Italy: A Grand Master's Conspiracy

The government falls over an astonishing Masonic cabal

Postwar Italian governments have fallen apart-for almost every conceivable reason, from failed budget votes (1964) to squabbles over abortion reform (1976) to Communist bids for power (1978). Even so, the most inventive Italian citizen would be hard pressed to dream up the bizarre scandal that rocked the country last week and toppled the four-party coalition government of Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani. Some of the leading, members of a secret Masonic group—which allegedly involved nearly 1,000 respected figures of the Italian Establishment, including members of...