CHAPTER VI

Secret Societies for Esoteric study — Existing from earliest times — among Egyptians, Greeks, and Latins — Two Schools — Christian and Arabic — Rosy Cross first mentioned, 1374 — Name of Rosaries — Symbol of Rose — Secret, also Ineffable Bliss — Secret Teaching handed on from time to time — Agrippa organises Secret Society at Paris, 1507 — Rosicrucians said to be reoi’ganised by Paracelsus — but Society appears suddenly in public in 1616, “ Faraa Fraternitas” — History of C. R. C. — Rules — Death and Burial of C. R. C. — Tomb — Whole more like a Romance than a reality — House of the Holy Ghost — The “ Confessio,” 1615 — A Protestant Production — Followed by Publi- cation of “ Chymical Marriage” — A larger work — An “Abstruse Alchemical Treatise ” — J. V. Andreas’ connection — His learning — Probably published these Tracts — Immense Sensation caused by “Fama.”
'THAT secret societies have existed for the purpose of esoteric study, from very early times, is undoubted. Egyptians, Greeks, Latins conferred secret knowledge in lodges or meetings, in which various degrees of initiation were practised. The medieval societies for the study of alchemy, natural magic, and in which theosophical subjects were discussed, may be said to have sprung from two sources — that represented in earlier times b}^ the societies in the church, formed from the teaching in the schools of Alexandria, and that represented by the schools of magic originating in Arabia, and which came to fuller renown and glory in Moorish Spain. The latter produced Geber, Avincenna, Rhases, and Averrhoes. One of these societies was the “ Societas Physicorum ” in the fourteenth century.
The first mention of the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross is alleged to be in the year 1374, when the Count von Falkinstein, Bishop of Treves, is designed as '"Imperator Fraternitatis Rosese Crucis."
D
34
DOCTOR ROBERT FLUDD.
It is probable that the old secret brotherhood of alchemists and mystics had this name at the time of the many ‘ Rosaries ’ produced by such men as Arnold Lully, Ortholanus, Roger Bacon, &c., and united the symbol of the rose, which represents the secret as well as the ineffable bliss, with the Cross or Symbol of the Christian Faith.” ^
At anyrate, in the firmament of the middle ages, dark and stormy, began to appear the mysterious brothers of the Rosy Cross. “ Many of these mystics, by following what they had been taught by some treatises, secretly preserved from one generation to another, achieved discoveries which would not be despised even in our modern days of exact sciences.” ^
In the year 1507, a secret society, organised by Cor- nelius Agrippa, appeared at Paris. That famous occultist is said to have been Imperator of the Society of the Rosy Cross.
The Rosicrucians were reorganised by Theophrastus Paracelsus. During his long travels in the East, he had evidently become acquainted with the Indian secret doctrine, and he drew after him in Europe a large number of disciples, and united the Rosicrucian system with the older teachings, though we cannot now easily trace how far this was done.^
Agrippa and Paracelsus were, it will be remembered, pupils and friends of Trithemius. The latter, writing in 1510 to Agrippa, tells him to ‘‘ speak of things public to the public, but of things lofty and secret only to the loftiest and the most private of your friends.” ^
But as we certainly know the society of the Rosy Cross, we may consider it revealed to Europe, somewhat suddenly, early in the seventeenth century. Two remarkable books
^ Transactions of Newcastle College of S. Ros. in Anglia, i., iii. 48. The mention, in 1484, of the “ Fratcrnitas Rosarii Slesvici,” does not necessarily refer to a Rosicrucian Society, but to a Guild of the Rosary in the Catholic Church. See Ars. Quat. Coron., v. 67.
^ Isis Unveiled, i. 64.
3 Newcastle Pro. S. R. in Anglia, i., iii. 51 ; also Waite, 211.
^ Morley’s Agrippa, i. 221.
DOCTOR ROBERT FLUDD.
35
then appeared. The first is entitled, “ Fama Fraternitas or, a Discovery of the most laudable Order of the Rosy Cross.” The first edition was printed at Cassel in the year 1616, though it is said to have existed in MS. six years before that date. This exceedingly rare first edition is in 12mo, in Gothic letter, and was originally issued in antique paper binding. It commences with the declaration that now, seeing the progress in science and discovery, a “Liber Naturae, or a Perfect Method of all Arts,” can be “ Collected.”
The “Fama” then proceeds to the story of the founder of the order— “the most godly and highly illuminated Father, our Brother, C. R. C., a German, the chief and original of our Fraternity ” ; who, neverthless, is said to have been associated with another (elder or previously ad- mitted) brother, P. A. L.