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168 ing function of the order was in their hands, subject only to the ultimate authority of their supreme heads.

Knigge's statutes provided that only a very small number of members were to be admitted to the grade of Prince. From this group the highest functionaries of the order were to be drawn: National Inspectors, Provincials, Prefects, and Deans of the Priests. Over them, in turn, at the apex of the system and as sovereign heads of the order, ruled the Areopagites.

So much for the external structure of the system which Knigge reshaped. With respect to the aims and principles of the order the modifications introduced by him were considerable, although scarcely as comprehensive as in the former case. In certain instances the ideas of Weishaupt were