Masonry to seditious purposes was, in a great measure, but a late
thing, and was chiefly brought about by the agents of the Grand
Master, the Duke of Orleans. He was, however, of opinion that the
whole Masonic Fraternity was hostile to Christianity and to good
morals, and that it was the contrivance of the great schismatic
Faustus Socinus, who being terrified by the fate of Servetus, at
Geneva, fell on this method of promulgating his doctrines among
the great in secret. This opinion is but ill supported, and is
incompatible with many circumstances in Free Masonry--But it is out
of our way at present. Mr. Lefranc then takes particular notice
of the many degrees of Chivalry cultivated in the Lodges, and
shows how, by artful changes in the successive explanations of the
same symbols, the doctrines of Christianity, and of all revealed
religion, are completely exploded, and the _Philosophe Inconnu_
becomes at last a professed Atheist.--He then takes notice of the
political doctrines which are in like manner gradually unfolded,
by which "patriotism and loyalty to the prince are declared to be
narrow principles, inconsistent with universal benevolence, and with
the native and imprescriptible rights of man; civil subordination
is actual oppression, and Princes are _ex officio_ usurpers and
tyrants." These principles he fairly deduces from the Catechisms
of the _Chevalier du Soliel_, and of the _Philosophe Inconnu_. He
then proceeds to notice more particularly the intrigues of the
Duke of Orleans. From these it appears evident that his ambitious
views and hopes had been of long standing, and that it was entirely
by his support and encouragement that seditious doctrines were
permitted in the Lodges. Many noblemen and gentlemen were disgusted
and left these Lodges, and advantage was taken of their absence to
_improve_ the Lodges still more, that is to make them still more
anarchical and seditious. Numbers of paltry scribblers who haunted
the Palace Royal, were admitted into the Lodges, and there vented
their poisonous doctrines. The Duke turned his chief attention to
the French guards, introducing many of the privates and inferior
officers into the obscure and even the more respectable Lodges, so
that the officers were frequently disgusted in the Lodges by the
insolent behaviour of their own soldiers under the mask of Masonic
Brotherhood and Equality--and this behaviour became not unfrequent
even out of doors. He asserts with great confidence that the troops
were much corrupted by these intrigues--and that when they sometimes
declared, on service, that they would not fire _on their Brethren_,
the phrase had a particular reference to their Masonic Fraternity,
because they recognised many of their Brother Masons in every
crowd.--And the corruption was by no means confined to Paris and
its neighbourhood, but extended to every place in the kingdom where
there was a Municipality and a Mason Lodge.
Mr. Lefranc then turns our attention to many peculiarities in the
Revolution, which have a resemblance to the practices in Free
Masonry. Not only was the arch rebel the Duke of Orleans, the Grand
Master, but the chief actors in the Revolution, Mirabeau, Condorcet,
Rochefoucault, and others, were distinguished office-bearers in
the great Lodges. He says that the distribution of France into
departments, districts, circles, cantons, &c. is perfectly similar,
with the same denominations, to a distribution which he had remarked
in the correspondence of the Grand Orient[20]. The President's hat
in the National Assembly is copied from that of a _Tres Venerable
Grand Maitre_.--The scarf of a Municipal Officer is the same with
that of a Brother Apprentice.--When the Assembly celebrated the
Revolution in the Cathedral, they accepted of the highest honours of
Masonry by passing under the _Arch of Steel_, formed by the drawn
swords of two ranks of Brethren.--Also it is worthy of remark,
that the National Assembly protected the meetings of Free Masons,
while it peremptorily prohibited every other private meeting. The
obligation of laying aside all stars, ribbands, crosses, and other
honourable distinctions, under the pretext of Fraternal Equality,
was not merely a prelude, but was intended as a preparation for
the destruction of all civil distinctions, which took place almost
at the beginning of the Revolution,--_and the first proposal of a
surrender_, says Mr. Lefranc, _was made by a zealous Mason_.--He
farther observes, that the horrible and sanguinary oaths, the
daggers, death-heads, cross-bones, the imaginary combats with the
murderers of Hiram, and many other gloomy ceremonies, have a natural
tendency to harden the heart, to remove its natural disgust at deeds
of horror, and have paved the way for those shocking barbarities
which have made the name of Frenchmen abhorred over all Europe.
