The Illuminati is an epic television series that spans the past 2,000 years of world history. From the time of Jesus to the American and French Revolutions, an underground stream of hidden knowledge has been clandestinely preserved that has shaped western history. It has been called the Quest for the Grail—the pursuit of Enlightenment.
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Synopsis of Season 1 – Templar Knight
Jerome, a young and talented stonemason from the Cathar region of southern France, joins the Knights Templar in 1219 and takes part in the Fifth Crusade under King John of Brienne. His remarkable intelligence and adroit fighting skills lift him quickly through the ranks. Jerome is sent as a spy to Jerusalem to determine whether the Muslims intend to destroy the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional place of Jesus’ burial and the holiest site for Christians.
In Jerusalem, Jerome saves the life of Elijah, a Jewish man who claims to be a “Desposyni” – a descendant of the family of Jesus. Elijah shows Jerome a tomb that he claims contains the bones of Jesus and his mother, as well as Jesus’ brothers, his wife Mary Magdalene, and his son, Jude. As a result, Jerome’s faith is thrown into turmoil. He finds spiritual redemption when he falls in love with and marries Elijah’s daughter, a beautiful Desposyni girl named Sarah.
Following the recapture of Jerusalem by Emperor Frederick II during the Sixth Crusade in 1229, Jerome takes Sarah and their two sons back to France where they rejoin Jerome’s Cathar brethren. The Cathars have been declared heretics by the Church and have been struggling for survival since the Pope launched the Albigensian Crusade, the only crusade carried out by the Church against its own people. Pope Innocent III establishes the Inquisition for the purpose of destroying the remaining Cathars.
Jerome and his family are present at the legendary siege of the Cathar fortress of Montségur in 1244, where two hundred Cathar soldiers put up their last stand against 10,000 Catholic soldiers. Sarah manages to make a desperate escape from Montségur, carrying the fabled Cathar treasure. The next day, the Catholics burn the last Cathars at the stake. Jerome and his sons manage to flee to a land of refuge where Jerome takes up his old profession of master masonry. Jerome establishes a secretive guild of “free” masons to preserve his heretical knowledge, unknowingly releasing forces that will revolutionize the western world.
Synopsis of Season 2 – The Nazarenes
AD 66. Roman troops invade the Temple in Jerusalem. Josephus is among the priests who are brushed aside. The Romans have come to collect a short fall in taxes from the Jews. The event triggers a full-scale rebellion. The High Priest appoints Josephus as the leader of the Jewish forces in Galilee. Jude (the son of Jesus) lives in Galilee. He is the mysterious beloved disciple. He has two grandsons, Zoker and James.
AD 67. The Roman General Vespasian, and his son Titus, invade Galilee with 30,000 troops. Jude is fatally injured by the Romans. Zoker and James vow to bury Jude with his father, Jesus, in Jerusalem. Whilst enroute, they take refuge with Josephus at a fortress in Jotapata. They help Josephus defend the city against the Romans. Titus leads some Roman soldiers over the walls. They capture the city. Josephus and James hide in a well. A Roman soldier called Nic-anor knows Josephus. Nicanor offers clemency on behalf of Vespasian. But the Jews make a suicide pact. The last two men standing are Josephus and James. Josephus convinces James to surrender. James confesses to Nicanor that he is a
great grandson of the Jewish Messiah, Jesus. Nicanor knows that Jesus claimed to be the King of the Jews. Nicanor wants to arrest James, but he is forced to set him free because he surrendered. Zoker reunites with James and they take the bones of Jude back to Jerusalem. They bury Jude with his father in Talpiot, East Jerusalem.
AD 68. The Roman Emperor Nero watches Christians being killed in an amphitheater of Rome. Nero blames the Christians for a fire which destroyed most of Rome in the year 64; but a Senator tells Nero that the people blame him for the fire. Nero commits suicide. Vespasian rushes to Rome to seize control.
AD 70. His son, Titus, lays siege to Jerusalem. The Jews dig a tunnel underneath the siege tower. The tunnel collapses the ground underneath the siege tower. However, the tunnel also collapses the wall. The Romans invade the city. They fight their way to the Temple, and set it on fire.
AD 74. James and Zoker flee to a Jewish fortress on the hill of Masada. The Romans build a gigantic ramp up the hill. The Jews make a suicide pact, but James and Zoker flee back to Galilee. James isWhilst in Galilee, James is recognized by the Roman Soldier, Nicanor. Nicanor arrests James and Zoker for being descendants of Jesus. He wants to take them back to Rome to stand trial before the Emperor.
