A Metaprogrammer at the Door of Chapel Perilous

 

In the literature that concerns the Illuminati relentless speculation abounds. No other secret society in recent history - with the exception of Freemasonry - has generated as much legend, hysteria, and disinformation. I first became aware of the the Illuminati about 14 years ago.

 

Shortly thereafter I read a book, written by Robert Anton Wilson, called Cosmic Trigger: Final Secret of the Illuminati.

 

Wilson published it in 1977 but his opening remarks on the subject still ring true today:

Briefly, the background of the Bavarian Illuminati puzzle is this. On May 1, 1776, in Bavaria, Dr. Adam Weishaupt, a professor of Canon Law at Ingolstadt University and a former Jesuit, formed a secret society called the Order of the Illuminati within the existing Masonic lodges of Germany. Since Masonry is itself a secret society, the Illuminati was a secret society within a secret society, a mystery inside a mystery, so to say. In 1785 the Illuminati were suppressed by the Bavarian government for allegedly plotting to overthrow all the kings in Europe and the Pope to boot. This much is generally agreed upon by all historians. 1

 

Everything else is a matter of heated, and sometimes fetid, controversy.

 

It has been claimed that Dr. Weishaupt was an atheist, a Cabalistic magician, a rationalist, a mystic; a democrat, a socialist, an anarchist, a fascist; a Machiavellian amoralist, an alchemist, a totalitarian and an "enthusiastic philanthropist." (The last was the verdict of Thomas Jefferson, by the way.) The Illuminati have also been credited with managing the French and American revolutions behind the scenes, taking over the world, being the brains behind Communism, continuing underground up to the 1970s, secretly worshipping the Devil, and mopery with intent to gawk. Some claim that Weishaupt didn't even invent the Illuminati, but only revived it.

 

The Order of Illuminati has been traced back to the Knights Templar, to the Greek and Gnostic initiatory cults, to Egypt, even to Atlantis. The one safe generalization one can make is that Weishaupt's intent to maintain secrecy has worked; no two students of Illuminology have ever agreed totally about what the "inner secret" or purpose of the Order actually was (or is . . .).

 

There is endless room for spooky speculation, and for pedantic paranoia, once one really gets into the literature of the subject; and there has been a wave of sensational "ex-poses" of the Illuminati every generation since 1776. If you were to believe all this sensational literature, the damned Bavarian conspirators were responsible for everything wrong with the world, including the energy crises and the fact that you can't even get a plumber on weekends.

(pp. 3-4)

That short excerpt is perhaps the most honest and succinct introduction to the Illuminati as you'll ever come across. So it is more than a bit ironic that Wilson, throughout the rest of the text, proceeds to perpetuate and expand upon similar myths, and in the process manages to take it to a whole new level. 2 In the end, the Illuminati had mystified Wilson as much as anyone in the preceding centuries.

 

Robert Anton Wilson (RAW) is an enigma in his own right: an archetypal Trickster in the tradition of Aleister Crowley or Timothy Leary, both of whom he greatly admires. 3

 

The Cosmic Trigger Trilogy is meant to awaken the reader to multiple mind-blowing streams of thought and completely shatter preconceived notions of perception, time and space - much as the writings of illuminists themselves. Herein lies the seed of speculation to the effect that he must surely be in on the conspiracy - some have gone so far as to believe he's the Grand Master (or inner head) of the Illuminati himself. Wilson has always toyed with the accusations, and in typical RAW fashion, he's never denied it outright.

 

Cosmic Trigger wasn't the first book Wilson dedicated to the theme, however. Two years earlier, in 1975, RAW and co-author Robert Shea popularized the modern wave of Illuminati conspiracies with the publication of the novel Illuminatus! Trilogy. A veritable cult classic, Illuminatus invigorated the underground market and spawned a whole new generation of conspiracy authors. One cannot read any of RAW's material without a healthy sense of humor, though, and Illuminatus is definitely no exception. Written between 1969 and 1971 it reads like a subversive anarchist manual, yet satirical and surreal at the same time. The cut-and-paste job of excerpts right into the flow of dialogue - from books and pamphlets on a wide range of conspiracy theories - probably boosted its appeal from the beginning.

 

Any researcher investigating the Illuminati today would be remiss not to mention RAW - especially in a book or document purporting to cover the subject in detail. With the exception of Myron Fagan, "Wild" Bill Cooper, 4 the John Birchers and Biblical endtimes literature, the formation of the current mythos surrounding the subject has a lot to do with the popularity of Wilson's books: have you ever seen the Illuminati and the star Sirius mentioned in the same paragraph?

