The Anti-Christian Conjuration (6)
Msgr. HENRI DELASSUS DOCTOR IN THEOLOGYTHE ANTI-CHRISTIAN CONJURATION
TOMUS II - CONSTITUTION AND MEANS OF ACTION OF FREEMASONRY
CHAPTER XXIII
VENDITE & ALTA VENDITA
The plan for the total disorganization of Christian society that we saw exposed in the correspondence of the Encyclopedists and in the papers of the Illuminati was never abandoned. Neither in 1801 nor in 1814 nor in 1870. Our readers were able to convince themselves of this by the rapid presentation that we made of Masonic action throughout this period. The Revolution of 89 was not able to achieve this completely, and there. The instinct of self-preservation had made society return, if not to the straightest paths, at least to those which seemed to lead it away from the abyss into which it had almost fallen. Barruel, seeing the reaction coming, had done this in 1798. Thr prophecy that de Maistre formulated for his part with no less confidence: “What the sectarians did the first time, they will do again, before breaking out again. They will pursue in the darkness the great object of their conspiracy, and new disasters will teach the people that the French Revolution was only the beginning of the universal dissolution that the sect meditates." The universal dissolution through the diffusion in all parts of the world of the revolutionary spirit which had its first explosion in France a century ago, appears very threatening at the present time , to all sociologists and all statesmen of the old and new world. New disasters, more extensive than those of the end of the 18th century, and more radically destructive, are announced in the ideas which are current, in the facts which are occurring: premonitory facts, which inform us of what these ideas contain, and warn us of what they call for. Today, as in the 18th century, they are developed in secret societies and introduced by them in all countries and in all classes of society. We saw the sectarians distilling, before 89, their poisons in the Voltairian academies, in the Masonic lodges and in the illuminated back lodges, then inoculating them into the social body which almost perished. We have seen in the period extending from 1802 to the present day, the same ideas reappear and take shape sometimes in one institution, sometimes in another. Today, we have come to the point of hearing proclaimed even in Parliament the certainty of succeeding this time in definitively ruining religion; elsewhere we do not stop there, but we say that it is necessary to overthrow the entire social order, to abolish the family and property to substitute for everything that has been since Christianity, since the beginning of the world, a state of things that we take care not to define. Those who manifest these desires are obviously the heirs of the Encyclopedists and the Illuminati, ALTA VENDITA and the Jacobins, at least in terms of ideas and intentions. Are they more than that? Is there a social bond between these and those (in fact the same body, the same being, continuing to want in the 20th century what it undertook in the 18th century)? The same goal, also avowed on both sides and continued in a continuous manner, seems to reveal the presence of one and the same agent. We have more than reasonable suspicions to believe in this identity, at least for the years between the Restoration and the fall of the temporal power of the Popes, we have documents similar to the correspondence of Voltaire and the Writings seized by the Court of Bavaria. By a similar fate, they fell into the hands of the Pontifical Authority, and like the government of Bavaria had published those which he had seized, Popes Gregory XVI and Pius IX had published, as we will see, those which Providence placed in their hands. For the times which followed the Piedmontese usurpation, that is to say those where we are, we still only have the light of facts to convince us of the permanence of this organism, but it is only too bright. The main source of it was located, as we said, in the 18th century, in Bavaria and driven by the hand of Weishaupt. At the time of the Restoration, we see it transported to Italy. Today, its action is especially felt in France, but we can believe that the hand which gives it the impetus lies elsewhere. The masonry is cosmopolitan. It is in all the countries of the world that it plots and acts against the Catholic Church. She Swore to annihilate him completely and therefore everywhere. But if it is present and active on all points of the universe, it does not behave everywhere in the same way. As Mr. Claudio Jannet very rightly observes, it has its centers of direction and its theaters of operation. The centers of leadership are hidden in Protestant countries. There are the most secret lairs of the sect, there the revolutions are being prepared which must break out elsewhere. The theaters of operation are usually the Catholic countries, and particularly France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, in a word the Latin countries most imbued with Christian civilization, it is against them that the international masonry has always erected its most formidable batteries. (1). For the period we are going to deal with, it is Italy that it is revolutionizing, and its main instruments are Carbonarism and Alta Vendita, to which the mission formerly entrusted to Illuminism was given. Carbonarism was a more secret society in the secret association of Masonry. “Freemasonry,” says Mr. Copin-Aibancelli, “is a rigged edifice which, wisely, allows the profane to see a strange and hypocritical facade, and which opens to the
1. It is in the interest of international masonry , for the goal it sets itself, of maintaining external order in Protestant countries, while it revolutionizes Catholic countries. We see from this what to think of the enthusiastic tirades on the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon nations of the American system, etc., etc. In a very popular magazine, a naive pen recently wrote about the persecuting Freemasons: this phylloxera does not take over the American Vine! Such declarations are likely to reassure, while cheering them up, the leaders of secret societies.
