The Taxil Hoax and Satanic Freemasonry Part 1 (Premium E245)
In the late 19th century a Frenchman pulled off one of the greatest hoaxes of all time and inspired countless conspiracy theories about Freemasonry that still circulate today. The man, who went by the pseudonym Leo Taxil, started his career by publishing several texts smearing the Pope and the Catholic Church. But then he switched sides and claimed he converted to Catholicism. To prove his devotion he started publishing anti-Masonic texts. These new works included wild stories about a secret satanic sect with freemasonry called Palladism. Despite the fact that these stories are far beyond the limits of believability, they were taken seriously by the Catholic Church. Taxil finally admitted that his multiple books about satanism in Freemasonry were all part of an elaborate, 12-year-long-hoax.
In part 1 of this series, we explore the childhood of “Leo Taxil,” his hoaxes in France and Switzerland, and the anti-Church writings that forced him to fend off lawsuits and criminal charges.
In part 2, we’ll get into the thousands of pages he wrote about secret satanism in Freemasonry, how the public swallowed these stories up, and his dramatic confession that it was all a lie.
REFERENCES
Dickie, John. The Craft: How the Freemasons Made the Modern World. Public Affairs, 2020
Ziegler, Robert. Satanism, magic and mysticism in fin-de-siècle France. Springer, 2012.
Van Luijk, Ruben. Children of Lucifer: The origins of modern religious Satanism. Oxford University Press, 2016
Mellor, Alec. A Hoaxer of Genius
https://skirret.com/papers/ahoaxerofgenius-leotaxil.html
Wikisource: The Works of Leo Taxil
https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Auteur:L%C3%A9o_Taxil
Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)
QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.
Comments (49)
Great episode, real funny stuff. Love learning about this guy!
Btw, Umberto Eco’s novel The Prague Cemetery is all about conspiracies, subterfuges & state intelligence tradecraft among agents of the Catholic Church, the Masons, and the French & Piedmontese governments during the late-19th century, in which the Taxil Affair plays an integral part (as well as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, of course). It’s an interesting read!
Hell yes can’t wait for part 2!
You guys parlez super bien français dis donc ! Tout un épisode en français would make my day !
Yes boys! Amazing!
This is the shit I love to listen to
While I appreciate humans make the same mistakes again and again, that as times change people think the world is moving too quickly and that kids these days don’t know discipline but it sure is something else to learn that we also had 4chan-esque trolls also operating in ye olden days. Great episode lads!
A Nolan=esque romp! Take my money now
Goddamn.. Fuck Guy Fawkes, where da Leo Taxil masks at? 🎭 P.S. can't wait for Pt 2!
As a tie-in, can the gang watch The Devils (1971, dir. Ken Russell) for a movie night ep?
Finally all those years of 🇨🇦French immersion pay off!
Very delicious episode!
Another great show.
Wonderful bishop voice from Julian 👌 sounds almost exactly like the skeevy announcer from that supergiant fantasy basketball game, Pyre, voiced by Logan Cunningham I believe.
For real tho, a 19th century set Jaws movie would kick ass. Jaws: 1890
The shark hoax sounds like a version of A Libertarian Walked Into A Bear. Also it is not possible to agree more with an idea than for me to agree with the idea that priests should be castrated as an aspect of their vow of chastity. Considering the long history of screaming degeneracy among the clergy it won’t stop all of them, but it might convince a few to stay out.
I just found out about the bear thing. Fucking hilarious
More Julian roasting the others in french please
I'm a Master Mason and what a surprise to see you all covering this topic, awesome!
During this episode I couldn't stop thinking..."If the Pope and Taxil were gigantic Kaiju and they fought...what would they look like and who would win?" OK Toho Studios get to work.
Love when Julian speaks French. Like a little Easter egg for Francophones and Francophiles.
Leo Taxill fucking rules. This should have been a 2 hr episode!
Not gonna lie, I kind of love this guy. He’s up there with Robert Anton Wilson when it comes the ethereal realm of saintly trolls. Also, the bit about priests “leaving the deposit of their virginity” is so dead on- why should anyone trust with a weird haircut and outfit who pledges an almost impossible thing? As an ex Catholic I have 100% had this thought (and I’m sure many Catholics do as well).
Release part two now cowards
Right?! Keeping us “paying customers” waiting is nasty work! This ruled!
Who else would buy any book Travis wrote?
The cool conspiracy theorists memorize the whole book and spew all the info out at you instead of telling you to read.
Just love the new theme tune
Literally stirs my heart
Travis EP!!
Come on guys, you couldn’t even get a real Free Mason to come onto the podcast? SMH
I’m getting confused by Julian’s origin story. Am I right in thinking he’s from Switzerland with Italian roots, and apparently speaks fluent French..
And lived in Canada for awhile.
Julian speaking French got me 🫦
We get it Julian, you can speak french.
Julian accuse toujours Travis d'être francophobe parce qu'il est psychologiquement plus facile pour lui de penser que Travis le considère comme un sous-homme parce qu'il est français plutôt qu'à cause de ce qu'il a dit et fait
From the mid 19th century into the early 20th century, Marie was a popular first name for both men and women, especially in devout Catholic families. (From Wikipedia.)
je l’adore quand julian parle avec jake en français
He was kind of right about the priest's tentacles.
You say 'proto-Discordian', I'm surprised to realize I hadn't already heard of this guy as a commonly proclaimed Saint Second Class (i.e. greatest level of sainthood available for real-life people), he definitely fits the bill. Well, anyone can proclaim a Discordian saint so I guess I'm doing it right here, hail St. Taxil the glorious mess and hail Eris.
Can really recommend Umberto Eco's The Prague Cemetery for a fun novelisation of this story
I feel amazed to only hear about this now in 2024. I probably first heard about this in the early 2000s and didn't know how to work out if there was anything to it or not
Taxil sounds like he was just biting de Sade
As a fellow former Freemason of another age, expelled for making satirical statements, I love this deep dive on Taxil. Sadly, in every age, there have been people who are dumb enough to believe an Onion headline, and often they rise to the top.
Post the satire
Why Julien talking all funny at start
The podcast suddenly got taken over by Pepe Le Pue
Always worried yall wouldn’t find the transition from Q content but I love the direction now. Wife and I both love yall and been listening for years now.
poor Travis... he had such a plan for this episode I'm sure