The Grand Design Exposed Chapter 10 The Jesuit Brothers of the Pyramid — Shaping Events During The 1700’s
Continued from Chapter 9 The Freemasonry Metamorphosis.
CHANGING TIMES
With England fast becoming the world’s super power, it also became most alarming and crystal clear to the Catholic world, especially after the last dismal Jacobite attempt in 1745 to reestablish their Stuart king on the English throne, that not only England, but all her North American colonies were forever lost to Protestantism. To aggravate the Catholic wound, before James II had become the king of England he was known as the Duke of York, to whom his brother, King Charles II, had arbitrarily given him a tract of land in the New World for a Catholic colony. He named it “New” York. A few years later when James II became king of England, then three years later he was unseated, his Catholic New York colony also collapsed with his exile. Yet the Empire State retained its New York name, even until today.
The Jacobite cause became a complete dead issue after their defeat in 1745. Rome and her Jesuits fully recognized that they were at a crucial crossroad. Protestantism had become too entrenched — and too protected by a nation that was ever increasing its boundaries. The Jesuit Order had been raised up to put an end to this cursed disease, but even they seemed to be stumped. Within the Catholic Church itself, the goal for a “Catholic universal” domination was never ever the issue, but the manner in which that goal should be achieved was now being questioned. Hardliners insisted on frontal assaults, with excommunications, the inquisition, and religious wars, that had served their purpose quite well in the past. But times were rapidly changing. It seemed very sensible to many, that instead of ‘forcing’ Rome’s goals upon the world, which only stirred bristling resistance and animosity, it would be more efficient and effective to work behind masquerades and front organizations that would ‘veil’ their global ambitions. Rome and her Jesuits needed to become less visible; to fade into the background. Being out of the limelight would not only defuse their opposition, but provide time to implement a “Grand Design” that could cleverly persuade those to love what they now hated.
The Roman Catholic Church ever since the suppression of the Knights Templar in 1307, always had its voices and rumbles who differed with the established orthodoxy. And if the student of history will notice these sounds, they always came from within the Church, not outside of it. Like an under-current or subterranean stream, the thoughts and ideas of these dissenters greatly affected many prominent Roman Catholics, both ecclesiastics, as well as the laity. It was Cornelis Jansen, a Dutch theologian, who in 1636 was named bishop of Ypres, Belgium, that resurrected a theological controversy over grace and free will, that was as old as Christianity itself. The battle between the Jansenists, the name given to Cornelis Jansen’s followers, and the Jesuits, raged on for over one hundred years after Cornelis Jansen was dead.
France, as staunch Catholic as she was, always managed to give Rome its share of problems. The disputes between the Jansenists and the Jesuits over grace and free will had a profound influence on the trend of French thought, and therefore, on that of the whole of Europe. For in the time of Louis XIV, French culture and European culture were nearly one and the same. To debate the issues between grace and free will became an extraordinary fashionable fad that seemed to have penetrated every level of French society. Besides the theologians, popes, bishops, and other clerics, pious nuns, fanatical hermits, elegant society ladies, and the whole life, thoughts, and actions, of the greatest men of that age were given over to the spiritual atmosphere of the Jansenist controversy. It was talked about in fashionable salons and acted out in plays on the stage, as its mad career continued to be the topic of everyday life. The full significance of all of this absurdity, was as the Jesuits vigorously opposed what they called the Jansenist’s heresy, a dangerous faction was being formed against the Jesuits who had at their disposal powerful influences at both the French court and at Rome. And remember, all of this was going on at the exact same time that Catholic French Jacobite Freemasonry was being developed.
The word Gallic means French. Gallicanism became a term used to point out certain French theological opinions that were put forth by both ecclesiastics and civilians in France, that the ‘French Church’ had certain “rights” over the authority of the pope. Gallicanism actually represented a trend that had deep roots in past history within the French church. Going back to the time of King Phillip IV of France, Pope Clement V had been compelled to recognize the full independence of the French National Church and to exclude France expressly from the scope of the Bull of Pope Boniface VIII, “Unam Sanctam”, a papal document addressed to the universal church in 1302, by which he proclaimed the subordination of worldly powers to spiritual power. These were the two men who dissolved the Knights Templar. In the year 1407, the national synod in Paris had asserted the independence of the “Gallican Church”, and without breaking with Rome, deprived the pope of all direct authority over the disposing of ecclesiastical offices and revenues in France. From that time onward, whole generations of learned men had elaborated in much detail the constitutions of the Gallican Church. The defense and security of these liberties became the responsibility of the Parliaments, the highest legal courts of the realm. Yet, sincere Gallicans never admitted attempting to attack the divinely instituted Church of Rome.
When the Jesuits came on the scene, with their rigid inflexible loyalty to Rome, and calling all others heretics who did not conform to their mold, the learned advocates and professors of Paris soon showed themselves to be the Jesuits’ fiercest opponents. No matter what the Jesuits were minded to do in France, the defenders of Gallicanism immediately opposed it. When, in the year 1551, the Jesuits were granted permission to settle in France, and the Jesuit Order set about securing the necessary registration of the royal patent by the Parliament of Paris, in accordance with constitutional law, the chorus of Gallican members made itself heard again, declaring that this Society, “which by some strange fancy, presumes to adopt the name of Jesus”, was robbing the temporal and spiritual authorities of their rights, was promoting “unrest, discontent, dissensions, disunion, and a host of other evils”. “All things considered” declared the Parliament of that day, “this Society appears to be calculated to jeopardize the Faith, to disturb the peace of the Church, and to destroy far more than it will ever build up”.”
In their defense of the pope having superior authority over kings, two Jesuits, Suarez and Bellarmine, argued that based on the Bible, the purely divine origin of the Catholic Church, by Christ Himself, had founded the true perfect community of the Church, and designated the pope as the successor of St. Peter. From this alleged fact, the authority of pope proceeded directly from God. Therefore, while worldly rulers exercised their power only as instruments of the people, it followed that the pope was supreme over all who held political power. The principle of the subjection of all worldly princes to the pope posed a good theory, but the Jesuits knew full well that it could no longer be forced upon kings at the beginning of the seventeenth century, even where “the most Christian kings” were concerned.
However, with a little subtle maneuvering, they declared that spiritual authority was directed towards the welfare of the soul, while temporal power was concerned only with the welfare of the body. So as long as temporal power was not used to imperil the spiritual welfare of others, but was confined to the regulation of secular matters, the pope could not claim to influence the rule of the sovereign. But on the other hand, the Church was entitled, and in fact, bound, to intervene in temporal administration, if spiritual interests, which were of much greater importance, were at stake. Thus Suarez and Bellarmine had devised a formula in the age old struggle between Church and Crown which was more adapted to the changing times. For as the spirit of Protestantism was increasingly felt, the Jesuits untiringly worked to reserve for the pope all those prerogatives which could enable him to sustain a struggle with heretical monarchs.
Taking that struggle a step farther, at the Council of Trent, Jesuit Laynez expressed still more clearly regarding the fate that awaited an heretical ruler. Sovereign power, he declared in one of his celebrated discourses, was originally vested in the people, and had been voluntarily delegated by them to the king. If the king failed to govern in accordance with the wishes of his subjects, then they were free to reassert their prerogatives and depose the sovereign. This applies, he declared, more particularly in the cases where the ruler of a Catholic country falls away from the Faith which alone can procure salvation; and so brings about the eternal damnation on all his subjects.
