AT the close of an October afternoon in 1881 a court of Masonic justice
had been sitting since nine o'clock in the morning. The hall had proved
too small for the members attending and in the stuffy atmosphere the
lights were like funeral candles and the faces of the brethren were
dismal.
In its wish to become democratic the Grand Orient of France had some
time previously abolished the judicial forms of the early days of the
Obedience and modelled them on those of the courts in the outside world.
Justice was rendered by so-called "fraternal juries.
The lodge in session was The Temple of Friends of French Honor, a worthy
old one founded at the time of the Restoration. Roetiers de Montaleau
had been one of the founder members.
On 1 August 1881 Worshipful Brother Esprit Eugene Hubert, who in
civilian life was Counsellor to the Prefecture of Police and Editor of
the magazine The Chain of Union, was presiding. He was a man in his
sixties with a sad bewhiskered face. Brother Lechaut occupied the office
of Orator corresponding to the Public Attorney and several high-ranking
Freemasons with elaborate collars sat in the East, among whom was Very
Illustrious Brother Thevenot, 33d, head of the Administrative
Secretariat of the Grand Orient, but also a member of the Lodge.
There were several visitors and the bright blue collars of the Grand
Orient were mixed with those edged with red of the Supreme Council of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The case in question was indeed
an important one.
The master had informed the members that the select committee of
investigation had cleared the accused but, in accordance with Article 14
of the General Rules and Regulations, others had called for proceedings
against the accusers. After a heated discussion, and a resolution passed
by twenty-four votes to four, the accused had been sent again before his
judges.
The accused member was an apprentice of recent date, twenty-seven years
of age. His name was Gabriel Jogand, his pen-name being Leo Taxil, and
he spoke with a Marseilles accent. He was requested to take a seat at a
little table where writing material was provided. In a dull, even tone
of voice the Master began questioning him.
"Brother Gabriel Jogand, you were born in Marseilles on 23 March 1853.
You are a journalist and author under the pen-name of Leo Taxil. You
contribute to The Lantern and The Southern Republican and you also write
in your own magazine The Anti-Clerical. Your civilian past is already
known to us from the inquiries made before your initiation and so is not
relevant. I shall therefore go straight to the point, your Masonic past
being too short to concern us. Three serious charges are made against
you.
"The first one has been described by Brother Orator as 'literary
piracy.' A poet, the late Auguste Roussel, had written a work entitled
The Sermons of My Parish Priest which you plagiarized. The widow made a
complaint before a civilian court of justice, in this case the Tribunal
of the Seine, and you were condemned to a fine of 1,000 francs and 2,000
francs damages for the benefit of the heirs. The Court of Appeal raised
the latter figure to 4,000 francs. Our Masonic judiciary waited for the
conclusion of the case before taking the matter any further. Is that
correct?"
"Yes, Worshipful Master."
"Well the facts do not constitute a Masonic offense, but a lapse of
honor. We are therefore competent to judge.
"The second charge is that, having contemplated standing for the
elections, you claimed to have the patronage of Victor Hugo and men such
as Louis Blanc, Floquet and Paul Bert. A public disavowal was inflicted
on you in The Truth."
"I shall explain, Worshipful Master."
"Finally, you are the author of a book entitled: The Secret Love Affairs
of Pope Pius IX."
"I do not think that is a Masonic offense."
There were loud guffaws at this whereupon the Orator rose and said: "The
offense consists in selling obscene matter to foolish and corrupt people
under the guise of anti-clerical propaganda. I would inform the members
of this lodge in this connection that, following on a complaint made by
Count Masta, Pope IX's nephew, the Court of Montpellier severely
condemned Brother Jogand. We do not need filthy pamphlets in order to
attack the Church with philosophic arguments."
The discussion was lively. One of those who made a fierce attack on
Taxil was Henry Bauer, hitherto his friend. A journalist, an old
supporter of the Commune in 1871, he had been deported to New Caledonia
and had returned to Paris following the general pardon of 1879. He was
an illegitimate son of Alexander Dumas the Elder, whom he resembled by
reason of his shock of hair.
Taxil spoke awkwardly in his own defense, trying to justify himself by
attacking the Church with stupid jokes which produced only a stony
silence. Regarding the electoral patronages that he had claimed he
played upon words, producing a letter in which Victor Hugo had
complimented him on an article in which he had attacked Bishop Dupanloup
in The Lantern.
The summing up of the Orator was pitiless. He called for the application
of Article 7 of the General Rules and Regulations. Accordingly, the
Master requested Taxil to withdraw from the lodge, after which he put
the following question:
"Is Brother Jogand, alias Taxil, guilty of a Masonic offense?" Out of
thirty-two votes, there were twenty-four for and ten against.
"To which category does the offense belong?"
"There existed offenses of the first and the second category; the former
were punished by temporary suspension, the second by loss of Masonic
privilege and by permanent expulsion. Out of thirty-two votes, twenty
were in favor of the second category and twelve for the first.
Consequently, the Master in a weary voice and in accordance with article
7 of the judicial rulings of the Grand Orient, pronounced the penalty of
permanent expulsion. The condemned man went away and the lodge room
emptied, but the members continued to discuss the matter informally
outside and in the local cafes .
Taxil was not an emotional kind of person. Avoiding those who wished to
console him he made his way home on foot with cold rage in his heart.
Along the boulevards and the Avenue de l'Opera, people were chatting on
the terraces outside the cafes. He passed without looking at them,
crossed the river Seine, took the rue Bonapart and finished up in
familiar surroundings having, with hate still in his heart, passed one
by one all the members of the lodge. When he reached home, Taxil scoffed
and as he was climbing the stairs he suddenly had a new idea.
At the next meeting of the lodge the Master read a letter from Leo Taxil
enclosing a hundred franc note for the charity box. One brother
haughtily declared that the lodge could not accept a donation from a man
who had just been expelled on grounds of dishonesty. Brother Treasurer
gave his opinion that the lodge could without scruple deduct the amount
of unpaid subscriptions and return the balance. This was agreed and
Taxil duly received the change together with any icy letter saying that
the lodge was alone qualified to distribute charity.
Fearing another slap in the face, Taxil let the matter drop.
Nevertheless, he remained a militant free thinker, hysterically
anti-clerical. Consequently, the fact of having been expelled from the
Grand Orient rankled bitterly in his mind. What was going to happen to
the program he had hoped would be his for the rest of his life?
He lived in a small flat, 149 rue de Rennes, a commonplace but
respectable kind of building in a district full of booksellers, antique
dealers and poor-class cafes frequented by minor characters in literary
circles. He used to spend quite a lot of his time in a beershop with the
nostalgic name of Brasserie des Bords do Rhin (Beershop on the Banks of
the Rhine) founded just after the 1870 war against Germany by an
Alsatian named Lippman. It was pleasant to be there with a dish of
pickled cabbage and a pot of beer and he became an habitue of the place
which still exists and is now known as Chez Lipp. One evening after he
had refreshed himself in that way he went home and began to muse. Deep
in his armchair he lit his pipe and, contemplating the bluish smoke,
indulged in a little introspective musing.
He was certainly of Roman Catholic origin and, as he was to relate in
his memoirs, his education had been that of a child of good family
brought up in religious schools. His school reports were a testimony to
his good classical education. The Archbishop of Lyons had officiated at
his confirmation. One of his teachers, wishing to extend the work of Our
Lady of the Sacred Heart, had founded a youth society in the College of
Saint Louis in Marseilles, with the authorization of the headmaster, and
young Gabriel had been one of the first instructors.
The school year 1867/8 was to be a turning point in his life. It was in
this college that he first met his future partner "the Devil." A
dormitory comrade had in muffled tones spoken to him about Freemasonry.
He revealed the fact that his father belonged to the Order so that
Freemasons could not be as bad as they were said to be. Gabriel was
astonished.
"Your father? Then why did he send you to this church school?"
"He has to be careful for the sake of his job. He did not want to send
me to a mixed sort of place. Will you swear not to disclose the secret I
am going to entrust you with?"
"I swear."
"Well, I am a Lewis!"
"What is that?"
"I am the son of a Freemason and when I grow up I shall become one
myself. Would you like me to lend you a book about Freemasonry?"
"Here? Are you not afraid of being expelled?"
"There is no danger. It was written by a bishop."
Gabriel read the book eagerly. It was by the Lord Bishop de Segur, son
of the well-known Countess Rostopchine (to give her maiden name). It
told him that there were about 1,600,000 Freemasons in France who met in
the evenings in lodges where they celebrated the Devil's Mass. In Paris
alone there were over 2,000 innkeeper Freemasons and also many Jews. On
page 82 Gabriel read: The Revue des Deux Mondes (The Review of the Two
Worlds) is in the service of Freemasonry and its sacrilegious work."
This caused him great concern for his uncle, a most unworthy man, was a
subscriber to it.
One evening in the dormitory they started talking again. Nudging his
neighbor in the adjoining bed, Gabriel asked him:
"Do you really believe what they say in your book?"
"Of course not. It is enough for me to compare the life my father leads
with this talk. If they tell such lies there must be something behind
it, and it is certainly nothing bad."
Gabriel read the book again and made a critical summary of it which
unfortunately fell into the hands of his teacher. He was summoned to the
headmaster's study and questioned. Later on he was questioned a second
time in the presence of his father, when he pulled out the bishop's book
thinking that thereby he would be cleared. This showed his ignorance of
the educational principles of the time, one of which consisted of
putting into the minds of rebellious pupils the fear that they might be
expelled. An underlying but permanent feeling of fear was always in the
air and tale-telling was far from being discouraged. Thus, from the very
beginning of his school days Leo Taxil realized that certain religious
schools were nurseries of anti-clericalism.
