Portrait of Gabriel Jogand-Pagès, known as Léo Taxil, born in Marseilles in 1854 and died in Sceaux in 1907. In the background, the reception of an apprentice on an engraving in a history of Freemasonry published in 1843 • ISTOCK Complete Revelations on Freemasonry :it was under this “sensational” title that the first anti-Masonic rant by Léo Taxil appeared in 1885, a formal denunciation of the numerous “exactions” of the secret society. A dozen other books will follow, with equally provocative titles:Les Assassinats maçonniques , Are there women in Freemasonry? or The Devil in the 19th th century . The author, a polygrapher from Marseilles adept at stunts, intended to reveal Freemasonry "as it is", namely the personal work of Satan, a political machinery using intrigue, murder and sexual orgies to satisfy his thirst for power. Under the title Masonic France , he also published a series of volumes disclosing the names, addresses and occupations of thousands of Freemasons. The success was there:the newspapers made hot throats of them, the books knew large circulations, and several of them were translated abroad. A virulent free-thinker The personal journey of the author partly explains this impact. Because Léo Taxil – Gabriel Jogand-Pagès of his real name – was not a stranger. A Republican journalist, he first made himself known as a virulent free-thinking militant. In Marseilles where he was born in 1854, he started by founding a newspaper, La République anticlericale , then an “anticlerical library” and composed an Anticlerical Marseillaise . His texts, which were not in the lace, attacked with rare violence the dogma, the morality and the teaching of the "crows", whom he accused of all the turpitudes, mainly sexual. His pamphlet Down with the skullcap , published in 1879, earned him prosecution for insulting public morals as well as a proper excommunication. His fight against the Catholic Church of course brought him closer to Masonic circles, in particular to the Parisian lodge of the "Temple des amis de l'honneur français", into which he was initiated in 1881. But he did not go beyond the rank of apprentice:he was expelled a few months later for having produced letters of support from personalities (including Hugo and Louis Blanc) which turned out to be forgeries. It was there that the first dramatic change occurred:Taxil publicly repudiated his errors and announced his return to the bosom of the Church. He traveled to Rome for the occasion, from where he received absolution from the very hands of Pope Leo XIII. His offensive against the Freemasons thus inaugurated his new career as an apostate. The pet peeve of the Church The echo of this conversion and the campaign that followed cannot be understood without taking into account the vigor of anti-Masonry at the end of the century. Condemned by the papacy from the beginning of the 18 th century because of the secrecy of its activities and its ecumenism, Freemasonry did not really become the pet peeve of the Church until after the French Revolution. Father Barruel, in his Memoirs for the History of Jacobinism , had indeed explained as early as 1797 that the current revolution was only the product of a plot fomented by the Masonic elites. The links that Masonry established throughout the 19th th century with European liberals and with secret societies like the carbonari Italians, fervent supporters of the unity of the peninsula, comforted the Church and the Holy See in their radical rejection. In France, there was general convergence between the Republic and Masonry, engaged in the same fight against “obscurantism”, and even more so against the alliance of the throne and the altar. The victory of the Republicans at the end of the 1870s therefore also marked that of the lodges, mainly of the Grand Orient of France, which provided the new regime with a number of ministers, presidents of the Council and influential parliamentarians. A Luciferian sect But the success of the offensive launched by Léo Taxil also owed to the personality of its author, who had resources and who was happy to add to them. To the global conspiracy announced in Le Diable au XIX e century Soon there were other great revelations. The attraction of the time for Satanism prompted him to stage a Luciferian sect of "High Masonry", called "Palladism", whose headquarters was located in the city of Charleston, in the United States, and which maintained with the demons of direct relationships. Her rituals included the regular desecration of consecrated hosts as well as the organization of large public copulations. The Existence of Women's Lodges , which he published in 1891, took on its full meaning in this perspective. Taxil continued this vein in a series of serial booklets, published in 1893 and 1894, which recounted the adventures of Dr Bataille, a Catholic doctor infiltrated into occult circles to better describe their orgies and their criminal practices. The sect described by Leo Taxil, "palladism", whose headquarters would be located in the city of Charleston, in the United States, would maintain direct relations with the demons. Among its rituals:the desecration of consecrated hosts, as well as the organization of large public copulations. A further step was taken with the appearance in 1893 of the beautiful Diana Vaughan. Presented by Taxil as a former dignitary of the “Rectified Palladic Rite”, this young American had chosen – just like her mentor in the past – to recant her mistakes:converted to Catholicism, she now dedicated her life to fighting against the sect. The Palladists had condemned her to death; she was therefore forced to live in hiding, multiplying the movements or taking refuge in isolated convents. Only Taxil knew how to contact her and therefore acted as an intermediary. He inserted letters and articles from her in the many publications he ran, explaining how his fortune was used to support various institutions and pious works. She is a “young woman of 29, pretty, very distinguished, with a frank and honest air”, explains an employee. The publication in booklets of the Memoirs of an ex-palladist , obviously presented by Léo Taxil, made her a successful character. First suspicions All these revelations were taken very seriously in Catholic circles, then engaged in a fierce struggle against freethinkers. They also appealed to many publicists, such as the German Jesuit Leo Meurin, whose La Franc-Maçonnerie, synagogue de Satan in 1893 recycled several theses of Taxil. But the most lucid Catholics were beginning to have doubts. The extravagant character of Taxil's stories aroused mistrust, especially since some of the anticlerical works published during his early career were still on sale. The Bishop of Charleston, M gr Northrop, opened up to Pope Leo XIII to inform him that no Satanist cult existed in his city. Others, conversely, explained that Diana Vaughan, far from being a convert, still practiced Palladism. Taxil admitted, in front of an audience of journalists and representatives of the nunciature, that it had all been a "nice joke". The affair was at the center of the congress organized in Trento by the International Anti-Masonic League, in September 1896. Questions were asked above all about the real existence of Diana Vaughan. Some clerics demanded that you produce your birth certificate, proof of baptism or communion. Taxil, who was present, claimed to have all of this, but refused to publish these pieces so as not to endanger the life of Diana, pursued by the lodges. However, he released a photograph of the American. Nothing being settled, the congress decided to convene a commission to clarify these points. But the latter, which met in Rome in January 1897, declared that it had not gathered any conclusive proof. Many already concluded that it was a mystification, the work of a fanciful, even a free-thinker wishing to take advantage of the credulity of Catholics. Taxil counterattacked by announcing the next public manifestation of Diana Vaughan, whom he had just decided to give a series of lectures, the culmination of which would take place in Rome in May 1897. The second twist came a few days before the scheduled start of the tour. During a conference at the Geographical Society, Taxil acknowledged, in front of an audience of journalists and representatives of the nunciature, that all this had been only a “kind joke”. An indescribable tumult broke out in the room and quickly turned into a fight. The plotter had to go out under the protection of the peacekeepers. The laughers on his side What Leo Taxil himself described as "the most colossal mystification of modern times" had lasted 12 years, which says a lot about the struggle which then opposed clericals and freethinkers. The case got the laughs on its side, but it was also fraught with darker prospects. Matthieu Golovinski, an agent of the Okhrana (the Tsarist secret police) then based in Paris, a few years later forged one of the most infamous forgeries in the history of the world, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , which denounced the alleged global conspiracy fomented by Jews and Freemasons and which remains, even today, a tool of anti-Semitic propaganda. Taxil published a few more novels, without much success, and ended his career as a proofreader in a small printing press in the Paris suburbs. But we did not forget his hoax, the scale and longevity of which continue to impress. Again in 2010, Léo Taxil and Diana Vaughan appeared with “Captain” Simonini, an Italian forger who had taken refuge in Paris, in Le Cimetière de Prague , a novel by Umberto Eco which places these words in the mouth of Taxil:“The main character of people is that they are ready to believe anything. » Find out more The Book of Freemasonry, by Alain Bauer, What do I know?, 2019. Anti-Masonry. General aspects (1738-2016), by Jacques-Charles Lemaire, Masonic Editions of France, 2017.The Cemetery of Prague, by Umberto Eco. The Paperback, 2012.The Sign of Distress, by Jack Chaboud, Dervy, 2018. Timeline 1854 Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pagès was born in Marseilles into a Catholic family. He then adopted the pseudonym of Léo Taxil.1870 The Papal States are annexed to the Kingdom of Italy. France saw the birth of the III th Republic, a secular-inspired regime.1884 In the encyclical Humanum genus , Pope Leo XIII calls for the unmasking of Freemasonry.1885 Léo Taxil pretends to convert to Catholicism and launches into anti-Masonic propaganda.1897 During a press conference in Paris, Léo Taxil explains that his revelations about Freemasonry were lies.1907 After exposing his deception, Léo Taxil became a proofreader in a printing press in Sceaux, the town where he died. Who were the Freemasons? According to legend, Freemasonry originated in the brotherhoods of stonemasons and masons of the Middle Ages. In reality, it was built in the 18 th century into associations of "freemasons", which conferred a symbolic dimension on the language and instruments of medieval workers. To achieve spiritual progress, Freemasons followed a hierarchical progression (degrees or grades), grouped together in lodges and carried out discreet, even secret activities. Of secular, liberal and tolerant inspiration, Freemasonry soon came to be considered by the State and by the Church as a conspiracy working for the annihilation of the social order and the faith. The Great Conspiracy Catholic anti-Masonic discourse often presented Freemasonry as a coalition formed with other enemies of Christianity, notably Judaism. If the religious tolerance of the Freemasons and their recourse to symbols of Hebrew origin brought water to its mill, this discourse quite logically amalgamated those whom the Church perceived as its old and its new enemies, respectively the Jews and