Psilon
07-02-2003, 03:48 AM
http://www.atheists.org/Atheism/roots/enlightenment/
In the history of Atheism, no period is as complex and exciting as that time we know today as the Enlightenment. Cultural historians and philosophers consider this era to have spanned the eighteenth century, cresting during the French Revolution of 1789. It was a phenomenon which swept the western world, drowning in its wake many of the sclerotic and despotic institutions of l'ancien regime or old order, and helping to crystallize a new view of man and the roles of reason, nature, progress and religion.
And too, the Enlightenment was a feverish period of Atheistic thought and propaganda. Many of the leading philosophers of the time were Atheists or deists, opposed to the cultural and political hegemony long exercised by the Vatican and its shock troops, the Jesuits. Much of the political, social and literary activity of the Enlightenment was characterized by a repudiation of Christianity, and the formulation of doctrines calling for separation, if not outright abolition, of state and church.
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Illuminati
While there are many currents to this period, one of the fascinating and little-explored backwater eddys of particular interest to Atheists and libertarians is the role of Masonic lodges and "secret societies" during this time. Surprisingly little objective historical work exists on this area. The drama of social revolution and intellectual apostacy was taking place not only in the streets of Paris, or the open fields of Lexington and Concord, but in countless lodges and sect gatherings and reading societies as well. These conclaves, with their metaphorical-hermetic secrets, symbolism and lore, were the crucibles of "impiety and anarchy" so bemoaned by church dogmatists of the time like the Jesuit Abbe Barruel. Of all of the clubs, societies, libraries, salons and lodges of this stormy time, perhaps none has been so villified, attacked and misunderstood as that group known as the Order of the Illuminati.
My purpose here is not to write a history of the French Revolution, or even attempt the herculean task of digesting the complex fabric of the Enlightenment. We do know, however, that much of the best in western civilization today rests on some of the ideas germinated or reformulated during that age of revolution, ideas formulated by Atheists, deists, rationalists and state-church separationists. What I hope to undertake here is a twofold task: an examination of Freemasonry, with its founding and subsequent role in the Enlightenment, and an examination and defense of the maligned, little-understood sect of the Illuminati — a defense long overdue.
It is ironic, yet in a way fitting, that the most secret, yet historically popular manifestation of Enlightenment conspiratorialism was formed in Bavaria. It was here in the middle of the 18th century that the ideas of the Enlightenment met such hostility and censure from an entrenched clerical and aristocratic establishment. 18 One traveler reported the existence of some 28,000 churches and chapels; Munich, a city of only 40,000 boasted 17 convents. As one writer observed, "the degree of power to which the representatives of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) had been able to obtain in Bavaria was all but absolute". 19 It was in Bavaria on February 6, 1748 that Adam Weishaupt was born, son of a professor of canon law at the University of Ingolstadt. The father died when the boy was seven; the child's intensive education then rested in the hands of his godfather. Baron von Ickstatt, a member of the Privy Council. 20 Adam had free access to the Baron's magnificent library, which was well-stocked with the works of the Enlightenment philosophers.
The young Weishaupt graduated from the university in 1768, rising quickly within the Jesuit-dominated institution to become a full professor in 1733. 21 Despite his militant Atheism, he managed to become dean of the law faculty two years later at the age of 27.
Constantly at odds with university and ecclesiastical authorities, Weishaupt conceived the idea of forming a secret society, an order, organized along lines similar to the Jesuits, yet committed to the ideals of the Enlightenment. 22 Weishaupt had embraced the Rousseauian vision of a world free of the constraints of government and church, where humanity would exist in a universal community with nature.
Yet he was more than a visionary day-dreamer; he was prone to action, convinced that only the relentless work of a powerful secret order could counter the pernicious influences of the clergy. This contestation embraced Manichean symbolism, a war between light and darkness, between the illumination of reason and the sordid dark ignorance of religious superstition. LeForestier wrote that Weishaupt contemplated his scheme for several years and — after bickcring over an appropriate name — founded the Order of the Illuminati on May 1, 1776. 23 It was this order which was to become, in the words of the Jesuit polemicist Abbe Barruel, "the conspiracy of the sophisters of Impiety and Anarchy against every religion natural or revealed...." 24
Unfortunately, Barruel's four-volume work has come to constitute one of the few sources of information on the Order of the Illuminati. The Abbe labeled Weishaupt:
...an odious phenomenon in nature, an Atheist void of remourse, a profound hypocrite, destitute of those superior talents which lead to the vindication of truth, he is possessed of all that energy and ardour in vice which generates conspirators for impiety and anarchy.
