Chapter 17 A TIMELY GRAND TOUR

AMONG THE MANY British visitors to Rome during Clement XIV’s sweetening toward England in the early 1770’s was a young member of an ancient ruling family of Dorset and Somerset counties named Charles Philippe Stourton.1 Charles Philippe was nephew to the Dukes of Norfolk. We remember the Norfolks, Thomas and Edward Howard, for their significant contributions to American independence – Thomas, originator of colonial Freemasonry; Edward, coupler of Lord Bute to the future George III.

Arriving in Rome with Charles Philippe was his professor at the Jesuit college in the medieval Flemish (now Belgian) city of Bruges, John Carroll. The pair were enjoying a Grand Tour of Europe which had begun in the summer of 1771.

From Bruges they had proceeded by carriage down through Alsace-Lorraine to Strasbourg, across the Rhine to Baden-Baden, then upstream to Carlsruhe, Bruschal, Heidelberg, Mannheim, Worms, and Mainz. From Mainz they made a curious detour over to Trier, back to Mannheim, through Swabia to Augsburg, then to Munich, Innsbruch, across the Italian border to Trent, along the Adige River to Roveredo, Verona, Mantua, Modena, and Bologna. They reached Rome in the autumn of 1772.

In Rome, Lorenzo Ricci appointed Carroll to the position of Prefect of the Sodality. This title designates, according to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, “a chief organizer of laymen for the promotion of some form of social action.” For the promotion of what social action, I wonder, might Ricci have ordained Carroll to organize, if not the American Revolution?

While John was in Rome with Lorenzo Ricci, his cousin Charles Carroll, now in his mid-thirties, pulled off a clever media ruse in Maryland. It won him tremendous popularity and established him as an important civic leader. In January 1773, a letter in the Maryland Gazette attacked the administration of Maryland Governor Robert Edens. The letter was signed “First Citizen.” In a subsequent Gazette, the attack was demolished by the eloquent arguments of a “Second Citizen.” But in February, “First Citizen” demolished “Second Citizen.” As the duel continued on into the summer, “First Citizen” was revealed to be Charles Carroll. Whereupon “Second Citizen” nastily slandered Carroll, putting him down as a “disfranchised Catholic.” Suddenly now, Carroll was an underdog – just like his fellow Americans in relation to the British Crown. Although Charles was a super-rich lawyer- landowner educated at the best Jesuit colleges in Europe, the people lavished him with sympathy. They despised “Second Citizen” for his bigotry. Maryland and America now had a new hero, a preeminent champion of religious liberties, a Roman Catholic First Citizen advocating a new political order. Loathsome Second Citizen made the status quo seem distasteful and undesirable – which, of course, was his assignment in the ruse. Second Citizen turned out to be the acknowledged head of the American bar, a Mr. Dulany….

MEANWHILE, with the coming of spring, Carroll and Stourton left Rome for Florence, Genoa, Lyons, Paris, Liège, arriving back in Bruges just a few weeks before Ganganelli, Clement XIV, disestablished the Jesuits. Carroll kept a journal of their tour.2 Partly a study-guide for Charles Philippe, partly a travelog, it’s a “fragmentary and circumspect” document, as one historian gingerly put it. Here and there, one finds snatches of informal political opinion. Although Carroll’s opinions are interesting, it’s his circumspection that intrigues us most, it’s what his journal doesn’t say. Traveling with a student appears ordinary enough, but Charles Philippe Stourton was no ordinary collegian. He was a student of casuistry, equivocation, and Bellarminian liberation theology taught by professionals sworn to expand Roman Catholicism and extirpate Protestantism. He had been indoctrinated to obedience through the Spiritual Exercises, was a member of England’s premier Catholic and Masonic family, and was about the age of Alexander Hamilton (who by then was already turning out anonymous revolutionary pamphlets at King’s College in New York). Nor were Carroll and Stourton merely sight-seeing. They were up to something big. Carroll’s journal alludes to meetings with high- ranking officials in church and state, but gives no specific names. Writing to an English Jesuit colleague, he confided “I keep a close incognito during this time.”³

Despite Carroll’s circumspection, his itinerary reveals certain clues. Consider that odd detour to Trier from the route between Mainz and Mannheim. Trier is more than two hundred kilometers out of the way, quite a long day’s journey. What might warrant such a deviation? There appeared in 1763 a highly controversial book by an obviously pseudonymous person, “Justinius Febronius.” The pseudonym belonged to Bishop Nikolaus von Hontheim, Chancellor of the University of Trier. In John Carroll’s day, Trier University had been run by Jesuits for more than a century. The book, of which there is apparently no published English translation out of its original Latin, is entitled On the State of the Church and the Legitimate Power of the Roman Pontiff.

