Mysteries of the Rosie Cross 1

Mysteries of the Rosie Cross 1

Mysteries of the Rosie Cross        Or, the History of that Curious Sect of the Middle Ages, Known as the Rosicrucians; with Examples of their Pretensions and Claims as Set Forth in the Writings of Their Leaders and Disciples Transcriber's note:       Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).       Text in bold face is enclosed by equal signs (=bold=).       A list of corrections is at the end of the e-book. MYSTERIES OF THE ROSIE CROSS, Or The History of that Curious Sect of the Middle Ages, Known as the Rosicrucians; With Examples of their Pretensions and Claims as Set Forth in the Writings of Their Leaders and Disciples. A. Reader, Orange Street, Red Lion Square, London. 1891. _PREFACE._ In the following pages an attempt has been made to convey something like an intelligible idea of the peculiar mystic sect known to the readers of history, as the Rosicrucians. The subject is confessedly difficult, owing to the grossly absurd character of the writings left by the disciples of this body, and the secrecy with which they sought to surround their movements and clothe their words. Anything like a consecutive narration is an impossibility, the materials at hand being so fragmentary and disjointed. We have, however, done the best that we could with such facts as were within reach, and if we are not able to present so scientific and perfect a treatise as we might have hoped to do, we at least trust that the following contribution to the scanty literature treating of this matter will be found interesting, and will throw some light upon what is shrouded in such profound mystery. _CONTENTS._   CHAPTER THE FIRST.       WHO AND WHAT WERE THE ROSICRUCIANS                           1   CHAPTER THE SECOND.       HISTORICAL NOTICES OF THE ROSICRUCIANS                      15   CHAPTER THE THIRD.       EARLY LEADERS--LITERATURE--ROMANTIC STORIES                 22   CHAPTER THE FOURTH.       THE FAME AND CONFESSION OF THE FRATERNITY OF R. C.          34   CHAPTER THE FIFTH.       JOHN HEYDON AND THE ROSICRUCIANS                            60   CHAPTER THE SIXTH.       GABALIS: OR THE EXTRAVAGANT MYSTERIES OF THE CABALISTS      81   CHAPTER THE SEVENTH.       THE HERMETICK ROMANCE; OR CHYMICAL WEDDING                 102   CHAPTER THE EIGHTH.       MODERN ROSICRUCIANS                                        126 _AUTHORITIES._ El Havareuna; or the English Physitian's Tutor, in the Astrobolismes of Mettals Rosie Crucian, Miraculous Saphiric Medicines of the Sun and Moon, the Astrolosmes of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars.... All harmoniously united and opperated by Astromancy and Geomancy.... Whereunto is added Psonthonphanchia.... the Books being also an appeal to the natural faculties of the mind of man whether there be not a God. By John Heydon, M.D. 1664. The Holy Guide: leading the way to the Wonder of the World (a compleat Physician) teaching the knowledge of all things, past, present, and to come, viz., of pleasure, long life, health, youth, Blessedness, Wisdome, Virtue; and to cure, change, and remedy all diseases in young or old. With Rosie Crucian Medicines, etc. (The Rosie Cross uncovered, and the Places, Temples, Holy Houses.... and invisible Mountains of the Brethren discovered), etc. John Heydon. 1662. A New Method of Rosie Crucian Physick, wherein is shewed the cause, and therewith their experienced medicines for the cure of all diseases. John Heydon. 1658. A Quintuple Rosie Crucian Scourge, for the correction of that pseudo-chymist, Geo. Thomson, being in part a vindication of the Society of Physicians. John Heydon. 1665. Theomagia, or the Temple of Wisdome. In three parts, spiritual, celestial and elemental; containing the occult powers of the Angels of Astromancy.... The Mysterious virtues of the character of the Stars.... The knowledge of the Rosie Crucian Physick. J. Heydon. 1662. The Rosie Crucian Infallible Axiomata, or Generall Rules to know all things past, present, and to come. Usefull, pleasant, and profitable to all, and fitted to the understanding of mean capacities. John Heydon. 1660. Rise and Attributes of the Rosi Crucians. By J. Von D----. Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History. Brucker's History of Philosophy. The Hermetick Romance, or Chemical Wedding. By C. Rosencreutz. New Curiosities of Literature. G. Soane. Tale of a Tub. Swift. Notes and Queries. Series 1-8. 