The Real History of the Rosicrucians: Founded on Their Own M
Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2019 3:02 am
The Real History of the Rosicrucians: Founded on Their Own Manifestoes, And on Facts and Documents Collected From the Writings of Initiated Brethren
by Arthur Edward Waite
1887
With Illustrations
NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT
Table of Contents:
• Preface: Influence of the Secret Societies; Romantic Associations connected with the Rosicrucian Fraternity; Universal ignorance concerning it; Extent of the Rosicrucian literature; Pretensions of this History
• Introduction: Derivations of the name Rosicrucian; Derivation from the supposed founder, Christian Rosencreutz; Derivation from Ros and Crux; History of the term Ros in Alchemy; Derivation from Rosa and Cruz; On the Rose in Symbolism, the Cross in Symbolism, and on the significance of their union, with special reference to the Romance of the Rose and the Paradise of the Divine Comedy
• Chapter I. On The State of Mystical Philosophy in Germany at the Close of the Sixteenth Century: On the state of Mystical Philosophy in Germany at the close of the Sixteenth Century; Perpetuation of Neo-Platonic traditions; Revolution in Religion, Science, and Philosophy; Paracelsus and his successorsRise of the Spiritual Alchemists
• Chapter II. The Prophecy of Paracelsus, and The Universal Reformation of the Whole Wide World
• Chapter III: The Fama Fraternitatis: The Fama Fraternitatis of the Meritorious Order of the Rosy Cross, addressed to the learned in general and the Governors of Europe
• Chapter IV. The Confessio Fraternitatis: The Confession of the Rosicrucian Fraternity, addressed to the learned of Europe
• Chapter V. The Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz
• Chapter VI. On The Connection of the Rosicrucian Claims With Those of Alchemy and Magic: Fanaticism and Follies of the Rosicrucian Manifestoes; Discrepancies between the Universal Reformation and the Fama Fraternitatis; Religious Opinions of the Society; Scientific and Philosophical Pretensions; Doctrine of the Macrocosmos and of the Microcosmos; Theory of Elementals; Doctrine of Signatures; Physical Transmutations; The Great Elixir
• Chapter VII. Antiquity of the Rosicrucian Fraternity: Absence of historical traces before the seventeenth century; Researches of Semler; The Militia Crucifera Evangelica; Absurd pretensions of Mr Hargrave Jennings; The Templars and the Rosicrucians
• Chapter VIII. The Case of Johann Valentin Andreas: Theories as to the authorship of the Rosicrucian Manifestoes; The story of Christian Rosencreutz not historically true; Claims of Taulerus, Joachim Junge, and Ægidius Guttmann; Case of Johann Valentin Andreas; Sketch of his Life; Predilection for Secret Societies; Digest of the Evidence adduced to prove that Andreas wrote the Rosicrucian Manifestoes; Examination of this Evidence; Futility and Repulsiveness of Professor Buhle's hypothesis; Facts of the Case; A tenable hypothesis; Character of the Rosicrucian Mystery
• Chapter IX. Progress of Rosicrucianism in Germany: Progress of Rosicrucianism in Germany; Andreas Libavius; His hostile criticism; Echo of the God-illuminated Brotherhood R. C.; The Open Letter or Report of Julianus de Campis; Fama Remissa ad Fratres Roseæ Crucis; Confessio Recepta; Vicious attack by Johann Valentin Alberti; Other pamphlets of the Period
• Chapter X. Rosicrucian Apologists: Michael Maier: Rosicrucian Apologists: Michael Maier; His importance in the controversy; Publication of Silentium Post Clamores, Symbola Aurem Mensæ, and Themis Aurea; Curious Colloquy and Echo Colloquii on the Rosicrucian Society; Was Michael Maier the founder of a pseudo-Rosicrucian Society?; Reappearance of the Order; Laws of the Brotherhood as published by Sincerus Renatus
• Chapter XI. Rosicrucian Apologists: Robert Fludd: Grandeur of the Kentish Mystic; Geneasssslogy and life; Bibliographical matter; Fludd's Defence of the Rosicrucians; Analysis of this publication; Hostile criticism of Mersenne; Fludd's Rejoinder; Epistle from the Rosicrucian Society to a German Neophyte; Cosmical philosophy of Robert Fludd
