L. Miffelmann: Die italienische Freimaurerei und ihr Wirken

fiir die Teilnahme Italiens am Weltkriege. Berlin, 1915.
W. Ohr: Der franzisische Geist und die Freimaureret. Leipzig, 1916.
H. Gruber: Freimaurerei, Weltkrieg und Weltfriede. Vienna, 1917.
B. Bricht: Was ist, was will die Freimaurerei. Vienna, 1919.
K. Heise: Die Entente-Freimaurerei und der Weltkrieg. Bale,
IQIg.
A. Wolfstieg: Ursprung und Entwicklung der Freimaureret. Berlin, 1920. 3 vols.
F. Wichtl: Weltfreimaureret, Weltrevolution, Weltrepublik. Munich, 1920.
THE ILLUMINATI 35
(3) The Illuminati
Their fantastic founder—Scandals, conflicts and Government hostility— Pioneers of Conspiracy—Strange nicknames and debauchery.
Whatever may be said for or against freemasonry, it has always been accepted as a serious institution ; but the same cannot be said of its more or less legitimate offspring, among whom the Illuminati were perhaps the most fantastic. Their true story reads at first like a half-crazy romance. It is only through the telescope of centuries that its intentions and possi- bilities can be discerned.
Adam Weishaupt was born at Ingolstadt on the Bavarian Danube in 1748 and brought up by Jesuits until the age of 15, when he went to the local University, one of the chief seats of Roman Catholic learning. There he studied jurisprudence, political science, history and philosophy, devoting his spare time to French subversive literature. At the age of 24, he obtained a chair of jurisprudence, and in the following year, on the suppression of the Jesuits, he was appointed to the chair of Canon law, which had always been filled by Jesuits. This brought him into conflict with his old teachers and he decided to found a secret society to combat them and incidentally “ to perfect and ennoble mankind.” His society was first called The Perfectibilists, but the name was soon changed to Illumi- nati—the Enlightened.
He surrounded himself with twelve disciples, who alone knew his real aims, and they escaped responsibility by remaining unknown. Recruits did not knock at the door for admission like freemasons, for the door of the Illuminati was invisible. They were chosen, trained and put up for election without their knowledge, might indeed have been tested unwittingly for years, and were accepted only when known.to be ripe for blind obedience and the sacrifice of their lives for a bogus ideal. The only attraction offered was ‘“‘the benefit of humanity,” and the occultation of the leaders was explained by the awful dangers which menaced them. The aim of annihilating all
36 €. SECRET SOCIETIES
existing authorities (religious, political, social, moral and national) was defended on the ground that ail authorities had been constituted abusively and maintained by violence and crimes. Their destruction was therefore a holy necessity, for which temporary sacrifices were well worth while. And the plan of campaign was summed up as follows :
(x) Human institutions can endure only so long as they sub- mit to rules and duties ; (2) if we can persuade nations to aban- don their rules and duties, all the discipline which gave them cohesion, strength and vitality, they become disintegrated masses, impotent mobs, incoherent dust; (3) when they are thus reduced, any militant organisation arising among them has no difficulty in imposing itself, being served by nature, which abhors anarchy as it does a vacuum.
This was the secret entrusted to adepts of the intermediary category, but hidden carefully from initiates. The “ Aero- pagites ” or twelve disciples of Weishaupt alone knew that the aim of the society was to establish their own world dictatorship after clearing out established institutions. The chatter about humanity was all eye-wash.
Admission to the society was attended by secret ceremonies, and each member received a nickname: Weishaupt became known as Spartacus, von Knigge as Philo. There were signs, grips and passwords as in freemasonry ; also the severest oaths of silence. After a long preparation as an Insinuat or novice, a candidate was admitted to the class of Minervals or “ youths of wisdom.” Then followed the degree of [lluminatus minor, subject to the fundamentals of symbolic masonry, and this led to the rank of I//wminatus major in Scottish masonry ; then, as Illuminatus dirigens or Scottish knight, an Il/uminatus major eventually attained to the higher masonry. The lower grades were required to concern themselves with morals, history and “the knowledge of mankind.” To acquire this knowledge, members were enjoined to “observe and study,” in other words to spy upon one another. As for morals, they seem to have been observed objectively, and the society’s records are replete with scandals, for the most part mere philandering or drunkenness. In one of Weishaupt’s letters we find him com- plaining of his followers by their adopted nicknames: “ Socrates
RIOTOUS AEROPAGITES 37
is always intoxicated, Augustus hasa very bad reputation, Alcibiades spends the whole day drinking and flirting with his landlady, Tiberius attempted to overcome the virtue of the sister of Democedes, and the fellow succeeded in his attempt. In Heaven’s name, what sort of Aeropagites are these ?”