 

Before plunging headlong into the history of the Bavarian Illuminati, it might be useful to have a look at Wilson's diagram - his interpretation (at the time) of the "occult conspiracy" as it has been transmitted through the ages (Cosmic Trigger: Final Secret of the Illuminati, p.188):

New Promethean Possibilities

“European aristocrats transferred their lighted candles from Christian altars to Masonic lodges. The flame of occult alchemists, which had promised to turn dross into gold, reappeared at the center of new "circles" seeking to recreate a golden age: Bavarian Illuminists conspiring against the Jesuits, French Philadelphians against Napoleon, Italian charcoal burners against the Hapsburgs.”

- Billington,

Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith, p. 6

The Bavarian Illuminati originated during an age replete with the growing belief in the acquisition of truth through observation and experience.

 

The Age of Enlightenment was in full swing and by the end of the Eighteenth Century an explosion of natural philosophy, science, the resurgence of hermeticism and occult experimentation, all competed directly with the traditional teachings of the Church and the Jesuit monopoly in the Universities and Colleges. 5 Numerous ideologies owe an intellectual and political heritage to this period: skepticism, rationalism, atheism, liberalism, humanism, reductionism, modernism, communism, nihilism and anarchism - among the most apparent.

 

As the Eighteenth Century came to a close Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755), Denis Diderot (1713-1784), Voltaire (1694-1778), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794), Comte de Mirabeau (1749- 1791), David Hume (1711-1776), Adam Smith (1723-1790), Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) were famous in their own time.

 

The instrument of reason became a new faith, no less susceptible to its own breed of dogmatism. The philosophers of the Enlightenment reasoned that the physics of Newton might become applicable in all fields of endeavor: the fundamental cosmic laws of nature could transform society and man himself into a "noble savage." 6

 

The idea of a "glorious revolution" attained widespread acceptance, but during Weishaupt's time it was still a relatively new concept to link political change with social change. The "imminent revolution of the human mind," promulgated by the "radical Bavarian Illuminists," coincided with Mirabeau's doctrine of a coming secular upheaval and universal revolution. Mirabeau proclaimed Prussia to be the most likely place for the start of the revolution, with the "German Illuminists as its probable leaders."

 

History records, however, that it was Mirabeau himself who became one of the main catalysts to spark the "fire in the minds of men" during the French Revolution. 7

 

At about the same time Weishaupt was embarking on an academic career two important figures entered the world stage: Thomas Robert Malthus, 8 born in 1766, a major influence on Darwinism, population control and the eugenics movement; four years later we see the birth of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, in Stuttgart Germany, the inventor of what would become known as the "Hegelian Dialectic."

"For Hegelians," Antony C. Sutton reports, "the State is almighty and seen as 'the march of God on earth.' Indeed, a State religion. Progress in the Hegelian State is through contrived conflict: the clash of opposites makes for progress. If you can control the opposites, you dominate the nature of the outcome"

(Introduction to the 2002 edition of America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones).

Revolutionary radicals were impressed with the proof-of-concept displayed by the ruthless conspirators in France. Malthusian and Hegelian dogma became equally influential for anarchists, communists, the intelligentsia and the new breed of revolutionaries that surfaced in the 19th Century: Young Hegelians such as Bakunin, Proudhon and Marx took up the cause in the "spirit of the times" to "destroy in order to build."

 

 

 

The Bavarian Illuminati: The "Insinuating Brothers" of ☉

“Weishaupt . . . proposed as the end of Illuminism the abolition of property, social authority, nationality, and the return of the human race to the happy state in which it formed only a single family without artificial needs, without useless sciences, every father being priest and magistrate. Priest of we know not what religion, for in spite of their frequent invocations of the God of Nature, many indications lead us to conclude that Weishaupt had, like Diderot and d'Holbach, no other God than Nature herself. From his doctrine would naturally follow German ultra-Hegelianism and the system of anarchy recently developed in France, of which the physiognomy suggests a foreign origin.”

- Henry Martin,

Histoire de France depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'en 1789, XVI. 533. 9

 

“Do you realize sufficiently what it means to rule - to rule in a secret society? Not only over the lesser or more important of the populace, but over the best of men, over men of all ranks, nations, and religions, to rule without external force, to unite them indissolubly, to breathe one spirit and soul into them, men distributed over all parts of the world? . . . And finally, do you know what secret societies are? What a place they occupy in the great kingdom of the world's events? Do you think they are unimportant, transitory appearances?”

- Adam Weishaupt,

Nachtrag von weitern Originalschriften, II, pp. 44, 51. 10

A quick perusal on the World Wide Web will show the disparity of opinions and irreconcilable differences about the history of the Illuminati - Bavarian or otherwise.

