booknetsaWebster-secretSocietiesAndSubversiveMovements

itive innocence of the garden of Eden-a precedent followed by the Adamites of Germany in the fifteenth
century.(107)
These Gnostics, says Eliphas Lévi, under the pretext of " spiritualizing matter, materialized the spirit in
the most revolting ways.... Rebels to the hierarchic order,... they wished to substitute the mystical licence of
sensual passions to wise Christian sobriety and obedience to laws.... Enemies of the family, they wished to
produce sterility by increasing debauchery."(108)
By way of systematically perverting the doctrines of the Christian faith the Gnostics claimed to possess
the true versions of the Gospels, and professed belief in these to the exclusion of all the others.(109) Thus
the Ebionites had their own corrupted version of the Gospel of St. Matthew founded on the " Gospel of the
Hebrews," known earlier to the Jewish Christians; the Marcosians had their version of St. Luke, the Cainites
their own " Gospel of Judas," and the Valentinians their " Gospel of St. John." As we shall see later, the
Gospel of St. John is the one that throughout the war on Christianity has been specially chosen for the purpose
of perversion.
Of course this spirit of perversion was nothing new; many centuries earlier the prophet Isaiah had denounced
it in the words: " Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and
light for darkness ! " But the rôle of the Gnostics was to reduce perversion to a system by binding men together
into sects working under the guise of enlightenment in order to obscure all recognized ideas of morality
and religion. It is this which constitutes their importance in the history of secret societies.
Whether the Gnostics themselves can be described as a secret society, or rather as a ramification of
secret societies, is open to question. M. Matter, quoting a number of third century writers, shows the possibility
that they had mysteries and initiations; the Church Fathers definitely asserted this to be the case. (110)
According to Tertullian, the Valentinians continued, or rather perverted, the mysteries of Eleusis, out of
which they made a " sanctuary of prostitution."(111)
The Valentinians are known to have divided their members into three classes-the Pneumatics, the Psychics,
and the Hylics (i.e. materialists); the Basilideans are also said to have possessed secret doctrines known
to hardly one in a thousand of the sect. From all this M. Matter concludes that:
1. The Gnostics professed to hold by means of tradition a secret doctrine superior to that contained in the
public writings of the apostles. 2. That they did not communicate this doctrine to everyone.... 3. That they
communicated it by means of emblems and symbols, as the Diagram of the Ophites proves. 4. That in these
communications they imitated the rites and trials of the mysteries of Eleusis.(112)
This claim to the possession of a secret oral tradition, whether known under the name of or of Cabala,
confirms the conception of the Gnostics as Cabalists and shows how far they had departed from Christian
teaching. For if only in this idea of " one doctrine for the ignorant and another for a initiated," the Gnostics
had restored the very system which Christianity had come to destroy.(113)
Manicheism
Whilst we have seen the Gnostic sects working for more or less subversive purposes under the guise of
esoteric doctrines, we find in the Manicheans of Persia, who followed a century later, a sect embodying the
same tendencies and approaching still nearer to secret society organization.
Cubricus or Corbicius, the founder of Manicheism, was born in Babylonia about the year A.D. 216.
Whilst still a child he is said to have been bought as a slave by a rich widow of Ctesiphon, who liberated
him and on her death left him great wealth. According to another story-for the whole history of Manes rests
on legends-he inherited from a rich old woman the books of a Saracen named Scythianus on the wisdom of
the Egyptians. Combining the doctrines these books contained with ideas borrowed from Zoroastrianism,
Gnosticism, and Christianity, and also with certain additions of his own, he elaborated a philosophic system
which he proceeded to teach. Cubricus then changed his name to Mani or Manes and proclaimed himself the
Paraclete promised by Jesus Christ. His followers were divided into two classes-the outer circle of hearers or
combatants, and the inner circle of teachers or ascetics described as the Elect. As evidence of their resemblance
with Freemasons, it has been said that the Manicheans made use of secret signs, grips, and passwords,
that owing to the circumstances of their master's adoption they called Manes " the son of the widow " and
themselves " the children of the widow," but this is not clearly proved. One of their customs is, however, interesting
in this connexion. According to legend, Manes undertook to cure the son of the King of Persia who
had fallen ill, but the prince died, whereupon Manes was flayed alive by order of the king and his corpse
hanged up at the city gate. Every year after this, on Good Friday, the Manicheans carried out a mourning ce-
Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I
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