Hellfire Club

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Exterior view of the catacombs of the Hellfire Club (2006)

The Hellfire Club (German: "Hellfire Club") was the name for an association that called itself Knights of St. Francis (German: "Knights of St. Francis "). Hellfire Club was the name for various clubs that high society in Great Britain and Ireland had launched.

history

The first Hellfire Club was founded in London in 1719 by Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton (1698-1731), son of Thomas Wharton, 1st Marquess of Wharton (1648-1715), and some other members of the high society .

First, the members met in an earlier club founded by Charles Edward in 1720 . The founder of the actual Hellfire Club was the aristocrat Sir Francis Dashwood, 11th Baron le Despencer (1708–1781). While traveling around Europe, Dashwood had attended various seminaries and was inspired by the religious rites of imitation for his association.

The early members of Charles Edward's group first met in May 1746 on Lombard Street at the George and Vulture tavern . The number of members was initially limited to twelve, but it soon increased. Seven of these twelve members are still traceable today: Dashwood, Robert Vansittart , William Hogarth , Thomas Potter , Francis Duffield , Edward Thompson and Paul Whitehead . Benjamin Franklin attended at least one meeting; whether he was a member is controversial. Later members were John Wilkes and John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich .

The mostly aristocratic members met irregularly between 1746 and 1763 to commit sexual debauchery. The Knights of St. Francis never called themselves the Hellfire Club, but used several mockingly religious titles such as Brotherhood of St. Francis of Wycombe, Order of Knights of West Wycombe or Monks of Medmenham. Members called themselves brothers among themselves and designated Dashwood as abbot. The female guests were called nuns. The club's motto came from François Rabelais : "Fay ce que vouldras" - "Do what you want", which was later used by Aleister Crowley . In addition to pseudosatanic rites, Bacchus and Venus were also included in their celebrations.

When the George and Vulture public house burned down in 1749, Dashwood built a temple underground at his West Wycombe home. Real catacombs have been excavated. The first meeting was held in 1752 on Walpurgis Night . Another, much larger, meeting was a failure and only smaller celebrations were held. In 1755 Dashwood acquired the ruins of Medmenham Abbey , which was rebuilt in neo-Gothic style by architect Nicholas Revett . The knights soon got a reputation for practicing Satanism and celebrating black masses in Medmenham Abbey next to the Thames . The American author Rosemary Guiley suspects that it was all about sexual debauchery in which large quantities of alcoholic beverages were consumed. In 1762 the club was dissolved, as internal political competition and disputes became public and the pressure on the club, especially from the church, increased.

In the book Nocturnal Revels , written by a monk of the Knights of St. Francis in 1779 , which deals with prostitution in England, it says: In his opinion the religious orders were “founded in direct contradiction to nature and reason; on his return to England [he] thought that some farcical institution in the name of St. Francis would mark the absurdity of such societies; and instead of the severity and abstinence there, she practiced social happiness, uninhibited laughter and social bliss ”.

In the course of the 18th century other clubs with this name were founded.

The Hellfire Club on Montpelier Hill near Tallaght, in County Dublin South, was built by the Irish politician William Connolly in 1725 as a hunting lodge.

The Hellfire Club in literature and film

  • In the British television series Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone (OT: The Avengers ), A Touch of Brimstone (Season 4, Episode 21, 1966) shows a new foundation of the Hellfire Club , which not only celebrates orgies like the original, but also through attacks - first joke, later fatal - the British government wants to overthrow. Emma Peel, alias Diana Rigg , appears as Queen of Sin in a dominatrix costume while trying to infiltrate the Hellfire Club , which caused a considerable stir at the time.
  • In the early 1980s, then-writer of the series, Chris Claremont , introduced the Hellfire Club into the Marvel comic series The Uncanny X-Men . The club here is made up of ultra-rich industrialists who are also mutants , and have long been an opponent of the X-Men . In the late 1990s, is White Queen of the Hellfire Club , Emma Frost, a member of the X-Men.
    • The Hellfire Club can also be seen in the 1960s adaptation of X-Men: First Decision from 2011 as an opposing group to the X-Men, there specifically the Black King and the White Queen .
  • In the film Demonlover (2002) by Olivier Assayas , a website called Hellfire Club plays a central role.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hellfire Holidays: Damnation, Members Only , Tonyperrottet.com , December 15, 2009.
  2. ↑ Rosemary Guiley: The Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonology. Infobase Publishing, New York 2009, p. 31.