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Les Sociétés Secrètes en Allemagne (1819) quoting original documents preserved at Dortmund.55. Clavel derides this early origin and says it was the Francs-juges themselves who claimed Charlemagneas their founder (Histoire pittoresque, p. 357).56. Lecouteulx de Canteleu, Les Sectes et Sociétés Secrètes, p. 100.57. According to Walter Scott's account of the Vehmgerichts in Anne of Geierstein, the initiate was warnedthat the secrets confided to him were " neither to be spoken aloud nor whispered, to be told in words or writtenin characters, to be carved or to be painted, or to be otherwise communicated, either directly or by parableand emblem." This formula, if accurate, would establish a further point of resemblance.58. Lombard de Langres, Les Sociétés Secrètes en Allemagne, p. 241 (1819); Lecouteulx de Canteleu, LesSectes et Sociétés Secrètes, p. 99.59. A. le Plongeon, Sacred Mysteries among the Mayas and the Quichas (1886).60. Findel, History of Freemasonry (Eng. trans., 1866), pp. 131, 132.61. John Yarker, The Arcane Schools, p. 216, 431.62. Lexicon of Freemasonry, p. 298.63. Waite, The Real History of the Rosicrucians. p. 403.64. Ibid., p. 283.65. Yarker, The Arcane Schools, p. 430.66. " Yarker pronounces Elias Ashmole to have been circa 1686 ' the leading spirit both in Craft Masonryand in Rosicrucianism,' and is of opinion that his diary establishes the fact ' that both societies fell into decaytogether in 1682.' He adds: ' It is evident therefore that the Rosicrucians... found the operative Guild convenientlyready to their hand, and grafted upon it their own mysteries... also, from this time Rosicrucianismdisappears and Freemasonry springs into life with all the possessions of the former.' "-Speculative Freemasonry,an Historical Lecture, delivered March 31, 1883, p. 9; quoted by Gould, History of Freemasonry, II.138.67. L'Antisémitisme, p. 339.68. Jewish Encyclopædia, articles on Leon and Manasseh ben Israel.69. Article on " Anglo-Jewish Coats-of-arms " by Lucien Wolf in Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society,Vol. II. p. 157.70. Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England, Vol. II. p. 156. A picture of Templo forms thefrontispiece of this volume, and a reproduction of the coat-of-arms of Grand Lodge is given opposite to p.156.71. Zohar, section Jethro, folio 70b (de Pauly's trans., Vol. III. 311).72. The Cabalistic interpretation of the Mercaba will be found in the Zohar, section Bereschith, folio 18b(de Pauly's trans., Vol. I. p. 115).73. "By figure of a man is always meant that of the male and female together."-Ibid., p. 116.Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I— 71 —
CHAPTER VITHE GRAND LODGE ERAwhatever were the origins of the Order we now know as Freemasonry, it is clear that during the centurypreceding its reorganization under Grand Lodge of London the secret system of binding men together for acommon purpose, based on Eastern esoteric doctrines, had been anticipated by the Rosicrucians. Was thissecret system employed, however, by any other body of men? It is certainly easy to imagine how in this momentousseventeenth century, when men of all opinions were coalescing against opposing forces-Lutheranscombining against the Papacy, Catholics rallying their forces against invading Protestantism, Republicansplotting in favour of Cromwell, Royalists in their turn plotting to restore the Stuarts, finally Royalists plottingagainst each other on behalf of rival dynasties-an organization of this kind, enabling one to worksecretly for a cause and to set invisibly vast numbers of human beings in motion, might prove invaluable toany party.Thus, according to certain masonic writers on the Continent, the system used by the Rosicrucians in theirfight against " Popery " was also employed by the Jesuits for a directly opposite purpose. In the manuscriptsof the Prince of Hesse published by Lecouteulx de Canteleu it is declared that in 1714 the Jesuits used themysteries of the Rose-Croix. Mirabeau also relates that " the Jesuits profited by the internal troubles of thereign of Charles I to possess themselves of the symbols, the allegories, and the carpets (tapis) of the Rose-Croix masons, who were only the ancient order of the Templars secretly perpetuated. It may be seen bymeans of what imperceptible innovations they succeeded in substituting their catechism to the instruction ofthe Templars."(1)Other Continental writers again assert that Cromwell, the arch-opponent of the Catholic Church, was " ahigher initiate of masonic mysteries," and used the system for his own elevation to power (2); further, thathe found himself outdistanced by the Levellers; that this sect, whose name certainly suggest masonic inspiration,adopted for its symbols the square and compass,(3) and in its claim of real equality threatened the supremacyof the usurper. Finally, Elias Ashmole, the Rosicrucian Royalist, is said to have turned the masonicsystem against Cromwell, so that towards the end of the seventeenth century the Order rallied to the Stuartcause.