Introduction
BEING AT a friend’s house in the country during some part of the
summer 1795, I there saw a volume of a German periodical work,
called Religions Begebenheiten, i.e. Religious Occurrences; in which
there was an account of the various schisms in the Fraternity of
Free Masons, with frequent allusions to the origin and history of
that celebrated association. This account interested me a good deal,
because, in my early life, I had taken some part in the occupations
(shall I call them) of Free Masonry; and having chiefly frequented
the Lodges on the Continent, I had learned many doctrines, and seen
many ceremonials, which have no place in the simple system of Free
Masonry which obtains in this country.
I had also remarked, that the whole was much more the object of
reflection and thought than I could remember it to have been among
my acquaintances at home. There, I had seen a Mason Lodge considered
merely as a pretext for passing an hour or two in a fort of decent
conviviality, not altogether void of some rational occupation. I had
sometimes heard of differences of doctrines or of ceremonies, but in
terms which marked them as mere frivolities. But, on the Continent,
I found them matters of serious concern and debate.
Such too is the contagion of example, that I could not hinder myself
from thinking one opinion better founded, or one Ritual more
apposite and significant, than another; and I even felt something
like an anxiety for its being adopted, and a zeal
for making it a general practice. I had been initiated in a very
splendid Lodge at Liege, of which the Prince Bishop, his Trefonciers,
and the chief Noblesse of the State, were members. I visited the
French Lodges at Valenciennes, at Brussels, at Aix-la-Chapelle, at
Berlin, and Koningsberg; and I picked up some printed discourses
delivered by the Brother-orators of the Lodges.
At St. Petersburgh I connected myself with the English Lodge, and
occasionally visited the German and Russian Lodges held there. I
found myself received with particular respect as a Scotch Mason, and
as an Eleve of the Lodge de In Parfaite Intelligence at Liege. I was
importuned by persons of the first rank to pursue my masonic career
through many degrees unknown in this country.
But all the splendour and elegance that I saw could not conceal a
frivolity in every part. It appeared a baseless fabric, and I could
not think of engaging in an occupation which would consume much
time, cost me a good deal of money, and might perhaps excite in me
some of that fanaticism, or, at least, enthusiasm that I saw in
others, and perceived to be void of any rational support.
I therefore remained in the English Lodge, contented with the rank
of Scotch Master, which was in a manner forced on me in a private
Lodge of French Masons, but is not given in the English Lodge. My
masonic rank admitted me to a very elegant entertainment in the
female Loge de la Fidelite, where every ceremonial was composed in
the highest degree of elegance, and every thing conducted with the
most delicate respect for our fair sisters, and the old song of
brotherly love was chanted in the most refined strain of sentiment.
I do not suppose that the Parisian Free Masonry of forty-five
degrees could give me more entertainment.
I had profited so much by it, that I had the honour of being
appointed the Brother-orator. In this office I gave such
satisfaction, that a worthy Brother sent me at midnight a box, which
he committed to my care, as a person far advanced in masonic
science, zealously attached to the order, and therefore a fit
depositary of important writings. I learned next day that this
gentleman had found it convenient to leave the empire in a hurry,
but taking with him the funds of an establishment of which her
Imperial Majesty had made him the manager. I was desired to keep
these writings till he should see me again. I obeyed.
About ten years afterward I saw the gentleman on the street in
Edinburgh, conversing with a foreigner. As I passed by him, I
saluted him softly in the Russian language, but without stopping, or
even looking him in the face. He coloured, but made no return: I
endeavoured in vain to meet with him, intending to make a proper
return for much civility and kindness which I had received from him
in his own country.
I now considered the box as accessible to myself, and opened it. I
found it to contain all the degrees of the Parfait Macon Ecossois,
with the Rituals, Catechisms, and Instructions, and also four other
degrees of Free Masonry, as cultivated in the Parisian Lodges. I
have kept them with all care, and mean to give them to some
respectable Lodge. But as I am bound by no engagement of any kind, I
hold myself as at liberty to make such use of them as may be
serviceable to the public, without enabling any uninitiated person
to enter the Lodges of these degrees.
This acquisition might have roused my former relish for Masonry, had
it been merely dormant; but, after so long separation from the Loge
de la Fidelite, the masonic spirit had evaporated.
Some curiosity, however, remained, and some wish to trace this
plastic mystery to the pit from which the clay had been dug; which
has been moulded into so many different shapes, “some to honor, and
some to dishonor.” But my opportunities were now gone. I had given
away (when in Russia) my volumes of discourses, and some far-fetched
and gratuitous histories, and nothing remained but the pitiful work
of Anderson, and the Maconnerie Adonhiramique devoilee, which are in
every one’s hands.
