ing function of the order was in their hands, subject only to the ultimate authority of their supreme heads.[1]
Knigge's statutes provided that only a very small number of members were to be admitted to the grade of Prince.[2] From this group the highest functionaries of the order were to be drawn: National Inspectors, Provincials,[3] Prefects, and Deans of the Priests. Over them, in turn, at the apex of the system and as sovereign heads of the order, ruled the Areopagites.[4]
So much for the external structure of the system which Knigge reshaped. With respect to the aims and principles of the order the modifications introduced by him were considerable, although scarcely as comprehensive as in the former case.[5] In certain instances the ideas of Weishaupt were
- ↑ "Comme toutes les demandes de renseignements leur étaient transmises, ils devaient s'efforcer de satisfaire leurs gens et d'établir des théories solidement construites en faisant étudier et élucider par leurs subordonnés les points restés obscurs." (Ibid., p. 288.) Free entrée to all the assemblies of the inferior grades of the order was accorded the Priests, but only in the ceremony of reception into the grade of Scottish Knight did they appear in costume. On other occasions they were not obliged to make their official character known.
- ↑ The prefectures were grouped together into provinces, of which there seem to have been twelve, to each of which, as to the prefectures and their capitals, pseudonymous names were given. For the geographical divisions of the Illuminati system, cf. Forestier, pp. 295 et seq.
- ↑ The title of Regent was also used in this connection.
- ↑ Provincials, as the term suggests, had control over the various provinces.
- ↑ An important modification in the government of the order was made by Knigge with respect to its general form. Knigge found the order a despotism, and this he regarded as a fundamental weakness and error. The Areopagites, who chafed excessively under Weishaupt's immoderate zeal to command, and between whom and their leader constant and perilous divisions arose, eagerly sided with Knigge in his efforts to distribute authority. At the latter's suggestion a congress was called at Munich, in October, 1760, at which the position and authority of the Areopagites were definitively settled. The territory, present and
