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1) Humanum Genus -- the Catholic condemnation of Masonry
2) a defense of Masonry by a Disciples of Christ minister
3) a discussion of the Bavarian Illuminati, who are not Masons but
	are sometimes confused with them.

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Subject: Humanum Genus

Transcriber's note: The following text was scanned in. The source is
an appendix in "Born in Blood - The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry" by
John Robinson. I have numbered the paragraphs, and done a quick check
for obvious spelling errors, but some format problems may persist. In
particular, some sentences may have lost their periods.

          --------------------------------------------------

(Following is an English translation, from the original Latin, of the
encyclical Humanum Genus, the strongest and most comprehensive papal
condemnation of Freemasonry, promulgated in 1884.)

                        THE MASONIC SECT

                        LEO, POPE, XIII.

     To all venerable Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops
in the Catholic world who have grace and communion with the Apostolic
See:

                       VENERABLE BROTHERS:

Health and the Apostolic Benediction!

 1.
     THE HUMAN RACE, after, by the malice of the devil, it had
departed from God, the Creator and Giver of heavenly gifts, divided
itself into two different and opposing parties, one of which
assiduously combats for truth and virtue, the other for those things
which are opposed to virtue and to truth. The one is the Kingdom of
God on earth--that is, the Church of Jesus Christ; those who desire to
adhere to which from their soul and conducively to salvation must
serve God and His only begotten Son with their whole mind and their
whole will. The other is the kingdom of Satan, in whose dominion and
power are all who have followed his sad example and that of our first
parents. They refuse to obey divine and eternal law, and strive for
many things to the neglect of God and for many against God. This
twofold kingdom, like two states with contrary laws working in
contrary directions, Augustine clearly saw and described, and
comprehended the efficient cause of both with subtle brevity in these
words: "Two loves have made two states: the love of self to the
contempt of God has made the earthly, but the love of God to the
contempt of self has made the heavenly." (De Civ. Dei, lib. xiv.,
chap.  17.)

 2.
     The one fights the other with different kinds of weapons, and
battles at all times, though not always with the same ardor and fury.
In our days, however, those who follow the evil one seem to conspire
and strive all together under the guidance and with the help of that
society of men spread all over, and solidly established, which they
call Free-Masons.  Not dissimulating their intentions, they vie in
attacking the power of God; they openly and ostensibly strive to
damage the Church, with the purpose to deprive thoroughly if possible
Christian people of the benefits brought by the Saviour Jesus Christ.

 3.
     Seeing these evils, we are compelled by charity in our soul to
say often to God: "For lo! Thy enemies have made noise; and they that
hate Thee have lifted up the head. They have taken malicious counsel
against Thy people, and have consulted against Thy saints. They have
said: Come and let us destroy them, so that they be not a nation."
(Ps.  lxxxii., 2-4)

 4.
     In such an impending crisis, in such a great and obstinate
warfare upon Christianity, it is our duty to point out the danger,
exhibit the adversaries, resist as much as we can their schemes and
tricks, lest those whose salvation is in our hands should perish
eternally: and that the kingdom of Jesus Christ, which we have
received in trust, not only may stay and remain intact, but may
continue to increase all over the world by new additions.

 5.
     The Roman Pontiffs, our predecessors, watching constantly over
the safety of the Christian people, early recognized this capital
enemy rushing forth out of the darkness of hidden conspiracy, and,
anticipating the future in their mind, gave the alarm to princes and
people, that they should not be caught by deceptions and frauds.

 6.
     Clement XII. first signalized the danger in 1738, and Benedict
XIV.  renewed and continued his Constitution. Pius VII. followed them
both; and Leo XII., by the Apostolic Constitution --quo graviora--
recapitulating the acts and decrees of the above Pontiffs about the
matter validated and confirmed them forever. In the same way spoke
Pius VIII., Gregory XVI., and very often Pius IX.

 7.
     The purpose and aim of the Masonic sect having been discovered
from plain evidence, from the cognition of causes, its laws, Rites and
commentaries having come to light and been made known by the
additional depositions of the associated members, this Apostolic See
denounced and openly declared that the sect of Masons is established
against law and honesty, and is equally a danger to Christianity as
well as to society; and, threatening those heavy punishments which the
Church uses against the guilty ones, she forbade the society, and
ordered that none should give his name to it. Therefore the angry
Masons, thinking that they would escape the sentence or partially
destroy it by despising or calumniating, accused the Pope who made
those decrees of not having made a right decree or of having
overstepped moderation. They thus tried to evade the authority and the
importance of the Apostolic Constitutions of Clement XII., Benedict
XIV., Pius VII., and Pius IX. But in the same society there were some
who, even against their own will, acknowledged that the Roman Pontiffs
had acted wisely and lawfully, according to the Catholic discipline.
In this many princes and rulers of States agreed with the Popes, and
either denounced Masonry to the Apostolic See or by appropriate laws
condemned it as a bad thing in Holland, Austria, Switzerland, Spain,
Bavaria, Savoy, and other parts of Italy.

 8.
     But the event justified the prudence of our predecessors, and
this is the most important. Nay, their paternal care did not always
and everywhere succeed, either because of the simulation and
shrewdness of the Masons themselves, or through the inconsiderate
levity of others whose duty required of them strict attention. Hence,
in a century and a half the sect of Masons grew beyond expectation;
and, creeping audaciously and deceitfully among the various classes of
the people, it grew to be so powerful that now it seems the only
dominating power in the States.  From this rapid and dangerous growth
have come into the Church and into the State those evils which our
predecessors had already foreseen.  It has indeed come to this, that
we have serious fear, not for the Church, which has a foundation too
firm for men to upset it, but for those States in which this society
is so powerful--or other societies of a like kind, and which show
themselves to be servants and companions of Masonry.

 9.
     For these reasons, when we first succeeded in the government of
the Church, we saw and felt very clearly the necessity of opposing so
great an evil with the full weight of our authority. On all favorable
occasions we have attacked the principal doctrines in which the
Masonic perversity appeared. By our Encyclical Letter, quod apostoloci
muneris, we attacked the errors of Socialists and Communists; by the
Letter, Arcanum we tried to explain and defend the genuine notion of
domestic society, whose source and origin is in marriage; finally, by
the letter which begins Diuturnum, we proposed a form of civil power
consonant with the principles of Christian wisdom, responding to the
very nature and the the welfare of people and Princes. Now, after the
example of our predecessors, we intend to turn our attention to the
Masonic society to its whole doctrine, to its intentions, acts, and
feelings, in order to illustrate more and more this wicked force and
stop the spread of this contagious disease.

10.
     There are several sects of men which, though different in name,
customs forms, and origin, are identical in aim and sentiment with
Masonry. It is the universal center from which they all spring, and to
which they all return. Although in our days these seem to no longer
care to hide in darkness, but hold their meetings in the full light
and under the eyes of their fellow-men and publish their journals
openly, yet they deliberate and preserve the habits and customs of
secret societies. Nay, there are in them many secrets which are by law
carefully concealed not only from the profane, but also from many
associated, viz., the last and I intimate intentions, the hidden and
unknown chiefs, the hidden and secret meetings, the resolutions and
methods and means by which they will be carried into execution. Hence
the difference of rights and of duties among the members; hence the
distinction of orders and grades and the severe discipline by which
they are ruled. The initiated must promise, nay, take an oath, that
they will never, at any way or at any time, disclose their
fellow-members and the emblems by which they are known, or expose
their doctrines. So, by false appearance, but with the same kind of
simulation, the Masons chiefly strive, as once did the Manicheans to
hide and to admit no witnesses but their own. They seek skillfully
hiding places, assuming the appearance of literary men or philosophers
associated for the purpose of erudition; they have always ready on
their tongues the speech of cultivated urbanity, and proclaim their
charity toward the poor; they look for the improvement of the masses,
to extend the benefits of social comfort to as many of mankind as
possible. Those purposes, though they may be true, yet are not the
only ones. Besides, those who are chosen to join the society must
promise and swear to obey the leaders and teachers with great respect
and trust; to be ready to do whatever is told them, and accept death
and the most horrible punishment if they disobey. In fact, some who
have betrayed the secrets or disobeyed an order are punished with
death so skillfully and so audaciously that the murder escaped the
investigations of the police. Therefore, reason and truth show that
the society of which we speak is contrary to honesty and natural
justice.

