Are the illuminati real? - Chip Berlet
The year was 1776.
In Bavaria, new ideals of rationalism,
religious freedom,
and universal human rights
competed with the Catholic church’s
heavy influence over public affairs.
Across the Atlantic,
a new nation staked its claim for
independence on the basis of these ideas.
But back in Bavaria,
law professor Adam Weishaupt’s
attempts to teach secular philosophy
continued to be frustrated.
Weishaupt decided to spread his ideas
through a secret society
that would shine a light on the
shortcomings of the Church’s ideology.
He called his secret society
the Illuminati.
Weishaupt modelled aspects of his secret
society off a group called the Freemasons.
Originally an elite stoneworkers’
guild in the late Middle Ages,
the Freemasons had gone from passing
down the craft of masonry
to more generally promoting ideals of
knowledge and reason.
Over time, they had grown into a
semi-secret, exclusive order
that included many wealthy and
influential individuals,
with elaborate, secret initiation rituals.
Weishaupt created his parallel
society while also joining the Freemasons
and recruiting from their ranks.
He adopted the code name
Spartacus for himself,
after the famed leader of the
Roman slave revolt.
Early members became the Illuminati’s
ruling council, or Areopagus.
One of these members, Baron Adolph
Knigge, was also a freemason,
and became an influential recruiter.
With Knigge’s help, the Illuminati
expanded their numbers,
gained influence within
several Masonic chapters,
and incorporated Masonic rituals.
By 1784, there were over 600 members,
including influential scholars
and politicians.
As the Illuminati gained members,
the American Revolution also
gained momentum.
Thomas Jefferson would later cite
Weishaupt as an inspiration.
European monarchs and clergy were fearful
of similar revolts on their home soil.
Meanwhile, the existence of the Illuminati
had become an open secret.
Both the Illuminati and the Freemasons
drew exclusively
from society’s wealthy elite,
which meant they were constantly
rubbing shoulders
with members of the religious and
political establishment.
Many in the government and church
believed that both groups
were determined to undermine the
people’s religious faith.
But these groups didn’t necessarily
oppose religion—
they just believed it should be kept
separate from governance.
Still, the suspicious Bavarian government
started keeping records
of alleged members of the Illuminati.
Just as Illuminati members begun to secure
important positions in local governments
and universities,
a 1784 decree by Duke Karl Theodor
of Bavaria banned all secret societies.
While a public ban on something ostensibly
secret might seem difficult to enforce,
in this case it worked.
Only nine years after its founding,
the group dissolved,
their records were seized,
and Weishaupt forced into exile.
The Illuminati would become more
notorious in their afterlife
than they had ever been in
their brief existence.
A decade later, in the aftermath
of the French Revolution,
conservative authors claimed the
Illuminati had survived their banishment
and orchestrated the overthrow
of the monarchy.
In the United States,
preacher Jedidiah Morse promoted
similar ideas of an Illuminati conspiracy
against the government.
But though the idea of a secret group
orchestrating political upheaval
is still alive and well today, there is no
evidence that the Illuminati survived,
reformed, or went underground.
Their brief tenure is well-documented
in Bavarian government records,
the still-active Freemasons’s records,
and particularly the overlap between
these two sources,
without a whisper since.
In the spirit of rationalism the
Illuminati embraced,
one must conclude they no longer exist.
But the ideas that spurred Weishaupt
to found the illuminati still spread,
becoming the basis for many Western
governments today.
These ideas didn’t start or end
with the Illuminati—
instead, it was one community that
represented a wave of change
that was already underway
when it was founded
and continued long after it ended.
