ABSTRACT
The chapter seeks to consider the supposed aspiration to establish a universal religion as a recurring topic of Anti-Masonic conspiracy theories in France, from the late 18th century (Jacques-François Lefranc’s Le Voile levé pour les curieux) to the present (New World Order theories). It points to the Second Vatican Council as a turning point in the evolution of these theories, created mainly in radical conservative or traditionalist religious milieus, especially Catholic ones associated with the counter-revolutionary and royalist current (like the association Amis du Christ Roi de France, founded by Louis-Hubert Remy). In the Anti-Masonic conspiracy theories studied, it is not difficult to see inverted constitutive features of the Catholic vera religio (as conceived by Maurice Sachot). In fact, the establishment of a new universal religion aimed at controlling the world is understood by the conspiratorial authors most often, if not exclusively, as replacing Christianity (and especially the Catholic religion), which assumes that the latter is still the only true religion established to rule over souls. Despite the fact that Freemasons have contributed to the creation of various concepts of universal religion throughout history, the fictitious and mythical nature of the conspiracy theories remains.
