to be kept free from disease at the expense +of the State. Houses were to be licensed, inspected, protected, and +given over to their purposes. The dishonour attached to their infamous +condition was, so far as the law could effect it, to be taken away. +That wholesome sense of danger and fear of disease which averted the +criminally disposed from sin was to disappear. The agents of the _Alta +Vendita_ had instructions to increase the number and the seductiveness of +those unfortunate beings, while the State, when revolutionized, was to +close its eyes to their excesses, and to connive at their attempts upon +the youth of the country. They were to be planted close to great schools +and universities, and wherever else they could ruin the rising generation +in every country in which the sect should obtain power. + +Then literature was systematically rendered as immoral as possible, and +diffused with a perseverance and labour worthy of a better cause. Railway +stations, newspaper stands, book shops, and restaurants, were made to +teem with infamous productions, while the same were scattered broadcast +to the people over every land. + +The teaching of the Universities and of all the middle schools of the +State, was not only to be rendered Atheistic and hostile to religion, but +was actually framed to demoralize the unfortunate alumni at a season of +life always but too prone to vice. + +Finally, besides the freest licence for blasphemy and immorality, +and the exhibition and diffusion of immoral pictures, paintings, and +statuary, a last attempt was to be made upon the virtue of young females +under the guise of educating them up to the standard of human progress. + +Therefore, middle and high-class schools were, regardless of expense, to +be provided for female children, who should be, at any cost, taken far +away from the protecting care of nuns. They were to be taught in schools +directed by lay masters, and always exposed to such influences as would +sap, if not destroy, their purity, and, as a sure consequence, their +faith. These schools have since been the order of the day with Masonry +all over the world. “If we cannot suppress woman let us corrupt her with +the Church,” said Vindex, and they have faithfully acted upon this advice. + +The terrible society which planned these infernal means for destroying +religion, social order, and the souls of men, continued its operations +for many years. Its “permanent instruction” became the Gospel of all the +secret societies of Europe. Its agents, like _Piccolo Tigre_, travelled +unceasingly in every country. Its orders were received, according to the +system of Masonry, by the heads and the rank and file of the lodges as +so many inevitable decrees. But fortunately for the world, it permitted +too much political action to the second lines of the great conspiracy. +In the latter, ambitious spirits arose, who, while embracing to the full +the doctrines of Voltaire and the principles of Weishaupt, began to +think that the _Alta Vendita_ stayed actual revolution too much. This +state of feeling became general when that high lodge refused admittance +to Mazzini, who wished to become one of the invisible forty—the number +beyond which the supreme governing body never permitted itself to pass. + +The jealousy of _Nubius_—for jealousy is a quality of demons not +wanting from the highest intelligences in Atheistic organization to the +lowest—prevented his being admitted. But he was already far too powerful +with the rank and file of the Carbonari to be refused a voice in the +supreme management. He raised a cry against the old chiefs as being +impotent and needing change. _Nubius_ consequently passed mysteriously +away. M. Cretineau Joly[16] is clearly of opinion that it was by poison; +and as it was a custom with the unfortunate chief to betray for his own +protection, or for punishment, some lodges of Carbonari to the Pontifical +Government, it is more than probable that it was by his provision or +information that the same Government came into the possession of the +whole archives of the _Alta Vendita_, and that the Church and society +have the documents which I have quoted and others still more valuable to +guide them in discovering and defeating the attempts of organized Atheism. + +The _Alta Vendita_ subsequently passed to Paris, and since it is believed +to Berlin. It was the immediate successor of the Inner Circle of +Weishaupt. It may change in the number of its adepts and in the places +of its meetings, but it always subsists. There is over it, a recognized +Chief like Nubius or Weishaupt. But in his lifetime this Chief is +usually unknown, at least to the world outside “Illuminated” Masonry. +He is unknown to the rank and file of the common lodges. But he wields +a power which, however, is not, as in the case of _Nubius_ and Mazzini, +always undisputed. Since that time, if not before it, there have been two +parties under its Directory, each having its own duties, well defined. +These are + + + + +XVI. + +THE INTELLECTUAL AND THE WAR PARTY IN MASONRY. + + +Eckert[17] shows that at present all secret societies are divided into +two parties—the party of direction and the party of action or war party. +The duty of the intellectual party, is to plot and to contrive; that of +the party of action, is to combine, recruit, excite to insurrection, +and fight. The members of the war party are always members of the +intellectual party, but not _vice versa_. The war party thus know what +is being plotted. But the other party, concealed as common Freemasons +amongst the simpletons of the lodges, cover both sections from danger. +If the war party succeed, the peace party go forward and seize upon the +offices of state and the reins of power. Their men go to the hustings, +make speeches that suit, are written up in the press, which, all the +world over, is under Masonic influence. They are cried up by the +adroit managers of mobs. They become the deputies, the ministers, the +Talleyrands, the Fouchés, the Gambettas, the Ferrys; and of course they +make the war party generals, admirals, and officers of the army, the +navy, and the police. If the war party fails, the intellectual party, who +close their lodges during the combat, appear afterwards as partisans, +if possible, of the conquering party, or if they cannot be that, they +silently conspire. They manage to get some friends into power. They +agitate. They, in either case, come to the assistance of the defeated war +party. They extenuate the faults, while condemning the heedless rashness +of ill-advised, good-natured, though too ardent, young men. They cry for +mercy. They move the popular compassion. In time, they free the culprits, +and thus prepare for new commotions. + +All Freemasonry has been long thus adapted, to enable the intellectual +party to assist the war party in distress. It must be remembered that +every Carbonaro is in reality a Freemason. He is taught the passes and +can manipulate the members of the craft. Now, at the very threshold of +the admission of a member to Freemasonry, the Master of the Lodge, the +“Venerable,” thus solemnly addresses him: + +“Masons,” says he, “are obliged to assist each other by every means, when +occasion offers. Freemasons ought not mix themselves up in conspiracies; +but if you come to know that a Freemason is engaged in any enterprise of +the kind, and has fallen a victim to his imprudence, you ought to have +compassion upon his misfortune, and the Masonic bond makes it a duty +for you, to use all your influence and the influence of your friends, in +order to diminish the rigour of punishment in his favour.” + +From this it will be seen, with what astute care Masonry prepares its +dupes from the very beginning, to subserve the purposes of the universal +Revolution. Under plea of compassion for a brother in distress, albeit +through his supposed imprudence, the Mason’s duty is to make use not only +of all his own influence, but also “of the influence of his friends,” to +either deliver him altogether from the consequences of what is called +“his misfortune,” or “to diminish the rigour of his punishment.” + +Masonry, even in its most innocent form, is a criminal association. It +is criminal in its oaths, which are at best rash; and it is criminal in +promising obedience to unknown commands coming from hidden superiors. +It always, therefore, sympathises with crime. It hates punishment of +any repressive kind, and does what it can to destroy the death penalty +even for murder. In revolution, its common practice is to open gaols, +and let felons free upon society. When it cannot do this, it raises +in their behalf a mock sympathy. Hence we have Victor Hugo pleading +with every Government in Europe in favour of revolutionists; we have +the French Republic liberating the Communists; and there is a motion +before the French Parliament to repeal the laws against the party of +dynamite—the Internationalists, whose aim is the destruction of every +species of religion, law, order and property, and the establishment +of absolute Socialism. With ourselves, there is not a revolutionary +movement created, that we do not find at the same time an intellectual +party apparently disconnected with it, often found condemning it, but +in reality supporting it indirectly, but zealously. The Odgers and +others of the Trades Union, for instance, will murder and burn; but +it is the Bradlaughs, and men theorising in Parliament if they can, +or on the platform if they cannot, who sustain that very party of +action. They secretly sustain what in public they strongly reprobate, +and if necessary disown and denounce. This is a point worthy of deep +consideration, and shows more than anything else, the ability and +astuteness with which the whole organization has been planned. + +Again, we must remember, that while the heads of the party of action are +well aware of the course being taken by the intellectual party, it does +not follow that the intellectual party know the movements of the party +of action, or even the individuals, at least so far as the rank and file +are concerned. It therefore can happen in this country, that Freemasons +or others who are in communication only with the Supreme Council on the +Continent, get instructions to pursue one line of conduct, and that +the war party for deep reasons get instructions to oppose them. This +serves, while preventing the possibility of exposure, to enable the work +of the Infidel Propaganda to be better done. It is the deeply hidden +Chief and his Council that concoct and direct all. They wield a power +with which, as is well known, the diplomacy of every nation in the world +must count. There are men either of this Council, or in the first line +of its service, whom it will never permit to be molested. Weishaupt, +_Nubius_, Mazzini, _Piccolo Tigre_, De Witt, Misley, Garibaldi, Number +One, Hartmann, may have been arrested, banished, etc., but they never +found the prison that could contain them long, nor the country that would +dare deliver them up for crime against law or even life. It is determined +by the Supreme Directory that at any cost, the men of their first lines +shall not suffer; and from the beginning they have found means to enforce +that determination against all the crowned heads of Europe. Now, you must +be curious to know who succeeded to the Chieftaincy of this formidable +conspiracy when Nubius passed away. It was one well known to you, at +least by fame. It was no other than the late Lord Palmerston. + + + + +XVII. + +LORD PALMERSTON. + + +The bare announcement of this fact will, no doubt, cause as much surprise +to many here to-night as it certainly did to myself when it became +first known to me. I could with difficulty believe that the late Lord +Palmerston, knew the veritable secret of Freemasonry, and that for the +greater part of his career he was the real master, the successor of +Nubius, the Grand Patriarch of the Illuminati, and as such, the Ruler +of all the secret societies in the world. I knew, of course, that as +a Statesman, the distinguished nobleman had dealings of a very close +character with Mazzini, Cavour, Napoleon III., Garibaldi, Kossuth, +and the other leading revolutionary spirits of Europe in his day; but +I never for a moment suspected that he went so far as to accept the +supreme direction of the whole dark and complex machinery of organized +Atheism, or sacrificed the welfare of the great country he was supposed +to serve so ably and so well, to the designs of the terrible secret +conclave whose acts and tendencies were so well known to him. But the +mass of evidence collected by Father Deschamps and others,[18] to prove +Lord Palmerston’s complicity with the worst designs of Atheism against +Christianity and monarchy—not even excepting the monarchy of England—is +so weighty, clear, and conclusive, that it is impossible to refuse it +credence. Father Deschamps brings forward in proof, the testimony of +Henry Misley, one of the foremost Revolutionists of the period, when +Palmerston reigned over the secret Islam of the sects, and other no less +important testimonies. These I would wish, if time permitted, to give +at length. But the whole history, unhappily, of Lord Palmerston proves +them. In 1809, when but 23 years of age, we find him War Minister in +the Cabinet of the Duke of Portland. He remained in this office until +1828, during the successive administrations of Mr. Percival, the Earl +of Liverpool, Mr. Canning, Lord Goderick, and the Duke of Wellington. +He left his party—the Conservative—when the last-named Premier insisted +upon accepting the resignation of Mr. Huskisson. In 1830, he accepted the +position of Foreign Secretary in the Whig Ministry of Earl Grey. Up to +this period he must have been well informed in the policy of England. He +saw Napoleon in the fulness of youth, and he saw his fall. He knew and +approved of the measures taken after that event by the advisers of George +IV., for the conservation of legitimate interests in Europe, and for the +preservation to the Pope of the Papal States. The balance of power, as +formed by the Congress of Vienna, was considered by the wisest and most +patriotic English statesmen, the best safeguard for British interests +and influence on the Continent. While it existed the multitude of small +States in Italy and Germany could be always so manipulated by British +diplomacy, as effectually to prevent that complete isolation which +England feels to-day so keenly, and which may prove so disastrous within +a short period to her best interests. If this sound policy has been since +changed, it is entirely owing to Palmerston, who appears, after leaving +the ranks of the Tories, to have thrown himself absolutely into the hands +of that Liberalistic Freemasonry, which, at the period, began to show its +power in France and in Europe generally. On his accession to the Foreign +Office in 1830, he found the Cabinet freed from the influence of George +IV., and from Conservative traditions; and he at once threw the whole +weight of his energy, position, and influence to cause his government to +side with the Masonic programme for revolutionizing Europe. With his aid, +the sectaries were able to disturb Spain, Portugal, Naples, the States of +the Church, and the minor States of Italy. The cry for a constitutional +Government received his support in every State of Europe, great and +small. The Pope’s temporal authority, and every Catholic interest, were +assailed. England, indeed, remained quiet. Her people were fascinated +by that fact. Trade interests being served by the distractions of other +States, and religious bigotry gratified at seeing the Pope, and every +Catholic country harassed, they all gave a willing, even a hearty support +to the policy of Palmerston. They little knew that it was dictated, not +by devotion to their interests, but in obedience to a hidden power of +which Palmerston had become the dupe and the tool, and which permitted +them to glory in their own quiet, only to gain their assistance, and, on +a future day, to compass with greater certainty their ruin. Freemasonry, +as we have already seen, creates many “figure-head” Grand Masters, from +the princes of reigning houses, and the foremost statesmen of nations, to +whom, however, it only shows a small part of its real secrets. Palmerston +was an exception to this rule. He was admitted into the very recesses +of the sect. He was made its Monarch, and as such ruled with a real +sway over its realms of darkness. By this confidence he was flattered, +cajoled, and finally entangled beyond the hope of extrication in the +meshes of the sectaries. He was a noble, without a hope of issue, or +of a near heir to his title and estates. He therefore preferred the +designs of the Atheistic conspiracy he governed, to the interests of the +country which employed him, and he sacrificed England to the projects +of Masonry. As he advanced in years he appears to have grown more +infatuated with his work. In 1837, in or about the time when Nubius was +carried off by poison, Mazzini, who most probably caused that Chief to +disappear, and who became the leader of the party of action, fixed his +permanent abode in London. With him came also several counsellors of the +“Grand Patriarch,” and from that day forward the liberty of Palmerston +to move England in any direction, except in the interest of the secret +conspiracy, passed away for ever. Immediately, plans were elaborated +destined to move the programme of Weishaupt another step towards +its ultimate completion.[19] These were, by the aid of well-planned +Revolutions, to create one immense Empire from the small German States, +in the centre of Europe, under the house of Brandenburg; next to weaken +Austrian dominion; then to annihilate the temporal sovereignty of the +Pope, by the formation of a United Kingdom of Italy under the provisional +government of the house of Savoy; and lastly, to form of the discontented +Polish, Hungarian, and Slavonian populations, an independent kingdom +between Austria and Russia. + +After an interval during which these plans were hatched, Palmerston +returned to office in 1846, and then the influence of England was seen at +work, in the many revolutions which broke out in Europe within eighteen +months afterwards. If these partly failed, they eventuated at least in +giving a Masonic Ruler to France in the person of the Carbonaro, Louis +Napoleon. With him Palmerston instantly joined the fortunes of England, +and with him he plotted for the realization of his Masonic ideas to the +very end of his career. Now here comes a most important event, proving +beyond question the determination of Palmerston to sacrifice his country +to the designs of the sect he ruled. The Conservative feeling in England +shrank from acknowledging Louis Napoleon or approving of his _coup +d’etat_. The country began to grow afraid of revolutionists, crowned or +uncrowned. This feeling was shared by the Sovereign, by the Cabinet, +and by the Parliament, so far that Lord Derby was able to move a vote +of censure on the Government, because of the foreign policy of Lord +Palmerston. For Palmerston, confiding in the secret strength he wielded, +and which was not without its influence in England herself, threw every +consideration of loyalty, duty, and honour overboard, and without +consulting his Queen or his colleagues, he sent, as Foreign Secretary, +the recognition of England to Louis Napoleon. He committed England to +the Empire, and the other nations of Europe had to follow suit. + +On this point, Chambers’s Encyclopædia, Art. “Palmerston,” has the +following notice:—“In December, 1852, the public was startled at the +news that Palmerston was no longer a member of the Russell Cabinet. He +had expressed his approbation of the _coup d’etat_ of Louis Napoleon +(gave England’s official acknowledgment of the perpetration) without +consulting either the Premier or the Queen; and as explanations were +refused, Her Majesty exercised her constitutional right of dismissing +her minister.” Palmerston had also audaciously interpolated despatches +signed by the Queen. He acted in fact as he pleased. He had the agents +of his dark realm in almost every Masonic lodge in England. The Press +at home and abroad, under Masonic influences, applauded his policy. The +sect so acted that his measures were productive of immediate success. His +manner, his _bonhomie_, his very vices fascinated the multitude. He won +the confidence of the trading classes, and held the Conservatives at bay. +Dismissed by the Sovereign, he soon returned into power her master, and +from that day to the day of his death ruled England and the world in the +interests of the Atheistic Revolution, of which he thought himself the +master spirit.[20] + +In a few moments we shall see the truth of this when considering the +political action of the sect he led, but first it will be necessary to +glance at what the Church and Christianity generally had to suffer in his +day by the— + + + + +XVIII. + +WAR OF THE INTELLECTUAL PARTY. + + +During what may be called the reign of Palmerston, the war of the +intellectual party against Christianity, intensified in the dark counsels +of the _Alta Vendita_, became accentuated and general throughout Europe. +It chiefly lay in the propagandism of immorality, luxury, and naturalism +amongst all classes of society, and then in the spread of Atheistic and +revolutionary ideas. During the time of Palmerston’s influence not one +iota of the advices of the _Alta Vendita_ was permitted to be wasted. +Wherever, therefore, it was possible to advance the programme mapped out +in the “Permanent Instruction,” in the letter of _Piccolo Tigre_, and in +the advices of _Vindex_, that was done with effect. We see, therefore, +France, Italy, Germany, Spain, America, and the rest of the world, +deluged with immoral novels, immodest prints, pictures, and statues, and +every legislature invited to legalise a system of prostitution, under +pretence of expediency, which gave security to sinners, and a kind of +recognized status to degraded women. We find, wherever Masonry could +effect it, these bad influences brought to bear upon the universities, +the army, the navy, the training schools, the civil service, and upon +the whole population. “Make corrupt hearts and you will have no more +Catholics,” said Vindex, and faithfully, and with effect, the secret +societies of Europe have followed that advice. Hence, in France under +the Empire, Paris, bad enough before, became a very pandemonium of +vice; and Italy just in proportion to the conquests of the Revolution, +became systematically corrupted on the very lines laid down by the _Alta +Vendita_. + +Next, laws subversive of Christian morality were caused to be passed in +every State, on, of course, the most plausible pretexts. These laws were, +first, that of divorce, then, the abolition of impediments to marriage, +such as consanguinity, order, and relationship, union with a deceased +wife’s sister, etc. Well the infidels knew that in proportion as nations +fell away from the holy restraints of the Church, and as the sanctity +and inviolability of the marriage bond became weakened, the more Atheism +would enter into the human family. + +Moreover, the few institutions of a public, Christian nature yet +remaining in Christian States were to be removed one after another on +some skilfully devised, plausible plea. The Sabbath which in the Old +as well as in the New Dispensation, proved so great an advantage to +religion and to man—to nations as well as to individuals—was marked out +for desecration. The leniency of the Church which permitted certain +necessary works on Sunday, was taken advantage of, and the day adroitly +turned into one of common trading in all the great towns of Catholic +Continental Europe. The Infidels, owing to a previous determination +arrived at in the lodges, clamoured for permission to open museums +and places of public amusement on the days sacred to the services of +religion, in order to distract the population from the hearing of Mass +and the worship of God. Not that they cared for the unfortunate working +man. If the Sabbath ceased to-morrow, he would be the slave on Sunday +that they leave him to be during the rest of the week. The one day of +rest would be torn from the labouring population, and their lot drawn +nearer than before to that absolute slavery which always did exist, and +would exist again, under every form of Idolatry and Infidelity. Pending +the reduction of men to Socialism, the secret conclave directing the +whole mass of organized Atheism has therefore taken care that in order to +withdraw the working man from attending divine worship and the hearing of +the Word of God, theatres, cafés, pleasure gardens, drinking saloons, and +other still worse means of popular enjoyment shall be made to exert the +utmost influence on him upon that day. This sad influence is beginning +to be felt amongst ourselves. Then, besides the suppression of State +recognition to religion, chaplains to the army, the navy, the hospitals, +the prisons, etc., were to be withdrawn on the plea of expense or of +being unnecessary. Courts of justice, and public assemblies were to be +deprived of every Christian symbol. This was to be done on the plea of +religion being too sacred to be permitted to enter into such places. In +courts, in society, at dinners, etc., Christian habits, like that of +grace before meals, etc., or any social recognition of God’s presence, +were to be scouted as not in good taste. The company of ecclesiastics was +to be shunned, and a hundred other able means were devised to efface the +Christian aspect of the nations until they presented an appearance more +devoid of religion than that of the very pagans. + +But of all the attacks made by Infidels during the reign of Palmerston, +that upon primary, middle-class, and superior education was the most +marked, the most determined, and decidedly, when successful, the most +disastrous. + +We must remember that from the commencement of the war of Atheism on +Christianity, under Voltaire and the Encyclopædists, this means of doing +mischief was the one most advocated by the chief leaders. They then +accumulated immense sums to diffuse their own bad literature amongst +every class. Under the Empire, the most disastrous blow struck by the +Arch-Mason Talleyrand was the formation of a monopoly of education for +Infidelity in the foundation of the Paris University. But it was left for +the Atheistic plotters of this century to perfect the plan of wresting +the education of every class and sex of the coming generations of men +from out of the hands of the Church, and the influence of Christianity. + +This plan was elaborated as early, I think, as 1826, by intellectual +Masonry. About that time appeared a dialogue between Quinet and Eugene +Sue, in which after the manner of the letter of Vindex to Nubius the +whole programme of the now progressing education-war was sketched out. In +this the hopes which Masonry had from Protestantism in countries where +the population was mixed, were clearly expressed. The jealousy of rival +sects was to be excited, and when they could not agree, then the State +was to be induced to do away with all kinds of religion “just for peace +sake,” and establish schools on a purely secular basis, entirely removed +from “clerical control,” and handed over to lay teachers, whom in time +Atheism could find means to “control” most surely. But in purely Catholic +countries, where such an argument as the differences of sects could +not be adduced, then the cry was to be against clerical _versus_ lay +teaching. Religious teachers were to be banished by the strong hand, as +at present in France, and afterwards it could be said that lay teachers +were not competent or willing to give religious instruction, and so that, +too, in time, could be made to disappear.[21] + +We may here call to mind the fact that it was while Lord Palmerston +directed Masonry as Monarch, and English policy as Minister, that +secularism was insidiously attempted to be introduced into higher +education in Ireland by Queen’s Colleges, and into primary education +by certain acts of the Board of National Education. The fidelity of +the Irish Episcopacy and the ever vigilant watchfulness of the Holy +See, disconcerted both plans, or neutralized them to a great extent. +Attempts of a like kind are being made in England. There, by degrees, +board schools with almost unlimited assistance from taxes have been +first made legal, and then encouraged most adroitly. The Church schools +have been systematically discouraged, and have now reached the point of +danger. This has been effected, first, by the Masonry of Palmerston in +the high places, and, secondly, by the Masonry of England generally, not +in actual league and knowingly, with the dark direction I speak of, but +unknowingly influenced by its well-devised cries for the spread of light, +for the diffusion of education amongst the masses, for the banishment +of religious discord, etc. It was, of course, never mentioned, that +all the advantages cried up could be obtained, together with the still +greater advantage of a Christian education, producing a future Christian +population. It was sedulously kept out of sight that the people who would +be certain to use board schools, were those who never went themselves to +any church, and who would never think of giving religious instruction +of any kind to their children. Nothing can show the power of Freemasonry +in a stronger light than the stupor it was able to cast over the men +who make laws in both Houses of the English Parliament, and who were +thus hoodwinked into training up men fitted to take position, wealth, +and bread itself, from themselves and their children; to subject, in +another generation, the moneyed classes of England to the lot that befell +other blinded “moneyed people” in France during the last century. In +England, the Freemasons had, unfortunately, the Dissenters as allies. +Hatred for church schools caused the latter to make common cause with +Atheists against God, but the destruction of the Church of England—they +do not hope for the destruction of the vigorous Catholic Church of the +country—will never compensate even Socinians for a spirit of instructed +irreligion in England—a spirit which, in a generation, will be able and +only too willing to attempt Atheistic levelling for its own advantage, +and certainly not for the benefit of wealthy Dissenters, or Dissenters +having anything at all to lose. + +The same influences of Atheism were potent, and for the same reasons, +in all our Australian legislatures. There the influence of continental +Freemasonry is stronger than at home, and conservative influences which +neutralize Atheistic movements of too democratic a nature in England +and Scotland, are weaker. Hence, in all our Australian Parliaments, +Acts are passed with but a feeble resistance from the Church party, +abolishing religious education of every kind, and making all the +education of the country “secular, compulsory, and free.” That is, +without religion, enforced upon every class, and at the general expense +of the State. Hence, after paying the taxation in full, the Catholic and +the conscientious Christian of the Church of England, have to sustain in +all those colonies their own system of education, and this, while paying +for the other system, and while bearing the additional burden of the +competition of State schools, richly and completely endowed with every +possible requisite and luxury out of the general taxes. + +A final feature in the education-war of Atheism against the Church +especially, and against Christianity of every kind, is the attempted +higher education without religion of young girls. The expense which they +have induced every legislature to undertake for this purpose is amazing; +and how the nations tolerate that expense is equally amazing. It is but +carrying out to the letter the advice of Vindex:—“If we cannot suppress +woman, let us corrupt her together with the Church.” For this purpose +those infamous hot-beds of foul vice, “lodges of adoption,” lodges +for woman, and lodges “androgynes,”—lodges for libertine Masons and +women—were established by the Illuminati of France in the last century. +For the same purpose schools for the higher education of young girls are +now devised. This we know by the open avowal of leading Masons. They were +introduced into France, Belgium, Italy, and Germany for the purpose of +withdrawing young girls of the middle and upper classes from the blessed, +safe control of nuns in convents, and of leading them to positive Atheism +by infidel masters and infidel associates. This design of the lodges +is succeeding in its mission of terrible mischief; but, thank God, not +amongst the daughters of respectable Christians of any kind, who value +the chastity, the honour, or the future happiness here and hereafter of +that sex of their children, who need most care and delicacy in educating. + +In the extract from the permanent instruction of the _Alta Vendita_, you +have already seen how astutely the Atheists compassed the corruption of +youth in Universities. It is since notorious that in all high schools +over which they have been able to obtain influence, the students have +been deprived of religion, taught to mock and hate it, allured to vicious +courses, and have been placed under professors without religion or +morality. How can we be surprised if the Universities of the Continent +have become the hot-beds of vice, revolution, and Atheism? When Masonry +governs, as in France, Italy, and Germany, moreover, the only way +for youth to obtain a livelihood on entering upon life is by being +affiliated to Masonry; and the only way to secure advancement is to be +devoted to the principles, the intrigues, and the interests of the sect. + +The continuous efforts of Masonry, aided by an immoral and Atheistic +literature, by a corrupt public opinion, by a zealous Propagandism of +contempt for the Church, for her ministers and her ministrations, and by +a sleepless, able Directory devoted to the furtherance of every evil end, +are enough, in all reason, to ruin Christianity if that were not Divine. +But, in addition to its intellectual efforts, Masonry has had from the +beginning another powerful means of destroying the existing social and +Christian order of the world in the interests of Atheism. We shall see +what this is by a glance at the action of + + + + +XIX. + +THE WAR PARTY UNDER PALMERSTON. + + +Father Deschamps, on the authority of Eckert and Mislay, gives an +interesting description of all that Freemasonry, under the direction +of Lord Palmerston, attempted and effected after the failure of the +revolutionary movements, conducted by the party of action, under Mazzini, +in 1848. These were fomented to a large extent by British diplomacy +and secret service money manipulated by Lord Palmerston. Under his +guidance and assistance, Mazzini had organized all his revolutionary +sects. Young Italy, Young Poland, Young Europe, and the rest sprang as +much from the one as from the other. But after years of close union, +Mazzini, who was probably hated by Palmerston, and dreaded as the +murderer of Nubius, began to wane in influence. He and his party felt, +of course, the inevitable effects of failure; and the leader subsided +without, however, losing any of his utility for the sect. Napoleon +III. appears to have supplanted him in the esteem of Palmerston, and +would, if he dared, not follow the Carbonari. Mazzini accordingly hated +Napoleon III. with a deadly hatred, which he lived to be able to gratify +signally when Palmerston was no more. As he was the principal means of +raising Palmerston to power in the _Alta Vendita_, so, after Palmerston +had passed away, he introduced another great statesman to the high +conductors, if not into the high conduct itself, of the whole conspiracy; +and caused a fatal blow to be given to France and to the dynasty of +Napoleon. Meanwhile, from 1849 to the end of the life of Palmerston, the +designs formed by the high council of secret Atheism, were carried out +with a perfection, a vigour, and a success never previously known in +their history. Nothing was precipitated; yet everything marched rapidly +to realization. The plan of Palmerston—or the plan of the deadly council +which plotted under him—was to separate the two great conservative +empires of Russia and Austria, while, at the same time, dealing a +deadly blow at both. It was easy for Palmerston to make England see the +utility of weakening Russia, which threatened her Indian possessions. +France could be made join in the fray, by her ruler, and the powerful +Masonic influence at his command: Therefore, the Russian campaign of +1852. But it was necessary for this war to keep Prussia and Austria +quiet. Prussia was bribed by a promise to get, in time, the Empire of +United Germany. Austria was frightened by the resolution of England +and France to bring war to the Danube, and so form a projected Kingdom +in Poland and Hungary. The joint power of England, France, and Turkey +could easily, then, with the aid of the populations interested, form the +new kingdom, and so effectually curb Russia and Austria. But it was of +more importance for the designs of the sect upon the temporal power of +the Pope, and upon Austria herself, to separate the Empires. Palmerston +succeeded with Austria, who withdrew from her alliance with Russia. The +forces, therefore, of England and France, were ordered from the Danube +to the barren Crimea, as payment for her neutrality. This bribe proved +the ruin of Austrian influence. As soon as Russia was separated from her, +and weakened beyond the power of assisting her, if she would, France, +countenanced by England, dealt a deadly blow at Austrian rule in Italy, +united Italy, and placed the temporal power of the Pope in the last +stage of decay. On the other hand, Prussia was permitted to deal a blow +soon after at Austria. This finished the prestige of the latter as the +leading power in Germany, and confined her to her original territory, +with the loss of Venice, her remaining Italian province. After this war, +Palmerston passed away, and Mazzini came, once more, into authority in +the sect. He remembered his grudge against Napoleon, and at once used +his influence with the high direction of Masonry to abandon France and +assist Germany; and, on the promise of Bismarck—a promise fulfilled +by the May laws—that Germany should persecute the Church as it was +persecuted in Italy, Masonry went over to Germany, and Masons urged on +Napoleon to that insane expedition which ended in placing Germany as +the arbiter of Europe, and France and the dynasty of Napoleon in ruins. +In the authorities I have quoted for you, there is abundant proof that +Masonry, just as it had assisted the French Revolution and Napoleon I., +now assisted the Germans. It placed treason on the side of the French, +and sold in fact the unfortunate country and her unscrupulous ruler. +Mazzini forced Italy not to assist Napoleon, and was gratified to find +before his death, that the liar and traitor, who, in the hope of getting +assistance he did not get from Masonry, had dealt his last blow at the +Vicar of Christ, and placed Rome and the remnant of the States of the +Church in the hands of the King of Italy, had lost the throne and gained +the unenviable character of a coward and a fool. + +This is necessarily but a brief glance at the programme, which Atheism +has both planned and carried out since the rule of Palmerston commenced. +Wherever it prevailed, the worst form of persecution of the Church at +once began to rage. In Sardinia, as soon as it obtained hold of the +King and Government, the designs of the French Revolution were at once +carried out against religion. The State itself employed the horrible +and impure contrivances of the _Alta Vendita_ for the corruption and +demoralisation of every class of the people. The flood gates of hell +were opened. Education was at once made completely secular. Religious +teachers were banished. The goods of the religious orders were +confiscated. Their convents, their land, their very churches were sold, +and they themselves were forced to starve on a miserable pension, while +a succession was rigorously prohibited. All recognition of the spiritual +power of Bishops was put an end to. The priesthood was systematically +despised and degraded. The whole ministry of the Church was harassed in a +hundred vexatious ways. Taxes of a crushing character were levied on the +administration of the sacraments, on masses, and on the slender incomes +of the parish clergy. Matrimony was made secular, divorce legalised, the +privileges of the clerical state abrogated. Worse than all, the _leva_ +or conscription was rigorously enforced. Candidates for the priesthood +at the most trying season of their career, were compelled to join the +army for a number of years, and exposed to all the snares which the _Alta +Vendita_ had astutely prepared to destroy their purity, and with it, of +course, their vocations; “make vicious hearts, and you will have no more +Catholics.” Besides these measures made and provided by public authority, +every favour of the State, its power of giving honours, patronage and +place, was constantly denied to Catholics. To get any situation of value +in the army, navy, civil service, police, revenue, on the railways, in +the telegraph offices, to be a physician to the smallest municipality, to +be employed almost anywhere, it was necessary to be a Freemason, or to +have powerful Masonic influence. The press, the larger mercantile firms, +important manufactories, depending as such institutions mostly do on +State patronage and interest, were also in the hands of the Sectaries. +To Catholics was left the lot of slaves. If permitted to exist at all, +it was as the hewers of wood and the drawers of water. The lands which +those amongst them held, who did not forsake religion, were taxed to an +unbearable extent. The condition of the faithful Catholic peasants became +wretched from the load of fiscal burdens placed upon them. The triumph +of Atheism could not be more complete, so far as having all that the +world could give on its side, and leaving to the Church scarcely more +than covered her Divine Founder upon the Cross. + +Bismarck, though assisted in his wars against France by the brave +Catholic soldiers of the Rhine, and of the Fatherland generally, no +sooner had his rival crushed, and his victory secured, than he hastened +to pay to Freemasonry his promised persecution of the Church. The +Freemasons in the German Parliament, and the Ministers of the sect, aided +him to prepare measures against the Catholic religion as drastic as +those in operation in Italy, even worse in many respects. The religious +orders of men and women were rigorously suppressed or banished, as +a first instalment. Then fell Catholic education to make way for an +Infidel propagandism. Next came harassing decrees against the clergy by +which Bishops were banished or imprisoned and parishes were deprived in +hundreds of their priests. All the bad, immoral influences, invented and +propagated by the sectaries, were permitted to run riot in the land. +A schism was attempted in the Church. Ecclesiastical education was +corrupted in the very bud, and all but the existence of Catholics was +proscribed. + +Wherever we find the dark sect triumphant we find the same results. In +the Republics of South America, where Freemasonry holds the highest +places, the condition of the Church is that of normal persecution +and vexation of every kind. It has been so for many years in Spain +and Portugal, in Switzerland, and to whatever extent Freemasons can +accomplish it, in Belgium and in Austria. I need not say what it has +been in France since the Freemason Parliament and Government have come +into power. The dark Directory succeeding Weishaupt, the _Alta Vendita_, +and Palmerston, sits in Paris and in Berlin almost openly, and prepares +at leisure its measures, which are nothing short of, first, the speedy +weakening of the Church, and then, I am certain, a bloody attempt at +her extermination. If it goes on slower than it did during the French +Revolution, it is in order to go on surer. Past experience too, and the +determinations of the sect already arrived at, show but too clearly +that a single final consummation is kept steadily in view. The impure +assassins who conduct the conspiracy have had no scruple to imbrue their +hands in the blood of Christians in the past, and they never will have a +scruple to do so, whenever there is hope of success. In fact, from what I +have seen and studied on the Continent, an attempt at this ultimate means +of getting rid at least of the clergy and principal lay leaders amongst +Catholics, might take place in France and even in Italy at any moment. +In France, some new measure of persecution is introduced every day. +The Concordat is broken openly. The honour of the country is despised. +Subventions belonging by contract to the clergy are withdrawn. The +insolence of the Atheistical Government, relying on the strength of the +army and on the unaccountable apathy or cowardice of the French Catholic +laity, progresses so fast, that no act of the Revolution of ’89 or of the +Commune, can be thought improbable within the present decade; and Italy +would be sure to follow any example set by France in this or in any other +method of exterminating the Church. + +There are sure signs in all the countries where the Atheistic Revolution +has made decided progress, that this final catastrophe is planned +already, and that its instruments are in course of preparation. These +instruments are something the same as were devised by the illuminated +lodges, when the power of the French Revolution began to pass from the +National Assembly to the clubs. The clubs were the open and ultimate +expression of the destructive, anti-Christianity of Atheism; and when the +lodges reached so far, there was no further need for secrecy. That which +in the jargon of the sect is called “the object of the labour of ages,” +was attained. Man was without God or Faith, King or Law. He had reached +the level aimed at by the Commune, which is itself the ultimate end of +all Masonry, and all that secret Atheistic plotting which, since the rise +of Atheism, has filled the world. + +In our day, if Masonry does not found Jacobite or other clubs, it +originates and cherishes movements fully as Satanic and as dangerous. +Communism, just like Carbonarism, is but a form of the illuminated +Masonry of Weishaupt. “Our end,” said the _Alta Vendita_, “is that of +Voltaire and the French Revolution.” Names and methods are varied, +but that end is ever the same. The clubs at the period of the French +Revolution were, after all, local. Masonry now endeavours to generalise +their principles and their powers of destructive activity on a vastly +more extended scale. We therefore no longer hear of Jacobins or +Girondins, but we hear of movements destined to be for all countries what +the Jacobins and the Girondins were for Paris and for France. As surely, +and for the same purpose, as the clubs proceeded from the lodges in 1789, +so, in this latter half of the nineteenth century, the lodges send out +upon the whole civilised world, for the very same intent, the terrible +Socialist organizations, all founded upon the lines of Communism, and +called, according to the exigencies of time, place, and condition, the +association of the brethren of + + + + +XX. + +THE INTERNATIONAL, THE NIHILISTS, THE BLACK HAND, ETC. + + +I am well aware that there are multitudes in Freemasonry—even in the +most “advanced” Freemasonry of Italy and France—who have no real wish +to see the principles of these anarchists predominate. Those, for +instance, who in advocating the theories of Voltaire, and embracing for +their realisation the organization of Weishaupt, saw only a means to +get for themselves honours, power, and riches, which they could never +otherwise obtain but by Freemasonry, would be well pleased enough to +advance no further, once the good things they loved had been gained. +“_Nous voulons, Messieurs_,” said Thiers, “_la republique, mais la +republique conservatrice_.” He and his desired, of course, to have the +Republic which gave them all this world had to bestow, at the expense +of former possessors. They desired also the destruction of a religion +which crossed their corrupt inclinations, and which was suspected of +sympathy for the state of things which Masonry had supplanted. But they +had no notion, if they could help it, to descend again to the level of +the masses from which they had sprung. In Italy, for instance, this class +of Freemasons have had supreme power in their hands for over a quarter +of a century. They obtained it by professing the strongest sympathy for +the down-trodden millions whom they called slaves. They stated that +these slaves—the bulk of the Italian people in the country and in the +cities—were no better than tax-paying machines, the dupes and drudges of +their political tyrants. Victor Emmanuel, when he wanted, as he said, “to +liberate them from political tyrants,” declared that a cry came to him +from the “enslaved Italy,” composed of these down-trodden, unregenerated +millions. He and his Freemasons and Carbonari—the party of direction and +the party of action—therefore drove the native princes of the people from +their thrones, and seized upon the supreme sway throughout the Italian +peninsula. Were the millions of “slaves” served by the change? The whole +property of the Church was seized upon. Were the burdens of taxation +lightened? Very far from it. The change simply put hungry Freemasons, +and chiefly those of Piedmont, in possession of the Church lands and +revenues. It dispossessed many ancient Catholic proprietors, in order +to put Freemasons in their stead. But with what consequence to the vast +mass of the people, to the peasantry and the working population—some +twenty-four out of the twenty-six millions of the Italian people? The +consequence is this, that after a quarter of a century of vaunted +“regenerated Masonic rule,” during which “the liberators” were at perfect +liberty to confer any blessings they pleased upon the people as such, the +same people are at this moment more miserable than at any past period +of their history, at least since Catholicity became predominant as the +religion of the country. If their natural princes ever “whipped them +with whips,” for the good of the state, Freemasonry, under the House of +Savoy, slashes them with scorpions, for the good of the fraternity. To +keep power in the hands of the Atheists an army, ten times greater, and +ten times more costly than before, has to be supported by the “liberated” +people. A worthless but ruinously expensive navy has been created and +must be kept by the same unfortunate “regenerated” people. These poor +people, “regenerated and liberated,” must man the fleets and supply the +rank and file of the army and navy; they must give their sons, at the +most useful period of their lives, to the “service” of Masonic “United +Italy.” But the officials in both