Secret Societies Quotes
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.
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. In this quotation, the founder stresses the importance of selecting secret members of the society from key occupations so they could influence the political order of the day. It was this quotation which has caused deep suspicion of secret societies from the Illuminati to the Masons.
By secret societies, de Tocqueville meant societies or organizations where the membership was secret. He was not referring to organizations like the Masons which had secret oaths and rituals. Secret societies had historically been destabilizing forces in societies. At the time this was written, there were no secret societies in America, but in 1855 a major one developed—The American Party whose members were better known as “Know Nothings” as when they would be asked anything about the party and its organization of beliefs, they would claim that the knew nothing. They were virulently anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic. Subsequently, there have been secret organizations in American politics from time to time, but they have generally been few compared to other countries, and their influence was not long lasting. Most recently, quirks in legal decisions and their interaction with the Constitution have produced non profit organizations which are financed and influenced by unknown people. The major officials of the organizations are known but the members and contributors are secret. These organizations then operate campaigns, most often to attack and damage the reputation of politicians running for political office—most frequently, the Presidency.
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.
