Chapter 15 - The Illuminati
The thought that there have been people actually planning the major events of the future in a harmful way has often been expressed by some of the world's leaders. One such individual was Winston Churchill, the Prime. Minister of England during World War II. He wrote about what he had discovered when he made his views public in a London newspaper in 1920. These are those thoughts: "From the days of Spartacus-Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, to those of Trotsky, Bela Kun, Rosa Luxembourg, and Emma Goldman, this world wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence [defined as being done with malice; spiteful] and impossible equality, has been steadily growing.
It played a definitely recognizable role in the tragedy of the French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the nineteenth century, and now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads, and have become practically the undisputed masters of that enormous empire." 278 Spartacus was the code name that Adam Weishaupt, the founder of the Illuminati, used inside that organization; Karl Marx was, of course, the so-called "father of communism;"
Trotsky was Leon Trotsky, one of the major leaders in the Communist Revolution in Russia in 1917; and Bela Kun, Rosa Luxembourg and Emma Goldman were revolutionaries.
The French Revolution was in 1789, and many historians have concluded that the Illuminati fomented it with the goal of putting their fellow member of the Illuminati, the Duc d'
Orleans, on the throne of France.
Mr. Churchill linked Weishaupt and the Illuminati of 1776 with the Communist Karl Marx of 1848, and Marx with the Russian Communists of 1917. It was his opinion that those individuals had been linked together in a conspiracy lasting for more than 140 years. He then combined this conspiracy with European and American revolutionaries. And his final comment was that their combined purpose was to "overthrow civilization." In other words, Mr. Churchill claimed that their purpose was to bring the world a "New World Order."
He had provided the reader with a brief overview of a long lasting conspiracy. He had told the world that this conspiracy wanted to overthrow civilization.
But, because few knew anything at all about this conspiracy, the world paid no attention to Mr. Churchill's comments.
That was no accident because this conspiracy has, in the main, acted under the cover of concealment. They do not announce their plans before they occur. And they certainly do not announce their involvement after the planned event has occurred.
Professor Adam Weishaupt boastfully stated that his organization would remain concealed from the eyes of the public.
He wrote: "The great strength of our Order lies in its concealment; let it never appear in any place in its own name, but always covered by another name, and another occupation."
He even told the world, in his writings, where he would conceal the Order: "None is fitter than the three lower degrees of Free Masonry; the public is accustomed to it, expects little from it, and therefore takes little notice of it." 279
He felt that this secrecy would lead him to success because he felt no one would be able to break into it. He wrote: "Our secret Association works in a way that nothing can withstand..." 280
Another reason that he felt that the Illuminati would succeed was the fact that he was offering his members worldwide power. He felt that this inducement would enable him to draw into his organization only those who would do anything to satisfy that desire for power. He wrote: "The true purpose of the Order was to rule the world. To achieve this it was necessary for the Order to destroy all religions, overthrow all governments and abolish private property." 281
The Bavarian government discovered the existence of this secret conspiracy and investigated the Order in 1786. They issued a report in which they concluded: "... the express aim of this Order was to abolish Christianity, and overthrow all civil government." 282
As mentioned previously, Weishaupt founded the Illuminati on May 1, 1776, and the selection of that date as the founding date of their Order appears to be no coincidence, Albert Pike wrote that May 1st was a festival day: "The festival was in honor of the Sun." 283
The reason that Weishaupt chose the First of May to found his secret, anti-Christian religion has not been satisfactorily explained. However, there are some interesting clues as to why he might have chosen that date.
One possible explanation involves the Roman emperor Diocletian, who reigned from 284-305 A.D.
After the death of Jesus, the Christian world continued to be persecuted by a string of violent Caesers of the Roman Empire. But the violence inaugurated by Diocletian surpassed them all in violence.
An edict requiring uniformity of worship was issued in 303 A.D., and the Christians resisted by refusing to pay homage to the image of the emperor. Diocletian met that resistance with specific retaliation against the Christians: they lost their public and private possessions, and their assemblies were prohibited. Their churches were torn down, and their sacred writings were destroyed.
In addition, many Christians paid for their resistance with their lives: it has been estimated that the victims numbered into the hundreds of thousands.
Finally, Diocletian grew ill, and abdicated on May 1, 305 A.D. The persecution persisted, but never again approached that of the emperor Diocletian.
Is it possible that Professor Weishaupt learned about the date of this abdication and picked up the mantle laid down by Diocletian, and started the persecution of Christians again, some 1400 years later?
The goal of the Illuminati was "man made perfect as a god - without God." 284 But it was a strange ideal, because Weishaupt permitted his followers to utilize any activity to achieve his goal, including lying. He wrote: "One must speak sometimes one way and sometimes another... so that, with respect to our true line of thinking, we may be impenetrable." 285
The members did tell the truth when they took the initiation ceremony, however. They took an oath which read, in part: "I bind myself to perpetual silence and unshaken loyalty and submission to the Order..." 286
Weishaupt claimed that he was shocked when his Order turned into a religion, but that is what he said: "I never thought that I should become the founder of a new religion." 287 But his religion had a different base than the traditional religion: his was based upon a worship of reason: "... then will Reason rule with unperceived sway."
"... Reason will be the only code of Man. This is one of our greatest secrets."
"When at last Reason becomes the religion of man, then will the problem be solved." 289 Weishaupt's dedication of his organization to "reason"
makes some sense when the reader recalls that "reason" has been defined as the "unbridled use of man's mind to solve man's problems without the involvement of God." The Bible calls this "the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
It was this knowledge that God wanted man not to have, and it was the promise made to man by Lucifer that man could have it by eating of "the fruit."
In addition, Weishaupt's religion offered its believers a reward not offered by any other religion: worldwide power!
Weishaupt wrote: "The pupils [members of the Illuminati] are convinced that the Order will rule the world. Every member therefore becomes a ruler." 290
Weishaupt's religion not only offered power to his believers, but he offered them something else not guaranteed by any other religion: worldly success. He said that once a candidate had achieved the exalted degree of Illuminatus Minor, the fourth of the thirteen inside his Order, his superiors would: "assist him [the member] in bringing his talents into action, and [would] place him in situations most favorable for their exertion, so that he may be assured of success." 291
One of those areas where the Illuminati would strive to place their members was inside government. Weishaupt wrote: "We must do our utmost to procure the advancement of Illuminati into all important civil offices." 292
Weishaupt's religion also had a rather unusual view of man's nature. Traditional religion teaches all of mankind that man is basically a sinner, and that his way out is to change his bad habits. Weishaupt felt that this position was in error.
He wrote: "Man is not bad except as he is made so by arbitrary morality. He is bad because Religion, the State, and bad examples pervert him." 293
"Men... suffered themselves to be oppressed -- gave themselves up to civil societies, and formed states. To get out of this state... there is no other mean than the use of Reason...
This can be done in no other way but by secret associations, which will by degrees, and in silence, possess themselves of the government of the States, and make use of those means for this purpose which the wicked use for attaining their base ends." 294
Professor Weishaupt's religion authorized its members to use any means that would benefit the goal of the Illuminati.
That goal was simple: the destruction of all Christianity: "Behold our secret... If in order to destroy all Christianity, all religion, we have pretended to have the sole true religion, remember that the end justifies the means, and that the wise ought to take all the means to do good which the wicked take to do evil." 295
Weishaupt spoke about the Jesuits, an order of priests inside the Catholic Church. He was, it will be remembered, an instructor at a Catholic university in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, run by the Jesuits. He apparently admired their success, because he organized his order in a similar manner. He wrote: "What these men have done for altars and empires, why should I not do against altars and empires? By the attraction of mysteries, of legends, of adepts, why should I not destroy in the dark what they erect in the light of day." 296
Some writers in the past have summarized the beliefs of the Illuminati for the future use of historians. One was Nesta Webster, who wrote the following about their aims in the book entitled, WORLD REVOLUTION:
1. Abolition of Monarchy and all ordered Government.
2. Abolition of private property.
3. Abolition of inheritance.
4. Abolition of patriotism.
5. Abolition of the family (i.e. of marriage and all morality, and the institution of the communal education of children).
6. Abolition of all religion. 297 Weishaupt must have felt that his plan would ultimately succeed. He certainly felt that his Order would control the world. And he anticipated that there would be opposition to his goals. He summarized all of these thoughts in this statement: "By this plan, we shall direct all mankind. In this manner, and by the simplest means, we shall set all in motion and in flames. The occupations must be so allotted and contrived, that we may, in secret, influence all political transactions." 298
Weishaupt decided that his Illuminati needed a cover, and he successfully infiltrated the Masonic Order in 1782, at the Masonic Congress at Wilhelmsbad. Some Masons became aware of that infiltration and were moved to comment about it. One such Mason was President George Washington who was sent a copy of Professor John Robison's book entitled, PROOFS OF A CONSPIRACY by a Christian minister named G. W. Snyder. The President responded to the minister's request that he read the book, and his letter to the minister has been preserved for posterity. Mr. Washington wrote the minister: "It was not my intention to doubt that the doctrines of the Illuminati, and principles of Jacobinism, had not spread in the United States.
