Occult Theocraccy Chapter XXXVI - XXXVIII

CHAPTER XXXVI

THE DEFENDERS

(ROMAN CATHOLIC)

(Founded 1562)

This Irish Catholic organization, similar to that of the Spanish Guardufia, was founded in 1562 by Roger Moore behind whom were French and Spanish Jesuits.

According to Captain Pollard, author of The Secret Societies of Ireland, " The nominal function of the Defenders was the protection of the fugitive priests during the period of proscription and the holding of the passes while Mass was celebrated in some mountain glen. The enemies of the faith being the Protestants, and the Protestants standing for the Constitutional authority of Britain, the Defenders soon became a criminal association of law-breakers and banditti. " '

In 1641 they rose and massacred many Protestants, but were duly crushed by Cromwell in 1649.

This Irish Catholic element was already opposed by the Roman Catholic Archbishop Plunket, of whom Captain Pollard writes : " Archbishop Oliver Plunket, Roman Catholic Primate of Ireland, who had attempted to put down the criminal association of Defenders in the South of Ireland, was accused by the infamous Oates; and at his trial at Westminster certain of these Irish priests, who had been censured by him, gave false evidence against him. The Archbishop, though innocent, was, through the false evidence of these members of the secret society, sentenced and duly hanged at Tyburn. "

ASSOCIATIONS OF THE 17TH CENTURY

CHAPTER XXXVII

ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANS (A. O. H.)

(ROMAN CATHOLIC) {Founded 1641)

In The Secret Societies of Ireland Captain Pollard writes that, founded in 1641, "The notorious modern society known as The Ancient Order of Hibernians is the direct successor of the original society of Defenders ; in common with its ancestor it attempts to enable the clerics to exercise control in politics. It claims in its own official history, published in 1910, to be the oldest secret society in Ireland. Independent researches show that the claim is sound and that the present A. 0. H. is the descendant of certain criminal organizations of the past. The open admission of this chain of descent by its own historian is important. American sources trace the A. 0. H. to 1565 but the date 1641 is that more commonly accepted. "

" The Jesuit influence in the development of the Defenders was reinforced, and their ceremonies and symbolism slowly changed to an elementary ritual closely modelled on that of the ceremony of initiation to the Society of Jesus of the period. This ritual has descended with many accretions and modernisations to the present time ; and the American branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, misled by it, traces its origin back, not to 1641 and the Guardufia, but to 1563 and the foundation of the Society of Jesus.  

" The A. 0. H. of America is powerfully organized and has over six thousand lodges, and it is said by Heckethorn to be divided into two degrees ; in the first no oath is exacted and no real secret communicated. The second or inner degree is confined to officials, who receive their passwords and signs from the Board of Erin in Ireland, who send an emissary every three months. "

In 1878, the American order split into two groups. Shortly afterwards the Irish followed suit.

" In America the breach was later healed, but in Ireland it continued until 1902, when a conference was called and both parties agreed to work under a joint board of control representing both sections. This board was termed the A. 0. H. Board of Erin. "

Another split, occurring in 1905, lasted two years.

" Ten years ago, the real A. 0. H. of Ireland represented a powerful Nationalist weapon, hostile to the forces of extremism and devoted to the Irish Parliamentary party, but the Board of Erin A. 0. H. was revolutionary. "  

For root of this movement see Chapter XXXVI.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

JANSENISM

(Founded 1638)

This was a peculiar form of Calvinism inaugurated by Cornelius Jansenius (1585-1638) from Louvain in the Netherlands.

The doctrine of Jansenism is exposed in a work called Augustinus, written by Jansenius, and published after his death in 1640.

According to Jansenius' theory of Predestination, man was either saved or damned according to God's own will, regardless of his merits or demerits.

From the Low Countries, Jansenism penetrated into France and its chief centre was in the Port Royal abbey near Paris. It was Duvergier de Hauranne who had been a great friend of Jansenius during their student days who, as abbot of Saint Cyran, introduced Jansenism into Port Royal.

Antoine Arnauld was the leader of the Jansenists and was followed by Pasquier Quesnel. Many great minds of the seventeenth century were Jansenists, among them Le Maitre de Sacy, Blaise Pascal, Lancelot, Nicole and Fontaine, Secretary of State of Louis XV.

Jansenism, which had undergone severe treatment in France under Louis XIV, revived under the Regency

in 1715, and found supporters among the learned and the high clergy against the policy of the Pope.

It is during this period that among the Jansenist sectarians there arose the strange occurrences practised by what is known as the Convulsionaries of St. Medard.

The Jansenist party was very rich thanks to the boite a Perrette (Perrette's box). This was a special fund whence Jansenism took out all the money for its political and other needs. It had taken its name from the servant of Mr. Nicole, a leading Jansenist, who had started the fund and confided the care of it to his ser- vant. In 1778 it amounted already to 1100 livres and in 1865 was still very substantial.