Occult Theocracy Chapter CHAPTER LXIII - LXVII

CHAPTER LXIII

THE RIBBON SOCIETY

(ROMAN CATHOLIC)

(Founded 1805)

This society appeared about 1805-1807.

We are again indebted to Captain Pollard for a sketch of its history : " After the suppression of the United irishmen the society, as such, disappeared, but within a year or two we find a renaissance of the old agrarian Catholic secret societies which had been absorbed into the Defenders and thence into the United Irishmen. The provisions of the Insurrection Act which forbade the possession of arms and enforced a curfew at nightfall were in operation until 1805, when with its relaxation appears the Ribbon Society... In different counties local organizations of Ribbon men called themselves by different titles, such as the Threshers, the Carders, the Molly Maguires, Rockites, Caravats, Shanavests, Pauddeen Gar's men and the like. " '

The Ribbon Society " continued the system of organization used by the United Irishmen. A lodge was limited to forty members and they met as a rule in the fields by night, armed sentinels being posted to guard the spot. The lodge was under a Master or Body Master, who controlled three committee-men, each of whom was responsible for twelve members of the lodge.

The Masters were represented on divisional committees allocated on the basis of four or more divisions to a geographical county. The divisional committees were controlled by Parish Masters, who in turn were represented on the County Council, which contributed two delegates to the National Board.  

" As Whiteboys they certainly were at political and practical war with the Orangemen, and throughout their activities appear to have been criminal and anti- social ; outrage, terrorism and murder being their only methods of political conversion. "

For root of this movement see Chapter LV.

CHAPTER LXIV

THE CERNEAU RITE (ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE)

(Founded 1808)

The following article is quoted in part from an article specifically written by Josiah H. Drummond 33° in The History Of Freemasonry and Concordant Orders by Stillson and Hughan : '

" In 1806 Joseph Cerneau appeared in New York; he had been a member of Masonic bodies in the West Indies ; he had a patent from Mathieu Dupotet certi- fying that he had received the degrees of the Scottish Rite of Heredom, and authorizing him to confer the degrees up to the Twenty-fourth and organize bodies in the northern part of Cuba, and to confer the Twenty fifth on one person in each year, the Twenty-fifth being then the highest degree of the Rite and the highest Cerneau had received, according to his patent. Cerneau had his patent from Dupotet, who had his from Germain Hacquet, who had his from Du Plessis, who had his from Prevost in 1790, who had his from Francken. "  

In 1808 he called a grand consistory of the Rite of Heredom having jurisdiction over 25 degrees.

" But already a controversy had arisen with parties acting under, or deriving their powers from, the Supreme Council at Charleston. We may well believe that Cerneau and his associates soon recognized the impossibility of maintaining successfully a rite of twenty- five degrees against one of thirty-three degrees... The Thirty -third degree as now existing originated at Charleston in 1801 ; and no evidence has been found that Cerneau ever received it. "

Cerneau seems however to have overlooked the obvious expedient of creating a 34th degree !

" The Charleston body did not recognize the Cerneau Bodies even by silent acquiescence ; after investigation by a special Deputy, it declared, early in 1814, Cerneau to be an impostor, and his organizations illegal and clearly clandestine. "

" Bitter controversies followed. " Lodges which soon died were opened at Charleston. Others at New Orleans eked out a precarious existence under James Foulhouze.

" Foulhouze had received the Thirty-third degree from the Grand Orient of France, which expelled him, Feb. 4, 1859, for a scurrilous publication which he issued in answer to one of its decrees. This Supreme Council became dormant; but, in 1867, it was revived with Eugene Chassaignac at its head ; in 1868 it was recognized by the Grand Orient of France, and unless it has recently gone out of existence, the Grand-Orient to-day recognizes a so-called Supreme Council in New Orleans as a lawful body, and its members as possessing the Thirty-third degree ! "

In 1826 the Morgan murder occurred and Cerneauleft for France. De Witt Clinton, Governor of New York, had been Deputy Grand Commander of the Sovereign Consistory from 1811 to 1823 when he was elected Grand Commander.

A number of sporadic revivals of this rite occurred during the ensuing 40 years.

They were known as — The Hicks Rite, founded in 1832 by Comte de St. Laurent.

The First Atwood Body, founded about 1837 by Henry C. Atwood.

The Cross Body, founded about 1851 by Jeremy L. Cross.

The Second Atwood Body, founded about 1853.

It was not till 1867 that peace was established between the three de facto Supreme Councils in the northern part of the United States. On that date they united and Josiah H. Drummond was elected Grand Commander.