The first indication of possible expulsion was a depressing atmosphere
of malignant prejudice when a boy's comrades kept their distance as if
he were contagious. Immediately after the cross- questioning in the
interview with the headmaster, Gabriel felt that he had become disliked
by everyone. This was followed by a feeling of revolt. He began to read
clandestinely a number of revolutionary pamphlets, not because he wanted
to become subversive but rather because he was seeking a kind of
reconciliation with life. He finished by realizing, not without remorse,
that he had lost his religious faith. One day when he was guilty of some
disciplinary fault, one of the masters declared: "You will come to a bad
end." This pedagogic pronouncement caused him to discover his real self
like a flash of lightning.
Every year the boys at the school were compelled to observe Easter. The
priest to whom he confessed came from outside and had no prejudice
against him as he did not even know him. However, after listening to him
for a while he was forced to conclude:
"I am afraid my child, that you are not in a fit state to receive
communion, You tell me about your sins not like a confession but as if
you were boasting about an adventure. You do not express the slightest
contrition. Have you lost faith? Go on my boy, tell me the truth."
After hearing a few embarrassed explanations from the boy, the confessor
could only say that he felt unable to give him absolution and that
consequently he could not attend Holy Communion the following morning.
Gabriel suddenly rose and, ceasing to call the priest "Father," said in
a low voice: "Whether you give me absolution or not, I shall receive the
communion tomorrow."
"Such a communion would be sacrilegious," said the priest. Taxil
replied:
"Only one thing counts as far as I am concerned, and that is not to be
expelled."
The priest suddenly understood. The psychosis of the terrible threat of
expulsion had acted like a blow. Perhaps he asked himself: "Who is the
sinner now?"
Next day all the pupils lined up to take communion, Gabriel being among
them. When he got back to his seat he saw a sudden commotion at the back
of the chapel. His confessor had had a heart attack and was taken to the
infirmary. Clenching his fists with emotion Gabriel realized what was
the cause. In the afternoon he wanted to make inquiries about the priest
but was afraid that his concern would arouse suspicion. Once again the
spectre of being expelled came before his eyes and so he did nothing.
By a curious anticipation of the student troubles that were to erupt in
May 1968, a similar happening took place exactly a century before. On
Saturday 30 May 1868 the whole of France roared with laughter on reading
the first issue of Henri Rochefort's review The Lantern. Gabriel bought
it secretly and read: "France is composed, states the Imperial Almanak,
of 36 million subjects, not counting the subjects of discontent." The
Empire was under siege. A law regarding the Press abolished the hated
regime of "warnings." Another law allowed meetings to take place freely.
The young bloods felt themselves on fire.
No longer being able to bear life at the college Gabriel ran away but
was soon arrested and brought back by the gendarmes to the Imperial
Magistrate and severely admonished in the presence of his father who
went further and, using his right to paternal correction, sent Gabriel
to the Mettray reformatory colony. Convinced that his father had
followed suggestions from the priest - which was not so - Gabriel
retired within himself in an unsociable way. He wrote in his cell The
Psalms of Vengeance and privately took the oath of hate, which he was to
observe for the rest of his life.
His incarceration proved short. When he came out his father thought it
wise to send him to a secondary school as a day-pupil, but he was a
trouble-maker and, without there being any question of religion, he was
expelled.
At the end of a lively election meeting he became friendly with young
Clovis Hugues, editor of an extremist newspaper, The People.
The war of 1870 broke out and after the defeat there was the Commune. In
Marseilles this was the occasion of a ridiculous bit of foolery in which
Gabriel took part. This group voted to erect a guillotine on the
Cannbiere to terrify the clericals. After having shouted all day and
sung revolutionary songs on parade, Gabriel and his companions gathered
in the evening, to drink pastis. On 1 January 1871, Gabriel was engaged
as a journalist by the newspaper Equality. It was his first paid job.
Some say that he was also a police informer.
It was at that period that his taste for practical joking and deception
developed. The first evidence of this was the shark affair a playful
practical joke.
In 1873 order had been reestablished in Marseilles. General Espivant de
la Villeboisnet who was in command had ordered a state of siege and,
showing that he would not abide any chicanery, had restrained La Marotte
- Journal des Fous (Cap and Bells - A Paper for Fools). One day letters
began to pour in from fishermen all along the coast saying that they had
escaped from a terrible danger. Sharks were spreading terror from the
Catamans to the beach of the Prado. There was a panic and an exit of
bathers. There ensued great excitement in the Town Council. The mayor
gravely expressed the opinion that a boat from Corsica had thrown a
cargo of defective smoked fish into the sea. The general, asked to
urgently provide a company armed with rifles to man an expedition with a
tug, sent a hundred men fully armed and an ample provision of
cartridges. When the boat put out to sea, saluted with many cheers, the
people of Marseilles breathed easily again. The band played and the
mayor, wearing his sash of office, accompanied by the members of the
Council waved their handkerchieves as the expedition set off. The
roadsteads were explored in every direction but the boat returned
empty-handed. An inquiry was made when it was found that all the letters
were in the same handwriting. Gabriel kept the secret of his deception
which he only divulged much later.
Three years passed during which he wrote articles in a number of
anti-clerical and revolutionary papers after having permanently adopted
the pen-name of Leo Taxil. In 1876 some trouble with the judiciary
prompted him to seek refuge in Geneva. Finding the Swiss somewhat dull
he first tried to exploit them by selling aphrodisical sweets which
resulted in a complaint from the town confectioners. He then thought up
another hoax: The scientific societies of Geneva learned of an
extraordinary discovery - an underwater town had been observed at the
bottom of the lake between Nyon and Coppet. All the archeological
societies of Europe were informed and certain newspapers reported
supposed excavations. A Serious-minded scientist, after having read the
Commentaries of Caesar, had found interesting confirmation in it, so the
story went. The underwater town had undoubtedly been constructed in
Roman times when the lake was narrower at the spot where the waters of
the Rhone crossed it. Tourists hastened to the spot and the hotels were
full. Excursions were organized and a clever tourist agency had oil
spread over the water in order to see better." Also a Roman road and the
remains of a forum were said to have been seen. A polish archeologue
came to see it and returned home with an article stating that he had
seen the probable remains of a statue of a horse. Every evening Taxil
would have a good laugh on his terrace in the company of a friend from
Marseilles, Henry Chabrier. Two members of the Institute finally
discovered the hoax. At the same time it seemed that the perpetrator was
having trouble with the Swiss authorities. Providentially, a general
pardon became law in France so that, although expelled from Geneva,
Taxil was able to go back legally to France. He went to Paris, admired
the Universal Exhibition and decided to stay.
Meanwhile, he had gone to live with a dressmaker from Marseilles. This
woman used to deceive her husband to an extraordinary degree. A friend
of the husband thought he ought to tell him about it and, on his
expressing doubt, said that he himself had had intercourse with her.
This resulted in a terrific quarrel with the wife, who, terrified, went
to the tale-bearer and drove her scissors into his stomach. She was
acquitted by the court and then, with her two children, was given a home
by Taxil who was later to marry her.
Settled in Paris, Taxil cultivated anti-clerical associates and made
pornography his profession. This despicable industry had previously
flourished under the Revolution with books such as: The Sacred
Cannibals, The Priest's Testicles, Letter from the Devil to the Pope
concerning the Suppression of Menstruation in Girls' Communities;
Extraordinary Correspondence of the Ecclesiastical F. . kers; The Whores
of the Third Estate and the Sollicitors of the Fourth. All he did was to
revive a tradition and he flooded the market with monthly magazines
collected in annual volumes with titles of a similar kind, e.g. It's We
Who whip those dirty Scamps, Shooting the Crows; The Sacred Blunders;
Critical Review of Superstition. At the same time, he wrote articles for
The Scoffer and founded The Anticlerical.
In 1879 Taxil had the good fortune to be the subject of a court action.
His pamphlet Down with the Clergy had had a circulation of 130,000
copies. The scandal was such that Paul de Cassagnac denounced the
publication in Parliament, demanding that the government take
proceedings against the author. Taxil had sent his seconds to De
Cassagnac but they were not even received. The Court of the Seine
started proceedings against Taxil based on an old law of 17 May 1819
which proscribed "outrage against a religion recoznized by the State."
Taxil appeared before the Court in a confident almost arrogant manner.
The Public Prosecutor, careful not to compromise his career by opposing
a jury composed mainly of Voltairians, summed up mildly suggesting that
there was a distinction between an "attack" against a cult, which he
thought judicially admissible, and an "outrage." Taxil was acquitted
after a friendly lawyer had made a simple plea. The left-wing press
exulted. An orthodox paper: Decentralisation commented on the verdict as
follows: "From now on dirt is at ease, without fear of the dustman." The
real victim of the case was to be the law of 17 May 1819, doomed to
obscurity.
At that time the Prefect of Police was the picturesque Andrieux who was
a Freemason, but that did not worry Taxil. In the newspaper The
Democratic Manguard Taxil published an article entitled His Holiness the
Police, embellished by a burlesque Credo: "I believe in His Holiness the
Police, united and Holy, omnipotent and organizer of all things visible
and invisible," followed by a Bull of Andrieux the First, servant of the
servants of the Police. Andrieux, who was a man of wit, let it pass.
At the General assembly of the Freethinkers in September 1881 a group
led by Taxil seceded and Taxil then founded The Anti-clerical League
with headquarters at 338 rue de Vaugirard and which, under his
management, enjoyed an immediate success. It published The Secret Loves
of Pope Pius IX, attributed to an imaginary secret pupil given the name
a "Volpi" by Taxil.