11.
     There are other and clear arguments to show that this society is
not in agreement with honesty. No matter how great the skill with
which men conceal it, it is impossible that the cause should not
appear in its effects. "A good tree cannot yield bad fruits, nor a bad
tree good ones.  (Matt. vii., 18.) Masonry generates bad fruits mixed
with great bitterness.  From the evidence above mentioned we find its
aim, which is the desire of overthrowing all the religious and social
orders introduced by Christianity, and building a new one according to
its taste, based on the foundation and laws of naturalism.

12.
     What we have said or will say must be understood of Masonry in
general and of all like societies, not of the individual members of
the same.  In their number there may be not a few who, though they are
wrong in giving their names to these societies, yet are neither guilty
of their crimes nor aware of the final goal which they strive to
reach. Among the associations also, perhaps, some do not approve the
extreme conclusions which, as emanating from common principles, it
would be necessary to embrace if their deformity and vileness would
not be too repulsive.  Some of them are equally forced by the places
and times not to go so far as they would go or others go; and yet they
are not to be considered less Masonic for that, because the Masonic
alliance has to be considered not only from actions and deeds, but
from general principles.

13.
     Now, it is the principle of naturalists, as the name itself
indicates, that human nature and human reason in everything must be
our teacher and guide. Having once settled this, they are careless of
duties toward God, or they pervert them with false opinions and
errors. They deny that anything has been revealed by God; they do not
admit any religious dogma and truth but what human intelligence can
comprehend; they do not allow any teacher to be believed on his
official authority. Now, it being the special duty of the Catholic
Church, and her duty only, to keep the doctrines received from God and
the authority of teaching with all the heavenly means necessary to
salvation and preserve them integrally incorrupt, hence the attacks
and rage of the enemies are turned against her.

14.
     Now, if one watches the proceedings of the Masons, in respect of
religion especially, where they are more free to do what they like, it
will appear that they carry faithfully into execution the tenets of
the naturalists.  They work, indeed, obstinately to the end that
neither the teaching nor the authority of the Church may have any
influence; and therefore they preach and maintain the full separation
of the Church from the State. So law and government are wrested from
the wholesome and divine virtue of the Catholic Church, and they want,
therefore, by all means to rule States independent of the institutions
and doctrines of the Church.

15.
     To drive off the Church as a sure guide is not enough; they add
persecutions and insults. Full license is given to attack with
impunity, both by words and print and teaching, the very foundations
of the Catholic religion; the rights of the Church are violated; her
divine privileges are not respected. Her action is restricted as much
as possible; and that by virtue of laws apparently not too violent,
but substantially made on purpose to check her freedom. Laws odiously
partial against the clergy are passed so as to reduce its number and
its means. The ecclesiastical revenue is in a thousand ways tied up,
and religious associations abolished and dispersed.

16.
     But the war wages more ardently against the Apostolic See and the
Roman Pontiff. He was, under a false pretext, deprived of the temporal
power, the stronghold of his rights and of his freedom; he was next
reduced to an iniquitous condition, unbearable for its numberless
burdens until it has come to this, that the Sectarians say openly what
they had already in secret devised for a long time, viz., that the
very spiritual power of the Pope ought to be taken away, and the
divine institution of the Roman Pontificate ought to disappear from
the world. If other arguments were needed for this, it would be
sufficiently demonstrated by the testimony of many who often, in times
bygone and even lately, declared it to be the real supreme aim of the
Free-Masons to persecute, with untamed hatred, Christianity, and that
they will never rest until they see cast to the ground all religious
institutions established by the Pope.

17.
     If the sect does not openly require its members to throw away of
Catholic faith, this tolerance, far from injuring the Masonic schemes,
is useful to them. Because this is, first, an easy way to deceive the
simple and unwise ones and it is contributing to proselytize. By
opening their gates to persons of every creed they promote, in fact,
the great modern error of religious indifference and of the parity of
all worships, the best way to annihilate every religion, especially
the Catholic, which, being the only true one cannot be joined with
others without enormous injustice

18.
     But naturalists go further. Having entered, in things of greatest
importance, on a way thoroughly false, through the weakness of human
nature or by the judgment of God, who punishes pride, they run to
extreme errors. Thus the very truths which are known by the natural
light of reason, as the existence of God, the spirituality and
immortality of the soul, have no more consistence and certitude for
them.

19.
     Masonry breaks on the same rocks by no different way. It is true,
Free-Masons generally admit the existence of God; but they admit
themselves that this persuasion for them is not firm, sure. They do
not dissimulate that in the Masonic family the question of God is a
principle of great discord; it is even known how they lately had on
this point serious disputes. It is a fact that the sect leaves to the
members full liberty of thinking about God whatever they like,
affirming or denying His existence Those who boldly deny His existence
are admitted as well as those who, like the Pantheists, admit God but
ruin the idea of Him, retaining an absurd caricature of the divine
nature, destroying its reality Now, as soon as this supreme foundation
is pulled down and upset, many natural truths must need go down, too,
as the free creations of this world, the universal government of
Providence, immortality of soul, fixture, and eternal life.

20.
     Once having dissipated these natural principles, important
practically and theoretically, it is easy to see what will become of
public and private morality. We will not speak of supernatural
virtues, which, without a special favor and gift of God, no one can
practice nor obtain, and of which it is impossible to find a vestige
in those who proudly ignore the redemption of mankind, heavenly grace,
the sacraments, and eternal happiness. We speak of duties which
proceed from natural honesty.  Because the principles and sources of
justice and morality are these, a God, creator and provident ruler of
the world, the eternal law which commands respect and forbids the
violation of natural order; the supreme end of man settled a great
deal above created things outside of this world. These principles once
taken away by the Free-Masons as by the naturalists, immediately
natural ethics has no more where to build or to rest. They only
morality which Free-Masons admit, and by which they would like to
bring up youth, is that which they call civil and independent or the
one which ignores every religious idea. But how poor, uncertain, and
variable at every breath of passion is this morality, is demonstrated
by the sorrowful fruits which partially already appear.  Nay, where it
has been freely dominating, having banished Christian education,
probity and integrity of manners go down, horrible and monstrous
opinions raise their head, and crimes grow with fearful audacity.
This is deplored by everybody, and by those who are compelled by
evidence and yet would not like to speak so.

21.
     Besides, as human nature is infected by original sin and more
inclined to vice than to virtue, it is not possible to lead an honest
life without mortifying the passions and submitting the appetites to
reason. In this fight it is often necessary to despise created good,
and undergo the greatest pains and sacrifices in order to preserve to
conquering reason its own empire. But naturalists and Masons,
rejecting divine revelation, deny original sin, and do not acknowledge
that our free will is weakened and bent to evil. To the contrary,
exaggerating the strength and excellency of nature, and settling in
her the principles and unique role of justice they cannot even imagine
how, in order to counteract its motions and moderate its appetites,
continuous efforts are needed and the greatest constancy. This is the
reason why we see so many enticements offered to the passions,
journals, and reviews without any shame, theatrical plays thoroughly
dishonest; the liberal arts cultivated according to the principles of
an impudent realism, effeminate and delicate living promoted by the
most refined inventions; in a word, all the enticements apt to seduce
or weaken virtue carefully practiced--things highly to blame, yet
becoming the theories of those who take away from man heavenly goods,
and put all happiness in transitory things and bind it to earth.

