France

France is a major country in Western Europe. In ancient times, the area that is today France was included in the Roman province of Gaul. The French nation can be traced back to 481, when Clovis I ascended as the country’s first king. France has played a significant role in world events since the era of Cardinal Richelieu in the mid-seventeenth century. The monarchy founded by Clovis lasted until the French Revolution of 1789-1799 that was fomented by the Bavarian Adam Weishaupt had worked five years to develop a system, which suited him. The actual character of the society was an elaborate network of spies and counter-spies. Each isolated cell of initiates reported to a superior, whom they did not know: a party structure that was effectively adopted by some later groups. The Order was divided into three classes (the Jesuits had four). The first class was for novices and the lesser illuminated (Minerval), the second for freemasons (including the Scottish Knights), and the third, the mystery class, was comprised of priests, regents, magicians and a king (the Jesuits had a general). Each grade was designed to achieve particular objectives while assuring complete control and dominance to the apex of the pyramid. A definite alliance between the Illuminati and Freemasonry became possible in 1780 when a prominent figure by the name of Baron Adolf Franz Friederich Knigge was initiated into Weishaupt’s Order. The German diplomat’s Masonic connections and organizational skills were promptly put to use by the Order. Knigge would go on to accomplish two important tasks for the Illuminati: He revised the hierarchy of the Order, created new higher grades and allowed the full integration of Masonic lodges into the system. Knigge’s influence upon the Order was profound and immediate. The new system he devised attracted Freemasons and other powerful figures, which gave the movement great momentum. Here’s the system devised by Knigge: The highest grades of the Order were restricted to a select few and included powerful individuals and influential figures. The grade of Prince held within its ranks National Inspectors, Provincials, Prefects and Deans of the Priests. At the top of the pyramid were the Magus (also known as Areopagites), which comprised the supreme heads of the Order. Their identities were safely guarded and are still difficult to confirm today. The new method of spreading Illuminism by means of its affiliation with Masonic lodges promptly demonstrated its worth. Largely because of the fine strategy of seeking its recruits among the officers and other influential personages in the lodges of Freemasonry, one after another of the latter in quick succession went over to the new system. New prefectures were established, new provinces organized, and Provincials began to report a steady and copious stream of new recruits. (…) Students, merchants, doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, judges, professors in gymnasia and universities, preceptors, civil officers, pastors, priests — all were generously represented among the new recruits. Distinguished names soon appeared upon the rosters of the lodges of the new system. Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, Duke Ernst of Gotha, Duke Karl August of Saxe-Weimar, Prince August of Saxe-Gotha, Prince Carl of Hesse, Baron Dalberg, the philosopher Herder, the poet Goethe, the educationist Pestalozzi, were among the number enrolled, By the end of 1784 the leaders boasted of a total enrollment of between two and three thousand members 106. and the establishment of the order upon a solid foundation seemed to be fully assured. John Robison quotes Illuminati founder, Adam Weishaupt, in ‘Proofs of Conspiracy’ as saying the following:

“Of all the means I know to lead men, the most effectual is a concealed mystery. The hankering of the mind is irresistible; and if once a man has taken it into his head that there is a mystery in a thing, it is impossible to get it out, either by argument or experience. And then, we can so change notions by merely changing a word. What more contemptible than fanaticism; but call it enthusiasm; then add the little word noble, and you may lead him over the world … For their sakes, and to rivet still faster their own fetters, they engage in the most corrupting of all employments – and for what? – To learn something more of an order, of which every degree explodes the doctrine of a former one. Would it have hurt the young Illuminatus to have it explained to him all at once? Would not this fire his mind – when he sees with the same glance the great object, and the fitness of the means for attaining it? Would not the exalted characters of the Superior, so much excelling himself in talents, and virtue, and happiness (otherwise the Order is good for nothing) warm his heart, and fill him with emulation, since he sees in them, that what is so strongly preached to him is an attainable thing? No, no – it is all a trick; he must be kept like a child, amused with rattles, and stars, and ribbons – and all the satisfaction he obtains is, like the Masons, the fun of seeing others running the same gauntlet.” -Adam Weishaupt, from John Robinson’s, “Proofs of a Conspiracy” (129-30)

