"In like manner we must try to obtain an influence in the military academies, (this may be of mighty consequence,) the printing-houses, booksellers shops, chapters, and in short in all offices which have any effect, either in forming, or in managing, or even in directing the mind of man: painting and engraving are highly worth our care[8]."
"Could our Prefect" (observe it is to the Illuminati Regentes he is speaking, whose officers are Prefecti) "fill the judicatories of a state with our worthy members, he does all that man can do for the Order. It is better than to gain the Prince himself. Princes should never get beyond the Scotch knighthood. They either never prosecute any thing, or they twist every thing to their own advantage.
"A Literary Society is the most proper form for the introduction of our Order into any state where we are yet strangers." (Mark this!)
"The power of the Order must surely be turned to the advantage of its Members. All must be assisted. They must be preferred to all persons otherwise of equal merit. Money, services, honour, goods, and blood, must be expended for the fully proved Brethren, and the unfortunate must be relieved by the funds of the Society."
As evidence that this was not only their instructions, but also their assiduous practice, take the following report from the overseer of Greece (Bavaria).
In Cato's hand-writing.
"The number (about 600) of Members relates to Bavaria alone.
"In Munich there is a well-constituted meeting of Illuminati Majores, a meeting of excellent Illuminati Minores, a respectable Grand Lodge, and two Minerval Assemblies. There is a Minerval Assembly at Freyssing, at Landsberg, at Burghausen, at Strasburg, at Ingolstadt, and at last at Regensburg[9].
"At Munich we have bought a house, and by clever measures have brought things so far, that the citizens take no notice of it, and even speak of us with esteem. We can openly go to the house every day, and carry on the business of the Lodge. This is a great deal for this city. In the house is a good museum of natural history, and apparatus for experiments: also a library which daily increases. The garden is well occupied by botanic specimens, and the whole has the appearance of a society of zealous naturalists.