Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 2  Num. 21
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                    ("Quid coniuratio est?")


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PROOFS OF A CONSPIRACY
by John Robison

Following is from the introduction to Robison's classic, first
published in 1798. Authorship of the introduction is attributed
to "The Publishers". Edition is the Americanist Classics Edition
(Boston: Western Islands, 1967).

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Very few people are aware that the intense drama of our twentieth
century -- the life and death struggle between capitalism and
Communism, freedom and slavery -- has its origins in the late
eighteenth century. All Americans are aware that the Declaration
of Independence was written in 1776. Few are aware that Adam
Smith's *Wealth of Nations*, which provided the ideological
foundation for capitalism and for the Industrial Revolution, was
published in 1776. And fewer still are aware that in that same
year, 1776, Adam Weishaupt, a professor of Canon law at
Ingolstadt University in Germany, founded the Illuminati Order, a
conspiratorial organization which embodied all of the goals,
aims, and methods of what we now call Communism. All history
books will tell you of the first event. A good many will tell you
of the second. But practically none will even allude to the last.
Why? When you know the answer to that question you know history
better than the historians.

The two prime source books for our knowledge of Adam Weishaupt's
Illuminati conspiracy are Professor John Robison's *Proofs of a
Conspiracy*, first published in 1798, and the Abbe Augustin
Barruel's impressive four-volume study, *Memoirs Illustrating the
History of Jacobinism*, published in 1799, some months after the
first appearance of Robison's book. Both men -- one a Professor
of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh University, the other a French
clergyman -- writing in different countries and in different
languages, without the one knowing the other, basically covered
the same subject matter and came to the very same conclusions.
Thus, we have two excellent works which tell us virtually all we
need to know about the origin of history's most diabolical, long-
range conspiracy.

While Barruel's work is the more extensive, better documented,
and perhaps more painstakingly accurate, Professor Robison's book
is the more literate, sophisticated and reflective. Its
documentation is extensive, but its intellectual scope is its
chief delight, for Robison, in this work, is more than merely
historian; he is a philosopher, moralist, social commentator,
wise observer of human foibles, scientist, critic, and stylist.

Robison had all of the virtues of the enlightened, rational,
scientific, humane and religious spirit which characterized the
founders of our own country and which represented the flower of
eighteenth century English intellect. He had travelled widely in
the old and new worlds, was one of the century's leading teachers
of science -- then known as "natural philosophy" -- and he knew
many of the major men of achievement in all the sciences. He was
a close friend of James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine,
who described Robison when the latter died in 1805 at the age of
66 as "a man of the clearest head and the most science of anybody
I have ever known."

Professor Robison was a member of the distinguished circle of
intellectuals who at that time enhanced the reputation of the
University of Edinburgh. In fact, in 1783, Robison was elected
general secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In short,
Robison was one of the leading intellects of his time, deeply
interested in every aspect of man's attainments, both scientific
and moral, in civilized society.

The French Revolution, with its incredible atrocities, its
militant atheism, its reign of terror, its wanton destruction of
civilized values, was the major event which shook Europe during
Robison's mature years. Its shock was particularly painful
because it occurred when science, rationality and enlightenment
were making incredible strides. Yet the Revolution, brought on in
the name of all of these, plus "liberty, equality and
fraternity," resulted in the beheading by guillotine of such
scientific geniuses as Antoine Lavoisier, who was well known and
greatly admired by his English colleagues.

Men of genuine learning in Europe were well aware that the French
Revolution had been preceded by a long period of intense
intellectual agitation, in which the very foundations of
civilized society were seriously questioned. Ideas and doctrines
advocating the abolition of all religion, the overthrow of all
civil governments, the creation of utopian world citizenship and
the abolition of private property, were to be found in books,
tracts and pamphlets, written often at the risk of provoking the
authorities. But the main haven for the free expression of such
revolutionary ideas on the Continent were certain Masonic lodges,
which, departing from the simpler practices of English
Freemasonry, had become forums where diverse opinions on morals,
religion and politics could be and were freely expressed. This
development *was* *a* *peculiarly* *French* *innovation*, but it
was adopted by numbers of Masonic lodges in many other parts of
Europe, particularly Germany.

Because Freemasonry concerned itself with fundamental
philosophical and mystical questions, it was bound to be a
gathering place for the philosophically and mystically inclined,
especially at that time in history when philosophy was in great
ferment. But even more important, the lodges provided the
brethren with full protection from the authorities by maintaining
their rule of secrecy. Robison, a former Mason himself, found
that "this impunity had gradually encouraged men of licentious
principles to become more bold, and to teach doctrines subversive
of all our notions of morality."

