Chapter 1
Preface
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Presented to the
LIBRARY of the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
by
Willard G. Oxtoby
THE
REAL HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
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,
AUTHOK OF "THE MYSTERIES OK MAGIC: A DIGEST OF THE WRITINGS
OF KLII'HAS LEVI," ETC.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
LONDON:
GEORGE REDWAY, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
1887.
LIBRARY
• COLLEGE
•TO
ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS.
Preface — Influence of the Sec^eil^ocieti^s^f^^antTlSAss.qciations
connected with the^Jsosicruoian FraternYC^-MJniversa!!. ignor-
ance concerning jt-^— Extent of the Rosicrucian literart^re —
Pretensions of thisiTIistory pfj>.\ f. % ••"«••>• • • v\ •
"' n "' " /?
\ fc^TRODUCTION. ,>< fe / /
' ' ^ - j"t * * S"' * ^f " "•
Derivations of the name RosiiJrucian-^Derivahon from'thelsupposed
founder, Christian Rosencreutz — Derivation from Rbs and Cnix
—History of the term ftos in Alchemy— Derivation from Rosa
and Crux — 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 THE FIRST.
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 successors — Rise of the Spiritual Alchemists . . 27
CHAPTER THE SECOND.
The Prophecy of Paracelsus and the Universal Reformation of the
whole Wide World 34
CHAPTER THE THIRD.
The Famu Fraternitatis of the Meritorious Order of the Rosy Cross,
addressed to the learned in general and the Governors of
Europe 64
vi ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER THE FOURTH.
The Confession of the Rosicrucian Fraternity, addressed to the
learned of Europe . 85
CHAPTER THE FIFTH.
The Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz ... 99
CHAPTER THE SIXTH.
On the Connection of the Rosicrucian Claims with those of Alchemy
and Magic — Fanaticism and Follies of the Rosicrucian Mani-
festoes— Discrepancies between the Universal Reformation and
the Fama Fraternitatis — Religious Opinions of the Society —
Scientific and Philosophical Pretensions— Doctrine of the Ma-
crocosmos and of the Microcosmos — Theory of Elementals —
Doctrine of Signatures — Physical Transmutations — The Great
Elixir .197
CHAPTER THE SEVENTH.
On the Antiquity of the Rosicrucian Fraternity — Absence of his-
torical traces before the seventeenth century — Researches of
Semler — The Militia Crucifera Evangelica — Absurd pretensions
of Mr Hargrave Jennings — The Templars and the Rosi-
crucians 210
CHAPTER THE EIGHTH.
Theories as to the authorship of the Rosicrucian Manifestoes — The
story of Christian Rosencreutz not historically true — Claims of
Taulerus, Joachim Junge, and ^Egidius 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 — Charac-
ter of the Rosicrucian Mystery ..-.,.. 217
CHAPTER THE NINTH.
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 Rosete Crucis — Confessio Recepta
—Vicious attack by Johann Valentin Alberti— Other pamphlets
of the Period . 246
ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS. vii
CHAPTER THE TENTH.
Rosicrucian Apologists : Michael Maier — His importance in the
controversy — Publication of Silentium Post Clamores, Symbola
Aurese Mensse, 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 268
CHAPTER THE ELEVENTH.
Rosicrucian Apologists : Robert Fludd — Grandeur of the Kentish
Mystic — Genealogy 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 — Cosmi-
cal philosophy of Robert Fludd 283
CHAPTER THE TWELFTH.
Rosicrucian Apologists : Thomas Vaughan — The mystery which sur-
rounds him — List of his Writings — His translation of the Fame
and Confession — His opinion concerning the Order, of which he
was not a member 308
CHAPTER THE THIRTEENTH.
Rosicrucian Apologists : John Hey don — Autobiography — Talbot's
Life of Hey don — Bibliography — " The Rosie Cross Uncovered"
—The Rosicrucians in England — "True narrative of a Gentle-
man R. C. " — John Heydon encounters the spirit Euterpe —
Voyage to the Land of the Rosicrucians 315
CHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH.
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 " 387
CHAPTER THE FIFTEENTH.
Connection between the Rosicrucians and Freemasons — Futility of
Professor Buhle's hypothesis — The Rose-Cross degree in Free-
masonry—Its modern origin 402
Vlll
ANAL YS1S OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH.
Modern Rosicrucian Societies — Migration of true Rosicrui
eastward — Copy of the admission of Sigismund Bacstrom into
the Rosicrucian Brotherhood — The English Rosicrucian Society
— Its Laws and Objects — Harmless nature of .the association —
Incompetency of its members — The Rosicrucians in Literature
and Legend
PAGE
408
Conclusion
431
Additional Notes
Appendix of Additional Documents — Preface to the Fama Frater-
nitatis — Curious Apologue — Rosicrucian Prayer to God .
434
PREFACE.
~T)ENEATH the broad tide of human history there flow
-•— ^ the stealthy undercurrents of the secret societies,
which frequently determine in the depths the changes that
take place upon the surface. These societies have existed
in all ages and among all nations, and tradition has invari-
ably ascribed to them the possession of important know-
ledge in the religious scientific or political order according
to the various character of their pretensions. The mystery
which encompasses them has invested them with a magical
glamour and charm that to some extent will account for
the extravagant growth of legend about the Ancient
Mysteries, the Templars, the Freemasons, and the Rosi-
crucians, above all, who were the most singular in the
nature of their ostensible claims and in the uncertainty
which envelopes them.
