All language subtitles for Illuminating Angels and Demons (2005) 600p WEB x264 Dr3adLoX

[man sings]
[mysterious orchestral music]

- [Narrator] It is one of
the most mysterious places

on earth, an entire
sovereign nation

surrounded by a single city.

The Vatican.

For centuries, it has
influenced world events,

perhaps more than any
other country on earth.

How could the world's smallest
country wield such power?

Secrets?

The secrets it holds
behind these very walls.

- It's a secret place
for many reasons,

and one is that it
gets up to things

it doesn't want
people to know about.

[dramatic orchestral music]

- [Narrator] This is the setting

for Dan Brown's bestselling
book, Angels & Demons,

but are dark forces
trying to destroy

the Church, as Dan
Brown suggests?

- I think secret societies
evolved at that time

and came about
through a reaction

to the ominous presence
of the Catholic Church.

- [Narrator] Could an
ancient cult rise again

to infiltrate Vatican security
and assassinate a Pope?

- Popes have undoubtedly
been murdered.

- [Narrator] Could this
same secret society

be planning to take
over world governments?

- The agenda of all secret
societies is to rule

the masses, so that
the masses become

slaves, fodder,
malleable, useful,

eliminatable laboratory animals.

- [Narrator] And does
this, the dollar bill,

hold the secret to
a new world order?

- We have new world order
right here on our dollar bills,

and yet most people
are unaware of this.

- [Narrator] One
person is on a mission

to uncover the answers
to these very questions

and more that are raised in
Dan Brown's frightening book.

Simon Cox, along with
other noted experts,

are about to tell
use what's fact,

what's fiction and what
has yet to be revealed.

[dramatic synth music]

[contemplative synth music]

Rome, once the ruler
of the Western world,

today, this nation's city is

both the cultural nerve center
of Italy and the setting

of Dan Brown's bestselling
novel, Angels & Demons.

- Rome is an amazing
place, a city that is

like none other
that I've ever seen.

It's a kind of
revelation in the sense

that at every turn,
there's something new.

It's like a palimpsest,
which is a manuscript

in which something's been
written but it's been written

over a pre-existing
text that's been erased,

which itself was written
over a previous text

that's been erased, so
that it's layer upon layer,

and it's that layering that is

the city of Rome,
endless and deep.

I mean, you turn a
corner, there's a
modern building sitting

on a Roman building, sitting
on something earlier still,

and at every corner, at every
turn is a new discovery.

[man sings]
[mysterious orchestral music]

- [Narrator] But it's not
only ancient buildings

which lay hidden
beneath Rome streets.

In the city where
Caesar was murdered,

where Constantine
helped engineer

the emerging religion
of Christianity,

a new and sinister society
reportedly existed,

the Illuminati, the illuminated.

Dan Brown's Angels & Demons
raises vital questions.

Do they still exist?

And if they do, who are they?

- Central theme within
Angels & Demons is

this idea of a secret society
called the Illuminati.

Did they really exist?

If so, what period of history?

Are they still around?

These are questions that
are really thrown at us

from the book, and Dan
Brown tries to answer them

by saying, yes, they're
a real secret society.

They still exist today.

They still exert
influence and pressure

just as they did
through history.

- [Narrator] Historian
Simon Cox has made

a career of studying the past.

Now, he's making a
career investigating

the theories behind
Dan Brown's mysteries.

In his newest book,
Illuminating Angels & Demons,

Cox finds himself on the
trail of the Illuminati,

much like Dan Brown's
hero, and for good reason.

- It's a book that deals
with secret societies,

with Christianity
and its interaction

through the ages with
us as people, as man,

and the idea that
there may actually be

some other hidden
thread of knowledge,

of illumination that
runs through that.

[contemplative synth music]

- [Narrator] In the
novel, a secret society

known as the Illuminati sets
out to destroy the Vatican

and alter the course
of world events.

For writer and conspiracy
theorist Jim Marrs,

the threat is real.

- The final goal of the
Illuminati is world domination.

They go into great detail

as to how they're
gonna accomplish this.

They want to educate the young

and convert them to
their way of thinking.

They want to destroy
faith and confidence

not only in the political
systems but in religion.

- Fact is slightly different,
really, to the fiction

that Dan Brown has
brought forward

in Angels & Demons in so
much as the Illuminati,

through my research I found,
did exist as a real society.

In fact, there were

several different versions
of the Illuminati.

You have Illuminati springing up

in Southern France and in Spain.

- [Narrator] A look
through history books

shows that over the centuries,

several groups have
taken on this name.

In Spain, they were persecuted,

burned at the stake
by the Catholic Church

during the famous Inquisitions,

but the mystery
doesn't stop there.

- They're disparate groups.

They're not groups
that are linked.

And the word, Illuminati,
or illuminated ones

or ones who see the
light, is actually,

when you think about
it, it would be

a pretty normal name
for various groups

who want to be
enlightened, and so I think

that as a coherent
body of people,

a coherent secret
society that has lasted

throughout history,
stretching all the way back

to Egyptian times and
through to the modern era,

I think is a non-starter.

I don't think you have
evidence for that.

However, we certainly
have evidence

that a group called
the Illuminati,

who may well have existed
through to modern times,

certainly started in
the 1770s in Bavaria.

[contemplative synth
and chimes music]

- The Illuminati was a secret
society supposedly formed

in the spring of 1776
by Adam Weishaupt,

who had been trained
by the Jesuits.

- [Narrator] Devon Jackson is
an investigative journalist

for some of the most important
publications of today.

He believes the name
Weishaupt is no accident.

Jackson suggests that
the name was fictitious,

part of a secret code
used throughout Europe

that was the beginning of
a fight by elite members

of science against
church-sponsored governments.

Even more, Jackson believes
the Illuminati may have started

long before Adam Weishaupt
took on the name.

The question raised, however, is

why would such a
battle even exist?

- The Illuminati
came into existence

around the time of Galileo
because of having this need

to explore further and
questioning things,

and it was in an age of
science was burgeoning

and kind of busting
out, literally almost,

out of the confines of
the Catholic Church.

And so you had all these
people like Galileo,

and up into the 18th
and 19th century,

when exploration and this
need for finding out things,

how things worked in
nature or in the universe.

They just really had that
need to find that out.

[contemplative piano
and synth music]

- I think in earlier centuries,

the Church probably
was anti-science

because they feared a conflict

between their dogma and
scientific knowledge.

[mysterious synth music]

- [Narrator] Did Dan
Brown have it right?

Could the Illuminati
still exist?

Could they be trying to
destroy world governments?

In his investigation,
Simon Cox believes

the beginning of
that answer lies

in the very title
of Dan Brown's book,

a title that may lead us
directly to the Illuminati.

- The book, Angels & Demons,
I think, is titled so

because what you have here
in Dan Brown's estimation,

I think, is the idea of the
study of light and dark,

and so you have this
study in dualism.

On the one side, we're not
sure who the angels are.

We're not sure whether the
angels is the Church or science

because this is a book
about Church versus science.

On the other side,
you have the demons.

Are the demons science?

Is it the Church?

We're unsure about
this, and I think

that's the reasoning
behind the title.

I think it's quite a
clever title to use.

[mysterious synth music]

- Angels & Demons
is a great title.

It does sum up very well
the duality of the book

and the theme of angels
that runs through it

in the Bernini statues that form

the clues that run
throughout the book.

[man sings]
[mysterious orchestral music]

- [Narrator] In Angels &
Demons, the Illuminati gather

in secret meeting places
throughout ancient Rome.

Each location anchors
a surreptitious trail

that Dan Brown calls the
Path of Illumination,

and each location is filled
with Bernini's masterpieces,

which allegedly hold clues
to this subversive path,

including his most famous work,
The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa.

Her hand allegedly
points towards this
Path of Illumination.

Surprisingly, it forms
a nearly-perfect cross

within the city of Rome.

- I think the Path
of Illumination

that Dan Brown highlights
in his book is real.

It's something that has been
used throughout history,

although maybe not in
the context that Brown is

actually bringing it
forward in Angels & Demons.

The idea behind neophytes,
behind initiates
actually walking

a path, metaphorical,
real, is something

that we do find symbolically
throughout history.

[upbeat synth music]

- [Narrator] This
alleged path starts

at Rome's most famous
landmark, the Vatican,

a sight visited by up to
30 million tourists a year.

The path then crosses
Tiber River to the east,

anchored at Santa
Maria della Vittoria.

To the north, the cross begins
at Santa Maria del Popolo

and ends to the south
at Piazza Navona.

Why a cross for a group
allegedly fighting the Church?

[dramatic synth music]

Clive Prince and Lynn Picknett,

co-authors of The
Templar Revelation,

have researched its
mysterious origins.