22.
     What we have said may be confirmed by things of which it is not
easy to think or speak. As these shrewd and malicious men do not find
more servility and docility than in souls already broken and subdued
by the tyranny of the passions, there have been in the Masonic sect
some who openly said and proposed that the multitudes should be urged
by all means and artifice into license, so that they should afterward
become an easy instrument for the most daring enterprise.

23.
     For domestic society the doctrine of almost all naturalists is
that marriage is only a civil contract, and may be lawfully broken by
the will of the contracting parties; the State has power over the
matrimonial bond.  In the education of the children no religion must
be applied, and when grown up every one will select that which he
likes.

24.
     Now Free-Masons accept these principles without restriction; and
not only do they accept them, but they endeavor to act so as to bring
them into moral and practical life. In many countries which are
professedly Catholic, marriages not celebrated in the civil form are
considered null; elsewhere laws allow divorce. In other places
everything is done in order to have it permitted. So the nature of
marriage will be soon changed and reduced to a temporary union, which
can be done and undone at pleasure.

25.
     The sect of the Masons aims unanimously and steadily also at the
possession of the education of children. They understand that a tender
age is easily bent, and that there is no more useful way of preparing
for the State such citizens as they wish. Hence, in the instruction
and education of children, they do not leave to the ministers of the
Church any part either in directing or watching them. In many places
they have gone so far that children's education is all in the hands of
laymen: and from moral teaching every idea is banished of those holy
and great duties which bind together man and God.

26.
     The principles of social science follow. Here naturalists teach
that men have all the same rights, and are perfectly equal in
condition; that every man is naturally independent; that no one has a
right to command others; that it is tyranny to keep men subject to any
other authority than that which emanates from themselves. Hence the
people are sovereign; those who rule have no authority but by the
commission and concession of the people; so that they can be deposed,
willing or unwilling, according to the wishes of the people. The
origin of all rights and civil duties is in the people or in the
State, which is ruled according to the new principles of liberty. The
State must be godless; no reason why one religion ought to be
preferred to another; all to be held in the same esteem.

27.
     Now it is well known that Free-Masons approve these maxims, and
that they wish to see governments shaped on this pattern and model
needs no demonstration. It is a long time, indeed, that they have
worked with all their strength and power openly for this, making thus
an easy way for those, not a few, more audacious and bold in evil, who
meditate the communion and equality of all goods after having swept
away from the world every distinction of social goods and conditions.

28.
     From these few hints it is easy to understand what is the Masonic
sect and what it wants. Its tenets contradict so evidently human
reason that nothing can be more perverted. The desire of destroying
the religion and Church established by God, with the promise of
immortal life, to try to revive, after eighteen centuries, the manners
and institutions of paganism, is great foolishness and bold impiety.
No less horrible or unbearable is it to repudiate the gifts granted
through His adversaries.  In this foolish and ferocious attempt, one
recognizes that untamed hatred and rage of revenge kindled against
Jesus Christ in the heart of Satan.

29.
     The other attempt in which the Masons work so much, viz., to pull
down the foundations of morality, and become co-operators of those
who, like brutes, would see that become lawful which they like, is
nothing but to urge mankind into the most abject and ignominious
degradation.

30.
     This evil is aggravated by the dangers which threaten domestic
and civil society. As we have at other times explained, there is in
marriage, through the unanimous consent of nations and of ages, a
sacred and religious character; and by divine law the conjugal union
is indissoluble.  Now, if this union is dissolved, if divorce is
juridically permitted, confusion and discord must inevitably enter the
domestic sanctuary, and woman will lose her dignity and children every
security of their own welfare

31.
     That the State ought to profess religious indifference and
neglect God in ruling society, as if God did not exist, is a
foolishness unknown to the very heathen, who had so deeply rooted in
their mind and in their heart, not only the idea of God, but the
necessity also of public worship, that they supposed it to be easier
to find a city without any foundation than without any God. And really
human society, from which nature has made us, was instituted by God,
the author of the same nature, and from Him emanates, as from its
source and principle, all this everlasting abundance of numberless
goods. As, then, the voice of nature tells us to worship God with
religious piety, because we have received from Him life and the goods
which accompany life, so, for the same reasons, people and States must
do the same. Therefore those who want to free society from any
religious duty are not only unjust but unwise and absurd.

32.
     Once grant that men through God's will are born for civil
society, and that sovereign power is so strictly necessary to society
that when this fails society necessarily collapses, it follows that
the right of command emanates from the same principle from which
society itself emanates; hence the reason why the minister of God is
invested with such authority.  Therefore, so far as it is required
from the end and nature of human society, one must obey lawful
authority as we would obey the authority of God, supreme ruler of the
universe; and it is a capital error to grant to the people full power
of shaking off at their own will the yoke of obedience

33.
     Considering their common origin and nature, the supreme end
proposed to every one, and the right and duties emanating from it, men
no doubt are all equal. But as it is impossible to find in them equal
capacity, and as through bodily or intellectual strength one differs
from others, and the variety of customs, inclinations, and personal
qualities are so great, it is absurd to pretend to mix and unify all
this and bring in the order of civil life a rigorous and absolute
equality. As the perfect constitution of the human body results from
the union and harmony of different parts, which differ in form and
uses, but united and each in his own place form an organism beautiful,
strong, useful, and necessary to life, so in the State there is an
infinite variety of individuals who compose it. If these all equalized
were to live each according to his own whim, it would result in a city
monstrous and ugly; whereas if distinct in harmony in degrees of
offices, of inclinations, of arts, they co-operate together to the
common good, they will offer the image of a city well harmonized and
conformed to nature.

34.
     The turbulent errors which we have mentioned must inspire
governments with fear; in fact, suppose the fear of God in life and
respect for divine laws to be despised, the authority of the rulers
allowed and authorized would be destroyed, rebellion would be left
free to popular passions, and universal revolution and subversion must
necessarily come. This subversive revolution is the deliberate aim and
open purpose of the numerous communistic and socialistic associations.
The Masonic sect has no reason to call itself foreign to their
purpose, because Masons promote their designs and have with them
common capital principles. If the extreme consequences are not
everywhere reached in fact, it is not the merit of the sect nor owing
to the will of the members, but of that divine religion which cannot
be extinguished, and of the most select part of society, which,
refusing to obey secret societies resists strenuously their immoderate
efforts.

35.
     May Heaven grant that universally from the fruits we may judge
the root, and from impending evil and threatening dangers we may know
the bad seed! We have to fight a shrewd enemy, who, cajoling Peoples
and Kings, deceives them all with false promises and fine flattery.

36.
     Free-Masons, insinuating themselves under pretence of friendship
into the hearts of Princes, aim to have them powerful aids and
accomplices to overcome Christianity, and in order to excite them more
actively they calumniate the Church as the enemy of royal privileges
and power.  Having thus become confident and sure, they get great
influence in the government of States, resolve yet to shake the
foundations of the thrones, and persecute, calumniate, or banish those
sovereigns who refuse to rule as they desire.

37.
     By these arts flattering the people, they deceive them.
Proclaiming all the time public prosperity and liberty; making
multitudes believe that the Church is the cause of the iniquitous
servitude and misery in which they are suffering, they deceive people
and urge on the masses craving for new things against both powers. It
is, however, true that the expectation of hoped-for advantages is
greater than the reality; and poor people more and more oppressed, see
in their misery those comforts vanish which they might have easily and
abundantly found in organized Christian society. But the punishment of
the proud, who rebel against the order established by the providence
of God, is that they find oppression and misery exactly where they
expected prosperity according to their desire.

