Devil-Worship in France; or, The Question of LuciferWaite, Arthur Edward
Religion
Devil-Worship in France; or, The Question of Lucifer
Waite, Arthur Edward
Satanism
As a consequence of this bogus experience in Calcutta, Dr Bataille
pretends to have been admitted within the charmed circle of the New and
Reformed Palladium, and was therefore qualified to be present at the
initiation of a Templar-Mistress which took place not long after at
Singapore. His account of this initiation turns upon two or three points
which do not appear in the synopsis of the sixth chapter. One of these
is the existence of a Kadosch Areopagite of the Ancient and Accepted
Scotch Rite. But at least, at the period in question, there was no such
Areopagite, and the Scotch Rite did not exist at Singapore. The sole
Masonic institution was a District Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons of England in the Eastern Archipelago, working under the
warrant of the English Grand Lodge, holding half-yearly communications,
and special meetings when the District Grand Master deemed necessary.
Its patent dates from March 3, 1878, and the District Grand Master at
the time was the Hon. William H. Macleod Read. Three lodges worked
under its jurisdiction, two of which were at Singapore and one at
Penang, and to one of the former a Royal Arch Chapter was attached. It
is needless to say that our author's Misraim diploma would have obtained
his admission to none, and there is no person here in England who would
have the effrontery to affirm that he might have fared better by reason
of his Palladian degree. It is sufficient, however, to state that there
was no Lodge of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite in Singapore at the
time of his visit. But the imposition does not end here; Dr Bataille
does not merely describe what took place at a lodge which was not in
existence--he gives particulars of an address delivered by a certain Dr
Murray at a meeting attended by himself. Now, at the date in question,
there was no such person either in the town, in its vicinity, or in
Penang. There is fortunately an institution among us which is termed the
British Museum, and it enables us to verify questions of this kind.
Furthermore, when describing the Palladian meeting at the Presbyterian
chapel--there was such a chapel by the way--he tells us that the Grand
Master was named Spencer, and that he was a _negociant_ of Singapore,
but there was again no such person in the town or its vicinity at the
time, and so his entire narrative, with its ritual reproduced from Leo
Taxil, is demolished completely. I submit that these two instances are
sufficient to indicate the kind of man with whom we are dealing. It may
be a matter of astonishment to my readers that a work even of imposition
should be performed so clumsily as to betray itself at once to a little
easy research, but it must be remembered that the class of French
readers to whom Dr Bataille made appeal are so ignorant of all which
concerns the English that skill is not required to exploit them; it is
enough that the English are abused. Of our author's qualifications in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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