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Article MEMOIRS OF THE FREEMASONS AT NAPLES. ← Page 2 of 4 →
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Memoirs Of The Freemasons At Naples.
voured to render the judges suspicious to the nation , though they were men of the greatest honour , raised above all servile fear , of perfect integr ity , in short , men who seemed to he inspired with the noble ardour of the antient Romans , and formed to serve as lessons to this corrupted age . Among these honourable and respectable names were the Marquis CitoPalriziothe Marquis D'Avenathe
, , , Duke de Loretto , Palmiero , Criscouio , the Marquis Granito , & c . Besides these there were some judges who , from well-known motives , supported Pallante . In this manner was the throne and public jussice abused . The indulgence of the king , joined to the slowness of the proceedings , for which Naples is more remarkable than any court in Europe
, favoured his artifices ; and there is great appearance that it will be i-. ome years before this affair is concluded , unless some unexpected event should destroy the batteries of wickedness , and re-establish the rights of persecuted innocence . This is the actual state of the parties . While this man ( I mean Pallante . ) who is lost to all sense of shame , and whose crimes are
an abomination to society , dares openly boast of actions ' which every other would endeavour to conceal , or disguise under the veil of weakness , his adversaries , honest and peaceable citizens , still groan under the wei g ht of treachery , though their only crime is their virtuous actions of benevolence to all mankind . Their judges are men of understanding , and upright;—reason and truth are seated in the
midst of them . The king loves and protects virtue ; - — -the queen is the benefactress of innocence . The slander appears barefaced to all the world ; nothing is wanting to the law but a single formality—the confession of the criminal . In the present case , the civil laws are sufficient to absolve the innocent . I shall not appeal to the holy law of nature , which ordains the toleration of those who commit no evil ;
and why ? this law-is now of no further authority . The genius of truth will at last open the annals of humanity , impatient to transmit the event to that posterity which judge men in power , and which will one day prenounce the doom of their infan ^* or gloiy .
While this treatise was under the hands of the writer , another persecution was raised against the Freemasons ' of Aix-la-Chapelle , which will deserve to be added to the foregoing recital . A Dominican of the name of Louis Grunzman , a native of Mayence , preaching at Aix-la-Chapelle , in the time of Lent , on the subject of Christian charity , benevolence , mildness—having exhausted
these topics , thought proper to exercise his ministry by railing against the society of Freemasons . He painted them in the blackest colours , and , the better to adapt himself to the ears of the populace , he loaded them publicly with the sweet epithets of villains , cut-throats , sorcerers , so—m—tes , & c . to which he added , by way of hi gh compliment , the term of forerunners or harbingers of the antichrist , as more proper to strike an impression in the minds of the vulgar . — He assured his auditory , on the word of an honest man , that the heavenly fire , which formerly consumed Sodom and Gomorrija , would
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Memoirs Of The Freemasons At Naples.
voured to render the judges suspicious to the nation , though they were men of the greatest honour , raised above all servile fear , of perfect integr ity , in short , men who seemed to he inspired with the noble ardour of the antient Romans , and formed to serve as lessons to this corrupted age . Among these honourable and respectable names were the Marquis CitoPalriziothe Marquis D'Avenathe
, , , Duke de Loretto , Palmiero , Criscouio , the Marquis Granito , & c . Besides these there were some judges who , from well-known motives , supported Pallante . In this manner was the throne and public jussice abused . The indulgence of the king , joined to the slowness of the proceedings , for which Naples is more remarkable than any court in Europe
, favoured his artifices ; and there is great appearance that it will be i-. ome years before this affair is concluded , unless some unexpected event should destroy the batteries of wickedness , and re-establish the rights of persecuted innocence . This is the actual state of the parties . While this man ( I mean Pallante . ) who is lost to all sense of shame , and whose crimes are
an abomination to society , dares openly boast of actions ' which every other would endeavour to conceal , or disguise under the veil of weakness , his adversaries , honest and peaceable citizens , still groan under the wei g ht of treachery , though their only crime is their virtuous actions of benevolence to all mankind . Their judges are men of understanding , and upright;—reason and truth are seated in the
midst of them . The king loves and protects virtue ; - — -the queen is the benefactress of innocence . The slander appears barefaced to all the world ; nothing is wanting to the law but a single formality—the confession of the criminal . In the present case , the civil laws are sufficient to absolve the innocent . I shall not appeal to the holy law of nature , which ordains the toleration of those who commit no evil ;
and why ? this law-is now of no further authority . The genius of truth will at last open the annals of humanity , impatient to transmit the event to that posterity which judge men in power , and which will one day prenounce the doom of their infan ^* or gloiy .
While this treatise was under the hands of the writer , another persecution was raised against the Freemasons ' of Aix-la-Chapelle , which will deserve to be added to the foregoing recital . A Dominican of the name of Louis Grunzman , a native of Mayence , preaching at Aix-la-Chapelle , in the time of Lent , on the subject of Christian charity , benevolence , mildness—having exhausted
these topics , thought proper to exercise his ministry by railing against the society of Freemasons . He painted them in the blackest colours , and , the better to adapt himself to the ears of the populace , he loaded them publicly with the sweet epithets of villains , cut-throats , sorcerers , so—m—tes , & c . to which he added , by way of hi gh compliment , the term of forerunners or harbingers of the antichrist , as more proper to strike an impression in the minds of the vulgar . — He assured his auditory , on the word of an honest man , that the heavenly fire , which formerly consumed Sodom and Gomorrija , would