A Popular History of Unpopular Things
A podcast that makes history more fun and accessible - we love all things gory, gross, mysterious, and weird!
A Popular History of Unpopular Things
The Order of the Pug
Join Kelli as she dives into the world of the Freemasons, Secret Societies, Religious Tension, Political Conflict, and... pugs?
In 1738, Pope Clement XII issued a papal bull denying any Roman Catholics from joining the Freemasons. It was a targeted hit at the religious and political tensions surrounding two sects of the Freemasons - the Jacobite Lodge and the Hanoverian Lodge - who argued over their main religious identity and political affiliations. But as a result of the papal bull, Catholics were no longer allowed to join any Freemason group.
So, to get around this, the Order of the Pug was formed - a para-Masonic group that allowed the elite of Europe to still engage in Freemason-esque rituals, fellowship, and life... but without the threat of excommunication.
But the Order of the Pugs operated as it sounds - it was very focused on dogs. Collars, barking, and all. And it got weird.
This episode doesn't have death, destruction, blood, gore, violence, or cannibalism... but it's certainly a strange story!
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The Order of the Pug
Intro
Welcome to A Popular History of Unpopular Things, a mostly scripted podcast that makes history more fun and accessible. My kind of history is the unpopular stuff - disease, death, and destruction. I like learning about all things bloody, gross, mysterious, and weird.
Just a quick reminder that you can support me and the show on Patreon, just look up either A Popular History of Unpopular Things or APHOUT: A-P-H-O-U-T. And you can also now watch episodes on YouTube - so go subscribe to my channel there! I appreciate all the love and support :)
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Now lately, I’ve been leaning heavily into the bloody, gory, and gross side of history. So today, I figured I’d give you something a bit weird instead. So for those of you who haven’t been enjoying the squishy noises I put in when I talk about cannibalism, or ripping flesh from bones… today you get a bit of a break! Because I want to talk about a secret society founded by Roman Catholics in the 18th century… and it was called the order of the pug. Yes, you heard that right - pugs. As in the dog breed.
Buckle up guys, today’s going to get really weird.
So for those of you tuning in for the first time to this podcast, I normally start off each story with some historical context - what was happening in history in this period of time that explains the event? So for example, what led to some guy forming a secret society called the order of the pug? I feel like people don’t just come up with this stuff randomly, right? What was the point of it? What compelled him to make that society up, at that particular moment in time? That’s the historical context, and it’s one my *things.* So we’ll take a look at European religious society in and around 1738, when the order was created, to get a better understanding of why it even existed.
Once we get that sorted, we’ll take a look at the order itself - how does one become a member? Who did they let in? What was the point of it all? And does the Order of the Pug still exist somewhere today, hiding in the shadows, like a much goofier Illuminati?
So let’s get started!
Historical Context
So this topic… doesn’t actually have a ton of information about it. Which makes it even more intriguing. But what we first need to know, to better understand what this Order is all about, is who are the freemasons?
The Freemasons are the world’s oldest fraternity, and actually have their roots in the guilds of the Middle Ages. Guilds were a way for workers to come together, share best practices, find jobs, protect each other from scams, theft, and stuff like that, and generally improve their craft with fellow artisans and makers. The Freemasons started off as one of these guilds, more specifically, the Stonemasons. The stonemasons had lots of work building massive stone cathedrals in the Middle Ages. But over time, when there was less work, and therefore fewer stonemasons to join the guild, membership was opened up to other people.
From there, we see the formation of lodges. A lodge is both the physical meeting hall and the name for the group of men in that particular branch. You might have heard that term coopted for other things - my mind goes to the Lodge of Sorceresses in the Witcher universe. Ooh, does anyone else remember that weird old nineties horror point-and-click game, Harvester? The main character spends the entire game trying to join the Lodge, which functions like one of these masonic groups, but in an overly exaggerated way. But anyway.
