Illuminati

(il-loo-min-ah'te.) [L., the enlightened.] (Hist.) The title a umed by the members of a secret society formed at Ingolstadt, Bavaria, in 1776. The profe ed object of its establishment was the attainment of a higher degree of virtue and morality than was found in ordinary communities. Its founder, one Weishaupt, sent emi aries, under the name of Areopagists, throughout Europe to gain adherents, but they were suppre ed by the Bavarian govt. in 1784.(Eccl. Hist.) Among the early Christians, I. signified persons who had received baptism; they derived their title from their practice of carrying a lighted taper at the ceremony, as symbolical of the sacrament they had received. [s. 478]