Secret Societies And Subversive Movements Part 20

Such people have generally gentle manners, a tender heart, and are, when well practised in other things, of the greatest use in undertakings, for their first glance attracts; but their spirit _n'a pas la profondeur des physiognomies sombres_. They are, however, also less disposed to riots and disturbances than the darker physiognomies. That is why one must know how to use one's people. Above all, the high, soulful eye pleases me and the free, open brow.[565]

With these novices the adept of Illuminism is to proceed slowly, talking backwards and forwards:

One must speak, first in one way, then in another, so as not to commit oneself and to make one's real way of thinking impenetrable to one's inferiors.[566]

Weishaupt also insists on the importance of exciting the candidate's curiosity and then drawing back again, after the manner of the Fatimite _dais_:

I have no fault to find with your [methods of] reception ["Spartacus" writes to "Cato"], except that they are too quick....

You should proceed gradually in a roundabout way by means of suspense and expectations, so as first to arouse indefinite, vague curiosity, and then when the candidate declares himself, present the object, which he will then seize with both hands.[567]

By this means his vanity will also be flattered, because one will arouse the pleasure of "knowing something which everyone does not know, and about which the greater part of the world is groping in darkness."[568]

For the same reason the candidate must be impressed with the importance of secret societies and the part they have played in the destinies of the world:

One ill.u.s.trates this by the Order of the Jesuits, of the Freemasons, by the secret a.s.sociations of the ancients, one a.s.serts that all events in the world occur from a hundred secret springs and causes, to which secret a.s.sociations above all belong; one arouses the pleasure of quiet, hidden power and of insight into hidden secrets.[569]

At this point one is to begin to "show glimpses and to let fall here and there remarks that may be interpreted in two ways," so as to bring the candidate to the point of saying: "If I had the chance to enter such an a.s.sociation, I would go into it at once." "These discourses," says Weishaupt, "are to be often repeated."[570]

In the discourse of reception to the "Illuminatus Dirigens," the appeal to love of power plays the most important part:

Do you realize sufficiently what it means to rule--to rule in a secret Society? Not only over the lesser or more important of the populace, but over the best men, over men of all ranks, nations, and religions, to rule without external force, to unite them indissolubly, to breathe one spirit and soul into them, men distributed over all parts of the world?...[571]

And finally, do you know what secret societies are? what a place they occupy in the great kingdom of the world's events? Do you really think they are unimportant, transitory appearances?[572]

etc.

But the admission of political aims is reserved only for the higher grades of the Order. "With the beginner," says Weishaupt, "we must be careful about books on religion and the State. I have reserved these in my plan for the higher degrees."[573] Accordingly the discourse to the "Minerval" is expressly designed to put him off the track. Thus the initiator is to say to him:

After two years' reflection, experience, intercourse, reading of the graduated writings and information, you will necessarily have formed the idea that the final aim of our Society is nothing less than to win power and riches, to undermine secular or religious government, and to obtain the mastery of the world, and so on. If you have represented our Society to yourself from this point of view or have entered it in this expectation, you have mightily deceived yourself....[574]

The initiator, without informing the Minerval of the real aim of the Society, then goes on to say that he is now free to leave it if he wishes. By this means the leaders were able to eliminate ambitious people who might become their rivals to power and to form their ranks out of men who would submit to be led blindly onward by unseen directors. "My circ.u.mstances necessitate," Spartacus writes to Cato, "that I should remain hidden from most of the members as long as I live.

I am obliged to do everything through five or six persons."[575] So carefully was this secret guarded that until the papers of the Illuminati were seized in 1786 no one outside this inner circle knew that Weishaupt was the head of the Order. Yet if we are to believe his own a.s.sertions, he had been throughout in supreme control. Again and again he impresses on his _intimes_ the necessity for unity of command in the Order: "One must show how easy it would be for one clever head to direct hundreds and thousands of men,"[576] and he ill.u.s.trates this system by the table reproduced on the next page, to which he appends the following explanation:

I have two immediately below me into whom I breathe my whole spirit, and each of these two has again two others, and so on. In this way I can set a thousand men in motion and on fire in the simplest manner, and in this way one must impart orders and operate on politics.[577]

Thus, as in the case of Abdullah ibn Maymun's society, "the extraordinary result was brought about that a mult.i.tude of men of divers beliefs were all working together for an object known only to a few of them."