army and navy—and their number is +legion—supported by the taxes of the people, are Freemasons or the sons +of Freemasons. They vegetate in absolute uselessness, so far as the +development of the country is concerned, living in comparative luxury +upon its scanty resources. The civil service, like the army and navy, +is swelled with “government billets,” out of all proportion to the +wants of the people. It is filled with Freemasons. It is a paradise of +Freemasons, where Piedmontese patriots, who have intrigued with Cavour +or fought under Garibaldi, enjoy _otium cum dignitate_ at the expense of +the hard earnings of a people very poor at any time, but by the present +“regenerated” régime made more wretched and miserable than any Christian +peasantry—not even excepting the peasantry of Ireland—on the face of the +earth. + +The consequence of the “liberation” wrought by the Freemasons in Italy +is this: They clamoured for representative institutions. All their +revolutions were made under the pretext that these were not granted—and +the mass of the Italian people—seven-eighths of them—are as yet +unenfranchised, after a quarter of a century of Masonic supremacy in the +land. The Masons represented the lot of the poor man as insupportable, +under the native princes. But under themselves the poor man’s condition, +instead of being ameliorated, has been made unspeakably worse. He is +positively, at present, ground down, in every little town of Italy, by +insupportable exactions. His former burdens are increased four-fold—in +many cases, ten-fold. To find money for all the extravagances of +Freemason rule—to make fortunes for the top-sawyers, and comfortable +places for the rank and file of the sect, a system of taxation, the +most elaborate, severe, and searching ever yet invented to crush a +nation, has been devised. The peasant’s rent is raised by Masonic +greed whenever a Mason becomes a proprietor, as is often the case with +regard to confiscated church lands. Land taxes cause the rents to rise +everywhere. The tenant must bear them. Then every article of the produce +of his little rented holding is taxed as he approaches the city gates +to sell it. At home his pig is taxed, his dog, if he can keep one, his +fowl, his house, his fire-place, his window light, his scanty earnings, +_titulo servizio_, all are specially, and for the poor, heavily taxed. +The consequence of this is, that few Italian peasants can, since Italy +became “United,” drink the wine they produce, or eat the wheat they grow. +Flesh meat, once in common use, is now as rare with them, as it used to +be with the peasantry in Ireland. Milk or butter they hardly ever taste. +Their food, often sadly insufficient, is reduced to _pizzi_, a kind of +cake made of Maize or Indian meal; and vegetables, or fruit, when in +season. Their drink is plain water. They are happy when they can mingle +with it a little _vinaccio_, a liquid made after the grapes are pressed, +and the wine drawn off, by pouring water on the refuse. Their homes +are cheerless and miserable, their children left to live in ignorance, +without schooling, employed in coarse labour, and clothed in rags. +The Grand Duke of Tuscany had by wise and generous regulations placed +hundreds, yea, even thousands of these peasants, happy as independent +farmers on their own land. The crushing load of taxation has caused these +to disappear, and their little holdings have been sold by auction to +pay taxes, and have passed, of course, into the hands of speculators, +generally Freemasons, who, when they become landlords, vie with the worst +of their class, in Ireland, in greed. In the States of the Church, where +the careful, most Christian, and compassionate spirit and legislation of +the Vicar of Christ prevailed, the peasantry ate their own bread, drank +their own wine, and were decently, nay even picturesquely clad, as all +travellers know, before the “liberation” of the Masonic Piedmontese. +Not a family was without a little hoard of savings for the age of the +old, and for the provision and placing in life of the young. Now, gaunt +misery, even starvation, is the characteristic of these populations, +after only some fifteen years of Masonic rule. The vast revenues of the +Church are gone, none know whither. The nation is none the better of +them, and the populace, in their dire poverty, can no longer go to the +convent-gate, where before the poor never asked for bread in vain. The +religious, deprived of their possessions, and severely repressed, have no +longer food to give. They are fast disappearing, and the people already +experience that the promises of Freemasonry, like the promises of its +real author, are but apples of ashes, given but to lure, to deceive, and +to destroy. + +But to return. The Freemasonry of France and other Continental nations, +which has done so much to give effect to the principles of Voltaire and +Weishaupt, wishes decidedly not to go beyond the _role_ played by the +Freemasonry of Italy. But in France, as in Italy, an inexorable power +is behind them, pushing them on, and also fanatically determined to +push them off the scene when the time is ripe for doing so. This, the +Freemasons of Italy well know; this, the men now in power in France feel. +But if they move against the current coming upon them from the depths +of Freemasonry, woe to them. The knife of the assassin is ready. The +sentence of death is there, which they are too often told to remember, +and which has before now reached the very foremost men of the sect who +refused, or feared, for motives good or bad, to advance, or to advance +as quickly as the hidden chiefs of the Revolution desired and decreed. +It “removed” _Nubius_ in the days of Mazzini. It “removed” Gambetta +before our eyes. It aimed frequently at Napoleon III., and would, most +assuredly, have struck home, but its aim was only to terrify him that +so he as a Carbonaro may be made to do its work soon and effectively. +Masonry obtained its end, and Napoleon marched to the Italian war, and to +his doom. + +It is this invisible power; this secret, sleepless, fanatical Directory, +which causes the solidarity, most evidently subsisting between +Freemasonry in its many degrees and aspects and the various parties of +anarchists which now arise everywhere in Europe. In the last century +kings, princes, nobles, took up Masonry. It swept them all away before +that century closed. In the beginning and progress of this century the +_Bourgeoisie_ took it up with still greater zest, and made it all their +own. They for a long time would not tolerate such a thing as a poor +Mason. Poverty was their enemy. What has come to pass? The _Bourgeoisie_ +at this moment are the peculiar enemy of the class of workmen who have +invaded “Black” or “Illuminated” Masonry, and made it at last completely +theirs. The _Bourgeoisie_ are now called upon by the Socialists to be +true to the real levelling principles of the brotherhood—to practise +as well as preach “liberty, equality, and fraternity”; to divide their +possessions with the working men—to descend to that elysium of Masonry, +the level of the Commune—or die. + +It is passing strange how Masonry, being what it is, has always managed +to get a princely or noble leader for every one of its distinct onward +movements against princes, property, and society. It had Egalité to +lead the movement against the throne of France in the last century. It +had the Duke of Brunswick, Frederick II., and Joseph II., to assist. In +this century we see it ornamented by Louis Philip, Napoleon III., Victor +Emmanuel and others as figure-heads; and then, Nubius and Palmerston both +won from the leaders of the Conservative nobility, were its real chiefs. +Now, when it appears in its worst possible form, it is championed by no +less a personage than a Russian Prince, of high lineage, a representative +of the wealthiest, most exclusive, and perhaps richest aristocracy in +the world. We find that in all cases of seduction like this, the promise +of a mighty leadership has been the bait by which the valuable dupe has +been caught by the sectaries. The advice of _Piccolo Tigre_ for the +seduction of princes has thus never been without its effect. + +These new anarchical societies are not mere hap-hazard associations. They +are most ably organized. There is, for instance, in the International, +three degrees, or rather distinct societies, the one, however, led +by the other. First come the International Brethren. These know no +country but the Revolution; no other enemy but “reaction.” They refuse +all conciliation or compromise, and they regard every movement as +“reactionary” the moment it ceases to have for its object, directly or +indirectly, the triumph of the principles of the French Revolution. +They cannot go to any tribunal other than a jury of themselves, and +must assist each other, lawfully or otherwise, to the “very limits of +the possible.” No one is admitted who has not the firmness, fidelity, +intelligence, and energy considered sufficient by the chiefs, to carry +out as well as to accept the programme of the Revolution. They may leave +the body, but if they do, they are put under the strictest surveillance, +and any violation of the secret or indiscretion, damaging to the cause, +is punished inexorably by death. They are not permitted to join any other +society, secret or otherwise, or to take any public appointment without +permission from their local committee; and then they must make known all +secrets which could directly or indirectly serve the International cause. + +The second class of Internationalists are the National Brethren. These +are local socialists, and are not permitted even to suspect the existence +of the International Brethren, who move among them and guide them in +virtue of higher degree. They figure in the meetings of the society, and +constitute the grand army of insurrection; they are, without knowing it, +completely directed by the others. Both classes are formed strictly upon +the lines laid down by Weishaupt. + +The third class comprises all manner of workmen’s societies. With these +the two first mingle, and direct to the profit of the Revolution. The +death penalty for indiscretion or treason is common in every degree. + +The Black Hand and the Nihilists, are directed by the same secret agency, +to violence and intrigue. Amongst them, but unknown to most of them, are +the men of the higher degrees, who, in dark concert, easily guide the +others as they please. They administer oaths, plan assassinations, urge +on to action, and terrorize a whole country, leaving the rank and file +who execute these things to their fate. It is unnecessary to dwell longer +upon these sectaries, well known by the outrages they perpetrate. + +These terrible societies are unquestionably connected with, and governed +by, the dark directory, which now, as at all times since the days of +Weishaupt, rules the secret societies of the world. Mahommedanism +permitted the assassins gathered under the “old man of the mountain,” to +assist in spreading the faith of Islam by terrorising over its Christian +enemies. For a like purpose, whenever it judges it opportune, the dark +_Alta Vendita_ employs the assassins wholesale and retail of the secret +societies. It believes it can control when it pleases these ruthless +enemies of the human race. In this, as _Nubius_ found out, it is far +mistaken. But the encouragement of murderers as a “skirmishing” party of +the Cosmopolitan Revolution remains since the days of Weishaupt—a policy +kept steadily in view. To-day, that party is used against some power such +as that of the Popes, or the petty princes of Italy. Great powers like +England, in the belief that the mischief will stop in Italy, rejoice in +the results attained by assassination. To-morrow it suits the policy of +the _Alta Vendita_ to make a blow at aristocracy in England, at despotism +in Russia, at monarchy in Spain; and at once we find Invincibles formed +from the advanced amongst the Fenians; Nihilists and the Black Hand from +the ultras of the Carbonari; and Young Russia, ready to use dynamite and +the knife and the revolver, reckless of every consequence, for the ends +of the secret directory with which the diplomacy of the world has now to +count. The professional lectures on the use and manufacture of dynamite +given to Nihilists in Paris, the numbers of them gathered together in +that capital, the retreat afforded there to the known murderers of the +Emperor Alexander, excited little comment in England. If referred to +at all in the Press, it was not with that vigorous abhorrence which +such proceedings should create. Often a chuckle of satisfaction has +been indulged in by some at the fact. The utterances of the “advanced” +members of the Masonic Intellectual party in the French Senate excusing +Nihilists, were quoted with a kind of “faint damnation” equivalent to +praise. I have no doubt but in Russia a similar kind of tender treatment +is given to the Fenian dynamitards employed by O’Donovan Rossa. So +long as the leading nations in Europe do not see in these anarchists +and desperate miscreants the irreconcilable enemies of the human race, +Paris, completely as it is Masonic, will afford them a shelter; and when +French tribunals fine or imprison them, it will be as in Italy with a +tenderness still further exhibited in gaols. The salvation of Europe +depends upon a manly abhorrence of secret societies of every description, +and the pulling up root and branch from human society of the sect of the +Freemasons whose “illuminated” plottings have caused the mischief so far, +and which if not vigorously repressed by a decided union of Christian +nations will yet occasion far more. _Deus fecit nationes sanabiles._ The +nations can be saved. But if they are to be saved, it must be by a return +to Christianity and to public Christian usages; by eradicating Atheism +and its socialistic doctrines as crimes against the majesty of God and +the well-being of individual men and nations; by rigorously prohibiting +every form of secret society for any purpose whatever; by shutting the +mouth of the blasphemer; by controlling the voice of the scoffer and the +impure in the Press and in every other public expression; by insisting +on the vigorous, Christian education of children; and, if they can have +the wisdom of doing it, by opening their ears to the warning voice of +the Vicar of Jesus Christ. It is not an expression of Irish discontent +finding a vent in dynamite which England has most to fear from anarchy. +Its value to the Revolution is the knowledge it gives to those millions +whom English education-methods are depriving of faith in God, of the use +of a terrible engine against order, property, and the very existence of +the country as such. The dark directory of Socialism is powerful, wise, +and determined. It laughs at Ireland and her wrongs. It hates, and ever +will hate, the Irish people for their fidelity to the Catholic faith. But +it seizes upon those subjects which Irish discontent in America affords, +to make them teach the millions everywhere the power of dynamite, and +the knife, and the revolver, against the comparatively few who hold +property. This is the real secret of dynamite outrages in England, in +Russia, and all the world over; and I fear we are but upon the threshold +of a social convulsion which will try every nation where the wiles of the +secret societies have obtained, through the hate of senseless Christian +sectaries, the power for Atheism to dominate over the rising generation, +and deprive it of Christian faith, and the fear and the love of God. +I hope these my forebodings may not be realized, but I fear that even +before another decade passes, Socialism will attempt a convulsion of the +whole world equal to that of France in 1789; and that convulsion I fear +this country shall not escape. Our only chance lies in a return to God; +of which, alas, there are as yet but little signs amongst those who hold +power amongst us. I mean of course a return to the public Christianity of +the past. + +To this pass Freemasonry has brought the world and itself. Its hidden +Directory no outsider can know. Events may afterwards reveal who they +were. Few can tell who is or is not within that dark conclave of lost but +able men. There is no staying the onward progress of the tide which bears +on the millions in their meshes, to ruin. The only thing we can hope to +do, is to save ourselves from being deceived by their wiles. This, thank +God, we may and will do. We can, at least, in compliance with the advice +of our Holy Father, open the eyes of our own people, of our young men +especially, to the nature and atrocity of the evil, that seeing, they +may avoid the snare laid for them by Atheism. To do this with greater +effect we shall now, for awhile, consider the danger as it appears +amongst ourselves. We shall also see what relation it has with its kind +in other countries; and so we shall take a brief survey of + + + + +XXI. + +FREEMASONRY WITH OURSELVES. + + +We hear from every side a great deal regarding the difference said to +exist between Freemasonry as it has remained in the United Kingdom, +and as it has developed itself on the Continent of Europe since its +introduction there chiefly, we must remember, by British Jacobites, in +the last century. It is argued, that the Illuminism of Weishaupt, or +that of Saint Martin, did not cross the Channel to any great extent; and +that, on the whole, the lodges of England, Ireland, and Scotland remained +loyal to Monarchy and to religion. There is much truth in all this. The +Conservative character of the mass of English Freemasons, and the fact, +that amongst them were found the real governors and possessors of the +country, made it impossible that such men could conspire against their +own selves. But, as I have already shown, the fact that British lodges +have always had intercourse with the lodges of the Continent,[22] makes +it equally impossible that some, at least, of the theories of the latter +should not have got into the lodges at this side of the water. I believe +it is owing mainly to this influence over British Freemasons, that so +many revolutionary movements have found favour with our legislators, +who are, when they are not Catholics, generally of the craft. It was +through it, that the fatal foreign policy of Lord Palmerston obtained +such support, even against the conviction and instincts of the best and +most farseeing statesmen of the country, as, for instance, the late Lord +Derby. It was through it, certainly, that the cry for secular education +was welcomed amongst us; that divorce and “liberal” marriage laws came +into force, and that attacks were permitted upon the sanctity of the +Sabbath and other Christian institutions. + +Speaking on this latter subject, I must say, that one change in the +habits of the people of England, and Scotland, too, struck me very +forcibly on my return to the United Kingdom after a long absence. When, +some twenty-three years ago, I last visited these Islands, it was a +pleasure—and when one thought of the desecration of the Sabbath on the +Continent, it was a pride—to witness the state of the streets of our +great cities on Sundays. The shops were as shut up as at midnight. +Every thoroughfare manifested a religious quiet, which reverentially +and most emphatically proclaimed the reign of God in the country. On my +return, I found that a new departure from good, old, holy customs had +commenced, which to me looked anything but an improvement. I found in +London and elsewhere, a multitude of shops with shutters removed, and +goods displayed in the most tempting profusion, marked for sale, and +distracting the passers-by even more than they could do on a week-day. +A contrivance to keep within the law was introduced in many cases. It +was a kind of iron-rail door-way, which left the full inside of the shop +or store visible; so that, to all intents and purposes, the interior +was within the turn of a key of being as much in the way of business as +shops of the same kind in Paris. What prevented business being done, and +clerks and assistants being forced to labour as vigorously on the Sabbath +as on any other day? The law alone. This, a breath might destroy; and +public opinion, already accustomed to the sight of shop windows open on +Sundays, would easily become reconciled to the turn of the key in the +iron door. At first this would be only for a few hours, of course; but +afterwards, just as in Paris, for ever. No doubt, a large percentage of +good, religious shopkeepers avoid this scandal; and I hope the public +of our cities will make out these, and patronize them in preference +to others, who put the thin end of the wedge of destruction into our +observance of the Christian sanctity of the Sabbath—an observance which, +in the midst of a world falling fast from God, sustains that great, +divine institution; and, besides giving time to worship God, protects the +liberties of the poor, and prevents them from again becoming slaves. The +doing away by degrees of the “Lord’s Day” is a favourite aim of Atheism; +and it is by resisting this aim—by resisting all its aims on morality and +religion—that we can hope to sustain the Christianity and the religious +character of this country and its people.[23] + +But granting that British lodges remain unaffected by Atheism and +Anti-Christianity which, as we have seen, influence the whole mass +of Continental Freemasonry, would they on that account be innocent? +Could a conscientious man of any Christian denomination join them? The +question is, of course, decided for Catholics. The Church forbids her +children to be members of British or any Freemasonry under penalty of +excommunication. The reasons which have led the Church to make a law so +stringent and so serious must have been very grave. We have seen some +at least of these reasons; and it is certainly with a full knowledge +of facts that she has decreed the same penalties against such of her +children as join the English lodges as she has against those who join the +lodges of the Continent. Then, though parsons have become “chaplains” to +lodges, Anglicans generally have shown no sympathy with the Freemasonry +of England. I am not aware that Protestant denominations assume, or that +their members grant them, the power of making laws which could bind +in conscience. If they did possess such power, many of them, I have +no doubt, would forbid Freemasonry, as dangerous and evil in itself. +But it needs not a law from man to guide one in determining what is +clearly prohibited by reason and revelation. Now that which is called +harmless Freemasonry with us, is, besides the evident danger to which it +is exposed, of being made what it has become in the rest of the world, +both sacrilegious and dangerous. If it be only a society for brotherly +intercourse and mutual help, where can be the necessity of taking for +such purposes, a number of oaths of the most frightful character? I shall +with your permission quote some of these oaths—the most ordinary ones +taken by every English Freemason who advances to the first three degrees +of the Craft. Oaths far more blasphemous and terrible are taken in the +higher degrees both in England and on the Continent. I shall also give +you the passwords, grips, and signs for these three main degrees. You can +then judge of the nature of the travesty that is made of the name of God +for purposes utterly puerile, if not meant to cover such real and deadly +secrecy as that of Continental Masonry. + +The first of these oaths is administered to the candidate who wishes to +become an apprentice. He is divested of all money and metal. His right +arm, left breast and left knee are bare. His right heel is slipshod. He +is blindfolded, and a rope called a “cable-tow,” adapted for hanging, +is placed round his neck. A sword is pointed to his breast, and in this +manner he is placed kneeling before the Master of the Lodge, in whose +presence he takes the following oath, his hand placed on a Bible: + +“I, N. N., in the presence of the great Architect of the Universe, and +of this warranted, worthy and worshipful Lodge of free and accepted +Masons, regularly assembled and properly dedicated, of my own free will +and accord, do hereby and hereon, most solemnly and sincerely swear, +that I will always hail, conceal, and never reveal, any part or parts, +point or points, of the secrets and mysteries of, or belonging to, free +and accepted Masons in masonry, which have been, shall now, or hereafter +may be, communicated to me, unless it be to a true and lawful brother +or brothers, and not even to him or them, till after due trial, strict +examination, or sure information from a well-known brother, that he or +they are worthy of that confidence, or in the body of a just, perfect, +and regular lodge of accepted Freemasons. I further solemnly promise, +that I will not write those secrets, print, carve, engrave, or otherwise +them delineate, or cause or suffer them to be done so by others, if +in my power to prevent it, on anything movable or immovable under the +canopy of heaven, whereby or whereon any letter, character or figure, or +the least trace of a letter, character or figure may become legible or +intelligible to myself, or to anyone in the world, so that our secrets, +arts, and hidden mysteries, may improperly become known through my +unworthiness. These several points I solemnly swear to observe, without +evasion, equivocation, or mental reservation of any kind, under no less +a penalty, on the violation of any of them, than to have _my throat cut +across, my tongue torn out by the root, and my body buried in the sand +of the sea at low water mark_, or a cable’s length from the shore, where +the tide regularly ebbs and flows twice in the twenty-four hours, or +the more efficient punishment of being branded as a wilfully perjured +individual, void of all moral worth, and unfit to be received in this +warranted lodge, or in any other warranted lodge, or society of Masons, +who prize honour and virtue above all the external advantages of rank +and fortune: So help me, God, and keep me steadfast in this my great and +solemn obligation of an Entered Apprentice Freemason. + +“W. M.—What you have repeated may be considered a sacred promise as a +pledge of your fidelity, and to render it a solemn obligation, I will +thank you to seal it with your lips on the volume of the sacred law.” +(_Kisses the Bible._) + +When the above oath is duly taken, the “sign” is given. This, for an +Apprentice, consists of a gesture made by drawing the hand smartly across +the throat and dropping it to the side. This gesture has reference to +the penalty attached to breaking the oath. The grip is also a penal sign. +It consists of a distinct pressure of the top of the right hand thumb to +the first joint from the wrist of the right hand forefinger, grasping +the finger with the hand. The pass-word is Boaz, and is given letter by +letter. + +There are a number of quaint ceremonial charges and lectures which may +be seen by consulting any of the Manuals of Freemasonry, and which are +perfectly given in a treatise by one Carlile, an Atheist, who undertook +for the benefit of Infidelity to divulge the whole of the mere ceremonial +secrecy of English Freemasons, in order to advance the real secret of +it all, namely, Pantheism or Atheism, and hatred for every form of +Christianity. The English Freemasons made too much of the ceremonies and +too little of Atheism, and hence the design of real Infidelity to get the +“real secret” into English lodges by expelling the pretended one. + +The oath of the second degree, that of Fellow-Craft, is as follows:— + +“I, N. N., in the presence of the Grand Geometrician of the Universe, +and in this worshipful and warranted Lodge of Fellow-Craft Masons, duly +constituted, regularly assembled, and properly dedicated, of my own +free will and accord, do hereby and hereon most solemnly promise and +swear that I will always hail, conceal, and never reveal any or either +of the secrets or mysteries of, or belonging to, the second degree +of Freemasonry, known by the name of the Fellow-Craft; to him who is +but an Entered Apprentice, no more than I would either of them to the +uninitiated or the popular world who are not Masons. I further solemnly +pledge myself to act as a true and faithful craftsman, obey signs, and +maintain the principles inculcated in the first degree. All these points +I most solemnly swear to obey, without evasion, equivocation, or mental +reservation of any kind, under no less a penalty, on the violation of +any of them, in addition to my former obligation, than to have my left +breast cut open, my heart torn therefrom, and given to the ravenous +birds of the air, or the devouring beasts of the field, as a prey: So +help me Almighty God, and keep me steadfast in this my great and solemn +obligation of a Fellow-Craft Mason.” + +After taking this oath with all formality, the Fellow-Craft is entrusted +with the sign, grip and pass-word by the Master, who thus addresses him:— + +“You, having taken the solemn obligation of a Fellow-Craft Freemason, I +shall proceed to entrust you with the secrets of the degree. You will +advance towards me as at your initiation. Now take another pace with +your left foot, bringing the right heel into its hollow, as before. That +is the second regular step in Freemasonry, and it is in this position +that the secrets of the degree are communicated. They consist, as in the +former instance, of a _sign_, _token_, and _word_; with this difference +that the sign is of a three-fold nature. The first part of a three-fold +sign is called the sign of fidelity, emblematically to shield the +repository of your secrets from the attacks of the cowan. (_The sign +is made by pressing the right hand on the left breast, extending the +thumb perpendicularly to form a square._) The second part is called the +hailing sign, and is given by throwing the left hand up in this manner +(_horizontal from the shoulder to the elbow, and perpendicular from the +elbow to the ends of the fingers, with the thumb and forefinger forming +a square_.) The third part is called the penal sign, and is given by +drawing the hand across the breasts and dropping it to the side. This is +in allusion to the penalty of your obligation, implying that as a man +of honour, and a Fellow-Craft, you would rather have your heart torn +from your breast, than to improperly divulge the secrets of this degree. +The grip, or token, is given by a distinct pressure of the thumb on the +second joint of the hand or that of the middle finger. This demands a +word; a word to be given and received with the same strict caution as the +one in the former degree, either by letters or syllables. The word is +JACHIN. As in the course of the evening you will be called on for this +word, the Senior Deacon will now dictate the answers you will have to +give.” + +The next oath is that of the highest substantial degree in old +Freemasonry, namely, that of Master. Attention is specially to be paid to +the words “or at my own option.” + +“I, N. N., in the presence of the Most High, and of this worthy and +worshipful lodge, duly constituted, regularly assembled, and properly +dedicated, of my own free will and accord, do hereby and hereon, most +solemnly promise and swear, that I will always hail, conceal, and never +reveal, any or either of the secrets or mysteries of, or belonging to, +the degree of a Master Mason, to anyone in the world, unless it be to +him or them to whom the same may justly and lawfully belong; and not +even to him or them, until after due trials, strict examination, or +full conviction, that he or they are worthy of that confidence, or in +the bosom of a Master Mason’s Lodge. I further most solemnly engage, +that I will keep the secrets of the Third Degree from him who is but +a Fellow-Craft Mason, with the same strict caution as I will those of +the Second Degree from him who is but an Entered Apprentice Freemason: +the same or either of them, from anyone in the known world, unless to +true and lawful Brother Masons. I further solemnly engage myself, to +advance to the pedestal of the square and compasses, to answer and +obey all lawful signs and summonses sent to me from a Master Mason’s +Lodge, if within the length of my cable-tow, and to plead no excuse +except sickness, or the pressing emergency of my own private or public +avocations. I furthermore solemnly pledge myself, to maintain and support +the five points of fellowship, in act as well as in word; that my hand +given to a Mason shall be the sure pledge of brotherhood; that my foot +shall traverse through danger and difficulties, to unite with his in +forming a column of mutual defence and safety; that the posture of my +daily supplications shall remind me of his wants, and dispose my heart to +succour his distresses and relieve his necessities, as far as may fairly +be done without detriment to myself or connexions; that my breast shall +be the sacred repository of his secrets, when delivered to me as such; +murder, treason, felony, and all other offences contrary to the law of +God, or the ordinances of the realm, being at all times most especially +excepted or at my own option: and finally, that I will support a Master +Mason’s character in his absence as well as I would if he were present. +I will not revile him myself, nor knowingly suffer others to do so; but +will boldly repel the slanderer of his good name, and strictly respect +the chastity of those that are most dear to him, in the persons of his +wife, sister, or his child: and that I will not knowingly have unlawful +carnal connexion with either of them. I furthermore solemnly vow and +declare, that I will not defraud a Brother Master Mason, or see him +defrauded of the most trifling amount, without giving him due and timely +notice thereof; that I will also prefer a Brother Master Mason in all +my dealings, and recommend him to others as much as lies in my power, +so long as he shall continue to act honourably, honestly and faithfully +towards me and others. All these several points I promise to observe, +without equivocation or mental reservation of any kind, under no less a +penalty, on the violation of any of them, than to have my body severed +in two, my bowels torn thereout, and burned to ashes in the centre, and +those ashes scattered before the four cardinal points of heaven, so that +no trace or remembrance of me shall be left among men, particularly among +Master Masons: So help me God, and keep me steadfast in this grand and +solemn obligation, being that of a Master Mason.” + +“A long ceremony, in which the newly-made Master is made to sham a dead +man and to be raised to life by the Master, grasping, or rather clawing +his hand or wrist, by putting his right foot to his foot, his knee to his +knee, bringing up the right breast to his breast, and with his hand over +the back. This is practised in Masonry as the five points of Fellowship.” + +Then the Master gives the signs, grip, and pass-word, saying: + +“Of the signs, the first and second are casual, the third is penal. The +first casual sign is called the sign of horror, and is given from the +Fellow-Craft’s hailing sign, by dropping the left hand and elevating +the right, as if to screen the eyes from a painful sight, at the same +time throwing the head over the right shoulder, as a remove or turning +away from that sight. It alludes to the finding of our murdered Master +Hiram by the twelve Fellow-Crafts. The second casual sign is called the +sign of sympathy or sorrow, and is given by bending the head a little +forward, and by striking the right hand gently on the forehead. The third +is called the penal sign, because it alludes to the penalty of your +obligation, and is given by drawing the hand across the centre of the +body, dropping it to the side, and then raising it again to place the +point of the thumb on the navel. It implies that, as a man of honour, +and a Master Mason, you would rather be severed in two than improperly +divulge the secrets of this Degree. The grip or token is the first of +the five points of fellowship. The five points of fellowship are: first, +a grip with the right hand of each other’s wrist, with the points of +the fingers: second, right foot parallel with right foot on the inside: +third, right knee to right knee: fourth, right breast to right breast: +fifth, hand over shoulder, supporting the back. It is in this position, +and this only, except in open lodge, and then but in a whisper, that the +word is given. It is MAHABONE or MACBENACH. The former is the ancient, +the latter the modern word.” + +I have here given an idea of the principal ceremonies used in making +English Freemasons. I could not in the space I have allotted to myself, +enter, as I would wish to do, upon other features of its ridiculous +rites and observances, many of which in still higher degrees, get a +gradually opening, Atheistic and most anti-Christian interpretation. But +it will suffice for my purpose to bring one fact under your observation. +In the ceremonies accompanying initiations, many charges are made to +the candidates and lectures and catechisings are given. In these, in +the highest degrees, the real secret is gradually divulged in a manner +apparently the most simple. For instance in the degree of the Knights +Adepts of the Eagle or the Sun, the Master in his charge describing the +Bible, Compass, and Square, says:— + +“By the _Bible_, you are to understand that it is the only law you ought +to follow. It is that which Adam received at his creation, and which +the Almighty engraved in his heart. _This law is called natural law_, +and shows positively that there is but _one God_, and to adore only +him without any sub-division or interpolation. The _Compass_ gives you +the faculty of judging for yourself, that whatever God has created is +well, and he is the sovereign author of everything. Existing in himself, +nothing is either good or evil, because we understand by this expression, +an action done which is excellent in itself, is relative, and submits +to the human understanding, judging to know the value and price of such +action, and that God, with whom everything is possible, communicates +nothing of his will but such as his great goodness pleases; and +everything in the universe is governed as he has decreed it with justice, +being able to compare it with the attributes of the Divinity. I equally +say, that in himself there is no evil, because he has made everything +with exactness, and that _everything exists according to his will; +consequently, as it ought to be_. The distance between good and evil, +with the Divinity, cannot be more justly and clearly compared than by a +circle formed with a compass: from the points being reunited there is +formed an entire circumference; and when any point in particular equally +approaches or equally separates from its point, it is only a faint +resemblance of the distance between good and evil, which we compare by +the points of a compass forming a circle, _which circle, when completed, +is God_!” + +From this it will be clear, to what the so-called veneration for the +Bible and for religion comes to, at last, in all Freemasonry. From +apparent agreement with Christianity it ends in Atheism. In the +essentially Jewish symbolism of Masonry, the Trinity is ignored from the +commencement, and God reduced to a Grand Architect. The mention of Christ +is carefully avoided. By degrees the Bible is not revelation at all—only +the laws written on the heart of every man by the one God—the one God, +yet, however, somewhat respected. But in a little while, we find the “one +God” reduced to very small dimensions indeed. You may judge for yourself +by the Compass that God exists in himself, “_therefore_”—though it is +hard here to see the _therefore_—“nothing is either good or evil.” Here +is a blow at the moral law. Finally, “God” spoken of with such respect +in all the going before degrees is reduced to a nonentity “_which circle +when completed is God_.” This is a perfect introduction on Weishaupt’s +lines to Weishaupt’s Pantheism. + +But the theories of Masonry however developed, do less practical mischief +than the conduct it fosters. The English, happily for themselves, are, +in many useful respects, an eminently inconsistent people. The gentry +amongst them can join Freemasonry and yet keep, in the most illogical +manner possible, their very diluted form of Christianity. It has been +otherwise with the more reasoning Continental Masons. They either abandon +the Craft or abandon their Christianity. But the morality inculcated +by Freemasonry has done immense damage in English-speaking countries +nevertheless. The very oath binding a Master Mason to respect the +chastity of certain near relations of another Master Mason, insinuates +a wide field for licence; and Masons, even in England, have never been +the most moral of men. It leads them, we too well know, to the neglect +of home duties, and it leads them to an unjust persecution of outsiders, +for the benefit of Craftsmen—a matter more than once complained of as +injurious in trade, politics, and social life. I need not call to your +mind what mischief—what foul murder—it has led to in America. I prefer to +let Carlile, the Infidel apologist of dark Masonry, speak on this point. +He says:— + +“My exposure of Freemasonry in 1825 led to its exposure in the United +States of America; and a Mason there of the name of William Morgan, +having announced his intention to assist in the work of exposure, was +kidnapped under pretended forms and warrants of law, by his brother +Masons, removed from the State of New York to the borders of Canada, +near the falls of Niagara, and there most barbarously murdered. This +happened in 1826. The States have been for many years much excited +upon the subject; a regular warfare has arisen between Masons and +anti-Masons;—societies of anti-Masons have been formed; newspapers +and magazines started; and many pamphlets and volumes, with much +correspondence, published; so that, before the Slavery Question was +pressed among them, all parties had merged into Masons and anti-Masons. +Several persons were punished for the abduction of Morgan; but the +murderers were sheltered by Masonic Lodges, and rescued from justice. +This was quite enough to show that Masonry, as consisting of a secret +association, or an association with secret oaths and ceremonies, is a +political and social evil.” + +“While writing this, I have been informed that individual members of +Orange Lodges have smiled at the dissolution of their Lodges, with the +observation, that precisely the same association can be carried on under +the name of Masonry. This is an evil that secret associations admit. +No form of anything of the kind, when secret, can protect itself from +abuses; and this is a strong reason why Masonic associations should get +rid of their unnecessary oaths, revise their constitutions, and throw +themselves open to public inspection and report. There is enough that may +be made respectable in Masonry, in the present state of mind and customs, +to admit of scrutinising publicity.” + +The question of the death of Morgan, and other unhappy incidents in the +history of Freemasonry in the United States, are very fully treated by +Father Müller, C.SS.R. Yet, strange to say, notwithstanding anti-Masonic +societies being formed extensively in the Great Republic, and the horror +created by the murder of Morgan, there is no part of the world where +Masonry flourishes more than in America. I believe it will yet become +the greatest enemy of the free institutions of that country. I am +willing to admit, however, that Freemasonry has, thank God, made little +progress amongst Catholics in Ireland, or Catholics of Irish birth or +blood anywhere. This is true, and the same may be said of millions of +Protestants who have not joined Masonry. But the evil is amongst us for +all that, and it is necessary that we should know what it is and how it +manifests itself. + +We know too, that besides the movements which Masonry has been called +upon to serve by means of Masonic organs, and resolutions inspired by +Atheism, and advocated by its hidden friends scattered through British +lodges, there have been at all times, at least in London, some lodges +affiliated to Continental lodges, and doing the work of Weishaupt. Of +this class were several lodges of foreigners and Jews, which existed in +London contemporaneously with Lord Palmerston, and which aided him in +the government and direction of the secret societies of the world, and +in the Infidel Revolution which was carried on during his reign with +such ability and success. In the works of Deschamps, a detailed account +will be found of several of these high temples of iniquity and deadly, +anti-Christian intrigue. But, besides, Masonry of any description—and +every description, for reasons already stated, even the most apparently +harmless, is positively bad—bad, because of its oaths, because of its +associations, and because of its un-Christian character, there were other +societies formed on the lines of Illuminated Masonry under various names +in Great Britain, and especially in Ireland, of which I deem it my duty +while treating of the subject to speak as plainly as I possibly can. The +most notable amongst these is— + + + + +XXII. + +FENIANISM. + + +From the establishment of Illuminated Masonry, its Supreme Council +never lost sight of a discontented population in any part of the earth. +Aspiring to universal rule, it carefully took cognizance of every +national or social movement among the masses, which gave promise of +advancing its aims. It was thus it succeeded with the operative and +peasant population of France, so as to accomplish the first and every +subsequent revolution in that country. The letters of the _Alta Vendita_ +and of _Piccolo Tigre_ especially, have carefully had in view the +corruption of the masses of working men, so as to de-Christianize them +adroitly, and fit and fashion them into revolutionists. Now amongst all +the peoples of the earth, those who most impeded Atheistic designs, were +the Catholics of Ireland. Forced to leave their country in millions, they +brought to Scotland, to England, to the United States, to Canada, to the +West Indies, to our growing Colonies—all empires in germ—of Australia, +and as soldiers of England, to India, Africa and China, the strongest +existing faith in that very religion, which Atheistic Freemasonry so +much desires to destroy. It would be impossible to imagine, that the +dark Directories of the Illuminati did not take careful account of +this population. And they did. In the years preceding 1798, they had +emissaries, like those sent subsequently amongst the Catholic Carbonari +of Naples, active amongst the ranks of the United Irishmen. France, +then completely under the control of the Illuminati, sent aid which she +sorely wanted at home, at the instigation of these very emissaries, +to found an Irish Republic, of course on the Atheistic lines, upon +which all the Republics then founded by her arms, were established. +That expedition ended in failure; but organisations on the lines of +Freemasonry continued for many years afterwards to distract Ireland. +As in Italy, the Illuminati had taught the peasantry of Ireland how to +conspire in secret, oath bound, and, of course, often murderous, but +always hopeless, league against their oppressors. These societies never +accomplished one atom of good for Ireland. They did much mischief. But +what cared the hidden enemies of religion for the real happiness of the +Irish? Their gain consisted in placing antagonism between the faithful +pastors of the people and the members of those secret societies of +Ribbonmen, Molly Maguires, and other such associations, organized by +designing and, generally, traitorous scoundrels. In 1848, there was +something like a tendency in Ireland to imitate the secret revolutionary +movements established on the Continent by Mazzini. We had a Young Ireland +Organization. That was not initiated as a secret society. Neither was the +Society of United Irishmen at first. But the open United Irishmen led to +the secret society; and so very easily might the Young Ireland movement +of 1848, if it had not been prematurely brought to a conclusion. As it +was, it led, without its leaders desiring it—indeed against the will of +many of them—to the deepest, most cunningly devised, wide-spread, and +mischievous, secret organization into which heedless young Irishmen have +been ever yet entrapped. This was the Fenian Secret Society. + +We can speak of the action of the originators of this movement as +connected with the worst form of Atheistic, Continental, secret-society +organization; for they boasted of having gone over to France “to study” +the plans elaborated by the most abandoned revolutionists in that +country. For my own part, I believe that these hot-headed young men, +as they were at the time, never took the initiative themselves, but +were entrapped into this course of action by agents of the designing +Directory of the Atheistic movement, at that moment presided over by Lord +Palmerston himself. That the association of the Fenians should be created +and afterwards sacrificed to England, would be but in keeping with the +traditions of the _Alta Vendita_, in whose place Lord Palmerston and +his council stood. We read in the life of the celebrated _Nubius_, the +monarch who preceded Palmerston, that he often betrayed into the hands +of the Pontifical Government some lodges of the Carbonari under his own +rule, for the purpose of screening himself and of punishing these very +lodges. If he found a lodge indiscreet, or possessing amongst its members +too much religion to be tractable enough to follow the Infidel movement, +he betrayed it. He told the Government how to find it out; where it had +its arms concealed; who were its members; and what were their misdeeds. +They were accordingly taken red-handed, tried, and executed. _Nubius_ got +rid of a difficult body, for whom he felt nothing but contempt; and his +position at Rome was rendered secure to gnaw, as he himself expressed +it, at the foundations of that Pontifical power, which thought that +any connection, such a respectable nobleman as he was, might have with +assassins, could be only in reality for the good of religion and the +government, to which by station, education, and even class-interest he +was allied. Palmerston, too, if he wanted a blind to lead his colleagues +astray, could, in the knowledge to be obtained of Fenian plots in Ireland +and America, have a ready excuse for his well-known, constant intercourse +with the heads of the Revolution of the world. What scruple would he +have, any more than his predecessor, _Nubius_, in urging on a few men +whom he despised, to revolution; and then using means to strangle their +efforts and themselves if necessary. It was good policy in the sight of +some at least of his colleagues, to manifest Ireland as revolutionary, +especially when such a man as Palmerston had all the threads of the +conspiracy which aimed at the revolution in his hand. They knew