TAXIL, LEO.
Pen-name of a literary adventurer and rogue, Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pages, born at Marseille, France, Mareh 21, 1854, and who died in 1907. Educated by the Jesuits in a Reform Sehool and left their hands embittered against religion and became identified with groups of Free-Thinkers, where his outrageous opinions were taught to others by speech and pen. He arrived at Paris in 1879. His literature did not only discuss religious beliefs, which he derided with a witty irony; Taxil dragged through the rnud all holy things and accused the clergy of all abominations. Careless about truth, gifted with a lively imagination and an astonishing audacity, Leo Taxil soon acquired a reputation as one of the most dangerous enemies of the Roman Catholic faith. On pretext of tearing away the veil he used obscenity as in Les Amours Secretes de Pie IX, The Private Love Afairs of Pius IX, for the publieation of which he was heavily fined. He established a journal, the AntiClerical, and organized a League of Free-Thinkers estimated to have had seventeen thousand members.
Taxil thought it well in 1881 that he should be received as a Freemason. His publications caused the Lodge, Le Temple de L'Honneur francais, to hesitate,but the proposer of Taxil insisted upon the exceptional anti-clerical purity of his candidate and that the grossness of the past ought to be considered justifiable warfare. The Lodge permitted him to be received but he was not to their taste in Lodge and received only the one Degree of Apprentice. He was also accused before the Lodge of some wrong-doing and condemned to expulsion. In order to be revenged upon Freemasonry, Taxil had the idea of returning to Roman Catholicism.
He solemnly adjured his errors, April 23, 1885, and did penance under form of a prolonged monastic retreat. In order to redeem his fortunes he planned to betray the secrets of Freemmasonry through a new kind of literatures one which soon created an eager desire in clerical circles. From 1885 to 1886 he published a series of works comprised under the general title Complete Revelations upon Freemasonry, which publications had an enormous vogue. Although Madame Jogand continued an anti-clerical sale of books, the first productions of her husband, she pretended in the meantime to have broken off all relations with him. In reality the couple were well arranged to exploit two sets of innocent clients.
After the hypocritical conversion, the Apostolic Ambassador of the Pope, Monsignore di Bendi, invited Leo Taxil to put his pen henceforth at the service of the Holy Church. Taxil did not need to be urged. Nothing was easier than to serve the Roman Church some of the fancy dishes so entirely to his taste.
It sufficed to relate fables as senseless as possible about Freemasonry and to bring in the devil under aspects the most extravagant. That double sauce was swallowed with delight and digested by a credulity without reserve, founded on the horror with which Freemasons have inspired the Roman Church for nearly two centuries, no less than the belief by the poor Roman clergy in mysterinll.s deviltries and devilish apparitions with which their imaginations are saturated from early youth. With this belief in mind, Taxil, blessed by the Church, allowed his pen to run away. His first anti-Masonic work, the Brothers Three Points, Les Freres TroisPoints, referring thus to the Continental abbreviation of Masonic words .., was published in 1886 and in five months had circulated twenty-two thousand copies.
The German translation appeared soon afterwards and was warmly recommended by the Jesuit Gruber and welcomed with praise by all the German Roman Catholic press. In editing his Les Freres Trois-Points, Taxil was supported by the Encyclical of Leo XIII, April 20, 1884, in which the Vicar of Christ recommended all ecclesiastical dignitaries to strip the mask from Freemasonry and show how under eover of that Institution the spirits of evil work against God live there in all their invincible perfidy and hypocrisy. The Sovereign Pontiff thus conceived Freemasonry as a den of devils and of deviltries. Taxil had only to let himself go along that track to satisfy Roman Catholic credulity. No hesitation had he. ibis descriptions of the Lodge were astounding.
