Few names stir the imagination as much as that of the Illuminati. Yet the historical order bearing this name had a short, limited and well-documented life, partly because its internal papers were seized and published. Reconstructing its real history is the best way to separate it from the conspiracy theories that have grown up around it.
The founding at Ingolstadt
On 1 May 1776, at Ingolstadt in Bavaria, Adam Weishaupt founded a secret association with a few students. Weishaupt was professor of canon law at the local university, a chair traditionally held by the Jesuits, whose order had been suppressed a few years earlier, in 1773.
The association was first called the Perfectibilists, then took the name of the Order of the Illuminati. Its stated aim was to spread the principles of the Enlightenment, reason and morality, in a setting that Weishaupt considered dominated by obscurantism and clerical influence.
Pseudonyms and secrets
From the start the order adopted a carefully designed system of secrecy:
- each member received a pseudonym drawn from classical antiquity: Weishaupt was "Spartacus";
- cities had code names;
- dates were given using a calendar with Persian month names;
- lower members did not know the identity of their superiors.
Members also had to send their superiors regular reports on their reading, their moral progress and sometimes on the people they associated with. This practice, intended as a tool of formation, later contributed to the order's bad reputation.
The encounter with Freemasonry
For some years the order remained small. The turning point came in 1780 with the entry of Baron Adolph Knigge, a writer and experienced Freemason, who took the pseudonym "Philo". Knigge restructured the order by linking it to Freemasonry: the Illuminati degrees were grafted on top of the Masonic degrees, and many lodges were drawn into the system.
The timing was favourable. After the Convent of Wilhelmsbad in 1782, which had abandoned the claim to Templar descent, many German Freemasons were looking for a new direction, and the Illuminati offered a rationalist, reforming programme.
The degree structure
The final structure, worked out mainly by Knigge, comprised three classes:
| Class | Main degrees |
|---|---|
| Preparatory | Novice, Minerval, Lesser Illuminatus |
| Masonic | Apprentice, Fellow, Master, Greater Illuminatus, Directing Illuminatus |
| Mysteries | Priest, Regent; Magus and King in the greater mysteries |
The Minervals' symbol was the owl of Minerva, goddess of wisdom. Each degree involved reading texts and carrying out tasks, on a path conceived as a progressive education.
Members and spread
At its greatest extent the order counted, according to historians' estimates, about two thousand members, mainly in Germany and Austria. They included officials, professors, clergymen and nobles. Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Johann Gottfried Herder also appear among the members, although their involvement does not seem to have been particularly active.
Internal conflicts
In 1784 Knigge left the order after bitter disputes with Weishaupt, who insisted on keeping control and criticised the ritual elements the baron had introduced. The tensions weakened the organisation just as the authorities were beginning to take an interest in it.
The edicts of Karl Theodor
The Elector of Bavaria, Karl Theodor, issued in 1784 a first edict banning all unauthorised secret societies. In 1785 a second edict followed that explicitly named the Illuminati and the Freemasons. Weishaupt lost his chair and left Bavaria, taking refuge in Gotha under the protection of Duke Ernest II.
In 1786 searches of some members' homes led to the seizure of internal documents, which the Bavarian government published in 1787. The publication aimed to discredit the order and it succeeded: the papers, with their plans for influencing institutions, caused a scandal.
The birth of the myth
After the French Revolution some authors attributed to the Illuminati a role in preparing the events of 1789. The Abbé Augustin Barruel, in his Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism of 1797-1798, and the Scot John Robison, in his Proofs of a Conspiracy of 1797, argued that a network of Freemasons and Illuminati had organised the revolution.
Historians have found no evidence of an organised survival of the order after the mid-1780s. The myth, on the other hand, has had a very long life and still feeds conspiracy theories today.
In short
- The Illuminati were founded on 1 May 1776 at Ingolstadt by Adam Weishaupt, professor of canon law.
- They used classical pseudonyms, code names and written reports to superiors.
- With Adolph Knigge, from 1780, the order was grafted onto Freemasonry and spread.
- The Bavarian edicts of 1784 and 1785 led to its dissolution.
- The legend of its survival arose after the French Revolution, with Barruel and Robison.