Enough has now been quoted from the correspondence of the Illuminati to show their aims and methods according to their own admissions. We shall now see how far their apologists are justified in describing them as "men of the strictest morality and humanity."[578] Doubtless there were many excellent people in the outer ranks of the Order, but this is not the contention of Mr. Gould, who expressly states that "all the prominent members of this a.s.sociation were estimable men both in public and in private life." These further extracts from their correspondence may be left to speak for themselves.

Character of the Illuminati

In June 1782 Weishaupt writes to "Cato" as follows:

Oh, in politics and morality you are far behind, my gentlemen.

Judge further if such a man as Marcus Aurelius[579] finds out how wretched it [Illuminism] appears in Athens [Munich]; what a collection of immoral men, of wh.o.r.emongers, liars, debtors, boasters, and vain fools they have amongst them. If he saw all that, what do you suppose the man would think? Would he not be ashamed to find himself in such an a.s.sociation, in which the leaders arouse the greatest expectations and carry out the best plan in such a miserable manner? And all this out of caprice, expediency, etc. Judge whether I am not right.[580]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Diagram of Weishapt's System. From _Nachtrag von weitern Originalschriften der Illuminatensekte_, p. 32. Munchen, 1787.]

From Thebes [Freysing] I hear fatal news; they have received into the lodge the scandal of the whole town, the dissolute debtor Propertius, who is trumpeted abroad by the whole "personnel" of Athens [Munich], Thebes and Erzerum [Eichstadt]; D. also appears to be a bad man. Socrates who would be a capital man [_ein Capital Mann_] is continually drunk, Augustus in the worst repute, and Alcibiades sits the whole day with the innkeeper's wife sighing and pining: Tiberius tried in Corinth to rape the sister of Democedes and the husband came in. In Heaven's name, what are these for Areopagites! We upper ones, write, read and work ourselves to death, offer to ? our health, fame and fortune, whilst these gentlemen indulge their weaknesses, go a whoring, cause scandals and yet are Areopagites and want to know about everything.[581]

Concerning Arminius there are great complaints.... He is an unbearable, obstinate, arrogant, vain fool![582]

Let Celsus, Marius, Scipio, and Ajax do what they will ... no one does us so much harm as Celsus, no one is less to be reasoned with than Celsus, and perhaps few could have been so much use to us as Celsus.... Marius is obstinate and can see no great plan, Scipio is negligent, and of Ajax I will not speak at all.... Confucius is worth very little: he is too inquisitive and a terrible chatterer [_ein grausamer Schwatzer_].[583]

Agrippa must be quite struck off our list, for the rumour goes round ... that he has stolen a gold and silver watch together with a ring from our best fellow-worker Sulla.[584]

It will doubtless be suggested at this point that all these letters merely portray the lofty idealist sorrowing over the frailties of his erring disciples, but let us hear what Weishaupt has to say about himself. In a letter to Marius (Hertel) he writes:

And now in the strictest confidence, a matter near my heart, which robs me of all rest, makes me incapable of anything and drives me to despair. I stand in danger of losing my honour and my reputation which gave me so much power over our people. Think, my sister-in-law is expecting a child.[585] I have for this purpose sent to Euriphon in Athens to solicit the marriage licence and Promotorial from Rome, you see how much depends on this and that no time must be lost; every minute is precious. But if the dispensation does not arrive, what shall I do? How shall I make amends to the person since I alone am to blame? We have already tried several ways to get rid of the child; she herself was resolved for anything. But Euriphon is too timid and yet I see no other expedient, if I could ensure the silence of Celsus he could help me and indeed he already promised me this three years ago....[586] If you can help me out of this dilemma, you will give me back life, honour, peace and power to work.... I do not know what devil led me astray, I who always in these circ.u.mstances took extreme precautions.[587]

A little later Weishaupt writes again:

All fatalities happen to me at the same time. Now there is my mother dead! Corpse, wedding, christening all in a short time, one on the top of the other. What a wonderful mix-up [_mischmasch_]![588]

So much for what Mr. Gould calls the "rare qualities" of Weishaupt's heart. Let us now listen to the testimony of Weishaupt's princ.i.p.al coadjutor, Philo (the Baron von Knigge), to whom the "historian of Freemasonry" refers as "a lovable enthusiast." In all subversive a.s.sociations, whether open or secret, directed by men who aim at power, a moment is certain to arrive when the ambitions of the leaders come into conflict. This is the history of every revolutionary organization during the last 150 years. It was when the inevitable climax had been reached between Weishaupt and Knigge that "Philo" wrote to "the most loving Cato" in the following terms:

It is not Mahomed and A. who are so much to blame for my break with Spartacus, as the Jesuitical conduct of this man which has so often turned us against each other in order to rule despotically over men, who, if they have not perhaps such a rich imagination as himself, also do not possess so much cuteness and cunning, etc.[589]

In a further letter Philo goes on to enumerate the services he has rendered to Weishaupt in the past:

At the bidding of Spartacus I have written against ex-Jesuits and Rosicrucians, persecuted people who never did me any harm, thrown the _Stricte Observance_ into confusion, drawn the best amongst them to us, told them of the worthiness of ?, of its power, its age, the excellence of its Chiefs, the blamelessness of its higher leaders, the importance of its knowledge, and given great ideas of the uprightness of its views; those amongst us who are now working so actively for us but cling much to religiousness [_sehr an Religiositat kleben_] and who feared our intention was to spread Deism, I have sought to persuade that the higher Superiors had nothing less than this intention. Gradually, however, I shall work it as I please [_nach und nach wirke ich dock was ich will_]. If I now were to ... give a hint to the Jesuits and Rosicrucians as to who is persecuting them ... if I were to make known (to a few people) the Jesuitical character of the man who leads perhaps all of us by the nose, uses us for his ambitious schemes, sacrifices us as often as his obstinacy requires, [if I were to make known to them] what they have to fear from such a man, from such a machine behind which perhaps Jesuits may be concealed or might conceal themselves; if I were to a.s.sure those who seek for secrets that they have nothing to expect; if I were to confide to those who hold religion dear, the principles of the General; ... if I were to draw the attention of the lodges to an a.s.sociation behind which the Illuminati are concealed; if I were again to a.s.sociate myself with princes and Freemasons ... but I shrink from the thought, vengeance will not carry me so far....[590]

We have now seen enough of the aims and methods of the Illuminati and the true characters of their leaders from their own admissions. To make the case complete it would be necessary also to give a resume of the confessions made by the ex-Illuminati, the four professors Cosandey, Grunberger, Utzschneider, and Renner, as also of the further published works of the Illuminati--but s.p.a.ce and time forbid. What is needed is a complete book on the subject, consisting of translations of the most important pa.s.sages in all the contemporary German publications.

From the extracts given above, can it, however, be seriously contended that Barruel or Robison exaggerated the guilt of the Order? Do my literal translations differ materially in sense from the translations and occasional paraphrases given by the much-abused couple?

Even those contemporaries, Mounier and the member of the Illuminati[591]

who set out to refute Barruel and Lombard de Langres, merely provide further confirmation of their views. Thus Mounier is obliged to confess that the real design of Illuminism was "to undermine all civil order,"[592]

and "Ancien Illumine" a.s.serts in language no less forcible than Barruel's own that Weishaupt "made a code of Machiavellism," that his method was "a profound perversity, flattering everything that was base and rancorous in human nature in order to arrive at his ends," that he was not inspired by "a wise spirit of reform" but by a "fanatical enmity inimical to all authority on earth." The only essential points on which the opposing parties differ is that whilst Mounier and "Ancien Illumine"

deny the influence of the Illuminati on the French Revolution and maintain that they ceased to exist in 1786, Barruel and Lombard de Langres present them as the inspirers of the Jacobins and declare them to be still active after the Revolution had ended. That on this point, at any rate, the latter were right, we shall see in a further chapter.

The great question that presents itself after studying the writings of the Illuminati is: what was the motive power behind the Order? If we admit the possibility that Frederick the Great and the Stricte Observance, working through an inner circle of Freemasons at the Lodge St. Theodore, may have provided the first impetus and that Kolmer initiated Weishaupt into Oriental methods of organization, the source of inspiration from which Weishaupt subsequently drew his anarchic philosophy still remains obscure. It has frequently been suggested that his real inspirers were Jews, and the Jewish writer Bernard Lazare definitely states that "there were Jews, Cabalistic Jews, around Weishaupt."[593] A writer in _La Vieille France_ went so far as to designate these Jews as Moses Mendelssohn, Wessely, and the bankers Itzig, Friedlander, and Meyer. But no doc.u.mentary evidence has ever been produced in support of these statements. It is therefore necessary to examine them in the light of probability.

