The Illuminati (plural of Latin illuminatus "enlightened") is a name given to several groups both real and fictitious. Historically the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on 1 May 1776. The society's goals were to oppose superstition obscurantism religious influence over 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 through edict by the Bavarian ruler Charles Theodore with the encouragement of the Roman Catholic Church in 1784 1785 1787 and 1790.[2] In the several years following the group was vilified by conservative and religious critics who claimed that they continued underground and were responsible for the French Revolution.

Many influential intellectuals and progressive politicians counted themselves as members including Ferdinand of Brunswick and the diplomat Xavier von Zwack who was the Order's second-in-command.[3] It attracted literary men such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Gottfried Herder and the reigning dukes of Gotha and Weimar.[4]