booknetsaWebster-secretSocietiesAndSubversiveMovements

ectory of the Carbonari and was led by a group of Italian noblemen, amongst whom a prince, " the profoundest
of initiates, was charged as Inspector-General of the Order " to propagate its principles throughout the
North of Europe. " He had received from the hands of Kingge [i.e. Knigge, the ally of Weishaupt?] the
cahiers of the last three degrees." But these were of course unknown to the great majority of Carbonari, who
entered the association in all good faith. Witt Doehring then shows how faithfully the system of Weishaupt
was carried out by the Alta Vendita in the three first degrees, he explains- It is still a question of the morality
of Christianity and even of the Church, for which those who wish to be received must promise to sacrifice
themselves. The initiates imagine, according to this formula, that the object of the association is
something high and noble, that it is the Order of those who desire a purer morality and a stronger piety, the
independence and the unity of their country. One cannot therefore judge the Carbonari en masse; there are
excellent men amongst them.... But everything changes after one has taken the three degrees. Already in the
fourth, in that of the Apostoli, the promises to overthrow all monarchies, and especially the kings of the race
of the Bourbons. But it is only in the seventh and last degree, reached by few, that revelations go further.
At last the veil is torn completely for the Principi Summo Patriarcho. Then one learns that the aim of the
Carbonari is just the same as that of the Illuminés. This degree, in which a man is at the same time prince
and bishop, coincides with the Homo Rex of the latter. The initiate vows the ruin of all religion and of all
positive government, whether despotic or democratic; murder, poison, perjury, are all at their disposal.
Who does not remember that on the suppression of the Illuminés was found, amongst other poisons, a tinctura
ad abortum faciendum. The summo maestro laughs at the zeal of the mass of Carbonari who have sacrificed
themselves for the liberty and independence of Italy, neither one nor the other being for him a goal but
a method.[51]
Witt Doehring, who had himself reached the degree of P.S.P., thereupon declares that, having taken his
vows under a misaprehension, he holds himself to be released from his obligations and conceives it his duty
to warn society. " The fears that assail governments are only too well founded. The soil in Europe is volcanic."[51]
It is unnecessary to go over the ground already traversed in World Revolution by relating the history of
the successive eruptions which proved the truth of Witt Doehring's warning. The point to emphasize again
is that every one of these eruptions can be traced to the work of the secret societies, and that, as in the eighteenth
century, most of the prominent revolutionaries were known to be connected with some secret association.
According to the plan laid down by Weishaupt, Freemasonry was habitually adopted as a cover.
Thus Louis Blanc, himself a Freemason, speaks of a lodge named the Amis de la Vérité, numbering Bazard
and Buchez amongst its founders, "in which the solemn puerilities of the Grand Orient only served to mask
political action."[52] Bakunin, companion of the Freemason Proudhon,[53] " the father of Anarchy," makes
use of precisely the same expression. Freemasonry, he explains, is not to be taken seriously, but " may serve
as a mask " and " as a means of preparing something quite different."[54]
I have quoted elsewhere the statement of the Socialist Malon that " Bakunin was a disciple of
Weishaupt," and that of the Anarchist Kropotkine that between Bakunin's secret society-the Alliance Sociale
Democratique-and the secret societies of 1795 there was a direct affiliation; I have quoted the assertion of
Malon that " Communism was handed down in the dark through the secret societies " of the nineteenth century;
I have quoted also the congratulations addressed by Lamartine and the Freemason Cremieux to the
Freemasons of France in 1848 on their share in this revolution as in that of 1789; I have shown that the organization
of this later outbreak by the secret societies is not a matter of surmise, but a fact admitted by all
well-informed historians and by the members of the secret societies themselves.
So, too, in the events of the Commune, and in the founding of the First Internationale, the rôle of Freemasonry
and the secret societies is no less apparent. The Freemasons of France have indeed always boasted
of their share in political and social upheavals. Thus in 1874, Malapert, orator of the Supreme Council of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, went so far as to say: " In the eighteenth century Freemasonry was
so widespread throughout the world that one can say that since that epoch nothing has been done without its
consent."
The secret history of Europe during the last two hundred years yet remains to be written. Until viewed
in the light of the dessous des cartes, many events that have taken place during this period must remain for
ever incomprehensible.
But it is time to leave the past and consider the secret forces at work in the world to-day.
End of PART I
Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I
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