Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe: carried on in the secret meetings of Free Masons, Illuminati, and reading societies.Robison, John
History
Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe: carried on in the secret meetings of Free Masons, Illuminati, and reading societies.
Robison, John
Freemasonry -- Early works to 1800; Illuminati -- Early works to 1800
landed property and revenue, which would give them a respectable
civil existence. Hunde declared that his whole estate should
devolve on the Order. But the vexations which he afterwards met
with, and his falling in love with a lady who prevailed on him to
become Roman Catholic, made him alter his intention. The Order
went on, however, and acquired considerable credit by the serious
regularity of their proceedings; and, although in the mean time a
new apostle of Mysteries, a Dr. Zinzendorff, one of the _Strict
Observanz_, introduced a new system, which he said was from Sweden,
distinguished by some of the mystical doctrines of the Swedenborgh
sect, and though the system obtained the Royal patronage, and a
National Lodge was established at Berlin by patent, still the
_Tempelorden_, or _Orden des Stricten Observanz_, continued to be
very respectable. The German gentry were better pleased with a Grand
Master of their own choosing, than with any imposed on them by
authority.
During this state of things, one Stark, a Protestant divine, well
known in Germany by his writings, made another trial of public
faith. One Gugomos, (a private gentleman, but who would pass for son
to a King of Cyprus), and one Schropfer, keeper of a coffee-house
at Nuremberg, drew crowds of Free Masons around them, to learn
ghost-raising, exorcism, and alchymy. Numbers came from a great
distance to Weisbad to see and learn these mysteries, and Free
Masonry was on the point of another revolution. Dr. Stark was an
adept in all these things, and had contended with Cagliostro in
Courland for the palm of superiority. He saw that this deception
could not long stand its ground. He therefore came forward, at
a convention at Braunschweig in 1772, and said to the Strict
Disciplinarians or Templars, That he was of their Order, but of the
spiritual department, and was deputed by the Chapter of K--m--d--t
in Scotland, where he was Chancellor of the Congregation, and
had the name of Archidemides, _Eques ab Aquila fulva_: That this
Chapter had the superintendance of the Order: That they alone could
consecrate the Knights, or the unknown superiors; and that he was
deputed to instruct them in the real principles of the Order, and
impart its inestimable secrets, which could not be known to Baron
Hunde, as he would readily acknowledge when he should converse with
him. Johnson, he said, had been a cheat, and probably a murderer.
He had got some knowledge from papers which he must have stolen
from a missionary, who had disappeared, and was probably killed.
Gugomos and Schropfer must have had some similar information; and
Schropfer had even deceived him for a time. He was ready to execute
his commission, upon their coming under the necessary obligations
of secrecy and of submission. Hunde (whose name in the Order was
the _Eques ab Ense_) acquiesced at once, and proposed a convention,
with full powers to decide and accept. But a Schubart, a gentleman
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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