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"Proofs of a Conspiracy" was written by John Robison, a Scottish
professor, to warn Britain and other kingdoms that the forces which
toppled the French monarchy and started The Terror were still
active. In his book, Robison traced the story of the 1776 founding
of the Bavarian Illuminati by Adam Weishaupt, a professor at
Ingolstadt and the suppression of the order by the royal and church
authorities of Bavaria in 1785. The Illuminists went underground
all over Europe and used existing Masonic lodges or set up their
own as a cover for their activities. In Paris, the Duc d'Orleans
headed the Illuminist front called the Grand Orient Lodge, his base
to conspire against the ruling House of Bourbon. The English and
Scottish lodges were generally apolitical amd many worked actively
to keep out Illuminists as insincere applicants, but Robison
maintained that some continental lodges remained hotbeds of
revolutionary plotting, and therefore dangerous, at the time he
wrote. Robison was a contemporary and collaborator with James Watt
(with whom he worked on an early steam car), contributor to the
1797 Encylopedia Britannica, professor of philosophy at the
University of Edinburgh, and inventor of the siren. Although
Robison was very much an advocate of science and rationalism, he
became an ardent monarchist later in life due to his
disillusionment with the French Revolution. In "Proofs of a
Conspiracy," Robison laid the groundwork for modern conspiracy
theorists by implicating the Bavarian Illuminati as responsible for
the excesses of the French Revolution. The Bavarian Illuminati had
an inner core of true believers, who secretly held radical atheist,
anti-monarchist and possibly proto-feminist views, at that time
considered beyond the pale. They recruited by infiltrating the
numerous (and otherwise benign) Freemasonic groups which were
active at the time on the continent. Today, the Illuminati have
today become a byword for a secret society which hoodwinks its
junior members and puppet-masters society at large-a reputation
which is in no little part due to Robison's book.
1776 was a significant year, the date of the American Revolution,
of the publication of Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations' and - far
less well-known but equally momentous - the founding, by Adam
Weishaupt, of the Order of the Illuminati. Weishaupt was a
respected professor of Canon Law at Germany's Ingolstadt
University. He conceived the Illuminati as "a durable combination
of the most worthy persons, who should work together in removing
the obstacles to human happiness.... Would not such an association
be a blessing to the world?" But while the American Revolution
strove for the 'pursuit of happiness' via forthright, open
revolution, Weishaupt envisioned that the Illuminati would shape
the fate of nations, and eventually the world, from the shadows,
working behind the scenes to infiltrate and subvert a host of
organizations, effecting change and revolution by stealth. A secret
Order dedicated to covert conspiracy. John Robison, a distinguished
Professor of philosophy at Edinburgh University, took it upon
himself to discover all he could of the Illuminati Order's
structure and schemes. His book, when first published in 1798,
caused a sensation in Europe and America. It has remained one of
the most important source works for the study of this most
enigmatic (and some would claim diabolical) of secret societies.
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