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Gift 1^2A LETTER FROM A FREEMASON
TO GENERAL H.R.H. ALBERT EDWARD,
PRINCE OF WALES,
Duke of Saxony, Cornmall, and Rothesay ; Earl of Dublin, Colonel
Ifyth Hussars, Colonel-in- Chnef of the Rifle Brigade, Cap
tain- General and Colonel of the Hon. Artillery
Company, K.G., G.C.S.I., K.T., G.C.B.,
K.P., etc., etc., etc.
TO BR.-. H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES.
Dear Bra—I do not ask you to pardon this, to the profane,
perhaps an apparently too familiar style of address, although
I do pray pardon if I have unintentionally omitted many of
your numerous titles in the formal superscription to this
letter. I have never written before to a Prince, and may
lack good manners in thus inditing; but to my brother
Masons T have often written, and know they love best a
plain, fraternal greeting, if the purpose of the epistle be
honest
You have voluntarily on your part, and unsought on my
side, commenced by accepting me as a brother, and you have
cemented this fraternity by specially swearing to protect me
on appeal in my hour of danger; and though history teaches
me that sworn promises are less well kept than steadfast,
manly pledges, and that Princes’ oaths are specially rotten
reeds to lean upon; yet in the warmth of newly created
brother, I am inclined to believe you brother—for we are
brethren, you and I—not brothers perhaps as we §hould be
of the same common humanity—for in this land I know that
Princes are no fair mates for those who are pauper born;
but we are brothers by your own choice, members of the
same fraternity by your own joining; men self-associated
in the same grand Masonic brotherhood, and it is for that
reason I write- you this letter. You, though now a Past
Grand Master, are but recently a free and accepted Master
�2
Letter to the Prince of Wales.
Mason, and probably yet know but little of the grand tradi
tions of the mighty organisation whose temple doors have
opened to your appeal. My knowledge of the mystic branch
gained amongst the Republicans of all nations is of some
years’ older date. You are now, as a Freemason, excommu
nicate by the Pope—so am I. It is fair to hope that the
curse of the Church of Rome may have a purifying and chas
tening effect on your future life, at least as efficacious as
the blessing of the Church of England has had on your past
career. You have entered into that illustrious fraternity
which has numbered in its ranks Swedenborg, Voltaire, and
Garibaldi. These are the three who personify grand Idealism
and Poetic Madness; Wit and Genius, and true Humanity;
manly Energy, sterling Honesty, and hearty Republicanism.
My sponsor was Simon Bernard—yours, I hear, was the
King of “Sweden.
In writing, dear brother, I do not address you as a Prince
of Wales, for some of our Princes of Wales have been
drunken, riotous spendthrifts, covered in debt, and deep in
dishonour; but you, dear brother, instead of being such an
one, figure more reputably as the erudite member of a
Royal Geographical Society, or as a steady fellow of the
Worshipful Company of Fishmongers. Happily there is no
fear that in your case a second Doctor Doran may have to
pen the narrative of a delicate investigation. If Junius
were alive to-day, his pen would not dare to repeat its
fierce attack on another Prince of Wales. Junius charged
George, Prince of Wales, with quitting the arms of his wife
for the endearments of a wanton, with toying away the night
in debauchery, and with mocking the sorrows of the people
with an ostentatious prodigality. But your pure career,
your sober and virtuous life, would win laudations even from
Junius’s ghost. You are an English gentleman, as well as
Prince of Wales ; a good and kind husband in spite of being
Prince of Wales; with you woman’s honour is safe from
attack, and sure of protection; The draggled and vice
stained plumes on your predecessors’ escutcheons have been
well cleaned and straightened by modern journalism, and
the Prince of Wales’ feathers are no longer (like the Bourbon
fleur de lis) the heraldic ornament of a race of princes sans
foi, sans moeurs. Fit were you as profane to make the
journeys to the Altar, for fame writes you as sober and chaste,
�Letter to the Prince of Wales.
3
as high-minded and generous, as kind-hearted and truthful.
