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Narrative.
subordinate powers , and tamely submit to its controul ; for the pre * decessors of royalty in these kingdoms have had the weakness to divest themselves of part of their authority , in order to clothe with it tlie ecclesiastical judges who compose this tribunal , but which , still not content with ( and seconding the ambitious designs of the court of Rome ) they are dailadding toand without the least le
y ; scrup they perpetually encroach on the most sacred ri ghts and priviWes of the monarch ; defying the laws , to which they consider themselves as superior , seizing to their own use the public treasures , and by their own authority taking possession of all papers and letters , where they have the slightest suspicion of the individuals to whom they belong .
Such was the conduct they invariably pursued with respect to me , for a twelvemonth previous to my imprisonment . M y private letters were stopped at the public ofrke , and carefully examined by them , in hopes , by this means , of discovering if among my correspondents mention was made of Free-masonry , for of this society they suspected me to be a zealous member . They had Ion * determined to its '
persecute professors , as their future conduct fooplainly evinced , and as a pretence for this , they affected to consider the society as a monstrous assemblage of the most enormous crimes . Although , in the letters wrote by me , either to my friends or in the way of business , or those letters which were written to me , the inquisitors could trace nothing warranting suspicion that
a Freemasonry in the sli ghtest degree attacked the Roman Catholic reli gion , or had the least tendency to disturb the public tranquility ; they did not slop here , —their grand aim was to discover , at any rate , the mysteries and secrets of Free-masonry ; but as this could not be done without imprisoning some of its principal members , they selected me as one of their objectsbeing master of a lod and fixed also
, ge ; on one of my intimate friends , Alexander Jacques Mouton , a Parisian by birth , of the Roman Catholic reli gion , and by trade a diamond cutter , who was one of the wardens : he had been six years at Lisbon , in lull employ , and possessed of the approbation and esteem of all who knew him .
The inquisition made use of a French woman who had resided at Lisbon near ten years , of the name of Le Rude , to watch us narrowly , and to be a spy over our actions , and it was on her depositions we were at length arrested . Her husband was a jeweller and goldsmith , and this woman , as infamous in reputation as well known for her vile tongue , took a sudden resolution to banish from Portugal forei
every gner exercising the same trade as her husband ' s , in any of its branches . Jealousy , avarice , and a certain innate wickedness , with which her character was marked , led her to form this detestable resolution , and aided b y Donna Rose , a woman of her own stamp , they contrived the dark plot of denouncing us both to the _ Inquisition , before which tribunal they appeared and informed against us , as Freemasons who held frequent meetings . This WJIS
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Narrative.
subordinate powers , and tamely submit to its controul ; for the pre * decessors of royalty in these kingdoms have had the weakness to divest themselves of part of their authority , in order to clothe with it tlie ecclesiastical judges who compose this tribunal , but which , still not content with ( and seconding the ambitious designs of the court of Rome ) they are dailadding toand without the least le
y ; scrup they perpetually encroach on the most sacred ri ghts and priviWes of the monarch ; defying the laws , to which they consider themselves as superior , seizing to their own use the public treasures , and by their own authority taking possession of all papers and letters , where they have the slightest suspicion of the individuals to whom they belong .
Such was the conduct they invariably pursued with respect to me , for a twelvemonth previous to my imprisonment . M y private letters were stopped at the public ofrke , and carefully examined by them , in hopes , by this means , of discovering if among my correspondents mention was made of Free-masonry , for of this society they suspected me to be a zealous member . They had Ion * determined to its '
persecute professors , as their future conduct fooplainly evinced , and as a pretence for this , they affected to consider the society as a monstrous assemblage of the most enormous crimes . Although , in the letters wrote by me , either to my friends or in the way of business , or those letters which were written to me , the inquisitors could trace nothing warranting suspicion that
a Freemasonry in the sli ghtest degree attacked the Roman Catholic reli gion , or had the least tendency to disturb the public tranquility ; they did not slop here , —their grand aim was to discover , at any rate , the mysteries and secrets of Free-masonry ; but as this could not be done without imprisoning some of its principal members , they selected me as one of their objectsbeing master of a lod and fixed also
, ge ; on one of my intimate friends , Alexander Jacques Mouton , a Parisian by birth , of the Roman Catholic reli gion , and by trade a diamond cutter , who was one of the wardens : he had been six years at Lisbon , in lull employ , and possessed of the approbation and esteem of all who knew him .
The inquisition made use of a French woman who had resided at Lisbon near ten years , of the name of Le Rude , to watch us narrowly , and to be a spy over our actions , and it was on her depositions we were at length arrested . Her husband was a jeweller and goldsmith , and this woman , as infamous in reputation as well known for her vile tongue , took a sudden resolution to banish from Portugal forei
every gner exercising the same trade as her husband ' s , in any of its branches . Jealousy , avarice , and a certain innate wickedness , with which her character was marked , led her to form this detestable resolution , and aided b y Donna Rose , a woman of her own stamp , they contrived the dark plot of denouncing us both to the _ Inquisition , before which tribunal they appeared and informed against us , as Freemasons who held frequent meetings . This WJIS