Part 18 (1/2)

It is therefore by no means impossible that Weishaupt was at first the agent of more experienced conspirators, whose purely political aims were disguised under a plan of social reform, and who saw in the Bavarian professor a clever organizer to be employed in carrying out their designs.

Whether this was so or not, the fact remains that from the time Weishaupt a.s.sumed control of the Order the plan of ”social reform”

described by Mirabeau vanishes entirely, for not a word do we find in the writings of the Illuminati about any pretended scheme for ameliorating the lot of the people, and Illuminism becomes simply a scheme of anarchic philosophy. The French historian Henri Martin has thus admirably summed up the system elaborated by ”Spartacus”:

Weishaupt had made into an absolute theory the misanthropic gibes _[boutades]_ of Rousseau at the invention of property and society, and without taking into account the statement so distinctly formulated by Rousseau on the impossibility of suppressing property and society once they had been established, he proposed as the end of Illuminism the abolition of property, social authority, of nationality, and the return of the human race to the happy state in which it formed only a single family without artificial needs, without useless sciences, every father being priest and magistrate.

Priest of we know not what religion, for in spite of their frequent invocations of the G.o.d of Nature, many indications lead us to conclude that Weishaupt had, like Diderot and d'Holbach, no other G.o.d than Nature herself. From his doctrine would naturally follow the German ultra-Hegelianism and the system of anarchy recently developed in France, of which the physiognomy suggests a foreign origin.[515]

This summary of the aims of the Illuminati, which absolutely corroborates the view of Barruel and Robison, is confirmed in detail by the Socialist Freethinker of the nineteenth century Louis Blanc, who in his remarkable chapter on the ”Revolutionnaires Mystiques” refers to Weishaupt as ”One of the profoundest conspirators who have ever existed.”[516] George Sand also, Socialist and _intime_ of the Freemasons, wrote of ”the European conspiracy of Illuminism” and the immense influence exercised by the secret societies of ”mystic Germany.”

To say, then, that Barruel and Robison were alone in proclaiming the danger of Illuminism is simply a deliberate perversion of the truth, and it is difficult to understand why English Freemasons should have allowed themselves to be misled on this question.

Thus the _Masonic Cyclopaedia_ observes that the Illuminati ”were, as a rule, men of the strictest morality and humanity, and the ideas they sought to instil were those which have found universal acceptance in our own times.” Preston, in his _Ill.u.s.trations of Masonry_, also does his best to gloss over the faults of the Order, and even ”the historian of Freemasonry” devotes to its founder this astounding apology. After describing Weishaupt as the victim of Jesuit intrigue, Mr. Gould goes on to say:

He conceived the idea of combating his foes with their own weapons, and forming a society of young men, enthusiastic in the cause of humanity, who should gradually be trained to work as one man to one end--the destruction of evil and the enhancement of good in this world. Unfortunately he had unconsciously imbibed that most pernicious doctrine that the end justifies the means, and his whole plan reveals the effects of his youthful teaching.... The man himself was without guile, ignorant of men, knowing them only by books, a learned professor, an enthusiast who took a wrong course in all innocence, and the faults of his head have been heavily visited upon his memory in spite of the rare qualities of his heart.[517]

One can only conclude that these extraordinary exonerations of an Order bitterly hostile to the true aims of Masonry proceed from ignorance of the real nature of Illuminism. In order to judge of this it is only necessary to consult the writings of the Illuminati themselves, which are contained in the following works:

1. _Einige Originalschriften des Illuminatenordens_ (Munich, 1787).

2. _Nachtrag von weitern Originalschriften, etc._ (Munich, 1787).

3. _Die neuesten Arbeiten des Spartacus und Philo in dem Illuminaten-Orden_ (Munich, 1794).

All these consist in the correspondence and papers of the Order which were seized by the Bavarian Government at the houses of two of the members, Zwack and Ba.s.sus, and published by order of the Elector. The authenticity of these doc.u.ments has never been denied even by the Illuminati themselves; Weishaupt, in his published defence, endeavoured only to explain away the most incriminating pa.s.sages. The publishers, moreover, were careful to state at the beginning of the first volume: ”Those who might have any doubts on the authenticity of this collection may present themselves at the Secret Archives here, where, on request, the original doc.u.ments will be laid before them.” This precaution rendered all dispute impossible.

Setting Barruel and Robison entirely aside, we shall now see from the evidence of their own writings, how far the Illuminati can be regarded as a praiseworthy and cruelly maligned Order. Let us begin with their att.i.tude towards Freemasonry.

Illuminism and Freemasonry

From the moment of Weishaupt's admission into Freemasonry his whole conduct was a violation of the Masonic code. Instead of proceeding after the recognized manner by successive stages of initiation, he set himself to find out further secrets by underhand methods and then to turn them to the advantage of his own system. Thus about a year after his initiation he writes to Cato (alias Zwack): ”I have succeeded in obtaining a profound glimpse into the secret of the Freemasons. I know their whole aim and shall impart it all at the right time in one of the higher degrees.”[518]

Cato is then deputed to make further discoveries through an Italian Freemason, the Abbe Marotti, which he records triumphantly in his diary:

Interview with the Abbe Marotti on the question of Masonry, when he explained to me the whole secret, which is founded on old religion and Church history, and imparted to me all the higher degrees up to the Scottish. Informed Spartacus of this.[519]

Spartacus, however, unimpressed by this communication, replied drily:

Whether you know the aim of Masonry I doubt. I have myself included an insight into this structure in my plan, but reserved it for later degrees.[520]

Weishaupt then decides that all illuminated ”Areopagites” shall take the first three degrees of Freemasonry[521]; but further:

That we shall have a masonic lodge of our own. That we shall regard this as our nursery garden. That to some of these Masons we shall not at once reveal that we have something more than the Masons have. That at every opportunity we shall cover ourselves with this [Masonry].... All those who are not suited to the work shall remain in the masonic Lodge and advance in that without knowing anything of the further system.[522]

We shall find this plan of an inner secret circle concealed within Freemasonry persisting up to our own day.

Weishaupt, however, admits himself puzzled with regard to the past of Masonry, and urges ”Porcius” to find out more on this question from the Abbe Marotti: