Kostka, Jean (d. 1903)
Kostka, Jean (d. 1903)
Pseudonym of Jules Stanislas Doinel, a former Gnostic and initiate of the 33rd degree. After being converted to Christianity, Kostka claimed to reveal his diabolic adventures in the pages of La Verité under the title "Lucifer démasqué" (Lucifer Unmasked). He tells of diabolic happenings in the private chapel of a lady, "Madame X," who figures frequently in his pages (she was thought to be the late countess of Caithness).
It seems probable from the evidence that "Jean Kostka" never came into personal contact with a satanic cult and that his diabolic experiences were merely the imaginings of an intellectual Satanist. Kostka's revelations came in the same period as the fake Satanist writings of "Léo Taxil" (Gabriel Jogand-Pagès ) and seem to partake of the same contemporary anti-Masonic and anti-Semitic conspiracies.
Around 1890 Kostka founded the Universal Gnostic Church in France and assumed the role of patriarch. He claimed consecration directly from Jesus and later from two Bogomile bishops who emerged during a Spiritualist séance. He in turn consecrated other bishops and they perpetuated the Kostka succession in a variety of small Gnostic churches.
Sources:
Anson, Peter F. Bishops at Large. London: Faber & Faber, 1965.