that he +knew where to send his spies, and thwart at the opportune moment the +whole movement. He could cause insurrections to be made in the most +insane manner, as to time and place, just as they were made, and cover +the conspirators with easy defeat and ridicule. + +However this may be, the Fenian movement after being nursed in America, +appeared in Ireland, as a society founded upon lines not very unlike +those of the Carbonari of Italy. It was Illuminated Freemasonry with, of +course, another name, in order not to avert the pious Catholic men it +meant to seduce and destroy from its ranks. But being what it was, it +could not long conceal its innate, determined hostility to the Catholic +religion; and it proved itself in Ireland, and wherever it took a hold of +the people in the three kingdoms, one of the most formidable enemies to +the souls of the Irish people that had ever appeared. + +When I say this, do not imagine that I mean for a single moment to infer, +that many of those who joined it, held or knew its views. If all I have +hitherto stated proves anything, it is this: The nature of the infernal +conspiracy which we are considering is essentially hypocritical. It comes +as Freemasonry comes, with a lie in its mouth. It comes under false +pretences always. So it came to Italy under the name of Carbonarism. It +came not only professing the purest Catholic religion, but absolutely +made the saying of prayers, the frequentation of the sacraments, the open +confession of the Faith, and devotion to the Vicar of Christ, a matter +of obligation. I do not believe that Fenianism came to Ireland with so +many pious professions. But it came in the guise of patriotism, which in +Ireland, for many centuries, was so bound up with religion, that in the +minds of the peasantry, one became inseparably connected with the other. +The friend of one was looked upon as the friend of the other; and the +enemy of the one was regarded as the enemy of the other. Hence, in the +minds of the Irish, in my own boyhood, the French who came over under +Hoche, were regarded as Catholic. The Irish would have it, that France +was then as it was when the “wild geese” went over to fight for the +Bourbons, a Catholic nation. The truth was, of course, quite the other +way; but so long were the Irish people accustomed to regard the French +as Catholic, that they still cherished the delusion, and would hear or +believe nothing to the contrary. It was enough, therefore, for Fenianism +to appear in the guise of a national movement meant to free the country +from Protestant England, that it should without question be looked upon +as—at least in the first instance—essentially Catholic. Nevertheless, +after its leaders had gone to Paris to study the methods of the French +and Italian Carbonari, and returned to create circles and centres on the +plan of the _Vendite_ of the Italians, they showed a large amount of the +Infidel spirit of the men they found in France, and determined to spread +it in Ireland. They well knew that the Catholic clergy would be sure to +oppose and denounce them as would every wise and really patriotic man in +the country. The utter impossibility of any military movement which could +be made by any available number of destitute Irish peasantry, succeeding +at the time, was in itself reason enough why men of any humanity, not +to speak at all of the clergy, should endeavour to dissuade the people +from the mad enterprise of the Fenians. Every good and experienced +Irishman; Smith O’Brien; the editors of the _Nation_; and others did so; +yet strange to say, the leaders of the disastrous movement, the Irish, +and the American organizers, were permitted by the English Government, +at least so long as Lord Palmerston lived, to act almost as they pleased +in Ireland. The Government knew, that while impotent to injure England, +these agitators and conspirators were doing the work which English +anti-Catholic hate desired to do, more effectively than any delusion, or +bribe, or persecution which heresy had been able to invent. They were +undermining the Faith of the people and destroying secretly but surely +that love and respect for the clergy which had distinguished the country +ever since the days of St. Patrick. A paper edited by one of these men, +was circulated for at least two years in the homes of nearly all the +population. It contained, to be sure, much incitement to revolution; but +it contained also that which in Lord Palmerston’s eyes compensated for +the kind of revolution Fenians could make a thousand fold—it contained +the most able, virulent, and subtle attacks upon the clergy. This paper +remained undisturbed until Palmerston passed away, and affairs in America +made Fenianism a real danger for his successors in office. Its issues +contained letters written in its own office, but purporting to come from +various country parishes, calumniating many of the most venerable of the +priests of the people. Men who so loved their flocks as to sacrifice all +for them during the famine years—men who had lived with them from youth +to old age, were now so artfully assailed as foes of their country’s +liberation, that the people maddened and deluded by such attacks, passed +them on the road without the usual loving salutation Catholics in Ireland +give to and receive from their priests. The secret sect backed up the +action of the newspaper. Its leaders got the “word of command” for that +purpose, and had to be obeyed. Matters proceeded daily from bad to worse, +until at last Divine Providence manifested clearly the deadly designs +against religion underlying the Fenian movement, and the people of +Ireland recoiled from it and were saved. + +And then it was hard to keep, even the leaders themselves, bad to the +end. At death, few of them like to face the God they have outraged, +without reconciliation. But in life these men, like the informers with +whom they are so often in alliance, do desperate things to deceive +first, and then, for a passing interest, to ruin their unfortunate dupes +afterwards. For my own part, I am of opinion that the man who deludes +a number of brave young hearts to rush into a murderous enterprise, +hopeless from the outset, is as dangerous as the man who seduces men to +become assassins and then sacrifices their lives to save his own neck +from the halter. At most there is but the difference of degree in the +guilt and malignity of the leaders who urged on impetuous youth to such +risings as those of the snowstorms in 1867, and of the scoundrel who +planned assassination, entrapped and excited the same kind of youth to +execute it, and then swore their lives away to save himself from his +justly deserved doom. I am led to this conclusion inevitably from the +account given of the Fenian rising, by one of the purest Irish patriots +of this century, one just gone amidst the tears of his fellow-countrymen, +with stainless name, and a career of glorious labour, to his eternal +reward. Mr. Alexander M. Sullivan in his interesting “Story of Ireland” +says: + +“There was up to the last a fatuous amount of delusion maintained by the +‘Head Centre’ on this side of the Atlantic, James Stephens, a man of +marvellous subtlety and wondrous powers of plausible imposition; crafty, +cunning, and quite unscrupulous as to the employment of means to an end. +However, the army ready to hand in America, if not utilized at once, +would soon be melted away and gone, like the snows of past winters. So in +the middle of 1865 it was resolved to take the field in the approaching +autumn. + +“It is hard to contemplate this decision or declaration, without deeming +it either insincere or wicked on the part of the leader or leaders, who +at the moment knew the _real_ condition of affairs in Ireland. That the +enrolled members, howsoever few, would respond when called upon, was +certain at any time; for the Irish are not cowards; the men who joined +this desperate enterprise were sure to prove themselves courageous, if +not either prudent or wise. But the pretence of the revolutionary chief, +that there was a force able to afford the merest chance of success, was +too utterly false not to be plainly criminal. + +“Towards the close of 1865 came almost contemporaneously the Government +swoop on the Irish Revolutionary executive, and the deposition—after +solemn judicial trial, as prescribed by the laws of the society—of +O’Mahony, the American ‘Head Centre,’ for crimes and offences alleged to +be worse than mere imbecility, and the election in his stead of Colonel +William R. Roberts, an Irish American merchant of high standing and +honourable character, whose fortune had always generously aided Irish +patriotic, charitable, or religious purposes. The deposed official, +however, did not submit to the application of the society rules. He set +up a rival association, a course in which he was supported by the Irish +Head Centre; and a painful scene of factious and acrimonious contention +between the two parties thus antagonised, caused the English Government +to hope—nay, for a moment, fully to believe—that the disappearance of +both must soon follow.” + +Mr. A. M. Sullivan, after speaking of the history of the Fenian movement +in America, continues:— + +“This brief episode at Ridgeway was for the confederated Irish the one +gleam to lighten the page of their history for 1866. That page was +otherwise darkened and blotted by a record of humiliating and disgraceful +exposures in connection with the Irish Head Centre. In autumn of that +year he proceeded to America, and finding his authority repudiated +and his integrity doubted, he resorted to a course which it would be +difficult to characterize too strongly. By way of attracting a following +to his own standard, and obtaining a flush of money, he publicly +announced that in the winter months close at hand, and before the new +year dawned, he would (sealing his undertaking with an awful invocation +of the Most High) be in Ireland, leading the long-promised insurrection. +Had this been a mere ‘intention’ which might be ‘disappointed,’ it was +still manifestly criminal thus to announce to the British government, +unless, indeed, his resources in hand were so enormous as to render +England’s preparations a matter of indifference. But it was not as an +‘intention’ he announced it and swore to it. He threatened with the most +serious personal consequences any and every man soever, who might dare +to express a doubt that the event would come off as he swore. The few +months remaining of the year flew by; his intimate adherents spread the +rumour that he had sailed for the scene of action, and in Ireland the +news occasioned almost a panic. One day, towards the close of December +however, all New York rang with the exposure that Stephens had never +quitted for Ireland, but was hiding from his own enraged followers in +Brooklyn. The scenes that ensued were such as may well be omitted from +these pages. In that bitter hour thousands of honest impulsive, and +self-sacrificing Irishmen endured the anguish of discovering that they +had been deceived as never had men been before; that an idol worshipped +with phrenzied devotion was, after all, a thing of clay.” + +The plottings of the “Head Centre,” however, were not at an end. Mr. A. +M. Sullivan continues:— + +“In Ireland, where Stephens had been most implicitly believed in, the +news of this collapse—which reached early in 1867—filled the circles with +keen humiliation. The more dispassionate wisely rejoiced that he had not +attempted to keep a promise, the making of which was in itself a crime; +but the desire to wipe out the reproach supposed to be cast on the whole +enrolment by his public defection became so overpowering, that a rising +was arranged to come off simultaneously all over Ireland on the 5th +March, 1867. + +“Of all the insensate attempts at revolution recorded in history, this +one assuredly was preëminent. The most extravagant of the ancient Fenian +tales supplies nothing more absurd. The inmates of a lunatic asylum +could scarcely have produced a more impossible scheme. The one redeeming +feature in the whole proceeding was the conduct of the hapless men who +engaged in it. Firstly, their courage in responding to such a summons +at all, unarmed and unaided as they were. Secondly, their intense +religious feeling. On the days immediately preceding the 5th March, +the Catholic churches were crowded by the youth of the country, making +spiritual preparations for what they believed would be a struggle in +which many would fall and few survive. Thirdly, their noble humanity to +the prisoners whom they captured, their scrupulous regard for private +property, and their earnest anxiety to carry on their struggle without +infraction in aught of the laws and rules of honourable warfare. + +“In the vicinity of Dublin, and in Tipperary, Cork, and Limerick +counties, attacks were made on the police stations, several of which +were captured by or surrendered to the insurgents. But a circumstance +as singular as any recorded in history intervened to suppress the +movement more effectually than the armies and fleets of England ten +times told could do. On the next night following the rising—the 6th +March—there commenced a snowstorm which will long be remembered in +Ireland, as it was probably without precedent in our annals. For twelve +days and nights without intermission, a tempest of snow and sleet raged +over the land, piling snow to the depth of yards on all the mountains, +streets, and highways. The plan of the insurrection evidently had for +its chief feature desultory warfare in the mountain districts, but this +intervention of the elements utterly frustrated the project, and saved +Ireland from the horrors of a protracted struggle.” + +Who that reads over this brief history of the contest between the +Fenian leaders and the priesthood of Ireland, may not see the wisdom +and goodness of the religious guides of the people, and the reckless +cruelty and callousness of the secret society seducers? It was a life and +death struggle. The true friends of the people could not look on and see +them led to ruin of soul and body. They knew by a Light from on high, +more certain than any that guides ships from danger, the real nature +of the secret conspiracy that laid its meshes to deceive, to ruin, and +to betray. They raised the warning voice, and for this were secretly +assailed, maligned, circumvented, and even threatened in body, in life, +in means, and in character. But the minister of God is not to be deterred +by any such menaces. He that in the penal days braved the dungeon and the +halter for them, and who every day braves pestilence, want, and death +if necessary for their sakes, who is of them and with them from the +cradle to the grave, whose only interest is their interest, has surely +more claims upon their love and allegiance than any conspirator. We +learn wisdom from the end of all the secret-society seducers—men first +seduced themselves, and who then try to seduce others. But surely the +Irish people and the young men of Ireland especially, have had experience +enough of the whole lot of them. All seduce them into fatal courses under +pretence of benefiting Ireland. Nearly all sell and betray them. All +profit—if profit their wretched gain can be called—by the folly of our +too fervid, too generous, too confiding youth. + +Some of these same seducers are found, I am informed, plying their deadly +trade amongst Irish working men in the large manufacturing districts of +England and Scotland. For aught I know they may be found in this very +city or its neighbourhood. They certainly are no friends of the Irish +working man or of his family. Hopeless and criminal as were the Fenian +conspiracies, the attempts of these openly lecturing, or worse still, +secretly agitating, secret-society seducers, are much worse. At best +they are idlers who, instead of devoting themselves to honest toil, find +it more congenial and easy to live upon the “subscriptions” of poor +working men, who give to these oily-tongued vagabonds a portion of their +hard earnings “to liberate Ireland.” God help us! To liberate Ireland +by means of such heartless schemers, who would be only too happy to +sell Ireland and their dupes into the bargain, for a wonderfully small +consideration. It is well if these dangerous prowlers do not do worse +and “swear in” some incautious, hot-headed, simple boys into societies +which are seen to eventually bring the prison plank-bed if not the +halter. The Irish working man in England, in Scotland, or in America, +has no worse enemy than these itinerant agitators who perambulate the +country, creating excitement at one time, and encouraging secret-society +practices at another. They render the condition of the Irish working +man often intolerable. They lead him from home and to the public house. +They encourage him in the worst possible habits for himself and his +little family. They drag him from his God, from his religion, and often +to his ruin. The best way, believe me, for the Irish working man to +serve Ireland in this country is to keep strictly sober, to mind his +employment, to attend well to the Catholic education of his children, +to live frugally, to practise economy, to become a respectable member +of society. He will then have a voice and a voice that will be heard +in the land, and when he comes to use the franchise he will benefit +his fellows, and do something real and tangible in the Parliament of +England, to serve Ireland. The victim of the secret society agitators is +kept in his vices and drunkenness. He is never religious. He lives in +rags and wretchedness, and dies in the workhouse or in the gaol. + + + + +XXIII. + +THE SAD ENDING OF CONSPIRATORS. + + +Nor can there be a spectacle presented by history more sad than the fate +of the unfortunate Fenian leaders. The Irish who have died directly for +their faith in the dungeon, on the rack, or upon the gibbet, have had the +crowning consolation of martyrdom and the bright light of heaven when +their sufferings were over. Those who fell victims of extermination, of +hunger, want, and exile, might, at least indirectly, trace their sorrows +to the same cause—grand, unalterable fidelity to the Church of God. The +martyr’s hope lit up their lives. The joy they had even in famine, even +in death, no man could take from them. From their perishing bodies came +forth the radiance of immortality. Their souls, naturally, the noblest +souls, the most gifted, the very purest, given by God to this earth, +conquered the very world that scorned and crucified them, with HIM they +loved and feared not to follow. They endured the pangs of starvation, +cold and rags just as they did the gaol, the fever-ship, and the gallows, +with a sublime, godlike fortitude. Godlike, for it came from God indeed. +Who ever heard of one of these millions of slowly-tormented victims +seeking death by suicide—the remedy of the disbeliever? Who ever knew +of one of them to seek to lengthen life by means which a section now +condones, indeed half praises, in the case of the no more than equally +tried man-slayers and cannibals in a shipwreck? Who that remembers the +dread years of the great famine of ’47 and ’48 does not know of thousands +and of tens of thousands of Irishmen and Irishwomen, aye, of Irish little +children, that then laid down their lives in horrible agonies, sooner +than receive from a hellish so-called “charity” the food, clothing, and +patronage that would enable them to live in comfort,—a “charity” which +callous proselytizers offered everywhere at the price of one single act +of apostasy—at the price of even eating meat on a Friday in contempt of +God’s Church? I myself have known of such cases. And I have seen this. +I have seen downright honest pity manifested by these same starving but +noble people of God for the rich man who lived in wealthy splendour, and +then died in a great house near them, when they knew that by want of +the Faith he ought to have, his life was without hope and his eternity +without God. Never since the days of Christ did a whole people realize +more vividly or act more truly upon the teaching conveyed in the parable +of the rich man lost and Lazarus saved. The long eternity of hell, the +want of the drop of water, never to be obtained, the eternal contempt and +the eternal pain awaiting the sumptuously-living sinner, was no myth. It +came from the mouth of Him who had the knowledge of the fact, because he +was the Creator and the Judge. As vividly came the vision of their own +bright, peaceful, wealthy rest, figured by the lot of Lazarus reposing in +a bosom far brighter, far sweeter than that of Abraham—in the Heart of +Jesus Christ, in the beautiful vision of God, in the embrace of Mary, the +loved Mother of Ireland—and so these millions passed peacefully through +the dark valley of famine, until, worn and weary, their bodies sank like +the rain drops, forgotten, beneath the green sward of Erin, and their +souls passed for ever to the joy of the blest. How different is the case +of the few apostates amongst them who sold their faith! Who may not tell +of the agony of mind, the desolation, the suicides of these? But next +to them in melancholiness is the fate of the Irishman who first begins +to listen to the seducer of the secret society, and afterwards becomes +himself a seducer, a leader, perhaps a traitor, in the deadly, secret +conspiracy to ruin religion, to destroy God. His career is often this: At +first a hopeful, young, ambitious student of his country’s history, he +begins to feel indignation at her wrongs, and wishes to right them. In a +fatal hour he meets the tempter. He is sworn into the terrible sect. He +gets a command, an importance in the organization. He is youthful, but +the season of life wherein to make an honest livelihood passes rapidly +in intrigue. He knows that the course into which he has fallen is bad, +is injurious to religion, but he hopes to repent. Alas! little by little +his conscience, his Faith passes from him. The day comes surely when +he realizes his sad position, and knows the advice of the Church to be +right. But having lived his best days to conspire, he now must “conspire +to live,” and inured to bad habits, he is at last ready for anything. +Like the wretch who preys upon the little left to the Irish emigrant, +now as a guide, now as a broker in New York or Liverpool, he, too, will +wrench by every means fraud can devise the hard earnings of the poor, +under pretence of injuring England, if not of liberating Ireland. He +will stop at nothing, and so the existing conspirator is made. He has no +further scruple to join if he can the worst class of the Atheistic and +Socialist plotters of Paris. He herds with them. And this is strange, for +while the Irish conspirator may be as able to plot mischief as the worst +of the miscreants with whom he associates in France, he differs from +them in this, that in the secret of his soul he never loses his Faith. +They know this well, and they watch him, use him, but never fully trust +him. Many a broken Irish heart the children of the Revolution in Paris +have made already. Many a one of those Irish victims wish again for the +days of his boyish innocence and blessed faith. A life wasted, hopes +blasted, happiness departed, a cheerless, neglected, old age, are little +recompense for the free-thought and free-act which a system of Atheism +and irreligion, never really believed in, conferred upon any Catholic +Irishman. + + + + +XXIV. + +THE TRIUMPH OF IRISH FAITH. + + +The secret society onslaught on the attachment of the people of Ireland +to their spiritual guides and to their ancient faith was treacherous, +deadly, and long-continued. But, thank heaven! the Church in Ireland, has +survived the shock, terrible though it was. My own Archbishop—at present, +happily for Australia, placed by the Holy Father over that extensive +portion of the vineyard—a Prelate who knows the Ireland of history +better, I would say, than any living man, and the Ireland of the present +day, as well, certainly, assured me that never since the days of St. +Patrick was the Faith stronger in the country than at the present moment. +The frequentation of the sacraments was at no past period more general—if +ever as general. Pious Confraternities spread their blessed influence +everywhere. Temperance is progressing. The clergy, numerous and well +supported by the people, enlighten all by the purity, self-denial, and +laboriousness of their lives. They visit their people in every home, no +matter how poor, in every cabin, in every garret. They are, as ever, of +and with the people. Their little means are freely given to every want of +education and religion, and, as far as these means can go, to the poor. +This is a condition of things that must continue to bind the priests to +the people, and the whole Church of Ireland to God. These holy pastors, +whom every tie of nature, affection, and duty, bind to the Irish people, +are the guides who have been with them for ages. Numerous, intelligent, +learned, patriotic in the highest degree, sons of the saints, they alone +can lead God’s people aright. They have done so, and sad must be the +hour when miserable adventurers, seeking their own gains, can so delude +a nation as to seduce them from the side of God’s anointed, to what +did prove, and must ever prove, if pursued by the Irish people against +the loving and intelligent advice of the Irish priests, “a mockery, a +delusion, and a snare.” The time is come, however, when using their own +intelligence Irishmen will everywhere be able to resist the wiles and +temptations of the secret society seducer, and think for themselves. The +leaders, the fathers who have never deceived them, whose advices are +always given for their best advantage, who suffered and died for them in +the past, and are ready to do so in the present and in the future, are +the clergy of Ireland, led by the Bishops of Ireland, and all following +the infallible teachings of the Vicar of Jesus Christ. God grant that +this guidance may never fail; that the day may never dawn when it will +not be heeded; and that the race of wretched men who have so often in the +past ensnared generous-hearted, Catholic Irishmen in Ireland, in Great +Britain, in America, and elsewhere, may end for ever. From such false +agents and from the machinations of all enemies to Irish Faith, we well +may pray, GOD SAVE IRELAND! + +I have no doubt whatever, but this our prayer will be heard. We only +want a knowledge of the evil to avoid it. Even from what I have said +this evening—and I have only stated plain, unvarnished facts—it must +be evident that all secret societies and societies aiming at bad and +irreligious ends are no other than deadly Illuminated Freemasonry. Let +them be called by whatever name, they are a part of the system of secret +revolutionary fraud, invented and cast upon the earth by Satan to compass +the ruin of souls, and the destruction of the reign of Jesus Christ. They +are of the same kind as the Black Hand in Spain, as the Commune of Paris, +as the Nihilism that now dominates in Russia. With such associations +the children of God have only one duty to discharge. It is: so far from +giving them any countenance or support, to oppose them by every means +possible. I believe their strength has spent its force in Ireland. It +only remains that the Irish abroad, who have crossed the seas to find a +home, an honest living, and an honourable fortune if they can in this +and in other lands, should, as I have just advised, stand on their guard +against emissaries who, under pretexts as seductive as those used by +the Fenian leaders to lead our countrymen to ruin, or by that degraded +seducer of brave, but heedless and passionate young men, Carey, to drag +his victims to murder and the gallows, may come to whisper words of +conspiracy and lead far astray. The Catholic who hears the invitation +from any quarter, were it from an angel from heaven, were it from a +priest of God—fallen as that angel or priest should be to be able to +give it—let him beware. It is a devil that speaks to him as sure as it +was a devil that spoke to his mother Eve in the Garden of Eden. Let him +renounce that devil and his tools and his works. Let him ask aid from on +High—Good Counsel from God through the prayers of God’s Virgin Mother, +and he will triumph. He will stand firm on the side of God, and one day +be rewarded at His Right Hand with the most glorious triumph that can be +given to man to witness—the triumph of Christ coming in His Majesty to +judge the living and the dead. + +All that secret organization of which we have been speaking so much, is +being framed by Satan and his emissaries for one end long foreseen—that +is, to form, and that before very many years, the vast kingdom of +Antichrist, which already spreads its ramifications over the whole earth. +It is, you see, determined to leave no people, or nation, or tribe, or +tongue, unsubjected to its influence. It seeks now the semi-civilized +empires of Asia by means of Masonic France, and other European Masonic +influences. It plants in Africa the germs of a European domination, which +must speedily subject to its authority the dark sons of Ham. I believe, +so far as I can judge, it will soon send its telegraphs and its railways +careering through that ancient Continent. Placing itself “above all that +is worshipped or called God,” it will in its pride and hate obliterate +the polytheism of these countries to make room for its own Atheism; and +that which Christianity has been hitherto unable to effect in destroying +the false gods of the heathen, it will effect, in order to plant its own +dark _non credo_ instead. It will thus one day be able to call to the +standard of whoever is to be its last, long-foretold leader, countless +millions to battle with the elect of God. It may be—I believe it will +be—checked, if but for a few years, to afford time for the Church of +Christ to manifest her glory once more, and to gather in her strength for +the final combat. But that it will advance to that combat is revealed to +us. Children of Ireland what a glorious place is reserved for you when +that struggle does come! From the beginning you have been its opponents. +When it cried—away with Christ—away with Christ’s Vicar—let him be +crucified—let his temporal and spiritual power be obliterated—and when, +in the nations of Catholic Europe, and of the world, it raised its cries +of secularism, of infidel education, of ruin to the Christian family and +every Catholic institution, who of all the people of God most withstood +it? Who best, from slender resources, in all the lands where English is +spoken, supported the Vicar of Christ and every Catholic principle? In +their island home, during these very saddest days, from the period of +the great famine till this hour, the Irish people, scattered in their +millions over this country and England; over all the rising nations +of great America; and the infant empires growing daily to maturity in +Australia and New Zealand, and other islands of the Southern, the Indian, +and the Pacific Oceans; by the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel; in the +Colonies of Southern Africa; in the islands of the Caribbean Sea; amidst +the decaying Christianity of Buenos Ayres; in Canada; and all the other +lands of the earth which give the best promise to Atheistic machinations, +the Irish people lifted up the Cross of Christ, and sustained, by the +sweat of their brow, the strong, vigorous reality of the Catholic +religion. They gave their daughters to the cloister, their sons to the +sanctuary, their all to the cause of God. Freemasons thundered and +intrigued in the legislatures round about them. Emissaries from the +secret sects assailed them in the press, on the platform, everywhere. +Fidelity to their religious principles was often visited with political, +commercial, and even social ostracism. Ridicule and abuse rained in turn +for their fidelity upon them. But the Faith of St. Patrick and the hope +of God’s bright kingdom, the smile and the prayer of Mary in Heaven, were +able to defeat and baffle all. In serried ranks with the pastors they had +themselves brought forth, and nourished, and educated, and kept, they +stood amidst the deluge of deception, allurement, and intrigue about +them, firm as their own loved, distant land amidst the billows of the +ocean, and went on advancing the mighty work of building up the Church +which other nations were pulling down, until their very enemies paused, +and wondered, and admired. And often too when these enemies saw in the +lands which the Irish had evangelized, the Cross of the Catholic Church +arise and pierce the heavens, where it had never been seen before, or +had been proscribed for generations, they cried out that Catholicity was +immortal—was divine! It comes, for instance, by the Irish into this land, +just as it was before the storm banished it, the same as their fathers +once saw it. And they say rightly, “so that Church is now and so will it +be for ever.” Masonic Anti-Christianity will advance and do more damage +than ever heresy effected. It will one day sweep the sects of heresy and +the temples of idols utterly away; but it too will have its defeat, and +in time must yield to Christ and to His cause the greatest triumph. Its +union of all men in one vast republic; its bringing together of every +people and nation; its destruction of every form of religion to make way +for its sect; its advance in science, in education, in national progress, +all will serve one day to place the Son of Mary supreme—to realize the +prophecy made to His Mother: “And he shall be great, and be called the +Son of the Most High, and the Lord God shall give him the throne of David +His father, and He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever, and of His +kingdom there shall never be an end.” + +I say that when this consummation comes, as come it surely must, few +nations shall have a more glorious record than the people of what is +called “poor Ireland.” Few nations shall have done more to prepare +for the final combat, or shall have manifested to a greater extent in +Christian heroism the last and most terrible trial. No nation whatever +shall show a grander roll call of martyrs, confessors, virgins, and souls +saved, than the land and the race evangelized by St. Patrick, whose +sacred name already adorns the most glorious and promising churches now +existing in the world. + + + + +XXV. + +CATHOLIC ORGANIZATION. + + +In conclusion, it is proper that I should say a word to you upon the +attitude of the Church, at the present moment, in the face of the +forces of the Organized Atheism of the world. That organization has +now arrived at the perfection of its dark wisdom, and is making rapid +strides to the most complete and universal exercise of its power. It +has succeeded. Through it the Church is despoiled. The Vicar of Christ +is a prisoner, and has been so for over fourteen years. The religious +orders are virtually suppressed in nearly every country of Europe. +Freemasonry is supreme in the governments of France, Spain, Portugal, +Italy, Switzerland, and works its will in nearly all the republics of +Southern America. It rules Germany, terrifies Russia, distracts Belgium, +and secretly gnaws at the heart of Austria. Everywhere it advances with +rapid strides both in its secret movements against Catholicity and the +Christian religion generally, and in open persecution according to +the measure of its opportunity and power. No hope, humanly speaking, +appears on the horizon to warrant us at this moment to look for a change +for the better. But God has promised never to desert His Church. That +promise never can be broken. When the darkest hour comes, it is not for +Catholics to look for dissolution, but for life and hope. The crisis +in the conflicts of Christianity is the hour of victory. This has been +realized more than once since the combat began between Atheistic Masonry +and the Church. What hour could be darker than that which saw Pius VI. +taken prisoner to France in the white heat of its Revolution, and dying +abandoned and forsaken in the dungeons by the Rhone? The Temporal Power +after an uninterrupted peace of nearly four centuries, during which the +disturbances common to it in the middle ages, had absolutely ceased, +passed at a blow and apparently for ever. Rome’s treasures of art and +religion were carried in triumph to grace the capital of Infidelity, +or scattered throughout the earth. The Cross and Keys were without a +defender, and the tricolour floated in triumph over the palace of the +Popes. The crisis had arrived when God’s promise should be realized. In +the twinkling of an eye, a strange force, under a strange commander, +Suwarrow, descends like lightning upon Italy. The power of the Revolution +passes like an uneasy morning’s dream. Rome belongs to the Pope, and +Pius VII. sits calmly, as if nothing happened, upon the throne of his +banished, I may add, martyred predecessor. Another event more strange +occurs. The temporal power falls again, and the legions of the strongest +potentate Europe had seen since the days of the Cæsars holds it as the +heritage of his only son. The Pope is once more a prisoner—for years a +persecuted circumvented prisoner. Napoleon mocks at his feebleness, and +laughs at his predictions. The temporal power of the Popes was, he says, +but never will be. The condition of the world is changed—the Empire +returned. Is it so? The crisis has come for the hundredth time. The +very cardinals are taken from the side of the Pontiff. He is alone in +the power of his base tormentor as much as St. Peter on Montorio was in +the power of Nero. Things cannot be darker. The light must dawn; and it +does. In a month, God’s elements blast the power of the tyrant; and while +millions applaud the return of the Pontiff to the Chair of St. Peter and +to his power at Rome, Napoleon passes to his solitary dungeon in the +midst of the waters, to ruminate on the verification which in his case, +as in the case of every persecutor of the Church, attends the predictions +of Peter. In our day, the Atheistic Conspiracy is as determined as ever +to destroy, but it is wiser. Slowly it has surrounded God’s Vicar. It +has taken care so to master the councils of every European country +that help to him, when it assails, may be impossible. Under pretence +of guaranteeing his independence, it has stolen from him everything. +His trustiest servants are torn from his side, stripped, despoiled, +degraded, scattered. His resources have been astutely lessened to the +lowest possible point. A prisoner of the Infidels, as much as Pius VI. +or Pius VII. in the strongholds of France, under the appearance of being +free, he is really bound hand and foot and rendered completely impotent. +His power is cancelled under pretext that his city is necessary to the +unification of Italy. No other city will suit Italian jealousies as the +capital of the new nation. And who will sacrifice the welfare of the new +nation to the wants of the Pope? Astuteness is now the characteristic of +the Revolution, determined and callous as ever. But hope again appears. +To the persecutions of Pius IX., many and grievous as they were, God +opposed a Pontiff simple as a dove in the snares of the spoiler. He took +away from the ruffian hands of Masonry its only real argument. But now +when all is gone, help appears in the person of another Pontiff, whose +greatest characteristic is wisdom, and whose wisdom, slowly but surely, +is telling upon the nations. No Pontiff has been more firm in maintaining +the rights of the Holy See, violently wrested as he found them, by the +force and upon the pretexts used by Freemasonry. Despoiled of everything, +he has, nevertheless, drawn together the scattered strength of the +Church. Commencing with the foundation of all Christianity, its teaching, +he has caused philosophy to be so purified, and so based on sound +principles, as to be in reality a true handmaid to theology and a deadly +foe to rationalistic, Atheistic, and infidel theories of whatever kind. +He has caused the teachings of St. Thomas to assume more than at any +past period, their supremacy in Christian schools. He has mastered the +difficult, tangled web of European diplomacy. He has found out the true +wants of Christian peoples. He has satisfied them: and then, finally, +by his immortal Bull, _Humanum Genus_, he has dealt a death blow to the +progress of Freemasonry, and elevated into a system the means by which +the guides of God’s people are for the future, to save these people from +the evils of our days. + +According to my humble ability, I have endeavoured as best I could, +this evening, to carry out the first part of the instruction of Our +Sovereign Lord, Leo XIII., who is for me and for over two hundred +millions like me, as much a Monarch, as if he reigned in the Quirinal +instead of Humbert II. That is, I have endeavoured to show you what +Secret Association was, and is, and ever will be, till the end. I am +persuaded, that if the evils of secret society plotting have succeeded +so far, it is mainly, because from one reason or another, the mask was +permitted to be worn by Freemasonry. Voices were raised, I know here and +there, now and again, against it, and against Secret Societies of every +kind; but they were either not heard at all, or, if heard, were very +soon forgotten. The utmost efforts of Freemasonry of every kind were +exerted to keep itself hidden, and that it had power to remain hidden +is looked upon by Monsignor Segur, and Monsignor Ketteler, and others, +as one of the most remarkable evidences of its real power. It had and +still has means to silence all who may proceed against it. It murdered, +as we have seen, in this very century, a free citizen of America, who +attempted to write a book in which only the least part of its secrets—its +absurd ceremonial, its grips, passwords and oaths, were revealed to “the +profane.” It threatened and used the dagger, or calumny, or bribery, or +whatever suited against those who attempted to expose it. Exposure is +its death—the death at least of its influence over its intended dupes +amongst Catholics. Therefore, comes the word of command to us all, from +the great Vicar of Christ—“Tear the mask from off Freemasonry;” and +consequently, it becomes a plain duty, a duty not to be performed in any +desultory manner, but in season and out of season, to expose Freemasonry. +The Supreme Pontiff, despoiled though he be, will find in the generous +devotion of the children of the Church who fear no power of man or demon +in the discharge of duty, not one but ten hundred thousand voices ready +for the task. Thank God! the labours of devoted, Christian men—bishops, +priests, and learned laymen—have resulted in enabling us to know the +real character of Masonry, and enabling us to “tear the mask” off the +horrible thing with ease. Nor is this confined to the Continent or to +ecclesiastics. The work has been nobly inaugurated already in our midst +by Mr. O’Donnell, M.P., and I trust will be continued by him and by +many more. The religious orders will, in the solitude of their cells, +make a special study of the machinations of the terrible sects, the +secular clergy in their Colleges and home retreats, and above all, the +Catholic press will not cease to expose the malignant hydra in constantly +recurring references and discoveries. The whole host of God is needed +to march and to act against the foe in the manner indicated by our Holy +Father; for the question is one of the salvation of the world, of the +spread of the Gospel, of the happiness of families and individuals, of +civil society, and of man. Surely upon such a movement the benediction +of Heaven will descend. The means to obtain that divine blessing are +also pointed out by the Holy Father. He says to those whom it concerns, +“unite the Catholic people in good societies and pious confraternities.” +He indicates, specially, the Third Order of Saint Francis and the +confraternity which practices the recital of the Holy Rosary. Father +Anderledy, the newly appointed General of the Society of Jesus, who +plainly says he speaks as he does with the knowledge and desire of the +Holy Father, asks the Fathers of his Society to renew the holy habit +of uniting those committed to their care in societies formed to honour +Our Lady. Behold, then, the true remedy for the ills that fall upon the +world. That world is rushing wildly, madly, away from religion and true +happiness. Who, under God, can be conceived more powerful to restore it +to reason than Mary the Virgin Mother of God, who amongst many other +holy titles, is honoured by the Church as the special dispenser of the +invaluable gift of Good Counsel, a gift She so wonderfully displayed in +Her holy life, and which She obtains for God’s people by Her powerful +intercession. She too is called upon in the liturgy of the Church, to +be glad and to rejoice, for that She alone has destroyed all heresies +throughout the whole world. Her power destroyed them singly in the past, +and doubtless will also destroy their united force and malignity, as +exhibited in Freemasonry and its kindred secret societies, in the future. +Societies in honour of God’s Mother cannot be too widely established. All +should be under Her benign protection, as is the Catholic Young Men’s +Society of Edinburgh. But there is one branch society of this Catholic +Institute which I cannot help singling out for special praise. It is the— + + + + +XXVI. + +CATHOLIC TOTAL ABSTINENCE SOCIETY. + + +No society can be conceived better adapted to keep working men from those +bad associations which we have been considering, or more calculated to +bring every blessing to individuals, and above all to homes. The public +house, the drinking saloon, the music hall, the obscure “shebeen,” +wherever, in one word, drink is sold, is the antechamber of the secret +society for men, and ruin both of men and women. On this point permit +me to be plain with you, my Catholic fellow-countrymen, as I may call +you—for I find that the majority, indeed the mass of the Catholic +congregations in Edinburgh, as well as in Glasgow, in Manchester, +in Leeds, in Birmingham, and in all the large towns of England and +Scotland, are, men and women, mainly, if not entirely, of Irish birth +or Irish blood, the children of Irish parents. It is, the world knows, +from you that the faith has come to Great Britain, by the providence +of God in this nineteenth century. In the Highlands, I am told, there +are some twelve thousand genuine Scotch Catholics. In the Lowlands it +is doubtful whether so many genuine Scotch Catholics can be found; but +the number of Catholics in Scotland is a quarter of a million, and the +excess comes from the Irish, whose migration has made the Church. I +believe the proportion in England, notwithstanding the conversion of so +many by reason and grace, and the holding out of several old families, +is still greater in favour of the Irish element. From the converts and +the good old Catholic families come many blest with vocations for the +Priesthood, who devote their lives with great zeal to the service of the +race which forms the majority—the mass of the Church. Now I praise that +mass, to which I myself belong, when it deserves to be praised; but you +will allow me the liberty of a friend to blame a portion of it when it +deserves blame. God, Who knows all hearts, knows that I desire to do the +blaming as a friend. I praise you for what I see you do. The Churches, +the Cathedrals—magnificent in many cases as both are—the Schools, the +Houses of the Teaching Orders, are mainly the work of your hands. The +Priesthood that has been brought to minister everywhere, and the active +Orders of men and women who teach, are kept in the very largest measure, +by you. Notwithstanding all your burdens, your poverty, and your local +wants—great everywhere—you give with a willingness unequalled by any +other race, to every good work. Of you, at home and abroad, generous, +faithful people, it may be said, that you realize to the very letter the +truth that it is better to give than to receive. And what a blessing do +you not in return receive in this land, when you remain faithful to the +teachings of that religion for which God has enabled you to do so much! +There is not a city I have visited that I do not find some amongst you, +who came to this country as poor as the rest, already risen to affluence +and ease, sometimes to public and honourable position amongst their +fellow-citizens differing from them more widely in religion than in +race. There is no place where I have not been consoled with the signs of +substantial prosperity amongst you. Pleasant it is for me, when visiting +the many educational establishments now, thank God, so plentifully +diffused over the face of the country, to find your sons in the Colleges, +your daughters in the Convents, and to know that not a few of them +dedicate themselves to the highest service of God. These prove the +happy, holy homes which blessed them with true parental love and care, +and cast round their childhood the influences of religion. I have at +this moment before my mind’s-eye the death of an Irish mother who passed +to eternity, since I commenced my present journey, consoled by having +her death-bed surrounded by children every one of whom were holy, and +several of whom had the happiness of being either Religious or Priests. +This valiant Catholic mother came to one of the great cities of England +the wife of an Irish working man. She had her reward surely in this life +as well as in the next. In your own midst, there are instances of the +honest prosperity which blesses the sober, well-conducted, though poor +man, who comes to this country to make an honest livelihood. If he be but +faithful to his religion, his life is always happy. His end is always +holy. His children “rise up and call him blessed.” He is a blessing to +the Church and to this country. I could easily prolong this picture; but +I must speak plainly upon another. I have seen even in this city hundreds +of little children, as I passed yesterday, Sunday, through your streets; +many of them were Catholics, certainly. Poor children! they saluted me +reverently. They were, I found, sent—for the law happily forces that—to +the Catholic School. That was the reason why the light of Faith was in +their little eyes, which brightened at the sight of a Priest; but alas! +the sign of hunger was upon the cheeks and upon the almost naked limbs +of many of them, without shoes, without stockings, and in rags. I have +seen children too, many of whom I know to be Catholic and Irish, selling +newspapers in the streets on weekdays, and preparing, boys and girls, for +careers I shudder to contemplate, after a very few years. On yesterday I +had evidence of the cause of their sad state. I saw men and women, the +fathers and mothers of these children, crowding round public-houses, +openly intoxicated, and in consequent wretchedness upon the streets. I +know of course that a large proportion of these were not Irish, but I +know also from inquiries I made, that a large proportion was. These +were the degraded, abominable parents who reduced their own little ones +to the sad condition in which the whole world could see them. I do not +suppose that in a respectable gathering like this such drunkards are +found, but I allude to the matter in the hope that my words and opinions +may, through you who are here, come to them; that they may know, that +while I praise my beloved fellow country people for what they have done +so nobly and so well for the works of religion, I have no words strong +enough to reprobate the conduct of those who give themselves to drink in +this country, at all. I say, at all. For to commence with—where, I ask, +is the working man to be found, or the working man’s wife, who, having +undertaken the care and responsibility of the present and the future of +the numerous family it is generally their lot to have, can afford to +spend earnings which belong to their children, on the pernicious and +expensive luxury of drink? A working man needs every fraction he can earn +by his labour for the education and maintenance of his children, for the +rainy day, for the season of sickness, for an honest independence in his +old age. He cannot be honest to his children, or to himself; he cannot +advance religion, education, or the cause of God, if he drinks. When a +working man loses his employment, when he sickens, when he gets into +trouble, we invariably find drink at the bottom of it. There is nothing +that one can praise in the man who practises this vice. He is mean, and +he is cruelly dishonest always. He drinks the shoes off his children’s +feet, the clothes off their backs, the bit from out their mouths, the bed +from under them, the home from over them, and sends them upon society, +boys degraded, and girls so lost that I cannot contemplate the picture. +It is therefore that good Pastors like Cardinal Manning, who (because of +his numerous Irish flock, regards himself in London as an Irish Bishop) +have undertaken a life and death crusade against this devil that preys +upon the vitals of their most choice and devoted people. It is therefore +that Cardinal MacCabe and others have made so many personal efforts to +uproot this vice. My own Archbishop, for many years, while Bishop of +Ossory, in Ireland, practised total abstinence, in order to give his +people an example. He is determined to make the same sacrifice in the +new and vastly more extended field of labour which the Vicar of Christ +has committed to his care at the Antipodes. I have great faith in such +acts of self-denial coming from such quarters. When those of the flock +who need restraint see the pastors placed over them by God make such +sacrifices for their salvation, there cannot, it seems to me, be much +doubt about the issue. What they can do, what such men as the late Mr. +A. M. Sullivan and others have done, without any constraining necessity, +others, who owe such restraint to themselves and their families, can do. +For the mere temporal well-being of every working man, and every working +man’s family, I would be glad to see every such man a total abstainer. +But when I consider the evils to which the eternal salvation of the Irish +working man, in these countries especially, is exposed by the habit of +drinking, I can find no words strong enough to express my anxiety to see +him give up intoxicating drinks absolutely and for ever. The sacrifice +is small, the gain enormous. God grant that all whom my words may +reach—all Irish Catholics—may think with me on this point. Should that +be so, the consequences would be indeed consoling. The Church of God +might well rejoice. The days of secret societies would for the Irish end +for ever, and for a certainty they would carry out to its fulness the +glorious destiny given them of planting the Faith all the world over, +and resisting to the bitter end the wiles, the deceits, and finally the +last and most terrible onset of Antichrist against God, His Church, and +Christian civilization throughout the world. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +[1] L’Eglise Romaine en face de la Révolution Par J. Crétineau-Joly, +ouvrage composé sur des documents inédits et orné des portraits de Leurs +Saintetés Les Papes Pie VII. Et Pie IX dessinés par Stall. Paris: Henri +Plon, Libraire-éditeur, Rue Garancière, 8.—1861. + +[2] To show how early the confederates of Voltaire had determined upon +the gradual impoverishment of the Church and the suppression 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 Rhine ecclesiastical electorates and other episcopal benefices in +Germany, as follows:— + +“All you say concerning our German bishops is but too true; they grow +fat upon the tithes of Sion. But you know, also, that in the Holy Roman +Empire the ancient usage, the Bull of Gold, and other antique follies, +cause abuses established to be respected. If we wish to diminish +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 bishops in the manner best suited to the good of each State. This +is the only course to follow. To undermine 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 founded 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 asylums of fanaticism, the people would shortly grow +indifferent and lukewarm regarding the things 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 the population of their States, as well as the abuse of the +great number of religious who fill their provinces, and, in the meantime, +the facility of paying a part of their debts, by applying to that +purpose the treasures of communities which have no natural 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 the rest. Every +Government, which determines upon that operation, will desire 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 in the course of time at their good pleasure.” + +[3] In 1768 Voltaire wrote as follows to the Marquis de Villevielle:—“No, +my dear Marquis, 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 philosophers 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 Europe 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 Pieret. 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 thousand +voices arise against abuses and in favour of tolerance. Be assured 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 not twenty persons in Geneva who do not +abjure Calvin as well as the Pope, and that there are 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.” + +[4] _See Le Secret de la Franc-Maçonnerie, par Monsigneur Amand Joseph +Fava, Eveque de Grenoble. Lille_, 1883, p. 38. + +[5] _Opus Cit._ p. 8. + +[6] M. Gougenot-Demousseaux, in his work on the Jew, Judaism, and the +Judaization of Christian people (Paris 1869), 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 +_élite_ of the order—these real chiefs whom so few of the initiated +know, or whom they only know for the most part under 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 constitution of Masonry seats in its sovereign counsel.” + +M. Cretineau Joly gives a very interesting account of the correspondence +between Nubius and an opulent German Jew who supplied him with money +for the purposes of his dark intrigues against the Papacy. The Jewish +connection with modern Freemasonry is an established fact everywhere +manifested in its history. The Jewish formulas employed by Masonry, +the Jewish traditions which run through its ceremonial, point to a +Jewish origin, or to the work of Jewish contrivers. It is easy to +conceive how such a society could be thought necessary to protect them +from Christianity in power. It is easy also to understand how the one +darling object of their lives is the rebuilding of the Temple. Who knows +but behind the Atheism and desire of gain which impels them to urge +on Christians to persecute the Church and to destroy it, there lies a +hidden hope to reconstruct their Temple, and as the darkest depths of +secret society plotting there lurks a deeper society still which looks +to a return to the land of Juda and to the rebuilding of the Temple of +Jerusalem. One of the works which Antichrist will do, it is said, is +to reunite the Jews, and to proclaim himself as their long looked-for +Messias. As it is now generally believed, he is to come from Masonry and +to be of it, this is not improbable, for in it he will find the Jews the +most inveterate haters of Christianity, the deepest plotters, and the +fittest to establish his reign. + +[7] See section xxi. “Freemasonry with Ourselves,” page 121. + +[8] Before the celebrated “Convent” of Wilhelmsbad there was a thorough +understanding between the Freemasons of the various Catholic countries +of Continental Europe. This was manifested in the horrible intrigues +which led to the suppression of the Society of Jesus in France, Spain, +Portugal, Germany, and Naples; and which finally compelled Clement XIV. +to dissolve the great body by ecclesiastical authority. No doubt the +Jesuits had very potent enemies in the Jansenists, the Gallicans, and in +others whose party spirit and jealousy were stronger than their sense of +the real good of religion. But without the unscrupulous intrigues of the +Infidels of Voltaire’s school banded into a compact active league by the +newly-developed Freemasonry, the influence of the sects of Christians +hostile to the Order could never effect an effacement so complete and +so general. Anglican lodges, we must remember, appeared in Spain and +Portugal as soon as in France. One was opened in Gibraltar in 1726, and +one in Madrid in 1727. This latter broke with the mother lodge of London +in 1779, and founded lodges in Barcelona, Cadiz, Vallidolid, and other +cities. There were several lodges at work in Lisbon as early as 1735. +The Duke de Choiseul, a Freemason, with the aid of the abominable de +Pompadour, the harlot of the still more abominable Louis XV., succeeded +in driving the Jesuits from France. He then set about influencing his +brother Masons, the Count De Aranda, Prime Minister of Charles III. of +Spain, and the infamous Carvalho-Pombal, the _alter ego_ of the weak +King of Portugal, to do the same work in the Catholic States of their +respective sovereigns. The Marquis de L’Angle, a French Freemasonic +Atheist, and friend of Choiseul, thus writes of De Aranda—“He is the +only man of which Spain can be proud of at this moment. He is the sole +Spaniard of our days whom posterity will place on its tablets. It is he +whom it will love to place on the front of all its temples, and whose +name it will engrave on its escutcheon together with the names of Luther, +of Calvin, of Mahomet, of William Penn, and of Jesus Christ! It is he who +desired to sell the wardrobe of the saints, the property of virgins, and +to convert the cross, the chandeliers, the patens, &c., into bridges and +inns and main roads.” We cannot be surprised at what De Aranda attempted +after this testimony. He conspired with Choiseul to forge a letter as if +from the General of the Jesuits, Ricci, which purported to prove that +the King’s mother was an adulteress, and that the King had no claim to +the Spanish throne. Secretly, therefore, an order was obtained from the +weak Monarch, and on a given day and hour the Jesuits in all parts of +the Spanish dominions were dragged from their homes, placed on board +ships, and cast on the shores of the Pontifical States in a condition of +utter destitution. A calumny as atrocious and unfounded enabled Pombal +to inflict a worse fate on the Jesuits of Portugal and its dependencies. +Charles III. ordered Panucci, another Masonic enemy of the Jesuits, to +banish the members of the society from Naples, where his son reigned. +Geiser writes to Voltaire that the half-fool Joseph II. was initiated in +the mysteries of Masonry and accordingly the Jesuits, notwithstanding the +sympathies of the Empress Mary Theresa, fell in Austria. The world was +left thus free for the Masonic philosophers to compass the destruction +which they planned at Wilhelmsbad and effected in the Revolution eight +years afterwards. + +[9] It is commonly believed that the encyclopædists and philosophers were +the only men who overturned by their writings altar and throne at the +time of the Revolution. But, apart from the facts that these writers were +to a man Freemasons, and the most daring and plotting of Freemasons, we +have abundant authority to prove that other Freemasons were everywhere +even more practically engaged in the same work. Louis Blanc, who will be +accepted as an authority on this point thus writes:—“It is of consequence +to introduce the reader into the mine which at that time was being dug +beneath thrones and altars by revolutionists, very much more profound and +active than the encyclopædists: an association composed of men of all +countries, of all religions, of all ranks, bound together by symbolic +bonds, engaged under an inviolable oath to preserve the secret of their +interior existence. They were forced to undergo terrific proofs while +occupying themselves with fantastic ceremonies, but otherwise practised +beneficence and looked upon themselves as equals though divided in three +classes, apprentices, companions, and masters. Freemasonry consists in +that. Now, on the eve of the French Revolution, Freemasonry was found to +have received an immense development. Spread throughout the entire of +Europe, it seconded the meditative genius of Germany, agitated France +silently, and presented everywhere the image of a society founded on +principles contrary to those of civil society.” Monsignor Segur writes +on this—“See to what a point the reign of Jesus Christ was menaced at +the hour the Revolution broke out. It was not France alone that it +agitated, but the entire of Europe. What do I say? The world was in the +power of Masonry. All the lodges of the world came in 1781 to Wilhelmsbad +by delegates from Europe, Asia, Africa, and America; from the most +distant coasts discovered by navigators, they came, zealous apostles +of Masonry.... They all returned penetrated with the Illuminism of +Weishaupt, that is Atheism, and animated with the poison of incredulity +with which the orators of the Convent had inspired them. Europe and the +Masonic world were then in arms against Catholicity. Therefore, when the +signal was given, the shock was terrible, terrible especially in France, +in Italy, in Spain, in the Catholic nations which they wished to separate +from the Pope and cast into schism, until the time came when they could +completely de-Christianize them. This accounts well for the captivities +of Pius VI. and Pius VII. The Cardinals were dispersed, the Bishops torn +from their Sees, the pastors separated from their flocks, the religious +orders destroyed, the goods of the Church confiscated, the churches +overturned, the convents turned into barracks, the sacred vessels stolen +and melted down by sacrilegious avidity, the bells turned into money +and cannons, scaffolds erected everywhere, and victims in thousands, +in hecatombs, especially from amongst the clergy; in one word, all the +horrors summed up in the ‘Revolution,’ and the end, which was the great +unerring power of all its actions, namely, to see Christ cast down from +His altars to make way for the goddess called Reason.” + +[10] Alexander Dumas in his _Memoires de Garibaldi_, first series, p. 34, +tells us:— + +“Illuminism and Freemasonry, these two great enemies of royalty, and the +adopted device of both of which was L. P. D., _lilia pedibus destrue_, +had a grand part in the French Revolution. + +“Napoleon took Masonry under his protection. Joseph Napoleon was Grand +Master of the Order. Joachim Murat second Master adjoint. The Empress +Josephine being at Strasburg, in 1805, presided over the fete for the +adoption of the lodge of True Chevaliers of Paris. At the same time +Eugene de Beauharnais was Venerable of the lodge of St. Eugene in Paris. +Having come to Italy with the title of Viceroy, the Grand Orient of +Milan, named him Master and Sovereign Commander of the Supreme Council +of the thirty-second grade, that is to say, accorded him the greatest +honour which could be given him according to the Statutes of the Order. +Bernadotte was a Mason. His son Oscar was Grand Master of the Swedish +lodge. In the different lodges of Paris were successively initiated, +Alexander, Duke of Wurtemburg; the Prince Bernard of Saxe-Weimer; even +the Persian Ambassador, Askeri Khan. The President of the Senate, Count +de Lacipede, presided over the Grand Orient of France, which had for +officers of honour the Generals Kellerman, Messina, and Soult. Princes, +Ministers, Marshals, Officers, Magistrates, all the men, in fine, +remarkable for their glory or considerable by their position, ambitioned +to be made Masons. The women even wished to have their lodges, into which +entered Mesdames de Vaudemont, de Carignan, de Gerardin, de Narbonne, and +many other ladies.” + +Frere Clavel, in his picturesque history of Freemasonry, says that, “Of +all these high personages the Prince Cambaceres was the one who most +occupied himself with Masonry. He made it his duty to rally to Masonry +all the men in France who were influential by their official position, +by their talent, or by their fortune. The personal services which he +rendered to many of the brethren; the _eclat_ which he caused to be +given to the lodges in bringing to their sittings by his example and +invitations all those illustrious amongst the military and judicial +professions and others, contributed powerfully to the fusion of parties +and to the consolidation of the imperial throne. In effect under his +brilliant and active administration the lodges multiplied _ad infinitum_. +They were composed of the elect of French society. They became a point +of reunion for the partisans of the existing and of passed regimes. They +celebrated in them the feasts of the Emperor. They read in them the +bulletins of his victories before they were made public by the press, and +able men organized the enthusiasm which gradually took hold of all minds.” + +[11] Deschamps says that it was at this period that the order of the +Templars (for Masonry is divided into any amount of rites which exercise +one over the other a kind of influence in proportion to the members of +the inner grades which they contain) was resuscitated in France. It +publicly interred one of its members from the Church of St. Antoine. +The funeral oration of Jacques Molay was publicly pronounced. Napoleon +permitted this. The danger his permission created was foreseen, and +M. de Maistre writes:—“A very remarkable phenomenon is that of the +resuscitation of Freemasonry in France, so far, that a brother has +been interred solemnly in Paris with all the attributes and ceremonies +of the order. The Master who reigns in France does not leave it to +be even suspected that such a thing can exist in France without his +leave. Judging from his known character and from his ideas upon secret +societies, how then can the thing be explained? Is he the Chief, or dupe, +or perhaps the one and the other of a society which he thinks he knows, +and which mocks him.” Illustrating these remarks we have the comments +of M. Bagot in his _Codes des Franc-Maçons_, p. 183:—“The Imperial +Government took advantage of its omnipotence, to which so many men, so +many institutions, yielded so complacently, in order to dominate over +Masonry. The latter became neither afraid nor revolted. What did it +desire in effect? To extend its empire—It permitted itself to become +subject to despotism in order to become sovereign.” This gives us the +whole reason why Masonry first permitted Napoleon to rule, then to reign, +then to conquer, and finally to fall. + +[12] At the Council of Verona, held by the European sovereigns in 1822, +to guard their thrones and peoples from the revolutionary excesses which +threatened Spain, Naples, and Piedmont, the Count Haugwitz, Minister of +the King of Prussia, who then accompanied his master, made the following +speech:— + +“Arrived at the end of my career, I believe it to be my duty to cast a +glance upon the secret societies whose power menaces humanity to-day +more than ever. Their history is so bound up with that of my life that I +cannot refrain from publishing it once more and from giving some details +regarding it. + +“My natural disposition, and my education, having excited in me so great +a desire for information, that I could not content myself with ordinary +knowledge, I wished to penetrate into the very essence of things. But +shadow follows light, thus an insatiable curiosity develops itself in +proportion to the efforts which one makes to penetrate further into the +sanctuary of science. These two sentiments impelled me to enter into the +society of Freemasons. + +“It is well known that the first step which one makes in the order is +little calculated to satisfy the mind. That is precisely the danger +to be dreaded for the inflammable imagination of youth. Scarcely had +I attained my majority, when, not only did I find myself at the head +of Masonry, but what is more, I occupied a distinguished place in the +chapter of high grades. Before I had the power of knowing myself, before +I could comprehend the situation in which I had rashly engaged myself, I +found myself charged with the superior direction of the Masonic reunions +of a part of Prussia, of Poland, and of Russia. Masonry was, at that +time, divided into two parts, in its secret labours. The first place +in its emblems, the explanation of the philosopher’s stone: Deism and +non-Atheism was the religion of these sectaries. The central seat of +their labours was at Berlin, under the direction of the Doctor Zumdorf. +It was not the same with the other part of which the Duke of Brunswick +was the apparent Chief. In open conflict between themselves, the two +parties gave each other the hand in order to obtain the dominion of the +world, to conquer thrones, to serve themselves with Kings as an order, +such was their aim. It would be superfluous to explain to you in what +manner, in my ardent curiosity, I came to know the secrets of the one +party and of the other. The truth is the secret of the two sects is no +longer a mystery for me. That secret is revolting. + +“It was in the year 1777, that I became charged with the direction of +one part of the Prussian lodges, three or four years before the Convent +of Wilhelmsbad and the invasion of the lodges by Illuminism. My action +extended even over the brothers dispersed throughout Poland and Russia. +If I did not myself see it, I could not give myself even a plausible +explanation of the carelessness with which Governments have been able to +shut their eyes to such a disorder, a veritable state within a State. Not +only were the chiefs in constant correspondence, and employed particular +cyphers, but even they reciprocally sent emissaries one to another. To +exercise a dominating influence over thrones, such was our aim, as it had +been of the Knight Templars. + +“I thus acquired the firm conviction that the drama commenced in 1788 and +1789, the French Revolution, the regicide with all its horrors, not only +was then resolved upon, but was even the result of these associations and +oaths, &c. + +“Of all my contemporaries of that epoch there is not one left.... My +first care was to communicate to William III. all my discoveries. We +came to the conclusion that all the Masonic associations, from the most +humble even to the very highest degrees, could not do otherwise than +employ religious sentiments in order to execute plans the most criminal, +and make use of the first in order to cover the second. This conviction, +which His Highness Prince William held in common with me, caused me to +take the firm resolution of renouncing Masonry.” + +[13] Mazzini, after exhorting his followers to attract as many of the +higher classes as possible to the secret plotting, which has resulted in +united Italy, and is meant to result in republican Italy as a prelude +to republican Europe, says, “Associate, associate. All is contained in +that word. The secret societies can give an irresistible force to the +party who are able to invoke them. Do not fear to see them divided. The +more they are divided the better it will be. All of them advance to the +same end by different paths. The secret will be often unveiled. So much +the better. The secret is necessary to give security to members, but a +certain transparency is necessary to strike fear into those wishing to +remain stationary. When a great number of associates who receive the +word of command to scatter an idea abroad and make it public opinion, +can concert even for a moment they will find the old edifice pierced in +all its parts, and falling, as if by a miracle, at the least breath of +progress. They will themselves be astonished to see kings, lords, men of +capital, priests, and all those who form the carcass of the old social +edifice, fly before the sole power of public opinion. Courage, then, and +perseverance.” + +[14] The following extracts from the rules of the Carbonari of Italy, +“Young Italy,” will give an idea of the spirit and intent of the order as +improved by the warlike and organizing genius of Mazzini:— + +ART. I.—The society is formed for the indispensable destruction of all +the Governments of the Peninsula and to form of Italy one sole State +under a Republican Government. + +ART. II.—Having experienced the horrible evils of absolute power and +those yet greater of constitutional monarchies, we ought to work to found +a Republic one and indivisible. + +ART. XXX.—Those who do not obey the orders of the secret society, or who +shall reveal its mysteries, shall be poniarded without remission. The +same chastisement for traitors. + +ART. XXXI.—The secret tribunal shall pronounce the sentence and shall +design one or two affiliated members for its immediate execution. + +ART. XXXII.—Whoever shall refuse to execute the sentence shall be +considered a perjurer, and as such shall be killed on the spot. + +ART. XXXIII.—If the culpable individual escape he shall be pursued +without intermission in every place, and he ought be struck by an +invisible hand, even should he take refuge in the bosom of his mother or +in the tabernacles of Christ. + +ART. XXXIV.—Every secret tribunal shall be competent not only to judge +the culpable adepts, but also to cause to be put to death every person +whom it shall have stricken with anathema. + +ART. XXXIX.—The officers shall carry a dagger of antique form, the +sub-officers and soldiers shall have guns and bayonets, together with a +poniard a foot long attached to their cincture, and upon which they will +take oath, &c. + +A large number of inspectors of police, generals, and statesmen, +were assassinated by order of these tribunals. The lodges assisted +in that work. Eckert says, _La Franc-Maçonnerie_, t. ii., p. 218, +219—“Mazzini was the head of that Young Europe and of the warlike power +of Freemasonry, and we find in the _Latomia_ that the minister Nothorub, +who had retired from it, say to M. Vesbugem, even in the national palace +in presence of six deputies, that the actual Freemasonry in Belgium had +become a powerful and dangerous arm in the hands of certain men, that +the Swiss insurrection had its resting place in the machinations of the +Belgian lodges, and that Brother Defacqz, Grand Master of these lodges, +had undertaken, in 1844, a voyage to Switzerland, only in order to +prepare that agitation.” + +[15] Nubius, who, in conjunction with the Templars of France, and the +secret friends of the Revolution in England, had caused all the troubles +endured by the Church and the Holy Father during the celebrated Congress +of Rome and during the entire reign of Louis Philippe, and had so ably +planned the revolutions afterwards carried out by Palmerston and Napoleon +III., was written to before his death by one of his fellow-conspirators +in the following strain:—“We have pushed most things to extremes. We have +taken away from the people all the gods of heaven and earth that they had +in homage. We have taken away their religious faith, their monarchical +faith, their virtue, their probity, their family virtue; and, meantime, +what do we hear in the distance but low bellowing; we tremble, for the +monster may devour us. We have little by little deprived the people of +all honourable sentiment. They will be without pity. The more I think on +it the more I am convinced that we must seek delay of payment.” + +[16] Opus, cit. ii. 23. + +[17] _La Franc-Maçonnerie dans sa véritable signification_, par Eckert, +avocat à Dresde, trad. par Gyr (Liège 1854), t. I., p. 287, appendice. +See also _Les Sociétés Revolutionnaires. Introduction de l’action des +Sociétés Sècrètes an xix. Siècle. Par M. Claude Janet, Deschamps, Opus +cit._ xciii. + +[18] M. Eckert (_opus cit._), was a Saxon lawyer of immense erudition, +who devoted his life to unravel the mysteries of secret societies, and +who published several documents of great value upon their action. He has +been of opinion that “the interior order” not only now but always existed +and governed the exterior mass of Masonry, and its cognate and subject +secret societies. He says:—“Masonry being a universal association is +governed by one only chief called a Patriarch. The title of Grand Master +of the Order is not the exclusive privilege of a family or of a nation. +Scotland, England, France, and Germany have in their time had the honour +to give the order its supreme chief. It appears that Lord Palmerston is +clothed to-day (Eckert wrote in Lord Palmerston’s time) with the dignity +of Patriarch. + +“At the side of the Patriarch are found two committees, the one +legislative and the other executive. These committees, composed of +delegates of the Grand Orients (mother national lodges), alone know the +Patriarch, and are alone in relation with him. + +“All the revolutions of modern times prove that the order is divided into +two distinct parties—the one pacific the other warlike. + +“The first employs only intellectual means—that is to say, speech and +writing. + +“It brings the authorities or the persons whose destruction it has +resolved upon to succumb or to mutual destruction. + +“It seeks for the profit of the order all the places in the State, in +the Church (Protestant), and in the Universities; in one word, all the +positions of influence. + +“It seduces the masses and dominates over public opinion by means of the +press and of associations. + +“Its Directory bears the name of the Grand Orient and it closes its +lodges (I will say why presently) the moment the warlike division causes +the masses which they have won over to secret societies to descend into +the street. + +“At the moment when the pacific division has pushed its works +sufficiently far that a violent attack has chances of success, then, at +a time not far distant, when men’s passions are inflamed; when authority +is sufficiently weakened; or when the important posts are occupied by +traitors, the warlike division will receive orders to employ all its +activity. + +“The Directory of the belligerent division is called the Firmament. + +“From the moment they come to armed attacks, and that the belligerent +division has taken the reins, the lodges of the pacific division are +closed. These tactics again denote all the _ruses_ of the order. + +“In effect, they thus prevent the order being accused of co-operating in +the revolt. + +“Moreover, the members of the belligerent division, as high dignitaries, +form part of the pacific division, but not reciprocally, as the existence +of that division is unknown to the great part of the members of the +other division—the first can fall back on the second in case of want of +success. The brethren of the pacific division are eager to protect by +all the means in their power the brethren of the belligerent division, +representing them as patriots too ardent, who have permitted themselves +to be carried away by the current in defiance of the prescriptions of +order and prudence.” + +[19] In page 340, of his work on Jews, &c., already quoted, M. G. +Demousseaux reproduces an article from the Political Blueter, of Munich, +in 1862, in which is pointed out the existence in Germany, in Italy, +and in London, of directing-lodges unknown to the mass of Masons, and +in which Jews are in the majority. “At London, where is found the home +of the revolution under the Grand Master, Palmerston, there exists two +Jewish lodges which never permit Christians to pass their threshold. It +is there that all the threads and all the elements of the revolution +are reunited which are hatched in the Christian lodges.” Further, M. +Demousseaux cites the opinion (p. 368) of a Protestant statesman in the +service of a great German Power, who wrote to him in December, 1865, “at +the outbreak of the revolution of 1845 I found myself in relation with a +Jew who by vanity betrayed the secret of the secret societies to which +he was associated, and who informed me eight or ten days in advance, of +all the revolutions which were to break out upon every point of Europe. +I owe to him the immovable conviction that all these grand movements of +‘oppressed people’ &c., &c., are managed by a half-a-dozen individuals +who give their advice to the secret societies of the entire of Europe.” + +Henry Misley, a great authority also, wrote to Père Deschamps, “I know +the world a little, and I know that in all that ‘grand future’ which is +being prepared, there are not more than four or five persons who hold the +cards. A great number think they hold them, but they deceive themselves.” + +[20] Mr. F. Hugh O’Donnell, the able M.P. for Dungarvan, contributed to +the pages of the Dublin _Freeman’s Journal_ a most useful and interesting +paper which showed on his part a careful study of the works of Monsgr. +Segur and other continental authorities on Freemasonry. In this, he +says, regarding his own recollections of contemporary events:—“It is +now many years since I heard from my lamented master and friend, the +Rev. Sir Christopher Bellew, of the Society of Jesus, these impressive +words. Speaking of the tireless machinations and ubiquitous influence +of Lord Palmerston against the temporal independence of the Popes, Sir +Christopher Bellew said:— + +“Lord Palmerston is much more than a hostile statesman. He would never +have such influence on the Continent if he were only an English Cabinet +Minister. But he is a Freemason and one of the highest and greatest of +Freemasons. It is he who sends what is called the Patriarchal Voice +through the lodges of Europe. And to obtain that rank he must have given +the most extreme proofs of his insatiable hatred to the Catholic Church.” + +Another illustration of the manner in which European events are moved +by hidden currents was given me by the late Major-General Burnaby, +M.P., a quiet and amiable soldier, who, though to all appearance one of +the most unobtrusive of men, was employed in some of the most delicate +and important work of British policy in the East. General Burnaby was +commissioned to obtain and preserve the names and addresses of all the +Italian members of the foreign legion enlisted for the British service +in the Crimean War. This was in 1855 and 1856. After the war these +men, mostly reckless and unscrupulous characters—“fearful scoundrels” +General Burnaby called them—dispersed to their native provinces, but +the clue to find them again was in General Burnaby’s hands, and when a +couple of years later Cavour and Palmerston, in conjunction with the +Masonic lodges, considered the moment opportune to let loose the Italian +Revolution, the list of the Italian foreign legion was communicated to +the Sardinian Government and was placed in the hands of the Garibaldian +Directory, who at once sought out most of the men. In this way several +hundreds of “fearful scoundrels,” who had learned military skill and +discipline under the British flag, were supplied to Garibaldi to form +the corps of his celebrated “Army of Emancipation” in the two Sicilies +and the Roman States. While the British diplomatists at Turin and Naples +carried on, under cover of their character as envoys, the dangerous +portion of the Carbonarist conspiracy, the taxpayers of Great Britain +contributed in this manner to raise and train an army destined to +confiscate the possessions of the Religious Orders and the Church in +Italy, and, in its remoter operation, to assail, and, if possible, +destroy the world-wide mission of the Holy Propaganda itself. + +[21] The late celebrated Monsignor Dupanloup published, in 1875, an +invaluable little treatise, in which he gave, from the expressions of +the most eminent Masons in France and elsewhere, from the resolutions +taken in principal lodges, and from the opinions of their chief literary +organs, proofs that what is here stated is correct. The following +extracts regarding education will show what Masonry has been doing in +regard to that most vital question. Monsignor Dupanloup says:—“In the +great lodge called the ‘Rose of Perfect Silence,’ it was proposed at one +time for the consideration of the brethren:—‘Ought religious education +be suppressed?’ This was answered as follows:—‘Without any doubt the +principle of supernatural authority, that is faith in God, takes from a +man his dignity; is useless for the discipline of children, and there +is also in it, the danger of the abandonment of all morality’.... ‘The +respect, specially due to the child, prohibits the teaching to him of +doctrines, which disturb his reason.’” + +To show the reason of the activity of the Masons, all the world over, +for the diffusion of irreligious education, it will be sufficient to +quote the view of the the _Monde Maçonnique_ on the subject. It says, in +its issue of May 1st, 1865, “An immense field is open to our activity. +Ignorance and superstition weigh upon the world. Let us seek to create +schools, professorial chairs, libraries.” Impelled by the general +movement thus infused into the body, the Masonic (French) Convention +of 1870, came unanimously to the following decision:— “The Masonry of +France associates itself to the forces at work in the country to render +education gratuitous, obligatory, and laic.” + +We have all heard how far Belgium has gone in pursuit of these Masonic +aims at Infidel education. At one of the principal festivals of the +Belgian Freemasons a certain brother Boulard exclaimed, amidst universal +applause, “When ministers shall come to announce to the country that they +intend to regulate the education of the people I will cry aloud, ‘to me +a Mason, to me alone the question of education must be left; to me the +teaching; to me the examination; to me the solution.’” + +Monsgr. Dupanloup also attacked the Masonic project of having +professional schools for young girls, such as are now advocated in the +Australian colonies and elsewhere in English-speaking countries. At +the time, the movement was but just being initiated in France, but it +could not deceive him. In a pamphlet, to which all the Bishops of France +adhered, and which was therefore called the Alarm of the Episcopate, +he showed clearly that these schools had two faces:—on one of which +was written “Professional Instruction for Girls,” and on the other, +“Away with Christianity in life and death.” “Without woman,” said +Brother Albert Leroy, at an International Congress of Masons, at Paris, +in 1867, “all the men united can do nothing”—nothing to effectually +de-Christianize the world. + +The French “Education League” had the same object. At the time it was +introduced, the lodges were busy with getting up a statue to Voltaire. +And the _Monde Maçonnique_, speaking of both, said in April, 1867:— + +“May the Education League and the statue of Brother Voltaire find in all +the lodges the most lively sympathy. We could not have two subscriptions +more in harmony: Voltaire, that is the destruction of prejudices and +superstitions: the Education League, that is the building up of a new +society founded solely upon science and upon instruction. All our +brethren understand the matter in this manner.” + +It is needless to remark here that by “superstition” the _Monde +Maçonnique_ means religion, and, by “science and instruction,” these +acquirements, not only without, but directly hostile to religion. This +newspaper constantly teaches that all religions are so many darknesses, +that Masonry is the light; that God, the soul, the life to come, are +nothing but suppositions and fantasies, and that, as a consequence, a +man ought to be reared up independent of every kind of Christianity. +Therefore, it adds, “All masons ought to adhere in mass to _the league of +instruction, and the lodges ought to study in the peace of their temples +the best means to render it efficacious_.” In fact the Education League +and Masonry are declared to be identical by Brother Mace, who, at a +general banquet, drank:—“To the entrance of all Masons into the League. +To the entrance into Masonry of all those who form part of the League.” +“To the triumph of the light, the watchword common to the League and to +Masonry.” + +In fine, the author of a history of Freemasonry, and one evidently well +up in its aims, Brother Goffin, writes as follows:— + +“Whenever Masonry accords the entrance into its temple to a Hebrew, to +a Mahometan, to a Catholic, or to a Protestant, that is done on the +condition that he becomes a new man, that he abjures all his past errors, +_that he rejects the superstitions in which he was cradled from his +youth_. Without all this what has he to do in our Masonic assemblies?” + +But as we have seen the great aim of the _Alta Vendita_, was to corrupt +woman. “As we cannot suppress her,” said _Vindex_ to _Nubius_, “let us +corrupt her with the Church.” The method best adapted for this was to +alienate her from religion by an infidel education. The Freemasons, +no doubt, obtained from the higher grades the word of command, and, +accordingly, proceeded to force, everywhere, the establishment of +superior schools for young girls where they might be surely deprived +of their religion and their morality. In the “Lodge of Beneficence +and Progress,” at Boulogne, on the 19th of July, 1867, “Massol” thus +spoke: “By means of instruction, women will become able to shake off the +clerical yoke, and to liberate themselves from the superstitions which +impede them from occupying themselves with an education in harmony with +the spirit of the age.” To give one proof only of this, where is the +English, German, or American woman, who to the two religious questions +which her own children can propose to her: “Who made the world?” “Do we +continue to live after death?” would dare to answer that she knew nothing +and that no one knew anything about it. Well, then, this boldness the +instructed French woman will possess. + +[22] A curious proof of this fact is preserved in the records of Dublin +Castle, where, upon a return of the members and officers of Freemasonry, +as it is with us, having been asked for by the Government, the names of +the delegates from the Irish Lodges to various continental national Grand +Lodges were given. I do not place much value upon the fact as a means to +connect British Freemasonry with its kind on the Continent, because the +REAL SECRET was, as a rule, kept from British and Irish Masons. But the +intercourse had an immense effect in causing the vanguard cries of the +Continental lodges to find a fatal support from British Masons in and out +of Parliament. These delegates brought back high-sounding theories about +“education” without “denominationalism,” etc., etc., but they were never +trusted with the ultimate designs of the Continental directory to destroy +the Throne, the Constitution, and lastly, the very property of British +Masons. These designs are communicated only to reliable individuals, who +know full well the REAL SECRET of the sect—and keep it. + +[23] The _Alta Vendita_ and the intellectual party in Masonry have for +a long time endeavoured to revive practices which Christianity did +away with, and which were distinctly Pagan. Amongst others they have +made every exertion to destroy the Christian respect for the dead, and +every respect for the dead which kept alive in the living the belief +in the immortality of the soul. Death is with man, a powerful means +to keep alive in him a wholesome fear of his Creator, and respect for +religion. Spiritual writers, following the advice of the Holy Ghost in +the Scriptures, “Remember thy last end and thou shalt never sin,” always +place before Christians the thought of death as the most wholesome +lesson in the spiritual life. The demon from the beginning tried to do +away with this salutary thought as the most opposed to his designs. When +Eve feared to eat the forbidden fruit it was because of the terror with +which death inspired her. The devil lied in telling her “No, ye shall not +die the death.” She believed the liar and the murderer. His followers +in the secret societies established by him, and which he keeps in such +unity of aim and action, second his desire to the utmost by doing away +with whatever may keep alive in man the thoughts of his last end and of +a future resurrection, and, of course, of judgment. Weishaupt taught +his disciples to look upon suicide as a praiseworthy means of flying +the horrors of death and present inconvenience. Cremation, instantly +destroying the terrors of corruption—the death’s head and cross bones—the +worst features in mortality, as exhibited in a corpse, is therefore +largely advocated by the secret societies on plausibly devised sanitary, +æsthetic, and economical grounds. But it is a pagan practice, opposed +to that followed ever since the creation of the world by all that had +the knowledge of the true God in the Primeval, Jewish, and Christian +dispensations. The Revolution in Italy has established at Rome, Milan, +and Naples means of cremating bodies, and advanced Freemasons, like +Garibaldi, have in their wills, directed that their bodies should be +cremated. A little reflection, however, will show that neither for rich +nor poor, for sanitary, for economical or any other reasons can cremation +be advocated in preference to burial. For besides the fact that the earth +which is always the best, safest, and readiest solvent for corruption, +may be had everywhere in abundance, and at a safe enough distance from +cities if so desired, there is the fact before us that the Roman poor and +slaves, were thrown into pits to save expense; while cremation, where +practised by the rich, led to most extravagant expenses and excesses. +Christians, when they find plausibly given, interesting notices of +cremation in journals of any kind, may be quite sure that the writer +who writes them is influenced by the secret sect, and these scribes are +found everywhere and find means to ventilate their ideas—unsuspected +by the proprietors—sometimes into journals professedly Catholic. They +are advocating, it is thought, a harmless sanitary arrangement not +condemned by the Church; but they are doing all the while, consciously +or unconsciously, the work of the secret Atheistic sect. As it is with +cremation, so it is with the eating of horse-flesh and other apparently +harmless practices advocated by the sectaries solely because in practice +or in theory, discountenanced by, or not practised by, Christians. When +in these days, a distinctive anti-Christian custom is seen advocated +without any urgent reason, in the press, now almost entirely in the hands +of members of the sect, and generally Jewish members, Christians may fear +that the cloven foot is in the matter. The cold water, the ridicule, +the contempt thrown upon religious observances, the attempt to rob them +of their purely Christian character, are other methods employed by the +sects to loosen the influence of Christianity. In opposition to these, +Christian people should carefully study to keep the joy of Christmas, the +penitential fasts, the sanctity of Holy Week, the splendour of Easter, +the feasts of God’s holy Mother and of the saints—to fill themselves, in +one word, with the Christian spirit of the Ages of Faith. + + + + + THE + SPOLIATION OF THE PROPAGANDA + + A Lecture + DELIVERED IN EDINBURGH + + BY + MONSIGNOR GEORGE F. DILLON, D.D. + MISSIONARY APOSTOLIC, SYDNEY. + + DUBLIN + M. H. GILL & SON, 50 UPPER SACKVILLE STREET. + LONDON AND NEW YORK: BURNS AND OATES. + 1885. + + + + + Nihil Obstat: + + W. FORTUNE, + _Censor Theologus Deputatus_. + + COLL. OM. SANCTORUM, + _Die iii. Mensis Maii, 1885._ + + Imprimatur: + + GU. CAN. J. WALSH, D.D., + _Vic. Cap. Dubliniensis_. + + _Die iv. Mensis Maii, 1885._ + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The following Lecture on the Spoliation of the Propaganda is given to the +reader almost _verbatim_ as it was delivered. It contains, however, _in +extenso_, a translation of a valuable document furnished by Monsignor +Conrado, Rector of the Urban College, from the archives of the Sacred +Congregation. Some other documents, referred to when speaking, are, +for convenience-sake, embodied in the text. Every fact stated has been +carefully authenticated; and the lecturer will be amply rewarded for his +pains if the simple statement he has given serves to make his readers +fully acquainted with a great wrong done to one of the most beneficent +Christian institutions in the world by the greed and Anti-Christian hate +of the Infidel Revolution. + +ALL HALLOWS COLLEGE, _April, 1885_. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + I.—STATE OF THE QUESTION. + + Hostility of organized Atheism to the Vicar of Christ, + shown since the French Revolution—Recuperative Power of the + Papacy—Action of the Italian Freemasons—Destruction of the + Temporal Tower—Suppression of Religious Corporations—Illusory + “Guarantee Laws”—Forced Conversion of Church Lands into + “Vinculated” Italian Bonds—Consequences—The Propaganda—Its + Means and Destination—Difference between its Funds and the + Funds of other Corporations—Its Funds respected by Victor + Emmanuel—Action of the Italian Ministry after His Death—Decree + to convert the Estates of Propaganda into “Vinculated” Italian + Bonds—Violation of International Rights in this forced + Conversion—Wrong done to British Catholics by it—Causes why + British Statesmen have not insisted on our rights—Ignorance + of the Origin, Nature and Purposes of the Propaganda + Property—Necessity of Catholics being well informed on this + point, in order to be able to show the nature of the wrong they + suffer to their non-Catholic Fellow-citizens and non-Catholic + Statesmen. + + II.—THE PROPAGANDA FROM THE BEGINNING. + + What is the Propaganda?—The Propaganda in the Days of St. + Peter—St. Paul the First “Prefect”—The Propaganda as carried + on afterwards by the Popes—Resources for this work supplied + even in the ages of Persecution—Testimony of Monsignor + Dupanloup—Conversions in the days of Constantine aided by + the Popes—Palladius and St. Patrick sent by Popes to Ireland + and Britain—Missions Organized by St. Leo the Great—St. + Valentinus and St. Severinus—St. Gregory the Great and the + Conversion of the Angles—Consequences—Conversions wrought by + Irish Missionary Saints and by Saints from Britain, always + authorized, directed and assisted by the Popes—Sts. Cyril and + Methodius—Pope Sylvester II. and the Hungarians—Conversion of + Northern Europe the direct work of the Popes—New Missionary + Fields opened by the Discoveries of Columbus and Vasco di Gama + assiduously cultivated by the Popes—Increase of Missionary Zeal + on their part consequent on the Apostasy of many Nations at the + Reformation—The Works of Gregory XIII.