# Secret societies and influential orders The orders and societies that shaped the world from the shadows and the salons: the Knights Templar, the Jesuits, the Bavarian Illuminati, the OTO, and the modern fraternities. The documented history, with conspiracy myth flagged as myth. *This story part of: State, law, and coercion* *The pillars of modern power part of this story* *Cecil Rhodes and the dream of empire parallel this story* *Ordo ab chao: order out of chaos and the Scottish Rite parallel this story* *Religion and ideology parallel this story* ## 1118 — Founding of the Knights Templar Nine Knights Crusaders including Geoffroi de Saint-Omer and Hugues de Payens consecrate themselves and take oath before Patriarch of Constantinople to protect Christians visiting Holy Places and secretly rebuild Temple of Solomon > "In 1118, nine Knights Crusaders in the East, among whom were Geoffroi de Saint-Omer and Hugues de Payens, consecrated themselves to religion, and took an oath between the hands of the Patriarch of Constantinople" > — Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, p. 1051-1056 ## 1119 — Founding of the Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon were founded around 1119 to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land. They are relevant to Freemasonry only through a later legend, not through any real historical link. ## January 1129 — Council of Troyes Endorses the Templars A church council formally recognized the Knights Templar and approved a written rule for the order. The Latin Rule set out how the warrior monks were to live. ## c. 1130 to c. 1136 — In Praise of the New Knighthood Bernard of Clairvaux wrote a treatise praising the Templars and defending the idea of monks who fought. The work helped the order gain prestige and recruits across Europe. ## 29 March 1139 — Papal Bull Omne Datum Optimum Pope Innocent II issued a bull placing the Templars directly under papal authority and exempting them from local taxes and bishops. The privileges let the order operate freely across kingdoms. ## c. 1140 to c. 1291 — Templar Castles and Fortifications The order built and garrisoned major castles that anchored Crusader defenses, including strongholds in the Levant and on the Iberian frontier. These fortresses were centers of military and economic power. ## c. 1150 to c. 1300 — Templar Banking Network The Templars built an early banking system, letting pilgrims deposit money in one country and withdraw it in another. They lent to kings and nobles and managed large estates and treasuries. ## 4 July 1187 — Templar Losses at the Battle of Hattin Saladin's forces crushed the Crusader army, and many captured Templars were executed. The defeat led to the loss of Jerusalem and weakened the Crusader states. ## 18 May 1291 — Fall of Acre Mamluk forces captured Acre, the last major Crusader city in the Holy Land. The Templars lost their main base in the East and relocated their headquarters to Cyprus. ## 13 October 1307 — Arrest of the Knights Templar On Friday 13 October, King Philip IV ordered the sudden arrest of Templars across France on charges of heresy and blasphemy. Many were tortured into confessions that were later retracted. > "Pope Clement V. and King Philip le Bel gave the signal to Europe, and the Templars, taken as it were in an immense net, were arrested, disarmed, and cast into prison." > — Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, p. 1057-1062 ## 22 March 1312 — Suppression of the Knights Templar Pope Clement V dissolves the Templar order under pressure from King Philip IV of France, who owed the order large sums and had arrested its members in 1307. The suppression destroys medieval Europe's leading financial institution. ## 18 March 1314 — Burning of Jacques de Molay Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master, was burned at the stake after retracting his forced confession. His execution marked the definitive end of the medieval Templar order. ## c. 1314 — The Templar Survival Legend Later stories claimed that surviving Templars fled with hidden treasure or secret knowledge and carried the order on in secret. Historians regard these survival tales as legend, not documented history, since the order was suppressed in 1312. ## 20 May 1521 — Ignatius of Loyola Wounded at Pamplona A cannonball shattered the leg of the soldier Inigo Lopez de Loyola during the siege of Pamplona. His long recovery and religious reading led to a conversion that shaped the future Society of Jesus. ## c. 1522 to c. 1524 — The Spiritual Exercises Ignatius of Loyola developed a structured program of prayer and meditation known as the Spiritual Exercises. It became the core method of Jesuit spiritual training and was printed in 1548. ## 27 September 1540 — Founding of the Society of Jesus Pope Paul III approved the Society of Jesus with the bull Regimini militantis Ecclesiae. Ignatius of Loyola and his companions formed a disciplined order devoted to teaching, missions, and service to the papacy. ## 6 May 1542 to 1552 — Francis Xavier's Missions in Asia Francis Xavier, one of the first Jesuits, carried missions to Goa, the Malay Archipelago, and Japan. His travels made the Jesuits a leading force in Catholic missionary work across Asia. ## c. 1548 to c. 1600 — Jesuit Colleges and Education Starting with a college at Messina in 1548, the Jesuits built a wide network of schools and universities. Their standardized curriculum made them one of the most influential teaching orders in Europe. ## 1583 to 1610 — Matteo Ricci's Mission in China Matteo Ricci entered mainland China and worked to present Christianity in terms Chinese scholars could accept. He introduced European science and mapmaking and gained access to the imperial court. ## c. 1600 to c. 1900 — The Anti-Jesuit Conspiracy Tradition For centuries the Jesuits were the target of conspiracy claims that cast them as secret plotters behind wars and revolutions. Historians document this tradition as a recurring phenomenon of suspicion rather than as fact. ## 1609 to 1768 — The Paraguay Reductions Jesuits organized self-governing mission towns, called reductions, among the Guarani people in what is now Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil. The settlements combined religious life with farming and crafts until the Jesuits were expelled. ## 1614 — The Monita Secreta Forgery A book called the Monita Secreta claimed to reveal secret Jesuit instructions for gaining wealth and power. It was a forgery, written by a disgruntled former Jesuit, and became a staple of anti-Jesuit propaganda. ## 1614 to 1617 — The Rosicrucian Manifestos Anonymous pamphlets announced a hidden brotherhood, the Rosicrucians, devoted to secret wisdom and reform. No such organization was ever proven to exist at the time, but the texts inspired later esoteric orders. ## c. 1645 to c. 1742 — The Chinese Rites Controversy A long dispute questioned whether Chinese converts could keep traditional rites honoring ancestors and Confucius. Rome eventually ruled against the Jesuit approach, which set back the China mission. ## c. 1737 — Claims of Masonic Descent from the Templars From the 1700s some Masonic writers claimed Freemasonry descended from the medieval Templars, a story popularized in the Chevalier Ramsay's oration and later degrees. There is no historical evidence linking the two, and scholars treat the connection as invented myth. ## 21 July 1773 — Suppression of the Society of Jesus Under pressure from Catholic monarchies, Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Society of Jesus with the brief Dominus ac Redemptor. The order was dissolved across most of the Catholic world for four decades. ## 1 May 1776 — Adam Weishaupt Founds the Bavarian Illuminati Adam Weishaupt, a law professor, founded the Order of the Illuminati as a secret society promoting reason, secular ideas, and reform. It began with a handful of students and drew on Enlightenment thinking. ## c. 1776 to c. 1785 — Enlightenment Aims of the Illuminati The Illuminati sought to spread rationalism, oppose superstition and clerical control, and place educated reformers in positions of influence. Members advanced through graded degrees modeled partly on Freemasonry. ## c. 1780 to c. 1784 — Illuminati Infiltration of Masonic Lodges Under Adolph Knigge, the order recruited within Masonic lodges to expand its membership and reach. This strategy briefly grew the Illuminati to perhaps a few thousand members across Central Europe. ## 1784 to 1785 — Bavarian Government Bans the Illuminati Duke Karl Theodor of Bavaria issued edicts banning secret societies, and the Illuminati were suppressed by 1785. Seized documents were published, and leaders were dismissed or exiled. ## c. 1785 — The Historical Illuminati Disbanded By the mid-1780s the original Bavarian Illuminati had ceased to function as an organization. Modern claims of a continuous, world-controlling Illuminati are conspiracy theory, with no documented link to Weishaupt's defunct order. ## 1797 to 1798 — Barruel and Robison Launch the Illuminati Myth Augustin Barruel and John Robison published books blaming the French Revolution on a secret plot by Illuminati and Freemasons. Their claims were not supported by evidence but seeded the enduring modern conspiracy theory. ## c. 1800 to c. 1831 — The Carbonari The Carbonari were secret revolutionary societies that pushed for constitutional government and Italian unification. They organized uprisings against foreign and absolutist rule in the early nineteenth century. > "that has been the central function of schools since John Cotton announced it as the purpose of the Bay Colony schools in 1650 and Horace Mann announced it as the purpose of Massachusetts schools in 1850" > — Dumbing Us Down, p. 69-76 ## 7 August 1814 — Restoration of the Society of Jesus Pope Pius VII restored the Society of Jesus worldwide with the bull Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum. The order resumed its work in education and missions. ## c. 1826 — Freemason World Domination Myth Claims that Freemasons secretly control governments and finance recur from the anti-Masonic movement of the 1800s to the present. Freemasonry is a real fraternal order, but the idea of a Masonic plot to rule the world is unproven conspiracy theory. ## 1832 — Founding of Skull and Bones at Yale Skull and Bones was founded as a senior secret society at Yale University. Its small membership and secrecy, along with alumni who reached high office, made it a lasting subject of public fascination. ## c. December 1865 — Founding of the Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan was founded by former Confederates as a secret order that used terror and violence against freed Black Americans and their allies. It functioned as a racist terrorist organization during Reconstruction. ## 1872 — Founding of the Bohemian Club The Bohemian Club was founded as a private club for journalists, artists, and later business and political leaders. It became known for its exclusivity and its summer retreat at Bohemian Grove. ## 17 November 1875 — The Theosophical Society Helena Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott founded the Theosophical Society to study comparative religion, philosophy, and unexplained forces. Its teachings influenced later occult and New Age movements. ## c. 1878 — Bohemian Grove Summer Encampments The Bohemian Club began holding summer gatherings