First-ever book-length modern conspiracy theory, written by the Jesuit priest, the Abbé Augustin Barruel, advancing the thesis, supported by extensive documentation, that the French Revolution was planned and executed by secret societies.
Augustin Barruel (1741 - 1820) was a prolific author and Jesuit priest born in France. He dedicated himself to literature after the suppression of the Society of Jesus and was exiled during the Revolution. While in London, he wrote Histoire du clergé, pendant la Révolution française (1793), which went through several editions and multiple translations, and strengthened British opposition to revolutionary principles. His best-known work, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire du Jacobinisme (1797), established, along with John Robison's own contemporaneous book, the basis for the modern conspiracy theory of history. After the fall of the Directory, Barruel returned to France, where he defended the Napoleonic order. He ended his days engaged in a vigorous, Europe-wide controversy relating to his work, The Papal Power.
