Prior to reaching the “P2 Incident”, it is necessary to lay the events surrounding it upon the background of Italian Masonic History – for it is only by so doing that it can be properly understood. In turn, Italian Masonic history has been influenced by the political and ethnic history of that country. It needs to be born in mind that Italy has only been a united country since 1870.
While Italians basically speak one language there are large ethnic, regional and traditional differences that still make themselves felt across Italian society today. These factors have, to a considerable extent, influenced the development of a National Grand Lodge, and in particular, the harmony within Italian Masonry.
It needs to be understood that historically, the conceptions of European Masonry, and of the Italians in particular, about the genuine tenets of Freemasonry have not always been the same as our conception. By us I mean English-speaking Freemasonry. In short, until comparatively recent years, we (us) have considered Italian Masonry to be irregular.
There were a number of reasons for these irregularities. Among them was a lack of communication, caused by language barriers and the geographic barrier of the Alps. However, the main worry very frequently, was the quite restrictive measures that were inflicted upon the Italian Craft from both religious and political quarters – both of which in Italy are often indistinguishable. Thus their occurred long periods where Masonry in Italy was prohibited This had a most negative and long lasting effect. One would only have to consider the effect if Masonry in Victoria was banned for say, fifty years After that fifty years where would be our leadership, who would possess enough Masonic knowledge to form a revival? Could not some of our current Masonic practices, or ideals, be lost?
The earliest evidence of Masonry in Italy dates to the 1730s. A short-lived Lodge existed in Florence at the time, formed by English residents. It became extinct after the publication of the first anti- Masonic Papal Pull “In Eminenti” in 1738. The first Grand Lodge was formed in the Kingdom of Naples & Sicily in 1750, but it was proscribed within a year. A Dutch Provincial Grand Lodge was erected in 1764, and a second National Grand Lodge in 1773. Again Royal Edicts interrupted all their activities.
Other short lived Lodges existed in other parts of Italy in this period but after the French Revolution, the combination of temporal and clerical pressure ensured the total suppression of Masonry. By this time Lodges in both France and Italy had become quite political in character and operated as true secret societies.
The first fifteen years of the Nineteenth Century saw Napoleonic occupation of Italy, and huge political changes. Napoleon was undoubtedly benignly disposed towards Freemasonry (although no proof of his membership has ever been discovered, he was probably a Mason). He protected the Craft and to a fair extent used it as a political tool. Many prominent Italians became Masons, and the Craft flourished. It is not insignificant that Lodges in this period had such names as “The True Friends of Napoleon the Great”, and “Saint Napoleon”. In occupied Italy Lodges were under the Grand Orient of France, whilst in the puppet State known as the Kingdom of Italy, they were incorporated under The Grand Orient of Italy, which was in fact a Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite. The Scottish Rite had recently arrived in France via the USA, from where Napoleonic Masonry spread it throughout Europe.
After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Masonry collapsed and was promptly repressed by the new political orders that arose. Great disarray characterized Italian political life in this era. A number of non-Masonic subversive secret societies arose, many organized along Masonic lines. The patriotic struggle was led by Garibaldi, himself a Mason.
As the unification of Italy was in sight a number of Italian Masons set about the task of reviving the Craft. However, it is important to note that regular Freemasonry, as we understand it, had not been practiced in Italy for at least eighty years. Nonetheless, the type of Masonry that could be remembered was that practiced some forty years earlier – Scottish Rite, Supreme Council Freemasonry heavily influenced by the anti-clerical Grand Orient of France. Ideas about what regular Masonry was were at best hazy.
In about 1860, two Masonic bodies emerged in Italy. The first was the significantly named “Supreme Council Grand Orient of Italy” which opened initially in Turin, and later moved to Florence and then to Rome.
The Grand Orient initially decided to recognize only the Craft Degrees and to deny its member’s access to the Scottish Rite. Within four years, it was forced to change this policy by the pressure of its own members. Thus it adopted the principle of “Freedom of Rites”, whereupon Lodges could work what degrees they liked. About 95% of Lodges then promptly worked the Scottish Rite, and the Grand Orient became, in affect, a supreme council. In comparative terms to English-type Masonry, the analogy would be for a Grand Lodge to allow its Craft Lodges to work whatever degrees they liked – any degrees. You would be able to attend a Craft Lodge and become a Knight Templar, or a Secret Monitor, or whatever. This situation remained unchanged in Italy until 1922 when under pressure from several American Grand Lodges, the Grand Orient of Italy made itself completely independent from other Rites constitutionally. Nonetheless, the Scottish Rite and its leaders still had great influence over the Grand Orient. Independence on paper, and independence in fact, were not quite the same.
