The Mass and Its Mysteries

THE MASS
AND ITS MYSTERIES

COMPARED
TO THE ANCIENT
MYSTERIES
La Messe
et ses Mystères
Comparés
aux Mystères Anciens
BY
JEAN-MARIE RAGON
Translated into English by John Lenoir
First French language edition 1843 e.v.
This translation into English based on the 1882 e.v. third
French language edition.
Translation Copyright © John Lenoir 2011 e.v., An CVIII

ragon1@hotmail.co.uk
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced, saved in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any
form or by any means mechanical, electronic, or
photocopying, recording or otherwise without written
permission of the publisher and translator.
ISBN 978-4478-1308-8
The translator dedicates his labours
to the memory of
Mr Marcelo Ramos Motta
who, in his work, Letter to a Brazilian Mason, encouraged the
translation of Jean-Marie Ragon’s La Messe et ses Mystères
Comparés aux Mystères Anciens.
Copyright restrictions forbid the reproduction of any part of Mr
Motta’s publication.
However, what he says about this book
in the above mentioned work concerning
the identity of the emblem of
the pyramid and
the thirty-third degree of freemasonry
should be consulted
by the reader should he or she be lucky enough
to be able to acquire a legitimate copy.
Read the works of Ragon, a Mason who forgot
more than the Masons of today know.
(H.P. Blavatsky, The Roots of Ritualism in Church
and Masonry, her synopsis and criticism of La
Messe et ses Mystères, in the Journal Lucifer, March
1889 e.v).
The reader should consult La Messe et ses

Mystères, par Jean-Marie de V . . . . (Paris et
Nancy, 1844) for a complete demonstration of
the incorporation of the Solar and Phallic
Mysteries in Christianity.
(Aleister Crowley, Commentary to The Book of Lies,
Chapter 86).
v
Table of Contents
Page
Table of Contents. vi
Biographical Note by Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie. xvi
FOREWORD. 1
CHAPTER I – On the arrangement of holy places and sacred 10

instruments.
CHAPTER II – Further on the same subject. 19
CHAPTER III – On the sacred dress of antiquity preserved in 28

the modern cult. – Preparation for the mass by fasting
and by prayer. – Benediction by lustral water and
distribution of the blessed bread. – Introit, form [French,
figure] of the ancient initiations. - The dialogue from
introibo until montem sanctum and the consecrated places
on high, primitive altars. - Episode of Apuleius' initiation
into the mysteries of Memphis, necessary to report for
the understanding of the modern rites, religious and
Masonic, of which the comparative examination is the
principal aim of this work.
CHAPTER IV – On the Domine-sol of the ancient rituals. – Veil 39

thrown over these sacred words at the time of the
renaissance of letters. - On Deo optimo in use in the
vi
universities. The three introibo of the introit of the mass,
considered as a memory of the three voyages in the
mysteries of Memphis. – Aspersion, procession,
benediction of the bread and its distribution to the
faithful. – Purification by incense. – Lifting of the veil at
the third introibo.
CHAPTER V – The Confiteor of the mass. – Public confession of 49

the ancient initiates, of the Jews and of the reformed
Hebrews. – Moses, high initiate of Egypt, adapted the
mysteries to the Israelite genius. - On aural confession. -
Sensible explanation of the word sacrament. – The Gloria
in excelsis Deo. – On the pagan Praecentis made Catholic.
- Opinion of a savage chief about God. - This homage
written in letters that cannot be erased upon the summit
of a pyramid constructed of materials reputed to be
sacred.
CHAPTER VI – CREDO or symbol of the modern belief. - Credo 59

of the pure Brahmans. – Credo of the Brahmans of all
sects. – Credo of the ancient Shastra. – Chinese Credo. –
Credo of the Israelites. – Credo of the ancient Greek
mysteries inherited from Egypt. – Credo of the
Cherokees, savages of North America. – Credo of the
Parsis. – Explanation of the first, second and third
verses of the Credo of the new systems.
CHAPTER VII – Continuation of the examination of the Credo 75

from Deum de Deo until per quem omnia facta sunt. – On
the light or obscurity resulting from a comma, before or
after a word in a sentence. – The apostles did not have a
written symbol. – Why consubstantiation was
introduced and sanctioned. – The argument supported
by Saint John.
CHAPTER VIII – Continuation of the explanation of the Credo 81

from qui propter nos homines until et incarnatus est. – On
vii
Saint Augustine and Calcidius. – Trinities and
Incarnations.
CHAPTER IX – Continuation on the Trinities and Incarnations. 89

– On the Incarnatus est. – On the Homo factus est. -
Apology in favour of the redactors of the Credo. – On
the diverse elements of its composition. – Explanation of
its tenth, eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth verses.
CHAPTER X – On the last judgement. – Opinion of Celsus; – 101

On the Indians upon this subject. – On Saint John. – On
sedet ad dextram patris until unam, sanctam, ecclesiam. –
On Trinities. – On a Chinese Trinity. – On the gods
synthrone et consentes. – On Jupiter triophtalmos. – On the
Holy Spirit and the disagreement between the Greeks
and the Latins about its origin. – The Holy Spirit
Flammiger and Paraclet. - On the word Church [French,
Église] and its true definition. – On the unity of the
Orient of all initiates through all the centuries.
CHAPTER XI – Continuation of the Credo. – Baptism of the 110

Ganges, of the ancient Persians, of the ancient
Egyptians, of Saint John the Baptist and of the new belief
and of the modern initiates. – The Confiteor of the Credo,
word of recognition (password). – Precept of initiation
according to Sommona Codom, on the subject of metals.
– Definition of the word symbol. – On another life and of
the last Judgement. – On the ancient religion of the Parsis
and its relations with the modern belief [French,
croyance]. – On Zerdust or Zoroaster.
CHAPTER XII – Continuation of the mass. – Silence imposed. – 119

First and second oblations separated by a prayer, and
the purification by water, called lavabo. – Incense and
purification by fire. – Etymology and reasonable
explanation of the word solemnity. – Discourse of a
hierophant of ancient times. – The initiatic arch at the
viii
gate of ivory rediscovered after two purifications. –
Ceremonies and sacred tools, common to ancient and
modern believers. – The prayer Lavabo also teaches how
to find a lost brother; it is copied from the prayer of
Orpheus. – Explanation of the glorious body of the Pange
Lingua. – Insertion of polytheism into the second oblation
and the motive thereof.
CHAPTER XIII – Orate, fratres. – Secret. – Preface. – 127

Circumspection of the celebrant. – Arguments that the
ancient and modern theologians give for mixing theism
and polytheism. – The pagan priests, praying upright
and turning themselves toward the faithful, were the
ones who established the Orate, fraters; their Jupiter
secretus is the original of the secret of the mass. - The
preface reunites pure theism, Sabeism and polytheism. –
On the Persian Faroners. - On Mithras, angel of the Sun.
- On the gods, common, azones and adjoint. - Angelus, the
epithet of Mercury. – The crows of Odin, his angels or
messengers.
CHAPTER XIV – Continuation or the Preface. – The concordat 135

of theism and polytheism has not compromised the
truth. – Proofs. – The prudence of the high initiates
adopted and naturalised the exotic divinities. - They
were made subject, with their priests, to the Great
Architect. - End of the Preface. – Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus.
– On the word Sabaoth. – Etymology of this word
Sanctus. – Why this latter is repeated three times. – On
the Hosanna in excelsis. – Return to the final invocation of
the Preface. – Verse of an ancient Masonic hymn. –
Fragment of a hymn sung at the mysteries of Isis which
is analogous to the prayer of the Sanctus.
CHAPTER XV – CANON of the mass. – Synaxes of the 145

reformed Hebrews. – On the Egyptian Cecrops. – On
the hosts and messiahs of the pagans. – Etymology of
ix
Mass and of Messiah. – On the Greeks. – The canon is a
mixture of natural religion and artificial religion. –
Oblative sermon of an ancient hierophant. – Vows in
common use in the synaxes, preserved in Freemasonry.
– Reign of darkness in Europe, the return of the dawn
[French, aurore]; Circumspection and Vigilance!
CHAPTER XVI – Further on the Canon of the mass. – Artificial 152

religion intolerant. – Memento. – The eternal, living and
true God. – Dogma of the other life, of its rewards and
tribulations. – Insertion of Sabeism under modern
names. – The hotchpotch of gold and mud under the
high masonic grades and of those called mosaic [French,
mosaïques].
CHAPTER XVII – Further on the Canon. – Purification of the 160

cult. – Consecration of the bread and the wine. –
Similarity between this liturgy and that of pagan Rome
at the principal epoch of sacrifice. – Sensible explanation
of the prayer to God and his Son. – The origin of the
consecration of the offering of bread and of wine
marked in the mass of the pagans. – On Moses, Moïse,
and Mises: on the Passover at which the reformed
Hebrews and biblical Masons have substituted the Last
Supper, hope of the harvest.
CHAPTER XVIII – Further on the Canon. – The words of the 169

Last Supper [French, Cène]. – The Mass, at first celebrated
at night. – The French and Scottish Rose Croix and of the
Grand Écossais Philosophique, compared with the chaste
offering. – Induction of the solar cult furnished by the
very words of the canon of the mass. - On that which it
is natural to think of the beliefs of those who solemnise
the words. – The degeneration of the cult at the
beginning of the second century. – The opinion of the
Greeks and the Romans concerning the dead. -
Egyptians and Guanches. - Manes, larves, lemures. –
x
The Elysian Fields [French, Champs Elysées].
CHAPTER XIX – Further on the Canon. – Hells of the pagans. - 176

Epoch of the introduction of prayers for the dead and
the obstacles that it overcame. – Its deplorable results. –
On the Memento of the dead, for which they sleep the
sleep of peace. – Funeral services named Denicales by the
Romans. – Funeral celebrations of the Masons. -
Description of this unity in the Rite Écossais
Philosophique. – A word on the true philosophy and on
the Hermetic philosophy. – On the true light which
transmits the customs of the precepts ab ovo [Latin, from
the egg] from centuries to centuries.
CHAPTER XX – Further on the Memento of the Canon of the 186

mass. – Funeral ceremonies of the ancient pagans called
Denicales; on their ipsiles and on our bewitchments
[French, envoútements]. – Explanation of this orison of the
canon.
CHAPTER XXI – Further on the explanation of the Orison of the 193

Canon of the mass. – Eternal life and a share of the
celestial heritage. – On Oannes of the Erythrean Sea and
of Joannes of Jordan. – On Saint John the Baptiser and of
Saint John the Evangelist.
CHAPTER XXII – Further on the prayer of the Canon until the 200
Amen. – On Saint Stephen and the other saints that
follow. – On their mysterious names that form the true
sense and aim of the prayer. – Their aim is homage to
the invisible Great Architect and to the Sun, his visible
image and perceptible agent of his all-power. – On a
remarkable passage of Sanchuniathon. - On the Onion
god of ancient Egypt. – On the Embarvales and of the
mass thereon celebrated: the festivals of the harvest
[French, moisson]. – The Last Supper or Mass, at first
practised in the evening, then celebrated only in the
xi
morning. – Ritual of the first synaxes preserved a little
later: on the kiss of peace, depicted in the churches, in
reality in the Masonic lodges. – High office of the pagan,
Catholic and Masonic temples.
CHAPTER XXIII – Origin of the Pater Noster in the Hebrew 209

Kodisch, native to Chaldea. – Why this prayer is called
Dominical. – Names of the days of the weeks among the
Germans and the English; dimanche (Sunday) is
consecrated to the Sun by its name. – Literal translation
of the Pater. – Paraphrase by verses. – Egyptian dogma
of the return of souls to their bodies after a thousand
years. – This dogma penetrated into paganism and then
into the new belief. - On the Dies Irae. – Dogma of the
recompenses and sorrows: precept of the pardon for
offences, the source of civilisation. – On the fifth degree
of the Non-Hermetic Scottish Rite. – On the good and
evil principle, the Sun ascending, the Sun descending.
CHAPTER XXIV – Further on the seventh verse of the 225

Dominical Orison. – On the Chaldean and Hebrew
Kodisch, root of the Pater Noster; their points of
agreement compared. - Sabaic verse of the Kodisch. –
On the epithets given by the pagans to Jupiter, to
Apollo, to Bacchus and to Aesculapius, and which were
applied to the father, the son and the spirit. – The
Kodisch or Pater of Voltaire.
CHAPTER XXV – Recapitulation of the solar incarnation. – The 233

Apostle Saint Peter and the poet Lucretius. –
Transubstantiation and the Eucharist. – Dogma of the
eternal life. – Deprecations by three and by three. – On
the three non sum dignus. – On Janus Agonius which the
cutler [French, coutelier, cutler, cutter of cloth) priests
named Agones. – On the sign of the Ram in the zodiac,
of the Lamb of the Israelites and of the Lamb of the
Apocalypse. – On Jupiter Ammon with the horns of a
xii
ram.
CHAPTER XXVI – Further on the Agnus Dei. Objections 241

refuted. – The necessary caution and the consecration
of the host. – The ribonned [French, enrubantés] masters
and Masons. – Mother and non-philosophical
architecture. – Communion and post-communion. –
Acecdote of the academician La Harpe upon a fanatical
priest. – On autopsy, on Jupiter Elicius and the
Brahmans. – Virtues of the true initiates and of the
moral Credo of the first Christians, faithful to primitive
Masonry. – Atrocious calumnies against them, then
against the Protestants, then against the Freemasons.
CHAPTER XXVII – Opinions and authority of the Fathers upon 251

the transubstantiation during the first ten centuries until
the Lateran council. – On the councils and on the
hierogrammates. – Opinions of Bèranger, Pierre du
Bruys, Pierre de Valdo and until Martin Luther. – Real
presence justified.
CHAPTER XXVIII – Post-communion. – On the communion 259

under its two forms. – On the Masonic supper. –
Ignorance of the priests of the thirteenth century;
ordinations sold. – Benediction by three words and by a
triangle. – On the pagan euphemies and the Dominus
Vobiscum. – Ite missa est of the ancients and of the
moderns. – On the Templum Capere and that of the
Masons. – A blaze stopped by a benediction. – On the
Papal solemnity Urbi et Orbi. – Final benediction by an
Egyptian T, or the signs of the equinoxes and solstices. –
The authorities of Saint Augustine and of a minister of
the Holy Evangel. – A just word on the new belief and
of Masonry.
CHAPTER XXXIX – Primitive synaxis and the synaxis of today. 267

– Circumpotatio, Athenian festival. – Egyptian Paneficium,
xiii
Roman Mola. – On the last Dominus vobiscum. – The Last
Evangel explained by the cosmogony of Sanchuniathon.
– On the symbol of the letters INRI.
Decalogue, by Moses. 280
LITANIES OF JESUS AND MARY

COMPARED TO THE ANCIENT LITANIES 284
FOREWORD. 285
Litanies of Jesus. 287
Argument 288
Litanies of the Virgin Mary. 297
ANCIENT RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS, compared to Modern 317

Festivals.
1st sign. – The Ram or the Lamb. (March-April). Spring 321

Equinox.
332
2nd sign. – The Bull. (April-May). Exaltation of the Sun. 344
346
3rd sign. – The Twins. (May-June).
348
4th sign. – The Crab. (June-July). Summer Solstice. 350
5th sign. – The Lion. (July-August). 353

355
6th sign. – The Virgin. (August-September). 357
7th sign. – The Balance. (September-October). Autumnal 359

Equinox.
370
8th sign. – The Scorpion. (October-November).
xiv
374
9th sign. – The Archer. (November-December).
10th sign. – The Goat. (December-January). Winter Solstice.
11th sign. – The Water Carrier. (January-February).
12th sign. – The Fishes. (February-March).
HISTORICAL REPORT [French, note, also means exposé] ON 376

THE PRINCIPLE COUNCILS.
HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS OF THE PRIMITIVE 410

ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY IN EGYPT.
Index. 424
End of Table of Contents.
xv
Biographical Note by Kenneth R.H Mackenzie.
Ragon, J.M –distinguished French Masonic author, and one who

laboured hard to distinguish between the actual history of
various Masonic societies and that vague traditional history
which to so great an extent refutes itself. He was born at Bruges,
in Belgium, about 1789, and was initiated in the Lodge Réunion
des Amis du Nord, at Bruges in 1803, and afterwards assisted in
the foundations of the Lodge and Chapter of Vraies Amis in the
same city. On his removal to Paris, in 1805, he founded the Lodge
of les Trinosophes, and in that Lodge he delivered a remarkable
series of lectures in 1818, on ancient and modern initiation,
afterwards repeated in 1841, and finally published. Ragon was in
1818 and 1819, editor-in-chief of “Hermès ou Archive Maçonniques,”
and in August, 1853, he published a remarkable book entitled
“Orthodoxie Maçonnique,” and, in 1861, he followed up this
publication by “Tuileur Général de la Franc-Maçonnerie, ou Manuel
de la Initié.” He had projected several other important works, and
partly completed them, when he died at Paris in 1866. His MS
remains are in the hands of the Grand Orient1. Ragon supported
the idea that Elias Ashmole was the main founder of
Freemasonry in its present form.
(Kenneth R.H Mackenzie’s The Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia
published between 1875 and 1877 e.v).
1 [Translator’s note. There are a large number of paintings by Jean-Marie

Ragon in the basement of the United Grand Lodge of England in London.
Nobody has yet reproduced them photographically].
xvi
xvii
The Mass and its Mysteries Compared to the Ancient Mysteries.
ANTE-OMNIÆ
__________
The writings of the ancient Sages 1 and the exploratory works of

modern writers should lead the erudite man who desires to know
the truth of things to study the origin and the spirit of the religious
or civil institutions that dominate our world.
These writings and works often examine curious subjects of the
highest philosophy; this author intends to make a profound study
of the most important and most elevated of these.
The ancient religions did not owe their long duration to their
idolatrous practices, futile and pernicious as they were, but rather,
to the very legitimate worship of a sublime craftsman, invisible,
but made visible [French, sensible] by degrees: that is, the brilliance
and benefits of the Sun. Such was the Gordian knot in ancient
Egypt that the hierophant untied [French, dénouait], the important
mystery that an unbroken tradition unveiled and transmitted to
the initiates, and the philosophic secret enclosed in the most
central [French, capitale] allegories of the ancient and modern
beliefs.
1
[Translator’s note. This translation preserves the system of
emphasis, relying on CAPITALISATION, italicisation, and VARYING
FONT SIZE, as well as different conventions for numerals, even where
these appear, at first glance, erratic].
1
One god and morale [French, morale], one sun and sentiment, one
family (the human race) and, consequently, the brotherhood of
nations, and behold [French, voilà], the foundation and aim of the
ancient mysteries; and behold, the PRINCIPLE-RELIGION [French,
RELIGION-PRINICIPE] of all the institutions which mankind
wrongly calls religions.
It is she who exhaled the ancient rites and incorporated them
within the new: when, for example, the Roman god Crepitus
shared a few honours of worship with Jupiter; when the altars of
Gaul, the worshipper of Belenus [French, Bélen] (the blond sun)
were defiled with human blood; when Egypt, which Osiris
enlightened, accorded divine respects to the onion 1 , and the
crocodile2; when on the banks of the Ganges, not far from Benares,
where the Magi preserve the sacred language of morale, it is
indispensable to the Indian who wishes to leave his children an
irreproachable name, to expire with the tail of a cow in his hand;
when the Great Lama, the image of the Eternal, distributes to the
debased Tibetans his excrements as sacred relics; when at last his
most perfect emulator, in the centuries of darkness, ruled, through
ignorance, over human thought, in the name of a solar-god who is
annually born, enlightens, dies and resurrects; and when this
emulator excited fratricidal hatreds, bloody persecutions, and
roused up despotic and popular tyranny in urbe et in orbe [Latin, in
the city (of Rome) and in the world], in order to plunge monarchs and
nations into the tombs of stupidity, and, with an impious hand
and in the name of a god of peace, tried to take the human race
down again into the catacombs, always full and never without
room, where, throughout the centuries, the imposture buried
countless victims;
1 Symbol of fecundity, image of the good principle.

2 Symbol of Typhon or the evil principle.
2
Then, the Mother-Religion reclaimed her soft and lawful power;

she acted in proportion to the mass of human deeds; her reason,
indignant, but prudent, brought about [French, opéra] a slow but
generous fermentation in all souls; she successfully, but invisibly,
purified all, by rekindling with the unseen, but inextinguishable,
fire of the truth.
Do you want historical proofs of these things?
CONSTANTINE, the overly celebrated instrument of a century
that was weary of offering incense to gods that were outdated in
the opinions of men, patronised the new belief because at that time
it was the Principle-Religion. Clovis, the mainspring of his age,
adopted the same belief, already degenerated, but more pure than
the absurd and worn out beliefs of the Gauls and the Franks. A
long time afterward when the SUN of primitive Christianity had
been all but eclipsed throughout its orbit by a crowd of bodies that
were opaque and irregular in their projections, the Original-religion,
(I will say it frankly MORALE) successively inspired audacious
reformers; they were the instruments, sometimes more and
sometimes less fortunate according to the notions of the centuries
in which they lived; and just as on days of battles or of festivals the
detonation of artillery blasts away the thickest clouds and allows
the sun to shine triumphantly, these audacious men, blasting away
at dark fanaticism, made wide blue spaces, without, however,
rendering to the world the whole power of the light breaking
MORALE.
Let us search the truth in good faith, for upon the border it is
written: Away with you, lands of falsehood!
I have spoken of the principal-Religion, of that tree under whose
branches so many of the gods have lived and reposed; of that
throne about which so much moss and so many parasitic plants
attach themselves to take nourishment from its substance and
bring down the crown; as much as the blows redoubled, the pick
axes and the thumps simultaneously attacked its heart and roots. I
3
have shown a glimpse of how the SUN is the most sublime and
natural image of the GREAT ARCHITECT, as well as the most
ingenious allegory which has endowed the moral man (the true
Sage) with intelligence and mercy without limits. I have declared that
I think that, in all religions, ancient and modern, the Sun has been
honoured and is still honoured as the representative of the
INVISIBLE CREATOR of all things. And moreover, it seems to me
impossible (despite the fact that a new belief will succeed an old
belief fallen into decrepitude), that the Sun will cease to be the
representative of the GREAT ARCHITECT, and be offered, by
contemporary sages, to the nations which wish to lead rather than
become senile.
From the first chapter of this work, I will present proofs that, in
the dogmas and rites of the most widespread European faith, the
adoration of the Sun, as completely mysterious as it is, is graven in
the hollow upon the corner stone of the edifice. I will make it seen
that that latria (veneration) 1 of the great star brings, without
intermediary, the faithful of this belief to the pure adoration of the
Great Architect. In this way, but under other veils, worked the
founders of beliefs of former times; in this way, under other
vestments, they again presented the depositories of rival beliefs
that were tarnished with imposing absurdities and discoloured
with nauseating pomposities. From this, I will conclude with the
ancient and modern initiates, that the philosophy of morale is
closer to the principle-religion than any of the idolatrous and
dogmatic institutions; that, like the original-religion, it purifies and
sets these institutions straight; and that this original religion exists
in the bosom of the generally accepted belief, like a diamond
hidden in the worthless rock surrounding it, like the vitality of the
blood in blocked vessels, and that, likewise to save the absurd
1 From the Greek ΛΑΤΡΕΥΩ, I serve. Cult of the latria, cult rendered to
the sole God.
4
dogmas and bizarre rites from the scorn of the philosophers, their
hierogrammatists 1, placed them under the aegis of the principle-
religion, the Morale; in this way, we arrive, after the most torturous
deviations to the recognition due to the Sun for his liberality
toward all beings, to the intimate sentiment that that star is the
manifest agent, the irrefutable messiah of the Great Architect of the
Universe2.
Thus, we will make it understood without difficulty, as it was
understood by the ancient epopts 3 ,that the spirit, that proceeds
from the father and the son, that the Sun that is the son of the
father, is not the product of an absurd conception on the part of
adroit Platonic Philosophers 4. Those at the convent or council of
1 Interpreters of the mysteries. The priests who explain them.

2 All the religious legends of the Orient give report of the cult of the Sun,
which was likewise practised by the Jews; do we not read in the Bible:
'And he (the devout Josiah) took away the horses that the kings of Judah
had consecrated to the Sun, at the entering in of the house of the Lord, by
the chamber of the eunuch Nathan Melech at Pharurim, and burned the
chariots of the Sun.' (2 Kings ch. xxiii, v.11)
'All is dews (demons) on the earth, except the God of the those who see
(initiates), the sublime IAO ; and if, in Christ, you see anything other than
the Sun, you worship a dews, a phantom like all the children of the night.'
(Philosophie des Religions Comparées, by Augustin Chaho, volume 2, p.18,
third edition, Paris, 1848).
'Sol est Dominus meus’ [Latin, ‘the Sun is my Lord’] (84th Psalm of David).
3 From the Greek word, ΕΠΤOΜΑΙ, I examine, who see things without
veil.
4 Synesius, a very rich Platonic philosopher, lived at the beginning of the
Vth century. Although not baptised, he accepted from the Bishops of Egypt
the nomination to the Bishopric of the Ptolemaid. After he had made this
arrangement, he was baptised into the grades of diaconate, of the
priesthood and of the episcopate. He did not separate from his wife and
continued to satisfy his taste for the hunt (a pleasure, however, forbidden
to bishops). His agreement was that he would not oblige himself to
5
profess the doctrines in which he did not believe. He became bishop with
the agreement that he would not profess them. Of all the agreements
between the priests of reformed Judaism and the Platonic doctrinaires,
the most remarkable is that of Synesius on account of his rank.
SAINT CLEMENT of Alexandria (Stromata 5) claims to have found the
Trinity in Plato (1). He made a great case for the ancient philosophers,
since he compared them to the prophets. The most celebrated theologians,
for the most part, agree that they have profited by the dogmas and rites
of the pagans.
Cardinal BARONIUS, in the year 36 of his annals, confessed that it had
been permitted to the church to appropriate the ceremonies that the
pagans had employed for superstitious worship, the moment that the
church expiated them by consecration.
POLYDORE VIRGILE (Book V, ch.1) said that the church had borrowed
many customs from the religion of the Romans and other pagans, but
had rendered them better by putting them to better use.
President FAUCHET (Antiquities of the Gauls Book 2 Chapter 19) admits
that, to win men to Christ, the Bishops of France made use of pagan
ceremonies.
DU CHOUL, bailiff of the mountains of Dauphiné, in his book on the
Religion of the Ancient Romans, published 1556 at Lyon, proves this
transformation. He says: If we look with our curiosity, we recognise that many
of the customs of our religion have been taken and transformed from the
ceremonies of the Egyptians and from the Gentiles; for we have the tunics and
the surplice, the crowns that the priests make, the inclinations of the head toward
the altar, the sacrificial pomp, the music of the temples, adorations, prayers,
supplications, processions, litanies, and many other things which our priests
have usurped into our mysteries, referring them to a sole god Jesus Christ, and
which the ignorance of the Gentiles represent, in their false religion and in their
foolish presumption, as for their false gods and mortal men, after their
consecration.
POPE GREGORY THE GREAT (Platinus, on his Life) is seen as the
originator of this form of worship, when he recommends the following to
the priest Augustine, his missionary in England: Destroy the idols and not
the temples! Purify them with holy water, place relics in them so that that the
6
nation comes to adore in their accustomed places. In place of slaughtering cattle,

they should eat at religious banquets, for it is necessary to leave them some
exterior rejoicings in order that they should consent more easily to interior
rejoicings.
It is curious to note that only at about the XVth century the table
prepared in the middle of the temple for the communion or the fraternal
repast, began to take on the name of altar.
Athenagoras, Theophilus, Justin, and Tertullian attest that the first
Christians held temples and altars in abomination. 'It is not only because
they were unable to obtain from the government, in the earliest times,
permission to build temples, but that they had a real aversion to all that
had the least relation to the other religions. That horror subsisted with
them throughout 250 years. This has been show by Minutius Felix, who
lived in the IIIrd century. He said to the Romans: 'You think that we hide
that which we adore, because we have neither temples nor altars.
However, what simulacrum should we erect to God, since man is himself
the simulacrum of God? Which temple should we build for him when the
world, which is his work, is not able to contain it? How ought I to enclose
the power of such majesty in a single house? Would it not be much better
to consecrate a temple to him in our spirit and in our heart?’
The Christians did not thus have temples until about the time of the
reign of the Emperor Diocletian.
There is, perhaps, today, not a single Christian ceremony that was in
use in the times of the Apostles.
However, all things concerning the discipline of the faith changed from
the time the Church adopted a more constant form (2).
When Tertullian writes on the resemblance of the mysteries of the
Christians with the mysteries of the Pagans that were long before, he calls
the demon the monkey of divinity, because he imitates, in the false worship
and renders to himself the legitimate worship that the true religion
renders to God. ‘This is why’, says this doctor’ we find, among the pagans,
many things that the father of lies has copied according to the truth. The
demon has his temples, his altars, his priests, his baptism, his vestals, his
sacraments, his martyrs, and, in a word, his mysteries in imitation of those of
the true God.’ (Tertullian, De Praescript).
7
the mysteries held at Nicea had political motives in fixing the

allegory of the trinity; beneath the banner under which they had
ranked themselves, they aimed to purge the new faith, of the
polytheist silt of lapsed faiths that were stubbornly maintained by
their priests; for in reducing to three persons, the myrionyme gods,
that is to say, gods with a thousand names, they accomplished a
party coup.
Endnote to Footnotes
1. The first who spoke of the Trinity, among the occidentals, was
Timaeus of Locri in his Soul of the World.
2. The legal assembly of the Athenians was called ÉGLISE
[French, CHURCH] (from Greek, ΕΧΧΑΛΕΩ, I assemble).
Massilon said: 'The centuries of the glory of the CHURCH were
the centuries in which her ministers were nothing but the dust
swept aside by the world.'
'The pagans were not merely studious of imitating, in their superstitions

(long before the invention of Christianity), the ceremonies of the true religion,
but they also pretended to “hold their mysteries secret and inaccessible to the
profane, according to the example of that which the Jews practised in the Mosaic
Law’ (very long after the ancient mysteries)”. - Tertullian reproaches (against
all logic, as, since that time, the missionaries in India and in Mexico have
done) this imitation of the pagans, and since these pagans complain that
one cannot penetrate into the mysteries of the Christians, he responds (with the
same logic) that the secret is the essence of the mysteries. (Apologetic).'
(Quintus Septimius Florens TERTULLIANUS, the celebrated doctor of
the Latin Church, whom Chateaubriand nicknamed the Bossuet of Africa,
was born in Carthage around 160 and died around 245. At first pagan, he
converted, embracing Montanism (the sect of Montanus, a heresiarch of the
IInd century) whose members said that they were more virtuous than the
Christians; he afterward founded a new sect, that of the Tertullianists).
8
THE MASS
IN ITS RELATIONS
WITH THE MYSTERIES AND CEREMONIES
OF ANTIQUITY
9
THE FIRST CHAPTER

On the arrangement of Holy Places and sacred Instruments.
It is known that the dogmas and beliefs of faith (that is to say, the
most widespread faith in Europe) have been dignified with the
lustre and the rays of the SUN, and just as the visible and
incomprehensible marvels of the heavens give witness to their
great architect, enarrant gloriam DEI [Latin, they lead us to the glory of
GOD], these dogmas and rites from remote antiquity are
monuments to the adoration of the great star, the mediator
between that great architect and the human race.
Learned archaeologists 1 have spread their evidence over the
obscure aspects of this dogma. They have demonstrated the fact
that, under so many veils of purple and monks’ robes, across so
many poetic and vulgar absurdities, as imposing and unhappy as
they are, the solar worship has never ceased to be the origin and
end of all cults. I am not about to repeat what these illustrious
scholars have said with talent and clarity, nor am I about to tire
1 Court de Gébelin, Boulanger, Fréret, Dupuis, Volney, Dulaure,

Alexandre Lenoir and others.
10
my readers by weighing them down with trivial truths; but I will

hold myself to the ritual and the liturgy1 of the new faith, and in
this sometimes nebulous circle, I hope to uncover the worship of
the Sun unto its very weakest ray as having credence from remote
antiquity to our own day. I will at times be led to demonstrate that
those dogmas and the theogony2 of the modern worshipers have
their origin in the cradles of ancient peoples and of nations that
exist today.
The orient is the cardinal point where, in the opinion of the
ancients, the sun appeared to rise. The Brahmans, the Hebrews
and the Romans turned toward the Orient to pray.
According to the new ritual, churches ought to be, as far as
possible, oriented in such a manner that the entrance is in the
occident and the main altar placed in the orient, the point on earth
from which the first ray of light appears. Dionysius of Thrace
informs us that the temples of the ancients were turned toward the
sun of the orient3. Vitruvius says the same4.
The Egyptians used yellow, green, blue and white bands in their
sacred buildings. The white, red and blue bands, painted around
the surrounding area inside and outside the churches of France,
upon which the lord high justices have applied their coats of arms,
1 From the Greek words ΛΕΙΘΟΣ, public, and ΕΡΓΟΝ, work; the books
of the priests and the ceremonies allocated to a cult.
2 From the Greek ΘΕΟΣ, god, and ΓΟΝΟΣ, race, family origin of the
gods; religious system of the ancients. [Translator’s note. ΓΕΝΟΣ means
race or family, ΓΟΝΟΣ means child].
3 Antiquorum enim templa exorientem SOLEM statim excipere solebant
[Latin, For the temples of the ancients were drawn out firmly to face the sun
rising from the orient].
4 Templa ORIENTEM spectari debere [Latin, Temples ought to be seen to face
the orient].
11
represent the zodiac; such also is it with the tessellated border

[French, houppe dentelée], of the Masons.
The vaults of Egyptian temples were strewed with stars upon an
azure background. Many Catholic Temples have preserved this
astronomical emblem.
The door of the orient, the princely door, Princeps porta, the door of
the world, the door of the king of glory, regis gloriae, the door of
the light, the solemn entry of the sun into the oblong square of the
earth, should be placed where the sun rises. It is through this door
of life that the newly born are led to the baptismal fonts; and it is
at the left of this building (in the dark north where the apprentices
travel, and where the candidates undergo the trial of water) that
these fonts, and often, in ancient churches, a well1, are placed. The
1 This well is the pool where the lustral water poured forth in the pagan
temples. We have preserved it in the Christian temples, according to the
papal instructions: Destroy the idols and not the temples. The altars of pagan
Lutetia were buried, and have been uncovered under the choir of Notre-
Dame de Paris; the lustration well still exists in that basilica.
Before the priest celebrates the mass, he washes his hands, and, while in
the sacristy, recites these words before putting on his vestments: Da,
Domine, virtutem manibus meis, ad abstergendum omnem maculem, ut sine
pollutione mentis et corporis vulcam tibi servire [Latin, Lord, give virtue to my
hands, for the wiping away of all stain, so that without pollution of the mind and
of the body I may serve you vulcam {sic}]. While putting on this belt at dawn,
he adds: Praecinge me, Domine, cingulo puritatis, et extingue in lumbis meis
humorem libidinis, ut maneat in me virtus continentiae et castitatis [Latin, Gird
me, Lord, with the girdle of purity and extinguish in my loins the humour of
libidinousness so that the virtue of continence and chastity remain in me]!
See page 3 of Manuel Cerem. Des Rom. – The sacrificers (qui sacrum
faciebat, says Montfaucon, vol. 2, p. 151) must be pure and chaste; Deos
caste adeunto [Latin, they should approach the gods while chaste], from the
laws of the XII tables; see the Dictionn. Des Antiq. of the Abbot Barral: 1st
Sacrificare: to prepare himself, the flamen washes his hands in a place in
the temple consecrated to this lavation, the place which I believe to be the
12
neophytes swear their oath in the orient, and the Worshipful

Master has there his place.
At the solemn services, the master altar1 is decorated with the
monstrance (French, ostensoir) or sun, with six lighted candles.
well on the right that we see at bottom of the ancient temples. - You,
whose amorous caresses have been hidden by the night, do not approach the
altars (Tibullus Elegies). Demosthenes (Orat. in Near). has a priestess say: I
am pure, without blemish, exempt from all pollution and most of all from that
which one contracts from commerce with a man: I can celebrate the festival of
Bacchus.
1 Ara maxima, in pagan Rome. The Latins called the square or oblong
altars placed close to tombs ara, because they were especially consecrated
to the gods of the Lares and to the gods of the Manes.
The altars are derived from the square stones, placed at the borders of
nations, to serve as limits or terminations [French, termes], and points for
meetings to discuss international relations. When they became sacred
and inviolable, they were rendered a cult under the names of Hermes,
Mercury and the god Terminus [French, Terme]; from which we get
Mercurius quadratus, or deus quadratus and Mercurius Quadriceps,
quadrifrons, quadriformis, the god with four faces, on account of the shape of
the stone.
In Elis, a rude stone, placed upon the peak of Mount Sipylus, was
named the throne of Pelops.
A stone, placed in a wide valley, near the ruins of an ancient city,
served at the inauguration of the lords of Carinthia (Joan. Boemius, de
Moribus gentium, Book 3, p. 244).
Not far from Uppsala is a great rude stone that serves for the
coronation of the kings of Sweden. Twelve cubic stones of lesser size
circle it. It is upon this that the king first sat; there in the presence of all
the powerful people of the kingdom, he was consecrated by the bishops
and took the vow on behalf of the people. (Olaus Magnus, de Ritu
Gentium Septent, lib. Cap. 1.18 et lib.8 cap.1).
Maillet, in his history of Denmark, speaks of a stone very high up and
placed in the middle of twelve smaller stones that formed an enclosed
13
The monstrance1 represents the sun refulgent with his own light;
and the six candles, three at the right, three at the left, indicate the
only planets that were known to the ancients; they are the blazes
of the brilliance of the king, the lord, the Sun.
Under the transparency of two crystals, in a circle rayed and
often bedecked with precious stones, is encased a bread of pure
flour, wheat, host, victim, or vegetable offering which, thanks to
the progress of civilisation, has succeeded the sacrifice of men and
animals. The pagans had their chosen victims, which they called
eximiae hostiae [Latin, exalted victims]. The consecrated host is a
diminutive form of the pagan hosts, which consisted of cakes
offered to the gods. The pagans also named them artificial victims,
when used in place of an animal victim, as the ritual demanded;
space around it. It was, he says, upon that central stone that the kings
placed themselves, at the time of their coronation.
Likewise, in the field of Rakesh, three or four miles from Pest, upon the
shores of the Danube, the Hungarian nation assembled to choose their
sovereign and hold their diets.
The ancient kings of Ireland were crowned upon a similar stone called
liafail, or stone of fate. The new king sat himself there, and it was claimed
that this stone groaned. According to an ancient prophecy, the race of
Scots would rein wherever this stone was kept. It was, no doubt, to
prevent the fulfilment of this that Edward I, King of England, had it
taken away and placed in Westminster Abbey, where it was encased in a
wooden frame. (Dulaure, des Cultes Anter. à l'Idolatrie, ch, 13 p. 398).
These examples and others we could cite prove that these rude stones,
destined at first to serve as boundaries, were later revered as sacred
stones, and at last became altars or thrones. This change was invisible to
contemporaries as it can only be noticed with the passage of time.
1 From Latin ostendere, to make one see, to appear; to give the sign, to
indicate, to show, to expose; from which we get the phrase the exposition
of the Holy Sacrament; that is to say, the exposition of the sign of the sacred
thought, or of the mystery that is not incomprehensible but hidden.
14
these breads of cooked dough represented the shape of that victim.

Among the Christians, the symbolic bread carries the shape of a
man stretched out upon the Egyptian tau, upon the cross, the
emblem of death and reproduction.
In Egypt, the priests named sigil-bearers, imprinted on their
victims, stamps, sigilla. On the bread of the new belief, the
hierophants have had divers hieroglyphic characters imprinted:
here, the host represents the figure of a crucified man, emblem of
extinguished life, deprived of the benign influences of the SUN;
here is the allegory of the generating Sun, of the celestial ram and
of seven months of the yearly circle of the great light, offered
under the figure of a lamb sleeping on a book of seven seals.
The sacred talisman of the monstrance is the symbol which
speaks of the Sun-god; the incontestable form of the Messiah, who
is diurnal and annual, and whose reign will be without end, cuius
regni non erit finis. Upon our altars, it lightens the immensity in
which the planetary bodies roll, among whose number the earth
gravitates, scabellum pedum tuorum1 [Latin, the footstool of your feet].
The tabernacle, emblem of this earth, is animated with the fire of
those rays; and from its germinating and preserving disk, all
substances receive nourishment, growth, death and new
combinations [French, combinasions], from which reproduction is
born.
The sages marked these astronomical periods by religious
festivals; the swindlers profited from them.
The word tabernacle signifies a little tent or pavilion, because, in a
manner of speaking, the sun only camps upon the earth. The
flowers with which we adorn that arch and the incense with which
we perfume it are the signs of the gratitude of men toward that
divine star which has made them grow, ripen and multiply.
1 Stepladder of your feet, from the psalm dixit Dominus Domino meo
[Latin, the Lord said to my Lord].
15
The white linen of the altar table, the pontiff who is there dressed
accordingly, and who approaches that table carrying the crown
encircled with the flowers of the disk of the solar priesthood, are
the emblems of the purity of this earth that offers a pure sacrifice
and of its stainless sacrificer, the mediator between the earth and
the Sun.
The hierophant offers to the Sun the unleavened [French, azyme]
bread1. This must be unleavened whether that flour is the emblem
of the earth purified and made fertile by that great star, or whether
it is the emblem of the health of the fruits it has ripened. Upon this
bread, circular and transparent as its mystery, a Christ is
represented; I will repeat it, illustrious Initiates: it is the shape of
the Redeemer of the earth, whose painful yearly return gives life to
created beings upon the oblong square of the globe2.
The cross represents the four corners of this square; ancient Egypt
hung it upon the statues of its major gods and especially in the
hand of Osiris, the old sun, and Orus [French, Orus], the new sun,
under the form of a T with a loop at the centre of its topmost point.
We are universally in agreement that this Tau is simulataneously
the sign of life and of the animated earth3. The ancient Egyptians,
1 Unleavened bread, from the privative prefix 'A' and the Greek word
ΖΥΜΗ, leavened.
2 One judges others as one judges oneself. The Chinese geographers
make the earth square; this shape is the shape of their empire, which
ought to be the shape of the world, since they believe themselves to
occupy the largest part. The names of neighbouring peoples are scattered
about at hazard, under the names of monstrous peoples, of giants, or dwarfs.
(Bailly, Lettres sur les Sciences, p. 180).
3 The Ansat Cross, with which, it is said, Osiris opened and closed the
locks of the Nile, was an emblem indicating the swelling of the river,
which took place when the sun (Osiris) passed over the crucial
conjunction formed by the ecliptic and the equator in Egypt at that time
of year.
16
just as the Masons, their faithful imitators, when they recognise the
four corners of the earth, count but three quarters, for they do not
hold into account the northern quarter where the sun does not
traverse1. And behold [French, voilà], this is why the perpendicular
line does not extend above the horizontal and thus forms the T.
Astronomical knowledge, so long stationary in comparison with
other forms of knowledge, is itself extended, and so is represented
in the vertical line of the T, in a manner represented by a †; and
this is the origin of the great oblong square of the earth; this sign
traces it out by its longitude and latitude.
In the temples of the existing faith, a great lamp lightens day and
night. It is suspended before the master altar (ara maxima), the
depositary of the arch of the sun. Another lamp burns before the
altar of the virgin-mother, and is the emblem of the light of the
moon. We learn from Saint Clement of Alexandria, that the
Egyptians invented the religious use of lamps. In the faith of the
Parsis, their fire worshipping rites are of high antiquity. Who is
unaware of the most sacred and most terrible duty of the Vestals?
Also, the Masonic Temples are lightened by three starry lights, the
sun, the moon, and the geometric star, as well as the three vital lights,
the hierophant and his two episcopes2 . It is one of the fathers of
Masonry, the learned Pythagoras, who ingeniously advised us not
to speak of divine things without torches. The pagans celebrated a
festival of lamps (Lampadophoria) in honour of Minerva,
Prometheus and Vulcan. The most ancient of the fathers of the
1 In ancient times, the Christians, or other initiates, did not bury their
dead in a cemetery (1) north of a church.
2 The French word Surveillants [English, Wardens or Overseers] is formed
from ΕΠΙ, sur [English, over], and ΣΚΟΠΕΩ, je vois [English, I see], or
EΠΊΣΚΟΠΟΣ, bishop, chief overseer or warden of a diocese (ΔΙΟΙΚΕΣΙΣ,
administration). The inspectors or guardians of the cities allied to Athens
were called Episcopes.
17
new faith, to wit Lactantius, bitterly mocked the introduction of

the lamps of the pagans into the churches: He says, 'If they deign to
contemplate that light which we call the SUN, they would soon recognise
that God does not need their lamps.’ Also, Vigilantius says: 'Under the
pretext of religion we have established within the church the custom of
the gentiles of lighting vile candles, while the SUN illuminates with a
thousand lights. Is it not a great honour for the LAMB OF GOD (the sun
thus represented), which, placed in the middle of the throne, (the
universe) to fill it with the radiance of his Majesty?’
Is it not proved from such passages that the primitive Church
adored the GREAT ARCHITECT OF THE UNIVERSE, in his image
the SUN, UNIQUE creator? In what follows, I will demonstrate how
we have suppressed this august and simple mystery when we
strayed from the new faith of the principle-religion.
1. They consider death as a sleep, we have given the field of rest

the name of cemetery, which in Greek, signifies dormitory; 'He is
sleeping with his fathers.' Eccles. 1. - Kings, 10, 11 etc).
18
CHAPTER II
Further on the same subject.
Before penetrating into the labyrinth, some preliminary

instructions seem necessary for those who feel, through strength of
soul and firm reason, driven to follow me. If the bumps and
precipices, the dragons and ghosts frighten a few timid men, so
that they renounce the ordeals of high initiation! they will be
unhappy the rest of their lives.
I believe I hold the protective thread and mysterious key that
opens the true passage for those who are worthy of high initiation.
Saint Augustine has uncovered for me the way of turning the key
correctly in its secret keyhole when he uses these sole passwords:
Omnia sunt per allegoriam dicta [Latin, all things are said through
allegory]; that is to say, do not lose heart at the sight of Cerberus
and the Eumenides; walk without hesitation over aspic and basil;
search and you will find; reflect and you will end up by
understanding that everything we teach is veiled in allegories that
are still necessary for public peace, for the people are not yet
sufficiently instructed.
When I use the wake up [French, éveil] given me by the most
revered Father of the Church, I divine that the metal of the
monstrance, the vegetable matter which it encloses and the
hierophant whose hands are veiled with a thin linen, are the
19
countenance [French, figure] of the solar influence upon the three

kingdoms of nature: si fodieris, invenies [Latin, if you dig you will find].
Again, when I examine the image of a Christ on the host, I
conclude that it is an ingenious allegory1; and soon, my reason,
inspired by Saint Augustine, reveals to me that all these seeds, all
things formed, including ourselves, would come to an end if the
sun did not resuscitate2; after the hardships that the winter months
have made him undergo: per allegoriam dicta.
In the cross, I recognise the emblem of the four cardinal points
and that a man or a lamb is there laid out, and here are the animal
and vegetable kingdoms; the cross is planted in the earth, and
behold [French, voilà] the complement of the three kingdoms in their
endurance of hardship, which, surrounded by the action of the sun,
exit that state of death to pass into the state of life: per allegoriam
dicta.
The temples of the new belief should have the shape of a †, while
Masonic lodges have the shape of an oblong square, and here is the
reason why: the belief that the earth is spherical is truly modern.
Antiquity thought of the earth as square and the Chinese still think
so (see our footnote in Chapter One). Ancient temples were
formed in shapes that represented the earth and its children; the
Greeks called them churches [French, églises], that is to say,
assemblies of the faithful, convents of initiates or reunions of
brothers. The word lodge, used by the Masons, the successors of
the initiates, has its root in the word loga, which in the sacred
1 Did not Leo X say: Quantum nobis prodest haec fabula Christi! How much
it has profited us this fable of Christ! – This Pope, who was made
cardinal at 13 years of age – by Innocent VIII, is the creator of the
infamous fee for the remission of crimes and sins. However, the sale of
indulgences in Germany, in 1517, gave rise to Luther, whose
excommunication in 1520 was not able to suppress his heresy.
2 From the Latin word resurgere, to rise up renewed.
20
language of the Ganges, signifies the world, and in the sacred word
logos, which expresses the word, speech, discourse, reason and
utterance [French, mot], that is to say the place in which the word
[French, mot] or speech is given, where the explanation of things is
set forth and the true sense of the allegories is unveiled without
peril, to men who have proved themselves.
It is useful to give report here of the architectural divisions of the
temples of antiquity.
1st The vestibule, the forecourt [French, parvis] containing the well
or pool, from where the lustral water was drawn, we call the Naor1,
the nave, where all of the faithful (the minor initiates) may enter.
2nd The holy place, the place of the logos, where the people of the
initiates do not enter and likewise must not look; and thus it is still
practised among the Masons as regards the Fellow Crafts [French,
Compagnons] who have completed their time. In certain temples,
there is a rear-temple on the same level, like at Saint-Roch de Paris,
or a subterranean temple, as at Saint-Denis; in this way, these
religious buildings contain three chambers, comprising a chamber of
death and a chamber of resurrection.
The temples of the Masons and the Christians are thus
recognised as being constructed on the same model; they are alike
in setting up their master altar in the orient, because the victorious
light appears daily out of the darkness from that door, and
because the philosophic torch arrives from the Orient.
The ara maxima of the moderns, as I have already shown, is
surmounted with the planetary system of the ancients. To leave
not a single doubt on the correctness of this discovery, I will say
that that altar, dominated by the holy-sun-sacrament, contains in its
middle, encrusted under the almost vertical rays of the great star,
and veiled with linen, the square stone, the sacred stone, the stone
sanctified by holy anointing, that the hierophant, the highest
1 In Greek, ΝΑΟΣ.
21
initiated priest, alone can touch without contamination and

without sacrilege. Let us not forget that the god Terminus, the
quadratus deus, was revered by the Romans under the form of a
square stone. Upon the square stone rest the chalice and the
oblation of the great sacrifice of the harvest [French, moisson],
which is called messis [Latin, harvest] for the initiates and missa
[Latin, having been sent] for the profane1.
That stone is still the image of the earth made fecund by the rays
of the sun; she supports the offering of bread and wine that
eminently represent her other products of vegetation. The altar,
the oblong square, retains this form and reminds us of the belief of
major antiquity that the earth is formed in this shape; and the
stone, the perfect square, which is found encrusted, indicates the
rectification of that erroneous system; the paten which is placed
upon the square rectifies it further by its roundness; thus the altar,
the stone and the paten of the chalice represent the evolution of
successively erroneous opinions about the shape or our planet.
As for the stone, its perfect square indicates the belief of
antiquity concerning the square shape of the earth; the square
carries by its +’s, the marks of the cardinal points and the solar
centre; the body of fine white linen is spread out upon the stone
anointed and purified by the holy water, which is the image of the
terrestrial vegetable matter and the fruits necessary for life.
It is upon that stone, which, without these allegories, would be
nothing but jugglery, that lapis christocola [Latin, Christ worshipper
stone], that the earliest sages refined from its rudeness and that
their successors polished by the wearisome, but fruitful, work, of
gradual civilisation, upon that hieroglyphic stone, O my brothers,
that I wish to unveil the symbol of the earth in the age of gold,
Virgin without stain, although always fecund, when her just and
1 The non-initiates; from pro, before, and fanum, temple, which they were
not able to enter.
22
grateful son gives offering to the Sun of the first fruits of her
harvests, with which the Messiah enriches her chaste and
inexhaustible bosom each day that he appears in the name of the
Eternal1!
Before the restoration of a cult worthy of the creator of intelligent
creatures, the earth, plunged into the muck of bloody superstitions,
moaned under the darkness of idolatry, without any compensation
for morale. The principle-religion was misunderstood and took
refuge in underground temples, which were at first hidden and
defended by high initiates, armed with the talisman of silence, the
shield of allegory and the double-edged sword of reason; certain
magi, menaced from the outside by the phalanxes of the charlatans
of polytheism, walked with prudence and without noise toward
the opening of these shelters. The soul of Socrates, the martyr, took
refuge at the foot of the altar of Eleusinian Ceres.
After the long centuries of stupidity, the Deicoles [Latin,
worshippers of God] became stronger by their union with high
initiates; the wily founders of the new belief and the true sages
applied themselves to re-establishing that eternal morale upon the
unity of God; they rendered it simple and pure by no longer
allowing anything but fruits for the offering; they separated
themselves from the impure cults, and so these lost favour in the
regenerated spirit of the people; they gathered together the
scattered rings of the chain of fraternity, and they gave the word of
rescue in the narrow but luminous circle of recognizable or
inferable truths; and so, the sad orphans of the principle-religion
consecrated their profound words; I consider them the children of the
1 The erection of altars preceded the erection of temples of grass, stones

and wood. They were placed on hilltops, forests, at the side of roads and
at the borders of nations. The crosses erected in the most ancient times
upon the highways are so many trophies of the Catholics, set up upon
the altars of the previous beliefs.
23
widow! And they likewise offered to the Sun the first fruits of the
most nourishing crops, they placed their most salubrious
principles in the arch of the indestructible alliance, that is to say,
the heart of the natural man; they decorated their formulae and
their hymns with an august simplicity up to the forecourt of the
sanctuaries. As the conquerors of butcher assassins and
sacrilegious swindlers, they supported, without crime, a
hypothesis that was still necessary, crowning their heads with
flowers, filling their hands with fruits, they offered these things to
the Great Star as the one God. Thus, they inspired in sensitive souls
and good spirits a very just horror of insanities and religious
murders.
By the cult of the sun, the solicoles [Latin, worshippers of the sun]
restored the friends of reason and order, as well as the children of
the widow, (the Morale) to the adoration of a unique God.
Thus the innocent sacrifice of the harvest [French, moisson] (the
mass), which commemorates the chaste offerings of Abel, the first of
the brothers of the Passover of the Israelites and the Last Supper of
the reformed Hebrews, was rendered comprehensible and
preferable to all others, by the introduction of ceremonies that
were commonly used in the mysteries of the rivers Nile, Ganges
and Jordan1.
1 The liturgical authors distinguish various parts within the mass:

1st The preparation or the prayers that are made before the oblation
which was called, in former times, the mass of the catechumens;
2nd The oblation or offering, which extends from the offertory until the
sanctus;
3rd The canon or rule of the consecration;
4th The breaking of the host and the communion;
5th Thanksgiving [French, l’action de grâce] or post-communion.
According to the rite or the language in which we celebrate, the mass
takes the name of Greek mass, Latin Mass, Roman Mass, or Gregorian,
24
Ambrosian, Gallican, Gothic, Mozarbic, etc. They differ in form, but at

bottom they are the same.
In former times, the mass was not celebrated daily; and it was almost
never done without deploying all the exterior pomp that circumstances
permitted. Likewise, the faithful received communion every time they
were present at the holy sacrifice. Little by little, this custom was lost and
the priest alone communicated. Further, the prayers of the liturgy, and
the very words of the canon, indicate that all present at the sacred
mysteries had to take part in the bread of the Eucharist.
We distinguish various types of masses:
Solemn mass or High mass or solemn great mass [French, Grand’messe] is
celebrated with a deacon, sub deacon and other ministers, and is sung by
the choristers.
The low mass is said by a sole priest, without any singing.
In the private mass, the priest has but one cleric as assistant.
In former times, the mass of the elect, was so named because it was said
for the catechumens, Wednesday and Saturday of the fourth week of
Lent, when they were examined to see if they were sufficiently prepared
for baptism.
In addition, there is the Mass for the Condemned, which was celebrated
for accused people who wished to vindicate themselves by established
proofs.
Mass of the day is the mass which is appropriate for the day and for the
feast on which we celebrate.
A Votive Mass is that of a saint or of a mystery, for which there is
neither an office nor a festival such as the Mass of the Holy Spirit or of the
Holy Virgin.
There are masses for the living and masses for the dead.
The Mass of the Presanctified, in which we do not consecrate, is
celebrated on Good Friday.
We have suppressed the Dry Mass or Nautical Mass, in which we do not
consecrate. These were usually said upon ships, where we could not
consecrate the blood without the risk of spilling it.
25
Thus the oblation of the fruits of the Great Architect, represented

by the Great Star, became the most august act of the new cult, into
Golden Mass is that which was celebrated on days of rejoicing, upon

which gifts were given to the people, and when princes and kings
displayed their magnificence.
We find in the ancient missals this title: missa pro duella (the mass for the
duel) (1).
The Red Mass was for homecoming after vacation of sovereign courts
who were present in red robes; sometimes it was called the Mass of the
Holy Spirit.
The Greek Mass, so called because it follows the Greek Rite.
Midnight Mass; mass at the moment of the beginning of day (Christmas
Night, the 25th of December).
Conventual Mass, daily in certain churches.
Hunter's Mass, said in haste. Marked Mass, for the ladies of high society.
Angel Mass, for dead children under 7 years of age.
Mass of the Dead, mass for the souls in purgatory.
Gallican or Ambrosian mass, said in former times in Gaul. Also called the
office of Paris.
Gothic Mass, said anciently among the Goths, who were Arians.
Latin Mass, Roman or Gregorian.
Mozarbic Mass, or the Mass of Spain, often called after the Mozarbic Rite.
Mass for the Death of Enemies, in former times in use in Spain,
suppressed in 1844.
During the middle ages, many strange abuses wheedled their way into
the performance of the holy mysteries. Some monks celebrated these
masses alone and did not have a server present; others joined many
masses in a single one in order to pull a greater profit from their holy
offices; these abuses have been suppressed.
We have had, for a long time, the opinion that the prayers of the liturgy
were more efficacious than the others.
There was a bookshop established in Paris, which was a sort of
warehouse of masses; for masses paid for the books. A priest subscriber could
say 275 masses and thus have the right to religious works worth 250
francs. Where will speculation not find its niche?
26
which stepped in, were admitted, and successively melted away

while losing their names, Osiris, Isis and Horus of the Egyptians,
the Bel, Belus or Belphegor and the cross bearing Astarte of the
Babylonians; the Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu, the Sommonacodum and the
Virgin-Mother, pregnant by the virtue of the sun, the supreme
deities of the Italians, the Odin, Thor and Frigga, dame par excellence
of the Scandinavians; Teutatis, Belen and the Virgo-Paritura of the
Celt, the god Uranus, the Apollo and the Magna Mater of the Greeks,
etc.
I hope to show, in the following chapters, that the most solemn
act of the new belief has preserved, despite the inertia of centuries
and the crust of novelties, the forms of ancient initiation, conferred
by the solicoles1 [Latin, sun worshippers] and the modern initiates.
1 The duels or outrageous combats which we call placitum ensis

(the process of the sword), were ordained by the sentence of the
high lord justices of the church, or others. They drew very
considerable profits from these combats, without counting the
fines and minor rights. The priests also found advantages in
these. Before the fight, the combatants swore an oath upon the
gospels, they had their weapons blessed and said the mass (missa
pro duello); the whole affair paid very well.
See what the historian Sauval says about this subject
concerning Jean, called Sans Peur, Duc de Bourgogne.
1 This word, for minor initiates, signifies: adorer of the SUN; for the high
initiates: adorer of a SOLE GOD, unnameable and resplendent in the
étoile flamboyante.
27
CHAPTER III
The sacred dress of antiquity preserved in the modern cult. – Preparation
for the mass by fasting and by prayer. – Benediction by lustral water and
distribution of the blessed bread. - Introit, form of the ancient initiations. -
The dialogue from introibo until montem sanctum and the consecrated
places on high, primitive altars. – Episode of Apuleius' initiation into the
mysteries of Memphis, necessary to report for the understanding of the
modern rites, religious and Masonic, of which the comparative
examination is the principal aim of this work.
The priest who prepares himself to celebrate the offering of the

harvest [French, moisson] (messis) should be at fast so that no
impure food foul the innocent first fruits of the reverent sacrifice
he is about to undertake.
In the sacristy (the sacrarium, where the pagans deposited their
sacred objects), he prepares for the august sacrifice by prayers.
Orpheus recommended these in his hymns; Pythagoras in his
Golden Verses; and Numa in his laws; Du-Choul says that it was
the custom of the Roman sacrificers to confess before sacrificing.
He dresses himself with consecrated clothes and ornaments; he
takes these from the pagan priests whose wardrobe has become
his inheritance1. The black biretta [French, bonnet carrée, foursquare
1 Eusebius, in his life of Constantine says, ‘To render the Christian religion
more plausible to the gentiles, they transferred to it the exterior ornaments
employed in the pagan cult.’
28
cap], with which he covers himself, is the headgear of the Flamines1

which was topped with a large tuft of wool or thread which was
called a Flammeum; the black cassock recalls the Hierocoraces, the
Priests of Mithras, thus named on account of their crow (corax)
coloured vestments.
‘The Kings of Babylon wore a gold ring which served as their
stamp, slippers to be kissed by conquered kings, a white coat, and
a tiara of gold from which hung two small bands… The Pope, the
living image of Nabonassar, carries, as he did, a gold ring which
serves him as a stamp, slippers where the kings of the occident
kiss the profaned cross of Jesus, a coat of white satin sprinkled
with golden stars, and a tiara from which hang two small bands
resplendent with gold, pearls, rubies and diamonds estimated at
the value of 500,000 pieces of gold, enriched with Frirège.’ (Gaussin,
V. Son Prophète Daniel).
Let us continue the inventory: the inheritor-priest decorates
himself with the Isaic alb, the ornament of the priests of Isis, who
had their heads shaved and who pricked themselves to be chaste2.
1 Priests of Jupiter at Rome.

2 Juvenal (in his sixth satire) reports that the grand priest of Anubis was
surrounded by a crowd of priests with shaved heads and dressed in fine
linen.
Like the pontiffs of Isis, the priests of Moses had to wear a second very
ample robe beneath their white robe. It was called a cope (1), and came
down to the feet, around which were attached 72 little bells made of gold
intermixed with woollen pomegranates of different colours. Among the
Egyptians, these reflected the 72 murderers of Osiris; it was the number
of thorns which had make up the Corona Borealis and that crown, corona,
placed on the head of Jesus.
From the Egyptians that cope passed to the high priests of the
Christians; it is said that many are preserved in the treasury at the
Cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle, which served at the coronation of Charles
V. We explain them thus: the pure gold represents wisdom, innocence
29
Over this, he clothed himself with the chasuble, the clothing of the
Phoenician and Egyptian sacrificers, which was called a calasaris,
knotted at the collar and descending to the heels; he also wears an
amice (orarium) and the alb and chasuble1 that the pagan priests
wore when sacrificing. Numa ordained the alb above a tunic and a
bronze breastplate for the sacrificing priest. In the wealthiest
period, the Roman priest wore the amice on his head and a
breastplate of gold and silver. Thus Europe partly owes to the
and justice; the bells warn the high priests that all their steps are observed,
and that they ought to live in the saintliness of virtue.
1 The rubric and ordinary of the missal marks the order appointed by
Pope Leo IV around the year 850, ‘that none should say the mass without
amice, without alb, without stole, without maniple, and without chasuble.’
The amice, from Latin amicere, to cover, was introduced in the VIIIth
century to cover the neck, which the clergy and the laymen kept bare. It
was introduced to preserve the voice. The ancient manuscripts of the
missals of the royal church of Saint-Quentin, which are around 500 years
old and are preserved in the archives of office, indicate that the prayer is
to be made while lowering the neck.
The maniple, originally called mappula, little napkin, comes undoubtedly
from manipula, from manus [Latin, hand], because it was carried by hand.
The German churches called it fanon and those of England and France,
sudarium, tissue for wiping the face, as Robert Paulus tells in the Traité des
offices Ecclésiastiques, for a long while attributed to Hugues de Saint-
Victor; however, it received so many ornamental elaborations since it was
introduced in the IXth century that one could no longer wipe oneself with
it; so, in the XIIth century, another wiping cloth was introduced. It was
succeeded by the orarium which is likewise a bright white (2) piece of
cloth or tissue.
Chasuble, from casula [Latin, casa, house] or planata, anciently so
spacious that the garment was allegorically considered a type of little
house, given to the priest of the Lord, from across the width of which the
head alone could protrude.
30
second King of Rome the costume of the sacrificers of the new

belief; I say ‘partly’ because we have added the stole1 to the sacred
clothing of Asia, Phoenicia, Egypt and pagan Rome as well as the
ephod (the zone or belt of the Hebrews)2 or the spool; and we will
not deny that Cardinal Baronius3 has remarked that in the year 44
of the Christian era the priests of paganism carried the surplice,
the augural staff (lituus), the ring, the mitre and the alb (alba vestis4)
[Latin, white vestment] when they sacrificed5.
But let us follow the modern sacrificer: he presents himself at the
base of the altar, as if absorbed by the majesty of God that he is
about to invoke; he is Moses prostrate beneath the spirit of the
burning bush; he is Melchizedeck in the holy of holies, he is the Grand
Éccosais Philosophe, the Grand-Priest-King of the family, prostrate
with his face against the earth on the (3.5.7) steps of the sanctuary
where the Great Architect of the worlds and the nations resides
figuratively in all his glory.
The sacrificer wears, on the top of his head, in monte sancto 6
[Latin, upon the holy mountain], at the seat of the religious sense, the
1 In Latin, stola, in Greek ΣΤΟΛΗ, a lady’s dress.

2 The belt of the modern priest is called the belt of purity; they wear it
around their loins to preserve chastity.
3 See Mémoires de Marolles.
4 Symbol of purity of the soul.
5 There still exists the dalmatic, a sacerdotal robe decorated with
laticlaves or broad stripes of purple, and thus named because it was

originally from Dalmatia, a Greek province. It was introduced at Rome
in the IInd century.
The dalmatic tunic of the ancients was replaced by the undergarment
opened in front called a soutane or cassock, from the Italian sotana, from
soto, beneath [French, sous], derived from the Latin subtus. The rabat or
clerical vest of the modern priests refers back to the two tables of the
Mosaic Law by its shape.
6 See the Introit of the mass.
31
tonsure, that circular mark which is evidently the mark of the

emblem of the consecration to the Sun, the disk which it represents.
He will bless the great star in the name of the earth, which is the
object of his love and blessing; he represents this by means of the †
(Egyptian tau), represented on the white chasuble if the sacrifice is
joyous, black if it is mournful, red if it is expiatory of the blood of
the just1. It there again represents the star, the zodiacal emblem of
which the earth is the girdle. The sacrifice is thus the angel (the
envoy) of the purified earth approaching its God, in albis et candidis2
[Latin, in whiteness and in shining].
During the preparation of the sacrificer, the temple and the
initiates were purified by the singing of hymns and the throwing
of lustral water (holy water). The bread of the supper of the
primitive Christians, as we will show in what follows, is blessed
[French, bénit] and is offered without distinction of rank or fortune
to all the children of the same father. The Romans also ate small
round breads 3 in honour of their gods in the temples 4 ; this
manduction was less philosophic than the modern version of the
sublime allegory that very rarely produces its effect.
The sacrificer, having reached the foot of the sanctuary of the
Sun, proceeds to the introduction of the sacrifice of the harvest
[French, moisson]. In mystical language, this commencement is
called introit and consists of a dialogue between the priest and
server, or between the hierophant and the neophyte.
The celebrant crosses himself with the sign of the earth, signo
crucis [Latin, with the sign of the cross], and announces that as
mediator and in his name, he will speak to the Great Architect of
1 The use of chasubles cannot go back further than the IVth century.
2 See the Introit of the mass.
3 Called mola, from whence we get ‘immolate,’ to offer molam
(introduced by Numa).
4 See Du-Choul, p.302.
32
the Universe. This sign, repeated at the same moment, by the

incumbent and by the brothers or faithful, announces that no
profanes are present; this sign is again the tau of Osiris, emblem of
life, and of the commencement of a new existence brought about
by the initiation.
Brothers, listen to the exordium of the priest of the earth, bending
himself toward the Sun; and should the ears and the eyes be
attentive to all he will say and do, these things will awaken the
memory of the initiates!
He says, ‘I will enter unto the altar of God, of that god which brings
joy to my youth.’ And who is this God? Ah! is it not the Sun who,
through all the days and all the years, restores and rejuvenates,
full of riches and joy, this earth which is constantly young, who is
virgin and mother, who without his company and caresses, would
grow old afflicted with the most unhappy widowhood.
The priest adds, ‘Why and how is it that I go forth overwhelmed with
grief, tristis incedo1 [Latin, I unhappily proceed], while persecuted by the
enemy, dum affligit me inimicus2.
This sentence reveals the feature of the first formula of initiation
practised in the most ancient mysteries, tristis incedo: grief
accompanies my steps in that private place of the light; what do I
not fear in that obscure path, in this voyage toward the unknown?
Et affligit me inimicus, and the enemy increases my worries by
afflictions. – Is not this enemy a self-evident reference with certain
guides in the ordeals of certain voyages, and of the unrestrained
passions which torment so many unwise travellers in the short,
but perilous, path of existence?
1 See the Introit. The section of the dialogue from iudica me until Amen is
not said from Palm Sunday until Easter inclusively because that part
commemorates the initiation into the lesser mysteries; Holy Week is solely
reserved for the greater mysteries and their celebration.
2 See previous note.
33
What follows the introit or initiation will reveal to the Epopts

whether or not I am in error.
Discerene causam meam de gente non sancta; Lord, distinguish,
separate my case from an unholy nation; that is to say, distinguish me
from the profane people; do not confound me with a nation not
sanctified by initiation into the mysteries.
Ab homine iniquo et doloso erue me; distance me from the iniquitous
and deceitful man; that is to say, save me from the traps of iniquity
and malice strewn before my steps.
Emitte lucem et veritatem tuam; send forth your light and truth: that
is to say, shed out your light over me, manifest your truth. This
distinction between the Solar light and the light of Morale is here
pronounced and deliberate; it is repeated in the next verse to
establish its importance.
Lux et veritas conduxerunt et adduxerunt me in sanctum montem
tuum; the light and the truth have led me and brought me to your holy
mountain; that is to say the desire to receive the true light, to know
the truth in its pure brilliance have led and brought me to your holy
mountain.
What does the celebrant understand by your holy mountain if not
the altar placed on an elevation where he will arrive after having
climbed the symbolic degrees? Have not all people adored the sun
in high places? The tower of Bel, Baal or Babel was his temple in
Chaldea. We assume that the most elevated of the three Egyptian
pyramids was consecrated to Osiris; all the celebrated mountains
of France, Saint-Michel, and Saint Bernard, of England, Spain, Italy
and Helvetia were originally consecrated to Belenus. Did not the
Apollo of the Greeks reside upon a holy mountain1? Also among
the Hebrews, the deus altissimus [Latin, highest god], the Highest,
the Sun, was he not the god of Oreb, Zion, Thabor and Sinai?
1 Mount Parnassus.
34
By the holy mountain, the modern hierogrammates have

preserved the remembrances of those primitive altars and the
memory of the ancient initiations, in the Introit and the offering of
the harvest [French, moisson]. As I will speak often about the
antique mysteries in this work, I think it now appropriate to trace
as much of them as are given in the ceremonies used in the
initiation of Apuleius into the mysteries of Isis. I will do this as
briefly as possible according to his account.
1o Lamp in hand, voyage under the low-ceilinged and dark
vaults – starting with a precipice whose mouth is polished like ice.
– The impossibility of turning back. – Descent of precipice; its
mouth is of iron, its rungs of shining steel. – At the lowest level,
sixty feet from the mouth, a most terrifying abyss; fear mounts
several degrees for Apuleius. – There, a little opening leads into a
spiral way, descending to the bottom of the precipice; from there
he follows an expert initiate, without speaking to him. – In the north
of the abyss, a railing of bronze; in the south, a railing of iron, at the
end of and across which he can make out, as far as the eye can see,
an alley lighted by the glimmers of lamps and torches, extending
through a series of arches. – Under these vaults, the initiates sing
hymns whose melancholy sounds strike the senses of the recipient.
— And so the expert initiate approaches him and leads him to the
railing at the north and disappears. It opens at the slightest effort;
as soon as the neophyte passes, it closes upon itself with a horrible
noise, which spreads under all the vaults. – Thanks to the lamp,
Apuleius reads these words: Whoever traverses this vault alone,
without looking behind, will be purified by WATER, AIR and FIRE; and if
he can vanquish the fear of death, he will exit from the bosom of the
EARTH, again see the LIGHT, and will be fit to receive the revelation of
the mysteries of the great goddess ISIS.
2o Apuleius, plunged into the darkness, wanders a long time in
the underground passages of the temple of Memphis. – At last, he
reaches the gate of iron at the south. – There, three armed men
35
helmeted with dog headed masks 1 , (the symbol of Anubis-

Mercury-Tu-bal-Cain) present themselves. – In a severe voice, their
chief says to him, ‘Continue the voyage, if the gods give you the
strength; but if you return on your steps, tremble! We will seize you. You
are still free to return; but ponder well that after one step forward, if you
do not promptly arrive at the goal you will see the light no more. Think
upon succeeding without turning your head and you will open a passage
there before you.’
3o After fifty steps, light and blooming brightness. – A blazing
vault a hundred feet long to traverse. A blazing grating of iron
thirty feet long and eight across. – The neophyte is obliged, if he
wishes to continue his journey, to fit his steps upon the narrow
diamond shapes of the grill. – After having crossed, a torrent of
fifty feet across; by swimming or with the help of two ramps. –
Apuleius, having passed, dresses himself once again, climbs
several degrees which lead him to a draw-bridge; he seizes upon
two rings and is immediately lifted into the air. In this condition,
he sees beneath him an abyss from which comes with a roar an
awful wind which extinguishes his lamp. – Then, a gentle
counterweight lets him down before a gate of ivory (the door of the
Orient).
It opens and the neophyte is dazzled by the brilliance of the
lamps and the shining gold all about. He goes forward between
two rows of priests clothed in long robes of translucent linen. The
hierophant, seated upon a throne at the back of the temple,
congratulates Apuleius for his courage, and offering him a full cup
of the water of the Nile, says:
May this water be a draught of FORGETFULNESS of all those maxims
you have heard from the mouths of the profane!
1 Indicating strength, vigilance, fraternity. Orpheus took his three-headed

Cerberus from this.
36
Apuleius drinks this water and throws himself at the feet of Isis.
Then the hierophant pronounces these words over him:
Isis! O great divinity of Egypt, give your spirit to the new servant who
has just now overcome so many travails and perils to appear before you.
Bring it about that he be, LIKEWISE, victorious in the ORDEALS OF HIS
SOUL! Render it that he be obedient to your laws, that he may be worthy
to be admitted to your august mysteries.
All the priests repeat this vow in chorus; then the hierophant, in
raising him up, presents him a fortifying liqueur and says to him:
May this be a draught of MEMORY of the lessons of wisdom you have
received!
At that moment, under the image of Isis enlightened by a torch,
Apuleius assumes the habit of an initiate, called the Olympic
(Celestial) Stole, an alb (alba) of linen, rayed blue, scarlet and purple,
and a chasuble (calapsis), embroidered with dragons and griffons.
The hierophant places a crown of white palm leaves upon the head
of the neophyte, arranged as the solar rays. A servant pulls the
curtains of the sanctuary back, and the initiate is displayed to the
people who fill the temple1.
In accordance with this ancient account, it will be easy for you,
Brother initiates, to understand perfectly the hidden meaning of
the Introit of the mass and the ritual of that offering by thus calling
to mind the dogmas and liturgies of high antiquity, grafted upon
the tree of the modern belief.
Endnotes to Footnotes
1. From Greek ΣΚΕΠΩ, I veil, from whence the Latin verb capere,
to contain.
‘The name chapel was given to the oratory where the cope of
1 See the Golden Ass by Apuleius; Séthos, by the Abbé Terrasson; Voyage
of Pythagoras, by Sylvain Maréchal, etc.
37
Saint Martin was preserved. The chaplains were the officers who
carried the cope in the chapel.’ (Dictionnaire Féodal, under the
word, Chape de Saint Martin). It appears that we take the words
chapel and chaplain form this cope.
2. In ancient times, the nuns of Saint-Croix, at Poitiers, wearing
the alb and maniple, served the acolytes at high mass. They gave
light to the deacon when holding the candelabra during the
gospel.
38
CHAPTER IV
On the Domine-sol of the ancient rituals. – Veil thrown over the sacred
words at the time of the renaissance of letters. - On Deo optimo in use in
the universities. - The three introibo at the introit of the mass, considered as
a memory of the three voyages in the mysteries of Memphis. – The
aspersion, procession, benediction of the bread and its distribution to the
faithful. – Purification by the incense. – Lifting of the veil at the third
introibo.
In the previous chapter, I held myself to the verse montem

sanctum [Latin, holy mountain] that is found in the Introit. I spoke of
the connection of the Holy Mountain with the altars of high
antiquity upon mountains1, for I believed it necessary to give my
1 Dulaure tells us, ‘The cult of mountains occupies the history of

primitive religions. The people hemmed in by their eminent size
venerated them greatly. Often their peaks, hidden by clouds, seemed to
reach to the heavens; they gave birth to springs upon their flanks, the
precious rivers of life, or torrents which brought devastation; their
summits were crowned with storm clouds from whence they sent forth
lightning and thunderbolts.
‘Objects of gratitude and of terror, of fear and of hope, mountains, by
turns menacing and protecting, again acting in opposition as a vast
barrier against nearby enemies and difficult to traverse; would not
uncivilised and savage men see in them supernatural power, a divinity?
Mountains were the gods that received the homage of almost all the
people of the earth.
39
‘Maximus of Tyre said, in accordance with the opinion of his century,

that the earliest mortals saw mountains as the symbols of divinity; that
those who came afterward were persuaded that there was no mountain
that was not the abode of several gods….
‘This cult, child of ignorance, sustained by force of habit, continued
until the centuries of enlightenment, and maintained itself among the
most civilised of ancient peoples.
‘During the fair weather days of Greece, the mountains received
worship. The numerous Mount Cassius’ and Mount Olympus’, Mount Ida
on the Island of Crete, and Atabyris on the Island of Rhodes, were the
usual abodes of the most powerful of the gods. In addition, the Greeks
preserved for Jupiter the attributes that revealed his origin and affinity
with the mountains. The eagle, that accompanied the image of this god, is
a bird that usually inhabits their peaks; and the absurd image of the
lightening, with which we arm the hands of the god or the claws of the
eagle, recall the lightning flashes and the thunder which appear, so often,
to come from the mountains.
‘Mount Ida in Asia Minor, Dyndymus, Pessinus, and Berecinthus, were
dedicated to Cybele, the mother of the gods. It is necessary to add mount
Cybele, which is equally dedicated to her, or rather that it was the
goddess herself, for the word Cybele expresses at the same time a
mountain and the goddess of that name; this proves the identity that
exists between one and the other.
‘Saturn, father of Jupiter, is the name of a mountain which rises in the
neighbourhood of Athens. Saturn was also, according to Justin and Festus,
the name of the mountain upon which the Romans later built their
capitol. In addition, Saturn was but a mountain before the Romans
confounded him with Chronos, the god of time of the Greeks. Later, the
allegorists gave a wife to this god. She was named Rhea, and this Rhea,
so celebrated by the poets, was a mountain situated near Lampsacus.
They acknowledged a like nature to the two spouses.
‘Mounts Atlas, Argeus, Anazarbus, Brothys, Chemis, Hippus, Gaurus,
Lebanon, Anti-Lebanon, Panium, Peloria, Rhodope, Sipylum, Taurus, Viarius,
and an infinity of others, were, in the opinion of the ancients, divine
mountains.
40
readers the tincture of the primordial initiations before advancing

among the emblems of modern initiation. I chose the example that
Apuleius himself has transmitted to us, for it is an unimpeachable
monument. However, I feel that I need to stray again from my
‘The Getae adored a mountain where there sovereign pontiff resided. It

was their country’s most renowned sanctuary; again, it was called the
holy mountain.
‘Their neighbours, the Thracians, also had their holy mountain, which
was captured by Philip, King of Macedonia. The Gauls worshipped
mountains. There was a revered sanctuary on the summit of the Alps.
They venerated Mount Gothard as one of their divinities. The Pyrenees
had many sacred mountains to which religion turned before Christianity;
such is it on the mountain neighbouring Héas, the stone of Arâgé,
celebrated for its religious fables and superstitious cult. An inscription
found near Bagnères-de-Luchon and another at Beaudon, near Bagnères-
de-Bigorre offer vows to be made to the mountains and attest to the
existence of such a cult in the Pyrenees chain (1). The Italians likewise
adored Monte Soratte (2).
‘It was preferably the mountains, notably those that served as borders
between nations, upon which we sacrificed to the gods, to which we
carried our offerings, to which we addressed our prayers, and upon
which we raised our altars and temples. On this subject, Tacitus remarks
that the mountains were the neighbours of heaven; it was thought that
the gods were there closer at hand to hear the prayers of mortals.
‘It was on the mountains that the gods were born, raised and
manifested themselves to men.
‘In the sixteenth century, Agathias reproached the Germans, subjects of
the Franks, for worshipping the rivers, mountains and trees (3). In the
seventh century Saint Eligius, bishop of Noyon, and Saint Gregory, the
Pope, made the same reproach against the French (4).’ (Des Cultes Antér. à
l’Idolâtre, chap. III et IV).
The Bible offers many examples of altars raised in high places. The
altars of Bethel, Gilead, Shechem and many others are the proofs. It was on
Mount Sinai that God gave his law to Moses
41
route to make the journey easy for the Brothers who follow me.
Before setting foot upon the path, I must give the promised proof,
or rather one of the proofs, of the reality of the connection between
the Sun and the Lord-God of the Introit of the offering of the mass.
Long ago, there were almost as many liturgies as Episcopal Sees,
that is to say, mother-lodges. In the ancient liturgies of the modern
belief in the Latin language, the invocations of the Lord-God used
the vocative case Domine-Sol [French, Seigneur-Sol], O Lord-Sun.
Despite the precautions purposely taken in later times, to
substitute Deus for Sol, an enigmatic word, several prefaces still
contain the sacred word sol, which, in the dative case, reunites two
meanings that give support to the double doctrine of the
mystagogues.
Example:
Nemini dico, nemini dixi, sed tibi, soli deo; at a first reading, this
seems to mean: I do not say it to anyone, I have not said it to anyone,
but unto thee, God alone, the one God. Behold [French, voilà], the
unity of the Great Architect is revealed in the great mysteries of
antiquity, that are here consecrated anew. The words nemini dico et
nemini dixi (I do not say it to anyone, I have not said it to anyone) is
impressed upon the vow which the high initiates take to keep
silent about the dogma of the unity of God because of the
usurpation of polytheism1.
1 `It would be a conjecture to think that our unitary mystagogues have

placed nemini [Latin, to nobody] as the publicly published version in place
of the dative numeni, from numen, star, as the secret sense; nemini; this
supposition would be for the community of priests and minor initiates;
and numini for the raised prelacy, for the Epopts or seers; that which, by
my account, would be expressed under the veil of this word which is
almost a homonym is this; If I say it and if I have said it to the STAR, to the
Sun (numen, star par excellence), I have truly but addressed it only to you, the
ONE GOD.
42
At a second reading: we understand the meaning of the dative

soli1, it must be translated as: I do not say it to anyone, I have not said
it to anyone but unto thee, Sun-God, God-Sun [French, Soleil-Dieu,
Dieu-Soleil]. In this version, the sacred word, which is the key of
the vault of the new faith (the vow of the initiate into the lesser
mysteries) is spoken: it is the Deus sol, God sun [French, Dieu soleil].
At the first and second mystical readings, thanks to the
homonymy of the datives of the words sol, sun [French, soleil] and
solus, sole [French, seul], the sacred oath of the high initiates is
spoken: that is God alone, the one God; that is the Great Architect
of the Universe.
Oh Brother initiates, how powerful is the empire of words! Since
the datives of sol and solus are homonyms in letter and sound, they
have, in western countries, been powerful helpers in overturning
immoral, absurd and ferocious polytheism. If some among you
wish to know why the Dominus Sol (Lord-Sun) has been erased
from the ritual, I reply:
In the times of darkness when the true science (at least that
which escaped the sword, the barbarians’ torches and the politics
of their chiefs) became the exclusive property of the clerics, there
was no danger of profanation or indiscretion when one spoke
aloud or publicly sang the Dominus-sol (Lord-Sun) and the Soli Deo
(to the Sun-God). These sacred words echoed in the cloisters and
temples, in the still idolatrous countryside and illiterate villages
without producing a sensation; they were no better understood at
that time than the Latin Vespers, Hebrew ‫ הללויה‬and the Greek
AΓΙΟΣ O ΘΕOΣ are today by the peasants of Puy-de-Dôme, Landes
or Finistère.
However, in the age in which science became freer and self-
assured, it jumped within the walls of cloisters, established
1
[Translators note. In Latin the dative soli means ‘to the sun’, which
can easily be confused with solo, the dative of ‘to (thee) alone’].
43
national academies, created chairs of learning, raised honourable

degrees, and instituted a chivalry of letters that emulated the
chivalry of arms; but at the moment when it was about to entrust
its power and the hope of becoming widespread to free souls and
brave characters, it also suggested to our kings the true cure for
the problem of their feudal power being usurped (the
enfranchisement of the common people); I declare that at that time the
pontiffs, who were predisposed to preserving the mystery,
attentive wardens [French, surveillants] that they were, covered
and concealed [French, envelopèrent] it in thicker cloth so that the
waxing light of learning could not approach the philosophic truth;
the god Sun [French, Soleil] was darkened by clouds upon its
exceedingly bright disk, by hierophants interested in not allowing
much of the light of clarity to shine outside the temples. Soon, the
most timorous among them, guided by the more watchful,
suppressed sol, domine-sol, the sacred word sun [French, soleil] from
almost all the rituals; for the progress of teaching had rendered it
very easy to translate, to understand and to profane. Moreover, the
proof of this is the fact that the sacred word remained intact for a
long time in the breviaries and liturgies of the districts furthest
removed from the hearth of letters.
Nevertheless, the universities have preserved it in their honorary
titles, their academic certificates and their theses, as have the
Masonic Temples, and the capitals of their columns carry the
dedicatory word: A la G . . du G . . A . . de l’U . . [French, A la
Gloire du Grand Architect de l’Univers, To the Glory of the Great
Architect of the Universe].
Who among us is unaware that the university certificates are
decorated with the capitals D. O. M. (Deo optimo maximo) soli deo?
The profanes translate this as to God or to God the best, the greatest,
which assumes lesser gods; most certainly this glory is a supreme
blunder; the true initiates read: to God the very good, very high or
44
very powerful God-Sun, which signifies sole and unique God. This
translation is clear and natural, the former is absurd.
Two sporadic necessities have taken me far from the Introit of the
mass, which is a remembrance of the ancient initiations; I return to
the Introit stronger and better understood.
Note well three introibo ad altare Dei [Latin, I will enter (or go) into
to the altar of God]; the first opens the dialogue, the second adjourns
it and the third concludes it.
Why three refrains? They rather strongly point to the three
voyages of the ancient initiations; they also point to the ceremonies
which precede the mass, are connected to it, and bear witness to
the preservation of the memory of the ordeals used in the ancient
mysteries.
At high masses, at the masses of the Day of our Lord, that is to
say, on the day consecrated to the Sun [French, Soleil] Domini Soli
(the Sunday of the English, the Sonntag of the Germans) do we not
perform an aspersion of lustral water1 upon the faithful? This is
1 Ignis ad sacra adhibebatur uti et aqua; ita, ad foedea facienda, ad rumpenda,

aquae et ignis interdictio [Latin, Fire and Water was held to the use of sacred
things; thus it was forbidden to use fire or water at the making and breaking of
treaties]. (See Oeneus Schedius).
The pagans made use of lustrations at wedding ceremonies (5), for
voyages and for all their actions of any importance. Whoever does not
have, after what has been said above, the conviction that the furniture of
the modern belief comes from the heritage of the ancient beliefs, ought to
listen to me further: at the gate of the pagan temples, vases of lustral
water, named favisses, were placed, so that the people could purify
themselves; these were also called aquaminaria; before entering the
faithful sprinkled themselves; behold, these are our fonts and holy water.
Do you want to know the origin of our lustral processions before high
masses? We see that, in pagan antiquity, before the sacrifice, the pontiff,
the curio [Latin, priest at the curia, assembly], the parish priest [French, curé]
dips a laurel or verbena branch into the lustral water, and sprays the
45
then followed by a procession of the hierophant with his priests

calling upon the influence and the benefits of the great light with
the hymn Veni Creator [Latin, Come Creator]; the blessing of the
wheat ripened by this great light, and the distribution or this
wheat in equal parts, a symbol of brotherhood; the offering of
incense, the image of the earth exhaling its fragrant scents toward
the Sun, an equally sublime image of love rising in gratitude, as
well as the clouds of incense from our purified hearts to our
bosoms radiant with the benefactor of the universe.
Say, tiny creature, say what this is?
The response to the third introibo hides it no further; and that is
as it should be, when the third introibo has ended: this benefactor,
whose name alone [French, seul] sustains our life, adiutorium
nostrum [Latin, our help], has created the heaven and the earth, fecit
coelum et terram.
This response is of the most pure and most sublime ancient
philosophy; does not the hymn of the Eleusinian mysteries say that
all beings owe him their existence? Read the Golden Verses of
Pythagoras and the poets and the orators of high and late antiquity,
assembly with this branch, named lustrica or aspergillum; today we call it

a holy water sprinkler [French, goupillon]; it was made of horsehair by the
ancient Romans as it is by the modern Christians (6). As for the lustral
water, which is prepared and distributed on Holy Saturday, the pagans
prepared it, composed of seawater, with the water of rivers and of
springs, with salt and with sulphur; and, in this mixture, there was a fire
brand from the sacrificial hearth. The extraordinary purifications of the
ancients were made at the time of the dedication of temples and in times
of public calamity. One purified towns, fields, houses, armies, herds,
children, defiled persons, etc. The lustrations were practised with fire,
sulphur, air and water. For the gods of the heaven, ablution; for those of the
hells, aspersion: compare the ancient and modern practices, meditate and
speak [French, prononcez].
46
and you will be convinced, Brother initiates, that the protecting

and helping god qui fecit coelum et terram, is the Great Architect of
the Universe, whose son, the harvest [French, messie] (the Sun
[French, Soleil]), sits at his right, and is the visible mediator
between his largesse and our needs.
I can everywhere mark and here engrave, without indiscretion,
that our Apprentices, from their first steps and likewise by their
oath, learn to know he who has made the heaven and the earth, to call
upon him to their aid, and to sense that their force is in him and
comes not but from him.
1. Nouveaux Mélanges de l’Histoire de France par le Président

d’Orbeslan. tome 11, p.35. These two inscriptions are engraved on
votive altars; they start with this word: montibus [Latin, to the
mountains].
2. Summe deum, sancti custos Soractis Apollo, quam primi colimus
[Latin, Highest of the gods, Apollo, guardian of holy Soractis, which we
foremost worship]. Virgil. Lib. XI, v. 785. We have taken Saint
Orestes from Soracte.
3. Lib. 1, p.18.
4. Vita Sancti Eligii, Spicileginm [sic] Achevii, tome II, p. 97
Greyor, lib 2. p. 278.
5. From Latin nuptiae, derived from nubere, to veil oneself; because
among the Romans, the daughters which one married were led
into the houses of their husbands covered with a veil, a sign of
modesty; from which we get the word nubile, veiled…
6. In the mysteries of Mithras, the priestess dipped a branch,
symbol of the Phallus, into milk, with which she sprayed those
present; she often repeated this by three strokes to imitate the
seminal ejaculation, the emblem of universal fecundity. In this
way, the Holy Water Sprinkler of our priests is the lingam or
phallus; the lustral water replaces the milk, and the three little
ejaculating strokes are preserved. Moreover, we find the
47
grammatical root of the word sperm in the word asperger.
48
CHAPTER V
The Confiteor of the mass. – Public confession of the ancient initiates, of
the Jews and of the reformed Hebrews. – Moses, high initiate of Egypt,
adapted the mysteries to the Israelite genius. - On aural confession.
Sensible explanation of the word sacrament. – The Gloria in excelsis Deo. –
On the pagan praecentis made Catholic. Opinion of a savage chief about
God. – This homage written in letters that cannot be erased upon the
summit of a pyramid constructed of materials reputed to be sacred.
I arrive at the Confiteor [Latin, I Confess] of the mass, that act of

interior purification without which the first fruits of the harvest
[French, moisson], offerings to the goodness of the God who has
ripened them, are unworthy of that goodness. If the soul is pure, it
is the offering of Abel, if it is defiled, it is the horrible tribute of
Cain.
Eve made her confession to the serpent; a thing that still happens
to her great granddaughters. Confession was made at the
mysteries of Egypt, Samothrace and Greece. The philosopher
Emperor Marcus Aurelius made his confession to the hierophant of
the Eleusinian mysteries. The neophyte makes his confession to
the Worshipful Master [French, Vénérable] in the Masonic Temple.
The Jews annually asked forgiveness from the Eternal. On the Day of
Atonement, the high priest entered alone [French, seul] into the
sanctuary and loaded the iniquities of the nation onto a goat carrying the
Egyptian name HAZAZEL. This ceremony was Egyptian in its
entirety.
49
In fact, there is not an adept, in the science of those things

inherited from religion and the amalgamation of opposing or
analogous dogmas and cults (the results of the exchange of ideas
brought by violent warriors and emigrations) who doubts that the
legislator Moses had been an initiate of the highest class among the
Egyptians. He initiated his brother Aaron into all the grades of the
Egyptian priesthood that he had reformed 1 . Likewise, Moses
devolved upon his brother the dignity of the high priesthood; and
maintained, for himself, the mystery of the most intimate
communication with the ineffable. He invested all the males of the
tribe of Levi as the first order of Cohens or priests of Egypt.
Moses, who was represented, as was Bacchus, with two horns2,
desired to reform his nation and remove them from polytheism,
the principle cause of their enslavement; he conceived a vast and
noble design of preparing them for independence: he did this by
linking the people to one sole God.
However, with an ignorant, superstitious and ferocious people,
this link was very weak; Moses needed recourse to the power of
miracles. In order to receive the laws of Israel from the hand of
God himself, he retired upon Mount Sinai, in montem sanctum.
His brother Aaron served him quite poorly during his colloquies
with the Eternal3; but after a lively and angry rebuke from the
favourite of the strong God, the tracing boards of the law were
received with enthusiasm by the repentant multitude, and
deposited in the arch of the new mysteries4. This Decalogue is the
archetype of the morale taught on the holy mountains of Egypt, that
1 Witness his reprimand on the subject of the Golden Calf, the Apis Bull.
The Jews adored the Queen of Heaven (Isis) for a long time.
2 Tauricorn, tauricophalus, head of a bull.
3 See note on Golden Calf above.
4 We have described in a note in Chapter III how the rabat of the
Christian priests is shaped like the two tables of the law.
50
is to say, in the sanctuaries hidden [French, dérobés] from the

profane curiosity of the gentiles, but accommodated to the
character and the teaching of the sons of Israel.
The precepts of the initiates of the Nile, transmitted by Moses to
the Grand Levites and minor initiates [French, Lévites grands et petits
élus], naturally, had to be accompanied by the proper ceremonies
to fix them in thought1.
1 God, known by the Jews.