(4)But all this is pure speculation resting on no basis of known facts. The accusation that the Jesuits usedthe system of the Rose-Croix as a cover to political intrigues is referred to by the Rosicrucian Eliphas Lévias the outcome of ignorance which " refutes itself. " It is significant to notice that it emanates mainly fromGermany and from the Illuminati; the Prince of Hesse was a member of the Stricte Observance and Mirabeauan Illuminatus at the time he wrote the passage quoted above. That in the seventeenth century certainJesuits played the part of political intriguers I suppose their warmest friends will hardly deny, but that theyemployed any secret or masonic system seems to me perfectly incapable of proof. I shall return to this pointlater, however, in connexion with the Illuminati.As to Cromwell, the only circumstance that lends any colour to the possibility of his connexion withFreemasonry is his known friendship for Manasseh ben Israel, the colleague of the Rabbi Templo who designedthe coat-of-arms later adopted by Grand Lodge. If, therefore, the Jews of Amsterdam were a sourceof inspiration to the Freemasons of the seventeenth century, it is not impossible that Cromwell may havebeen the channel through which this influence first penetrated.In the matter of the Stuarts we are, however, on firm ground with regard to Freemasonry. That thelodges at the end of the seventeenth century were Royalist is certain, and there seems good reason to believethat, when the revolution of 1688 divided the Royalist cause, the Jacobites who fled to France with James IItook Freemasonry with them.(5) With the help of the French they established lodges in which, it is said, masonicrites and symbols were used to promote the cause of the Stuarts. Thus the land of promise signifiedGreat Britain, Jerusalem stood for London, and the murder of Hiram represented the execution of Charles I.(6)Meanwhile Freemasonry in England did not continue to adhere to the Stuart cause as it had done underthe gis of Elias Ashmole, and by 1717 is said to have become Hanoverian.From this important date the official history of the present system may be said to begin; hithertoeverything rests on stray documents, of which the authenticity is frequently doubtful, and which provide nocontinuous history of the Order. In 1717 for the first time Freemasonry was established on a settled basisand in the process underwent a fundamental change. So far it would seem to have retained an operative ele-Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I— 72 —
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Nesta H. WebsterSecret Societies an
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That the author was right in his de
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1. Moniteur for the 14th Fructidor,
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and that " the priests did not shut
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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
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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 24 and 25: 110. Matter, op. cit., II. 364.111.
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 74 and 75: ment, but in the transformation tha
Page 76 and 77: middle of the eighteenth century sp
Page 78 and 79: Freemasonry traced to the Crusades:
Page 80 and 81: Cross; and finally, that a degree o
Page 82 and 83: claimed to be not merely a part of
Page 84 and 85: 1. Histoire de la Monarchie Prussie
Page 86 and 87: 41. A.Q.C., XXXII. Part I. p. 17.42
Page 88 and 89: Convallium, von Haugwitz (Cabinet M
Page 90 and 91: thentic they were the work of Volta
Page 92 and 93: speech had reached the ears of Fred
Page 94 and 95: 1782 an English Freemason writes: "
Page 96 and 97: Contemporaries, however, take him l
Page 98 and 99: 25. Evidently a reference to the se
Page 100 and 101: CHAPTER IIXTHE JEWISH CABALISTSIT h
Page 102 and 103: Podolia, known as Ba'al Shem Tob, o
Page 104 and 105: applied to Falk in his quest for th
Page 106 and 107: und Falk: Gespräche für Freimaure
Page 108 and 109: 1. L'Antisémitisme, p. 335.2. Ibid
Page 110 and 111: CHAPTER IXTHE BAVARIAN ILLUMINATITH
Page 112 and 113: mancers, would authorize us in decl
Page 114 and 115: merce by customs, excise duties, an
Page 116 and 117: day.Weishaupt, however, admits hims
Page 118 and 119: and the world the abode of reasonab
Page 120 and 121: ing esteemed and " respectable " pe
Page 122 and 123:
mother dead ! Corpse, wedding, chri
Page 124 and 125:
way of duplicity and imposture.More
Page 126 and 127:
isted, whereat he gave me his word
Page 128 and 129:
100. It has several times been stat
Page 130 and 131:
But in the year before these events
Page 132 and 133:
terested in supporting the system o
Page 134 and 135:
Amongst these others were not only
Page 136 and 137:
attempt on the part of the Jews to
Page 138 and 139:
been and will be the authors of pre
Page 140 and 141:
ressorts]."Two years later, on Janu
Page 142 and 143:
derstood that there may be uniformi
Page 144 and 145:
ectory of the Carbonari and was led
Page 146 and 147:
1. Henri Martin, Histoire de France
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