Under the new constitution, religion and politics were officially banned from discussion in Lodges. However, this rule was liberally interpreted. It was tacitly agreed that party politics should be banned. However, a great Latin principle, which is deeply ingrained into Italians in particular, is that of “Fraternity, Equality & Liberty”. Italians thus feel they have a duty to discuss the affairs of state. Throughout its history, over half Italian Grand Officers have been Ministers of State or Members of Parliament and one Grand Master boasted that of the five hundred members of the Italian Parliament three hundred were Freemasons! Within the Italian Craft, aside from wide differences of opinion, there was much interest in social politics, and experiments. Many Lodges took on names that, for us, have quite doubtful connotations, such as “The Freethinkers”, “Liberty”, “The Sons of Italian Unity”, “Intelligence and Labour”, “Humanity & Progress”. Evidently, Garibaldi himself viewed the Craft as a vehicle for honest government. In terms of religion the Catholic Church, with the creation of a unified Italy, lost all its temporal power. It nonetheless remained violently anti- Masonic. It is perhaps hardly surprising that as a result the Italian Craft, while religious, was quite anti-clerical.
Over the passage of time, the ranks of the original patriotic founders of the Grand Orient grew thin. In 1908, the Grand Orient expelled a number of members – mainly members of parliament – because it did not like the stance that they took on certain issues in Parliament. A schism resulted and a body styling itself the National Grand Lodge arose. It still exists today, irregularly. An immediate complication arose when the two American Scottish Rite Supreme Councils decided to recognize the Supreme Council attached to the bogus National Grand Lodge, while American Craft Grand Lodges continued to recognize the Grand Orient of Italy.
The attitude of the United Grand Lodge of England towards Italian Masonry was not as clear as one might have expected. England did not recognize any Masonry in Italy until as late as 1972. However, Italian sources suggest that in 1875, and subsequently “cautious recognition” (quite unofficial) was extended by England to the Supreme Council Grand Orient at Palermo (which was extinct by the end of the century), and to the Grand Orient. The claim is that this de facto recognition was never withdrawn although Italian Masonic historians seem to concede that in practice their was little effective contact. Nonetheless, it would seem quite clear that any evidence, such as there is, exists solely on the Italian side, not on the English. Certainly, it would be a skilled Mason indeed one would imagine, who could get any English Masonic official to concede that English Masonry had anything to do with the Italian Craft in this period.
The current century has seen almost cyclical opposition to Italian Masonry. In 1913, the Italian Socialist Party condemned Freemasonry, and after 1922, the Mussolini Fascist Regime became increasingly hostile – later involving itself on destructive raids on Grand Orient Lodges. In 1926, Masonry was again prohibited in Italy. The Grand Master died in internal exile, and Masons who didn’t manage to escape to England and France were persecuted.
As a result, the Italian Craft was not able to revive until after the Second World War – having been effected by a twenty year break in operations. However, harmony did not prevail. Several small and competing groups sprung up. It seemed as though almost everyone wanted to be Grand Master. Out of this confusion, eventually, the two main original bodies, the Grand Orient of Italy and the National Grand Lodge, resumed their leading positions. The most pleasing development however, was that the Grand Orient of Italy was resuscitated along orthodox lines. Finally, there was a regular Grand Lodge in Italy, which could be viewed within our understanding of what is Masonically regular. The Grand Orient received reasonably wide recognition, notably from the American Grand Lodges but not from England Ireland or Scotland, or from Australia.
Substantial foreign recognition greatly strengthened the Grand Orient of Italy, and comparatively weakened its main rival the bogus National Grand Lodge – which persisted in its long irregularities and later split into several ineffectual splinter groups. In the post war period the American Supreme Councils finally decided to transfer their recognition to the Italian Supreme Council in amity with the Grand Orient of Italy, thus rectifying this former anomalous situation. Thus, after some initial problems, the Italian Craft prospered peacefully and regularly under the Grand Orient of Italy.
The seal of approval on what had become a long and stable period in Italian Masonry was capped off in 1972 when finally the English, Irish, and Scottish Grand Lodges (and subsequently the Australian Grand Lodges) recognized the Grand Orient of Italy. A year later, the majority of Lodges under the National Grand Lodge seceded and joined the Grand Orient – making Italian Masonic unity almost total. Only a few weak dissident groups remained. This most happy and harmonious situation however, was soon to be disturbed by possibly the greatest calamity ever to hit Italian Masonry.