- Every religious spiritual
esoteric discipline

will talk about the metaphorical
Path of Illumination.

- Whether this exists in
the sense of the Illuminati,

a group somewhere have
their own views on this,

and you have to be
initiated into it

and do certain things,
perhaps horrible,

to receive illumination,
is open to question.

- [Narrator] The Illuminati
scientific beginnings,

the rituals and quest for
power are closely tied

to the Vatican's own
shrouded history.

But hidden deep within the
Vatican are secret documents

which reportedly could be
used to destroy the Church.

Has the Illuminati
infiltrated the Vatican?

Have they found the
hidden documents?

And what will happen if they

or another secret
society finds them?

[upbeat orchestral music]

[man sings]

- The Roman Church obviously is

among the richest, most powerful
institutions on the earth

and has been for many centuries,

and that's simply because
if you go back to the time

of the Middle Ages, the
Church commanded everything.

- [Narrator] For over
a thousand years,

the Vatican influenced
world events while wielding

vast control over both
kingdoms and royalty.

- They told the
kings what to do.

They loaned money.

They ran every facet
of everyone's life.

Today, of course, with
democracy, freedom

springing up around the
world, they have lost

some of that power,
but they are still

a very formidable institution.

[contemplative synth music]

One example of the power of
the Roman Church is that,

in the 1980s, they were
allowed to open an embassy

in Washington, D.C., which
is still there today.

So we recognize the Vatican
as a separate nation,

a separate state, and we have
diplomatic relations with it,

even though, to many people,
this flies in the face

of our contention that we have

separation of church and state.

[dramatic orchestral music]

- [Narrator] The
Vatican's location is

a key part of Roman
Catholic history,

one that goes to the
core of its faith.

- According to Catholic
and Vatican history,

the bones of Saint Peter are
buried underneath the cupola

of Saint Peter's Basilica
in Vatican City, Rome.

- [Narrator] But what if
the Vatican is not built

over the remains of Saint Peter?

What if something else is buried

underneath its ancient floors?

- This, though,
is open to debate,

and it is a contentious issue,

many people suggesting
they're not his bones at all,

many people suggesting
that they're

actually the bones of an animal.

[reflective string
and organ music]

- [Narrator] Since its founding
by Constantine the Great

nearly 400 years after
the death of Jesus,

the Vatican has been
dogged by accusations

of conspiracies and cover-ups,

rumors which have
continued for centuries.

Some of those secrets
could undermine

the very foundation
of the Church.

It is information that the
Church does not want to fall

into enemy hands,
like the Illuminati.

- We have the Catacombs
under the Vatican,

which hardly anyone has
ever been able to penetrate.

All kinds of wild stories
circulate about that,

up to and including
the possibility

that they have the
mummified body of Jesus,

that they have lots
of ancient artifacts,

lots of historical
objects that could point

to a more honest and true
understanding of human origins.

- So, there is that
reality behind it.

It's a secret place, it is
secret for many reasons,

and one is that it
gets up to things

it doesn't want
people to know about.

- The Church believes
that Saint Peter

was given the
authority by Christ

to set up his church forever

because Saint Peter
was the first person

to see the risen Christ.

This is a kind of article of
faith of the Catholic Church,

and all you have to do
is read the New Testament

to discover that
it's wildly untrue.

The first person to
see the risen Christ

was actually Mary Magdalene.

In fact, it's not even
true that Peter was

the first male disciple
to see the risen Jesus.

The first male disciple
was John the Beloved,

so what's going on there then?

- [Narrator] For centuries,
questions such as these

could not be raised
in large parts

of the world without
fear of persecution.

It goes to the
heart of the Church.

Was Saint Peter really the one
chosen to start the Church?

Is the Vatican the true
resting place of his body?

Early scientists were some
of the first to question.

With other religions
growing in popularity,

the Church had a lot at stake.

- And the Catholic Church
just took this position

that we have to
be the one faith.

We can't have anybody else
believing in these other gods

or polytheism or some
other type of god.

It's gotta be the Catholic
Church or nothing.

The Catholic Church took
this position, I think,

in its first maybe 400
years of existence,

that they, at that time
when there were also

these other faiths competing
for people's souls,

so to speak, that
they wanted to be

the one church
that would dominate

over all other faiths
that were out there.

[contemplative synth music]

- [Narrator] Adding
to the controversy is

the Vatican's enormous
financial wealth

and more importantly
how it was achieved.

- I think the
Vatican is secretive

about its finances
because of the controversy

over how much money
flows into the Church.

They don't want to detail
how much money they have,

how much money they're worth.

In fact, it's really
amazing, but I have found

in my work as a
journalist in this country

that even local
bishops, local priests,

they only know their picture,

their small piece of the puzzle.

They do not have entree to
general accounting numbers

as to how much money
or where it goes

or who's getting it
or anything else.

[contemplative piano music]

- The Vatican has always
been a very secretive place.

Well within living
memory, there have been

sort of great financial scandals

involving the Vatican
Bank and things like that.

- [Narrator] This enormous
collection of wealth has had

one other unintentional
consequence, making
the job of pope

one of the most
dangerous in the world.

[dramatic orchestral music]
[people shouting]

While Dan Brown's Angels
& Demon's plot revolved

around the fictional
assassination of a pope,

his research was well
based in historical fact.

- Could a pope be murdered?

Well, it's a question that
Brown certainly brings up

within Angels & Demons, and
it's certainly something

that undoubtedly has happened,

Celestine V being
a classic example.

A five-inch nail in his
head maybe kind of gives

that one away as a slightly
suspicious circumstance.

[contemplative piano music]

- [Narrator] Steven Ostrow,
a professor of art history,

has researched the early
centuries of the Vatican,

uncovering a legacy of
persecution and violence.

- The early popes were,
almost to a one, martyred

because they represented
a tradition of faith

that was contrary
to the Roman law.

So if you go into Saint
Peter's, for example,

all the piers of the
main nave are adorned

with portraits of
the early popes,

each and every one of whom
was martyred for his faith.

So popes have long been
killed because they are

not just religious but
also political figures,

and so, yes, there's
been intrigue,

yes, popes have been
poisoned, murdered, martyred,

but I think in the modern era,

let's just say since
the 17th century,

it hasn't been quite so bad
as it was in the early days.

[contemplative synth music]

- [Narrator] The battles
of the early Church

were over power,
world domination,

the same goal as other
secret societies.

- Scary times are good
times for the Church.

The agenda of all secret
societies that have

a negative impact is
to rule the masses.

[dramatic orchestral music]

So that the masses
become slaves.

But it all starts with the
idea of a few elite people

looking down their noses
at the rest of humanity.

- [Narrator] This early history
of the Church was violent,

and like other
kingdoms of its time,

the Church hierarchy was
filled with hidden agendas

by groups competing
for world power.

A new word developed to describe

the concealed
schemes of this time.

- Calling the Church
a pornocracy is

an interesting use of the term.

It's not a widely
accepted or used term.

It literally means
government by harlots,

by prostitutes, hence the root,
porno, and it specifically

and historically refers to
a time in the 10th century

beginning with a
fairly inept pope

named Sergius III
and a series of popes

who ruled by less
than moral means.

Apparently, Sergius
I, for example,

had a number of competing
cardinals killed

in order so that he could
assume the papal throne.

The term got applied then

because of these very
powerful women members

of the aristocratic
noble families of Rome

who kind of held the
strings on the papacy

and determined who would be pope

at any given point, hence
the term applied then.

[contemplative piano music]

- [Narrator] Much of
this sordid history

and internal secret battles
is said to be sealed away

in this building 100 yards
behind the great basilica

on the Vatican
grounds, the Archives.

This sprawling complex is said

to house the greatest collection

of sacred books and
folios in the world.

Some have not been
seen for centuries.

- The Vatican Libraries extend

for approximately
50 miles of books.

The collection is enormous.

- I've been asked what's in
the secret Vatican Archives,

and I must say I don't know
because they're secret,

and they have been secret
for so many centuries.

- [Narrator] In Angels & Demons,

Robert Langdon manages to
steal a historic document

from the archives that
he thinks will help find

the location of a
kidnapped cardinal.

Could such a theft be committed?

[contemplative synth music]

Paul Williams is a theologist,

and one of the very
few researchers

ever allowed to pass through
the Vatican's tight security

and examine its archives.

- You can't enter with a jacket.

You can't enter with
an attache case.

You can't even carry
a fountain pen.

The only thing you
can take with you is

a graphite pencil and a notepad.

When you enter the archives,
a cleric will present

exactly the document
that you've requested,

if they've agreed to
give you that document.

The cleric will remain with you

while you study that document.

