"Rather than obey the dictates of
the real, and adjust himself to his reduced limits, late eighteenth-century man
took refuge among phantoms; satisfying his nostalgia with the marvels offered by
impostors and necromancers, he fled matter and denied its existence....A whole
culture was collapsing."
- A. Viatte, Les Sources occultes du Romantisme: Illuminisme-Theosophie
1770-1820
Adam Weishaupt "adopted the
teachings of radical French philosophers such as Jean Jacques Rousseau
(1712-1778) and the anti-Christian doctrines of the
Manicheans.
He was indoctrinated in Egyptian occultism in 1771 by a merchant of unknown
origin named Kolmer, who was said to have traveled Europe in search of
converts."
- William T. Still, New World Order
"Brilliant and well trained by
the Jesuits in the conspiratorial methods of access to power, young Weishaupt
decided to organize a body of conspirators, determined to free the world from
the Jesuitical rule of Rome and help humanity back to the pristine Christian
faith of the hermetic martyrs. He is reputed to have been initiated by a German
merchant named Kolmer, he had spent many years in Egypt, into a secret doctrine
based on Manichaeism. Mayday of 1776, Weishaupt founded his own sect of the
Very Perfectibles - better known as the Illuminati - with five
original members, self-described as reformist libertarians, partisans of
absolute equality."
- Peter Tompkins, The Magic of Obelisks
"Adam Weishaupt, Professor of
Canon Law at the University of Ingolstadt, conceived the idea of founding an
order which, by mutual helpfulness, counsel, and philosophic discussions, would
increase morality and virtue, lay the foundation for the reformation of the
world, and oppose the progress of evil, all of which objectives were expressed
in the name, 'Order of Perfectibilists' or 'Perfectionists', which was soon
changed to 'Illuminati', which is best translated as 'intellectually inspired'.
Modesty and humility seems to have been no trait of Weishaupt, for he was one of
the first to attempt to fly with little knowledge of human aerodynamics. His
ambition outweighed his judgement; his ideals were too refined for a rude world.
Like many other promoters, Weishaupt sought the aid of
Freemasonry to give his machine both propulsion and ballast. But it dragged
Freemasonry down without helping Illuminism very much. He was too shrewd and
subtle for his own good, though such qualities gave him headway for a time.
Although he formerly belonged to the Jesuits, he secured admission to a lodge of
Freemasons in 1777. Ironically, that was named 'Lodge of Caution'."
"We are not informed as to just
how Weishaupt became associated with Adolph
Franz Friedrich Ludwid Baron
Von Knigge(1),
for the latter lived in North Germany, was of the nobility, and, after his
initiation in 1773, showed little interest in Freemasonry. But noblemen were
found in abundance in the most fraudulent orders in Germany claiming some
Masonic connections. Weishaupt, in 1780, dispatched the Marquis de Costanzo to
propagate Illuminism in the north and Knigge probably then first showed interest
in the society. He became more and more enthusiastic as the plan was revealed to
him, and, in 1781, accepted the invitation to visit Bavaria and receive full
access to all of Weishaupt's materials. Knigge not only completed the scale of
degrees but became a proponent of them, bringing to his aid the assistance of
Johann J. C. Bode, a prominent German Mason. The order was at first very popular
and attracted, it is said, some of the best men in Germany and some of the
worst. It had 2000 names on its rolls and spread to France, Belgium, Holland,
Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, and Italy."
- Henry Wilson Coil, Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia, 1961
"Unable in Catholic Bavaria to
achieve this utopian goal by direct means, Weishaupt determined to work from
within an existing organization: the Masonic order....By 1779, there were 54
members of the Illuminati, mostly young noblemen and clergymen, established in
four Bavarian cities. Thereafter, with the help of a Masonic bookseller, Johann
Bode, the order branched out through Southern Germany and Austria, and down into
France and Northern Italy, intellectuals, such as Goethe, Schiller, Mozart, and
Herder were attracted."
- Peter Tompkins, The Magic of Obelisks
"Knigge, especially, was a highly
religious and intellectual man and would have had nothing to do with that or any
other order which was anti-Christian, yet, the vicious attacks and accusations
by Baruel and Robison had great influence, and it was even charged that the
Illuminati were themselves agents of the Jesuits, though the latter were
opposing it in their usual secret manner. The Illuminati were extremely
secretive, even identifying themselves and their chapters by assumed classical
names; for examples, Weishaupt was Spartacus, Knigge was Philo, Ingolstadt, the
headquarters, was Eleusis, Austria was Egypt, etc. Dates were given in a sort of
cryptography."
- Henry Wilson Coil, Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia, 1961
Thomas Jefferson
"strenuously defended the Illuminati, and described Weishaupt as 'an
enthusiastic philanthropist'."
- William T. Still, New World Order
"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
"The Illuminati were finally
beset by both internal and external disorders, for Weishaupt found fault with
some of Knigge's ritualistic work and peremptorily ordered it changed,
whereupon, Knigge became disgusted and resigned in 1784. The Jesuits had fought
it from the first and eventually all priests became its active enemies and
raised so much opposition that the Elector of Bavaria supressed
the Order by edict, June 22, 1784, many Illuminati being imprisoned and some,
including Weishaupt, being forced to flee the country. Though the first edict
had been obeyed, it was repeated in March and August, 1785. Not only Illuminism,
but Freemasonry was exterminated in Bavaria and neither ever recovered its
former position. The Illuminati seem to have completely disappeared everywhere
by the end of the 18th century."