—Necessity for Organized + Assistance causes the Formation of the Sacred Congregation of + the Propaganda under Gregory XV.—The Bull of Formation—Powers + and Duties of the Propaganda—The _Appunti_ commenting + thereupon—Its Staff. + + III.—THE URBAN COLLEGE. + + Foundation of the College commenced by Monsignor John Baptist + Vives in the Pontificate of Urban VIII.—Acts and Beneficence + of the Pontiff—The Offices of the Sacred Congregation of + the Propaganda formed in the Palace of Vives in the Piazza + di Spagna—Foundations for Students by Vives in the Urban + College—Foundations by Cardinal Antonio Barberini—Notice + of the Foundation of the College by the Rector, Monsignor + Conrado, taken from the Archives of the Propaganda—Foundations + from 1637 to 1883—Nationalities represented in the Urban + College—Proportion of the Irish from the beginning—Privileges + granted to Irish Students—_Alumni_ of other Missionary Colleges + Taught Gratuitously in the Propaganda Schools. + + IV.—THE LIBRARY. + + Its Contents—Books in Languages whose Literatures were formed + by Propaganda Missionaries—Oriental Literature—Propaganda + Linguists—Professors Ciasca, Ferrata, Cardinal Howard. + + V.—THE PRINTING OFFICE. + + The Vatican Printing Office—The Polyglot Press of + Propaganda—Utility for the Spread of the Faith amongst + Barbarous Peoples and amidst the various Oriental Rites. + + VI.—RESOURCES OF THE PROPAGANDA. + + Their Origin—Donations of Popes—The Cardinals’ + Rings—Legacies—Careful Management—Gratuitous Services—Exemption + from Taxes under the Popes—Devotion of the Officials + Employed—Hard Work and Small Pay—Instances—Monsignor + Agliardi—The Cardinal Prefect, Secretary and + Minutanti—Spiritual Advantages, the Chief Reward—Distinguished + Men connected with its present Management. + + VII.—WORK OF THE PROPAGANDA. + + Nature and Commencement of its Work—Its Care of the Oriental + Christians—Successes—Its Work for India, China, Japan + and other Asiatic Nations—For America—Its Zeal for the + Conversion of Scotland and other European Nations lapsed into + heresy—Consequences—Its Work for Ireland and the Irish People + everywhere—Its Work in England—Its Administration in the Domain + committed to its Keeping. + + VIII.—THE PERSECUTION OF THE PROPAGANDA. + + Persecution from the French Republic and Empire under + Napoleon—The Students Driven from the Urban College—From Monte + Citorio—Return with the Pontiff—Other Missionary Colleges + Reopen—Persecution in our Days from the Italian Freemasons + in Power—Extract from the London _Tablet_—The _Appunti_ on + the Situation—“Going to Law with the Devil and the Court in + Hell”—Advantage to the Freemasons more Imaginary than Real—The + Rights of Foreigners deeply interested cannot be taken away + by an Italian Tribunal acting _ultra vires_—Injury to British + Catholics. + + IX.—THE PRESENT STATE OF THE CASE. + + Who Endowed the Propaganda?—Wrong Done to the Founders—Wrong + Done to an Irishman, Father Michael Doyle—The Premier’s + Reply to Mr. O’Donnell, M.P.—Is Father Doyle’s Money a + “Subscription?”—Other British Donors to Propaganda Robbed + by the forced Conversion of the Funds of Propaganda—A + Comparison—The Wrong Done to poor Oriental Catholics—The Wrong + as Great to British Catholics—The Funds of the Propaganda given + for the Administration of the Catholic Church in every portion + of the Dominions of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria—If Confiscated, + British Catholics forced to make up the Loss—The United States + Government forces the Italians to respect American Catholic + Rights less clear than the Rights of British Catholics—The Case + of the Proposed Sale by the Italians of the North American + College—Peremptory Demand of the United States instantly + Respected—Confusion of English Residents in Rome—Certainty of + our non-Catholic Fellow Citizens sympathizing with our Wrongs, + if rightly informed, as we would in theirs. + + X.—MEASURES TO MEET THE DIFFICULTY. + + Necessity of fully informing our Rulers and the Nation of + the Wrong done us in the forced Conversion of the Propaganda + Funds—The Fallacy of Hopes in Italy being Realized by + England—Italy’s ultimate Policy unfavourable to England—Opinion + on the Question by the late Mr. A. M. Sullivan. + + + + +I. + +STATE OF THE QUESTION. + + +Having treated, as fully as I could in one lecture, of the nature of +that secret and powerfully organized Atheism, which now for over a +century has waged a fierce and sleepless war with the Church of Jesus +Christ, and which means not only to destroy that Church but every form of +Christianity and Christian civilization, I come this evening to speak, +according to my promise, of a special feature in that war; namely, its +intense hostility to the Vicar of Jesus Christ, and its determination +to deprive him of every human means of exercising his divine mission +with the view of thus preventing the government of the Church and the +extension of the Kingdom of Christ in the world. This feature in the +Anti-Christian war of Freemasonry and its attendant sects, has, as we +have seen, been manifest from the very commencement. Scarcely had its +adepts obtained power at the period of the first French Revolution, when +they aimed and dealt, too, a deadly blow at the temporal power of the +Pope, hoping thereby to cripple and eventually to terminate his spiritual +ministrations. The blow was repeated under Napoleon, attempted frequently +after the Revolution of July 1830, and again dealt with the effect of +banishing the Pontiff from his See by the Italian Conspirators of 1848. +The Papacy, however, with that perennial elasticity which marks its +history since the days of St. Peter, returned to Rome, and made good +in a short time the evils which its absence had created. The Revolution +seeing this, seems to have no longer determined to drive Christ’s Vicar +from the Vatican; but, while permitting him to remain there, practically +a prisoner, to deprive him of every means necessary or useful for the +exercise of his ministry for the benefit of the millions committed to his +keeping by God. Power having come into the hands of the Freemasons of +Italy, by means which I shall glance at further on, they have taken, step +by step, possession of his temporal kingdom, until finally, in violation +of every right, human and divine, they seized forcibly upon the City of +Rome, and confiscated to their own purposes even its religious treasures. +They promised at the time to respect such Institutions and persons in +that City as all Catholics knew to be necessary for the government of +the Church spread not only in Italy, but throughout the whole earth. +For instance, though by law, the Religious Orders were suppressed in +Piedmont, in the rest of Italy, and in some other countries fallen +unfortunately into the power of the Atheistic secret sectaries, they were +not suppressed with us, nor, geographically speaking, in the greater part +of the world. Now, the Pope is sole Superior of all Religious Orders +in the Catholic Church. They are all instituted to serve him specially +and devotedly, and they depend directly upon him. None know this better +than the Italian Freemasons, who forcibly took possession of Rome. +They declared that though in the rest of Italy, Religious Orders and +other Catholic Institutions were by law suppressed, yet even these and +everything else needed by the Supreme Pontiff for the government of the +Universal Church, should be sacredly respected by them in Rome. We know +how they have kept this promise so far as the governing staff of the +Religious Orders were concerned. They respected the Generals and their +assistants by casting them out from their convents upon the streets. They +took possession of these convents for secular purposes. They confiscated +the whole revenues of the religious, and denied to the successors of +the same religious the miserable pensions granted to those whom they +brutally and ignominiously expelled. But we were told that this was to +be done only to the religious, and that the rest of the Institutions of +Rome necessary for the service of the Pontiff, for his dignity, and, +above all, for the government of the Church, should be most scrupulously +respected. His person was to be as much honoured, and to be as inviolable +as that of the King. The one residence left him in Rome was to obtain the +privilege of extra-territoriality, and his means were to be protected on +the pledged faith and honour of the Italian King and Parliament. We know +how the honour decreed by law to the Supreme Pontiff was respected by the +Government, in the miserable insults offered by a body of hired ruffians +being permitted, if not more than permitted, to outrage the venerated +remains of Pius IX. on their passage at night from St. Peter’s to the +Basilica of San Lorenzo. The Pope refused, of course, the ostentatious +pension his plunderers voted him in lieu of the spoliation of his States. +But this gain did not satisfy them. They proceeded, whenever they could, +to violate or make null their own laws of guarantee in his regard; and +they succeeded. For instance, they made a law by which the real property +of the Church should be all sold and converted into the bonds of the new +Italian Government. These bonds, at best, are only worth whatever the +solvency of the Italian Government may be rated at, upon the markets of +Europe. But the Church was not to be permitted to have the advantage of +ordinary bond-holders. These latter could sell out their bonds at market +value. The Church was not permitted to do this. The bonds purchased +by the sale of her farms and houses were made a debt of the Italian +Government, it is true—but a State debt due to the Church only—a debt +apart, which could be dealt with at pleasure, and regarding which any +dealing the Italian Parliament might think well to apply, could not in +any sense affect the solvency of the nation in the markets of Europe. +Regarding the payment of these bonds the Church has to depend absolutely +upon the word of a body of men who have broken faith with her constantly, +and whose promises were made, only to be broken at the first favourable +moment. No man, therefore, values much the security of the money of the +Church, depending upon the will of the Italian Masonic Parliament, for +the payment of interest. + +Now, amongst other necessary Institutions, the Pope had, for several +centuries, in Rome, a well known and most beneficial corporation, endowed +by the piety of the Pontiffs, and of Churchmen and pious laymen of every +rank and nationality in the world. Its funds were destined not for Italy, +but for us, and for the Catholics of every English-speaking land, and +for the maintenance of the Faith and the extension of Christianity and +civilization in all parts of the world, where as yet these blessings +had not penetrated. If any funds could be secured from the grasp of the +Masonic Italian Government, those funds ought. If any fidelity was to +be kept in the observance of the laws which guaranteed the independence +and free exercise of the universal spiritual mission of the Supreme +Pontiff, it should be shown, by respecting scrupulously the funds of +this institution. The very worst of the Italians, on entering Rome, +protested loudly that the guarantees were real, and they pointed out the +inviolable condition of the Propaganda as an instance of how sacredly +these guarantees were regarded. There might be some confusion of ideas +regarding the property of the religious orders in Rome, but regarding the +Propaganda there could not be that confusion. They continued to point it +out for years, to every stranger, as a proof of their fidelity. Victor +Emmanuel, bad enough, in all conscience, respected it. In his lifetime +it could not be touched. That would prove too flagrant a violation, even +for him, of the guarantees given by himself and his Parliament. But the +moment he passed away, the mean, sordid cupidity of the governing sect +in Italy manifested itself, and an attempt was made, almost before the +dead King was cold, to subject the real estate of the Propaganda to that +law of conversion to which the property of every Italian ecclesiastical +corporation was subjected. + +Two millions sterling was too much to remain unmolested by the Italian +“Left” in power. It was too much for their weak fidelity to principle. +It meant the sale of desirable lands which those sectaries who made “an +honest penny” somehow, by the change of affairs in the country, wanted +to buy. It meant the addition to the not overstocked exchequer of the +country, of money which Ministers could dispose of as they best knew how. +It meant, finally, a profit to the revenue of thirty per cent. on the +sale—a profit taken by various machinations of the Italian Fiscal laws +for the benefit of the “Department of Finance.” It meant the reduction +of that great Institution to the condition in which the finances of the +smallest Italian Diocesan, or other Chapter, is reduced by the forced +sale of its real estate and the conversion of its money into “vinculated” +Italian Government bonds—bonds that cannot be sold, and may be any day +discarded by the Italian Parliament. + +This, in brief, is the condition to which the estates of the Catholic +Propaganda have been reduced by the action of the Italian Government. +It is a veritable spoliation which not only reduces the actual revenue +of the Institution to a great extent, but which imperils the very +existence of the rest of that revenue. Now this confiscation would be +bad enough, if it were only a violation of pledges solemnly made to the +Supreme Pontiff. But it is worse. It is a violation of international +right, and no people in the world are more concerned in the maintenance +of that international right than the Roman Catholic subjects of Her +Majesty Queen Victoria. We are in fact the principal sufferers in this +act of spoliation, for not only are our religious rights, most justly +acquired, interfered with, but the making good of the damage which the +Freemasons of Italy have done the Institution, will practically fall on +our shoulders. The Propaganda for us means the actual exercise of the +authority of the Vicar of Christ in our regard. By means of its funds it +has carried out and borne the whole expense of the care and government +of the Church in our midst for over two hundred years. It has done much +for our ancestors, as we shall see. It has done much more for ourselves. +We cannot do without it, so far as we are concerned, and then neither +can we be, nor are we, insensible to that which it does for others. +For us—for the Catholics of the world—the Propaganda is all that which +the whole circle of richly endowed, zealously advanced “Missionary +Societies,” “Bible Societies,” and “Evangelical Societies,” are for the +Protestant world. Our honour is connected with its maintenance, and we +cannot without a supreme struggle permit it to perish. Nor shall we. +But there is no reason that we should have to do this if our Government +be willing to protect our interest, and if that Government has not taken +any steps to protect us, I am perfectly sure it is because they have +not comprehended the wrong that is done us. In fact, the Propaganda has +discharged its onerous duties so noiselessly by the side of the Vicar +of Christ, that we ourselves came to look upon the beneficent effects, +which we experienced from it, as we look upon the light of the sun or +the air about us. We did not advert to the means which piety had, in the +past, placed at its disposal, and of which we and our fathers received +the fruits. It is the loss which causes us to know, to the full, the +value of the benefit—a benefit, I say, so great, and so much a matter of +course to us, that even we ourselves remained ignorant of the sources +from which it was derived. When, then, even amongst ourselves there is +not a full knowledge of what its history, nature, and the nature of its +resources now endangered, are, how can we expect that our statesmen, who +are not Catholics, can know these things? It is, therefore, to enlighten +them as well as ourselves; to inform, in fact, our fellow-citizens of +every denomination, of the great international wrong done to us, and +thereby awaken true sympathy and co-operation, that I have undertaken the +task of entering, this evening, as fully as the time at my disposal will +permit, into the whole question of the spoliation of the Propaganda—into +the nature and history of that noble institution doomed to perish by +local greed, it is true, but still more by the anti-Christian hate and +policy of those ruthless sectaries whose one aim is to destroy—root +and branch—everything not only that advances, but that even fosters +Christianity in the slightest degree. Their hate is not less for +Protestantism than for Catholicity. Their aim is to eradicate the very +Christian idea from the minds and the hearts of mankind. Now all this we +shall proceed to see by a consideration, first, of the history and nature +of the sacred Institution, and, secondly, by a review of the means taken +to destroy it. From both, to-night, I am sure, all here, will come to the +conclusion that it is a clear duty of our own Government to take some +action for the preservation of the rights of British Catholics, and that +in any case it is a sacred obligation on the part of Catholics in every +land, but especially in countries benefited by its ministrations, not to +let the great work of the Propaganda perish. + + + + +II. + +THE PROPAGANDA FROM THE BEGINNING. + + +The Sacred Congregation known as that of the Propaganda Fide, is formed, +at present, like all the other Congregations of Rome, of a number of +Cardinals, Prelates and officials, presided over by a Cardinal Prefect. +They form a Corporate Body, and their duty is to conduct what we might +call the foreign department in the vast administration of the Vicar of +Christ. + +At one period, at the very commencement, the Propaganda was conducted in +person by St. Peter and his successors. It remained during nearly the +whole of the first Pope’s lifetime his own principal occupation. He had +to convert both Jews and Gentiles before he had a Church of any great +extent to rule. He had, however, it must be confessed, a very excellent +“Prefect of the Propaganda” in St. Paul, who carried out the work the +Sacred Congregation now sees to, both by himself and his numerous +companions and disciples. St. Paul died a Bishop of no particular +locality—he was, so to speak, very like many of his successors and his +present one, Cardinal Simeoni, an _episcopus in partibus infidelium_. He +did great and lasting work, but on his death the successors of St. Peter +had to find out other means to carry on the evangelization of the world. +And they succeeded wonderfully from that day to this. We see them ruling +with admirable wisdom, sanctity, and authority the vast empire left them +mainly by the exertions of St. Peter and St. Paul; never forgetting the +peculiar labours of the one or the other. The evangelization of the +nations as well the government and teaching of the Church was never +omitted by any one of them. From their side, principally, went forth +those crowds of holy men who continued to prosecute the work of the +evangelization of the world, until from the extreme limits of this then +British Province, to the sands of the Great African Desert, and from +the Pillars of Hercules to the frontiers of Persia, the persecuting +Roman Empire had the followers of Christ in the army, in the navy, in +every department, and even in the Courts of the terrible, anti-Christian +Emperors themselves. They caused Christians to fill the towns, and spread +at last to the remotest villages of the Empire, and then to be found far +beyond its borders. And when the whole East and West, after ten terrific +struggles, at last embraced the Cross, the successors of St. Peter with +renewed zeal and increased resources attempted the evangelization of all +then known, barbarous nations. + +I say increased resources, for even in these times of persecution the +Roman Pontiffs were not destitute of temporal means. The generous piety +of the faithful recognised their immense responsibility, and supplied +the means which heartless infidelity now strives to deprive them of. The +Roman Pontiff, even when compelled to lay hidden in the Catacombs, was +the father of the orphan, and of the widow, and of the poor. From the +crypts of the Catacombs, as well as, afterwards, from the portals of the +Vatican, he sent forth a never ceasing stream of apostolic men who at his +bidding, and with his blessing, and with his authority, went forth to the +very ends of the earth for the evangelization of the heathen, and the +consolation of the people of God. + +On this point you will allow me to quote a passage from the writings +of a great French Prelate, Monsigneur Dupanloup, whom our present Holy +Father has characterised as “the glory and the consolation of France” in +his day. No one who recollects his history will doubt for a moment the +weight of his authority. He says: + +“Mother and Mistress of all Churches, the Church of Rome was from that +time what she ought to be, viz., the richest, the most powerful, and +also the most generous in her gifts. The Faithful throughout the world +venerated her as the centre of Catholicity; and lavished their wealth +upon her, together with their obedience and their love. They did not wish +the head of their religion and the Vicar of JESUS CHRIST to be unequal +to the immense calls of his spiritual administration; they wished the +Pope to have sufficient to meet all the requirements of the universal +mission which had been confided to him, the enormous disbursements that +he was obliged to make for the welfare of so many people confided to +his care, and also for the nations which were still infidel, to whom it +was his duty to send the light of faith, by bishops, priests, deacons, +and apostolic missionaries. Hence the riches of the Roman Church from +the time of the persecutions; hence the considerable possessions which +she enjoyed a long time before Constantine; hence also the generous +liberalities which she lavished upon the world, as Eusebius tells us, +for the maintenance of a large number of the clergy, of widows and of +orphans, and of the poor as well as for the propagation of the faith, +and the foundation of Christianity in the most distant countries. +Eusebius cites Syria and Arabia, and our own histories add the Gauls +and the Spains to these countries. This was not all; it was necessary +that while buried still in the Catacombs, the Papacy should maintain +apostolic notaries to keep the acts of the martyrs, and to be ever ready +to reply to the questions for consultation almost daily addressed by all +the Churches, whilst at the same time, the Roman Church was sending +numbers of ships across the sea laden with alms. Such was even before +the peace of the Church, the temporal power with which the faith of +Christians surrounded the Apostolic See, and of which the charity of +the Popes made so noble a use for the welfare of nations. Monuments and +the most celebrated facts teach us that the Roman Church, in order to +supply so many wants, not only possessed vessels of gold and silver and +a great number of moveable goods, but also, considerable capital. The +Pagans sometimes respected, sometimes carried off, these possessions. +Constantine ordered, says Eusebius, that restitution should be made to +the clergy of the _houses, the possessions, fields, gardens, and other +goods of which they had been unjustly deprived_. What a strange thing! +that Paganism should recognise that the Church had a right to property, +and yet this is in the present day contested by nations which call +themselves Christian.”[24] + +With the resources here so eloquently indicated, the Popes, even in +the earliest ages, provided for the evangelization of the most distant +nations. Indeed, we scarcely meet with a single Pontificate, not +illustrated with this blessed characteristic of the Apostolic ministry—a +characteristic which became more marked as time rolled on. Just as the +Church had attained its first triumph, the Pope, who had most to do +with the conversion of Constantine, and with the splendid works of that +Monarch for religion, was consoled by the conversion of the Iberians +near the Black Sea, and of the Abyssinians beyond the distant, southern +confines of ancient Egypt. The Popes aided the terribly tried Christians +of Persia, under the long persecutions of Sapor and his successors, just +as Leo XIII. aids the persecuted Christians of China as I speak. We know +of the solicitude of St. Celestine in selecting and sending Palladius, a +dignitary of the Roman Curia, to convert the Irish and Picts. Then came +the mighty Mission of St. Patrick, received at Rome from the same Holy +Pontiff, and solemnly confirmed by his successor. Soon after, St. Leo +the Great sent St. Valentinus, to carry the glad tidings of Redemption +to those tribes once so formidable to Roman power, who inhabited the +forests bordering on the Danube and the Rhine. St. Severinus, authorized +by the same authority, was contemporaneously carrying the faith to +Pannonia and Norica. The Rhetians and the faithful Tyrolese received, +through the solicitude of Pope Leo, the grace of the faith, also from +St. Severinus. Besides those absolute and direct conversions, by saints +from the very side of the Roman Pontiff, every national conversion made, +was helped on, and had to be watched over, by his fatherly, evangelical +care. The conversion of Clovis and the Franks, and other barbarians; +the destruction of Arianism amidst the fierce tribes who embraced that +heresy, and brought it with them on their conquests; the care of the +Faith amongst the ever-fickle Catholics in the East; the ecclesiastical +formation of new realms, gained over by the Apostles despatched for +the purpose, constantly exercised the zeal of the Sovereign Pontiffs +in those days. Who does not know the love and care manifested by St. +Gregory the Great for the desolate Anglo-Saxon ancestors of the people +now inhabiting England, and so strangely in many instances forgetful, +or worse than forgetful, of the debt of gratitude they owe the Popes? +It was not so with the ancient Catholics of that land. The intercourse +between them and then far-off Rome, was greater than it is to-day, with +all our modern appliances for swift and easy travelling. But then, not +as now, it was love of God and not of travel, that brought the crowds of +Anglo-Saxon pilgrims to Rome. They loved to see Christ’s Vicar, to visit +the tombs of the Apostles and Martyrs, and to manifest the gratitude +of their nation at the Shrine of the real Apostle of England, Pope St. +Gregory the Great. The same Pontiff was as zealous and as successful in +converting all that remained of the Donatist heretics in Africa as in +evangelizing the people of Britain. The care of his successors for the +vast conversions wrought by the multitude of Irish missionary saints +amongst the Pagans during the early middle ages, and of missionary saints +like St. Boniface and St. Willibrord, who came from England, is just as +remarkable. The connection of the Popes with SS. Cyril and Methodius, the +Apostles of the Bulgarians, the Moravians, and the Bohemians, has been +recently brought very prominently before the world of our day, by our +present Holy Father who has just built a church to honour their memory, +over the remains of St. Cyril, one of the two, who died in Rome. Pope St. +Nicholas the Great and Pope John VIII. sent bishops, priests, and ample +assistance to the same evangelic labourers, who are the Apostles and +civilizers not only of the nations before-mentioned, but also of Moravia, +Silesia, Bosnia, Circassia, Russia, Dalmatia, Panoramia, Dacia, Carinthia +and several neighbouring nations. Under Pope Sylvester II. the great +warlike nation of the Hungarians became converted by the zeal of their +truly apostolic King, St. Stephen; and to this day the crown sent by the +Pope to that Monarch, is used in the coronation of the Kings of Hungary +(now the Emperors of Austria), who retain with just pride the privilege +to have the Cross borne before them, and to take the title of Apostolic +Majesty, both given by the Pope. With every conversion which afterwards +took place in the North of Europe or elsewhere, the Popes had the same +intimate connection, and their Apostolic zeal never flagged until a still +wider field than ever opened out for it by the discovery of America, and +the coming of that unfortunate torrent of heresy and schism from which +all our present religious misfortunes flow, and which is known under the +name of the Reformation. + +The Popes of this period dealt with the duties brought upon them by one +and the other of these momentous events, as became their traditions and +their obligations. The vast fields opened up for Missionary zeal by the +discoveries of Columbus and Vasco di Gama were soon occupied by their +care. It was, after all, but a phase in the kind of evangelization which +their predecessors had carried on in one part or another of the world, +since the days of St. Peter and St. Paul. + +More difficult far became the task of repairing the injury done to many +countries by the ravage occasioned by many reformers of many minds and +many degrees of hatred for Catholicity. Wars followed fast upon doctrinal +differences. The face of whole kingdoms changed. Radical political +changes grew apace. The work of the conversion of England, Scotland, +Prussia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and several minor German States had +to be commenced over again, with the difference that heresy was a far +more redoubtable opponent than Paganism of any kind. It was a system +of various-phased negations constantly changing, never knowing its own +Christian belief, and satisfied only upon some points which it refused +to hold in common with the Church of God. Its systems, all made by men, +according to caprice, or logical necessity springing from error, differed +one from the other fully as much as all differed from the Catholic faith +of ages. The reasoning to be used against one sect would not suit against +another. On points of the most vital importance all held opposite views. +Some would have it that Christ was God, and others that He was not. Some +held for Grace and others for pure Pelagianism. Some admitted the Real +Presence, and others regarded that doctrine as idolatrous. One party held +out for more or less sacramental efficacy, and others denied it, in part +or entirely. So the babel went on, in nothing united save in hatred and +opposition to the one, stable, changeless truth of the old religion. In +Ireland, in France, in Germany, wars took place between fellow-countrymen +on points of doctrine. In England and other countries the party in +opposition to Catholicity found out, as they thought, not only that the +religion of their forefathers for generations was wrong, but they further +considered it to be their duty to deprive such of their fellow-citizens +as continued to hold the old Faith, of goods, of liberty, of civil +_status_, and even of life itself. Almost everywhere in Europe, confusion +and anger reigned in those sadly troubled times. + +None experienced more difficulty in dealing with the perplexing +responsibilities arising from the Reformation than the Roman Pontiffs. +The business of the Holy See increased to an enormous extent. Several +new Congregations had to be formed by the action of the Council of Trent +alone. Every department of Church administration had to be remodelled. +New Orders arose providentially to meet the needs of the times. These +had to be guided and watched over. Contemporaneously with the religious +troubles in Europe, new fields for Missionary enterprise were opened up +in America, in Asia, in Africa, even in some of the Isles of the Pacific. +Mahometanism, instead of subsiding, began to grow more menacing. +England, Scotland, and most of the Northern Kingdoms of Europe ceased +to be Catholic. The fires of the sanctuary were completely quenched in +Denmark, Prussia, Sweden, Norway and several German Principalities. +Ireland sustained the full pressure of the power of England to force +her—though, thank God, in vain—to abjure the Faith. France was in a state +of civil war on account of religion. Switzerland was divided. Hungary, +Poland, and Bohemia wavered. The work of real Reformation in purely +Catholic countries; the repression of attempts at schism from without +and disorder from within; occupied the common Father of the Faithful +unceasingly. It was when the difficulties of his position increased to +such an extent, that it was morally impossible for him to attend any +longer, personally, to everything required for the purpose of spreading +the Faith, that he at last called in the assistance of a special +Congregation to assist him in a work which his predecessors had at all +periods of their previous history discharged by themselves alone. + +Gregory XIII. filled the Chair of St. Peter at the period when the work +of the evangelization of the nations pressed heaviest. He may be said to +have employed himself solely in that work. For the wants of the Germans +and Hungarians he had, out of his own resources, founded and perpetually +endowed a magnificent College which still subsists in Rome. He formed +the English College for the resuscitation of the Faith in Britain; the +Polish College for the Poles; and for the vast missions then evangelized +by the zeal of the newly formed Society of Jesus, he built and endowed +the magnificent Roman College of the Gesu, wherein he placed no less than +three hundred cells for students and twenty auditories for instruction. +Out of this went the men whose eloquence resounded along the banks of the +Rhine, and whose holy lives, boundless zeal and great learning won back +millions in the German Fatherland to the Faith. Thence, too, went forth +the men who penetrated into the heart of the old civilization of China, +to the East and West Indies, and to the fastnesses and virgin forests of +the newly-discovered tribes of America. Gregory XIII. embraced in his +zeal the East as well as the West. He founded in Rome Colleges for the +Greeks, and for the Maronites of Mount Libanus. Nor did he forget, in his +care for far-off nations, the claims of his own See. The Jews of Ghetto +and the youth of Rome have to thank his great heart for permanent means +established for their care and education. He was the patron of physical +science as well as of sacred studies; and to him, to Gregory XIII., Hugo +Buoncompagno, the modern world is indebted for the reformation of the +Calendar on a basis more correct than that attempted before him by a man +more famous, but not so great in works of real utility, Julius Cæsar, the +first of the rulers of Imperial Rome. + +The work of what may be called the Foreign Missions increased to such +overwhelming proportions through the enlightened Christian zeal of this +great Pope, that he found himself compelled to call in the assistance of +a few Cardinals, and to commit to their vigilance the duty of watching +over the Propagation of the Faith. These Cardinals could be scarcely +called a Congregation. They were more a kind of committee of vigilance to +keep the Pope posted in what should be effected by the centre of unity +for the evangelization of the world. But the idea had its origin in the +necessity which forced the Pontiff to call them together at all, and it +soon produced its fruit. The successors of Gregory were forced to advert +to it from the impossibility of dealing with every case; and at last +Gregory XV., of the famous Bolognese family, of the Ludovisi, determined +to found a real, formal, Sacred Congregation, for the work which we may +call the Foreign Office of the Church. He not only established it, but +conferred the most ample powers upon it, and gave it large means to +commence that beneficent action, which was soon everywhere felt in the +immense regions over which it exercised the paternal solicitude of the +Vicar of Christ. + +Gregory XV. founded the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda by a +Bull bearing date July 22nd, 1622. In this he clearly made known, that +his intention was to establish a department of Church administration +and action which should assiduously attend to the important duty, +hitherto discharged by his predecessors alone, without special organized +assistance, of extending the Faith in countries where it did not exist, +and of restoring it in places where it may have been lost or injured. The +duty of the Congregation was, according to the words of this Bull, “to +study diligently, that those sheep miserably wandering away should again +return to the Fold of Christ, and acknowledge the Lord and the Shepherd +of the Flock, to devise the best means by which, through the influence +of Divine grace, they may cease to wander through the endless pasturages +of infidelity and heresy, drinking the deadly waters of pestilence, and +be placed in the pasturage of true faith and salutary doctrine, and be +brought to the fountains of the water of life.” + +The _Appunti_ or Memoranda published by the Sacred Congregation recently, +in reference to the definite sentence of the Italian Masonic Court +of Appeal, to which it applied for relief against the action of the +Government, state:— + +“For this end, he (Gregory XV.) wished to depute in his name a +Congregation of Cardinals, who unitedly should exercise the greater +portion of the Apostolic Ministry, that most noble office, which, up to +that time, his predecessors had discharged by themselves and without the +ministry of others.” + +The _Appunti_, afterwards, quote other passages of the Bull of Gregory +XV., who thus continues:— + +“For even although by the pastoral vigilance, assistance, study, and +exertions of the Roman Pontiffs, our predecessors, of happy memory, it +was provided that so many harvests should not be in want of labourers +in the past, and our successors can also do the same, we have thought +it well to commit to the special solicitude of a certain number of our +venerable brethren, Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, this particular +business, as by the tenor of these presents we do commit and do give +over to them. Desiring that, congregated together, and using also the +assistance of certain prelates of the Roman Court, religious men, and a +secretary (as we ourselves have desired, and named them for the first +time), they should consult together, and watch over so great a matter +together with us, and in the best possible manner that it can be done, +attend to a work so holy and so exceedingly pleasing to the Divine +Majesty. For the more convenient discharge of which duty let them hold +congregations every month—once before us, and twice at least in the house +of the senior Cardinal amongst themselves—and there learn and treat +of all and every affair appertaining to the Propagation of the Faith +throughout the world. Let them refer the graver affairs which they shall +have treated in the above-mentioned house to Us, but other matters let +them decide and despatch by themselves, according to their own prudence. +Let them superintend all missions for preaching and teaching the Gospel +and the Catholic doctrine, and constitute and change the necessary +Ministers. For We, by Apostolic authority, concede and impart, by the +tenor of these presents, full, free, and ample faculty, authority, and +power of doing, carrying on, treating, acting, and executing both the +above-named, as well as all and every other matter, even if such should +be a matter which requires a specific and express mention.” + +“But, in order that a business of such moment, in which great expenses +are necessarily contracted by the happy commutation of temporal with +spiritual things, may not be retarded by any impediment, and may proceed +more easily and speedily, beyond that which we have already ordered +to be supplied from our private means, and that which is given by the +liberality of the pious faithful, and that aid which for the future we +confide, will not be wanting, as the affair is our own and that of this +Holy See, we contribute to this work certain revenues for ever from our +Apostolic resources.” + +The _Appunti_ commenting on this, say:— + +“The Pontiff, then, constituting the Propaganda the organic means for +discharging the Apostolate amongst the infidel and heterodox, ever fixed +to it a sublime ministry which was a substantial part of the spiritual +sovereignty received for the government of the Church; and that to such +great extent, that regarding it with respect to the territory over which +it exercises jurisdiction, it can be said, without fear of error, that, +in four at least out of the five parts of the world, the government of +the Church is held and administered by the Propaganda. The power is so +great and so unreserved, that all and every matter appertaining to the +propagation of the Faith in the universal world, is confided to it by +the Vicars of Christ, to the exclusion of any other organ whatsoever, +and this with such solemnity, that Urban VIII., on the 2nd of August, +1634, and Innocent X. on the 3rd of July, 1652, ordered that the +authentic decrees of the Propaganda should have the force of Apostolic +Constitutions.” + +In this way the Congregation started into existence. + +The number of Cardinals, which in the beginning was fixed at thirteen, +has been since, from time to time, increased. A Prefect was appointed +over them as over other congregations, and subsequently a Cardinal was +appointed specially over the finance department. A secretary—subsequently +two, one for the Eastern branch, and one for the Western—and writers +were added, together with many consulters taken from the foremost +religious and secular ecclesiastics residing in Rome. The whole formed +a distinct Corporation capable of sueing and being sued. It at once +commenced the work confided to it; and the world has, from that day +to this, experienced the benefits of its zealous and always prudent +administration. The whole Church, except in the purely Catholic kingdoms +of Europe, passed under its control; and its ministry has become not only +valuable, but, in fact, absolutely necessary for the due exercise of the +solicitude of the Vicar of Christ in such an immense area of the world +committed to his keeping. + +In the Bull by which Gregory XV. instituted the Sacred Congregation, we +find it clearly laid down that it should be all this. Moreover, the help +which he anticipated from the faithful, came almost immediately. This +appears specially in the foundation of the celebrated seminary now known +as— + + + + +III. + +THE URBAN COLLEGE. + + +Through the zeal of John Baptist Vives, one of its consulting prelates, +the Sacred Congregation came into possession of the necessary property +and the buildings which are now occupied by offices attached to +Propaganda and by a college for the education of missionaries destined to +carry out its principal aim in evangelizing the nations. The immediate +successor of Gregory XV. was the celebrated Urban VIII., a member of the +illustrious Barberini family. This great Pontiff earnestly resumed the +work of his predecessor in the matter of the Sacred Congregation of the +Propaganda Fide. To him, Monsgr. John Baptist Vives, acting, as Moroni +tells us, under the direction of his own confessor, Michael Ghislieri, +of the Order of Theatines, offered his place in the Piazza di Spagna. +This residence previously belonged to Cardinal Ferratini, from whom the +street called _Via Fratina_, which at present leads directly from the +Corso to the Propaganda, takes its name. Urban VIII. gladly accepted the +offer; and with further aid from Vives, established the famous college to +which he gave his own name—a name it bears to this day—COLLEGIO URBANO +DE PROPAGANDA FIDE. Moroni thus speaks of this gift:—“Matters progressed +so far that Monsignor Vives decided to devote all he had to this purpose +(the foundation of the college), and he employed Father Ghislieri to +draw up a plan for changing his palace into such a college. With these +admirable sentiments the Prelate Vives made an offer of the Palace to +Urban VIII. (_Barberini_). This illustrious Pontiff being animated with +the liveliest interest for the augmentation of the Catholic religion +and for the greater glory of God, approved of the gift of the good +Prelate, and with the authority of the Bull ‘_Immortalis Dei_’ given on +the Kalends of August, 1627, canonically instituted in the same palace +an Apostolic College or Seminary for youths of every nation who should +be promoted to orders after one year, and afterwards to the Priesthood, +and he placed the College under the invocation and patronage of SS. Peter +and Paul. He put it moreover under the protection of the Apostolic See, +and under the rule and laws which he and his successors should be pleased +to make for its government. He assigned to it perpetually the oblation +of the well-deserving Vives, consisting of one hundred and three places +on the mountain and other estates, yielding yearly about seven hundred +scudi in rent, besides other revenues which that Prelate left it at +death. On the principal façade of the building was placed the following +inscription:— + + “COLLEGIUM DE PROPAGANDA FIDE PER UNIVERSUM ORBEM. + +“And afterwards the same Urban VIII. caused to be substituted for this +another, which was placed beneath his own arms, and still subsists, and +which runs as follows:— + + “COLLEGIUM URBANUM DE PROPAGANDA FIDE.” + +The palace of Monsignor Vives was greatly improved by Urban VIII., +who employed the celebrated Bernini to construct the offices of +the _Computisteria_, or finance department, on the ground floor; +the _Segretaria_, or business portion, on the first floor; and the +_Stamperia_, or printing office, on the upper floor. Alexander VII., the +next successor but one of Urban VIII., carried the buildings on towards +the Church of St. Andrea dei Frati. He also built the beautiful College +Chapel in the form in which it is to be found to-day. He employed in +both works the rival of Bernini, Francesco Borromini. Leo XII. removed +the printing offices to the ground floor, at the end of the building; +and in the part where these were placed before, he formed apartments for +the Cardinal Prefect, so that the latter might be always on the spot for +watching over the many important interests of the Congregation. On the +highest story were also provided the apartments of the Secretary of the +Propaganda, and the famous Museum connected with the Institution. + +Besides the gift of the site and the Palace, Monsignor Vives provided +also ten places in the College for students destined to carry the +Gospel wherever the Sacred Congregation might send them. Almost at the +same time with this gift, came another valuable donation from Cardinal +Antonio Barberini, the brother of Urban VIII. This was the perpetual +foundation of twelve places for as many students, who should be taken +in the proportion of two from each one of the Persian, Georgian, +Coptic, Nestorian, Jacobite, and Melchite rites or nations. The zealous +Cardinal, elevated the number of students to three of each nation, soon +afterwards, making eighteen in all, of his own foundation. And from that +to this, these far-off peoples have been supplied with a constant stream +of well-educated pastors from the centre of Christendom by the zeal of +this good Prince of the Church, who was in his lifetime also one of the +Cardinals attached to the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda. His +zeal did not finish here. Before his death, Moroni tells us, that he +founded thirteen places in the Urban College for the nations of Ethiopia, +Abyssinia, and Brackmania. Wise regulations were in all cases laid down +for the giving of these places, and for the discharge of the obligations +of those who profited by them. Urban VIII. attached this College +perpetually to the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, and Innocent X. +increased it by the funds and the _alumni_ of a small Maronite College +previously established in Bologna. So the College continued to advance +in its sphere of Church utility; and with it arose and progressed +institutions necessary for its own work and for the work of the Sacred +Congregation, which, with prudence and zeal, continued to direct the +whole of the missionary responsibility of the Holy See from the days of +Gregory XV. to those of Leo XIII. + +I will here quote for you a remarkable document furnished me by Monsignor +Conrado, the present, erudite, zealous, and greatly beloved Rector of the +Propaganda College. It is interesting, and manifests the sources from +which the educational funds of the College were derived. Translated from +the original Italian, it is as follows:— + + NOTICE OF THE URBAN COLLEGE, + TAKEN FROM THE ARCHIVES OF THE PROPAGANDA. + + Before commencing to speak of the institution of the Urban + College, from whence have gone forth so many personages + illustrious for the profundity of their knowledge, for the + sanctity of their lives, and for their zeal for religion, + it is necessary to give an idea of the origin of the Sacred + Congregation destined for the propagation of the Faith. + Because, however divided one from the other, these two pious + establishments were in the beginning, the College owes its + existence, certainly, to the Sacred Congregation. The immortal + Gregory XV., called to the consideration of the duties of the + supreme authority of the Church, saw amongst the very first + that of carrying the Gospel light amidst the darkness of the + Gentiles, that of uniting in the bond of charity those who + lived disjoined from it, and that of bringing back to the + true belief those who found themselves immersed in error; he, + therefore, in the second year of his pontificate, instituted + this Sacred Congregation, to which he confided the propagation + of the Faith throughout the universe. It was composed of + thirteen Cardinals, two Prelates, and one religious _della + Scala_. The Cardinals met together for the first time on the + 6th of December, 1622. In this first meeting the Cardinal + Ludovisi having mentioned the motive of its creation, asked his + colleagues to manifest openly their sentiments regarding the + best manner of propagating the Faith. It was resolved that all + the Nuncios of the Holy See should be written to, in order that + they should send information regarding the state of religion in + the provinces and kingdoms committed to them; also, that the + heads of Religious Orders should receive instructions to send + accounts of the state of the missions conducted by them amongst + heretics and infidels. And first of all it was resolved that + the Bishop of Cozentino should be written to for the papers + which he held in charge regarding the propagation of the Faith + in the time of Clement VIII. + + The Bull of the erection, the revenues necessary, the purchase + of a palace which should be an asylum for the converted, the + residence for the _alumni_ destined for the service of the + missions, and the material foundation of the Congregation + itself, were also matters of deliberation in that first + session. Monsignor Vives of Valencia in Spain, Ambassador of + Isabella, the illustrious Infanta of Spain and Governor of + the Belgian Provinces, a personage of singular piety, offered + for the purposes of the Congregation the Ferratina Palace, + where even at present the most eminent Cardinals meet to + decide upon religious questions which arise in different parts + of the world. On the 4th of February following, the second + Congregation was held. The principal things then considered + were the faculties, the relations to be made to the Pope after + each Congregation, and the manner by which a revenue might be + created for that pious establishment. Amongst other projects + the Cardinal of Saint Susannah proposed the application of + the Cardinal’s rings. This project was pleasing to all, and + the Pope by inserting it in his Bull approved of it, and it + still subsists. The same Gregory, at the canonization of Saint + Ignatius and Saint Isidore, gave two thousand five hundred + golden crowns; also when he prescribed that the Congregation + should meet once a month before the Pope he offered ten + thousand scudi. Nor did this limit his pious liberality, since + other acts are found of his munificence. + + The Bishops of Christendom also received impulses to collect + alms for the promotion of this holy work in the Lenten times. + A certain obligation, it appears, arose, since by reason of + the pious contributions, great acquirements were made for the + work. In consequence, regulations were drawn up regarding the + administration. Two Cardinals, with the Cardinal’s Secretary, + were elected every year to superintend the temporal interests + of the Congregation. Finally, there was besides instituted a + special judge, an agent, and a notary. Matters thus progressed + until, on the 8th July, Gregory XV. passed to a better life. + The Cardinal Barberini succeeded him, and took the name of + Urban VIII. On the 4th September the first Congregation + was held under the new Pontiff. Urban VIII. by his Bull, + _Immortalis_, ordained the erection of the Congregation on the + 1st of August, 1627. The spirit of the Bull is as follows:—The + holy Pontiff first mentions the grave burden which he feels + in the government of the Universal Church. He mentions the + supplication of Monsigr. Vives, by which the intended College + is reduced to some form, and by which the latter gives his + palace and all its annexes, together with all the rest of his + goods, with the reserve of the use only during his natural + life. He institutes the College on the condition that if it + does not become a reality during his own pontificate; it + should obtain it in that of his successors. He speaks of the + instance of Monsigr. Vives, and the confirmation accorded + with the condition expressed in the instrument. He then + institutes after the acceptation of the donation, after the + confirmation of the conditions, and after the making good of + any defects, the Pontifical College or Apostolic Seminary, + under the invocation of SS. Peter and Paul, by the name of + the Urban College, for the defence and Propagation of the + Faith, called the Propaganda. (By the form of the Bull, _Ne + nova_, of the 13th of March, 1640, it is forbidden to every + college or seminary to take that designation.) He orders that + the _alumni_ from the secular state can be taken from every + nation. They should be of sound maxims, of pure morals, and of + sound piety. They should serve throughout their whole lives, + encounter dangers, sufferings, and, if need be, martyrdom. He + assigns the dotation for the maintenance of the econome, of + the rector, of the masters, and of the students, deputing as + administrators three Canons of the three patriarchal basilicas, + at the death of whom he reserves to himself the nomination of + their successors, to be taken from that basilica to which the + deceased belonged. He accords to these ample faculties to elect + and remove rectors, economes, officials, and masters; to make + rules and give orders conformable to the canons and apostolic + constitutions; to change these, to correct them and interpret + them. He exempts all the individuals of the College from every + jurisdiction of the vicar, senator, conservator, and rector of + studies, as well as from whatsoever tax whether of land or sea. + He takes the college under his own immediate protection and + awards to it every privilege conceded to the German, English + or Greek Colleges. He inhibits any one from molesting either + the college or the officials. He wishes that no one should + regard as defective, fight against, suspend, call in judgment + for vice of nullity or intention, whomsoever should be there + found residing, and declares null all that which could be + attempted, knowingly or unknowingly, against his constitution. + He orders the Bishops of Ostia, the Vicar, and the Auditor of + the Apostolic Camera to execute this Bull, so that no one under + whatsoever pretext could molest it. He threatens censures and + the secular arm against its contraveners. He finally terminates + his Bull with the most ample derogatory forms. + + The College remained divided from the Sacred Congregation + until 1641. But on the 16th of May of that year the same Urban + VIII. gave another Bull—_Romanus Pontifex_. In this he revoked + and annulled the faculties given to the three Canons of the + Patriarchal basilicas. He unites the College to the Sacred + Congregation, but leaving the administration, government and + direction of it to the Cardinal of St. Onefrius “having taken + counsel, as we hope,” says the Bull, “with the Congregation of + the before-mentioned Cardinals, and with the approbation of the + Roman Pontiff in affairs of greater importance.” + + FOUNDATIONS FOR STUDENTS. + + The first foundation for students was made by Monsgr. Vives + for the _alumni_, priests or secular clergyman of whatever + nation destined for the Propagation of the Faith throughout the + universe. + + The second foundation was made by Cardinal Antonio Barberini + with the _jus patronatus_ reserved, so far as nomination was + concerned, to his family. This was destined for six nations, + each one of which ought to supply two students. These nations + were the Georgian, Persian, Chaldean, Melchite, Jacobite and + Copt. Urban VIII. gave a Bull—_Altitudo Divini_—erecting these + foundations, on the 1st of April, 1637. In this he subjected + the _alumni_ to the rule of the College, and to the oath + conceding to them all the privileges, faculties and exemptions + already enjoyed by the other collegians. + + The third foundation was also by the same Cardinal Barberini. + It was for seven Ethiopians or Abyssinians, and for ex-Brahmins + in Eastern India. Urban VIII. gave a Bull erecting these in + 1639—_Onorosa pastoralis Officii_. In this he added that if + young men could not be found in one of these nations they + should be taken from the others; and if in neither, they should + be taken from the Armenians in this order, that they should + be first those of Poland, then those of Constantinople, then + from Tartary, Pericop, Georgia and Armenia the Greater, and + Armenia the Less, and finally from Persia. The examination + of these also belonged to the family of the Barberini. These + students were also placed under the same oath, privileges, + etc., as the others. The dotation was assigned for maintaining + them, the protector and his faculties. As a crown to such + great beneficence the same Cardinal gave in 1646 to the Sacred + Congregation the houses which constitute the Island of the + College valued at 56,233 scudi. In order to bring the fabric + to its present form the same Sacred Congregation spent 96,496 + scudi. He died the same year, and left heir to all his estate + the Sacred Congregation, to which he also left 1000 scudi of + pension which he had from certain episcopal sees. + + In 1701 Monsgr. Scanegatti, Bishop of Avellino, left the Sacred + Congregation his heir, with the obligation of maintaining five + students, reduced to four in 1733. + + In 1704 Cardinal Barberini founded a new place to be added to + the others of his house. + + In 1708 Clement XI. gave 4000 scudi for the maintenance of a + student. + + In 1715 an Albanian Catholic gave to the Sacred Congregation an + offering of 1600 scudi for the education of an _alumnus_, with + the right of alternative nomination. + + In 1719 Cardinal di Adda left the Sacred Congregation his + heir, with the obligation of maintaining as many students + as it could support by his income. All these being free, + the Sacred Congregation assigned one to the Basilian and + one to each of the four Irish Archbishops. But so far as it + concerned the Irish, in 1726, the Sacred Congregation, having + been requested if these places were conceded perpetually, + replied affirmatively, until the Sacred Congregation should + decide otherwise. It is to be here borne in mind that in this + concession there is a derogation from a decree of 1644, which + laid down that no students should be received from nations + which had colleges either in Rome or outside of Rome. + + In 1743 the Sacred Congregation, with 100 LL. M. M., given by + John Dominic Spinola, assigned two places to the Bulgarians + and one to the Servians, as was found in the College of Fermo, + reunited to the Urban College in 1746. + + There were also two supernumerary, one Swedish, and another + Algerine. The post maintained by Cardinal Albani, the second by + Cardinal San Clemente. + + The piety of the Emperor Charles VI., in order to provide for + the spiritual welfare of the Greek Wallachians of Transylvania, + in the year 1736, ordered that the chamber of that province + should pay annually the sum of 432 scudi for the purpose of + maintaining three _alumni_ in this College. This assignment + was accepted and confirmed by the Pope. The first _alumnus_ + was Monsgr. Avon, afterwards Bishop of Biaritz. To this bishop + was afterwards assigned certain funds with the obligation of + maintaining twenty _alumni_ in the province, and to pay for the + support of the three to the Propaganda. In the end negotiations + were opened in order to diminish such expense, but the issue of + them is unknown. + + In 1772 two Scotch foundations were instituted, with funds + given by Cardinal di Burnis, and coming from the legacy + Montesisto of the codex. + + 1772. In the College the monks sent by the Patriarch of Cilicia + were received. + + 1754. The Chaldeans of Mossul obtained two places. For ten + years the alumni were reduced to thirty-four. + + By the reunion of the College of Fermo, and by the places + having been brought up to the ancient number, the _alumni_ + were sixty-four in 1759. Of these foundations some are of free + collation, and others of the _jus patronatus_ of the Barberini + family. The Monsignor Secretary presents to the said family + the students, and they forward the diplomas. They cannot, + however, be admitted without the previous approbation of the + Sacred Congregation. In the absence of ecclesiastics, even + a lady—as was done by Cornelia Costanza—can use the right + acquired. For the rest, that illustrious family being rendered + so well meriting of the College, it enjoys the right to have a + copy of all the works which issue from its printing office. In + what pertains to the admission of the students, no one can be + received if he has not been previously admitted by the Sacred + Congregation. Therefore, Bishops and Vicars-Apostolic do not + use arbitrary means in sending them, as happened on other + occasions. + + But if they do not receive them from the Sacred Congregation, + the Congregation is bound to accept them for compassion, and + with its own loss. + + The _alumni_ ought to be sound, without defect of body, of good + disposition and morals, of Catholic family, civil, and with + the credit of having goods of fortune, sufficient to pay the + expenses of the voyage to Europe. + + There are the following recent foundations:—Six places were + founded by Father Michael Doyle, of Dublin, an ex-student, + about the year 1850. + + Foundations for Scotland by the Cardinal of York, who left for + that purpose the Roman suburban tenement called the Loazzo. + + On the 25th of June, 1853, Don Armando Heljen, _ex-alumnus_, + left two foundations to the Propaganda for Belgium. + + One was left in 1879 for the Diocese of Port Main, in the + United States. + + One place was founded by Monsignor O’Bryen, for America, in + 1883. + + Dr. Backhouse also left, for Sandhurst in Australia, as much + as will perhaps sustain three students. He was an _Alumnus_ + of Propaganda, and left considerable means for the benefit of + the diocese in which he laboured long and successfully, and of + which he was the first Vicar-General. + +From the College here described, thousands of apostolic men have gone +forth to distant lands, and not a few of these have won the crown of +martyrdom. The visitor to Rome now meets with representatives of every +race under heaven who come to that Urban College for an ecclesiastical +education to fit them for the ministry in their several nations. Amidst +the various bands of young students bearing the Propaganda uniform he +sees the Red Indian of the American Forests, the dark son of Central +Africa, the islander of the Southern Seas, the young Chinaman destined +for one of the provinces of his Emperor’s Celestial Kingdom, the native +of Corea, the child of the Arabian Desert, the soft-featured Circassian, +the swarthy Syrian, and occasionally a fair-haired son of Albion; but +never can he miss from the _camerate_ of the Propaganda the tall, +muscular forms of that wonderful Celtic race, which from the very opening +of the Urban College, has never ceased to form a part, and even a great +part of its _alumni_. The Irish come to it from their island home, +although no less than three distinctive colleges for their nation exist +in Rome. A mitigation in their favour was made in a rule permitting no +nation which had a special College of its own in Rome to send _alumni_ +to the Propaganda. Notwithstanding this rule the four Archbishops of +Ireland obtained places for students. And then the same missionary race +sent _alumni_ as Irish as the Irish at home, from America, Canada, +Australia, India, and other lands which the vast migrations of its people +had evangelised. No polyglot exhibition of the many which have been given +in the Propaganda has ever been wanting in Irish names—a proof in itself +of the wonderful extent and influence of Irish faith in the missionary +labours of the Church. The number of Irish Propaganda students who have +rendered distinguished services to religion in foreign lands is very +great; and since the formation of the Church in North America, the number +of the sons of Irishmen, educated also in Propaganda, who have there +attained considerable eminence, is specially remarkable. It may be also +well to state that the schools of the Propaganda, directed by the Sacred +Congregation, and under the immediate superintendence of the Cardinal +Prefect, are attended by the _alumni_ of several Roman missionary +Colleges, amongst which I may number the Irish College students, and +those of the Greek, Armenian, and North and South American Colleges. +They are all taught gratuitously; and their Colleges, as well as other +Missionary Colleges not taught in the Propaganda Schools, share in the +solicitude of the Sacred Congregation, which watches over every concern +of a missionary character in the city and in the world—_in urbe et in +orbe_. + +Besides the Urban College, and the great schools for sacred science there +are other departments taught within the precincts of the Propaganda +Palace, most interesting, not only to the Catholic, but to the learned of +every nation. Foremost amongst these comes + + + + +IV. + +THE LIBRARY. + + +In this are collected rare books in every known and spoken language, +and in languages whose literatures were formed by the labours of +Catholic Missionaries only. Of the latter class are works in the very +difficult dialects of innumerable Indian tribes, whose tongues had to +be learned, reduced to grammar, and made permanent by the labour of the +devoted men, who went to carry the light of the Gospel, and with it +brought, as Catholic Missionaries have ever done, the light also of true +civilization. Through this means the Maori of New Zealand, the natives of +Fiji, and Samoa, and of Tonga-Taboo, can read and write, and be brought +into civilized contact with the white man. Eastern literature gives to +this library a value still more extraordinary. In it learned men of every +rite into which Eastern Christianity is divided, have left the wealth of +their researches, during two centuries. These not only illustrate the +history of their several nations, but throw an inestimable light upon +biblical and archæological knowledge. The study of the Oriental languages +is one which for obvious reasons the Propaganda has never omitted to +foster. And at the present moment its professors are acknowledged to be +amongst the foremost in Europe in this valuable department of linguistic +science. I believe that since the time of Cardinal Mezzofanti, no greater +Oriental scholar has appeared than Professor Ciasca of the Propaganda. He +is being fast approached by Professor Ferrata, brother of the late Papal +Nuncio to Switzerland. The linguistic capabilities of our own Cardinal +Howard are of a high order, and he occupies a distinguished place amongst +his brother Cardinals who form the special council of the Oriental +Department of the Propaganda. + +It is well known that a great part of the value of the Propaganda +library depends upon another department of that great institution which +is foremost, if not unique, in its kind in Europe. This is the famous +Propaganda _Stamperia_ or + + + + +V. + +THE PRINTING OFFICE. + + +This magnificent department of Pontifical munificence, enlightenment, +and care, at first arose in Rome, soon after the art of printing was +invented. The Vatican Printing Press which preceded it, is one of the +oldest and most prolific in Europe. By its means, Gregory XIII., who, as +we have seen, commenced the formation of the Propaganda, diffused tens +of thousands of catechisms in every known tongue throughout the world. +But it was not until the Propaganda came into full working order as a +distinct department, that the now famous Polyglot Press was established +and became, then and since, the first institution of the kind possessed +by any corporation or nation in the world. + +By the zeal and ability of its officials, many of whom were priests, +type was founded in all the known characters of Europe, Asia, and +Africa. The numerous ancient liturgies of the East were printed in their +original characters for the benefit of the various rites using them; and +uncivilized tongues were provided with a literature by which Missionaries +might teach the truths of Faith, and advance their co-religionists or +neophytes in the path of the truest progress. In this way the gross +ignorance which had, by the action of schism, heresy, and the conquests +of the Mahommedans, fallen upon the ancient Christian lands and peoples +of the once great Eastern Roman Empire, was taken away, and a new light, +not only of orthodox Christianity, but of knowledge and civilization, +diffused, where superstition and darkness had for centuries prevailed. +By this means a literature was given to the unlettered tribes in North +and South America, and Missionaries were enabled, even before setting out +for these uncultivated people, to learn the languages in which they were +to preach and minister to them. By this means the literatures of China, +India, and Japan were made familiar to European scholars; and by this +means, too, Catholics condemned by penal legislation to ignorance—as were +our Catholic forefathers in these three kingdoms—were supplied with the +means of education. + + + + +VI. + +RESOURCES OF THE PROPAGANDA. + + +The various works connected with the Propaganda, of course, implied +great expenses, and necessitated the possession of large revenues fixed +and well-secured. The care of the Popes and the generosity of the +faithful supplied funds which went far, for there is not to be found an +establishment of its extent in the world managed at all times with such +scrupulous economy and care. Many emulated the generosity of Monsignor +Vives and of Cardinal Barberini. Others left to the general purposes of +the Propagation of the Faith large legacies—sometimes even their whole +inheritance. Besides that which Gregory XV. bestowed upon it, and which +Urban VIII. increased, Innocent XII. gave the Institution 150,000 crowns +in gold, and Clement XII. gave it 70,000. From its first foundation, all +future Cardinals were by a decree of the Pope bound to procure from it +their Cardinal’s ring, and to pay for this ring a large donation, varying +from £400 to double that sum. This forms a most valuable and perpetual +source of revenue. Other sources opened continually. The generosity +awakened by the two Pontiffs who were mainly instrumental in founding it, +descended to their successors, and spread throughout the entire Church, +so that it may be well said that no institution ever existed which has +been more popular with Catholics, nor more unceasingly popular, than the +Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. + +And it deserved to be so, not only because of the sacred objects to which +it has devoted its unwearied labours, but also because of that extreme +economy which has characterised its management from the beginning to +this hour. A very strong proof of the genuine excellence of this economy +lies in the fact that the Cardinals and Prelates who willed it, either +all, or a large portion of their means were members of its management—a +management of great labour, for which the funds of the Propaganda never +paid them anything. All connected with its care, except the absolutely +necessary officials, gave to it the whole of their services gratuitously. +These knew well the nature of the work which the sacred Institution did, +and the urgency of the wants it supplied. When, therefore, such men +have selected it from amongst the many objects which Rome presents for +Catholic zeal as the most worthy and the most carefully conducted of all, +we may judge of the supreme excellency of its claims. Then the whole of +the work which it requires from the other Congregations of Rome must be +done gratuitously. The Bulls for its numerous Bishops must be expedited, +its cases of conscience, coming, as they do, from all parts of the earth, +must be solved, its dispensations of every kind granted, its rubrical, +ceremonial, and technical difficulties must be settled, its honours must +be bestowed by every department of Church government under the Pope, +without one farthing of cost to itself or to its innumerable clients. +Then, it was completely exempt, as we have seen, from every kind of tax, +for matters whether coming by land or sea, and was freed from municipal +burdens, under the Pontifical Government. Its superior management cost +nothing, and for its work, secretaries and under-secretaries, writers +and teachers, gave their labours for less than that paid by any other +Institution in Rome. This they do out of pure devotion to religion and +the hope of spiritual reward. In proof of this I will relate an anecdote +of one of its employes—Monsignor Agliardi, at present Archbishop Delegate +of the Holy See to British India. This able ecclesiastic devoted his +life until well beyond fifty years of age to the severest labours of the +Institution. He was one of the overworked minutanti or under-secretaries, +and in addition acted as Professor of Moral Theology to the students +of the Urban College. I believe no more able, learned, or laborious +ecclesiastic lived in Rome. He worked as all the minutanti must do, +in season and out of season. The Propaganda official is a drudge who +seldom knows or looks for a holiday. When every other office in Rome +is closed for the terrible Roman, fever-giving months, the Cardinal, +the Secretary, and the minutanti are still at their desks. Rome serves +all the world, and at the Propaganda all the world is served. Now the +particular official I speak of, left a high and lucrative position in +his native diocese for the work of the Propaganda; and though his duties +placed him in constant correspondence with the Church spread over Asia, +and I may say over the islands of the Southern and Indian Ocean, he was +paid a great deal less than would satisfy the humblest curate in any +English-speaking country. He could at any moment leave this position and +obtain dignity and comparative ease. But for him, as for the rest of his +brethren in harness, the work of the Sacred Congregation had a strong +fascination. They seem somehow to thrive on hard work, and if not killed +soon by it, to get so used to it, that they cannot do without it. The +good Cardinal who now so worthily presides over the whole work of the +great institution, has gone through all its grades, from the Minutanté’s +desk to that of the Cardinal Prefect. All who visit Rome on business +to the Propaganda are astonished to find him always at their service, +from early morning to near midnight. It is so with the Secretary, who +is also an esteemed official of the Institute. Their work is, no doubt, +a deeply interesting and a most responsible one. But there is, I found, +a far more powerful motive for attachment to this hard labour for long +years and small pay. It is that the officials of the Propaganda, of every +class, participate in every good work performed in the world committed +by the Vicar of Christ to their care. They enjoy very many indulgences +and are enriched with innumerable spiritual privileges. This I found +to be the secret of Archbishop Agliardi’s long years of contented, +severe, and ill-paid labour. When we see other men immure themselves in +Cisterican and Carthusian cloisters, we can realise the reason of so much +devotion, but not till then. The work of the Propaganda is necessary for +the greatest ends of God’s service. Its officers are certain they are +serving the servants of God, the martyrs of China, Corea, and Japan, +the labourers in every part of the Lord’s extended vineyard. I speak +of Monsignor Agliardi, because he has left the Institution, and is now +employed as Papal Delegate in the great Mission of India. But there are +others as devotedly performing such duties as his in the Propaganda. +There is no lack of attention, and I believe that all, both Bishops and +Priests, who have ever had occasion to visit the Institution, will say +that they have been forcibly struck with the genuine goodness, prudence, +learning, and general superiority of the officials employed in every +department of that Sacred Institution. + +It happens, by the care of the Popes, that only the very first men in +the Apostolic College are appointed Prefects over the Propaganda. The +men who occupied the position in this century alone will prove this. I +have never seen the late illustrious Cardinal Barnabo, but his fame +still lives in all the Churches. Before him lived the saintly Cardinal +Fransoni, and he was preceded by one who was taken from the position of +Prefect to ascend the throne of Peter in some of the most difficult days +that have tested a Pope’s peculiar worth in this most trying century. +The present illustrious man who governs the Propaganda was its Secretary +in the days of Cardinal Barnabo. He was taken from that position to +discharge most difficult diplomatic duties in Spain, and was afterwards +Secretary of State to Pius IX., in succession to the late celebrated +Cardinal Antonelli. In fact, his present Holiness looks often to the +officials of the Propaganda for his diplomatic agents in places where +rare tact, knowledge, and sanctity of life combined, are necessary; +and this has been manifested within the present year in the missions +confided to Monsignors Agliardi and Chiavoni in India and South America, +respectively. Monsignor Vanutelli, who represented the Pope at the +coronation of the Czar, and is now engaged in the difficult nunciature +of Lisbon, may be also said to be a member of the Propaganda, in the +service of which he discharged the duties of Archiepiscopal Legate at +Constantinople. + +Having now glanced at the nature and history of this Institution, we +shall take a rapid survey of the work it has done, and is doing, for the +world. + + + + +VII. + +WORK OF THE PROPAGANDA. + + +At the very first meeting of the Cardinals, held by order of Gregory +XV., to settle upon the means of forming the Sacred Congregation of the +Propaganda, it was resolved that the heads of all the religious orders +should be written to for statistics relative to the state of the missions +confided to their subjects in every part of the world. It was further +resolved that the papers of the Provisional Congregation called together +by Gregory XIII. should be obtained from the Bishop-Secretary. These two +acts established the identity of the Sacred Congregation with the vast +work carried on by the Roman Pontiffs for the spread of the Faith in +preceding ages, and especially with the work of those Cardinals called +in to assist Gregory XIII. The new Congregation set instantly to work at +the immense amount of labour placed upon its members. Its responsibility +was very great. It had to look to the East and to the West. The Church +in the lands once Catholic, now committed to its keeping, was everywhere +in ruins. Four-fifths of the population of the earth wandered still +“in darkness and in the shadow of death” outside the narrow boundaries +of Christendom. The interior of Africa remained a closed book to the +European, and within it millions groaned in slavery under rulers who +deemed it a sacred duty to offer human victims in thousands annually to +idols. Budha and Vishnu held half the human race captive. Savage hordes +wandered over the steppes of Asia, through the forests of America, +and peopled the innumerable islands of the Pacific with races almost +as destitute of the knowledge “of a God in this world” as the lower +animals upon which they subsisted. Where a semi-civilization created +caste-prejudice, as in India, or refined materialism, as in China, +mankind in its masses descended into depths of degradation still lower +and more worthy of commiseration than the wild tribes in savage life. +There was no mercy. The weak “went to the wall.” Little children were +slaughtered without pity, the poor were regarded as the accursed of +God, and the helpless were trampled upon without hesitation or remorse. +Islam had extended its ravages over the fair Christian States which once +extended from the Pillars of Hercules to the Red Sea, and from thence +through Syria to the waters of the Bosphorus. It was supreme in Persia, +and spread its Crescent over all the lands from the crests of the ranges +of Thibet to the Chersonesus. It had fixed its seat in the city of +Constantine, and its sway was undisputed throughout the Balkan Peninsula, +and in the Isles of Greece and of the Levant. + +One of the first duties of the new Sacred Congregation was to look after +those Christian peoples who yet retained any vestige of Christianity +in the nations subjected by Islam. They had become timid and abject +slaves under the persecuting lash of their masters. It was difficult for +missionaries to reach them at all, and then there was another difficulty +to be met with before Catholic missionaries could minister to them. + +The Orientals were generally schismatics of various rites and nations, +imbued with a fanatical hatred for the Church from which their fathers +had seceded. Great zeal was therefore needed amongst these sects. The +Missionaries of the Propaganda had to make their converts either from +Islam, which punished what it called apostasy, with terrible severity, +or from Christians made vile by ignorance and slavery in the lands of +their ruthless conquerors. Yet the grace of God prevailed to a wonderful +extent, and innumerable souls were reconciled and became Catholic. + +The Armenians, the Maronites, the Melchites, the Copts, the Nestorians +themselves, sometimes abandoned in a body, their errors and schisms, or +individually passed over to communion with the Holy See. In consequence, +to-day, we have a Roman Catholic Archbishop in Athens, another at +Naxos; and Catholic Bishops, Priests and flocks at Skio, Pinos, Andros, +Santoria and Lyra, and other places in schismatical modern Greece. In +the Turkish Empire in Europe and Asia, there are no less than sixty-six +dioceses of various grades at present, not including those in formation, +which amount to thirteen, under Vicars or Prefects Apostolic. The great +Christian Community of the Armenians have also, by the constant care +of the Propaganda, been kept in large measure from schism, and in the +graces which spring from union with the Church. Incredible pains have +been taken for the spread of the Faith in Egypt, Nubia, and the old +Christian State of Abyssinia. Apostolic prefectures have been established +in the remotest regions of Africa; and the spread of French and other +European influences in Algeria and Tunis promises to renew the Faith of +the great St. Augustine in the once fertile Christian Provinces which +he enlightened by word and pen when he ruled the famous See of Hippo. +A special congregation of Cardinals under the Cardinal Prefect devote +themselves to the numerous, difficult, and important questions which +arise from this department of the work of the Propaganda. Under it are +also two flourishing Colleges—one for the Greeks, and the other for +the Armenians—which latter was founded by Leo XIII. under the able and +zealous presidency of the late Cardinal Hassan. + +Further to the East, the Sacred Congregation directed during the period +which has passed from the opening efforts of St. Francis Xavier in India +and Japan, to our own days, the missionary enterprise of the Church. +Under its care, Jesuits, Dominicans, and Franciscans penetrated to China, +and worked the wonders we read of during the long reign of Kang-he, and +later on of Keen-lung. Innumerable and bloody were the persecutions +its Missionaries had to suffer there, as well as in Corea, Thibet, +Cochin-China, and other nations bordering upon the Celestial Empire. The +Propaganda, besides, looked with ceaseless solicitude upon the changing +fortunes of the missions in India, and nourished them amidst the wars and +diplomatic arrangements which transferred power from Portugal and France +to Great Britain, or to her East India Company of traders. In America +it never ceased to follow the tracks of the red man in his forests, and +those of the poor negro in his slavery. The history of Indian tribes +from Canada to Patagonia, is the history of its Missionaries, of their +labours, travels, and martyrdom. It sent with equal zeal its Apostolic +men to the islands of the Southern Seas, as these became known by the +exertions of successive explorers. And in those vast regions, where +barbarous or uncivilized man yet walks in the darkness of paganism and +idolatory, it never ceased its exertions until now its bishops may be +numbered by the hundred, its priests by the thousand, and its converts +by millions. In all, it spread the knowledge of Christ; and orphanages, +hospitals, schools, and other pious institutions, conducted by Catholic +brotherhoods and sisterhoods of various forms, now give to the pagan a +knowledge of the earnest zeal and devotion of genuine Christianity. + +But interesting, as this account is, of its labours—how easy and pleasing +it would be to prolong the record if time permitted!—it is not more +interesting than that of the work done by the Sacred Congregation for the +salvation of the nations which lapsed into heresy at the period of the +Reformation, and for the Faith in this country, and in every land that +speaks our language. + +If the Faith has again penetrated into Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, +and those Northern regions whence it was long banished by a vigilant and +persecuting heresy, it is owing entirely to the zeal of the Propaganda; +and we have only to recall the history of the Church in England, Ireland, +and Scotland, to know how sleepless was its care of our fathers exposed +to such long-continued persecution in the three kingdoms. Up to 1700, +the law of the land prohibited a Catholic priest to put his foot into +Scotland. Yet the few Scotch Catholic clans of the Highlands and the +still more scattered Catholic families of the Lowlands, were never +wholly without the ministrations of religion or the means of a Christian +education. We have only to look at the annals of these dreary but sadly +interesting times, to know that it was the care and the funds of the +Sacred Congregation that kept both priest and schoolmaster in this +country and so kept the Faith alive and in progress, until at length +it needed a Superior over the missions, and at last, a Bishop, to take +charge of the gradually increasing flock. The increase consequent upon +the influx of Irish immigrants who swelled the Church to the proportions +of greatness, continued to occupy the zealous attention of the +Propaganda, until at length the moment came when our present Holy Father +was enabled to restore to the land evangelized by Columba and Aidan, its +ancient Hierarchy. + +Ireland occupied so distinct a portion of the care of Propaganda, +that I have been frequently led to think the Sacred Congregation was +chiefly, if not entirely, occupied with her concerns. And Ireland indeed +deserved it all, for she has proved to be amongst all nations, far the +most faithful daughter of the Holy See. Since the days of the terrible +peace which followed the long struggle of Hugh O’Neill and O’Donnell for +her freedom, and her ancient Faith, the Propaganda applied its whole +energies to cure the woes of the Catholics of the country, to minister +to them and preserve their Faith. Not only during the brief interval of +national triumph secured by the Confederation of Kilkenny, when enormous +assistance was given to Ireland through the Legate, Cardinal Rinuccini, +but before and after that transient gleam of sunshine on the Church +in Ireland, the assistance given to the country by the Propaganda was +ceaseless. It took care that in Rome and out of Rome, in many Colleges +and Convents, her Clergy should be educated gratuitously. It gave large +and well sustained grants for education, the nature of which has been +shown by my own Archbishop, who was himself at one time Professor of +Hebrew at the Urban College, and had access to authentic documents +proving that point, which, as an Irishman, so much interested him.[25] + +His uncle, Cardinal Cullen, who besides being for many years Rector of +the Irish College in Rome, was also for a period Rector of the Urban +College of the Propaganda, has more than once evidenced the same. The +Propaganda, besides, found funds for the support as well as for the +education of the Clergy. And Ireland, I believe, is the only country +which, having Colleges of her own, both in Rome and in other countries, +obtained a right to a certain number of students in the Urban College. +Of this number, at various seasons, were many of the most distinguished +ecclesiastics of the Irish Church. Cardinal Cullen was a Propagandist, +and so was the late Delegate Apostolic to Canada, of whom the Irish +Church and Rome herself had such high hopes, Monsignor George Conroy, +Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois. + +In England, the history of its Church since the death of Elizabeth, is +inseparably bound up with the Propaganda. The unwearied care which it +bestowed upon that Church rendered so desolate by the action of the +rulers—not, we must always remember, of the people—surrounding Elizabeth +and James, is worthy of all attention. It never ceased that care from the +appointment of the first single Bishop till it saw the ordinary Hierarchy +of the country restored to something like its pristine glory. I need +not say, that with the same care it followed the children of Ireland, +who went forth to found the Churches of the United States, of British +Canada, of Australia, and the other dependencies of Great Britain. Even +at the present moment the Church in those regions, is not only equal to +what she had been in the foremost Catholic States of Europe, but the +wonderful zeal, energy, and generosity of her children, compensate for +what Catholicity loses in older States, through the action of the Infidel +Revolution. + +But besides the continued works of zeal which the Propaganda has never +ceased to foster since its foundation, there is another work which it +carries on just as ceaselessly. The Church needs not only to be founded, +but when founded in any locality or nation, it has to be administered and +cared for. This forms no small portion of the labour of the Propaganda. +The zeal of its missionaries in many lands, the providential increase +of the faithful in others, the self-arising return in response to the +invitation and grace of God, in the cases of individuals everywhere +within the borders of its jurisdiction, has rendered its work in our +own days far beyond what it was at the commencement, or for many years +afterwards. If we only consider the one duty of selecting the Bishops for +the various dioceses in these Islands, in Canada, the United States, and +Australia, we may form some idea of this work. We know how frequently +priests and people are much exercised with ourselves regarding these +appointments. Conflicting interests get at work. Public and private +affairs are effected. Interminable correspondence arises, for grave +issues are at stake. All this work must be settled by the Propaganda +before it is presented for final solution to the Vicar of Christ, with +whom of course rests the ultimate responsibility. Now, peoples of +whose affairs we know absolutely nothing, have interests as dear to +them, to be solved in the same way by the Propaganda. The Sees which +concern them spread from the rising to the setting of the Sun. Then +come questions affecting religious orders, in general and in detail. +Everywhere there are important interests to be settled or conciliated; +for it is wonderful how pious people can see the glory of God and the +good of souls in directions so very opposite one to the other; and the +more sincere and holy the parties on either side are, the more sure are +they to be obstinate, for reasons of the most conscientious kind. If the +Propaganda was not there with the patience and experience it possesses, +and with the power of the Supreme Pontiff at its back, there would be no +settlement for such disputes as sometimes arise between the most sincere, +devoted, and best intentioned people in the world. For what else but +an authority that cannot be disputed could settle issues between people +obstinate for conscience sake, and only too happy to endure martyrdom +for conviction. Such people in our midst, who are not Catholics, break +up the little section of Protestantism to which they belong into still +smaller fragments, whenever they happen to be much exercised by opposite +religious views; and hence we see over one church door the “Free Kirk,” +and over another “Kirk of Scotland.” Indeed a certain good soul who +became very solicitous for my own salvation invited me in a passenger +car to join the Church of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, established +in a suburb of London, in the year of Grace 1884. “Annual subscription +£1, to be paid quarterly in advance.” As I already belonged to a Church +of that title established in an upper room in Jerusalem in the year of +Grace 33, I declined the invitation. It was, I suppose, a miniature “Free +Kirk” which differed and broke off from some other, there being no one +to settle the difference. But all differences in the Catholic Church are +settled by an authority from which there is no appeal, and that authority +is exercised for four-fifths of this world, materially speaking, by +the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, with a patience, skill, and +knowledge which no words of mine could adequately express. + +And here you will permit me to quote what I wrote on this subject upon +another occasion on the Propaganda:— + + Over the minutest as well as the gravest concerns of the + immense expanse of its jurisdiction, the Propaganda has + always watched with a sleepless vigilance. Sustaining, with + an instinct and a power that must be surely largely infused + by the Holy Ghost, the divine principle of authority, it has + never been blind to the slightest manifestation of its abuse. + The humblest missionary, the humblest child wronged any where + in the vast extent of its care, is certain to receive from + its officials a just and a paternal hearing, and, if wronged, + is certain of redress. There is not, and there never was on + this earth, a tribunal more just, more patient, more kind to + all committed to its keeping. Then, too, it watches over the + interest of souls with constant assiduity. The most difficult + questions are daily submitted to its judgment, and find + invariably a solution which cannot be given except where the + Vicar of Christ reigns and rules. + + + + +VIII. + +THE PERSECUTIONS OF THE PROPAGANDA. + + +From all that we have seen of the designs of Atheism on last Monday +evening, we cannot be surprised that such an institution as the +Propaganda should be one of the principal objects of its hatred. And so +it has been ever since Atheism, through the organization of Freemasonary, +has had any power to persecute. It was amongst the very first of the +institutions of Rome which the French revolutionists attacked in the last +century. Napoleon, too, so far as in him lay, destroyed the whole of the +work of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide. He took possession +of the offices and buildings. He smashed the type formed for spreading +the Gospel through the whole earth. He carried off to Paris the rarest +and most valuable articles found in the museum and library. He suppressed +the famous Urban College with a lie in his mouth, namely, that it was +useless; and in his day, children from every nation under the sun were +seen in the city of the Popes no longer. He suppressed and plundered +the whole circle of great Missionary Colleges, which the zeal of the +Popes had founded for the many nations needing light. He did simply what +mischief he could do, and when the return of the Pope restored the work +of the Sacred Congregation in part, he, on his second coming, showed +himself no less an Antichrist against the spread, at least, of the Faith. +The students whom the first coming of the French had scattered, returned +soon after the restoration of the Pope, and settled at Monte Citorio. But +in 1809, Napoleon, having a second time taken Rome, at once suppressed +that second College; and to obliterate the memory of the beneficent work +of the Sacred Congregation, he destroyed the materials of the very type +destined to civilize the barbarous nations of the world by literature as +well as by the Gospel. + +The tyrant’s fall in 1814, however, not only liberated the aged, +suffering Vicar of Christ from the talons of the heartless Freemasons, +but also let the work of the Missions of the Catholic Church take their +ordinary course under the renewed zeal and care of the Cardinals of the +Propaganda. In 1817, the students returned to their old home; and soon +after, the various dependent National Missionary Colleges re-opened under +the zeal and fatherly care of the Popes. Under the Pontificate of Gregory +XVI. the Institution had not only its Colleges, but all its mighty +energies at work, as if no revolution had passed over the sacred city. It +continued with unabated energy to spread the Gospel as before, and daily +to open out new fields of missionary enterprise. But when the Freemasons +again got hold of Rome, all who know that the Freemasonry of our day is +as malignant as that of the time of Napoleon, knew that the days of the +Propaganda, so far as Freemasonry could affect it, were numbered. + +To give you an idea of what it now suffers I shall quote from the +_Tablet_ the exact state of the case:— + + “The landed property of Propaganda, in value about eighteen + million lire, has for a long time attracted the attention of + the Italian Government. As far back as 1873 a law was passed + forbidding land to be held in mortmain; but it was not until + VICTOR EMMANUEL was dead that the _Giunta Liquidatrice_ thought + of applying it to Propaganda. Early in 1880 the Giunta resolved + that the international character of the property of Propaganda + should protect it no longer, and accordingly offered the whole + of its lands for sale. Legal proceedings were then commenced, + and have been carried on with varying success from that + time till now. Beaten in the Court of Cassation, the Giunta + appealed, with well-founded confidence, to the Supreme Court, + and now it is finally decided that the Congregation is for + ever incapable of holding real property in Italy. If this were + all, it might seem that we had been over hasty in describing + as confiscation what in reality is only a forced conversion. + But confiscation is the only word which rightly fits the + appropriation to itself by the Government of more than half + the property to be dealt with. If the lands were merely sold, + the gain to the Government would not be apparent, and action + would probably never have been taken, though Propaganda might + well complain that Italian bonds were poor securities when + taken in exchange for Italian farms. But it has been arranged + that a tax of no less than thirty per cent. shall be charged + upon the whole amount of the property doomed to conversion. + Again, there is a transfer duty of four per cent., and six per + cent. for land tax, making in all forty per cent. Then, for + the benefit of the Government Ecclesiastical Fund—whatever + that may be—there is yet another duty, a progressive tax, + beginning at fifteen per cent. on 10,000 francs revenue, and + going up to forty per cent. on larger sums. The result of + this scarcely-disguised spoliation is to strike a blow at the + Church, the full force of which can hardly yet be measured.” + +The _Appunti_, already referred to, vainly striving to obtain justice, +thus speaks:— + + “If the Government, therefore, does not wish to show clearly + to all that the pretended guarantees guarantee nothing, as + is evident from other sources, it must abstain from limiting + in any fashion the free possession of those means which are + destined to the exercise of its great office. But whatever its + aggressions are, and whatever device it may adopt to oppress + the Holy See, it is well it should be known that the Apostolate + among the infidels is a natural and a divine right, and, at the + same time, a binding duty of the Pontiff, for the exercise of + which he needs absolutely to have at hand the pecuniary means + free from the supervision of the State. + + “The _Appunti_ meet the argument that there is no injury done + by the forced conversion, as follows: ‘But it may be urged that + the freedom of the ministry entrusted to the Propaganda incurs + no loss by the sale of its estate, seeing that it has the free + disposal of the amount inscribed in the _Gran Libro_. Now, let + us repeat it again, does not the payment of this income depend + entirely on the good will and the solvency of the Italian + Government? If it were to fail, many large and necessary + missionary establishments would suffer; and, what is more + important, the very centre from which emanates the action for + diffusing the Gospel throughout the world, would be so weakened + as to be unable to supply its most ordinary undertakings.’ + + “The _Appunti_ then shows what the nature of the extraordinary + expenses of the Propaganda are: ‘Besides the ordinary expenses, + which are many and very heavy, the Propaganda has continually + to come to the aid of the extraordinary needs of the various + missions. Taking only, for instance, the decade from 1860 + to 1870, a good two millions of capital were consumed in + extraordinary grants; and if these had failed, besides other + evils, the Constantinople mission would have died out, for + whose rescue it was necessary to expend over a million and a + half. With these funds were saved large numbers of Christians + during the recent famines in China and Tonquin; and recently, + after the sale, _pendente lite_, of Propaganda property by + the Royal Commissioners, if extraordinary resources had not + been obtained from abroad, no aid could have been given to the + missions in Egypt, Central Africa, the Christian communities of + India, China, and Oceania, tried by terrible disasters.’” + +The above remonstrance would be simply laughed at by the party in power +in Italy if it were not supported by force from without. Indeed the only +concern the Italian Government showed was lest Catholics outside Italy +should insist on their clear rights to the possession of the funds of +the Propaganda. The Infidel inner circle, of which I spoke so much to +you last Monday evening, have long determined on the destruction of the +Propaganda and all its missionary work. Antichrist has no greater enemy. +The destruction of the Temporal Power, the disbanding of the religious +orders, the whole system of disintegration and persecution to which +they determined to subject the Church and the Vicar of Christ, would be +useless so long as the Propaganda remained at its work, sustaining and +propagating Christianity—and earnest, fervent Christianity, too—in the +world. + +Next, therefore, to the spoliation of the Holy Father’s temporal +dominions and the spoliation and suppression of the Religious Orders, +there was nothing the Freemasons in power now in Italy desired more than +the suppression of the Propaganda. But the necessity of going somewhat +moderately and cautiously to work, in order the more efficaciously +to succeed, has forced the Italian Freemasons to proceed with the +suppression of the Propaganda in the circuitous, stealthy manner sketched +out at the commencement. They have succeeded in causing the Executive of +the Sacred Congregation to go to law with them in the Masonic Courts of +Italy—“going to law with the devil and the court held in hell.” Somehow, +an intermediate sentence was given in favour of the Institution. But +how little the Freemasons in power valued this, was manifested by the +fact, that before the appeal made by themselves against that sentence +was decided, they actually disposed of some of the real property of the +Institution. The whole thing appears to me to have been no more than the +merest farce. They knew what the final result of the law proceedings +would be. All they required was that the Church should acknowledge a +local tribunal by contending with them, instead of appealing at once +to the world against a flagrant act of injustice attempted against +international right. Governments then wishing to shelve a difficulty +with the Italian Ministry, could allege that it was an internal Italian +question, admitted to be so by the aggrieved parties, who appealed to +local tribunals, with which, of course, externs could not interfere. + +So at least the question has been dealt with by our own Government; but +most unjustly. If the Cardinals of the Propaganda contended for the +rights of the Institution before the tribunals of Italy, that contention, +no matter how it may have eventuated, could not affect the parties +interested in the right. And who are the parties interested in the funds +of the Propaganda. Is it the Italian people? Decidedly not. There is not +a people in the world who are less interested in the funds and in the +work of the Propaganda than the Italian people. In fact, the founders and +the endowers of the Propaganda founded and endowed it, on the condition +implied by their acts, and expressed by the very terms of the endowment, +that their money should be applied for the benefit of those who should +not live in Italy. The inheritors of these funds are foreigners to Italy, +and amongst these foreigners there are no people more wronged by the +action of the _de facto_ Italian Government, than the Catholic subjects +of Her Britannic Majesty. + + + + +IX. + +THE PRESENT STATE OF THE CASE. + + +We shall see this by considering its foundation. Who, then, first founded +the Propaganda? The man who gave the ground upon which it stands, and +the palace in which its work is carried on, was not an Italian. His +money did not come from Italy. He was a Spaniard, and the representative +at Rome of the Sovereign of the Netherlands. He formed the foundation +of the whole institution, and all subsequent lands and moneys given +to it were to carry out his intentions. His money was taken, and his +intentions were solemnly guaranteed by the legitimate Sovereign of Rome +at the period. They have been respected for two hundred and sixty years. +I ask, can it be right now for the Italian Government to take his money, +to sell his lands and houses, to put the proceeds of his funds into its +own vinculated, uncertain bonds, and in the process steal the half of +the proceeds. This seems to me such a gross perversion of international +right, that I believe if Spain was not dominated over by the same sect of +Freemasons as rule Italy, she would force the Italian Ministry and King +Humbert to disgorge the property left by Monsignor John Baptist Vives for +the Propagation of the Catholic Faith. + +The injustice of the forced sale of the houses, lands, and rents left by +a Spaniard for the extension of the Gospel, in trust to Italy, is only +equalled by a like act of injustice done in the case of an Irishman, +and a Priest of the City of Dublin, Father Michael Doyle, of the Church +of SS. Michael and John, Arran Quay. Believing that his poor country +would be benefited by having a certain number of its priests trained in +the Urban College, he made an agreement with the authorities in Rome to +give them a sum of money amounting to no less than £5,000 sterling, for +the perpetual education of Irish-born missionary priests for Ireland. +This was in the year 1825. His money was taken, and well invested by +the Cardinals of the Propaganda; and since, several most useful and +distinguished Irish priests have been educated on the proceeds. Here is +surely, if ever there was, an international arrangement lawfully and +equitably concluded. But what do the Italians do? They take this dead +British subject’s money and the increase which belongs to it. They sell +out the property bought for it. They put half the proceeds in their +pocket, and the rest they leave in “vinculated” Italian bonds, to be +disowned whenever the time comes to reduce or do away with income from +that source in Italy. + +I am certain that Mr. Gladstone, whose just and generous mind recoils +from deceit of any kind, especially in purely commercial matters, would +never have said that the Propaganda was an internal institution of Italy +subject to Italian laws, if he duly considered the nature of these two +cases of John Baptist Vives of Spain, and Father Michael Doyle, of Arran +Quay, in the good City of Dublin. I believe he has not heard of them, +for I remember Mr. Gladstone to have made a remark in reply, I think, to +Mr. O’Donnell, that the general Italian character of the Propaganda, as +he called it, could not be effected by a charitable “subscription.” Now, +surely no man calls an ordinary commercial agreement a “subscription.” +Father Doyle goes to the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda and makes +a bargain with him for the perpetual education of a certain number of +his countrymen—by the way he stipulated that some of them should be +his relatives,—and the Cardinal Prefect takes his money. The Sovereign +of Rome fiats the contract. That honest Sovereign carries it out to +the letter. But the Italians come in who are not honest; they steal +one-half of Father Doyle’s money; they put the other half in Italian +“vinculations.” The result is that Father Doyle’s countrymen and +relations cannot be educated. They—British subjects as they are—are +simply robbed. And can it be believed by the generation that thinks +nothing of many millions for the relief of a British subject in Khartoum, +that when our Government is asked to make a gentle remonstrance to the +Freemasons who have stolen Father Doyle’s hard earnings it answers:—“We +really cannot interfere. The Italians are our very good friends. And as +to the money of Father Doyle, why that was only a ‘subscription!’” + +The case of Father Doyle is far from being the only case. To my +knowledge, another ecclesiastic, now living, gave £1,000 for the +education of a student in the Urban College. He meant most assuredly that +his money should be spent for the one purpose he intended. When it comes +out that £450 of his thousand has gone into the pocket of King Humbert +and Co., and that £550 has been “vinculated” prior to being swallowed in +the same way, will his Government in England turn round and tell him, +“Oh, you only gave a subscription!” If Mr. Gladstone put his fortune +into United States Bonds for the benefit of his family, and that the +Government of the United States put half that fortune in its pocket and +the rest into “vinculated” bonds of the same value as the vinculated +Church bonds of Italy, how would our admirable Premier be pleased if +told that his contract was only a “subscription?” It is exactly such +“subscriptions” that the Freemasons of Italy have stolen by manipulating +the moneys of British subjects. Is England afraid or powerless to demand +redress? If so, _Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis_ indeed! + +And then, not only such money as that of Vives and Father Doyle, but all +the money the Propaganda ever got was given for the benefit of countries +which were outside Italy. The magnificent gifts of Cardinal Barberini, +whose revenues, by the way, came from Church sources outside, as well as +inside of Italy, were given for the benefit of the Eastern nations, whose +various rites I have already referred to. Have these poor people not a +right to the benefit of his legacy now, as well as at any past period? +Does their weakness make the right anything the less? Twenty-three +priests are educated for them at the present moment. When the estates +which does this blessed work are sold for a song by Italian Freemasons +to other Italian Freemasons—Freemasons alone are likely to buy them—and +when half the proceeds are pocketted by the men in power, and the other +half goes into “vinculated” Italian bonds, how will it fare with the poor +Churches of the Orientals, dependent for educated Priests upon the grand +charity of the Propaganda? Surely the ruthless horde of barbarians who +have laid violent hands upon the States of the Church must be devoid of +all shame, of all honour, of all manhood, when they descend to such mean +sacrilege. I think a man would prefer, if he were a man, to command a +troop of banditti than a Ministry and a Parliament capable of staining +themselves with such mean, such cowardly, such heartless theft. + +Now, if Melchites and Circassians, Copts and Maronites, are thus pillaged +by the spoliation of the Propaganda, so to a far larger extent are the +subjects of Her Most Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria. And how? The +funds of the Propaganda were given principally for the benefit of her +Catholic subjects in Ireland, in Great Britain, in Canada, in Australia, +in the vast extent of India, in the West Indian Islands, in the Army, in +the Navy, in the great military stations, and wherever, in fact, she has +subjects. + +In all this vast expanse of territory, the government and care of the +Catholic Church is carried on by the Propaganda. Not only are many of the +clergy educated for these countries in its Urban and other subservient +Colleges, but the whole education of the Clergy is looked after, the +Bishops and Archbishops are selected, the Dioceses are regulated, +Orphanages, Convents, Hospitals, Schools, and Institutions of beneficence +are created and superintended by it. The whole work of the Catholic +Church, in one word, is done through its instrumentality alone, in all +the dominions of Her Britannic Majesty. + +Now, if the existing funds of this institution are taken, the Catholic +subjects of Her Majesty must supply others, and the action of the Italian +Government in taking these funds, consequently, puts a heavy burden on +the subjects of Her Majesty, which they ought not to be asked to bear, in +order simply to put money into the Italian Treasury. + +They ought not be asked to bear such a burden, because they have a strict +right in justice to the funds of the Propaganda, which, even when they +were not given by British subjects or by other than Italian subjects +or Princes, were always absolutely given for the intention that the +Propaganda may be able to do the work, of which the administration of the +Catholic Church in the dominions of Her Majesty forms an integral portion. + +It is evident, then, that no matter who gave the funds of the +Propaganda, they were given lawfully and justly and according to the +existing laws of Italy at the period, for our benefit. We received that +benefit uninterruptedly for over two hundred years, and it is monstrous +that we should be now deprived of a long existing, acknowledged right, +by the violation of a clear international obligation on the part of the +Italian Government. + +Now to show that what I here state is perfectly just, a striking +exemplification was given by one matter connected intimately with the +spoliation I speak of. After the final sentence was pronounced by an +Italian Masonic Court, the Italian Government proceeded, as a first +step, to sell a College dependent upon the Propaganda. It happened, +however, that this College did not belong to Copts or Maronites who had +no Government to assert their rights, or to Catholic subjects of Her +Majesty who might be told about “subscriptions.” It belonged to a people +who, when abroad, know that they have a country ready to defend them +against whoever may choose to rob them, insult them, or injure them. This +College was possessed by the Catholics of a country called the United +States of America—a country which happens to be pretty well known to the +Italian Government. It is a Republic, supposed to be very Protestant, for +it sends missionaries, largely supplied with Bibles and coppers for the +“conversion” of poor people in the slums of some large towns in Italy. +The Italian Masonic Government, who laugh at the anti-Catholic fanaticism +of the English and American nations, thought, therefore, that it could +deal with the Catholic subjects of the United States just as it might +with the Catholic subjects of England. It considered that the bigotry of +the zealous Methodism of New York and Massachusetts would be only too +glad to hear that the resources of “Babylon” were being swallowed up by +the Freemasons of Italy. Accordingly the walls of Rome were plastered +with large placards announcing the sale of the North American College. +Now, if the Italians had ever a right to sell any property belonging +to the Propaganda, it was this College. It was a free gift on the part +of Pius IX., for which no consideration whatever had been asked from +the American Catholic people or Bishops. It was given only a few years +previously, and had been before a Convent for religious. Moreover, +the Pope never gave the fee-simple of the premises to the American +Catholics. That remained vested absolutely in the Propaganda. The house +was therefore as much the property of the Sacred Congregation as that +which it received by legal transfer from Monsignor John Baptist Vives. +In attempting its sale, the Italian Government thought rightly that no +more favourable point could be seized upon by which to manifest their +“right to do wrong” to the property of the Propaganda. The Catholics of +America had given “no consideration.” There was no deed of transfer to +them. That had been asked and refused by the Pope. The buildings were +only a few years previously the property of the Papal Government, which +the Freemasons supplanted. It was a test case, indeed. Let us see how it +ended? + +The moment the Cardinal Archbishop of New York heard that the College of +his Catholic fellow-countrymen was about being touched by the Italians, +he despatched his zealous and able Coadjutor at once to Washington with a +letter to the Government of his country. That Government, Protestant as +it was, at once recognised that a right lawfully acquired—though without +consideration or subscription, or deed of transfer—of American Catholic +citizens was about being violated. Did they talk about “Italian laws” or +“subscriptions,” or “Italian internal affairs not concerning outsiders?” +Did they seek, subterfuge, evasion, or delay for the purpose of making +necessary inquiries? Far from it. Instantly there flashed across the +Atlantic to the United States Embassy at the Quirinal, instructions to +tell the Italian Government that it would touch the interests which +American citizens had acquired in Rome at its peril, and demanding +instant cessation of the sale of the North American College. There was no +further parley about the matter. The Ministry of King Humbert knew that +Uncle Sam had ironclads, and could make his arm felt upon Italian ports +and in Italian waters. And what was the consequence? Well! Such American +citizens as were then in Rome had the satisfaction of knowing that they +had a country. They had the satisfaction of seeing, one hour after the +ultimatum of the United States Government was received, a number of +employes of the Italian Government running about the streets with ladders +and water buckets and carefully rubbing away from the walls every vestige +of the placards which announced the sale of the Catholic North American +College of the Propaganda. The College remains, and will continue to +remain unmolested, for the Americans have a Government not afraid of +Italy. + +In the face of this fact I assure you that we British subjects then in +Rome felt and looked very small indeed. The Propaganda, we knew, belonged +to us by rights as sacred certainly, as the portion of it exclusively +appertaining to North America belonged to the United States. It was +handed over for our benefit by legal deeds of transfer. It was ours. It +had absolutely nothing to do with Italy. It had everything to do with +us. It was always so considered by the Popes. Outside its own limits +it has positively no jurisdiction in Rome or in any part of Italy. +Its funds were contributed for us and to us, and to that portion of +the world—always outside Italy—committed to its care. Its spoliation +was clearly, even if none of our money was in it, a violation of our +most justly acquired legitimate rights, unquestioned and in action for +generations. + +We expected some effort would be made by our rulers for us. We expected +some representations, more gentle, perhaps, than those made by the +President of the proud Union, but, as we thought, with some reason, +not less efficacious, would be made by our Government. We confidently +predicted that such would be the case. But we were bitterly disappointed. +Our bishops in a body made representations far more energetic and +explicit than Cardinal M’Closky or his Coadjutor made to Washington; +but nothing came of them. The Catholics of the United States had a +country. We felt that we had a country but in name, which for one reason +or another treated us as stepchildren or outcasts, or worse and more +humiliating still, was impotent to help us in our need. + +Yet I believe that this policy of the Ministry would not, if the case +were fully understood, be endorsed by our non-Catholic fellow-citizens. I +am sure a very large proportion of them would deem the complete inaction +of the Government, not wise, or sound policy—certainly not the policy +of the British Lion that used to be, in cases of the violation of the +rights of British citizens, so potent once. I am sure they will feel +for and with us when they come to understand that it is a question of +unjustifiable interference with rights lawfully acquired by British +subjects in a foreign nation which are interfered with by that nation. +I am sure of this from the feeling which would, I know, possess myself, +if, for instance, the Government of France, or any other Government, +induced any body of my Protestant fellow-countrymen to acquire in +France legitimate interests for their religious necessities, and that +upon the coming into power in that same country of another form of +Government, monarchical or republican, such incoming government should +have confiscated the rights so acquired by my fellow-countrymen. If, +for instance, the Wesleyans of England established a training-school +for health or other reasons, say in the south of France. If they were +permitted to do so by the lawful government of that country. If the +funds of that institution were recruited from Wesleyans in England, +in the United States and all the world over. If the Wesleyans had the +free use of that sanatorium for a number of years, and depended upon it +for the training of their choice ministers, and for the management of +their affairs. If their Moderator happened to be a Frenchman, and needed +such an institution for the government of their body. If they could not +dispense with it without serious loss and money outlay; and all this +because the new Government of France had decided that such establishment +should perish. If in pursuance of this law such Government proceeded, +as France did actually at the Revolution, to confiscate all religious +rights, and amongst the rest the legitimately acquired rights of English +Wesleyans, I know that I would expect that the most strenuous efforts of +the rulers of England should never cease until France was taught that +while she might plunder the interests of Frenchmen as long as Frenchmen +let her, she should desist from such a course when the question came +of plundering the rights of English citizens lawfully and peacefully +acquired. I am certain there is not a Catholic in the land who would +not feel aggrieved at the injury thus inflicted on his unoffending +fellow-citizens, and who would not move with them until the wrong +insolently inflicted in defiance of international rights was redressed. + + + + +X. + +MEASURES TO MEET THE DIFFICULTY. + + +Speaking of these, I am yet sanguine that our rulers will open their +eyes to see the grievance which Catholic British subjects suffer in +the spoliation of the Propaganda. For my part I cannot altogether +blame the Ministry. I think we have not pressed the matter upon them +sufficiently, and they need, and, indeed, invite this kind of pressure. +I know, too, that they are much disinclined to disoblige Italy, which +the great Whig leader, Lord Palmerston, formed, though, as we have seen +last Monday evening, for motives very much other than the real good of +England. Still English Statesmen have had proof enough of what they may +expect from “United Italy” since its formation. And I am persuaded, +notwithstanding seeming favourable symptoms regarding Egyptian affairs, +that England is destined to experience still more of the nature of +Italian Masonic “gratitude.” I think I know the feelings of the party now +ruling in Italy. It is perfectly intolerant of English domination in the +Mediterranean, and would, if it could, give a blow to her rule in Malta, +in Cyprus, in Gibraltar, and in Egypt to-morrow. Masonic Italy is best +kept in order by wholesome fear, and had England shown a bold front in +favour of the rights of British subjects involved in the spoliation of +the Propaganda, she would have obtained, I firmly believe, much more from +the respect her conduct would inspire than she will ever get from the +love of Piedmontese Freemasons. There is also something in the blessing +of God which follows the doing of the right thing for the oppressed, and +perhaps much more will be soon lost to the nation by the want of this +blessing in the conduct of Egyptian affairs than ever could be gained +by siding with the heartless violation of British international rights +by the Freemasons, now working their unholy will upon the city and the +property of the Popes. + +On this subject I had in London lately a long conversation with a great +and good Catholic Irish Statesman, Mr. A. M. Sullivan. He was, of course, +acquainted with the fact of the spoliation of the Propaganda, but he only +knew in part the nature of the injustice. When I laid that fully before +him he suggested that I should deliver such a lecture as I have given +this evening upon it, and he promised to take the chair at that lecture, +and to speak also himself upon the matter, as he of all living Irishmen +could best do. He had, I must say, great faith in the justice and spirit +of fair play characteristic of Mr. Gladstone, and he believed that if +the great Premier were properly approached by the Irish Parliamentary +Party, he would use his influence to have the injustice done to us by the +Italian Freemasons removed. He thought it, perhaps, difficult to get back +lands already sold, but he also thought that the men in power in Italy +would surely yield to the pressure of England and liberate the vinculated +bonds, thus at least saving us a portion of our property. He thought +the case of Father Michael Doyle, one which no Government could refuse +to recognise, while that of the other donors to the same institution, +whether Spanish or of any other nation, was equally strong. I grieve that +this good man is gone from our midst whilst the injustice I complain of, +and which he would willingly have removed, lives on; but I feel myself +bound to give utterance not only to my own but to his sentiments, however +feebly, regarding the merits of a case for redress, although in itself +it is all-powerful. + +Our duty is to seek this redress if only to save our national honour. But +come what may, I believe that all who have heard what I have stated this +evening will agree that it is our duty to save at any cost an institution +so valuable and so necessary to us. By it, we reach and save the Heathen. +By it, we comfort the sadly oppressed Oriental Catholic, still groaning +under the oppression of the Mahometan. By it, we carry on the vast +machinery of the Church of God in three-fourths of the entire world. +As Catholics, we can never permit Italian Freemasonry to destroy it. +We must sustain it; and how can we? Lately, on hearing the news of its +Spoliation, an Italian noble, faithful to the traditions of his princely +house, gave us an example. He left it several thousand pounds which +the Italian Freemasons tried to prevent the Propaganda receiving, but +failed. It is for us who benefit by the Institution to follow so noble an +example. It is a way by which everyone blessed with worldly wealth may +make a most useful protest against the Spoliation, and at the same time +contribute to the continuation of the work of the Sacred Congregation. It +can find for twenty times the wealth it had at any time, immense fields, +yet unexplored by the Christian Missionary. I do say that no one ought +permit a shilling to go where an Italian Freemason can manage to steal +it, but money for the Propaganda can be left in trust to one’s Bishop or +Archbishop, as the case may be, and, as the testator may direct, that +money can be applied either in a lump sum, or still better, as principal, +producing interest, for the purposes of the Propaganda. It will then +go surely and safely to its destination. I indicate this as one way by +which God’s people may help a work so worthy. There are many other ways +which the generosity of the faithful will easily discover. But there +is one unfailing means which all, even the very poorest, can employ to +assist the great Institution in the day of its need. That is by fervently +praying to God, through the intercession of His Blessed, Immaculate, +Virgin Mother, that the pride of the infidel may cease, and that the +elect of the Lord may be liberated; that counsel, and love, and strength +may reign amongst the faithful of Christ; and that surrounding His Vicar +in a spirit of filial unity, they may show an unbroken, intelligent +front to the foe, and so sustain the grandest cause ever given by God to +man to support on earth—the cause of Christian Faith and Civilization, +now imperilled by the most deadly enemies of the Cross that have ever +appeared in this world. + + + + +NOTE. + + +The following statement is taken from the second edition of the +_Persecutions Suffered by the Catholics of Ireland Under the Rule of +Cromwell and the Puritans_, by the Most Rev. Patrick Francis Moran, D.D., +Archbishop of Sydney. Dublin: 1884. Appendix ii., p. 464:— + + The many links that for centuries have united Ireland with the + Holy See are familiar to our Irish readers. Even during the + persecution of Elizabeth we find our country engaging Rome’s + special care. Pro-nuncios were despatched to her shores, to + guard and defend the interests of the Catholic faith; her + children, who rose in arms to assert her rights, received from + Rome not only words of encouragement but funds to aid their + cause; and when her clergy were persecuted and imprisoned, the + Holy Father not only stretched out to them an assisting hand, + but by repeated briefs solicited the mediation of foreign + princes, that the rigour of the persecution might be relaxed, + and the captives restored to liberty.[26] + + During the period of which we treated in the preceding pages, + at the very commencement of the struggle of the Confederates, + the saintly Scarampo was sent to encourage them, and guide them + by his counsels. Later still, we find the Nuncio Rinuccini sent + on a like mission, besides being the bearer of ample subsidies. + At every stage of their momentous proceedings, letters were + sent from Rome to the French and Spanish monarchs, as well as + to the minor princes of Germany and Italy, exhorting them to + lend their aid to the Irish nation; whilst other letters were + from time to time transmitted to the bishops and confederate + leaders, rejoicing with them in their triumph, condoling in + their afflictions, healing their dissensions, and exhorting + them to union and constancy in the cause of justice and + religion. + + It would be easy to give further instances of the solicitude of + the Holy See for its faithful children; and to record the many + letters of exhortation and encouragement which were addressed + to the citizens of Dublin, and others, during their long + struggles and sufferings in the cause of religion and their + king; but we reserve them for another occasion, not wishing to + extend this note to too great a length. + + We shall merely state for the present that during the interval + of Cromwell’s triumph, we find the assistance of the Holy + See bountifully given to the banished clergy and people; and + immediately after the restoration, letters were again addressed + to all the Catholic powers, praying them “to commission their + respective ambassadors at the English Court to defend and + protect the interest of the poor Catholics of Ireland, and + especially of the priests who were imprisoned for the faith in + many parts of that kingdom.”[27] + + Thirty years later, when the sword of persecution was again + unsheathed against the Irish Catholics, the Pope was still + their unflinching advocate. Remittances were yearly sent from + Rome to the Court of St. Germain for the relief of the Irish + exiles, whilst additional aid was bountifully supplied to + the banished and persecuted members of the Hierarchy. In the + Vatican archives we find it registered that 72,000 francs were + then annually supplied by Rome for the support of the Irish + secular clergy and laity; on the 15th of July, 1698, we find + an additional remittance of 23,655 livres for the religious + who were banished from Ireland. Instructions were, moreover, + sent to the Nuncios in the foreign Courts to give every + protection and aid to the Irish Cathodes; and even a jubilee + was proclaimed in Italy to solicit the prayers and alms of + the faithful of that country for our suffering people. In the + month of January, 1699, we meet with a list of 27,632 livres + received from the Holy Father, and distributed to various + Irish ecclesiastics who had lately taken refuge in France + and Belgium. In the month of February there is another list + of 11,832 livres similarly distributed; and in March, as we + learn from a letter of the Nuncio in Paris to Cardinal Spada + (dated 9th March, 1699), 53,000 livres were sent by the Pope + to St. Germain, and distributed by King James to “the Irish + ecclesiastics then sent into exile.” There is another list + dated from St. Germain, 29th March, 1699, which we give entire. + Its details must be peculiarly interesting to our readers:— + + “To Mr. Magennis, Superior to the College des Lombards 1,200 + + To do. do. to be distributed amongst the Irish + Missioners 1,200 + + To Mr. Nolan, Superior of another Irish Community in + Paris for the support of the poor students in his + community 1,000 + + To Mr. O’Donnell for the Irish nuns in Ipres 1,000 + + To the almoner of the Queen for the use of the + Community of poor Irish girls at St. Germain 500 + + To Father Nash, an Irish Franciscan, for some members + of his Order 41 + + To various other religious 99 + + To the confessor of the Queen for a young ecclesiastical + student 150 + + To Mr. Burke, chaplain to the Queen, for an Irish + Carmelite 60 + + Set apart for four missioners coming from Ireland 600 + + To a poor Irish officer who has a wife and six children 150 + + In all, six thousand scudi.” + + Again, on the 8th of June, 1699, the secretary of the king, + writing from St. Germain, acknowledges the receipt, from the + Holy Father, “of 37,500 livres to be distributed amongst his + subjects, persecuted for their faith.” + + When, about the middle of the eighteenth century, the enemies + of Catholicity had recourse to new arts to assail the + time-honoured faith of our nation, and sought to poison the + sources of instruction of our Catholic youth, the Holy See was + again ready, not only with its exhortations and counsels, but + also with its pecuniary aid to support Catholic poor-schools + through the country, and from that time to the close of the + century, when the Pope was momentarily deprived of his states + and driven into exile, 1,000 Roman crowns were annually + transmitted to our bishops for that purpose. + + Thus were the Roman Pontiffs at every period the fathers of + our country, the guardians of our persecuted people, the + support of our exiled clergy. “The blessings of faith were + transmitted to us by the Popes, not only as the successors of + St. Peter, but as sovereigns of Rome; and when an opportunity + is given Catholic Ireland of making them some return, it would + be strange, indeed, if she did not gratefully remember the + services rendered in her hour of distress.”[28] + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +[24] Monsigneur Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, on the “Temporal +Sovereignty of the Popes.” Paris, 1849. + +[25] _At the end (page 73) will be found a brief statement on this +matter._ + +[26] Several of these invaluable documents may be seen in the +_Spicilegium Ossoriense_, vol. ii. + +[27] “Affinchè vogliano incaricare i loro ambasciadori e ministri nella +corte d’Inghilterra di diffendere e proteggere gl’interessi dei poveri +Cattolici d’Irlanda, e particolarmente dei sacerdoti carcerati per la +fede in diverse parti del regno.”—Acts of Sac. Cong., 22 May, 1662. + +[28] Rev. D. M’Carthy’s _Recollections on Irish Church History_, vol. i., +p. 320. + + + + +_ADVERTISEMENT._ + + +THE VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOOD COUNSEL, + +A HISTORY + +OF THE ANCIENT SANCTUARY OF OUR LADY OF GOOD COUNSEL IN GENAZZANO, AND OF +THE WONDERFUL APPARITION AND MIRACULOUS TRANSLATION OF HER SACRED IMAGE +FROM SCUTARI IN ALBANIA TO GENAZZANO IN 1467. + +With an APPENDIX on the MIRACULOUS CRUCIFIX, SAN PIO, ROMAN +ECCLESIASTICAL EDUCATION, Etc. + +BY + +MONSIGNOR GEORGE F. DILLON, D.D., + +MISSIONARY APOSTOLIC. + +(A VISITOR FROM SYDNEY TO THE SHRINE.) + + Large Edition, Printed at the Propaganda Press, Rome, Imperial + 8vo, nearly 700 pages, in fine type, beautifully bound in cloth. + (The ordinary edition (price 12s. 6d.) is all sold out.) + Ditto, fine paper edition in superior binding (only a few left) 16s. + Ditto, in Morocco, rich (suitable as presentation copies) 30s. + +The large demand for the above has caused the author to prepare a New +Edition in a more popular form. This will be shortly published by M. H. +GILL & SON, Dublin, and will be sold, handsomely bound in cloth, at 5s. + + LONDON: BURNS & OATES, ORCHARD STREET. + DUBLIN: M. H. GILL & SON, SACKVILLE STREET. + NEW YORK: BURNS & OATES. + +_The whole profits arising from the sale of both these works, as well +as the profits from the present work on the War of Antichrist with +the Church, &c., have been given over by the Author to the Right Rev. +Monsignor Kirby, D.D., Bishop of Lita, Rector of the Irish College, Rome, +for the benefit of the suffering Nuns in Italy, now despoiled of all +their property by the existing Italian Government. For some account of +the sufferings of these afflicted servants of God, see end of present +notice, page 13._ + +The Author has been honoured with the following letters from His Holiness +Pope Leo XIII., and from Cardinal Simeoni, Prefect of the Sacred +Congregation of the Propaganda:— + + Our Most Holy Lord Leo XIII. received the copy of the volume + presented by you, in which you give in the English language + the history of the ancient Sanctuary of the Virgin Mother of + God, situated in the town of Genazzano, in the diocese of + Palestrina, and which is venerated with the greatest piety by + the faithful and by the constant concourse of devout pilgrims. + As in this work the Holy Father perceives not only the evidence + of your filial duty but also the affection of religious piety + by which you study to advance the honour of God’s Mother, he + deems your counsel and service acceptable and pleasing, and + desires that by this my letter you should receive a pledge + of his paternal love and commendation. The Supreme Pontiff + moreover hopes that the salutary fruits which at this time + are so much to be desired, may respond to your wishes, and + that those who read your writings may be moved to implore the + protection of the Mother of God for the Church which, amidst + the many adversities by which it is oppressed, places the + utmost confidence in Her. Finally, granting your prayer, Our + Most Holy Lord, in testimony of his paternal benevolence and + in presage of all celestial graces, most lovingly in the Lord + imparts to you the Apostolic Benediction. + + While I rejoice to convey to you these tidings I willingly take + the occasion offered me of professing to you the sincere esteem + by which from my heart I am + + Your devoted Servant, + + CHARLES NOCELLA, + Secretary for Latin Letters to + Our Most Holy Lord Leo XIII. + + Rome, May 27th, 1884. + + Rome, May 17th, 1884. + Office of the Sacred Congregation + of the Propaganda Fide. + + I have received with particular satisfaction the book entitled, + THE VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOOD COUNSEL, etc., which you, while + constrained to repose for some time in order to re-establish + your health impaired by your missionary labours, have written + during your sojourn in Rome. + + It is in every way worthy of a good ecclesiastic and of a + zealous missionary to cultivate love for Most Holy Mary and to + propagate devotion to Her, and as you have laboured for these + ends by writing the history of one of the most celebrated + Sanctuaries of Italy, I must rejoice with you in the result, + and I hope that I shall have the pleasure of seeing your holy + intentions happily crowned with success. + + You have also added in an appendix to your work wise + observations upon the Roman education of the clergy, and have + referred opportunely to the institution of the Propaganda and + its salutary influence over the entire world. This also has + proved to me the excellent spirit with which you are animated, + and I feel assured that the sentiments which you manifest will + always serve to render yet closer the bonds which unite the + faithful of all countries to the Roman See, the Mother and + Mistress of all Churches. + + Finally, I return you thanks for the gift which you have made + me of this your admirable work, and I pray the Lord, through + the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, whom you have desired + to honour by its means, to grant you His choicest benedictions. + + Most affectionately yours, + + JOHN CARDINAL SIMEONI, + Prefect of the S. C. of the Propaganda. + + For Monsignor the Secretary, ANT. AGLIARDI, Minutante. + +A large number of the Archbishops, Bishops, Dignitaries, and Superiors of +Religious Orders in England, Ireland, Scotland, America, and Australia, +have also, since the publication of the work, warmly congratulated the +Author on its appearance, and promised to extend its circulation. + +Notices and Reviews of it appeared also in many newspapers, periodicals, +and reviews, amongst which were the following:— + +_From “THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL,” January 16th, 1885._ + + This deeply interesting work, which we mentioned recently, + claims special attention by more than its utility as an aid + to one of the most important, consolatory, and beautiful of + Catholic devotions, and its authority as a learned and masterly + contribution to the history of the Church, sent forth with + the approval and the benediction of great prelates, and for + a purpose in which Ireland is destined to have a conspicuous + share. It is a delightful work from a purely literary point + of view. The author, whose whole heart and soul are in his + subject, has so studied it, so informed himself with the spirit + of the time and place, entered so thoroughly into the life + of the people whose great treasure is the miraculous picture + of Our Lady of Good Counsel, and whose richest endowment is + the ever-growing devotion of the ancient sanctuary that is so + eloquent a witness before men against the spirit of the world, + that the reader accompanies him as he might walk by the side + of an accomplished expositor through a picture-gallery, seeing + not only the works of art that clothe the walls, but the artist + spirit that inspired them. + + To make known as widely as possible the wonderful history of + the ancient sanctuary at Genazzano; to spread the efficacious + devotion to Our Lady of Good Counsel, of which it is the + seat and centre; to make his fellow-Catholics in Ireland, in + England, and in the Australian Colonies, which are the scenes + of his own labours (Monsignor Dillon describes himself as “a + visitor from Sydney to the Shrine”), aware of the faith and + fervour that still survive in Italy, under a system which he + describes in a comprehensive sentence—such are the objects of + the author’s laborious and admirably executed task. He came + to Italy to find rest and recreation after twenty years of + missionary labour in Australia, and he was prepared “to see a + great decay of religion in a nation where the most formidable + atheism the world has ever seen was, with supreme political + power in its hands, astutely planning the eradication of + Christianity from the social, political, and even individual + life of the people.” What did he see? A nation, nine-tenths + of whom are earnest, practical Catholics, who “oppose to + all attempts upon their religion a passive but determined + resistance, which no effort of the infidels has been able to + shake. In general, family life amongst them equals the purity + and innocence of the farm homes of Ireland. They live, in + truth, by faith. But above all, that which, in the eyes of the + writer, most distinguishes them is their intense and universal + devotion to the Virgin Mother of God.” + + The twenty-third chapter of this work, which is an exposition + of the devotion of the Italian people, is full of pathetic + interest and of edification, as well as being an eminently + picturesque sketch; but it is not upon this aspect of Monsignor + Dillon’s book, “_sympatico_” though it be, that we ought to + dwell in the brief space which we may claim wherein to direct + the attention of the reader to a great store of knowledge and + beauty. It is to his history of the famous Shrine of Our Lady + of Good Counsel at Genazzano, with its introductory chapters + upon the nature and origin of the devotion, the translation + of the Miraculous Image, and the “Pious Union,” in which the + Irish Augustinians in Rome are deeply interested; to his vivid + and pictorial sketch of Latium, whence tradition has it, that + from the summit of its mountain, where the church and village + of Castel San Pietro now stand, the Prince of the Apostles + took his first view of mighty Rome; to his marvellous account + of the change from paganism to Christianity, and the reasons + that exist for believing the modern Genazzano to be the actual + historic scene of the too-famous games annually carried on by + ordinance published in the “Calendar of Palestrina,” which may + now be inspected at the Vidoni Palace in Rome; of Christian + Genazzano, in 1467, and the miraculous translation of the Image + of Our Lady from Albania to the Shrine where it still remains + an object of the deepest veneration to the inhabitants, and of + incessant and innumerable pilgrimages from all parts of Italy. + Proofs of the apparition of the picture, and subsequently of + its translation, are largely supplied by Monsignor Dillon, + and although it is not “of faith” that the beautiful and + consolatory history is to be received unhesitatingly, we do not + think it can fail to convey assurance to the minds of all who + are inside the Church, who have “tasted of the graciousness of + God,” who being of the Household of Faith are accustomed to + its divine administration in all things, and in ways which, + however wonderful, are not “hard” to the “little children” + of the Kingdom, though to the wisest of outsiders they be + “foolishness,” as was Jesus Christ to the learned Greeks when + preached to them by St. Paul. + + The author’s description of the picture—copied innumerable + times, yet never reproduced—is very beautiful, and deeply + affecting. We can but urge our readers to acquaint themselves + with it, and with the details of the active, vital, and + vitalising devotion of which the sacred Shrine at Genazzano + is the centre. The book which records these things is a rich + contribution to general knowledge of Italy and its people as + well, and we hope that the great desire of its author may be + realised by the spread throughout Catholic Ireland, tried, + tortured, persecuted, and tempted, even as Italy, but like her, + faithful still, of that same beautiful devotion. The Mother + of God reigns over the Island of Saints as over the Land of + the Popes; let the people of the one join with the people of + the other in giving her increased honour, and resorting to her + with fresh confidence in the communion of the “Pious Union,” + which invokes “Our Lady of Good Counsel,” at that marvellous + meeting-place of souls, the Shrine of the Miraculous Image of + Genazzano. + +_From “THE TABLET,” August 30th, 1884._ + + This interesting and remarkable volume has already been + noticed in our Roman correspondence. Since then the Holy + Father has been pleased to approve of it in a special letter + to the author. Cardinal Simeoni, prefect of the Propaganda, by + whose permission the book was printed at the famous Polyglot + _Stamperia_ of that Sacred Congregation, calls the work in + another warmly commendatory letter “admirable.” It is moreover + dedicated by permission to Cardinal Martinelli, Prefect of the + Index; and, as we gather from the dedication itself, is the + only work which that saintly and learned Cardinal permitted + to be so dedicated. The theologians deputed to examine it on + behalf of the Master of the Sacred Apostolic Palace, were Dr. + Martinelli, Regent of the Studies of the Irish Augustinians and + Consultor to the Congregation of Rites, and Monsignor Carbery, + at present Bishop of Hamilton in Canada, then Assistant General + of the Dominican Order in Rome. These learned theologians not + only gave it the usual _nihil obstat_, but speak in laudatory + terms of its contents. The work, therefore, comes before the + Catholic public well guaranteed as to the safety and soundness + of its doctrine. We believe the erudite author did well to have + it so fortified. + + It treats largely, not merely of the supernatural, but of + the supernatural with which English-speaking Catholics are + not generally acquainted, and, therefore, in many instances + not inclined to receive without considerable preparation. A + history of Loreto, or of any sanctuary which circumstances + have rendered familiar, would meet with less difficulty. But + miraculous events, which, however well known to others, are new + to us, require to be told with care. Living in an atmosphere + unfriendly to the miraculous because it is Protestant, and + hostile to all that concerns the supernatural, since it has + become impregnated with modern naturalism, we become cautious, + if not suspicious of everything new to us. We laugh, indeed, + at