renunciation, leading ultimately to destruction when the _Deus
maledictus_ shall cease to triumph. The worshippers of Lucifer have
taken sides in the cause of humanity, and in their own cause, with the
baffled principle of goodness; they co-operate with him in order to
insure his triumph, and he communicates with them to encourage and
strengthen them; they work to prepare his kingdom, and he promises to
raise up a Saviour among them, who is Antichrist, their leader and king
to come.

Such is the doctrine of Lucifer according to the testimony of witnesses
who have come out from his cultus; it is not an instruction which _a
priori_ would seem likely to commend itself to a numerically powerful
following, but the society which is concerned with its propagation is
affirmed to have spread over the whole world, and to be represented in
all its chief cities. It is that which we have already found mentioned
by M. Huysman as possessing a demonstrated existence and being a proof
positive of modern Satanism, namely, the Palladian Order. Having broadly
ascertained its principles, our next course is to discover its alleged
history, and here it is necessary to admit that it is a matter of some
difficulty to place the position in such an aspect that it will be a
tolerable subject for inquiry among readers in England. The mystery of
modern Diabolism and the Cultus of Lucifer is a part of the mystery of
Masonry as interpreted by an Anti-Masonic movement now at work in
France. The black magic, of which we hear so much, involves a new aspect
of the old Catholic Crusade against the Fraternity of the Square and
Compass, and by the question of Lucifer is signified an alleged
discovery that Masons diabolise.

Now, we are all well acquainted with the historical fact that the Latin
Church has long been hostile to Masonry, that popes have condemned the
order, and have excommunicated its initiates. Having regard to the
position of the brotherhood here in England, most of us have been
content to infer in this respect that the ripe old age of the Church is
passing into a second childhood; some, however, have concluded that
there may be more in Continental Freemasonry than meets the English eye,
and here the Church herself comes forward to assure them that the
fraternity abroad is a hotbed of political propaganda, and is
responsible for the most disastrous revolutions which have perplexed the
modern world; that it is actually, as the exploded Robiso