in a search of the quarters of Baron Bassus, whose membership in the
order on account of his close friendship with Zwack, brought him under
the government’s suspicion. The police visitation referred to yielded
no very important result, apart from establishing more solidly the
government’s claim that the order had not obeyed the first edict.
The papers seized in this instance were published by the government
under the title, _Nachtrag von weiteren Originalschriften ... Zwei
Abtheilungen_, Munich, 1787.
[431] Forestier, pp. 504 _et seq._
[432] Mändl, in the most cowardly fashion, charged the order with
unmentionable practices. He seems to have been the Judas in the order’s
inner circle. _Cf._ Forestier, pp. 505 _et seq._ _Cf._ Engel, pp. 331
_et seq._
[433] Massenhausen was Ajax in the order. The papers seized by the
police identified him as one of Weishaupt’s intimates.
[434] The “revelations” of Mändl appear to have been immediately
responsible for the edict. _Cf._ Forestier, p. 507.
[435] Engel, _op. cit._, p. 280.
[436] “Unter der nemlichen confiscations—und relegations Straf werden
die illuminaten Logen, sie mögen gleich auf diesen oder anderen Namen
umgetauft seyn, ebenfalls verbothen, worauf man auch allenthalben gute
Spehr’ [Späher] bestellen, und die Gesellschaften, welche entweder
in Wirth—oder Privathäusern mit versperrten Thüren oder sonst auf
verdächtige Weise gehalten werden, als wahre Logen behandeln lassen,
und die so leer als gewöhnliche Ausrede, das es nur ehrliche Compagnien
von guten Freunden sind, zumal von jenen, welche sich des Illuminatismi
und der Freygeisterei vorhin schon suspect gemacht haben, nicht
annehmen wird....” Quoted by Engel, p. 280.
[437] Forestier, _op. cit._, p. 509.
[438] Forestier, _op. cit._, pp. 511 _et seq._ _Cf._ Engel, _op. cit._,
pp. 378 _et seq._
[439] _Ibid._, p. 369. _Cf._ Forestier, pp. 511 _et seq._
[440] _Ibid._, p. 512.
[441] _Ibid._, pp. 512 _et seq._ An effort to secure the extradition of
Weishaupt was defeated by an appeal to Duke Ernst. _Cf._ Engel, pp. 231
_et seq._
[442] The most significant of these were the following: _Einleitung zu
meiner Apologie_, 1787; _Bemerkungen über einige Originalschriften_,
published soon after the former; _Das verbesserte System der
Illuminaten mit allen seinen Graden Einrichtungen_, also soon after the
first mentioned work; _Kurze Rechtfertigung meiner Absichten_, 1787;
_Nachtrag zur Rechtfertigung meiner Absichten_, 1787.
[443] A sympathetic and moving account of the last years of Weishaupt’s
life appears in Engel, _op. cit._, pp. 380–402.
[444] Forestier, _op. cit._, pp. 543 _et seq._
2. THE LEGEND OF THE ORDER AND ITS LITERARY
COMMUNICATION TO NEW ENGLAND
Although the Order of the Illuminati was dead, the world had yet to
reckon with its specter. So intense and widespread was the fear which
the order engendered, so clearly did the traditionalists of the age
see in its clientele the welding together into a secret machine of
war of the most mischievous and dangerous of those elements which
were discontented with the prevailing establishments of religion and
civil government, that it was impossible that its shadow should pass
immediately.[445]
The emergence of the order had attracted public attention so abruptly
and sharply, and its downfall had been so violent and so swift, that
public opinion lacked time to adjust itself to the facts in the case.
In Bavaria, particularly, the enemies of the order were unable to
persuade themselves that the machinations of the Illuminati could
safely be regarded as wholly of the past.[446] The documents of the
order were appealed to, to supply proof that its leaders had made
deliberate calculations against the day of possible opposition and
temporary disaster and with satanic cunning had made their preparations
to wring victory out of apparent defeat.[447] Besides, the depth of the
governments suspicions and hostility was such that additional, though
needless measures of state[448] kept very much alive in that country
the haunting fear of the continued existence of the order.
Outside of Bavaria numerous factors contributed to create the same
general impression in the public mind. Among these were the efforts
of the Rosicrucians to play upon the fears that the Illuminati had
awakened, the mistaken connections which, in the Protestant world,
were commonly made between the members of the Order of the Illuminati
and the representatives and promoters of the _Aufklärung_, and the
emergence of the German Union. To each of these in turn a word must be
devoted.
Following the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773, members of that
order in considerable numbers, attracted by the rapid growth and
the pretentious occultism of the Rosicrucians,[449] had united with
the latter system.[450] The result was the infusion of a definite
strain of clericalism into the order of the Rosicrucians and, in
consequence, a renewal of the attack upon the Illuminati. In Prussia,
where the Rosicrucians had firmly established themselves in Berlin,
King Frederick William II was under the influence of Wöllner, one of
his ministers and a leading figure in the Rosicrucian system.[451]
Through the latter’s relations with Frank, who at the time stood at
the head of the Rosicrucian order in Bavaria, the Prussian monarch was
easily persuaded that the operations of the Illuminati had not only
been extended to his own territories, but throughout all Germany.[452]
Encouraged by Wöllner, Frederick William took it upon himself to warn
neighboring monarchs respecting the peril which he believed threatened,
a course which bore at least one definite result in the measures taken
by the elector of Saxony to investigate the situation at Leipzig
where, according to the king of Prussia, a meeting of the chiefs of
the Illuminati had been effected.[453] Thus the notion that the order
of the Illuminati was still in existence was accorded the sanction of
influential monarchs.
The disposition of orthodox Protestants to confuse the advocates of
rationalism with the membership of the Illuminati finds its suggestion
of plausibility at a glance and stands in little need of specific
historical proof. The general effect of the undermining of traditional
faiths, for which the dominating influences of the period of the
_Aufklärung_ were responsible, was to create the impression among
the more simple-minded and credulous elements in the Protestant world
that a vast combination of forces was at work, all hostile to the
Christian religion and all striving to supplant faith by reason. So
vast and significant a movement of thought naturally enough tended to
engender various suspicions, and among these is to be numbered the
naïve conviction that the order which the Bavarian government had felt
compelled to stamp out, on account of its alleged impiety and its
immoral and anarchical principles, was but a local expression of the
prevailing opposition to the established systems and orthodox doctrines
of the age.[454]
The excitement occasioned by the appearance of the German Union (_Die
Deutsche Union_), on account of its definite connections with one of
the former leaders[455] of Weishaupt’s system and the unsavory private
character and avowed unscrupulous designs of its originator, gave
still more specific force to the Illuminati legend. Charles Frederick
Bahrdt,[456] a disreputable doctor of theology, in 1787, at Halle,
proposed to reap advantage from the ruin of Weishaupt’s system and
to recruit among its former members the supporters of a new league,
organized to accomplish the enlightenment of the people principally
by means of forming in every city secret associations of men[457] who
were to keep in correspondence with similar groups of their brethren
and who, by the employment of reading-rooms, were to familiarize the
people with those writings which were specially calculated to remove
popular prejudices and superstitions, and to break the force of appeals
to tradition. Further, these associations were to supply financial
assistance to writers who enlisted in the Union’s campaign, and to fill
the palms of booksellers who for the sake of a bribe showed themselves
willing to prevent the sale of the works of authors who withheld their
coöperation.[458]
As an organization the German Union scarcely emerged from the stage of
inception; but the absurd policy of publicity pursued by its founder
gave to the project a wide airing and provoked hostile writings[459]
that added immensely to the importance of the matter. The new system
was boldly denounced as continuing the operations of the odious order
dissolved in Bavaria, with a shrewd change of tactics which substituted
“innocent” reading-rooms for the novitiate of Weishaupt’s organization,
and thus, it was urged, the way was opened for the exertion of a really
powerful influence upon the thought of the German people.[460]
By such means, and in such widely diverse and irrational ways, the
popular belief in the survival of the defunct Order of the Illuminati
was kept alive and supplied with definite points of attachment; but it
remained for the French Revolution, in all the rapidity and vastness of
its developments and in the terrifying effects which its more frightful
aspects exercised upon its observers, to offer the most exciting
suggestions and to stimulate to the freest play the imaginations of
those who were already persuaded that the secret associations that
plagued Bavaria still lived to trouble the earth.[461]
The supposed points of connection between the Order of the Illuminati
and the French Revolution were partly tangible, though decidedly
elusive,[462] but much more largely of the nature of theories framed
to meet the necessities of a case which in the judgment of dilettante
historians positively _required_ the hypothesis of a diabolical
conspiracy against thrones and altars (_i. e._, the civil power and the
church), though the labors of Hercules might have to be exceeded in
putting the same to paper.
Of the exiguous resources of interpreters of the Revolution who made
serious efforts to trace its impious and anarchical principles and its
savage enormities to their lair in the lodges of the Illuminati, the
following are perhaps the only ones worthy of note.
The public discussion of the affairs and principles of Weishaupt’s
organization, to which attention has already been called in various
connections, continued with unabated zeal even beyond the close of
the eighteenth century. At the very hour when the Revolution was
shocking the world by its lapse from its original self-control into
its horrible massacres, execution of monarchs, guillotine-lust, and
ferocious struggles between parties, new pamphlets and reviews bearing
on the demolished order’s constitution and objects found their way
into the channels of public communication. Conspicuous among these
were the following: _Die neuesten Arbeiten des Spartacus und Philo
in dem Illuminaten Orden, jetzt zum ersten Mal gedruckt und zur
Beherzigung bei gegenwärtigen Zeitläuften herausgegeben_,[463] and
_Illuminatus Dirigens oder Schottischer Ritter_,[464] announced as a
continuation of the former. These works, published at the instigation
of the authorities at Munich, attracted public attention anew to the
most extreme religious and social doctrines[465] of the order. Thus
the revolutionary character of Illuminism received heavy emphasis[466]
synchronously with contemporary events of the utmost significance to
the imperilled cause of political and religious conservatism.
In Austria an independent literary assault upon Illuminism developed.
At Vienna, Leopold Hoffman,[467] editor of the _Wiener Zeitschrift_,
fully convinced that the Order of the Illuminati had exercised a
baneful effect upon Freemasonry, to which he was devoted, abandoned his
chair of language and German literature at the University of Vienna to
dedicate his talents and his journal to the overthrow of Illuminated
Freemasonry.[468] Finding a zealous collaborator in a certain Dr.
Zimmerman, a physician of Hannover, a radical turned an extreme
conservative by the developments of the French Revolution, the two
labored energetically to stigmatize the Illuminati as the secret cause
of the political explosion in France.