Let us be quick to say that Freemasonry in England, America and
elsewhere was historically, and today is, quite another kind and
its members characterized by high standards of morality and
spirituality.

But it was not surprising that a man like Adam Weishaupt, a
professor of considerable renown at Ingolstadt University, driven
by an incredible and diabolical ambition to rule the world -- no
less -- would be attracted to the Masonic lodges, where he could
find secrecy, protection, and a few like-minded colleagues.
Weishaupt was not a military man bent on conquering the world via
large armies; nor was he a crude gangster who could organize and
lead a band of thieves. Weishaupt was an intellectual, a
professor of law at a noted university with the arrogant self-
conceit of the mentally superior who feel that they should be
running the world and everyone in it. And so he devised an
ingenious vehicle for world conquest -- a secret Order -- which
would prove immensely attractive to other mentally superior
beings of a similar frame of mind. He called it the Illuminati
Order and *grafted* *it*, *at* *selected* *points*, *onto*
*Freemasonry* -- *like* *a* *fungus*.

The ostensible purpose of the Order was to bring universal
happiness to the human race. The idea was, in Weishaupt's words
to "form a durable combination of the most worthy persons, who
should work together in removing the obstacles to human
happiness, become terrible to the wicked, and give their aid to
all the good without distinction, and should by the most powerful
means, first fetter, and by fettering, lessen vice; means which
at the same time should promote virtue, by rendering the
inclination to rectitude, hitherto too feeble, more powerful and
engaging. Would not such an association be a blessing to the
world?"

To be more explicit, the Illuminati Order was built around the
novel idea that the end -- the happiness of the human race --
justified the means!

That the Order was intended to embrace the entire world was
evidenced by Weishaupt's own definition quoted in the Larousse
*Grand* *Dictionnaire* published in 1873, in which he said that
the goal of the Order was to "unite, by way of one common higher
interest and by a lasting bond, men from all parts of the globe,
from all social classes and from all religions, despite the
diversity of their opinions and passions, to make them love this
common interest and bond to the point where, together or alone,
they act as one individual."

Members of the secret Order pledged blind obedience to their
superiors and only knew about the organization what their
immediate superiors would tell them. Their oath read in part: "I
bind myself to perpetual silence and unshaken loyalty and
submission to the Order, in the persons of my Superiors; here
making a faithful and complete surrender of my private judgement,
my own will, and every narrow-minded employment of my power and
influence." Members were required to spy on one another and
submit reports and autobiographies which could compromise them
should they decide to leave the Order.

The ultimate despotic purpose of the Illuminati Order was kept
secret. Only by degrees -- going from the lower "Nursery" degrees
of *Preparation*, *Novice*, *Minerval* and *Illuminatus Minor* to
the higher "Mysteries" of *Priest*, *Regent*, *Magus*, and *Rex*
-- could the initiated learn of the true mysteries and purposes
of the Order. And each step of the way was very carefully plotted
and planned by Weishaupt and his colleagues, so that the
squeamish and gullible never rose higher than the lowest degrees,
while the bold, ruthless and cynical, those ready and willing to
dispense with religion, morality, patriotism and any other
hindrances, rose to the top.

It was through this process of selection and careful inculcation
that Weishaupt, in a mere decade, was able to gather into his
Order the cleverest and most diabolical minds in Europe. The true
purpose of the Order was to rule the world. To achieve this it
was necessary for the Order to destroy all religions, overthrow
all governments, and abolish private property. In order to
accomplish this it would be necessary to convince enough people
that religion, governments, and private property were the real
obstacles to human happiness. *This* *is* *exactly* *what* *the*
*Communists* *have* *been* *doing* *since* *1848*!

Please note that Robison makes it clear that the Illuminati Order
was quite *distinct* *and* *separate* *from* *Freemasonry*.
Freemasonry had existed long before Weishaupt had come on the
scene. But because the Illuminati *used* *parts* *of*
*Freemasonry* *as* *a* *cover*, Robison found it necessary to
explain how and why this state of affairs came about. Thus, the
first part of the book deals with Freemasonry and provides an
examination of the Masonic movement in the places and at the time
the Illuminati Order came into being. He gives some of the
history of Freemasonry and how it was developed in France, where
it had been brought from England. Most important, however, he
documents and traces the ideological evolution within the French
lodges, which were eventually to become the Jacobin Clubs of
revolutionary fame.

