Masonismus
Freemasonry and the Church
“The sect of Freemasons… is clearly perceived as having the main objective of persecuting Christianity with implacable hatred, and they will not rest until they see all religious institutions established by the Pope prostrate on the ground.” Multiplices Inter (1865)
I. The Papal Condemnations of Freemasonry
The First Condemnation: Clement XII (1738)
Bull In Eminenti Apostolatus Specula (April 28, 1738):
Pope Clement XII prohibited Freemasonry under penalty of automatic excommunication ( latae sententiae ).
Official reasons :
Secret societies : Incompatible with Christian transparency.
Terrible oaths : They compel, under horrible penalties, to keep secrets.
A mix of religions : Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Deists gathered together indiscriminately.
Danger to faith and morals : Suspected covert activities aimed at subverting Christian order.
Prohibition by civil law : Many governments had already banned it.
Package insert text :
“We have received reports that certain societies, unions, gatherings, groups, or conventicles called Liberti Muratori or Francs Massons… are spreading widely… [where] men of any religion or sect unite in an appearance of natural honesty… We have resolved and decreed to condemn and prohibit such societies… under penalty of excommunication.”
The Intensification: Pius IX (1846-1878)
Pope Pius IX , who personally experienced the Revolution of 1848 and the fall of the Papal States, issued multiple condemnations:
Qui Pluribus (1846):
“You know very well, venerable brothers, that there are certain men in this time… who strive to dissolve the bond of faith and virtue… We refer to that nefarious and depraved society that men call Freemasonry.”
Syllabus Errorum (1864):
He condemned the proposition: “Freemasonry can be tolerated” – Error condemned .
Multiplices Inter (1865):
“The sect of Freemasons… is clearly perceived as having the main objective of relentlessly persecuting Christianity with hatred, and they will not rest until they see all religious institutions established by the Pope brought to the ground.”
The Definitive Document: Leo XIII (1884)
Encyclical Humanum Genus (April 20, 1884) – the most extensive papal document on Freemasonry.
Structure :
32 paragraphs analyzing the nature, objectives, and tactics of Freemasonry.
He describes Freemasonry as the “kingdom of Satan” opposed to the “kingdom of God.”
Key quotes :
“The human race, after its miserable fall from God… was divided into two diverse and opposing camps, one of which constantly strives for truth and virtue, the other for contrary things. One is the kingdom of God on earth… the other is the kingdom of Satan… In these our days, those who follow evil seem to conspire together, and fight with united vehemence, led or aided by that strongly organized and widespread society called the Freemasons. ”
Masonic objectives according to Leo XIII :
To destroy the religious and civil foundations of society.
Establish naturalism : Remove all supernatural influence.
To fight the Catholic Church specifically.
Promoting religious indifference : All religions are the same.
Secularizing education : Schools without religion
Secularize marriage : Reduce it to a civil contract.
Promoting absolute freedom of conscience : Moral relativism
Regarding the Masonic secret :
“What must be considered above all is that, since her aim is to remain hidden, she employs extremely cunning emissaries… They forge plans for the destruction of mankind with such audacity that it is hardly conceivable that anything could be more wicked.”
Continuity into the 20th Century
Pius XI ( Diuturnum Illud , 1881; Inimica Vis , 1892) Pius X – Condemned modernism as a “fruit of Freemasonry” Code of Canon Law (1917), Canon 2335:
“Those who join the Masonic sect or similar associations that conspire against the Church or legitimate civil authorities incur excommunication ipso facto .”
II. The Jewish Connection
The link between Freemasonry and Judaism stems from multiple sources in traditional Catholic literature:
Monsignor George Dillon – The Secret War (1885)
Irish prelate who lectured in Scotland on Freemasonry, resulting in a book with a preface by Cardinal Henry Manning .
Freemasonry is a revolutionary anti-Christian organization.
There is significant infiltration of “Jewish elements” into leadership positions.
Its objective is to destroy Christendom and establish secular order.
Quote :
“Freemasonry, in its higher degrees, is dominated by Jewish influence… The Jews, dispersed throughout the Christian world after rejecting Christ, maintained an ancestral hatred against Christianity and found in Freemasonry the perfect vehicle for their revenge.”
Monsignor Henri Delassus – The Problem of the Present Time (1904)
French theologian who expanded the theory.