 

It's getting better though,

• a recent article published by the American Atheists 11 - The Enlightenment, Freemasonry, and The Illuminati - has solid documentation and thorough references for those inclined to investigate further into primary and secondary source material;

• the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon has uploaded part of Vernon L. Stauffer's New England and the Bavarian Illuminati;

• Bilderberg.org has most of the relevant parts of John Robison's classic, Proofs of a Conspiracy Against all the Religions and Governments of Europe;

• the Catholic Encyclopedia has long had a good, but short, article;

• nearly the complete text - and the two most important chapters as it concerns the Illuminati - from Nesta Webster's Secret Societies & Subversive Movements has been posted;

• three important chapters from Rabbi Marvin S. Antelman's To Eliminate the Opiate Vol. I;

• Wikipedia.org has an adequate article;

• for those poor Dan Brown fans whose first introduction to the Illuminati was the bestseller Angels & Demons, there's a good debugging write-up from the Center for Studies on New Religions.

If you never buy a single book on the Illuminati, and just read the internet references cited above, you would have an excellent grasp - much greater than your average conspiracy theorist - on the facts (as we can safely say) concerning the rise and fall of the Bavarian Illuminati. I have taken it a bit further, however.

 

For the last six months I've engaged in a crash course on the Illuminati and related subjects:

• absorbing and taking notes from Proofs of a Conspiracy ..., and other internet references;

• buying Barruel's Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism,

• Billington's Fire In the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith, Webster's Secret Societies & Subversive Movements,

• Antelman's To Eliminate the Opiate Vol. 1,

• Yates' The Rosicrucian Enlightenment,

• Fulop-Miller's The Power and Secret of the Jesuits,

• Carr's Pawns in the Game;

...and at the same time consulting other works, in my own personal library, when needed. 12

 

 

 

A Chronological Overview

 

In an effort to keep the notes to a minimum and still provide thorough citation, the following abbreviations will be applied:

• AB - Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, by Augustin Barruel, 1798, Real-View-Books Classics Reprint, 2002 edition

• VS - Chapter III: The European Illuminati, from New England and the Bavarian Illuminati, by Vernon L. Stauffer Ph.D., 1918

• JB - Fire In the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith, by James H. Billington, 1980

• NW - Secret Societies & Subversive Movements, by Nesta H. Webster, 1924, A&B Publishers Group, 1998

• JR - Proofs of a Conspiracy Against all the Religions and Governments of Europe, by John Robison, 1798

• MA - To Eliminate The Opiate, by Rabbi Marvin S. Antelman, 1974

• CG - The Enlightenment, Freemasonry, and The Illuminati, by Conrad Goeringer

• TM - A Bavarian Illuminati Primer, by Trevor W. McKeown

• MI - The Illuminati and Angels & Demons FAQ - Do the Illuminati Really Exist?, by Massimo Introvigne

• CE - Catholic Encyclopedia: Illuminati

1748

February 6. Adam Weishaupt is born (d. 1830) of Westphalian parents [CE] in Ingolstadt Bavaria. Fittingly, the Weishaupt family name first appeared in Baden and was anciently associated with tribal conflicts around the area. [House of Names: Weishaupt Family Crest]

 

1755

Weishaupt's father, George, dies. He is turned over to his liberal godfather, Baron Johann Adam Ickstatt (1702-1776), curator of the University of Ingolstadt and a member of the Privy Council. [VS, CG]

 

While growing up Weishaupt was educated by the Jesuits and was "accorded free range in the private library of his godfather, the boy's questioning spirit was deeply impressed by the brilliant though pretentious works of the French 'philosophers' with which the shelves were plentifully stocked." [VS] He studies law, economics, politics, history and philosophy; voraciously devouring every book which he came across. [VS]

 

1768

Weishaupt graduates from the University of Ingolstadt. He serves for four years as a tutor and catechist. [VS]

 

1772

Weishaupt is appointed as professor of civil law at the University of Ingolstadt. [CE]

 

1773

Pope Clement XIV dissolves the Jesuit Order.

Weishaupt becomes the first layman to occupy the chair of canon law; the prestigious position had been held by a Jesuit for the previous 90 years. [VS, CE]

Weishaupt marries, against the wishes of Ickstatt. [VS]

 

1775

Weishaupt is promoted to dean of the faculty of law. [VS]

 

1776

May 1. Weishaupt founds the Order of the Illuminati with an original membership of five. 13 The Order is secret, hierarchical and modeled on the Jesuits. The original name for the Order was uncertain: Perfectibilists and Bees were both considered, but Weishaupt settled on Illuminati - chosen, perhaps, because of the "image of the sun radiating illumination to outer circles" [JB: 94-95]

 

The Order was, therefore, always represented in communications between members as a circle with a dot in the center ☉ This symbolic imagery - the point within a circle, the Perfectibilists and the Bees - is also reflective of Weishaupt's fascination with Eleusinian 14 and Pythagorean Mysteries; no doubt learning of this early on having access to Ickstatt's considerable library.

 

Like most secret societies the basic structure of the Order was divided into classes and degrees, in the following manner:

1. The Nursery

   1. Preparatory Literary Essay

   2. Novitiate (Novice)

   3. Minerval (Brethren of Minerva, Academy of Illuminism)

   4. Illuminatus Minor

2. Symbolic Freemasonry

   1. Apprentice

   2. Fellow Craft

   3. Master

   4. 1. Scots Major Illuminatus

      2. Scots Illuminatus Dirigens (Directory)

3. Mysteries

   1. Lesser

      1. Presbyter, Priest, or Epopt

      2. Prince or Regent

   2. Greater

      1. Magus

      2. Rex or King

"The Zoroastrian-Manichaean cult of fire was central to the otherwise eclectic symbolism of the Illuminists; their calendar was based on Persian rather than classical or Christian models." [JB: 95] Weishaupt explains: "The allegory in which the Mysteries and Higher Grades must be clothed is Fire Worship and the whole philosophy of Zoroaster or of the old Parsees 15 who nowadays only remain in India; therefore in the further degrees the Order is called 'Fire Worship' (Feuerdienst), the 'Fire Order,' or the 'Persian Order' - that is, something magnificent beyond all expectation." [NW: 201]

 

Weishaupt constructed the Illuminati calendar to commemorate the date of the Persian King Yazdegerd III (632 AD) [MI] - the Parsees (Parsis) still use the same dating system to this day. 16 Barruel relates how the Illuminati Novice in-training "must … learn how to date his letters, and be conversant with the Illuminized Hegira or Calendar; for all letters which he will receive in future will be dated according to the Persian era, caled [sic] Jezdegert and beginning A.D. 630. The year begins with the Illuminees on the first of Pharavardin, which answer to the 21st of March.

 

Their first month has no less than forty-one days; the following months, instead of being called May, June, July, August, September, and October, are Adarpahascht, Chardad, Thirmeh, Merdedmeh, Shaharimeh, Meharmeh: November and December are Abenmeh, Adameh: January and February, Dimeh, and Benmeh: The month of March only has twenty days, and is called Asphandar." [AB: 429; emphasis in original] 17

 

For the Novice, the letters to his Superior are to be written in cipher: "he must make himself master of that cypher, which is to serve him until initiated into the higher degrees, when he will be entrusted with the hieroglyphics of the Order." [AB: 429] Barruel (p.438) displays the first cipher 18 introduced to the Illuminati Novice:

 

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	K	L	M
12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1
N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	W	X	Y	Z
13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24

 

The Hieroglyphic cipher used in the higher Scotch Knight degrees is also reproduced by Barruel:

The Bavarian Illuminati were set up for "political intriguing rather than in speculation" [NW: 201], the Illuminati became "much more characteristic of a militia in action than an order with initiations." [JB: 95]

 

Weishaupt's contempt for certain esoteric pursuits - as a "thing-in-itself" - was widely known: "... in Weishaupt's system the phraseology of Judaism, the Cabalistic legends of Freemasonry, the mystical imaginings of the Martinistes, play at first no part at all.

 

For all forms of 'theosophy,' occultism, spiritualism, and magic Weishaupt expresses nothing but contempt, and the Rose-Croix masons are bracketed with the Jesuits by the Illuminati as enemies it is necessary to outwit at every turn. Consequently no degree of Rose-Croix finds a place in Weishaupt's system, as in all the other Masonic orders of the day which drew their influence from Eastern or Cabalistic 19 sources." [NW: 200]

 

Weishaupt seems to have shown the most disdain towards the occult pursuits of his own time; of the ancient mysteries he has nothing but high regard. The Insinuators, while in pursuit of potential recruits, "must remark, that there exists doctrines solely transmitted by secret traditions, because they are above the comprehension of common minds. In proof of his assertions he will cite the Gymnosophists in the Indies, the Priests of Isis in Egypt, and those of Eleusis and the Pythagorean School in Greece." [AB: 422]

 

Ascending the Illuminati hierarchy wasn't so much for the purpose of attaining wisdom as to be "remade into a totally loyal servant of a universal mission." [JB: 94] In a letter to fellow Illuminist, Xavier Zwack, dated Mar 10 1778, Weishaupt had said, "We cannot use people as they are, but begin by making them over." [JB: 94]

 

1777

Weishaupt is initiated into Freemasonry, in Munich, at the Lodge Theodore of Good Counsel. By the middle of 1779, Weishaupt's "Insinuators" had completely wrestled control of the Lodge and it was regarded as part of the Order of the Illuminati. [VS]

 

1780

February 8. Weishaupt's wife dies. [VS]

 

July. Baron von Knigge is initiated into the Order. [VS] Knigge was connected to the court of Hesse-Cassel [VS] and a prominent Strict Observance freemason. He subsequently restructured the Order and recruited many prominent members: "the notion of restricting the field of recruiting solely to the young was abandoned, and this phase of the propaganda was widened so as to include men of experience whose wisdom and influence might be counted upon to assist in attaining the objects of the order." [VS]

 

By 1784, largely due to Knigge's circle of influence, the Illuminati had "between two and three thousand members." [VS]

 

1782

July 16. Congress of Wilhelmsbad convened. Probably the most significant event of the era as far as any official coalition between secret society factions:

“At Wilhelmsbad, near the city of Hanau in Hesse-Cassel, was held the most important Masonic Congress of the eighteenth century. It was convoked by Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, 20 Grand Master of the Order of Strict Observance ... there were delegates from Upper and Lower Germany, from Holland, Russia, Italy, France, and Austria; and the order of the Illuminati was represented by the Baron Von Knigge. It is not therefore surprising that the most heterogeneous opinions were expressed.”

- Albert G. Mackey.

Mackey's Revised Encyclopedia Of Freemasonry, under "Wilhelmsbad, Congress of"

 

"...it was not until the Congress de Wilhelmsbad that the alliance between Illuminism and Freemasonry was finally sealed....What passed at this terrible Congress will never be known to the outside world, for even those men who had been drawn unwittingly into the movement, and now heard for the first time the real designs of the leaders, were under oath to reveal nothing. One such honest Freemason, the Comte de Virieu, a member of Martiniste Lodge at Lyons, returning from the Congre's de Wilhelmsbad could not conceal his alarm, and when questioned on the 'tragic secrets' he had brought back with him, replied: 'I will not confide them to you. I can only tell you that all this is very much more serious than you think. The conspiracy which is being woven is so well thought out that it will be, so to speak, impossible for the monarchy and the Church to escape from it." From this time onwards, says his biographer, M. Costa de Beauregard, 'the Comte de Virieu could only speak of Freemasonry with horror.'"

Nesta H. Webster.

World Revolution - The Plot Against Civilization, p. 18.

1784

April 20. Baron von Knigge resigns from the Illuminati. His quarrels with Weishaupt over the direction and management of the Order had reached a boiling point. A certain amount of jealousy was apparent from both parties - though Weishaupt certainly was a Machiavellian, by all accounts. On July 1st Knigge signs a formal agreement to return all property, rituals and initiations belonging to the Order, and to maintain silence about Illuminati secrets. Knigge was convinced of Weishaupt's Jesuitism; he accused him of being "a Jesuit in disguise." [VS, CE]

 

June 22. The Elector of Bavaria, Duke Carl Theodore, issues the first edict against secret societies not authorized by the law or the sovereign.

This first edict seems to have been brought upon by ex-member, Professor Joseph Utzschneider, who had quit the Order in August 1783. Just a few months later, in October, Utzschneider along with Grünberger and Cosandey, fellow professors with him in the Marianen (Marienburg) Academy 21 and members of the Order, presented the Duchess Maria Anna with an internal Illuminati document, and a membership list. The Duchess was thoroughly alarmed and passed it on to the Duke. [VS, JR]

 

1785

February. Some members of the Illuminati appeal to Carl Theodore for an appearance before him to prove their innocence. The offer is rejected. [VS]

 

March 2. The Bavarian Monarch issues the second edict against secret societies, specifically naming the Illuminati and Freemasonry; shortly after a considerable amount of important documents were concealed or put to the flames. [VS] This second ban was more forceful, it "left no room for evasion." The government enforcers were giving weapons to "wage an effective command." [VS]

 

Weishaupt had already left his post at the University two weeks earlier, obviously knowing about the approaching storm.

"He fled across the border to Regensburg, and finally settled at Gotha" under the protection of Illuminati member Duke of Saxe-Gotha. [VS] Thirteen years later Barruel writes, "[Weishaupt] now banished from his country as a traitor to his Prince and to the whole Universe, peacefully at the court of Ernest Lewis, Duke of Saxe Gotha, enjoys an asylum, receives a pension from the public treasury, and is dignified with the title of Honorary Councellor to that Prince."

[AB: 400]

Judicial inquiries were held at Ingolstadt. Subsequent government measures were taken and some members made formal confessions. A considerable membership was found to be held within the military; officers and soldiers were ordered to come forward and confess any involvement. State officials, professors, teachers, and students who were found out to be members were summarily dismissed. Some were even banished from the country. [VS]

 

September 9. Utzschneider, Grünberger, and Cosandey make a joint Juridical Deposition before the Elector:

"The object of the first degrees of Illuminism is at once to train their young men, and to be informed of every thing that is going forward by a system of espionage. The Superiors aim at procuring from their inferiors diplomatic acts, documents, and original writings. With pleasure they see them commit any treasons or treacherous acts, because they not only turn the secrets betrayed to their own advantage, but thereby have it in their power to keep the traitors in a perpetual dread, lest, if they every showed any signs of stubbornness, their malefactions should be made known.- Oderint dum metuant, let them hate, provided they fear, is the principle of their government.

 

"The Illuminees from these first degrees are educated in the following principles:

1. "The Illuminee who wishes to rise to the highest degree must be free from all religion; for a religionist (as they call every man who has any religion) will never be admitted to the highest degrees."