" A halo of poetic splendour," says Heckethorn,1 " sur-
rounds the Order of the Rosicrucians ; the magic lights of
fancy play round their graceful day-dreams, while the
mystery in which they shrouded themselves lends additional
attraction to their history. But their brilliancy was that
of a meteor. It just flashed across the realms of imagina-
tion and intellect, and vanished for ever; not, however,
without leaving behind some permanent and lovely traces
of its hasty passage. . . . Poetry and romance are deeply
1 " Secret Societies of all Ages and Countries."
A
2 HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
indebted to the Kosicrucians for many a fascinating crea-
tion. The literature of every European country contains
hundreds of pleasing fictions, whose machinery has been
borrowed from their system of philosophy, though that
itself has passed away."
The facts arid documents concerning the Fraternity of
the Rose Cross, or of the Golden and Rosy Cross, as it is
called by Sigmund Richter,1 are absolutely unknown to
English readers. Even well-informed people will learn
with astonishment the extent and variety of the Rosi-
crucian literature which hitherto has lain buried in rare
pamphlets, written in the old German tongue, and in the
Latin commentaries of the later alchemists. The stray
gleams of casual information which may be gleaned from
popular encyclopaedias cannot be said to convey any real
knowledge, while the essay of Thomas De Quincey on the
" Rosicrucians and Freemasons," though valuable as the
work of a sovereign prince of English prose composition,
is a mere transcript from an exploded German savant,
whose facts are tortured in the interests of a somewhat
arbitrary hypothesis. The only writer in this country who
claims to have treated the subject seriously and at length
is Hargrave Jennings, who, in "The Rosicrucians, their
Rites and Mysteries," &c., comes forward as the historian
of the Order. This book, however, so far from affording
any information on the questions it professes to deal with,
"keeps guard over"2 the secrets of the Fraternity, and is
1 "DieWarhaffteund vollkommene, BereitungdesPhilosophischen
Steins, der Bruderschafft aus dem Orden des Gulden-und- Rosen
Creutzes." 1710.
2 ' ' No student of occult philosophy need fear that we shall most
carefully keep guard — standing sentry (so to speak) over those other
and more recondite systems which are connected with our subject."
PREFACE. 3
simply a mass of ill-digested erudition concerning Phallicism
and Fire- Worship, the Round Towers of Ireland and Serpent
Symbolism, offered with a charlatanic assumption of secret
knowledge as an exposition of Rosicrucian philosophy.1
The profound interest now manifested in all branches of
mysticism, the tendency, in particular, of many cultured
minds towards those metaphysical conceptions which are at
the base of the alchemical system, the very general suspicion
that other secrets than that of manufacturing gold are to be
found in the Pandora's Box of Hermetic and Rosicrucian
allegories,2 make it evident that the time has come to
collect the mass of material which exists for the elucidation
of this curious problem of European history, and to depict
the mysterious Brotherhood as they are revealed in their
own manifestos and in the writings of those men who were
directly or indirectly in connection with them. Such a
publication will take the subject out of the hands of un-
qualified writers, and of the self-constituted pontiffs of dark
ness and mystery who trade upon the ignorance and curiosity
of their readers.
As the result of conscientious researches, I have succeeded
1 In reviewing an enlarged edition of this work, published in 1879,
the Westminster Review remarks : "In the ' Rosicrucians ' we have
come across perhaps the most absurd book that it has ever been our
fortune to review. ... It affords a great deal of disjointed informa-
tion on very many subjects, . . . but the one subject on which we
have vainly sought information in its pages is the ' History of the
Rosicrucians.' . . . The whole book is an absurd jumble of passages
and illustrations, for most of which no authority is, or could be,
given. And through the whole runs a very unwholesome under-
current."—W. R. N. S., vol. Ivi. p. 256.
2 On this point see "A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic
Mystery and Alchemy," published anonymously in the year 1850
in London, and Hitchock's " Remarks on Alchemy," also anonymous
New York, 1865.
HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
in discovering several tracts and manuscripts in the Library
of the British Museum, whose existence, so far as I am
aware, has been unknown to previous investigators, while
others, including different copies and accounts of the
" Universal Eeformation," as well as original editions of the
" Chymical Marriage of Christian Eosy Cross," which are
not in the Library Catalogue, though less generally obscure,
I have met with in a long series of German pamphlets
belonging to the first quarter of the seventeenth century.
These, with all other important and available facts and
documents, I have carefully collected and now publish them
in the present volume, either summarised or in extenso
according to their value, and I offer for the first time in
the literature of the subject the Eosicrucians represented
by themselves. I claim that I have performed my task in
a sympathetic but impartial manner, purged from the bias
of any particular theory, and above all uncontaminated by
the pretension to superior knowledge, which claimants have
never been able to substantiate.
INTRODUCTION.
" In cruce sub sphera venit sapientia vera." — Hermetic Axiom.
