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A Bavarian Illuminati primer
Compiled by Trevor W. McKeown - Grand Lodge British Columbia & Yukon
"As Weishaupt lived under the tyranny of a despot and priests, he knew that caution was necessary even in spreading information, and the principles of pure morality. This has given an air of mystery to his views, was the foundation of his banishment.... If Weishaupt had written here, where no secrecy is necessary in our endeavors to render men wise and virtuous, he would not have thought of any secret machinery for that purpose."
- Thomas Jefferson
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It is difficult, in the modern English-speaking world, to determine exactly what the Illuminati of Bavaria really was. Although both John Robison and the Abbé Barruel 2 published their accusations and theories in English, the source documents have remained in their native German. Robison freely admitted that he had scanty knowledge of German and had derived all his information from other writers. 3 Unfortunately neither he nor Barruel were concerned with providing references for their sources. When they do quote from the papers and correspondence of the Order as published by the Bavarian government or the published works of Adam Weishaupt and Adolph Knigge, they also fail to provide context or citations.
Adam Weishaupt (1748 - 1830)
Adam Weishaupt was born February 6, 1748 at Ingolstadt and educated by the Jesuits. His appointment as Professor of Natural and Canon Law at the University of Ingolstadt in 1775, a position previously held by one of the recently disbanded Jesuits,4 gave, it is said, great offence to the clergy. "Weishaupt, whose views were cosmopolitan, and who knew and condemned the bigotry and superstitions of the Priests, established an opposing party in the University...." 5 Weishaupt was not then a freemason; he was initiated into a Lodge of Strict Observance, Lodge Theodore of Good Council (Theodor zum guten Rath), at Munich in 1777.
Most information regarding the rituals and objectives of the order is derived from papers and correspondence found in a search of Xavier Zwack's residence in Landshut on October 11, 1786, and a search of Baron Bassus's castle of Sondersdorf in Bavaria in 1787. 6 These documents were published by the Bavarian government, under the title: Einige Originalschriften des Illuminaten Ordens, Munich, 1787. Perhaps the best English exposition on the Order is found in Chapter III of Vernon L. Stauffer's New England and the Bavarian Illuminati, pp. 142-228.
As an example of the mythology that surrounds the history of the Illuminati, note that Barruel claimed that Lanz, an Illuminati courier and apostate priest, was struck by lightning, thus revealing Weishaupt's papers to the authorities, but this does not appear to be substantiated. This error was widely reprinted and enlarged on by subsequent anti-masons whose lack of research and disdain for historical accuracy has lead them to confuse Johann Jakob Lanz (d.1785), a non-Illuminati secular priest in Erding, and friend of Weishaupt, with Franz Georg Lang, a court advisor in Eichstätt who was active in the Illuminati under the name Tamerlan.
Barruel mistakenly translated "weltpriester", or secular priest, as apostate priest and subsequent writers such as Webster and Miller have repeated this error. Eckert renamed Weishaupt's friend as Lanze and had him struck by lightning while carrying dispatches in Silesia. Miller cited Eckert but renamed Lanz as Jacob Lang and placed the lightning strike in Ratisbon. This is a minor detail in the history but it demonstrates the lack of accuracy often displayed by detractors of the Illuminati.7
Neither Robison nor Barruel deny that the professed goal of the Order was to teach people to be happy by making them good - to do this by enlightening the mind and freeing it from the dominion of superstition and prejudice. But they refused to accept this at face value. Where Weishaupt and Knigge promoted a freedom from church domination over philosophy and science, Robison and Barruel saw a call for the destruction of the church. Where Weishaupt and Knigge wanted a release from the excesses of state oppression, Robison and Barruel saw the destruction of the state. Where Weishaupt and Knigge wanted to educate women and treat them as intellectual equals, Robison and Barruel saw the destruction of the natural and proper order of society.
The rituals were of a rationalistic and not occult nature. Status as a freemason was not required for initiation into the Order of Illuminati since the fourth, fifth and sixth degrees of Weishaupt and Baron Adolphe-François-Frederic Knigge's system practically duplicated the three degrees of symbolic Freemasonry. Although Knigge claimed to have a system of ten degrees, the last two appear never to have been fully worked up.8
Baron Adolph Knigge (1752 - 1796)
"The Order was at first very popular, and enrolled no less than two thousand names upon its registers.... Its Lodges were to be found in France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, and Italy. Knigge, who was one of its most prominent working members, and the auther of several of its Degrees, was a religious man, and would never have united with it had its object been, as has been charged, to abolish Christianity. But it cannot be denied, that in the process of time abuses had crept into the Institution and that by the influence of unworthy men, the system became corrupted; yet the course accusations of Barruel and Robison are known to be exaggerated, and some of them altogether false.... The Edicts [on June 22, 1784, for its suppression] of the Elector of Bavaria [Duke Karl Theodor] were repeated in March and August, 1785 and the Order began to decline, so that by the end of the eighteenth century it had ceased to exist.... it exercised while in prosperity no favorable influence on the masonic institution, nor any unfavorable effect on it by its dissolution."9
In 1785 Weishaupt was deprived of his chair and banished with pension from the country. He refused the pension and moved to Regenburg, subsequently finding asylum with the Count of Saxe-Gotha, Ernst. Weishaupt was later appointed a professor at the University of Gottingen, remaining there until his death in 1830 (Albert Mackey says 1811).
