no serious
attention from responsible men. For the main purpose of Barruel's book
is to show that not only had Illuminism and Grand Orient Masonry
contributed largely to the French Revolution, but that three years after
that first explosion they were still as active as ever. This is the
great point which the champions of the "bogey" theory are most anxious
to refute. "The Bavarian Order of the Illuminati," wrote Mr. Waite, "was
founded by Adam Weishaupt in 1776, and it was suppressed by the Elector
of Bavaria in 1789.... Those who say that 'it was continued in more
secret forms' have never produced one item of real evidence."[642] Now,
as we have seen, the Illuminati were not suppressed by the Elector of
Bavaria in 1789, but in 1786--first error of Mr. Waite. But more
extraordinary confusion of mind is displayed in his _Encyclopaedia of
Freemasonry_, where, in a Masonic Chronology, he gives, this time under
the date of 1784, "Suppression of the Illuminati," but under 1793:
"J.J.C. Bode joined the Illuminati under Weishaupt." At a matter of
fact, this was the year Bode died. These examples will serve to show the
reliance that can be placed on Mr. Waite's statement concerning the
Illuminati.

We shall now see that not only the Illuminati but Weishaupt himself
still continued to intrigue long after the French Revolution had ended.

Directly the Reign of Terror was over, the masonic lodges, which during
the Revolution had been replaced by the clubs, began to reopen, and by
the beginning of the nineteenth century were in a more flourishing
condition than ever before. "It was the most brilliant epoch of
Masonry," wrote the Freemason Bazot in his History of Freemasonry.
Nearly 1,200 lodges existed in France under the Empire; generals,
magistrates, artists, savants, and notabilities in every line were
initiated into the Order.[643] The most eminent of these was Prince
Cambaceres, pro Grand Master of the Grand Orient.

It is in the midst of this period that we find Weishaupt once more at
work behind the scenes of Freemasonry. Thus in the remarkable masonic
correspondence published by M. Benjamin Fabre in his _Eques a Capite
Galeato_--of which, as has already been pointed out, the authenticity is
admitted by eminent British Freemasons--a letter is reproduced from
Pyron, representative in Paris of the Grand Orient of Italy, to the
Marquis de Chefdebien, dated September 9, 1808, in which it is stated
that "a member of the sect