THE ILLUMINATI AND
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

by Arnold Leese

 

On October 6, 1789, there was seized at the home of Mirabeau's publisher, a number of important documents. One of them, called Croquis ou Projet de Monsieur de Mirabeau, was a statement of the aims and purposes of the Illuminate, supposedly written by Mirabeau; Illuminist, Cabalist and the darling of the Jewish society of Paris (having reported on his trip to Germany--where he received his initiation into Weishaupt's Illuminate--to his Jewish supporters at the home of Henrietta Herz). To please his Jewish friends and supporters of the French Revolution, Mirabeau wrote his great apology for the Jews under the form of a panegyric of Mendelssohn, the father of Jewish Illuminism. Suitable praise of Mirabeau's love of Jewry and his services to the eternal internationalists, can be found in M. Samuel's "Memoirs of Moses Mendelssohn," 1827.

In this document concerning "Mirabeau's Project," after a diatribe against the French Monarchy, the document goes on to say that "in order to triumph over this hydra-headed monster these are my ideas:

 

PLAN OF THE FRENCH ILLUMINATE:

"We must overthrow all order, suppress all laws, annul all power, and leave the people in anarchy. The laws we establish will not perhaps be in force at once, but at any rate, having given back the power to the people, they will resist for the sake of their liberty which they will believe they are preserving. We must caress their vanity, flatter their hopes, promise them happiness after our work has been in operation; we must elude their caprices and their systems at will, for the people as legislators are very dangerous, they only establish laws which coincide with their passions, their want of knowledge would besides only give birth to abuses. But as the people are a lever which legislators can move at their will, we must necessarily use them as a support, and render hateful to them everything we wish to destroy and sow illusions in their path; we must also buy all the mercenary pens which propagate our methods and which will instruct the people concerning their enemies whom we attacked The clergy, being the most powerful through public opinion, can only be destroyed by ridiculing religion, rendering its ministers odious, and only representing them as hypocritical monsters, for Mahomet in order to establish his religion first defamed the paganism which the Arabs, the Scythians professed. Libels must at every moment show fresh traces of hatred against the clergy. To exaggerate their riches, to make the sins of an individual appear to be common to all, to attribute to them all vices; calumny, murder, irreligion, sacrilege, all is permitted in times of revolution.

"We must degrade the noblesse and attribute it to an odious origin, establish a germ of equality which can never exist but which will flatter the people, (we must) immolate the most obstinate, burn and destroy their property in order to intimidate the rest, so that if we cannot entirely destroy this prejudice we can weaken it and the people will avenge their vanity and their jealousy by all the excesses which will bring them to submission.

"The writer of this document then describes how the soldiers are to be seduced from their allegiance--thus seducing them from their allegiance to their own nation. After describing the methods for destroying patriotism among the troops, the writer then deals with the magistrates (those invested with executive or judicial power especially Presidents and Governors of States in a Republic Magistrates are to be smeared as despots, "since the people, brutal and ignorant, only see the evil and never the good of things." Of those in public office, the writer says: "Let us beware above all of giving them too much force; their despotism is too dangerous, we must flatter the people by gratuitous justice, promise them a great diminution in taxes and a mere equal division, more extension in fortunes, and less humiliation. These fantasias (vertigines) will fanaticize the people, who will flatten out all resistance. What matter the victims and their numbers? spoliations, burnings destructions, burnings, and all the necessary effects of a revolution. Nothing must be sacred and we can say with Machiavelli: "What matter the means as long as one arrives at the end?"

We reproduce the above quotations from an Illuminate manuscript seized in 1789, because of the similarity it bears to current plans to destroy the Republic. The manner in which people are "used" making the eager to cooperate in their own destruction, makes the worlds of French Illuminist Chamfort, spoken in a conversation with fellow Illuminist Marmontel, as applicable to America of today as they were to Frenchmen in 1790: "The nation is a great herd that only thinks of browsing, and with good sheepdogs the shepherds can lead it as they please ....Money and the hope of plunder are all-powerful with the people .... "

Equally applicable are the words of Mirabeau himself who, in the exuberance of a blood orgy during the Revolution, was heard to cry:

"That canaille well deserves to have us for legislators. These professions of faith, as we see, are not at all democratic; the sect (Illuminate -Ed.) uses the populace as revolution fodder, as prime material for brigandage, after which it (the Illuminate -Ed.) seizes the gold and abandons generations to torture. It is veritably the code of hell."

As the unchallenged authority, Nesta Webster, wrote of this "code of hell" in her "Secret Societies and Subversive Movements":

"It is this 'code of hell' set forth in the 'Projet de Revolution' that we find repeated in succeeding documents throughout the last hundred years--in the correspondence of the 'Alta Vendita,' in the Dialo aux Enfers entre Machiavel et Montesque by Mauice Joly, in the Revolutionary Catechism of Bakunin, in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and in the writings of the Russian Bolsheviks today.

"Whatever doubts may be cast on the authenticity of any of these documents, the indisputable fact thus remains that as early as 1789 this Machiavellian plan of engineering revolution and using the people as a lever for raising a tyrannical minority to power, had been formulated; further that the methods described in this earliest 'Protocol' have been carried out according to plan from that day to this ....

"It was Adrien Duport, author of the 'Great Fear' that spread over France on July 22, 1789, Duport, the inner initiate of the secret societies, 'holding in his hands all the threads of the masonic conspiracy,' who on May 21, 1790, set forth before the Committee of Propaganda the vast scheme of destruction."


ATTEMPTS TO PURIFY FREEMASONRY

Realizing the dangers of Illuminism to Masonry, the British lodges withdrew completely from all connections with Grand Orient Masonry, and a general order to that effect was issued in 1878. As late as 1923, a fresh injunction was made with regard to the Grand Orient. We quote a -pad of that injunction: "As recognition was withdrawn from that body by the United Grand Lodge of England in 1878,... it is considered necessary to warn all members of lodges that they cannot visit any lodge under the obedience of a jurisdiction unrecognized by the United Grand Lodge of England; and further that under Rule 15C of the Book of Constitutions, they cannot admit visitors there from." (Statement attributed to Chamfort is translated from Oeuvres posthumes de Marmontel, Vol. IV, page 77. Statement of Mirabeau appears in Lombard de Langres' Histoire des Jacobins, page 31 (1820).)

So, British Freemasonry stood aloof, from the very beginning, from all attempts to create an international system of Masonry.

That there was a definite attempt to Illuminize the Lodges in the then newly created United States, is shown by history. However, it is equally shown that little success was achieved by Illuminists until the advent of one Albert Pike, whose activities will be discussed in detail later in this series of Letters.

During the French Revolution, there was great sympathy for that revolution in the United States. It would follow, therefore, that Illuminism made an early bid for dominance in American Lodges.

Meanwhile in Germany, where Weishaupt's "code of hell" was first insinuated into the Rites of Freemasonry, the warning against international Illuminism was given by none other than the Duke of Brunswick, formerly the "Eques a Victoria" of the order of Strict Observance, whose Illuminate name was "Aaron," and who was Grand Master of German Freemasonry. Though a dedicated Illuminist, after seeing what the sect had done to France during the Revolution, and perhaps in fear lest the same fate overtake Germany, the Duke of Brunswick issued a Manifesto to all German lodges in 1794. It seems important to quote a part of this order: "Amidst the universal storm produced by the present revolutions in the political and moral world, at this period of supreme illumination and of profound blindness, it would be a crime against truth and humanity to leave any longer shrouded in a veil things that can provide the only key to past and future events, things that should show to thousands of men whether the path they have been made to follow is the path of folly or of wisdom. It has to do with you, VV.FF. of all degrees and of all secret systems. The curtain must at last be drawn aside, so that your blinded eyes may see that light you have ever sought in vain, but of which you have only caught a few deceptive rays...

"We have raised our building under the wings of darkness; ...the darkness is dispelled, and a light more terrifying than darkness itself strikes suddenly on our sight. We see our edifice crumbling and covering the ground with ruins; we see destruction that our hands can no longer arrest. And that is why we send away the builders from their workshops. With a last blow of the hammer we overthrow the columns of salaries. We leave he temple deserted, and we bequeath it as a great work to posterity which shall raise it again on its ruins and bring it to completion."

