"I have found it written that all that has been decreed Above forbidding open involvement in the Wisdom of Truth [Kabbalah] was [only meant for] the limited time period until the year 5,250 (1490 C.E.). From then on after is called the "Last Generation", and what was forbidden is [now] allowed. And permission is granted to occupy ourselves in the [study of] Zohar. And from the year 5,300 (1540 C.E.) it is most desirable that the masses both those great and small [in Torah], should occupy themselves [in the study of Kabbalah], as it says in the Raya M'hemna [a section of the Zohar]. And because in this merit King Mashiach will come in the future—and not in any other merit—it is not proper to be discouraged [from the study of Kabbalah]". - Rabbi Avraham Azulai
The Illuminati (or the Alumbrados), which I believe to be the third faction of Freemasonry, was created around 1490 to introduce the study of Kabbalah to the elite of society through Christian Kabbalah, and open involvement by aristocrats, scholars, and high ranking churchmen in this ancient wisdom was the result.
The year 1540 was another milestone in Kabbalah; it was the year when its practice and beliefs should be promulgated to the masses, or the general public. And in order to organize and administer the expected influx of people who will be initiated to this sacred mystery, a fourth (and I also believe, final) faction of Freemasonry was created. This faction was the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits.
The Jesuits are the largest male religious order in the Catholic Church, who are engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations on six continents. They are best known in the fields of education (schools, colleges, universities, seminaries, theological faculties), intellectual research, and cultural pursuits. They are also known in missionary work, giving retreats, hospital and parish ministry, promoting justice and ecumenical dialogue.
The Jesuit movement was founded in August 1534 by St. Ignatius de Loyola, a Spanish knight turned hermit and priest. The first Jesuits--Ignatius and six of his students--took vows of poverty and chastity and made plans to offer themselves to the Pope for apostolic work. They went to Rome to meet with the Pope and request permission to form a new religious order. In September 1540, Pope Paul III approved Ignatius' outline of the Society of Jesus, and the Jesuit order was born.
The circumstances linking the Alumbrados and the Society of Jesus, including its head, the Superior General, and its members, are quite numerous.
The Spanish Inquisition suspected that St. Ignatius de Loyola was an alumbrado. The sources for the suspicion that fell on Ignatius were many. When he arrived in Alcala in 1526 he became acquainted with some prominent individuals who were later pursued by the Inquisition on charges of alumbradismo. He chose one of them, the Portuguese priest, Manuel de Miona (who later became a Jesuit), as his confessor. Besides these contacts, Ignatius soon found himself at the head of a group desiring spiritual guidance. The majority of these were women, some of whom were involved with the alumbrados. During their meetings some of the younger women became subject of curious seizures. Some broke out in sweat and fainted, some vomited, some would remain in positions of fixed rigidity, and some writhed on the ground.
Several of St. Ignatius' teachings also mirrored that of the Alumbrados, and should I say, the Kabbalists as well.
Ignatius believed in an immanent God, a God who dwells in all creatures, who can be found in all things, and who is recognized and encountered within human experience - even in the most ordinary of circumstances. (Ignatius claimed to have received spiritual discernment while having his midday meal). Ignatius was convinced that God can and does guide the Christian in the ordinary decisions of life, he was always aware of the intimacy of God's nearness and help in all circumstances, no matter how mundane. This constant awareness of God's presence in one's day to day life is what the Alumbrados refer to as complete union with the Father.
Ignatius himself never wrote in the rules of the Jesuits that there should be any fixed times for prayer. Actually, by finding God in all things, all times are times of prayer. He did not, of course, exclude formal prayer, but he differed from the other founders regarding the imposition of definite times or duration of prayer. One of the reasons some opposed the formation of the Society of Jesus was that Ignatius proposed doing away with the chanting of the Divine Office in choir. This was a radical departure from custom, because until this time, every religious order was held to the recitation of the office in common.