On the contrary, no one is more fully satisfied of this fact than I am. The idea that I meant to convey was that I did not believe that the Lodges of Freemasons in this country had, as societies, endeavored to propagate the diabolical [defined as being of the devil] tenets of [the Illuminati.]
That individuals of them may have done it, or that the founder... may have had these objects ~ and actually, in my view, had a separation of the people from their government, is too evident to be questioned.
I believe... that none of the Lodges in this country are contaminated with the principles ascribed to the society of the Illuminati." 299
The President indicated that he was aware that the Illuminati had arrived in America; that its tenets were diabolical, meaning that he recognized that they involved themselves in devil worship; and that they intended to separate man from his government.
The President of the United States had acknowledged the presence of the devil-worshipping Illuminati in America!
The book that the President read was written by a member of the Lodge who had been asked to join the Illuminati.
He was a professor of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh University in Scotland. After his study, he concluded that the purposes of the Illuminati were completely unacceptable, and he wrote his book to expose its goals. He wrote: "... an Association has been formed for the express purpose of rooting out all the religious establishments, and overturning all the existing governments of Europe." 300
He discovered that the leaders would: "... rule the world with uncontrollable power, while all the rest,... will be... employed as mere tools of the ambition of their unknown superiors." 301
James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine, was a contemporary of Professor Robison, and he wrote this about his friend: "a man of the clearest head and the most science of anybody I have ever known." 302
But, even with all of these criticisms about the purposes of the Illuminati, there were some Masons who felt that the association between the Masons and the Illuminati was a positive federation. One such Mason, Kenneth Mackenzie, has written that this Masonic infiltration was: "... an attempt to purify Masonry, then in much confusion." 303
Another Mason who approved of the merger was Dr. Walter M. Fleming, one of the four founders of the Shrine, an organization that is part of the Masonic fraternity. He and three other Masons formed this organization in 1871, and he assisted in the preparation of a history of the Shrine in 1893.
In that book, Dr. Fleming wrote: "Among the modern promoters of the principles of the Order [the Shrine] in Europe, one of the most noted was Herr Adam Weishaupt... professor of law in the University of Ingolstadt, in Bavaria... who revived the Order in that city on May 1, 1776. Its members exercised a profound influence before and during the French Revolution, when they were known as the Illuminati." 304
Dr. Fleming, a 33rd degree Mason, was recognizing the found-of the Illuminati [Adam Weishaupt] as a "reviver of the Order." His quote comes from a book entitled, PARADE TO GLORY, written by Fred Van Deventer, which appears to be given to each new member of the Shrine.
So Dr. Fleming was supportive of the efforts of Professor Adam Weishaupt, because he had "revived the Order."
Albert Mackey also praised Professor Weishaupt. He wrote these comments in his ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FREEMASONRY: "... Weishaupt could not have been the monster that he has been painted by his adversaries."
And the reason he couldn't have been a "monster," was because he was: "... a Masonic reformer." 305
However, the major support that Weishaupt has received has come from members of the Masonic Order who have attacked those who have been critical of the Professor and the Illuminati he was the founder of.
Albert Mackey, for instance, admitted that John Robison was a fellow Mason, but he wrote these comments about his belief that a conspiracy had infiltrated the llluminati: "many of his statements are untrue and his arguments illogical." 306
"his theory is based on false premises and his reasoning fallacious and illogical..." 307
Kenneth Mackenzie in his book entitled, THE ROYAL MASONIC ENCYCLOPAEDIA also criticized Professor Robison MM being: "The author of a silly and self-contradictory book about Freemasonry...
... the nauseating nonsense with which Robison decks his book is only to be compared to the more virulent and subtle sarcasm of Barruel." 308
The individual called "Barruel" by Mr. Mackenzie was in fact the Abbe Barruel who had written a four volume series on the llluminati in 1798, independently from the book written by Professor Robison. The Abbe's research basically supported the conclusions of Professor Robison.
Obviously, some of the Masons feel that the Abbe, like Professor Robison, was grossly in error.
This is what the Abbe wrote about the Illuminati: "... a terrible and horrible sect.
"... it has formed for that general Revolution which is to overthrow all thrones, all altars, annihilate all property, [destroy the right to private property] efface [obliterate]
all law, and end by dissolving all society." 309 Another who attacked the Abbe's volumes on the Illuminati was Thomas Jefferson, one of America's founding fathers.
Although it appears that he had read only one of the four volumes in the set, Mr. Jefferson commented: "Barruel's own parts of the book are perfectly the ravings of a Bedlamite." 310 A Bedlamite was a patient of the Bedlam hospital for lunatics in London, England. So it can be seen that Mr. Jefferson did not care for the Abbe's research. While he charged the Abbe with being a lunatic, Mr. Jefferson praised Adam Weishaupt with these words: "Weishaupt seems to be an enthusiastic philanthropist.
Weishaupt believes that to promote the perfection of the human character was the object of Jesus Christ. His [Weishaupt's] precepts are the love of God and love of our neighbor." 311
Albert Mackey, one of the greatest Masonic scholars and researchers, praised the Illuminati with these words found in his ENCYCLOPAEDIA: "The original design of Illuminism was undoubtedly the elevation of the human race." 312
Mackey also praised the founder as well: "He is celebrated in the history of Masonry as the founder of the Order of the Illuminati of Bavaria..." 313
Other Masonic writers have praised the founder and his conspiratorial society known as the Illuminati as well. Kenneth Mackenzie wrote this: "Its object was the advancement of morality, education, and virtue..."
"had the Order been allowed free scope, much good would have resulted..." 314
But, whether the critics or the supporters were correct, the Illuminati had come to America. Several researchers into the conspiracy of the Illuminati have provided the student with their evidence that these conspirators had brought their plans to the United States.
Nesta Webster, who wrote in the 1920's, wrote this about her discoveries of where the Illuminati went after their discovery by the Bavarian government: "Whilst these events [the early stages of the French Revolution of 1789] were taking place in Europe, the New World [meaning America] had been illuminized.
As early as 1786 a lodge of the Order [of the Illuminati]
had been started in Virginia, and this was followed by fourteen others in different cities." 315
In 1798, Jedediah Morse, a minister and the father of Samuel Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, preached a now famous sermon on the Illuminati. He clearly had discovered their presence in America. He said: "The Order [of the Illuminati] has its branches established and its emissaries at work in America." 316
And in 1812, the President at Harvard University, Joseph Willard, retired to preach in Vermont. He took the occasion of his retirement on July 4, 1812, to express his concern over the consequences of the then looming war: "There is sufficient evidence that a number of societies of the Illuminati have been established in this land. They are doubtless striving to secretly undermine all our ancient institutions, civil and sacred. These societies are clearly leagued with those of the same order in Europe...
We live in an alarming period . The Enemies of all order are seeking our ruin. Should infidelity generally prevail, our independence would fall, of course. Our republican government would be annihilated..." 317
Perhaps the next appearance of the Illuminati occurred in Chicago, Illinois, in 1886, in what has been called the Haymarket Riot. It is uncertain as to whether or not they were formally involved as an organization, but the whole affair certainly seems to have occurred in a sequence similar to what they would have orchestrated if they had been involved.
Cyrus McCormick, the owner of a harvester works in Chicago, had refused to accept a union to represent his employees.
When he was pressed by the union, he closed his factory and opened it later with non-union workers. The strikers and the non-union workers clashed, and a squad of police arrived.
A bomb was thrown from out of the crowd, and it killed one and wounded many others. Shooting broke out, and sixtyeight policemen were wounded and seven of them killed.
After the Haymarket affair, a Captain in the Chicago police department, Michael J. Shaack, decided that he would see if he could determine why the disaster had occurred, and he started a thorough investigation. About a year later, he issued his report, and these are some of his conclusions: "All over the world the apostles of disorder, rapine, [defined as plunder, pillage] and Anarchy are today pressing their work of ruin, and preaching their gospel of disaster to all the nations with a more fiery energy and a better organized propaganda than was ever known before.
People who imagine that the energy of the revolutionists has slackened, or that their determination to wreck all the existing systems has grown less bitter, are deceiving themselves. The conspiracy against society is as determined as it ever was.
Nothing but the uprooting of the very foundations and groundwork of our civilization will satisfy these enemies of order..." 318
Although Captain Shaak did not specify that the group behind the riot was the Illuminati, he clearly had discovered that the goal of the conspirators was to "uproot civilization,"
which had been their announced goal for over one hundred years. It appears that his research had uncovered the fact that the Illuminati had been at work in America.
1886 was a big year for those uncovering the evidence that this conspiracy existed. Two other individuals spoke out about the secret societies in the world. One was Henry Edward Manning, Archbishop of Westminster, England, who wrote that the Communist International was: "the work of secret, political societies, which from 1789 to this day have been perfecting their formation."
He said that this conspiracy: "is now a power in the midst of the Christian and civilized world, pledged to the destruction of Christianity and the old civilization of Europe." 319
The other was Abbe Joseph Lane, a respected scholar of the time, who wrote that he had discovered a plan: "to disorganize at one blow Christian society and the beliefs and customs of the Jews, then bring about a state of things where, religiously speaking, there will be neither Christian nor Jew." 320
So there were plenty of warnings, but, overall, few in the world listened. And the secret societies continued to prosper.
