"That I will provide myself with arms and ammunition that I may be in readiness when the word is passed or I am commanded to defend the church, either as an individual or with the militia of the Pope.
"All of which I, —— ——, do swear by the blessed Trinity and blessed sacrament which I am now to receive to perform and on my part to keep this, my oath.
"In testimony whereof, I take this most holy and blessed sacrament of the Eucharist and witness the same further with my name written with the point of this dagger dipped in my own blood and seal it in the face of this holy sacrament." (Excerpts from "Contested election case of Eugene C. Bonniwell against Thomas S. Butler," as appears in the Congressional Record —— House, Feb. 15, 1913, at pages 3215, &c., and ordered printed therein "by unanimous consent." Attached thereto and printed (on page 3216) as a part of said report as above.)
The above spurious oath, and others like it, have been found to be fraudulent, both by the courts and by an investigation made by Masonic bodies. The above oath made its appearance according to a book published by Maurice Francis Egan, for eleven years United States Minister to Denmark, and John B. Kennedy, in 1912. Messrs. Egan and Kennedy explain it as follows:
"It was filed by Mr. Eugene C. Bonniwell of Pennsylvania in his charge against Thomas S. Butler before the Committee of Elections No. 1, in Congress, when Mr. Bonniwell stated that it had been used against him as a Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus in an election contest. Mr. Butler, in his defense, stated that he had refrained from condemning the 'oath,' until election day, although he did not believe it to be genuine, because he feared to give it notoriety.
"Far from being disconcerted by the airing of this delectable document in Congress, those profiting by its circulation seized upon its inclusion in the Congressional Record to give it an air of authority by printing on future copies the annotation 'Copied from the Congressional Record, &c.,' not pausing, however, to explain the circumstances under which it was allowed to appear in that official journal."
EDITORS ARE CONVICTED
A.M. Morrison and Garfield E. Morrison, editors of the Morning Journal of Mankato, Minn., charged E.M. Lawless, editor of the Waterville, Minn., Sentinel with having taken the bogus oath. Lawless took the case to court and the two Morrisons were convicted. The foreman of the jury was a Methodist minister.
In 1914 the bogus oath came to light in California. The Knights of Columbus asked a committee of two, 32nd and 33rd degree, Masons, Past or Past Grand Masters of Masonry of that state, to make an investigation of all the rituals, pledges and oaths used by the Knights of Columbus. The Masonic committee gave out a report saying that they had made such an investigation. They found that the ceremonies of the Knights of Columbus were embodied in four degrees "intended to teach and inculcate principles that lie at the foundations of every great religion and every great state."