经济学人下载:共济会会所内幕(3)

In 18th-century Lisbon, as the Inquisition entered its decline, the Catholic authorities presented the Masons as an illicit gay cult. After the French revolution the English feared them as Jacobin agitators; Hitler and Mussolini ranked them among fascism’s most dangerous foes. For all that, in moments of violence and political chaos the Masons have tended to come out on top.
在18世纪的里斯本，宗教裁判所走向没落，天主教当局认为共济会是一个非法的同性恋邪教。法国大革命之后，英国人害怕他们是雅各宾派的煽动者；希特勒和墨索里尼把他们列为法西斯主义最危险的敌人。尽管如此，共济会在面临暴力和政治混乱的时刻，还是往往能够占据上风。

Mr Dickie is also a historian of the Mafia, and he suggests a connection between Italian Lodges and organisedcrime syndicates. Some leading Masons, such as Licio Gelli, the head of Italy’s P2 Lodge in the 1970s, have collaborated profitably with terrorists and money-launderers. According to a former Grand Master in Calabria, 28 out of 32 Lodges in the region were known to be controlled by the ’Ndrangheta as recently as the 1990s.
迪基也是一名研究黑手党的历史学家，他认为意大利的共济会会所与有组织的犯罪集团之间存在联系。有一些主要的美生，比如20世纪70年代意大利P2会所的负责人，曾与恐怖分子和洗钱者勾结牟利。据卡拉布里格斯的一名前任工师称，早在上世纪90年代，该地区32个分会中就有28个受到“恩德朗赫塔”犯罪组织的控制。

“The Craft” is a well-researched account that dismantles any lingering suspicion that the Freemasons are preparing for world domination. Almost all such calumnies assume they have some form of central government— Mr Dickie makes clear that there is no such thing. While the Lodges share some core principles, they are remarkably various. Masons have been revolutionaries and reactionaries, progressives and conservatives. By chronicling these shifts, Mr Dickie has turned legend into history.
《TheCraft》这本书经过充分的研究，消除了人们挥之不去的怀疑，即共济会正准备统治世界。几乎所有的这些诽谤者都认为共济会存在某种形式的中央政府，迪基明确表示，这是无稽之谈。尽管这些会所拥护一些共同的核心原则，但差异也十分明显。美生们曾经是革命家、反动派、进步派和保守派。迪基通过记录这些转变，将传奇变成了历史。