On the Order of the Illuminati

...learned theologian had dissected an erroneous sentence presented here and there and shown it to the members in a lodge, there would not have been two out of a hundred who would not have rejected it. To be sure, equality was taught; but this took place solely within the lodge, began with its opening, and ended immediately with its closing. Freedom was preached; but it had not the slightest reference to the state, religion, or morals. The tolerance that was commanded and practiced was anything but indifferentism original: "Indifferentismus"; the belief that all religions are equally valid, often viewed by the 18th-century church as a threat to orthodoxy and meant nothing more than that the Order did not concern itself with which Christian denomination its members belonged to, and that all quarreling over such matters was forbidden within the lodges.

Generally, it was a principle equally accepted by all Masonic parties that the Order contained nothing contrary to the Christian religion, to good morals, to the sovereign, or to the state. It is true that some lodges in Holland also admitted Jews; but this was loathed by all the others, as it was an old, firm rule of the Order that the initiate must be a Christian. It cannot be denied that the first plan for the dethroning of Emperor Peter III Peter III of Russia, who was deposed and killed in a 1762 coup involving Masonic circles was made in a lodge, and that the first agreement to restore sovereignty to the King Referring to Gustav III of Sweden, who staged a revolution in 1772 to increase monarchical power, aided by his Masonic ties was made in a lodge meeting in Stockholm; but both were