As a public speaker Taxil excelled himself. For a series of public
lectures in the main towns of France he had chosen as his subject The
Crimes of the Inquisition. He had learned all the methods of torture by
reading various encyclopedias but he had found better ones. At these
lectures he exhibited instruments of torture bought, he said, in the
North of France from the heirs of an executioner. One of these
instruments known as the spider had served to tear out womens' breasts.
He claimed that it was a relic of The FreeThinker but in actual fact he
had had it made by a certain Maget, a lock- maker in the rue de Bievre.
A little rust had given these instruments the appearance of age.
He had even mystified the anti-clericals themselves. He had been blamed
by an extremist paper The Battle for not having shown sufficient
admiration for certain revolutionaries. The director of the paper,
Lissagaray, thereupon received an anonymous letter signed "Jean-Pierre"
claiming to be a secretary at the Archbishopric of Paris who was obliged
to go into hiding. He offered to give free information concerning all
the gossip that was going on: "If you accept me as a contributor, it is
understood that you will not seek to ascertain my identity." The reply
came immediately: "We accept wholeheartedly." There followed a series of
hoaxes that worked marvellously .
The readers of The Battle learned that Jules Ferry and Jules Simon had
secretly met His Eminence Cardinal Guibert with a view to ensuring his
succession by His Grace Archbishop Richard. Pushing the joke to absurd
lengths "Jean-Pierre" then informed the readers of the paper that the
canons had met in an underground chapel to put the instruments of
torture into working order so as to be ready if the Count of Chambord
was successful in restoring the legitimate monarchy. In the offices of
the anti-clericals the members of the staff split their sides with
laughter each time a letter was sent. The hoax lasted for a month. The
serious newspaper Time was the only one to ask if Monsieur Lissagaray's
staff had not become blind to the facts.
Taxil ended up by making open enemies even in the ranks of the
anti-clericals which did not consist entirely of plagiarists and
pornographers. The facts mentioned in his lodge were the drop that made
the cup overflow. After his expulsion many people turned their backs on
him or closed their doors to him. He was now only twenty- seven years
old. What was going to become of him? After a great deal of thought he
was still in a quandary.
One incident shows how many enemies he had made. At the beginning of
August 1881 an important public meeting took place at the Casino des
Fleurs, 219 rue de Charenton, presided over by a member of Parliament,
Jules Roche. The Freethinker groups were represented by many of their
members. The name of Leo Taxil was hissed and the newspaper The
Awakening of 7 August, after having mentioned his Masonic troubles, gave
an account of his public "execution ."
Taxil earned his living by organizing public meetings but not everyone
liked them. In the course of one of them he gave as an illustration to
his fiery speech the name of "Troppmann" who, on the scaffold, had
called the chaplain "My father," and who had replied before the fall of
the blade "My son." The conclusion was: Such a father, such a son. On
another occasion the implements of torture attributed to the Inquisition
not being enough for him, he used wax figures like those in Madame
Taussaud's exhibition to represent the condemned criminals. They were
covered with blood and were horrible to see.
In a small pamphlet entitled The Amusing Bible he tried to poke fun at
the Book of Genesis. Adam, put to sleep in an earthly paradise, was
depicted in the nude having dropped off to sleep when reading The
Universe. Excluded from the Garden of Eden, Eve and he wore posters on
their backs with the word "Gluttons."
In 1884 Taxil was discharged from The Lantern owing to certain
discrepancies in his accounts.
On the other hand, the Church counter-attacked. In 1882 the impetuous
Bishop of Grenoble, Fava, published his book The Secret of Freemasonry.
It was a stupid book of limited scope but in 1884 Pope Leo XIII issued
the Encyclical Humanum Genus. This time the lightning had really struck.
Taxil secured the Encyclical and read it carefully. The essential
sentence was: "Tear the mask from Freemasonry. Show it as it really is."
The mild-mannered Leo XIII had used the tone of the great Popes of the
Middle Ages. No doubt there was an explanation of the sentence in the
anti-religious fury of the Carbonari and other Italian sects that had
influenced the lodges of the period, but out of context the sentence was
terrible.
Realizing that he was at a dead end Taxil gave further thought to his
position. The Free-Thinkers had ended up by treating him like a black
sheep and, as a result, anti-clerical literature was daily becoming less
remunerative for him. Furthermore, pornography had always enjoyed a
considerable success at certain periods but had likewise quickly
suffered a decline. As he was unable to change himself into a successful
novelist or a serious essayist Taxil's pen was becoming idle.
An idea came into his mind but was immediately rejected as being
impracticable: to change direction and revert to The Church.
Unfortunately for him his numerous libels blocked the way. Had he not
outraged Leo XIII himself by treating him as a poisoner?
However, a quite unexpected event caused him to reconsider the problem.
He had started to write an absolutely blasphemous life of Joan of Arc
based on the usual theme of anti-clericalism of the pure heroine "burned
by the clergy and abandoned by her King." An illustrious scholar named
Jules Quicherat had published the Rouen records and had started to
translate them. Taxil, pen in hand, and having secured a temporary
permit to enter the French National Library read A New Approach to the
History of Joan of Arc by this eminent director of the Ecole de Chartres
(School of Paleography). Taxil's initial aim was to glean anything he
could find against The Church, to castigate it without any scruple and
to present a supposedly scientific version. However "Tel engeigne qui
cayde engeigner aultray" (He learns who wants to teach others.) He
emerged from these long sessions of research in the library as if in a
dream and little by little a quite new version of Joan appeared to him,
dazzling him as though a mirror was reflecting the sun into his eyes. He
was worried about the heroine's Catholicism but conceived the idea of a
kind of patriotic novel. Unfortunately, this would not satisfy either
the anti-clerical Freethinkers or the Catholics.
Further thought gradually produced the following two ideas: the first
was that since Saint Paul had suddenly been converted on his way to
Damascus The Church had always taken great account of converts. Why then
should not he become one? He even thought of writing a book entitled
Famous Conversions (he was subsequently to publish it in 1891). If, like
the prodigal son, he was to return to His Father's House, would not
there be more joy for one sinner than for ninety-nine righteous persons?
And in more personal terms he translated this as: What a wonderful
recruit!!!
His second idea was that, even at the end of the nineteenth century,
people had never talked so much about the Devil. A certain Abbe Decanu,
author of a History of Satan had written: "As regards belief, we have to
revert to those of the 15th century. We put forward this axiom first of
all, so that those who do not wish to hear about the matter do not waste
their time reading this book."
With his Robert the Devil, Meyerbeer brought the Devil to the Opera
House. The poetic Satanism of Baudelaire, like that of Carducci in Italy
whose Hymn to Satan was sung in certain lodges, had distressed
conscientious people. Furthermore, anti-Masonic literature tended to
make the Devil a matter of common belief. Not to mention him would look
like being badly informed.
Taxil's thought evolved slowly, building its edifice brick by brick. He
finally arrived at the conclusion that a dramatic conversion on his part
would certainly be taken for a special miracle of grace and that the
best guarantee he could give would be, after having "torn the mask from
Freemasonry," to deliver the Devil with bound hands and feet. What a new
career would then be open to him!! He would have to advance wisely, step
by step.
The first difficulty was to get rid of the pornographic and anticlerical
stock of the bookshop at good prices. The value of the goods plus cash
in hand amounted to about 600,000 francs. The debts consisting of
amounts due to suppliers and sundry other small items were about 75,000
francs. His monthly turnover was 25/30,000 francs. The situation was
therefore sound but the creditors nevertheless received a letter from
Marie Taxil, who kept the shop, suggesting an amicable arrangement. He
obviously had to close this particular kind of business before
proclaiming his conversion. The debts were finally paid and the shop
closed.
An anti-clerical convention was held at about that time in Rome. Taxil
attended: it was his last convention. He then wrote to his family
informing them that he had been touched by grace, adding that he
attributed the miracle to the probable intercession of Joan of Arc.
Josephine Jogand, his aunt on his father's side and his godmother, a
saintly person who had embarked on a religious vocation to secure the
return of the prodigal son, had assumed the name of "Mary of the Seven
Pains." She wept with happiness and all the family with her.
It remained to cross the Rubicon. Taxil was too well known in his
district. Early one morning he crossed the river Seine and went into the
old church of Saint-Merri in the rue St. Martin. He knelt in front of a
confessional. The vicar heard him and was momentarily overcome with
confusion. He then informed the unexpected penitent that he was in
rather a special situation and that, speaking canonically, he did not
have the right to give him absolution. He advised him to write, promised
to intervene with the archbishop and, after a friendly talk asked him to
come back again. Coming out of the church Taxil perceived at the top of
a restored porch a carving of an androgynous bearded Satan before whom
two angels were swinging a censer. It was a practical joke played by an
anticlerical assistant of the famous architect Viollet le Duc. A mere
coincidence no doubt. Laughing in his beard, Taxil could not help
thinking that the Devil was certainly very clever.
The very next day he sent a letter of retraction written in the best
style imbued in him as a youth by his priestly teachers and a week later
he received an invitation to go into a retreat at the monastery at
Clamart and prepare to make a general confession necessary to remove the
censures to which he was liable. A former military chaplain who had
turned Jesuit made him practice the spiritual exercises of Saint Ignace
de Loyola. This gave him headaches but as he revealed later he kept a
Parthian shot for the end. After having put forward all sorts of
difficulties under the pretext that he had on his conscience a mortal
sin extremely difficult to admit he ended up by pretending to admit
defeat as a result of the confessor's exhortations. A mysterious murder
had been committed which was the subject of much newspaper comment, the
guilty person being still at large; without the slightest doubt the
crime would result in the guillotine for the culprit. Taxil ended up by
accusing himself.
