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claimed to be not merely a part of Masonry but to greater privileges and the right to rule over the ordinary,i.e. Craft Masonry."(54) The Grand Lodge of France seems, however, to have realized the danger of submittingto the domination of the Templar element, and on the death of the Duc d'Antin and his replacement bythe Comte de Clermont in 1743, signified its adherence to English Craft Masonry by proclaiming itselfGrande Loge Anglaise de France and reissued the " Constitutions " of Anderson, first published in 1723,with the injunction that the Scots Masters should be placed on the same level as the simple Apprentices andFellow Crafts and allowed to wear no badges of distinction.(55)Grand Lodge of England appears to have been reassured by this proclamation as to the character of Freemasonry,for it was now, in 1743, that it at last delivered a warrant to Grand Lodge of France. Yet in realityit was from this moment that French Freemasonry degenerated the most rapidly. The Order was soon invadedby intriguers. This was rendered all the easier by the apathy of the Comte de Clermont, appointedGrand Master in 1743, who seems to have taken little interest in the Order and employed a substitute in theperson of a dancing master named Lacorne, a man of low character through whose influence the lodges fellinto a state of anarchy. Freemasonry was thus divided into warring factions: Lacorne and the crowd of lowclasssupporters who had followed him into the lodges founded a Grand Lodge of their own (Grande LogeLacorne), and in 1756 the original Freemasons again attempted to make Craft Masonry the national Masonryof France by deleting the word " Anglaise " from the appellation of Grand Lodge, and renaming it " GrandeLoge Nationale de France." But many lodges still continue to work the additional degrees.The rivalry between the two groups became so violent that in 1767 the government intervened andclosed down Grand Lodge.The Templar group had, however, formed two separate associations, the " Knights of the East " (1756)and the " Council of the Emperors of the East and West " (1758). In 1761 a Jew named Stephen Morin wassent to America by the " Emperors " armed with a warrant from the Duc de Clermont and Grand Lodge ofParis and bearing the sonorous title of " Grand Elect Perfect and Sublime Master," with orders to establish aLodge in that country. In 1766 he was accused in Grand Lodge of " propagating strange and a monstrousdoctrines " and his patent of Grand Inspector was withdrawn.(56) Morin, however, had succeeded in establishingthe Rite of Perfection. Sixteen Inspectors, nearly all Jews, were now appointed. These includedIsaac Long, Isaac de Costa, Moses Hayes, B. Spitser, Moses Cohen, Abraham Jacobs, and Hyman Long.Meanwhile in France the closing of Grand Lodge had not prevented meetings of Lacorne's group, which,on the death of the Duc de Clermont in 1772, instituted the " Grand Orient " with the Duc de Chartres-thefuture " Philippe Egalité "-as Grand Master. The Grand Orient then invited the Grande Loge to revoke thedecree of expulsion and unite with it, and this offer being accepted, the revolutionary party inevitably carriedall before it, and the Duc de Chartres was declared Grand Master of all the councils, chapters, andScotch lodges of France.(57) In 1782 the " Council of Emperors " and the " Knights of the East " combinedto form the " Grand Chapitre Général de France," which in 1786 joined up with the Grand Orient. The victoryof the revolutionary party was then complete.It is necessary to enter into all these tedious details in order to understand the nature of the factionsgrouped together under the banner of Masonry at this period. The Martinist Papus attributes the revolutionaryinfluences that now prevailed in the lodges to their invasion by the Templars, and goes on to explain thatthis was owing to a change that had taken place in the Ordre du Temple. Under the Grand Mastership of theRegent and his successor the Duc de Bourbon, the revolutionary elements amongst the Templars had hadfull play, but from 1741 onwards the Grand Masters of the Order were supporters of the monarchy. Whenthe Revolution came, the Duc de Cossé-Brissac, who had been Grand Master since 1776, perished amongstthe defenders of the throne. It was thus that by the middle of the century the Order of the Temple ceased tobe a revolutionary force, and the discontented elements it had contained, no longer able to find in it a refuge,threw themselves into Freemasonry, and entering the higher degrees turned them to their subversive purpose.According to Papus, Lacorne was a member of the Templar group, and the dissensions that took placewere principally a fight between the ex-Templars and the genuine Freemasons which ended in the triumphof the former: Victorious rebels thus founded the Grand Orient of France. So a contemporary Mason is ableto write: " It is not excessive to say that the masonic revolution of 1773 was the prelude and the precursorof the Revolution of 1789." What must be well observed is the secret action of the Brothers of the TemplarRite. It is they who are the real fomentors of revolution, the others are only docile agents.(58)But all this attributes the baneful influence of Templarism to the French Templars alone, and the existenceof such a body rests on no absolutely certain evidence. What is certain and admits of no denial on thepart of any historian, is the inauguration of a Templar Order in Germany at the very moment when the socalledScottish degrees were introduced into French Masonry. We shall now return to 1738 and followNesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I— 81 —
events that were taking place at this important moment beyond the Rhine.Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I— 82 —
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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
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system of the Jewish hierarchy and
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traditions woven into a coherent na
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This passage would alone suffice to
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itive innocence of the garden of Ed
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1. August le Plongeon, Sacred myste
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ah was not that of ' a light to lig
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110. Matter, op. cit., II. 364.111.
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By means such as these the extraord
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policy. A system which, with no oth
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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
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 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
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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
Page 142 and 143:
derstood that there may be uniformi
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ectory of the Carbonari and was led
Page 146 and 147:
1. Henri Martin, Histoire de France
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