There will be porters
and guards behind you,

so it would be
absolutely impossible

to take anything
out of that room.

Even if you were Harry
Houdini, you just can't do it.

[man singing]
[contemplative synth music]

- [Narrator] Such close
attention to security

and restricted access
raises the question,

is the Vatican hiding
something in its archives?

What secrets can be found on
its 50 miles of shelf space?

- There are rumored to be some
fabulous documents in there

about the Second World War,
about the Pope's involvement

or rather the Pope's
non-involvement in the Holocaust

and his failure to speak
out against the Holocaust.

- Of course, there must be
truly secret Vatican archives

because the Church, dozens
and dozens of other gospels,

for example, that weren't
included in the New Testament

that has stuff in them that
would seriously undermine

the Church if people
knew about it.

So presumably there are
an awful lot of books

that certainly researchers
like me would give

my eyeteeth to see hidden
somewhere in the Vatican.

- [Narrator] One of the secrets
that is reportedly held here

comes right from the
pages of Angels & Demons,

suppressed historical documents

including unpublished writings

and research by
early scientists.

Those writings could include

materials of Galileo
and Copernicus.

Both were considered
enemies of the Church.

Both were linked by Dan
Brown to the Illuminati.

- When Galileo made his
revelation that, hey, the Earth

and the Moon and all the
planets revolve around the Sun,

number one, this was disturbing

the orthodoxy of
the Roman Church,

and, two, they probably were
afraid that this would lend

a lot of support to sun worship,

which is one of the oldest,
most primitive religions

and one that they were trying
desperately to stamp out.

[contemplative synth music]

- I think it's interesting
that within Angels & Demons,

it's not made implicit,
it's not made clear

which one is the angel and
which one is the demon.

- As Dan Brown
asserts in his book,

even though it's fiction, to
claim that Galileo and Bernini

were either part of the
Illuminati or Freemasons,

it's not so farfetched,
I don't think.

It's certainly open
to possibility.

There were so many groups,
secret groups, at that time.

It was just kind of the
height of secret societies

throughout Europe between
the 1400s to the 1800s.

- There's been an age-old war
between church and science.

It's gone back as
far as the foundation

of the church itself, and
I think this is something

that's inevitable
when you have a group,

a society like the church, like
the Christian Church itself,

putting down tenants and dogmas

and doctrines that
they say are absolute,

that are immovable,
that are truths,

and you also have people
challenging those truths.

[contemplative synth music]

- [Narrator] Did the Vatican's
oppression of science

and knowledge spur the
formation of secret societies?

Is the Illuminati one of them?

- Like most persecuted and
suppressed organizations,

the Illuminati probably
did go underground.

- [Narrator] The
Illuminati appeared

late in the history of Europe,

but where did they
really come from?

Some historians theorize
that the Illuminati evolved

out of a once-powerful and
legendary organization,

one that once protected the Pope

but then was destroyed
by order of the Pope,

The Knights Templar,
warrior priests.

But were they really eliminated?

[suspenseful orchestral music]

- The Knights Templar
started out as the Order

of the Poor Knights of
the Temple of Solomon.

- The Knights Templar
were purportedly to be

in possession of the Holy Grail.

[dramatic piano and synth music]

- [Narrator] It
was the year 1000.

The Western world believed in
the legend of the Holy Grail,

a cup thought to hold the
blood of Christ and his power.

And now, a secret
society of warrior monks

allegedly found the Holy Grail.

Through this legend and
the power it conveyed,

the Knights Templar became
one of the most revered

and feared secret societies
that ever existed.

Author Steven Ostrow and Devon
Jackson, who have dedicated

years of research into
the Knights Templar,

describe them as early
defenders of the Vatican

who eventually became
its biggest threat.

- They were ostensibly
serving to free the roads

for pilgrims to go to Jerusalem.

They took up residence
in the Temple of Solomon,

they lived in the stables
of the Temples of Solomon,

and for about eight years,
they conducted an excavation.

- The Knights Templar
were these warrior monks,

and what they did was
they sometimes served

as the guards for the pope,
but what they largely did

was that they guarded the
route, the pilgrims' route

and the crusaders' route on
the way down to Jerusalem.

- There were only nine of
them for about nine years,

so I don't think they
could have done that,

at least not very efficiently.

They quite clearly
had another agenda.

They did seem to be looking
for something in the Holy Land.

They were very into
secret knowledge.

- [Narrator] Even though
they took a vow of poverty,

the Knights began accumulating

more wealth than many
rulers of the day.

Land, money, shipping, the
Knights began to finance

monarchies as well
as the Vatican.

- The Knights Templar
eventually became

kind of a Templar Incorporated.

They started the first branch
banking, which means you could

deposit your gold
and silver in England

and expect to take it out
when you go to Jerusalem,

so you wouldn't have to
carry it along the highways.

So they became the biggest
property owner in Europe.

At the same time, they
owned the biggest fleet.

- [Narrator] Their vast
wealth and influence made

the Templars fearless
and intimidating.

They bowed to no king or leader
and soon not even the pope.

Their wealth, however, might not

have been their biggest threat.

Historian Lynn Picknett
believes the Knights

may have started a new
and competing religion.

- Knights Templar were
accused of spitting

and trampling on the
cross in secret ceremonies

and of worshiping a
bearded, severed head,

and they certainly
had a great reverence

for John the Baptist overtly.

And what was the
significance of this?

We discovered that
the Knights Templar,

when they were in the
Middle East, met a group

that was known as the
Church of John of the East,

and it was a group
called the Mandeans,

who originated around Judea,
Egypt, 2,000 years ago,

and they were John the
Baptist's followers.

- [Narrator] The Knights
might have been following

a cult sometimes
called Johnnites,

but it's what Picknett says next

that might have doomed
the fearless Knights.

- They rant and
rave against Jesus,

who they say was a false profit,

who was a schismatic
from John's religion,

and certainly it
does seem, I mean,

modern scholars have
found out that it's

very likely that Jesus
was actually a follower,

started off as a follower
of John the Baptist.

[contemplative synth music]

- [Narrator]
Whatever the reason,

the Templars soon
grew more secretive,

holding surreptitious
meetings in hidden locations,

much like Dan Brown's
Path of Illumination.

A growing allegiance
to John the Baptist,

along with their wealth
and power, made the Knights

the greatest threat the
Vatican had ever seen.

- The Knights Templar
refused to acknowledge

superiority of anybody.

They were becoming
amazingly arrogant.

- They existed for
about two centuries

as an incredibly powerful,
in every sense, order,

and then they met with a
very kind of sudden, abrupt

and rather nasty
end at the beginning

of the 14th century, when
first the King of France

and then the Pope
turned on them.

[dramatic piano and synth music]

- Eventually, the Templar
Order became so big

that they started to arouse
the jealousy of the French king

and also the ire
of the population.

They became regarded, in
Sir Walter Scott's term,

as hoity as a Templar, meaning
that they just were so proud,

they could do
anything they want,

and so this aroused the
people to be against them.

- Question's been
debated ever since

exactly what the motivation for
closing this order down was.

The standard reason
that's given is

that the King of France
simply wanted their money.

The reasons they were
given at the time

for them being suppressed

was that they were the
heretics and blasphemous.

- [Narrator] On
October 12th, 1307,

the Knights Templar
saw the end coming.

Historians are convinced
that they managed

to spirit away their vast
riches and collected treasure

just ahead of the advancing
armies of the King of France.

- These wagon trains full
of treasure were brought

to the Harbor of La Rochelle,

and from there, they were
loaded on 17 Templar ships,

which basically
disappeared from history.

The next day, Friday the 13th,

armies of French soldiers
arrested all the Templars

at every temple that
they could find.

- [Narrator] And then
killed them at the stake.

Many were burned alive.

To this day, some
700 years later,

many people still
fear Friday the 13th.

But by 1307, when the last
Grand Knight of the Templars

was burned, the
purge was complete.

King Philip of France
now had the funds

to launch his war against
King Edward I of England.

But was the purge successful?

Historical authorities like
Jim Marrs think otherwise.

- It wasn't very effective
because the Knights Templars

had plenty of warning that
this was gonna happen.

In fact, they only rounded
up a handful of them.

Most of them had fled or
had simply changed clothes

and blended themselves into
the general population.

[dramatic orchestral music]

- [Narrator] From here,
the mystery deepens.

What happened to the
surviving Knights Templar,

with their immense treasure
and contempt for the Church?

Did their descendants
become the Illuminati?

[dramatic orchestral music]

With the Templar supposedly
vanquished in the late 1300s,

the Vatican regained
its standing

as the world's most
powerful institution.

But over time, a more
formidable threat

to the Vatican came
into being, science.

- Dan Brown's
Illuminati are a society

of essentially scientists,
is the word he uses.

It wasn't a word that
was used at that time.

That was formed in the
1500s so that they could

pursue their work and
share their work in secret

because of the Church's attitude

to the work they were doing.

- [Narrator] Betty Ann Brown,
an art history professor,

feels that early
scientists, astronomers,

and even artists were
the first to challenge

the Vatican's view
on man and nature.

- The Church has functioned
to explain the meaning

of existence in
a particular way.

And science's explanation

has often conflicted
with the Church's.

Certainly that was the
reason that Galileo was

a threat to the Church,
because if he suggests

that the Earth is not the
center of the universe,

that the Earth revolves around
the Sun, he's challenging

the Catholic tenant that
the Earth was central.

- There were supporters of
Galileo within the Church

who disagreed with the
view that if he was right,

it proved these
passages of the Bible

to be wrong on
theological grounds,

so, yes, there were those who
backed him, but obviously it's

the pope's word that
goes at any given time.

[contemplative synth music]

- [Narrator] The
Renaissance became

a dangerous time
to be a scientist.

Many paid with their lives,
including Giordano Bruno,

a brilliant scientist and
a follower of Copernicus.

He was imprisoned in
the very same church

as was Dan Brown's heroine,
Castel di Sant'Angelo.

- One of the prime examples
of the Church coming down hard

on scientific thinkers
was the story of Bruno,

who was a bit of an extremist
in some of his views.

- [Narrator] Bruno was famous
throughout Western Europe

for developing memory skills,
a sensational theory in 1576.

And because he believed
like Copernicus

that the Earth revolved
around the Sun,

he became an enemy
of the Church.

The Church taught
that the universe

revolved around the Earth.

[dramatic synth music]

- And so the Church arrested him

and imprisoned him for almost
eight years, I believe,

and tried to convince
him to recant

his teachings, and he refused,

and in the year 1600, he
was burned at the stake.

- [Narrator] Galileo could
have faced the same fate.

Like Bruno, he too
was put on trial twice

for his scientific studies.

These trials were a central
part of Angels & Demons' plot.

- The story of Galileo is
very often misunderstood.

There were two trials
regarding Galileo.

One occurred in 1616
in which he was taken

before Church officials
because he upheld

the Copernican
theory at that time

that the Earth
revolved around the Sun

and that the Earth was not
the center of the universe.

At that time, during
his first trial,

he was brought there by
the scientists from Italy.

In 1616, he recanted
that, and he said,

oh, yeah, I agree
now with Ptolemy

that the Earth is the
center of the universe.

Well, he went back
to the university and
continued teaching

that the Earth revolved
around the Sun.

He was brought before
the Inquisition in 1632.

The trial was held in 1633.

There's a common
conception that Galileo

was beaten to his knees
and forced to recant

and thrown into a
dungeon and starved.

All of these things
are not true.

Galileo was, at the
time of his trial,

was living in the Villa Medici.

He was living in
the lap of luxury.

As soon as he recanted in 1633,

his sentence of a term in prison
was nullified by the Pope,

and the Pope immediately
gave him a pension to live on

for the rest of his life, which
he did, and a nice position.

- [Narrator] Did
this persecution

drive Galileo to join
an underground movement

and, as Dan Brown
suggests, the Illuminati?

Historian Clive
Prince has the answer.

- Galileo couldn't have been
a member of the Illuminati

because it didn't
exist in his day.

As to whether he was a
member of a similar society,

there's no evidence
either of his involvement

in any kind of movement like
that or of his inclination

to be involved in
anything like that.

- [Narrator] Still,
many leading artists

and scientists of
the day began joining

secret societies, like
the Priory of Sion,

familiar to readers
of The Da Vinci Code.

- As far as I can
tell, Leonardo da Vinci

and Isaac Newton
were both members

of the Priory of Sion, but
definitely with Da Vinci.

He was into a lot
of strange stuff.

He was kind of a polymath,
and so it makes sense

that he would be into that,
and he was very much into,

in terms of his paintings
and his drawings,

there was a lot of
stuff that people still

don't know exactly
what it means,

and it probably points to
maybe his membership in this

or some other group
of secret people.

- Well, in Angels & Demons,
the idea behind much of this is

that you look at people
like Bernini, a sculptor,

and Raphael, and Dan Brown
postulates and puts forward

this idea that
they may have been

members of this secret
organization, the Illuminati.

My research has shown that that
is undoubtedly not the case.

People like Bernini and
Raphael were god-fearing folk.

- They were kind of coming
around at that period

of the Age of Reason
and Enlightenment

and when a lot of
scientists such as Galileo

were pursuing knowledge that was

outside the purview
of the Catholic Church

and using rationality
and scientific method

to get at what they saw as
deeper, larger, grander truths.

- [Narrator] Those larger,
grander truths were sought after

by more than just
Renaissance scientists.

- This is a war
that's been going on

for a long time for
control of the planet.

How do you fight such a war?

[contemplative percussion
and synth music]

- Rome is today and
has been for centuries

the seat of the Catholic Church,

which means the fundamental
center of the Christian faith.

It is a mixture of
many other sources,

from Egypt, from Africa, and
from all over the planet.

- [Narrator] Symbols
from other ancient lands

cover the city of Rome.

It's one reason Dan Brown
set Angels & Demons there.

Another is its massive
treasure of artwork.

Art historian Betty
Brown suggests

both were used to
convey covert messages.

Some might have even been

on the fictitious
Path of Illumination.

- Bernini, as the
Illuminati artist,

used Egyptian motifs
so much in his work,

and that's because there was
at the time that he was working

very much a vogue for things
Egyptian, for Egyptian symbols.

- Since he chose Bernini
as the central character

in Rome, it's particularly good.

The Baroque period was a
time in which Western culture

was centered around the
production of images.

Rome was the
picture-making center

of the entire civilization.

Bernini was a superstar
on that stage.

[dramatic orchestral music]

- [Narrator] Superstar
might be an understatement.

Bernini was one of the most
famous artists of all time.

Working in the
1600s, he designed

the famous columns at
Saint Peter's Square

and the 140 intimidating saints
that stare down from them.

- Bernini, as an artist, may
well have actually embedded

within much of his
artwork certain symbols

and ideas that the
Church would have seen

as kind of in opposition to
their standpoint at the time,

but I think that
just like Raphael,

Bernini's marker or
symbols themselves

were really just talking about
these new scientific ideas,

the ideas of
Copernicus and Galileo,

and incorporating them
within the artwork.

[contemplative percussion
and synth music]

- The Church of Santa
Maria del Popolo is

a sight like many churches in
Rome that has a deep history.

It's an important place
for the Illuminati

if the Illuminati master
is gonna be Bernini

because it has two major
Bernini sculptures.

It has a Bernini
sculpture of Daniel

and one, a pairing of
an angel and Habakkuk.

And the angel has
come to Habakkuk

to tell him to rescue
or help Daniel,

and the angel is pointing
in one direction.

Habakkuk, resisting
for a moment,

is pointing in
another direction.

Dan Brown uses the angel
and Habakkuk sculpture

to suggest that the
angel is pointing

in the direction
of the next clue.

So that's a first major step

on his fictional path
of the Illuminati.

[dramatic orchestral music]

- [Narrator] Another location

on Dan Brown's Path
of Illumination,

[people chattering]
[fountain hissing]

Bernini's Four Rivers Fountain.

It's the southwestern
tip of the path's cross

over the Tiber River.

And at the center of
this Baroque masterwork

is this, a large obelisk.

Did Bernini purposefully place

this pagan object here
as some type of signal?

- The obelisk at the center
of the Four Rivers Fountain is

another one of the
ancient obelisks

that were brought to Rome,
and it lay in another site

of the city but under
dirt and years of debris.

The pope who patronized Bernini
and created that fountain

was Innocent X, who
wanted to create

a monument at the
center of that piazza,

which was in a sense
his kind of family turf.

His family's palace is
right adjacent to it.

Wanted a monument that marked
the center of the piazza

and glorified him and
the Church as well.

- An interesting question
though is why Bernini used

Egyptian motifs so
much in his work.

- [Narrator] It's a
question that has intrigued

conspiracy theorists
for centuries.

- In the Fountain
of the Four Rivers,

each of the human figures
represents a river,

and so it's
accompanied by symbols

designating which river that is.

Those are the more
overt symbols,

but Bernini could
have hidden all manner

of other little tricks in
there had he chosen to do so.

[water splashing]

- [Narrator] But it
isn't the fountain

that has most
historians perplexed.

It's this sculpture,
often considered
Bernini's masterpiece,

and it's right on
the eastern end

of Dan Brown's Path
of Illumination.

