Moreover, when we know from purely Jewish sources that the Ba"al Shem Heilprin had many pupils "who formed a band of charlatans who shamelessly exploited the credulity of their contemporaries," that the Ba"al Shem Tob and Jacob Frank both had large followings, it is surely here that we may find the origin of those mysterious magicians who spread themselves over Europe at this date.
It will at once be asked: "But what proof is there that any one of these Ba"al Shems or Cabalists was connected with masonic or secret societies?" The answer is that the most important Ba"al Shem of the day, known as "the Chief of all the Jews," is shown by doc.u.mentary evidence to have been an initiate of Freemasonry and in direct contact with the leaders of the secret societies. If then it is agreed that neither Saint-Germain nor Cagliostro can be proved to have been Jews, here we have a man concerned in the movement, more important than either, whose nationality admits of no doubt whatever.
This extraordinary personage, known as the "Ba"al Shem of London," was a Cabalistic Jew named Hayyim Samuel Jacob Falk, also called Dr. Falk, Falc, de Falk, or Falkon, born in 1708, probably in Podolia. The further fact that he was regarded by his fellow-Jews as an adherent of the Messiah Shabbethai Zebi clearly shows his connexion with the Podolian Zoharites. Falk was thus not an isolated phenomenon, but a member of one of the groups described in the foregoing pages. The following is a summary of the account given of the Ba"al Shem of London in the _Jewish Encyclopedia_:
Falk claimed to possess thaumaturgic powers and to be able to discover hidden treasure. Archenholz (_England und Italien_, I.
249) recounts certain marvels which he had seen performed by Falk in Brunswick and which he attributes to a special knowledge of chemistry. In Westphalia at one time Falk was sentenced to be burned as a sorcerer, but escaped to England. Here he was received with hospitality and rapidly gained fame as a Cabalist and worker of miracles. Many stories of his powers were current. He would cause a small taper to remain alight for weeks; an incantation would fill his cellar with coal; plate left with a p.a.w.nbroker would glide back into his house. When a fire threatened to destroy the Great Synagogue, he averted the disaster by writing four Hebrew letters on the pillars of the door.[482] [Obviously the Tetragrammaton.]
On his arrival in London in 1742 Falk appeared to be without means, but soon after he was seen to be in possession of considerable wealth, living in a comfortable house in Wellclose Square, where he had his private synagogue, whilst gold and silver plate adorned his table. His Journal, still preserved in the library of the United Synagogue, contains references to "mysterious journeyings" to and from Epping Forest, to meetings, a meeting-chamber in the forest, and chests of gold there buried. It was said that on one occasion when he was driving thither along Whitechapel Road, a back wheel of his carriage came off, which alarmed the coachman, but Falk ordered him to drive on and the wheel followed the carriage all the way to the forest.
The stories of Falk"s miraculous powers are too numerous to relate here, but a letter written by an enthusiastic Jewish admirer, Sussman Shesnowzi, to his son in Poland will serve to show the reputation he enjoyed:
Hear, my beloved son, of the marvellous gifts entrusted to a son of man, who verily is not a man, a light of the captivity ... a holy light, a saintly man ... who dwells at present in the great city of London. Albeit I could not fully understand him on account of his volubility and his speaking as an inhabitant of Jerusalem.... His chamber is lighted by silver candlesticks on the walls, with a central eight-branched lamp made of pure silver of beaten work. And albeit it contained oil to burn a day and a night it remained enkindled for three weeks. On one occasion he abode in seclusion in his house for six weeks without meat and drink. When at the conclusion of this period ten persons were summoned to enter, they found him seated on a sort of throne, his head covered with a golden turban, a golden chain round his neck with a pendant silver star on which sacred names were inscribed. Verily this man stands alone in his generation by reason of his knowledge of holy mysteries. I cannot recount to you all the wonders he accomplishes.
I am grateful, in that I am found worthy to be received among those who dwell within the shadow of his wisdom.... I know that many will believe my words, but others, who do not occupy themselves with mysteries, will laugh thereat. Therefore, my son, be very circ.u.mspect, and show this only to wise and discreet men. For here in London this master has not been disclosed to anyone who does not belong to our Brotherhood.
