The Bavarian illuminati group was a movement of republican free thought and is probably the most prominent group associated with the name illuminati. It was founded in 1776 by Adam Weishaupt, professor of canon law at Ingolstadt and former Jesuit. Weishaupt wanted to replace Christianity with a religion of reason, and the members of his society called themselves “Perfectibilists.” The society was carefully structured and divided into three main classes. Weishaupt’s recruitment efforts spread across the cities of Bavaria, and he also made connections with a number of Masonic lodges, where his group often managed to gain a prominent position. The movement over time acquired a rigorously complex constitution and internal communication system, conducted in a cipher. At its zenith, the Bavarian illuminati operated in a very large area, extending from Italy to Denmark and from Warsaw to Paris. The movement was ultimately banned, and Weishaupt was stripped of his professorship at Ingolstadt. No evidence of the Bavarian order appears in the historical record after 1785.
Adam Weishaupt of the Bavarian illuminati targeted people of wealth and social importance when he was spreading his doctrine, and a number of notable figures are associated with the Bavarian movement. Literary giants Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Gottfried von Herder, as well as a number of dukes, were claimed as members of the Bavarian society, though how much they were actually involved is disputed. Weishaupt’s illuminati were also believed to have included astronomer Johann Bode, writer and bookseller Friedrich Nicolai, philosopher Friedrich Jacobi, and poet Friedrich Leopold, Graf zu Stolberg-Stolberg. Additionally, the British philosopher Francis Bacon was connected to the earlier Rosicrucian order, while St. Ignatius of Loyola was associated with the Alumbrado movement.