' ' La rose'qui a e'te de tout temps 1'embleme de la beaute", de la
vie, de 1'amour et du plaisir, exprimait mystiquement toutes les pro-
testations manifestoes & la renaissance. . . . Reimir la rose, & la
croix, tel dtait le probleme pos6 par la Haute Initiation." — Eliphas
Levi.
r I iHEEE derivations are offered of the name Eosicru-
cian. The first, which is certainly the most obvious,
deduces it from the ostensible founder of the order, Chris-
tian Eosenkreuze. I shall show, however, that the history
of this personage is evidently mythical or allegorical, and
therefore this explanation merely ^akes the inquiry a step
backward to the question, What is the etymology of
Eosenkreuze 1 The second derivation proposed is from the
Latin words Eos, dew, and Crux, cross. This has been
countenanced by Mosheim, who is followed by Eee's En-
cyclopaedia, and other publications. The argument in its
favour may be fairly represented by the following quota-
tion : — " Of all natural bodies, dew was deemed the most
powerful dissolvent of gold; and the cross, in chemical
language, was equivalent to light • because the figure of a
cross exhibits at the same time the three letters of which
the word lux, or light, is compounded. Now, lux is called
. . . the seed or menstruum of the red dragon, or, in other
words, that gross and corporeal light, which, when properly
6 HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
digested and modified, produces gold. Hence it follows, if
this etymology be admitted, that a Eosy crucian philosopher
is one who by the intervention and assistance of the dew,
seeks for light, or, in other words, the substance called the
Philosopher's Stone." *
This opinion exaggerates the importance attributed to
the dew of the alchemists. The universal dissolvent has
figured under various names, of which ros is by no means
most general; the comprehensive " Lexicon Alchymise" does
not mention it. According to Gaston le Doux, in his
" Dictionnaire Hermetique," Dew, simply so called, signifies
Mercury ; Dew of the Philosophers is the matter of the
stone when under the manipulation of the artist, and chiefly
during its circulations in the philosophical egg. The White
and Celestial Dew of the Wise is the philosophical stone
perfected to the White. Mosheim derived his opinion from
Peter Gassendi, 2 and from a writer in Eusebius Eenandot's
"Conferences Publiques," 3 who confesses that he knew no-
thing whatsoever of the Rosicrucians till the task of speaking
on the subject was imposed on him by the Bureau d'Ad-
dresse. He says : — " Dew, the most powerful dissolvent of
gold which is to be found among natural and non-corrosive
substances, is nothing else but light coagulated and rendered
corporeal ; when it is artistically concocted and digested in
its own vessel during a suitable period it is the true men-
struum of the Red Dragon, i.e., of gold, the true matter of
the Philosophers. The society desiring to bequeath to
posterity the ineffaceable sign of this secret, caused them to
adopt the name Freres de la Eozee Cuite." The mystic triad
1 Mosheim, Book iv., sect. 1.
2 "Examen Philosophise Fluddanse," sect. 15, op. iii., 261.
3 "Conferences du Bureau d'Addresse," vol. v., p. 509.
INTRODUCTION. 7
of the Society, F. R. C., has been accordingly interpreted
Fratres Boris Cocti, the Brotherhood of the Concocted or
Exalted Dew, but the explanation has little probability in
itself.
" Several chemists," says Pernetz, in his " Dictionnaire
Mytho-Herme"tique," " have regarded the dew of May and
September as the matter of the Magnum Opus, influenced
doubtless by the opinion of various authors that dew was
the reservoir of the universal spirit of Nature. . . . But
when we seriously study the texts of the true philosophers,
wherein they make reference to dew, we are soon convinced
that they only speak of it by a similitude, and that theirs is
metallic, that is, it is the mercurial water sublimated into
vapour within the vase, and precipitated at the bottom in
the form of fine rain. Thus when they write of the dew
of the month of May, they are referring to that of their
philosophic Spring, which is governed by the gemini of the
alchemical Zodiack, which differs from the ordinary astrono-
mical Zodiack. Philalethes has positively said that their
dew is their mercurial water rising from putrefaction."
The third derivation is that which was generally adopted,
even from the beginning, by writers directly or indirectly
connected with the Rosicrucians. It deduces the term in
question from the words rosa, rose, and crux. This is sanc-
tioned by various editions of the society's authoritative
documents, which characterise it as the Broederschafft des
Roosen Creutzes, that is, the Rose-Crucians, or Fratres
Rosatce Crucis, according to the " Confessio Recepta," terms
quite excluding the conception of dew, which in German is
Thau, while in Latin the Brothers of the Dewy Cross would
be Fratres Roratce Crucis. This derivation is also supported
by the supposed symbol of the Order, whose " emblem,
8 HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
monogram, or jewel," says Godfrey Higgins, "is a Red
Eose on a Cross, thus :—
When it can be done it is surmounted with a glory and
placed on a calvary. When it is worn appended and
made of cornelian, garnet, ruby, or red glass, the calvary
and glory are generally omitted." l
Mr Hargrave Jennings, who borrows the whole of this
passage 2 without acknowledgment of any kind, also tells
us that "the jewel of the Rosicrucians is formed of a
transparent red stone with a red cross on one side and a
red rose on the other — thus it is a crucified rose."