38.
     Now, if the Church commands us to obey before all God, the Lord
of everything, it would be an injurious calumny to believe her the
enemy of the power of Princes and a usurper of their rights. She
wishes, on the contrary, that what is due to civil power may be given
to it conscientiously.  To recognize, as she does, the divine right of
command, concedes great dignity to civil power, and contributes to
conciliate the respect and love of subjects. A friend of peace and the
mother of concord she embraces all with motherly love, intending only
to do good to men. She teaches that justice must be united with
clemency, equity with command, law with moderation, and to respect
every right, maintain order and public tranquillity, relieve as much
as possible public and private miseries. "But," to use the words of
St. Augustine, "they believe, or want to make believe, that the
doctrine of Gospel is not useful to society because they wish that the
State shall rest not on the solid foundation of virtue, but on
impunity of vice."

39.
     It would, therefore, be more according to civil wisdom and more
necessary to universal welfare that Princes and Peoples, instead of
joining the Free-Masons against the Church, should unite with the
Church to resist the Free-Masons' attacks.

40.
     At all events, in the presence of such a great evil, already too
much spread, it is our duty, venerable brethren, to find a remedy. And
as we know that in the virtue of divine religion, the more hated by
Masons as it is the more feared, chiefly consists the best and most
solid of efficient remedy, we think that against the common enemy one
must have recourse to this wholesome strength.

41.
     We, by our authority, ratify and confirm all things which the
Roman Pontiffs, our predecessors' have ordered to check the purposes
and stop the efforts of the Masonic sect, and all these which they
establish to keep off or withdraw the faithful from such societies.
And here, trusting greatly to the good will of the faithful, we pray
and entreat each of them, as they love their own salvation, to make it
a duty of conscience not to depart from what has been on this point
prescribed by the Apostolic See.

42.
     We entreat and pray you, venerable brethren, who co-operate with
us, to root out this poison, which spreads widely among the Nations.
It is your duty to defend the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
Keeping before your eyes those two ends, you shall lack neither in
courage nor in fortitude. To judge which may be the more efficacious
means to overcome difficulties and obstacles belongs to your prudence.
Yet as we find it agreeable to our ministry to point out some of the
most useful means, the first thing to do is to strip from the Masonic
sect its mask and show it as it is, teaching orally and by pastoral
letters the people about the frauds used by these societies to flatter
and entice, the perversity of its doctrines, and the dishonesty of its
works. As our predecessors have many times declared, those who love
the Catholic faith and their own salvation must be sure that they
cannot give their names for any reason to the Masonic sect without
sin. Let no one believe a simulated honesty.  It may seem to some that
Masons never impose anything openly contrary to faith or to morals,
but as the scope and nature is essentially bad in these sects, it is
not allowed to give one's name to them or to help them in any way.

43.
     It is also necessary with assiduous sermons and exhortations to
arouse in the people love and zeal for religious instruction. We
recommend, therefore, that by appropriate declarations, orally and in
writing, the fundamental principles of those truths may be explained
in which Christian wisdom is entertained. It is only thus that minds
can be cured by instruction, and warned against the various forms of
error and vice, and the various enticements especially in this great
freedom of writing and great desire of learning.

44.
     It is a laborious work, indeed, in which you will have associated
and companioned your clergy, if properly trained and taught by your
zeal.  But such a beautiful and important cause requires the
co-operating industry of those laymen who unite doctrine and probity
with the love of religion and of their country. With the united
strength of these two orders endeavor, dear brethren, that men may
know and love the Church; because the more their love and knowledge of
the Church grows the more they will abhor and fly from secret
societies.

45.
     Therefore, availing ourselves of this present occasion, we remind
you of the necessity of promoting and protecting the Third Order of
St.  Francis, whose rules, with prudent indulgence, we lately
mitigated.  According to the spirit of its institution it intends only
to draw men to imitate Jesus Christ, to love the Church, and to
practice all Christian virtues, and therefore it will prove useful to
extinguish the contagion of sects.

46.
     May it grow more and more, this holy congregation, from which,
among others, can be expected also this precious fruit of bringing
minds back to liberty, fraternity, and equality; not those which are
the dream of the Masonic sect, but which Jesus Christ brought into
this world and Francis revived. The liberty, we say, of the children
of God which frees from the servitude of Satan and from the passions,
the worst tyrants; the fraternity which emanates from God, the Father
and Creator of all; the equality established on justice and charity,
which does not destroy among men every difference, but which, from
variety of life, offices and inclinations, makes that accord and
harmony which is exacted by nature for the utility and dignity of
civil society.

47.
     Thirdly, there is an institution wisely created by our
fore-fathers, and by lapse of time abandoned, which in our days can be
used as a model and form for something like it. We mean the colleges
or corporations of arts and trades associated under the guidance of
religion to defend interests and manners, which colleges, in long use
and experience, were of great advantage to our fathers, and will be
more and more useful to our age, because they are suited to break the
power of the sects. Poor working-men, for besides their condition,
deserving charity and relief, they are particularly exposed to the
seductions of the fraudulent and deceivers. They must, therefore, be
helped with the greatest generosity and invited to good societies that
they may not be dragged into bad ones. For this reason we would like
very much to see everywhere arise, fit for the new times, under the
auspices and patronage of the Bishops, these associations, for the
benefit of the people. It gives us a great pleasure to see them
already established in many places, together with the Catholic
patronages; two institutions which aim to help the honest class of
workingmen, and to help and protect their families, their children and
keep in them, with the integrity of manners, love of piety and
knowledge of religion.  Here we cannot keep silence concerning the
society of St. Vincent de Paul, celebrated for the spectacle and
example offered and so well deserving of the poor. The works and
intentions of that society are well known. It is all for the succor
and help of the suffering and poor, encouraging them with wonderful
tact and that modesty which the less showy the more is fit for the
exercise of Christian charity and the relief of human miseries.

48.
     Fourthly, in order more easily to reach the end, we recommend to
your faith and watchfulness the youth, the hope of civil society. In
the good education of the same place a great part of your care. Never
believe you have watched or done enough in keeping youth from those
masters from whom the contagious breath of the sect is to be feared.
Insist that parents, and spiritual directors in teaching the catechism
may never cease to admonish appropriately children and pupils of the
wicked nature of these sects, that they may also learn in time the
various fraudulent arts which their propagators use to entice. Those
who prepare children for first communion will do well if they will
persuade them to promise not to give their names to any society
without asking their parents' or their pastor's or their confessor's
advice.

49.
     But we understand how our common labor would not be sufficient to
outroot this dangerous seed from the field of the Lord, if the
Heavenly Master of the vineyard is not to this effect granting to us
His generous help. We must, then, implore His powerful aid with
anxious fervor equal to the gravity of the danger and to the greatness
of the need. Inebriated by its prosperous success, Masonry is
insolent, and seems to have no more limits to its pertinacity. Its
sectaries bound by an iniquitious alliance and secret unity of
purpose, they go on hand in hand and encourage each other to dare more
and more for evil. Such a strong assault requires a strong defence. We
mean that all the good must unite in a great society of action and
prayers. We ask, therefore, from them two things: On one hand, that,
unanimously and in thick ranks, they resist immovably the growing
impetus of the sects; on the other, that, raising their hands with
many sighs to God, they implore that Christianity may grow vigorous;
that the Church may recover her necessary liberty; that wanderers may
come again to salvation; that errors give place to truth and vice to
virtue.

50.
     Let us invoke for this purpose the mediation of Mary, the Virgin
Mother of God, that against the impious sects in which one sees
clearly revived the contumacious pride, the untamed perfidy, the
simulating shrewdness of Satan, she may show her power, she who
triumphed over him since the first conception.

51.
     Let us pray also St. Michael, the prince of the angelic army,
conqueror of the infernal enemy; St. Joseph, spouse of the most
Saintly Virgin heavenly and wholesome patron of the Catholic Church;
the great Apostles Peter and Paul, propagators and defenders of the
Christian faith. Through their patronage and the perseverance of
common prayers let us hope that god will condescend to piously help
human society threatened by so many dangers.

