Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: ILLUMINATI |
ILLUMINATITransitive verb1. Any persons who profess special spiritual or intellectual enlightenment. 2. The Rosicrucians. 3. The Hesychasts, Mystics, and Quietists; 4. An obscure sect of French Familists; 5. Members of certain associations in Modern Europe, who combined to promote social reforms, by which they expected to raise men and society to perfection, esp. of one originated in 1776 by Adam Weishaupt, professor of canon law at Ingolstadt, which spread rapidly for a time, but ceased after a few years. 6. Members of a sect which sprung up in Spain about the year 1575. Their principal doctrine was, that, by means of prayer, they had attained to so perfect a state as to have no need of ordinances, sacraments, good works, etc.; -- called also Alumbrados, Perfectibilists, etc. 7. Persons in the early church who had received baptism; in which ceremony a lighted taper was given them, as a symbol of the spiritual illumination they has received by that sacrament. 8. Literally, those who are enlightened |
Date "ILLUMINATI" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1814. (references) |
Etymology: Illuminati \Il*lu`mi*na"ti\, plural noun. [Latin expression illuminatus. See Illuminate, transitive verb, and compare to Illuminee.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Satire | ILLUMINATI, n. A sect of Spanish heretics of the latter part of the sixteenth century; so called because they were light weights -- cunctationes illuminati. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Literature | Illuminati The baptised were at one time so called, because a lighted candle was given them to hold as a symbol that they were illuminated by the Holy Ghost. Four religious societies have been so called, viz.: (1) The Hesychasts in the fourteenth century. (2) The Alombrados of Spain in the sixteenth century. (3) The Guerinets of France in the seventeenth century. (4) The Mystics of Belgium in the eighteenth century. Add to these the Rosicrucians (q.v.. The Order of the Illuminati. A republican society, founded at Ingoldstadt in Bavaria, 1776; having for its object the establishment of a religion consistent with "sound reason." Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
This is an article about the groups. For information on the games, see Illuminati (game) and Illuminati: New World Order
Since Illuminati literally means 'enlightened ones' in Latin, it is natural that several unrelated historical groups have identified themselves as Illuminati, generally on the basis of their possessing some gnostic texts or other arcane information not generally available.
The designation illuminati was also in use from the 15th century, assumed by enthusiasts of another type, who claimed that the illuminating light came, not by being communicated from an authoritative but secret source, but from within, the result of exalted consciousness.
To the former class belong the alumbrados of Spain. The historian Menendez Pelavo found the name as early as 1492 (in the form aluminados, 1498). but traced them to a Gnostic origin, and thought their views were promoted in Spain through influences from Italy. One of their earliest leaders, born in Salamanca, a labourer's daughter known as La Beata de Piedrahita, came under the notice of the Inquisition in 1511, as claiming to hold colloquies with Jesus and the Virgin Mary; some high patronage saved her from a rigorous denunciation. (Menendez Pelavo, Los Heterodoxos Espanioles, 1881, vol. v.). Ignatius Loyola, while studying at Salamanca in 1527, was brought before an ecclesiastical commission on a charge of sympathy with the alumbrados, but escaped with an admonition. Others were not so fortunate. In 1529 a congregation of naive adherents at Toledo was subjected to whippings and imprisonment. Greater rigors followed, and for about a century the alumbrados sent many victims to the Inquisition, especially at Cordoba.
The movement (under the name of Illuminés) seems to have reached France from Seville in 1623, and attained some following in Picardy when joined (1634) by Pierce Guerin, curé of Saint-Georges de Roye, whose followers, known as Gurinets, were suppressed in 1635.
A century later, another, more obscure body of Illuminés came to light in the south of France in 1722, and appears to have lingered till 1794, having affinities with those known contemporaneously in Britain as 'French Prophets', an offshoot of the Camisards.
Of different class were the so-called Illuminati, better known as Rosicrucians, who claimed to originate in 1422, but rose into notice in 1537; a secret society, that claimed to combine with the mysteries of alchemy the possession of esoteric principles of religion. Their positions are embodied in three anonymous treatises of 1614, mentioned in Richard and Giraud, Dictionnaire universel des sciences ecclésiastiques. Paris 1825.
A short-lived movement of republican freethinkers, to whose adherents the name Illuminati was given, (but who called themselves "Perfectibilists'), was founded on May 1, 1776 by the ex-Jesuit Adam Weishaupt (d. 1830), professor of canon law at Ingolstadt. Its members, pledged to obedience to their superiors, were divided into three main classes; the first including , novices, minervals and lesser illuminati ; the second consisting of freemasons, ordinary, Scottish and Scottish knights ; the third or mystery class comprising two grades of priest and regent and of magus and king. Relations with masonic lodges were established at Munich and Freising in 1780. The order had its branches in most countries of the European continent, but its total numbers never seem to have exceeded two thousand. The scheme had its attraction for literary men, such as Goethe and Herder, and even for the reigning dukes of Gotha and Weimar. Internal rupture preceded its downfall, which was effected by an edict of the Bavarian government in 1785.
The Illuminati Order or Bavarian Illuminati was a short-lived revolutionary and rationalist secret organisation founded in Ingolstadt, Germany on May 1, 1776 by Adam Weishaupt and Baron Adolph von Knigge. The Illuminati drew membership chiefly from Masons and former Masons.