The gist of State of the Church suggests why Carroll had to visit Trier: “Febronianism,” the philosophy of von Hontheim’s book, contains the formula for administering Protestant America as a Bellarminian commonwealth! Febronianism calls for decentralizing the Roman Catholic Church into independent national churches modeled on the Church of England. Because they are ruled directly by kings and princes, these churches are more correctly called “States.” The Pope may be successor to Peter, Prince of the Apostles, but under Febronianism he has no legal jurisdiction. He is merely a principle of unity, a spiritual unifier obligated to abide by the decrees of general councils under the leadership of bishops and their properly enlightened laymen.

Crucial to Febronianism’s application is “thorough popular education.” Once laymen, bishops, and councils are “properly enlightened” they will be empowered to resist any attempts of the papacy to exert monarchial control over the Church. Febronius emphasized that his system would succeed only in a milieu of popular enlightenment. His context presumes an enlightenment wherein the public is indoctrinated with the Jesuit ratio studiorum’s full humanist diet, of course. It cannot operate where Scripture reigns supreme. Once the milieu’s understanding, its mentality, has been shaped by the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, it will respond with unquestioning obedience to the will of the man whose fundamental duty is the expansion of Roman Catholicism and the extirpation of Protestantism. Thus will unfold a perfect secular political state within the Roman Catholic Church, an autocracy ruled by a monarch invisible to all but the few who, by the grace of God, cannot be deceived.⁴

Febronianism was the secret formula for returning the non- Catholic world to the bosom of the Church. To mask this fact, the Vatican dramatically condemned the book. The jesuited Clement XIII had banned it from colleges and universities. In a rather quaint example of academic “blown cover as cover,” Bishop von Hontheim, whom few realized was Febronius, even banned it from his own classes at the University!

On the State of the Church is arguably Lorenzo Ricci’s “American Manifesto,” the social blueprint for how the General intended to realize Bellarminian liberation in a Protestant monarchy. The full title page of the first edition copy of the book says it all:

On the State of the Church and the Legitimate Power of the Roman Pontiff: A Singular Book On the Properly-Ordered Reunification with Dissidents in the Christian Religion.

Here one beholds a description of the momentous social change that the American Revolution would indeed produce – neither monarchial overthrow, nor democracy, nor republicanism, but a “properly-ordered reunification with dissidents in the Christian religion,” that is, the reunification of Roman Catholics with Protestants under a secularized religion whose values – long on humanism, short on Scripture – are taught through public schools following the Jesuit ratio studiorum. “Reunification” means that Protestantism has been reabsorbed into Rome. This, in the eyes of the black papacy, to the Sun-Tzuan mind, and to common sense, equals the practical extirpation of Protestantism.

ALTHOUGH Bishop von Hontheim lived in Trier, he was Archbishop of Mainz. His jurisdiction extended to the Mainz principality of Hesse-Hanover. Von Hontheim was thus the spiritual counterpart of the ruler of Hesse-Hanover, Frederick II (not to be confused with the King of Prussia, Frederick the Great, who was also a Frederick II.) Frederick II of Hesse was married to the aunt of the King of England, which made him George III’s uncle. Born a Protestant, Frederick subscribed to the Rosicrucian style of Freemasonry. Although Jesuits converted him to Roman Catholicism, he nevertheless remained a Rosicrucian secretly active.

