New England and the Bavarian IlluminatiStauffer, Vernon
History
New England and the Bavarian Illuminati
Stauffer, Vernon
Illuminati; New England -- Church history; Thesis (Ph. D.)
[402] Engel identifies Dalberg as the last elector of Mainz, and,
in the time of Napoleon I, grand duke of Frankfort. See _ibid._, p.
354. Forestier extends the list of civil notables to include Count
Metternich, imperial ambassador at Coblenz; Count Brigido, governor of
Galicia; Count Leopold Kolowrat, chancellor of Bohemia; Baron Kressel,
vice-chancellor of Bohemia; Count Poelffy, chancellor of Hungary; Count
Banffy, governor of Transylvania; Count Stadion, ambassador at London;
and Baron Van Swieten, minister of public instruction. (The last seven
were members of the lodge established at Vienna.) _Cf. ibid._, pp. 400
_et seq._
[403] Goethe’s connection with the order is fully established by both
Engel (_cf. ibid._, pp. 355 _et seq._) and Forestier (_cf. ibid._,
pp. 396 _et seq._). The question whether Schiller belonged to the
Illuminati is answered in the negative by Engel. _Cf. ibid._, p. 356.
[404] “Un pédagogue célèbre, Pestalozzi, figurait parmi les membres de
l’Église Minervale de Lautern.” (Forestier, p. 349.)
[405] _Ibid._, p. 399.
[406] In its efforts to obtain a decisive triumph over rival systems of
Freemasonry, substantial progress had been made. At Munich, the Secret
Chapter of the dominant Masonic fraternity in that city capitulated
to the new system. At Vienna, Masons eagerly enrolled as Illuminati
with a view to blocking the attempt of the Rosicrucians to extend the
hegemony of that branch. The important general congress of Freemasons,
held at Wilhelmsbad, in July, 1782, for the purpose of arriving at
some conclusion concerning the claims of rival systems, yielded to
the Illuminati a double advantage: the pretensions of the Order of
the Strict Observance, its most dangerous rival, were disallowed and
the opportunity which the congress offered in the form of a field
for winning new recruits was adroitly seized by representatives of
the Illuminati, with the result that its emissaries retired from the
congress completely satisfied. Further, the Order of the Illuminati
had apparently put itself on the high road to a complete victory in
the Masonic world by securing the enlistment of the two most important
personages in German Freemasonry, Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick and
Prince Carl of Hesse. The full extent of the order’s conquests among
the various branches of Masonry is impossible of full and accurate
statement, for the principal reason which Engel gives: “Nur wenige
Dokumente existieren als Nachweis, denn es ist natürlich, dass
solche in der Verfolgungszeit in Bayern vernichtet wurden, um nicht
verdächtigt zu werden und äussere Verbindungen ziemlich schroff
abgebrochen wurden, als sich die Skandalsucht erhob und dem Orden
und deren Leiter all erdenlichen Schlechtigkeiten andichtete. Im
Laufe der Zeit sind dann die betreffenden Schriften von den Logen als
minderwertig missachtet und beseitigt worden, so dass eine Aufklärung
heute ungemein erschwert ist.” (_Op. cit._, pp. 349 _et seq._) Still,
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