Pasqualis, Martinez

Pasqualis, Martinez chief of the sect of the Illumninati (q.v.), was born about 1715 in Portugal. Of Jewish origin, he had submitted himself in 1754 for admission to the cabalistic body, and afterwards became famous by his introduction of cabalistic rites into several masonic lodges of France-at Marseilles, Toulouse, and Bordeaux. In the latter city he initiated operations which he called theurgic. One of his most devoted admirers there was Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, then an officer in the regiment of Foix, with whom he has often been confounded, in consequence of the analogy of their names. Martinez, who presented his doctrine as a secret Biblical teaching which he had received by tradition, brought it in 1768 to Paris, and made a large number of adepts, who in 1775 took the name of Martinists. In their reunions they engaged in exercises which announced active virtues, to use consecrated language. They obtained, by sensible means, manifestations of an intellectual order, which revealed to the proselytes a science of minds, as the visions of Swedenborg, of a sentimental order, revealed a science of souls. One may conclude from Pasqualis's unpublished writings, and from those of his disciples, that he, believed, or made his disciples believe, that it is possible for men in a devoted state to produce supernatural effects, or miracles. Martinez Pasqualis left Paris in 1778 for St. Domingo, where he was called to succeed one of his relatives, and died at Port-au-Prince the following year. See Saint-Martin, (Euvres diverses, passim.