With the background on French Freemasonry given, Robison then
examines the state of Freemasonry in Germany, where the
Illuminati aberration originated. He describes the schisms within
German Freemasonry, the great fascination with mysteries, the
widespread influence of deism -- the philosophy that the universe
is creating God rather than the reverse -- and such utopian ideas
imported from France as Cosmo-politism, or world citizenship, and
finally the strong influence of French Masonic practices and
doctrines through the Lodge of Lyons, the mother lodge of a
segment of Masonry known as the *Grand* *Orient* *de* *la*
*France*.

One of the lodges in Germany affiliated with the Lodge of Lyons
was the Lodge Theodore of Munich. It was in this lodge -- to
which Weishaupt belonged -- that the Illuminati Order was
organized by him as a secret organization within a secret
organization. It took a number of years before the existence of
this secret society within a secret society came to light. Its
revolutionary doctrines were so zealously propagated that it
couldn't be completely hidden for very long. In 1783, a Bavarian
Court of Enquiry began its investigation of the Illuminati Order.
Much of what we know today about Weishaupt's secret conspiracy is
a result of this investigation.

The second chapter of Robison's book, undoubtedly the most
fascinating, is devoted to reviewing the evidence uncovered by
the authorities, and it is here that we discover that Weishaupt's
entire program and methodology was virtually identical with what
was later to become known as Communism.

In the third chapter of the book, entitled *The German Union*,
Robison attempts to reveal how after the Bavarian Court of
Enquiry exposed and banned the Illuminati Order and its leaders,
the Order went underground and emerged as a network of Reading
Societies throughout Germany. The goal of this literary network
was to monopolize the writing, publication, reviewing and
distribution of all literature, more effectively to control the
minds of the readers. In this chapter, one sees more clearly than
ever how the conspiracy used the printed word as its ultimate
weapon in subverting the minds of the people.

The fourth chapter of the book demonstrates how all of the
foregoing worked to culminate in the horror of the French
Revolution, in which Illuminati doctrines and methodology
provided the necessary engines of destruction and how members of
the Order became the motormen. The pitiful role played by the Duc
d'Orleans, the Grand Master of the Grand Orient de la France,
reveals the incredible cleverness and deceit with which the
conspirators were able to use one royal dupe and his fortune to
destroy the monarchy as well as himself.

The final portion of the book is devoted to Professor Robison's
General Reflections. He discusses morality and religion, politics
and the nature of civilized society, the structure of the British
government, the role of women and how the Illuminati planned to
use them, the dangers of secret societies, human nature,
education, and finally, why he was compelled to write this book.
It is all worth reading very carefully, and rereading, for it
brims with knowledge and wisdom, and is as pertinent today as it
was when it was first published.

What is the value of Robison's work today? First, it sheds light
on an important period in history which has been greatly
distorted by historians and novelists. It tells us a great deal
about the origins of that conspiracy which, by now, has the world
almost completely within its grasp. It teaches us how little the
conspiracy has changed in either its methods or ideology, and how
successful it has been in mesmerizing the masses and covering its
tracks. But most important is the revelation that this was a
conspiracy conceived, organized, and activated by professionals
and intellectuals, many of them brilliant but cunning and clever,
who decided to put their minds in the service of total evil; a
conspiracy conceived not by Masons as Masons, but by evil men
*using* Freemasonry as a vehicle for their own purposes. It is
also highly significant that it required another intellectual --
Professor Robison -- to expose the conspiracy.

It is obvious that this conspiracy, appealing to the conceit of
half-baked intellectuals, would attract educators, writers,
philosophers, publishers, and clergymen. Their counterparts who
run America today -- like the Galbraiths, the Rostows, the
Kennans, the Bundy's, the Littells, the Lippmanns -- have the
same self-conceit, the same arrogance which seems to characterize
the overly bright and overly sadistic in any age and any
civilization. But the Illuminati offered an even more attractive
inducement than its long-range goal: it offered immediate and
assured success. For, through its connections and intrigues, the
conspiracy was able to place its selected members in positions of
influence and power where they could enjoy all the glories of
worldly success, provided they used that success to work
unceasingly for the advancement of the Order. As Weishaupt
explains, once the candidate has achieved the exalted degree of
*Illuminatus Minor*, his superiors "will assist him in bringing
his talents into action, and will place him in situations most
favorable for their exertion, so that he may be *assured* of
success."

