Mackey – Encyclopedia Of Freemasonry Vol. 1

70 SECRET SOCIETIESobliged to resign in consequence of the masonic body havingpassed a vote of censure upon him for his expressions infavour of the temporal power of the Pope, uttered in thestormy discussion of the French Senate in the month ofJune of that year . The Grand Orient was again all in confusion.Napoleon III. now interfered, especially as PrinceNapoleon was proposed for the office of Grand Master ;which excited the jealousy of the Muratists, who publishedpamphlets of the most vituperative character against theiradversaries, who on their side replied with correspondingbitterness . Napoleon imposed silence on the litigants, prohibitedattendance at lodges, promised that he himselfwould appoint a Grand Master, and advised his cousin toundertake a long voyage to the United States . Deprivedof the right of electing its own chief, the autonomy ofFreemasonry became an illusion, its programme useless,and its mystery a farce . In the meanwhile, the quarrels,of the partisans of the different candidates calmed down ;Prince Napoleon returned from America ; Murat resignedhimself to*this defeat, as to others, and the Emperor forgotall about Freemasonry . At last, in January 1862, thereappeared a decree appointing Marshal Magnan to beGrand Master. A Marshal ! The nephew, in this instance,as in many others, had taken a leaf out of his uncle'sbook.453 . Jesuitical Manoeuvres.-Napoleonic Freemasonry, notentirely to lose its peculiar physiognomy, ventured to changeits institutions . Jesuitism cast loving eyes on it, and drewit towards itself, as in the days of the Strict Observance .Murat threw out his net, but was removed just when itwas most important for the interests of the Jesuits thathe should have remained. He proposed to transform theFrench lodges-of which, in 1852, there were 325, whilstin 1861 only 269 could be found-into societies of mutualsuccour, and to abandon or submit the higher masonicsphere of morality and humanity to the society, which inthese last sixty years has already overcome and incorporatedthe whole Roman clergy, once its rivals, and by obliquepaths also many of the conservative sects of other creeds .Murat did not succeed, but others may ; and though theMasons say that Jesuitism shall not succeed, yet, how isFreemasonry, that professes to meddle neither with politicsnor religion, to counteract the political and religious machinationsof the Jesuits? And even if Freemasonry had thesame weapons, are there men among the Order able to wield