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New Religious Movements in the Twenty First Century
Legal Political and Social Challenges in Global
Perspective 1st Edition Phillip Lucas Digital Instant
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Author(s): Phillip Lucas
ISBN(s): 9780415965774, 0415965772
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New Religious Movements in the
Twenty-First Century
 New Religious Movements in the
Twenty-First Century
Legal Political and Social Challenges in Global Perspective
Edited by

Phillip Charles Lucas

and Thomas Robbins

ROUTLEDGE
NEW YORK AND LONDON
 Published in 2004 by Routledge 29 West 35th Street New York, NY 10001
http://www.routledge-ny.com/
Published in Great Britain by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE
http://www.routledge.co.uk/

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group.

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge's collection of
thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Copyright © 2004 by Taylor & Francis Books, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data New religious movements in the twenty-first
century: legal, political, and social challenges in global perspective/edited by Phillip Charles Lucas
and Thomas Robbins. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-415-96576-4
(alk. paper)—ISBN 0-415-96577-2 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Cults. 2. Sects. 3. Religions. 4. Religion
and law. 5. Religion and state. 6. Religion and sociology. I. Lucas, Phillip Charles. II. Robbins,
Thomas, 1943– BP603.N495 2004 200′.9′051—dc22 2003021305

ISBN 0-203-50832-7 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-57838-4 (Adobe e-Reader Format)

ISBN 0-415-96577-2 (Print Edition)
We dedicate this book to a great advocate for religious tolerance and freedom, Dr. Earl
W.Joiner, to his daughter, Ann Rouse Joiner, to Phillip’s godson, Emerson Allen Rae, to
Tom’s Tonkinese cat, Bluberry, and to Phillip’s late Silver Tabby cat, Smokey.
 Contents

Acknowledgments x

Introduction Alternative Religions, the State, and the Globe 1

THOMAS ROBBINS

Part 1 Western Europe

1 General Overview of the “Cult Scene” in Great Britain 22

EILEEN BARKER
2 Religious Minorities and New Religious Movements in Denmark 29
ARMIN W.GEERTZ AND MIKAEL ROTHSTEIN
3 France’s Obsession with the “Sectarian Threat” 40
DANIÈLE HERVIEU-LÉGER
4 The Secte Response to Religious Discrimination Subversives, Martyrs, or 49
Freedom Fighters in the French Sect Wars?
SUSAN J.PALMER
5 Italy’s Surprisingly Favorable Environment for Religious Minorities 60
MASSIMO INTROVIGNE
6 New Religions in Germany The Publicity of the Public Square 68
BRIGITTE SCHOEN

Part 2 Eastern Europe and Eurasia

7 New Religions in the New Russia 79

MARAT SHTERIN
8 New Religious Minorities in the Baltic States 95
SOLVEIGA KRUMINA-KONKOVA
9 Crushing Wahhabi Fundamentalists in Central Asia and the Caucasus 104
Subplot to the Global Struggle against or Suppression of
Legitimate Religious Opposition?
BRIAN GLYN WILLIAMS
Part 3 Africa, Asia, and Australia

10 Prophets, “False Prophets,” and the African State Emergent Issues of 121
Religious Freedom and Conflict
ROSALIND I.J.HACKETT
11 Religion on a Leash NRMs and the Limits of Chinese Freedom 146
SCOTT LOWE
12 Consensus Shattered Japanese Paradigm Shift and Moral Panic in the Post- 156
Aum Era
IAN READER
13 New Religions in Australia Public Menace or Societal Salvation? 165
JAMES T.RICHARDSON

Part 4 North and South America

14 The Mainstreaming of Alternative Spirituality in Brazil 173

ROBERT T.CARPENTER
15 The Fate of NRMs and their Detractors in Twenty-First Century America 187
J.GORDON MELTON
16 New Religions and the Anticult Movement in Canada 197
IRVING HEXHAM AND KARLA POEWE

Part 5 Theoretical Considerations

17 New Religious Movements and Globalization 206

JAMES A.BECKFORD
18 Apocalypse 9/11 215
JOHN R.HALL
19 Establishments and Sects in the Islamic World 231
MARK SEDGWICK
20 Research on New Religious Movements in the Post-9/11 World 257
BENJAMIN ZABLOCKI AND J.ANNA LOONEY
21 Cults, Porn, and Hate Convergent Discourses on First Amendment 271
Restriction
THOMAS ROBBINS AND DICK ANTHONY
Conclusion The Future of New and Minority Religions in the Twenty-First 281
Century: Religious Freedom under Global Siege
PHILLIP CHARLES LUCAS

Index 296
 Acknowledgments

This book is a collaborative effort and has benefited from the sage advice, research, and
criticisms of a host of scholars. These include, among others, Eileen Barker, Massimo
Introvigne, Jean-François Mayer, J.Gordon Melton, James T.Richardson, John R.Hall,
James A.Beckford, Armin Geertz, Mikael Rothstein, Danièle Hervieu-Léger, Susan
J.Palmer, Brigitte Schoen, Marat Shterin, Solveiga Krumina-Konkova, Brian Glyn
Williams, Rosalind I.J. Hackett, Scott Lowe, Ian Reader, Robert T.Carpenter, Irving
Hexham and Karla Poewe, Mark Sedgwick, Benjamin Zablocki, J.Anna Looney, Dick
Anthony, Catherine Wessinger and Rebecca Moore (Co-General Editors of Nova
Religio), Hubert Seiwert, Paul Froese, Gary D.Bouma, Willy Fautré, Lorne Dawson,
Jeffrey Kaplan, Mimi Goldman, Michael Barkun, Rodney Stark, Jayne Docherty, and Jeff
Kenney. We also wish to acknowledge the vital clerical and computer assistance of
Kristen Asleson, Lisa Guenther, and June Sitler, and the editorial staff at Routledge,
especially Gilad Foss, Bill Germano, Alan Kaplan, and Damian Treffs. Finally, we wish
to acknowledge the many non-profit organizations, NGOs, and private individuals who
work to expose and redress instances of religious intolerance, persecution, and bigotry in
nations throughout the world.
 Introduction
Alternative Religions, the State, and the Globe
THOMAS ROBBINS

Religious persecution, maintains Paul Marshall, is on the rise all over the world.

Religious persecution, meaning violence in which the religion of the

persecuted or the persecutor is a factor, affects all religious groups.
Christians and animists in Sudan, in Iran, Ahmadiyas in Pakistan.
Buddhists in Tibet and Falun Gong in China are the most intensely
persecuted, while Christians are the most widely persecuted group. But
there is no group in the world that does not suffer because of its beliefs.
All religions, whether large, such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, or
Buddhism, or small such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, or Judaism
suffer to some degree. In many cases these attacks come from their own
religious groups (e.g., Sunni Muslims persecuting Shiite Muslims—
parenthetical added by T.Robbins)… Religious freedom is also not
confined to any one area or continent. There are relatively free countries
in every continent and of every religious background. Perhaps
surprisingly, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, South Africa, Botswana, Mali,
and Namibia are freer than France and Belgium. There are now absolutely
no grounds for thinking that religious freedom is an exclusively Western
desire or achievement.1

In short, “the dominant pattern is the increasing political influence of religion coupled
with increasing religious repression.”2 The enhanced significance of religion and its
heightened repression are clearly related: religion is increasingly worth persecuting and
state officials embrace laissez-faire at their peril.
Religious persecution and religious conflict are presently ubiquitous. Whether it is
French officials’ “war on sects” the Chinese government’s brutal suppression of Falun
Gong, officials in Uzbekistan persecuting a number of groups to ward off a militant
Islamic insurgency, or officials of the recently dismantled Taliban regime in Afghanistan
prescribing death for attempts to convert Muslims to other faiths, the word is out that
religion is a matter of vital importance and it cannot, therefore, be left alone by the state.
A laissez-faire policy seems less and less tenable to political elites. Religion is now on
the cutting edge of governmental social control.3
The present volume and its introductory essay focus primarily on the relations
between new or alternative religions and the state in the contemporary world, and the
factors that may now be rendering this relationship increasingly volatile.4 Our volume is a
 New religious movements in the twenty-first century 2

significantly extended edition of a special symposium issue of the journal, Nova Religio
(Vol. 4, No. 2, April 2001), which was devoted to “New Religions in their Political,
Legal and Religious Contexts Around the World” and which was co-edited by Phillip
Charles Lucas and this writer.
New, esoteric, and minority religious movements are emerging in many parts of the
globe and often appear to be eliciting strong opposition and various degrees of
governmental persecution. Scholars have been closely attending to this phenomenon, and
a number of symposia and edited collections appeared prior to the Spring 2001 Nova
Religio symposium that examined issues of church-state relations and religious freedom
arising in connection with new and alternative religions.5
In preparing the original symposium in Nova Religio, Lucas and I sought to assemble
a collection of original papers that probe these issues in various societies, states, and
cultures around the globe. We suggested to the original contributors that they discuss the
historical, social, and cultural contexts that are influencing the patterns of governmental
response to new religious movements (NRMs) in particular nations or regions. We
suggested that our authors might examine the role of a number of salient factors in the
societies about which they are writing, including “anticult” mobilization, the structure of
government and received pattern of church-state relations, the role of existing older
churches, the linkage of controversies over new movements to other (e.g., ethnic,
cultural, political) conflicts, the role of scholars, intelligentsia, and “cult experts,” and the
nature and (possibly disruptive) behavior of unconventional religious movements.
The present volume reprints revised and updated papers from the original journal issue
and adds eight original papers. The new chapters in some cases fill gaps in the original
symposium. The latter did not, for example, include a paper on Latin America, a
deficiency that is now made up by Robert Carpenter’s chapter dealing with Brazil’s
powerful surge of alternative spirituality. Given the popular “hunger for esotericism” to
which it responds, this alternative spirituality appears too vast and diffuse a phe-nomenon
to be seriously threatened by the apprehensive counterforces identified by Carpenter.