The thought that there have been people actually planning the major events of the future in a harmful way has often been expressed by some of the world's leaders. One such individual was Winston Churchill, the Prime. Minister of England during World War II. He wrote about what he had discovered when he made his views public in a London newspaper in 1920. These are those thoughts: "From the days of Spartacus-Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, to those of Trotsky, Bela Kun, Rosa Luxembourg, and Emma Goldman, this world wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence [defined as being done with malice; spiteful] and impossible equality, has been steadily growing.
It played a definitely recognizable role in the tragedy of the French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the nineteenth century, and now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads, and have become practically the undisputed masters of that enormous empire." 278 Spartacus was the code name that Adam Weishaupt, the founder of the Illuminati, used inside that organization; Karl Marx was, of course, the so-called "father of communism;"
Trotsky was Leon Trotsky, one of the major leaders in the Communist Revolution in Russia in 1917; and Bela Kun, Rosa Luxembourg and Emma Goldman were revolutionaries.
The French Revolution was in 1789, and many historians have concluded that the Illuminati fomented it with the goal of putting their fellow member of the Illuminati, the Duc d'
Orleans, on the throne of France.
Mr. Churchill linked Weishaupt and the Illuminati of 1776 with the Communist Karl Marx of 1848, and Marx with the Russian Communists of 1917. It was his opinion that those individuals had been linked together in a conspiracy lasting for more than 140 years. He then combined this conspiracy with European and American revolutionaries. And his final comment was that their combined purpose was to "overthrow civilization." In other words, Mr. Churchill claimed that their purpose was to bring the world a "New World Order."
He had provided the reader with a brief overview of a long lasting conspiracy. He had told the world that this conspiracy wanted to overthrow civilization.
But, because few knew anything at all about this conspiracy, the world paid no attention to Mr. Churchill's comments.
That was no accident because this conspiracy has, in the main, acted under the cover of concealment. They do not announce their plans before they occur. And they certainly do not announce their involvement after the planned event has occurred.
Professor Adam Weishaupt boastfully stated that his organization would remain concealed from the eyes of the public.
He wrote: "The great strength of our Order lies in its concealment; let it never appear in any place in its own name, but always covered by another name, and another occupation."
He even told the world, in his writings, where he would conceal the Order: "None is fitter than the three lower degrees of Free Masonry; the public is accustomed to it, expects little from it, and therefore takes little notice of it." 279
He felt that this secrecy would lead him to success because he felt no one would be able to break into it. He wrote: "Our secret Association works in a way that nothing can withstand..." 280
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Another reason that he felt that the Illuminati would succeed was the fact that he was offering his members worldwide power. He felt that this inducement would enable him to draw into his organization only those who would do anything to satisfy that desire for power. He wrote: "The true purpose of the Order was to rule the world. To achieve this it was necessary for the Order to destroy all religions, overthrow all governments and abolish private property." 281
The Bavarian government discovered the existence of this secret conspiracy and investigated the Order in 1786. They issued a report in which they concluded: "... the express aim of this Order was to abolish Christianity, and overthrow all civil government." 282
As mentioned previously, Weishaupt founded the Illuminati on May 1, 1776, and the selection of that date as the founding date of their Order appears to be no coincidence, Albert Pike wrote that May 1st was a festival day: "The festival was in honor of the Sun." 283
The reason that Weishaupt chose the First of May to found his secret, anti-Christian religion has not been satisfactorily explained. However, there are some interesting clues as to why he might have chosen that date.
One possible explanation involves the Roman emperor Diocletian, who reigned from 284-305 A.D.
After the death of Jesus, the Christian world continued to be persecuted by a string of violent Caesers of the Roman Empire. But the violence inaugurated by Diocletian surpassed them all in violence.
An edict requiring uniformity of worship was issued in 303 A.D., and the Christians resisted by refusing to pay homage to the image of the emperor. Diocletian met that resistance with specific retaliation against the Christians: they lost their public and private possessions, and their assemblies were prohibited. Their churches were torn down, and their sacred writings were destroyed.
In addition, many Christians paid for their resistance with their lives: it has been estimated that the victims numbered into the hundreds of thousands.
Finally, Diocletian grew ill, and abdicated on May 1, 305 A.D. The persecution persisted, but never again approached that of the emperor Diocletian.
Is it possible that Professor Weishaupt learned about the date of this abdication and picked up the mantle laid down by Diocletian, and started the persecution of Christians again, some 1400 years later?