These are the qualities, oh Albert Edward, which hid your
disability as Prince, when you knelt bare-kneed in our audi
ence chamber. The brethren who opened your eyes to the
light, overlooked your title as Prince of Wales in favour of
your already famous manhood. Your career is a pleasant
contrast to that of George Prince of Wales. Yet because
you are as different from the princes whose bodies are dust,,
while their memories still remain to the historian as visible
monuments of shame, I write to you, not as English Prince,
but as brother Master Mason. Nor do I address you in
your right as one of Saxony’s princes, for amongst my memo
ries of other men’s readings, I have thoughts of some in
Saxony’s electoral roll, who were lustful, lecherous, and vile;
who were vicious sots and extravagant wasters of their
peoples’ earnings, who have lured for their seraglios each fresh
face that came within their reach : while you, though Duke of
Saxony, have joined a brotherhood whose main intent is the
promotion of the highest morality. I do not indeed regard
your title of Duke at all in writing you, for when we find
a Duke of Newcastle’s property in the hands of Sheriffs’
Officers, his title a jest for bankruptcy messengers, and the
Duke of Hamilton’s name an European byeword, it is
pleasant to be able to think that the Duke of Cornwall and
Rothesay is not as these Dukes are; that this Duke is not
a runner after painted donzels, that he has not written
cuckold on the forehead of a dozen husbands, that he is not
deep in debt, has not, like these Dukes, scattered gold in
filthy gutters, while deaf to the honest claims of justice. We
know, brother, that you would never have voluntarily en
rolled yourself in the world’s grandest organisation, if you
had been as these. It would have been perjury if you had
done so—perjury which, though imperially honoured at the
Tuileries, would be scouted with contempt by a Lancashire
workman.
I do not write to you as Earl of Dublin, for Ireland’s
English-given earls have been as plagues to her vitals and
curses to her peoples. For 700 years, like locusts, they
have devoured the verdure of her fields," and harassed the
tillers of her soil. From the Earl of Chepstow to the Earl
of Dublin, is the mere journeying from iron gauntlet to
greedy glove—take and hold ; and Irish peasantry, in deep
�-------
*
4'
Letter to the Prince of Wales.
despair, unable to struggle, have learned to hate the Earls
with whom English rule has blessed them. Nor even is this
letter sent to you as Knight of the Garter, for when I read
“ Honi soit qui mal y pensef I shrink from calculating the
amount of evil that might fall upon some people in the world
who occupy their thoughts with princes who are Gartered
Knights. Nor do I pen this to you as Colonel either of
Cavalry, Infantry, or Artillery, for I can but wonder at and
admire the glorious military feats which, though your modesty
has hidden them, have nevertheless entitled you to command
your seniors, one at least with a Waterloo medal on his
breast. Our history tells us of a warrior “ Black Prince,”
who killed many foes ; it can also in the future write of you
as a gallant soldier before whom pheasant, plover, and
pigeon could make no stand.
I write to you as a fellow Master Mason, as to one on an
equality with myself, so long as you are true to your Masonic
pledge, less than myself whenever you forget it. I address
this epistle to you as fellow-member of a body which teaches
that man is higher than king; that humanity is beyond church
and creed; that true thought is nobler than blind faith, and
that virile, earnest effort is better far than dead or submis
sive serfdom.
The Grand Lodge of England has just conferred upon
you a dignity you have done nothing to earn; but you saw
light in Sweden, and that initiation should have revealed to
you that the highest honour will be won by manly effort,
not squeezed from slavish, fawning sycophancy. Free
masonry is democracy, are you a Democrat ? Freemasonry
is Freethought, are you a Freethinker? Freemasonry is
work for human deliverance, are you a worker ? I know
you may tell me in England of wine-bibbing, song-singing,
meat-eating, and white kid glove-wearing fashionables who
say “ Shibboleth,” make I royal salutes," and call this
Freemasonry; but these are mere badge-wearers, who lift
their legs awkwardly over the coffin in which truth lies buried,
and who never either know the grand secret, or even work
for its discovery. Come with me to-day, and I will show
you, even in this country, lodges where the brethren work
day and night to break through conventional fetters, where
they toil hourly to break down imperial and princely shams,
where as a prince they would scorn you, and where as
»
�1
Letter to the Prince of Wales.
5
a man they would give you a brother’s grip, and die with you
or for you in the fight for human redemption and deliverance.
Go to Joseph Mazzini, and he will tell you of lodges where,
for fifty years, Poles and Italians have kept the sparks of
liberty alive whilst Russian and Austrian tyranny was
striving to trample and crush them out. Go into France,
and the imperial tottering Lie—which has stood too long in
the shadow of the first Desolator’s bloody reputation—will,
if it can (now it is near its grave), forget its daily life
practice, and speak truth by way of change—tell you that
the Masonic Lodges of France have been the only temples
in which for twenty years it has been possible to preach
the gospel of civil and religious liberty. Read Br. •. Adolph
Cremieux’s recent declaration : “ La Magonnerie n’est pas la
religion, n’est pas la foi, elle ne cherche pas dans le Magon,
le croyant, mais l’homme.” Get Odo Russell to ask Mastai
Ferrati, or some old woman, to inquire of Monseigneur
l’Eveque d’Orleans, and each will tell you that in the lodges
are the greatest enemies of the falling churches, the bravest
preachers of heretic thought, and the most earnest incul
cators of Republican earnestness. Or instead of going, with
some noble German glutton, to a paltry casino, read, if only
once or twice, a page of Europe’s history for forty years
before ’93, and then Germany’s and Sweden’s Master
Masons, speaking from their graves, shall tell you how their
teachings helped to pulverise crowns and coronets, and build
up living citizens out of theretofore dead slaves.