It hardly seems
like an accident.

- The Ecstasy of
Saint Teresa is one

of Bernini's most
extraordinary works.

The sculptural group
is the centerpiece

of an entire ensemble and chapel

that Bernini designed
for the Cornaro family,

a wealthy Venetian family, and
it illustrates or gives form

to one of the most remarkable
passages in her writings

that describes one of her many
encounters with the divine.

- [Narrator] It's the tip of
the arrow that allegedly holds

an Illuminati clue, fire,
one of the four elements.

The Illuminati were
early scientists.

Earth, wind, fire, and
water were the elements

with which they worked,
and in Dan Brown's book,

each was used to
kill a cardinal.

Did the Illuminati truly use
their most important symbols

for such a frightening means?

- Teresa of Avila
is a fabulous woman

from Christian history.

Santa Teresa reformed
the Carmelite Order,

allowing women who weren't
incredibly privileged

to enter the convent
by basically working
their way through,

rather than coming in with
such an immense dowry,

that it would pay for their room

and board for
their entire lives.

She traveled all over Spain,
founding the convents,

and, during her life, had
several visionary experiences.

- Saint Teresa of
Avila was in many ways

the poster child of the
Catholic Reformation,

and her experience,
her ecstasy, there was

this new emphasis on having an
emotional experience of piety

and an emotional experience
of god and of Jesus.

[contemplative synth music]

- [Narrator] This
artist outlived

eight popes, eight benefactors.

This allowed Bernini to create

much of the most valued
artwork throughout the Vatican,

including the famous
Saint Peter's Square.

But another Renaissance
artist may also have left

similar secret messages
in his works, Raphael,

only it wasn't with
obelisks or spears of fire.

And one anchors yet another arm

of the cross on the
Path of Illumination.

- Well, the pyramids in the
Chigi Chapel are fairly unique

in terms of Renaissance
tomb imagery and form.

They were actually
designed by Raphael,

who was the architect and
designer of the chapel,

in the 16th century,
the early 16th century,

and they were very
much meant to evoke

the grander of ancient Rome and
earlier civilizations still.

When Raphael
designed those tombs,

he was very much thinking
about the symbolic meaning

of the pyramid, going
back to Egyptian

and ancient Roman
culture, and in its form,

it embodied kind of
perfection on the one hand

and, on the other, the idea
of salvation and eternity.

- [Narrator] Dan
Brown appropriated

this site for the Illuminati

as yet another clue,
the element of earth.

Does this make
Raphael a conspirator?

- I think it's highly possible

that any of these
incredible creative geniuses

could have been a member
of a secret society,

certainly could have
been true for Raphael,

certainly could have
been true for Bernini.

- And I think that
Bernini and Raphael

and many of the
artists at the time

would have been seen in
modern terms as reformers.

They still relied
fundamentally upon the Church.

They were still
god-fearing folk.

They would have
seen these ideas,

the very idea of a secret
society as anathema,

but they were reformers, and
they wanted to bring forward

some of these new
scientific ideas,

and I think that's what Dan
Brown is really getting at

with a lot of his work
within Angels & Demons.

[mysterious orchestral music]

- [Narrator] While
Bernini and Raphael lived

long before the
Illuminati were known,

other symbols on the
Path of Illumination

may have true connections
to secret societies.

- Symbolically,
Egypt is the source

for the Illuminati symbols
that are so significant

in the mystery of
Angels & Demons

- Angels & Demons starts
with Robert Langdon,

the main character,
dreaming of Egypt.

I think this is Dan Brown using
this device within the novel

to draw us into the idea that
Egypt and Egyptian symbolism

is gonna play a very
important part in his book.

- [Narrator] In both
Rome and Vatican City,

numerous Egyptian obelisks
like these sit in open display.

Their origins are
pagan, yet here they are

in one of the most
religious sites on earth.

The reason they
are here goes back

to the very beginning
of modern Christianity.

- The obelisks within Rome
seem odd on the surface.

You walk around Rome,
you see obelisks.

There are actually 13
obelisks within Rome.

These obelisks account
for more obelisks

than are actually
standing within Egypt.

- [Narrator] In Angels & Demons,

the obelisks also help to form

the Path of Illumination
that Robert Langdon uncovers.

Professor Eric Johnson is

a religious history
scholar at UCLA.

He suggests there's a reason

that Egyptian mysticism
was very influential

in Christian-dominated
Europe and why such symbols

would have been used
by secret societies.

- There is a fascination
with Egyptian culture

or at least Egyptian philosophy
during the Renaissance.

Renaissance humanists thought
that the Egyptians were

this source of very,
very ancient wisdom
that had been lost,

and so there's this
attempt to recover

this ancient knowledge
and ancient wisdom.

- I think the obelisk in
Saint Peter's Square weighs

about 180,000 tons, and
so they had to construct

massive casings in order
to house it, to put it

on a kind of
causeway and move it.

Even if it was just
several hundred meters,

it was a colossal undertaking,
thousands of men, horses,

and you name it in order
to achieve the moving.

[contemplative synth music]

- [Narrator] It is at
the foot of this obelisk

where one of Dan Brown's most
gruesome murders takes place.

The final clue is
left by Bernini,

who created this square
in 1656 to hold 300,000,

a staggering number for its day

and a testament to the
power of the Church.

It is this elliptical
relief laid

in the center of the
square by the obelisk,

the West Ponente, wind.

- This stands in
Saint Peter's Square.

It's on one side of the grand
obelisk there in the square,

the West Ponente, and it
really just represents the idea

of the wind blowing from
the west, the west wind.

There are certain Christian
symbolic references here

that you could make and
you could put into that.

- What Dan Brown had in his
book about the Illuminati,

what makes them a little
bit more on the edge,

a darker edge of things,
is the fact that a lot

of their symbology and the
way they went about things

and some of their
so-called rituals,

they borrowed a lot
of their symbology

and that kind of stuff from
Egyptians, from Babylonians,

which everybody was
doing that at the time.

[upbeat synth music]

- I would probably catch
some flack for saying this,

but it's quite obvious to
any student of the Bible

that the Bible, of course,
on which Christianity

is based is actually
a hodgepodge

of ancient oral
traditions, old stories.

I'll give you one
classic example,

is the story Noah and the arc
and taking in the animals.

This is a story that dates
back to the Sumerian tablets

that predate the
Bible by probably

at least about 4,000 years,
and in the Sumerian tablets,

we have the exact same story.

- The Church appropriated
many symbols.

There are some
scholars who believe

that the Christian
cross symbol is actually

an appropriation of the
Egyptian ankh symbol,

which, as you know, is like a
cross but with a rounded top,

but it was worn as
crosses are worn today.

The image of Christ
as Good Shepard,

the young boy holding the sheep,

that's an appropriated symbol
as well from ancient times.

- Egyptian religion
and what we know

as modern-day Christianity
only fundamentally

differ in a few points really.

Egyptian religion was a
religion of symbolism.

Christianity, you could argue,

is a religion of symbolism, too.

We have the symbol of
the cross, for instance,

which is probably
the best known symbol

that we have in the world today.

- [Narrator] Experts suggest
that one major difference

separates Christianity
from Egyptian religion,

the belief in dualism,
especially good and evil.

This theme runs throughout
Angels & Demons.

It also accurately
describes the epic battle

between the church and science,

between the Illuminati
and organized religion.

- The Egyptians
really didn't see

things in forms of
black and white.

They didn't see things as a
yin-and-yang type of scenario.

It was shades of gray.

You had to have one
to have the other.

Order and chaos, they
must sit side by side.

Horus and Seth,
these two characters

from the Egyptian
pantheon of gods,

must be together
in order to give us

a completeness in the world.

- But the Christian idea is
that you have the good god

and you have the
devil, and that one is

ultimately totally good
and one is totally bad.

Well, even Set, the
ancient Egyptian god,

wasn't totally bad.

He had his place in
the pantheon of gods

and a place in the
welfare of many, even,

representing that
part of men and women

and representing the balance.

The Egyptians were
very big on balance,

whereas Christianity isn't.

- In Christian
elements of religion,

you really do have a definite
black and white, and it's used

in a very different sense
to this idea of balance.

You have heaven and hell.

You have God and the devil.

And it's a case of you
must take your choice.

It's you must pick, are
you with us or against us?

And it's this element to
Christianity that really is

one of the most
fundamental differences

to the earlier Egyptian
religious iconography.

[contemplative synth music]

- So this is another way in
which Rome transformed itself

into a sacred center
for the entire empire,

and so all the gods that
were venerated in the empire

were venerated in that temple.