One tends to think of professors, philosophers, and writers as
sitting in their ivory towers, perfectly harmless to the world.
Robison and history prove otherwise. Activist scholars and
professors like Karl Marx and Weishaupt have had a profound
influence in shaping the kind of irrational world we live in.
>From Woodrow Wilson -- himself a professor -- to Lyndon Johnson,
we have had nothing but Presidents surrounded by professors and
scholars, who seem to owe their allegiance to one idea only --
that of world government. All of which brings to mind Weishaupt's
plan to surround the ruling authorities with members of his
Order. He writes: "These powers are despots, when they do not
conduct themselves by its [the Order's] principles; and it is
therefore our duty to surround them with its members, so that the
profane may have no access to them. Thus we are able most
powerfully to promote its interests. If any person is more
disposed to listen to Princes than to the Order, he is not fit
for it, and must rise no higher. We must do our utmost to procure
the advancement of Illuminati into all important civil offices."

Did the Illuminati Order survive beyond its exposure by the
Bavarian authorities in 1783? Robison is convinced that it did,
and that it was still quite alive and kicking and as dangerous as
ever when his book was published in 1798. Between that year and
the emergence of the Communist movement in 1848, there is a
considerable knowledge gap, which, as far as we know, historians
have made no attempt to bridge. However, the nature of the Order
would lead one to believe that it was quite capable of surviving
the most glaring exposure. Such exposure would hardly have
frightened away the hard core who knew exactly what they were
after.

In the realm of *ideology*, certainly the line from the
Illuminati Order to the Communist Manifesto is straight and
unbroken, although modified to suit the new conditions of the
Industrial Revolution. Weishaupt, it is interesting to note,
lived until 1822; moreover, the Catholic Encyclopedia tells us
that he finally repented and returned to the Church. Whether he
was sincere or not, we shall never know.

The publication of both Robison's and Barruel's works caused a
sensation at the time and proved to have a strong influence on
public opinion for the few years they were in circulation. The
first printing of *Proofs of a Conspiracy* was exhausted in a few
days, and several editions followed. Both works were also quickly
published in the United States where they had an immediate and
widespread impact. Jacobin ideas and influences had already been
noted with alarm in the New World and it was known that the
Illuminati had established some lodges in the United States. That
the Illuminati would attempt to gain control of the press and
publishing industry in this country goes without saying. It was,
after all, the hallmark of their method.

It wasn't until 1826 that anti-Illuminati feelings were once more
aroused in this country as a result of the disappearance of one
William Morgan, an American Freemason, who had written a book
revealing Masonic secrets entitled *Illustrations of
Freemasonry*. Morgan, apparently, had been abducted and drowned
in Lake Ontario. It was alleged that fellow Masons had done it.
This caused a nationwide furor, resulting in the creation of an
anti-Masonic political party in 1829 by Henry Dana Ward, Thurlow
Weed, and William H. Seward. Interest in both Robison's and
Barruel's books were revived during that period, with the result
that Freemasonry suffered a great loss of membership. The anti-
Masonic movement lasted a few years until the furor died down. By
1840, the anti-Masonic party was extinct.

Let it be stressed that the present publication of Robison's work
is not intended to open old wounds or create new animosity or
distrust toward Freemasonry, whose adherents today certainly
number among our staunchest patriots and anti-Communists. The
intention is merely to illustrate how a conspiracy of
intellectuals, using Freemasonry, got off the ground and grew to
its present incredible proportions. The conspirators have long
since discarded Freemasonry as their vehicle. If clever
conspirators could use -- of all groups -- so fine a group as the
Masons, we must open our minds to consider what infinite
possibilities are available to them in our own present day
society. Their main habitat these days seems to be the great
subsidized universities, tax-free foundations, mass media
communication systems, government bureaus such as the State
Department, and a myriad of private organizations such as the
Council on Foreign Relations. If the publication of this book
merely serves to convince enough people that conspiracies of this
kind have existed in the past, do exist in the present, and
should be routed out, it will have served its purpose. All men of
good will, we hope, anxious to keep freedom alive, will recognize
the value, therefore, of this new edition of one of the most
interesting books in history.

                                  -- The Publishers

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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
  pauperem.                    -- Liber Proverbiorum  XXXI: 8-9

 Brian Francis Redman    bigxc@prairienet.org    "The Big C"
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"Justice" = "Just us" = "History is written by the assassins."
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