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 MASONRY

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MASONRY

success of Freemasonry was the famous "League of instruction'' founded in 1867 by Bro.'.F. Mac^, later a member of the Senate. This league affiliated and im- bued with its spirit many other associations. French Masonry and above all the Grand Orient of France has displayed the most systematic activity as the dominating pohtical element in the French Kultur- kampf' since 1877 (see also Chr., 1889, I, 81 sq.). From the official documents of French Masonry' con- tained principally in the official "Bulletin" and "Compte-renau" of the Grand Orient it has been provea that all the anti-clerical measures passed in the French Parliament were decreed beforehand in the Masonic lodges and executed under the direction of the Grand Orient, whose avowed aim is to control every- thing and everybody in France ("que personne ne bougera plus en France en dehors de nous", "Bull. Gr. Or.", 1890, 500 sq.). "I said in the assembly of 1898 ", states the deputy Massd, the official orator of the Assembly of 1903, " that it is the supreme duty of Freemasonry to interfere each day more and more in political and profane struggles ". " Success (in the anti- clerical combat) is in a lar^ measure due to Free- masonry; for it is its spirit, its programme, its meth- ods, that have triumphed." If the Bloc has been established, this is owing to Freemasonry and to the discipline learned in the lodges. The measures we have now to urge are the separation of Church and State and a law concerning instruction. Let us put our trust in the word of our Bro .*. Coml>es ". " For a long time Freemasonry has been simply the republic in disguise ", i. e., the secret parliament and govern- ment of freemasonry in reality rule France; the pro- fane State, Parliament, and Government merely exe- cute its decrees. "We are the conscience of the country"; "we are each year the funeral bell an- nouncing the death of a caoinet that has not done its duty but has betrayed the Republic; or we are its sup- port, encouraging it by saying in a solemn hour: I present you the word of the country ... its satis- fecit which is wanted by you, or its reproach that to-morrow will be sealed by your fall " . " We need vigi- lance and above all mutual confidence, if we are to ac- complish our work, as yet unfinished. This work, you know ... the anti-clerical combat, is going on. The Republic must rid itself of the religious congregations, sweeping them off by a vigorous stroke. The system of half measures is everywhere dangerous; the adver- sary must be crushed with a single blow" (Compte- rendu Gr. Or., 1903, Nourrisson, " Les Jacobins ", 26&- 271) . " It is beyond doubt ", declared the President of the Assembly of 1902, Bro .'. Blatin, with respect to the French elections of 1902, " that we would nave been defeated by our well-organized opponents, if Free- masonry had not spread over the whole country" (Compte-rendu, 19a2, 153).

Along with this political activity Freemasonry em- ployed against its adversaries, whether real or sup- posed, a system of spying and false accusation, the exposure of which brought about the downfall of the Masonic cabinet of Combes. In truth all the " anti- clerical " Masonic reforms carried out in France since 1877, such as the secularissation of education, meas- ures against private Christian schools and charitable establishments, the suppression of the religious orders and the spoliation of the Church, professedly culmi- nate in an anti-Christian and irreligious reorganization of human society, not only in France but tlwoughout the world. Thus French* Freemasonry^ as the stand- ard-bearer of all Freemasonry, pretends to inau- gurate the golden era of the Masonic universal republic, comprising in Masonic brotherhood all men and all na- tions. " The triumph of the Galilean " said the presi- dent of the (jrand Orient, Senator Delpech, on 20 September, 1902, "has lasted twenty centuries. But now he dies in his turn. The mvsterious voice, an- nouncing (to Julian the Apostate) the death of Pan,

to-day announces the death of the impostor God who

Eromised an era of iustioe and peace to those who be- eve in him. The iUusion has lasted a long time. The mendacious God is now disappearing in his turn; he passes away tojjoin in the dust of ages the other divin- ities of India, Egypt, Greece, and Kome, who saw so many deceived creatures prostrate before their altars. Bro .'. Masons, we rejoice to state that we are not with- out our share in this overthrow of the false prophets. The Romish Church, founded on the Galilean myth, began to decay rapidly from the very day on which the Masonic Association was established " (Compte-rendu Gr. Or. de France. 1902, 381).

The assertion of the French Masons: "We are the conscience of the country", was not true. By the official statistics it was ascertained, that in all elections till 1906 the majority of the votes were against the Masonic Bloc, and even the result in 1906 does not prove that the Bloc, or Masonry, in its anti-clerical measures and purposes represents the will of the na- tion, since the contrary is evident from many other facts. Much less does it represent the ' * conscience ' ' of the nation. The fact is, that the Bloc in 1906 secured a majority only because the greater part of this ma- jority voted against their "conscience". No doubt the claims of I*>eemasonry in France are highly exag- gerated, and such success as they have had is due chiefly to the lowering of the moral tone in private and public life, facilitated by the disunion existing among Catholics and by the serious political blunders which they committed. Quite similar is the outer work of the Grand Orient of Italy which likewise pre- tends to be the standard-bearer of Freemasonry in the secular struggle of Masonic light and freedom against the powers of "spiritual darlmess and bondage", al- luding of course to the papacy, and dreams of the establishment of a new and universal republican em-

gire with a Masonic Rome, supplanting the papal and cesarean as metropolis. The Grand Orient of Italy has often declared that it is enthusiastically foUowed in this struggle by the Freemasonry of the entire world and especially by the Masonic centres at Paris, Berlin, London, Madrid, Calcutta, Washington ("Riv.", 1892, 219; Gruber, "Mazzini", 215 sqq. and passim). It has not been contradicted by a single Grand Ixxige in any country, nor did the German and other Grand Lodges break off their relations with it on account of its sliameful political and anti-religious activity. But though the aims of Italian Masons are perhaps more radical and their methods more cunning th^i those of the French, their political influence, owing to the difference of the surrounding social conditions, is less poweriul. The same is to be said of the Bel^an and the Hungarian Grand Lodges, which also consider the Grand Orient of France as their political model.

Since 1889, the date of the international Masonic congress, assembled at Paris, 16 and 17 July, 1889, by the Grand Orient of France, systematic and incessant efforts have been made to bring about a closer union of universal Freemasonry in order to realize effica- ciously and rapidly the Masonic ideals. The special allies of the Grand Orient in this undertaking are: the Supreme Council and the Symbolical Grand Lodge of France and the Masonic Grand Lodges of Switzer- land, Belgium, Italy, Spam, Hungary, Portugal, Greece; the Grand Ix)dges of Massachusetts and of Brazil were also represented at the congress. The programme pursued ny the Grand Orient of France, in its main lines, runs thus: "Masonry, which prepared the Revolution of 1789, has the duty to continue its work" (circular of the G. O. of France, 2 April, 1889). This task is to lie accomplished by the thoroughly and rigidly consistent apphcatiou of the principles of the Revolution to all the departments of the religious, moral, judicial, legal, political, and social order. The necessary' political relorms being realized in most of their essential points, henceforth the consistent appli*