Catherine de Medici, who had governed France in the name of the new King Charles IX when he was a minor, and who was also directly responsible for carrying out the grisly St. Bartholomew massacre, was addressed by Jesuit Laynez when the Queen-mother was vacillating between the Huguenot and Catholic parties. “Make no concessions to heresy”, he declared, “but rather uphold the Catholic faith with all your authority! Then will God, mindful of your piety, preserve to you your earthly kingdom and admit you to the kingdom of Heaven. If however, on the other hand, you are unmindful of your duties toward God, then tremble lest together with the Heavenly kingdom, you lose also your earthly kingdom”.” Thus the Jesuits were constantly meddling and working to influence the affairs of state.
The 1700’s were a one hundred year period that brought in astonishing revolutionary changes, not only within the Roman Catholic Church and the Jesuits, but in the world’s political systems as well. Two revolutions, one in America and one in France, ended the dogma of the divine rule of kings in favor of republican forms of government, with the political and religious freedoms propagandized by Freemasons and protected by the Bill of Rights. This was also the century that witnessed the capture and imprisonment of the pope, with the Vatican loosing its temporal power. It also seen the destruction of the Society of Jesus and the founding of Adam Weishaupt’s “Illuminati” organization. But one of the most significant developments that was quietly, yet almost grudgingly, taking place, was in the, now complacent, English Freemasonic Grand Lodge. It is this change within the original English “Protestant” Freemasonry, as they merged with “Catholic” Freemasonry, that has utterly deceived the world.
Freemasonry today is divided into what might be called stages of initiation. As a normal prerequisite for membership, a candidate must first complete the Blue Lodge, or the three ‘Craft’ degrees; Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason. These first three degrees originated with Protestant English Freemasonry and were, in the beginning, the only degrees available. The ‘Higher degrees’ were known then as later Catholic inventions, and when Freemasonic authorities offered such ‘higher degrees’, they were not allowed and were considered suspect at best, treasonous at worst. But after Catholic and Jesuit subversions had done its work, the English Grand Lodge began to favorably recognize these ‘higher degrees’. Eventually, after being purged of any potentially controversial elements, they were appropriated and incorporated into extensions of Grand Lodge’s own system. Out of this, which entailed a merger with a parallel and rival alternative Grand Lodge, there finally arose, in 1813, United Grand Lodge.
The three ‘Craft’ degrees today come under the jurisdiction of the United Grand Lodge of England. The ‘higher degrees’, though they are now allowed, do not. They come under the jurisdiction of other Freemasonic bodies, such as the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Supreme Council or the Grand Chapter of the Royal Arch. Freemasons today will work through the three degrees offered by Grand Lodge, then like a student graduating with a BA in English Literature from one university, might move to another university to work for a BA in German or French Literature — will continue on to their choice among the various ‘higher degrees’. It bears worth repeating, that when English “Protestant” Freemasonry merged with “Catholic” Freemasonry with its ‘higher degrees’, it came under the complete control of the Roman Catholic Church and the Jesuits; ceasing to be genuinely Protestant. However — as a grand deception to lure unsuspecting Protestants into their clever scheme — Freemasonry was portrayed as anti-Catholic, anti- clerical, anti-monarchy, savored with sweet visions of liberty, equality, and fraternity for all.
The Roman Catholic Church has always adamantly proclaimed that its holy mission unreservedly is world wide and universal in scope. It was early in the fourth century that Saint Augustine in his work, “The City of God”, formally introduced into the Catholic Church the concept for a spiritual world brotherhood, a global fraternity, and a cosmopolitan citizenship — terms to indicate as a member, you had to be free from local, provincial, and national ideas, prejudices, and attachments. However, with the emergence of Protestantism and heretical monarchs, both being formidable enemies and obstacles to the goals of Roman Catholic globalism; if it ever was to be successful, these cancers ‘had’ to be eliminated. Phasing out monarchs, would pave the way towards a cosmopolitan “Grand Design”. And utilizing the “modified” version of Freemasonry, eager Protestants literally flocked to the cause. At the same time, there was a movement stirring that was to also thoroughly convince and bitterly turn Jesuit hardliners against the Bourbon monarchs.
CATHOLIC FREEMASONRY IMITATES PROTESTANTISM
It has always been the great boast of Protestantism that the spirit of free inquiry, both in religious matters and things of science, was the ‘right’ of an individual. As a near perfect counterfeit, Catholic “modified” Freemasonry, the most clever and marvelous of deceptions, also taught that their Freemasonry’s prime desire was to spread knowledge. Using an exact parallel to Protestant principles, it was claimed through understanding, men’s minds would come to condemn and reject narrowly enslaving dogma; teaching that only in free debate, without censorship, could society develop. Freemasonry, they lively taught, aimed at the establishment of complete freedom of worship, freedom of speech and association, freedom of the press, and freedom from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment without trial. Freemasonry wanted every man to have the right to choose his own type of employment and place of residence — entailing the abolition of serfdom still binding in Europe — and envisaged an eventual government controlled by public opinion, subject to a representative parliament. They taught that humanity, if it so desired, could attain to a social order, such as that of the ancient Egyptians, reflecting the order of the ‘cosmos’. How could a Protestant, or any true son of liberty, who had been for so long denied these rights by Catholicism, resist being a part of such a movement?
Devoted Jesuit Le Tellier, who was one of the confessors to French King Louis XIV, helped to launch, with Jesuit editor, Jacques Berthier, the ‘liberal’ publication, the Journal de Trevoux, which was a kind of Jesuit forerunner to the later Freemason’s Encyclopedia.* Renown Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, the German philosopher, historian, jurist, geologist, mathematician, and co-discoverer of the Calcullus, who lived during the years 1646 and 1716, dreamed of a universal science and a United Christian Europe, and hoped that the religious orders, particularly the Jesuits, would co-operate in compiling a comprehensive encyclopedia of human knowledge.” The motivational purpose was to bring a reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants. However, Catholicism declares publicly its infallibility. So it’s only reasonable to conclude, that if there was going to be any kind of reconciliation, it had to be on the part of the Protestants, not Rome — even if it took a little manipulation to get it accomplished.
Historically, but strictly for window dressing, it has been pounded into our consciousness that Rome and the Jesuits are the sworn enemies of Freemasonry. And from what is seen on the surface, it certainly would lead anyone to strongly believe this. On 24 April 1738, Pope Clement XII issued his Papal Bull forbidding all Catholics to become Freemasons under the pain of excommunication, the threat of hell-fire, and even death, because they allowed persons of all religions into their order, were “depraved and perverted” and for “other just and reasonable motives known to Us”, which, were not specified. The Church’s attitude must have seemed quite puzzling to some. Particularly, when at that time, when the warning went out, French Jacobite Freemasonry was at the peak of its development, and the Jacobite leaders were, after all, had either been born Catholic or become converts.