Coil describes the order as a "short lived, meteoric and controversial society"10 while Kenning refers to it as a "mischievous association".11 In his own defence, Weishaupt wrote:
"Whoever does not close his ear to the lamentations of the miserable, nor his heart to gentle pity; whoever is the friend and brother of the unfortunate; whoever has a heart capable of love and friendship; whoever is steadfast in adversity, unwearied in the carrying out of whatever has been once engaged in, undaunted in the overcoming of difficulties; whoever does not mock and despise the weak; whose soul is susceptible of conceiving great designs, desirous of rising superior to all base motives, and of distinguishing itself by deeds of benevolence; whoever shuns idleness; whoever considers no knowledge as unessential which he may have the opportunity of acquiring, regarding the knowledge of mankind as his chief study; whoever, when truth and virtue are in question, despising the approbation of the multitude, is sufficiently courageous to follow the dictates of his own heart, - such a one is a proper candidate." 12
"The tenor of my life has been the opposite of everything that is vile; and no man can lay any such thing to my charge." 13
As regards any information derived from the celebrated anti-mason, John Robison 14: "In the (London) Monthly Magazine for January 1798 there appeared a letter from Böttiger, Provost of the College of Weimar, in reply to Robison's work, charging that writer with making false statements, and declaring that since 1790 'every concern [sic] of the Illuminati has ceased.' Böttiger also offered to supply any person in Great Britain, alarmed at the erroneous statements contained in the book above mentioned, with correct information." 15
Following is a short list of the more notable members:
Of the 67 names published by the Abbé Barruel, 10 were professors, 13 were nobles, 7 were in the church, 3 were lawyers and the balance were drawn from the growing middle class: mostly government officials and merchants and a few military officers. 16
John M. Roberts claims that "[Weishaupt] rapidly rationalized difficulties growing out of his own rashness and taste for intrigue as the product of obscurantism and soon envisaged wider purposes for his society"17 while Robert Gilbert feels that Christopher McIntosh "overestimates the strength and significance of the Illuminati."18
Of the 67 names published by the Abbé Barruel, 10 were professors, 13 were nobles, 7 were in the church, 3 were lawyers and the balance were drawn from the growing middle class: mostly government officials and merchants and a few military officers. 16
John M. Roberts claims that "[Weishaupt] rapidly rationalized difficulties growing out of his own rashness and taste for intrigue as the product of obscurantism and soon envisaged wider purposes for his society"17 while Robert Gilbert feels that Christopher McIntosh "overestimates the strength and significance of the Illuminati."18
Researchers are directed to a list of books and pamphlets written by Weishaupt found at the end of this paper. A further bibliography can be found in Vernon L. Stauffer's New England and the Bavarian Illuminati, pp. 185-86. The United Grand Lodge of England Library catalogue includes: P.4. Adam Weishaupt, Uber den allgorischen Geist des Alterthums. Regensburg, 1794. 8vo.
Evidence would suggest that the Bavarian Illuminati was nothing more than a curious historical footnote. Certainly, this is the opinion of masonic writers. Conspiracy theorists though, are not noted for applying Occam's razer and have decided that there are connections between the Illuminati, Freemasonry, the Trilateral Commission, British Emperialism, International Zionism and (if you read the writings of Alberto Rivera and Jack T. Chick of Chino California) communism, that all lead back to the Vatican (or if David Icke is to be believed, the British house of Windsor and extra-terrestrial lizard people) in a bid for world domination. Believe what you will but there is no evidence that any Illuminati survived its founders.
It should be noted that the compiler of these notes, and of the Anti-masonry FAQ, is neither the founder nor the moderator of the newsgroup alt.illuminati. This unmoderated newsgroup was created by Gregg Bloom, a software programmer and systems manager, on April 16, 1993. He has never posted to the newsgroup. Peter Trei posted the Bavarian Illuminati FAQ in November 1992 and Trevor W. McKeown first posted the Bavarian Illuminati Primer on February 18, 1996. Neither participated in the creation of the newsgroup nor are active in maintaining any archive. While a number of online cataloguers of FAQs have automatically credited Trevor W. McKeown as the newsgroup moderator, this is an error.
After the Illuminati
The Encyclopaedia Britannica refers to Illuminati "cells" in an article on eighteenth century Italy as "republican freethinkers, after the pattern recently established in Bavaria by Adam Weishaupt."19 and as a "rationalistic secret society" in an article on Roman Catholicism.20 Depending on your perspective, the lack of any detailed information on the Illuminati in the Encyclopaedia Britannica can be ascribed to their current power and secretiveness or to the much simpler explanation that the editors found the order to be of little importance in the flow of history and social development.
It is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists have so confused the issue with claims of Illuminati complicity that the real conspiracies, the real danger to a free and open society, so often go unreported or unremarked.
Eliphas Lévi made the following unsubstantiated juxapositions in 1860:
"... it was this same memory handed on to secret associations of Rosicrucians, Illuminati and Freemasons which gave a meaning to their strange rites...." 21
"...under the names of Magic, Manicheanism, Illuminism and Masonry...." 22
"The maniacal circles of pretended illuminati go back to the bacchantes who murdered Orpheus. 23
"Long before there was any question of mediums and their evocations in America and France, Prussia had its illuminati and seers, who had habitual communications with the dead." 24
There is a secret correspondence belonging to the reign [of King Frederick William] which is cited by the Marquis de Luchet in his work against the illuminati..." 25
More important than the existence of any illuminati after 1784, was the fear that they existed. John M. Roberts, in his Mythology of Secret Societies details this concern of European rulers, and concludes that their oppressive reactions to this fear provoked the very revolutions they sought to prevent. Another insight into how this fear outstripped the facts can be found in Vernon L. Stauffer's New England and the Bavarian Illuminati (1918).
Although attempts have been made to revive the order, none appear to have survived their founders. As an example, William Westcott, in exchange for the Swedenborgian Rite, received membership in the "Order of the Illuminati" from Theodor Reuss in 1902. Documentation is not available, nor is any explanation or description of this "Order" given. 26
Illuminati predecessors
These societies are only of interest insofar as they have been claimed by anti-masons and conspiracy theorists to demonstrate a perceived long-term anti-christian conspiracy. There is no similarity between the objectives of these societies and the Bavarian Illuminati.
Hesychasts: Hesychasm is a form of Eastern Christian monastic life requiring uninterrupted prayer. Dating from the 13th century, it was confirmed by the Orthodox Church in 1341, 1347 and 1351, and popularized by the publication of the "Philokalia" in 1782.
