Before the advent of Dan Brown's translations, the modern reader had little interest in the Illuminati. There were also enough other mystics-conspiracy theorists - Masons or Rosicrucians. Representatives of various associations of a religious-mystical persuasion were called "enlightened" or "enlightened". But most often this was the designation for members of the secret "Society of Bavarian Illuminati", founded in 1776 by the philosopher and professor of church law, Adam Weishaupt.
The future founder of the Illuminati Order, Johann Adam Weishaupt, who is traditionally called Adam Weishaupt in Russia, was born on February 6, 1748 in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt. In this city in the south of Germany, then divided into dwarf states, he grew up in the family of a professor of jurisprudence and here he attended a gymnasium where the Jesuits taught.
At the University of Ingolstadt, he studied history, law, social and political sciences and philosophy and received his Ph. D. in philosophy in 1768. In 1772 he became an extraordinary professor of law, and the following year - professor of ecclesiastical law in Ingolstadt.
The first Illuminati society under the name Alumabrados (tracing of the Latin word illuminati in Spanish) arose in the second half of the 16th century in Spain. There were also other short-lived associations.
Usually, the Illuminati refers to the members of a secret society founded on May 1, 1776 by the mystic Weishaupt under the name of the Improvement Union, or Bund der Perfektibilisten. The society, whose symbol was the owl of Minerva, declared its official task a fight against ignorance and the spread of the ideas of the Enlightenment.
Minerva's owl takes off only at dusk. This myth uses Hegel as a metaphor for the fact that philosophy (and Minerva is the Goddess of wisdom) awakens only when the simple and understandable becomes the subject of doubt, and, consequently, reflection,”wrote Kurt Hübner later.
Educated under the guidance of the Jesuit fathers, Weishaupt organized his society according to the principle borrowed from them: a strict hierarchical order, the unquestioning subordination of members of the society to its head and the principle of justifying the means by the end. All members of the order adopted pseudonyms. So Weishaupt became Spartacus - Spartacus.
In 1780, the Illuminati was joined by Baron Adolph Knigge, who adopted the name Philo in the order, who brought the Illuminati closer to the Masons. Since new members were often recruited from Freemasons, Masonic lodge orders soon spread among the Illuminati.
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Like the Masons, they were divided into different categories, and only the highest category of initiates revealed the secret goal of society: the replacement of the Christian religion with deism and the monarchical form of government - republican.
In 1780, the Illuminati Order had up to two thousand members, many dignitaries belonged to it. In 1784 strife arose between Weishaupt and Knigge; after that, the Bavarian Elector Karl Theodor, whose possessions were the main center of the Illuminati's activities, banned secret societies and began to persecute their members. This ended the existence of the order.
After the Illuminati society was banned by the Bavarian government in 1784, Weishaupt lost his position at the University of Ingolstadt and fled to Regensbourg. Then he found a patron in the person of Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (Ernst II. Von Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg), who became a member of the society in 1783 under the name Quintus Severus or Timoleon), who not only granted Weishaupt asylum in Gotha, but also the rank and pay of the court councilor. Weishaupt wrote many of his works here.
Over time, many myths have developed around the Illuminati society, especially those that delight the hearts of conspiracy theorists. The Illuminati were already credited not only with mystical and magical abilities, but also with the association with the worldwide Masonic conspiracy in order to arrange a world revolution.
The Ingolstadters, interested in attracting tourists to their city, as well as the English writer Mary Shelley, who settled in it the doctor Frankenstein invented by her and the monster he created, did not always contribute to the good fame of the Illuminati.
Weishaupt died in the city of Gotha on November 18, 1830, and in 1874 his ashes were reburied next to his early deceased son Wilhelm (died 1802). The tombstone of the founder of the Illuminati order has not survived to this day. In old photographs, you can see that there were no dates of birth and death on it, but only the inscription: "Weishaupt rests here - a respected husband with a learned mind, the first citizen of freedom!"
Author: Bukker Igor