2. The Patet Exitus, or the doctrine on Suicide, is expressed in the same terms as in the preceding deposition.

3. "The end sanctifies the means. The welfare of the Order will be a justification for calumnies, poisonings, assassinations, perjuries, treasons, rebellions; in short, for all that the prejudices of men lead them to call crimes.

4. "One must be more submissive to the Superiors of Illuminism, than to the sovereigns or magistrates who govern the people; and he that gives the preference to sovereigns or governors of the people is useless to us. Honor, life, and fortune, all are to be sacrificed to the Superiors. The governors of nations are despots when they are not directed by us.-They can have no authority over us, who are free men.

5. "The love of one's prince and of one's country are incompatible with views of an immense extent, with the ultimate ends of the Order, and one must glow with ardour for the attainment of that end.

"The Superiors of Illuminism are to be looked upon as the most perfect and the most enlightened of men; no doubts are to be entertained even of their infallibility."

 

"It is in these moral and political principles that the Illuminees are educated in the lower degrees; and it is according to the manner in which they imbibe them and show their devotion to the Order, or are able to second its views, that they are earlier or later admitted to the higher degrees.

 

"They use every possible artifice to get the different post-offices in all countries entrusted to the care of their adepts only. They also boast that they are in possession of the secret of opening and reclosing letters without the circumstance being perceived.

 

"They made us give answers in writing to the following questions: How would it be possible to devise one single system of morals and one common Government for all Europe, and what means should be employed to effectuate it? Would the Christian Religion be a necessary requisite? Should revolt be employed to accomplish it? &c. &c.

 

"We were also asked, in which Brethren we should place the most confidence if there were any important plan to be undertaken; and whether we were willing to recognize the right of life and death as vested in the Order; and also the right of the sword, Jus Gladii.

 

"In consequence of our acquaintance with this doctrine of the Illuminees, with their conduct, their manners, and their incitements to treason, and being fully convinced of the dangers of the Sect, we the Aulic Counsellor Utzschneider and the Priest Dillis left the Order. The Professor Grünberger, the Priest Cosandey, Renner, and Zaupfer, did the same a week after, though the Illuminees sought to impose upon us shamefully, by assuring us that his Electoral Highness was a member of their Order.

 

We clearly saw that a Prince knowing his own interests, and wholly attending to the paternal care of his subjects, would never countenance a Sect, spreading through almost every province under the cloak of Free-masonry; because it sows division and discord between parents and their children, between Princes and their subjects, and among the most sincere friends; because on all important occasions it would install partiality on the seats of justice and in the councils, as it always prefers the welfare of the Order to that of the state, and the interests of its adepts to those of the prophane. Experience had convinced us, that they would soon succeed in perverting all the Bavarian youth.

 

The leading feature in the generality of their adepts were irreligion, depravity of morals, disobedience to their Prince and to their parents, and the neglect of all useful studies. We saw that the fatal consequence of Illuminism would be, to create a general distrust between the prince and his subjects, the father and his children, the minister and his secretaries, and between the different tribunals and councils.

 

We were not to be deterred by that threat so often repeated, That no Prince can save him that betrays us. We abandoned, one after the other, this Sect, which under different names, as we have been informed by several of our former Brethren, has already spread itself in Italy, and particularly at Venice, in Austria, in Holland, in Saxony, on the Rhine, particularly at Frankfort, and even as far as America.-The Illuminees meddle as much as possible in state affairs, and excite troubles wherever their Order can be benefited by them."

 

"We are not acquainted with the other Invisibles, who in all probability are chiefs of a higher degree.

 

"After we had retired from the Order, the Illuminees calumniated us on all sides in the most infamous manner. Their cabal made us fail in every request we presented; succeeding in rendering us hateful and odious to our superiors, they even carried their calumnies so far as to pretend that one of us had committed murder. After a year's persecution, an Illuminee came to represent to the Aulic Counsellor Utzschneider, that from experience he must have learned that he was every where persecuted by the Order, that unless he could contrive to regain its protection, he would never succeed in any of his demands, and that he could still regain admission." [AB: 684-88; emphasis in original]

1786

On October 11 police search Xavier Zwack's residence in Landshut. A number of books and over two hundred letters, between Weishaupt and the Areopagites, were confiscated. The documents were published by the Bavarian government under the title Einige Originalschriften des Illuminaten Ordens. [VS, TM]

 

