booknetsaWebster-secretSocietiesAndSubversiveMovements

82. Sura ii. 89, 250; v. 100
83. Sura v. 50.
84. In the masonic periodical Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, Vol. XXIV, a Freemason (Bro. Sydney T. Klein)
observes: " It is not generally known that one of the reasons why the Mohammedans removed their Kiblah
from Jerusalem to Mecca was that they quarrelled with the Jews over Jesus Christ, and the proof of this may
still be seen in the Golden Gate leading into the sacred area of the Temple, which was bricked up by the Mohammedans
and is bricked up to this day, because they declared that nobody should enter through that portal
until Jesus Christ comes to judge the world, and this is stated in the Koran." I cannot trace this passage in
the Koran, but much the same idea is conveyed by the Rev. J. M. Rodwell, who in the note above quoted
adds: " The Muhammadans believe that Jesus on His return to earth at the end of the world will slay the Antichrist,
die, and be raised again. A vacant place is reserved for His body in the Prophet's tomb at Medina."
85. Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, III. 216-52.
86. The Essenes: their History and Doctrines, an essay by Christian D. Ginsburg, LL.D. (Longmans, Green
& Co., 1864).
87. Ibid., p. 24.
88. Edersheim (op. cit., I. 325) ably refutes both Graetz and Ginsburg on this point and shows that " the
teaching of Christianity was in a direction opposite from that of Essenism." M. Vulliaud (op. cit., I. 71) dismisses
the Essene origin of Christianity as unworthy of serious attention. " To maintain the Essenism of Jesus
is a proof of frivolity or of invincible ignorance."
89. Luke xvii. 7-9.
90. Ginsburg, op. cit., pp. 15, 22, 55.
91. Ginsburg, op. cit., p. 12.
92. Fabre d'Olivet thinks this tradition had descended to the Essenes from Moses: " If it is true, as everything
attests, that Moses left an oral law, it is amongst the Essenes that it was preserved. The Pharisees, who
flattered themselves so highly on possessing it, only had its outward forms (apparences), as Jesus reproaches
them at every moment. It is from these latter that the modern Jews descend, with the exception of a few real
savants whose secret tradition goes back to the Essens."-La Langue Hébraïque, p. 27 (1815).
93. Matter, Histoire du Gnosticisme, I. 44 (1844).
94. Jewish Encyclopædia, article on Cabala.
95. Matter, op. cit., II. 58.
96. Ragon, Maçonnerie Occulte, p. 78.
97. " The Cabala is anterior to the Gnosis, an opinion which Christian writers little understand, but which
the erudites of Judaism profess with a legitimate assurance."-Matter, op. cit., Vol. I. p. 12.
98. Jewish Encyclopædia, article on Cabala.
99. John Yarker, The Arcane Schools, p. 167; Matter, op. cit., II. 365, quoting Irenæus.
100. Eliphas Lévi, Histoire de la Magie, p. 189.
101. Eliphas Lévi, op. cit., p. 218.
102. Dean Milman, History of the Jews (Everyman's Library edition), II. 491.
103. Matter, II. 171; E. de Faye, Gnostiques et Gnosticisme, p. 349 (1913).
104. De Luchet, Essai sur la Secte des Illuminés, p. 6.
105. Manuel d'Histoire Ecclésiastique, par R.P. Albers, S.J., adapté par René Hedde, O.P., p. 125 (1908);
Matter, op. cit., II. 197.
106. Matter, op. cit., II. 188.
107. Matter, op. cit., II. 199, 215.
108. Eliphas Lévi, Histoire de la Magie, pp. 217, 218.
109. Matter, op. cit., II. 115, III. 14; S. Baring-Gould, The Lost and Hostile Gospels (1874).
Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I
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