You have joined yourself to the Freemasons at a right
moment, for true Freemasonry is about to be more powerful
than Royalty. In Spain, at this moment, they have a
government without a king; nay, more, in that land dis
graced by many an auto dd fe, there is hope of the growth
of a people not in the hands of priests. The Revolution
which trampled on the Crown, has raised the brain, and
heresy has been spoken boldly in the legislative chamber.
Freemasonry has in Iberia a grand mission, an arduous task.
The Revolution has exiled the weak and wicked Queen.
Freemasonry, to prevent the return of such royalty, has to
strive for the development of a strong and useful people.
In Italy, where the Honorary G.’. M.l is our brother,
Joseph Garibaldi, to-day they dream of a Government with
out a monarch. Turin, Florence, Naples, Rome, forgetting
�6
Letter to the Prince of Wales.
petty dissensions and local differences, no longer misled by
royally-tinselled vice, are striving and hoping for the time
when an Italian Republic, with a Roman Senate, may once
more claim the right to be in the vanguard of civilising
peoples. Read, Brother, how at the recent Masonic Banquet
at Florence, Frederic Campanella was greeted with vivas for
the union “ di tutti i Galantuomini ” for the salvation of
Italy. In England, even at this hour, we are—if the organs
of blood and culture speak truly—very near forgetting the
use of a Queen. The least learned in politics amongst our
peoples now know that kings and queens here are only the
costly gilded figureheads of the ship of State, its helm being
in the hands of the nominees of our territorial aristocracy.
Some begin to wonder whether the State might not be
better served by sign less gaudy, and more in accordance
with the material of which the bulk of the vessel is built
Others grumble downright that a sort of base Dutch metal
should be imported in large quantities, as if we had no good
British oak out of which to carve a king without disfiguring
German silver or Dutch leaf. In France, men are working,
with prospect of near success, to overthrow the fear-stricken,
soi-disant nephew of the great Emperor; and in Europe, the
Republic of United Germany is not so far away but that the
grandchildren of living Prussian and Austrian subjects may
read with wonderment of the value that foolish Englishmen
set upon petty German princes. Liberte, Egalite, Fraternity,
form the Masonic trinity in unity. Do you believe in this
trinity ? Which will you be, prince or man ? You give me
the right to ask, for, cradled a prince, you have to-day (in
the time which ought to be your manhood) sought admission
to the ranks of men. In Freemasonry there are no princes;
the only nobles in its true peerage muster-rolls must be noble
men—men noble in thought, noble in effort, noble in en
durance—men whose peerage is not of a parchment patent,
but foot-trodden on the world’s weary-to-climb life’s ladder.
In our Masonry there are no kings save in the kingship of
manhood, “ Tons les hommes sont rois.” Kings with pens
for sceptres, king poets who make burning verse, and grand
music to give life to the half-dead nation. Kings of prose,
who pen history as impeachment of the few cruelly strong
in the past, and who pen it that the many may learn neither
to be cowardly nor weak in the grand struggle of the future.
'
�Letter to the Prince of Wales.
7
You are a prince, but dare you be a man: for the sake of
the Danish flower, whose bloom should gladden your life;
for the sake of the toiling millions who are loyal from habit,
and who will revolt reluctantly, but for peace will pay taxes
readily; for the sake of the halo that history will show round
your head in its pages ? If you dare, let us see it. Go to
Ireland—not to Punchestown races, at a cost to the people
of more than two thousand pounds—but secretly amongst
its poor, and learn their deep griefs. Walk in London, not
in parade at its horse shows, where snobs bow and stumble,
but in plain dress and unattended; in its Spitalfields, Bethnal
Green, Isle of Dogs, and Seven Dials; go where the unem
ployed commence to cry in vain for bread, where hunger
begins to leave its dead in the open streets, and try to find
out why so many starve. Don corduroy and fustian, and
ramble through the ploughed fields of Norfolk, Suffolk,
Northamptonshire, Wiltshire, and. other counties, where
thirteen shillings per week are high wages, out of which the
earner has to feed and clothe man, wife, and family, and
pay rent
Brother, before you die you will hear cries for a Republic
in England, cries that will require the brains of a grand
man to answer, cries which are gathering now, cries from the
overtaxed, who pay, without thought and without inquiry,
many more pounds in unearned pensions, for yourself and
brother princes, than they will by-and-bye pay shillings,
unless indeed you all work miracles, and make yourselves
worth your money to the nation. Yet even this you might
do; you might—you and your fellow princes in Europe—
if you would disband your standing armies, get rid of the
tinselled drones and gaudy court caterpillars, the State
Church leeches, and hereditary cormorant tax-eaters, and
then there would be a renewed lease of power for you, and
higher happiness for the people. But whatever you deter
mine to do, do quickly, or it will be too late. The Pive la
Republique now heard from some lips in Paris, Lyons, Mar
seilles, Bordeaux, will soon be the voice of France, and
there is an electric force in the echo of that cry—a force
which evokes the lightning-like flash of popular indignation
with such directness against princes who mock peoples,
against kings who rule for themselves, and against peers who
govern for their own class, that as in a moment the oak
�8
Letter to the Prince of Wales.
