tirely new departure in the history of
European secret societies. Weishaupt himself indicates this as one of
the great secrets of the Order. "Above all," he writes to "Cato" (alias
Zwack), "guard the origin and the novelty of (*) in the most careful
way."[506] "The greatest mystery," he says again, "must be that the
thing is new; the fewer who know this the better.... Not one of the
Eichstadters knows this but would live or die for it that the thing is
as old as Methuselah."[507]

This pretence of having discovered some fund of ancient wisdom is the
invariable ruse of secret society adepts; the one thing never admitted
is the identity of the individuals from whom one is receiving direction.
Weishaupt himself declares that he has got it all out of books by means
of arduous and unremitting labour. "What it costs me to read, study,
think, write, cross out, and re-write!" he complains to Marius and
Cato.[508] Thus, according to Weishaupt the whole system is the work of
his own unaided genius, and the supreme direction remains in his hands
alone. Again and again he insists on this point in his correspondence.

If this were indeed the case, Weishaupt--in view of the efficiency
achieved by the Order--must have been a genius of the first water, and
it is difficult to understand why so remarkable a man should not have
distinguished himself on other lines, but have remained almost unknown
to posterity. It would therefore appear possible that Weishaupt,
although undoubtedly a man of immense organizing capacity and endowed
with extraofdinary subtlety, was not in reality the sole author of
Illuminism, but one of a group, which, recognizing his talents and the
value of his untiring activity, placed the direction in his hands. Let
us examine this hypothesis in the light of a document which was unknown
to me when I wrote my former account of the Illuminati.

Barruel has pointed out that the great error of Robison was to describe
Illuminism as arising out of Freemasonry, since Weishaupt did not become
a Freemason until after he had founded his Order. It is true that
Weishaupt was not officially received into Freemasonry until 1777, when
he was initiated into the first degree at the Lodge "Theodore de Bon
Conseil," at Munich. From this time we find him continually occupied in
trying to discover more about the secrets of Freemasonry, whilst himself
claiming superior knowledge.

But at the same time it is by no means certain that an inn