THE OLD CATHOLIC CHURCH

AT THE BEGINNING OF 1914 people began to hear of the existence in Paris of a 'French Catholic Church,' also called the 'Gallican Church'; there was already another 'Gallican Church', directed by an Abbé Volet, which had a journal entitled _The French Catholic_. It is characteristic of these schismatic organizations to multiply almost indefinitely, like Protestant sects, and sometimes to compete with another rather dishonestly. The new Church was provisionally placed under the control of 'Msgr Arnold Henri Mathieu, Count of Landave of Thomastown, Old Catholic Archbishop of London, Metropolitan of Great Britain and Ireland' while awaiting the consecration as 'Metropolitan of France and the Colonies' of his Vicar General, 'Msgr Pierre Rend, vidame of Lignidres.' It seemed that in reality this last person was simply called Laurain, but the dignitaries of this Church have a mania for titles of nobility as others have for fantastic decorations; thus Bishop Villatte, whose cultural efforts had earlier caused a certain uproar, invented the 'Order of the Crown of Thorns.' However that may be, it is quite singular that a Church proudly proclaiming itself 'French and not Roman' was even provisionally under the authority of an Englishman; it first became known, just like that of Villatte (who had by then moved on to a Syrian Church under the name Mar Timotheus), by offers of schismatic priests to parishes which found themselves deprived of their curés because the municipalities had had difficulties with their bishops.^[1] There soon appeared a bulletin entitled _The Catholic Awakening_ which ran for exactly four numbers, from March to August 1914, whose publication was halted by the war and by the mobilization of 'Archbishop Metropolitan.'^[2] This bulletin, in order to establish the 'apostolic succession' of Msgr Mathieu, consecrated by Msgr Gérard Gul, Jansenist Archbishop of Utrecht, listed the entire line of Jansenist archbishops and bishops of Holland; and through them, by several intermediaries, the line was traced back to Bossuet, then to Cardinal Barberini, nephew of Pope Urban VIII. One could then read there of the 'religious division' of France into an archbishopric and eight 'regional' bishoprics; several of these had already had designated bishops, among whom were two bishops of a so-called 'Latin Orthodox Church,' Msgrs Giraud, former Trappist lay brother, and Joanny Bricaud. The latter, who is quite well known in occultist circles, previously had himself called 'His Beatitude John II, Patriarch of the Universal Gnostic Church', and today he claims succession to Papus as head of the Martinist Order and of several other organizations; but it should be mentioned that these titles are contested by other occultists. It would be difficult, moreover, to enumerate all the Churches and all the Orders to which Bricaud claims to be attached either successively or even simultaneously. If we especially note the presence of this occultist among the personnel of the Church here in question, it is because this is an example of the relations that exist between a throng of groups that at first glance one might believe to be complete strangers to one another. However, there was no question of Theosophy and its representatives in the 'French Catholic Church,' which, like most similar schisms, seems to have had only an ephemeral existence. It was in the Old Catholic Church of England, from which the 'French Catholic Church' was born, that the Theosophists began to insinuate themselves.