which has stood for centuries, is stripped of its brown bark,
and left bleached and blasted to wither, so is royalty stripped
of its tinselled gilding and left naked and defenceless to the
cold scorn of a justly indignant nation. As a Freemason
you are bound to promote peace, but peace makes the
strength of peoples, and discovers the weakness of princes.
As a Freemason you are bound to succour the oppressed of
the world, but then it will be against your fellow-princes.
As a Freemason you are bound to aid in educating the
ignorant, but if you do this you teach them that the sole
authority kings can wield they derive from the people; that
a nation may elect a chief magistrate to administer its laws,
but cannot give away their liberties to a master who shall
have the right to bequeath his authority over their children
to his child. As a Freemason you are bound to encourage
the development of Freethought, but Freethought is at war
with the Church, and between Church and Crown there has
ever been most unholy alliance against peoples. You were
a prince by birth, it was your misfortune. Your have enrolled
yourself a Freemason by choice, it shall either be your
virtue or your crime—your virtue if you are true to its
manly dutifulness; your crime if you dream that your blood
royalty is of richer quality than the poorest drop in the
veins of
A Free and Accepted Mason.
price one penny.
London : Printed and Published by C. Bradlaugh, 17, Johnson’s
Court, Fleet Street, E.C,
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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Title
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A letter from a freemason to General H.R.H. Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, Duke of Saxony [...]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [London]
Collation: 8 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Published anonymously. Author believed to be Charles Bradlaugh. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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[C. Bradlaugh]
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[187-?]
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G4942
N272
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Freemasonry
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Freemasonry
NSS
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d7ad7836cca0cdf4c398142fc528e393
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Text
CATHOLICS AND FREEMASONRY
The reiterated denunciations of Freemasonry by
the Holy See not unfrequently cause surprise to
English Catholics, who regret that Freemasons of
the English obedience, who usually deplore the
anti-Christian warfare of their foreign brethren,
should be included in one common condemna
tion. But the nature of the institution itself,
apart from anything else, seems to be forgotten
by those who take such a view.
The antiquity of the society is much disputed,
and its origin is of little concern to those outside
it, but during the last hundred and fifty years
it has become a very widespread and powerful
organization whose objects, membership, and
action are studiously concealed. In England,
at least, its ritual observances are greatly praised
by some Freemasons as being of a religious
nature; what is called “ a good Mason” is, in
theory at least, a theist, and they are said to
praise Almighty God. as “the grand Architect of
the Universe,” and His precepts under what
Catholics call the natural law.
The object of the writer is not to make an
attack upon the Craft, for he numbers amongst
his friends and esteemed acquaintances a large
�2
Catholics and
number of Freemasons, but to state some of the
reasons for which the Church forbids Catholics
to belong to the society, and why they should
forego the undoubted temporal advantages which
result from its membership.
How it is, then, that so large a number of
estimable men are members of a society which has
been so frequently condemned by many thoughtful
non-Catholics as well as by the Holy See, belongs
to the same category of mysteries as the two
hundred and fifty religions professed in good
faith by the majority of our fellow-countrymen,
though logically it is obvious there can be but
one which is true.
The objections to Freemasonry are chiefly and
shortly as follows :—■
(i) Christianity is unknown to Masonry, or
rather is ignored by it. The neophyte is taught
to see in the Master of the Lodge the “ Sun of
Justice,” and humbly to beg of his new-made
brethren “Masonic Light.” What that light is
it is not for the profane to determine; but it
seems strange that any one believing, according
to the Gospel, that Christ our Lord came as the
Light of the World, should expect to find light
and truth in a manner He never taught us to seek
them, or that Masonry should be in possession
of secret knowledge of anything conducive to
the moral welfare of mankind and supplemental
to His doctrine. Did it possess it, Freemasonry is
morally bound to share it with others. Its secresy
is an implied admission that its morality is not of
�Freemasonry
3
universal application, or benefit to the State or
mankind in general.