Even the different degrees of Freemason membership are based on old guild terms; in a medieval guild, you start off as the apprentice, then over time and with experience can become a journeyman, and end up as a Master if you are skilled enough. In today’s freemason societies, you go from apprentice, to fellow craft (which was adapted over time from “journeyman fellow”), to master.
Long story short and simplified, the Freemasons, as a brotherhood, echo a lot of the same morals and teachings as organized religion. They teach morality, obedience, and fellowship. They are bound by oath. There are rituals and customs that members are expected to engage in. They believe in a Supreme Being - some modern Freemasons call him the Great Architect of the Universe, but others just believe in a generic idea of a higher power and don’t identify with one particular religion. And of course in our modern world some believe in their religion’s god and are also part of the Freemasons society.
Now because of the similarities between masonic groups and organized religion, the Freemasons and other secret societies have always found themselves at odds with the Catholic Church. Which makes sense - the Catholic Church and Catholicism, in general, would likely not be cool with you worshipping the Great Architect instead of God, or engaging in Freemason rituals instead of going to Mass, or even giving charity from your wallet to fellow members instead of the collection plate on Sundays.
So that friction point is where we’re going to dive a little deeper with our context - the rift between fraternal groups like the Freemasons and Roman Catholicism.
Now because of the rise of the Freemasons, Pope Clement XII (12th) issued a papal bull, which is basically just a public decree, on April 28th, 1738, banning Catholics from becoming Freemasons. It was called, bare with me it’s in Latin - In eminenti apostolatus specula. And why this moment in time to ban the Freemasons? Well, there was split in English Freemason Lodges over how they handled religious and political affiliations.
So after 1715, there seemed to be two factions of Lodges - the Jacobite Lodge and the Hanoverian Lodges. Which is hard to say. Hanover-ian.
So the Jacobites are predominantly Catholics who wanted to restore the House of Stuart to the English Throne. Jacobite comes from the Latin word for James, which refers in this case to James II of England, who fled his homeland during the Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689. He was replaced by William of Orange and his own daughter, Mary II of England - William and Mary. And so, the Jacobite Lodges were predominantly Catholics and supported bringing James II and the House of Stuart back to England to rule.
The Hanoverian Lodges came out a bit later in support of the Hanover House and George I, who became the English King in 1714. And if you’re hearing the word Hanover and thinking Germany, your instincts are correct; his family does in fact hail from Germany, but back then it was the Holy Roman Empire. And the Hanover Lodge was made up of predominantly Protestant members.
So there’s a lot going on here, right?
Pro-Stuarts vs. Pro-Hanovers. Catholics vs. Protestants. Should the old royal family come back to claim the throne? Or should the current/new royal family stay? Jacobites believed that the Stuarts should reclaim the throne, and see the resurgence of Catholicism in England. Hanoverians were happy with their current Protestant King.
Oh, also, if you’re a reader like me - these are the same Jacobites and the same basic conflict that serves as the political background for the first two Outlander books - the return of Bonny Prince Charlie and Jacobite sentiments in Scotland. Just saying.
And out of this political and religious chaos over the split Lodges, here comes the exiled James Edward,called the Old Pretender by those who didn’t support him, and the King Over the Water by those who did. He was James II’s son. So he called himself James III of the Stuart House, as he saw himself reclaiming the throne one day. Spoiler - it never happened. But the Old Pretender here got the Pope involved.
You see, the mainly Protestant Hanover Lodges were starting to accept French Catholics, which undermined the mainly Catholic Jacobite Lodges. To get back at them, James III asked the Pope to issue that aforementioned Papal Bull condemning the Hanoverian freemasons.
But instead of just targeting that specific set of Lodges, the Pope forbade all Roman Catholics from becoming Freemasons, which also affected the Jacobites. And if Catholics became Freemasons anyway, despite the Pope’s papal bull, they’d be excommunicated, which can mean a lot of things, but in this case, they’d be kicked out of the Church.
