nting mysteries and degrees to impose on the credulity of
his followers. "The mysteries, or so-called secret truths, are the
finest of all," he writes to "Philipo Strozzi," "and give me much
trouble."[527] So whilst heartily despising Freemasonry, theosophy,
Rosicrucianism, and mysticism of every kind, his association with Philo
leads him to perceive the utility of all these as a bait, and he allows
Philo to draw up plans for a degree of Scottish Knight. But the result
is pitiable, Philo's composition, a "semi-theosophical discourse and
explanation of hieroglyphics" is characterized by Weishaupt as gibberish
(_kauderwelsche_).[528]

Philo [he says again] is full of such follies, which betray his
small mind.... On the Illuminatus Major follows the miserable
degree of Scottish Knight entirely of his composition, and on the
degree of Priest an equally miserable degree of Regent, ... but I
have already composed four more degrees compared to the worst of
which the Priest's degree will be child's play, but I shall tell no
one about it till I see how the thing goes....[529]

The perfidy of the Illuminati with regard to the Freemasons is therefore
apparent. Even Mounier, who set out to refute Barruel on the strength of
the information supplied to him by the Illuminatus Bode, admits their
duplicity in this respect.

Weishaupt [says Mounier] made the acquaintance of a Hanoverian, the
Baron von Knigge, a famous intriguer, long practised in the
charlatanism of lodges of Freemasons. On his advice new degrees
were added to the old ones, and it was resolved to profit by
Freemasonry whilst profoundly despising it. They decided that the
degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, Master Mason, and
Scotch Knight should be added to those of the Illuminati, and that
they would boast of possessing exclusively the real secrets of the
Freemasons and affirm that Illuminism was the real primitive
Freemasonry.

"The papers of the Order seized in Bavaria and published," Mounier says
again, show that "the Illuminati employed the forms of Freemasonry, but
that they considered it in itself, apart from their own degrees, as a
puerile absurdity and that they detested the Rose-Croix." Mounier, as a
good disciple of Bode, takes much the same view and pities the _naivete_
of the Freemasons, who, "like so many children, spend a great part of
the time in their lodges