On the Order of the Illuminati

form [a party], and thereby procure many listeners for himself (since his scholarship could not bring them to him); and he wanted, therefore, to give himself a reputation in the eyes of the government, while simultaneously strengthening himself against the Ex-Jesuits, who held several chairs at the university there The University of Ingolstadt was a stronghold of the Jesuit order until their suppression in 1773; Weishaupt, a secular professor of canon law, was in constant conflict with these former members who still held influence., and with whom he lived in deadly enmity. An order that is a secret society also requires an object—a secret. Weishaupt recognized this well; but being completely unfamiliar with Freemasonry, he could put nothing into his new order that had any similarity to it, whether scientific or historical.

What he lacked from that side, however, was replaced in even richer measure by the spirit of the age. The Enlighteners, who had already gained great dominance in Protestant Germany and had actually originated from Berlin—where they had also established their principal factory The author uses "factory" (Fabrike) metaphorically to describe Berlin as the central hub where Enlightenment ideas were "manufactured" and distributed.—began at that time to make proselytes New converts or followers. in Catholic Germany as well. Weishaupt had not only read various things from their writings; he had also read some French writers of the philosophical conspiracy original: "philosophischen Conjuration." This refers to the circle of philosophes associated with the Enlightenment who were often accused by critics of conspiring against the Church and State., such as Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, Helvetius, and the like; and as was to be expected from a man who lacked the skill to truly appreciate such writings, the prevailing mindset found within them...