The Anti- Masonic Congress.

and the devout , because it is edifying to hear fellow-creatures consigned to perdition . Yet only about 500 persons have put in an attendance , and most of them are ecclesiastics . Moreover , " the lay members belong almost exclusively to the Austrian , German , and Italian nobility . " This is worst of all , for at the

present day any cause specially favoured by nobles and priests is always rejected by the vulgar . But they kept up their spirits . The Bishop " expressed a hope , in his address of welcome , that the work of the Congress would prove as beneficial to Christendom and the Church as the great Council of Trent itself . " Thinking

persons of every creed agree that the Council of Trent was the most disastrous failure in the history of the faith , to which the hopeless division of Christianity in the West is due . But if these good people are content with the prognostic , that is well . Then a brief from the Pope was read , and several letters of

approval , and a Monsignor chorussed a Bishop in denouncing the pernicious effect of Freemasonry . And so the first general meeting came to a cheerful and practical conclusion . But four

sections are busy . One of them is going to establish an International organisation against the evil thing . It is awful to speculate what the three others may devise . — " Evening Standard . "

Freemasons in England have by no means guaged the depth of the suspicions entertained against the Order by the mass of Catholics abroad . Some few Catholics at home are even found to aver that devil worship is a common feature of the Lodge meetings . The Anfci-Masonie Congress is sufficient proof of the

antipathy of Continental Catholics . The trenchant article in the " New Contemporary " deserves , therefore , widespread attention . Mr . Legge shows conclusively that it is to M . Leo Taxil that we owe the fabrications as to devil worship at the Lodges . M . Taxil is , of course , the infamous anti-clerical writer who made himself

conspicuous about seventeen years ago . He was—save the mark!—" reconciled" to the Catholic Church in 1885 . Since then he has gained his living mainly by libelling Freemasonry for the edification of innocent priests and their guileless flocks . — " Sheffield Independent . "

The Anti-Masonic Congress to-day ( 29 th Sept . ) agreed to the project for the formation of a series of Eoman Catholic societies , the sole object of which shall ba to fight against the Masonic Lodges . It was also decided to make an appeal to the

members of all Parliaments asking them to intervene with their respective Governments with a view to the dismissal of all employees or functionaries who should be affiliated to Freemasonry . — " Galignani Messenger . "

A clerical correspondent writes to us as follows : Our Holy Father , Leo XIII , has given his blessing to the Anti-Masonic Congress to be held at Trent from the 26 th to the 30 th of September .

The Grand Master of the Freemasons of Italy , " noting the fact with a profound calm , " in a Circular Letter dated from Eome on 15 th September , pours forth his derison and invective against it .

As usual , Freemasons are represented as a long-suffering and much calumniated body . They never cease to be the Lamb , incessantly maligned by the Wolf . And they bear the accusations with an unexampled patience , reposing "in the integrity of their conscience . " " With lofty brow and with

serene conscience they carry on their work for the public good , " while the storm is gathering against them . " The attack , " says the Grand Master , " will not be only upon Masonry in Italy , but will be extended to the whole of universal Masonry ( a tutia la Massoncria universale ) . " It is sad to think that English

Masonry , so distinct from foreign Masonry and so innocent of anything that might be reprehensible , may be the victim of these attacks . For are not the accusations , so far at least as

English Masons are concerned , such as " every impartial and honest conscience even now rejects { accuse die ogni imparziale ed onesta coscienza or mai rigetta ) " ? So we are told ; and of course it must be true .

But if Masonry is such a beneficent institution as the Grand Master would have us believe , if it inspires the Brethren with such lofty designs for the purifying and the amelioration of the human race , what reason is there for preserving a secret ? A secret there is ; Grand Master Nathan renews his public

testimony to the fact in the Circular just issued : " . . . the Masonic Secret , kept in order to protect from cowardly ambushes or from stupid mistrust our Brethren who are working for the

puie idealism of fatherland and of humanity . " Similar words he used in his Circular of 12 th June last : " The day will come , v \ e hope it may be near , when consciences shall have penetrated the truth .... then it will be time to determine in what

The Anti- Masonic Congress.

