Anti-Masonry
Anti-Masonry is "avowed opposition to Freemasonry", which has led to multiple forms of religious discrimination, violent persecution, and suppression in some countries as well as in various organized religions. That said, there is no homogeneous anti-Masonic movement. Anti-Masonry consists of radically differing criticisms from frequently incompatible political institutions and organized religions that oppose each other, and are hostile to Freemasonry in some form.
Early anti-Masonic documents
The earliest known anti-Masonic document was a leaflet which was printed in 1698 by a Presbyterian minister who was named Winter. It reads:TO ALL GODLY PEOPLE, In the Citie of London.
Having thought it needful to warn you of the Mischiefs and Evils practiced in the Sight of God by those called Freed Masons, I say take Care lest their Ceremonies and secret Swearings take hold of you; and be wary that none cause you to err from Godliness. For this devilish Sect of Men are Meeters in secret which swear against all without ther Following. They are the Anti Christ which was to come leading Men from Fear of God. For how should Men meet in secret Places and with secret Signs taking Care that none observed them to do the Work of GOD; are not these the Ways of Evil-doers?
Knowing how that God observeth privilly them that sit in Darkness they shall be smitten and the Secrets of their Hearts layed bare. Mingle not among this corrupt People lest you be found so at the World's Conflagration.
Political anti-Masonry
Freemasonry has been alleged to hold its members back from fully committing themselves to their nation. Critics claim that, compared to Operative Masonry's clear denunciations of treachery, Speculative Masonry was far more ambiguous. The old Catholic Encyclopedia alleges that Masonic disapproval of treachery is not on moral grounds but on the grounds of inconvenience to other Masons. It also argues that the adage "Loyalty to freedom overrides all other considerations" justifies treason, and quotes Albert Mackey, who said "... if treason or rebellion were masonic crimes, almost every mason in the United Colonies, in 1776, would have been subject to expulsion and every Lodge to a forfeiture of its warrant by the Grand Lodges of England and Scotland, under whose jurisdiction they were at the time".Freemasonry charges its members that: "In the state you are to be a quiet and peaceful subject, true to your government and just to your country; You are not to countenence disloyalty or rebellion, but patiently submit to legal authority and conform with cheerfulness to the government of the country in which you live."
Freemasonry was persecuted in all the communist countries. Freemasonry in Cuba continued to exist following the Cuban Revolution, and according to Cuban folklore, Fidel Castro is said to have "developed a soft spot for the Masons when they gave him refuge in a Masonic Lodge" in the 1950s. When in power, Castro was also said to have "kept them on a tight leash" as they were considered a subversive element in Cuban society and allegedly providing safe haven for dissidents.
Fascists treated Freemasonry as a potential source of opposition. Masonic writers state that the language used by the totalitarian regimes is similar to that used by other modern critics of Freemasonry.
United States
In 1826, William Morgan disappeared from the small town of Batavia, New York. He was alleged to be kidnapped by Freemasons and murdered after threatening to expose Freemasonry's "secrets" by publishing its rituals. Morgan's disappearance sparked a series of protests and suspicion against Freemasonry, which eventually spread to the political realm. Under the leadership of anti-Masonic Thurlow Weed, an Anti-Jacksonist movement became the Anti-Masonic Party. This political party ran presidential candidates in the elections of 1828 and 1832, but by 1835 the party had disbanded everywhere except Pennsylvania. William A. Palmer of Vermont and Joseph Ritner of Pennsylvania were both elected governor of their respective states on anti-Masonic platforms.John Quincy Adams, President of the United States during the Morgan Affair, objected to the oath of secrecy, particularly with regard to the keeping of undefined secrets and to the penalties for breaking the oath. He declared, "Masonry ought forever to be abolished. It is wrong – essentially wrong – a seed of evil which can never produce any good," although he extended "the most liberal of tolerance" to Masons who joined the fraternity before the murder of William Morgan, saying that they were taken by surprise and that they took the Oaths "without reflecting upon what they imported, or sheltering their consciences under the great names which had gone before them."
Though few states passed laws directed at Freemasonry by name, laws regulating and restricting it were passed and many cases dealing with Freemasonry were seen in the courts. Antimasonic legislation was passed in Vermont in 1833, including a provision by which the giving and willing taking of an unnecessary oath was made a crime., and the state of New York enacted a Benevolent Orders Law to regulate such organizations.
