Roman Catholic attacks on Freemasonry are nothing new. Although some seventy years old, this definition of Freemasonry as the Abyssus Errorum is noteworthy for its virulence and vagueness. ANTI-MASONRY REFUTED ANTI-MASONRY FAQ .

Abyssus Errorum by the Monseigneur Jouin, December 8, 1930 Monseigneur Gay, having been assigned by the Council of the Vatican the duty of writing "A MEMORANDUM ON SECRET SOCIETIES," gave the following striking definition of Freemasonry: "It is evident that in a general way, this doctrine of Freemasonry is not only a heresy, nor even the totality of all heresies, which find in it a haven; it is a fact that Masonry goes beyond the limits of what constitutes what is generally ascribed to the word 'heresy,' for it allows full play to the commission of outrageous perversion. Freemasonry is indeed the abyss of all errors, the well of perdition." This abyss of all errors (Abyssus Errorum) is justly compared to the "abysmal well' mentioned in Revelation (abyssus putei, ix, 1-3 ), whose emanations darken the light of the sun and poison the air. Excerpted from "Pope Saint Pius X" in From the Housetops No. 13, Fall, 1976. Papacy and Freemasonry, L'abbé Ernest Jouin (1844-1932). Founder of the anti-masonic, antisemitic journal, Revue internationale des Sociétés Sècretes; promoter of the forgery, Protocols of the Elders of Zion; Apostolic Prothonotary and parish priest of San Agustén, Paris. Text found on the website of the Saint Benedict Center, <catholicism.org/papacy-freemasonry.html>. The source of two conspiracy claims of the twentieth century, the Revue internationale des Sociétés Sècretes began publication in 1912 in Paris. In the July 1914 VIII issue, p. 12, the accusation was made that the Sarajevo assassination was an anti-catholic, anti-papal plot. Later (Vol. VIII, 1919. p. 702) appears the claim that Lenin belonged to a secret masonic lodge in Switzerland. [p. 2]. The murder of the Austrian Arch-Duke and his wife at Sarajevo in 1914 was also blamed on the freemasons in Miss. Elizabeth Durham’s The Sarajavo Crime. She offered a document of the minutes of the trial of the murderers as evidence. This was proved to be a forgery of Father Puntigam, a Jesuit of Sarajevo. "Substantial evidence pointed to the fact that the author had been the dupe of one named H.C. Norman, an anti-Mason, and one Horatio Bottomley, later proved to be a swindler." [AQC Vol 80 (1968) p. 251]

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