In the history of secret alliances of the 18th century, the Order of the Illuminati occupies a large place. It originated in backward Bavaria, where religious obscurantism reigned. Although the Jesuit Order was disbanded by the Pope in 1773, the former members of the Society of Jesus still tenaciously held control of the entire education system, especially the university.
To counteract this burdensome tutelage, the professor of canon law at Ingolyltadt University, Adam Weishaupt (1748–1830), began to nurture in 1776 the idea of founding a secret order, which in its tactics would borrow a lot from the Jesuits themselves.
Coming from a family of scholars, Weishaupt attended a Jesuit college, but he only brought out his contempt for the ideas that guided the Society of Jesus. At the same time, he highly appreciated the structure of the order, the discipline of its members, their ability to use the most diverse set of means to achieve their goals. Everything known about the views of the young Weishaupt in the 70s portrays him as an admirer of the philosophical materialism of the encyclopedists, the elite views of Rousseau and even the utopian communism of Mably and Morelli. In many ways, his passion for advanced ideas was theoretical, abstract.
But something else should be noted. Even then, Weishaupt's character showed such traits as a passion for intrigue, quarrelsomeness, as a result of which he made a lot of enemies in academic circles, extreme negligence in the means, borrowed from his Jesuit teachers and even elevated to a principle of behavior, a desire to dominate, sometimes bordering with empty vanity.
Weishaupt believed that the ways of improving the social structure were the spread of enlightenment, correct ideas about human nature and the moral revival of mankind. This enlightenment should be filled with anti-clerical and anti-feudal content. The secret order was intended to become a means of gradually realizing the dream of the enlighteners to create a harmonious social system of freedom and equality, a world republic that would put an end to all class differences, religious oppression, monarchical despotism, wars, national enmity, and approve principles that are in accordance with human nature.
The Illuminati Order was, in a sense, the direct opposite of the "strict obedience" lodges, which were engaged in the search for "divine wisdom."
The secret society was founded by Weishaupt on May 1, 1776. It initially consisted of only five people, and by 1779 it had already four branches ("colonies") in Bavarian cities. The charter of the order required its members to observe strict secrecy, unconditional obedience to elders, constant self-examination by means of written answers to special questionnaires. In addition, the Illuminati were hiding under pseudonyms borrowed usually from the Bible and ancient history (Weishaupt himself was called Spartacus), as well as from prominent statesmen, scientists and thinkers of the Middle Ages and modern times (including Erasmus, Mora, Campanella, Grotius, etc.)
One of Weishaupt's first associates was 20-year-old student Franz Xavier Zwak (Cato). A number of professors and students soon joined them. Initially, the order consisted only of Bavarians, but then its new adept - the writer Baron Adolph von Knigge (Philon), the Hamburg publisher Christoff Bode, the Gottingen professor of philosophy M. Feder and others, starting from about 1780, began to provide assistance in the creation of branches of the union in other parts of Germany. In Weimar, the most influential members of the Amalia Masonic lodge, including Goethe, Garder and Duke Karl August, joined the order. According to some reports, the members of the order included Mozart, Schiller, Wieland.
Promotional video:
By the middle of 1782, the order numbered about 300, and two years later - over 650 people. It was a relatively small group of the bourgeois intelligentsia and liberal nobles, the vanguard of the German bourgeoisie, weakly connected with its main strata. The Illuminati were principled opponents of the involvement of the "unenlightened" popular masses in their movement.
At first, Weishaupt possessed dictatorial power in society, but later other members of the Areopagus, the supreme organ of the order, began to claim equal participation in the leadership. Their demands were accepted by Weishaup and formalized by a special decision of the Areopagus in July 1781. By this time, the Illuminati had their branches not only in various German states, in Austria and Hungary, but also in Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Switzerland (where the famous teacher Pestalozzi became one of the initiators of the branch of the order) and especially in France - in the cities of Strasbourg, Grenoble, Lyon. In Paris, prominent lawyers, scientists, and writers joined the Illuminati.
Back in 1774, before the creation of the Illuminati Order, Weishaupt briefly became a member of the Masonic lodge, but became disillusioned with Freemasonry and its seemingly significant secrets. Pretty soon, Weishaupt (and then other members of the Areopagus) had the idea of infiltrating the lodges and subordinating them to their goals, as well as hiding iodine with a Masonic shell of the very existence of the Order of the Illuminati. The secrecy of the Masonic lodges was supposed to contribute to the implementation of the intentions of the Illuminati.
They really managed to subjugate the lodge in Munich, with the help of which it was possible to create subsidiary lodges. The Illuminati, however, without much success, tried to recruit everyone who was dissatisfied with the decisions of the congress in Wilhelmsbad. Weishaupt and his associates hoped, using the chaotic state of German Freemasonry, to create a union of lodges under the auspices of some existing "ancient leaders". This plan failed. A similar effort was made by the Illuminati in Poland and also (unsuccessfully) in France.
As the Order of the Illuminati grew in numbers, tensions arose and intensified between the bottom and the top of the hierarchy. Several leaders of conservative Freemasonry began to warn against the "anti-Christian" and "destructive" tendencies of the followers of Weishaupt. Joining the ranks of the Illuminati in 1779, Knigge soon acquired an authority among them that rivaled that of Weishaupt. Knigge played a particularly active role in the penetration of the Illuminati into the ranks of Freemasonry. Meanwhile, Knigge was clearly at odds with Weishaupt in his views, rejecting both his enlightening plans and anticlerical tendencies, and expressed sympathy for occult and mystical elements in the views of the Masons of "strict obedience."
Unlike Weishaupt, Knigge sought not to accelerate the collapse of this trend in Freemasonry, but to win over its leaders to the side of the Illuminati, up to Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick as a like-minded person. Knigge's attempts to borrow from Catholicism the symbolic procedure that he proposed to introduce for the erection of the Illuminati to the highest degree gave rise to a break. In July 1784 he resigned from the order.
In Bavaria itself, leaked information about the activities of the Illuminati was overgrown with ridiculous rumors. The favor of Emperor Joseph II to the Illuminati was seen as part of the persistent attempts by the Habsburgs to annex Bavaria to their possessions, at least by abandoning the distant Austrian Netherlands (Belgium). Meanwhile, one of the members of the order reported to the authorities, about which the Bavarian Elector Karl Theodor himself was immediately informed.
On June 22, 1784, a decree was issued on the dissolution of societies not authorized by the government as arousing suspicion and concern. After that, many articles appeared in the press containing denunciations of the Illuminati. Weishaupt fled Bavaria. The new edict of the Elector of March 2, 1785 was directed specifically against the Illuminati, whose activities were strictly prohibited on the territory of Bavaria. Before the secret commission that carried out the investigation, three appeared (in the absence of the main leaders of the order): Count Savioli, the Marquis de Constanzo and Canon Hertal. The verdict was not harsh - all three accused were removed from their posts and expelled from Bavaria.
In 1786, during a search of Zwak's apartment, a significant part of the Illuminati archive fell into the hands of the authorities, which was published in the following years and created a sensation. Weishaupt, Knigge and other Illuminati attempted to protect the Order's reputation in print. Their opponents responded with dozens of accusatory pamphlets that were published in Germany, England, France and other countries.
Thus, the legend of the "conspiracy of the Illuminati," which arose on the eve of 1789, perhaps even contributed to the decline of the influence of Freemasonry in a number of countries, in particular, in France, in the pre-revolutionary years.
In Bavaria, in 1787, a real campaign began not only against the Illuminati, but also against everyone suspected of sympathizing with the ideas of the Enlightenment. The Illuminati were stripped of their pulpits, dismissed from government service, and sometimes even arrested and imprisoned.
The claim that the Illuminati Order existed or was restored after 1785 is not supported by any evidence. It was so thoroughly uprooted in Bavaria that when later, in 1796, in Paris, the Directory government remembered Germany, it turned out that not even a trace of this organization had survived. All projects for its disposal, apparently, remained on paper.
It should be added that some of the prominent Illuminati, including Zwack, began to pursue administrative and court careers after a few years. This shows how shallow the opposition of the order was. A. Weishaupt himself became a court adviser to the Duke of Saxe-Gotha.
Natalia Ivanovna Makarova