Caves du Vatican

Anthime Armand-Dubois

"Pour ma part, mon choix est fait. J'ai opté pour l'athéisme social. Cet athéisme, je l'ai exprimé depuis une quinzaine d'années, dans une série d'ouvrages..." Georges Palante, Chronique philosophique du Mercure de France (December 1912)

I.

In 1890, under the pontificate of Leo XIII, the reputation of Doctor X, a specialist in illnesses of rheumatic origin, drew Anthime Armand-Dubois, a Freemason, to Rome.

"What? cried Julius de Baraglioul, his brother-in-law. You are going all the way to Rome to have your body cured! I only hope you discover there how much sicker your soul is!"

Armand-Dubois replied, in a tone of exaggerated pity: "My poor friend, just look at my shoulders."

Against his will, the good-natured Baraglioul raised his eyes to his brother-in-law's shoulders. They were shaking, as though heaved by a deep, irrepressible laughter, and it was truly pitiful to see that vast, half-crippled body devote what remained of its muscular strength to this parody. Well then, their positions were clearly fixed, and Baraglioul's eloquence could change nothing. Perhaps time would? Or the secret counsel of the holy places... With an air of immense discouragement, Julius only said...