booknetsaWebster-secretSocietiesAndSubversiveMovements

attempt on the part of the Jews to bring about the overthrow of the French monarchy and the Catholic religion.
It is true, nevertheless, that they themselves boasted of their revolutionary ardour. In an address
presenting their claims before the National Assembly in 1789, they declare: Regenerators of the French Empire,
you would not wish that we should cease to be citizens, since for already six months we have assiduously
performed all duties as such, and the recompense for the zeal we have shown in accelerating the revolution
will not be to condemn us to participate in none of its advantages now that it has been consummated....
Nosseigneurs, we are all very good citizens, and in this memorable revolution we dare to say that
there is not one of us who has not proved himself.[30]
In all these activities, however, religious feeling appears to have played an entirely subordinate part; the
Jews, as has been said, were free before the Revolution to carry on the rites of their faith. And when the
great anti-religious campaign began, many of them entered whole-heartedly into the attack on all religious
faiths, their own included. Thus on the 21st Brumaire, whilst the Feasts of Reason were taking place in the
churches of Paris, we find " a deputation of Israelites " presenting themselves at the National Assembly and
" depositing on the bosom of the Mountain the ornaments of which they had stripped a little temple they had
in the Faubourg Saint-Germain." At the same moment- A revolutionary committee of the Reunion brings to
the general council crosses, suns, chalices, copes, and quantities of other ornaments of worship, and a member
of this committee observes that several of these effects belong to individuals of the Jewish race. A minister
of the religion of Moses, Abraham, and Jacob asks in the name of his co-religionists that the said effects
should not be regarded as belonging to such and such a sect,... this citizen is named Benjamin Jacob....
Another member of the same committee pays homage to the patriotic zeal of the citizens heretofore Jews,...
almost all have forestalled the wish of the revolutionary committee by themselves bringing their reliquaries
and ornaments, amongst others the famous cope said to have belonged to Moses.[31]
On the 20th Frimaire at " the Temple of Liberty," formerly the church of the Benedictines, " the citizen
Alexandre Lambert fils, a Jew brought up in the prejudices of the Jewish religion," uttered a violent harangue
against all religions: I will prove to you, citizens, that all forms of worship are impostures equally degrading
to man and to divinities; I will not prove it by philosophy, I do not know it, but only by the light of
reason.
After denouncing the iniquities of both the Catholic and Protestant faiths, Lambert demonstrates " the
absurdities of the Jewish religion, of this domineering religion "; he thunders against Moses " governing a
simple and agrarian people like all clever impostors," against " the servile respect of the Jews for their
kings... the ablutions of women," etc. Finally he declares: The bad faith, citizens, of which the Jewish nation
is accused does not come from themselves but from their priests. Their religion, which would allow
them only to lend to those of their nation at 5 per cent., tells them to take all they can from Catholics; it is
even hallowed as a custom in our morning prayers to solicit God's help in catching out a Christian. There is
more, citizens, and it is the climax of abomination: if any mistake is made in commerce between Jews, they
are ordered to make reparation; but if on 100 louis a Christian should have paid 25 too much, one is not
bound to return them to him. What an abomination ! What a horror ! And where does that all come from
but from the Rabbis? Who have excited proscriptions against us? Our priests ! Ah, citizens, more than anything
in the world we must abjure a religion which,... by subjecting us to irksome and servile practices,
makes it impossible for us to be good citizens.[32]
The encouragement accorded by the Jews to the French Revolution appears thus to have been prompted
not by religious fanaticism but by a desire for national advantage. That they gained immensely by the overthrow
of the Old Order is undeniable, for apart from the legislation passed on their behalf in the National
Assembly, the disorder of the finances in 1796 was such that, as M. Leon Kahn tells us, a contemporary
journal enquired: " Has the Revolution then been only a financial scheme? a speculation of bankers?"[33]
We know from Prudhomme to what race the financiers who principally profited by this disorder belonged.
[34]
But if the rôle of the Jews in the Revolution remains obscure there can be no doubt of the part played by
the secret societies in the revolt against all religion, all moral laws, and social order, which had been reduced
to a system in the councils of the Illuminati.
It was this conspiracy that reasserted itself in the Babouviste rising of 1796 which was directly inspired
by the secret societies. After the death of Babeuf, his friend and inspirer Buonarotti with the aid of Marat's
brother founded a masonic lodge, the Amis Sincères, which was affiliated to the Philadelphes, at Geneva,
and as " Diacre Mobile " of the " Order of Sublime and Perfect Masons " created three new secret degrees,
in which the device of the Rose-Croix I.N.R.I. was interpreted as signifying " Justum necare reges
injustos."[35]
Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I
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