booknetsaWebster-secretSocietiesAndSubversiveMovements

CHAPTER IX
THE BAVARIAN ILLUMINATI
THE question of the system to which I shall henceforth refer simply as Illuminism is of such immense
importance to an understanding of the modern revolutionary movement that, although I have already described
it in detail in World Revolution, it is necessary to devote a further chapter to it here in order to answer
the objections made against my former account of the Order and also to show its connexion with earlier
secret societies.
Now, the main contentions of those writers who, either consciously or unconsciously, attempt to mislead
the public on the true nature and real existence of Illuminism are:
Firstly, that the case against Illuminism rests solely on the works of Robison, and of Barruel and later
Catholic authorities.
Secondly, that all these writers misinterpreted or misquoted the Illuminati, who should be judged only by
their own works.
Thirdly, that in reality the Illuminati were perfectly innocuous and even praiseworthy.
Fourthly, that they are of no importance, since they ceased to exist in 1786.
In the present chapter I propose therefore to answer all these contentions in turn and at the same time to
make further examination into the origins of the Order.
ORIGINS OF THE ILLUMINATI
That Weishaupt was not the originator of the system he named Illuminism will be already apparent to
every reader of the present work; it has needed, in fact, all the foregoing chapters to trace the source of
Weishaupt's doctrines throughout the history of the world. From these it will be evident that men aiming at
the overthrow of the existing social order and of all accepted religion had existed from the earliest times,
and that in the Cainites, the Carpocratians, the Manichæns, the Batinis, the Fatimites, and the Karmathites
many of Weishaupt's ideas had already been foreshadowed. To the Manichæns, in fact, the word " Illuminati
" may be traced-" gloriantur Manichæi se de caelo illuminatos."[1]
It is in the sect of Abdullah ibn Maymun that we must seek the model for Weishaupt's system of organization.
Thus de Sacy has described in the following words the manner of enlisting proselytes by the Ismailis:
They proceeded to the admission and initiation of new proselytes only by degrees and with great reserve;
for, as the sect had at the same time a political object and ambitions, its interest was above all to have a great
number of partisans in all places and in all classes of society. It was necessary therefore to suit themselves
to the character, the temperament, and the prejudices of the greater number; what one revealed to some
would have revolted others and alienated for ever spirits less bold and consciences more easily alarmed.[2]
This passage exactly describes the methods laid down by Weishaupt for his " Insinuating Brothers "-the
necessity of proceeding with caution in the enlisting of adepts, of not revealing to the novice doctrines that
might be likely to revolt him, of " speaking sometimes in one way, sometimes in another, so that one's real
purpose should remain impenetrable " to members of the inferior grades.
How did these Oriental methods penetrate to the Bavarian professor? According to certain writers,
through the Jesuits. The fact that Weishaupt had been brought up by this Order has provided the enemies of
the Jesuits with the argument that they were the secret inspirers of the Illuminati. Mr. Gould, indeed, has attributed
most of the errors of the latter to this source; Weishaupt, he writes, incurred " the implacable
enmity of the Jesuits, to whose intrigues he was incessantly exposed."[3] In reality precisely the opposite
was the case, for, as we shall see, it was Weishaupt who perpetually intrigued against the Jesuits. That
Weishaupt did, however, draw to a certain extent on Jesuit methods of training is recognized even by Barruel,
himself a Jesuit, who, quoting Mirabeau, says that Weishaupt " admired above all those laws, that régime
of the Jesuits, which, under one head, made men dispersed over the universe tend towards the same
goal; he felt that one could imitate their methods whilst holding views diametrically opposed."[4] And
again, on the evidence of Mirabeau, de Luchet, and von Knigge, Barruel says elsewhere: " It is here that
Weishaupt appears specially to have wished to assimilate the regime of the sect to that of the religious orders
and, above all, that of the Jesuits, by the total abandonment of their own will and judgement which he
demands of his adepts... ," But Barruel goes on to show " the enormous difference that is to be found
between religious obedience and Illuminist obedience." In every religious order men know that the voice of
Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I
— 109 —