The Jews had the knowledge of the supreme God. Philo of Alexandria
spoke of this creator God and of his son, formed in his image, who gave
his life to all that exists.
The ancient rabbinical writings say that before the sun, the moon and
the stars, the Great-God existed, the ineffable light, which remained
hidden, veiled, until it had produced all that is [French, …Dieu-Grand, la
lumière ineffable, qui est restée cachée, voilée, jusqu’à ce qu’elle ait produit tout
ce qui est]. God is there called the ancient of days, that which was, is and will
be. We name him the greater countenance, as Adam is the lesser countenance.
We also apply to him the name of anterior intelligence, the unknown, and
non-existence. Many authors have known his other attributes.
A few modern rabbis have drawn particular qualities from these
diverse appellations. They have endowed many gods with these titles. In
addition, they claim that these gods have engendered each other.
God is sometimes considered as a celibate or without sex, sometimes as
androgyne or with two sexes. We call him the white head, the supreme head
which supports all and which holds all colours. The skull is eternal; from
this skull comes a dew [French, rosée] which nourishes the higher planes
and which, according to Isaiah, will revive the dead. The forehead is called
grace and force; the brain is a river of light; the eyes are without eyelids
and without eyebrows; they are without repose; it remains awake over all
that exists and illumines all. The nostrils fill the empire of life. In this head,
all is virtue, all is prodigious; the mouth relates not but wonder. The beard
is the ornament of the universe; it rules over all the worlds. A veil,
suspended over four columns, at the four quarters of the celestial vault,
hides the great God from all who try to look upon him; in him, all is
51
In the mysteries of Egypt, one made confession. Moses

transmitted the practice to the nation that he was training toward
regeneration; the custom remains with them; and at their feast of
solemn atonement, after having made confession to each other,
they exchange thirty-nine strokes with the whip 1 . This fanatic
correction is represented, no doubt, by the three mea culpas of the
Confiteor. At the dawn of the new belief, the patron of the initiated
Masons, Saint John, took confession and baptised, that is to say
initiated. The first Nazarenes adopted the general confession used
in the Egyptian mysteries and in the Hebraic rite. It was practised
in the time of Constantine; Saint John Chrysostom, doctor of the
new mysteries, wrote: Avow your sins to God; he will not reproach you
before men. Sublime Thought!
I have no need to say how the general confession and the
confession to the Sun-God, Soli Deo, or to the sole God, Great
Architect, Deo Omnipotenti, were replaced by aural confession2 or
how certain abbesses likewise received them from their nuns; nor
immense, all is mysterious. The days of the great God have a duration of
a thousand years. His throne is set upon the eternal fires, the rays of
which embrace all the worlds and all the heavens.
1 The constitution of South Carolina fixes the legal limit of thirty-nine
lashes upon the flagellation that the master can inflict on a slave. The
Bible has had much influence upon this fixed number, which has affected
a softening of the colonial whip, which, before this charter, had been
without limit.
2 Around the year 396, Nectarius, bishop of Constantinople, abolished
the public confession because of a scandal that followed the open
confession of a young widow. She confessed publicly to having had
illegitimate commerce with a deacon (La Vérité Rendue Sensible à Louis
XVI, p.6 édition de Londres, 1782). It was only around the year 450 that
Pope Leo abrogated public confession. Nevertheless, in the ninth century
public penitence was commonly used in Bretagne. (See Dictionn.de
Bretagne, par Ogée, 3e vol., p.22, 43, 93, 172, 191, et 4 e vol., p.318, 372, 473).
52
do I need to explain how the initiates, new sectarians, have

suppressed this last as heretical, and re-established it as it was
recommended by Saint John Chrysostom; instead, I will bring my
subject to an end.
I rejoin the celebrant at the offering of the harvest [French, moisson].
In the presence of the people, He makes his confession to God, that he
has sinned greatly, in thought, speech and deed; nimis cogitatione, verbo
et opere. The people beseech mercy, forgiveness of sins and eternal
life for him, misereatur tui, etc [Latin, may he be merciful to you, etc].
The people make confession in their turn, and the celebrant
demands indulgence, absolution and the remission of sins for them.
Without doubt, this ceremony takes its origin from the public
confession to the Great Architect (the Demiourgos) practised in the
mysteries of the Greeks. The ancient and philosophic origin of this
ancient confession, the admission of faults addressed to God, then
to Mary, Michael, John, Peter and Paul, must not be thrown aside
[French, rejeter]. These additional Christian names are very
modern incrustations. Let us not forget that the practice of public
confession in the first centuries, the belle époque of the Church, was
reformed in the fifth century by the introduction of aural
confession1. The mystagogues qualified it by giving it the name
sacramentum, sacrament, from the Latin words mens [Latin, mind]
and sacra [Latin, sacred], that is to say, a mystic tracing, or tradition of
sacred practice, sacred memory.
1 As for the aural Confession, it was introduced by Innocent III, around

the year 1200, it was constructed according to the saying of a poet
(Juvenal) scire volunt secreta domini, atque inde timere [Latin, they wish to
know the secrets of the lord, and to fear them]. This is a paraphrase of Juvenal
3. 113 scire volunt secreta domus, atque inde timeri [Latin, they wish to know
the secrets of (every) house and thus be feared]: when they have coerced the
secret. (La Messe en Français, p. 54).
53
If the ancient religious ceremonies linger on despite the rats of

the ages gnawing at them and vacillations in practice, it is because
they amalgamate themselves, not without losing certain traits, and
not without having some change of spirit, with new and simpler or
more poetic ceremonies. It is thus that certain things were
introduced into the Confiteor: the Virgin, then the archangel
Michael1, chief of the celestial hosts and then the saints; that is to
say, to the moon, the planets and the stars. (The stars represent the
insertion of Sabeism into the rite, and I will make this understood
in what follows). These are useless intercessors before the Great
Architect of the Universe, source of all mercy; hearth of all power, in
fortitudin e Benevoletia [Italian, in fortitude and Benevolence].
After the praises and the three Greek deprecations, Kyrie, Christe,
Kyrie, Eleison, Lord, Saviour, have pity on us! The hierophant and the
initiates recite or sing the Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax
hominibus bonae voluntatis, that is to say Glory to God in the highest
heavens and peace on the earth to men of good will. Domine Deus, Lord
God; Domine Sol, Lord Sun, in the ancient rituals2.
Agnus Dei, filius patris, Lamb of God, son of the father, qui tollis
peccata mundi, who washes away the stains of the world; that is to
say you, Sun, son of the father of all things, who, when he enters
the regenerating Sign of the Lamb, wipes away the stains of winter,
dissipates the darkness, melts the ice, renders to the earth her
virginal fecundity and her sorrowful canopy, the gold and azure of
hope.
1 Saint Michael has seized almost all the high places that antiquity
consecrated to Jupiter. We are less astonished when we know that his
Hebrew name signifies he who is like God.
2 The Gloria in Excelsis was introduced by Pope Stephen, successor of
Gregory, and was inserted before the canon by ordinance of
Charlemagne.
54
Tu solus sanctus, tu solus dominicus, tu solus altissimus, you alone

are holy, you alone are the authority, you alone who are very high;
that is to say, you holy Sun [French, Soleil], you Sun, Lord of the
world, you who are very powerful, you who are very high among
the stars, you, who are, consequently, above all the creatures of the
father that are known by our weak senses; and this father, the
Great Architect, has given the most sublime of his works to the
benign influence of his favourite son.
I do not want to lose sight of my aim of proving that the modern
ritual has had frequent additions [French, emprunts] from the
rituals of antiquity. Therefore, I will mention in passing that at the
solemn masses, the moment before the intonation of the Gloria and
the Credo by the celebrant, the lead cantor, in cappa magna and with
the staff of dignity in hand, leaves his stool as the ceremony
proceeds, and presents himself at the foot of the ara maxima; he
strikes the floor with his augural sceptre, and, after the sacrificer
turns to him, he gives him the correct pitch to make sure that the
singing is not out of tune. Pagan Rome had previously established
this ministry in her ritual: it was called the praecentio, intonation,
from from the prefix prae, before, caere, to sing [French, chanter].
Returning to the meditation of the Gloria in excelsis Deo, I believe
that, in essence, it appertains to the ancient mysteries. The
additions and the degradations to this monument of antiquity are
the doings of the councils, which used it to decree both the divinity
of Jesus and the Trinity of Plato1. The tu solus altissimus [Latin, you
alone are very high] of this song of praise is counter to the dogma of
a unique god, for the quality of the highest Lord or highest God,
indicates and likewise manifests the belief in lesser gods. For the
base of the new belief (which is that of the ancient mysteries)
reposes, in its purity, on a God without equal and who is sufficient
in his own power; the Sun, his visible proxy, is not him, but he is
1 See the Historical Report on the Principle Councils at the end of this work.
55
in him. One may qualify the Sun as ALTISSIME, because he is the

most elevated, the authority and the constant regulator of our
planetary system. The polytheists, by this verse of the Gloria, have
adroitly been led toward the adoration of the Sun, the sole god
visible to their imperfect reason. Moreover, with this verse, men
prepare to receive and carry and receive satisfaction of the milk of
philosophical instruction; for one honours not but the father of
nature, the Great Architect of the Universe.
Moreover, Brother initiates, so is it with this profession of the
unique God, which is made by nations, which has been so long
buried and preserved with so many precautions, with grief and
with blood, and almost erased by sacrilegious guardians; and so is
it with this instinct for the sole God that moves the heart with a
sweet persuasion, above all when we find the knowledge of this
omnipotent creator professed by nations that we treat as savages!
The chief of the Cherokees, pledging peace between his tribe and
the English, said: The men of the East are whiter than we; but a sole
God is our common father. The All-Powerful has created all the nations,
he loves them all equally.
This declaration of the principle-Religion, set forth without
blemish, is worth all the sacred books. Let us gather these books,
speculative Masons that we are; let us raise from these terrestrial
materials a pyramid to the glory of the Great Architect of the
Universe and cap it with the words of a savage chief.
As the architect of this monument, I will mark the unfinished
stones with these skilful devices:
1o The Shastras
2o The Vedas (posterior to the Shastras by 1500 years), the sacred
books of the Indians which they believe to be the emanation of the
divinity. According to their theologians, these were immense, but
Vyasa, born of Vishnu, reduced them to four books that he taught
to four penitents in order that they should spread them
throughout the world. The Vedas teach that the first man was
56
named Adimo, which signifies the Lord. Note that among the
Phoenicians and the Hebrews, Eva signifies life1.
3o Yajurveda, the essence of the Vedas, it is the ritual book of the
Brahmans.
4o The sacred books of China.
5o The Sibylline books, nine were rejected by Tarquin; of these
nine books, six were burnt by the hierophilic sibyl; the last three
became the oracles of the Romans.
6o The Bible and its translations; this book, attributed to Moses,
after Chapter 14 of Genesis is rather younger than it seems2.
1 The first man among the Brahmans was prodigiously anterior to the
Jews, and was called Adimo, the child of the earth, and his wife was
named Prakriti, life; that is what, in effect, the Veda says concerning the
second formation of the world. Adam and Eve signify the same things in
the Phoenician language. The author of Genesis conformed himself to
accepted ideas. [Translator’s note. ‘Adimo’ was the name Europeans used in
the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries for the Hindu first man].
2 ‘Savants, too full of their knowledge, have asserted that it was
impossible that Moses had written Genesis. One of their major points of
contention is that in the story of Abraham; it is said that the patriarch
paid for the cave in which he buried his wife in silver money, and that
the king of Gerar gave 1000 pieces of silver to Sara, when he returned her,
after having kidnapped her for her beauty at the age of 75. They say that
they have consulted all the ancient authors, and that it is there averred
that there was no coined money at that time.’
Let us cite further the well-known passage that forms one of the great
stumbling blocks: ‘Here are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before
the children of Israel had a king.’ The great Newton, the pious and wise
Samuel Clarke, the learned Fréret and a crowd of other learned people
have decided to uphold that it was impossible that Moses was the author
of Genesis, for truly, these words could not be set down except in the
time when the Jews had kings.
We cite also, Factus est autem in illo tempore ut Amraphael Sanaar et Arioch,
rex Pontis et Chodor sahamor, rex Elamitorum, and Thadel, rex gentium [Latin,
57
7o The Edda, the ancient Gothic work, which according to the

etymologists, signifies ancestor. This book contains that which we
can call the Bible and the Evangel of the Scandinavians. The Edda
of Sigmund contains three pieces: the Volupsa or oracle of the
prophetess, the Haramaat or sublime discourse and the chapter of
OPERATIONS of enchantments1.
8o The forty Evangels reduced, as were the Vedas, to four by Vyasa,
the Tarquins and hierophiles of the time. Let us observe that the
ancient pagans named Evangels the feasts celebrated at the
occasion of good news; for Evangel means Good News.
9o Finally, the Zend Avesta, the Talmud and the Koran, etc.
Brother initiates, at the summit of this pyramid, comparable to
the tower of Babel, let us not blush to place in characters of gold,
this admirable sentence that came from the heart of a Cherokee
savage.
THE COMMON FATHER OF NATIONS loves then all equally.
It came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar,
Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations]. The ancient historians
report that Darius, king of Pontus, son of Hystapes, founded the kingdom
of Pontus by the dismemberment of his own monarchy in favour of
Artabazanes. This Darius or Arioch re-established the temple of Jerusalem
at the beginning of his reign, and he died after he ruined Persia in the
year 485 before our era. See Alex. Lenoir, Cours Maçonique. Ezra is
suspected of being the author of the Bible, as Macpherson appears likewise
to be the author of Ossian.
1 See Mallet, Monument de la Mythologie et de la Poésie des Celtes, Preface,
p.27, édition de Copenhague, 1756.
58
CHAPTER VI
CREDO or symbol of the modern belief. – Credo of the pure Brahmans. –
Credo of the Brahmans of all sects. – Credo of the ancient Shastra. –
Chinese Credo. – Credo of the Israelites. – Credo of the ancient Greek
mysteries inherited from Egypt. – Credo of the Cherokees, savages of
North America. – Credo of the Parsis. - Explanation of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd
verses of the Credo of the new systems.
The more we advance in our investigation of the ritual of the

offering of the mass to the Sun-God, the more we gather together
the pieces of evidence for the belief in one God, under the allegory
of Jesus or the phases of the Sun, when he is born and dies each
year, and when he is celebrated by fasts each season under the
name of the Four-Seasons and by the commemorations of the birth,
death, resurrection, ascension, expansion and transfiguration.
Initiates, I will place the rule and the square upon the Credo so
that it may be understood; I hope to demonstrate to you that it
makes sense. It is mysterious, undoubtedly; but that which it hides
from the multitude can be explained to the high reason of the
perfect élus. The hierophants of the new doctrine, when they
wished the Credo to be the key for their use only, invoked, in a
voice that we may call hypocritical, this useful credulity that they
called blind faith. I, a franker mystagogue, will hold myself to
account to explain it by its natural reading and by reason. Yes,
Brother initiates, the Credo will be understood and likewise
justified, in accord with the ruling opinions of the time in which it
was composed.
59
Before passing to the examination of the Symbol of Nicea,

inaccurately called of the Apostles, it is right that I place the credos of
former times 1 [French, règnes antérieures] under the eyes of my
readers.
CREDO of the pure Brahmans: I adore that being who is not subject
to change or worry, whose nature is indivisible; whose spirituality
admits no division of qualities; who is the origin and the cause of
all the beings and who surpasses all in excellence; that being
which supports the universe and is the source of the threefold
power2. The true God is uncreated, spiritual, invisible, omnipotent,
just and merciful; he is present everywhere, he sees all, hears all;
he rewards the good, he punishes the wicked; often he has taken
invisible forms when he incarnates, to accomplish his mercy or his
vengeance; he manifests himself upon the earth, each day, when a
heart full of faith prays to him; at the end of the centuries, fixed by
1 ‘The symbol, called of the Apostles, which is short, and in which the
words consubstantiality and trinity as well as the seven sacraments are not
found, did not appear until the time of Saint Jerome, Saint Augustine and
the celebrated priest Rufinus of Aquilea. This Rufinus was, we say, that
holy priest, the enemy of Saint Jerome, who wrote to him:
“It seems to our feeble understanding that we, as a philosopher said, ought to
await as did the first disciples, with a solemn declaration of a complete and
unalterable profession of faith, which will terminate all past quarrels and prevent
future quarrels.”
‘The heresies have had time to multiply; we count more than fifty by
the fifth century.
‘The word heresy which comes from the Greek ΑΙΡΕΣΙΣ, and is formed
from ΑΙΡΕΩ, I choose, signifies belief or chosen opinion. It is no great
honour to human thought that we have hated, massacred, persecuted
and burnt ourselves for chosen opinions.’
2 See Lettres Edifiantes tome 10, p.15.
60
eternal decrees, he will destroy this world, as he has destroyed the

preceding 3 ages.
CREDO of the Brahmans of all the sects: The true God is uncreated,
spiritual, invisible, omnipotent, just, and merciful. He is
everywhere present, sees all and hears all; nothing can be hidden
from him, not even thoughts; he rewards the good and punishes
the wicked; he has often taken, when he incarnates, visible forms,
according to his acts of mercy or vengeance; he manifests himself
upon the earth, in all days, when a virtuous heart, full of faith, prays
to him; at the end of time, fixed by eternal decrees, he will destroy
the world, in the fourth age, as he has destroyed the three
preceding ages.
CREDO of the ancient Shastras: God is he who has always been; he
created all that is; a perfect sphere, without beginning or end, is his
feeble image; he brings to life and governs the whole creation
through his general providence and his invariable and eternal
principles; ‘Do not probe the nature of he who has always been: for
it is a vain and criminal research! It is enough that, day by day,
night by night, his works announce his wisdom, his power and his
mercy; try to profit from this1.’
Chinese CREDO, (by the Emperor Kāng Xī [Chinese, 康熙帝]): God,
the true principle of all things, has had neither beginning nor end;
from the beginning, he produced all things; he governs them, he is
their Lord, he is infinitely good, infinitely just; he enlightens,
supports and rules with a supreme authority and a sovereign
justice2.
Monologue of Kong Zi [Chinese, 孔夫子 ](Confucius): conjugal
duty [French, pieté] is the mother of all the virtues.
1 See the first article on the ancient Shastra, by the Englishman, Holwel.
2 See the compilation of Duhaldès, Amsterdam Edition, page 42.
There is also a Credo of the abbot de Saint-Pierre and the philosophic
Credo of Voltaire.
61
{
Do not kill any
creature,
Do not take the goods
Pentalogue of of another,
Wu: Guard chastity,
Do not lie,
Do not drink wine.
Thai Pentalogue: Devotion; patience; charity; sanctity; filial duty;

honour father and mother, to be worthy of heaven.
CREDO of the Israelites; You shall adore a sole God, etc. See the
Decalogue, the origin of which appertains to the Egyptian mysteries,
and which the initiate Moses accommodated to the Hebrew genius
by telling them that he had received these things from Adonai on
Mount Sinai.
CREDO of the ancient Greek mysteries, which took their origin from the
ancient Egyptian mysteries: ‘Walk in the way of justice, adore the
sole master of the universe; he is one; he is sole by himself; all
beings owe him their existence; he acts in them and through them,
he sees all, and never has he been seen by the eyes of mortals.’
CREDO of the Cherokee Indians of North America: Reread our
account at the end of Chapter V.
CREDO of the Parsis: Fire is the emblem of nature; the sun is the
throne of the creator, his most beautiful work; after 12,000 years,
there will be a last judgement. The wicked will be forever excluded
from the communion of the Elect, the adorers of the Fire.
CREDO of the modern mysteries; 1st verse: Credo in unum Deum,
patrem omnipotentem, factorem caeli et terrae, visibilium omnium et
invisibilium; I believe in one God, unique, all-powerful father,
creator of heaven and earth, the maker of things visible and
62
invisible; that is to say, creator of all that my weak senses can

discern and the whole immensity that escapes my faculties. – I
believe in the Architect of the Universe… Arise and to order [French,
Debout et à l’ordre]!
In this sublime beginning, what initiate does not recognise the
hymn sung at the sacred mysteries of Eleusis; the first words that
the Eternal delivered on Sinai, the comprehension of the most
ancient nations, impressed upon all the tables of their holy altars?
Initiates, do not lose sight of the fact that the act of faith, the
modern credo, is the ingenious emblem, here juxtaposed, of the sun
at birth, passing away, coming back to life or returning (at the tropic),
rising (at the summer solstice), transforming (near the second tropic)
and descending (at the winter solstice), to be reborn anew (at
Christmas[French, Noël]) and, as the son of God, to rise again in his
capacity as the redeemer of nature, who is threatened annually
with destruction.
How could one not see [French, découvrir] this astronomical
emblem in Jesus being born, dying, resuscitating, ascending to
heaven and descending to the hells, the sun, that is to say, the
creature of God, engendered by he who has engendered all
(unigenitum) and Christ, that is to say, the redeemer of the
universe1?
1 Jesus was called Christ, a Greek word which signified anointed,

because his doctrine of Christianity was called gospel [French, évangile],
that is to say, good news (1), and because one day on the Sabbath, when he
entered, as was his custom, into the synagogue at Nazareth where he had
been raised, he himself enacted the use of this passage from Isaiah (2),
which he came to read : ‘the spirit of the Lord is upon me, that is why he
has filled me with his unction, and has sent me to preach the gospel
[French, évangile] to the poor.’
‘In the first years which followed the death of Jesus Christ, god and
man, we count among the Hebrews nine schools or nine religious
associations, Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Judahites, Therapeuts,
63
And why, one asks, have we not preserved the fables and the
cults of Adonis, Adonai, Adonhiram that have so much in
common with Christ?
We answer: the chief initiates who rebuilt the temple of the unity
of God on the ruins of polytheism; who wished to ground the
principle-religion [French, religion-principe] in the dogma of this
unity; who in this way dethroned the absurd divinities of the
vulgar; these reformers, I say, were too adroit, that is to say, sly in
their way of working, to preserve Adonis or Adonai, celestial
personages, who touched in a number of points, the idolatry
which they had it at heart to overturn. We ask them; since you
have destroyed all Olympus, why have you not touched those
idols which are a part of it1?
Rechabites, Herodians, disciples of John and the disciples of Jesus, named

the brothers, the Galileans, the Faithful, who did not take the name of
Christians except at Antioch around the year 60 of our era.
1 Credo changed by Napoleon and Pope Pius VII (Chiaramonti):
Credo before the Concordat. Credo of the Concordat.
1. 1. Credo in unum deum, patrem1. 1. Credo in deum, Patrem

omnipotentem, factorem coeli et omnipotentem, creatorum coeli
terrae, visibilium omnium et et terrae [Latin, I believe in
invisibilium [Latin, I believe in god, the all powerful Father,
one god, the all powerful father, the creator of heaven and
maker of heaven and earth, of earth].
all visible and invisible things].
64
2. 2. Et in unum dominum Jesum 2. Et in Jesum Christum filium

Christum, filium dei unigenitum; ejus unicum dominum
et ex patre natum ante omnia nostrum [Latin, And in Jesus
secula, deum de deo, lumen de Christ the one son of our lord].
lumine, deum verum de deo vero;
genitum, non factum
consubstantialem Patri per quem
omnia facta sunt qui propter nos
homines et propter nostrum
salutem descendit de coelis [Latin,
And in one lord Jesus Christ, the
son of god born of one; and born
from the father before all ages, god
from god, light from light, the true
god from the true god, engendered,
not made, consubstantial to the
Father, through whom all things
were made, who for our salvation
descended from the heavens].
3. 3. Et incarnatus est, de spiritu 3. Qui conceptus est de spiritu

sancto, ex Maria virgine et homo sancto, natus ex Maria virgine;
factus est; crucifixus etiam pro passus sub Pontio Pilato;
nobis, sub Pontio Pilato, crucifixus, mortuus et sepultus,
sepultus est [Latin, And was descendit ad inferos [Latin,
made flesh by the holy spirit from Who was conceived from the
the virgin Mary, and was made a holy spirit, born from virgin
man; crucified and entombed Mary; suffered under Pontius
even for us under Pontius Pilate; crucified, died and was
Pilate]. buried, he descended to the
hells].
4. 4. Et resurexit tertia die,2. 4. Tertia die resurrexit a

secundum scripturas [Latin, And mortuis [Latin, On the third
he rose again on the third day day he rose from the dead].
according to those things written].
65
5. 5. Et ascendit ad coelum, sedet 5. Ascendit ad coelos, sedet ad

ad dexteram patris [Latin, And dexteram Dei patris
he ascended to heaven, and sits omnipotentis [Latin, He
at the right hand of the Father]; ascended to the heavens, and
sits at the right hand of God the
all-powerful father].
6. Et iterum venturus est, cum 6. Inde venturus est judicare

gloria, judicare vivos et vivos et mortuos [Latin, From
mortuos; cujus regni non erit where he will return to judge
finis [Latin, And again he will the living and the dead].
come with glory to judge the
living and the dead; there will
not be an end of his kingdom];
7. Et in spiritum sanctum, 7. Credo in spiritum sanctum

dominum et vivificantem, qui ex [Latin, I believe in the holy
patre filioque procedit, qui cum spirit].
patre et filio simul adoratur et
conglorificatur ; qui locutus est per
prophetas [Latin, And in the
holy spirit, the lord and maker of
life, who goes forth from the father
and the son, likewise adored and
glorified; who spoke through the
prophets].
8. Et unam, sanctam,6. 8. Sanctam ecclessiam

Catholicam et apostolicam Catholicam; sanctorum
ecclesiam [Latin, And one holy, communionem [Latin, Holy
Catholic and apostolic church]. Catholic church; the
communion of the saints];
(because it brings in the
money);
9. Confiteor unum baptisma in3. 9.Remmissionem peccatorum

remissionem peccatorum [Latin, The remission of sins];
[Latin, I confess one baptism for
the remission of sins].
66
7. 10. Et expecto resurrectionem 10. Carnis resurrectionem

mortuorum [Latin, And I wait [Latin, The resurrection of the
for the resurrection of the dead]; flesh].
8. 11. Et vitam venturi seculi, amen 11. Vitam aeternam, amen (3)
[Latin, And the life of the age [Latin, Eternal life, amen]!
that will come, amen]!
The sacrilegious subtraction, indicated by italicised words, is evident.
OBSERVATIONS on the imperial and Papal CATHECHISM of 1806.
There is no more remarkable monument to the eternal pact between the

secular and sacerdotal tyrannies. What perfection in this bilateral [French,
synallagmatique] contract! What admirable balance in the do, ut des, facio,
ut facias [Latin, I give, so that you give, I do, so that you do], to reduce the
centuries to servitude and credulity.
The 1st Consul, when he organised education in 1802 did not attach a
chaplain to any college, leaving to families the care of overseeing the
religious instruction of their children. In 1806, Napoleon, who, in the
previous year, had been crowned king of Italy, who dreamed of the terms
he would be able to demand from the Papacy when he had it under his
domination, established the college chaplains.
In 1808, the Council of State had written in a décret organique: ‘The
principles of the Christian religion will serve as a basis for education’; the
emperor, who wished to please the Pope, erased the word Christian and
substituted the word Catholic.
Similar concessions, now seen in their true colours, ought to show the
need for more support for reason and liberty; in this respect, the
concessions made the remainder of the partisans lose their taste for
Napoleon; the political dissidents capable of being enlightened ought to
have rallied around THE CHARTER; in waking the sincere friends of
nations, for they keep the counsellors of kings on guard.
67
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS put together in favour of fanaticism and

superstition.
Q. (Page 38) What do you understand by the temple at Jerusalem?

A. The Catholic Church (ab omni œro [Latin, upon all opinion (or house)]).
Q. Who was the author of the schism that separated the ten tribes from
the temple?
A. JEROBOAM, whose name has become infamous throughout the centuries
(warning to kings).
Q. Who gave the primacy to the Apostle Saint Peter? (4)
A. Jesus-Christ himself. (The Papacy).
Q. Where do the priests and pastors come from?
A. The twelve Apostles. (Sanctification of priests).
Q. Did god make sin, and does he permit it?
A. He did not make it, but he permits it, to draw from it a greater good.
(Manichaeism).
Q. Why is it necessary to believe all that the Roman Church teaches?
A. Because it is infallible, because it is enlightened by the Holy Spirit. (Credo).
Q. Can the church deny anyone the communion of the saints, that is to
say, aid from Catholics?
A. Yes, she can deny scandalous sinners by excommunication. (Warning to
princes).
Q. Are we at fault when we oblige ourselves to believe things which are
above us?
A. On the contrary, IT DOES US HONOUR.
Q. What does the sign of the cross profit us?
A. It chases away the demons, etc.
Q. What does tradition mean?
A. Doctrine transmitted from HAND TO HAND AND ALWAYS received
within the church; IT IS NECESSARY TO BELIEVE AND TO ADORE
THAT WHICH WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND, AND TO SUBMIT
COMPLETELY TO THE JUDGEMENT OF THE CHURCH.
Q. What do you understand by superiors whom we ought to obey?
A. 1st the Pope, the bishops and the priests.
2nd the monarch, etc. (On the 2nd line).
68
Q. What are our duties toward the priests?

A. We ought to honour them, LISTEN TO THEIR ADVICE AND HELP
THEM WITH THEIR NEEDS WITH RESPECT AND DOCILITY.
Q. Why must we honour them?
A. Because they are the ministers SENT FROM GOD AND THEY GOVERN
US IN THE ORDER OF RELIGION AND ETERNAL SALVATION.
Q. Why must we listen to their advice with respect and docility?
A. BECAUSE IT IS CONCERNING THEM, IN THEIR CAPACITY AS
APOSTLES, THAT JESUS-CHRIST SAID: He who listens to you listens to
me; he who despises you despises me.
Q. Why must we help them with their needs?
A. Because it is just that WE SHOULD GIVE WORLDLY HELP TO
THOSE FROM WHOM WE RECEIVE THE LIFE OF GRACE AND
OTHER SPIRITUAL GOODS.
Q. From whom does the church receive the power of making
commandments?
A. From God HIMSELF, by giving her unto us as MOTHER.
Q. At what times and events ought we rouse ourselves to love God?
A. It is difficult to determine the events, which depend upon particular
circumstances; but we ought to multiply as much as possible the acts of love of
God, lest we should be condemned for having neglected a necessary exercise.
(Origin of ecstatic fads).
Q. At which time are we, above all, obliged to receive confirmation?
A. When the church is persecuted. (Cordial to rouse up fanaticism).
Q. What does faith teach us about indulgences?
A. That the church HAS RECEIVED from JESUS-CHRIST the power to
authorise them, and that the custom is very beneficial to Christian people.
Q. Who has the power to give them?
A. The Pope throughout the whole church, and the bishops within their diocese
within the limits set by the church.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS put together for the profit of POLITICAL

DESPOTISM.
69
Q. What are the duties of Christians toward the princes that govern them,
and in particular, what are they toward NAPOLEAN I, our emperor?
A. Christians owe to the princes who govern them, AND WE
PARTICULARLY OWE TO NAPOLEAN I, OUR EMPEROR, love, respect,
obedience, fidelity, MILITARY SERVICE and tributes demanded for the
preservation of the empire and its throne. Further, we owe him fervent prayers
for HIS HEALTH and for the spiritual and temporal prosperity of the state.
Q. Why are we held to all these duties toward our emperor?
A. It is 1st because God, who created the empires and distributed them according
to his will, IN LOADING OUR EMPEROR WITH GIFTS, be it in peace, be it
in war, has established him as our sovereign;, he has made him the minister of his
power and his image on THE EARTH. To honour and serve our emperor, IS
THEREFORE TO SERVE GOD HIMSELF.
2nd Because our lord Jesus-Christ, as much by his doctrine as by his examples,
has taught us himself what we owe to our sovereign: He was born obedient to the
edict of Augustus Caesar; he paid the prescribed tax, and likewise he gave the
order to render unto God that which is God’s, he also gave the order to render
unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.
Q. Are there any particular motives which oblige us, more strongly, to
attach ourselves to NAPOLEAN I, our emperor?
A. Yes, for it is he whom God has helped in difficult circumstances to re-
establish the public cult of the holy religion of our fathers and to be the protector
of it. He has established and preserved the PUBLIC ORDER BY HIS
PROFOUND AND ACTIVE WISDOM; he has defended the STATE by his
strong arm; he has become THE ANOINTED OF THE LORD by the
consecration which he has received from the sovereign pontiff, head of the
universal church.
Q. What ought we to think of those who neglect their duties toward OUR
EMPEROR?
A. According the Apostle Saint Paul, they resist the established order OF GOD
HIMSELF, AND RENDER THEMSELVES WORTHY OF ETERNAL
DAMNATION.
Q. Do the duties which we have held toward our emperor bind us equally
toward his legitimate successors in the order established by THE
CONSTITUTIONS OF THE EMPIRE?
70
A. YES, WITHOUT DOUBT; for we read in the holy scriptures, that GOD, the
lord of heaven and the earth, by a disposition of his supreme will and by his
providence, GAVE the empires not only to a single person, in particular, but
also to his family. (et semini ejus) [Latin, and to his seed].
Q. What are our obligations toward our magistrates?
A. We ought to honour, respect and obey them because they are the trustees of
the AUTHORITY of OUR EMPEROR, etc.
Whoever wishes to delve into this further may read the catechism of
1806 in its entirety, we have extracted from it only that which it offers
that is most notable.
Voilà, it is thus a work of that which we call very improperly the church;
I say improperly, because the low and good French clergy, the high
clergy of Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Germany, etc., took no part in its
fabrication. However that may be, I will not say church (5), but the high
clergy of the restoration has, in the interest of religion, done all that is
possible to make this work of the cowardice and the ambition of the high
imperial clergy disappear.
‘On 13 June 1845 the balloon launched at the time of the coronation of
Napoleon in December 1804 was sold at the shop of the Auctioneers of
Paris. To add to the solemnity of the celebrations that the city of Paris
offered on that occasion, the aeronaut Garnérin was summoned. He
prepared a gigantic balloon upon which was suspended a shining crown
with 3000 coloured ribbons. A few moments before the end of the
fireworks, this balloon, this crown, raised itself majestically from the
central square of Notre-Dame and rose into the skies with the
acclamations of the multitude. The next day, this balloon drifted over
Rome and descended in the vicinity of the eternal city, upon the tomb of
Nero, where it remained suspended; soon, pushed by the wind, it
regained its course and hung from a boulder. There, it remained without
being able to regain flight, and the inhabitants of the countryside came to
claim possession of the balloon upon which they could read this
inscription; Paris, 25, Frimaire an XIII, the coronation of the emperor Napoleon
by S. S. Pius VII.
71
They have chosen a new veil; I lift this veil and I read, the 2nd
verse: the sun (Jesus) is the son of God, engendered from one God,
unique, filium Dei UNI genitum; filium UNI Dei genitum… [Latin, born
the son of the ONE God; Son of ONE, born of God…]. These words do
not mean a unique son; such a version would only be sublime as
an impenetrable mystery and an imprudent absurdity. God is the
father of men, of whom we are his sons, as was Jesus; Jesus is not
his only son; but he is, as all men and all beings are, the creature of
the unique God. A sole reasonable explanation of the sun, the only
son of God, can be given thus:
He may have a thousand suns and beyond these another
thousand suns; there are many thousands of creatures of the
unique God; he is also raised above them as he is raised above us;
but our feeble senses only allow us to see our sun; and so, I can say
that that creature is, as I am, the son of God and only son, each in
his place, since I do not know my brother.
3rd Verse: Et ex patre natum ante omnia saecula; the sun is born of
the father before all centuries.
Since he is the son of the father, it is without doubt that he owes
him his birth; the aim of the new mystagogues was to make it
certain that the sun was born before all the centuries. The
explanation of the obscure hypothesis, put forward as a sacred
truth, is easier than one might think: I ask for your attention:
It was carried to Rome and suspended on the arches of the Church of

Saint Peter, where it remained until 1815.
Was this balloon not a complete prediction of the destiny of the man of
the century? At first rising majestically, gliding over the world, coming to
rest on the tomb of a Roman emperor; then losing itself upon a rock.’
72
What is a century? Is it not the same as saying that there are 100
yearly revolutions of the Sun, as a year is likewise a revolution of
about 365 days, and that the day is likewise a revolution of 24
hours? For, without the Sun, there would be no days, nor years,
nor centuries; it is he who measures, lightens and fills them; and so
this son of god is born before all the centuries, ante omnia saecula,
for The Sun, from the moment of his birth, was the father of the
first day.
1. Luke chap. IV. v. 16.

2. Isaiah chap. LXI. v. I.
3. Extracted from the CATECHISM for use in all the churches of the
French Empire, with 17 engravings and the epigraph:
Unus dominus, una fides, unum baptisma [Latin, One lord, one faith,
one baptism]. (Saint Paul, Epistle to the Ephesians, chap. IV verse
5).
Un vol. in-16 de 121 pages, Paris, 1811, chez Mame frères, imp.
–lib, rue du Pot-de-Fer, n 14.
On pages v and vi, there is the Papal approbation in Latin,
signed by Jean-Baptiste Caprara, Cardinal-Priest, with the title de
Saint-Omphre, Archbishop of Milan and legate from the Lateran
of Pius VII and of the Holy Apostolic See, near the Emperor of
the French, King of Italy, Napoleon I, given at Paris, at the palace
of his residence, on the 30 March 1806, and countersigned by
Vincentius Ducci.
On page vii, is the imperial decree given in the Tuileries, on 4
April 1806, on the report of the minister of cults, Portalis; who
ordered the publication the only time, the said CATECHISM was
put to use in all the churches of the empire, signed by Napoleon,
countersigned by Hugues B. Maret, secretary of state; certified by
Portalis, minister of cults
4. According to the doctrine of the Templars, the primacy was
given to the Apostle Saint John, the beloved.
73
5. Church [French, Église], in Latin ecclesia, is derived from the

Greek ΕΧΧΑΛΕΩ, I assemble, it does not mean the clergy, but
surely the assembly of the faithful governed by legitimate
pastors?
74
CHAPTER VII
Continuation of the examination of the Credo, from Deum de Deo until per
quem omnia facta sunt. – On the light or obscurity resulting from a comma,
before or after a word in a sentence. – The apostles did not have a written
symbol. – Why consubstantiation was introduced and sanctified. – The
argument supported by Saint John.
4th Verse: Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine [Latin, God of God, light of
light]; this phrase demands two explanations:
1st Deum de Deo, God of God: yes, he is thus created; he is the
visible God of an invisible God, according to the maxim of the
ancients, so admirably expressed by the poet Lucretius: in Deo
vivimus, movemur et sumus [Latin, in God we live, move and exist],
and so frankly cited by Saint Paul: in ipso vivimus, movemur et
sumus, ut quidam vestrorum poetarum dixit… [Latin, in his own being
we live, move and exist, as certain of your poets have said…]
It is said, further down in the symbol, Deum verum de Deo vero
[Latin, true God of the true God]: yes, the Sun is the visible God who
announces the truth of the Great Architect of the Universe. It is the
Sun that inspired the psalmist with that sublime hymn of praise:
cœli ennarrant gloriam Dei [Latin, the heavens expound the glory of
God]. It is he again, visible, who uncovers the ancient mysteries,
the sole, the true, the grand master of the world to whom all beings owe
life and who acts in them and through them. Moreover, if, just as the
zoophyte and the sun, we are fractions of the unity of the Great-
Creator of All, we, men, participate, because of our organs, in the
essence of the divinity.
75
2nd Explanation: lumen de lumine, light brought forth from the

light; torch lit at the source of light; star whose bright benefit
makes me know of a light more certain, that of the truth; more
necessary, that of justice; more august, that of the existence of the
Great Architect. God, creator of the Sun, who has endowed the light
from his light; of which the Sun is the light from light, lumen de
lumine.
Until now, Brother initiates, we have not seen anything but
surmountable and vanquishable difficulties in the four verses of
the new symbol of the new mysteries; but the 5th verse, turned
about every way, refuses to be interpreted, and the reason for this
is humbling.
5th Verse: Genitum, non factum; consubstantialem patri; engendered,
not made; consubstantial to the father. This is very toubling, very
embarrassing! However, let us not recoil before this difficulty; let
us search for the lost word, and, finding it, let us examine whether a
pious fraud has not, deliberately, changed the punctuation to
obscure the meaning. Let us therefore write it down again and
punctuate it better:
Genitum; non factum consubstantialem patri [Latin, Engendered, not
made consubstantial to the father]: Surprise, surprise [French, Hé bien],
here we are, dear Initiates, masters of the difficulty; it took no
more than to suppress the dot and the comma that the obscuring
mystagogues placed after factum [Latin, made] and to place a dot
above the comma that follows genitum [Latin, engendered]; with this
light change, I restore the Credo to its original text and its rational
sense; Jesus was engendered and not made consubstantial with the
father; that is to say Jesus (the Sun) was created, engendered by the
father of all things, not made consubstantial with the father.
Indeed the Great Star has not received anything from the Great
Architect of the Universe, source of all light, except the light and
the attributes of the light, lumen de lumine [Latin, light of light].
Moreover, if his power is circumscribed in the exercise of the
76
properties of the light, he is not therefore made consubstantial

with the father, the power and attributes of whom are without
end; engendered, he is not therefore made of the entire substance
of the father who has made all things, visible and invisible.
These conclusions are much more victorious than if Jesus (the
Sun) was made consubstantial with the father, that is to say,
endowed with the infinity of his substances that constitute his
immutable and unique divinity; this son would be able to do all
that his father did, and consequently create other heavens, other
earths, other suns. It is possible that the father according to
Genesis 1 , repented for having created man, had repented much
further for having created a son endowed with the same nature
and power as his own. For, in that case, the unique power of the
father would break up; consequently, the father took three risks,
the first, that he might count for nothing in the universe; the
second, if things went well, there would have been two all
powerful gods; and the third in the case of the revolt of his son, the
result would be the deposing of the father, as happened to Saturn
by his son Jupiter, and to Caelus or Uranus by his son Saturn, etc.
Moved by motives as just, the first composers of the Credo
declared the son (the Sun) the creature of his father, but not made
consubstantial to this unique father, by the power of whom all
things (Jesus, the Sun included therein) had been made. These
mystagogues, by this final version, reserved to the father the
creative power and evidently indicated the subordinate power of
the son as powerless to create, but powerful by the gift of the light
and the attributes of the light, lumen de lumine.
Without this version, which is as easy to understand as to defend,
the primitive authors of the Credo lent the weakest side of the
argument to the priests of the ingenious but absurd polytheism,
1 System of generation; the word Genesis comes from the Greek word
ΓΕΝΕΣΤΑΙ, to be born.
77
which they threw into ruin, by the support of a system of

simplification of religious ideas. Working to give their innovation
a strong substance, a notable dominance over paganism, they
exposed the doctrine of the divine unity to interpretations that
were often fatal in matters of this kind; and that is what happened;
for generations the men employed to think about these things have
used it this way; they often corrupted it, believing they were
perfecting it.
The Apostles had no written symbol. Saint Augustine did not
make of it, as has been imagined, a ridiculous conversation
between Peter, John and James.
It was not until the fifth century that the Credo ceased to be
added to; at that time, the visible and explicable truth that it hides
and which it had for the disciples and masters, was distorted to
such an extent that it had become incomprehensible. Because of
this, the word mystery lost its ancient and accepted meaning as
hidden truth 1 ; it is not used in theology except to state a sacred
proposition outside the power of reason.
Here is how, in those backward times, the unity of God was
blessed: the innovators crept in among the high initiates, the
affiliated philosophers and the first fathers or wardens of the new
doctrine. These unfaithful transmitters of tradition feigned to
believe and persuaded princes, who were worried about the basis
of their authority, of this horrible maxim: without the weight of
absurdities, without the whip of terrors and the bridle of imposture,
nations will be ungovernable; and in the year 325 of the current era,
they stained the clarity of the symbol with nonsense, they dirtied
the venerable simplicity.
1 We have said, when we speak of religions: ancient mysteries, hidden

truths, modern mysteries, indecipherable enigmas.
78
This jugglery, was followed by assassinations that perpetuated

the bereavement of the widow and the misery of her children; this
meant little to an age in which ignorance began anew its dark
invasions by the glimmer of scholastic sophisms. It is in this way
that the sacrilegious innovators employed a ruse of punctuation,
innocent in appearance, but grave in its consequences, when they
considered this verse: Genitum; non factum consubstantialem patri per
quem omnia facta sunt. Jesus (the Sun) engendered; not made
consubstantial with the father through whom all things were made.
In reading it thus, there is no doubt of the insertion, of the good
faith, of the pure doctrine professed in the ancient mysteries in the
symbol of the modern doctrine; and the comma, returned to its
natural place, is the key of pure metal which opens, without effort,
the door of the tabernacle of the ara maxima [Latin, greatest altar];
reason, entirely prudent as she is when she considers things that
are not demonstrated, enters without repugnance, sits herself out
of danger and breathes with relief; for she has said:
Genitum, non factum; (Jesus) engendered, not made; first
absurdity!
Consubstantialem patri, (Jesus) consubstantial with the father,
second absurdity!
6th Verse: Per quem omnia facta sunt. Through whom (Jesus) all
things have been made or are made. Superlative absurdity!
Moreover, reason further says that these pieces of nonsense are
in categorical opposition with the words of Saint John: pater major
me est (chap. 28). The father is greater than I1. Therefore, beyond
1 ‘Jesus always hid the mystery of his incarnation and his dignity; he did
not say that he was equal to God. Saint Paul expressly says in his epistle
to the Hebrews that God created Jesus inferior to the Angels, and despite
all the words of Saint Paul, Jesus was recognised as god at the Council of
Nicea.’
79
that first dictate of the new belief, there was no consubstantiality

between God and Jesus, between the Great Architect and the Sun,
between the supreme generator and the supreme germinator.
80
CHAPTER VIII
Continuation of the explanation of the Credo, from qui propter nos homines
until et incarnatus est. – On Saint Augustine and Chalcidius. – Trinities
and Incarnations.
The following stanza has not undergone the same torture from
the theologians:
7th Verse: qui propter nos homines et propter nostrum salutem
descendit de cœlis. I translate thus: Jesus (the Sun) who descends
from the heavens for us and our salvation; I do not say: who has
descended, or, who descended1, for this reason: The ancient authors
believed2 and the uneducated still believe:
1o That the sun revolves [French, tourne] about the earth;
2o That its approach in the spring makes the earth fertile;
3o That his departure brings back winter.
1 The Latin verb descendere (to descend) uses the form descendit in the
third person for the perfect and the present tenses.
2 Saint Athanasius says, ‘Let us close the mouth of those barbarians who,
speaking without proof, dare to assert that the sky also extends around the earth.’
The fathers saw the earth as a greet vessel surrounded by water: its prow
was in the east and the poop in the west.
Tortano, Bishop of Avila, at the end of the fifteenth century, declared in
his commentary to Genesis, that the Christian faith is shaken, for fear that we
should believe the world to be round. Happily the Christopher Colombuses,
the Amerigo Vespuccis, and the Magellans did not worry about the
excommunication of that learned bishop; and, despite him, the earth has
kept its roundness.
81
According to this astronomical error, which was almost

universal, it follows that the Sun, when he again approaches the
Earth (virgin-mother), melts the ice, warms it again and makes it
fecund. At this time, he gives to us men, light and energy, the green
sap, sweet smelling flowers, the overflowing movement of life and
the intoxication of love, propter nostrum salutem, without doubt, for
our salvation [French, salut], that is to say, our health [French, santé],
our happiness1.
The great star, when he has with pains descended from high
places, de cœlis, saves men, nos homines (each day by the increase of
his germinating and preserving influence), from ice, hunger,
diseases and death. The daily and annual return of the Sun is the
certain miracle through which the human race, as all races are, is
saved from sterility and destruction. It is this admirable prodigy
by which each being is helped in the exercise of its instinct of
preservation and reproduction, which it owes to the quantity of its
vital fluids in proportion to the calibre and the workings of its
organs. The recurring descent, or rather, the daily appearance of
this son of God, of this harvest [French, messie] charged with
preserving all the things that the father has made, this approach, is, of
all wonders, the most marvellous, and in all ages, the most
admired by philosophers and initiates.
The miracle of the Sun governing the Earth touches us in our
desires, our needs, our joys and our pains; if he descends toward
the signs below, si descendit ad inferos, he sadly reminds us of
destruction, which his remoteness from us threatens; if he comes
toward us, si descendit de cœlis, he brings back life, love and fertility
1 Salut [French, Salvation, Cheers], santé has the same meaning. At Rome,
the goddess of health had many temples under the name of Salus, Hygea
or Hygieia, the daughter of Aesculapius, god of medicine. Leibnitz said:
Two things, in principle, ought to occupy us, virtue and HEALTH.
82
with him. When the miracle happens behind thick clouds, the
children of Ceres and Bacchus; shepherds, the natural sons of
astronomy, and the helmsmen, the daring disciples of Orion are
brought to grief; is the Sun vanquished? None hold their breath
but for hope, peace and happiness.
The feeling of gratitude that man shows toward the Sun is yet
stronger as the first ray of hope dissipates the wintery worries, as
he is still tormented by the terrifying idea of a night from which no
day succeeds1.
Therefore, nos homines, poor humans! by what states of delirium
[French, trances] are we not made restless; where would we be if
the star of light, which makes all things fecund, did not descend
again for us, propter nos, and for our salvation, propter nostrum
salutem, from those far off regions; if he ceased to incarnate at the
spring, in the molecules created to give life to matter; if the spouse-
mother Earth, the abandoned virgin, expiring from grief at the
absence of the Sun, was no more than a terrifying skeleton,
covered with the debris of extinguished races, the sterile dust of
which would be swallowed up in the catacombs of chaos?
8th Verse: et incarnatus est, and he was incarnated. This expression
is reasonable and just; the Sun, at his return, enters into the flesh of
all that lives, of all that breathes and of all that is set to receive the
origin or sum [French, addition also means ‘the bill’] of life. As soon
as he has penetrated the flesh, that is to say, organised matter, with
his benign influence, he is therefore incarnated; and when, by this
divine labour, the sack of wheat seed and the wine-grapes upon
the vine are changed, one into flour, the other into wine, why do
we not say, per allegoriam, in the mystic repast, that is to say, the
feast of gratitude toward the author of the harvests [French,
1 The Celts believed the night to be mother of the day, nox parens diei; it is
from this that we have taken the virgin, mother of God, virgo Dei parens.
83
moisson], when speaking of the bread and the wine, this is his body,
this is his blood?
Where is therefore the absurdity when, by incarnation 1 , we
understand the action by which the sun, that redeemer [French,
messie], impregnates with his inseminating electricity the organs of
the flesh ready to reproduce that flesh, according to the law
imposed upon its shapes, the performance proper to its organs and
the time prescribed for its duration?
To whom does the incarnation, introduced into the modern
symbol, owe its operation? To the Holy Spirit, the Holy-Sprit, de
spiritu sancto, that is to say, by the manner named, in the VIIIth
century, spiration, by the Latin theologues, according to whom the
Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son2.
Moreover, what is this spirit (represented by a white dove) if not
the air which, from the sun to the earth, is the vehicle, igniphor
[Latin, fire-bearer], the messenger of the life giving and fertilising
influences.
How is it that the anti-trinitarians have not given this natural
explanation? How did it escape Saint Augustine? This father, as
famous for his mysticism as for his eloquence, and tired of making
sophisms on a matter so formless to him, that trinity which the
heresiarchs found no trace of in the scriptures, and more tired of
having vainly tried to render believable a God in three persons to
himself, could no longer resist the empire of reason which dictated
to him these words which are destructive to his system:
1 The Latin word incarnatio is formed from the words in, in, and caro,
carnis, flesh. To incarnate is to penetrate into the flesh, to embody oneself
therein, that is to say to mix oneself therein to make a body.
2 ‘The Greek church believes that the Holy Spirit only proceeds from the
Father. The Latin Church did not believe in the procession of the Holy
Spirit from the Father and the Son until the IXth century; the Greek
Church, mother of the Latin, dates back 1700 years. Who judged them?’
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‘When we ask what the three is, the language of men is found to
be short, and we lack terms to express these things. We have said,
however, three persons, not to express something; but because it is
necessary to speak and not to abide in silence, dictum est tres
personae, non ut aliquid diceretur, sed ne taceretur1.
Helped by the explanation given above, it was easy for the most
renowned of the mystagogues called fathers of the church, to resist
surrender. He said:
‘The Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity proceeds equally
from the father and the son. Without this procession, the father
would be all powerfully unique; with it, the son (the Sun) would
have an irregular and unpredictable [French, fantasque] existence;
without it, the fluid of space (the Holy-Spirit) between the father,
the son and earth could not bear the power of creation, nor the
power of fecundation upon the magna mater [Latin, great mother];
without this third power, matter would be inert chaos; and if it
were set in motion by some fortuitous shock would be dusk light
or a flash of fire, abortions or monstrosities, while by the
cooperation of the Creator, the Fecundator and the Paraclete2, the
consoling messenger, the time (the year) is subject to regular days,
at the two equinoxes, two solstices and consequently the four
seasons. By the agreement of the three persons (hypostases), the
earth is marked with the sign of the cross, signo crucis, formed by
the elevation of the meridian line over the equinoctial line; and
each of the temperate zones keeps the torrid and the glacial within
their bounds under the protection of Jesus (Sun), sovereign master
of the 12 Apostles, the 12 great gods of paganism, the 12 palaces of
Apollo, the 12 fields of glory of Hercules, named signs or months.’
1 Saint Augustine, De Trinitate.

2 In the XIIth century, Abelard was persecuted for having tried to define
the Trinity.
85
Thus the son of Saint Monica did not understand that, in fact, the
second person of the trinity, Jesus (the Sun) is, by the creative
power of the first person and by the vehicular power of the third,
endowed with regular recurring phases and life giving influences,
with the result that these phases and their influences are in
agreement with a woman who is always virgin, although
ceaselessly conceiving and giving birth, the Earth1. The Sun is thus
incarnated ex Maria virgine. The great star, fecundating principle,
has thus with the help of an aerial messenger, impregnated the
vulva of the magna mater, who contains the ovaries of all the races
that she nourishes under the diverse names of Tellus, Cybele, Vesta,
Rhea, or Mater Rhea or Materia, Maria or Mary, etc. The earth has
received and preserves the deposit of life and of fecundation; it is
in her bosom that Christ, the Sun, Dominus Sol is impregnated with
flesh, that he goes into the flesh, that he is incarnated, whether the
earth was the spouse of the god Caelus or Uranus, although she was
his mother; the god Apollo, under the name of Tellus; of Saturn,
hominum divumque sator [Latin, the tailor of men and gods], as the
Bona Dea; as India has represented her as the nursing mother of a
child named Christen or Krishna; as mysterious Egypt invoked her
under the name Isis holding the young Horus, son of the ancient
Sun; as the peoples of Oby award divine honours to the old lady of
Gold, also holding upon her bosom the child-God; as the ancient
north adored the lady par excellence, Frigga, goddess of fecundity,
mother of the inferior gods and of men; as the Druids, in the
country around Chartres, had offered in the Celtic veneration, the
image of a virgin, named Virgo Paritura, suckling a nursling, and at
last as the ancient and gullible Armorica prostrated itself at the
1 Isis, also the moon.
86
feet of the good woman, Groa Boarme, a colossal goddess,

discovered in Brittany1.
Saint Augustine would not have remained silent on what he
called the three, if he had made use of the Trinity of Plato. One of
the disciples of this philosopher defined it thus:
‘God is above all and ineffable. After him and his law giving
providence2 , the equal support of the eternal life and temporal
existence, is the second god; and that which we call the second
instinct and proxy intellect or understanding for the preservation
of eternal laws, is the third substance. Thus, the supreme god
commands, the second organises, and the third administes:
working together in concert they make the law which is destiny
itself. Here, perhaps, one ought to be reminded of the religion of
the triple god of the Persians, Mithras3.’
1 See Dictionnaire de Bretagne, by Ogée; under the words Bicusy and

Quimpily.
2 The Latins had the verb providere, or to provide for, and they did not
have the substantive noun providentia [Latin, providence]. Cicero was the
first who used the word as a technical term.
3 Dicit in Plutone Chalcidius: Deus summus et ineffabilis est. Post hunc,
providentia ejus, secundus deus, lator legis et utriusque vitae tam aeterna
quam temporariae. Tertia porro est substantia, quae secunda mens,
intellectusque dicitur, quasi quadem legis aeternae custos… Porro
summus Deus jubet, secundus ordinat, tertius intimat, animae legem
agunt; lex vero ipsam factam est. Huc forsitan sacrae triplicis Persarum
Mithrae referenda [Latin, Chalcidius says upon Pluto: He is a most high and
ineffable god. Beyond this, his providence is next to God, the bearer of the law,
and he is as eternal in life as in time…. Before him the highest God commands,
the second ordains, the third brings these things to pass, and these enact the law
of the soul; for the law is itself made in truth. Perhaps this should be referred to
the threefold nature of the sacred Mithras of the Persians]. [Translator’s note. If
‘Plutone’ is a typographical error for ‘Platone’, the following change should be
made: ‘Chalcidius says upon Plato: God is very high and ineffable…]
87
By this curious citation, we see that the dogma of the trinity

comes from the Platonic father, and that Plato received it from the
Persians. Thus, we are the latter day faithful of the triple god
Mithras.
88
CHAPTER IX
Continuation on the Trinities and Incarnations. – On the incarnatus est. –
On the homo factus est. Apology in favour of the redactors of the Credo. –
On the diverse elements of its composition. – Explanation of its 10th, 11th,
12th and 13th verses.
Illustrious Initiates,
The mystery of the Incarnation, when it was presented as
incomprehensible, brought babbling of nonsense, persecutions and
extermination for fourteen centuries. It has never been a religious
enigma of such kind, and here I present the reasonable explanation.
The birth of Jesus, the Nativity1, at Christmas [French, Noël], at
the new year, at the new Sun, (Solis novi), is an allegory of the
rebirth of the Sun at the winter solstice.
The time of the solstice, that is to say, the death of the old Sun,
arrives on 22 December. On this day and the two that follow, the
Sun of the expired year lies like a corpse in the tomb (in inferis). On
the 25th, an immovable feast, the new Sun is born; he is newborn;
judging from his weak light, he is a child.
At the dark time of the winter solstice the rebirth of the new
incarnation of the Sun takes place in the icy bosom of the Earth
(mater Rhea), threatened with widowhood and an eternal period of
mourning; this bosom is impressed by his powerful fecundity; the
1 From Latin, natalis dies, birthday.
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sun penetrates the ovaries of which she is the sovereign keeper;

the seminal emanations of the solar rays mix themselves with the
molecules set forth in her organic vessels of reproduction and
incarnate themselves within her; thus (9th verse) Et homo factus est ex
Maria virgine [Latin, And he is made man from the Virgin Mary,
(mater Rhea)].
Thus, the Sun-Jesus becomes the God-man, the lamb of God, the
divine plant, the angular stone (homo-Deus, agnus Dei, lignum Dei,
petra angularis [Latin, man-God, lamb of God, timber of God, stone of
the angle]) to impress his influence upon the three kingdoms of
nature; thus the Virgin-mother (the Earth) revives from her
widowhood, the bride of the Sun and mother of all races, of which
the best organised is the human race. Thus, the god is made man
in her bosom, that is to say, he arouses, preserves and prolongs the
duration of mankind.
This ninth verse of the symbol is a result of the allegory of the
eighth (et incarnatus est) [Latin, and he is made incarnate]. It is the
natural consequence of that of which the explanation was given in
the previous chapter.
Et homo factus est [Latin, And he was made man]: in these words, do
we not rediscover the Iovis omnia plena [Latin, all things are full of
Jupiter] of antiquity? Ex Maria Virgine [Latin, From the Virgin Mary]:
do we not likewise find in the complement of this verse the
opinion of ancient Egypt: Serapis and the Sun are one; likewise, Isis
and the Earth?
We have reproached the redactors of the symbol for having re-
clothed the Great Architect of the Universe in human form, in
place of having introduced into the Credo the sublime stanza from
the hymn of the ancient mysteries. (He acts in and through all
beings, Iovis omnia plena). Perhaps they can be excused: it is
possible that the public spirit of their time did not seem to them
disposed to receive the chaste remains of an entirely philosophic
faith without peril for the peace of society and their own
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tranquillity; and if they purged the sanctuary of the hodgepodge

morale of filthy mythological bits and pieces, perhaps they
thought it prudent to leave here and there upon the steps [French,
sur les degrés] a few absurdities, close neighbours of veiled reason
and certain allegories, which were made tolerable by the simplicity
and justice of their analogies.
From a more elevated point of view, one is permitted to think
that the Credo, in the ensemble of ideas that it casts before us, and
despite its forceful announcement that it is the work of the
Apostles, does not at all resemble the act of faith of the first Ebionite
centuries. It is a mosaic fixed in cement together with the precious
debris of the truths professed in the ancient mysteries and the
remains of erroneous opinions.
We have come to the crucifixion – and of whom? The poet
answers:
‘Oh dead god on the cross that Europe doth revere,

The horror is a dreadful night
That seems to hide the temple from mine eye in fear,
But reason as my leading light,
Makes the torch lighten the way before me bright and clear.’
(Voltaire, Letter to the Lady Rumpolde).
10th verse. Crucifixus etiam pro nobis, sub Pontio-Pilato: passus et

sepultus est (crucified for us under Pontius Pilate; he died and was
buried).
In this passage of the quasi-historical allegory, let us jump over
the obstacle of Pontius Pilate (who may be but the Typhon of the
modern Osiris). This epoch in time was probably imagined or
invented to hide [French, dérober] the true sense of the enigma. It
can be explained thus:
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The crucifixion is the emblem of the apparent state of crisis of the

Sun and the Earth, at the troublesome and sorrowful time of the
March Equinox [French, mars].
It is at this point of division that the seasons are of equal
duration, but unequal in health; when that dreadful duel between
death and life takes place1; at that bright moment that displays to
us the genius of spring crowned with flowers upon the thawed
and frigid throne of winter, the hideous destruction closing its
gaping jaws at the approach of the universal rebirth, and the glory
of the light erasing the opprobrium of darkness, and, with a rustle,
opening the gates of the chaste lamb. Then the ancient foundations
of the Virgin bride and mother are shaken; the azure veil of the
celestial temple is menaced with a rendering asunder; the
hurricanes of the Bear are unchained; the Sun is covered with
gloomy shades, the instruments of torture, borne from the four
corners of the world, cross themselves upon the victim dying for
us, crucifixus etiam pro nobis [Latin, for he is crucified for us]; he is
crucified! Passus, transitus…et sepultus est [Latin, He has suffered, he
has passed through…and he has been buried]. Goodbye, great star!
Grief struck Virgin, you shall give birth no more! The husband is
buried.
But the torments of the equinox last but three days, a poetic term,
used to express the tempestuous blast of wind that separates the
wintry death from the life of spring, tertia die [Latin, on the third
day], that is to say, the crisis is finished, the Sun has passed into the
sign of the Lamb, Jesus has resurrected (resurexit), that is to say,
risen anew; this is, perhaps, his hundred millionth resurrection.
Thus, every year, the Sun returns at regular periods, and after
the deadly hurricane of March [French, mars] which seems to have
1 Mors et vita duello conflixere mirando [Latin, Death and life contend in that
wondrous battle]. (Reading at Easter).
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buried him in his daring passage from the hells to the firmament;
he rises as conqueror of darkness into higher places, he climbs to
the zenith of the heavens, as evidenced by the astronomical
observations preserved in the ancient records of Chaldea, India,
Egypt and China.
Et ascendit in caelum, secundum scripturas (and he made his
ascension into heaven, as according to the scriptures), this does not
mean in conformity with prophetic writings (for that would be an
imposture), but in exactly the same way as in previous years; and
this is written, witnessed and preserved on the astronomical charts
of highest antiquity.
11th Verse: sedet ad dextram patris, the Sun sits at the right of the
father, he stops at the summer solstice; he sits, that is to say,
remains sedentary, stationary next to the father of all things, the
Great Architect of the Universe.
While he lies at rest, the Earth is lightened by the longest day
and, being always virgin, does not cease to give birth.
Jesus, the Sun, is no more to the right than to the left of the
universal father, since God is everywhere; but according to the
Evangel of the ceremonial, which appoints the right as the more
honorific place, the sacred poetry has bestowed it thus upon the
unique creature in his kind as according to our weak senses, to the
Sun, the son of God. The good thief is on the right, and the bad on
the left. Ever since the sede ad dextris meis [Latin, sit at my right] of
King Solomon, the right has been the sign of the memorable mark
of distinction and the most flattering, but also the most dangerous
and closest to descent. May those who have been exalted forget
not this truth!
Although the Symbol or Credo does not mention the descent of
Jesus to the hells (ad inferos, the inferior signs), this descent 1 is
1 Dreamt up in the Vth century. A long time before this Orpheus

descended to that place. It is a compulsory hymn of an epic poem.
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nevertheless an article of faith of the new belief and one of its most
ingenious emblems; it indicates the declination of the Sun from the
height of its apogee toward the lower latitudes of the zodiac.
It is useful now to recall the definition of the word symbol, it
signifies collation, written to confer, and it means exhibition, the
involvement of something that is not generally known, which is
not, cannot, and ought not to be the property of all. From this
definition, I conclude that those who drew up the symbol of the
modern belief abstained from inserting the descent of Jesus into the
hells, for fear of exposing too much of the fabric of solar allegory to
the penetration of the profanes, to the fickleness of the
catechumens and to the persecutors among the priests of
paganism. They acted like the Freemasons, they scattered their
system, with apparent disorder, in various shreds that they placed
in boxes which opened only so far as the intelligence of discreet
neophytes appeared worthy of understanding their just use. Each
rung of the symbolic ladder was engraved with a particular stamp.
Thus, the allegory of the descent to the hells was prudently
separated from the dogma taught in the first symbolic grade, to be
used, without danger, in the higher grades.
Thus, when the gap of the descent to the inferior signs (ad inferos)
is filled in, the return of Jesus-Sun into the ascendant signs links
without a trace of welding solder with the summer solstice (sedet
ad dextram patris [Latin, he sits at the right hand of the father]); and his
return to the lower signs links to the winter solstice (et iterum
venturus est [Latin, and he will come again]).
12th Verse: Et iterum venturus est cum gloria [Latin, And again he
will return with glory]; This verse demands an explanation of each
word because the people who composed this sentence, so simple
at first sight, worked as those who, under the guise of a prophetic
story (Jesus will return with glory), declared that the path of the sun
will never be held back.
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Caution! Et venturus est, he will come, iterum, iteratively, that is

to say, again and again, the number of times he has gone and come,
making his way from one place to another and sojourning without
taking up permanent residence1; is not this the Sun in his stride?
And he will come to judge the living and the dead, judicare vivos et
mortuos, that is to say, submit the living matter and the dead
matter to his influences; that is to say, apply the particles of matter
whether in motion or at rest to those particles to which they are
destined; again, that is to say, he is one with the Apollo and the
Phoebus of the pagans, the Ahrimanes and the Aormuzdi of the
Persians; he exterminates, he destroys, he causes to be brought to
birth and protects life, cum gloria, with glory; for his rays, which
shine upon the living or the dead are not any less brilliant for this
fact.
13th Verse: cujus regni non erit finis, whose kingdom has no end;
that is to say, his kingdom, his voyages, his sojourns without
taking up permanent residence, his annual and daily goings and
comings, his regular and reciprocal course from one equinox to the
next and from the solstice of Saint John in winter to the solstice of
Saint John in the summer, his alternating passages through the
infernal and celestial signs shall be eternal, without the extinction
of the light or rest from making fecund. The words cujus non erit
finis regni, realise his deification, the apotheosis, the immortality of
the Sun.
Thus, by an act of faith of the new belief, drawn from the ancient
mysteries, Jesus-Sun, the son of the unique God, the creator of the
visible and the invisible, emanates from his all-powerful father.
Thus, his light is an outpouring of that of the true God, lumen de
lumine; but he is not consubstantial with him, who has endowed
him with but one or a few of his substances; for, if he had given
1 Latin, iter, itineris, road, sojourn (from which we get itinerary); Latin,
iteratus, again and again.
95
him the benefits of all, he would be in danger, as we have already

said, of being divided, just as he would be in danger of losing his
autocratic omnipotence.
Each year, the Sun descends from the heavens to the earth; and
then it is Christmas [French, Noël]; he is introduced into the flesh,
he incarnates into each sinus of fecundity; there he is carried across
vast intervals that separate him from the Mary1 [French, Marie is
in bold in the original ]of the celestial sphere upon the air born
wings of the Holy Spirit. At the spring equinox, he brings about all
the tribulations stirred up by the winds and the storms against his
passage from the lower regions into the higher regions; crucially he
seems to die in this inflamed torture; below his orbit are the four
cardinal points; and nature sorrowfully seems to have opened her
bosom to bury him2.
1 The four letters that form the name of Mary in Hebrew are the initials
of the four elements.
2 All the characters and the accompanying objects that the story of the
Passion places in that mournful scene are the autumn constellations set in
motion. What, in fact, does the sphere represent at that time?
1st The meridian cuts the equator at right angles, seeming to form a
great cross in heaven.
2nd Next to this we find the celestial man called Andros in Greek, from
whom we get Saint Andrew, whom the modern Freemasons, who have
the equinoxes as rulers, celebrate. We have named this cross the
equinoctial cross of Saint Andrew. However, the equinoctial cross at
spring, the time of year at which we commemorate the passion, is the true
cross of redemption that saves nature from the disorders of winter; it
makes part of the outfit of Christian ladies; they have substituted this
sign for the phallus that Greek and Roman ladies wore around their necks.
3rd In autumn when the cross upon which the Sun seems, day by day, to
lose its powers and expire, is thus formed, we see the virgin fainting,
falling in the occident.
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4th Beside this grieving mother, is a cup, the base of which is entwined
with a serpent, the aquatic hydra. Above is a raven.
5th In the Orient rises a man armed with a dart; it is Sagittarius. He
appears to pursue, to threaten the expiring sun and give death to him.
6th Now, precisely at the zenith of the meridian, shines the Corona
Borealis. This is the crown of thorns, the crown of grief that is placed on the
head of Jesus.
We call it Calvary, from the Latin word calvus, which means bald (2), and
this sacred mountain where the man-God died, crucified between two
thieves, is described as dried up and arid. This latter description is
imprinted in the Scripture. We know that it compares the seasons to fleeing
thieves; fugiunt ut latrones [Latin, as thieves that flee]. The tableaux that it
thus offers us is an astronomic scene and represents the thief on the right,
dressed in lively colours. The part of the picture he occupies is full of
laughter, decked out with greenery and flowers; this is the good thief; he
represents the season that precedes autumn; he lives in the kingdom of the
blessed [French, règne du bien]; he prays, he is saved.
At the left is the bad thief. The colour of his clothes and the part of the
tableau that he inhabits show sterility. He symbolises the season that was,
he passes into the empire of evil, he carries on with cursing. In addition, he
is reproved and sent into the hells; that is to say, he descends to the inferior
part of the sky.
We see that it is easy, with the help of the sphere, to reveal the
allegories of the ancient cults.
Three women sigh at the foot of the cross. They represent the three
Seasons weeping, mourning for the Sun who expires in winter. Anna
represents the year in mourning, mater dolorosa (3).
The veil of the temple is torn. The sun and moon are obscured by
clouds. This calls to mind the degradation and the grief of nature during
the frosts and rains of winter. Three months later, the temple is
reconstructed, that is to say, the new Sun re-animates nature.
A Masonic degree commemorates this event; it is the Rose-Croix (4), it
has the additional name of Knight of the Eagle, because the eagle of the
Lyre, an autumn constellation, effectively dominates from the height of
heaven and completes the celestial theme.
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In Catholic Churches, the ceremony of lights, at the time of the

commemoration of that death, is a faithful image of what took place at
that time of year in Syrian temples. When the priests extinguish the lights
of the sanctuary in a ceremony which follows a ceremonial based on the
science of numbers, they preserve but ONE. They hide it for a moment
beneath the altar, then they show it to the people and put it out like the
others, so that the altars and temple remain covered in mourning until
the end of the third day, when the high priest again lights the sacred fire.
Such is the funeral shroud that covers, on the 25 th of December, the
temple of nature until the third month, the 25th of March, the day of
triumph of the Sun when he is reborn, as promised, to the Earth, to
render back her attire and her beautiful days.
The mysterious office celebrated in Holy Week, under the name of
Tenebrae [Latin, the Darknesses], which retraces the death of the God-Light,
is followed by a similar ceremony that proves that the same symbolic
genius from which the ancient mysteries came forth has presided over
the establishment of Christian institutions. Holy Thursday is an example
of the symbolic use of numbers, which serves as a basis for the
Freemasons themselves in the number and order of the lights that must
enlighten their meetings, according to their diverse degrees.
Before beginning this service, a full triangular candelabra is placed in
the middle of the choir. These candles were anciently and are ordinarily
thirteen in number; they are placed upon the raised sides of the triangle,
in such a way that each side displays seven lights. The service of Tenebrae
is composed of three nocturnes; each nocturne contains three lessons. A
candle is put out after each lesson; when the nine candles have
successively ceased their light. Four continue to shine, and three are put
out at the same time. ONE remains and will be hidden behind the altar,
as with the Phoenicians, and this will re-appear on the day of the
resurrection; this is the Easter Candle.
The philosophers of antiquity shaped a commemoration of chaos or of
winter in these rites, in the bosom of which emerges the light, or those
things that remain [French, revient] the same; in this way they symbolise
and indicate the Masonic Degree of Master, the putrefaction, the apparent
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However, the Sun-Jesus reclaims life, force and vigour; he has

passed (away) [French, Il est passé] passus est; he recreates the
equinox again, iterum, and victorious as in previous years, as in
previous centuries, he solemnises his ascension, seats himself
again at the summer solstice, whence, descending again he
continues his tiresome work and his glorious triumphs every year.
These years are constant links, from equal latitudes, making the
circle of his eternal kingdom.
Such is the reasonable and philosophic meaning of the symbol
drawn up in a time when we believed the sun to turn around the
earth.
death of the body, the inexhaustible source of life, enclosing all the
embryos that receive their development in the spring.
We have remarked that in antiquity the number thirteen (1+3+9) played
a role in the mystery of the generation of bodies, that is to say, in the
developments of nature for their procreation. It was thirteen days after
the birth of Jesus that the star appeared to the Magi, manifesting the
coming of the Saviour and serving them as a guide (5). Thirteen days after
the conception, the human embryo is formed. Here is the interpretation
given to these numbers.
The number seven, which is presented on each of the sides of the
illuminated triangle, is related not only to the seven planets, but to the
union of the ternary and quaternary venerated by the Egyptians. The nine
extinguished candles designate the triple triad or the gradual
development of matter in the work. The four remaining candles are an
allusion to the four productive qualities of which each body is endowed.
Concerning this last number, three of the lights should vanish; they
symbolise the triad forming the principle [French, triade principiante], the
three states of nature, the three kingdoms. There remains ONE creative
monad, the universal soul, the uncreated fire that is hidden behind the altar,
as it is in the bosom of chaos or putrefaction; this is that which was said
in Genesis: the spirit of God was carried over the surface of the waters.
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Such was the matter passed among the great initiates of the
ancient mysteries, the Trinitarian followers of Plato and perhaps
the Pythagoreans, the keepers of the dogma of religious
metempsychosis and of the mystery of philosophical
metempsychosis. I say the disciples of Pythagoras because of the
verse Judicare vivos et mortuos, cujus regni non erit finis; a verse
which will be discussed again in the next chapter.
Endnotes to the Footnotes
1. This letter, which was preserved in the writings of Phlegon, his

freedman, and was cited by Vopiscus tom. II, p. 406). One can
find it in Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary.
2. Golgotha, in Hebrew, has the same sense.
3. The Evangelists, by a strange lapse of memory, have not
transmitted to the faithful the names of the parents of the Virgin;
it was decided, toward the sixth century, that her mother was
called ANNE (Anna), and her father Joachim.
4. See the interpretation of this grade in my book Philosophical and
Interpretive Course of Ancient and Modern Initiations [French, Cours
Philosophique et Interpretatif des Initiations Anciennes et Modernes].
5. Hist. génér. Et part.des Relig. p. 223.
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CHAPTER X
On the Last Judgement. – Opinion of Celsus; – On the Indians upon this
subject. – On Saint John. – On sedet ad dextram patris until unam sanctam,
ecclesiam. – On Trinities. – On a Chinese Trinity. – On the gods synthrone
et consentes. – On Jupiter triophtalmos. – On the Holy Spirit and the
disagreement between the Greeks and the Latins about its origin. – The
Holy-Spirit Flammiger and Paraclet. On the word Church [French, Église]
and its true definition. – On the unity of the Orient of all Freemasons
through all the centuries.
The judgement of the living and the dead is an idea that has
evidently been transferred from the doctrine of the ancient
mysteries to the dogmas of the new belief; and it is by these words
that that belief [French, opinion] in the last judgement, which has
been so lucrative to the priesthood, has been established.
Celsus said to the Christians: You boast that you believe in eternal
sorrows; but the hierophants have already made announcement of these to
the initiated. In fact, the doctrine of sorrows and rewards after life
was communicated to the gatherings at the mysteries.
In India, there is the belief that vicious souls transmigrate into
the bodies of filthy, ferocious or venomous animals. It is said that
Pythagoras, a man of genius, after exploring that country, (for us)
the mother of the noblest principles and many absurdities, seized
upon the dogma of metempsychosis. He offered this to the unruly
vulgar and to the Occidental sages, not as a certain or infallible
discovery, but as a salutary scarecrow; he at least offered the
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theory of a system of the operations of nature that was seductive

to the Occidentals because it suggested a number of probabilities1.
Saint John, the Brother of the brothers, described the judgement of
the living and the dead. His description could not be other than an
imitation of the one promulgated in the mysteries of Egypt and
Samothrace.
An author, making light of the false legends of the first centuries
of the Church, reports that the Jews pressed James, elder brother of
Jesus, to declare that he was an imposter, and that James the Elder
or Just [French, Jacque-le-Majeur] answered: ‘Christ is seated at the
right of the sovereign power of God.’ Sedet ad dextram patris; he
would have to appear in the middle of the clouds to judge the
universe. Et iterum venturus, cum gloria, judicare vivos et mortuos
[Latin, And he will come again, with glory, to judge the living and the
dead].
Let us pass to the symbol of the new belief, entirely consecrated
to the Trinity2.
1 ‘According to the Indian doctrines, the soul, when it separates itself

from the body, returns to the universal soul which animates all. Such is
the origin of the metempsychosis of India and of Greece.
‘All the Pythagorean philosophers believed in the eternity of nature and
the transmutability of the elements one into another; those of the ancient
academy, the disciples of Plato, did not have another sentiment;
Aristoteles and Theophrastos, as well as many celebrated Peripaticians
thought similarly, and their writings prove it (Cours interprétif des
Initiations, grade de Compagnon, page 127) [French, Interpretive Course of
the Initiations, grade of Fellow Craft].’
2 Each country has its trinity. Are there not Indian, Egyptian and Greek
trinities?
Likewise, the North, in which the icy temperature scarcely permits the
human spirit to travel in the zones of poetry, has invented a mythology
which is not without interest, and a type of trinity, from a conception just
as bizarre. The Edda, the sacred compendium of the island of the volcano
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and the ice, contains pieces of eloquence and philosophy; but we also
discover in it, thanks to the lights, gross and barbaric absurdities.
According to Scandinavian mythology, Odin, the father of the gods, has
two ravens upon his shoulders; he sends them flying every morning, he
calls them back every evening and receives the news of the world from
them. One is called Munnin, (memory), the other Hugin (spirit). It is to be
remarked that in the porch of the parish church, until recently the abbey-
church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris and upon the gothic capitals of
its nave, are carved the head of an old man and, on the left and the right,
two ravens. If the ravens of Odin crow the foolishness of this world into
his ears, the eagle of Jupiter sits at his feet, Christ sits at the right of
Jehovah, ad dextram patris [Latin, at the right of the father], and his dove flies
beneath: lœtamini [Latin, you will be joyful]. According to Saint Clement of
Alexandria, the Egyptians had a unique god that they named I-ha-ho.
Those who entered the temple of Serapis were required to wear upon
themselves I-ha-ho, or I-ha-hou, that is to say, the eternal god. Moses, the
initiate, converted this sacred Egyptian word to Jehovah and the Syrian
Adonis to Adonai; the heirs of the ancient mysteries have preserved these.
The Arabs and the Turks, have they not in their prayers, preserved the
syllable hou, (from the Sanskrit houm, the all-powerful father); Allah is for
conversation.
A poet has spoken with spirit upon the number three:
‘I passed by the three rivers,

Phlegethon, Cocytus, Acheron.
Triple Hecate and her witches
Waited for me at the house of dark Pluto.
The three spinsters of our lives,
The three sisters we called furies,
And the three jaws of their dog,
Delivered my insignificant shade,
To the three judges of the dismal holiday
From which no Christian returns.
Oh! How profound is my surprise
And I am horrified
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To see also, on all sides

The trinities in the other world.’
(VOLTAIRE)
We have spoken upon the Credo, not as a Roman Catholic, but as an

initiate into the mysteries of venerable antiquity. If it is difficult to deny
one’s godfather in public, but you may do so in trusted company. Pierre
Valerien said: Mysticus dogmata, prœceptaque, et institutiones sacras per
œnigmatum noter [sic], and he adds [Latin, the partaker of the mysteries
should take note of those things that are dogmatised, those that are received and
the sacred institutions], he adds: prophana procul multitudine custodire debere
et in arcanis tractavi [Latin, I have drawn myself far away from the prophane
mulititude because I must guard the arcana]. Our brothers are enlightened
and chosen, we do not discuss such dogmatic things except among
ourselves, not to be sectarians, but on the contrary, so that that there
should be no more sect (1), we search the truth in good faith; we
approach it, for I read this inscription upon the border: Away with you,
you lands of untruth. Pope Leo X, did he not say, in arcanis [Latin, upon the
arcana]: Quantum nobis prodest hœc fabula Christi [Latin, how much this fable
of Christ has profited us] (2). We like to think about this fable, recalling that
saying that Voltaire put in the mouth of Mohammed: All error is useful to
me.
The Egyptian trinity. According to the ancient Egyptians (who were
instructed by the Brahmans, and who, in turn, instructed the Platonic
philosophers and the Alexandrian fathers), Knef [French, Cnef], the
eternal god without beginning or end; the primitive god, figured by a
winged serpent holding an egg between its lips, reunited the two
coeternal principles in himself to create the world; matter and movement.
Here are several fragments of ancient theology that are analogous to the
homo factus est of the Credo.
Brahma, the first person of the Indian trinity, born from a gold egg,
came resplendent as a thousand suns; he is the father of all beings, that is, the
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Codom the legislator god of the people of Thailand, as Jesus is of the

Christians, had for mother a virgin impregnated by the virtue of the Sun; she
sent her son into the world without the pains of childbirth.
Krishna [French, Chrisna], who is adored as a god in human form, is
incarnated as are other divinities; he has the four Vedas for his historians,
as Christ (whose name contains the same root) has the four Evangelists.
His birth was held secret because of the order given by a tyrant named Cansa
to exterminate all the male newborn children; another analogy with the
massacre of the innocents attributed to Herod by Saint Matthew, who
alone speaks of it. He was confided to the care of a poor shepherd and his
wife; the young herd keepers were his childhood companions [French,
compagnon also means Fellow Craft]; still today, Chris-na, god made man, is
the favourite god of Hindu ladies [French, indouses].
As for Vishnu, who incarnated by three times three, the sages among the
Brahmans, whom the European reproaches for the many extravagant
incarnations of this god, answer that they favour such wrapped veils
[French, enveloppes], for great truths are thus concealed [French, dérobées]
in the profanations of the vulgar. Thus, through the whole world [French,
univers], the lie, with regard to the people, is considered a safeguard
against violence.
However, one may ask, why not follow the belief of our fathers? – We
respect it like good and loyal citizens because it pertains to the principle-
religion in which we strive to perfect ourselves. In the profane world, we
imitate those philosophers who, at the point of entering a city devoted,
whether to Ceres or to Vertumnus, attached the Pantheon of one or the
other divinity to their cloaks so as to displease no-one. In 1798, the French
general Rusca entered into the region of Abruzzo, almost without danger
by taking the precaution of decking himself out with a rosary. However,
between brothers, there is no need for Pantheons or chaplets, our
thoughts and feelings are unanimous.
Let us listen to what Tertullian said about this subject to the pagans: You
invoke antiquity to prove your idolatry legitimate. (Apologeticum, ch. 19).
Arnobius (Book 1, 44) has the pagans say to the Christians, Our mysteries
are more ancient than yours, and, by that, they are more truthful and more
worthy of faith. To which he replies: Do we not know that antiquity is a
105
Lao Gun, the philosopher-god of China, taught that the Dao, or

reason, produced one; this one produced two; this two produced
three and this three produced all things. I observe that the gods of
ancient Egypt, called Syn-thrones, because they took their places on
the same throne, formed a trinity, and that the Father, the Son and
the Holy-Spirit consequently form the synthroned Deity of the
Christians; I will add that this Trine god, holds himself a very little
distance from the Greek Jupiter Triophtalmos, whose third eye
gleams in the middle of his forehead, as it does with the twelve
mother very fertile with errors? In addition, those who have come before us are
not able to believe the falsities which they were told?
The pagan Symmacus wrote to the Emperors Theodosius and Arcadius:
It is necessary to preserve a belief confirmed by so many centuries. We must
follow our fathers who happily walked in the traces of their fathers. Imagine that
Rome addresses you in this discourse: Respect my years in which I reached out
aid to my sacred ceremonies. It is this divine service that has subjected the world
to my laws. It is that religion which chased Hannibal from our walls and the
Gauls from the Capitol. (Apology for the idols, addressed to the Emperors
Theodosius and Arcadius).
If our faith is due to the dogmas that our fathers believed simply
because they believed in them, our faith is nothing but the result of their
apostasy from the dogmas of their pagan grandfathers. An error,
whatever be its antiquity, does not ever cease from being an error. If one
wants to make himself a man [French, faire homme] and become initiate,
he will be, from that time, the faithful of the most ancient religion, and he
will observe that immutable dogma, that eternal truth inscribed by the
hand of the Great Architect of the Universe in all consciousnesses: Men
have the natural and inalienable right to adore the All-Powerful in the manner
dictated to them by their consciousnesses and their minds [French, lumières].
This right has been upheld [French, consacré] by the Constitutional
Charter of the State of Pennsylvania: it adds the words, no power of the
State can or ought to arrogate to itself an authority that can, in any case, permit
it to trouble or denigrate the right of conscience in the free exercise of religious
worship.
106
great gods of the Romans; the three persons are what the Romans
called consentes, that is to say, by abbreviation of quasi simul
consentientes [Latin, as if thinking together].
As for the last member of our Trinity, the Platonic philosophers
admit a Holy Spirit spread throughout the universe, the source
and principle of all generation and fecundity, a pure flame, alive
and always active, and to whom they give the name of god.
Illustrious Brothers, behold [French, voilà] the theme of the
celebrated Veni creator spiritus [Latin, Come, creator spirit].
Is the Holy Spirit, as obscurely as it has been explained, so holy,
pure and powerful in virtue of its procession with its conjoined
persons, despite those things to which it has been associated, such
as the hatreds and murders that have been carried out between the
Greeks and the Latins through the centuries? The high initiates
were wary of taking part in these absurd hatreds of nation against
nation and family against family that were fomented on account of
the procession; whether that imperious Holy Spirit, the life carrying
flamminger, the consoling paraclete1 proceeds from the Father and
Son, or whether it proceeds from the father alone, they were
content to say to the Greeks and Latins: ‘Is not the air the third
power with which the wings carry the heat and the fecundity of
the Sun upon the earth? All you Russian Archimandrites, and
Italian prelates, heirs of the Apostles, who have received the gift of
tongues from the Holy Spirit, is it not evident that the mystical
expression to proceed signifies to stem from [French, provenir], to act
through, to draw its origin from…, your third divine person, the holy
efflation, should it be de-apotheosised from its coeternity with the
Father and the Son? Educate yourselves! Glorify yourselves by
imitating the courage of your ancestors; those high initiates, to
1 See the verse of the Credo: et in Spiritum sanctum dominum et vivificantem

qui ex patre filioque procedit [Latin, into both the holy Spirit and the living Lord
who proceeds from the father and the son].
107
return the idolaters to the adoration of the unique God,

compromised with the political and religious leaders of their time,
Brahmans, Platonic philosophers and the disciples of Saint John;
this concordat is consigned in these expressions of the Credo: qui
locutus est per prophetas [Latin, which spoke through the prophets].
Capitulate as they have done for the peace of humanity.’
Passing rapidly over the verse, unam, sanctam, Catholicam et
apostolicam [Latin, one, holy, Catholic and apostolic] and over the
erroneous translation of the Papists, the Church today, I shall say, if
the belief of the Apostles is not that of their successors the Church
of our time is not apostolic; if she remains mixed up with idolatrous
practices she is not holy; finally, since a great number of beliefs, the
most notable of which are those of Sabianism and Islam, dispute
with her, with cause, the exclusive privilege of constraining minds
or exalting heads, she is not Catholic [French, comprimer les cerveaux
ou d’exalter les têtes], that is to say, universal1.
The word Church means assembly of the faithful, the initiated,
upon this idolatrous and superstitious earth, in the knowledge of a
sole God, true God, maker of heaven and earth, factoris cœli et terrae
[Latin, of the maker of heaven and earth], the Great Architect of the
Universe.
The initiates of the mysteries of antiquity were spread out over
all parts of the globe; they had the same signs of recognition, relief
and distress; they professed the unity of the Orient, that is to say,
the unity of the pure doctrine, emanating from the glimmering
cradle of the light. We do not know anything beyond that which
came from India or from the Chaldeans, and further, we do not
know any other thing about this than that they transmitted the
adoration of a unique God, misunderstood by the idolatrous
multitude, through the Phoenician sages who carried this
1 The Greek Church also has the pretention of being Catholic (universal).
108
adoration into Egypt; from where it was established in Greece,

Italy, France and England, successively by Orpheus, Pythagoras
and their virtuous disciples.
The Freemasons are evidently their successors; their Lodges are
the image of the Churches or assemblies of the ancient initiates.
They are holy, because the morale without stain is there professed,
because a sole God is honoured in that place and because the sole
light which enlightens is that of reason. The Persian, Fohist,
Christian and Muslim Masons are Catholic, because their mysteries,
their virtues, their Masonic sentiments are in vigour throughout all
the triangles of the two hemispheres. These modern initiates are
apostolic because their mysteries, their virtues, their sentiments
have been transmitted, as they are and will be from age to age,
from Apostles to Apostles, from masters to masters, from disciples
to disciples, to every creature born free and of good morals.
1. ‘Every sect of whatever type that can be is the gathering of
doubt and error; every title is but a war cry [French, ‘nom de
guerre’ also translates as ’pen name’]; there is no sect in geometry:
we never speak of a Euclidean or an Archimedean because we
never argue about whether it is day at noon.
The foundation of the religion of one sect passes for
superstition with another sect.
2. If these letters owe their preservation to the Medici, he is the
author of the infamous tariff for the remission of the most
horrible transgressions, to the horror of the principle religion.
109
CHAPTER XI
Continuation of the Credo. – Baptism of the Ganges, of the ancient
Persians, of the ancient Egyptians, of Saint John the Baptist of the new
belief and the Freemasons. – The Confiteor of the Credo, word of
recognition or password. – Masonic precept of Sommona Codom, upon the
subject of metals. – Definition of the word Symbol. – On another life and
of the last Judgement. – On the ancient religion of the Parsis and its
relations with the modern belief. – On Zerdust or Zoroaster.
The continuation of the Credo confirms the explanations already

given. We have arrived at the Baptism, the ablution whose high
origin is found in India, the country that has transmitted to us so
many other religious practices.
Baptism of the Ganges: After penitence and confession, the Indians
plunge into the sacred waters of this river. Their priests pray on
the shores during the immersion. They give absolution to the
contrite, and receive their wages at the end of the ceremony.
Baptism of the Ancient Parsis: At birth, names are given, their
priests, after having poured a bit of water in the mouth of the
newborn, recite prayers for preserving the baptised from the
corruption contracted from the father, and the impurities which
have soiled him or her in the bosom of the mother.
Baptism of the ancient neophytes of Egypt: See the initiation of
Apuleius in Chapter III.
Baptism of the Jordan: Saint John renewed this sacrament in the
Jordan upon the heads of the neophytes.
110
The Freemasons and the liturgists of the new belief have

preserved the practices that are more or less commemorative of
the baptisms of which I have just spoken. I have described this
purification, observed in the churches of the reformed Hebrews
and in the Masonic temples as a sacrament, because, as I have said,
this word signifies remembrance, commemoration of a sacred thing.
One of the properties of water is that it removes material
impurities; it was easy for the priests of the Ganges to have those
ignorant people who lived by the river believe that the waters
were sacred, and that they had the virtue of erasing the impurities
of the soul and the impurities of thought. It was also easy for other
priests who lived near medicinal springs and who observed nature
to offer their waters to the disabled and the sick, as blessings from
heaven, the gift of healing. In Pagan times, for example, the
Anigrides, the nymphs from the river Anigros, healed the maladies
of the skin for those who invoked them; a spring, near Padua
named Aponos, rendered speech to the dumb and healed all sorts
of other maladies; the Cytheruse, a river of the Peloponnese, had its
source adorned with a temple, and the ill who washed in it, left
healed. The fountains of today, under the protection of one Notre-
Dame, an heiress of a Roman nymph and a Gaulish fairy, has the
holy privilege of rendering both vigour to the body and health to
the soul, great health to the spirit! Every year do not the good
Parisians go into the smiling valley of Montmorency to visit Saint-
Prix whose miraculous spring has, at night, the virtue of healing
those possessed by a demon?
This digression, a bit long as it is, seemed to me necessary if the
reader is to arrive to the following verse of the symbol with
knowledge of its cause: Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem
peccatorum, I confess one baptism for the remission of sins.
But who among the least instructed of the Masons does not see
in this short passage the preservation of a ceremony used in the
initiations of highest antiquity, of the types of preliminary
111
preparations for participation in the mysteries of Egypt; the sort of

preparation transmitted to Jesus by Saint John in the waters of the
Jordan, who was diminished [French, diminue] as to his successor,
who believed1 [French, qui croit]; this is the sort of preparation still
used in the waters of the Ganges; the immersion that was not, in
the primitive Church, imposed on anyone except adults; is not this
the emblem of purification and of rebirth always used in the
Masonic lodges?
This baptism, which the modern initiates administer to the
adults and catechumens among themselves by plunging them into
the dark unknown (image of death), effectively answers three
important questions; I say that this baptism signifies new life, a
conscience purified of filth, a spirit freed from vices and errors, from
passions and prejudices, a heart given over to pure morale and an
intimate sense of the existence of the Great Architect of the Universe2.
On the other hand, it is more than probable that the Confiteor
unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum was a word of recognition
between the ancient initiates. This verse brings to mind a formula
of initiation which gave, with other safeguards, the assurance that
the secret of the mysteries could not be compromised. We ask
those who announce themselves as brothers of the one Church that
is chaste and is situated on the long square of the earth, are you
initiates? Without doubt they will answer: We were neither naked nor
clothed; divested of metals, we underwent the purification of water, for
the remission of our worldly blemishes.
1 The author of the Roman calendar says that Saint-John’s day is not held
until 24 June because the days begin to diminish in length, and because
Saint John said, in speaking of Jesus Christ, ‘it is necessary that he will be
crucified and that I diminish: Oportet illum crescere, me autem minui.’
2 The Roman ceremony, in which the lustration and name is given to the
newborns (the 9th day for boys and the 8th for girls) was called the lustral
day. The initiation of a profane is his lustral-philosophic day.
112
I will say in passing that the divesting [French, dénuement] of

metals, a philosophic allegory, finds its origin in the precept of the
Thai god, Somona-Codom, who was born of a virgin, was raised on
the lotus flower or lily, and of which precept, his brother, who was
hung, made little noise in the Occident; here is the precept: Have
neither gold nor silver.
But let us return to the proof of that which I have had the
temerity to put forth as certain, which could not be more evident,
learned Initiates; you know that the word symbol means collation
(coming from the Greek word symballo, ΣΥΜΒΑΛΛΩ, I compare, I
confer; this comes from the verb family, transfer, communicate,
invest, participate); and yet according to the accounts of Arnobius
and Saint Clement of Alexandria1, the Greeks called the words and
signs with which the initiates into the mysteries of Mithras, Cybele
and Ceres recognised each other Symbollon; the Alexandrian and
Nicean fathers, the Platonic philosophers and hierophants
understood the sacred name of the symbol under the emblematic
sense of these words and signs, which they consequently
preserved, and which the Latin Church took from the Greek
Church2.
1 Arnobius, liv. V. Symbola quae rogata sacrorum [Latin, Symbol which is

called of the sacraments], etc. See also Clement of Alexandria in his
protreptic sermon, or cohortatio ad gentes.
2 The Christians also changed their Symbol with the times. If it had
existed in the time of the Apostles, Saint Luke, I believe, should have
spoken of it; the theologians were little instructed in the knowledge that
this symbol, which is named of the Apostles, is not at all of the Apostles.
The fact is that nobody during the first four centuries of our era had
heard of this symbol; it dates from the fifth century in its current form. It
appeared after the symbol of Nicaea. The article that says that Jesus
descended to the hells and which speaks of the communion of the saints,
is not found in any of the preceding symbols. In fact, neither the
Evangelists nor the Acts of the Apostles say that Jesus descended into
113
This is the last verse of the Credo: Et expecto resurrectionem

mortuorum et vitam venturi sœculi, and I await the resurrection of
the dead in and life in an age to come. Again, this ending holds to
the symbol of the ancient mysteries, in which the dogma of the
immortality of the soul and of another life was announced to the
initiates; and since this subject is the most delicate subject of all
religious subjects to discuss, it seems to me wise and honourable
neither to deceive nor shed light upon it1.
I will end [French, Terminant] here the examination of the
fundamental symbol of the new belief, and, having been consistent
in my plan of proving that it takes its life from the spoils of
previous beliefs, I will present, to the wisdom of our learned
Brothers, a glimpse of the religion of the Babylonians, the ancient
Persians or Parsis.
This ancient people had astronomical knowledge, but it was
imperfect, because they mixed it up with astrological daydreaming.
Hades (Tartarus), the word translated by hell [French, enfer]. In this sense,
hell is not the Hebrew word scheol, which means the underground, the
pit; and this is why Saint Athanasius teaches us how Jesus descended
into the hells: ‘If his humanity, he says, was not entirely in the sepulchre,
nor entirely in hell. It was in the sepulchre as flesh, and in hell as the
soul.’ Fiat Lux [Latin, Let there be Light]!
1 See the last two strophes of the symbol attributed to Saint Athanasius,
sung at the Sunday Prime, and recall this well known verse:
‘If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him’
Here is a lovely thought, which the impious oppose, as it was sung,

without scandal, in the theatre at Rome: Post mortem nihil est; ipsaque mors
nihil (Cicero).
‘There is nothing after death, death itself is nothing.’
114
These priests explained nature by the influence of the stars. They

adored God in the Fire, and not the fire, which, according to them,
was the emblem of nature. The Parsis venerated the Sun as the
throne of the Creator and his most beautiful work. They granted
simple homage to the great star, to the moon and to the stars; long
ago, in their temples and much later in the primitive churches, as
today in the Masonic lodges, we see these stars imagined as the
symbols preserving the universe.
The invention of this religion was attributed to an extraordinary
man that the Parsis named Zerdust and the Greeks Zoroaster. He
was born at Urmia, 589 years before Jesus Christ. The Orientals
believe that his birth was marked by prodigies; and the
undertakings of magicians and devils to oppose him were turned
back upon them to leave them in confusion.
Having arrived in that epoch, he said that he was inspired by
Aormuzdi, the good genius. The court of Bactria rose up against his
reform; Zerdust found audience before the king and convinced
him that it was not possible to do anything more agreeable for
Aormuzdi than take charge of the care of the sacred fire, the
purifying element; the king paid the expenses of the religion.
We must wait while the great burning and very foolish war of
religion, as usual, takes place. Zerdust, beaten at first, was
honoured by the publication of one of his most beautiful maxims:
If in doubt whether an action is good or bad, abstain; he became
Apostle and peacemaker. Zerdust, when next fighting, preached
that we could not do enough damage to the friends of Ahrimanes,
the enemy of Aormuzdi; he became a persecutor. This fable calls
for tolerance, and the strong block their ears.
It was necessary for there to be a concordat between these two
sects in arms, at which the older sect was brought to an end, and
after which Zoroaster, at the age of 65, presided at a celebrated
school of philosophy in Babylon in which Pythagoras was among
115
his students. He died at Balk, aged 77 years. The scholarly

Anquetil has painted him in a rather touching way:
He says, ‘The sublime spirit, great in the ideas that he formed of

the divinity and of the relations that unify beings and pure in his
morale, initially longed for the good of humanity. An exaggerated
zeal in him made him use deception, blind success, the favour of
the prince and the people made the contradiction unbearable, and
made of him a persecutor who saw, in cold blood, rivers of blood
watering what he called the tree of the law.’
Sabianism is, in the manner of ancient religious beliefs, absurd in

its theogony. For example: the first man, the first woman and the
animals were born from the first bull, etc. We first of all take note of
the obligation to worship either Aormuzdi or Oromaze, the author
of all that is good, who will one day destroy Ahrimanes, the author
of all that is evil. Secondly, we note the obligation to honour the
Yazatas [French, Faroners], powers ruling the universe below
Aormuzdi, in the number of which was Mithras, the angel of the
Sun and the soul of Zerdust.
After twelve thousand years, there will be a last judgement1. The
damned will be punished in proportion to their sins, and although
1 We read in the Zend Avesta [French, Sadder] (1) that God gave to
Zoroaster a vision of a place of chastisement, such as the Dardarot or
Keron of the Egyptians, the Hades and the Tartarus of the Greeks,
imperfectly translated into modern languages as hell or underworld. God
showed to Zoroaster, in this place of chastisement, all the bad kings.
There was one who lacked a foot; Zoroaster asked why; God answered
that this king had done but one good deed in his life by moving a trough
close to a donkey dying of hunger. God had sent into heaven the foot of
this vicious man; the rest of the body was in hell [French, en enfer]. This
fable, well worth repeating, lets us see how far back in antiquity there
was an opinion concerning another life. The Indians believed in it, their
116
they will always be excluded from the communion of the elect

[French, élus], they will one day obtain pardon; they will go into a
new place, marked in the forehead with a black mark, the sign of
the price that repays their suffering.
According to their Genesis, God (in place of six days) used six
seasons to create the world, an absurdity which resulted in the
impiety of having us believe that the All-Powerful depends on
time.
The Sabean hierarchy was made up of a high priest and two
orders of priests. Their faithful were named at’est-perest, words
that mean fire worshippers.
Their commemorative holidays 1 [French, féries] were six in
number, after the manner of their seasons.
Their baptism, which I cited previously, resembles ours; a magus
confirms the adepts at seven years and teaches them the catechism.
When they gained merit enough to appear before the fire, there
was abundant benediction of the magus with an exhortation to live
as a good Parsis and flee all that could lead to idolatry; and this
was their first communion.
Here is their marriage sacrament. The future couple were seated
on the same bead, a priest at the side of the man, a priest at the
side of the woman. The magus of the future placed his index finger
on the forehead of the future wife and said to her: Do you wish to
have this man as your legitimate husband? She answers, yes! Likewise,
the equivalent question from the magus of the future is given to
metempsychosis is the proof. The Chinese revere the souls of their

ancestors. All these peoples had founded powerful empires well before
the political Egyptian imagined the spirituality, the immortality of the
soul.
1 From Latin, ferire, to strike [French, frapper]; the day upon which we
immolate the victims.
117
the future husband, who answers, yes! Thus, the contracting

parties shake hands and the magi spread copious grains of rice,
symbol of fecundity, and express a thousand congratulations.
The Parsis also had their last sacrament; in agony, a magus prayed
for the dying. The body of the deceased was silently carried into a
round tower. For three days, his soul was pursued by the devil,
until he found the sacred fire; meanwhile, there were three days of
prayers. On the fourth day: an end to the sufferings of the soul and
fees to the priests of Aormuzdi, great joy and a great feast. How
many things have been borrowed from the religion of the Parsis!
1. The book that contains the religion of the Ghebers or Parsis.
118
CHAPTER XII
Continuation of the mass. – Silence imposed. – 1st and 2nd oblations
separated by a prayer and the purification by water, called lavabo. –
Incense and purification by fire. – Etymology and reasonable explanation
of the word solemnity. – Discourse of a hierophant of ancient times. – The
Masonic arch to the ivory gate rediscovered after two purifications. –
Ceremonies and sacred tools, common to ancient and modern believers. –
The prayer lavabo also teaches how to find a lost brother; it is copied from
the prayer of Orpheus. – Explanation of the glorious body of the Pange
Lingua. – Insertion of polytheism into the second oblation and the motive
thereof.
Now that we have at last explained the Credo, we will continue to

narrate the ceremonies of the sacrifice of the new belief.
After the Masons have recognised themselves as Masons by the
signs and words of their communal doctrine, the hierophant and
the initiates are reunited in regular assembly, in ecclesia, a place
where it is legal for the sacred word, the logos, that is to say, in a
lodge. The presence of the profane does not soil the altar of the
oblation, and the first fruits of the harvest [French, moisson] have
been offered to the Great Architect of the Universe.
The Worshipful Master [French, Le Vénérable], the Most Wise and
the priests address this prayer to him:
Father of nature, holy, eternal and all-powerful, receive this host
without blemish and this health-giving cup1. I offer you this for myself,
1 Calice depesta, a vessel for wine which the Sabines placed upon the altar
119
unworthy as I am for this ministry. I offer this to you for all the faithful
living and dead.
After the oblation and after the mixing of the wine and the water
and the depreciations that take place so that the all powerful
Sanctifier bless the offering for the health [French, santé], for the
good cheer [French, salut] of the brothers, the faithful and the
initiates, the celebrant declares that this ceremony has for its goal
the solemnisation of the name of the eternal God.
At solemn masses, thus called because the cult of the sun is
therein magnified [French, magnificié], quia Solem magnificant [Latin,
because they magnify the Sun], the sacrificer throws some incense on
the fire of the censer in imitation of the priest of Numa; he then
seizes it and spins it, exhaling eddies of perfume in a circular
manner about the altar, the emblem of the earth.
And, my Brothers, from which temples did the censer come from,
and which priests, which liturgists taught its intended use? – The
Romans called it thuribulum1, from thus, incense, derived from a
Greek verb (meaning to sacrifice). The pagans and the Hebrews
used it in their sacrifices. Ovid spoke of it 2 . Alexander of
Alexandria reports3 that the Egyptians appeased their gods, not by
the blood of victims, but by prayers and incense4.
on holy days.
Urban, Bishop of Rome and martyr, introduced the use of chalices in
230.
1 The one who censes is called the thuribular, and the one who carries the
censer the thurifer.

2 Saepe Iovem vidi, cum iam sua mittere vellet fulmina, thure dato substinuisse
manum [Latin, Often have I seen Jupiter, when he was just about to launch his
thunderbolts, hold his hand on the receipt of incense. Sir James Frazer’s
translation]. (Ovid. Fasti V. 299)
3 Book 2 ch. 22.
4 From the Latin verb, incendere, to burn.
120
Grands Éccossais of the Rite Philosophique, how I would love to

see these perfumes from happy Arabia rise up from the pure
hands of a Mason Pontiff and king of his family! It seems to me
that I am transported into the assembly of the mysteries at
Memphis and that I hear the hierophant speak thus to the new
initiates:
‘Osiris, Isis, Horus and Serapis are not gods; they are allegorical
phantoms, imagined in crude but necessary lies.
‘The ibis, the crocodile and the onions are not deities, but for the
fierce, ignorant and credulous vulgar1.
‘Neophytes, the nations in their cradles, and likewise those in the
coffin of civilisation, throw themselves down before the gods
which are the work of the hands of men2, and the ministers of
these impotent gods offer the flesh of animals and human blood!
‘In these confines [French, cette enceinte], purified by our
homages and by the incense, you will distinguish, in the middle of
that star which jets so much brilliance over our heads, the letter C,
it is the initial of the word KNEF [French, CNEF], the sacred word
of our love and our recognition of the Great Architect of the
Universe; he is ONE. Here, publicly, outdoors and secretly, we
adore the sole master of all things.
1 Nevertheless, it is well that the reason be brought to perfection; the

time has come at last that the philosophers see that neither onions, cats
nor even the stars have created the order of nature. All the Babylonian,
Persian, Egyptian, Scythian, Greek and Roman philosophers accepted a
supreme god who rewarded and avenged.
They did not say this before the people; for whoever spoke ill of onions
or cats before old ladies and priests was stoned. Whoever reproached
certain Egyptians for eating their gods, was himself eaten; Juvenal writes
that in fact an Egyptian was killed and eaten raw in an argument on a
controversial subject.
2 Opera manum hominum, see the psalm in exitu at Vespers
121
‘To the sublime Creator, the initiates offer the sole gift that can be
agreeable to him, the first fruits of the wheat and the fruit owed to
the vine that the Sun has ripened to sustain the human race; they
offer to him the product of the enlivening matter, come to life and
nourishing; they offer to him the bread and the wine, emblems of
innocent souls and generous hearts, hosts (wafers) unblemished and
salutary, symbols of the deeds of grace toward the master, the
architect, the benefactor of the Universe.’
We return to the hierophant celebrating the modern sacrifice of

the offering of the harvest [French, moisson], and we are obliged to
observe that, just as the Apollonian oracle, he blesses this perfume
which, according to the most ancient rites, achieves the
purification of the host of the sacrificer of the faithful; and when he
renders the censer to the deacon1, he pronounces these touching
words: May the Lord alight in us the fire of his love and inflame us with
an eternal charity!
Let us not forget that before expressing the fraternal vow, the
celebrant has called to mind the greatest secrecy upon the
foundation of the mysteries, imposed upon the brothers by their
vows, in these terms: Lord, place a GUARD upon my mouth and a
GATE upon my lips. What Mason does not recall in these words, the
1 A Greek word meaning minister or server. Scottish Masonry has

preserved the deacons of the primitive church. Today there are three
ministers at the high mass of the Roman cult; the priest, the deacon and the
subdeacon; in the mysteries and in the Isaic parades, there were three
priests in the first rank: the hierophant, magus of a unique god, of Knef
[French, Cnef], creator of the universe; the Dadouchos, that is to say the
torch bearer, the image of Osiris, the Sun; and the minister of the altars,
the image of Isis, the Moon.
122
emblem of the chest [French, coffre], and of the arch at the ivory
porticos?
However, a last ablution of the Grand Élu, of the modern
hierophant, announces, mystically, that he who believes himself to
be in a state of candour [French, en état de candeur], cannot know
too well how to purify himself from the grossness of passions and
the stain of prejudices. I speak of the lavabo [Latin, I will wash], the
ordeal by water that follows the censing, the ordeal by fire.
Again, this ceremony belongs to paganism: its priests washed
their hands to sacrifice. Hesiod prohibits offering wine to Jupiter
without having washed one’s hands. Virgil 1 says that after the
taking of Troy, Aeneas, wishing to save his gods, did not dare to
do so until he had washed, donec in flumine vivo, abluero [Latin, not
before I have washed in the living stream]. The Roman ritual orders
thus: sacerdos, sanctam eucharistiam administraturus procedat ad altare,
lotis, prius manibus [Latin, the priest who is about to perform the service,
having first washed his hands, proceeds to the altar]. The pagans made
ablutions and libations with the aid of simpules2 ancient vases with
a narrow neck. The cruets with a narrow neck, urceoli, serve the
same purpose in the modern sacrifice; except at Pontifical Masses,
the prelate performs his lavabo humbly served by a gentleman
train-bearer, or chamber valet, sword at his side, who pours the
purifying water over the chaste fingers of Monsignor.
The prayer said by the venerable one [French, vénérable,
Worshipful Master] performing the office comes from the ritual
used in the ancient mysteries; it is a chief work of morale. Let us
listen: Lord, I will wash my hands among the just (the initiates); I will
approach your altar, that I may understand how to promulgate your
praises, and to speak your marvels (in the ancient mysteries, one
purified, sang the hymns and the prayer of Orpheus, the most
1 Aeneid, Book 2, line 720.

2 Or simpuvions.
123
sublime hymn of all prayers); Mistake me not for the impious (that is
to say the profanes, the priests of idolatry, the miscreants); do not
treat me as the murderers, whose hands are accustomed to injustice. (The
Great Architect sees all, walks in the ways of justice, says the prayer of
Orpheus); they have let themselves be seduced by the offerings, by the
gift; but I, I have walked in innocence: my feet are fixed in the ways of
justice. This passage indicates where the Mason, on the search for a
lost brother, may find him; we see outlined in this place the square,
the compass and the steps; I will bless you lord of the Universe, in the
assemblies of the faithful (the initiates).
The end of the orison of the lavabo is copied almost word for
word from the prayer of Orpheus. Walk in the ways of justice, says
the hierophant to the initiates; I have walked in innocence, my feet
have been fixed in the ways of justice, says the modern priest. This
quasi-literal translation leaves no reasonable doubt about the
transmigration of the precepts, the rites and ceremonies of the
ancient mysteries into the new belief. This furnishes one very
remarkable observation: the great truths have not been unveiled
before wise assemblies except with the highest prudence, whereas,
at the mass, they are revealed before a multitude without the
danger of being suspected, qui potest capere, capiat! Multi vocati,
pauci electi [Latin, he who can grasp it, let him], many are called, few
are chosen [French, élus]. In fact, it is a very small number who are
called, by their spirit, their education and their studies to discover
the enigma and to penetrate by the conviction that the new ritual
is a refreshed framework of an ancient document. Pange Lingua
gloriosi corporis mysterium; praestat fides supplementum; et anticum
documentum novo cedat ritui [Latin, Sing, my tongue, the mystery of
the glorious body; faith will stand before the whole; and the ancient
document shall cede to the new rite]; the Roman churches retain this
sacred hymn, sung forth by every class of the faithful, of whom,
among a hundred voices, there is scarcely one intellect who can
reveal the mystery of the glorious body (the Sun), which is
124
honoured by the cult which has become the successor of the

ancient document. It is now the case that we can say with the
philosophic Masons, ‘if you search, you will find, fodieris, invenies.’
After the lavabo, the complementary ceremony to the mental and
bodily purification of the Grand Élu Sacrificer 1 , the oblation is
presented anew to the unique God; but it is accompanied by the
hypostases 2 of the Indians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, or Platonic
philosophers; the celebrant says, in memory of the passion and the
resurrection of Jesus-Christ (the Sun), and in honour of MARY, always
Virgin (mother Rhea, magna mater, Isis, Luna, etc). and the other
saints, the Yazatas [French, Faroners] of Zoroaster, the stars of the
ancient Magi).
The insertion of this reiteration of the offering is modern: it is an
intercalation made upon this most ancient ritual after the belated
apotheosis of Jesus and the adoption of the cult of Veneration
[French, Dulie]3, and later still, toward Mary and the Saints. The
liturgists of the new belief, realising that they had revealed too
much in the prayer of the lavabo, did a double take with a
subsequent march into the tenebrous sinuosities of their additional
celestial hierarchy.
Perhaps the Egyptian or Greek hierophant, after having let
escape some fundamental truths during the initiation, and
moreover, after having announced to the neophyte that the
Demiourgos, described as the Very Highest [French, Trés-Haut] by
Cecrops, is one by himself and the master of the Universe, perhaps,
I say, the hierophant adroitly set about speaking with respect
1 See the note on the ara maxima in chapter one.

2 The Greek words hypo, ΥΠΟ, beneath, and histemi, ΙΣΤΗΜΙ, I exist
mean evil demon [French, suppót] and person [French, personne].
3 From doulus, ΔΟΥΛΟΣ, servant or slave; act of the worship that one
renders to the angels and to the saints who are censed are the servants of
God.
125
concerning Osiris, Isis, Horus and the other vulgar divinities. The
reason for the contact of theism, so simple, with polytheism, so
complicated, was explained to him by an extreme prudence, and
here is the wise reason: It opens the door of the purest morale of
the aspirant worthy of passing the threshold by announcing a
unique God; and it did not alarm nor scandalise the believer of the
minor deities receiving it, opera manuum hominum [Latin, the works
of the hands of men], since he, the grand priest, placed them in ara
cœli [Latin, on the altar of heaven], when he mentioned them in his
religious offering.
Thus did the hierophant; thus does the celebrant of the mysteries
of the modern belief; thus do the Worshipful Masters [French,
vénérables] of the Masonic Lodges.
Voltaire says, ‘In the chaos of superstitions, there was a salutary
institution that prevented one part of the human race from falling
into a type of brute existence; that was that of the mysteries and
expiations. It was impossible that one did not find gentle spirits and
sages among so many cruel fools, and that there was not in that
place philosophers who sought to return men to reason and
morale. These sages likewise served superstition, for in correcting
enormous abuses, such as the use of the heart of a viper to cure
those bitten; they mixed many fables with useful truths, and the truths
were sustained through fables’ (Essai sur les Moeurs, Myst. de
Cérès).
126
CHAPTER XIII
Orate, fratres. – Secret. – Preface. – Circumspection of the celebrant. –
Arguments that the ancient and modern theologians give for mixing
theism and polytheism. – The pagan priests, praying upright and turning
themselves toward the faithful, were the ones who established the Orate,
fratres, their Jupiter secretus is the original of the Secret of the mass. The
preface reunites pure theism, Sabeism and polytheism. – On the Persian
Faroners. - On Mithras, the angel of the Sun. On the gods, common, azones
and adjoint. - Angelus, the epithet of Mercury. – The crows of Odin, his
angels or messengers.
In the previous chapter, we called attention to the fact that when

the celebrant invokes the unique God, he also adds this passage, as
though it had escaped from his discretion: Lord, put a guard on my
mouth and a door at my lips.
We will look at the reason for the caution he suddenly imposes
at the part of the sacrifice rightly named the Secret, which he does
in imitation of the pagan priests: they called Jupiter Secretus; for
when they were far away from the vulgar polytheist, they
rendered homage to the unique-God.
It is wise for the modern celebrant to place a guard against the
fanaticism of initiates incapable of bearing the revelation of the
final secret: one unique God and Master of the Universe, without the
concourse of Persian angels, Osiris of the Nile, the gods of Ilium, a
virgin mother or modern saints. It is enough to let the theist high
initiates understand that when they first invoke the unique God, the
eternal God, they invoke the Father of all things; but what prejudices
127
they have to put up with! Some believe in deities who are equal
between themselves or co-supreme or the private sovereigns of
certain things; others are infatuated with other day dreams when
they recognise the unique God, hominum sator [Latin, tailor of men];
they address themselves to the spirits, to the angels and to the
saints, as one would do before weak-willed princes, their courtiers,
their mistresses and likewise their chamber valets to obtain
something or other.
Would not the leaders of the ancient mysteries have undergone
great dangers if they had wished to openly dethrone Isis, Horus,
Ceres, Apollo and the minor gods? The polytheists of the times
would say to them: ‘We recognise, as you do, Knef [French, Cnef],
the supreme god; but you admit neither Osiris, nor Isis, nor Horus,
nor Typhon because you are philosophers and therefore impious.’
The priests of the subaltern deities, moved by the need of
making a living from error and from the imposture which had
passed its time, made offerings to the thousand-named [French,
myrionimes] and subaltern gods; they leagued themselves with the
populace against the priest of theism and their wise worshippers
[French, deicoles] of god.
To avoid these dangers, the hierophants of Egypt and Greece,
were surrounded by a threefold circle of theists who were led,
after inflexible ordeals, led [sic] into the sanctuary of sanctuaries,
to rejoice in the unveiled view of the unique God; these venerable
pontiffs, I say, communicated to the priests of Codom and Krishna,
of the Ibis and crocodile, of Adonis and Cybele, certain ingenious
emblems of the sole reasonable cult, intercalating their address
with the absurd fictions of the vulgar deities and idols; and the
ministers of these shameful but lucrative fetishes, reassured in the
preservation of their pagodas and their ancient tariffs [French,
casuel, an archaic word, legal fees and tributes under the old French
regime], left the pontiffs of the Great Architect of the Universe in
peace. It was profit and glory for these people to be admitted into
128
a gathering of philosophers, heroes who, in their lodges of the first

degrees, spoke with veneration of their gods, and thus prolonged
the duration of the superstitions that made a living for these
scoundrels in an idle and honourable affluence.
Such was the tactic and the strategy of the high initiates who
founded the modern belief. The Platonic trinity, taken from the
Indian and Egyptian trinities, was for them, welcomed for the
same motives; and their heirs lent themselves to the concordance
of a vast celestial hierarchy, from Saint Roch and his dog to the
father of things visible and invisible. They were aware of the danger
of disputing the empire of fables that were still given credit and
protected by powerful interests. Thus, in mixing the theist acts of
the Mass with polytheism, they safeguarded both the reflections of
the rational celebrant and the suspicions of the fanatical attendees.
Very soon we will be convinced of this.
At the time of sacrifice, the pagan priests put their hands to their
mouths and turned toward the people 1 . The celebrant of the
modern offering does as they did, saying: Orate, fratres, pray
brothers, that this sacrifice, which is yours, should be favourably
received by God, the all-powerful Father; pure theism.
The brothers answer, May the Lord receive this sacrifice from your
hands, for the praise and glory of your name, our use and that of all his
holy church; pure theism.
The celebrant replies: amen! So mote it be! A Hebrew formula,
which, in this scene, means: You have no authority to believe in any
but the unique God that I invoke! With a low voice he pronounces a
fervent prayer. In the recital of this mystery, he is like the high
priest of Jehovah, who, having retired into the sanctuary, prostrates
himself, in spirit and in truth, before the majesty of the unique God.
The word secret, used in this orison, is the veil of Jupiter secretus,
that is to say, of the great secret of the important mystery, of the
1 See du-Choul, p.275, and Polydore Virgile, book 5, chapter 2.
129
key to the vault of the sole triumphal arch reasonably erected to

the Great Architect of the Universe.
In our lodges, in our holy churches, there has not been, until now,
any mention of the one flaming star with a letter (G or C) shining
forth from its centre, and of one science classed as the fifth,
although it is the first; but here, in the most secret act of the work,
or if you prefer, of the sacrifice, it is GOD1, it is the name of the
unique God in its entirety that the officiant pronounces; he neither
invokes nor recognises another god or another master than the
Great Generator, the Great Architect of the Universe.
As soon as the name has been pronounced in the silence due to
the unnameable, his pontiff, to hide the last sounds from the
polytheists and the profanes, intones in a loud voice, what the
adroit liturgy calls the preface2 , and which, nevertheless, is that
which follows [French, n’est que la consequence de] the secret; I say
adroit, for often the celebrant is not a pure theist, and whatever he
1 [Translator’s note. The English word GOD appears thus in the original].
From the Persian Goda (derived from an absolute principle meaning he-
himself) or Godan or Wodan or Woden, from which we have constructed
Odin, who appears to be an oriental divinity the root of which has been
almost unaltered by the Germans. They have made the word Gott, a
generic name of the divinity, from which they have derived gut, good or
well, and gotz, idol. This word has received the meaning of joy, which is
an emanation of the divinity, and the Latins admired this use, and made
of it their word gaudium [Latin, joy]; and that is where we get the old
French verb se gaudir. The English say God, the Swedish Gud; it is the
same divinity as the Got-sa-ten-oo of the Japanese, the Godma or Godam of
the Cingalese and the Thai, etc.
2 ‘It is very plausible that the mélopeia, regarded by Aristoteles in his
Poetics as an essential part of the tragedy, was a hymn as even and simple
as that which we call the preface of the mass, which is, in my opinion, of
the Gregorian and not the Ambrosian chant, and which is a true
mélopeia.’ (Voltaire, Philosophic Dictionary, under the word singing).
130
may be, the liturgy obliges him no less, despite his doubts, to cover
the secret of the Epopts1 in such a manner that it conceals it from the
neophytes2.
In fact, after he has said this: alta voce [Italian, in a loud voice], we
sing the omnia sœcula sœculorum [Latin, all the ages of the ages]; the
brothers answer amen! After several vows, at the accomplishment
of which the faithful join by response, the officiator speaks publicly,
to render thanks to the very holy Lord, all powerful Father, eternal
God, through Jesus, that is to say by the Sun, his visible
representative on the earth. Behold [French, Voilà], a first veil
transparent to the truth, thrown over the face of the unique God
per quem omnia facta sunt [Latin, through whom all things are made];
and soon, the eclipse becomes total (for imaginations enslaved to
intercessing gods and to the stomachs that dine on them), by the
means of these words; angels, dominions, powers, heavens, virtues of
the heavens, cherubim and seraphim, these spirits are thus but stages
in the new Olympus, celebrating, says the preface, the glory of the
unique God, in the transports of holy joy.
Soon I will expound the diversity of consequences of the preface,
recited by an officiating theist or polytheist, and I will prove that,
in each case, there results no danger for the cult of the one God,
which has been reserved for strong minds and bodily organs
constituted strongly enough to receive, without injury, the fusion
of the mystery of high initiation. I will end this demonstration,
faithful as I am to my promises, in order to prove that there is not
a fraction of the new cult that has not been a stone or ornament of
the temples of high antiquity. The hand of the Indians, The
Persians, the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, etc, and the sacerdotal
hand are found imprinted on the materials that make up the
modern church. (The magus, before the sacrifice, intoned a sacred
1 Eptomai, I examine, who see things without veil.

2 New initiates, or faithful attendees.
131
hymn called theogony1, which was the preface of the mass of the
religion of the Magi).
Go back, my Brothers, over the preface from beginning to end,
and then please follow me.
At the beginning are these words: sursum corda [Latin, raise up
your hearts]; at these words of the celebrant and at the response,
gratias agamus domino Deo nostro [Latin, we give thanks to our lord
God], the faithful raise themselves; in these words, that mark of
respect is preserved from the traditions of the ancient Greeks;
according to the nature of the orisons, whether they are near the
benedictions, whether in expressing vows, the faithful pray
standing or seated.
At the end the officiator says: Dominions, powers, etc; who did not
recognise the introduction of the Arab system of planetary spirits
and the angels of the savant Chaldean and that of the Persian made
illustrious by his Magi, as well as the yazatas [French, faroners],
dominions, powers, celestial thrones, governing the world under the
authority of their Great Venerable2? Whose eyes are so weak as not
to see in this crowd of demigods, the dii communes [Latin, gods
worshipped in common by many nations] of the Greeks and the
Romans, their azones gods, that is to say, of all the zones, and their
adjoint gods, aiding their principle gods? The Platonic philosophers
followed Pythagoras in recognising the intermediary spirits
between God and men, disposed by degrees, some more powerful,
1 From Theos, ΘΕΟΣ, god, and Gonos, ΓΟΝΟΣ, race; the birth of the
gods; religious system of the pagans. ‘It is sufficiently well known that
this part of the mass (the Preface) is not other than an ancient recitative
from the Greek theatre, of which the Roman Church has preserved the
tradition.’
(Souvenirs of the Marquise de Créqui, tome 7, Chapter 6)
2
[Translator’s note. Vénérable is the title used for Worshipful Master in
French Lodges].
132
some more brilliant than the others. Thus, it is clear, irrefutable,

that at the end of the preface of the mass, the Platonic Christians
have inserted the ancient fable of the intermediary spirits [French,
génies] and angels. The word angelus means messenger. Angelus,
among the pagans, was an epithet of the god Mercury1. Archangel
means therefore arch-messenger; Mithras, among the Parsees, was
the angel or envoy of the Sun, and consequently his courier2 [French,
verdaire]; the two crows perched on the shoulders of the conquering
god Odin3 were his ordinance officers; and Jesus is the angel of the
Very High, the proxy of the father, gaudium angelorum4 [Latin, the
joy of the angels], since he is considered as his envoy, his messiah5
[French, messie].
Now, illustrious Brothers, let us go back over the preface, that
melange of theism and polytheism. Let each of us research, in the
interval between this chapter and that which follows, which cult
on the earth, is exempt from this! I will return with proofs that this
melange does not compromise, on any account, the truth of the
great mystery, as much as it is a concordat passed between strong
1 The Angelus that we sound three times, announces the arrival of the day,
the coming of Gabriel, the messenger of the morning; of the exaltation of
the Sun, king of the heavens, at noon; and at the arrival of Night, the
mother of the day, of the virgin Isis-Mary, the courier of obscurities, the
Moon.
This prayer was established in 1316 by Pope John XXII. Louis XI
ordered it in France on May 1st 1472, at that time of worries inspired by
the arms of the Turks and the Christian people, and on June 27 th
following, the king put forth a new edict that it should be recited many
times per day at the sound of the clock. It took on the name of Salutation
angélique.
2 From Latin veredarius, office courier, a term from antiquity.
3 See the footnote on Goda earlier in this chapter.
4 See the Litanies of Jesus, at the end of this work.
5 From the Hebrew word Messiah, envoy, liberator.
133
minds and narrow brains, between the great initiates of Knef

[French, Cnef] and the minor initiates of the onion, of the Ibis and of
the crocodile.
134
CHAPTER XIV
Continuation or the Preface. – The concordat of theism and polytheism
has not compromised the truth. – Proofs. – The prudence of the high
initiates adopted and naturalised the exotic divinities. - They were made
subject, with their priests, to the Great Architect. End of the Preface. –
Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus. – On the word Sabaoth. – Etymology of this word
sanctus. – Why this latter is repeated three times. – On the Hosanna in
excelsis. – Return to the final invocation of the preface. – Verse of an
ancient Masonic hymn. – Fragment of a hymn sung at the mysteries of
Isis which is analogous to the prayer of the Sanctus.
I have stated that the concordat of theism and polytheism that

has been visibly inscribed in the Preface and the sacrifice of the
oblation did not compromise in any way the truth of the great
mystery, reserved for strong minds; I will prove it:
Is the celebrant of the sacrifice a theist, great initiate or grand
élu?
Before all things, he proclaims the supreme universal unity of the
incomprehensible workman; he therein enters [French, pénètre]
into those faculties that are prepared to understand, and at the
same time he handles with care, the interests, the love itself, and
the weakness or ignorance of those who wish from heaven, as well
as upon the earth, a hierarchy. By this ingenious mix of truth with
fables, he preserves the cult of reason and seems to respect the
popular cult, and in recalling to the perfect initiates the sacred word,
he pronounces in a solemn voice (in front of the partisans of the
angels and the friends of the patron saints, before the eagle of the
135
Evangelist John and the dog of Saint Roch, the celestial pilgrim)1,
he pronounces, I say, the names of the inferior apotheosised beings,
as so many pass words to reach, without peril, the knowledge of the
Is not the celebrant a minor initiate?
He recites the Preface, without understanding its meaning or
purpose; if, above all, he makes his living from an altar dedicated
to the Holy Angels, it will be their names that he sings loudest,
moved by the hope that his charges will become more lucrative,
and his authority over people’s consciences less contested.
Are the Initiates’ people vulgar people?
We see precious little of them in the lodge, that is to say, in the
assembly of the friends of the logos, the sacred word, if in that place
we do not speak of angels and saints, of guardian spirits and
tempting demons. For the opposite reason [French, motif inverse],
not one great initiate, save in the interest of observation, was
present at those lodges, worthy of pity, whose apparent object was
to render a cult to the sacred heart of Diana, or to the precious blood
of Adonis (as I assume), and whose sacerdotal aim was to enlist
credulity and consign the mind of the multitude under the banner
of persecution or bloody superstition when the opportunity arose.
Therefore, when superstition conquered the earth, it submitted
the peoples to shameful tributes and all lands to their mythological
dreams; poetry, upon its knees, sings hymns of praise, giving
thanks to superstition for having deified all of nature, the rough
rocks and likewise the silent forests, the travelling stars and the
transient flowers. Reason cries because of it, high wisdom, always
good council, says to reason: ‘My mother, dry your tears! How do
1 ‘What has made some authors think that Saint Roch is imaginary is the
fact that he has not yet been canonised.’
136
they help those that are oppressed? Take courage from

perseverance and all will go slowly, but well.’
Reason feels it imprudent to attempt to overturn by winch and
tongs the innumerable idols carried in pomp on the shoulders of
nations, censed by their priests and applauded by those who,
believing and not believing the mockery, persuade themselves that
public faith is a virtue, and are attached to the well being of
empires, the peace of society, order between the few who know
and the ignorant populace, the stability of fortunes, the
inviolability of households, the respect of sons, the obedience of
servants and the integrity of farmers.
In the manner of the ancient Romans, a more moderate and more
secure party has taken root1. Adoption has naturalised these exotic
1 They gave the name indigenat [Latin, may he be naturalised] to foreign

gods. When a Roman general wished to conquer a country, he did not
insult the gods that were its protectors; he offered them sacrifices and
beseeched them to pass into his army. The Emperor Alexander Severus
had the statue of Confucius as well as those of Apollonius of Thrace,
Orpheus and Jesus Christ placed in his oratory (Lararium).
In fact, when the Romans were masters of the most beautiful part of the
world, we know that they tolerated all religions, even if they did not
admire them; and it appears demonstrated that by the favour of this
tolerance that Christianity was established, for the first Christians were
almost all Jews. The Jews had, as they do today, synagogues at Rome and
in most trading cities. The Christians were thus carried along as a body,
and profited foremost from the liberty that the Jews enjoyed.
Without here examining the causes of the persecutions that they next
suffered, the chief of which was the absolute exclusivity which they
professed. It is enough to remember that if, among so many religions, the
Romans did not finally wish to proscribe but a single one that assumed to
dominate the others, they were certainly not persecutors.
Since then, every church has tried to exterminate every other church
with an opinion contrary to its own. The blood has flowed for a long time
137
divinities under the condition that they cede their primacy and
renounce their independence. Thus, their priests, surrounded on
all sides, were obliged to lay down arms, happy to preserve what
little they could of their baggage, satisfied to continue their
functions near their old rulers; they were given publicity and
became diminished to the condition of intercessors near the
unique God.
By the use of this policy, the errors of superstition, although
domesticated, were subjugated to the great principle of the
creative and preserving unity. The poor humans no longer had a
landsturn of celestial kings and queens to tyrannise their
consciousness as in the past: from then on they would not be
subjugated except to an all powerful monarch, just and paternal,
whose glory, the hierarchy does not approach except to reveal to
him our sufferings, and which does not descend, here below,
except to bring to us his blessings.
Therefore, the invocation of angels, thrones, Seraphim, etc, was an
improvement in the cult, proportional to the degree of light of each
epoch. The same simplification happened when the high initiates
won the priests of the cabires, idols, fetishes, laves [sic], guardians
between coreligionists over theological arguments, especially since the 1 st

Council of Nicea.
‘Constantine began by passing an edict that permitted all religions; he
ended up becoming persecutor. Before him, nobody rose up against the
Christians except for the reason that they had started to create a party
within the state that sought to destroy the ancient religion of the empire.
The Jews did not want the statue of Jupiter in Jerusalem; but the
Christians did not want it on the Capitol. Saint Thomas avowed in good
faith that if the Christians did not dethrone the emperors, it was because
they could not. Their opinion was that the whole world ought to be
Christian. They were therefore necessarily enemies of all the earth, until
it was converted.’
138
and patrons, demigods, heroes, apotheosised legislators and

conquerors. These priests were so very interested in keeping their
cults profitable!
The exclusion of these from participation in the mysteries would
have compromised the peace of theism by wars of religion. We
therefore initiated them into the minor mysteries; we gave them the
monarch, his house and his civil list, we concealed from them the
knowledge of God that was only unto him, unto the Creator of the
Universe, to him and from him. We only gave this understanding
to those who were enlightened by their own awareness, or, as
Saint Paul, by a lightning flash.
Only after this does the officiator invite the faithful to sing with
the spirits of heaven prostrated at the feet of the very high, and the
vaults of the temple resound with this concert of voices: holy, holy,
holy, Lord God, SABAOTH, the heavens and the earth are full with your
glory! HOSANNA in the high places! Blessed be he who comes in the
name of the Lord! HOSANNA in the high places!
My learned Brothers, how is it that the unique God, declared as
the source of peace in the ancient mysteries and in the scholastic
cathedrals of the holy-logos, has also been proclaimed by the happy
of heaven, who know such things, god of armies? This dreadful
epithet bestowed by the thrones and the dominions, holds no
surprise; but I like to think that the virtues grieved secretly because
of it.
Nevertheless, it is from the Hebrews, whose institutions were
most warrior-like, that the ritual borrows Adonai Sabaoth. Their
lawmaker, general and initiate into the mysteries of Egypt,
believed it useful to his ends, no doubt, to corrupt the purity of it
by making the god of peace of the Nile into a god of war of the
Jordan1.
1 The Greek Phoebus is the Aormuzdi (good spirit) of the Persians; Apollo
is their Arimanes (evil spirit); his name means exterminator.
139
As one of the tasks I have undertaken is to furnish the various

pieces of evidence of the incrustations in the modern liturgy that
are taken from the ancient liturgies, I will expose two in the words
sanctus and Sabaoth.
SANCTUS: Upon this word, Brother Noël says: Sanctus, Sangus,
Sancus, the deified king of the Sabines, sometimes confused with
Hercules, sometimes with Jupiter. These words mean propitious or
venerable 1 . Another initiate, Court de Gébelin 2 , reports that the
Sabines called the Sun the god Sang, Sangus, Sanct, Sanctus,
derived from the oriental sam or sham, that is to say, risen; sams,
the Sun; sham-in, the heavens.
SABAOTH: Sab (oriental), risen; Sabaoth, that is to say, in excelsis,
in the highest; Sabbath, the day consecrated to the Most-High.
Now, I observe that the invocation addressed to the thrice holy
upholds the very ancient respect for the ternary number, a respect
observed in the Indian, Egyptian and Nazarene trinities, as well as
in the figures of Masonic geometry.
The sentence, the heavens and the earth are full of your glory, is
sublime.
The phrase, may he be blessed who comes in the name of the Lord,
is the expression of the grateful joy of men toward the Sun, coming
from the name of the unique God, who made him to enlighten
men and to ripen the seeds for their preservation and reproduction.
The hosanna in excelsis, as opposed to in inferis, signifies vision,
prophecy, appearance, into the higher signs, of the Sun, whose
essence is germinating and maturing; for all is darkness and grief
in the hells [French, enfers], that is to say, in the inferior signs,
deprived of their fecundating heat. The word hosanna, pronounced
in the month of excelsis is an expression of gratitude for the
1 See Dictionnaire de la Fable, 1805 édition.

2 Allégories Orientales, 181.
140
appearance of the sun; and this same word, pronounced in the

month inferis, is but an expression inviting the Sun to reappear as in
the past and to resurrect, as it did in preceding years: resurrexit sicut
dixit [Latin, He has resurrected as he said].
Thus, after examining the prayer called sanctus, and after the
translation that has been given of the Sabine and oriental words
sanctus, Sabaoth and hosanna; considering that Sabaoth does not
signify god of armies, but that its root is sab; and, considering that
the Chaldean-Hebrew word hosanna means appearance, and finally
considering that, during the sacrifices of antiquity, the triple
pronunciation of a word solemnised it to the highest degree, I do
not hesitate [French, balance] to translate the prayer of the sanctus
into these words:
Thrice venerable, Lord god Sun! The resplendent universe is filled
with the glory of your regenerating rays: appear, come again, and
show yourself again [French, apparais, reviens, remontre-toi] in the
higher signs.’
It is thus that the allegory drops her veil in the presence of the
sages.
Although this chapter has already been quite long, I cannot leave
the powers, dominations, thrones, archangels and angels (risen en masse
like so many soldiers of a holy alliance), when I hear them sing at
the end of the preface: Holy, holy, holy, the heavens are filled with your
glory! This melodious concert recalls to my memory a beautiful
verse and a very ancient Masonic hymn:
‘By a Mason, the world was arched,’
and the fragment of the hymn from the mysteries of Isis, set down
by Apuleius, during the initiation of Lucius: The celestial powers
serve you, the hells are subjugated to you, the universe turns beneath
your hand, your feet scourge Tartarus, the stars answer to your voice, the
seasons roll at your orders…
141
My Brothers, sanctus, sanctus, sanctus!
142
CHAPTER XV
Canon of the mass. – Synaxes of the reformed Hebrews. – Of the
Egyptian Cecrops. – On the hosts and messiahs of the pagans. –
Etymology of mass and of messiah. – On the Greeks. – The Canon is a
mixture of natural religion and artificial religion. – Oblative sermon of an
ancient hierophant. – Vows in common use in the synaxes, preserved in
Freemasonry. – Reign of darkness in Europe, the return of the dawn;
circumspection and vigilance!
We have arrived at the Canon of the mass. At this moment, the

hierophant, purified by water, by air and by fire, by the ablutions,
incense and prayers, and made still more worthy of his pontificate
by the often repeated profession of his secret belief (for his
pontificate is much less contested if he renders public homage to
the popular idols), delivers himself alone to his august mission of
consecrating the offering of the faithful to the unique God, creator,
benefactor and preserver. It is this holy monologue that the ritual
calls Canon, ΚΑΝΩΝ, a Greek word that means order or rule.
In fact, the words of the Canon of the mass are invariable; and
the order of the orisons is the same for all the feasts, whatever the
cause that has roused the celebration. Here, high initiates, is the
moment of the sacrifice of the two chaste and innocent victims, the
bread and the wine.
The minister of peace will present the offering without blemish
to the sole God of the universe, and this renders this moment in time
much more philosophic than any moment in time outside the
143
purified sanctuary; for the blood of men and animals has streamed
from the altars of a thousand fantastic deities.
Brothers, let us travel back to those deplorable times: Have you
not heard of the ferocious oracles demanding the assassination of
Jephthah’s daughter and of Iphigenia? What cries and moans
exhaled in the middle of the religious spectacles of the drunken
earth! In Israel, Tauris, Phoenicia, Greece, Carthage, Rome and
Chartres you see these impostors strike their enemies down with a
sacred dagger in the name of the gods! What refuge is there for the
sages, for the heroes and likewise the kings! The altar of Abel, the
tent of Hercules, the curule chair of Cato, the throne of Trajan, and
the portico of Socrates taught of God and reason, for these were
the temples in which the initiates offered only their gratitude to
the true God, and only love to the human race … All has been
overthrown, broken, demolished! No, no, my Brothers, all is saved
by the effect of the offering of the fruits to the Great Architect of
the Universe. The reformed Hebrews and the Masons or high
initiates, do not cease to render to the Creator the homage the least
unworthy of his majesty in the midst of the age of these sacerdotal
murders.
Successors to the founders of the ancient mysteries, you have
entered into the tabernacle; thus in dread of the impious and the
gentiles, I set a guard at my lips, I will not speak upon my subject
except of that which concerns the reformed Hebrews.
The assemblies of the logos of the primitive initiates of the new
belief were named synaxes, that is to say, the reunion of Brothers to
pray, celebrate and dine. The aim of the prayer was to offer, and one
really did make the offering to the Great Architect of the Universe,
qui fecit cœlum et terram [Latin, who made heaven and earth],
vegetables, bread, wine and fruits, as the first fruits of the harvest
[French, moisson]; of milk and honey, as the symbol of recognition.
Long before the reform of Judaism in the name of Jesus, lived a
man named Cecrops, prince of the country of the mysteries and
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founder of the Areopagus, who was called the very highest,

altissimus, the Greek Jupiter1; this Egyptian forbade the Athenians
to offer any living thing to god. The only offerings that he
permitted were cakes called selanos, ΣΕΛΑΝΟΣ [Greek, father of the
light of the moon], and bous, ΒΟΥΣ [Greek, cattle], because of their
horned shape2. The Roman pagans had their feriae messis [Latin,
holiday harvests], their feasts of the mass, of the harvest [French,
moisson].
The reformed Hebrews of the time of the Apostles, met at
synaxes, read the Evangel, the Epistle (correspondence), and prayed
to the sole god for the success of the kingdom of Jesus (the return
of the Sun) and the continued well being of kings and magistrates
in order that the faithful could lead a peaceful life3. Saint Justin,
who lived in the year 150 of the era of great philosophic light, tells
us that the solemn assemblies were held on the day we call of the
Sun (the word dimanche [French, Sunday] comes from the dies
magna [Latin great day]); there were the same readings, the same
prayers, singing of Psalms, Canticles, light meal at baptism with
pure water and the agape of the holy dinner with bread and wine.
Soon afterward the offerings were called hostiae, hosts4, and the
ceremony of their consecration was called the mass, from the Latin
word messis, harvest [French, moisson], that is to say, the offering of
the first fruits of the harvest. If we follow certain scholars, we
1 Voyage of the young Anacharsis, Volume 1, page 8.

2 See Histoire de la Grèce, by Cousin des Préux, Volume 2, Page 108. –
To the great astonishment of the modern philosophers, Cecrops died in
his bed.
3 Tim., book 3. – Thus do the Masons.
4 Is this not due to the Romans who were gentler in their customs, for
they abolished the sacrifices of their enemies (hostes) who had been taken
as prisoners of war, a sacrifice they called hostiae? They left the name the
same for these less appalling immolations.
145
understand that mass came from the Hebrew Messiah, which

means oblatum, offering, I will not repudiate this etymology, which
none of the fathers of the church mentions1. I think that if the first
synaxes had received their birth in Scandinavia, ale [French,
cervoise] would take the place of wine; in America, maize (Indian
corn), in place of wheat; if in New Holland and in the Tahitian
islands, the breadfruit, (rima, artocarpus incisa, a botanical word)
would have been the cereal matter of the host.
It is not irrelevant here to recall that the Roman pagans derived
their messis from the goddesses of the harvests and that each crop
had a divinity, its own patroness protector. The faithful of the new
belief recognise only one messiah [French, un messie], the producer
of all types of fruits.
From messis, harvest [French, moisson], comes Messiah, he who
ripens the harvests2, the Christ, the Sun.
Messis autem genuit [Latin, the mass, however, begot] the messivage,
the right over the harvests [French, moissons], which was originally
only the voluntary offering of consecrated fruits on the holy table3.
1 See Reuchlin, Sainctes, Nicod, Du Cange Ménage and the Dictionary of

Trévoux on the word missa.
2 The theologians, wanting to veil the natural etymology of the word
Messiah, have derived it from the Latin word missus, sent [French, envoyé].
Nevertheless, piercing through this envelope in which it was wrapped
and concealed, we see that they have still to penetrate the mystery; for
the sun is always the Messiah, sent [French, envoyé] yearly over the earth
to develop and ripen the fruits.
3 The accounts for the years 1504 and 1505 at the factory of Saint
Nicholas in the city Nantes prove that communion was not given at the
baluster [French, balustre, baluster, also means a pair of compasses], but
on a raised table placed on the trestlework which was still there in 1537.
Wine was brought for those who desired it, for a fee of several pennies
that were left on the table for the profit of the factory. (See Dictionnaire
ο
d’Ogée, 3rd volume, in-4 , p.163).
146
The bishop, that is to say, the warden [French, surveillant] of the cult,
took a third and performed the duty of distributing the other two
thirds to his clergy and the poor. Saint Cyprian wrote to Numidius
that the names of those who had given the most considerable gifts
were declaimed loudly at the synaxes 1 in order to rouse the
emulation of their generosity. However, when its own ministers
corrupted the cult, this practice established the scourge of the tithe
[French, dime] and novales over all of Europe.
It is not thus on the days Masons assemble; the eye does not
penetrate into the purse when the veiled hand of the rich and the
poor deposits the denarius that consoles distress; when this
homage has been done, in common, by opulent virtue and by
peaceful virtue for suffering virtue, the lodge looks aside from the
outcome of this salutary practice.
However, it is time to come back to the Order of the Canon of the
mass. The word synaxis, named thus by the Greeks agyrmos,
ΑΓΥΡΜΟΣ [Greek, gathering] to refer to the initiation, the act of
faith, their purifications, their hymns, and the presentation and
consecration of the offerings. This word, synaxis, has been lost and
that of missa, mass, has prevailed. Today, if I say, I am going to the
synaxis, I will not be understood; but, I am going to mass, is
understood right away.
However, to render it in like words for the agyrme of the Masonic
mysteries, it is necessary to say: I render myself to the assembly of the
brothers, because I feel I have the heart of a brother. – I will praise the
1 Among the Greeks it was called agyrmos, ΑΓΥΡΜΟΣ, that is to say, day
of assembly. That was, according to Hesychius, the first day of the
initiation into the mysteries of Ceres. Long ago the word synaxis was
given to the celebration of the holy mysteries. It was taken from syn, ΣΥΝ,
with, and ago, ΑΓΩ, I lead, hence the Greek word synaxis, assembly of the
faithful, sacred songbook [French, recueil sacré, literally, sacred
collection]; from there we get synaxarium, a book of saints’ lives.
147
Great Architect with them, because we owe him our existence and
preservation. – I will unite myself with the vows of the celebrant, the
hierophant, the Worshipful Master [French, vénérable] because I believe
[French, crois] him to be as pure as his vows. – I will open my purse to
the needy, because they are my family. – I will unveil my conscience to
the FACE of the ETERNAL, because it is white as hyssop. Voilà, the
essence of natural religion and its primitive cult.
Let us examine what appertains to natural religion and that
which artificial religion has introduced into the Canon of the mass.
NATURAL RELIGION. The celebrant conjures the very merciful
Father, through Jesus Christ, his son, to recognise and bless these gifts,
these offerings, these sacrifices, pure and without blemish1.
If the explanation given of the filium Dei unigenitum [Latin, son
begotten of one God] of the credo is without a doubt for every mind
free from the yoke of prejudice, nothing is more reasonable than
that the first fruits of the fruits, pure and without stain, created by
the father, ripened by the son, for the health [French, salut] of the
human race, should be offered to the Great Architect through his
intermediary, the Sun, his visible son, in religious testimony of
gratitude. This voluntary tribute returns all things to the father by
the same paths that he has marked out to fill us with the gifts of
his charity, which are as infinite as he. The reason for this offering
is very simple: the unique God created the nourishing seeds; the
1 The oblation is vested with the ternary symbol: of the host (vegetable),
of the chalice (mineral) of the raising of the one and the other by the
celebrant (animal kingdom). The ternary number so revered in high
antiquity, is noted five more times in the mass: three introibo [Latin, I will
enter], three Kyrie Eleison [Greek, ΚΥΡΙΕ ΕΛΕΗΣΟΝ, Lord have mercy],
three mea culpa [Latin, my sin], three Agnus Dei [Latin, lamb of God], three
Dominus Vobiscum [Latin, the Lord with you]. It is the Masonic knocks
spoken aloud. Add the three et cum spiritu tuo [Latin, with your spirit], also,
the mass has given us seven ternary commemorations.
148
Sun has made them grow [French, croître], flower and ripen; it is
this agent, that supreme envoy, that we think to be the most worthy
pontiff of the universe, to present to the Creator the pure gifts and
offerings without blemish, the bread and the wine, emblems of our
gratitude. The celebrant says that he offers them to the unique God,
for his holy Catholic Church, so that it will please him to preserve, to
maintain it in union and govern it over all the earth. This formula was,
without doubt, used in the assembly (logos-agyrmos) of the ancient
mysteries; perhaps we would have heard there a hierophant just as
bold in his wisdom addressing, in these words, the Great Architect
of the Universe:
Unique God! I dare to offer these pure gifts without blemish, in the
name of the Universal Church of brothers, in the name of all the initiates
spread over the surface of the earth, in the name also of the profanes
whom the imposture, without their realising it, has given over to the most
cruel and extravagant superstitions. Make it that a sole reasonable belief
bring the spirit of peace, of relief and brotherhood among men! Preserve
and maintain this belief, the source of universal union. Enlighten, to that
end, the kings, the magistrates and the priests of all nations.
I here observe that the ancient supplication is intact in the agapes
of Freemasonry. We there voice the most impassioned vows for
the prosperity of the sovereign, the hierophant and the entire
communion, and of the synaxis of initiates visited by good or bad
fortune. The catholicity of the signs, the symbols of the rite, in the
three grades, is so exact that the brothers recognise each other in
whatever place they meet.
ARTIFICIAL RELIGION. When the cult degenerates from the
simplicity brought about by the ambition of its ministers, these
here ministers place the following in the first rank of their vows:
first the Pope or great-hierophant, next the bishop or Warden;
lastly the sovereign, who has now been placed in the third line, he who,
previously, in all justice, had the first place. This is the beginning
of the system of the state within the church, the system which has
149
covered Europe in darkness and blood throughout the centuries,

and which still sullies it in a few [French, certain] countries.
Without entering too far ahead into the proofs of this conspiracy
of Papal Keys against the sceptres of kings, I will cite some ancient
principles concerning it: Saint Cyprian said, God made the bishops and
not men; it is necessary to consider the Bishop as the representative of
God among men, as with priests, as with kings, as with magistrates1; he
is after God, your earthly god, your prince and your king2.
This frightful system grew and rooted itself with success among
peoples degraded by servitude. And so what did it matter to those
people degraded by servitude that the Popes claimed to be above
the kings and declared themselves invested, by God himself, with
the right of taking away and giving crowns? Moreover, the
oppressed peoples in their despair supported these sacrilegious
trespasses. Then the bishops, seizing upon these deliciously royal
rights, dared to establish themselves as judges of the secular
power, to overturn the throne, to let it diminish through
excommunications, to confine it in a cloister, to flagellate it at the
foot of the altars.
These attacks against the honour of the kings and the reason of
the peoples were committed under cover of the ignorance that was
everywhere spread. The sole light was concentrated in the
chapters and cloisters; still it was surrounded by the obscuring
crimp of scholasticism. The fanatic preachers [French, predicant,
preachers, suggests the pun ‘makers of predicates’] called doctors
of the church, maintained, without laughing, that a priest was
above an angel. The well-known Gaspard Scioppius said that
laymen are asses, mules and horses; the Catholics, tame asses; the heretics,
savage asses, and the Catholic kings, the asses who, with a bell about their
1 See the Apostolic Constitutions, book 2, chapter 2.

2 Ibidem, book 2, chapter 26.
150
necks, led all the others1. At last, to bring theology, guardian muse of
theocracy, to its height as an art, the schools disputed whether the
Pope was a man, or if, like God, and like Jesus Christ, he had two
natures2 . If he had been made god by theology, and if he had
wished to dethrone the great Lama of Tibet, perhaps, we would be
wearing around our neck, in imitation of the devout Tatars, a relic,
whose holy odour, however it should be, smells always foul3.
Illustrious initiates, the kingdom of darkness stretches to its end;
but the darkness still resists. Fratres estote et vigilate [Latin, Brothers
be sober and be vigilant]!
1 See Scioppius, In Ecclesiam, chapter 147.

2 See Erasmus, Annotations on the first Epistle to Timothy, chapter 1.
3 His faithful wear his excrements around their necks.
151
CHAPTER XVI
Further of the Canon of the mass. – Artificial religion intolerant. –
Memento. – Eternal, living and true God. – Dogma of the other life, of its
rewards and tribulations. – Insertion of Sabeism under modern names. –
The hotchpotch of gold and mud under the high Masonic grades and of
those called mosaic [French, mosaïques].
The celebrant of the mass prays the Lord to maintain in peace and
union all those who are Orthodox, and who profess the Catholic and
Apostolic faith.
There is nothing more intolerant than this finale.
Let this be better understood. The modern rite has no reason to
give itself the title of universal, since the existence of other rites
denies its universality; since other sects, born from the sap, still
contest it. Asia laughs at it; Africa has hardly heard it spoken of;
two thirds of Europe have freed themselves from it, and while half
of the New World tolerates its impotent maxims, the other rises up
against the danger.
To wish for peace and union among the the Papists, is it not to cast
discords and exterminations against the numberless dissidents, sons,
as are they, of the Great Architect of the Universe1?
1 Religious Statistics.
There are, on the earth, a little over a billion men, who are distributed
as follows:
152
Europe................................................170,000,000
Asia and New Holland ...................550,000,000
Africa .................................................130,000,000
Americas ...........................................150,000,000
Total ...................................................1,000,000,000
What do these billion people do? What do they think? What is their lot
in life, their state of enlightenment or ignorance, of happiness or
misfortune?
Some are Jews, who number .............................................. 9,000,000

Other Christians, who number ....................................... 170,000,000
Other Muslims, who have number ..................................155,000,000
A fourth part which is not made up of Muslims,
nor Christians, nor Jews; but which includes
the Chinese, the Indians and the inhabitants
of Oceania, etc., etc., amounts to …………………………..666,000,000
Total ......................................................................................1,000,000,000
Thus, 845 million people are not Muslims, and are nevertheless people.
830 million are not Christians and are no less people.
991 million are not Jews and are still people.
Lastly, 666 million are neither Jews, nor Christians nor Muslims and are
still people.
You see that there are thus a billion humans separated and divided by
their beliefs!
Christians, Jews and Muslims reciprocally scorn and hate each other, and
have made war since their beginnings. All are exterminated in the name
of heaven!
The six hundred and sixty-six other millions continue to show more
tolerance; but they are scorned by the first three beliefs that scorn each
other.
153
Thus, you see all the inhabitants of the globe, who live in a state of
trouble and religious dissension, without doubt, quite contrary to the
wishes of good sense, nature and the creator of the universe.
God has certainly not made them from scratch to tear each other apart
and slit each other’s throats.
He has certainly given them reason to enlighten them, a heart to love
one another, without which there would be contradiction, madness and
cruelty in the creation.
Who has set disruption among these billion people?
Who has given them different gods and contrary religions? Who has
rendered them treacherous, insane, backstabbing, persecuting and
miserable?
This is a secret that the history of each people reveals to those who
know how to read it.
Who can reconcile them, to make them tolerate, love and help each
other?
This is precisely that great secret that Free Masonry solely possesses, and
which it is charged to teach.
This Institution, which has taken its source from the ancient mysteries,
is the school of all the virtues, the link between all peoples, the relief of all
the unfortunate; it makes men ever remember that mortals are brothers,
since they have the same origin and the same end; it teaches them not to
give themselves any laws but those that are gentle, upright and fraternal.
(Extracted from de l'Univ. Maçon).
According to an 1845 work on the State of French Protestantism there
were, in 1815, two reformed churches which had had 464 ministers. In
1830, there number had risen to 527; in 1843, to 677, and now it has
passed 700.
Under the Empire the budget of the Protestant Church was 306,000
francs; under the Restoration, it rose to 676,000 francs; in 1843, it had
attained the figure [French, chiffre, figure also means cipher] of 1,219,000
francs.
The number of temples has also increased; but there are still 111
localities that are without one.
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After this orison, whose commencement has a source so pure

and moving, and whose purpose has been so monstrously falsified,
has been, and we doubt it not, the pretext for the foolish crusades
and the religious massacres, the burning of John Huss, the
banishment of Olavide, the martyrdom of Jacques de Molay, and
the murder of Calas1, the celebrant says:
Remember, eternal, living and true God, your servants and
handmaidens, N. and N. (here the sacrificer names those for whom
he especially offers the sacrifice) and of all who are present and those
who are dear to them, for the redemption of their souls, the hope for their
salvation [French, salut], and to render you their homage.
In this memento, we easily distinguish both the form of natural
religion and the overburdening of artificial religion.
Of the 60 million Protestants spread over the globe, France counts

around 4 million.
The most widespread religions are:
1st The Christian religion, divided into 3 principal branches:
The Roman Catholic Church which counts 130 to 140 million adherents;
The Protestant Churches, 60 million.
The Greek Churches, beyond 55 million;
2nd The Jewish Religion, whose adherents are divided into Talmudists
and Karaites, at the number of about 5 or 6 million.
3rd Mohammedanism or Islam, divided into two great sects, and which
counts 100 to 120 million adherents.
4th The religion of Brahma.
5th The religion of Buddha.
6th The religion of the Dalai Lama.
These last four religions, with their numberless branches, occupy

almost all of Asia, that is to say they count almost 500 million adherents.
1 Jan Juss and Jerome of Prague, were burnt alive at the Council of Prague;
Olavides was condemned by the Spanish Inquisition to exile and piteous

mummeries. Jacques Molay and John Calas are too well known to be
spoken of here.
155
NATURAL RELIGION. Here is the form: eternal, living and true

God; and again, I must bring light upon this according to the lights
of Freemasonry:
True God, that is to say, I do not invoke the gods of gold or
silver, the vain pretences of nations, fashioned by the hands
of imposters, and who have mouths and speak not, who have
ears and eyes that neither hear nor see; who have feet but know
not how to walk1.
Living God, that is to say, I do not invoke the bull of Apis dying
and resuscitating in a week; nor the Dalai Lama, with his sacred
excrements that the cretins of Tibet think are immortal.
Eternal God, that is to say, I invoke none but the Great Architect
of the Universe; yes, the maker of heaven and earth; the creator of
all things, visible and invisible, and finally, he who, sole, has no
need for his name to be known; he is the sole eternal, living and true
God.
The purity of the primitive form is found again in the homage of
the initiates, offered to the eternal, living and true God by the
hierophant.
ARTIFICIAL RELIGION. The ancient dogma of another life, the
pains and rewards after death, are inserted in this memento; the
dogma that the Egyptians transmitted to the Greeks and the
Greeks to the Romans; the dogma that beat down the weak, and
was oppressive in the hands of adroit tyrants; the dogma that
placed upon the map the absurdities of Styx, Cocytus and Acheron;
the dogma that, long afterwards invented donations, indulgences
and absolutions; the consoling dogma for those to whom it
promised the hope of a valley of peace and refreshment at the end of
an unhappy life.
1 See In Exitu Israel Aegypto.
156
The words for the redemption of their souls, demonstrates the

insertion of this dogma at the moment of the Canon of the mass.
Concerning the addition of for the hope of their salvation [French,
salut] and their preservation, this supplication can have no
connection except with the bodily health and preservation of those
present. In fact, if it had been here a question of the spiritual health
and preservation, what need would there be to make it precede the
vow for someone for the redemption of their souls? It would have
been a pleonasm inadmissible in the mouth of a priest of the
Eternal.
Moreover, the form of this prayer can be seen as highly
improper: is it respectful to say to God: Remember [French,
Souvenez-vous]?
When the memento has been recited, the celebrant concerns
himself with the success of the sacrifice, Jesus Christ, the virgin,
the Apostles and all the saints, of which only a few have the honour
of being named1. He remembers that if this offering is received, it
will be due to the merits and prayers of the people.
Here, under modern rust, we find a precious fragment of the
religious arts of antiquity which, like the roving horses of Corinth,
was carried into Phoenicia, Arabia, Egypt, Greece and Pagan
Rome, etc, and at last into the Christianised world. The modern
pontiff invokes the Sun, the moon the twelve signs of the zodiac
and the numberless stars by the side of their architect and their
driving force [French, moteur], which is ours, to ensure the success
of the oblation and the vows which accompany it.
This invocation, in the manner of Sabianism, in fact, brings in a
venerability, but not that which is addressed to Saints
1 It is said that the Roman Church honours more than 200,000 saints.
157
Bartholomew1, Matthew, Lin, Clet, Sixtus, Chrysogonus and the

other illustrious unknowns.
Thus into the pure morale, those alloys which diminish its value
are almost always mixed; only the chemist possesses the art of
separating them, and if I am permitted to borrow a vulgar simile
to speak upon such a sublime subject, I will say:
‘Of all the remedies for passions, sound morale is the most
salutary and efficacious; but, by misfortune, there are many who
are big children, to whom it is impossible to make this understood
without sugar, whippings and fables; to those who would heal
them, but whom these big children nevertheless reject, I say:
promise them trivial things or threaten them with Blue Beard, and
they will swallow it.’
Thus in the ancient mysteries, one sacrificed to Isis or to her

subordinate deities; to the Bona Dea and her celestial matrons to
arrive at the knowledge of Knef [French, Cnef], of the Demiourgos,
of the Great Architect of the Universe.
Thus our philosophic grades, the most elevated in wisdom, are
here and there put together as mosaics of the sublime truths and
pitiable absurdities; of fraternal love of the human race and the
horrible passion of hereditary revenge; of that which is eternal in
all hearts and in all ages, and that which has been insanity in
certain races at certain times; of the symbols that preserve the
sciences themselves and foretell that the edifice of the spirit of man
shall not fall into ruin; and the hieroglyphs whose explanations do
not demean it or befoul it, if the adepts proceed with this vile and
misleading bait of growing rich by the use of hermetic formulae; of
1 This is a corruption of the word Bar-Ptolomaios, son of Ptolemy.
158
the precepts of the most renowned moralists that Saint John

summed in saying these words only: Love yourselves as brothers;
and those professed higher Masonic degrees, hallways of discords,
firebrands of Jesuitism, miasmas of rebellions, destined, under the
alter of the social virtues, to devastate the world in times of
misfortune.
It is necessary to say again that this crowd of grades that are
called Masonic bear the mark of the times in which they were
designed or altered, from which we must conclude:
1st That the first degrees date from the placing of the first stone of
the temple of natural religion in the human heart by the Great
Architect.
2nd That the Hebraic Degrees date to and were carved in the
centuries and among the people who were friends of Biblical
literature.
3rd That the Chivalric degrees were constructed in the bizarre,
fanatic and glorious reigns of the chivalry of the Templars and the
Teutonic peoples.
4th And that the Political Degrees, fashioned by ambitious chisels,
are rejected in every Masonic structure; the matter which makes
them up, a mix of marble, gold and crystal in appearance, is only
there to crack and crumble the temples of universal brotherhood.
159
CHAPTER XVII
Further on the Canon. – Purification of the cult. – Consecration of the
bread and the wine. – Similarity between this liturgy and that of pagan
Rome at the principal epoch of sacrifice. – Sensible explanation of the
prayer to God and his Son. – The origin of the consecration of the offering
of bread and of wine shown in the mass of the pagans1. – On Moses,
Moise, and Mises: on the Passover at which the reformed Hebrews and
biblical Masons have substituted the Last Supper, hope of the harvest.
After having satisfied the reigning prejudices concerning the

existence of secondary and intermediary powers, the celebrating
hierophant enters the holy of holies. He asks for peace throughout
this life and happy immortality and protection from eternal pains;
and here is a profound memento of the ancient mysteries.
He prays to the unique God to accept this offering of bread and
wine as a sacrifice by which the assembly renders a reasonable and
spiritual cult; and this is the purification of the cult and the return
toward the original perfection.
He says, O God, make it certain that our offering becomes, for you, the
body and blood of your best loved son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who, on the
evening of the passion, took the bread in his holy and venerable hands,
and, who raised them toward you, O God, his all powerful father, giving
1 From Latin, pagus (village).