52.
     As a pledge of heavenly graces and of our benevolence, we impart
with great affection to you, venerable brethren, to the clergy and
people trusted to your care, the Apostolic benediction.

53.
     Given at Rome, near St. Peter, the 20th of April, 1884, the
seventh year of our pontificate.


							LEO, PP. XIII.
         
-----------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Conscience and the Craft.

[ Transcriber's note:							]
[ 									]
[ This was scanned in from the Winter 92' (Vol 2, No. 1) issue of the	]
[ American Masonic Review. I did not seek permission, but the blurb at	]
[ the end (and other writing in AMR) indicates that the author and AMR	]
[ would like it widely distributed.					]
[ 							Peter Trei	]
[ 							ptrei@mitre.org	]

                          CONSCIENCE AND THE CRAFT
                   Questions on Religion and Freemasonry

                     By Jim Tresner, Ph.D., 33rd degree

   I undertake this task with considerable diffidence. Indeed, were it
not for a belief that it is sinful to be silent when misunderstandings
create pain and confusion, I would probably decline. The world of
Masonry is vast, complex and rich, but it is as nothing compared to
the immense sweep and scope of thought, faith, history and culture
contained in the word "Christianity."

   As a professed and professing member of the Christian (Disciples of
Christ) Church, I have never found any conflict between the lodge room
and the sanctuary. And indeed, as the Reverend Doctor Norman Vincent
Peale, one of the best known Christian and Masonic authors of today
has remarked, there can never be conflict between Christianity and any
other organization which constantly urges its members to live a moral
life.

   Following are some questions often asked by those who are not
members of Masonry.  The responsibility for the answers is my own,
although I have tried to draw from the best known and most respected
Masonic writers.

IS FREEMASONRY A RELIGION?

   No, not by the definitions most people use. Religion, as the term
is commonly used implies several things: a plan of salvation or path
by which one reaches the after-life; a theology which attempts to
describe the nature of God; and the description of ways or practices
by which a man or woman may seek to communicate with God

   Masonry does none of these things. It offers no plan of salvation
With the exception of saying that He is a loving Father who desires
only good for His children, Masonry makes no effort to describe the
nature of God. And while we open and close our meetings with prayer,
and we teach that no man should ever begin any important undertaking
without seeking the guidance of God, we never tell a man how he should
pray or for what he should pray.

   Instead, we tell him that he must find the answers to these great
questions in his own faith, in his church or synagogue or other house
of worship. We urge men not to neglect their spiritual development and
to be faithful in the practice of their religion. As the Grand Lodge
of England wrote in Freemasonry and Religion, "Freemasonry is far from
indifferent to religion. Without interfering in religious practice, it
expects each member to follow his own faith, and to place above all
other duties his duty to God by whatever name He is known" Masonry
itself makes only a simple religious demand on a man--he must believe
that he has an immortal soul and he must believe in God. No atheist
can be a Mason.

HAVE SOME MASONIC WRITERS SAID THAT MASONRY IS A RELIGION?

   Yes, and, again, its a matter of definition. If, as some writers
have, you define religion as "man's urge to venerate the beautiful,
serve the good and see God in everything," you can say that Masonry
subscribes to a religion. But that, surely, is not in conflict with
Christianity or any other faith.

IS FREEMASONRY A MYSTERY RELIGION?

   No. Many Masonic writers say that Freemasonry uses the tradition of
the Mysteries. (Others, meaning the same thing, say that Masonry is
the successor to the Mysteries.) By that, they simply mean that
Masonry also seeks to help men develop in thought and understanding-
to seek enlightenment. The principles of goodness (not to be confused
with the principles of Salvation) compassion, concern, love,
trustworthiness, integrity, a sense of "connection" with history-
these are the elements of the Mysteries, along with the other schools
of thought, preserved by Freemasonry.  And they are not in conflict
with any faith.

   Masonry has nothing to do with the religion taught in the
Mysteries. Rather, we are concerned with the ethics and morality
taught there- ethics and morality which have been ratified by
Christianity and every major religion of mankind.

CAN A MAN BE A CHRISTIAN AND A MASON AT THE SAME TIME?

   Perhaps the best answer is that most of us are, at least in the
United States. The ranks of Masonry have been and are distinguished by
many of the outstanding religious leaders of America. A quick scan
through the book 10,000 Famous Freemasons gives us these names from
history, among many others:

* Rev. Charles T. Aikens, who served as President of the Lutheran Synod
  of Eastern Pennsylvania.

* Bishop James Freeman, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, D.C., who
  first conceived and began construction of the National Cathedral.

* Bishop William F. Anderson, one of the most important leaders of the
  Methodist Church.

* Rev. Lansing Burrows, Civil War Hero and Secretary of the Southern
  Baptist Convention.

* Rev. James C. Baker, who created the Wesley Foundation.

* William R. White, who served as President of Baylor University, and
  was Secretary of the Sunday School Board, Southern Baptist Convention.

* Rev. Hugh I. Evans, who served as national head of the Presbyterian
  Church.

   It is useful on this question, to let some of America's most
honored clergy speak for themselves.

   Carl J. Sanders, Bishop of the United Methodist Church and holder
of the highest honor conferred by the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry,
writes: "My Masonic activities have never interfered with my loyalty
to and my love for my Church. Quite the contrary, my loyalty to my
Church has been strengthened by my Masonic ties. Good Masons are good
Churchmen."

   Dr. James P. Wesberry, Executive Director and Editor of the Baptist
publication Sunclay writes: "It is no secret that Masons love and
revere the Bible. Nor is it a secret that Masonry helped to preserve
it in the darkest age of the church when infidelity sought to destroy
it. The Bible meets Masons with its sacred message at every step of
progress in its various degrees."

   The Reverend Louis Gant, Mason and District Superintendent of the
Methodist Church writes: "Let no one say you cannot be a Christian and
a Mason at the same time. I know too many who are both and proud to be
both."

   But we are proud, as Masons, that members of all faiths have found
value in the fraternity. Rabbi Seymour Atlas, holder of some of the
highest Masonic honors, writes of what he finds in Masonry: "I was
brought up in a religious home, a son of a Rabbi with seven
generations of Rabbis preceding me ... I am proud to be a Mason who
believes in the dignity of God's children and opposes hatred and
bigotry, and stands for truth, justice, kindness, integrity and
righteousness for all."

DOES MASONRY HAVE A HIDDEN RELIGIOUS AGENDA OR PRACTICE, KNOWN ONLY TO
"HIGHER" MASONS?

   No. Freemasonry's position on religion is stated often and openly,
and we've already mentioned it above. A Mason must believe in God, and
he is encouraged to practice his individual faith. Masonry has no
"god" of its own. Some anti-Masons have said that we are not allowed
to mention the name of God in Lodge.  That isn't true--in fact that is
one of the two meanings of the letter "G" in the square and compasses
logo (the other meaning is "geometry"). It is true that we often use
some other term to refer to God. "Grand Architect of the Universe" is
most common. That is done only to avoid giving religious offense to
anyone whose faith refers to God by another name. But the God to whom
Masons pray is the God to whom all Christians pray.

WHY IS IT SO HARD TO FIND AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF MASONIC DOGMA?

   Because there isn't such a thing. We've already mentioned
everything Masonry has to say officially on the topic. To go further,
as an official position, would be to deny a man his right to think for
himself and his right to follow the dictates of his own faith. Each
Mason has a right to seek in Masonry for what he wants to find. It is
his right to believe as he wishes; BUT it is not his right to force
that belief on others.

BUT DIDN'T MASONIC SCHOLAR ALBERT PIKE TITLE HIS MAJOR BOOK "MORALS
AND DOGMA"?

   Yes. As is clear from his writings, however, Pike is using the word
in its original Greek sense of "that which I think is true," not in
the modern sense of "this is what you are required to believe."

