The following paper examines the little known story of the Columbian Illuminati and has been edited from my recent publication Rediscovered Rituals of English Freemasonry. The book presents an in-depth examination of the Masonic work of the early nineteenth century English radical Richard Carlile, a work known as The Manual of Freemasonry. This book became popular with English Freemasons, and is not just an exposé of the Craft rituals, but also of the further or higher degrees. His exposé was first published in his journal The Republican in 1825, but later emerged in book form, combining his thoughts on Freemasonry with the presented rituals. There were many influences on this work, including Thomas Paine, who had also had a work published on Freemasonry, William Finch, who had published a variety of Masonic exposés, Freemason Godfrey Higgins, and Elihu Palmer.

The short paper can be downloaded for free from my Academia profile via this link.

The paper was published in the new Masonic journal Scriptorium, which can be seen on this link.