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1748: UNFORGETTABLE ADAM WEISHAUPT
I can practically guarantee you'll never see this article in
Reader's Digest. But I love to do these Digest-style biographies
of famous people in the paranormal field, so here goes.
He's been called many things. The Abbe Barruel called him "a
human devil." Thomas Jefferson called him "a harmless
philanthropist." Prof. John Robison called him "the profoundest
conspirator that ever existed."
But what's the real story behind the man who simply called
himself "Brother Spartacus?"
Adam Weishaupt was born on February 6, 1748 in Ingolstadt, a city
in Bayern (Bavaria), Germany, which was then an independent
kingdom. When he was a baby, his parents, who had been Orthodox
Jews, converted to the Roman Catholic Church.
Instead of attending the yeshiva, Adam attended monastery schools
and later a hochschule (high school) run by the Society of Jesus.
As a Bavarian, Adam learned Czech and Italian as a child, and in
school, he soon mastered Latin, Greek and, with his father's
help, Hebrew.
With his avid scholarship and knack for languages, his Jesuit
superiors thought he would be a natural for overseas missionary
work, perhaps in the Americas or in Asia. But Adam rebelled
against Jesuit discipline, resisted their overtures and
eventually became the professor of canon law at the University of
Ingolstadt.
Beginning around 1768, Adam began "the collection of a large
library for the purpose of establishing an academy of scholars."
He read every ancient manuscript and text he and his associates
could lay hands on.
Adam grew interested in the occult, becoming obsessed with the
Great Pyramid of Giza. He was convinced that the edifice was a
prehistoric temple of initiation. In 1770, he made the
acquaintance of Franz Kolmer, a Danish merchant who had lived for
many years in Alexandria and had made several trips to Giza..
The following year, 1771, Adam decided to found a secret society
aimed at "transforming" the human race. He devoted five years to
thinking out the plan, borrowing from many different occult
sources. His first name for the proposed order, Perfectibilisen,
suggests that he borrowed from the Cathars, a gnostic religion
that flourished in Europe for four hundred years. The Cathars,
whose name means "perfect ones," were decimated in the
Albigensian Crusade of Pope Innocent III during the early
Thirteenth Century.
Adam fashioned his order in the form of (what else?) a pyramid.
"Its members, pledged to obedience to their superiors, were
divided into three main classes; the first including novices,
minervals and lesser illuminati the second consisting," like the
Freemasons, of "ordinary, Scottish and Scottish Knights, and the
third, or mystery class, comprising two grades of priest and
regent, and of magus and king," or Illuminatus Rex.
This hierarchy, incidentally, is identical to the table of
organization of the Sufis of Islam, which has some historians
wondering if Adam's friend Kolmer was a closet Sufi.
The Illuminati were a closemouthed bunch. "Every candidate had to
give a written promise to tell nobody of this society. He learned
nothing of his superiors and of the origin of the society, but
was confirmed in the belief that the order could be traced back
to antiquity and that its members included even popes and
cardinals."
"He further vowed eternal silence and strict obedience. Every
month he had to send a report to his superior, whom he did not
know."
Adam felt that human society had grown hopelessly corrupt and
that it could only be saved by a complete overhaul. In effect, he
was the first utopian to think on a global scale, and he looked
forward to the day his group would bring about the Novus Ordo
Seclorum, sometimes called the New World Order.
The Illuminati had five goals, including
"(1) Abolition of monarchies and all ordered governments,
(2) Abolition of private property and inheritances,
(3) Abolition of patriotism and nationalism,
(4) Abolition of family life and the institution of marriage,
and the establishment of communal education of children, and,
(5) Abolition of all religion."
By drawing upon Europe's "best and brightest," Adam was confident
that the order could attain its goals. He wrote, "The pupils are
convinced that the Order will rule the world. Every member
therefore becomes a ruler. We all think of ourselves as qualified
to rule. It is therefore an alluring thought both to good and bad
men. Therefore the Order will spread."
He also urged his followers not to shrink from committing
violence or criminal acts in meeting Illuminati objectives,
writing, "Sin is only that which is hurtful, and if the profit is
greater than the damage, it becomes a virtue."
Recruitment proceeded at a brisk pace. Adam rallied many able
lieutenants to his cause. Such as Baron Xavier von Zwack, who
lobbied for the order in Germany and in Britain, too, with help
from William Petty, the second Earl of Shelburne. And Baron Adolf
von Knigge, who brokered a "shotgun marriage" between Illuminism
and European Freemasonry at the Congress of Whilhelmsbad in 1782.