   And the question of Morals and Dogma brings up an important point.
Anti-Masonic writers are forever "discovering" something they find in
the book, largely because they don't understand what kind of book it
is. Pike was attempting the almost impossible task of surveying and
condensing the whole history of human thought in philosophy into one
volume. He writes about the things which were believed in ancient
Egypt, China, Persia- all over the world.  Its easy to take a
paragraph out of context- as one writer does with Pike's comment about
the ancient Egyptian belief in Osiris- and then insist that Masons
teach and believe that all good comes from Osiris. But a history
lesson is not a statement of theology.

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS A MASONIC BIBLE?

   No. The Bibles that are sometimes called "Masonic Bibles" are just
Bibles (usually King James Version) to which a concordance, giving the
biblical citations on which the Masonic ritual is based, has been
added.

IS FREEMASONRY A SECRET SOCIETY?

   No. A secret society tries to hide the fact that it exists.
Masonic Lodges are marked with signs, listed in the phone book and
their meeting places and times are usually listed in the newspaper.
Members identify themselves with Masonic pins and rings. The only
secrets in Masonry relate to the ways we can recognize each other.

CAN A CHRISTIAN TAKE THE VOWS OR OBLIGATIONS OF A MASON?

   Yes. Any Christian whose denomination does not forbid the
Presidential or court oath, or the oath taken when entering the Armed
Services, could take the Masonic obligations. Some anti-Masonic
writers have complained about the so-called "penalties" in the Masonic
obligations. Those penalties are purely symbolic and refer to the
pain, despair and horror which any honest man should feel at the
thought that he had violated his sworn word.

DON'T SOME WRITERS SAY THE 30TH DEGREE UTILIZES DIABOLICAL SYMBOLS AND
THE CANDIDATE MEETS LUCIFER?

   Some anti-Masonic writers have said that, but it isn't true.  First
of all, they mistake a stage-set for a sanctuary. The degrees of
Masonry are plays, some set in a lodgeroom and some using full stage
settings. The message of the 30th Degree is that man should think
about death and realize that death is not frightening but a natural
process. So the setting contains traditional symbols of death, like
black curtains and a drawing of a mausoleum.

   But the material which these writers quote as coming from the 30th
Degree doesn't. They generally quote from the anti-Masonic book
Scottish Rite Masonry Illuminated. The anonymous author wildly changed
the materials whenever he wished- even some of the names of the degrees
are wrong. Although the book is presented as a ritual of the
fraternity, you need only read through his introductory notes or end
notes to realize that he intends it as an attack on Freemasonry.

   The book is quoted by writers who insist that, instead of quoting
anti-Masonic materials, they are using only material "written by
and/or published by Masons for Masons." Perhaps they haven't read the
notes.

IS FREEMASONRY GUILTY OF TEACHING TOLERATION?

   And proud of it! It seems a strange accusation, but anti-Masonic
writers often charge that we accept people with many different
religious viewpoints as Brothers. They are correct. Jesus did not say,
"A new Commandment I give unto you, that you love one another- as long
as he goes to the same church you do, or belongs to the same political
party." Yet one recent anti-Masonic writer claims that this toleration
is the blackest sin of Masonry.  Toleration, he says, "springs from
the pits of hell and from the father of lies, Lucifer." When you
consider what intolerance has produced in the world- the Inquisition,
the burning of Protestants at the stake, the horrors of Hitler, the
mass murders of Stalin, the "killing fields" of Cambodia, the massacre
of the inhabitants of Jerusalem by the Crusaders- it is hard to
believe that toleration springs from the devil.

DOES FREEMASONRY TEACH THAT A MAN CAN BE SAVED BY GOOD WORKS?

   Salvation is not a grace that Masonry can or does offer. The
Reverend Christopher Haffner points out in his book, "Workman
Unashamed: The Testimony of a Christian Freemason:, "Within their
lodges, Freemasons are not concerned with salvation and conversion,
but with taking men as they are and pointing them in the direction of
brotherhood and moral improvement. Insofar as the Order is successful
in this aim, it is content, and leaves the member to devote himself to
his own religious faith to receive the grace of salvation."

   In most Masonic rituals, the candidate is reminded of that even
before he steps into the lodgeroom for the first time. A typical
example reads: "You are aware that whatever a man may have gained here
on earth, whether of titles, wealth, honors, or even his own merit,
can never serve him as a passport to heaven; but previous to his
gaining admission there he must become poor and destitute, blind and
naked, dependent upon the Sovereign Will of God; he must be divested
of the rags of his own righteousness, and be clothed in a garment
furnished him from on high."

IS A LODGE MEETING A WORSHIP SERVICE?

   No. Except, perhaps, in the sense that, for a Christian, EVERY act
is an act of worship. Our meetings open and close with prayer, Masons
are encouraged to remember that God sees and knows everything that we
do, and the Bible is always open during a Masonic meeting. But it is a
meeting of a fraternity, not a worship service.

   Some anti-Masonic writers have made the ridiculous charge that
Masons actually worship a demon named "Baphomet."  Historians record
that in 1307 a military monastic order known as the Knights Templar
were arrested and accused of heresy, thereby allowing King Phillip the
Fair of France to confiscate their treasury and property. Phillip,
fearing the Inquisition would be too gentle (!), had his own
commissioners involved. After years of horrible torture, some of the
knights signed confessions--of anything their torturers wanted. They
were then burned at the stake.

   A standard part of the pre-written confessions was worshipping an
idol named Baphomet (language scholars tell us that "Baphomet" was a
term for "Mohammed" in the Middle Ages). You can read the full story
in any good historical account of the period.

   So, "Baphomet" was not the name of a demon, the Knights Templar did
not worship him/it, their "confessions" were obtained under
torture--and, a false charge used to steal from and murder monks in
1307 has nothing to do with Freemasonry.

DID ALBERT PIKE SAY THAT ALL MASONS WERE SECRET FOLLOWERS OF LUCIFER?

   No. In many anti-Masonic books you will see what is supposed to be
a quotation from Pike, saying that all Masons of the "Higher Degrees"
are secret worshipers of Lucifer, or that we regard Lucifer as god.
The historical fact is that those words were written in 1894, three
years after Pike's death. They were written by a notorious atheist and
pornographer named Gabriel Jogand-Pages, but better known by his pen
name, Leo Taxil. Taxil was engaged in an elaborate hoax to discredit
both Freemasonry and the Church of Rome by quoting Pike in letters
that were forged for the purpose. He then "discovered" the letters,
and revealed them to the world. He was highly praised by the religious
authorities- showered with honors and listed as a defender of the
faith for having revealed the "true evil purpose of Masonry.

   Then, just as he was being acclaimed all over Europe for his
"religious zeal," he publicly announced the hoax, making everyone look
like fools. The scandal broke in 1897, but the supposed "Pike letter"
had already been published by a man named Abel Clarin de la Rive, who
later took Taxil's hoax at face value.

   Rive's book, La Femme et l'Enfant dans la Franc-Maconnerie
Universelle, (Woman and Child in Universal Freemasonry) was quoted by
Edith Starr Miller in 1933, in her book, "Occult Theocracy."  She
translated the "quotation" into English . Since that time, several
anti-Masonic writers have simply repeated the "quotation" without
checking on its source. Taxil's public confession and Rive's public
retraction notwithstanding, it continues to shadow the name of Pike,
who was, to this death, a devoted Trinitarian Christian.

   (This slightly condensed version of Dr. Tresner's booklet has been
reprinted here because of its important and timely message.  For a
copy of the complete booklet contact your grand secretary's office,
or write to: The Grand Lodge of Oklahoma, A.F.& A.M.; PO Box 1019;
Guthrie, OK 73044.)


