ge
of the _Amis Reunis_. Whilst the _Loge des Neuf Soeurs_ was largely
composed of middle-class revolutionaries such as Brissot, Danton,
Camille Desmoulins, and Champfort, and the _Loge de la Candeur_ of
aristocratic revolutionaries--Lafayette as well as the Orleanistes, the
Marquis de Sillery, the Duc d'Aiguillon, the Marquis de Custine, and the
Lameths--_the Loge du Contrat Social_ was mainly composed of honest
visionaries who entertained no revolutionary projects but, according to
Barruel, were strongly Royalist. The role of the "Amis Reunis" was to
collect together the subversives from all other lodges--Philalethes,
Rose-Croix, members of the _Loge des Neuf Sours_ and of the _Loge de la
Candeur_ and of the most secret committees of the Grand Orient, as well
as deputies from the _Illumines_ in the provinces. Here, then, at the
lodge in the Rue de la Sordiere, under the direction of Savalette de
Langes, were to be found the disciples of Weishaupt, of Swedenborg, and
of Saint-Martin, as well as the practical makers of revolution--the
agitators and demagogues of 1789.

The influence of German Illuminism on all these heterogeneous elements
was enormous. From this moment, says a further Bavarian report of the
matter, a complete change took place in the Order of the "Amis Reunis."
Hitherto only vaguely subversive, the Chevaliers Bienfaisants became the
Chevaliers Malfaisants, the Amis Reunis became the Ennemis Reunis. The
arrival of the two Germans, Bode and Busche, gave the finishing touch to
the conspiracy. "The avowed object of their journey was to obtain
information about magnetism, which was just then making a great stir,"
but in reality, "taken up with the gigantic plan of their Order," their
real aim was to make proselytes. It will be seen that the following
passage exactly confirms the account given by Barruel:

As the Lodge of the _Amis Reunis_ collected together everything
that could be found out from all other masonic systems in the
world, so the way was soon paved there for Illuminism. It was also
not long before this lodge together with all those that depended on
it was impregnated with Illuminism. The former system of all these
was as if wiped out, so that from this time onwards the framework
of the Philalethes quite disappeared and in the place of the former
Cabalistic-magical extravagance [_Schwarmerei_] came in the
philosophical-political.[611]

It was theref