the pupils become disciples of Illuminism.[558]
Further:
We have provided our clerical members with good benefices,
parishes, posts at Court.
Through our influence Arminius and Cortez have been made professors
at Ephesus.
* * * * *
The German schools are quite under [the influence of] ⊙ and now
only members have charge of them.
The charitable association is also directed by ⊙.
* * * * *
Soon we shall draw over to us the whole Bartholomew Institute for
young clergymen; the preparations have already been made and the
prospects are very good, by this means we shall be able to provide
the whole of Bavaria with proper priests.[559]
But religion and Freemasonry are not the only means by which Illuminism
can be spread.
We must consider [says Weishaupt], how we can begin to work under
another form. If only the aim is achieved, it does not matter under
what cover it takes place, and a cover is always necessary. For in
concealment lies a great part of our strength. For this reason we
must always cover ourselves with the name of another society. The
lodges that are under Freemasonry are in the meantime the most
suitable cloak for our high purpose, because the world is already
accustomed to expect nothing great from them which merits
attention.... As in the spiritual Orders of the Roman Church,
religion was, alas! only a pretence, so must our Order also in a
nobler way try to conceal itself behind a learned society or
something of the kind.... A society concealed in this manner cannot
be worked against. In case of a prosecution or of treason the
superiors cannot be discovered.... We shall be shrouded in
impenetrable darkness from spies and emissaries of other
societies.[560]
In order to give a good appearance to the Order, Weishaupt particularly
indicates the necessity for enlisting esteemed and "respectable"
persons,[561] but above all young men whom he regards as the most likely
subjects. "I cannot use men as they are," he observes, "but I must first
form them."[562] Youth naturally lends itself best to this process.
"Seek the society of young people," Weishaupt writes to Ajax, "watch
them, and if one of them pleases you, lay your hand on him."[563] "Seek
out young and already skilful people.... Our people must be engaging,
enterprising, intriguing, and adroit. Above all the first."[564]
If possible they should also be good-looking--"beautiful people,
_cæteris paribus_...."
Such people have generally gentle manners, a tender heart, and are,
when well practised in other things, of the greatest use in
undertakings, for their first glance attracts; but their spirit
_n'a pas la profondeur des physiognomies sombres_. They are,
however, also less disposed to riots and disturbances than the
darker physiognomies. That is why one must know how to use one's
people. Above all, the high, soulful eye pleases me and the free,
open brow.[565]
With these novices the adept of Illuminism is to proceed slowly, talking
backwards and forwards:
One must speak, first in one way, then in another, so as not to
commit oneself and to make one's real way of thinking impenetrable
to one's inferiors.[566]
Weishaupt also insists on the importance of exciting the candidate's
curiosity and then drawing back again, after the manner of the Fatimite
_dais_:
I have no fault to find with your [methods of] reception
["Spartacus" writes to "Cato"], except that they are too quick....
You should proceed gradually in a roundabout way by means of
suspense and expectations, so as first to arouse indefinite, vague
curiosity, and then when the candidate declares himself, present
the object, which he will then seize with both hands.[567]
By this means his vanity will also be flattered, because one will arouse
the pleasure of "knowing something which everyone does not know, and
about which the greater part of the world is groping in darkness."[568]
For the same reason the candidate must be impressed with the importance
of secret societies and the part they have played in the destinies of
the world:
One illustrates this by the Order of the Jesuits, of the
Freemasons, by the secret associations of the ancients, one asserts
that all events in the world occur from a hundred secret springs
and causes, to which secret associations above all belong; one
arouses the pleasure of quiet, hidden power and of insight into
hidden secrets.[569]
At this point one is to begin to "show glimpses and to let fall here and
there remarks that may be interpreted in two ways," so as to bring the
candidate to the point of saying: "If I had the chance to enter such an
association, I would go into it at once." "These discourses," says
Weishaupt, "are to be often repeated."[570]
In the discourse of reception to the "Illuminatus Dirigens," the appeal
to love of power plays the most important part:
Do you realize sufficiently what it means to rule--to rule in a
secret Society? Not only over the lesser or more important of the
populace, but over the best men, over men of all ranks, nations,
and religions, to rule without external force, to unite them
indissolubly, to breathe one spirit and soul into them, men
distributed over all parts of the world?...[571]
And finally, do you know what secret societies are? what a place
they occupy in the great kingdom of the world's events? Do you
really think they are unimportant, transitory appearances?[572]
etc.
But the admission of political aims is reserved only for the higher
grades of the Order. "With the beginner," says Weishaupt, "we must be
careful about books on religion and the State. I have reserved these in
my plan for the higher degrees."[573] Accordingly the discourse to the
"Minerval" is expressly designed to put him off the track. Thus the
initiator is to say to him:
After two years' reflection, experience, intercourse, reading of
the graduated writings and information, you will necessarily have
formed the idea that the final aim of our Society is nothing less
than to win power and riches, to undermine secular or religious
government, and to obtain the mastery of the world, and so on. If
you have represented our Society to yourself from this point of
view or have entered it in this expectation, you have mightily
deceived yourself....[574]
The initiator, without informing the Minerval of the real aim of the
Society, then goes on to say that he is now free to leave it if he
wishes. By this means the leaders were able to eliminate ambitious
people who might become their rivals to power and to form their ranks
out of men who would submit to be led blindly onward by unseen
directors. "My circumstances necessitate," Spartacus writes to Cato,
"that I should remain hidden from most of the members as long as I live.
I am obliged to do everything through five or six persons."[575] So
carefully was this secret guarded that until the papers of the
Illuminati were seized in 1786 no one outside this inner circle knew
that Weishaupt was the head of the Order. Yet if we are to believe his
own assertions, he had been throughout in supreme control. Again and
again he impresses on his _intimes_ the necessity for unity of command
in the Order: "One must show how easy it would be for one clever head to
direct hundreds and thousands of men,"[576] and he illustrates this
system by the table reproduced on the next page, to which he appends the
following explanation:
I have two immediately below me into whom I breathe my whole
spirit, and each of these two has again two others, and so on. In
this way I can set a thousand men in motion and on fire in the
simplest manner, and in this way one must impart orders and operate
on politics.[577]
Thus, as in the case of Abdullah ibn Maymūn's society, "the
extraordinary result was brought about that a multitude of men of divers
beliefs were all working together for an object known only to a few of
them."
Enough has now been quoted from the correspondence of the Illuminati to
show their aims and methods according to their own admissions. We shall
now see how far their apologists are justified in describing them as
"men of the strictest morality and humanity."[578] Doubtless there were
many excellent people in the outer ranks of the Order, but this is not
the contention of Mr. Gould, who expressly states that "all the
prominent members of this association were estimable men both in public
and in private life." These further extracts from their correspondence
may be left to speak for themselves.
Character of the Illuminati
In June 1782 Weishaupt writes to "Cato" as follows:
Oh, in politics and morality you are far behind, my gentlemen.
Judge further if such a man as Marcus Aurelius[579] finds out how
wretched it [Illuminism] appears in Athens [Munich]; what a
collection of immoral men, of whoremongers, liars, debtors,
boasters, and vain fools they have amongst them. If he saw all
that, what do you suppose the man would think? Would he not be
ashamed to find himself in such an association, in which the
leaders arouse the greatest expectations and carry out the best
plan in such a miserable manner? And all this out of caprice,
expediency, etc. Judge whether I am not right.[580]
[Illustration: Diagram of Weishapt's System. From _Nachtrag von
weitern Originalschriften der Illuminatensekte_, p. 32. München,
1787.]
From Thebes [Freysing] I hear fatal news; they have received into
the lodge the scandal of the whole town, the dissolute debtor
Propertius, who is trumpeted abroad by the whole "personnel" of
Athens [Munich], Thebes and Erzerum [Eichstadt]; D. also appears
to be a bad man. Socrates who would be a capital man [_ein Capital
Mann_] is continually drunk, Augustus in the worst repute, and
Alcibiades sits the whole day with the innkeeper's wife sighing and
pining: Tiberius tried in Corinth to rape the sister of Democedes
and the husband came in. In Heaven's name, what are these for
Areopagites! We upper ones, write, read and work ourselves to
death, offer to ⊙ our health, fame and fortune, whilst these
gentlemen indulge their weaknesses, go a whoring, cause scandals
and yet are Areopagites and want to know about everything.[581]
Concerning Arminius there are great complaints.... He is an
unbearable, obstinate, arrogant, vain fool![582]
Let Celsus, Marius, Scipio, and Ajax do what they will ... no one
does us so much harm as Celsus, no one is less to be reasoned with
than Celsus, and perhaps few could have been so much use to us as
Celsus.... Marius is obstinate and can see no great plan, Scipio is
negligent, and of Ajax I will not speak at all.... Confucius is
worth very little: he is too inquisitive and a terrible chatterer
[_ein grausamer Schwatzer_].[583]
Agrippa must be quite struck off our list, for the rumour goes
round ... that he has stolen a gold and silver watch together with
a ring from our best fellow-worker Sulla.[584]
It will doubtless be suggested at this point that all these letters
merely portray the lofty idealist sorrowing over the frailties of his
erring disciples, but let us hear what Weishaupt has to say about
himself. In a letter to Marius (Hertel) he writes:
And now in the strictest confidence, a matter near my heart, which
robs me of all rest, makes me incapable of anything and drives me
to despair. I stand in danger of losing my honour and my reputation
which gave me so much power over our people. Think, my
sister-in-law is expecting a child.[585] I have for this purpose
sent to Euriphon in Athens to solicit the marriage licence and
Promotorial from Rome, you see how much depends on this and that no
time must be lost; every minute is precious. But if the
dispensation does not arrive, what shall I do? How shall I make
amends to the person since I alone am to blame? We have already
tried several ways to get rid of the child; she herself was
resolved for anything. But Euriphon is too timid and yet I see no
other expedient, if I could ensure the silence of Celsus he could
help me and indeed he already promised me this three years
ago....[586] If you can help me out of this dilemma, you will give
me back life, honour, peace and power to work.... I do not know
what devil led me astray, I who always in these circumstances took
extreme precautions.[587]
A little later Weishaupt writes again:
All fatalities happen to me at the same time. Now there is my
mother dead! Corpse, wedding, christening all in a short time, one
on the top of the other. What a wonderful mix-up
[_mischmasch_]![588]
So much for what Mr. Gould calls the "rare qualities" of Weishaupt's
heart. Let us now listen to the testimony of Weishaupt's principal
coadjutor, Philo (the Baron von Knigge), to whom the "historian of
Freemasonry" refers as "a lovable enthusiast." In all subversive
associations, whether open or secret, directed by men who aim at power,
a moment is certain to arrive when the ambitions of the leaders come
into conflict. This is the history of every revolutionary organization
during the last 150 years. It was when the inevitable climax had been
reached between Weishaupt and Knigge that "Philo" wrote to "the most
loving Cato" in the following terms:
It is not Mahomed and A. who are so much to blame for my break with
Spartacus, as the Jesuitical conduct of this man which has so often
turned us against each other in order to rule despotically over
men, who, if they have not perhaps such a rich imagination as
himself, also do not possess so much cuteness and cunning,
etc.[589]
In a further letter Philo goes on to enumerate the services he has
rendered to Weishaupt in the past:
At the bidding of Spartacus I have written against ex-Jesuits and
Rosicrucians, persecuted people who never did me any harm, thrown
the _Stricte Observance_ into confusion, drawn the best amongst
them to us, told them of the worthiness of ⊙, of its power, its
age, the excellence of its Chiefs, the blamelessness of its higher
leaders, the importance of its knowledge, and given great ideas of
the uprightness of its views; those amongst us who are now working
so actively for us but cling much to religiousness [_sehr an
Religiosität kleben_] and who feared our intention was to spread
Deism, I have sought to persuade that the higher Superiors had
nothing less than this intention. Gradually, however, I shall work
it as I please [_nach und nach wirke ich dock was ich will_]. If I
now were to ... give a hint to the Jesuits and Rosicrucians as to
who is persecuting them ... if I were to make known (to a few
people) the Jesuitical character of the man who leads perhaps all
of us by the nose, uses us for his ambitious schemes, sacrifices us
as often as his obstinacy requires, [if I were to make known to
them] what they have to fear from such a man, from such a machine
behind which perhaps Jesuits may be concealed or might conceal
themselves; if I were to assure those who seek for secrets that
they have nothing to expect; if I were to confide to those who hold
religion dear, the principles of the General; ... if I were to draw
the attention of the lodges to an association behind which the
Illuminati are concealed; if I were again to associate myself with
princes and Freemasons ... but I shrink from the thought, vengeance
will not carry me so far....[590]
We have now seen enough of the aims and methods of the Illuminati and
the true characters of their leaders from their own admissions. To make
the case complete it would be necessary also to give a résumé of the
confessions made by the ex-Illuminati, the four professors Cosandey,
Grünberger, Utzschneider, and Renner, as also of the further published
works of the Illuminati--but space and time forbid. What is needed is a
complete book on the subject, consisting of translations of the most
important passages in all the contemporary German publications.
