The Confession of Leo Taxil

Le Froundeur, April 25, 1897

Twelve Years Under the Banner of the Church

THE PRANK OF PALLADISM

MISS DIANA VAUGHAN--THE DEVIL AT THE FREEMASONS

A Conference held by M. L‚o TAXIL
at the Hall of the Geographic Society in Paris

Part 6 of 6


TRANSLATORS' NOTES

1. In French: arriŠres-loges, literally back-lodges, in the sense they are in the back, behind the scenes, but secretly running everything.

2. The French stereotype those born in Marseilles as makers of pranks.

3. Literally: The Hobby-Horse, Journal for Fools.

4. La Fronde was a seditious party during the minority of Louis XIV. It gave birth to the word Frondeur, designating generally speaking all those who criticize the authorities and the government without restraint or deference.

5. In French: Conseiller prudhommal.

6. This alludes to one of the Fables de La Fontaine, well known to French children, about a cat who covered himself with flour in hopes that mice would be fooled and come close enough to be caught.

7. "Partner" in the original French text.

8. Two murderers whose exactions and execution at the guillotine were famous in the time of Taxil.

9. Pope L‚o XIII.

10. A famous French politician.

11. A stronghold of Catholicism in Switzerland.

12. Actor is meant here likely.

13. Residence of the President of the French Republic.

14. Part of Paris where many students live.

15. A Parisian daily newspaper.

16. Both sentences are based on a joke almost impossible to render in English. "Monter un bateau" is the French equivalent of "to pull one's leg." Taxil combines it with the tugboat of his youth, which grows into a squadron, and then a whole navy. Meaning that the prank becomes more and more enormous.

17. A religious ceremony which lasts three days.

18. This is an allusion to a legend from the 15th century that the birth house of the Virgin Mary in Nazareth was brought to Ancona in Italy by angels.

19. J.G. Findel, author of History of Freemasonry, 1861.

20. In addition to the obvious imagery of a stone disturbing frogs, French priests are sometimes called "frogs of the holy water basin."

21. An oubliette is a secret dungeon where people were thrown, forgotten, and died. Taxil plays on the double meaning of oublier, to forget, and oubliette.


Editor's Note. Pierre Mollier, Librarian of the Grand Orient of France provided the photocopy of Le Frondeur.

SOME OF THE ACCOUNTS OF TAXIL'S HOAX
ABOUT FREEMASONRY AND LUCIFER

Allgemeines Handbuch der Freimaurerei, 3d ed., 2 vols. (Leipzig: Max Hesse's Verlag, 1901), s.v. "Taxil, Leo."

Henry W. Coil, et al., Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia (Richmond, Va.: Macoy Publishing & Masonic Supply Co., 1961), s.v. "Taxil, Leo."

Art deHoyos and S. Brent Morris, Is It True What They Say About Freemasonry? 2nd ed. (Silver Spring, Md.: Masonic Information Center, 1997), pp. 5-23.

Ernst Diestel, "La Diablerie de L‚o Taxil," Le Symbolisme, nos. 77 & 78, Sept. & Oct. 1924, pp. 212-223, 245-249.

Michel Gaudart de Soulages and Hubert Lamant, Dictionnaire des Francs-Ma‡ons Fran‡ais (Paris: Editions Albatros, 1980), s.v. "Taxil."

Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd ed., s.v. "Taxil, L‚o."

James Hastings, ed., Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, s.v. "Satanism," by E. Sidney Hartland.

Hildebrand Gerber (H. Gruber, S.J.), Leo Taxil's Palladis mus-Roman, 3vols.(Berlin: Verlag der Germania, 1897), vol. 2, pp. 43-59.

Michel Jarrige, "La Franc-Ma‡onnerie D‚masqu‚e: D'Apres un fonds inedit de la BibliothŠque National," Politica Hermetica, no. 4, 1990, pp. 38-53.

Jean-Pierre Laurant, "Le Dossier L‚o Taxil du fonds Jean Baylot de la BibliothŠque National," Politica Hermeti ca, no. 4, 1990, pp. 55-67.

R. Limouzin-Lamothe, The New Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. "Taxil, Leo."

Eugen Lennhoff and Oskar Posner, Internationales Freimauer lexikon, reprint, 1932 ed. (Munich: Amalthea-Verlag, n.d.), s.v. "Taxil, Leo."

Alec Mellor, Dictionnaire de la Franc-Ma‡onnerie et des Franc-Ma‡ons (Paris: Editions Pierre Belfond, 1975), s.v. "Taxil Gabriel-Antoine (Jogand-PagŠs dit L‚o)," "Anti-Ma‡onnerie: Le XIXe siŠcle."

Curtis D. MacDougall, Hoaxes (New York: MacMillan Co., 1949; reprint New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1958), pp. 98-100.

Christopher McIntosh, Eliphas L‚vi and the French Occult Revival (New York: Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1974), pp. 210-218.