The Papal Bull, which gave a cosmetic exterior appearance to exclude Catholics from Freemasonry, certainly had a minimal effect in dissuading French Catholics from joining. On the contrary, after the promulgation of the Bull, some of the most illustrious names in France became involved. Even the king seems to have been on the verge of joining a lodge. Indeed, it was precisely in the Roman sphere of influence that Freemasonry, during the next half century, was to spread most vigorously and to assume some of its wilder, more exotic and extravagant permutations. It seemed to be patronized more enthusiastically by Catholic potentates — Francois of Austria, for example — then by anyone else. And was to prove most influential precisely within such bastions of Roman authority as Italy and Spain. Actually, by casting Freemasonry as a ‘villain’, Rome in effect turned it into a refuge and rallying point for her own adversaries.* To perfection, the “grand delusion” was working wonderfully. Jubilant Protestants took the bait, as they rushed in to offer their services in opposition to Rome. But true to the scheme, they had become only the ‘base’ of a pyramidal structure. At the capstone apex of power, Protestants were being secretly guided towards a more hidden agenda — and by the very ones they were claiming a victory over.
FREEMASONRY’S ENCYCLOPEDISTS JESUIT CONNECTION
Ignatius Loyola himself had often pointed out that religion needed intelligent understanding for its support. In all the great struggles of the Jesuit Order, the defense of intelligence as a “valuable aid to faith” had always been in the forefront. So as intellectuals and scholars of the “Enlightenment”, is it surprising when Freemasonry’s Encyclopedists, a group of Masons in France, begin to publish their Encyclopedia as a means to spread knowledge? Or that the editor, Denis Diderot, of the Encyclopedia’s first volume was Jesuit educated? And of those who collaborated with him, Voltaire, Montesquieu, d’Holbach, and d’Alembert, that Voltaire and Montesquieu were also Jesuit educated? Of course, when they first tried to bring the Encyclopedia out in 1751, it was banned by the Catholic Church, placed on the index of forbidden books, and copies were burned wherever possible. Jesuit Berthier, in his Journal de Trevoux, a monthly review of the arts and sciences, though he sharply condemned it, he also extended an olive branch to Diderot. Berthier stressed his admiration for Descartes, Gassendi, Newton, and Leibniz as “enemies of ignorance, heresy, and enthusiasm” and hinted at common interest: a shared belief in the perfectibility of human nature and in the importance of keeping abreast of the whole range of contemporary scholarship.”
This is just a sample of Roman Catholic “Double Face” and the Jesuit connection within the Enlightment movement, as it was called in France at that time. To bring it just a bit closer to home, Voltaire, even though he was known to be affiliated with other lodges, shortly before his death, officially became a Freemason, being introduced into the fraternity of the French Lodge of the Nine Sisters by its Grand Master, Benjamin Franklin. This lodge known as the “most mystical and esoteric of the French Lodges”, also described as “a university of world political philosophy”, was then, the main link between the secret societies of Europe and America. Among other distinguished members of the Nine Sisters Lodge were Helvetius, Thomas Jefferson, Franz Anton Mesmer, (from where we get the word mesmerize) John Paul Jones, who was first initiated in Scotland in 1770, and Cagliostro, who is reported to have prophesied that a New Atlantis would be rising in America.*
Voltaire, his whole life through, maintained friendly relations with his former Jesuit teachers, especially with Jesuit Poree. Once, when staying as a guest at the castle of ex-King Stanislaus of Poland, he associated in the most cordial manner with the Jesuits in the king’s entourage. One of them, Jesuit Adam, he kept with him for thirteen years because he was an adaptable person and a good chess-player. On his death-bed, Voltaire sent for Jesuit Gaultier, and declared politely: “If you like, we’ll get the little affair over at once”. He made confession, and wrote a last testament: in it he said that he wished to die in the Catholic faith in which he was born, trusting that God in His mercy would forgive him his sins”… Very moving — but isn’t it a little curious, that after the work is done, the prodigal son always comes home. And is it a coincidence, that Jesuit embraces always seem to be occurring in the shadows, even where officially, the two parties are said to be avowed enemies? This may arouse a slight trace of suspicion in some, but before judging too hastily, let’s follow another set of interesting events that are unfolding during this same time.
THE JESUIT SUPPRESSION PLOY
The Bourbons were a French royal family, a branch of the Capet family, who held the throne of France between the years 1589 and 1848. They also established royal dynasties in Spain and Italy, who occupied the thrones of Portugal, Naples, and Sicily. The “family” had made the ‘Compact’, as it was called: an agreement between them to act in unison on matters that affected them all. The fulcrum of world wealth, power, and culture lay in those areas dominated by “the family of the brothers Bourbon”. Now for some very good reason, the Society of Jesus affected them all; and adversely. They had to get rid of the Jesuits. Out of fear of being excluded from royal marriage partners, the Habsburg throne of Austria went along with the Bourbons.
The official records that describe the suppression of the Jesuits, takes you through myriad complexities, accusations, reasons and excuses, some almost silly, to give support for the deportation of the Jesuits from each of the acting Catholic nations. Certainly, the violent turmoil and intrigues that never failed to surround the Jesuits wherever they set up camp, was a two hundred year history against them, that spoke for itself. But this had always been looked upon and approved in Catholic circles as a means to justify the restoration of the Church triumphant. The Jesuits never-the-less, in their rise to power, had made many bitter enemies within the Church hierarchy itself. They flaunted their aristocratic and intellectual superiority, boasting to be the Pope’s elite, and with disdain, “looked with something approaching contempt on all other Orders”. The movement and onslaught that was to bring the Jesuits down, found ready helpers among these other Orders and ‘Jansenist’ prelates in Rome. But the frontline attackers were the members of the royal Bourbon family — and all were Roman Catholic.
The popular view teaches us that it was because of Jesuit agitation and their audacity that brought such harsh measures against them by the Bourbon kings. But upon closer examination, we find a formal plot being hatched whose conspirators were of another group; ardent members of the Enlightment and Catholic Freemasonic lodges, who were prominent members of the Establishment in its political, financial, literary, and social circles, as well. Whether they gathered in the Paris Lodge called “the Nine Sisters” or the Madrid Lodge called “Crossed Swords” or at state dinners or financial meetings, all were of one mind as “Brothers of the Pyramid”. In those days, the most powerful statesmen necessarily belonged to the Lodge; some, who were the chief advisers to the Bourbon princes. The Marquis de Pombal, was royal adviser in Portugal; the Count de Aranda, occupied the same position in Spain; Minister de Tillot and the Duc de Choiseul in France; Prince von Kaunitz and Gerard von Swieten at the Habsburg court of Maria Theresa of Austria. These names were and still are held in honor on Masonic membership lists. Each one of these men held a position of trust and confidentiality in government, and each was a devout Roman Catholic — yet they were being guided by a hidden and even higher Jesuit authority that had secretly vowed the death of the Society of Jesus — or to outwardly appear so. But why?
Do not lose sight, that this is the conspiracy of all conspiracies; where the most calculated strategy had to be devised to guarantee, unquestionably, not to fail in the final thrust for complete world control. In the Master Plan, it became quite obvious that if Rome was ever going to emerge as the authority over a cosmopolitan citizenship, she had to eliminate the kings and nobles, who with their ‘divine right’ blood lines, were constantly challenging her own divine right to rule ‘absolute’. Protestantism had spearheaded and implanted in the souls of men the consciousness to be free. Not even the severest of force could now alter their liberated minds. If hardliner Romanist could not grasp this stark reality, then they would have to be purged — but Rome had to prevail! To do so, she had to temporarily appear to be going with the liberal flow.