Later on, after Christianity
becomes legalized

and then later becomes
the official religion

of the Roman Empire,
it was normal

for a lot of these
old pagan temples

to be reconverted
to become Christian.

[man singing in
foreign language]

- [Narrator] It's one of
these very pagan temples

that became one of the
most famous basilicas

in Rome, the Pantheon.

Hundred of thousands of
tourists flock here every year,

yet few likely know
that when they look up,

they are looking
at a demon hole.

Many now however may think of
it as an Illuminati landmark.

- The Pantheon has a
large hole in its roof,

and it's actually a
false trail that leads

Langdon and Vittoria
to the tomb of Raphael.

- [Narrator] This so-called
demon's hole in the temple

shows yet again a pagan symbol
remade as a Christian symbol,

another example of
dualism, good versus evil.

- They think one of the murders

is actually gonna
take place there.

It doesn't take place there.

What's interesting
is that they bring

into this part of the story
the idea of the demon's hole,

and this demon hole, they equate

with the roof of the Pantheon.

- [Narrator] Historian Simon Cox

believes that the
Path of Illumination

may be real, at
least in one sense.

- I think the Path
of Illumination

that Dan Brown highlights
in his book is real.

It's something that has been
used throughout history,

although maybe not in
the context that Brown

is actually bringing it
forward within Angels & Demons.

The idea behind neophytes,
behind initiates

actually walking a path,
metaphorical, real, is something

that we do find symbolically
throughout history.

- [Narrator] As the
Vatican continued to rule,

evidence suggests
that the Illuminati

stayed underground
for centuries.

Their goal of achieving
enlightenment through science

would slowly take a dark turn.

A grand conspiracy was planned,
a plan for world domination.

[upbeat synth music]

[mysterious orchestral music]

- Well, we've all heard
that knowledge is power,

but secret knowledge
is even more powerful.

And the Illuminati, if they
still call themselves that,

is a movement whose
basic philosophy

is the end justifies the means.

- [Narrator] Conspiracy
theorists have concluded

that the modern-day
Illuminati are

a powerful entity
in the world today,

[people applauding]

even if they no
longer carry the name.

- They will do anything
to further their agenda,

kill, maim, destroy, lie, cheat,

steal, whatever, and
this is quite effective

because they will
pose as anything.

They're liberals.

They're conservatives.

They're fascists.

They're Communists.

They're Democrats.

They're Republicans.

They're anything that
will further their agenda,

and this makes for a
very, very powerful

and effective secret conspiracy.

[contemplative synth music]
[people chattering]

- [Narrator] Theorists like
Jim Marrs and Paul Williams

suggest that the Illuminati's
call to arms came

with the formation of the most
controversial secret society

of the last 300 years.

The Freemasons, an
ancient sect of builders

and stonecutters that
may date back to Egypt.

- Freemason was actually a
half-French, half-Anglo term,

and it just meant
somebody that was free,

or frere, as in
brother, and a mason,

which was actually
in the building arts.

Later on, when they could
not be Templars anymore,

these masons banded together,
and they weren't just masons.

They were anybody in
the building arts.

They would form lodges, and
so if a brother mason came

from another lodge
into your town,

you would be responsible
to help give him shelter,

give him food and, if
possible, give him a job to do.

- [Narrator] Others, like
investigative journalist

Jon Rappaport, believe
that the Knights Templar

never were destroyed.

They simply went
underground for centuries.

[contemplative piano music]

But now, Rappaport
suggests the Knights have

finally reemerged and possibly
infiltrated the Freemasons.

- Freemasons, to me, evolved
out of the Knights Templar.

Knights Templar were
partially destroyed

by edict of the Pope
and the King of France,

fled the scene,
reformed themselves

as a kind of secret
society called the Masons,

put their Templar past
behind them publicly

so that no one
hopefully would discover

that this was a reformulation.

- When the Knights Templars
came back from the Holy Land

with all of their newfound
wealth and knowledge,

they proceeded to work
closely with primitive

but existing stonemason guilds,

and these were stonemasons
who would clump together

to form kind of a union and
then collectively worked

to build cathedrals
and churches.

And so it was the
stonemason guilds

that were the genesis
of the Freemasonry.

- But the Freemasons,
as an organization,

has survived for an
incredibly long time,

given that even though they
didn't set themselves up

in direct opposition
to the Church,

the Church had a huge fear
of that gnostic-based belief

that you could attain this
knowledge on your own.

[dramatic piano music]

- [Narrator] Like the
Templars before them,

the Freemasons became
an enemy of the Vatican,

who views them as a
threat to its sovereignty.

- Freemasonry has
been the target

of 17 separate
degrees by the Church.

It is outlawed by the
Church, and members

of the Catholic church
that become Freemasons

are subject to excommunication.

- You cannot be a
Catholic and a Mason.

From the time of its inception,

Freemasonry remained anathema
to the Catholic Church.

- [Narrator] In the United
States, it is believed

that the Freemasons
became established

as early as the
Revolutionary War.

More importantly,
author Jim Marrs

and others believe
they quickly became

political players in the
fledgling government.

- According to the
Masons themselves,

they played a very,
very big role.

The Boston Tea Party
reportedly took place

by members of a Masonic
lodge who completed

their lodge meeting and
then went out and dressed up

as Indians and dumped the
tea into the Boston Harbor.

[contemplative synth music]

- [Narrator] The number of
America's founding fathers

who were also Freemasons might
be a startling fact to many.

- In the United States
during colonial times,

Freemasonry was the
grease of the economy,

that in many cities,
you had to become

a Mason in order to do business.

Benjamin Franklin
understood that when he went

to Philadelphia,
that by becoming a
Freemason, his newspaper

and his printing press would
get jobs from the city.

John Hancock knew
that in Boston,

where about a third of
the people depended on him

for their income, he could trust
people if they were Masons,

so he would not give a job to
someone that wasn't a Mason.

George Washington was
actually told in a letter

by his brother, if he wants to
get surveying jobs, to become

a Mason and that
would facilitate him
getting those jobs.

- And of the 57 some-odd signers

of the Declaration
of Independence,

at least 50 of 'em were
known to be Masons,

so there's really not much
question that the Masons played

a very prominent role in
the founding of America.

[dramatic orchestral music]

- [Narrator] Perhaps
it was coincidence,

but the founding of the
Illuminati in Bavaria

appears to come full-circle
with the founding of America.

Did the Illuminati find a
sympathetic secret society

in the newly-formed
United States?

- The Illuminati were founded

in kind of a banner
year of 1776.

That's their date,
and May 1st, no less,

kind of international
communism, May Day.

And they were called
the bearers of light,

Illuminati, from illumination.

You kind of find this
knowledge about yourself

or information
through the light.

- There have in fact been
several Illuminati groups.

The best known one is the
Bavarian Illuminati group,

and it's best-known because
its ideals of liberty,

equality and fraternity,
if that sounds familiar,

they became fundamental
to the enlightenment

that appealed to the founding
fathers of this country.

- [Narrator] With Freemasonry
firmly established

in both the United
States and Europe,

the Illuminati reportedly
began to secretly expand

their power base by
infiltrating Masonic lodges.

- But in 1782, at the
Wilhelmsbad convention,

the Illuminati rolled themselves
into the Knights Templars

and into their creation,
the Freemasonry,

and this is where the
merging of the Illuminati

and the Freemasons took place.

- Some of those lodges have
been infiltrated, for example,

by Adam Weishaupt, who formed
the Illuminati in 1776.

He thought a very good
way to spread the word

was to simply
infiltrate and take over

certain already-established
Masonic lodges,

and if it is
internationally-controlled
from one point

and if that point has
some very dark agenda.

- [Narrator] Even founding
father George Washington,

a Freemason, openly feared
the Illuminati's infiltration.

- Interestingly,
George Washington said

that he believed in the
Illuminati conspiracy,

but he said it's nothing
to do with Freemasonry.

Although he distanced
Freemasonry from it,

he himself actually believed
in this Illuminati conspiracy.

- A small group of people
would have to run paradise

to make sure that
it is maintained.

The idea was, we'll
present this concept

of the abolition of
private property.

That will be our front.

There's a lot of people that
would love that as a dream

because they feel that that
would create true equality.

- [Narrator] But these
utopian ideals masked

a drive for complete
control of world events.

Could that drive lead them to
take over the United States?

[dramatic synth music]

[man singing]
[dramatic orchestral music]

While the Illuminized Freemasons

were expanding their
ranks globally,

the Roman Catholic Church
had slowly declined

in wealth, power, and influence.

In order to survive, the Vatican
was forced to compromise.

Some critics say they made
covert deals with the devil.

[Adolf speaking in
foreign language]

Others believe it
might have resurrected

assassinations of
modern-day popes.

- Well, first with the
Lateran Treaty of Mussolini

and then to a reported
secret concord

between Hitler and the Vatican,

there were accommodations
made prior to World War II

between the Fascists
and the Church

that basically was kind of,

we'll leave you alone if
you'll leave us alone.

That's why there were
no prominent outcry

against the atrocities of Hitler

and the Nazis by the Church.

- [Narrator] This alleged
secret infiltration

of the Vatican by outside powers

may have saved them from ruin.

However, some say it also
made them a co-conspirator

in the genocide
that was to follow.

[gunfire rattling]

- Pope Pius XI signed
the concordat with Hitler

and the concordat
with Mussolini.

He had promoted these
two fascist regimes.

Toward the end of
his pontificate,

he lived to recant these views.

He knew that he was wrong.

He saw that the herding
of the Jewish populations

throughout Germany and
Poland into ghettos,

the creation of
concentration camps,

the persecution of Catholic
clerics throughout Germany.

[dramatic synth music]
[people chattering]

- [Narrator] By 1939, Pope
Pius XI could no longer abide

by the clandestine
agreement he had made

with Italian dictator Mussolini.

He decided to separate the
Church from the Fascists.

It would be the last
decision he ever made.

- Just on the eve of World
War II, Pope Pius XI announced

that he was not happy
with these concordats

that had been reached
with the Fascists,

Mussolini and Hitler, and was
threatening to come forward

and expose these deals that had
been made between the Church

and the Fascists, but
then he died suddenly.

- [Narrator] The sudden
death of Pius XI killed

the plan to break the Vatican's
alliance with the Fascists.

Just like popes being
murdered and martyred

in the Middle Ages, once again,

the job of being pope
had become deadly.

Scholars today still
raise disturbing questions

about the Pope's death.

- As soon as he died,
the papal chamber

was entered by two
people, just two.

One was Cardinal Pacelli, who
later became Pope Pius XII,

who was the engineer of
the concordat with Hitler.

The second was the
Vatican physician.

- [Narrator] Cardinal Pacelli
and the Vatican physician

immediately ordered Pius
XI's body to be embalmed.

The Church had never allowed
this practice before.

Also, the Vatican did
not allow an autopsy

to be performed, raising
further suspicions.

Pius XI's death remains
a mystery to this day.

- There is reason to believe
that Italian Fascists

poisoned him,
[chuckles] but of course

as with most conspiracies,
you keep them covered up

not through absolute covering-up

of facts but
through obfuscation.

There's so much claim
and counterclaim

and controversy that most people

just finally get tired
of it and turn away.

- [Narrator] This
was not the last time

in recent history that
secrets, cover-ups,

even deaths would
scandalize the Church.

On May 5th, 1998, Italians
woke to shocking headlines.

[speaks in foreign language]
Violence had erupted

within the Vatican,
one of the most secret

and protected cities on earth.

Someone had been murdered
within its walls.

- On May 4th, 1998, a nun made
her way through the barracks

of the Swiss Guard
in the Vatican

and discovered the
bodies of the commander

of the Swiss Guard, Alois
Estermann, his wife Gladys,

and a young lance
corporal, Cedric Tornay.

The Vatican, a few hours later,

said that the young lance
corporal had shot the commander

and his wife before
turning the gun on himself.

[contemplative synth
and chimes music]

- [Narrator] What was
behind this horrific crime?

Had the fortress of the
Vatican been infiltrated?

Was it part of a larger plot
to overthrow the Church?

Dan Brown couldn't have written
the ensuing cover-up better.

- It was only four hours after
the bodies were discovered

that the Vatican announced that,

according to its
official version,

the lance corporal had killed
the commander and his wife

and then killed himself
in a fit of madness.

We weren't told what the
basis for this conclusion was.

- [Narrator] The terse nature
of the Vatican's statement

about the Swiss Guard murders
only inflamed the story more.

- Basically, the
Italian newspapers had

no idea what to
make of all this,

and all they had to go on were
a few lines from the Vatican,

so of course that's where
the questions started.

- [Narrator] What appeared on
the surface as a bizarre crime

in one of the most protected
secret societies on earth

may have been more political
than previously known.

- Cedric Tornay was made out
to be a madman, an alcoholic,

a drug addict by the
Vatican, but the truth is

that he was actually quite
a typical Swiss Guard.

He was dedicated to the
pope, he swore to sacrifice

his life, if necessary,
for the pope,

and he wanted to act as
a bodyguard for the pope,

and all these expectations
that he harbored in him

were, of course, turned
out to be illusions.

- [Narrator] But
in another twist,

investigative journalist
Devon Jackson finds

a possible link between
the Swiss Guard,

this elite army sworn to
protect the pope and Church,

and a secret society from the
past, the Knights Templar.

[dramatic organ music]

The very Knights
who once guarded

the pope were
destroyed by the pope.

[shield thumps]

Did this investigation expose

the resurgence of
this secret society?

It's a case that
never has been solved,

and like their predecessors,
the Knights Templar,

the Swiss Guard are tightly
keeping their secrets.

- Despite the huge pressure
for a public investigation,

the public wanting to find out

more about the cause
of the murders,

the Vatican battened down
its hatches completely.

It refused an offer of help

from the Italian
Interior Ministry.

It refused offers of help from
other Italian crime experts.

The morning following
the murders,

all the Swiss Guards
were gathered together
by the chaplain,

and they were made to
swear silence on the affair

and anything they knew about
the protagonists involved.

- [Narrator] While
the murders cast

a more scrutinizing light
on the Swiss Guards,

their undying dedication to
the pope is beyond dispute.

In many ways, they are just
as secretive as the Vatican.

- The Swiss Guard is a
secretive institution

like any department
inside the Vatican.

The officers, the men
of the Swiss Guard

have to swear an oath of
loyalty to the Church,

and it's inculcated into
them that that includes

defending the interests of
the Church at all times.

- [Narrator] Though Dan Brown
depicts the Swiss Guards

as a sophisticated private
army in Angels & Demons,

experts tell a different story.

- It's fairer to
characterize the Swiss Guard

as a tourist attraction,
a paper tiger

rather than a crack
fighting force.

- [Narrator] Because of
their tangible connection

with the Vatican,
some even suspect

that papal foes like
Knights Templar infiltrated

the Swiss Guards centuries ago.

- When the Knights Templars
took off their tunics

and rolled themselves into
the general population,

it stands to reason that they
would insinuate themselves

into positions of power,
to include the Swiss Guards

around the Vatican, to
include the secret societies.

They probably infiltrated
many walks of life.

- The Vatican has always
been rumored to have

a secret service, but it's
not an intelligence system

as we know it in other
Western countries.

It's basically a
network of information,

a prodigious network
of information

because it's based
on priests in Italy

but of course all over the world

and all sorts of
religious institutions

who bring in a flow of
information to the Vatican.

But there are some blind spots,

and one of them is
terrorism, and that's why

the Vatican have to
rely on information

from people like the CIA,
the French secret service,

or even the Italian
secret service.

My key conclusion after watching

and talking to the
Swiss Guards is

that they're not equipped
to protect the pope.

[contemplative synth music]

- [Narrator] The biggest
threat to the Vatican,

though, may not be
from terrorists.

Have secret societies
infiltrated the Church itself?

Some believe that they have,
and that there is a money trail

leading to more
murders at the Vatican,

perhaps even of another pope.

- It would be most instructive

if everyone was to study
the P2 scandal in Italy

back during the administration

of Ronald Reagan
back in the '80s.

P2 stands for
Propaganda Due, which is

the name of a Masonic
lodge in Italy.

They said they were financed
through Illuminized Freemasons

in Switzerland known as
the Gnomes of Zurich.

It was a heck of a story, and
it was big news in Europe,

but over in America,
we barely got

to hear much of
anything about it.

- [Narrator] The
Propaganda Due had

close business relations with
the Vatican Bank, which was

headed by Chicago-born
archbishop Thomas Marcinkus.

Eventually, several high-ranking
cardinals and bishops

became members of
the Masonic-led P2.

- But, here we have
it in the 1960s,

a secret Masonic
organization that became

incredibly powerful, with
tentacles throughout the world,

and you had over 121
Catholic hierarchs.

I'm talking about
archbishops, bishops,

cardinals, members
of the society.

- [Narrator] By 1978, the
newly-appointed Pope John Paul I

became aware of the Vatican's
relationship with P2.

He began an investigation,

but he would not live
to see it completed.

Did the trail from
the Knights Templar

to the Illuminati and
finally to the Masons

somehow lead to John
Paul's premature death?

Historian Clive Prince believes

it could have been
an inside job.