• Chapter XII. Rosicrucian Apologists: Thomas Vaughan: The mystery which surrounds him; List of his Writings; His translation of the Fame and Confession; His opinion concerning the Order, of which he was not a member
• Chapter XIII. Rosicrucian Apologists: John Heydon: Autobiography; Talbot's Life of Heydon; Bibliography; "The Rosie Cross Uncovered"; The Rosicrucians in England; "True narrative of a Gentleman R. C."; John Heydon encounters the spirit Euterpe; Voyage to the Land of the Rosicrucians
• Chapter XIV. Rosicrucianism in France: Gabriel Naude's "Information on the truth of the Rosicrucians"; Strange manifesto placarded on the walls of Paris; "The Unknown and Novel Cabala of the Brethren of the Rose Cross"; "Frightful Compacts between the devils and the so-called illuminati"
• Chapter XV. Connection Between the Rosicrucians and Freemasons: Futility of Professor Buhle's hypothesis; The Rose-Cross degree in Freemasonry; Its modern origin
• Chapter XVI. Modern Rosicrucian Societies: Migration of true Rosicrucians eastward; Copy of the admission of Sigismund Bachstrom into the Rosicrucian Brotherhood; The English Rosicrucian Society; Its Laws add Objects; Harmless nature of the association; Incompetency of its members; The Rosicrucians in Literature and Legend
• Conclusion
• Additional Notes
• Appendix of Additional Documents: Preface to the Fama Fraternitatis; Curious Apologue; Rosicrucian Prayer to God
by Arthur Edward Waite
1887
With Illustrations
NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT
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Table of Contents:
• Preface: Influence of the Secret Societies; Romantic Associations connected with the Rosicrucian Fraternity; Universal ignorance concerning it; Extent of the Rosicrucian literature; Pretensions of this History
• Introduction: Derivations of the name Rosicrucian; Derivation from the supposed founder, Christian Rosencreutz; Derivation from Ros and Crux; History of the term Ros in Alchemy; Derivation from Rosa and Cruz; On the Rose in Symbolism, the Cross in Symbolism, and on the significance of their union, with special reference to the Romance of the Rose and the Paradise of the Divine Comedy
• Chapter I. On The State of Mystical Philosophy in Germany at the Close of the Sixteenth Century: On the state of Mystical Philosophy in Germany at the close of the Sixteenth Century; Perpetuation of Neo-Platonic traditions; Revolution in Religion, Science, and Philosophy; Paracelsus and his successorsRise of the Spiritual Alchemists
• Chapter II. The Prophecy of Paracelsus, and The Universal Reformation of the Whole Wide World
• Chapter III: The Fama Fraternitatis: The Fama Fraternitatis of the Meritorious Order of the Rosy Cross, addressed to the learned in general and the Governors of Europe
• Chapter IV. The Confessio Fraternitatis: The Confession of the Rosicrucian Fraternity, addressed to the learned of Europe
• Chapter V. The Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz
• Chapter VI. On The Connection of the Rosicrucian Claims With Those of Alchemy and Magic: Fanaticism and Follies of the Rosicrucian Manifestoes; Discrepancies between the Universal Reformation and the Fama Fraternitatis; Religious Opinions of the Society; Scientific and Philosophical Pretensions; Doctrine of the Macrocosmos and of the Microcosmos; Theory of Elementals; Doctrine of Signatures; Physical Transmutations; The Great Elixir
• Chapter VII. Antiquity of the Rosicrucian Fraternity: Absence of historical traces before the seventeenth century; Researches of Semler; The Militia Crucifera Evangelica; Absurd pretensions of Mr Hargrave Jennings; The Templars and the Rosicrucians
• Chapter VIII. The Case of Johann Valentin Andreas: Theories as to the authorship of the Rosicrucian Manifestoes; The story of Christian Rosencreutz not historically true; Claims of Taulerus, Joachim Junge, and Ægidius Guttmann; Case of Johann Valentin Andreas; Sketch of his Life; Predilection for Secret Societies; Digest of the Evidence adduced to prove that Andreas wrote the Rosicrucian Manifestoes; Examination of this Evidence; Futility and Repulsiveness of Professor Buhle's hypothesis; Facts of the Case; A tenable hypothesis; Character of the Rosicrucian Mystery
• Chapter IX. Progress of Rosicrucianism in Germany: Progress of Rosicrucianism in Germany; Andreas Libavius; His hostile criticism; Echo of the God-illuminated Brotherhood R. C.; The Open Letter or Report of Julianus de Campis; Fama Remissa ad Fratres Roseæ Crucis; Confessio Recepta; Vicious attack by Johann Valentin Alberti; Other pamphlets of the Period
• Chapter X. Rosicrucian Apologists: Michael Maier: Rosicrucian Apologists: Michael Maier; His importance in the controversy; Publication of Silentium Post Clamores, Symbola Aurem Mensæ, and Themis Aurea; Curious Colloquy and Echo Colloquii on the Rosicrucian Society; Was Michael Maier the founder of a pseudo-Rosicrucian Society?; Reappearance of the Order; Laws of the Brotherhood as published by Sincerus Renatus
• Chapter XI. Rosicrucian Apologists: Robert Fludd: Grandeur of the Kentish Mystic; Geneasssslogy and life; Bibliographical matter; Fludd's Defence of the Rosicrucians; Analysis of this publication; Hostile criticism of Mersenne; Fludd's Rejoinder; Epistle from the Rosicrucian Society to a German Neophyte; Cosmical philosophy of Robert Fludd
• Chapter XII. Rosicrucian Apologists: Thomas Vaughan: The mystery which surrounds him; List of his Writings; His translation of the Fame and Confession; His opinion concerning the Order, of which he was not a member
• Chapter XIII. Rosicrucian Apologists: John Heydon: Autobiography; Talbot's Life of Heydon; Bibliography; "The Rosie Cross Uncovered"; The Rosicrucians in England; "True narrative of a Gentleman R. C."; John Heydon encounters the spirit Euterpe; Voyage to the Land of the Rosicrucians
• Chapter XIV. Rosicrucianism in France: Gabriel Naude's "Information on the truth of the Rosicrucians"; Strange manifesto placarded on the walls of Paris; "The Unknown and Novel Cabala of the Brethren of the Rose Cross"; "Frightful Compacts between the devils and the so-called illuminati"
• Chapter XV. Connection Between the Rosicrucians and Freemasons: Futility of Professor Buhle's hypothesis; The Rose-Cross degree in Freemasonry; Its modern origin
• Chapter XVI. Modern Rosicrucian Societies: Migration of true Rosicrucians eastward; Copy of the admission of Sigismund Bachstrom into the Rosicrucian Brotherhood; The English Rosicrucian Society; Its Laws add Objects; Harmless nature of the association; Incompetency of its members; The Rosicrucians in Literature and Legend
• Conclusion
• Additional Notes
• Appendix of Additional Documents: Preface to the Fama Fraternitatis; Curious Apologue; Rosicrucian Prayer to God
Among the concourse of inquirers, and the clamour of supposed and pretended discoverers, there rose gradually into deserved prominence an advanced school of illuminati, who, employing the terminology of the turba philosophorum, under the pretence of alchemical pursuits appear to have concealed a more exalted aim. The chief representative of this sect at the end of the sixteenth century was Henry Khunrath, and the work in which its principles are most adequately expressed is the "Amphitheatrum Sapientiæ Æternæ." The student is directed by these writers from the pursuit of material gold to the discovery of incorruptible and purely spiritual treasures, and they pretend to provide a mystical key or Introitus apertus to the "closed Palace of the King," in which these treasures are contained. Physical transmutation, the one and supreme end of the practical alchemist, sinks into complete insignificance; nevertheless, it is performed by the adept and is a landmark in his sublime progress. Rejecting the material theory even for this inferior process, they declare its attainment impossible for the unspiritual man, and just as the alchemical nomenclature is made use of in a transfigured sense, so the terminology of metaphysics appears to be pressed into the service of a conception far transcending the notions commonly conveyed by the words wisdom, spirituality, &c.