Alumbrados: (Spanish : 'enlightened') A mystical movement, at one time lead by La Beata de Piedrahita (d. 1511); first recorded about 1492 in Spain (a varient spelling, aluminados, is found in 1498). They believed that the human soul could enter into direct communication with the Holy Spirit and, due to their extravagant claims of visions and revelations, had three edicts issued against them by the Catholic Inquisition, the first on 23 September 1525. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "some of its features reappear in the Quietism of the Spaniard Michael de Molinos". Although Ignatius of Loyola - founder of the Jesuits in 1534, and composer of the "Constitutions" of the Society of Jesus - was brought before an ecclesiastical commission in Alcalá in 1527 to determine if his teachings were heretical, he was cleared of any suspicion that he was an alumbrado, He wrote nothing that would suggest he accepted their beliefs.27 The name translates as 'illuminati' but the name is the only similarity with the later Bavarian Illuminati. 28
Guérinets: The alumbrados, under the name of Illuminés, arrived in France from Seville in 1623, and were joined in 1634 by Pierre Guérin, curé of Saint-Georges de Roye, whose followers in Picardy and Flanders, known as Guérinets, were suppressed in 1635 (Jean Hermant 1650-1725, Histoire des hérésies, Rouen : 1727). "Another and obscure body of Illumines came to light in the south of France in 1722, and appears to have lingered till 1794, having affinities with those known contemporaneously in this country as 'French Prophets,' an offshoot of the Camisards." [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911 edition.]
Illuminati claimants
Societe des Illumines d'Avignon: Formed by Dom Antoine Joseph de Pernetti and the Polish Count Thaddeus Leszczy Grabianka in Avignon, France in 1786 (Kenning says 1787); later moving to Montpellier as the "Acadamy of True Masons". Although Kloss claims they were in existence in 1812, they would seem to have disappeared in the French Revolution.
Illuminated Theosophists or Chastanier's Rite: A 1767 modification of Pernetti's "Hermetic Rite" that later merged with the London Theosophical Society in 1784.
Concordists: A secret order established in Prussia by M. Lang, on the wreck of the Tugendverein (Union of the Virtuous), which latter Body was instituted in 1790 [Miller says 1786] by Henrietta and Marcus Herz as a successor of the Illuminati [or Moses Mendelssohn]. According to Thomas Frost, Secret Societies of the European Revolution, vol. i, p. 183 [cited in Occult Theocrasy, p. 377.] a second Tugendbund was formed by von Stein in 1807. It was suppressed in 1812 by the Prussian Government, on account of its supposed political tendencies, and was revived briefly between 1830-33.
World League of Illuminati: Allegedly the singer and journalist Theodor Reuss "re-activated" the Order of Illuminati in Munich in 1880. Leopold Engel founded his World League of Illuminati in Berlin in 1893. From these two sprung the Ordo Illuminatorum which was still active in Germany as late as the mid-1970s. Much research has been compiled by Peter-R. Koenig.
Illuminates of Stockholm: The Illuminated Chapter of Swedish Rite Freemasonry is currently composed of approximately 60 past or current Grand Lodge officers who have received the honorary 11th degree. It makes no claim to be related, historically or philisophically, with the Bavarian Illuminati and strictly speaking should not be included in this list.
Die Alte Erleuchtete Seer Bayerns: Alleged by Marc Lachance to have been founded in 1947 by employees of the Munich newspaper, Suddeutsche Zeitung, there are unsubstantiated claims to a longer lineage. With some 100 members claimed in Bavaria, Baden-Wurttenburg and Thuringia, they have disavowed ritual, and keep organised structure to a minimum. 29
The Illuminati Order: Founded sometime prior to 1988, Solomon Tulbure [1969/10/18 - 2004/11/17] brought this group online in 2001. Currently it can be found online at illuminati-order.com.
Orden Illuminati: Another addition to the list of claimants to the Illuminati tradition, this group was founded in Spain in 1995 by Gabriel López de Rojasn and can be found online at
Notes:
1. Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Albert G. Mackey. Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing. 1966, p.474. ^
2.Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, Written in French by the Abbé Barruel, and translated into English by the Hon. Robert Clifford, F.R.S. & A. S. "Princes and Nations shall disappear from the face of the Earth ... and this revolution shall be the work of secret societies." Weishaupt's Discourse for the Mysteries. Part I. The Antichristian Conspiracy. Second Edition, revised and corrected. London: Printed for the Translator, by T. Burton, No. 11, Gate-fleet, Lincoln's-Inn Fields. Sold by E. Booker, No. 56, New Bond-Street. 1798 [Entered at Stationers Hall.] p. 261 ^
3. Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe carried on in the Secret Meetings of the Freemasons, Illuminati, and Reading Societies, collected from Good Authorities, John Robison (1739 - 1805). printed by George Forman for Cornelious David, Edinburgh: 1797. (531 pages). Postscript, p. 2. ^
4. "In 1773 Pope Clement XIV, under pressure especially from the governments of France, Spain and Portugal, issued a decree abolishing the order. The society's corporate existence was maintained in Russia, where political circumstances-notably the opposition of Catherine II the Great-prevented the canonical execution of the suppression. The demand that the Jesuits take up their former work, especially in the field of education and in the missions, became so insistent that in 1814 Pope Pius VII reestablished the society." The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Chicago: 1989, 15th edition. ^
5. Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Albert G. Mackey. Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing. 1966, p. 1099. ^
6. The Secret Societies of all ages and Countries [in two volumes], Charles William Heckethorn. London: George Redway. 1897 p.310. Cf. Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism. ^
7. "Among his adepts was one LANZ, an apostate priest. Weishaupt designed him as the person to carry his mysteries and conspiracies into Selesia. His mission was already fixed, and Weishaupt was giving him his last instructions, when a thunder-bolt from Heaven struck the apostate dead, and that by the side of Weishaupt. The Brethren, in their first fright, had not recourse to their ordinary means for diverting the papers of the deceased adept from the inspection of the magistrate. [footnote] See the Apology of the Illuminees, P. 62." Barruel. p. 244.
