ILLUMINATI. - A secret society with an ethico-political-religious basis, founded in Germany in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt on 1 May 1776 through the work of Adam Weishaupt (1748-1830). According to the intentions of its founder it aimed at the moral and political perfecting of its members (they were, in fact, initially called perfectibilists); it had the further purpose of restoring to the individual the natural rights rendered null by governmental institutions and by religion, and of initiating a religion of reason with which to supplant Christianity.
The organization of the society was founded on unconditional obedience, mutual surveillance and the utmost secrecy. The members, who distinguished themselves from one another by names borrowed from classical antiquity (under the name of Spartacus, for example, Weishaupt himself was concealed), were divided into various classes, there being the "novices" and the "small illuminati" (first class), the "Scottish novices" and the "Scottish knights" (second class), and those belonging to the "small" and the "great mysteries" (third class).
The society spread rapidly, extending also beyond Germany, especially into the Netherlands, though it never reached a large number of associates: among others, Goethe belonged to it. Its activity was nevertheless short-lived; in fact, having fallen under the suspicion of the State, an edict of the Elector Charles Theodore of Bavaria of 22 June 1784 ordered its dissolution. Condemned also by Pius VI in two letters sent to the Bishop of Freising on 18 June and 12 Nov. 1785, the true disintegration of the association came with the French Revolution.
For the I., pseudo-mystics of Spain of the 16th and 17th centuries, v. ALUMBRADOS.
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Niccolò Del Re