With the historical background that we have given in the past few bulletins, we have finally come to the central issue facing us. It is this: Who or what organization was actually behind the French Revolution of 1789-1793? It is necessary to answer this question in order to explain the statement in Rev. 13:12, where the second beast causes men to worship its predecessor, the first beast (i.e., the Roman Church). A related question is this: WHY did the second beast defer to the first beast? Were they in some way two forms of the same beast?

There is no question that the Revolution was fomented by secret societies that were well funded. The Masonic Order has always laid claim to the Revolution, but they needed funding for such a grandiose project. Who funded them? It is also well known that the Masonic Order had been infiltrated by another organization called the Illuminati, which actually directed the Revolution. Who were they?

Because the Roman Church appeared to have the most to lose, few suspect that the Revolution was inspired or funded by the Vatican. But the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773 provide us with a key motive. The Jesuits were angry with the Pope, and the Pope was angry at France for forcing his hand.

The Illuminati

The Illuminati was founded on May 1, 1776 by a Jesuit-trained professor of canon law named Adam Weishaupt. He became a Freemason shortly afterward in 1777. On July 16, 1782, at the Congress of Willhelmsbad, where representatives of all the secret societies were represented, “the alliance between Illuminism and Freemasonry was finally sealed” (Nesta Webster, World Revolution, p. 31). How Weishaupt’s plans were discovered in 1785 is told by Nesta Webster in her book, Secret Societies and Subversive Movements, p. 235,

“An evangelist preacher and Illuminatus named Lanze had been sent in July 1785 as an emissary of the Illuminati in Silesia, but on his journey he was struck down by lightning. The instructions of the Order were found on him, and as a result its intrigues were conclusively revealed to the Government of Bavaria. A searching enquiry followed, the houses of Zwack and Bassus were raided, and it was then that the documents and other incriminating evidence . . . were seized and made public under the name of The Original Writings of the Order of the Illuminati (1787).”

The Order was officially suppressed, but merely went underground. The French Revolution continued as planned a few years later.

According to Pawns in the Game, by Canadian Naval Commander William Guy Carr, Weishaupt was funded by Moses Mendelssohn, a very wealthy Jewish banker in his acquaintance. There seems to be no doubt the Jewish bankers would have benefited from the overthrow of the Church in France—as well as giving them financial control over Freemasonry in Europe. However, they usually contented themselves with remaining in the background and simply helping the enemies of their great rival power, the Roman Church.

I had written in my 1997 book on The Seven Churches that the Revolution was funded by Mayer Amschel Bauer, who adopted the family name of “Rothschild.” Historians have made the claim that it was Rothschild who gathered a dozen Jewish bankers and businessmen in 1776 to organize the Illuminati, but none of them backed up their statements with actual evidence. So I took a closer look at this question.

First of all, Carr tells us that Mayer Amschel Bauer was a poor man at first. On page 25 he says,

“A few years after his father’s death, Amschel Mayer Bauer was employed by the Oppenheimer Bank as a clerk.”

This tells us that the Rothschild family did not inherit any wealth from previous generations. The Oppenheimers, on the other hand, were already wealthy bankers, along with Moses Mendelssohn and others.

In the two biographical volumes, The House of Rothschild, by Niall Ferguson, I found that the Rothschilds did not have much wealth in the 1770’s. Their wealth came primarily after Mayer Amschel developed a relationship with Prince William IX of Landgrave, after he came to the throne in 1785—the year Weishaupt was exposed and nine years after the IIlluminati was founded (1776). Niall Ferguson writes in Vol. I, p. 61,

“The truth was that, despite his efforts to gain a foothold at William’s court while he was still residing in Hanau, Mayer Amschel was still to all intents and purposes a nobody when the new Landgrave moved north to Kassel on his father’s death in 1785.”