The esteem in which Falk was held by the Jewish community, including the Chief Rabbi and the Rabbi of the new Synagogue, appears to have roused the resentment of his co-religionist Emden, who denounced him as a follower of the false Messiah and an exploiter of Christian credulity.
Falk [he wrote in a letter to Poland] had made his position by his pretence to be an adept in practical Cabala, by which means he professed to be able to discover hidden treasures; by his pretensions he had entrapped a wealthy captain whose fortune he had cheated him out of, so that he was reduced to depending on the Rabbi"s charity, and yet, despite this, wealthy Christians spend their money on him, whilst Falk spends his bounty on the men of his Brotherhood so that they may spread his fame.
In general Falk appears to have displayed extreme caution in his relations with Christian seekers after occult knowledge, for the _Jewish Encyclopaedia_ goes on to say: "Archenholz mentions a royal prince who applied to Falk in his quest for the philosopher"s stone, but was denied admittance." Nevertheless Hayyum Azulai mentions (Ma"gal Tob, p. 13_b_):
That when in Paris in 1778 he was told by the Marchesa de Crona that the Ba"al Shem of London had taught her the Cabala. Falk seems also to have been on intimate terms with that strange adventurer Baron Theodor de Neuhoff.... Falk"s princ.i.p.al friends were the London bankers Aaron Goldsmid and his son.[483] p.a.w.nbroking and successful speculation enabled him to acquire a considerable fortune. He left large sums of money to charity, and the overseers of the United Synagogue in London still distribute annually certain payments left by him for the poor.
Nothing of all this would lead one to suppose that Falk could be regarded in the light of a black magician; it is therefore surprising to find Dr. Adler observing that a horrible account of a Jewish Cabalist in _The Gentleman"s Magazine_ for September 1762 "obviously refers to Dr.
Falk, though his name is not mentioned."[484] This man is described as "a christened Jew and the biggest rogue and villain in all the world,"
who "had been imprisoned everywhere and banished out of all countries in Germany, and also sometimes publicly whipped, so that his back lost all the old skin, and became new again, and yet left never off from his villainies, but grew always worse." The writer goes on to relate that the Cabalist offered to teach him certain mysteries, but explained that before entering on any "experiments of the said G.o.dly mysteries, we must first avoid all churches and places of worshipping as unclean"; he then bound his initiate by a very strong oath and proceeded to tell him that he must steal a Hebrew Bible from a Protestant and also procure "one pound of blood out of the veins of an honest Protestant." The initiate thereupon robbed a Protestant of all his effects, but had himself bled of about three-quarters of a pound of blood, which he gave to the magician. He thus describes the ceremony that took place:
Then the next night about 11 o"clock, we both went into the garden of my own, and the cabalist put a cross, tainted with my blood, in each corner of the garden, and in the middle of the garden a threefold circle ... in the first circle were written all the names of G.o.d in Hebrew; in the second all the names of the angels; and in the third the first chapter of the holy Gospel of St. John, and it was all written with my blood.
The cruelties then performed by the Cabalist on a he-goat are too loathsome to transcribe. The whole story, indeed, appears a farrago of nonsense and would not be worth quoting but for the fact that it appears to be taken seriously by Dr. Adler as a description of the great Ba"al Shem.
The death of Falk took place on April 17, 1782, and the epitaph on his grave in the cemetery at Globe Road, Mile End, "bears witness to his excellencies and orthodoxy": "Here is interred ... the aged and honourable man, a great personage who came from the East, an accomplished sage, an adept in Cabbalah.... His name was known to the ends of the earth and distant isles," etc.
This then is surely the portrait of a most remarkable personage, a man known for his powers in England, France, and Germany, visited by a royal prince in search of the philosopher"s stone, and acclaimed by one of his own race as standing alone in his generation by reason of his knowledge, yet whilst Saint-Germain and Cagliostro figure in every account of eighteenth-century magicians, it is only in exclusively Judaic or masonic works, not intended for the general public, that we shall find any reference to Falk. Have we not here striking evidence of the truth of M. Andre Baron"s dictum: "Remember that the constant rule of the secret societies is that the real authors never show themselves"?
It will now be asked: what proof is there that Falk is connected with any masonic or secret societies? True, in the accounts given by the _Jewish Encyclopaedia_, the word Freemasonry is not once mentioned. But in the curious portrait of the great Ba"al Shem appended, we see him holding in his hand the pair of compa.s.ses, and before him, on the table at which he is seated, the double triangle or Seal of Solomon known amongst Jews as "the Shield of David," which forms an important emblem in Masonry.