AD 79. While sailing from Israel to Rome, they stop at the port of Pompeii. They narrowly escape the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The same year, the Emperor Vespasian dies. He is succeeded by his son, Titus.
AD 81. James and Zoker arrive in Rome; but before they can stand trial before Titus, he dies. Titus is succeeded by his brother Domitian. Nicanor presents Zoker and James to Domitian. James explains to Domitian that the kingdom of Jesus is not an earthly kingdom, but a heavenly kingdom that would come at the end of history. Domitian thinks that James and Zoker are delusional. He releases them and orders the persecution of Christians to cease. Zoker and James join the few remaining Christians in Rome. They find out that Paul has taught the Christians that Jesus was God incarnate and that he was physically raised from the dead. They explain to the Christians that they have seen Jesus tomb. They show them the All Seeing Eye symbol. Word of the symbol spreads among the Christians in Rome, but not the fact that Jesus was a mere mortal. Legend has already supplanted reality.
Synopsis of Season 3 – The Revolutionaries
In Jerusalem, 1766, a man called “Abbe Marotti” goes in search of the origin of the All Seeing Eye symbol. He is an Italian by birth, but he lives in Germany. He is also a priest and a Professor of Greek.
His search leads him to the family tomb of Jesus in Talpiot. On the tomb is a mysterious symbol which has been used since the beginning of Christianity: The All Seeing Eye. Inside the tomb are bone boxes inscribed with the names: “Jesus, son of Joseph”, “Maria”, “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”, “Jose” (Jesus brother’s nickname), “Matthew” (Jesus cousin), another “Mary”, and “Jude, son of Jesus.”
Marotti spreads knowledge of the All Seeing Eye through the church in Germany, including at the Aachen Cathedral. He also passes the secret through a society called the “Freemasons.”
In 1778, a German Professor of Law finds out about the secret. His name is Adam Weishaupt. Weishaupt establishes an organization called “the Illuminati.” The Illuminati adopt the All Seeing Eye as their official symbol.
The Illuminati pass the secret onto a Freemason called the Count of Mirabeau, the French Ambassador to Germany. Mirabeau is an influential politician in France. Mirabeau allies himself with the Grandmaster of all Freemasons in France, the Duke of Orleans. The Duke is the King’s cousin. The Duke is also the richest man in Europe. He has his eye on the crown. In 1789, they initiate a revolution in France.
The revolutionaries execute the King & Queen. They replace the aristocracy with a meritocracy. They produce a Declaration of Human Rights to replace the Ten Commandments. Atop the Declaration of Human Rights is the All Seeing Eye from the Talpiot Tomb. They use the All Seeing Eye on their currency. The revolutionaries wear the cap of Mithras. They force the king to do likewise.
Mithras was a god of the first century who, like Jesus, was born from a virgin in a cave surrounded by animals and shepherds on the 25th of December. The cap of Mithras was used during ceremonies of the Illuminati.
The revolutionaries abolish Christianity and replace the God of the Bible with the “Goddess of Reason.” They re-dedicate the Cathedral of Notre Dame to reason, rather than religion.
Not even the Christian calendar is spared. Years are numbered no longer from the birth of Christ, but from September 1792 – the overthrow of the monarchy. It is now year one. Months are renamed according to the seasons -- July becomes “Thermidor”, April becomes "Floreal” Months are broken into three weeks of 10 days each. The goal was to make people lose track of Sunday. Their goal is to establish a utopian science Republic.
In 1781, the American Ambassador to France is the scientist “Benjamin Franklin”, who is also a Freemason. He notifies US congress about the Illuminati message. The message is carried by Thomas Paine, who helped instigate the revolutions in both America and France. Thomas Paine brings the Illuminati symbol to the attention of the Committee organizing the Great Seal of the United States. At the time, the currency features only an incomplete pyramid. However, the Committee then adds the All Seeing Eye to the incomplete pyramid.
The symbol from the Talpiot Tomb is now on the most popular currency in the world. But the symbol stems from the tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem: the tomb of God.
EPISODE SUMMARY OF SEASON 1 – TEMPLAR KNIGHT
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Episode 1 – The Stonemason
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Jerome, a 17-year-old prodigy in the art of masonry and the martial arts, designs and sculpts the main archways of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. It is a world of privilege and poverty, hypocrisy and patronage where one’s life can be in danger by a word of slander or betrayal. Jerome is oblivious to this world, thriving at his craft and the object of desire of aristocratic girls, especially Yvette. She, in turn, is the object of desire of Simon, the progeny of one of the leading families of the city. In the meantime, troops are landing in Egypt to join the Fifth Crusade for the retaking of the Holy Land from its Arab conquerors.