Cf.: "When my late friend Lanz was struck by lightning at my side in the year 1785 in Regensburg, what an opportunity this could have provided me to play the penitent and remorseful hypocrite, and thus gain the confidence of my persecutors." trans. from : "Als im Jahre 1785 in Regensburg mein seeliger Freund Lanz an meiner Seite vom Blitz ersclagen wurde, welche Gelegenheit hätte ich gehabt, den reumütigen und bußfertigen Henchler zu machen und auf diese Art das Zutrauen meiner Verfolger zu erwerben?" Kurze Rechtfertigung meiner Absichten. Frankfort and Leipzig, 1787. Quoted in Die Illuminaten, Quellen und Text zur Aufklärungsideologie des Illuminatenordens (1776-1785) Herausgegeben von Jan Rachold. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1984. p. 363. Also see pp. 127, 132, 140, 150-160, 168 for Franz Georg Lang. ^
8. Mackey. p. 475. ^
9. Mackey. p. 1099. ^
10.Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia, Henry Wilson Coil. New York: Macoy Publishing. 1961 p. 545. ^
11. Kenning's Masonic Cyclopaedia and Handbook of Masonic Archeaology, History and Biography, ed. Rev. A. F. A. Woodford. London: 1878. p. 326. ^
12. Adam Weishaupt, An Improved System of the Illuminati, Gotha: 1787. ^
13. Adam Weishaupt (1748 - 1811), An Apology for the Illuminati, Gotha: 1787. ^
14. See biographical notes: New England and the Bavarian Illuminati, Chapter III, pp. 142-228. Vernon L. Stauffer. 1918. with bibliographical notes. ^
15. Heckethorn, p.314. ^
16. Heckethorn, pp. 305-16; Barruel, pp. 202-05. Estimates of the total membership have ranged from Le Forestier's 650 to Albert MacKey's 2000. ^
17. J.M. Roberts, "The Mythology of Secret Societies", New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1972, pp. 123-4. ^
18. Christopher McIntosh, "The Rose Cross and the Age of Reason", Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1992, reviewed by Robert Gilbert in the Transactions of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, London: Butler & Tanner Ltd.1993 p. 241. ^
19. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition. Vol. 22, p. 223, 2b. ^
20. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition. Vol. 26, p. 937, 2b. ^
21. Eliphas Lévi. The History of Magic. Reprinted by Samual Weiser, Inc., New York: 1973. p. 32. ^
22. ibid. p. 65. ^
23. ibid p. 130. ^
24. ibid. Chapter VI: "The German Illuminati". p. 317. ^
25. ibid p. 317. ^
26. R.A. Gilbert. "Chaos out of order: the rise and fall of the Swedenborgian Rite". Ars Quatuor Coronatorum. Transactions of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076. Volume 108 for the Year 1995. Edited by Robert A. Gilbert. p. 134. ^
27. "The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius", trans. by L.J. Puhl (1951); "The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus; Translated with an Introduction and a Commentary", by G.E. Ganss:1970. ^
28. Alumbrados: Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo (1856/11/03-1912/05/19), Los Heterodoxos Espanioles, 1881, vol. v. ; aluminados : Francisco Lopez de Villalobos, Sumario de la medicina, 1498, reprinted in vol. xxiv of the publications of the Sociedad de bibliofilos espanoles, Madrid : 1886. Also see John E. Longhurst, "Alumbrados, erasmistas y luteranos en el proceso de Juan de Vergara," in Cuadernos de historia de Espana, vols. xxvii, 1958. ^
29. Marc Etienne Lachance is a German freelance database and website developer with an interest in role-playing games, the Church of the SubGenius and Principia Discordia. There is no corroboration for his claims. ^
* Noted in Man, Myth & Magic. No. 50, p. 1404. Ellic Howe [1910-1991]. BPC Publishing Ltd., London: 1970. [also source for portraits of Weishaupt and Knigge.] ^
† Also listed by Augustin Barruel (1741/10/02 - 1820/10/05). p. 202. ^
‡ Barruel lists a "Bode, F. H." and a "Busche, F. H.". p. 202. ^
§ Not listed by Barruel. Heckethorne does not note if this is General Claude-Louise, compte de Saint-Germain (1707/04/15 - 1778/01/15), Louise XVI's minister of war, or the compte de Saint-Germain (c.1710 - 1784/02/27?), a celebrated adventurer known as der Wundermann who Cagliostro, in his Mémoires authentiques, claimed was the founder of Freemasonry. ^
Primary source published texts:
cf.: Die Bibliothek des Deutschen Freimaurermuseums in Bayreuth - Katalog.
Knigge, Adolph, Freiherr von (1752-1796), Freimauer- und Illuminatenschriften. Raabe Paul [Editor] Samtliche Werke / Knigge, Adolph, Facsim. of 1781-1873 eds & transcription of MS. Munchen, Sau: Nendeln : KTO, 1978-92.
Christoph Friedrich Nicolai (3/18/1733 - 1/8/1811), Versuch über die Besschuldigungen welch dem Tempelherrnorden gemacht worden und über dessen Geheimniss; nebst einem Anhange uber das Entstehen der Freimaurergesellschaft. [An Essay on the accusations made against the Order of Knights Templar and their mystery; with an Appendix on the origin of the Fraternity of Freemasons], Berlin: 1782.
Weishaupt, Adam, Die Illuminaten : Quellen und Texte zur Aufklärungsideologie des Illuminatenordens (1776-1785) / herausgegeben von Jan Rachold. Berlin : Akademie-Verlag, 1984. 409 p. ; 20 cm. LCCN: 85111344
Weishaupt, Adam, Über die Selbsterkenntnis. Ihre Hindernisse und Vorteile. Nach dem Original von 1794. [3. Aufl. hrsg. im Auftrage von Ordo Illuminatorum (u.a.) Zürich, Psychosophische Gesellschaft, 1966] 200 p. 15 cm. LCCN: 67106086.
