![]() These individuals were not only thought of as more or less unwitting abettors – such as the Calvinists and philosophes in many a Catholic's eyes – but also as determined long-time plotters. 6 By then, the revolutionary events in France had begun to create even more favourable conditions for spreading the concept of "secret societies".Įver since the French Revolution had been studied and interpreted, some had sought to identify certain groups that could be held responsible for its course. 5 The Bavarian government published compromising documents of the Illuminati, to which some members responded in defence: In the five years following 1785, no less than 50 publications in Germany and abroad discussed the nature of the group. ![]() Since the 1750s, opponents of the Jesuits had been reprinting the infamous Monita secreta, a collection of falsified "secret instructions" of the order that first appeared in Kraków in 1614, and the Jesuit fathers had retaliated by repeating their accusation of a Jansenist conspiracy which had supposedly been planned at Bourgfontaine in 1621. In 1785, however, it was closed down by the Bavarian Elector Karl Theodor (1724–1799), to the delight of the Catholics and the indignation of their enemies. His "geheime Gesellschaft", as Weishaupt labelled it, sought to win members among the elite and to conquer good positions in order to influence government. He was a professor of canon law at the University of Ingolstadt who took his inspiration from both the Jesuits and the Masons. 3 The ensuing discussion soon encompassed the fate of the Order of the Illuminati which had been founded in 1776 by Adam Weishaupt (1748–1830). Even though the Societas Jesu had been suppressed in the Bourbon-governed countries and abolished by Pope Clemens XIV (1705–1774) in 1773, it was suspected to survive underground and to combat Protestantism and the Enlightenment through "eine Menge geheimer schädliche Gesellschaften". At that time, the journal, published by Friedrich Nicolai (1733–1811), pointed its arrows at the Jesuit order. The real beginnings of the modern term probably go back to the Berlinische Monatsschrift of the mid-1780s. 1 In other words, Bilmark's title should be translated as "On secret literary societies" rather than as "On literary secret societies". This name refers to a literary-musical association in Åbo that like its model, the Swedish society Utile Dulci, was not an open organisation, but initiated members into a number of degrees. #HAND OF FATE SECRET SOCIETY SERIES#Although the author illustrated his argument with a series of historical examples, his main aim was to applaud the recent birth of Aurora. ![]() ![]() ![]() This is paradoxically documented by what looks like its first appearance in a monograph title, De secretis societatibus litterariis, written by the philosopher Johan Bilmark (1728–1801) at the Royal Academy of Åbo (Turku) in 1772. The expression "secret societies" in its alliterative and often plural form – also found in French ( sociétés secrètes) and German ( geheime Gesellschaften) – dates back to the final quarter of the European 18th century. This will then allow us to discuss the different social phenomena the term referred to at the time, in order to move on to their functions and development up to the 20th century. This contribution will approach its elusive subject by first looking at the emergence of the expression "secret societies" in publications of the 18th century. Birth of a Concept: Secret Societies During the 18th Century ![]()
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