SECRET SOCIETIES. The term secret society can be used to describe all groups whose membership or very existence is unknown to nonmembers, or that keep certain of their practices or conceptions hidden from nonmembers, no matter how public or recognized they are as a group. Within these broad limits one could include subversive political groups, criminal gangs, and some professional guilds. There may be a religious dimension to these organizations, perhaps in ritual behavior, legends about their origins, or other counterparts to phenomena typical of religious groups. In this article, however, attention will be given to groups that are more clearly religious, as determined by their recognition of supernatural powers or their subscription to certain values and ideals.

It must be admitted, however, that there is no clear border between those secret societies that definitely celebrate religious matters and those that are secular. Of course, secret...