gnified by this frightful symbol [the Sabbatic goat].[213] Yes,
in our profound conviction, the Grand Masters of the Order of the
Templars adored Baphomet and caused him to be adored by their
initiates.[214]

It will be seen, then, that the accusation of heresy brought against the
Templars does not emanate solely from the Catholic Church, but also from
the secret societies. Even our Freemasons, who, for reasons I shall show
later, have generally defended the Order, are now willing to admit that
there was a very real case against them. Thus Dr. Ranking, who has
devoted many years of study to the question, has arrived at the
conclusion that Johannism is the real clue to the Templar heresy. In a
very interesting paper published in the masonic journal _Ars Quatuor
Coronatorum_, he observes that "the record of the Templars in Palestine
is one long tale of intrigue and treachery on the part of the Order,"
and finally:

That from the very commencement of Christianity there has been
transmitted through the centuries a body of doctrine incompatible
with Christianity in the various official Churches....

That the bodies teaching these doctrines professed to do so on the
authority of St. John, to whom, as they claimed, the true secrets
had been committed by the Founder of Christianity.

That during the Middle Ages the main support of the Gnostic bodies
and the main repository of this knowledge was the Society of the
Templars.[215]

What is the explanation of this choice of St. John for the propagation
of anti-Christian doctrines which we shall find continuing up to the
present day? What else than the method of perversion which in its
extreme form becomes Satanism, and consists in always selecting the most
sacred things for the purpose of desecration? Precisely then because the
Gospel of St. John is the one of all the four which most insists on the
divinity of Christ, the occult anti-Christian sects have habitually made
it the basis of their rites.

4

THREE CENTURIES OF OCCULTISM

It has been shown in the foregoing chapters that from very early times
occult sects had existed for two purposes--esoteric and political.
Whilst the Manicheans, the early Ismailis, the Bogomils, and the
Luciferians had concerned themselves mainly with religious or esoteric
doctrines, the later Ismailis, the Fatimites, the Karmathites, and
Templars had combined secrecy and occ