6 vols., 7, 8, 10. Warburton's Commentary on the Rape of the Lock. Spectator. Nos. 379, 574. National Magazine. Vol. 1. London Magazine. Vols. 9, 20. Western Monthly. Vol. 3. Book Lore. Vol. 3. Plot's History of Staffordshire. The Count of Gabalis, or the Extravagant Mysteries of the Cabalists. Butler's Hudibras. Mackay's Popular Delusions. Higgins's Anacalypsis. Fame and Confession of the Rosie Cross. E. Philateles. Mackay's Symbolism of Freemasonry. De Quincey on Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry. Apologia Compendiaria Fraternitatis de Rosea Cruce. Fama Fraternitatis. 1617, etc. MYSTERIES OF THE ROSIE CROSS. CHAPTER I. _Who and what were the Rosicrucians?_ The questions which present themselves on the threshold of this enquiry are:--Who and what were the Rosicrucians? When and where did they flourish, and what influence did any peculiar tenets they may have held, or practices they may have indulged in, exercise upon the world? We shall endeavour to answer these queries as distinctly as so mysterious and extravagant a subject will allow of, and illustrate the whole by copious extracts from the writings of recognized leaders and disciples. Comparatively very little is known about these people; and, if we open any of our works of general reference, such as dictionaries and encyclopædias, we find little more than a bare reminder that they were a mystic sect to be found in a few European countries about the middle of the fifteenth century. That such a sect did exist is beyond question, and the opinion that what is left of it exists at the present time in connection with modern Freemasonry, seems not altogether destitute of foundation. They appear to have a close connection with the Alchemists; springing into existence as a distinct body when those enthusiastic seekers after the power of transmuting the baser into the nobler metals were creating unusual sensation. Somewhere about the end of the fifteenth century, a Dutch pilot named Haussen, had the misfortune to be shipwrecked off the coast of Scotland. The vessel was lost, but Haussen was saved by a Scotch gentleman, one Alexander Seton, who put off in a boat and brought the drowning mariner to land. A warm friendship sprang up between the two, and, about eighteen months after, Seton went to Holland, and paid a visit to the man whom he had rescued. During this visit he informed the Dutchman that he was in possession of the secret of the philosopher's stone, and report says that in his presence he actually transmuted large quantities of base metal into the finest gold, which he left with him as a present. Seton in due course took leave of his friend, and prosecuted his travels through various parts of the continent. He made no attempt to conceal the possession of his boasted secret, but openly talked of it wherever he went and performed certain experiments, which he persuaded the people were actual transmutations of base metal into gold. Unfortunately for him, the Duke of Saxony heard the report of these wonders, and immediately had him arrested and put to the torture of the rack to extract from him the precious secret, or to compel him at least to use it in his especial service. All was in vain, however, the secret, if such he really possessed, remained locked up in his own breast, and he lay for months in prison subjected to treatment which reduced him to mere skin and bone, and well nigh killed him. A Pole, named Sendivogius, also an alchemist, an enthusiast like the rest of the fraternity, who had spent time and fortune in the wild and profitless search, then came upon the scene. The sufferings of Seton aroused his sympathy, and he resolved to bring about, if possible, his escape from the tyrant. After experiencing a deal of difficulty he obtained permission to visit the prisoner, whom he found in a dark and filthy dungeon, in a condition well nigh verging upon absolute starvation. He immediately acquainted the unhappy man with his proposals, which were listened to with the greatest eagerness, and Seton declared that, if he succeeded in securing his liberation, he would make him one of the wealthiest of living men. Sendivogius then set about his really difficult task; and, with a view to its accomplishment, commenced a curious and artful series of movements. His first move was to procure some ready money, which he did by the sale of some property near Cracow. With this he began to lead a gay and somewhat dissipated life at Dresden; giving splendid banquets, to which he invited the officers of the guard, particularly selecting those who were on duty at the prison. In the course of time his hospitality had its expected effect; he entirely won the confidence of the officials, and pretending that he was endeavouring to overcome the obstinacy of the captive, and worm out his secret, was allowed free access to him. It was at last resolved upon a certain day to make the attempt at escape; and, having sent the guard to sleep by means of some drugged wine, he assisted Seton over a wall, and led him to a post-chaise, which he had conveniently waiting, to convey him into Poland. In the vehicle Seton found his wife awaiting him, having with her a packet of black powder, which was said to be the philosopher's stone by which iron and copper could be transmuted into gold. They all reached Cracow in safety, but Seton's sufferings had been so severe, and had so reduced his physical strength, that he did not survive many months. He died about 1603 or 1604, leaving behind him a number of works marked Cosmopolite. Soon after his death Sendivogius married the widow; and, according to the accounts which have come down to us, was soon initiated into the methods of turning the commoner metals into the finer. With the black powder, we are told, he converted great quantities of quicksilver into the purest gold, and that he did this in the presence of the Emperor Rudolph II. at Prague, who, in commemoration of the fact, caused a marble tablet with an inscription to be fixed in the wall of the room where the experiment was performed. Whether the experiment was a cheat or not, the tablet was really fixed in the said wall, and was seen and described by Desnoyens, secretary to the Princess Mary of Gonzaga, Queen of Poland, in 1651. Rudolph, the Emperor, seems to have been perfectly satisfied with the success of the alchymist, and would have heaped the loftiest honours upon him had he been disposed to accept of them; this, however, did not accord with his inclination; he, it is said, preferred his liberty, and went to reside on his estate at Gravarna, where he kept open house for all who responded to his invitations. His biographer, Brodowski, who was also his steward, insists, contrary to other writers, that the magic powder was red and not black; that he kept it in a box of gold, and that with one grain of it he could make a hundred ducats, or a thousand rix dollars, generally using quicksilver as the basis of his operations. When travelling this box was carried by the steward, who hung it round his neck by a golden chain; the principal part of the powder, however, was hidden in a secret place cut in the step of his chariot; this being deemed a secure place in the event of being attacked by robbers. He appears to have lived in constant fear of being robbed, and resorted to all manner of precautions to secure his treasure when on a journey; for it is said that he was well known as the possessor of this philosopher's stone, and that many adventurers were on the watch for any opportunity to rob him. Brodowski relates that a German prince once served him a scurvy trick, which ever afterwards put him on his guard. The prince was so anxious to see the wonderful experiments, of which he had heard so much, that he actually fell upon his knees before the alchymist, when entreating him to perform in his presence. Sendivogius, after much pressing, allowed his objections to be overcome; and, upon the promise of secrecy by the prince, showed him what he was so anxious to witness. No sooner, however, had the alchymist left, than the prince entered into a conspiracy with another alchymist, named Muhlenfels, for robbing Sendivogius of the powder he used in his operations. Accompanied by twelve armed attendants, Muhlenfels hastened after Sendivogius, and overtaking him at a lonely inn, where he had stopped to dine, forcibly took from him his golden box containing a little of the powder; a manuscript book on the philosopher's stone; a golden medal, with its chain, presented to him by the Emperor Rudolph; and a rich cap, ornamented with diamonds, of the value of one hundred thousand rix-dollars. Sendivogius was not at all disposed to put up with such treatment without an effort to obtain redress, so he went at once to Prague, and laid his complaint before the Emperor. The Emperor at once sent an express to the prince, ordering him to deliver up Muhlenfels and his plunder. Alarmed at the aspect that things were now assuming, the prince, treacherous to one man as he had been to the other, erected gallows in his courtyard and hanged Muhlenfels with a thief on either side of him. He sent back the jewelled hat, the medal and chain, and the book in manuscript; the powder, he said, he knew nothing of. Sendivogius now adopted a different mode of living altogether to that which he had formerly been addicted to; he pretended to be excessively poor, and would sometimes keep his bed for weeks together, to make the people conclude it was impossible for him to be the owner of the philosopher's stone. He died in