Weishaupt, Adam, Illuminatenorden. Die neuesten Arbeiten des Spartacus und Philo in dem Illuminaten-Orden jetzt zum erstenmal gedruckt und zur Beherzigung bey gegenwärtigen Zeitläuften herausgeben. [n.p.] 1794. 200, 90, 77 p. 20 cm. LCCN: 77465925.
Weishaupt, Adam, Ueber die Gründe und Gewisheit der menschlichen Erkenntniss; zur Prüfung der Kantischen Critik der reinen Vernunft. Nürnberg, in der Grattenauerischen Buchhandlung, 1788. [Bruxelles, Culture et Civilisation, 1969] 204 p. 19 cm. LCCN: 73357961.
Weishaupt, Adam, Apologie der Illuminaten ... Frankfurth und Leipzig [i.e. Nürnberg] In der Grattenauerischen buchhandlung, 1786. p. cm. Zweifel über die Kantischen Begriffe von Zeit und Raum. LCCN: 09011125.
Weishaupt, Adam, Zweifel über die Kantischen Begriffe von Zeit und Raum. Nürnberg, 1788. [Bruxelles, Culture et Civilisation, 1968] 120 p. 19 cm. LCCN: 79459272.
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The
Illuminati of Freemasonry
BY
BRO. BURTON E. BENNETT, Washington
excerpted from The Builder Magazine
July 1925 - Volume XI - Number 7 - online @ phoenixmasonry.org
ILLUMINISM is dead, so far as its formal organization is concerned, so that in
a certain sense it belongs now to academic interests only; but in another
sense, equally defined it remains a subject of living importance, and that
because the ideas behind it are still in our midst, seeking other forms and
outlets. Those ideas are ancient. Some of them took root in early
Zoroastrianism, exhibited themselves in Chaldean astrology passed over into
Mithraism, thence to Gnosticism, Manicheism and later still into Paulinism,
which became so living a thing among the Baikan peoples. Paulinism itself
became a new seedsowing, from which, in after years, developed the Patari and
the Waldensians, from the forces of which in due time came many influences to
help give shape to the countless mystical sects that flowered so profusely
during or just after the Reformation period. If one cares to trace such as
they developed under a Christian aegis he will find it worth his while to read
"Spiritual Reformers in the 16th and 17th Centuries" by Rufus M. Jones. Bro.
Bennett has found these old inspirations at work among the Illuminati. Another
student will find them animating certain religious sects now in our midst.
Such as may care to follow the Rosicrucian clue will do well to consult Bro.
A. E. Waite's recent book, "The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross." Bro. Bennett
was former member of the Board of Park Commissioners of Seattle, former
Pan-American Commissioner from the state of Washington; former United states
District Attorney for Alaska; is a member of Ionic Lodge, No. 90, F. & A. M.,
of Seattle, etc.
THE
Society of the Illuminati was one of the four great societies produced by the
French Freemasonry of the eighteenth century. Of course neither this society,
nor any of the other three, were real Freemasonry at all. They were produced
by the peculiar conditions that existed in France at the time. These
conditions finally culminated in the French Revolution, the wiping out of the
last vestiges of feudalism, and the entering of the French nation into a
fuller and wholly different life. The three other societies were the strict
Observance, the Emperors, and the Carbonari.
The
name Illuminati was not a new one. It had been used by other societies of a
like tendency from as early as the fifteenth century. They all claimed to get
light from a higher source as to all earthly things and, especially, as
related to spiritual ones; and to possess knowledge of a purer kind than that
possessed by ordinary persons. They furnished many victims for the
Inquisition. They had existed in Spain and in Italy. It is even averred that
Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, had Illuminati ideas and was
reprimanded by the Church for them. That these ideas go back through the ages
to the Gnostics is easily seen by scholars. In certain cults they even survive
to our day. The Illuminists claimed to get communications from intermediate
spirits and, even, from God Himself. There is a cult now in the city of
Seattle whose head claims to have talked with God and at their meetings
visitors are asked by his followers if they do not want to talk with a man who
has talked with God. In order to understand these societies, especially of the
higher intellectual kind, it is necessary to know some think of Gnosticism.
Gnosticism as a movement was practically coeval with Christianity. It was a
spiritual force produced by the times. The ancient gods had lost their
influence. People yearned for something purer and truer. While Mithraism, to
some extent, supplied this want, still it was not sufficient. Gnosticism was
largely Christian in character, and it tried to bridge the chasm between the
old gods and the new Christos. Mithraism was a continuation of the ancient
gods, but it contained many features similar to Christianity. It held on in
the ancient world for many centuries, but it finally disappeared. Christianity
at last got free from Gnosticism. Gnosticism reached its greatest height in
the second century, and while branches of it continued well on into t he fifth
century it was, for all practical purposes, supplanted by Manicheism before
the fourth century. Streams from it have, even, come down to our day.
GNOSTICISM IS DESCRIBED
Gnosticism was what is known as a mystic religion. It was based upon
revelation. All of its sects claimed to possess secret knowledge unknown to
outsiders, mighty and mysterious, imparted only to initiates. They claimed
that it was received from Christ Himself and His Apostles and early believers.
It was their mystic writings and traditions, with others, that the
Rosicrucians, the soothsayers, and the magicians claimed to possess in the
eighteenth century when they commenced to bore into Freemasonry. They claimed
to possess the secret word that Christ, as they averred, stole from the
Temple, and with which He performed His miracles. To prove that they really
possessed what they claimed they pointed to Acts VIII where Simon Magus ("the
Magician"), who was converted by Philip, tried to purchase with money his
miraculous power.