Religious Movements and Violence

A number of papers in the present volume deal with and more generally with
apocalyptic violence and/or militant Islamic movements. Brian Williams’ contribution
describes governmental efforts to crush “Wahhabi Fundamentalist” movements in
Central Asia, which Williams relates to the “worldwide struggle against ” and
terrorism. A significant dimension of the paper looks at Sufism, which, as a diffuse folk
religion, was able to withstand decades of Soviet repression. Such popular Sufism is held
in contempt by Sunni reformers and is actually a target of Wahhabi revivalism. The latter
aims to “purify” a tradition alleged to be polluted by magical Sufi practices and
superstition. It is dynamic reformist Wahhabism, however, which is perceived as a threat
to relatively secular post-Soviet political elites. Thus religion-state conflicts interface in
various ways with interreligious tensions.
is also discussed in the theoretical essay by Mark Sedgwick.6 Sedgwick
explores the potentialities for applying the concept of “sect” and “sectarianism” from the
 Introduction 3

sociology of religion to Islamic movements in a manner that will differentiate the groups
to which it is applied from what might be viewed as Islamic “cults” and “denominations.”
A subtypology of Islamic sects is produced which distinguishes between tariqa, and
and firqa movements. The latter are inherently unstable and more likely to become
involved in violence. is said to have the characteristics of a firqa.
Interestingly, Sedgwick rejects the applicability to Islamic groups of the voguish
scholarly concept of “new religious movement.” Scholars, Sedgwick maintains, have
tended to use the “NRM” concept as a proxy for voluntary groups in tension with the
environment. However, in Islam, old and institutionalized groups can be in tension with
the surrounding environment, while some novel, voluntary movements may not be at all
controversial. “What matters is not novelty in itself but voluntarism and tension,” asserts
Sedgwick.
“Research on NRMs in the post 9/11 World,” a theoretical essay by Benjamin
Zablocki and J.Anna Looney, presents a provocative overview of research on new
movements. Zablocki compares older structural-essentialist models with newer
interactive or process approaches. Zablocki maintains that questions of “why” need to
make room for equally important “how” questions. We must shift our focus to the “social
and cultural mechanisms used by NRMs for attaining cohesion and control and for
mobilizing resources.” How do such movements “continuously create and maintain
themselves?” Zablocki and Looney usefully review pertinent research on new movements
in a number of key areas including charismatic leadership and patterns of recruitment and
defection. They also devote attention to stressful problems of “ideological disconnection”
from the total society, particularly in the areas of apocalyptic violence and sex/gender
roles.
Apocalyptic violence is the specific topic of John Hall’s theoretical essay,
“Apocalypse 9/11,” which discusses and other groups and the significance of
apocalyptic worldviews:

The most radical apocalyptic narratives call on people to transcend their

everyday lives, to undergo a rebirth of self and act in relation to special
historical circumstances through collective social actions conducted in
sectarian organizations of true believers…. The narrative of the generic
“apocalyptic warning sect”…posits a struggle by the forces of good
against those of evil as the necessary pathway to a post-apocalyptic
tableau of salvation. The end of history can come only through a conflict
in real historical time, and the warring sect makes inaugurating such a
conflict its sacred enterprise.

However, “apocalyptic war [often] does not unfold as a one-sided series of terrorist
actions. Rather it is an interactive process” (Hall’s emphasis). As the state attempts to
control apocalyptic violence it is strongly tempted to become an apocalyptic actor itself
(my emphasis) with its own apocalyptic rationale for its social control policies. The
classic example, as Hall notes, is President Bush’s formulation of the “axis of evil” idea,
which was applied to three historically disconnected or mutually estranged nations.
“Bush thus invoked an encompassing historical struggle between good and evil, the
 New religious movements in the twenty-first century 4

forces of light, and the forces of darkness…the structure of the ideology is unmistakable:
it is apocalyptic.”
Hall’s interactive analysis is convergent with the approach of Zablocki and Looney,
who identify a process of “deviance amplification” at work in apocalyptic movements.
Through this process, the continuous escalation of a conflict between a deviant group and
agents of control is understood in terms of the deepening entrapment of both parties in
interactive feedback loops of recrimination and estrangement such that the whole
“amplification” process may spiral out of control.

Sources of Tension

Rosalind Hackett’s paper on African states’ response to “false prophets” also deals partly
with explosively violent movements such as the notorious Movement for the Restoration
of the Ten Commandments as well as religious movements with paramilitarist
proclivities such as the Lord’s Resistance Army (both groups, interestingly, emerged in
Uganda). More generally, however, Hackett provides an excellent tripartite framework
for looking at the basic challenges that NRMs pose to a society and its public authority,
and for understanding the sources of tension between emergent movements and the state.
Firstly, movements may pose a direct challenge to political authority, sometimes in
tangible military terms, as instanced by the Lord’s Resistance Army, “which plagued
government troops in Uganda for a number of years in the late 1980s” (and recruited
child soldiers). Secondly, new movements are often viewed as representing a threat to
public interests, that is, the behavior of a group or its devotees or the beliefs being
espoused are seen as inimical to basic cultural values. Hackett mentions Wilson Bushara,
the leader of another controversial Ugandan group, who “offered space in Heaven after
death in return for cash.” The spectacular mass suicide/homicide of the Movement for the
Restoration of the Ten Commandments is also placed in this category, as obviously may
be the lethal behavior of groups such as the Peoples Temple, the Solar Temple, and Aum
Shinrikyō, whose violence does not directly menace the state but is seen to embody a vile
atrocity. Charges that sinister “cults” and their ruthless gurus “brainwash” and otherwise
socially, financially and sexually exploit their members as well as “break up families” are
also pertinent here, as are charges of “devil worship” and Satanism.
Thirdly, according to Hackett, new movements may mount challenges to the religious
power and authority which older churches enjoy. A “new generation” of
Evangelical/Pentecostal/charismatic modes of Christianity is making inroads at the
expense of older churches; moreover, some Pentecostals actually engage in anti-Catholic
preaching. Hackett’s three foci of tension are obviously not mutually exclusive, e.g.,
competition between rival movements may lead to accusations of devil worship. Political
and non-political (e.g., psychopathological) violence are not always easy to distinguish.
Recruitment of child soldiers may be an offense to values (public interests) as well as part
of a military threat.
In any case, the threats which new movements are perceived as posing to African
states and societies are magnified by societal disorganization and the economic and
political volatility of African states. “Faltering, debtridden African states must look to the
management of religious pluralism as part of their plans of national integration lest it
 Introduction 5

explode into conflict as in Nigeria and Sudan.” Anticult literature is presently

proliferating in Christian bookstores in Africa, where the government, the media, and
churches increasingly treat new and deviant sects as a single, generalized entity.

Globalization

The currently fashionable concept of “globalization” (or “globalism”) seems particularly

useful for framing the whole issue of the interaction between the state and NRMs.
Globalization provides a basis for contextualizing both the contemporary spread and
growth of new movements and the tensions that surround them.
James Beckford has written a number of seminal papers looking at the interface of
globalization and alternative religions.7 Globalization, Beckford has previously noted,
enhances the “frequency, volume, and interconnectedness of movements of ideas,
materials, goods, information, pollution, money and people across national boundaries
and between regions of the world.”8 Globalization thus facilitates the transnational and
transcultural diffusion of symbolic movements and meanings. In so doing it encourages
the emergence of new meanings and movements in part by facilitating syncretism and the
“recombination of fragments of experiences” from various traditions. Thus, “all new
religions incorporate, often indiscriminately, insights from other cultures and traditions.”9
Globalization thus tends to increase religious diversity within societies and to implicitly
deregulate religious markets. In so doing, however, it may produce nativistic
counterreactions against enhanced diversity, which may be experienced as unsettling.
Particular hostility may be directed toward what Beckford has termed “religious
multinationals” such as the Church of Scientology or the Unification Church.10 Such
groups are likely to appear alien from the standpoint of the nations and cultures into
which they migrate.
In Beckford’s paper in the present volume, certain paradoxes of the relationship of
globalization and NRMs are laid bare. New movements emerging in the mid-twentieth
century “have made strenuous efforts to crystallize forms of global consciousness” which
“stress the interconnectiveness of human actions and social institutions at a global level.”
Movements such as Scientology, Unificationism, Soka Gakkai, and Transcendental
Meditation “deliberately aspire to overcome national boundaries of ideology, religion,
ethnicity, and citizenship in their drive toward a peaceful and harmonious world that is
unified by what they consider to be universal values.” On the other hand these putative
universal values are being “conveyed by means of particularist ideologies.” Particular
meanings are embedded in concepts that are claimed to have universal meaning.
Nonmembers thus do not generally view such movements as “disinterested purveyors of
universalistic ideals.” They are often seen as duplicitous and with hidden agendas. In
Europe and elsewhere, they are frequently viewed as agents of American global
hegemony and penetration of indigenous cultures. In fact, movements such as Hare
Krishna, Unificationism, or Soka Gokkai are not of American origin, although they are
often exported to various societies as American cultural products, and as such they elicit
resentment. “Both France and Russia,” Beckford notes, “are countries in which hostility
to NRMs owes much to fear of American imperialism in the guise of globalization.”
 New religious movements in the twenty-first century 6

Beyond mere anti-Americanism, new movements are threatened by the ironic,

culturally particularizing effect of globalism. Globalization threatens to relativize
particularist cultural formations such that they may become more shrilly emphasized—
partly at the expense of movements claiming to embody universal values—as they appear
increasingly precarious. The overarching globalization process thus enhances the
concerns of nations, regimes, and cultures (and national churches and dominant political
groups) to preserve the integrity of their particularist cultures’ identities, heritage, and
values, which globalization threatens to relativize. “One of the marks of globalization is
that it puts all ideologies and belief systems under pressure to clarify their place in
relation to the new circumstance. They can no longer refuse to consider their position.”11
The clearest example of this dynamic can be found in the Russian situation as
delineated by Marat Shterin in this volume. Russian anticult media, notes Shterin, is
increasingly “dominated by the motif of ‘religious insecurity’ supposedly inherent in the
open religious marketplace.” “Sectarianism” is alleged to undermine Russian statehood
and lead to national disintegration. Partly imported from the United States, Russian
anticultism nevertheless draws its strength from the strong support of the resurgent
Russian Orthodox Church, which uses Western anticultism as the linchpin of what might
be termed an implicit “re-establishmentarian” (our term) strategy entailing the denial of
legitimacy to upstart alternatives to the historic National Church. Putatively alien sects
are thus viewed as suspect, as are foreign religious missions such as the Salvation Army,
which Moscow authorities recently attempted to destroy by denying it registration.
In a very different manner, France can be seen in Danièle Hervieu-Léger’s chapter as
defensively protecting its own very distinctive approach to religion from globalizing
pressures and the threatened erosion of traditional “secular-Catholic” culture. What is
vital here is not so much any overt Roman Catholic establishment but rather a distinctive
secular-rationalist orientation, historically conditioned by the culturally formative
episodes of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, which sees religion as a
dangerous irrational force with a destructive potential. The potential is hopefully
contained by a “confessional system” of regulation that was originally developed to limit
and compartmentalize the force of the traditionally dominant Roman Catholic Church.
The system presupposes the organizational model of Catholicism as “the implicit
reference for acceptable forms of religious expression—which the law intends to
guarantee while simultaneously controlling for excesses.” But, “French recognition of
religious pluralism stops exactly at the borders of religions whose confessional
organization assures adhesion to the values of the republic.” Freedom of public worship
is thus granted conditionally on the premise of the radical privatization of faith and the
assimilation of each legitimated group to standard institutional forms. Cultural defense
can be seen in the continuing strenuous efforts of the Interior Ministry to encourage a
reorganization of French Islam on the model of the familiar Protestant Federation of
France.
Hervieu-Léger observes a “presumption of risk” associated with religions that do not
conform to approved confessional patterns and that may therefore degenerate into a
“pathology of belief.” What has evolved is thus an “implicit regime of recognized
religions” that recognizes only a small number of religions as legitimate—their
destructive potential tamed by their assimilation to the confessional system. Under the
conditions of globalized postmodernity this implicit regulatory system is being
 Introduction 7

undermined in France. “The mesh of the confessional net is strained by the multiplication
of groups and movements claiming religious status and demanding the benefits of
freedom taken for granted in democratic societies.” The seemingly “anarchic
proliferation of self-proclaimed and extradenominational religious groups” is evoking
deep anxieties. A postmodern society of autonomous “believing subjects” free to “cobble
together their own systems of meaning and create new forms of association for spiritual
purposes” is a society in which institutional religious regulation will be precarious. The
somewhat panic-stricken official response is to presume that the devotees of
institutionally aberrant and unfamiliar movements are not autonomous and have
succumbed to “mental manipulation.” In an epilogue, Hervieu-Léger discusses the recent
agitation against “sectarian danger” and “mind manipulation” that resulted in the law of
May 2001. The careful, tortuous language of this statute introduces a notion of
actionable, sectarian mental manipulation or implicitly coercive psychological
domination without employing sensational terms such as “brainwashing” or even “mental
manipulation.” Since the law does not clearly define a “secte” (cult) it probably “has
little chance of becoming an effective legal tool.”
The present volume actually contains two papers dealing with the French milieu.
Hervieu-Léger’s paper deals with the cultural foundations of French discrimination.
Susan Palmer’s paper looks particularly at the impact of discrimination on the sectes and
the divergent responses of various groups. Palmer comments:

There were moments in my research when I felt I had walked into a

veritable war zone. …the anticult war in France is mainly a war of words
but there have been some attacks against individuals and property that
have not been reported in the media. The Unification Church in Paris no
longer exists, it was bombed in 1974 and again in 1995….

According to Palmer, “hundreds of successful professional and responsible parents have

been fired or lost custody of, or access to, their children, simply because of sect
affiliation.” The responses of most groups tend to be “culturally bilingual,” that is, they
disseminate apocalyptic expectations to their own adherents to confer meaning on their
ordeals while using secular language and logic to argue with officials or appeal to the
public.
Unlike the United States, where stigma and discrimination impinge most heavily on
high-demand, “totalist” millenarian groups, French crusaders worry particularly about
(putatively deceptive) low-key groups such as loosely organized meditation, faith-
healing, and therapeutic circles. Their devotees are perceived as cultural infiltrators who
will “mutate French culture from within” and undermine the primacy of reason.
The French situation is significant as a particularly stringent control system for deviant
sects (particularly if the new law of 2001 is actually enforced) emerging in a basically
democratic and pluralistic context. In contrast, the Chinese approach discussed by Scott
Lowe represents a control pattern developing in an authoritarian (some might say still
“totalitarian”) setting.
For hundreds of years, China has constituted a relatively unified political community
ruled under authoritarian auspices. Religion and governance have been closely
interlocked such that the Western ideal of the “separation of church and state” has been
 New religious movements in the twenty-first century 8

totally alien to Chinese traditions. “Not surprisingly, unorthodox beliefs were seen more
as treason than heresy.” However, one effect of the interrelationship of religion and
governance was that new religious visions tended to suggest new political arrangements
and thus to imperil the state. Chinese history has thus been characterized by messianic
religio-political insurgencies and aggressively theocratic movements. Fearful imperial
ruling elites have fiercely persecuted clandestine brotherhoods and sectarian religious
groups.
Lowe emphasizes the continuity between old imperial patterns and Maoist rule. Like
past emperors, Chairman Mao “believed in the almost magical power of society-wide
conformity and felt personally threatened by all ideological dissent.” Post-Mao leaders
have eased up a bit and allow tame, “patriotic” churches to be officially registered. The
government still “deals harshly with unregistered groups, arresting leaders and raiding
meeting places.” The latter part of Lowe’s chapter deals with the suppression of Falun
Gong.12 Lowe notes an interesting connection that may be developing between the
Chinese government and American anticultists.13
According to Lowe, the present Chinese Constitution guarantees Chinese citizens’
“freedom of religious belief” but “rather pointedly does not recognize the right to engage
in religious practices or propagate religious teachings.” This is a frequent pattern with
authoritarian regimes that want to constrain independent sects. For a state to concede
individual freedom of belief (which is essentially an intrapsychic modality) is really to
concede very little. How would a government prevent a citizen from holding an
inappropriate belief? If “freedom of religion” is conceived as the right to hold beliefs it is
implicitly defined as something essentially individual and intrapsychic such that the
implied constraint on the state is minimal. The constraint is more meaningful if the right
of collective worship, the right to organize—to have a religious community—and the
right to preach and proselytize are conceded. But simply guaranteeing the right to belief
may not meaningfully circumscribe state authority, which is why regimes desiring to
restrictively regulate religion nevertheless eagerly affirm citizens’ freedom of belief.
Oliver Cromwell prohibited the Catholic Mass, but in doing so denied that he was
infringing freedom of conscience.