the year 1636, upwards of eighty, and was buried at Gravarna. Now, it is commonly held by most people, who have studied the subject, that there is a close and intimate connection between the Alchymists and the Rosicrucians; probably this is true, and a perusal of the works of John Heydon, and others of a similar character, will deepen the impression. It was, indeed, during the life of Sendivogius that the Rosicrucians first began to make a mark in Europe, and cause anything approaching to a sensation. A modern writer says:--"The influence which they exercised upon opinion during their brief career, and the permanent impression which they have left upon European literature, claim for them especial notice. Before their time alchemy was but a grovelling delusion; and theirs is the merit of having spiritualised and refined it. They also enlarged its sphere, and supposed the possession of the philosopher's stone to be, not only the means of wealth, but of health and happiness, and the instrument by which man could command the services of superior beings, control the elements to his will, defy the obstructions of time and space, and acquire the most intimate knowledge of all the secrets of the universe."[1] It is a fact well known to all well-informed readers, that at this time the European continent was saturated with the most degrading superstitions. Devils were supposed to walk the earth, and to mingle in the affairs of men; evil spirits, in the opinion even of the wise and learned, were thought to be at the call of any one who would summon them with the proper formalities; and witches were daily burned in all the capitals of Europe. The new sect taught a doctrine less repulsive. They sprang up in Germany, extended with some success to France and England, and excited many angry controversies. Though as far astray in their notions as the Demonologists and witch believers, the creed was more graceful. They taught that the elements swarmed not with hideous, foul and revengeful spirits, but with beautiful creatures, more ready to do man service than to inflict injury. They taught that the earth was inhabited by Gnomes, the air by Sylphs, the fire by Salamanders, and the water by Nymphs or Undines; and that man, by his communication with them, might learn the secrets of nature, and discover all those things which had puzzled philosophers for ages--Perpetual Motion, the Elixir of Life, the Philosopher's Stone, and the Essence of Invisibility. Respecting the origin and signification of the term Rosicrucian different opinions have been held and expressed. Some have thought it was made up of _rosa_ and _crux_ (a _rose_ and a _cross_) but it is maintained by others upon apparently good authority, that it is a compound of ros (dew) and crux (cross). Mosheim contends that it is abundantly attested that the title of Rosicrucians was given to the chemists who united the study of religion with the search after chemical secrets, the term itself being chemical, and not to be understood without a knowledge of the style used by the chemists. We shall give some extracts from very old Rosicrucian works presently which will enlighten our readers in such matters. A cross in the language of the fire philosophers is the same as Lux (light), because the figure of a + exhibits all the three letters of the word _Lux_ at one view. Moreover, this sect applied the term _Lux_ to the _seed or menstruum of the Red Dragon_, or to that crude and corporeal light which, being properly concocted and digested, produces gold. A Rosicrucian, therefore, is a philosopher who, by means of _dew_ seeks for _light_--that is, for the substance of the philosopher's stone. Mosheim declares the other interpretations of this name to be false and deceptive, being the inventions of the chemists themselves, who were exceedingly fond of concealment, for the sake of imposing on others who were hostile to their religious views. The true import of this title, he says, was perceived by the sagacity of Peter Gassendi, Examen Philosophiæ Fluddanæ, sec. 15, in his Opp. iii, 261; though it was more lucidly explained by the celebrated French physician Eusebius Renaudot, _Conférences Publiques_, iv. 87. In 1619 Dr. Jo. Valentine Andreæ, a celebrated Lutheran divine, published his Tower of Babel, or Chaos of Opinions respecting the Fraternity of the Rosy-Cross, in which he represents the whole history as a farce, and gave intimations that _he_ was _himself_ concerned in getting it up. Brucker says to the class of Theosophists has been commonly referred the entire society of Rosicrucians, which, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, made so much noise in the ecclesiastical and literary world. The history of this society, which is attended with some obscurity, seems to be as follows:--"Its origin is referred to a certain German, whose name was Rosencreuz who, in the fourteenth century, visited the Holy Sepulchre; and, in travelling through Asia and Africa, made himself acquainted with many Oriental secrets; and who, after his return, instituted a small fraternity, to whom he communicated the mysteries he had learned, under an oath of inviolable secrecy. This society remained concealed till the beginning of the seventeenth century, when two books were published, the one entitled, _Fama Fraternitatis laudabilis Ordinis Rosæcrusis_: "The report of the laudable Fraternity of Rosicrucians;" the other, _Confessio Fraternitatis_, "The Confession of the Fraternity." In these books the world was informed that this fraternity was enabled, by Divine revelation, to explain the most important secrets, both of nature and grace; that they were appointed to correct the errors of the learned world, particularly in philosophy and medicine; that they were possessed of the philosopher's stone, and understood both the art of transmuting metals and of prolonging human life; and, in fine, by their means the golden age would return. As soon as these grand secrets were divulged, the whole tribe of the Paracelsists, Theosophists and Chemists flocked to the Rosicrucian standard, and every new and unheard-of mystery was referred to this fraternity. It is impossible to relate how much noise this wonderful discovery made, or what different opinions were formed concerning it. After all, though the laws and statutes of the society had appeared, no one could tell where the society itself was to be found, or who really belonged to it. It was imagined by some sagacious observers, that a certain important meaning was concealed under the story of the Rosicrucian fraternity, though they were wholly unable to say what it was. One conjectured that some chemical mystery lay hid behind the allegorical tale; another supposed that it foretold some great ecclesiastical revolution. At last Michael Breler, in the year 1620, had the courage publicly to declare that he certainly knew the whole story to have been the contrivance of some ingenious persons who chose to amuse themselves by imposing upon the public credulity. This declaration raised a general suspicion against the whole story; and, as no one undertook to contradict it, this wonderful society daily vanished, and the rumours, which had been spread concerning it, ceased. The whole was probably a contrivance to ridicule the pretenders to secret wisdom and wonderful power, particularly the chemists, who boasted that they were possessed of the philosopher's stone. It has been conjectured--and the satirical turn of his writings, and several particular passages in his works, favour the conjecture--that this farce was invented and performed, in part at least, by John Valentine Andrea of Wartenburg."[2] Pope, in the dedication of his Rape of the Lock to Mrs. Arabella Fermor, wrote:--"I know how disagreeable it is to make use of hard words before a lady; but it is so much the concern of a poet to have his works understood--and particularly by your sex--that you must give me leave to explain two or three difficult terms. "The Rosicrucians are a people I must bring you acquainted with. The best account I know of them is in a French book called Le Comte de Gabalis, which, both in its title and size, is so like a novel, that many of the fair sex have read it for one by mistake. According to these gentlemen, the four elements are inhabited by spirits, which they call sylphs, gnomes, nymphs and salamanders. The gnomes, or demons of earth, delight in mischief; but the sylphs, whose habitation is in the air, are the best conditioned creatures imaginable; for they say any mortals may enjoy the most intimate familiarities with these gentle spirits, upon a condition very easy to all true adepts, an inviolate preservation of chastity." On the lines (verse 20, canto 1):--   "Belinda still her downy pillow prest,   Her guardian sylph prolonged the balmy rest." in Pope's Rape of the Lock, Warburton thus comments:-- "When Mr. Pope had projected to give the Rape of the Lock its present form of a mock-heroic poem, he was obliged to find it with its machinery. For, as the subject of the Epic consists of two parts, the metaphysical and the civil; so this mock epic, which is of the satiric kind, and receives its grace from a ludicrous mimicry of other's pomp and solemnity, was to have the like compounded nature. And as the civil part is intentionally debased by the choice of a trifling action; so should the metaphysical by the application of some very extravagant system. A rule which, though neither Boileau nor Garth had been careful enough to attend to, our author's good sense would not suffer him to overlook. And that sort of machinery which his judgment informed him was only fit for use, his admirable invention soon supplied. There was but one systematic extravagance in all nature which was to his purpose, the Rosicrucian Philosophy; and this by the effort of a well-directed imagination, he presently seized. The fanatic Alchemists, in the search after the great secret, had invented a means altogether to their end: it was a kind of Theological Philosophy, made up in a mixture of almost equal parts of Pagan Platonism, Christian Quietism and the Jewish Cabbala; a mixture monstrous enough to frighten reason from human commerce. This system, he tells us, he took as he found it in a little French tract called, _La Comte de Gabalis_. This book is written in dialogue, and is a delicate and very ingenious piece of raillery on that invisible sect by the Abbé Villiers; the strange stories that went about of the feats and adventures of their adepts making, at that time, a great deal of noise at Paris. But, as in this satirical dialogue, Mr. P. found several whimsies of a very high mysterious nature, told of their elementary beings, which were unfit to come into the machinery of such a sort of poem, he has, in their stead, with great judgment, substituted the legendary stories of Guardian Angels, and the nursery tales of the Fairies, and dexterously accommodated them to the rest of the Rosicrucian System. And to this artful address (unless we will be so uncharitable to think he intended to give a needless scandal) we must suppose he referred in these two lines,   "If e'er one Vision touch'd thy infant thought,   Of all the _nurse_ and all the _priest_ have taught." Thus, by the most beautiful invention imaginable, he has contrived that (as in the serious Epic, the popular belief supports the machinery) in his mock Epic the machinery (taken from a circumstance the most humbling to reason in all philosophical fanaticism) should serve to dismount learned pride and arrogance." On verse 45, canto 1, he remarks:--"The Poet here forsakes his Rosicrucian system; which, in this part, is too extravagant even for ludicrous poetry." On verse 68, canto 1, he continues:--"Here, again, the author resumes the Rosicrucian system. But this tenet, peculiar to that wild philosophy, was founded on a principle very unfit to be employed in such a sort of poem, and, therefore suppressed, though a less judicious writer would have been tempted to expatiate upon it." Swift, in the "Tale of a Tub," says:--"Night being the universal mother of things, wise philosophers hold all writings to be fruitful, in the proportion they are dark; and therefore the true illuminated (that is to say, the darkest of all) have met with such numberless commentators, whose scholastic midwifery has delivered them of meanings, that the authors themselves perhaps never conceived, and yet may very justly be allowed the lawful parents of them; the words of such writers being like seed, which, however scattered, at random, when they light upon a fruitful ground, will multiply far beyond either the hopes or imagination of the sower. And, therefore, in order to promote so useful a work, I will here take leave to glance a few inuendos, that may be of great assistance to those sublime spirits, who shall be appointed to labour in a universal comment upon this wonderful discourse. And, first, I have couched a very profound mystery in the number of O's multiplied by seven and divided by nine. Also, if a devout brother of the rosy cross will pray fervently for sixty-three mornings, with a lively faith, and then transpose certain letters and syllables, according to prescription, in the second and fifth section, they will certainly reveal into a full receipt of the _opus magnum_. Lastly, whoever will be at the pains to calculate the whole number of each letter in this treatise, and sum up the difference exactly between the several numbers, assigning the true natural cause for every such difference, the discoveries in the product will plentifully reward his labour."   "For Mystic Learning, wondrous able   In magic Talisman and Cabal,   Whose primitive tradition reaches   As far as Adam's first green breeches;   Deep sighted in Intelligences,   Ideas, Atoms, Influences;   And much of Terra-Incognita,   Th' intelligible world, could say;   A deep Occult Philosopher,   As learned as the wild Irish are,   Or Sir Agrippa, for profound   And solid lying much renowned.   