By 1782, the Illuminati "had spread from Denmark to Portugal,"
and even further afield. Illuminized Britons joined with
like-minded Americans to found the Columbian Lodge in New York
City that year. A young Russian nobleman, Alexander Radischev,
joined the order in Leipzieg and carried the doctrines home to
St. Petersburg. In Lisboa (Lisbon), a poet named Claudio Manuel
da Costa became a member and, upon returning home to Brazil,
founded a chapter with two doctors from Ouro Preto, Domingos
Vidal Barbosa and Jose
Alvares Maciel. In 1788, this trio launched the first Illuminati
uprising, the Inconfidencia Mineira, but the revolt was nipped in
the bud by the viceroy, the Marquis de Barbacena.
Meanwhile, back in Germany, Adam was learning that life as the
Illuminatus Rex was not quite the paradise he'd envisioned. His
long-time mistress became pregnant and insisted that he either
pay up or marry her. Adam stalled, and the lady threatened to go
public with the scandal.
Baron von Knigge, who had given the Illuminatenorden a big boost
by allying with Freemasonry, thought he should be rewarded by
becoming Adam's co-ruler in the order. Adam disagreed, and the
resulting feud between the two men resulted in von Knigge
quitting the order in 1784.
To make matters worse, Illuminati writers Johann Herder and
Johann G. Fichte had begun beating the drum for German
unification. Their calls for "Ein volk und ein Reich" were
completely out of sync with Adam's plan to do away with
nationalism.
While Adam may have been a brilliant scholar, he lacked the
leader's touch. He was too high- handed and arrogant,
disinclined to listen to the advice of subordinates. These
characteristics enraged some of the lesser Illuminati, such as
Joseph Utschneider, and they awaited the day they would have
their revenge.
The day was not long in coming. An Illuminati courier was struck
by lightning and killed. When the Bavarian police searched his
body, they found coded messages from Weishaupt sewn into the
clothes.
At this critical juncture, Utschneider and his three companions
came forward and told the Bavarian authorities all about the
Illuminati. As a result, the King of Bavaria banned the order in
August 1784.
Fired from his position at the university, and accused of
everything from treason to goat molestation, Adam fled Ingolstadt
on horseback and went to Regensburg. When he found the people
there equally hostile, he rode on to
Gotha, where he was offered refuge by Duke Ernst II. An
associate, Dr. Schwartz, loaded the order's collection of
Kabbalist, Cathar, Sufi and occult books into an ox-cart and begn
the long journey eastward to Moscow.
(Editor's Comment: As an American, I am amazed by the eerie
parallels with early USA history. Weishaupt's escape to Gotha
resembles the "midnight ride" of Paul Revere and William Dawes
in 1775. And Dr. Schwartz's trip to Moscow has its parallel in
the wagon trains of the first Oregon pioneers. Maybe he should
have put a sign on the cart--Mockba hhaye Khytekh, "Moscow or
Bust.")
The "profoundest conspirator that ever existed" lived out the
rest of his life in exile in Gotha. He got into more mischief in
the French Revolution with his friend and correspondent,
Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, the Illuminatus of Lyons. And lived long
enough to inspire new generations of Illuminati--Anacharsis
Cloots, Francois Babeuf and Filippo Buonarotti, among others.
Adam Weishaupt died on November 18, 1830 in Gotha. Even in death,
he remains a figure of controversy. The Roman Catholic
Encyclopedia of 1910 said Weishaupt repented on his deathbed and
was reconciled with the Church. Author Gary Allen claimed that
Adam was working on an essay on hermetic art magick, Two
Fragments of a Ritual, when he suddenly dropped dead. Quien sabe?
Proper assessment of Adam's role in history may have to wait a
few more centuries, for a generation of more objective
historians. His is still a hot-button name.
Here in the USA, fundamentalist Christians consider Adam
Weishaupt a kind of sinister John the Baptist, proclaiming the
global Kingdom of Satan. And those who favor the New World
Order... well, they don't say much of anything. Mention the
names "Adam Weishaupt" and "Illuminati," and they tend to grit
their teeth and scowl.
For myself, whenever I think about Adam Weishaupt and his sect,
the haunting question of Jesus Christ comes to mind. "Can an evil
tree produce good fruit?" (See The New World Order by Pat
Robertson, Word Publishing, Dallas, Texas, 1991, pages 180
through 183; Einige Originalschriften des Illuminatenordens,
Munich, 1786; and Essai sur la secte des Illuminees, by J.P.L. de
la Roche de Maine, Paris, 1792.)
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which the item first appeared...
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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