Bavarian Illuminati
The Bavarian Illuminati (Illuminatenorden) was a secret society of Enlightenment rationalists founded on May 1, 1776, by Adam Weishaupt, a professor of canon law and former Jesuit at the University of Ingolstadt in the Electorate of Bavaria. Originally called the Perfectibilists, the order sought to oppose superstition, obscurantism, religious influence over public life, and abuses of state power by monarchs, aiming to replace established religion with a cult of reason and to perfect human nature through education and moral development. The order was organized into three classes: Class I (the Nursery)—Noviciate, Minerval, and Illuminatus Minor; Class II (Masonic grades); and Class III (the Mysteries)—subdivided into lesser mysteries (Priest, Prince/Regent) and greater mysteries (Mage, King). The Minerval grade, named for the Roman goddess of wisdom Minerva, formed the core working degree. Baron Adolf von Knigge, recruited in 1780, dramatically expanded the order by systematically infiltrating Freemasonic lodges, targeting lodge masters and wardens to bring entire lodges under Illuminati control. He also designed elaborate initiation ceremonies. Membership grew from about 600 in 1782 to 2,000-3,000 by 1784, including noblemen, politicians, doctors, lawyers, and literary figures such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Members maintained secret notebooks recording their intellectual and spiritual progress, subject to review by superiors. Internal power struggles between Weishaupt and Knigge led to Knigge's expulsion in 1784, weakening the order. That same year, intercepted writings were deemed seditious, and Elector Karl Theodor banned the society in 1785. Weishaupt was stripped of his professorship and fled Bavaria. Though the historical Illuminati ceased to exist after 1785, they became the most enduring subject of conspiracy theories in Western culture, blamed for events from the French Revolution to modern political machinations.