From the extracts given above, can it, however, be seriously contended
that Barruel or Robison exaggerated the guilt of the Order? Do my
literal translations differ materially in sense from the translations
and occasional paraphrases given by the much-abused couple?
Even those contemporaries, Mounier and the member of the Illuminati[591]
who set out to refute Barruel and Lombard de Langres, merely provide
further confirmation of their views. Thus Mounier is obliged to confess
that the real design of Illuminism was "to undermine all civil order,"[592]
and "Ancien Illuminé" asserts in language no less forcible than
Barruel's own that Weishaupt "made a code of Machiavellism," that his
method was "a profound perversity, flattering everything that was base
and rancorous in human nature in order to arrive at his ends," that he
was not inspired by "a wise spirit of reform" but by a "fanatical enmity
inimical to all authority on earth." The only essential points on which
the opposing parties differ is that whilst Mounier and "Ancien Illuminé"
deny the influence of the Illuminati on the French Revolution and
maintain that they ceased to exist in 1786, Barruel and Lombard de
Langres present them as the inspirers of the Jacobins and declare them
to be still active after the Revolution had ended. That on this point,
at any rate, the latter were right, we shall see in a further chapter.
The great question that presents itself after studying the writings of
the Illuminati is: what was the motive power behind the Order? If we
admit the possibility that Frederick the Great and the Stricte
Observance, working through an inner circle of Freemasons at the Lodge
St. Theodore, may have provided the first impetus and that Kölmer
initiated Weishaupt into Oriental methods of organization, the source of
inspiration from which Weishaupt subsequently drew his anarchic
philosophy still remains obscure. It has frequently been suggested that
his real inspirers were Jews, and the Jewish writer Bernard Lazare
definitely states that "there were Jews, Cabalistic Jews, around
Weishaupt."[593] A writer in _La Vieille France_ went so far as to
designate these Jews as Moses Mendelssohn, Wessely, and the bankers
Itzig, Friedlander, and Meyer. But no documentary evidence has ever been
produced in support of these statements. It is therefore necessary to
examine them in the light of probability.
Now, as I have already shown, the theosophical ideas of the Cabala play
no part in the system of Illuminism; the only trace of Cabalism to be
found amongst the papers of the Order is a list of recipes for procuring
abortion, for making aphrodisiacs, Aqua Toffana, pestilential vapours,
etc., headed "Cabala Major."[594] It is possible, then, that the
Illuminati may have learnt something of "venefic magic" and the use of
certain natural substances from Jewish Cabalists; at the same time Jews
appear to have been only in rare cases admitted to the Order. Everything
indeed tends to prove that Weishaupt and his first coadjutors, Zwack and
Massenhausen, were pure Germans. Nevertheless there is between the
ideas of Weishaupt and of Lessing's "Falk" a distinct resemblance; both
in the writings of the Illuminati and in Lessing's _Dialogues_ we find
the same vein of irony with regard to Freemasonry, the same design that
it should be replaced by a more effectual system,[595]the same
denunciations of the existing social order and of bourgeois society, the
same theory that "men should be self-governing," the same plan of
obliterating all distinctions between nations, even the same simile of
the bee-hive as applied to human life[596] which, as I have shown
elsewhere, was later on adopted by the anarchist Proudhon. It may,
however, legitimately be urged that these ideas were those of the inner
masonic circle to which both Lessing and Weishaupt belonged, and that,
though placed in the mouth of Falk, they were in no sense Judaic.
But Lessing was also the friend and admirer of Moses Mendelssohn, who
has been suggested as one of Weishaupt's inspirers. Now, at first sight
nothing seems more improbable than that an orthodox Jew such as
Mendelssohn should have accorded any sympathy to the anarchic scheme of
Weishaupt. Nevertheless, certain of Weishaupt's doctrines are not
incompatible with the principles of orthodox Judaism. Thus, for example,
Weishaupt's theory--so strangely at variance with his denunciations of
the family system--that as a result of Illuminism "the head of every
family will be what Abraham was, the patriarch, the priest, and the
unfettered lord of his family, and Reason will be the only code of
Man,"[597] is essentially a Jewish conception.
It will be objected that the patriarchal system as conceived by orthodox
Jews could by no means include the religion of Reason as advocated by
Weishaupt. It must not, however, be forgotten that to the Jewish mind
the human race presents a dual aspect, being divided into two distinct
categories--the privileged race to whom the promises of God were made,
and the great mass of humanity which remains outside the pale. Whilst
strict adherence to the commands of the Talmud and the laws of Moses is
expected of the former, the most indefinite of religious creeds suffices
for the nations excluded from the privileges that Jewish birth confers.
It was thus that Moses Mendelssohn wrote to the pastor Lavater, who had
sought to win him over to Christianity:
Pursuant to the principles of my religion, I am not to seek to
convert anyone who is not born according to our laws. This
proneness to conversion, the origin of which some would fain tack
on to the Jewish religion, is, nevertheless, diametrically opposed
to it. Our rabbis unanimously teach that the written and oral laws
which form conjointly our revealed religion are obligatory on our
nation only. "Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the
congregation of Jacob." We believe that all other nations of the
earth have been directed by God to adhere to the laws of nature,
and to the religion of the patriarchs. Those who regulate their
lives according to the precepts of this _religion of nature and of
reason_[598] are called virtuous men of other nations and are the
children of eternal salvation.[599] Our rabbis are so remote from
Proselytomania, that they enjoin us to dissuade, by forcible
remonstrances, everyone who comes forward to be converted. (The
Talmud says ... "proselytes are annoying to Israel like a
scab.")[600]
But was not this "religion of nature and of reason" the precise
conception of Weishaupt?
Whether, then, Weishaupt was directly inspired by Mendelssohn or any
other Jew must remain for the present an open question. But the Jewish
connexions of certain other Illuminati cannot be disputed. The most
important of these was Mirabeau, who arrived in Berlin just after the
death of Mendelssohn and was welcomed by his disciples in the Jewish
salon of Henrietta Herz. It was these Jews, "ardent supporters of the
French Revolution"[601] at its outset, who prevailed on Mirabeau to
write his great apology for their race under the form of a panegyric of
Mendelssohn.
To sum up, I do not so far see in Illuminism a Jewish conspiracy to
destroy Christianity, but rather a movement finding its principal
dynamic force in the ancient spirit of revolt against the existing
social and moral order, aided and abetted perhaps by Jews who saw in it
a system that might be turned to their own advantage. Meanwhile,
Illuminism made use of every other movement that could serve its
purpose. As the contemporary de Luchet has expressed it:
The system of the Illuminés is not to embrace the dogmas of a sect,
but to turn all errors to its advantage, to concentrate in itself
everything that men have invented in the way of duplicity and
imposture.
More than this, Illuminism was not only the assemblage of all errors, of
all ruses, of all subtleties of a theoretic kind, it was also an
assemblage of all practical methods for rousing men to action. For in
the words of von Hammer on the Assassins, that cannot be too often
repeated:
Opinions are powerless so long as they only confuse the brain
without arming the hand. Scepticism and free-thinking as long as
they occupied only the minds of the indolent and philosophical have
caused the ruin of no throne.... It is nothing to the ambitious man
what people believe, but it is everything to know how he may turn
them for the execution of his projects.
This was what Weishaupt so admirably understood; he knew how to take
from every association, past and present, the portions he required and
to weld them all into a working system of terrible efficiency--the
disintegrating doctrines of the Gnostics and Manicheans, of the modern
philosophers and Encyclopædists, the methods of the Ismailis and the
Assassins, the discipline of the Jesuits and Templars, the organization
and secrecy of the Freemasons, the philosophy of Machiavelli, the
mystery of the Rosicrucians--he knew moreover, how to enlist the right
elements in all existing associations as well as isolated individuals
and turn them to his purpose. So in the army of the Illuminati we find
men of every shade of thought, from the poet Goethe[602] to the meanest
intriguer--lofty idealists, social reformers, visionaries, and at the
same time the ambitious, the rancorous, and the disgruntled, men swayed
by lust or embittered by grievances, all these differing in their aims
yet by Weishaupt's admirable system of watertight compartments precluded
from a knowledge of these differences and all marching, unconsciously or
not, towards the same goal.
Although this was not the invention of Weishaupt but had been
foreshadowed many centuries earlier in the East, it was Weishaupt, so
far as we know, who reduced it to a working system for the West--a
system which has been adhered to by succeeding groups of
world-revolutionaries up to the present day. It is for this reason that
I have quoted at length the writings of the Illuminati--all the ruses,
all the hypocrisy, all the subtle methods of camouflage which
characterized the Order will be found again in the insidious propaganda
both of the modern secret societies and the open revolutionary
organizations whose object is to subvert all order, all morality, and
all religion.
I maintain, therefore, with greater conviction than ever the importance
of Illuminism in the history of world-revolution. But for this
co-ordination of methods the philosophers and Encyclopædists might have
gone on for ever inveighing against thrones and altars, the Martinistes
evoking spirits, the magicians weaving spells, the Freemasons declaiming
on universal brotherhood--none of these would have "armed the hand" and
driven the infuriated mobs into the streets of Paris; it was not until
the emissaries of Weishaupt formed an alliance with the Orléaniste
leaders that vague subversive theory became active revolution.
10
THE CLIMAX
The first Masonic body with which the Illuminati formed an alliance was
the Stricte Observance, to which the Illuminati Knigge and Bode both
belonged. Cagliostro had also been initiated into the Stricte Observance
near Frankfurt and was now employed as agent of the combined order.
According to his own confession his mission "was to work so as to turn
Freemasonry in the direction of Weishaupt's projects"; and the funds he
drew upon were those of the Illuminati.[603] Cagliostro also formed a
link with the Martinistes, whose doctrines, though derided by Weishaupt,
were useful to his plan in attracting by their mystical character those
who would have been repelled by the cynicism of the Illuminati.
According to Barruel, it was the Martinistes who--following in the
footsteps of the Rosicrucians--had suggested to Weishaupt the device of
presenting Christ as an "Illuminatus" which had led to such triumphant
results amongst the Protestant clergy.