Nobody was called pagan before the young Theodosius (Vth century of
the Common Era). This name was given to the inhabitants of the villages
and market towns of Italy that preserved their ancient religion.
160
thanks to you and blessing the bread; he broke it and gave it to the
disciples, saying: TAKE AND EAT ALL OF THIS, FOR THIS IS MY
BODY1.
Before finding reason in these magic words, I will say, in order to
better confirm the similarity that exists between the ancient and
modern liturgy, that at the solemn sacrifices of the Roman Pagans,
at the most religious moment of the offering, hymns were sung
and the execution was carried out while pieces of soft music were
played; the censer, turning to the altar, let out fumes of sacred
scent; the vapours of the incense were mixed with the sounds of
flutes which were named, for that reason, thuraires; and I will add
that this usage is preserved at the times of raising at the high masses.
Let us take our spirits toward the words of consecration, and to
their whole attach the modern emblem of Dominus sol, from God
Sun [French, Soleil], from the son of the father, of Adonis, son of
Adonai and Adonaia2.
Here is re-established the candour of the primitive cult. Let us
explain the preceding obsecration, O God make it sure that, etc.
‘Great Architect of the Universe, father of all things, make it that
this bread and wine, nourished by your dear son, the Sun [French,
Soleil] will leave us never! That this pure offering should unite the
creature of the creator by the links of a continual blessing and a
constant thankfulness! And you, Sun [French, Soleil], son of the
unique god, having undergone, through him, the phases (as they
appear to our feeble senses) of death and annual resurrection,
1 A faithful interpretation [French, expressions fidèles] of the Canon of the

mass.
2 An epithet of Venus, likewise of Astarte, the Sidonian divinity; her
horned head signified the crescent of the moon; her mantle, the royal
dignity, her sceptre surmounted by a cross, her dominion over the earth.
Adonaia has become in turns Astarte, Venus, Isis, Moon, Cybele, Earth,
Ceres, Magna Mater, Mater Rhea and Maria.
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bring about the nourishment of the human race spread out over
the two hemispheres 1 ; you, monarch of the twelve signs of
prosperity and adversity, who, on the eve of your passion, that is to
say, your passage into the inferior dominions, have filled the earth
with fruits, in order that men can live until your next return; you,
great star, whose body, without like among all the bodies known
by our narrow understanding 2 , have given life to the material
molecules, have made fecund those objects bound to the house of
sterility, and have enlightened those sad countries groaning under
the empire of darkness; it is not blasphemy to think and to say, on
behalf of those hearts offering a sacrifice of understanding, that the
homage may please you that you may be as agreeable, and more
than that, emanate these things from your glimmering body, from
the influence of your reproductive nature.’
Illustrious epopts 3 , I explain thus the allegory of the sacred
bread; with the same solution as regards the wine. Far from
shocking the reason, it seems to me that it satisfies it. Let us agree
likewise that if it is researched with calm and unveiled with tact,
as people of like mind, we will avoid the deplorable disputes and
the infamous exterminations, upon the subject of the communion
under two types and of the real, mental or figurative presence.
The origin of the consecration of bread and wine is uncovered in
the sacrifices of the ancient pagans.
1 This alternating invocation of the father and son brings to mind the
theogony of the Peruvians: Pachacamac was their invisible and rational
god; the Sun, their visible and material god.
2 The diameter of the sun is 109 and ¼ and its volume is 1,300,000 times
the diameter and the volume of the Earth.
3 That is to say, the contemplator-initiates [French, contemplateur,
contemplator, also means adorer or idoliser] in the great mysteries, had
the right, consequently, to see all (optomai, ΟΠΤΟΜΑΙ, in Greek, means
to see). We call the great mysteries Époptiques.
162
Despite the demoralisation of the cult of the principle-religion

which consisted only of the offering of the fruits; although upon
the altar in the age of gold, the blood of men and animals was
made to flow, we see some vestiges of the chaste cult in the like
offering of the sacrificial victims. A light description of these
ceremonies that these monsters preserved proves this with
evidence. The initiate to the mysteries of the belief will be shocked
by the transposition that the liturgists have dared to make in the
oblation of the harvest [French, moisson] (the mass), that is, the type
of the restoration of the primitive cult, that is to say, of the original
Masonry.
COMPARISON OF THE SACRIFICE OF THE PAGANS. We have
demonstrated first of all that those who offered were chaste and
that they ought not to contract any blemish. The outfit of the
sacrificer was white, in albis et candidis1 [Latin, in white and shining].
When the service begins, the non-initiates, by the guards (the
brothers called Tylers [French, frères couvreurs]), are moved away
1 ‘The Greek church never excludes from the altar those who have had
the operation of Origen without their consent.
‘The patriarchs of Constantinople, Nicetas, Ignatius, Photios and
Methodius made themselves eunuchs to be chaste.
‘The banishment of eunuchs from the service of the altars appears
rather in the spirit of the purity and likewise the chastity that this service
requires; but those who have made the laws have decided this for
reasons of convenience and propriety.
‘In Leviticus all those who have defects of the body, the blind, the
hunchbacked, the dwarves, the one armed, the lame, the one-eyed, the
scabby, the sufferers of ringworm, long noses, squashed noses are
excluded from priestly service. The book has not spoken of eunuchs;
there were none among the Jews. Those who served as eunuchs in the
harems [French, serials] (1) of the kings, were foreigners.’
163
pro fano, that is to say, outside the temple or church; this is where
we got the word profane1.
The minor initiates, like neophytes entering into the middle
chamber, cannot see the sanctuary, adytum; the new ritual has
preserved the ancient pavete ad sanctuarium Dei [Latin, have fear
before the sanctuary of God].
The animals destined for the sacrifice are called victims, from the
Latin word victus, nourishment, and hosts, for the word hostia,
bread consecrated or to be consecrated, o salutaris hostia [Latin, O
hosts of health] in the modern rite2.
On the head of the victim, the priest placed a cake of wheat
flower, a laying on called immolatio (immolation), from mola, cake,
immolatus est victus [Latin, the victim is immolated] in the modern
rite.
Next he tastes sacred wine, and gives of it to drink to those
present, and makes, moreover, a libation, that is to say an offering
to Liber, the epithet of Bacchus-liberator, saviour, redeemer, Christ,
who is analogous with Liber of Idumea, who has sometimes been
confounded with Moses and the Sun, and who, as the initiate of
the mysteries of the Earth (Rhea), teaches men to seed the grain
and plant the vine, immolatus est Christus [Latin, Christ is immolated]
in the modern rite.
The pagan sacrificer washed his hands, recited the prayers and
prostrated himself; he picked himself up again, raised the palms of
his hands toward heaven, stretched them over the host, turned to
those present, offered the wine and the incense to the divinities of
heaven, diis superis [Latin, to the gods above], he then addressed
1 In Masonic language, this word is not injurious, we say, the profane

gentleman [French, gentilhomme, does not express the same high level of
respect as the English word, gentleman], to refer to a free man with good
morals, not initiated, but capable of being initiated.
2 See Chapter 15, from the paragraph on the Hebrew Messiah.
164
thrice the word to them, as in the sanctus of the mass1; then, making
again the libations, he discharged those present with the words:
licet ex templo [Latin, it is permitted from the temple] (exire [Latin, to go
out] is only suggested), that is to say, it is permitted to leave the
temple, the sacrifice is finished; this expression of parting, for
which ite missa est [Latin, go, the mass is finished] is substituted (dicta
[Latin, these things are said] is only suggested), has not changed its
meaning, in borrowing from other sounds; be vigilant and be pure
[French, veillez et soyez purs], the formula for parting given by the
hierophant to the Orphic initiates, the formula of the Worshipful
Master in closing the works of the symbolic lodge at full midnight,
the formula preserved in the offices of the evening prayers in their
ancient integrity fratres, sobrii estote et viglate, my brothers, be
discreet and vigilant.
By the connections I have now made, I think [French, crois] that I
have proved that despite the alterations, the blemishes and the
amalgamations, that the cult practised in the ancient mysteries has
been handed down to us; and thus it is the ritual of the offering of
the bread and the wine which annually and each day fills us, nos
hominess et propter nostrum salutem [Latin, for us men and for the sake
of our health], Knef [French, Cnef], the Demiurgos, Yaho, Jehovah,
Jupiter, Pachacamac, the unique father, the rational God, the Great
Architect of the Universe and his best loved son, the god that can
be sensed, the Sun.
If the consecration of the offering in the ritual of the modern
belief does not resemble, stroke by stroke that of the offerings of
the earliest times recognised by history, if the unique and simple
background of its light and gracious veil has been embroidered,
enlarged upon, complicated with colours, obscured by decorative
details, it is no less sensible to trained eyes that the will-o'-the-wisp
of superstition has not blinded; these trained eyes still see the
1 See Chapter 14, from the paragraph on Sabaoth.
165
primordial form of the chaste offering of the first fruits of the

harvest1 [French, moisson] everywhere, even through the vapours
of sacrilegious incense.
1 Before Joshuah, the Israelites had used, as they admit themselves,

many of the Egyptian customs; they imitated them in many sacrifices and
in many ceremonies, as in the fast that was observed on the eve of the
Feast of Isis, the ablutions, and the custom of shaving the heads of
priests; the incense (2), the candelabra, the sacrifice of the cow, the
purification with hyssop, abstinence from pork, the horror of the kitchen
utensils of foreigners, circumcision (3), all these attest that the Hebrew
people, during the two-hundred year sojourn in Egypt, had, despite their
aversion for the Egyptian nation, retained an infinity of customs from
their ancient masters. The goat Hazazel, that was sent into the desert,
loaded with the sins of the people, was an evident imitation of the
Egyptian practice; the rabbis agree likewise that the word hazazel is not
Hebrew.
We shall now speak of circumcision: Clement of Alexandria tells us that
when Pythagoras travelled among the Egyptians, he was obliged to have
himself circumcised to be admitted to their mysteries; he had to be
circumcised to be among the number of the Egyptian priests.
It is said, in the book of Joshuah, that the Jews were circumcised in the
desert: I have delivered you from what constituted your reproach among the
Egyptians. They have, until the present, preserved this custom, to which
the Arabs also have always been faithful because Mahommedans
adopted the ancient circumcision of Arabia. But the Egyptians, who, in
the earliest times, circumcised the boys and the girls, in time ceased to
perform this operations on girls; they limited it at last to priests,
astrologers and prophets; it is not clear that the Ptolemies ever received
circumcision.
This ceremony seems at first very strange; but it must here be remarked
that, at all times, the priests of the Orient have consecrated themselves to
their divinities by particular marks: an ivy leaf was indented with a
graver upon the priests of Bacchus. Lucian says that the devotees of the
goddess Isis impressed her hieroglyphs on their wrists and necks. The
166
Moses, Moïse, was seen by some authors as an imaginary

character; by others as a badly retouched image of the Indian,
Ethiopian, Egyptian or Phrygian Bacchus 1 ; by others as one of
those rare men to whom heaven has given the gift of liberty for the
sake of peoples crushed by a foreign yoke; Moses, initiate in the
eminent degrees of the science of the magi or Kohens of Memphis,
carried over, in his legislation, the feast of the rebirth of spring, of
the Sun entering at that time the sign of the lamb of God, agnus Dei,
the anniversary of the arrival, advent, adventus, that these magi
celebrated by the offering of the fruits, except in so much as the
long and oppressive servitude of the Israelites had degraded them
to the point that they could not see the purity of such an oblation;
it was permitted to include the victim, victus, of a new born lamb,
the emblem of the sign of the Ram, the image of the Sun making
the world fecund at spring2.
The Hebrews, adapting this amalgamation, nevertheless added,
in the absence of the legislator and before the beard of his brother
Aaron, their high priest, the ceremonies of the Apis bull, Taurus or
golden calf; so difficult is it to overcome the yoke of filthy habits. It
priests of Cybele made themselves eunuchs, for fear of violating their

vows of chastity.
It is therefore highly probable that the Egyptians, who revered the
instrument of human generation, and bore its image in the pomp of their
processions, imagined that they offered to Osiris and Isis, through whom
all things were engendered on earth, a small portion of the organ by
which the gods had wished that the human race might perpetuate itself.
Just as Isis was offered the first fruits of the earth, likewise it was
thought a duty to offer her, by circumcision, the first fruits of the fruit of
life.
1 In the Orphic verses he is given the epithet Bacchus Mises, truly a
neighbour of Moses.
2 See the Ceremonies of the Passover of the Hebrews.
167
was necessary for the reforming and reformed Jews to expend

much time and trouble to succeed in replacing Passover with the
Last Supper, the victim of the lamb by the host of wheat. And still, in
our days, some grades of biblical Masonry are pleased to ape the
Passover of Moses by re-establishing the sacred butchery while
using the imposing title of Great Reformers.
Poor humans! with what do you amuse yourselves? You are
going to depart, and your children remain!
1. From serai, apartment [French, appartement, can mean both a

chamber, or a slicing off].
2. Without the aid of herbs and spices, the religion of the ancients,
in which the temples were the butcher’s shops, would have
produced plague on account of the number of animal sacrifices.
3. From Latin, circumcisio, formed from circum, about, and cedere,
to cut.
168
CHAPTER XVIII
Further on the Canon. – The words of the Last Supper [French, Cène]. – The
Mass, at first celebrated at night. – The French and Scottish Rose Croix and
of the Grand Écossais Philosophique, compared with the chaste offering. –
Induction of the solar cult furnished by the very words of the canon of
the Mass. - On that which it is natural to think of the beliefs of those who
solemnise the words. – The degeneration of the cult at the beginning of
the IInd century. – The opinion of the Greeks and the Romans concerning
the dead. – Egyptians and Guanches. - Manes, larves, lemures. – The
Elysian Fields [French, Champs Elysées].
According to the Evangels, Jesus, before his death, restored the

purity of the primitive offering of the Mosaic Passover during the
Last Supper: he said, here is my body, here is my blood, while
distributing bread and wine to his initiates.
Saint Paul says, in Corinthians, that these Apostles assembled, at
night to eat the Last Supper of the Lord. The Acts of the Apostles
reports, chapter 20, that the disciples assembled for the breaking of
the bread. It was not until toward the end of the second century
that the ritual, enriched with astronomic secrets, dictated the
celebration of the mass in the morning. It took place the day after
the Sabbath, as it does today, so as not to be celebrated at the same
time and together with the Jews.
I have the benefit of being a seer [French, voyant, means luminous,
clairvoyant, loud] in the grades, formerly considered superior and
now considered ordeals, in which the animal Passover of the
Israelites and the frugal offering of the primitive theist institutions
169
are joined and represented. I do not fix attention or provoke

attention to the Jewish Passover in any way except to note the
respect due to a ceremony practised by the noblest people of the
human race, since it is they who have uniquely preserved it intact
from the blemishes of time, and for the grades preserved in the
Scottish and French rites. I am uncertain whether to say that the
Rose Croix, Prince or Knight, is an ordeal of high wisdom, or the
product of delirious fanaticism. But that which strikes me, in the
bizarre construction of this order, is that in it one can see the traces
of the oblation to the Great Architect of the Universe as it was
practised in times of reason.
I respect the Grand Écossais of the Philosophic Rite; its
interconnected parts offer me a fairly intact representation of the
primitive cult, of the fraternal sharing of the nourishing gifts after
the offering of gratitude, and the dignity of the pontiff-king among
his family; this is a dignity deferred to by the sage, and the living
and visible image of his generosity, of the justice of the father of all
things.
Despite the innovations of imposters, the form of the principle
religion is therefore inalterable, since the innocent oblations,
completely veiled and blood drenched as they have been, are
preserved in their integrity at the bottom of the secret tabernacle of
which consciousness is the key. When the animal victims and the
degrading passions are separated, there remains only the offering
agreeable to the Great Architect, the same gift that we have
received from him when at last, following the words of the canon
of the mass, there remains the host without blemish, holy host,
sacred bread of life that has no end and the cup of eternal health.
We owe these gifts to you, unique father, and to your son, of
whom we here celebrate the MEMORY of his suffering, of his
resurrection from the tomb, of his victory over hell, and his glorious
ascension into heaven (the words of the canon of the mass); because,
if the Sun remained, in the hells, in the lower signs, there would be
170
no more gifts, no more nourishment, no more living races to carry

through to fruition the germinating egg of civilisation. In his
passion or passage, that is to say, in the interval of his entry into
the lower signs and his exit; in his seeding and uneasy hope; in his
resurrection, germination and fortified hope; after his ascension,
there is the harvest and full hope.
Accept (the word used by the canon of the mass), accept, Lord, this
chaste offering, as it pleased you to accept the gifts of the just ABEL, the
sacrifice of the Patriarch ABRAHAM and the that of your high priest
MELCHIZEDEK (three characters which the Bible mentions as
sacrificers at three epochs of increase or degeneration of the
Hebraic cult).
I believe I have returned the sacrifice of the offering to its chaste
origin that characterises its pure simplicity. Few of the priests who
celebrate it, and few of the initiates who meet together, question
the sublime intelligence that it contains; these are the practical, not
the theoretical Masons: extra, et non intra velum [Latin, beyond, and
not within the veil]; they should be considered quasi geniti infantes
[Latin, as newborn babies,] and this verse should not be applied to
them: ecce sacerdos magnus, inventus est justus [Latin, behold the great
priest, who has been found just].
The mass, to modern people living in a perfect civilisation, is that
which the great secrets of Eleusinian Ceres, the mystery par
excellence were to Greek high initiates. If he who presides over the
ceremony does not believe in what he is solemnising, he is a priest
that society in general ought to watch closely, and whom the
heads of families should never lose sight of; if he discovers nothing
beneath the appearance of the bread and wine, understand the
sacrificer to be as vulgar as the drivers and butchers of the animal
victims of pagan Rome because reason, the high priest of everyone,
has shut his mouth forever. If the priest believes that the recurring
wonder of nature is a miracle which would not happen if he did
not pronounce certain magic words in their written order, then
171
you have a fanatic who, to speak prudently, it is best to banish,

and that those who care for the public health ought to watch and
disengage from all contact with the flock [French, s’égreger], especially
at religiously pestilent times.
But if the celebrant believes in Knef [French, Cnef], or Demiourgos,
the being that Alexander Pope names father of all ages, whatever be
his name1, as that architect who made the heaven and the earth; in
him who, each day, sustains his creatures and who submits all his
momentary and long lived creations to a system of eternal
movement, to whom thereby spirit and matter, which make up the
human race, ought to give thanks; if, I say, this celebrant offers to
the unique God the homages and vows of the sages of every type,
with a heart as pure as the fruits that he consecrates, as the hands
he has washed in his presence, as the white brilliance of the amict
which he wears, then this is a priest of the rank of Melchizedek, the
perfect initiate into the most holy mysteries, the representative of
the Great Architect of the Universe2.
It was in the second century, from the year 110 of the incarnation,
that the simple fabric of the new belief was burdened with the
ancient embroidery of the discredited cults. The Greeks and the
Romans admired the opinions of the Egyptians with regard to the
dead: The Aeneid consecrated them by its immortality.
These peoples, heirs of one another, as well as of nations that had
come before, admired the same beliefs, the same mistakes, and the
same religious ceremonies3. Here is their system:
1 Father of all! every [sic] age, Jehovah, Jove or lord. [Translator’s note.
This note appears thus in English in the original].
2 Ecce sacerdos magnus! In diebus illis, placuit Deo et inventus est justus
[Latin, Behold the high priest! In those days he pleased God and was found just].
3 These ceremonies subsisted in the ancient religions before the
Christians adopted them. Tertullian provides evidence for this when he
says that the idolaters use the same ceremonies and divine sacraments in
172
10 Death separates the soul from the body.

20 The soul, upon departing the body, is liable for the pains and
rewards it deserves.
The Egyptians believed in the resurrection of bodies. Their
mummies prove as much without need of further evidence. The
very ancient people of the Canary Islands, the Guanches, evidently
their mysteries; that they administer the baptism to the initiates, and give
assurance that this ceremony effaces sins; that the sectarians of Mithras
are in the habit of making the sign of the cross on their forehead; that
they celebrate the oblation of bread; that they believe in the resurrection,
and that those that are the victims of their attachment to their
religion,obtain the crown of the martyr. Tertullian also speaks about the
resemblance of the rites established by Numa with those of the Christians.
(De Praescriptione Haereticorum, chapter 40).
Saint Justin tells us the same facts at about the same time; he says that,
in the Mysteries of Mithras, the consecration of bread and wine was used,
as well as the distribution of the bread and the cup. (Saint Justin,
Apollinaris).
These two fathers of the church are not at all embarrassed to explain the
cause of this shocking resemblance; they both say that before the
establishment of Christianity and the ceremonies of that religion, the devil
taught them to the pagans in order to rival God and harm the cult of the
Christians. (See also the Memoires of Anquetil on the books of the Zend
Avesta and the Memoires on the Academy of Inscriptions. Volume. 28,
p.237).
Dom Antonio de Solis has recorded that baptism, confession,
communion, jubilees, processions, the use of incense and even the title of
pope, given to the head sacrificer, existed among the Mexicans before the
arrival of the Christians in America. He assures us also that it was the
devil who was the author of these inventions. (History of the Conquest of
Mexico, Book 3).
173
had the same belief; the great number of bodies dried out in the air
of their high mountains indicates this1.
In the Egypto-Greco-Roman theology, the souls, separated from
the body, were called manes; some of the just were on the earth,
they were not able to obtain a place of peace or of refreshments if their
bodies were deprived of funeral rites. The souls of the wicked
(larvae, lemures) wandered here and there, terrifying the living,
except the priests. How many charlatans made a living off these
Fables, so often brought back to life! How many naïve people did
the apparition of good people deprived of burial rites terrify! How
many imbeciles have there been that imitated Pius Aeneas and the
Trojans burying Palinurus2!
To refresh ourselves from these miseries, let us savour, my
Brothers, the seductive charms of the paradise of the pagans, their
place of peace and refreshment at the end of that life; let us enter, led
by Orpheus and his virtuous shade into a sojourn into the Elysian
Fields [French, Champs Elysées].
There, an eternal spring reigns; the breath of the wind blows not
but to spread out the scent of the flowers. A new sun and new
stars are not veiled by the clouds. The fragrant hedged farmland,
forests of rose bushes and myrtle protect us with their fresh foliage,
the fortunate shades. The nightingale has, solely, the right to sing
there of pleasure; he is not interrupted except by the moving
voices of the great poets and celestial musicians. Lethe flows with
1 It is without doubt that the Carthaginian ships reached the Isles of the
Blessed, and this is the dogma of the resurrection of the body.
2 Virgil, in the 6th book [French, chant] of the Aeneid, tells the story of
Palinurus (Bali-Nour, light of the sun), fallen head long from the vessel he
piloted (Osiris, the Apollo of the Egyptians, piloted a vessel rather than a
chariot). Palinurus, victim of Typhon (the sea) descended to the hells; but
he could not pass Acheron because he had not received burial: the gods,
by miracles [French, prodiges], had it given to him.
174
a soft murmur, and its waves make us forget the sorrows of life. A
land of love renews its produce three times a year and presents,
alternately, flowers and fruits. No more trouble, no more old age.
We preserve forever the age at which we were most happy and
add the pleasures that charmed us in life1.
After such a ravishing description, the best we can do is to
dream…. It is full midnight.
1 See Dictionnaire de la Fable, Noël, 1805 edition, on the word Champs-

Élysées.
175
CHAPTER XIX
Further on the Canon. – Hells of the pagans. - Epoch of the introduction of
prayers for the dead and the obstacles that it overcame. – Its deplorable
results. – On the Memento of the dead, for which they sleep the sleep of
peace. – Funeral services named Denicales by the Romans. – Funeral
celebrations of the Masons. - Description of this unity in the Rite Écossais
Philosophique. – A word on the true philosophy and on the Hermetic
philosophy. – On the true light which transmits the customs of the
precepts ab ovo [Latin, from the egg] from the centuries to the centuries.
The pagans of antiquity certainly did not owe the complete

revelation of the charms of the Elysian Fields to a sole poetic mind
or to a sole prophetic tripod, no matter how Fénelon and Jean-
Jacques have portrayed them.
If the pagans invented a delicious utopia for the benefit of
virtuous shades, they imagined an equally terrifying sojourn for
the wicked. I think that the hope of seeing the tranquil Lethe flow
and the terror of being swallowed up in the dungeons of Tartarus
had as great an effect on souls living long ago, as those hopes and
terrors which can produce paradise or hell for the souls of the
living today.
The beginning of a new life, after the conclusion [French,
dénouement] of the first one, was of such importance in the
sentiments of the pagans that they established expiatory festivals
for the benefit of the dead called Lemuriae.
It was, I repeat, in the second age of the new belief that the pagan
custom of performing the commemoration of the dead was
176
introduced into the assembly or synaxis. This intromission was

highly disapproved of by the top leadership [French, hauts
dirigeants] of the nascent cult, as a sacrilegious imprint fashioned
after the cult of the false gods.
Nevertheless, the innovation was implanted by the pagans who
were introduced into the arch that had been purged from the
absurdities of former times, and there it took root. It was protected
by the habits of the partakers of the new mysteries, who, having
the sumptuous magnificences of paganism before their eyes, lost
their taste for the simplicity of the nascent rite; they thought (and
their astute leaders preferred this opinion that had gained so much
for the priests of the idols) that it was important to the success of
the rite to cover it with more glimmering and splendid
ceremonies1.
Was it thus, that the forecourt and the middle chamber, that were
sufficient for the works of the first Masons, were later followed by
magnificent sanctuaries out of proportion with the base of the
heart and the elevation of the spirit? How many riches were
dissipated to ornament these pitiable absurdities! The calf may be
of gold, said Moses, but it is still a calf.
However, the mention of the name of a person defunct in the faith
was only tolerated when the relatives demanded bread and fruit
for the peace of the soul, that is to say manes, larvae or lemures.
As it was said that the soul, after death, did not enjoy the sight of
God until after the last judgement, and that, until then, it remained
oppressed in the subterranean places, the celebrant of the synaxis
therefore prayed to the Great Architect of the Universe to alleviate
the burden of the soul of the initiate and to be propitious or
merciful to him at the great day of universal justice.
1 See the year 300 in the Traité des Anciennes Ceremonies, la Haye’s
edition, 1629.
177
Very soon afterward, this custom was adopted, as a good whiff of

what was to come [French, comme de bonne odeur], of making annual
legacies to churches for which were derived the funeral ceremonies,
the peals of bells, the cross of wood or the cross of silver, the stretcher, the
hearse (cart or carriage); the inhumation with music in a low voice with
torches or mute; then the obit, the septains (seven versed strophes) and
trentains (masses on the thirtieth day after death), expiatory masses with
collects for the repose of the soul, kissing the paten of the priest who is
paid on this paten or on the plate of the assistant, and the slavery toward
the furnishing of the dead called Novena; the foundation of pittances on
the tombs or the deprivations of the burial; the imposition of a black star
on the heads of the gullible living, to the benefit of the deceased, initiates
into the mysteries of the other world; the introduction and the
inhumation of the dead in churches and the fees for the lands of repose,
just as for places at the theatre, lastly the bartering of acres here below for
acres in the heights above; the invention of purgatory and the indulgences,
and the little war that is going on today in Paris between the parochial
sacristies and the business sector dealing in funeral pomp.
When we read with care the commemoration of the dead inserted
into the canon of the mass, we find the pitiable enumeration of the
sacerdotal ruses of the pagans.
‘Remember also, Lord, your servants and serving girls N. N.
marked with the sign of faith, having finished their mortal life
before us, rest in the sleep of peace. We supplicate you to accord to
them and to those who rest in Christ, a place of refreshment, light,
and peace.’ So mote it be.
Having already remarked on the impropriety of using the
expression, remember [French, souvenez-vous] the faithful existing
on the earth, I will not speak of the use of the word remember for
the faithful deceased; I will pass on to the examination of what is
at the bottom of this prayer, which is truly a lemuria.
178
Fragments of the Memento
The dead marked with the sign of faith; by this, I understand that
they were initiates who had finished their mortal lives; I induce that
this refers to the outcome of the modern and ancient mysteries in
which we profess the dogma of another life after this first one. This
other life is of retribution without end of joy or of suffering. To rest
in the sleep of peace; these words are written in the Hebraic verse: ‘I
will lay myself to sleep and I will rest in the Lord,’ in Domino
dormiam et requiescam; these verses allow me to understand that the
initiates, the servants of God, that is to say, the worshippers of his
law, have lived in the hope that their manes will not stray here and
there, like those of the wicked, and that they will be calm until the
great day of universal justice. Consequently, the celebrant
implores the merciful god to accord to the manes, especially, in the
way of those who repose in Jesus Christ, that is to say, those of
who are deprived of enjoyment of the benefits of the star of life, the
place for refreshment, light and peace.
Mark well this sojourn, my Brothers, it is not only called a place
of peaceful sleep; notice the fact that it is also a place of refreshment
and of light; thus, by these three words, we enter into the Elysium of
the pagan poets, we experience all that they have written so
poetically, the soft freshness of the hedged farmlands, the
inoffensive light of a new sun. In these delicious places is the land
of the rewards and of the manes who await therein, in peace, for
the last judgement and the eternal and unspeakable ecstasies.
It is not proper to leave this subject without observing that the
Romans, when celebrating their funeral sacrifices and the
solemnities called denicales, ten years after death, purified their
houses (the sacrificers, in black adornments, spraying [French,
aspergeant] lustral water); they transmitted their masses, their
services and their funeral ceremonies to us.
179
In Masonic lodges of noble architecture, it is the custom to say

the memento or the commemoration of the initiates who have died
in the year.
At the lemuraliae of the French Rite, the ceremony of eternal
goodbye is usually made up of a denicalis or black mass, a
procession of brothers, three in front, marching to the house of rest,
and a speech about the dead brother, pronounced on his tomb by
the Worshipful Master or by the Brother Orator.
At the lemuraliae of the Scottish Rite, the religious services are
performed according to the formula of the sect to which the
deceased belonged, and Masonic services are regulated [French,
réglée] as in the French Rite.
In the non-Hermetic Philosophic Scottish Rite, the rite that is
perhaps the closest to the principle religion of the offering without
blemish, despite being veiled with hermetic symbols that hide
[French, dérobent] even from the high initiates, the true (although
unknown in its appearance) means of the transmutation of base
matter into precious metal; the infallible secret of the philosophic
stone, which in its reasonable formula is so simple when used upon
true objects [French, sujets], for it is the elixir, the vanquisher of
diseases and the prolonger of life. In this rite there is, an asylum of
tolerance, a foyer of peace, a hospice for the poor, an altar of
fraternal love, a sanctuary of morale, and a school of tender
thoughts and lawful passions; in this rite, of which the symbols are
neither seen nor understood but by a small number of initiates, it
is permissible for the Masons attached to its rule [French, régime,
also means food diet] to follow, in whatever temple, the mortal
body of his brother, for the impure mouth of the profane and
likewise the impure tongue of the wicked, who remember a good
man, become sacred.
In the darkest month, before the rebirth of the Sun that proceeds
the two days of agony of Evan or John, many lodges call upon their
Hierophant, their Wardens and all their initiates beneath their sad
180
arches. August and sorrowful duty! It is he who assembles the

brothers for the last farewell to the Brothers whom it has pleased
the Great Architect to lift from their last sleep since the first aurora
of the sign of the Lamb until the night that it wipes away in its
course in the sign of the Fishes.
There, the great square receives not but the light that the sombre
rays of a mysterious planet and the scintillation of nocturnal stars:
the Sun, is in the hells; the temple offers the symbols of the void;
the white columns support the larvae; in the middle, under the icy
star, an obelisk is raised on the marble on which are engraved the
names of the initiates whose shades are oppressed in the underground
places1. A funerary cippus supports the allegoric bust of Minos2,
crowned with the leaves of the lotus, the acacia, and of the cypress;
upon the breast of this supreme judge of the shades, the signs of
the Water Carrier, the Twins and the Balance are represented, to
mark for all time, that death seizes the individuals of every age.
In the occident, a triangular pyramid sits on three tiers and is
topped by a cinerary urn ringed about with cypress and laurel
leaves and surmounted by a sepulchral lamp, carrying the names
of deceased Brothers and the emblems of the grades with which
they were invested.
At the foot of the cenotaph, lies a white basket, filled with
wilting flowers; flores, cinis, honores pulvis [Latin, flowers, ash,
honours with dust], such is the emblem of our frail and vain
1 This opinion multiplied the inscription Sit tibi terra levis! May the earth
be light on you!
2 He is said to be a contemporary of Moses; he was the law giving king
of Crete, according to the marbles of Paros, 1482 years before our era. In
the Odyssey, Homer calls him wise councillor of God; he judged souls in
the Hells.
181
existence! In the rear, the black seats are reserved for relatives,
Masons or profanes, of the deceased.
The initiates, covered and dressed for mourning, are seated on
stalls draped in black; their gloomy silence expresses the peace
that rests upon the sojourn of the dead.
A knock, coming from the orient at midnight1, opens the lemuria
in the first degree; this knock is weak, it is the emblem of the birth
of man; the knock at noon is stronger, for it signifies the noon of
one’s age; the knock at occident is almost inaudible, for it
represents the last breath [French, dernier soupir].
As soon as the temple guard proclaims the arrival of the relatives,
the masters of the ceremonies introduce them, and seat them in the
place of honour in the occident behind the cenotaph; at their
entrance, the assembly rises and sits.
Instrumental music, mixed with singing, prepares hearts with
melancholy and tenderness.
The Orator pronounces the memento, the funeral orison.
The Worshipful Master and the Wardens, each, after a knock of
the gavel, rise with the brothers; the relatives remain seated.
The hierophant says thrice: Brother or brothers N.N. are no longer!
And three times, the Bishops (episcopai) who act as Wardens
[French, Surveillants] of the noon and the north, repeat the
sorrowful announcement.
A moment of gathering together our thoughts [French,
recueillement, gathering, is also used for gathering the harvest].
Melancholy music.
The Hierophant, followed by the orator, the secretary and the
high initiates like the Magi from the Orient, descend from the altar,
in order, and stop immediately before the cenotaph, the columns up
and to order; he addresses the Great Architect of the Universe in a
touching prayer, makes the salute of the first sign at the
1 For this ceremony only.
182
mausoleum1 and takes the flowers which he scatters about thrice;

he circles the cenotaph by the north, the occident and noon, and
returning [French, remontant] to the east, stands upright before the
throne; the Magi of the orient return [French, remontent] behind
him after they have observed the same ritual.
Each column, led by a master of ceremonies with the Warden
coming last [French, terminée par le surveillant], who is the base,
continues the spiral turn it has executed in the orient on each side;
and so for the last greeting and the homage of flowers they meet
together, an initiate at each column.
The initiates return to their stalls, the masters of ceremony finish
[French, font terminer] the throwing of flowers by the relatives
whom they lead back to their places.
The Hospitaller-Almoner and the last of the novices, after this
symbolic proclamation, show the charity box for the sufferers of
misfortune to those present.
The families of the deceased retire, led out by the masters of
ceremonies, and, at exact midnight2, the Worshipful Master, closes
the lodge, saying: mortals, retire in peace.
No system [French, régime, also means food or diet] has
produced, in its farewells or the memento of their lemuriae, an
impression more profound than these which solemnise, at the
agony of the Sun, the initiates of the mysteries of Philosophic
Scottish Rite. This night of fraternal mourning carries with its
passage the talisman of a sincere affliction; as much
1 From Mausolus, brother and wife of Artemisia, Queen of Caria, who

did not survive him more than two years; but the artists considered it an
honour and a duty to finish [French, terminer], without demanding any
salary, the monument raised to the memory of Mausolus and which is
called Mausoleum.
2 For this solemnity only.
183
thoughtfulness as virtues scintillating in the bottom of our hearts

as stars from its veil.
In the memento of the Masonic observance, we recognise the sign
of the commemoration of the dead, used in the Egyptian and Greek
mysteries; for if the canon of the mass has preserved within some
traits of the distortion of a falsifying chisel [French, burin], the
Philosophic Scottish Rite has restored the commemoration of the
initiates to its original tracings.
When we arrive at the feriae of the modern belief, I will not
forget that of the day of the deceased and to treat of the funeral
ceremonies fixed by its ritual. I will not say by Jove principium
[Latin, the beginning is from Jupiter], for the principle of each
institution existed previously to Jupiter. If the adage Jovis omnia
plena [Latin, all things are full of Jupiter] becomes indisputable, if I
prove that by the word Jovis [Latin, of Jupiter] the ancients
understood only that which remains from sacred antiquity
without any other monument but the handing down of customs,
then I will draw these conclusions:
1st The customs that men and nations practise today descend by
fractions from the unity of customs practised by men and
unknown earlier peoples.
2nd Thus, the customs and precepts adopted in the mysterious
assemblies of obscure Egypt undoubtedly go back [French,
remontent] many ages and centuries to the predecessors of the
brilliant civilisation of the sons of Osiris; and they are found again
in fragments of truth encrusted in the foundations of the religious
buildings of modern times and form the bases of the columns, the
keys to the arches and sacred stone of the Masonic temple.
3rd Thus, the customs followed the precepts professed by men
and nations of the middle ages, are still, save for some
modifications or substitutions, the customs and precepts of living
men and living nations.
184
It is thus certain that the truth dates from the first day and error
from the first night. The veritable initiates know eminently the
forecourt and the effects of the true light.
185
CHAPTER XX
Further on the Memento of the Canon of the mass. – Funeral ceremonies of
the ancient pagans called Denicales; on their ipsiles and on our
bewitchments [French, envoútements]. – Explanation of this orison of the
Canon.
Let us start by mentioning two ancient ceremonies that the new

Roman ritual has appropriated for itself.
The first was practised at the pagan burials and called vergere
manum [Latin, to turn down the hand]; it consisted of turning back
[French, renverser], the hand armed with a lustrica, an aspergillum,
against the earth toward the left because a denicalis was being
celebrated in which one sacrificed to the infernal gods, the chief of
which was Pluto, who was given the epithet Dyonisios, Denis1. For
the offerings of the god of heaven, the flamen turned the flat of the
1 An ancient poet said: Jupiter [sic] est idem Pluto, sol et Dyonisius [Latin,
Jupiter is likewise Pluto, the sun and Dionysus]. See Don Pernetti, Fables
Égyptiennes et Grecques, volume 2, p.89.
Denys, in Greek Dyonysos, was an epithet of Bacchus, whose
celebrations were called Dionisiacs; they were, like him, a symbol of the
sun in the autumn, represented on ancient spherical representations of
the sky as the man of the constellations who was apparently attracted to,
or seduced (from Latin se ducere, was led), by the heavenly virgin who
held in her hand the branch of autumn and who is represented with head
in front and arms extended, in such a manner as to turn the sphere a little,
for the body is not seen. From this comes the legendary idea that
depicted Saint Denis holding his head in his hands.
186
hand toward the heavens. This, in both cases, is still done in the
Roman churches.
The second ceremony. The pagans used, in their sacrifices, figures
named ipsilius representing the people they wished to be loved.
The opposite was true in France under the Catholic League. The
priests placed upon the altars of the lamb and Saint John ipsiles of
wax in the image of the ill-fated Henri III, and at the moment of
consecration, these fanatics pierced it with a stylus: tantum religio
potuit suadere malorum [Latin, to such a degree was religion able to
encourage evil deeds]!
I do not know, my Brothers (I believe [French, crois], I am obliged
to say this by the way), whether it was on account of the ipsiles of
the priests of the Catholic League, called by these scoundrels,
bewitchments [French, envoútements], or following the
assassinations of Henri III, Henri IV and Louis XV, that entry into
royal houses was forbidden to monks under penalty of corporal
punishment1.
Since we have finished our account of such depravities which,
we hope, no longer soil the altars of France, we follow on to the
examination of the canon of the mass.
The orison which follows that which is pronounced for the
benefit of initiates who have left this life is not better understood
in its mystical sense by almost all those who give the address, and
almost all of them who listen to it. However, a meditation, without
shying away from the facts, on the celebration of the ancient
mysteries and on the dogmas that a holy theology unveils lets us
see the pure source from which this prayer flows.
1 These orders were printed and placarded in the chateaux royaux, and
likewise, in 1783, above the doors of the apartments of the king at
Versailles.
187
It is addressed to the unique God, to the Great Architect of the

Universe.
It is coloured by the system of the Magi;
It is imprinted in the seal of the belief [French, sceau de croyanc] in
a second life, made happily eternal by the merits of the first.
I would not be believed, if I did not prove this piece by piece.
Before analysing this orison, I will set it down here word for
word.
To us sinners, who are your servants, and who put our hopes in your
great mercy, condescend to give us a part of the celestial heritage with
your Saints, Apostles and Martyrs; with John, Stephen, Matthias,
Barnabas, Ignatius, Alexander, Marcellinus, Peter, Felicitas, Perpetua,
Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia, and with all your Saints.
Condescend to admit us into their holy society, not by referring to our
merits, but in using your indulgence on our behalf, through Jesus-Christ
our lord (the Sun), by whom, Lord, you sanctify, you vivify, you bless,
and give us all good things. By him, with him, in him, all honour and all
glory should be given, O God, all-powerful father, in unity with the Holy
Spirit throughout the ages of the ages.
The initiates answer: So mote it be!
The formal goal of this orison is to obtain a part of the kingdom
of the heavens: it recapitulates and resumes the fundamental
points of the ancient and modern belief, as well as of the ancient
and the new ritual.
PROOFS:
First. It is addressed (see its ending) to the All-Powerful Father.
This word, placed after the long enumeration of the Apostles,
Martyrs and Saints of Jesus Christ, is the secret word of the mystery.
The all-powerful father is Knef [French, Cnef], the creator of all
things, whom the Egyptians represented by a globe, circular in
shape; the modern holy sacrament does likewise; it is the all-
powerful father, Knef, translated into Greek by the word
Demiourgos, and it signifies supreme artisan, creator of the worlds
188
(the factor cœli et terrae of the Credo, See Chapter VI); it is the Great
Architect, creator of things visible and invisible, who has his most
holy tabernacle in the human heart; and this is theism in all its
purity.
Second. The prayer is addressed to the father in unity with the
Holy Spirit: and here, to please the Platonic Philosophers, is an
astute concession of the regenerators of the cult, for the age in
which it was made. As for the third person, it is suitable to take
another look at (See Chapter X) the digression on the verse of the
Credo (qui ex patre filioque procedit); and I will add, to refresh the
memory of my readers, that the father, inexhaustible source of the
universal life, and the son, who is the immediate dispenser (the
Sun), and his vehicular power (the vivifying Spirit), which proceeds
from the two antecedents, are invoked in this orison with the goal
of obtaining, from the three unanimously, the gift of eternal life.
Who does not see here the Platonic graft, originally from India,
Phoenicia and Egypt?
Third. The second hypostasis or person is invoked: Jesus-Christ is
the power which, by the unique God, visibly produces and brings to
life, sanctifies, blesses and gives (these are the actual expressions used
in the prayer) all these good things.
Before naming him, this power so universally liberal, by his true
name, I will transcribe the explanation given in the Livre d’Église
Suivant le Nouveau Missel de Paris, édition de Paris [French, Book of
the Church Following the New Paris Missal, Paris edition], pages 23
and 24: the hierogrammatical editor says in a note, to understand
the sense of this word WHO PRODUCES…ALL THESE GOOD THINGS
it is necessary to understand that long ago, at the end of the canon, the
fruits, the vegetables, the milk, the honey, etc, were blessed; TO
SHORTEN THE MASS, this benediction was cast aside outside the time of
the sacrifice, without changing the words which have their rapport in that
place.
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This note, slipped in to make stubborn researchers change their

opinions, leads us toward the Sun, the author of these good things,
offering the first fruits of his liberalities without rest. I have just
named this visible power which always produces, sanctifies, brings to
life, blesses and gives all these good things.
And so! what is this mediate and mediatory power, endowed
with a charity so perfect, to which, as to the Father, honour and glory
in all the ages of the ages should be given1, if not the solar power? Is it
not the air, the ether, the agent of the Holy Spirit, without which all
life would cease, which provides for us, on gossamer wings, the
rays that are the benefactors and preservers of the Sun, the visible
god, and the son of the Father, the invisible god?
Is he not the Son-God who, helped by his aerial power, transmits
to us existence and light, with such a prodigious rapidity that,
without the demonstration of calculus2, it would be impossible for
any rational person to believe? Is it not to him, once again, who
visibly produces, sanctifies, brings to life, blesses and gives without
cease?
However, what is the supreme power of the solar disk, and of
the ethereal ocean, which is not proxy of anyone and which gives
the impetus to all? It is that which wills to work through the Sun,
with him, in him, per ipsum, cum ipso et in ipso [Latin, through him,
with him and in himself]; and the ether in unity of movement, in
unitate [Latin, in unity], upon things visible and invisible, thus
animated by his will, by his filial warmth and spiritual breath; this
is [French, voilà] the Great Architect of the Universe.
1 This finale is frequently used in the Rose-Croix of Heredom at

Kilwinning.
2 The speed of light is 299,792 kilometres [French, 77,550 lieues] per
second; thus the light of the sun comes to us in about seven minutes.
[Translator’s note. By modern estimates, it takes the light of the sun an
average of eight minutes and seventeen seconds to reach the earth].
190
In the knowledge of the Architect of the worlds is found the

highest doctrine, taught in the final chamber of the mysteries of
antiquity. The Epopt, who had reached that place, received the
additional reward; we will speak more clearly, the right
understanding of previous revelations [French, la rectification des
révélations antérieures]. Before being admitted into this sanctuary,
the most purified of all, polytheist fables and his understanding of
philosophy had tested his reason by the emblematic history of
Osiris. The hierophant had led in, by degrees, the knowledge of a sole
God, by offering him successively both the worship of the
divinities with their attributes and the invocation of intercessing
genies, supposedly residing in heaven to govern the worlds.
That which was said in the revelation made to the initiates in the
diverse assemblies of the ancient mysteries was rectified by the
hierophant according to the habits, intelligence, and the capacity
demonstrated by each, his understanding of this orison
complicated by polytheism and theism, which the modern
hierophant pronounces. At the prayer, we can apply the proverb: à
bon entendeur, salut 1 ! The simple initiates, the Fellow Crafts,
suppose that John, Stephen and Mathias and all the Saints are in a
chain up to the divine triumvirate; the Entered Apprentices, more
enlightened, are scarcely less troubled by it [French, ne s’en
embarrassent], but they honour God the father, God the son, God the
spirit who makes but a sole and same God; and the Epopts of the
middle chamber, in all these orisons, see nothing rational,
respectable, or admirable, but the letter G .˙., the mark of the Great
Architect of the Universe, with the merit of emblematic
preservation under the name of the Saints, etc, the demi-gods and
1 [Translator’s note. This French proverb is a warning when danger or

difficulty is looming. ‘Salut’ has a religious sense, ‘to him who well
understands, may there be salvation of his soul’]!
191
the celebrated trinities of all times up to those furthest from the

modern era.
In the following chapter, we emphasise, in greater detail, these
assertions, and we will also demonstrate these in justice.
192
CHAPTER XXI
Further on the explanation of the Orison of the Canon of the mass. –
Eternal life and a share of the celestial heritage. – On Oannes of the
Erythrean Sea and of Joannes of Jordan. – On Saint John the baptiser and
of Saint John the Evangelist.
The orison of the canon of the mass has thus preserved the
remembrance of the dogmas professed in the ancient mysteries.
Similarly, the introit has preserved the formula of the ancient
initiations.
The object of this orison is, I repeat, to obtain eternal life and a part
of the celestial heritage. Does this not conform with the Persian,
Egyptian and Greek dogmas of a resurrected previous life? This
therefore shows that the ancient hierarchy of the attributions of the
celestial powers and of the patronage that has been undergone to
the unique God, is, at bottom, no less intact in the prayer of the
modern canon.
NEW PROOFS. This orison preserves the stars of ancient Arabia,
the trinity of the Osirian sky, the winged angels of Chaldea that
were introduced into Israel and the Areopagus of the twelve great
gods of Athens and Rome that were followed and served by a
crowd of minor divinities and replaced by an uncountable
congregation of Saints, of the Blessed and the Beatified. These things
functioned as agents for the monarch of the heavens for the
vulgarity of the initiates. For the narrow chapel of the true sages,
they functioned as astronomic symbols.
193
The twelve Apostles are represented in this orison; they are here
invested with the offices of the twelve gods before the major gods.
As a result, each of them inherits the goods of the deities deported
from heaven, each is adorned with one of the signs of the zodiac
and each makes known his virtue as doorman to one of the twelve
palaces of the sun, the over-proud dii majores gentium [Latin, the
greater gods of the pagans (or gentiles)]; and when they complain that
they have been dethroned by the Jews, Apollo says to them with a
mocking smile: I have been forced to make a name change. Moreover,
the sun continues, as in the past, his regular and triumphal course.
In this orison, it must be understood that the phrase, ‘by the
martyrs,’ means the men whose zeal for the benefit of belief leads
them irresistibly to the scaffolds of persecution; and, figuratively,
they are the days and months of centuries that have passed away
[French, anéantis].
As for the Saints, named in the orison, the first is John. If this John,
who was at first Jewish and then Christian, has much resemblance
with the Jan or Janus of the Romans, he then has much more
resemblance with the Phoenician Ean or Eanus.
The similarity of the name: Eanus and Janus, Ean and John.
Similarity of attributes: the Phoenician god, used at the time, was
called Eanus ab eundo, that is to say, he who goes always; he was
characterised as a dragon biting his tale; the course of a year and
eternity are thus represented by the simple circle or by the serpent
circle.
The Phoenician Eanus offers us again a stunning resemblance
with Oannes, Oen, the Babylonian Oes, the Joannes of the reformed
Hebrews and the Janus of ancient Rome. Resemblance of sound:
Oannes and Joannes, Ean and John, Janus and John or Jan.
Resemblance of attributes: the Babylonian god was symbolised by
two heads, one of a man, the other of a fish; he had come from the
Eritrean (Red) Sea, carrying the primitive egg, full of all seeds; these
two heads are the allegory of time; concerning this monster king
194
who devours, on the earth and in the waves: the primitive egg of
Oannes is undoubtedly the same that was preserved by Orpheus,
and is the image of the benefits of civilisation.
The fable that depicts Oannes exiting the Red Sea1 carrying the
germinating egg of civilisation, veils or carries [French, enveloppe] a
very important historical truth: it is that of Egypt, the reservoir of
the sciences from which Greece drew and which was also
distributed by them among the Chaldeans: and who would not
recognise, in Oannes, the protective deity of civilised nations,
inhabiting the sea from the setting [French, coucher] of the sun until
it rises, Joannes, the precursor of Saint John with his washing
chamber [French, toilette], his lamb, his initiations, his Jordan and
his baptism?
Spurred on by happy recklessness, is it hazardous to say?:
10 The innumerable Ihaho, the Jehovah of the Israelites and the
Masons, is both the symbolic word for time and for the sun; these
words, as well as the Ean and Ieho of the Phoenicians, signify I run
[French, je cours], representing the past, the present and the future;
and they herein reveal the hidden name of the Eternal and its
derivatives John, Jehan, which in Hebrew signify grace of the eternal.
20 Moses, it is said, pronounced the innominable name so
efficaciously in the ear of Pharaoh that the king fainted, and that
one of the magicians of his court who had been vanquished by
Moses, who was thought to be the same as Bacchus, named him
Jannes; he was, undoubtedly, part of the sacerdotal corporation or
guild of the god Oannes. The priests of Egypt were known under
the name of Kohens2 [French, Choèns]. Let us observe that the god
Oannes has, as abbreviated epithets, Oes and Oen, and likewise that
1 All of antiquity imagined the sun to lay himself to rest [French,

coucher] in the sea.
2 There exists a grade, alleged to be Masonic, of Elect Kohen [French, Élu
Choèn].
195
of On which, in Egypt signified the son, and was the vulgar name
of Osireth (Osiris).
30 The first saint, invoked in the canon of the mass, is Johannes,
Jehan, John. This Apostle of fraternal love cannot hide his
resemblance with Janus, the Jan of mythology; we find him in John
of winter and John of summer. Janus opens the Roman year and our
John of winter is next to Christmas [French, Noël] , the New Year.
The month of the new gate, January, is set under the protection of
Janus, Januarius, that is to say the doorman, because, as master of
the keys of the two gates of the year and the day, he opens the
keyhole. John of winter is rightly given the epithet Evangelist, not
because, according to the vulgar translation, the word Evangel
means good news; an instructed initiate [French, myste] understands
Evangel to mean the History of Evan (of John, oen, oan, Oannes);
first of all this Evan is the god Bacchus, for Evan was the sacred cry
of the Bacchants1; it is thus in the story of Bacchus, whose epithet
is Evan; this is the ancient history, readjusted and retained
according to the spirit of the age and the understanding of the
reformer who, however, was inept enough to have copied as the
preface of his New Evangel, a piece of Sanchuniathon; it is in this
way that have we have proof of this in the Last Evangel of the
mass.
40 The Romans represented their Janus, with two faces, one
juvenile, the emblem of the increasing [French, croissante] year; the
other as an old man [French, âgé], the emblem of the dying year.
As it has been claimed that Janus was the emblem of the Sun; these
two faces remind us of our Saints John of the solstices and the words
of the Evangelist concerning Jesus-Christ: opertet illum crescere, me
1 Evohe Bacche! Even today, the Italians use the expression per dio Bacco!
to assure the truth of something.
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autem minui, that is to say, it is necessary for him to increase and I,

however, to diminish.
These words, are they not applicable to the festival of the new
and increasing [French, croissant] sun, and consequently of the
juvenile face (December 25th) and the festival of the sun about to
leave this life [French, hors de la vie] and decreasing [French,
dècroissant], and consequently with an aged face (December 27th)?
This similarity reminds us that the Roman Janus holds the chain
of the past and of the future; and that his right hand carries the
number 300, his left the number 65, the emblems of the days of the
year. His festival, the Januales, was celebrated at Rome on January
1st. On that day, Janus was offered figs, dates, grains of incense and
a cake named Janual; our first day of the year preserves the
memory of this custom.
Following our dissertation on Saint John (the first of the saints
enumerated in the orison of the canon of the mass) let us establish
the genealogy of our Saints John of winter and of summer.
Ancient Egypt transmitted to us the Sun god: Osireth, Osiris, On,
Oannes; Egypt also transmitted these to Chaldea, Phoenicia and
Idumea (Edom).
In Chaldea, his name was Oannes, Oen, Oes.
In Phoenicia, Eanus, Ean.
In Idumea, Jaho, Jehovah, Joannes.
From Phoenicia, Eanus, Ean was established in ancient Rome
under the name of Jan with the Latin termination us which became
Janus. It was, most probably, at the time of the destruction of
Carthage, that the Phoenician god passed into the camps of the
Roman eagles through the evocation of Scipio: If there is a divinity
that protects the people of the city, I pray you to leave both its territory
and its temples, and to come to Rome with me and my people.
From Idumea, where the people had acquired the knowledge of
the sun god Oannes, whether it was from the Egyptian priests
before the flight from Egypt, or whether it was from the Chaldean
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magi during the 70 years of the captivity at Babylon, this Sun-god,

whose primitive name was corrupted by diverse dialects or
disguised by the theologue Levites, became, at last, Oannes-Jaho,
Jehovah-Janus. This god was preserved in Rome in the middle ages
with the greater part of his attributes in his office as the first saint,
from the first years of that era that is so famous for the seeding of
the new cult that rose as a humble shoot on the debris of paganism
and Judaism, and from the substance of which it fattened to the
point of becoming, an ear of corn, a gigantic tree, a tree of life for
some and a tree of death for others.
Thus our Saint John, our Johanes, the precursor of the Sun-Messiah,
Oannes, Ean, Oen, Oes, came from Egypt under the bosom of the
Eritrean Sea 1 . The Greek Orpheus did what the double-headed
Oannes had done, by bringing out the primitive egg and giving to
men the knowledge of letters and science, the Masonry of theory
and of practice, etc.
Thus, Oannes, born in Egypt and by himself civilising Babylon
and the peoples of the occident, by the tradition of his institutions,
this god Oannes, of the stock of Jaho, Jehovah, Janus, Joannes, Oes,
Oan, Ean, Jehan, and John, shows, by his attributes and by those of
his descendants, the zenith and the nadir of the light preserved by
the Free Masons: the memory of the points of the solstices and the
understanding of Knef [French, Cnef], independent of the law of
the body and his creatures, because he has subjected them to that
law which he has made.
Oannes is offered the reasonable veneration of the initiates into
the modern mysteries under the name of Saint John, Johannes, as
the benefactor of the human race; he is placed in primacy in the
new heaven, not with two heads and two keys, but calling himself
baptiser and precursor, and at the winter solstice, he is the Evangelist
1 Indian Ocean.
198
or the chronicler of the new Ean: John at the most luminous point is
the emblematic characterisation of the fraternity which ought to
unite all humans; the John of the point of greatest darkness is
likewise that of the new law, that is to say, of the philosophy
without which there would endure no fraternal love.
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CHAPTER XXII
Further on the prayer of the Canon until the Amen. – On Saint Stephen
and the saints that follow. – On their mysterious names that form the
true sense and aim of the prayer. – Their aim is a homage to the
invisible Great Architect and to the Sun, his visible image and sensible
agent of his all-power. – On a remarkable passage of Sanchuniathon. -
On the Onion god of ancient Egypt. – On the Embarvales and of the
mass which we thereon: the festivals of the harvest [French, moisson]. –
The Last Supper or Mass, at first practised in the evening, then
celebrated only in the morning. – Ritual of the first synaxes preserved
a little later: on the kiss of peace, depicted in the churches, in reality in
the Masonic lodges. – High office of the pagan, Catholic and Masonic
temples.
Christmas [French, Noël] day falls on 25 December and Saint

John’s day is always two days later. Between the feast of the
rebirth of the solar year called the birth of Christ or Christmas
and that of Saint John called the Evangelist or the winter Janus, is
found the Feast of Saint Stephen. It is necessary to know that
this Hebrew word signifies crown, or coronation, that is to say,
the completion [French, complément] of the annual circle that has
passed. It is the circular fulfilment of Ean, of the Phoenician
Eanus, of the serpent biting its own tale.
The equally Hebrew, Greek or Latin names of the so-called
Saints that the celebrant invokes after Stephen in the prayer of
the canon are all allegoric: Mathias signifies gift of the eternal;
Barnabas, the consoling son; Anastasia, gracious woman; Ignatius,
200
all fire; Marcellina, victorious ones; Alexander, powerful help;

Peter, boulder or rock, solidity; Cecilia, harmony; Agnes, chaste
woman; Lucy, light; Felicity, Perpetua, perpetual happiness.
I will point out:
10 That Saint Lucy, whose feast arrives on 13 December in the
most infernal or inferior sign (12 days before the birth of the
birth of the new sun), is a quasi dawn, the aurora of Christmas
[French, Noël], dies natalis [Latin, birth day] of the torch of the
next year, which reminds us of Lucina, the goddess of childbirth,
living in the hells (the sign of Capricorn), Lucifera, messenger of
the new light1. 9 December is the Feast of Saint Gorgonia, the
pagan Feast of the Gorgons residing (ad inferos) near the sojourn
of night, the mother of the day. This Saint comes five days
before Saint Lucy; she is the symbol of the longest period of
darkness of the year.
20 That as far as the Saints Felicity and Perpetua are concerned,
these two personified and sanctified words compose the votive
formula of the Romans on the first day of the year ad perpetuam
felicitatem (toward perpetual happiness) by giving these deities
honey coated almonds and then the Janual cake, which was,
perhaps, the same as our ginger bread.
Let us forget, learned Initiates, the thousand and one nights that
the sanctimonious creators of legends have given birth to upon
the fifteen blessed ones invoked in the demand for a part in the
celestial heritage; let us only have recourse to our intelligence to
lift up the allegorical veil with which an ingenious prudence
has clothed their names to evade giving the meaning [French,
dérober] to the inferior initiates [French, mystes]; and if wisdom
is a woman and treats us as Masons worthy of receiving and
guarding the meaning, in the arch or portico of ivory, a place of
1 The popular adage says: At Saint Lucy’s feast, the days grow at the pace
of a flea [French, À la Saint Luce, le jour croit du saut de la puce].
201
high revelation, we will, by her, be initiated into her most

eminent degrees, she speaks, accurite omnes [Latin, All, run to
(her)]: listen, here is the true sense of the prayer of the canon:
‘Creator of the universe, unique God! Whatever the attributes
of your wisdom, of your kindness and your preserving
influence over all things, we are sinners and also your servants;
we assume these two titles for the blessing of your mercy and to
partake of the celestial heritage in the delineated circle (the emblem
of Saint John, placed in heaven, or the coiled snaked biting its
tail) to signify that the past and the future do not exist in the
celestial abode; the present alone reigns; this is eternity.
‘We hope to be included in this circle of immortality and to be
there crowned (emblem of Saint Stephen, crown) by the gift of
your power (emblem of Saint Mathias, the gift of the Eternal), by
the help of your relief [French, consolation] toward children
(emblem of Saint Barnabus, the son of relief and filial relief), by
the indulgence of your grace (emblem of Saint Anastasia, the
gracious) help us to enter the house of your fiery disk (emblem of
Saint Ignatius, made of fire) victorious over our passions (emblem
of Saint Marcellina, the victorious) by your powerful help (emblem
of Saint Alexander, powerful help) make it that we are seated
firmly (emblem of Saint Peter, rock, boulder) and in the state of
chastity (emblem of Saint Agnes, chastity) in order that by
immersing ourselves in your ineffable light (emblem of Saint
Lucy, light) we enjoy a perpetual happiness (emblem of Saints
Felicity and Perpetua) with all the Saints, that is to say, with all the
virtuous men that are said to be admitted to a share in the
voluptuous heavens.
‘Unique father of all things, we also hope to have a share of that
celestial heritage, by the reasonable worship that we render to the
visible image, and by experiencing your power and your
supreme kindness, by your unique and favourite son, the Sun,
the Messiah through whom you produce, sanctify, vivify, bless and
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give all these good things: wheat, milk, honey, fruits, every type of
necessity and pleasure.’
By thus restoring the vulgar prayer of the canon of the mass to
its spirit, or its true meaning, it becomes philosophic; I will say
that it is worthy of being compared to the fragments of religious
prayers of antiquity.
Let us pursue our excavations in the ruins of the temples of
the dethroned, discredited [French, démonétisés] and deceased
gods. Among a thousand discoveries, we will soon have proof
that the customs, besides that of the offering of bread and wine,
whose evidence was lost and could not be demonstrated in the
time since the first age of the modern belief, antedate that epoch
by many centuries. As truly as we live off the detritus of the past,
future generations will likewise live off our detritus, unless our
record throughout the world is hampered.
1st EXAMPLE: the Phoenician Sanchuniathon, who lived before
Herodotus and whose existence is more certain than Moses
wrote:
‘The first men (it would be more correct to say: the first known
men) consecrated the plants and the things the earth brought forth;
they attributed divinity to them, they reverenced the things that they
nourished and offered these to their deities to drink and to eat; religion
conforms to the weakness of their spirit.’
In Egypt, the bulbous deities, incensed by the kohen priests,
were not more unreasonable (the true doctrine was, in fact,
secret) than the vegetable, and grain deities adored in the long
period of time before Sanchuniathon and our own time.
The Egyptians principally nourished themselves upon onions;
onions were venerated. The vulgar savants, the bachelors of
theology and the communicants after their quarantine laugh to
their hearts content at such gods. It is wise not to immolate such
203
opinions about such practices too quickly, bizarre and absurd

as they appear, on the altar of the god Ridicule1.
LISTEN: The Egyptian onion differs from our own, in that
each one of its shoots holds a little onion, that, planted in turn,
becomes the father of a multitude of infants who repeat the
process and continue their species2. Is it not natural to suspect
that, for the people, the kohen priests made of the nourishing
onion3 a divinity, and that they attached it to the worship of the
formulae of adoration4; they offered to it their first fruits, that is,
the first born son of their own flesh, as a sign of appreciation
[French, reconnaissance]; while in the sanctuary, the hierophant-
philosophers explained to the true initiates, under the seal of an
oath, that the Onion, the father of numberless children
concealed within very many circular envelopes, and whose
creative power evaded [French, se dérobe] our feeble eyes, was
an ingenious emblem of the invincible Knef [French, Cnef],
nourishing his children; he is the unique God, father of the
universe, enveloped with a thousand veils over the secret of his
essence; but palpable and capable of being experienced in all his
creations that are so useful and agreeable to the human race.
1 Minor god of Pagan Rome.

2 It was cultivated in France at the return of the army from Egypt.
3 The nourishing vegetable of ancient Egypt, as elsewhere was the
acorn [French, gland], (according to Lucretius’ odium coepit glandis
[Latin, the hatred of the acorn begins]), the potato, the bread tree, etc.
4 To adore (in Latin adorare, made up of ad, to or at, and os, oris,
mouth) at first signified carrying the hand to the mouth for speaking with
respect; bowing, getting down on one’s knees, saluting very low, and at last
it commonly meant rendering a supreme worship. Mystical sayings are
almost always filled with equivocal meanings. In every age we find
differences between the language of the priests and that of the people.
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2nd EXAMPLE: At the Ambarvalia, the Feast of Ceres, the first

fruits of the harvest [French, moisson], messis, were placed on the
altar.
The officiating Arval priest 1 dressed in white, as is the
officiating priest at the modern feast of the virgins, placed upon
the host a cake of wheat flower; he tasted the wine of the libation,
and gave of it to taste to those present. It was a custom practised
at the pagan feasts of the harvest [French, moisson], of the mass
(feriae messis) that the first fathers of the Church adopted under
the veil of the commemoration of the holy Last Supper [French,
sainte Cène], of the Holy Supper of Holy Thursday [French, saint
souper du jeudi saint], whose touching symbol is that of the
fraternity between children of the same father who partake of
the gifts of the family.
I have already said that in the origin of the cult, which was
entirely fraternal, mass was celebrated at night. When the
astronomic glimmers were reflected into it in the IInd century, it
was moved to the morning; and since then (I believe that this
was established under Charlemagne) it has been absolutely
forbidden to say it during the declination of the Sun, in the
afternoon, post meridiem [Latin, p.m].
I believe it a duty not to omit that, in the original synaxis, a
chapter of the Evangels was read; is this not still done today? Then
there is the exhortation of the celebrant; is this not still done? The
faithful (the brothers) kiss on the mouth, as a sign of a fraternity that
comes from the heart; the memory of kissing is, at the solemn
masses, retraced by the sacrificer calling upon the faithful to
kiss in peace, ad osculum pacis [Latin, to the mouth of peace], and
1 At Rome the priests who were present or served at the sacrifices of

the Ambarvalia were called the Arval Brothers, Fratres Arvales.
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saying to each: pax tecum1 [Latin, peace be with you]! I think I

know that the chaste kissing, used in the primordial synaxes,
was exchanged [French, se changea] three times in the lodge at the
time of the initiations, at the time of showing gratitude [French,
reconnaisances], and at the time of the momentary separation of
the links of the chain of universal union.
Let us again observe that at these synaxes, bread, wine and
water were placed on a table 2 ; each partook; bread and wine were
carried to those who were absent. In the current sacrifice of the
mass, is not the mixture of water and wine not made upon the
altar table? Is the viaticum not still carried to those who are
absent, to those who are invalid and to those who are sick3?
Finally, the president of this synaxis, above all, in the churches
of the orient, dismissed those present by the formula of parting
of the Greek mysteries (the Egyptian formula of Kot ompheth)
1 A deacon holding a collection bowl [French, plateau quêteur] to

receive the alms of those who came to kiss the pacifying talisman
degraded this touching ceremony.
From the time of Louis le Débonnaire, who must be assumed to
have been poisoned by a host, the celebrant presented to the Kings of
France, upon a large paten, as many consecrated hosts as there had
been Kings of France since Clovis. The king chose and touched with
his little finger the host he was to consume dutifully.
2 I refer high initiates to the grades of the Grand Écossais and the Rose-
Croix for the mystic ceremonies of bread and wine; I prefer that of the
Grand Écossais.
3 In Spain, one says, ‘to carry the venerable host’ [French, ‘porter le
vénérable’]; the priest who carries the viaticum [French, le porte-dieu] has
his hat on his head. If a carriage passes, the master must come out,
even if it should be the king, and keep himself there until his return to
the church.
206
Kom or Kof tomphet, that is to say, Be on guard and be pure 1

[French, Veillez et soyez purs].
This formula, so venerable for its antiquity and, as a precept,
despite having been replaced at the end of the mass by that of
ite missa est, has not been entirely tossed away by the Roman
ritual; it is found intact in its entirety at the end of the service of
evening prayers:
Fratres, sobrii estote et vigiliate, quia diabolus, adversarius vester,
tanquam leo rugiens, circuit quem devoret, tu autem, Domine, misere
nobis. ‘My brothers, be on guard and be pure (kof tomphet, koth
ompheth) because the demon, your adversary (the Egyptian
Typhon, the Persian Ahrimanes, the Hebrew Astaroth, the Greek
Saturn, the Scandinavian Loki, the American Manitou, etc., as a
roaring lion, thrusts about you to choose his prey. Ah! Lord,
have pity on us!’
In the Masonic temples, the invitation is made to retire in peace
in the middle of the thickest darkness, the symbol of the ancient Kof
tomphet and the paraphrase fratres, sobrii estote vigilate; this
license to depart is well understood among the initiates, having
come [French, venus] to conquer their passions and to subject these
to their wills; it is the most efficacious talisman against the
roaring and devouring lion.
My Brothers, this dissertation upon the subject of the prayer
for the demand for a part of the celestial heritage has gone on long
enough. Nevertheless, I must have it observed that the Scottish
Rite of the holy house of Kilwinning which represents the
Shekhinah finishes their various prayers in unison [French, en
choeur] with the Rose-Croix, as the celebrant of the mass finishes
[French, termine] this repeated demand for part of the celestial
heritage; the first says; to God to whom should be rendered all honour
1 All of this is the exact summary of the acts of the ancient synaxis.
207
and glory, three hurrahs, the second says: O all-powerful Father,

all honour and glory should be rendered to you, Amen!
Koth-omphet (Egyptian).
Kof or Kom tomphet (Greek).
Licet ex templo (polytheist Romans).
Ite missa est (Papists).
Let us retire in peace [French, retirons-nous en paix]. (Masonic

closing).
208
CHAPTER XXIII
Origin of the Pater Noster in the Hebrew Kodisch, native to Chaldea. –
Why this prayer is called Dominical. – Names of the days of the week
among the Germans and the English; dimanche (Sunday) is
consecrated to the Sun by its name. – Literal translation of the Pater. –
Paraphrase by verses. – Egyptian dogma of the return of souls to their
bodies after a thousand years. – This dogma penetrated into paganism
and then into the new belief. - On the Dies Irae. – Dogma of the
recompense of sorrows: precept of the pardon for offences, the source
of civilisation. – On the fifth degree of the Non-Hermetic Scottish Rite.
– On the good and evil principle, the Sun ascending, the Sun descending.
The Pater Noster, attributed to the reformer of Judaism, is a

Hebraic prayer from many centuries before his time. It is of
Chaldean origin, and I presume that it was later adopted by the
Israelites during the Babylonian captivity.
We read in Voltaire1: ‘We have already spoken of the public
prayers of many nations, and of those of the Jews. That people
have had an orison from time immemorial which deserves all
our attention because of its resemblance with our Pater Noster; it
is called the Kaddish; it is recited in Chaldean, and commences
with these words:
‘O, God! may your name be magnified and sanctified; make your
kingdom prevail; let redemption flourish, and the Messiah come
quickly! What a resemblance with our Sunday orison: Our father,
1 Dictionnaire Philosophique, page 319, volume 54, 1785 edition.
209
who is in the heavens, may your name be sanctified, may your

kingdom arrive!’
If the Jewish demand for the flowering of redemption and the
arrival of the Messiah has not been preserved in the Pater, it is
because there have been 1843 years since the Messiah came, and
the redemption is in flower1.
Moreover, the Israelites recite the Kaddish in the Chaldean
language, it seems evident that they received this prayer from
the Chaldeans. Let us observe again that the Hebraic language
is a dialect of the Chaldean language.
The feast days [French, jour fériérs] have been fixed on Sunday
[French, dimanche], the day after the Sabbath, from the time of
the first synaxes. This prayer was addressed to the lord Sun,
because the Roman pagans consecrated the first day of the week
to Apollo, the god of the light. It was called the dominical orison
[French, orison dominical] because of the invocation of domino
SOLI DEO made to the father of nature. The first reformed Jews
recited it only on the first day of the week of the Sabbath, while
on this same day, which is the seventh day, the Catholic Jews
recited and still recite the orison in honour of Sab, the elevated
god, the god of the heavens, the Sun.
Further, the word week [French, semaine], septimam, signifies: a
measure of time, composed of seven mornings [French, sept
matins] (this is a contraction of septem [Latin, seven] and matinum
[Latin, morning]), that is to say, seven diurnal suns. The various
names of each day of the week among three neighbouring
nations, set down briefly here, are curious when known under
1 [Translator’s note. This may be a reference to several outbreaks of

widespread and widely publicised fanatical beliefs that the Messiah
would come or that the world would end in 1843. Coincidently, there
had been an unexpected comet visible to the human eye and other
dramatic atmospheric phenomena].
210
their mythological forms and make the consecrated diurnal

circle of the Sun1 stand out in relief.
Names of the days of the week in four languages.
FRENCH LATIN GERMAN ENGLISH

NAMES NAMES NAMES NAMES
DIMANCHE DIES MAGNA2, SONNTAG SUNDAY (Sun,

(Day of the MAGNA2, dies (Sonne, Sun, Day).
Lord or Sun). dominica. tag, day).
LUNDI (day of DIES LUNAE. MONTAG MONDAY

the Moon (Mond, (Moon).
[French, Moon3).
1 The days of the week are not in the order of the planets whose
names they bare. We would not have the key to this enigma unless we
read, in an ancient author, Dio Cassius, that the Egyptians, without
doubt, after the custom of the Indians, had divided the day into four
parts, each of which was under the protection of a planet, and that
each day took the name of the planet which had protected the first
part of the day.
The astronomical order of the planets represents their shortest
distance from the Sun, which occupies the centre of the system: the
Moon, Mercury, Venus, the SUN, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The moon
gives its name to the first day of the week. Count four and four, and
you will have the week. [Translator’s note. The week begins on
Monday in French language calendars and on Sunday in English
language calendars].
2 The contraction of dies magna has produced the French word
dimanche [French, Sunday].
3 Luna veteribus Gothis mena dicta, Germanis inferioribus maen,
superioribus mond unde hebdomadis diem montag dixerunt succi mandag,
dani maendag; angli Montag [Latin, The moon was called mena by the
211
Lune]).
MARDI (Day of DIES MARTIS. DIENSTAG TUESDAY (day

Mars). (Day of service of the god of
or corvée1). battles, of he
who kills
[French, tue]).
MERCREDI DIES MITTWOCHE WEDNESDAY

(Day of MERCURII. (The middle of (day of Woden,
Mercury). the week). the divinity of
the north,
presiding over
war).
JEUDI (Day of DIES JOVIS. DONNERSTAG, THURSDAY,

Jupiter). from Thor2, the day of Thor,
Jupiter of the the Jupiter of
ancient the North,
Germans, from from which
which the we get the
English take French words
the word Donner [sic], to
Thunder and give, and
the French tonnerre,
take the word thunder.
tonnerre.
ancient Goths, Maen by the lower Germans, mond by the higher Germans,
hence they called the second day of the week Montag, the Swedes called it
Mandag, the Danes Maendag; the Angles Montag]. (See Aeneas Shedius).
1 According to some authors this word comes from Odin or from
Woden, the mythological divinity of the north or the Sun deified.
2 The sun, the god Odin himself
212
VENDREDI DIES VENERIS. FREITAG, from FRIDAY (day of

(Day of Frea or Friga, Friga).
Venus). the Saxon and
Scandinavian
Venus.
SAMEDI (Day DIES SATURNI2. SONNABEND SATURDAY

of Saturn1). SATURNI2. (night of the (day of
Sun, the day Saturn).
before the day
of the Sun.
The French week is translated from Latin. The German week

is still made up of the traditional names of the divinities of their
forbearers. The English week is, on account of the names of the
Danish and Saxon gods still imposed upon the days, a
monument to the conquest of Albion by the peoples of the
North.
Among all the peoples of the earth, the royal day of the week,
Sabbath or dimanche, Sonntag or Sunday, is consecrated to the Sun,
the father of nature, our visible father who is in the heavens3.
1 Who gluts himself [French, sature, saturates], upon the week and
devours the week, as well as devouring his own children.
2 The Roman Dataria control the certificates of dispensation that they
they grant [French, actes] by the names of these overthrown gods.

3 ‘The division of the solar year into weeks of seven days was made
several centuries later by the Christians. The use of the week goes
back [French, remonte] into high antiquity. Although it is mentioned in
the second chapter of Genesis, the Hebrews made no use of it. From
India, it spread out among the Arabs and came to the Occident with
the Christian religion. At Rome, up to the time of the Caesars, there
existed no trace of the week of seven days, nor a feast or a repose
placed upon the seventh day; at Rome the week was of eight days,
and of ten days at Athens.
213
Who, with greater faith and hope, addresses this dominical

supplication to this father, if it is not the poor deprived of daily
bread; if it is not the pauper who is virtuous enough to ask for
clemency and pardon for his forgiveable murmurs against the
hardheartedness of the rich; if it is not is not the ill-fated poor
who is less consumed by his own need than by the hunger of
his dying family? Ah! if these wretches, swept away by their
despair, think upon restoring justice by a crime, merciful Father,
let this verse given in your prayer of predilection beam from the
bottom their hearts, from the edge of the abyss: Resist the
temptation and I will deliver you from your sorrows.
Of all the ancient and modern prayers, that of the Our Father
charms me most. The others can astound my weakness, lift my
spirit, excite in me the enthusiasm that topples my reason in a
moment of triumphant poesy; the Pater Noster makes tender my
heart and filial tears flow to the feet of my father.
There have been too many abuses of this orison: the
mendicants, the hypocrites, the sanctimonious with their
rosaries and the dealers in second hand indulgences have
rendered it ridiculous: Our little Shepherd [French, Pàtre nôtre;
pàtre is a rare diminutive word for shepherd], to say our patens
[French, patenôtres], these expressions come from Pater Noster,
‘This Indian division could only come from a very ancient people,
having lunar years and months. Custom has not made us perceive the
inconvenience of having adopted, along with the solar years and
months, a lunar division that can appertain neither to our months nor
to our years. And by another very singular contradiction, Christianity,
which has adopted the Indian week, preserves the mythological
names consecrated to the seven planets in its days of the week.’
(Notice historique sur le Calendrier, page. 11 and 12, Nancy, 1842 by
J.-M. Ragon).
214
their vulgarity is the proof of the criminal abuse about which I

complain.
Let us translate it literally verse by verse.
1st Our father, who is in the heavens;
2nd May your name be sanctified;
3rd May your kingdom come;
4th May your will be done in heaven as it is on earth;
5th Give us, today, the daily bread;
6th And remit for us our debts, as we do thus for our debtors;
7th But deliver us from evil, so mote it be!
Paraphrase of the dominical orison.
1st Verse. Our father, it is God, father of the universe; who is in

the heavens, that is to say, in the immensity and the vastness of
things (and God named the vastness the heavens, see the
Pentateuch. Pleni sunt cœli et terra gloria tua [Latin, Full are the
heavens and the earth with your glory], Psalm).
2nd Verse. May your name be sanctified; men, isolated, separated,
divided from each other, have named the unique father with a
myriad names [French, myrionyme], that is to say, God with ten
thousand names; I will soon let a few of these be known.
Alexander Pope, in his Universal Prayer, has ennobled frailty
with his verse; he invokes thus the Great Architect:
215
Father of All! in every Age,

In every Clime ador'd,
By Saint, by Savage, and by Sage,
JEHOVAH, JOVE, or LORD.
So! what is a name? if it is not by one or more sounds

exclusively applied to an object to differentiate it from all other
objects making up part of animate or inanimate matter; yet, the
father of all things is differentiated from each of them by his
creative power; he does not there need a name; fecit magna qui
potens est [Latin, He who is mighty has made great things]
(Magnificat); holy is his true name, whatever be his ten thousand
names; sanctum nomen ejus [Latin, his holy name] (ibidem).
3rd Verse. May your kingdom come; for the initiate, this kingdom
is the knowledge of the true God, the unique God, the
uniformity of the rite over all the universe.
This kingdom is still incomplete; it has not come (in its
fullness) until the crowd [French, masse] of the wise carries it
over the crowd of deceivers: we are still far off.
May your kingdom come; these words would be irreligious if
the meaning was that the kingdom of heaven has not arrived, or
if it has come, whether it be forgotten or abandoned 1 . The
words of the Kaddish, make your kingdom prevail, seems
preferable to me.
However, it is necessary to say that in the Kaddish and the
Pater, the corresponding verses relate back to a dogma of high
antiquity, from which our modern mystopoles have profited. The
1 May your kingdom come! This vow, if it refers to the Sun, concerns
the end of his annual journey, and asks and calls upon the next
ascension of this beneficent star, and the happy time of year when it
reigns over our hemisphere. In this sense, therefore, this orison is a winter
prayer.
216
Egyptian Kohens professed, as religious truth, the return of souls

to their bodies after a thousand years of separation. From that
comes, according to a number of scholars, the skeletons of the
ancient Canary Islands dried in the air; from that, the
embalming, the tombs of hard stone and the stunning pyramids
used as damns against the ravages of time. The pains of the
kings, hierophants and powerful in Egypt to preserve their
bodies have been sorrowfully useless, since 4000 years later
their souls are still waiting for their resurrection. If this
theological promise will be realised later, what difficulties and
voyages the poor souls would have to undergo searching out
their bodies. The mummies have been lifted from their tombs
by sacrilegious archaeologists and are decorating the museums
of Europe or gaining the prestige of the painters by the mix of
their transparent gums for effects of colour1!
This is what Voltaire says on the subject of a kingdom of a
thousand years:
‘This opinion about a resurrection after ten centuries passed
among the Greeks, the disciples of the Egyptians, and among
the Romans, the disciples of the Greeks. We find it in the 6th
book of the Aeneid, which is not other than the description of
the mysteries of Isis and Eleusinian Ceres:
‘has omnis, ubi mille rotam uoluere per annos,
Lethaeum ad fluuium Deus euocat agmine magno,
scilicet immemores supera ut conuexa reuisant’
(Virgil, Aeneid 6, lines 748-750)
‘When all these souls have turned the wheel for these
thousand years
God calls them forth to the river Lethe in a great flank,
1 The great painters used them to glaze their tableaux.
217
Let it be known that their memories are blank so that

They may again visit the vault above’
This opinion was next introduced among the Christians who,

from the first centuries onward, established a kingdom [French,
règne] of a thousand years, that is still not eternalised by the
theologians, but was terrestrial and materialised by the crowns
that were bestowed by the son seated at the right of the father. Saint
Jerome affected to believe in this reign; and, when writing that
this world would not endure more than ten centuries, he said
that no woman would resurrect with her sex and that all would
be changed into men. The sect of millenarianists has brought the
revival of the reign of a thousand years to this day1.
The deceitful theologues made their dupes of all sorts imagine
that after the last judgement the earth would be a paradise for
the elect lasting a thousand years. This imposture is pilloried, in
bold letters, in the words of the Dies Irae [Day of Wrath], which is
sung at funerals:
1 Dupin, Tome 3, Bibliothèque des Auteurs Ecclésiastiques.

