The Antisocial Conspiracy

What It's About

The Antisocial Conspiracy is the third volume of Abbé Barruel's four-volume Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, first published in 1797. Where the earlier volumes addressed the philosophical and Masonic conspiracies Barruel believed lay behind the French Revolution, this volume turns to what he calls the "antisocial" conspiracy — the coordinated assault by secret societies on the twin pillars of European civilisation: the church and the throne. Central to his argument here is the Order of the Bavarian Illuminati, founded by Adam Weishaupt in 1776, and Barruel draws heavily on captured Illuminati documents to make his case, giving this volume unusual primary-source weight compared to the others.

Key Concepts

Barruel argues that the Revolution was not a spontaneous popular uprising but the end product of a decades-long conspiracy orchestrated by a coalition of Enlightenment philosophers, Freemasons, and Illuminati. This volume focuses on how these groups worked to undermine religious and monarchical authority — not through open opposition but through infiltration, secrecy, and the gradual corruption of institutions. The extensive quotations from actual Illuminati writings remain of historical interest, as many of these documents were suppressed or difficult to access; whatever one thinks of Barruel's conclusions, the source material he reproduces is real. The book is a foundational text in the history of conspiracy theory, and modern historians treat it as a significant artefact of counter-revolutionary thought rather than reliable history.

About the Author

Augustin Barruel (1741–1820) was a French Jesuit priest who fled France during the Revolution, spending years in England before eventually returning to France under Napoleon. A committed defender of the Catholic Church and the old order, his experiences of revolutionary upheaval shaped his conviction that the destruction he witnessed was too systematic to be accidental.

About This Edition

This translation by Robert Edward Clifford was published in 1798.