Arguments :
Historical origins : Modern speculative Freemasonry (1717) is believed to have roots in Jewish Kabbalah.
Symbolism : Temple of Solomon, Hiram Abiff, Hebrew terminology (Jahbulon = Jehovah + Baal + Osiris)
Revolutionary infiltration : The French Revolution was allegedly orchestrated by Freemasons with Jewish funding.
Common goal : Jews and Freemasons desire a secular society that eliminates Christian privileges.
“Talmudic Judaism never accepted Christ as the Messiah. Seeing Christianity built upon its rejection, it developed an implacable hatred… Freemasonry offered the Jews the perfect instrument: a secret organization, infiltrated throughout Christian society, capable of corroding it from within.”
Father Denis Fahey – The Mystical Conspiracy of Iniquity (1953)
An influential Irish theologian in traditionalism.
Thesis :
History is a battle between the Kingdom of Christ and the Kingdom of Satan .
Jews rejected Christ = they objectively allied themselves with the devil.
Freemasonry is “an organized force of the Antichrist”
Jews have a disproportionate role in Masonic leadership.
Quote :
“This is not about racial hatred, but a theological observation: those who reject Christ objectively serve the Antichrist. The Jews, by maintaining a collective rejection of their Messiah throughout the centuries, have become natural instruments of organized anti-Christian forces.”
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
IMPORTANT : This document is a proven forgery , manufactured by the Russian secret police (~1903).
Historical context :
It presents itself as a “secret Jewish plan for world domination”.
It circulated widely in traditionalist Catholic circles (1920s-1940s).
Pope Pius XI condemned the antisemitism of the Protocols, but some traditionalists continued to reference them.
Influence on the narrative : Despite being a forgery, the Protocols shaped the traditionalist perception of a “Jewish-Masonic conspiracy” in the 20th century.
III. THE STRUCTURE OF TRADITIONAL CONSPIRACY THEORY
1. The Historical Argument
Traditional narrative line :
Antiquity and the Middle Ages:
70 AD : Destruction of the Temple → Jewish Diaspora
Jews blame Rome and Christianity for the dispersion.
They develop generational hatred against the Church.
The Talmud contains blasphemies against Christ (traditionalist claim).
Medieval expulsions (Spain 1492, etc.) increase resentment.
Modern Period:
1717 : Founding of the Grand Lodge of London (Speculative Freemasonry)
1789 : French Revolution – allegation of Masonic orchestration.
1848 : European revolutions – attributed to conspiracy
1870 : Fall of the Papal States – blame on Italian Freemasonry (Carbonari)
Father Augustin Barruel ( Memoirs for the History of Jacobinism , 1797):
“The French Revolution was not a spontaneous historical accident, but a meticulously planned conspiracy by three groups: Enlightenment philosophers, Freemasons, and the Illuminati… Funding came from bankers, many of Jewish origin.”
2. The Symbolic and Ritualistic Argument
Masonic elements identified as “Jewish” :
A. Temple of Solomon:
Center of Masonic mythology
Degrees based on Temple construction
Hiram Abiff (architect) as a central figure.
Traditionalist interpretation :
“Freemasonry seeks to rebuild the Jewish Temple… not physically, but spiritually: a world order where Judaism triumphs over Christianity.”
B. Hebrew Terminology:
Jahbulon : Name of the “Great Architect” in high degrees.
Combination of Jehovah + Baal + Osiris
Traditionalists: “Blasphemous syncretism that equates the true God with pagan demons”
C. Kabbalah:
Kabbalistic symbolism in Masonic rituals
Sephirotic tree, gematria
Traditionalists: “Freemasonry is perverted Kabbalistic Christianity”
3. The Sociological Argument
“Disproportionate Jewish presence “
Traditionalist literature claims that:
Masonic leadership : High percentage of Jews in European Grand Lodges (19th century)
B’nai B’rith (1843): An exclusively Jewish organization with a Masonic structure.
Revolutionary financing : Allegations of Jewish bankers funding revolutions.
Examples cited :
Adolphe Crémieux (1796-1880): French Jew, Grand Master of the Scottish Rite, Minister of Justice, founder of the Alliance Israélite Universelle.