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At this time Germany was a stronghold of mysticism, which, according to Ueberweg, was at first chiefly developed in sermons by monks of the Dominican Order; its aim was to advance Christianity by edifying speculation, and to render it comprehensible by the transcendent use of the reason. "The author and perfecter of this entire development was Master Eckhart," who taught that the creature apart from the Absolute, that is, from God, was nothing, that "time, space, and the plurality which depends on them," are also nothing in themselves, and that "the duty of man as a moral being is to rise beyond this nothingness of the creature, and by direct intuition to place himself in immediate union with the Absolute."
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At the beginning of the seventeenth century "a great and general reformation," says Buhle, -- a reformation far more radical and more directed to the moral improvement of mankind than that accomplished by Luther, -- "was believed to be impending over the human race, as a necessary forerunner to the day of judgment."
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Apollo gave the charge of the Universal Reformation to the Seven Wise Men of Greece, who are of great repute in Parnassus, and are conceived by all men to have found the receipt of washing blackmoors white, which antiquity laboured after in vain.
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Then Cato began thus: -- "Your opinions, most wise Grecians, are much to be admired, and have abundantly justified the profound esteem which all the Litterati have of you; the vices, corruptions, and ulcerated wounds under which the age languishes could not be better discovered and pointed out. Nor are your opinions, which are full of humane knowledge, gain-said here for that they are not excellent, but for that the malady is so habituated in the veins, and is even so grounded in the bones, that the constitution of mankind is worn out, and their vital vertue yields to the strength of the distemper; in short, the patient spits nothing but blood and putrefaction, and the hair falls from his head. The physitian, gentlemen, hath a hard part to play when the sick man's maladies are many, and one so far differing from another that cooling medicines, and such as are good for a hot liver, are nought for the stomach, and weaken it too much. Truly this is just our case, for the maladies which molest our age equal the stars of heaven, and are more various than the flowers of the field. I, therefore, think this cure desperate, and that the patient is totally incapable of humane help. We must have recourse to prayers and to other divine helps, which in like case are usually implored from God; this is the true north-star, which, in the greatest difficulties, leads men into the harbour of perfection, for Pauci prudentia, honesta ab deterioribus, utilia ab noxiis discernunt; plures aliorum eventis docentur. If we approve this consideration, we shall find that when the world was formerly sunk into the same disorders, it was God's care that did help it by sending a universal deluge to raze mankind, full of abominable and incorrigible vice, from off the world. And, gentlemen, when a man sees the walls of his house all gaping and ruinous, and its foundations so weakened that, in all appearance, it is ready to fall, certainly it is more wisely done to pull down the house and build it anew, then to lose money and time in piecing and patching it. Therefore, since man's life is so foully depraved with vice that it is past all human power to restore it to its former health, I do with all my heart beseech the Divine Majestie, and counsel you to do the like, that He will again open the cataracts of Heaven, and pour down upon the earth another deluge, with this restriction, that a new Ark may be made, wherein all boys not above twelve years of age may be saved, and that all the female sex, of whatsoever age, be so wholly consumed, that nothing but their unhappy memory may remain. And I beseech the same Divine Majestie that as He hath granted the singular benefit to bees, fishes, beetles, and other animals, to procreate without the female sex, so He will think men worthy of the like favour. I have learnt for certain that as long as there shall be any women in the world men will be wicked."