All belief in revelation, other than Masonic, in
redemption and grace, has to be left by the
neophyte at the door of the Lodge with his boots,
and by illustrations in Hebrew symbolism he is
transported to the time of Solomon and his
Temple, but a temple in which all the prefigura
tion of the sacrifice of Calvary is absent.
The Gospel teaches us that all our prayers are
to be offered in the name of the Divine Redeemer.
Masonry deliberately ignores this precept, and
this Holy Name is forbidden in the Masonic
temple. It even rejects the Christian chronology.
The religion of Masonry is universalism, or the
religion of nature as contrasted with that of
revelation. The prayers, or rather the praises,
used in the Lodge are addressed to the Grand
Architect of the Universe, the meaning of which
term is variously interpreted by Freemasons. No
prayer is offered through our Lord, by whom,
according to the Gospel, “ all things were made ”; '
this would be “sectarian,” and therefore unMasonic. The Mason in Lodge has to treat
Jesus Christ as a nonentity. Privately it is open
to him to believe that He is the Word clothed in
the garment of humanity, or a philanthropic
visionary and a social failure, and still be “a
good ” Mason. An English Mason cannot, how
ever, openly profess atheism without liability to
impeachment of his orthodoxy. The Gospel sets
before us Jesus Christ as the great example which
all should strive to follow; the hero and exemplar
�4
Catholics and
of Freemasonry is Hiram Abiff, the Master Mason
at the building of Solomon’s Temple. Our religion
teaches that Jesus Christ is God and Man, equal
in all things to the other two persons of the
Adorable Trinity, and that the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. The Christian
Freemason, when in his temple, dares—by impli
cation—to say, “ Lord, I know you not ” ; else
where, “ Lord, have mercy upon me.” There is
in this a certain fast-and-loose insolence towards
the Divine Majesty which has no relation to
wisdom and has some to blasphemy. Many
clergymen of the Church of England are zealous
Freemasons and, it is to be hoped, sincere
believers in the Divinity of our Lord ; but though
outside the Lodge they teach “that by Him all
things were made,” inside they take their stand
on the same religious platform as the Jew, the
Atheist, or the Moslem, and deliberately ignore
His existence.
It is difficult to consider such conduct con
sistent in professed teachers of the Christian
religion, who claim officially to be ambassadors
of the Christ whom they, on certain occasions,
by order of their fellow-men, officially ignore.
Some are even reported to hold Masonic ser
vices in a Christian church, in accordance with
Masonic requirements, and therefore with the
studied omissions which give such a painful
shock to the “ profane ” Christian.
The clerical membership of the Craft is often
adduced as a proof that English Freemasonry is
something entirely different from foreign Free
�Freemasonry
5
masonry. There is a difference, it is true, and it
is this—the one ignores what the other hates; the
English Freemason, clerical or otherwise, officially
treats Christianity as sectarianism; the foreign,
as a mischievous superstition. The unblinking
eye of collective Freemasonry regards both views
with equal indifference. In other respects Free
masonry is united and identical, or it could not
be, as it is, an international and universal brother
hood.
The social duties of man are debts, the fulfil
ment of which is imposed upon him by the law
of God. The State and the family are the two
organisms which claim obedience to lawful com
mands by virtue of Divine authority. Leaving
aside the precepts relating to the family, let us see
how Masonry aids its subjects in the fulfilment of
their duties to the State. Masonry is in reality a
state within a state, a universal and international
association which recognizes no distinction of
race or country. The State can command by
Divine right, in all things lawful to it. Whence
-does Masonry derive its right to command ?
How is the virtue of patriotism aided by adhesion
to a universal, non-national society which may
often, and must at times, import a conflict of
•duties ? Though patriotism is supposed of course
always to triumph at the expense of Masonry, the
■conflict is inevitable. This point is more fully
explained later.