My curiosity was strongly roused by the accounts given in the
Religions Begebenheiten. There I saw quotations without number;
systems and schisms of which I had never heard; but what
particularly struck me, was a zeal and fanaticism about what I
thought trifles, which astonished me. Men of rank and fortune, and
engaged in serious and honorable public employments, not only
frequenting the Lodges of the cities where they resided, but
journeying from one end of Germany or France to the other, to visit
new Lodges, or to learn new secrets or new doctrines. I saw
conventions held at Wismar, at Wisbad, at Kohlo; at Brunswick, and
at Willemsbad, consisting of some hundreds of persons of respectable
stations. I saw adventurers coming to a city, professing some new
secret, and in a few days forming new Lodges, and instructing in a
troublesome and expensive manner hundreds of brethren.
German Masonry appeared a very serious concern, and to be implicated
with other subjects with which I had never suspected it to have any
connection. I saw it much connected with many occurrences and
schisms in the Christian church; I saw that the Jesuits had several
times interfered in it; and that most of the exceptionable
innovations and dissentions had arisen about the time that the order
of Loyola was suppressed; so that it should seem, that these
intriguing brethren had attempted to maintain their influence by the
help of Free Masonry.
I saw it much disturbed by the mystical whims of J. Behmen and
Swedenborg-by the fanatical and knavish doctrines of the modern
Rosycrucians-by Magicians-Magnetise rs-Exorcists, &c. And I observed
that these different sects reprobated each other, as not only
maintaining erroneous opinions, but even inculcating opinions which
were contrary to the established religions of Germany, and contrary
to the principles of the civil establishments.
At the same time they charged each other with mistakes and
corruptions, both in doctrine and in practice; and particularly with
falsification of the first principles of Free Masonry, and with
ignorance of its origin and its history; and they supported these
charges by authorities from many different books which were unknown
to me.
My curiosity was now greatly excited. I got from a much respected
friend many of the preceding volumes of the Religions Begebenheiten,
in hopes of much information from the patient industry of German
erudition. This opened a new and very interesting scene; I was
frequently sent back to England, from whence all agreed that Free
Masonry had been imported into Germany. I was frequently led into
France and into Italy.
There, and more remarkably in France, I found that the Lodges had
become the haunts of many projectors and fanatics, both in science,
in religion, and in politics, who had availed themselves of the
secrecy and the freedom of speech maintained in these meetings, to
broach their particular whims, or suspicious doctrines, which, if
published to the world in the usual manner, would have exposed the
authors to ridicule, or to censure.
These projectors had contrived to tag their peculiar nostrums to the
mummery of Masonry, and were even allowed to twist the masonic
emblems and ceremonies to their purpose; so that in their hands Free
Masonry became a thing totally unlike, and almost in direct
opposition to the system (if it may get such a name) imported from
England; and some Lodges had become schools of irreligion and
licentiousness.
No nation in modern times has so particularly turned its attention
to the cultivation of every thing that is refined or ornamental as
France, and it has long been the resort of all who hunt after
entertainment in its most refined form; the French have come to
consider themselves as the instructors of the world in every thing
that ornaments life, and feeling themselves received as such, they
have formed their manners accordingly-full of the most condescending
complaisance to all who acknowledge their superiority, lighted, in a
high degree, with this office, they have become zealous missionaries
of refinement in every department of human pursuit, and have reduced
their apostolic employment to a system, which they prosecute with
ardour and delight.
This is not groundless declamation, but sober historical truth. It
was the professed aim (and it was a magnificent and wise aim) of the
great Colbert, to make the court of Louis XIV, the fountain of human
refinement” and Paris the Athens of Europe.
We need only look at the plunder of Italy by the French army, to be
convinced their low-born generals and statesmen have in this respect
the same notions with the Colberts and the Richlieus.
I know no subject in which this aim at universal influence on the
opinions of men, by holding themselves forth as the models of
excellence and elegance, is more clearly seen than in the care that
they have been pleased to take of Free Masonry. It seems indeed
peculiarly suited to the talents and taste of that vain and ardent
people. Baseless and frivolous, it admits of every form that Gallic
refinement can invent, to recommend it to the young, the gay, the
luxurious; that class of society which alone deserves their care,
because, in one way or another, it leads all other classes of
society.