Here, he tells us, the candidate Frere Trois-Points is introduced on his arrival to an infernal chamber draped with images glorifying Lueifer and his reign, some devilish conjurations and operations of blaek magie, aecor(ling to Taxil, effectively put the Chapters of Freemasonry in direct relation with the Evil One. Taxil declared that he had not been fully admitted, and at the outset these things seemed unbelievable, but he assures us his methodical and patient researehes furnished such proofs that he was convinced that the infernal spirit took an effective part in the mysterious control of Freemasonry. Organization and government of the secret sect are, he said, too diabolical to justify a purely human expectation. 'the next paragraph contains examples of Taxil's fanciful style.
Leaving the first infernal chamber, the candidate is led into a white chamber ornamented with emblems of Lueifer and is then introduced, blind-folded, in a black room. There he is to commit his first murder. He is placed in the presence of a sheep which, by means of a gag, is prevented from bleating, and which has had a region about the heart carefully shaven. Near the breast is placed an initiate charged to imitate the moaning of a gagged man. The Grand Master pronounces in a most impressing voice, "Thou knowest, Brother, that some traitors are even encountered in the bosom of the most excellent associations. A miserable wreteh belonging to one of our Lodges proceeded to betray our holy cause and we have succeeded in seizing him. He is here, bound, at our feet—his last hour has struck—listen to the moans of rage that he murmurs. He knows that he will not escape justice. Brother, thy initiation this day bestows on thee the honor of fulfilling on him the get of justice.
Touch then the place where thy dagger ought to be thrust that thy avenging arm may not tremble." The left hand of the candidate is then put on the shaven skin of the sheep, which stirs itself. The neophyte thinks he touches the skin of a man of which he feels the heart. At the command he thrusts forward his dagger and believes himself to have killed a man. He thus beeomes an assassin by consent. Following many diabolical eonjuries, this completes the initiation according to Taxil. There are some feminine initiations which were equally described under the inspiration of that grotesque style credited in the eighteenth century to the Order of the Mopses.
The most sensational revelations of Leo Taxil claimed to tell the key of the secret symbols of Freemasonry. With his accustomed credulity Gruber writes on this subject, "Taxil positively confirms that he unveils in reality the true key of the Masonic symbols and he challenges all Freemasons invested with the Eighteenth Degree to find any defect of the least inaccuracy, however insignificant..
The fact is that the Masonic publications are not risking a test about the exactness of the key reproduced by Leo Taxil. Any doubt is thus impossible. The communicated key is really the true key of the secret symbols of Freemasonry." That "true" key of which he speaks is based upon the Five Pointed Star and reversed with additions so as to show a figure never in the Masonic symbolism, exhibiting the head of a goat, the emblem of lewdness. Taxil has embroidered this theme with all his versatile obscenity. Taxil had several imitators. One of these was the Italian at Naples, Margiotta, who in 1895 printed a book about the Devil as the Supreme Chief of Freemasonry. Ernst Diestel in his work published in 1921 at Berlin, Der Teafel als Sinnbild des Bosen, says that in some months Taxil gathered five thousand francs, thanks to his spicy book, which aroused great commotion.
Leo Taxil was not satisfied with playing a leading part himself. There entered upon the stage an uncertain, not to say an unreal, person, Miss Diana Vaughan, who from 1895 to 1897 was credited with pllhli.shing the recollections of A converted sat.gnist. She romanced most extravagantly, that her father founded at Louisville, Kentucky, a sacrilegious body of a thousand members and instructed Diana in satanism, took part in shameless travesties of church services, that she was further initiated, that that prominent Freemason, General Albert Pilie, knew she was a Grand Priestess, and that he therefore greeted her with profound respect. All this outrageous nonsense seems beyond any belief. But the wild story served Taxil's purpose.
This imaginary expert of Leo Taxil was put into correspondence with the Vatican itself. Since 1887 Pope Leo XIII had received Leo Taxil in special audience. "My son," demanded of him the Vicar of Christ, "What do you desired "To die this moment at the feet of the Holy Father would be a fulfillment of my wishes," responded with wellacted emotion the shameless mystified. The poor Pope fell into the trap and protested with his most benevolent smile, insisting on the usefulness of the life of Taxil, so precious for the battle of faith. The Pope pointed out his private library where figured in a prominent place all the written revelations of Taxil which His Holiness had read from the first up to the last. In Aprils 1895, Taxil dedicated to the Pope his extravagant work entitled Le Diable et la Revolution, The Devil and the Revolution.
