Alexander Horn

Who was Alexander Horn?

Alexander Horn, was a Scottish Benedictine monk who became a British secret agent and diplomat. His work contributed to the birth of the conspiracy theory of the illuminati.

Horn was born in the village of Oyne, County of Aberdeen, in the Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1772, at the age of ten, he was accepted as an oblate by the Scots Monastery in Regensburg, Germany, an imperial abbey in the capital which was then the seat of the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire. About 1782, when he had come of age, he was admitted to the monastic community as a monk and given the religious name of Maurus and was ordained a Catholic priest around 1785. He was an esteemed librarian at the monastery by 1790, while at the same time working as the Regensburg agent for the British ambassador in Munich. He cultivated close ties with the Thurn und Taxis family and other influential people in the region. Despite being a monk, his social life led to him being described as a "wild young fellow".

Horn wrote anonymously, condemning France's activities in undermining the Holy Roman Empire.