PERSECUTION. No society or order of men has been the object of greater abuse or more malicious misrepre sentation and unreasonable persecution than that of Free masonry. Even among the Jews, not many years after the building of the temple, Freemasons were accused of idolatry, the temples where they practiced their mysteries were destroyed, and many of them were put to death. This arose in a great degree from the ignorance of the Jews of that age. They misapprehended the lofty ideas of their greatest king and wisest sage, Solomon, and Were made to believe, after his death, that the symbolical decorations of the temple were of a profane and idolatrous character. They were also taught to distrust the liberal views entertained in regard to other nations, and saw in his friendly and fraternal intercourse with Hiram of Tyre, and other distinguished Gentiles, a departure from the strictness of the Hebrew faith. During the life of Solomon the company of Hiram continued to practice their rites unmolested; but after his death a strong and bitter opposition sprang up against them. Their mys teries, not being understood, were called "abominations," and a general movement for the extermination of the Sidonian architects was organized. This ancient persecution of the Sidonian Masons finds its parallel in the persecutions of modern Masons by the Roman Church and other religious bodies. In 1738, Pope Clement X_II. fulminated his cele brated bull against the Order, in which he shows himself as fanatical and ill-informed in regard to the nature of Free masonry as those who headed the persecutions of the Si donians among the ancient Jews. He says: "tie have learned that a society has been formed under the name of Freemasons, into which persons of all religions and all sects are indiscriminately admitted, and whose members have established certain laws which bind themselves to each other, and which, in particular, compel their members, under the severest penalties; by virtue of an oath taken on the Holy Scriptures, to preserve an inviolable secrecy in relation to everything that transpires in their meetings." The bull concludes with a command to all bishops to inflict on Masons " the penalties which they deserve, as people greatly sus pected of heresy, having recourse, if necessary, to the secular power." The "penalty" here alluded to is plainly enough explained by the following transcript from an edict published in the following year: "No person shall dare to assemble at any lodge of the said society, nor be present at any of their meetings, under pain of death and confiscation of goods, the said penalty to be without pardon." This bull, however,
failed to stay the progress of the institution, and when Benedict XIV., 1751, renewed ,it, and ordered its enforce ment, his proclamation was treated with derision and con tempt. In Germany, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, France and Switzerland the order has, at times, been persecuted, but it has outlived all opposition, and is now master of those who once trampled it under foot. The anti-Masonic movement in the United States is familiar to all. It was a real benefit to Masonry, and has overwhelmed its authors with infamy and scorn. But the last (and we hope it will be the laist) and probably the most ridiculous attempt at persecuting the Masonic institution emanated from the Secret Consistory of the Vatican, by Pope Pius IX., September 25, 1865, in the form of a Papal Allocution to his " Venerable Br.thren." This dreadful anathema pronounces, ex-cathedra, that Freemasonry is " monstrous, impious and criminal, full of snares and frauds—a dark society; the enemy of the Church and of God, and dangerous to the security of kingdoms; inflamed with a burning hatred against religious and legitimate authority; desirous of overthrowing all rights human and divine," etc. It may not be necessary to waste much time or space to the refutation of the charges displayed in this silly and odious papal address. Such accusations against a public body of men spread over the whole surface of the civilized world and in all classes of society, among whom may be numbered monarchs, princes, senators, prelates, and the great and good of all countries, accompanied by the awful sentence of eternal perdition, are detestable, and not worthy of any serious notice. The Pope and his venerable brethren do not like Freemasonry. Very well; nobody blames them for that; and least of all, the members of the Masonic Order; for it is not a proselytizing institution. He objects to it because it is a secret society. Very well! Has Roman ism no secrets? Then it has no confessional, and it never had an inquisition. Why this Allocution, in which secret societies are subjected to such severe invective, was actually delivered in his own Secret Consistory. But as the Roman Church is hostile to freedom of conscience, its doctrines are therefore incompatible with the tolerant and liberal princi ples of Freemasonry. We shall patiently await another (although another may never occur) "Thunder from the Vatican," but in the meantime the Order of Freemasonry must move on.