It is true that "Mysteries" play a great part in the phraseology of the Order--"Greater and Lesser Mysteries," borrowed from ancient Egypt--whilst the higher initiates are decorated with such titles as "Epopte" and "Hierophant," taken from the Eleusinian Mysteries. Yet Weishaupt's own theories appear to bear no relation whatever to these ancient cults. On the contrary, the more we penetrate into his system, the more apparent it becomes that all the formulas he employs which derive from any religious source--whether Persian, Egyptian, or Christian--merely serve to disguise a purely material purpose, a plan for destroying the existing order of society. Thus all that was really ancient in Illuminism was the destructive spirit that animated it and also the method of organization it had imported from the East. Illuminism therefore marks an entirely new departure in the history of European secret societies. Weishaupt himself indicates this as one of the great secrets of the Order. "Above all," he writes to "Cato" (alias Zwack), "guard the origin and the novelty of ⊙ in the most careful way."[506] "The greatest mystery," he says again, "must be that the thing is new; the fewer who know this the better.... Not one of the Eichstadters knows this but would live or die for it that the thing is as old as Methuselah."[507]
This pretence of having discovered some fund of ancient wisdom is the invariable ruse of secret society adepts; the one thing never admitted is the identity of the individuals from whom one is receiving direction. Weishaupt himself declares that he has got it all out of books by means of arduous and unremitting labour. "What it costs me to read, study, think, write, cross out, and re-write!" he complains to Marius and Cato.[508] Thus, according to Weishaupt the whole system is the work of his own unaided genius, and the supreme direction remains in his hands alone. Again and again he insists on this point in his correspondence.
If this were indeed the case, Weishaupt--in view of the efficiency achieved by the Order--must have been a genius of the first water, and it is difficult to understand why so remarkable a man should not have distinguished himself on other lines, but have remained almost unknown to posterity. It would therefore appear possible that Weishaupt, although undoubtedly a man of immense organizing capacity and endowed with extraofdinary subtlety, was not in reality the sole author of Illuminism, but one of a group, which, recognizing his talents and the value of his untiring activity, placed the direction in his hands. Let us examine this hypothesis in the light of a document which was unknown to me when I wrote my former account of the Illuminati.
Barruel has pointed out that the great error of Robison was to describe Illuminism as arising out of Freemasonry, since Weishaupt did not become a Freemason until after he had founded his Order. It is true that Weishaupt was not officially received into Freemasonry until 1777, when he was initiated into the first degree at the Lodge "Theodore de Bon Conseil," at Munich. From this time we find him continually occupied in trying to discover more about the secrets of Freemasonry, whilst himself claiming superior knowledge.
But at the same time it is by no means certain that an inner circle of the Lodge Theodore may not have been first in the field and Weishaupt all the while an unconscious agent. A very curious light is thrown on this question by the Mémoires of Mirabeau.
Now, in The French Revolution and again in World Revolution I quoted the generally received opinion that Mirabeau, who was already a Freemason, was received into the Order of the Illuminati during his visit to Berlin in 1786. To this Mr. Waite replied: "All that is said about Mirabeau, his visit to Berlin, and his plot to 'illuminize' French Freemasonry, may be disposed of in one sentence: there is no evidence to show that Mirabeau ever became a Mason. The province of Barruel was to colour everything...."[509] Mr. Waite's statement may also be disposed of in one sentence: it is a pure invention. The province of Mr. Waite is to deny everything inconvenient to him. The evidence that Mirabeau was a Freemason does not rest on Barruel alone. M. Barthou, in his Life of Mirabeau, refers to it as a matter of common knowledge, and relates that a paper was found at Mirabeau's house describing a new Order to be grafted on Freemasonry. This document will be found in its entirety in the Mémoires of Mirabeau, where it is stated that:
Mirabeau had early entered an association of Freemasonry. This affiliation had accredited him to a Dutch lodge, and it seems that, either spontaneously or in response to a request, he thought of proposing an organization of which we possess the plan, written not by his hand.... but by the hand of a copyist whom Mirabeau had attached to himself.... This work appears to have been that of Mirabeau; all his opinions, his principles, and his style will be found here.[510]
The same work goes on to print the document in full, which is headed: "Memoir concerning an intimate association to be established in the Order of Freemasonry so as to bring it back to its true principles and to make it really tend to the good of humanity, drawn up by the F. Mi----, at present named Arcesilas, in 1776."
As this Memoir is too long to reproduce in full here, M. Barthou's résumé will serve to give an idea of its contents[511]:
He [Mirabeau] was a Freemason from his youth. There was found amongst his papers, written by the hand of a copyist, an international organization of Freemasonry, which no doubt he dictated in Amsterdam. This project contains on the solidarity of men, on the benefits of instruction, and on the "correction of the system of governments and of legislations" views very superior to those of "The Essay on Despotism" (1772). The mind of Mirabeau had ripened. The duties he traces out for the "brothers of the higher grade" constitute even a whole plan of reforms which resemble very much in certain parts the work accomplished later by the Constituent [Assembly]: suppression of servitudes on the land and the rights of main morte, abolition of the corvées, of working guilds and of maîtrises [freedom of companies], of customs and excise duties, the diminution of taxation, liberty of religious opinions and of the press, the disappearance of special jurisdiction. In order to organize, to develop and arrive at his end, Mirabeau invokes the example of the Jesuits: "We have quite contrary views," he says, "that of enlightening men, of making them free and happy, but we must and we can do this by the same means, and who should prevent us doing for good what the Jesuits have done for evil?"[512]