In the conservative state of Bavaria, dominated by the Roman Catholic Church and the aristocracy, such an organization could not go long before being suppressed by the powers that be. In 1784, the Bavarian government banned the Illuminati as well as the Freemasons.
Later, the title Illuminati was applied to the French Martinists, that had been founded in 1754 by Martinez Pasqualis, and to their imitators, the Russian Martinists, headed about 1790 by Professor Schwartz of Moscow; both were occultist cabalists and allegorists, absorbing eclectic ideas from Jakob Boehme and Emmanuel Swedenborg.
Despite the organization's short lifespan, the 'Bavarian' Illuminati have cast a long shadow in popular history, thanks to the writings of their opponents. The lurid allegations of conspiracy theory that have colored the image of the Freemasons have practically opaqued that of the Illuminati. In 1798, a Scottish Mason and professor of natural history named John Robison published Proofs of a Conspiracy Against all the Religions and Governments of Europe, in which he presented evidence of an Illuminati conspiracy. More recently, Antony C. Sutton suggested that the secret society Skull and Bones was founded as the American branch of the Illuminati. Robert Gillete has claimed that these Illuminati ultimately intend to rule the world through assassination, bribery, blackmail, the control of banks and other financial powers, the infiltration of governments, and by causing wars and revolution to move their own people into higher positions in the political hierarchy. Thomas Jefferson, on the other hand, claimed they intended to spread information and the principles of true morality. He attributed the secrecy of the Illuminati to what he called "the tyranny of a despot and priests".
Both seem to agree that the enemies of the Illuminati were the monarchs of Europe and the Church. Abbe Augustin Barruel said that the French revolution (1789) was caused by the Illuminati, and later conspiracy theorists also claims the Russian Revolution (1917) to be caused by the conspiracy, although the order was officially shut down in 1790. Very few historians give credence to these views, regarding such claims as the products of over-fertile imaginations.
This account relies in part on the Encyclopaedia Britannica'', 1911: "Illuminati".
The (historical) Illuminati have had several influences on popular culture, not all of them entirely serious:
Origins
Other References
Cultural Influences
There is also a snowboard maker called Illuminati Snowboards.
See also
External Links
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Illuminati."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Scholar | Noun: scholar, connoisseur, savant, pundit, schoolman, professor, graduate, wrangler; academician, academist; master of arts, doctor, licentitate, gownsman; philosopher, master of math; scientist, clerk; sophist, sophister; linguist; glossolinguist, philologist; philologer; lexicographer, glossographer; grammarian; litterateur, literati, dilettanti, illuminati, cogniscenti; fellow, Hebraist, lexicologist, mullah, munshi, Sanskritish; sinologist, sinologue; Mezzofanti, admirable Crichton, Mecaenas. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: ILLUMINATI |
| English words defined with "ILLUMINATI": Illuminee, Illuminism, Illuministic, Illuminize ♦ Perfectibilist. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
illuminati | 1,538 |
illuminati conspiracy | 81 |
illuminati new world order | 41 |
history illuminati | 18 |
bavarian illuminati | 15 |
illuminati symbol | 13 |
illuminati secret society | 12 |
illuminati order | 12 |
bloodlines illuminati | 9 |
bush illuminati | 8 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "ILLUMINATI"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Bulgarian | светли умове, велики умове, илюминати. (various references) | |
Greek | φωστήρες. (various references) | |
Hungarian | illuminátusok. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | illuminatiay.(various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "ILLUMINATI": illuminating, illuminatingly, illumination, illuminations, illuminative. (additional references) | |
Words containing "ILLUMINATI": transilluminating, transillumination, transilluminations, unilluminating. (additional references) | |
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"ILLUMINATI" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: alluminati, illumanatti, illuminari, illuminatic, illuminatri, illuminaty, illuminiti, illumminati. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "ILLUMINATI" (pronounced 'Il*lu`mi*na"ti'): Anti, Coati, Cognati, Confetti, Fasti, gomuti, Graffiti, Insabbatati, Oblati, Pediculati, Physoclisti, Piatti, Sakti, Saraswati, spaghetti, spermaceti, Taguicati, Trimurti, Tutti, Vaginati, Volti, Wagati, Zati. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-i-i-i-l-l-m-n-t-u" | |
-2 letters: illinium, minutial. | |
-3 letters: initial, intimal, liminal, luminal, militia, minutia, nautili. | |
-4 letters: allium, alumin, alumni, intima, limina, limuli, lumina, manitu, ultima. | |
-5 letters: animi, ilial, ilium, liman, limit, linum, litai, maill, matin, miaul, milia, mulla, unlit, until. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-i-i-i-l-l-m-n-t-u" | |
+2 letters: illuminating, illumination, illuminative. | |
+3 letters: humiliatingly, illuminations, pusillanimity. | |
+4 letters: illuminatingly, manipulability, multiplication, unilluminating. | |
+5 letters: aluminosilicate, multidivisional, multilingualism, multimillennial, multiplications, pusillanimities. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)49 4C 4C 55 4D 49 4E 41 54 49 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).. .-.. .-.. ..- -- .. -. .- - .. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001001 01001100 01001100 01010101 01001101 01001001 01001110 01000001 01010100 01001001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)I L L U M I N A T I |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0049 004C 004C 0055 004D 0049 004E 0041 0054 0049 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)43464655474348355443 |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Expressions: Internet | 5. Translations: Modern 6. Derivations 7. Rhymes 8. Anagrams | 9. Orthography 10. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
