We know quite a bit about the Illuminati thanks to the doctoral dissertation written in 1914 in Paris by René Le Forestier (1868–1951), a future professor of German studies and an eminent historian of Freemasonry, and published in the same year by the Paris publishing house Hachette as Les Illuminés de Bavière et la franc-maçonnerie allemande. Most of the documents he quoted from archives, except some lost during two world wars, have been subsequently published by German scholars, and are easily available.
On February 11, 1785, a warrant for the arrest of Adam Weishaupt went out and he was forced into hiding. He was assisted in escaping from Ingolstadt by fellow Illuminati member Joseph Martin who helped him get to Nuremberg dressed as a laborer. On Mar 22, 1785, Duke Theodor issued a second edict banning all secret societies. Unlike the first edict this one specifically bans Freemasonry and the Order of the Illuminati by name.
In his work of over seven hundred pages, Le Forestier gives an account of his exploration of German archives, where almost everything was preserved with Teutonic precision. When a member of the Illuminati of Bavaria, the Catholic priest Johann Jakob Lang (according to another spelling “Lanz,” 1735–1785), died struck by lightning on July 10, 1785, the police drew up, and archivists preserved, even an exact inventory of what was in his pockets. So fastidious was Le Forestier’s work that later historians have been able to add only a few details, although they have not always accepted his interpretations.
Lanz while traveling to Silesia stops in Regensburg to meet with Illuminati founder Adam Weishaupt. Weishaupt had met up with Lanz near the city gates, where Lanz is struck by a bolt of lightning. Lanz is taken to a nearby chapel by concerned citizens but he is already dead. Bavarian authorities search the body and find secret documents that according to Illuminati researcher Terry Melanson contained:
(1) the names of Lodges and villages or towns in which they are located;
(2) the name of the Master of the Chair, the two wardens directly below him, and any other influential members of the Lodge;
(3) what system does it practice;
(4) how long has the Lodge been active;
(5) the manner in which it is directed or operated;
(6) how many degrees it confers above that of the three symbolic grades;
(7) if they are aware of the Order of the Illuminati;
(8) what opinion they have formed of it;
(9) what are their thoughts concerning the persecutions of the Freemasons and Illuminati in Bavaria, and who they think is responsible;
(10) what they say about the Disciples of Loyola and the Jesuits. He was also instructed not to reveal his status as an Illuminatus, with hope of provoking genuine responses.
*Note some Freemasons deny this historical event such as the article “A Bavarian Illuminati primer” by Trevor W. McKeown, but other occultists such as Mark Booth state it as fact in his new age book “The Secret History of the World”. It is important to keep in mind that these secret societies have sworn upon death to protect the secrets of the order and even lying about events is an acceptable practice to them.
5
