CHAPTER
XLIX
THE RITE
OF ZINNENDORF
(Founded
1766)
This
rite was founded in 1766 by Zinnendorf, the chief surgeon of the general staff
of Berlin and a Knight Commander in von Hund's Strict-Observance. Zinnendorf
received the rituals and instructions for this order from a Swede named Cklack.
On Dec.
27 1770, Zinnendorf formed a Grand Lodge in Berlin with the cooperation of
twelve lodges which had adopted his opinions. On March 29 of the following
year, he demanded a constitution from the Grand Lodge of London. This he
finally obtained in 1773 through the influence of Prince Louis George Charles
of Hesse-Darmstadt, the Grand Master of the Lodges following his system.
The Rite
of Zinnendorf was absorbed at the Convent of Wolfenbuttel in 1778 into the
Lodge of the Three Globes of Berlin.
CHAPTER
L
THE
PHILALETES
(CHERCHEURS
DE LA VERITE)
(Founded
1773)
The
Philaletes, an offshoot of the Martinists, was founded in Paris on April 28,
1773, within the Lodge of Les Amis Reunis, by Savalette de Langes, Keeper of
the Royal Treasury, M. de St. James, Comte de Gebelin, Condorcet and others.
This
order was divided into 9 degrees, which were, Elu, Chevalier Ecossais,
Chevalier d'Orient, Chevalier Rose-Croix, Chevalier du Temple, Philosophe
Inconnu, Philosophe Sublime, Initie, Philalethe ou Maitre a tous grades.
Among
its members were Frederic-Louis de Hesse Darmstadt, Baron de Gleichen,
Willermoz and lAbbe ieyes.
1. Revue
Internationale des Societes Secretes, Nov. 19, May 6
1928, p.
400.
For root
of this movement see Chapter XLV.
For
development of this movement see Chapter LIII.
CHAPTER
LI
THE
ILLUMINATI OF BAVARIA
(Founded
1776)
The sect
of the Illuminati of Bavaria was founded on May 1, 1776 by Adam Weishaupt, a
professor at the University of Ingolstadt, educated by the Jesuits.
It was
composed of three classes of adepts, each of which was again subdivided into
degrees, in the following manner : —
Nursery
Masonry
Mysteries
Preparation
Novice
Minerval
Illuminatus
Symbolic
Scotch
Lesser
Greater
Minor
Apprentice
Fellow
Craft
Master
Mason
Illuminatus
Major, or Scotch
Novice
Illuminatus
Dirigens, or
Scotch
Knight
Epopt,
or Priest
Prince,
or Regent
Magus,
or Philosopher,
Rex,
King, Homme Roi, or
Areopagite
This
society seems to have borne a close resemblance to the Order of the Golden
Cross which was reorganized in 1767.
According
to Le Forestier, Illuminism was just as much Masonry as the system of the Rose
Croix, that of the Templars or the crowd of Masonic French degrees, and it is
wrongfully accused of having taken in Bavaria the cloak of Masonry.
The
intention of the Founder was to constitute a Protestant organization to fight
Jesuitism, using Jesuitical methods. He was ably assisted in his efforts by
Adolph, Baron von Knigge, Massenhausen, Bode, Anacharsis Clootz, Fischer,
Zwack, Merz, Hertal, the Marquis de Constanza, Count Saviola, Bassus, Baron de
Montgelas and Nicolai.
Behind
Nicola'i was Moses Mendelssohn, and behind Mendelssohn the Jewish Kahal, the
Jewish International World Government.
"
Nicola'i had established about the year 1765 at Berlin a literary review with
the object of propagating the pernicious doctrines of a shallow Illuminism,
and, in that, the infancy of German literature, when this periodical had
scarcely a rival to encounter, the influence it exerted was more extensive than
can at present be even conceived. Bahardt and Basedow, at the same time, in
cheap and popular tracts, scattered among the lower classes the poison of
infidelity ; and they, as well as Nicola'i, were in close communication with
Weishaupt, carrying on with the most reckless violence, and with the weapons of
a most shameless ribaldry, the warfare against Christianity.
The
great critic Lessing, the founder of the modern German literature, lent his
powerful support to the anti-Christian League. While librarian at Wolfenbuttel
he edited a work, composed by Reimarus, consisting of various irreligious
essays entitled Fragments of Wolfenbuttel, and which, from the tone of
earnestness and dialectic acuteness wherein they were written, exerted a very
prejudicial influence over public opinion. "
As the
organization of the Illuminati developed, so did its ambitions, which ended in
a plot to subvert Freemasonry to its aim of world dominion by any and all
means.
Politically
speaking, its tendencies were republican ; religiously, it was anti-christian.