Alec Mellor, Dictionnaire de la Franc-Ma‡onnerie et des Franc-Ma‡ons (Paris: Editions Pierre Belfond, 1974), s.v. "Taxil, Gabriel-Antoine (Jogand-PagŠs dit L‚o)," "Anti-Ma‡onnerie: Le XIXe siŠcle."

------, "A Hoaxer of Genius--Leo Taxil (1890-7)," Our Sepa- rated Brethren, the Freemasons, trans. B. R. Feinson (London: G. G. Harrap & Co., 1961), pp. 149-155.

Robert Morey, The Truth about Masons (Eugene, Oreg.: Harvest House Publishers, 1993), pp. 23-25.

S. Brent Morris, "Albert Pike and Lucifer: The Lie that Will Not Die," The Short Talk Bulletin, vol. 71, no. 6, June 1993.

Maximilian Rudwin, The Devil in Legend and Literature (Chi- cago: Open Court Publishing Co., 1931), pp. 167-168.

Rudolf Steiner, The Temple Legend, trans. John M. Wood, Lon- don: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1985, pp. 283-284, 408-409.

"Taxil-Schwindel, Der," FreiMaurer: Solange die Welt besteht, catalog of a special exhibition of the History Museum of Vienna, 18 September 1992-10 January 1993, pp. 268-370.

Arthur E. Waite, Devil Worship in France or the Question of Lucifer (London: George Redway, 1896).

------, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, new & rev. ed. (New York: Weathervane Books, 1970), s.v. "Palladian Freemasonry."

Wesley P. Walters, "A Curious Case of Fraud," The Quarterly Journal, vol. 9, no. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 1989), pp. 4, 7.

Eugen Weber, Satan Franc-Ma‡on: La mystification de L‚o Taxil (Mesnil-sur-l'Estr‚e, France: Collection Archives Julliard, 1964).

Gordon Wright, "Diana Vaughan: Satanist and Saint," Notable or Notorious? (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991), pp. 86-147.


SOME ANTI-MASONIC BOOKS USING TAXIL'S HOAX ABOUT FREEMASONRY AND LUCIFER

Muhammad Safwat al-Saqqa Amini and Sa'di Abu Habib, Free- masonry (New York: Muslim World League, 1982), p. 41

Anonymous, Freemasonry Antichrist Upon Us, 3rd ed. (Boring, Or.: CPA Books, n.d.), p. 32.

Cathy Burns, Hidden Secrets of Masonry (Mt. Carmel, Penn.: Sharing, 1990), p. 27.

Jack T. Chick, The Curse of Baphomet (Chino, Calif.: Chick Publications, 1991), p.[12].

John Daniel, Scarlet and the Beast, 3 vols. (Tyler, Tex.: Jon Kregel, Inc., 1994), vol. 1, pp. 373, 380.

J. Edward Decker, Jr., The Question of Freemasonry (Issa- quah, Wash.: Free the Masons Ministries, n.d.), pp. 12-14.

------ and Dave Hunt, The God Makers. Eugene, Oreg.: Harvest House, 1984. p. 130.

Des Griffin, Fourth Reich of the Rich (Clackamas, Oreg.: Emissary Pub., 1976), p. 70

Jack Harris, Freemasonry: The Invisible Cult in Our Midst (Towson, Md.: Jack Harris, 1983), pp. 24-25.

James L. Holly, The Southern Baptist Convention and Freemasonry (Beaumont, Tex.: Mission and Ministry to Men, 1992), p.18.

Gary H. Kah, En Route to Global Occupation (Lafayette, La.: Huntington House Publishers, 1992), pp. 114, 124.

Eustace Mullins, The Curse of Canaan (Staunton, Va.: Revelation Books, 1986).

Pat Robertson, The New World Order (Waco, Tex.: Word Publishing, 1991), p.184.

William Schnoebelen, Masonry: Beyond the Light (Chino, Calif.: Chick Publications, 1991), pp. 60-61.

Martin Short, Inside the Brotherhood (New York: Dorset Press, 1990), p. 94.

Harmon R. Taylor, "Mixing Oil with Water," The Evangelist, June 1986, pp. 47-49.

Editor's Note: These bibliographic references are taken from Art deHoyos and S. Brent Morris, Is It True What They Say About Freemasonry? 2nd ed. (Silver Spring, Md., Masonic Information Center, 1997), pp. 7-11.


THE CONFESSION OF LEO TAXIL

Translated from Le Frondeur, April 25, 1897

by

Alain Bernheim, A. William Samii, and Eric Serejski

Reprinted from Heredom
The Transacations of the
Scottish Rite Research Society
vol. 5, 1996, pp. 137-168

(c) 1997 Scottish Rite Research Society
All Rights Reserved
1733 16 St., N.W., Washington, DC 20009-3103


To Introduction

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