Jerome’s jealous rival, Simon, accosts Jerome, and Jerome is forced to kill him in self-defense. Because Jerome is an outsider, hailing from the Cathar region of southern France, he is forced to flee or face a certain death sentence. Jerome follows the advice of his mentor, Templar knight Arnald-Roger, and in 1219 attaches himself to the troops leaving Paris to join the Fifth Crusade of King John in Damietta, Egypt. The star stonemason and heartthrob of teenage aristocrats is now a fugitive and a new recruit sailing to a far-away land and an unknown future.
Episode 2 – Sarah the Desposynos
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In Egypt, due to his adroit fighting skills, Jerome is instrumental in the capture of Damietta and is knighted by King John. Newly knighted, Jerome is sent as a spy to Jerusalem with an Arabic speaking guide, Zahid. Jerome’s mission is to find out whether the Muslims intend to destroy the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the holiest Christian site, venerated as the tomb of Jesus. While there, he saves the life of Elijah, the leader of a mysterious Jewish sect called the Desposyni, and falls in love with his beautiful daughter, Sarah.
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The Desposyni show Jerome what they claim to be the real tomb of Jesus, not what they say is the false tomb at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They lead Jerome down an aqueduct to a small town just east of Jerusalem and show him a tomb containing burial boxes bearing the names of Jesus and his family, and, astoundingly, the names of Mary Magdalene and a son of Jesus. Sarah and Elijah reveal to Jerome that they are blood descendants of the family of Jesus. Jerome’s faith is shaken to the core, and he does not know what to believe.
Episode 3 – The Defeat
With great regret, Jerome leaves Sarah behind and rejoins the Christian forces in Egypt where he shares his findings with the Templar Grandmaster, Pedro de Montague. Montague tells Jerome of the founding of the Templars during the First Crusade. He introduces Jerome to the order and he is inducted by secret ritual. Montague explains that the Templars removed from the tomb a secret gospel and the head of John the Baptist. Jerome is now a Templar Knight. Due to the misguided leadership of the Papal Legate, Cardinal Pelagius, the Christian forces in Egypt are defeated by the Sultan Al-Kamil. The Fifth Crusade is lost.
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Cardinal Pelagius does not take responsibility for the devastating crusader defeat. Having caused many delays during the Fifth Crusade, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II is blamed for it. Frederick renews his vow to Pope Honorius III to lead the next crusade to re-take the Holy Land. To demonstrate his commitment, he marries Yolande, the daughter of King John and heiress to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Jerome returns in stealth to Jerusalem and reunites with Sarah. They marry in an elaborate ceremony and have two sons. Jerome’s shattered faith is slowly restored as he begins to realize that the blood of the family of Jesus will be passed on to his sons through Sarah.
Episode 4 – The Aborted Crusade
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King John and Emperor Frederick have a falling out. Frederick, on the basis of his marriage to Yolande, dispossesses his father-in-law, John, of his rightful title and proclaims himself King of Jerusalem. In 1227, Frederick finally embarks on the Sixth Crusade, but turns back when he catches malaria. Pope Gregory IX thinks the malaria is a ruse and excommunicates Frederick for failing to honor his papal vow. Yolande has a son but she dies shortly after giving birth. Frederick has lost the war, his religion, and now his wife. Jerome is living happily and peacefully in the Galilee, working as a stonemason, where Jesus once lived as a carpenter.
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After recovering from malaria, Emperor Frederick sets off for the Holy Land. Jerome spots Turkish cavalry concentrations in the Galilee. Having heard of Frederick’s return, and still loyal to his brothers in arms, he makes a dangerous journey to the crusaders’ stronghold in Acre to alert them of the impending Turkish attack. There, he meets with Emperor Frederick, who takes a great interest in Jerome and invites him to join his court.
Episode 5 – The Sultan
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Having befriended the Emperor, Jerome reveals his discoveries about the Desposyni to Frederick and introduces him to Sarah, who shares her knowledge of Jesus’ family with him. Always a freethinker and skeptical of the Church, the excommunicated Frederick is enraptured by what he learns of original Christianity from Sarah. Based on his new view of life, Frederick is inspired to try and broker a deal with the Sultan Al-Kamil for an agreement on Jerusalem beneficial to both sides, allowing the Muslims to retain control of the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque. Papal loyalists see the deal as a betrayal of the Pope and they plot to kill Frederick, but the Sultan gets wind of the plot and saves Frederick’s life.
