Where did the conspiracies come from about craft truthfully

Anti-Masonic conspiracy theories primarily emerged in the late eighteenth century out of conflations between Freemasonry, European secret political societies, and the French Revolution.

A central point of origin was the Order of the Illuminati, founded in Germany by Adam Weishaupt 1. Although not a Masonic body, the Illuminati sought to infiltrate and redirect German lodges toward its own political ends 21. When Professor John Robison published Proofs of a Conspiracy in 1797, he credulously accepted accounts of Illuminist plots and mistakenly treated the Illuminati as identical with Freemasonry 1. His work became a foundational anti-Masonic text in Europe and inspired similar anti-Masonic panics in New England 1.

Simultaneously, the Abbé Barruel published his Memoirs, asserting a continuous plot in which French philosophers, Freemasons, and German Illuminists united to overturn the monarchy and the Church 21. Barruel derived his claims in part from Masonic ritual papers found among the possessions of a deceased lodge Master 1.

Another distinct origin lay in political fictions regarding Templar origins. Cadet de Gassicourt asserted that surviving Knights Templar had instituted a secret underground Masonry to avenge the destruction of their Order, using ordinary Craft lodges as an unwitting cloak to carry out political assassinations and overthrow monarchies 2. This thesis exploited the claims of high-degree rites such as the Rite of Strict Observance, which had introduced Templar lineages into European Masonic thought 2.