La storia della Massoneria non può prescindere dall'analisi e dall'attenta valutazione delle manifestazioni anti-massoniche, un fenomeno tutto sommato variegato ed eterogeneo, composto di una pletora di soggetti — dai singoli pensatori a gruppi di pressione e istituzioni di interesse pubblico come la Chiesa Cattolica e, in tempi più recenti, anche alcune chiese riformate — la cui vis e i cui stereotipi polemici hanno giocato un ruolo decisivo non solo, come ovvio, nella creazione di una negativa e pregiudiziale visione delle forme di sociabilità massonica da parte del mondo profano, ma anche nell'individuare le coordinate dell'identità massonica da parte di quanti in essa si son riconosciuti e si riconoscono. Dalla fine del Settecento e in concomitanza poco più tardi con il periodo della restaurazione ottocentesca, la Massoneria è stata oggetto di una ricchissima messe di denuncie, in particolar modo quelle di natura socio-politica secondo cui le logge erano i veri centri di elaborazione e poi attuazione di progetti rivoluzionari ed eversivi, in primisi fatti francesi del 1789¹⁾. Che la Massoneria, insomma, abbia funto suo malgrado da capro espiatorio e che sin da pochi decenni dopo la sua fondazione ufficiale (il 24 giugno 1717, secodo la vulgata anglosassone) essa sia divenuta oggetto di sperticate critiche da parte delle gerarchie ecclesiastiche, è cosa a dir poco ben nota. Meno considerato anche da parte latomistica e in parte ancora da valutare nella sua interezza è il contributo che la critica anti-massonica può aver avuto nel processo di definizione identitaria da parte degli stessi ambienti latomistici, alcuni dei quali — si pensi al caso italiano — radicati in una realtà socio-culturale — e non di meno spirituale — profondamente condizionata dal magistero e dal pensiero sociale della Chiesa di Roma.

1)   Per una visione di sintesi sull'argomento, peraltro molto vasto, rimando a E.R. Callaey, Il mito della rivoluzione massonica — Massoni e rivoluzione francese — Le origini della massoneria moderna, Tropea Editore, Milano, 2010 (edizione italiana dell'originale spagnolo El mito de la revolución masónica a cura di Nadia Ambrosioni); vedi anche L. Sacchi, Miti della massoneria, Edizioni L'Età dell'Acquario, Torino, 2010, in particolare le pp. 65-74.

Lo scopo di questo contributo è quello di offrire una versione completa de La causa e gl'effetti, uno scritto di polemica anti-massonica redatto da mano anonima (probabilmente un ecclesiastico) con ogni probabilità a cavallo tra '700 e '800 (certamente dopo il 1790, terminus post quem nel testo esplicitamente indicato).

Pur rimanendo nel solco del classico anti-massonismo di stampo ecclesiastico (in buona parte facendo proprie le posizioni del notorio abbé Barruell) che nella Massoneria individuava una fonte di relativismo e dunque una delle più pericolose forme di corruzione morale potenzialmente capaci di portare l'adepto ad un ateismo de facto, l'autore del libello compie un ulteriore passo nella direzione della denuncia anti-massonica, una sorta di "crasi ideologica", attribuendo alla Massoneria non solo un generico programma di rivoluzione politica atta a decostruire la triade gerarchica Dio-re-popolo, ma anche un piano di redistribuzione ed esproprio delle proprietà di sapore schiettamente socialista. È proprio in considerazione di tale urlo di dolore nei confronti di un fantomatico "spettro social-massonico" portatore di sovversione e ateismo, dei numerosi e ricorrenti riferimenti all'attività anti-massonica della Curia romana, degli apprezzamenti per l'Inquisizione e l'ordine dei Gesuiti prime vittime della scure massonica ([…] Riconosciuto avendo l'Instituto Massonico essere di assoluto impedimento alla verificazione delle sue mire la Inquisizione, e la Religione dei Gesuiti travagliò incessantemente a distruggere […] p. 16), così come delle reiterate accuse contro l'Encyclopedie francese e di tutto il pensiero filosofico illuminista in generale che con la stampa e soprattutto la sistematizzazione del sapere ha permesso l'accesso a questi da parte delle masse, che si può ipotizzare che l'autore sia stato un ecclesiastico, un conservatore molto vicino alle posizioni anti-moderniste della Curia capitolina e certamente a conoscenza delle bolle papali anti-massoniche, di cui mutua linguaggio ed espressioni.

Vista da un'altra prospettiva, tuttavia, la totale assenza di indicazioni circa la genesi del testo potrebbe suggerire una seconda ipotesi — invero piuttosto ardita — secondo la quale il testo fu paradossalmente prodotto proprio in ambito latomistico quale parodia, quasi testo di apologia della società libero-muratoria a cui si attribuiscono sì alcuni caratteri deteriori — come ad esempio di esser una aggregazione fondata sul "delitto" e il segreto — ma alla quale vengono altresì riconosciute la paternità diretta di alcune fondamentali azioni socio-politiche e culturali, quali l'Illuminismo e tutte le sue manifestazioni filosofico-letterarie (l'Encyclopedie, già ricordata, ma anche gli scritti di Voltaire, Rousseau, etc.), l'aver proposto un modello di sociabilità super-confessionale fondata sulla convivenza e la tolleranza tra cittadini di fedi diverse ([…] Nella Massoneria trovansi uniti Cattolici, Scismatici, Protestanti, Ebrei, Turchi, Idolatri, e d'ogn'altra Setta diffusa e ristretta, nessun obbietto facendo ad essa la diversità delle Religioni […] p. 3), la campagna a favore di un impiego educativo della tecnica della stampa ([…] Considerata la Stampa la via più sicura per arrivare al punto propostosi, si cominciò a seminare l'infezione coll'Enciclopedia, immaginata a pretesto di dare un'idea generale delle cognizioni alle quali pervennero gl'Uomini […] p. 10), la lotta al cattolicesimo "politico" a favore di un ritorno di questi alla sua primitiva matrice spirituale-egualitaria ([…] si trassero colla Santa Sede […] e ad un'occulta Guerra al Sacerdozio, strascinandole in simili determinazioni col falso calcolo d'interesse di stato, dando ad intendere che conveniva tener basso il Clero, e ridurre I Ministri dell'Altare in minor numero, ed alla semplicità dei primi secoli della Chiesa un'occulta Guerra […] p. 14), la revisione del sistema carcerario e detentivo che preveda l'abolizione della pena di morte così come delineato in Dei delitti e delle pene (secondo l'autore opera di massoni: […] Si tolsero anche questo obbietto col fare sortire il libro dei Delitti, e delle Pene, che porta il nome di Beccheria, abbenché Egli non sia stato che il compilatore di pensieri e idee raccolte in una private Società di Franchi Muratori […] Colla scorta di questo libro si ha saputo condurre e Sovrani, e Governi in quell'infausta clemenza, per cui restò annientata la penna [!] di morte […] p. 18).

L'autore si mostra estremamente accorto a non far trapelare alcun elemento da cui si possa attingere alcun suggerimento circa la sua identità. L'unico "passo incauto", se tale si può definirlo, è il lungo spazio che dedica ai fatti massonici di Venezia del 1785, anno in cui gli organi di polizia della Repubblica Serenissima "decisero di scoprire" (conoscendone da tempo l'esistenza, la consistenza e il peso socio-politico) una loggia massonica della quale facevano parte numerosi patrizi veneti. L'azione di polizia ebbe un riscontro pubblico e d'immagine straordinario dato che buona parte delle suppellettili della loggia vennero bruciate nella pubblica piazza (nella corte del Palazzo Ducale, a San Marco), anche se le conseguenze per i massoni furono minime, quasi nulle come lamentato dallo stesso autore, ad eccezione di tre "non residenti" — Michele Sessa, napoletano, Carlo Konic [Karl König], augustano, e Mr. Jovre, francese — ai quali venne riservato il non invidiabile privilegio di espiare le colpe di tutti i fratelli con l'esilio. La caduta della Repubblica del leone, aggiunge l'autore, fu dovuta anche all'azione di un modernismo politico, di cui la setta prepotente faceva parte e il cui fine ultimo era la decostruzione dell'assetto politico europeo, offuscare la morale, la religione dei popoli, finance "il buon costume", a favore di nuovi assetti geopolitici e culturali. Sia stato o no un veneziano, abbia vissuto o meno nella città lagunare, elemento oggettivo è la conoscenza puntuale da parte dell'autore dei fatti veneziani del 1785 che egli considera di gran lunga più importanti di tutto ciò che similmente — e in realtà con ripercussioni ben più gravi — era successo nel resto del continente.

È evidente, da ultimo, come tutto il complesso di tali ipotesi poggi su basi tutt'altro che solide, basandosi su una differente valutazione di fatti oggi in gran parte condivisi e considerati positivi, ma che agli occhi di un conservatore e reazionario potevano effettivamente suscitare scandalo e critica. In attesa di riscontri, ciò rimane un'interessante ipotesi di lavoro che forse solo studi ulteriori e più approfonditi sapranno verificare²⁾.

2)   Sul ruolo della pubblicistica anti-massonica nella definizione identitaria da parte della stessa Massoneria esistono diversi studi. Mi limito qui a riportare quanto afferma a proposito degli scritti dell'abate Barruel — noto polemista anti-massonico alla cui opera si rifece anche l'autore del presente anonimo libello — Luigi Pruneti nel suo La sinagoga di Satana - Storia dell'antimassoneria — 1725- 2002, Bari, Edizioni Giuseppe Laterza, 2002, pp. 42-43: […] L'opera di Barruel influenzò storici, scrittori, pubblicisiti ed anche autori come de Castro, Bacci o Pontevia ne furono condizionati, accreditando alla libera muratoria imprese che non le appartenevano. Essi, partendo dall'assunto del Gesuita, le attribuirono il merito di gran parte del rinnovamento sociale e politico dell'Ottocento e di fine Settecento, suffragando il mito della massoneria quale madre della rivoluzione […].

The history of Freemasonry cannot be separated from the analysis and careful evaluation of anti-Masonic manifestations, a phenomenon that is after all multiform and heterogeneous, composed of a plethora of subjects — from individual thinkers to pressure groups and institutions of public interest such as the Catholic Church and, in more recent times, also some Reformed churches — whose power and polemic stereotypes have played a decisive role not only, obviously, in the creation of a negative and prejudicial vision of the forms of Masonic sociability by the profane world, but also in identifying the details of the Masonic identity on the part of those who have recognized and recognize themselves in it.   From the late eighteenth century and concurrently a little later with the nineteenth-century restoration period, Freemasonry was the subject of a very rich harvest of denunciations, especially those of a socio-political nature according to which the lodges were the real centers of elaboration and then implementation of revolutionary and subversive projects, in the first place the French events of 1789.¹⁾   That Freemasonry, in short, has unwillingly served as a scapegoat, and that since a few decades after its official foundation (June 24, 1717, according to the Anglo-Saxon commonly accepted view) has become the object of critical outbursts on the part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy is, to say the least, a well-known fact.   Less considered, even by the masonic side and partly still to be evaluated in its entirety, is the contribution that the anti-Masonic criticism may have had in the process of the definition of identity by the masonic circles themselves, some of which — think of the Italian case — rooted in a socio-cultural reality — and never the less spiritual — profoundly conditioned by the Magisterium and the social thought of the Church of Rome.

1)   For a summary view of the subject, which is also very broad, I refer to E.R. Callaey, The myth of the Masonic revolution — Freemasons and the French Revolution — The origins of modern Freemasonry, Tropea Editore, Milan, 2010 (Italian edition of the Spanish original El mito de la revolución masónica curated by Nadia Ambrosioni); see also L. Sacchi, Masonic Myths, Edizioni L'Età dell'Acquario, Turin, 2010, in particular pp. 65-74.

The purpose of this contribution is to offer a complete version of La causa e gl'effetti, an anti-Masonic polemic written by an anonymous hand (probably a clergyman) probably between the 18th and 19th centuries (certainly after 1790, the earliest time the events explicitly indicated in the text may have happened).

While remaining in the wake of the classic ecclesiastical anti-Freemasonry (in large part making his own the positions of the notorious abbé Barruell) that in Freemasonry identified a source of relativism and therefore one of the most dangerous forms of moral corruption potentially capable of carrying the adept to a de facto atheism, the author of the pamphlet takes a further step in the direction of the anti-Masonic denunciation, a sort of "ideological makeup," attributing to Freemasonry not only a generic program of political revolution capable of deconstructing the hierarchical triad of God-king-people, but also a plan for the redistribution and expropriation of properties with a purely-socialist flavor.   It is precisely in consideration of this scream of pain against an imaginary "social-Masonic spook" that carries subversion and atheism, that the numerous and recurrent references to the anti-Masonic activity of the Roman Curia, of the admiration of the Inquisition and of the Jesuits Order, first victims of the Masonic ax ([…] Having recognized that the Masonic Institution is an absolute impediment to the verification of its aims, the Inquisition, and the religion of the Jesuit relentlessly worked to destroy […] p. 16), as well as some repeated accusations against the French Encyclopédie and all the Enlightenment philosophical thought in general that with the press and, above all, the systematization of knowledge has allowed access to these by the masses, that it can be assumed that the author was a clergyman, a conservative very close to the anti-modernist positions of the Capitoline Curia [Catholic Church] and certainly aware of the anti-Masonic papal bulls, of which the anonymous author uses mutual language and expressions.

Seen from another perspective, however, the total absence of indications about the coming into being of the text could suggest a second hypothesis — indeed rather bold — according to which the text was paradoxically produced precisely within masonic circles as a parody, almost as an apologetic text of the Society of Freemasons, to which some deteriorating characters are attributed — such as being, for example, a congregation based on "crime" and secrecy — but to which they are also recognized the direct paternity of some fundamental socio-political and cultural actions, such as the Enlightenment and all its philosophical-literary manifestations (the Encyclopédie, already mentioned, but also the writings of Voltaire, Rousseau, etc.), having proposed a model of super-confessional sociability based on cohabitation and tolerance among citizens of different faiths ([…] Within Freemasonry are found Catholics, Schismatics, Protestants, Jews, Turks, Idolaters, and of any other Sect diffused and restricted, making no object to the diversity of Religions […] p. 3); the campaign in favor of an educational use of the printing technology ([…] Considering the Press the safest way to attain the proposed goal, they began to sow the infection with the Encyclopédie, conceived as a pretext of giving a general idea of the knowledge reached by Men […] p. 10); the fight against "political" Catholicism in favor of a return of it to its primitive spiritual-egalitarian matrix ([…] they went against the Holy See […] and into an occult War on the Priesthood, dragging them into similar determinations with the false pretense of state interest, giving to understand that it was fitting to keep the Clergy in check, and to reduce the Ministers of the Altar into a smaller number, and into an occult War against the simplicity of the Church of the first centuries […] p. 14); the revision of the prison and detention system which provides for the abolition of the death penalty as outlined in On Crimes and Penalties (according to the author, work of the Masons: […] They also removed this object with the publication of the book On Crimes and Penalties, which bears the name of Beccaria, although he was only the compiler of thoughts and ideas collected in a private Society of Freemasons […] With the help of this book it was possible to lead both Sovereigns and Governments in that unfortunate clemency, by consequence of which the death penalty [!] was annihilated […] p. 18).

The author is extremely shrewd in not letting out any element from which any suggestion can be drawn about his identity.   The only "careless step," if it can be defined as such, is the long space dedicated to the Masonic events which took place in Venice in 1785, the year in which the law enforcement agencies of the Most Serene Republic "decided to discover" (knowing for some time its existence, its consistency and its socio-political weight) a Masonic lodge of which were members numerous Venetian patricians.   The police action had an extraordinary public result and publicity, given that most of the furnishings of the lodge were burned in the public square (in the court of the Palazzo Ducale, in San Marco), even if the consequences for the Masons were minimal, almost inconsequential, as complained by the author himself, with the exception of three "non-residents" — Michele Sessa, a Neapolitan, Carlo Konic [Karl König], an Augustan, and Mr. Jovre, a Frenchman — to whom was reserved the unenviable privilege of atoning with their exile for the sins of all their brethren.   The fall of the Lion Republic, adds the author, was also due to the action of a political modernism, of which the overbearing sect [Freemasonry] was a part, and whose ultimate goal was the deconstruction of the European political order, of obscuring morality, the religion of peoples, finance's "good customs," in favor of new geopolitical and cultural structures.   Whether or not he was a Venetian, lived or not in the lagoon city, an objective element is the precise knowledge on the part of the author of the Venetian events of 1785 which he considers far more important than anything which similarly — and in reality with much more serious repercussions — had happened in the rest of the continent.

Lastly, based on a different evaluation of facts, today largely shared and considered certain, it is evident how the whole complex of these hypotheses rests on bases that are anything but solid, but which in the eyes of a conservative and reactionary person could actually arouse scandal and criticism.   Waiting for confirmation, this remains an interesting working hypothesis that perhaps only further and more in-depth studies will be able to verify. ²⁾

2)   Several studies exist on the role of anti-Masonic publications in the definition of identity by Freemasonry itself.   I limit myself here to report what Luigi Pruneti says in his The synagogue of Satan — History of anti-Masonry - 1725 - 2002, Bari, Editions of Giuseppe Laterza, 2002, pp. 42-43: about the writings of Abbot Barruel — a well-known anti-Masonic polemicist to whose work the author of this anonymous pamphlet also refers — […] Barruel's work influenced historians, writers, publicists and even authors such as de Castro, Bacci or Pontevia, were influenced by crediting Freemasonry with businesses that did not belong to it.   They, starting from the Assumption of the Jesuit [Barruel], attributed to Freemasonry the merit to much of the social and political renewal of the nineteenth and late-eighteenth centuries, supporting the myth of Freemasonry as the mother of revolution […].

Edizione del testo

Come sopra accennato, il testo de La causa e gl'effetti è stato trasmesso da una singola edizione, un volumetto di circa 16x10 cm nel quale non è riportata alcuna informazione circa la paternità, il luogo né l'anno di pubblicazione. Secondo il catalogo generale delle biblioteche nazionali italiane³⁾, del volumetto si conservano sei copie, una presso la Biblioteca d'arte e storia veneziana del civico Museo Correr, una presso l'Archivio generale della Regione Veneto e un'altra presso la Biblioteca Marciana sempre a Venezia, una quarta presso la Biblioteca comunale dell'Archiginnasio di Bologna, una presso la Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze ed infine un'ultima sesta copia presso la Biblioteca di storia moderna contemporanea a Roma, secondo il cui catalogo il volume potrebbe essere stato stampato a Roma nel 1801, come indicato da annotazione vergata a mano e presente nella copia colà conservata; in mancanza di dati di riscontro entrambe le coordinate sono da considerarsi puramente ipotetiche.

3)   Il database del Catalogo del Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale (OPAC SBN) è consultabile on-line all'indirizzo: http://www.sbn.it/opacsbn/opac/iccu/free.jsp [9 gennaio 2012]. La copia conservata presso la Biblioteca Marciana di Venezia non appare nel catalogo nazionale. Per maggiori informazioni si veda l'indirizzo http://polovea.sebina.it/SebinaOpac/Opac. È assai probabile che esistano altre copie non incluse nel catalogo elettronico nazionale e che una ricerca in loco dei cataloghi cartacei delle maggiori biblioteche italiane possa far emergere altri testimoni. Per il presente studio si è proceduto solo allo spoglio delle informazioni ricevute per via telematica.

Il testo qui proposto è stato riportato secondo la copia conservata presso il Museo Correr di Venezia. Trattandosi di uno scritto a stampa di cui esiste — per quanto ci è dato sapere — una sola edizione, nel presente contributo si è cercato di riprodurre il testo nella maniera diplomaticamente più accurata, senza note critiche, ovviamente, ma con note di commento o di integrazione per una più immediata comprensione.

Lo scritto, redatto in un'epoca in cui l'italiano risentiva molto delle varianti locali e in cui non esistevano norme grammatico-ortografiche comunemente condivise, presenta in tal senso numerose divergenze rispetto all'ortografia corrente. Per non appensantire la lettura del testo, di conseguenza, segnalazioni in corpo di testo e tra parentesi quadre — [!] — sono state aggiunte solo laddove ritenuto strettamente necessario. Sempre tra parentesi quadre si è data indicazione della paginazione originale. Nei limiti del possibile, inoltre, si è cercato di riprodurre la disposizione del testo così come la separazione tra le diverse sezioni di esso.

Ampi stralci del testo furono pubblicati, peraltro senza introduzione né alcuna nota esplicativa, nella rivista Il corpo, I, 3, dicembre 1994, pp. 1-9.

Text edition

As mentioned above, the text of La causa e gl'effetti was made known by way of a single edition, a small volume of about 16x10 cm. in which no information is given about authorship, place, or year of publication.   According to the general catalog of Italian national libraries, ³⁾ six copies of the pamphlet are preserved, one at the Venetian Art and History Library of the Civic Museum Correr, one at the General Archive of the Veneto Region and another at the Marciana Library also in Venice, a fourth in the Biblioteca comunale dell'Archiginnasio in Bologna, one in the Central National Library of Florence and finally the last sixth copy in the Library of Contemporary Modern History in Rome, according to whose catalog the volume may have been printed in Rome in 1801, as indicated by an annotation written by hand and present in the copy preserved there; in the absence of factual proof confirming this information, both references are to be considered purely hypothetical.

3)   The database of the National Library Service Catalog (OPAC SBN) can be consulted online at:
http://www.sbn.it/opacsbn/opac/iccu/free.jsp [9 January 2012].   The copy kept at the Marciana Library of Venice does not appear in the national catalog.   For more information see the address http://polovea.sebina.it/SebinaOpac/Opac.   It is highly probable that there are other copies not included in the national electronic catalog and that an on-site search for the paper catalogs of the major Italian libraries may bring out other copies.   For the present study, only the information received electronically was examined.

The text submitted here has been reproduced according to the copy kept at the Museo Correr in Venice.   Since this is a printed text of which — as far as we know — exists only one edition, in this contribution we have tried to reproduce the text in the most diplomatic way, without critical notes, obviously, but, for a more immediate understanding, with commentary or integration notes.

The work, written in an era in which the Italian language was heavily influenced by local variations and in which there were no commonly shared grammar-spelling rules, has in this sense numerous differences with respect to the current spelling. In order not to make the reading of the text too excruciating, indications thereof and in square brackets — [!] — have been added in body of the text only where deemed strictly necessary. The indication of the original pagination has been likewise given in square brackets.   Furthermore, it has been tried as far as possible to reproduce the layout of the text as well as the separation between the different sections of it.

Extensive excerpts of the text were published, however without introduction or any explanatory note, in the journal Il corpo, Vol. 3, December 1994, pp. 1 - 9.

Testo e note

"La causa e gl'effetti" ⁴⁾

[p. 3] L'Instituto Massonico causa dei luttuosi avvenimenti seguiti in varie parti del Mondo, è l'Argomento di questo qualunque siasi Opuscoletto.

La derivazione di questa infausta setta è tanto incerta, quanto è il tempo in cui ebbe principio.

Nella Massoneria trovansi uniti Cattolici, Scismatici, Protestanti, Ebrei, Turchi, Idolatri ⁵⁾, e d'ogn'altra Setta diffusa o ristretta, nessun obbietto facendo ad essa la diversità delle Religioni, poiché nessuno può giungere [!] alla cognizione del fine propostosi dalla medesima; se con lunga serie di azioni non ha comprovato di non avere veruna Religione, e di seguire la massime tutte dell'Ateismo.

4)   Nella copia conservata presso il Museo Correr di Venezia qui di seguito al titolo è riportata l'annotazione del Sig. March. d'Achedad [?] Armeno. 1798. che secondo il catalogatore starebbe ad indicare il proprietario del libretto, non l'autore del testo. Oltre a rimanere a noi ignota l'identità del marchese, un ulteriore problema è posto dall'indicazione dell'anno 1798. Come discusso nella nota che segue subito sotto, il libello fa uso di fonti a stampa (il report dell'ambasciatore inglese in Cina Lord Macarteney) pubblicate in inglese nel 1797 e poi tradotto in italiano nel 1799. Se la data del 1798 fosse quella dell'acquisto del volumetto da parte del marchese, allora dobbiamo presumere che il testo fu pubblicato immediatamente dopo la pubblicazione del testo dell'ambasciatore e soprattutto che l'anonimo autore conoscesse l'inglese, cosa non comunissima al tempo.

5)   Non vi è dubbio come per grandissima parte della Massoneria contemporanea la tolleranza religiosa e dunque l'accettazione di candidati di fedi diverse sia un valore e una prassi irrinunciabili. Ciò valse solo in parte in passato e soprattutto per la prima metà dell'Ottocento in cui l'ammissione di non-crisitiani — in particolar modo degli ebrei, ad esempio — fu molto discussa e in spesso respinta. Sul tema del rapporto tra Massoneria ed Ebraismo vedi J. Katz, Jews and Freemasons in Europe, 1723-1939, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1970 (edizione inglese dell'originale ebraico a cura di Leonard Oschry); A. Binni, "Massoneria ed ebraismo", in La massoneria liberale, a cura di Luigi Danesin, Roma, Atanòr, 2006, pp. 145-164. La situazione cambiò radicalmente nella metà del 1800 quando la Massoneria italiana, vivificata dell'afflato degli ideali risorgimentali, vide al proprio interno un numero crescente di fratelli ebrei. Esiste a tal proposito una ricca bibliografia; mi limito qui a segnalare l'ottimo lavoro di L.E. Funaro, "Massoneria e minoranze religiose nel secolo XIX", in La massoneria a Livorno — Dal settecento alla Repubblica, Bologna, il Mulino, 2006, pp. 343-416. Sulla relazione tra Massoneria e religioni e per accenni all'Islam (buona parte delle cui confessioni vieta senza remore l'appartenenza dei fedeli all'istituzione), vedi J.A.F. Benimeli, "Massoneria e religioni", in La massoneria liberale, cit., pp. 145-164 e J.M. Landau, "Muslim Opposition to Freemasonry", in Die Welt des Islams, n.s. vol. 36, n. 2 (1996), pp. 186-203.

La primaria vista dell'Instituto Massonico, fu quella di estendersi in ogni parte del Globo; la Storia della China di Milord Macarteney ⁶⁾, fa conoscere spinte le filosofiche Massime [p.4] della Setta, fino a quell remotissimo Impero.

Lo scopo Massonico, evidentemente risulta dai fatti suoi propri esser l'usurpazione delle Proprietà Pubbliche e Private del Mondo intero; scopo fin ora verificato soltanto in parte, con un tessuto di fine premeditazioni, di perfidie, e d'infamie, tutte di nuovo conio; restando a temersi ulteriori effettuazioni, se gl'Uffici incaricati di sopraveglianza continueranno in quella condotta indolente, o dolosa tenuta in passato.

Senz'allungarmi colle molteplici divisioni, derivazioni, e denominazioni dei Franchi Muratori, considerando la loro Confraternita mirare ad un generale assassinio, col distruggere Religione, Trono, Leggi, e buon costume, divido li suoi Individui in due sole Classi; una composta in quelli pervenuti alla veritiera cognizione del suo progetto, impiegati instancabilmente a verificarlo, e questi li chiamerò gl'Attivi scientemente; l'altra composta di quelli che non giunsero mai [p. 5] a traspirare il grande Arcano del Secreto, ma che per altro senza conoscerlo, adottando le Filosofiche Massime insinuate dai loro Superiori, cooperano all'oggetto stesso, non sospettando le conseguenze delle direzioni tenute dalli medesimi, e questi li chiamerò gl'Ingannati Attivi ignorantemente ⁷⁾.

6)   Si tratta di Lord Macarteney (1737-1806), diplomatico che per volontà del re inglese Giorgio III nel 1792 si recò in Cina insieme ad una folta delegazione per rafforzare i rapporti commerciali tra il suo paese e l'impero asiatico. Per maggiori informazionisi veda J.L. Cranmer-Byng, "Lord Macartney's Embassy to Peking in 1793," in Journal of Oriental Studies, vol. 4, nn. 1-2 (1957 - 58), pp. 117 - 187. A seguito di tale missione venne redatta una relazione edita e pubblicata a Londra nel 1797 a cura di George Staunton con il titolo di An historical account of the embassy to the Emperor of China, undertaken by order of the King of Great Britain; including the manners and customs of the inhabitants; and preceded by an account of the causes of the embassy and voyage to China. Abridged principally from the papers of Earl Macartney, ascompiled by Sir George Staunton […]. Pochi anni più tardi, tra il 1799 e il 1800, l'opera venne tradotta in italiano e stampata a cura di Giovacchino Pagani con il titolo di Viaggio nell'interno della Cina, e nella Tartaria fatto negli anni 1792, 1793, e 1794. Da Lord Macartney [...] Compilato da sir Giorgio Staunton [...] Prima traduzione italiana con figure e carte. Ciò costituisce un importante termine di riferimento cronologico — post quem — per la datazione del testo qui in esame.

7)   La divisione degli aderenti alla Massoneria in due classi, quella degli ignari innocent e quella di quanti sono invece ben al corrente della natura criminogena delle logge, offre una giustificazione a quanti, una volta abbandonata la loggia, si erano detti pentiti e disposti a offrire la propria esperienza a favore della lotta contro la Massoneria. Un esempio fra i tanti fu quello del Barruel stesso (su cui vedi sotto n. 12) che nelle sue Mémoirs raccontò di essere stato iniziato non conoscendo in realtà la vera natura dell'istituzione massonica. Vedi Sacchi, Miti della massoneria, cit., pp. 105-111. Già dal 1780, sicuramente in Italia e certamente anche in altri paesi europei, membri delle gerarchie ecclesiastiche avevano aderito alla Massoneria, non di rado ponendosi in posizioni di forte ambiguità. Per quanto concerne, ad esempio, la situazione delle logge venete, si veda F. Gaeta, "Le logge massoniche venete dall'ideologia deista alla tolleranza pratica e teoretica (1738-1785)", in Quaderni veneti, 6, (1987), pp. 130-147, il quale sottolinea come l'adesione di ecclestiastici e cattolici alle logge massoniche venete modificò la natura tollerante e pluralistica di queste ultime di fatto impedendo l'accettazione di non-cattolici.

In conseguenza della diversità di queste due Classi, erano di due differenti sorti le Sessioni Massoniche, quando si univano in Loggia. Trattavansi in quelle, ove li soli Attivi scientemente trovavansi, della verità della cosa propostasi dall'Instituto; ed in quelle nelle quali pervenivano gl'Attivi ignorantemente, si faceva comparire la Setta per una Società dedicata al bene dell'Umanità, ed appoggiata a principj di sana morale; sapendo quei Capi sagaci, con una dissimulazione senza simile, apparire quali non erano, e quali Protei prendendo tutte le forme, si mostravano or feroci, or mansueti, or Atei, or Religiosi, ed or il Turbante, ed or la Croce sostenendo destramente procuravano [p. 6] d'incantare gli Aluni, e trascinarli nei principj erronei e rei dello stato di natura, che con poetiche illusioni lo facevano credere l'età dell'oro.

Tutti quelli ch'entravano nella Setta erano obbligati di prestare un solenne giuramento, (giuramento grandemente funesto) che li legava con molta tenacità al protervo Instituto. Non deve sorprendere se degl'Atei cercassero premunirsi con dei giuramenti, conoscendo la forza di questi vincoli in ogni Uomo, che Ateo non fosse.

Il Secreto che veniva allora affidato all'Aluno, non era quello veritiero che si custodiva con grandi avvertenze, ma un'invenzione stabilita dagl'attivi scientemente per sorprendere la credulità di quelli che ingannare volevano, per acquistare il tempo opportuno da sperimentarli, e per rintracciare poi nel numero di Essi, chi avesse pienamente dimostrato un carattere analogo alle viste della Setta, nel di cui vero secreto li disponevano.

Le Massime insinuate, ed inculcate [p.7] agli iscritti nella Setta furono Libertà, Eguaglianza, Fratellanza, perciò erano nelle Loggie tutti eguali, chiamandosi fra loro col seducente titolo di fratello, di modo che il Franco Muratore Macellajo, chiamava col semplice titolo di Fratello S.A.R. il Duca d'Orleans, e così fra gl'individui dei differenti Ceti, che nella Loggia si trovavano. Il terrore essendo uno dei principj statuiti dalla Setta, per rendere Schiavi fedeli, ed obbedienti quelli che in Essa venivano ascritti, si faceva vedere agl'Aluni tutti la Lista di quei stati fatti assassinare dall'Ordine Massonico, per avere volontariamente, o imprudentemente mancato alle giurate promesse.

Pervenuti li Franchi Muratori nel principiare del Secolo XVIII e forse anche prima ad un numero grandioso, poterono a poco a poco introdursi nei Gabinetti, nei Consigli, nei Dicasteri, negl'Ufficj Civili, e Criminali, nel Militare, nelle Università, nelle Accademie, nelle Pubbliche Scuole, ed in conseguenza [p.8] nelle private Adunanze, necessari essendo questi Individui in tutti gl'indicati Uffici, e nelle Società, per facilitare il corso delle novità, che introdurre si volevano, e per sostenere li sistemi filosofici che premeditavasi di promulgare. Venne ingiunto agl'Alunni ascritti nella Setta, di prestarsi colla maggiore diligenza a far entrare nella medesima la Gioventù di ogni ceto di persone, vagheggiare specialmente dovendosi li Principi, e la primaria Nobiltà, convenendo addormentaregli, e l'altra sulla sponda del precipizio, onde vi cadessero da se stessi.

Il Delitto essendo il perno sopra il quale s'aggira il lavoro Massonico, li Capi Attivi scientemente scielgono [!] fra gli ascritti nella loro Società, quelli ch'abbondanti incontrastabili prove diedero di mai interrotta irreligione, giudiziosamente calcolando essere l'irreligione il più breve, e sicuro sentiero che conduce al Delitto, ed i medesimi ammessi al veritiero secreto, divenivano Attori del contemplato [p. 9] Assassinio entrando nella Classe degl'Attivi scientemente. Tutti gl'altri servivano ad essi di Zimbello per trarre nella rete dissolutiva Regni, Governi, Leggi, e buon costume.

Per verificare il progetto di sì empio Istituto, conveniva trarre li Popoli dalla loro tranquillità, illuderli, ingannarli, infiammarli, e ridurli Essi stessi gl'istromenti della loro propria rovina. Conobbero che per muover li Popoli si doveva staccarli dalla fedeltà, dal rispetto, e dall'affetto al loro Principe. Conobbero non possibile questo distacco finchè nella sua forza naturale esisteva la Religione. Conobbero essere la Religione il maggior sostegno del Trono, essendo l'indissolubile legame che tenne sempre sinceramente attaccato il Suddito al Sovrano, perciò rivolsero li loro studi alla grand'Opera di distruggere la Religione, per giungere a rovesciare li Troni, e li Governi, annientare le costituzioni, le leggi, li metodi Governativi, e tutti quei principij di consuetudine, e di subordinazione corsi dalla creazione del [p. 10] Mondo fin dall'Epoca fatale di quel Diabolico attentato, coll'esplosione del quale si pose in Sede Governativa pienamente smascherato l'Ordine Massonico, verificando con sangue e straggi la contemplata derubazione delle altrui legittime Autorità, e delle pubbliche, e private sostanze.

Considerata la Stampa la via più sicura per arrivare al punto propostosi, si cominciò a seminare l'infezione coll'Enciclopedia, immaginata a pretesto di dare un'idea generale delle cognizioni alle quali pervennero gl'Uomini. Per riconoscere il veleno di quest'Opera, e le sue filosofiche distruttrici tendenze, sarà bastante indicare che trattandosi sanamente un articolo, colle chiamate ad incontro di altri, si veniva a ritrattarlo ed annientarlo, per esempio un Articolo religiosamente trattato finiva col vedi Articolo Pregiudizio, vedi Articolo superstizione, vedi Articolo Fanatismo. In seguito alcuni Compilatori della rea Turba, profussero un'infinità di [p. 11] Sistemi Filosofici, che colpirono per la loro novità. Nello stuolo di quest'empi Scrittori si distinsero Voltaire, Mirabeau, Elvetico ⁸⁾, Condorcet, Raynal, e tant'altri, dei quali fatalmente le Università abbondare fecero l'Europa. Nello stesso tempo pubblicaronsi anche una quantià di Romanzi, di Poesie, Novellette ec. per porre in ridicolo la Scrittura Sacra, l'Evangelio, li Santi, le discipline della Chiesa, gl'Ecclesiastici, e per riscaldare con laide rappresentanze (quanto facete altrettanto velenose) gl'appettiti della dissolutezza, importante Argomento essendo per essi d'introdurre, e sostenere il mal costume rapido conduttore nel Delitto.

Il Marchese d'Argenson col suo Sistema Politico ⁹⁾, il Marchese di Montesquieu collo Spirito delle Leggi, Gioan Giacomo col Contratto Sociale, Mirabeau col Sistema della Natura prepararono le mine desolanti l'Umanità colla distruzione delle Sovranità.

8)   Vale a dire Claude-Adrien Hélvetius (1715-1771), pensatore e filosofo francese. Vedi D. Wootton, "Helvétius: From Radical Enlightenment to Revolution", Political Theory, vol. 28, n. 3 (2000), pp. 307-336.

9)   Il riferimento è molto probabilmente alle Considérations sur le gouvernement ancien et present de la France scritte nel 1764 da René-Louis de Voyer de Paulmy, marchese d'Argenson (1694 - 1757), molto apprezzate da Jean-Jacques Rousseau nel suo Contratto sociale. Vedi F. Venturi, Settecento riformatore — I Da Muratori a Beccaria, Einaudi, Torino, 1998, pp. 5 e 453-455.

Text and notes

"La causa e gl'effetti" ⁴⁾

[P. 3] The Masonic Institute, the cause of the tragic events occurred in various parts of the world, is the subject of this however small pamphlet.

The origin of this accursed Sect is as uncertain as is the time in which it began.

In Freemasonry are found united Catholics, Schismatics, Protestants, Jews, Turks, and Idolaters, ⁵⁾ and followers of any other widespread [publicly known] or restricted [secret] Sect, the diversity of Religions being to it of no object, reason for which nobody can arrive [!] to the cognition of the purpose that it has proposed for itself; even if with a long series of actions has proven that it does not have any Religion, and to follow all the maxims of Atheism.

4)   In the copy preserved at the Correr Museum in Venice, below the title, is reported the annotation of the marquis of Achedad [?] Armenian, 1798 wich, according to the cataloguer, would indicate the owner of the pamphlet, not the author of the text.   In addition to being unknown to us the identity of the Marquis, a further problem is posed by the indication of the year 1798.   As discussed in the note below, the pamphlet uses printed sources (the report by the British ambassador to China Lord Macarteney) published in English in 1797 and then translated into Italian in 1799.   If the date of 1798 was that of the purchase of the pamphlet by the Marquis, then we must assume that the text was published immediately after the publication of the ambassador's text and, above all, that the anonymous author [of the pamphlet] knew English, something not very common at the time.

5)   There is no doubt that for a very large part of contemporary Freemasonry religious tolerance and therefore the acceptance of candidates of different faiths is an indispensable value and practice.   This was only partly valid in the past, and especially in the first half of the nineteenth century, when the admission of non-Christians — especially Jews, for example — was much debated and often rejected.   On the subject of the relationship between Freemasonry and Judaism see J. Katz, Jews and Freemasons in Europe, 1723-1939, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1970 (English edition of the Hebrew original edited by Leonard Oschry); A. Binni, "Freemasonry and Judaism," in La massoneria liberale, edited by Luigi Danesin, Rome, Atanòr, 2006, pp. 145-164.   The situation changed radically in the mid-1800s when Italian Freemasonry, enlivened by the inspiration of the ideals of the Risorgimento, saw in its midst a growing number of Jewish brethren.   In this regard there is a rich bibliography; I limit myself here to mention the excellent work of L.E. Funaro, "Freemasonry and religious minorities in the nineteenth century," in La massoneria a Livorno — Dal settecento alla Repubblica, Bologna, il Mulino, 2006, pp. 343-416.   On the relationship between Freemasonry and religions and for references to Islam (most of whose confessions prohibit, without qualms, the belonging of the faithful to the institution), see J.A.F. Benimeli, "Massoneria e religioni," in La massoneria liberale, cit., pp. 145-164 and J.M. Landau, "Muslim Opposition to Freemasonry", in Die Welt des Islams, n.s. vol. 36, n. 2 (1996), pp. 186-203.

The primary goal of the Masonic Institute was to spread to every part of the globe; Lord Macarteney's History of China, ⁶⁾ makes the philosophical Maxims of the Sect known [p.4] as far as that very remote empire.

The Masonic purpose clearly results, from its own deeds, to be the usurpation of Public and Private Property in the whole World; purpose so far verified only in part, with a fabric of fine premeditation, of wickedness, and of infamy, all newly minted; remaining to fear further performances, if the Offices in charge of surveillance will continue in that indolent or fraudulent conduct held in the past.

Without dwelling at length on the multiple divisions, derivations, and denominations of the Free-Masons, considering their Confraternity to aim at a general assassination, by destroying Religion, Throne, Laws, and Morality, I divide its members into only two classes; one composed by those arrived at the true knowledge of its design [ultimate goal], tirelessly employed in verifying its execution, and I will call them Active conscious members [agents]; the other composed of those who never came [p. 5] to suspect the great Arcanum of the Secret, but who, nonetheless, without knowing it, by adopting the philosophical maxims insinuated by their Superiors, cooperate in carrying out the goal itself, not suspecting the consequences of the directions given by them, and these I will call the Deceived unconscious members. ⁷⁾

6)   This is Lord Macartney (1737-1806), a diplomat who by the will of the English king George III in 1792 went to China with a large delegation to strengthen commercial relations between his country and the Asian empire.   For more information see J.L. Cranmer-Byng, "Lord Macartney's Embassy to Peking in 1793," in the Journal of Oriental Studies, vol. 4, nos. 1-2 (1957 - 58), pp. 117 - 187.   Following this mission a report was drafted and published in London in 1797 by George Staunton with the title of An historical account of the embassy to the Emperor of China, undertaken by order of the King of Great Britain; including the manners and customs of the inhabitants; and preceded by an account of the causes of the embassy and voyage to China. Abridged principally from the papers of Earl Macartney, as compiled by Sir George Staunton […]. A few years later, between 1799 and 1800, the work was translated into Italian and printed by Giovacchino Pagani with the title of Travel in the interior of China, and in the Tartary done in the years 1792, 1793, and 1794 by Lord Macartney […] Compiled by Sir Giorgio Staunton […] First Italian translation with illustrations and charts.   This constitutes an important chronological reference term — after which — for dating the text here in question.

7)   The division of the adherents to Freemasonry into two classes, that of the unsuspecting innocents and that of those who are instead well aware of the criminogenic nature of the lodges, offers a justification to those who, having abandoned the lodge, said they were repentant and willing to offer their own experience in favor of the fight against Freemasonry.   One example among many was that of Barruel himself (see below under note 12) who in his Mémoirs relates that he had been initiated without actually knowing the true nature of the Masonic institution.   See Sacchi, Myths of Freemasonry, op. cit., pp. 105-111.   Already in 1780, certainly in Italy and certainly also in other European countries, members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy had adhered to Freemasonry, often placing themselves in positions of strong ambiguity.   As regards, for example, the situation of the Venetian lodges, see F. Gaeta, "The Venetian Masonic Lodges from the Deist ideology to the practical and theoretical tolerance (1738-1785)," in Quaderni veneti, 6, (1987), pp. 130-147, which underlines how the adhesion of clergymen and Catholics to the Masonic lodges of Veneto modified their tolerant and pluralistic nature, in fact preventing the acceptance of non-Catholics.

As a result of the diversity of these two Classes, the Masonic Sessions were of two different kinds, when they met in the Lodge.   In those, where only the Active conscious members were present, it was dealt with the truth of the thing [goals] proposed by the Institute; and in those in which the Deceived unconscious members were present, the Sect was made to appear as a Society dedicated to the good of Humanity, and supported by principles of sound morals; knowing those sagacious chiefs, with an unmatched dissimulation, how to appear what they were not, and like Proteus taking all forms, they showed themselves as ferocious, or meek, or atheists, or religious, and skillfully supporting now the Turban, now the Cross, sought [p. 6] to enchant the students, dragging them into erroneous principles and offending the natural state, which with poetic illusions made it believe to be the golden age.

All those who entered into the Sect were compelled to swear a solemn oath, (a greatly fatal oath) which bound them with great tenacity to the wicked Institution.   It should not be surprising if the Atheists tried to take precautions with oaths, claiming that they were not Atheists, knowing the power of these bonds in every Man.

The Secret that was then entrusted to the Pupil was not the true one that was guarded with great caution, but an invention made up by the Active conscious members to astonish the credulity of those who they wanted to deceive, in order to buy the opportune time to test them, and then to find out among them those who had fully demonstrated a character analogous to the views of the Sect, which disposed them toward [embracing] their true secret.

The Maxims insinuated, and inculcated [p. 7] into the mind of the members of the Sect were Freedom, Equality, Fraternity, therefore in the Lodges they were all equals, calling each other with the seductive title of brother, so that the Freemason butcher addressed His Royal Highness the Duke of Orléans with the simple title of Brother, and likewise each other the individuals of the different classes who were in the Lodge.   Terror being one of the principles established by the Sect, the List of those who had been assassinated by the Masonic Order, for having voluntarily, or imprudently failed to keep the sworn promises, was shown to all the Alumni in order to make loyal and obedient slaves out of those who were initiated into the lodge.