Moreover, it is significant to find in the _Royal Masonic Encyclopaedia_ by the Rosicrucian Kenneth Mackenzie that a long and detailed article is devoted to Falk, though again without any reference to his connexion with Freemasonry. May we not conclude that in certain inner masonic circles the importance of Falk is recognized but must not be revealed to the uninitiated? Mr. Gordon Hills, in the above-quoted paper contributed to the _Ars Quatuor Coronatorum_, indulges in some innocent speculation as to the part Falk may have played in the masonic movement. "If," he observes, "Jewish Brethren did introduce Cabalistical learning into the so-called High Degrees, here we have one, who, if a Mason, would have been eminently qualified to do so."
Falk inded was far more than a Mason, he was a high initiate--the supreme oracle to which the secret societies applied for guidance. All this was disclosed a few years ago in the correspondence between Savalette de Langes and the Marquis de Chefdebien referred to in the previous chapter. Thus in the _dossiers_ of the leading occultists supplied by Savalette we find the following note on the Ba"al Shem of London:
This Doctor Falk is known to many Germans. He is a very extraordinary man from every point of view. Some people believe him to be the Chief of all the Jews and attribute to purely political schemes all that is marvellous and singular in his life and conduct. He is referred to in a very curious manner, and as a Rose-Croix in the _Memoirs of the Chevalier de Rampsow_ (i.e.
Rentzov). He has had adventures with the Marechal de Richelieu, great seeker of the Philosophers" Stone. He had a strange history with the Prince de Rohan Guemenee and the Chevalier de Luxembourg relating to Louis XV, whose death he foretold. He is almost inaccessible. In all the sects of savants in secret sciences he pa.s.ses as a superior man. He is at present in England. The Baron de Gleichen can give good information about him. Try to get more at Frankfurt.[485]
Again, in notes on other personages the name of Falk recurs with the same insistence on his importance as a high initiate:
Leman, pupil of Falk....
The Baron de Gleichen ... intimately connected with Wecter [Waechter] and Wakenfeldt.... He knows Falk....
The Baron de Waldenfels ... is, according to what I know from the Baron de Gleichen, the princes of Daimstadt, ... and others, the most interesting man for you and me to know. If we made his acquaintance, he could give us the best information on all the most interesting objects of instiuction. He knows Falk and Wecter.
Prince Louis d"Haimstadt ... is also a member of the Amis Reunis, 12 and in charge of the Directories. He worked in his youth with a Jew whom he believes to be taught by Falk....[486]
Here, then, behind the organization of the Stricte Observance, of the Amis Reunis, and the Philalethes, we catch a glimpse at last of one of those _real initiates_ whose ident.i.ty has been so carefully kept dark.
For Falk, as we see in these notes, was not an isolated sage; he had pupils, and to be one of these was to be admitted to the inner mysteries. Was Cagliostro one of these adepts? Is it here we may seek the explanation of the "Egyptian Rite" devised by him in London, and of his chance discovery on a bookstall in that city of a Cabalistic doc.u.ment by the mysterious "George Cofton," whose ident.i.ty has never been revealed? I would suggest that the whole story of the bookstall was a fable and that it was not from any ma.n.u.script, but from Falk, that Cagliostro received his directions. Thus Cagliostro"s rite was in reality concealed Cabalism.
That Falk was only one of several Concealed Superiors is further suggested by the intriguing correspondence of Savalette de Langes.
"Schroeder," we read, "had for his master an old man of Suabia," by whom the Baron de Waechter was also said to have been instructed in Masonry, and to have become one of the most important initiates of Germany.
Accordingly de Waechter was despatched by his Order to Florence in order to make enquiries on further secrets and on certain famous treasures about which Schroepfer, the Baron de Hundt, and others, had heard that Aprosi, the secretary of the Pretender, could give them information.
Waechter, however, wrote to say that all they had been told on the latter point was fabulous, but that he had met in Florence certain "Brothers of the Holy Land," who had initiated him into marvellous secrets; one in particular who is described as "a man who is not a European" had "perfectly instructed him." Moreover, de Waechter, who had set forth poor, returned loaded with riches attributed by his fellow-masons to the "Asiatic Brethren" he had frequented in Florence who possessed the art of making gold.[487] I would suggest then that these were the members of the "Italian Order" referred to by Mr.
