Now we know that Lord George Gordon met Cagliostro in London in 1786.[493] Is it not probable that the author of the scurrilous pamphlet and the magician concerned in the attack on the Queen's honour through the Affair of the Necklace--one a--Jew by profession, the other said to be a Jew by race--may have had some connexion with Philippe Egalité's Jewish supporter, the miracle worker of Wellclose Square? But already a vaster genius than Falk or Cagliostro, than Pasqually or Savalette de Langes, had arisen, who, gathering into his hands the threads of all the conspiracies, was able to weave them together into a gigantic scheme for the destruction of France and of the world. 9 The Bavarian Illuminati The question of the system to which I shall henceforth refer simply as Illuminism is of such immense importance to an understanding of the modern revolutionary movement that, although I have already described it in detail in _World Revolution_, it is necessary to devote a further chapter to it here in order to answer the objections made against my former account of the Order and also to show its connexion with earlier secret societies. Now, the main contentions of those writers who, either consciously or unconsciously, attempt to mislead the public on the true nature and real existence of Illuminism are: Firstly, that the case against Illuminism rests solely on the works of Robison, and of Barruel and later Catholic authorities. Secondly, that all these writers misinterpreted or misquoted the Illuminati, who should be judged only by their own works. Thirdly, that in reality the Illuminati were perfectly innocuous and even praiseworthy. Fourthly, that they are of no importance, since they ceased to exist in 1786. In the present chapter I propose therefore to answer all these contentions in turn and at the same time to make further examination into the origins of the Order. Origins of the Illuminati That Weishaupt was not the originator of the system he named Illuminism will be already apparent to every reader of the present work; it has needed, in fact, all the foregoing chapters to trace the source of Weishaupt's doctrines throughout the history of the world. From these it will be evident that men aiming at the overthrow of the existing social order and of all accepted religion had existed from the earliest times, and that in the Cainites, the Carpocratians, the Manichæns, the Batinis, the Fatimites, and the Karmathites many of Weishaupt's ideas had already been foreshadowed. To the Manichæans, in fact, the word "Illuminati" may be traced--"gloriantur Manichæi se de caelo illuminatos."[494] It is in the sect of Abdullah ibn Maymūn that we must seek the model for Weishaupt's system of organization. Thus de Sacy has described in the following words the manner of enlisting proselytes by the Ismailis: