acter. Its ritual, centring around a lost word, signifies that the
Old Testament dispensation has come to an end with the Crucifixion, and
is so strongly Christian that no Jew, Mohammedan, or other non-Christian
can be admitted to it. Moreover, since this degree, known as the
eighteenth degree, forms in reality the first degree of the Ancient and
Accepted Rite, as worked in this country, non-Christians are excluded
from the whole of this Rite and can only take the degrees of Royal Arch,
Mark Mason, Royal Ark Mariner, and finally Royal Select and
Super-Excellent Master. Consequently the thirty-three Masons of the
thirty-third degree who compose the Supreme Council which directs the
Ancient and Accepted Rite are necessarily professing Christians. Exactly
the opposite is the case in France; the Rose-Croix, worked by professing
atheists and Jews, can only be parody of Christian mysteries.

Now, it is essential to realize that in France the anti-masonic camp is
divided into two parties. Whilst the majority of Catholic writers regard
Freemasonry itself as the source of all evil--"the Synagogue of
Satan"--more impartial investigators have pronounced the opinion that it
is not Freemasonry even of the Grand Orient variety but something
concealed behind Freemasonry which constitutes the principal danger.
This view is expressed by M. Copin Albancelli, whose book _Le Pouvoir
occulte contre la France_ is of the utmost importance to an
understanding of the masonic danger, for here there can be no question
of Catholic prejudice or of imaginary accusations made by a stranger to
Masonry. M. Copin Albancelli entered the Grand Orient as an agnostic and
has never returned to the bosom of the Church; yet as a Frenchman, a
patriot, and a believer in law, morality, and Christian ethics he found
himself obliged, after six years' experience in the lodges and after
attaining the degree of Rose-Croix, to leave Freemasonry and, further,
to denounce it. From what he himself heard and observed M. Copin
Albancelli declares the Grand Orient to be anti-patriotic, subversive of
all morality and religious belief, and an immense danger to France.

But further than this, M. Copin Albancelli declares the Grand Orient to
be a system of deception by which members are enlisted in a cause
unknown to themselves; even the initiates of the upper degrees are not
all aware of the real aim of the Order or of the power behind it. M.
Copin Albancelli thus arrives at th