Traditionalists : “Proof of the Jewish-Masonic alliance to secularize France”
Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872): Italian Carbonari, revolutionary
Correspondence with Crémieux
Traditionalists : “Conspiracy to destroy the Papal States”
4. The Theological Argument
Thesis : Jews and Freemasons share a common theological goal – to destroy the Christian order.
From the Jewish side:
Rejection of Christ = rejection of the Christian order founded on Him.
Temporal messianism : They expect a political Messiah, not a spiritual one.
Talmudism : Claims (many false) that the Talmud allows one to deceive non-Jews.
Zionism : A movement to restore Israel viewed as anti-Christian.
Father Fahey :
“The Jewish plan, conscious or unconscious, is to establish a naturalistic world order under Jewish supremacy. This is essentially the reign of the Antichrist… Freemasonry, with its naturalism and indifference, perfectly serves this objective.”
From the Freemasons’ Perspective:
Naturalism : Denying supernatural order.
Religious indifferentism : All religions are the same.
Secularism : Completely separating Church and State.
Moral relativism : Subjective, not objective, truth.
“Both Jews and Freemasons want a civilization without Christ. Therefore, they are natural allies against the Church.”
IV. HISTORICAL EVENTS
1. The French Revolution (1789-1799)
Masonic orchestration : Revolutionary leaders were Freemasons.
Mirabeau, Danton, Lafayette, Robespierre (disputed evidence)
Jewish financing : Bankers like Rothschild supported the revolution.
Objective : To destroy the French Christian monarchy, “the eldest daughter of the Church”.
Evidence cited :
Jacobin Club : Met in a former convent, allegedly had Masonic ties.
Symbols : Triangle with eye (Freemason) in revolutionary iconography.
Declaration of the Rights of Man : Masonic principles (liberty, equality, fraternity)
Anti-Catholic violence :
Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790): Subordinated the Church to the State.
Terror (1793-1794): Thousands of priests and religious martyred.
Cult of Reason : Replacement of Catholicism with civic religion
Dechristianization : Notre-Dame transformed into a Temple of Reason
Father Barruel :
“Everything was foreseen, everything was prepared, everything was arranged… The Revolution that subverted France was not the result of circumstances, but of men who made circumstances their instrument.”
2. Italian Unification and the Fall of the Papal States (1870)
Context :
The Papal States existed since 754 AD.
They guaranteed the Pope’s temporal independence.
The Risorgimento (Italian unification) culminated in the capture of Rome.
Key players :
Giuseppe Mazzini:
High-ranking Freemason, founder of the Carbonari.
He wrote: “The Papacy killed Italy. Italy must kill the Papacy.”
Traditionalists: Agent of the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy
Camillo Cavour:
Prime Minister of Piedmont
Freemason
Politics: “Free church in a free state” = secularization
Giuseppe Garibaldi:
Grand Master of Italian Freemasonry
He led military campaigns.
He entered Rome (1870), ending papal temporal power.
Pius IX reacted:
Syllabus Errorum (1864): Condemned liberalism, freemasonry, naturalism
First Vatican Council (1870): Defined papal infallibility (response to secularism)
He declared himself a “prisoner of the Vatican”.
Traditionalists see :
“The fall of the Papal States was not a historical accident, but a deliberate act by Freemasonry to weaken the Papacy. Jews financially and Freemasons militarily executed the plan.”
3. The Bolshevik Revolution (1917)
Jewish leadership : Lenin (Jewish maternal grandfather), Trotsky (Jewish), Zinoviev, Kamenev, etc.
Funding : Jewish Wall Street bankers (Jacob Schiff, Kuhn & Loeb)
Objective : To destroy Orthodox Christian Russia.
Winston Churchill wrote (controversial article, 1920):
“There is no need to exaggerate the role played in the creation of Bolshevism and the beginning of the Russian Revolution by these international and mostly atheist Jews.”
Religious persecution in the USSR :
Millions of Christians martyred
200,000+ churches destroyed
Priests systematically executed
“Atheistic communism is the result of the Judeo-Masonic alliance. Freemasonry prepared the philosophical groundwork (naturalism), while Jews provided leadership and organization.”
Father Fahey :
“Communism is the logical application of Masonic principles taken to the extreme. The disproportionate Jewish presence within its ranks is not a coincidence, but the result of accumulated hatred against Christendom.”
