The disappearance and presumed murder of William Morgan in 1826, by Masons, set off an intense anti-Masonic period which lasted until ca. 1842. The fraternity, which was once called the "handmaid of religion," was denounced as an institution of the devil. The Rev. David Bernard, one of the first to renounce his membership, prepared what was arguably the most important work of the period. Hailed as the "Bible of the anti-Masons," it offered the...