He Anthroposophus and Fludd,   And Jacob Behmen understood;   Knew many an amulet and charm,   That would do neither good nor harm;   In Rosy-Crusian lore as learned   As he that _verè adeptus_ earned."   --HUDIBRAS, Part I, Canto I. The Globe Encyclopædia, under article Rosicrucians, says:--"A mystic brotherhood revealed to the outer world in the _Fama Fraternitatis R. C._ (1614), the _Confessio Fraternitatis R. C._ (1615), and the Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosenkreuz (1616), which last was acknowledged by, as the two former works were commonly ascribed to, Johann Valentin Andreæ. From them we learn that a German noble of the 14th century, one Christian Rosenkreuz, after long travel in the East, founded on his return a brotherhood of seven adepts, the R., and dying at the age of 106 was buried in their temple--the 'House of the Holy Spirit,' with the inscription on his grave--'Post CXX. annos patebo.' The laws of the order, thus made known in the fulness of time, were that its members should heal the sick gratis, should meet once every year in a certain secret place, should adopt as their symbol R. C. (_i.e. Rosea Crux_), or a rose springing from a cross (the device, be it observed, of Luther's seal), and should assume the habit and manners of whatsoever country they might journey to. It is now supposed that Andreæ simply intended a hoax upon the credulity of the age, and that Christian Rosenkreuz and all the attendant mysteries were wholly the coinage of his fertile brain. However, the hoax, if hoax there were, was taken seriously, and as early as 1622, societies of alchemists at the Hague and elsewhere assumed the title R., while Rosicrucian tenets powerfully influenced Cabalists, Freemasons, and Illuminati, and were professed by Cagliostro and similar impostors. Even to-day a Rosicrucian lodge is said to exist in London, whose members claim by asceticism to live beyond the allotted age of man, and to which the late Lord Lytton sought entrance vainly." "I was once engaged in discourse with a Rosicrucian about the 'great secret.' As this kind of men, I mean those of them who are not professed cheats, are over-run with enthusiasm and philosophy, it was very amusing to hear this religious adept descanting on his pretended discovery. He talked of the secret as of a spirit which lived within an emerald, and converted everything that was near it to the highest perfection it is capable of. 'It gives a lustre,' says he, 'to the sun, and water to the diamond. It irradiates every metal, and enriches lead with all the properties of gold. It heightens smoke into flame, flame into light, and light into glory.' He further added, that a single ray of it dissipates pain, and care, and melancholy, from the person on whom it falls. In short, says he, 'its presence naturally changes every place into a kind of heaven.' "After he had gone on for some time in this unintelligible cant, I found that he jumbled natural and moral ideas together in the same discourse, and that his great secret was nothing else but content." CHAPTER II. _Historical Notices of the Rosicrucians._ So mysterious a sect were the Rosicrucians, and so involved in doubt and obscurity are most of their movements, practices and opinions, that nearly everything connected with them has been denied or doubted at one time or another by those who have written about them. Dr. Mackay says: "Many have denied the existence of such a personage as Rosencreutz, and have fixed the origin of this sect at a much later epoch. The first dawning of it, they say, is to be found in the theories of Paracelsus and the dreams of Dr. Dee, who, without intending it, became the actual, though never the recognised founders of the Rosicrucian philosophy. It is now difficult, and indeed impossible to determine whether Dee and Paracelsus obtained their ideas from the then obscure and unknown Rosicrucians, or whether the Rosicrucians did but follow and improve upon them. Certain it is, that their existence was never suspected till the year 1605, when they began to excite attention in Germany. No sooner were their doctrines promulgated, than all the visionaries, Paracelsists, and alchymists, flocked around their standard, and vaunted Rosencreutz as the new regenerator of the human race." According to Mayer, a celebrated physician of the times, who published a report of the tenets and ordinances of the new fraternity at Cologne in the year 1615, they asserted in the first place that the meditations of their founders surpassed everything that had ever been imagined since the creation of the world, without even excepting the revelations of the Deity; that they were destined