The Hellfire Club (named after an actual historical group) in normal X-Men continuity is really more of a secret society than a religious sect. They have a hand in the Dark Phoenix Saga, but weren't actually intending for the cosmic force living within Jean Grey's mind to be unleashed.
Not so, in Ultimate X-Men. Here, the Hellfire Club is a selective group that has entirely funded Professor Xavier's School for the Gifted. Their reasons were assumed to be benevolent, right up until they invited everyone over for dinner, strapped Jean to a magic circle, and summoned the Phoenix, creator of all life.
As it turns out, they'd been preparing for years to find an avatar for the Pheonix, who they believed was metaphysically trapped in the Earth's core. Their money went to Professor Xavier expressly so that Jean Grey would be raised somewhere where she was less likely to lose her mind from constant psychic awareness and repeated visions of an omnipotent flaming bird. They thought by releasing the Phoenix, they would gain her gratitude and a modicum of mercy and power when she destroyed all that she found to be unrighteous on the planet in a holocaust of flame.
They… were wrong.
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