When the Free-Masons in the beginnings of the 18th century, and perhaps even earlier, reached a grandiose number [of members], they were able to gradually infiltrate the Cabinets, the Councils, the Departments, the Civil and Criminal Offices, the Military, the Universities, the Academies, the public schools, and thus [p.8] the private congregations, being these individuals necessary in all the offices indicated, and in the societies, in order to facilitate the course of the innovations they wanted to introduce, and to support the philosophical systems they premeditated to promulgate.   The alumni [newer members] enrolled in the Sect were enjoined to lend themselves with the greatest diligence to entice the Youth of every class of people to enter into it, yearning especially for the Princes, and the high Nobility, seeking to benumb them, and to set the other [of lesser nobility] on the edge of the precipice, so they would fall from it by themselves.

Crime being the pivot upon which the Masonic work revolves, the conscious Active leaders select [!] among the members of their society, those who gave abundant incontestable proofs of never interrupted irreligiosity, judiciously calculating irreligiosity to be the shortest and safest path that leads to Crime, and these, once admitted into the true secret, became Actors of the contemplated [p. 9] Assassination by entering the Class of the conscious Actives.   All the others were used as dupes to draw into the dissolute network Kingdoms, Governments, Laws, and morality.

In order to reach the goal of such an ungodly Institute, it was found befitting to draw the Peoples from their tranquility, to delude them, deceive them, inflame them, and reduce them to instruments of their own self-ruin.   They knew that in order to control the Peoples one had to drive them away from loyalty, from respect, and from affection to their Prince.   This detachment was not possible as long as Religion existed in its natural power.   They knew Religion to be the greatest support of the Throne, being the indissoluble bond that always kept sincerely attached the subject to the Sovereign, therefore they directed their scheming toward the great Opera of destroying Religion, in order to overthrow the Thrones, and the Governments, to annihilate the constitutions, the laws, the methods of government, and all those principles of customs, and of subordination which had occurred since the creation of [p. 10] the World, up to the fatal Age of that Diabolic attack, with the explosion of which the Masonic Order placed itself fully unmasked in the Headquarters of Government, accomplishing with blood and massacres the contemplated robbing of the legitimate Authorities of others, and of the public and private substances [possessions].

Considering the Press the surest way to get to the proposed goal, they began to sow the infection with the Encyclopaedia, envisaged as a pretext to give a general idea of the knowledge to which the Men arrived.   To recognize the poison of this Work, and its philosophical destructive tendencies, it will be sufficient to indicate that in treating an article wholesomely, with calls to refer to others [annotations], they arrived to retract it and annihilate it, for example, a religiously treated article ended with a "see" the article Prejudice, see article Superstition, see article Fanaticism.   Subsequently, some compilers of the evildoer mob produced and distributed an infinity of [p. 11] Philosophical Systems, which struck by their novelty.   Among the host of these wicked writers distinguished themselves Voltaire, Mirabeau, Helvétius, ⁸⁾ Condorcet, Raynal, and many others, of which fatally became abound the Universities of Europe.   At the same time they also caused to publish a quantity of Novels, Poems, short Stories, etc. to ridicule the Sacred Scriptures, the Gospel, the Saints, the disciplines of the Church, the Clergymen, and to arouse with lewd representations (as much as facetious and also poisonous) the appetites of debauchery, an important Argument being for them to introduce, and to support immorality, swift conductor to Crime.

The Marquis of Argenson with his Political System, ⁹⁾ the Marquis of Montesquieu with the Spirit of the Laws, Rousseau with the Social Contract, Mirabeau with the System of Nature prepared the mines demoralizing Humanity with the [consequent] destruction of Sovereignty.

8)   Namely Claude-Adrien Hélvetius (1715-1771), French thinker and philosopher. See D. Wootton, "Helvétius: From Radical Enlightenment to Revolution," Political Theory, vol. 28, n. 3 (2000), pp. 307-336.

9)   The reference is most likely to the Considérations sur le gouvernement ancien et present de la France written in 1764 by René-Louis de Voyer de Paulmy, Marquis d'Argenson (1694 - 1757), much appreciated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his Social Contract. See F. Venturi, eighteenth-century reformer — Vol. I, Da Muratori a Beccaria, Einaudi, Turin, 1998, pp. 5 and 453-455.

Alcune di queste sciagurate Opere [p. 12] sovvertive li principj di Religione, e dell'Armonia Sociale, vennero dai Satelliti della Setta diffuse in ogni parte, ed affinchè giungessero con facilità nelle mani di tutti, si vendevano in qualche luoco anche a minor prezzo del costo, ed alcune si donavano, come pure e gl'estratti, ed i Piccioli opuscoli si perdevan per le strade maliziosamente onde ritrovati fossero, e letti. Le Opere poi degl'Uomini di Sane Massime, che sortivano in confutazione delle altre, oltr'essere perseguitate dai medesimi col ridicolo, e col porre in dubbio la Verità sopra la quale erano appoggiate, col denaro della Cassa d'ogni Loggia si proccurava comprarne un gran numero, che venivano abbracciate, col fino oggetto, che non si diffondessero, e che l'universale istruito non ne restasse.

Le filosofiche perniciose produzioni dovevano necessariamente incontrare il più fortunato incontro, essendo favorite dai Confratelli della Setta nelle Corti, negl'Ufficij, e nelle Università, l'autorità dei quali decideva di un'Opera.

[p. 13] Dei saggi avveduti Ecclesiastici conoscendo le perfidie che si ascondevano in quelle stampe, ne fecero ai respettivi loro Governi, replicate rimostranze, pronosticando le gravissime conseguenze che derivate sarebbero lasciandole in corso, ma inutili riuscirono le loro pene a salvezza del Governo, della Religione, e dell'Umanità. Quei Ministri, e quest'Ufficj, presso i quali s'addrizzarono li benemeriti sopradetti Ecclesiastici, ben lungi di fare risultare le loro rappresentanze utili al vero interesse del Principe, le fecero considerare nocive all'Erario, arenandosi, se si seguissero tali suggerimenti, il Commercio della stampa, di modo che occultando gl'effetti ch'apportare dovevano, non si lasciò conoscere che da una fonte pregna di materie conbustibili sortire doveva un fuoco, ch'avrebbe distrutto la Religione, l'Erario, e lo Stato.

Nel fratempo che li sistemi filosofici, e tutte le altre stampe ad essi conducenti per indirette vie, andavano disponendo le Popolazioni a [p. 14] desiderj di novità, colle insinuazioni degl'Individui Massonici nei Gabinetti, nei Consigli ec. si trassero colla Santa Sede, in regolazioni Ecclesiastiche, e ad un'occulta Guerra al Sacerdozio, strascinandole in simili determinazioni col falso calcolo d'interesse di stato, dando ad intendere che conveniva tener basso il Clero, e ridurre i Ministri dell'Altare in minor numero, ed alla semplicità dei primi secoli della Chiesa. Nel punto stesso ch'emergevano le vertenze fatte maliziosamente insorgere, colla maschera di suddito zelo sortire si fecero degl'Annonimi scritti in giustificazione di quanto si aveva voluto, ed era stato fatto, in conseguenza riuscivano in sommo aggravio della Chiesa e dei ministri dell'Altare. Ritrassero gl'empi sommo avanzamento nelle Diaboliche loro viste dagl'avvenimenti seguiti per opera loro in tali propositi, facendoli giocare all'effetto medesimo con mezzi un'all'altro [!] opposti. Colla parte di Popolazione di vacillante [p. 15] credenza si valsero del mezzo di fare comparire la Corte di Roma, e gl'Ecclesiastici nel modo appunto che vengono dai scellerati dipinti, cioè furbi, impostori, fanatici detestabili, o menti pregiudicate; (le invettive, e gl'odj di costoro formano il maggior elogio degli altri.) E con quella parte che ferma riconoscevano nelle massime della Santa Religione, apparire facevano le direzioni del Governo tendenti a sottrarsi dall'obbedienza della Chiesa, ed a cadere in uno Scisma per sole viste d'un sordido mal inteso interesse. Di modo che una parte della Popolazione staccata dalla Religione, e da tutte le pratiche di Cristiana pietà, e l'altra fatta entrare nella credenza che il suo Principe per le regolazioni antedette fosse ingiusto, irreligioso, e si veniva a preparare l'animo di tutta la massa del popolo ad adottare quei principj di riscaldo in aggravio della Sovranità, dai quali nascere dovevano le Rivoluzioni, colla forza di maligne insinuazioni, tanto riguardo ai disordini presenti, quanto illudendo [p. 16] ed infiammando colle immagini di grandiosi beni futuri se cambiamento di Governo seguisse.

Riconosciuto avendo l'Instituto Massonico essere di assoluto impedimento alla verificazione delle sue mire la Inquisizione, e la Religione dei Gesuiti travagliò incessantemente a distruggere l'una e l'altra, ciò che facile era ad esso, col mezzo de' suoi individui nei Pubblici Uffici. Riuscì ad illanguidire nel principio la prima a forza d'inganni, e di calunnie; facendo apparire degl'infantati disordini che ne succedevano, ed in seguito pervenne ad estinguerla interamente. Si rovesciò sopra li Gesuiti la massima della Setta, e li stessi Massonici premeditati delitti, ma la fermezza, e l'avvedutezza del Pontefice Rezzonico ¹⁰⁾, riconosciuta la falsità delle imputazioni fatte alla Compagnia di Gesù, e quanto detta Società era utile alla Chiesa, ed al trono la sostenne sua vita durante, rendendo vane le infinite insidie tese contro di Essa. Continuati però gl'artificj, le seduzioni, non che fatto giuocare [p. 17] efficacemente l'articolo dell'interesse, sorpresa la debolezza del Pontefice Ganganelli ¹¹⁾, si ottenne la loro sopressione, per cui mancata l'educazione dei popoli, tale quale tacevasi da quei buoni Religiosi con tanto avvantaggio dello Stato, il torrente Massonico non avendo più argine inondò il Mondo intero. Sopra quest'argomento che non è di mia appartenenza, oltre molti scrittori di sane massime, ne parlarono recentemente il mai abbastanza lodato Abbé Baruel ¹²⁾, e l'Abbé Proyart nella sua opera intitolata Louis XVI detroné avant d'être Roi ¹³⁾.

10)   Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico (1693-1769), ossia Papa Clemente XIII (1758-1769), coinvolto nella disputa circa la possibile abolizione dell'ordine dei Gesuiti come promosso dagli ambienti dell'Illuminismo francese. Su questo si veda F. Venturi, "Church and Reform in Enlightenment Italy: The Sixties of the Eighteenth Century", in The Journal of Modern History, vol. 48, n. 2 (1976), pp. 215-232.

11)   Gian Vincenzo Antonio Lorenzo Ganganelli (1705-1774), ossia Papa Clemente XIV (1769-1774). Si veda H.M. Scott, "Religion and Realpolitik: The Duc De Choiseul, the Bourbon Family Compact, and the Attack on the Society of Jesus, 1758-1775", in The International History Review, vol. 25, n. 1 (2003), pp. 37-62.

12)   Sacerdote gesuita, pubblicista e intellettuale francese, Augustin Barruel (1741-1820) è più comunemente noto per la sua denuncia nei confronti della setta degli Illuminati e del movimento giacobino contro cui ebbe modo di scagliarsi in svariati scritti polemici. L'opera a cui l'anonimo autore fa riferimento sono — considerando il "recentemente" di cui sopra — le celeberrime Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire du Jacobinisme date alle stampe nel 1797. L'opera conobbe grande diffusione e successo tanto da esser tradotta oltre che in tedesco, portoghese, spagnolo e russo anche in italiano nel 1802. È a Barruel che si deve la formulazione della famigerata idea del complotto massonico rivoluzionario-giacobino. Su questo si veda Pruneti, La sinagoga di Satana, cit., pp. 38-44 e A. Hofman, "Opinion, Illusion, and the Illusion of Opinion: Barruel's Theory of Conspiracy", in Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. 27, n. 1 (1993), pp. 27-60.

13)   Liévin-Bonaventure Proyart (1743-1808), abate francese, scrittore e pensatore conservatore, anti-rivoluzionario e anti-massone, autore di una nutrita lista di opere polemiche contro I movimenti giacobino, rivoluzionario e la massoneria, tra cui si annovera la sopraccitata Louis XVI détrôné avant d'être roi, ou Tableau des causes nécessitantes de la Révolution française et de l'ébranlement de tous les trônes ; faisant partie intégrante d'une Vie de Louis XVI qui suivra, pubblicata nel 1800.

Avanzati li Massonici nel suo Infernale lavoro coll'avere introdotti li suoi seguaci nei Pubblici Uffici, colla forza della stampa, coll'avere infettate le Università, coll'avere strascinati li Governi in determinazioni nuove, nella delicata materia di Religione, e coll'avere estinto Inquisizione e Gesuiti, intraprendere dovevano l'ultima importantissima operazione, cioè la vocale e parziale seduzione dei sudditi per trarli a ribellione. Ma le Leggi [p. 18] Criminali esistenti in vigore non lasciavano adito libero di agire ai feroci Assassini dell'umanità. Quantunque nei Pubblici uffici vi fossero dei loro individui, non erano forse tutti di soli Franchi Muratori composti, o non si aveva ancora il coraggio di opporsi manifestamente a quanto prescrivevano le leggi volute in attività dalla Potestà Sovrana. Si tolsero anche questo obbietto col fare sortire il libro Dei Delitti e delle Pene, che porta il nome di Beccheria, abbenché Egli non sia stato che il compilatore di pensieri e idee raccolte in una privata Società di Franchi Muratori, nella quale più d'ogni altro figurava certo V... ¹⁴⁾ Colla scorta di questo libro si ha saputo condurre e Sovrani, e Governi in quell'infausta clemenza, per cui restò annientata la penna [!] di morte, ed ogni severità di castigo, col filosofico principio che la pena non estirpa il delitto, tacere si fece il senso comune, che insegna apportare la Pena minorazione di Delitti, come l'impunità un sommo riguardevole aumento.

14)   Potrebbe riferirsi a Pietro Verri (1728-1797), autore peraltro delle Osservazioni sulla tortura che influenzarono il pensiero del Beccaria, al quale venne attribuito la prima edizione anonima di Dei delitti e delle pene. Non si può escludere, anche se la prima ipotesi pare più probabile, che l'autore faccia riferimento, invece, a Voltaire, autore di un'opera di commento agli scritti del Beccaria, intitolati Commentaire sur le traité des délits et des peines, 1766. Su Beccaria e l'argomento della riforma del sistema delle pene nel '700 esiste una ricchissima bibliografia. Mi limito qui ad indicare il contributo di Elio Monachesi, "Pioneers in Criminology. IX. Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794)", in The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, vol. 46, n. 4 (1955), pp. 439-449.

[p. 19] Il nuovo Sistema Criminale che il Massonismo trasfuse nei Pubblici Uffici, incoraggì [!] gl'Agenti della Setta ad intraprendere arditamente, impudentemente la seduzione dei popoli, alienandoli dall'affetto al loro Principe, coll'esagerare li gravi disordini del Governo, riscaldandoli colle illusorie imagini dei Beni che ritrarrebbero governandosi da se stessi, ed affascinando le menti degl'ambiziosi, e degl'avvidi con idee chimeriche; e qual Oragano che velocemente tutto spianta, e rovescia si venne ad annientare quanto in tanti secoli la ragione, la Giustizia, e la Religione avevano stabilito per la felicità delle Popolazioni. Tutto a nuovi sistemi riducendo, cambiare si fecero le antiche massime, non che i costumi, colla malefica prevvidenza di fare educare la Gioventù nei principj della funesta moderna filosofia. Quindi non si riguardò più l'utile inseparabile dall'onesto per renderlo certo ed assicurato, e per non cadere nel caso di perdere col mal acquistato, anche [p. 20] il proprio; non più si considerò la Prudenza inseparabile dalla Giustizia, per conservarsi la stima, e la fiducia universale; non più pervenire alla gloria coll'essere effettivamente tali quali si desidera d'essere creduti, non più necessaria la Religione per guida delle proprie azioni, onde esempio ne ritraggano gl'altri, ma essere utile quel che solo apporta avvantaggio, senza aversi riguardi ai mezzi che s'impiegano per ottenerlo, né alle conseguenze che derivare devon valendosi degl'inganni, e delle frodi per verificarlo. Riguardarei prudente quello che nasconde le sue intenzioni, onde condurle al divisato effetto senza ostacoli, procurando occultare li mezzi ributanti impiegati a riuscita dell'intraprese mire. Pervenire alla gloria con azioni strepitose, qualunque sia il sentiero che seguire di debba per giungervi. E la guida delle azioni degl'uomini si asserì non derivare da superstiziosi principj di Religione, ma dalle Massime Filosofiche seguendo li diritti di natura. Così si andò a formare il cuore e la mente [p. 21] di quella Gioventù che coll'andare degl'anni pervenuta negli uffici Governativi adottare fece una nuova Politica, da cui in parte derivarono alle Sovranità, in presente non esistenti, gl'infortunj sofferti.

La classe degl'Ingannatori Attivi ignorantemente è non v'ha dubbio, molto più numerosa dell'altra, perciò un maggior numero di questi trovansi nei Pubblici Uffici, però sempre diretti, e condotti dagl'Attivi scientemente. Quantunque questi Ingannati non sieno mai pervenuti alla cognizione delle mire inique della Setta, ed intimamente per proprio sentimento incapaci sieno d'azioni contrarie al dovere, e all'onore; null'ostante la forza dei prestati giuramenti, la lista degl'assassinati per Ordine Massonico e la destrezza degl'Attivi scientemente nel farli agire separatamente in materie diverse; senza potere traspirare, o sospettare le tendenze delle direzioni che gli si fecero seguire, li resero Agenti assai perniciosi alla Religione ed alla Sovranità. Benchè tutti li Franchi Muratori non sieno dello stesso reo calibro tutti però devono prestarsi [p. 22] al preteso bene dell'umanità, coi principj della Libertà e dell'Eguaglianza, che i fatti seguiti riconoscere li fecero conduttori ai Latrocini, ed agl'eccessi sperimentati. In conseguenza ambe le Classi concordi furono, a procurare un libero corso ai libri nocivi, a diffonderli, e sostenerli, patrocinando li stampatori con fratelli che li producono, e che li spacciano, ad insinuare massime nuove ai loro respettivi Governi, a procurare d'introdurre nei Pubblici Uffici gl'Individui della Setta, lasciando languire gl'onesti, e perseguitando quelli che inimici di Essa si dimostrarono, ad incoraggiare il delitto, non castigando per umanità il delinquente, a condurre gl'affari interni ad irritamento delle Popolazioni, e gl'esterni in modo di porre respettivamente in diffidenza un Gabinetto dell'altro, onde concordia non regnasse, e distratti venissero li Sovrani dalle importantissime riflessioni delle circostanze presenti, per impedire le conseguenze lontane, che metafisica moderna Politica fece sospettare [p. 23] ch'arrivare potessero ma sostanzialmente per impedire la cognizione del sommo pericolo, nel quale li Principj si trovavano, e per allontanarli da quelle risoluzioni a salvezza della propria vita, e della propri Autorità, che necessariamente li avrebbero portati a determinazioni analoghe ai tempi ed alle combinazioni nelle quali erano.

A comprovazione ch'erano infettati di Massonismo li Pubblici Ufficj, debbo fare riconoscere che informati erano li Sovrani delle intenzioni della Setta a loro discapito, e che dietro le cognizioni delle ree mire delle medesima, varj Governi, (senza [!] ottenerne verun imaginabile effetto) ordinarono con robuste Decretazioni, ed Inquisizioni di estirparla interamente.

Per fatto Pubblico la Setta incominciò ad essere sospetta nel 1735. Nel 1745 fu Pubblicato in Amsterdam, o altrove sotto quella data un libro col titolo.
L'Ordre des Francs-Maçons trahis & le Secret des Mopses revelé.
Nel 1747. dallo stesso Autore ¹⁵⁾ pure [p. 24] colla data di Amsterdam fu pubblicato un secondo libro col titolo:
Les Franc Maçons Ecrasés
Suite du livre intitulé l'Ordre des Francs-Maçons trahis, traduit du latin ¹⁶⁾.

Affine che la malizia Massonica non tenti di far passare questi due libri stampati recentemente con un'antidata, mi credo in dovere di avvertire, ch'ambi due si trovano epilogati nel Dizionario Pivati nel Tomo VI dalla pagina 885. alla pagina 929 ¹⁷⁾.

15)   Si tratterebbe dell'abbé Larudan — nome fittizio (in realtà mero anagramma), sotto il quale si celava l'identità di Henri-Charles Arnauld de Pomponne (1669-1756), terzogenito del ministro per gli affari esteri della corte di Parigi, tale Simone Arnauld de Pomponne, ed egli stesso, tra gli altri incarichi ricoperti in vita, ambasciatore di Francia a Venezia. Su Larudan/de Pomponne si veda Dictionnaire universel de la franc-maçonnerie, sous la direction de D. Ligou, Presses Universitaires de France, Parigi, 1974 (riedita nel 2006), p. 959. È molto più probabile che in realtà l'opera sia stata scritta da Giovanni Gualtiero Bottarelli, monaco benedettino; si veda a tal proposito Carlo Francovich, Storia della massoneria in Italia dalle origini alla rivoluzione francese, Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1974, p. 62, Pruneti, La sinagoga di Satana, cit., p. 36 e A. A. Mola, Storia della massoneria italiana — Dalle origini ai nostri giorni, Milano, Bompiani, 1992-2008, p. 49. È in quest'opera che si attesta uno dei primi riferimenti ad Oliver Cromwell quale vero fondatore e ideatore della Massoneria quale strumento di dominio e conquista politica repubblicani. Per maggiori informazionisi veda Margaret C. Jacob, Massoneria illuminata — Politica e cultura nell'Europa del Settecento, Torino, Einaudi, 1995, 37-41 [traduzione dell'originale inglese, Living the Enlightenment — Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth Century Europe, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1991, a cura di Piero Arlorio] e su Larudan/de Pomponne, Dictionnaire universel de la franc-maçonnerie, sous la direction de D. Ligou, Presses Universitaires de France, Parigi, 1974 (riedita nel 2006), p. 959.

16)   Entrambi i testi possono esser consultati on-line presso il sito di Google books [http://books.google.com/].

17)   Si tratta del Dizionario scientifico e curioso sacro-profano edito in dieci volumi da Gianfrancesco Pivati tra il 1746 e il 1751. Su Pivati e l'enciclopedismo italiano si veda S. Garofalo, L'enciclopedismo italiano — Gianfrancesco Pivati, Ravenna, Longo, 1980.

Giudico opportuno di qui riportare alcuni Paragrafi che si trovano nel secondo dei due accennati libri.

Some of these wicked Works [p. 12] subversive of the principles of Religion, and of Social Harmony, were spread by the sub-branches of the Sect all over the places, and so that they could easily reach everyone, they were sold in some place even at a price lower than the cost, and some were given away free, as well as the extracts and the small pamphlets were lost in the streets maliciously, so to be found and be read.   Then the Works of the Men of holy principles, which were published in refutation of the others, in addition of being persecuted by them with ridicule, and by putting in doubt the Truth by which they were supported, it was sought to buy them in large number with the money of the treasury of every Lodge, practice embraced with the ultimate goal that they would not spread, and that the universal instruction would no longer be available.

