ten off as “conspiracy theorists.”rnThere are two ways of dealing with the Wliig position. Thernfirst is to reduce it to the absurd conclusion of the history professorrnfrom Cincinnati: Once we solve the problem of history,rnwe are confronted by an architectural problem, namely, whyrnpeople build all those rooms in all those buildings. The alternativernis more realistic: Yes, there are people, and—yes—theyrndo get together in rooms. In fact, the most powerful of thosernpeople often change the course of history by what they decidernin those rooms. Lest anyone accuse us of battling stra\’ men, letrnus confront the historical fact that the 18th century was knownrnas the age of the secret society, and that the effects of one ofrnthose secret societies is with us still.rnOn May 1, 1776, Adam Weishaupt, a professor of canonrnlaw at the University of Ingolstadt in Bavaria, founded anrnorganization he called the Club of the Perfectible. The namernwas later changed to the Order of the Bees, and changed againrnto that by which it is remembered today: the Order of the Illuminati.rnThe Illuminati might have remained the equivalent of arnBavarian fraternitv house were it not for Weishaupt’s fortuitousrnmeeting with a northern German aristocrat of extraordinary organizationalrncapabilit’. In 1780, while attending meetings atrnthe Frankfurt lodge Zur Einigkeit, Weishaupt met Adolph Freiherrrnvon Knigge, who immediately fell under Weishaupt’srnspell. Knigge had joined a Masonic lodge of “strict observance”rnin Kassel in 1773, but—like many of his brother Masons—hernwas dissatisfied with the status quo, which involved elaborate rituals,rnconstant bickering, and one group splitting off from another.rnIn Weishaupt’s Illuminati, Knigge saw an instrumentrnthat would bring order out of chaos and reform the increasinglyrnfractious Masonic groups.rnWith the conclusion of the Thirty Years War, Germany hadrnbeen divided up according to the religion of its princes. Knigge,rnwho became a member of the Illuminati on July 5, 1778, gavernWeishaupt’s essentially Catholic and Bavarian organization accessrnto the Protestant principalities in northern Germany; as arnresult, membership took off, jumping to 500 men throughoutrnGermany. But the numbers tell only half of the story. Kniggernadded to Weishaupt’s following of university students by attractingrnaristocrats and influential bureaucrats and thinkers fromrnacross Germany, using existing Masonic lodges as a source ofrnrecruits.rnA crucial event in this regard was the Wilhelmsbad Congress,rna Masonic convention held near Hanau from July 16 to Septemberrn1, 1782. Upon returning from the congress, Henry dernVirieu told a friend: “The whole business is more serious thanrn)’ou think. The plot has so carefully been hatched that it’s practicallyrnimpossible for the Church and the Monarchy to escape.”rnThe idea would fail, however, because of strife within the Illuminati.rnIronically, the Illuminist system of contiol led to thernbreak. Knigge’s success in recruiting new members madernWeishaupt feel that he was being superseded by his subordinate,rnleading him to increase his control, which generated strifernwith Knigge, who felt that he was being treated badly. Accordingrnto Knigge’s account, Spartacus (Weishaupt’s Illuministrncode name) abused and tyrannized his subordinates and intendedrn”to subjugate mankind to a more malicious yoke thanrnthat conceived by the Jesuits.”rnOn July 1, 1784, the Illuminati issued an official expulsionrnorder against Knigge. The purging of Knigge, whose organizationalrnand recruiting abilities had brought the Illuminati to arnmembership of around 2,000, came at an especially bad time.rnOne week before, on June 22, the Bavarian government had issuedrnits first edict forbidding membership in secret societies.rnOther edicts would follow on March 2,1785, and on August 16.rnOn January 2, 1785, the prince-bishop of Eichstaett demandedrnthat the prince of Bavaria purge all Illuminati from the Universityrnof Ingolstadt. In spite of the secret membership rolls,rnWeishaupt was a prime suspect because of the radical Enlightenmentrnbooks he had ordered for the university library. He wasrnremoved from his chair of canon law on February 11, 1784.rnOver the next year, the hue and cry against secret societies increasedrndramatically. Ratiier than wait for his dismissal to developrninto criminal prosecution or a hefty fine, Weishaupt fledrnfrom Ingolstadt to the neighboring Protestant free city of Regensburgrnon February 2, 1785. When the Bavarian governmentrndemanded his extradition and put out a reward for hisrncapture, Weishaupt fled to the Protestant duchy of Gotha,rnwhere he and his family found protection under fellow IlluminatusrnDuke Ernst II.rnIf the Bavarian authorities had left it at that, the Illuminatirnwould probably have remained a minor footnote in a very smallrnbook. But, in June 1785, certain important papers were foundrnamong the effects of Jakob Lanz, a secular priest and Illuminatusrnwho had been struck dead by a lighhiing bolt. These papersrntestified to the Illimiinati’s intention to subvert the Masonicrnlodges. In October 1786 and May 1787, more papers were discoveredrnwhen the house of Illuminatus Franz Xaver Zwack wasrnsearched after he had been demoted from his position at therncourt council and sent to Landshut. These papers, which constitutedrnan internal history of the organization, proved the conspiratorialrnnature of the secret socieh’ beyond a doubt. ThernBavarian government made a fateful decision: They publishedrnwhat they had found and, thus, assured Weishaupt and his conspiratorsrnan influence they never could have achieved on theirrnown. The first batch of documents was published on Octoberrn12,1786, igniting a furor that would last for years.rnFrom the time Voltaire became enamored of Newtonianrnphysics during his visit to England in the 1720’s, Enlightenmentrnthinkers had aspired to create a replacement for the Christianrnsocial order based on “scientific” principles. “Mankind,”rnwrote Baron D’Holbach in his influential treatise The System ofrnNature, “are unhappy, in proportion as they are deluded byrnimaginary systems of flieology.”rnAs the initial Illuminist documents began to be published,rnWeishaupt’s revolutionary intent became clear. In his 1782rnspeech, “Anrede an die neuaufzunehmenden Illuminatos dirigentes,”rnWeishaupt provided his enemies with clear evidencernthat his secret society v^as intent on toppling throne and altarrnthroughout Europe. Rossberg called the speech the “heart of IIluminism,”rnwhile Leopold Alois Hoft’man, one of the leadingrnlights in the counterrevolutionary movement, felt that he couldrntrace the “entire French revolution and its most salient events”rnback to the maxims of the Anrede.rnBut the significance of Illuminism did not lie in its exhortationrnto topple throne and altar. Rather—and this is what thernconservative readership found most disturbing—Illuminismrnseemed to propose an especially effective system to bring aboutrnthose ends. Weishaupt had developed a system of contiol basedrnon disciplined cells that would do the bidding of their revolutionar)’rnmasters—often, it seemed, without the slightest inklingrnthat they were being ordered to do so. This system was effectivernMARCH 2001/17rnrnrn