Here we may cite an edifying correspondence established between Cardinal Parocchi and the imaginary Miss Vaughan.
The nonexistent ex-satanist wrote November 29, 1895, "Eminenee: I pray you to accept an example of the Neuvaine eucharistique (a recital of her pretended confession). Condescend, Eminence, to receive with indulgence this little book which has been prepared in expiation of numerous crimes and not to be forgotten in your prayers, the most unworthy of the undeserving who calls herself your very humble servant in Jesus, Mary, and Joseph." Cardinal Parocehi did not hesitate to reply. "Rome, Deeember 16, 1895. Miss and dear daughter in our Lord: It is with a lively and tender emotion that I have received your letter of November 29 and, at the same time, the Neuuaine eucharistique. You cause me to hope of seeing you at Rome when circumstances will permit of leaving your place of refuge. I will receive you with the greatest satisfaction. Your conversion is one of the most admirable triumphs of grace that I know. I read at this moment your recollections which are of consuming interest.
Accept my benediction and consider me as yours in the heart of Jesus." May 27, 1896, Rod. Verzichi, intimate Secretary of the Pope, said in his turn, "Miss: Monsignore Sardi, who is one of the Private Secretaries of the Holy Father, has directed me to write you by order of His Holiness. I have the mission of making known to you that His Holiness has read with great pleasure your Neuvaine eucharistique." The interest taken in so high a place about the mysterious Miss Diana Vaughan excited curiosity in all the Roman Catholic world about the location of that fantastic convert. Where was she? Why did she not show herself? She was held in hiding for if the Freemasons were able to discover her she would be killed at once!
Crowning the mystification a grand anti-Masonic Congress was held at Trente September 26 to October 1, 1896. All Roman Catholicism was eager for a public disclosure of the revelations of Leo Taxil and of Diana Vaughan. Some preliminary reunions had been held at Rome, Turin, Vienna, Pesth, Berlin Lisbon, Paris and Brussels. Throughout the influence of Taxil prevailed no lens than at the General Assembly the German Roman Catholics held at Dortmund. From the innumerable Prelates invited to the Congress at Trente to definitely strip the mask from the ignoble sect of Freemasons, Taxil had constituted an anti-Masonic Central Committee whose reports were received by Leo XIII in August, 1896.
The antiMasonic crusade displayed his standard. In September, Trente saw an influx of thirty-six Bishops, fifty Episcopal Delegates, sixty-one representatives of the press; the Prince Charles de Lowenstein, who with Cardinal Prince Bishop Haller de Salzburg, took the presidency of the Congress. About one thousand members were present at the Council of Trente, eighteen thousand persons taking part in the Grand Procession. Cardinal Prince Bishop Haller de Salzburg, an aristocratic German Roman Catholic, had at the outset responded expansively to the call of Leo Taxil, who became a hero.
He was applauded at Trente wherever he appeared. His portrait figured among the saintly images. When he took the floor at the session of September 27 he was applauded with frenzy by Italians and French. The Holy Father had sent by telegraph his benediction and urged the routing out of the Masonic pests with the arms that he had foreseen and advised in his Ent cyclical Father Schwarz d'Offenbach, member of the Landtag Wurtembergeois, exposed with a rigorous logic atheism conducted as satanism. When the name of Taxil was pronounced the Assembly stamped its feet with enthusiastic delight. They then saw the hypocrite arise, remove his cap, and bow his thanks in all directions.
Notwithstanding this approval the mystery of Diana Vaughan tormented these spirits. Where was that young woman? Why did she never show herself? Some deceit about her might be in play. A Special session was assigned to the examination of the question. On opening the debate the Abbé Pessonies solemnly declared that all anti-Masonic France held as true the revelations of Diana Vaughan.
In doubting the existence of Diana or in suspecting the truth of her revelations they would then commit an offense against the anti-Masonic cause. Clamorous applause wound up this discourse.
