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110. Matter, op. cit., II. 364.111. Ibid., p. 365.112. Ibid., p. 369.113. Some Notes on Various Gnostic Sects and their Possible Influence on Freemasonry, by D.F. Ranking,republished from Ars Quatour Coronatorum (Vol. XXIV, p. 202, 1911) in pamphlet form, p. 7.114. Hastings, Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, article on Manicheism.115. Zohar, treatise Bereschith, folio 54 (De Pauly's translation, I. 315).116. The Yalkut Shimoni is a sixteenth-century compilation of Haggadic Midrashim.Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I— 23 —
CHAPTER IITHE REVOLT AGAINST ISLAM(1)WE have followed the efforts of subversive sects hitherto directed against Christianity and orthodoxJudaism; we shall now see this attempt, reduced by gradual stages to a working system of extraordinary efficiency,organized for the purpose of undermining all moral and religious beliefs in the minds of Moslems. Inthe middle of the seventh century an immense schism was created in Islam by the rival advocates of successorsto the Prophet, the orthodox Islamites known by the name of Sunnis adhering to the elected KhalifasAbu Bakr, Omar, and Othman, whilst the party of revolt, known as the Shiahs, claimed the Khalifate for thedescendants of Mohammed through Ali, son of Abu-Talib and husband of Fatima, the Prophet's daughter.This division ended in open warfare; Ali was finally assassinated, his elder son Hasan was poisoned in Medina,his younger son Husain fell at the battle of Kerbela fighting against the supporters of Othman. Thedeaths of Hasan and Husain are still mourned yearly by the Shiahs at the Moharram.The IsmailisThe Shiahs themselves split again over the question of Ali's successors into four factions, the fourth ofwhich divided again into two further sects. Both of these retained their allegiance to the descendants of Alias far as Jafar-as-Sadik but whilst one party, known as the Imamias or Isna-Asharias i.e. the Twelvers), supportedthe succession through his younger son Musa to the twelfth Imam Mohammed, son of Askeri, the Ismailis(or Seveners) adhered to Ismail, the elder son of Jafar-as-Sadik.So far, however, in spite of divisions, no body of Shiahs had ever deviated from the fundamental doctrinesof Islamism but merely claimed that these had been handed down through a different line from that recognizedby the Sunnis. The earliest Ismailis, who formed themselves into a party at about the time of thedeath of Mohammed, son of Ismail (i.e.circ. A.D. 770) still remained believers, declaring only that the trueteaching of the Prophet had descended to Mohammed, who was not dead but would return in the fullness oftime and that he was the Mahdi whom Moslems must await. But in about A.D. 87, an intriguer of extraordinarysubtlety succeeded in capturing the movement, which, hitherto merely schismatic, now becamedefinitely subversive, not only of Islamism, but of all religious belief.This man, Abdullah ibn Maymn, the son of a learned and free-thinking doctor in Southern Persia,brought up in the doctrines of Gnostic Dualism and profoundly versed in all religions, was in reality, like hisfather, a pure materialist. By professing adherence to the creed of orthodox Shi-ism, and proclaiming aknowledge of the mystic doctrines which the Ismailis believed to have descended through Ismail to his sonMohammed, Abdullah succeeded in placing himself at the head of the Ismailis.His advocacy of Ismail was thus merely a mask, his real aim being materialism, which he now proceededto make into a system by founding a sect known as the Batinis with seven degrees of initiation. Dozy hasgiven the following description of this amazing project: To link together into one body the vanquished andthe conquerors; to unite in the form of a vast secret society with many degrees of initiation free-thinkerswhoregarded religion only as curb for the people-and bigots of all sects; to make tools of believers in orderto give power to sceptics; to induce conquerors to overturn the empires they had founded; to build up aparty, numerous, compact, and disciplined, which in due time would give the throne, if not to himself, atleast to his descendants, such was Abdullah ibn Maymn's general aim-an extraordinary conception which heworked out with marvellous tact, incomparable skill, and profound knowledge of the human heart. Themeans which he adopted were devised with diabolical cunning....It was... not among the Shi-ites that he sought his true supporters, but among the Ghebers, theManicheans, the pagans of Harran, and the students of Greek philosophy; on the last alone could he rely, tothem alone could he gradually unfold the final mystery, and reveal that Imams, religions, and morality werenothing but an imposture and an absurdity. The rest of mankind-the " asses," as Abdullah called them-wereincapable of understanding such doctrines. But to gain his end he by no means disdained their aid; on thecontrary, he solicited it, but he took care to initiate devout and lowly souls only in the first grades of thesect. His missionaries, who were inculcated with the idea that their first duty was to conceal their true sentimentsand adapt themselves to the views of their auditors, appeared in many guises, and spoke, as it were, ina different language to each class. They won over the ignorant vulgar by feats of legerdemain which passedfor miracles or excited their curiosity by enigmatical discourse. In the presence of the devout they assumedthe mask of virtue and piety. With mystics they were mystical, and unfolded the inner meanings of phenomena,or explained allegories and the figurative sense of the allegories themselves....Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I— 24 —
