This is the first English-language work devoted to the Avignon Society, which ranks as one of the most remarkable and influential initiatic societies in Europe between 1779 and 1807. Influenced by the burgeoning strand of illuminist high-degree freemasonry, the Avignon Society, nevertheless, developed a unique culture that incorporated strands of Western esotericism within a millenarian framework.

• Acknowledgements


• Abbreviations


• Introduction


• Chapter 1


• In the Beginning was the (Holy) Word: The Foundation


• of the Initiatic Society and its early years in Berlin, Rheinsberg and Podolia,


• 1779-1784


• Chapter 2


• In Search of Guidance: Grabianka, Swedenborgians and the Prophecies


• of Samuel Best in London, 1785-1786


• Chapter 3


• The Era of the Seven Brothers in Avignon, 1783-1790


• Chapter 4


• A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing? The Rise and Fall of Ottavio Cappelli in Rome,


• 1789-1800


• Chapter 5


• Trials, Tribulations and Transformation: The Illuminés d'Avignon


• in Revolutionary France, 1791-1802


• Chapter 6


• Light from the North: The New Israel Society Revived in the


• Russian Empire, 1802-1807


• Chapter 7


• The Legacy of the New Israel Society: The Pleshcheeva Circle,


• 1807-1830s


• Chapter 8


• The Prophetess Madame Bouche and the Triune


• of Emperor Alexander, A. N. Golitsyn and R. A. Koshelev, 1810-1822


• Conclusion


• Appendix


• Bibliography


• Index

Robert Collis is the author of The Petrine Instauration: Religion, Science, and Esotericism at the Court of Peter the Great, 1689-1725. He is a Visiting Professor of History at Drake University.
Natalie Bayer is Associate Professor of History at Drake University.