It has accordingly happened, that the homely Free Masonry imported
from England has been totally changed in every country of Europe,
either by the imposing ascendancy of French brethren, who are to be
found every where, ready to instruct the world; or by the
importation of the doctrines, and ceremonies, and ornaments of the
Parisian Lodges. Even England; the birth-place of Masonry, has
experienced the French innovations; and all the repeated
injunctions, admonitions, and reproofs of the old Lodges, cannot
prevent those in different parts of the kingdom from admitting the
French novelties, full of tinsel and glitter, and high-sounding
titles.
Were this all, the harm would not be great. But long before good
opportunities had occurred for spreading the refinements on the
simple Free Masonry of England, the Lodges in France had become
places of very serious discussion, where opinions in morals, in
religion, and in politics, had been promulgated and maintained with
a freedom and a keenness, of which we in this favored land have no
adequate notion, because we are unacquainted with the restraints,
which, in other countries, are laid on ordinary conversation.
In consequence of this, the French innovations in Free Masonry were
quickly followed in all parts of Europe, by the admission of similar
discussions, although in direct opposition to a standing rule, and a
declaration made to every newly received Brother,
“that nothing touching the religion or government shall ever be
spoken of in the
Lodge.”
But the Lodges in other countries followed the example of France,
and have frequently become the rendezvous of innovators in religion
and politics, and other disturbers of the public peace. In short, I
have found that the covert of a Mason Lodge had been employed in
every country for venting and propagating sentiments in religion and
politics, that could not have circulated in public without exposing
the author to great danger. I found, that this impunity had
gradually encouraged men of licentious principles to become more
bold, and to teach doctrines subversive of all our notions of
morality - of all our confidence in the moral government of the
universe - of all our hopes of improvement in a future state of
existence - and of all satisfaction and contentment with our present
life, so long as we live in a state of civil subordination.
I have been able to trace these attempts, made, through a course of
fifty years, under the specious pretext of enlightening the world by
the torch of philosophy, and of dispelling the clouds of civil and
religious superstition which keep the nations of Europe in darkness
and slavery. I have observed these doctrines gradually diffusing and
mixing with all the different systems of Free Masonry; till, at
last, AN ASSOCIATION HAS BEEN FORMED for the express purpose of
ROOTING OUT ALL THE RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS, AND OVERTURNING ALL
THE EXISTING GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE.
I have seen this Association exerting itself zealously and
systematically, till it has become almost irresistible: And I have
seen that the most active leaders in the French Revolution were
members of this Association, and conducted their first movements
according to its principles, and by means of its instructions and
assistance, formerly requested and obtained: And, lastly, I have
seen that this Association still exists, still works in secret, and
that not only several appearances among ourselves show that its
emissaries are endeavoring to propagate their detestable doctrines
among us, but that the Association has Lodges in Britain
corresponding with the mother Lodge at Munich ever since 1784.
If all this were a matter of mere curiosity, and susceptible of no
good use, it would have been better to have kept it to myself, than
to disturb my neighbours with the knowledge of a state of things
which they cannot amend. But if it shall appear that the minds of my
countrymen are misled in the very same manner as were those of our
continental neighbours - if I can show that the reasonings which
make a very strong impression on some persons in this country are
the same which actually produced the dangerous association in
Germany; and that they had this unhappy
influence solely because they were thought to be sincere, and the
expressions of the sentiments of the speakers - if I can show that
this was all a cheat, and that the Leaders of this Association
disbelieved every word that they uttered, and every doctrine that
they taught; and that their real intention was to abolish all
religion, overturn every government, and make the world a general
plunder and a wreck - if I can show, that the principles which the
Founder and Leaders of this Association held forth as the perfection
of human virtue, and the most powerful and efficacious for forming
the minds of men, and making them good and happy, had no influence
on the Founder and Leaders themselves, and that they were, almost
without exception, the most insignificant, worthless, and profligate
of men; I cannot but think, that such information will make my
countrymen hesitate a little, and receive with caution, and even
distrust, addresses and instructions which flatter our self-conceit,
and which, by buoying us up with the gay prospect of what is perhaps
attainable by a change, may make us discontented with our present
condition, and forget that there never was a government on earth
where the people of a great and luxurious nation enjoyed so much
freedom and security in the possession of every thing that is dear
and valuable.
When we see that these boasted principles had not that effect on the
leaders which they assert to be their native, certain, and
inevitable consequences, we will distrust the fine descriptions of
the happiness that should result from such a change.