The head of this Old Catholic Church, Archbishop Mathieu, who was really Arnold Henry Matthews, born in Montpellier of Irish parents, was at first prepared to receive orders in the Episcopal Church of Scotland. Then he became Catholic in 1875, and was ordained priest in Glasgow in June, 1877. He left the priesthood in 1889, and in October 1890 took the Italian name of Arnoldo Girolamo Povoleri, even publishing a notice in the _Times_ to announce this change of names. He married in 1892 and had himself called the Reverend Count Povoleri di Vicenza, and it was about the same time that he also took the title of Count of Landaff. Let us add that recently he has appeared under the name of the Marquis of Povoleri, accompanied by his son and daughter, at some of Empress Eugènie's receptions at Bayswater, where there was rather mixed company.^[3] At one time he seemed to be reconciled with the Catholic Church, but this lasted only briefly; in 1908, Msgr Mathew (this is the way he now spelled his name) had himself consecrated bishop by Dr Gérard Gul, who was head of the Old Catholic Church of Holland, which was formed from the debris of Jansenism together with some dissidents who in 1870 had refused to accept the dogma of papal infallibility; the various Old Catholic Churches (including that presently directed by the Theosophists) recognize the Pope only as 'Patriarch and Primate of the West'. The new bishop in turn consecrated two other strayed English priests, Ignace Beale and Arthur Howorth; and after scarcely three years he founded the 'Catholic Orthodox Church of the West', repudiating any subordination to Utrecht as well as to Rome. This Church successively took different names that would be of little use or interest to enumerate, while its head sought to enter into negotiations, first with the Holy See through the Cardinal Merry del Vall, then with the Anglican Church through the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, and even with the Eastern Orthodox Church through the Archbishop of Beruit; finally, he was formally excommunicated by the Holy See in 1911.^[5] In 1913 the clergy of the 'Old Catholic Church of Great Britain and Ireland' (such was the name that finally prevailed) was augmented with several members, all former Anglican ministers and more or less openly Theosophist: James Ingall Wedgwood, secretary general of the English section of the Theosophical Society (designated in the 'lives of Alcyone' by the name Lomia); Rupert Gauntlett, secretary of an 'Order of Healers' attached to the Theosophical Society; Robert King, specialist in 'psychic consultations' based on the examination of horoscopes; and Reginald Farrer. In 1915, Archbishop Mathew, who was completely ignorant of Theosophy, became frightened on perceiving that Wedgwood and his associates awaited the arrival of a new Messiah. He closed his Old Catholic Church and offered his submission to Rome, then recovered himself almost immediately and established a 'Catholic Uniate Church of the West'. Unable to obtain from Mathew the episcopal consecration he aspired to, Wedgwood approached—though in vain—Bishop Vernon Herford, who directed a kind of Nestorian chapel at Oxford. His approach to Frederick Samuel Willoughby, who was consecrated by Mathew in 1914 and expelled from the Old Catholic Church the following year, had a happier outcome. Willoughby first consecrated King and Gauntlett (the first-established branch of the Old Catholic Church in Scotland), and then with their assistance consecrated Wedgwood on February 13, 1916. During the course of this same year, 1916, he would submit to the Holy See. Wedgwood promptly left for Australia, where in Sydney he consecrated as 'Bishop of Australia' Charles Webster Leadbeater, also a former Anglican clergyman as we have noted; and he, assisted by Wedgwood, in turn consecrated 'Jongheer' Julian Adrian Mazel, of Dutch origin, as 'Auxiliary for Australia.^[6] On April 20, 1916, an assembly of clergy and bishops of the Old Catholic Church of Great Britain adopted a new constitution which was published under the signature of Wedgwood, and in which there was no allusion to Theosophy nor to the future Messiah. In November 1918 there was still another declaration of principles in which the title of the Old Catholic Church was replaced by that of the 'Liberal Catholic Church.

This last designation brings to mind that there was also in France a dozen years ago an attempted 'Liberal Catholic Church'^[7] under the patronage of certain occultists, notably Albert Jounet, one of those who is encountered in many diverse and, in appearance at least, incompatible organizations. He was even the founder of a 'Spiritualist Alliance' which boasted of effecting the reconciliation of all doctrines and which, naturally, had hardly any more success than the 'Congress of Humanity.'^[8]

In the _Theosophist_ of October 1916, Mrs Besant, speaking of certain movements which according to her are destined to acquire world-wide importance, mentioned

the little-known movement called Old-Catholic; it is a living Christian Church^[9] which will grow and multiply with the years and which has a great future before it; it is probably called upon to become the future Church of Christianity when He appears.