We also learn that Mayer Amschel’s financial rise came after he met Karl Friedrich Buderus, who had moved to Kassel in 1792. Buderus had gotten his start by tutoring William’s illegitimate children. In Vol. 1, p. 62 we read,

“The first sign of tacit co-operation between Buderus and Rothschild came in 1794 when the former explicitly recommended that Mayer Amschel be allowed to join five established firms in bidding for the sale of 15,000 of English bills. Evidently, his recommendation was ignored, but Buderus tried again in 1796 and this time succeeded.”

Ferguson again says on p. 45,

“However, the speed with which Mayer Amschel’s wealth grew in the 1790s marked a real break with his earlier business activity. At the beginning of the 1790s Mayer Amschel Rothschild was no more than a prosperous antique-dealer. By 1797 he was one of the richest Jews in Frankfurt, and a central part of his business was unmistakably banking. The evidence for this breakthrough is unequivocal. In 1795 the official figure for Mayer Amschel’s taxable wealth was doubled to 4,000 gulden; a year later he was moved into the top tax bracket, with property worth more than 15,000 gulden; and in the same year he was listed as the tenth richest man in the Judengasse with taxable wealth of over 60,000 gulden. Thanks largely to Mayer Amschel, the Rothschilds had become one of the eleven richest families in the Judengasse by 1800.”

Mayer Amschel had been a moderately successful antique coin dealer and small-time stock broker, but had nowhere near the wealth of his contemporary Jewish bankers in the 1770’s. And so, while the Rothschilds ultimately rose to positions of world power, it is very unlikely that they played any significant role in the French Revolution of 1789. And it is more unlikely that he helped organize Adam Weishaupt and his Illuminati in 1776.

Besides Moses Mendelssohn, Weishaupt associated with other Jewish bankers. Nesta Webster says on p. 228 of her book, Secret Societies and Subversive Movements,

“It has frequently been suggested that his real inspirers were Jews, and the Jewish writer Bernard Lazare definitely states that ‘there were Jews, Cabalistic Jews, around Weishaupt.’ A writer in La Vieille France went so far as to designate these Jews as Moses Mendelssohn, Wessely, and the bankers Itzig, Friedlander, and Meyer. But no documentary evidence has ever been produced in support of these statements.”

Webster does not even list Rothschild among the known associates of Weishaupt. She writes on p. 230,

“Whether, then Weishaupt was directly inspired by Mendelssohn or any other Jew must remain for the present an open question. But the Jewish connexions of certain other Illuminati cannot be disputed. The most important of these was Mirabeau, who arrived in Berlin just after the death of Mendelssohn and was welcomed by his disciples in the Jewish salon of Henrietta Herz. It was these Jews, ‘ardent supporters of the French Revolution’ at its outset, who prevailed on Mirabeau to write his great apology for their race under the form of a panegyric of Mendelssohn.”

The Jewish Encyclopedia’s article on Freemasonry says, “Jews have been most conspicuous in connexion with Freemasonry in France since the Revolution.” Anyone who has studied Albert Pike’s Morals and Dogma can see plainly that the upper degrees of the Scottish Rite (from the 26^th to the 32^nd degree) teach directly out of the Cabbala, the mystical Jewish writings. In other words the plain goal of Masonry is to Judaize non-Jews.

Frederick the Great of Prussia

Another major player in the conspiracy was King Frederick II (“The Great”) of Prussia. It was in his interest to disrupt France as much as possible, since France and Prussia were always disputing over territory. Frederick particularly wanted to break the alliance between France and Austria. Frederick ruled Prussia from 1740 to 1786. Though he died before the French Revolution took place, it was during his reign and under his protection that Weishaupt formed the Illuminati.

Frederick was initiated into Freemasonry in 1738 at Brunswick. By 1740 he was presiding over the lodge in Charlottenburg. There is no doubt that he was soon the head of Freemasonry in Prussia, even as the English king was the head of that Order in England. The Duc d’ Orleans was the head of the Grand Orient Lodge of France.

