Abstract

Wizards and High Priests

This article presents information on book "A Dictionary of Secret and Other Societies," by author Arthur Preuss. This book can be considered a handbook for the use of Catholic parish priests, compiled to give them information "on the subject of secret and other societies into which Catholics are liable to be drawn." The faithful, it appears, are often lured by Satan in the guise of joiners in red belly-bands and purple plumes, and even their spiritual directors are sometimes deceived. The Ku Klux, of course, is easy to detect, and so are the Freemasons, with their occult and sinister history, but the same cannot be said of the humble Knights of Pythias, the Red Men, the Odd Fellows, the Order of Shepherds of Bethlehem, the Supreme Commandery of the Universal Brotherhood, the Loyal Order of Moose.