Two other movements are mentioned in the same article, the 'Theosophical Educational Trust', that is to say, the collection of educational works directed by the Theosophical Society; and 'Co-Masonry', of which we will speak below. This was the first time that the Old Catholic Church was officially mentioned in a Theosophical publication, and the hopes placed on this organization are clearly defined there. Moreover, Wedgwood himself, who was so reserved in his episcopal declarations, was on the contrary quite explicit before his colleagues in the Theosophical Society. In fact, he expressed himself thus in a report to the Theosophical Convention of 1918:

The Old-Catholic Church works to spread Theosophical teachings through Christian pulpits; and the most important part of its task consists in preparing the hearts and minds of men for the arrival of the Great Teacher.^[10]

The aim of the Theosophists in taking possession of this Church is therefore exactly as we have indicated: it is the same as that for which they previously founded the 'Order of the Star of the East', with the sole difference that this addresses itself to all without distinction, while the Old-Catholic Church is particularly meant to attract those who, perhaps without well-defined religious principles, nevertheless wish to call themselves Christians and to keep up all the outward appearances. Here then is the latest transformation of Mr Leadbeater, at least up to now, and the new occupations to which this 'clairvoyant' now devotes himself:

Bishop Leadbeater is researching the occult side of the Mass, and he is preparing a complete book on the science of the sacraments....^[11] The book on the Mass will be illustrated with diagrams of the various steps of the Eucharistic edifice [sic] as it takes place during the course of the Mass. The end and role of each part are explained, and thus the work contains not only the theory and meaning of the sacraments, but also the complete form or the architectural side of the thing.... The main event of the week for some at Sydney is the High Mass of Sunday morning, at which Bishop Leadbeater is always present and generally officiates or delivers the sermon.^[12]

What sincerity can there be in all this? The excessive skill of the Theosophical leaders in dissimulating their intentions and in simultaneously managing enterprises which are the most contrary in appearance, provided only that they think that they will serve toward the realization of these schemes, none of this allows many illusions about it.

ADDENDUM A

Bishop Matthew has now been dead for several years, and early in 1928 we also learned of the death of 'Jongheer' Mazel. Consequently, other bishops of the 'Liberal Catholic Church,' notably Mr Irving S. Cooper, were likewise consecrated at Sydney, the reason being that Leadbeater took refuge there when he was obliged to leave India after the scandalous trial at Madras. It might be believed that the immorality with which Mr Leadbeater has been reproached is an isolated case in Theosophical circles, but unfortunately, it will be seen that this is not at all the case. The facts that we are about to report are those to which Mrs Besant alluded at the end of the passage we included in n3, p196. These incidents have been the principal cause of the scission of the Agni branch from Nice (see p192, n26). In November 1922 this branch, under the direction of Countess Prozor, had sent to all the other branches in France a circular letter announcing its intention of undertaking 'an effort of purification' in the Theosophical Society, and notably to shed light on 'the abuses of power, the duplicity, and the eminently immoral conduct charged in the first place against our President, and secondly against Mr C. W. Leadbeater. This initiative was poorly received, and the _Bulletin Théosophique_ of January 1923 published a note according to which the 'Administrative Council [of the French section] deemed that there was reason to disapprove' the initiative, given that it was of such a nature as 'to sow trouble and dissension in the bosom of the Theosophical Society of France.' The Agni branch nevertheless continued to publish a series of brochures 'for the exclusive use of members of the Theosophical Society,' a series that was concluded with a collective letter of resignation dated February 11, 1923. These brochures contained very instructive documents, and although it is true that pains were taken to contest them even before they were all published, no better response was found than declamations of which we take the following sample from the _Bulletin Théosophique_ of February 1923:

> Do we Theosophists place ourselves among the calumniators or among the calumniated? Moreover, who among us believes himself pure enough, sufficiently free from sin, to throw a stone at one of our brothers when the latter is gravely deceived? In this crisis let us seek a lesson. If this lesson, this trial, enlarges our views, if it leads us to greater tolerance, to greater comprehension, and to a higher ideal of brotherhood, it will be nobly useful, it will be blessed....

Unless one is blinded by prejudice, it is certainly difficult to consider this sermon as constituting a satisfactory and valid response. - The first of the brochures published by the Agni branch contained a letter, dated May 20, 1921 (thus before the resignation of its author), from T.H. Martyn of Sydney to Mrs Besant, from which we extract the following:

> In 1906 I was in London and fought for your cause and for that of Mr Leadbeater. The latter was threatened by judicial prosecution. One of the youths of his entourage came to me in desperation and besought my aid in thwarting the threatened prosecution because he would be forced to testify to the immoral practices of Leadbeater. The prosecution did not take place.... In 1914 Leadbeater came to live with us in Sydney. I accepted his own opinion, which was the same as yours; and considering him an Arhat, I willingly came under his influence and took joy in carrying out all his projects. Subsequently many things about him astonished me. . . . For example, one day in July 1917 it was said to five among us that we had received various initiations. No one remembered any of them. . . . At that time, Mrs Martyn was suffering much from Leadbeater's sojourn in our home.... Later (1918-1919), scarlet fever broke out in our home and caused the precipitous departure of Leadbeater and his young boys; all my efforts at persuasion could not convince Mrs Martyn to reopen our home to him.... In 1919, I went to America. The young Van Hook was in New York. He spoke freely of Leadbeater's immorality of and of the deceit of the 'lives' [the famous 'lives of Alcyone']. We have therefore the witness of two adolescent boys concerning Leadbeater, the boy who sought me out in 1906 and the young Van Hook. I add to this the compromising things that occurred in my home (I can only touch this subject lightly in this letter), all of which lead to the conclusion that Leadbeater is a sexual pervert. His habit, which takes a particular form that I discovered only recently, is very well known and altogether common in the annals of sexual criminology.

We do not know if the youth of 1906 is the one who was later presented as 'Pythagoras reincarnate' (see pp180-181), nor whether he should be identified with the youth whose deposition was produced in the Madras trial, a deposition signed only with the initials D. D. P., and which ended with these lines:

> I make this declaration with the intention of warning parents, so that they may protect their children from the pernicious teachings of persons who pose before the world as moral guides but whose practices debase and destroy children and men.

As to the young Van Hook, he is probably a close relative of Dr Weller Van Hook, Secretary-General of the American section of the Theosophical Society, one of Leadbeater's most ardent defenders, who in a letter allegedly dictated by a 'Master' and approved by Mrs Besant, had declared that 'it was in no way criminal or wrong to teach boys the practices in question, but only the counsel of a wise tutor'—counsel inspired moreover by 'superior instructors'—and that the 'introduction of this question into the thought of the Theosophical world is only the prelude to its introduction into the thought of the outside world,' these practices being destined to 'constitute the future regimen of humanity'! We add that Dr Van Hook succeeded Alexander Fullerton as Secretary-General of the American Section, Fullerton himself having replaced Judge, who had become a dissident (see chap. 16). After his arrest on February 18, 1910 for having undertaken an immoral correspondence with an adolescent, Fullerton was confined to an insane asylum in the state of New York (there is a pamphlet on this affair by Mr J. H. Fussell). Leadbeater wrote to Fullerton on February 27, indicating as explicitly as possible the advice he gave his students for the purpose of helping them 'free themselves from undesirable thoughts,' and to 'avoid until later the frequentation of women.' And he added that 'a doctor might object to this practice on the grounds that it might degenerate into unrestrained abuse of oneself (_self-abuse_), but this danger can easily be turned aside by a frank explanation.' Let us again take up the letter of Mr Martyn:

> This brings me to 1919 and my visit to London. . . In October of 1919 I went to see Mrs Saint-John. I found her greatly distressed because, as she told me, the police were looking for four priests of the Liberal Catholic Church: Wedgwood, King, Farrer, and Clark. She had wanted to warn Wedgwood in Australia but did not know how to do so without being herself incriminated for complicity. Farrer, she said, had left the country, and she was sure that the police would not find him. King had decided to remain in London until the end, since Farrer was safe. . . Naturally, while I was in London I learned of the accusations of homosexuality brought against Wedgwood by Major Adams and others. Reports on the same subject concerning him had also reached me at Sydney, but what Mrs Saint-John told me was surprising. A week later . . . you told me that you wished to communicate with Wedgwood in Sydney, but that by such direct action you could be accused of complicity. You gave me a message for Raja (the abbreviation of the name of Jinarājadāsa, vice president of the Theosophical Society). Wedgwood must leave the T.S. and the E.S., etc. You explained that he was seriously compromised and that you believed it your duty to protect the Society's good name. I thought then of a talk you had given at the E.S. the previous Sunday on black magic and sexual excesses, and asked whether you had been alluding to Wedgwood. You answered yes. . . Then the question of Wedgwood's initiation came up. You told me he was not an initiate. . . In America, after I left you, certain persons came to see me; they had learned that the truth concerning Wedgwood had finally been revealed, and they explained to me that in London he had confessed his evil to one of them.... When I reached Sydney, Raja received the message with obvious repugnance.... The most important point for him was your denial of Wedgwood's initiation, and I understood that the latter's fall indicated nothing less than the collapse of Leadbeater as an Arhat, of the divine authority of the Liberal Catholic Church, of all belief in the reality of the supposed initiations, of the recognition of certain persons as disciples, etc. From Raja's point of view, none of these things that concern so many people could be admitted at any price, for there was the peace of members and of the cause in general.... I discovered subsequently that Raja merely echoes Leadbeater, the latter communicating his occultism directly, and Raja accepting it blindly.... Truly, I would not wish to think of Leadbeater and Wedgwood as monsters who hid their unlawful practices under the veil of humanitarian interests and who acted with the skillful cleverness and cunning often encountered in such cases. That, however, is the opinion of many people. I would like to avoid having to recognize the accuracy of such criticisms, and I would with pleasure cling to any other reasonable explanation of these facts.

