Now, as we have already seen, his first idea was to make Fire Worship the religion of Illuminism; the profession of Christianity therefore appears to have been an after-thought. Evidently Weishaupt discovered, as others have done, that Christianity lends itself more readily to subversive ideas than any other religion. And in the passages which follow we find him adopting the old ruse of representing Christ as a Communist and as a secret-society adept. Thus he goes on to explain that "if Jesus preaches contempt of riches, He wishes to teach us the reasonable use of them and prepare for the community of goods introduced by Him,"[541] and in which, Weishaupt adds later, He lived with His disciples.[542] But this secret doctrine is only to be apprehended by initiates: No one ... has so cleverly concealed the high meaning of His teaching, and no one finally has so surely and easily directed men on to the path of freedom as our great master Jesus of Nazareth. This secret meaning and natural consequence of His teaching He hid completely, for Jesus had a secret doctrine, as we see in more than one place of the Scriptures.[543] Weishaupt thus contrives to give a purely political interpretation to Christ's teaching: The secret preserved through the Disciplinam Arcani, and the aim appearing through all His words and deeds, is to give back to men their original liberty and equality.... Now one can understand how far Jesus was the Redeemer and Saviour of the world.[544] The mission of Christ was therefore by means of Reason to make men capable of freedom[545]: "When at last reason becomes the religion of man, so will the problem be solved."[546] Weishaupt goes on to show that Freemasonry can be interpreted in the same manner. The secret doctrine concealed in the teaching of Christ was handed down by initiates who "hid themselves and their doctrine under the cover of Freemasonry,"[547] and in a long explanation of Masonic hieroglyphics he indicates the analogies between the Hiramic legend and the story of Christ. "I say then Hiram is Christ," and after giving one of his reasons for this assertion, adds: "Here then is much ground gained, although I myself cannot help laughing at this explanation [_obwohl ich selbst über diese Explication im Grund lachen muss_]."[548] Weishaupt then proceeds to give further interpretations of his own devising to the masonic ritual, including an imaginary translation of certain words supposed to be derived from Hebrew, and ends up by saying: "One will be able to show several more resemblances between Hiram and the life and death of Christ, or drag them in by the hair."[549] So much for Weishaupt's respect for the Grand Legend of Freemasonry!