³1username³2WojPob³2name³2text_default³2version³21³2ts³2980964387³2ip³2193.170.62.34³2data³2newauthor³31³3minor³30³3text³3A CabaL is a private organization or party engaged in secret intrigues. In EnglanD the word was used during the 17th century to describe the mystical interpretation of the HebreW scripture (the Cabala, or Kabbala), as well as to describe any secret or extralegal council of the king, especially the foreign committee of the Privy Council. 


The term took on its present invidious meaning from a group of five ministers chosen in 1667 by King Charles II (Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley Cooper [later earl of Shaftesbury], and Lauderdale), whose initial letters coincidentally spelled cabal. This cabal, never very unified in its members' aims and sympathies, fell apart by 1672; Shaftesbury even became one of Charles II's fiercest opponents. 
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