Devil-Worship in France | Page 7

Some of that literature has been put forth with the special marks of high
ecclesiastical approbation, and to some this guarantee is wanting, but
the same spirit informs the whole. To insist on this point is important
for many reasons which will become apparent at the close of our
enquiry, and for one which concerns us now. It is impossible for the
Catholic Church to do otherwise than brand the cultus of Lucifer as
identical with that of Satan, because, according to her unswerving
instruction, the name Lucifer is an equivalent of Satan, and, moreover,
the Luciferian cultus is so admittedly anti-Christian that no form of
Christianity could do otherwise than regard it as a worship of darkness
and evil. While, therefore, the adoration of a good principle under this
discredited name may in one of its aspects be merely an error of
judgment, and not the worship of a devil, apart from other facts which
destroy this consideration, we must all agree that from the standpoint of
Christian and Latin orthodoxy the Luciferian is a diabolist, though not
in the sense of the Satanist.

The doctrine of Lucifer has been tersely described by Huysman as a
kind of reversed Christianity--a Catholicism à rebours. It is, in fact, the
revival of an old heresy founded on what we have most of us been
accustomed to regard as a philosophical blunder; in a word, it is a
Manichæan system having a special anti-Christian application, for
while affirming the existence of two equal first principles, Adonaï and
Lucifer, it regards the latter as the god of light and goodness, while the
Christian Adonaï is the prince of darkness and the veritable Satan. It is
inferred from the condition of the world at the present time that the
mastery of the moment resides with the evil principle, and that the
beneficent Deity is at a disadvantage. Adonaï reigns surely, as the
Christian believes, but he is the author of human misery, and Jesus is
the Christ of Adonaï, but he is the messenger of misfortune, suffering,
and false renunciation, leading ultimately to destruction when the Deus
maledictus shall cease to triumph. The worshippers of Lucifer have
taken sides in the cause of humanity, and in their own cause, with the
baffled principle of goodness; they co-operate with him in order to
insure his triumph, and he communicates with them to encourage and
strengthen them; they work to prepare his kingdom, and he promises to
raise up a Saviour among them, who is Antichrist, their leader and king
to come.
Such is the doctrine of Lucifer according to the testimony of witnesses
who have come out from his cultus; it is not an instruction which à
priori would seem likely to commend itself to a numerically powerful
following, but the society which is concerned with its propagation is
affirmed to have spread over the whole world, and to be represented in
all its chief cities. It is that which we have already found mentioned by
M. Huysman as possessing a demonstrated existence and being a proof
positive of modern Satanism, namely, the Palladian Order. Having
broadly ascertained its principles, our next course is to discover its
alleged history, and here it is necessary to admit that it is a matter of
some difficulty to place the position in such an aspect that it will be a
tolerable subject for inquiry among readers in England. The mystery of
modern Diabolism and the Cultus of Lucifer is a part of the mystery of
Masonry as interpreted by an Anti-Masonic movement now at work in
France. The black magic, of which we hear so much, involves a new

aspect of the old Catholic Crusade against the Fraternity of the Square
and Compass, and by the question of Lucifer is signified an alleged
discovery that Masons diabolise.
Now, we are all well acquainted with the historical fact that the Latin
Church has long been hostile to Masonry, that popes have condemned
the order, and have excommunicated its initiates. Having regard to the
position of the brotherhood here in England, most of us have been
content to infer in this respect that the ripe old age of the Church is
passing into a second childhood; some, however, have concluded that
there may be more in Continental Freemasonry than meets the English
eye, and here the Church herself comes forward to assure them that the
fraternity abroad is a hotbed of political propaganda, and is responsible
for the most disastrous revolutions which have perplexed the modern
world; that it is actually, as the exploded Robison described it, a
conspiracy against crowned heads; and that it is at the present time the
most potent, most secret enemy which checkmates and hinders herself.
It is now further affirmed that behind the Masonry of to-day--here