Tuckett, which, like Schroepfer and de Hundt, he imagined to have been connected with the Jacobites.
But all these secret sources of instruction are wrapped in mystery.
Whilst Saint-Germain and Cagliostro--who is referred to in this correspondence in terms of light derision--emerge into the limelight, the real initiates remain concealed in the background. Falk "is almost inaccessible!" Yet one more almost forgotten doc.u.ment of the period may throw some light on the important part he played behind the scenes in Masonry.
It may be remembered that Archenholz had spoken of certain marvels he had seen performed by Falk in Brunswick. Now, in 1770 the German poet Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was made librarian to the Duke of Brunswick in that city. The fame of Falk may then have reached his ears. At any rate in 1771 Lessing, after having mocked at Freemasonry, was initiated in a masonic lodge at Hamburg, and in 1778 he published not only his famous masonic drama _Nathan der Weise_, in which the Jew of Jerusalem is shown in admirable contrast to the Christians and Mohammedans, but he also wrote five dialogues on Freemasonry which he dedicated to the Duke of Brunswick, Grand Master of all the German Lodges, and which he ent.i.tled "_Ernst und Falk: Gesprache fur Freimaurer_."[488]
Lessing"s friendship with Moses Mendelssohn has led to the popular theory, unsupported however by any real evidence, that the Jewish philosopher of Berlin provided the inspiration for the character of Nathan, but might it not equally have been provided by the miracle-worker of Brunswick? However, in the case of the dialogues less room is left for doubt. Falk is mentioned by name and represented as initiated into the highest mysteries of Freemasonry. This is of course not explained by Lessing"s commentators, who give no clue to his ident.i.ty.[489] It is evident that Lessing committed an enormous blunder in thus letting so important a cat out of the bag, for after the publication of the first three dialogues and whilst the last two were circulating privately in ma.n.u.script amongst the Freemasons, an order from the Duke of Brunswick forbade their publication as dangerous. In spite of this prohibition, the rest of the series was printed, however without Lessing"s permission, in 1870 with a preface by an unknown person describing himself as a non-mason.
The dialogues between Ernst and Falk throw a curious light on the influences at work behind Freemasonry at this period and gain immensely in interest when the ident.i.ty of the two men in question is understood.
Thus Ernst, by whom Lessing evidently represents himself, is at the beginning not a Freemason, and, whilst sitting with Falk in a wood, questions the high initiate on the aims of the Order. Falk explains that Freemasonry has always existed, but not under this name. Its real purpose has never been revealed. On the surface it appears to be a purely philanthropic a.s.sociation, but in reality philanthropy forms no part of its scheme, its object being to bring about a state of things which will render philanthropy unnecessary. (_Was man gemeinlich gute Thaten zu nennen pflegt entbehrlich zu machen_.) As an ill.u.s.tration Falk points to an ant-heap at the foot of the tree beneath which the two men are seated. "Why," he asks, "should not human beings exist without government like the ants or bees?" Falk then goes on to describe his idea of a Universal State, or rather a federation of States, in which men will no longer be divided by national, social, or religious prejudices, and where greater equality will exist.
At the end of the third dialogue an interval occurs during which Ernst goes away and becomes a Freemason, but on his return expresses his disappointment to Falk at finding many Freemasons engaged in such futilities as alchemy or the evocation of spirits. Others again seek to revive the * * *. Falk replies that although the great secrets of Freemasonry cannot be revealed by any man even if he wished it, one thing, however, has been kept dark which should now be made public, and this is the relationship between the Freemasons and the * * *. "The * * * were in fact the Freemasons of their time." It seems probable from the context and from Falk"s references to Sir Christopher Wren as the founder of the modern Order, that the asterisks denote the Rosicrucians.
The most interesting point of these dialogues is, however, the hint continually thrown out by Falk that there is something behind Freemasonry, something far older and far wider in its aims than the Order now known by this name--the modern Freemasons are for the most part only "playing at it." Thus, when Ernst complains that true equality has not been attained in the lodges since Jews are not admitted, Falk observes that he himself does not attend them, that true Freemasonry does not exist in outward forms--"A lodge bears the same relation to Freemasonry as a church to belief." In other words, the real initiates do not appear upon the scene. Here then we see the role of the "Concealed Superiors." What wonder that Lessing"s dialogues were considered too dangerous for publication!