We now come to the “P2 Episode”, about which much has been said and written particularly in the sensational press. Again, we must backtrack historically. In 1877, the Grand Orient of Italy granted a warrant to a Lodge in Rome called “Propaganda Massonica”. The official aim of this Lodge was to ‘establish the leadership of our Brotherhood also in those unhappy countries where a suspicious despotism vainly attempts to combat and curb the freedom of thought’. How these vague ideals were to be achieved in practice was not explained. Nonetheless, from its beginnings this Lodge, above all others, was frequented by politicians and high government officials from all over Italy – who, in spending much time in Rome, could not often attend their own Lodges in the provinces. Soon it became a Lodge for VIPs and it became the convention that the Grand Master and Grand Officers occupied the equivalent offices in the Lodge Propaganda.
It needs to be understood that Italian society, past and present, largely runs on patronage and favoritism We have all heard of the so-called “Old School Tie”. A similar social system has long prevailed in Europe. Influential people who were Masons tended to gravitate together, as they found it difficult to participate in ordinary Lodge meetings. Clearly, the danger was that this Lodge might become “a State Within a State”, Masonically and politically. Available evidence would suggest that right up until the forced closure of all Italian Lodges in 1926, this did not occur. Indeed at a Grand Orient Communication in 1907, the Grand Orient’s Executive Council proposed the abolition of Lodge Propaganda on the grounds that there was no sense in having a Lodge ‘that never met, whose members paid no dues, was not on the Grand Orient’s register, and was thus unconstitutional’. This would seem to us a more than reasonable proposition.
However, what we are talking about here is what was in effect the Grand Master’ s own private Lodge. Remember also, that until this time the Lodge had caused no trouble – although clearly its potential for Masonic mischief was recognized The decision of this communication is curious. It was decided to defer erasing Lodge Propaganda until the Grand Master had acquired the faculty of ‘making Masons on sight’, and having them registered on a separate roll known only to him. There is no way that any English-type Grand Lodge would ever consider granting its Grand Master such a power. However, the Italian action must be measured against the patronage of general Italian society of which I have already made mention. In the Italian context, if you wanted men of importance to become Masons then they could not be initiated in an ordinary Lodge. Indeed because Masonry was viewed in some quarters as extremely suspect then men of importance, if they joined, would not want their membership to be public knowledge. Equally, Italian Masonry has always interested in attracting men of influence – so (it is rationalized) that that influence combined with their Masonic obligations would assist the continuance of the Craft.
When we add our knowledge of overall Italian Masonic History to this picture, our understanding can become clearer still. An organization which had long experience of great opposition to it, of political and religious damnation, and of being often forced to close up, is likely to view the gaining of very influential friends as important.
Upon this background it is now possible for us to understand this decision which otherwise by our standards would appear decidedly odd. What occurred in practice was that the Grand Master did acquire the power to make Masons on sight. but Lodge Propaganda was not erased. Indeed with the advent of the fascists, several government and police officials were initiated in Lodge Propaganda – simply for reasons of their personal safety.
After the Second World War, Lodge Propaganda was revived along with other Lodges. The Grand Orient now decided for the first time to number its Lodges. This was done by drawing lots, and Lodge Propaganda drew number two. Thus, it came to be called Lodge P2. Its members were registered on a separate list kept by the Grand Secretary. As in the past he Lodge met infrequently – usually only when the Grand Master wanted to initiate a new member. In 1967, the Grand Master of the day determined to breathe new life into the Lodge, and to this end he placed it under the virtual control of a certain Brother Lucio Gelli. Gelli had been initiated in a Lodge in Rome only two years earlier, and he had since demonstrated a great ability for recruiting. He was also known to have great organizational capacities, to be a shrewd and successful businessman, and to have many contacts on a national and international level. In short he could readily be perceived as the ideal man to attract influential men to the mystic tie. After 1970, the new Grand Master made Gelli Secretary of P2, and subsequently a substantial number of well-placed men were initiated.
While these practices could not be countenanced by our standards, I have sort to demonstrate that in the Italian context nothing, per se, could be judged amiss – although the potential for mischief was clearly inherently present. Unfortunately, Gelli proved by any Masonic standards to be unworthy of the title. In the early 1970s, maybe as a reaction to Gelli’s increasing influence, the Grand Master started to use his power to “make Mason’s on sight”. He entered their names on a secret register, and having collected their dues, deposited them in a fund administered only by him. Evidently, this fund was swelled by donations from non-Masonic sources as well.
