C. R. C.,” that is, Christian Rosy Cross, died at the age of

106 years. The society, the Fama” tells us, had lasted (in that form) 120 years. But recently the burial vaults of the founder had been discovered. A door bore the inscription. Post CXX. annos patebo.” A heptagonal vault, illumi- nated by an artificial sun, was discovered. In the middle a circular altar displayed a small brass with this inscription : — This grave, an abstract of the whole world, I made for myself while yet living.” Round the margin was the motto, “ Jesus inihi omnia.” Each side of the vault had a secret recess, which contained books in MS. and some bells and medicinal items. The body of C. R. C. was found beneath the altar, uncorrupted, with the book called T. in his right hand, which ‘'has since become the most precious Jewel of the society next after the Bible.” At the end of it are subscribed the names of the eight brethren.
After finishing this story, more like a romance than a reality, and one which might not even be the true history of the Rosicrucian Order at all, follows an invitation for “ some few, which shall give their names,” to join together, “ thereby to increase the number and respect of our Fraternity, and make a happy and wished-for beginning of our Philosophical Canons, prescribed to us b}^ our
1 Waite, 65-84.
DOCTOR ROBERT FLUDD.
37
Brother R. C., and be partakers with us of our treasures (which can never be wasted), in all humility and love, to be eased of this world’s labours, and not walk so blindly in the knowledge of the wonderful works of God.” They profess themselves of the Protestant faith. They honour the Emperor and submit to his laws. The rumoured art of gold making “is but a slight object with them.” “Also, our building [the House of the Holy Ghost], although one hundred thousand people had very near seen and beheld the same, shal for ever remain untouched, undestroyed, and hidden to the wicked world. Sub umbra alarum tuarum JEHOVA.” 1
The second volume, the “Confessio Fraternitatis, R. C.,” appeared in a Latin form in the year 1615, also at Cassel. It consists of fourteen chapters, and is addressed, “ Ad Eruditos Europse.” The introduction to the reader contains a declaration that the Pope is Antichrist, a suffi- cient declaration of a Protestant authorship. Mahomet is condemned, along with the Pope, in the first chapter. The “ Confessio ” bears to be an explanation of anything “ too deep, hidden, and set down over dark in the Fama.” This philosophy “ containeth much of Theology and Medicine, but little of Jurisprudence,” but analyses and makes “ suffi- ciently manifest the microcosmus, man.” The meditations of