During the two years following the incidents just recounted, the dignitaries of the Liberal Catholic Church compromised in this unsavory affair do not seem to have been seriously worried; if the English police sought them, no doubt certain influences acted to keep them from being found. On February 28, 1922, one of them, Reginald Farrer, sent Mrs Besant his resignation as a member of 'Co-Masonry', accompanied by these admissions:

The imputation brought against me, as well as against Wedgwood, King, and Clark, contained in Mr Martyn's letter, are only too well founded. But I beg you to take into consideration that I was incited to the vice by those whom I considered very much my superiors morally and spiritually.... My reason for writing this letter is the hope of easing my conscience.... Wedgwood refuses absolutely to cease this evil practice.... Once again Acuna, who is tainted with this vice, has been the sponsor of one of his 'friends' in the Emulation Lodge.

This letter was confided to Mr W. Hamilton Jones, who reports that Farrer left England the very same day, while he [Jones] met Wedgwood, who had been warned by an anonymous letter that he would be arrested if he did not leave Europe before March 1st. Wedgwood protested his innocence, but disappeared the same evening. And Mr Hamilton Jones adds: 'I had faith in Wedgwood until, quite recently, I learned of facts of such a nature as to remove all my illusions in his regard.' Leaving England, Wedgwood came to Paris where he established a branch of the Liberal Catholic Church which on March 5th was installed provisionally at the Anglican Church, 7 rue Auguste-Vacquerie, and which, under the name 'Free Catholic Church of France' organized itself into an association that professed to be in accordance with the law, this declaration appearing in the _Journal Officiel_ of April 13, 1922. Some say that Wedgwood subsequently went to America, while others claim that he simply went into hiding in France. Whatever the case, there was a considerable time during which it was not known what had become of him. But since he surfaced again not only in Paris but also in London, one must believe that his affairs were finally settled thanks to certain political influences. As to his Paris church, it was moved somewhat later to 72 rue de Sèvres, from where it then published a manifesto from which this passage is taken:

The Free Catholic Church does not wish to oppose any Church or any religious or lay group, but on the contrary to work in peace and charity, offering its ministry to all souls of good will. It aspires to study together with all Christian confessions, the bases of union necessary for the universal Church to work effectively at the task of the Kingdom of God. Also, it adheres fully to the program of the _Faith and Discipline_ conference, which groups together the greater number of Christian churches. Far from isolating itself in a sterile egoism, it intends to realize a truly traditional catholicity based on the apostolic Faith; united, not by an exterior and imposed uniformity, but in mutual respect and fraternal affection, working to raise the world to sanctity, union with God of which the Kingdom of justice and love is the end of creation.

