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[[File:Adam_Weishaupt01.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Adam Weishaupt]], founder of the [[Illuminati]], an 18th-century Bavarian liberal and secular secret society]]
[[File:Adam_Weishaupt01.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Adam Weishaupt]], founder of the [[Illuminati]], an 18th-century Bavarian liberal and secular secret society]]
The Order of the [[Illuminati]] was an [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment-age]] secret society founded by university professor [[Adam Weishaupt]] on 1 May 1776, in [[Upper Bavaria]], Germany. The movement consisted of advocates of [[freethought]], [[secularism]], liberalism, [[republicanism]], and [[gender equality]], recruited from the German [[Masonic Lodge]]s, who sought to teach [[rationalism]] through [[Western esotericism|mystery schools]]. In 1785, the order was infiltrated, broken up, and suppressed by the government agents of [[Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria]], in his preemptive campaign to neutralize the threat of secret societies ever becoming hotbeds of conspiracies to overthrow the Bavarian monarchy and its [[state religion]], Roman Catholicism.<ref name="Stauffer 1918">{{cite journal|author=Stauffer, Vernon L.|title=The European Illuminati|journal=New England and the Bavarian Illuminati|publisher=Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon A.F. & A. M.|date=1918|url=http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/stauffer.html|access-date=23 July 2009|doi=10.7312/stau92126-005|url-access=subscription}}</ref> There is no evidence that the Bavarian Illuminati survived its suppression in 1785.<ref name="McKeown"/>
The historical Order of the [[Illuminati (1700s)|Illuminati]] was founded in 1776 in [[Upper Bavaria]], Germany, and was broken up and legally suppressed in 1785 by the government agents of [[Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria]], who believed that it harboured a conspiracy to overthrow the Bavarian monarchy and its [[state religion]], Roman Catholicism.<ref name="Stauffer 1918">{{cite journal|author=Stauffer, Vernon L.|title=The European Illuminati|journal=New England and the Bavarian Illuminati|publisher=Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon A.F. & A. M.|date=1918|url=http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/stauffer.html|access-date=23 July 2009|doi=10.7312/stau92126-005|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Mainstream historians, based on surviving documents and correspondence, have generally concluded that the society disbanded and did not reappear.<ref name="McKeown">{{cite web|author=McKeown, Trevor W.|title=A Bavarian Illuminati primer|date=2004|url=http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/texts/illuminati.html|publisher=Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon|access-date=23 July 2009}}</ref> However, there have been persistent theories that the society did survive and grew to secretly dominate world politics.


In the late 18th century, [[reactionary]] conspiracy theorists, such as Scottish physicist [[John Robison (physicist)|John Robison]] and French [[Jesuit]] priest [[Augustin Barruel]], began speculating that the Illuminati had survived their suppression and become the masterminds behind the [[French Revolution]] and the [[Reign of Terror]]. The Illuminati were accused of being [[subversion|subversives]] who were attempting to secretly orchestrate a [[revolutionary wave]] in Europe and the rest of the world by spreading the most [[radicalism (historical)|radical]] ideas and movements of the Enlightenment—[[anti-clericalism]], [[anti-monarchism]], and [[protofeminism|anti-patriarchalism]]— which the accusers feared would lead to the destruction of the [[appeal to nature|natural order]] of things.<ref>{{cite news|first=Colin|last=Dickey|title=Did an Illuminati Conspiracy Theory Help Elect Thomas Jefferson?|url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/29/illuminati-conspiracy-theory-thomas-jeffersion-1800-election-152934|access-date=14 January 2024|work=BBC|date=29 March 2020}}</ref><ref name="Dickey 2023">{{cite book|author=Dickey, Colin|title=Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy|publisher=Penguin Random House|date=2023|isbn=9780593299456}}</ref> During the 19th century, fear of an Illuminati conspiracy was a real concern of the European [[ruling class]]es, and their oppressive reactions to this unfounded fear provoked in 1848 [[revolutions of 1848|the very revolutions they sought to prevent]].<ref name="McKeown">{{cite web|author=McKeown, Trevor W.|title=A Bavarian Illuminati primer|date=2004|url=http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/texts/illuminati.html|publisher=Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon|access-date=23 July 2009}}</ref>
In the late 18th century, [[reactionary]] conspiracy theorists, such as Scottish physicist [[John Robison (physicist)|John Robison]] and French [[Jesuit]] priest [[Augustin Barruel]], began speculating that the Illuminati had survived their suppression and become the masterminds behind the [[French Revolution]] and the [[Reign of Terror]]. The Illuminati were accused of being [[subversion|subversives]] who were attempting to secretly orchestrate a [[revolutionary wave]] in Europe and the rest of the world by spreading the most [[radicalism (historical)|radical]] ideas and movements of the Enlightenment—[[anti-clericalism]], [[anti-monarchism]], and [[protofeminism|anti-patriarchalism]]— which the accusers feared would lead to the destruction of the [[appeal to nature|natural order]] of things.<ref>{{cite news|first=Colin|last=Dickey|title=Did an Illuminati Conspiracy Theory Help Elect Thomas Jefferson?|url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/29/illuminati-conspiracy-theory-thomas-jeffersion-1800-election-152934|access-date=14 January 2024|work=BBC|date=29 March 2020}}</ref><ref name="Dickey 2023">{{cite book|author=Dickey, Colin|title=Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy|publisher=Penguin Random House|date=2023|isbn=9780593299456}}</ref> During the 19th century, fear of an Illuminati conspiracy was a real concern of the European [[ruling class]]es, and their oppressive reactions to this unfounded fear provoked in 1848 [[revolutions of 1848|the very revolutions they sought to prevent]].<ref name="McKeown"/>


