The story goes that in
1785 (or possible late
1784) an Illuminati
messenger (and
initiate, according to some) named Lanz
was struck
and killed by lightning outside
Regensberg while on his way to
France. He was carrying
plans for a
revolution, detailed by a
German writer named
Xavier Zwack. The police found the documents on his body and turned it over
to the government, which led to police raids of Illuminati lodges and
the homes of some of its members. The organization was outlawed and broken up in
1785.
There's no way to be certain of this however, just like it's virtually
impossible to verify anything about the Illuminati. This is
not because there's a a sinister plot to cover things up but because
so much crap has been written about it that the signal-to-noise
ratio is incredibly low. Almost anyone who writes about the
Illuminati has a political agenda of his own to promote, and most
authors end up citing other, equally biased authors, as
credible sources.
For example, many people point out that the aim of the Illuminati was
the destruction of all kings and religion (except the Jewish) and
total control over the masses. This sounds a lot like the Protocols
of the Elders of Zion to me (for those who don't know of the
Protocols, they were supposed to be evidence of an International
Jewish Conspiracy, published in the late 19th century), in that the
Zwack papers were used to discredit the Illuminati in much the same
way as the Protocols were used to discredit the jews. Also, manu
people point out that the French Revolution indeed happened
exactly like Weishaupt predicted. To me, that just
means that the plans credited to Weishaupt were written
after the revolution actually took place.