hand of the F.- F.-, apartments, certain doors more or less hidden in the wall remain perpetually closed." So that there are two masoneries: 1° that which we are allowed to see because we cannot do otherwise, and which is manifested by temples established on the street, by bulletins, magazines, even volumes expertly cooked, by festivals and convents, by a strictly administrative organization of lodges, councils and obediences. 2° That which is carefully hidden, not only from lay people, but also from the vast majority of affiliates. It is the particular character of Freemasonry to be not a single association, but several associations, organized by the superposition of groups, the upper ones of which constitute real secret societies for the lower ones. The Charbonnerie, one of these groups superior to the lodges, was created to work for the overthrow of all thrones and especially for the annihilation of the pontifical power, the keystone of the social order. The Alta Vendita was in Carbonarism itself an even more secret society, receiving more mysterious and more precise instructions to direct the efforts of Carbonarism and Masonry and to make them converge towards the goal that we have just marked. In Christian societies, such as the wisdom of the centuries and the spirit of the Gospel had constituted them, the relationships established between civil power and religious power for the good of the people meant that temporal authority formed Catholicism and to the Christian idea a first rampart. Also, destroying it, by killing kings and breaking their born thrones, was the first work that Freemasonry undertook. We have seen on what day and by which conspirators the death of Louis XVI was decreed. The assassination of the Duke of Enghien and the Duke of Berry which followed, the permanent conspiracy of the secret societies against the Bourbons of France, Spain, Portugal, Naples and Parma, everywhere ended by their expulsion across the waves of blood and by the most ignoble betrayals, can leave no doubt about the meaning of the Masonic motto: Lilia pedibus destrue; and, as Deschamps says, it will be the eternal honor of the oldest, the most glorious, the most paternal of the royal races, to have been chosen as the first goal in the overthrow of religion and society by the scoundrel fanatics who, under the name of Masons, of Carbonari, have sworn to destroy them. Overthrowing thrones was the work most particularly assigned to the Carbonari. The Alta Vendita was given the task of eliminating the temporal power of the Popes and the task, even bolder and more incredible, of corrupting the Catholic Church in its members, in its morals and even in its dogmas. When the fall of Napoleon brought the Restoration of the Bourbons to France, Freemasonry feared, despite the precautions it had taken, a movement of decline for revolutionary work throughout Europe. The people saw peace succeeding the most terrible wars, prosperity reborn from the heart of ruins, happiness, so long absent, spreading step by step. Public opinion, returning to monarchical and religious ideas in France, in Italy , in Spain and in Germany, understood that all the misfortunes had come from the abandonment of the principles on which society had hitherto rested. The supreme leaders of the sect said to themselves that they could not let extend and develop this counter-revolutionary movement. They resolved not only to stop it, but to resume the offensive. The occult Power reopened the lodges which had closed, while the members of the rear lodges arrived. Power shed blood in torrents and accumulated ruins upon ruins. It put himself in a position to prepare the second phase of the Revolution, the one in which we find ourselves which, it hopes, will succeed in definitively establishing the new civilization on the remains of all ancient institutions, civil, national, religious, in France, in Europe and on the entire surface of the earth. In fact, we have seen under legitimate royalty, as under usurping royalty, under the Second and Third Republic as well as under the Second Empire, the development of a plan of attack against the Church and against society, which revealed as learnedly studied and perseveringly pursued, always triumphing over the difficulties brought about by unforeseen events or those which, in their effects, prove stronger than any human power. Such wisdom, such perseverance, such success clearly reveal an organization as powerful as it is flexible, always in the hands of the same people, the leaders of the anti-Christian conspiracy. They therefore founded the Carbonari lodges in the years following the restoration of order. Carbonari, Vendite (1): These strange names were taken to better hide the plot; the conspirators presented themselves as partners in a coal trade (2). Vendite were of three classes or three degrees: Special, Central and High. The Alta Vendita was made up of forty members. She recruited herself and exercised unlimited and uncontrolled authority over the entire Carboneria. When the creation of a central lodge was deemed useful, two members of the Alta Vendita addressed a carbonaro, member of a particular lodge, which they considered suitable for their purpose, and, without letting him know that They belonged to an even more secret society, they proposed to him the organization of a lodge superior to the one of which he was already part. Likewise, to form a particular lodge, two members of a central lodge chose a Freemason whose character, social position and degree of initiation could ensure the lodge had the desired influence. Without making known what they themselves were, they simply proposed to form, with him and with a few other masons to be recruited, an association of a higher order than Freemasonry. Private vendite, in unlimited numbers, were thus attached to a central vendite by two of their members, who they did not know were in contact with an association superior to theirs; and the Central Lodges, also in unlimited number, were attached in the same way to the Alta Vendita, which
1. Carboneria in Italy, Charbonnerié in France, Tugendbund in Germany, Conumineros in Spain. 2. Weishaupt had already given his people the advice to disguise themselves by assuming the appearance of merchant companies.
governed everything without being seen anywhere (1). The secret societies were thus constituted in the form of a human pyramid with the Carbonari at the center; the lodges, the base; and Alta Vendita the summit. All thoughts, all movements, were determined by a suggestion penetrating the mass, but which was only clearly conscious at the summit from where it descended into the lower regions. L. Blanc, after praising the admirable elasticity of this organization, tells us that any charcoal burner belonging to a lodge was forbidden to enter a lodge den. “This ban was punishable by the death penalty. We will see that the Upper Vendite was no more its own master than the Lower Vendite: it received its directions from a Superior Committee of whose existence it knew, since it directed it, but of which it was unaware. headquarters and staff. Central lodges, and even more so Individual lodges, found themselves in the same situation with Alta Vendita. They received instructions, orders, without knowing where or from whom they came. The coal industry is rightly called by L. Blanc “the militant part of Freemasonry (2)”. He also says, and we can be convinced, that it was, as an organization, “something powerful and wonderful. » This is, according to Mr. Alfred Nettement, how Charbonnerie was introduced into France.
1. Saint-Edme, Constitution and Organization of the Carbonari, 2nd edition, p. 197. “La Haute-Vente” was the continuation of the “Internal Order” before the Revolution. i. The Ten Year History, p. 98, 4th edition.