Now, as I have already shown, the theosophical ideas of the Cabala play no part in the system of Illuminism; the only trace of Cabalism to be found amongst the papers of the Order is a list of recipes for procuring abortion, for making aphrodisiacs, Aqua Toffana, pestilential vapours, etc., headed "Cabala Major."[594] It is possible, then, that the Illuminati may have learnt something of "venefic magic" and the use of certain natural substances from Jewish Cabalists; at the same time Jews appear to have been only in rare cases admitted to the Order. Everything indeed tends to prove that Weishaupt and his first coadjutors, Zwack and Ma.s.senhausen, were pure Germans. Nevertheless there is between the ideas of Weishaupt and of Lessing's "Falk" a distinct resemblance; both in the writings of the Illuminati and in Lessing's _Dialogues_ we find the same vein of irony with regard to Freemasonry, the same design that it should be replaced by a more effectual system,[595]the same denunciations of the existing social order and of bourgeois society, the same theory that "men should be self-governing," the same plan of obliterating all distinctions between nations, even the same simile of the bee-hive as applied to human life[596] which, as I have shown elsewhere, was later on adopted by the anarchist Proudhon. It may, however, legitimately be urged that these ideas were those of the inner masonic circle to which both Lessing and Weishaupt belonged, and that, though placed in the mouth of Falk, they were in no sense Judaic.

But Lessing was also the friend and admirer of Moses Mendelssohn, who has been suggested as one of Weishaupt's inspirers. Now, at first sight nothing seems more improbable than that an orthodox Jew such as Mendelssohn should have accorded any sympathy to the anarchic scheme of Weishaupt. Nevertheless, certain of Weishaupt's doctrines are not incompatible with the principles of orthodox Judaism. Thus, for example, Weishaupt's theory--so strangely at variance with his denunciations of the family system--that as a result of Illuminism "the head of every family will be what Abraham was, the patriarch, the priest, and the unfettered lord of his family, and Reason will be the only code of Man,"[597] is essentially a Jewish conception.

It will be objected that the patriarchal system as conceived by orthodox Jews could by no means include the religion of Reason as advocated by Weishaupt. It must not, however, be forgotten that to the Jewish mind the human race presents a dual aspect, being divided into two distinct categories--the privileged race to whom the promises of G.o.d were made, and the great ma.s.s of humanity which remains outside the pale. Whilst strict adherence to the commands of the Talmud and the laws of Moses is expected of the former, the most indefinite of religious creeds suffices for the nations excluded from the privileges that Jewish birth confers.

It was thus that Moses Mendelssohn wrote to the pastor Lavater, who had sought to win him over to Christianity:

Pursuant to the principles of my religion, I am not to seek to convert anyone who is not born according to our laws. This p.r.o.neness to conversion, the origin of which some would fain tack on to the Jewish religion, is, nevertheless, diametrically opposed to it. Our rabbis unanimously teach that the written and oral laws which form conjointly our revealed religion are obligatory on our nation only. "Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob." We believe that all other nations of the earth have been directed by G.o.d to adhere to the laws of nature, and to the religion of the patriarchs. Those who regulate their lives according to the precepts of this _religion of nature and of reason_[598] are called virtuous men of other nations and are the children of eternal salvation.[599] Our rabbis are so remote from Proselytomania, that they enjoin us to dissuade, by forcible remonstrances, everyone who comes forward to be converted. (The Talmud says ... "proselytes are annoying to Israel like a scab.")[600]

But was not this "religion of nature and of reason" the precise conception of Weishaupt?

Whether, then, Weishaupt was directly inspired by Mendelssohn or any other Jew must remain for the present an open question. But the Jewish connexions of certain other Illuminati cannot be disputed. The most important of these was Mirabeau, who arrived in Berlin just after the death of Mendelssohn and was welcomed by his disciples in the Jewish salon of Henrietta Herz. It was these Jews, "ardent supporters of the French Revolution"[601] at its outset, who prevailed on Mirabeau to write his great apology for their race under the form of a panegyric of Mendelssohn.

To sum up, I do not so far see in Illuminism a Jewish conspiracy to destroy Christianity, but rather a movement finding its princ.i.p.al dynamic force in the ancient spirit of revolt against the existing social and moral order, aided and abetted perhaps by Jews who saw in it a system that might be turned to their own advantage. Meanwhile, Illuminism made use of every other movement that could serve its purpose. As the contemporary de Luchet has expressed it: