The society’s goals were to oppose superstition, obscurantism, religious influence in public life, and abuses of state power. “The order of the day,” they wrote in their general statutes, “is to put an end to the machinations of the purveyors of injustice, to control them without dominating them.”[1] The Illuminati, along with Freemasonry and other secret societies, were outlawed by decree of the Bavarian ruler Charles Theodore, encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church in 1784, 1785, 1787, and 1790.

In the years that followed, the group was vilified by conservative and religious critics who claimed that it continued to live underground and was responsible for the French Revolution.

Many leading liberal thinkers and politicians, including Ferdinand of Brunswick and the diplomat Xavier von Zwack, who was the Order’s second-in-command, were members.[3] The reigning dukes of Gotha and Weimar, as well as literary greats such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Gottfried Herder, were drawn to it.
In later usage, the term “Illuminati” is used to refer to various groups that claim or pretend to have ties to the original Bavarian Illuminati or other similar secret organizations; however, these ties are unsubstantiated. In order to gain political power and influence and create a new world order, they are frequently accused of plotting to control world affairs by planning events and placing agents within major corporations and government.

The Illuminati have been depicted as lurking in the shadows and controlling the levers of power in dozens of books, films, television series, comic books, video games, and music videos. They are at the heart of some of the most well-known and complex conspiracy theories.