Three young people, Dugied, Beslay and Joubert, who had had to exile themselves from France after the conspiracy of August 19, 1821, were admitted to one of the Carbonarism lodges in Naples. There they studied the practice of revolutions and in particular the mechanism of the Charbonnerie. On their return to France, they called a meeting of close friends at this lodge of the Friends of the Truth, of which we have already spoken. They made known the ingenious and formidable functioning of these lodges, working in the shadows, without knowing each other, on a common work, and put in touch in a mysterious way with the supreme power from which the direction came. After hearing them, the Friends of Truth agreed that each member present would establish a lodge (1). When these lodges were numerous enough, a steering committee was formed. Among them were La Fayette, deputy for Sarthe; his son Georges, deputy for Haut-Rhin; Manuel, deputy for Vendée; Voyer-d’Argenson, deputy for Haut-Rhin; de Corcelles, father, deputy for Rhône; Dupont (de l'Eure), deputy for Eure; Jacques Koecklin, deputy for Haut-Rhin; M. de Beauséjour, deputy for Charente-Inférieure from 1819 to 1820. The non-deputy members were Baron de Schoen, Mauguier, Barthe, Mérilhou and Colonel Fabvier. It was this Steering Committee, it was these pure patriots who organized the military conspiracies of Belfort, Saumur, La Rochelle (2). He had in fact given his affiliates a military organization and he ordered each of them to have a rifle and fifty cartridges. The mystery in which Carbonarism is shrouded
1. History of the Restoration, t. VII, p. 684. 2. Edmond Biré in the Gazette de France of April 1, 1906.
is pierced today. The papers of the Alta Vendita, which was its crowning achievement, came into the possession of the Holy See during the Pontificate of Leo XII, who had them deposited in the Vatican archives. How did they get there? Is it through the conversion of one of the conspirators? Is it a lucky move by the Roman police? We don't know. How did they come to public knowledge, at least enough for us to know what the organization of the Alta Vendita was, the task assigned to it and the means it used to fulfil its mission? ? Here it is. The Popes have always had their eyes open to Freemasonry. From its first manifestations they hastened to warn kings and people of its existence, its projects, its actions, and this by solemn Encyclicals. At the end of his Pontificate, Pope Gregory XVI, frightened by the redoubled activity that he noticed in secret societies, and seeing the danger that their machinations posed to civil society and religious society, wanted; a few days before his death, reveal them to all of Europe. For this, he cast his eyes on Cretineau-Joly. On May 20, 1846, he had Cardinal Lambruschini write to him to come to Rome for a project of great importance. The historian of the Society of Jesus was about to embark from Ancona for a trip to the Orient. He gave it up and immediately responded to the Holy Father's call. Gregory XVI asked him to write the History of Secret Societies and their Consequences. He had Cardinal Bernetti, former Secretary of State, give him the documents in his possession for this work, and he accredited him with the Courts of Vienna and Naples so that he could obtained from them communication of other documents deposited in their secret archives. Cretineau-Joly first went to Naples, and there he learned from the mouth of the king of the death of the pope. Pius IX succeeded Gregory XVI and confirmed to the historian the mission he had received from his predecessor. He went to Vienna and received a warm welcome from Prince Metternich. But the employees of the Austrian chancellery, by revolutionary instinct or for any other reason, only reluctantly lent themselves to his research. However, Count Henri de Bombelles, French of origin and governor of the young archduke, since Emperor Franz Joseph, having learned the reason for his stay in Vienna, came to offer him his services. Throughout his diplomatic career, he had dealt with secret societies, which he had seen at work in Italy, Poland and Russia. He revealed, on documents, to the historian, such plots as he could tell him; “Dare to reveal these mysteries. It will be the greatest service that has ever perhaps been rendered to civilization. But you won't go all the way. If the dagger of the Carbonari does not stop you on your way, be sure that there will be princes interested in condemning you to silence.” The first of these princes was Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, who, out of ambition, had devoted himself, from his youth, to secret societies. Cretineau-Joly recounts in his Memoirs, published in part by Abbot Maynard - this is where we get this information - the interview, as secret as it was dramatic, which he had in Genoa with the king at the urgent request of this one. Cretineau did not want to promise him the silence that was requested of him. The king then addressed the Pope. Pius IX was eager to know the materials collected and had sent word to the historian to return to Rome as soon as possible. When he received the king's letter, he was shaken. However, he told Cretineau to go to Naples. In Naples, he came up against a Carbonaro named Cocle, who had complete power over the king's mind. He had taken orders, had even become a religious, and had gained the confidence of the sovereign to such an extent that he had become his confessor. At his instigation, Ferdinand also wrote to the Pope. From a note given on December 4, 1857 to Cardinal Antoneïli, it results that, on December 21, 1846, Cretineau was received in audience by Pius IX. The Pope told him that his charity as a father and his duty as a prince were opposed to the publication of a story which, in the present circumstances, could offer more than one danger. Cretineau bowed. In 1849, while the Pope was in Gaëta, Cardinal Fornari, nuncio in Paris, urged the historian to resume his work, and showed him a dispatch from Cardinal Antonelli saying that the Pope had not forbade composing the History of Secret Societies, that he had only deemed their publication inappropriate in 1846 and 1847; but that, given the change in circumstances, he now believed it would be useful to continue the work. Cretineau went back to work. Once again he was torn from his work by a letter from Mgr Garibaldi, telling him that after the service rendered in 1850 to the Holy See by the government of Louis Bonaparte, it was not possible to give free rein to a book where this infant of secret societies would be reported as such. The work was almost finished, partly printed; Father Maynard says he has seen the samples. In spite, Cretineau threw it into the fire: The History of Secret Societies, which would have thrown light into the very depths of the revolutions which agitated Europe, was destroyed. However, many of the documents which had been used to compose it, or their copies, had remained in the hands of the historian. He included some of them in the History of the Sonderbund, and others in the book entitled: The Roman Church and the Revolution. In the first of these works, Cretineau-Joly was unjust and even cruel in his expressions towards Pius IX, in relation to the conduct the Pontiff had believed necessary in this deplorable affair. The great soul of Pius IX forgave him. And when, in October 1858, the historian went to Rome carrying the second work, partly in proofs, partly in manuscript, he had the joy of seeing it read, approved and applauded at the Vatican. After its publication, Mgr Fioramonti, secretary of Latin Letters, officially declared that he believed all the documents published there were authentic and that he had compared them with the texts. Then, Pius IX addressed to the historian, for the 2nd edition of his book, a Brief where he said: “Dear Son, you acquired special rights to our recognition, when two years ago you formed the project of composing a work recently completed and again delivered to printing, to show, through documents, this Roman Church always the target of the envy and hatred of the wicked, in the midst of the political revolutions of our century always triumphant” (February 25, 1861). Doubts have been raised about the historical loyalty of Cretineau-Joly. We do not have to examine them here. The declaration of the secretary of Latin Letters and the Brief of Pius IX, printed at the top of the work in the full reign of the holy Pontiff, are a guarantee of the entire fidelity of the documents inserted in the book: Roman Church facing the Revolution. It is therefore not without reason that Mr. Claudio Jannet said of this book, in his introduction to the work of Father Deschamps: Secret Societies and the Society: "No historical document offers more guarantees of authenticity.” (P.CVI). If further proof of sincerity were needed, we would find it in the use that the Civiltà cattollca made of these documents, under the eyes of the Pope, in 1879. We can also add that L. Blanc included in his History of Ten Years of letters from one of the members of the Alta Vendita, Menotti, letters addressed, on December 29, 1830 and July 12, 1831, to one of his brothers in conspiracy, Misley (1), and published by Cretineau-Joly. The documents inserted by him in The Roman Church in the face of the Revolution, are the secret Instructions given to the Alta Vendita, and some of the letters that the members of this lodge exchanged among themselves (2). Nothing can better make known the constitution of Freemasonry, its way of acting, the goal it pursues, and the means it uses to achieve it, both today and in 1820. Metternich , who, in his correspondence, speaks on several occasions of the directing action exercised by the Alta Vendita on all the revolutionary movements of the time, says, in a letter addressed on June 24, 1832 to Newmann, in London, that the Alta Vendita
1. History of Ten Years, t. II, p. 292 et seq., 5th edition, 1846. 2. We will find in the Appendix these Instructions and those of the letters exchanged between the conspirators which were published by Cretineau-Joly. We only give here the fragments which support our assertions.
