The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-05-17

ecclesiastic and told him that he had
repented of all his sins and desired to
spend his remaining years in doing
good. This desire was not Immediately
gratiied. The church, in fact, did not
take kindly to this repentant sinner.
It suspected him; it was not quite sure
that he was not a wolf in sleeps
clothing.
Finally, Taxi1 appealed to the Arch
bishop of Paris, and the latter handed
him over to a Jesuit father. one of the
shrewdest churchmen in Christendom.
To him Taxil made a confession that
lasted three days. Among the crimes
was murder. The Jesuit father finally
gave him absolution and ordered him
to pay a pension to the widow Of the
murdered man.
"Of course" explained Taxil, with
smile, there was not word of truth
in my confession"
A STRANGE CONFESSION.
Cries of Liar! Scoundrel! Rascalr'
came from the angry audience Some
of the clergymen left their seats and
went out Of the hall, meanwhile pro-
testing vigorously. Those who re-
manned scowled bitterly at the speaker,
and a few openly regretted that their
canes and umbrellas were not at hand
Indeed, it was we'll for Taxil that these
useful weapons were not within the
reach of certain masculine arms. But
he seemed utterly Indifferent, and
smiling blandly, he continued his tale
About this time, he said, the pope
issued his encyclical against the Free
Masons, and here was golden opppor-
tunity to show zeal for the church.
He showed his zeal by writing criti
cisms on certain books and doctrines
of the Free Masons, and by the bare
faced assertion that Free Masons wor-
ship Lucifer, the Prince of Devils.
This assertion he tried hard to make
plausible by misquoting several pas
sages from Masonic text books. He
succeeded beyond his utmost expecta-
lions, and straightway he evolved out
of his, inner consciousness a complete
ritual Of devil worship and a thorough
history of the manner in which mod
ern Free Masons worship the devil.
For this laudable work he not only
received high praise from the clergy
and warm encouragement from lay
Catholics, but he also received a bles-
sing from the pope himself. Moreover,
he also received a large cheese from
the Marquis de Mores, on the rind Of
which religious texts were printed.
''This cheese" remarked TaXil, chad
very pronounced odor, and impelied
me more than ever to wage an unre-
A CAREER OF FRAUD.
Shouts of you reprobatev "You
trampw were heard from the audi
ence. Meanwhile some more clergymen
left the hall.
Taxil smiled, and went on to tell how
he journeyed to Rome, and how Car
dinal Rampolla received him graciously
and gave him high praise for his dis
tinguished works" against devil wor-
ship and the Free Masons. The pope,
too, gave him an audience.
That's enough for me-" remarked
Catholic journalist, leaving his seat.
mo Christian person can remain in
this hall"
But the others paid no heed to him,
being determined to hear the strange
story to the end.
1.-THE bishops" continued Taxil calm
ly, "who examined my books found
them entirely true. Especially Mgr
Meurin, who, after a thorough study,
arrived at the same conclusions as /
did. But I wanted further evidence of
| this truth. One Of my friends, DR..
Hacks, navy surgeon, elaborated
with me under the name Of DR.. Batail-
| lie, and the result was a book, entitled
'The Devil in the Nineteenth Cen
tury," in which we gave our own ex-
periences Of devil worship, or Palla-
dismus. among the Free Masons Y
Next engaged as secretary an in