It is evident that European royalty moved quickly in the 1700’s to place themselves at the head of Masonry in their respective nations in order to use its power in their favor and prevent it from being subversive to their own position. The exception was in France, where the chief rival to the throne, Louis Philippe Joseph, Duc d’ Orleans, was the head of the Grand Orient Lodge of France. He was used by higher powers to legitimize the execution of his relative, King Louis XVI, on Jan. 21, 1793. Then those same higher powers had the Duc executed later in the same year.

The Jesuit Factor

When the Jesuits were suppressed in 1773, it did not mean that the Jesuits ceased to exist. As an Order they formally ceased, but it merely drove them underground. Those men who had been Jesuits remained organized, though they were now technically ex-Jesuits. The Pope who suppressed them did so unwillingly, for he himself had been trained by the Jesuits, as the Catholic Encyclopedia tells us under “Pope Clement XIV,”

“. . . he had received his education from the Jesuits of Rimini and the Piarists of Urbino. . . Clement XIII gave him the cardinal’s hat (1759), at the instance, it is said, of Father Ricci, the General of the Jesuits.

“He loved the Jesuits, who had been his first teachers, his trusty advisors, the best defenders of the Church over which he ruled. No personal animosity guided his action; the Jesuits themselves, in agreement with all serious historians, attribute their suppression to Clement’s weakness of character, unskilled diplomacy, and that kind of goodness of heart which is more bent on doing what is pleasing than what is right.”

Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Jesuits, not with a Papal “Bull,” but rather with a legal “Brief.” This shows the reluctance of the Pope to suppress the Order. The Catholic Encyclopedia explains this, saying,

“It should be noted that the Brief was not promulgated in the form customary for papal Constitutions intended as laws of the Church. It was not a Bull, but a Brief, i.e., a decree of less binding force and easier of revocation. . .”

Even so, this Pope died Sept. 22, 1774, on the one-year anniversary of the Jesuit General’s arrest. The official report said he died of “scorbutic and hemorrhoidal dispositions of long standing.” Yet, the article continues,

“Notwithstanding the doctors’ certificate, the ‘Spanish party’ and historical romancers attributed death to poison administered by the Jesuits.”

Eyewitness reports said that his lips immediately turned black, his limbs covered with violet spots, his hair stuck to the pillow, his skin detached and stuck to the clothing, and no perfume could remove the stench that pervaded the room. These symptoms apparently meant nothing.

The forced suppression of the Jesuits in 1773 had a profound impact upon the Roman Church. It represented a major defeat, they felt, by monarchs influenced by the Masonic Order. The Church had long fought with the Masonic Order, and in 1773 the Church lost its most important battle ever. Their army of Jesuits were gone. More significantly, however, the army of EX-Jesuits now had to do something to survive as an underground Order. As we will see, by allying with Freemasonry, they were able also to exact their revenge upon the Roman Church.

Frederick and the Jesuits

Frederick the Great of Prussia, as we have said, was a Freemason. When the Jesuits were suppressed, he and Catherine of Russia provided safe haven for the Jesuits. The Catholic Encyclopedia says in the article above,

“Two non-Catholic sovereigns, Frederick of Prussia and Catherine of Russia, took the Jesuits under their protection. Whatever may have been their motives… their intervention kept the order alive until its complete restoration in 1804 [actually, 1814]… The Jesuits retained possession of all their colleges and of the University of Breslau until 1806 and 1811, but they ranked as secular priests and admitted no more novices. But Catherine II resisted to the end. By her order the bishops of White Russia ignored the Brief of suppression and commanded the Jesuits to continue to live in communities and go on with their usual work. Clement XIV seems to have approved of their conduct.

“Frederick, by preserving the Jesuits in his dominions, rendered the Church a good, though perhaps unintended, service. He also authorized the erection of a Catholic church in Berlin.”

This was the situation when Weishaupt, established the Illuminati in 1776. I believe that Adam Weishaupt was a secret Jesuit under the protection of Frederick II of Prussia as arranged by Jesuit General Ricci. R. W. Thompson’s The Papacy and the Civil Power (1876), p. 101 says,

“Besides his [Ricci’s] confession that he had been in secret correspondence with the Prussian monarch, the other evidence of his guilt were so convincing that his imprisonment lasted until 1775, when he was relieved from it only by death.”