The
Gnostics, generally, did not accept the Old Testament. As a matter of fact
they went back to the old religions with their gods and goddesses. In their
Ophite sect they were plainly connected not only with the old mythologies of
Babylon and Egypt, but with those as well of Greece and Asia Minor. I think
that we can safely say that Gnosticism was based wholly on sacramentism and
superstition, accompanied by a fervid imagination. Still it was the great
force that satisfied many in the Christian Church during the first hundred
years of its existence. While some of the Gnostic sects, as the Valentinians,
the nearest approach to the Catholic Church, were wonderfully spiritual. still
their attitude was always sensual. The Gnostic confession of faith is as
follows: "I baptise thee in the name of the unknown father of all, by the
Aletheia the mother of all, by the name which descended upon Jesus."
The
Ophite sect of the Gnostics, which existed as late as the sixth century,
believed that the serpent that tempted Eve was the impersonation of divine
wisdom. An Ophitic form of Gnosticism is found today in Babylonia among the
Mandeans. They are sometimes known as St. John Christians. To outsiders they
call themselves Sabians. Their religion is a mixture of that of the Jews, the
Christians, and the heathen. While we have known about them from the
seventeenth century, still that knowledge is very meager as they are careful
not to talk before strangers. It is more than probable that they know very
little about their religion themselves. It is, however, certain that their
religion springs not from the Christian, or from the Jewish religion, or from
st. John, but it comes from the older forms of Gnosticism with the symbol of
the serpent.
The
Docetae of the early Christian Church believed that Christ had only a phantom
body, that is, He was born without material means and that all His acts and,
also, His crucifixion, were not real, but only apparent. It is true that some
of them did not go as far as this, but they, even, held that He had a heavenly
and not really a human body. Docetism reached its highest point in Gnosticism.
HOW
NEW CULTS WERE FORMED
When
Christianity finally conquered the ancient world so that the ancient gods were
believed in no more, there had to be some outlet for that mysticism which
Christianity failed to, or could not, absorb. The sacraments had to end
somewhere. This resulted in the formation of cults which continued in
different forms down to the time of the Illuminati of Freemasonry, and from
there down to our time. It must be remembered that when the barbarians overran
the Roman Empire and destroyed it, they destroyed all science as well; all
intellectual pursuits stopped except those that centered in religion. All
learning was confined to the Church and all learned men were Churchmen. The
only thing that was deemed of any importance was theology. The affairs of this
world were of no importance; the affairs of the other world were of all
importance. The wonder is that superstition was not greater, that witches and
soothsayers and magicians were not more abundant, that the Inquisition was so
lenient, that the imagination did not become more fervid and astounding, and
that Illuminism did not make a greater impress upon Freemasonry and upon
mankind. That voodooism did not show itself in a malignant form shows
conclusively that the human intellect had grown during the past ages.
Illuminism has always been an attraction for men of more than. ordinary
intelligence. When in it there is found such men as Valentian, the man of
business, the rich ship builder of Syria; of Loyola, the man of God, the
founder of the Society of Jesuits; and of Goethe, the poet, one of the
greatest intellectuals of all time, it is better not to try to brush it away
with scorn, or deride it with egotistical derision. Perhaps the force behind
it is the intellect trying to burst its finite bonds, and reach the infinite.
Perhaps this will never be done, and, again, perhaps it will be. It seems the
part of wisdom, however, to consider it with care, yes, even reverently, for
where is the prudent man who wishes to deny that the intellect does not reach
the infinite when our finite bonds are broken by the mystery of death?
WEISHAUPT FOUNDS THE ILLUMINATI
The
Society of the Illuminati of Freemasonry was founded by Doctor Adam Weishaupt
of Ingoldstadt, Germany (Bavaria), on May Day, 1776. Weishaupt was professor
of Natural and Canon Law in the University of Ingoldstadt. His society was
not, at first connected with Freemasonry but it became so in 1780. Professor
Weishaupt joined the Freemasons through the strict Observance at Munich in
1777. He was an ex-Jesuit and for the rest of his life was assailed by the
Jesuits through all sources that they could reach, and by all means that they
could command, ecclesiastical, civil and private. The new movement was really
one of republican free thought. This movement called itself "The Order of
Perfectibilists." Its members were at first young students who bound
themselves to be guided wholly by their superiors. Professor Weishaupt adopted
the Jesuit plan that the end justifies the means. No member knew who the other
members were except, of course, his superiors, the officers. While Professor
Weishaupt was educated by the Jesuits, and became one of them, his
intelligence was of high order and its bent was always toward truth. Thus he
grew away from them and from their Church as well. In 1784 the Society of the
Illuminati was suppressed by the Bavarian Government, as well as all other
Masonry, and all other secret societies. Doctor Weishaupt was deprived of his
professorship and had to fly from the country.
The
Rite of the Illuminati consisted of three classes, to wit: (1) Nursery, (2)
Symbolic and Scots Masonry, and (3) Mysteries. The first class contained five
degrees as follows: (1) Preparatory Literary Essay, (2) Novitiate, (3)
Minerval, (4) Minor Illuminates, and (5) Magistratus. The second class
contained, also, five degrees as follows: (6) Apprentice, (7) Fellow Craft,
(8) Master Mason, (9) Major Illuminates, or Scottish Novice, and (10)
Directing Illuminates, or Scottish Knight. The third class contained the
following degrees: (11) Priest and Regent, and (12) Magus and King. The last
degree was never perfected. The necessary qualifications of a candidate were
stated by Weishaupt as follows:
"Whoever does not close his ear to the lamentations of the miserable, nor his
heart to gentle pity, whoever is the friend and brother of the unfortunate;
whoever has a heart capable of loving friendship; whoever is steadfast in
adversity, unwearied in the carrying out of whatever has been once engaged in,
undaunted in the overcoming of difficulties; whoever does not mock; and
despise the weak; whose soul is susceptible of conceiving great designs,
desirous of rising superior to all base motives and of distinguishing itself
by deeds of benevolence; whoever shuns idleness, whoever considers no
knowledge as unessential which he may have the opportunity of acquiring,
regarding the knowledge of mankind as his chief study; whoever, when truth and
virtue are in question, despising the approbation of the multitude, is
sufficiently courageous to follow the dictates of his own heart-- such a one
is a proper candidate."
THE
ORDER SPREAD THROUGHOUT EUROPE
In
1780 the Order was carried into Northern Germany by the Marquis Cantanzo, a
Privy Councillor of Karl, Elector of Bavaria. It has been stated that lodges
were established in France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Hungary
and Italy. This seems doubtful to me. If so, however, they were mere
beginnings as not more than two thousand members, at I most, have ever been
claimed for the Order. However' in Volume II, at page 141, of the Secret
Memoirs of St. Cloud, limited to five hundred copies (copy 297), Edinburgh
Press, I find the following which I pass on without comment:
"In
the will of that great monarch (Gustavus VIII). Baron d'Armfeldt was nominated
one of the guardians of his present sovereign, and governor of the capitol;
but the Duke Regent, who was a weak Prince, guided by philosophical
adventurers, by ILLUMINATI and FREEMASONS, most of whom had imbided French
revoluntionary maxims, sent him, in a kind of honorary exile, as Ambassador to
Italy * * * ."
The
Society of the Illuminati was taken up with enthusiasm by Baron Knigge, a
Privy Councillor of the reigning Duke of Saxe-Gotha. It was then that Goethe
and Herder joined the Illuminati. Knigge had taken the Templar degrees at
Cassel in 1772, and was disgusted with them. He thought that in the Illuminati
he would find, at last, the truth. But Doctor Weishaupt had not even completed
the rituals. However he placed his material in Knigge's hands. They quarreled
over how it should be arranged and Knigge retired. The Order in Northern
Germany was dead. Meanwhile some of the Masonic sects with Rosicrucian
tendencies joined with the Church in fighting the Illuminati. It must be
remembered that Illuminism was as much the antithesis of Rosicrucianism as it
was of Jesuitism. Rosicrucianism and Jesuitism had much in common. Meanwhile
the rumble of the French Revolution could be heard in Bavaria. The authorities
believed that they were justified in closing the Illuminati, as well as all
other secret societies. Masonic historians, including Gould, have maintained
that the Illuminati possessed no revolutionary tendencies. While this is
probably true, using the word "revolutionary" in its strictest sense, still
its whole aim was away from existing things, and toward republican free
thought. Professor Weishaupt was a reformer, a Masonic reformer. He wanted to
reform religion. He wanted to reform Masonry. He believed that his desired
reforms could be accomplished through reformed Masonry. But the French Masonry
at that time was so steeped in kabbalism, spiritism, scepticism, and natural
religion that it was past reforming. It was stuck in slimy lagoons with its
back toward the East, waiting for its Scots Perfection degrees to return from
the West. And so all Masonry died in Southern Germany and there it has ever
since been, practically dead.
WEISHAUPT AS AN AUTHOR
Doctor Weishaupt fled to Saxe-Gotha. Duke Ernest, who was a Freemason, made
him a Privy Councillor, and granted him a pension. He died there in 1830.
He
published several works on Illuminism while living in Gotha. The best known
are, A Picture of the Illuminati (1786); An Apology for the Illuminati (1786);
A Complete History of the Persecutions of the Illuminati in Bavaria (1786);
and A System of Illuminati (1887).
In
commenting on the Illuminati Doctor Weishaupt said:
"My
general plan is good, though in the detail there may be faults. I had myself
to create. In another situation, and in an active station in life, I should
have been keenly occupied, and the founding of an Order would never have come
into my head. But I would have executed much better things, if the government
had not always opposed my exertions, and placed others in situations which
suited my talents. It was the full conviction of this, and what could be done
if every man were placed in the office for which he was fitted by nature, and
a proper education, which first suggested to me the plan of the Illuminati."
The
Martinists were founded by Martinez Pasqualis in 1762 in a so-called Masonic
Rite named "The Rite of Elected Cohens, or Priests," consisting of nine
degrees. This Rite was afterwards reformed by the Marquis de St. Martin by
what he called "The Rectified Rite"; and this Rite, as well as a body of
Russian Martinists, of 1790, of which Professor Schwartz, of Moscow, was the
head, were then called the Illuminati. The "Rectified Rite" consisted of two
classes. The degrees of the first class were (1) Apprentice, (2) Fellow Craft,
(3) Master Mason, (4) Past Master, (5) Elect, (6) Grand Architect, and (7)
Mason of the Secret. The degrees of the second class were (8) Prince of
Jerusalem, (9) Knight of Palestine and (10) Kadosh. These degrees are simply
day dreams of mystics and allegorists.
Doctor Weishaupt as a reformer failed and his high type of Illuminism
apparently went down with him; but Illuminism became saturated with all kinds
of nonsense, resumed its course and more and more it and the "Emperors" rite
drifted toward each other.
Bibliographical note by author. Consult The Gnostic Heresies of the 1st and
2nd Centuries, by H.L. Mansel; London; 1875. Articles on Gnosticism in
Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition. History of the Inquisition of the
Middle Ages, by Henry Charles Lea; III Vol.; London; 1888. History of the
Inquisition of Spain, by Henry Charles Lea; five volumes, London; 1905-1908.
Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries, by Adolph Harnack,
Eng. trans., 1904. The Church in the Roman Empire, by Sir W. M. Ramsey; 1893.
Mithraic Mysteries, a translation by T. J. McCormick of the Conclusions of
Cumont's great work on Mithraism; Chicago and London 1893.
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The Illuminati Freemason Conspiracy
From Public Eye and Political Research Associates: masonicinfo.com
Adam Weishaupt founded the Illuminati of Bavaria on May 1, 1776 on the principles of his early training as a Jesuit. Originally called the Order of the Perfectibilists, "its professed object was, by the mutual assistance of its members, to attain the highest possible degree of morality and virtue, and to lay the foundation for the reformation of the world by the association of good men to oppose the progress of moral evil."