Cerinthus, who lived in the time of Saint Paul, with whom it is
believed he had violent disputes, was, it is said, the first author of the
doctrine of the kingdom of a thousand years, which was embraced by
so many of the Fathers of the Church; and, what is strange, is that the
Evangels make Jesus speak of it as if he shares this opinion.
‘The Mormons have just bought the Republic of the Equator and
Charles Island, which makes up a part of the group of the Tortuga
Islands, to calmly wait there for the reign of a thousand years, after
which they will not cease to sigh.’ (Gazette d’Augsbourg, et Moniteur
Universel of Monday, 21 July 1853).
Cerinthus and his sect said that Jesus did not become Christ until
after his baptism. The Apocalypse of Saint Jean is attributed to him.
218
Solvet sæclum in favilla

Teste David cum Sibylla.
It is the epoch or last century that will fall into ash, according
to the witnesses David and the Sybil 1 . It is the same epoch
ascribed to God, our father, in both the supplication of the
Israelites: make your kingdom prevail, and in the prayer of the
Christians, May your kingdom come! The yearning of both is
assuredly well founded, for they know the answer of the master,
‘a thousand years or more’, to the question of the Apostles, who
were indiscrete enough to wish to prattle about the duration of
the world, which was his secret.
4th Verse. May your will be done in heaven as it is on one earth;
Assuredly, the master of all things has no need of the vows of
his creatures to accomplish his supreme will, that would be an
absurdity.
5th Verse. Give us, today, the daily bread; this verse has no
hidden meaning in the sense that it is the naïve prayer of the
poor, whose frail existence is sustained by day to day toil. It
means: Creator, sustain your work again today!
It cannot be doubted that the offering, made every day to the
nourisher of all beings is represented in the symbol of this
verse: give us today the daily bread; Great God, do not take away
this daily blessing; do not weary in the operation of this
wondrous prodigy!
This is the most sublime prayer that can be addressed to the
King of kings, a sovereign, the father of the people; it is most
touching when it arises from the heart of the oppressed, and it
1 The testimony of the Sybil, added here to the predictions of David,

proves how long a time it was that the opinion was maintained that
the Sybils had predicted the events relative to Christianity.
219
is the most impious blasphemy when exhaled from the lips of

the oppressor.
When under the celestial vault that is lighted with a
mysterious star, a voice makes these words understood: give,
give the daily bread, a propitious manna falls and the wretch
leaves from an awful desert1.
6th Verse. And remit for us our debts, as we do thus for our debtors;
some hierophants have had the brazenness to interpret the
verse in this way: And forgive us our offenses as we pardon those
who have offended us.
The literal translation is founded on the ancient custom of the
remission of debts at certain times of the year; it preserves the
virginal simplicity of the earliest times in a nation in which
civilisation, like a flower, spreads out to blossom. The
translation represented here comes from a much later time.
Forgive us our offenses; this fragment recalls the dogma of an
avenging and remunerating God, and the custom of confession
in the most ancient mysteries. Here is preserved the maxim of
pardon for offences which is the holy discovery of the first
1 Saint Matthew makes use (verses 9 to 13 of chapter 6) of the words

super substantialem [Latin, super substantial], in place of quotidianum
[Latin, daily].
Saint Luke uses the quotidianum and thus recalls the dominical
orison of the 11th chapter.
Verse 2. Pater, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum [Latin,
Father, may your name be made holy. May your kingdom come].
Verse 3. Panum nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie [Latin, give us
today our daily bread].
Verse 4. Et dimmitte nobis peccata nostra, siquidem ipsi dimittimus omni
debenti nobis et nos et ne nos inducas in tentationem [Latin, And dismiss
our sins as we ourselves likewise dismiss all that is owed to us, and lead us
not into temptation].
220
known sages who, from the scents they scattered, prepared a

delicious nectar; a panacea for all men; a discovery that was
philosophic but not philosophal [French, philosophal, a rare
word only used in phrases such as, pierre philosophale] that the
priests of Cybele preached and that they did not put into
practice; but one that is dear and helpful for true Masons who
are passionate about their feelings for the fraternity.
My Brothers, remember that this precept, unknown among
coarse peoples and to the hordes of savages, is one of the
sources of civilisation. If it modifies the acrimoniousness of the
character of these individuals, it erases, bit by bit, the ferocious
traits of a nation and the habits of enduring and inflexible
vengeance. Soon, the extermination of people ends, the ravages
cease, the sovereigns become more merciful and dearer to the
people; and the people undertake softer customs, in a more
humane direction, with more generous sentiments from the
instant that the hand of justice, armed with vengeance, becomes
the hand of grace.
The king who first said; pardon for my offenses and those offenses
done against my house, hastened the progress of civilisation and
consolidated his dynasty.
The fifth degree of the Non-Hermetic, but, Philosophic
Scottish Rite, offers its initiates the morale of pardon, engraved
upon the blade of the dagger of vengeance. When giving this
narrative, a high wisdom speaks aloud what other rites depict
in the action of their dramatic rituals, that which happens
between a criminal and a murderer; it has thus consecrated the
precept that, in any case that may be, or by one’s own hands, or
in speech, that hate should not provoke or bring about the
punishment that is uniquely confided to the justice of society
and public vengeance; wisdom has brought this sentiment to
perfection when she professes that even the blood of the guilty
stain not the apron of a Mason, or that he pour it illegally, even
221
should he be driven by the idea in his mind that he has a

plausible motive.
7th Verse. And do not lead us into temptation; this is faithful to
the text, I cannot translate it otherwise; and if I retain it in its
essence, I believe I will blaspheme in the face of the eternal, by
saying to him that he is the author of good and evil. Nobody
today can admit this impious supposition; and likewise over
the flames of the ancient theogonies, the separation of the good
and evil principles was well established1. Who does not know
1 ‘The evils that afflict the earth do not come from God, for God is
love, and all that he does is good…’ (Paroles d’un Croyant, chapitre
XXXIV, by F. de la Mennais).
The abbot Salgues, in his book on prejudices and reputations, when he
speaks of Saint Robert of Arbrissel, the most licentious of the founders
of monasteries, who for that reason was given the epithet of the
Church’s Platonic Don Juan, and is the well known founder of
Fontevraud Abbey, an institution in which the men were under the
authority of women, said: ‘Robert took the name Arbrissel, from the village
where he was born, as in our days, another ROBERT has taken the name of
DE LA MENNAIS.’
M. Gratian de Sémur, in his Traité des Erreurs et Préjugés, writes upon
this subject :
‘Without doubt, there is something remarkable in this community of
the name Robert [French, communauté, community, or, in common, a
pun], in the same gesture of vanity of the two priests, who both, were
destined to have a profound affect over a great number of their
contemporaries, and whose humility did not resist the desire to dress
themselves with the look of the nobility. Another remark is no less
singular: None can have forgotten the words pronounced before the
tribunal, by the abbot Robert de La Mennais, after a condemnation
incurred by him under the Restoration: I will make you know what a
priest is! Wow, these words, which became so famous, have been
renewed from the XIth [sic] century, for they take their origin for the
fiery Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas à Becket, who, for the sole
222
Aormuzdi and Ahrimanes, Osiris and Typhon, Saturn and Uranus,

Jupiter and Pluto, Phoebus the luminous and Apollo the
exterminator, God and Satan? Satan is from Sath or Seth
(knowledge), Sathan or Satan (knowledge of evil). If, in
imitation of the ancients, we have separated the author of good
from the author of evil, how do we pray to the author of good
not to lead us into the temptation of evil?
The scholar Eloi Johanneau, whose vast erudition does not
always sit upon unshakeable foundations, has expanded and
perfected the seductive system of Dupuis concerning the Sun-
god, when he has not obscured it. His opinion, if it has not been
cause of his vanity, ambition, pride and the fallacious mantle of his
religion, put into practice the menace that he had made to the King of
England, his master: I will make you see what a priest is! In our opinion,
it should not be to see what a priest is, but what a bad priest was. By
his ambitions, his menacing, his intrigues and his furies, he set the
world on fire for a quarter of a century, arming king against king,
invoking the tiara against the crown, arousing the peoples and
compromising the Church by dint of trying to exalt it. Some
murderous wars were undertaken by the triumph of his self love; but,
he himself, assassinated in his church, paid with his own life for these
long excesses. In our own time, who knows if Thomas of Canterbury
would have become popular for his feud with the kings; and who
knows if in the XIth [sic] century, whether or not the second Robert,
were he exclusively Papist, would foremostly demonstrate himself
with a vain will.
‘Pride is the same, and solely the times differ. We do not believe in
those who repent except when they are silent and modest, and not
every change is necessarily a conversion. This is why, among all
popular errors, the error that appears to us most dangerous is that
which consists in seeming to have love for what actually is but the
expansion of a contrary hate. Is it possible that one man experiences
two consciences or that the same man could prove to have two
opposite convictions?’ (Chapter LIX, Les Réputations, page. 570).
223
challenged, justifies the verse: do not lead us into temptation:

he makes pretence that, in every age, God has been the Sun
adored in all its phases of ascent and descent, from his birth in
agony, from the glory of its annual demise, for his alternating1
charity and inclemency. When speaking of this solar god in a
hymn of his own composition, he says:
‘According to the point of your career

You are named good or evil.’
In this hypothesis, it is not contradictory that in the same

prayer, the ancients had given their supplication to the
ascendant sun to give to them daily bread (5th verse) and the
descendant sun, not to lead into temptation (7th verse). The
brilliant star of light gives daily bread; the star, plunged into
darkness, refuses it; his clarity is the aurora of virtue, his
obscurity is the guide of crime: thus the words, do not lead us
into temptation, mean: Sun, promptly climb back up over the earth;
chase from it the darkness, the accomplice of evil deeds, and render us
the light which is propitious of all good actions!
1 It is without doubt, in their final sense, that these words are three
times (this number indicates a mysterious origin) pronounced in the
burial service, at each purification of the body by the lustral water and
by the fire or incense which recalls the Egyptian embalming, the
purification by air in place of the carrying upon the bier, and that by
the earth during the inhumation, during which three shovels of earth and
three aspersions are made which replace the three Egyptian cries,
symbolised by the three heads of Cerberus, whose name signifies cries of
the abyss [French, fosse, pit, grave, whole, abyss].
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CHAPTER XXIV
Further on the 7th verse of the Dominical Orison. – On the Chaldean
and Hebrew Kodisch, root of the Pater Noster; their points of
agreement compared. - Sabaic verse of the Kodisch. – On the epithets
given by the pagans to Jupiter, to Apollo, to Bacchus and to
Aesculapius, and which were applied to the father, the son and the
spirit. – The Kodisch or Pater of Voltaire.
The critics of the reformed Jewish doctrine have dwelt upon

the impropriety of praying to the good BEING par excellence not
to lead his feeble creature into temptation; the vigilant
hierogrammates have skirted about the text thus:
And do not abandon us to temptation, that is to say, Aormuzdi; do
not leave us in combat to the mercy of Ahrimanes; protect us from the
seductions of your enemy.
This version is not impious; it is derived from the accepted
opinion of the protection of God against the perpetual
temptations of Ahrimanes, Typhon and Satan.
8th AND LAST Verse. But deliver us from evil; this verse explains
the former; reunited they mean:
Lord, watch over my weakness; keep evil far from me; safeguard my
thoughts and my actions from the impurity which degraded the being
which you have created, deliver my conscience from the clutches of
remorse and my body from the sorrows of life.
That which follows will prove the correctness of my
observation: the celebrant adds these words to the dominical
orison:
225
Deliver us from evil, please, Lord; from all past, present and future
evils…; Let us enjoy peace during the sojourn of our mortal lives.
By the phrase, all the evils, we understand all those evils of the
body and of the soul. The intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Mother of God, always virgin, etc, (See, the chapter on the
Neomenia, Festivals of Isis-Mary) is joined to this supplication.
That which is remarkable, is the announcement of the
celebrant before reciting the Pater Noster, when he dares to declare
that this Orison has been divinely instituted, preaceptis salutaribus
moniti et divina institutione formati audemus dicere [Latin, Having
been advised by salutary precepts, and shaped by that which is
divinely instituted, we dare to say]. The hierophant symbolises its
high antiquity when he qualifies it as being ‘divinely instituted.’
Let us remark, my Brothers, that the Dominical Orison, which
issued from Chaldea, can be addressed to the good and evil
principle; that, when transmitted to the Hebrews during their
captivity, it was not mixed with any feature that relates to the
dogma of another life, a dogma that is omitted from the
Hebrew religious system, for their jealous and choleric god
rewards and chastises them in this life; that introduced into the
reformed Hebraic ritual, this Orison coloured it with the tint of
the kingdom of a thousand years (see its 3rd verse), and that,
elaborated by a much later purge, it underwent, in its last three
verses, an interpretation which harks back to the theme that
prompted the most ancient sages to teach about another life,
and which the sages of the middles ages presented to the weak
as the aegis, to the wretches as an asylum and to the wicked as
a scarecrow.
After this scrupulous examination of the Pater Noster, I
naturally place the Chaldean-Hebraic Pater named Kaddish,
according to the translation of a scholarly Israelite,
distinguished by his sound philosophy. Let it be that the gavel
wakes your attention and transports you upon the wings of
226
past centuries to the most ancient times of wise Chaldea, or to

the foot of the holy arch of the people of Israel:
The Kaddish, that is to say, the sanctification, in Chaldean.
‘May the name of the Lord be exalted and sanctified in this
world that he has created according to his pleasure, and may he
solely govern throughout our days and those of the house, soon
and in the times to come, may it be said, Amen!
‘May the name of the Lord be praised always and in eternity!
May he be praised, celebrated, elevated, honoured and adored
with fear and respect; the most holy and praiseworthy of all
beings, who is elevated above all eulogies and all actions of
gratitude that the worlds can produce! May it please you to
receive our vows with pleasure and mercy. May the prayers
and supplications of every house of Israel be welcomed by our
father who is in the heavens! May the name of the Eternal be
blessed from the present unto all eternity! May life and great
happinesses [French, félicitées] descend from the high heavens
over us and over all Israel! May it be said: Amen!
‘It is the Eternal that comes to my aid; from him who has
created the heaven and the earth. O thou, who establishes peace
in the heavenly countries; maintain peace among us and among
all the people of Israel! Be it said: Amen!’
General (synoptic) similarities (conformities) of the Pater Noster and

the Kaddish.
Kaddish. Pater.
1. Our father who is in the Our father who is in the

heavens, heavens;
2. May the name of the May your name be

Lord be exalted and sanctified;
227
sanctified;
3. May he govern the May your kingdom

house of Israel soon and come;
in the times to come;
4. May he govern, he who May your will be done

has made the heaven in heaven and upon the
and the earth; earth;
5. May life descend from Give us, today, our

the height of the daily bread,
heavens over us;
6. May it please you to And pardon us our

receive our prayers offenses, as we give
with mercy and pardon to those who
welcome the have offended us;
supplications of all
Israel;
7. My aid comes from the And lead us not into

Eternal; maintain the temptation; but deliver
peace among us and in us from evil;
all of Israel;
8. May it be said; Amen! So mote it be!
To complete the proof of the similarity or conformity between

these orisons, let us compare the verse of the offering and the
harvest [French, moisson]: pax domini semper vobiscum, the peace
of the Lord be always with you.
At the end of the Kaddish: O thou, who establish peace in the
celestial countries, maintain the peace among us!
228
Thus the Chaldeans, by Israelite intermediaries, have handed

the Dominical Orison down to us.
It is important to remark upon this verse of the Chaldean
Kaddish: The Lord God is elevated above all the eulogies and all the
acts of grace THE WORLDS can produce; this is an entirely Sabian
expression; the worlds, is a fragment of the celestial system of
the Babylonians. This is again another: my aid comes from the
Eternal; this is an essential point revealed in the mysteries of
high antiquity; it is synonymous with my strength is in God
[French, ma force est en Dieu] attributed to the second column in
the modern initiations1.
1 Concerning the Pater Noster of the Chaldeans and the reformed

Jews; is it not appropriate in passing to review a few theological
epithets that have decorated Jupiter, the all powerful father, and Apollo,
his unique son, the Sun?
Jupiter, all powerful father, pater omnipotens; nourisher, almus, luminis
pater, father of the light; diei pater, father of the day; diespiter, creator,
or Demiurgos, according to the Platonic philosophers; all powerful,
pancrates; who engenders, genitor, this epithet is used in the Pange
lingua; genitori, genitoque [Latin, to the begetter, and with the begotten],
who renders clear the sky, ethrius; the very highest, father of the gods,
hypsistos, ypsitos, who sees all, panoptes, who sees all, present
everywhere, madbacchus, a Syrian epithet, the very highest, elion;
tutelary god, protector against all evil, preserver, tutanus, tutelaris,
protector of the city, policus; who goes, eanus ab eundo, who has been
and will be, Jupiter, Jovis, the best and the greatest, optimus, maximus;
he, who, according to the Peruvians, animates all, but is not visible,
Pachacamac; the universal father of the north, the father of combat,
Odin, Wooden, who may also be the father of the Te deum; generous
[French, liberal], invoked during great dangers; liberalis, saviour,
whose name has become the holy saviour, saotas, saotes, servitor, sosipolis,
soter salvator; who hurls the lightning bolt, ceraunius, a word that
comes from keronos, which means lightning in Greek (is not it the
ceraunius of the pagan altars discovered at Notre Dame de Paris)? who
229
To prove my veneration toward the few lodges in which the

ritual prescribes a homage to the Great Architect, I will close
this chapter with Voltaire’s prayer to God:
‘It is to you that I address myself, to you, god of all beings, of

all worlds, and of all ages; if it may be permitted weak creatures
lost in immensity and imperceptible to the rest of the universe
to dare to ask something of you, you who have given
punishes the wicked, alastor; hidden, ammon, a Libyan and Egyptian

name; the earliest name of Jupiter, king of Crete, zan (See John and
Oannes, in Chapter 21); the motor of life, zeus from zaein, to live; zan,
zen, zes, zan; den, dan, dis, deus, etc.
Epithets of the Sun god under the names of Apollo, Bacchus,
Aesculapius or Lord.
Sun, the great god of the Chaldeans, Baal; lord of heaven, Baal-semen,
watching the sky, coelispex, who gives the good things to the earth or
of the earth, opifer, son of God, Diogenes, father of the week,
hebdomagene, he who gives the light, phanes, present, who appears,
epiphanes, father of the light, Solaegenetes, who sees all, Panderkes, who
oversees all, Pammeles Osiris, the son of God who created the world,
Orus (1); biform, of two shapes, of two natures (as is the Redeemer),
Dimorphos, from morphe, shape, helpful, Epicurius; Bacchus, good son,
Evan (see John, Oan, Oannes); Saint Denis, Dionysios, liberator,
Eleutherius, father of joy and liberty, liber pater, our father, pater.
Courage, my son! he said to him ab alto Jovis pater omnipotens; Evohe,
Bacche! — Aesculapius shares with Jupiter and Apollo a few honorific
epithets, notably that of Saviour.
The enumeration, given following the orison addressed to our father,
who shares with the son and the spirit all these mythological epithets,
will undoubtedly be judged a useless hors-d'oeuvre by the initiates of
an elevated science and reliable foresight.
230
everything, and whose decrees are as immutable as they are

eternal.
‘Deign to look with pity on the errors attached to our nature;
let not these errors bring about calamities for us.
‘You have not given us a heart to hate ourselves, and hands to
cut one another’s throats; bring it about that we may mutually
aid each other to support the burden of a transitory and painful
life!
‘May the little differences between the clothes that cover our
feeble bodies, between our insufficient languages, between our
ridiculous customs, between our imperfect laws, in our foolish
opinions, between all our conditions so disproportionate in our
eyes, and so, equal before you, may there be among all the little
nuances that distinguish the atoms, called MEN, no signs of
hatred and persecution!
‘May those who light candles at high noon to celebrate you
support those who content themselves with the light of your
SUN!
‘May those who cover themselves in a robe of white cloth to
say that it is necessary to love detest not those who say the same
thing under a mantle of black wool!
‘May it be equal to adore you in a jargon formed from an
ancient language or in a newer jargon.
‘May all men remember that they are brothers! May they hold
tyranny exerted over souls in horror, as they have a loathing for
robbery which forcibly seizes the fruit of work and peaceful
industry!
‘And if the flails of war are inevitable, let us not hate one
another and tear ourselves apart in the bosom of peace, and let
us use the MOMENT of our existence to equally bless, in a
thousand different languages, from Thailand unto California,
your goodness which has given us this MOMENT!’
231
Voltaire also said, with the true accent of a creature who

humbly, but confidently, addresses the eternal and
incomprehensible eternal being to whom he owed life:
‘O God who is not known, O God whom all announce,

Understand the last words that my mouth can
pronounce:
If I have fooled myself, it is in quest of your law;
My heart may have wandered, but is full of your awe.
I see without alarm, eternity shown forth,
I cannot think that God, who brought about my birth,
That God, who in my days, good things did deliver,
When my days are extinct, torments me forever.’
1. I have commanded you to reign over the earth, you whom the Sun
loves, whom Apollo the strong, the son of God, who has made the
world loves… (Egyptian inscription to Orus cited from Origines
de la Franc-Maçonnerie by Alexandre Lenoir).
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CHAPTER XXV
Recapitulation of the solar incarnation. – The Apostle Saint Peter and
the poet Lucretius. – Transubstantiation and the Eucharist. – Dogma
of the eternal life. – Deprecations by three and by three. – On the three
non sum dignus. – On Janus Agonius which the cutler [French, coutelier,
cutler, cutter of cloth) priests named Agones. – On the sign of the Ram
in the zodiac, of the Lamb of the Israelites and of the Lamb of the
Apocalypse. – On Jupiter Ammon with the horns of a ram.
Following on from the solar incarnation, which in the

explanation of the Credo, I believe, I have rendered reasonable
and as admissible, perhaps, as the movement of the moon
circling the earth and the rotation of the planets in their orbits
of the glorious monarch, I must, it seems to me, conclude that
the transubstantiation (that incomprehensible mystery, unknown
and obscure in the last twelve centuries) is but an ingenious
allegory of the operations of the universal life in organising
matter. In fact, the Sun, the visible father of life, has led himself
into [French, s’est introduit] all the seed producing glands [French,
sinus germinateurs]; he has started the process of fermentation of
the fluids and solids of these seeds [French, germs]; his vital
electric heat combines as one with the flesh and with the blood
in a manner so intimate and so integral that it only holds back
when there could be physical injury or wearing out of the
organs, the killing of living beings, the tubes, the networks and
the foyer of the entire mechanism of the body.
233
One of the most powerful authorities of the new faith, Saint

Paul, fortifies this opinion, by saying, as I have already
reported:
‘A certain one of your poets (this is Lucretius) has, with
reason, written: We live in God, he moves us; we are, compared
to his unity whose limits are not revealed, almost imperceptible
fractions1’
Do we not find the vow that the celebrant pronounces when
he intends that mixing of bread and wine in the chalice that should be
the consecration of the body and blood of the REDEEMER to be
strangely independent of reason? What is understood by the
liturgical expression consecration, if not the religious offering
destined, dedicated and vowed to the Sun which has been
incarnated from his flesh and his blood, that is to say, from his
own substance, the nourishing fruits of the wheat and of the
vine of which this offering is composed.
What is understood as the simple meaning of the word
transubstantiation, if not the action beyond [French, au-delà,
beyond, or after-life]: the passage of one substance into
another? But in the sense figured, it is a transanimation, a
transcollation, a translucidation, a transfusion, a fractional
transmutation; it is all this that I comprehend, that I find, and if
I dare to say, in the sacred logogryph; it explains the passage,
according to natural laws, of the fertilising power of the Sun, in
the ovaries fashioned by the Great Architect of the Universe, to
seed therein parcels of animated things and regulate quantities
and worldly things by this power.
What is understood by the Greek word Eucharist, if not the
action of grace toward the unique God, the gift that he has
made of our existence and the substances which sustain it, pro
1 See above, first page of Chapter VII.
234
omnibus quae retribuit mihi [Latin, for all the things he has restored
to me]? Weak creatures that we are! How to thank him for these
things by an equal return? Weary! facing the high initiates, I
will invoke his name, et nomen Domini invocabo; he sparkles in
the blinding disk of the Sun.
In the temple of nature, all that is, is moved [French, animé], is
of the universal substance: by its supreme agent, the Sun, God
has penetrated it with innumerable seeds: in deo sunt [Latin, they
are in god]; No matter what human ignorance or knowledge
[French, science], human ingratitude or gratitude should be.
In the temple of the mysteries, the sages conceal and contain
[French, enveloppent] this sublime verity in an ingenious
allegory, admired by the most meagre of the apprentices who
think, and veiled for the masters in all the grades who do not
think.
At the time [French, époque] of the holy sacrifice, the
hierophant asks the Creator, as the reward for the consecration
of sharing the first fruits of the harvests [French, moissons]
which are the impressions of his divinity, which will take place
among the initiates, that the faithful should be admitted to the
benefit of the enjoyment of eternal life; he supplicates the
Creator to accord celestial crowns to his brothers and to himself.
Here again, is seen one of the intercalated dogmas professed in
the ancient mysteries, of which the sacred intent (sacra mens,
sacramentum [Latin, sacred mind, the sacrament]), profoundly
graven in their feeble hearts, can sometimes turn them away
from evil; this is the dogma of another life.
The celebrant, penetrated with respect for the ternary number
of antiquity, invokes thrice he who effaces the sins of the world;
and who is this? It is the Lamb of God, Agne Dei1. After this he
1 In the year 688, Pope Sergius ordered this word to be sung as Agnus,
rather than Agne, while singing and breaking the bread of the mass.
235
addresses three deprecations: the first for peace and the union
of the Church (assembly of the initiates); the second, that the
Church may be delivered from all evils (of the soul and the
body); the third, for which the offering is consecrated, when he
is on the point of eating, far from turning from his judgement
and condemnation, serves for the defence of his body and his
soul. To whom are these three symbolic deprecations
addressed? To Jesus-Christ, that is to say, to the Sun in the sign
of the fertilising Lamb, purging the earth of the darkness and the
cold weather of winter.
He takes therefore the host (the cereal victim) between his
thumb and his consecrated fingers, and says thrice again:
Domine, non sum dignus, etc. Lord, I am not worthy that you enter
under my roof, but say a word, and my soul will become healthy. To
whom does he address these three submissions? To the
architect, the proprietor of the roof [French, toit], of which he is
the usufruct, to the Lord.
My Brothers, when at the time [French, époque] that the
sacrifice precipitates toward its most mysterious point, I declare
that, without the compass of observation and the direction of a
helpful hand from the past, the reason would be lost in an
inextricable labyrinth. However, before attaching to this
labyrinth the salutary thread, initiates, let us direct the light of
our star upon the marbles of antiquity that bear, under moss,
This presents a fault of Latin locution, for it is not correct to use the
nominative case (agnus) for what should be said in the vocative case
(agne); it is undoubtedly on account of barbarian resemblances that
Cardinal Du Perron, Archbishop of Sens, the primate of the Gauls and
of Germany, never read his breviary, as he said, in order not to spoil his
good Latinity.
236
the effigy of the lamb or ram. Let us search, my Brothers, let us

search.
Numa instituted feasts in honour of Janus Agonius, thus called
because one sacrificed to him a lamb, a ram (our Saint John and
his lamb). On other occasions and for serious undertakings, the
Agonian (assigned from Latin verb agere, to act [French, agir])
gods are invoked, that is to say, gods who act [French, dieux
acteurs], protectors of an important action or undertaking.
The Agones were the ministers who acted as cutlers at the
altars; they were thus named because, before striking the victim,
they said to those present: Agone? Shall I act? Must I strike?
(Compare agone with domine, non sum dignus [Latin, lord, I am
not worthy]).
Aided by these three citations and enlightened by the
discovery of the use of the homonyms employed by the modern
doctrinaires to veil their secret, as for example, deo soli, soli deo1,
will I speak of the imitation of the priests who invoked the god
of Numa, Janus agonius, protector of the high undertaking of the
sacrifice of the harvest [French, moisson] and how, under these
ancient words: Aganus Jani-dei, of which they omit the central
1 However, we cannot translate this by saying to God the sun [French

à Dieu soleil], or by saying to the Sun-god [French, Soleil-dieu]; for to sole
God [French, à Dieu seul] is in Latin Deo soli. This truth strongly
shocked M. Lhuilier, parish priest of Eruffe (Meurthe), estimable for
his tolerance and his love of good, who, when visiting in 1844 with the
author, the new church of Demangis-aux-Eaux (Meuse), was shown,
above the doorway the inscription Deo soli, lost sight of his Latin,
because, by habit, that is to say, without reflection, he thought he read
to God alone [French, Dieu seul], he was about to argue against the
author, who easily disabused him, however, he cried, ‘It is an error,
we meant to put Deo solo [Latin, to God alone], and it is thus that the
inscription of this place will be done as a project.
237
word under which they commemorate the custom of the

immolation of the lamb vowed to that god?
Will I speak of how the modern celebrants imitate the Agones,
in harking back, by three agnus dei, to the agone of their bloody
predecessors? In addition, if they do not strike, as their
predecessors, the animal lamb with a knife whose blade had
originally been drenched with human blood, they still separate,
into two hemispheres, from the cutting edge of the paten, the
vegetable lamb.
Shall I infer from the above, my Brothers, that the new
doctrinaires, animated by the sublime design of setting the
temples far apart from the butchery of animals, so neighbourly
with the butchery of humans, did not dare to suppress the ritual
because of the weakness of their young converts and the
fanaticism of the unconvertible?
Now, if I pass to the Passover of the Lamb of the Israelites, is it
necessary to meditate sorrowfully before discovering the
striking analogy between the Lamb of the Old Testament and
the Lamb of the New, between the material sacrifice and the
intellectual sacrifice?
Shall I risk, high Initiates, losing you in the mystical
obscurities of the Apocalypse, because this work, a tomb stone
[French, pierre tombale] orbiting [French, gravitant] the colossal
genius of Newton, makes mention of a lamb lying down upon a
book closed with seven seals? Will you conclude from that that this
lamb, reposing softly, is the Sun warming the earth from March
to September? Suppose that this book is the symbol of our globe
and that the seven seals are the great kingdom of the great star
in the seven signs of his most notable blessing and generosity
toward the Boreal hemisphere? What will the sages and the
nations of the Austral hemisphere in which the seasons are,
consequently, inverse from ours, say about this?
238
And when the sun, passing into the lower signs, seems to
abandon the pastures and herds to the cold weather, darkness,
sterility, to neediness and to destruction, what will it serve you,
unfortunate Brothers, to call to your aid the holy verse: the lamb
forsakes his sheep, agnus demittit oves, or to repeat the Agnus Dei
of the offering of the harvest [French, moisson] for the Lamb of
God, the Sun has distanced himself from your roofs, abandoned
the world to all the evils (peccata mundi [Latin, the sins of the
world])?
It is possible to increase, without fruit, our difficult researches,
by mounting back up the obscure byways of antiquity; but if
the trouble were rewarded…!
In the sunset of mysterious Egypt upon the Libyan sands, I
catch sight of a few debris; let us approach… They are the
vestiges of the temple of Jupiter Ammon! The winds solely
render there, today, sure [French, certain] oracles, for the fake
[French, imposteurs] priests have disappeared. This god that the
earth did not consult but with dread, lies fallen by his pedestal
in the very same place the kings went down on their knees. The
moss of ages nourishes itself upon the dust of the purple mantel
with which superstition had clothed it; and the shepherd of the
desert is seated upon his chest to survey [French, surveiller] his
herd; listen to what he cries out: God is God, and Mohamed is his
prophet.
Let us discover, if it is possible, the attributes of the dethroned
god: they are effaced; but his head is ornamented with two horns
of a ram, long ago a spectre for feeble souls, long ago the
astronomical emblem of the power of the sun god. And a great
light spreads out: Jupiter with the head of a ram sparkles with
splendour, purified from his blemishes; O wonders! In him we
see Apollo with the epithet of Belis, the Babylonian Belus
fertilising the earth; the blond Belisan or Belen of the Celts, the
vernal [French, printanier] Lamb of the Hebrews; the Janus
239
Agonian of Numa, the Lamb of the Apocalypse and the Agnus

Dei1 of the modern sacrifice. It is true to say that the divine
simulacra were made by hands of men; but it must also be
fitting that the human spirit endows such emblems, more or
less ingenious, according to the intelligence of the times,
relative, in general, to the annual revolution of the sun, and,
overall, to his return into the first palace of the zodiac, where,
by him, the resurrection of nature is brought into operation.
And yet, the sign, guardian of the equinoctial gate of life that
rejuvenates our hemisphere, is the agnus dei tollens peccata mundi
[Latin, the Lamb of God bearing the sins of the world], the Ram2.
1 It is also an amulet (or amolette from the Latin amoliri, to hunt

beside, a pretended preservative with which they have faith in the
east; it is agnus in cera sacra [Latin, lamb in sacred wax]), because this
Agnus Dei is a wax blessed by the Pope, upon which is impressed the
figure of a lamb.
2 What an analogy there is with this word and with the Babylonian
Belus, with Bel, consecrated to the Sun! It is, say the etymologists, by
onomatopoeia the natural cry of a ram [French, bélier] from which it
derives its name; this cry, they say is called baaing [French, bélement],
from Latin balatus; but it is the cry of the sheep; we do not say that a
ram makes the sound baas [French, béle], but that it bleats [French,
blatère].
240
CHAPTER XXVI
Further on the Agnus Dei. Objections refuted. – The necessary caution
and the consecration of the host. – The ribonned [French, enrubantés]
masters and Masons. – Mother and non-philosophical architecture. –
Communion and Post-communion. – Acecdote of the academician La
Harpe upon a fanatical priest. – On autopsy, on Jupiter Elicius and the
Brahmans. – Virtues of the true initiates and of the moral Credo of the
first Christians, faithful to primitive Masonry. – Atrocious calumnies
against them, then against the Protestants, then against the
Freemasons.
We have been witness to objections relative to the agnus dei;

and here are our answers.
1st OBJECTION: ‘The first three deprecations (agnus dei) of the
celebrant are addressed to the Lamb of God. In the literal sense, is
this not absurd idolatry, a blemish made upon the purity, the
distinctive character of the cult of the true and unique God? Let
us translate this literally: Lamb of God, who effaces the sins of the
world, have pity on us; give us peace.
‘What! In the complete form of the modern faith, the Credo
only makes mention of God and men; and, at the holiest
moment of man’s sacrifice to God, the pontiff invokes a lamb,
imploring him for pity and peace and attributing to him the
power to efface the sins on the world? Assuredly, nothing could
degrade the human spirit more.’
RESPONSE: In all things, it is prudent not to rush in.
241
The threefold supplication agnus dei provides warning enough

of its symbolic character; let us try to penetrate the mystery; let
us translate this enigma, whose envelope -which carries and
conceals it- causes such scruples:
‘Sun of spring, who, to arouse the annual resurrection of nature,
comes back to inhabit the constellation of the Lamb, the symbol
of gentleness and fertility; O you, who send the evils that afflict
the earth in flight, by melting the ice, by dissipating the
darkness, by impregnating all the seeds, all beings and all
bodies with the welcoming and warming influence of your
rays; do not forget the human race in the sharing of your
merciful benefits [French, misércordieuse bienfaisance] and give it
the peace it needs to gather your gifts.’
Is it from the sense or from the letter that we take our
preference, my Brothers? Should it not be the prayer, stripped
[French, dépouillée, skinned] of the mystic envelope that
conceals and carries it, its seemingly absurd tegument, its skin?
Yes, let us prefer the prayer, which simultaneously satisfies
reason, the science of the stars and natural religion.
2nd OBJECTION: ‘But what is the necessity of covering such a
sublime hymn of praise to the Great star with a veil so thick?’
RESPONSE: I answer with the divus Augustinus [Latin, the
divine Augustine], Saint Augustine, because it was judged thus, in
fear that human capacities are too narrow to contain his majesty.
If the celebrant and his faithful are chained to the text, they
resemble Aaron and his idolatrous Israelites: if they understand
the allegory, the calf of gold is overturned1. Moses descended
from Sinai; the unbreakable tablets of the true God and of his
1 A very long time ago the Apis Bull opened spring; after this, but
long ago, the Sign of the Lamb or the celestial lamb followed; but today it
is Pisces; thus, in place of the agnus Dei, we ought to say, pisces Dei
[Latin, fishes of God].
242
true law are deposited in the arch of the human heart, whose
sanctuary is guarded by the cherubim of allegory and the
silence of the pontiff, the special sentinel of the Holy of Holies
(the Truth).
At the time of the second threefold deprecation that follows
the three agnus dei, it is no longer a question of the Lamb of God;
it is the lord Jesus-Christ that is invoked. The invocation is
threefold and again gives warning that it is symbolic. The
celebrant addresses him who lives and reigns in all the centuries,
to the Sun, light of light, born of the father, before all the
centuries, to whose reign there shall be no end, lumen de lumine,
ex patre natum ante omnia sœcula, cujus regni non erit finis.
Since the Great Architect exists in all, and makes all that move
in him and live in him, it is not startling when the celebrant says
thrice to Jesus-Christ, you, who are God with the Father and the
Holy Spirit. This has no other purpose than to exist as a secret
gloss in the office of the mass [French, Ceci n'a d'autre
conséquence que l'annotation secrète, dans l'office de la messe]
(which is a collection of the practices and religious dogmas of
all times and all places), of the system in deo vivimus [Latin, in
god we live] and the opinions of the Pythagorean and Platonic
philosophers, which the ancient mysteries make mention of as
moral ordeals.
Initiates, pay attention, have respect and keep the secret
[French, Initiés, attention, respect et secret]!
The hierophant takes the sacred bread (mola) in his venerable
hands, venerabiles manus; he lifts it above the sacred wine,
emblem of the blood vowed to the gods before the purification
of the sacrifices (immolatio); he announces that he will invoke
the name of the Lord, that is to say, the Demiurgos.
No more figurative lamb, no more emblematic man to hide
[French, dérober] the boundless power and the boundless
243
benefaction [French, bonté] of the creator of things visible and

invisible from the weakness of the catechumens and the
apprentices. The venerable celebrant will speak the sublime
language of the high initiates; and, although present, the greater
part of the simple students of the mysteries, the mystai, will
listen to it and understand it not: their intellects, preoccupied
with the deprecations addressed beforehand, and with the Lamb
of God, and with the Son of God called Lord, have no space to
give to the sublime thought of the Great Architect, the sole
being who created and accomplished all things. Let us compare
these mystai with the Indians who, from the fruit of the coconut
tree would make their fetish god, and who, after having deified
its two first envelopes, on account of the cache of oil which they
contain, rest in the absolute ignorance that the third is the
reservoir of a delicious ambrosia.
Such are, my Brothers, these Entered Apprentices [French,
Apprentis] and Fellow Crafts [French, Compagnons] who content
themselves working upon the square, on the rough ashler
[French, pierre brute] and finished ashler [French, pierre cubique]!
Such are also the pretended masters in force, wisdom and beauty,
who, seven years of Masonic work, perfectly executed, have made
overly proud to the point that they ignore the purpose of the
work of construction, although the reverse side of the tracing
board has shown it to them on a plate of gold. Such are, lastly,
these modern architects, who call themselves illustrious, who
swagger themselves to the Orient with their dazzling halos, and
stagnate in the ignorance of the philosophic architecture, the
sole architecture that rules the value and the price of all the
others.
I know that it is difficult, wearisome and discouraging to
research the principles of the mother architecture. It is the
diamond buried in superimposed layers of sludge and flint,
covered over with many gangues which glimmer upon it, and
244
when its brilliance is laid bare, it does not shine except by the
continual rubbing of a very rare polisher [French, polissoir],
since spirit, education and experience solely fabricate this
instrument and make good use of it.
High Initiates, pay attention, have respect and keep the secret
The hierophant-celebrant says thrice the name of the Lord of all
creations, of all harmonies and of all marvels. Frail creature!
Thrice he confesses his unworthiness of receiving, under his
humble roof [French, toit], the sovereign of the Universe; thrice
he conjures the healing of his soul when saying a sole word.
This mystic conjuration seems to establish a material god, a god
speaking the human language; but it is only a figurative
manner of expression, when he faces the vulgar of the initiates,
the all-powerful Creator and the extreme weakness of his
creatures.
High Initiates, pay attention, have respect and keep the secret
Here is the consecration of the offering of bread and of wine,
their unexpected change of nature, the magic transubstantiation,
operated according to the very recent dogma of the modern
belief by the effect of the words of the sacrificer, which are:
In this bread is the body of our Lord Jesus-Christ, that he may guard,
that he may preserve my soul unto eternal life, so mote it be! – In this
wine, is the blood, etc.
We gather from the celebrated La Harpe, long before his
apostasy1, that when he was a child, because of his curiosity he
often attended the mass of a priest who pronounced the hoc est
enim [Latin, for this is], a number of times, until he thought he
had succeeded, by the flaring [French, aspiré, aspiration, flaring]
1 From the Greek ΑΠΙΣΤΑΜΑΙ, to retire formed from ΑΠΩ, far from,
and from ΙΣΤΑΜΑΙ, to be standing, to hold oneself firm.
245
intonation of these words, in performing the operation of the

descent of God into the bread and the wine1. His mass lasted
more than three quarters of an hour and the boldest of the
beatified escaped his mystification [French, les plus intrépides
béates échappainet à sa mystification].
This fanatic was in the state that the pagans called autopsy2, a
state in which one has an intimate commerce with the gods; a
person believed themselves to be invested with all their power,
and was persuaded that there was no longer anything
impossible. The Romans also believed that in pronouncing
certain [French, certain, can mean some or a few] sacred verses,
they had the power to make Jupiter, whose epithet was Elicius3,
descend from the sky. The Brahmans say that the image or
images of the supreme God become God when they are
consecrated with the ceremonies necessary for this effect.
1 We read in Origen: ‘There are names that naturally have virtue;

such were those that the sages used among the Egyptians, the Magi in
Persia and the Brahmans in India. What is called Magic is not a vain
and chimeric art as the Stoics and Epicureans pretend: the names
Sabaoth and Adonai were not made for created beings; but they
belong to a mysterious theology which goes back to the creator; from
him comes the virtue of these names when they are arranged and
pronounced according to the rules, etc.’
2 From the Greek ΑΥΤΟΣ by oneself, and ΟΠΣΙΣ, vision; derived
from ΟΝΤΟΜΑΙ, to see with one’s own eyes.
3 Virgil himself believed that in pronouncing letters according to the
magical method, the moon could be forced to descend upon the earth.
In his eighth Eclogue, he seriously says:
‘Carmina vel caelo possunt deducere lunam,’ (Verse 69).
‘One makes, with these words, the moon descend to the earth,’
246
We see that, in all times, evocation, conjuration, and likewise

the apparition of gods and demons, as well as the shades of the
saints have been part of the profitable cults of the exploiters of
the queen of the earth, Credulity. However, this observation is
not relative, in any way, to the consecration of bread and wine
in the modern offering, to which I return.
It is certain that, for whoever is illuminated in the manner of
the priest of M. de La Harpe, the light of the Sun will be
importune, for his eyes show him only abysses filled with
deceptive willow-the-wisps and devouring monsters.
But for the initiates, by reason, by study in the mysteries of
the ancient philosophy and solely by these, is it demonstrated
how the new heiress uses and puts on their shoes, veils and
belts herself; these true sages do not call the believers in the
peripeteia of sacred bread and wine deiphages, nor do they call
the respectful commemorators of the holy supper Huguenots.
They have understood that the divinity, being in all bodies,
exists, consequently, in the bread and wine. This truth is
palpable and its simplicity demonstrates this. It is the light that,
according to Saint John, many do not understand, and
according to the Evangel, it gives the kingdom of heaven, that is to
say, the understanding of the mysteries to these same people
whose reason carries them above and conquers spirit and
imagination.
Moreover, what will be the worship of the sages? It will be
that of the first Christians; here is how they expressed it1:
‘What image shall we, who are his image, make of God? What
temples should we build for him when this world in its entirety,
formed by his hand, is not able to contain it? We who take our
pleasure in being lodged far and wide, do we dare enclose such
great majesty in a little chapel? Would it not be better to
1 Minucius Felix. Oct.
247
dedicate this in our understanding and to consecrate it at the

bottom of our hearts! Do we offer to our Lord the victims that
he himself has produced? The host that is agreeable to him is a
good soul, a pure understanding and a sincere belief. It is to
adore the Lord to be given over to innocence. It is to make
aspersions to God to exercise justice; it is to appease him to
abstain from fraud. It is to immolate a fat victim to pull a man
from danger. These are our sacrifices and our ceremonies. The
highest probity is to be esteemed by us, the most devotional1.
Our altars are the heart of the just, our images are the virtues;
our body is the temple of God.’
Who does not see, in this exposition of healthy doctrine, the
architecture of wisdom, strength and beauty of Masonry? Who
would believe that she could be, when she was so pure,
delivered over to the most atrocious persecutions? Arnobius
says in his first book that from its origins Christianity was
considered as an abominable superstition. The faithful were
accused of being anarchic [French, brouillons] and seditious,
enemies of peace, disturbers of the world and the authors of the
disasters. Saint Augustine2 cites, as vulgar, this proverb among
the pagans: The rain is lacking, the Christians are at fault. Saint
Justin3 reports the cry of death against the Christians: Cut away
the atheists! The boos and the imprecations during the torture of
a Christian, and the customary proclamation in the profane
temples: If there is any atheist or Christian here, let them leave! Saint
Cyprian4 gives testimony of the warped accusation against the
first faithful, of being lecherous, of being incestuous, of being
cutthroats of the innocents and drinkers of their blood.
1 Origen, Contra Celsum, Book 8.

2 City of God, Book 2, Chapter 3.
3 Apology 2.
4 Contra Demetrium Tome 1, p. 888.
248
Tertullian1 lets us know what the most moderate pagans said:

he who you speak of is honourable, unless he is a Christian. Lastly,
the scholarly Origen did not perhaps deprive himself of his
reproductive organs until after the delirium that came upon
him that was caused by the calumnies of the pagans, and I cite
the following according to him: The pagans say that every time the
first Christians were in a mood to assuage their dirty passions, they
took themselves to their assemblies where, with the lights extinguished,
each satisfied themselves with the first woman to come along. Because
of this false opinion, many have distanced themselves from the
Christian religion.
These atrocious calumnies were, in all times, exhumed by the
triumphant sect against the vanquished or nascent sect, and
notably against the Waldensians and the Albigensians: I cite one
of a thousand of these deplorable acts of dementia.
In 1557, a meeting of 400 Protestants for celebrating the
supper was taken by surprise at night in Paris on rue Saint-
Jacques 2 . The historian says, ‘The common opinion was that
they were assembled to have a beautiful banquet and then pell-
mell get bawdy when the candles were extinguished and the
torches put out. It is added that there were nuns and monks. All
these good religious people had acquired the reputation of
holiness to such an extent that one cannot make a story of
infamy that they had not been thus. The parish priests and the
preachers, on one side, used their persons to print [French,
imprimer] these lies to the people, saying likewise that they
there killed small children and other likewise things. It was thus
not only among the clatter of the common people but also
among the greatest even unto the king, whom they attempted
to persuade. Therefore one of the judges of Châtelet was led in,
1 Contra Celsum, Book 6.

2 Historia Ecclessiae, under Henri II, Book 2.
249
who dared to give report to his majesty the king, that, in the
central room of the house, there were many straw mattresses
upon which they had committed many acts of bawdiness and
also the apparel of a good and sumptuous banquet; with this he
greatly irritated the king.’
We almost forgot to mention that in 1737 and in 1748,
Masonry, renascent in Paris, received from the same Châtelet,
the honours of judicial persecution, and that in 1842, it received
a sort of consecration by the papal bull that pronounced,
against the faithful, the very light [French, très légère] death
penalty1.
1 Dictionnaire de Police, and Acta Latomorum.
250
CHAPTER XXVII
Opinions and authority of the Fathers upon the transubstantiation
during the first ten centuries until the Lateran Council. – On the
councils and on the hierogrammates. – Opinions of Béranger, Pierre
du Bruys, Pierre de Valdo and until Martin Luther. – Real presence
justified.
If the Fathers of the origin of the new faith returned to the

earth, charged with the duty of finding out if the faith and the
cult which brought them the ineffable honour of being saints
forever has remained fixed and unaltered, like the Sun, they
would be very shocked.
In the year 360 of the great light of previous ages reunited in a
sole forecourt, for Saint Ephrem said that the son of God (the
Sun) blessed the bread, as a figure of his body and the chalice as
a figure of his blood [French, sang]. Saint Ambrose pronounced
that this reasonable oblation was the figure of the body and
blood of the Lord (Dominus sol).
In his epistle to Caesarius, in the year 386, Saint Chrysostom
assured him that the nature of the bread remained in the sacrificed
bread1.
Saint Augustine, who was alive in 410, said2: The Lord has not
hesitated to say, HERE IS MY BODY, when he gave THE FIGURE of
1 Manuscript of the saint, preserved in the Library of Florence.

2 Chapter 12, Contra Œdimantus.
251
his body. He also explains this when he writes upon Psalm 198,
in which he makes Christ say:
‘You will not eat this body which you see and neither will you
drink this blood that will be spread out by those who will crucify
me. Understand what I said to you spiritually. I have
recommended to you a sacred sign, which, understood spiritually,
will give life [French, vivifiera, to bring to life, to exhilarate].’
In sermon 53, Saint Augustine adds: ‘Almost all call the body
of Christ that which is the sacred sign upon it.’
Here, I believe I will stop myself by citing a passage from a
hermetic Mason, Dom Pernety, the Benedictine1. Our eyes will
see all this more clearly:
‘The priests of pagan antiquity explained the hieroglyphs and
allegories to the people according to the letter, and to those that
they initiated, according to the sense. The people contented
themselves with the exterior; they said to them that all this was
established but to render grace to God; that which was but
Symbol became, for the people, the thing signified: they adored
the figure for the reality2. How many of our peasants have more
1 Les Fables Égyptiennes et Grecques Dévoilées et Réduites au Même

Principe, avec une Explication des Hiéroglyphes et de la Guerre de
Troye (1758). Volume 2, page 236 and following.
2 ‘The principle source of errors, abuses and superstitions of every
kind which blemished the religions of antiquity, exists in the belief

among the majority of peoples, that the sign, the figure of the symbol,
had the same virtue, the same supernatural power, the same
beneficent or preservative faculties that were attributed to the divine
object that was figured or symbolised; that the sign had as much value
as the object signified.
‘If this belief was demolished, we would see all its disastrous
consequences disappear with it, and the truth replace error in all
religions.’ (Dulaure, Des Cultes Qui Ont Précédé Et Amené L'idolatrie Ou
L'adoration Des Figures Humaines ... Chapter 1).
252
veneration for the figure of Saint Roch and his dog than from
God himself!’
After this lesson given by a modern priest on the adroit tactics
of the priests of antiquity, I return to the fathers of the earliest
origin of the new belief.
Theodoret, Bishop of Tyre, in the year 420, wrote (in his 1st
dialogue): the Lord gave as a sign the name of the body. Moreover,
(in the 2nd dialogue) he answers one Eutyches when upholding
the doctrine of transubstantiation: you are caught in the webs you
have strung up; for as after the consecration, the mystic signs do not
change their nature; they remain in their first substance, figure and
shape1.
Saint Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria in the year 400, when
speaking of the hierophant Nestorius, said2: has he not made of
our mystery the act of an ANTHROPOPHAG, a manduction of
man... engaging irreligiously the spirit of the faithful in vain
thoughts?
Pope Gelasius I, around the year 494, said: The substance of the
bread and wine remains.
Farcundus, the Bishop of Midi (in Africa), wrote in 550:
properly speaking, the bread is not his body, the wine is not his blood3.
Saint Denis, at the end of the IVth century, says more than ten
times at the end of a chapter4 called the supper, images, signs,
figures and Jesus-Christ, the worker of signs through which Christ
is signified. Such is the sentiment of Maximus, his scholiast in
630, and a Roman decree in the year 1160, reported by Gratian,
1 In Johannem, Book 9, chap. 29.

2 1st Apology, anethemas Book 2.
3 Contra Eutychem et Nestorium.
4 In ecclesiast. Hierarch., Chapter 1, Book 3.
253
confirms this: The bread and the wine called body and blood of Christ,
are not other than the signs through which Christ is signified.
For a thousand years, this primitive and reasonable opinion
was dominant in the Church (the order). A council, held in a
time dominated by ignorance and stupidity infringed upon this
ingenious allegory and was the source of hatreds and religious
exterminations.
The words Synod1 and Sorbonne2, conventus monasticus [Latin,
monastic convent] and the convent of the initiates are related to the
word council, which signifies the assemblies of the Roman
Church. Mysterious Egypt and Greece, her scholarly pupil, had
the same type of institutions. Their hierogrammates, interpreters
and depositaries of the sacred secrets, presided, as the fathers of
the new belief and the Grand Orients of the epoch, in the
explanation of the mysteries; they were the supreme curators
[French, conservateurs, also means political conservatives],
following the density of ignorance or the progression of the
lights; they invented and wrote the hieroglyphs and they
demonstrated them in their exterior sense (exoteric) to the
people and in their true sense (esoteric, interior) to the initiates;
they aided the kings with their wisdom and with their attentive
[French, intéressés, also means self interested] counsels; and for
the benefit of their clergy and the duration of their domination
(ad utilitatem nostram totiusque ecclesiae sanctae [Latin, for our use
and the use of the holy church in its entirety]), they used the
knowledge of celestial movements, that they solely possessed.
1 From the Greek ΣΥΝ, together and ΟΔΟΣ, way, to walk along
together.
2 From Robert of Sorbon, its founder, around the middle of the XIII th
century. This theologian, chaplain of Louis IX, died on August 15th,

1274.
254
This is what drew them a great esteem, an absolute submission,

with which things the gold of the entire world could be encased
in the abyss upon which the tabernacle was founded.
Following our useful observation concerning the councils of
the modern belief, we think ourselves obliged to say here that
despite the constant doctrine that had lasted a thousand years,
and despite the fathers who had established and sustained it,
and without which the halos of the saints would be thrown
down, this same doctrine was proscribed forever in the year
1059. The Lateran Council, held by Nicolas II, decided that, in
the future, the bread and the wine of the mass would be
recognised to be the true body of Christ that is, sensually, handled,
ruptured and broken by the teeth of the faithful.
In this council, which is monumental in the history of the
human spirit, the celebrated Béranger, the archdeacon of
Angers, saved his life, by withdrawing in a letter. When out of
danger, he published his earlier thoughts. The synods of Rouen,
1063, Poitiers, 1075, and Rome, 1078 and 79 condemned him
successively. Again, he was forced to abjure in writing.
However, from the moment he was in safety, he filled France,
England and Italy with fervent and courageous disciples,
making widespread the refutation of the document [French,
formulaire] that he had been forced to approve with his
signature. In this way persecution often served the truth, by
diminishing the power founded by foolishnesses.
Hildebert, Bishop of Le Mans, in the epitaph he composed for
Bérangar, called him the support of the Church, the blade and the
hope of the clergy.
The number of proselytes of Luther’s precursor, attributed
miracles to him because they maintained them to be as well
established and indubitable as anything that had appeared of
this kind.
255
Over the thin smoke of the stupidity of the XIth century,

Béranger seeded a grain of reason.
At this époque, remembered fondly [French, regrettée] by
those who track in foolishnesses without number and
prejudices adjustable for all sizes, many bishops did not know
physically how to read or write their orders, that is to say, the
graces they sold; among a thousand proofs, I will cite one: a
Saint Convion, 1st abbot, complained to Nominoe, king of
Armorica that the impious bishops communicated the orders
for the gain of money 1 . May it not please God that such
sacrileges are not committed on the part of Masons and in a few
lodges!
I have just said the Béranger, in the XIth century, dared to seed
a grain of reason; by the care of Peter of Bruys, around the year
1130, this grain, having already sprouted, raised itself up in a
number of spikes; and sixty-one years later, Pierre Valdo of
Lyon brought it to great cultivation. By his persuasive
eloquence, he drew proselytes called Waldensians; but this name
and that of the Albigensians, were not, by themselves, injurious,
for their enemies, for the purpose of slandering them and
making them contemptible, had recourse to inevitable and
perfidious means, employed in all times, by the ruling faction
who are nevertheless menaced by opinions because of the
march of progress which tends to dethrone them. They were
abused with the names of paterins, of the humiliated, of the poor
of Lyon. With the help of other odious and infamous
sobriquets, they were ridiculed to the extent that many of the
rich, arrogant, fearful or lightheaded sacrificed their doubt,
their penchant for taking the easy way out, their conviction to
pride, pusillanimity and ambition.
1 E. LXXXI die., Dictionnaire. de Bretagne, d’Ogée, dedicated to the

three orders.
256
However, despite the persecutions exercised against the

Waldensians, their opinions supported by irreproachable
morals, were handled afterwards by Luther and detached a
great part of Europe from oppression.
When I recall to my readers the incontestable proof that
despite the times and the obstacles that reason, although, exiled,
persecuted and gagged, resurrects, speaks, sets things in motion,
seduces, enlists, combats, triumphs and recaptures its legitimate
empire, I have thought it my duty to recall chronologically the
opinions of the fathers of the Church from its cradle up until the
Lateran Council; in the course of 1059 years, these opinions
were constantly established that the consecrated bread and the
wine do not change in nature, substance or in form; and the offering
is a figure of the Redeemer, a form of Christ, a mystic sign of
the son of the Great Architect; but for the last 785 years, one is
only saved if he believes the contrary1.
Now, who is this son, light of light, lumen de lumine, who
incarnated for us, incarnatus pro nobis; who was resurrected, qui
resurrexit, to save us from the wintery death, by passing into the
superior signs and who makes the bread and wine and all other
nourishing substances grow and ripen? What is this body of the
spiritual Christ who, according to the illustrious doctors Ephrem,
Ambrose, Chrysostom, Augustine, Theodoret, Cyril, Gelasius,
Farcundus and Maximus did not really exist in the bread and
the wine of the offering of the mass?
High Initiates, it is the Sun! Yes, it is the Great Star,
intermediary in his steady and regulating power and without
bounds in our planetary system of the Great Architect of the
worlds; all that the sublime worker has created and
impregnated with his essence; of which it will not be absurd to
be thought, in the formula of the consecration; and the bread and
1 See, at the end of this work, the Notice on the Councils.
257
the wine, as the Apostle Paul said, after the poet Lucretius, are in
God, in deo vivimus, movemur et summus1; thus, panis et vinum in
deo sunt [Latin, the bread and the wine are in god].
According to this interpretation, is it unreasonable to say,
with the celebrant: ‘May I offer to the Sun, the son and
representative of the Lord of all things, for all the good things
he has satisfied me with? I render to him my actions and my
graces; having all the initiates as witnesses, I will swallow this
salutary beverage which protects me from the most fearful
enemies, needs, passions, etc.’ Quid retribuam domino pro
omnibus quae retribuit mihi? Calicem salutarem accipiam et nomen
domini invocabo. Vola mea domino reddam et ab inimicus meis salvus
ero [Latin, what will I give as a retribution to the lord for all those
who give retribution to me? I receive the salutary Chalice and I invoke
the name of the lord. I wish that I redeem my own in the lord from the
enemy].
1 Saint Paul, Acts, Chapter. XVII. V. 28
‘All move themselves and breathe and all exist in God.’

[French, ‘Tout se meut, tout respire et tout existe en Dieu’].
Lucan says the same thing:
‘Iuppiter est quodcumque vides, quodcumque amoveris’

[Latin, Jove is that which you see, and whatever moves you].
Pharsalia IX, verse 580.
258
CHAPTER XXVIII
Post communion. – On the communion under its two forms. – On the
Masonic supper. – Ignorance of the priests of the XIIIth century;
ordinations sold. – Benediction by three words and by a triangle. – On
the pagan euphemies and the Dominus vobiscum. – Ite missa est of the
ancients and of the moderns. – On the Templum Capere and that of the
Masons. – A blaze stopped by a benediction. – On the Papal solemnity
Urbi et Orbi. – Final benediction by an Egyptian T, or the signs of the
equinoxes and solstices. – The authorities of Saint Augustine and of a
minister of the Holy Evangel. – A just word on the new faith and of
Masonry.
The prayer called Post-communion, because it follows the

communion of the modern hierophant, reiterates the request
that one cannot have solicited too many times, the demand for
eternal life, which undoubtedly is acquired by the merit of a
transitory life without blemish. As soon as this orison is
pronounced, the communion of the angelic bread, panis
angelicus, is administered to the faithful who believe themselves
worthy.
For a long time this was confirmed in two forms; for example,
in 1333 a woman named Thomasse Babin bequeathed, as rent,
to the church of Villepot in Bretagne, a measure of wine named
Jaille, for the communion of the members of the parish at Easter1.
1 See Dictionnaire de Bretagne, by Ogée, under Villepot, Tom. 4, p.

513.
259
Rome had taken the form of communion with wine away from
the Laity, while Protestants preserved the supper of the bread
and wine and solemnised it as was practised in the primitive
agapes. The French and Scottish Rose-Croix and the Grand
Éccossais of the Philosophic Rite 1 have also preserved the
memory of the ancient agapes. The misfortune is that too often
new initiates, ribboned [French, rubantés] brothers, are admitted,
who, for the most part, are destined to be in a state of infancy
for the rest of their lives, investing themselves with the purple
frock of their ignorance, and who, in the honours that we
render to their ribbons [French, cordons] do not see the ridicule
with which they are covered.
Such was it in the XIIIth century when a number of priests did
not know how to read, for they were ordained for money; and
the mitred and crooked [French, crossés] abbots, when they
were presented the rule book [French, livre de règle], answered
that they did not understand Latin. In the year 1293, William III
Le Maire, Bishop of Angers, inserted, into the Statutes of his
diocese, that he would no longer ordain anyone who could not
understand what he was given to read.
Such are, today, a number of initiates to the epoptic mysteries,
that is to say, to the secrets of truth; there are therein those who
laugh with disdain and those who scandalise the ceremonies
that mark the transition from an ancient law to a new law.
However, if the mockers and fanatics of such ceremonies (I
1 This does not mean philosophal, that is to say, of that association

which is dispersed as widely as the initiates who are elevated to the
eminent Academy of Sages, who are astonished to find themselves in a
playground of fools, in the middle of which is a Hermes without flame
in its forehead [French, au front, in front of, or, in the forehead], but
having an impotent bellows in its hands.
260
refer to the Passover and the supper) are truly forgetful of sacred
things or honourable exiles, it is nevertheless just for stronger
characters that the ceremonies should lead to paths which bring
them to reach, with precaution and without danger, to the
mountain peaks whose subtle air is not breathable by all the
world.
When the post communion is finished, the hierophant turns
himself to the brothers, and, with his hands, makes the shape of
the base of a right angled triangle which he describes by taking
them apart lifting them and bringing them together again and
applying them one against the other in such a manner that the
fingers, the middle fingers, above all, indicate the summit; this
sign of the unique God (mystic Jehovah and without name,
because the word is lost) indicates to the true adorers, to the
epopts, the great secrets of the ancient mysteries. In making this
sign in the assembly of the elect, the celebrant, with his gaze
turned toward heaven, says the word of the masters of
perfection or Perfect Masters:
(May) the Lord (be) with you!
The Mystai and Epopts answer:
And with your spirit.
Here it is reasonable to observe that the threefold number

rules the dominus vobiscum of the offering of the harvest [French,
moisson], and that this vow is one of the formulae preserved
from pagan antiquity. The Greeks call it euphemy (from ΕΥ,
good, and ΦΗΜΙ, speak). Thus, in their sacrifices, the celebrants
spoke euphemies such as dominus vobiscum, benedicat vos [Latin,
the lord be with you, may he bless you], sursum corda [Latin, raise
(your) hearts]; the assit [sic] tibi jovis [Latin, May he of Jupiter be
261
present to you] of the ancient Romans has the same sense as the
dominus vobiscum of the new.
This is a beautiful wish addressed for the benefit of the
polytheists that they recognise but a sole God.
May the Lord be with you, that is to say, in the language of the
minor mysteries: that the Sun continue to give you the gift of
his vital heat! That is to say, in the language of the greater
mysteries: recognise the true God, maker of things visible and
invisible, the Great Architect of the Universe, who has given
you existence and preserves it because he is the sole one all-
powerful in force, wisdom and goodness. Atoms in his immensity,
you do nothing that seems at odds with the goal of his
creations; workers, raise the temples of virtue and dig dungeons
for vices; fellow crafts, study the admirable tracing boards of the
Great-Master; masters may the Lord be with you! And there will
be no lost word.
And with your spirit, with these words the initiates give answer
to the modern hierophant, that is to say, that your thoughts be
as pure as your actions, that you have offered us, to the Great
Architect of the Universe, the most ancient, the chastest, the
most touching of offerings that the brothers can offer to their
common father.
When the works of the fraternal workshop are at an end
[French, terme], and when the last response of the workers has
satisfied the Worshipful Master, by three words, represented
elsewhere by three knocks, this hierophant will close with the
accustomed ceremonies, that is to say, the formula of the most
ancient mysteries, translated by three Latin words ite, missa est. I
must here, make the remark that the Roman criers, at the end of
the sacrifices, said in loud voices: ex templo [Latin, from the
temple] (implying, ite [Latin, go]) to warn those present and
those assisting that their religious duty was finished; that was
262
the go and do not do evil (conx om pax1); the go and be pure (Kot
ompheth); the dismissals given here are those given to the
initiates of the mysteries of Isis, the other, to the assemblies of
the mysteries of Ceres. Apuleius2 said that ite, missa est were the
words expressing dismissal when the sacrifice was finished
[French, terminé]. Polydore Vergil3 says that in the sacrifices of
Isis, it had become the custom, as it is according to the custom
of the mass, to have the deacon pronounce, ite, missa est; this
deacon fills the ministry of the criers of the pagan sacrifices.
After the criers give leave, the sacrificer blesses the assembly
by the ceremony called templum or tabernaculum capere [Latin,
marking off the temple or tabernacle]; when this is done, the pagan
pontiff divides the sky with two lines, one vertical, the other
horizontal with the cross or augural staff. Templum refers to the
space in the sky or heaven [French, ciel] converted into a temple.
This magic power of converting impurity into purity by word
and sign, was passed down from the ancient hierophants to the
modern ones. A hundred volumes of small text would but
contain an arid exposition of authentic miracles operated by the
performance of this benediction; I will content myself in citing
two examples:
The first, the historical one, is the fire stopped in Rome by the
benediction of Leo IV. This wonder was passed to a very late
posterity by the help of the miraculous paintbrush of Raphael
and the spiritual pencil of Nocchi.
The second example, or, to speak more clearly, the proof of this
prodigy is given every year on a fixed date in the capital of the
Christian world and in the presence of a multitude of the
faithful and the unfaithful [French, fidèles et infidèles], the holy
1 See Dom Pernety, 2nd vol., p. 268.

2 Book XI of the Golden Ass.
3 Book V, chapter 12.
263
father capit templum [Latin, chooses an area for, or ‘captures’ the

temple], when he says urbi et orbi [Latin, to the city (of Rome) and
to the world]…, scarcely has he blessed the people and
pronounced these words, when the most dissolute city
resembles a town of sages and the ignorant, capricious,
superstitious and cruel world becomes the sole abode of
knowledge which can make the nations of the earth fraternal
among themselves without any lacunae of good faith.
However, let us return to our favourite subject. After the ite,
missa est, the celebrant gives the benediction in the name of the
father, the son and the holy-spirit, that is to say, in the name of
Knef [French, Cnef], Osiris and Horus, that is to say, in the name
of the all-powerful Creator, of the beneficent regenerator and the
consoling inspirer 1 ; that is to say, in the name of the Great
Architect; this is indicated to the high initiates as the supreme,
unique, universal intelligence, and to the minor initiates as the
unique God in three persons, hypostases or attributes.
This benediction by the Egyptian T which has simultaneously
become the perfect sign of the cross, that is to say, of the annual
Sun by the perpendicular marking the superior and inferior
solstices, and by the horizontal line tracing the equinoctial
points, is far from being a subject of laughter for the stubborn
and opinionated Masons digging in the ditch or abyss of vague
and deserted lands. The first initiates of the new mysteries were
1 In the VIIIth century, the priests were so ignorant that they baptised
nomine in patria, filia et spiritu sancta. (See La Vérité rendue sensible à
Louis XVI, London edition, 1782, p.129) [Translator’s note. The ‘Latin’
phrase above is a distortion of in nomine patris, et filii, et spiritus sancti,
in the name of the father, of the son and of the holy spirit. Although it is
ungrammatical, it can be translated as, ‘in the name, in the fatherland,
in the holy daughter, and in the spirit’].
264
surrounded by pagans and imposters, imposed upon with the

burden of stupid and lucrative juggleries, they adopted this
ancient sign T (tau), to recognise each other, and in the case of
need, to bring help [French, se porter secours]. Originally, it was
made over the closed mouth with the right thumb tracing a
perpendicular line to the chin; it simultaneously called to mind
the sign of divinity conferred by Osiris, Isis and Horus, as well
as the emblem that announces Harpocrates, and also the
representation of the four pauses [French, stations] or apparent
report of the Sun in its annual course through the zodiac.
Saint Augustine1 says that this hand signal was not invented
or practised for any other reason than the need of the modern
initiates to distinguish themselves when necessary when they
mixed together in company, sat at the same table, and bedded
under that same roof as the profane. A scholarly Genovese
minister, who has wished to remain anonymous, printed, in
1782, that the first Christians had invented this sign to recognise each
other, and that it was done approximately in the same way that the
Freemasons have depicted [French, imaginé] certain signs in their
mysteries and ceremonies.
Thus, my Brothers, we are at the point of attaining complete
proof of what I have announced, forecasted or presaged, know:
that the liturgy of the modern belief and the ritual of
Freemasonry have a common trunk and that their roots, more
or less healthy [French, saines], are attached to this tree of life
and death, of good and evil, under the shadow [French, ombre]
by which the most distant antiquity communicates its
mysterious thoughts to the spirits who are recognised for
having the virtue to taste of them [French, à des esprits reconnus
pour avoir la virtue de les goûter], to support them and to make of
them the missionaries of civilisation among the barbarians, and
1 De Verbis, sermo 8, sup. Psalmum 41.
265
of fraternity among the civilised [French, policées]. The new

belief has been illustrated by many crowns obtained at this
price, but Masonry has them all, because it calls all men with an
upright heart [French, un coeur droit] to rejoice in the rights and
sweet pleasures of fraternity, whatever be their manner of
honouring the supreme Being, to practise goodness and to
exercise justice.
266
CHAPTER XXIX
Primitive synaxis and the synaxis of today. – Circumpotatio, Athenian
festival. – Egyptian Paneficium, Roman Mola. – On the last Dominus
vobiscum. – The last Evangel explained by the cosmology of
Sanchuniathon. – On the symbol of the letters INRI.
Now that I am close to the end of this work, I must not omit to
trace out, under the eyes of my studious readers, how, anno
lucis renovatae [Latin, in the year of renewed light] at the epoch of
the restoration of the philosophic mysteries, the first zelators
practised the touching ceremony of the offering of the first
fruits of the harvest [French, moisson] to the universal father.
Neither the spirit of partiality, nor conjectural seductions, nor
systematic aberrations will influence my quill, which will
transcribe faithfully what a venerable initiate, Saint Justin1, who
lived so close to the reformer of the reformed, has reported
about the ritual of the mass in his times; you will judge, dear
readers, whether his report has connection with the ritual of the
synaxis that is celebrated today; listen to one of the first fathers
of the modern belief:
He says, ‘On the day of the Lord (Sun), we gather ourselves
together from the cities and countryside in the same place. We
there have the reading of the writings of the prophets and the
Apostles. The reader finishes by the words and discourses of
1 In Apologia Secunda ad Antonium.
267
him who has made the exhortation that recommends imitating

excellent things.
‘Then, we all rise and pray to God.
‘Next we present to the one who presides (at the venerable
liturgy) (from Greek, ΛΙΤΑΙ, prayer and ΕΡΓΟΝ, work, to the
person who is the worker of the prayer) with bread and a drink of
wine and water; he takes these and gives praise to the glory of
the father of all, in the name of the son and by the Holy Spirit,
and he makes a full act of thanksgiving that he may be made
worthy of these things by this same spirit.
‘So, all the people present (the initiates) give consent by their
acclamation, saying, Amen! Which means, in the Hebrew
language, so mote it be;
‘At last, those among us, who are named deacons (the servitors,
ministers, servants of the venerable hierophant; these officers
are preserved in the Scottish Masonic rite), present, to each of
those present, the chalice, that they should at last take the wine
and the water which have been blessed.’
Here, I interrupt this simple and naïve narrative to call to the
mind of our scholarly Epopts, an Athenian festival which
became a festival of Pagan Rome, of which one of the
ceremonies, the circum-potation, consisted of passing the drink
around. People of the reformed religion and the Masons of
many rites make the circum-manduction and the circum-potation.
Let us follow the narrative of Saint Justin:
‘And they also carry it to those absent; this nourishment is, by
us, called the Eucharist.’
To avoid the discussions and applications subsequent to the
above, I again interrupt the narrative, for my duty is to recall
with precision the antiquity of the sacred bread:
Numa Pompilius was the first to establish the bloodless
sacrifice of flour. Alexander of Alexandria writes that, in this,
this legislator followed the Egyptian rite which appeased
268
Serapis1 cum paneficiis, with hosts of bread. Sosia, in Plautus’

play Amphytrion, says, Iovi, aut mola salsa, aut thure comprecatum
opportuit [Latin, It is right to pray to Jupiter with salt cakes and
incense]. The fifth book of Virgil’s Aeneid teaches that:
canae penetralia Vestae

farre pio et plena supplex ueneratur acerra.
(Aeneid V. 745)
[Latin, and at the inner shrine of silver haired Vesta

He piously offers salt cake and the incense box].
The poet Tibullus writes to his patron Messala:
paruaque caelestis placauit mica,

Tibullus. Book 3. 7
[Latin, And a few grains please the celestial gods],
In this way, his elegiac muse reveals that the gods are
appeased by the pious homage of a cake, farre pio placant [Latin,
they please with pious salt cake].
In the time of the celebrated Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, the
faithful prepared the bread by themselves, and the emperor
likewise prepared his own, for good reason, no doubt. If this
custom had been preserved, what crimes would not have
rendered suspect the sacred fingers of the sacerdotal class! The
German Emperor Henry VII would not have been poisoned,
while taking communion, by a host sprinkled with poison and
administered by the reverend father in God, a Dominican of
1 See chapter II, second footnote referring to Macrobius.
269
Montepulciano, in the year of salvation 1313 1 [French, salut,

health, good cheer, salvation].
To resist the demon who presses me to distance myself from
my subject and report more recent sacrileges of this sort, I will
return to the narrative of Saint Justin.
1 See the annals of the monk Henri Stéron.

We read in the passage following the Pass-key [French, Passe-
partout] of the Roman church, Tome 2, page 140:
‘Pope Clement V, died in 1314, and it was in this year the an Italian
Dominican monk named Bernard de Montepulciano, feigned to be
concerned with the interests of the Emperor Henry VII, and
insinuating himself into his good graces, poisoned him with a host.
‘He said to him, ‘Depart, for if the Germans learn what you have just
done, they will make you suffer the cruelest death.
‘This monk took himself to Siena, where, just as another Judas, he
received the money [French, argent, money, silver] that had been
promised to him as the price of his treason: but his associates [French,
confrères] the Dominicans, suffered for him; for there was an infinity of
massacres; they and their convents were destroyed by steel and fire, in
the duchy of Florence, in Lombardy and in many other countries.’
Finally Moreri (a priest whose opinion, moreover, ought to be
suspected as far as it concerns his fellow brethren), Moreri, I say, talks
also about this event on page 177 of the third tome of his Dictionary
(Paris edition, 1704):
‘He (Henry VII) died near Siena, in a place named Bon-Couvent on
August 24th, 1313, aged 51 years and 37 days. Some authors have
written that he was poisoned by a host during communion on
Assumption Day by the hands of a Dominican named Bernard
Politien; but Villani, who lived at that time, Albertin and Massa of
Padua, who speak with equal exactness of that which happened to
Henry, and Conrad Vecer who wrote his biography, and a great
number of others, do not speak of this pretended poison. One could
consult the authors Sponde, Rainaldi and Bzovius.’
270
He says, ‘This nourishment (of bread, of wine and of water) is,

by us, called the Eucharist.’
If the narrative from one of the fathers at the origin of the
modern belief has need of support, I will find it in that which I
have said on the subject of the offerings of the primitive synaxes.
Let us recall that the the initiates, in place of the sacred word,
brought into the temple of the logos, the lodge, the first fruits
that they consecrated to God by prayer; they took the
nourishment of it in common and covered, placed around a table
which, in the Roman rite, has been succeeded by the balustrade
around the sanctuary which has taken the name of communion-
table or holy table.
In these earliest times of shining simplicity [French, candeur]
and of unity, the women and children carried that which
remained to the sick and those who were absent, and it was
distributed among the needy brothers. What a rapport with
Masonry! If a foreign bishop had arrived, that is to say a warden
from another Orient [French, un surveillant d’un autre Orient], or a
person of distinction, that is to say, one eminent in virtue and
knowledge [French, en vertus [sic] et savoir], we would take bread
and wine and fraternal charity to him. This custom seems to be
the source from which the practice has come:
10 The offering of the bread and wine of honour, which is
presented to the great (according to the way of the world),
when they arrive at or pass through our cities, and to whom,
sometimes at their departure, the public acclaim [French, votent]
the bread of cursing [French, le pain de malediction] and the wine
of eternal bitterness [French, amertume];
20 The offering of the bread and the wine carried to those
condemned with the death penalty;
271
30 The offering of the last rites [French, viatique] carried to the

sick initiates by a priest called, in France the porte-Dieu and in
Spain the porte-Vénérable1.
The primitive agapes, the repasts of charity and the sacred
banquets of the brothers have been practised thus, a long time
after the Apostles. Saint Irenaeus, father of that admirable
epoch of philosophic regeneration, attests that by the forms of
these rites, the first mystai offered to the creator, a
reinstatement [French, réintegré], by their wisdom in his
universal unity, of that which was substantial in his vegetable
creatures2. The innovation of the mixture of water and wine
was introduced for the motive of sobriety. It has not been
continued, in the ritual of our current [French, actuel] synaxis,
except by the celebrant.
After the public prayers, still said by the same father of the
new belief3, the partakers of the agapes kiss each other with a
holy kiss in the sign of peace and fraternity. This touching
ceremony, preserved unto our day, in order to make a chain of
union, was the stamp of an invariable charity, a religious act of
sincere reconciliation, a votive emblem of the peace of the
human race.
After the third and last blessing [French, souhait], the last
dominus vobiscum [Latin, the lord be with you], the celebrant
proceeds to the reading of the last Evangel. At the end [French,
fin] of all the oblations of the first fruits, it is always, his
beginning, according to Saint John, secundum Johannem, that is to
1 In the large parishes of Paris those who are called porte-Dieu are
bonded; in Madrid, there are indulgences attached to the zélés who
enlarge the procession of the portaviáticos.
2 Book 4, Chapter 32, p. 388.
3 Book 5, Chapter 24, p. 389.
272
say, Oannes of very ancient Egypt, according to the Iao of the

Phoenicians1.
The gavel strikes…. Brothers, attention and silence!
This preface of one of the four sacred chronicles, which were
chosen from forty, appears to be mystical nonsense, a true piece
of gibberish to the wild reason of the adversaries of the new
belief. They ignore these headings, or feign to ignore them, and
see that Saint John or Oannes, born in Palestine, was a closer
neighbour to Phoenicia than Paris is to Brussels.
However, the very ancient Sanchuniathon, who was born in
Phoenicia, had some amusement in erecting a very troublesome
[French, ennuyeuse, boring, troublesome, worrying] and very
ancient cosmogony; but as the theist doctrine is there imprinted
under the veil of prudence, we can read it in the mysteries of
Eleusis, for it is the commencement of the initium [Latin,
beginning] that we still read today at the end of the mysteries of
the offering of the harvest [French, moisson].
However, the author of the forth piece of good news
attributed to Saint John, has thought he ought to ornament the
frontispiece with the incrustation of a few fragments which are
venerable for their high antiquity. He gave preference to the
Genesis of Sanchuniathon over that of Moses2, whether it was
because it was more ancient or less known, or whether it was
because it seemed the best invention to ensure that his history
was adopted as truth.
1 There is no Evangel by the author who bears this name; the

expression according to, secundum, proves that it signifies the Evangel
according to the doctrine of… or attributed to…
2 The name Moses has, among other known meanings, that of muse;
Genesis, must therefore mean museum, the science of the universe.
273
Sanchuniathon names it Chaos, the Erebus Song (it is to be

remarked that Hesiod called it Erebus). From chaos (in principio
[Latin, in the beginning]) this Phoenician made the word [French,
verbe] (erat verbum [Latin, there was the word]), that is to say,
matter susceptible of movement and of an arrangement in
regular order. By whom was it organised? By Colpi Jao. What is
the Jao? Sanchuniathon reveals to us that it is the wind, the
spirit, the mouth of God.
However, in my XXIst chapter I have proved that the names
Oannes, Oan, Oen, Jao, Jaho, Jevah, Jehovah; Janus, Janual, Janitor,
Johannes, Johan, Jannes, John and Jan designate the same symbolic
being, for this being is the god Oannes of the Eritrean sea, the
mouth of this god Jaho of Phoenicia; the Evangelist Johannes of
Judea. This divine being Johannes, John, sent a man to render
homage to the light and witness to him who is the true light, who
lightens every man when he comes into this world.
In vain would we say that man and not god is called John, and
by the grace of an obliging comma placed between Deo [Latin,
by God] and cujus [Latin, whose]; I can victoriously answer, by
translating without a comma but with simplicity, this passage
of the last Evangel: fuit homo missus a Deo cujus nomen erat
Johannes, a man was sent by god whose name was John.
I ask if this god, Johannes, Oannes, John, the true light, that the
darkness does not comprehend [French, comprises, include,
understand, comprehend], is not when understood, the unique
God, and for the senses, the Sun?
I ask if the modern hierogrammatists have not, by design,
terminated the liturgy of the offerings by the commencement of
the Evangel said by Saint John, intelligible to the mystai, but
clear and susceptible of appreciation by the sage Epopts:
I ask if an inscription placed under the ring of the Egyptian
tau T, in its high and haloed part at the solstice which is
depicted by a cross †, and the four letters of the inscription,
274
which form together the word rose in the fourth order of the
French rite, signify by their initials:
Jaho or Jove Necato renascitur Jesus [Latin, Jupiter, having been
slain and resurrected (as) Jesus];
Or Jesu Nascente renovatur Jaho, Jao, Jove, Janus, Jehovah or Jovis
[Latin, when Jesus has been born and made new as Jaho, Jao, Jove,
Janus, Jehovah or Jovis];
Or Igne Nitrum Roris Invenitur [Latin, by fire the purifying
substance of the dew is found] (Hermetic Masonry);
Or Igne Natura Renovatur Integra [Latin, by fire nature is restored
in purity];
Or Ignem Natura Regenerando integrat [Latin, by regeneration,
nature maintains the integrity of fire]? (Ancient and Accepted rite).
Voilà, what a choice! Here is my explanation: The new Sun
resurrects from the ancient Sun. Oannes or Johannes who
baptises in the water of the Jordan, or Jaho, Jehovah, Jovis, and
Janus; for these have been the antecedents or precursors of the
Sun-Jesus.
Thus do I adopt the interpretation of INRI, Jesu Nascente
Renovatur Jao, etc1.
1 In 1705, in the waters of Aix, which are renowned to be propitious

for generation, there was found a stone forming a sculptured bas-
relief which represented the god Priapus (Phallus itiphallus) upon an
altar. Upon this monument were three letters J : H : C, which are
interpreted thus:
Jucundo hostiam Custode [Latin, Guard the host with joy (jesting,
good cheer)],
Ipsa hostia consecratur [Latin, The host itself is consecrated],
Itiphallus hic Cotito [Latin, Itiphallus here Cotito],
Immiscae hodie concipius [Latin, Today it is laid hold of
intermixed],
275
Thus I imagine that a high initiate, recognised by me as such,

addresses this discourse:
‘My brother, you depart from the oblation that I have now
celebrated; when I recited the commencement of the Evangel
according to Saint John, I noted your indiscreet smile. Have you
forgotten that, in order to veil from the sight of the profanes
and the catechumens the simplicity of the synaxis, we have
ended [French, terminé] by the Phoenician cosmogony, the
ancient covering cloth [French, tissu, cloth, fabric, web]
preserved by Sanchuniathon?’ He adds, ‘My brother, when
making the sign of the good shepherd, respect the ancient
opinions that are useful for the peace of men and the
admiration turned toward the Sun, the visible god and the Great
Architect of the Universe, the rational god.’
Thus, the naïve deprecations that issue from the revelations
made in the ancient mysteries upon the existence of the unique
master of nature have been successively obscured and
disfigured by the sophists of the school of Alexandria, by the
pagan priests when they united with the deicole priests for the
purpose of reciprocally profitable transactions, the struggle
†
I H S – Itiphallus hostia sanans (omnia) [Latin, Itiphallus is
making healthy (all) hosts].
See Décade Philosophique, an XI, pages 131 and 132).

Another interpretation of the Tetragrammaton INRI, attributed to
the Jesuits:
‘Justam Necare Reges impios’

(It is just to kills impious kings).
Another interpretation:
‘Invicta Natura Reperatur Igne [Latin, Unconquered Nature is
Restored by Fire].’
276
between the churches of the Orient and the Occident, by the

councils that vanquished antecedent councils, by the humiliated
heresies that later became dominant, etc.
Nevertheless, whatever the motives were for the
superfetations introduced into the ceremonies in the primordial
times that were so philosophic in their understanding of the
fruits of the harvest, we nevertheless recognise in them the
symbolic trace of the initiations into the mysteries of Egypt and
Greece, and the very remarkable preservation of the opinions
professed by the philosophers and legislators who were greatly
anterior to the accepted epoch of 4000 Hebraic years, and the
veneration that never ceased to be observed among civilised
nations by their high initiates toward a unique God, sole maker of
things visible and invisible. The Freemasons competently read
therein the beneficial principles of their doctrine, founded upon
the principal-religion [French, religion-principe].
At the point of finishing [French, terminer] this report or
exposé of the Masonic connections with the mysteries of the
synaxis, and of those of the mysteries of antiquity, I must repeat
a truth that is the mother of those that I have presented
successively to the sight of the readers.
‘Just as the healthy Evangelical morale gathers together, in a
body, its widespread members in the works of the moralists of
antiquity, and just as the sacrifice of the modern oblation
circumscribes, in a narrow and tangible space, all the
theosophic symbols, and inoculates them, from the very origin
of their societies, in order to counter balance, and if possible, it
thus paralyses the dominating oppressions of the polytheist
priesthood.’
High Initiates, you will have noted, on the side, and often in
that which is transparent in the ritual of the offering of the
harvest [French, moisson], the loose but inerasable traces of Knef
[French, Cnef], of the Demiourgos, of Brahma, of Iaho, of Oannes,
277
of Jehovah, of Jovis, at last unto the unique God and the Sun,
which to our weak eyes is the most brilliant work, deum verum
de deo vero1 [Latin, true god from the true god]. Over all there are
the imprints of the dogmas and maxims of the greater part of
the philosophic sects of antiquity; a great number of formulae
and religious garbs are there transported from India, from
Chaldea, from Egypt, from Arabia, from Palestine, from Greece,
from pagan Rome and likewise from Gaul and Scandinavia2.
Yes, over all, and likewise over the host of the oblation of the
first fruits, the Sun is shown as an annual signal by the sign of
the cross, and as eternal by the radiant disc about it.
Brothers, let us retire in peace! Ite, missa est3.
1 In the year 75 of the vulgar era, there was raised, near Rome, in the
via sacra, a statue, a colossus of a hundred feet in height to the SUN.
2 Buddhism in Tibet, the worship called Krishnaism (from Krishna,
nourished [French, oint, nourished, enriched, endowed, dosed]) in

India, from where we take the week with its planetary days (see
Recherches Asiatiques), the ancient mysteries which have given birth to
CHRISTIANITY, were established because it became necessary, as we
have said, to substitute, for the beliefs in disuse, a new belief for the
Occident, which served to destroy polytheism and slavery, by
establishing, among men, an equality founded on human rights.
With this key, all the modern mysteries are found established on
reason; without reason, that is to say, taken at the letter, they rest on
nothing but equivocal and often contradictory bases.
It is in this profound conviction, shared by all men who research the
truth and are occupied in studying the ancient theogonies that we
have written this volume, which is not destined for the vulgar. Should
we be in error on some points, our error was made in good faith, for
we have sought conscientiously and morally to enlighten every reader
who wishes to know the starting point of the subjects that have been
discussed herein.
3 In the XVth and XVIth centuries, Spanish superstition transported to
the theatre this final formula of the mass. At the end of the spectacle
278
an actor would say; Ite, comedia est [Latin, depart, the comedy is done];
then each made the sign of the cross and retired.
279
DECALOGUE, BY MOSES.
(IN ENGLISH VERSE [FRENCH, VERS FRANÇAIS] ACCORDING
TO ROME)
Listen Israel, I am the Lord your God who has taken you from
the land of Egypt, the house of servitude.
1st commandment. You will 1st One sole God you will
have no other gods before my adore,
face. And you will love him
perfectly.
2nd You will not make any

engraved image, or any ………………………………
resemblance of the things that
are above in heaven, or down
here on the earth, or that is in
the waters beneath the earth.
You will not prostrate
yourself before them, and you
will not serve them: for I am
the Eternal, your God, and a
strong and jealous God who
punishes the iniquity of the
fathers on the children until the 3rd
and 4th generation 1 of those that
1 The God of Moses is not a God of justice, he is an atrocious tyrant.
280
hate me; and who gives mercy

unto a thousand generations to
those that love me and guard
my commandments.
3rd You will not take the name 2nd God’s name, in vain, you
of the Eternal, your God in vain; will not swear,
for the Eternal will not hold him Nor love other things
innocent who has taken his equally.
name in vain.
4th Remember the day of 3rd Sundays, you will guard

repose to keep it holy; you will apart,
work six days and you will do And serve your God
all your work; but the seventh devotedly.
day is the day of repose of the
Eternal, your God; you will not
do any work on that day,
neither you, nor your son, nor
your daughter, nor your
servant, nor your serving maid,
nor your cattle, nor the stranger
that is in your gates. For the
Eternal has made, in six days,
the heaven, the earth and the
sea, and all that are contained
therein, and he reposed on the
seventh day, and that is why
the Eternal has blessed the day
of repose and sanctified it.
5th Honour your father and 4th Your father and mother
your mother so that your days honour,
shall be prolonged in the country In order to live lengthily.
of the Eternal, your God, that he
gives to you.
281
6th You will not kill. 5th A homicide you will not be,
In deed or voluntarily.
7th You will not commit 6th Luxurious you will not be,
adultery. Corporally or mentally.
8th You will not steal [French, 7th The goods of others you
déroberas]. will not take,
Nor retain them ill-
advisedly.
9th You will not speak with 8th False witness you will not
false witness against your speak,
neighbour. Nor tell a lie in anyway.
10th You will not covet your 9th The work of flesh you will
neighbour’s house, nor his wife, not desire,
nor servant, nor his serving Except in marriage solely.
maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor 10th The goods of others you
any thing that is your will not covet,
neighbour’s. To have them unjustly.
One sees that the Roman clergy, in changing the text of the
Decalogue has excluded the 2nd commandment, in which the cult
of images is absolutely forbidden, and which would have
condemned the clergy’s idolatry and prevented it from
preserving the usage of the statues of saints, male and female,
such as Perpetua and Felicity who were honoured in paganism: it
was the best way of drawing in the simple and the credulous.
However, as it was necessary to reproduce the number ten,
the 10th commandment was split in two.
The repose of the 4th commandment is Saturday, the day of
the Sabbath, the last day of the week; Rome has infringed upon
the divine law by substituting Sunday; he who works on this
282
last day is less culpable, for he disobeys only men more

culpable than himself.
The statutes of the ancient Initiation extracted from the
Letonverdan of the Indians consisted of 10 commandments of
God, of which the Decalogue of Moses is but an imitation; for
these are rather ten sins to avoid: they are divided into three
types:
1st The sins of the body:

To strike, to kill one’s neighbour;
The stealing, and violating [French, Le voler, et violer] of
women.
2nd The sins of speech:
To lie, to dissimulate and insult [French, injurer, swear,
insult].
3rd The sins of the will:
To wish for evil;
To look upon the goods of others with envy
And to be untouched by their misfortunes.
(All the Statutes of the order are but an explanation of these

commandments).
283
ON THE LITANIES
OF JESUS AND MARY

COMPARED
TO THE ANCIENT LITANIES
284
FOREWORD
I believe I have demonstrated completely, in the interpretation

of the mass, that the ritual of this offering of the first fruits of the
harvest was based on the foundations of the ancient mysteries,
and was composed of diverse fragments of defunct religions. I
also believe I have proved that the Sun, who, at all times, despite
being recognised under diverse names and symbols, was adored
by the vulgar as the sensible god and by the sages as the image of
the rational god (the Great Architect of the Universe), and that he
recieves again, in our days, the same tribute of love and of
gratitude upon the Masonic and Christian altars.
That which I have just said thereon must suffice for the
convictions of the philosophers [French, philosophes] and the
Perfect Masters; but the Apprentice Masters may have doubts
concerninbg it, until they should see half physically the solar cult
of the Great Architect graven in the grooves upon the materials of
the liturgic edifice of the modern belief; I intend that these people,
the sole ones who are incredulous, tobtain from the Sun a second
miracle, by having the scales fall from their eyes which hide
[French, dérobent] the true light. They will likewise see it without
being therein bedazzled, and without being deafened, as was
Saint Paul; however. like the Apostle, the religion of the Sun will
send them headlong [French, renversera] from their usual frame of
mind; and, it is with the Litanies of the Holy Names of Jesus and
285
Mary, Compared with the Ancient Litanies 1 that this prodigal

operation will happen.
Endnote to the Footnote
1. The epithet Aruncus was given to the gods by the Romans

when they prayed them to turn away curses. They prayed
upright, heads veiled, and put the hand to the mouth, from
which we get the word adoration. They embraced the knees of
the Gods whom they saw as the seat of mercy, from which
comes the custom of throwing oneself at the knees of one from
whom one wishes to sollicit an important favour.
1 Litanies (a Greek word) signifies prayers. ΛΙΘΕΣ, the Prayers)

goddesses) were the daughters of Jupiter. ΛΙΘΑΙ from which we get
liturgical and liturgy. Lis, litis (a Latin word) meaning process, request,
supplication to Justice herself, the daughter of Jupiter (1).
The Litanies of the modern belief seem to be defined as enumerative
and laudative mystical prayers to God or to an invoked saint, in order to
obtain comfort, mercy or patronage.
286
Litanies
of
Jesus
287
ARGUMENT
This Litany is that of Adonis, whose death was mourned and whose
resurrection was celebrated, and of those labours of the annual Sun in
the twelve signs of the zodiac, the Sun-gods of antiquity, of polytheism
and of apotheosis.
When reading the litanies of the holy name of Jesus 1, who

does not recall the pious women of Phoenicia and Egypt
weeping for Adonis, the Sun-god, and the women of these
countries, Persia, Assyria, Palestine, Cyprus and Greece,
addressing him with this litany:
Be propitious unto us!

