The greatest success of the Bavarian Illuminati conspiracy was the French Revolution of 1789. The profound impact of that Revolution is felt to this day in the political destinies of billions of people worldwide. The Illuminati had declared war against Church and State a decade earlier and worked feverishly to spread their new gospel of Liberty and Reason. Although the Order was officially suppressed on the eve of the Revolution, its efforts do not appear to have been in vain. The recruiting programme of Illuminati founder, Adam Weishaupt, was focused on attracting the powerful and influential government ministers, academics, the press, authors and philosophers, booksellers and publishers, even religious leaders open to agnostic or atheist views. Many such men belonged to the masonic lodges of Germany, Austria and France. The wider masonic network offered Weishaupt a respectable vehicle by which he was able to propagate his clandestine doctrines.