testimony of certain writers, claiming special sources of information, and defending some affected interests of the Roman Catholic Church. My purpose in this book is to distinguish, so far as may be possible, what is true from what is false in the evidence, and I have undertaken the task, firstly, because modern mystics are accused, _en masse_, of being concerned in this cultus; secondly, because the existence of modern Satanism has given opportunity to a conspiracy of falsehood which is wide in its ramifications, and serious on account of its source; thirdly, because the question itself has awakened considerable interest both within and without transcendental circles, and it is desirable to replace hazy and exaggerated notions by a clear and formal statement. I have connected the new diabolism with France in my title, because the evidence in each of its kinds has been filed by French writers, and we have no other source of information. So far as that evidence is sound, we have to thank France for producing it; but, on the other hand, should it prove that a whole city of invention has been constructed, "with all its spires and gateways," upon a meagre basis of fact, it is just that French imagination should have full credit for the decorative art which has adorned this Question of Lucifer. The plan of my work had been sketched, and a number of chapters written, when I found myself to some extent preceded by a writer well known to occultists under the pseudonym of Papus, who has quite recently published a small brochure, entitled _Le Diable et L'Occultisme_, which is a brief defence of transcendentalists against the accusations in connection with Satanism. I gladly yield to M. Papus the priority in time, which was possible to a well-informed gentleman, at the centre of the conspiracy. His little work, however, does not claim to be either a review or a criticism, and does not therefore, in any sense, cover the ground which I have travelled. It is an exposition and exoneration of his own school of mystic thought, which is that of the Martinists, and I have mentioned it in this connection in its proper place. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE v CHAPTER I SATANISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 1 CHAPTER II THE MASK OF MASONRY 22 CHAPTER III THE FIRST WITNESSES OF LUCIFER 42 CHAPTER IV EX ORE LEONIS 53 CHAPTER V THE DISCOVERY OF M. RICOUX 74 CHAPTER VI ART SACERDOTAL 82 CHAPTER VII THE DEVIL AND THE DOCTOR 97 CHAPTER VIII DEALINGS WITH DIANA 162 CHAPTER IX HOW LUCIFER IS UNMASKED 182 CHAPTER X THE VENDETTA OF SIGNOR MARGIOTTA 201 CHAPTER XI