Here is evidence that General Ricci made an alliance with the Mason, Frederick of Prussia, to protect Weishaupt and help him infiltrate Freemasonry. It is unlikely that many other Jesuits knew of Weishaupt’s mission.

Frederick of Prussia benefited by disrupting France, which was his enemy. The Jesuits and the Vatican benefited by punishing the French King for his role in forcing the suppression of the Jesuits. They also poisoned the Pope and later led the French revolutionists to confiscate all Church property in France and execute 30,000 Roman priests. Such is the Jesuit revenge.

The Jewish bankers, who helped to finance the effort, found it in their interest to weaken both the monarchs and the Church in order to enhance their own power and influence. The Freemasons themselves were attracted to the plot because they too wanted to destroy the power of the Church and the Monarchs.

Nesta Webster discounts the idea that Weishaupt was acting for the Jesuits, citing his expressions of contempt for the Church and his actions that appeared to oppose the Jesuits. She writes on p. 197 of Secret Societies,

“How did these Oriental methods penetrate to the Bavarian professor? According to certain writers, through the Jesuits. The fact that Weishaupt had been brought up by this Order has provided the enemies of the Jesuits with the argument that they were the secret inspirers of the Illuminati. . . . In reality precisely the opposite was the case, for, as we shall see, it was Weishaupt who perpetually intrigued against the Jesuits. That Weishaupt did, however, draw to a certain extent on Jesuit methods of training is recognized even by Barruel, himself a Jesuit, who, quoting Mirabeau, says that Weishaupt ‘admired above all those laws, that regime of the Jesuits, which under one head, made men dispersed over the universe tend towards the same goal; he felt that one could imitate their methods whilst holding views diametrically opposed.”

Mrs. Webster did an admirable job in studying secret societies, but seems less aware of the capabilities of the Jesuits and their tactics. She should have studied the Jesuits more carefully. The Jesuits were very adept at infiltrating organizations, even Protestant and Masonic organizations. To do this, they had to immerse themselves in the “culture” of their rivals to learn to think like them. “Enculturation” was their primary tool for infiltration.

The fact that Weishaupt was so successful in his Masonic enculturation does not prove that he was anti-Jesuit. In fact, it could prove the very opposite.

Perhaps the most revealing evidence of Weishaupt’s Jesuit connection is found in the Catholic Encyclopedia itself under the heading of “Illuminati.” There we learn that this very man who continually expressed utter contempt and hatred for the Church, died in 1830 as a reconciled Roman Catholic!! It reads:

“As early as 16 February 1785, Weishaupt had fled from Ingolstadt, and in 1787 he settled at Gotha . . . After 1787 he renounced all active connexion with secret societies, and again drew near to the Church, displaying remarkable zeal in the building of the Catholic church at Gotha. He died on 18 November 1830, ‘reconciled with the Catholic Church, which as a youthful professor, he had doomed to death and destruction’—as the chronicle of the Catholic parish in Gotha relates.” http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/

When the Illuminati Order was suppressed officially, Adam Weishaupt’s exposure ended his primary usefulness. But the French Revolution continued as planned. And then later—no doubt after 1814 when the Jesuits themselves were reconciled to the Roman Church—Adam Weishaupt himself was reconciled to the Church and even built a Catholic Church at Gotha!

Weishaupt remained an anti-Catholic Jesuit until the Jesuit Order was revived in 1814. The Roman Church, the Jesuits, and three of the monarchs then reconciled their differences. The monarchs of Prussia, Russia, and Austria (and the Roman Pontiff) formed “The Holy Alliance” on Sept. 26, 1815 against republican government and work toward establishing the Pontiff as sovereign. This date, then, constitutes the formal establishment of the second beast, which caused all men to worship the first beast.