A conspiracy, to perform effectively, can never reveal itself or its motives; and if visible at all, will only appear in some other name. But the most effective tactic for confusion, is to appear opposing one’s own self. As masters of intrigue, never underestimate the scheming mind of a Jesuit. To sacrifice the Jesuit Order by a directive given by a hidden hierarchy of Jesuits, sounds almost like lunacy, but fits their character tailor made. The rationale was: if a concerted effort to rid the Society of Jesus from the public scene could be accomplished, it would also eliminate the most fierce opposition to the “Enlightment” movement. And if in the process, European monarchs could be employed as instruments to justifiably crush them, it would then serve a double purpose. Not only would it subdue the surviving hardliner Jesuits into being receptive to the Enlightment PLAN, but the bitter hatred backlash generated toward the monarchs because of their Order’s suppression, would be used as a later tool for sweeping the monarchical system of governments away too. Time has clearly proved that this is exactly what happened; that the Jesuit Order was dismantled, nation by nation, and then finally dissolved in 1773 by a signed decree by Pope Clement XIV. Yet, the official version raises a few questions.
GRAND DESIGN LAUNCHED
The destruction of the Jesuit Order in 1773, was the first step in a series of events that was to launch Rome’s calculated “Grand Design”. Following the Jesuit suppression, three years later, in 1776, the Illuminati organization was founded by Jesuit Adam Weishaupt, declaring to the world its intentions for a “Novus Ordo Seclorum” or New Order of the Ages. It was no coincidence, that the very same year, 1776, American English colonies declared their independence from England — that mighty fortress and nation sworn to the preservation of Protestantism, but pictured to the colonists as a vicious life bleeding ‘tax’ tyrant. The French Revolution erupted in 1789, with their king and queen being guillotined. Shortly after, in 1798, Napoleon’s French General Berthier, captured Rome and took Pope Pius VI prisoner. In only twenty-five years, the world stood in awe as it watched the most radical social changes taking place. Yet, what the world had witnessed, was not quite what it seemed to appear.
All these events, which have been held so dear to the hearts of freedom loving people; that so graphically and dramatically changed the hopeless lifestyle of oppressed common man; that took away Rome’s dictators and ushered in constitutional forms of government by the people — as shocking as it may seem to believe, was actually Rome’s hidden agenda to implement her long range strategy to grapple with the movement that was indelibly impressing man of his unalienable rights. — By secretly securing control of the Protestant movement, and by an overwhelming display of events that would virtually convince the Protestant world that its victory over Romanism was sure, would also provide the right climate for complacency and lethargy to set in. Rome then, in its own good time, could do its work of undermining, setting the stage to annihilate Protestantism forever.
PORTUGAL BEGINS JESUIT EXPULSION
The King of Portugal, Joseph I, was having an affair with the young Marchioness of Tavora, whose husband appropriately and vehemently disapproved. Taking the matter into his own hands, the husband of the lady lay in wait for the king on one of his journeys to rendezvous with Tavora’s wife; in another of his nocturnal adventures. Tavora, meaning only to discourage the king’s amour for his wife with a few pistol shots, slightly wounded Joseph I in the arm, who in a panic, fled to the castle. The incident, as it was purposely distorted out of proportion however, provided excellent ammunition and the perfect tool for launching the “Brotherhood’s” program against the Jesuits.
The violent action of the young nobleman, who had dared to protest in so decisive a manner against the king’s affair with his wife, was such an astonishing and unusual thing that no one believed that the marquis had come to it on his own initiative. Who had ever heard of the husband of a king’s mistress making difficulties or resorting to force? Malignant seditionaries must have been at work, inciting the marquis to such behavior; which exceeded all the bounds of etiquette! But who could have contrived such atrocious wickedness, if not the Jesuits — crafty, audacious, and capable of any baseness? This was the picture that was painted for King Joseph I by the aspiring Portuguese prime minister, Marquis of Pombal and chief adviser to the king. “Brother” Pombal well knew if it was possible to fill King Joseph with feelings of fear for the high nobility and convince him that the Jesuits were seeking his life, then the king would not rest until every member of the Society of Jesus was safely imprisoned or expelled by force from the land.
So great was King Joseph’s indignation, according to Pombal’s assertions, that the Jesuits should have so treasonally counselled the husband of the beautiful marchioness to interfere with the pleasures of an anointed ruler, that he eagerly assented for Pombal to immediately have the whole Tavora family and the old Duke of Aveiro imprisoned. At the same time, Pombal gave orders to have the Jesuits’ houses surrounded by soldiers, and the three Jesuits, Malagrida, Mattos, and Alexandre, taken prisoner as accomplices in the plot of high treason against the king. This indictment was based solely on the circumstances that the Jesuits had been the friends and confessors of the Tavara and Aveiro families. The old, reputedly fanatical Jesuit Malagrida, had produced a number of mystical writings and exercises which offered good evidence for a trial by the Inquisition. In their exquisite ‘skill’ in discovering heresy, he was pronounced guilty and burned at the stake.
Moreover, the indignant king hastened to sign a decree by which the Jesuits were denounced as “traitors, rebels, and enemies to the realm”, and banished forever from Portugal; this entailed the advantage that the crown could confiscate all the goods, revenues, and lands of the Order. The prime minister saw to it that this edict was carried out at once, with the greatest determination and brutality, not only in Portugal itself, but also in the Portuguese colonies of South America as well. In order to justify his measures, Pombal deluged the whole of Europe with a flood of anti-Jesuit manifestoes and propaganda campaign publications. Thus starting in 1759 to 1761, according to the decree, all the Jesuits in Portuguese territory, over two thousand of them, were arrested, transported by royal navy ships, and deposited on the shores of the papal states in Italy.
FRANCE FOLLOWS
The excesses to which these ‘anointed’ sovereigns carried their sexual pleasures, and the scandals they caused, can be aptly seen in the life of French King Louis XIV. Even though married, there were the affairs with the two nieces of his Minister of State, Cardinal Mazarin, then with the beautiful Mademoiselle de la Valliere, and finally with the witty and amusing Marquise de Montespan. The spectacle of a married king, wrote the Duc de Saint-Simon, who “had two mistresses at the same time, and travelled about with both of them” created great scandal: “The ladies sat in the queen’s carriage and the people streamed by in crowds to see the ‘three queens’.
His great-grandson, Louis XV, must have inherited some of his great-grandfather’s sexual irregularities in craving his numerous mistresses; for he once declared to his Minister Choiseul, it was his conviction that, as “the Lord’s anointed”, he could very well indulge in such intercourse without going to hell for it. However, his Jesuit confessors thought otherwise, even though their own record was marred quite sordidly itself. But King Louis XV’s last amusement, the Marquise de Pompadour, had so intensely aroused a struggle between them and the court Jesuits, that the Jesuits had refused both her and the King the communion sacrament. So distressed was Madame de Pompadour, that in order to satisfy the Jesuit’s demand on questions of morals and to be able to receive the sacrament, when it was prescribed to rebuild her stairs leading to her apartments, so that the king could not come to see her unseen, she faithfully followed that and all other instructions; creating a great sensation in court and in the whole town. But to no avail. The Jesuits wanted her entirely absent from the court. Finally giving up the idea of reconciliation with the Jesuits, she applied to a secular priest who took it upon himself to give her communion without further conditions.