John Robison was a Mason that was invited to join the Illuminati in the late eighteenth century. After investigating the order, Robison declined the invitation and published his book “Proofs of Conspiracy”, and says of the order:

“In short, I have found that the covert of a Mason Lodge had been employed in every country for venting and propagating sentiments in religion and politics that could not have circulated in public without exposing the author to great danger. I found, that this impunity had gradually encouraged men of licentious principles to become more bold, and to teach doctrines subversive of all our notions of morality – of all our confidence in the moral government of the universe – of all our hopes of improvement in a future state of existence – and of all satisfaction and contentment with our present life, so long as we live in a state of civil subordination. I have been able to trace these attempts, made, through a course of fifty years … I have observed these doctrines gradually diffusing and mixing with all the different systems of Free Masonry; till, at last, AN ASSOCIATION HAS BEEN FORMED for the express purpose of ROOTING OUT ALL THE RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS, AND OVERTURNING ALL THE EXISTING GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE. I have seen this Association exerting itself zealously and systematically, till it has become almost irresistible: And I have seen that the most active leaders in the French Revolution were members of this Association, and conducted their first movements according to its principles, and by means of its instructions and assistance, formerly requested and obtained: And, lastly, I have seen that this Association still exists, still works in secret …The Association of which I have been speaking, is the Order of ILLUMINATI … abolished in 1786 by the Elector of Bavaria, but revived immediately after, under another name, and in a different form, all over Germany. It was again detected, and seemingly broken up; but it had by this time taken so deep root that it still subsists without being detected, and has spread into all the countries of Europe.” -John Robinson, “Proofs of a Conspiracy” (6-9)