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With Frederick in the Holy Land, the Pope and King John, long at loggerheads with Frederick, conspire to attack Frederick’s kingdom in Italy. In Jerusalem, Frederick formally declares a truce with the Sultan in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and crowns himself King of Jerusalem. Frederick meets with Elijah and visits the Jesus family tomb. He is about to elevate the Desposyni and their followers to rival the Pope but, on receiving word of the attacks on his lands, Frederick is forced to leave the Holy Land to defend his kingdom in Italy.
Episode 6 – Inquisition
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Back in Europe, Frederick summons Jerome and commissions him to serve as a knight for his ally, Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse, in southern France. Jerome’s mission is to foment rebellion against the Pope in the south of France and divert the Pope’s forces from Frederick’s primary attack on Rome itself. Frederick arrives in France to find the Inquisition in full force. Jerome is shocked to discover the Count of Toulouse being flogged for defying the Catholic Church. Jerome renews acquaintances with his family and discovers the hidden truth about the Cathar faith in which he was raised. He comes to learn that the Inquisition has been set up to destroy his people and the truth they preserve.
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Jerome meets with the leader of the Cathars, Bishop Guilhabert de Castres, in his cave hideout in the Sabarthes. Guilhabert explains Cathar theology to Jerome and gives Sarah heavenly visions through hypnosis. Jerome is stunned to discover the similarities between the heretical Christian faith of the Cathars and the heretical Jewish faith in which Sarah was raised. Jerome and Sarah witness a Cathar being burned at the stake in the town of Albi and Jerome resolves to defend their cause.
Episode 7 – Revolt
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The Pope’s men dig up dead Cathars to burn them for heresy. Jerome and his men assassinate two agents of the Inquisition and throw them down a well. Jerome starts a riot in Narbonne that leads to the sacking of the Dominican convent. Raymond VII evicts the chief inquisitors from his kingdom of Aquitaine. The Pope sends a new inquisitor to Aquitaine who puts Jerome on the most-wanted list. Frederick surrounds Rome with his army.
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Jerome and his family flee the Inquisition and seek refuge in the Cathar fortress of Montségur, perched on top of a rugged high mountain. Raymond VII declares war on King Louis IX of northern France and recruits King Henry III of England as an ally for the coming war against the Pope. Jerome and the military commander of Montségur, Pierre-Roger of Mirepoix, lead sixty soldiers on a stealth night mission to kill the chief inquisitors at Avignonet and capture their inquisitorial records. Jerome and his compatriots succeed in their mission and are celebrated as heroes by the people.
Episode 8 – War
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Jerome participates in the battle of Taillebourg, at which the forces of Raymond VII and King Henry III of England are defeated. Jerome retreats to Montségur to prepare the two hundred Cathar knights for the coming onslaught of the Catholic army, 10,000 men strong. The Cathars send a young and beautiful spy, Marie de Saint-Clair to seduce the leader of the Catholic army, Hugues des Arcis.
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A Catholic spy, Imbert de Salas, leads Basque mercenaries up a cliff to within striking distance of the fortress of Montségur as the Catholics begin launching stones from their catapults at the fortress. Jerome’s two sons, Peter and Matthew Bonnét, escape at night to hide the Cathar treasure in the forest and seek reinforcements for the embattled defenders of Montségur from Emperor Frederick.
Episode 9 – Surrender
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Matthew leads a force of fighters to Montségur at night, but Catholic forces surrounding the mountain capture them. The Catholics make a final brutal attack on the fortress, helped by the spy, Imbert de Salas. The Cathars surrender to the Catholics and as a condition of surrender get a two-week reprieve. The new Cathar Bishop Marty induces Sarah into a hypnotic state in which she has a vision of heaven. The vision convinces the Cathars that Sarah is the reincarnation of Mary Magdalene and galvanizes them in their faith. Bishop Marty convinces Sarah to escape with three Cathar priests to recover the Cathar treasure buried in the forest.
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The two hundred Cathars holding out in the castle refuse to renounce their faith and willingly walk into the flames of the giant fire prepared for them. Having resolved to continue the new faith he has found through Sarah, Jerome and his sons decide to take their faith underground. They pretend to be Catholics and are allowed to leave the fortress unharmed. Back in the Holy Land, Zahid leads the forces of the Sultan Al-Kamil to capture Jerusalem and sack the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Jerome departs with his family for England where he takes up his old trade of masonry and begins a secretive guild of “free” masons to preserve his heretical knowledge.