Universal Freemasonry 207were, as was the case in France, a religious brotherhood claimed the
same members as the trade group. Thus in these associations, priests
played a mandatory leader's role.
It is beyond doubt that religion and metaphysics were a part of the
lodges' practices, all the more so as they gave shelter to artists and
scholars as well as simple craftsmen, and as study gradually turned on
a philosophy that was identical to theology.
Though it would seem that the religion of the builders was Roman
Catholicism, it is still frequently claimed by Freemasons and their
adversaries alike that this was and is not so. Cited as evidence of this
are their pagan traditions, their skeptical attitude that grew from con-
stant travel and contact with diverse peoples, and the sculptures they
used to adorn the portals of the churches they built.
The most extreme theory that has been presented in this regard
claims that Freemasonry was the supplier of Manichean and Cathar
propaganda. This theory was triggered early on by Abbe Barruel in his
Memoires pour servir a l'histoire du Jacobisme (1798). The Germans
Krause and Eckert espoused it again during the nineteenth century.* The
theory is based on the notion that the leaders of Manicheism, the quin-
tessential Gnostic sect, joined forces to wage all-out war against the
Catholic Church. Because Rome was the center of the Church's strength
that flowed out in all directions, the Manicheans resolved to make it the
headquarters of their apostles. During this time, the Church's monaster-
ies were bringing up the flower of youth and educating citizens in the
arts. Hence, the necessity for the Manicheans to feign a fervent piety and
devote themselves to the monastic profession, where, through teaching,
they could win the credit and authority of both nobles and craftsmen
and converts to their sect. The Manicheans did not hesitate to set their
hearts on the builders associations as being the most likely to play into
their intentions. Among themselves they soon formed an organized group
and founded a grand lodge in Rome. Its adherents took on the name of
the Johannite Brothers and established themselves as an association
* See also Abbe Lecanu, L'Histoire de Satan (1861), which detects numerous Manichean,
Gnostic, and Cathar influences in Romanesque symbolism. This hypothesis was picked
up by a majority of Mason authors, whose secular tendencies it flattered. See especially
F. L. Lachat, La Franc-Maconnerie operative (Lyon: Derain-Rachet, 1934), 162.