The Jesuits had neglected a really unique opportunity of securing for their Order, the protection of the all powerful “favorite”. Cardinal de Bernis declared, some years later, that the suppression of the Society of Jesus in France was due mainly to the refusal of Jesuit de Sacy to grant absolution to Madame de Pompadour. This is truth, but partly so; for the Jesuits in France certainly were not without their own problems. The scandalous and notorious case of Jesuit Jean-Baptiste Girard accused of debauching the young maiden penitent, Catherine Cadiere, daughter of a merchant, Joseph Cadiere, was after a web of Jesuit deceit, acquitted in 1731. After a sensational trial receiving heavy publicity, it became necessary to have a large military force brought in so as to convey him in safety through the howling crowd. But the immediate pretext for a serious attack for expelling the Jesuit Order from France, did not come from sexual abuses, but financial.
The French officials and businessmen had often complained that the Jesuit’s trading enterprises seemed to take a higher priority than their spiritual ones; and had the statistical evidence to prove it. The efficiency and volume of Jesuit commerce is phenomenal, reported the manger of the East Indies Trading Company in 1697, and that “it is an established fact that next to the Dutch, the Jesuits carry on the greatest and most successful trade in the East Indies”. Saint-Simon, in his memoirs, relates that “when a fleet from the Indies was unloading at Cadiz, eight large cases came to hand labeled ‘Chocolate for the Father- General of the Society of Jesus’. The cases were so exceedingly heavy as to cause curiosity about their contents. They proved to be large balls of chocolate… A ball was split open and gold was found inside. The Jesuits were informed, but these cunning politicians were very careful not to claim this valuable ‘chocolate’. They preferred losing it to confessing”. — The opponents of the Jesuit Order in France had waited long for just the right moment to occur so as to bring open scandal and the death warrant upon them. What had been possible to achieve in little Portugal in expelling the Jesuits, surely they must be capable of accomplishing in France as well. The sensational law-suit of Jesuit LaValette, met all the requirements perfectly.
Tycoon-missionary, Jesuit Antoine LaValette, was Superior of the Jesuit mission on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean; who had been described as “the most able man in business that the world has beheld for many ages”. Developing sugar, coffee, and indigo plantations and shipping the produce to Europe, he borrowed heavily, utilizing all means of commercial credit to expand the business, despite warnings from Rome. Thanks to the activities of English privateers in 1755, only one of about twenty cargoes got through. Also, during the Seven Years War, 1756-1763, the sea lanes were virtually closed. These created a desperate situation where Jesuit LaValette could not make good his debts. A large trading house in Marseilles France went bankrupt and others were hard hit. Creditors held that the French Jesuits as a body were responsible for the debts.
The French Provincial Superior and the Jesuit General, Lorenzo Ricci, refused to pay LaValette’s debts, claiming that his commercial undertakings had violated the rules of the Order, and that the Society of Jesus was not liable for his debts. That tactic, was mistake number one. Instead of meeting the bills and avoiding any further unwelcome attention, the Order, in the absurd belief that the Paris Parliament would be more likely to accord them justice, appealed to the Parliament. This was their second grave error; a foolish and fatal move by which the Jesuit Order was delivered into the hands of their sworn enemies. For the Parliament not only ruled against the Society in the LaValette case, but the trial revived the whole of France with the spirit of the Jansenists and Gallicism; as people eagerly disputed anew questions of Jesuit lax morality and remembered again the old scandal of Jesuit Girard.
The Parliament decreed a public burning of books by well known Jesuit authors, as being subversive of public morality, banned further recruiting to the Society, and ordered all their colleges, schools, houses, and churches closed. On 6 August 1762, the Parliament decided that the Society, being incompatible with the welfare of the State, should be at once suppressed, and its members expelled from the country. Yet, the decisions of the Parliaments had no legal effect without the consent of King Louis XV, who was having some difficulties about getting rid of the Jesuits. However, “Brother” Choiseul, advised the king that the whole people and the Parliament were utterly embittered against the Jesuits, and that there was danger of a general revolt if he did not yield to the pressure of the nation. But it was beautiful Madame de Pompadour, the king’s mistress, who remembering her humiliation by the Jesuits, that had the final word in persuading the king to expel the Jesuits. His edict that affected more than three thousand French Jesuits went into effect November 1764, and in company with his fellow Bourbon monarchs in Naples and Parma, Louis XV also requested the Pope to suppress the Jesuit Society altogether.
SPAIN JOINS OTHERS
Now it was Spain’s turn for Jesuit expulsion, and the attack did not come either from sexual or financial charges, but instead, and perhaps a little amusingly — a ‘mutiny over hats’. King Charles of Spain was an autocrat of the most domineering kind, who believed in the absolute sovereignty of the monarch as his ‘divine right’, and it was at least his ambition, to always decide everything for himself. In the opinion of the King, the people of his realm had neither to consider nor complain, but simply to obey. King Charles III’s courtiers, early recognized that he who wished to obtain the king’s support for a measure, had merely to indicate to him that this or that circumstance would endanger his absolute sovereignty. It became clear that the Jesuit Order was the main obstacle in the way of a truly absolute monarchy, since the Jesuits owed greater obedience to their General in Rome than the sovereign of the country.
King Charles III regarded himself as something of a reformer, who looked on his subjects as children and believed himself possessed of a duty to correct them in the most absurd and petty details of their lives. It was brought to the king’s attention, that more and more frequently it was to be seen in Madrid, people wearing hats with unusually wide turned-up brims and full cloaks. Could this be a sign of an increasing spirit of rebellion? At the least, the sombrero hats which the people of Madrid wore, were considered too broad in the brim and certainly not such as would be found among progressive people like the French. So Charles III decided to publish a stern decree, in which the wearing of wide hats and cloaks was for all time most strictly forbidden. The people of Madrid thought differently, and were not prepared to give up their broad turned-up hats at any price; but felt deeply injured and deprived of their rights.
A dark mass of people, composed of thousands of wide, turned-up hats, literally swirled and swept through the streets in protest; like a disastrous tempest, they swarmed round the royal palace. The Walloon Guards were called out, who fired on the mob, killing a number of people. Instead of dispersing them, like a flooding river tearing down every obstacle, the stream poured into the broad square that stood before the king’s palace. Charles III was mortally afraid, when, staring down from his balcony, he saw before him this “mutiny of the hats”. He made a speech expressing his willingness to repeal the order he had issued; but in spite of this, the crowd would not give way. Only when the Jesuit priests hurried up, mingled with the demonstrators and spoke to them, and persuading the Ministers to grant all the people’s demands, did the people, cheering the Jesuits who fought a battle for the people’s rights and won, scattered just as suddenly as they had appeared. Thanks to the Jesuits, quiet once more reigned in Madrid.