After five years of peace, however, Henry J. Seymour, who had been expelled by the council of which he was a member, organized what he called a Supreme Council of which he was made Grand Commander, " but, on a visit to Europe in 1862, in his eagerness to obtain recognition, he unwittingly held Masonic communication with the Grand Orient of France, which created such a storm that he resigned his office, and since but little has been heard of that Supreme Council, although it probably still exists. "

" In 1881, Hopkins Thompson, an Emeritus member of the Supreme Council, assisted by a few Honorary members and by a Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret, who is believed by many to have been the mainspring of the movement, all of whom had taken the oath of fealty to the Supreme Council, formed an association, which they are pleased to call the Cerneau Supreme Council ' revived '. "

" This body claims jurisdiction over the South, the claim to which was abandoned, before 1866, by unanimous vote, including Thompson's ! It denies the legality of the Southern Supreme Council, from which alone the Thirty-third degree came, and which Thompson by his vote recognized and whose recognition and fraternal support, he, with his associates, sought to obtain. "  

The visit to Europe of Henry J. Seymour referred to in the above quotation had serious consequences. We find that Seymour at that time was in communication with John Yarker with whom he collaborated in founding the Ancient and Primitive Rite, the ramifications of which reach to all the branches of occult illuminism such as Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, Memphis and Mizraim, Ancient Order of Oriental Templars, etc.

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CHAPTER LXV

CARBONARISM

(THE ALTA VENDITA)

(HAUTE VENTE D'lTALIE)

(Alta Vendita [Lodge] Founded 1809)

The Carbonari had existed internationally, it is said, under different names since the days of Francis I, King of France, but not till the year 1815 did we begin to hear of its individual historical achievements.

The following is a translation of one of the secret official documents published in Italy by the highest authority of the order, for the guidance of the active head-centres of Masonry in 1818, under the title of : Permanent Instructions, or Practical Code of Rules; Guide for the Heads of the Highest Grades of Masonry . The original Italian document was given to Nubio, one of the Supreme Vendita (Alta Vendita) in 1824, when he was sent to Rome to carry it into effect, and it was to this instruction that he referred when he wrote from Forli to Signor Volpi : " As I have written to you before, I am appointed to demoralise the education of the youth of the Church". When these documents were lost, the Freemasons offered fabulous sums for their recovery. These secret Instructions, intended only for a chosen few Masons of heavy calibre, were written three years after what was called the " Restoration " of 1815, which was brought about by a number of veteran Freemasons, all born in the past century, who had preceded, made, planned, and passed through the French Revolution of 1789. They were rife with the republican notions of France and Italy. They had survived their works, and had been in a great measure defeated, or at least modified, by Napoleon, in whose hands they were like a boat in the hands of new pilots, and, stunned by the many changes, were motionless for a time. In 1815, brought, as it were, in presence of a new world, they took breath and courage, and gathering up the broken threads of the tangled skein, determined to spend the rest of their lives in restoring, if possible, the web commenced in 1789 and 1783. The principal author was supposed to be a man of the name of Filippo Buonarotti, one of the great correspondents of Nubio. From his biography, given in the eighth volume of the Mondo Segreto di Castro, he would appear to have been an apt pupil and follower of Nubio's principle, Ama nesciri et pro nihilo computari. He was born at Pisa in 1761, was a friend of Robespierre, and an enemy of Napoleon, against whom he always con spired. He was a centre in Paris for both French and Italian Carbonari. He had been one of the principals in 1821, 2 and in 1830 founded the sect of the Apofesimeni. In a published record, entitled Bologna of the New Secret Society, 1835, we find the name of a young man, Giuseppe Petroni, afterwards a celebrated Mazzinian, and now (1878) Grand Master Aggunto of Roman Masonry of the Via della Valle, who was likewise one of this noble band. My readers may now thoroughly understand the character of the authors of this secret and curious document of the Instructions.

It is a resume and summary, expressed in the clearest terms, of the aim of Freemasonry and the means by which it is attained ; Freemasonry antecedent to the French Revolution; Freemasonry during the French Revolution ; Freemasonry revived after the Restoration. Freemasonry, to-day, is one and the same, using the same means to work out the same end and object.

