miracle worker of Wellclose Square?

But already a vaster genius than Falk or Cagliostro, than Pasqually or
Savalette de Langes, had arisen, who, gathering into his hands the
threads of all the conspiracies, was able to weave them together into a
gigantic scheme for the destruction of France and of the world.

9

The Bavarian Illuminati

The question of the system to which I shall henceforth refer simply as
Illuminism is of such immense importance to an understanding of the
modern revolutionary movement that, although I have already described it
in detail in _World Revolution_, it is necessary to devote a further
chapter to it here in order to answer the objections made against my
former account of the Order and also to show its connexion with earlier
secret societies.

Now, the main contentions of those writers who, either consciously or
unconsciously, attempt to mislead the public on the true nature and real
existence of Illuminism are:

Firstly, that the case against Illuminism rests solely on the works of
Robison, and of Barruel and later Catholic authorities.

Secondly, that all these writers misinterpreted or misquoted the
Illuminati, who should be judged only by their own works.

Thirdly, that in reality the Illuminati were perfectly innocuous and
even praiseworthy.

Fourthly, that they are of no importance, since they ceased to exist in
1786.

In the present chapter I propose therefore to answer all these
contentions in turn and at the same time to make further examination
into the origins of the Order.

Origins of the Illuminati

That Weishaupt was not the originator of the system he named Illuminism
will be already apparent to every reader of the present work; it has
needed, in fact, all the foregoing chapters to trace the source of
Weishaupt's doctrines throughout the history of the world. From these it
will be evident that men aiming at the overthrow of the existing social
order and of all accepted religion had existed from the earliest times,
and that in the Cainites, the Carpocratians, the Manichaens, the
Batinis, the Fatimites, and the Karmathites many of Weishaupt's ideas
had already been foreshadowed. To the Manichaeans, in fact, the word
"Illuminati" may be traced--"gloriantur Manichaei se de caelo
illuminatos."[494]

It is in the sect of Abdullah ibn Maymun that we must seek the model
for Weishaupt's system of organization. Thus de Sacy has described in
the following