The priest recoiled in amazement and, profoundly shocked, made Taxil
promise to give a pension to the widow in an indirect way. He did not
ask for any names but insisted on knowing whether or not there had been
premeditation. Bowed with shame, Taxil admitted that there had been. He
was never questioned by the police nor by a magistrate and was later to
say that this practical joke had enabled him to put the secret of
confession to the test. His victory was complete. Reporting to his
superior, the Jesuit father said: "I will vouch for Leo Taxil."
Henceforth, he was able to make his conversion public. He received acid,
stormy letters from the anti-clerical set. In the Democrat of the Loiret
a high-ranking Freemason named Bonnardot, wrote: "The clerics have made
a poor recruit. What height of folly!" In Masonic circles there was a
great deal of talk. A Free thinker considered that Taxil must have gone
mad and wrote to his wife offering to put her country house at her
disposal for a rest cure.
The Garbaldi group of the Anti-Clerical League called a special meeting
on 27 July 1885, the only item on the agenda being the expulsion of Leo
Taxil. He, himself, received the summons which the secretary had
automatically sent to him. Although his wife made a great fuss he
decided to attend.
After dinner therefore he walked over to Bon Marche Square to wait for
the bus. Luckily the horse-drawn bus had just turned the corner of the
rue Abbe Gregoire and the animals were trotting along through the
puddles. He got in and looked around but there was nobody he knew. Half
an hour later he crossed the threshold of the Cafe de France at the
corner of the rue de Turbigo and the rue du Temple, and went down to the
basement. The meeting had just started and the room was full of tobacco
smoke. In the corridor he had met his friend Paulon, who expressed his
astonishment.
"You have come Leo?"
"You see that I have."
"Why?"
"I can tell you. To seek the opportunity of putting in a word that I
shall be able to remind people of when the time is ripe."
Paulon was going to say something more but their entrance into the room
was greeted with a moment of stupor, then of tumult;
"Go to Kingdom Come" and "Go to the devil."
The president read the motion to be put before the meeting: Considering
that Gabriel Jogand-Pages, known as Leo Taxil, one of the founders of
the Anti-Clerical League, has renounced all the principles he has
hitherto defended, betrayed the Freethinkers and all his
co-anti-religionaries, the leaguers present at the meeting of 27 July
1885, without seeking the reasons that have dictated the infamous
conduct of Leo Taxil, exclude him from the Anti-Clerical League as a
traitor and a turncoat .
There was loud applause but Taxil jumped up and shouted: "I wish to
speak."
This was greeted with shouts and hisses.
"My friends, I accept this motion except for one word."
"This is really too daring, said the President with fury."
"You have the right to say that I am a turncoat since I published four
days ago a letter of retraction; I explicitly reject all my writings
against religion but I ask you to cross out the word 'traitor' which is
not applicable to my case. There is not the shadow of treachery in what
I am doing today."
"Oh, the bastard."
"You will not understand what I have just said, but you will later,"
retorted Taxil.
Not wishing to stay for the vote he went away but left some of them very
perplexed. Outside an excited young man shouted to his face: "Everyone
knows that you have just come from the Jesuits and that you regularly
confess. You have never ceased practising religion ."
Taxil went home quite calm, going slightly out of his way to have a
drink at Lipp's.
The next day he had a visit from a smiling Englishman with a rosy face;
a journalist from The Catholic Times of London. He praised Taxil and
proposed to introduce him to His Grace di Rende, the Apostolic Nuncio to
Paris. Leo could not believe his eyes and ears and from then on even his
wife became milder in her attitude towards him. Dressed in a cap and
knickerbockers with a fancy jacket the Englishman looked more like
Phineas Fogg in Jule Verne's book Around the World in Eighty Days than a
pontifical emissary.
His protege was nevertheless received in audience by the Papal Nuncio a
few weeks later. The latter was an old clerical diplomat with a mild
face. Playing his trump card, Taxil confided to him that he was thinking
of entering the Order of the Chartreuse. He was not worthy to serve the
Holy Church and he was tired with his wife's nagging. In a paternal
manner the Nuncio dissuaded him and, considering the conversation to be
quite an important event, suggested that he seek for audience with the
Pope. The meeting finished in a curious manner: "I will write to the
Pope, dear Mr. Taxil. Count on me."
The ex-founder of the Anti-Clerical League kissed the amethyst ring the
Nuncio tended to him after which he went home to the conjugal domicile
where his wife's humour had changed for the worse. When Marie Taxil
learned that he was going to seek an audience with the Pope she created
another scene, packed her bag and left the flat, slamming the door
behind her and did not return for several days.
The Anti-clerical Republic, the Freethinkers' periodical, had a headline
in its issue of 5 August 1885: "The Execution of Leo Taxil." Paulon
himself had quarrelled with his friend and wrote in a Freethinkers'
paper:
Thus was the end of this freethinker who for seventeen years (and he has
only lived thirty-five) had fought superstition and the clergy with such
conviction.
Is this the fruit of the clerical education that saturates the minds of
the children in the seminary andJesuit schools? If so, here is a fresh
proof that our efforts should tend towards a full and complete
prohibition of confession, the catechism and Biblical history.
This virtuous man's article ended with this exhoration: "Let us close
our ranks."
The following day The Anti-Clerical Republic ceased publication. The
article in question was contained in No. 339, the last issue.
Nevertheless, Paulon, who was a good-natured fellow, continued to see
Taxil declaring that he found him incomprehensible. He would say to his
friends: "It may be that one of these fine days he will spring a big
surprise on us."
Having realized that Paulon had mental reservations, Taxil mistrusted
him and stopped seeing him. When Paulon died Taxil had feelings of
regret but in another way it was a relief.
For several years Taxil remained militant-minded. Gifted with prodigious
powers of concentration he allowed his life's design to ripen slowly.
Time was in his favor and on the surface he was actively preparing for
the future. The outline of his grand design involved anti-Masonry, a
force that was growing in a surprising way and he was firmly committed
to establish a phantasy, that of the existence of Satan. He had to
satisfy this need in a way that would as tar as possible be acceptable
to religious minds though without descending into ridicule. With the
passing of the years this last reservation was almost to disappear so
ready was human credulity to accept the most fantastic tales provided
that the phantasy was faithfully presented and provided it flattered. It
was not however the task of a single day and Taxil himself explained
this psychological phenomenon in his final speech of 1897:
My first books on Freemasonry were a mixture of rituals with small
additions that seemed to be unimportant and apparently harmless
interpretations. Each time that a passage was obscure I explained it in
a way most agreeable to Catholics who saw in it Lucifer the supreme
Grand Master of Freemasons. But that was hardly shown. I smoothed and
prepared the ground first and then dug and sowed the mystifying seed
that was to germinate so well.
However, his anti-clerical freethinking conscience remained pure in his
own eyes for he reckoned on disclosing his prodigious deception on a
suitable day thus dealing one of the most appalling blows The Church
could ever receive. That was the explanation of his mysterious protest
in 1885 against being called a traitor and of the prophetic words that
went with it.
On the eve of the elections of 1885 that provided a success for the
right-wing parties, Taxil published a book: The Republic Unveils
Itsself. Therein he developed the theory that the separation of Church
and State already decided upon by the lodges would only be the prologue
to the suppression of the churches. The Devil was still not present.
In 1886 he published an anecdotal history of the Third Republic which
was not particularly interesting, but it was the year when he founded La
Petite Guerre (The Little War), a weekly satiric paper that included a
humorous page: "The Tribe of the Mac Benacs." At the same time he did
not lose sight of his own best interests. The review announced that his
portrait was on sale in the form of a postcard for 0,60 franc.
In 1886 a pamphlet appeared entitled: Rome will be Given Back to the
Pope followed by Ali Baba and the 40 Ministers in which Jules Grevy and
his government are recognizable.
In the same year there appeared the intriguing anti-Masonit novel by
Florest Bouhoure The Freemason of the Virgin which was obviously
inspired by Taxilian thinking. His favorite themes were getting under
way.
In 1889, with Masonic Murders, there was a theme in the preface which
was destined to have a great future; the Lucifer-Adonal dualism of which
more will be said later on.
It was in 1890 that Taxil published his Martyrdom of Joan of Arc. The
collaboration of a priest, Abbe Paul Fesoh, was aimed at reassuring
Catholics and the fact that the manuscript of Pierre Cauchon is
preserved in the French National Library under No. 5965 of the Latin
manuscripts is of considerable scientific importance.
Financially independent, Taxil then went to live for some time in the
Lower Pyrenees where he wrote Famous Conversions, mentioning those of
Madeleine de Magdala, Olier and Littre. The work was greatly praised by
the Episcopal authorities.
About this time Taxil committed a grave error. He put forward his
candidacy at the elections against Edward Drumont, the antiJewish
candidate, and then ostensibly withdrew, writing a violent libel
entitled Monsieur Drumont, a Psychological Study. This made Drumont his
implacable enemy and in The Event he thundered:
This manoeuvre smells badly of Jewish money...This man disgusts me. He
joined Masonry to betray the Freemasons and make money with his
revelations and, after having passed over to the Catholics, he is now
selling them to the Jews.
The anti-Semites were to remember this skirmish.
Taxil was responsible for another scandal regarding the question: Are
there women in Freemasonry? On the basis of information supplied by
Taxil, Bishop Fava published a booklet in which he stated that womens'
lodges constituted a sort of harem for the mens' lodges.
Taxil however suffered from a kind of nostalgia and that was for
pornography. Weaned from it through his edifying conversion, anti-
clerical pornography was now a dead letter to him but in 1891 he had a
bright idea. Under the title The Corruption of the End of the Century he
put on the market a 425 page indictment against prostitution which
enabled him to reveal all the turpitudes of the brothels with the most
repugnant details. The exploitation of pornography was becoming, under a
very respectable label, an advocate of morality. Several ecclesiastical
reservations having been put forward, he cynically replied that he would
be prepared to withdraw his book if the Sacred Congregation of the Index
condemned it. But Rome is never in a hurry; the first edition was
quickly sold and in 1894 a second edition promised to be a considerable
success. At almost the same time a favorable criticism by the Sisters of
Charity appeared "for the benefit of the faithful."
Meanwhile, Taxil had followed the advice of the Apostolic Nuncio and had
been received at the Vatican, first by Cardinal Rampollo del Tindaro,
Secretary of State, and then by Cardinal Parocchi the Pope's
Confidential adviser. These seigneurs told him that his books were
perfect and that it was fortunate that a convert had at last published
the Masonic rituals. They told Taxil that the waiting time for a
pontifical audience had been especially shortened in his case and that
at a date they would fix His Holiness Pope Leo XIII would receive him in
his private library. The audience lasted for half an hour and Taxil
noticed that the Pope had the refined face of an old Italian of the
Renaissance. They spoke a lot about the Devil and at the end of the
audience the Pope asked the kneeling Taxil: "What do you want, my son?"
"Most Holy Father, my greatest wish would be to die at your feet this
very minute."
"Your life is too useful for the combats of the Faith, my son."
Back in Paris with the apostolic blessing, Taxil received a visit from
His Grace Father Meurin, a Jesuit bishop who had come from Mauritius to
consult him in connection with a book he was writing entitled:
Freemasonry, the Synagogue of Satan. Quite sure that the Freemasons
worshipped the Devil, the pious bishop, who was an erudite Orientalist,
had discovered satanic allusions in everything pertaining to
Freemasonry: passwords, aprons, collars, etc. Taxil supplied him with
the fodder he was looking for and spent many happy hours listening to
the reading of his manuscript. When the book was published the Taxilian
influence in it was obvious. The Masonic world was stunned and
bewildered and the Catholics paralyzed by deep misgivings. Paul Rosen,
an antiMason who had published large volumes packed with antiMasonic
references and who was considered to be an authority, remained silent,
never having dreamed of giving the Devil the place he now occupied. What
a mistake!!
Taxil judged that the time had come to strike the final blow. Never
since the practical joke of the sharks in Marseilles had he enjoyed
himself so much. He had met at Lipp's a former schoolmate named Dr.
Charles Hacks, a merry fellow who sported a beard and side-whiskers and
who had become a doctor in a shipping company but had retired
temporarily. Not without talent he had contributed articles to The
Little Cabin Boy, The Yacht and to Illustration, and had then published
a book entitled Mail from China which had produced a letter of
congratulations from Pierre Loti. After having weighed up the matter for
several months Taxil told Hacks the whole story over two tankards of
beer. Hacks had never been a Freemason and was only a very lukewarm
Catholic. His friendship for Taxil was quite sincere and he listened to
him intently. Taxil explained to him:
"My dear Charles," the Catholics are very keen on Lucifer being the
Grand Master of Freemasonry. So let them have their way. We are going to
write a book together based on this theme and it will cause a great
stir."
"Collaborate, Leo?"
"Yes, you write very well. you have the style of Flaubert in The
Temptation of Saint Anthony, something that will give false impressions
but which will not seem to be misconceived. My contribution will be the
Masonic - devilish nonsense to which you will give a kind of framework.
It will be the book of the century. I have already found a name for the
higher degrees of Freemasonry which will be beyond the sphere of the
lodges and which will be the church of Lucifer. There used to be a sect
of that name in the eighteenth century at Charleston in the United
States. It went into darkness but was revived under the name of Reformed
Palladism or Free and Regenerated Palladism. It was in Charleston that
General Pike, the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of
the Scottish Rite, lived. That will cause confusion."
"What will be the theme of the book?"
"Oh, we shall need a woman, perhaps even two of them. I have my own idea
about this. she will be presumed to disclose all the horrid details
normally at the peril of her life."
"And are you not fearful of this plot?"
Taxil burst out laughing, ordered another two tankards of beer, and
continued;
"Lucifer will appear in spiritualist seances. That is not quite the same
thing as summoning up the spirits but that will not be noticed. Come and
see me tomorrow at my place and I will give you my outline. Furthermore,
I have found a pen-name for you. you will sign yourself "Monsieur
Bataille." I used to know an absolutely sensational humbug. He was
called Sapeck but his real name was Bataille. I owe that to his sweet
memory."
The conversation was continued the next day at Taxil's home while his
wife busied herself with her domestic duties.
"Here is my outline. There are three classes of Freemasonry. The lodges,
the higher degrees and, beyond them, Palladism. They practice
spiritualism and Lucifer does the rest. Of course, his claws extend all
over the world. There are even Grand Masters who are Palladists, for
example Lemmi in Italy. We are not going to publish the rituals this
time. I want you to write like a story- teller. You will not be a
zealous Palladist but an heroic Catholic who, at the peril of his life,
puts on a mask to conduct a macabre investigation. That is why I am
giving you a pen-name. I shall just introduce you to a very small group
of ecclesiastics. Just enough for you to be able to talk about
confidential information. We will issue some forty installments and
finally put them together in a great book."
"What will be the title?"
"The Devil in the 19th Century or The Mysteries of Spiritualsim, in
other words, Luciferian Freemasonry."
"What will be the story?"
"You are supposed to meet a fellow on a steamer who thinks he is damned
You take pity on him and he will confide in you that he had let himself
be recruited into Palladism. The Palladists credo is a kind of paganism.
There are two Gods: Lucifer or the good God and Adonai, the evil one.
The former is of course none other than Satan for the super initiates
and the second the God of the Christians, who unjustly condemned
Lucifer. During the spiritualist seances phantoms appear: Luther,
Voltaire and others. There are women who are the Masons of the Devil.
The Luciferian meeting places are called 'triangles.' A woman reigns
over them like a queen. I have called her Sophy Walder. Her lover is a
devil named Bitru and she is the great grandmother of the anti-Christ.
You will have to describe frightful black masses and sex parties. By her
friends she will be called Sophy-Sapho. We are in for a good time, you
will see.
A few months later, The Devil in the 19th Century was released from the
printing presses. The reader of the book learned from it that, in
addition to the satanic parties, Grand Master Lemmi was an astrologer
and had concocted the horoscope of the Pope the day after the
Encyclical: Humanum Genus. In an astute way the author had warned his
readers against psychical phenomena such as hallucinations and frauds
that ought to be distinguished from genuine satanism.
In this connection the author praised those laudable specialists worthy
of credence and mentioned among them Taxil, including him in the same
class as the Abbe Clarin de la Rive, the director of the review
Freemasonry Exposed. Renan was denounced as a Palladist as well as the
English atheist Charles Bradlaugh, Stanislas de Gaita, Oswald wirth, the
Martinists and the Anarchists, not forgetting certain deranged women of
the world such as the Duchess of Pomar, a spirit draped in scarlet who
thought she was the reincarnation of Mary Stuart.
Dr. Encausse, a leading light in occultism, whose pen-name was "Papus,"
in a book entitled The Devil and Occultism, warned the Catholics that
they were being hoaxed. Nevertheless, the book became a great success.
Taxil's imagination enabled him when necessary to talk in authoritative
terms. Thus, he divulged to his readers the structure of Palladism.
Mazzini had organized in Rome a Sovereign Executive Directory with
himself as President. Similarly, Pike had formed a Supreme
Superintending Directory in Charleston. There was a third organization
with headquarters in Berlin. No bureaucratic detail was omitted. The
whole might have figured in a treatise or manual of Luciferian Public
Law.
The descriptive part followed. The readers learned that on 28 February
1884 in the course of a meeting of the "Supernatural Cabal" of the Grand
Triangle of the Eleven-Seven, the roof of the temple opened and a
fire-devil descended. It was the demon Asmodeus holding a sabre in his
right hand and the tail of the Lion of Saint Mark in the left, a trophy
of a victorious battle over the legions of Jehovah. The description went
to say that General Pike used to hold regular conversations every Friday
afternoon with a personal devil sent by Lucifer; the workshops of the
fortress of Gibraltar were directly connected with the fire of Hell; one
Saturday in Paris, a day consecrated to the Devil Moloch, a certain
Sandeman, operating with a table, evoked the Devil and immediately the
table hit the ceiling and then fell to the floor whereupon Meloch in the
form of a winged crocodile sat at the piano and played a melody while
ogling the bewildered mistress of the house.
Taxil was to discover something even better. His Sophy Walder had been
invented merely to serve as a foil to another Luciferian who, like
Taxil, had been touched by grace and was to be converted through the
intercession of Joan of Arc.
But a woman of flesh and blood had to be found who would not be just the
heroine of a novel for one day there might be an investigation. The
first typewriters imported from America had just come on the market. A
lady representative for Europe of a large American firm, whom Taxil had
met during the exercise of his profession, agreed in exchange for a
reward to enter into his game. Intelligent, whimsical, and pretty, her
name was Diana Vaughan and she was a free-thinker. The idea of receiving
letters from Cardinals, Bishops and even the private secretary of the
Pope and then replying and informing these eminent gentlemen about the
Luciferians made her bubble over with laughter. What a joke!! Moreover,
she had been introduced into several Poste Restante agencies such as the
Alibi Office of New York and Taxil took advantage of this. she thus
ended up by identifying herself with Sophy Walder. The day was to come
when people would ask whether Diana Vaughan really existed. In fact, a
woman of that name actually did exist. The one who did not was the
mythical Diana Vaughan created by Taxil and this was to have
considerable repercussions .
A year after Dr. Hack's book, a work entitled Souvenirs of an
ExPalladist by Diana Vaughan was published. She recounted that in the
course of an initiation into the degree of "Mistress Templar" Sophy
Walder, who was officiating, ordered her to profane the Eucharist which
she refused to do, pointing out that she did not believe in its
existence and the gesture would therefore have no significance. Other
diabolical episodes followed which led to the culmination of the
initiation ceremony. The book created quite a sensation.
In 1896 Taxil, under the same signature, published The Restoration of
Palladism, A Transition decreed by the Sanctum Regnum to prepare the
Public Cult of Lucifer, a Book reserved for Ecclesiastics. In Rome the
Central Committee of the anti-Masonic Union had celebrated a three day
Service of Prayer or Hymn to Joan of Arc, supposed to have been composed
by the convert and the words and music were solemnly performed.
Actually, the music was that of The Philharmonic Syringe, a musical
carrousel composed by a friend of Taxil.
In the Universe of 27 April 1896 an eminent Dominican, Father Pegues,
commented on the events as follows: "From the philosophical point of
view, it is the most splendid and unexpected challenge thrown in the
face of positivism and that on the very morrow of the death of Taine.
The work of Miss Diana Vaughan gives us, we may say, a page of history
that was not previously known to exist."
A supreme achievement was the inclusion in The New Illustrated Larousse
of a two-column entry: Palladism and Palladium.However the spirit of
criticism was not dead in France. The first ones to express doubts were
the Exorcists, qualified partners of the Devil, who no longer recognized
Taxil, so far had he departed from their way of thinking. Several
Catholic authors followed, including Canon Delassus in The Religious
Week of Cambrai and Abbe Janniaud in The Religious Week of Autun. George
Bois wrote in The Truth of the shameless way in which Sophy Walder
(according to Dr. Bataille) stripped to the waist to allow a snake
possessed by the devil to write prophecies with the end of his tail on
the reign of the Popes. Gaston Mery in his newspaper put the very
existence of Diana Vaughan in doubt. He was a disciple of Edward Drumont
and a great enemy of Taxil.
On the Masonic side, one review claimed that Diana Vaughan was no other
than Mrs. Taxil herself. The Freemasons maintained an attitude either of
ironic scorn or of superiority, but in Italy there were some
thirty-third degree Masons who wanted to beome Palladists.
Taxil's most dangerous opponent was an Austrian Jesuit named Father
Gruber who wrote articles in which he did not mince his words. For
example, in correspondence with a friend of Taxil, Abbe de Bessonies,
this shrewd man wrote the following on 20 August 1896: "Since the start
of these revelations I have always had the conviction that the main
assertions concerning Pike and his important role in Freemasonry, the
cult of and the evocations to the Devil, the profanation of the Host in
the lodges, the sovereign pontificate of Pike and Lemmi and the
centralized direction of Freemasonry are completely false. Anyone who is
at all familiar with Masonic facts and history can only laugh at such
assertions."
Taxil had dared to claim that J. G. Findel, one of the pioneers of
scientific and historical Masonic research, had been a Palladist. He was
to repent. The illustrious German author also happened to be an editor
so that Taxil was rewarded by scathing comments in a booklet on the
subject. Taking Taxil much too seriously, the Professor waxed most
indignant, pointing out that he had always been an adversary of the
higher degrees. Furthermore, he saw in Taxil a tool of the Jesuits, a
theme often commented on and very convenient, but in this case quite
ridiculous.
The man considered by serious-minded people to be the expert on satanism
was undoubtedly Huysmans, especially since the outstanding success of
his terrifying novel Down There, published in 1891. The journalists did
not fail to criticize it but his candour was none the less frightening.
Although Taxil might be considered a hoaxer, he calmly stated that it
was not the same with Bishop Meurin. When Jules Bois asked him to
preface his book Satanism and Magic he thought he ought to protest
against the incursion of psychiatrists' concerning whom many people had
very definite views. In a peremptory way he decreed: "In the old days
they burned quite a few people who were not possessed by the spirit of
evil; now they drown those who are."
The summer of 1896 was a troubled one. Expressing himself through the
pen of Diana Vaughan, Taxil described the Luciferian temple of
Charleston. The Roman Catholic bishop of Charleston crossed the seas and
went to Rome to contradict him adding that the Freemasons of Charleston
were honorable and completely inoffensive Protestants. The Taxil clan
spread the rumour that Pope Leo XIII had forced the bishop to keep
quiet. People ended up by taking sides as to whether or not the deranged
woman touched by grace actually existed. She was the subject of talk in
Presbyteries, Sacristies and Roman Catholic drawing rooms all over the
world. To show that she was not a myth Taxil circulated a photograph of
his American woman. In Central Europe, under the influence of Father
Gruber, all the media took up the matter. It was finally decided with
the agreement of Rome to call an international convention to settle the
matter. Playing double or quits, Taxil accepted.
The town of Trent, then Austrian, was chosen. The president of the
convention was to be none other than His Eminence Prince Bishop Valuzzi.
The acting president was Count Felippe de Consolate, Chamberlain to His
Majesty the Emperor of Austria and the vice- president was Baron
Giuseppe de Salvatori Bavatta. His Grace Simone D. Baldassari, Apostolic
Chief Notary, was ecclesiastical assistant. The counsellors were chosen
from amongst important persons of Rome and Trent. The place of meeting
was the basilic of Sainte-Marie-Majeure where the Council of Trent was
held in the Sixteenth Century.
There were to be four sections: 1. Masonic Doctrine. 2. Masonic Action.
3. Prayer. 4. Anti-Masonic action. A strange convention indeed. Two
powerful and formidable parties were in opposition, The Church and
Freemasonry. They were summoned as Saint Augustus had "seen" them, as
recalled in the encyclic Humanum Genus. God against Satan. Yet this
monstrous exploitation was only the work of a practical joker from
Marseilles.
After the inaugural procession, a telegram from Pope Leo XIII was read
and then the parties set to work. Both the lay and ecclesiastic notables
read long reports for or against the existence of Diana Vaughan. The
atmosphere was as serious as that of a synod. Taxil had never been so
thrilled but he was the only one who knew the truth, hence his
absorption in his self- glorification. The report presented by His Grace
Bishop Gratzfeld representing Cardinal Krements, Archbishop of Cologne,
was a complete summing-up. Other bishops were on his side and came
forward with questions: what bishop or priest had received the
abjuration of the ex-Palladist? Where, when and by whom had she been
baptized? Where was she now? A shower of pamphlets rained on the
convention consisting of press articles and studies from the German,
Austrian, Italian and French newspapers. Father Gruber, who was ill, had
not been able to be present but had sent a report. This time Taxil was
alarmed for the report was crushing.
At the end of the first day there was an uneasy atmosphere. The members
of the convention, grouped in the square of the Dome, felt the need to
talk about something else and, quoting the words of Henry Heine: "Trent
looks at us with its big Italian eyes," admired the painted fronts of
the palaces, resembling Florence or Venice, and the tritons of Neptune's
fountain. One of the men sententiously said: "Several centuries ago
Trent was a great city. People knew how to amuse themselves. The
bookmakers used to organize races for Jews on which they laid very high
bets." "Our morals would not allow such competitions any longer even if
embellished by steeple chases," said another.
It was good however to be on the banks of the river Adige in the shadow
of the mountains. If the Council lasted a long time it was because
nobody was in a hurry to leave. Prince-bishop Clesic, who had found his
episcopal town made of wood and bricks, turned it into a masterpiece of
stone and marble.
The second day was reserved for Taxil's speech. Eloquent, occasionly
truculent, he was able, if not to convince his audience, at least to
disturb it. There was a moment of humor when he read a letter from Canon
Theure, the parish priest of Loigny, whose Presbytery he had visited
with the American woman:
I do not hesitate a single moment in recognizing in the above photograph
the actual features and the striking likeness of the illustrious woman
visitor I had under my eyes on 1 March last and whose noble bearing so
intrigued me.
However the small hat without trimmings or flowers and her rather simple
dress deprived of any kind of worldly finery that she was wearing, gave
her person quite an air of modesty and humility, without in any way
detracting from the pride of her bearing.
On the last day Taxil was pressed with questions. Why had he not taken
advantage of an occasion so exceptional as the convention to produce
Diana? His reply, given in a serious tone that was almost pontifical,
was always the same: Palladium i.e. all the forces of Hell, had sworn
the death of the apostate to God and there could be no question, in the
interest of The Church itself, of taking her away from the convent where
she had found refuge. All they could get out of him was a promise that
he would confide the secret to a bishop going to Rome, who would inform
the Sovereign Pontiff. The vote of the Convention was in favor of His
Grace Lazzareschi. Taxil did everything he could to avoid him but the
same evening witnesses spread the rumor in all the taverns and cabarets
of the town that they saw him going to his hotel to pay him a visit.
The final meeting took place after a certain hubbub by a motion adopting
the conclusions of the fourth committee. It was stated that "No absolute
proof either for or against the existence or the conversion of or the
authenticity of the writings of the so-called Diana Vaughan had been
found." The confusion of this statement was proof of the troubled minds
of those present. Taxil felt anxious. Were the fine days of Palladism
now numbered? And was not the time approaching when things should be
revealed?