Moreover, in Falk"s conception of the ideal social order and his indictment of what he calls "bourgeois society" we find the clue to movements of immense importance. Has not the system of the ant-heap or the beehive proved, as I have pointed out elsewhere, the model on which modern Anarchists, from Proudhon onwards, have formed their schemes for the reorganization of human life? Has not the idea of the "World State," "The Universal Republic" become the war-cry of the Internationalist Socialists, the Grand Orient Masons, the Theosophists, and the world-revolutionaries of our own day?
Was Falk, then, a revolutionary? This again will be disputed. Falk may have been a Cabalist, a Freemason, a high initiate, but what proof is there that he had any connexion with the leaders of the French Revolution? Let us turn again to the _Jewish Encyclopaedia_:
Falk ... is ... believed to have given the Duc d"Orleans, to ensure his succession to the throne, a talisman consisting of a ring, which Philippe Egalite before mounting the scaffold is said to have sent to a Jewess, Juliet Goudchaux, who pa.s.sed it on to his son, subsequently Louis Philippe.
The Baron de Gleichen, who "knew Falc," refers to a talisman of lapis-lazuli which the Due d"Orleans had received in England from "the celebrated Falk Scheck, first Rabbi of the Jews," and says that a certain occultist, Madame de la Croix, imagined she had destroyed it by "the power of prayer." But the theory of its survival is further confirmed by the information supplied from Jewish sources to Mr. Gordon Hills, who states that Falk was "in touch with the French Court in the person of "Prince Emanuel,"[490] whom he describes as a servant of the King of France," and adds that the talismanic ring which he gave to the Due d"Orleans "is still in the possession of the family, having pa.s.sed to King Louis Philippe and thence to the Comte de Paris."[491]
One fact, then, looms out of the darkness that envelops the secret power behind the Orleanist conspiracy, one fact of supreme importance, and based moreover on purely Jewish evidence: the Duke was in touch with Falk when in London and Falk supported his scheme of usurpation. Thus behind the arch-conspirator of the revolution stood "the Chief of all the Jews." Is it here perhaps, in Falk"s "chests of gold," that we might find the source of some of those loans raised in London by the Due d"Orleans to finance the riots of the Revolution, so absurdly described as "l"or de Pitt"?
The direct connexion between the attack on the French monarchy and Jewish circles in London is further shown by the curious sequel to the Gordon Riots. In 1780 the half-witted Lord George Gordon (as a Jewish writer describes him), the head of the so-called "Protestant" mob, marched on the House of Commons to protest against the bill for the relief of Roman Catholic disabilities and then proceeded to carry out his plan of burning down London. During the five days" rioting that ensued, property to the amount of 180,000 was destroyed. After this "the scion of the ducal house of Gordon proved the durability of his love for Protestantism by professing the Hebrew faith," and was received with the highest honours into the Synagogue. The same Jewish writer, who has described him earlier as half-witted, quotes this panegyric on his orthodoxy: "He was very regular in his Jewish observances; every morning he was seen with the philacteries between his eyes, and opposite his heart.... His Sat.u.r.day"s bread was baked according to the manner of the Jews, his wine was Jewish, his meat was Jewish, and he was the best Jew in the congregation of Israel." And it was immediately after his conversion to Judaism that he published in _The Public Advertiser_ the libel against Marie Antoinette which brought about his imprisonment in Newgate.[492]
Now we know that Lord George Gordon met Cagliostro in London in 1786.[493] Is it not probable that the author of the scurrilous pamphlet and the magician concerned in the attack on the Queen"s honour through the Affair of the Necklace--one a--Jew by profession, the other said to be a Jew by race--may have had some connexion with Philippe Egalite"s Jewish supporter, the miracle worker of Wellclose Square?
But already a vaster genius than Falk or Cagliostro, than Pasqually or Savalette de Langes, had arisen, who, gathering into his hands the threads of all the conspiracies, was able to weave them together into a gigantic scheme for the destruction of France and of the world.
9
The Bavarian Illuminati