Monsignor Ernest Jouin (21 December 1844 – 27 June 1932) was a French

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

priest and essayist, known for his promotion of the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory. He also published the first French edition of ''

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated text purporting to detail a Jewish plot for global domination. Largely plagiarized from several earlier sources, it was first published in Imperial Russia in 1903, translated into multip ...

''.

Life

Jouin was born in 1844 in Angers in a family of Catholic artisans. His father died when he was four, and he was sent to a novitiate of the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

to be educated. From there, he moved to the seminary of Angers and was ordained as a priest in 1868. From Angers, he moved to Paris in 1875, where he served as a parish priest until the end of his life. He strongly criticized the anti-clerical measures introduced by the government of

Émile Combes Émile Justin Louis Combes (; 6 September 183525 May 1921) was a French politician and freemason who led the Bloc des gauches, Lefts Bloc (French: ''Bloc des gauches'') cabinet from June 1902 to January 1905. Career Émile Combes was born on 6 ...

, and was sentenced in 1907 to a fine for his writings regarded as subversive. He attributed the incident to

Freemasonry Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

and joined several anti-Masonic organizations before founding his own. In 1912, Jouin founded the ''Ligue Franc-Catholique''. The league's journal, the ''Revue internationale des sociétés secrètes'', was one of the two main

anti-Semitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

tribunes of the interwar period (along with the paper of the

Action Française ''Action Française'' (, AF; ) is a French far-right monarchist and nationalist political movement. The name was also given to a journal associated with the movement, '' L'Action Française'', sold by its own youth organization, the Camelot ...

). ''Revue'' often published right-wing

antisemitic canard Antisemitic tropes, also known as antisemitic canards or antisemitic libels, are " sensational reports, misrepresentations or fabrications" about Jews as an ethnicity or Judaism as a religion. Since the 2nd century, malicious allegations of ...

s from Russian, such as hoaxes about

blood libel Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mu ...

, and claims that Bolshevism was a Judeo-Masonic plot. Describing the ''Protocols'', Jouin wrote: "From the triple viewpoint of race, of nationality, and of religion, the Jew has become the enemy of humanity."

Pope Benedict XV Pope Benedict XV (; ; born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, ; 21 November 1854 – 22 January 1922) was head of the Catholic Church from 1914 until his death in January 1922. His pontificate was largely overshadowed by World War I a ...

made Jouin an

Honorary Prelate A Prelate of Honour of His Holiness is a Catholic prelate to whom the Pope has granted this title of honour. They are addressed as Monsignor (typically abbreviated 'Mgr') and have certain privileges as regards clerical clothing.

Pope Pius XI Pope Pius XI (; born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, ; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939) was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 until his death in February 1939. He was also the first sovereign of the Vatican City State u ...

praised Jouin for "combating our mortal enemy",

, and appointed him to high papal office as a protonotary apostolic. Papacy and freemasonry speech by Monseigneur Jouin, December 8, 1930.

References

1844 births 1932 deaths Critics of Freemasonry Antisemitism in France Far-right politics in France French anti-communists French essayists French journalists French male non-fiction writers 19th-century French Roman Catholic priests 20th-century French Roman Catholic priests Integralism Late modern Christian antisemitism Roman Catholic conspiracy theorists French Roman Catholic writers French conspiracy theorists {{France-RC-clergy-stub