the philosophy which, while disdainfully rejecting all + miraculous occurrences as absurd, ends in accepting with + childish credulity the ludicrous absurdities of mediums and + spirit rappers. But we go often into the extreme of caution in + receiving such supernatural facts as are continually repeated + in the inward life of the Church. Where the atmosphere is + wholly Catholic, belief in the existence of miracles is not so + difficult. They are tested, like other facts, and if favourably + recognised by ecclesiastical authority are admitted. In this + way our forefathers received without hesitation the statement + of St. Simon Stock, their countryman, regarding his reception + of the scapular as from the hands of the Mother of God; and, + in the hope of obtaining miraculous favours, millions of them + made pilgrimages, not only to the shrine of St. Thomas and + other national sanctuaries, but passed beyond the seas to visit + the tombs of the apostles in Rome, and the great sanctuaries + of Mary there and elsewhere. They were, perhaps, the most + remarkable people for pilgrimages during the ages of faith. It + is a very beautiful manifestation of the kind of devotion they + so much loved, that Mgr. Dillon brings now under the notice of + English-speaking Catholics everywhere. The sanctuary of which + he writes is, as Cardinal Simeoni terms it, “one of the most + celebrated in Italy.” It is, as the Holy Father states in his + letter to the author, “venerated with the greatest piety by the + faithful and by the constant concourse of devout pilgrims.” + Moreover, the peculiar and beautiful devotion to the Mother of + God, of which it is the source, may be spread everywhere. The + wonders worked at the shrine are even surpassed by those which + have been wrought through copies of the original in Italy and + other countries. It was a copy of it that was so loved and so + tenaciously held to old age by St. Liguori. It was a copy from + which Our Lady spoke so frequently and fondly to St. Aloysius + at Madrid. It was a copy which saved Genoa and restored + Calabria to fervour. The image, whether in the original or in + well executed copies, has certainly great devotional power over + all beholders. It increases fervour, and powerfully excites + the petitioner to confidence in seeking graces through Mary, + especially the gift which may be said to contain all others, + and which is so much needed in our days, the gift of good + counsel. + + The history before us is a very exhaustive one, both of the + shrine and the devotion. In his Introduction the author says of + the latter: + + “It sprang up, as will be seen, almost at the same time with + the rise of Christianity upon the ruins of Paganism in the + Roman Empire. The very spot where the beautiful Image of Mary + and Jesus now reposes, was once the scene of the foulest + rites of idol worship in honour of Venus. There, every April + for centuries, came from far and near the men and the women + of Latium for the Robigal Games. There, year after year + they abandoned themselves to all the abominations not only + tolerated, but prescribed, by the Pagan _Jus Pontificium_ of + the Romans. No civilised nation of antiquity that we know of, + had rites more demoralising than these proud masters of the + world; and nowhere, not even in the Flavian Amphitheatre, do + the same rites seem to have been carried to greater excess, + than near the site of the present temple of the Madonna in + the borough of Genazzano, where, when the worship of idols + had given place to that of the one true God, the statue of + the foulest Goddess of heathendom fell to make way for the + Shrine and the sway of the Purest of God’s creatures, His + Virgin Mother. It was meet and, no doubt, was so arranged by + a merciful and wise Providence, that the mother and synonyme + of a vice which, with other dark and sorrowful characters, has + folly emphatically stamped upon it, should be succeeded, when + faith shed its light upon Latium, by the Mother and Synonyme of + purity and supernal wisdom, the Mother ‘of fair love’ and of + ‘holy hope,’ of consolation and of Counsel.” + + He continues: + + “To make the contrast here indicated more clear, the writer has + thought it of use to give a sketch of the history and locality + of Genazzano. This cannot fail from its classical as well + as Christian recollections to interest the English-speaking + visitor to Rome, who can get but scant, and, in a Catholic + sense, almost no reliable information from the guide-books + published in his language; and, to enable the reader at a + distance to realise the full meaning of the devotion, it + is necessary. It will serve to show to all, that, though + confined to one locality, the devotion existed from a very + early period. When God willed its extension it was by means + of a most striking and significant miracle. A beautiful image + of His Mother holding the Divine infant in her sacred arms, + passed from a land just taken by the Turks to the very spot + where the Virgin Mother of Good Counsel had been honoured + for over a thousand years. The translation of this image was + effected without human interference and amidst many prodigies. + It naturally created a wide-spread and deep impression at the + time. On a festival, it appeared amidst a multitude in the + public square, and rested near the wall of the church where it + still remains. The fervour it created amongst the people of + God, the graces, the consolations, and the miraculous favours + obtained at its shrine, continue to this day. It has thus + become the fountain of devotion to the Mother of Good Counsel + for all the faithful of Christ, in all the lands which own the + sway of His Vicar on earth.” + + In fulfilment of the promise made in this extract, the author + has given some very interesting chapters on Latium, Genazzano, + Pagan and Christian, and upon Albania, the land from which the + miraculous image was miraculously translated, and its last + great King, George Castriota, or, as he is better known by his + Turkish appellation, Scanderbeg. The following description + of the physical features of Latium will give an idea of the + author’s style in treating of these subjects: + + “All this expanse of country may be seen on a clear day from + the Tiber’s bank outside Rome, or better, from the dome of + St. Peter’s. Thrilling memories of the past are connected + with almost every spot of it. Taking a central stand, say, on + the summit of Mount Artimisio, a hundred scenes of world-wide + celebrity at once come under view. In Velletri at your feet, + Augustus the first Roman Emperor was born. Near it is Civita + Lavinia, the ancient Lanuvium, the site of the great temple + of Juno, the birthplace of Milo, of Antoninus Pius, of Marcus + Aurelius, of Commodus, and, in more modern times, of Mark + Antony Colonna, the hero of Lepanto. Far in the opposite + direction is seen Anagni, the ancient capital of the Ernici, + which gave to the Christian world four Popes, amongst whom + towers the majestic figure of Innocent the Third. Between these + two points, the eye passes over Cori, Segni, Sacro Porto, the + valley of the Sacco—the Latin Valley—Artena, and other places + famous in the early warfare of the Latin tribes. In front the + long sea coast is visible, from the Circaean Promontory still + protecting Antium, at present _Porto d’Anzio_, from the miasma + of the Pontine Marshes, to Ostia at the Tiber’s mouth. Dotting + the dark bosom of the hills beneath, are seen Genzano, Ariccia, + Albano, Castel Gandolfo, Frascati, and other celebrated + suburban retreats of the Rome of to-day as well as of the Rome + of antiquity. + + “Turning to the Sabines, Palestrina, the ancient Praeneste, is + seen standing out upon the mid-declivity of its mountain. Near + it are Zagarolo, Gallicano, and then a wide plain encircling + the hills which run towards Tivoli. Higher up than Artemisio, + is the summit of the Alban range, Monte Cavo, where stood that + great altar of Jupiter to which all Latium yearly repaired + for sacrifice and prayer. A monastery in the keeping of the + Passionate Fathers now takes the place of the Pagan temple and + altar. It was built, strange to say, by the Cardinal of York, + the last of the Stuart Princes, who had much love for the fine + scenery of these hills upon which his bishopric was situated. + + “The memories connected with almost every mile of this + territory makes it one of the most interesting in the world. + But there is much more to be said of it. There is not on the + earth a country of the same extent more beautiful to look upon. + + “The traveller leaving Rome does not first realise this. The + flat campagna which expands before him on leaving any of the + southern gates of the city, looks dreary and uninviting enough + when not diversified by some interesting ruin. This dreariness + becomes all the more intense when the imagination travels back + to the period when the vast plain bloomed like a garden under + the assiduous care of the husbandman.” + + After giving a history of the miraculous apparition and + translation of the sacred image, the author gives several + chapters in proof of the facts he brings forward. He speaks + of the miracles recorded and witnessed by himself, of the + devotion of the Popes and distinguished persons noting the + pilgrimages to the shrine made by Urban VIII. and Pius IX., + and the continuous popular pilgrimages; of the indulgences + granted; of the Pious Union established by Benedict XIV., and + of which that celebrated Pontiff was the first member; of the + proper mass and office granted in 1779; of the Church of Santa + Maria; and, in order to dispel certain illusions not always + confined to Protestants, regarding Italy and the devotion + to Our Lady, he has added two very valuable chapters on the + faith of the Italian people and on the Catholic worship and + invocation of Mary. An Appendix treats of several important + matters, amongst which is a chapter on the “Value of a Roman + Ecclesiastical Education,” written evidently with the view to + aid the establishment of an Australian college in Rome; and as + Cardinal Simeoni expresses it, he has here also opportunely + touched upon the recent spoliation of the Propaganda by the + Italian Government. + + We but follow the example of the Holy Father and the Cardinal + Prefect of the Propaganda in congratulating the author upon the + production of this useful and interesting work. It establishes + on a solid basis the beautiful devotion to Our Lady which + it aims at extending. It is well printed, and considering + the difficulties of correcting the press when dealing with + compositors not acquainted with the language they put in type, + unusually free from errors. We are glad to learn that the + author means to bring out a more concise and popular work on + the same subject. But no such work could well appear in our + language unless the documentary evidence given in this volume + had preceded it. The book is well bound, and on the whole a + pleasing and valuable addition to our Catholic literature. + +_From “THE NEW YORK FREEMAN’S JOURNAL AND CATHOLIC REGISTER,” December +20, 1884._ + + We live in a time when an historical or scientific “fact” + will be received with interest, provided that nothing of the + supernatural is claimed for it. It may rest on slight human + authority, but so long as no divine authority is quoted, it + is taken for granted. But let the word “miraculous” occur in + the recital of it, and the supercilious reader turns away from + the subject in disgust. The evidence of trustworthy witnesses, + unbroken traditions, voluminous records, are as nothing. The + man thoroughly impregnated with the miasma of the century would + rather doubt the testimony of his own senses than believe in a + miracle. + + Henri Lasserre’s wonderful records of the miracles at Lourdes, + well supported as they are by the testimony of experts in the + case of Louise Lateau, are simply ignored by adepts in “modern + thought,” who distrust their favorite methods when they tend to + prove a miracle. + + Especially Catholics in English-speaking countries start + back distrustfully at the line that materialistic teaching + draws between the natural and the supernatural. People who + say “Credo” with all their hearts are unworthy of the gift of + Faith if they need a miracle to keep them firm; but it is no + proof of the firmness of their Faith to decline to consider any + corroboration of it, and while accepting the miracles recorded + in Sacred Scripture in a perfunctory manner, to look with + distrust on all modern miracles. This distrust is not always so + much incredulity as it is the revolt of a falsely-formed state + of mind against any widening of the bounds of Faith. It is an + illogical, a prejudiced state of mind, brought about by the + modern sophistry which has contrived to associate Faith with + ignorance. + + A remarkable exhaustive and erudite work by the Rev. Dr. George + F. Dillon, of Sydney, Australia, on the ancient sanctuary of + Our Lady of Good Counsel, in Genazzano, has been recently + issued from the press of the Propaganda Fide at Rome. We have + favourably alluded to it before. It is the record of a miracle, + incrusted with a most valuable mass of historical learning, + carefully wrought out and arranged by a loving hand, entirely + devoted to the service of Our Lady of Good Counsel. Dr. Dillon + has produced, writing in the very shadow of the sanctuary of + Genazzano, a volume which includes the whole history, sacred + and profane, of the shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel, besides + a hundred details, the fruit of untiring research, which leave + nothing to be said. Dr. Dillon’s volume of nearly seven hundred + pages covers the ground fully. + + Dr. Dillon hopes to assist in spreading devotion to Our Lady + of Good Counsel, which is so fervently kept up in Italy. “This + devotion,” Dr. Dillon says, “aims at obtaining all that the + gift of Good Counsel gives through the intercession of Mary, + the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, to Whom the Infallible + Spouse of Christ attributes the very words of the Holy Ghost, + ‘In Me is Counsel.’” This devotion is now beginning to be made + known in English-speaking countries. And in no time has the + gift of the Holy Ghost been more needed in all countries than + in the present. + + Near the city of Rome, in ancient Latium, on a spot where the + lascivious rites of the Roman worship of Venus were performed, + where the masters of the world indulged in nameless excesses in + honour of their goddess, a shrine to the Immaculate Virgin has + risen. Dr. Dillon gives an interesting history of Genazzano. + The famous Prænestine roses that once bloomed in honour of + Venus now deck the shrine of the Purest of God’s creatures. Dr. + Dillon sharply points out this contrast. + + To Genazzano, whose inhabitants, having been delirious in their + worship of the devil, but who were now fervent worshippers + of God, there passed one day a lovely image of the Mother of + God holding the Saviour of the world in her arms. Scutari + in Albania had just been taken by the Turks, in 1467. From + thence to Genazzano in broad daylight passed the fresco, to + be welcomed by a population which for nearly ten centuries + had honoured the Mother of God. Its appearance on the public + square was witnessed by crowds of people, for it came on a + festival. Heavenly singing and wonderful light followed it. “In + its passage from Scutari to Genazzano,” writes Dr. Dillon, “it + was followed over land and sea by two trustworthy witnesses, + who afterwards lived and died and left families in Latium.” + Italy made itself into a huge pilgrimage to visit it. Pope Paul + II. instituted an inquiry not more than two months after its + appearance. Sixtus IV., who succeeded him, was ardently devoted + to the Virgin Mother of Good Counsel. Miracle after miracle was + wrought at her shrine. Copies and pictures of the Sacred Image + have wrought miracles. St. Alphonsus was devoted to the Virgin + Mother of Good Counsel, and her picture is usually reproduced + in his portraits. Dr. Dillon tell us “that picture of Our Lady, + which spoke so lovingly to the angelic youth, St. Aloysius + Gonzaga, was a copy.” Other copies have worked wonderful + prodigies in Rome, Naples, Genoa, Lucca, Frosinone, San + Benedetto Ullano, and numbers of cities in Italy and Germany. + + When the Sacred Image fled from Scutari to Genazzano, the + cross seemed to be flying from the crescent in the East. + Scanderbeg—King George Castriota, of Albania, protector of + the shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel—had heroically driven + back the invading and unspeakable host. At his death, the + Turks broke in like the ocean through a frail dyke. Italy + was threatened. The Pope kept the Moslems at bay; but Europe + seemed lost when St. Pius V., intensely devoted to the Virgin + Mother of Good Counsel, called Colonna, Lord of Genazzano, to + command his fleet. The Turk was all-powerful; but then came + the crushing victory of Lepanto, gained by the Mother of God + for her clients. Later, Sobieski triumphed at Vienna, and + the baleful fire of the crescent paled before the halo that + surrounded the Virgin Mother of Good Counsel. + + Dr. Dillon points out the more subtle Islam that now threatens, + not only Europe, but the world. The new enemy cannot be met + with material weapons; a Scanderbeg, a Colonna, a Don John of + Austria, a Sobieski, would be powerless against the new enemy. + It does not come, barbaric and blood-stained, but pleasant to + the sense, gentle, refined, æsthetic. It is modern culture, + Liberal Catholicism, unbelief—all those forms of modern thought + and sensuousness so subtly opposed to Christianity. Surely we + need the help of the Virgin Mother of Good Counsel now more + than ever! + + “In addition,” writes Dr. Dillon, “to the millions of Catholics + who live in comparative spiritual security in faithful Ireland, + and the millions of Catholics now in Great Britain, the writer + has special reasons to think, most of all, of those other + millions who leave Catholic homes for a life among strangers, + the majority of whom differ from them in religion, in distant + lands such as America and the principal English-speaking + colonies. Twenty years’ experience in Australia has convinced + him that a greater and more constant devotion is now more than + ever needed to keep the faith alive in themselves and in their + children. They have to encounter all the perils which come + from the infidel movements now supreme over the vital question + of primary education in the United States, in Australia, and + almost everywhere in English-speaking countries. In England, + and even in Ireland, a strong effort is made to go with the + universal current against religion upon this and other most + important subjects. Then in new countries, more than in old + ones, the tendency is very great to contract mixed marriages, + to frequent dangerous associations and reunions, and to lose + the ring and vigour of sound faith by concession to the + prevailing spirit of a worldliness invariably anti-Catholic.” + +_From “THE CATHOLIC TIMES AND CATHOLIC OPINION,” September 26th, 1884._ + + English-speaking Catholics, as a rule, know little of the + devotion to Our Lady of Good Counsel and amongst them it will + probably be a matter of surprise that a book of importance + could be written on the subject. But if, to use the well-known + phrase addressed to Augustine, they “take and read,” we feel + assured all will be convinced that the subject was eminently + worthy of being treated for the benefit of English-speaking + Catholics, and that, in point of fact, the author is a writer + who can invest any subject with paramount interest. Mgr. Dillon + first visited Italy in the Spring of last year, with the view + of recruiting his health which was impaired after twenty years + of missionary labours in Australia. That he derived great + pleasure from his visit to the Ansonian land, that fertile + nurse of great men, we have testimony sufficient in what + he has written; but if the labour of writing an elaborate + work such as this since the spring of last year, was, in + his case, consistent with the spending of holidays for the + benefit of health, we must conclude that he is endowed with + ability far above the ordinary kind, and a wonderful facility + of composition. He travelled much through Italy, and ever + with the resolution to judge fairly and to treasure all the + information he could gather concerning men and manners in the + Peninsula. His observations prove that in the course of his + short experience he laid up a great store of information. What + he did see he describes in graphic language; it taught him that + at least nine-tenths of the Italians are practical Catholics, + that they are far from being in sympathy with the opponents + of Catholicism, and that they not only recognise the Pope as + their spiritual ruler, but that they would hail with joy the + restitution of his temporal sovereignty. They do not exert + their power in political affairs, but to all attempts upon + their religion they offer a determined and passive resistance. + Mgr. Dillon pays a tribute to the purity of their domestic + life. He assures us that, in general, family life amongst them + equals the purity and innocence of the farm-houses of Ireland. + From their intense and universal devotion to the Blessed Virgin + he derived much edification, and his knowledge of the many + favours conferred upon them in consequence of their devotion + to Our Lady of Good Counsel induced him to compare the present + work giving an account of her shrine at Genazzano, and the + miraculous translation of her Sacred image from Scutari in + Albania to Genazzano. When this extraordinary event occurred, + the Crescent had supplanted the Cross in the East, and the + heroic Scanderbeg, who had received help and counsel at the + shrine of this very image in Albania, had passed away. Then + “Mary caused the miraculous image to break away from the + walls of her temple in Scutari and to pass to Latium.” The + writer examines critically the proofs of the translation of + the image and of its apparition amongst a multitude of people + on the occasion of a public festival; and the preservation of + Europe from the hordes of Turks who poured down upon it and + were crushed at Lepanto at the walls of Vienna, he sees the + influence of the Mother of Good Counsel. Of the supernatural + results of devotion at the shrine at Genazzano he has had + the most reliable and convincing testimony. No one ever, he + informs us, went to that shrine less credulous than he was; + but in the sight of the miracles wrought before his eyes and + carefully examined and proved, he could only say that the hand + of God is not shortened, and that miracles wrought through + the intercession of His Mother will never cease. There is in + Mgr. Dillon’s work an immense amount of what may be called + collateral information. Interesting historical incidents are + brought to mind, customs are carefully noted, and landscapes + are depicted with a master hand. A chapter is devoted to + an explanation, intended for non-Catholics, of the worship + which Catholics pay to the Blessed Virgin.... Mgr. Dillon, + by making known to English-speaking Catholics a devotion so + largely practised and so fruitful in Italy, has done a service + which will, it is to be hoped, prove of permanent utility; + and he has, at the same time, brought together a store of + most important information respecting Rome, the centre of the + Catholic world, and the Italian people, whose character is the + subject of so many contradictory statements. There is great + beauty in his style; throughout the book is to be found ample + proof that in narrative and descriptions he has a facile pen, + and that he has at command a rich vocabulary. Every sentence is + vigorous and graceful. + +_From the “WEEKLY REGISTER,” January 3rd, 1885._ + + Monsignor Dillon, who describes himself simply as a visitor + from Sydney to the shrine of Our Lady at Genazzano, has devoted + a goodly volume to an account of his experiences in Italy, and + especially to a description of that famous place of pilgrimage. + Not the history of the miraculous image only, but of almost + everything that has any possible connection with it is painted + by his pen. The book thus covers a very wide field; but + Monsignor Dillon writes mainly with the object of introducing + to English-speaking Catholics a devotion which is very popular + on some parts of the Continent. + + The representation of Our Lady at this shrine is a fresco, + painted long ages ago, but when and in what country none can + tell. It has remained in the place where it now is for four + hundred and sixteen years; and how many centuries it existed + before is unknown. It first came into public notice during + that great struggle between the Crescent and the Cross, when + the eastern empire was overthrown. The heroic Scanderbeg, + King of Albania, in whose country Scutari with its shrine and + image lay, was enabled to resist the advancing arms of Islam + and drive back Mahomet II., the captor of Constantinople, from + the walls of his little capital. For twenty years he saved his + country and Christendom; and, when he died, his ashes were not + cold before the Turks swept over the land and passed to the + Adriatic. It was then that the miraculous translation of the + image from Scutari to Genazzano took place; and from that date + Italy presented an impregnable barrier to the infidel. A second + Scanderbeg arose in the person of Colonna, Lord of Genazzano + whom Pius V., in an hour of supreme danger, called to the + defence of Christendom. At Lepanto, Colonna, as Admiral of the + Pope’s fleet, and Don John of Austria, together representing + the two outposts of Christian Europe, struck such a decisive + blow that the Turks were driven from the waters, which they + have never since regained. From that day to the present time + the shrine has had varied fortunes. Many miraculous cures + took place, and pilgrimages were attracted from all parts + of Italy and the Continent. In course of time a new church + was built, and was enriched by the devotion of pilgrims with + precious gifts of gold, silver, and gems. The wealth of the + shrine before long excited the cupidity of spoilers, and it + was stripped to feed the ambition of Napoleon. But it was + left to the agents of Victor Emmanuel to drive the inmates of + the convent from their home and to confiscate the monastic + revenues; and though afterwards the religious were permitted, + through fear of popular disaffection, to occupy part of the + old conventual buildings, they were allowed to do so only as + tenants paying rent. The Church of Genazzano has lately been + restored to somewhat of its ancient glory, and now glows with + beautiful marbles and frescoes. + + Monsignor Dillon had abundant opportunities of mixing with + the people of the country, and studying their feelings and + convictions. He tells us that he thinks no people could be more + devoted to their religion than they. His impression was that + the bulk of the people in the Roman States would gladly receive + back the temporal government of the Pontiff. Heavy burdens of + taxation and conscription have followed in the steps of the new + régime. It is, he thinks, by means of hired mobs and newspaper + correspondents that public opinion in England and France is + misled. The Italian people have obtained the reputation of + being formal in their religion, but Monsignor Dillon shows that + though they are fond of the beautiful ceremonies of the Church + their religion is far from being confined to externals. + + “Long hours before the English visitors leave their hotel + beds the Italian population in cities and villages are up and + stirring, and up and stirring, too, simply because of religion. + As early as half-past four, even on winter mornings, the Church + of Santa Maria in Genazzano is crowded by a congregation of + people who desire to hear Mass before going to their daily + labour. With thousands in every city Mass is not confined to + the Sunday. The devout attend it every day. The works of St. + Liguori, which are very common, lead some millions in Italy to + practice without ostentation meditation, visits to the Most + Holy Sacrament, and works even of the highest perfection.” + + The volume, which was printed at the Propaganda in Rome, and + contains four illustrations, will doubtless become a classic on + the subject which Monsignor Dillon has so happily taken in hand. + +_From “THE AVE MARIA,” Indiana, U. S., November 1, 1884._ + + A most attractive volume. The learned author begins at the very + origin of the town of Genazzano, traces its history through the + times when it was the scene of the infamous orgies of heathen + worship, to the blessed dawn of Christianity, which purified + and consecrated its polluted walls and groves; and then through + the vicissitudes which followed the decline of the Roman Empire + in Italy, interesting alike to the archæologist, the historian, + and the poet. But most interesting among all events that have + occurred in that favoured spot is the coming of the miraculous + painting from Scutari to the church rebuilt by the devotion of + a poor widow, who lacked the means to complete the good work + she had begun, but whose faith and piety were rewarded by this + signal assistance from Heaven. Full particulars of the miracle + are given, and a detailed narrative of the event, illustrated + by drawings, of the ruined church in Scutari whence the + picture—a fresco painted on the wall—was conveyed by angelic + hands, after the final capture of Albania by the Turks. The + sworn testimony of witnesses, copied from the records, follows, + and a family tree of the principal Albanian witness, whose + descendants now reside in Genazzano, is given. Then follows + as perfect an account as could be found of the miracles since + wrought at the shrine, the records of which were imperfectly + kept, both on account of their great frequency and the expense + of the formalities which ecclesiastical law requires for the + verification of supernatural events, and also on account of + the troubled state of the country, and the frequent robberies + committed in the name of secular authority. These miracles + are extremely interesting, especially one that occurred under + the very eye of the author of the present work—the cure of + blindness and epileptic fits in a young girl who had been + given up by the physicians. They extend from the middle of + the fifteenth century to the present time—over four hundred + years of constant divine interposition. Following, we find + accounts of various miraculous copies of the original picture + of Our Lady of Good Counsel, piously venerated in different + localities. The volume itself is enriched with engraved copies + of the painting, the beauty of whose execution is what might + be expected from the Italian artists. Succeeding chapters give + an account of the devotion of many distinguished Popes and + many learned and pious men to this remarkable shrine; of the + pilgrimages that are constantly made to it; of the apostles of + this devotion, and in particular of Canon Bacci and Don Stephen + Andrea Rodotà; of the Proper Mass and Office granted as the + most distinguished mark of ecclesiastical approbation; of the + indulgences attached to the devotion; of the rise, progress, + and present prosperity of the confraternity known as the Pious + Union; of the present state of the church and sanctuary itself + of Our Lady of Good Counsel; and of the devotion of the Italian + people. A concluding chapter gives a full and dogmatic account + of the veneration due and paid by the Catholic Church to the + Blessed Virgin, with the blessings that have attended its + practice. + +_From “THE IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD,” October, 1884._ + + Devotion to our “Mother of Good Counsel” is not without being + cultivated in these countries, but it is cultivated to a far + less extent than it ought to be. “Good Counsel” is one of the + attributes that strikes us as specially becoming in her whom we + salute as the “Virgo Sapiens,” and to whom the Church applies + the words of the Holy Ghost “in me is Counsel.” Besides, we + feel assured that it is an attribute that is calculated to call + forth in a very special way the devotion of the faithful, who + are so trustful in the protection and guidance of the Mother + of God, particularly in times of doubt and difficulty. Yet + the picture of the “Virgin Mother of Good Counsel”—and it is + indeed a very distinctive and devotional picture—is not often + met with in our churches or oratories, nor is the invocation + of the Blessed Virgin under this sweet title so frequently on + our lips as the many other ejaculations that are so familiar + to us from childhood onwards. The real cause, however, of this + omission is to be traced to the fact that the people generally + had no knowledge of the devotion to the Mother of God under + this special form: at least we had no full history of its + origin and wonderful development in other countries. This want, + we are happy to say, is now admirably met by Monsignor Dillon’s + beautiful book. + + Among the shrines of the Blessed Virgin, there is none, + perhaps, so ancient, and few more famous for its miracles, the + number of its pilgrims, and the extraordinary manifestation + of piety to be witnessed there from year to year, than the + shrine of the “Virgin Mother of Good Counsel.” This famous + shrine is at Genazzano, a picturesquely situated little town, + in the Sabine Ranges, some thirty miles from Rome, near + Palestrina, the old Praeneste capital of Latium. Here our + Mother of Good Counsel has been honoured under this beautiful + title from the earliest times, indeed from those far-off times + when the deserted pagan temples round Rome were taken up by + the Christians, and the abominations of idolatry replaced by + the pure worship of the true God. We are told that the first + sanctuary of our Lady of Good Counsel at Genazzano had been a + temple of Venus. + + In course of time God manifested His pleasure at the great + honour paid to His Mother at Genazzano by a miracle of a kind + which reminds us forcibly of that other renowned sanctuary, the + holy House of Loretto. In the year 1467, a beautiful picture + of the Virgin, holding in her arms the Divine Infant, passed + miraculously from Albania when seized by the Turks, to the + shrine at Genazzano. This picture is preserved with jealous + care, and we have been told by friends, who were present on the + occasion of the annual Feast when the picture is uncovered, + that the piety of the people was such as to make even one who + had witnessed the enthusiasm of the pilgrims at Lourdes, to + marvel. + + But we must send our readers to Monsignor Dillon’s highly + interesting book for a full history of our Lady’s Shrine at + Genazzano. The work is so complete and of so useful a character + as to merit the high commendation of Cardinal Simeoni; and even + the Pope himself has sent to the Right Rev. author, with his + blessing, a letter of praise and thanks. + + If we may venture to make a suggestion to the Right Rev. + author, we would say to him to complete his splendid service + in spreading devoting to our Virgin Mother of Good Counsel by + publishing in due course a small popular Manual, embodying in a + concise form the history of this venerable and famous shrine, + with prayers and suitable devotions. Thus he will establish a + very strong claim to the reward he speaks of so earnestly and + lovingly, “Qui elucidant me, vitam aeternam habebunt.” + +_From “THE DUBLIN REVIEW,” October, 1884._ + + In a very handsome volume of over 600 pages, printed with + extreme clearness and wonderful correctness at the Propaganda + Press in Rome, Monsignor Dillon, of Sydney, sets forth + with great detail and with pious warmth the history of the + miraculous image of Our Lady at Genezzano. Many of our readers + will know that this widely venerated effigy is said to have + appeared suddenly on the wall of an unfinished church at + Genezzano, now more than four centuries ago. A short time + afterwards there came to the sanctuary two strangers from + Albania, who declared that the image was no other than one + which had been venerated from time immemorial in Scutari (not + Scutari on the Bosphorus, but the Albanian town), and which + had disappeared precisely at the time they left their native + land. This double tradition Monsignor Dillon undertakes to + substantiate. That there is a celebrated Madonna at Genezzano, + and that many graces and miraculous favours have been received + there, no Catholic would think of disputing. And whoever goes + carefully through this elaborate work, will easily convince + himself that there was a miraculous apparition in 1467.... As + to the sacred image itself, as now venerated, it is a fresco, + painted (if it be painted) on thin hard mortar, as if it had + been detached from the surface of the wall. It is stated by + those who have seen it to be still altogether detached from any + wall or backing. Its existence in this state for upwards of 400 + years is by itself a wonderful fact. Representations of the + sacred image are not uncommon, and there are probably few who + have not looked on the most characteristic face of Mary, and + on the Divine Infant, lovingly leaning His cheek against hers, + with one little arm round her neck and the hand of the other + grasping her robe at the throat.... Genezzano is not far from + Rome, in a land rich with Christian shrines and memories of the + past. We cannot doubt that this charming book, written with the + leisure of an antiquarian and the piety of a true Catholic, + will not only send many pilgrims to Our Lady of Good Counsel, + but will increase her glory and promote devotion to her in all + English-speaking lands. + + +SUFFERINGS OF THE NUNS OF ITALY. + +Catholics are already aware that by the laws of Italy the whole property, +real and personal, of all religious orders, both of men and women, was +confiscated in that country. A very small pension, heavily taxed and +not always satisfactorily paid, was allowed to the older members—the +younger ones getting nothing, or next to nothing—perhaps two-pence a day +to live upon. For this the Government took their lands, their funds, +their house property, their Convent buildings, their very churches, +cemeteries and all the furniture, sacred and secular, they possessed. +They were disbanded, prevented from receiving novices, or, as religious +orders, even educating children. Sometimes public feeling forced their +persecutors to give them a few rooms in their old homes, or to huddle +several communities into one large barrack. In cases where a part of +their Convent only was allowed them, the rest was used as Government +offices, or very generally for soldiers’ barracks. It thus became a +kind of living death for these poor religious. They mostly, however, +held together with wonderful tenacity, and as the old inmates died out +the younger ones, with but a few half-pence a day to live on, grew on +in years and weakness and want. Many of these—indeed all the choir +sisters—brought fortunes, which were placed in the common funds of +their several institutions, and so found and taken by the mean-spirited +Freemasons now in power in Italy. The consequence is that these poor +nuns, long absent from the thoughts of relatives, die in great numbers +and in much want. The present work and that on Our Lady of Good Counsel +have been given over by the author for their relief. He has just received +the following letter from Monsignor Kirby, who lays out, with every care +and judgment, all he can get together for the benefit of these suffering +spouses of Christ. + + “I received the alms you kindly forwarded from their Lordships + the Bishop of Leeds and the Bishops of Aberdeen and Dunkeld, in + aid of the poor nuns in the Papal States. May God reward them + for their charity. + + “But what shall I say, my dear Monsignore, for your own + generous offerings for these suffering Spouses of Jesus Christ? + Through your assistance I have been able to relieve many holy + suffering communities in Frascati, Viterbo, Foligno, Assissi, + Monte Falco, and other localities, not forgetting the nuns you + specially mentioned for relief in Rome. They suffer terrible + privations, but their charity and patience would do honour to + the early Christians. They pray constantly and earnestly for + those who assist them in their bitter need....” + +Still more touching descriptions of the destitution of these poor +servants of God may be obtained from the _Divin Salvatore_ of Rome, which +devotes many of its columns to the service of the collection made in +favour of the despoiled nuns. + +The following items, taken from a current number of that journal, will +give an idea of the need existing. The Editor says:— + + “On the 7th of March we received the following letter from a + venerable religious, who has the care of a parish and of a + monastery:—‘The letters you sent me have arrived, as so many + angels of comfort, with your charity. The Mother Abbess did + not know what to do in the future. She had to withdraw the one + plate of nourishment hitherto given daily to the religious. + My heart is afflicted, because I know that if they have not + food the choir cannot be sustained, and already some of them + are prostrated, from weakness of the stomach, in need of + ordinary food.’ The day after the Prioress of a Dominican + Convent writes:—‘Our misfortunes are at their height, and it + seems that everything conspires against us. The very old and + helpless sisters must be deprived of the lay sisters’ help, + whom we took into the religious life, but who must now leave + us for want of food. The aged will have to die for mere want + of necessaries. We do not ask the Government for anything to + maintain lay sisters, but these are now not even permitted to + us. For charity pray to God that some may be moved to pity us.’ + Four days ago a Benedictine Superioress thus commenced her + letter to us:—‘The day before yesterday, having shed many tears + before the Image of Most Holy Mary, beseeching Her to send me + some help, because I had at last arrived at extreme necessity, + your letter arrived with alms. Ah, so great was my joy, that + before opening it I carried it before the sacred Image to + thank Our Lady, and have called the nuns, who did the same. + My Father, believe me, that in order to exist together, we + suffer much want indeed.’ Five days after another Superioress + writes to us:—‘The moment I received your most valued letter, + I exclaimed, Oh, my dear St. Joseph, how much I thank you who + hast given to that good Father the inspiration to help me in my + present agony. I cannot describe to you the sorrowful condition + in which I find myself. As many farthings as you have sent me, + I pray that they may become so many precious graces, which may + fill with benediction the families who give such blessed help + to us poor abandoned religious.’” + +Not long after another Superioress wrote:— + + “Do you then discharge our duty to the kind and pious + benefactors who do not forget the suffering spouses of Our + Lord in times when so many hate and illtreat them, and seek + new means to render them, if that were possible, unhappy. But + that can never happen, because it is our greatest felicity + to be hated by the enemies of Jesus Christ. At present we + are prohibited to receive young-lady boarders, who, by their + payments for education, might help us not a little in our + misery. But we confide in the good, generous hearts who come to + our assistance.” + +On the 17th of May, from the ends of Italy, the following letter came to +us:— + + “On Tuesday I received, as a consoling angel, your letter with + the bountiful alms it contained. What my joy was on that day + I cannot tell you. I seemed like one confounded to such an + extent that my nuns understood that some extraordinary grace + had been given me by our great Patriarch St. Joseph. When I + told them what had been given they were in jubilee at it, and + I cannot tell you how many prayers and fervent communions will + be offered, and have indeed been offered already to God for + those who have been so kind to us. Oh, my Father, if you but + knew what my sorrow had been that day. An implacable creditor + pressed me, and I had not on that day one loaf of bread to take + the hunger away from my poor community. My Father, I cannot + tell you what terrible hours I passed. During certain days I + felt as if a knife had pierced my heart. I wept scalding tears, + and almost lost confidence. Ah, Father, do not forget us, for + charity sake, I beseech you, with all my heart.” + +A few days after this (for we take the letters at hap-hazard as they come +to our hand) we received another, which thus commences:— + + “Oh, my Father, how much am I obliged to you. You have called + me to life again. I went to ask the Archangel Raphael to be + mindful of us, poor deserted sisters, and the holy Archangel + heard me! Wherefore may God be blessed, and thanks without end + for your charity and that of our benefactors. See how wanting + in discretion I am, my Father, the more you are mindful of us, + the most distressed of all. I do not wish to be importunate. + That would not be well. But our misery surpasses perhaps the + misery of other convents. All my poor lay sisters are long + barefooted, and I cannot get them shoes, for I have no means to + buy leather. We, the choir sisters, wear clogs of wood, which, + when once made, last very long; but our poor lay sisters work + very hard, and wear away their clothing very much.” + +Another letter comes from a Benedictine Abbess in Tuscany. She says:— + + “Reflecting on our sad circumstances, and knowing by experience + your charitable heart, I have at last determined to ask you + for some charity, for the love of Jesus. We are twenty-five in + community, without a morsel of bread in our house, and deprived + absolutely of the means to obtain it; the Lord having permitted + that we should be abandoned by all, because we are all in great + distress and tribulation. Your Reverence by these words may + understand my internal affliction and the nature of the sword + that pierces my heart.” + +Here is a letter from a holy Prioress of Augustinian nuns, driven out of +their convent and obliged to rent a house:— + + “I reply, with deep gratitude, to your precious letter, and + thank you infinitely for the alms sent in it. I thank the Giver + of every good, and after Him all those who have concurred to + aid us, and you who are the head of the good work, so full of + charity, as is that of assisting us poor creatures reduced + to extreme necessity. For as this necessity is all the more + increased as we, most unfortunate, have been driven out of our + convent, and with sorrow and fright, have been obliged to rent + this poor house at a sum beyond the possibility of our being + able to pay. May Jesus, our Spouse, be blessed for all these + misfortunes. There remains to us one only consolation. It is + that daily we have the holy Mass in a little chapel, and we + can remain with Jesus in the Eucharist. Where Jesus is there + is nothing that we can desire. They have at length taken our + convent from us, but of Jesus no one can deprive us.” + +Another Superioress writes:— + + “I am always more and more confirmed in the belief that your + reverence is inspired by God. Three days passed and I had not a + farthing to buy bread for my poor community. But I had recourse + to our sweet Mother Mary with loving confidence, that she would + give me the means of keeping life in my poor daughters. I wept + with emotion and exclaimed, ‘Blessed is he who confides in the + Lord.’” + +Another letter, dated 24th of last October, is as follows:— + + “My Father, how grateful I am. I found myself at the height of + misery, but seeing your gift my heart bounded with joy. Oh, I + can at least give a little to my dearest daughters who, poor + children, for the most part, are infirm and weak in stomach + because of long abstinence from nourishing food or drink of + any kind! But how can I help them? I cannot get boarders, and + benefactors there are none, because our relatives have to think + of their own families. My only resource is your charity. You + dry my tears. You console my heart in so many and such great + necessities.” + +A Superioress of Tuscany, after having recommended a sick sister whom +she called, “an angel of innocence and of goodness, and on the point of +taking wing for paradise,” and having received some assistance, writes:— + + “Jesus watches over His spouses. This morning I received + your offering for the sick sister, which the great charity + of your reverence sent me. I am confused in seeing myself so + benefited without any merit. The sick sister remains alive, + always the victim of her beloved Spouse Jesus. She wastes away + as wax before the fire. She suffers with heroic virtue, and + wishes that your reverence would bless her in order to have + greater strength to suffer more and more in union with Jesus + crucified, whom she has always before her eyes, and continually + kisses. I do not know how to describe her satisfaction at the + charity shown her, nor to tell you her gratitude. I will tell + you only that with all her heart she says to you, ‘May Jesus + reward him together with the benefactors.’ She is young, only + twenty-four years of age, and is in the monastery three years + and three months. The Lord has placed this beautiful flower + (she is called Rose) in His garden, and He will take it at His + pleasure. It seems that we are not worthy to possess it.” + +The number of the _Divin Salvatore_, from which the above extracts are +taken, has been selected almost at random from a file of that excellent +journal. The editor very feelingly ends the record as follows:— + + “We repeat that these few extracts from letters are given + solely as a sample of numberless other letters of the same + class, which might form many volumes. Ah, how many pages, + besides, would be necessary if we should have to narrate the + sufferings and the secret martyrdoms endured, during, now more + than twenty years, by so many thousands of Italian religious + ladies for the sublime love of that Crucified God, to whom + they were and are consecrated. But such pages are written in + characters of gold only in the book of eternal life, and from + this book it is not given to us to copy. Let it suffice to + know that these admirable creatures so intensely hated by the + world of the sectaries (Freemasons, etc.,) because guilty of + being models of virtue, flowers of purity, doves of innocence, + beings more of heaven than of earth, have won, and still win by + their undaunted perseverance, a most glorious victory over this + world, enemy as it is, of the Name and the Cross of Christ.” + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77856 *** |