All derivations, however, are to some extent doubtful
and tentative. The official proclamations of the Society
are contained in the " Fama Fraternitatis," and in the " Con-
fessio Fraternitatis," which, in their original editions, appear
to describe it simply as the Fraternitas de E. C., while the
initials of its founder are given as C. E. " The Chemical
Nuptials of Christian Eosen Kreuze," published anonymously
at Strasbourg in 1616, and undeniably connected with the
order, seem to identify it as the Brotherhood of the Eose-
Cross, and its founder as Father Eosycross. These designa-
tions at any rate were immediately adopted in Germany,
and they appear in the subsequent editions of both inani-
1 Anacalypsis, ii., p. 243.
2 "The Rosicrucians," &c., p. 281. Ed. 1870.
INTRODUCTION. 9
festos, though as early as 1618 I find Michael Maier, the
alchemist, expressing a different opinion on this point in
his " Themis Aurea, hoc est, De Legibus Fraternitatis R. C.
Tractatus." "No long time elapsed, when the Society first
became known by that which was written, before an
interpreter came forward who conjectured those letters
to signify the Rose Cross, in which opinion the matter
remains till this present, notwithstanding that the Brothers
in subsequent writings do affirm it to be erroneously so
denominated, and testify that the letters R. C. denote the
name of their first inaugurates1 If the mind of one man
could search that of another and behold formed therein
the idea or sensible and intelligible form, there would be
no necessity for speech or writing among men. But this
being denied to us while we subsist in this corporeal
nature, though doubtless granted to pure intelligences,
we explain our rational conceptions one to another by the
symbols of language and writing. Therefore letters are of
high efficacy when they embrace a whole society and
maintain order therein, nor is an opportunity afforded to
the curious to draw omens from integral names, nor from
families situations, nor from places persons, nor from
persons the secrets of affairs."
Proposing his own definitions, he says : — " I am no augur
nor prophet, notwithstanding that once I partook of the
laurel, and reposed a few brief hours in the shadow of
Parnassus ; nevertheless, if I err not, I have unfolded the
significance of the characters R. C. in the enigmas of the
sixth book of the Symbols of the Golden Table. R signifies
Pegasus, and C, if the sense not the sound be considered,
1 The " Fama Fraternitatis " makes use of the initials C. R., after-
wards of R. C. , C. R. C. , &c. , to designate their founder.
io HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCTANS.
lilium. Let the KNOWLEDGE OF THE ARCANA be the key
to thee. Lo, I give thee the Arcanum ! d. wmml. zii. w.
sgqqhka. x. Open if thou canst. ... Is not this the hoof
of the Eed Lion or the drops of the Hippocrene fountain 1 "
Beneath this barbarous jargon we discern, however, an
analogy with the Rose symbolism. Classical tradition in-
forms us that the Red Rose sprang from the blood of
Adonis, but Pegasus was a winged horse which sprang
from the blood of Medusa, and the fountain of Hippocrene
was produced by a stroke of the hoof of Pegasus.
In England the pseudonymous author of the " Summum
Bonum," who is supposed to be Robert Fludd, gives a purely
religious explanation of the Rose Cross symbol, asserting
it to mean "the Cross sprinkled with the rosy blood of
Christ."1 The general concensus of opinion is preferable
to fanciful interpretations, and we may therefore safely
take the words Rosa and Crux as explanatory of the name
Rosicrucian, and by Fratres E. C. we may understand
Fratres Rosece Crucis, despite the silence of the manifestos
and the protests of individual alchemists.
The next question which occurs is the significance of this
•
curious emblem — a Red Rose affixed to a red, or, according
to some authors, a golden cross. This question cannot
be definitely answered. The characteristic sign of a secret
society will be naturally as mysterious as itself in the special
meaning which the society may attach to it, but some intelli-
gence concerning it can perhaps be gleaned from its analy-
sis with universal symbolism. Now, the Rose and the
Cross, in their separate significance, are emblems of the
most palmary importance and the highest antiquity.
1 Elsewhere he interprets the letters F.R.C. to mean Faith,
Religion, and Charity. See Renandot, " Conferences Publiques," v.,
p. 509,
INTRODUCTION. n
There is a Silver Eose, called Tamara Pua, in the Paradise
of the Brahmans. "This Paradise is a garden in heaven,
to which celestial spirits are first admitted on their ascent
from the terrestrial sphere. The Eose contains the images
of two women, as bright and fair as a pearl ; but these
two are only one, though appearing as if distinct according
to the medium, celestial or terrestrial, through which they
are viewed. In the first aspect she is called the Lady of
the Mouth, in the other, the Lady of the Tongue, or the
Spirit of Tongues. In the centre of this Silver Eose, God
has his permanent residence."
A correspondence will be readily recognised between this
divine woman or virgin — two and yet one, who seems to
typify the Logos, the Spirit of Wisdom, and the Spirit of
Truth — and the two-edged sword of the Spirit in the
Apocalypse, the Sapientia quce ex ore Altissimii prodiit, as
it is called in the sublime Advent antiphon of the Latin
Church. The mystical Eose in the centre of the allegorical
garden is continually met with in legend. Buddha is
said to have been crucified for robbing a garden of a
flower,1 and after a common fashion of mythology, the
divine Avatar of the Indians is henceforth identified with
the object for which he suffered, and he becomes himself
" a flower, a Eose, a Padma, Lotus, or Lily." Thus he is
the Eose crucified, and we must look to the far East for
the origin of the Eosicrucian emblem. According to
Godfrey Higgins, this is " the Eose of Isuren, of Tamul,
and of Sharon, crucified for the salvation of men —
crucified," he continues, " in the heavens at the vernal
equinox." In this connection we may remember the
1 The same story is told of Indra, who was crucified by the
keepers of the Hindoo Paradise for having robbed it.
