The Bavarian Illuminati: The "Insinuating Brothers"

“Weishaupt . . . proposed as the end of Illuminism the abolition of property, social authority, nationality, and the return of the human race to the happy state in which it formed only a single family without artificial needs, without useless sciences, every father being priest and magistrate. Priest of we know not what religion, for in spite of their frequent invocations of the God of Nature, many indications lead us to conclude that Weishaupt had, like Diderot and d'Holbach, no other God than Nature herself. From his doctrine would naturally follow German ultra-Hegelianism and the system of anarchy recently developed in France, of which the physiognomy suggests a foreign origin.”
- Henry Martin, Histoire de France depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'en 1789, XVI. 533. 9

“Do you realize sufficiently what it means to rule - to rule in a secret society? Not only over the lesser or more important of the populace, but over the best of men, over men of all ranks, nations, and religions, to rule without external force, to unite them indissolubly, to breathe one spirit and soul into them, men distributed over all parts of the world? . . . And finally, do you know what secret societies are? What a place they occupy in the great kingdom of the world's events? Do you think they are unimportant, transitory appearances?”
- Adam Weishaupt, Nachtrag von weiterein Originalschriften, II, pp. 44, 51. 10

A quick perusal on the World Wide Web will show the disparity of opinions and irreconcilable differences about the history of the Illuminati - Bavarian or otherwise. It's getting better though, a recent article published by the American Atheists 11 - The Enlightenment, Freemasonry, and The Illuminati - has solid documentation and thorough references for those inclined to investigate further into primary and secondary source material; the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon has uploaded part of Vernon L. Stauffer's New England and the Bavarian Illuminati; Bilderberg.org has most of the relevant parts of John Robison's classic, Proofs of a Conspiracy Against all the Religions and Governments of Europe; the Catholic Encyclopedia has long had a good, but short, article; nearly the complete text - and the two most important chapters as it concerns the Illuminati - from Nesta Webster's Secret Societies & Subversive Movements has been posted; three important chapters from Rabbi Marvin S. Antelman's To Eliminate the Opiate Vol. I; Wikipedia.org has an adequate article; and, for those poor Dan Brown fans whose first introduction to the Illuminati was the bestseller Angels & Demons, there's a good debugging write-up from the Center for Studies on New Religions.

If you never buy a single book on the Illuminati, and just read the internet references cited above, you would have an excellent grasp - much greater than your average conspiracy theorist - on the facts (as we can safely say) concerning the rise and fall of the Bavarian Illuminati. I have taken it a bit further, however. For the last six months I've engaged in a crash course on the Illuminati and related subjects: absorbing and taking notes from Proofs of a Conspiracy ..., and other internet references; buying Barruel's Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, Billington's Fire In the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith, Webster's Secret Societies & Subversive Movements, Antelman's To Eliminate the Opiate Vol. 1, Yates' The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, Fulop-Miller's The Power and Secret of the Jesuits, Carr's Pawns in the Game; and at the same time consulting other works, in my own personal library, when needed.