The task of the 'Kingdom of God' is the advent of the new Theosophical Messiah. As to the 'sanctity' of the Church of Wedgwood and Leadbeater, it can be fully appreciated by what has just been recounted! To this we add the following information taken from an article that appeared in an American journal (_The O.E. Library Critic, February 5, 1919_), which further enlightens us as to the value of this church's 'apostolicity':

The facts prove that in reality Wedgwood's apostolic succession is fraudulent, having been received from an interdicted priest, a certain Willoughby who had been expelled from the Old Catholic Church (of Bishop Matthew), just as he had been expelled previously from the Anglican Church owing to the gross immorality of his life, an immorality which, in sum, consisted in vicious relations with boys placed under his care. It is from this defrocked priest, from this pervert, that Mr Wedgwood received the right to be considered as following in the direct line of the apostles of Christ himself and of passing this right on to others, including Leadbeater and various priests in America. Each priest of the Liberal Catholic Church must trace his spiritual forefathers to this moral sewer. And in a notice on 'the validity of orders in the Liberal Catholic Church' which was written in 1921, a member of the Sydney Lodge concluded ironically: 'Mr Leadbeater has often proclaimed that, thanks to his clairvoyance, he could distinguish between a true priest of the apostolic succession and a dissident. Only the first named could render the host luminous during the celebration of the Mass. And here at his first public test, he let himself be 'consecrated' by a false priest without even being aware of it!'

As regards the 'Free Catholic Church of France', it must be added that the Theosophists have encountered some difficulties. Bishop Winnaert, who had been placed at its head after his consecration by Wedgwood, is a former Roman Catholic priest (he was vicar at Viroflay) who moved over to the Utrecht schism and for some time served the 'Old Catholic' chapel on Boulevard Blanqui. When the letters from the 'Mahatmas' to Sinnett appeared (see p51, n1), he protested against the spirit that inspired these letters, which he adjudged atheistic and materialistic. Mrs Besant came to Paris expressly to reach an understanding with him, but the reconciliation that followed was short-lived. Finally, following the publication of Mr Jinarājadāsa's book entitled _The First Teachings of the Masters_, Msgr Winnaert quit the Theosophical obedience in 1924 for the same reasons. Winnaert gave a lengthy explanation of his position both in his bulletin (_L'Unité Spirituelle, July-August 1924_) and in his letter of resignation of July 30, addressed to Wedgwood, which concluded with these lines:

I am forced to renounce all ties, however slight, with the 'Liberal Catholic Church, which henceforth is for me only a counterfeit Church and, intended or not, a disloyal enterprise to attract souls and, according to your own words, to insinuate the doctrine of the Theosophists into Christian pulpits. I would never have accepted episcopal consecration from such a source had I suspected all the secret mystique behind the 'Liberal Church'. I must emphasize the fact that I was left in complete ignorance as to the occult influences under which it had been founded and by which it claims to be directed. I believed I had encountered a traditional Church, but one liberated from outdated theology. It was in fact a matter of slipping in, under the label of Christianity, ideas totally foreign to it—when they were not in actual opposition. Despite my sentiments of sympathy for the persons involved, I cannot be complicit, however remotely, in such an enterprise.

The Theosophists therefore had to reorganize their 'Liberal Catholic Church' when Wedgwood again passed through Paris, and it is now situated in the rue Campagne-Première.

In the collective letter they sent Mrs Besant on February 11, 1923, the members of the Agni branch did not hesitate to stigmatize the Liberal Catholic Church, which more and more identified itself with Theosophy itself, as

a sect endowed with a special morality which no religion had ever taught, and the propagation of which would be one of the works of darkness which Christianity attributes to instruments of Satan, and which Theosophical occultism attributes to adepts of black magic.

Now it is undeniable that the propagation of this special morality had zealous partisans. In his apology for Leadbeater, which Mrs Besant declared to have been written under a 'high influence,' Dr Van Hook presented the so-called 'prophylactic' methods of this strange educator as a revelation by which 'Theosophy gives to the world a service of which the consequences will extend as far as the distant future progress of humanity.' Moreover, we are told that 'the members of the E. S. already find themselves faced with the alternative of defending these abominations and of identifying themselves with them, or of resigning.' These are very probably the 'things contrary to his conscience' spoken of by Chevrier, who for his part preferred to resign, which is all to his honor. In such conditions, the resignants of Nice had good reason to foresee 'a dark future for the Theosophical Society.' In other similar circles, among spiritists and occultists for example, we find equally repugnant undersides. We called attention to these in _The Spiritist Fallacy_ (pt. 2, chap. 10), limiting ourselves, as here, to statements of fact and witnesses. But what is new in the affair which presently occupies us, and what lends it particular gravity, is the attempt to spread the theories and practices of Leadbeater and his associates to the 'outside world.' What truly diabolical intentions must be concealed behind this? Several questions put by the Agni members to Mrs Besant will perhaps help us fathom them.