- Henry Wilson Coil, Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia, 1961
"The suppression of the
Illuminati of Bavaria in 1785 created a tremendous furor whose echoes reached as
far as New England, drawing George Washington out in support of the suspect
American Freemasons. In fact the Illuminati proved to be the unwilling occasion
for the birth of modern conspiracy theory. Wildly exaggerated accounts of their
supposed wickedness and of the imminent peril which they represented for society
were published in a great epidemic of pamphlets. Their secrecy, their insistence
on recruitment of important civil servants, their concealment of the true aims
of the society from all but a few highly placed initiates, combined to make them
into the bogeymen not only of the German conservatives but of a wider European
public. Four years later, when the French Revolution broke out, the mythical
beliefs about the Illuminati of Bavaria were incorporated in a vaster and wilder
conspiracy theory, which found room also for the
Templars."
- Peter Partner, The Murdered Magicians
"What is today called the
conspiracy theory was born in the flood tide of books, pamphlets, and articles
denouncing the Illuminati and linking them to an ever-lengthening list of other
supposed plotters. The scope of the accusations is reflected in the title of one
anti-Illuminati book, published in 1797: 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....The
170-year-old Proofs of a Conspiracy was reissued in 1967 by the John
Birch Society, which apparently considered the Illuminati a clear and present
danger."
- Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects
(3) Rites of the
Illuminati
"The aristocratic mumbo-jumbo of
the Templar lodges pandered to the confused conservatism of the German nobles
and ad a great deal in common with the mumbo-jumbo of the Rosicrucians, to whose
ideas the Illuminati were absolutely opposed. The Bavarian Illuminati were an
austere emanation of the spirit of the German Professorate, inspired by a
consciously bourgeois program, irreligious and radical."
- Peter Partner, The Murdered Magicians
"The ceremonies were divided into
three principal classes and those into degrees as follows:
I- The Nursery
1. Preparatory Literary Essay
2. Novitiate
3. Minerval
4. Minor Illuminatus
5. Magistratus
III- Mysteries
1. Lesser
(a) Presbyter, Priest, or Epopt
(b) Prince or Regent
2. Greater
(a) Magus
(b) Rex or King (some of these latter degrees were never completed)"
- Henry Wilson Coil, Coil's Masonic
Encyclopedia, 1961
"Status as a Mason was not
required for initiation into the Order of Illuminati since the fourth, fifth and
sixth degrees of Weishaupt and Baron Von Knogge'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."
- Jeff_Jorczak@vos.stratus.com
"Openly political and
antimonarchial, Weishaupt's 'Illuminati' formed another channel of 'higher
degrees' for Freemasons to graduate into after completing the
Blue Degrees. Weishaupt's 'Illuminati' had its own 'hidden master' known as
the 'Ancient Scot Superior'.
- William Bramley, The Gods of Eden
"In the lower ranks - the
'nursery' - the member was very much in the dark as to the way in which the
Order was run, and how it should accomplish its design of freeing the world. As
he progressed, however, he found that a part of his service to the Society was
to gain financial and social power, and to place them at the disposal of the
group. He was expected to be a diligent Mason, and to try to gain control over
Masonic funds. It was not until the tenth rite of promotion had been completed
that the member was given - with the grade of Priest - certain definite
knowledge. This included the fact that the Illuminati were proposing to destroy
princes and prelates throughout the world, and were to remove forever the
feeling of local nationality from the minds of men. The ways in which this was
to be done involved infiltrating high positions in education, administration and
the Press.
"The very highest degrees showed that the rationalism and materialism of the
thinkers who developed it were determined to stamp out belief in religion. God
and any faith in a deity, the initiate was told, were human inventions, and had
no real meaning. Subsequently this was developed further, and the member who
arrived at the highest position (that of Rex, King) learned that he was now
equal to a king, and that all men were capable of equal advancement; hence the
need for kings over ordinary mortals was an illusion."
- Arkon Daraul, Secret Societies
(Adam Weishaupt, Professor)
Adolph Von Knigge Baron
Xavier von Zwack Lawyer, judge and electoral councillor
Christoph Friedrich Nicolai, bookseller
Westenrieder, professor
Hertel Canon
Thomas Maria De Bassus, Baron
Johann Simon Mayr, composer
Dietrich, Mayor of Strasbourg
Johann J. C. Bode, Privy councillor
William von Busche, Baron
Saint Germain compte de Constanzo, Marquis
Ferdinand of Brunswick, Duke
Ernst of Gotha, Duke
Johann W. Goethe, author
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"Rather than obey the dictates of
the real, and adjust himself to his reduced limits, late eighteenth-century man
took refuge among phantoms; satisfying his nostalgia with the marvels offered by
impostors and necromancers, he fled matter and denied its existence....A whole
culture was collapsing."
Baron
Von Knigge