l honour to the demonstration, and must acknowledge with gratitude
that the Church has performed a service to humanity by unveiling the
true character of an institution which is imposing on a vast number of
well-intentioned persons within its own ranks, who are admittedly
unaware of the evil to which they are lending countenance and support.
On the other hand, the same spirit of liberality and justice will
require that the demonstration in question shall be complete; in support
of such terrible accusations, only the first quality of evidence can
obviously be admitted.

In the chapters which follow immediately, I shall produce in succession
the evidence of every witness who has anything to tell us about
Palladism, including those whose experience is of a personal kind and
those whose knowledge is derived. Where possible, the testimony of each
witness will be weighed as we proceed; what is unconvincing or
irrelevant will be dismissed, while that which is important will be
carried over to the final summary. In two cases only will it be found
necessary to reserve examination for special and separate treatment.

CHAPTER III

THE FIRST WITNESSES OF LUCIFER

That the witnesses of Lucifer are in all cases attached to the Latin
Church, whether as priests or laymen, is no matter for astonishment when
it is once realised that outside this Church there is no hostility to
Masonry. For example, Robison's "Proofs of a Conspiracy" is almost the
only work possessing, deservedly or not, any aspect of importance, which
has ever been penned by a Protestant or independent writer in direct
hostility to the Fraternity. Moreover, Catholic hostility varies in a
vanishing direction with distance from the ecclesiastical centre. Thus,
in England, it exists chiefly in a latent condition, finding little or
no expression unless pressure is exercised from the centre, while in
America the enforced promulgation of the _Humanum Genus_ encyclical has
been one of the serious blunders of the present pontificate as regards
that country. The bibliography of Catholic Anti-Masonic literature is
now, however, very large, nor is it confined to one land, or to a
special epoch; it has an antiquity of nearly 150 years, and represents
most of the European continent. That of France, which is nearest to our
own doors, is naturally most familiar to us; it is also one of the most
productive, and may be assumed to represent the whole. We are concerned
with it