In this sect, the whole of the hitherto recognized principles of
organized Atheism were perfected and intensified. In it, from the
commencement, a cunning hypocrisy was the means most used as the best
calculated to lead away a people Catholic to the very core. The first of
the Carbonari that we have any distinct notice of, appeared at a season
when Atheism, directed by Weishaupt, was busy in forming everywhere
secret associations for apparently no purpose other than political
amelioration. He determined to try upon the peasantry of Italy the
same arts which the French had intended for the Catholic peasantry of
Ireland. The United Irishmen were banded together to demand, amongst
other things, Catholic Emancipation. Never had a people greater reason
to rise against oppression than the Catholics of Ireland of that period.
They were urged on to do so, however, by leaders who, in many instances,
were not Catholic, and who had no political grievance, and whose aim was
the formation in Ireland of an independent republic ruled, of course,
by themselves, on the model of the one which was established then in
France. That seemed to the Catholic the only way to get out of the
heretical domination which had for such a lengthened period oppressed
his country. Now, the Carbonari of Italy were at first formed for a
purpose identical with that of the United Irishmen. They conspired
to bring back their national independence ruined by the French, the
freedom of their religion, and their rightful Bourbon sovereign. With
them it was made an indispensable obligation that each member should be
not only a Catholic, but a Catholic going regularly to the Sacraments.
They took for their Grand Master, Jesus Christ Our Lord. But, as I
have said before, it is impossible for a secret society having a death
penalty for breach of secret, having ascending degrees, and bound to
blind obedience to hidden masters, to remain any appreciable length
of time without falling under the dominion of the Supreme Directory of
organized Atheism. It was so with Carbonarism, which, having started
on the purest Catholic and loyal lines, soon ended in being the very
worst kind of secret society which Infidelity had then formed on the
lines of Masonry. Very soon, Italian adepts in black Masonry invaded
its ranks, the loudest in the protestation of religion and loyalty.
Equally soon, these skilled, experienced, and unscrupulous veterans in
dark intrigue obtained the mastery in its supreme direction, won over
proselytes from fit conspirators, and had the whole association in
their power. It was then easy to find abundant pretexts to excite the
passions of the rank and file, to kindle hopes from revolution, to create
political dissatisfaction, and to make the whole body of the sect what
it has actually become. Italian genius soon outstripped the Germans in
astuteness; and as soon, perhaps sooner, than Weishaupt passed away, the
supreme government of all the secret societies of the world was exercised
by the _Alta Vendita_ or highest lodge of the Italian Carbonari. The
_Alta Vendita_ ruled the blackest Freemasonry of France, Germany, and
England; and until Mazzini wrenched the sceptre of the dark Empire from
that body, it continued with consummate ability to direct the revolutions
of Europe. It considered, with that wisdom peculiar to the children of
darkness, that the conspiracy against the Holy See was the conspiracy in
permanence. It employed its principal intrigues against the State, the
surroundings, and the very person of the Pontiff. It had hopes, by its
manipulations, to gain eventually, even the Pope himself, to betray the
Christian cause, and then it well knew the universe would be placed at
its feet. It left unmeasured freedom to the lodges of Masonry to carry on
those revolutions of a political kind, which worked out the problems of
the sect upon France, Spain, Italy, and other countries. It kept still
greater movements to itself. The permanent instruction of this body to
its adepts, will give you an idea of its power, its policy, and its
principles. It says—