(2) The Oath. An oath may be defined as a
solemn calling on Almighty God to witness the
�6
Catholics and
truth of a statement, or to make the fulfilment of
a promise binding under a more solemn obliga
tion. The Divine law forbids all oaths not taken
with judgment and for a grave cause. The
Masonic oath is, in the words of the Catechism,
“rash and unnecessary.” The neophyte swears
with eyes blindfolded to keep secret he knows not
what; and fidelity to the precepts of a world-wide
society of which he previously knows nothing ;
furthermore, he invokes destruction on himself
by his brethren if he should violate it. He
empowers them to murder him, in short, in the
interest of a society which can show no right
whatever to any of the powers of the State. The
State is the sole power on earth which possesses by
Divine authority the power to kill, or “ the power
of the sword,” for adequate cause. Were this not
so the soldier or public executioner would be
hired assassins or murderers. Mere expediency
can give no right to take human life ; self defence
is the only other permissible cause : to argue
otherwise is to claim that the end can justify the
means. By what right does Freemasonry claim
it ? The sort of answer given is : “ What, regard
the distinguished men you know to be Masons as
possible murderers ? Do you consider yourself
morally superior to them, and criticize the ancient
oath which they, and thousands like them, have
taken without scruple ? ” Such answers are quite
beside the point; let him who has taken it be
left to the judgement of his own conscience, the
proposition may not have presented itself to him
in its true light. But no Catholic can regard the
�Freemasonry
7
Masonic oath, when considered seriously, other
wise than as blasphemous, contrary to right
reason as blind and unknown, and contrary to the
good of the State. By way of practical illustration
that Masonry will not allow itself to be trifled
with, the neophyte, having taken the oath and
his eyes being unbandaged, sees swords in the
hands of his now revealed brethren pointed to
his breast, a rather grim pleasantry if it means
nothing. Who gave Masonry the right to
threaten with the sword ? If it does not claim
the right of private assassination, why this solemn
mockery of a terrible power and punishment ?
A Mason may ridicule these illustrations of the
argument and say that the self-constituted justice
or revenge of Freemasonry does not proceed to
such extremities ; but he cannot deny, unless he
be an atheist, that it is a serious thing to take the
name of God in vain ; nor that for a Mason
seriously to offend the Craft would result in con
sequences which may be euphemistically described
as “ unpleasant.”
Treachery is odious, but it is the despicable
crime of an individual; private war is a far greater
evil. The carpet of the Lodge may not be stained
with blood, nor its walls contain an oubliette, but
Masonry can, and on occasions does, cause the
ruin or decay in fortune of men who for conscien
tious motives have merely abandoned it, with-'
out attempting to cause injury or annoyance to
their former associates, or to reveal its secrets,
which, it may be observed, the Church never
requires them to divulge.
�8
Catholics and.
From time to time one hears how in war an
individual enemy has been spared or befriended
because of Masonry. The duty of a faithful
subject of a State at war is to kill, disable or
capture his country’s enemy ; war exists for this
end. By what right does he forego his country’s
interest at the call of Masonry ? It may be said
that individual action is unimportant, but in
certain cases it may prove of very great impor
tance. Take the simile of an analyst, and into the
test-tube of duty pour the solution called “ in
lawful war a man’s first duty is to his country,”
then add the Masonic solution of “ Masonic
duty ’’ and a cloudy discolouration ensues, which
remains until one or other ingredient falls to the
bottom. Under given circumstances the bayonet
should find its billet in the body of an enemy.
The Masonic bayonet must not touch the Masonic
enemy. Whence does the right to make so effec
tive an appeal emanate ? what title or claim to
respect can it show ?
The following extract from an English news
paper is instructive:
“Fremasonry at the Front.
The practical value of Freemasonry in time
of need has been proved over and over again. A
contributor writes as follows :
“ During the present war, the tie of the Brother
hood has been recognized both by Boer and
Englishman. A colonel of a Canadian regiment
attheModder River, on a Sunday morning stroll,
strayed too far from his camp, when he suddenly
�Freemasonry
9
found himself covered by the rifle of a Boer. By
a fortunate impulse he made the customary sign,
and cried out : a Don’t shoot.”—The Boer imme
diately threw down his rifle and hurried to the
colonel, informing him that he belonged to ‘ de
Broederband in Pretoria,’ and was a member of
General Cronje’s Staff. He begged him to return
at once to his camp, and made him accept a
valuable coin as a souvenir of his escape.
“The English Rising Sun Lodge was allowed
to meet at Bloemfontein throughout the war.”
Alison, in his History of Europe, Vol. x., Chap,
xlvi., gives two somewhat similar instances of
masonic treachery, one by a Russian, the other
by an American officer. A few years ago a
masonic battlefield deliverance during the
Franco-German war was worked up into a
short story in one of the English Masonic
newspapers, for the glorification—not, alas ! the
shame—of Freemasonry. Four English officers
are said to have owed their lives to the use of
Masonic signs during the battle of Waterloo.
Freemasonry praises such conduct. The un
sophisticated patriot reprobates it. Put the case
the other way and suppose the Canadian officer
to have been Christian De Wet, who is said
to be a Freemason. The “profane” Englishman
would have ignored his Masonic gesticulations
and have shot him, or taken him prisoner without
a moment’s hesitation. The Masonic English
man, if duly challenged, must have responded to
the sign, and acted much as the traitorous Boer
�IO
, Catholics and
did—sacrifice the interest of his country at the
call of Freemasonry, or act contrary to the pre
cepts of the Craft.
