In nineteenth-century France, when Freemasons led the republic, anti-Semitic groups feared the possible power of Judeo-Masonic conspiracies. Out of the anti-Masonic groups organized, one was the ‘‘Grand Occident.’’ In the twentieth century, Pierre Plantard, an anti-Semite and the main figure behind the Priory of Sion farce, believed in the Grand Occident’s ideas and tried to form an anti-Semitic group himself, then was imprisoned for failing to register it with the government. See Alpha Galates; Freemasonry; Plantard, Pierre.