Proofs Of A Conspiracy Against All The RELIGIONS AND GOVERNMENTS Of Europe Carried On IN THE SECRET MEETINGS Of FREE MASONS, ILLUMINATI, And READING SOCIETIES, - By John Robison

Introduction.
BEING AT a friend's house in the country during some part of the summer 1795, I there
saw a volume of a German periodical work, called Religions Begebenheiten, i.e.
Religious Occurrences; in which there was an account of the various schisms in the
Fraternity of Free Masons, with frequent allusions to the origin and history of that
celebrated association. This account interested me a good deal, because, in my early life,
I had taken some part in the occupations (shall I call them) of Free Masonry; and having
chiefly frequented the Lodges on the Continent, I had learned many doctrines, and seen
many ceremonials, which have no place in the simple system of Free Masonry which
obtains in this country. I had also remarked, that the whole was much more the object of
reflection and thought than I could remember it to have been among my acquaintances at
home. There, I had seen a Mason Lodge considered merely as a pretext for passing an
hour or two in a fort of decent conviviality, not altogether void of some rational
occupation. I had sometimes heard of differences of doctrines or of ceremonies, but in
terms which marked them as mere frivolities. But, on the Continent, I found them matters
of serious concern and debate. Such too is the contagion of example, that I could not
hinder myself from thinking one opinion better founded, or one Ritual more apposite and
significant, than another; and I even felt something like an anxiety for its being adopted,
and a zeal for making it a general practice. I had been initiated in a very splendid Lodge
at Liege, of which the Prince Bishop, his Trefonciers, and the chief Noblesse of the State,
were members. I visited the French Lodges at Valenciennes, at Brussels, at Aix-la-
Chapelle, at Berlin, and Koningsberg;
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and I picked up some printed discourses delivered by the Brother-orators of the Lodges.
At St. Petersburgh I connected myself with the English Lodge, and occasionally visited
the German and Russian Lodges held there. I found myself received with particular
respect as a Scotch Mason, and as an Élève of the Lodge de la Parfaite Intelligence at
Liège. I was importuned by persons of the first rank to pursue my masonic career through
many degrees unknown in this country. But all the splendour and elegance that I saw
could not conceal a frivolity in every part. It appeared a baseless fabric, and I could not think of engaging in an occupation which would consume much time, cost me a good
deal of money, and might perhaps excite in me some of that fanaticism, or, at least,
enthusiasm that I saw in others, and perceived to be void of any rational support. I
therefore remained in the English Lodge, contented with the rank of Scotch Master,
which was in a manner forced on me in a private Lodge of French Masons, but is not
given in the English Lodge. My masonic rank admitted me to a very elegant
entertainment in the female Loge de la Fidélité, where every ceremonial was composed
in the highest degree of elegance, and every thing conducted with the most delicate
respect for our fair sisters, and the old song of brotherly love was chanted in the most
refined strain of sentiment. I do not suppose that the Parisian Free Masonry of forty-five
degrees could give me more entertainment. I had profited so much by it, that I had the
honor of being appointed the Brother-orator. In this office I gave such satisfaction, that a
worthy Brother sent me at midnight a box, which he committed to my care, as a person
far advanced in masonic science, zealously attached to the order, and therefore a fit
depositary of important writings. I learned next day that this gentleman had found it
convenient to leave the empire in a hurry, but taking with him the funds of an
establishment of which her Imperial Majesty had made him the manager. I was desired to
keep these writings till he should see me again. I obeyed. About ten years afterward I saw
the gentleman on the street in Edinburgh, conversing with a foreigner. As I passed by
him, I saluted him softly in the Russian language, but without stopping, or even looking
him in the face. He coloured, but made no return. I endeavoured in vain to meet with him,
intending to make a proper return for much civility and kindness which I had received from him in his own country.

I now considered the box as accessible to myself, and opened it. I found it to contain all
the degrees of the Parfait Maçon Écossois, with the Rituals, Catechisms, and
Instructions, and also four other degrees of Free Masonry, as cultivated in the Parisian
Lodges. I have kept them with all care, and mean to give them to some respectable
Lodge. But as I am bound by no engagement of any kind, I hold myself as at liberty to
make such use of them as may be serviceable to the public, without enabling any
uninitiated person to enter the Lodges of these degrees.
This acquisition might have roused my former relish for Masonry, had it been merely
dormant; but, after so long separation from the Loge de la Fidélité, the masonic spirit had
evaporated. Some curiosity, however, remained, and some wish to trace this plastic
mystery to the pit from which the clay had been dug, which has been moulded into so
many different shapes, "some to honor, and some to dishonor." But my opportunities
were now gone. I had given away (when in Russia) my volumes of discourses, and some
far-fetched and gratuitous histories, and nothing remained but the pitiful work of
Anderson, and the Maçonnerie Adonhiramique dévoilée, which are in every one's hands. My curiosity was strongly roused by the accounts given in the Religions Begebenheiten.
There I saw quotations without number; systems and schisms of which I had never heard;
but what particularly struck me, was a zeal and fanaticism about what I thought trifles,
which astonished me. Men of rank and fortune, and engaged in serious and honorable
public employments, not only frequenting the Lodges of the cities where they resided, but
journeying from one end of Germany or France to the other, to visit new Lodges, or to
learn new secrets or new doctrines. I saw conventions held at Wismar, at Wisbad, at
Kohlo, at Brunswick, and at Willemsbad, consisting of some hundreds of persons of
respectable stations. I saw adventurers coming to a city, professing some new secret, and
in a few days forming new Lodges, and instructing in a troublesome and expensive
manner hundreds of brethren.
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German Masonry appeared a very serious concern, and to be implicated with other
subjects with which I had never suspected it to have any connection. I saw it much
connected with many occurrences and schisms in the Christian church; I saw that the
Jesuits had several times interfered in it; and that most of the exceptionable innovations
and dissentions had arisen about the time that the order of Loyola was suppressed; so that
it should seem, that these intriguing brethren had attempted to maintain their influence by
the help of Free Masonry. I saw it much disturbed by the mystical whims of J. Behmen
and Swedenborg--by the fanatical and knavish doctrines of the modern Rosycrucians--by
Magicians--Magnetisers--Exorcists, &c. And I observed that these different sects
reprobated each other, as not only maintaining erroneous opinions, but even inculcating
opinions which were contrary to the established religions of Germany, and contrary to the
principles of the civil establishments. At the same time they charged each other with
mistakes and corruptions, both in doctrine and in practice; and particularly with
falsification of the first principles of Free Masonry, and with ignorance of its origin and
its history; and they supported these charges by authorities from many different books
which were unknown to me.

My curiosity was now greatly excited. I got from a much-respected friend many of the
preceding volumes of the Religions Begebenheiten, in hopes of much information from
the patient industry of German erudition. This opened a new and very interesting scene; I
was frequently sent back to England, from whence all agreed that Free Masonry had been
imported into Germany. I was frequently led into France and into Italy. There, and more
remarkably in France, I found that the Lodges had become the haunts of many projectors
and fanatics, both in science, in religion, and in politics, who had availed themselves of
the secrecy and the freedom of speech maintained in these meetings, to broach their
particular whims, or suspicious doctrines, which, if published to the world in the usual
manner, would have exposed the authors to ridicule, or to censure. These projectors had
contrived to tag their peculiar nostrums to the mummery of Masonry, and were even
allowed to twist the masonic emblems and ceremonies to their purpose; so that in their hands Free Masonry became a thing totally unlike, and
almost in direct opposition to the system (if it may get such a name) imported from
England; and some Lodges had become schools of irreligion and licentiousness.