SECRETION 



SECRET SOCIETIES 



295 



house ) ; Titchborne. Hereford, Treago. Herts, Kneb- 

 worth (1553, demolished 1811). Lancashire. Ashes, at 

 Goosnargh ; Borwick ; Lowstock Hall, in Bolton parish 

 (demolished 1816); Lydiate ; Mains Hall, in Kirkham 

 parish (Cardinal Allen); Speke HaU ; Widnes House, 

 near Warrington ; Stonyhurst ( in great tower ). Leices- 

 ter, Long Clawson. Lincoln, Irnhatn Hall (c. 1500); 

 Kingerby Hall; Upton. Middlesex, Canonbury Tower, 

 Islington ; Cromwell House, Highgate ; White Welles 

 House. Monmouth. Raglan Castle. Norfolk, Oxburgh 

 House. JVor(Aon, Burghley House; Harrowden. North- 

 umberland, Netherwitton (Lord Lovat?); Wallington 

 HaU. Notts, Worksop Manor (burned 1761). OxforiJ, 

 liroughton Castle ; Chastleton ; Minster Lovel ( Lord 

 Lovel, Simnel's adherent, starved to death here, 1487, and 

 skeleton found in 18th century?). Pembroke, Carew 

 C'astle (temp. Henry L). Shropshire, Boscobel (Charles 

 II.); Pitchford; Plowden; White Ladies (Charles II.). 

 Sumeriet, Trent Manor House (Charles II.). Stafford, 

 Moseley Hall (Charles II.). Sufolk, 'Ancient House,' 

 Ipswich (1567; Charles II.?); Coldham Hall; Melford 

 Hall. Surrey, Benton ; Ham House, at Weybridge 

 ( 1610, hiding-places shown to Evelyn by Duke of Nor- 

 folk) ; Sandenttead Court; Sutton Place, near Guildford 

 {temp. Henry VIII.). Sussex, Ashbonrne Place (Bishop 

 Jnxon); Cowdray (Lord Montague); Parham ; Pax 

 Hill, near Cnckfield (built by Andrew Boorde, q.v.); 

 Slindon; Street Place; West Grin stead. Warwick, 

 Congleton Court; Compton-Wyniates (c. 1520). Wilts, 

 Heale House, near Amvsbury ( Charles II. ; visited by Dr 

 Johnson, 1783). Worcester, Arinscott Manor House, 

 near Shipston-on-Stour( George Fox the Quaker) ; Birts- 

 morton Court ( 14th century ; Sir John Oldcastle ) ; Har- 

 borongh Hall ; Harvington ; Hindlip Hall ( eleven 1ml- 

 ing-places, now demolished ; nee above ) ; Little Malvern 

 Court. Yorkshire, Abbey House, Whitby; Danby Hall, 

 near Bedale ; Dinsdale ; the Grove, Leyburn; the 'New 

 Building,' near Kirkby Knowle; Red House (Henry 

 Slingsby ). 



See Notet and Queries for 1855-56 and 1879-85, 

 Chambers' s Book of Days ( i. 433, 1869 ', and two articles 

 in Chambers'! Journal for Dec. 1883 and Oct. 1886. 



Secretion a vital process in which certain 

 cells of tin: body form within themselves definite 

 products, which accumulate and are usually dis- 

 charged. The cells specialised for secreting are 

 called glandular, and many are often united to 

 form a Gland (q.v.). The definite products formed 

 by the activity of the glandular cells are called 

 secretions, this term being applied both to process 

 and products. All the digestive juices, the silk 

 of silkworms, the webs of spiders, the wax of bees, 

 the nectar of flowers, and the like, are secretions. 

 They are formed by the activity of the living 

 matter from materials derived from the blood, or, 

 when there is no blood, from the supplies of food 

 which otherwise reach the glandular cells. They 

 are discharged sometimes by a slow outpouring 

 comparable to filtration through the free surface 

 of the cell, sometimes bv the more or less complete 

 rupture of the cell. The process of secretion is 

 usually periodic, intervals of quiescence alternat- 

 ing with those of activity. See GLANDS, PHYSI- 

 OLOOV, DIGESTION. For the secretion of plants, 

 see VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



Secret Service Moneys, in the widest sense 

 of the term, include all funds placed at the disposal 

 of ministers of state, to be expended at their dis- 

 cretion without giving an account. In the 18th 

 century large sums were paid for secret service out 

 of the king's civil list ; these moneys were used 

 chiefly for the purpose of bribing members of parlia- 

 ment. In 1782 Burke carried his scheme of finan- 

 cial reform ; the amount to !>e paid from the civil 

 list was limited to 10,000, and ministers expend- 

 ing secret service money were required to make a 

 declaration that they had done so in accordance 

 with the intentions of parliament. In 1886 the 

 matter was further considered, and an act was 

 passed under which the payment authorised by 

 the law relating to the civil list was discontinued. 



All moneys required for secret service are now 

 included in the estimates ; a sum of 35,000 has 

 been voted on this account for some years past. 

 The declarations required by Burke's Act are suffi- 

 ciently stringent to prevent any gross abuse ; there 

 is no ground for the suggestion, still occasionally 

 made, that secret service moneys are used in paying 

 the election expenses of ministers. Almost all 

 governments have some fund of which no public 

 account is given ; and all secret expenditure is 

 naturally viewed with suspicion by the representa- 

 tives of the taxpayers. See SPY. 



Secret Societies, in some form or other, 

 have existed in all ages of the world's history, not 

 only amongst nations with well-organised systems 

 of social and public life, but also amongst races 

 that have never advanced beyond the elementary 

 stages of social organisation. Religion and politics 

 are the departments of human activity in which 

 such societies have most prevailed ; though they 

 have also been formed for judiciary, scientific, civil, 

 social, and even criminal purposes. 



In the ancient world many of the more influen- 

 tial religions had their Mysteries (q.v.), the cere- 

 monies connected with which were generally per- 

 formed in secret, and only in the presence of 

 those who had been duly initiated. These inner 

 and more secret groups of priests and initiated 

 worshippers existed in association with the worship 

 of Mithras in Persia, of Orpheus and Dionysus 

 in Greece, at Eleusis and elsewhere, of Osiris and 

 Serapis in Egypt, and of the Great Mother ( Cybele ) 

 in Phrygia. The main objects which these exclu- 

 sive coteries had before them were of course various : 

 in some cases the intention was to render the sacred- 

 ness and binding force of religion all the stronger 

 over the hearts and imaginations of men ; in 

 others to preserve the ' holy things ' from the 

 profanations and familiarities of the vulgar throng ; 

 in others to enrich the temple or shrine ; and 

 in yet others the ruling motive seems to have 

 been solely the wish to keep in a few hands the 

 power that invariably attaches itself to the 

 priestly office. The followers of Pythagoras formed 

 what was in many respects a secret religious 

 society, though philosophy and political doctrine 

 took a foremost place in their teachings. The 

 Druids are often represented as practising secret 

 rites, handed down through certain of the priests ; 

 but upon this matter the evidence is shadowy in the 

 extreme. Amongst the Jews there proceeded from 

 out of the Pharisees the puritanical Essenes ( Chasi- 

 dim), who for the purpose of living a holier life 

 formed themselves into what were virtually reli- 

 gious clubs, characterised by many features com- 

 mon to exclusive religious societies. The Essenes 

 were the forerunners of the Jewish Cabbalists 

 (see CABBALA), who professed a secret system of 

 theology and philosophy associated with mystic 

 practices, and of the Christian Gnostics, who 

 formed exclusive sects based on initiation and 

 esoteric teaching (see GNOSTICISM). The lineal 

 successors of these last were the various mediaeval 

 sects of Cathari (q.v.), most of whom invested their 

 teaching and their worship with many features of 

 mystery. In the Roman Catholic Church the 

 office of the Inquisition deserves to be called a 

 secret society, and so does the order of the Jesuits, 

 especially in respect of its methods ; though in both 

 cases the secrecy was due to political rather than 

 to strictly religious causes. The Knights Templars 

 (q.v.) towards the close of their history as a dis- 

 tinct order seem in several cases to have lapsed 

 into the practice of secret rites and belief in certain 

 secret doctrines. The Druses hold a peculiar place 

 as the inheritors of a national religion which is 

 jealously exclusive both in doctrine and ritual. 



The Rosicrucians (q.v.) and the Freemason* 