He was a man whose movements were carefully premeditated. This very
preparation was a sensual enjoyment and, in the circumstances, a new
one. In the train on his way back to Paris he spent a lot of time
looking at the scenery of the Dolomites and their exciting beauty, at
the same time meditating on his own masterpiece which must not be
allowed to become ridiculous or mediocre.
For several months he had seen by reading the Catholic press and his
personal correspondence that there were cracks in the edifice. The
criticisms of Father Gruber were in particular gaining credence. In The
French People Abbe Leon Garnier, a fighting character, was openly
hostile and in The Cross even Father Bailly who had been his
enthusiastic supporter was expressing doubts. His most faithful ally was
still Bishop Fava who in a vanguard action pushed ridicule to the point
of asking for news of Diana Vaughan and whether the dear lady was in
good hands. But Taxil did not know about the correspondence exchanged
between certain of his supporters and Rome where the climate had little
by little changed and given way to a very definite mistrust. The
over-credulous Abbe de Bessonies, Director of the review Freemasonry
Unmasked, Vicar of Notre Dame des Victoires and the confidant of Bishop
Fava, was spending his time replying to critical letters from Father
Gruber and a Roman prelate, Bishop Villard. The former, who was not for
nothing the author of a severe criticism of Comteand Posivitism
suggested the application of the "healthy rules of historical criticism"
just as he had asked the opinion of alienists in the case of "the dear
young lady." Father Gruber, who repeatedly asked for proofs and for the
name of the confessor of Diana Vaughan, taking up an idea put forward in
Trent, wrote on 30 November 1896 as follows: "In high circles peoples
are doubtful and it is time that these doubts and those of the whole
world were dissipated. Let Miss Vaughan choose a bishop she trusts; let
her confide her secrets to him and entrust him, under the seal of the
secret of confession, to go and communicate them to Our Holy Father the
Pope, and to him alone."
In Italy Taxil's literature had found imitators. A book appeared
directed against Crispi, "the Palladist statesman." Another one
trumpeted the news that Lemmi was the Grand Master of Universal
Freemasonry, a statement confirmed by Bishop Fava, and the Grand Orient
of France, abandoning its silence, very seriously protested. The Civilta
Cattolica itself in its issue of September 1896, having extolled the
merits and virtues of Diana Vaughan, "called from the depths of darkness
to the light of God," had started publishing Father Gruber's latest
articles. Yet, he was a Jesuit and the Civilta Cattolica was the organ
of the Order in Rome. He was also supported by the Austro-German
episcopate and in the Kolnische Volkzetung of 25 August 1896 (No. 578)
he had given his opinion of "Pious Publications."
The controversy spread to the United States where The Catholic Record of
12 November 1896 issued a warning to Abbe de Bessonies. But a hoaxer of
the Taxil type published a report in all the Kentucky papers that he had
personally known Diana Vaughan for several years and that the
revelations regarding Palladism were true.
In Egypt a certain Zola calling himself ex-Sovereign Grand Commander
solemnly abjured Freemasonry in the presence of Bishop Sallus,
Commissioner of the Holy Office. In short, a spark from Marseilles had
set fire to the whole world. By the end of February 1897 Taxil realized
that the time had come to prepare the wood for the stake of Hercules and
made a public announcement that on Easter Monday 19 April 1897 Diana
Vaughan would appear in public in the hall of the Society of Geography,
184 Boulevard St. Germain in Paris at a meeting reserved exclusively for
the international press.
The effect was violent. Taxil's enemies tottered as if under the effect
of a blow in the solar plexus and Bishop Fava - whom Masonic
publications called Professor Fava - could triumph with a Te Deum.
Father Gruber remained icily mistrustful.
There was a great queue on the evening of 19 April 1897 in front of the
old hall of the Society of Geography in Paris. Entrance was free but the
seats were reserved for holders of invitation cards signed with the
initials D. V. All the members of the Catholic press were there as well
as some Freemasons and Parisian notables. People were showing one
another The Religious Week of Grenoble in which Bishop Fava had written
that the execution of the sentence of death against Diana Vaughan had to
be prevented. He emphasized: "Freemasonry must not be allowed to
perpetrate this new crime." Gaston Mery, usually very talkative,
appeared quite unconcerned.
At exactly 8:30 p. m. the doors opened and a member of the staff
appeared, saying: "Ladies and Gentlemen, you are strictly requested to
leave in the cloakroom, which is free, all sticks and umbrellas. Anyone
who does not comply will not be allowed admission." Abbe Garnier
murmured: "Such a precaution is unusual. What is going on?"
They all took their seats in a courteous but rather nervous atmosphere,
with growing excitement. "At last, we are going to see her in flesh and
blood," said a priest to his neighbor. "Monsieur Meline must have
received orders from Rome," the latter scoffed. Not wishing to start an
argument with an anti-clerical, the priest did not reply.
A few minutes later Taxil appeared on the platform, greeted by the
applause of some and shouts of others. He first of all announced that
the seat numbers qualified for a draw for which the only prize was a
superb typewriter imported from the United States. A sprightly young
girl was asked to draw a number and the lucky winner received the
typewriter and expressed his thanks. Then, Leo Taxil, replying to one
from the audience who expressed astonishment that he was alone, said
that he was going to reveal everything. He took a seat at a little table
with a green mat, a few sheets of paper and a glass of water, and began:
"I have first of all to thank my colleagues of the Catholic press who
started a campaign of sensational attacks six or seven months ago and
have produced this marvellous result we can see tonight and will see
much better tomorrow; the quite exceptional disclosure of the truth in a
matter which, without them, might have passed almost unnoticed. My first
congratulations are therefore for my dear colleagues and in a minute
they will understand how sincere and how justified they are indeed."
Suddenly changing his tone of voice, Taxil went on to say:
"Now I shall talk to the Catholics." For half an hour in a loud voice
with his Marseilles accent which produced a curious effect he revealed
everything. Diana Vaughan was only a myth and everything he had said and
written over the previous twelve years was nothing but the phantasies of
a free-thinker who for his own edification had come to wander in the
adverse camp. A hoaxer by vocation, he told the story of the sharks and
of the underwater city, then recalled the stormy meeting of 27 July 1885
when he had been expelled from the Anti-Clerical League, protesting only
against one word, that of "traitor." "Now is the matter clear or not?"
Loud whistling and shouting broke out. He nevertheless continued,
laughingly exposing all his outrageous practical jokes, quoting the
letters he had received from cardinals and bishops congratulating him,
encouraging him and blessing him. When he mentioned his audience with
the Pope Leo XIII, there was a tumult. Swine, beastly swine, dirty
bastard," cried some. "They did well to throw you out of the Grand
Orient like a filthy swine," said others. Taxil looked the last
interrupter straight in the eye. Although he had aged considerably he
recognized his old friend Henry Bauer.
He went on to decry the Convention of Trent and congratulated the hoaxer
of Kentucky like a colleague. Abbe Garnier thundered: aNow we understand
why you made us leave our sticks and umbrellas in the cloakroom." "You
are a joker of the gutter," exclaimed an old gentleman who was wearing
the Legion of Honor.
Taxil waited a few seconds to get his breath back, then in a final
effort he shouted in a loud voice;
"Ladies and Gentlemen, you were told that Palladism would be squashed
today. Better than that, it is destroyed; it no longer exists. When I
made my general confession to the Father Jesuit of Clamart, I accused
myself of an imaginary murder. Well I will now own up to another crime.
I have committed infanticide. Palladism is now dead and dead for ever.
Its father has just killed it."
In the midst of the pandemonium a man was quietly taking notes. It was
Deray, a policeman of the 6th district who was getting facts together
for his special report to his superiors which was to take its place in
an enormous file "Jogand Gabriel known as Leo Taxil," which can still be
consulted in the Archives of the Prefecture of Police.
At the same time Abbe Garnier was trying to gain the attention of the
audience but in vain and if there had not been a screen of policemen
between Taxil and the public the hero of the evening would have been
torn to pieces. As soon as his last words were said Taxil rushed into
the wings, reaching the exit amidst jeering and quickly disappeared. A
quarter of an hour later he had crossed the Boulevard St. Germain and
arrived at Lipps where, in a congenial atmosphere, he ordered a
sourkraut and the Alsatian beer required to restore his strength.
The newspapers reported the event next day in various ways. The Lantern
was sarcastic: "If Taxil had waited, Diana Vaughan would have been
canonized." The Authority called for penal proceedings for fraud,
Camille Pelletan in The Recall was a moralizer. The Morning conceived
the idea of going to the Archbishopric where a priest stated: "We
believed in the sincerity of his conversion but never in his diabolical
wanderings." Dr. Hacks, interviewed in his splendid apartment in the
Boulevard Montmartre, uttered the following: "I was only a schoolboy
compared with this admirable master." The Humorist published the speech
of Taxil in extenso which has thus passed to posterity (issue of 25
April 1897). This humorous weekly added as an epigraph: "Kill them with
laughter."
The fireworks over, Taxil retired with his wife to a little house near
Paris, 5 rue Florian at Sceaux, situated a few yards away from the house
of another trickster of a different kind who died in 1794. This was
Jean-Pierre Claris, Knight of Florian, also a Freemason. He was a member
of the famous lodge, The Nine Muses, and one to whom his brethren paid
numerous tributes. During Taxil's retirement three books saw the light
of day. The first two were The Art of Good Buying (A guide for the
housewife) 1904, and Good Family Cooking (Selected Recipes) 1905.
Perhaps the real author was his wife for some of the recipes were so
complicated that the reader might well ask himself whether here again
there had not been some leg-pulling. The third one was The Enclave of
Monaco published privately by the author. In this Taxil denounced Monaco
as "the sacred asylum of cheating" and called for its forced annexation
to France, at the same time dragging the princely family in the mud
though this may have been no more than an attempt at blackmail.