It is no longer a question of Leadbeater and the system according to which he tries to cure adolescents of their vicious habits'. This system he practices and which Dr Van Hook recommends with your approval, is adopted by the entire community. In this way the speculative conception you expounded in your _Theosophist_ article takes shape. Fallacious logic then derives a moral rule from this: did not the Beings that preside over evolution liberate Mme Blavatsky from her bad karma elements, causing her to resolve them through action? Why then cannot their disciples, the Sydney initiates, use analogous means to liberate children from future vices which they [the 'Beings'] perceive in their [the young people in question] _aura_? An objection must occur even to those swayed by such arguments: will not the practices in question, along with the fear of women simultaneously inspired in the 'subjects', tend to destroy in them an attraction which, when transformed into love, gives to the procreative act a sublime and divine character? By what right would one impose a restraint on this motive which acts on every level and enters into the _Dharma_ [law] of our humanity? In various countries, notably England, has not the legislature acted on this intuition in punishing as a crime the depravity affecting the generative instinct to which the race owes its preservation? You seem to have foreseen this objection, for, as though to parry it in advance, you begin by making those who might raise objections feel incompetent in the matter. But today it occupies both the religious and the learned worlds, and one of the principal points therein bears on the neo-Malthusianism which you formerly preached but later combated. Today you can see the progress in public opinion, only recently raised up against it. Either this allusion has no sense at all, or its meaning is this: the same reversal of opinion will be effected very soon concerning the Leadbeater-Van Hook doctrine and the practices it formulates. This reversal will be accentuated in the measure that 'the process of mental development determines the weakening of the sexual instinct and the physical creative power.' Do you consider the end of the sub-race desirable? Does this in your opinion prepare the advent of a new sub-race, the sixth? Or, with a humanity in the travail of Buddhist evolution, does the return of the initial and final androgyny commence? And henceforth do you consider anything that hastens this goal and this future to be moral, that is, conformable to evolution? One may believe so, according to certain comments that filter through the walls of the E.S. to spread subtly through the body of the Theosophical Society.

Here we neither can nor wish to develop all that is implied in the last lines of this citation. In Theosophist phraseology, one would find an echo of far distant ideas which as always seem to have been grossly materialized. We will only add that a writer who seems very well informed has noted that the 'reversal of opinion' in the sense just indicated is presented as forming part of a well-defined plan, and that 'everything now happens as if certain protagonists of bad morals obey a slogan' (Jean Maxe, _Cahiers de l'Anti-France_, sixth fascicle). Surely it is not the directors of Theosophy who have given this slogan; but they too obey it, and consciously or not, work toward the realization of this plan just as others do in their respec- tive domains. What formidable enterprise of corruption and ruin- ation lies hidden behind all that presently happens in the Western world. Perhaps it will one day be known, although it is to be feared that it will be too late to effectively combat an evil that ceaselessly gains ground and whose seriousness escapes only the blind. Remember the decadence of Rome!

ADDENDUM B

Leadbeater's work _The Science of the Sacraments_ has appeared not only in English, but also in French translation. In addition to infor- mation allegedly obtained by 'clairvoyance', this tome contains a comparison of the liturgy of the Liberal Catholic Church with that of the Roman Catholic Church, a comparison that is quite instruc- tive, for it shows how the first has been rather adroitly modified to dispose minds to accept Theosophical theories without the neces- sity of teaching them overtly; for it is of course not necessary to be a member of the Theosophical Society in order to be part of the Lib- eral Catholic Church. Many allusions which would be difficult for the public to understand but which are quite obvious to those familiar with the theories in question, have been slipped into this liturgy. We must also note that the cult of the Sacred Heart is used in the same way as being closely related with the coming of the new Messiah (we have already seen that Krishnamurti and his entou- rage, considered as direct disciples of the Bodhisattva, are said to 'belong to the heart of the world'). According to information reach- ing us from Spain, it is claimed that 'the Reign of the Sacred Heart will be that of the Spirit of the Lord Maitreya; and by announcing it, it is in effect a veiled form of saying that his advent among men is imminent.'

