Masons / Freemasons Quotes
This quotation shows another example of the paranoia about Masons/ Since the Masons had chapters in many nations, their loyalty was always suspect to the most nationalistic leaders of many countries. In the United States, we even had a national Anti-Masonic Party that elected Congressmen and other politicians. Fear of the foreign—Xenophobia—has existed in many countries.
The Illuminati was a secret society. At the time, anyone who differed with the Church on issues of philosophy, ethics or religion could be tortured and burned at the stake, and anyone who criticized the Monarchy could be tortured and hung or beheaded. The result was the concept of a secret society of which the Illuminati was one. The last sentence, once it became known generally, made established monarchies and their governments very suspicious of all literary societies. To this day, literary societies are suspect in most countries as a hotbed of anti-governmetn activity, if not by the Illuminati then by some other clandestine groups. In the first half of the 20th century in America, the Communist Party infiltrated several literary societies.
The Nazis persecuted the Freemasons along with the Jews and Gypsies. The rationale was that the Freemasons were traitors and enemies of Germany. There is no record of any organized opposition to the Nazis by German Freemasons. However, it is likely that the older aristocratic German families which tended to join Masonic lodges, were not great enthusiasts about Hitler. For Nazi Germany, lack of enthusiastic support was treason. Kaltenbrunner was one of the major war criminals declared guilty at the Nuremberg Trials and hanged.
Incredibly enough, Gils Robles was only right of center with outright Fascist Nazi groups active in Spanish politics. One of the propaganda myths of the Spanish right at the time was that the poor economy and the Basque and Catalan separatist movements were the result of the activity of the Masons and Jewish influences. Also,Confederacion Espanola, de Derechas Automomas his call for a totalitarian government was typical of the right wing of the time whop distrusted democracy completely.
The Regius Poem, often referred to as The Halliwell Manuscript, c.1390, is the oldest Englsh langiage document of Freemasonry, It was a long poem with a then classic rhyming scheme. It articulated 15 moral precepts and even more "principles" of the English Masons at the time, which was not vastly different from Masons today.
It was this oath that opponents of the Masons used to justify their beliefs that Masons were undemocratic. The Anti-Masonic party was formed in the early 1800s.
The Lautoro Lodge had as members most of the Anti Spanish revolutionaries of the Country. Some governments have feared Masonic Lodges and in some cases they have been “hotbeds” of revolution; in other cases, they have been the institution most supportive of the conservative aristocratic forces of the society.
This pope was convinced that the Masons were a great danger not only to the Catholic Church but to all existent states. He saw them as a conspiracy to control the world. In America there were many who also feared the Masons. This reached its zenith in the founding of the Anti-Masonic Party which elected Congressmen and local officials. Ironically, the Anti-Masonics were generally also anti-Catholic.
Clinton also was the Masonic Grandmaster of New York State. The 10 Masonic Lodges in New York at the end of the Revolution had grown to 100 by 1806. 20 years later, there were 500 in New York alone and Freemasonry was flourishing throughout the new nation.
There are many who believe that Masonic Lodges were hotbeds of insurrection and anti-government plotting. If so, they would be in direct contradiction to their Constitution as this quotation shows.