In practice, the Grand Orient soon had, in reality, two competing leaders. In late 1974, the Grand Master, perhaps aware that he was loosing control to Gelli, proposed that P2 be erased. It is quite significant that of the 406 Lodges represented at the Grand Orient Communication of that year, 400 voted for its erasure. However, Gelli’s power had grown to the point where he could apply great pressure upon the Grand Master and his Executive Council, and at the next Grand Orient meeting in March 1975, he launched a counter attack – accusing the Grand Master of gross financial irregularities. Gelli withdrew these accusations only after the Grand Master relented and issued a warrant for new P2 Lodge – despite the fact that Grand Lodge had erased it only four months earlier. However, P2 was now a regular Lodge and its membership was no longer secret. Gelli became its Master, and everything appeared to be above board. Nonetheless, Gelli continued to recruit members to his front organization. He could now initiate men in his secret organization giving them the impression that they were joining the regular P2 Lodge.
In 1976, he decided that the regular P2 Lodge was a hindrance, and he requested that it be suspended (but not erased). The Grand Master readily agreed probably in the hope that the Gelli problem would simply go away.
For Gelli, suspension meant that all his activities could now go on totally unchecked at the same time preserving some semblance of regularity for his private club. By 1978, the problems of Italian Masonry had become widely known in international Masonic circles, notably in America, but these centred on the quite suspect financial arrangements that surrounded the Grand Master, rather than on Gelli The American Grand Lodges threatened to withdraw recognition, and the Grand Master was forced to resign before his term expired The Americans, and others, were for the moment placated. Gelli promptly financed the election campaign of the Immediate Past Grand Master, but the Grand Orient elected another candidate as their new leader.
Sadly, the new Grand Master, having no experience, proved quite ineffective, and Gelli continued to dominate. He felt so secure that, in 1980, he told a press interview that Freemasonry was a puppet show in which he pulled the strings. Outrage followed with Italian Masonry, and his statement was found sufficient by a Masonic tribunal for him to be expelled in 1981. Concurrently, the Grand Orient decided that P2 had been erased as a Lodge in 1974, and that subsequently any contrary action by any Grand Master had been illegal. The Grand Orient thus purged itself of Gelli but by then the damage had been done.
In the same year, Gelli came under heavy police scrutiny for a range of fraudulent activities. In searching Gelli’s house they found a large number of documents relating to P2, plus a register of 950 names – mostly prominent people. A bomb exploded in Rome when the list found its way into the newspapers and denials flew everywhere from those named on the P2 Register. The associated accusations were those of deep political intrigues. Several government ministers resigned and the Italian Government fell. Gelli managed to get out of the country.
A Special Parliamentary Commission, in a voluminous report, shows Gelli as having an obscure past, and operating opportunistically for both sides during the Second World War. Those counted amongst his friends were many people of dubious morality, such as the fraudulent banker Calvi, who was later found dead under London’s Black Friars Bridge and the banker Sindona who was later jailed in America for fraud and suspected murder. P2 consisted of prominent politicians, military men, financiers, jurists, and industrialists. It is quite probable that many were innocently involved.
What then were Gelli’s aims? While there have been conjectures, the question is far from clarified. The nature of his alleged political intrigues have never been explained. Gelli himself, from his South American hideaway, has occasionally sent out obscure messages as to a list of 2000 names. He has offered under certain conditions to give himself up to Italian police, but there has never been an answer from the Italian authorities.
While it may seem surprising to some, Italian Freemasonry itself was not involved with any of the Gelli P2 intrigues. Indeed the President of the Parliamentary Commission of Investigation while openly hostile at the outset, eventually declared that Freemasonry itself had been Gelli’s first and principal victim. All Italian Lodges operated regularly and normally throughout the entire Gelli period. At least until 1981, the average Italian Mason did not believe the bad press surrounding the matter.
Nonetheless, it has been ascertained that three successive Grand Masters (two of whom are now deceased) had been involved with Gelli’s intrigues to varying degrees. They manipulated secret funds, secret members, secret decisions and secret Lodges. They furnished Gelli with stocks of blank membership cards to the Grand Orient, already signed by the Grand Master. The remaining living Past Grand Master, long since expelled from the Craft, conducted several initiations in Gelli’s P2 Lodge, apparently for payment!
It almost goes without saying that at the end of 1981, Italian Freemasonry was in very bad shape. Brethren felt themselves betrayed by their Grand Masters, and by public opinion. Of course, not only Gelli’s Organization, but the whole Craft, was considered the scum of society. The Italian Masonic problems enabled anti-Masonic detractors to paint Masonry with the same brush right around the world. Virtually all Italian Political Parties condemned the Craft and various public servants who were Masons either were demoted, or lost their jobs.