Freemasons, into a sort of evil two-headed entity:Judeo-Masonry. Thus appeared at the beginning of the XIX e century the myth of the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy, which would adapt across space and time. Leo Taxil, however, escaped the virulent anti-Semitism of other anti-Masonic initiatives at the end of the 19 th century and stood in the municipal elections of 1890 in a Parisian constituency against the anti-Semite Édouard Drumont. The Hoax Specialist At the time of his mystification of Diana Vaughan and "palladism", Léo Taxil was not at his first attempt. In 1873, when he was only 19, he claimed to have discovered letters from frightened sailors and used his diary La Marotte to spread the rumor of an invasion of sharks in the harbor of Marseille. Fear won over fishermen and bathers, and soldiers were even mobilized to overcome the sharks. His next invention lay in the depths of Lake Geneva:while living in Geneva, he claimed that a Roman city, the remains of which were seen by curious people and by archaeologists, would be swallowed up in the lake. Léo Taxil confesses On April 19, 1897, when his deception was about to be exposed, Léo Taxil decided to establish the truth himself. He called a press conference at the Paris Geographical Society to announce that Diana Vaughan, the alleged originator of the Luciferian cults practiced by the Freemasons, did not exist. This revelation caused an outcry all the more resounding as the theory of Masonic Satanism was based on the confessions of this follower converted to Catholicism. In September 1896, a few months before Taxil admitted his imposture, La Civilità Cattolica , the magazine of the Jesuits of Rome, announced that “Miss Diana Vaughan, called from the depth of darkness into the light of God, […] turns to the Church to serve her, and seems inexhaustible in her precious publications, which do not are second to none for accuracy and usefulness. The reality was quite different, as he revealed that day:"Under the signature 'Doctor Bataille', I have related, and under the signature 'Miss Vaughan' I have confirmed that the Masonic temple of Charleston contains a labyrinth in the center of which is the chapel of Lucifer. That was not all. He had indeed added that “one of the rooms […], called Sanctum Regnum, has as its main ornament the monstrous statue of Baphomet, to which the high masons worship; that another room has a statue of Eva which comes to life when a Templar mistress is particularly pleasing to Master Satan, and that this statue then becomes the demoness Astarte, alive for a moment, to give a kiss to the privileged Templar mistress” . And to continue:“M gr Northrop, Catholic Bishop of Charleston, made the trip to Rome expressly to certify to the sovereign pontiff that these writings were of the highest fantasy. […] [M gr Northrop] had just said:“It is false, absolutely false that the Freemasons of Charleston are the heads of a supreme Luciferian rite. I particularly know the main ones […]. Their temple I have visited; none of the rooms indicated by Doctor Bataille and Miss Vaughan are there. This plan is a joke.” M gr Northrop, on returning from Rome, no longer protested; he kept […] silence. Miss Diana Vaughan, on the contrary, replied to the interview with M gr Northrop; she said the Bishop of Charleston was a Freemason himself, and she received the Pope's blessing." Not very Catholic rituals In 1886, Léo Taxil published a voluminous work of more than 800 pages entitled The Mysteries of Freemasonry , which Catholic publishers had translated into several languages. Filled with earthy illustrations, this book portrayed Freemasonry as an anticlerical secret society with malevolent intentions. It depicted fanciful Masonic rituals, explained that Freemasonry had its origins in ancient heretical sects, branded Freemasons unpatriotic for putting membership in their brotherhood before loyalty to country, and accused them of numerous assassinations targeting their former members. He compared himself to William Morgan, an alleged American Freemason assassinated for wanting to reveal the secrets of the brotherhood:"If I die from a stab or a bullet from a pistol, we will know from which caves came out my assassins. If I succumb to some unexpected illness, we will know, before my death, its criminal causes. »Bloody Initiation According to Leo Taxil, access to the rank of knight Kadosh consists in placing the initiate's hand on the shorn skin of a sheep and ordering him to plunge his dagger into it, while he feels a heart beating he thinks he's human.Baptism parody Leo Taxil describes the adoption ceremony of “Cub Scouts,” the children of Freemasons, by the eponymous lodge, as if it were a deliberate parody of Catholic baptism. “Poor children! Unhappy parents! he concludes.Sacrilegious sect According to Taxil, Freemasonry has its origins in the 13th th century, in a sect of Cologne which stabbed consecrated hosts in front of Lucifer. He also attributes to this sect of his invention the paternity of the Italian Fraticelli and the Bohemian Hussites.Secret codes The different alphabets invented by the Freemasons were used for ritual purposes and not for secret and unavowable communication, as Taxil suggested.Selective assassination The assassination of New Yorker William Morgan in 1826. This alleged deserter from Freemasonry was kidnapped and killed by his former co-religionists after announcing his intention to publish a book denouncing the brotherhood.The Secret Poison of Freemasons Among the many inventions of Léo Taxil which contributed to assimilating Freemasonry to a criminal organization is notably this drink, the Manna di San Nicola di Bari , whose innocent – and Catholic – presentation, featuring an image of Saint Nicholas, actually hid acqua-tofana, a poison made in Naples and “[shipped] to the Supreme Councils who [made] the request” , according to Taxil.