Frederick of Hesse was one of Europe’s richest rulers. Much of his business was handled by his son, Prince William, also a Rosicrucian Freemason. William’s specialty was facilitating war. He drafted able-bodied male Hessians, outfitted and trained them for battle, and then sold them to his English cousin George, who used them to fight alongside his own redcoats. Every time a Hessian was killed, William received a reparation in the form of extra compensation. As casualties mounted, so did his profits, which he loaned out at interest.

In September 1769, Prince William appointed Meyer Amschel Rothschild of nearby Frankfurt to transact some of his financial affairs in the capacity of Crown Agent. Aware that the Rothschilds are an important Jewish family, I looked them up in Encyclopedia ]udaica and discovered that they bear the title “Guardians of the Vatican Treasury.” The Vatican Treasury, of course, holds the imperial wealth of Rome. Imperial wealth grows in proportion to its victories in war – as the Jesuit empowerment Regimini militantis ecclesiae implies, the Church-at-War is more necessary than the Church-at-Peace. According to H. Russell Robinson’s illustrated Armour of Imperial Rome, Caesarean soldiers protected themselves in battle with shields painted red. Since the soldiery is the State’s most valuable resource (the Council of Trent admitted this in preferring the Jesuits to all other religious orders), it is easy to understand why the red shield was identified with the very life of the Church. Hence, the appropriateness of the name Rothschild, German for “red shield.” The appointment of Rothschild gave the black papacy absolute financial privacy and secrecy. Who would ever search a family of orthodox Jews for the key to the wealth of the Roman Catholic Church? I believe this appointment explains why the House of Rothschild is famous for helping nations go to war. It is fascinating that, as Meyer Rothschild’s sons grew into the family business, the firm took on the title Meyer Amschel Rothschild und Söhne, which gives us the notariqon MARS. Isn’t Mars the Roman God of War, whose heavenly manifestation is “the red planet”? There is powerful cabalah here, and there’s hardly an acre of inhabitable earth that hasn’t been affected by it in some way.

It may never be known if John Carroll and Charles Philippe Stourton paid a call on the offices of Meyer Rothschild during their Grand Tour. Carroll was not permitted to keep a record, and the Rothschild name is synonymous with secrecy. But a call, keeping a “close incognito,” at the House of Rothschild would not be inconsistent with outcome. The newly-designed Prefect of the Sodality, chief organizer of laymen for social action, would have a legitimate need to talk finances with the Church’s most secret trustee. As things were developing, General Ricci needed an American financial crisis to provoke the colonists into resolving the utter necessity of war.

Carroll’s journal reflects that he and Stourton did enter the Frankfurt-Mainz area, which is Rothschild country, in early spring 1772. If we suppose they talked financial crisis with the Rothschilds, the outcome of their talks actually did occur several months later. During July, in fact, the British banking system underwent a severe credit reduction. This consequently threw American merchants into an extreme financial distress that did not end until the Revolutionary War itself produced a business boom in 1776. Rothschild, with his access to Hesse-Hanover’s vast wealth, and conceivably that of the Jesuits as well, had power to affect a credit reduction in British banking. And Rothschild’s profiting from the Revolutionary War is well known. If, during the spring of 1772, the circumspect young Jesuit professor conveyed to the powerful young Jewish banker Lorenzo Ricci’s need for a financial disturbance in England and America, didn’t John Carroll admirably serve his Superior General, his Church, and his country? And didn’t Rothschild do his client likewise?

Even as Carroll and Stourton were networking (according to my surmise) with Ricci and the bankers of war, Amiot’s Sun-Tzu was published. Carroll’s circumspection bars us ever from knowing whether he and Stourton came upon a copy and read it. Did Rothschild know the book? Even if they knew it well, the experience could not possibly have been for them the adventure in irony it is for us now. We open The Thirteen Articles and hear the gentle voice of the man in charge of the papacy’s most important business, the man who decided everything, who was in the process of gaining advantage from dangerous and critical circumstances, whose intentions were unguessable, whose decisions were shaping both his own army and the armies of his English-speaking Protestant enemies, the man who through cleverness and ruse had already secured the obedience of his enemies in London and Boston and Paris and Philadelphia although they believed him and his army to be far away and slumped in rest from sustained losses, the man who would win the most important War in modern times without giving battle or drawing a sword, who uniquely knew the day, the hour, the moment of battle-less, sword-less combat. Lorenzo Ricci’s voice whispers to us across the centuries between the lines in passages such as these:⁵

A State’s most important business is its army. It is the General who decides everything. If he is clever, he will gain an advantage from even the most dangerous & critical circumstances. He will know how to shape at will, not only the army he is commanding but also that of his enemies.