America, Globalism, and Religious Movements

As we have seen, James Beckford has noted how anti-Americanism is sometimes

involved in the hostile reactions NRMs may elicit. Whatever their national origins, many
“religious multinationals” appear to be exported to various societies as American cultural
products.
Resentment of the world’s remaining superpower is a salient element of contemporary
globalization and its discontents: Globalization has allowed American corporations to
penetrate the economies of various societies around the globe. It has permitted putatively
vulgar American commercial products—colas, Big Macs, slick commercial
entertainment—to invade other countries’ home markets and crowd out the latter’s more
exquisite cultural and culinary creations. Indeed, it is tempting to conclude that American
spiritual exports such as Scientology or Jehovah’s Witnesses may be viewed in Europe as
“fast religions” analogous to degraded American “fast food.”
 Introduction 9

Sometimes anti-Americanism and a general xenophobic response to the pressures of

globalization are difficult to distinguish. In Japan, notes Ian Reader, “the term cult has
been applied less to Japanese new religious movements” than to imports from abroad.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Unification Church, in particular, have been
stigmatized and tend to be popularly equated with much more violent groups. There
appears to be a resurgence of “Japanocentric modes of discourse that are clearly
antiWestern and anti-foreign…with certain movements identified as much as anything
because of their foreign provenance.”
Reader’s essay also highlights another key aspect of the interface of cult controversies
and globalization: the emergence of a globalized “anticult” movement/network. In Japan
this movement “has all but drowned out alternative voices and perspectives” and has
grown rapidly in the aftermath of the sensational subway gassing perpetrated by Aum
Shinrikyō. Japanese anticultism has benefited from the missionary activities of American
crusaders against cults such as ex-Unificationist Steven Hassan. The latter warns against
the menace of “brainwashing” in “cults,” and his message provides “an easily grasped
populist explanation of Aum.”
As James Beckford notes, anticultists are now well established on the global Internet,
as are alternative religions. However, in Beckford’s view, the balance of Internet
influence is presently shifting in favor of the anticultists. In any case, the worldwide net
is an increasingly vital dimension of globalization and is also an active theater of
cult/anticult confrontation conducted via proliferating missionary and activist websites.
Anti-Americanism is mentioned as a salient dimension of anticultism by a number of
our contributors, but, interestingly has not been highlighted by Hervieu-Léger,
notwithstanding known French resentments against certain exported American
institutions such as McDonald’s restaurants. Indeed, a French anticult activist is said to
have referred to cults as “America’s Trojan Horse” subverting the integrity of French
culture.
In his report on Australia, James Richardson notes that successful attempts to prevent
an amendment to the constitution (to add a Bill of Rights that would explicitly guarantee
religious liberty) “have used the United States as a problematic example of what can
happen with such formal guarantees of religious freedom.” The deregulated religious
market is a menacing specter to many persons, who view such guarantees as an
encouragement to wild cults—candidates for tomorrow’s Jonestowns and Wacos.
Notwithstanding resistance to a formal guarantee of religious liberty, the situation in
Australia is not that unfavorable to extensions of religious pluralism, according to
Richardson.
This brings us to an interesting point. In relative terms, is the U.S. truly the “land of
the free” in the sense of representing a citadel of religious liberty in which minimal
regulation of the religious market provides a more favorable and less persecutory climate
for new movements than democratic Western Europe? This is the forcefully stated view
of two eminent sociologists of religion, Rodney Stark and Roger Finke:

Europeans often claim that their nations, too, offer religious freedom, but
to those accustomed to American standards of freedom, what is called
freedom in Europe would only be called toleration in the United States—
and often not that. In the abstract most nations of Western Europe assert
 New religious movements in the twenty-first century 10

freedom of worship, but permit almost unlimited discretion to bureaucrats

and parliaments concerning specific policies and decisions to impose
sanctions on minority religions, while not providing effective legal
recourse as guaranteed in the United States.14

Germany, the authors imply, pursues particularly oppressive policies. German “free
churches” that do not receive state support, are in fact “hindered, harassed and closely
regulated” and are “stigmatized by the media and government” in a manner that
“generates public disapproval.”15 However, in her essay for this volume, Brigitte Schoen
maintains that in some respects Germany is less discriminatory in its policy toward new
movements than are Western European nations such as France or Belgium. Schoen’s
essay rebuts what she views as exaggerated reports in the U.S. regarding the alleged
persecution of Scientology in Germany.16 Acknowledging that the German government
considers Scientology a commercial rather than a religious organization (which may
seriously disadvantage Scientology), Schoen claims that affirmative governmental action
against Scientology has amounted to little more than surveillance (which a Berlin court
has ordered discontinued) and the issuing of informational booklets containing some
negative information.
In her essay (and more extensively in a personal dialogue with this writer), Schoen has
noted certain factors which may challenge the widespread impression that the repression
of esoteric religious minorities is substantially more severe in Western Europe and
Germany than in the U.S. Compared to European countries, the U.S. has a relatively
decentralized system of control such that discrimination “in the boondocks” against
Neopagan or New Age groups may not be highly visible. While inflammatory statements
against cults by European politicians and activists attract substantial publicity, court cases
quietly won by controversial movements (for instance, a recent decision for the Jehovah’s
Witnesses in Germany’s highest court) receive less attention. On the other hand,
constitutional protection for “free speech” in the U.S. may make pejorative statements
against NRMs as well as by NRMs in America less actionable.
Schoen notes that German law requires a balancing of the right to religious liberty
with “the basic rights of other individuals, such as a child’s right to freedom from injury
in the case of Evangelicals calling for corporal punishment.” As with other countries, the
German legal system for organizing religions as corporate bodies “fosters a highly
institutionalized, centralized organizational form for religions which one might call
bureaucracies.” Public funding for private anticult organizations (some of which had
received state aid in the 1970s and ‘80s) has decreased while church support for
anticultism has increased, as it has in several other countries.
Finally, the existence of an cell discovered in Hamburg and linked to the
depredations of 9/11 has led to a change in the German law of associations. A religious
exemption to the authority of the state to terminate associations linked to criminal or anti-
constitutional activities is no longer operative. (One Muslim extremist organization has
been banned to date.) German citizens are finding “the very notion of a terrorist variant of
religion unsettling.” Schoen notes the emotional effect of quiet, religious young men
being revealed as mass murderers. Such a development “might kindle resentments against
all kinds of minority religions. On the other hand, the new focus on Islamic extremism
 Introduction 11

means that public attention no longer concentrates on the real or alleged dangers of [non-
Islamic] new religions.”
J.Gordon Melton’s fairly sanguine report on the U.S. clearly supports the idea that the
situation is more favorable to alternative religions in the U.S. than elsewhere. Melton
reviews several key historical and legal events, including setbacks suffered by the
American anticult movement. The movement, he maintains, is now little more than a
“meddlesome nuisance.” Melton makes a strong case, yet it may be somewhat overstated.
He emphasizes the importance of the federal Fishman verdict in 1990, which excludes
expert testimony about brainwashing from criminal trials on the grounds that the notion
lacks scientific credibility. Fishman, however, transpired in a mere trial (lower) federal
court, although it has been frequently cited. Yet Fishman could turn out to be a frail reed.
The influence of horrendous tragedies such as the Uganda massacre or spectacular acts of
“religious terrorism” such as produced the destruction of the World Trade Center may
lead judges—whose legal reasoning may presuppose certain “scientific knowledge”
about social behavior and the human psyche—to alter their “scientific” views. Melton
does not highlight the earlier California Supreme Court verdict in the Molko case (1988),
which affirmed that there is no constitutional or religious freedom barrier to tort actions
relying on brainwashing claims in situations where a totalistic, encapsulating group
employs recruitment practices that are substantially deceptive.17
As this writer recalls, the defeat of the anticult movement in the Fishman case was the
result of a sort of successful fallback strategy employed by its opponents in the aftermath
of Molko. The 1988 Molko verdict appeared to preclude the automatic dismissal, on First
Amendment grounds, of litigation involving brainwashing claims against religious
movements. However, the Molko court did not rule out a challenge to “expert” testimony
about mind control on the grounds that it lacks “scientific” credibility. The Fishman
verdict vindicated such a challenge in a criminal trial. The result has been to make the
outcomes of civil and criminal litigation involving brainwashing claims frequently hinge
on the resolution of pre-trial motions in limine to exclude testimony. In this connection
the work of psychologist Dick Anthony, a key consultant in the Fishman case and in
numerous subsequent cases, has been particularly valuable (from the standpoint of
beleaguered movements) in frequently getting pseudoscientific mind control testimony
excluded from evidentiary hearings.
The contribution of Robbins and Anthony in the present volume deals with legal
strategies and rhetoric, and in particular with the convergence of three influential, quasi-
legal discourses in which limitation of the scope of the First Amendment’s protection of
expressive speech acts is being advocated. In the areas of pornography, racist hate
speech, and the indoctrination practices of “cults,” it has been maintained that the speech
acts are not “only words” but represent implicitly “coercive” abuses of speech which do
not engage the critical intellect but rather operate viscerally to manipulate emotions.
Robbins and Anthony are critical of this argument but are more concerned with its
implications for the ambiguity of contemporary moral boundaries and the psychologizing
of social control.
If, as Melton maintains, the situation is particularly favorable to alternative religions in
the U.S., Great Britain, as reported by Eileen Barker, also seems to present a relatively
favorable venue. Barker discusses the blemishes on the picture, including episodes of
“Islamophobia” related to and the Ayatollah Khomeini, an ephemeral
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
moment disgusted with the world. I half wish I were at home again.
Now too, that Stuart has reminded me of our early days, I cannot
avoid sometimes picturing to myself the familiar fireside, the walks,
frolics, occupations of our childhood; and well I remember how he
used to humour my whims. Oh, these times are past, and now he
opposes me in every thing.