V. DOCUMENTS AND CITATIONS
“Alta Venda” (Carbonária)
Document : Letter from an Italian Carbonari leader, dated 1819.
Content :
“Our ultimate goal is that of Voltaire and the French Revolution – the complete annihilation of Catholicism and even the Christian idea… The work is not a day’s work, nor a month’s, nor a year’s. It may last many years, perhaps a century, but in our ranks the soldier dies and the fight continues.”
“It is not our mission to win over the Popes to our cause… What we must do is wait for a Pope according to our needs… With this we will march more surely to assault the Church than with pamphlets from our French brothers or with the gold of England.”
Masonic Oath (Apprentice Degree)
Actual text of the oath:
“I, [name], by the presence of the Great Architect of the Universe… promise and swear never to reveal the secrets of Freemasonry… If I violate this oath, may my throat be cut, my tongue torn out by the root, and my body buried in the sands of the sea.”
Terrible oaths : Incompatible with Christian morality.
Absolute secrecy : Conceals nefarious activities.
Superior loyalty : A Freemason owes loyalty to the Lodge above the Church.
THE OBJECTIVES REVEALED AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS
According to Henri Delassus, a Catholic priest, doctor of theology, and counter-revolutionary writer, high-degree Masonic documents reveal:
Destruction of Catholicism
Grade 30 (Knight Kadosh) :
Delassus cites ritual:
“The Knight Kadosh is the avenger of the Temple and of humanity. He crushes the serpent’s head (representing the Catholic Church). His goal is to destroy fanaticism and superstition.”
Symbolism:
Candidate steps on papal crown and tiara.
Strikes a snake’s head (which uses Catholic symbols)
Swears revenge against ‘tyranny’ (Church and Christian monarchies)
Universal Republic :
Masonic ideal :
Destroy all Christian monarchies.
Establish democratic and secular republics.
To eventually unify them into a world government.
Civil religion replaces Christianity.
Absolute Naturalism :
To deny all supernatural revelation.
Religion as an evolutionary “natural feeling”
Morality based solely on natural reason.
Completely secular education
The Temple of Solomon: Central Symbolism
Importance in Masonic thought :
All Masonic mythology revolves around:
Hiram Abiff : Architect of the Temple (Masonic legend, not biblical)
Reconstruction of the Temple : The ultimate symbolic goal.
Jachin and Boaz Columns : Fundamental Symbols
“The ‘Temple’ that Freemasons wish to rebuild is not a physical building in Jerusalem, but a WORLD ORDER under Jewish domination. Each lodge is a ‘workshop’ working on the construction of this order. Each Freemason is a ‘stonemason’ laying a stone. The ‘Great Architect’ is not the Christian God, but an impersonal divinity (or the hidden Jewish power itself). When the Temple is complete, Israel will reign and Christ will be defeated.”
THE METHODS
Infiltration of Institutions
A. Governments and Parliaments :
France (prime example):
Entire cabinets composed of Freemasons (Third Republic)
Émile Combes (Prime Minister 1902-1905): 33rd degree Freemason, orchestrated religious persecution.
Masonic file (Affaire des Fiches, 1904): The French army had a secret file on Catholic officers to prevent promotions.
Method :
“Freemasons protect Freemasons. In secret votes in Parliament, they follow Lodge guidelines. Through organized majorities, they gradually implement anti-Christian legislation: first secularizing education, then marriage, then expelling religious orders, and finally separating Church and State.”
B. Judiciary :
Freemason judges interpret laws against Catholic interests.
Protection for sect members in legal proceedings.
Judicial persecution of militant Catholics
C. Education :
Fundamental strategy :
“Whoever controls education controls the future. Freemasonry fought for a whole century to wrest education from the hands of the Church. Through secular schools, it forms generations without faith, without a notion of the supernatural, prepared for a naturalistic order.”
Freemason educators in France :
Jules Ferry : Minister of Education, Freemason, author of the secularization laws.
Ferdinand Buisson : Director of Primary Education, Freemason, Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Content of secular schools :
Ban on crucifixes and religious images.
History portraying the Church as obscurantist.
Science used to contradict faith.
“Independent” morality (without God)
Press :
Jewish-Masonic control of the press
Financing
Liberal newspapers funded by Jewish bankers
Targeted advertising aligned with editorial guidelines.