The pernicious philosophical publications would necessarily meet the most fortunate reception, being favored by the Sect's Confreres in the Courts, in the Offices, and in the Universities, whose authority decided [the approval or ban of] a Work.

[P. 13] Some wise and prudent Ecclesiastics, knowing the perfidies that were hidden in those prints, made repeated grievances to their respective Governments, predicting the very serious consequences that would derive from leaving them in circulation, but their efforts for the salvation of Government, of Religion, and of Mankind were useless.   Those Ministers, and this Offices, to whom the aforementioned praiseworthy Ecclesiastics addressed their concerns, far from making their representations useful to the true interest of the Prince, made them consider harmful to the Treasury, as the commerce of the press would come to a halt, should these concerns and suggestions be followed, so that by concealing the consequences that they [publications] would bring about, it was not allowed to be made known that, from a source full of combustible materials, would necessarily result a fire, which would destroy Religion, Treasury, and State.

While the philosophical systems, and all other prints leading to them by indirect ways, were preparing the Populations to [p. 14] desires for novelty, with the placing of the Masonic Individuals in the Cabinets, in the Councils etc. they challenged the Holy See in Ecclesiastical regulations, and brought about an occult War against the Priesthood, dragging them into similar disputes with the false calculation of state interest, giving to understand that it was fitting to keep the Clergy under control, and reduce the Ministers of the Altar to smaller numbers, and to the simplicity of the Church of the early centuries.   At the very point that the controversies emerged, maliciously caused to arise, with the mask of zealous subjects, the Anonymous writings were caused to be published in justification of what had been wanted and had been done, consequently, they resulted in the highest burden to the Church and the ministers of the Altar.   The impious gained advancement in their diabolic goals by events carried out by them for such purposes, making them play the same effect with reciprocally opposite means [!].   With part of the Population of faltering [p. 15] belief, they availed themselves of the means of making the Court of Rome [Catholic Church], and the Ecclesiastics, appear precisely in the way in which they are portrayed as wicked, that is to say clever, impostors, detestable fanatics, or prejudiced minds; (the invectives, and the hatreds of these forming the greatest praise of the others.)   And with that part which they recognized as firmly convinced in the maxims of the Holy Religion, they made appear the Government's directions as tending to escape from the obedience of the Church and to fall into a Schism only for views of a sordid misunderstood interest.   So that a part of the Population detached from Religion, and from all the practices of Christian piety, and the other made to believe that its Prince, due to aforesaid regulations, was unjust, irreligious, and the spirit of the whole mass of the people was prepared to adopt those principles of conflagration in aggravation of the Sovereignty, from which were born the Revolutions, with the force of malignant insinuations, so much concerning the present disorders, as deluding [p. 16] and inflaming with images of great future benefits if change of Government would follow.

The Masonic Institute, having recognized the Inquisition, and the Jesuit Religion as being of absolute impediment to the attainment of its aims, worked relentlessly to destroy one and the other, which was easy to it, by means of its own people in the public offices.   It managed in the beginning to weaken the first by force of deceit and slander; causing the occurrence of the infantile riots that followed it, and later arrived at stamping it out entirely.   The greater part of the Sect, and the same Masonic premeditated crimes were then directed against the Jesuits, but the firmness, and the wisdom of the Pontiff Rezzonico, ¹⁰⁾ having recognized the falsity of the accusations made against the Society of Jesus, and how much the said Society was useful to the Church and to the Throne, he supported it during all his life, rendering vain the endless snares held against it.   But the continuance of those deceptions, of the seductions, in addition to make the article of interest to play [p. 17] effectively, once the weakness of the Pontiff Ganganelli ¹¹⁾ was discovered, the suppression of the Jesuits was obtained, by consequence of which the education of the peoples with so much advantage of the State, such as was carried out by those good Religious people, came to an end, and the Masonic torrent, having no more embankment, flooded the whole World.   About this argument, which is not mine, besides many writers of healthy principles, spoke recently the never-sufficiently praised Abbot Barruel, ¹²⁾ and the Abbot Proyart in his work entitled Louis XVI detroné avant d'être Roi. ¹³⁾

10)   Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico (1693-1769), or Pope Clement XIII (1758-1769), involved in the dispute over the possible abolition of the Jesuit order as promoted by the circles of the French Enlightenment.   On this see F. Venturi, "Church and Reform in Enlightenment Italy: The Sixties of the Eighteenth Century," in The Journal of Modern History, vol. 48, n. 2 (1976), pp. 215-232.

11)   Gian Vincenzo Antonio Lorenzo Ganganelli (1705-1774), or Pope Clement XIV (1769-1774). See H.M. Scott, "Religion and Realpolitik: The Duc De Choiseul, the Bourbon Family Compact, and the Attack on the Society of Jesus, 1758-1775", in The International History Review, vol. 25, no. 1 (2003), pp. 37-62.

12)   A Jesuit priest, French publicist and intellectual, Augustin Barruel (1741-1820) is more commonly known for his denunciation of the Illuminati sect and the Jacobin movement against which he was able to lash out in various polemical writings. The work to which the anonymous author refers are — considering the "recently" mentioned above — is the very famous Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism published in 1797.   The work was widespread and successful enough to be translated in addition to German, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian also in Italian in 1802.   It is to Barruel that we owe the formulation of the infamous idea of the revolutionary-Jacobin Masonic conspiracy.   On this see Pruneti, The Synagogue of Satan, cit., pp. 38-44 and A. Hofman, "Opinion, Illusion, and the Illusion of Opinion: Barruel's Theory of Conspiracy," in Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. 27, n. 1 (1993), pp. 27-60.

13)   Liévin-Bonaventure Proyart (1743-1808), French abbot, conservative, anti-revolutionary and anti-Freemason writer and thinker, author of a large list of controversial works against the Jacobin, and Freemasonry revolutionary movements, among which is included the aforementioned Louis XVI dethroned before being king, or Tableau of the necessitating causes of the French Revolution and the undermining of all the thrones; an integral part of a Life of Louis XVI that will follow here, published in 1800.

Having the Masons advanced in their Infernal work by having placed their followers into the Public Offices, by the power of the press, by having infected the Universities, by dragging the Governments into new determinations in the delicate matter of Religion, and by having extinguished the Inquisition and the Jesuits, they had to undertake the last very important operation, that is: the vocal and partial seduction of the subjects to bring them to rebellion.   But the existing Criminals Laws [p. 18] in force did not allow the ferocious Assassins of humanity to act freely.   Although they had their own individuals in public offices, perhaps these offices weren't entirely composed of Free-Masons only, or they did not yet have the courage to manifestly oppose what was prescribed by the laws intended to be in force by the Sovereign Powers.   They removed also this impediment by having the book On Crimes and Penalties published, which bears the name of Beccheria, although he was only the compiler of thoughts and ideas collected in a private Free-Masons Society, in which more than any other was member a certain V. … ¹⁴⁾   With the help of this book it was possible to lead both Sovereigns and Governments into that inauspicious clemency, by which the death penalty [!] was abolished and, with the philosophical tenet that punishment does not eradicate crime, also every severity of punishment, silencing the common sense, which teaches that Penalty brings about a reduction of crimes, whereas impunity brings about a supremely remarkable increase [of them].

14)   It could refer to Pietro Verri (1728-1797), author of the Observations on torture that influenced Beccaria's thought, to which was attributed the first anonymous edition of Dei delitti e delle pene. It cannot be excluded, even if the first hypothesis seems more probable, that the author refers instead to Voltaire, author of a commentary work on Beccaria's writings, entitled Commentaire sur le traité des délits et des peines, 1766.   About Beccaria and the subject of the reform of the penal system there is a very rich bibliography in the eighteenth century.   I limit myself here to indicating the contribution of Elio Monachesi, "Pioneers in Criminology. IX. Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794)", in The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, vol. 46, No. 4 (1955), pp. 439-449.

[P. 19] The new Criminal System that Freemasonry transfused into the public offices encouraged [!] the Agents of the Sect to undertake boldly, and shamelessly the seduction of peoples, alienating them from the affection to their Prince, by exaggerating the grave disorders of the Government, alluring them with the illusory visions of the benefits that they would derive by governing by themselves, and fascinating the minds of the ambitious, and of the greedy, with chimerical ideas; and like a Hurricane, that quickly everything uproots and overthrows, everything that in many centuries reason, Justice, and Religion had established for the happiness of the Populations, was annihilated.   Reducing everything to new systems, the old maxims were changed, the customs as well, with the evil foresight to educate the youth in the principles of the pernicious modern philosophy.   Therefore the useful was no longer considered inseparable from the honest, in order to render it certain and assured, and not to fall into the situation of losing with the ill-gotten, also one's own; no longer Prudence was considered inseparable from Justice, so to retain esteem and universal trust; no longer attaining glory by actually being what one desires to be thought of, Religion no longer necessary to guide one's actions, whereby others may derive example, but hold for useful only that which brings an advantage, without having regard to the means used to obtain it, nor to the consequences that derive from making use of deceit, and of frauds, in order to attain it.   I would consider prudent him, who hides his intentions, in order to lead them to the intended effect without any obstacles, procuring to conceal the repulsive means used to achieve the undertaken goals.   Attaining glory with resounding deeds, whatever the path that one must follow to get there.   And it was asserted that the guide to the deeds of men did not to derive from superstitious principles of Religion, but from the Philosophical Maxims pursuant the rights of nature.   Thus were formed the heart and the mind of that Youth [p. 21] which, with the passing of years, arrived into Government offices, had a new Polity adopted, by which in part brought upon the Sovereignties, at present not existing, the injuries suffered.

The class of the unconscious Actives Deceivers is, no doubt, much more numerous than the other, therefore a greater number of these are found in the Public Offices, but always directed, and led, by the conscious Actives.   Although these deceived [unconscious Actives Deceivers] never came to the cognition of the Sect's wicked goals, and intimately for their own disposition are unable to act contrary to duty and honor; despite the power of the oaths taken, the list of the murdered by the Masonic Order and the dexterity of the conscious Actives to make them act separately in different matters; without being able to guess, or suspect the ends of the directions that they were made to follow, made of them Agents very pernicious to religion and sovereignty.   Although all the Free-Masons are not of the same criminal caliber, they all have, however, to lend themselves [p. 22] to the alleged good of humanity, with the principles of Freedom and Equality, that the actions they followed made them acknowledged as conductors to thievery, and to the experienced excesses.   As a result both the Classes were in agreement to procure a free run to the publication of harmful books, to disseminate them, and to support them, patronizing the printers with the brothers who wrote them, and sell them, to instill new maxims to their respective Governments, to work toward introducing the Individuals of the Sect into the Public Offices, letting the honest people to languish, and persecuting those who proved themselves the enemies of the Sect, to encourage crime, not punishing the culpable for the sake of humanity, to carry out the internal affairs toward the irritation of the Populations, and the external [affairs] so to set a Cabinet against the other respectively in distrust, so that harmony would not occur, and the Sovereigns would be distracted from the very important reflections of the present circumstances, which would prevent the distant consequences that could arise, which would make modern metaphysics Politics suspect, [p. 23] but substantially to prevent the knowledge of the highest danger in which the Princes found themselves, and to stave them off from those resolutions [necessary] for the salvation of their own life, and of their own Authorities, which would necessarily have led them to determinations analogous to the times and to the situations in which they found themselves.

As proof that the Public Offices were infected with Freemasonism, I must acknowledge that the Sovereigns were informed of the intentions of the Sect aimed at their detriment, and that, upon their knowledge of the criminal aims of the Sect, various Governments ordered, with robust Decrees and Inquisitions, to completely eradicate it, (without [!] obtaining any imaginable effect).

By openly known Fact the Sect began to be suspect in 1735.   In 1745 a book was published in Amsterdam, or elsewhere under that date with the title:
L'Ordre des Francs-Maçons trahis & le Secret des Mopses revelé.
In 1747, a second book was published by the same Author,¹⁵⁾ also [p. 24] with the date of Amsterdam, titled:
Les Franc Maçons Ecrasés
Suite du livre intitulé the Ordre des Francs-Maçons trahis,
traduit du latin. ¹⁶⁾

In order that the Masonic malice does not attempt to pass these two recently printed books with an antedate, I believe it my duty to warn that there are two of them found in epilogue in the Pivati Dictionary in volume VI, from page 885 to page 929. ¹⁷⁾

15)   It would be the abbot Larudan - a fictitious name (actually a mere anagram), under which was hidden the identity of Henri-Charles Arnauld de Pomponne (1669-1756), third son of the minister for foreign affairs of the Paris court, such Simone Arnauld de Pomponne, and himself, among other posts held in life, ambassador of France to Venice.   On Larudan/de Pomponne see Dictionnaire universel de la franc-maçonnerie, under the direction of D. Ligou, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1974 (reissued in 2006), p. 959.  It is much more probable that in reality the work was written by Giovanni Gualtiero Bottarelli, a Benedictine monk; see in this regard Carlo Francovich, History of Freemasonry in Italy from the Origins to the French Revolution, Florence, La Nuova Italia, 1974, p. 62; Pruneti, The Synagogue of Satan, cit., p. 36 and A. A. Mola, History of Italian Freemasonry - From the Origins to the Present Day, Milan, Bompiani, 1992-2008, p. 49. It is in this work that one of the first references to Oliver Cromwell is established as the true founder and creator of Freemasonry as a tool of republican political domination and conquest.   For more information, see Margaret C. Jacob, Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics at Eighteenth-Century Europe, Einaudi, 1995, 37-41 [translation of the original English, Living the Enlightenment - Freemasonry and Politics at Eighteenth Century Europe, Oxford , Oxford University Press, 1991, edited by Piero Arlorio] and on Larudan/de Pomponne, Dictionnaire universel de la franc-maçonnerie, under the direction of D. Ligou, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1974 (reissued in 2006), p. 959.

16)   Both texts can be consulted online at Google books [see above, the links].

17)   This is the Scientific and curious sacred-profane Dictionary published in ten volumes by Gianfrancesco Pivati between 1746 and 1751.   On Pivati and the Italian encyclopedism see S. Garofalo, The Italian encyclopedism — Gianfrancesco Pivati, Ravenna, Longo, 1980.

I consider it appropriate to quote some Paragraphs from the second of the two books mentioned here.

[p. 25] ORIGINALE

Nella Prefazione a carte VIII ¹⁸⁾

Violà Messieurs les Franc Maçons ce que vous pouvez dire de plus propre a[à] donner le change au Public. Mais par un sort fatal vous avez a faire a un homme qui connoit a fond vos souplesses & vos ruses, qui perce a travers la merveilleuse dissimulation de votre conduite, qui comprend dans toute leur etendu les sens cachés sous vos subtiles & nombreuses allegories …

TRADUZIONE

Ecco Signori Franchi Muratori ciò che potrete dire al Pubblico. Ma per un destino a voi fatale, avete da fare con un uomo che conosce a fondo le vostre attività, e le vostre furberie, che penetra a traverso della vostra portentosa dissimulazione, e delle vostra condotta, che comprende in tutta la sia estensione li sensi [p. 26] nascosti sotto le vostre firme e moltiplici allegorie.

18)   Nei brani in francese che seguono si registrano numerosissime discrepanze di carattere ortografico, in particolare l'omissione di accenti e cediglie. Come per ilresto del testo italiano, anche qui per facilitare la lettura si è deciso non segnalarle se non nei casi più eclatanti o di possibile duplice significato.

A carte IX

Fasse le Ciel, qu'apres avoir été ainsi forcés, comme Protee, vous l'imitè, non en vous precipitant dans la Mer, mais en abolissant votre Ordre, en renonçant a vos chimeriques & gigantesques projets, & que a l'avenir il ne soit plus parlé de votre Societé ni en bien, ni en mal. Après ce voeu que je fais du fond de man[!] coeur pour l'avvantage de genre humain, je vais …

Faccia il Cielo, che dopo essere stati forzati in tal modo, come Proteo, voi lo imitaste, non già col precipitarvi nel mare, ma abolendo il vostro Ordine, e rinunciando alli vostri chimerici, e giganteschi progetti, e che all'avvenire non sia più parlato della vostra Società, nè in bene, nè in male. Dopo questo voto ch'io fo col più profondo del mio cuore per l'avvantaggio del genere umano, io vado …

[p. 27] A carte 5.

En un mot, il falloit un Cromvvel [!] pour y reussir, un genie aussi vaste que le sien, pauvoit seul embrasser un projet de cette importance, & perpetuer les moyens de le soutenir jusque a l'execution surprenante qui etonant l'univers par la plus terrible des metamorphoses, eut enfin satisfait dans le tombeau cette Ombre ambitieuse, sans le coup imprevu qui la traversant aujour d'hui, fera peut etre ouvrir les jeux sur l'orage qui se grossit chaque jour, & reveillera des Puissanses endormie au bord du precepices. Au reste qu'on ne se imagine pas que la singularité du caractere de cet Ennemi de Rois me fasse …

In una parola non vi [!] voleva che un Cromvello per riuscirvi, e solamente un genio sì vasto quant'era quello, poteva abbracciare un progetto di quest'importanza; perpetuando li mezzi di sostenerlo fin alla sua sorprendente esecuzione, che doveva sbalordire l'Universo, colla più terribile delle Metamorfosi, onde [p. 28] quell'ombra ambiziosa [!] restasse finalmente soddisfatta nella tomba, se il colpo improvviso ch'oggi le porta impedimento, non facesse forse aprire gl'occhi, e vedere il turbine ch'ogni giorno grandisse [!], e svegliare non facesse delle Potenze addormentate sull'orlo del precipizio. Del resto non si s'imagini [!] che la singolarità del carattere di questo inimico dei Re, mi faccia …

A carte 9.10

Ici le lecteur attend sans doute avec impacience l'explication de cetto Doctrine, il me demande deja quelle Science assez subtile, & assez profonde, quel art ch'armante & inconsevable a pu rassembler dans una mêmê Secte les partisans d'une infinité d'autres, & devenir le lien miraculeux & universel qui le reunies toutes sans prejudice d'aucune, en voici les points principaux l'Egalité, & la Liberté . …

Qui il lettore, non vi ha dubbio, con impazienza attende la spiegazione di questa Dottrina; Egli già mi [p. 29] ricerca qual Scienza così sotile, e così profonda, qual arte lusinghiera, ed inconcepibile ha potuto unire insieme nella stessa Setta li partigiani d'una infinità d'altre, e riunirsi tutti senza verun rispettivo pregiudizio, con quel legame miracoloso e generale. Eccone li punti principali l'Eguaglianza, e la Libertà …

A carte 16.

La Politique a trouvé a propos d'introduire d'abord cette liberté, & cette Egalité parmi les freres, de l'y fomenter, de l'y perpetuer sans'interruption [!] jusqu'a ce que la Societé suffissament affermie puisse enfin rassembler sous ses drapeaux l'Universe entier …

La Politica trovò a proposito d'introdurre questa Libertà, e questa Eguaglianza fra li Confratelli, di fomentarla, di perpetrarla senza interruzione, fin'a che la Società abbastanza assodata, potesse finalmente riunire sotto le sue insegnie l'universo intero.

[p. 30] A carte 93.

Plaise au Ciel que ce livre ne soit pas pour le Princes, & pour le Monde un aussi bon Prophet que l'a été pour l'Angleterre le livre …

Piaccia al Cielo che questo libro non sia per li Principi, e per il Mondo, un sì buon profeta, come lo fu per l'Inghilterra il libro…

Dagli'accennati Paragrafi chiaramente si riconosce che nell'Epoca in cui scrisse l'Autore, era la Setta scoperta, e decisamente manifeste le sue tendenze a danno della Sovranità, e del genere umano.

Passeremo ora a riscontrare i tempi nei quali alcuni Governi emanarono le loro Sovrane Risoluzioni contra la Massonica Setta, ordinando le opportune Inquisizioni per giungere ad estirparla
Nel 1735. In Olanda.
Nel 1737. In Gand.
Nel 1737. In Manheim.
Nel 1738. In Roma dal Sommo [p. 31] Pontefice Clemente XII. colla Bolla in data 26. Aprile 1738. che incomincia in Eminenti.
Nel 1743. In Vienna.
Nel 1748. In Costantinopoli.
Nel 1751. In Roma nuovamente dal Pontefice Benedetto XIV. colla Bolla 18. Maggio 1751. che incomincia Providas Romanorum Pontificum.
Nel 1751. In Spagna
Nel 1751. In Napoli
Nel 1748. e 1785. in Monaco. Quel Pio, ed umano Sovrano avendo ritrovate nella sorpresa loggia delle carte interessanti le Sovranità tutte, si diede il pensiero d'informare le Corti Europee di quanto era pervenuto a sua cognizione, in riguardo dell'Instituto Massonico.

Nel 1785. In Venezia venne scoperta la Loggia dei Franchi Muratori, ove si trovò la Lista degl'Individui che la componevano. Il Tribunale degl'Inquisitori di Stato al quale apparteneva la materia, condotto (come tutte le altre Sovranità) dalle stesse insinuazioni, dalle stesse illusioni, dalle stesse massime, [p. 32] e dalle solite false risultanze, non solo non diede verun esempio imponente, ma si limitò al solo esilio del Napoletano Michele Sessa, dell'Augustano Carlo Konic, e del Maestro di lingua francese nel Collegi Militare di Verona Mr. Jovre, lasciando in Venezia impuni, ed esercenti li loro riguardevolissimi ufficj, quelli che risultarono dalla Lista antedetta Franchi Muratori in gradi superiori. E per verità dopo seguita la Rivoluzione in Francia, dopo che i Giornali di Parigi manifestarono che il Secreto della Setta era svelato, e che conoscevasi dove mirava la Libertà e l'Eguaglianza, ogn'uno potrebbe presumere con ragione derivata la disgrazia Veneta dall'avere lasciati nel Senato questi individui, che pel piccolo loro numero era ben facile d'escomiarli; ma quand'anche per dovere d'ufficio allora, o in seguito si avesse avuta questa prudente e necessaria avvertenza si sarebbe forse sottratta la Repubblica dall'avvenimento sopraggiuntole? Chi imparzialmente [p. 33] vorrà riflettere alle circostanze, ed ai fattii succeduti, con molta facilità resterà convinto, che se il Senato fosse stato tutto composto di Demosteni, e di Soloni, non poteva mai far sfuggire alla Veneta Sovranità quanto una Setta prepotente disorganizzando la Politica Europea, annientando la Religione, il buon costume, e l'ONORE ¹⁹⁾, fece arrivare alla Francia, al Belgio, all'Ollanda, a molte sovranità della Germania, alla Lombardia Austriaca, al Modenese, allo stato della Chiesa, alla Svizzera, a Malta, a Genova, al Re di Sardegna, al Re di Napoli, al Gran Duca di Toscana, ed all'Egitto ²⁰⁾.

Nel 1789. In Napoli nuovamente.
Nel 1790. Rinnovaronsi in Roma le inquisizioni per lumi ritratti dal processo Cagliostro ²¹⁾
Nel 1790. In Nizza.
Nel 1790. In Augusta.