Taxil died on 5 May 1907, having again indulged in pornography and
anti-clericalism. He had even re-edited his book The Secret Loves of
Pope Pius IX, with a decidely vulgar preface.
From then on the date of 19 April 1897 became an historic one. At the
Grand Orient of France the reaction was immediate. Up to then it had
maintained a scornful silence. It is true that the reports of the annual
General Assemblies of 1896 and 1897 show that they had more important
things to worry about, such as destroying the chapel built to the memory
of Louis XVI or deciding to impose sanctions on school teachers who sang
in church choirs. When Taxil's sensational speech was published there
was a definite hilarious reaction in all the French lodges. The report
of the Grand Orient for 1897-8 relates, for example, that on the
occasion of the annual banquet of The True Brethren Lodge at Bergerac on
6June 1897, Frederic Desmons (who in 1877 had succeeded in having
deleted from the Constitutions the invocation to the Great Architect of
the Universe) introduced a speaker who was to become famous. This was
Emile Combes, ex-Minister of Education. At this banquet Brother Combes
in a very humourous speech mentioned a few little known details about
the gigantic hoax of Leo Taxil which caused laughter from the brethren.
The reactions of the clergy were somewhat painful. Cardinal Villard
wrote from Rome to Abbe Bessonies on 29 April that Taxil was one of the
most disgusting crooks the earth had ever borne and violently reproached
the gullible abbe for having believed in him till the end, despite
warnings from Rome:
"Frenchmen in general and Parisians in particular have a natural
mistrust for everything that comes from Rome. The influences of
Gallicanism are still being felt....Abbe Mustel said that Italy was the
country of Machiavelli. What shall we now say about France?"
One of Taxil's victims, Abbe Clarin de la Rive, wrote in the April 1897
number of Freemasonry Disclosed:
"With frightening cynicism the miserable person we shall not name here
declared before an assembly especially convened for him that for twelve
years he had prepared and carried out to the end the most extraordinary
and most sacrilegious of hoaxes. We have always been careful to publish
special articles concerning Palladism and Diana Vaughan. We are now
giving in this issue a complete list of these articles, which can now be
considered as not having existed."
This change of opinion was courageous but definitely out of character of
the author who could not stop himself believing that the imposter had
mixed the true and the false and who concluded:
"Let us not get excited. Do not let us turn round so completely.
It is precisely because he has taken so much care to deny Palladism that
I claim it still exists."
It is said that a high-ranking Freemason declared to a lodge, The
Square, that he had belonged to Palladism. The Bishop of Carcassonne,
His Grace Bishop Billard, told three hundred priests assembled on the
occasion of an ecclesiastic retreat that he had seen Diana Vaughan and
spoken to her.
On 11 June Abbe Clarin de la Rive wrote to Abbe Bessonnies: "I have no
intention of going to the Archbishopric. I am disgusted with the
hypocrisy of those in the environment of His Eminence and disgusted with
defending people so unworthy of it and on the point of disappearing from
the antimasonic combat."
In the courts there were cases of slander brought by some who had been
called Palladists.
Taxilism was to survive Taxil himself. Although L' Action Francaise
always refused to take him seriously, certain anti-Masonic leagues were
to hold for a long time the opinion that the real falsehood of Taxil was
his retraction. In 1928 the very worthy prelate Jouin, the director of
The International Review of Secret Societies (R.I.S.S.), made it known
that "by a providential set of circumstances" he had been put in
possession of a mysterious manuscript, the work of a certain Countess of
Coutanceau, an occult instrument of the Luciferian lodges. The
manuscript was published under the title The Elect of the Dragon, the
heroine, Clotilde Bersone, being a replica of Diana Vaughan. The author
of the book was a certain Abbe Paul Boulain who claimed only to have
collated the writings of a women who ended by embracing the Catholic
religion. All the politicians and even the Heads of State were mentioned
in the book, which in the preface set out a principle: Satan is the real
political master of France. It is curious to note that the novel
finished by relating the visit to the convent of an initiate who is
discomforted by a new sister who threatens to denounce everything to the
judicial authorities. Luciferian allusions still occur from time to time
in certain reviews of some sects.
Leo Taxil was certainly a hoaxer of genius. No doubt the credulity of
certain so-called "right-thinking" circles of the end of the nineteenth
century explains this success to some extent. Papus, who has already
been mentioned, was able to write in a book that appeared after the
great scandal of 1897:
"The Catholic world has recently been shamefully deceived. The deceiver
had perceived that the Catholic world lived beyond the ordinary world.
Sheltered behind newspapers written in a special style, careful not to
read books not recommended by the newspapers in question, kept in almost
complete ignorance of the mechanism of present-day society...this
numerous Catholic society was the better prepared for the deception in
that their means of verification were almost entirely absent."
Even under the pen of an occultist this criticism was correct. Not until
the twentieth century was it possible to witness the happy and fruitful
union of psychiatrists and exorcists, one result of which was the
publication of the book of Father Joseph de Tonquedec S. J.: Nervous or
Mental Illnesses and Diabolical Manifestations (1938), of which an
anti-clerical and scientific free-thinker was to say to the author:
"Your Church has an advantage over the others: it maintains a cultured
order in the field of the miraculous."
The explanation of the Taxil case does not however rest entirely on
that. It should be considered within the framework of deceptions in
general, in that of deception considered as an art. Deception in itself
is of a fraudulent nature but it differs from fraud in that monetary
gain is not its essential object nor even a necessary one. Taxil himself
never became rich in the manner of big swindlers. Without agreeing with
his own statement that he never made a penny out of his schemes, he was
certainly not a man of money. Was it a form of vanity? In one sense that
is true, but there are many vain people who are basically good. But
deception is an aggression, both unethical and anti-social, on the
fringe of criminal activity. It clearly constitutes a complex phenomenon
difficult to define. It extends from the coldest and most calculated
cunning to the most harmless practical joke as in The Pals of Jules
Romains, that hymn to juvenile friendship.
The list of literary deceptions is a long one. In the two centuries
preceding ours it goes from the Ossian bard through Chatterton, Nodier
and that extraordinary Ernest de Calonne, who claimed to have discovered
an unknown play of Moliere, The Doctor in Love, which was produced and
admired by the elite society of Paris at the time of Louis Philippe, in
much the same way as The Misanthrope. Nearer to our time, the snobs must
have been in raptures when reading The Obscure Lamp, mystical poems and
other works attributed to a certain Julien Torma who had never existed,
but whom Iyrical swindlers claimed to have been born on 6 April 1902 at
Cambrai and to have disappeared on 17 February 1933 during a solitary
excursion in the mountains. His story was a deception by certain members
of the College of Pataphysic.
A naked lie is easily suspected. The more a lie is clothed the more it
has a chance of being believed. The example of Iago in Othello remains
an obvious example. Archeology and the visual arts have also had their
forgers and on occasion have been humiliating even for the greatest
experts.
Freemasonry has not been spared. Rene Le Forestier in his book Templar
and Occult Freemasonry in the 18th and 19th Centuries, quoting
apparently authentic references, has related the episodes of the
historic legend of the survival of the Order of the Templars, of the
false Charter of Larmenius and the "sacred treasure" of the unfortunate
Templars who were burned at the stake under Philip the Fair. One clever
individual by the name of Fabre- Palaprat, an exseminarist turned
chiropodist and then Grand Master of the new Order of the Temple,
offered for the veneration of the "chevaliers" a copper reliquary,
shaped like a Gothic church containing (said he) a linen shroud with
four fragments of burnt bone taken from the stake of the martyr of the
Order, an iron sword with the handle in the form of a cross surmounted
by a globe, presumed to have been used by the Grand Master Jacques de
Molay, an iron mask with the visor adorned with dolphins and inlaid with
gold, presumed to have been the property of Guy the Dauphin of Auvergne,
an old spur of copper gilt, a paten of bronze representing St. John
under a Gothic arcade and other similar articles. These curios had been
assembled by Fabre-Palaprat with the help of two accomplices who had
prepared the burnt bones and bought the rest from a merchant of old iron
in St. John's market. The helmet had been stolen from an armory museum.
Under less crude forms the Templar imposture was nevertheless to have
great success.
NOTE
1. A large file entitled "Gabriel Jogand so-called Leo Taxil" is in the
historic archives of the Prefecture of Police in Paris under the
reference 188 - 303. On one of the two files composing it the three
Masonic dots are curiously traced upside down.
I wish to thank Mr. Roger Coutarel, head of the Department of the
Historic Archives, through whose courtesy I had access to this file. It
shows that throughout his life Taxil was followed and watched by the
police. There is no reason to suppose that he was an informer.
2. If it were possible to resuscitate Leo Taxil's thought processes it
would be enlightening for them to be analyzed by psychologists or even
psychoanalysts. If one considers the years of work devoted to building
up his system, motives of commercial profit are inadequate to account
for it. Was he a converted mystic or one of those - they are more
numerous than is often realized - who live in fear of the device? Was he
inhibited by memories of childhood brought about by foolish persons who
delight in frightening children with stories of terror? Was his
ostensible conversion all that insincere?
Nothing could be more interesting than an analysis of this great hoaxer
seen through his writings if only they could be interpreted. Be that as
it may his story belongs to the history of anti-Masonry and therefore to
that of Freemasonry itself and in the minds of some misguided people the
devil will always be associated with Freemasonry.
This file courtesy of:
George Helmer
Norwood #90 Grand Lodge of Alberta
SYSOP - Magna Borealis Lux (403) 475-6061
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