Freemasonry and the Cult of Liberty
The cult of liberty in the eighteenth century is intimately associated with Freemasonry. The political and social goal of Freemasonry was and still is to "free" man from the "tyranny" of the Catholic Church and from any civil authority which does not claim to be democratic. By definition, a church or a regime is tyrannical for the Freemason if it seeks to make dogmas or to rule without the consent of the governed.
For this reason Freemasons have always detested the Roman Catholic church, since she claims power from heaven to teach supernatural doctrines and make binding laws, all of which must be adhered to by the whole of humanity. Freemasons have similarly opposed any monarchy which did not divest itself of power [like the present British monarchy, its powerlessness]. Therefore any monarch who would not cave in to their demands for socialistic democracies, where power was considered to come from the people and not from God, met with the solemn disapproval of Freemasonry. Starting with the execution of Louis XVI in 1793, they have not ceased to labor against the monarchies of Europe and elsewhere which did not conform themselves to their principles. One by one did these monarchies come down during the nineteenth century, until finally, by the end of World War I, the Austrian Emperor, the Russian Czar, and the German Kaiser collapsed as heads of state, yielding to, as always, liberal, socialistic democracies, with a curious preponderance of Jews in the government.
The motive for fighting World War I, at least according to the Allied propaganda of the time, was to "free" the world from "Czardom" and "Kaiserdom." Wilson said that the reason why we had to enter the war against Germany was in order to "make the world safe for democracy."
One should not infer, however, from these comments that the regimes of the monarchies of nineteenth and early twentieth century Europe were by any means perfect. The Austrian Emperor, the Czar, and the Kaiser had all given the Church considerable difficulty, but certainly no more difficulty than the liberal, socialistic democracies of France and England. Italy too had persecuted the Church, and although then a monarchy like England, was nevertheless virtually democratic, its monarch very much in the hands of the Freemasons and other similar anti-catholic secret societies. It is merely to point out that Freemasonry has a hatred for any power, ecclesiastical or civil, which claims its authority from God, and which is not somehow dependent upon the people for its power.
Freemasonry seeks to "free" people politically and socially from such "bonds," so that they might enjoy the "liberty" of a democratic regime.
This hatred of Freemasonry for the papacy and for monarchy can be seen in the initiation rites of the Knight Kadosh [thirtieth degree], in which the Knight is called upon to run the sword through two skulls, one bearing the papal tiara and the other the crown. The symbolism of such an act needs no comment whatsoever.
The cult of liberty has always been a favorite of the Freemasons. The liberty they seek is not the legitimate and due liberty from the burdensome constraints of socialistic governments, which a citizen may rightfully desire, but rather freedom from the authority of God, the "freedom" of the devil, the liberty of perdition, as Saint Augustine called it. They desire not the liberty of the sons of God, but the "liberty" which makes us slaves to sin.