The speed with which the Jesuits had succeeded in pacifying the malcontents aroused strong suspicion in the king and his ministers. Had not the king seen with his own eyes how the Jesuits had quieted the insurgents simply by reasonably talking to them? How could he account for this, except that the Jesuits had actually plotted the whole uproar to begin with? It wasn’t so difficult to persuade the king that it wasn’t so much that the Jesuits had quieted the riot, but more, that it was they who had fomented it. With Charles’ mind effectually poisoned, “Brother” Aranda and his friends produced a collection of fantastic documents purporting to convict the Jesuits of almost every kind of treachery. In January 1767, when the ground was felt to have been sufficiently prepared, it was laid before Charles a plan for the expulsion of the Jesuits from all the Spanish dominions. In one single night, between April 2 and April 3 of 1767, all houses, colleges, residences, and churches belonging to the Jesuits throughout Spain and the Spanish dominions in America were invaded by royal Spanish troops. About six thousand Jesuits were arrested, packed like herrings into the holds of Spanish men-of-war, and transported to the papal states in Italy, where they were unceremoniously dumped on the shores whether alive, dying, or already dead. Shortly afterwards, the Bourbon kingdoms of Naples and Parma followed suit, and still later, Austria. It only remained now to have the Jesuit Society completely liquidated by the papacy.
COMPLETE JESUIT EXTIRPATION SHAM
The PLAN called for more than just expelling the Jesuits out of the countries; it demanded the complete extirpation of the Jesuit Order. “Brother” Choiseul wrote to “Brother” Pombal; “Brother” de Tillot reported to “Brother” Kaunitz; “Brother” Aranda communicated with “Brother” Van Swieten: as the Enlightment “Brothers” campaigned in close alliance with each other, urging and counseling the monarchs to pressure the pope relentlessly so as to get the job done and finish the Jesuits off. When Pope Clement XIV repeatedly postponed the fulfillment of his promise to suppress the Jesuit Society, the Bourbon kings threatened to remove their countries from the Roman Catholic Church altogether and establish a Church Constitution on the Anglican model. In panic, the Pope then surrendered to their blackmail, and on July 1773. issued a papal document that completely suppressed the Society of Jesus. — At least, this is the picture painted for the general public…Yet, in contrast to the dramatic suppression of the Jesuit Order, where even numerous Jesuits lost their lives in the ordeal, there was also subtle plans being laid for the future restoration of the Order.
In the work of Giulio Cordara, the Society’s official historian, he considered that the Jesuit General Ricci, throughout the whole political onslaught had been too yielding. Could his behavior been caused by his pre-knowledge of the PLAN for the Order’s dissolution and later restoration? Also, the formula of Pope Clement XIV’s suppression of the Jesuit Order appeared as a ‘brief’ rather than a bull, in that it required only two signatories compared to twenty, and could be kept secret until the moment of execution — 16 August. It was also argued that the use of a brief, which carried less authoritative weight, signified that the Pope’s hand had been forced and that the sentence could be more easily revoked. It’s a historical fact, that even though towards the middle of the eighteenth century the Catholic powers, whose trustiest agents the Jesuits had once been, had joined forces against the Order, and although the pope himself had decreed that his “light cavalry” should be disbanded, the Society of Jesus in spite of all the royal edicts and papal briefs, did not for one moment cease to exist. Indeed, the Society of Jesus Order was fully restored in 1814, although with a few noticeable social changes. But of course, “social change” was the real object of the game.
The one thing that seemed secure of survival in the middle of the eighteenth century was the monarchical system of governments. To the exoteric, or those not initiated into the “Brotherhood”, it was made to appear that the Jesuits could go. Even the papacy might well go. The Pope himself thought that he could only hope to survive by appeasing the monarchies. Yet before less than a quarter of a century had passed the head of the French king had fallen. All the monarchs who had persecuted the Jesuits had lost their thrones. In fact, by the year 1830, the Bourbon family was overthrown, those staunch upholders of the “theory of divine right”, and in their place was put a “bourgeois king”, who occupied the throne by the will of the people. The papacy survived and regained in the so called persecution, the authority that ithad lost by appeasement, and in forty years the Society of Jesus which the monarchs thought that they had destroyed forever, had risen again and once more taken up its place in the Catholic world. And so the first phase of the “Grand Design” unfolded before the eyes of a dazzled world, but what was to follow, was to be no less spectacular.
CATHOLIC FREEMASONRY’S TECHNIQUES
As the official voice of the Jesuit Order was being temporarily silenced, “modified” Jesuit Catholic Freemasonry was jockeying itself into a position that would play a world political role that the ‘visible’ Jesuit Order could never do. The first order of business was to infiltrate genuine Protestant Freemasonry at its source — the Grand Lodge of England. When the Grand Lodge of England wanted to establish a legitimate or ‘regular’ lodge elsewhere in the world — in order to become ‘regular’ or ‘regularized’, a lodge had to be ‘warranted’ — it had to issue a charter, that is, from a superior governing body, a Grand Lodge or, so to speak, mother lodge. Thus, for example, the Grand Lodge of England would issue warrants to its own offshoots, or new lodges, whether in England, Ireland, Germany, or the American colonies; so as to retain its purity.
However, “maverick” Grand Lodges also began to crop up, spawning their own lodges and claiming their own authenticity. It was these maverick lodges that were Jesuit Catholic influenced and offered the ‘higher degrees’ that contended with the Grand Lodge of England, and required its members to be obedient to “Unknown Superiors”. It established itself in the colonies of Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia, and South Carolina and profoundly affected and influenced all the American founding fathers. The secret agenda of Rome’s Jesuits was to converge their “modified” Freemasonry with England’s Protestant Freemasonry. Then masquerading it as Protestant, it became a vehicle to deceive Protestants, and as hidden “Unknown Superiors”, they would guide Freemasonry to bring to fruition their ultimate goal and “Grand Design” — rulers of a cosmopolitan citizenship — the ‘new order of the ages’.
An example of the technique employed to speed up their PLAN can be seen by reading a quote from the Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IX, under the subject, Masonry, page 775…
- In 1751 a rival Grand Lodge of England “according to the Old Institutions” was established, and through the activity of its Grand Secretary, Lawrence Dermott, soon surpassed the Grand Lodge of 1717. The members of this Grand Lodge are known by the designation of “Ancient Masons”. They are also called “York Masons” with reference, not to the ephemeral Grand Lodge of all England in York, mentioned in 1726 and revived in 1761, but to the pretended first Grand Lodge of England assembled in 926 at York. They finally obtained control, the United Grand Lodge of England adopting in 1813 their ritualistic forms… After 1758, especially during the War of Independence, 1773-83, most of the lodges passed over to the “Ancients”. The union of the two systems in England (1813) was followed by a similar union in America.
It was this “maverick” lodge that erected on the first three degrees of England’s Grand Lodge, somewhere between 1740 and 1743, the degree of the ‘Royal Arch’ and the first of the series of upper degrees now known as the Scottish Rite or as the Ancient and Accepted Rite. It was this controversy, centering, around the Royal Arch degree, that about the middle of the eighteenth century split Masonry into opposing camps of Ancients and Moderns; the Ancients declaring that the Royal Arch degree was “the Root, Heart, and Marrow of Freemasonry”, the Moderns rejecting it. Only in 1813 was it officially received into English Freemasonry. But precisely when the Jesuits were intriguing to introduce the Royal Arch degree in English Masonry, they are also said to have been engaged in elaborating the “Scottish Rite”. To press forward their PLAN in severing the ties of the American colonies with England, a similar “maverick” lodge was transplanted in Boston Massachusetts; the soil from which the American Revolution was to spring.