The goal of the Illuminati was "man made perfect as a god - without God." 284 But it was a strange ideal, because Weishaupt permitted his followers to utilize any activity to achieve his goal, including lying. He wrote: "One must speak sometimes one way and sometimes another... so that, with respect to our true line of thinking, we may be impenetrable." 285
The members did tell the truth when they took the initiation ceremony, however. They took an oath which read, in part: "I bind myself to perpetual silence and unshaken loyalty and submission to the Order..." 286
Weishaupt claimed that he was shocked when his Order turned into a religion, but that is what he said: "I never thought that I should become the founder of a new religion." 287 But his religion had a different base than the traditional religion: his was based upon a worship of reason: "... then will Reason rule with unperceived sway."
"... Reason will be the only code of Man. This is one of our greatest secrets."
"When at last Reason becomes the religion of man, then will the problem be solved." 289 Weishaupt's dedication of his organization to "reason"
makes some sense when the reader recalls that "reason" has been defined as the "unbridled use of man's mind to solve man's problems without the involvement of God." The Bible calls this "the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
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It was this knowledge that God wanted man not to have, and it was the promise made to man by Lucifer that man could have it by eating of "the fruit."
In addition, Weishaupt's religion offered its believers a reward not offered by any other religion: worldwide power!
Weishaupt wrote: "The pupils [members of the Illuminati] are convinced that the Order will rule the world. Every member therefore becomes a ruler." 290
Weishaupt's religion not only offered power to his believers, but he offered them something else not guaranteed by any other religion: worldly success. He said that once a candidate had achieved the exalted degree of Illuminatus Minor, the fourth of the thirteen inside his Order, his superiors would: "assist him [the member] in bringing his talents into action, and [would] place him in situations most favorable for their exertion, so that he may be assured of success." 291
One of those areas where the Illuminati would strive to place their members was inside government. Weishaupt wrote: "We must do our utmost to procure the advancement of Illuminati into all important civil offices." 292
Weishaupt's religion also had a rather unusual view of man's nature. Traditional religion teaches all of mankind that man is basically a sinner, and that his way out is to change his bad habits. Weishaupt felt that this position was in error.
He wrote: "Man is not bad except as he is made so by arbitrary morality. He is bad because Religion, the State, and bad examples pervert him." 293
"Men... suffered themselves to be oppressed -- gave themselves up to civil societies, and formed states. To get out of this state... there is no other mean than the use of Reason...
This can be done in no other way but by secret associations, which will by degrees, and in silence, possess themselves of the government of the States, and make use of those means for this purpose which the wicked use for attaining their base ends." 294
Professor Weishaupt's religion authorized its members to use any means that would benefit the goal of the Illuminati.
That goal was simple: the destruction of all Christianity: "Behold our secret... If in order to destroy all Christianity, all religion, we have pretended to have the sole true religion, remember that the end justifies the means, and that the wise ought to take all the means to do good which the wicked take to do evil." 295
Weishaupt spoke about the Jesuits, an order of priests inside the Catholic Church. He was, it will be remembered, an instructor at a Catholic university in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, run by the Jesuits. He apparently admired their success, because he organized his order in a similar manner. He wrote: "What these men have done for altars and empires, why should I not do against altars and empires? By the attraction of mysteries, of legends, of adepts, why should I not destroy in the dark what they erect in the light of day." 296
Some writers in the past have summarized the beliefs of the Illuminati for the future use of historians. One was Nesta Webster, who wrote the following about their aims in the book entitled, WORLD REVOLUTION:
1. Abolition of Monarchy and all ordered Government.
2. Abolition of private property.
3. Abolition of inheritance.
4. Abolition of patriotism.
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5. Abolition of the family (i.e. of marriage and all morality, and the institution of the communal education of children).
6. Abolition of all religion. 297 Weishaupt must have felt that his plan would ultimately succeed. He certainly felt that his Order would control the world. And he anticipated that there would be opposition to his goals. He summarized all of these thoughts in this statement: "By this plan, we shall direct all mankind. In this manner, and by the simplest means, we shall set all in motion and in flames. The occupations must be so allotted and contrived, that we may, in secret, influence all political transactions." 298
Weishaupt decided that his Illuminati needed a cover, and he successfully infiltrated the Masonic Order in 1782, at the Masonic Congress at Wilhelmsbad. Some Masons became aware of that infiltration and were moved to comment about it. One such Mason was President George Washington who was sent a copy of Professor John Robison's book entitled, PROOFS OF A CONSPIRACY by a Christian minister named G. W. Snyder. The President responded to the minister's request that he read the book, and his letter to the minister has been preserved for posterity. Mr. Washington wrote the minister: "It was not my intention to doubt that the doctrines of the Illuminati, and principles of Jacobinism, had not spread in the United States.