------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Illuminati FAQ


			"Bavarian Illuminati" FAQ.
				Ver 1.1
				Nov 1992

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    A lot of references appear in some newsgroups to the "Illuminati".
I'm trying to gather together some source material on the subject, to
produce some sort of FAQ file.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Here's three articles from the "Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia",
1961, by Henry Wilson Coil, 33rd degree. This is an excellent, albeit
slightly idiosyncratic reference work. Coil had a low opinion the
Catholicism, and it shows.

    Of course, this being a *Masonic* encyclopedia, the articles are
written from that viewpoint.

--------------------
Rites:
 - Illuminati of Bavaria. 

     This order was first called the Order of Perfectibilists, and was
a fairly shortlived, meteoric, controversial society formed May 1,
1776, in Bavaria, by Adam Weishaupt, aided by Baron von Knigge and
others, suppressed in 1784, and entirely disappeared by the close of
the century. It was not primarily Masonic, and evidently not founded by
any Masonic authority, though it pirated or prarphrased Masonic rituals
and at one time or another had a number of prominent Freemasons in the
group. Freemasonry has received a great many denunciations from several
sources by reason of the aberrations of the Illuminati, and the enemies
of Freemasonry encouraged the idea that Illuminism and Freemasonry were
the same. For details of the lives of Weishaupt and Knigge, reference
must be made to those titles in the general text but, since Illuminism
was their creation and developed as they directed, their acts are
material and discussed here.

     Adam Weishaupt, Professor of Canon Law at the University of
Ingolstadt, conceived the idea of founding an order which, by mutual
helpfulness, counsel, and philosophic discussions, would increase
morality and virtue, lay the foundation for the reformation of the
world, and oppose the progress of evil, all of which objectives were
expressed in the name, "Order of Perfectibilists" or "Perfectionists",
which was soon changed to "Illuminati", which is best translated as
"intellectually inspired". Modesty and humility seems to have been no
trait of Weishaupt, for he was one of the first to attempt to fly with 
little knowledge of human aerodynamics. His ambition outweighed his 
judgement; his ideals were too refined for a rude world. Like many
other promoters, Weishaupt sought the aid of Freemasonry to give his
machine both propulsion and ballast. But it dragged Freemasonry down
without helping Illuminism very much. He was too shrewd and subtle for
his own good,  though such qualities gave him headway for a time.
Although he formerly belonged to the Jesuits, he secured admission to a
lodge of Freemasons in 1777. Ironically, that was named "Lodge of
Caution."

     We are not informed as to just how Weishaupt became associated
with Adolph Franz Friedrich Ludwid Baron Von Knigge, for the latter
lived in North Germany, was of the nobility, and, after his initiation
in 1773, showed little interest in Freemasonry. But noblemen were found
in abundance in the most fraudulent orders in Germany claiming some
Masonic connections. Weishaupt, in 1780, dispatched the Marquis de
Costanzo to propagate Illuminism in the north and Knigge probably then
first showed interest in the society. He became more and more
enthusiastic as the plan was revealed to him, and, in 1781, accepted
the invitation to visit Bavaria and receive full access to all of
Weishaupt's materials. Knigge not only completed the scale of degrees
but became a proponent of them, bringing to his aid the assistance of 
Johann J. C. Bode, a prominent German Mason. The order was at first
very popular and attracted, it is said, some of the best men in Germany
and some of the worst. It had 2000 names on its rolls and spread to
France, Belgium, Holland, Denamrk, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, and Italy.
Knigge, especially, was a highly religious and intellectual man and
would have had nothing to do with that or any other order which was
anti-Christian, yet, the vicious attacks and accusations by Baruel and
Robison had great influence, and it was even charged that the
Illuminati were themselves agents of the Jesuits, though the latter
were opposing it in their usual secret manner. The Illuminati were
extremely secretive, even identifying themselves and their chapters by
assumed classical names; for examples, Weishaupt was Spartacus, Knigge
was Philo, Ingolstadt, the headquarters, was Eleusis, Austria was
Egypt, etc. Dates were given in a sort of cryptography.

     The ceremonies were divided into three principal classes and those
into degrees as follows: I-The Nursery: 1. Preparatory Literary Essay;
2. Novitiate; 3. Minerval; 4. Minor Illuminatus; 5. Magistratus.
II-Symbolic Freemasonry: 1. Apprentice; 2. Fellow Craft; 3. Master; 4.
(a) Scots Major Illuminatus, (b) Scots Illuminatus Dirigens
(Directory). III-Mysteries; 1. Lesser: (a) Presbyter, Priest, or Epopt,
(b) Prince or Regent; Greater: (a) Magus; (b) Rex or King (some of
these latter degrees were never completed). 

     The Illuminati were finally beset by both internal and external
disorders, for Weishaupt found fault with some of Knigge's ritualistic
work and peremptorily ordered it changed, whereupon, Knigge became
disgusted and  resigned in 1784. The Jesuits had fought it from the
first and eventually all priests became its active enemies and raised
so much opposition that the Elector of Bavaria supressed the Order by
edict, June 22, 1784, many Illuminati being imprisoned and some,
including Weishaupt, being forced to flee the country. Though the first
edict had been obeyed, it was repeated in March and August, 1785. Not
only Illuminism, but Freemasonry was exterminated in Bavaria and
neither ever recovered its former position. The Illuminati seem to have
completely disappeared everywhere by the end of the 18th century.

--------------------
Weishaupt, Adam

     Founder of the Illuminati of Bavaria, born at Inglstadt, 1748,
died 1811. He was educated in law and attained the rank of Professor in
1772 at the University of Ingolstadt. He had been educated by the
Jesuits but acquired a dislike for them, and in his professional life,
he was soon in conflict with the whole clergy, partly because he held
the chair of Canon Law, which had always been held by an ecclesiastic.
In conferences with his students in whom he planted liberal ideas on 
religion and philosophy, and he soon conceived of a close association
of  enlightened or intellectual persons who might advance the moral and
intellectual qualities of themselves as well as others. This idea
materialized as the Illuminates or Illuminati, who at first had no
connection with Freemasonry. In 1777, he was admitted to Lodge Theodore
of Good Counsel (translated by some as Lodge Theodore of Caution) at 
Munich, and from that time, he sought to interrelate the affairs of his
Illuminati with Freemasonry. 

     He soon formed an association with Baron von Knigge, an able and
upright man from north Germany, and the two might have accomplished
their objectives and some good had it not been for the opposition of
the Jesuits (who were still powerful though banished from Bavaria) and
the Roman Catholic clergy. Moreover Weishaupt and Knigge could not
agree upon some of the latters' ritualistic interpretations. From the 
literature on the subject of Illuminism and from the caustic remarks of
Masonic writers, we might suppose that this order or movement lasted a 
long time, but the whole drama opened with the organization of the 
Perfectionists in 1766 and, 18 years later in 1784, the Bavarian
government banned all secret associations. The next year, Weishaupt was
discharged from his position at the University and banished from the
country. He fled to Gotha and found asylum with Duke Ernest of that
little city, remaining there until his death in 1811. In Gotha, he
published  a number of works, those on Illuminism being: "A Picture of
Illuminism", 1786; "A Complete History of the Persecutions of the
Illuminati in Bavaria", 1785 (only the first of two planned volumes
published); "An Apology for the Illuminati", 1786; "An Improved System
of Illuminism", 1787, and others.

     The most objective writers on the subject give Weishaupt credit
for being of high moral character and a profound thinker, and it is
worth noting that his associate, Knigge, spoke with great respect of
his intellectual powers. It appears, however, that he was the victim of
at least two powerful forces, first, the vindictive hate of the Church
of Rome and the Bavarian government and, secondly, his own inadequate
judgement of how to launch a revolutionary and more or less secret
movement such as Illuminism. He was really employing methods of the
Jesuits, for his whole order seems to have been composed of spies and
counter spies, and only those most adept at scheming and trickery were
advanced. The candidates all had pseudonyms, that of Weishaupt being 
Spartacus, and those who became too inquisitive about matters as to 
which their suspicions were aroused were turned out. If the purpose had
been philosophic, ethical, or for the improvement of the mind or
salvation of the soul, it need never to have been quite so secretive,
and from the Masonic standpoint, Weishaupt was not justified in using
the Fraternity as the vehicle for his scheme, good or bad, though he
had ample precedents on all sides.