CATHOLIC FREEMASONRY’S HAND IN AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Freemasonry had begun in Massachusetts in 1733, establishing its own Provincial Grand Lodge, named St. John’s; by acting on the authority from the Grand Lodge of England, and which subsequently, St. John’s was to warrant more than forty lodges under its own umbrella. In 1743, Grand Lodge of England named Thomas Oxnard, provincial Grand Master of North America, making in effect, Boston, the Freemasonic capital of Britain’s transatlantic colonies. But in 1752, (compare with the date 1751, when the “rival” Grand Lodge of England sprung up) an ‘irregular’ lodge, without an official warrant was found to be operating in Boston. When the members of St. John’s complained, the ‘irregular’ lodge duly applied for a warrant of its own — not from the Grand Lodge of England, however, but from the Grand Lodge of Scotland, which offered ‘higher degrees’. The irregular lodge was then, in 1756, warranted under the name of St. Andrew’s, which soon began to warrant new lodges of its own and claim for itself, therefore, the status of a Provincial Grand Lodge — under the authority of Grand Lodge of Scotland.
Thus there were two rival Provincial Grand Lodges in Boston: St. John’s, under the aegis of the Grand Lodge of England, and St. Andrew’s, under the aegis of the Grand Lodge of Scotland. St. Andrew’s continued to gain recruits — and had among its members, names like John Hancock and Paul Revere. On 28 August 1769, it conferred, for the first time anywhere in the world, a new Freemasonic degree specifically called the Knights Templar Degree. But that was not its only claim to distinction. The lodge of St. Andrew’s was in active collusion with a number of other politically oriented secret societies and quasi-Masonic clandestine fraternities dedicated to opposing British fiscal legislation, such as the ‘Long Room Club’ (which included St. Andrew’s Grand Master, Joseph Warren) the ‘Committee of Correspondence’ (which included Warren and Paul Revere, that synchronized local opposition with opposition in other American cities, such as Philadelphia and New York) and the ‘North End Caucus’ (which included a good many Freemasonic brethren, including Warren).
Another, even more militant organization, was the ‘Sons of Liberty’, and its inner nucleus, the so called ‘Loyal Nine’, who advocated violence and had been fomenting riots, demonstrations and other forms of civil disobedience since 1765. By 1773, the St. Andrew’s lodge had assumed a position in the vanguard of what were now rapidly escalating events assuming increasingly ominous proportions. Membership of St. Andrew’s overlapped these other clandestine organizations. The American historical outcome of this conspiracy against Protestant England, was the Boston ‘Tea Party’ that effectively marked the beginning of the American War for Independence.
Nothing tends to give that certain swelling in the chest, than the pride felt to be an American. This is that unique nation of fabulous opportunities, that guarantees its citizens the ‘right’ to be free and freedom to worship as you choose; mandated in the very articles of its constitution — at least this is the way it was meant to be. Times are changing now and there seems to be a different trend in motion. The North American continent, where England was successfully developing her Protestant colonies became Rome’s number one grave concern. But let’s go back in time just a bit, to right after the Jesuit Order was founded and take a look at Germany, another area where Rome gave her undivided attention.
Germany, like England, was firmly rooted in Protestantism. Non-compliance always enraged Rome’s ego. When violence and bloodshed proved inadequate to successfully alter and persuade Protestant minds, then a more subtle tactic was employed. Coming out of Germany, and posing and deceiving the world to be also Protestant, those top and inner circle of Jesuits created the Bavarian Illuminati Order. The “Illuminati” then became a force to unite French and German Freemasonry for the specific purpose of revolution and to serve as a cover for their “Grand Design” after the Jesuit Order had been temporarily dissolved. It is behind the Illuminati cover that they spawned the “Novus Ordo Seclorum” or ‘New Order of the Ages’ concept. Midst great excitement and exhilarating fan fare of a coming much needed ‘change’, the New Order of the Ages emerged as a reality when it ‘naturally’ gave birth to the American and French Revolutions’ — Twins of Jesuitical liberty ‘expediency’.
JESUITS COME TO GERMANY
When Germany was catapulted upon Europe’s religious center-stage by Martin Luther’s firm conviction and obedience to God’s Holy Scriptures, and his unwavering stand for its truths; when the German princes, having also been convinced of Scriptural truth, refused to turn Martin Luther over to Rome to be burned — Germany, being the nation where the very word PRO-TEST-ANT originated, to appropriately define her reformational struggles against Roman Catholic corruptions — Germany, then became the focus and target of Rome’s rage and vengeance; hated almost as much as England herself. When the first members of the Society of Jesus appeared in Germany, immediately following the founding of their Order in 1540, it seemed as if the Reformation was about to be completely victorious. Indeed, nine-tenths of the population had already gone over to Protestantism. Even in Rome the full succession of Germany from the Catholic Church was expected at any moment — however, Jesuits like Peter Canisius, Peter Faber, Salmeron, Claude Lejay, Bobadilla, and others first sent into Germany were soon to change all of that.
The most important factor in the re-catholicizing of Germany was the educational activity of the Jesuits. Wherever the Jesuits were able to effect a permanent settlement, they made it their chief concern to establish schools. They succeeded in rapid succession the founding of colleges in all the more important towns of the German Empire. First in Cologne, and soon afterwards in Vienna, Praque, Dillingen, Mainz, Speyer, Wurzburg, Fulda, Munster, Graz, Innsbruck, Augsburg, Munich, Ingolstadt, and Frieburg. The Jesuits realized too that Catholicism’s struggle with Protestantism was also a fight of the printing press, and that the victory would fall to the party which could create an effective literature of propaganda in the German language. For as Jesuit Canisius once wrote, a writer was accounted of more worth than ten professors and recommended the establishment of a special Jesuit college for writers. They then worked to secure benefits and privileges, for which they brought into play their political influence with the rulers of the land.
As the Counter-Reformation progressed throughout Germany, battle lines were drawn as Germany became divided into being Catholic in the south and Protestant in the north. It is in the south east of Germany, in the city of Ingolstadt of Bavaria, that special attention is drawn for the Jesuits vigorous activity in their role to recapture Germany for Catholicism. The 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia, volume eight, page eight, states “that Ingolstadt, during the Counter-Reformation, did more than any other university for the defense of the Catholic Faith, and was for the Church in Southern Germany what Wittenberg was for Protestantism in the north”. Apart from the Catholic university, of which Jesuit Peter Canisius had served as rector, there was also a Jesuit college and a seminary (founded in 1578), which made Ingolstadt the prototype of the “Jesuit city”.
