French Satanism, Satanism before LaVey? Options

I was surprised recently to hear that, before LaVey came along, Satanism *may* have been practiced in France.

My source cites the 1891 novel "La-Bas," (trans. "The Damned) by J.K. Huysmans, which describes the practice of Satanism in that period-- especially describing in detail the "black mass." He asserts that the novel is based on factual happenings.

Now, it could be that "La-Bas" was a fictional invention entirely. But I haven't read it, and I don't know.

Does anyone have any evidence either way?

This post has been edited by monkman418: Jul 22 2009, 11:05 PM

From what I remember, some of the French nobles used to play act with Black Masses, using nude women as altars before the French Revolution. There was also the Hellfire club in Britain, and probably other groups from time to time back to the middle ages. I think that Ben Franklin was involved in one of those groups while an ambassador. It seems inevitable that if the church is repressive, there will be some people who mock and parody it. But I doubt that these people took this form of satanism seriously as religion. More likely it was just another excuse for getting women naked and having orgies. Anton LeVey didn't originate satanism, he just created another version of it.