not the noble and elect remained in the background ... new depravity would have broken out in the human race, and through Regents, Priests, and Freemasons Reason would have been banished from the earth."
In Weishaupt's masonic system, therefore, the designs of the Order with regard to religion are not confided to the mere Freemasons, but only to the Illuminati. Under the heading of "Higher Mysteries" Weishaupt writes:
The man who is good for nothing better remains a Scottish Knight. If he is, however, a particularly industrious co-ordinator [*Sammler*], observer, worker, he becomes a Priest.... If there are amongst these [Priests] high speculative intellects, they become Magi. These collect and put in order the higher philosophical system and work at the People's Religion, which the Order will next give to the world. Should these high geniuses also be fit to rule the world, they become Regents. This is the last degree.<sup></sup>
Philo (the Baron von Knigge) also throws an interesting light on the religious designs of the