But whither am I wandering? Pardon these vulgar sentiments. They

have escaped my pen. You know that a mere home is my horror.
Forgive them.

Adieu.
 LETTER XIX

Determined to support my dignity, I dined alone in my room, after

the closet-scene; and during this evening, letters of the most heart-
rending nature passed between his lordship and me.

To be brief, he has convinced me, that the letter written in his name,
to the landlady, was a forgery of her own. The circumventing wretch!
I am of opinion, that it ought to be made a hanging matter.

The following is an extract from his and my correspondence. After a

most satisfactory disquisition on the various circumstances tending
to prove the forgery, he writes thus:

'I have begun twenty letters to you, and have torn them
all. I write to you on my knees, and the paper is blistered
with my tears; but I have dried it with my sighs.

'Sun, moon, and stars may rise and set as they will. I know
not whether it be day, or whether it be night.

'When the girl came with your last note, the idea that your
eyes had just been dwelling on her features, on her cap,
ribbon, and apron, made her and them so interesting, so
dear to me, that, though her features are snubbed, her cap
tattered, her ribbon bottle-green (which I hate), and her
apron dirty, I should certainly have taken her in my arms, if
I had not been the most bashful of men.

'Though that note stung me to the heart, the words were

hosts of angels to me, and the small paper the
interminable regions of bliss. Any thing from you!

'How my heart beats, and my blood boils in my veins,

when by chance our feet meet under the table. The
diapason of my heart-strings vibrates to the touch. How
often I call to mind the sweet reproof you once gave me at
dinner, when I trod on your toe in a transport of passion.

'"If you love me, tell me so," said you, smiling; "but do not
hurt my foot."

'Another little incident is always recurring to me. As we

parted from each other, the night before last, you held out
your hand and said, "Good-night, my dear Montmorenci."
It was the first time you had ever called me dear. The
sound sank deep into my heart. I have repeated it a
hundred times since, and when I went to bed, I said, good
night, my dear Montmorenci. I recollected myself and
laughed. The fatal kiss that I once dared to snatch from
you has undone me for ever. The moisture on your lip was
like a suppuration of rubies. O immortal remembrance of
that illusive, frantic, and enchanting moment!'

BILLET FROM CHERUBINA.

He who could be capable of the letter, could be capable of

calling it a forgery.

BILLET FROM MONTMORENCI.

Misery with you, were better than happiness without you.

BILLET FROM CHERUBINA.

Hatred and certainty were better than love and suspicion.

BILLET FROM MONTMORENCI.

Love is heaven and heaven is love.

BILLET FROM CHERUBINA.

If heaven be love, I fear that heaven is not eternal.

BILLET FROM MONTMORENCI.

If my mind be kept in suspense, my body shall be

suspended too.

BILLET FROM CHERUBINA.

Foolish youth! If my life be dear to thee, attempt not thine

own.

BILLET FROM MONTMORENCI.

It were easier to kill myself than to fly from Cherubina.

BILLET FROM CHERUBINA.

Live. I restore you to favour.

BILLET FROM MONTMORENCI.

Angelic girl! But how can I live without the means? My

landlady threatens me with an arrest. Heloise lent money
to St. Preux.

BILLET FROM CHERUBINA.

In enclosing to you half of all I have, I feel, alas! that I am

but half as liberal of my purse as of my heart.

BILLET FROM MONTMORENCI.

I promise to pay Lady Cherubina de Willoughby, or order,

on demand, the sum of twenty-five pounds sterling, value
received.
 Montmorenci.

In a few minutes after I had received this last billet, his lordship
came in person to perfect the reconciliation. Never was so tender, so
excruciating a scene.

We then consulted about the masquerade; and he brought me down

his dress for it. The Montero cap and tarnished regimentals (which
he procured at the theatre) are admirable.

Soon after his departure, a letter was brought to me by the maid;

who said, that a tall man, wrapped in a dark cloak, put it into her
hand, and then fled with great swiftness.

Conceive my sensations on reading this note, written in an

antiquated hand.

To Lady Cherubina de Willoughby.

These, greeting.
Most fayre Ladie
An aunciente and loyall Vassall that erewhyles appertained
unto yre ryhgte noble Auncestrie, in ye qualitie of
Seneschal, hath, by chaunce, discovred yer place of hiding,
and doth crave ye boon that you will not fayle to goe unto
ye Masquerade at ye Pantheon; where, anon he will joyn
you, and unravell divers mysterys touching your pedigree.
Lette nonne disswaid you from to goe, and eke lette
nonne, save a Matron, goe with you; els I dare not holde
parle with you.
Myne honoured Ladie, if you heede not this counsell, you
will work yourselfe woefull ruth.
Judge if I can sleep a wink after such a mysterious communication.
Excellent old man! I mean to make him my steward.

Adieu.
 LETTER XX

I believe I mentioned, in a former letter, that my bed-chamber was

on the ground floor, and looking into the yard at the back of the
house. Soon after I went to bed, last night, I heard a whispering and
rustling outside of the window, and while I was awaiting with anxiety
the result, sleep surprised me.

I awoke earlier, as I thought, than usual, this morning; for not a ray
penetrated my curtainless window. I then tried to compose myself to
sleep again, but in vain; so there I lay turning and tumbling about,
for eight or nine hours, at the very least. At last I became alarmed.
What can be the matter? thought I. Is the sun quenched or
eclipsed? or has the globe ceased rolling? or am I struck stone blind?

In the midst of my conjectures, a sudden cry of fire! fire!

reverberated through the house. I sprang out of bed, and huddled
on me whatever cloaths came to hand. I then groped for my casket
of jewels, and having secured it, rushed into the outer room, where
my eyes were instantly dazzled by the sudden glare of light.

However, I had presence of mind enough to snatch up Corporal

Trim's coat, which still remained on a chair; and to slip it on me. For,
in the first place, I had no gown underneath; and in the next, I
recollected, that Harriot Byron, at a moment of distress, went wild
about the country, in masquerade.

Hurrying into the hall, I saw the street door wide open, Stuart and
Montmorenci struggling with each other near it, the landlady
dragging a trunk down stairs, and looking like the ghost of a mad
housemaid; and the poet just behind her, with his corpulent mother,
bed and all, upon his back; while she kept exclaiming, that we
should all be in heaven in five minutes, and he crying out, Heaven
forbid! Heaven forbid!

I darted past Stuart, just as he had got Montmorenci down; thence

out of the house, and had fled twenty paces, before I discovered,
that, so far from being night, it was broad, bright, incontrovertible
day!

I had no time to reflect on this mystery, as I heard steps pursuing

me, and my name called. I fled the faster, for I dreaded I knew not
what. The portentous darkness of my room, the false alarm of fire,
all betokened some diabolical conspiracy against my life; so I rushed
along the street, to the horror and astonishment of all who saw me.
For conceive me drest in a long-skirted, red coat, stiff with tarnished
lace; a satin petticoat, satin shoes, no stockings, and my flaxen hair
streaming like a meteor behind me!

Stop her, stop her! was now shouted on all sides. Hundreds seemed
in pursuit. Panting and almost exhausted, I still continued my flight.
They gained on me. What should I do? I saw the door of a carriage
just opened, and two ladies, dressed for dinner, stepping into it. I
sprang in after them, crying, save me, save me! The footman
endeavoured to drag me out; the mob gathered round shouting; the
horses took fright, and set off in full gallop; I, meantime, on one
knee, with my meek eyes raised, and my hands folded across my
bosom, awaited my fate; while the ladies gazed on me in dismay,
and supported one unbroken scream.