Its members were pledged to blind obedience to their superiors and this was
insured by a strict system of secret confessions, and monthly reports checked
by mutual espionage. Each individual used a pseudonym instead of his own name
to help disguise his identity.
But for
the Freemason Baron Adolph von Knigge, a Templar, who succeeded in having it
absorbed by Freemasonry, the order would have perished soon after its creation.
After
obtaining control of certain Masonic Lodges, Weishaupt and his associates
recklessly vaunted their growing power. Their organization then, soon becoming
permeated by the agents of their enemies, the Jesuits and Rose Croix Orders,
they were denounced to the Elector of Bavaria, Charles Theodore, by the Duchess
Marie-Anne of Bavaria (Princess Clementine), his cousin whose secretary, Joseph
Utzschneider, had, as an Illuminatus, become acquainted with certain methods of
the order.
Constanza
had ordered him to hand over certain letters written by Frederic II to the
Duchess Marie Anne and, suspecting blackmail, instead of complying with the
request, he denounced the order.
On March
2, 1785, the Elector wrote his second and final edict, suppressing the order of
the Illuminati, but it was not until July 10, 1785 that incriminating evidence
was obtained on the activities of the sect when one of its members, a priest,
Jacob Lang, was struck dead by lightning while walking with Weishaupt at
Ratisbon. His body was placed in the chapel of Saint-Emmeran and a Benedictine
found some documents and a list of the members of the Illuminati sewn in his
clothes. These he handed over to the Councillor of the Government of Upper
Bavaria.
More
papers were found when the authorities, who were watching Zwack's relations
with a certain Jew, Mayer, the superintendent of Bassus' chateau of Sandersdorf,
near Ingolstadt, decided to raid the place, and in 1787 the judge charged with
the inventory of the succession of the valet of Baron Maendl, the Chamberlain
of the Elector, found among his effects an iron box full of papers concerning
the Illuminati.
This
discovery, Maendl, himself an Illuminatus, was summoned to explain. Among the
details of his evidence is the statement that the Lodge Bader had 97 degrees.
The coincidence of this number becomes of interest when compared with the 97
degrees of Memphis sent to England in 1762 by the Grand Orient of France.
When
Weishaupt was banished from Bavaria by his sovereign, he was received at the
court of the Duke Ernest-Louis de Saxe-Gotha who, besides a pension, gave him
the title of Honorary Councillor.
The
Marquis of Constanza, his secretary, and Count Saviola, the Keeper of the
Archives of the order, two Italian accomplices, were also banished with
pensions of 400 and 800 florins respectively, and as Illuminism was already
said to have found its way into Italy, there is no reason to suppose that these
gentlemen failed in their administration of the subsidy.
In 1788,
after the suppression of Illuminism in Bavaria, Bahrdt and Knigge attempted to
revive it in the " German Union " but it was not till 1810 that it
really reappeared in Germany, this time under the name of The Tugendbund.
The
introduction of Illuminism into Prance was effected by the Marquis de Mirabeau
who, during his residence in Germany, was initiated by Mauvillon, a professor
of the Caroline college at Brunswick. He rose high in the order, and, on his
return to France in September 1788, initiated the Due d'Orleans, who was Grand
Master of the Freemasons of that country, and also Talleyrand.
Frost,
in Secret Societies of the European Revolution refers to Barruel as asserting
" that the whole of the Masonic lodges comprised in the Grand Orient, 266
in number, were ' illuminated ' by the end of March 1789 and there is no doubt
that, with the ground so well prepared by the works of Voltaire and Bousseau,
d'Alembert and Diderot, and with the example and influence of the Duke of
Orleans, and the exertions of men such as Mirabeau, Talleyrand, Sieyes, and Condorcet,
the system spread with rapidity. "
General
La Fayette, Barnave, Brissot, La Boche foucauld, Payne and Fau:het were also
members of the sect for France.
The
following curious piece of information is furnished by Le Grand Dictionnaire
Universel du XIX s Siecle by Larousse in the article on " Illuminisme
" : —
"
The Illuminati did not disappear after the last century. They are still to be
found in Germany, England and Russia where they have formed a queer sect in
which castration is one of the features of initiation. The taste for the supernatural,
the passion of the marvellous constantly urge these mentally unbalanced men in
whom the imagination is fanaticised, to throw themselves into the fantastic
visions which constitute Illuminism. "
For root
of this movement see Chapter XXII.
For
development of this movement see Chapters LI I, LV,
LXXXVII,
CVI, CX.
