CHAPTER V.

If there be any body now which on the other side wil
complain of our discretion, that we offer our treasures so
freely and indiscriminately, and do not rather regard more
the godly, wise, or princely persons then the common people,
with him we are in no wise angry (for the accusation is not
without moment), but withall we affirm that we have by no
means made common property of our arcana, albeit they
resound in five languages within the ears of the vulgar,
both because, as we well know, they will not move gross
wits, and because the worth of those who shal be accepted
into our Fraternity will not be measured by their curiosity,
but by the rule and pattern of our revelations. 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.

For the rest, it hath been necessary that the Fama should
be set forth in everyone's mother tongue, lest those should
not be defrauded of the knowledge thereof, whom (although
they be unlearned) God hath not excluded from the happi-
ness of 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

CONFESSION OF ROSICRUCIAN FRA TERNITY. 91

that shal come to pass which must precede, when our
Trumpet shall resound with full voice and with no prevari-
cations 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.