During the [[interwar period]] of the 20th century, [[fascism|fascist]] propagandists, such as British revisionist historian [[Nesta Helen Webster]] and American socialite [[Edith Starr Miller]], not only popularized the myth of an Illuminati conspiracy but claimed that it was a subversive secret society which served the Jewish elites that supposedly propped up both [[finance capitalism]] and [[State ideology of the Soviet Union|Soviet communism]] to [[divide and rule]] the world. American evangelist [[Gerald Burton Winrod]] and other conspiracy theorists within the [[Fundamentalist Christianity|fundamentalist Christian]] movement in the United States—which emerged in the 1910s as a backlash against the principles of Enlightenment [[secular humanism]], [[modernism]], and liberalism—became the main channel of dissemination of Illuminati conspiracy theories in the U.S.. [[right-wing populism|Right-wing populists]], such as members of the [[John Birch Society]], subsequently began speculating that some collegiate fraternities ([[Skull and Bones]]), gentlemen's clubs ([[Bohemian Club]]), and think tanks ([[Council on Foreign Relations]], [[Trilateral Commission]]) of the [[American upper class]] are [[front organization]]s of the Illuminati, which they accuse of plotting to create a New World Order through a one-world government.<ref name="Barkun 2003">{{cite book|author=Barkun, Michael|title=A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America|publisher=University of California Press; 1 edition|date=2003|isbn=0-520-23805-2|title-link=A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America}}</ref> ''[[The Illuminatus! Trilogy]]'', a series of three satirical novels by American writers [[Robert Shea]] and [[Robert Anton Wilson]], first published in 1975, which attributed the alleged major [[cover-up]]s of the era – such as [[John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories|who shot John F. Kennedy]] – to the Illuminati, was extremely influential in popularizing the myth of an Illuminati superconspiracy during the 1960s and onward.<ref>{{cite news|first=Sophia|last=Smith Galer|title=The accidental invention of the Illuminati conspiracy|url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170809-the-accidental-invention-of-the-illuminati-conspiracy|access-date=14 January 2024|work=BBC|date=1 November 2014}}</ref>
During the [[interwar period]] of the 20th century, [[fascism|fascist]] propagandists, such as British revisionist historian [[Nesta Helen Webster]] and American socialite [[Edith Starr Miller]], not only popularized the myth of an Illuminati conspiracy but claimed that it was a subversive secret society which served the Jewish elites that supposedly propped up both [[finance capitalism]] and [[State ideology of the Soviet Union|Soviet communism]] to [[divide and rule]] the world. American evangelist [[Gerald Burton Winrod]] and other conspiracy theorists within the [[Fundamentalist Christianity|fundamentalist Christian]] movement in the United States—which emerged in the 1910s as a backlash against the principles of Enlightenment [[secular humanism]], [[modernism]], and liberalism—became the main channel of dissemination of Illuminati conspiracy theories in the U.S.. [[right-wing populism|Right-wing populists]], such as members of the [[John Birch Society]], subsequently began speculating that some collegiate fraternities ([[Skull and Bones]]), gentlemen's clubs ([[Bohemian Club]]), and think tanks ([[Council on Foreign Relations]], [[Trilateral Commission]]) of the [[American upper class]] are [[front organization]]s of the Illuminati, which they accuse of plotting to create a New World Order through a one-world government.<ref name="Barkun 2003">{{cite book|author=Barkun, Michael|title=A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America|publisher=University of California Press; 1 edition|date=2003|isbn=0-520-23805-2|title-link=A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America}}</ref> ''[[The Illuminatus! Trilogy]]'', a series of three satirical novels by American writers [[Robert Shea]] and [[Robert Anton Wilson]], first published in 1975, which attributed the alleged major [[cover-up]]s of the era – such as [[John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories|who shot John F. Kennedy]] – to the Illuminati, was extremely influential in popularizing the myth of an Illuminati superconspiracy during the 1960s and onward.<ref>{{cite news|first=Sophia|last=Smith Galer|title=The accidental invention of the Illuminati conspiracy|url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170809-the-accidental-invention-of-the-illuminati-conspiracy|access-date=14 January 2024|work=BBC|date=1 November 2014}}</ref>