Continuing, Barruel claims the Order's Chief to be:
...head of a conspiracy which, when compared with those of the clubs of Voltaire and D'Alambert, or with the secret committees of D'Orleans, make these latter appear like the faint imitations of puerility, and show the sophister and the Brigand as mere novices in the arts of revolution.
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Borrowing from the masonic model, Weishaupt structured the Order in pyramid-like fashion, with novices starting at the bottom degree of 'minerval', and receiving training in a network of minerval academies. These circles met each month to discuss recruitment and the various tasks of the Order; there was also a thorough schooling in those "impious" works of the day, such as the writings of the Enlightenment philosophers. Minervals were often selected and enticed into the society by 'insinuators'; each candidate was required to complete an exhaustive autobiography of himself, his strengths, weaknesses and interests, as well as a statement of why he sought admission into the Illuminati.
The minerval academies also had the task of obtaining books and other literary materials useful to the Order, with the distant goal of establishing an institute for Enlightenment scholars, a library which would be an intellectual armory for use in the battle with, particularly, the witty Jesuits.
Those candidates who displayed an appreciation and interest in progressive Enlightenment ideals, as well as opposition and distaste for civil and ecclesiastical authority, would gradually be admitted to the higher grades of the Order. It was here that the true objectives of Illuminism were revealed. Far from being a mere study group or reading society that had no social or political goals, the Order was, in truth, to be a mechanism for the promulgation of the very "Impiety and Anarchy" denounced by Barruel. The Order was to work incessantly for the day, in Weishaupt's words, when
Princes and Nations shall disappear from off the face of the earth! Yes, a time shall come when man shall acknowledge no other law but the great book of nature; this revelation shall be the work of Secret Societies and that is one of our grand mysteries. ...25
Weishaupt eschewed the notion of seizing existing political structures, something truly exceptional for most revolutionists; men had to be re-made, as the stonemason shaped rock into a thing of harmony, beauty and perfection. "The grand art of rendering any revolution," he wrote, "whatsoever certain is to enlighten the people — and to enlighten them is, insensibly to turn the public opinion to the adoption of those changes which are the given objects of the intended revolution. ..." Illuminists at all grades were to apply themselves "to acquiring of interior and exterior perfection", a perfection which would, through the works of the Order, illuminate the entire world with reason and good deeds.
Such ideas and activities were prohibited not only in Bavaria but throughout most of Europe. The circulation of books and tracts was still regulated in a number of countries, 26 and the heavy hand of Jesuit intrigue remained, despite official disbandings of the Society in 1773. The Order did its work in secret, constantly fearing exposure to civil authority and the clergy. Indeed, at the lower level of the minerval academies, the order postured itself as having no interest in politics or religion per se, and concerned only with altruistic deeds based on the life of Jesus Christ!
Weishaupt's Order grew slowly, reaching a membership of 200-300, when the Marquis d'Costanza, acting as an insinuator, recruited Baron Adolph von Knigge in 1778. Knigge (1752-1796) was a noted German playwrite and novelist, who had translated Mozart's Magic Flute, an opera abundant with masonic allegory and symbolism. 27
Knigge was already a member of the masonic sect known as the Rite of Strict Observance, formed originally to combat the mystical and occult tendencies within Freemasonry. Despite his interest in occultism as a hobby, however, Knigge was an Atheist. 28
Following the Illuminist practice of adopting classical pseudonyms, Knigge was known henceforth as 'Philo'. Weishaupt had chosen the name of 'Spartacus', after the Thracian-Roman slave who lead a series of slave rebellions in 73-71 b.c., before falling to the imperial armies of Crassus. It was Baron Knigge who helped graft on to the Illuminati much of the ritual of Freemasonry but Weishaupt had dabbled in masonry several years before forming his Order, and considered it of little use in furthering his own purposes. It was Baron Xaverius von Zwack ('Cato'), a member of the Areopagites, or ruling council of Illuminism, who had begun the process of recruiting minervals from within masonic lodges. As a result of this, along with the tireless efforts of Knigge, the Order swelled in size to over 2,000 and extended throughout much of Europe. Each country had a national director who presided over a network of inspectors; they in turn carried on the business of the Order with the help of provincial aides, working down to the city level and minerval academy level.
Membership in the Order included some of the major figures of the German Enlightenment. Christopher Nicolai, a German Atheist, writer, critic and bookseller (1733-1811) was Master of the Berlin lodge. He co-founded the critical journal Bibliothek der Shonen Wissenschaffen und Freien Kunste, and collaborated in numerous literary reviews. Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803), German philosopher, Atheist and composer was an Illuminist, as was Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1823), German philosopher, writer and privy councilor. Goethe is best known, perhaps, as the creator of Faust, which some have speculated to be an Illuminist allegory.
At the zenith of its power and influence, the Order had perhaps as many as 3,000 members. The lodge at Munich, along with six other circles throughout Bavaria, boasted some 600 members in minerval and advanced degrees.
Illuminist organizations existed in Poland, Holland, England and France, often working within the masonic lodges which had become "illuminized" during the Congress of Wilhelmsbad in 1782. 29
The inevitable stresses of operating such a society, with the constant threat of banishment and public exposure, along with Weishaupt's own predeliction for secrecy and organizational detail, all took their devastating toil. As the order grew in numbers, so did the possibility of factionalism, inter-organizational strife and betrayal. The Order, so dedicated to the perfection of mankind, soon found itself immersed in the travails of bureaucracy and the imperfections of present-day human nature. Spartacus-Weishaupt wrote to Cato in August, 1783:
I am deprived of help. Socrates, who would insist on having a position of trust amongst us, and is really a man of talent, of the right way of thinking, is certainly drunk. Augustus' reputation could not be worse. Alcibiades does nothing but sit all day long with the vinter's pretty wife and spends his whole time in sighing and pinning with love. ... Tiberius attempted to ravish the wife of Democides, and her husband took them in the act. ...
So disillusioned with his undertaking at times was Weishaupt that he wrote, in anticipation of the arrival of a prominant candidate for membership in the Order, that the minerval would balk at joining a society of "dissolute, immoral wretches, whoremasters, liars, bankrupts, braggarts and vain fools.... " 30
Seized correspondence of the Illuminati, exhibited by Barruel, indicates that a growing portion of Weishaupt's activity was expended in maintaining a semblance of control of some of the freewheeling Illuminists. In one letter, Spartacus told a provincial lodge director that a "worthy Brother of the highest rank in the Order" has stolen jewelry from another member. Would the director implore the Brother to return his loot to its rightful owner? Despite his goal to "fit man by illumination for active virtue", even Weishaupt was caught up in the tragi-comedy; "I am in danger of losing at once my honour and reputation", he wrote, "by which I have had long such influence", and revealed that he had gotten his sister-in-law pregnant. Attempts to secure abortion failed, and Weishaupt was forced to consumate the cuckholding-marriage following the birth of a son.
Added to this were the problems inherent from the Congress of Wilhelmbad; despite gains made there in recruiting new members (such as Knigge), the victory in Illuminizing so much of Preemasonry was by no means total. Illuminist propaganda against the church had been traced to Lodge Theodore, which was dominated by the Order. The Bavarian elector directed that inquiries be made and the lodge was ordered dissolved. The closing of other lodges was soon ordered, as it became obvious to investigators that there was a conspiracy afoot against state and church; the inevitable quislings within the Illuminati soon appeared. Other factions of Masonry such as the Rosicrucians used this opportunity as well, and some Illuminists countered by theorizing that Jesuits were behind the plot to disband the Order. 31 Worse yet was the growing animosity between Weishaupt and Knigge; Philo labeled Spartacus a tyrant, while the embattled Weishaupt condemned his former associate for his growing obsession with occultism and ritual. The ultimate defection of Knigge helped seal the fate of the Order of the Illuminati. Disillusioned by the course of events, four university professors in the lower degrees of the Order disclosed their secret knowledge to the elector, charging that the sect posed a threat to Christianity, condoned epicurean pleasure, justified suicide, 32 and taught that "the end justified the means" if it served a noble cause. In 1785, with police raids, public trials and banishments, the Order was abolished.
Weishaupt was dismissed from his post at the University of Ingolstadt and was given a pension of some 40 pounds, which he refused. He then journeyed to Regenburg, where he began a pamphlet war with his Apologie der Illuminaten as a defense of the Order. He subsequently found refuge in the estate of the Count of Saxe-Gotha, Ernest, a member of the Illuminati. Weishaupt later became a professor at the University of Gottingen, where he published critical works on Kantian philosophy. He died there in 1830, his marvelous Order disbanded, and the world little closer to the illuminated heights which he had sought for it. In his defense, Weishaupt wrote:
I have contrived an explanation [of Freemasonry] which has every advantage, is inviting to Christians of every communion, gradually frees them from all religious prejudices, cultivates the social virtues, and animates them by a great, a feasible, and a speedy prospect of universal happiness, in a state of liberty and moral equality, freed from the obstacles which subordination, rank and riches continually throw in our way. My explanation is accurate and complete; my means are effectual and irresistible. Our secret association works in a way that nothing can withstand, and man shall soon be free and happy....