Similar problems arise in trials before civil and
criminal tribunals and courts martial. Masonic
signs are riot made in courts of justice merely to
signify “ How do you do ? good morning,” but to
obtain, or to try to obtain, secret advantage. If
the judge is not a Mason and the jury are, such
signs are a contempt of court or an insult to their
honour by implying that they may, under pres
sure of the private oath, decide in contravention
of the public one; or an absurdity, if the signs
are mere futile gesticulations. If both the judge
and jury are Masons, the Masonic signs are again
an insult or an absurdity, or an attempt to inter
fere with the course of justice. The alternatives
are not pleasant for a non-Mason to contemplate,
and Masonry expects to be taken seriously.
It is within the writer’s knowledge that an
English judge responded to the Masonic signs
of a litigant in whose favour he gave his verdict;
though it is fair to state, this was not contrary to
the weight of very confused evidence. Another
case, known to the writer, is that of a murderer
who escaped the halter on the plea of insanity
which those best qualified to judge regarded as
utterly unproved, thanks to Freemasonry ; for the
jury of Freemasons recognized the “ distress ” of
brother Mason in the dock, and saved him from
due retribution of justice for the innocent blood
he had shed. No daily newspaper in England
dare publish the faintest criticism of the Craft,
�Freemasonry
11
still less expose a Masonic scandal ; it is hope
less to attempt to produce proper evidence of the
abuses concealed behind the veil of Masonic
“ light,” and their extent must necessarily remain
a matter of conjecture.
In matters of place and patronage, the first duty
of the patron is clearly to secure the services of
the applicant best fitted to serve the State or his
neighbour. The Masonic patron-is sworn to aid
his brethren. In justice to other considerations,
favour can only be shown to a brother Mason if
his qualifications are in no way inferior to those
of the “ profane ” competitor. Without imputing
bad motives to our Masonic friends it must be
admitted that Masonic light is apt to blur the
vision in such cases. In short, it is impossible to
believe that all this enormous expenditure of time
and money is undertaken merely to befriend
the widow and orphan, to practise an esoteric
ritual, and to furnish a pretext for fraternal con
viviality, and that it does not offer great facilities
and temptations to brethren of the middle and
lower social grades to favouritism, jobbery and
protection to minor forms of rascality, which
seeks concealment by means of it, behind the
august figure-heads who publicly represent the
Craft. There may • be matter for praise in the
moral teaching suggested by Masonic ritual. On
the other hand members of the fraternity do not
find themselves debarred from its official honours
by table excesses or impurity of life. Masons
indeed rarely pretend that their motives in joining
the Craft were other than those of personal gain
�12
Catholics and
or social advancement, or to escape the dis
advantage of remaining a member of the
diminishing section of their 11 profane ” fellowcountrymen. Society groans under the compli
cations of its present organization, which Masonry
cannot alleviate and tends still more to confound.
(3) Charity is a word derived from “ caritas,”
which originally meant scarcity or want. It took
a new meaning with the spread of Christianity,
and now, in the Christian sense, means the love
of God and of one’s fellow-men for His sake,
according to the precept of Jesus Christ, the
Redeemer of the human race. Almsgiving is one
of the necessary manifestations of such love. As
a Christian word Masonry would repudiate it,
had it not of late come to be used indiscriminately
for philanthropy; a noble virtue, though of the
natural order only. But even philanthropy can
not be claimed as having any special connection
with Freemasonry, for Masonry undertakes no
universal duties towards mankind, and concerns
itself solely with the benefit and support of the
fraternity. It deliberately excludes from its
membership the poor and needy, though it
generously supports worthy brethren overtaken
by adversity, and their widows and orphans.
But the object of charity and philanthropy is
suffering humanity; Masonic benevolence is ap
plied only to its own members, and more akin
to the sick and superannuation funds of trades’
unions and similar associations for mutual ad
vancement and benefit.
�Freemasonry
13.
Furthermore, the precepts and obligations of
Freemasonry as regards almsgiving are in flat
contradiction td* those of Christianity. We are
told by our Lord to avoid publicity in almsgiving;
Freemasonry decorates a generous brother with
a “ jewel.” St. Paul commands us to do good to
all men, but where a distinction has to be shown
it must be to a fellow-Christian. As Masonry
ignores the precepts of Christianity, the Christian
Mason, like the Christian soldier, is liable to be
placed in an awkward dilemma, for which he has
only himself to thank. Some principle has to go
to the wall. Which is it to be, the Christian obliga
tion or the Masonic ? Is public advertisement
or secrecy in almsgiving commendable or the
reverse ? Would our Lord have decorated the
almsgiving hypocrite with a medal, and did He
commend the trumpet-blowing with which hecelebrated his own benevolence in the syna
gogue ?1 As between Mason and non-Mason, is
the starving Christian or the starving Mahomedan
to have the only remaining loaf ? the drowning
Christian or the drowning Buddhist the last life
belt ? the wounded Masonic,enemy or the nonMasonic compatriot to receive first aid on the
battle-field ? The precepts of Christianity and
those of Freemasonry are, in many important
respects, perfectly explicit and absolutely con
tradictory. To which is preference to be given ?