" So these old conspirators of the past century wakened up in 1815 from their long sleep more energetic than ever, and as a first step towards reviving their secret society work, wrote the following Permanent Instructions, as a guide for the Higher initiated who were chosen to command the whole Masonic movement, especially in Italy : —

" Now that we are constituted in an active body, and that our Order begins to reign as well in places most remote as in those that are nearest ov r centre, one great thought arises, a thought that has always greatly preoccupied the men who aspire to the universal regeneration of the world, that thought is, the Liberation of Italy, for from Italy shall one day issue the freedom of the entire world — a Republic of Fraternity, Harmony, and Humanity. This great idea is not yet comprehended by our brothers of France. They believe that revolutionary Italy can only plot in the shade, and accomplish the stabbing of a few spies, cr traitors, meantime bearing patiently the yoke of facts accomplished elsewhere, for Italy, but without Italy. This error has been very fatal to us. It is useless to combat it with words which would only propagate more. It is necessary to annihilate it with facts. And in the midst of anxieties, which agitate the most vigorous spirits of 'our society, one there is that can never be forgotten.

The Papacy ever exercises a decisive influence over the lot of Italy. With the arm, the voice, the pen, of its innumerable bishops, monks, nuns, and faithful of all latitudes, the Pope finds everywhere persons enthusiastically prepared for sacrifice, and even for martyrdom, friends who would die for him, or sacrifice all for his love. It is a mighty lever, the full power of which few Popes understood, and which has as yet been used but partially. The question of to-day is not the reconstruction of a momentarily weakened power.

" Our final aim is that of Voltaire and of the French Revolution, — the complete annihilation of Catholicism, and ultimately of Christianity. Were Christianity to survive, even upon the ruins of Rome, it would, a little later on, revive and live. We must now consider how to reach our end, with certainty, not cheating ourselves with delusions, which would prolong indefinitely, and probably compromise, the ultimate success of our cause.

" Hearken not to those boastful and vainglorious French, and thick headed Germans, and hypochondriacal Englishmen, who seem to think it possible to end Catholicism, at one time by an obscene song, at another by an absurd sophism, and again by a contemptible sarcasm. Catholicism has a vitality which survives such attacks with ease. She has seen adversaries more implacable and more terrible far, and sometimes has taken a malicious pleasure in baptising with holy water the most rabid amongst them. We may therefore allow our brethren in those countries to work off their frenzy of anti-catholic zeal, allow them to ridicule our Madonnas and our apparent devotion. Under this cloak, we may conspire at our convenience, and arrive, little by little, at our ultimate aim.

" Therefore, the Papacy has been for seventeen hundred years interwoven with the history of Italy. Italy can neither breathe nor move without the leave of the Supreme Pontiff. With him, she has the hundred arms of Briareus ; without him, she is condemned to a lamentable impotency, and to divisions and hostility, from the foot of the Alps to the last pass of the Appennines. Such a state of things must not remain. It is necessary to seek a remedy. Very well. The remedy is at hand. The Pope, whoever he may be, will never enter into a secret society. It then becomes the duty of the Secret Society to make the first advance to the Church and to the Pope, with the object of conquering both. The work for which we gird ourselves up, is not the work of a day, nor of a month, nor of a year.

" It may last for many years, perhaps for a century; in our ranks the soldier dies, but the war is continued. We do not at present intend to gain the Pope to our cause, nor to make him a neophyte to our principles, or a propagator of our ideas. Such would be an insane dream. Even should it happen that any Cardinal, or any Prelate, of his own will, or by deception, should share in our secrets, such would not be a reason for desiring his exaltation to the Chair of Peter. Nay, his very exaltation would be our ruin; for this reason that, his apostasy being prompted by his ambition alone, that very ambition of power would necessarily impel him to sacrifice us.

" Catholics ! what must we consider Freemasonry, when Freemasons themselves pronounce it an apostasy from Catholicity, and foresee that a power fully acquainted with them and their machinations would, as a consequence, seek to crush them.

" That which we should seek, that which we should await, as the Jews await a Messiah, is a Pope according to our wants. An Alexander VI would not suit us, for he never erred in religious doctrine ; a Pope Borgia would not suit us, for he was excommunicated by all the thinking philosophers and unbelievers for the vigour with which he defended the Church. We require a Pope for ourselves, if such a Pope were possible. With such a one we should march more securely to the storming of the Church than with all the little books of our French and English brothers.

" And why ? Because it were useless to seek with these alone to split the rock upon which God has built his Church. We should not want the vinegar of Hannibal, nor gunpowder, nor even our arms, if we had but the little finger of the successor of Peter engaged in the plot ; that little finger would avail us more for our crusade than all the Urbans II and St. Bernards for the crusade of Christianity. We trust that we may yet attain this supreme object of our efforts.

" But when ? and how ? The unknown cannot yet be seen. Nevertheless, as nothing should move us from our mapped-out plan, we must labour at our newly-commenced work as if tomorrow were to crown it with success. We wish, in this Instruction, which should be kept concealed from those simply initiated, to give advice to the rulers of the Supreme Vendita, which they, in turn, should inculcate in the brethren by means of Insegnamento, or Memorandum.

" Little can be done with old Cardinals and with prelates of decided character. Such incorrigibles must be left to the school of Gonsalvi, and in our magazines of popularity and unpopularity, we must find the means to utilize, or ridicule, power in their hands.

A well invented report must be spread with tact amongst good Christian families : such a Cardinal, for instance, is a miser : such a prelate is licentious ; such an official is a freethinker, an infidel, a Freemason, and so on in the same strain. These things will spread quickly to the cafes, thence to the squares, and one report is sometimes enough to ruin a man.

" If a prelate, or bishop, arrive in a province from Rome, to celebrate or officiate at some public function, it is necessary at once to become acquainted with his character, his antecedents, his temperament, his defects  especially his defects. If he should be our enemy  an Albani, a Pallotta, a Bernetti, a Delia Genga, a Rivarola at once trap him, entangle him in all the nets and snares you can. Give him a character which must horrify the young people and the women ; describe him as cruel, heartless, and bloodthirsty ; relate some atrocious transaction which will easily cause a sensation amongst the people. The foreign newspapers will learn and copy these facts, which they will know how to embellish and colour according to their usual style.

" For respect due to truth show, or better still, quote from some respectable fool as having quoted the number of the journal which has given the names, acts and doings of these personages. As in England and in France, so also in Italy there will be no lack of writers who well know how to tell lies for the good cause, and have no difficulty in doing so. One newspaper publishing the name of a Monsignor Delegate, His Excellency, or Eminence, or Lord Justice, will be quite sufficient proof for the people ; they will require no other. The people here around us in Italy are in the infancy of Liberalism. At present they believe in the Liberals, after a little they will believe in anything. "

Modern Carbonarism was founded in 1815 by Maghella, a native of Genoa, who, at the time when Joachim Murat became King of the two Sicilies, was a subordinate of Saliceti, the Neapolitan Minister of Police. He was a Freemason, who exempted from initiation and probation all Freemasons who desired to become Carbonari. Any one who has read the statutes and ritual of Carbonarism will see that it is one and the same as that of Masonry.

A sequence of events pertaining to Carbonarism can be traced by the perusal of several works from which we quote :

At a meeting held on Oct. 13th 1820 by the Grand Secret Consistory, the Orient of Scotland was recognized. The two Consistories of Masonry in France and in Italy and that of the Sublime Carbonari were put into communication and their co-operation assured.

The high ruling grades of the Carbonari appear to have been those of Sublime Maitre Parfait, above which was still another that of the Sublime Elus.

The Alta Vendita constituted the Supreme Directory of the Carbonari and was led by a group of Italian noblemen, amongst whom a prince, " the profoundest of initiates, was charged as Inspector General of the Order. "

Piccolo Tigre, a certain nondescript Jew, rushed about Europe obeying orders and presumably giving them, but what he actually did has remained a mystery.

Giuseppe Mazzini had been initiated Carbonaro in 1827. 6 Some time after, Carbonarism combined, or rather coalesced, with the Society known as Young Italy led by Mazzini whose aims were identical with those of the Carbonari.

Young Italy, Young Poland, Young England, Young Switzerland, Young Ireland — all together Young Europe — all international movements of the same character working towards the same end, viz. the supremacy of the Masters.

The Guelphic Knights, whose object was the independence of Italy, to be effected by means of all the secret societies of the country under their leadership, found able helpers in the Carbonari.

" The Chiefs of the Carbonari were also chiefs among the Guelphs ; but only those that had distinct offices among the Carbonari could be admitted among the Guelphs. There can be no doubt that the Carbonari when the sect had become very numerous, partly sheltered themselves under the designation of Guelphs and Adelphi or Independents, by affiliating themselves to these societies. "  

At one time the support of the Carbonari was offered by Maghella to Murat with the advice to declare against Napoleon and to proclaim the independence of Italy but Murat's subsequent proscription of the sect induced it to seek the support of England. The Bourbons and Lord William Bentinck favoured it while Murat ordered its extermination. Some of its leaders indeed perished but shortly afterwards the society was reorganized and a schismatic sect calling itself Calderari (Braziers) came into being.

For the root of this movement see Chapter LIII.