In words reminiscent of the scene when Titus destroyed the Temple at Jerusalem-as Jesus had prophesied-in 70 A.D., Brunswick decrees the necessary destruction, of the German Masonic edifice; then explains what has brought ruination to the Order in these words:

"A great sect arose which, taking for its motto the good and the happiness of man, worked in the darkness of the conspiracy to make the happiness of humanity a prey for itself. This sect is known to everyone: its brothers are known no less than its name. It is they who have undermined the foundations of the Order to the point of complete overthrow; it is by them that all humanity has been poisoned and led astray for several generations. The ferment that reigns amongst the peoples is their work. They founded the plans of their insatiable ambition on the political pride of nations. Their founders arranged to introduce this pride into the heads of the peoples. They began by casting odium on religion ....They invented the rights of man which it is impossible to discover even in the book of Nature, and they used the people to wrest from their princes the recognition of these supposed rights. The plan they had formed for breaking all social ties and of destroying all order was revealed in all their speeches and acts. They deluged the world with a multitude of publications; they recruited apprentices of every rank and in every position; they deluded the most perspicacious men by falsely alleging different intentions. They sowed in the hearts of youth the seed of covetousness, and they excited it with the bait of the most insatiable passions. Indomitable pride, thirst of , power, such were the only motives of this sect: their masters had nothing less in view than the thrones of the earth, and the governments of the nations was to be directed by their nocturnal clubs.

"This is what has been done and is still being done. But we notice that princes and people are unaware how and by what means this is being accomplished. That is why we say to them in all frankness: the misuse of our Order (Freemasonry -Ed.), the misunderstanding of our secret, has produced all the political and moral troubles with which the world is filled today. You who have been initiated, you must join yourselves with us in raising your voices, so as to teach peoples and princes that the sectarians, the apostates of our Order, have alone been and will be the authors of present and future revolutions."

So completely had Illuminism taken over Freemasonry in Germany, that its Grand Master calls for the complete dissolution of Masonry--to be rebuilt later by a future generation after Illuminism had been destroyed!


THE BEAST REFUSES TO DIE

Grand Orient Freemasons would have the world believe that Illuminism really did expire in 1812. But the evidence supports no such conclusion. It simply went "underground" wherever it became necessary, much as has Communism in our times.

In 1810, Francois Charles de Berckheim, special commissioner of police at Mayence, also a Freemason, had his attention drawn to the activities of the Illuminate, and began an investigation to determine whether or not the sect still was an active movement. He found that there were initiates "all over Europe" and that, instead of dying out, he stated that "Illuminism is becoming a great and formidable power and I fear, in my conscience, that kings and peoples will have much to suffer from it unless foresight and prudence break its frightful mechanisms."

Continuing his investigations the commissioner of police wrote a report (1814) which described the subtle methods by which Illuminism maintained its existence, even when prohibited by governments and proscribed by Masonry. We quote from this report (the original was, at last word, in the French National Archives, index No. F7 6563) the portion which explains how the organization of Illuminate is carried on invisibly, so as to defy the eye of authority:

"The Association had, it is true, assemblies at its birth where receptions (i.e. initiations) took place, but the dangers which resulted from these made them feel the necessity of abandoning them. It was settled that each initiated adept should have the right without the help d anyone else to initiate all those who, after the usual tests, seemed to him worthy.

"Initiations are not accompanied, as in Masonry, by phantas magoric trials, .. . but they are preceded by long moral tests which guarantee in the safest way the fidelity of the catechumen; oaths, a mixture of all that is most sacred in religion, threats and imprecations against traitors, nothing that can stagger the imagination is spared; but the only engagement into which the recipient enters is to propagate the principles with which he has been imbued, to maintain inviolable secrecy on all that pertains to the association, and to work with all his might to increase the number of proselytes.

"It will no doubt seem astonishing that there can be the least accord in the association and that men bound together by no physical tie and who live at great distances from each other can communicate their ideas to each other, make plans of conduct, and give grounds of fear to governments; but there exists an invisible chain which binds together all the scattered members of the association. Here are a few links:

"All the adepts living in the same town usually know each other. unless the population of the town or the number of the adepts is too considerable. In this last case they are divided into several groups, who are all in touch with each other by means of members of the association whom personal relations bind to two or several groups at a time.

"These groups are again subdivided into so many private coteries which the difference of rank, of fortune, of character, tastes, etc., may necessitate: they are always small, sometimes composed of five or six individuals, who meet frequently under various pretexts, sometimes at the house of one member, sometimes at that of another; literature, art, amusements of all kinds are the apparent object of these meetings, and it is nevertheless in these confabulations that the adepts communicate their private views to each other, agree on methods, receive the directions that the intermediaries brie, them, and communicate their own ideas to these same intermediaries, who then go on to propagate them in other coteries. It will be understood that there may be uniformity in the march of all these separated groups, and that one day may suffice to communicate the same impulses to all the quarters of a large town... "These are the methods by which the Iliumines without any apparent organization, without settled leaders, agree together from the Neva of the Rhine to those of the Neva, from the Baltic to the Dardanelles, and advance continually towards the same goal without leaving any trace that might compromise the interests of the association or even bring suspicion on any of its members; the most active police would fail before such a combination ....