19)   Così nel testo.

20)   Non è chiaro perché l'autore si soffermi così lungamente su Venezia e offra, al contrario, solo indicazioni sommarie circa altri luoghi italiani ed europei in cui la Massoneria venne perseguitata. Come già anticipato nella parte introduttiva di cui sopra, si potrebbe pensare che l'anonimo abbia conosciuto più da vicino quanto avveniva nella città del Serenissimo governo, magari perché in essa residente, financo solo temporaneamente, o perché in contatto con individui colà residenti. Per quanto non fattore dirimente la questione, è da considerare che delle sei copie oggi esistenti ben tre si trovano proprio nella capitale dell'ex Repubblica dei Dogi. Per maggiori informazioni si veda Francovich, Storia della massoneria, cit., pp. 71-77 e 138. Sulla Massoneria a Venezia esiste una bibliografia generosa, anche se molti dei contributi, in special modo quelli più recenti, si limitano a riportare e riformulare quanto già ben individuato in passato. In tal senso gli studi di maggior rilievo sono quelli di R. Gallo, "La Libera Muratoria a Venezia nel '700" in Archivio Veneto, LX-XI, (1957); F. Trentafonte, "Giurisdizionalismo, Illuminismo e Massoneria nel tramonto della Repubblica Veneta", in Deputazione di Storia Patria per le Venezie, 1984 e R. Targhetta, La massoneria veneta dalle origini alla chiusura delle logge (1729-1785), Udine, Del Bianco, 1988, dai quali hanno in vario modo attinto E. Guidorizzi, "Massoneria, Carboneria, Risorgimento fra Daniele Manin e Niccolò Tommaseo", in Quaderni Veneti, nn. 31-32 (2000), pp. 29-33; P. Del Negro, "Carlo Goldoni and Venetian Freemasonry", in Italica, vol. 80, n. 2 (2003), pp. 166-174, poi comparso in lingua italiana sotto il titolo di "Carlo Goldoni massone?", in Chioggia: rivista di studi e ricerche, n. 30 (2007), pp. 7-16; A. M. Cadel, Venezia e la massoneria nel '700, Venezia, Centro internazionale della grafica, 1995; L. Urban, La massoneria da Goldoni a Casanova, Venezia, Centro internazionale della grafica, 2003; N. Agostinetti, Massoneria e società segrete nel Veneto del sette-ottocento, Padova, Edizioni del Lombardo Veneto, 2004 e a cura di L. Danesin, Massoneria e illuminismo a Venezia — Carlo Goldoni e le Donne curiose, Atanòr, Roma, 2008. Di particolare interesse sono gli ottimi studi di F. Barbierato, "La bottega del cappellaio: libri proibiti, libertinismo e suggestioni massoniche nel '700 veneto", in Studi veneziani, n.s. XLIV, 2002, pp. 327-366 e A. Bernardello, "Massoni, democratici, giacobini? La confederazione feudale di Hannover(1772-1800)" in Studi veneziani, n.s. LIV, 2007, pp. 169-215 nei quali vengono messi in evidenza importanti legami tra il partito riformatore veneziano — in buona parte poi filo-francese — la Massoneria e i filoni del pensiero religioso giansenista e indipendente.

21)   Ossia Giuseppe Giovanni Battista Vincenzo Pietro Antonio Matteo Balsamo, detto Cagliostro, senza dubbio una delle figure più affascinanti e al contempo controverse sia in ambito latomistico che profano. La vicenda giudiziaria nei confronti di Cagliostro accusato di una plethora di crimini tra cui si include la magia e soprattutto l'eresia, si concluse con la sua carcerazione nel 1791. Morì nel 1795 a causa delle estreme condizioni sofferte durante la detenzione presso le carceri papaline di San Leo, oggi in provincia di Rimini. A lui si deve la creazione della Massoneria di Rito Egizio. Sulla figura di Cagliostro rinvio al recente volume di P. Faulks e R.L.D. Cooper, Cagliostro — Il mago massone — Vita e morte del conte di Cagliostro e il suo Rito Egizio, Roma, Edizioni Mediterranee, 2011 (edizioni italiana dell'originale inglese The Masonic Magician, Londra, Watkins Publishing, 2008).

Malgrado le cognizioni dei Governi che li portarono alle indicate determinazioni, e malgrado le instituite Inquisizioni per estirpare la Setta, avendo la medesima continuato [p. 34] il suo lavoro con tanta efficacia che giunse a verificare in parte il fine propostosi, ogni uomo di mezzano intendimento comprenderà facilmente ch'una Congiura scoperta contra il Trono, e la Chiesa, non poteva mai più essere nociva, né pervenire a verificare il suo progetto senza la collusione degl'Ufficj incaricati di vegliare per discioglierla, che la lasciarono tranquillamente agire, e conviene dirlo, senza che fossero gl'Ufficj stessi d'intelligenza per fare sbalzare dal Trono il proprio Sovrano.

Potrebbe taluno desumere che le cognizioni pervenute ai Governi delle intenzioni della Setta, derivassero dalla vigilanza appunto di chi pressiedeva nei Pubblici Uffici, perciò non posso fare a meno d'indicare che il merito delle fatte scoperte fu tutto della Corte di Roma, col mezzo dei suoi Nunzj Apostolici, o con quello di altre figure Ecclesiastiche, e specialmente dei Gesuiti finchè esisterono.

Le Rivoluzioni accadute furono tutte dal Massonismo condotte colli [p. 35] stessi mezzi, cioè coi pestiferi principi della Libertà e dell'Eguaglianza. Niuna differenza apportando la varietà del Clima, del suolo, dei costumi, delle costituzioni, e delle leggi. Con eguali forme si trassero sempre alle stessa dissoluzione li Governi Monarchici, e Ministri, e le Repubbliche, infiammando col medesimo fanatismo Cattolici, Protestanti, e Musulmani.

Alcuni di quei Principi strascinati dai loro Maestri nella Setta, ed inebriati dai moderni Filosofici Sistemi, ch'erano chiamati dai confratelli Commediante, Avvocato, Macellajo, Fabro, Birajo ec. coll'amoroso titolo di fratello, vennero dai medesimi fraternamente e filosoficamente assassinati, o almeno deposti, ed obbligati ad abbandonare le Scettro, ed andare raminghi senza sussistenza. Parimenti moltissimi Individui della Setta furono massacrati, o temendosi il loro ravvedimento, o volendosi in tal modo minorare il numero dei pretendenti alla ripartizione dei furti commessi, che sostanzialmente restarono [p. 36] nelle mani delli Capi Direttori l'azienda Politica, e Militare della Setta, finchè non riusciva ad'altri di fare trucidare, o sbalzare dal loro posto quelli che in Autorità si trovavano per rimpiazzarli.

Giunta la Massoneria a stabilirsi in Sede Imperante assumendo un Dispotico Governo, che denominò Democratico, spiegando in Esso le Massime, gl'amblemi, e le allegorie della Setta, spinse la Armate Massoniche nei luoghi rivoluzionari per scacciarne li legittimi Sovrani, e per premiare le Popolazioni, che li facilitarono l'ingresso, collo spoglio generale delle loro sostanze.

Sicchè la Democrazia non fu, e non è che la Sede imperante dell'Instituto Massonico. Se la Democrazia fu un Governo ladro, rubate avendo le Proprietà del legittimo Sovrano, e le sostanze delle tradite popolazioni, ne deriva che lo scopo massonico mirando alla Democrazia, mirava all'usurpo delle altrui Autorità, ed alla derubazione delle sostanze pubbliche, e private dell'Universo intero.

[p. 37] A riscontro dell'infezione delle Università, sarà bastante rammemorare la condotta delle Università di Lovanio, d'Ingolstad, ec. li Weishaupt, li Tamburini, ec. non che gl'Eroi della Democrazia in ogni e qualunque parte Democratizzata, essendo a pubblica cognizione che il maggior numero degl'accaniti, furenti Democrati [!] furono sempre gli Avvocati, li Medici, li Professori, in sostanza li Legali, che il latte filosofico ricevuto avevano nelle Università, idolatrando e seguendo quei principj, che soli rendevano possibile ad essi il passaggio dallo stato mercenario, a quello imperante vagheggiato per ambizione, e interesse. Non intendo con ciò stabilire la massima, che chi fu educato in un Università, debba necessariamente essere malvaggo [!], ma ricordo questi fatti soltanto per comprovare che le Università erano infette.

Rovesciati li Governi, fattasi perdere la Religione, esaltati li cervelli con erronei principj, presero profonde radici la temerità, gl'arbitrj, il monopolio, il libertinaggio, la [p. 38] violenza, e tutto ciò che sfrenata non repressa licenza può fare arrivare ove non esista in fatto Governo. Il malvagio protetto, prescelto, e sostenuto; l'onesto negletto, burlato, e disprezzato; languide Autorità senza norme, senza mezzi, e senza facoltà; l'onore e la capacità non considerate, fecero incontrare per ogni dove uno si rivolse miseria, disordini, e desolazioni. La figliale obbedienza distrutta, la domestica subordinazione estinta, figli sviati, mogli sedotte, donne rapite, ordini non eseguiti, metodi nuovi, delitti impuniti, e continuate violenze sono le conseguenze dei nuovi Sistemi.

Per apparenti principj d'Eguaglianza, ma sostanzialmente a maggiore depression del buon costume, maliziosamente introdurre si fece maligna moda di Vestiario, che l'incauta Gioventù Nobile, e Civile adottò spensieratamente non conoscendo che strascinarla si volle in bassi sentimenti per facilitare gl'insulti, e per farle perdere con esteriori insegne Giacobine la stima de' [p. 39] suoi compatrioti onesti, e quella degl'esteri. Ed in fatto è ben ributtante di vedere un Cavagliero presentarsi al pubblico vestito da Marinaro, da Perucchiero, e come la vil Plebe, contrafacendo la naturale sua fisionomia coi capelli, e colla barba per renderla simile a quella degl'assassini, che con tale aspetto pretesero d'impor terrore alle persone. Ugualmente le donne per mania della moda dallo stesso principio partita non hanno riguardo di farsi vedere nelle pubbliche strade, al passeggio, e perfino nelle Chiese in quel modo indecente che in altri tempi nemmeno le meretrici ardivano mostrarsi.

Cambiaronsi li Vocaboli di tutte le azioni infami, e per esempio il delitto di Stato, e l'alto tradimento presero il nominativo Opinioni Politiche, ec. Si ritrovò il Nominativo Allarmista per quegl'Uomini onesti, che Spirito di Religione e di Sudditanza, li portavano a declamare contra gl'innovatori, ed i fanatici, ec.

Per conservare l'orgasmo delle [p. 40] popolazioni si cercò di finire di distruggere l'Altare col levare la sussistenza ai di lui Ministri, coll'annientare il castigo, onde gl'inganni, la frode, la mala fede, l'inobbedienza, e la violenza abbiano libero corso, col non reprimersi le gravi trasgressioni dei Venditori, la di cui avidità angaria riflessibilmente il popolo, col non purgare le Città da un considerabile stuolo di vagabondi a carico della popolazione, per sostenere sempre vivo il sentimento della scontentezza, ed aumentare l'impotenza delle Pie Instituzioni a suffragare li Poveri, col non vegliare alla sicurezza delle persone, col non aversi considerazione per quei miseri che senza loro colpa cederono in decisa e grave indigenza, non dirò di più, bastandomi di avere chiamato il lettore a vedere di volo gl'effetti derivati dai filosofici Massonici Sistemi, che certamente ripullulare continuamente si vedranno finchè rivivere non si faccia ciò che la rea Setta fece cadere in obblio, vale a dire Inquisizione, e Forca.

FINE

[P. 25] ORIGINAL

In the Preface, at page VIII ¹⁸⁾

Voilà Messieurs les Franc Maçons ce que vous pouvez dire de plus propre a [à] donner le change au Public. Mais par un sort fatal vous avez a faire a un homme qui connoit a fond vos souplesses & vos ruses, qui perce a travers la merveilleuse dissimulation de votre conduite, qui comprend dans toute leur etendu les sens cachés sous vos subtiles & nombreuses allegories …

TRANSLATION

Here it is, Messrs Free-Masons, what you can tell the public.   But for a fate fatal to you, you have to deal with a man who knows your activities thoroughly, and your cunningness, who penetrates through your portentous dissimulation, and your conduct, who understands in all its extents the senses [p. 26] hidden under your signatures and multiple allegories.

18)   In the French passages that follow there are numerous discrepancies of an orthographic nature, in particular the omission of accents and cedillas.   As for the rest of the Italian text, even here, to facilitate reading, it was decided not to report them except in the most striking cases or of possible deceptive meaning.

At page IX

Fasse le Ciel, qu'apres avoir été ainsi forcés, comme Protee, vous l'imitè, non en vous precipitant dans la Mer, mais en abolissant votre Ordre, en renonçant a vos chimeriques & gigantesques projets, & que a l'avenir il ne soit plus parlé de votre Societé ni en bien, ni en mal. Après ce voeu que je fais du fond de man[!] coeur pour l'avvantage de genre humain, je vais …

Translation. — May Heaven grant, that after having been forced in this way, like Proteus, you may imitate him, not just by falling into the sea, but by abolishing your Order, and by renouncing your chimerical and gigantic projects, and that in the future no more will be mention of your society, either good or bad.   After this vow which I make in the deepest of my heart for the benefit of mankind, I shall reply …

At page 5

En un mot, il falloit un Cromvvel [!] pour y reussir, un genie aussi vaste que le sien, pauvoit seul embrasser un projet de cette importance, & perpetuer les moyens de le soutenir jusque a l'execution surprenante qui etonant l'univers par la plus terrible des metamorphoses, eut enfin satisfait dans le tombeau cette Ombre ambitieuse, sans le coup imprevu qui la traversant aujour d'hui, fera peut etre ouvrir les jeux sur l'orage qui se grossit chaque jour, & reveillera des Puissanses endormie au bord du precepices. Au reste qu'on ne se imagine pas que la singularité du caractere de cet Ennemi de Rois me fasse …

Translation — In a word, it was needed but a Cromwell to succeed there, and only a genius so great as he was could embrace a project of this importance; perpetuating the means to sustain it until its surprising execution, which was to amaze the Universe with the most terrible of the Metamorphoses, wherefore [p. 28] that ambitious shadow [!] would finally remain satisfied in the tomb, if the sudden blow that today causes to it impediment would not perhaps cause the eyes to open and to behold the hurricane that every day become larger, [!] and would not wake up some sleeping powers on the edge of the precipice.   Moreover, let us not imagine [!] that the singularity of the character of this enemy of the Kings makes me to attribute to him …

At page 10. 11

Ici le lecteur attend sans doute avec impacience l'explication de cetto Doctrine, il me demande deja quelle Science assez subtile, & assez profonde, quel art ch'armante & inconsevable a pu rassembler dans una mêmê Secte les partisans d'une infinité d'autres, & devenir le lien miraculeux & universel qui le reunies toutes sans prejudice d'aucune, en voici les points principaux l'Egalité, & la Liberté. …

Translation — Here the reader, undoubtedly, awaits impatiently the explanation of this Doctrine; he asks me already [p. 29] what subtle enough a Science, & enough profound, what a flattering and inconceivable art has been able to unite into one and the same Sect the partisans of an infinity of others, and become the miraculous and universal bond which unites all of them without prejudice to any of them.   Here are the principal points: Equality and Liberty. …

At page 16 [17 - 18]

… la Politique a trouvé à propos d'introduire d'abord cette liberté, & cette Egalité parmi les freres, de l'y fomenter, de l'y perpetuer sans'interruption [!] jusqu'a ce que la Societé suffissament affermie puisse enfin rassembler sous ses drapeaux l'Universe entire …

Translation — Politics found it appropriate to introduce this Freedom, and this Equality among its Confreres, to foment it, to perpetrate it without interruption, until the quite established Society could finally unite the entire universe under its banners.

[p. 30] At page 93 [104]

… & plaise au Ciel que ce livre ne soit pas pour le Princes, & pour le Monde un aussi bon Prophet que l'a été pour l'Angleterre le livre …

Please be the Heaven that this book shall not be for the Princes, and for the World, such a good prophet, as was the above-cited book for England …

From the mentioned Paragraphs it is clearly recognized that, in the time in which the Author wrote, the Sect was already exposed, and its intents clearly perceived detrimental to Sovereignty, and to the human race.

We will now pass to find the times in which some Governments issued their Sovereign Resolutions against the Masonic Sect, ordering the appropriate Inquisitions in order to eradicate it.
In 1735. In the Netherlands.
In 1737. In Ghent.
In 1737. In Manheim.
In 1738. In Rome, by the Supreme [p. 31] Pope Clement XII. with the Bull dated 26. April 1738, which begins "in Eminenti."
In 1743. In Vienna.
In 1748. In Constantinople.
In 1751. In Rome again by Pope Benedict XIV, with the Bull of May 18, 1751, which begins "Providas Romanorum Pontificum."
In 1751. In Spain
In 1751. In Naples
In 1748 and 1785 in Munich. That Pious, and human Sovereign, having found in the exposed lodge some documents of interest all the Sovereignties, thought proper to inform the European Courts of what had come to his knowledge regarding the Masonic Institute.

In 1785. In Venice the Lodge of the Free-Masons was discovered, where was found the List of Individuals who composed it.   The Tribunal of the State Inquisitors, to which the matter belonged, though guided (like all other Sovereignties) by the same insinuations, by the same illusions, by the same maxims, [p. 32] and by the usual false results, not only did he not give an imposing example, but limited himself to the exile of the Neapolitan Michele Sessa, of the German Carlo Konic, and of the Master of French language in the Military Colleges of Verona, Mr. Jovre, leaving in Venice unpunished, and free to carrying on their most respectable offices, those who from the said list resulted to be Free-Masons in higher degrees.   And indeed after the Revolution in France had followed, after the Newspapers in Paris showed that the Secret of the Sect was unveiled, and it was known where Freedom and Equality would lead, everyone could reasonably presume the Venetian disgrace derived from having left these individuals in the Senate, which for their small number was very easy to evict; but even if, by way of official duty, then, or later, had this prudent and necessary precaution taken place, would the Republic have been spared from the event which had occurred to it?   Who impartially [p. 33] will want to reflect on the circumstances, and on the succeeding facts, with great ease it will remain convinced that, if the Senate had been totally composed of men like Demostenes, and Solon, it could never have made the Venetian Sovereignty elude [not recognize] what and how much a domineering Sect, disorganizing the European Polity, annihilating Religion, good customs, and HONOR, ¹⁹⁾ brought to bear to France, to Belgium, to Holland, to many sovereignties of Germany, to Austrian Lombardy, to Modena, to the state of the Church, to Switzerland, to Malta, in Genoa, to the King of Sardinia, to the King of Naples, to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and to Egypt. ²⁰⁾

In 1789. In Naples again.
In 1790, the inquisitions were renewed in Rome, following the facts brought to light by the Cagliostro trial. ²¹⁾
In 1790. In Nice.
In 1790. In Augusta.

19)   So [capitalized] in the text.

20)   It is not clear why the author lingers so long on Venice and offers, on the contrary, only summary indications about other Italian and European places where Freemasonry was persecuted.   As already mentioned in the introductory part above, one might think that the anonymous person has known more closely what happened in the city of the Most Serene Republic, perhaps because it was a resident of it, even only temporarily, or because it was in contact with individuals living there.   Although not a decisive factor in the matter, it must be considered that of the six copies existing today, three are located right in the capital of the former Republic of the Doges.   For more information see Francovich, History of Freemasonry, cit., pp. 71-77 and 138.   There is a generous bibliography on Freemasonry in Venice, although many of the contributions, especially the more recent ones, are limited to reporting and reformulating what has already been clearly identified in the past.   In this sense, the most important studies are those of R. Gallo, "La Freemasonry in Venice in the 1700s" in the Archivio Veneto, LX-XI, (1957); F. Trentafonte, "Jurisdictionalism, Enlightenment and Freemasonry in the Fall of the Venetian Republic," in Deputation of National History for the Venices, 1984 and R. Targhetta, Venetian Masonry from the origins to the closure of the lodges (1729-1785), Udine, Del Bianco, 1988, from which they drew in various ways E. Guidorizzi, "Freemasonry, Carboneria, Risorgimento between Daniele Manin and Niccolò Tommaseo," in Quaderni Veneti, nos. 31-32 (2000), pp. 29-33; P. Del Negro, "Carlo Goldoni and Venetian Freemasonry," in Italica, vol. 80, n. 2 (2003), pp. 166-174, then appeared in Italian under the title "Carlo Goldoni freemason," in Chioggia: magazine of studies and research, n. 30 (2007), pp. 7-16; A. M. Cadel, Venice and Freemasonry in the 1700s, Venice, International Graphic Design Center, 1995; L. Urban, Freemasonry from Goldoni to Casanova, Venice, International Graphic Design Center, 2003; N. Agostinetti, Freemasonry and secret societies in the Veneto region of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Padua, Edizioni del Lombardo Veneto, 2004 and edited by L. Danesin, Freemasonry and enlightenment in Venice — Carlo Goldoni and the curious women, Atanòr, Rome, 2008.   Of particular interest are the excellent studies of F. Barbierato, "The Hatter's workshop: forbidden books, libertinism and Masonic suggestions in the Venetian eighteenth century," in Studi veneziani, n.s. XLIV, 2002, pp. 327-366 and A. Bernardello, "Democrat Masons, Jacobins? The feudal confederation of Hanover (1772-1800)" in Studi veneziani, n.s. LIV, 2007, pp. 169-215 in which important links between the Venetian reformist party — mostly pro-French — the Freemasonry and the branches of the Jansenist and independent religious thought are highlighted.

21)   That is: Giuseppe Giovanni Battista Vincenzo Pietro Antonio Matteo Balsamo, called Cagliostro, without doubt one of the most fascinating and at the same time controversial figures both in the Masonic and the profane circles. The judicial case against Cagliostro, accused of a plethora of crimes including magic and especially heresy, ended with his imprisonment in 1791.   He died in 1795 due to the extreme conditions suffered during his detention at the papal prisons of San Leo, today in the province of Rimini.   To him we owe the creation of the Egyptian Rite Freemasonry.   On the figure of Cagliostro I refer to the recent volume by P. Faulks and R.L.D. Cooper, Cagliostro — The Masonic Magician — Life and death of the Count of Cagliostro and his Egyptian Rite, Rome, Edizioni Mediterranee, 2011 (Italian editions of the English original The Masonic Magician, London, Watkins Publishing, 2008).

Despite the knowledge of the Governments that brought them to the indicated determinations, and despite the Inquisitions instituted to eradicate the Sect, since said Sect continued [p. 34] its work so effectively that it succeeded in bringing to fruition in part its intended purpose, every man of average comprehension will easily understand that a Conspiracy discovered against the Throne, and the Church, could never be more harmful, nor get to realize its project without the collusion of the Officials in charged with keeping watch in order to dissolve it, who let it quietly act and, it must be said, without the officials themselves being in cahoots to make their Sovereign be thrown out of the Throne.

It could be assumed that the knowledge of the intentions of the Sect received by the Governments derived from the vigilance of the persons who presided in the Public Offices, therefore I cannot help but indicate that merit of the expositions was all of the Court of Rome [Papal Court], by means of its Apostolic Nunci, or with that of other Ecclesiastical figures, and especially of the Jesuits as long as they existed.

The Revolutions that occurred were all led by Masonism with [p. 35] the same means, that is, with the pestiferous principles of Freedom and Equality.   The variety of climate, soil, customs, constitutions, and laws making no difference.   The monarchical governments and ministers and the republics, were always drawn into the same dissolution with equal forms, inflaming with the same fanaticism Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims.

Some of those Princes, drawn by their Teachers into the Sect, and intoxicated by the modern Philosophical Systems, who were called with the loving title of brother by their Comedian, Lawyer, Butcher, Blacksmith, Brewer etc. confreres, were fraternally and philosophically murdered by them, or at least deposed, and obliged to abandon the Scepter, and go wandering without subsistence.   Likewise, many individuals of the Sect were massacred, or fearing their repentance, or wanting in this way to reduce the number of the pretenders to the distribution of the thefts committed, which substantially remained [p. 36] in the hands of the Heads of the Political and Military Establishment of the Sect, until it became possible to others to slaughter them, or to remove from their place those who were in authority, in order to replace them.

Once Freemasonry came to establish itself in the ruling seat assuming a despotic government, which it called Democratic, explaining in it the maxims, the emblems, and the allegories of the Sect, it pushed the Masonic armies into revolutionary places in order to drive out their legitimate sovereigns, and to reward the Populations, which facilitated their entry, with the general spoils of their substances.

So that Democracy was not, and nothing but the ruling Seat of the Masonic Institute.   If the Democracy was a thief Government, having stolen the Properties of the legitimate Sovereign, and the substances of the betrayed populations, it follows that the Masonic purpose, aiming at Democracy, aimed at the usurpation of the authority of others, and at the stealing of public and private substances of the whole Universe.

[P. 37] To confirm the infection of the Universities, it will be enough to remind of the conduct of the Universities of Leuven, of Ingolstadt, etc., the Weishaupts, the Tamburinis, etc., as well as the Heroes of Democracy in any and every Democratized country, being in public knowledge that the greatest number of the ruthless, furious Democrats [!] were always the Barristers, the Doctors, the Professors, essentially the Lawyers, who had received the philosophical milk in the Universities, idolizing and following those principles, which alone made it possible for them to pass from the mercenary state to the prevailing state, longed for ambition and interest.   I do not intend to establish the maxim, that whoever was educated in a university must necessarily be evil, [!] but I remind these facts only to prove that the universities were infected.

Once Governments are overthrown, Religion caused to be lost, the minds exalted with erroneous principles, temerity, arbitrariness, monopoly, libertinism, took deep roots, [p. 38] violence, and all that unrestrained not-repressed license can lead where there is no established Government.   The wicked protected, chosen, and supported; the honest neglected, mocked, and scorned; Authorities languishing without norms, without means, and without capability; honor and ability not taken into consideration, caused for one turning everywhere to meet misery, disorders, and desolations.   The filial obedience destroyed, the domestic subordination extinct, misguided sons, seduced wives, raped women, unexecuted orders, new methods, unpunished crimes, and continued violence are the consequences of the new Systems.

For apparent principles of equality, but substantially to a greater despondency of the good customs, malignant clothing fashion was maliciously introduced, which the reckless Noble and Civil Youth carelessly adopted, not knowing that it was intended to drag the youth to ignoble sentiments, to facilitate insults, and with external Jacobite insignia to make them lose the esteem of their [p. 39] honest compatriots, and that of foreigners.   And in fact, it is very repulsive to see a gentleman appearing in public dressed as a sailor, as a barber, and like the vile Plebe, counterfeiting its natural physiognomy with hair, and with its beard to make it similar to that of murderers, so that with this aspect they pretended to impose terror on people.   Likewise, the women, for the fashion craze started from the same principle, they have no consideration for being seen in public streets, walking about, and even in churches in that indecent way, in which in other times, not even the prostitutes dared to show themselves.

The definition of all the infamous actions was changed and, for example, the crime against the State, and high Treason they took the name of Political Opinions, etc.   For those honest men, whom the Spirit of Religion and submission led them to speak against the innovators, and fanatics, etc., was found the appellation of Alarmist.

To preserve the unrestrained excitement of [p. 40] the populations, it was tried to complete the destruction of the Altar by taking away the subsistence [salary and other benefits] from its Ministers, by doing away entirely with punishment, so that deceit, fraud, bad faith, disobedience, and violence would have free rein; by not suppressing the grave transgressions of vendors, whose avidity reflexively plagued the people; by not purging the Cities from a considerable number of vagrants [maintained] at the expense of the population; by always sustaining the feeling of discontent, and increase the impotence of the Pious Institutions to support the Poor; by not watching over the safety of people; by having no regard for those poor who, for no fault of their own, fell into continued and severe indigence.   I will say no more, being sufficient for me to have called the reader to see in overview the effects derived from the philosophical Masonic systems, which will certainly be revived continually until that which the evildoer Sect caused to fall into oblivion is not made to live again, namely the Inquisition, and the gallows.

THE END.

Herbert Vorgrimler ¹⁾

Dialogue entre l'église et les francs-maçons

(Kirche und Freimaurer im Dialog,

éditions Josef Knecht, Frankfurt, 1975)

(Extraits)

L'auto-présentation de la franc-maçonnerie révèle, avec l'aide de la symbolique et du rituel, ce que les francs-maçons attendent, pour se réaliser en tant qu'hommes, de la vie en groupe.

1)   Herbert Vorgrimler, élève puis collaborateur de Karl Rahner, a été chargé d'enseigner le dogme catholique à l'Université de Luzern, puis de Münster. A la demande du Pape Paul VI il a étudié la franc-maçonnerie et a dialogué avec ses adhérents. Certains de ses nombreux livres sont considérés comme ouvrages de base de l'église catholique.

Si l'on considère l'Église catholique 'en tant que telle', on peut supposer qu'elle offre à un chrétien suffisamment de moyens permettant à ce dernier de tendre, par des gestes rituéliques, vers son perfectionnement humain, et de donner, grâce à son appartenance à une groupe déterminé, des impulsions et d'en recevoir.

Mais l'Église n'est réalisée nulle part 'en tant que telle', comme elle devrait l'être. Il s'ensuit que, ici et là, un catholique peut avoir l'impression de ne trouver dans l'Église ni impulsions et régulations concernant sa façon de penser, d'agir et de ressentir, ni expression suffisante, par des symboles et un rite, du travail sur soi-même. Il est admis que certains chrétiens ont, à ce sujet, des demandes légitimes vis à vis de l'église, demandes qu'ils cherchent à satisfaire par des méditations pratiquées en Extrême Orient. Et, pourquoi pas, dans la franc-maçonnerie sous une forme focalisée davantage sur la communauté ?

(Vorgrimler pense évidemment que la franc-maçonnerie ne doit pas et ne peut pas remplacer l'Église qui maintient vivant le message de Dieu et l'espérance en vie éternelle. Néanmoins:)
Les rites et les symboles des francs-maçons peuvent être considérés comme des compléments justifiés et significatifs de la liturgie et des sacrements parce que les rites de l'Église sont, peut-être, trop communs et insignifiants, se réfèrent trop peu à l'individu, plongent leurs racines dans un passé trop lointain, l'antique Rome et Byzance. D'où la recherche de gestes complémentaires, en parallèle aux coutumes quelque peu générales, sans engagement, pratiques, même de nos jours dans un style de cour. (…)

C'est précisément parce que la franc-maçonnerie interpelle les hommes réfléchis, matures, permettant par la même la supposition — étant donné qu'en premier lieu il faut penser du bien de l'homme et ne point supputer du mal — que ceux qui s'intéressent à la franc-maçonnerie sont en mesure de distinguer un groupe d'une Église, un rituel d'un sacrement, et n'échangent pas l'un contre l'autre. (…)

La notion de Dieu, chez les francs-maçons 'réguliers', comprenant et honorant Dieu en tant que 'Grand Architecte de l'Univers', soulève la question théologique suivante : peut-il s'agir de Dieu qui, selon la conviction chrétienne, se manifeste à l'esprit et au coeur de chaque individu, et qui est perçu, indubitablement, de manière différente chez les homes différents, Dieu qui s'est révélé de façon insurpassable à Jésus. Le terme employé par les francs-maçons, pour désigner Dieu, repose sur des représentations déistes et suscite chez certains chrétiens, pour cette raison, la suspicion d'une perception erronée et hérétique. Cependant, en fait, la conception théologique de la tradition chrétienne n'implique pas l'expression simultanée de ce que la pensée et la foi sont en mesure de proclamer pour désigner Dieu. Le terme biblique d' 'Architecte', pour désigner Dieu, est tout à fait approprié pour traduire un aspect de la relation de Dieu avec le monde, c'est à dire : tout, sans aucune exception, a sa source en Dieu, le Tout implique la volonté d'avoir un sens et un accomplissement. Une telle foi n'est pas 'une petite chose'. Elle exprime ce que la philosophie chrétienne est capable d'étudier à fond : que rien ne peut exister sans plan sensé, sans fondement et sans ordre moral, que la multitude et l'individu humain ne peuvent pas être des produits du hasard. (…)

La notion maçonnique de 'Grand Architecte de l'Univers' ne comporte ni n'exprime rien qui pourrait être opposé à la compréhension chrétienne de Dieu. (…)

La franc-maçonnerie 'régulière' n'emploie pas non plus de notions disqualifiant l'interprétation dogmatique (de l'Église) de la relation divine avec le monde. (…) Cela correspond à la conception chrétienne selon laquelle la Foi est un acte libre d'une personne libre et ne doit pas être imposée à qui que ce soit ; en l'absence de Liberté il ne peut pas être question de Foi. Si, parallèlement à la liberté de croyance, la liberté de conscience est, pour les francs-maçons, la valeur la plus élevée, cela doit être admis, du point de vue catholique, sans aucune réserve. Si on parle de 'valeur', on entend par là ce que l'homme peut atteindre par ses propres efforts, ce qui, pour lui, est utile et utilisable, il s'agit donc toujours d'une valeur relevant du créé. Quant à la conception chrétienne de Dieu, elle ne permet pas d'intégrer Dieu dans une série de 'valeurs', même pas en tant que la valeur la plus élevée d'une échelle de valeurs. (…)

Le message biblique est un message de liberté et la pensée de liberté a été répandue dans le monde par le christianisme. Mais un chrétien ne pourra pas dire cela en triomphant : il devra reconnaître que l'Église a 'enseveli' la liberté et que d'autres ont dû se battre pour la reconquérir. A ce sujet, le catholique peut être reconnaissant vis à vis de profanes — protestants, juifs, francs-maçons, socialistes — pour leur discernement, les guides de son Église étant restés aveugles à ce sujet.

Enfin, nous voudrions évoquer la relation de l'Église avec la franc-maçonnerie 'irrégulière', éventuellement athéiste et anticléricale. Cette question est importante parce qu'on ne peut pas s'attendre à ce que la franc-maçonnerie 'irrégulière', si elle n'est ni une religion, ni un substitut à la religion, renonce à jamais d'admettre des membres athées. Bien entendu, cela va de soi, il n'est pas nécessaire de rappeler ici, car cela va de soi, qu'un catholique ne peut pas appartenir à une loge qui, systématiquement, par ex. par ses statuts ou ses textes rituéliques, ainsi que par ses pratiques, oblige à l'athéisme, et dont les activités sont contre l'Église et anticléricales. Toutefois, sur ce dernier point, même un catholique peut avoir la conviction justifiée que l'Église d'une région exerce une trop grande influence sur la vie publique, qu'elle jouit de trop de privilèges et que ses droits, même acquis légalement, peuvent de nos jours être considérés comme un obstacle à un témoignage crédible de l'Évangile; l'Église devrait donc renoncer à ces droits, comme c'est expressément prévu par le Second concile du Vatican. Il est certain qu'un catholique qui exprimerait une telle opinion, entrerait dans la plupart des cas en conflit avec son Église car hiérarchie s'efforcera toujours à sauvegarder les bien de l'Église. Mais il aura — par engagement envers Jésus — une attitude loyale critique à l'encontre d'une telle hiérarchie. Cependant, même un anticléricalisme justifié ne peut être pratiqué par un catholique de l'extérieur de l'Église.

Il en est autrement si la loge se tient scrupuleusement à la règle d'éviter les conflits d'ordre religieux ou politique. (…) celui qui saura accepter cette neutralité pourra — comme le laisse entendre la déclaration du Vatican de juillet 1974 - devenir membre d'une loge qui compte parmi ses adhérents des personnes qui ne vénèrent pas le G.A.D.L.U., qui sont athées, sceptiques et qui doutent. Un travail éthique sur soi-même peut aussi se faire dans un cercle d'athées ; pour un catholique également connaître les convictions éthiques de ceux qui pensent différemment, apprendre la pratique de la tolérance est important . La où la Foi n'est pas ridiculisée ou combattue, les réticence théologiques envers une telle adhésion disparaissent.

Herbert Vorgrimler¹⁾

Dialogue between the church and the Freemasons

(Kirche und Freimaurer im Dialog,

Editions Josef Knecht, Frankfurt, 1975)

(Excerpts)

The self-portrayal of Freemasonry reveals what the Freemasons expect to achieve as men with the help of the symbolism and the ritual of the group life [activities].

1)   Herbert Vorgrimler, pupil and then collaborator of Karl Rahner, was commissioned to teach Catholic dogma at the University of Luzern, then Münster. At the request of Pope Paul VI, he studied Freemasonry and conversed with its adherents. Some of his many books are considered basic works of the Catholic Church.

If we consider the Catholic Church 'as such,' it can be supposed that it offers a Christian [man] sufficient means enabling him, through ritual gestures, to reach out towards his human perfection, and, thanks to his belonging to a particular group, to thus give him and to receive from it motivations.

But the Church 'such as is' is not realized anywhere as it should be.   It follows that here and there a Catholic may have the impression that he finds in the Church neither motivations and restraints concerning his own of thinking, acting, and feeling, nor sufficient manifestations of the work on himself, through symbols and a rite.   It is admitted that some Christians have legitimate demands on the Church in this respect, which they seek to satisfy through meditations practiced in the Far East.   And, why not, in Freemasonry in a form focused more on the community?

(Vorgrimler obviously thinks that Freemasonry should not and cannot replace the Church, which keeps alive the message of God and the hope in eternal life.   Nevertheless:)

The rites and symbols of the Freemasons can be considered as justified and significant complements of the liturgy and of the sacraments because the rites of the Church are, perhaps, too much of little value and meaningless, referring too little to the individual, as they plunge their roots in the too far past ancient Rome and Byzantium.   Hence the search for complementary gestures, in parallel with customs somewhat general, without commitment, practices, even today in a court-like style. (…)

It is precise because Freemasonry appeals to thoughtful, mature men, thereby allowing the supposition — given that, in the first place, one must think of the good in man and not to guess the evil in him — that those who are interested in Freemasonry are able to distinguish a group from a church, a ritual from a sacrament, and do not mistake the one from the other. (…)

The notion of God, among the 'regular' Masons, in understanding and honoring God as the 'Great Architect of the Universe,' raises the following theological question: can it be the God who, according to Christian conviction, manifests himself to the mind and heart of every individual, and who is undoubtedly perceived differently by different men, God who has revealed himself in an unparalleled way to Jesus?
The term used by the Freemasons to designate God is based on deistic representations and arouses in some Christians, for this reason, the suspicion of a wrong and heretical perception.   Nonetheless, the theological conception of the Christian tradition does not imply the simultaneous expression of what thought and faith are able to affirm in order to designate God.
The biblical term 'Architect,' to designate God, is quite appropriate to translate an aspect of God's relationship with the world, that is: everything, without any exception, has its source in God, the Everything implies the desire to have meaning and fulfillment.
Such faith is not 'a small thing.'   It expresses what Christian philosophy is capable of studying thoroughly: that nothing can exist without a sensible plan, without foundation, and without moral order, that the multitude and the human individual cannot be the products of chance. (…)

The Masonic notion of the 'Great Architect of the Universe' does not contain or express anything that could be in contradiction to the Christian understanding of God. (…)

Nor does the 'regular' Freemasonry employ notions that disqualify the dogmatic interpretation (of the Church) of the divine relationship with the world. (…)   This corresponds to the Christian view that Faith is a free act of a free person and should not be imposed on anyone; in the absence of Liberty, there can be no question of Faith.   If parallel to freedom of belief, freedom of conscience is for the Freemasons the highest value, this must then be admitted, from the Catholic point of view, without any reservation.
If we speak of 'value', we mean by that which man can achieve by his own efforts, that which for him is useful and usable, so it is always a value within the created [creation].   As for the Christian conception of God, it does not allow to include God into a series of 'values', not even as the highest value of a scale of values. (…)

The biblical message is a message of freedom, and the thought of freedom was spread throughout the world by Christianity.   But a Christian cannot say that boastfully: he will have to acknowledge that the Church has 'buried' freedom and that others have had to fight to win it back.   On this subject, the Catholic may be grateful towards the laypeople — Protestants, Jews, Freemasons, Socialists — for their discernment, the leaders of his Church having remained blind on this subject.

Finally, we would like to call to mind the relationship of the Church with the 'irregular' Freemasonry, possibly atheist and anticlerical.   This question is important because we cannot expect that 'irregular' Freemasonry, if it is neither a religion nor a substitute for religion, to ever renounce the admission of atheist members.
Of course, it goes without saying, it is not necessary to recall here, because, it goes without saying, that a Catholic cannot belong to a lodge which, systematically, that is, by its statutes or its ritual texts, as well as by its practices, obliges to atheism, and whose activities are against the Church and anticlerical.
However, on this last point, even a Catholic may have the justified conviction that the Church of a region has too much influence on public life, that it enjoys too many privileges and that its rights, even if acquired legally, can today be considered as an obstacle to a credible testimony of the Gospel; the Church should, therefore, renounce these rights, as is expressly provided for by the Second Vatican Council.
It is certain that a Catholic who expresses such an opinion would, in most cases, come into conflict with his Church, because hierarchy will always strive to safeguard the welfare of the Church.   But he will — by his commitment to Jesus — have a loyal attitude critical of such a hierarchy.   However, even justified anticlericalism cannot be practiced by a Catholic from outside the Church.

It is different if the Lodge is held strictly to the rule of avoiding religious or political conflicts. (…) whoever will accept this neutrality can — as the Vatican declaration of July 1974 suggests — become a member of a lodge which includes, among its members, people who do not worship the G.A.O.T.U. [Great Architect of the Universe], who are atheists, skeptics and who doubt.
An ethical work on oneself can also be done in a circle of atheists; it is important for a Catholic also to know the ethical convictions of those who think differently, to learn the practice of tolerance.   Where Faith is not ridiculed or fought, the theological reluctance to such adherence disappears.

Buch-Kritik:

"Kirche und Freimaurerei im Dialog"

(von Herbert Vorgrimler)

Felizitas Küble über Prof. Vorgrimler und die
"getrennten Brüder."

In der Rezension "Fundamente des Glaubens geleugnet" (siehe Monatsblatt "Theologisches" Nr. 4/2003) hatte ich das neue, Anfang 2003 erschienene Buch von Prof. em. Herbert Vorgrimler untersucht und zahlreiche theologische Irrtümer aufgezeigt.

Das eindeutig häretische Werk des gefeierten Rahner-Schülers tràgt den irreführenden Titel "GOTT — Vater, Sohn und Heiliger Geist"; der Münsteraner Dogmatiker verwirft darin entscheidende Teile der kirchlichen Trinitàtslehre, leugnet die Gottheit Christi und die Personalitàt des Heiligen Geistes, kritisiert die Deutung des Kreuzestodes Christi als Opfer bzw. Sühne und stellt die historische Glaubwürdigkeit des Neuen Testamentes infrage.

Ab 1987 wirkte Dr. Herbert Vorgrimler, der seit 1972 als Nachfolger Karl Rahners in Münster Dogmatik lehrte, einige Jahre auch als Dekan der Kath.-Theologischen Fakultàt.

Zwei Jahre zuvor veröffentlichte er seine "Theologische Gotteslehre", die sich von wichtigen Teilen der kirchlichen Trinitàtslehre distanzierte und überdies erklärte, die "biblischen Gottesbilder" ließen sich heute "nicht mehr vermitteln". Dieses 1985 erschienene Werk erhält durch das in diesem Jahr veröffentlichte Buch eine (theo)logische Fortsetzung, weil die Hàresien dort munter vermehrt wurden.

1975, genau 10 Jahre vor dem Erscheinen der "Theologischen Gotteslehre", brachte der Frankfurter Knecht-Verlag ein Buch heraus, das nicht nur eine Annäherung, sondern eine klare Parteinahme für die Freimaurerei darstellt, gespickt mit hàufigen Angriffen gegen die kirchliche Position.

Dieses Werk trägt den Titel "Kirche und Freimaurer im Dialog". Als Verfasser dieses Lobgesangs auf die Freimaurerei fungieren der Theologe Herbert Vorgrimler, der die Freimaurer freundlich als "getrennte Brüder" bezeichnet (man glaubte bislang, dieser Begriff gelte den evangelischen Christen) — sowie der Redakteur Rolf Appel, eigenen Angaben zufolge Freimaurer seit 1948, danach mit hochrangigen Funktionen bekleidet (Mitglied des Senats der Vereinigten Großlogen von Deutschland).

Kritik an katholischer Kirche

Schon in der von Vorgrimler verfassten "Einleitung" des Buches wird die Kath. Kirche wegen ihrer Ablehnung der Freimaurerei scharf kritisiert:

"Lange Zeit" sei "selbst die katholische Kirche dem Anti-Freimaurer-Wahn verfallen". Diese Fehlhaltung könne nur durch "Besinnung auf das ursprüngliche Christentum" abgebaut werden. Die Kirche müsse sich lösen von einer "hysterischen Psychose gegen Minderheiten", wobei Vorgrimler "Juden, Kommunisten und Freimaurer" namentlich benennt.

Überhaupt könnte man den Eindruck gewinnen, als ob Freimaurer in Deutschland übel diskriminiert würden, bezeichnet Vorgrimler sie doch allen Ernstes als "verfolgte und verleumdete Minderheit hierzulande". Vorgrimler berichtet, dass er kein Logenmitglied sei, weil er persönlich "verschiedene Bedenken" empfinde, die aber "nicht theologischer oder dogmatischer Natur" seien.

Prof. Vorgrimler: Kein Mitglied, aber zugeneigt

Er kann mit freimaurerischen Symbolen und Riten nicht allzu viel anfangen, zumal es im "katholischen Christentum", wie er schreibt, "noch genug entbehrliche Symbole, Zeremonien und Titel gibt, die das Wesentliche nicht in sich bergen, sondern verdecken". — Da möchte sich der Theologe nicht mit weiteren Symbolen und Ritualen aus der Loge "belasten".