Cast upon us a well-favoured glance!
Return and bring joy among us!
When recalling the sacred fable of the death and resurrection

of Adonis, I find the verses of the litany of the holy name of
Jesus:
1 In the earliest Latin translation of the Gospels, in place of the name

†
Jesus, we read Hiesus, it read H , which served to represent the shape
of the cross signifying Christus. Thus, Jesus was pronounced Iesus;
just as the Greeks pronounced Ajax Aïas [ΑIΑΣ].
288
Propitius esto, per agoniam et passionem;

Miserere nobis, te rogamus, audi nos, exaudi nos;
Per resurrectionem et per gaudia tua!
[Latin, Be merciful to us, through your agony and passion;
Take pity upon us, we ask you, hear us, and thoroughly
listen to us (in our prayers);
Through your resurrection and through your joys]!
This litany is therefore an imitation and is derived from the

litai, ΛΙΤΑΙ, recited or sung in more ancient mysteries.
In the belief of the more timorous mythologists, that which
concerned Adonis was applied to Osiris as the eternal Sun, and
to Horus as the annual Sun. They have not hesitated to declare
that these Sun-gods carried a thousand names, and certainly
those of Bel, Belus, Belin, Adonai, Bacchus, Dionisios, Apollo, etc.;
but they have been guarded [French, sont gardés] about
revealing the modern succession; I will charge myself with that
care.
In the most ancient fragments of the theogonies, we discover
sun-gods who were made man and who are almost the models of
our own.
Among the Samoans, there is a god, Balta, born of an
unmarried [French, indouse] virgin;
Among the Brahmans, Vishnu has been incarnated many
times;
The Christ or the Redeemer of the Scandinavians, Thor, Asa-
Thor, born of Odin and Frigga, is a supreme deity, procreated
from the union of two principles, the mediator between god the
father (Odin) and men; he rules the winds [French, airs],
distributes the seasons, and excites or calms the tempests. To
men, he is the favourable and protective god against evil spirits
[French, génies] (as is Jesus-Christ), and he has been exposed to
289
the charms, traps and ordeals of persecutions on the part of the

evil principle. He is at the left of the father, instead of at the
right; his head is crowned with stars, he is the Sun.
Fo, or Foe, is the god-man of the Chinese: it was but at thirty
years of age, the age of the Edomite, that he preached his
doctrine and that he dazzled the populace by his fascinations
that his Monks or Apostles named miracles1 when they wrote
them down. His clergy represent him as the legislator of the
human race, the Saviour of the world, sent forth as the Messiah2 for
the expiations of their crimes and to show the path of salvation. His
theologians have said that they have received from him five
commandments:
1st Not to kill any creature;

2nd Not to seize the goods of another;
3rd To guard chastity;
1 Miraculum, res miranda; miracle or wonderful [French, admirable]

thing, such is the true meaning of the word. Much later, it was
translated as a thing impossible in nature, a supernatural thing.
2 The word messiah [French, messie], in Latin messias, has the same
meaning as the Hebrew word masihh [Hebrew, ַ‫]משיח‬, ointment, from
the verb masahh [Hebrew, ‫]מש‬, to anoint. This word, far from being
particular to Jesus, was often the title of honour which was not only
given to the kings, the prophets and the high priests of the Hebrews,
but also to idolatrous kings or princes; We read in the First Book of
Kings, chapter 12, verse 5: The Lord and his Messiah are witnesses, that is
to say the Lord and the king that he has established as rulers. David
said, many times, in speaking of Saul, his stepfather, who had
persecuted him: God, guard me from carrying my hand against the
anointed of the Lord, against the Messiah of God. Isaiah, (chapter 45, verse
1) gives this name to Cyrus: Thus spoke the Eternal to Cyrus, his anointed,
his Messiah… Ezekiel; the twenty-eighth chapter of his revelations,
verse 14, gives it likewise to the king of Tyre; etc.
290
4th Not to lie;

5th Not to drink wine1.
The Saviour God of the Thai people has been named, from
high antiquity, Sommona-Codom. He has a Virgin for mother
who was pregnant by the virtue of the Sun. Confounded, she ran
to hide herself in a dense forest where she brought forth a child
of ravishing beauty to the world. He had a science infused with
the knowledge of divine and human things. A model of non-
attachment, of patience of charity and of saintliness, he was the
king, and devoted himself to the salvation of his people, he sacrificed
his life and disappeared as a vanishing spark.
After having set centre stage several Sun-gods [French, dieux-
Soleils], the precursors of the one currently reigning and his
benefactors, I have the task of taking up the examination of his
litanies. What a task! for no sceptic has dared to prove, by the
enumerations of this prayer, that the Theanthrope2 to whom it is
1 We have borrowed the ten commandments of God from the

Hebrews who have borrowed them from the priests of Brahma, of
which the Pentalogue distinguishes and chastises faults as sins of the
body, sins of speech, and sins of the will:
Sins of the body: To strike, to kill, to rob, to rape.
Sins of speech: To dissemble, to lie, to revile.
Sins of the will: To wish evil, to look upon the good of others with
envy, to not be touched by the misfortune of another.
Exodus says this word for word: Honour your father and mother, in
order that Adonai prolong your days upon earth.
In addition, the Zend Avesta, Section XI, says: Honour your father and
mother, in order that you merit heaven. Sommona-Codom was the
plagiariser of the priests of an antiquity most removed from his epoch;
since then, how many have there been who have repeated and
advised these things?
2 That is to say, the imagined personification of God; ΘΕΟΣ (God),
291
addressed, is the heir of the ancient Sun-gods, the Sun-god of

the modern époque, the compass-god of the science of
astronomy.
We will examine the attributes bestowed upon Jesus, and if
these express the phases of the Great Star, it will be well to
recognise the solar divinity in Jesus.
Jesus, splendour of light;

Candour of the eternal light;
King of glory;
Sun of justice;
Father of the future age;
Author of life;
Nourisher of the poor;
Veritable light!
In place of the word Jesus, place Sun, and these eight

invocations appertain exactly and evidently, I dare say, to the
Great Star: is he not the visible seat of the splendour of the father,
the sublime architect of visible and invisible things?
Is he not the visible hearth of the eternal light, candor lucis
aeternae?
Is he not the constant author of the universal life, the consoler,
the nourisher of poor humans?
Father of the vanished centuries and ruler of this century, will
he not again be the father of the century to come and of future
ages?
If no other planet has a throne like his, if all, without
exception, undergo the benefit of his light, is he not the king of
(ΑΝ)ΘΡΟΠΟΣ (man), employed as an expression in an imagined

sense, or ΘΕΟΣ-ΑΝΔΡΟΣ, god-man; Theanthropy, the error of
attributing human qualities to God.
292
glory; and when we call him Sun of justice, that is to say, the
exact regulator of the seasons, invariable guardian of the eternal
law of the equinoxes and solstices, then is not the enigma
spoken aloud, is not the mystery uncovered?
Of the two other qualifications of the litany, one pertains to
Egypt, and the other to Arabia; the first, son of the Virgin Mary; I
will render this sensible when I explain the litanies of the Magna
Mater; while you wait, think of Horus, the son of Isis. The second
is the angel of the Grand Council; this expression means that the
Sun is the chief of the immense phalanx of stars, rex immensae
majestatis, the centre of the Sabian system, the moderator of the
stars, the planet of planets who are the integral parts of the
Grand Council, of which the harmonies are the product, and let
us risk using the expression, of his beneficial autocracy.
I will, in the following invocations, gather together the epochs
or times of the year of the life of the annual Sun:
Sun-Jesus, through your infancy,

Through your works,
Through your agony and your passion,
Through your resurrection,
Through your ascension,
Through your joys,
Through your glory.
THROUGH YOUR INFANCY: I understand this to mean

Christmas [French, Noël], the new year, the rebirth of the infant-
Sun, his departure from the empire of nothingness, his
liberation from the winter solstice, the childlike light of Horus
and his unsteady steps upon the icy countries of the Water
Carrier and the Fishes, encouraged by his mother Isis. Through
your infancy, this supplication calls to mind the charming verse
of the initiate Virgil (Eclogue IV, v 60): incipe, parve puer, risu
293
cognoscere matrem [Latin, begin, O small boy, to know your mother

by her smile]: the citation has an imposing authority for the high
initiates who know that the prince of the Latin poets has
transmitted the knowledge of a number of secrets of the most
ancient Masonry to the centuries by his wisdom.
THROUGH YOUR WORKS: This allegorical invocation covers
the eyes of the apprentice masters, and reveals to the thought of
the apprentices born masters, the annual and periodic passage of
the Sun into the twelve palaces of his zodiacal crown and the
apparent efforts of this god in the boreal hemisphere, to succeed
from the inferior signs into the superior signs. It is the light that
combats the darkness, the post tenebris lux [Latin, light past the
darkness], the crescit eundo [Latin, increase while going] of the
sublime light-carrier (Lucifer); it is the glorious duel between life
and death (mors et vita duello conflixere mirando).
BY YOUR AGONY: The aquilons who conduct the tempests
and the polar clouds, rush up in formidable masses to stop the
daily rising [French, croissance] of the Sun, to choke his flaming
rays with the weight of the secular obscurities: the hero of the
light is shaken with such a shock, he staggers, grows pale and
seems to expire: his adversaries cry to each other: courage! His
agony begins, however, his demise is but apparent and symbolic.
He has passed (passus est, per passionem): he has passed, despite
his suffering, with living force across the phalanges of chaos;
and he inaugurates himself with the equinoctial shield that was
carried by those he has vanquished; he renders, per
ressurectionem, brilliance to the faded [French, décolorées] hours,
deporting the oppressive nights to the infernal regions of the
Antarctic; he ascends majestically per ascensionem, to the zenith
enflamed with his omnipotence, and, per gaudiam et gloriam
[Latin, through joy and glory], sits himself triumphantly and
spreads joy, love and fecundity over our hemisphere (half of the
globe).
294
How has the Sun carried the victory? How has he broken the
tomb of the equinox buried beneath the icy rocks? By what
signs speaking to all eyes has he proven his resurrection?
Armed with the Ram of heaven, as Hercules with his club, he
has overturned all the obstacles against the annual renaissance
of nature during the three months of attack, of which the three
days in the sepulchre are the allegory. The vital principle was
inert, deprived of movement, and he lay like a victim of death;
but the Sun awakens, he resuscitates from the tomb and leaves
only the footprints of his winter inhumation, the sudarium et
vestes [Latin, handkerchief and vestments], that is to say the rains,
the snows, and the earth bared of its greenery, without other
vestments than the cast off rags of the previous year. It is the
time when he attains to the Sign of the Lamb of Seven monthly
Seals, who opens the book of life in generation: generally, is it
not from March to September in which he very abundantly
manifests his prodigies of the germination, of flowering, of
fructification in all races?
Thus ought we to await the Lamb of God, the agnus dei, qui
tollit peccata mundi [Latin, the Lamb of God that bears the sins of the
world], according to the litany of the Sun-Jesus. We say this
finale mystically three times in memory of the three black
months that pass from Christmas [French, Noël] to Easter, that
is to say, from the winter solstice to the spring equinox, and the
three dark days of the holy week, Wednesday, Thursday and
Friday, emblems of the prophets of death, of the boreal storms,
of the unchained winds of the equinox, our redeemer1 .
As we are on the point of quitting this litany which
enumerates the phases of the annual Sun under the name of a
personage deified in the year 451 [sic] by the Council of Nicea,
let us not imagine that the sincere hierophants of the new belief,
1 This gust of wind usually lasts for three days.
295
nor that the eminent preservers of the epoptic mysteries, nor the
most luminous sages of the orient did not take care, and still do
not take care, to place popular apologues and astronomical
systems in bas-relief under the philosophic hearth of the flaming
Star [French, Étoile flamboyante]; does not the first verse of the
litany of the Sun characterise itself with the son, splendour of the
father?
Far be it for the guardians of the arch of the true light to be
injured by this suspicion! The first verse of the litanies of the
Virgin mother protects them by its contents: Pater de caelis deus1
[Latin, God, the father of the heavens]. And behold [French,
Voilà] Knef [French, Cnef], the Demiurgos of the ancient
mysteries; and here is the deus unus, the unique god of the
modern mysteries. It is first of all to the creator of things visible
and invisible, to the Great Architect of the Universe, that this is
addressed; the most sacred of the homages is followed by the
deferential honours accorded, by desire for peace with the
polytheist priests, to the divinities fractioned off from the unique
God and to the extraordinary men from whom they drew their
profit, and whom it was necessary or indispensible to
apotheosise 2 : we will find the proof of these things in the
Litanies of the Virgin Mary.
1 Antiquissimus deorum habebatur caelum. [Translator’s note. The Latin

appears corrupt. Literally, ‘The most ancient of the gods was had [sic] the
sky’]. (Mythology).
2 Such as Sommona-Codom, Odin, Osiris, Bacchus, Moses, Mohamed, etc,
also Constantine, Clovis, etc, etc. Lastly, all the beatified.
296
LITANIES
OF THE VIRGIN MARY
297
ARGUMENT
This prayer is linked to the unique God; then to the attributes of the
trinity. – Gregory 1st,, Pope, introduced the Cult of Mary 1 . - The
Council of Chalcedon proclaimed her Mother of God – The symbols of
her litanies belong to a crowd of deities, queens, virgins, and mothers,
but principally to Isis, Ops, Rhea, Cybele, Diana, Lucifera, Lucina, Luna,
Tellus, Latona triformis, Proserpina, Hecate, Juno, Vesta, Ceres, Leucothoe,
Astarte, Atrea, the heavenly Venus, and Urania, Alma-Venus. – Prayer to
Mary. – Conclusion.
The proof of the preservation of the idea of a unique God,

which, despite some statements apparently favourably
disposed toward polytheism, such as the 2nd and 3rd verses of
the Litany of the Virgin (Filius, redemptor mundi; deus, spiritus
sanctus deus [Latin, son, redeemer of the world; god, the holy spirit
god]), is contained entirely in the verse that follows (sancta
trinitas, unus deus [Latin, holy trinity, one god]).
This trinity makes it understood that there is only one sole God,
who is understandable as the ternary division of numberless
attributes of the being who is incomprehensible to all created
reason, for it brings to the minds of the Levites of the arch of
truth, the trinomial [French, trinôme] system, the trinity which is
called Platonic, the Alexandrian doctrine of the three hypostases,
and their affinities with the following trinities: the Hindu
1 Maria is also the Latin plural of mare, the seas of the philosophers
(the airs, the skies), Mar-ia signifies a single hand [French, main unique]
in Greek.
298
[French, indouse] of Brahma, Krishna and Vishnu; the Egyptian

trinity of Osiris, Isis and Orus [sic]; the trinity of the North and
of Germany, the fire, the Sun and the Moon; is not this trinity
proclaimed thus in the Masonic world: the Sun, the moon and
the Worshipful Master [French, vénérable]? Is it not there
professed under the equilateral triangle of Strength [French,
Force], Wisdom and Beauty, and under the triangle, so luminous
with its characteristics of past, present and future?
Before approaching my subject, it seems to me proper to
repeat the 2nd verse of the litany of the virgin: son, redeemer of the
world, to remind my brothers of my profession of faith: the son is
the same as Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis; he is the Sun who, in all
years, redeems [French, rachète] the world of its infertility and
the universal death of the races.
It is to Pope Gregory 1st that the modern belief owes the
introduction of the cult of Mary, Mother of God. His holiness had
the name Virgin-Mary inserted into the litanies in order that she
be invoked; later she had her own particular litany, temples,
festivals, church services, pilgrimages, among a thousand and a
thousand more forms of patronage which, for one thing,
continues to dumbfound the kingdom of France with her
miracles, her penateries, her brotherhoods, her seven swords, her
seven sorrows, her Jesuitism, her oratory, her Jacobinary, her
Franciscanism, her Vestals, her prodigies, her ex-votos, her little
religious costumes, her niches, her statues, her pocket effigies,
etc.
Having made such a frank enumeration, it would assuredly
be a most ridiculous timidity to hesitate to say that the litanies
of Mary are as numerous as the mythological attributes of the
earth and the moon, of Isis, for example1, just as the litanies of
1 The initiate M. de Maleville, the wise translator of the Rabbis, has

remarked that the Jews gave all the names that appertain to the Virgin
299
Jesus are the attributes of Osiris, the eternal Sun, and Horus, the
annual Sun;
And I will prove it:
Mater Christi, mother of the redeemer (Sun); the Egyptians
claimed that the child, Horus, symbol of the Great Star, was the
son of Osiris and Oseth, whose souls, after their deaths, became
the souls of the sun and the moon. Astarte, who was the same as
Isis, was the name of the moon adored in Phoenicia, in the form
of a woman crested with horns to signify the crescent of the star
of night. Mary is often represented with the crescent under her
feet. Astarte held a sceptre in her hand surmounted by a cross
while crying, as did Isis, for the death of the ancient Sun, her
spouse. Is not Mary, crying for her son juxta crucem lacrymosa
dum pendebat filius1 [Latin, crying while her son was hanging upon
the nearby cross], the heir of Isis and Astarte?
Do we wish to find Mary in the highest antiquity? Look at the
queen of heaven of the Hebrews and the regina caeli of the litany
of Mary. The ancient Israelites called her Menia [Hebrew, ‫]מנחה‬
from which we get the word Neomenia, the new moon, who is
likened to the modern Mary, the mother of the incarnated God,
Krishna or Kristen of the sect of the Brahmans, who is the Virgin,
mother of the god Butta, the Virgo dei genitrix [Latin, Virgin
Mother of god] of the litany of Mary. Think of Frigga, the lady par
excellence, the queen of the goddesses of the Edda and look at the
in the litanies to the moon.

The Chinese have idols that quite resemble the figures of the Virgin
Mary. The author of the report of the English embassy, said, upon
this subject that the missionary Prémore thought, while considering the
practices of the sectarians of Fo, that it was a trick that the devil had
wished to play upon the Jesuits. (Voyage dans l’intér. De la Chine, par
Lord Macartney. T. II p.305).
1 See what we have written on the Stabat mater dolorosa.
300
regina virginum [Latin, queen of virgins] of the litany of Mary. Do

not forget the Virgin who must give birth, and who is both
mother and nurse, according to the Druids of the country of
Chartres (virgo paritura [Latin, the virgin about to give birth], and
recite the verses mater salvatoris, vas honorabile [Latin, mother of
the saviour, honourable vessel] of the litany of Mary. If you recall
the old lady of gold [French, vielle d’or] on the banks of the Oby
who holds an infant at her breast and who is called the domus
aurea [Latin, golden house] of the litany of Mary. And no matter
how many times you repeat the verses found here, whether to
apply to them with justice or to render to them their original
properties: whether they be to Adonaia (Venus), the mother of
Adonis, the solar god of so many nations; whether to Mylita (the
Assyrian Venus), goddess of nature; whether to Alilat, whom
the Arabs symbolised by the crescents of the moon; whether at
last to Selene, the Sister of Helios, the sun-god of the Greeks and
to their Magna mater, vas honestissime, purissime, castissime [Latin,
Great mother, most dignified, purest and most chaste vessel], the
universal mother of all beings1.
Digging with the greatest care among the foundations of
crumbled temples, I discover among the ruins of Ceres, adored
at Athens as mother of all beings, as the reigning Mary at that
epoch, a very instructive bas-relief upon the origin of the litany
or prayer to the virgin. There are women in a procession
carrying baskets coloured purple and filled with honeycombs,
worked wool, salt, ivy, opium poppies, a cake, a pomegranate
and a serpent, offerings to Ceres; it seems irrelevant to justify
these with explanations. The important thing is to know that,
1 Mater divinae gratiae, causa nostrae laetitiae, vas insigne devotionis,

mater admirabilis, foederis arc, etc [Latin, Mother of divine grace, cause of
our happiness, noted vessel of devotion, mother of wonder, arch of faith, etc,
etc].
301
between intervals, these pious matrons cry: Dear Ceres! (Sancta

Maria); Great goddess! (Virgo virginum), dei genitrix), Universal
Mother! (Mater admirabilis1).
If we dig under the altars of the virgin mothers anterior to the
reigning virgin mother, we will be generously compensated for
our troubles: behold new attributes and names, taken on by that
admirable mother, of which Isis is the most ancient name
known, and whom the Greeks called myrionyme, the goddess
of ten thousand names.
And just as the Sun who was Phoebus in heaven; Apollo upon
the earth; and Pluto in the infernal regions; she was likewise the
Moon in heaven Phoebe; on the earth she was likewise Diana,
Gaia, Ceres, Tellus or Latona; she was Proserpina or Hecate in the
infernal regions. As Diana was the goddess of Chastity, it is not
surprising that the litany of the modern Diana complements her
in her attributes of queen of virgins, regina virginum, virgo
virginum, and gives her the epithet chastissime, castissima (most
chaste). The prayer to Mary, at six o’clock in the morning and in
the evening, follows suit, without doubt, those prayers which
paganism addressed at the same hours of the day to the moon,
to Phoebe and to Hecate (the angelus), the morning and evening
star. The verse of the litany of the Virgin, stella matutina,
faithfully preserves the pagan litany of the triformis. Pope
Gregory the 1st, as I have said, devolved this inheritance upon
the modern Mary at the beginning of the seventh century, to
concentrate the Jewish and pagan rite into the circle of his
pontificate; he introduced these into the rituals of his cult,
which was very simple at that time, but had rivals that
1 By adding the diphthong ia to mater, we have the reasonable and

just explanation of the verses mater (materia creatoris; mater (materia)
salvatoris. For the rest, the bas-relief no longer exists, but its subject is
historical.
302
endangered its propagation. It was at the time of the council

that condemned Nestorius, at which Mary was given the title
Mother of God, mater dei; in fact, the further we go, the more we
find that the mythological Virgin mothers are symbolic
personifications of the universal nature.
The poet Lucretius said:
Si quis mare Neptunum, Cereremque vocare

constituet fruges, et Bacchi nomine abuti
mavolt quam Laticis proprium proferre vocamen :
concedamus ut hic terrarum dictitet orbem
esse DEUM-MATREM, dum re non sit abse.
(On the Nature of Things Book Two)
‘If one wished to call the ocean [French, mer] Neptune and the
harvests [French, moissons] Ceres, and if we prefer the name of
Bacchus rather than the name proper to the Latin people, let us
very well consent therein, and likewise to that which is said
universally, that the earth is the mother of the Gods, albeit that
what he said should seem an absurdity.1’
Yes, in the most ancient mythologies, we find a magna mater,
mother of a god or gods, the voluptas hominum divumque [Latin,
the joy of men and gods] of Lucretius the pagan, the alma dei
genitrix [Latin, the nourishing mother of god] of the salve regina
[Latin, hail queen] of the holy virgin. I will compare each to their
ancestral foremothers:
Conformities of Isis or ISIETH and MARY.
1 [Translators note. The quotation from Lucretius does not conform

to modern editions; we have left it as is because of Ragon’s
paraphrase].
303
1st. Isis, mother of Horus: Mary mother of Jesus (mater Christi).

2nd. Isis has her head covered with a veil, emblem of chastity:
the same veil, the same emblem for Mary (castissima).
3rd. Isis is crowned with towers, the sign of solidity: Mary is
often crested with a mural crown. In her litany, one invokes her
under the emblem of the tower of David (turris Davidica), or of
the ivory tower (turris eburnea).
4th. Isis holds between her knees the infant god Horus,
brought forth [French, descend] from her bowels, sign of
fecundity: Mary carries in her arms and on her knees the infant
god, Jesus, born in her bosom. The litanies of Mary: Sancta dei
genitrix; mater Christi, sedes sapientiae, causa nostrae laetitiae [Latin,
Holy mother of god; Mother of Christ; seat of wisdom, cause of our
happiness]: the nine maters and the three vessels [Latin, vas].
5th. Isis is crowned with horns, the sign of the star of night:
Mary has her feet upon the crescent: foederis arca [Latin, the ark of
the covenant].
6th. Isis places a foot upon the globe of the earth, the sign of
puissance: Mary poses her foot likewise, domus aurea [Latin, the
golden house].
7th. Isis sometimes has her head encircled by a nimbus1, the
sign of her domination in heaven: Mary is decorated with an
aureole, Janua caeli [Latin, the door of heaven].
8th. Isis holds, in her right hand, a sistrum, the emblem of the
three lunar phases and planetary harmony: the tunic of Mary,
regina angelorum et virginum [Latin, queen of angels and virgins], is
blue and strewed with stars; the crescent at her feet sufficiently
indicates her name and her harmonies with the planet-angels
and the starred Virgins.
1 The aureole circles the heads of divinities. We also call it nimbus, the cloud
that serves as the chariot of the gods.
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9th. The lotus is consecrated to Isis, as the sign of a chaste

fecundity: the lily, which is of the bulbous family of the lotus is
part of the emblematic costume of the maternal virginity of
Mary, mater castissima.
10th. A vessel [French, vase] is at the right hand of Isis to signify
that she is the queen of the rains, the inferior humidity, the
waters of the Nile, previously called Oceanus, and the waves of
the god Oannes, which served her as a bed during the times of
darkness: The lily of Mary is in a vessel: and, beneath her
crescent, crawls a serpent, the double emblem of the water and
of the Sun in the inferior regions: the invocation of the vessel,
made three times in the litany of the young Isis, is a
preservation of the emblem of ancient Isis carrying a mystic
vessel.
11th. Isis, not an instant passes without your blessing, without a
consolation of your supreme power: you protect the travellers upon the
earth and the sea; you turn away the clouds of adversity. Such was
the litany recited by Apuleius, after his initiation into the Isaic
mysteries, at the time of the revelation that was made unto him
of the attributes of Anna perenna, the outdated Jewish Isis1. This
antique litany is preserved almost literally, both in the hymn ave
maris stella [Latin, Hail, the star of Mary (the sea)] and in the
verses of the litanies of Mary, Stella matutina, Salus infirmorum,
refugium peccatorum, consolatrix afflictorum [Latin, Star of the
morning, the Salvation of the sick, the refuge of sinners the consoler of
the afflicted], and in the last vow that the initiates express at the
approaches of midnight at the end of the agape.
1 The Roman pagans celebrated the festival of Anna Perenna, the

goddess mother of the years; and the new belief has made her Saint
Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary. The Pagans celebrated her festival
on the shores of the Tiber on the Ides of March (the 13th or the 15th).
305
12th. Apuleius, an excellent painter of antiquity, has

bequeathed to us the portrait of Queen Isis; let us see if we do
not recognise therein a few features and a few pieces of attire
attributed to her heir:
‘An undulating mass of hair fluttered upon her divine neck.
On her forehead, her crown of flowers and wheat sheaves bore
a globe jetting out a light like unto that of the moon between
two serpents. A tunic of fine linen, varied with saffron-yellow
and scarlet stripes, covered this divinity; and above all a
doublet of ebony, a shawl fell from the left shoulder and
enfolded her right arm; it was bordered with flowers and bows,
was sown with stars, and descended in folds unto her feet. A
rayed moon adorns her breast. She has a sistrum in one hand,
and a vessel in the other1.’
Conformities of OPS, RHEA, CYBELE AND MARY.
Ops
1st. Ops is the mother of the Gods: Mary is the Mother of God,
Dei genitrix.
2nd. Ops has her head circled with towers: Mary is often
likewise; her litany affirms this, turris Davidica, turris eburnea,
tower of David, a Hebrew word signifying, beloved (the Sun),
tower of ivory, symbol of the silvery disc of the moon.
3rd. Ops carries a key: the litany of Mary titles her Janus coeli,
the gate of heaven: the domus aurea, house of gold, presiding, as
did Ops, over veritable riches; of the foederis arca, the ark of the
1 And according to the Apocalypse: ‘woman clothed [French, revétue]

with the sun, having the moon at her feet and crowned with twelve
stars; pulchra ut sol [Latin, as beautiful as the sun].’
306
covenant, the sash curved about the waist [French, cintre], the
sign of the alliance between the mother and the sun.
4th. Ops is represented with the attributes [French, traits] of a
venerable matron: the litany of Mary depicts her under this
aspect in the verses Mater inviolata, inviolable mother, Mater
intemerata, mother without blemish, Virgo venerabilis, venerable
virgin.
5th. Ops holds out her right hand to offer aid: we paint Mary
in the same position in heaven seated on or carried by clouds
[French, nuées, also means hordes]: the verses of the litany
justify the conformity of the two: Virgo potens, Clemens, puissant
and merciful virgin; Salus infirmorum, salvation of the sick;
refugium peccatorum, refuge of the weak, of sinners, consolatrix
afflictorum, consoler of the afflicted; auxilium christianorum, aid
of the initiates, the Christians.
6th. Ops gives bread to the poor from her left hand: a very
modern monastic allegory represents Mary, mother of the poor,
Mater pauperum, distributing amulets called agnus from the
same hand.
Rhea
This Magna Mater, the universal nurse, has the same attributes
as Cybele, the other great mythological matrons and Mary.
I will permit myself but two conjectures which have struck me
sharply [French, vivement] concerning Rhea in her relation to
Mary.
The 1st. Rhea is IXXI, that is to say, Magna Mater Rhea, can
signify both mystically and by a common phrase Mater-rhea,
Mater-ea [Latin, she, the mother]; then by a more revealing
[French, découvrante] turn of phrase, Materia, the earth (nature);
The 2nd. The Lydians honoured her under the name of Ma-
Rhea, and mythology attaches to a Rhea a female follower
307
[French, suivante] named Ma, whom Jupiter charged with

raising Bacchus. Mary who has succeed the reign of Rhea, has
she not been, as Ma was, charged by Jehovah to raise his divine
son? What can this euphony, this near homonymy of Ma Rhea
and Ma Ria, seem to suggest1? The Evangelists, whom we find
suspect because of their title, have written the adventures of
one Evan, a new Bacchus; do they not raise [French, n’aggravent-
ils pas] suspicion by giving him as a mother, Ma-R-ia, (Mater ia),
a word Ma appears, followed [French, suivante] by Rhea? Fiat
lux [Latin, let there be light], if possible.
Conformities of DIANA, LUCIFERA, LUCINA, LUNA,

TELLUS, LATONA, TRIFORMIS, PROSERPINA and
HECATE
with MARY.
1st. Diana, Virgin-goddess of chastity: Mary, queen of virgins,

very chaste, regina Virginum castissima.
2nd. The head of Diana is surmounted by a crescent, the ark of
the covenant, the gate of heaven; the feet of Mary, foederis arca,
Janua caeli; she reposes upon a crescent.
3rd Diana, dressed in a long tunic, carries the symbolic veil:
Mary, Mater inviolata, Virgo veneranda, Sedes sapientiae [Latin,
Mother inviolate, Virgin to be venerated, Seat of wisdom], wears the
same costume.
4th Diana-Lucina, Lucifera, light bearer: Mary, Stella matutina
[Latin, morning Star], the messenger star of the day who will
reappear; Mater dei or diei [Latin, of the day or days] mother of
1 Maia, mother of the messiah Mercury, that is to say, nurse,

grandmother, matris Mercuris est terra [Latin, earth is the mother of
Mercury], see the Tabula Smaragdina of Hermes. Ma-R-IA
(redemptoris), nursing mother (of the redeemer).
308
god [French, dieu] (the Sun) or of the day [French, jour] (the
Dispater of the Celts). Diana-Mary was, and Mary-Diana is Luna
Lucifera, the gate of light (the moon [French, la lune]); it is
likewise that the Messiah of ancient Olympus was Mercury,
therein he was Lucifer, torchbearer [French, porte-flambeau] (the
Sun). Diana-Lucifera is likewise the moon [French, lune] Isis and
the moon Mary. We find, in the prayer that was addressed to
her by Apuleius, at the time of his initiation into the mysteries,
the error of the priests of Isis concerning the moon [French,
lune] Isis regarding the sun Horus, and here is the fragment:
‘ISIS! Thou givest the light to the Sun.’
It is this principle fault, that was long ago adopted blindly,

and that has resulted in Mary-Isis being declared Mother of God
(of the Sun) and consequently of the day, Mater salvatoris, dei,
diei, by the Council of Chalcedon.
5th. Tellus, Latona and the earth were the spouses of the sky
and the Sun: and since Mary is the dei genitrix, she must very
well have a husband: and he should be the Sky. These pagan
deities were symbolised by the horn of plenty; in the same way
that Mary is the symbol of the riches of the earth.
6th. Tellus, Latona and the earth were symbolised by
venerable matrons with a hundred breasts [French, mamelles], as
were some Isaic Patheas [French, Pathées], this image is thus of
the queen of the empire of the moon, who has descended to the
throne of the earth, her second dominion.
It is in this capacity that Mary, matron, nurse of beings, is
honoured. She does not have a hundred breasts, this is an
image of her that requires of us a measure of respect toward
antiquity if our sight is not to be afflicted; the mythologists of
the modern Latona have, on the contrary, been pleased [French,
enchantés means both to be pleased and to cast a spell], to
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surround Mary with flowers and fruits, and to name her the
universal mother, the vessel that is the insignia of love, vas
insigne devotionis. Mary, that is the fecund queen, the nurse and
eternal Virgin, she is the virgin repository [French dépositaire,
means guardian, trustee, and sometimes in astrology, ruler] of
the solar fecundations; of which the narcissus, the lily, the
Egyptian lotus and the rosa mystica are the emblems as vessels
because their chalices contain all the seeds: this is a delicate
allegory!
7th. Triformis, Proserpina and Hecate. Isis says: ‘It is I who
govern the sky and the infernal regions. Diana, as the moon, can
say: ‘I have three faces, the first is the emblem of childhood, the second
is of the plenitude of forces, and the third is of old age that leads to
death. Mary is often painted with the crescent of the moon and
the globe of the earth while she crushes the serpent Python, the
infernal enemy of Apollo, of Christ, of the light. Hecate was
crowned with roses of five petals: the modern litany calls Mary,
the allegorical rose, rosa mystica [Latin, mystic rose]. Noël’s
mythological dictionary, under the word Hecate, faithfully gives
an account of the analogies of this goddess with Mary.
Proserpina, is the same as Hecate, and like her, is the third
person of the deity called triformis by the pagans, the spouse of
Pluto, the Sun of the inferior regions and consequently she is
queen of the winter shades and holds narcissus flowers in her
hand1: the lily is consecrated to Mary. The goddess triformis,
according to the face she presents, that is to say, her aspects
[French, quartiers] and her phases, causes joy or affliction: Mary
is the dolorosa, lacrymosa mater [Latin, sorrowful, crying mother] or
causa laetitiae [Latin, cause of happiness].
Conformities of JUNO, VESTA and CERES with MARY
1 This flower presents its radiant disk to the Sun.
310
1st. Juno-Averna Proserpina, is depicted as a majestic matron,

she carries the radial crown and sceptre: the majestic madonna,
queen of the angels, regina angelorum, who holds the crown, the
sceptre and the radial nimbus of her celestial power.
2nd. Vesta, the goddess of the virgin-fire, and consequently
virgin, is dressed as a veiled matron, holding a lamp or lamp-
holder with two handles: the virgin Mary is, unto our
imaginations, given as veiled, castissima, prudentissima [Latin,
most chaste, most prudent], and she holds a suspended lamp that
burns everlastingly (capeduncula [Latin, a small vase used in
ritual]) before her effigy; this is an ingenious allegory of the
chaste light of the moon, Janua caeli, the gate of heaven, the
emblem of the reproductive vessel of all beings, the cause of
their joy, Vas laetitiae [Latin, vessel of happiness].
3rd. Ceres. Her statues represent her with a bouquet of
bushells of corn, a sickle, two horns of abundance and two
infants at her breast, the emblems of the harvest and of the
seasons of summer and autumn: remove one horn and one
infant, and you have the modern Ceres, the nursing mother of
the human race, the virgin-mother, Mary.
Ceres, called the good goddess, corresponds to Mary whom the
Christian people call the good virgin. Ceres had her high
mysteries which were established to oppose superstitious
ignorance, we dare not say that it was with a likewise
praiseworthy goal that the minor mysteries of Mary were
established under the title of brotherhoods and offices of Mary, of
the immaculate, of her conception, of Our-Lady of the seven swords, of
seven sorrows, of the mother of the Sacred-Heart of Jesus and other
practices, more or less religious 1 . The pagans gave Juno the
1 The Jacobin François Arnoul from Le Mans, imagined, in the

sixteenth century, that he would establish an order of chivalry for the
311
epithet Pelasgia, and Pelasgis was given to Ceres; the monks did
not preserve this title for Mary, but they imagined a Saint
Pelasgia or Pelagia.
Conformities of LEUCOTHEA, ASTARTE, CELESTIAL

VENUS
and ASTREA called URANIA with MARY.
1st. Leucothea1, nurse of Bacchus, is costumed as a matron,

holds a small infant and is a marine divinity: this costume, child
and power over the sea appertain to Mary, mater salvatoris, maris
stella [Latin, mother of the saviour, star of the sea], nurse of Jesus.
Fecundity, the Roman goddess holds, as do Leucothea and Mary,
a small child in her arms and a horn of plenty in her hand.
2nd. Astarte, a deity of Sidon who is identical to Isis, Venus
and the moon, was often represented with the royal insignia
and carried a sceptre surmounted by a cross: Mary, juxta crucem
lacrymosa [Latin, crying next to the cross].
3rd. Astraea, ascends again [French, remonte] into the sky in the
sign of the Virgin: the assumption of Mary is celebrated on the
fifteenth day of the sign of the Virgin (day 15 of August), a fixed
day. This festival is in the category of those that the Pagan
Romans called stativae [Latin, stativae].
fair and proper sex to extend the cult of the Virgin. Anna of Austria,
the regent, gave him her agreement. He published in 1647, at Paris
and Lyon, his project of the Order of the Celestial Collar of the Sacred
Rosary, composed of fifty single ladies; but he could not find his ladies of
chivalry. Next, he published his Revelations and Remedies and sat on
the bench of the empirics. (See Journal de Littér., Scien. et Arts, 1799.
Tom 4, p.179).
1 See her white statue in the Museum of Paris in the Apollo room.
312
4th. Celestial Venus, Urania, was dressed [French, revètue] in

azure and crowned with stars; she is the muse of astronomy:
Mary wears this diadem and mantle, and her religious
ceremonies [French, solennités] on fixed days are astronomical.
The celestial Venus was also the marine Venus: Mary, the gate
of heaven, Janua caeli, the star of the light of day, Stella matutina,
is also a marine goddess, maris stella, the patroness of navigators.
Urania inspired a pure love and preserved hearts from all
impurity: Mary is endowed with identical virtues, she is the
mother of the celestial love, mater divinae gratiae [Latin, mother of
divine grace]; she is the source of pure joys, causa nostrae laetitiae
[Latin, cause of our happiness].
‘Mother of all beings, repository [French, dépositaire] of all the

seeds which fulfil their goal of reproduction upon the ever
fertile fields of universal life; eternal vessel, never empty, while
pouring out, without cease, the flowers and fruits of transitory
existences; I, feeble mortal, upon my decline, will attempt to
sing your praises:
‘Alma [Latin, nourishing] Venus, scarcely have you left the
bosom of the seas1 when the elements salute you, the liberator
and mother of the day2. The first gust of your sweet breath has
scarcely brought to flower the molecules endowed with the
power of respiration, when your first enchanted steps made the
roses of discreet love [French, amour pudique] and the lilies of
chaste maternity bloom with their corollas of sweet and
consoling perfumes, of which fraternity braids its garlands.
‘Alma Venus! at the day of your nativity, you appeared in the
sky a dazzling [French, éclatant] prodigy: a celestial woman,
1 The hymn Ave maris stella [Latin, Hail, Star of the Sea].
2 Mater dei alma or diei, Mother of God and of the day.
313
clothed [French, revètue] with the Sun1! You were the queen of
the firmament that Israel adored in times of prosperity2; it was
you, Queen of the Virgin mothers3 half-veiled or resplendent
with light in the fortunate spaces that you traversed; and upon
the crystal of the waters, you reflect the sweet light of god, your
brother, your husband and your son4.
‘Alma Venus! I recognise your divinity, both under the starry
tunic of Mary, and under the azure mantle, floating around
your mysterious crescent. If the skies are covered with
melancholy clouds [French, nues also means swarms], you
nevertheless console the earth during the intervals of clear skies.
If the stars are twinkling, the silvery flame of your disk soothes
the glimmering features of those far off virgins; just as in the
temple of Vesta, the sacred fire makes pale the lamps of the
inferior deities. Whether white doves pull your chariot upon
Olympus, or whether your maternal and virginal hands, those
living emblems of love, are placed upon the altar of a
Myrionyme god: whether you cover yourself with the matronly
veil of Latona; whether you wear the crescent of Diana, the
crown of Mary, the queen of the angels, I adore, in you, the ark
of universal reproduction and the benefactress of my life.’
1 The Gospel according to Saint Matthew, chapter 1, verse 1.

2 Jeremiah says, 44: ‘We will offer incense to the queen of the heavens;
we will pour libations to her in the streets of Jerusalem; for, if we
cease to do these things, we will be destroyed by the sword and
famine.
3 Regina Virginum, queen of Virgins, the Litanies of Mary.
4 The Litanies of Jesus: Sol justitiae [Latin, Sun of justice]. – Litanies of
Mary, Speculum justitiae [Latin, Mirror of justice]. Uranus, brother of

Urania (from ouranos [Greek, ΟỦΡΑΝΌΣ]; the sky); Osiris, spouse of
Isis; Mary, mother of the god Jesus.
314
Thus the great cause of the prolongation of the races de

progenie in progeniis [Latin, from generation to further generations],
has been honoured under a thousand diverse names; but the
symbols and the attributes have been almost identical. The
nations, astonished by quodcumque videbant [Latin, whatever they
have seen] and by quodcumque movetur [Latin, whatever is moved],
are reconciled by identical allegories concerning the most
apparent stars and our planet.
For example, the differences in dogmas and cults, the
depictions of the queen of heaven, of the earth and the infernal
regions, have only reached so far apart as the distances between
nations, the times they existed in and the improvisers who have
copied or traced out their religions, with more or less precision
upon the march of the most apparent stars, notably the sun and
the moon. To the Romans, the foreign gods of great nations and
the lesser peoples, majorum et minorum gentium, became, by
conquest, Roman gods called indigetes [Latin, patron deities of
their countries]. The priests and flamens of the capitol
understood with wonder the means of alliance and concordance
among the forain [Old French, foreign] gods and the gods of the
republic; long ago, there were as many fables and rituals as
there were governments and peoples.
The identical thing happened after the foundation of the
modern belief under Constantine, the priests of paganism with
their pantheons and the philosophers with their systems entered
into the interior of the simply decorated new sanctuary; each
one of them left their baggage: later, poor humans did not know
what to rely on to pass surely and nimbly from this life into the
other. There were too many boats afloat on the river Styx! There
was a Primitive rite, an Oriental rite, an Occidental rite, a
Maronic rite, a Mozarbic rite, and a Gallic rite. The voyagers
who did not know how to swim did not dare risk throwing
315
themselves into the river: they paid their toll too dearly without
attaining to the other shore.
These diverse rituals, nevertheless, preserve the sacred seal of
a sole god, with the disparate stamps of three persons, of a virgin
mother and of the saints ranked by their diverse merits. The
Greek rite and the Roman rite were separated, not because of
the insipid and frivolous question of the procession of the Holy
Spirit, but for the motive of supremacy [French, suprémation]
claimed by the Bishop of Rome over the Bishop of
Constantinople. A long time after this, Lutheranism protested
against the dogmas of the real presence and the aureole of the
saints; Calvin is the last tonsured Titan who has thrown rocks
through the Gothic stained glass windows of the Roman
Church.
I believe I have said all upon the curious litanies of Jesus and
Mary (of the Sun and the Moon); and, in order to omit nothing, I
will remark that the litanies of the son are recited at the
morning prayers, and those of the Virgin-mother at the evening
prayers.
316
ANCIENT
RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS
COMPARED
TO MODERN FESTIVALS
317
ANCIENT
RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS
COMPARED
TO MODERN FESTIVALS
All the peoples of the earth have had their festivals or days
consecrated to repose and destined for giving thanks to the
Great Architect and his blessings.
The first and most solemn festivals were established by the
agricultural nations. It is most necessary to relax sometimes
after hard labours in the fields, and the times of harvest [French,
récoltes] offer an opportunity of freeing joy and leading the
people to a lively gratitude toward nature.
The revolutions of the celestial bodies that constantly bring
back the same works and the same pleasures were, in their eyes,
so many interesting times of the year [French, époques] whose
import was to be defined.
The festivals announced the apparition of the Sun in the four
principle or cardinal points of the celestial sphere. Others were
created to perpetuate the memory of a few heroes who had
318
served the fatherland well. The most brilliant of all were the
festivals of the SUN who was personified in many different
forms. Each season was celebrated in a solemn manner and
always with the symbols relative to the arrival of the great star,
whether in the solstices or the equinoxes.
In the spring, we sang his resurrection, because we saw the
time that he had passed in the inferior of southern hemisphere,
as that of his death and his descent to the inferior regions.
At the summer solstice, we gave the Sun the name of Hercules
because at that time he was in all his strength. This solstice was
celebrated with public games and fires of joy.
At the autumnal equinox, as we saw the Sun abandon our
upper hemisphere, the imagination, far from being enlivened,
as in the two preceding seasons, was, on the contrary, thrown
into despondency. We imagined that there was a combat
between the Sun and the Prince of darkness, in which the latter
carried the victory. This imagined defeat of the Sun was
regarded as a death, and we said that he had descended into the
hells [French, enfers]. The ceremonies and songs of the ancient
people were sad and gloomy during that season.
At the winter solstice, in place of afflicting further the sad
state in which the sun abandoned nature, we consoled
ourselves. The god, charged with carrying the light and re-
animating nature would be reborn anew. The songs of joy
recommenced.
The Sun, as saviour or liberator, was invoked everywhere with
great ado. His cult was universal and linked with all
institutions. The year was formed by the revolution of the star
about the earth. If men were for a long time without the
knowledge of its precise duration, we can say that they should
never be scorned for their knowledge of the order of the seasons.
319
All that we have said that relates to the apparent march

forward of the Sun proves that the ancients were endowed with
a genius for allegory and symbol.
This genius consisted of this penchant and this turn of spirit
that prompted the sages of antiquity to veil their lessons in the
corresponding emblems and enigmas to render them more
piquant, livelier and more animated, in order that they would
be researched with more zeal and retained in memory more
easily.
By this ingenious artifice, they rendered sensible the most
abstract truths. They transformed the driest and most difficult
to seize propositions into images and tables. The truth became
more gentle and amiable. Inanimate things and moral beings
became personified. Nature in her entirety took on a new face.
She who was most metaphysical, clothed herself [French, se
revêtant] in bodily perfections and beauties, and appeared to
become as sensible as these things [French, elles]. Even the
relationships that existed between the great objects of nature
and their influences upon men metamorphosed into a history of
illustrious personalities, who awakened the imagination, and of
whom the traces are not erased from memory.
This symbolic genius developed itself through figurative
words, proverbs, parables, emblems, fables, apologues,
mythological recitations and hieroglyphic symbols and
paintings. Such was, so to speak, the universal language of the
primitive temples.
There were no books written in furthest antiquity that did not
contain examples of these diverse genres of allegory.
The examination of the ancient festivals, under each of the
twelve signs of the zodiac, prove this truth and simultaneously
demonstrate, when compared to the festivals of the Christians
at the same times of the year, that they are absolutely the same
under other names.
320
1st SIGN. THE RAM OR LAMB.

(MARCH1 - APRIL). Spring Equinox.
1 The 1st of the Athenian month Mounichion (the 10th month),

Neomenia, was consecrated to Diana (the moon of spring) and
celebrated throughout all Greece. The Persians celebrated their
Neozonze, a solemn festival that endured many days. The Christians
celebrate Easter [French, Pâques] on the Sunday that follows
immediately after the full moon of the spring equinox.
Day 19 was consecrated to Diana Bendidia, and 16 April to Our Lady
of Compassion, who was virgin, as was Diana.
Day 30 was the festival of Aphrodisia (Venus) and of Adonia (Adonis);
from which come Saints Afrodisius and Amator, as well as Saints
Aphrodisa and Aimée. The festival of Aphrodisia was set aside as a day
without work on 22 March.
Ovid (Fasti, I. III) reports that at Rome cabins were constructed
covered with leaves and were called umbrae by Festus to celebrate the
festival of Anna Perenna which took place on 15 March on the banks of
the Tiber.
March was the 4th month of the ecclesiastic year and the 3rd month of
the civil year of the ancient Roman year, before the reform of Numa; it
is also the 1st month of the Masonic year and the astronomical year.
Diverse Festivals in Honour of Imaginary Saints.
Saint Tiphoida (Epiphany, the festival of kings), 6 January.

Sanviario (Spanish saint) taken from an inscription on a marble
monument: Metello curatori VIARUM.
Saint Vult or the Calf [French, Vau {sic}] of Luke taken from San volto
di Lucca, conveyed from Italy and placed in the Church of the
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Sepulchre in the Rue St-Denis. [Translator’s note. ‘veau’ is the modern

spelling for calf, ‘vau’ is an occasional spelling and suggests ‘vault’,
which means tomb. Vult is Latin for ‘he wills’].
Saint Marcoul, for those who have scrofula [French, écrouelles],
illnesses of the neck [French, cou].
Saint Genou, for those who have gout, illness of the knees [French,
genou].
Saint Mains, for those with illness of the hands [French, mains].
Saint Cloud, for those who have boils [French, clous].
Saint Claude, (from Latin claudicando, by lameness), the humpbacks.
Saint Mammard, for those who have illness of the breasts [French,
mamelles].
Saint Agnan, for those who are mangy [French, teigne].
Saint Prix, for the endeavours [French, entrepris] of the members.
All Saints, invoked by those plagued by cough [French, toux].
Saint Langueur, near Bar-sur-Aube, for those who are suffering from
dropsy [French, langueur] in the suburbs of Mans.
Saint Nicolas of Tolentino (from Latin, tollendo, by lifting) for those
who have been robbed [French, volés].
Saint Estange of Estanches, near Bougy, five leagues from Troyes,
for those suffer blood loss and who are in torment to have this loss
staunched [French, l’étancher].
Saint Regina [French, Sainte Reine] (as having the kidneys [French
reins] over heated) for those who have venereal disease.
Saint Servais (from servando, Latin, by service). One believed in one’s
Liege who had preserved him from death. King Louis XI had a beautiful
chapel built for this saint.
(Extract for the Hexuméron Rustique of La Motte le Vayer).
According to Ovid, all peoples have had a month consecrated to the
God of battles. The Christians, who have replaced the god of war with
that of armies, Deus Sabaoth, have nevertheless preserved the name of
this month.
In the religious year, this month can be considered from two points
of view: the fixed calendar and the moveable calendar. This latter
concerns the festival of Easter [French, Pâques] and those customs that
322
are dependent upon it; for Easter can be placed in April. Let us now
take a look at the first part.
Although this month, the first of the ancient year, bore the name of
Mars among the Romans, to which Romulus, it is said, consecrated it,
this etymology contradicts the facts; for it is the month of October that
was consecrated to Mars, while the month of March was consecrated
to Minerva.
The first month of the Athenian year, Elaphebolion [Greek,
ΕΛΑΦΗΒΟΛΙΏΝ], was consecrated to Diana; for this word, derived
from Eaphos [Greek, ΕΑΦΟΣ], signifies the month of she who hunts dear.
Thus, among the two most celebrated peoples of antiquity, the 1st
month of the year was dedicated to a virgin-goddess. In addition, the
sole solemn festival that we have in this month is that of Annunciation.
On 3 March one of the fishes sets; this astronomical fact is found
expressed in some ancient calendars by the words: marin., astr., which
signifies marimum astrum, the sea star, the fish; pious legends have
transformed them into saints. In fact, the martyrology shows us that
the 3 March is dedicated to the martyrs (1) Saint Marin and Saint Aster.
On the same day we find Saint Emétere and Saint Chélidoin. The first
of these names means to arrive, to attain [French, aborder] in Greek; the
second means swallow, and together these two names expresses clearly
the idea of the return of the swallows at that time of the year.
On 6 March a sacrifice to the goddess Vesta, the virgin goddess and
protectress of virginity was made at Rome. Our-lady-of-Compassion
has replaced her in the modern calendar. We also find therein Saint
Perpetua, Saint Felicity and their companion martyrs. As for these last
names, we recall that at at the renewal of year in Rome, people visited
one another to make vows for the enduring happiness of their friends:
propter perpetuam felicitatem. These vows gave birth to these two saints
(2).
On day 13 Saint Nicephorus, or bringer of victory, one of the epithets of
Jupiter.
On day 19 and the following days, the Romans celebrated the
Quinquatria, consecrated to Minerva, the Virgin without mother. These
festivals fell, exactly [French, justement] at the days of the equinox. On
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the same day in Egypt, the Pamylia, or the festival of good news, in
which the Phallus, symbol of reproduction, was solemnly paraded
and celebrated at Thebes in honour of Pamyla.
On day 25, the Annunciation. This festival is one of the most solemn
of the year. Let us examine the sphere of the sky at this time: first,
Perseus raises himself in heaven upon a luminous path (the Milky
Way); the Swan follows him and the two appear veering toward the
part of the heavens where the Virgin is disappearing in the occident.
What do we find, the same day, in the Evangel? An angel who came
to give his salutations to Mary and announce that she had been
chosen for the accomplishment of the greatest of the mysteries, that of
the incarnation of the Word of God.
Some critics have remarked, upon the virginity of Mary, that this
state of voluntary sterility was not honoured among the Jews, since
the daughter of Jephtha, destined for death following her father’s
indiscreet vow, asked to go cry for her virginity upon the mountains.
For, if virginity was a blemish for a young girl, it ought to have been a
dishonour for a married woman, and we find it difficult to imagine
that a husband and his wife had lived in a continence defended by the
law of God.
It is therefore on 25 March that Mary became the Mother of God,
and on the same day, the Romans celebrated the Hilaria, the festival of
rejoicing in honour of the mother of the Gods.
On day 28 of the month of Phamenoth (23 March), the Egyptians
Celebrated the giving of birth of Isis.
On day 27, we find, in the martyrology, Saint John of Egypt, the
hermit, and this confirms the remark made upon the presence of a
saint named John at the solstices and equinoxes.
On day 30, another Saint John named Climacus, the author of a work
that treated of the conduct of the soul by thirty degrees or steps to the most
sublime perfection. If we wish to examine the fact that the festival of
Janus, the god of his times, and that of John Climacus fall upon the
same day, we note that the name of the Ladder that he carries, as well
as his book (climax), was given to him at the time when the sun
mounts by degrees toward the superior signs; that the thirty steps or
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Under the sign of the Ram or Lamb, the Sun commences his
annual course. In fact, he enters the equator under the first of
the twelve sings. In the two hemispheres, the days and the
nights are equal in duration; this is the spring equinox.
However, once he has passed this day, the Sun advances into
our boreal hemisphere, the days increase in duration and the
earth revives and recovers its fecundity.
The solar year cannot open under the exact same part of the
sign until after a period of 25,868 years. When this time has
passed, the preceding sign becomes the first because of the
precession of the equinoxes. This annual movement will not
restore the primitive accuracy [French, justesse] of the signs
relative to the seasons until the circle has been completely
renewed1. It is thus that the Ram or Lamb replaced the Bull at
degrees of his ladder correspond to the number of days in a solar

month, and that the twelve months united to form a year, the circle of
perfection; we can easily divine connections that bind together the facts
that have ever proved that, among the beliefs of nations, the Sun is the
father of the calendar of all peoples; and we, together with Court de
Gébelin, are certain of this.
Let us pass on to the movable calendar that relates to the celebration
of Easter and the festivals that depend on it.
We know that the moon guides the Christians and the Jews in fixing
the date of this festival. Without doubt they render this homage to the
queen of the night to remind themselves of the far off times when her
course brought forth the year; a custom still observed by the Muslims.
The month of March makes part of the skinny quarantine imposed
upon Catholics. This time of severe abstinence is imprinted in the
ancient cults. Among the Romans, marriages were forbidden at this
time, as they are among the Catholics during Lent. The spouse of the
Flamen neglected her mass of curls and could not share the bed of her
spouse.
325
The church celebrates the Sunday which precedes Easter, called

Palm Sunday [French, jour de rameaux], by a procession that announces
the return of spring [French, printemps] (3) and of greenery. This
festival is an imitation of one that was held at Rome at the same time
of the year. The garlands of flowers and the festoons of greenery that
decorated the doors of the priests of Jupiter and the temple of the
gods were renewed. The boxwood branch [French, branche de buis]
brings to mind the palm or olive branch [French, rameau] of initiation
that, after the three voyages (the 3 months of winter), the neophyte of
those times, the new Sun, was expected to hold in his hand in
preparation for entering into the temple of nature with dignity.
Holy Week, this very lugubrious and very mysterious week, brings to
mind the death of Mithras, Osiris, Adonis, Attis and other gods; it
commences the lugubrious passage of the Sun into the inferior signs
and symbolises the triumph of Arimanes, Typhon and of Satan during
the reign of winter.
At this natural event, the different peoples consecrated three days of
mourning and lamentation, during which they recalled the sufferings,
the death and the descent to the hells of each of the allegorical
personages of the Sun. Among the Phoenicians, the death of Adonis
brought to mind, above all to the women, the mourning of Venus.
This fact has not been forgotten among the Catholics, for whom the
mass expires Friday, the day of Venus, and resuscitates on Sunday, the
day of the Sun.
To participate in the mysteries celebrated in antiquity, it was
necessary to be purified; the absolution [French, absoute] of Holy
Thursday in Catholicism comes from this.
On this day Christ was hidden in a tomb, as the ancients hid the
bodies of their gods in caves.
Antiquity consecrated the next day to fasting and prayer. The altar
of sacrifice did not receive victims. Good Friday [French, vendredi
saint] is equally a day of austerity. It is the only day of the year on
which the Catholic priest does not offer the sacrifice of the mass,
because a greater sacrifice is offered.
However, on the third day, the sadness of the ancients changed
326
suddenly to public rejoicing, and they celebrated the resurrection of

their gods in their joyful songs. The demonstrations of joy were so
lively that this festival was called the Hilariae (4). At Rome, they relit
the sacred fire upon the altar of Vesta; and this fire was a ray of the
Sun.
Likewise, among the Christians, everything changes on this day: a
new fire comes from the stone and shines upon each altar. An
extraordinary candle is raised in the middle of the temples (5). It
represents the unique God (Sol, seul, Soleil), the torch of the
renaissance of the world in spring.
On the same day, the fountains of water are blessed, and this brings
to mind the lustral water of the Romans.
At last the rejoicing makes itself heard; the Catholic temples renew
these cries of joy:
Haec dies quam fecit dominus….

O filii et filiae….
Alleluia! Surrexit dominus vere, venite, adoremus, allelluia (6).
[Latin, This day that the Lord made….

O sons and daughters….
Hallelujah! The Lord rises up in truth, come, let us adore, hallelujah]!
Let us listen to the song of the poet :
Behold the most laughing, most prosperous days,

These days dry the tears of our fathers!
Every year when winter in its obscurity
Engulphs their God, the God of clarity,
A long mourning upon the walls of sacred buildings
Is heard; and the private altar of sacrifice,
Without brazier, perfume, lamp, or torch,
Depicts the SUN [French, SOLEIL]extinguished in the tomb.
For three whole days consecrated to darkness,
With lamentations, with tears, with funeral songs,
327
the equinoctial point and has been replaced in turn by the Fishes,
the sign under which the actual solar year opens. However, the
calendars continue to calculate as if no change has come about
in the zodiac, and they always assign the first rank to the Ram,
whereas in reality it occupies but the third.
At the time of the The Christians, under the

exaltation of the Sun the 1st sign, also celebrate the
They feared that their God, shattered by a giant,

Led the universe into nothingness with him.
But as soon as the vanquisher of this funereal night,
Relights his lower fires at the time of the celestial Ram,
The braziers, the torches extinguished upon the altars,
Shine, renewed in the eyes of mortals;
The clouds of incense billow through the porticos;
And the priests and the people in joyous songs
Cry out, "OUR GOD IS REBORN WITH THE BRIGHTNESS;
LET US CELEBRATE HIS TRIUMPH: HE IS RESUSCITATED!
(Roucher, The Poem of the Seasons)
I will not speak of the Pervigilium Paschae, that all night watch at
Easter so solemnly celebrated in the earliest times of the church; nor of
the white ornaments that the priests used as the emblem of the light of
their purity. It suffices for me to demonstrate the concordance of our
religious calendar with that of the ancients.
1 This precession consists of a continuous retrograde motion of the
nodes of the terrestrial equator against the ecliptic due to the
combination of earth moving in rotation about its axis with the
disruptive action of the sun and the moon upon the material
substratum accumulated about the terrestrial equator, and, without
which, the earth would form a perfect sphere. This retrograde
movement is 50”10 seconds per year; it transverses the entirety of the
ecliptic in a period of 25,868 years.
328
ancients celebrated the resurrection of Christ1. Their

resurrection of Mithras, festival, called Easter [French,
Osiris, Adonis, Attis, etc. Pâques], (passage) is equally
This festival was preceded preceded by three days of
by three days of mourning mourning, during which they
(symbol of the three months recall his passion, his death
of winter) during which they and his descent to the hells
commemorated his [French, enfers]. This sorrow
sufferings, his death and his changes right away to joy;
descent to the hells, (inferior they sing repeatedly, haec
places) for each of the dies quam fecit dominus [Latin,
allegorical personalities that this day that the lord made],
represented the SUN. etc. O filii et filiae [Latin, O
However, this public sorrow sons and daughters], etc.
changed to joy immediately Lastly, Easter is for the
after the focus changed to his Christians, that which the
resurrection, and the Hilariae were for the ancients
demonstrations of joy were who, at this time of year,
so lively that this festival was renewed the sacred fire; the
called hilariae (the Hilarias). modern cult also renews the
In these months the sacred fire. (See the note to
Mexicans change their the title of this Section on the
furniture and their dress. Ram).
1 In every theogony, there is an Anointed, a Christ, a God who

sacrifices himself [French, s’immole], a mediator between God and men.
The first Christians fixed the death of Christ on 23 March, and his
resurrection on day 25, the day when, according to Cedrenus, the
veritable light exits from the tomb. For, among all the ancient peoples,
the equinox was fixed on 25 March, the day of triumph of the Lamb
among the Israelites, the day of the celebration of the Hilariae at Rome,
the festival of the triumph of the Sun god over the darkness of winter.
329
The Christians chose this

epoch to dress themselves
anew1.
THE FESTIVAL IN CHINA: How holy and touching is this

august festival over which the Emperor of China presides in
person. This season takes place on the 15th day of the first moon
and is called the opening of labours!
In his triumphal car, sits a prince of Asia

Who advances with pomp, with a rustic plough.
He is Triptolemus, seated in Ceres’ car….
He arrives solemnly at the field destined for the ceremony:
He descends from his car, advances with grave step;

We keep quiet: in the midst of such profound silence,
Alone [French, Seul] he crosses the field that he must
render fecund,
He prostrates himself and touches it nine times with his
forehead.
After a fervent prayer spoken in a loud voice, the head of the

empire, in his office as sovereign pontiff, immolates an ox and
offers it to Shang Di [Chinese, 上帝], The God of heaven, that he
might spread his blessings over the fruits of the earth. And
while the flame of the pyre consumes the victim, a plough
harnessed to two magnificently adorned oxen is brought in
train.
1 The sovereign gave new garments to the officers of his house. These
garments took the name of livery [French, livrées] because they were
delivered [French, livrés] by the king.
330
The prince puts aside his imperial dress, ploughs a part of the
field, and with a prodigious hand, gives out grain, rice, beans
and two sorts of millet, which he presents to his great
dignitaries in richly decorated boxes.
Endnotes to footnotes
1. This reminds us of the Jesuit Daniel taking a warrior Abbot,

martialem abbatem, for the Abbot Martial.
2. It is curious to see the learned philosopher, M. Guepin, write
in his Philosophie du XIXe siècle, p.522 (1854): ‘The martyrdom
of Saint Perpetua is unassailable.’
3. The word, Printemps [French, spring], is a contraction of
primum tempus, the first age, the youth of the year.
4. From the Greek, Hilaros, ΙΛΑΡΟΣ, joyous. These festivals
were consecrated to Cybele or nature.
5. At the Church of Saint-Roch (in Paris), where the
ceremonies become theatrical, the Pascal candle was eleven
metres and fifty-three centimetres tall including the
candelabrum on the eleventh of April 1811.
6. The Hallelujah of the Christians corresponds with the
Alkalalai, the cry of joy of the Kamtschadales.
331
2nd SIGN. THE BULL1.

(APRIL2 – MAY). Exaltation of the Sun.
1 When idolatry succeeded fetishism and Sabianism, all the forms of

human symbols more or less recurred. We imagined that the face of a
man in a circle represented the Sun, and that his profile in the crescent
represented the Moon.
The Bull is represented in many ancient monuments with a human
head. It is this monstrous figure, without doubt, that served as the
basis for the fable of the Minotaur (the bull of Minos).
The bull is one of the great divinities of Japan. The monks
represented it under the emblem of an egg (the symbol of the
universe) which a bull broke with its horns, and the world came forth
from its shell.
The breath of the bull produced man.
The He-goat, which is found in the division of the sign of the Bull,
was imagined among the Egyptians, as a man with horns and the legs
and feet of a goat; they made of this their god Pan. The Greeks
represented this in the zodiac under the figure of a man holding a she-
goat and a kid; they made of this the she-goat Amalthea, the wife of
Pan.
The goat does not so much indicate the movement of the sun, which
is slow at the approach of the solstice, but the final termination of the
solar elevation. (A striking sign, p.75 of Religions).
2 April, the 4th month of the vulgar year, 5 th of the religious year, was,
was, among the ancient peoples, consecrated to Venus, whether it was

derived from the Latin word aprilis (aperire, to open [French, ouvrir])
because it opens the bosom of the earth to the sweet influences which
winter had closed off; or whether it comes, as according to Ovid, from
the Greek epithet given to the mother of loves. These two hypotheses
332
likewise concur, that is to say, they recall to mind the reawakening

[French, réveil] of nature and her inexhaustible fecundity.
I have not indulged myself in the enchantress illusions of the
graceful mythology which was the delight of Greece and Rome. My
quill is reserved for an object that shines not so brightly: the
continuation of the recital of the mystical festivals that were
substituted for the brilliant solemnities upon the banks of the Nile, at
the Parthenon and in the Capitol.
I began the month of March by an exposition upon the fixed
calendar, and I finished it with the moveable festivals; here, this order is
reversed: I will begin with the latter.
I have said that Easter, which fixes all the moveable festivals, can
just as well be placed in April as in March, and that celebrating the
triumph of the Lamb and the solemnity of the resurrection on March
25th is found to be in harmony with the march of the seasons. The Jews
and the Christians have renounced this natural order; the first by
placing their Easter day on the 14th day of the moon of the equinox,
and the last , by solemnising the Sunday which follows the 14th day, in
order not to Judaise (1).
Because of this new arrangement, Easter falls more often in April;
this happens twenty-one times every twenty-nine years, thus we see
that in 1843 April includes the whole of the holy fortnight [French,
sainte quinzaine].
Concerning what I have said, I will present a few reflections upon
this celebrated fortnight, and they will naturally also attach
themselves to the subject treated under the month of March.
That which is called Easter fortnight begins at Palm Sunday [French,
dimanche des rameaux] and finishes on the day of Low Sunday [French,
Quasimodo]. The three Sundays included in this fortnight, are, let it be
known: Palm Sunday [French, rameaux] Easter, and Low Sunday, and
have been given the names of Blooming Easter, Holy Easter and White
Easter [French: Pâque fleurie, Pâque sainte et Pâque blanche].
Blooming Easter recalls to mind the return of spring, the brilliant
finery of Flora. The church sings, on this day, the coming triumph of
the Sun, and celebrates his return: she says, acceperunt ramos palmarum
333
et processerunt obviam ei, et clamabant, Hosanna! Benedictus qui venit rex

in nomine domini; pax in caelo, et gloria in excelsis [Latin; they accepted the
branches of the palm trees and went forth to him, and they cried out,
Hosanna! Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the lord; peace in
heaven, and glory in the highest].
Easter is followed by two days of celebration [French, férie], as are
Christmas and Pentecost, and these triple festivals at the great periods
of the two solstices and the spring equinox take place in honour of the
Trinity. And what proves this is that at the autumnal equinox we only
find the double festival of the dead, that is the commemoration of the
blessed, All Saints Day [French, la Toussaint], and that of the souls that
wait among the souls in Purgatory, for their passage into the place of
eternal delight. Thus, among the pagans, the shades that were still
impure wandered under the porticos of Tartarus.
The ancient agricultural people of Asia and Europe ate eggs at the
new year and preserved the custom of sending them as presents at
that time of year. These eggs were usually coloured red. When the
New Year ceased to coincide with the spring equinox, the eggs were
no longer able to be part of these beginnings [French, étrennes, also
means ‘christenings’], nevertheless, the custom remained attached to
the festival of Easter.
The custom of coloured eggs at the spring equinox remains among
the Persians. The Russians also offer eggs at Easter. Jewish women do
likewise. Pliny, Juvenal and Ovid spoke of these eggs used for
atonement and of the custom of colouring them. Plutarch speaks of
this practice. He says that the egg encloses in itself all things and, for
this reason, it has been made part of the ceremonies used in honour of
Bacchus.
Thus, the custom of eggs is an ancient emblem, which links to the
philosophy of ancient peoples, to the theology of Judea, of Egypt, of
the Persians, the Gauls and of the Romans. Among all these peoples,
the egg was the emblem of the Universe, and appeared in the Orphic
mysteries, in those of Phta, of Mithras and of the Druids (2), it ought
thus to be found again in the modern rite.
334
In ancient times, the evening before Easter was consecrated to the

solemn baptism of the catechumens, and this ceremony took place but
two or three times a year. Today, baptism is given to infants at birth
(3), but we have preserved it, according to the ancient custom, in the
ceremony of the benediction of the baptismal fonts.
Among the Romans, on the 3rd day of the nones of April, the women
of all classes, and likewise the courtesans, removed from the statue of
Venus, the rich garments with which she was attired, and washed her
in pure waters. It is this that is called the bath of Venus: tota lavanda dea
est [Latin, The goddess must be washed entirely]. Then all the women
washed and purified themselves. Ovid says, upon the occasion of the
ceremony: vos quoque sub viridi myrto iubet illa lavari [Latin, You also,
under the green myrtle, she orders to be washed].
This purification at the renewal of spring, which coincided with the
purifications of the first Christians and with the washing of feet on Holy
Thursday, allows us to see how much all these ceremonies are linked
with each other.
At White Easter, the Sunday named Quasimodo in French by the
people, and the dominica in albis [Latin, the lord’s day in white] by the
church, which takes, on this day, the white ornaments, brings to mind
the festivals of Ceres which took place the same time of year.
Alba decent Cererem: vestes cerealibus albas

Sumite; nunc, pulli velleris usus abest.
(Ovid, Fasti)
[Latin, They are properly dressed in white for the festival of Ceres;
Put on the white robes for Ceres festival;
Now the use of dun coloured wool is absent].
On this date, the church sings likewise:
Nunc, ergo, Laetas vindici

Grates rependamus Deo;
Agnique mensam candidis
335
Cingamus ornati stolis.
[Latin, Now therefore, I have vindicated those who are happy

Rendering thanks to God;
And in white robes we circle the table
Of th decorated lamb].
Let us now pass to the fixed calendar, that is to say, to the saints who
are therein honoured.
On day 2 of April, Saint Nisier, Nicetius, from a Greek word that
signifies conqueror. We see that at all the great times of the year, the
church celebrates a victory.
On day 3 of April, we honour three saints who are virgins and
martyrs; the first is called Agape, which, in Greek, means Dear [French,
Chère]; the second Chionie (snow) and Irene (peace), three words
together form the sentence; the lovable and white peace. We have
remarked that day 3 of each month was consecrated to Minerva, the
immaculate Virgin, the goddess without mother.
The same day, Saint Nicetas, the root of whose name is, again, ΝΙΚΗ
(victory).
On day 4, Saint Isidore (gift of Isis).
On day 7, Saint Hegesippe, whose name comes from two Greek
words that signify the driver [French, conducteur] of the celestial horses.
On the same day the Romans celebrated the birth of Apollo, the driver
of the celestial horses.
Day 9 was consecrated to Ceres by a festival during which people
assumed white habits.
On day 15, Saint Basilissa and Saint Anastasia, names which literally
signify: queen and resurrection. On this day, a festival called fordicidia
was celebrated at Rome, in honour of Ceres. This queen, who
resuscitates, is she not nature in spring, the blonde Ceres who
reappears at this time of year?
On day 17, Saint Anicet, the invincible. There are three victories in
December, and likewise here, three victories at the spring equinox.
The first brings back the Sun ready to be reborn as the conqueror of
336
the inferior signs, and the second Apollo, or the rising [French,
croissant] Sun.
On day 20, Saint Agnes, from a Greek word which means chaste. On
the same day, the Palilia in honour of Pales was celebrated at Rome, as
well as the celebration of the anniversary of that city. Ovid enters into
great detail concerning this festival. For the purifications of this day,
they burned, on the altars of the goddess, the blood of a horse, the
ashes of a calf and the culm of beans. The smoke of these things
thrown into the fire was expiatory. It is thus that in the Roman church,
the ashes of boxwood, from the palms of Palm Sunday, purify the
faithful on the day of penitence (Ash Wednesday).
On day 22, Saint Soter (saviour) and Saint Caius (agreeable, pleasant,
good looking). Let us take note that the Romans celebrated, on this day,
the Vinalia in honour of You and Venus, that is to say, Jupiter, the
saviour god, and the goddess of love.
In a festival in which were offered the first fruits of the vine, we
must recognise the importance of Bacchus; we also find, on the same
day, a Christian festival which recalls or commemorates this; it is that
of Invention or the discovery of the bodies of the Saints, Denys (Bacchus),
Rustic and Eleutherius (4).
On day 23, Saint George, from two Greek words which signify:
worker of the earth, cultivator. This martyr can only be the emblem of
agricultural work. On the same day we find again Saint Felix, Saint
Fortunat and Saint Achilles. The combining into one of these four
names expresses well the happiness [French, félicité] of the farmer who
sees nature smile upon his works.
On day 25, Saint Mark, one of the four Evangelists, whose emblem is
the Lion, that is to say, Regulus or the royal star of summer. The
Roman calendar marks this day, the middle of spring and the setting
of the Ram.
I have already remarked that the name John, in its analogy with the
name Janus, signifies commencing and that this name appears again at
the equinoxes and solstices; and at the two, we find John the Evangelist
and John the Baptist.
The three other Evangelists are Matthew, Mark and Luke.
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The name of the first is interpreted by the Latin word datus, given.
Certain church Fathers have thought that this personage was the same
as the other the Evangelists signified under the name of Levi, the
publican; for Levi signifies junctus, that which must be joined with the
other. All three indicate solar allegories among the symbols with
which they are associated.
The ancient root of the name Luke is Lux (light), the star and the day
of the celestial Bull. For Saint Luke is accompanied by the Ox or
celestial Bull, the cult of which preceded that of the equinoctial Ram or
Mystical Lamb.
Lastly, Mark (Marcus, an essentially Latin name, and not at all
Hebraic) signifies he who is born in March. In fact, this name pertains
perfectly to the Sun as he appears to be reborn, beginning again his
career at this time of the year.
The Roman church has consecrated this day of Saint Mark to
penitence and has ordered the faithful to be present at the procession
called minor Litanies, as opposed to those of the Rogations, which are
designated under the name of the greater Litanies.
In this procession, we implore divine mercy for the evils that we
fear; convertere, Domine, eripe nos salvos fac nos, propter misercordiam
tuam [Latin, Turn us away, O Lord, and seize us for salvation by your
mercy].
I do not know why it is delivered at this exterior penitence, at a time
of the year consecrated to joy, since Saint Mark falls at Easter. We may
assume that the prejudices of Rome, concerning the storms of the
equinox, were provided by the setting of the Ram which took place in
the middle of spring.
As for the customs of the processions of the litanies, they are truly
ancient, and took place in Egypt, Greece and Rome.
The litanies of today are invocations of the saints, of the persons of
the Trinity, and to the trinity itself; to the Virgin and to the angels,
whose Chaldean names are mixed with Hebrew fables; with all the
orders of the blessed; with Saint John the Baptist and all the patriarchs
and prophets. The Apostles and the Evangelists are addressed first of
all by name, and then collectively; along with the disciples, the
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The Sun, under the second sign, continues to rise toward the
tropic of Cancer, which is the highest point of his exaltation.
This progressive movement of the Sun is celebrated among the
Christians by a festival called Ascension, because, according to
the ritual, Christ mounted up in the heaven 40 days after his
resurrection; then comes the festival of Pentecost: the Holy Spirit
sent by Christ to the Apostles, ten days after his ascension, is an
allegory which speaks of the power of the Sun over the earth.
By the same measure that he raises himself into the higher
atmosphere, does he universally spread life by his celestial fire.
The ancients, at that time of The Christians have
year, had rural or agricultural imitated this custom at the
festivals. Their priests led same time of year. The
processions around the fields modern priests equally make
during the spring to ask Ceres processions; they sing,
for an abundant harvest; they without dancing, and these are
sang and danced the praises of what are called Rogations1.
innocents, the martyrs, the pontiffs and the confessors; as well as the
Levites, the priests, the monks, the solitaries, the virgin saints, the
widows, etc.
It must be remarked that these litanies differ a bit from diocese to
diocese because each one of them has its particular saints which are
unknown to the others.
Day 30 of the month called Mounichion, the 2nd of the Athenian year,
corresponds to April. The Greeks celebrated a festival named Adonia,
in honour of Adonis and Venus, and the modern Greek calendar has
placed, in its martyrology, Saint Aphrodisius and Saint Amator, whose
names have the same meaning.
1 From the Latin rogare, to pray. The processions of the Rogations
were, it is said, established at Poitiers by Saint Mamert in the V th
century.
339
The Romans, to obtain rain and good weather from their gods, went
forth barefoot in their processions called Nudipedalia. The first
Christians mocked them. Tertullian, over all, mocked the nudipedalia,
and many other pagan practices that the Christians have since
imitated. (See Tertulliani Apologeticus, cap. 40 ad finem). Nevertheless,
in the following centuries, the Christians ceased to mock them; they
imitated the pagans and went forth, for the same motives, barefoot in
processions.
Already in the VIIth century, we see the Emperor Heraclius go forth
in a procession with his feet and head bare. In the eighth, Charlemagne
did likewise before going to subdue the Huns. These examples were
generally imitated. This is the sort of abuse, that if not suppressed
when it originates, will always increase. This devotion has been
pushed much further: nudity did not limit itself to feet and head;
people took off their clothes, and made procession in a shirt [French,
en chemise]. We will cite a few examples:
When in 1224 Louis VIII took himself to La Rochelle to expel the
English, Queen Isemburge and other princesses celebrated at Paris, for
the success of their arms, a beautiful procession in which the
inhabitants and foreigners, appeared barefoot in their shirts; likewise a
few were completely nude. (See, on this subject, the verses of Guillaume
Guyari, in his book titled La Branche aux Royaux lignages).
In 1241 the inhabitants of Liége, because of a great drought,
instituted a procession in which it was resolved that the clergy and the
people march for three days with feet bare and in a shirt. (Amplissima
Collectio, tom. 4, p.1101).
When Saint Louis was in Palestine, he ordered a procession in which
the Christians had to be seen barefoot and in diapers, as it was said at
the time; that is to say, having but a shirt for clothing. (Vie de Saint
Louis, by the confessor of Queen Margaret, p. 326).
We read in the book of miracles of Saint Dominic, that one particular
person made a vow to visit the relicts of this saint barefoot and without a
shirt, nudis pedibus et sine camisia. (Supplément au Glossaire de Ducange,
by Dom Carpentier, on the word camisia).
340
the goddess of agriculture.

In antiquity and among the Jews, the religious ceremonies
were often accompanied with dances. The Christians have
imitated this custom. Saint John, in his doxologies (from the
In 1315 abundant rain accompanied by frost in the month of July

made the people fear for the harvest. In order to divert this calamity,
they made use of processions. There was one in Paris at Saint Denys,
celebrated by a great multitude of persons of both sexes. This was
followed by many particular processions, in which all those present,
except the women, were entirely nude. Quinimo, exceptis mulieribus,
totis nudis corporibus processionaliter confluentem. (Continuatio Chronic. of
Nangis in 1315; Spicilegium of Achery. t. 3, p. 70).
The excess of devotion led to an excess of indecency. Let us cite
again;
‘On the said Tuesday, the 14th of the said month of February 1589
and on the day of the beginning of the season of Lent, on which one is
accustomed to see but masquerades and follies put on by the churches
of the said city of Paris, a great number of processions went forth with
great devotion, likewise in the Parish of Saint Nicolas-des-Champs,
where there were more than a thousand persons, as many sons as
daughters, men and women, totally nude, and likewise all the monks
of Saint Martin-des-Champs were completely barefoot; and the priests
of the said church of Saint Nicolas were also bare foot, and some of
them completely nude, as was the curé, François Pigenat, who is
better known than any other and who was completely nude.’ (Journal
des choses advenues à Paris depuis le 23 décembre 1588, jusqu’a dernier jour
d’avril 1589, printed among the proofs of the journal of Henri III, tom.
2. p. 459).
The naïveté of this account proves that, according to the opinion of
the period in which it was written, nudity was still not considered
indecent and that it was associated with religious rites; nevertheless,
we see the Romans, who were mocked by the early Christians, well
surpassed by the successors of these same Christians.
341
Greek ΔΟΧΟ - glory, and ΛΟΓΟΣ, discourse), the hymns he

had sung to Jesus, after his last dinner with the Apostles, has a
last verse which reads thus: Grace leads the dance, I wish to play
the flute, let all dance. This dance of Jesus and his disciples brings
to mind the Therapeuts who, after dinner, danced in their
assemblies.
The dance was often accompanied by the agapes or the meals
of charity of the first Christians, who ended [French,
terminaient] them with the kiss of peace. However, the pagans
took occasion to make the most hateful reproaches; the pastors,
to banish all shadow of licence, forbade the kiss of peace
between persons of the different sexes (Thomassin, Discip. De
l'Église, part. 3, chap. 47). There were other diverse abuses,
which Saint Paul had already lamented (Corinthians, I, chap. II)
and which the Council of Gangres in the year 324 vainly
undertook to reform. At last the third Council of Carthage,
whose forty-first canon ordained celebrating the holy mysteries
with fast [French, à jeun], abolished the agapes in the year 397.
According to Scaliger, the bishops were only named praesules
[Latin, leaders of the dance] in the Latin church, from a praesiliendo
[Latin, by way of leading the dance], because they began the dance.
In Portugal, in Spain and in Roussillon, they still performed,
in the last century, the solemn dances in honour of the
mysteries of Christianity. On all the evenings of the festivals of
the Virgin, the young girls assembled before the door of the
churches which were dedicated to her, and passed the night in
dancing in rounds and singing hymns and songs in her honour.
This custom still exists in Belgium.
Cardinal Ximenes re-established, in his time, in the cathedral
at Toledo, the ancient custom of the Mozarbic (of Moorish
origin) masses, during which the choir danced in the nave with
as much order as devotion. Likewise, in France, we see in the
XVIIth century, that the priest and people of Limoges danced in
342
rounds and in collegial singing: Sant Marcian pergas per nous, et

nous epingaren per bous; that is to say, Saint Martial, pray for us,
and we will dance for you.
The Jesuit Menestrier, in the preface of his Treaty on the
ballets, published in 1682, said that he had still seen the canons
of a few churches, who, on Easter day, took the children of the
choir by hand and danced in the choir while singing hymns of
rejoicing.
However, the extravagant dances of the Festival of Fools and
abuses which followed led to the abolition of the dance in the
religious ceremonies and the mass, which, to be imposing, have
need of gravity.
Endnotes to the Footnotes
1. Easter is not the only solemn festival that the moon has
regulated in the Catholic liturgy; the Ember Days [French,
Quatre-Temps] have replaced the four great Neomeniae (new
moons, which were solemnly celebrated because they
accompanied the renewal of the four seasons).
This time of fasting, little observed by the Papists, despite
their obligations, took place, each season, for the duration of
three days: Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, in honour of the
Trinity.
2. From the Celtic derw, oak, in Greek drus, from which comes
the name of the city of Dreux.
3. In 506 Deterius, while baptising, used this formula: in
nomine patris, per filium, in Spiritu Sancto [Latin, in the name of
the father, through the son, in the Holy Spirit].
4. From the Latin fons, fontis, spring, derived from fundere, to
pour.
5. See the note on the Greeks under the sign of the Balance in
this exposition of the Ancient Festivals.
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3rd SIGN. THE TWINS1.

(MAY2 – JUNE).
Toward the end of spring, At the same time of year,

the Greeks paraded the the Christians, with the same
images of Bacchus, their Sun- ceremonies, made
god, in the streets with much processions called the
pomp and ceremony. He Festivals of God, in honour of
had changed the water into Christ, whose image they
wine, and had triumphed in carried enclosed by the Sun.
India, mounted on an ass. He also changed water into
wine at the marriage of Cana,
1 The Twins were not originally represented by two parallel lines

united at their extremities by two other horizontal lines. In earliest
times, they were given the form of two goat kids, and later of two
children, equal in size holding hands and interlacing arms; these were
made into the two divinities Castor and Pollux (1).
2 Day 6 of the Athenian month Thargelion (11th month) was
consecrated to the blonde Ceres: blonde, in Greek flava, is the origin of
Saint Flavia, celebrated on the seventh of May, and by
superabundance, to Saint Flavius.
Day 19 is consecrated to Diana Bandidia, and day 25 to Minerva
Agraule. From the legendary pudicity of Diana have come, for the
Catholics, Saint Pudent and Saint Pudentronne (Roman Martyrology);
and from the Palladium of Minerva, Saint Palladia (ibid)., celebrated on
day 24 of May. This month, called major, was the last, when the
Roman calendar began at the summer solstice. It was consecrated to
the old, majores.
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and entered triumphantly

into Jerusalem mounted on
an ass (an allegory of the
genius of good, conqueror of
the genius of evil).
Endnote to the Footnotes
1. The twins are a depiction of the first instants, the first moments of
life, of the first progress of vegetation, and they symbolise infancy and
nature. The Indian planisphere shows a young man holding two equal
globes, half black, half white, the image of the equinoxes.
Primitively, these were two goat kids; for the authors of the zodiac
attached a great importance to the generation of the edible [French,
comestibles] animals, for after the Fishes, come the Ram, the Bull and
the Goat Kids that the spring multiplies.
By a bizarre contradiction that comes from the ignorance of the
priests in the reckoning of the times in which they lived (see the
Historical Study of the Calendar), this month, (May) which ought to be
consecrated to youth, has received the name of the old (majores).
345
4th SIGN. THE CRAB1.

(JUNE2 – JULY1). The Summer Solstice.
1 From Latin cancer, cancris, crayfish, because when the Sun arrives in
in this sign, he ceases to advance, he seems to move retrograde and
return upon his steps toward the equator.
2 On day 12 of Skirophorion (the 12th month) the festival of
Skirophorion took place; it took its name from the name of the dais
upon which, most importantly, were carried wax statues of Minerva
and the Sun during the procession at Athens. Leafy huts (monstrance
altars [French, reposoirs]) were therein erected, and the young men
held vine stocks in their hands.
Such was the Tabernacle of the Jews; such is the festival of Corpus
Christi [French, Fête-Dieu] of the Christians.
It was in 1264 that Urban IV introduced the adoration of the host
upon the professed revelation of a nun of Liége; he established the
festival of Corpus Christi with octaves; Thomas Aquinus composed the
service. (Hist. des Ceremonies et Superst., p. 107).
Around 1360, people began to parade the host upon a dais; the city
of Paris was the first, and following their example, all of Christianity
very soon did the same. (Ibid., p. 108).
On day 28, the festival of Hercules (Heraclidia), was celebrated on
day 30 among the Romans; from this comes Saint Heraclide, in the
Catholic cult (Martyro. Rom)..
June comes from Junior, young. The ancient Roman year began in
this month, consecrated to youthfulness.
On day 9 of June, the day on which the sun enters into the sign, one
is reminded of the ancient symbols of initiation which, under the
name of Herm-Athenian, reunified the two sexes, the two characters
of the Myste and the Epopt, that is to say the active Mercury and the
346
The Sun, beneath its forth sign, arrives at its greatest

exaltation.
The ancients celebrated this The Christians also

time of year by two festivals celebrated this time of year
of fire and of joy. by fires of joy, called the fires
of Saint John2.
The Christian festival in honour of Saint Peter, the chief of the

twelve Apostles who form the cortege of Christ, is an imitation
of that of the ancients in honour of Janus, chief of the twelve
months of the year. Both are represented as having a bald
forehead, with a bark and the keys.
contemplative Minerva.
1 At the time of the foundation of Rome, this month was called
Quintilis (the fifth). When Julius Caesar corrected the calendar, this
month took his name Julius.
2 Why are these fires lit at the hottest time of the year? It is a very old
mythological custom, which has been imitated from the example of

ancient peoples; it recalls the world half burnt by Phaeton at that time
of year.
347
5th SIGN. THE LION1.

(JULY2 – AUGUST3).
1 The lion received, not in the zodiac, but in other civil and religious
monuments, a human head. Thus composed, this image has been
called the Sphinx. The Nile overflowed during the period of this sign,
and we see that they used the images of the lion at the outflow of the
springs.
2 In July, because the sun made his force felt most energetically, the
people placed this month under the sign of the Lion who passed for
the bravest example and king of the animals.
The Greeks celebrated the festival of Queen Minerva (Domina) in this
month (on day 3 of Hekatombaion). The Christians celebrated the
festival of Saint Dominica, the virgin on day 7 of July, and the
visitation of the Virgin on day 2. (Martyrol. Rom).
On day 7 of Hekatombaion, the Greeks celebrated the festival of the
birth of Apollo; from which we get Saint Apollinaire, whom the
Christian church celebrates on 23 of July. At Rome the games of
Apollinaire took place over eight days.
On day 14 of Hekatombaion, there was the celebration of the minor
Panathea (Pan-Athenesia). The Roman cult celebrates 15 July as Saint
Athanasius (Martyrol. Rom)..
To consecrate the beginning of the Greek year, there was a festival;
from this comes Saint Anne, (Anna, year [French, année], which is
celebrated on 28 July).
In 880, Pope Adrian was the first to realise the canonisation of the
saints, in imitation of the pagan apotheoses (Hist. des cérém. et des
superst., p. 92). Gregory I had dedicated the temples as the pagans had
their gods, and established festivals in their honour. (ibid, p.81).
3 Day 16 of Metageitnion (the 2nd month) was consecrated to the
348
The skin of the lion and the The Christians, in imitation

club served as attributes of of the ancients, placed a
Hercules, the epithet given to colossal statue, named Saint
the Sun in all its force. The Christopher (the bearer of
ancients often placed the Christ) at the entrance of
statue of Hercules in the their cathedrals or collegiate
doorway of their temples. churches; his festival was in
July, the time of year in
which the Sun is at his
greatest power1.
Saturnalia; from which we get Saint Saturnin, which the Catholic cult
celebrates on 22 of August. (Martyrol. Rom).
Sextilis (sixth) in the calendar of Romulus, received the name of
Augustus during the 2nd consulate of this prince. The month of August
has come from the name of Augustus.
1 Saint Christopher is the patron of the corn exchange [French, forts de
la halle] at Paris.
349
6th SIGN. THE VIRGIN1.

(AUGUST – SEPTEMBER2).
The Sun, in his course, This disappearance,

arrives at the sign of the completely natural and
Virgin, of that constellation temporary, has given place
which, by its rising in the to the festival called
Orient at midnight at the Assumption 3 , to express the
winter solstice, has been seen idea that that the Virgin,
as the mother of god and of mother of Christ, lost her
the day. In August, this sign mortal life in summer, at this
is found to be absorbed by the time of year, and was lifted
luminous rays of the son (the to heaven and associated
Sun). with the glory of her son and
The ancients celebrated the placed at his side4.
1 The sign of the ear of corn was converted into that of a young girl,
virgin and mother, carrying an infant, the symbol of fecundity, and
holding in her hand a corn sickle. People have made of her the virgin-
mother, the holy virgin, whom the Greeks called Ceres, the goddess of
harvests [French, moissons].
2 Day 3 of Boedromion (the 3 rd month) was consecrated to liberty; the
the Greeks celebrated the Eleutheria; from which comes Saint

Eleutherius, which the Christian cult celebrates on the 6 September
(Martyrolog. Rom).
3 From the Latin assumere, to absorb.
4 The cult of the Virgin was established late. In the Vth century, the
belief concerning her assumption by the ministry of the angels was not
350
festival of Diana, the goddess At the same time of the

of the hunt at the approach year the Christians
of Autumn. celebrated the festival of
Saint Hubert, the patron of
yet widespread, for we see that the Empress Pulcheria, to whom was
sent the milk, the distaff and the spindle of Mary, at this time, asked
Juvenal, the Bishop of Jerusalem, for her body which she wished to
honour at Constantinople.
Like the Christians, the Muslims celebrate the festival the Assumption
of a virgin-mother; and the tomb of Fatimah, the daughter of
Mohammed and the mother of Ali, is, among the Persians, a
pilgrimage as sacred as that at Lorette, the house of the Virgin.
Fatimah is honoured at Com with a celebrated cult. Her mosque is
magnificent, and her tomb is surrounded by rich presents. It is
mounted by several steps of heavy silver; the tomb is raised 12 feet
and covered with a sheet of white velvet. This saint, Fatimah, is the
Notre-Dame of that country. In prayers she is addressed as: ‘daughter
without stain, exempt from all impurity.’ One detests one’s sins before
her and says unto her: ‘Deign to accord your intercession, O Holy
Virgin, on the day on which the good are separated from the wicked…
I hope for eternal salvation, O Virgin most pure, most just and
immaculate, glorious Fatimah, the daughter of Mohammed the chosen,
the wife of the beloved Ali, mother of the twelve true vicars of God, who
are of illustrious birth.’ The people believe [French, croit] that God
raised Fatimah to heaven, and that her tomb encloses nothing but a
representation.
Thus the Roman church is not the only one that honours the
assumption of a virgin, the immaculate conception, and the virginity
of a mother. (See Bayle, under the word Fatimah, Chardin, etc).
At the moment when the Virgin disengages herself from the solar
rays on 8 September, the ancient calendars indicate exoritur virgo, or
the Nativity of the Virgin, celebrated by the Christians who, according
to Tertullian, were classed as adorers of the Sun.
351
hunters1.
1. The sound of the horn to warn that the beast had departed the
woods.
2. The hunting cry of the horn that announces that the deer is
at bay. Hallali was also an ancient war cry of the Greeks
1 In the notes to his poem The Months, Roucher reports the following
anecdote:
‘I know from an eye-witness, of a bishop and sovereign lord of
Germany, who lived not long before this time, and who, every year,
began the exercise of the hunt by the most august act of religion. On
the day of Saint Hubert, he gathered all his followers into the chapel
of his palace. The chandeliers were made of deer antlers and the
ornaments coloured green. The prelate, in his pontifical habit of the
same colour, began the mass, and at the same time, a large orchestra,
made up only of horns, sounded the fanfares; at the consecration, they
sounded the débucher (1), and the hallali (2) at the communion. When
the party was gathered together and sanctified, they departed right
away for the hunt.’
352
7th SIGN. THE BALANCE1.

(SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER2). Autumnal Equinox.
The Sun, at this time of year, is in the middle of his annual

course; he has traversed the first six signs and enters the
seventh at the equator. The length of day and night is equal in
the two hemispheres; but when that day has passed, the Sun
advances into the southern hemisphere, and consequently,
away from us who live in the northern hemisphere; also, from
our point of view, the days become shorter, the earth produces
nothing, and each day, she loses her finery.
All these events, which are as natural as they are necessary,
have given rise to different highly ingenious and piquant
allegories. The most ancient and most universal is the combat
between the sun and the prince of darkness, fixed at the
autumnal equinox in which the latter carries the victory.
It is at this same time of year that we recall the deaths of
Osiris, Mithras, Bacchus, Adonis and Attis and all the
1 The Balance, which marks the autumnal equinox, was represented

by a woman having the scales in her hand; and was, among the
Greeks, Themis, the goddess of justice.
2 The Greeks consecrated the 1st day of Maimakterion (the 4th month),
to Bacchus, whose diverse names have given birth to many saints in

the Roman martyrology which are placed at the beginning of this
month that corresponds to October: day 2, Saint Eleutherius; day 3,
Saint Dionysius; day 7 Saint Bacchus; day 9 nativity of Saint
Dionysius, Saint Rusticus, Saint Eleutherius, etc.
353
allegorical personalities of the sun, who is made to descend and

sojourn in the infernal regions [French, enfers], until his
resurrection, fixed at the spring equinox.
At the autumnal equinox It was the same among the

the ancients did not celebrate Christians. The death of
any festivals of Christ is said to have taken
commemoration upon the place at the same time of
subject of these combats, year. But there was no doubt
defeats, deaths and descents of his passion, his death and
into the infernal regions; on his descent into the infernal
the other hand, there was no regions that took place
doubt in celebrating the three during the three days that
days that preceded the preceded the festival of
spring equinox, since the sun Easter [French, Pâques] (the
entered into the sign of the passage of the sun into the
Ram or Lamb. They upper signs when they
celebrated the resurrection of celebrated his resurrection at
this star, that is to say his the spring equinox).
return into our northern
hemisphere.
354
8th SIGN. THE SCORPION1.

(OCTOBER2 – NOVEMBER3).
The ancients, who strongly The Christians have

felt the sad state in which equally followed this
nature was found under the custom, when the Sun is
eighth sign on account of the under this same sign; they
apparent remoteness of the have made of this the
Sun, recalled the loss of their Festival of All-Saints 4 ,
parents and friends. They followed by that of the Dead
consecrated a day, and called or All-Souls Day [French,
this mournful festival trépassés] (having passed
1 This sign has been given the surname of the nefarious arachnid, the
scorpion, whose tail contains a dangerous poison to symbolise the
maladies that take place at that time.
2 October corresponds among the Hebrews with the month named
Marcheshvan, which means the month of fruits; they also call it Boul
(flood).
3 On 22 November, Catholic musicians celebrate Saint Cecilia.
The Poseideon was on day 14, the festival of musicians among the
Greeks.
4 This festival was, at its origin, consecrated to the martyrs and was
named Martror; there was a saying: From Martror to Martror, from one
festival of Martror to the other.
Pope Gregory V established it on 1 November 835; and Odilon, the
abbot of Cluny, established the commemoration of the dead on 2
November 998. This brings to mind the Requitia, a festival in honour
of the heroes who died at Platea for the liberty of Greece.
355
Eleutheria or Parentalia. beyond [French, passés au

delà]). Pope John XIX
established it as a holiday in
the 3rd year of the XIth
century, and ordered it to be
held the day after All-Saints.
(Hist. des cér. Et des supers., p.
94).
This festival of all the saints,
these demi-gods of
Christianity, brings to mind
the Theoxenia or festivals of
all the gods among the
Greeks.
356
9th SIGN. THE ARCHER [French, SAGITTAIRE]1.

(NOVEMBER2 – DECEMBER3).
1 The Latin word sagittarius comes from the root word sagitta, arrow,
or sagitte in Old French. Anciently, this was depicted by an arrow to
symbolise the rapidity of the decrease of the days in autumn, and the
Archer was represented by a Centaur launching an arrow, that is to
say, by a figure half horse and half man. The human part was to
conform to the new custom of personifying the symbols; and the
equine part marked the rapid decrease of days. From this depiction,
the poets have composed the Centaur-Chiron, and many other centaurs
along with their fables.
The arrow, the weapon of the ancients, also symbolises the hunts,
which took on a great importance at that time.
2 On day 30, the festival of Minerva among the Greeks. On the 29
November, the Catholics celebrate Saint Illuminée, Saint Maure, and
Saint Justine, all three virgin, as was Minerva. (Mart. Rom).
Saint Saturninus, 29 November, see our note in under the Sign of the
Lion. (Also, see canonisation).
3 The tenth month of Romulus, and the last of our civil year, begins
the ecclesiastic year in France. It was on 25 December, at Christmas

[French, Noël], that the year was opened under the Carolingian kings.
The Popes have preserved the same dates in their civil acts.
On day 7 of Pyanepsion (5th month), the festival of Beans, or
Pyanepsia, in honour of those who returned from Crete with Theseus
after he had defeated the Minotaur. The Catholics have thrown
forward the festival of Beans or of the kings to 6 January.
The flatterers of the Emperor Commodus gave this month the name
Amazonian in honour of a mistress whom he had had painted as an
Amazon.
357
The ancients held no The Christians equally did

festival that referred [French, not have any festival relative
rapporter] to the Sun under to Christ under the same
the 9th sign. sign.
358
10th SIGN. THE GOAT1.

(DECEMBER2 – JANUARY3). Winter Solstice.
1 The Latin word capricornus, comes from capra, she-goat, and from
cornu, horn, the symbol of the Sun who, in this sign, begins to climb
back (to mount like a she-goat).
2 Day 3 and 11 of Poseideon (6th month) was the festival of the
Dionysia, consecrated to Bacchus. Day 6 and 12 of December, among
the Catholics, is Saint Dionysia. (Martyr. Rom).
The Japanese call December the month of the arrival of the gods.
The Druids celebrated 25 December by lights [French, illuminations].
Attis, the Osiris of Phrygia, whose adventures symbolise the journey
of the sun, resuscitates 25 December.
3 The 1st day of Gamelion (7 th month), the month of Nuptials [French,
Noces], was consecrated to Juno, Janus and Aesculapius. January

comes from the Latin word Ianus (Ianua, gate which opens the year). It
is also the time of year of Catholic marriages.
The third day of each month was consecrated to Athenian Minerva,
from whose name comes Saint Athanasia (Marty. Rom).
Day 3 of January is the festival of Isis, the patroness of Paris, under
the name of Saint Genevieve, who engenders life.
Day 4 was consecrated to Mercury (Hermes), from whom the
Catholics have made Saint Hermes.
Day 9 of the month, was the festival of the Sun, the conqueror, in
Greek, nikaein, ΝΙΚΑΕΙΝ, to conquer. The Christians have taken from
this Saint Nicanor, whom they celebrate on 10 January.
Day 15 is dedicated to Minerva. At each festival consecrated to
Minerva there is a corresponding holy virgin among the Catholics; in
January, it is the turn of the virgin Anagma, Saint Agnes.
Januarius was dedicated to Janus, the god of time, represented with
359
two faces, one looking to the orient, the other to the occident, to
designate the year that was and the one that begins (the past and the
time to come). This month was, and remains, the first of the civil year.
The statue of Janus had 12 altars at its feet, upon which sacrifices
were performed alternately each month, and, by the side, there was
another altar which had four faces, upon which sacrifices were
celebrated each season.
He carried in his right hand the number 300 and in his left 65,
indicating the number of days in the year. He held a sceptre in one
hand, to indicate that he commands and opens the year, and in the
other, he held a key, which caused him to be named Janitor; he was
allegorically considered as the door attendant of heaven, of which he
alone had the key.
The money of the Roman people represented, on one side, Janus
with two heads, and on the other a sea-going vessel.
Here is how Janus served as the model to be transformed into Saint
Peter:
The name of the Apostle Cephas (Peter) also means door or opening. It
is thus that he became the celestial door attendant of the Christian
paradise; he is represented holding in his hand the mysterious keys.
He was also called fisher, in order to preserve the power of the
emblem of the celestial vessel imprinted on the coins of Janus. The first
Christians represented this vessel dismasted to symbolise the Church
butting against winds and storms.
Peter is the chief of the twelve Apostles who, in the Christian
calendar, are each placed in the months of their festivals, in the same
way that the 12 subordinate divinities to Janus were celebrated by the
Romans as presiding over the 12 months of the year.
To complete the demonstration of the likeness of the layer of Cephas
over Janus, we see that the altar had four faces placed at the feet of the
statue of Janus, indicating that he presided over the four seasons;
Saint Peter presides over the four evangelists who are found in the
Christian calendar, and who are placed and celebrated, one in each
season.
360
The sun has ceased to diminish when he enters this sign, that
is to say, to advance into the southern hemisphere, and he
likewise begins to return upon his path; this is what we call the
Winter Solstice. This moment was seen as that of the birth of the
Sun for those who live in the northern hemisphere.
Consequently, the ancients At the winter solstice the

celebrated the winter solstice Christians hold a festival
according to their allegoric called Christmas [French,
genius: Noël] to celebrate the birth of
Among the Persians, the Christ, the Saviour of the
birth of Mithras; world. It is at this festival
Among the Egyptians, that that they sing puer nobis
of Osiris; nascitur dominus dominorum
In Greece, that of Bacchus; [Latin, a male child, lord of the
In Phoenicia, that of Adonis; lords, is born unto us]. They
Among the Phrygians, that use the same expression as
of Attis; the ancients who called the
At Memphis, the people Sun dominus, and the day of
were shown the infantine the week consecrated to him,
[French, enfantine] Day-god dies domini [Latin, day of the
[French, dieu-Jour], which lord] or dies solis [Latin, day of
had been brought forth at the sun]; it is from this that
that time from the depths of the French word dimanche
the sanctuary. [French, Sunday] comes. It is
The Romans announced a contraction of dies magna,
this festival in their calendar dies dominica [Latin, great day,
by the words natalis solis day of the lord].
invicti [Latin, the birth of the At the same time of year,
unconquered sun]. the Christians celebrate the
The ancients celebrated the festival of Saint Nicholas, the
fifteen days before the winter patron of mariners, whose
solstice with a festival in name signifies victor.
361
honour of Neptune, god of

the sea.
They also celebrated the
Lararia in honour of the gods
they called Lares.
The LARES or Penates (from penitus, interior), had, in ancient

times, been the gods of the hearths; the Lares of cities (Lares
urbani) had been the gods that preserved the territory; the Lares
of highways had preserved the crossroads and fields (Lares
viales, competales et rurales). These Lares were, in their origin
[French, dans le principe], nothing but venerated stones marking
borders [French, pierres limitantes]; later they were adored at the
frontiers of nations, as were those stones named Mercury. The
fable likewise says that these stones were the sons of Lara and of
that god, who, according to some mythologies, was one of the
first among the Lares. For the root of Mercury comes from merc,
mark, march, which signifies border or limit, from which comes
the word marquis, the guardian of the frontiers; margin, that
which exceeds or that which encircles; the word market is used
because the forum1 (from which come the French words foire
1 From quadratum forum, comes the French word carrefour [English,

crossroads], which means a square place where many highways or
streets come together. From forum terrae (from outside the territory),
we derive frontier, and from forum burgi [Latin, market of the castle] or
foris burgum [Latin, castle of the market] we have produced from the
French word faubourg [English, suburb] (which we ought to pronounce
forbourg), the markets that were held long ago outside the strongholds.
When justice was rendered equally on the frontier, the word local
(forum) produced diverse derivative words in the French language:
forus [Latin, an alternate form of the word forum], fors (laws, municipal
customs); fors, faus (seat or extended jurisdiction, used figuratively for
tribunal of the conscience); furcae, fourches patibulaires [English, sinister
362
[French, fair] and forain [French, fairground as an adjective and

fairground stall keeper as a noun]) was held upon the frontiers;
mercerie [French, haberdasher’s shop], merchandise, weight marc,
etc; to walk [marcher] (to make a voyage, aller par les marchés, as
was said in Old French), because formerly the highways
[French, chemins] served as the borders of territories, and at that
time the word highway [French, chemin] was a synonym of
frontier; the feudalists often held the ancient highways among
the high rank of immutable borders [French, confins immuables].
The root lar presents us with the same meaning: in many
ancient dialects, it signifies that which exceeds, margin, border,
frontier, waterfront. It was contracted with ara, altar, which
anciently signified rock [French, pierre, rocher, both mean rock],
and from this was produced the word Lare, a border that sets a
limit, or Thoth, Mercury, Hermes, Terme; again we have Benoth of
Venoth, Syrian words, from which are formed benos, venos or
Venus. Suidas calls Venus, Benos; and in the inscription upon a
medal of Julia Augusta, the wife of Septimius Severus, the name
of Venus is written Venos. The words succoth benoth, used in the
Hebrew text, have been, in Ptolemy and in Valerius Maximus,
when these authors speak of the place in which the
Carthaginians consecrated to the cult of Venus, translated as:
sicca veneria [Latin, Sicca was a town in Numidia known for its
temple of Venus].
Benoth, Venoth or Venus primitively, was nothing but a white
square stone [French, pierre blanche carrée]. The cult of this stone
of Venus had been transported by the Phoenicians into the isles
looking forks] (poles erected at the borders of a jurisdiction, where the

bodies of the condemned were hung up); and lastly, the French words
forclore [foreclose], forclusion [debarment], forjurer [foreswear], forfait
[forfeit], forbani (excluded from the territory) from which we have
created forban [pirate], and perhaps fourbe [swindler].
363
of Greece, and this transport could not have come about except
by sea. We have the Greek fable in which this divinity is born
from the sea or the foam [French, écume] of its waters. The
religious prostitution of young girls and, likewise, young boys
unto her was given esteem by the title Queen of beauty, mother of
loves, of graces, and goddess of voluptuousness.
A square or oblong stone, to whatever divinity it is erected,
has no sex. In addition the writers of antiquity who spoke of
these Asiatic Venuses were for a long time uncertain over the
question of whether it could be known whether they were gods
or goddesses.
The Syrian Venus was consequently known as having two
sexes; and when her mysteries were celebrated, men put on
women’s clothing, and the women the clothing of men. In
Assyria, the priests of this goddess usually fulfilled the
functions of their ministry in the habits of women: this custom
is very ancient; for Moses, when he wished to protect the
Israelites against the cults of the country, forbade transvestitism
(Deuteronomy, ch. 22, v.5). This indecision concerning the sex
of primitive divinities has without doubt ended up producing a
neutral costume, which the pagan priesthood has transmitted to
the priests who succeeded them. However that may be, when
the Greeks declared Venus to be of the feminine sex, the
Romans adopted their decision.
After fetishism comes sabaism, or the cult of the stars, the
peoples’ recognition of the services rendered by Thoth, Hermes,
Termes, or limiting borders, adored under the names of Mercury
and Venus, gave these two names to the first two planets; and to
indicate their origin and their original function as guardians of
the frontiers, we have mounted their astronomical symbols with
a cross or Egyptian tau; and since that time, crosses have
equally served, upon the highways, to set borders to territories.
364
When the Greeks, those great lovers of religious novelties, in

imitation of Egyptian practices, placed upon their long or
square border stones, named Hermes 1 , human heads
representing other divinities, and joined their names to this
word Hermes, the generic name of the sacred stone upon which
the heads were placed; for all that, it did not cease to be a
particular god.
In this way, when they mounted upon a Hermes, an epithet of
Mercury, a head of Venus, whom they called Aphrodite (born of
the foam), the shape, thus composed, received the name of
Hermaphrodite; if the head was that of Hercules, whom they
called Heracles, the entire idol was called Hermeracles; if it was
upon a head of Minerva who, among the Greeks took the name
of Athene, the divinity Hermathenes was formed. Lastly, by the
result of this same mixture, they composed Hermeros,
Hermapollo, Hermanubis, Hermosiris, Hermharpocrates,
Hermammon etc., to signify the gods Love (Eros), Apollo, Anubis,
Osiris, Harpocrates, and Jupiter, Ammon.
This combination of two reunited divinities was introduced
into the religion of the Germans who had their Hermode or
Hermodin (god Odin), their Hermensul, etc.
In order to conform to this custom and help us understand,
we have often used the words idolater or idolatry, the cult of
images (from the Greek, ΕΙΔΟΣ, shape, or, ΕΙΔΩΛΟΝ,
representation of a figure, and, ΛΑΤΕΥΕΙΝ, to serve, to revere,
and much later, to adore).
Have there been and are there still adorers of images or idols?
We do not think so.
No people have assumed the name of idolaters, and we do not
find this word, or its equivalent in any ancient author, nor in
1 The name Hermes was given to lands (terres hermes in Old French)
which were uncultivated and served as borders.
365
the religion of the gentiles, from the word gentes, nations).

Lucretius, who reproaches all as superstitious, never
reproached anyone with this ridiculous form of worship. The
statues of the divinities, in their ancient temples, were seen with
the same eye with which the Catholics see the statues and
images of their saints, objects of their veneration and not for
adoration. It was not the simulacrum that constituted the
divinity. The Greeks had the statue of Hercules, we have that of
Saint Christopher; they had Aesculapius and his goat, and we,
Saint Roch and his dog; they had Mars and his lance, and we,
Saint James of Compostela and his pilgrim’s staff; but they
never believed that their statues were divinities; they knew very
well that it was not the statue of Apollo that gave the light, nor
that of Jupiter that launched the thunderbolt.
In truth, the Greeks and the Romans got down on their knees
before their statues, giving them crowns, incense, and flowers
and they paraded them in triumph; but when the Catholics
imitate these customs that they have sanctified, they do not call
themselves idolaters.
More miracles happened in the temple of Aesculapius at
Epidaurus than elsewhere in any of the temples of this god, for
the same devotional reason that Notre-Dame de Lorette is
preferred over Notre-Dame des Neiges or any other.
The ancients were polytheists and that was that; polytheism
was enough for them. In fact, they had the form of worship that
we possess today; if the moderns are not therefore idolaters,
with what right do we say that the ancients were?
In every age, the statues and images have never been
anything but statues and images.
You read in Martial:
366
Qui fingit sacros auro uel marmore uultus,

Non facit ille Deos; qui rogat, ille facit.
(Lib. 8, v.24).
‘The craftsman did not make the gods,

It is the one who prays.’
In Ovid:
Colitur pro Ioue forma Iouis. (De Ponto 11, ep. 8 v.62).
‘In the image of God, God solely is adored.’
In Statius:
Nulla autem effigies, nulli commissa metallo

Forma Dei: mentes habitare et pectora gaudet.
(Thebaid, lib. 12).
‘The gods are never all shut up in an ark:

They inhabit our hearts.’
In Lucan:
Estque Dei sedes, nisi terra et Pontus et aer?

(Phars. Lib. 9)
‘For God the Universe is abode and empire.’
These passages and others we could cite prove that the

simulacra were not gods and that the cult of images never existed
and does not exist.
367
The name idolatry is an insult used by the Christians when

they had neither temple, nor statues, nor images. However, since
that time that the Catholics have imitated and surpassed the
ancients in this type of thing. Are they not unjust (and don’t
they resemble our makers of dictionaries in their ignorance of
plagiarism1) to lavish this outrageous term on people who had
not been more idolatrous than they themselves in our day?
1 [Translator’s note. The last part of this section on the Goat is taken
from Voltaire’s Philosophic Dictionary. Ragon assumes throughout The
Mass and its Mysteries that the reader is familiar enough with this work
to recognise his frequent borrowings. Plagiarised diatribes against
plagiarism are a common form of ironic humour for the erudite].
368
11th SIGN. THE WATER CARRIER1.

(JANUARY – FEBRUARY2).
At Sais in Egypt, 40 days The Christians celebrate a

after the winter solstice, the like festival called The
Presentation of Candlemas 3
1 The Water Carrier, the symbol of the winter rains, was Indian in
origin, and was depicted by a vase turned upside down from which
water poured out. The Egyptians mounted a human head on this
amphora; they called it the god Canopus and, under this image, they
rendered worship in the sign of the Water Carrier.
2 From the Latin, Februarius. Numa moved this month back to the
end of the year, which it thus ended [French, terminait]; he did this on
account of the expiatory rites that the Romans made at this time of
year; this month was consecrated to the gods called manes; Caesar
rendered this month the rank that it occupies today.
By its etymology, we recognise this as the month of purifications, it is
easy to find the motives for this in the yearly renewal; these
purifications were transported from Greece to Rome. February has 28
days, to bring to mind that the body of Osiris was cut into 28 pieces.
In this month we find the purification of the Virgin, which is the
purification of nature, the mother of all things; the ancients also
placed here all their purifications. The Hydrophoria, the festivals at
Athens, in memory of those who perished in the deluge of Deucalion,
after this deluge, You [sic], the saviour, raised an altar, just as Noah
had consecrated to God after his exit from the ark (1).
There are two sorts of purifications: those by water, or lustration, and
those by fire, the traces of which we find in the procession of candles
on the day called Candlemas [French, Chandeleur] (2). On this occasion,
369
we will also remark that on the 1st of February a saint is celebrated,

whose name, in Greek, is Theophor, the God-carrier, or Ignatius, the
fire-carrier, who ought not to be confounded with Ignatius of Loyola.
Varro says, ‘Two principles concur to form all beings, the fire,
which, as the male, animates the seed, and water, which resembles the
female, and which develops and nourishes. It is this that the ancients
meant to frame, when they pretended that Venus had risen from the
waters. From this comes the mysterious hymen of Venus and Vulcan.’
(Polyth, anal).
‘All the peoples have adored fire: they raised temples on the
mountains of Persia and in the depths of the forests which extend
from there to the unknown ocean. It is not only on the pyres of
Hindustan and on the tripods of Delphi and Athens, in the sanctuaries
of Isis and in the Pagodas of India that the eternal light shines; it is
spread even unto the dens and the boulders of the peoples of the
north.
‘In the Orient, the magi kept vigil over the sacred fire, in the
Occident the fire was confided to the virgins.
‘It is to make eternal the image of this cult that the columns are
dressed, and for which obelisks and pyramids are raised
‘It is to trace back the movement of the eternal circulation of the
origin of life that the Greeks set up (in the manner of people who had
come before), the torch run.’
Ash Wednesday is essentially for purification. The ceremony which
brings to the mind of man his final destiny is as moral as it is
touching. The violet colour of the church ornaments, at this time of
year, is expiatory. Lent (3) begins in February, the time of hardship
and abstinence. The followers of Orpheus, the followers of Mithras,
and the Pythagoreans likewise observed a rigorous Lent.
At Orleans, the 2 February Saint Flosculus (little flower) is honoured;
it is said that he lived in 480. Perhaps his name has some rapport with
the return of the flowers; and this brings us back to the Anthesteriae,
the festivals of flowers.
Day 3 is the day of Saint Blaise, and in some areas of the countryside,
barley, oats, peas, vetches and likewise feed are blessed at the mass,
370
and right away given to the domesticated animals and beasts to eat. It
is claimed that, by this, they are protected from illness. Also, perhaps
originally, the intention was to purify the animals and prepare them
to multiply, for they begin to feel the desire to do so at that time. This
custom appears very ancient, and there exists, in the ritual, a formula
of prayers specially employed for this benediction.
In various countries, children suffering undernourishment and
rickets are also presented at the mass of Saint Blaise. Their diapers are
blessed because the people were persuaded that the cause of their
illness was occult, and that, by this type of devotional act [French,
dévouement], they were seized from the empire of the demon,
considered as the evil genius and author of all the evils that Saint
Blaise, solely, had the power to heal.
These superstitious beliefs, are they not survivals of the ideas of the
ancients who consecrated the month of February to lustrations and
expiations?
Day 9 is the festival of Saint Nicephor, whose name means victory-
bearer, is celebrated. Saint Soter (ΣΩΤΗΡ, Soter, saviour, or Bacchus)
has also found his place on this day.
On day 10 Saint Apollonia is honoured, or beardless Apollo. One may
remark that the Pythian games in honour of Apollo were celebrated at
this time of year.
On the same day, the Romans celebrated their Lupercalia, the annual
festivals in honour of Pan, to whom the wolf was sacrificed; and we
have again not long ago, our Feast of Fools, which links to this religious
extravagance.
In 495 Pope Gelasius suppressed the Lupercalia festivals.
3 From the Latin candela, votive candle, on account of the quantity of
candles that are carried in the procession on that day.

In Greece, at this time of year, the genii of fire and light were
celebrated by a torch run, in which torches were circulated hand to
hand without extinguishing the torches or interrupting this allegorical
run. Upon this beautiful image, Lucretius says: ‘the ages succeed each
other, the generations renew themselves and transmit themselves,
while running the torch of life.’
371
festival of lights was [French, Chandeleur] under

celebrated in honour of the the same sign in honour of
mother of the god of Day the mother of Christ, 40 days
under the eleventh sign. after Christmas [French,
A fountain of Bacchus on Noël] .
the island of Andros The miracle of Cana,
acquired, every year, 5 happened, it is said, 6
January, the taste of wine. January; it is on this day that
(Pliny, Liber 1, Chap.103). that the church makes
commemoration.
1. We have noted that the Bible indicates the entry of Noah

into the ark, just as Isis made her entry into her own ark
(Plutarch, Isis and Osiris). Have the Rabbis (a Hebrew word
that signifies master, doctor of law) borrowed part of their
deluge from the Egyptian mysteries?
What is most astonishing is that neither Greece, nor Thrace,
nor any other people knew of the deluge of Noah. Saint
Augustine said: Maximum illud diluvium, Graeca nec Latina
Day 10 of Anthesterion, the month of flowers (8th month), is the

festival of Bacchus. On Day 8 of February, the Catholic cult celebrates
Saint Dionysius. Bacchus (the sun in spring), who is given the title of
Saviour, in Greek Soter, ΣΩΤΗΡ; from which comes Saint Sotera.
Day 14 is the day that the Pythian games were consecrated to the
young Apollo, in Greek Ephoibos, ΕΦΗΒΟΣ, from which the Catholics
have taken Saint Ephobus and Saint Apollonius.
On day 19 the altars of Jupiter were cleansed in Elis, the altars of
Jupiter with the waters of the Alpheus, from which comes the custom
of washing the altars on Maundy Thursday [French, jeudi-saint] (the
day of Jupiter) and to kiss them thereafter.
372
novit historia; neither Greek history, nor Latin knows of this

great deluge (City of God, no 8). The name of Noah is not
found in any Greek, Etruscan, Arab, Egyptian, Chaldean,
Indian, Persian or Chinese book.
Voltaire, the free thinker of Ferney writes, ‘How an event as
terrible as the submerging of the whole earth could be
unknown by its survivors? How can the name of our father
Noah, who repopulated the world, be unknown to all those
who owe him life? The most astonishing of all prodigious
happenings is that so many of his grandchildren have not
spoken of their grandfather. However, the fact that the history
of this universal inundation is found on one page of a book
written in the desert by fugitives, and that this page was
unknown to the entire rest of the world, until around the year
900 of the foundation of Rome, is what petrifies me.’
2. The establishment of the Chandeleur has been attributed to
Virgil, at that time of the year when the pagans celebrated the
festival of Proserpine with burning candles. (Coel. Rhod.,
XIV).
3. In former times, this word was written quaresme, as it was
the contraction of the Roman word quadregesima [fortieth].
373
12th SIGN. - THE FISHES.

(FEBRUARY – MARCH1).
Nine months before the The Christians also held a

winter solstice, the ancients commemorative festival nine
held a commemorative months before Christmas
festival for the beginning of [French, Noël], called the
the pregnancy of the virgin Annunciation, for the
Isis, the mother of the Day- beginning of the pregnancy
god. of the Virgin Mary, mother of
Christ.
We can see that the Christians have adopted, in honour of

Christ, all the festivals that the ancients celebrated in support of
the allegorical personages of the Sun. If we wish to push this
parallel further, we must recognise that they have taken or
imitated the festivals that the pagans held in honour of their
gods or demi-gods, because, when the religious legislators
wished the new religion to dominate over the ancient forms of
worship, they believed it appropriate to preserve and likewise
to sanctify a large number of customs, because they wanted to
1 Days 10 and 12 of Elaphebolion (the ninth month) were dedicated

to Bacchus, and among the Catholics, Saint Dionysius.
On day 30 is the Kelidonia, or festival of the swallow.
Demetria, or Dionysia Urbana; from this comes Saint Demetrius, on
day 9 of April, among the Catholics (Martyr. Rom).
374
reunify the pagans and the faithful more easily; after that, the
numerous festivals of the primitive cult of the Christians are
known to have diversified, and in these festivals the new
symbols reveal the ancient beliefs.
375
Historical Report [French, Note, also means exposé]
upon the
Principle Councils
The followers of the sect of Zoroaster customarily used
Councils1. Councils therefore preceded Christianity2.
The Councils have been divided into particular and general.
The particular are of three sorts: the prince, the patriarch or the
primate convokes the national; the metropolitan or archbishop
assembles the provincial; the bishop celebrates the diocesan or
synods3.
1 Hyde, Relig, des Persans, ch. XXI.

2 Assembly, council of state, parliament, states general, were in
former times the same thing among us French. We did not write in the
Celtic language, nor in German, nor Spanish in our first few centuries.
The little that we wrote was put down in the Latin language by a few
clerics; they expressed all the assemblies of the Leudes (Frankish
nobles under Clovis), etc., or of a few prelates by the word concilium.
From which we find that, in the 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries, the many
councils were, to be precise, only councils of state. [Translator’s note.
The French word, Conciles, indicates a religious counsel. Conseil is the
usual spelling for civil councils in French. English spells both councils].
3 The following decree was taken from one of the councils held at
Mâcon:
‘Every lay person who encounters a priest or a deacon on the
376
Since the authors do not agree on the number of general

councils1, we will limit ourselves here to reporting the outcome
of the first eight that were assembled on the order of the
emperors and several other important ones.
‘Two Alexandrian priests wanted to know whether Jesus were
God or creature, and it was not only bishops and priests who
disputed this, but the people were entirely divided; the disorder
came to such a point that the pagans, in their theatres, turned in
raillery against Christianity. The Emperor Constantine began by
writing to the Bishop Alexander and the priest Arius, the authors
of the division, in these terms:
“These questions, which are not necessary, and do not come

except from a useless idleness, are made to exercise the spirit;
but they ought not to be borne to the ears of the people. Since so
light a subject divides you2, it is not in justice that you govern,
according to your opinions, so great a multitude of the people
of God. This conduct is base and puerile; unworthy of priests
and men of good sense. I do not say this to contradict you on so
frivolous a question, whatever it might be. You can preserve
highway shall present to him his neck for support; if the lay person
and the priest are both on horseback, the lay person will stop and
reverently greet the priest; lastly, if the priest is on foot and the lay
person on horseback, the lay person will descend and not remount
until the priest is at a certain distance. All this under pain of
interdiction as long as it pleases the metropolitan.
1 The list of councils is more than sixteen pages long in-folio in the
Dictionnaire de Moreri.
2 Constantine did not mean by the words so light a subject that which
pertained to the divinity, but the incomprehensibly forced manner in

which the nature of God was explained.
377
unity within a particular dispute, provided that these diverse

opinions and subtleties remain secret in back of your thoughts1.”
1 Ozius sent this letter.

‘Constantine was not Christian, although he is at the head of the
Christians; baptism solely constitutes one as Christian, and he has not
been baptised; he has also had the temple of Concord rebuilt at Rome.
The emperor still does not know what party he should take, nor upon
which party persecution should fall; he is without doubt very
indifferent as to whether Alexander of Alexandria, or Eusebius of
Nicomedia and the priest Arius are right or wrong; it is evident
enough from his letter that he has a deep disdain for this dispute.’
The Arab Patriarch, who wrote the History of the Church of
Alexandria, put these words into the mouth of Ozius when he
presented his letter concerning the emperor.
‘My brothers, Christianity has scarcely begun to enjoy peace, and
you are beginning to plunge it into eternal discord. The emperor is
very correct when he says that you quarrel on so light a subject.
Certainly, if the object of dispute were the essential, that is Jesus-
Christ, whom we recognise as our legislator, that would be the right
way to be; God would not have sent his son upon the earth that we
not learn our catechism. All that he did not expressly say is the work
of men, and the error is on their part. Jesus has commanded you to
love one another, and you begin by hating one another and stirring up
discord in the empire. Pride alone has given birth to these disputes,
and Jesus, your master, has ordered you to be humble. No one among
you can know whether Jesus is made or begotten. Moreover, in what
does his nature concern you, as long as your own are to be just and
reasonable? What has the vain science of words to do with the morale
which should guide your actions? You overload the doctrine with
mysteries, you, who were only made to strengthen religion by virtue,
do you want the Christian religion to be nothing but a mass of
sophisms? Is it for this that Christ came? Cease to dispute; adore,
edify, humble yourselves, feed the poor, and pacify the quarrels of
families, in place of scandalising the entire empire by your discords.’
Ozius spoke to stubborn people. The Council of Nicea was
378
The emperor, when he learnt what little effect his letter had
had, resolved by a council of bishops 1 , to convoke an
assembled and there was a spiritual civil war in the Roman Empire.
This war brought on others, and, century after century, mutual
persecution has continued unto our time.
1 ‘Saint Peter does not give the name bishop, or equivalent epithet to
any but Jesus-Christ whom he calls the warden [French, surveillant] of
souls. This name, warden or bishop, was later given indifferently
among the ancients, which we call priest; but no ceremony, no dignity,
no mark of distinction or pre-eminence was attached to this
designation.
The bishops, in the Vth century, had not yet received the
authorisation that they say had been transmitted by Saint Peter and
Christ without interruption.
The estate [French, domaine] speaks of Saint Peter.
The court of Rome wants to make people believe in the Donation of
the estate of Saint Peter (who had never been at Rome) feigning that it
had been made to Pope Sylvester by the Emperor Constantine.
There were in the XIVth century, bishops who were not at the same
time priests.
Hébert, the Count of Vermandois, shrewdly dared, with the
dispensation of the Pope, to make his son Hugues, a child of five years
old, Archbishop of Reims (Fleury, Moers des Chrét., IIIe part. ∫ VI).
Before the time of Cardinal Richelieu, bishops received no other title
than my most revered father in God (1); before the year 1635, not only
did the bishops not greet each other as my lord [French,
monseignerisaient], but they did not greet the cardinals as my lord. These
two customs were introduced by a bishop from Chartres, who, while
passing Cardinal Richelieu in camail, a kind of chain mail armour
drooped from the helmet and in ratchet, called him my lord. It is only
from that time that the bishops gave each other this reciprocal title
and had their inferiors give it to them.
379
ecumenical1 council, that is to say, of the entire habitable world,

and he chose, for the place of the assembly, the city of Nicea in
Bithynia. He there received 2,048 bishops, who all, in the report
of Eutychius2, had different feelings and opinions3. This prince,
who had had the patience to listen to them dispute on this
matter, was very surprised to find so little unanimity4 among
them.
This prodigal number of bishops does not appear
unbelievable if one gives attention to that which Usser reports,
and which is cited by Selden5: Saint Patrick, who lived in the
fifth century, founded 365 churches and ordained a like number
of bishops, and this proves that each church had its bishop, that
is to say, it’s own warden [French, surveillant]. It is true that, by
canon XIII of the Council of Ancyra, we see that the bishops of
the cities did all that was possible to remove the ordinations
from the bishops of the villages and reduce them to the
condition of simple priests.
We read, from the Council of Nicea, a letter of Eusebius of
Nicomedia, which manifestly contains the heresy, and
discovers the cabal of the party of Arius. Among other things,
he said that if one recognises Jesus, the son of God, as uncreated,
he must also be recognised as consubstantial with the father.
And lo, here is the reason why Athanasius, the deacon of
Alexandria, persuaded the fathers to put a stop to the use of the
word consubstantial which had been rejected as improper by
1 From Greek, oikomene, ΟΙΚΟΜΕΝΗ, habitable land, from which

we get the Latin word oecumenicus, universal.
2 Annales d’Alexandrie, p. 440.
3 Selden, des Origin. d’Alexandrie, p.76.
4 The author of the Arab preface of this council says that the acts and
disputes formed 40 volumes.
5 Des Origin. d’Alexandrie, p.86.
380
the Council of Antioch, which was held against Paul of

Samosata; he had understood it in a coarse manner, for he had
reasoned, or marked his division of the question, by arguing
that the father and the son were like so many pieces of money
made of the same metal; in place of this, the Orthodox
explained the term consubstantial so well that the emperor
himself understood that it did not in itself contain the idea of a
body, that it did not signify any division of the substance of the
absolutely immaterial and spiritual father, and that it ought to be
understood in a divine and ineffable manner 1 . They showed
again the injustice of the Arians in rejecting the word under that
pretext that it was not in the Scriptures; for it was the Arians
who used many words that were not in the Scriptures when
they said that the son of God had been derived from
nothingness and had not always existed.
Then Constantine wrote two letters at the same time to
publish the ordinances of the council and let them be known to
those who had not attended. The first, addressed to churches in
general, said, in many words: that the question of faith had
been examined, and very well clarified, and that no difficulty
remained. In the second, he said, among other things, and to the
church at Alexandria in particular: ‘that which the 300 bishops
have ordained is nothing other than the maxim that the unique
son of God, the Holy-Spirit has declared the will of God by the
great men that he has inspired; and of this no person is to doubt,
1 The ancients attached other ideas than we do to the words

incorporeal, immaterial and simple. Most understood only an idea of
matter that was infinitely penetrant [French, déliée] by the words
indivisible substance. The great Newton, who was a very small man in
the world of religious metaphysic, much later, in all seriousness, took
the part of Arius against Athanasius. He went a little further than
Arius, as do all the Socinians.
381
no person is to differ; but all are to come together heartily on

the road of truth.’
The ecclesiastical writers do not agree about the number of
bishops who subscribed to this council. Eusebius counts only
2501; Eustachius of Antioch, as cited by Theodoret, counts 270,
Saint Athanasius, in his epistle to the Solitaires, 300, as does
Constantine; but in his letter to the Africans, he speaks of 318.
These four authors are, nevertheless, eyewitnesses, and very
worthy of the faith2 [French, dignes de foi, can also be translated
‘trustworthy’].
1 The remainder of the 2,048 bishops apparently did not have the
time to remain until the end of the council, or, perhaps, it is necessary
to understand by this number the number that was convoked, and not
the number which could take themselves to Nicea
2 Thus, from the 1st great council, intrigue, cabal and persecution
were established with the dogma, without the power to detract from
the sanctity. The enemies of those who have ever since been named
Arians accused Eusebius of Nicomedia of formerly having been of the
party of Licinius against the emperor. Constantine gave chapels to
those who did not believe in consubstantiality and to those that did
believe in it, confiscated the goods of dissidents for his own profit and
used his own despotic power to exile Arius and his partisans who, at
that time, were not the stronger party; however, soon the
inconsubstantial bishops, the eunuchs and women spoke out for Arius
and obtained the revocation of the ordinance which had exiled him.
The celebrated Eusebius, the Bishop of Caesarea, known by his
works, which were not written with intellectual discernment, strongly
accused Eustatius, Bishop of Antioch, of being a Sabellian; and
Eustatius accused Eusebius of being an Arian. A council was
assembled at Antioch; Eusebius won his case; Eustatius was deposed;
the See of Antioch was offered to Eusebius who didn’t want it; the
two parties took up arms against each other; and this was the prelude
to the wars of controversy. Constantine, who had exiled Arius for not
believing the son to be consubstantial, exiled Eustatius for believing
382
This number, 318, which the Pope Saint Leo called

mysterious1, was adopted by the greater part of the fathers of
the church. Saint Ambrose assures2 us that the number of 318
bishops was a proof of the presence of the Lord Jesus in the
Council of Nicea, because the cross designated 300 3 and the
name of Jesus 18. Saint Hilarius, when he defended the word
consubstantial, which was approved by the Council of Nicea,
even though it had been condemned fifty years before at the
Council of Antioch, reasons thus4: ‘Eighty bishops had rejected
the word consubstantial (as well as the divinity of Jesus, and
based their rejection on the words: my father is greater than I);
however 318 accepted the word (and had declared Jesus God5,
and based their acceptation on the words: my father and I, we are
the same thing). For, this last number is, for me, a holy number,
because it is the number of men who accompanied Abraham at
the time he and they were victorious over the impious kings, he
was blessed by him who is the type of eternal sacerdotal office.’
Lastly, Selden 6 reports that Dorotheus, the metropolitan of
Monemvasia, said that there were exactly 318 fathers at this
council, because 318 years had elapsed since the incarnation. All
so: such revolutions are not uncommon.

‘You bring a religion that you say is of all peace and charity, and
you cannot be peaceful among yourselves!’
(The reasoning of the Chinese government upon Christianity, when
they saw the missionaries divided upon theological disputes).
1 Letter 132
2 Book 1, ch. IX, concerning the Faith.
3 [Translator’s note. The Greek letter Tau was used as the
mathematical symbol for the number 300 before the introduction of
Roman Numerals; the enumeration of ΙΗΣΟΥΣ is less certain].
4 Page 393 of the Synod.
5 It is much more pleasant to the interpreters of God than of man.
6 Page 80 of the Synod.
383
the chronologists place the council in the year 325 of the vulgar
era, but Dorotheus retracts seven years to give it a frame for his
comparison; it is but a trifle: besides, the years since the
incarnation of Jesus were left uncounted until the Council of
Lestines in the year 743. Dennis the Little, a monk of Scythia1,
envisaged this epoch in the solar cycle of the year 526, and
Bede2 employed it in his ecclesiastical history.
As for the rest, we will not be astonished that Constantine
adopted the view of these 300 or 318 bishops who held the
opinion in favour of the divinity of Jesus, if we pay attention to
the fact that Eusebius of Nicomedia, one of the principle chiefs
of the Arian party, had been complicit in the cruelty of Licinius
when he had massacred the bishops and persecuted the
Christians. It is the emperor himself whom he accuses in that
particular letter that he wrote to the church of Nicomedia. He
says: ‘He has sent spies against me during the troubles, and he
has only fallen short of taking up arms as a tyrant. I have the
proofs through the priests and deacons among his followers
that I have taken. During the Council of Nicea, with what
eagerness and what imprudence did he sustain, against the
witness of his conscience with guilty error on all sides; he
sustained it as much as when he implored my protection, as
from the fear of being found guilty of such a great crime, for he
would not have his dignity removed. He circumvented me and
surprised me dishonourably, and had all things done as he
wished. Again, after a short time, see what he did with
Theognis.’
1 Man of letters and the originator of the dating system of Europe

called the vulgar era.
2 British monk, named the venerable, a grammarian, philosopher and
historian.
384
Constantine wished to speak of the fraud of Eusebius of

Nicomedia and Theognis of Nicea in signing up to the Council
of Nicea to misuse it. They inserted an iota in the word
Homoousios and made the word Homoiousios, that is to say, like in
substance, in place of the meaning of the first word, which
means of the same substance. We see, by this, that the bishops fell
to the fear of being deposed and banished; for the emperor had
menaced those with exile who were not willing to subscribe.
Also, the other Eusebius, the Bishop of Caesarea, approved the
word consubstantial, after having combated it the day before.
Meanwhile Theonas of Marmarica and Secundus of Ptolemais
remained stubbornly attached to Arius; and when the council
condemned them with him, Constantine then exiled them, and
declared by an edict that whoever should be convicted of
having hidden rather than burn whatever writing of Arius,
should be punished by death. Three months later, Eusebius of
Nicomedia and Theognis were also sent into exile in the
countries of the Gauls. It is said that when they had won over
the person who guarded the acts of the council by order of the
emperor, that they erased the signatures that indicated their
subscriptions, and set about teaching publicly that one must not
believe that the son is consubstantial with the father.
Happily, to replace their signatures and preserve the
mysterious number of 318, someone dreamt up the idea of
placing the book in which these proceedings were divided into
sessions upon the tomb of Chrisante and Misonius, who had died
while the council was being held; Nicephor assures 1 us that
these two bishops resuscitated to sign the condemnation of
Arius and died again right after. Baronius supports the fact2;
but the abbot Fleury does not speak of it.
1 Book VIII, chap, XXIII.

2 Volume IV, no 82.
385
After many disputes among which there was no question of

the Trinity, the formula decided upon was this: ‘We believe
Jesus consubstantial with the father, God of God, light of light,
engendered and not begotten. We also believe in the Holy
Spirit1.‘ Much later the Holy Spirit was treated less cavalierly.
This same council put back the celebration of Easter to the
Sunday after the 14th day of the moon of March, in order that
they not celebrate their Passover on the same day as the Jews,
and thus has it been celebrated until our times.
It is said in the supplement called appendix that the Fathers of
the council wished to distinguish the canonical books from the
apocryphal, that they placed them pell-mell upon the altar and
that the apocryphal ones fell upon the ground without anyone
touching them2.
Two other Councils were assembled in the year 359 by the
Emperor Constantius, one of more than 400 bishops at Rimini,
and the other of more than 150 bishops at Seleucia and, there
were a good number of priests at both councils. These two
councils, corresponding together, undid what was done 34
years earlier at the Council of Nicea, and returned to the
opinion of Saint Paul; they stripped Jesus of his divinity and
proscribed consubstantiality, which had been condemned, as we
have said, by the Council of Antioch. In addition, these councils,
which are not recognised by the Socinians, have been seen,
since then, as false councils.
1 Seventeen bishops protested against this measure, an ancient

chronicle of Alexandria, preserved at Oxford, says that two thousand
priests also protested; but the prelates did not make as great a case as
the simple priests, who were usually poor.
2 Councils of Labbe, Volume 1, page 84.
386
In 360, the mystery of the Eucharist or of the sacrifice of the

mass, which is the representation of the life and death of Jesus-
Christ, was established.
The Nicene Fathers had been so occupied with the
consubstantiality of the son, that, without making any mention
of the Church in their symbol, they were content to say: ‘We also
believe in the Holy-Spirit.’ This oversight was corrected at the
second general council convoked at Constantinople in the year
381 by the Emperor Theodosius. Therein we count 150 bishops
who pronounced anathema the Council of Rimini and re-
established Jesus in all his rights of divinity. Saint Gregory of
Nazianzus presided 1 ; the Bishop of Rome sent his deputies.
They added this to the symbol of Nicea: ‘Jesus-Christ was
incarnated by the Holy-Spirit and of the Virgin Mary. He was
crucified for us under Pontius-Pilate. He was raised and
resuscitated on the third day, according to the scriptures. He is
1 See his letter to Procopius in which he says this: ‘I fear the councils,
for I have never seen one that has not done more evil than good, or
which came out well; the spirit of dispute, vanity and ambition there
dominates, more that can be said, exists in every assembly of bishops;
anyone who wishes there to reform the vicious, exposes himself to
accusation without being able to correct them.’
This saint knew that the Fathers of the councils were men. Here is
what he says in his poetry, translated from Greek into Latin:
Non ego cum gruibus simul anseribus sedebo,

In synodis…………………………………
(De diveris vitae generibus, etc., v. 91).
[Latin, It is not I that with cranes and likewise geese will sit,
In the synods………………………………
(Upon the Diverse Types of Life, etc., v. 91)].
387
seated at the right of the father. We believe in the Holy Spirit,

the invigorating Lord who proceeds from the father, who was
adored and glorified with the father and the son, and who was
spoken of by the prophets. We believe in one Church, holy,
Catholic and apostolic.’
In what followed, the Latin church wished that the Holy-
Spirit proceeded again from the son, and the filioque [Latin, and
the son] was added to the symbol; and this was asserted as a
priority in Spain in the year 447, then in France at the Council of
Lyon in the year 1274 and at last in Rome, despite the
complaints of the Greeks against this innovation1.
At this council, the Bishop of Constantinople was given the
second place in rank after the Bishop of Rome.
1 The Christian theogony, or symbol was conceived thus in its final

form: ‘The Christians believe in a sole God, the all powerful father
who has made the heaven and the earth, and all visible and invisible
things; in one sole lord, Jesus-Christ, the unique son of God, born of
the father before all ages: God of God, light of light, true God of true
God, who was not made but engendered, consubstantial to the father,
by whom he was made; who descended from the heavens to save
men; who was incarnated and took on a body inside the Virgin Mary,
descended from King David by the operation of the Holy-Spirit; who
was made man, who was crucified for our sins under Pontius-Pilate,
the governor of Judea for the Romans; who suffered, and who was
placed in a tomb; who was resurrected on the third day; who
mounted to heaven where he is seated at the right of the father; who
will come again full of glory to judge the living and the dead, and
whose reign will have no end; they believe in the Holy-Spirit who is
also the Lord and who gives life, proceeding from the father and the
son; they jointly adore and glorify the father and the son, as was
formerly spoken by the prophets; they believe in one church, holy,
Catholic and apostolic, confess one baptism for the remission of sins,
and await the resurrection of the dead, and life in the age to come.’
388
Once the divinity of Jesus was established, it was natural to

give his mother the title of Mother of God. However, the
Patriarch of Constantinople, Nestorius, maintained in his
sermons that this justified the folly of the pagans, who gave
mothers to their gods. The Emperor Theodosius II, in order to
decide upon this question, assembled the third general council
at Ephesus in the year 431.
Nestorius, after he had violently persecuted all those who
were not of his opinion upon points of theology, in turn wiped
away these persecutions in order to have support for the
opinion, at this council, that the holy Virgin, mother of Jesus-
Christ, was not Mother of God; for he said that since Jesus-
Christ was the Word, the son of God consubstantial to his father,
Mary could not at the same time be the Mother of God the
father and God the son. Saint Cyril haughtily rose up against
him. Nestorius demanded an ecumenical council, and obtained
one. Nestorius was condemned, but a committee of the council
deposed Cyril1. The emperor dismissed all that had been done
in this council, and later, he permitted that it reconvene. The
deputies from Rome arrived very late. The troubles augmented,
and the emperor had Nestorius and Cyril arrested. At last he
ordered that all the bishops should return each to his church,
and there was therein no conclusion. Such was the famous
Council of Ephesus.
Another heresy of Nestorius, equally condemned at Ephesus,
was the recognition of two persons in Jesus. This did not stop the
Patriarch Flavian from recognising, in the follow up, two natures.
A monk named Eutyches, who had before this declaimed much
1 We remark here that the Evangel has never said a word upon the
consubstantiality of the Word, nor about the honour that Mary had in
being the Mother of God, nor of the other disputes for which the
infallible councils assembled.
389
against Nestorius, contradicted him by saying that Jesus had

but one nature. At last, in 449, a great council, titled afterward,
the Brigandage or Robber Council, was again assembled at
Ephesus under the presidency of Dioscurus, the Bishop of
Alexandria. The bishops were in number 130; there were
therein two deputies of the Church of Rome, and many abbots
and monks. Upon the question of knowing whether Jesus had
two natures, the bishops and monks of Egypt wrote: ‘that it was
necessary to tear in two all those who divided Jesus-Christ in
two.’ The two natures were anathematised. They fought hand
to hand in the middle of the council, just as they had fought
hand two hand in the minor Council of Cirthe in 355, and in the
minor Council of Carthage.
In 451, two years afterward, there was a great Council of
Chalcedon, convoked by Pulcheria, who had espoused Marcian
on condition that he would be nothing more than her first
subject. Saint Leo, the Bishop of Rome, who had a great deal of
support [French, credit], took advantage of the troubles that the
quarrel of the two natures had excited in the empire, and
presided over the Council by means of his legates; it is the first
example that we have of this. However, the Fathers of the
Council, worrying lest the Occidental church would make claim,
by this example, to superiority over the Oriental church,
decided in the 28th canon, that the see of Constantinople and the
see of Rome would have equally the same rights and privileges.
This was the origin of the lasting enmity between the two
Churches.
This Council established the two natures and one sole person in
Jesus, and anathematised the monk Eutyches who recognised
but one nature.
390
Nicephor reports1 that at that same council, the bishops, after

a lengthy dispute on the subject of images, placed each one
their opinion in writing in the tomb of Saint Euphemia, and
passed the night in prayers. The next day the letters of the
Orthodox were found in the hand of the saint, and the others at
her feet.
Jesus had one person and two natures, it only remained to
know how many wills he had. The fifth general council, was
assembled at Constantinople in the year 553 by order of the
emperor Justinian, who involved himself with theology; the
council wished, according to the vow of this prince, to quieten
the disputes touching the doctrines of three bishops, found in
three different writings called the three chapters which are lost
and unknown today; he did not have the leisure to start into
this important subject, which was not treated of until the sixth
general council.
In this council, arguments were made over several passages of
the works of Origen, the doctrine of whom and that of the three
chapters was condemned. Vigilius, the Bishop of Rome, wished
to go there in person; but Justin had him sent to prison. The
Patriarch of Constantinople presided. There was nobody from
the Latin Church, because at that time the Greek language was
no longer understood in the Occident which had become
completely barbaric.
It was only in 680 that the sixth general council was convoked,
again, at Constantinople, by the Emperor Constantine IV, called
Pogonatos or the bearded, which taught us that Jesus had
precisely two wills. It was the first council called by the Latins in
trullo [Latin slang, in a saucepan] because it was held in a
stateroom of the imperial palace. The emperor who presided
over this council had at his right hand the Patriarchs of
1 Book XV, chap. V.
391
Constantinople and Antioch, and at his left, the deputies of

Rome and Jerusalem. When this council had decided that Jesus
Christ had two wills, it condemned the monothelites who
admitted that Christ had but one; and it did not accept the
anathema of Pope Honorius 1st, who, in a letter reported by
Baronius 1 , had said to the Patriarch of Constantinople: ‘We
confess one sole will in Jesus-Christ. We do not see that the
councils or Scripture authorise us to think otherwise; but as to
the question of whether, because of the works divine and
human which are in him, therein is meant one or two
operations, I leave to the grammarians, for it is of no great
importance.’ In this way god permitted the Greek Church and
the Latin Church to have nothing to reproach each other with in
this respect: for, as the Patriarch Nestorius had been
condemned for having recognised two persons in Jesus, Pope
Honorius was condemned in turn for having confessed one will
in Jesus.
In the same year, a Synod of Constantinople ordained that in
place of representing Jesus-Christ under the form of a Lamb, he
would be henceforth represented in the form of a man attached to
a cross.
The seventh General Council or Second Council of Nicea was
assembled in the year 787 by Irene, under the name of the
Emperor Constantine, her son, whose eyes she had had plucked
out. The council concerned the re-establishment of the
adoration of images. It must be understood that the two
Councils of Constantinople, the first in the year 730, under the
emperor Leo, and the other 24 years later under Constantine
Kopronymos had advised the proscription of images, in
conformity with the Mosaic Law2 and as against the custom and
1 In the year 636.

2 You will not make graven images to adore or to serve. Collin de Plancy
392
the simplicity of the first centuries of Christianity because they

had favoured idolatry. Also, the decree of Nicea, in which it is
said, ‘that whoever does not render to the images of saints, the
service, and the adoration as unto the Trinity shall be judged
anathema’, is proof foremost of these contradictions. The
soldiers chased the bishops who wished to have this doctrine
received, in the year 789, at a Council at Constantinople, away
from the city. The same decree was again rejected with scorn in
the year 794 by the Council at Frankfurt and by the Caroline
Books which Charlemagne had published. However, at last, the
Second Council of Nicea, was confirmed at Constantinople
under the Emperor Michael and his mother Theodora in the
year 842 by a council which a large number of persons attended
and which anathematised the enemies of the saintly images. It
is worthy of remark that it was two women, the Empresses
Irene and Theodora, who protected the images and had them
re-established1.
says, ‘Nevertheless, the Council of Trent ordained the honouring,

venerating and kissing of images of Jesus-Christ, the Virgin and the
saints, as well as relics. Nevertheless, again, all the ancient Fathers of
the Church had condemned the cult of images as a pagan
abomination. However, have the Catholics nothing in common with
the primitive Christians? Assuredly, he who is a good Catholic is not a
true Christian.
‘During the first 200 years, the first Christians never suffered images
in their assemblies. We see that in 393, Saint Epiphanius seized an
image before which the people prayed from a church in Syria. He
declared that the Christian Church does not permit this cult, and his
severity did not cause schism.’ (Dictionn. Crit. des Relig. et des Images,
volume 1st, p. 424).
1 In the same epoch, Charlemagne introduced the Gregorian in place
of the Ambrosian chant into France; in order to give the religious
ceremonies more lustre, more pomp and more power of attraction.
393
Irene herself spoke in the council, which was the only one that
was held by a woman. Two deputies of Pope Adrian IV were
present and did not speak, because they did not understand
Greek; it was the Patriarch Tarasios who handled all matters1.
Seven year later, in the year 794, the Franks, when they
understood that a Council of Constantinople had ordained the
adoration of images, assembled on the order of Charles, son of
Pepin, named thereafter Charlemagne, a Council at Frankfurt
that was just as numerous, where Pope Adrian IV sent two
deputies. The Second Council of Nicea was designated an
impertinent and arrogant synod, held in Greece for the adoration of
pictures.
In the year 842, the Empress Theodora, the mother of Michael
III, convoked a great Council at Constantinople, but she did not
preside over it. The cult of images was there solemnly
established. The Greeks had, at this time, established the festival
of Orthodoxy.
In the year 861, the Emperor Michael convoked another great
Council at Constantinople, composed of 318 bishops. There
Saint Ignatius, the Patriarch of Constantinople was deposed,
and Photios, who was simply a layperson2, was elected.
This prince had the Roman liturgy adopted and introduced pipe
organs into the greater part of the churches of France.
At the same time, the Saxons returned to the cult of their idols,
massacred the priests and burnt their churches.
1 This council sought to justify this by saying that this adoration of
images was a cult of Dulia (Veneration) and not of Latria. However,

whether Latria or Dulia, here is Charlemagne in his role as emperor,
exercising the same authority that the emperors of the Orient did in
earliest times; he had the idolatry of the second Council of Nicea
handled by a council at Frankfurt.
2 In the year after this, the Slavs embraced Christianity and obtained
from the Pope the freedom of performing the divine service in the
394
Let us pass the Eighth Council General. Under the Emperor

Basil, when Photios was ordained in the place of Ignatius, the
Patriarch of Constantinople; he assumed the title of (Universal)
Ecumenical Patriarch, and had the Latin church condemned on
the question of filioque [Latin, and by the son], and other practices,
by a council held in 866, at Constantinople. Pope Nicolas 1st was
there deposed in absentia and excommunicated.
In the year 869, there was another Great Council at
Constantinople in which Photios, the Patriarch and author of
the schism of the Greeks1, was excommunicated, deposed in his
turn, and Saint Ignatius was re-established.
language of their country.

1 The quarrel between the Greek and Latin Churches in Asia and in Europe.
‘Good men sigh when they see that for fourteen centuries, the Greek
and Latin churches were always rivals, and that the role of Jesus-
Christ, who owned no clothing, was always threadbare. This division
is very natural. Rome and Constantinople hated each other; when the
masters detested each other, the almoners did not love one another.
The two communions disputed about the superiority of language, the
antiquity of the sees, science, eloquence and power.
‘It is true that the Greeks had the advantage for a long time; they
boasted of having been the masters of the Latins and having taught
them everything. The Evangels were written in Greek: from the word
baptism to the word Eucharist, all was in Greek. One knew of no
Fathers of the Church except among the Greeks until Saint Jerome,
who likewise was not Roman but Dalmatian. Saint Augustine, who
followed Saint Jerome, was African. The seven great ecumenical
councils were held in Greek cities; the Bishops of Rome did not
appear because they only knew Latin, which was, at any rate, already
very corrupted.
‘The enmity between Rome and Constantinople broke out in the
year 452 and the Council of Chalcedon, which had been assembled to
decide whether Jesus had two natures and one person, or two persons
and one nature. It was there decided that the Church of
395
Constantinople was equal to the Church of Rome in honours, and

whether the Patriarch of one was equal to the Patriarch of the other.
Pope Saint Leo subscribed to the two natures; but neither he nor his
successors subscribed to equality. It can be said that, in this dispute of
rank and pre-eminence, they went directly against the words of Jesus-
Christ, as reported in the Evangel: There will be among you, neither first
nor last. The saints are saints; but arrogance slips in everywhere.
‘The Romans were always less contentious and less subtle than the
Greeks; but they were much more driven by politics. The bishops of
the Orient, when they argued, remained subjects; the Bishops of
Rome, without arguments, sought to establish their power over the
ruins of the empire of the Occident.
‘Hatred became schism in the time of Photios, papa or warden
[French, surveillant] of the Byzantine Church, and Nicolas 1 st, papa or
warden of the Roman Church. As usual and unhappily, there is almost
never any ecclesiastical quarrel without its share of the ridiculous, it
so happened that the combat began between two patriarchs who were
eunuchs. This mutilation denied them true paternity; they could be
but Fathers of the Church.
‘The Latin Nicolas 1st was of the party of Ignatius, Photios declared
the Pope a heretic, until he would admit the procession of the breath
[French, souffle] of God, the Holy Spirit by the Father and by the Son,
against the unanimous decision of the whole Church which had the
Holy Spirit proceed only from the Father.
‘Beyond this belief in a heretical procession of the Holy Spirit,
Nicolas ate and had his followers eat eggs and cheese during lent. At
last, to put the crown on his infidelity, the Roman Pope had shaved
his beard, and this was apostasy manifest in the eyes of the Greek
papas as the Greek and Latin painters always painted Moses, the
patriarchs and Jesus-Christ with beard.
‘When in 879 the Patriarch Photios was re-established in his see by
the eighth Greek Ecumenical Council, composed of 400 bishops, of
which 300 had been condemned in the preceding ecumenical council,
Pope John VIII recognised him as his brother. The two legates that he
sent to the council joined the Greek Church in declaring as Judas
396
whoever said that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and the
Son. However, since they persisted in the custom of shaving the chin
and eating eggs during Lent, the two churches remained divided.
‘The schism was consummated in its entirety in 1503 and 1504, when
Michael Cerularius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, publicly
condemned Leo IX, the Bishop of Rome and all the Latins, and added
the reproach of Photios, that they dared to serve azyme (unleavened)
bread in the Eucharist, against the practice of the Apostles, etc.
‘Pope Leo IX negotiated this affair seriously with the Greek Emperor
Constantine Monomachos who, when he showed as much favour to
the Pope as he could, obtained for him a few concessions; but the
people refused to recognise the Pope of Rome, for nothing could
reconcile the Greeks with the Latins. The Greeks saw their adversaries
as barbarians who did not know a word of Greek.
‘The outbreak of the Crusades, under the pretext of delivering holy
places, and, at bottom, had for their purpose the seizing of
Constantinople, completed the process of making the Romans hated.
‘However, the power of the Latin Church increased daily, and the
Greeks were, at last, conquered, little by little by the Turks. For a long
time the Popes had been powerful and rich sovereigns; the entire
Greek Church has been enslaved since Mahomet II, and their slavery
has been equal to their ignorance; it was necessary even to accept the
church in Russia within the fold, which was at that time a barbarian
country, which the church could not accept seriously. The Greeks,
who occupied themselves with vain theological disputes, when
Constantinople was taken, only got what they deserved.
‘Since that time, this schism has been adopted by the Russians, who
still follow it, as do the Christians of Turkey.
‘The Mohammedans have shown themselves worthy of their
conquest by leaving the Greek Church free. The sultan, before Greece
regained its nationhood, conferred the cross and ring to the Greek
Patriarch, without the fear of excommunication that the German
Emperors feared in this same ceremony with the Popes.
‘Although the Greek Church had in appearance preserved the
freedom of electing its patriarch, it only elected that which the
397
The Latins, in their turn, condemned the Greek Church in a

council which they called the Eighth General Council, while the
Orientals had given this name to another council which, ten
years afterwards, in the year 879, annulled that which had been
done in the previous council of that name. In this council,
Photios was already re-established, and recognised as the true
patriarch by the deputies of Pope John VIII. The Great
Ecumenical Council in which Photios had been deposed was
styled conciliabulum [Latin, market place]. The Pope declared that
all those who said that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the
Father and from the Son were Judas. This success of Photios
had as motive the restoring to the Church of Rome, the Bulgars,
Ottoman Porte gave preference to. This position cost around 80,000
francs which it was necessary that the elected [French, élu] raised from
the Greeks. If it was found that when some accredited prelate offered
more money to the grand vizier, the titular patriarch was deposed and
his place was given to the one who had enriched the sovereign power
the most, exactly as did the Empresses Theodora and Marozia, her
daughter, when they sold the see of Rome in the tenth century. If the
patriarch resisted, he was given fifty strokes of the lash upon the soles
of his feet and exiled. Sometimes he had his head cut off, as happened
to Cyril Lucaris in 1638.
‘The great Turk also gave the other dioceses means of finance; and
the sum that each diocese was taxed under Mahomet II was always
expressed in the patent; but the supplement that one had to pay was
not there enunciated.
‘Here are the strange contents of one of these patents: “I accord to
N…, a Christian Priest, the present pastoral position for the perfection
of happiness. I ask that he reside in the city here named, as the ishop
of the Christian infidels, according to their ancient custom and their
vain and extravagant ceremonies, as I wish and ordain that all the
Christians of this district recognise him, and that no priest or monk
may marry without his permission.” (That is to say without paying).’
398
a sort of Manichean people, who had submitted to the Patriarch

of Constantinople in the year 870, the year in which Photios was
in exile and from which he was restored eight years afterward
by the Emperor Basil, and chased away yet again in 886 by the
Emperor Leo-the-Philosopher, who locked him away in a
monastery1.
In the year 952, the council or parliament held at Augsburg by
the order of Otto, King of Germany, forbade all the clerics, from
the bishop down to the sub deacon, from marrying or using
women, under pain of removal from office.
In the year 965, the Lateran Council confirmed the right of
Emperor Otto to appoint the Pope and gave him the right of
investiture of bishops.
In the year 1059, there was another Lateran2 Council held by
Pope Nicolas II. It was decided there that henceforth, the bread
and the wine of the mass would be recognised as the true body
of Christ. There, the doctrine of Béranger was condemned; this
doctrine renewed the opinions of Johannes Scotus Eriugena,
which claimed that the Eucharist was only a symbol of the body
and blood of Jesus-Christ, and that there was no change in the
1 These four councils were held at Constantinople, the others, called

general by the Latins, were composed solely of Occidental bishops;
the Popes, using the support of false minor decrees [French, decrétales],
invisibly arrogated to themselves the right of convoking these
councils.
The Roman Catholics only believe in the councils approved by the
Vatican (2), and the Greek Catholics only believe in those approved in
Constantinople.
2 The origin of this church is not well known: some say that the
Lateran was a house built by someone named Latranus in the time of

Nero; others that it is the church of Saint-John himself, built by the
Bishop Sylvester.
399
substance of the bread and the wine. He was forced to retract to

save his life.
In the year 1095, a council was held at Clermont. There the
custom of giving the body of Christ dipped in blood, as was
done in the Greek Church and the monastery of Cluny was
proscribed. The custom of the Church of Jerusalem was,
however, not to give communion except under a specific type of
bread, and after the conquest of Jerusalem, this custom was
established little by little in the churches of the Occident.
Pope Urban II there exhorted the faithful to go to the Orient to
help the Christians, oppressed by the Saracens who were in
possession of Palestine.
In the same year, a council was held at Piacenza, where, upon
the request of the ambassadors of the Emperor Alexius, Pope
Urban, in a sermon, called for the Christian princes to march
against the Muslims and to make the voyage to Palestine.
In the years 1122 and 23, there was a great Council of Rome
held in the Church of Saint John Lateran, by Pope Calixtus II.
This was the first General Council that the Popes convoked. The
emperors of the Occident had almost no authority, and the
Emperors of the Orient, pressed by the Mahommedans and by
the Crusaders, did not hold anything more than puny little
councils.
The bishops, in this council, complained in strong terms
against the monks. They said: ‘The monks possess churches,
lands, castles, tithes, and offerings for the living and the dead;
there remains nothing for them to demand of us but our crosses
and rings.’ The monks remained in possession of their holdings.
In the year 1139 there was another great Lateran Council held
by Pope Innocent II; there was therein, it is said, a thousand
bishops; that is a lot. It was there declared that the ecclesiastic
tithes were a divine right, and the laymen who owned these
400
things or said that the church was too rich were

excommunicated.
The Pope, for the first time, there enunciated the judgement
that one should receive ecclesiastical dignities from the Roman
Pontiff, as according to feudal law [French, comme par droit de fief],
and that one could not legitimately posses them without his
permission; that is to say, that, from that day, the bishops
became the sub-delegates of the Pope. Thus, with a little noise,
theocratic government was established. It extended into all the
States of Europe, and sought the absorption of the temporal
power of the sovereigns; this was contrary to the original
institution, the tradition that called the bishops and the Pope,
who was but the first among them, the vicars of Jesus-Christ upon
the earth.
The next year, the festival of the Immaculate Conception [French,
fête de la conception de la Vierge] was established. Saint Bernard,
the founder of more than 160 abbeys, considered this devotion a
novelty without foundation [French, nouveauté sans fondement].
In the year 1179 Pope Alexander III held another great Lateran
Council; there were 302 Latin bishops and one Greek abbot. It
was in this council that, for the first time, the cardinals 1
overtook the bishops, and acquired the right to elect the Popes.
The decrees all concerned discipline. The multiplicity of
benefits was there forbidden.
In the year 1195, a council forbid priests from imposing
penitence and to have masses said, it also ordered them to go
about with their heads shaved in tonsure and to have modest
habits without braids.
In the year 1215, Innocent III, 412 bishops and 800 abbots held
the last General Lateran Council. From this time, which was
1 Cardinal comes from the Latin word cardinalis, formed from cardo,
hinge upon which a thing rolls or turns.
401
that of the Crusades, the Popes established a Latin Patriarch at

Jerusalem and one at Constantinople. These patriarchs came to
the council. This Great Council said: ‘that since God had given
men the doctrine of salvation through Moses, and to this end,
had his son born of a Virgin to show the way more clearly, that
no person could be saved outside the Catholic Church.’
The word transubstantiation was not, it is said, known until
after this Council 1 . It was there forbidden to establish new
religious orders; but since that time, forty-eight have been
formed.
It was in this council that Raymond, Count of Toulouse, was
despoiled of all his lands by virtue of excommunication.
In 1245, there was a great council at Lyon, at that time an
imperial city. Innocent IV brought there the Emperor of
Constantinople, John Palaiologos, whom he had sit by his side.
He there deposed the Emperor Frederick II, as a felon, and
interdicted him from fire and water. He gave a red hat to the
cardinals as a bloody sign of war against Frederick and his
partisans, and to remind the princes of the church, that they
ought to be always ready to spill their blood for the defence of
the Catholic Religion.
This council was the cause of the destruction of the house of
Swabia, and of thirty years of anarchy in Italy and Germany.
In 1274, there was another General Council at Lyon; there
were 500 bishops, 70 major [French, gros, also means fat] abbots
and 1000 minor [French, petits] abbots. The Greek Emperor
Michael Palaiologos, in order to have the protection of the Pope,
sent Theophanes, Greek Patriarch and Bishop of Nicea, in order
to reunite with the Latin Church in his name; but the Greek
1 Nevertheless, P. Radbert, the abbot of Corbie, is said to have, in 831,

supported transubstantiation and the real presence of Jesus-Christ in
the Eucharist.
402
Church disavowed the bishops. The procession of the Holy

Spirit, the principle object of the schism with the Greeks, was
there debated.
In 1311, Pope Clement V called a general council at the city of
Vienne in Dauphiné. He there abolished the order of the
Templars, whose principle members were condemned to the
most horrible tortures by accusations with the least amount of
proofs1. It was ordered that the Begares, Beguins, Beguines and
the other sorts of heretics to whom were imputed all that had in
former times been imputed of the first Christians be burnt.
Marguerite Porete, chief of the Beguines, was burnt alive at
Paris.
1 ‘At the end of so many contradictory discussions, the Templar affair

still remains a historical problem, even if history teaches us that they
cast a shadow on account of their riches and their social position at the
end of the Crusades. This shadow was cast over the two powers that
fought together against them at that time in Europe: royalty and the
Papacy reproached them. One for their disobedience and their
ambition; the other for the adoration of other gods than Jesus-Christ;
What they were up against was the jealousy of the king who could not
see in the State another power but his own, and the jealousy of the
clergy, who saw nothing more in them than armed monks, capable of
invading their base of power, in the abuse of the usual prestiges over
the people, as well as the destruction of the hierarchy as the Turks had
destroyed the Caliphate. They therefore became the victims. Burning
people alive was, at that time, a punishment used daily by the
superstition of the Inquisition, and which King Philippe le Bel allowed
to be pronounced against the Templars to discharge a party with this
political proscription. Not enough has been done to compare the case
of the Templars with that of the Jesuits; for they have a like outward
appearance.’
(Fastes univers., par Buret de Longchamps).
403
In 1314, the cardinals assembled at Carpentras for the

nomination of a Pope, set fire to the conclave and dispersed
from each other. The Papal See was vacant for two years.
In 1354, the festival of the holy Trinity was introduced into the
Roman Church.
In 1362, Pope Urban V was the first to wear the triple tiara.
In 1409 there was a general council held at Pisa, in which
Benedict XIII and Gregory XII were deposed, and, in which,
Alexander V was elected: this council had many detractors.
In 1414 an emperor who acted within his rights convoked the
great Council of Constance: this was Sigismond. There Pope
John XXIII was convicted of many crimes and deposed;
however, John Huss and Jerome of Prague were condemned to
the flames, convicted only of stubbornness [French, opiniâtreté].
It was there decided that the general councils should receive
their authority directly from Jesus-Christ whom all persons, of
whatever rank, are obliged to obey in that which concerns the
faith. This decree was confirmed and held as an article of faith
by the Council of Basel, of which we will speak.
In 1431, there was a great Council at Basel, which was not
recognised by Rome. Pope Eugene IV was there deposed;
however, he was more cunning than the council, and did not
allow himself to be deposed. The Festival of Fools was also
suppressed, which, despite the council, continued for a long
time afterward.
In 1438 there was a great council at Ferrara, which was then
transferred to Florence, where the Pope, when he was
excommunicated, excommunicated the council and declared it
criminal, guilty of lèse majesté. A reunion with the Greek Church
was feigned, which was crushed by the synods of the Turks
who held the sabre in hand.
In 1510 Louis XII solicited a general council when the Pope
excommunicated him.
404
In 1511, a general council was held at Pisa by two cardinals

who opposed the Pope. The council continued afterward at
Milan; it was not recognised.
Pope Julius II cited the general Council of Pisa that was called
by Louis XII and by the King of the Romans when he convoked
a second council at the Lateran palace.
In 1512, there was nothing left for Pope Julius II but his
Lateran Council, held against the Council of Pisa, on behalf of a
holy war and the suppression of the pragmatic sanction of
France. This was not accepted as an ecumenical council. This
warrior Pope there solemnly excommunicated Louis XII, King
of France, who was given the epithet Father of the People,
because he had accepted the Council of Pisa; he put France
under interdict and called the whole parliament of Provence to
appear before him; he excommunicated all the philosophers,
because most had taken the part of Louis XII, who had had the
Pope excommunicated at the Council of Pisa, and whose
members had taken refuge at Lyon. The Emperor Maximilian
renounced this council. This prince wanted to make himself
Pope. Louis XII died in 1515.
In 1524, a council was held in Mexico for the propagation of
Catholicism in America. Two years later, the Senate abolished
the mass at Zurich, and three years later it was abolished at
Strasbourg and at Basel.
In 1537, Pope Paul III, first at Mantua, then at Vicenza,
convoked a general council and afterward in 1545 Trent (the
city after which it is named). It was transferred to Bologna in
1547 1 and finished [French, terminé] in December 1563 under
Pius IV. Its decrees concerning Church discipline were not
1 In this same year, Paul III established the congregation of the

tribunal of the Inquisition at Rome, under the name of the Holy Office.
The year after, the mass was abolished in England.
405
accepted in France or among almost any other Catholic nation1.

The council deliberated against Luther, Zwingli and Calvin.
On 15 February 1798, the people of Rome abolished the
sacerdotal government.
On 18 February, fourteen cardinals sang the Te Deum on their
own account in thanksgiving for this abolition in Saint Peter’s
Basilica.
On 20 February, the Pope quit Rome and retired to the
monastery at Pisa.
On 27 February, there was a synodic letter of the national
Council of France addressed to fathers, mothers and others
charged with the education of youth. It was followed by
decrees and a brief from Pope Pius VI to the Catholics of France
who were in communication with the Holy See; Maudru, the
Bishop of Vosges and member of the national council signed the
whole. The Directorate stopped the publication in France.
On 27 May 1801 Pope Pius VII held a consistory in which,
when he had seen the ordeal he was up against with the
Bonaparte, the first consul, he announced his plan of renouncing
temporal government: Cardinal Maury joined him in this; but
the other cardinals turned from the plan.
On 29 June, at the opening of the general Council of France
held by the constitutional bishops in the Metropolitan Church
of Paris to explain the propositions made to the Pope and to
confirm the election of the new bishops who had replaced those
who were unsworn [French, insermentés], Gregory, the Bishop of
1 This council served neither to restore the enemies of the Papacy nor
to subjugate them; they produced no other effect than to verify the
words of Saint Gregory of Nazianus to Procopius, Letter 55, reported
earlier in this study of the councils.
406
Blois, pronounced a discourse to explain the object of the

council.
On 12 July, the national Council of France recognised that the
submission to established powers was a duty founded on
natural and divine right, and the that the government should
require from the ministers of the cult, that guarantee of their
fidelity, without being authorised to do so by the Pope.
On 15 July there was a convention for the concordat signed at
Paris between the French government and Pope Pius VII for the
reestablishment of the Catholic Cult in France.
On 8 August, the concordat was published in France as State
Law.
On 15 August, the Pope ratified the concordat, and consented
to a new regulation for the government of the French Churches,
with the modifications demanded by the revolution.
On 16 August, the National Council of France,
through arrangements made between the Pope and the
Government, finished [French, termine] the session.
On 19 May 1811, a council of French and Italian bishops
assembled at Paris to debate the question of whether the
canonical institution could be given by the bishops when the
Pope opposed it, among the subjects for debate named by the
Emperor Napoleon, and to give advice about the means of
filling empty seats and naming those who came to attend, in
conformity with that which was done under Charlemagne and
under Saint Louis and in all the centuries that preceded the
concordat of François I and Leo X in 1515, which ceased to exist.
This council was composed of 104 fathers, of which 6 were
cardinals, 9 archbishops, 3 named archbishops, 77 bishops and
9 named bishops. Cardinal Fesch, the uncle of the Emperor
Napoleon presided over the council.
On 25 January 1813, there was a second concordat, called de
Fontainebleau, which the Emperor Napoleon proposed to Pope
407
Pius VII, who did not accept it out of consideration for the
actual state of the church, since he protested that the intention
was to disengage the church from all previous links.
On 13 February, the concordat of Fontainebleau was
published.
On 11 May 1817 there was a concordat signed between Pope
Pius VII and Louis XVIII, the King of France which followed
and re-established the concordat that had passed between Leo
X and François I. At this time the concordat of 15 July 1801
ceased to have effect.
On 19 July, there was a Papal bull, carrying the ratification of
the concordat on 11 May.
On 22 November, this concordat was presented to the
legislative body of France by the government, which proposed
a law to put it into execution.
On 30 November 1818, the Chronique Religieuse published the
fact that the court of France had convened with that of Rome
upon a tacit suspension of the concordat of Louis XVIII.
Around this time, the Maronite sect, which had a large
number of adherents in Palestine and Syria, as they did in a few
other parts of the Orient, returned to the lap of the Catholic and
Roman Church. The court of Rome, to facilitate this reunion,
consented to confirm all the ancient liberties of the Maronite
church, among the number of which was the marriage of priests.
1. ‘Call no man upon the earth your father,’ said Jesus-Christ to

the Apostles, ‘for you have but one father in heaven. Do not
desire to be called masters, because you have but one master
and you are all brothers, neither desire to be called doctors, for
your sole doctor is Jesus.’ The word brothers demonstrates that,
408
primitively, the most perfect equality reigned among the

faithful.
2. The Latin word vaticanus is derived from vaticinium,
prediction, because of the so-called oracles rendered anciently
on the Vatican hill [French, mont], where the palace of the
pope has been built.
409
HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS
OF THE PRIMITIVE ESTABLISHMENT
OF CHRISTIANITY
IN EGYPT
To throw a few historical lights on the debut of Christianity,

we will print several passages from the erudite work on Egypt
by M. Champillion-Figeac.
Christianity dates the beginnings of its establishment in Egypt
from the reign of the Emperor Domitian, who succeeded his
brother Titus in the year 811 .
1 Christianity, at its birth, was but a Jewish sect.

