Friday, May 30, 2008

The Usual Suspects: Pt. 2 -- Masonry

Why have the Masons been in the public eye so much more than most other "secret" societies? Over the centuries they have incurred the resentment, envy, rage, disapproval and curiosity of the public, monarchs, and the Church. Today they are still the whipping boy of the Vatican and frequently blamed for everything that points to worldly wheeling and dealing (usually done with papal knowledge.)

And yet the actual Masonic implication in conspiratorial activities is usually not clear-cut, while it is impossible to be dismissed entirely. This attraction of negative attention may be caused in part by the secrecy of their inner dealings, perhaps carried on in part from medieval masons and builders who strove to keep the secrets of their trade from outsiders. The secret handshakes, recognition signals, and initiation rites were necessary in a feudal age to prevent serfs from escaping from their class into the wider world of masons.

In the past secrecy gave the the Freemasons freedom to discuss knowledge of their time that was not accepted and even forbidden by the Catholic Church. But the intellectual interests of the various lodges varied, some attracting religious freethinkers, while others followed mysticism, the occult, or natural science. All these subjects were anathema to the Church and the equally repressive despotic governments of the time, large and small. It was not surprising that people who had a vested interest in ignorance and blind obedience would oppose secret societies, reading and discussion groups, and masonic lodges. These attitudes carried down to the public at large which had a distrust of masonry.

In the early 19th century in the U.S., for example, many people were up in arms about secret manoeuvering of freemasons to help and favor brother masons, especially in the law courts. Many judges were known to be masons and the popular opinion was that they gave unfair advantage to their brothers. Resentment of masons was strong and possibly reasonable enough. Then, in the 1820's a mason named Morgan disappeared. Rumors about what had happened soon convinced people that he had been murdered because he had threatened to disclose masonic secrets. Public outrage grew and soon the Anti-Masonic Party was born. The official investigation was botched and there were varying stories about whether Morgan's body was found or even identified as his. People knew what they believed.

This was a prominent but short-lived phenomenon. It lasted from the late 1820's to 1833-34. The new party was notable for organizing the country's first nominating convention. William Wirt, a mason from Massachusetts ran for President on the Anti-Masonic Ticket.

The party lost the election and lasted only for a few more years. Historians did not treat it kindly. They dismissed the public outrage against Masonry as paranoia. But historiography often comes to the rescue of time's rejects and gives them a bit of credit. Sometimes new facts emerge to warrant another look. In fact something personally interesting re anti-masonry occurred over twenty years ago when I was in grad school. On the eve of turning in a term paper to my American History professor on the Anti-Masonic Party, I was watching the news on TV and learned about a Vatican scandal. It was referred to as Propaganda Due or P2.

This was exciting. It provided me with a footnote which I added to my paper before handing it in -- a footnote to history which may remove some of the stigma of paranoia attached to the Anti-Masonic Party. This financial scandal is still being debated today and recently returned to a London law court. It involved the murder of an Italian banker close to the Vatican, the Banco Ambrosiano, of which the Vatican was a major shareholder, the Mafia, which may have been using the bank for money laundering and may have ordered the murder of the banker for embezzling and losing Mafia money. And much more.

The point is that the Vatican blamed this on a masonic plot, but the Lodge, called P2, was an illegal "black" lodge which had been cast off by Freemasonry. It was still secretly active however and had a membership of some of the most prominent men in Italian business and politics. I knew that this was a "renegade" lodge but most of the details were unknown to me until yesterday and find it even more interesting than I thought twenty years ago.

This is why the whole subject of conspiracies is so convoluted and hard to disentangle. Those of us who have known fathers, uncles, or husbands who went off to lodge meetings, wore odd regalia, were active in philanthropic activities, and proudly wore Masonic rings and other jewelry, may swear that today Masonry has devolved into a harmless beneficent social organization. Others may argue that the lower orders of masonry have always been a cover for the higher orders whose secrets may be unknown to their own rank and file. There are higher grades within higher grades, secrets within secrets, with an inner invisible core guarding a political agenda which may affect all of us if ever realized.

What's on my mind now is the secret history of the Knights Templar. There are certain little-known theories about them which should be discussed openly, so why not here?


http://itwasjohnson.impiousdigest.com/proceedings.htm
http://itwasjohnson.impiousdigest.com/pope-leo.htm
http://www.masonicinfo.com/convention.htm
http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=201204
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-AntiMaso.html

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