Fritz Springmeier

thing in Holland, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Bavaria, Savoy, andother parts of Italy."Although in our days these seem to no longer care to hide indarkness, but hold their meetings in the full light and under theeyes of their fellow-men and publish their journals openly, yetthey deliberate and preserve the habits and customs of secretsocieties. Nay there are in them many secrets which are by lawcarefully concealed not only from the profane, but also from manyassociated, viz., the last and intimate intentions, the hidden andunknown chiefs, the hidden and secret meetings, the resolutions andmethods and means by which they will be carried into execution.Hence the difference of rights and of duties among the members;hence the distinction of orders and grades and the severediscipline by which they are ruled."...So, by false appearance, but with the same kind ofsimulation, the Masons chiefly strive, as once did the Manicheans,to hide and to admit no witnesses but their own. They seekskillfully hiding places, assuming the appearance of literary menor philosophers, associated for the purpose of erudition; they havealways ready on their tongues the speech of cultivated urbanity,and proclaim their charity toward the poor; they look for theimprovement of the masses, to extend the benefits of social comfortto as many of mankind as possible. Those purposes, though they maybe true, yet are not the only ones. Besides, those who are chosento join the society must promise and swear to obey the leaders andteachers with great respect and trust; to be ready to do whateveris told them, and accept death and the most horrible punishment ifthey disobey. In fact, some who have betrayed the secrets ordisobeyed an order are punished with death so skillfully and soaudaciously that the murder escaped the investigations of thepolice. Therefore, reason and truth show that the society of whichwe speak is contrary to honesty and natural justice."..."A good tree cannot yield bad fruits, nor a bad tree goodones." (Matt, vii.,18) Masonry generates bad fruits mixed withgreat bitterness. From the evidence above mentioned we find itsaim, which is the desire of overthrowing all the religious andsocial orders introduced by Christianity, and building a new oneaccording to its taste, based on the foundation and laws ofnaturalism."What we have said or will say must be understood of Masonry ingeneral and of all societies, not of the individual members of thesame. In their number there may be not a few who, though they arewrong in giving their names to these societies, yet are neitherguilty of their crimes nor aware of the final goal which theystrive to reach."By opening their gates to persons of every creed they promote,in fact, the great modern error of religious indifference and ofthe parity of all worships, the best way to annihilate everyreligion, especially the Catholic, which, being the only true onecannot be joined with others without enormous injustice."Those who boldly deny His existence are admitted as well asthose who, like the Pantheists, admit God but ruin the idea of Him,retaining an absurd caricature of the divine nature, destroying itsreality. Now, as soon as this supreme foundation is pulled down and