Leviticon
A gospel adopted by the French Templars, and alleged by them to have been discovered in the Temple at Paris, along with other objects. It was supposed to have been composed in the fifteenth century by a Greek monk, Nicephorus, who sought to combine Moslem tenets with Christianity. 66 Lewis, Matthew Gregory: Commonly known as Monk" Lewis, English Author (1775-1818). Matthew Gregory Lewis was born in London in 1775. His father was Matthew Lewis, deputy secretary of war, and proprietor of several valuable estates in Jamaica; while his mother was Anna Maria Sewell, a lady of cultured tastes, devoted to music and various other arts. The future author showed precocity while yet a child, and on reaching boyhood he was sent to Westminster School, but while he was there an ugly cloud rose to dim his horizon, his parents quarrelling and agreeing to separate. Matthew contrived to remain friendly with both his father and mother, and in 1771 he visited Paris, while about the same time he made his first literary efforts, and in 1792 he went to Weimar in Germany where he made the acquaintance of Goethe, and also learnt German thoroughly. Two years later he was appointed attaché to the British Embassy at the Hague, and while staying there he wrote his mystical story, Ambrosio, or the Monk, which earned him his now familiar sobriquet of "Monk Lewis; " while in 1796 he entered Parliament as member for Hindon, in Wiltshire, and during the next few years he necessarily resided chiefly in London, or near it, becoming friendly the while with most of the notable people of the day. Meantime his interest in the occult had been developing apace, and in 1798 there was staged at Drury Lane a play of his, Castle Spectre, in which ghosts and the like play a prominent part, and which won great popularity among people interested in things of that nature; while in 1788 he issued his Tales of Terror, and in 1801 a volume entitled Tales of Wonder, this being virtually an anthology of popular occult verses, some of which were supplied by Sir Walter Scott.
In 1812 Lewis's father died, and the author accordingly found himself a very rich man. His conscience was troubled, nevertheless, by the fact that his wealth was derived from slave labour, and so, in 1815, he sailed to Jamaica, intent on making arrangements for the generous treatment of the negroes on his estates. Returning to England in 1816, he went soon afterwards to Geneva, where he met Byron and Shelley, while in 1818 he paid a last visit to the West Indies, and died at sea while returning home.