at a redwood grove north of San Francisco. The private retreats for powerful men fueled both social prestige and outside conspiracy speculation. ## 1885 to 1897 — The Taxil hoax Leo Taxil spent years spreading lurid fabrications about satanic masonic rituals, which anti-masonic and church audiences believed. In 1897 he publicly confessed the whole affair was a hoax invented to mock his critics. ## 1888 — Founding of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Westcott, Mathers, and Woodman founded the Golden Dawn, whose teachings placed the Kabbalistic Tree of Life at the center of a system of ritual magic. It became the most influential organization in modern Western esotericism. ## c. 1900 to c. 1903 — Golden Dawn Schisms and Decline Internal disputes, including a revolt against Mathers and a clash involving Aleister Crowley, split the Golden Dawn into rival offshoots. The original order fragmented within about fifteen years of its founding. ## c. 1902 to c. 1906 — Founding of the Ordo Templi Orientis Carl Kellner and Theodor Reuss organized the Ordo Templi Orientis, a fraternal and initiatory order drawing on Masonic and esoteric traditions. It taught a system of graded degrees and secret teachings. ## 1903 — The Protocols of the Elders of Zion Forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a proven antisemitic forgery that falsely claims to record a Jewish plot for world domination. It was fabricated in Russia and has been used ever since to incite hatred and violence against Jews. ## 23 February 1905 — Founding of Rotary International Attorney Paul Harris gathers three business acquaintances in a Chicago office, founding the first Rotary Club. The service club movement spread worldwide and later led the global campaign to eradicate polio. ## 1907 — Aleister Crowley Founds the A∴A∴ After leaving the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley founded his own magical order, the A∴A∴, to teach his system of spiritual attainment. It became a vehicle for his religious philosophy of Thelema. ## c. 1912 to c. 1925 — Crowley Reshapes the Ordo Templi Orientis Aleister Crowley joined the OTO and rewrote its rituals around his religion of Thelema, later becoming its head. Under him the order became the main organizational carrier of Thelemic teaching. ## November 1915 — The Second Ku Klux Klan Revival A revived Ku Klux Klan was launched, expanding its targets to include Catholics, Jews, and immigrants alongside Black Americans. This second Klan grew into a mass movement in the 1920s before collapsing. ## c. 1915 to c. 1920 — Rise of Service Clubs Groups such as Kiwanis and Lions Clubs joined Rotary in building networks of business people organized around charity and civic projects. They spread the service club model across many countries. ## 17 August 1918 — Founding of the Thule Society The Thule Society was a German occult and nationalist study group centered on Germanic mysticism and antisemitism. It mixed esoteric interests with far-right politics in postwar Bavaria. *Source: Die Thule-Gesellschaft* ## 1919 to 1920 — Thule Society and Early Nazi Circles Members and contacts of the Thule Society helped fund and shape the German Workers' Party, which became the Nazi Party. The link is documented, though claims of deeper occult control over Nazism are exaggerated. *Source: Die Thule-Gesellschaft* ## August 1921 — The Protocols Exposed as a Forgery The Times of London demonstrated that the Protocols were plagiarized from earlier satirical writings and were a forgery. Despite repeated exposure, the fabricated text continued to circulate among antisemitic movements. ## 2 October 1928 — Founding of Opus Dei Josemaria Escriva founded Opus Dei, a Catholic organization teaching that ordinary work and daily life can be a path to holiness. It later became a personal prelature and drew both influence and controversy. ## 29 May 1954 — Founding of the Bilderberg Meeting The first Bilderberg meeting gathered Western political and business leaders for private, off-the-record discussion on transatlantic issues. The secrecy of the annual meetings later made them a frequent target of conspiracy theories. ## c. 1975 — Modern Illuminati Pop Culture Myth Books, games, and later the internet turned the long defunct Illuminati into a catch-all symbol of hidden control over world events. This modern myth has no connection to the real eighteenth-century order, which was suppressed in the 1780s. ## c. 1990 — The New World Order Conspiracy Framing The phrase New World Order became the label for a conspiracy theory claiming a secret elite is plotting a single global government. There is no evidence for the plot, and the framing recycles older secret society and antisemitic myths. ## c. 1998 — Global Cabal and Reptilian Myths Some conspiracy theories claim a hidden cabal, sometimes described in fantastical or reptilian terms, secretly runs the world. These claims have no evidence and often repackage older antisemitic secret society tropes. ## 2003 — The Fellowship of Reason The Fellowship of Reason was founded as a secular community built around humanist ethics and personal growth rather than the supernatural. It reflects a modern strand of organized, non-religious moral fellowship. ## 13 March 2013 — Election of Pope Francis, First Jesuit Pope Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope and took the name Francis, becoming the first Jesuit to hold the office. He was also the first pope from the Americas. ## October 2017 — The QAnon Phenomenon QAnon emerged from anonymous online posts claiming a secret cabal controlled governments and media. Its baseless claims spread widely and have been documented as a conspiracy movement, not as fact.