The discontinuance of the _Wiener Zeitschrift_ in 1793 by no means
marked the end of the campaign. A deluge of pamphlets[469] had been
precipitated, all based upon the assumption that the order Weishaupt
had founded had subsided only in appearance. Declamation did not wait
upon evidence. It was alleged that the lower grades of the Illuminati
had been dissolved, but the superior grades were still practised. Under
cover of correspondence, recruits of the system were now being sought.
Freemasonry was being subjugated by Illuminism only that it might be
forced to serve the ends of its conqueror. Journalists partial to the
interests of the _Aufklärung_ had been enlisted for the same purpose.
The German Union was thus only one of the enterprises fostered by the
Illuminati to further their designs. The dogmas of the order had been
spread secretly in France by means of the clubs of that country, and
the effectiveness of the propaganda was being vividly demonstrated in
the horrors of the Revolution. Unless German princes should promptly
adopt rigorous measures against the various agents and enterprises of
the order in their territories, they might confidently expect similar
results to follow.[470]
Much more of like character was foisted upon the reading public. As
for contemporary historians who searched for specific evidence of an
alliance between the Illuminati of Germany and the Revolutionists in
France, their energies were chiefly employed in the development of a
clue which had as its kernel the supposed introduction of Illuminism
into France at the hands of the French revolutionary leader, Mirabeau,
and the German savant, Bode.[471] Unfolded, this view of the case may
be stated briefly as follows: Mirabeau, during his residence at Berlin,
in the years 1786 and 1787, came into touch with the Illuminati of that
city and was received as an adept into the order. Upon his return to
Paris he made the attempt to introduce Illuminism into that particular
branch of Masonry of which he was also a member, the _Philalèthes_
or _Amis Réunis_.[472] To give force to his purpose, he called upon
the Illuminati in Berlin to send to his assistance two talented
and influential representatives of the order. The men chosen by the
Illuminati-circle in Berlin, Bode and von dem Busche,[473] arrived
in Paris in the early summer of 1787. To conceal their purpose from
prying eyes, they spread the report that they had come from Germany to
investigate the subjects of magnetism and the extent of the influence
exerted by the Jesuits upon the secret societies of the age. Meantime,
the lodges of the _Philalèthes_, and through them the French Masonic
lodges in general, were inoculated with the principles of Illuminism.
French Freemasonry thus became committed to the project of forcing
the overthrow of thrones and altars. So transformed, these lodges
created secret committees who busied themselves with plans for the
precipitation of a great revolutionary movement. To these committees
belonged the subsequent leaders and heroes of the French Revolution—de
Rochefoucauld, Condorcet, Pétion, the Duke of Orléans (Grand Master
of French Masonry), Camille-Desmoulins, Danton, Lafayette, de Leutre,
Fauchet, _et al._ Through these and their associates the connection
between the lodges of Illuminated French Freemasonry and the powerful
political clubs of the country was effected. Thus Illuminism was
able to inspire Jacobinism. Finally, on the 14 of July, 1789, the
revolutionary mine was sprung, and the great secret of the Illuminati
became the possession of the world.[474]
At every point this fantastic exposition suffered the fatal defect
of a lack of historical proof. Even the specific assertions of
its inventors which were most necessary to their hypothesis were
disproved by the facts brought to light by more cautious and unbiased
investigators who followed. _E. g._, the idea of Mirabeau’s intimate
connection with the program of the Order of the Illuminati and his
profound faith in it as the best of all instruments for the work of
social amelioration is rendered untenable the moment the rash and
unrepublican temper of his spirit is called seriously to mind.[475]
Again, the real object of Bode’s visit to Paris, a matter of vital
importance in the Illuminati-French Revolution hypothesis, was not
to communicate Illuminism to French Freemasons, but to attend an
assembly of representatives of the _Philalèthes_, called to consider
the results of an inquiry previously undertaken, respecting the occult
interests and tendencies of that order. Convinced that that branch of
French Masonry was yielding to an inordinate passion for the occult
sciences, Bode had been prevailed upon by German Masons, von dem
Busche[476] among the number, to make a journey to Paris to warn his
French brethren of their mistake. A subsidiary personal interest in the
newly-discovered “science” of animal magnetism[477] helped to form his
decision to make the trip.[478]
The much more important contention that the Illuminati were
instrumental in starting the French Revolution, shows a lack of
historical perspective that either leaves out of account or obscures
the importance of the economic, social, political, and religious
causes, tangible and overt, though complex, that rendered the
Revolution inevitable.
Yet the legend of Illuminism as the responsible author of the French
Revolution found numerous vindicators and interpreters,[479] to the
efforts of two of which, because of their intimate relation to the
interests of the investigation in hand, our attention in the remainder
of this chapter is to be confined.
In the year 1797 there appeared at Edinburgh, Scotland, a volume
bearing the following title: _Proofs of a Conspiracy against All the
Religions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the Secret Meetings
of the Free Masons, Illuminati, and Reading Societies_.[480] Its
author, John Robison,[481] an English savant and Freemason, whose
position in the academic world entitled his statements to respect, had
had his curiosity regarding the character and effects of continental
Freemasonry greatly stimulated by a stray volume of the German
periodical, _Religions Begebenheiten_,[482] which came under his
notice in 1795, and in which he found expositions of Masonic systems
and schisms so numerous and so seriously maintained by their advocates
as to create deep wonderment in his mind.[483] Bent upon discovering
both the occasion and the significance of this tangled mass, Robison
obtained possession of other volumes of the periodical mentioned[484]
and set himself the task of elucidating the problem presented by
Masonry’s luxuriant growth and its power of popular appeal.
The conclusions Robison came to are best stated in his own words:
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, under the specious pretext of enlightening the
world by the torch of philosophy, and of dispelling the clouds
of civil and religious superstition which keep the nations of
Europe in darkness and slavery. 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,
_formally requested and obtained_: And, lastly, I have seen that
this Association still exists, still works in secret, and that not
only several appearances among ourselves show that its emissaries
are endeavouring to propagate their detestable doctrines, but that
the Association has Lodges in Britain corresponding with the mother
Lodge at Munich ever since 1784.... The Association of which I have
been speaking is the order of ILLUMINATI, founded, in 1775 [_sic_],
by Dr. Adam Weishaupt, professor of Canon-law in the University of
Ingolstadt, and 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.[485]
The “proofs” to which Robison appealed to support these conclusions
betrayed the same lack of critical mind[486] with which all the
advocates of the Illuminati-French Revolution hypothesis are to be
charged. Only the more significant elements are here brought under
survey.[487]
That inclination for a multiplication of the degrees and an elaboration
of the ceremonies of simple English Freemasonry which Robison found
operative among French Freemasons from the beginning of the eighteenth
century on,[488] had resulted in making the lodges attractive to those
elements in France whose discontent over civil and ecclesiastical
oppressions had grown great.[489] Under the pressure imposed upon
private and public discussion by the state and by the church, men of
letters, _avocats au parlement_, unbeneficed abbés, impecunious youths,
and self-styled philosophers thronged the halls of the lodges, eager
to take advantage of the opportunity their secret assemblies afforded
to discuss the most intimate concerns of politics and religion.[490]
Despite the wide contrariety of minor views thus represented, one
general idea and language, that of “cosmopolitanism,” was made
familiar to a multitude of minds. Worse still, the popular interest
of the period in mysticism, theosophy, cabala, and genuine science
was appealed to, in order to provide a more numerous clientele among
whom might be disseminated the doctrines of atheism, materialism, and
discontent with civil subordination.[491] Thus the Masonic lodges in
France were made the “hot-beds, where the seeds were sown, and tenderly
reared, of all the pernicious doctrines which soon after choaked every
moral or religious cultivation, and have made ... Society worse than a
waste....”[492]
The introduction of French Freemasonry into Germany, according to
Robison, was followed by similar results.[493] Thither, as to France,
simple English Freemasonry had first gone, and because of its exclusive
emphasis upon the principle of brotherly love the Germans had welcomed
it and treated it with deep seriousness;[494] but the sense of mystery
and the taste for ritualistic embellishments which the advent of
French Masonry promoted, speedily changed the temper of the German
brethren.[495] A reckless tendency to innovation set in. The love
of stars and ribbons,[496] and the desire to learn of ghost-raising,
exorcism, and alchemy,[497] became the order of the day. Rosicrucianism
flourished,[498] rival systems appeared, and questions of precedency
split German Freemasonry into numerous fiercely hostile camps.[499]
Meantime, on account of the propaganda carried on by the
Enlighteners,[500] a revolution of the public mind took place in
Germany, marked by a great increase of scepticism, infidelity, and
irreligion, not only among the wealthy and luxurious but among the
profligate elements in the lower classes as well.[501] Rationalistic
theologians, aided and abetted by booksellers and publishers and by
educational theorists,[502] coöperated to make the ideas of orthodox
Christianity distasteful to the general public.[503] To give effect
to this campaign of seduction, the lodges of Freemasonry were invaded
and their secret assemblies employed to spread free-thinking
and cosmopolitical ideas.[504] Thus German Freemasonry became
impregnated with the impious and revolutionary tendencies of French
Freemasonry.[505]
At such an hour, according to Robison, Weishaupt founded his Order of
the Illuminati.[506] Employing the opportunities afforded him by his
connections with the Masons,[507] he exerted himself to make disciples
and to lay the foundations of an “Association ... which, in time,
should govern the world,”[508] the express aim of which “was to abolish
Christianity and overturn all civil government.”[509]
To accomplish this end a most insinuating pedagogy was adopted,[510]
the members were trained to spy upon one another,[511] and hypocrisy
which did not stop short of positive villainy was practised.[512] As a
fitting climax to a program that involved the complete subversion of
existing moral standards, women were to be admitted to the lodges.[513]
Following an analysis of the grades of the order,[514] lifted little
if any above the general plane of ineptitude upon which the author
moved, Robison incorporated into his history of the Bavarian Illuminati
a table of the lodges that had been established prior to 1786.[515]
Drawing professedly upon the private papers of the order as published
by the Bavarian government, he worked out a list which included five
lodges in Strassburg; four in Bonn; fourteen in Austria; “many” in each
of the following states, Livonia, Courland, Alsace, Hesse, Poland,
Switzerland, and Holland; eight in England; two in Scotland; and
“several” in America.[516]
The suppression of the Illuminati by the Bavarian government was
regarded by Robison as merely “formal” in its nature:[517] the evil
genius of the banned order speedily reappeared in the guise of the
German Union.[518] Into the discussion of the German Union Robison