CHAPTER
LII
THE
TUGENDBUND
(Founded
1786)
The name
of Tugendbund or Union of Virtue was first given to the association of men and
women who met at the house of the Jewess Henrietta Herz whose husband, Marcus
Herz, a Jewish Illuminatus, was the disciple, friend and successor of Moses
Mendelssohn. Noted Illuminati were frequenters of this abode of licentiousness
about which Graetz, the Jewish historian, wrote :
"
The salon of the beautiful Henrietta Herz became a sort of Midianite tent. Here
a number of young Jewish women assembled whose husbands were kept away by their
business. The most prominent male member of this circle was Frederick von
Gentz, the embodiment of selfishness, licentiousness, vice and depravity whose
chief occupation was the betrayal of women.
" A
so-called Band of Virtue (Tugendbund) was formed of which Henrietta Herz, two
daughters of Moses Mendelssohn * and other Jewesses together with Christian
profligates were members. "
He also
adds that " Mirabeau, in whose mind the storm-charged clouds of the
Revolution were already forming, and to whom the Jews owed so much during his
secret diplomatic embassy (1786) to Berlin, was more in the society of
Henrietta Herz than in that of her husband. "
Other
frequenters of this salon were William von Humboldt, Jean Paul Richter,
Schleiermacher, a foremost Moravian brother, and his friend Frederick
Schlegel.
Later,
in 1807, a second Tugendbund or Union of Virtue was formed, a purely political
league of which Thomas Frost wrote : —
"
The nucleus of the Association devised by von Stein which received the name of
the Tugendbund, or League of Virtue, was formed during the latter months of
1807. His colleagues, Hardenberg and Scharnhorst; Generals Wittgenstein and
Blucher ; Jahn, a Professor of the Berlin Gymnasium, and Arndt, the popular
author, were amongst the earliest members. The initiations multiplied rapidly,
and the League soon numbered in its ranks most of the Councillors of State,
many officers of the army, and a considerable number of the professors of
literature and science. By the active and zealous exertions of Stein,
Hardenberg and Jahn, its ramifications spread quickly from the Baltic to the
Elbe, and all classes were drawn within its influence. A central directorate at
Berlin, presided over by Stein, had the supreme control of the movement, and
exercised, through provincial committees, an authority all the more potent from
emanating from an unknown source, and which was obeyed as implicitly as the decrees
of Emperor or King. "
With
Heckethorn, we follow the Tugendbund further, for he tells us that after its
suppression by the police of Napoleon I, the Tugendbund continued "
concealing itself however more strictly than before in the masonic brotherhood.
"
One of
its first acts " was to send auxiliary corps to assist the Russians in the
campaign of 1813. Prussia having, by the course of events, been compelled to
abandon its temporizing policy, Gneisenau, Scharnmorst and Grollmann embraced
the military plan of the Tugendbund. A levy en masse was ordered. The conduct
of these patriots is matter of history. But, like other nations, they fought
against Napoleon to impose on their country a more tyrannical government than
that of the foreigner had ever been. They fought as men only fight for a great
cause, and those who died fancied they saw the dawn of German freedom. But
those who survived saw how much they were deceived. The Tugendbund, betrayed in
its expectations, was dissolved ; but its members increased the ranks of other
societies already existing, or about to be formed " such as the ' Black
Knights ' under Jahn, ' The Knights of the Queen of Prussia ', ' The Concordists
' under Dr. Lang and the Deutscher Bund, founded in 1810."
The
Tugendbund was revived in the Burschenschaft, or associations of students of
the universities, where they introduced gymnastics and martial exercises, but
the organization was broken up and its objects frustrated, after the stabbing
of Kotzebue by a student. It revived between 1830-33. It is said to have failed
again.
.
CHAPTER
LIII
THE
JACOBINS
(THE
CLUBS OR LODGES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION)
(Founded
1786)
The
Bishop of Autun (Talleyrand), Mirabeau, and the Due d'Orleans, Grand Master of
the Grand-Orient de France founded a Lodge in Paris in 1786 which was duly
" illuminated " by Bode and Guillaume Baron de Busche. This was the
Club Breton which afterwards became known as the Jacobin Club, a name of
Templar origin, recalling that of Jacques de Molay.
Le
Forestier in Les Illumines de Baviere et la Franc Magonnerie Allemande gives
the substance of a book written by Girtaner, quoting the latter as to the funds
available at that date for revolution.
"
In his Nouvelles Historiques et considerations politiques sur la Revolution
Frangaise (1793) the Swiss Girtaner, an ex-freemason who had joined the ranks
of the enemies of the sect, states that, from 1786, there had existed in Paris
a Propaganda Club whose chiefs were then the Due de la Rochefoucauld, Grand
Master of the Lodge in the rue Coq-Heron, Condorcet and Sieyes and that the aim
of the organization was to further the triumph of dogmatic Atheism and create a
great social upheaval.