Weishaupt’s first recruits came from the older students, with whom his lectures had been popular, and he soon extended his activities to Munich and other places, but the new members were chiefly boys, who found his teaching too abstruse and resented his despotic ways. Grave scandals arose owing to his - eccentric behaviour and the laxity of his morals, nor did he improve his position by joining a masonic lodge, from which he hoped to receive protection and support.
Indeed, the prospects of the Illuminati were far from rosy in 1779, three years after the foundation of their society, when Weishaupt despatched Marquis Costanzo to Protestant North Germany in search of fresh adherents. Among those secured - was a certain Baron von Knigge, an energetic, superficial man, who busied himself with magic, alchemy and various super- stitions. Here was the ideal organiser and agitator, superior in every way to Weishaupt, who had founded the society. The magician’s efforts seemed to be attended by uncanny success, and he soon secured very many recruits from the highest circles, including princes and nobles and the upper clergy.
The Illuminati began to make a noise in the world, and Weishaupt dreamed of developing them into an Order on Jesuit lines with himself as General. This, however, did not suit von Knigge, who denounced his despotism and jesuitry, but was forced to retire after a sharp conflict in 1784. Other im- portant members seceded, books and pamphlets were published violently attacking the society as unpatriotic, subversive, and a menace to the Crown; clerical denunciations followed; the State authorities issued a warning against secret societies, and deprived Weishaupt of a professorship that had assumed the proportions of a scandal. His pill was gilded with the offer of a pension of 400 fiorins on condition that he visited neither Ingoldstadt nor Munich in the future. The pension was con- temptuously refused, and hospitality was accepted from a member of the society, Duke Ernest II of Gotha, at whose
*
38 . SECRET SOCIETIES
Court he died in 1830, full of years and riches, if not in the odour of sanctity.
Meanwhile the Illuminati endured eviltimes. Secret societies were no longer warned, but actually prohibited by the autho- rities, now scenting the spirit of revolution in the air. The Church was growing anxious, and in March 1785, a priest named Cosandey, who was a member of the Iluminati, received orders from his Bishop to reveal all he knew about the society. He reported the immorality of the leaders and said freemasonry was a mere cloak for licentiousness and conspiracy: all Illu- minati were freemasons, but all freemasons were not Illumi- nati. Members consisted of “‘ deceivers, evil-doers, enthusiasts and dupes,” all sworn to blind obedience of unknown superiors and endeavouring to remove “profane persons,” by which they meant non-members, from Court and positions of influence. They emphasized the doctrine that the end justifies the means, and one of their maxims was :
‘Tous les rois et tous les prétres Sont des fripons et des traitres.” (Every King and every priest
Is a traitor and a thief.)
Pope Pius VII (afterwards the victim of Buonaparte’s per- secution) heard with dismay of the Illuminati and issued a bull condemning all secret societies.
Still the Illuminati resisted stubbornly, redoubling their secrecy, while the authorities multiplied their inquisition. In August 1785, officials and members of colleges were ordered to abandon the society within a week or pay heavy fines. Many dismissals ensued, houses were searched and records confiscated. The propaganda of the Illuminati was shown to include state- ments that “ the people are grown-up children, who should be released from the tutelage of kingsand princes” ; that “ nation- ality is a fetter,” patriotism “a hindrance to the solidarity of mankind”; that universal enlightenment renders rulers and nations superfluous. In 1787 a new decree ordained the beheading of all who sought recruits for the Illuminati, exile and expropriation for the recruited.
Yet the Illuminati survived behind the scenes, and when the
BOLSHEVIST PIONEERS 39
Elector Charles Theodore died in 1799, a period of toleration followed. Secret societies were still banned, but ex-Illuminati became Ministers of State and all exiles except Weishaupt were permitted to return. The society, however, faded away and was forgotten until 1896, when it was revived at Dresden without ever regaining importance.
The Iluminati possess a certain historical interest, illustrating the mentality of pioneers of conspiracy, caricaturists of free- masonry and fantastic helots of symbolism. It is even claimed for them that their secrets have been handed down, their me- thods utilised 150 years later for the alleged conspiracy of Pan-Germanism, which may have led to the installation of Bolshevism in Russia. And the Bolshevists have apparently carried out Weishaupt’s design to enslave rulers by disinte- grating their national organisms.
AUTHORITIES
G. Schuster: Vollstandige Geschichte der Verfolgung der Illu- minaten in Bayern. Frankfort, 1786.
P. Barruel, S. J.: Mémoires pour servir a Histoire du Jacobi- nisme. Paris, 1797. 5 vols.