Proofs of a Conspiracy, by John Robison Index

*Proofs of a Conspiracy* (1798) is a polemical historical treatise by Scottish scientist John Robison, arguing that the Bavarian Illuminati — a rationalist secret society founded by Adam Weishaupt in 1776 — were responsible for instigating the excesses of the French Revolution. Robison, a credentialed man of science who turned ardently monarchist after becoming disillusioned by the Revolution, presents the Illuminati as a clandestine, hierarchically organized group that infiltrated Freemasonic lodges to spread radical atheist and anti-monarchist ideas. The editor's introduction pushes back sharply on Robison's thesis, arguing that reading the book critically reveals the Illuminati were more of an intellectual "talk shop" than a capable conspiatorial force, merely voicing views already common among European intellectuals rather than engineering the fall of the French monarchy. The work is historically significant less for its accuracy than for its influence: alongside Abbé Barruel's *Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism*, it is one of the foundational texts for the modern archetype of the all-controlling secret society pulling society's strings. This edition is a digitization of a 1967 reprint with modernized typography but original spelling preserved, with minor typo corrections noted by the transcriber.

Proofs of a Conspiracy, by John Robison Index

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