is the continuation of the association of the Illuminati, “which successively took, according to the circumstances and the needs of the time, the denominations of Tugendbund, of Burschenshaft, etc." Certainly, no one could have been better informed than him. Have the secret societies of Illuminism and Alta Vendita been perpetuated until today after having taken other forms and under new names? Who could say it, even among the Freemasons, even among the Grand Orients? But, as we can be sure, what is happening before our eyes is obviously a continuation of what was done in the two previous periods. Before entering into the story of the actions of the Alta Vendita, we must make it better known. Alta Vendita was made up of only forty members, all hidden in the correspondence they exchanged with each other, under pseudonyms. “Out of respect for high conventions,” says Cretineau-Joly, “we do not want to violate these pseudonyms, which today are protected by repentance or the grave. History will perhaps one day be less forgiving than the Church." This is because these conspirators were for the most part the elite of the Roman patrician by birth and wealth, and that of Carbonarism by talent and anti-religious hatred. Some, as we will see, were Jews. It was necessary that Jewry be represented among them. Eckert, Gougenot-Desmousseaux, d'Italiei, agree to affirm that the Jews are the true inspirations of everything that Freemasonry designs and executes, and that they are always in the majority in the Superior Council of secret societies. The leader of the forty had taken the name Nubius, the man of darkness and mystery. He was a great lord, occupying a high diplomatic position in Rome, which put him in contact with the cardinals and the entire Roman aristocracy. When the creation of the Alta Vendita was decided by the Supreme Council, he was ideally suited to take its direction. He had not yet reached his thirtieth year, and already the Lodges of Italy, France and Germany knew he was destined for great things. “He is here, and he is there,” says Cretineau-Joly, “tempering or warming zeal, organizing, in every place, a permanent plot against the Holy See, sometimes under one name, sometimes under another. » The special mission that the Supreme Council wanted to entrust to the Alta Vendita was precisely to prepare the final assault to be given to the Sovereign Pontificate. Nubius had testified to having understood that Freemasonry is nothing other than the counter-Church, the Church of Satan, and that, to make it triumph over the Church of God, it was necessary to attack the latter at the head. This is what had made people focus on him for the purposes that we were meditating on. Here is Cretineau-Joly's portrait of him: “Nubius received from Heaven all the gifts that create prestige around him. He is handsome, rich, eloquent, lavish with his gold as with his life; he has clients and flatterers. He is in the age of imprudence and exaltation, but he imposes on him. head and to his heart such a role of hypocrisy and audacity, but he plays it with such profound skill that today, when all the springs he set in motion have escaped him one after the other. other, we still find ourselves frightened by the infernal art developed by this man in his struggle with the faith of the people. On his own, Nubius is as corrupt as any prison. He always smiles in the world, in order to give himself the right to be more serious within the secret associations that he founded or directs. We see from his letters addressed to influential members of the occult association, that, thanks to his name, his fortune, his face, his extreme prudence to avoid any irritating or political question, he created himself in Rome a position sheltered from all suspicion." From Paris, Buonarotti, Charles Teste, Voyer d'Argenson, Bayard, General Lafayette, Saint-Simon, Schonen and Merilhou consulted him in the manner of the oracle of Delphi. From the heart of Germany, from Munich as well as from Dresden, from Berlin as from Vienna or from Petersburg, we see the heads of the main Sales, Tscharner, Heymann, Jacobi, Chodzko, Lieven, Pestel, Mouravieff, Strauss, Pallavicini, Driesten , Bem, Bathyani, Oppenheim, Klauss and Carolus question him on the procedure to follow, in the presence of this or that event: and this young man, whose activity is prodigious, has an answer to everything, organizing in each place a permanent conspiracy against the Holy See.” Nubius kept the helm of the Supreme Vendita until around 1844. At that time, he was made to drink Aqua tofana. He immediately fell into an illness that the most famous doctors could not understand or stop. This brilliant diplomat, this clever conspirator, felt his intelligence suddenly darken and his life die out in idiocy. His agony lasted four years. He left Rome and went into hiding in Malta, where he died in 1848, at a time when the work of the sect's intellectuals was considered sufficiently advanced for the order to move to be given to the party responsible for the action. Piccolo-Tigre (the little tiger), one of Nubius' first lieutenants, was Jewish. “His activity is tireless,” says Cretineau; he never stops traveling the world to raise up enemies of Calvary. He is sometimes in Paris, sometimes in London, sometimes in Vienna, often in Berlin. Everywhere, he leaves traces of his passage, everywhere, he affiliates to secret societies, and even to the Alta Vendita, zealous people on whom impiety can count. In the eyes of the rulers and the police, he is a gold and silver merchant, one of those cosmopolitan bankers who live only on business and deal exclusively with their business. Seen up close, studied in the light of his correspondence, this man is one of the most skillful agents of the planned destruction. It is the invisible link, bringing together in the same community of threads all the secondary corruptions which work towards the overthrow of the Church. A third, Gaëtano, is a rich Lombard who had found a way to serve the sect and betray Austria, by becoming, through hypocrisy, the confidant and intimate secretary of Prince Metternich. We are well aware that the great ministers, the kings, the emperors, always have near them a delegate of the sect who knows how to inspire them with confidence and incline them to favor, knowingly or not, the execution of the designs of secret societies. From this high position, Gaëtano observes what is happening in Europe; he is aware of the secrets of all the courts, and he corresponds, according to the indications of the moment, with Nubius, Piccolo-Tigre, or Volpe (the fox), or Vindex (the Avenger), or Beppo; in a word, with all those who committed, as Mr. Cretineau says, the annihilation of Catholicism and the triumph of the revolutionary idea. There are only forty of them, but chosen from among the most intelligent, the most astute, the most able to exercise, not only in the Masonic world, but in the “profane world”, the most powerful and far-reaching influence. Discussed and handpicked, they are not allowed to decline the perilous mission given to them. Initiated, they are condemned to shroud themselves in mystery, and the most absolute abnegation is imposed on them. “The success of our work,” says Nubius — in the letter by which he announces to Volpe, that he is going to take into his hands the helm of the Supreme Vendita, — the success of our work depends on the deepest mystery; and in Sales we must find the initiate, like the Christian of Imitation, always ready "to love to be unknown and to be counted for nothing." » It was not only the characters who made up the Alta Vendita who were to be enveloped in darkness, but the Alta Vendita itself. Until its existence, everything had to remain unknown to the vendite and the Lodges, who however received direction and impetus from it. Nubius, Volpe and the others were personally accredited to them; they obeyed a word, a sign from these privileged members of the sect; but all they knew was that orders had to be carried out without knowing their origin or purpose. These orders by which subterranean Europe was governed were thus mysteriously transmitted, from degree to degree, up to the most remote Lodge. Mazzini, the soul of Carbonarism from which the forty had been drawn, Mazzini himself could not unravel this mystery. “Through the instinct of his deeply vicious nature,” says Cretineau-Joly, “Mazzini suspected that there existed, outside of the executives forming the secret societies, a particular affiliation. He felt it necessary to request the honor of entering this select vanguard. We do not know by whom or how he addressed this request; only a letter from Nubius to a person known in the Alta Vendita under the name of Beppo, very categorically expresses the refusal formulated by the lodge: “You know,” he informed him, on April 7, 1836, “that Mazzini is deemed worthy to cooperate with us in the greatest work of our day. The Supreme Vendita did not decide so.” Mazzini has too much of the appearance of a melodrama conspirator to suit the obscure role that we resign ourselves to playing until triumph. Mazzini likes to talk about many things, especially about himself...; let him create at his ease young Italys, young Germanys, young Frances, young Polands, young Switzerlands, etc., if this can serve as food for his insatiable pride, we are not opposed to it; but make him understand, while managing the terms according to your convenience, that the association of which he speaks no longer exists, if it ever existed; that you do not know it, and yet you must tell him that, if it existed, he would certainly have taken the worst route to enter it. The case of its existence admitted, this Lodge is obviously above all the others; it is the Saint John Lateran: caput et mater omnium ecclesiarum. The elect were called there, whom we considered alone worthy of being introduced there. Until now, Mazzini would have been excluded; Does he not think that by putting himself in half, by force or by trickery, in a secret which does not belong to him, he perhaps exposes himself to dangers which he has already done? run to more than one? Arrange this last sentence as you wish, but pass it on to the high priest of the dagger; and I, who know his consummate prudence, I bet that this thought will produce a certain effect on the ruffian. “ Nubius was not mistaken in appreciating Mazzini in this way, and we no longer find any trace, in the archives of the Supreme Vendita, of any communication from poor Joseph relating to this request. The threat of a stroke of the stylus made him return, “deep down in his gut, the feeling of his pride.” Finally, to complete the mystery, the forty of the Alta Vendita themselves did not know where the impulse to which they obeyed, the orders to transmit or execute, came from. One of them, Malegari, wrote to Doctor Breidenstem in 1836: “We want to break every kind of yoke, and there is one that we do not see, that we barely feel and that weighs on us. Where is he from? where is he? Nobody knows, or at least nobody says. The association is secret, even to us veterans of secret associations. Things are demanded of us that sometimes make one's hair stand on end; and would you believe that I was told from Rome that two of our people, well known for their hatred of fanaticism, were obliged, by order of the supreme leader, to kneel and take communion last Easter? I do not reason my obedience, but I would like to know where such capuchinades are leading us.” This is the real perinde ac cadaver. And it is these slaves of a master who hides from all gaze, these men who always feel the point of the dagger in their back, who make laws against religious people, out of horror, they say, of the vow of obedience!
CHAPTER XXIV
THE PROPER WORK OF THE ALTA VENDITA
The Forty had therefore received secret instructions marking what they had to do for themselves, the direction they were to give, with due prudence, to the Central Lodges, and through them, to Private Lodges, to obtain action that is as concerted and as broad as possible with a view to the result to be obtained. The goal assigned to the whole conspiracy was the annihilation of the Christian idea. But this was a long-term task. The work to which the forty were to immediately apply themselves was the destruction of the temporal power of the Popes. The Instructions began as follows: “There is a thought which has always deeply preoccupied men who aspire to universal regeneration: it is the thought that from the FREEDOM OF ITALY must come, on a specific day, the freeing of the whole world, the fraternal republic (the republic of Brother Masons) and the harmony of humanity (the entire human race under Masonic law) , for universal regeneration." Here we find the final thought of secret societies, the goal towards which all their efforts are directed by the occult power, individual or committee, which gives them the first impulse: the establishment on the ruin of all thrones, including the pontifical throne of a universal republic which will bring about the emancipation of the human race from God and his law, and the regeneration of man, that is to say his return to the state of nature through repudiation of the entire supernatural order. So, instead of the two companies including M-. Waldeck-Rousseau deplored coexistence, there will be only one, and all the earth will reign harmony in universal subjection to Israel. In the mind of him who had given the Forty the Secret Instructions, the overthrow of the papal throne was the first object to be pursued and achieved. He saw that it is the Papacy which maintains humanity under the paternal yoke of God, and he said to himself that from the moment Italy was liberated and the temporal power of the Popes annihilated, the Papacy would not having no more point of support on the earth, suspended in the air, so to speak, would no longer retain a spiritual power which, to be exercised on men, composed of body and soul, has need for material instruments and human ministries. The emancipation of Italy could hardly be accomplished except by acts of revolution and war. These facts were posed first by Charles-Albert, then from 1859 to 1870 by Victor-Emmanuel with the complicity of Napoleon III. But they could only produce themselves after having been prepared by a movement in ideas. It was this preparatory task which was imposed on the Alta Vendita. The Instructions recommended him first of all to discredit temporal power and to discredit its ministers. “We must draw from our warehouses of popularity or unpopularity the weapons which will render useless or ridiculous the power in their hands”, in the hands of the prelates, agents of the Pontifical Power. “Depopularize the priesthood by all kinds of means,” said a document emanating from the steering committee dated October 20, 1821. The Instructions do not disdain to go into detail on the means to be taken to achieve this: “If a prelate arrives from Rome to exercise some public function in the depths of the provinces, immediately know his character, his antecedents, his qualities, and above all his faults. Is he a declared enemy (of the Revolution) in advance: an Albani, a Pallota, a Bernetti, a Délia Genga, a Rivarola surround him with all the traps you can lay under his feet; create for him one of those reputations that frighten children and old women. — A word that I cleverly invent and that we have the art of spreading in certain honest chosen families, so that from there it goes down to the cafes and cafes in the street, a word can sometimes kill a man. — Paint him, cruel and bloodthirsty; recount some trait of cruelty that could easily be engraved in the memory of the people. » (In other words, distort the acts of justice that power is obliged to perform in defense of society). Italy could not do it on its own: it needed the help or at least the consent of Europe. It was therefore necessary to prepare all minds for the fall of temporal power. It was not enough to decry it where it was practiced, it was necessary to raise public opinion against it throughout Europe. The Instructions do not fail to say this. Thanks to the complicity that had been arranged for him in all countries, in all classes of society and even near the thrones, this task fell to the Alta Vendita. She could make the newspapers talk, she could make diplomacy take action. Regarding newspapers, the Instructions make these recommendations: "When foreign newspapers collect these stories from us which they will in turn embellish, show or rather have shown, by some respectable imbecile, these 4 sheets where the names and arranged excesses of the characters. Like France and England, Italy will never lack those feathers who know how to carve out lies useful to a good cause. » These recommendations have not been forgotten, they are observed every day in all Catholic countries to make both the clergy and religion odious. Mr. Bidegain, in his book: The Grand Orient of France, its doctrines and its acts, gives this proof for our France: “In the secret report of the Propaganda Commission of the Convent of 1899, Brother Dutillay, rapporteur, wrote this: “A discreet anticlerical correspondence, addressed to numerous newspapers, brings Masonic ideas into certain regions where secular prejudices were until now deeply rooted. » Another rapporteur from the same Commission thus justified in 1901 expenses which he proposed to place under the heading “Advertising”. “Among them,” he said, “there is one that is justified by the existence, the functioning of a propaganda organ, skillfully designed, which renders incontestable services to the entire republican press and anticlerical of this country, all the better since its true origin remains unsuspected by the profane world. » “This organ,” says Jean Bidegain, “is a simple autographed paper entitled La Semaine de France. Its author is Emile Lemaître, member of the Council of the Order, municipal councilor of Boulogne-sur-Mer. He is reimbursed for his expenses by the secretary general himself; who signs the payment mandate as if he personally received these sums. The name of the publisher-editor of the “skillfully designed propaganda organ” therefore does not appear in the accounting records. » La Semaine de France, a favorite work of the Grand Orient, is a collection of the ignominies of which priests, monks, seminarians, etc. are apparently guilty. » This is only about assassinations, thefts, and indecent assaults. His information always begins like this: "A few days ago...", or "Last Tuesday", or even, "In its hearing on September 3, the Assize Court of..., etc. » ; and we are careful not to specify otherwise. It is enough to say that the “skillfully designed organ” republishes very old stories, the repetition of which in the press has the consequence of maintaining or provoking hatred of the priest. I am quite convinced that the many newspapers which use La Semaine de France would be very embarrassed to prove the authenticity of the events, as varied as they are extraordinary, from which they borrow the story. The process is completely Masonic, completely Jewish, extremely cowardly and not very dangerous for those who use it” (pp. 192-195) (1). “Crush the enemy whoever he may be,” the Secret Instructions continue, “crush the one who is powerful against us, whether by the power he has in his hands, or by his intelligence and the use he uses of it. done, or by the force of his will), crush him with backbiting and slander; but above all, nip it in the bud. » We know with what ardor and perseverance the newspapers of all nations, especially the French and English newspapers, then worked hard to decry
1. The same practices take place in Spain. The Religious Week of Madrid became aware of a Manual distributed to the Freemasons of Spain, and reported on it in November 1885. It was said: “The action of masonry must focus mainly on discrediting priests and to reduce the influence they have on the people and in families. To do this, use books and newspapers, establish centers of action to fuel hostility against priests. » Collect notices and transmit them to the newspapers to destroy the respect that ignorant people have for priests. » Encourage families not to read Catholic newspapers and introduce some liberal paper there. » Let us not be scrupulous in the choice of means to destroy respect for religion and the priest. All means are good when it comes to delivering humanity from the chains of the priest. » In the resolutions of the Congress of Free Thought meeting in Geneva in September 1902, we could see how secret societies produce movements of opinion: l Indicate to free-thinking journalists the campaigns to be carried out at the same time, at the same time, on, same question; — 2° Give deputies the same slogan, so that, in all countries, questions take place at the same time - on the same questions which will be the subject of press campaigns; — 3° organize at the same time meetings in the main cities throughout the world to enlighten the people. - A recent example of the way in which these three points are observed was given to us in the Ferrer affair.
