Causes of the French Revolution

J.J.C Bode, Philalethes and Other Causes of the French Revolution

This article constitutes the first part of my review of Terry Melanson's thorough and fascinating book titled, Perfectibilists - The 18th Century Bavarian Order of the Illuminati. Terry runs the Conspiracy Archive, and he is an excellent researcher. Once this series is over and I'm finished reading his book, I'll also be talking to Terry and publishing a final interview, so please follow along with this fascinating series in our Illuminati section.
Terry makes the first real hard-hitting revelation in the book in Chapter 2, which covers the French Revolution and the workings of the Illuminati leaders of the time. Keep in mind that the Illuminati were a secret society that had migrated from Bavaria to France during the Enlightenment, and being prosecuted after Weishaupt's banishment.
This isn't the Illuminati of strange and outrageous conspiracy theories that you may read about online today, but a real, active secret society well documented by historians through member journals and documents throughout the period of the French Revolution.
Prior to the 1990s, there was speculation among many Illuminati researchers that J.J.C Bode had gone to Paris in 1787 to motivate the Masons toward the revolution. Terry writes about the November 1995 interview with Mason and Historian Professor Charles Porset of the National Scientific Research Center where he states that in Barruel's book Memoires pour servir a l'histoire du Jacobinsime, Barruel admits that German Illuminati J.J.C. Bode had gone to France to meet with the Secret Society known as the Philalethes. Porset stated:

"However, the [Bodes] journal has now been published [in 1994] by a German scholar, Hermann Schuttler, and it confirms in all respects the idea put forward by Rossberg of collusion between the Illuminati and the Philalethes..."

Porset points out that in a letter to Chataigner, a member of the Philalethes by the name of Montmorency-Luxembourg who escaped to England when the Revolution started, blamed the Philalethes for "revolutionary disturbances."
Terry points out the explosive nature of this material against Masonic debunkers that have stated for years that it wasn't true that the Illuminati triggered helped fuel the french revolution. Terry states the situation as follows:

"It's been well over a decade since the diary was published, but it hardly surprises me that it has seemingly been kept under wraps. Masonic websites haven't exactly been keep to correct their much lauded, official debunking webpages, either. For Illuminati "conspiracy theorists," though - whose foundation is the writings of Barruel, Robison, and Nesta Webster - this is tantamount to discovering the Holy Grail. Confirmation by modern scholars of the conspiracy plot of 1789, replete with Illuminati infiltration of key high-ranking members of French Freemasonry, is pure gold!"

I have to agree that the Bode journal is amazing evidence that is nothing short of pure gold.

Bode's Activities in Paris

The revealing Bode journal, finally published in 1994, reveal that Bode was in France to dissuade Masonic groups there of practicing what were termed the "secret sciences" and occult research. Bode's effort was to persuade the men within these societies to return to "healthy ideas of pure reason."
His journal also reveals the following:

• -->Bode and Philalethes leaders developed methods for the Illuminati to operate in France.
• -->Communications were marked with a cross to dissuade censors from opening the letters out of religious reverence.
• -->Letters would use standard Masonic cipher.
• -->The group, would use the name "Philalethes" rather than the "Illuminati."
• -->Bode revealed that Daubermesnil, Jean-Baptiste Le Sage, Taillepied de Bondy and Alexandre-Louis Roettiers de Montaleau had all joined the Illuminati.
• -->All four men promised Bode, "...to seize this opportunity for the good of mankind. Amen!"

In his book, Terry goes on to list the many documented French Masons and others that were members of the new Illuminati-Philalethes. Bode's journal is a powerful evidence of the influence and fuel that the Illuminati fed to the populace and the French "Enlightenment" leading up to the storming of the Bastille, and ultimately feed the fire that only added to the existing list of causes of the French Revolution itself.

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