Try to be victorious without giving battle. Without giving battle, without spilling a drop of blood, without even drawing a sword, the clever General succeeds in capturing cities. Without setting foot in a foreign Kingdom, he finds the means to conquer them. He acts in such a way that those who are inferior to him can never guess his intentions. He has them change location, even taking them to rather difficult places where they must work & suffer.

Do not disdain the use of artifice. Begin by learning everything there is to know about your enemies. Know exactly what relationships they have, their reciprocal liaisons & interests. Do not spare large amounts of money. Have spies everywhere, be informed of everything.

Overlook nothing to corrupt what is best on the enemy’s side: offers, presents, caresses, let nothing be omitted. Maintain secret liaisons with those amongst the enemy who are the most depraved. Use them for your own ends, along with other depraved individuals. Cross through their government, sowing dissension amongst their Chiefs. Ceaselessly give them false alarms & bad advice. Engage the Governors of their Provinces in your interests. That is approximately what you must do, if you wish to fool them by cleverness & ruse.

When a clever General goes into action, the enemy is already defeated. When he fights, he alone must do more than his entire army, not through the strength of his arm but through his prudence, his manner of commanding, & above all his ruses. The great secret of solving all problems consists of the art of knowing how to create division when necessary.

What is far must be brought near, advantage must be drawn even from losses, and slowness must be turned into diligence. You must be near when the enemy believes you to be far, have a real advantage when the enemy believes you have sustained some losses, be occupied by useful work when he believes you are slumped in rest, and use all sorts of diligence when he only perceives you to be moving slowly. Thus, by throwing him off track, you will lull him to sleep in order to attack him when he expects it the least & without him having the time to prepare for it.

As it is essential for you to be completely familiar with the place where you must fight, it is no less important for you to know the day, the hour, even the moment of combat. That is a calculation which you must not neglect.

You, therefore, who are at the head of an army must overlook nothing to render yourself worthy of the position you hold. Throw your gaze upon the measurements of quantities & the measurements of dimensions. Remember the rules of calculus. Consider the effects of balance. Examine what victory really is. Think about all of this deeply & you will have everything you need in order to never be defeated by your enemies.

They who possess the true art of governing troops well are those who have known & who know how to make their power formidable, who have acquired unlimited authority, who are not brought low by any event no matter how vexing, who do nothing with precipitation, who conduct themselves as calmly when they are surprised as they do when their actions have been planned long in advance, and who always act in everything they do with that promptness which is in fact the fruit of cleverness combined with great experience.

The strength of this sort of warrior is like that of those great bows which can only be stretched with the help of some machine. Their authority has the effect of those terrible weapons which are shot from bows which are thus stretched. Everything succumbs to their blows, everything is laid low….

If you do exactly as I have indicated, success will accompany all your steps. Everywhere you will be a conqueror, you will spare the lives of your soldiers, you will affirm your country in its former possessions and procure new ones, you will augment the splendor & glory of the State, and the Prince as well as his subjects will be indebted to you for the sweet tranquility in which they will henceforth live their lives. What objects can be more worthy of your attention & all your efforts?

CHARLES Philippe Stourton and John Carroll departed Rome for Flanders in March 1773. The journey took them four months. They passed through Florence, Genoa, Lyons, and Paris, arriving at Liège in early July. John returned Charles Philippe to his father, Lord Stourton, and proceeded alone to the Jesuit College at Bruges.

Meanwhile, in London, during the month of April, the British East India Company presented the King’s Friends a scheme which, if measured by the way it would anger American merchants and point them inexorably toward rebellion, could only have sprung from the Sun-Tzuan intellect of Lorenzo Ricci – “I demand the art of making enemies move as one wishes.” That scheme, a plan to glut New England with cheap tea, is the subject of our next chapter.

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