Then a German priest who had not entirely lost his head, Doctor Baumgarten, arose to put three questions: first, who is the priest who received the confession of Diana?; second, on what day?; third, what are the names of the parents of Diana? These questions were skilfully put, for they provided for a response without making inquiries of her in person. Taxil was not embarrassed at all about this.
When he arose to reply he was greeted with an uproar. He contented himself by saying to his questioner, "What vou are doing here turns to the benefit of the Freemasons. I swear to have seen Miss Diana with my own eyes but I am not able to indicate the convent which shields her. I guarantee the fact. I am able to tell you I have in my pocket the necessary documents but you have not the right to know them. you are too curious, dear Sir. The dagger of the Freemasons is lifted at all hours above Diana Vaughan. Let us be silent, then, lest we put the saint in peril. Before a commission of men of confidence I will expose mv proofs but not before you." Such lvas, in part, the reply of Taxil. But I)oetor Baumgarten was to have his revenge some months later.
In the meantime the Congress of Trente was for Taxil a prolonged suceess, a triumph. Princes, ecclesiastical and of the laity, held themselves in amity with him, but they did not cease to mention the celebrated Miss Diana. So much so that Taxil resolved to satisfy the Roman Catholic curiosity on April 17, 1807 on that date he presented himself before the public which crowded in the hall of the Geographical Society at Paris. He shamelessly declared himself to have erected during the past twelve years a gigantic series of hoaxes. All that he had written or told was only pure pleasantry on his part. Addressing himself at the conclusion to the numerous ecclesiastics present, he said to them, with all his scorn, "My Reverend Fathers: I sincerely thank my colleagues the Roman Catholic press and our Lords, the Bishops, of having so exeellently assisted me to construct a work, the finest and greatest of all my trickeries!"
This impudent discourse had for its effrontery and its cynicism no equal in literature. He avowed himself capable of infanticide because palladism, or satanism, was dead and he himself, its father, had killed it.
The only Diana Vaughan that he knew was a young girl whom he employed as a stenographer. For twelve years his purpose had been to study the depths of the Roman Catholic Church by the aid of a series of deceptions which had revealed to him the seerets of the spirit and of the` heart in that priestly hierarchy. He had succeeded beyond his most audacious hopes. The means of attaining this end had been suggested to him by the faet that the Roman Catholie Chureh saw in Freemasonry its most dangerous adversary and that numerous Roman Catholics, the Pope at their head, believed that the devil was the chief of that association. He affirmed that at Rome the Cardinals and the officials of the papal government were informed but had, in bad faith, patronized the writings published under his name, as well as under the name of Bataille and of Diana Vaughan; the Vatican knew the fraudulent nature of these pretended revelations but was charmed to make use of them in order to bring about among the faithful a belief profitable to the Roman Catholic Chureh.
The Bishop of Charleston, he declared, had written to the Pope that the stories relative to that city werefalse but Leo XIII had imposed silence on this Prelate, as well as upon the Apostolic Vicar of Gibraltar who had affirmed that there was not in that country the underground places where Freemasons celebrated the infamous ceremonies described by Bataille. Thus Taxil went on to the end, calmly, in the midst of the yelling and curses of the audience, which understood too late why they had been required on entering to give up at the door of the hall their sticks and umbrellas. Finally the furious public could be held no more in place. Taxil escaped, thanks to the protection of the police, and coolly betook himself to a neighboring café.
For some time the anti-Masonic movement in France slackened its pace, reflecting on its wounds; but there were even then certain persons who refused to believe in an unreal Diana and who insinuated that she had been sold for an enormous sum to the Palladists because Taxil was embarrassed by her presence—but ultimately this version came to silence. Canon Mustel, a Roman Catholic dignitary, in his retraction, says Lea, Histoxre d'une Mystification, Paris, 1901, declared that on the day when Hell should swallow up Taxil, its foul prey, the damned themselves, shuddering with loathing, would bow their heads under the burden of that fresh humiliation. As an excuse for the faith that he had witnessed in regard to the marvelous revelations, the Canon made the observation that Taxil knew as much so as many well-informed Roman Catholies, the principles and practice of that Church in the difficult and abstruse matter of supernatural manifestations, and the success of the impostor was explained solely beeause he had built an edifice of fraud on solid ground!