in every way the pontifical power and the other legitimate powers in Italy (1). When public opinion was deemed sufficiently prepared, the diplomats were sent on (2). From the first
1. When Mr. Jaurès came to say from the platform that France must mourn Alsace and Lorraine, Mr. Ed. Drumont published an article where, in a striking contrast, he showed how powerful the action of newspapers: to form and lead opinion, according to the designs of secret societies. » Think about what those who, without having yet reached extreme old age today, must think, were very young about forty years ago. Everyone then had a fixed idea: to free Italy, free Venice from its chains, put the Germans out: Fuori Tedeschi!... We had to kill our soldiers and spend our billions to free the provinces that Austria occupied . » Ten years later, Strasbourg belongs to the Germans, like Venice, which we believed had the mission to tear away from its oppressors. Nowhere have we seen anything resembling the tireless, incessant campaign undertaken in the past in France in the press, in books, in the salons, to restore independence to Italy...” To arrive at This result, everything had been implemented: diplomacy with Cavour, intrigue with the Count of Arese, audacity with Garibaldi, crime with Mazzini... We would fill an immense library with everything that has been written on this in France. Historians, orators, poets, novelists got involved..." It is Masonry which, through the affiliated secret societies/Sales, the Carbonari meetings, the influence exercised on politicians and the heads of state belonging to the sect, contributed the most to freeing Italy from the Austrian yoke... Today, Masonry declares to the immense majority of its lodges that the theft of our provinces is perfectly legitimate and that it is not to be hoped that France would take back Asia-Lorraine. » Today, as then, she is listened to everywhere. 2. Here is the project that already, in 1813, the Charbonnerie submitted to the approval of England; “1. — Italy will be free and independent. » 2. — The limits of this empire will be the three seas and the Alps. » 3. — Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, the Sept-Iles and all the other islands located on the coasts of the Mediterranean would form a part of the Roman Empire. » 4. — Rome will be the capital of the Empire and the seat of the Caesars » (Saint-Edme, Constitution and organization of the carbonari, 1821).
days of the pontificate of Gregory XVI, Europe began to ask the Holy See for "reforms" including those the Alta Vendita had the necessity proclaimed. Led by Palmerston, one of the great leaders of Masonry, Louis-Philippe led the ministers of Austria, Prussia and Russia in a diplomatic campaign against the Holy See. A conference was convened and drafted the Memorandum, a sort of formal notice addressed to the Papacy. " Oh ! cried Gregory XVI, Peter's boat has undergone harsher trials, we will certainly brave the storm. The throne of King Philippe d'Orléans will collapse, but this one will not! » This was the beginning of the campaign which continued under Pius IX and which resulted in the secularization of the Papal States and the occupation of Rome. In the consistorial address he delivered on April 29, 1848, Pius IX denounced the pressure exerted by the European powers on the papal government with the aim of making it, so to speak, abdicate. “You are aware, venerable brothers, that already, towards the end of the reign of Pius VII, our predecessor, the sovereign princes of Europe insinuated to the Apostolic See the advice to adopt, for the government of civil affairs, a mode of administration easier and more in accordance with the desires of the laity." Later, in 1831, the advice and wishes of these sovereigns were more solemnly expressed in the famous Memorandum which the emperors of Austria and Russia, the king of the French, the queen of Great Britain and the king of Prussia, thought it necessary to send to Rome by their ambassadors . In this writing, there was talk, among other things, of the convening, in Rome, of a state consultation formed with the assistance of the entire Papal State, of a new and broad organization of municipalities, of the the establishment of provincial councils, other institutions equally favorable to common prosperity, the admission of lay people to all functions of public administration and the judicial order. These last two points were presented as vital principles of government. Other notes from the same ambassadors mentioned a wider pardon to be granted to all or almost all papal subjects who had betrayed the faith due to their sovereign. » Foreign princes, by intervening in this way, injured sovereignty in its essence which is that it depends only on itself, and thereby harmed their own cause. But the sect, more or less directly, commanded or persuaded. Pius IX, on his accession, thought it necessary to take into account the advice set out in the Memorandum and we know the effect they had: it was to have the republic proclaimed in Rome. This did not prevent diplomacy, after the restoration of the papal throne, from making its remonstrances, and one could say its injunctions, to put an end to the abuses more pressing day by day. At the congress held in Paris after the Crimean War, the words were finally said which would put
1. When Napoleon III had manifested his secret intentions by the words addressed in January 1859 to the Austrian ambassador , Mgr Pie, frightened, asked for an audience with him. The emperor said to the bishop: “France did not maintain an army of occupation in Rome to commit abuses there. » Mgr Pie asked permission to explain himself on this subject in complete freedom. You should read in Mgr Baunard's beautiful book: History of Cardinal Pius, the courageous words he made heard. “There are abuses everywhere, and what government can boast of escaping them? But I dare say that nowhere are there less numerous than in your city and in the States governed by the Pope. — What did our glorious Crimean expedition accomplish? Is it not rather in Constantinople and * in Turkey than in Rome (where France would have gone to maintain abuses? " 2. Gesuita moderno, t. II, p. 600. 3. See Le Monde of December 31 1861.
