Photo: Nick Cobbing

Testimony Of A Top Ranking Mason

Extracted from 'The Brotherhood' by Stephen Knight first pub. 1983 Granada Publishing. Repub. 1985 Grafton Books ISBN 0-586-05983-0

Squall 16, Summer 1998, pg. 36.

Author Stephen Knight wrote one of the seminal books on freemasonry called 'The Brotherhood' in 1983. During the course of his research for this book he was introduced to a man known as 'Christopher', a mason of the highest 33rd degree ranking. In the Cafe Royal, London, Christopher showed him the papers demonstrating the authenticity of his masonic rank and told Knight that he was keen to "stop the rot" in freemasonry.

Stephen Knight asked him what a person might have to fear from a group of influential freemasons if circumstances made him, for instance, a threat to them in the business world; or if he discovered they were using masonry for corrupt purposes; or had fallen a victim of their misuse of freemasonry and would not heed warnings not to oppose them.

'Christopher', 33rd degree mason:
"It is not difficult to ruin a man and I will tell you how it is done time and again. There are more than half a million brethren under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge. Standards have been falling for twenty or thirty years. It is too easy to enter the Craft, so many men of dubious morals have joined. The secrecy and power attract such people, and when they come the decent leave. The numbers of people who would never have been considered for membership in the fifties are getting larger all the time. If only five per cent of freemasons use - abuse - the Craft for selfish or corrupt ends it means there are 25,000 of them. The figure is much closer to twelve or thirteen per cent now."

Stephen Knight:
"Christopher explained that masonry's nationwide organisation of men from most walks of life provided one of the most efficient private intelligence networks imaginable. Private information on anybody in the country could normally be accessed very rapidly through endless permutations of masonic contacts - police, magistrates, solicitors, bank managers. Post Office staff, doctors, government employees. Bosses of firms. A dossier of personal data could be built up on anybody very quickly. When the major facts of an individual's life were known, areas of vulnerability would become apparent. Perhaps he is in financial difficulties; perhaps he has some social vice - if married he might 'retain a mistress' or have a proclivity for visiting prostitutes; perhaps there is something in his past he wishes keep buried, some guilty secret, a criminal offence (easily obtainable through freemason police of doubtful virtue), or other blemish on his character: all these and more could be discovered via the wide-ranging masonic network of 600,000 contacts, a great many of whom were indisposed to do favours for one another because that had been their prime motive for joining. Even decent masons could often be 'conned' into providing information on the basis that 'Brother Smith needs this to help the person involved'. The adversary would even sometimes be described as a fellow mason to the Brother from whom information was sought - perhaps someone with access to his bank manager. The 'good' mason would not go to the lengths of checking with Freemason's Hall whether or not this was so. If the 'target' was presented as a Brother in distress by a fellow mason, especially a fellow lodge member, that would be enough for any upright member of the craft. Sometimes this information gathering process - often involving a long chain of masonic contacts all over the country and possibly abroad - would be necessary. Enough would be known in advance about the adversary to initiate any desired action against him.

'Christopher', the 33rd degree mason:
"Solicitors are very good at it. Get your man involved in something legal - it need not be serious - and you have him."

Stephen Knight:
"Masons can bring about the situation where credit companies and banks withdraw credit facilities from individual clients and tradesmen, said my informant. Banks can foreclose. People who rely on the telephone for their work can be cut off for long periods. Masonic employees of local authorities can arrange for a person's drains to be inspected and extensive damage to be reported, thus burdening the person with huge repair bills; workmen carrying out the job can 'find' - in reality cause - further damage. Again with regard to legal matters, a fair hearing is hard to get when a man in ordinary circumstances is in financial difficulties. If he is trying to fight a group of unprincipled freemasons skilled in using the 'network' it will be impossible because masonic DHSS and Law Society officials can delay applications for Legal Aid endlessly."

'Christopher', 33rd degree mason:
"Employers, if they are freemasons or not, can be given private information about a man who has made himself an enemy of masonry. At worst he will be dismissed (if the information is true) or consistently passed over for promotion. Masonic doctors can also be used. But for some reason doctors seem to be the least corruptible men. There are only two occurrences of false medical certificates issued by company doctors to ruin the chances of an individual getting a particular job which I know about. It's not a problem that need greatly worry us like the rest.

"Only the fighters have any hope of beating the system once it's at work against them. Most people, fighters or not, are beaten in the end, though. It's.... you see, I... you finish up not knowing who you can trust. You can get no help because your story sounds so paranoid that you are thought a crank, one of those nuts who think the whole world is a conspiracy against them. It is a strange phenomenon. By setting up a situation that most people will think of as fantasy, these people can poison every part of person's life. If they give in they go under. If they don't give in it's only putting off the day because if they fight, so much unhappiness will be brought to the people around them that there will likely come a time when even their families turn against them out of desperation. When that happens and they are without friends wherever they look, they become easy meat. The newspapers will not touch them. "There is no defence against an evil which only the victims and perpetrators know exists."