Of all the hoaxes perpetrated in the world's history, none surely is more amazing than the one concerning Leo Taxil, first a rabid proclaimer and atheistic organizer of modern irreligion, then a chastened petitioner for the Masonie Degrees, soon repudiated and east out by the Brotherhood of the Craft, he turned with revenge in his heart to the Church of Rome, was welcomed as a penitent, advertised as an authority on Freemasonry whose experience fully confirmed and fortified the antagonism of the Papal Power toward the Fraternity, and after a financially profitable career in publishing his scandalous attacks, he openly bared his duplicity when he could no longer defer an explanation which confessed his utter faithlessness and branded him as the greatest of liars. In the religious weekly of Paris, Semaine religieuse de Paras, 1900, page 214, Abbé Hemmer says, "Faut-il rappeler, à notre honte, la créance qu'ont rencontrée, chez les catholiques, les inventions de M. Leo Taxil, son Roman de Diana Vaughan, et toutes les sornettes du palladisme et de l'occultisme?
Faut-il rappeler que des religieux, dans leurs journaux et dans des revues prétendues savantes, des prédicateurs du haut de la ehaire, se sont fait les éehos et les garants de ces sottises?" That is to say, "Must we recall, to our shame, the credulity that among Roman Catholics met the inventions of Leo Taxil, his romance about Diana Vaughan, and all the idle tales of palladisrn and of occultism? Must we recall that some pious persons in their journals and in reviews pretentiously wise, preachers from the height of the pulpit, have made themselves the echos and the pledges of these stupidities." What was the cause of this gullibility?
Pope Leo XIII on April 20, 1894, in a long and detailed address to members of the Roman Catholic Church undertook to define at once the doctrine, the methods and the purposes of Freemasonry to the end that his followers might understand the nature of the organizabion and oppose to it an effective resistance The result of the inquiries of the Pope are contained in his initial phrase. "The human race is divided into two parties, of which the one adheres to God and to Christ, while the other is the Kingdom of Satan battling against the Deity."
He asserted that to this last belongs the Masonic Order, seeking to defeat the Church of God and to restore paganism after eighteen hundred years, a senseless desire whereby they were able to recognize the ceaseless hatred of Satan against God, the unsatisfied thirst for vengeance which animated the Evil One. In solemn terms the Pope ordered all the Bishops of the Roman Catholic world to unmask the Freemasons and to teach the people that these bigots were in reality friends of the devil and enemies of God. A declaration so formal and without reserve emanating thus from the one they accepted as the infallible chief of the Roman Catholic Church could not fail to produce a profound impression upon the faithful.
The inevitable result of all this denunciation was to credit Freemasonry with the worship of the devil. An eager and credulous fanaticism developed this belief. Father Joseph Muller of Vienna in his Geheimnisee der Holle, Secrets of Hell, undertook to prove that Freemasonry was the organized cult of Satan: John Kostka claimed to expose the same theory in his book Lucifer Démasqué. The Bishop of Grenoble, Monsignore Fava, declared that Freemasonry was nothing else than the religion of Satan. The Jesuit Archbishop Meurin in a work of some magnitude, La Franc-Maçonnerie, Synagogue de Satan, declared that Charleston was the provisional Rome of the Satanic Synagogue; that Satan appeared there to his representatives and gave them their orders; the Grand Master of the Supreme Council of Charleston was the Pope, the Vicar General of Satan on earth; the rites of this infernal cult were only reserved to the greater dignitaries and the anonymous author of La Loge noire declared that the candidate himself at the beginning of his initiation was made aware that Lucifer was the true God and to wipe out the Christian baptism received a baptism of fire, the baptism of Lucifer.