Such are the principal reasons why the Church
condemns Freemasonry, and why Freemasonry
1 St. Matt. vi. 2.
�i4
Catholics and
is at enmity with the Church. They uphold
ideals and standards of conduct which in some
ways are directly opposed to one another, and
remind us of St. Simeon’s prophecy that Jesus
Christ was a sign that should be contradicted.
These observations being intended only for
Catholics, the writer exhorts them to remember
that while it is their duty to think kindly of their
Masonic friends, they are bound to respect and
uphold the solemn and reiterated condemnations
of Freemasonry by the Church. The Catholic
must remember that to join the Society is to
incur excommunication, that its oaths are—for
him—a renunciation of his faith ; that at his
death-bed the fraternity will endeavour to hinder
his reconciliation with Almighty God, and the
reception of the Sacraments he has treated with
contempt, and leave him to die “ unhousel’d,
disappointed, unaneled” ; that as a traitor to his
faith he will be expected to show a zeal for the
Craft which he will probably find most distaste
ful ; that the Mason who does not u work ” is of
little account, while only those who are energetic
in promoting the objects of the Craft have much
chance in the scramble for the good things of
this life which are its only reward. While most
people like to choose their friends, he will find
that he has contracted fraternal relations with an
international crew previously unknown to him,
with many of whom he would shrink from
associating, but who will, notwithstanding, have
a call upon his time, his influence, and his purse.
Catholics in discussing Freemasonry are bound
�Freemasonry
15
in charity to be most careful to discriminate
between the members and the principles of the
Craft, remembering what scandal the detestable
conduct of some Catholics causes to their holy
religion, and what credit the good conduct of
many Freemasons brings to their society, which
so many of them seem able honestly to regard as
innocent and even praiseworthy. They should
avoid rash and positive statements concerning
Masonic ritual or secrets, which will probably
recoil upon them, like the “ Diana Vaughan ”
disclosures, with ridicule. Let them adhere to
the simple and easily proved principle that all
societies, whatever their name and objects, which
require secret oaths and exact compliance by
secret exercise of unlawfully constituted power
and authority are condemned and forbidden
alike by the Natural and Divine Law ; and that
the smiles of royalty and the adhesion of
patriots and philanthropists cannot reverse the
reprobation of the most respectable and illustrious
of them.
The average Englishman loathes the abstract
in argument or principle, and adores the merely
practical. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say
that but few seem capable of mastering an
abstract argument at all, or are conscious of the
intellectual atrophy which hinders the attempt.
They seem to set no value on endeavouring to
see the absurdity of the hazy notion by which so
many are obsessed, that because an opinion, no
matter how acquired, relating to morals or
religion, is honestly held, it becomes in some
�16
Catholics and Freemasonry
inexplicable manner objectively true ; that what
is thought to be true, is somehow thereby made
true, for the thinker. They fail to comprehend
that full excuse for intellectual error does not in
the least degree mitigate its objective evil.
Another object of the contempt of the average
Englishman is casuistry, or the science of
deciding points of conscience when conflicts of
duty and interest occur. He is apt to deny that
there is such a science at all, and to believe, if
not to say, that half-educated common sense is
capable of satisfactorily disposing of such
questions. From the writer’s acquaintance with
Freemasons he has not found, even in the most
“ illuminated,” evidence of the special intellectual
outfit required to expound and to solve the
problems of conscience, which, for those who
can appreciate them, must be constantly raised
by membership of the Craft.
The writer has endeavoured to state the case
with clearness and justice: should any Mason
read it he begs him to give him credit for deep
regret that their ideals are so far widely different,
that the obligations of the Christian faith forbid
their agreement, and that Freemasonry should
practise such solemn secresy, which .is ludicrously
unnecessary for the furtherance of legitimate ends,
and for which only gross tyranny and persecution
could afford an excuse.
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY
THE CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY, LONDON.
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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Catholics and freemasonry
Description
An account of the resource
Place of Publication: London
Collation: 16 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Date of publication from KVK (OCLC, WorldCat). Published anonymously.
Publisher
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Catholic Truth Society
Date
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[1905?]
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RA1527
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Catholic Church
Freemasonry
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Unknown.
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><br /><span>This work (Catholics and freemasonry), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Catholic Church
Freemasonry