France in the service of Piedmont to “free Italy” (1) At the same time as they recommended decrying papal Rome, the Instructions said that it was necessary to recall the memories of pagan Rome and "A century will not pass," cried a more or less conscious agent of secret societies, Abbot Gioberti, "before our homeland becomes as beautiful as it was in the old days. of Scipio (2). "Rome, Mazzini later said, is not a city, Rome represents an idea. Rome is the sepulcher of two great religions which once gave life to the world, and Rome is the sanctuary of a third future religion, destined to give life to the world of the future Rome represents the mission of Italy among the nations, the Word of our people, the eternal Gospel of universal union" (3).
“There is always at the bottom of the Italian heart (the Secret Instructions speak again) a regret for Republican Rome. Excite, warm up these natures so full of incandescence, offer them first, but always in secret (the Instructions speak here of what to do with young people in families, colleges and seminaries) , offer them harmless books, poetry resplendent with national emphasis; then, little by little, you will bring your disciples to the desired degree of cooking. When, on all points at once of the ecclesiastical State, this daily work has spread your ideas like light, then you will be able to appreciate the wisdom of the advice from which we take the initiative.” It was 1819. If the Instructions recommended spreading ideas, they no less recommended not pushing for action yet. “Nothing is ripe,” they say, “neither men nor things, and nothing will be ripe for much longer. But from these misfortunes (from what had already happened because of wanting to precipitate the movement too soon, and from the armed intervention of Austria which we then saw as threatening), you can easily draw a new string to vibrate in the heart of the young clergy. It will be hatred of foreigners. Make the German (il Tedesco) ridiculous and obnoxious even before his planned entrance. » A document, dated October 20, 1821, outlined the strategy to follow in the various countries of Europe for “the struggle now engaged between priestly or monarchical despotism and the principle of freedom. " He said especially for Italy: "In Italy, we must make the name of the foreigner unpopular, so that, when Rome is seriously besieged by the Revolution, foreign help will be everything at first an affront, even to the faithful natives.”
The Alta Vendita strove above all, as we have just heard, to win over the clergy to these ideas of political emancipation; and they really had a very attractive side for those who did not know the secret designs of those who propagated them. “Make the priest patriotic,” wrote Vindex. They were only too successful, not with everyone, nor even with the greatest number, but with influential religious and secular priests who led too many naive people in their wake. Father Gavazzi, Father Gioberti, Father Ventura, Father Spola, went so far as to become Mazzini's acolytes when the Revolution had driven Pius IX from Rome; and they had the impiety and the audacity to sing on Easter day Alleluia of the secret societies at the tomb of the Apostles. Not satisfied with meeting auxiliaries in the clergy, the conspirators had aimed higher. They hoped to meet a Pope who would serve their purposes. After the death of Gregory XVI, they believed they had found it in Pius IX (1). Called unexpectedly to the government
1. Adam Mickiewicz gave a curious testimony: “A friend, Mr. Armand Lévy, told me of the singular impression that the beginning of the reign of Pius IX made on Lamennais, for twelve years separated from Rome, and who, eight years later, was to die outside the Church, leaving as a political testament this preface to Dante's translation, where he insists on the incompatibility between Catholicism and freedom. One day in November 1846, he said, the fiery Breton, speaking of the new pope, suddenly began to pace up and down his room in Rue Byron, with rapid gestures and burning eyes, saying what Pius IX could do, what he would undoubtedly do, what he himself would certainly do, if he were in his place: "I would take the cross in my hand, I would march against the Austrians..." And this monologue, which does not had only two witnesses, continued thus for a whole half hour, on the theme
of the Church, Pius IX had not been in a position to discover the pitfalls which threatened the boat of Pierre, and he instinctively looked for a way to avoid them. He believed it necessary first to grant, to public opinion and the authorities of the sovereigns, amnesty in favor of those of the Carbonari struck down by justice. It had been clamored for during the reign of Gregory XVI. “We will use the real tears of the family and the presumed pain of exile,” Nubius wrote to Vindex in 1832, “to create a popular weapon out of amnesty. We will always ask for it, happy to get it as late as possible, but we will ask for it loudly. » What words could bring into greater light the depths of the hearts of revolutionaries! They pretend to take an interest in popular misery and suffering; in reality, they give birth to them or they exasperate them in order to benefit from it for themselves. Pius IX did not stop there. Not yet knowing that, as Cretineau-Joly says, it is only necessary to touch the Revolution to bring down its head (which he later did with the Syllabus), he believed he could concede something of what she asked for wisely progressive improvements. “Courage, Holy Father! » shouted Mr. Thiers, from the platform of a crusade for the independence of Italy and the freedom of nations. Lamennais was perhaps never more eloquent. His soul blossomed under this dream of universal deliverance, brought about by papal initiative. Was what had been the cherished dream of his youth going to come true?” (Memorial of the Polish Legion of 1848, created in Italy by Adam Mickiewicz, publication based on his father's papers with preface and notes by Ladislas Mickiewicz. Paris, 1877, vol. I, p. 30).
French, echoing the ovations of the Italian revolutionaries. Yet Peter remained Peter, refusing what could not be granted; — Non posso, non devo, non voglio, — and by the grace of God and through the arm of France, he emerged victorious from the ordeal. This disappointment in no way led the sect to abandon its designs. It continued on the one hand to ruin the pontifical throne, on the other hand to spread the ideas prepared by the revolutions intended to overthrow the thrones and to place sovereignty in the people. This second work was not in our eyes the most important. “This victory (the fall of the thrones, wrote Tigrotto, January 5, 1846, two years before the Revolution of 48 which was to shake them all), this victory which will be so easy, is however not the one which has provoked until now so many sacrifices on our part. "There is a victory more precious, more lasting, and one that we have been pursuing for so long... To safely kill the old world (and on its ruins establish a new civilization), we saw that it was necessary to stifle the Catholic and Christian germ”, in other words, annihilate Christianity in souls.