See how political and religious this all is? And I bet you thought this topic was all about dogs and people dressing up like pugs. And don’t worry, that happens too. But I always find it fascinating how religious and political impulses drive so many decisions in our world, especially back in this early modern period. You can never really escape politics - if you choose not to partake or be knowledgeable about it, it will still impact your life and the things you’re able to do. So go vote.
Okay. So to recap, because that was a lot of dense history:
Stonemason guilds over time morphed into the Freemasons, a fraternal society that kind of took the place of religion for some members because of how it operated.
Over time, as the Lodges grew in membership and became more political, there was a split based on the political situation in England. Those who supported Catholicism and the return of the Stuart House were called the Jacobite Lodges, and those who supported Protestantism and the Hanover House were called the Hanover Lodges.
The political and religious situation got so intense that the so-called James III pushed the Pope to issue a Papal Bull to punish the Hanover Lodges, but instead, the Pope condemned any Roman Catholic from joining any of the Freemason Lodges.
And that my friends is where we get what we call para-Masonic groups, a way for people to still engage in quasi-Freemason life without becoming Freemasons, to get around this Papal Bull. And the Order of the Pug was one of them.
The Order of the Pug
So details about the Order of the Pug are a little sparse. Which makes sense, I guess, if it’s a secret society trying to avoid detection. But we think it was founded in France in either 1738 or 1740, so either the same year or two years after the papal bull that banned freemasonry for Catholics. From there, it spread to Germany, and we credit Klemens August with creating the Bavarian branch (or possibly the whole thing) as a way to get around the Freemason ban.
Klemens August is an interesting character in this story, because he was the grandson of a Polish King and the son of the Bavarian elector, or prince if you will, the person in charge of Bavaria who reported to the Holy Roman Emperor. So since he comes from royalty, he was given a lot of privileges and titles, and later ended up as the Archbishop of Cologne, an elector himself, and a Grand Master in another society, the Teutonic Order. Among other things. So essentially, he’s got political and religious power in parts of Germany.
And I’m fully aware it’s not “Germany” yet, it’s the Holy Roman Empire, but it’s easier to geographically consider it just Germany. Don’t come for me.
Anywho, the basic premise of the Order of the Pug follows my logic from the historical context - if Catholics were banned from becoming Freemasons, then they’d create non-Masonic orders. But it would realistically serve the same purpose. But with a twist this time - women were allowed to join as well! Something not allowed by the Freemasons. Today, there are some offshoots of the Freemasons for women, but typically it’s still just for men.
Now, how does one join Der Mops-Orden? The Order of the Pug? And why a pug? I mean no offense to the pug lovers out there. I mean I’m more of a big dog girl, but again, I mean no offense. It’s not the breed that’s tripping me up, it’s the fact you’d model a secret society after a dog. I feel like there are better choices.
But let’s tackle why pugs, first. Because I find it kind of ironic.
So pugs are actually a super old dog breed. They date back to 400 BCE in China - so in the very early stages of the dynastic system. This would have been during the Zhou dynasty, but when it was decentralized and not super powerful. Anywho, by the 16th century in Europe, that’s the 1500s, pugs were popular dog breeds for European courts. If you’ve ever seen Marie Antoinette, by the way, the one with Kirsten Dunst, you’ll know that Marie Antoinette loved pugs, and was even forced to leave her Austrian pug behind when she crossed into France to marry the future King Louis XVI (16th).
So pugs are certainly around in Europe - and beloved by the rich and fancy. Ok. Established. But there are other dog breeds, so why choose the pug to be the symbol of this new para-Masonic group that was formed to get around the papal bull? It seems like a weird choice, no? I mean there have been other groups over the years that are para-Masonic and based on animals - you’ve got the Benevolent Order of the Elk, the Fraternal Order of Eagles… all powerful, majestic beasts. And pugs are dogs, and dogs are cute… but majestic? Pugs don’t read as majestic to me. Sorry, pug lovers. But come on now.
But to early modern Europeans, pugs were seen as loyal and trustworthy. So, I guess as good as symbol as any for people looking for a group where they could engage in rituals, share morals and fellowship, be obedient… I mean, dogs are pretty obedient, so I guess it works.