Allerdings bekundet er ausdrücklich seine "Hochachtung und Zuneigung gegenüber der Freimaurerei". Im Schlußsatz seiner Einleitung bestätigt er den Freimaurern, dass er bei ihnen "nie andere Motive wahrnahm als die der Verwirklichung von Humanität, Toleranz und Gewissensfreiheit."

Nun wissen nicht wenige konservative Christen aus Erfahrung, dass die "Toleranz" vieler selbsternannter Lordsiegelbewahrer der Toleranz bisweilen genau dort aufhört, wo der Andersdenkende beginnt, seinen Standpunkt zu äußern. Damit verliert die vielgepriesene Toleranz ihren eigentlichen Sinn, denn dieser kann nur darin bestehen, dass man dem Andersdenkenden den persönlichen Respekt nicht verweigert, also zwischen Person und Sache trennt.

Toleranz als Einbahnstraße?

Davon kann freilich beim Theologen Vorgrimler keine Rede sein. Toleranz erscheint auch bei ihm als Einbahnstraße, die gegenüber angeblich "verfolgten" Minderheiten wie z. B. Kommunisten und Freimaurern eingeklagt werden muss, aber selbstverständlich gegenüber "bösen" Konservativen ihre Gültigkeit verliert.

Wer die Freimaurerei eindeutig ablehnt, ist aus der Sicht des Münsteraner Dogmatikers offenbar reif für die "Klapse" oder gar ein Fall für den Staatsanwalt. Selbst dann, wenn man beispielsweise mit Pater Manfred Adlers Büchern gegen die Freimaurerei nicht übereinstimmt, wird man sich noch lange nicht dazu versteifen dürfen, den Autor einer "nazistischen Geisteswelt" zu bezichtigen, wie Vorgrimler das mehrfach unterstellt (S. 66/67).

Sieht so etwa die freimaurerisch inspirierte "Toleranz" aus, die sich flugs in eine "braune Keule" verwandelt, wenn es sich beim Andersdenkenden um einen Freimaurerkritiker handelt?

Polemik gegen Bischof Rudolf Graber

Auch der damalige Bischof von Regensburg, Dr. Rudolf Graber, der sich in seiner 1973 erschienenen Schrift "Athanasius und die Kirche unserer Zeit" skeptisch zur Freimaurerei äußerte, erfährt den fast rasenden Zorn Vorgrimlers, der damals als Dogmatikprofessor in Münster lehrte. Er spricht in bezug auf den Bischof vom "Untergrund, der solche Meinungen hervorbringt" und von einem "Milieu, das den innerkirchlichen Aufstand probt" (S. 68).

Vorgrimler sieht seine Aufgabe nun darin, vor solchen "Tendenzen" zu warnen, "in deren Rahmen Phänomene wie Adler und Graber einzuordnen sind" (S. 68). — Neben dem Miriam-Verlag, der Monatszeitschrift "Der Fels" und der "neuen bildpost" wird auch die "Deutsche Tagespost" dem antifreimaurerischen Spektrum zugerechnet, wobei die "Übergänge zur Sektenmentalität fließend sind", wie Dr. Vorgrimler zu berichten weiß (S. 69).

Auf Seite 70 lässt der Autor dann die Katze aus dem Sack und psychiatrisiert ausdrücklich seine Gegner, die schrecklichen Freimaurer-Kritiker, bei denen offenbar die hehren Worte und Werte von "Toleranz, Humanität und Gewissensfreiheit" ihr abruptes Ende finden, denn schließlich — das merke man sich bitte! — gilt "Gewissensfreiheit" nur für Gegner der Kirche, für "verfolgte Minderheiten" wie Kommunisten und Freimaurer.

Psychiatrisierung der Logenkritik

Vorgrimler schreibt also: "Aus dieser merkwürdigen, nur psychoanalytisch und psychiatrisch erklärbaren Subkultur des katholischen Milieus stammen die nachkonziliaren Angriffe auf die Freimaurerei. Die Erzeugung und Nährung von Psychosen ist heutzutage nicht mehr, wie in den Zeiten Pius IX. und Leos XIII., eine Angelegenheit, an der sich der Papst mit der Mehrheit der Bischöfe beteiligt. Den Betroffenen — in diesem Fall den getrennten Brüdern, den Freimaurern — mag das ein Trost sein. Man könnte diese Subkulturen sich selbst und ihren Wahnvorstellungen überlassen, da sie Feindbilder und Märtyrersehnsucht nötig haben, um überhaupt existieren zu können und ihnen niemand das Recht auf Existenz absprechen möchte …".

Bis dahin darf man beruhigt feststellen, dass der Dogmatikprofessor seinen Gegnern immerhin das "Recht auf Existenz" nicht abspricht, was schon als Fortschritt gelten mag. Der Satz ist freilich noch nicht zu Ende: "… ihnen niemand das Recht auf Existenz absprechen möchte — wären nicht schon einmal aus ähnlichen (wenn auch nicht ausgesprochen "christlichen") Subkulturen jene gekommen, denen es gelang, im Kampf gegen Juden, Freimaurer und Kommunisten die Welt ins Unglück zu stürzen."

Die Nationalsozialisten, die Vorgrimler hier ins Spiel bringt, haben vor allem die katholische Kirche bekämpft, was er offenbar zu erwähnen "vergisst". Nicht die Freimaurer, sondern Papst, Bischöfe, Jesuiten und "Pfaffen" waren die vorrangigen Feindbilder, die im "Stürmer" und ähnlichen Hetzschriften ständig attackiert und durch Karikaturen verunglimpft wurden.

Verständnis für deistisches "Gottesbild"

Großes Verständnis zeigt Vorgrimler für das bestenfalls deistische, häufig völlig verschwommene und unpersönliche Gottesbild mancher "christlicher" Freimaurer der unteren Grade (Johannislogen). Der Autor stellt fest: "Im freimaurerischen Begriff des Großen Baumeisters des Universums ist nun nichts enthalten und ausgesprochen, was dem christlichen Gottesverständnis im Weg stünde." (S. 74).

Während Dr. Vorgrimler in den Seiten zuvor alle Hände voll zu tun hatte, Andersdenkende zu diffamieren und zu psychiatrisieren, fällt ihm im Zusammenhang mit der Freimaurerei wieder das Hohelied der Toleranz ein. Auf S. 76 stellt er das vermeintlich weiße Gewand der Loge dem angeblich befleckten Kleid der Kirche gegenüber:
"Ein Katholik kann aber der Überzeugung sein, dass die Bejahung der Menschenrechte in der Kirche, die Bejahung der religiösen Toleranz in der Gesellschaft und damit auch die Bejahung der Gewissensfreiheit, die Einsicht, dass die Freiheit nur soweit verwirklicht ist, als die Freiheit der Einsicht in die Kirche gekommen ist."

Wer hat diese "Einsichten" in den Raum der Kirche getragen? — Aber sicher doch, die "verfolgten Minderheiten" natürlich:
"Er (der Katholik) wird zugeben müssen, dass die Kirche die Freiheit verschüttet hat und dass andere sie neu erkämpfen mussten. In diesem Sinne kann er Außenstehenden — Protestanten, Juden, Freimaurern, Sozialisten — für vielfältige Einsichten dankbar sein, für die seine Kirchenführer blind waren."

Zustimmung zum Antiklerikalismus

Auf der nächsten Seite erklärt der Autor dem vielleicht damals noch staunenden Publikum, dass es durchaus einen "berechtigten Antiklerikalismus" gebe. Schließlich könne "auch ein Katholik der begründeten Überzeugung sein, die Kirche einer bestimmten Region nehme zu viel Einfluss auf das öffentliche Leben; sie sei mit zu vielen Privilegien ausgestattet, ihre legitim erworbenen Rechte stünden heute einem glaubhaften evangelischen Zeugnis im Wege, sie müsse daher, wie das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil ausdrücklich vorsah, auch auf solche legitimen Rechte verzichten."

Der Autor erspart sich die Beweisführung aus dem 2. Vatikanum, das angeblich dazu aufruft, die Kirche "müsse" auf ihre "legitim erworbenen" (!) Rechte verzichten. Auch wenn die Freimaurerei dies seit Jahrhunderten fordert, "muss" die Kirche sich diesem Wunsche noch lange nicht fügen, zumal die Logen keineswegs zugunsten der Kirche auf irgendwelche "Rechte" verzichten. Wieder nur eine Einbahnstraße zu Lasten der Kirche!

Vorgrimler würdigt auch atheistische Logen

Wenn dieser einseitige Antiklerikalismus überdies mit dem wohlklingenden Wort vom "evangelischen Zeugnis" verbrämt wird, stehen einem erst recht die Haare zu Berge. "Toleranz üben zu lernen ist auch für Katholiken durchaus wertvoll", schreibt Vorgrimler sogar hinsichtlich jener atheistischer Logen, die den sog. "Obersten Baumeister des Weltalls" nicht verehren (S. 77/78).

Solange der Glaube in diesen ungläubigen Logen nicht bekämpft werde, stehe einer Mitgliedschaft von Katholiken seiner Ansicht nach nichts im Wege. Aber selbst gegenüber betont atheistischen, gemeint sind wohl antikirchlichen Logen, bei denen sogar Vorgrimler von einer Mitgliedschaft abrät, empfiehlt er "Dialog und Zusammenarbeit" (S. 78).

Es entspräche "nicht christlichem Geist", wenn die Kath. Kirche "lediglich" ihr Verhältnis zu den "regulären Logen" ordnen würde, hingegen eine "absolute Feindschaft" gegenüber antiklerikalen "irregulären Logen" (in Frankreich z. B. der mitgliederstarke "Grand Orient de France") aufrechterhalten wolle.

Kirche wird "pathologisches Feindbild"
vorgehalten

Das würde bedeuten, dass die Kirche auf eine unmissverständliche Abgrenzung verzichtet gegenüber Gruppen, von denen sie bekämpft wird. So etwas wie "Feindschaft" darf sich offenbar nur die Loge leisten; von Seiten der Kirche handelt es sich im gleichen Fall um ein "pathologisches Feindbild" (S. 78).

Wieder einmal fällt dem Theologen Vorgrimler das Zweite Vatikanum ein, wenn ihm sonst nichts mehr einfällt. Es muss jetzt dazu herhalten, "im Interesse der Menschheit" tätig zu werden:
"Es entspräche nicht den vom Konzil ausgehenden Impulsen, wollte man gar nicht nach Aufgaben fragen, die sich möglicherweise im Interesse der Menschheit und einer humanen Zukunft für Katholiken und Freimaurer gemeinsam abzeichnen." (S. 79)

Mit diesem wenig sagenden, aber viel andeutenden Schlußsatz verabschiedet sich Prof. Vorgrimler von den Lesern des Buches.

Möglicherweise denkt er an etwas Ähnliches wie sein theologischer Ziehvater Karl Rahner, der bereits 4 Jahre zuvor, nämlich 1971, in dem Sammelband "Zur Theologie der Zukunft" auf S. 111 folgendes über die "planetarische Menschheit" zu schreiben wusste:
Der Mensch von heute und erst recht der von Morgen ist der Mensch einer planetarisch vereinheitlichten Geschichte, eines globalen Lebensraumes und damit der Abhängigkeit jedes von schlechthin allen. Die UNO ist dafür nur ein bescheidenes Indiz."

Führender Freimaurer Rolf Appel

Was nun den Buch-Kollegen Rolf Appel betrifft, so stimmt er natürlich mit dem Theologen Vorgrimler in der Wertschätzung der Freimaurerei überein, zumal er dort seit Jahrzehnten als Mitglied zuhause ist. Man muss dem Redakteur und Verleger Appel allerdings zugutehalten, dass er die Logengeschichte weitaus kritischer sieht und sichtet als der katholische Dogmatiker, was einigermaßen erstaunt.

Immerhin räumt er ein, dass vor allem im 18. Jahrhundert schwerwiegende Fehler und Ver(w)irrungen seitens der Freimaurerei vorgekommen sind; ein Gedanke, den Prof. Vorgrimler vermutlich nie zu denken wagte, jedenfalls floss er nicht in seine Tinte.

Der bekennende Freimaurer Rolf Appel jedoch konstatiert offenherzig: "Es ist nur zu verständlich, dass die katholische Kirche den größten Argwohn gegenüber der Freimaurerei hegen musste", zumal die Logenarbeit damals "streng geheim" gewesen sei (S. 125).

Das hört sich deutlich anders an als die antikirchlichen Attacken Vorgrimlers gegen die vermeintlich "pathologischen Wahnvorstellungen" und die "Erzeugung von Psychosen" durch Papst und Kirche, wogegen er auf den Seiten 62 bis 70 unerbittlich polemisiert.

Causa "Lichtenauer Erklärung"

Im Anhang an den Vorgrimler-Artikel wird übrigens die freimaurerfreundliche "Lichtenauer Erklärung" von 1970 dokumentiert, an der Prof. Vorgrimler mitwirkte, die aber nicht einmal vom Wiener Kardinal König unterzeichnet wurde, obgleich dieser der Freimaurerei keineswegs feindlich gegenübersteht.

Bischof Dr. Josef Stimpfle (Augsburg) erklärte am 12. Mai 1980 im Auftrag der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz in einer Pressemitteilung: "Die Lichtenauer Erklärung hat keinerlei kirchliche Autorisierung erhalten: Weder von einer Bischofskonferenz noch von einer römischen Behörde."

Außerdem stellte er klar: "Die gleichzeitige Zugehörigkeit zur Katholischen Kirche und zur Freimaurerei ist unvereinbar." — Seine Begründung: "Die Freimaurerei hat sich in ihrem Wesen nicht gewandelt. Eine Zugehörigkeit stellt die Grundlagen der christlichen Existenz in Frage."

Die "Deutsche Tagespost", in Dr. Vorgrimlers Buch der antifreimaurerischen "Subkultur" zugerechnet, veröffentlichte am 8. 12. 1981 ein Interview von Radio Vatikan mit Bischof Stimpfle. Darin gibt der Augsburger Oberhirte zu erkennen, dass sogar die jahrelangen offiziellen Gespräche mit "regulären" (nicht antikirchlichen) Freimaurern nur einen Einblick in die unteren drei Grade ermöglicht haben.

Geheimnischarakter der Logen

Der Bischof berichtet wörtlich:
"Die Freimaurerei ist auf vielen Graden aufgebaut. Nur für die unteren drei Grade (Lehrling, Geselle, Meister), für die "Johannismaurerei", erstreben die Freimaurer eine kirchliche Beitrittserlaubnis, während sie für die höheren Grade eine Öffnung zur Kirche hin nicht erstreben, offensichtlich auch gar nicht für möglich halten. Die höheren Grade, ihr Wesen, ihre Ziele und Aktivitäten, hüllen sie in ein undurchdringliches Geheimnis. Noch im Jahr 1980 hat der zugeordnete Großmeister G. Großmann eine Verstärkung des Geheimnischarakters der Freimaurerei gefordert."

Daraufhin stellt der Bischof die berechtigte Frage: "Wie kann sich die Kirche einer Organisation öffnen, deren oberste Leitung ihre Pläne und Unternehmungen völlig verborgen hält?"

Unvereinbarkeitsbeschluß der dt. Bischöfe

Die eindeutige Erklärung der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, vom "Spiegel" (Nr. 13/1981) damals als "Anti-Freimaurer-Bannfluch" und "Rückmarsch ins Ghetto" bezeichnet, führte zu wütenden Ausfällen des "herausragenden Theologen".

Der Unvereinbarkeits-Beschluss des deutschen Episkopats gehöre, so Dr. Vorgrimler, "in die Sammlung aberwitziger Bannflüche seit 150 Jahren".

Er fügte hinzu: "Die Kirche muss sich nicht wundern, wenn sie angesichts solcher Erklärungen als Gesprächspartner nicht mehr ernst genommen wird."

Das "alte" Kirchenrecht (CIC von 1917) enthielt bekanntlich eine Bestimmung (can. 2335), wonach der Beitritt zur Freimaurerei bei Strafe der Exkommunikation verboten ist. Nachdem die Freimaurerei im neuen CIC von 1983 nicht mehr ausdrücklich erwähnt ist, wurde dies von interessierter Seite so verstanden, als stände damit einer Logenmitgliedschaft von Katholiken nichts mehr im Wege.

Kardinal Ratzingers Klarstellung zur Freimaurerei

Kardinal Joseph Ratzinger trat angesichts der offensichtlichen Verwirrung auf die Notbremse und veröffentlichte am 26. 11. 1983 unter Berufung auf den Papst eine offizielle Erklärung der Glaubenskongregation, in der es heißt:
"Das negative Urteil der Kirche über die freimaurerischen Vereinigungen bleibt also unverändert, weil ihre Prinzipien immer als unvereinbar mit der Lehre der Kirche betrachtet wurden und deshalb der Beitritt zu ihnen verboten bleibt."

Zu jener Zeit, als Prof. Vorgrimler sein Dialogbuch pro Freimaurerei herausbrachte (1975), galt ohnehin noch der alte CIC, der für die Mitgliedschaft in der Loge ausdrücklich die Exkommunikation vorsah.

Man hätte nun erwarten dürfen, dass das Vorgrimler-Buch nicht ohne Folgen bleibt, stellt es doch eine offensichtliche Parteinahme für die Freimaurerei dar, verbunden mit scharfen Attacken gegen die Kirche, besonders gegen Bischof Rudolf Graber. Meines Wissens führten weder diese noch andere Veröffentlichungen des Rahner-Schülers im zuständigen Bistum Münster zu diszipliniarischen bzw. kirchenrechtlichen Konsequenzen, obwohl dieser "Star-Theologe" seit Jahrzehnten seine Häresien publiziert.

Bischof Lettmann würdigt Prof. Vorgrimler

Im Gegenteil: die Freundschaft zwischen Diözesanbischof Dr. Reinhard Lettmann und dem "undogmatischen" Dogmatiker Vorgrimler ist seit langem bekannt. Niemand macht ein Geheimnis daraus, am wenigsten der Oberhirte selbst.

In den "Westfälischen Nachrichten" erschien am 12.5.2003 ein vierspaltiger Artikel mit großem Foto und vielsagendem Titel: "Dank an einen herausragenden Theologen". Gemeint war damit kein Geringerer als Dr. Herbert Vorgrimler, dessen "Goldenes Priesterjubiläum" es zu feiern galt.

Offenbar scheint es ein ungeschriebenes Gesetz zu sein, dass bei prominenten Theologen — Häresien hin oder her — auch hochrangige Amtsträger zur Stelle sind, die allzu gut wissen, was sie dem Zeitgeist schuldig sind. Das breitformatige Zeitungs-Foto zeigt Dr. Vorgrimler als Hauptzelebranten am Altar, daneben die Bischöfe Dr. Reinhard Lettmann, Heinrich Mussinghoff (Aachen), Evmenios von Lefka (griechisch-orthodox) sowie zwei weitere Geistliche.

"Drei Bischöfe gratulierten", schreiben die "Westfälischen Nachrichten" stolz im Untertitel. Diese Tageszeitung erscheint im Aschendorff-Verlag, der auch das neueste Buch von Dr. Vorgrimler herausbringt.

Zeitungsreporter Johannes Loy beginnt seinen Bericht mit sichtlicher Begeisterung:
"Generationen von Studierenden hat er geprägt, sein Name ist in der theologischen Forschung weltweit ein Begriff und "sogar dem Papst bekannt", wie Bischof Dr. Reinhard Lettmann schmunzelnd formulierte. Prof. Dr. Herbert Vorgrimler (74), emeritierter Universitätsprofessor für Dogmatik und Dogmengeschichte an der Katholisch-Theologischen Fakultät der Universität Münster, feierte am Samstag sein Goldenes Priesterjubiläum …".

"Diesem Ruf ist unser Jubilar gefolgt"

Die Zeitung schildert auch die Predigt des Diözesanbischofs:
"Bischof Reinhard Lettmann dankte Vorgrimler für seinen Dienst als Priester und theologischer Lehrer. "Das Priesteramt ist kein "Job", sondern ein Dienst in der Berufung Gottes. Diesem Ruf ist auch unser Jubilar gefolgt."

Theologie müsse sich an der Geschichtlichkeit festhalten und dürfe sich nicht in die Mythologie oder in ein Glasperlenspiel flüchten. Dies habe Vorgrimler immer wieder gelehrt. Lettmann wörtlich: "Wenn das Heil geschichtslos wird, wird auch die Geschichte heillos."

Die "Westfälischen Nachrichten" berichten sodann, dass Dr. Vorgrimler auch in der Krankenseelsorge des Clemenshospitals von Münster mitwirke. Darauf will sich der "herausragende Theologe" freilich nicht beschränken, denn: "Etliche weitere Buchprojekte liegen auf seinem Schreibtisch."

Dass der Aschendorff-Verlag seinen eigenen Autor hofiert, kann man gewiss nachvollziehen, wenngleich die Verehrung zuweilen merkwürdige Ausmaße annimmt.

Als der Zeitungsverlag am 22. Januar dieses Jahres zu einem Vortrag mit Prof. Vorgrimler einlud und zugleich sein neues Buch vorstellte, kamen ca. 170 — meist weibliche — Zuhörer.

Ein Verlagsmitarbeiter würdigte den Referenten in seiner Begrüßung über alle Maßen, indem er beispielsweise sagte, er sei "nicht würdig, ihm (Dr. Vorgrimler) die Schuhriemen zu lösen". — Abschließend appellierte er an die Anwesenden: "Was er euch sagt, das tut! " — Gemeint war mit "er" nicht etwa Jesus Christus, sondern der gefeierte Theologe von der schreibenden Zunft.

Bischof Mussinghoffs ist Vorgrimler verbunden

Zu den "Fans" von Dr. Vorgrimler gehört anscheinend auch Bischof Dr. Heinrich Mussinghoff (Aachen), der vor seiner Bischofsweihe als Dompropst in Mßnster tätig war. Er ist zum Vize-Vorsitzenden der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz aufgestiegen und gilt, wie es in einer Überschrift der "Westfälischen Nachrichten" heißt, als "Mann der leisen Töne mit Ambitionen".

Weniger leise, sondern eher verwunderlich klang es freilich, als Bischof Mussinghoff beim "Weltgebetstreffen der Religionen" in Aachen (7. bis 9. September 2003) Folgendes zum Besten gab:
"Gott ist nicht katholisch. Gott ist nicht evangelisch. Gott ist nicht orthodox. Gott ist nicht einmal christlich."

Am 12. Mai 2003 konzelebrierte er beim "Goldenen Priesterjubiläum" von Dr. Vorgrimler gemeinsam mit Bischof Reinhard Lettmann. In einem Interview mit den "Westfälischen Nachrichten" vom 14. August 2003 erklärte Bischof Mussinghoff, dass er sich weiterhin gelegentlich mit Prof. Vorgrimler treffe.

