About
Léo Taxil, born Marie Joseph Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pagès in Marseille in 1854, rose to prominence in the 1880s with virulent anti-clerical pamphlets such as La Bible amusante and Les Pornographes sacrés. In 1885, he feigned a conversion to Catholicism and embarked on an elaborate hoax: he invented Palladism, a purported Satanic sect within Freemasonry, and published fabricated revelations under various pseudonyms. In 1897, he publicly confessed the hoax, causing a major scandal. He died in 1907.
* 1854-03-21 — † 1907-03-28
Major works
- La Bible amusante (1882)satirical pamphlet
- Les Pornographes sacrés: la confession et les confesseurs (1882)pamphlet
- La Vie de Jésus (1884)satirical biography
- Le Diable au XIXe siècle (1892-1894)serial novel
- Mémoires d'une Ex-Palladiste (1895-1897)apocryphal memoirs
Key milestones
- 1879Prosecuted for his pamphlet À bas la calotte, he was acquitted.
- 1885Feigns a conversion to Catholicism and begins his anti-Masonic hoax.
- 1897Publicly confesses the hoax at a press conference in Paris.
Themes
anti-clericalismanti-Masonryhoaxsatireconspiracy theories
Sources: id.loc.gov · nli.org.il