 Léon de Poncins' explanation for most of the major revolutionary political upheavals of modernity was the influence of certain secret societies with an anti-Christian agenda — as well as a "occult war" waged by those possessing a diabolical kind of "faith".Born Gabriel Léon Marie Pierre de Montaigne de Poncins in Civens, Loire.He was descended of an aristocratic family ennobled in 1696.