***
Whatsoever you have heard, O mortals, concerning our Fraternity by the trumpet sound of the Fama R. C., do not either believe it hastily, or wilfully suspect it. It is Jehovah who, seeing how the world is falling to decay, and near to its end, doth hasten it again to its beginning, inverting the course of Nature....
We hold that the meditations of our Christian father on all subjects which from the creation of the world have been invented, brought forth, and propagated by human ingenuity, through God's revelation, or through the service of Angels or spirits, or through the sagacity of understanding, or through the experience of long observation, are so great, that if all books should perish, and by God's almighty sufferance all writings and all learning should be lost, yet posterity will be able thereby to lay a new foundation of sciences, and to erect a new citadel of truth; the which perhaps would not be so hard to do as if one should begin to pull down and destroy the old, ruinous building, then enlarge the fore-court, afterwards bring light into the private chambers, and then change the doors, staples, and other things according to our intention....
A thousand times the unworthy may clamour, a thousand times may present themselves, yet God hath commanded our ears that they should hear none of them, and hath so compassed us about with His clouds that unto us, His servants, no violence can be done; wherefore now no longer are we beheld by human eyes, unless they have received strength borrowed from the eagle....
This Fraternity, which is divided into degrees, as those which dwell in Damcar, who have a far different politick order from the other Arabians; for there do govern onely understanding men, who, by the king's permission, make particular laws, according unto which example the government shall also be instituted in Europe (according to the description set down by our Christianly Father), when that shal come to pass which must precede, when our Trumpet shall resound with full voice and with no prevarications of meaning, when, namely, those things of which a few now whisper and darken with enigmas, shall openly fill the earth, even as after many secret chafings of pious people against the pope's tyranny, and after timid reproof, he with great violence and by a great onset was cast down from his seat and abundantly trodden under foot, whose final fall is reserved for an age when he shall be torn in pieces with nails, and a final groan shall end his ass's braying, the which, as we know, is already manifest to many learned men in Germany, as their tokens and secret congratulations bear witness....
We abjure all deceit, for we promise that no man's uprightness and hopes shall deceive him who shall make himself known to us under the seal of secresy. But to the false and to impostors, and to those who seek other things then wisdom, we witness by these presents publikely, we cannot be betrayed unto them to our hurt, nor be known to them without the will of God, but they shall certainly be partakers of that terrible commination spoken of in our Fama, and their impious designs shall fall back upon their own heads, while our treasures shall remain untouched, till the Lion shall arise and exact them as his right, receive and imploy them for the establishment of his kingdom....
One thing should here, O mortals, be established by us, that God hath decreed to the world before her end, which presently thereupon shall ensue, an influx of truth, light, and grandeur, such as he commanded should accompany Adam from Paradise and sweeten the misery of man: Wherefore there shall cease all falshood, darkness, and bondage....
After the world shall have slept away the intoxication of her poisoned and stupefying chalice, and with an open heart, bare head, and naked feet shall merrily and joyfully go forth to meet the sun rising in the morning....
While there are yet some eagle's feathers in our way, the which do hinder our purpose, we do exhort to the sole, onely, assiduous, and continual study of the Sacred Scriptures, for he that taketh all his pleasures therein shall know that he hath prepared for himself an excellent way to come into our Fraternity, for this is the whole sum of our Laws, that as there is not a character in that great miracle of the world which has not a claim on the memory, so those are nearest and likest unto us who do make the Bible the rule of their life, the end of all their studies, and the compendium of the universal world. From the beginning of the world there hath not been given to man a more excellent, admirable, and wholesome book then the Holy Bible; Blessed is he who possesses it, more blessed is he who reads it, most blessed of all is he who truly understandeth it, while he is most like to God who both understands and obeys it.
-- The Real History of the Rosicrucians: Founded on Their Own Manifestoes, And on Facts and Documents Collected From the Writings of Initiated Brethren, by Arthur Edward Waite