The grotesque idea of the devil presiding in person over meetings of the Masonic Fraternity dies hard in France, but references to that belief are now so usually met by a reminder of the exploded inventions of Leo Taxil that only among the more credulous does the belief persist with anything of the former sovereignty. Even the later anti-Masonic publications on the Continent frequently get around to the position that they are but speaking figuratively in linking the devil with the Craft. Charles Nicoullaud in his L'Initiation Ma~onnique, second edition, tells of the difficulty he meets with those who look at his attacks upon the Craft as another outbreak of Taxilism. "Leo Taxil, already the tool of the sect which slandered the Church of Rome as it appears on the instigation of Freemasonry, played an infamous comedy of which he publicly boasted. In that he has again to serve the said Freemasonry after having exploited the credulity of too confident Roman Catholics.
That is understood. These have believed on the word of this afflicted person—and we have no intention of arguing with the Lodges where he belongs—instead of passing through the sieve of mystical theology and initiatory science the facts that he bore. That was a mistake. But because it was once an error, it does not follow that a Roman Catholic ought always and necessarily to deceive himself about the study of supernatural deviltry." After crediting the Freemasons in his introduction with tactical ability, Nicoullaud asks sarcastically (page 4), "Are Roman Catholics as skillful in allowing themselves to be influenced by the fear of appearing ridiculous? After having been too simple at one period they have become too sceptical since. The two positions, one as dangerous as the other, are made anfl will be made the sport of the members directing secret societies. There is nothing shameful in recognizing a mistake, and acknowledging a tactical fault. We have been deceived once, that is not a reason why we shall always be. It is sufficient that we avoid being buried in the same pit, that we be prudent and that we do not cast aside the fundamental rules of scientific criticism. "
Evidently the Roman Catholic authorities came out of their experience with Taxil somewhat abashed and ashamed, eager to throw the weight off their shoulders onto the backs of the Freemasons, yet not altogether agreed as to the best way to do this effectively. Even in the work by Nicoullaud we are taken once more along the old paths and we are told of Satan presiding at a Lodge and receiving the worship of the devils in attendance (page 10), and that the affrighted witness, Doinel, who affirms these things, invoked the names of Jesus and Mary, he lost consciousness but recovered in safety. All this in the opinion of Nicoullaud follows the train of facts known to the fathers of the Church about devilish rnysteries, but he tells us of it warily without attaching to the story "more importance than it merits," a degree of prudence that would have saved his fellow followers of the Roman Catholic Church numerous pangs if they had observed the same caution in the case of Taxil.
Many particulars will be found about the charges of Satanism brought against the Masonic Fraternity in Der Teufel als Sinnbild des Bosen in Kirchenglauben, in den Hexen prozess en und als Bundesgenosse der Freimaurer, by Ernst Diestel, Berlin, 1921, published by Brother Alfred Unger; La Diablerie de Leo Taxil, an article published in Le Symbolisme, September and October, 1924, and a pamphlet, Leo Tazil, Diana Vaughan et L'Eglise Romaine, by Henry Charles Lea, Société Nouvelle de Libraire et d'Edition, Paris,
1901, to all of which we are indebted for various details. A list of the more prominent works of this kind directed against the Craft are given in a paper Diabolism and Masonry, by Brother Charles H. Merz, Masonic Bibliophile, volume ii (page 335). Brother Merz defends the Order by reciting its foundation principles and their practise among the Craft which plainly disavow and disprove the various venomous assertions of the enemies of Freemasonry. See also Brotherhood, New York, October, 1921 (page 2); The Leo Taxil Hoax, Brother R. C. Blackmer, quoted from Missouri Freemason, and Neux Age, April, 1906, Freemasonry and Satanism, Brother Henry R vans (page 360); also a book, Leo XIII und der Satanskult, Berlin, Dr. J. Ricks, 1897.
TAXIL, LEO, AND WORLD WAR II.