These colleges turned out Jesuit missionaries, men, who when combating German Protestantism, adapted themselves, true to their principles, to meet and neutralize each given situation. If Protestantism was to be stopped in Germany, where it was overwhelmingly Lutheran, then much discretion had to be used to first win their confidence with an appearance of mildness and friendly persuasion. They began their campaign with the words, “We must begin with what brings hearts nearer to one another, not with things that lead to strife”! After a century of friendliness, exhortations, and instructions in catechism had served their purposes, these peace-loving fathers turned over a whole new leaf. Bringing out their “weapons of abuse”, they employed them freely. At the courts of princes, they influenced the course of action that brought on the Thirty Years’ War that all but annihilated Germany. It seems that when in the minority the policy of Rome is to be gentle as a lamb, when in equality to be clever as a fox, but when in the majority she becomes as ferocious as a tiger.
JESUITS DURING THIRTY YEARS’ WAR
It was especially Jesuit William Lamormaini, who taking over the office of confessor to Emperor Ferdinand II for almost the whole duration of the Thirty Years’ War, that attained to such overwhelming power; who gained for the Jesuits the favor and heart of the Emperor. They controlled most everything. Even the most prominent ministers of state were domineered over by them to carry out their wills. The influence of the Jesuits reached their zenith while Lamormaini was confessor to the emperor. Jesuit Lamormaini’s dwelling became a state chancellery, that took every opportunity to suppress Protestantism in the empire and make the peace of Protestants intolerable. This is the true essence of Rome’s Counter- Reformation — to undo all that Protestantism has done for the human rights of man.
Every history of the Thirty Years’ War tells the same tragic story — of starvation and disease and the utter destruction and desolation of Germany from the aftermath of that war. Even after the ardent Catholic German Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand Iland his imperial army, that was reinforced by Spanish forces, led by Cardinal Infante Ferdinand, brother of the Habsburg Spanish king, Philip IV, had won for Catholicism on 6 September 1634, the decisive victory at Nordlingen against the Protestant German-Swedish army — after sixteen ravaged war torn years, Germany still was not given the compassion to see peace. That victory, adding to the growing strength of Habsburg power, rallied another Catholic cardinal who was obsessed for power.
The French Cardinal Richelieu, statesman and chief minister to King Louis XIII of France, entered the war, siding with the Protestants in opposing Emperor Ferdinand II and Spain. At Germany’s expense, for another grueling ruthless fourteen years the war continued. Finally on 24 October 1648, the treaty of Westphalia was signed, putting an end to 30 years of German suffering, and France being victorious in breaking the Habsburg territorial ring that surrounded her. Whether political or religious, it was an overwhelming Catholic victory. And even though Cardinal Richelieu, in the interest of France, could give handsome subsidies to Protestant princes in Germany, to encourage unruly Protestants, rather than they being loyal subjects of the Emperor — yet on the other hand, if French interests were not at stake, a Catholic policy was pursued — he was willing to see Imperial lands ceded to Protestant princes, but insisted on inserting a clause in the treaty that would guarantee protection for any Jesuit who might be found there. Thus Germany, and especially south Germany, became directly influenced by France, and of course, the Jesuits.
Certain historical facts when taken notice of, even to the most casual researcher, must bring into proper perspective the enormous influence and participation that the Jesuits had before, during, and after the Thirty Years’ War, and the role their schools in Southern Germany played, especially in the city of Ingolstadt. First of all, Bavarian Duke Maximilian and Emperor Ferdinand II himself were graduates of the Jesuit college at Ingolstadt. What greater recommendation could any institution be given than to have the Imperial Emperor sitting at its feet of learning? Through this royal recognition alone, the Jesuits occupied influential positions over the Imperial house which also influenced the more prominent Catholic generals, of whom the greatest of these, Count Tilly and Wallenstein were both educated by the Jesuits. Also during the Thirty Years’ War, chaplains had become part of the standard equipment of every regiment. Consequently, it was not unusual for generals in making up their requisitions, to request as many as sixty Jesuit chaplains for a single campaign.” Certainly, from the Imperial top to the lowliest soldier, the pressure of Jesuit influence was constantly being felt.
SOUTHERN GERMANY BECOMES JESUIT STRONGHOLD
Consider this: Jesuits could boast by the 1580’s, that twenty colleges, in a little over forty years, had been founded in the Society’s three German provinces. By the 1620s, the Salzburg University, run by the Benedictines, was the only Catholic university in the German Empire not founded or partly maintained by the Society. Just in the German state of Bavaria alone, you could count six Jesuit colleges clustered together within less than a one hundred mile radius of each other. Bavaria was bristling with Jesuits. And as mentioned before, the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt was called “Jesuit city”. It could also be said about the Bavarian city of Munich, that it was well on the way to becoming “a German Rome”.
The Jesuits and the Church of Rome entered the Counter- Reformation with a stern and unbending policy, which aimed at the universal monarchy of the pope. With this obsession driving them, they strove to spur on all the Catholic countries of the world to a concerted advance against the foes of the Papacy. Catholic France came into open conflict with Rome’s cosmopolitan ambitions, (which was never forgotten) by placing French nationalism above Rome’s interest, in joining with German Protestants against the Habsburg forces. However, France was as indifferent to German mass suffering as were the Emperor, Pope, Jesuits, or the soldiers who plundered, massacred, and raped. At the final peace conferences to end a war whose grinding butchery was blessed and perpetuated by the Church, the Jesuits lobbied and wrote pamphlets against the sin of surrender, while Pope Innocent X published in 1650, a declaration condemning the peace treaties as “perpetually null”. And even though the Imperial forces lost the war, the Jesuits were assured safe protection by their conquerors in France.
With this backdrop of historical information known, it must be seen that Germany, for the next one hundred to one hundred fifty years, while staggering and recovering from her war devastations, and to the delight of Rome, was fully in the Jesuit’s hands. And even though French intervention in the Thirty Years’ War brought Rome some aggravation, when looking back at some related events taking place during those war years between 1618 and 1648, such as, England’s religious struggles with Rome and the founding of the Catholic Maryland colony (1632), Rome’s suppression of scientific thought, Galileo taken into custody by the Inquisition (1633), Irish massacre (1641) — certainly Rome must not have felt too badly with her counteroffensive progress to rid the world of Protestantism. This ‘holy’ commission was fanatically burned into the Jesuit mind. The fever pitched energy they exerted, the extremes they endured and pursued — wars, massacres, assassinations, disguises, hiding places, masquerades, aliases, or whatever was required to fit the occasion — was all to conquer ‘all’ for the glory of Rome. Think about it. In all recorded history, has there ever been another so dedicated and devoted to a single cause? How can anyone be so foolish to believe for a moment that Rome would ever surrender her haughty global ambitions to someone else?
It took exactly another one hundred years after the Thirty Years’ War, till 1745, when the last futile attempt to establish Catholicism in England by force, for the top echelons of Rome, the Jesuits, and Catholic Freemasonry to finally admit to themselves that they had to change their tactics if they were going to win their global war. Elusive Protestant England and her Protestant English colonies, an ocean away from Rome’s grasp, infuriated her. It is about this time that we find neighboring fellow Jesuits in the border nations of France and Germany collaborating together. They were hatching up their glorious (remember now, it’s for the good of mankind) Novus Ordo Seclorum. And could you believe?? Their notorious leader was a professor of Canon law at the Jesuit university of Ingolstadt!
Continued in Chapter 11 Architects of The Grand Design.