- Many people have
suspected that that was

a result of some kind of
faction within the Church,

within the Curia, the Church's
civil service, if you like,

that didn't want
this man to be pope

because of financial scandals
that were going on at the time

that they thought
he might uncover.

- [Narrator] A few years after
the death of John Paul I,

the Vatican was swept up
in the Ambrosiano affair

one of the world's
biggest banking scandals,

which led to another
bizarre death.

- The P2 were also
very big into banking,

and around this time,
the Bank Ambrosiano,

one of the largest
banks in Italy,

and it was called the
Vatican Bank, failed.

The head of the bank was a
person named Roberto Calvi,

who was found hanging from the
Blackfriars Bridge in London

with stones in his
pocket, kind of symbolic

of a Masonic assassination
rather than in a simple hanging.

- A Masonic rule
says that a traitor

should be dangled before the
rising tide, which he was,

and a traitor should
be assassinated

with the marks of Masonry, the
group that he had betrayed,

ergo the five bricks
within his pockets.

[people chattering]

- [Narrator] While the
assassination of a pope

is fiction in Angels & Demons,

the world watched in horror as
a real assassination attempt

of Pope John Paul was
broadcast live on television.

[gun fires]
[people shouting]

Even today, the
question remains,

was it a lone gunman or
was there a larger plot?

- The assassination attempt
against Pope John Paul II

in May 1981 in Saint
Peter's Square is

the only murder attempt
in recent times.

He was surrounded by
Vatican security officials,

including senior officers
of the Swiss Guard.

- The attempted assassination
of John Paul II back in 1981,

that it wasn't another
case of a lone gunman,

this guy Ali Agca,
who was a Muslim,

that it involved both the KGB,

through some weird still-shady
Bulgarian connection.

[choir singing]

- [Narrator] Did Pope John
Paul II's strong stance

against communism incite
the plot to assassinate him?

Was his attacker part of
an ancient secret society

called the Assassins,

which have been linked
to the Knights Templar?

- Ronald Reagan and
John Paul II set up

this agreement where
they were in a battle.

It was kind of toward
the end of the Cold War,

so they wanted to
get rid of communism

and the liberation theologists

which were all in South
America and Central America

at that time, at the height
of their controversial rise.

Reagan said, if you help
me defeat communism,

I'll do what I can to kinda keep

the liberation theology
movement down there

and allow you to keep more
control over those people.

It's documented that
Reagan and John Paul II,

as the head of the Vatican,
were gonna try and do

what they could to
stamp out communism.

So, naturally, the Soviet
Union felt threatened enough

to perhaps use this Bulgarian
connection to off the Pope.

[dramatic synth music]

- [Narrator] If there was a
conspiracy to kill John Paul II,

the Vatican's perpetual
secrecy effectively killed

the investigation into the case.

- We have the case just
after the attempted murder

of Pope John Paul II in 1981
when the Italian authorities,

trying to find out
information from the Church

about what they might have known

about the run-up to that
attempted assassination,

but there, the Church
refused to give

any information to
the magistrates,

so much so that one Italian
public prosecutor accused

the Vatican of placing a
tombstone on his inquiry.

- [Narrator] But it wasn't just

the Vatican that was threatened.

Reportedly, the Illuminati had
infiltrated the Freemasons.

And across the ocean in
a prosperous America,

the Freemasons were
surprisingly aggressive

at infiltrating the government
of the United States,

eventually reaching
its highest levels.

- To the question, which
Presidents were Mason,

it's more, which
Presidents were not Masons.

You go up to George Bush
and Delano Roosevelt,

Harry Truman, Reagan,
it's just a laundry list.

Just about every President
has been a Freemason.

It's just funny to think of
who the Freemasons have been

or are, like the
astronaut Buzz Aldrin

or John Wayne or Bob
Hope or W. C. Fields.

It's like, what are they getting
out of being a Freemason?

And it's a fraternal
organization,

and this is where the
Freemasons have been at odds.

- Franklin Roosevelt
was one of them

that did reach the
highest level of Masonry,

and he worked his way up
for a long time in Masonry.

Gerald Ford might
have been given

the title strictly
as an honorary basis,

but some Masons believe
as many as a 1/3

of the Presidents of the
United States were Freemasons.

- [Narrator] During Franklin
Roosevelt's presidency,

a subtle change in the $1 bill

is thought to have
signaled the arrival

of a powerful secret society
in the United States.

- One of the things
Dan Brown mentions

in his books is
the Masonic imagery

on the dollar bill, and
there's much to that.

We have the Great Seal which
has a lot of Masonic imagery,

such as the arrows
and the olive branch.

Here we have the
all-seeing eye of knowledge

at the top of the pyramid,
but it's separated

from the rest of the pyramid,
and this is Illuminati imagery

indicating that they
alone have this knowledge

and that all the rest
of us are down here

on the lower part
of the pyramid.

[reflective synth
and string music]

- [Narrator] Treasury
Secretary Henry Wallace,

who according to Simon
Cox was a Freemason, added

Masonic symbols to the great
seal of the United States.

He also added these
frightening words.

- The term, novus ordo seclorum,

actually means the
new world order.

Masonry calls this god,
the Great Architect.

- So, in other words,
we have new world order

right here on our dollar bills,

and yet most people
are unaware of this.

- [Narrator] The
dollar bill might be

just the beginning of
evidence that the long trail

of the Knights Templar
to the Illuminati

and now to the Freemasons
has infiltrated

the government of the
world's largest free nation.

- The Washington
Monument is an obelisk.

It's in the form of
an Egyptian structure

that basically has
the same meaning.

It was originally for the god
Osiris, but it's just the sign

of any god and the
power of that god.

The whole layout
of Washington, D.C.

is done to a sacred
architecture.

The Capitol Building,
the White House,

and the Washington Monument are

the three most
important pieces there.

- [Narrator] The most
startling evidence

of Illuminati influence is
with the Bilderberg Commission,

arguably one of the most
powerful groups in the world,

who many suspect of controlling

the world's economy and
even its governments.

- The Bilderbergers came
along in 1954, I think.

They were founded by
another Freemason,

this guy Prince
Bernhard, who was

part of this
Merovingian dynasty,

as he claims, also
affiliated with the Nazis.

They used to meet in this hotel

in the Netherlands called
the Hotel Bilderberg,

so they just started calling
it the Bilderbergers.

At one of their later meetings,

David Rockefeller, who
a lot of people see him

as this huge kind
of master puppet

kind of pulling the
strings of world leaders,

he proposed the idea at
a Bilderberger meeting

that we should
have a commission,

which later came to be called
the Trilateral Commission,

which is coincidentally there
are three parts of a pyramid.

- The purpose of the
Bilderberg Group was

a united Europe, started
with a common market.

You now have the European Union

that is desperately trying
to get its member-nations

to ratify a constitution
that will mean

that the already
top-heavy governments

of these individual countries
in Europe will now be run

by a super top-heavy
organization called
the European Union.

Bureaucrats will
run all of Europe.

There will be no borders.

The rule of the
few over the many.

- There's a great
deal of secrecy,

especially with
the Bilderbergers.

There is a great deal of privacy

of what goes on
within the council

in the formulation of the
Trilateral Commission,

and the fact that they want
to try and shape the world

as they see it, that's
what is best for the world

and we know how to do that that,

that's what leads
to lumping them in

with the new world order,
the pyramid, the eye

and the pyramid, lumping them
in with Masonic traditions.

[dramatic orchestral music]

- [Narrator] The
Vatican is saved

at the end of Angels &
Demons, but does the fight

between science and the
Church continue today?

- I've been asked,
in the struggle

between the Illuminati and
the Church, who's winning?

And it's hard to say because
this is a sub rosa conflict.

You don't read about
it in your newspapers

or your news magazines, and
you don't see it on television.

But stepping back and
taking the long view,

I think you find that
the influence of the
Church is waning,

and there is growing chaos
in the political field

and growing control in
the corporate field,

so I would have to
say the Illuminati

seem to be ahead at this point.

- They've always
fought against science,

and even though it's
400, 500 years late,

they finally just got
around to absolving Galileo

of claiming that the Sun was
the center of the universe.

- They would still kill
Galileo today or chain him up.

They would still burn
Giordano Bruno at the stake,

as they did, if they
could get away with it.

They just know they
can't get away with it.

They have to do
this by other means.

That is the hope, that is the
plan, that is the strategy,

to support situations in
which chaos will reign.

[upbeat synth and
percussion music]

- [Narrator] Does the Illuminati

still wield power
in secret societies?

Are they still fighting
for a new world order?

- This is a war
that's been going on

for a long time for
control of the planet.

How do you fight such a war?

- [Narrator] And in
the end, who will win?

[upbeat synth and
percussion music]

[ominous orchestral music]