These deeds were indeed perpetrated by a mob of fanatics; but the
principles were promulgated and fostered by persons who style
themselves philosophers.
[20] I cannot help observing, that it is perfectly similar to
the arrangement and denominations which appear in the secret
correspondence of the Bavarian Illuminati.
I see more evidence of these important facts in another book just
published by an emigrant gentleman (Mr. Latocnaye). He confirms
my repeated assertions, that all the irreligious and seditious
doctrines were the subjects of repeated harangues in the Mason
Lodges, and that all the principles of the Revolution, by which
the public mind was as it were set on fire, were nothing but
enthusiastic amplifications of the common-place cant of Free
Masonry, and arose naturally out of it. He even thinks "that this
_must of necessity_ be the case in every country where the minds of
the lower classes of the State are in any way considerably fretted
or irritated; it is almost impossible to avoid being drawn into this
vortex, whenever a discontented mind enters into a Mason Lodge. The
stale story of brotherly love, which at another time would only lull
the hearer asleep, now makes him prick up his ears, and listen with
avidity to the silly tale, and he cannot hinder fretting thoughts
from continually rankling in his mind."
Mr. Latocnaye says expressly, "That notwithstanding the general
contempt of the public for the Duke of Orleans, his authority as
Grand Master of the Masons gave him the greatest opportunity that
a seditious mind could desire for helping forward the Revolution.
He had ready to his hand a connected system of hidden Societies,
protected by the State, habituated to secrecy and artifice, and
already tinged with the very enthusiasm he wished to inspire. In
these he formed political committees, into which only his agents
were admitted. He filled the Lodges with the French guards, whom he
corrupted with money and hopes of preferment; and by means of the
Abbe Sieyes, and other emissaries, they were harangued with all the
sophistical declamation, or cant of Masonry."
Mr. Latocnaye says, that all this was peculiar to the Lodges of the
Grand Orient; but that there were many (not very many, if we judge
by the Neuwied almanac, which reckons only 289 in all France in
1784, of which 266 were of the Grand Orient) Lodges who continued on
the old plan of amusing themselves with a little solemn trifling. He
coincides with Mr. Lefranc in the opinion that the awful and gloomy
rituals of Masonry, and particularly the severe trials of confidence
and submission, must have a great tendency to harden the heart, and
fit a man for attrocious actions. No one can doubt of this who reads
the following instance:
"A candidate for reception into one of the highest Orders, after
having heard many threatenings denounced against all who should
betray the Secrets of the Order, was conducted to a place where he
saw the dead bodies of several who were said to have suffered for
their treachery. He then saw his own brother tied hand and foot,
begging his mercy and intercession. He was informed that this person
was about to suffer the punishment due to this offence, and be that
it was reserved for him (the candidate) to be the instrument of this
just vengeance, and that this gave him an opportunity of manifesting
that he was completely devoted to the Order. It being observed that
his countenance gave signs of inward horror, (the person in bonds
imploring his mercy all the while) he was told that in order to
spare his feelings, a bandage should be put over his eyes. A dagger
was then put into his right hand, and being hood-winked, his left
hand was laid upon the palpitating heart of the criminal, and he was
then ordered to strike. He instantly obeyed; and when the bandage
was taken from his eyes, he saw that it was a lamb that he had
stabbed. Surely such trials and such wanton cruelty are fit only for
training conspirators."
Mr. Latocnaye adds, that "when he had been initiated, an old
gentleman asked him what he thought of the whole?" He answered, "A
great deal of noise, and much nonsense." "Nonsense." said the other,
"don't judge so rashly, young man; I have worked these twenty-five
years, and the farther I advanced, it interested me the more; but
I stopped short, and nothing shall prevail on me to advance a step
farther." In another conversation the gentleman said, "I imagine
that my stoppage was owing to my refusal about nine years ago, to
listen to some persons who made to me, out of the Lodge, proposals
which were seditious and horrible; for ever since that time I have
remarked, that my higher Brethren treat me with a much greater
reserve than they had done before, and that, under the pretext of
further instruction; they have laboured to confute the notions which
I had already acquired, by giving some of the most delicate subjects
a different turn. I saw that they wanted to remove some suspicions
which I was beginning to form concerning the ultimate scope of the
whole."