One prominent Jesuit who was associated with Christian Kabbalah, and considered one of its earliest proponents was Athanasius Kircher. He was a 17th century German Jesuit priest, scholar and polymath, who in 1652, brought further elements such as Orphism and Egyptian mythology to the mix of Christianity and Kabbalah in his work, Oedipus Aegyptiacus. It was illustrated by Kircher's own adaptation of the Kabbalah Tree of Life.
In my previous blog, I mentioned my belief that the 2nd Duke of Alba, Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, together with King Ferdinand of Aragon, were Alumbrados, albeit secretly. And if you will recall, Diego Colón Moniz, the firstborn son of Christopher Columbus, married María de Toledo y Rojas, the niece of Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo.
The Duke of Alba also had a granddaughter, Eleonora Álvarez de Toledo, who became the wife of Cosimo I de' Medici, the ruler of Tuscany, whom she married in 1539. Cosimo was an enthusiast of alchemy (one of the basic components of Christian Kabbalah), a passion he had inherited from his grandmother Caterina Sforza.
Eleonora influenced her husband Cosimo in many ways, such as encouraging his support of the new order of Jesuits, and in providing a haven for Jews in an Italy that was becoming increasingly inhospitable due to bigoted laws passed by the Vatican in their misguided counter-reformation. Three early Jesuits had extensive dealings with Eleonora: Juan de Polanco, Diego Laynez and Diego de Guzman. Polanco, who was introduced by Ignatius of Loyola to Cosimo, was the first to approach Eleonora and ask for her patronage in founding a Jesuit college in Florence (1547). Diego Laynez, who would later become the 2nd Superior General of the Jesuits, gained Eleonora's affection to the point that she became a constant intercessor to Cossimo in behalf of the Society. The Jesuits eventually succeeded in gaining a foothold at court and in Florence. They were even able to fill the post of personal confessor to Eleonora.
This close alliance between the powerful Medici family (whom I suspect to be members of the Illuminati), and the Jesuits, will be highlighted several years later in the curious case of Galileo Galilei. It is well known that in 1633, Galileo was found by the Inquisition to be "vehemently suspect of heresy," and was ordered imprisoned. It is less known that the Jesuits sympathized with Galileo.
Galileo began his telescopic observations in the later part of 1609, and by March of 1610 was able to publish a small book, The Starry Messenger (Sidereus Nuncius), relating some discoveries that had not been dreamed of in the philosophy of the time: mountains on the Moon, lesser moons in orbit around Jupiter, and the resolution of what had been thought cloudy masses in the sky (nebulae) into collections of stars too faint to see individually without a telescope. Other observations followed, including the phases of Venus and the existence of sunspots.
Jesuit astronomers, experts both in Church teachings, science, and in natural philosophy, were at first skeptical and hostile to the new ideas, however, within a year or two the availability of good telescopes enabled them to repeat the observations. In 1611 Galileo visited the Collegium Romanum in Rome, where the Jesuit astronomers by that time had repeated his observations. Christoph Grienberger, one of the Jesuit scholars on the faculty, sympathized with Galileo’s theories.
Cosimo II de' Medici was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1609 until 1621. He was a patron of Galileo, whom he appointed court philosopher and mathematician. Galileo Galilei was Cosimo's tutor between 1605 and 1608. Just over a year after his accession, Galileo dedicated his Sidereus Nuncius, an astrological treatise, to the Grand Duke. Additionally, Galileo christened the moons of Jupiter the "Medicean stars".
Galileo died on 1642 at 77 years of age. The then Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando II de' Medici, wished to bury him in the main body of the Basilica of Santa Croce, next to the tombs of his father and other ancestors, and to erect a marble mausoleum in his honour. These plans were scrapped, however, after Pope Urban VIII and his nephew, Cardinal Francesco Barberini, protested. He was instead buried in a small room next to the novices' chapel at the end of a corridor from the southern transept of the basilica to the sacristy.
Sources:
http://libro.uca.edu/longhurst/luther2-2.htm
http://www.stignatiussf.org/a/himself.htm
http://www.sjweb.info/documents/cis/pdfenglish/200711606en.pdf