[453] _Ibid._, pp. 247 _et seq._ Forestier brings into connection with this effort of the king of Prussia to check the supposed operations of the Illuminati, a further reproach which came upon the order on account of the course pursued by the Rosicrucians in spreading the report in the Masonic world that the Eclectic Alliance, an ill-fated effort to unite and dominate German Freemasonry, launched in 1783, was a survival of the Order of the Illuminati. The unpopularity and suspicion which the Eclectic Alliance incurred were due in part to its attempts to eliminate the high grades of Masonry, but more especially to the charges made against it by representatives of rival Masonic systems that it had at heart the undermining of the Christian religion. _Cf. ibid._, pp. 617 _et seq._, 383–388. The Illuminati had had affiliations with the Eclectic Alliance, and hence a certain justification had been given for the accusations which were transferred from the former to the latter. [454] The loose use of the term “Illuminati” involved in these statements is only partially illustrated in the following comment of Mounier: “On a donné par dérision la qualité d’_Illuminés_ à tous les charlatans mystiques de ce siècle, à tous ceux qui s’occupent d’alchimie, de magie et de cabale, de revenans, de relations avec des esprits intermédiaires, tels que les Saint-Germain, les Cagliostro, les Swedenborg, les Rose-croix et les Martinistes: mais il a existé une autre espèce d’illuminés en Allemagne” (_i. e._, Weishaupt’s system). (_De l’influence attribuée aux philosophes, aux franc-maçons et aux illuminés, sur la révolution de France_, p. 169.) Not these systems alone, but the representatives of the diffused forces of the Enlightenment were appointed to share the mantle of the ambiguous term. [455] Baron Knigge. In responding to Bahrdt’s appeal to assist him in working out the system of the German Union, Knigge violated the pledge he had made to the Bavarian government not to concern himself again with secret organizations. For his indiscretion he paid the penalty of an unpleasant notoriety. _Cf._ Forestier, p. 629. [456] Bahrdt’s career was objectionable from almost every point of view. He had been first a pastor, and later a professor of sacred philology at the University of Leipzig. Here, as at Erfurt, the place of his next professional labors, his dissolute conduct involved him in public scandals which lost him his post. In 1771 he went to Giessen as preacher and professor of theology. Later, after numerous changes of location and in the character of his educational activity, he took refuge at Halle, where he conducted courses in rhetoric, eloquence, declamation, and ethics. A man of low tastes, his life was without dignity and solid convictions. _Cf._ Forestier, pp. 624 _et seq._; Mounier, pp. 201 _et seq._; P. Tschackert, in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopädie_, 3. Aufl., ii, (1897), pp. 357–359.