At last, the carriage dashed against a post, and was upset. Several
persons ran forward, and, I being uppermost, took me out the first.
Again I began running, and again a mob was at my heels. I felt
certain they would tear me in pieces. My head became bewildered;
and all the horrid sights I had ever read of rose in array before me.
Bacchantes, animated with Orphean fury, slinging their serpents in
the air, and uttering dithyrambics, appeared to surround me on
every side. On I flew. Knock it down! cried several voices.
A footman was just entering a house. I rushed past him, and into a
parlour, where a large party were sitting at dinner.

Save me! exclaimed I, and sank on my knees before them. All arose:
—some, in springing to seize me, fell; and others began dragging
me away. I grasped the table-cloth, in my confusion, and the next
instant, the whole dinner was strewn about the floor. Those who had
fallen down, rose in piteous plight; one bathed in soup, another
crowned with vegetables, and the face of a third all over harico.

They held me fast, and questioned me; then called me mad, and
turned me into the street. The mob were still waiting for me there,
and they cheered me as I came out; so seeing a shop at hand, I
darted through it, and ran up stairs, into the drawing-room.

There I found a mother in the cruel act of whipping her child. Ever a
victim to thrilling sensibility, I snatched the rod from her hand; she
shrieked and alarmed the house; and again I was turned out of
doors. Again, my friend the mob received me with a shout; again I
took to flight; rushed through another shop, was turned out—
through another, was turned out. In short, I threaded a dozen
different houses, and witnessed a dozen different domestic scenes.
In this, they were singing, in that scolding:—here, I caught an old
man kissing the maid, there, I found a young man reading the Bible.
Entering another, I heard ladies laughing and dancing in the
drawing-room. I hurried past them to the garrets, and saw their
aged servant dying.

Shocked by the sight, I paused at his half-opened door. Not a soul

was in the room with him; and vials and basons strewed the table.

'Is that my daughter?' said he feebly. 'Will no one go for my

daughter? To desert me thus, after first breaking my heart! Well
then, I will find her out myself.'
He made a sudden effort to rise, but it was fatal. His head and arms
dropped down motionless, and hung out of the bed. He gave a
hollow sob, and expired.

Horrorstruck, I rushed into an adjoining garret, and burst into tears.

I felt guilty of I knew not what; and the picture of Wilkinson, dying
in the madhouse, and calling on his daughter, shot across me for a
moment.

The noise of people searching the rooms below, and ascending the
stairs, put an end to my disagreeable reflections; and I thought but
of escape. Running to the window of the garret, I found that it
opened upon the roof of a neighbouring house; and recollecting that
robbers often escape by similar means, I sprang out of the window,
closed it after me, and ran along a whole row of roofs.

At last I came to a house higher than the rest, with a small window,
similar to that by which I had just got out, and happily lying open.
On looking into the garret, I found that nobody was there, so I
scrambled into it, and fastened the window after me. A servant's
bed, a chair, a table, and an immense chest, constituted all the
furniture. The chest had nothing but a little linen in it; and I
determined to make it my place of refuge, in case of an alarm.

Having sat a few minutes, to compose my spirits, after the shock

they had just experienced, I resolved on exploring the several
apartments; for I felt a secret presentiment that this house was,
some way or other, connected with my fate—a most natural idea.

I first traversed the garrets, but found nothing in them worthy of

horror; so I stole, with cautious steps, down the first flight of stairs,
and found the door of the front room open. Hearing no noise inside,
I ventured to put in my head, and perceived a large table, with
lighted candles on it, and covered over with half-finished dresses of
various descriptions, besides bonnets, feathers, caps, and ribbons in
profusion; whence I concluded that the people of the house were
milliners.

Here I sat some time, admiring the dresses, and trying at a mirror
how the caps became me, till I was interrupted by steps on the
stairs. I ran behind a window-curtain; and immediately three young
milliners came into the room.

They sat down at the table, and began working.

'I wonder,' said one, 'whether our lodger has returned from dinner.'

'What a sly eye the fellow casts at me,' says another.

'And how he smiles at me,' says the first.

'And how he teases me about my being pretty,' says the second.

'And me too,' says the first; 'and he presses my hand into the
bargain.'

'Presses!' says the second; 'why, he squeezes mine; and just think,
he tries to kiss me too.'

'I know,' says the third, who was the only pretty girl of the three,
'that he never lays a finger on me, nor speaks a word to me, good
or bad—never: and yesterday he lent me the Mysteries of Udolpho
with a very bad grace; and when I told him that I wanted it to copy
the description of the Tuscan girl's dress, as a lady had ordered me
to make up a dress like it, for the masquerade to-night, he handed
me the book, and said, that if I went there myself, the people would
take my face for a mask.'

Judge of my horror, when I recollected, that this was, indeed, the

night of the masquerade; and that I was pent behind a curtain,
without even a dress for it!
That Tuscan costume, thought I, would just answer. Perhaps I could
purchase it from the milliner. Perhaps—— But in the midst of my
perhaps's, the first and second milliner set off with some Indian
robes, which they had finished for the masquerade, while the pretty
one still remained to complete the Tuscan dress.

While I was just resolving to issue from my retreat, and persuade

her to sell me the dress, I heard a step stealing up the stairs; and
presently perceived a young gentleman peeping into the room. He
nodded familiarly to the milliner; and said, in a whisper, that he had
seen her companions depart, and was now come to know how soon
she would go, that he might meet her at their old corner. She
replied, that she would soon be ready; and he then stole back again.

I had now no time to lose in accomplishing my plan, so I drew aside

the curtain, and stood, in a commanding attitude before her.

The poor girl looked up, started, made a miserable imitation of the
heroic scream, and ran down stairs.

I ran after her, as far as the landing-place; and on looking over the
balusters, into the hall, I saw the young man who had just been with
her, listening to her account of the transaction. 'I will call the watch,'
said she, 'and do you keep guard at the door.'

She then hastened into the street, and he stood in such a manner,
that it was impossible for me to pass him.

'What is the matter?' cried the mistress of the house, coming out of
the parlour.

'A mad woman that is above stairs,' answered the young man. 'Miss
Jane has just seen her; dressed half like a man, half like a woman,
and with hair down to the ground!'

'What is all this?' cried a maid, running out of the kitchen.

'Oh! Molly,' said the mistress, 'Miss Jane is just frightened to death
by a monster above stairs, half man, half woman, and all over
covered with hair!'

Another servant now made her appearance.

'Oh! Betty,' cried Molly, 'Miss Jane is just killed by a huge monster
above stairs, half man, half beast, all over covered with black hair,
and I don't know what other devilments besides!'

'I will run and drive it down,' cried Betty, and began ascending the
stairs. Whither could I hide? I luckily recollected the large chest; so I
flew up to the garret. It was now quite dark; but I found the chest,
sprang into it, and having closed the lid, flung some of the linen over
me. I then heard the girl enter the next room, and in a few
moments, she came into mine, with another person.

'Here is the trunk, Tom,' said she, 'and I must lock it on you till the
search is over. You see, Tom, what risks I am running on your
account; for there is Miss Jane, killed by it, and lying in bits, all
about the floor.'

The man had now jumped into the chest; the girl locked it in an
instant, took out the key, and ran down.

Almost prest to death, I made a sudden effort to get from under

him.

'What's this! Oh! mercy, what's this?' cried he, feeling about.

I gathered myself up; but did not speak.

'Help!' vociferated he. ''Tis the monster—here is the hair! help, help!'

'Hush!' said I, 'or you will betray both of us. I am no monster, but a
woman.'

'Wasn't? it you that murdered the milliner?' said he, still trembling.
'No, really,' replied I, 'but now not a word; for I hear people coming.'

As I spoke, several persons entered the room. We lay still. They

searched about; and one of them, approaching the chest, tried to lift
the lid.

'That is locked this month past,' said the voice of the maid who had
hidden the man in it, 'so you need not look there.'

They then searched the remaining garrets; and I heard them say, as
they were going down stairs, that I must have jumped out of a
window.

'And now, Madam,' said the man, 'will you have the goodness to tell
me who you are?'

'A young and innocent maiden,' answered I, 'who, flying from my

persecutors, took refuge here.'

'Young and innocent!' cried he, 'good ingredients, faith. Come then,
my dear; I will protect you.'

So saying, he caught me round the waist, and attempted to kiss me.

I begged, reasoned, menaced—all would not do. I had read of a

heroine, whose virtue was saved by a timely brain-fever; so, as I
could not command one at that instant, I determined on affecting
one.

'I murdered her famously!' exclaimed I; and then commenced

singing and moaning by turns.

He stopped, and lay quiet, as if uncertain what to make of me. I

scratched the chest with my nails, and laughed, and shrieked. He
began to mutter curses and prayers with great rapidity; till, as I was
gabbling over the finest passage in Ossian, 'Oh! merciful!' ejaculated
he, rolling himself into a ball; ''tis a Bedlamite broke loose!'
By this time, between my terror, and the heat of the chest, I was
gasping for breath; and my companion appeared on the very point
of suffocation; when, at this critical juncture, some one fortunately
came into the room. The man called for help, the chest was
unlocked, opened; and the maid with a candle appeared before us.