--------------------
Knigge, Baron von (Adolph F. R. L.) 

     German Freemason and, in part, founder of the Bavarian Illuminati.
He was born near Hanover in 1752, and died at Bremen in 1796. He was 
initiated in a lodge of the Strict Observance at Cassel in 1772, but,
for a time, seemed uninterested in the Society, thogh later becoming
one of the foremost German writers on the subject. He published "On
the Jesuits, Freemasons, and Rosicrucians, 1781, anon.; "Essay on
Freemasonry", 1784; "Contribution towards the latest history of the 
Order of Freemasons", 1786; and "Philo's final Declaration", 1788. He
also wrote many non-Masonic works, one being "On Conversation with
Men", towards the end of his career and after a sad experience with the
Illuminati and disappointment with the Strict Observance, causing him
therein to devote much space to secret societies and denunciation of
Freemasonry. The most interesting and significant part of Knigge's 
career was his participation with Weishaupt in the promotion of the
Bavarian Illuminati, he being almost an equal party.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    A look at the Harvard University Library Catalog shows that there
was an Illuminati panic in New England in the late 1790's.

    After that, very few people seem to have had Illuminism on their
minds. In the 1950s and 60's, about the only people who seem to mention
it were the John Birch Society.

    In the mid-70's, Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson  restarted 
popular speculation with their fictional "Illuminatus!" trilogy. This
mixes actual history with conspiracy theory and pure invention, and
very deliberately produces doubts in the reader's mind as to the
nature of reality - a technique which the authors refer to as "guerilla
ontology", in pursuit of "Operation Mindf*ck." They were apparently
turned on to Illuminism by some of the correspondance they received
while working as letters column editors at Playboy magazine.

    At the core of Illuminatus! is an aeons-old conflict between the
conspiracies representing the forces of order, bureaucracy, and
repression, represented by the Illuminati, and the conspiracies
representing the forces of chaos, spontaneity and freedom,
representing by the Erisians (followers of Eris, the Greek goddess of
discord). The plot involves every conspiracy you've ever heard of,
many you havent, monomaniacal midgets, golden submarines, giant squid,
ancient Atlantis, zombie Nazi stormtroopers, and a good deal of sex.
Wilson and Shea drew heavily on Akron Darual's "History of Secret
Societies", the 'Principia Discordia' of the Erisians, many kinds of
fringe conspiracy theory, and their own imaginations. One of their
conceits is that Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Bavarian Illuminati,
secretly murdered George Washington and took his place.

    Illuminatus! became an underground bestseller, and while Shea seems
to have been content to sit back and enjoy the royalties, Wilson has
worked the interest it developed into a minor industry. He has brought
out a steady stream of fiction and "non-fiction" concerning the
Illuminati and related topics, noteably the "Schrodinger's Cat"
trilogy, "The Illuminati Papers", "Cosmic Trigger - The Final Secret of
the Illuminati", and most recently the "Historical Illuminatus Series",
which is up to four books.

    [The following paragraph is a personal opinion.]

    I've met Wilson, and my impression is that he lacks sincerity. I
don't think he actually believes in the continuing existence of the
Illuminati, but knows he's stumbled onto a goldmine.  He does seem
serious about some of the psychological theories he promotes.

    A couple other works of interest are the above-mentioned "History
of Secret Societies" by Akron Daraul, and Neil Wilgus' "The
Illuminoids". HoSS tries to link together a number of groups, claiming
that the Illuminati, the Masons, the Italian Carbonari, and the
Spanish Alumburados (sp?) are all linked and can be traced back to the
Hashashins of the ancient Middle East. "The Illuminoids" is
post-Illuminatus!  and basically catalogs the conspiracy theories
connected to it.

    So there you have it - a short-lived, failed, 18th century secret
society, which after being forgotten for nearly 200 years, has seized
the popular imagination through the work of two men. Despite the
paranoia of some of the people on the net, there is not the slightest
shred of evidence that the Illuminati persisted past 1800.
	
     Of course, you may think you are free to doubt me on this. :-)

							W .'. Peter Trei
							ptrei@mitre.org	
							Wilder Lodge AF&AM
							Leominster MA
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After I put this out on the net, I received a few responses. The most
interesting gives some German sources on the Illuminati. I've touched
up the English a little:

Date:         Tue, 27 Oct 92 17:33:17 MEZ
From: "Roald A. Zellweger" <RZELLWE@ibm.gwdg.de>
Subject:      Illuminati

     There is, of course, lots of material in German available on the
Bavarian Illuminati, esp from the beginning of the century, but also
from the research on the later Enlightenment in Germany, that had it's
height in the 70's.

     Goethe and Herder were at times members of the Bavarian
Illuminati, and not only the Duke of Gotha, but also the Dukes of
Weimar and Brunswick, of course since it was Jesuitic in form and
heavily anti-Jesuitic in everything else...

     At the end of 19th century the Illuminati-phobia was promoted and
used by the "Protokolle der Weisen von Zion" ["Protocols of the Elders
of Zion"] rsp. the literary Vorlage, a French anti-Napoleonic fiction,
and later by Ludendorff. So the Illuminati-phobia became closely
connected with Fascism's conspiracy theories.


     The Illuminati no longer exist, but they influenced methods of
political conspiracy in 19th century and put the fear of a conspiracy
of masons, Jews, etc. in the views of the extreme right.

     Informative is the Article Illuminaten in the Theologische
Realenzyclopedie (TRE), the large forthcoming protestant encyclopedia,
Bd.16,p.81-84, providing with the newest (serious!) literature.

     Broader, but older, the article Illuminaten in Realenzyclopaedie
fuer protestantische Theologie und Kirche, Bd.9, Leipzig 1901,
p.61-68, mentioning the Spanish Alumbrados as using the same name and
existing later in France.  The Realenzyclopaedie 3rd Edition is a very
serious work of late 19th century Historical Research and of course
from the viewpoint of German Kulturprotestantism.

    Sources could be found sub Knigge and Weishaupt in Wolfsohns
Freimaurerbibliographie, Vienna (20's or early 30's).  Useful is the
Internationales Freimaurerlexikon (Vienna 1932).  Both Works are from
a (low-degree) masonic viewpoint and esp the latter apologetic against
Ludendorff's conspiracy theory.

     Edited sources are: Jan Reichold (ed.): Die Illuminaten. Quellen
und Texte zur Aufklaerungsideologie des Illuminatenordens, Berlin
((former) DDR) 1984, commentary part of course influenced by Marxism
and GDR-ideology, but solid text edition.

     Richard van Duelman: Der Geheimbund der Illuminaten, Stuttgart
1975.

     If you haven't access to the lexica and could send me a Fax or
snail-mail address, I could send you copies from the articles in
question.

======-*****-=====-*****-=====-*-=**=-*-=====-*****-=====-*****-======

     Roald A. Zellweger

Institut fuer Spezialforschungen
 Platz der Goettinger Sieben  2
       D-3400 Goettingen

phone : +49-551-39 7127
fax   : +49-551-9 75 88
bitnet: RZELLWE@ibm.gwdg.de

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Minor bits & bobs:

     Steve Jackson Games has a rather nifty conspiracy table top game
called Illuminati, based on the books.

     The "Puzzling Evidence" segment of the film "True Stories",
without mentioning the Illuminati explicitly, gives an entertaining
insight into the mind of a conspiracy theorist.