Also, about the same time that John Robison wrote ‘Proofs of Conspiracy’ in Scotland, Abbe’ Augustin Barruel (French patriot, Jesuit, and 3rd degree Mason) published his Memoires pour servir a l’Histoire du Jacobinisme or Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism (which presented the Roman Catholic view). Both books sought to warn America about the Illuminati conspiracy, but the warnings were not taken seriously. If they had been, perhaps the French Revolution could have been prevented since it was planned and fomented by the Illuminati conspirators. The January, 1798 edition of the Monthly Magazine contained a letter by Augustus Bottiger, Provost of the College of Weimar, who falsely accused Robison of making inaccurate statements, and said that since 1790, “every concern of the Illuminati has ceased.”
Upright people would never work for such an abhorrent program, so the “normal” Illuminati were filled with fair phrases about love, charity and suchlike which we call “ideology” today. The further up one advanced, the more primitive were the members. The more primitive the individuals, the lower the ideals enthusing them. Therefore, the Illuminati have used all sorts of ideologies (Nihilism, Liberalism, Fascism) or made them up themselves (Marxism, Communism, Socialism) whereas they themselves were perfectly independent of all ideology.
The first major attack on Weishaupt’s Illuminati came when Johann Baptist Strobl’s company began publishing several polemical pieces aimed at the Illuminati. It is sufficient to mention: “Babo, Gemalde aus dem menschlichen Leben” (“Babo, Impressions from Human Life”).
On the 11 February 1785, Weishaupt was discharged and forbidden to live in Ingolstadt and Munich. At the same time, the university was informed that Weishaupt would be arrested. On 16 February, he went underground and was hidden by his Illuminati brother Joseph Martin, who worked as a locksmith. A few days later he fled from Ingolstadt to Nuremberg dressed in the working clothes of a craftsman.
During the inquiry, more and more terrible evidence against the Illuminati appeared, but they continued their activities despite the ban. Therefore, on March 2nd 1785, a further decree was issued which made possible the confiscation of the Illuminati’s assets.
On 20 July 1785, the courier of the Illuminati Jakob Lanz (who worked as a priest) was hit by lightning in Regensburg and died. Weishaupt was together with him. Lanz intended to travel on to Berlin and Silesia and received his last instructions from Weishaupt before he died. He had sewn in a list of Illuminati and some compromising papers in his priest’s robe. Weishaupt did not know about this and became the victim of his own conspiracy. (Countess Sofia Toll, “The Brothers of the Night”, Moscow, 2000, p. 291.) The local police found other important documents at Lanz’ house, including detailed instructions for the planned French revolution. Some of the papers were addressed to the Grand Master of the lodge Grand Orient in Paris. Everything was handed over to the Bavarian government and on the 4th August 1785 a new ban on secret societies was issued.
On 31 August, an order to arrest Weishaupt was issued. A price was put on Adam Weishaupt’s head in Bavaria. Weishaupt fled to Gotha, where the llluminatus, Ernst, Grand Duke of Saxe-Gotha, could protect him. He gave Weishaupt the title of Privy Councillor, gave him sanctuary. Weishaupt stayed in Gotha for the rest of his life. He died on the 18th November 1830. A bust of him stands on display in the Germanisches Museum in Nuremberg.
The police began to look for known members of the Order. The Illuminati had managed to infiltrate many important posts in society. For this reason the police investigation was very slow. The raid on Zwack’s house, which had a direct link to the secret Illuminati documents found at Lanz’ house, was only made one year and two months after Lanz was struck by lightning, on 11 and 12 October 1786. On the llth-12th October 1786, they searched the house of Dr Franz Xaver Zwack (Cato) in Landshut where the Illuminati kept their most important papers. In the following year Baron Bassus’ (Hannibal’s) castle in Sandersdorf was also searched and the police confiscated even more papers concerning the Illuminati’s conspiracy against the whole world. In these documents, plans for a global revolution were laid out and these papers clearly stated that this destructive operation was to be the work of secret societies.
In 1785, the Columbia Lodge of the Order of the Illuminati was established in New York City. Among its members were Governor DeWitt Clinton, Horace Greeley (politician and editor of the New York Daily Tribune), Charles Dana, and Clinton Roosevelt (the ancestor of Franklin D. Roosevelt). Roosevelt wrote a book called Science of Government Founded on Natural Law, in which he wrote: “There is no God of justice to order things aright on earth, if there be a God, he is a malicious and revengeful being, who created us for misery.” He referred to himself and other members as “the enlightened ones,” and said that the U.S. Constitution was a “leaky vessel” which was “hastily put together when we left the British flag,” and therefore needed revision.
In 1786, a lodge was started in Portsmouth, Virginia, where allegedly, Thomas Jefferson was a member; followed by fourteen others in different cities of the thirteen colonies.
Also, in 1786, two remarkable books about the Illuminati were published: “Drei merkwurdige Aussagen” (in which Professors Griinberg, Cosandey und Renner testified) and “Grosse Absichten des Ordens der Illuminaten” (“Great Purposes of the Order of the Illuminati”) with Professor Joseph Utzschneider’s testimony.
After a lengthy inquiry, the Elector ordered two works containing confiscated secret documents to be printed under the titles: “Einige Originalschriften des Illuminaten-Ordens” and “Nachtrag von weitern Originalschriften” (“Some Original Documents of the Illuminati Order” and “Supplement of Further Original Documents”).
These books were sent to the governments in Paris, London and St. Petersburg, but were not taken seriously (until it was too late). Johann Baptist Strobl also printed a new collection of documents concerning the Illuminati in 1787.

Some truly lofty cultural personalities allowed themselves to be fooled by the skillful Illuminati propaganda. Adam Weishaupt, as a skilled propagandist, had previously written the books “An Apology for the Illuminati” (1786), “Das Verbesserte System der Illuminaten” / “The Improved System of the Illuminati” (1788), “Spartacus und Philo”, (1794), and others.
When the Illuminati were banned on 4 August 1785, Zwack fled to Augsburg and from there to Weslar. After the death of the Elector, Zwack returned to Bavaria, where he was reinstated as a civil servant. Von Knigge travelled to Bremen, where he died as a British officer on 6 May 1796. Several other members were dismissed from their posts. All according to the Grand Master of the Illuminati, Leopold Engel.
Even the great poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe became a Freemason in 1780 and joined the Illuminati somewhat later in the 1780s. His alias within the Order was Abaris. (“Geschichte des Illuminaten-Ordens” / “History of the Order of the Illuminati” by Leopold Engel, Berlin, 1906, pp. 355-356). But eventually he was able to see through their deception.
As Robison alluded, the Bavarian Illuminati was abolished in 1786, but was then revived immediately after under different names. It became increasingly obvious to the “good guys” of European Freemasonry that even more drastic measures would have to be taken against the Illuminati. In 1794 the Duke of Brunswick, the Grand Master of German Freemasonry wrote a letter to his brethren recommending the dissolution of the entire organization, due to the fact that it had been infiltrated was being manipulated by unseen hands.

“I have been convinced that we, as an Order, have come under the power of some very evil occult Order, profoundly versed in science, both occult and otherwise, though not infallible, their methods being black magic, that is to say, electro-magnetic power, hypnotism, and powerful suggestion. We are convinced that the Order is being controlled by some Sun Order, after the nature of the Illuminati, if not by that Order itself. We see our edifice…crumbling and covering the ground with ruins, we see the destruction that our hands no longer arrest…a great sect arose, which taking for its motto the good and the happiness of man, worked in the darkness of the conspiracy to make the happiness of humanity a prey for itself. This sect is known to everyone, its brothers are known no less than its name. It is they who have undermined the foundations of the Order to the point of complete overthrow; it is by them that all humanity has been poisoned and led astray for several generations…They began by casting odium on religion…Their masters had nothing less in view than the thrones of the earth, and the governments of the nations was to be directed by their nocturnal clubs…the misuse of our order…has produced all the political and moral troubles with which the world is filled today…we must from this moment dissolve the whole Order” – Duke of Brunswick, Grand Master of German Freemasonry, 1794

On July 19, 1789, David Pappin, President of Harvard University, issued a warning to the graduating class, concerning the Illuminati’s influence on American politics and religion. In April, 1793, France sent new ambassador Edmond Genet to America, so he could collect payment for the American debt incurred during the American Revolution. The money was to be used to finance France’s war with England. However, his real reason for being here, was to gain political favor for France, and spread Illuminism, which he did, through the establishment of “Democratic Clubs.”
George Washington, shortly before he died, read John Robison’s book Proofs of a Conspiracy and immediately expressed his belief to the preacher who had sent it to him, that the designs of the Illuminati were infecting our country. In reply to the reverends letter and gifted book, General Washington replies:

“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 truly satisfied of this fact than I am. The idea that I meant to convey, was, that I did not believe that the Lodges of Free Masons in this Country had, as Societies, endeavored to propagate the diabolical tenets of the first, or pernicious principles of the latter (if they are susceptible of separation). That Individuals of them may have done it, or that the founder, or instrument employed to found, the Democratic Societies in the United States, may have had these objects; and actually had a separation of the People from their Government in view, is too evident to be questioned.”

In a previous letter, Washington said “they would shake the government to its foundations,” while John Quincy Adams, oldest son of the 2nd President John Adams, who became our 6th President in 1825, said that these clubs were “so perfectly affiliated with the Parisian Jacobins that their origin from a common parent cannot possibly be mistaken.” Because of the Illuminati threat, Washington and Adams lobbied Congress to pass the Alien and Sedition Act, which was “designed to protect the United States from the extensive French Jacobin conspiracy, paid agents of which were even in high places in the government.”
Sir Walter Scott, in his nine volume set ‘The Life of Napoleon’ sums up the situation with these words — “These financiers used the (French) Government as bankrupt prodigals are treated by usurious money-lenders who, feeding the extravagance with one hand, with the other wring out of their ruined fortunes the most unreasonable recompenses for their advances.  By a long succession of these ruinous loans, and various rights granted to guarantee them, the whole finances of France were brought to a total confusion” Because of his alleged anti-Semitic utterances, Sir Walter Scott’s important works consisting of a total of nine volumes dealing with many phases of the French Revolution have been given the silent treatment by those who control the publishing houses as well as the biggest portion of the press.  They are almost unattainable except in Museum Libraries and are never listed with his other works.
On May 9, 1798, Rev. Jedediah Morse, pastor of the Congregational Church in Charleston, South Carolina preached a sermon at the New North Church in Boston, about the Illuminati:

“Practically all of the civil and ecclesiastical establishments of Europe have already been shaken to their foundations by this terrible organization; the French Revolution itself is doubtless to be traced to its machinations; the successes of the French armies are to be explained on the same ground. The Jacobins are nothing more nor less than the open manifestation of the hidden system of the Illuminati. The Order has its branches established and its emissaries at work in America. The affiliated Jacobin Societies in America have doubtless had as the object of their establishment the propagation of the principles of the illuminated mother club in France…I hold it a duty, my brethren, which I owe to God, to the cause of religion, to my country and to you, at this time, to declare to you, thus honestly and faithfully, these truths. My only aim is to awaken you and myself a due attention, at this alarming period, to our dearest interests. As a faithful watchman I would give you warning of your present danger.”

After a few years and with powerful connections, the Order became a major political force across the world. Influential deciders, rich industrials, powerful noblemen and mysterious occultists joined the Order and participated in its conspiratorial objectives. Some historians claim that the Order’s quick rise to success was due to a secret meeting between Weishaupt and a mysterious figure named Cagliostro, the most powerful occultist of the time.
The Illuminati, just 18 years after its official formation, was so powerful and influential that its infiltration into Masonry caused the Duke of Brunswick to try and “dissolve the whole order.”Neither Freemasonry nor the Illuminati were dissolved, however, and their power and influence has only increased in the centuries since.
In May 1810, Francois Charles de Berckheim, special commissioner of police at Mayence, a Freemason, had his attention drawn to the activities of the Illuminati, and began an investigation to determine whether or not the sect still was an active movement.
He found that there were initiates “all over Europe” and that, instead of dying out, he stated that “Illuminism is becoming a great and formidable power and I fear, in my conscience, that kings and peoples will have much to suffer from it unless foresight and prudence break its frightful mechanisms.”
Continuing his investigations the commissioner of police wrote a report (1814) which described the subtle methods by which Illuminism maintained its existence, even when prohibited by governments and proscribed by Masonry. We quote from this report (the original was, at last word, in the French National Archives, index No. F7 6563) the portion which explains how the organization of Illuminati is carried on invisibly, so as to defy the eye of authority:

Initiations are not accompanied, as in Masonry, by phantas magoric trials, .. . but they are preceded by long moral tests which guarantee in the safest way the fidelity of the catechumen; oaths, a mixture of all that is most sacred in religion, threats and imprecations against traitors, nothing that can stagger the imagination is spared; but the only engagement into which the recipient enters is to propagate the principles with which he has been imbued, to maintain inviolable secrecy on all that pertains to the association, and to work with all his might to increase the number of proselytes. “All the adepts living in the same town usually know each other. unless the population of the town or the number of the adepts is too considerable. In this last case they are divided into several groups, who are all in touch with each other by means of members of the association whom personal relations bind to two or several groups at a time. “These groups are again subdivided into so many private coteries which the difference of rank, of fortune, of character, tastes, etc., may necessitate: they are always small, sometimes composed of five or six individuals, who meet frequently under various pretexts, sometimes at the house of one member, sometimes at that of another; literature, art, amusements of all kinds are the apparent object of these meetings, and it is nevertheless in these confabulations that the adepts communicate their private views to each other, agree on methods, receive the directions that the intermediaries brie, them, and communicate their own ideas to these same intermediaries, who then go on to propagate them in other coteries. It will be understood that there may be uniformity in the march of all these separated groups, and that one day may suffice to communicate the same impulses to all the quarters of a large town… “These are the methods by which the Illumines without any apparent organization, without settled leaders, agree together from the Neva of the Rhine to those of the Neva, from the Baltic to the Dardanelles, and advance continually towards the same goal without leaving any trace that might compromise the interests of the association or even bring suspicion on any of its members; the most active police would fail before such a combination ….

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