But the irony of using a symbol of loyalty to get around being loyal to the Catholic Church, is not lost on me.
But anyway, they choose the pug. The tiny, wrinkly, pug. And they didn’t just use the name - oh no, the whole group is saturated in all-things pug.
For example - let’s look at their initiation.
Order of the Pug candidates had to wear dog collars and scratch at the door to even get in. Once they were let inside, they were led around the room nine times, blindfolded and still wearing their dog collars, while the members barked at them.
Now the Order had these porcelain pugs commissioned from a German sculptor Johann Kaendler - he made all kinds of porcelain sculptures, and was very well known for his work. The Order of the Pug had him make some porcelain pups, and initiates supposedly had to kiss the porcelain dog’s, uhh, backside. Right under the base of the tail. Yikes. Good thing it’s just porcelain and not an actual dog.
Once they became members, they wore silver pug medallions. Which takes me right back to the witcher, to be honest. But these medallions were a symbol of all the things members of the Order of the Pug needed to demonstrate - loyalty, trust, discretion (which I get, because I imagine you’d be laughed out of court if people knew you barked and wore dog collars to get around the Catholic ban on Freemasons), tenderness, sweetness, and humanity. Fine, I guess. To each their own. If people want to form a group that shares values, and that makes them happy, and they’re not hurting anyone - you do you. That’s what we have discords now, right?
Now apparently, there was a Grand Master and a Grand Mistress, which supports the claim that women were allowed in. For half the year, the male Grand Master was in charge, and for the other half of the year, the female Grand Mistress. So that’s pretty neat.
But in 1745, the secretive Order of the Pug was exposed in a book published in Amsterdam. The title is in French, but the English translation is “The Order of Freemasons Betrayed and the Secret of the Pugs Revealed”. And it was this book where we get the bulk of our information on the Order. Because again, it was a secretive society that was circumventing the papal bull banning Freemasons and other similar organizations… so they had to keep it quiet.
And we have to take all of this with a grain of salt, too. Consider that it was an expose of sorts, outing the Order. And it’s the only source where we get information about the members doing weird Pug-related things. We don’t have too much in the way of corroborating evidence - just a few things like the porcelain statues to help prove it was a real thing.
But once this book came out, the secret was out, and Lodges associated with the Order of the Pug were silenced. For example, we know that a student Lodge of the Order of the Pug was banned from Göttingen (guh-ting-en) University in Germany in 1748. And from what we can tell, this was also the year the Order of the Pug ended.
Again, not much is known, because it was a secret society that tried to stay secret to avoid being targeted by the Catholic Church. And once the pug was out of the bag, the society crumbled.
Now what fascinates me the most is, as always, the history here. When we take a step back and look at the bigger picture, we can see this story as a microcosm of the tensions that existed between the Catholics and Protestants - so once again, we can trace a lot of this back to the Protestant Reformation of the early 16th century, that’s the 1500s. Religious tensions affected loyalty to England’s crown in the same way that it broke apart the Freemasons into different sects - and once the Pope got wind of all of this chaos, he issued an edict to keep Roman Catholics out of any society that took them away from the Church.
As a backlash to this papal bull, someone, likely Klemens August, created the Order of the Pug so they could continue meeting in a secret society while still keeping hold of their membership to the Roman Catholic Church.
So to me, the Order of the Pug, as weird as it was, is just another example of how people dealt with religious tensions and the fallout from all of the political and religious chaos of early modern europe. Fascinating stuff.
I still don’t get why it had to be a pug. I mean I objectively understand the rationale from a historical standpoint, and what the pug meant to people in high society… but still.
Outro
Thanks for joining me for this episode of A Popular History of Unpopular Things. My name is Kelli Beard, and I hope you’ve enjoyed the story of The Order of the Pug. Thank you for supporting my podcast, and if you haven’t already checked out my other episodes, go have a listen!
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