The man darted out like an arrow; she remained motionless with
astonishment at seeing me, while I lay there, almost exhausted;
though, as usual, not worth a swoon. I do believe, that the five
fingers I am writing with would leave me, sooner than my five
senses.

'She has confessed to the murder!' cried the man; while the maid
held by his arm, and shrunk back, as I rose from the chest with an
air of dignity.

'Be not frightened, my friends,' said I smiling, 'for I assure you that I
am no murderess; and that the milliner is alive and well, at this
moment. Is she not, young woman?'

'Yes, sure,' answered she, somewhat recovering from her terror.

'How I came into this extraordinary situation,' continued I, 'it were

needless to relate; but I must have your assistance to get out of it.
If you, my good girl, will supply me with a decent gown, bonnet, and
pair of stockings, I will promise not to tell the family that you had a
lover secreted in the house, and I will give you two guineas for your
kindness.'

So saying, I took the casket from the pocket of my regimental coat,

and displayed the jewels and money that were in it.

'Mercy me!' cried the maid; 'how could they dare for to say that so
rich a lady murdered the girl?'

'Ay, or so handsome a lady,' added the man, bowing.

In a word, after some explanations and compliments, I gave the
maid four guineas, and the man the regimental coat; and was
supplied with a gown, bonnet, and pair of stockings.

As soon as I had dressed myself, we determined that I should steal

down stairs, and out of the house; and that, if discovered in my
passage, I should not betray the maid.

Accordingly, with much trepidation, I began to descend the stairs.

Not a soul seemed stirring. But as I passed by the milliner's room, I
perceived the door half open, and heard some one humming a tune
inside. I peeped through the chink, and saw the pretty milliner again
seated there, and still busied about the Tuscan dress. I resolved to
make another effort for it; and as I had gained my point with the
maid, by having discovered her intrigue, it struck me that I might
succeed with the milliner in a similar manner.

I therefore glided into the room, and seated myself just opposite to
her.

'Your business, Ma'am?' said she, looking surprised.

'To purchase that dress,' answered I.

''Tis already purchased,' said she.

'Do you remember the mad woman with the long hair?' said I, as I
took off my bonnet, and let down my tresses, with all the grandeur
of virtue victorious over vice.

She started and turned pale.

'You are the very person, I believe,' faltered she. 'What upon earth
shall I do?'

'Do?' cried I. 'Why, sell me the Tuscan dress of course. The fact is—
but let it go no farther—I am a heroine; I am, I give you my word
and honour. So, you know, the lady being wronged of the dress,
(inasmuch as she is but an individual), is as nothing compared with
the wrong that the community will sustain, if they lose the pleasure
of finding that I get it from you. Sure the whole scene, since I came
to this house, was contrived for the express purpose of my procuring
that individual costume; and just conceive what pretty confusion
must take place, if, after all, you prevent me! My dear girl, we must
do poetical justice. We must not disappoint the reader.

'You will tell me, perhaps, that selling the dress is improper?
Granted. But, recollect, what improper things are constantly done, in
novels, to bring about a pre-determined event. Your amour with the
gentleman, for instance; which I shall certainly tell your employer, if
you refuse to sell me the dress.

'As you value your own peace of mind, therefore, and in the name of
all that is just, generous, and honourable, I conjure you to reflect for
a moment, and you must see the matter in its rational light. What
can you answer to these arguments?'

'That the person who could use them,' said she, 'will never listen to
reason. I see what is the matter with you, and that I have no
resource but to humour you, or be ruined.' And she began crying.

To conclude, after a little farther persuasion, I got the dress, gave

her ten guineas, and, tripping down stairs, effected a safe escape
out of the house.

I then called a coach, and drove to Jerry Sullivan's; for I would not
return to my lodgings, lest the conspirators there should prevent me
from going to the masquerade.

The poor fellow jumped with joy when he saw me; but I found him
in great distress. His creditors had threatened his little shop with
immediate ruin, unless he would discharge his debts. He had now
provided the whole sum due, except forty pounds; but this he could
not procure, and the creditors were expected every minute.
'I have only twelve guineas in the world,' said I, opening my casket,
'but they are at your service.' And I put them into his hand.

'Dear Lady!' cried the wife, 'what a mortal sight of jewels you have
got! Do you know, now, I could borrow thirty pounds at least on
them, at the pawnbroker's; and that sum would just answer.'

'Nay,' said I, 'I cannot consent to part with them; though, had I
thirty pounds, I would sooner give it to you, than buy jewels with it.'

'Sure then,' cried she, 'by the same rule, you would sooner sell your
jewels, than let me want thirty pounds.'

'Not at all,' answered I, 'for I am fond of my jewels, and I do not

care about money. Besides, have I not already given you twelve
guineas?'

'You have,' answered she, 'and that is what vexes me. If you had
given me nothing at all, I would not have minded, because you were
a stranger. But first to make yourself our friend, by giving us twelve
guineas, and then to refuse us the remainder—'tis so unnatural!'

'Ungrateful woman!' cried I. 'Had I ten thousand pounds, you should

not touch a farthing of it.'

The arrival of the creditors interrupted us, and a touching scene

ensued. The wife and daughter flung themselves on their knees, and
wrung their hands, and begged for mercy; but the wretches were
inexorable.

How could I remain unmoved? In short, I slipped the casket into the
wife's hand; out she ran with it, and in a few minutes returned with
forty pounds. The creditors received the money due, passed
receipts, and departed, and Jerry returned me the twelve guineas,
saying: 'Bless your sweet face, for 'tis that is the finger-post to
heaven, though, to be sure, I can't look strait in it, after all you have
done for me. Och! 'tis a murder to be under an obligation: so if just
a little bit of mischief would happen you, and I to relieve you, as you
did me, why that would make me aisy.'

I am writing to you, from his house, while his daughter is finishing

the sleeve of my Tuscan dress; and in a short time I shall be ready
for the masquerade.

I confess I am not at all reconciled to the means I used in obtaining

that dress. I took advantage of the milliner's indiscretion in one
instance, to make her do wrong in another. But doubtless my
biographer will find excuses for me, which I cannot discover myself.
Besides, the code of moral law that heroines acknowledge is often
quite opposite from those maxims which govern other conditions of
life. And, indeed, if we view the various ranks and departments of
society, we shall see, that what is considered vicious in some of
them, is not esteemed so in others. Thus: it is deemed dishonest in
a servant to cheat his master of his wines, but it is thought perfectly
fair for his master to defraud the King of the revenue from those
wines. In the same way, what is called wantonness in a little minx
with a flat face, is called only susceptibility in a heroine with an oval
one. We weep at the letters of Heloise; but were they written by an
alderman's fat wife, we should laugh at them. The heroine may
permit an amorous arm round her waist, fly in the face of her
parents, and make assignations in dark groves, yet still be described
as the most prudent of human creatures; but the mere Miss has no
business to attempt any mode of conduct beyond modesty,
decorum, and filial obedience. In a word, as different classes have
distinct privileges, it appears to me, from what I have read of the
law national, and the law romantic, that the heroine's prerogative is
similar to the King's, and that she, like him, can do no wrong.

Adieu.
 LETTER XXI

O Biddy, I have ascertained my genealogy. I am—but I must not

anticipate. Take the particulars.

Having secured a comfortable bed at Jerry's, and eaten something

(for I had fasted all day), I went with him in a coach to the
Pantheon, where he promised to remain, and escort me back.

But I must first describe my Tuscan dress. It was a short petticoat of

pale green, with a bodice of white silk; the sleeves loose, and tied
up at the shoulders with ribbons and bunches of flowers. My hair,
which fell in ringlets on my neck, was also ornamented with flowers
and a straw hat. I wore no mask, heroines so seldom do.

Palpitating with expectation, I entered the assembly. Such a

multitude of grotesque groups as presented themselves! Clowns,
harlequins, nuns, devils; all talking and none listening. The clowns
happy to be called fools, the harlequins as awkward as clowns, the
nuns impudent, and the devils well-conducted. But as there is a
description of a masquerade in almost every novel, you will excuse
me from entering into farther particulars.

Too much agitated to support my character with spirit, I retired to a

recess, and there anxiously awaited the arrival of the ancient vassal.

Hardly had I been seated five minutes, when an infirm and reverend
old man approached, and sat down beside me. His feeble form was
propt upon a long staff, a palsy shook his white locks, and his
garments had all the quaintness of antiquity.

During some minutes, he gazed on me with earnestness, through a

black mask; at length, heaving a heavy sigh, he thus broke forth in
tremulous accents:
'Well-a-day! how the scalding tears do run adown my furrowed
cheeks; for well I wis, thou beest herself—the Lady Cherubina De
Willoughby, the long-lost daughter of mine honoured mistress!'

