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Abbé Augustin Barruel (October 2, 1741 - October 5, 1820) was a French Jesuit priest. He is now mostly known for documenting the conspiracy theory involving the Bavarian Illuminati and the Jacobins in his book Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism (original title Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire du Jacobinisme) published in 1797. In short, Barruel wrote that the French Revolution was planned and executed by the secret societies.

Augustin Barruel was born at Villeneuve de Berg (Ardeche). He entered the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits in 1756 and taught grammar at Toulouse in 1762. The storm against the Jesuits in France drove him from his country and he was occupied in college work in Moravia and Bohemia until the suppression of the order in 1773. He then returned to France and his first literary work appeared in 1774: Ode sur le glorieux avenement de Louis Auguste au trone. That same year he became a collaborator of the Année littéraire, edited by Fréron. is first important work was Les Helveiennes, ou Lettres Provinciales philosophiques, published in 1781.

In the meantime, national affairs in France were growing more and more turbulent, but Barruel continued his literary activity, which from now on occupied itself specially with public questions. In 1789 appeared Lettres sur le Divorce, a refutation of a book by Hennet. From 1788 to 1792 he edited the famous Journal Ecclesiastique founded by Dinouart in 1760. In this periodical was published Barruel's La Conduite du. S. Siège envers la France, a vigorous defense of Pope Pius VI. He likewise wrote a number of pamphlets against the civil oath demanded from ecclesiastics and against the new civil constitution during 1790 and 1791. He afterward gathered into one Collection Ecclésiastique all of the works relative to the clergy and civil constitution.

The storm of the French Revolution had in the meantime forced Barruel to seek refuge in England, where he became almoner to the refugee Prince of Conti. Here he wrote in 1793 the Histoire du Clergé pendant la Revolution Francaise. He dedicated the work to the English nation in recognition of the hospitality that it had showed toward the unfortunate French ecclesiastics. It has been translated into German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, and English. The English version went through several editions and did much to strengthen the British nation in its opposition to French revolutionary principles. While in London, Barruel published an English work, A Dissertation on Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the Catholic Church. But none of his works attracted so much attention as his Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire du Jacobinisme'.'

The Freemasons of France, Germany, and England angrily contested his assertions and a voluminous literature was the consequence. Specifically, he accuses the Illuminati of causing the French Revolution, in accordance with their alleged plan to destroy princes, nations and the Church.

His basic idea was that of a conspiracy with the aim of overthrowing Christianity. It inspired John Robison, who had been working independently on his own conspiracy theory to extend his book Proofs of a Conspiracy Against all the Religions and Governments of Europe and include several quotations from Barruel.

On the fall of the Directory in 1802, Barruel was enabled to return to France. He fully accepted and persuaded many other clergymen to accept the new political order of things in his native country and he wrote several books to defend his opinions. When the Concordat was made in 1801 between Pius VII and Napoleon, Barruel wrote: Du Pape et de ses Droits Religieux. His last important controversy was his defense of the Holy See in its deposition of the French bishops, which he said had been necessitated by the new order of things in France established by the Concordat of 1801. His book appeared also in English: The Papal Power, or an historical essay on the temporal power of the Pope. Many attacked the work, but as usual, the author did not suffer an antagonist to go unanswered. His new work involved him in a very extended controversy, for his work was translated into all the principal European languages. His friends and foes alike became involved in a wordy war. Blanchard published in London no fewer than three refutations. He had promised to compose two works that never appeared: Historie des Sociétés Secrètes au Moyen-Age and Dissertation sur la Croisade contre les Albigeois. In regard to the latter work, Barruel stated his object would be to defend the Church against the reproach of having deposed kings and having freed their subjects from the oath of allegiance. He contended that objections on this score arose only from an ignorance of history. At the time of his death, Barruel was engaged on a refutation of the philosophical system of Immanuel Kant, but never completed his work. He died in Paris in 1820.

Young Percy Bysshe Shelley read Barruel's book with excitement between 1811 and 1814. When he eloped with William Godwin's daughter in 1814, she read it with him. The vision of secret societies working for the revolution must have appealed to Shelley.

• Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism
  • Part 1, Antichristian Conspiracy
  • Part 2, The Antimonarchical Conspiracy
  • Part 3, Antisocial Conspiracy
  • Part 4, Antisocial Conspiracy; Historical Part

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.