The Freemasons began as members of craft guilds who united into lodges in England in the early 1700's. They stressed religious tolerance, the equality of their male peers, and the themes of classic liberalism and the Enlightenment. Today they are a worldwide fraternal order that still educates its members about philosophical ideas, and engages in harmless rituals, but also offers networking for business and political leaders, and carries out charitable activities.
The idea of a widespread freemason conspiracy originated in the late 1700's and flourished in the US in the 1800's. Persons who embrace this theory often point to purported Masonic symbols such as the pyramid and the eye on the back of the dollar bill as evidence of the conspiracy. Allegations of a freemason conspiracy trace back to British author John Robison who wrote the 1798 book Proofs of a Conspiracy Against All the Religions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the secret meetings of Free Masons, Illuminati, and Reading Societies, collected from good authorities. Robison influenced French author Abbé Augustin Barruel, whose first two volumes of his eventual four volume study, Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, beat Robison's book to the printer. Both Robison and Barruel discuss the attempt by Bavarian intellectual Adam Weishaupt to spread the ideas of the Enlightenment through his secretive society, the Order of the Illuminati.
Weishaupt was appointed a professor at the University of Ingolstadt in Germany around 1772 and elevated to the post of professor of Canon Law in 1773 or 1775 (sources conflict), the first secularist to hold that position previously held by clergy. Weishaupt began planning a group to challenge authoritarian Catholic actions in 1775, the group (under a different name) was announced on May 1, 1776. This group evolved into the Illuminati. The Enlightenment rationalist ideas of the Illuminati were, in fact, brought into Masonic lodges where they played a role in a factional fight against occultist philosophy. The Illuminati was suppressed in a series of edicts between 1784 and 1787, and Weishaupt himself was banished in 1785.
Weishaupt, his Illuminati society, the Freemasons, and other secret societies are portrayed by Robison and Barruel as bent on despotic world domination through a secret conspiracy using front groups to spread their influence.
Barruel claimed the conspirators "had sworn hatred to the altar and the throne, had sworn to crush the God of the Christians, and utterly to extirpate the Kings of the Earth." For Barruel the grand plot hinges on how Illuminati "adepts of revolutionary Equality and Liberty had buried themselves in the Lodges of Masonry" where they caused the French revolution, and then ordered "all the adepts in their public prints to cry up the revolution and its principles." Soon, every nation had its "apostle of Equality, Liberty, and Sovereignty of the People."
Robison, a professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, argued that the Illuminati evolved out of Freemasonry, and called the Illuminati philosophy "Cosmo-politism." According to Robison:
"Their first and immediate aim is to get the possession of riches, power, and influence, without industry; and, to accomplish this, they want to abolish Christianity; and then dissolute manners and universal profligacy will procure them the adherents of all the wicked, and enable them to overturn all the civil governments of Europe; after which they will think of farther conquests, and extend their operations to the other quarters of the globe, till they have reduced mankind to the state of one indistinguishable chaotic mass."
Robert Alan Goldberg, in his book Enemies Within, summarizes the basic themes of the books by Barruel and Robison:
"Writing in the aftermath of the French Revolution, these monarchists had created a counterhistory in defense of the aristocracy. Winning the hearts and minds of present and future readers would assuage some of the pain of recent defeat and mobilize defenses. The Revolution, they argued, was not rooted in poverty and despotism. Rather than a rising of the masses, it was the work of Adam Weishaupt's Illuminati, a secret society that plotted to destroy all civil and religious authority and abolish marriage, the family, and private property. It was the Illuminati who schemed to turn contented peasants 'from Religion to Atheism, from decency to dissoluteness, from loyalty to rebellion.' "
The major immediate political effect of allegations of an Illuminati Freemason conspiracy in Europe was to mobilize support for national oligarchies traditionally supported by the Catholic Church hierarchy. Across Europe authoritarian governing elites were coming under attack by reformist and revolutionary movements demanding increased political rights under secular laws. The ideas of the Enlightenment were incorporated by the leaders of both the French and American revolutions, and in a sense, these Enlightenment notions were indeed subversive to the established social order, although they were hardly a secret conspiracy. The special status of the Catholic Church in European nation-states was actually threatened by the ideas being discussed by the Illuminati and the rationalist wing of the Freemasons.
Several common conspiracist themes emerge from these two books. The Enlightenment themes of equality and liberty are designed to destroy respect for property and the natural social hierarchy. Orthodox Christianity is to be destroyed and replaced with universalism, deism...or worse. Persons with a cosmopolitan outlook--encouraging free-thinking and international cooperation--are to be suspect as disloyal subversive traitors out to undermine national sovereignty and promote anarchy.
Shortly after the Barruel book was published, conspiracy theories about the Illuminati Freemasons were mixed with antisemitism in Europe. This confluence took place much later in the US.
Adapted from Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons. 2000. Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort. New York: Guilford Publications.
Bibliography
Abbé Augustin Barruel, Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, second edition revised and corrected, English translation by Robert Clifford, (originally published 1797-1798, reprinted in one volume, Fraser, MI: Real-View-Books, 1995).
John Robison, Proofs of a Conspiracy-against All the Religions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the secret meetings of Freemasons, Illuminati and Reading Societies, fourth edition with postscript, (originally published 1798, reprinted Boston: Western Islands, 1967)
Richard Hofstadter, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics," in The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965).
Norman Cohn, Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, (London: Serif, 1967 [1996].
George Johnson, Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia in American Politics, (Los Angeles: Tarcher/Houghton Mifflin, 1983).
Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons, Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, (New York: Guilford Publications, 2000)
Robert Alan Goldberg, Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001).
Herm. Gruber, "Illuminati," The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VII, (New York, NY: Robert Appleton Company, 1910).
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