And when we see
that the methods which were practiced by this Association for the
express purpose of breaking all the bands of society, were employed
solely in order that the leaders might rule the world with
uncontrollable power, while all the rest, even of the associated,
will be degraded in their own estimation, corrupted in their
principles, and employed as mere tools of the ambition of their
unknown superiors; surely a free-born Briton will not hesitate to
reject at once; and without any farther examination, a plan so big
with mischief, so disgraceful to its underling adherents, and so
uncertain in its issue.
These hopes have induced me to lay before the public a short
abstract of the information which I think I have received. It will
be short, but I hope sufficient for establishing the fact, that this
detestable Association exists, and its emissaries are busy among
ourselves.
I was not contented with the quotations which I found in the
Religions Begebenheiten, but procured from abroad some of the chief
writings from which they are taken. This both gave me confidence in
the quotations from books which I could not procure, and furnished
me with more materials. Much, however, remains untold, richly
deserving the attention of all those who feel themselves disposed to
listen to the tales of a possible happiness that may be enjoyed in a
society where all the magistrates are wise and just, and all the
people are honest and kind.
I hope that I am honest and candid. I have been at all pains to give
the true sense of the authors. My knowledge of the German language
is but scanty, but I have had the assistance of friends whenever I
was in doubt. In compressing into one paragraph what I have
collected from many, I have, as much as I was able, stuck to the
words of the author, and have been anxious to give his precise
meaning.
I doubt not but that I have sometimes failed, and will receive
correction with deference. I entreat the reader not to expect a
piece of good literary composition. I am very sensible that it is
far from it - it is written during bad health, when I am not at ease
- and I wished to conceal my name - but my motive is, without the
smallest mixture of another, to do some good in the only way I am
able, and I think
that what I say will come with better grace, and be received with
more confidence, than any anonymous publication. Of these I am now
most heartily sick. I throw myself on my country with a free heart,
and I bow with deference to its decision.
The Association of which I have been speaking, is the Order of
ILLUMINATI, founded in 1775, by Dr. Adam Weishaupt, professor of
Canon law in the university of Ingolstadt, and abolished in 1786 by
the Elector of Bavaria, but revived immediately after, under another
name, and in a different form, all over Germany.
It was again detected, and seemingly broken up; but it had by this
time taken so deep root that it still subsists without being
detected, and has spread into all the countries of Europe. It took
its first rise among the Free Masons, but is totally different from
Free AAasonry. It was not, however, the mere protection gained by
the secrecy of the Lodges that gave occasion to it, but it arose
naturally from the corruptions that had gradually crept into that
fraternity, the violence of the party-spirit which pervaded it, and
from the total uncertainty and darkness that hangs over the whole of
that mysterious Association. It is necessary, therefore, to give
some account of the innovations that have been introduced into Free
Masonry from the time that it made its appearance on the continent
of Europe as a mystical Society, possessing secrets different from
those of the mechanical employment whose name it assumed, and thus
affording entertainment and occupation to persons of all ranks and
professions.
It is by no means intended to give a history of Free Masonry. This
would lead to a very long discussion. The patient industry of German
erudition has been very seriously employed on this subject, and many
performances have been published, of which some account is given in
the different volumes of the Religions Begebenheiten, particularly
in those for 1779, 1785, and 1786. It is evident, from the nature of
the thing, that they cannot be very instructive to the public;
because the obligation of secrecy respecting the important matters
which are the very subjects of debate, prevents the author from
giving that full information that is required from an historian, and
the writers have not, in general, been persons qualified for the
talk.
Scanty erudition, credulity, and enthusiasm; appear in almost all
their writings; and they have neither attempted to remove the heap
of rubbish with which Anderson has disgraced his Constitutions of
Free Masonry (the basis of masonic history) nor to avail themselves
of information which history really affords to a sober enquirer.
Their Royal art must never forsooth appear in a state of infancy or
childhood, like all other human acquirements; and therefore, when
they cannot give proofs of its existence in a state of manhood,
possessed of all its mysterious treasures, they suppose what they do
not see, and say that they are concealed by the oath of secrecy.
Of
such instructions I can make no use, even if I were disposed to
write a history of the Fraternity. I shall content myself with an
account of such particulars as are admitted by all the masonic
parties, and which illustrate or confirm my general proposition,
making such use of the accounts of the higher degrees in my
possession as I can, without admitting the profane into their
Lodges. Being under no tie of secrecy with regard to these, I am
with-held by discretion alone from putting the public in possession
of all their mysteries.
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