12
HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
Gnostic legend that Christ was crucified in the Empyrean ;
and as Nazareth, according to St Jerome, signified the
flower, and was situated in Carmel, " the vineyard or garden
of God," Jesus of Nazareth, by a common extension of the
symbolism, is sometimes identified as this crucified flower.1
In classical fable, the garden of Midas, the King of the
Phrygians, was situated at the foot of Mount Bermion, and
was glorified by the presence of roses with sixty petals, which
exhaled an extraordinary fragrance. Now, the rose was
sacred to Dionysius, or Bacchus, and Bacchus endowed
Midas with the power of transmuting everything into gold ;
so here is a direct connection between the Rose and Alchemy.
In the Metamorphoses of Apuleius, Lucius is restored to
his human shape by devouring a chaplet of roses. Every-
where the same typology meets us. The Peruvian Eve
sinned by plucking roses, which are also called Frute del
Arbor.2 A messenger from heaven announces to the
Mexican Eve that she will bear a Son who shall bruise the
serpent's head ; he presents her with a Rose, and this gift
was followed by an Age of Roses, as in India there was the
Age of the Lotus.
There are occasional allusions to the Rose in the Hebrew
Scriptures, but it is used as a poetic image rather than an
arcane symbol, and as such it has been always in high
favour with poets.3
*
1 Professor Max Mliller considers the word pbSov to be Aryan,
and originally to have meant simply a sprig or flower.
- "Mexican Antiquities," vol. vi., p. 120.
3 In Persia it is connected with the nightingale. " Tradition
says that the bird utters a plaintive cry whenever the flower is
gathered, and that it will hover round the plant in the spring-time,
till, overpowered with its fragrance, it falls senseless to the ground.
The Rose is supposed to burst forth from its bud at the opening
song of the nightingale. You may place a handful of fragrant herbs
INTRODUCTION. 13
In the west it appears for the first time in allegorical litera-
ture as the central figure in the "four-square garden " of the
ancient " Romance of the Rose." The first part of this poem
was written by Guillaume de Lorris before the year 1260, and
it was completed by Jean de Meung, whose death occurred
in the year 1316, according to the general opinion. This
extraordinary work, once of universal popularity, is supposed
by some of its commentators to admit of an alchemical inter-
pretation, and openly professes the principles of the Magnum
Opus.1 The garden, or vergier, which contains the Rose, is
richly sculptured on its outer walls with symbolical figures of
Hatred, Treason, Meanness, Covetousness, Avarice, Envy,
Sadness, Age, Hypocrisy, Poverty — all the vices and miseries
of mortality. Idleness opens the gate to him, Merriment
greets him and draws him into the dance, and then he
beholds the God of Love, accompanied by Dous-Regars, a
youth who carries his bows and arrows, by Beauty, Wealth,
Bounty, Frankness, Courtesy, &c. The lover, while he is
contemplating the loveliness of the Rose,
Qui est si vermeille et si fine . . .
Des follies i ot quatre paire,
Que Nature par grand mestire
I ot assises tire k tire.
and flowers before the nightingale," say the Persian poets. " Yet he
wishes not, in his constant and4faithful heart, for more than the sweet
breath of his beloved Rose." — Friend, "Flowers and Flower Lore."
There is a Persian Feast of Roses, which lasts the whole time the
flower is in bloom.
1 See in particular the verses 16914 to 16997, and the speech of
Genius.
"Jean de Meung," says Langlet du Fresnoy in his "Histoire de
la Philosophie Herme'tique," flourished at the Court and at Paris in
the pontificate of John XXII. , and according to the fashion of the
times was addicted to the curious sciences, and in particular to
Hermetic Philosophy. He composed two treatises called " Nature's
Remonstrances to the Alchemist," and "The Alchemist's Answer
to Nature. "
14 HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
Le coe ot droite comnie jons,
Et par dessus siet li boutons,
Si qu 'il ne dine ne ne pent.
L' odor de lui entor s' espent ;
La soatisme qui en ist,
Toute la place replenist,1
is pierced by the shafts of the deity, but. he does not in
spite of his sufferings abandon his project, which is to
possess the Eose, and after imprisonment and various
adventures,
La conclusion du Rommant
Est que vous voyez cy 1'Amant
Qui prent la Rose a son plaisir,
En qui estoit tout son desir.
It will require no acquaintance with the methods of the
symbolists to discern the significance of this allegory :—
La Rose c'est d' Amour le guerdon gracieux*
But a little later the same emblem reappears in the sublime
poem of Dante. The Paradise of the Divina Commedia
1 Amongs the knoppes I chese one
So faire, that of the remnant none
Ne preise I halfe so well as it,
Whan I avise in my wit,
For it so well was enlumined
With colour red, as well fined
As nature could it make faire,
And it hath leaves well foure paire,
That kinde hath set through his knowing
About the red roses springing,
The stalke was as rishe right,
And thereon stood the knoppe upright.
That it lie bowed upon no side,
The swote smell sprung so wide,
That it died all the place about.