read the “proofs” of an enterprise truly gigantic both as to its
proportions and its baneful influence. The _illuminated_ lodges of
Freemasonry were declared to have given way to _reading societies_
wherein the initiated, _i. e._, the members of the Union, actively
employed themselves, apparently to accomplish the noble ends of
enlightening mankind and securing the dethronement of superstition
and fanaticism,[519] but actually to secure the destruction of every
sentiment of religion, morality and loyalty.[520] The higher mysteries
of Bahrdt’s silly and abortive project were declared to be identical
with those of Weishaupt’s order: natural religion and atheism were
to be substituted for Christianity, and political principles equally
anarchical with those of the Illuminati were fostered.[521]
Although Robison confessed himself driven to pronounce Bahrdt’s
enterprise “coarse, and palpably mean,”[522] and although the archives
and officers of the Union were held to be “contemptible,”[523] none
the less an elaborate though most disjointed tale was unfolded by
him. This involved the organization of the German literati and the
control of the book trade, with a view to forming taste and directing
public opinion;[524] and the establishment of reading societies to
the number of eight hundred or more,[525] among whose members were
to be circulated such books as were calculated to fortify the mind
against all disposition to be startled on account of the appearance
of “doctrines and maxims which are singular, or perhaps opposite
to those which are current in ordinary societies.”[526] Thus it
would be possible “to work in silence upon all courts, families,
and individuals in every quarter, and acquire an influence in the
appointment of court-officers, stewards, secretaries, parish-priests,
public teachers, or private tutors.”[527]
Robison was unable to present anything beyond the most tenuous “proofs”
that a direct relation existed between Weishaupt’s system and Bahrdt’s
enterprise;[528] still he did not hesitate to affirm that, on account
of the emergence of the latter, it had been made clear that the
suppression of the Illuminati had been futile.[529] “Weishaupt and his
agents were still busy and successful.”[530]
Arriving finally at the subject of the French Revolution, Robison
devoted something more than sixty pages to an effort to connect the
system of Weishaupt with the great European debacle. Approaching the
matter with unconcealed dubiety,[531] he found his confidence and
boldness growing as he proceeded. Relying chiefly upon such uncritical
and promiscuous sources as the _Religions Begebenheiten_, the _Wiener
Zeitschrift_, and the _Magazin des Literatur et Kunst_ (_sic_), and
a work entitled _Mémoires Posthumes de Custine_, he sought a point of
direct contact between the Illuminati and the French revolutionary
movement by stressing the enlistment of Mirabeau,[532] the mission of
Bode and von Busche,[533] and the instructions which, he alleged, were
given by the latter to the _Amis Réunis_ and the _Philalèthes_ through
their chief lodges at Paris.[534]
The mission of Bode and von Busche, according to Robison, had been
undertaken at the request of Mirabeau and the Abbé Perigord[535]
(Talleyrand). When Weishaupt’s plan was thus communicated to the two
French lodges mentioned, “they saw at once its importance, in all
its branches, such as the use of the Masonic Lodges, to fish for
Minervals—the rituals and ranks to entice the young, and to lead them
by degrees to opinions and measures which, at first sight, would have
shocked them.”[536] By the beginning of 1789 the lodges of the _Grand
Orient_[537] had received the secrets of the Illuminati.[538] The Duke
of Orléans, who had been “illuminated” by Mirabeau,[539] and whose
personal political ambitions were strongly stressed by Robison,[540]
gave hearty support to the enterprise; and thus in a very short time
the Masonic lodges of France were converted into a set of secret
affiliated societies, all corresponding with the mother lodges of
Paris, and ready to rise instantly and overturn the government as
soon as the signal should be given.[541] The political committees
organized in each of these “illuminated” lodges familiarized not
only their brethren but, through them, the country in general, with
the secret revolutionary program.[542] Thus it happened that the
“stupid Bavarians” became the instructors of the French “in the art
of overturning the world”;[543] and thus, also, it happened that “the
whole nation changed, and changed again, and again, as if by beat of
drum.”[544]
Such in its main outlines and in its “principal links” of evidence is
the _Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments
of Europe_. Yet to obtain a just appraisal of the book it must not
be overlooked that its author wrote an additional one hundred and
fifty pages, not of “proofs” but of argument, partly to defend errors
of judgment he may have committed in his treatment of the subject,
but chiefly to persuade his fellow countrymen that the principles of
Illuminism were false and to urge them to turn a deaf ear to these
doctrines.
We turn now to consider another and much more elaborate exposition
of the Illuminati-French Revolution legend. Almost at the moment of
the appearance of Robison’s book, there appeared in French, at London
and Hamburg, a far more finished production, devoted to the same
thesis and bearing the title, _Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire du
Jacobinisme_.[545] Its author, the Abbé Barruel,[546] who had been
trained as a Jesuit, enjoying literary talents much superior to those
of Robison and relying upon documentary evidence more copious if not
more convincing, defined his purpose in the following manner:
We shall show that with which it is incumbent on all nations
and their chiefs to be acquainted: we shall demonstrate that,
even to the most horrid deeds perpetrated during the French
Revolution, everything was foreseen and resolved on, was combined
and premeditated: that they were the offspring of deep-thought
villainy, since they had been prepared and were produced by
men, who alone held the clue of those plots and conspiracies,
lurking in the secret meetings where they had been conceived,
and only watching the favorable moment of bursting forth. Though
the events of each day may not appear to have been combined,
there nevertheless existed a secret agent and a secret cause,
giving rise to each event, and turning each circumstance to
the long-sought-for end. Though circumstances may often have
afforded the pretense of the occasion, yet the grand cause of
the revolution, its leading features, its atrocious crimes, will
still remain one continued chain of deep-laid and premeditated
villainy.[547]
The amazing breadth of Barruel’s canvass, as well as the naiveté of
the artist, are immediately disclosed in his foreword respecting the
“triple conspiracy” which he proposes to lay bare.[548] To present
this “triple conspiracy” in his own words will do more than define the
abbé’s conception of his task: its transparent incoordination will make
it apparent that much of the work of examination that might otherwise
seem to be called for is futile.
1st. Many years before the French Revolution, men who styled
themselves Philosophers conspired against the God of the Gospel,
against Christianity, without distinction of worship, whether
Protestant or Catholic, Anglican or Presbyterian. The grand object
of this conspiracy was to overturn every altar where Christ was
adored. It was the conspiracy of the _Sophisters[549] of Impiety_,
or the ANTICHRISTIAN CONSPIRACY.
2dly. This school of impiety soon formed the _Sophisters of
Rebellion_: these latter, combining their conspiracy against
kings with that of the Sophisters of Impiety, coalesce with that
ancient sect whose tenets constituted the whole secret of the
_Occult-Lodges_ of Free-Masonry, which long since, imposing on the
credulity of its most distinguished adepts, only initiated the
chosen of the elect into the secret of their unrelenting hatred for
Christ and kings.
3dly. From the Sophisters of Impiety and Rebellion arose
_Sophisters of Impiety and Anarchy_. These latter conspire not
only against Christ and his altars, but against every religion
natural or revealed: not only against kings, but against every
government, against all civil society, even against all property
whatsoever.
This third sect, known by the name of Illumines, coalesced with
the Sophisters conspiring against Christ, coalesced with the
Sophisters who, with the Occult Masons, conspired against both
Christ and kings. It was the coalition of the adepts of _impiety_,
of the adepts of _rebellion_, and the adepts of _anarchy_, which
formed the _CLUB of the JACOBINS_.... Such was the origin, such
the progress of that sect, since become so dreadfully famous under
the name JACOBIN. In the present Memoirs each of these three
conspiracies shall be treated separately; their authors unmasked,
the object, means, coalition and progress of the adepts shall be
laid open.[550]
The sole proposition which Barruel proposed to maintain is thus
made clear enough. _All_ the developments of the French Revolution
were to be explained on the basis of the following postulate: The
Encyclopedists, Freemasons, and Bavarian Illuminati, working together,
not unconsciously but with well-planned coördination, produced the
Jacobins, and the Jacobins in turn produced the Revolution. Over all,
embracing all, the word “conspiracy” must needs be written large.
The first volume of the Memoirs was devoted to the conspiracy of the
philosophers. Voltaire, D’Alembert, Frederick II, and Diderot—“Voltaire
the chief, D’Alembert the most subtle agent, Frederick the protector
and often the adviser, Diderot the forlorn hope”[551]—these were the
men who originally leagued themselves together “in the most inveterate
hatred of Christianity.”[552] Bringing out into bold relief the most
malignant and brutal of the anticlerical and anti-Christian utterances
of Voltaire and his friends,[553] as well as all available evidence of
a crafty strategy on the part of the conspirators to avoid detection
of their plan,[554] Barruel was emboldened to affirm a desperate plan
to overturn every altar where Christ was adored, whether in London,
Geneva, Stockholm, Petersburg, Paris, Madrid, Vienna, or Rome, whether
Protestant or Catholic.[555]
The first definite step in this campaign of the philosophers is
declared to have been the publication of _L’Encyclopédie_;[556] the
second, the suppression of the Jesuits and the widespread elimination
of religious houses;[557] and the third, the capture of the French
Academy by the philosophers and the diversion of its honors to impious
writers.[558]
The foregoing were measures which primarily concerned “the chiefs,”
or “better sort.”[559] Efforts to extend the conspiracy to the hovel
and the cottage were also made. Accordingly, appeals to toleration,
reason, and humanity became the order of the day.[560] These were
intended to impress the populace and, by a show of sympathy with
those who complained of their condition, prepare the way for the days
of rebellion, violence, and murder which were yet to come.[561] Free
schools were established, directed by men who, privy to the great
conspiracy, became zealous corrupters of youth.[562] All was carefully
calculated and planned to render possible the full fruitage of the
designs of the conspirators when the harvest day should come.
Having thus dealt with the conspiracy against altars, Barruel turned
in his second volume to consider the plot against thrones. The
great inspirers of this covert attack upon monarchy were Voltaire,
Montesquieu, and Rousseau. Voltaire, though by nature a friend of
kings, whose favor and caresses were his delight, yet, since he found
them standing in the way of his efforts to extirpate Christianity, was
led to oppose them, and to substitute the doctrines of equality of
rights and liberty of reason for his earlier emphasis upon loyalty to
sovereigns.[563] Unwittingly, through his _Spirit of Laws_, Montesquieu
had helped on the anti-monarchical resolution by his heavy emphasis
upon the essential differences between monarchies and democracies, thus
for the first time suggesting to the French people that they lived
under a despotic government and helping to alienate them from their
king.[564] As for Rousseau, in his _Social Contract_ he had widened the
path which Montesquieu had opened.[565] His doctrines had the effect of
placing monarchy in an abhorrent light. They filled the minds of the
people with a passion for Liberty and Equality.
The systems of Montesquieu and Rousseau, particularly, induced
the Sophisters of Impiety to combine the task of overthrowing
monarchy with the task of overthrowing religion.[566] A sweeping
attempt to popularize the leveling principles embodied in those two
systems immediately developed. A flood of antimonarchical writings
appeared,[567] governments were sharply criticized, despotism was
roundly denounced, the minds of the people were agitated and inflamed,
and the notion of revolution was rendered familiar both by precept and
example.[568]
Some powerful secret agency was needed, however, to promote this
vast conspiracy. The lodges of Freemasonry suggested a tempting
possibility. The members of the craft gave ample evidence that they
were susceptible.[569] The occult lodges,[570] moreover, already had
traveled far toward the goal of revolution. All their protests to the
contrary, their _one_ secret was: “Equality and Liberty; all men are
equals and brothers; all men are free.”[571] Surely it would not be
difficult for the enemies of thrones and altars to reach the ears
of men who cherished such a secret, and to convert their lodges into
council-chambers and forums for the propagation of the doctrines of
impiety and rebellion.
An alliance was speedily consummated,[572] and a fresh torrent of
declamation and calumnies, all directed against the altar and the
throne, began to pour through these newly discovered subterranean
channels.[573] The _Grand Orient_ constituted a central committee which
as early as 1776 instructed the deputies of the lodges throughout
France to prepare the brethren for insurrection.[574] Condorcet and
Sieyès placed themselves at the head of another lodge, to which the
Propaganda was to be traced.[575] In addition, a secret association
bearing the title _Amis des Noirs_ created a _regulating committee_,
composed of such men as Condorcet, the elder Mirabeau, Sieyès,
Brissot, Carra, the Duc de la Rochefoucauld, Clavière, Lepelletier de
Saint-Fargeau, Valade, La Fayette, and Bergasse.[576] This _regulating
committee_ was also in intimate correspondence with the French lodges
of Freemasonry. Thus a powerful secret organization was at hand,
composed of not less than six hundred thousand members all told, at
least five hundred thousand of whom could be fully counted upon to do
the bidding of the conspirators, “all zealous for the Revolution, all
ready to rise at the first signal and to impart the shock to all other
classes of the people.”[577]
However, all these machinations might have come to naught had it not
been for the encouragement and direction supplied by the Illuminati.
In the latter Barruel saw the apotheosis of infamy and corruption.[578]
With diabolical ingenuity the chiefs of the Illuminati succeeded in
evolving an organization which put into the hands of the conspirators,
_i. e._, the philosophers and Freemasons, the very instrument they
needed to give full effect to their plans. The superiority of that
organization was to be seen in its principles of general subordination
and the gradation of superiors, in the minute instructions given to
adepts and officers covering every conceivable responsibility and
suggesting infinite opportunities to promote the order’s welfare,
and in the absolute power of its _general_.[579] Thus was built
up a hierarchy of savants, an association held under a most rigid
discipline, a formidable machine capable of employing its maximum power
as its governing hand might direct.[580] With the close of the third
volume Barruel considers that he has been able to present a “complete
academy of Conspirators.”[581]
Barruel’s last volume, the most formidable of all, was devoted by its
author to the forging of the final link in his chain: the coalescence
of the conspiring philosophers, Freemasons, and Illuminati into the
Jacobins. To establish a connection between the “illuminated” Masons
and the immediate “authors and abettors of the French Revolution,”[582]
_i. e._, the Jacobins, Barruel had recourse to the familiar
inventions of the reappearance of the Bavarian Illuminati after its
suppression,[583] the rise and corrupting influence of the German
Union,[584] that treacherous “modification of Weishaupt’s _Minerval_
schools,”[585] and, particularly, the pretended mission of Bode and von
Busche to Paris.[586]
With respect to this last invention, no more worthy of our comment
than the others except for the fact that it was supposed to supply
the direct point of contact between the conspirators and the French
Revolution, Barruel was obliged to admit that he was unable to
place before his readers evidence of the precise character of the
negotiations that took place between the deputation from Berlin and
the French lodges:[587] “facts” would have to be permitted to speak
for themselves.[588] These “facts” were such as the following: the
lodges of Paris were rapidly converted into clubs, with _regulating
committees_ and _political committees_;[589] the resolutions of the
_regulating committees_ were communicated through the committee of
correspondence of the _Grand Orient_ to the heads of the Masonic lodges
scattered throughout France;[590] the day of general insurrection was
thus fixed for July 14, 1789;[591] on the fatal day the lodges were
dissolved, and the Jacobins, suddenly throwing off their garments of
secrecy and hypocrisy, stood forth in the clear light of day.[592]
His last two hundred pages were devoted by Barruel to arguments shaped
chiefly to show that the principles of the Revolutionary leaders were
identical with the principles of the illuminated lodges;[593] that
the successes of the Revolutionary armies, of Custine beyond the
Rhine,[594] of Dumouriez in Belgium,[595] of Pichegru in Holland,[596]
and of Bonaparte in Italy, in Malta, and in Egypt,[597] were explicable
only on the ground of treacherous intrigues carried on by the agents
of Illuminism; and that no country, moreover, need flatter itself it
would escape the seductions and plots of the conspirators. The dragon’s
teeth of revolution were already sown in Switzerland, in Sweden, in
Russia, in Poland, in Austria, in Prussia, _and in America_.[598] With
Barruel’s comment upon America,[599] our discussion of the _Memoirs of
Jacobinism_ may well come to a close.
As the plague flies on the wings of the wind, so do their
triumphant legions infect America. Their apostles have infused
their principles into the submissive and laborious negroes; and
St. Domingo and Guadaloupe have been converted into vast charnel
houses for their inhabitants. So numerous were the brethren in
North America, that Philadelphia and Boston trembled, lest _their
rising constitution should be obliged to make way for that of
the great club_; and if for a time the brotherhood has been
obliged to shrink back into their hiding places, they are still
sufficiently numerous to raise collections and transmit them to
the insurgents of Ireland;[600] thus contributing toward that
species of revolution which is the object of their ardent wishes
in America.[601] God grant that the United States may not learn to
their cost, that Republics are equally menaced with Monarchies; and
that the immensity of the ocean is but a feeble barrier against the
universal conspiracy of the Sect!
NOTE: The literary relationship between the works of Robison and
Barruel is of sufficient interest and significance to warrant some
comment. Robison’s volume was published before its author saw Barruel’s
composition in its French text.[602] Later, Robison was moved to
rejoice that Barruel had confirmed his main positions and contentions.
A few things in the _Memoirs of Jacobinism_, however, impress him
as startling. He confesses that he had never before heard the claim
seriously made that “irreligion and unqualified Liberty and Equality
are the genuine and original Secrets of Free Masonry, and the ultimatum
of a regular progress through all its degrees.”[603] He is driven to
assert that _this_ is not the secret of Masonry as he has learned it
from other sources. Robison also recognizes differences in the two
works respecting the exposition of certain Masonic degrees. For his
part he is not willing to admit that his sources are unreliable.[604]
Barruel, on the other hand, did not get sight of Robison’s volume until
just as his third volume was going to press.[605] He comments in part
as follows: “Without knowing it, we have fought for the same cause with
the same arms, and pursued the same course; but the Public are on the
eve of seeing our respective quotations, and will observe a remarkable
difference between them.”[606] That difference Barruel attempts to
explain on the ground that Robison had adopted the method of combining
and condensing his quotations from his sources. Besides, he thinks
his zealous confederate “in some passages ... has even adopted as
truth certain assertions which the correspondence of the Illuminées
evidently demonstrate to have been invented by them against their
adversaries, and which,” he continues, “in my Historical Volume I shall
be obliged to treat in an opposite sense.”[607] Barruel also differs
with Robison respecting the time of the origin of Masonry.[608] But all
such matters are of slight consequence; all suggestions of opposition
and disagreement between Robison and Barruel are brushed aside by him
in the following summary fashion: “ ... It will be perceived that we
are not to be put in competition with each other; Mr. Robison taking a
general view while I have attempted to descend into particulars: as to
the substance we agree.”[609]
It was one of the most confident boasts of the supporters of the idea
of a “conspiracy against thrones and altars” that these two writers,
Robison and Barruel, had worked at the same problem without the
knowledge of each other’s effort, and thus following independent lines
of investigation, had reached the same conclusion. The merit of the
claim may safely be left to the reader’s judgment.
FOOTNOTES:
[445] “Es muss die Furcht vor dem verschrieenen Illuminatismus geradezu
wie ein Druck in der Luft gehangen haben, denn der Orden selbst
existierte in seiner festeren Organisation schon lange nicht mehr,
als sich die Gespensterfurcht vor ihm in so allgemeiner Weise breit
machte.” (Engel, _op. cit._, p. 425.)
[446] Forestier, _op. cit._, p. 613.
[447] _Ibid._, pp. 613 _et seq._
[448] As late as November 15, 1790, incited thereto by the priest
Frank, the duke of Bavaria proclaimed a new interdict against the
order. The threat of death as a punishment for membership in the order
or activity on its behalf was again imposed. _Cf._ Engel, p. 371;
Forestier, pp. 614 _et seq._ The following year the police of the city
of Munich compiled a list of ninety-one names (Forestier gives the
number as ninety-two, _cf. ibid._, p. 615), of members of the order who
were supposed to be still active, and proceeded to apply the policy of
banishing those who were held to be most dangerous. A number suffered
in this way. _Cf._ Engel, pp. 371 _et seq._ _Cf._ Forestier, pp. 615
_et seq._ A spirit of reckless denunciation ruled in Munich, because of
which no suspected man’s person was safe. Not until the death of Carl
Theodore, in 1799, did this period of hostility to the order on the
part of the Bavarian government finally come to an end.
[449] A reorganization of the Rosicrucian system had taken place in
1767, which stressed the antiquity, sanctity, and superior character
of the order in its relations to the rest of the Masonic fraternity.
According to their claims, the Rosicrucians alone were able to explain
the hieroglyphics, symbols, and allegories of Freemasonry. The
structure of the order was greatly elaborated at the time indicated,
and thus supplementing its traditional appeal to the thirst for alchemy
and magic, the order grew rapidly. _Cf._ Forestier, pp. 187–191. _Cf._
Engel, p. 240.
[450] Vehse, in his _Geschichte des Preussischen Hofes_, vol. ii, p.
35, puts the matter thus: “In den Ländern nun, wo sie aufgehoben waren,
brauchten die Exjesuiten das Mittel in den geheimen Gesellschaften
Aufnahme zu suchen. Sie bildeten hier eine schleichende und deshalb
um so sichere Opposition gegen alle Aufklärungstendenzen. In dem
Freimaurerorden stifteten sie die sogenannten ‘inneren Systeme.’ Hier
waren sie als Proselytenmacher ganz in der Stille tätig und arbeiteten
mit Macht darauf hin, das obscurante Pfaffentum und die despotische
Hierarchie in beiden Konfessionen, im Protestantismus sowohl als
Katholizismus wieder herzustellen.” (Quoted by Engel, pp. 241 _et seq._)
[451] Forestier, _op. cit._, p. 191. Engel, _op. cit._, p. 242.
[452] _Ibid._, p. 242.
[453] _Ibid._, pp. 247 _et seq._ Forestier brings into connection with
this effort of the king of Prussia to check the supposed operations of
the Illuminati, a further reproach which came upon the order on account
of the course pursued by the Rosicrucians in spreading the report in
the Masonic world that the Eclectic Alliance, an ill-fated effort to
unite and dominate German Freemasonry, launched in 1783, was a survival
of the Order of the Illuminati. The unpopularity and suspicion which
the Eclectic Alliance incurred were due in part to its attempts to
eliminate the high grades of Masonry, but more especially to the
charges made against it by representatives of rival Masonic systems
that it had at heart the undermining of the Christian religion. _Cf.
ibid._, pp. 617 _et seq._, 383–388. The Illuminati had had affiliations
with the Eclectic Alliance, and hence a certain justification had been
given for the accusations which were transferred from the former to the
latter.
[454] The loose use of the term “Illuminati” involved in these
statements is only partially illustrated in the following comment of
Mounier: “On a donné par dérision la qualité d’_Illuminés_ à tous
les charlatans mystiques de ce siècle, à tous ceux qui s’occupent
d’alchimie, de magie et de cabale, de revenans, de relations avec des
esprits intermédiaires, tels que les Saint-Germain, les Cagliostro,
les Swedenborg, les Rose-croix et les Martinistes: mais il a existé
une autre espèce d’illuminés en Allemagne” (_i. e._, Weishaupt’s
system). (_De l’influence attribuée aux philosophes, aux franc-maçons
et aux illuminés, sur la révolution de France_, p. 169.) Not these
systems alone, but the representatives of the diffused forces of the
Enlightenment were appointed to share the mantle of the ambiguous term.
[455] Baron Knigge. In responding to Bahrdt’s appeal to assist him in
working out the system of the German Union, Knigge violated the pledge
he had made to the Bavarian government not to concern himself again
with secret organizations. For his indiscretion he paid the penalty of
an unpleasant notoriety. _Cf._ Forestier, p. 629.
[456] Bahrdt’s career was objectionable from almost every point of
view. He had been first a pastor, and later a professor of sacred
philology at the University of Leipzig. Here, as at Erfurt, the place
of his next professional labors, his dissolute conduct involved
him in public scandals which lost him his post. In 1771 he went to
Giessen as preacher and professor of theology. Later, after numerous
changes of location and in the character of his educational activity,
he took refuge at Halle, where he conducted courses in rhetoric,
eloquence, declamation, and ethics. A man of low tastes, his life was
without dignity and solid convictions. _Cf._ Forestier, pp. 624 _et
seq._; Mounier, pp. 201 _et seq._; P. Tschackert, in Herzog-Hauck,
_Realencyklopädie_, 3. Aufl., ii, (1897), pp. 357–359.
[457] These associations were to be divided into six grades:
Adolescent, Man, Elder, Mesopolite, Diocesan, and Superior. A ritual
was provided and the low initiation fee of one _thaler_ imposed. The
system, never fully developed, conveys the impression of crudeness and
absurdity.
[458] Mounier, pp. 201 _et seq._ Forestier makes the added suggestion
that Bahrdt saw in the formation of the Union a chance to further his
own literary ambitions and pecuniary interests. _Cf._ Forestier, p. 627.
[459] _Ibid._, pp. 629, 630.
[460] _Ibid._
[461] Mounier, p. 186.
[462] “Die merkwürdigste, aber auch gleichzeitig groteskeste
Beschuldigung, die jemals dem Illuminatenorden nachgesagt worden ist,
war die, dass er die französische Revolution zur Explosion gebracht
habe. Es gehörte recht viel Kombinationsvermögen und Taschenspielerei
in der Logik dazu, um den Beweis für diese wundersame Behauptung
zusammenzuleimen, aber in jener Zeit wurde tatsächlich alles geglaubt,
sobald es sich darum handelte, dem Illuminatismus eine neue Schurkerei
aufzuhalsen.” (Engel, pp. 402, 404. _Cf._ Mounier, pp. 124, 215 _et
seq._)
[463] Published anonymously at Munich, in 1794.
[464] Title in full: _Illuminatus Dirigens oder Schottischer Ritter.
Ein Pendant zu der nicht unwichtigen Schrift: Die neuesten Arbeiten,
etc._, Munich, 1794.
[465] The grades of Priest and Regent were reproduced in the first of
these two works. The most objectionable principles of the order were
reserved to these two grades.
[466] Forestier brings into connection with the publication of these
pamphlets the appearance of certain brochures of Knigge’s, wherein he
espoused with great ardor the cause of the French Revolutionists. The
special import of this requires no comment. _Cf. ibid._, pp. 636 _et
seq._
[467] Hoffman had himself been a member of the Illuminati, at Vienna.
_Cf._ Forestier, _op. cit._, p. 646.
[468] The date was early in 1792 (!). _Cf. ibid._, p. 646.
[469] Forestier, whose treatment at this point is characteristically
thorough, gives the titles, or otherwise refers to not less than
fourteen pamphlets or brochures, in addition to numerous magazine
articles. _Cf. ibid._, pp. 649–658.
[470] Forestier, _op. cit._, pp. 649–658.
[471] Johann Joachim Christoph Bode (1730–1793), by no means a
distinguished representative of the German literati of his period,
occupied a fairly important rôle in the history of the Order of the
Illuminati. After Weishaupt’s flight to Ingolstadt he was the most
active leader in the ranks of the persecuted order. _Cf._ Forestier,
pp. 543 _et seq._ He was profoundly interested in Masonry. In 1790 he
projected a plan for the union of all the German lodges of Masonry. The
effort proved futile.
[472] The _Philalèthes_ were conspicuous among French Freemasons for
their unequalled devotion to alchemy and theurgy. The order was founded
about 1773.
[473] Staack, in his _Der Triumph der Philosophie im 18. Jahrhundert_
(1803), vol. ii, p. 276, represents von dem Busche as a military
official in the service of the Dutch government, and as a member
of Weishaupt’s order. Mounier (p. 212) refers to him as a major in
the service of the landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. His figure is of
no historical importance apart from its chance connection with the
Illuminati legend.
[474] This bizarre and preposterous explanation of the genesis of the
French Revolution was a favorite with contemporary German and French
writers of the special-pleader type. It was used, as we shall see
later, by both Robison and Barruel in their discussions of the rôle
played by the Illuminati in the great French political and social
debacle. Its classic statement was made a few years later by Staack, in
his _Der Triumph der Philosophie im 18. Jahrhundert_, vol. ii, pp. 348
_et seq._
A more silly exposition of the relation of the Illuminati to the French
Revolution is that found in the fabulous tale related by the notorious
Sicilian impostor, Giuseppe Balsamo (“Count” Alessandro Cagliostro),
who, in 1790, having been arrested at Rome and interrogated by
officials respecting his revolutionary principles, attempted to
divert suspicion by recounting experiences he claimed to have had
with two chiefs of the Illuminati, at Mitau, near Frankfort, Germany.
Revelations had been made to him at that time (1780), he alleged,
to the effect that the Order of the Illuminati was able to number
20,000 lodges, scattered through Europe and America; that its agents
were industriously operating in all European courts, particularly,
being lavishly financed with funds drawn from the immense treasures
of the order; and that the next great blow of the order was to be
delivered against the government of France. _Cf._ Sierke, _Schwärmer
und Schwindler zu Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts_, pp. 407 _et seq._ Both
Engel (pp. 420 _et seq._) and Forestier (pp. 658 _et seq._) devote an
unnecessary amount of space to Cagliostro’s foolish “revelations”. It
is sufficient for our purpose to remark in passing that, in any case,
Cagliostro was not discussing the affairs of Weishaupt’s order, but the
affairs of the Strict Observance whose growing credulity and occultism
caused the term “Illuminati” sometimes to be applied to them.
[475] “Ses principes étaient directement contraires à ceux des
illuminés; il n’était pas homme à placer ses espérances dans un
intervalle de mille ans. Il n’a jamais pensé qu’un peuple pût devenir
assez vertueux pour se passer de lois et de magistrats. Il a soutenu
la vraie théorie de la balance des pouvoirs, et combattu le despotisme
populaire, toutes les fois que l’amour de la célébrité et l’intérêt de
son ambition ne le faisaient pas agir contre sa propre doctrine, et les
illuminés n’auraient été capables, ni d’ajouter à ses lumières, ni de
changer sa théorie, ni de corriger ses vices.” (Mounier, pp. 216 _et
seq._) This judgment of a sensible and impartial critic of the French
Revolution, first submitted to the public in 1801, is as valid now as
then.
[476] Without citing his authority, Forestier makes the statement that
von dem Busche’s interest in the reform of the debased order of the
_Philalèthes_ led him not only to accompany Bode but to offer to pay
his expenses. _Cf._ Forestier, p. 666.
[477] The theories and _séances_ of the empiric, Mesmer, were greatly
agitating Paris at the time and attracting attention throughout Europe.
[478] Mounier, pp. 212 _et seq._ _Cf._ Forestier, pp. 664 _et seq._
While Bode was in Paris he kept in close correspondence with his German
friend, Frau Hess, of Hirschberg. Engel, who made an examination of
this correspondence in the Royal Library at Dresden, was unable to
discover the slightest intimation that Bode’s mind, while he was in
Paris, was occupied with anything more revolutionary than the turning
of the _Philalèthes_ away from their craze for alchemy, cabala,
theosophy, and theurgy, or in Mesmer’s theories. _Cf._ Engel, pp.
409–415. When Bode returned to Germany it is undeniable that he carried
with him an unfavorable opinion of French Masonry. _Cf._ Forestier, p.
668.
[479] In addition to the two elaborated upon in the remainder of this
chapter, the following are most worthy of note: Staack, _Der Triumph
der Philosophie im 18. Jahrhundert_, vols. i, ii, 1803 (already noted);
Proyard, _Louis XVI et ses vertus aux prises avec la perversité du
siècle_, Paris, 1808 (4 vols.); De Malet, _Recherches politiques et
historiques qui prouvent l’existence d’une secte révolutionnaire,
son antique origine, ses moyens, ainsi que son but, et dévoilent
entièrement l’unique cause de la Révolution Française_, Paris, 1817; De
Langres, _Des Sociétés Secrètes en Allemagne et dans d’autres contrées,
de la Secte des Illuminés, du Tribunal Secret, de l’assassinat de
Kotzebue_, 1819; Le Couteulx, _Les Sectes et Sociétés politiques et
religieuses_, Paris, 1863; Deschamps, _Les Sociétés Secrètes et la
Société_, vols. i, ii, iii, Avignon, 1874–1876. As late as 1906, in
an article in the _Edinburgh Review_ of July of that year, Una Birch
traversed much of the ground covered thus far in this and the preceding
chapter and, on the theory that an event as spontaneous (?) as the
French Revolution _must_ have originated in a definite coördination of
ideas and doctrines, reaffirmed the general notion that the Masonic
lodges of France, having been inoculated with the doctrines of the
Illuminati, became the principal points of associative agitation for,
and thus the direct cause of, the French Revolution. This essay may
also be found in the volume of essays entitled, _Secret Societies and
the French Revolution_ (London and New York, 1911), by the same author.
[480] Later editions of this work, which in their number and
geographical extent strongly suggest the degree of interest the
subject had for the reading public, appeared as follows: second
edition, London, 1797; third edition, London, 1798; fourth edition,
London and New York, 1798; a French translation, London, 1798–99 (2
vols.); a German translation, Königslutter and Hamburg, 1800; a Dutch
translation, Dordrecht (n. d.). See Wolfstieg, _Bibliographie der
Freimaurerischen Literatur_, vol. i, pp. 192, 193.
[481] Robison was a mathematician, scientific writer, and lecturer
in the field of natural philosophy, of considerable ability and
distinction. The son of a Glasgow merchant, he was born in Scotland in
1739. He received the benefits of a thorough education, graduating from
Glasgow University in 1756. The connections he enjoyed throughout his
life were of the best. Subsequent to his graduation he became tutor
to the son of Sir Charles Knowles, the English admiral, and later
was appointed by the government to service in the testing out at sea
of the newly completed chronometer of John Harrison, the horologist.
Still later he went to Russia as private secretary to Sir Charles.
While in Russia he was called to the chair of mathematics established
in connection with the imperial sea-cadet corps of nobles. Abandoning
this post, he returned to Scotland, and in 1773 became professor of
natural philosophy in Edinburgh University, lecturing on such subjects
as hydro-dynamics, astronomy, optics, electricity, and magnetism. His
distinction in this general field seems clearly demonstrated by the
fact that he was called upon to contribute to the third edition of
the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ articles on seamanship, the telescope,
optics, waterworks, resistance to fluids, electricity, magnetism,
music, _etc._, as well as by the fact that when the Royal Society
of Edinburgh was organized under royal charter in 1783, Robison was
elected general secretary of that distinguished organization, an
office he continued to hold until within a few years of his death.
The versatility of the man is further evidenced by the fact that he
was deeply interested in music, attaining the mastery of several
instruments, and in the writing of verse. His reputation was not
confined to Great Britain. In 1790 the College of New Jersey (Princeton
University) conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. (_Cf._ _General
Catalogue of the College of New Jersey_, 1746–1896, p. 177. _The
Dictionary of National Biography_, vol. xlix, p. 58, incorrectly gives
the date for the bestowal of this degree as 1798.) Later, his alma
mater, Glasgow University, bestowed upon him a like honor.
In addition to his encyclopaedia articles and his book on the
Illuminati, Robison edited and published the lectures of Dr. Black, the
chemist, and the following scientific works, the product of his own
intellectual activity: _Outlines of a Course of Lectures on Mechanical
Philosophy_, Edinburgh, 1797, and _Elements of Mechanical Philosophy_,
Edinburgh, 1804. The latter was intended to be the initial volume of
a series, but its successors were not forthcoming. A posthumous work
of four volumes entitled, _A System of Mechanical Philosophy, with
Notes by David Brewster, LL.D._, was published at Edinburgh in 1822.
The death of Robison occurred in 1805. (For the material incorporated
in the foregoing the writer is chiefly indebted to the _Dictionary of
National Biography_, vol. xlix, pp. 57, 58, and to casual references in
the _Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh_, vols. i–v.)
[482] “Die Neuesten Religionsbegebenheiten mit unpartheyischen
Anmerkungen mit Beihülfe mehrerer von H. M. G. Köster, Professor in
Giessen, herausgegeben Jg. 1–20 Giessen, 1778–97 verfolgten gleichfalls
den Zweck, von den wichtigsten Vorfällen aus der Religionsgeschichte
der Gegenwart eine deutliche, gründliche und nützliche Beschreibung zu
liefern, doch beschränkten sie sich dabei vornehmlich auf Deutschland
und richteten sich in erster Linie an Laien und Nichttheologen”
(Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopädie_, 3rd ed., vol. xxiv, Leipzig, 1913,
p. 673).
[483] Though a Mason, Robison was by no means an ardent supporter of
Freemasonry. The English Masonic lodges with which he was acquainted
impressed him as having no higher function than that of supplying “a
pretext for passing an hour or two in a sort of decent conviviality,
not altogether void of some rational occupation.” He found the lodges
on the continent, however, “matters of serious concern and debate.”
_Cf._ _Proofs of a Conspiracy, etc._, pp. 1 _et seq._ (The edition of
Robison’s book here as elsewhere referred to is the third [London]
edition of 1798.) Robison professed to have visited lodges at Liège,
Valenciennes, Brussels, Aix-la-Chapelle, Berlin, Königsberg, and St.
Petersburg. Everywhere he found an elaboration of ritual, joined with
a spirit of grave interest in the affairs of Freemasonry, which filled
him with astonishment and seemed to call for explanation. _Cf. ibid._,
pp. 2 _et seq._
[484] Robison, _op. cit._, p. 7. Robison also made use of several of
the works which the disturbances occasioned by the Bavarian Illuminati
called forth on the continent. Conspicuous among these were the
documents of the order published by the Bavarian government. _Cf.
ibid._, pp. 133, 185, 186, 205, _etc._ He also made use of Hoffman’s
violently hostile sheet, the _Wiener Zeitschrift_. _Cf. ibid._, pp.
358, 393. Robison’s knowledge of the German language was, however,
far from perfect, as he himself freely admitted (_Cf. ibid._, pp. 14,
499), so that his handling of his sources must be viewed as neither
capable nor complete. The meagerness of his resources is perhaps
best illustrated in his treatment of the conspiracy which he assumed
underlay the French Revolution. Such “proofs” as he made use of in this
connection amounted to little more than the political manifestoes of
certain secret lodges and clubs, fugitive revolutionary documents which
chanced to blow across his path, current historical conjecture and
gossip, _etc._ The whole was pieced together in the spirit of one who
ventured to hope that his “scattered facts” might be of some service to
his generation. (_Cf. ibid._, pp. 493–496.)
[485] Robison, _op. cit._, pp. 10, 11, 15.
[486] An illustration of the carelessness with which Robison handled
his dates is found on pages 15 and 133 (_cf._ p. 103) of the _Proofs
of a Conspiracy, etc._, in the matter of the date of the founding
of the Order of the Illuminati. Far more serious in its reflection
on the author’s lack of accuracy and insight is such looseness and
general unsoundness of treatment as permitted him to represent
the Jesuits as frequenters of English and French Masonic lodges,
while at the same time indicting the latter as fully committed to a
free-thinking propaganda which sought nothing less than the eradication
of _religion_, not to speak of its institutions. _Cf. ibid._, pp. 22
_et seq._ Robison’s superficial explanation of the anticlericalism of
Weishaupt might be cited as another illustration of the blundering
method pursued in the book. _Cf. ibid._, pp. 101, 103 _et seq._ His
weak and practically pointless digression in order to find opportunity
to comment on the educational projects of Basedow will serve to
illustrate the discursive quality in his work. _Cf. ibid._, 85 _et seq._
[487] Robison’s exposition of the elements of uncontrolled curiosity
and conjecture as elements in his purpose in writing the book is not
without significance: “I must entreat that it be remembered that these
sheets are not the work of an author determined to write a book. They
were for the most part notes, which I took from books I had borrowed,
that I might occasionally have recourse to them when occupied with Free
Masonry, the first object of my curiosity. My curiosity was diverted
to many other things as I went along, and when the Illuminati came in
my way, I regretted the time I had thrown away on Free Masonry. (But,
observing their connection, I thought that I perceived the progress of
one and the same design. This made me eager to find out any remains of
Weishaupt’s Association. I was not surprised when I saw marks of its
interference in the French Revolution.) In hunting for clearer proofs
I found out the German Union—and, in fine, the whole appeared to be
one great and wicked project, fermenting and working over all Europe.”
(_Ibid._, pp. 493 _et seq._) Encouraged by his friends, Robison “set
about collecting my [his] scattered facts.” (_Ibid._, p. 494.)
[488] _Ibid._, pp. 28 _et seq._
[489] Robison does not wholly miss the true point in his survey of
the backgrounds of the French Revolution. He points out numerous
“cooperating causes” which served to make the Revolution inevitable.
“Perhaps there never was a nation where all these cooperating causes
had acquired greater strength than in France. Oppressions of all
kinds were at a height. The luxuries of life were enjoyed exclusively
by the upper classes, and this in the highest degree of refinement;
so that the desires of the rest were whetted to the utmost. Even
religion appeared in an unwelcome form, and seemed chiefly calculated
for procuring establishments for the younger sons of insolent and
useless nobility. For numbers of men of letters were excluded, by
their birth, from all hopes of advancement to the higher stations in
the church. These men frequently vented their discontents by secretly
joining the laics in their bitter satires on such in the higher orders
of the clergy, as had scandalously departed from the purity and
simplicity of manners which Christianity enjoins. Such examples were
not unfrequent, and none was spared in those bitter invectives....
The faith of the nation was shaken; and when, in a few instances, a
worthy Curé uttered the small still voice of true religion, it was not
heard amidst the general noise of satire and reproach. The misconduct
of administration, and the abuse of the public treasures, were every
day growing more impudent and glaring, and exposed the government to
continual criticism.” (Robison, pp. 60 _et seq._ _Cf. ibid._, pp. 362
_et seq._) These “cooperating causes” receive little emphasis, however,
in Robison’s zealous effort to trace the revolutionary spirit to its
lair in the Masonic lodges of France.
[490] _Ibid._, pp. 40 _et seq._
[491] Robison, _op. cit._, pp. 43 _et seq._
[492] _Ibid._, p. 51. Robison’s account of this phase of the situation
has little to commend it. Upon his own unsupported assertions many
of the Revolutionary leaders, as, for example, Mirabeau, Sieyès,
Despremenil, Bailly, Fauchet, Maury, Mounier, and Talleyrand, are
brought into direct connection with one or another of the French
Masonic systems. _Cf._ Robison, pp. 49 _et seq._ Similarly, it is
maintained, it was among Masonic lodges that the ideas contained in
such books as Robinet’s _La Nature, ou l’Homme moral et physique_,
Condorcet’s _Le Progrès de l’Esprit humain_, Lequinio’s _Les préjugés
vaincus par la raison_, and the book _Des Erreurs et de la Vérité_,
were first disseminated. Indeed, some of these books are said to have
sprung out of the very bosom of the lodges. _Cf. ibid._, pp. 43 _et
seq._
[493] _Ibid._, pp. 67 _et seq._ Comparison with Forestier, pp. 141 _et
seq._, will make clear the paucity of the data upon which Robison drew
in attempting to write the earlier chapters of the history of German
Freemasonry.
[494] Robison, _op. cit._, p. 64.
[495] Robison’s language is absurdly strong. “In half a year Free
Masonry underwent a complete revolution all over Germany.” (_Ibid._, p.
70.)
[496] The sheer puerility of the treatment is indicated by the
following: “A Mr. Rosa, a French commissary, brought from Paris a
complete wagon-load of Masonic ornaments, which were all distributed
before it had reached Berlin, and he was obliged to order another,
to furnish the Lodges of that city. It became for a while the most
profitable business to many French officers and commissaries dispersed
over Germany, having little else to do.” (Robison, _op. cit._, pp. 69
_et seq._)
[497] _Ibid._, p. 73.
[498] _Ibid._, pp. 65 _et seq._
[499] _Ibid._, pp. 78, 79. Robison read into this situation a
deliberate effort on the part of the leaders of French Freemasonry to
extend the hegemony of the latter. He surmised that political uses and
benefits were thus aimed at. _Cf. ibid._
[500] Robison’s term for the representatives of the _Aufklärung_. _Cf._
Robison, p. 81.
[501] _Ibid._, p. 80. This declension of faith and morals Robison,
more wisely than he was aware, traced in part to the clash between the
Roman Catholic and Protestant systems in Germany and the spirit of free
inquiry which was thus promoted. See Robison, pp. 80 _et seqq._
[502] It is in this connection that Basedow is brought into relations
with Robison’s devious exposition. _Cf. ibid._, pp. 85 _et seq._
[503] _Ibid._, pp. 82 _et seq._
[504] Robison, _op. cit._, pp. 92 _et seq._ “ ... Germany has
experienced the same gradual progress, from Religion to Atheism, from
decency to dissoluteness, and from loyalty to rebellion, which has had
its course in France. And I must now add, that this progress has been
effected in the same manner, and by the same means; and that one of
the chief means of seduction has been the Lodges of the Free Masons.
The French, along with their numerous chevaleries [_sic_], and stars,
and ribands, had brought in the custom of haranguing in the Lodges,
and as human nature has a considerable uniformity everywhere, the same
topics became favorite subjects of declamation that had tickled the ear
in France; there were the same corruptions of sentiments and manners
among the luxurious or profligate, and the same incitements to the
utterance of these sentiments, wherever it could be done with safety;
and I may say, that the zealots in all these tracts of free-thinking
were more serious, more grave, and fanatical. These are assertions
_a priori_. I can produce proofs.” (_Ibid._, pp. 91 _et seq._) The
“proofs” here referred to concern the Masonic career of Baron Knigge,
whose antagonism to orthodox Christianity Robison distorts both as to
its temper and its effect.
[505] _Ibid._, pp. 126 _et seq._
[506] _Ibid._, pp. 100 _et seq._
[507] _Ibid._, pp. 101 _et seq._ These connections Robison almost
wholly misconceived. _Cf. supra_, pp. 150, 163 _et seq._
[508] Robison, _op. cit._, p. 103.
[509] _Ibid._, p. 105. The ulterior object of the order is later
stated by Robison in the following manner: “Their first and immediate
aim is to get possession of riches, power, and influence, without
industry; and, to accomplish this, they want to abolish Christianity;
and then dissolute manners and universal profligacy will procure
them the adherence of all the wicked, and enable them to overturn
all the civil governments of Europe; after which they will think of
further conquests, and extend their operations to the other quarters
of the globe, till they have reduced mankind to a state of one
indistinguishable chaotic mass.” Robison, pp. 209 _et seq._
[510] _Ibid._, p. 126.
[511] _Ibid._, p. 212.
[512] Robison omitted nothing in his effort to fasten the stigma of
moral obliquity upon the order. The published papers of the order
were appealed to show that crimes of bribery, theft, and libertinism
were not uncommon on the part of the leaders. See Robison, pp. 144
_et seq._ The unsavory documents of the order referred to on page 181
of this dissertation likewise received Robison’s zealous attention.
_Cf. ibid._, pp. 138 _et seq._ Weishaupt’s personal immorality in
his relations with his sister-in-law is made to do full duty as “a
brilliant specimen of the ethics which illuminated” the leaders. _Cf.
ibid._, pp. 164 _et seq._ (If a particular illustration of Robison’s
bungling way of handling his German sources were needed, that might be
found in the fact that our author identified the victim of Weishaupt’s
lust as the sister-in-law of Zwack. _Cf. ibid._, p. 167.)
[513] To Robison’s mind this constituted the crowning infamy of the
order. “There is nothing in the whole constitution of the Illuminati
that strikes me with more horror than the proposals of Hercules and
Minos to enlist women in this shocking warfare with all that ‘is good,
and pure, and lovely, and of good report’.... Are not the accursed
fruits of Illumination to be seen in the present humiliating condition
of women in France? ... In their present state of national moderation
(as they call it) and security, see Madame Tallien come into the public
theatre, accompanied by other _beautiful_ women, (I was about to
have misnamed them Ladies), laying aside all modesty, and presenting
themselves to the public view, with bared limbs, _à la Sauvage_, as the
alluring objects of desire.... Was not their abominable farce in the
church of Notre Dame a bait of the same kind, in the true spirit of
Weishaupt’s _Eroterion_?” (Robison, pp. 243, 251, 252.)
[514] Robison, _op. cit._, pp. 110–200.
[515] _Ibid._, pp. 201 _et seq._
[516] _Ibid._ Although offered to the public with every show of
confidence, Robison’s list was largely chimerical. He had depended
upon isolated references in the papers of the order, many of which he
must have misread. Doubtless in numerous cases he took the _hopes_ of
the ambitious leaders of the order as sober statements of fact. The
importance of the reference to America will, of course, appear later.
[517] _Ibid._, p. 272.
[518] _Ibid._, p. 286.
[519] _Ibid._, p. 290.
[520] Robison, _op. cit._, pp. 315 _et seq._
[521] _Ibid._, p. 322.
[522] _Ibid._, p. 321.
[523] _Ibid._, p. 317. “All the Archives that were found were the plans
and lists of the members, and a parcel of letters of correspondence.
The correspondence and other business was managed by an old man in some
inferior office or judicatory, who lived at bed and board in Bahrdt’s
house for about six shillings a week, having a chest of papers and a
writing-desk in the corner of the common room of the house.” (_Ibid._)
[524] _Ibid._, pp. 291, 296, 297.
[525] _Ibid._, p. 299. Bahrdt’s fantastical program called for the
division of these societies into Provinces or Dioceses, each directed
by its Diocesan, and subordinate to a central organization. _Cf.
ibid._, p. 292
[526] _Ibid._, p. 294.
[527] Robison, _op, cit._, p. 297.
[528] _Ibid._, pp. 322 _et seq._ “ ... although I cannot consider the
German Union as a formal revival of the Order under another name, I
must hold those _United_, and the members of those Reading Societies,
as _Illuminati_ and _Minervals_. I must even consider the Union as a
part of Spartacus’s work.” (_Ibid._)
[529] _Ibid._, pp. 355 _et seq._ “Thus I think it clearly appears,
that the suppression of the Illuminati in Bavaria and of the Union in
Brandenburgh were insufficient.... The habit of plotting had formed
itself into a regular system. Societies now acted everywhere in
secret, in correspondence with similar societies in distant places.
And thus a mode of cooperation was furnished to the discontented, the
restless, and the unprincipled in all places, without even the trouble
of formal initiations, and without any external appearances by which
the existence and occupations of the members could be distinguished.”
(_Ibid._)
[530] _Ibid._, p. 355. _Cf. ibid._, p. 286.
[531] _Ibid._, p. 358.
[532] Robison, _op. cit._, p. 371.
[533] _Ibid._, pp. 393 _et seq._
[534] _Ibid._, pp. 397 _et seq._
[535] _Ibid._, p. 374.
[536] _Ibid._, p. 398.
[537] The Grand Orient, according to Robison, represented the
association of all the _improved_ Masonic lodges of France. Its Grand
Master was the Duke of Orléans. _Cf. ibid._, p. 381.
[538] _Ibid._, pp. 400 _et seq._
[539] _Ibid._, p. 376.
[540] _Ibid._, pp. 376 _et seq._
[541] Robison, _op. cit._, p. 405.
[542] _Ibid._, p. 402. Robison regarded the famous Jacobin Club
in Paris as “just one of those Lodges.” (Robison, p. 406. _Cf.
ibid._, p. 402.) He allowed his statement to stand, however, without
making any effort to substantiate it. Further, he held that the
political committees in these “illuminated” lodges of France were in
correspondence with similar committees in Germany, Holland, Austria,
and Switzerland. _Cf. ibid._, pp. 406 _et seq._, 414 _et seq._,
420. The contradictory character of his “evidence” is perhaps best
illustrated by the fact that he treats the Masonic lodges of Paris as
trying to seduce the lodges of German Freemasons. _Cf. Ibid._, p. 418.
[543] _Ibid._, p. 402.
[544] _Ibid._, p. 405.
[545] The London edition of 1797–8 (4 vols.) was reprinted in five
volumes at Hamburg, Augsburg and Braunschweig; and a new edition,
revised and corrected by the author, was issued at Lyons in 1818.
Barruel himself put forth an English translation at London in 1798; and
this was reprinted at Hartford, Conn., New York, and Elizabeth-town,
N. J., the following year. Continental allies of the ex-Jesuit
must have been responsible for translations into Polish, Dutch and
Portuguese, which enjoyed but one printing apiece, as well as for the
three editions of the Spanish translation, and for two of the three
Italian editions. During the anti-Masonic campaign of the swindler Leo
Taxil (1887), the Italian translation was reprinted at Rome by the
_Tipografia de Propaganda Fide_.
Abridgements and excerpts were also circulated in several languages,
including English. In this connection the following titles may also
be noted: _Application of Barruel’s Memoirs of Jacobinism to the
Secret Societies of Ireland and Great Britain_, London, 1798; _The
Anti-Christian and Antisocial Conspiracy. An extract from the French of
Barruel, to which is prefixed “Jachin and Boaz,”_ Lancaster, (U. S.),
1812.
_Cf._ Sommervogel, C., _Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus_, i,
Bruxelles, 1890, coll. 938–941; also Wolfstieg, _Bibliographie der
Freimaurerischen Literatur_, vol. i, pp. 324, 325.
[546] Augustin Barruel (1741–1820) was a French controversialist
and publicist, whose zeal was aroused in the defence of traditional
ecclesiastical institutions and doctrines, in opposition to
rationalistic tendencies manifest in the eighteenth century. Barruel
entered the Society of Jesus in 1756 and was later driven from France
when that order was suppressed by the French government in 1773.
Permitted the next year to terminate his exile, he gave himself to
literary pursuits. As might be expected, the turbulent condition of
public affairs in France drew him into the currents of political
discussion. His loyalty to the interests of the church would brook no
silence. The civil oath demanded of ecclesiastics and the promulgation
of the civil constitution in the earlier period of the Revolution
specially roused his spirit, and led to the publication of a number
of pamphlets from his pen. His ecclesiastical loyalties and political
antagonisms were such that when the full fury of the revolutionary
storm broke, Barruel became an _emigré_ and sought asylum in England.
There he continued his literary employments, and published in 1794
his well-known _Histoire du clergé de France, pendant la révolution
française_. In that same year he brought out an English translation at
London. This work Barruel dedicated to the English people in grateful
recognition of the hospitable treatment which they accorded the
persecuted ecclesiastics of his own land. Later, and while still in
England, he wrote his _Memoirs of Jacobinism_. The number of editions
through which this work passed is in itself a gauge of its claim upon
popular interest. After the fall of the Directory, and after he had
given his pledge of fidelity to the new government, Barruel again was
permitted to return to France. With a view to healing the schism in
the French church which the Revolution had produced, he championed the
cause of the government in a work entitled, _Du Pape et ses droits
religieux_, 1803. As the Napoleonic regime drew towards its close,
Barruel came to be regarded as an _emigré_ priest, and suffered arrest
at the hands of the government. In August, 1816, Barruel was allowed
to make his profession in the Society of Jesus. Shortly before this he
wrote to its General: “Je m’étais toujours regardé comme lié par mes
voeux, sans cesser d’être vraiment Jésuite, ce qui heureusement a fait
pour moi une douce illusion dans laquelle je remercie Dieu de m’avoir
laissé vivre jusqu’ au moment où vous vous prêtez avec tant de bonté à
la demande que j’ai faite pour ma profession.” (_La Compagnie de Jésus
en France, Histoire d’un siècle, 1814–1914_, Par Joseph Burnichon,
S.J., Tome 1^{er}, Paris, 1914, pp. 74 _et seq._) The last years of
Barruel’s life were spent in retirement. A list of his writings may be
found in Quérard’s _La France Littéraire_, Tome Premier, pp. 196, 197,
and a more elaborate one, in Sommervogel, _op. cit._ i, coll. 930–945.
[547] Barruel, _op. cit._, pp. i, vi.
[548] _Ibid._, pp. xiii _et seq._
[549] Barruel’s term was _Sophistes_.
[550] Barruel, _op. cit._, pp. xiv, xv.
[551] _Ibid._, p. 2.
[552] _Ibid._, p. 1.
[553] Barruel’s main reliance is the correspondence of Voltaire, as
published in the edition of Kehl.
[554] Barruel, _op. cit._, vol. i, pp. 25 _et seq._
[555] _Ibid._, pp. 26, 27, 33.
[556] _Ibid._, pp. 54 _et seq._ Barruel represents the Encyclopedists
as arguing that force could not be employed until there had first been
a revolution in all religious ideas; hence _L’Encyclopédie_, with
all its insinuating doubts, its artful cross-references, its veiled
impiety, was planned to give the first great impulse in that direction.
Thus the old forms of thought would perish “as it were, by inanition;”
later, the laying of the axe to the altar would not be hazardous.
[557] _Ibid._, pp. 75 _et seq._
[558] _Ibid._, pp. 127 _et seq._
[559] _Ibid._, pp. 163 _et seq._ According to Barruel, the conspirators
numbered among their adepts the following: Joseph II of Germany,
Catherine II of Russia, Christian VII of Denmark, Gustave III of
Sweden, Poniatowski, king of Poland, and the landgrave Frederick of
Hesse-Cassel.
[560] _Ibid._, p. 154.
[561] Barruel, _op. cit._, p. 157.
[562] _Ibid._, pp. 321 _et seq._
[563] _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 9, 10, 13 _et seq._, 21.
[564] _Ibid._, pp. 52 _et seq._, 66, 76. Barruel labors hard to save
himself from the cruel necessity of including Montesquieu in the list
of conspirators. He finds it “painful to apply such a reproach to this
celebrated writer.” (_Ibid._, p. 76.) With some cleverness he remarks:
“He [Montesquieu] did not conspire by setting up his systems, but his
systems formed conspirators.” (_Ibid._, p. 98.)
[565] _Ibid._, p. 101.
[566] Barruel, _op. cit._, pp. 130, 131, 157 _et seq._
[567] _Ibid._, pp. 159 _et seq._
[568] Barruel contended that the popular uprisings of the period in
Geneva, Bohemia, Transylvania, and even among the negroes of St.
Domingo, were all directly due to the conspiracy. _Cf._ Barruel, pp.
205 _et seq._, 255 _et seq._, 260 _et seq._, 271.
[569] Barruel’s estimate of Freemasonry was appreciably lower than
that of Robison. Its mysteries were to be traced to Manes, and to the
introduction of Manichaeism into Europe in the period of Frederich II
(1221–1250). Condorcet was appealed to for proof in this connection.
_Cf._ Barruel, pp. 399 _et seq._ The general idea that the Freemasons
were responsible for the campaign against monarchy and the Catholic
religion which, many believed, characterized the greater part of the
eighteenth century, had already been made familiar to the French by the
ecclesiastics Larudan and Lefranc. _Cf._ Forestier, pp. 684 _et seq._
[570] By the occult lodges Barruel meant those whose members had
received the higher mysteries and degrees. _Cf._ Barruel, vol. ii, p.
293.
[571] _Ibid._, pp. 276, 277, 278, 279.
[572] _Ibid._, pp. 436 _et seq._
[573] _Ibid._, p. 436.
[574] _Ibid._, p. 438.
[575] _Ibid._, pp. 444 _et seq._
[576] _Ibid._, pp. 455 _et seq._
[577] _Ibid._, pp. 471 _et seq._ _Cf. ibid._, p. 437.
[578] “Under the name of ILLUMINES a band of Conspirators had coalesced
with the Encyclopedists and Masons, far more dangerous in their
tenets, more artful in their plots, and more extensive in their plans
of devastation. They more silently prepared the explosions of the
Revolutionary volcano, not merely swearing hatred to the Altar of
Christ and the Throne of Kings, but swearing at once hatred to every
God, to every Law, to every Government, to all society and social
compact; and in order to destroy every plea and every foundation
of social contract, they proscribed the terms MINE _and_ THINE,
acknowledging neither Equality nor Liberty but in the _entire, absolute
and universal overthrow of all_ PROPERTY _whatever_.” (Barruel. _op.
cit._, p. 478. _Cf._ vol. iii, pp. 17, 22 _et seq._)
[579] Barruel attributed little or no success to the efforts which
Weishaupt’s associates made to strip him of much of his despotic power.
_Cf._ Barruel, ch. xviii.
[580] The discussion of the character of the order fills the entire
third volume of the _Memoirs_. It is not too much to say that Barruel’s
analysis of the organization is characterized by no little soundness
of judgment as well as by literary skill. The documents upon which
he draws are not only those published by the Bavarian government,
but also the apologetic writings of Weishaupt and Knigge, as well
as a considerable part of the polemical literature which developed
after the suppression of the order. Yet it need scarcely be said, the
author’s bias is nowhere obscured. On page after page he conveys the
impression that he is dealing with the sum of all villainies. His
judgment of Weishaupt was, of course, severe: “An odious phenomenon in
nature, an Atheist void of remorse, a profound hypocrite, destitute
of those superior talents which lead to the vindication of truth, he
is possessed of all that energy and ardor in vice which generates
conspirators for impiety and anarchy. Shunning, like the ill-boding
owl, the genial rays of the sun, he wraps around him the mantle of
darkness; and history shall record of him, as of the evil spirit, only
the black deeds which he planned or executed.... Scarcely have the
magistrates cast their eyes upon him when they find him at the head of
a conspiracy which, when compared with those of the clubs of Voltaire
and D’Alembert, or with the secret committees of D’Orléans [_sic_],
make these latter appear like the faint imitations of puerility, and
show the Sophister and the Brigand as mere novices in the arts of
revolution.” (Barruel, _op. cit._, pp. 2, 3, 7.)
[581] _Ibid._, p. 293. _Cf. ibid._, p. 413: “Will not hell vomit forth
its legions to applaud this last Spartacus, to contemplate in amazement
this work of the Illuminizing Code? Will not Satan exclaim, ‘Here then
are men as I wished them’”.
[582] _Ibid._, vol. iv, p. 379. _Cf. ibid._, p. 387: “ ... in this
den of conspirators ... we find every thing in perfect union with
the Occult Lodges, to which it only succeeds. Adepts, object,
principles, all are the same; whether we turn our eyes towards the
adepts of impiety, of rebellion, or of anarchy, they are now but one
conspiring Sect, under the disastrous name of Jacobin. We have hitherto
denominated some by the name of _Sophisters_, others by that of _Occult
Masons_, and, lastly, we have described those men styled _Illuminées_.
Their very names will now disappear; they will in future all be duly
described by the name of Jacobin.”
[583] Barruel, _op. cit._, ch. ix.
[584] _Ibid._, ch. x.
[585] _Ibid._, p. 326.
[586] _Ibid._, ch. xi.
[587] _Ibid._, p. 370.
[588] _Ibid._, pp. 370 _et seq._
[589] _Ibid._, pp. 375 _et seq._
[590] _Ibid._, p. 376.
[591] _Ibid._, p. 377.
[592] _Ibid._, p. 379.
[593] Barruel, _op. cit., passim_.
[594] _Ibid._, pp. 468 _et seq._
[595] _Ibid._, pp. 472 _et seq._
[596] _Ibid._, pp. 476 _et seq._
[597] _Ibid._, pp. 482 _et seq._
[598] _Ibid._, pp. 493–551. Barruel found no difficulty in making
the conspiracy broad enough in Prussia to take in Immanuel Kant.
_Cf. ibid._, pp. 523 _et seq._ The _Professor of Königsberg_ and the
_Professor of Ingolstadt_ developed systems which ultimately lead to
the same end (!). _Cf. ibid._, p. 526.
[599] _Ibid._, pp. 493 _et seq._
[600] The reference is to the United Irishmen, an organization whose
affairs got somewhat mixed with the discussion of the Illuminati in
America. _Cf. infra_, pp. 271 _et seq._
[601] A foot-note connects the French minister, Adet, with the
Illuminati campaign in North America. _Cf. ibid._, p. 494.
[602] Robison, _op. cit._, p. 535.
[603] _Ibid._, p. 537.
[604] _Ibid._, p. 538.
[605] Barruel, _op. cit._, vol. iii, p. xiv.
[606] Barruel, _op. cit._, vol. iii, p. xiv.
[607] _Ibid._, p. xv.
[608] _Ibid._, pp. xv, xvi.
[609] _Ibid._, p. xviii.