in this place only during the period which is subsequent to the
alleged foundation of the New and Reformed Palladium. During this period
it falls obviously into two groups, that which preceded any knowledge of
the institution in question and that which is posterior to the first
promulgation of such knowledge. In the first we find mainly the old
accusations which have long ceased to exert any conspicuous influence,
namely, Atheism, Materialism, and revolutionary plotting. Without
disappearing entirely, these have been largely replaced in the second
group by charges of magic and diabolism, concerning which the
denunciations have been loud and fierce. One supplementary impeachment
may be said in a certain sense to connect both, because it is common to
both; it is that of unbridled licence fostered by the asserted existence
of adoptive lodges. We shall find during the first period that Masonry
was freely described as a diabolical and Satanic institution, and it is
necessary to insist on this point because it is liable to confuse the
issues. Before the year 1891 the diabolism identified with Masonry was
almost exclusively intellectual. That is to say, its alleged atheism,
from the standpoint of the Catholic Church, was a diabolical opinion in
matters of religion; its alleged materialism was a diabolical philosophy
in matters of science; its alleged revolutionary plottings, being
especially directed against the Catholic Church, constituted diabolical
politics. Such descriptions will seem arbitrary enough to most persons
who do not look forth upon the world from the windows of the Vatican,
but they are undeniably consistent at Rome.

Of actual diabolism prior to the date I have named, there is, I believe,
only the solitary accusation made by Mgr. de Segur, and having
reference to a long anterior period. He states that in the year 1848
there was a Masonic lodge at Rome, where the mass of the devil was
celebrated in the presence of men and women. A ciborium was placed on an
altar between six black candles; each person, after spitting and
trampling on a crucifix, deposited in this ciborium a consecrated host
which had been purchased or received in church. The sacred elements were
stabbed by the whole assembly, the candles were extinguished at the
termination of the mass, and an orgie followed, similar, says Mgr. de
Segur, to those of "Pagan mysteries and Manichaean re-unions." Such
abominations were, however, admittedly rare, and