Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

192 ABBE BARRUEL'S VIEWS
" It was the same with respect to the religious part of this
degree, where the adept is at once pontiff and sacrificer
with the rest of the brethren. Vested in the ornaments of
the priesthood, they offer bread and wine,* according to the
order of Melchisedec. The secret object of this ceremony
is to re-establish religious equality, and to exhibit all men
equally priests and pontiffs, to recall the brethren to natural
religion, and to persuade them that the religion of Moses,
and of Christ, had violated religious liberty and equality by
the distinction of priests and laity. It was the revolution
again which opened the eyes of many of the adepts, who
then owned that they had been dupes to this impiety, as
they had been to the regicide essay in the former part t
* u The Most Perfect then presents the candidate with bread and wine,
saying, eat of this bread with me, and drink of the same cap," &c—F. M.
Monitor, 1802, p. 263.
t u Were we less rigorous as to our proofs, we should treat in this place of
the degree called the Knights of the Sun, But we are only acquainted
with it through the medium of the Voile Lev6, (the veil raised up,) a work
of the Abbe* Le Franc, certainly a man of the greatest virtue and undoubted
veracity, and one of those Ecclesiastics, who preferred falling
under the butchering poniards of the Septembrizers, to betraying their religion.
But this author has neglected to inform us from what source* be
had drawn his documents on the Masonic degrees. Beside, we can remark,
that he was not sufficiently acquainted with the origin of Masonry
which he only traces back to Socinus. His knowledge also of the Scotch
degrees, appears to have been acquired from inaccurate translations, which
our French authors had vitiated, according to their respective purposes.
u On the other side, we know for certain, that this degree of Knight of the
Sun, [28th of Dalcho,] is a modern creation. Its author is to be known
by his Teutonic style. If we are to believe what we have been told, it owes
its origin to one of those philosophists of very high life, who was too much
attached to the high rank which he enjoyed, to adopt any other equality,
than that which applied to the Masonic feasts and their impiety. And
nothing is to be found in this degree, which militates against the throne.
It is-much too perspicuous for many Masons, who would have been disgusted
with any thing but emblematical figures, susceptible of various explanations.
Nevertheless, we were acquainted with several of these
Knights of the Sun in France. This degree was only given to such of the
adepts whose impiety was unequivocal. It was rather a degree of modern