On the contrary, no one is more fully satisfied of this fact than I am. The idea that I meant to convey was that I did not believe that the Lodges of Freemasons in this country had, as societies, endeavored to propagate the diabolical [defined as being of the devil] tenets of [the Illuminati.]
That individuals of them may have done it, or that the founder... may have had these objects ~ and actually, in my view, had a separation of the people from their government, is too evident to be questioned.
I believe... that none of the Lodges in this country are contaminated with the principles ascribed to the society of the Illuminati." 299
The President indicated that he was aware that the Illuminati had arrived in America; that its tenets were diabolical, meaning that he recognized that they involved themselves in devil worship; and that they intended to separate man from his government.
The President of the United States had acknowledged the presence of the devil-worshipping Illuminati in America!
The book that the President read was written by a member of the Lodge who had been asked to join the Illuminati.
He was a professor of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh University in Scotland. After his study, he concluded that the purposes of the Illuminati were completely unacceptable, and he wrote his book to expose its goals. He wrote: "... an Association has been formed for the express purpose of rooting out all the religious establishments, and overturning all the existing governments of Europe." 300
He discovered that the leaders would: "... rule the world with uncontrollable power, while all the rest,... will be... employed as mere tools of the ambition of their unknown superiors." 301
James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine, was a contemporary of Professor Robison, and he wrote this about his friend: "a man of the clearest head and the most science of anybody I have ever known." 302
But, even with all of these criticisms about the purposes of the Illuminati, there were some Masons who felt that the association between the Masons and the Illuminati was a positive federation. One such Mason, Kenneth Mackenzie, has written that this Masonic infiltration was: "... an attempt to purify Masonry, then in much confusion." 303
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Another Mason who approved of the merger was Dr. Walter M. Fleming, one of the four founders of the Shrine, an organization that is part of the Masonic fraternity. He and three other Masons formed this organization in 1871, and he assisted in the preparation of a history of the Shrine in 1893.
In that book, Dr. Fleming wrote: "Among the modern promoters of the principles of the Order [the Shrine] in Europe, one of the most noted was Herr Adam Weishaupt... professor of law in the University of Ingolstadt, in Bavaria... who revived the Order in that city on May 1, 1776. Its members exercised a profound influence before and during the French Revolution, when they were known as the Illuminati." 304
Dr. Fleming, a 33rd degree Mason, was recognizing the found-of the Illuminati [Adam Weishaupt] as a "reviver of the Order." His quote comes from a book entitled, PARADE TO GLORY, written by Fred Van Deventer, which appears to be given to each new member of the Shrine.
So Dr. Fleming was supportive of the efforts of Professor Adam Weishaupt, because he had "revived the Order."
Albert Mackey also praised Professor Weishaupt. He wrote these comments in his ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FREEMASONRY: "... Weishaupt could not have been the monster that he has been painted by his adversaries."
And the reason he couldn't have been a "monster," was because he was: "... a Masonic reformer." 305
However, the major support that Weishaupt has received has come from members of the Masonic Order who have attacked those who have been critical of the Professor and the Illuminati he was the founder of.
Albert Mackey, for instance, admitted that John Robison was a fellow Mason, but he wrote these comments about his belief that a conspiracy had infiltrated the llluminati: "many of his statements are untrue and his arguments illogical." 306
"his theory is based on false premises and his reasoning fallacious and illogical..." 307
Kenneth Mackenzie in his book entitled, THE ROYAL MASONIC ENCYCLOPAEDIA also criticized Professor Robison MM being: "The author of a silly and self-contradictory book about Freemasonry...
... the nauseating nonsense with which Robison decks his book is only to be compared to the more virulent and subtle sarcasm of Barruel." 308
The individual called "Barruel" by Mr. Mackenzie was in fact the Abbe Barruel who had written a four volume series on the llluminati in 1798, independently from the book written by Professor Robison. The Abbe's research basically supported the conclusions of Professor Robison.
Obviously, some of the Masons feel that the Abbe, like Professor Robison, was grossly in error.
This is what the Abbe wrote about the Illuminati: "... a terrible and horrible sect.
"... it has formed for that general Revolution which is to overthrow all thrones, all altars, annihilate all property, [destroy the right to private property] efface [obliterate]
all law, and end by dissolving all society." 309 Another who attacked the Abbe's volumes on the Illuminati was Thomas Jefferson, one of America's founding fathers.
Although it appears that he had read only one of the four volumes in the set, Mr. Jefferson commented: "Barruel's own parts of the book are perfectly the ravings of a Bedlamite." 310 A Bedlamite was a patient of the Bedlam hospital for lunatics in London, England. So it can be seen that Mr. Jefferson did not care for the Abbe's research. While he charged the Abbe with being a lunatic, Mr. Jefferson praised Adam Weishaupt with these words: "Weishaupt seems to be an enthusiastic philanthropist.