‘In the first years of the death of Jesus, the Jews were divided into
ten sects or schools, The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, the
Judahites, the Therapeuts, the Rechabites, the Herodians, the disciples of
John and the disciples of Christ.
‘The disciples of Christ were Jews to such an extent that Saint Paul
circumcised his disciple Timothy in the city of Lystra. He says (ch. 2,
Ep. to the Romans): Circumcision is useful if you observe the law. If you
violate the law, your circumcision becomes foreskin… The true Jew is he who
is a Jew interiorly.
‘The Apostle James said to Saint Paul (ch. 21 of the Acts of the
Apostles): ”Take these with you, purify yourselves so that the whole
410
world knows that that which is said of you is false, and that you continue
to guard the law of Moses.”
‘In his own words Paul said to Festus (ch. 25 of the Acts): I have
neither sinned against the Jewish law nor against the temple.
‘After the death of Christ and the first assembly of the Apostles,
Saint Peter quarrelled with Saint Paul about whether it was necessary
to observe or abandon the Jewish rites.
‘A little later, there was another quarrel, this time at Antioch,
between Peter, James and John on the one side, and Paul on the other
about whether one could or could not eat meat that has been
strangled and the flesh of animals that have a cloven foot and which
chew the cud. This proves that they were still Jews and that they did
not agree among themselves. They continued to disagree among
themselves to the extent that, in the first century of Christianity, forty
years after the Christians were completely separated from the Jews;
we can count fifty sects that no longer agreed with Saint Peter or Saint
Paul. The Nazarenes, the Galileans, the Basilideans, the Cerinthians and
the Socinians no longer exist.
‘These sects were succeeded by others year after year, century after
century, and, in every age, we see the members of the Church of
Christ divided into enemy parties.
‘The most ancient of all these sects is the Cerinthians, who held
(Epiphan., Hoer., ch. 28) that Jesus did not die, and that Simon of
Cyrene was sacrificed in his place.
‘Voilà, from the very cradle of the Church, there were Christians
who denied the death, and consequently the resurrection of Jesus-
Christ.
‘The Socinians constantly refused to recognise the divinity of Jesus,
and they put forth their proofs; for there was no sect that did not have
its incontestable proofs.
‘Most of all they rested their opinions on that which was said on this
subject by Saint Paul, Eusebius, Justin, Tertullian and the other
Fathers of the Church. In addition, they persevered in these opinions,
despite the decision of the Council of Nicea.
‘The Gnostics, a sect that came along soon after, enjoyed a great
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reputation. Saint Clement of Alexandria (Book. 1st, n0 7, of his

Stromateis) says: Happy are they who have entered into the Gnostic
holiness! Saint Epiphanius was not of the same opinion; in his book
Against the Heresies, volume 2, book. 1, he paints a picture of the
Gnostics in their agapes in the same colours that the pagans painted
the Christians in their feasts of charity. Also, Saint Epiphanius seems
to have imposed upon them without shame [French, impudemment]
when he wrote this; he knew, just as we do, that it is impossible that a
sect whose most sacred principle was shamelessness [French,
impudicité] could exist. Further, all the Christian sects both believed
and claimed themselves to be Orthodox, and for this same reason,
they mutually reproached each other with these infamies.
‘Nevertheless, at this period of history, religion was still very simple.
Origen says, n0 347, that the Christians of the first two centuries had
the strongest aversion for temples, altars and simulacra, not because
they could not build them, but the reluctance to do so was the effect of
their aversion.
Two hundred and some years after the death of Jesus-Christ,
Minutius Felix said to the Romans: ‘You think that we hide that which
we adore, because we do not have temples or altars; but what
simulacrum do we erect to God, since man himself is the simulacrum
of God? What temple do we build, when the world, which is his work,
cannot contain it?... Is it not better to consecrate a temple in our spirit
and in our heart?’ And this Minutius Felix, who had true, great and
sublime ideas of God has not been canonised.
‘However, around the beginning of the reign of Diocletian, the
Christians, who were now richer, no longer cried against temples with
the same fury; they began to build them, while persisting in their
hatred against candles, incense, lustral (or blessed) water, pontifical
ornaments, and against all that held an association with paganism.
‘Also, under Constantine, they were subjugated by the magnificence
of the pagan ceremonies, whose customs they adopted; however, from
there to the mass, was still a long way off.
‘The mass that is celebrated while at fast in the morning, was, in the
age of the primitive church, only the last supper [French, cène] that
412
The Jews continued to rise up as turbulent as they had been

under the two preceding reigns; they fought against the civil
power, and thus forced the prefect Lupus to flee; the Emperor
Trajan found it necessary to send Marcius Turbo from Rome
with considerable military forces. This man battled for a long
time against the perpetual seditions and internal wars that had
continually caused desolation in Alexandria.
The letter of the Emperor Hadrian, written from Egypt to the
consul Servianus (cited in Chapter IX of this book), speaks of
Alexandria as inhabited by a race most inclined to sedition,
boasting and slander, etc.
When Diocletian, to whom Egypt, with the rest of the Orient,
had fallen, wanted to subdue Egypt, he set a siege of eight
months before the walls of Alexandria; he cut off the canals of
the Nile which supplied that immense city, and finally made
himself master by an open trench. Nothing will equal the
cruelty of this conqueror; the city submitted to iron and fire; the
was held in the evening, in which the bread and the wine were not, as
they are now, consecrated. The mass was consequently not
established by Jesus-Christ, and not one of the ceremonies and not one
of the actual sacraments were known by the Apostles. The baptism of
Saint Jean was not a sacrament, it was an ablution in imitation of the
practices of the people of the orient, and could scarcely be useful to
men who awaited only worldly rewards [French, récompenses
temporelles]. Jesus baptised no one, Saint Paul who circumcised his
disciple Timothy, not only baptised no one, but refused to baptise the
Corinthians. Therefore, at that time, circumcision was solely judged
necessary and baptism counted for nothing; it was much later that it
became the seal [French, sceau] of the Christian religion. Saint
Augustine is the first who accredited original sin; it was spoken of
neither in the Jewish books, nor in the Prophets, nor in the Evangel,
likewise in those rejected books called Apocryphal, nor by the first
Fathers of the Church.’
413
inhabitants were delivered to the fury of the soldiery, and all

property was given to pillage and destruction. A Christian
author recounts that Diocletian had given the order to his
soldiers not to cease the carnage until his horse had blood up to
the knees. Happily, adds the historian, the horse fell dead, its
knees were stained with blood and the carnage ceased.
The Christians who, until this time, did not have any public
rite and held the cults which had altars in disdain, began to
desire temples. Diocletian permitted them to build one at
Nicomedia.
It is from the reign of Diocletian that the era dating from his
name was established in Egypt and which is also called the Era
of Martyrs; it begins 13 June 284 of the Christian era. Here is
what M. Buret de Longchamps says on this subject:
‘When Diocletian wanted to have the cathedral at Nicomedia
destroyed by edict, he saw his edict cut to pieces; for this crime,
200 persons were sentenced to death in the Roman Empire,
without counting those that were made to perish by the furore
of the people. We have not placed the persecutions before this
time, because they are not attested by history, and the
establishment of Christianity appeared much later; moreover,
those acts which are called persecutions against the Christians,
were orders given by the established power to subdue
insurrections.’ (Fastes Universels).
Toward the IIIrd century, schisms were already breaking out
in the Christian Church, and Arius, who had not been elected to
the Bishopric of Alexandria, founded a doctrine, which, under
the name of Arianism, long troubled the peace of the Church. In
the year 325, a council was held at Nicea to examine this
doctrine. Although the conversion of Constantine had given
more influence to Christianity, confusion in the affairs of Egypt
did not cease. The public distributions of wheat had almost
become dependent on the authority of the bishops, who had
414
assimilated themselves, in a way, with the civil prefects. The

time came when the dogmatic dissensions degenerated into
anarchy; the people and the army entered into these, and were
likewise called upon to take part in them. To add to these woes,
the episcopate of Gregory the Cappadocian was a series of
calamities for Egypt. For five years, he pursued the partisans of
Saint Athanasius, whose doctrines had been condemned at the
Council of Milan (in the year 351), and the Emperor Constantius
severely cracked down on those condemned. The Christians
succumbed under the blows of their own brothers; throats were
cut for subtle doctrines. A new bishop (Georges) delegated by
the Emperor, distinguished himself by his oppression and his
speculations.
The Christian patriarchs did not spare the pagans, and if a
prefect persecuted the monks and the solitaires of the Thebaid,
a bishop hunted down the priests of the temple of Serapis and
had the temple at Canopus demolished.
A new bishop, Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria,
dominated by an ardent zeal, but who was little enlightened,
became alarmed about every form of tolerance and contributed,
with the other bishops of Egypt to the destruction of the
Egyptian temples, the debris of which served in the edification
of Christian temples. From such whitewashings were worked
metamorphoses; each chapel of Osiris was consecrated to Saint
George or to other saints by a layer of lime pasted over the
ancient Egyptian sculptures, and by the figure of a saint
miserably painted on the superficial covering.
In 408 Constantine prescribed that the sentences of the bishop,
in temporal matters, should be executed without appeal, as
were the sentences of the praetorian prefect.
At that same moment in history, there is report of the
cessation of the usage of the ancient Egyptian writing, which
was practised only by a few Egyptians who remained faithful to
415
the ancient form of worship, and whose race was extinguished

for all time in the VIIth century of the Christian era, not leaving
any adherents to their science, which was only kept by people
affiliated with secret societies, who were less faithful to the
ancient doctrines.
Egypt had her part of the disorders of the lower Empire which
afflicted all the imperial possessions of the Orient and the
Occident. That which dominated all the events of that epoch
was the political and religious transmutations. This was the time in
which Christianity elevated itself as dominator over all the
ancient beliefs, insinuated itself bit by bit into the acts of the
civil authority, and then took possession, and when it
substituted itself for this civil authority, it did these acts with
such ardour that it gave itself the conviction that it was working
for the public happiness. However, that which is no less worth
remarking, is the perseverance of the Egyptian devotees to their
cult, despite the persecutions, exile and death.
In the first years of the Vth century, great spirits revived the
ardour of religious controversies by their writings. At that time,
among those battling among themselves over the subject of the
writings of Origen were Theophilus, Saint John Chrysostom,
Saint Epiphanius, Saint Jerome. The theologians of
Constantinople came to blows against those of Alexandria; they
came on armed; the dead remained on the field of battle;
immense riches were spent on these deplorable contestations.
The acquiescence of the Roman Emperors for ecclesiastical
offices increased [French, acrroissait] the power of the bishops.
The organisations which formed under their protection were
powerful auxiliaries to their enterprises and counter-balanced
the authority of the prefect as well as the troops under his
orders. Jealousy burst out among other nations and the other
established beliefs in Egypt in proportion to these advantages;
blood was shed in Alexandria, as the result of fights and
416
ambushes between Christians and Jews because of a dancer in

the theatre. Saint Cyril chased the Jews from the city, helped by
the monks of the desert, who were rushed in as auxiliary troops,
and who, encountering the Emperor’s prefect, overwhelmed
him with stones and obliged him to take flight, along with the
men in his escort, the greater part covered with lesions and
blood. However, the people flew to the aid of the prefect; the
ringleader of the sedition was arrested and condemned; he
expired under the rods of the lictors; but Saint Cyril publicly
pronounced his eulogy and honoured him with the title of
martyr.
At that time, a rare beauty and great talent shone forth with
brilliance: Hypatia, the daughter of the mathematician Theo,
who publicly taught Aristotle and Plato in the schools of Athens
and Alexandria, and her virtues did not end with science. The
faithful adherents of Saint Cyril, the auxiliary troops furnished
by the religious organisations, crowded around Hypatia’s car,
seized her by force, tore her apart and threw her scattered
pieces into the flames. The Parabalani [French, Parabolants], the
henchmen of Saint Cyril, were the authors of this horrible
assassination, led by Peter the reader of the Church of
Alexandria, and this murder was not avenged: the laws of the
Emperor remained silent; only the clerics were forbidden to
take part in political affairs; the number of Parabalani was
limited to 500, and the prefect was invested with the right of
appointing them; purely circumstantial concessions! Two years
later, the nomination of these soldier-clerics who were capable
of all forms of violence and excess, was given to the bishops (in
the year 418).
In the period following the episcopate of Saint Cyril, the
picture of Egypt is no less painful to look upon; venality was
the very soul of the Emperor’s counsels; brigandage was
organised legally in the provinces; religious quarrels added
417
their venom and grief to many other of the public’s wounds;

Nestorius attacked Saint Cyril and was condemned at the
Council of Ephesus (in the year 431); the Alexandrian Church
went into debt for 1,500 pounds of gold to buy this judgement.
With the successor of Saint Cyril, Christianity became the
sectarianism of Eutyches in Egypt, and was destined to remain
so until our days; the Council of Ephesus, received the title
brigandage because of its turbulence; Diodorus, the Patriarch of
Alexandria, publicly defended the man who had raped the wife
of an honourable senator; the Emperor Marcian deposed the
Patriarch; and while these horrific disorders ruined public
affairs in the interior, the Saracens threw their armies into Syria
and the Blemmyes successfully made armed incursions into
Upper-Egypt…
The inextinguishable quarrels were ceaselessly reborn in
Alexandria, between the partisans and antagonists of the
doctrines of Eutyches, quarrels that were made with weapon in
hand, reveal the high extent of the unfortunate state of Egypt
during the second half of the Vth century. The Emperors strove
in vain to bring all the Orientals into the same belief; their
decrees of union only served to make the divisions and hatreds
deeper; no party recognised the Emperor as the arbiter and
judge of faith: the number of different sects of the heresy of the
Aupales-Eutycheans rose to at least ten. Should we speak
further of the six prelates who occupied the see of Alexandria
from the reign of Zeno who were declared heretics, and the edict
by which the Emperor raised the annual sum that Egypt had to
pay to 500 pounds of gold from the 50 pounds it had paid
before this time?
His successor Anastasius perfected the raising of taxes, that is
to say that he rendered them more profitable for the taxman,
and more oppressive for the people. New calamities were
added to the hapless situation of Egypt: the Maziques ravaged
418
Libya and part of the territory of Egypt; a thousand other

insatiably opportunistic traders, at the head of which were the
parents of Marinus, who was delegated by the Emperor,
exploited the country; a terrible drought was declared; locusts,
yet more terrible, ravaged Palestine, and Egypt was charged
with paying the taxes that the taxman could not levy in
Palestine; until at last a famine and plague arrived and endured
until the end of the reign: and religious seditions concurred to
add further cruelties to these calamities.
The arrival of Justin did not bring an end to so many evils; he
opened the way to new evil results; Justin, who was Catholic,
openly protected the antagonist who fought against Eutyches:
riots and murder, as usual, followed upon this, and this passion
for disputes, a characteristic trait of the Alexandrians, did not
allow them to put aside this vivacity of spirit which was most
justified by their own misfortunes. Note that one particular
edict of the Emperor Justin in which he banished the
entertainers and dancers from all the cities of the Orient; he
made an exception of Alexandria, even though it had been at
the theatre of Alexandria that the birth of the disputes and
disorders had taken place.
When we speak of the Emperors that succeed Justin, and
when we recall the greater part of their actions, we have the
authority in most cases to consider them as having forgotten
their sovereign authority, and rather, having descended to the
abject role of chiefs of religious sects.
During the reign of Justinian, the military enterprises of the
Persians among the neighbours of Egypt, and the alliances of
the Emperor of the Orient with the King of Ethiopia which were
intended to bring the commerce in silk to Alexandria, and the
choice of Narses to oppose the incursions of the Saracens and
the Blemmyes, made a diversion that allowed for the
destruction of the temple of Isis at Philae, by the order of the
419
same Emperor, by the acts of violence exercised under his order

against the priests of the goddess, and the abduction of her
statue which was sent to Constantinople, for the severity of the
taxman who used force to exile the citizens who could not
amply fill the exorbitant taxes, for the suppression of the School
of law that existed in Alexandria, and the burning of the city,
ordered by Narses, because the trade guilds, nobles and people
refused to recognise Theodosius as bishop. Theodosius was
protected by Theodora, who was at first an entertainer, and
later empress and head of a sect. However, this protection did
not defend Theodosius; he was chased out and replaced by
Zoilus, who was chased out in turn, and who proposed that he
should pay 1,400 marks to be reinstated, and who had, as
successor, Apollinarius, one of Justinian’s generals, a warrior
bishop who entered Alexandria in military apparel; and
suddenly removing his military outfit that indicated he was
head of the troops, immediately put on the robe of the patriarch.
The multitude hissed and assailed him; he had them attacked
by his soldiers, and avenged himself by the death of a great
number of Christians whose throats were cut by his retainers.
Justin II (in the year 565), when he succeeded to the throne,
sent his nephew as prefect of Egypt; he was soon after
sentenced to death because he was suspected of conspiracy.
Under the reign of Tiberius Constantine, the Jacobite sect was
firmly established, destined to survive all the others, and to
become established as the actual Christian church which
survives to our time.
His successor Maurice re-established the King of Persia upon
his throne, who was destined, a few years later, to seize Egypt.
Carried to the throne by the success of his crimes, Phocas put
forth an edict that excluded the Egyptians from the honours
and duties of State. There was consequently a sedition; however,
the Emperor used force to baptise all the Jews of Alexandria.
420
Heraclius succeeded him, without diminishing in the least his

rigorous campaign against the Jews; the Jacobite sect, moved by
the Egyptian spirit, opposed the Roman authority eminently,
and served as a link between all the forces of resistance. The
Jacobite was seen as the true Egyptian citizen, and this word
qualified as rallying cry against all foreign authority. These
Jacobites or Copts have preserved the ancient national
language; their liturgical books were written in that idiom,
which served as another food that fed their aggregation which
powerfully fortified their union, and separated them deeply
from the other religious communities which spoke and wrote
the Greek, Hebrew or Syrian languages, idioms consecrated by
religion and custom. The Egyptian population, by the inevitable
effect of time, found themselves to be their own mistress, and
could dominate in their own country by numbers, power and
wealth: the population could easily retake their independence
and take control as if by conquest over the feeble and deciduous
existence of the Empire of the Orient; however, another master
arose, young and vigorous, who had already filled the Orient
with his success, and who, for a long time, deprived Egypt of
freedom.
The Persians conquered Syria (in the year 614); the fugitives
took refuge in Alexandria; and the patriarch who possessed
immense sums seized by the piety of the faithful, possessed a
further 4,000 pounds of gold, found in the Episcopal treasure at
the time of his exaltation; a treasure which originated from
despoiling the rich temples of Egyptian Egypt. He sent 1,000
pieces of gold, 1,000 sacks of wheat, 1,000 sacks of vegetables,
1,000 pounds of iron, 1,000 cases of dried fish, 1,000 amphorae
of wine and 1,000 workers to the Patriarch of Jerusalem who
lacked all means. However, two years later, the Persians seized
Alexandria, helped perhaps by the Jews who were always
helpful to those who paid, and perhaps by the Copts who
421
thought mostly to free themselves from the ancient domination

of the Romans; but the two peoples, who were foreigners to
Egypt, had spent some time together in Egypt.
Nevertheless, a Copt of noble family who was one of the
richest citizens, was given the duty of governing Egypt: he was
named Makaukas: and he was, in the destiny of the Empire, the
one who would by his own accord prepare the loss of these
provinces in Egypt. Nothing more could concur, under these
circumstances, to his seeming a more powerful Egyptian to his
compatriots. These undertakings did not succeed at first; but
Makaukas was one of the instruments of the new revolution
that worked its way in Egypt.
Around the year 630, the Patriarch George died and was
replaced by a priest named Cyrus, a Monothelitist sectarian, a
man who was otherwise restless and dissembling. The Jacobite
Patriarch was his constant rival, and his flock was not less
driven to rebellion. Cyrus was in secret communication with
Omar, the lieutenant of Mohamed; his goal was to distance the
Caliph of Egypt by the means of an annual tribute, of which
Makaukas had furnished the first payment sent to Medina.
Heraclius was infuriated by these intrigues.
The Emperor found no other expedient against these
misfortunes that threatened him, than to give to this same
Cyrus, the supreme authority in Egypt. Makaukas maintained
his power in the situation, but this power was secondary as he
was merely the leader of the Coptic population; Benjamin, the
Coptic Patriarch, was no less hateful toward the Empire: Cyrus,
Makaukas and Benjamin were, at heart, the allies of the Arabs
who would deliver them from the yoke of the Romans.
Amr ibn al-As defeated the Emperor’s troops, advanced
triumphantly into Egypt, and seized the city of Mesrah where
Makaukas held command. From this place, Amr, the lieutenant
of Omar, advanced toward Alexandria: the people rushed to
422
help, and supplied rations for the conqueror, giving witness to

their joy, and proclaiming their defection from Roman rule. The
Greeks, faithful to themselves and abandoned by the Egyptians,
desperately resisted the new regime; in 641 they endured the
horrors of a fourteen month siege in Alexandria, and when they
fell, the rest of Egypt became the prey of the conqueror. When
the city was surrendered by the Greeks, the city fell to the new
power of the Arabs. It was in vain that Constans II, the son of
Constantine, sent a fleet and an army to Egypt to re-establish
the imperial authority in Alexandria; at the sight of the fleet, the
Greeks who were found in the city, took up arms to chase the
Arabs out; Amr was replaced by Abdallah; the Copts
demanded the return of Amr, as he alone was capable of
defending them; for they had a pressing interest in not falling
again into the hands of the Greeks. Amr returned; Makaukas
joyously received him, and reunited the Arab army with a
multitude of Coptic, Muslim and Christian allies; they attacked
Alexandria, raised it by demolishing the fortifications, and
Islam was established as sovereign in Egypt, where it continues
to dominate on account of the memorable victories of Amr,
aided by the Egyptians who thought they were bringing their
country independence, but were only giving it a new master.
At this moment in history the hand of fate brought it about

that the confusing mixture of all the doctrines of ancient
philosophy gave birth to a new world, destined, in our
Occidental lands, to survive all the establishments of the ancient
world, and in Rome itself, which, concentrating in itself the
whole of the past, gave birth, to the times that were to come, the
form of social unity, which is the vehicle of the very life of
modern civilisation.
End
423
Index
absurdities, 4, 10, 78, 91, 101, Agnus Dei, 54, 148, 239, 240,
103, 156, 158, 177 241
absurdity, 72, 79, 84, 117, agony, 118, 180, 183, 224, 289,
219, 303 293, 294
abyss, 35, 36, 214, 224, 255, Ahrimanes, 95, 115, 116, 207,
264 223, 225
Adimo, 57 Aïas, 288
Adonai, 62, 64, 103, 139, 161, Aix-la-Chapelle, 29
246, 289, 291 Ajax, 288
Adonaia, 161, 301 alb, 29, 30, 37, 38
Adonhiram, 64 Albigensians, 249, 256
Adonis, 64, 103, 128, 136, Albion, 213
161, 288, 289, 301, 321, Alexander Pope, 172, 215
326, 328, 339, 353, 361 Alexander Severus, 137
aegis, 4, 226 Alexandria, 6, 51, 113, 120,
Aeneid, 123, 172, 174, 217, 166, 253, 268, 276, 378,
269 380, 381, 386, 390, 413,
Aesculapius, 82, 225, 230, 414, 415, 416, 417, 418,
359, 366 419, 420, 421, 422
afflictions, 33 Alexandrian, 104, 113, 298,
Africa, 8, 152, 153, 253 377, 417
Africans, 382 Ali, 351
after All-Saints., 355 Alilat, 301
agape, 145, 305 allegorically, 30, 360
Agape, 336
424
allegory, 3, 8, 15, 19, 20, 23, angels, 125, 127, 131, 132,
32, 59, 89, 90, 91, 94, 113, 135, 136, 138, 141, 193,
141, 162, 194, 233, 235, 304, 311, 314, 338, 350
242, 254, 295, 307, 310, angelus, 133, 302
311, 320, 339, 344 Angers, 255, 260
Alma-Venus, 298 animal, 14, 20, 148, 168, 169,
Alps, 41 170, 171, 238
altar, 6, 7, 11, 13, 15, 17, 21, Annunciation, 323, 324, 374
22, 23, 31, 33, 34, 45, 79, anoint, 290
98, 99, 119, 120, 123, 126, Anquetil, 116, 173
136, 144, 161, 163, 180, Ansat Cross, 16
182, 204, 205, 206, 275, Antarctic, 294
314, 326, 327, 360, 363, Anthesterion, 372
369, 386 ANTHROPOPHAG, 253
altars, 2, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, 23, antiquity, 10, 11, 17, 21, 22,
28, 35, 39, 41, 47, 63, 98, 28, 37, 39, 42, 45, 46, 54,
122, 144, 150, 163, 187, 55, 90, 93, 98, 99, 104, 105,
229, 237, 248, 302, 328, 106, 108, 111, 116, 131,
337, 346, 360, 372, 412, 133, 141, 148, 157, 176,
414 184, 191, 195, 203, 207,
Amalthea, 332 213, 216, 226, 229, 235,
Amazon, 357 236, 239, 252, 253, 261,
Ambrose, 257 265, 268, 273, 277, 278,
Ambrosian, 24, 26, 130, 393 288, 291, 300, 306, 309,
America, 49, 59, 62, 146, 173, 320, 323, 326, 341, 364,
405 395
amice, 30 Anubis, 29, 36, 365
Amphytrion, 269 Aphrodisia, 321
Amr, 422 Apollinarius, 420
amulets, 307 Apollo, 27, 34, 47, 85, 86, 95,
anarchy, 402, 414 128, 139, 174, 194, 210,
angel, 32, 116, 127, 133, 150, 223, 225, 229, 230, 232,
293, 324 239, 289, 302, 310, 312,
Angel Mass, 26
425
336, 337, 348, 365, 366, Arnoul, 311

371, 372 ARTIFICIAL RELIGION,
Apollonius of Thrace, 137 149, 156
Apostles, 7, 60, 68, 75, 78, 85, artillery, 3
91, 107, 108, 109, 113, 145, Arval, 205
157, 169, 188, 194, 219, Asia, 31, 40, 152, 153, 155,
267, 272, 290, 338, 339, 330, 334, 395
342, 347, 360, 397, 408, aspersion, 39, 45, 46
410, 412 assassination, 144, 417
apprentices, 12, 235, 244, Assumption Day, 270
294 Assyria, 288, 364
Apprentices,, 47 Astraea, 312
April, 73, 321, 323, 331, 332, Astronomical, 17
333, 335, 336, 339, 374 astronomical error, 82
Apuleius, 28, 35, 36, 37, 41, astronomy, 83, 292, 313
110, 141, 263, 305, 306, Athanasius. See Saint
309 Athanasius
Aquinus, 346 Athenagoras, 7
ara maxima, 17, 21, 55, 79, Athenian, 267, 268, 321, 323,
125 339, 344, 346, 359
Arab, 132, 373, 378, 380, 423 Athens, 17, 40, 193, 213, 301,
Arabs, 103, 166, 213, 301, 346, 369, 370, 417
422, 423 Atlas, 40
archaeologists, 10, 217 Attis, 326, 328, 353, 359, 361
archbishop, 73, 236, 376 August, 181, 254, 270, 312,
Archer, 357 349, 350, 407
arches, 35, 72, 181, 184 Augustine, 6, 242, 257
Arianism, 414 Austria, 312
Arians, 26, 381, 382 autopsy, 241, 246
Arimanes, 139, 326 autumn, 96, 97, 186, 311,
Arius, 377, 378, 380, 381, 357
382, 385, 414 Averna, 311
Armorica, 86, 256 Avila, 81
Arnobius, 105, 113, 248 azure, 11, 54, 92, 313, 314
426
AΓΙΟΣ O ΘΕOΣ, 43 Belus, 27, 239, 240, 289

Babylon, 29, 115, 197, 198 Benares, 2
Babylonians, 27, 114, 229 benediction, 39, 117, 189,
Bacchus, 13, 50, 83, 164, 166, 259, 263, 264, 335, 371
167, 186, 195, 196, 225, Béranger, 251, 255, 256, 399
230, 289, 296, 303, 308, bereavement, 79
312, 334, 337, 344, 353, Bible, 5, 41, 52, 57, 58, 171,
359, 361, 369, 371, 372, 372
374 biretta, 28
Bagnères-de-Bigorre, 41 bishop, 5, 17, 41, 52, 81, 120,
Balance, 181, 343, 353 146, 149, 253, 255, 260,
balustrade, 271 271, 352, 376, 377, 379,
baptised, 5, 52, 110, 264, 378, 380, 399, 415, 420
413 Blemmyes, 418, 419
baptism, 7, 25, 66, 73, 111, Blessing, 28
112, 117, 145, 173, 195, blood, 2, 4, 25, 32, 56, 84,
218, 335, 378, 388, 395, 116, 120, 121, 136, 137,
412 144, 150, 160, 163, 169,
barbarians, 43, 81, 265, 397 170, 221, 233, 234, 238,
BARONIUS, 6 243, 245, 248, 251, 252,
Bear, 92 253, 254, 322, 337, 399,
Becket, 222 400, 402, 413, 416
Begares, 403 blue, 3, 11, 37, 304
Beguins, 403 Boemius, 13
Bel, 27, 34, 240, 289, 403 bosom, 4, 23, 35, 86, 89, 90,
Belen, 27, 239 96, 98, 99, 110, 198, 231,
Belenus, 2, 34 304, 313, 332
beliefs, 1, 3, 4, 10, 23, 45, 108, Boulanger, 10
114, 116, 153, 154, 169, Brahma, 27, 104, 155, 277,
172, 278, 325, 371, 375, 291, 299
416 Brahmans, 11, 57, 59, 60, 61,
Belin, 289 104, 105, 108, 241, 246,
bells, 29, 30, 178 289, 300
Belphegor, 27
427
bread, 14, 15, 16, 22, 25, 28, cardinal points, 20, 22, 96,
32, 39, 84, 122, 143, 144, 318
145, 149, 160, 161, 162, Carinthia, 13
164, 165, 169, 170, 171, Carpentier, 340
173, 177, 201, 203, 204, Carthage, 8, 144, 197, 342
206, 214, 215, 219, 220, cassock, 29, 31
224, 228, 234, 235, 243, catacombs, 2, 83
245, 246, 247, 251, 253, catechumens, 24, 25, 94, 112,
254, 255, 257, 259, 260, 244, 276, 335
268, 269, 271, 307, 397, Catholic, 11, 49, 66, 67, 68,
399, 400, 412 98, 104, 108, 149, 150, 152,
breastplate, 30 155, 187, 200, 326, 327,
Bretagne, 52, 256, 259 343, 346, 349, 355, 359,
Brittany, 87 372, 393, 402, 406, 407,
brotherhood of nations, 1 408, 419
Bull, 50, 242, 325, 332, 338, Catholics, 23, 68, 150, 325,
345 326, 344, 357, 359, 366,
Calas, 155 368, 372, 374, 393, 399,
calasaris, 30 406
calf, 167, 177, 242, 322, 337 celebrant, 32, 34, 53, 55, 120,
California, 231 122, 125, 126, 127, 129,
Calvin, 316, 406 130, 132, 135, 136, 148,
cancer, 346 149, 152, 155, 157, 172,
candelabra, 38, 98, 166 177, 179, 200, 205, 206,
candles, 13, 14, 18, 98, 99, 207, 225, 226, 234, 235,
231, 249, 369, 371, 373, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245,
412 258, 261, 264, 272
Canon, 143, 147, 148, 152, Celt, 27
157, 160, 161, 169, 176, Celtic, 86, 343, 376
186, 193, 200 cemetery, 17, 18
cantor, 55 Cerberus, 19, 36, 224
Capitol, 106, 138, 333 ceremony, 7, 49, 53, 55, 98,
Cardinal Baronius, 31 110, 111, 112, 120, 123,
125, 145, 166, 170, 171,
428
173, 180, 182, 183, 187, chasuble, 30, 32, 37

206, 263, 267, 272, 330, Chasuble, 30
335, 344, 370, 379, 397 chasubles, 32
Ceres, 23, 83, 105, 113, 128, Chateaubriand, 8
147, 161, 171, 205, 217, Châtelet, 249, 250
263, 298, 301, 302, 303, Cherokees, 56, 59
311, 330, 335, 336, 339, China, 57, 93, 106, 330
344, 350 Chinese, 16, 20, 59, 61, 101,
Chaho, 5 117, 153, 290, 300, 330,
Chalcidius, 81, 87 373, 383
Chaldea, 34, 93, 193, 197, Christ, 5, 6, 16, 20, 22, 63, 64,
209, 226, 227, 278 65, 68, 70, 86, 102, 103,
Chaldean, 132, 141, 197, 209, 104, 105, 112, 115, 125,
210, 225, 226, 227, 229, 137, 146, 148, 151, 157,
338, 373 160, 164, 178, 179, 188,
chalice, 22, 148, 234, 251, 189, 196, 200, 218, 236,
268 243, 245, 252, 253, 255,
chalices, 120, 310 257, 289, 304, 310, 326,
chaos, 83, 85, 98, 99, 126, 328, 329, 339, 344, 347,
274, 294 349, 350, 354, 358, 361,
chaplains, 38, 67 369, 374, 378, 379, 387,
chariots, 5 388, 389, 392, 393, 395,
charlatans, 23, 174 396, 399, 400, 401, 402,
Charlemagne, 54, 205, 340, 403, 404, 408, 410, 411,
393, 394, 407 412
Charles V, 29 Christian era, 31, 414, 415
Chartres, 86, 144, 301, 379 Christians, 7, 8, 14, 17, 21,
chaste, 12, 23, 24, 29, 90, 92, 29, 32, 46, 64, 70, 101, 105,
112, 123, 143, 163, 166, 106, 113, 133, 137, 138,
169, 171, 201, 206, 301, 153, 172, 173, 213, 218,
302, 305, 308, 311, 313, 219, 241, 247, 248, 265,
337 307, 320, 321, 322, 325,
chastity, 12, 31, 62, 163, 167, 327, 328, 329, 331, 333,
202, 290, 304, 308 335, 339, 340, 341, 342,
429
344, 346, 347, 348, 349, 327, 331, 332, 335, 336,
350, 351, 354, 355, 358, 338, 344, 345, 346, 348,
359, 360, 361, 368, 369, 350, 353, 355, 359, 361,
374, 378, 384, 388, 393, 363, 369, 371, 372, 412,
397, 398, 400, 403, 411, 415, 421
412, 414, 415, 416, 420 consecration, 6, 24, 32, 70,
Christmas, 26, 63, 89, 96, 145, 147, 160, 161, 162,
196, 200, 201, 293, 295, 165, 173, 187, 234, 235,
334, 357, 361, 369, 374 241, 245, 247, 250, 253,
Chronos,, 40 257, 352
Chrysostom, 251, 257 Constans II, 423
Church of Alexandria, 417 Constantine, 28, 52, 138, 296,
civilisation, 14, 22, 121, 171, 315, 377, 378, 379, 381,
184, 195, 209, 220, 221, 382, 384, 385, 391, 392,
265, 423 397, 412, 414, 415, 420,
CLEMENT of Alexandria, 6 423
cloisters, 43, 150 Constantine Kopronymos,
clouds, 3, 39, 44, 46, 83, 97, 392
102, 174, 294, 305, 307, Constantinople, 52, 163, 316,
314, 328 351, 387, 388, 389, 390,
Clovis, 3, 206, 296, 376 391, 392, 394, 395, 397,
coats of arms, 11 399, 402, 416, 419
colloquies, 50 constellation, 97, 242, 350
communion-table, 271 consubstantial, 65, 76, 77, 79,
confession, 49, 52, 53, 110, 95, 380, 382, 383, 385, 386,
173, 220 388, 389
Confucius, 137 Consul, 67
consecrated, 5, 12, 13, 14, 23, Conventual Mass, 26
28, 34, 42, 45, 54, 102, 140, cope, 29, 37
146, 164, 166, 172, 203, Copt, 422
206, 209, 210, 211, 213, Coptic, 422, 423
214, 221, 236, 240, 246, Corinthians, 169, 342, 413
257, 271, 275, 305, 310, Corona Borealis, 29, 97
318, 321, 322, 323, 326, coronation, 13, 29, 71, 200
430
corpse, 89 crow, 29, 103

Corpus Christi, 346 crucifixion, 91, 92
Council of Ancyra, 380 Crusades, 397, 402
Council of Antioch, 381, 383, Cult of the latria, 4
386 Cybele, 40, 86, 113, 128, 161,
Council of Carthage, 390 167, 221, 298, 307, 331
Council of Chalcedon, 309, Cyprus, 288
390, 395 Cyrus, 290, 422
council of Gangres, 342 D. O. M., 44
Council of Nicea, 79, 378, Dalmatia, 31
380, 383, 384, 385, 386, dalmatic, 31
392, 394, 411 Danish, 213
Council of Pisa, 405 Danube, 14
Council of Prague, 155 darkness, 2, 21, 23, 35, 43, 54,
Court de Gébelin, 10, 325 92, 93, 140, 143, 150, 151,
Crab, 346 162, 199, 201, 207, 224,
crayfish, 346 236, 239, 242, 274, 294,
Credo, 55, 59, 61, 62, 64, 66, 305, 327, 329, 353
68, 75, 76, 77, 78, 81, 89, Dauphiné, 6, 403
90, 91, 93, 104, 107, 108, David, 5, 219, 290, 304, 306,
110, 114, 119, 189, 233, 388
241 deacon, 25, 38, 52, 122, 206,
Crepitus, 2 263, 376, 380, 399
crescent, 161, 300, 304, 305, death, 15, 18, 20, 21, 35, 59,
308, 310, 314, 332 63, 82, 89, 92, 97, 98, 99,
Crete, 40, 181, 230, 357 112, 114, 156, 161, 169,
crime,, 24, 214, 384, 414 177, 178, 179, 181, 198,
crisis, 92 248, 250, 257, 265, 270,
crocodile, 2, 121, 128, 134 271, 288, 294, 295, 299,
cross, 15, 16, 20, 27, 29, 32, 300, 310, 319, 322, 324,
68, 85, 91, 92, 96, 97, 161, 326, 328, 329, 354, 385,
173, 178, 263, 264, 274, 387, 410, 411, 412, 414,
278, 279, 288, 300, 312, 416, 420
364, 383, 392, 397
431
December, 26, 71, 89, 98, dogma, 10, 42, 55, 64, 88, 94,
197, 200, 201, 336, 357, 100, 101, 106, 114, 156,
359, 405 157, 174, 179, 209, 216,
Delphi, 370 220, 226, 235, 245, 382
demigods, 132, 139 dogmas, 4, 6, 10, 11, 37, 50,
Demiourgos, 53, 125, 158, 172, 101, 106, 187, 193, 235,
188, 277 243, 278, 315, 316
demon, 7, 111, 125, 207, 270, Dom Pernety, 252, 263
371 Domini Soli, 45
demons, 5, 68, 136, 247 dominions, 131, 132, 139, 162
Demosthenes, 12 Dominions, 132
Denmark, 13 Dominus Vobiscum, 148
deus quadratus, 13 domus aurea, 301, 304, 306
Deuteronomy, 364 Dorotheus, 383
dews, 5 doves, 314
diaconate, 5 doxologies, 341
dialogue, 28, 32, 33, 45, 253 Druids, 86, 301, 334, 359
diamond, 4, 36, 244 Dry Mass, 25
diamonds, 29 DU CHOUL, 6
Diana, 136, 298, 302, 308, Du-Choul, 28, 32
310, 314, 321, 323, 344, duels, 27
350 Dulaire, 10
Dictionnaire de Bretagne, Dulaure, 14, 39, 252
87, 259 Dupuis, 10, 223
dii communes, 132 eagle, 40, 97, 103, 135
diocese, 17, 69, 260, 339, 398 eagles, 197
Diocletian, 7, 412, 413, 414 Eanus, 194, 197, 200
Dionysius of Thrace, 11 earth, 5, 11, 12, 15, 16, 20, 22,
doctrine, 42, 59, 63, 70, 73, 23, 31, 32, 33, 39, 46, 47,
78, 79, 101, 108, 119, 191, 54, 57, 60, 61, 62, 64, 71,
203, 218, 225, 248, 253, 81, 84, 85, 86, 96, 99, 107,
255, 273, 277, 290, 298, 108, 112, 120, 131, 133,
378, 391, 393, 399, 402, 135, 136, 138, 139, 140,
414 144, 146, 149, 153, 156,
432
161, 162, 167, 172, 174, Elaphebolion, 323, 374

178, 181, 186, 190, 195, Eleusinian, 23, 46, 49, 171,
203, 213, 215, 218, 219, 217
222, 224, 227, 228, 230, Eleusinian mysteries, 49
232, 233, 236, 238, 239, Eleusis, 63, 273
242, 246, 247, 251, 264, Elicius, 241, 246
280, 281, 291, 295, 299, Elis, 13, 372
302, 303, 304, 305, 307, emblem, 11, 15, 16, 17, 20,
308, 309, 310, 314, 315, 32, 33, 47, 62, 63, 92, 112,
318, 319, 325, 328, 330, 115, 120, 123, 161, 167,
332, 337, 339, 353, 373, 181, 182, 196, 202, 204,
378, 388, 401, 408 239, 243, 265, 272, 304,
Easter, 33, 92, 98, 259, 295, 305, 310, 311, 328, 332,
321, 322, 325, 326, 328, 334, 337, 360
333, 334, 335, 338, 343, Emperor Alexius, 400
354, 386 Emperor Basil, 395, 399
Ebionite, 91 Emperor Commodus, 357
Edda, 58, 102, 300 Emperor Constantius,, 386
Edomite, 290 Emperor Justin, 419
Edward I, 14 Emperor Leo-the-
egg, 104, 171, 176, 194, 195, Philosopher, 399
198, 332, 334 Emperor Marcian, 418
Egypt, 1, 2, 5, 15, 16, 31, 37, Emperor Otto, 399
49, 50, 52, 59, 86, 90, 93, enemy, 33, 60, 115, 225, 258,
102, 106, 109, 110, 112, 310, 411
128, 139, 157, 166, 184, England, 6, 14, 30, 34, 109,
189, 195, 197, 198, 200, 223, 255, 405
203, 204, 217, 239, 254, English, 17, 45, 56, 130, 164,
273, 277, 278, 280, 288, 172, 209, 211, 212, 213,
293, 324, 334, 338, 369, 300, 340, 362, 376
390, 410, 413, 414, 415, enigma, 89, 91, 124, 211, 242,
416, 417, 418, 419, 420, 293
421, 422 Entered Apprentices, 191,
ejaculating strokes, 47 244
433
Ephrem,, 257 Eutyches, 253, 389, 390, 418,

Epicureans, 246 419
Episcopal, 42, 421 Eve, 49, 57
Episcopes, 17 excommunication, 20, 68, 81,
epithet, 127, 133, 139, 161, 397, 402
164, 167, 186, 196, 222, Exodus, 291
229, 239, 246, 287, 302, Ezekiel, 290
312, 332, 349, 365, 379, fable, 20, 104, 115, 116, 133,
405 195, 288, 332, 362, 364
Epopts, 34, 42, 131, 191, 261, FACE of the ETERNAL, 148
268, 274 faithful, 4, 16, 20, 21, 25, 33,
Equinox, 92, 321, 353 39, 45, 74, 88, 98, 100, 106,
Eternal, 2, 23, 49, 50, 63, 67, 108, 117, 120, 122, 124,
156, 157, 193, 195, 202, 127, 131, 132, 139, 143,
227, 228, 229, 280, 281, 145, 146, 147, 151, 161,
290 166, 178, 205, 222, 235,
eternal life, 53, 87, 189, 193, 241, 242, 248, 250, 253,
233, 235, 245, 259 255, 259, 263, 269, 337,
Ethiopia, 419 338, 375, 400, 409, 415,
étoile flamboyante, 27 417, 421, 422
Eucharist, 25, 233, 234, 268, fanatic, 52, 150, 159, 172,
271, 387, 395, 397, 399, 246
402 fanaticism, 3, 68, 69, 127,
Eumenides, 19 170, 238
Europe, 10, 30, 91, 143, 147, fanum, 22
150, 152, 153, 217, 257, Farcundus, 253, 257
334, 384, 395, 401, 403 fasting, 28, 326, 343
European, 4, 105 Father of the Church, 19
Eusebius of Nicomedia, 378, Fatimah, 351
380, 382, 384, 385 FAUCHET, 6
Eusebius, the Bishop of February, 341, 369, 370, 371,
Caesarea, 382, 385 372, 406, 408
Eustachius of Antioch, 382 Fellow Crafts, 21, 191, 244
Fénelon, 176
434
fermentation, 2, 233 388, 393, 405, 406, 407,

Festus, 40, 321, 410 408
fetishism, 332, 364 Franks, 3, 41, 394
figs, 197 fraternity, 23, 36, 198, 205,
fire, 3, 15, 17, 45, 46, 85, 98, 221, 266, 272, 313
99, 115, 117, 118, 119, 120, Freemasonry, 143, 149, 156,
122, 123, 143, 201, 202, 265
223, 224, 270, 275, 299, Fréret, 10, 57
311, 314, 327, 328, 337, Frigga, 27, 86, 289, 300
339, 347, 369, 370, 371, fruits, 16, 22, 23, 26, 28, 49,
402, 404, 413 119, 122, 144, 145, 146,
firmament, 93, 314 148, 162, 163, 166, 167,
Fishes, 181, 293, 328, 345, 172, 175, 189, 190, 203,
374 204, 205, 234, 235, 267,
fixed calendar, 322, 333, 336 271, 272, 277, 278, 310,
flamen, 12, 186 313, 330, 337, 355
Flamen, 325 Gallic rite, 315
Flamines, 29 Gallican, 24, 26
Flammeum, 29 Ganges, 2, 20, 24, 110, 111,
Flavian, 389 112
Florence, 251, 270, 404 Gaul, 2, 26, 278
flour, 14, 16, 83, 268 Gauls, 3, 6, 41, 106, 236, 334,
flowers, 15, 16, 24, 82, 92, 97, 385
136, 174, 181, 183, 306, Gaussin, 29
310, 313, 326, 366, 370, Genesis, 57, 77, 81, 99, 117,
372 213, 273
Fo, 290, 300 genius, 49, 62, 92, 98, 101,
fonts, 12, 45, 335 115, 238, 320, 344, 361,
forehead, 51, 106, 117, 173, 371
260, 306, 330, 347 geographers, 16
France, 6, 11, 30, 34, 47, 109, German, 30, 213, 269, 376,
133, 155, 187, 204, 206, 397
255, 272, 299, 342, 357, Germans, 41, 45, 130, 209,
212, 270, 365
435
Germany, 20, 71, 236, 299, 386, 388, 389, 396, 402,
352, 399, 402 412
Getae, 41 Goda, 130, 133
Goat, 345, 359, 368 gold, 22, 29, 30, 36, 54, 58,
God, 4, 5, 7, 18, 23, 24, 31, 32, 104, 113, 152, 156, 159,
33, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 49, 163, 177, 242, 244, 255,
50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 301, 306, 418, 421
59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 66, Golden Ass, 37, 263
69, 70, 72, 75, 76, 78, 79, Golden Calf, 50
80, 82, 83, 84, 86, 87, 90, golden house, 301, 304
93, 95, 97, 98, 99, 102, 108, Golden Mass, 25
109, 114, 115, 116, 117, Golden Verses, 28, 46
120, 125, 126, 127, 128, good and evil, 209, 222, 226,
129, 130, 131, 132, 138, 265
139, 140, 143, 144, 148, Good Friday, 25, 326
149, 150, 151, 154, 155, Gordian knot, 1
156, 157, 160, 161, 164, Gothic, 24, 26, 58, 316
165, 167, 172, 173, 177, grade, 94, 100, 102, 195
179, 181, 188, 189, 190, Grand Éccosais Philosophe, 31
191, 193, 202, 204, 207, Grand Éccossais, 260
209, 215, 216, 217, 219, Gratian, 222, 253
220, 222, 223, 224, 225, gratias agamus domino Deo
226, 229, 230, 232, 234, nostro, 132
235, 237, 239, 241, 242, Great Architect, 4, 26, 31, 32,
243, 244, 246, 247, 248, 43, 44, 47, 52, 53, 54, 55,
251, 252, 256, 258, 261, 56, 75, 76, 80, 90, 93, 104,
262, 264, 268, 269, 271, 106, 108, 112, 119, 121,
274, 277, 278, 280, 281, 124, 128, 130, 135, 136,
283, 290, 291, 295, 296, 144, 148, 152, 156, 158,
298, 299, 300, 303, 306, 159, 161, 165, 170, 172,
309, 313, 322, 324, 327, 177, 181, 182, 188, 189,
329, 330, 336, 344, 351, 190, 191, 200, 215, 230,
367, 369, 370, 373, 377, 234, 243, 244, 257, 262,
378, 379, 380, 381, 383, 264, 276, 296, 318
436
Great Lama, 2 388, 394, 395, 396, 397,

great star, 4, 10, 16, 21, 32, 398, 403, 422
82, 86, 92, 115, 162, 238, green, 11, 82, 335, 352
319 Gregorian, 24, 26, 130, 393
Greece, 40, 49, 102, 109, 128, Gregory the Cappadocian,
144, 157, 195, 254, 277, 415
278, 288, 321, 333, 338, GREGORY THE GREAT, 6
355, 361, 364, 369, 371, griffons., 37
372, 394, 397 guardians, 17, 56, 138, 296,
Greek, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 16, 18, 364
21, 24, 26, 31, 37, 43, 54, Hallelujah, 327, 331
59, 60, 62, 63, 74, 77, 84, harvest, 22, 24, 28, 32, 35, 47,
96, 102, 106, 108, 113, 120, 49, 53, 82, 119, 122, 144,
121, 122, 125, 132, 139, 145, 146, 160, 163, 166,
143, 145, 147, 148, 155, 171, 182, 200, 205, 228,
162, 163, 171, 184, 186, 237, 239, 261, 267, 273,
188, 193, 198, 200, 206, 277, 311, 318, 339, 341
207, 208, 229, 234, 245, hatreds, 2, 107, 254, 418
246, 254, 268, 287,顔 298, HAZAZEL, 49
314, 316, 323, 331, 332, heaven, 41, 46, 47, 62, 63, 64,
336, 337, 339, 342, 343, 66, 71, 93, 96, 97, 108, 111,
344, 348, 359, 364, 365, 116, 126, 135, 139, 153,
370, 372, 373, 380, 383, 156, 164, 167, 170, 172,
387, 391, 392, 394, 395, 186, 191, 194, 198, 202,
396, 397, 398, 399, 400, 215, 216, 219, 227, 228,
401, 402, 404, 421 230, 247, 261, 263, 280,
Greek mass, 24 281, 291, 295, 300, 302,
Greeks, 20, 27, 34, 40, 53, 304, 306, 307, 308, 311,
101, 107, 113, 115, 116, 313, 315, 324, 330, 334,
132, 143, 147, 156, 169, 339, 350, 351, 360, 388,
172, 217, 261, 288, 301, 408
302, 332, 339, 343, 344, Hebraic rite, 52
348, 350, 352, 353, 355, Hebrew, 43, 54, 62, 96, 100,
357, 364, 365, 366, 370, 114, 129, 133, 141, 146,
437
164, 166, 195, 200, 207, 226, 235, 243, 245, 253,
209, 225, 226, 268, 290, 259, 261, 262, 268
300, 306, 338, 363, 372, Hierophant, 180, 182
421 highways, 23, 362, 364
Hebrews, 11, 24, 31, 34, 49, Hilaria, 324
57, 63, 79, 111, 120, 139, Hilariae, 327, 328, 329
143, 144, 145, 160, 167, Hildebert, 255
194, 213, 226, 239, 290, Hindu, 57, 105, 298
291, 300, 355 Hindustan, 370
Hecate, 103, 298, 302, 310 holy kiss, 272
Hekatombaion, 348 Holy Places, 10
Helios, 301 Holy Water Sprinkler, 47
hemisphere, 216, 238, 240, holy, holy, holy, 139
294, 319, 325, 353, 354, Holy-Sprit, 84
361 horses, 5, 150, 157, 336
Henri III, 187, 341 Horus, 26, 86, 121, 126, 128,
Henri IV, 187 264, 265, 289, 293, 299,
Henry VII, 269, 270 300, 304, 309
Heraclius, 340, 420, 422 HOSANNA in the high
Hercules, 85, 140, 144, 295, places!, 139
319, 346, 349, 365, 366 Hugues de Saint-Victor, 30
Hermes, 13, 260, 308, 359, human race, 1, 2, 10, 82, 90,
363, 364, 365 122, 126, 144, 148, 158,
hermit, 324 162, 167, 170, 172, 198,
Herod, 105 204, 242, 272, 290, 311
Herodotus, 203 Hungarian, 14
Hierocoraces, 29 hunger, 82, 116, 214
hierogrammates, 35, 225, Hunter's Mass,, 26
254 husband, 92, 117, 309, 314,
hierophant, 1, 16, 17, 19, 21, 324
32, 36, 37, 46, 49, 54, 119, Huss,, 155
121, 122, 123, 124, 125, hymn, 46, 63, 75, 90, 93, 124,
126, 143, 148, 149, 156, 130, 132, 135, 141, 224,
160, 165, 182, 191, 204, 242, 305, 313
438
hymns, 24, 28, 32, 35, 123, initiates, 1, 4, 5, 17, 20, 21,
136, 147, 161, 342, 343 22, 23, 27, 32, 33, 35, 37,
Hypatia, 417 42, 43, 44, 47, 49, 51, 53,
hypocrites, 214 54, 56, 58, 59, 64, 76, 78,
hypothesis, 24, 72, 224 82, 100, 101, 107, 108, 109,
Ianus, 359 112, 113, 114, 119, 120,
IAO, 5 121, 122, 123, 124, 127,
Ibis, 128, 134 129, 131, 134, 135, 138,
idolatrous practices, 1, 108 143, 144, 149, 151, 156,
idolatry, 23, 64, 105, 117, 124, 162, 163, 164, 165, 169,
241, 282, 332, 365, 368, 171, 173, 178, 179, 180,
393, 394 181, 182, 183, 184, 185,
Idumea, 164, 197 187, 188, 191, 193, 198,
I-ha-ho, 103 201, 204, 206, 207, 221,
Imaginary Saints, 321 230, 235, 236, 241, 244,
Imaginary Saints., 321 245, 247, 254, 258, 260,
immolatus est Christus, 164 262, 263, 264, 265, 268,
in urbe et in orbe, 2 271, 272, 277, 294, 305,
incarnated, 83, 86, 105, 234, 307
257, 289, 300, 387, 388 initiation, 19, 27, 28, 33, 34,
incense, 3, 15, 39, 46, 120, 35, 41, 110, 112, 125, 131,
121, 143, 161, 164, 166, 141, 147, 305, 309, 326,
173, 197, 224, 269, 314, 346
328, 366, 412 Innocent III, 53, 401
India, 8, 86, 93, 101, 102, 108, Innocent VIII, 20
110, 189, 213, 246, 278, Inquisition, 155, 403, 405
344, 370 INRI, 267, 275, 276
Indians, 56, 62, 101, 110, 116, inspectors, 17
125, 131, 153, 211, 244, insurrections, 414
283 intermediary spirits, 132
indigenat, 137 introibo, 28, 39, 45, 46, 148
indulgences, 20, 69, 156, 178, Introit, 28, 31, 32, 33, 35, 37,
214, 272 39, 45
infernal regions,, 315 Ireland, 14, 71
439
Irene, 336, 392, 394 Jerusalem, 58, 68, 138, 314,

iron, 35, 36, 413, 421 344, 351, 392, 400, 402,
Isaiah, 51, 63, 73, 290 421
Isis, 26, 29, 35, 37, 50, 86, 90, Jesuitism, 159, 299
121, 122, 125, 126, 128, Jesus, 6, 29, 55, 59, 63, 65, 68,
133, 135, 141, 158, 161, 70, 72, 76, 77, 79, 80, 81,
166, 167, 217, 226, 263, 85, 86, 89, 90, 92, 93, 94,
265, 293, 298, 299, 300, 95, 97, 99, 102, 105, 112,
302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 113, 115, 125, 131, 133,
309, 310, 312, 314, 324, 137, 144, 145, 148, 151,
336, 359, 370, 372, 374, 157, 160, 169, 179, 188,
419 189, 196, 218, 236, 243,
Islam, 108, 155, 423 245, 253, 275, 288, 289,
Israel, 50, 51, 57, 144, 156, 290, 292, 293, 295,顔 300,
193, 227, 228, 280, 314 304, 311, 312, 314, 316,
Israelites, 24, 59, 62, 166, 167, 342, 377, 378, 379, 380,
169, 195, 209, 210, 219, 383, 384, 386, 387, 388,
233, 238, 242, 300, 329, 389, 390, 391, 392, 393,
364 395, 396, 399, 401, 402,
Italian, 31, 54, 107, 270, 407 403, 404, 408, 410, 411,
Ite missa est, 208, 259 412
Jacobinary, 299 Jesus-Christ, 387, 389, 390,
Jacobite, 420, 422 392, 396
Jacques de Molay, 155 Jewish, 155, 170, 194, 210,
James the Elder, 102 225, 302, 305, 334, 410,
Janus, 194, 196, 197, 198, 200, 411, 413
233, 237, 239, 274, 275, Jews, 5, 7, 49, 50, 51, 57, 102,
306, 324, 337, 347, 359, 137, 138, 153, 163, 166,
360 168, 169, 194, 209, 210,
Japan, 332 229, 299, 324, 325, 333,
Jean-Jacques, 176 341, 346, 386, 410, 411,
Jephtha, 324 413, 416, 420, 421
John, 52, 53, 64, 73, 75, 78,
79, 95, 101, 102, 108, 110,
440
112, 133, 136, 155, 159, Kāng Xī, 61

180, 187, 188, 191, 193, Kāngxī, 61
194, 195, 196, 197, 198, key, 19, 43, 59, 79, 130, 170,
200, 202, 230, 237, 247, 211, 270, 278, 306, 360
272, 273, 274, 276, 324, keys., 347, 360
337, 338, 341, 347, 355, Kilwinning, 190, 207
396, 398, 399, 400, 402, kingdom, 13, 58, 66, 95, 97,
404, 410, 411, 416 99, 145, 148, 151, 188, 209,
Jordan, 24, 110, 112, 139, 193, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219,
195, 275 220, 226, 228, 238, 247,
Josiah, 5 299
journey, 36, 42, 216, 359 kings, 5, 13, 14, 25, 29, 44, 57,
Judah, 5 67, 68, 116, 138, 144, 145,
Judaism, 5, 144, 198, 209 149, 150, 163, 206, 217,
jugglery, 22, 79 219, 223, 239, 254, 276,
Julia Augusta, 363 290, 321, 357, 383
Julius Caesar, 347 Knef, 104, 122, 128, 134, 158,
Juno, 298, 311, 359 165, 172, 188, 198, 204,
Jupiter, 2, 29, 40, 54, 77, 90, 264, 277, 296
101, 103, 106, 120, 123, Kong Zi, 61
127, 129, 138, 140, 145, Kong Zi (Confucius, 61
165, 184, 186, 211, 212, Koran, 58
223, 225, 229, 230, 233, Koth-omphet, 208
239, 241, 246, 261, 269, Krishna, 86, 105, 128, 278,
275, 308, 323, 326, 337, 299, 300
365, 366, 372 Kyrie, 54, 148
justice, 30, 61, 62, 76, 91, 124, labyrinth, 19, 236
149, 170, 177, 179, 192, Lactantius, 17
214, 221, 248, 266, 280, Lama, 151, 155, 156
292, 293, 301, 314, 353, Lamb, 54, 92, 181, 241, 242,
362, 377 295, 321, 325, 329, 333,
Justin. See Saint Justin 338, 354, 392
Juvenal, 29, 53, 121, 334, 351 Lamb of God, 90
Kaddish,, 216, 226, 227 Lamp, 35
441
lamps, 17, 35, 36, 314 235, 240, 252, 255, 259,
Lao Gun, 106 265, 291, 292, 293, 294,
Lararia, 361 295, 313, 314, 315, 339,
Lares., 361, 362 345, 350, 359, 370, 371,
Last Judgement, 101 373, 387, 388, 400, 423
Last Supper, 24, 168, 169, 205 light, 3, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 21,
Lateran Council, 255, 257, 33, 34, 36, 38, 44, 46, 51,
399, 400, 401, 405 65, 75, 76, 77, 82, 83, 85,
Latin Mass, 24, 26 89, 91, 92, 95, 98, 102, 108,
latitude, 17 109, 114, 138, 145, 150,
Latona, 298, 302, 309, 314 156, 163, 165, 174, 176,
latria, 4 178, 179, 181, 185, 190,
law, 41, 50, 84, 87, 116, 179, 198, 201, 202, 210, 224,
181, 198, 199, 232, 243, 229, 230, 231, 236, 239,
260, 282, 293, 324, 372, 243, 247, 250, 251, 257,
401, 408, 410, 420 267, 274, 286, 292, 293,
leavened, 16 294, 296, 306, 308, 309,
Lenoir, 10, 58, 232 310, 311, 313, 314, 319,
Leo IV, 263 328, 329, 338, 366, 370,
Leo X, 20, 104, 407, 408 371, 377, 378, 386, 388
Leucothea, 312 lily, 113, 305, 310
Levi, 50, 338 litany, 288, 289, 293, 295,
libation, 164, 205 299, 300, 301, 302, 304,
life, 12, 15, 16, 20, 22, 28, 33, 305, 306, 307, 310
39, 46, 51, 57, 61, 63, 66, Litany, 288, 298
67, 75, 82, 83, 84, 86, 87, liturgical, 24, 234, 421
92, 95, 99, 101, 107, 110, liturgy, 10, 25, 26, 130, 140,
112, 114, 116, 122, 145, 160, 161, 265, 268, 274,
152, 153, 156, 160, 162, 343, 394
167, 170, 174, 175, 176, lodge, 20, 119, 136, 147, 165,
178, 179, 180, 187, 188, 183, 206, 271
189, 190, 193, 197, 198, logos, 20, 21, 119, 136, 139,
223, 225, 226, 227, 228, 144, 149, 271
230, 231, 232, 233, 234, longitude, 17
442
Louis IX, 254 martyr, 23, 120, 173, 337,

Louis XV, 187 417
Louis XVIII, 408 Mary, 53, 65, 86, 90, 96, 125,
Lucan, 258, 367 133, 226, 287, 293, 296,
Lucifera, 201, 298, 308 298, 299, 300, 301, 302,
Lucina, 201, 298, 308 304, 305, 306, 307, 308,
Lucretius, 75, 204, 233, 234, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313,
258, 303, 366, 371 314, 316, 324, 351, 374,
lustral water, 12, 21, 28, 32, 387, 388, 389
45, 47, 179, 224, 327 masahh, 290
Lutetia, 12 masihh, 290
Luther, 20, 251, 255, 257, Masonic knocks, 148
406 Masonic lodges, 20, 112, 115,
Lydians, 307 180, 200
Lyon, 6, 256, 312, 388, 402, Masonic Temples, 17, 44
405 Masonry, 17, 154, 163, 168,
madonna, 311 198, 241, 248, 250, 259,
Magi, 2, 99, 125, 132, 182, 266, 271, 275
188, 246 Masons, 11, 16, 20, 21, 56,
Magic, 246 109, 111, 119, 125, 144,
Magna Mater, 27, 161, 293, 145, 147, 160, 171, 176,
307 177, 180, 182, 195, 198,
Maimakterion, 353 201, 221, 241, 256, 259,
Makaukas, 422 264, 265, 268
maniple, 30, 38 mass, 2, 12, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28,
mankind, 2, 90 30, 31, 32, 37, 38, 39, 42,
March, 73, 92, 98, 238, 295, 45, 49, 59, 119, 122, 124,
305, 321, 323, 324, 325, 127, 130, 132, 133, 143,
329, 333, 338, 386 145, 146, 147, 148, 152,
Marguerite Porete, 403 157, 160, 161, 163, 165,
Maria, 65, 86, 90, 161, 298, 169, 170, 171, 178, 180,
302 184, 186, 187, 193, 196,
Marked Mass,, 26 197, 200, 203, 205, 206,
Mars, 211, 212, 323, 366 207, 236, 243, 245, 255,
443
257, 263, 267, 278, 306, messias, 290

325, 326, 343, 352, 370, Metageitnion, 348
371, 378, 387, 399, 405, metempsychosis, 100, 101,
412 102, 117
Mass of the Dead, 26 metropolitan, 376, 377, 383
Mass of the Holy Spirit, 25, 26 Mexicans, 173, 328
Mass of the Presanctified, 25 Michael, 53, 54, 393, 394,
massacre of the innocents, 397, 402
105 middle ages, 26, 184, 198
Massilon, 8 Midnight Mass, 26
maternity, 313 Minerva, 17, 323, 336, 344,
Maximus of Tyre, 40 346, 347, 348, 357, 359,
mediator, 10, 16, 32, 47, 289, 365
329 minor initiates, 51, 134, 264
Medina, 422 Minos, 181, 332
Melchizedeck, 31 Minotaur, 332, 357
Memento, 152, 176, 179, 186 miracle, 82, 171, 286, 290,
Memphis, 28, 35, 39, 121, 369
167, 361 Miraculum, 290
Mercurius quadratus, 13 missa pro duella, 26
Mercurius Quadriceps, 13 missal, 30
Mercury, 13, 36, 127, 133, missals, 26, 30
211, 212, 308, 309, 346, missionaries, 8, 265, 383
359, 362, 363, 364, 365 Mithras, 29, 47, 87, 88, 113,
mercy, 3, 53, 54, 60, 61, 148, 116, 127, 133, 173, 326,
188, 202, 225, 227, 228, 328, 334, 353, 361, 370
280, 338 mitre, 31
Mesrah, 422 mockers, 260
messenger, 84, 85, 86, 133, modern cult, 28, 328
201, 308 Mohammed, 104, 351
messiah, 5, 133, 290, 308 mola, 32, 164, 243, 269
Messiah, 15, 23, 133, 143, Molay, 155
146, 164, 198, 202, 209, Monk, 290
210, 290, 309
444
monks, 10, 26, 187, 249, 312, Mozarbic Rite, 26

332, 339, 341, 390, 400, murders, 24, 107, 144
403, 415, 416 Muslims, 153, 325, 351, 400
monstrance, 13, 14, 15, 19, Mylita, 301
346 mystagogues, 42, 53, 72, 76,
Montanism, 8 77, 85
Montanus, 8 mysteries, 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 24, 25,
Monte Soratte, 41 26, 28, 33, 34, 35, 37, 39,
Montfaucon, 12 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 49, 50,
moon, 17, 51, 54, 86, 97, 115, 52, 53, 55, 59, 62, 63, 75,
145, 157, 161, 211, 233, 76, 78, 79, 90, 91, 95, 98,
246, 299, 300, 302, 306, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104,
309, 310, 311, 312, 315, 105, 108, 109, 112, 113,
321, 325, 328, 330, 333, 114, 121, 122, 123, 124,
343, 386 126, 128, 135, 139, 141,
morale, 1, 2, 4, 23, 50, 91, 144, 147, 149, 154, 158,
109, 112, 116, 123, 126, 160, 162, 163, 164, 165,
158, 180, 221, 277, 378 166, 172, 173, 177, 178,
Morale, 4, 24, 34 179, 183, 184, 187, 191,
Mosaic, 7, 31, 169, 392 193, 198, 206, 217, 220,
Moses, 29, 31, 41, 49, 50, 51, 229, 235, 243, 244, 247,
52, 57, 62, 103, 160, 164, 254, 260, 261, 262, 264,
167, 168, 177, 181, 195, 265, 267, 273, 276, 277,
203, 242, 273, 280, 283, 278, 289, 296, 305, 309,
296, 364, 396, 402, 410 311, 324, 326, 334, 342,
Mother of God, 298, 389 364, 372, 378
Mother-Religion, 2 mystery, 1, 14, 16, 18, 25, 44,
Mounichion, 321, 339 50, 72, 78, 79, 89, 99, 100,
Mount Ida, 40 124, 129, 131, 133, 135,
Mount Parnassus, 34 146, 171, 188, 233, 242,
Mount Sipylus, 13 253, 293, 387
Mountain, 39 Nabonassar, 29
moveable festivals, 333 Napoleon, 64, 67, 71, 73, 407
Mozarbic, 24, 26, 315, 342 narcissus, 310
445
Nathan, 5 Oannes, 193, 194, 195, 196,

nativity, 313, 353 197, 198, 230, 273, 274,
NATURAL RELIGION, 148, 275, 277, 305
156 oblation, 22, 24, 26, 119, 120,
Nautical Mass,, 25 125, 135, 148, 157, 163,
Neomenia, 226, 300, 321 167, 170, 173, 251, 276,
neophyte, 32, 35, 36, 37, 49, 277, 278
125, 326 oblong square, 12, 16, 17, 20,
neophytes, 13, 94, 110, 131, 22
164 Oby, 86, 301
Neptune, 303, 361 Occident, 113, 213, 277, 278,
Nestorius, 253, 303, 389, 392, 370, 391, 396, 400, 416
417 October, 323, 353, 355
New World, 152 Odin, 27, 103, 127, 130, 133,
New Year, 196, 334 212, 229, 289, 296, 365
Newton, 57, 238, 381 Oeneus Schedius, 45
Nicea, 8, 60, 138, 295, 380, offering, 3, 14, 22, 23, 24, 28,
382, 383, 385, 387, 393, 35, 36, 37, 42, 46, 49, 53,
402, 414 59, 120, 122, 123, 125, 126,
Nicolas II, 255 129, 143, 144, 145, 146,
Nile, 16, 24, 36, 51, 127, 139, 148, 157, 160, 161, 163,
305, 333, 348, 413 164, 165, 167, 169, 170,
Nocchi, 263 171, 180, 190, 191, 203,
Non-Hermetic Scottish Rite., 219, 228, 234, 236, 239,
209 245, 247, 257, 261, 267,
North, 49, 59, 62, 102, 212, 271, 272, 273, 277
213, 299 offertory, 24
nourishment, 3, 15, 162, 164, ointment, 290
171, 268, 271 Olaus, 13
November, 355, 357, 408 Olympus, 40, 64, 131, 309,
Numa, 28, 30, 32, 120, 173, 314
237, 240, 268, 321, 369 Omar, 422
Numidia, 363 omnia sœcula sœculorum, 131
nuns, 38, 52, 249 onion, 2, 134, 204
446
opium, 301 259, 261, 263, 276, 278,

Ops, 298, 306, 307 302, 303, 309, 340, 348,
ordinary, 30 364, 393, 412
Oreb, 34 paganism, 31, 78, 85, 94, 123,
orient, 11, 12, 21, 182, 183, 177, 198, 209, 282, 302,
206, 296, 360, 412 315, 412
Orient, 5, 11, 21, 36, 97, 101, pagans, 6, 7, 14, 17, 28, 45,
108, 166, 182, 244, 271, 58, 95, 105, 120, 123, 132,
277, 350, 370, 394, 396, 133, 143, 145, 146, 162,
400, 408, 413, 416, 419, 173, 174, 176, 177, 178,
421 186, 187, 194, 210, 225,
Origen, 163, 246, 248, 249, 246, 248, 265, 305, 310,
391, 412, 416 311, 334, 340, 342, 348,
Orpheus, 28, 36, 93, 109, 119, 373, 374, 377, 389, 411,
123, 124, 137, 174, 195, 415
198, 370 Palestine, 273, 278, 288, 340,
Orphic, 165, 167, 334 400, 408, 419
Orus, 16, 230, 232, 299 Palinurus, 174
Osiris, 2, 16, 26, 29, 33, 34, Palm Sunday, 326, 333
91, 121, 122, 126, 127, 128, Pan, 332, 348, 371
167, 174, 184, 191, 196, Papacy, 67, 68, 108, 403, 406
197, 223, 230, 264, 265, Papists, 208, 343
289, 296, 299, 300, 314, Paraclete, 85
326, 328, 353, 359, 361, Paris, 5, 12, 21, 26, 71, 73,
365, 369, 372, 415 103, 178, 189, 229, 249,
overseer, 17 250, 270, 272, 273, 312,
Ovid, 120, 321, 322, 332, 334, 331, 340, 341, 346, 349,
335, 337, 367 359, 403, 406, 407
Ozius, 378 Parthenon, 333
Pachacamac, 162, 165, 229 passions, 33, 112, 123, 158,
pagan, 6, 8, 12, 13, 14, 28, 30, 170, 180, 202, 207, 249,
45, 49, 106, 127, 129, 160, 258
164, 171, 176, 179, 186, Passover, 261
200, 201, 205, 229, 252, paten, 22, 178, 206, 238
447
Pater Noster, 209, 225 Philip, King of Macedonia,

path, 33, 42, 94, 290, 324, 41
361 philosophal, 221, 260
patriarch, 57, 171, 376, 389, Philosophic Rite, 170, 260
395, 398, 420, 421 philosophy, 1, 4, 46, 103,
Patriarch George, 422 115, 176, 191, 199, 226,
Patriarch of Constantinople, 247, 334, 423
392, 394 Phlegethon, 103
Paul, 53, 70, 73, 75, 79, 139, Phlegon, 100
169, 218, 234, 258, 342, Phoebe, 302
381, 386, 405, 410, 411, Phoenicia, 31, 144, 157, 189,
413 197, 273, 274, 288, 300,
Paulus, 30 361
pearls, 29 Phoenician, 30, 57, 108, 194,
Pelasgia, 312 197, 200, 203, 274, 276
Pentalogue, 62, 291 Phoenicians, 57, 98, 131, 195,
Pentalogue of Wu, 62 273, 326, 363
perfume, 15, 120, 122, 327 Pierre de Valdo, 251
persecutions, 2, 89, 137, 248, Pierre du Bruys, 251
257, 290, 389, 414, 416 planetary system, 21, 56,
Persia, 58, 246, 288, 370, 420 257
Persian, 109, 121, 127, 130, planets, 14, 54, 99, 211, 214,
132, 193, 207, 373 233, 293, 364
Persians, 59, 87, 88, 95, 110, Platinus, 6
114, 131, 139, 321, 334, Platonic Philosophers, 5,
351, 361, 419, 421 189
Pest, 14 Plautus, 269
Peter, 53, 68, 72, 78, 188, 201, Pliny, 334, 369
202, 233, 256, 347, 360, Plutarch, 334, 372
379, 406, 410, 411, 417 Pluto, 87, 103, 186, 223, 302,
phalanxes, 23 310
Phallus, 47, 275, 324 polytheism, 23, 42, 43, 50,
Phamenoth, 324 64, 77, 119, 126, 127, 129,
Philae, 419
448
133, 135, 191, 278, 288, 143, 145, 157, 164, 176,
298, 366 203, 207, 209, 214, 227,
pomegranate, 301 228, 272, 302, 316, 351,
pomegranates, 29 371, 391
Pontius Pilate, 65, 91 precession of the equinoxes,
Pope Adrian, 348, 394 325
Pope Calixtus II, 400 Preface, 58, 127, 132, 135, 136
Pope Clement V, 270, 403 pregnancy, 374
Pope Gelasius, 253, 371 priest, 6, 12, 21, 25, 26, 28,
Pope Gregory 1st, 298, 299 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 45, 49,
Pope Gregory the 1st, 302 60, 98, 117, 120, 122, 123,
Pope Gregory V, 355 124, 126, 128, 129, 150,
Pope Innocent II, 400 157, 164, 167, 171, 172,
Pope Leo IV, 30 178, 205, 206, 222, 237,
Pope Nicolas II, 399 241, 245, 247, 253, 270,
Pope Pious VII, 64 272, 326, 342, 376, 377,
Pope Sergius, 235 378, 379, 398, 422
Pope Urban, 400, 404 primate, 236, 376
Pope Urban V, 404 primitive Christianity, 3
Portugal, 71, 342 Prince of darkness, 319
Post-communion, 259 Princeps porta, 12
powers, 96, 116, 131, 132, 141, PRINCIPLE-RELIGION, 1
160, 193, 403, 407 procession, 39, 46, 84, 85,
prayer, 28, 30, 119, 123, 124, 107, 180, 272, 301, 316,
125, 129, 133, 135, 141, 326, 338, 340, 346, 369,
144, 157, 160, 178, 182, 371, 396, 403
187, 189, 191, 193, 200, prodigy, 82, 219, 263, 313
202, 203, 207, 209, 210, profane, 7, 22, 34, 36, 44, 51,
214, 216, 219, 224, 230, 105, 112, 119, 164, 180,
242, 259, 268, 271, 291, 248, 265
298, 301, 302, 309, 326, Prometheus, 17
330 property, 43, 94, 413
prayers, 6, 24, 25, 26, 28, 41, prophet, 239
70, 103, 110, 118, 120, 124,
449
Proserpina, 298, 302, 310, rebirth, 89, 92, 112, 167, 180,
311 200, 293
Protestants, 155, 241, 249, redemption, 96, 156, 157,
260 209, 210
psalm, 15, 121 regeneration, 52, 272, 275
Ptolemaid, 5 regina virginum, 301, 302
Ptolemy, 158, 363 reign of a thousand, 218
purgatory, 26, 178 remission of crimes and
Purification, 39, 160 sins, 20
purple, 10, 31, 37, 239, 260, reproduction, 15, 82, 90, 140,
301 313, 314
Pyanepsion, 357 res miranda, 290
pyramid, 49, 56, 58, 181 Rhea, 40, 86, 89, 125, 161,
Pyrenees, 41 164, 298, 307
Pythagoras, 17, 28, 37, 46, Rhodes, 40
100, 101, 109, 115, 132, Rhodope,, 40
166 rice, 118, 331
Pythian games, 371, 372 Rimini, 386, 387
Python, 310 ritual, 10, 11, 14, 37, 43, 55,
Quantum nobis prodest haec 57, 59, 123, 124, 125, 139,
fabula Christi!, 20 143, 164, 165, 169, 183,
Quasimodo, 333, 335 184, 186, 188, 207, 226,
rabat, 31, 50 230, 238, 265, 267, 272,
Rakesh, 14 277, 311, 339, 371
Raphael, 263 rivers, 24, 39, 41, 46, 103,
reason, 2, 19, 20, 23, 24, 56, 116
59, 67, 76, 78, 79, 81, 84, Robert of Sorbon, 254
91, 106, 109, 121, 126, 127, Rogations, 338, 339
135, 136, 138, 144, 148, Roman, 2, 24, 26, 28, 30, 68,
150, 152, 154, 161, 162, 72, 96, 104, 111, 112, 121,
170, 171, 191, 214, 222, 122, 123, 124, 132, 137,
234, 236, 242, 247, 256, 145, 146, 155, 157, 161,
257, 265, 269, 273, 278, 174, 186, 187, 196, 197,
298, 334, 366, 380, 412 207, 210, 213, 253, 254,
450
262, 267, 270, 271, 282, roots, 3, 265

305, 312, 315, 316, 321, Rose-Croix, 97, 190, 206, 207,
337, 338, 344, 346, 348, 260
351, 353, 360, 373, 379, roses, 310, 313
383, 394, 395, 396, 399, Roucher, 328, 352
401, 404, 408, 414, 416, rubies, 29
420, 422 rubric, 30
Roman Church, 68, 157, 254, rude, 13, 14
316, 396, 404, 408 Rue St-Denis, 322
Roman Mass, 24 Rufinus of Aquilea, 60
Romans, 6, 7, 11, 22, 32, 40, Sabaoth, 135, 139, 140, 141,
46, 47, 57, 107, 120, 132, 165, 246, 322
137, 145, 156, 169, 172, SABAOTH, 139, 140
176, 179, 194, 196, 201, Sabeism, 54, 127, 152
208, 217, 246, 262, 312, Sabianism, 108, 116, 157,
315, 323, 324, 325, 327, 332
334, 335, 336, 337, 340, sacred dress, 28
341, 346, 360, 361, 364, Sacred Instruments, 10
366, 369, 371, 388, 396, sacrifice, 14, 16, 22, 24, 25,
397, 405, 410, 412, 421, 28, 32, 45, 119, 120, 122,
422 123, 127, 129, 130, 131,
Rome, 2, 13, 29, 31, 55, 71, 135, 143, 145, 155, 157,
72, 82, 106, 114, 120, 137, 160, 162, 164, 165, 166,
144, 157, 160, 171, 193, 171, 189, 206, 235, 236,
194, 197, 198, 204, 205, 237, 238, 240, 241, 263,
213, 255, 260, 263, 264, 268, 277, 323, 326, 327,
268, 278, 282, 316, 321, 387
323, 327, 329, 333, 336, sacrificer, 16, 31, 32, 55, 120,
337, 338, 347, 348, 369, 122, 155, 163, 164, 171,
373, 378, 379, 387, 388, 173, 205, 245, 263
389, 390, 391, 392, 395, sacristy, 12, 28
396, 397, 398, 400, 404, Sages, 1, 260
405, 406, 408, 413, 423 Saint Agnes, 202, 337, 359
Romulus, 323, 349, 357 Saint Ambrose, 251, 383
451
Saint Athanasius, 81, 114, Saint-Roch, 21, 331

348, 382, 415 salvation, 65, 81, 82, 83, 156,
Saint Augustine, 19, 20, 60, 157, 191, 270, 290, 291,
78, 81, 84, 85, 87, 242, 248, 307, 338, 351, 402
251, 252, 259, 265, 372, Samoans, 289
395, 413 Samothrace, 49, 102
Saint Christopher, 349, 366 Sanchuniathon, 196, 200,
Saint Clement of 203, 267, 273, 274, 276
Alexandria, 17, 103, 113, sanctuary, 31, 32, 37, 41, 49,
411 91, 98, 128, 129, 144, 164,
Saint Convion, 256 180, 191, 204, 243, 271,
Saint Cyril, 253, 389, 416, 315, 361
417 sanctus, 24, 55, 135, 140, 141,
Saint Denis, 186, 230, 253 142, 165, 298
Saint Ephrem, 251 Saracens, 400, 418, 419
Saint Epiphanius, 393, 411, Satan, 223, 225, 326
416 satin, 29
Saint Euphemia, 391 Saturday, 25, 46, 282, 343
Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, Saturn, 40, 77, 86, 207, 211,
269, 387 213, 223
Saint Irenaeus, 272 Saul, 290
Saint Jerome, 60, 218, 395, Sauval, 27
416 saviour, 164, 229, 301, 312,
Saint John, 52, 95, 112, 193, 319, 337, 369, 371
200 Saviour, 54, 99, 230, 290, 291,
Saint John Chrysostom, 52, 361, 372
53, 416 Saxon, 213
Saint Justin, 145, 173, 248, Scandinavia, 146, 278
267, 268, 270 Scandinavians, 27, 58, 289
Saint Martin, 38, 341 Scandinavians., 58
Saint Stephen, 200, 202 scarecrow, 101, 226
Saint-Croix, 38 scarlet, 37, 306
Saint-Denis, 21 sceptre, 55, 161, 300, 311,
Saint-Quentin, 30 312, 360
452
schism, 68, 393, 395, 396, SOLE GOD, 27

397, 403 Solomon, 93
scholasticism, 150 solstice, 63, 89, 93, 94, 95, 99,
Scioppius, 150, 151 198, 274, 293, 295, 319,
Scipio, 197 332, 344, 350, 361, 369,
Scots, 14 374
Scottish, 122, 169, 170, 180, Sommona-Codom, 291, 296
183, 184, 207, 209, 221, sophisms, 79, 84, 378
260, 268 Sosia, 269
seasons, 85, 92, 97, 117, 141, Soter, 337, 371, 372
238, 289, 293, 311, 319, soutane, 31
325, 333, 343, 360 South Carolina, 52
Second Council of Nicea, Spain, 26, 34, 71, 206, 272,
393 342, 388
Selden, 380, 383 Spanish, 155, 278, 321, 376
Selene,, 301 speculation, 26
seminal ejaculation,, 47 sperm, 48
sentiment, 1, 5, 102, 221, 253 spirits, 24, 126, 128, 131, 132,
Septimius Severus, 363 136, 139, 161, 265, 289,
serpent, 49, 97, 104, 194, 200, 416
301, 305, 310 spring, 81, 83, 92, 96, 99, 111,
Shastras, 56, 59, 61 167, 174, 242, 295, 319,
Shiva, 27 321, 325, 326, 327, 331,
Sibylline, 57 333, 334, 335, 336, 337,
Siena, 270 338, 339, 343, 344, 345,
sign of peace, 272 354, 372
sign of the alliance, 307 square stones, 13
silver, 30, 57, 113, 156, 178, Stabat mater dolorosa, 300
269, 270, 351 stamp, 29, 94, 272
Sinai, 34, 41, 50, 62, 63, 242 stella matutina, 302
skull, 51 Stepladder, 15
slippers, 29 Stoics, 246
Socrates, 23, 144 stole, 30, 31
sole god, 6, 56, 145, 316 storms, 96, 295, 338, 360
453
stupidity, 2, 23, 254, 256 326, 333, 335, 337, 361,

Styx, 156, 315 386
sultan, 397 Sun-gods, 288, 289, 292
summits, 39 supernatural, 39, 252, 290
Sun, 1, 4, 5, 10, 14, 15, 16, 22, supper, 32, 247, 249, 253, 259,
23, 32, 33, 34, 42, 43, 44, 260, 261, 412
45, 47, 52, 54, 55, 56, 59, supreme deity, 289
73, 75, 76, 77, 79, 80, 81, surplice, 6, 31
82, 83, 85, 86, 89, 90, 92, Surveillants, 17
93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, Sweden, 13
105, 107, 115, 116, 120, swindlers, 15, 24
122, 124, 125, 127, 131, Sybil, 219
133, 140, 141, 145, 146, symbol, 15, 22, 36, 46, 47, 59,
148, 157, 161, 162, 164, 60, 75, 76, 78, 79, 84, 90,
165, 167, 170, 180, 181, 94, 99, 102, 111, 113, 114,
183, 188, 189, 190, 196, 118, 144, 148, 186, 205,
197, 198, 200, 202, 205, 207, 219, 238, 242, 252,
209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 267, 300, 306, 309, 320,
216, 223, 224, 229, 230, 328, 332, 350, 359, 369,
232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 383, 387, 388, 399
237, 238, 239, 240, 242, synaxis, 147, 149, 177, 205,
243, 247, 251, 257, 258, 206, 207, 267, 272, 276,
262, 264, 267, 274, 275, 277
276, 278, 288, 289, 290, Synesius, 5
291, 292, 293, 294, 295, Syrian, 98, 103, 229, 363, 364,
299, 300, 302, 305, 306, 421
309, 310, 314, 316, 318, T, 16, 259, 264, 274, 300
319, 320, 325, 326, 327, table, 7, 15, 146, 206, 265, 271,
328, 329, 332, 333, 336, 336
338, 339, 344, 346, 347, Tabula Smaragdina, 308
349, 350, 351, 353, 355, talisman, 15, 23, 183, 206,
358, 359, 361, 374 207
Sunday, 33, 45, 114, 145, 209, Tarquin, 57
210, 211, 213, 282, 321,
454
taste, 5, 67, 177, 205, 265, thrones, 14, 106, 132, 138,
369 139, 141
Tau, 16, 383 Tibet, 151, 156, 278
taxman, 418, 420 Tibetans, 2
Tellus, 86, 298, 302, 309 Tibullus, 12, 269
Templars, 73, 159, 403 Timaeus, 8
ten commandments, 291 timorous mythologists, 289
Terminus, 13, 22 Titus, 410
Tertullian, 7, 8, 105, 172, 249, tomb, 71, 72, 89, 170, 180,
340, 351, 411 238, 295, 322, 326, 327,
Teutatis, 27 329, 351, 385, 388, 391
Thabor, 34 tombs, 2, 13, 178, 217
Thailand, 105, 231 torch, 21, 37, 76, 91, 122, 201,
Thargelion, 344 327, 370, 371
Theanthropy, 292 Tortano, 81
theism, 126, 127, 128, 129, torture, 81, 92, 96, 248
133, 135, 139, 189, 191 tower of Babel,, 58
theocracy, 151 tradition, 1, 53, 68, 78, 132,
Theodora, 393, 394, 398, 420 198, 401
Theodoret, 253, 257, 382 transvestitism, 364
Theodosius, 106, 160, 387, Triformis, 310
389, 420 trinity, 8, 60, 84, 85, 86, 88,
theogonies, 222, 278, 289 102, 104, 106, 129, 193,
theology, 78, 104, 151, 174, 298, 338
187, 203, 246, 334, 389, Triophtalmos, 106
391 Triptolemus, 330
Theophilus, 7, 415, 416 trophies, 23
Thomasse Babin, 259 trunk, 265
Thor, 27, 212, 289 truth, 1, 3, 7, 34, 44, 72, 75,
thorns, 29, 97 76, 78, 87, 93, 104, 106,
throne, 3, 13, 18, 36, 52, 62, 129, 131, 133, 135, 184,
70, 92, 106, 115, 144, 150, 185, 195, 196, 217, 237,
183, 292, 309, 420 247, 252, 255, 260, 273,
455
277, 278, 298, 320, 327, vest, 31

366, 382 Vesta, 86, 269, 298, 311, 314,
Tu-bal-Cain, 36 323, 327
tunic, 30, 31, 304, 306, 308, Vestals, 17, 299
314 vestibule, 21
Typhon, 2, 91, 128, 174, 207, victim, 14, 92, 164, 167, 168,
223, 225, 326 174, 236, 237, 248, 295,
tyranny, 2, 231 330
undergarment, 31 Vigilantius, 18
unknown, 33, 51, 112, 180, Virgil, 47, 123, 174, 217, 246,
184, 221, 233, 339, 370, 269, 293, 373
373, 391 VIRGILE, 6
Unleavened, 16 Virgin, 22, 25, 27, 54, 90, 92,
unveiled, 1, 21, 124, 128, 162 100, 125, 226, 291, 293,
Uppsala, 13 296, 298, 299, 300, 302,
Urania, 298, 313, 314 305, 308, 310, 312, 314,
Valerius Maximus, 363 316, 323, 324, 336, 338,
Varro, 370 342, 348, 350, 351, 369,
vaults, 11, 35, 139 374, 387, 388, 389, 393,
Vedas, 56, 57, 58, 105 402
vegetable, 14, 19, 20, 22, 148, Virgo dei genitrix, 300
203, 204, 238, 272 virgo paritura, 301
Veil, 39 virgo virginum, 302
veiled, 19, 21, 47, 51, 91, 147, Virgo-Paritura, 27
170, 174, 180, 235, 311, Vishnu, 27, 56, 105, 289, 299
314 vital fluids, 82
veils, 4, 10, 105, 195, 204, Vitruvius, 11
247 Volney, 10
Vénérable, 49, 119, 132, 272 Voltaire, 61, 91, 100, 104,
vengeance, 60, 61, 221 126, 130, 209, 217, 225,
Venus, 161, 211, 213, 298, 230, 232, 368, 373
301, 312, 313, 314, 321, VOLTAIRE. See Voltaire
326, 332, 335, 337, 339, Volupsa, 58
363, 364, 365, 370 Votive Mass, 25
456
Vulcan, 17, 370 328, 329, 332, 350, 361,

Waldensians, 249, 256, 257 369, 374
warden, 17, 146, 271, 379, word, 5, 7, 15, 16, 17, 20, 23,
380, 396 27, 38, 40, 42, 43, 44, 47,
wardrobe, 28 48, 49, 60, 63, 67, 75, 76,
Water Carrier, 181, 293, 369 77, 78, 84, 87, 94, 97, 101,
Wednesday, 25, 295, 337, 103, 108, 110, 111, 112,
343, 370 113, 114, 119, 121, 122,
Westminster Abbey, 14 124, 128, 129, 130, 133,
wheat, 14, 46, 83, 122, 146, 135, 136, 140, 141, 143,
164, 168, 203, 205, 234, 145, 146, 147, 158, 164,
306, 414, 421 165, 166, 171, 175, 176,
white, 11, 15, 22, 29, 30, 31, 178, 184, 188, 189, 195,
32, 37, 51, 84, 148, 163, 196, 200, 210, 211, 212,
172, 181, 205, 231, 312, 214, 221, 229, 234, 235,
314, 328, 335, 336, 345, 236, 238, 240, 245, 254,
351, 363 259, 261, 262, 263, 271,
widespread, 4, 10, 44, 155, 274, 275, 290, 291, 292,
210, 255, 277 300, 306, 308, 310, 323,
widowhood, 33, 89, 90 331, 332, 336, 337, 338,
William III, 260 340, 351, 357, 359, 361,
wine, 22, 62, 83, 119, 120, 362, 363, 365, 372, 373,
122, 123, 143, 144, 145, 376, 380, 383, 385, 389,
146, 149, 160, 161, 162, 395, 397, 401, 402, 408,
164, 165, 169, 171, 173, 409, 421
203, 205, 206, 234, 243, Worshipful Master, 13, 49,
245, 246, 247, 253, 254, 119, 123, 132, 148, 165,
255, 257, 258, 259, 260, 180, 182, 183, 262, 299
268, 271, 272, 291, 344, yazatas, 132
369, 399, 412, 421 yellow, 11, 306
winter, 20, 54, 63, 81, 89, 92, Zend Avesta, 58, 116, 173,
94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 196, 197, 291
198, 200, 216, 236, 293, zenith, 93, 97, 198, 294
295, 310, 319, 326, 327, Zeno, 418
457
Zion, 34 ΚΑΝΩΝ, 143

zodiac, 11, 94, 157, 194, 233, ΚΥΡΙΕ ΕΛΕΗΣΟΝ, 148
240, 265, 288, 320, 328, ΛΑΤΕΥΕΙΝ, 365
332, 345, 348 ΛΑΤΡΕΥΩ, 4
Zoilus, 420 ΛΙΤΑΙ, 268, 289
Zoroaster, 110, 115, 116, 125, ΛΟΓΟΣ, 342
376 ΟỦΡΑΝΌΣ, 314
Zurich, 405 ΟΔΟΣ, 254
Zwingli, 406 ΟΝΤΟΜΑΙ, 246
ΟΠΣΙΣ, 246
ΟΠΤΟΜΑΙ, 162
Greek ΣΕΛΑΝΟΣ, 145
ΣΥΜΒΑΛΛΩ, 113
ΑIΑΣ, 288 ΣΥΝ, 147, 254
ΑΓΥΡΜΟΣ, 147 ΣΩΤΗΡ, 371, 372
ΑΠΙΣΤΑΜΑΙ, 245 ΦΗΜΙ, 261
ΑΠΩ, 245
ΑΥΤΟΣ, 246
ΒΟΥΣ, 145 Hebrew
ΓΟΝΟΣ, 11, 132
ΔΟΧΟ, 342 ‫הללויה‬, 43
ΕΑΦΟΣ, 323 ‫מנחה‬, 300
ΕΙΔΟΣ, 365 ‫מש‬, 290
ΕΛΑΦΗΒΟΛΙΏΝ, 323 ‫משיח‬, 290
ΕΠΤOΜΑΙ, 5
ΕΥ, 261
ΕΧΧΑΛΕΩ, 8, 74 Chinese
ΘΕΟΣ, 11, 132, 291
ΘΕΟΣ-ΑΝΔΡΟΣ, 292 上帝, 330
ΘΡΟΠΟΣ, 292 孔夫子, 61
ΙΛΑΡΟΣ, 331 康熙帝, 61
ΙΣΤΑΜΑΙ, 245
458

The Mass and Its Mysteries

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THE MASS

AND ITS MYSTERIES

Translation Copyright © John Lenoir 2011 e.v., An CVIII

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be

The reader should consult La Messe et ses

Biographical Note by Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie. xvi

CHAPTER I – On the arrangement of holy places and sacred 10

CHAPTER II – Further on the same subject. 19

CHAPTER III – On the sacred dress of antiquity preserved in 28

CHAPTER IV – On the Domine-sol of the ancient rituals. – Veil 39

CHAPTER V – The Confiteor of the mass. – Public confession of 49

CHAPTER VI – CREDO or symbol of the modern belief. - Credo 59

CHAPTER VII – Continuation of the examination of the Credo 75

CHAPTER VIII – Continuation of the explanation of the Credo 81

CHAPTER IX – Continuation on the Trinities and Incarnations. 89

CHAPTER X – On the last judgement. – Opinion of Celsus; – 101

CHAPTER XI – Continuation of the Credo. – Baptism of the 110

CHAPTER XII – Continuation of the mass. – Silence imposed. – 119

CHAPTER XIII – Orate, fratres. – Secret. – Preface. – 127

CHAPTER XIV – Continuation or the Preface. – The concordat 135

CHAPTER XV – CANON of the mass. – Synaxes of the 145

CHAPTER XVI – Further on the Canon of the mass. – Artificial 152

CHAPTER XVII – Further on the Canon. – Purification of the 160

CHAPTER XVIII – Further on the Canon. – The words of the 169

CHAPTER XIX – Further on the Canon. – Hells of the pagans. - 176

CHAPTER XX – Further on the Memento of the Canon of the 186

CHAPTER XXI – Further on the explanation of the Orison of the 193

CHAPTER XXIII – Origin of the Pater Noster in the Hebrew 209

CHAPTER XXIV – Further on the seventh verse of the 225

CHAPTER XXV – Recapitulation of the solar incarnation. – The 233

CHAPTER XXVI – Further on the Agnus Dei. Objections 241

CHAPTER XXVII – Opinions and authority of the Fathers upon 251

CHAPTER XXVIII – Post-communion. – On the communion 259

CHAPTER XXXIX – Primitive synaxis and the synaxis of today. 267

Decalogue, by Moses. 280

LITANIES OF JESUS AND MARY

Litanies of Jesus. 287

Litanies of the Virgin Mary. 297

ANCIENT RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS, compared to Modern 317

1st sign. – The Ram or the Lamb. (March-April). Spring 321

5th sign. – The Lion. (July-August). 353

7th sign. – The Balance. (September-October). Autumnal 359

10th sign. – The Goat. (December-January). Winter Solstice.

11th sign. – The Water Carrier. (January-February).

12th sign. – The Fishes. (February-March).

HISTORICAL REPORT [French, note, also means exposé] ON 376

HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS OF THE PRIMITIVE 410

Ragon, J.M –distinguished French Masonic author, and one who

1 [Translator’s note. There are a large number of paintings by Jean-Marie

The writings of the ancient Sages 1 and the exploratory works of

1 Symbol of fecundity, image of the good principle.

Then, the Mother-Religion reclaimed her soft and lawful power;

1 Interpreters of the mysteries. The priests who explain them.

nation comes to adore in their accustomed places. In place of slaughtering cattle,

the mysteries held at Nicea had political motives in fixing the

'The pagans were not merely studious of imitating, in their superstitions

WITH THE MYSTERIES AND CEREMONIES

THE FIRST CHAPTER

1 Court de Gébelin, Boulanger, Fréret, Dupuis, Volney, Dulaure,

my readers by weighing them down with trivial truths; but I will

represent the zodiac; such also is it with the tessellated border

neophytes swear their oath in the orient, and the Worshipful

these breads of cooked dough represented the shape of that victim.