Page:The Descent of Bolshevism.djvu/63



Born of mysticism and religious chaos, the movements in the East against organized society were, nevertheless, concealed by the apostles of violence, under the cloak of religion. There have been similar movements in the West, which, under the mask of philosophy, sought to undermine all existing authority in the state and all creeds and moral codes in the nation.

Most prominent among these is the intellectual Bolshevism, which first appeared in Germany in the latter part of the 18th century. The rebel cry of a group of fanatics, who were then known as the Illuminati or Perfectibilists, is re-echoed today and translated into machine guns by the Sparticides, whose patron saint is not the Thracian gladiator and leader of the slaves against Rome in Pompei's time, but Adam Weishaupt, who adopted the name of