When Bro. Robert I. Clegg wrote the well-studied essay on page 1013 ff. of this Encyclopedia the subject of the pseudonymous Taxil along with his imaginary lady, Diana Vaughan, had already been relegated to the museum of Masonic literary archeology, there to find a place in 3 not-flattering gallery of other figures, also performers off-stage in the various dramas of AntiAlasonry, and equally fantastic or only half-real; among them being such protagonists as Finch, Weishaupt, William Morgan, Brigham Young, and that curious liar and proto-Nazi, Hermann Goedsche, who invented the present form of the myth of "Protocols
of the Elders of Zion."
But when France fell in World War II it transpired that the whole movement to which the Leo Taxil episode belonged as one of the critical chapters, and of which the unspeakable Dreyfus affair was another, had never slumbered or slept but was itself one of the causes of the fall of France. For from the very beginning of the Third Republic a determined effort was carried on by a powerful class of Frenchmen to destroy that Republic at any cost; this class consisted of the French Roman Catholic hierarchy, of monarchists, of the "two hundred families," of the great landlords, the military high officers among whom Pàtain was long the leader, the great financiers centered in the Bank of France, and the heads of the cartels.
The Republic ("civil France") rested for its support upon the Middle Class and on the workers whose aspirations were to be free, to have work, to have a free press, to have public schools, and to own small propertied among them being the country's multitude zf civil servants, or functionaires. Among these, Freemasonry was very strong because it was an organized form of their claims and aspirations. When in the 1880's the Vatican decided on its own course in the attempt to destroy the Republic it chose an AntiMasonic crusade as one tactic sure to weaken the Middle Class, "the democracy"; and decided that by a flanking movement it would take advantage of the Catholic fears of humble folk by boldly declaring from Rome and Paris that Masons are Satan Worshippers, or Devil Worshippers. In 1896 Pope Leo XIII, who in his Humanum Genus had violently denounced Freemasonry, democracy, public schools, free speech, and everything "American," set up his Roman AntiMasonic Commission. In that same year the Pope called an International Congress to meet at Trent in September. It was attended by thirty-six bishops.
Meanwhile, as described on page 1013, Leo Taxil had been expelled as an Entered Apprentice from a French Lodge for moral reasons, had professed conversion to Catholicism, and had written grandiose "exposures" of Satan Worship in Masonic Lodges, which exposures were supposed to be supported by the confessions of Diana Vaughan of Charleston, S. C., where Albert Pike was said to be Satan Worshipper in chief; Taxil was expected to be the central attraction of this congress, and for some hours he was.
But at the moment when the eyes of the whole of France were focussed on the august but strange doings at Trent, Taxil went off to Paris and there confessed in public that his books and speeches were one large hoax, and that "Diana Vaughan"—he pointed to his typewriter—"was this." France remained in stunned silence. The Pope and his bishops remained silent. After a decent interval, the Government, without campaigns or outcry, disestablished the Church. Even so, and with increased intensity, "Clerical France" continued its campaign to destroy the Republie, and succeeded in doing so by throwing away the War with Hitler, and in the form of Vichy France, details of which are incorporated in another artiele in this Supplement under WORLD WAR II AND FREEMASONRY.
(American students cannot help but be confused by the to them unfamiliar movements in France between the two wars, and by that mixture of piety and machine guns which comprised the Anti-Republic, AntiMasonic movement.
They are fortunate in having for a guide a rapid, clear, unprejudiced, short yet complete history by an internationally-famed scholar and publicist: Disestablishment in France, by Paul Sabatier; New York; Charles Seribner's Sons; 1906. To that may be added as the best short history of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion Affair," The Myth of the Jewish Menace in World Affairs, by Lucien Wolf; The Macmillan Company; New York; 1921; cloth; 53 pages. Bro. Arthur Edward Waite wrote in 1896 (Redway) Devil tutorship in France; this book is not one of his successes, either`of scholarship or in its literary form, and he quite misses the point of the whole Taxil hoax, but it is very valuable for its digests of a number of once important French books about the weird Papal scheme to conviet Freemasons of Satan Worship in the eyes of the world. For the general historical framework of the subject see Freemasonry and Roman Catholicism, by H. L. Haywood; The Masonic History Company; Chicago; 1944.)
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