It is worthy of note that quite a number of influential men, including several parliamentarians, openly declared themselves proud to be members of regular Freemasonry. The other Grand Lodges of the world especially England, to their great credit, stood by our regular Italian brethren in their hours of need.
At the Grand Orient Meeting of March 1982, no incumbent Grand Officer (and that included the Grand Master) was re-elected. A large majority voted in the then relatively unknown Brother Armando Corona, who’s quiet manner and acute reason convinced the delegates. He had been President of the Masonic Court of Justice that was responsible for the official report of Italian Masonry submitted to the Parliamentary Commission. Corona was a former President of Sardinia and an Italian Statesmen of the highest reputation. On assuming supreme Masonic Office he resigned all his official posts and concurrently resigned from his political party. In the four years that have elapsed since his election MWBro. Corona has lifted the Italian Craft out of harm’s way, and its reputation has been greatly restored. Its overall membership is expanding quite steadily. In its new Constitution, the Grand Master no longer has the power to make Masons on sight, nor is there now any possibility of secret Lodges, secret members or secret actions.
In Italy today, the Italian Brotherhood has regaining nearly all the respect it lost and the press has all but ceased its hostile attitude. In 1985, MWBro. Corona received an official invitation, in his capacity as Grand Master, to participate in the ceremonies surrounding the investiture of the new President of the Italian Republic – something which was widely viewed in Italy as being quite significant.
The P2 Incident was clearly a by-product – albeit a most unfortunate one – of a combination of the effects of three main related factors. These were the vagaries of Italian Masonry History, the joint effects of past repressions and social patronage on the Italian Craft. The problem compounded by constitutional defects. It could be perhaps argued that given the interrelationship of these factors, the major problems that arose in Italian Masonry would have occurred eventually.... that a Gelli would have emerged at some stage.
It must be heavily stressed that the body of Italian Masonry was neither guilty, nor culpable, in the P2 Affair. This was recognized by other Grand Lodges throughout the world who, in true Masonic brotherhood, stood by our Italian brethren in their time of need.
Italian Masonry today is stronger and more united than ever before. This is the real legacy of P2. Italian lodges have renewed sense of purpose, they have a national Masonic leadership of the highest competence and moral standard and they have a deep commitment to the regular precepts and ideals of the Craft. It is quite possible to conclude that with the passage of time, the Gelli Affair will be recalled as the beginning of a renaissance in Italian Freemasonry.
FOOTNOTE:
This paper was written in 1987, some fourteen years ago. In the interim, Italian Masonry has again, sadly, been racked by internal discord.
In 1993, the incumbent Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy, MWBro. Giuliano Di Bernardo, citing alleged irregularities in the operations of the Grand Orient, seceded and formed the Regular Grand Lodge of Italy. The Grand Lodges of England, Ireland, Scotland, and a few other Grand Lodges, withdrew recognition from the Grand Orient of Italy, and instead recognized the new Regular Grand Lodge of Italy. However, virtually without exception, the Grand Lodges of America, Canada, Australia, and most others elsewhere, declined to emulate England, and have since maintained fraternal relations with the Grand Orient. This unfortunate situation remained unaltered in 2001.
In December 1997, fifteen lodges under the Regular Grand Lodge of Italy withdrew and formed the Grand Lodge of the Union (Gran Loggia Dell Unione). It has since consecrated an additional six lodges. In 1998, a further group of lodges withdrew from the Regular Grand Lodge of Italy to create the United Grand Lodge of Italy (GranLoggia Unita d’Ialia).
In June 1999, the Grand Lodge of the Union sponsored the creation of a body known as The Federation of Grand Lodges of Italy (Gran Loggia Federale Italiana), and became its foundation member. The United Grand Lodge of Italy subsequently affiliated with it. The statutes of the Federation allow reciprocal membership for Grand Lodges in Italy that, in its opinion, can prove their regularity of origin. Each Grand Lodge maintains its autonomy, and would seem to have been exampled by the United Grand Lodges of Germany structure. The aim of the Federation is to unite all regular Grand Lodges working in Italy.
In summary, there are presently two “regular” and “recognized” Grand Lodges in Italy (the Grand Orient of Italy and the Regular Grand Lodge of Italy), depending on the perspective and fraternal recognition of any non-Italian mason’s own Grand Lodge.
Source:
Victorian Lodge of Research