Latest revision as of 16:15, 26 December 2024

This article was forked from the Wikipedia article on an unknown date.


Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Illuminati, an 18th-century Bavarian liberal and secular secret society

The historical Order of the Illuminati was founded in 1776 in Upper Bavaria, Germany, and was broken up and legally suppressed in 1785 by the government agents of Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria, who believed that it harboured a conspiracy to overthrow the Bavarian monarchy and its state religion, Roman Catholicism.[1] Mainstream historians, based on surviving documents and correspondence, have generally concluded that the society disbanded and did not reappear.[2] However, there have been persistent theories that the society did survive and grew to secretly dominate world politics.

In the late 18th century, reactionary conspiracy theorists, such as Scottish physicist John Robison and French Jesuit priest Augustin Barruel, began speculating that the Illuminati had survived their suppression and become the masterminds behind the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. The Illuminati were accused of being subversives who were attempting to secretly orchestrate a revolutionary wave in Europe and the rest of the world by spreading the most radical ideas and movements of the Enlightenment—anti-clericalism, anti-monarchism, and anti-patriarchalism— which the accusers feared would lead to the destruction of the natural order of things.[3][4] During the 19th century, fear of an Illuminati conspiracy was a real concern of the European ruling classes, and their oppressive reactions to this unfounded fear provoked in 1848 the very revolutions they sought to prevent.[2]

During the interwar period of the 20th century, fascist propagandists, such as British revisionist historian Nesta Helen Webster and American socialite Edith Starr Miller, not only popularized the myth of an Illuminati conspiracy but claimed that it was a subversive secret society which served the Jewish elites that supposedly propped up both finance capitalism and Soviet communism to divide and rule the world. American evangelist Gerald Burton Winrod and other conspiracy theorists within the fundamentalist Christian movement in the United States—which emerged in the 1910s as a backlash against the principles of Enlightenment secular humanism, modernism, and liberalism—became the main channel of dissemination of Illuminati conspiracy theories in the U.S.. Right-wing populists, such as members of the John Birch Society, subsequently began speculating that some collegiate fraternities (Skull and Bones), gentlemen's clubs (Bohemian Club), and think tanks (Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission) of the American upper class are front organizations of the Illuminati, which they accuse of plotting to create a New World Order through a one-world government.[5] The Illuminatus! Trilogy, a series of three satirical novels by American writers Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, first published in 1975, which attributed the alleged major cover-ups of the era – such as who shot John F. Kennedy – to the Illuminati, was extremely influential in popularizing the myth of an Illuminati superconspiracy during the 1960s and onward.[6]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Stauffer, Vernon L. (1918). "The European Illuminati". New England and the Bavarian Illuminati. Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon A.F. & A. M. doi:10.7312/stau92126-005. Retrieved 23 July 2009.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 McKeown, Trevor W. (2004). "A Bavarian Illuminati primer". Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon. Retrieved 23 July 2009.
  3. ↑ Dickey, Colin (29 March 2020). "Did an Illuminati Conspiracy Theory Help Elect Thomas Jefferson?". BBC. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  4. ↑ Dickey, Colin (2023). Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy. Penguin Random House. ISBN 9780593299456.
  5. ↑ Barkun, Michael (2003). A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. University of California Press; 1 edition. ISBN 0-520-23805-2.
  6. ↑ Smith Galer, Sophia (1 November 2014). "The accidental invention of the Illuminati conspiracy". BBC. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
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