Corruption of journalists
Method :
“The press is the fourth power, more effective than the three official ones. Through it, public opinion is formed. Truth repeated a thousand times by a thousand newspapers becomes ‘fact’. Lies repeated constantly replace reality. Freemasonry understood this. That is why it acquired the press before taking power.”
Gradual Revolution (“Politics of Stages”)
Delassus explains why the conjuration acts slowly :
Strategic reasons :
Avoiding violent reaction : Sudden revolution (1789) generated resistance and restorations.
Accustoming populations : Gradual changes appear as “natural progress”
Generational work : Each generation accepts as normal what shocked the previous one.
Irreversibility : Slow changes that are difficult to reverse.
Example – Secularization of Marriage :
Step 1 : Introduce optional civil marriage alongside religious marriage.
Step 2 : Make civil marriage mandatory , religious marriage complementary.
Step 3 : Facilitating divorce (“exceptional cases”)
Step 4 : Full Divorce
Step 5 : Free union equivalent to marriage
Delassus :
“Documents from the High Vendia reveal satanic patience: ‘It doesn’t matter if it takes centuries. Soldiers die, the fight continues. We will work in silence, generation after generation, corroding the foundations of Christendom. When the building finally collapses, no one will know who undermined its foundations.'”
The Tactic of “Reform”
Subtle strategy :
Instead of directly attacking the Christian institution, infiltrate and distort it from within .
Example – Catholic Church:
Document “Permanent Instructions of the High Sale” (cited by Delassus):
“Our ultimate goal is that of Voltaire and the French Revolution – the complete annihilation of Catholicism. But this work is not accomplished in a day. What we must seek is a Pope according to our needs… With this we will march more surely to assault the Church than with pamphlets or gold.”
Proposed method :
NOT converting the Pope (impossible)
To train generations of clergy in seminaries with liberal ideas.
To promote bishops and cardinals with a progressive mindset.
Eventually : The conclave will elect a Pope already imbued with the ideas of the conspiracy, without knowing it.
So : “Reform” will happen from within, with papal authority.
Delassus in 1910 :
“This plan may seem fantastic, but it is real and patient. We are already seeing the results: priests preaching liberalism, bishops fraternizing with Freemasons, theologians denying miracles. If nothing changes, in a century we will have an infiltrated hierarchy.”
[HISTORICAL NOTE: Later traditionalists viewed Vatican II (1962-65) as a fulfillment of this prophecy]
Financial Control and National Debt
Delassus’s thesis on monetary power :
“Whoever controls money controls nations. Rothschild said, ‘Give me control of a nation’s currency and I care not who makes its laws.’ This is a profound truth. Through loans to governments, Jewish bankers enslave nations.”
Mechanism :
Wars and crises : They create a need for massive loans.
Banks offer credit : At interest, making states dependent.
Perpetual debt : Never fully paid off, always refinanced.
Political power : Indebted governments accept creditor conditions.
Historical example cited :
England after the Napoleonic Wars :
National debt multiplied
Rothschild as the main creditor
Influence on British foreign policy
France, 19th century :
Successive revolutions and wars
Each regime incurs larger debts.
Bankers finance anti-clerical liberals.
The French Revolution
In his book “Ideological Preparation, ” Delassus dedicates hundreds of pages to the Encyclopedists .
The Philosophers:
Voltaire (1694-1778) :
Freemason initiated in Paris
Motto: “Écrasez l’infâme!” (Crush the infamous one – Catholic Church)
He wrote: “Christianity is the most ridiculous, absurd, and bloodthirsty religion.”
Delassus’s thesis :
“Voltaire was not a spontaneous freethinker, but an agent of the conspiracy. His correspondence reveals contacts with Jewish financiers and international Freemasons. He was financially supported by a network that wished to use his literary talent against the Church.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) :
Social Contract : Absolute popular sovereignty
Emilio : Naturalistic Education
Influence on Jacobins
Denis Diderot (1713-1784) :
Encyclopedia Editor
Subtly anti-Christian articles
Funding from wealthy readers (many of them Jewish according to Delassus)
The Encyclopedia as a Weapon:
Strategy :
Appearance of a neutral scientific work
Subtly disdainful entries on religion
Science used to contradict faith.
Widely distributed among the nobility and bourgeoisie.
Result :
“Generations were poisoned. The French aristocracy, which should have defended the Altar and Throne, was seduced by philosophizing. When revolution broke out, the elite was intellectually disarmed, or worse, complicit.”
The Revolutionary Clubs
Jacobin Club:
Headquarters : Former Dominican convent (symbolic sacrilege)
Key members (identified as Freemasons by Delassus):
Robespierre : Member of the Arras Lodge
Danton : Freemason
Hébert : Freemason, leader of de-Christianization
Lafayette : Freemason, high degree
Cordeliers Club:
More radical than the Jacobins
Led by Marat and Hebert
Delassus’s thesis :
“Clubs were Masonic lodges in disguise. Secret meetings prepared each stage of the Revolution. Terror was not a spontaneous explosion, but a calculated operation to completely destroy the Christian order.”
The Phases of the Attack on the Church
Moderate Phase (1789-1791) :
Confiscation of ecclesiastical property (November 2, 1789): Nationalization of Church lands
Suppression of religious orders (February 13, 1790)
Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July 12, 1790): Church subordinated to the State.
Bishops and priests elected by popular vote (including non-Catholics)
Salaries paid by the State
Pope without authority over the French Church
Objective according to Delassus:
“It wasn’t reform, but a calculated schism. Forcing the clergy to choose: obey the Pope or lose their livelihood. Dividing the Church internally.”
Result :
Clergy divided: Sworn (supporters) vs. Refractory (rejectors)
Pius VI condemned the Civil Constitution (1791)
55% of priests refused to take the oath, thus becoming “illegal”.
Reign of Terror (1793-1794) :
Violent Dechristianization :
Cult of Reason (November 10, 1793): Goddess Reason enthroned in Notre-Dame.
Revolutionary Calendar : Abolition of Sundays and Christian holidays
Massacres : September 1792 – 1,200+ priests murdered
Vendée (1793-96): Genocide of over 170,000 resistant Catholics.
Notable martyrs :
16 Carmelites of Compiègne : Guillotined singing Salve Regina (17 July 1794)
The Beatas of Orange : 32 nuns guillotined
Priests in the galleys : Thousands deported to Guyana (cemetery)
Systematic desecrations :
Holy chalices melted down into coins
Consecrated hosts given to animals or trampled on
Relics of saints burned
Churches transformed into stables, warehouses, temples of Reason.
Delassus :
“Terror was not revolutionary excess, but deliberate politics. Freemasonry used enraged masses to carry out what it had planned in its lodges: the physical and moral destruction of the Church in France, the ‘eldest daughter’ of Christendom. It was a rehearsal for what they intended to do worldwide.”
The Cult of the Supreme Being (1794) :
Robespierre , realizing the failure of atheism, instituted:
Compulsory Deism
Civic celebrations replacing Catholic liturgy.
Cult of Reason and Virtue
Delassus plays :
“It is precisely Masonic naturalism: religion without revelation, morality without grace, worship without sacraments. An impersonal, distant God who does not intervene. This is what Freemasonry has always desired: a civil religion to replace Catholicism.”
Financing the Revolution
The question that Delassus is investigating :
“The revolution cost a fortune. Armies, pamphlets, bribes, agents – where did the money come from?”
Proposed answer :
Assignats (paper money) based on assets confiscated from the Church.
Jewish bankers providing credit
English gold : England (where Rothschild was based) financing chaos in rival France.
Preserved quotes from revolutionaries :
Anacharsis Cloots (Prussian revolutionary, guillotined 1794):
“I am a personal enemy of Jesus Christ… This Nazarene fiction makes me nauseous.”
Jacques Hébert (de-Christianizing leader):
“France needs to be de-Catholicized in three months!”
The Result: De-Christianized France
Balance according to Delassus :
40,000 churches closed or desecrated.
30,000+ priests deported, exiled, or murdered
Thousands of nuns raped or massacred
An entire generation grown up without sacraments.
Catholic faith reduced to clandestine practice.
“The conspiracy did not fail, it triumphed. Napoleon ‘restored’ religion (Concordat 1801), but the Church remained subordinate. France was never again so Catholic. The Revolution achieved its objective: to break the backbone of French Christendom.”