The evidence discovered at Zwack's residence was considerable: besides the secret communications between the Illuminati Adepts, the authorities found tables containing the Order's symbols and the Persian calendar; membership rosters, statutes, instructions for recruiters, ceremonies of initiation and imprints of the Order's insignia; a eulogy of atheism and a copy of a manuscript entitled Better Than Horus; a proposal for a branch of Illuminism for woman; 22 several hundred impressions of Government seals (with a list of their owners, princes, nobles, clergymen, merchants, etc.), for the purposes of counterfeiting; instructions for the making of the poison Aqua Toffana, poisonous gas and secret ink; "an infernal machine" for the safeguarding of secret papers - apparently a strong box that would blow up, destroying its contents; and receipts for procuring abortion and a formula for making a tea to induce the procedure. [VS, JR, MA: 51, NW: 228, AB: 692-93]

 

In the space of a few months, in 1786 - in order to save face - Weishaupt pens 9 different apologetic pamphlets, most notably: Apologie der Illuminaten, Frankfort and Leipzig, 1786, and Vollständige Geschichte der Verfolgung der Illuminaten in Bayern, Frankfort and Leipzig, 1786. [VS]

 

1787

As a result of further police searches of Baron Bassus' castle at Sandersdorf, the Bavarian government published more secret documents of the Order: Nachtrag von weitern Originalschriften ... [VS]

 

August 16. The third and final edict against the Order is put into effect by the Duke of Bavaria.

 

The former edicts were reemphasized,

"and in addition, to give maximum force to the sovereign's will, criminal process, without distinction of person, dignity, state, or quality, was ordered against any Illuminatus who should be discovered continuing the work of recruiting. Any so charged and found guilty were to be deprived of their lives by the sword; while those thus recruited were to have their goods confiscated and themselves to be condemned to perpetual banishment from the territories of the duke. Under the same penalties of confiscation and banishment, the members of the order, no matter under what name or circumstances, regular or irregular, they should gather, were forbidden to assemble as lodges."

[VS]

 

 

Illuminati Membership List: Alias, Occupation, Residence and Associates

 