But there is still more: not only is the liturgy altered, now the Gospel itself is altered under the pretext of a return to 'primitive Christianity'. To effect this, an alleged _Gospel of the Twelve Saints_ is being circulated with the claim that it is the 'original and complete Gospel'. This is presented in a slender volume entitled _Le Christian- isme primatif dans l'Evangile des Douze Saints_, by E. Francis Udny, 'priest of the Liberal Catholic Church'. It is well to note that at the time this book was written there was still some ambiguity as to the person of the future Messiah, for it was said that Christ might 'choose an individual in each country whom he would guide and inspire in a special way', so as to be able 'without the obligation of travelling through the world bodily, to speak when he wished in this or that country of his choice as and when this might be most conso- nant with his activity' (p59 of the French translation). At first the title of the book made us think that it was a question of an apocry- phal Gospel, of which there are a great number; but we were not long in realizing that this was no more than a simple hoax. This so- called Gospel, written in Aramaic, was supposed to have been pre- served in a Buddhist monastery in Tibet, and its English translation transmitted 'mentally' to the Anglican priest Ouseley, who then published it. We are told moreover that the poor man was at that time 'aged, deaf, and physically weak; his eyesight at its worst, and his mind greatly slowed, he being more or less broken down by age' (p 26). Is this not an avowal that his state disposed him to play the role of dupe in this affair? But let us move on from this fantastic story to the explanation of the origin of this translation, the work of 'Master R' who, as we have previously seen (see p234, n15), was at another time Francis Bacon. It is even claimed that Bacon's style can be recognized by comparing this translation to the 'Authorized Version' of the Anglican Church, or King James Bible, of which he was the principal author. In this connection we note in passing that the Liberal Catholic Church is placed under the special protection of St Alban, who would again be a former incarnation of the 'Mas- ter' (p39), because Bacon bore, among other titles, that of Viscount of St Alban. We could mention many more truly extraordinary assertions, notably concerning certain 'feigned deaths' of the 'Masters' or their 'advanced' disciples, but we will limit ourselves to citing one of them as a curiosity:

During the last century [i.e., the nineteenth, Tr] another feigned death to be noted was that of Marshall Ney, a Brother [sic], brave among the brave, who after his supposed execution in France lived for many years as a respected citizen of Rowan County, North Carolina' (p136).

But what is more interesting is to know the special teachings contained in the Gospel in question, said to be 'an essential part of original Christianity, the absence of which has impoverished and still impoverishes this religion' (p4). Now, these teachings come down to two: the Theosophical doctrine of reincarnation, and the prescription of a vegetarian and anti-alcoholic regimen dear to a certain Anglo-Saxon 'moralism. This is what one would like to introduce into Christianity, all the while claiming that formerly these same teachings were also found in the canonical Gospels but were suppressed around the fourth century, and that only the _Gospel of the Twelve Saints_ 'escaped the general corruption. Really, this hoax is rather crude, but unfortunately there are still many people who let themselves be taken in. One must know the mentality of our time very poorly to be persuaded that something of this kind will have no success. Moreover, we are treated to a preview of an enterprise of the broadest scope: 'In the same book it is stated, in effect, that the author has reason to believe that a new and better Bible will shortly be placed at our disposal, and that the Liberal Catholic Church will probably adopt it; but he alone is responsible for this opinion, not having been authorized by the Church to assert it. For the question to be posed, it is naturally necessary that the better Bible should have appeared' (p41). This is still only a suggestion, but it is easy to see what is intended: the falsification is going to extend to the ensemble of the Holy Books. We are therefore warned, and each time an announcement is made of the discovery of some manuscript containing biblical or Gospel texts hitherto unknown, it is appropriate to be more wary than ever.