" The members charged with spreading the
propaganda of the subversive principles of the club numbered 50,000. In 1790,
it had twenty thousand livres at its disposal, but by the end of 1791, these
had increased to thirty millions. " '
The
conspiracy formed by Philippe of Orleans (Due de Chartres, Masonic name, "
Egalite ") to overthrow Louis XVI, was directed by Sillery and Mirabeau
and, of the 605 elected members of the Tiers Etat, 477 deputies were
Freemasons.
Revolutions
cost money. " L'Or de Pitt" (Pitt's gold) had to go through some
channel that would not compromise the English government and, in dealing with
such a delicate matter as the fostering of revolution in a foreign country, it
was good policy to organize a similar movement at home which however should
remain abortive, being led by Lord Stanhope, Pitt's brother-in-law.
In this
connection, the history and failure of Wolfe Tone's Bantry Bay expedition is
interesting.
The
history of the Terror in the French Revolution of 1793 is the history of lodges
such as that of the Philaletes, among whose members the following Jacobin
leaders are known to us chiefly for their uncompromising bestiality.
Among
the members of the " Club de la Propagande "
Condorcet,
Due de la Rochefoucauld, Sieyes, de Beauharnais, Charles Theodore Lameth.
Among
the members of the Lodge " Les Amis Beunis " Babeuf, Ceruty, Marat,
Hebert, Dupont.
Among
the members of the Lodge " Les Neuf Souurs " Condorcet, Jean Sylvain.
Bailly, Emmanuel Joseph Sieves, Dom Gerle, Claude Fauchct, Jean Pierre Brissot,
Benoit Camille Desmonlins, Cerutti, Danton, Nicolas de Bonneville, Rabaud Saint
Etienne, Lalande, Due, de la Rochefoucauld.
Among
the members of the " Amis des Noirs " (Founded 1787)
Brissot,
Sieyes, Condorcet, Mirabeau (the elder) Due de la Rochefoucauld, Pelletier de
St. Fargeau, Lafayette, Gorsas, Valadi, Carra.
Other
prominent Jacobin Freemasons of the Revolution of 1793 were :
Guillotin.
Dupui, Fouche, Robespierre, Collot-d'Herbois, According to Barruel (Histoire du
Jacobinisme, vol. II, page 446 et seq.) the last mentioned lodge of the "
Amis des Noirs " appears to have been only the cover name behind which
operated the Comite Regulateuf or Central Committee of the combined lodges and
clubs. An international organization with foreign branches in America and
Europe, the deliberations of this group of conspirators were sent to the
Central Committee of the Grand Orient from where they were relayed to the
provinces, addressed to the various Worshipful Masters or Presidents of the
Lodges. This group according to Barruel, was the central guiding committee of
the Revolution. The " Club Regulateur " is said to have numbered at
least 500,000 brothers.
Lafayette
(Loge de la Candeur), when he marched on Versailles at the head of 15,000
national guardsmen and brought the King back to Paris, was already, presumably,
fully informed of Dupont's plan of revolution which he himself and Mirabeau had
approved at a session of the " Amis Reunis " early in June.
While
remarking that the vote for the death of the King of France, Louis XVI, was
carried by a majority of one, Pignatel further states that, in consequence of
certain irregularities in the balloting, some five votes for death were cast by
unqualified persons while four others voted twice.
After
the storm of revolution had subsided, the power in France seems to have been
vested in the Comite de Salut Public, but the 300 who controlled France and of
whose power we read in Memoirs of the time were the 300 masonic leaders. That
they in turn were controlled by a small clique is obvious. Even the 300 masonic
leaders of the French Revolution of 1793 seem to have had their successors in
modern history — Rathenau mentioned them in his works.
One of
the most interesting episodes of the French Revolution was that known as the
Conspiracy of Babeuf. Babeuf formed the Society of the Pantheon which,
according to Professor Laski, 6 was operated by " a secret committee of
direction. Among them were some extraordinary men, Darthe, Sylvain Marechal,
Germain and Buonarroti, who was to survive them all and be their historian.
"
The
particular brand of communism favoured by the conspirators was based on the
theory that the poor could not help themselves or improve their position, that
the rich must be suppressed and that the ideal state could only be reached by
class war, and a dictatorship of the proletariat led by the Babouvists. Prof.
Lasky remarks that anyone who reads the voluminous literature of this period
" with attention and compares the habits it postulates with the operations
of Bolshevism, cannot help being impressed by the resemblance. "
The
Babouvist movement though suppressed by the directory in 1796 survives today
having successfully penetrated an English Literary Society called the Fabians
where its predatory principles pass for Socialism.
For root
of this movement see Chapter LI.
For
development of this movement see Chapters LXV,
LXXI,
LXXXV, XCIII, CVI and CXXV.
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