Asia
In 1938, a Japanese representative to the Welt-Dienst / World-Service congress hosted by Ulrich Fleischhauer stated, on behalf of Japan, that "Judeo-Masonry is forcing the Chinese to turn China into a spearhead for an attack on Japan, and thereby forcing Japan to defend itself against this threat. Japan is at war not with China but with Freemasonry, represented by General Chiang Kai-shek, the successor of his master, the Freemason Sun Yat-sen."Europe
According to Simon Sarlin, and Dan Rouyer, intense denunciation of Freemasonry because of its supposed grip on society and government, became standard doctrine within counter-revolutionary thought and action in the 19th century. A major event was The International Anti-Masonic Congress that took place in Trento, Italy in 1896. It was sponsored by Pope Leo XIII and the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Francis-Joseph, a Catholic. The Congress assembled 1,500 delegates and 300 journalists, as well as prominent Catholic bishops. Thousands of telegrams testified to support from the right worldwide. It created a permanent body, the "Universal Anti-Masonic Union." The goal was to create a powerful centre for all anti-Masonic groups, strengthening their resolve and capabilities to battle the Freemasons nation by nation. In practice the Union was too conspicuously Papal, and poorly organized. It proved ineffective in its grandiose expectations but its creation was a measure of bitter anger and frustration among the Catholic enemies of Freemasonry.Finland
The far-right groups exercised considerable political power in Finland in the 1930s and 40s, pressuring the government to expel Freemasons from the armed forces. Patriotic Citizens of Viitasaari wanted to purge Jews and Freemasons from the country and spread anti-Masonic booklets in the prints of tens of thousands. Patriotic People's Movement MP Paavo Susitaival was a prominent opponent of freemasonry and claimed freemasons were responsible for ritual murders.Soviet Union
The Soviet Union definitively outlawed Freemasonry in 1922. At one of the Second International meetings, Grigory Zinoviev demanded to purge it of masons. Freemasonry did not exist in the other Marxist–Leninist states. Post-war revivals of Freemasonry in Czechoslovakia and Hungary were suppressed in 1950.Fascist Italy
decreed in 1924 that every member of his Fascist Party who was a Mason must abandon either one or the other organization, and in 1925, he dissolved Freemasonry in Italy, claiming that it was a political organization. One of the most prominent Fascists, General Luigi Capello, who had also been Deputy Grand Master of the Grande Oriente, Italy's leading Grand Lodge, gave up his membership in the Fascist Party rather than in Masonry. He later took part in a failed attempt to murder Mussolini and was sentenced to 30 years in jail, though he was released after 9 years of prison.Hungary
In 1919, Béla Kun proclaimed the dictatorship of the proletariat in Hungary and Masonic lodges were closed. After the fall of the dictatorship of the proletariat, leaders of the counter-revolution such as Miklós Horthy blamed the Hungarian freemasons for their First World War defeat and for the revolution. Masonry was outlawed by a decree in 1920. This marked the start of raids by army officers on Masonic lodges along with theft, and sometimes destruction, of Masonic libraries, records, archives, paraphernalia, and works of art. Several Masonic buildings were seized and used for anti-Masonic exhibitions. The masonic documents were archived, preserved and may still be used for research.In post-war Hungary, lodges were re-established, but after five years, the government described them as "meeting places of the enemies of the people's democratic republic, of capitalistic elements, and of the adherents of Western imperialism". They were banned again in 1950.
Nazi Germany and occupied Europe
Freemasons were consistently considered an ideological foe of Nazism in their world perception. The Nazis claimed that high-degree Masons were willing members of the Jewish conspiracy and that Freemasonry was one of the causes of Germany's defeat in World War I. In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler wrote that "Freemasonry has succumbed to the Jews and has become an excellent instrument to fight for their aims and to use their strings to pull the upper strata of society into their designs". He continued, "The general pacifistic paralysis of the national instinct of self-preservation begun by Freemasonry" is then transmitted to the masses of society by the press. In 1933 Hermann Göring, the Reichstag President and one of the key figures in the process of Gleichschaltung, stated "in National Socialist Germany, there is no place for Freemasonry".The Enabling Act was passed by Germany's parliament on March 23, 1933. Using the Act, on January 8, 1934, the German Ministry of the Interior ordered the disbandment of Freemasonry, and confiscation of the property of all Lodges; stating that those who had been members of Lodges when Hitler came to power, in January 1933, were prohibited from holding office in the Nazi party or its paramilitary arms, and were ineligible for appointment in public service. Consistently considered an ideological foe of Nazism in their world perception, special sections of the Security Service and later the Reich Security Main Office were established to deal with Freemasonry. Masonic concentration camp inmates were graded as political prisoners, and wore an inverted red triangle.
On August 8, 1935, as Führer and Chancellor, Adolf Hitler announced in the Nazi Party newspaper, Völkischer Beobachter, the final dissolution of all Masonic Lodges in Germany. The article accused a conspiracy of the Fraternity and World Jewry of seeking to create a World Republic. In 1937 Joseph Goebbels inaugurated an "Anti-Masonic Exposition" to display objects seized by the state. The Ministry of Defence forbade officers from becoming Freemasons, with officers who remained as Masons being sidelined.
During the war, Freemasonry was banned by edict in all countries that were either allied with the Nazis or under Nazi control, including Norway and France. Anti-Masonic exhibitions were held in many occupied countries. Field-Marshal Friedrich Paulus was denounced as a "High-grade Freemason" when he surrendered to the Soviet Union in 1943.
In 1943, the Propaganda Abteilung, a delegation of Nazi Germany's propaganda ministry within occupied France, commissioned the propaganda film Forces occultes. The film virulently denounces Freemasonry, parliamentarianism and Jews as part of Vichy's drive against them and seeks to prove a Jewish-Masonic plot. The Freemasons were accused of conspiring with Jews and Anglo-American nations to encourage France into a war with Germany.
The preserved records of the RSHA—i.e., Reichssicherheitshauptamt or the Office of the High Command of Security Service, which pursued the racial objectives of the SS through the Race and Resettlement Office—document the persecution of Freemasons. The number of Freemasons from Nazi occupied countries who were killed is not accurately known, but it is estimated that between 80,000 and 200,000 Freemasons were murdered under the Nazi regime. The Government of the United Kingdom established Holocaust Memorial Day to recognise all groups who were targets of the Nazi regime, and counter Holocaust denial. Freemasons are listed as being among those who were targeted.