METHODS Of PROSELYTIZING

"As the principle force of the Illumines lies in the power of opinions, they have set themselves out from the beginning to make proselytes amongst the men who through their professions exercise a direct influence on minds, such as litterateurs, savants, and above all professors. The latter in their chairs, the former in their writings, propagate the principles of the sect by disguising the poison that they circulate under a thousand different forms. These germs, often imperceptible to the eyes of the vulgar, are afterwards developed by the adepts of the Societies they frequent, and the most obscure wording is thus brought to the understanding of the least discerning. It is above all in the Universities that Illuminism has always found and always will find numerous recruits. Those professors who belong to the Association set out from the first to study the character of thir pupils. If a student gives evidence of a vigorous mind, an ardent imagination, the secretaries at once get hold of him, they sound in his ears the words Despotism-Tyranny-Rights of the People, etc., etc. Before he can even attach any meaning to these words, as he advances in age, reading chosen for him, conversations skillfully arranged, develop the germs deposited in his youthful brain; soon his imagination ferments, history, traditions of fabulous times, all are made use of to carry his exaltation to the highest point, and before even he has been told of a secret Association, to contribute to the fall of a sovereign appears to his eyes the noblest and most meritorious act ....

"At last, when he has been completely captivated, when several years of testing guarantee to the society inviolable secrecy and absolute devotion, it is made known to him that millions of individuals distributed in all the States of Europe share his sentiments and his hopes, that a secret link binds firmly all the scattered members of this immense family, and that the reforms he desires so ardently must sooner or later come about ....

"Such, then, is the Association's continual mode of progression from its origins until the present moment; it is by conveying from childhood the germ of poison into the highest classes of society, in feeding the minds of students on ideas diametrically opposed to that order of things under which we have to live ...that Illuminism has recruited the largest number of adepts."

Lest any reader feel that this 19th century description of the methods employed by the Illuminists to gain new adepts in this 20th century; may we point to Harvard University and the strings of Frankfurter "Hot Dogs" which were fed into government posts during the years of the Baruch planned New Deal? Or the similar role played by the London School of Economics?


AND SPEAKING OF ECONOMICS --

Before bidding a literary farewell to Professor Robison and his "Proofs of a Conspiracy," we wish to introduce one thread which must be woven into the fabric of conspiracy of the Synagogue of Satan. This thread is called "Economist." In a postscript to his remarkable 18th century book, Professor Robison tells us of the origin of the word. We quote verbatim: "Since the publication of this volume I have seen a very remarkable work indeed, on the same subject, Memoirs pour fervir a l'Histoire du Jacobin, par M l'Abbe Barroul. This author confirms all that I have said of the Enlighteners, whom he very aptly calls Philosophists, and of the abuses of Free Masonry in France. He shows, unquestionably, that a formal and systematic conspiracy against Religion was formed and zealously prosecuted by Voltaire, d'Alembert and Diderot, assisted by Frederic II, King of Prussia; and I see that their principles and their manner of procedure have been the same with those of of the German atheists and anarchists. Like them they hired an Army of Writers; they industriously pushed their writings into every house and every cottage. Those writings were equally calculated for inflaming the sensual appetites of men, and for perverting their judgments. They endeavoured to get the command of the Schools; particularly those for the lower classes; and they erected and managed a prodigious number of Circulating Libraries and Reading Societies. M. Barruel says that this gang of public corrupters have held their meetings for many years in the Hotel d'Holbach at Paris, and that Voltaire was their honorary President. The most eminent members were d'Alembert, Diderot, Condorcet, La Harpe, Tugot, Lamoignon. They took the name of ECONOMISTS, and affected to be continually occupied with plans for improving Commerce, Manufactures, Agriculture, Finance, &tc. and published from time to time respectable performances on those subjects. But their darling project was to destroy Christianity and all Religion, and to bring about a total change of Government.

And that's where ECONOMISTS came from, according to a writer who has often been smeared and ridiculed, his books burned, but his statements never disproved!

Originally published in "The Fascist" 1930s.