CHAUCER, " The Romaunt of the
2 Baif— "Sonnet to Charles IX."
Rose."
INTRODUCTION. 15
consists, says Eliphas Levi, of " a series of Kabbalistic circles
divided by a Cross, like EzekiePs pantacle ; a Rose blossoms
in the centre of this Cross, and it is for the first time that
we find the symbol of the Rosicrucians publicly and almost
categorically revealed."
The passage referred to, so far as regards the Rose, is as
follows : —
" There is in heaven a light, whose goodly shine
Makes the Creator visible to all
Created, that in seeing him alone
Have peace ; and in a circle spreads so far,
That the circumference were too loose a zone
To girdle in the sun. All is one beam,
Reflected from the summit of the first,
That moves, which being hence and vigour takes.
And as some cliff, that from the bottom eyes
His image mirror'd in the crystal flood,
As if to admire his brave apparelling
Of verdure and of flowers ; so, round about,
Eyeing the light, on more than million thrones,
Stood, eminent, whatever from our earth
Has to the skies return'd. How wide the leaves
Extended to their utmost, of this ROSE,
Whose lowest step embosoms such a space
Of ample radiance ! Yet, nor amplitude
Nor height impeded, but my view with ease
Took in the full dimension of that joy.
Near or remote, what then avails, where God
Immediate rules,1 and Nature, awed, suspends
Her sway ? Into the yellow of the Rose
Perennial, which, in bright expansiveness,
Lays forth its gradual blooming, redolent
Of praises to the never-wintering sun. . . .
Beatrice led me. .
1 Compare the Oriental legend, previously cited, of that Silver
Rose in which God has His permanent residence. It is an extra-
ordinary instance of identity in the celestial symbolism of East and
West.
1 6 HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
In fashion as a snow-white Rose lay then
Before my view the saintly multitude,
Which in his own blood Christ espoused. Meanwhile
That other host that soar aloft to gaze
And celebrate His glory whom they love,
Hovered around, and like a troop of bees
Amid the venial sweets alighting now,
Now clustering where their fragrant labour glows,
Flew downward to the mighty flower ; a rose
From the redundant petals streaming back
Unto the steadfast dwelling of their joy.
Faces had they of flame, and wings of gold :
The rest was whiter than the driven snow.
And as they flitted down into the flower,
From range to range fanning their plumy loins,
Whispered the peace and ardour which they won
From that soft winnowing. Shadow none, the vast
Interposition of such numerous flights
Cast from above, upon the flower, or view
Obstructed aught. For through the Universe
Wherever merited, Celestial Light
Glides freely, and no obstacle prevents.
GARY'S DANTE, "The Paradise," xxx., xxxi.
"Not without astonishment will it be discovered," con-
tinues L6vi, " that the Roman de la Rose and the Divine
Comedy are two opposite forms of the same work-
initiation into intellectual independence, satire on all con-
temporary institutions and allegorical formulations of the
great secrets of the Eosicrucian Society. These important
manifestations of occultism coincide with the epoch of the
downfall of the Templars, since Jean de Meung or Clopinel,
contemporary of Dante's old age, nourished during his
most brilliant years at the Court of Philippe le Bel. The
' Eomance of the Eose ' is the epic of ancient France. It
is a profound work in a trivial guise, as learned an exposi-
tion of the mysteries of occultism as that of Apuleius. The
Eose of Flam el, of Jean de Meung, and of Dante, blossomed
on the same rose-tree."
INTRODUCTION. 17
This is ingenious and interesting, but it assumes the
point in question, namely, the antiquity of the Eosicrucian
Fraternity, which, it is needless to say, cannot be proved
by the mere existence of their symbols in the mystical
poetry of a remote period. In the Paradise of Dante we
find, however, the emblem whose history we are tracing,
placed, and assuredly not without reason, in the supreme,
central heaven amidst the intolerable manifestation of the
Uncreated Light, the Shecinah of Rabbinical theosophy,1
the chosen habitation of God — "a sacred Rose and FJower
of Light, brighter than a million suns, immaculate, inac-
cessible, vast, fiery with magnificence, and surrounding
God as if with a million veils. This symbolic Rose is as
common a hierogram throughout the vast temples and
palaces of the Ancient East as it is in the immense ruins
of Central America." 2
From the time of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines a common
device in heraldry is the Rose-Emblem. It figures on our
English coins ; it is used as a royal badge in the Civil War
between the houses of York and Lancaster, it is associated
above all with the great mediaeval cultus of the Mother of
God, being our Lady's flower par excellence, as the lily is
characteristic of St Joseph. " As an emblem of the Virgin,
the Rose, both white and red, appears at a very early
period ; it was especially so recognised by St Dominic, when
he instituted the devotion of the rosary, with direct refer-
ence to St Mary. The prayers appear to have been
symbolised as roses."3 In Scandinavia the same flower
was sacred to the goddess Holda, who is called " Fran
1 See Additional Notes, No. 1.
- " The Book of God," part iii., p. 511.
3 Hilderic Friend, " Flowers and Flower-Lore."
B
i8
HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
Rosa," and " it was partly transferred, as were other
emblems of Holda, Freyja, and Venus, to the Madonna,
who is frequently called by the Germans, Marien-Rbschen
. . . But there has been a tendency to associate the White
Rose with the Virgin Mary, that being chiefly chosen for
her feast-days, while the more earthly feelings associated
with the * Frau Rosa,' are still represented in the super-
stitions connected with the Red Rose."
In Germany it appears as the symbol of silence. It was
sculptured on the ceiling of the banquet hall to warn the
guests against the repetition of what was heard beneath it.
" The White Rose was especially sacred to silence. It was
carved in the centre of the Refectory of the ancients for the
same reason," and the expression Sub Bosa, which was equi-
valent among the Romans to an inviolable pledge, originated
in the ancient dedication of the flower to Aphrodite, and
its reconsecration by Cupid to Harpocrates, the tutelary
deity of Silence, to induce him to conceal the amours of
the goddess of love.
In mediaeval alchemy Rosa signifies Tartarum, and in
the twelfth Clavis of Basil Valentine there is a vase or
yoni with a pointed lingam rising from its centre, and
having on each side a sprig surmounted by a Rose. Above
is the well-known emblem
which symbolises the accomplishment of the Magnum Opus,
while through an open window the sun and moon shed
down their benign influence and concur in the consumma-
tion of the ineffable act. 1
1 See Additional Notes, No. 2.
INTRODUCTION. 19
The same Rose-symbol is to be found in the hieroglyphics
of Nicholas Flamel —
The mystic Rose
Of Hermic lore, which issues bright and fair,
Strange virtues circling with the sap therein,
Beneath the Universal Spirit's breath,
From the Mercurial Stone.
Finally, in 1598, Henry Khunrath, a supreme alchemical
adept, published his " Amphitheatrum SapientisB ./Eternse,"
containing nine singular pantacles, of which the fifth is a Rose
of Light, in whose centre there is a human form extending
its arms in the form of a cross, and thus reversing the
order.
The Cross is a hierogram of, if possible, still higher
antiquity than the floral emblem. It is at any rate more
universal and contains a loftier and more arcane signifi-
cance. Its earliest form is the Crux Ansata,
which, according to some authorities, signified hidden
wisdom, and the life of the world to come ; according to
others, it is the lingam ; as the hieroglyphic sign of Venus
it is an ancient allegorical figure, and represents the metal
copper in alchemical typology. The Crux Ansata and the
Tau
T
are met with on most Egyptian monuments. In the latter
form it was an emblem of the creative and generative
energy, and, according to Payne Knight, was, even in pre-
Christian times, a sign of salvation.
20
HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
The Cross, " the symbol of symbols," was used also by
the Chaldseans ; by the Phoenicians, who placed it on their
coins ; by the Mexicans, who paid honour to it and repre-
sented their God of the Air, nailed and immolated thereon ;
by the Peruvians, who, in a sacred chamber of their palace,
kept and venerated a splendid specimen carved from a
single piece of fine jasper or marble ; and by the British
Druids. It was emblazoned on the banners of Egypt, and
in that country, as in China, was used to indicate " a land
of corn and plenty." When divided into four equal seg-
ments it symbolised the primeval abode of man, the tradi-
tional Paradise of Eden. It entered into the monograms of
Osiris, of Jupiter A mmon, and of Saturn ; the Christians
subsequently adopted it, and the Labarum of Constantine
is identical with the device of Osiris. It is equally common
in India, and, according to Colonel Wilford, is exactly the
Cross of the Manichees, with leaves, flowers, and fruits
springing from it. It is called the divine tree, the tree of
the gods, the tree of life and knowledge, and is productive
of all things good and desirable. l
According to Godfrey Higgins we must go to the
Buddhists for the origin of the Cross, " and to the Lama
of Thibet, who takes his name from the Cross, called
in his language Lamh." The Jamba, or cosmic tree, which
Wilford calls the tree of life and knowledge, figures in
their maps of the " world as a cross 84 joganas (answering
to the 84 years of the .life of Him who was exalted upon
the Cross), or 423 miles high, including the three steps
of the Calvary, with which, after the orthodox Catholic
1 " Asiatic Researches," x. 124. The pre-Christian cross is not in-
frequently associated with a tree or trees. Balfour, ' ' Cyclop, of
India," i., p. 891.
INTRODUCTION. 21
fashion, it was invariably represented. The neophyte of
the Indian Initiations was sanctified by the sign of a Cross,
which was marked on every part of his body. After his
perfect regeneration it was again set upon his forehead "]"
and inverted J_ upon his breast.1
The paschal lamb of the Jewish passover was roasted on
a cross-shaped wooden spit, and with this sign Ezekiel
ordered the people to be marked who were to be spared by
the destroyer. Thus it figures as a symbol of salvation,
but classical mythology attributes its invention to Ixion,
who was its first victim. As an instrument of suffering
and death, it is not, however, to be found on ancient monu-
ments. It had no orthodox shape among the Romans when
applied to this purpose, and the victims were either tied or
nailed, " being usually left to perish by thirst and hunger." 2
In the Christendom of both the East and West this divine
symbol has a history too generally known to need recapitu-
lation here. On this point the student may consult the
" Dictionary of Christian Antiquities," where a mass of
information is collected.
The following interesting passage will show the connec-
tion which exists between the Cross and alchemy. "In
common chemistry," says Pernetz, " crosses form characters
which indicate the crucible, vinegar, and distilled vinegar.
But as regards hermetic science, the Cross is ... the symbol
of the four elements. And as the philosophical stone is
composed of the most pure substance of the grosser
elements . . . , they have said, In cruce solus, salvation is in
the Cross ; by comparison with the salvation of our souls
purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ who hung on the
1 " History of Initiations."
~ Higgins' " Anacalypsis," i., pp. 500, 503.
22
HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
tree of the Cross. Some of them have even pushed their
audacity further, and fear not to employ the terms of the
New Testament to form their allegories and enigmas.
Jean de Eoquetaillade, known under the name of Jean de
Eupe Scissa, and Arnaud de Villeneuve, say in their works
on the composition of the Stone of the Philosophers : — It is
needful that the Son of Man be lifted up on the Cross
before being glorified j to signify the volatilisation of the
fixed and igneous part of the matter." *
I have briefly traced the typological history of the Eose
and Cross. It is obvious, as I have already remarked, that
the antiquity of these emblems is no proof of the antiquity
of a society which we find to be using them at a period
subsequent to the Eenaissance. It does not even suppose
that society's initiation into the hieratic secrets which the
elder world may have summarised in those particular
symbols. In the case which is in question, such a know-
ledge would invole the antiquity of the Eosicrucians,
because it is only at a time long subsequent to their first
public appearance that the past has been sufficiently dis-
entombed to uncover the significance of its symbols to
uninitiated students. Can a correspondence be established
between the meaning of the Eose and the Cross as they are
used by the ancient hierogrammatists, and that of the
Eose-Cross as it is used by the Eosicrucian Fraternity 1
This is the point to be ascertained. If a connection there
be, then in some way, we may not know what, the secret
has been handed down from generation to generation, and
the mysterious brotherhood which manifested its existence
spontaneously at the beginning of the seventeenth century,
is affiliated with the hierophants of Egypt and India, who,
1 "Dictionnaire Mytho-Herm^tique. "
INTRODUCTION. 23
almost in the night of time, devised their allegories and
emblems for the blind veneration of the vulgar and as
lights to those who knew.
In the fifth book of the " Histoire de la Magie," Eliphas
Le>i provides the following commentary on the Rosicrucian
symbol : —
" The Rose, which from time immemorial has been
the symbol of beauty and life, of love and pleasure,
expressed in a mystical manner all the protestations of
the Renaissance. It was the flesh revolting against the
oppression of the spirit, it was Nature declaring herself to
be, like grace, the daughter of God, it was love refusing
to be stifled by the celibate, it was life desiring to be no
longer barren, it was humanity aspiring to a natural religion,
full of love and reason, founded on the revelation of the
harmonies of existence of which the Rose was for initiates
the living and blooming symbol. The Rose, in fact, is a
pantacle ; its form is circular, the leaves of the corolla are
heart-shaped, and are supported harmoniously by one
another; its colour presents the most delicate shades of
primitive hues; its calyx is purple and gold. . . . The
conquest of the Rose was the problem offered by initiation
to science, while religion toiled to prepare and establish
the universal, exclusive, and definitive triumph of the
Cross.
" The reunion of the Rose and the Cross, such was the
problem proposed by supreme initiation, and, in effect,
occult philosophy, being the universal synthesis, should
take into account all the phenomena of Being."
This extremely suggestive explanation has the character-
istic ingenuity of the hierophants of theosophical science,
but it has no application whatsoever to the ostensible or
24 HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
ascertainable aims of the Rosicrucian adepts. It is the
product of intellectual subtlety and the poetic gift of dis-
cerning curious analogies ; it is quite beside the purpose of
serious historical inquiry, and my object in quoting it here
is to show by the mere fact of its existence that the whole
question of the significance of the Crucified Rose, in its
connection with the society, is one of pure conjecture, that
no Rosicrucian manifestos and no acknowledged Brother
have ever given any explanation concerning it, and that no
presumption is afforded by the fact of its adoption for the
antiquity of the society or for its connection with universal
symbolism.
The researches of various writers, all more or less com-
petent, have definitely established the Crux Ansata as
typical of the male and female generative organs in the
act of union, the Egyptian Tau, with its variants as typical
of the masculine potency, and the Rose as the feminine
emblem. Then by a natural typological evolution the
Cross came to signify the divine creative energy which
fecundated the obscure matrix of the primeval substance
and caused it to bring forth the universe. The simple
union of the Rose and the Cross suggests the same meaning
as the Crux Ansata, but the crucified Buddhistic Rose may
be a symbol of the asceticism which destroys natural
desire. There is little correspondence, in either case, with
known Rosicrucian tenets, and, therefore, the device of the
Rose-Cross is separated from ancient symbolism, and is
either a purely arbitrary arid thus unexplainable sign, or
its significance is to be sought elsewhere.
Now, I purpose to show that the Rosicrucians were
united with a movement, which, originating in Germany,
was destined to revolutionise the world of thought and to
INTRODUCTION. 25
transform the face of Europe ; that the symbols of the
Rose and the Cross were prominently and curiously con-
nected with this movement, and that the subsequent choice
of these emblems by the secret society in question, followed
naturally from the fact of this connection, and is easily
explainable thereby. To accomplish this task satisfactorily,
I must first lay before my readers the facts and documents
which I have collected concerning the Fraternity.
HISTOKY OF THE KOSICRUCIANS.