way the honourable Secret , which guards malignity from doing injury to our Brethren , may be abandoned . " Observe that there is but one secret spoken of : there is one Secret which belongs to Universal Masonry all the world over . It is not some foolish little secret confided to the " uninitiated : " it is the one great

secret which is of the very essence of Masonry as understood in its highest grades . It is the key to the identity of the Great Architect of the Universe , a key which is only confided , with

great care and precaution , to the select few who have proved themselves ripe to receive it . ( See the Instructions issued by Albert Pike in union with the ten members of the Most Serene Grand College , and dated 4 th July 1889 . )

Let the " Most Illustrious , Most Powerful , and Divinely inspired Brother Limmud-Ensoph ( the late Albert Pike ) , Grand Master Keeper of the Sacred Palladium , Soverign Pontiff of Universal Freemasonry " be our guide to the Secret . Acting with full solemnity and assisted by tbe Most Serene Grand

College , he issued ( 15 th August 1871 ) instructions to Mazzini , as President of the Supreme Executive Directory of High Masonry , as to the tactics to be adopted " in the double work of the destruction of the temple of Adoni and the building of the temple of Lucifer . " Near the beginning of the Letter occur these words

" in order that .... the same movement that shall annihilate it ( the temple of Adonai ) may disclose , to the eyes of humanity duly prepared , the temple of our Divine Master , up to that time Hidden . Lucifer , God-King , will then see the whole world consecrate itself to him and adore him ; his religion will from that time forward be truly Catholic . "

There is the Secret . The temple of Lucifer , the altar of Satan , the worship of the Devil , is to be kept as secret as possible till it be deemed that the world is prepared for it . Then the Secret may be abandoned , so that all tbe world may bow down to the Devil as their Lord and Master .

Grand Master Nathan , born in England and naturalised in Italy , deserves the gratitude of Englishmen for one thing . In his recent Circular he contrasts Masons with Catholics . He ranges them on opposite sides , as an army drawn up in battlearray ; and he bids us choose our sides .

I thank him for this . We are no longer to be told , not even by Catholic Englishmen , that Freemasonry is harmless and unopposed to Christianity . Masonry , throwing off its veil , is showing itself in its true colours . The Standard of Masonry is for Masons : our place is on the opposite side . — " Tablet . "

English Freemasons are only academically interested in the Anti-Masonic Congress at Vienna . However certain Catholic prelates may rage together , this movement is too palpably silly even for the Pope to bless it , and it will fall through if the Pope does not . Anybody who wants to know what the Congress is

really directed against should read an excellent article by Mr . F . Legge in the " Contemporary Eeview , " on Devil-Worship . English Masons are not conscious of worshipping the Devil ; but that is what the Congress alleges , besides accusing Masonry of being a deliberate attack on the purity of women , fostered by the

Prince of Wales and other reprehensible persons . The fact-is , that one or two clever booksellers and unscrupulous writers are making a very good thing out of the campaign against Masonry , by mixing it up with " Satanism , " and playing upon the spiritualistic fears of the Continental " degenerates . " Their

books sell like wildfire , and nothing is too gross to be stated and believed . The Congress at Vienna yesterday " investigated " the revelations of Miss Diana Vaughan , who is supposed to be a converted female Mason and Satan-worshipper . Miss Vaughan was not there . In fact , she probably does not exist at all , but is

one of the many doubles of the anti-Masonic maniac who is engineering the whole thing . But the Congress is convinced that she must be genuine—because she has written a book . As a matter of fact , every traceable person who has been given as a reference to her existence has denied all knowledge of her . — " St . James ' s Gazette . "

At the Anti-Freemasons' last meeting the question of Miss Vaughan ' s book and of the reality of her existence was again discussed . A German priest the day before declared those revelations to be apocryphal , and expressed very serious doubts that such a person exists at all . This priest , whose

commonsense and courage in such surroundings cannot be too much admired , is Monsignor KratzCeld , the representative of the Archbishop of Cologne . He said he did not like to draw the person of Miss Vaughan into the discussion , but he did not believe that

the revelations published under her name were genuine . Monsignor Kratzfeld said , " There is no such person . He who wrote those revelations is a man who makes useof his knowledge of Freemasonry to give himself an air of truthfulness , but his aim is first to deceive the Catholics , and then after a while to publish