To fit man by Illumination for active virtue, to engage him to it by the strongest motives, to render the attainment of it easy and certain ... this indeed will be employment suited to noble natures, grand in its views, and delightful in its exercise....
And what is the general object? THE HAPPINESS OF THE HUMAN RACE.... When we see the wicked so powerful and the good so weak, and that it is in vain to strive singly and alone against the general current of vice and oppression, the wish naturally arises in the mind that if it were possible to form a durable combination of the most worthy persons, who should work together in removing the obstacles to human happiness... and by fettering lessen vice; means which at the same time should promote virtue, by rendering the inclination to rectitude, hitherto so feeble, more powerful and engaging. Would not such an association be a blessing to the world?
One writer has posed the question of whether the Order of the Illuminati was any better than the world it sought to reform? Would the order, had it succeeded, been a blessing or a curse? And we are still today left with the question of why Illuminism failed in its enterprise.
Government and clerical harassment, the denial of fundamental rights of freedom of speech and press — these obviously were responsible, in large part, for the death of the sublime Order, Repression and intolerance necessitate an infectious secrecy which cannot help but contaminate those whom it touches. The task of promoting ideas soon became bogged down in the mire of conspiracy, degrees of revelation, secrets and mysteries, despite the lofty goals and vision. The genius of Adam Weishaupt was no exception in this case.
Most who have written of the Illuminati have had little, if any, good sentiments regarding the Order. They have called Weishaupt a knave, a despot, abortionist, heretic, demagogue, and traitor to his friends. We know from his correspondence, however, that he was a man vitally concerned with social justice, the struggle against political tyranny, and the Atheist ideal. We know also that despite his personal shortcomings, he sought fervently "the happiness of the human race." Indeed, perhaps some day the Order of the Illuminati will be seen as a "blessing to the world."
btw happy birthday chosen.
Chosen Raven
07-02-2003, 10:49 AM
Whew! That was a long(but informative) read, Psilon! How ironic that an organization that was dedicated to humanity and reason as their gods ended up being destroyed by their own human failings and abandonment of reason. I would have to say that the Illuminati was as bad, if not worse, than those they were against. Personaly, I consider the Enlightenment to be a dark period in human history. It aided the formation of the bloody French Revolution and brought out some philosophies that weren't just wrong, but senseless. A major figure in the Enlightenment, Voltaire, said that in 100 years from his time the only place a person would find a Bible was in a museum(oddly enough, after his death, his house was used as a place to print Bibles and the Bible is still the #1 best seller in the world today). Voltaire and some others like him even made a book that supposedly had many scientific facts(I think it was around 1000?) that disproved the Bible. Not a single one of those "facts" are believed today. I think what many Athieists lose sight of is that Atheism itself is a religion. It has its own belief system, it requires faith in the unprovable, and, of course, its adherents believe it to be the only true path. So, in esscense, what Weishaupt was trying to do, was replace one belief system with another. The Enlightenment and the formation of the Illuminati shouldn't be looked at as good by Atheists, just as the Dark Ages shouldn't be looked at as good by Christians.
Thanks for the Happy Birthday wishes, Psilon. Though I usually disagree with you, you present your points in a logical and respectful manner. And that shows good character. :D
Some people have theorized that a or "the" government came up with AIDS. The reasoning is it is to get rid of homosexuals (specifically, gay men), and as a side benefit, anyone of "questionable" sexual pratices. It actually makes sense in a way, considering how you can contract AIDS. I'm not saying that (if it's true) it's right, just that the theory seems rather sound.
I'd have to disagree that the theory is sound. The government would have no reason to do something like that, and if, somehow, a militant conservative was responsible for inacting such a program, with as many changes of office we've had, a liberal would most likely have discovered the plot and brought it to the public's attention. Though most conservatives believe homosexuality to be wrong(me included), we do not hate them or wish them murdered like that.
I remember hearing recently that AIDS was discovered in a monkey(or was it ape?) in Africa and it may have originated in the animal population there. I heard that a long time ago, so who knows what's been discovered since then?
You forgot the 12 Galaxies...
I went to the link you posted and found only an offer for DVD that had an interview with some guy I never heard of. Ah well, I'll just type in 12 Galaxies on a search engine and see what I find.
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