But if Weishaupt made use of the various masonic associations, they on
their account found in him a valuable ally. The fact is that by this
time both French and German Freemasons were very much at sea with regard
to the whole subject of Masonry and needed someone to give a point to
their deliberations. Thus at the Congress of Wilhelmsbad convened on
July 16, 1782, and attended by representatives of masonic bodies from
all over the world, the first question propounded by the Grand Master of
the Templars (i.e. the Stricte Observance) was: "_What is the real
object of the Order and its true origin_?" So, says Mirabeau in relating
this incident, "this same Grand Master and all his assistants had worked
for more than twenty years with incredible ardour at a thing of which
they knew neither the real object nor the origin."[604]
Two years later the Freemasons of France do not appear to have been any
less in the dark on this matter, for we find them writing to General
Rainsford, one of the English Masons who had been present at the
Congress of Wilhelmsbad, as follows:
Since you say that Masonry has never experienced any variation in
its aim, do you then know with certainty what this unique object
is? Is it useful for the happiness of mankind?... Tell us if it is
of an historical, political, hermetical, or scientific nature?...
Moral, social, or religious?... Are the traditions oral or
written?[605]
But Weishaupt had a very definite object in view, which was to gain
control of all Freemasonry, and though he himself was not present at the
Congress, his coadjutor Knigge, who had been travelling about Germany
proclaiming himself the reformer of Freemasonry, presented himself at
Wilhelmsbad, armed with full authority from Weishaupt, and succeeded in
enrolling a number of magistrates, savants, ecclesiastics, and ministers
of state as Illuminati and in allying himself with the deputies of
Saint-Martin and Willermoz. Vanquished by this powerful rival, the
Stricte Observance ceased temporarily to exist and Illuminism was left
in possession of the field.
On February 15, 1785, a further congress took place in Paris, convened
this time by the Philalèthes, at which the Illuminati Bode (alias
Amelius) and the Baron de Busche (alias Bayard) were present, also--it
has been stated--the "magician" Cagliostro, the magnetiser Mesmer, the
Cabalist Duchanteau, and of course the leaders of the Philalèthes,
Savalette de Langes, who was elected President, the Marquis de
Chefdebien, and a number of German members of the same Order. This
congress led to no very practical results, and a further and more secret
one was convened in the following year at Frankfurt, where a Grand Lodge
had been established in 1783. It was here that the deaths of Louis XVI
and Gustavus III of Sweden are said to have been decreed.
But already in this same year of 1785 the first act of the revolutionary
drama had been played out. The famous "Affair of the Necklace" can never
be understood in the pages of official history; only an examination of
the mechanism provided by the secret societies can explain that
extraordinary episode, which, in the opinion of Napoleon, contributed
more than any other cause to the explosion of 1789. In its double attack
on Church and Monarchy the Affair of the Necklace fulfilled the purpose
of both Frederick the Great and of the Illuminati. Cagliostro, we know,
received both money and instructions from the Order for carrying out the
plot, and after it had ended in his own and the Cardinal de Rohan's
exoneration and exile, we find him embarking on fresh secret-society
work in London, where he arrived in November of the same year.
Announcing himself as the Count Sutkowski, member of a society at
Avignon, he "visited the Swedenborgians at their Theosophical Society
meeting in rooms in the Middle Temple and displayed minute acquaintance
with their doctrines, whilst claiming a superior knowledge."[606]
According to a generally received opinion, Cagliostro was the author of
a mysterious proclamation which appeared at this moment in the _Morning
Herald_ in the cypher of the Rose-Croix.[607]
But in the year before these events an extraordinary thing had happened.
An evangelist preacher and Illuminatus named Lanze had been sent in July
1785 as an emissary of the Illuminati to Silesia, but on his journey he
was struck down by lightning. The instructions of the Order were found
on him, and as a result its intrigues were conclusively revealed to the
Government of Bavaria.[608] A searching enquiry followed, the houses of
Zwack and Bassus were raided, and it was then that the documents and
other incriminating evidence referred to in the preceding chapter of
this book were seized and made public under the name of _The Original
Writings of the Order of the Illuminati_ (1787). But before this the
evidence of four ex-Illuminati, professors of Munich, was published in
two separate volumes.[609]
The diabolical nature of Illuminism now remained no longer a matter of
doubt, and the Order was officially suppressed. The opponents of Barruel
and Robison therefore declare that Illuminism came finally to an end. We
shall see later by documentary evidence that it never ceased to exist,
and that twenty-five years later not only the Illuminati but Weishaupt
himself were still as active as ever behind the scenes in Freemasonry.
But for the present we must follow its course from the moment of its
apparent extinction in 1786. This course can be traced not only through
the "German Union," which is believed to have been a reorganization of
the original Illuminati, but through the secret societies of France.
Illuminism in reality is less an Order than a principle, and a principle
which can work better under cover of something else. Weishaupt himself
had laid down the precept that the work of Illuminism could best be
conducted "under other names and other occupations," and henceforth we
shall always find it carried on by this skilful system of camouflage.
The first cover adopted was the lodge of the "Amis Réunis" in Paris,
with which, as we have already seen, the Illuminati had established
relations. But now in 1787 a definite alliance was effected by the
aforementioned Illuminati, Bode and Busche, who in response to an
invitation from the secret committee of the lodge arrived in Paris in
February of this year. Here they found the old Illuminatus Mirabeau--who
with Talleyrand had been largely instrumental in summoning these German
Brothers--and, according to Gustave Bord,[610] two important members of
the Stricte Observance, the Marquis de Chefdebien d'Armisson (_Eques a
Capite Galeato_) and an Austrian, the Comte Leopold de
Kollowrath-Krakowski (_Eques ab Aquila Fulgente_) who also belonged to
Weishaupt's Order of Illuminati in which he bore the pseudonym of
Numenius.
It is important here to recognize the peculiar part played by the Lodge
of the _Amis Réunis_. Whilst the _Loge des Neuf Soeurs_ was largely
composed of middle-class revolutionaries such as Brissot, Danton,
Camille Desmoulins, and Champfort, and the _Loge de la Candeur_ of
aristocratic revolutionaries--Lafayette as well as the Orléanistes, the
Marquis de Sillery, the Duc d'Aiguillon, the Marquis de Custine, and the
Lameths--_the Loge du Contrat Social_ was mainly composed of honest
visionaries who entertained no revolutionary projects but, according to
Barruel, were strongly Royalist. The rôle of the "Amis Réunis" was to
collect together the subversives from all other lodges--Philalèthes,
Rose-Croix, members of the _Loge des Neuf Sours_ and of the _Loge de la
Candeur_ and of the most secret committees of the Grand Orient, as well
as deputies from the _Illuminés_ in the provinces. Here, then, at the
lodge in the Rue de la Sordière, under the direction of Savalette de
Langes, were to be found the disciples of Weishaupt, of Swedenborg, and
of Saint-Martin, as well as the practical makers of revolution--the
agitators and demagogues of 1789.
The influence of German Illuminism on all these heterogeneous elements
was enormous. From this moment, says a further Bavarian report of the
matter, a complete change took place in the Order of the "Amis Réunis."
Hitherto only vaguely subversive, the Chevaliers Bienfaisants became the
Chevaliers Malfaisants, the Amis Réunis became the Ennemis Réunis. The
arrival of the two Germans, Bode and Busche, gave the finishing touch to
the conspiracy. "The avowed object of their journey was to obtain
information about magnetism, which was just then making a great stir,"
but in reality, "taken up with the gigantic plan of their Order," their
real aim was to make proselytes. It will be seen that the following
passage exactly confirms the account given by Barruel:
As the Lodge of the _Amis Réunis_ collected together everything
that could be found out from all other masonic systems in the
world, so the way was soon paved there for Illuminism. It was also
not long before this lodge together with all those that depended on
it was impregnated with Illuminism. The former system of all these
was as if wiped out, so that from this time onwards the framework
of the Philalèthes quite disappeared and in the place of the former
Cabalistic-magical extravagance [_Schwärmerei_] came in the
philosophical-political.[611]
It was therefore not Martinism, Cabalism, or Freemasonry that in
themselves provided the real revolutionary force. Many non-illuminized
Freemasons, as Barruel himself declares, remained loyal to the throne
and altar, and as soon as the monarchy was seen to be in danger the
Royalist Brothers of the _Contrat Social_ boldly summoned the lodges to
coalesce in defence of King and Constitution; even some of the upper
Masons, who in the degree of Knight Kadosch had sworn hatred to the Pope
and Bourbon monarchy, rallied likewise to the royal cause. "The French
spirit triumphed over the masonic spirit in the greater number of the
Brothers. Opinions as well as hearts were still for the King." It
needed the devastating doctrines of Weishaupt to undermine this spirit
and to turn the "degrees of vengeance" from vain ceremonial into
terrible fact.
If, then, it is said that the Revolution was prepared in the lodges of
Freemasons--and many French Masons have boasted of the fact--let it
always be added that it was _Illuminized Freemasonry_ that made the
Revolution, and that the Masons who acclaim it are illuminized Masons,
inheritors of the same tradition introduced into the lodges of France in
1787 by the disciples of Weishaupt, "patriarch of the Jacobins."
Many of the Freemasons of France in 1787 were thus not conscious allies
of the Illuminati. According to Cadet de Gassicourt, there were in all
the lodges only twenty-seven real initiates; the rest were largely dupes
who knew little or nothing of the source whence the fresh influence
among them derived. The amazing feature of the whole situation is that
the most enthusiastic supporters of the movement were men belonging to
the upper classes and even to the royal families of Europe. A
contemporary relates that no less than thirty princes--reigning and
non-reigning--had taken under their protection a confederation from
which they stood to lose everything and had become so imbued by its
principles that they were inaccessible to reason.[612] Intoxicated by
the flattery lavished on them by the priests of Illuminism, they adopted
a religion of which they understood nothing. Weishaupt, of course, had
taken care that none of these royal dupes should be initiated into the
real aims of the Order, and at first adhered to the original plan of
excluding them altogether; but the value of their co-operation soon
became apparent and by a supreme irony it was with a Grand Duke that he
himself took refuge.
But if the great majority of princes and nobles were stricken with
blindness at this crisis, a few far-seeing spirits recognized the danger
and warned the world of the impending disaster. In 1787 Cardinal
Caprara, Apostolic Nuncio at Vienna, addressed a confidential memoir to
the Pope, in which he pointed out that the activities carried on in
Germany by the different sects of Illuminés, of Perfectibilists, of
Freemasons, etc., were increasing.
The danger is approaching, for from all these senseless dreams of
Illuminism, of Swedenborgianism, or of Freemasonry a frightful
reality will emerge. Visionaries have their time; the revolution
they forebode will have its time also.[613]
A more amazing prophecy, however, was the _Essai sur la Secte des
Illuminés_, by the Marquis de Luchet,[614] a Liberal noble who played
some part in the revolutionary movement, yet who nevertheless realized
the dangers of Illuminism. Thus, as early as 1789, before the Revolution
had really developed, de Luchet uttered these words of warning:
Deluded people ... learn that there exists a conspiracy in favour
of despotism against liberty, of incapacity against talent, of vice
against virtue, of ignorance against enlightenment.... This society
aims at governing the world.... Its object is universal domination.
This plan may seem extraordinary, incredible--yes, but not
chimerical ... no such calamity has ever yet afflicted the world.
De Luchet then goes on to foretell precisely the events that were to
take place three and four years later; he describes the position of a
king who has to recognize masters above himself and to authorize their
"abominable régime," to become the plaything of an ambitious and
fanatical horde which has taken possession of his will.
See him condemned to serve the passions of all that surround him
... to raise degraded men to power, to prostitute his judgement by
choices that dishonour his prudence....