For the development of this movement see Chapters LXX, LXXI, XCIII.

CHAPTER LXVI

THE MANCHESTER UNITY OF ODDFELLOWS ENGLAND

(Founded 1810)

We find the following in the article on Oddfellows, in Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religions and Ethics.

" R. W. Moffrey (Century p. 18) fixes the year 1810 as that in which the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows started, though it was not till 1814 that the minutes of its Grand Committees began to be printed... however Spry (Hist, of Oddfellowship p. 16) gives minutes of a meeting of a ' lodge ' No. 9, of the Order of Oddfellows, dated 12th March 1748, from which it would seem that eight previous lodges had been established before that date. "

For the connection of this order with Freemasonry see Chapter XXVIII.

We also note the following : —

" The position of Friendly Societies generally before the introduction of National Insurance is shown in the report of the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies for the year ending 31st December 1906 (Parliamentary Papers of Session 1907, n° 49, xi pp. 16-18). "

According to this report, we find that the order had 1,035,785 members and the income of the benefit funds was £1,703,674.

The Oddfellows resisted any proposal of State control or State interference with the working of Friendly Societies.

The English Order has four degrees.

CHAPTER LXVII

THE HETAIRIA OF GREECE

(ETHERISTS)

(Founded 1814)

Hetairia was the Greek name for societies, organizations or associations. In ancient Greece the name hetairia applied to companies in the army. In more modern times, it was used for societies of learning, or commercial purposes and also for political secret societies.

It is in connection with the latter that we are concerned. While Greece was under Turkish dominion, the national aspirations of its people could be vented in secret only. The breath of revolution which swept Europe during the latter part of the 18th century stirred some of the Greek patriots whose aims was the overthrow of the Turkish power. The main leader at that time was Constantin Rhygas (1754-1798).

He formed the first secret societies of Hetairias which were mainly composed of Klephtes or bandits. Bound by oath, each member of the society was to use all means, assassination included, to free Greece. The execution of Rhygas drove the hetairias to seek cover but in 1814, a chief lodge was re-formed in Odessa under the name of Hetairia phileke. Its avowed aim was the liberation of Greece, and its main seat was in Russia. Every candidate took an oath, as in all secret societies, and knew no one beyond his initiator and sponsor. Funds, collected and administered by a superior council directing all the lodges, were kept in Russia.

When a sufficient number of Hetairias were organized and a chief needed to direct the movement against Turkey, Count Capo d'Istria, (John, 1776- 1831) a Greek, minister in Russia under the Tzar Alexander I, and author of the text of the Holy Alliance was asked to take the lead but refused, and Alexander Ypsilanti was nominated. The insurrection broke out in 1821.

Among the most prominent members of the Hetairia we find Alexander Mavrocordato (1791-1865) who was under the influence of England and was also the friend of Byron whom he had met in Missolonghi in 1822. From him he received funds for the purchase of arms to the extent of one hundred thousand francs. It is related that Lord Byron died in his arms at Missolonghi in 1824. Among the supporters of the London Branch of the Philhellenic Committee were Jeremy Bentham, Sir Francis Burdett, Lord Erskine, Lord Ebrington, Sir John Cam Hobhouse, (afterwards Lord Brougham) Joseph Hume, Sir James Mackintosh and Lord John Russell. These foreign committees provided arms, money and volunteers.

The following details concerning the organization of the Hetairia of Greece are set forth in The Secret Societies of the European Revolution, by Thomas Frost (Vol. II, page 47 et seq.).

" Less simple than that of the Carbonari, the system rather resembled that of the Illuminati in the number of grades and relation of the branch societies to each other. "

There were five grades namely : —

The Adelphoi (Brothers, who took an oath of secrecy but ignored the aims of the society), The Systemenoi (Bachelors, who knew that Greece was to be freed by revolution),

The Priests of Eleusis,

The Prelates (knowing all the secrets),

The Grand Arch (The supreme directing control

of 12 members).

" Early in 1827 a motion was unanimously adopted by the Senate favouring the placing of Greece under the protection of Great Britain. " This followed a secret interview of Mavrocordato with Sir Stratford Canning, but Mavrocordato retired from public life " on the failure of his project for the establishment of a constitutional kingdom under British protection."

" Hostilities in Greece were finally terminated, in the summer of 1828, by a convention concluded at Alexandria between Admiral Codrington and Mehemet Ali, by which the latter agreed to withdraw the Egyptian troops from the Morea. "

The arbitrary government of Capo d'Istria ended on October 24, 1831, when he was assassinated.