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Weishaupt believes that to promote the perfection of the human character was the object of Jesus Christ. His [Weishaupt's] precepts are the love of God and love of our neighbor." 311
Albert Mackey, one of the greatest Masonic scholars and researchers, praised the Illuminati with these words found in his ENCYCLOPAEDIA: "The original design of Illuminism was undoubtedly the elevation of the human race." 312
Mackey also praised the founder as well: "He is celebrated in the history of Masonry as the founder of the Order of the Illuminati of Bavaria..." 313
Other Masonic writers have praised the founder and his conspiratorial society known as the Illuminati as well. Kenneth Mackenzie wrote this: "Its object was the advancement of morality, education, and virtue..."
"had the Order been allowed free scope, much good would have resulted..." 314
But, whether the critics or the supporters were correct, the Illuminati had come to America. Several researchers into the conspiracy of the Illuminati have provided the student with their evidence that these conspirators had brought their plans to the United States.
Nesta Webster, who wrote in the 1920's, wrote this about her discoveries of where the Illuminati went after their discovery by the Bavarian government: "Whilst these events [the early stages of the French Revolution of 1789] were taking place in Europe, the New World [meaning America] had been illuminized.
As early as 1786 a lodge of the Order [of the Illuminati]
had been started in Virginia, and this was followed by fourteen others in different cities." 315
In 1798, Jedediah Morse, a minister and the father of Samuel Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, preached a now famous sermon on the Illuminati. He clearly had discovered their presence in America. He said: "The Order [of the Illuminati] has its branches established and its emissaries at work in America." 316
And in 1812, the President at Harvard University, Joseph Willard, retired to preach in Vermont. He took the occasion of his retirement on July 4, 1812, to express his concern over the consequences of the then looming war: "There is sufficient evidence that a number of societies of the Illuminati have been established in this land. They are doubtless striving to secretly undermine all our ancient institutions, civil and sacred. These societies are clearly leagued with those of the same order in Europe...
We live in an alarming period . The Enemies of all order are seeking our ruin. Should infidelity generally prevail, our independence would fall, of course. Our republican government would be annihilated..." 317
Perhaps the next appearance of the Illuminati occurred in Chicago, Illinois, in 1886, in what has been called the Haymarket Riot. It is uncertain as to whether or not they were formally involved as an organization, but the whole affair certainly seems to have occurred in a sequence similar to what they would have orchestrated if they had been involved.
Cyrus McCormick, the owner of a harvester works in Chicago, had refused to accept a union to represent his employees.
When he was pressed by the union, he closed his factory and opened it later with non-union workers. The strikers and the non-union workers clashed, and a squad of police arrived.
A bomb was thrown from out of the crowd, and it killed one and wounded many others. Shooting broke out, and sixtyeight policemen were wounded and seven of them killed.
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After the Haymarket affair, a Captain in the Chicago police department, Michael J. Shaack, decided that he would see if he could determine why the disaster had occurred, and he started a thorough investigation. About a year later, he issued his report, and these are some of his conclusions: "All over the world the apostles of disorder, rapine, [defined as plunder, pillage] and Anarchy are today pressing their work of ruin, and preaching their gospel of disaster to all the nations with a more fiery energy and a better organized propaganda than was ever known before.
People who imagine that the energy of the revolutionists has slackened, or that their determination to wreck all the existing systems has grown less bitter, are deceiving themselves. The conspiracy against society is as determined as it ever was.
Nothing but the uprooting of the very foundations and groundwork of our civilization will satisfy these enemies of order..." 318
Although Captain Shaak did not specify that the group behind the riot was the Illuminati, he clearly had discovered that the goal of the conspirators was to "uproot civilization,"
which had been their announced goal for over one hundred years. It appears that his research had uncovered the fact that the Illuminati had been at work in America.
1886 was a big year for those uncovering the evidence that this conspiracy existed. Two other individuals spoke out about the secret societies in the world. One was Henry Edward Manning, Archbishop of Westminster, England, who wrote that the Communist International was: "the work of secret, political societies, which from 1789 to this day have been perfecting their formation."
He said that this conspiracy: "is now a power in the midst of the Christian and civilized world, pledged to the destruction of Christianity and the old civilization of Europe." 319
The other was Abbe Joseph Lane, a respected scholar of the time, who wrote that he had discovered a plan: "to disorganize at one blow Christian society and the beliefs and customs of the Jews, then bring about a state of things where, religiously speaking, there will be neither Christian nor Jew." 320
So there were plenty of warnings, but, overall, few in the world listened. And the secret societies continued to prosper.
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