All this was exactly fulfilled during the reign of the Girondin ministry
of 1792. The campaign of destruction carried out in the summer of 1793
is thus foretold:
We do not mean to say that the country where the Illuminés reign
will cease to exist, but it will fall into such a degree of
humiliation that it will no longer count in politics, that the
population will diminish, that the inhabitants who resist the
inclination to pass into a foreign land will no longer enjoy the
happiness of consideration, nor the charms of society, nor the
gifts of commerce.
And de Luchet ends with this despairing appeal to the powers of Europe:
Masters of the world, cast your eyes on a desolated multitude,
listen to their cries, their tears, their hopes. A mother asks you
to restore her son, a wife her husband, your cities for the fine
arts that have fled from them, the country for citizens, the fields
for cultivators, religion for forms of worship, and Nature for
beings of which she is worthy.
Five years after these words were written the countryside of France was
desolate, art and commerce were destroyed, and women following the
tumbril that carried Fouquier-Tinville to the guillotine cried out:
"Give me back my brother, my son, my husband!" So was this amazing
prophecy fulfilled. Yet not one word has history to say on the subject!
The warning of de Luchet has fallen on deaf ears amongst posterity as
amongst the men of his own day.
De Luchet himself recognizes the obstacle to his obtaining a hearing:
there are too many "passions interested in supporting the system of the
Illuminés," too many deluded rulers imagining themselves enlightened
ready to precipitate their people into the abyss, whilst "the heads of
the Order will never relinquish the authority they have acquired nor the
treasure at their disposal." In vain de Luchet appeals to the Freemasons
to save their Order from the invading sect. "Would it not be possible,"
he asks, "to direct the Freemasons themselves against the Illuminés by
showing them that whilst they are working to maintain harmony in
society, those others are everywhere sowing seeds of discord" and
preparing the ultimate destruction of their Order? So far it is not too
late; if only men will believe in the danger it may be averted: "from
the moment they are convinced, the necessary blow is dealt to the sect."
Otherwise de Luchet prophesies "a series of calamities of which the end
is lost in the darkness of time, ... a subterranean fire smouldering
eternally and breaking forth periodically in violent and devastating
explosions." What words could better describe the history of the last
150 years?
The _Essai sur la Sects des Illuminés_ is one of the most extraordinary
documents of history and at the same time one of the most mysterious.
Why it should have been written by the Marquis de Luchet, who is said to
have collaborated with Mirabeau in the _Galerie de Portraits_ published
in the following year, why it should have been appended to Mirabeau's
_Histoire Secrète de la Cour de Berlin_, and accordingly attributed to
Mirabeau himself, why Barruel should have denounced it as dust thrown in
the eyes of the public, although it entirely corroborated his own point
of view, are questions to which I can find no reply. That is was written
seriously and in all good faith it is impossible to doubt; whilst the
fact that it appeared before, instead of after, the events described,
renders it even more valuable evidence of the reality of the conspiracy
than Barruel's own admirable work. What Barruel saw, de Luchet foresaw
with equal clearness. As to the rôle of Mirabeau at this crisis, we can
only hazard an explanation on the score of his habitual inconsistency.
At one moment he was seeking interviews with the King's ministers in
order to warn them of the coming danger, at the next he was
energetically stirring up insurrection. It is therefore not impossible
that he may have encouraged de Luchet's exposure of the conspiracy,
although meanwhile he himself had entered into the scheme of
destruction. Indeed, according to a pamphlet published in 1791 entitled
_Mystères de la Conspiration_,[615] the whole plan of revolution was
found amongst his papers. The editor of this _brochure_ explains that
the document here made public, called _Croquis ou Projet de Révolution
de Monsieur de Mirabeau_, was seized at the house of Madame Lejai, the
wife of Mirabeau's publisher, on October 6, 1789. Beginning with a
diatribe against the French monarchy, the document goes on to say that
"in order to triumph over this hydra-headed monster these are my ideas":
We must overthrow all order, suppress all laws, annul all power,
and leave the people in anarchy. The laws we establish will not
perhaps be in force at once, but at any rate, having given back the
power to the people, they will resist for the sake of their liberty
which they will believe they are preserving. We must caress their
vanity, flatter their hopes, promise them happiness after our work
has been in operation; we must elude their caprices and their
systems at will, for the people as legislators are very dangerous,
they only establish laws which coincide with their passions, their
want of knowledge would besides only give birth to abuses. But as
the people are a lever which legislators can move at their will, we
must necessarily use them as a support, and render hateful to them
everything we wish to destroy and sow illusions in their path; we
must also buy all the mercenary pens which propagate our methods
and which will instruct the people concerning their enemies whom we
attack. The clergy, being the most powerful through public opinion,
can only be destroyed by ridiculing religion, rendering its
ministers odious, and only representing them as hypocritical
monsters, for Mahomet in order to establish his religion first
defamed the paganism which the Arabs, the Sarmathes, and the
Scythians professed. Libels must at every moment show fresh traces
of hatred against the clergy. To exaggerate their riches, to make
the sins of an individual appear to be common to all, to attribute
to them all vices; calumny, murder, irreligion, sacrilege, all is
permitted in times of revolution.
We must degrade the _noblesse_ and attribute it to an odious
origin, establish a germ of equality which can never exist but
which will flatter the people; [we must] immolate the most
obstinate, burn and destroy their property in order to intimidate
the rest, so that if we cannot entirely destroy this prejudice we
can weaken it and the people will avenge their vanity and their
jealousy by all the excesses which will bring them to submission.
After describing how the soldiers are to be seduced from their
allegiance, and the magistrates represented to the people as despots,
"since the people, brutal and ignorant, only see the evil and never the
good of things," the writer explains they must be given only limited
power in the municipalities.
Let us beware above all of giving them too much force; their
despotism is too dangerous, we must flatter the people by
gratuitous justice, promise them a great diminution in taxes and a
more equal division, more extension in fortunes, and less
humiliation. These phantasies [_vertiges_] will fanaticise the
people, who will flatten out all resistance. What matter the
victims and their numbers? spoliations, destructions, burnings, and
all the necessary effects of a revolution? nothing must be sacred
and we can say with Machiavelli: "What matter the means as long as
one arrives at the end?"
Were all these the ideas of Mirabeau, or were they, like the other
document of the Illuminati found amongst his papers, the programme of a
conspiracy? I incline to the latter theory. The plan of campaign was, at
any rate, the one followed out by the conspirators, as Chamfort, the
friend and confidant of Mirabeau, admitted in his conversation with
Marmontel:
The nation is a great herd that only thinks of browsing, and with
good sheepdogs the shepherds can lead it as they please.... Money
and the hope of plunder are all-powerful with the people....
Mirabeau cheerfully asserts that with 100 louis one can make quite
a good riot.[616]
Another contemporary thus describes the methods of the leaders:
Mirabeau, in the exuberance of an orgy, cried one day: "That
_canaille_ well deserves to have us for legislators!" These
professions of faith, as we see, are not at all democratic; the
sect uses the populace as revolution fodder [_chair à révolution_],
as prime material for brigandage, after which it seizes the gold
and abandons generations to torture. It is veritably the code of
hell.[617]
It is this "code of hell" set forth in the "Projet de Révolution" that
we shall find repeated in succeeding documents throughout the last
hundred years--in the correspondence of the "Alta Vendita," in the
_Dialogues aux Enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu_ by Maurice Joly,
in the Revolutionary Catechism of Bakunin, in the Protocols of the
Elders of Zion, and in the writings of the Russian Bolsheviks to-day.
Whatever doubts may be cast on the authenticity of any of these
documents, the indisputable fact thus remains that as early as 1789 this
Machiavellian plan of engineering revolution and using the people as a
lever for raising a tyrannical minority to power, had been formulated;
further, that the methods described in this earliest "Protocol" have
been carried out according to plan from that day to this. And in every
outbreak of the social revolution the authors of the movement have been
known to be connected with secret societies.
It was Adrien Duport, author of the "Great Fear" that spread over France
on July 22, 1789, Duport, the inner initiate of the secret societies,
"holding in his hands all the threads of the masonic conspiracy," who on
May 21, 1790, set forth before the Committee of Propaganda the vast
scheme of destruction.
M. de Mirabeau has well established the fact that the fortunate
revolution which has taken place in France must and will be for all
the peoples of Europe the awakening of liberty and for Kings the
sleep of death.
But Duport goes on to explain that whilst Mirabeau thinks it advisable
at present not to concern themselves with anything outside France, he
himself believes that the triumph of the French Revolution must lead
inevitably to "the ruin of all thrones ... Therefore we must hasten
among our neighbours the same revolution that is going on in France."[618]
The plan of illuminized Freemasonry was thus nothing less than
world-revolution.
It is necessary here to reply to a critic who suggested that in
emphasizing the rôle of the secret societies in _World Revolution_ I had
abandoned my former thesis of the Orléaniste conspiracy. I wish
therefore to state that I do not retract one word I wrote in _The French
Revolution_ on the Orléaniste conspiracy, I merely supply a further
explanation of its efficiency by enlarging on the aid it received from
the party I referred to as the Subversives--outcome of the masonic
lodges. It was because the Orléanistes held the whole masonic
organization at their disposal that they were able to carry out their
plans with such extraordinary skill and thoroughness, and because they
had at their back men bent solely on destruction that they could enlist
a following which would not have rallied to a mere scheme of usurpation.
Even Montjoie, who saw in the Revolution principally the work of the Duc
d'Orléans, indicates in a very curious passage of a later work the
existence of the still darker intrigue behind the conspiracy he had
spent his energies in unveiling:
I will not examine whether this wicked prince, thinking he was
acting in his personal interests, was not moved by that invisible
hand which seems to have created all the events of our revolution
in order to lead us towards a goal that we do not see at present,
but which I think we shall see before long.[619]
Unfortunately, after this mysterious utterance Montjoie never again
returns to the subject.
At the beginning of the Revolution, Orléanism and Freemasonry thus
formed a united body. According to Lombard de Langres:
France in 1789 counted more than 2,000 lodges affiliated to the
Grand Orient; the number of adepts was more than 100,000. The first
events of 1789 were only Masonry in action. All the revolutionaries
of the Constituent Assembly were initiated into the third degree.
We place in this class the Duc d'Orléans, Valence, Syllery, Laclos,
Sièyes, Pétion, Menou, Biron, Montesquieu, Fauchet, Condorcet,
Lafayette, Mirabeau, Garat, Rabaud, Dubois-Crancé, Thiébaud,
Larochefoucauld, and others.[620]
Amongst these others were not only the Brissotins, who formed the
nucleus of the Girondin party, but the men of the Terror--Marat,
Robespierre, Danton, and Desmoulins.
It was these fiercer elements, true disciples of the Illuminati, who
were to sweep away the visionary Masons dreaming of equality and
brotherhood. Following the precedent set by Weishaupt, classical
pseudonyms were adopted by these leaders of the Jacobins, thus Chaumette
was known as Anaxagoras, Clootz as Anacharsis, Danton as Horace, Lacroix
as Publicola, and Ronsin as Scaevola[621]; again, after the manner of
the Illuminati, the names of towns were changed and a revolutionary
calendar was adopted. The red cap and loose hair affected by the
Jacobins appear also to have been foreshadowed in the lodges of the
Illuminati.[622]
Yet faithfully as the Terrorists carried out the plan of the Illuminati,
it would seem that they themselves were not initiated into the innermost
secrets of the conspiracy. Behind the Convention, behind the clubs,
behind the Revolutionary Tribunal, there existed, says Lombard de
Langres, that "most secret convention [_convention sécrétissime_] which
directed everything after May 31, an occult and terrible power of which
the other Convention became the slave and which was composed of the
prime initiates of Illuminism. This power was above Robespierre and the
committees of the government, ... it was this occult power which
appropriated to itself the treasures of the nation and distributed them
to the brothers and friends who had helped on the great work."[623]
What was the aim of this occult power? Was it merely the plan of
destruction that had originated in the brain of a Bavarian professor
twenty years earlier, or was it something far older, a live and terrible
force that had lain dormant through the centuries, that Weishaupt and
his allies had not created but only loosed upon the world? The Reign of
Terror, like the outbreak of Satanism in the Middle Ages, can be
explained by no material causes--the orgy of hatred, lust, and cruelty
directed not only against the rich but still more against the poor and
defenceless, the destruction of science, art, and beauty, the
desecration of the churches, the organized campaign against all that was
noble, all that was sacred, all that humanity holds dear, what was this
but Satanism?
In desecrating the churches and stamping on the crucifixes the Jacobins
had in fact followed the precise formula of black magic: "For the
purpose of infernal evocation ... it is requisite ... to profane the
ceremonies of the religion to which one belongs and to trample its
holiest symbols under foot."[624] It was this that formed the prelude
to the "Great Terror," when, to those who lived through it, it seemed
that France lay under the sway of the powers of darkness.
So in the "great shipwreck of civilization," as a contemporary has
described it, the projects of the Cabalists, the Gnostics, and the
secret societies which for nearly eighteen centuries had sapped the
foundations of Christianity found their fulfilment. Do we not detect an
echo of the Toledot Yeshu in the blasphemies of the Marquis de Sade
concerning "the Jewish slave" and "the adulterous woman, the courtesan
of Galilee?" And in the imprecations of Marat's worshippers, "Christ was
a false prophet!" a repetition of the secret doctrine attributed to the
Templars: "Jesus is not the true God; He is a false prophet; He was not
crucified for the salvation of humanity, but for His own misdeeds"? Are
these resemblances accidental, or are they the outcome of a continuous
plot against the Christian faith?
What, then, was the rôle of Jews in the Revolution? In this connexion it
is necessary to understand the situation of the Jews in France at this
period.
After the decree of banishment issued by Charles VI in 1394, Jewry, as a
body, had ceased to exist; but towards the end of the fifteenth century
a certain number of Jews, driven out of Spain and Portugal, were allowed
to settle in Bordeaux. These Spanish and Portuguese Jews, known as
_Sephardim_, appeared to acquiesce in the Christian religion and were
not officially regarded as Jews, but enjoyed considerable privileges
conferred on them by Henri II. It was not until the beginning of the
eighteenth century, during the Regency, that Jews began to reappear in
Paris. Meanwhile, the annexation of Alsace at the end of the previous
century had added to the population of France the German Jews of that
province known as the _Ashkenazim_.
It is important to distinguish between these two races of Jews in
discussing the question of Jewish emancipation at the time of the
Revolution. For whilst the Sephardim had shown themselves good citizens
and were therefore subject to no persecutions, the Ashkenazim by their
extortionate usury and oppressions had made themselves detested by the
people, so that rigorous laws were enforced to restrain their rapacity.
The discussions that raged in the National Assembly on the subject of
the Jewish question related therefore mainly to the Jews of Alsace.
Already, in 1784, the Jews of Bordeaux had been accorded further
concessions by Louis XVI; in 1776 all Portuguese Jews had been given
religious liberty and the permission to inhabit all parts of the
kingdom. The decree of January 28, 1790, conferring on the Jews of
Bordeaux the rights of French citizens, put the finishing touch to this
scheme of liberation. But the proposal to extend this privilege to the
Jews of Alsace evoked a storm of controversy in the Assembly and also
violent insurrections amongst the Alsatian peasants. It was thus on
behalf of the people that several deputies protested against the decree.
"The Jews," said the Abbé Maury, "have traversed seventeen centuries
without mingling with other nations. They have never done anything but
trade with money, they have been the scourge of agricultural provinces,
not one of them has known how to ennoble his hands by guiding the
plough." And he went on to point out that the Jews "must not be
persecuted, they must be protected as individuals and not as Frenchmen,
since they cannot be citizens.... Whatever you do, they will always
remain foreigners in our midst."
Monseigneur de la Fare, Bishop of Nancy, adopted the same line of
argument:
They must be accorded protection, safety, liberty; but should we
admit into the family a tribe that is foreign to it, that turns its
eyes unceasingly towards a common country, that aspires to abandon
the land that bears it?... My _cahier_ orders me to protest against
the motion that has been made to you. The interest of the Jews
themselves necessitates this protest. The people have a horror of
them; they are often in Alsace the victims of popular risings.[625]
In all this, as will be seen, there is no question of persecution, but
of precautions against a race that wilfully isolates itself from the
rest of the community in order to pursue its own interests and
advantages. The Jews of Bordeaux indeed recognized the odium that the
German Jews were calculated to bring on the Jewish cause, and in an
address to the Assembly on January 22, 1790, dissociated themselves from
the aggressive claims of the Ashkenazim:
We dare to believe that our condition in France would not to-day be
open to discussion if certain demands of the Jews of Alsace,
Lorraine, and the Trois Evêchés [i.e. Metz, Toul, and Verdun] had
not caused a confusion of ideas which appears to reflect on us. We
do not yet know exactly what these demands are, but to judge by the
public papers they appear to be rather extraordinary since these
Jews aspire to live in France under a special régime, to have laws
peculiar to themselves, and to constitute a class of citizens
separated from all the others.
As for us, our condition in France has long since been settled. We
have been naturalized French since 1550; we possess all kinds of
properties, and we enjoy the unlimited right to acquire estates. We
have neither laws, tribunals, nor officers of our own[626]
In adopting this attitude the Sephardim created a precedent which, if it
had been followed henceforth consistently by their co-religionists,
might have gone far to allay prejudice against the Jewish race. It was
the solidarity generally presented by the Jews towards the rest of the
community which excited alarm in the minds of French citizens. Thirty
years earlier the merchants of Paris, in a petition against the
admission of the Jews to their corporations, indicated by an admirable
simile the danger this solidarity offered to free commerce.
The French merchant carries on his commerce alone; each commercial
house is in a way isolated, whilst the Jews are particles of
quicksilver, which at the least slant run together into a
block.[627]
But in spite of all protests, the decree emancipating the Jews of Alsace
was passed in September 1791, and hymns of praise were sung in the
synagogues.
What part was actually played by the Jews in the tumults of the
Revolution it is impossible to determine, for the reason that they are
seldom designated as such in the writings of contemporaries. On this
point Jewish writers appear to be better informed than the rest of the
world, for Monsieur Léon Kahn in his panegyric on the part played by his
co-religionists in the Revolution[628] finds Jews where even Drumont
failed to detect them. Thus we read that it was a Jew, Rosenthal, who
headed the legion known by his name, which was sent against La Vendée
but took to flight,[629] and which was the subject of complaint when
employed to guard the Royal Family at the Temple[630]; that amongst
those who worked most energetically to deprive the clergy of their goods
was a Jewish ex-old-clothes seller, Zalkind Hourwitz; that it was a Jew
named Lang who murdered three out of the five Swiss guards at the foot
of the staircase in the Tuileries on August 10[631]; that Jews were
implicated in the theft of the crown jewels on September 16, 1792, and
one named Lyre was executed in consequence; that it was Clootz and the
Jew Pereyra, and not, as I had stated, Hébert, Chaumette, and Momoro,
who went to the Archbishop Gobel in November 1793 and induced him by
means of threats to abjure the Christian faith.[632]
All these facts were unknown to me when I wrote my account of these
events; it will be seen then that, far from exaggerating the rôle of the
Jews in _The French Revolution_, I very much underrated it. Indeed the
question of their complicity had not occurred to me at all when I wrote
this book, and the only Jew to whom I referred was Ephraïm--sent to
France by the Illuminati Frederick William II and Bischoffswerder--whom
M. Kahn indicates as playing an even more important part than I had
assigned to him.
But illuminating as these incidents may be, it is yet open to question
whether they prove any concerted attempt on the part of the Jews to
bring about the overthrow of the French monarchy and the Catholic
religion. It is true, nevertheless, that they themselves boasted of
their revolutionary ardour. In an address presenting their claims before
the National Assembly in 1789, they declare:
Regenerators of the French Empire, you would not wish that we
should cease to be citizens, since for already six months we have
assiduously performed all duties as such, and the recompense for
the zeal we have shown in accelerating the revolution will not be
to condemn us to participate in none of its advantages now that it
has been consummated.... Nosseigneurs, we are all very good
citizens, and in this memorable revolution we dare to say that
there is not one of us who has not proved himself.[633]
In all these activities, however, religious feeling appears to have
played an entirely subordinate part; the Jews, as has been said, were
free before the Revolution to carry on the rites of their faith. And
when the great anti-religious campaign began, many of them entered
whole-heartedly into the attack on all religious faiths, their own
included. Thus on the 21st Brumaire, whilst the Feasts of Reason were
taking place in the churches of Paris, we find "a deputation of
Israelites" presenting themselves at the National Assembly and
"depositing on the bosom of the Mountain the ornaments of which they had
stripped a little temple they had in the Faubourg Saint-Germain." At the
same moment--
A revolutionary committee of the Réunion brings to the general
council crosses, suns, chalices, copes, and quantities of other
ornaments of worship, and a member of this committee observes that
several of these effects belong to individuals of the Jewish race.
A minister of the religion of Moses, Abraham, and Jacob asks in the
name of his co-religionists that the said effects should not be
regarded as belonging to such and such a sect, ... this citizen is
named Benjamin Jacob.... Another member of the same committee pays
homage to the patriotic zeal of the citizens heretofore Jews, ...
almost all have forestalled the wish of the revolutionary committee
by themselves bringing their reliquaries and ornaments, amongst
others the famous cope said to have belonged to Moses.[634]
On the 20th Frimaire at "the Temple of Liberty," formerly the church of
the Benedictines, "the citizen Alexandre Lambert _fils_, a Jew brought
up in the prejudices of the Jewish religion," uttered a violent harangue
against all religions:
I will prove to you, citizens, that all forms of worship are
impostures equally degrading to man and to divinities; I will not
prove it by philosophy, I do not know it, but only by the light of
reason.
After denouncing the iniquities of both the Catholic and Protestant
faiths, Lambert demonstrates "the absurdities of the Jewish religion,
of this domineering religion"; he thunders against Moses "governing a
simple and agrarian people like all clever impostors," against "the
servile respect of the Jews for their kings ... the ablutions of women,"
etc. Finally he declares:
The bad faith, citizens, of which the Jewish nation is accused does
not come from themselves but from their priests. Their religion,
which would allow them only to lend to those of their nation at 5
per cent., tells them to take all they can from Catholics; it is
even hallowed as a custom in our morning prayers to solicit God's
help in catching out a Christian. There is more, citizens, and it
is the climax of abomination: if any mistake is made in commerce
between Jews, they are ordered to make reparation; but if on 100
louis a Christian should have paid 25 too much, one is not bound to
return them to him. What an abomination! What a horror! And where
does that all come from but from the Rabbis? Who have excited
proscriptions against us? Our priests! Ah, citizens, more than
anything in the world we must abjure a religion which, ... by
subjecting us to irksome and servile practices, makes it impossible
for us to be good citizens.[635]
The encouragement accorded by the Jews to the French Revolution appears
thus to have been prompted not by religious fanaticism but by a desire
for national advantage. That they gained immensely by the overthrow of
the Old Order is undeniable, for apart from the legislation passed on
their behalf in the National Assembly, the disorder of the finances in
1796 was such that, as M. Leon Kahn tells us, a contemporary journal
enquired: "Has the Revolution then been only a financial scheme? a
speculation of bankers?"[636] We know from Prudhomme to what race the
financiers who principally profited by this disorder belonged.[637]
But if the rôle of the Jews in the Revolution remains obscure there can
be no doubt of the part played by the secret societies in the revolt
against all religion, all moral laws, and social order, which had been
reduced to a system in the councils of the Illuminati.
It was this conspiracy that reasserted itself in the Babouviste rising
of 1796 which was directly inspired by the secret societies. After the
death of Babeuf, his friend and inspirer Buonarotti with the aid of
Marat's brother founded a masonic lodge, the _Amis Sincères_, which was
affiliated to the _Philadelphes_, at Geneva, and as "Diacre Mobile" of
the "Order of Sublime and Perfect Masons" created three new secret
degrees, in which the device of the Rose-Croix I.N.R.I. was interpreted
as signifying "Justum necare reges injustos."[638]
The part to be assigned to each intrigue in preparing the world-movement
of which the French Revolution was the first expression is a question on
which no one can speak with certainty. But, as at the present moment,
the composite nature of this movement must never be lost to sight.
Largely perhaps the work of Frederick the Great, it is probable that but
for the Orléanistes the plot against the French monarchy might have come
to nought; whilst again, but for his position at the head of illuminized
Freemasonry it is doubtful whether the Duc d'Orléans could have
commanded the forces of revolution. Further, how far the movement,
which, like the modern Bolshevist conspiracy, appears to have had
unlimited funds at its disposal, was financed by the Jews yet remains to
be discovered. Hitherto only the first steps have been taken towards
elucidating the truth about the French Revolution.
In the opinion of an early nineteenth-century writer the sect which
engineered the French Revolution was absolutely international:
The authors of the Revolution are not more French than German,
Italian, English, etc. They form a particular nation which took
birth and has grown in the darkness, in the midst of all civilized
nations, with the object of subjecting them to its domination.[639]
It is curious to find almost precisely the same idea expressed by the
Duke of Brunswick, formerly the "Eques a Victoria" of the Stricte
Observance, "Aaron" of the Illuminati, and Grand Master of German
Freemasonry, who, whether because the Revolution had done its work in
destroying the French monarchy and now threatened the security of
Germany, or whether because he was genuinely disillusioned in the Orders
to which he had belonged, issued a Manifesto to all the lodges in 1794,
declaring that in view of the way in which Masonry had been penetrated
by this great sect the whole Order must be temporarily suppressed. It is
essential to quote a part of this important document verbatim:
Amidst the universal storm produced by the present revolutions in
the political and moral world, at this period of supreme
illumination and of profound blindness, it would be a crime against
truth and humanity to leave any longer shrouded in a veil things
that can provide the only key to past and future events, things
that should show to thousands of men whether the path they have
been made to follow is the path of folly or of wisdom. It has to do
with you, VV. FF. of all degrees and of all secret systems. The
curtain must at last be drawn aside, so that your blinded eyes may
see that light you have ever sought in vain, but of which you have
only caught a few deceptive rays....
We have raised our building under the wings of darkness; ... the
darkness is dispelled, and a light more terrifying than darkness
itself strikes suddenly on our sight. We see our edifice crumbling
and covering the ground with ruins; we see destruction that our
hands can no longer arrest. And that is why we send away the
builders from their workshops. With a last blow of the hammer we
overthrow the columns of salaries. We leave the temple deserted,
and we bequeath it as a great work to posterity which shall raise
it again on its ruins and bring it to completion.
Brunswick then goes on to explain what has brought about the ruin of the
Order, namely, the infiltration of Freemasonry by secret conspirators:
A great sect arose which, taking for its motto the good and the
happiness of man, worked in the darkness of the conspiracy to make
the happiness of humanity a prey for itself. This sect is known to
everyone: its brothers are known no less than its name. It is they
who have undermined the foundations of the Order to the point of
complete overthrow; it is by them that all humanity has been
poisoned and led astray for several generations. The ferment that
reigns amongst the peoples is their work. They founded the plans of
their insatiable ambition on the political pride of nations. Their
founders arranged to introduce this pride into the heads of the
peoples. They began by casting odium on religion.... They invented
the rights of man which it is impossible to discover even in the
book of Nature, and they urged the people to wrest from their
princes the recognition of these supposed rights. The plan they had
formed for breaking all social ties and of destroying all order was
revealed in all their speeches and acts. They deluged the world
with a multitude of publications; they recruited apprentices of
every rank and in every position; they deluded the most
perspicacious men by falsely alleging different intentions. They
sowed in the hearts of youth the seed of covetousness, and they
excited it with the bait of the most insatiable passions.
Indomitable pride, thirst of power, such were the only motives of
this sect: their masters had nothing less in view than the thrones
of the earth, and the government of the nations was to be directed
by their nocturnal clubs.
This is what has been done and is still being done. But we notice
that princes and people are unaware how and by what means this is
being accomplished. That is why we say to them in all frankness:
The misuse of our Order, the misunderstanding of our secret, has
produced all the political and moral troubles with which the world
is filled to-day. You who have been initiated, you must join
yourselves with us in raising your voices, so as to teach peoples
and princes that the sectarians, the apostates of our Order, have
alone been and will be the authors of present and future
revolutions. We must assure princes and peoples, on our honour and
our duty, that our association is in no way guilty of these evils.
But in order that our attestations should have force and merit
belief, we must make for princes and people a complete sacrifice;
so as to cut out to the roots the abuse and error, we must from
this moment dissolve the whole Order. This is why we destroy and
annihilate it completely for the time; we will preserve the
foundations for posterity, which will clear them when humanity, in
better times, can derive some benefit from our holy alliance.[640]
Thus, in the opinion of the Grand Master of German Freemasonry, a secret
sect working within Freemasonry had brought about the French Revolution
and would be the cause of all future revolutions. We shall now pursue
the course of this sect after the first upheaval had ended.
Three years after the Duke of Brunswick issued his Manifesto to the
lodges, the books of Barruel, Robison, and others appeared, laying bare
the whole conspiracy. It has been said that all these books "fell
flat."[641] This is directly contrary to the truth. Barruel's book went
into no less than eight editions, and I have described elsewhere the
alarm that his work and Robison's excited in America. In England they
led to the very tangible result that a law was passed by the English
Parliament in 1799 prohibiting all secret societies with the exception
of Freemasonry.
It is evident, then, that the British Government recognized the
continued existence of these associations and the danger they presented
to the world. This fact should be borne in mind when we are assured that
Barruel and Robison had conjured up a bogey which met with no serious
attention from responsible men. For the main purpose of Barruel's book
is to show that not only had Illuminism and Grand Orient Masonry
contributed largely to the French Revolution, but that three years after
that first explosion they were still as active as ever. This is the
great point which the champions of the "bogey" theory are most anxious
to refute. "The Bavarian Order of the Illuminati," wrote Mr. Waite, "was
founded by Adam Weishaupt in 1776, and it was suppressed by the Elector
of Bavaria in 1789.... Those who say that 'it was continued in more
secret forms' have never produced one item of real evidence."[642] Now,
as we have seen, the Illuminati were not suppressed by the Elector of
Bavaria in 1789, but in 1786--first error of Mr. Waite. But more
extraordinary confusion of mind is displayed in his _Encyclopædia of
Freemasonry_, where, in a Masonic Chronology, he gives, this time under
the date of 1784, "Suppression of the Illuminati," but under 1793:
"J.J.C. Bode joined the Illuminati under Weishaupt." At a matter of
fact, this was the year Bode died. These examples will serve to show the
reliance that can be placed on Mr. Waite's statement concerning the
Illuminati.
We shall now see that not only the Illuminati but Weishaupt himself
still continued to intrigue long after the French Revolution had ended.
Directly the Reign of Terror was over, the masonic lodges, which during
the Revolution had been replaced by the clubs, began to reopen, and by
the beginning of the nineteenth century were in a more flourishing
condition than ever before. "It was the most brilliant epoch of
Masonry," wrote the Freemason Bazot in his History of Freemasonry.
Nearly 1,200 lodges existed in France under the Empire; generals,
magistrates, artists, savants, and notabilities in every line were
initiated into the Order.[643] The most eminent of these was Prince
Cambacérès, pro Grand Master of the Grand Orient.
It is in the midst of this period that we find Weishaupt once more at
work behind the scenes of Freemasonry. Thus in the remarkable masonic
correspondence published by M. Benjamin Fabre in his _Eques a Capite
Galeato_--of which, as has already been pointed out, the authenticity is
admitted by eminent British Freemasons--a letter is reproduced from
Pyron, representative in Paris of the Grand Orient of Italy, to the
Marquis de Chefdebien, dated September 9, 1808, in which it is stated
that "a member of the sect of Bav." has asked for information on a
certain point of ritual.
On December 29, 1808, Pyron writes again: "By the words 'sect of B....'
I meant W...."; and on December 3, 1809, puts the matter quite plainly:
"The other word remaining at the end of my pen refers enigmatically to
Weis=pt."
So, as M. Fabre points out:
There is no longer any doubt that it is a question here of
Weishaupt, and yet one observes that his name is not yet written in
all its letters. It must be admitted here that Pyron took great
precautions when it was a matter of Weishaupt! And one is led to
ask what could be the extraordinary importance of the rôle played
at this moment in the Freemasonry of the First Empire by this
Weishaupt, who was supposed to have been outside the masonic
movement since Illuminism was brought to trial in 1786![644]
But the Marquis de Chefdebien entertained no illusions about Weishaupt,
whose intrigues he had always opposed, and in a letter dated May 12,
1806, to the Freemason Roettiers, who had referred to the danger of
isolated masonic lodges, he asks:
In good faith, very reverend brother, is it in isolated lodges that
the atrocious conspiracy of Philippe [the Duc d'Orléans] and
Robespierre was formed? Is it from isolated lodges that those
prominent men came forth, who, assembled at the Hôtel de Ville,
stirred up revolt, devastation, assassination? And is it not in the
lodges bound together, co-and sub-ordinated, that the monster
Weishaupt established his tests and had his horrible principles
prepared?[645]
If, then, as M. Gustave Bord asserts, the Marquis de Chefdebien had
himself belonged to the Illuminati before the Revolution, here is indeed
Illuminist evidence in support of Barruel! Yet disillusioned as the
"Eques a Capite Galeato" appears to have been with regard to Illuminism,
he still retained his allegiance to Freemasonry. This would tend to
prove that, however subversive the doctrines of the Grand Orient may
have been--and indeed undoubtedly were--it was not Freemasonry itself
but Illuminism which organized the movement of which the French
Revolution was the first manifestation. As Monsignor Dillon has
expressed it:
Had Weishaupt not lived, Masonry might have ceased to be a power
after the reaction consequent on the French Revolution. He gave it
a form and character which caused it to outlive that reaction, to
energize to the present day, and which will cause it to advance
until its final conflict with Christianity must determine whether
Christ or Satan shall reign on this earth to the end.[646]
If to the word Masonry we add Grand Orient--that is to say, the Masonry
not of Great Britain, but of the Continent--we shall be still nearer to
the truth.
In the early part of the nineteenth century Illuminism was thus as much
alive as ever. Joseph de Maistre, writing at this period, constantly
refers to the danger it presents to Europe. Is it not also to Illuminism
that a mysterious passage in a recent work of M. Lenôtre refers? In the
course of conversation with the friends of the false Dauphin Hervagault.
Monsignor de Savine is said to have "made allusions in prudent and
almost terrified terms to some international sect ... a power superior
to all others ... which has arms and eyes everywhere and which governs
Europe to-day."[647]
When in _World Revolution_ I asserted that during the period that
Napoleon held the reins of power the devastating fire of Illuminism was
temporarily extinguished, I wrote without knowledge of some important
documents which prove that Illuminism continued without break from the
date of its foundation all through the period of the Empire. So far,
then, from overstating the case by saying that Illuminism did not cease
in 1786, I understated it by suggesting that it ceased even for this
brief interval. The documents in which this evidence is to be found are
referred to by Lombard de Langres, who, writing in 1820, observes that
the Jacobins were invisible from the 18th Brumaire until 1813, and goes
on to say:
Here the sect disappears; we find to guide us during this period
only uncertain notions, scattered fragments; the plots of
Illuminism lie buried in the boxes of the Imperial police.
But the contents of these boxes no longer lie buried; transported to the
Archives Nationales, the documents in which the intrigues of Illuminism
are laid bare have at last been given to the public. Here there can be
no question of imaginative abbés, Scotch professors, or American divines
conjuring up a bogey to alarm the world; these dry official reports
prepared for the vigilant eye of the Emperor, never intended and never
used for publication, relate calmly and dispassionately what the writers
have themselves heard and observed concerning the danger that Illuminism
presents to all forms of settled government.
The author of the most detailed report[648] is one François Charles de
Berckheim, special commissioner of police at Mayence towards the end of
the Empire, who as a Freemason is naturally not disposed to prejudice
against secret societies. In October 1810 he writes, however, that his
attention has been drawn to the Illuminati by a pamphlet which has just
fallen into his hands, namely the _Essai sur la Secte des Illuminés_,
which, like many contemporaries, he attributes originally to Mirabeau.
He then goes on to ask whether the sect still exists, and if so whether
it is indeed "an association of frightful scoundrels who aim, as
Mirabeau assures us, at the overthrow of all law and all morality, at
replacing virtue by crime in every act of human life." Further, he asks
whether both sects of _Illuminés_ have now combined in one and what are
their present projects. Conversations with other Freemasons further
increase Berckheim's anxiety on the subject; one of the best informed
observes to him: "I know a great deal, enough at any rate to be
convinced that the _Illuminés_ have vowed the overthrow of monarchic
governments and of all authority on the same basis."
Berckheim thereupon sets out to make enquiries, with the result that he
is able to state that the _Illuminés_ have initiates all over Europe,
that they have spared no efforts to introduce their principles into the
lodges, and "to spread a doctrine subversive of all settled government
... under the pretext of the regeneration of social morality and the
amelioration of the lot and condition of men by means of laws founded on
principles and sentiments unknown hitherto and contained only in the
heads of the leaders." "Illuminism," he declares, "is becoming a great
and formidable power, and I fear, in my conscience, that kings and
peoples will have much to suffer from it unless foresight and prudence
break its frightful mechanism [_ses affreux restorts_]."
Two years later, on January 16, 1813, Berckheim writes again to the
Minister of Police:
Monseigneur, they write to me from Heidelberg ... that a great
number of initiates into the mysteries of Illuminism are to be
found there.
These gentlemen wear as a sign of recognition a gold ring on the
third finger of the left hand; on the back of this ring there is a
little rose, in the middle of this rose is an almost imperceptible
dint; by pressing this with the point of a pin one touches a
spring, by this means the two gold circles are detached. On the
inside of the first of these circles is the device: "Be German as
you ought to be"; on the inside of the second of these circles are
engraved the words "Pro Patria."
Subversive as the ideas of the Illuminati might be, they were therefore
not subversive of German patriotism. We shall find this apparent paradox
running all through the Illuminist movement to the present day.
In 1814 Berckheim drew up his great report on the secret societies of
Germany, which is of so much importance in throwing a light on the
workings of the modern revolutionary movement, that extracts must be
given here at length.[649] His testimony gains greater weight from the
vagueness he displays on the origins of Illuminism and the role it had
played before the French Revolution; it is evident, therefore, that he
had not taken his ideas from Robison or Barruel--to whom he never once
refers--but from information gleaned on the spot in Germany. The opening
paragraphs finally refute the fallacy concerning the extinction of the
sect in 1786.
The oldest and most dangerous association is that which is
generally known under the denomination of the _Illuminés_ and of
which the foundation goes back towards the middle of the last
century.
Bavaria was its cradle; it is said that it had for founders several
chiefs of the Order of the Jesuits; but this opinion, advanced
perhaps at random, is founded only on uncertain premises; in any
case, in a short time it made rapid progress, and the Bavarian
Government recognized the necessity of employing methods of
repression against it and even of driving away several of the
principal sectaries.
But it could not eradicate the germ of the evil. The _Illuminés_
who remained in Bavaria, obliged to wrap themselves in darkness so
as to escape the eye of authority, became only the more formidable:
the rigorous measures of which they were the object, adorned by the
title of persecution, gained them new proselytes, whilst the
banished members went to carry the principles of the Association
into other States.
Thus in a few years Illuminism multiplied its hotbeds all through
the south of Germany, and as a consequence in Saxony, in Prussia,
in Sweden, and even in Russia.
The reveries of the Pietists have long been confounded with those
of the Illuminés. This error may arise from the denomination of the
sect, which at first suggests the idea of a purely religious
fanaticism and of mystic forms which it was obliged to take at its
birth in order to conceal its principles and projects; but the
Association always had a political tendency. If it still retains
some mystic traits, it is in order to support itself at need by the
power of religious fanaticism, and we shall see in what follows how
well it knows to turn this to account.
The doctrine of Illuminism is subversive of every kind of monarchy;
unlimited liberty, absolute levelling down, such is the fundamental
dogma of the sect; to break the ties that bind the Sovereign to the
citizen of a state, that is the object of all its efforts.
No doubt some of the principal chiefs, amongst whom are numbered
men distinguished for their fortune, their birth, and the dignities
with which they are invested, are not the dupes of these demagogic
dreams: they hope to find in the popular emotions they stir up the
means of seizing the reigns of power, or at any rate of increasing
their wealth and their credit; but the crowd of adepts believe in
it religiously, and, in order to reach the goal shown to them, they
maintain incessantly a hostile attitude towards sovereigns.
Thus the _Illuminés_ hailed with enthusiasm the ideas that
prevailed in France from 1789 to 1804. Perhaps they were not
foreign to the intrigues which prepared the explosions of 1789 and
the following years; but if they did not take an active part in
these manoeuvres, it is at least beyond doubt that they openly
applauded the systems which resulted from them; that the Republican
armies when they penetrated into Germany found in these sectarians
auxiliaries the more dangerous for the sovereigns of the invaded
states in that they inspired no distrust, and we can say with
assurance that more than one general of the Republic owed a part of
its success to his understanding with the _Illuminés_.
It would be a mistake if one confounded Illuminism with
Freemasonry. These two associations, in spite of the points of
resemblance they may possess in the mystery with which they
surround themselves, in the tests that precede initiation, and in
other matters of form, are absolutely distinct and have no kind of
connexion with each other. The lodges of the Scottish Rite number,
it is true, a few _Illuminés_ amongst the Masons of the higher
degrees, but these adepts are very careful not to be known as such
to their brothers in Masonry or to manifest ideas that would betray
their secret.
Berckheim then goes on to describe the subtle methods by which the
Illuminati now maintain their existence; learning wisdom from the events
of 1786, their organization is carried on invisibly, so as to defy the
eye of authority:
It was thought for a long while that the association had a Grand
Mastership, that is to say, a centre point from which radiated all
the impulsions given to this great body, and this primary motive
power was sought for successively in all the capitals of the North,
in Paris and even in Rome. This error gave birth to another opinion
no less fallacious: it was supposed that there existed in the
principal towns lodges where initiations were made and which
received directly the instructions emanating from the headquarters
of the Society.
If such had been the organization of Illuminism, it would not so
long have escaped the investigations of which it was the object:
these meetings, necessarily thronged and frequent, requiring
besides, like masonic lodges, appropriate premises, would have
aroused the attention of magistrates: it would not have been
difficult to introduce false brothers, who, directed and protected
by authority, would soon have penetrated the secrets of the sect.
This is what I have gathered most definitely on the Association of
the _Illuminés_:
First I would point out that by the word hotbeds [foyers] I did not
mean to designate points of meeting for the adepts, places where
they hold assemblies, but only localities where the Association
counts a great number of partisans, who, whilst living isolated in
appearance, exchange ideas, have an understanding with each other,
and advance together towards the same goal.
The Association had, it is true, assemblies at its birth where
receptions [i.e. initiations] took place, but the dangers which
resulted from these made them feel the necessity of abandoning
them. It was settled that each initiated adept should have the
right without the help of anyone else to initiate all those who,
after the usual tests, seemed to him worthy.
The catechism of the sect is composed of a very small number of
articles which might even be reduced to this single principle:
"To arm the opinion of the peoples against sovereigns and to work
by every method for the fall of monarchic governments in order to
found in their place systems of absolute independence." Everything
that can tend towards this object is in the spirit of the
Association....
Initiations are not accompanied, as in Masonry, by phantasmagoric
trials, ... but they are preceded by long moral tests which
guarantee in the safest way the fidelity of the catechumen; oaths,
a mixture of all that is most sacred in religion, threats and
imprecations against traitors, nothing that can stagger the
imagination is spared; but the only engagement into which the
recipient enters is to propagate the principles with which he has
been imbued, to maintain inviolable secrecy on all that pertains to
the association, and to work with all his might to increase the
number of proselytes.
It will no doubt seem astonishing that there can be the least
accord in the association, and that men bound together by no
physical tie and who live at great distances from each other can
communicate their ideas to each other, make plans of conduct, and
give grounds of fear to Governments; but there exists an invisible
chain which binds together all the scattered members of the
association. Here are a few links:
All the adepts living in the same town usually know each other,
unless the population of the town or the number of the adepts is
too considerable. In this last case they are divided into several
groups, who are all in touch with each other by means of members of
the association whom personal relations bind to two or several
groups at a time.
These groups are again subdivided into so many private coteries
which the difference of rank, of fortune, of character, tastes,
etc., may necessitate: they are always small, sometimes composed of
five or six individuals, who meet frequently under various
pretexts, sometimes at the house of one member, sometimes at that
of another; literature, art, amusements of all kinds are the
apparent object of these meetings, and it is nevertheless in these
confabulations [_conciliabules_] that the adepts communicate their
private views to each other, agree on methods, receive the
directions that the intermediaries bring them, and communicate
their own ideas to these same intermediaries, who then go on to
propagate them in other coteries. It will be understood that there
may be uniformity in the march of all these separated groups, and
that one day may suffice to communicate the same impulse to all the
quarters of a large town....
These are the methods by which the _Illuminés_, without any
apparent organization, without settled leaders, agree together from
the banks of the Rhine to those of the Neva, from the Baltic to the
Dardanelles, and advance continually towards the same goal, without
leaving any trace that might compromise the interests of the
association or even bring suspicion on any of its members; the most
active police would fail before such a combination....
As the principal force of the _Illuminés_ lies in the power of
opinions, they have set themselves out from the beginning to make
proselytes amongst the men who through their profession exercise a
direct influence on minds, such as _littérateurs_, savants, and
above all professors. The latter in their chairs, the former in
their writings, propagate the principles of the sect by disguising
the poison that they circulate under a thousand different forms.
These germs, often imperceptible to the eyes of the vulgar, are
afterwards developed by the adepts of the Societies they frequent,
and the most obscure wording is thus brought to the understanding
of the least discerning. It is above all in the Universities that
Illuminism has always found and always will find numerous recruits.
Those professors who belong to the Association set out from the
first to study the character of their pupils. If a student gives
evidence of a vigorous mind, an ardent imagination, the sectaries
at once get hold of him, they sound in his ears the words
Despotism--Tyranny--Rights of the People, etc., etc. Before he can
even attach any meaning to these words, as he advances in age,
reading chosen for him, conversations skilfully arranged, develop
the germs deposited in his youthful brain; soon his imagination
ferments, history, traditions of fabulous times, all are made use
of to carry his exaltation to the highest point, and before even he
has been told of a secret Association, to contribute to the fall of
a sovereign appears to his eyes the noblest and most meritorious
act....
At last, when he has been completely captivated, when several years
of testing guarantee to the society inviolable secrecy and absolute
devotion, it is made known to him that millions of individuals
distributed in all the States of Europe share his sentiments and
his hopes, that a secret link binds firmly all the scattered
members of this immense family, and that the reforms he desires so
ardently must sooner or later come about.
This propaganda is rendered the easier by the existing associations
of students who meet together for the study of literature, for
fencing, gaming, or even mere debauchery. The Illuminés insinuate
themselves into all these circles and turn them into hot-beds for
the propagation of their principles.
Such, then, is the Association's continual mode of progression from
its origins until the present moment; it is by conveying from
childhood the germ of poison into the highest classes of society,
in feeding the minds of students on ideas diametrically opposed to
that order of things under which they have to live, in breaking the
ties that bind them to sovereigns, that Illuminism has recruited
the largest number of adepts, called by the state to which they
were born to be the mainstays of the Throne and of a system which
would ensure them honours and privileges.
Amongst the proselytes of this last class there are some no doubt
whom political events, the favour of the prince or other
circumstances, detach from the Association; but the number of these
deserters is necessarily very limited: and even then they dare not
speak openly against their old associates, whether because they are
in dread of private vengeances or whether because, knowing the real
power of the sect, they want to keep paths of reconciliation open
to themselves; often indeed they are so fettered by the pledges
they have personally given that they find it necessary not only to
consider the interests of the sect, but to serve it indirectly,
although their new circumstances demand the contrary....
Berckheim then proceeds to show that those writers on Illuminism were
mistaken who declared that political assassinations were definitely
commanded by the Order:
There is more than exaggeration in this accusation; those who put
it forward, more zealous in striking an effect than in seeking the
truth, may have concluded, not without probability, that men who
surrounded themselves with profound mystery, who propagated a
doctrine absolutely subversive of any kind of monarchy, dreamt only
of the assassination of sovereigns; but experience has shown (and
all the documents derived from the least suspect sources confirm
this) that the _Illuminés_ count a great deal more on the power of
opinion than on assassination; the regicide committed on Gustavus
III is perhaps the only crime of this kind that Illuminism has
dared to attempt, if indeed it is really proved that this crime was
its work; moreover, if assassination had been, as it is said, the
fundamental point in its doctrine, might we not suppose that other
regicides would have been attempted in Germany during the course of
the French Revolution, especially when the Republican armies
occupied the country?
The sect would be much less formidable if this were its doctrine,
on the one hand because it would inspire in most of the _Illuminés_
a feeling of horror which would triumph even over the fear of
vengeance, on the other hand because plots and conspiracies always
leave some traces which guide the authorities to the footsteps of
the prime instigators; and besides, it is the nature of things that
out of twenty plots directed against sovereigns, nineteen come to
light before they have reached the point of maturity necessary to
their execution.
The _Illuminés'_ line of march is more prudent, more skilful, and
consequently more dangerous; instead of revolting the imagination
by ideas of regicide, they affect the most generous sentiments:
declamations on the unhappy state of the people, on the selfishness
of courtiers, on measures of administration, on all acts of
authority that may offer a pretext to declamations as a contrast to
the seductive pictures of the felicity that awaits the nations
under the systems they wish to establish, such is their manner of
procedure, particularly in private. More circumspect in their
writings, they usually disguise the poison they dare not proffer
openly under obscure metaphysics or more or less ingenious
allegories. Often indeed texts from Holy Writ serve as an envelope
and vehicle for these baneful insinuations....
By this continuous and insidious form of propaganda the imagination of
the adepts is so worked on that if a crisis arises, they are ready to,
carry out the most daring projects.
Another Association closely resembling the _Illuminés_, Berckheim
reports, is known as the _Idealists_, whose system is founded on the
doctrine of perfectibility; these kindred sects "agree in seeing in the
words of Holy Scripture the pledge of universal regeneration, of an
absolute levelling down, and it is in this spirit that the sectarians
interpret the sacred books."
Berckheim further confirms the assertion I made in _World
Revolution_--contested, as usual, by a reviewer without a shred of
evidence to the contrary--that the Tugendbund derived from the
Illuminati. "The League of Virtue," he writes, "was directed by the
secondary chiefs of the _Illuminés_.... In 1810 the Friends of Virtue
were so identified with the _Illuminés_ in the North of Germany that no
line of demarcation was seen between them."
But it is time to turn to the testimony of another witness on the
activities of the secret societies which is likewise to be found at the
Archives Nationales.[650] This consists of a document transmitted by the
Court of Vienna to the Government of France after the Restoration, and
contains the interrogatory of a certain Witt Doehring, a nephew of the
Baron d'Eckstein, who, after taking part in secret society intrigues,
was summoned before the judge Abel at Bayreuth in February, 1824.
Amongst secret associations recently existing in Germany, the witness
asserted, were the "Independents" and the "Absolutes"; the latter
"adored in Robespierre their most perfect ideal, so that the crimes
committed during the French Revolution by this monster and the
Montagnards of the Convention were in their eyes, in accordance with
their moral system, heroic actions ennobled and sanctified by their
aim." The same document goes on to explain why so many combustible
elements had failed to produce an explosion in Germany:
The thing that seemed the great obstacle to the plans of the
Independents... was what they called the servile character and the
dog-like fidelity [_Hundestreue_] of the German people, that is to
say, that attachment--innate and firmly impressed on their minds
without even the aid of reason--which that excellent people
everywhere bears towards its princes.
A traveller in Germany during the year 1795 admirably summed up the
matter in these words:
The Germans are in this respect [of democracy] the most curious
people in the world ... the cold and sober temperament of the
Germans and their tranquil imagination enable them to combine the
most daring opinions with the most servile conduct. That will
explain to you ... why so much combustible material accumulating
for so many years beneath the political edifice of Germany has not
yet damaged it. Most of the princes, accustomed to see their men of
letters so constantly free in their writings and so constantly
slavish in their hearts, have not thought it necessary to use
severity against this sheeplike herd of modern Gracchi and
Brutuses. Some of them [the princes] have even without difficulty
adopted part of their opinions, and Illuminism having doubtless
been presented to them as perfection, the complement of philosophy,
they were easily persuaded to be initiated into it. But great care
was taken not to let them know more than the interests of the sect
demanded.[651]
It was thus that Illuminism, unable to provoke a blaze in the home of
its birth, spread, as before the French Revolution, to a more
inflammable Latin race--this time the Italians. Six years after his
interrogatory at Beyreuth, Witt Doehring published his book on the
secret societies of France and Italy, in which he now realized he had
played the part of dupe, and incidentally confirms the statement I have
previously quoted, that the Alta Vendita was a further development of
the Illuminati.
This infamous association, with which I have dealt at length
elsewhere,[652] constituted the Supreme Directory of the Carbonari and
was led by a group of Italian noblemen, amongst whom a prince, "the
profoundest of initiates, was charged as Inspector-General of the Order"
to propagate its principles throughout the North of Europe. "He had
received from the hands of Kingge [i.e. Knigge, the ally of Weishaupt?]
the cahiers of the last three degrees." But these were of course unknown
to the great majority of Carbonari, who entered the association in all
good faith. Witt Doehring then shows how faithfully the system of
Weishaupt was carried out by the Alta Vendita. In the three first
degrees, he explains--
It is still a question of the morality of Christianity and even of
the Church, for which those who wish to be received must promise to
sacrifice themselves. The initiates imagine, according to this
formula, that the object of the association is something high and
noble, that it is the Order of those who desire a purer morality
and a stronger piety, the independence and the unity of their
country. One cannot therefore judge the Carbonari _en masse_; there
are excellent men amongst them.... But everything changes after one
has taken the three degrees. Already in the fourth, in that of the
_Apostoli_, one promises to overthrow all monarchies, and
especially the kings of the race of the Bourbons. But it is only in
the seventh and last degree, reached by few, that revelations go
further. At last the veil is torn completely for the Principi Summo
Patriarcho. Then one learns that the aim of the Carbonari is just
the same as that of the _Illuminés_. This degree, in which a man is
at the same time prince and bishop, coincides with the Homo Rex of
the latter. The initiate vows the ruin of all religion and of all
positive government, whether despotic or democratic; murder,
poison, perjury, are all at their disposal. Who does not remember
that on the suppression of the _Illuminés_ was found, amongst other
poisons, a _tinctura ad abortum faciendum_. The _summo maestro_
laughs at the zeal of the mass of Carbonari who have sacrificed
themselves for the liberty and independence of Italy, neither one
nor the other being for him a goal but a method.[653]
Witt Doehring, who had himself reached the degree of P.S.P., thereupon
declares that, having taken his vows under a misapprehension, he holds
himself to be released from his obligations and conceives it his duty to
warn society. "The fears that assail governments are only too well
founded. The soil of Europe is volcanic."[654]
It is unnecessary to go over the ground already traversed in _World
Revolution_ by relating the history of the successive eruptions which
proved the truth of Witt Doehring's warning. The point to emphasize
again is that every one of these eruptions can be traced to the work of
the secret societies, and that, as in the eighteenth century, most of
the prominent revolutionaries were known to be connected with some
secret association. According to the plan laid down by Weishaupt,
Freemasonry was habitually adopted as a cover. Thus Louis _Amis de la
Vérité_, numbering Bazard and Buchez amongst Blanc, himself a Freemason,
speaks of a lodge named the its founders, "in which the solemn
puerilities of the Grand Orient only served to mask political action."[655]
Bakunin, companion of the Freemason Proudhon,[656] "the father of
Anarchy," makes use of precisely the same expression. Freemasonry, he
explains, is not to be taken seriously, but "may serve as a mask" and
"as a means of preparing something quite different."[657]
I have quoted elsewhere the statement of the Socialist Malon that
"Bakunin was a disciple of Weishaupt," and that of the Anarchist
Kropotkine that between Bakunin's secret society--the _Alliance Sociale
Démocratique_--and the secret societies of 1795 there was a direct
affiliation; I have quoted the assertion of Malon that "Communism was
handed down in the dark through the secret societies" of the nineteenth
century; I have quoted also the congratulations addressed by Lamartine
and the Freemason Crémieux to the Freemasons of France in 1848 on their
share in this revolution as in that of 1789; I have shown that the
organization of this later outbreak by the secret societies is not a
matter of surmise, but a fact admitted by all well-informed historians
and by the members of the secret societies themselves.
So, too, in the events of the Commune, and in the founding of the First
Internationale, the role of Freemasonry and the secret societies is no
less apparent. The Freemasons of France have indeed always boasted of
their share in political and social upheavals. Thus in 1874, Malapert,
orator of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite,
went so far as to say: "In the eighteenth century Freemasonry was so
widespread throughout the world that one can say that since that epoch
nothing has been done without its consent."
The secret history of Europe during the last two hundred years yet
remains to be written. Until viewed in the light of the _dessous des
cartes_, many events that have taken place during this period must
remain for ever incomprehensible.
But it is time to leave the past and consider the secret forces at work
in the world to-day.