Code of the Illuminati: Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism

The Order of the Illuminati was to be based entirely on human nature and observation; hence its degrees, ceremonies, and statutes were formulated to that effect. For his prototype Adam Weishaupt, the founder of the order, relied mainly on Freemasonry, in accordance with which he modelled the degrees and ceremonial of his order. After the pattern of the Society of Jesus, Weishaupt built up the strictly hierarchical organization of his society. "To utilize for good purposes the very means which that order employed for evil ends". For the realization of his plans, he regarded as essential the "despotism of superiors" and the "blind, unconditional obedience of subordinates", along with the utmost secrecy and mysteriousness. In this society of the future everything was to be regulated by reason. By "enlightenment" men were to be liberated from their silly prejudices, to become "mature" or "moral", and thus to outgrow the religious and political tutelage of Church and State, of "priest and prince". Morals was the science which makes man "mature", and renders him conscious of his dignity, his destiny, and his power. The principal means for effecting the "redemption" was found in unification, and this was to be brought about by "secret schools of wisdom". These "schools" were always the archives of nature and of the rights of man; through their agency, man will recover from his fall; princes and nations, without violence to force them, will vanish from the earth; the human race will become one family, and the world the habitation of rational beings. Moral science alone will effect these reforms 'imperceptibly'; every father will become, like Abraham and the patriarchs, the priest and absolute lord of his household, and reason will be man's only code of law. This redemption of mankind by the restoration of the original "freedom and equality" through "illumination" and universal charity, fraternity, and tolerance.