Page 2 and 3: Nesta H. WebsterSecret Societies an
Page 4 and 5: That the author was right in his de
Page 6 and 7: 1. Moniteur for the 14th Fructidor,
Page 8 and 9: and that " the priests did not shut
Page 10 and 11: Is the Cabala, then, as Gougenot de
Page 12 and 13: system of the Jewish hierarchy and
Page 14 and 15: traditions woven into a coherent na
Page 16 and 17: This passage would alone suffice to
Page 18 and 19: itive innocence of the garden of Ed
Page 20 and 21: 1. August le Plongeon, Sacred myste
Page 22 and 23: ah was not that of ' a light to lig
Page 26 and 27: By means such as these the extraord
Page 28 and 29: policy. A system which, with no oth
Page 30 and 31: devoted his life to murder. Thus by
Page 32 and 33: CHAPTER IIITHE TEMPLARSIN the year
Page 34 and 35: nesses, says the official report, "
Page 36 and 37: As to the Pope, we have already see
Page 38 and 39: The Paulicians who flourished about
Page 40 and 41: regard to the miracles of Christ is
Page 42 and 43: ing homage to the powers of darknes
Page 44 and 45: 27. Ibid., p. 384.28. F. Funck-Bren
Page 46 and 47: CHAPTER IVTHREE CENTURIES OF OCCULT
Page 48 and 49: from this source. Indeed Eliphas L
Page 50 and 51: ment of physics by which the mystic
Page 52 and 53: It will be seen that, according to
Page 54 and 55: Moreover, towards the end of the ce
Page 56 and 57: existence to the world under the na
Page 58 and 59: the true and indisputable facts con
Page 60 and 61: legia in Scotland, at Kilwinning, M
Page 62 and 63: Apprentices, Fellow Crafts, and Mas
Page 64 and 65: Moreover, according to a masonic tr
Page 66 and 67: sider one more link in the chain of
Page 68 and 69: but more likely borrowed from the R
Page 70 and 71: 1. A Free Mason's answer to the Sus
Page 72 and 73: Les Sociétés Secrètes en Allemag
Page 74 and 75:
ment, but in the transformation tha
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middle of the eighteenth century sp
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Freemasonry traced to the Crusades:
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Cross; and finally, that a degree o
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claimed to be not merely a part of
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1. Histoire de la Monarchie Prussie
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41. A.Q.C., XXXII. Part I. p. 17.42
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Convallium, von Haugwitz (Cabinet M
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thentic they were the work of Volta
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speech had reached the ears of Fred
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1782 an English Freemason writes: "
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Contemporaries, however, take him l
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25. Evidently a reference to the se
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CHAPTER IIXTHE JEWISH CABALISTSIT h
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Podolia, known as Ba'al Shem Tob, o
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applied to Falk in his quest for th
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und Falk: Gespräche für Freimaure
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1. L'Antisémitisme, p. 335.2. Ibid
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CHAPTER IXTHE BAVARIAN ILLUMINATITH
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mancers, would authorize us in decl
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merce by customs, excise duties, an
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day.Weishaupt, however, admits hims
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and the world the abode of reasonab
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ing esteemed and " respectable " pe
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mother dead ! Corpse, wedding, chri
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way of duplicity and imposture.More
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isted, whereat he gave me his word
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100. It has several times been stat
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But in the year before these events
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terested in supporting the system o
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Amongst these others were not only
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attempt on the part of the Jews to
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been and will be the authors of pre
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ressorts]."Two years later, on Janu
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derstood that there may be uniformi
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ectory of the Carbonari and was led
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1. Henri Martin, Histoire de France
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