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 May 1, 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." 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. 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.