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Organization:Alexa Crawls

Starting in 1996,Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to theWayback Machine after an embargo period.

Collection:Alexa Crawls

Starting in 1996,Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to theWayback Machine after an embargo period.

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The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20110101164201/http://www.freemasonry.bcy.ca:80/texts/illuminati.html

both published their accusations, theories and "histories" in English. But it has only been in the last few years that the source documents have been translated, allowing the English-speaking world an objective perspective on the order.

This webpage summarizes what was known about the Bavarian Illuminati to the English-speaking world, up until the mid-twentieth century. Serious students should consult Amelia Gill's 2008 translation of Weishaupt'sDie Lampe von Diogenese, , Peggy Pawlowski’s 2004 doctoral thesis, ‘Der Beitrag Johann Adam Weishaupts zur Pädagogik des Illuminatismus’, and the works of such German historians as Reinhart Koselleck, Richard van Dülmen, Hermann Schüttler, Reinhard Markner, Monika Neugebauer-Wölk, Manfred Agethen, and Christine Schaubs.

Robison freely admitted that he had scanty knowledge of German and had derived all his information from other writers. 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 Weishauptwas 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, 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...."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. 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 inChapter III of Vernon L. Stauffer’sNew 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 asWebster andMiller 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.

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-FredericKnigge’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.

"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 ofBarruel 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."

In 1785 Weishaupt was deprived of his chair and banished with pension from the country. He refused the pension and moved to Regensburg, subsequently finding asylum with Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Weishaupt was later appointed a professor at the University of Gottingen, remaining there until his death on 18 November 1830.

Henry Wilson Coil describes the order as a "short lived, meteoric and controversial society" while George Kenning refers to it as a "mischievous association". In his own defense, Weishaupt wrote:

"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."

As regards any information derived from the celebrated anti-mason, John Robison: "In the (London)Monthly Magazine for January 1798 there appeared a letter from Böttiger, Provost of the College of Weimar, in reply toRobison’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."

Following is a short list of the more notable members:

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" while Robert Gilbert feels that Christopher McIntosh "overestimates the strength and significance of the Illuminati."

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’sNew 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 applyingOccam’s razor and have decided that there are connections between the Illuminati, Freemasonry, the Trilateral Commission, British Emperialism, International Zionism and communism (if you read the writings ofAlberto Rivera and Jack T. Chick of Chino California), 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 theAnti-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 16 April 1993. He never posted to the newsgroup until, in response to this website, Colz Grigor, claiming to be Gregg S. Bloom, posted into alt.illuminati on 22 February 2003. [] 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.

TheEncyclopaedia 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." and as a "rationalistic secret society" in an article on Roman Catholicism. Depending on your perspective, the lack of any detailed information on the Illuminati in theEncyclopaedia 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 thereal 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:

"...under the names of Magic, Manicheanism, Illuminism and Masonry...."
"The maniacal circles of pretendedilluminati go back to the bacchantes who murdered Orpheus.
"Long before there was any question of mediums and their evocations in America and France, Prussia had itsilluminati and seers, who had habitual communications with the dead."
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 theilluminati..."

More important than the existence of any illuminati after 1784, was the fear that they existed. John M. Roberts, in hisMythology 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’sNew 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 theSwedenborgian Rite, received membership in the "Order of the Illuminati" fromTheodor Reuss in 1902. Documentation is not available, nor is any explanation or description of this "Order" given.

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 led 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 theCatholic Encyclopedia, "some of its features reappear in the Quietism of the Spaniard Michael de Molinos". AlthoughIgnatius 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. The name translates as 'illuminati' but the name is the only similarity with the later Bavarian Illuminati.

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 Illuminés 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.]

Société des Illuminés d'Avignon: Formed byDom 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 theFrench 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 inOccult 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 journalistTheodor Reuss "re-activated" the Order of Illuminati in Munich in 1880. Leopold Engel founded hisWorld 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 byPeter-R. Koenig.

Illuminates of Stockholm: The Illuminated Chapter ofSwedish 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 Seher Bayerns: Alleged byMarc Lachance to have been founded in 1947 by employees of the Munich newspaper,Süddeutsche Zeitung, there are unsubstantiated claims to a longer lineage. With some 100 members claimed in Bavaria, Baden-Württemburg and Thuringia, they have disavowed ritual, and keep organised structure to a minimum.

The Illuminati Order: The Illuminati Order: Founded sometime prior to 1988, this Tallahassee Florida based group was brought online in 2001 by Solomon Tulbure [1969/10/18 - 2004/11/17], one time Grand Master whose idiosyncratic behaviour later estranged him from the group. Currently the Illuminati Order can be found online atilluminati-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 Rojas and can be found online at <www.ordeniluminati.com>

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