'Speak, I beseech you!' cried I. 'Are you, indeed, the ancient and
loyal vassal?'

'Now by my truly, 'tis even so,' said he.

I could have hugged the dear old man to my heart.

'Welcome, thrice welcome, much respected menial!' cried I, grasping

his hand. 'But keep me not in suspense. Unfold to me the heart-
harrowing mysteries of my unhappy house!'

'Now by my fay,' said he, 'I will say forth my say. My name is
Whylome Eftsoones, and I was accounted comely when a younker.
But what boots that now? Beauty is like unto a flower of the field.—
Good my lady, pardon a garrulous old man. So as I was saying, the
damozels were once wont to leer at me right waggishly; but time
changeth all things, as the proverb saith; and time hath changed my
face, from that of a blithesome Ganymede to one of those heads
which Guido has often painted; mild, pale, penetrating. Good my
lady, I must tell thee a right pleasant and quaint saying of a certain
nun, touching my face.'

'For pity's sake,' cried I, 'and as you value the preservation of my

senses, continue your story without these digressions.'

'Certes, my lady,' said he. 'Well, I was first taken, as a bonny page,
into the service of thy great great grandfader's fader's brother; and I
was in at the death of these four generations, till at last, I became
seneschal to thine honoured fader, Lord De Willoughby. His lordship
married the Lady Hysterica Belamour, and thou wast the sole
offspring of that ill-fated union.
'Soon after thy birth, thy noble father died of an apparition; or, as
some will have it, of stewed lampreys. Returning, impierced with
mickle dolour, from his funeral, which took place at midnight, I was
stopped on a common, by a tall figure, with a mirksome cloak, and a
flapped hat. I shook grievously, ne in that ghastly dreriment wist
how myself to bear.'

'I do not comprehend your expressions,' interrupted I.

'I mean,' said he, 'I was in such a fright I did not know what to do.
Anon, he threw aside his disguise, and I beheld—Lord Gwyn!'

'Lord Gwyn!' cried I.

'Yea,' said he. 'Lord Gwyn, who was ywedded unto Lord De
Willoughby's sister, the Lady Eleanor.'

'Then Lady Eleanor Gwyn is my aunt!' cried I.

'Thou sayest truly,' replied he. '"My good Eftsoones," whispered Lord
Gwyn to me, "know you not that my wife, Lady Eleanor Gwyn, will
enjoy all the extensive estates of her brother, Lord De Willoughby, if
that brother's infant, the little Cherubina, were no more?"

'"I trow, ween, and wote, 'tis as your lordship saith," answered I.

'His lordship then put into mine hand a stiletto.

'"Eftsoones," said he, with a hollow voice, "if this dagger be planted
in a child's heart, it will grow, and bear a golden flower!"

'He spake, and incontinently took to striding away from me, in such
wise, that maulgre and albe, I gan make effort after him, nathlesse
and algates did child Gwyn forthwith flee from mine eyne.'

'I protest most solemnly,' said I, 'I do not understand five words in
the whole of that last sentence!'
'And yet, my lady,' replied he, ''tis the pure well of English undefiled,
and such as was yspoken in mine youth.'

'But what can you mean by child Gwyn?' said I. 'Surely his lordship
was no suckling at this time.'

'Child,' said Eftsoones, 'signified a noble youth, some centuries ago;

and it is coming into fashion again. For instance, there is Childe
Harold.'

'Then,' said I, 'there is "second childishness;" and I fancy there will

be "mere oblivion" too. But if possible, finish your tale in the corrupt
tongue.'

'I will endeavour,' said he. 'Tempted by this implied promise of a

reward, I took an opportunity of conveying you away from your
mother, and of secreting you at the house of a peasant, whom I
bribed to bring you up as his own daughter. I told Lord Gwyn that I
had dispatched you, and he gave me three and fourpence halfpenny
for my trouble.

'When the dear lady, your mother, missed you, she went through the
most elegant extravagancies; till, having plucked the last hair from
her head, she ran wild into the woods, and has never been heard of
since.'

'Dear sainted sufferer!' exclaimed I.

'A few days ago,' continued Eftsoones, 'a messenger out of breath
came to tell me, that the peasant to whom I had consigned you was
dying, and wished to see me. I went. Such a scene! He confessed to
me that he had sold you, body and bones, as he inelegantly
expressed it, to one farmer Wilkinson, about thirteen years before;
for that this farmer, having discovered your illustrious birth,
speculated on a handsome consideration from Lord Gwyn, for
keeping the secret. Now I am told there is a certain parchment——'
'Which I have!' cried I.

'And a certain portrait of Nell Gwyn——'

'Which I have!'

'And a mole just above your left temple——'

'Which I have!' exclaimed I, in an ecstasy.

'Then your title is made out, as clear as the sun,' said he; 'and I
bow, in contrition, before Lady Cherubina de Willoughby, rightful
heiress of all the territory now appertaining, or that may hereinafter
appertain, to the House of De Willoughby.'

'Oh, dear, how delightful!' cried I. 'But my good friend, how am I to

set about proving my title?'

'Nothing easier,' answered he. 'Lady Gwyn (for his lordship is dead)
resides at this moment on your estate, which lies about thirty miles
from Town; so to-morrow morning you shall set off to see her
ladyship, and make your claims known to her. I will send a trusty
servant with you, and will myself proceed before you, to prepare her
for your arrival. You will therefore find me there.'

While we were in the act of arranging affairs more accurately, who

should make his appearance, but Stuart in a domino!

The moment he addressed me, old Eftsoones slunk away; nor could
I catch another glimpse of him during that night.

Stuart told me that he had come to the masquerade, on the chance

of finding me there, as I seemed so determined on going, the last
time he was with me. He likewise explained the mystery of the
darkened chamber, and the false alarm of fire.

It appears, that as soon as he had discovered the views of

Betterton, he hired a lodging at the opposite side of the street, and
had two police officers there, for the purpose of watching Betterton's
movements, and frustrating his attempts. He knocked several times
in the course of yesterday, but was always answered that I had
walked out. Knowing that I had not, he began to suspect foul play,
and determined on gaining admittance to me. He therefore knocked
once more, and then rushed into the house crying fire. This
manœuvre had the desired effect, for an universal panic took place;
and in the midst of it, he saw me issuing forth, and effect my
escape. After having pursued me till he lost all traces of my route,
he returned to my lodgings, and was informed by the poet, that
Betterton had persuaded the landlady to fasten a carpet at the
outside of my window, in order to make me remain in bed, till the
time for the masquerade should arrive; and thus prevent me from
having an interview with Stuart.

We then walked up and down the room, while I gave him an account
of the ancient and loyal vassal, and of all that I had heard respecting
my family. He was silent on the subject; and only begged of me to
point out Eftsoones, as soon as I should see him; but that
interesting old man never appeared. However, I was in great hopes
of another adventure; for a domino now began hovering about us so
much, that Stuart at last addressed it; but it glided away. He said he
knew it was Betterton.

In about an hour, I became tired of the scene; for no one took

notice of my dress. We therefore bade Jerry, who was in waiting, call
a coach; and we proceeded in it to his house.

On our way, I mentioned my determination of setting off to Lady

Gwyn's the very next morning, as Eftsoones had promised to meet
me there. Stuart, for a wonder, applauded my resolution; and even
offered to accompany me himself.

'For,' said he, 'I think I know this old Eftsoones; and if so, I fancy
you will find me useful in unravelling part of the mystery. Besides, I
would assist, with all my soul, in any plan tending to withdraw you
from the metropolis.'

I snatched at his offer with joy; and it was then fixed that we should
take a chaise the next morning, and go together.

On our arrival at the lodging, Stuart begged a bed of Jerry, that he

might be ready for the journey in time; and the good-natured
Irishman, finding him my friend, agreed to make up a pallet for him
in the parlour.

Matters were soon arranged, and we have just separated for the
night.

Well, Biddy, what say you now? Have I not made a glorious
expedition of it? A young, rich, beautiful titled heiress already—think
of that, Biddy.

As soon as I can decently turn Lady Gwyn out of doors, I mean to

set up a most magnificent establishment. But I will treat the poor
woman (who perhaps is innocent of her husband's crime) with
extreme delicacy. She shall never want a bed or a plate. By the by, I
must purchase silver plate. My livery shall be white and crimson.
Biddy, depend upon my patronage. How the parson and music-
master will boast of having known me. Then our village will swarm
so, to hear tell as how Miss Cherry has grown a great lady. Old
mother Muggins, at the bottom of the hill, will make a good week's
gossip out of it. However, I mean to condescend excessively, for
there is nothing I hate so much as pride.

Yet do not suppose that I am speculating upon an easy life. Though

the chief obstacle to my marriage will soon be removed, by the
confirmation of my noble birth, still I am not ignorant enough to
imagine that no other impediments will interfere. Besides, to confess
the fact, I do not feel my mind quite prepared to marry Montmorenci
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