Nicholai, on his return to Berlin, published many volumes of his discoveries. One would imagine that not a Jesuit had escaped him. He mentions many strange schismatics, both in religion and in Masonry--But he never once mentions an _Illuminatus_.--When they were first checked, and before the discovery of the secret correspondence, he defended them, and strongly reprobated the proceedings of the Elector of Bavaria, calling it vile persecution.--Nay, after the discovery of the letters found in Zwack's house, he persisted in his defence, vindicated the possession of the abominable receipts, and highly extolled the character of Weishaupt.--But when the discovery of papers in the house of Batz informed the public that he himself had long been an _Illuminatus_, he was sadly put to it to reconcile his defence with any pretensions to religion[11].----Weishaupt saved him from disgrace, as he thought, by his publication of the system of Illuminatism--Nicholai then boldly said that he knew no more of the Order than was contained in that book, that is, only the two first degrees. [11] He impudently pretended that the papers containing the system and doctrines of Illuminatism, came to him at Berlin, from an unknown hand. But no one believed him--it was inconsistent with what is said of him in the secret correspondence. He had said the same thing concerning the French translation of the Letters on the Constitution of the Prussian States. Fifty copies were found in his ware-house. He said that they had been sent from Strasburg, and that he had never sold one of them.--Supposing both these assertions to be true, it appears that Nicholai was considered as a very proper hand for dispersing such poison.