I imagine that these observations will leave no doubt in the mind of
the reader with respect to the influence of the secret Fraternity of
Free Masonry in the French Revolution, and that he will allow it to
be highly probable that the infamous Duke of Orleans had, from the
beginning, entertained hopes of mounting the throne of France. It is
not my province to prove or disprove this point, only I think it no
less evident, from many circumstances in the transactions of those
tumultuous days, that the active leaders had quite different views,
and were impelled by fanatical notions of democratic felicity,
or, more probably, by their own ambition to be the movers of this
vast machine, to overturn the ancient government, and erect a
republic, of which they hoped to be the managers[21]. Mirabeau had
learned when in Germany that the principles of anarchy had been well
digested into a system, and therefore wished for some instruction
as to the subordinate detail of the business, and for this purpose
requested a deputation from the _Illuminati_.
[21] The depositions at the Chatelet, which I have already quoted,
give repeated and unequivocal proofs, that he, with a considerable
number of the deputies of the National Assembly, had formed this
plot before the 5th of October 1789. That trial was conducted in a
strange manner, partly out of respect for the Royal Family, which
still had some hearts affectionately attached to it, and to the
monarchy, and partly by reason of the fears of the members of this
court. There was now no safety for any person who differed from
the opinion of the frantic populace of Paris. The chief points of
accusation were written in a schedule which is not published, and
the witnesses were ordered to depose on these in one general Yes
or No; so that it is only the least important part of the evidence
that has been printed. I am well informed that the whole of it is
carefully preserved, and will one day appear.
In such a cause as this, we may be certain that no ordinary
person would be sent. One of the deputies was Amelius, the next
person in the order to Spartacus and Philo. His worldly name was
Johann. J. C. Bode, at Weimar, privy-counsellor to the Prince of
Hesse-Darmstadt. (See _Fragmente der Biographie des verstorbenes
Freyherr Bode in Weimar, mit zuverlassigen Urkunder, 8vo. Riom._
1795. See also _Endliche Shickfall der Freymaurerey_, 1794; also
_Wiener Zeitschrift fur 1793_.)--This person has played a principal
part in the whole scheme of Illumination. He was a person of
considerable and showy talents as a writer. He had great talents
for conversation, and had kept good company. With respect to his
mystical character, his experience was great. He was one of the
Templar Masons, and among them was _Eques a Liliis Convallium_. He
had speculated much about the origin and history of Masonry, and
when at the Willemsbad convention, was converted to Illuminatism.
He was the great instigator of Nicholai, Gedicke, and Biester, to
the hunt after Jesuits which so much occupied them, and suggested
to Nicholai his journey through Germany. Leuchtsenring whom I
mentioned before, was only the letter-carrier between Bode and these
three authors. He was just such a man as Weishaupt wished for; his
head filled with Masonic fanaticism, attaching infinite importance
to the frivolities of Masonry, and engaged in an enthusiastic and
fruitless research after its origin and history. He had collected,
however, such a number of archives (as they were called) of Free
Masonry, that he sold his manuscript to the Duke of Saxe Gotha,
(into whose service Weishaupt engaged himself when he was driven
from Bavaria), for 150 dahlers. This little anecdote shows the
high importance attributed to those matters by persons of whom we
should expect better things. Bode was also a most determined and
violent materialist. Besides all these qualities, so acceptable
to the Illuminati, he was a discontented Templar Mason, having
been repeatedly disappointed of the preferment which he thought
himself entitled to. When he learned that the first operations
of the Illuminati were to be the obtaining the sole direction of
the Mason Lodges, and of the whole Fraternity, his hopes revived
of rising to some of the Commanderies, which his enthusiasm, or
rather fanaticism, had made him hope to see one day regained by
the Order:--but when he found that the next and favourite object
was to root out the _Strict Observanz_ altogether, he started
back. But Philo saw that the understanding (shall we call it?)