Partial List of Known Illuminati: 1776 - 1787

	Code Name (Alias)	Occupation	Circle of Influence
Abel, Jacob Friedrich von (1751-1829)	Pythagoras Abderites	Professor of philosophy in Stuttgart; general superintendent in Urach and Reutlingen	Friedrich Schiller 23
Baader, Ferdinand M. (1747-1797)	Celsus	Professor, Munich; Physician to the Electress Dowager
Baierhammer, Alois	Zoroaster, then Confucius	Monastery judge in Diessen
Banffy, Count		Governor of Transylvania
des Barres, Karl	Archelaus	Major in the French service
Bassus, Thomas Maria De (1742-1815)	Hannibal	Baron; Court adviser, Munich; printer	Weishaupt; Johann Simon Mayr; 24 Switzerland, Austria and Northern Italy
	I was lucky enough to find a small write-up on Bassus. Here are some extracts taken from Massimo Lardi, Italianopera correspondent from Coira; Luca Bianchini and Anna Trombetta, Italianopera correspondents from Sondrio; and published in Grigionitaliani Notebooks, July 2000: "The baron Thomas Maria Freiherr De Bassus was born in Poschiavo, Switzerland, in 1742. He studied jurisprudence at the University of Ingolstadt. Weishaupt (code name Spartacus), who founded the Order of the Bavarian Illuminati, on the 1 May 1776, was his schoolmate. De Bassus practiced for a year as an Adviser of court to Münich in Bavaria. In 1767 he became Patron [Podestà] of Poschiavo, a task already taken from his father Giovanni Maria. He married Cecilia Domenica Massella, from a family of notaries. At the premature death of his father, he inherited the palace of piazza del Borgo in Poschiavo, known today as the Albrici Hotel, in addition to his wealthy possessions in Valtellina and in Val di Poschiavo. After he had engaged the position of legal Assistant in Tirano (in the province of Sondrio, under the power of Grigioni), De Bassus became Podestà of Traona in 1781 and inherited in that period the goods of the German family branch, e. g. the feuds of Sandersdorf, Mendorf, Eggersberg, Harlanden and Dachenstein. "Entering the Order of the Bavarian Illuminati with the code name of Hannibal, De Bassus had the assignment, like the pseudonym suggests, to spread Illuminism beyond the Alps, above all in the Three Leagues (Swiss) and in the north of Italy. De Bassus acquired a printing company that, with the help of the Illuminatus typographer Joseph Ambrosioni, became the center of the diffusion of Weishaupt's ideas from Poschiavo. The edition of De Bassus (1782) of the first Italian translation of the Werther of Goethe, written by Gaetano Grassi from Milan, was famous." In 1787, police searches of the Baron's castle turned up incriminating evidence against himself and the Illuminati. He was a great recruiter for the Order. In letters to Weishaupt he boasted of his conquests at Bozen (in the south of Austria), initiating "the President, the Vice-President, the principal Counsellors of Government, and the Grand Master of the Posts." Later, in his travels to Italy, he sends back word of having initiated "his Excellency the Count W…" in Milan. [AB: 605]
Bleibtreu, Karl	Busius	Counsellor of the Chamber at Neuwied
Bleibtreu, Leopold	Alberoni	Counsellor of the Chamber at Neuwied 25
Bode, Johann Joachim Christoph (1730-1793)	Amelius	Privy Counselor, Weimar; musician, composer, music teacher; translator, publisher, tutor	Nicholas Bonneville; Goethe; Gotthold Ephraim Lessing -> Moses Mendelssohn's wife
	Rabbi Marvin S. Antelman declares that Bode was the tutor of Mendelssohn's wife [MA: 76]; very likely true since Bode was good friends with Mendelssohn's publishing partner, Lessing. Goethe was another one of Bode's good friends, and it was probably through the latter that Goethe was "insinuated" into the Illuminati - he was certainly one of " Goethe's best Masonic advisers." Bode, according to Billington (p.96), was the "decisive channel of Illuminist influence" on Nicholas Bonneville, during his "first of two visits to Paris (June of 1787)" - which, by itself, is enough to support the theory for a real Illuminati influence on the French Revolution. The importance of Bonneville on the ideas and progression of the French Revolution, and on other groups and figures of the time, is fleshed out masterfully by Billington (Bonneville, Nicholas, 12, 25, 35-44, 56, 67, 73, 160, 259; Babeuf and, 83-86 3:234,240; German culture and, 60-62, 112; Illuminism and, 96-97, 99; journalism of, 35-38, 307, 458, 3:233,236; Pythagorean influence on, 100-3; Social Circle of, 33, 39, 42-44, 60, 72, 76, 84-85, 103, 484).
Bronner, Franz Xaver (1758-1850)	Aristoteles	A former Benedictine monk who left the monastery to become a teacher, poet and librarian in Switzerland; 26 German-Swiss writer and professor
Brigido, Count Joseph (d. 1817)		Governor of Galicia from 1780 to 1794	Viennese Lodge, The Truthful Harmony; Archbishop of Ljubljana, Ivan Michael
Busche, Georg Baron von dem	Bayard	Hanoverian Lieutenant-General
Cobenzl, Count Johann Ludwig von (1753-1809)	Arrian	Treasurer at Eichstatt; Austrian Envoy to St. Petersburg; Court Chancellor, State Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister 27
Cobenzl, Johann Philipp Graf von (1741-1810)	Numa Pompilius Romanus	Austrian Vice Chancellor, successor to W. Kaunitz in the office of Court Chancellor and Vice Chancellor; Foreign Minister 28
Compe	Aristodemes	High Bailiff at Weinberg in the Electorate of Hanover
Costanzo, Marquis Const. von	Diomedes	Counselor at Munich
Dalberg, Karl Theodor, Baron Von (1744-1817)	Baco v. Verulam (also Crescens 29 )	Grand Duke of Frankfort-on-the-Main; Archbishop-Elector of Mainz, Arch-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire, Archbishop of Regensburg	Mayer Amschel Rothschild; Goethe, Schiller, Wieland
	Archbishop Dalberg was an emancipator of the Jews. In 1811 he enacted a special law "decreeing that all Jews living in Frankfort, together with their descendants, should enjoy civil rights and privileges equally with other citizens." 30 In exchange for these newfound liberties the Jews had to pay him 440,000 florins; 31 financed by Mayer Amschel Rothschild, 32 at a substantial profit, no doubt. A number of Masonic Jews at the time also petitioned von Karl for the "exclusive right to maintain lodges in the city." 33 According to Niall Ferguson, Mayer Amschel was soon acting as Dalberg's "court banker." During the emancipation of the Frankfort Jews, Rothschild had also advanced him 80,000 gulden "to finance his journey to Paris for the baptism of Napoleon's son." Afterwards, Rothschild assisted him in speculative purchases of land and Dalberg returned the favor by appointing Mayer Amschel to the electoral college of Hanau. Mayer Amschel's son, also named Amschel, continued the relationship after his father's death and advanced 250,000 gulden for Dalberg to purchase horses for the French army. 34 This Illuminated Prince had a spectacular career in the Roman Catholic church. According to the Catholic-Hierarchy.org, Archbishop Dalberg was a Priest for twenty-nine years and a Bishop for twenty-eight. At the time of his initiation though he had only been "Coadjutor of Mentz." [AB: 699] Interestingly, Lord Acton (John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton) inherited the title of baronet from his grandfather, whose cousin had married the only daughter of Karl's nephew Emmerich Joseph Dalberg (Emeric Joseph, duc de Dalberg). 35
Ditfurth, Franz W. v. (1738-1813)	Minos	Assessor to the Imperial Chamber of Wetzlar
Dorsch, Anton Josef (1758-1819)	Ptolemäus Lathurus	Professor of theology in Mainz; Professor of Moral Theology at the Episcopal Academy in Strassburg 36
Drexel, Anton (1753-1830)	Pythagoras