Roman Catholic Persecution Of Freemasons.

of the clergy upon the Freemasons , and the Government ' s retaliatory measures , there has been conparative quiet in the particular diocese of the Archbishop and Primate of Brazil . In spite of the fact that there have been published official lists of the Freemasorsmany of whom are

, members of Roman Catholic ' Brotherhoods , ' no one has until now been disturbed . ' Almost every day , ' says the correspondent , ' there die Masons without being denied the so-called spiritual aids of the Church , and without any one opposing their

interment iu holy ground ; nor do I know that on an occasion of baptism any person has been rejected as a godfather because of his being a Mason . ' " It hapipened , however , on the ninth of May lastthat one of the most prominent

, Masons in Brazil , Dr . Guilherme Pereira Rebello , Director of the Lyceum , died , and was shortly after buried , his funeral being attended both by Roman Catholic priests and by members of the Order of Masons . A few days later there appeared in the

Chronica Religiasa a document in the form of a solemn Abjuration , purporting to have been signed by the deceased on the 1 st of May , and running as follows : 'I , Doctor Guilherme Pereira Rebello , declare that I renounce Masonry , on account of its

being prohibited by the Roman Catholic Church of which I am a son ; and as to the mystery of the most Holy Trinity I submit to all the decisions of the same

Holy Church . The paper was signed by witnesses , whose signatures were duly attested as genuine , and corroborated by the public seal . " So far all was simple enough But lo I on the 14 th of May , there appears a second documentemanating from the same pen ,

, equally attested by witnesses , and authenticated b y the public seal . In this second document , which is dated May 8 th , and is addressed to the Grand Secretary General , to all the Masons in general , and to his relatives and friends , Dr . Pereira declares

that should he succumb to the illness with which he is now afflicted , and should any paper appear which purports to be a retraction or abjuration of Masonry , ' that paper must not be received as authentic , since he will never consciously acquiesce in such demands . ' He , however , thinks it ' very possible that his signature may have been appended to such a paper in the

midst of other papers which he had been signing in his capacity as Director of the Lyceum , ' Finally , he declares himself ' an Apostolic Catholic , educated and d ying in the faith , maintaining the doctrines he has hitherto maintained , and regarding Freemasonry as a holy and purely beneficial association , a fruitful off-shoot of Catholicism . '

" If , as his old friends assert , Dr . Pereira Rebello was an honourable man , incapable of stooping to dissimulation , much less of uttering a direct falsehood on his very death-bed , the question as to the authenticity of the former of the documents , is a very curious one . Did the priestly

attendants of the dying man skilfully manage to procure his signature by submitting the paper in question iu the midst of other papers of an altogether different character ? So assert the Freemasons of Bahia , fortifying their assertion by pointing out the dilemma in which the Ultramontanes

found themselves . To refuse funeral rites to a man of so much distinction and influence , was a perilous step ; and , on the other hand , to concede them to a person who had but recently written very forcibly in defence of Freemasonry , and was himself notoriously a member of the Order ,

seemed a total sacrifice of self-respect and dignity . While the matter is still involved in much obscurity , it certainly looks strangely like one of those priestly tricks commonly designated as ' pious frauds . '" Brazil is not the only locality where

such proceedings are being enacted , nor are they confined to Catholic countries . The same Jesuitical tricks are being played in the United States . Much indignation has been excited in Keokuk , Iowa , and its vicinity , by the discovery of a hih-handed

g outrage of this description . The particulars , as reported to us from there , are as follows : Bernard Slevin has resided in Oskaloosa , Iowa , for the last twenty-five years , and had accumulated a property of twelve or fifteen thousand dollars , some

say a great deal more . He was a member of a Lodge there for many years . Last spring his health failed and he went to Keokuk for medical treatment . After remaining a short time at the hotel where he had been accustomed to board , he removed to the house of a saloon keeper with whom he became acquainted about two years since . There the Roman