that can be dazzled with one whim, may be dazzled with another,
and he now attached him to Illuminatism, by a magnificent display
of a world ruled by the Order, and conducted to happiness by means
of Liberty and Equality. This did the business, as we see by the
private correspondence, where Philo informs Spartacus of his first
difficulties with Amelius. Amelius was gained over in August 1782,
and we see by the same correspondence, that the greatest affairs
were soon entrusted to him--he was generally employed to deal with
the great. When a Graf or a Baron was to be wheedled into the
Order, Amelius was the agent.--He was also the chief operator in
all their contests with the Jesuits and the Rosycrucians. It was
also Bode that procured the important accession of Nicholai to the
Order. This he brought about through Leuchtsenring; and lastly, his
numerous connections among the Free Masons, together with Knigge's
influence among them, enabled the Illuminati to worm themselves into
every Lodge, and at last gave them almost the entire command of the
Fraternity.
Such was the first of the deputies to France. The other was a
Mr. Bussche, called in the Order Bayard; therefore probably a
man of respectable character; for most of Spartacus's names were
significant like his own. He was a military man, Lieutenant-Colonel
in the service of Hesse Darmstadt.--This man also was a discontented
Templar Mason, and his name in that Fraternity had been _Eques a
Fontibus Eremi_. He was illuminated by Knigge. He had also been
unsuccessful both at court and in the field, in both of which
situations he had been attempting to make a distinguished figure.
He, as well as Bode, were immersed in debts. They were therefore
just in the proper temper for Cosmo-political enterprise.
They went to Paris in the end of 1788, while the Notables were
sitting, and all Paris was giving advice. The alarm that was raised
about Animal Magnetism, which was indeed making much noise at that
time, and particularly at Paris, was assigned by them as the great
motive of the journey. Bode also said that he was anxious to learn
what were the corrections made on the system of the _Chevaliers
Bienfaisants_. They had taken that name at first, to screen
themselves from the charges against them under the name of Templars.
They had corrected something in their system when they took the
name _Philalethes_. And now when the Schisms of the _Philalethes_
were healed, and the Brethren again united under the name of _Amis
Reunis_, he suspected that Jesuits had interfered; and because he
had heard that the principles of the _Amis Reunis_ were very noble,
he wished to be more certain that they were purged of every thing
Jesuitical.
The deputies accordingly arrived at Paris, and immediately obtained
admission into these two Fraternities[22]. They found both of
them in the ripest state for Illumination, having shaken off all
the cabalistical, chemical, and mystical whims that had formerly
disturbed them, and would now take up too much of their time. They
were now cultivating with great zeal the philosophico political
doctrines of universal citizenship. Their leaders, to the number
of twenty, are mentioned by name in the Berlin Monatschrift for
1785, and among them are several of the first actors in the French
Revolution. But this is nothing distinctive, because persons of all
opinions were Masons.
[22] To prevent interruptions, I may just mention here the
authorities for this journey and co-operation of the two deputies.
1. _Ein wichtiger Ausschluss über en noch wenig bekannte
Veranlassung der Französchen Revolution_, in the Vienna Zeitschrift
for 1793, p. 145.
2. _Endliche Shickfall des Freymaurer Ordens_, 1794, p. 19.
3. _Neueste Arbeitung des Spartacus and Philo, Munich_, 1793, p.
151--54.
4. _Historische Nachrichten über die Franc Revolution 1792, von
Girtanner, var. loc._
5. _Revolutions Almanach für 1792--4, Gottingen, var. loc._
6. _Beytrage zur Biographie des verstorbenes Frey-Herr v. Bode,
1794._
7. _Magazin des Literatur et Kunst, for 1792, 3, 4, &c. &c._
The Amis Reunis were little behind the Illuminati in every thing
that was irreligious and anarchical, and had no inclination for any
of the formalities of ritual, &c. They were already fit for the
higher mysteries, and only wanted to learn the methods of business
which had succeeded so well in spreading their doctrines and maxims
over Germany. Besides, their doctrines had not been digested into
a system, nor had the artful methods of leading on the pupils from
bad to worse been practised. For hitherto, each individual had
vented in the Lodges his own opinions, to unburden his own mind,
and the Brethren listened for instruction and mutual encouragement.
Therefore, when Spartacus's plan was communicated to them, they
saw at once its importance, in all its branches, such as the use
of the Mason Lodges, to fish for Minervals--the rituals and ranks
to entice the young, and to lead them by degrees to opinions and
measures which, at first sight, would have shocked them. The firm
hold which is gotten of the pupils, and indeed of all the inferior
classes, by their reports in the course of their pretended training
in the knowledge of themselves and of other men--and, above all, the
provincial arrangement of the order, and the clever subordination
and entire dependence on a select band or Pandæmonium at Paris,
which should inspire and direct the whole.--I think (altho' I have
not express assertions of the fact) from the subsequent conduct of
the French revolters, that even at this early period, there were
many in those societies who were ready to go every length proposed
to them by the Illuminati, such as the abolition of royalty, and of
all privileged orders, as tyrants by nature, the annihilation and
robbery of the priesthood, the rooting out of Christianity, and the
introduction of Atheism, or a philosophical chimera which they were
to call Religion. Mirabeau had often spoken of the last branch of
the Illuminated principles, and the conversations held at Versailles
during the awful pauses of the 5th of October, (which are to be seen
in the evidence before the Chatelet in the Orleans process,) can
hardly be supposed to be the fancies of an accidental mob.
Mirabeau was, as I have said, at the head of this democratic party,
and had repeatedly said, that the only use of a King was to serve as
a pageant, in order to give weight to public measures in the opinion
of the populace.--And Mr. Latocnaye says, that this party was very
numerous, and that immediately after the imprudent or madlike
invitation of every scribbler in a garret to give his advice, the
party did not scruple to speak their sentiments in public, and
that they were encouraged in their encomiums on the advantages of
a virtuous republican government by Mr. Neckar, who had a most
extravagant and childish predilection for the constitution of
Geneva, the place of his nativity, and was also much tinged with the
Cosmo-political philosophy of the times. The King's brothers, and
the Princes of the blood, presented a memorial to his Majesty, which
concluded by saying, that "the effervesence of the public opinions
had come to such a height that the most dangerous principles,
imported from foreign parts, were avowed in print with perfect
impunity--that his majesty had unwarily encouraged every fanatic to
dictate to him, and to spread his poisonous sentiments, in which
the rights of the throne were not only disrespected, but were even
disputed--that the rights of the higher classes in the state ran
a great risk of being speedily suppressed, and that nothing would
hinder the sacred right of property from being ere long invaded,
and the unequal distribution of wealth from being thought a proper
subject of reform."
When such was the state of things in Paris; it is plain that the
business of the German deputies would be easily transacted. They
were received with open arms by the _Philalethes_, the _Amis de la
Verite_, the _Social Contract_, &c. and in the course of a very
few weeks in the end of 1788, and the beginning of 1789, (that is,
before the end of March) the whole of the Grand Orient, including
the _Philalethes_, _Amis Reunis_, _Martinistes_, &c. had the secrets
of Illumination communicated to them. The operation naturally began
with the Great National Lodge of Paris, and those in immediate
dependence on it. It would also seem, from many circumstances
that occurred to my observation, that the Lodges in Alsace and
Lorraine were Illuminated at this time, and not long before as
I had imagined. Strasburg I know had been Illuminated long ago,
while Philo was in the Order. A circumstance strikes me here as of
some moment. The sects of _Philalethes_, and _Amis Reunis_ were
refinements engrafted on the system of the _Chevaliers Bienfaisants_
at Lyons. Such refinements never fail to be considered as a sort
of heresy, and the professors will be held with a jealous and
unfriendly eye by some, who will pride themselves on adhering to the
old faith. And the greater the success of the heresy, the greater
will be the animosity between the parties.--May not this help to
explain the mutual hatred of the Parisians and the Lyonnois, which
produced the most dreadful attrocities ever perpetrated on the face
of the earth, and made a shambles and a desert of the finest city of
France?
The first proceeding by the advice of the deputies was the formation
of a political committee in every Lodge. This committee corresponded
with the distant Lodges, and in it were discussed and settled all
the political principles which were to be inculcated on the members.
The author of the _Neueste Arbeitung_ says expressly, that "he
was thoroughly instructed in this; that it was given in charge to
these committees to frame general rules, and to carry through the
great plan (_grand auvre_) of a general overturning of religion and
government." The principal leaders of the subsequent Revolution were
members of these committees. Here were the plans laid, and they were
transmitted through the kingdom by the Corresponding Committees.