Rosicrucian Beacon Magazine - 2013-06 - AMORC

formerly been expelled for improper conduct, he perhapshoped to return to the good graces of the crown. At thetrial, Cagliostro was freed from conviction. However, he wasimprisoned in the Bastille “for other reasons,” as a biographersays, and without further explanation. He was later able toflee to London and, while there, wrote of the corruptionprevailing in France and predicted the Revolution that wassoon to come. Both Church and Royalists now hated himfor this, and he finally found sanctuary in Basel.Under Penalty of DeathIt was while in Basel that some of the initiates who followedhim conducted their alchemical researches in this verybasement laboratory I was looking at. His followers whoremained in France didn’t all desert him either. His EgyptianMasonic lodges and Rosicrucian Temple continued, to thegreat annoyance of the Catholic prelates; for the people wereanxious to learn the art that had given Cagliostro his power.Furthermore, Cardinal de Rohan, who had eventuallybeen acquitted, had probably believed that Cagliostro hadinvolved him in the diamond necklace affair and caused himto be exposed. The Cardinal’s ecclesiastical power seems tohave been brought to bear against the mystical alchemistprimarily because of this.Against all the odds stacked against him, Cagliostroreturned to Rome. He was urged by former initiates of hisEgyptian Masonic and Rosicrucian Lodges to establishmore Lodges in the eternal city. Despite a papal penaltyof death for the establishment of Freemasonic lodges inRome, Cagliostro had always displayed absolute courage inthese matters. In defiance of the papal edict, he organisedhis lodge and initiated eager supplicants who sought theGreater Light. He was arrested on 27 September 1789 byorder of the Holy Office of the Inquisition.The Italian biographer tried to mitigate thehistorical impression of the dictatorial policy of the RomanChurch by declaring that the papal authorities had engagedfor Cagliostro a lawyer “Whose knowledge and probitywere generally recognised.” Cagliostro was induced throughreliance upon this counsel and against his own betterjudgement, to confess to odious crimes, and also inducednot to staunchly deny the many charges brought againsthim. He was assured that he would then receive leniencyfrom the papal authorities and be permitted to leave Italyat once.The result of the trial however was pronounced.There was some public indignation over the verdict andthe sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment inthe fortress prison of San Leo. Strangely enough, althoughCagliostro was in comparatively good health whensentenced and during his imprisonment, he died two yearslater when only 50 years old. The accounts of his death werealways quite mysterious. One statement was that he hadtried to strangle a priest (whom he had called for confession)in an attempt to escape, and was killed for this. Anotherreport was that he had strangled himself.At the time of Cagliostro’s arrest, the RomanChurch seized all the manuscripts he had prepared from hisalchemical researches. They also took his books on occultand esoteric philosophy of the East which he had carefullygathered. His Masonic and Rosicrucian records were alsoconfiscated and may still reside in the prohibited sectionof the Vatican archives. It was during these two years inprison and just before his death in the prime of life, that hismemoirs were are said to have been written. These purportedmemoirs, which he never lived to confirm or deny, refutedall he had ever taught, written or demonstrated. They are soinconsistent with the acts of his life that there is little doubtthey were the consequence of the inquisitional methods thatwere exercised against him.His wife was also tried and, “under terror of theInquisition” was made to deny Cagliostro’s eloquence andbrilliance which were a known fact throughout Europe.Notwithstanding the intimidation of his wife (who waslater confined to a convent), she insisted that some of hisarts were inexplicable. She stated that he must have “beenassisted by the powers of magical art.” Later, battalions of theFrench Revolutionists sought to rescue Cagliostro from thecastle in which he was imprisoned, showing the devotedpublic feeling toward him in France. But they were toolate, he was dead.While gazing at the stairway, down which this adeptand mystic had trudged to his labours, I reflected that allthe vituperative and vilifying accounts and biographicalsketches and fictional tales written about Cagliostro weremainly based on his alleged memoirs written while hewas a papal prisoner. The Italian biographer who wroteabout him, and who has been so widely copied, gained hisprincipal data from these ‘memoirs’ and that informationwhich the Roman Church reported as having been includedin Cagliostro’s private papers. The fruits of the man’s lifein most contemporary literature are thus made to appearas rotten as the roots these sources have attributed to him.It was in this laboratory in Basel, Switzerland, thatCagliostro conducted alchemical research. The implementsand devices in this laboratory date from the 15 th centurywhen alchemy flourished in Europe. This original alchemicalequipment was gathered together by the PharmaceuticalSociety of Switzerland. The room is a tribute to alchemy,father of chemistry, medicine and pharmacy. On an innerdoor is an announcement proclaiming: “Cagliostro made goldhere…”, recognition of the greatness of this alchemist by amodern, and grateful, scientific organisation.44The Rosicrucian Beacon -- June 2013© Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC