ore not Martinism, Cabalism, or Freemasonry that in
themselves provided the real revolutionary force. Many non-illuminized
Freemasons, as Barruel himself declares, remained loyal to the throne
and altar, and as soon as the monarchy was seen to be in danger the
Royalist Brothers of the _Contrat Social_ boldly summoned the lodges to
coalesce in defence of King and Constitution; even some of the upper
Masons, who in the degree of Knight Kadosch had sworn hatred to the Pope
and Bourbon monarchy, rallied likewise to the royal cause. "The French
spirit triumphed over the masonic spirit in the greater number of the
Brothers. Opinions as well as hearts were still for the King." It
needed the devastating doctrines of Weishaupt to undermine this spirit
and to turn the "degrees of vengeance" from vain ceremonial into
terrible fact.

If, then, it is said that the Revolution was prepared in the lodges of
Freemasons--and many French Masons have boasted of the fact--let it
always be added that it was _Illuminized Freemasonry_ that made the
Revolution, and that the Masons who acclaim it are illuminized Masons,
inheritors of the same tradition introduced into the lodges of France in
1787 by the disciples of Weishaupt, "patriarch of the Jacobins."

Many of the Freemasons of France in 1787 were thus not conscious allies
of the Illuminati. According to Cadet de Gassicourt, there were in all
the lodges only twenty-seven real initiates; the rest were largely dupes
who knew little or nothing of the source whence the fresh influence
among them derived. The amazing feature of the whole situation is that
the most enthusiastic supporters of the movement were men belonging to
the upper classes and even to the royal families of Europe. A
contemporary relates that no less than thirty princes--reigning and
non-reigning--had taken under their protection a confederation from
which they stood to lose everything and had become so imbued by its
principles that they were inaccessible to reason.[612] Intoxicated by
the flattery lavished on them by the priests of Illuminism, they adopted
a religion of which they understood nothing. Weishaupt, of course, had
taken care that none of these royal dupes should be initiated into the
real aims of the Order, and at first adhered to the original plan of
excluding them altogether; but the value of their co-operation soon
became apparent and by a supreme irony it was with a Grand Duke that he
himself took refuge.

B