Auf die Frage "Was vermissen Sie heute?", antwortete der Aachener Oberhirte: "Den Kontakt zur katholisch- theologischen Fakultät. Eine solche Fakultät gibt es in Mßnster, in Aachen nicht … Einen regelmäßigen Gedankenaustausch mit Theologie-Professoren pflegen zu können, das habe ich während meiner Zeit als Dompropst sehr geschätzt und genossen."

Diesen Gedankenaustausch schätzt auch sein Mßnsteraner Amtskollege Reinhard Lettmann, jedenfalls in bezug auf Dr. Vorgrimler. Als der Bischof im Februar 2003 seinen 70. Geburtstag feierte, erschienen in der Bistumszeitung "Kirche und Leben" (Nr. 8/2003) drei positive Wßrdigungen, darunter auch eine von Bischof Mussinghoff unter dem Titel "Treue und Beständigkeit".

ARD-Chef Fritz Pleitgen lobt Bischof Lettmann

Einen weiteren Beitrag ("Hoch gebildet und tief geerdet") über Dr. Reinhard Lettmann verfasste Fritz Pleitgen, politisch linksorientierter WDR-Intendant und bis vor kurzem auch Chef der ARD. — Der fünfspaltige Artikel "Dem Kommenden entgegen" stammte selbstverständlich vom "herausragenden Theologen".

Dr. Vorgrimler bezeichnet sich darin als "persönlichen Wegbegleiter" und "Weggefährten" des Münsteraner Oberhirten. Er berichtet von gemeinsamen Urlaubsreisen und "unvergesslichen Situationen", z. B. der folgenden:
"Zu ihnen gehört ein Abend in den Bergen des Sinai, als das Feuer tief niedergebrannt war, die zwei Beduinen schliefen, die Kamele leise schnaubten, als wir schlaflos die Sternenpracht des tiefdunklen Himmels schauten und Reinhard Lettmann englische Gedichte rezitierte."

Der Theologe schildert seinen "Weggefährten" als jemanden, der durch Gebet und Gottvertrauen die Kraft finde, ein "positiver, konstruktiv denkender und auch ein toleranter Mensch zu sein."

Dr. Vorgrimler fügt hinzu: "Mit den Miesmachern, den "Unheilspropheten", die überall nur Verderben und Untergang wittern, hat er nichts gemein."

Auch wenn glaubenstreue Katholiken in den Veröffentlichungen des Münsteraner "Startheologen" keinen Untergang wittern, so erkennen sie durchaus Verderben darin, wenn Glaubensfundamente zerstört und wesentliche Wahrheiten der Heiligen Schrift und der verbindlichen kirchlichen Lehre geleugnet werden.

Das gilt besonders für die Gottheit Christi, denn mit dem Glauben an den Gottmenschen Jesus Christus steht und fallt nicht "nur" der katholische Glaube, sondern das Christentum insgesamt.

Book Review:

"Church and Free-masonry in Dialogue"

(by Herbert Vorgrimler)

Felizitas Küble on Prof. Vorgrimler and the
"separated brothers."

In the review of the "Fundamentals of faith denied" (see monthly "Theological" No. 4/2003) I had examined the new book by Professor emeritus Herbert Vorgrimler, published in early 2003, and pointed out numerous theological errors.

The clearly heretical work of the acclaimed Rahner student bears the misleading title "GOD — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." The Münster dogmatist decisively rejects parts of the Church's doctrine of the Trinity, denies the deity of Christ and the personality of the Holy Spirit, criticizes the interpretation of the crucifixion of Christ as sacrifice or atonement, and questions the historical credibility of the New Testament.

From 1987, Dr. Herbert Vorgrimler, who taught dogmatics in Münster since 1972 as the successor to Karl Rahner, worked for several years as dean of the Faculty of Catholic Theology.

Two years earlier, he published his "Theological Doctrine of God," which distanced itself from important parts of the Church's doctrine of the Trinity and also stated that the "biblical images of God" could "no longer be conveyed" today.   This work, published in 1985, is a logical sequel to the book published this year because the heresies were cheerfully reproduced there.

In 1975, exactly 10 years before the publication of the "Theological Theory of God," the Frankfurt Knecht publishing house published a book that is not just a rapprochement, but clear partisanship for Freemasonry, peppered with frequent attacks against the church's position.

This work is titled "Church and Freemasons in Dialogue."   The theologian Herbert Vorgrimler, who kindly describes the Freemasons as "separate brothers" (it was believed so far, this term to apply to the Protestant Christians) — as well as the editor Rolf Appel, according to his own information, a Masons since 1948, afterwards invested with high-ranking functions (as member of the senate of the United Grand Lodge of Germany).

Criticism of the Catholic Church

Already in the "Introduction" of the book written by Vorgrimler, the Catholic Church is sharply criticized for its rejection of Freemasonry:

"For a long time, even the Catholic Church was addicted to the anti-Masonry craze."   This abnormal attitude can be reduced only by "reflection on the original Christianity."   The church must break away from a "hysterical psychosis against minorities," where-by Vorgrimler names "Jews, Communists and Freemasons" by name.

In general, one could get the impression as if Masons were badly discriminated against in Germany, Vorgrimler called them in all seriousness as a "persecuted and slandered minority in this country."   Vorgrimler reports that he is not a lodge member because he has, personally, "various concerns," but they are "not theological or dogmatic in nature."

Prof. Vorgrimler: No member, but inclined

He cannot do too much with Masonic symbols and rites, especially since in "Catholic Christianity," as he writes, "there are still enough unnecessary symbols, ceremonies, and titles that do not conceal but hide the essentials." — The theologian does not want to "burden" himself with other symbols and rituals from the lodge.

However, he explicitly expresses his "esteem and affection towards Freemasonry".   In the concluding sentence of his introduction, he confirms to the Freemasons that he never "perceived any other motives than those of the realization of humanity, tolerance, and freedom of conscience."

Now, not a few conservative Christians know by experience that the "tolerance" of many self-proclaimed Lord Privy Seal sometimes ceases tolerance where the dissenter begins to voice his point of view.
Thus, the much-praised tolerance loses its true meaning, because this can only consist of the fact that one does not deny the other person's personal respect, thus separating between person and thing.

Tolerance as a one-way street?

Of course, there can be no question of this with the theologian Vorgrimler.   Tolerance also appears to him as a one-way street, which has to be afforded to allegedly "persecuted" minorities such as, for example, Communists and Freemasons, but of course loses its validity with respect to "evil" conservatives.

Those who clearly reject Freemasonry are, from the point of view of the Münster dogmatist, apparently ready for the "slaps" or even a case for the prosecutor.   Even if, for example, one does not agree with Father Manfred Adler's books against Freemasonry, should be far from being allowed to stiffen and accuse the author of a "Nazi intellectual world," as Vorgrimler puts it several times (pp. 66-67).

Does this look like the Masonic-inspired "tolerance" that quickly turns into a "brown club " when the dissident is a Masonic critic?

Polemic against Bishop Rudolf Graber

Also the then Bishop of Regensburg, dr. Rudolf Graber, who expressed skepticism about Freemasonry in his 1973 publication "Athanasius and the Church of Our Time," experiences the almost raging anger of Vorgrimler, who at the time taught dogmatics in Münster. With regard to the bishop, he speaks of the "underground that produces such opinions" and of a "milieu that rehearses the insurrection within the church" (p. 68).

Vorgrimler sees his task now as being to warn against such "tendencies" "in the framework of which phenomena such as Adler and the Graber are to be classified" (p. 68). — In addition to the Miriam-Verlag, the monthly "The Rock" and the "new Bildpost" and the "German Tagespost" is attributed to the anti-Masonic spectrum, the "transitions to sect mentality are fluid," as Dr. Vorgrimler knows how to report (p. 69).

On page 70, the author then explicitly lets the cat out of the bag and psychoanalyzes his adversaries, the terrible Masonic critics, in which, apparently, the noble words and values of "tolerance, humanity, and freedom of conscience" come to an abrupt end, because finally — please notice this! — "Freedom of conscience" applies only to the opponents of the church, to "persecuted minorities" such as communists and freemasons.

Psychiatrization of Lodge Criticism

Vorgrimler writes: "The post-conciliar attacks on Freemasonry stem from this peculiar subculture of the Catholic milieu, which can only be explained psychoanalytically and psychologically.   The generation and nurture of psychoses are today no more, as it was in the times of Pius IX. and Leo XIII, a matter in which the pope participates with the majority of bishops.
It may be a consolation to the victims — in this case, the "separated brothers," the Freemasons.   One could leave these subcultures to themselves and their delusions, because they need images of the enemy and longing for martyrdom in order to be able to exist at all, and nobody wants to deny them the right to exist. …"

Until then, one may rest assured that the dogmatic professor does not deny his opponents the "right to exist," which, after all, may already be regarded as progress.
Of course, the sentence is not finished yet: "… no one wants to deny them the right to existence — if those who succeeded in the fight against Jews, Freemasons, and Communists to bring the world into misfortune would not have come from similar (albeit not decidedly 'Christian') subcultures."

The Nazis, who Vorgrimler brings into play here, have fought especially the Catholic Church, what he apparently "forget" to mention.
It was not the Masons, but Pope, bishops, Jesuits and "priests" who were the main bogeymen that were constantly attacked in the "striker" and similar slogans and vilified by cartoons.

Understanding of the deistic "image of God"

Vorgrimler shows great understanding for the, at best, deistic, often completely blurred and impersonal image of God of some "Christian" Freemasons of the lower degrees (Blue Lodges).
The author states: "In the Masonic concept of the Great Architect of the Universe there is now nothing contained and expressed, which would stand in the way of the Christian understanding of God" (p. 74).

While Dr. Vorgrimler in the previous pages had his hands full, defaming and psychiatrizing dissenters, in the context of Freemasonry, he remembers the Song of Tolerance again.
On p. 76 he juxtaposes the supposedly white garb [apron] of the lodge with the allegedly stained dress of the church:

"A Catholic, however, can be convinced that the affirmation of human rights in the Church, the affirmation of religious tolerance in society, and thus also the affirmation of freedom of conscience, the insight that freedom is realized only as far as the freedom of insight has come to the church."

Who carried these "insights" into the space of the church? — But surely, the "persecuted minorities," of course:

"He (the Catholic) will have to admit that the church has shed freedom and that others have had to fight for it again.   In this sense, he can be grateful to outsiders — Protestants, Jews, Freemasons, Socialists — for the diverse insights for which his church leaders were blind."

Approval of anticlericalism

On the next page, the author explains to the then perhaps still amazed audience that there is indeed a "legitimate anticlericalism."
After all, "even a Catholic can be reasonably convinced that the church of a particular region has too much influence on public life; it is endowed with too many privileges, its legitimately acquired rights today stand in the way of a credible evangelical witness, and therefore, as the Second Vatican Council expressly provided, it must renounce such legitimate rights."

The author gives the evidence from Vatican II, which purportedly calls for the church to "forfeit" its "legitimately acquired" (!) Rights.   Although Freemasonry has been calling for it for centuries, the Church does not have to "comply" with it, especially as the lodges do not renounce any "rights" in favor of the Church. Again only a one-way street at the expense of the church!

Vorgrimler also honors atheist lodges

Moreover, if this one-sided anticlericalism becomes dressed up with the fine-sounding word of the "evangelical testimony," then one's hair stands on end.   "Learning to practice tolerance is also very valuable for Catholics," writes Vorgrimler, even with regard to those atheistic lodges that do not worship the so-called "Supreme Architect of the Universe" (p. 77/78).

As long as the faith is not fought in these non-believing lodges, there is nothing in the way for membership of Catholics in them.   But even towards "atheist" lodges, which are probably anti-Christian, in which even Vorgrimler does not recommend membership, he recommends "dialogue and cooperation" (p. 78).

However, an "absolute enmity" against anti-clerical "irregular lodges" (in France, for example, the member-strong "Grand Orient de France"), would be equivalent to "not Christian spirit," if the Catholic Church would arrange its relationship "only" to the "regular" lodges.

The Church is held as a "Pathological enemy
stereotype"

This would mean that the church renounces an unambiguous demarcation with respect to groups by which it is opposed.   Apparently, only the lodge can afford something like "enmity"; in the same case, the Church is a "pathological enemy" (p. 78).

Once again, the theologian Vorgrimler remembers the Second Vatican Council, when he cannot think of anything else.   It must now serve to become active "in the interest of humanity":
"It would not correspond to the inspirations emanating from the Council, if one did not want to ask for tasks that might be common for the benefit of mankind and a humane future for Catholics and Freemasons" (p. 79).

Prof. Vorgrimler says goodbye to the readers of the book with this little saying, but very suggestive conclusion.

Perhaps he is thinking of something similar to his theological foster-father Karl Rahner, who already four years earlier, namely in 1971, wrote in the anthology "Zur Theologie der Zukunft" [To the theology of the future], on page 111, about the "planetary humanity":
"The man of today, and certainly of tomorrow, is the man of a planetary unified history, of a global living space and thus the dependence of each of them all.   The UN is only a modest example."

Leading Freemason Rolf Appel

As far as the book colleague Rolf Appel is concerned, he agrees, of course, with the theologian Vorgrimler in the high regard of Freemasonry, especially since he has been a member of the club for decades.   However, one must credit the editor and publisher Appel with the fact that he sees and looks through the lodge history far more critically as the Catholic dogmatist, which is somewhat astounding.

After all, he admits that, especially in the 18th century, serious mistakes and misunderstandings on the part of Freemasonry have occurred; a thought that Prof. Vorgrimler probably never dared to think of, at least he did not pour it into his ink.

Though the self-confessed Freemason Rolf Appel states frankly: "It is only too understandable that the Catholic Church had to harbor the greatest suspicion of Freemasonry," especially since the lodges were "top secret" at that time (p. 125).

This sounds very different from the anti-Christian attacks Vorgrimler directs against the supposedly "pathological delusions" and the "generation of psychosis" by the Pope and the Church, while he relentlessly polemicized on pages 62-70.

The Case of the "Lichtenauer Declaration"

Incidentally, in the appendix to the Vorgrimler article is documented the Masonry-friendly "Lichtenauer Declaration " of 1970, in which Prof. Vorgrimler contributed, which, however, was not even signed by the Viennese Cardinal Konig, although it is by no means hostile to Freemasonry.

Bishop Josef Stimpfle (Augsburg) declared on May 12, 1980, on behalf of the German Bishops' Conference in a press release: "The Lichtenauer Declaration has not received any church authorization: neither from a conference of bishops nor from any Roman authority."

He also made it clear: "The simultaneous affiliation to the Catholic Church and to Freemasonry is incompatible." — His reasoning: "Freemasonry has not changed in its essence.   [Such] an affiliation calls into question the foundations of Christian existence."

The "Deutsche Tagespost," in regard to the anti-Masonic "subculture" imputed in Dr. Vorgrimler's book published, on December 8, 1981, an interview of Radio Vatican with Bishop Stimpfle.   In it, the Augsburg spiritual leader reveals that even the years of official talks with "regular" (not antichurch) Freemasons have only provided insight into the lower three degrees.

Secret character of the lodges

The bishop reported verbatim:
"Freemasonry is built on many degrees.   The Masons strive for an Ecclesiastical accession permit only for the lower three degrees (apprentice, fellow-craft, master), for the "Blue Craft" [Blue Lodges], while, for the higher degrees, they do not aspire to open up to the church, obviously, [they] do not consider it something possible at all.   They cloak the higher degrees, their nature, their goals and activities in an impenetrable mystery.   In the year 1980, the Deputy Grandmaster G. Grossmann demanded an intensification of the secretive character of Freemasonry."

Thereupon the bishop asks the legitimate question: "How can the church open up to an organization whose supreme leadership completely hides its plans and undertakings?"

Incompatibility decision of the German bishops

The clear statement of the German Bishops' Conference, referred to by the "Spiegel" (No. 13/1981) at that time as an "anti-Freemason excommunication" and a "return to the ghetto," led to angry diatribes by the "outstanding theologian."

The incompatibility decision of the German Episcopate belongs, [so says] Dr. Vorgrimler, "to the collection of crazy excommunications for [the past] 150 years."

He added, "The church need not be surprised if, in the face of such declarations, it is no longer taken seriously as a conversation partner."

The "old" canon law (CIC of 1917) contained, as is known, a provision (can. 2335), according to which entry into Freemasonry was forbidden on punishment of excommunication.   After Freemasonry was no longer explicitly mentioned in the new 1983 CIC, this was understood by interested parties as nothing stood in the way to lodge membership of Catholics.

Cardinal Ratzinger's clarification on Freemasonry

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, faced with obvious confusion, stepped on the emergency brake and published on November 26, 1983, citing the Pope, an official declaration of the Congregation of the Faith, in which it is stated:

"The church's negative verdict on the Masonic associations remains unchanged, because its principles have always been considered inconsistent with the doctrine of the Church, and therefore accession to them remains prohibited."

At that time, when Prof. Vorgrimler published his "Dialogue" book pro Freemasonry (1975), the old CIC, which explicitly provided for excommunication for membership in the lodge, was still valid anyway.

It would have been fair to expect that the Vorgrimler book would not be without consequences, as it represents an obvious partisanship for Freemasonry, combined with sharp attacks against the Church, especially against Bishop Rudolf Graber.
To my knowledge, neither these nor other publications of the Rahner student in the competent diocese of Münster led to disciplinary or church law consequences, although this "star theologian" has been publishing his heresies for decades.

Bishop Lettmann honors Prof. Vorgrimler

On the contrary: the friendship between diocesan Bishop Reinhard Lettmann and the "undogmatic" dogmatist Vorgrimler has long been known.   No one makes it a secret, least of all the spiritual leader himself.

In the "Westfälische Nachrichten" on December 5th, 2003, appeared a four-column article with a large photo and the meaningful title: "Thanks to an outstanding theologian."   This meant no less a person than Dr. Herbert Vorgrimler, whose "Golden Priest Jubilee" was celebrated.

Apparently, it seems to be an unwritten law that prominent theologians — heresies or not — also have senior officials on hand who know all too well what they owe to the zeitgeist.   The wide-format newspaper photo shows Dr. Vorgrimler as the main celebrant at the altar, next to the Bishops Reinhard Lettmann, Heinrich Mussinghoff (Aachen), Evmenios of Lefka (Greek Orthodox) and two other clergymen.

"Three bishops congratulated," proudly write in the subtitles the "Westfälische Nachrichten."   This daily newspaper is published by the Aschendorff publishing house, which also published the latest book by Dr. Vorgrimler.

Newspaper reporter Johannes Loy starts his report with obvious enthusiasm:
"He has influenced generations of students, his name in theological re-search is known throughout the world and even known to the Pope," as Bishop Dr. Reinhard Lettmann put it with a grin.   Prof. Dr. Herbert Vorgrimler (74), professor emeritus of dogmatism and History of Dogmas at the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the University of Münster, celebrated its priestly Jubilee on Saturday …"

"Our jubilarian followed that call"

The newspaper also describes the sermon of the diocesan bishop:
Bishop Reinhard Lettmann thanked Vorgrimler for his service as a priest and theological teacher.   "The priesthood is not a "job" but a ministry in the call-ing of God.   This call has also been followed by our jubilarian."

Theology must adhere to historicity and should not flee into mythology or in a glass bead game. Vorgrimler repeatedly taught this. Lettmann literally says: "When salvation becomes faceless, history becomes hopeless."

The "Westfälische Nachrichten" reported that Dr. Vorgrimler also participated in the pastoral care of the sick at the Clemens Hospital in Münster. Of course, the "outstanding theologian" does not want to limit himself to this because: "Several other book projects are on his desk."

It can certainly be understood that the Aschendorff publishing house is courting its own author, although veneration sometimes assumes strange proportions.

When on 22 January this year the newspaper publisher invited to a lecture by Prof. Vorgrimler, and at the same time presented his new book, about 170 — mostly female — listeners attended.

A publishing associate praised the speaker in his welcome speech, saying, for example, that he was "unworthy of loosening" (Dr. Vorgrimler's) "shoelaces." — Finally, he appealed to those present: "What he says to you, that does!" — What he meant by "he" was not Jesus Christ, but the celebrated theologian of the writing guild.

Bishop Mussinghoffs is connected to Vorgrimler

Among the "Fans" of Dr. Vorgrimler apparently belongs Bishop Dr. Heinrich Mussinghoff (Aachen), who before his episcopal ordination worked as a cathedral provost in Münster.   He has risen to vice-chairman of the German Bishops' Conference and is, as it says in a headline of the "Westfälische Nachrichten," a "man of quiet tones with ambitions."

He sounded less quiet, but rather surprising, when Bishop Mussinghoff gave the following exceptional [statement] at the "World Prayer Meeting of Religions" in Aachen (September 7-9, 2003):
"God is not Catholic.   God is not Protestant.   God is not Orthodox.   God is not even Christian."

On May 12, 2003, he concelebrated the "Golden Jubilee of Priests" of Dr. Vorgrimler together with Bishop Reinhard Lettmann.   In an interview with the "Westfälische Nachrichten" of August 14, 2003, Bishop Mussinghoff stated that he still occasionally meets with Prof. Vorgrimler.

When asked "What do you miss today?" the Aachen spiritual leader answered: "The contact with the Catholic Theological Faculty.   Such a faculty does exist in Münster, not in Aachen … I have appreciated and enjoyed a regular exchange of ideas with theology professors during my time there as dean of the cathedral."

This exchange of ideas is also appreciated by his colleague from Münster, Reinhard Lettmann, at least with regard to Dr. Vorgrimler.   When the bishop celebrated his 70th birthday in February 2003, the diocesan newspaper "Kirche und Leben" (No. 8/2003) published three positive tributes, including one by Bishop Mussinghoff entitled "Loyalty and Stability."

ARD Chief Fritz Pleitgen praises Bishop Lettmann

Another article ("Highly educated and deeply grounded") about Dr. Reinhard Lettmann was written by Fritz Pleitgen, politically leftist WDR director and until recently also chief of the ARD. — Of course, the five-columned article "Towards what is Coming" came from the "outstanding theologian."

Dr. Vorgrimler describes himself in it as a "personal attendant" and "companion" of the Münster spiritual leader.   He reports on common holiday trips and "unforgettable situations," for example, the following:
"Among them is an evening in the mountains of Sinai, when the fire had burned down deeply, the two Bedouins slept, the camels snorted softly as we sleeplessly watched the starry splendor of the deep dark sky and Reinhard Lettmann recited English poetry."

The theologian describes his "companion" as someone who through prayer and trust in God finds the strength to be a "positive, constructively thinking and also a tolerant person."

Dr. Vorgrimler adds: "He has nothing in common with the defeatists, the "prophets of doom," who only smell ruin and doom everywhere."

Even though faithful Catholics do not sense any downfall in the publications of the "star theologians" of Münster, they certainly recognize thoroughly corruption in destroying the foundations of faith and denying essential truths of Scripture and the binding doctrine of the church.

This is especially true for the deity of Christ because with the faith in the God-man Jesus Christ stands and falls not "only" the Catholic faith, but Christianity as a whole.