to accomplish the general peace and regeneration of man before the end of the world arrived; that they possessed all wisdom and piety in a supreme degree; that they possessed all the graces of nature, and could distribute them among the rest of mankind according to their pleasure; that they were subject to neither hunger, nor thirst, nor disease, nor old age, nor to any other inconvenience of nature; that they knew by inspiration, and at the first glance, every one who was worthy to be admitted into their society; that they had the same knowledge then which they would have possessed if they had lived from the beginning of the world, and had been always acquiring it; that they had a volume in which they could read all that ever was or ever would be written in other books till the end of time; that they could force to, and retain in their service the most powerful spirits and demons; that by the virtue of their songs, they could attract pearls and precious stones from the depths of the sea or the bowels of the earth; that God had covered them with a thick cloud, by means of which they could shelter themselves from the malignity of their enemies, and that they could thus render themselves invisible from all eyes; that the first eight brethren of the Rosie-Cross had power to cure all maladies; that by means of the fraternity, the triple diadem of the Pope would be reduced into dust; that they only admitted two sacraments, with the ceremonies of the Primitive Church, renewed by them: that they recognised the Fourth Monarchy and the Emperor of the Romans as their Chief, and the Chief of all Christians; that they would provide him with more gold, their treasures being inexhaustible, than the King of Spain had ever drawn from the golden regions of Eastern and Western India. Things went on pretty quietly for some time, converts being made with ease in Germany, but only with difficulty in other parts. In 1623, however, the brethren suddenly made their appearance in Paris, and the inhabitants of the city were surprised on the 3rd of March to find placarded on the walls a manifesto to this effect:--"We, the deputies of the principal college of the brethren of the Rosie Cross, have taken up our abode, visible and invisible, in this city, by the grace of the Most High, towards whom are turned the hearts of the just. We show and teach without any books or symbols whatever, and we speak all sorts of languages in the countries wherein we deign to dwell, to draw mankind, our fellows, from error and to save them from death." Whether this was a mere joke on the part of some of the wits of the day, it is certain that it created a very wide-spread sensation, and no little wonder and alarm, particularly amongst the clergy. Very soon pamphlets in opposition, and intended to warn the faithful, began to make their appearance. The earliest was called "A History of the Frightful Compacts entered into between the Devil and the Pretended Invisibles, with their Damnable Instructions, the Deplorable Ruin of their Disciples, and their Miserable End." This was followed by another of a far more ambitious character, pretending to ability to explain all the peculiarities and mysteries of the strange intruders. It was called "An examination of the New Cabala of the Brethren of the Rosie-Cross, who have lately come to reside in the city of Paris, with the History of their Manners, the Wonders worked by them, and many other particulars." As the books sold and circulated the sensation and alarm in the breasts of the people largely increased, approaching almost to a kind of panic. Ridicule and laugh as some would, it was impossible to disguise the fact that a vast number of the population went in bodily fear of this mysterious sect, whose members they had never seen. It was believed that the Rosicrucians could transport themselves from place to place with the rapidity almost of thought, and that they took delight in cheating and tormenting unhappy citizens, especially such as had sinned against the laws of morality. Then very naturally came the wildest and most unlikely stories, which, as is usual with such things, in spite of all their folly, were soon propagated far and wide, and increased the general alarm. An innkeeper declared that a mysterious stranger entered his inn, regaled himself on the best of everything, and suddenly vanished in a cloud when the reckoning was presented. Another was patronised by a similar stranger, who lived upon the choicest fare and drank the best wines of the house for a week, and paid him with a handful of new gold coins, which turned into slates the following morning. It was also reported that several persons on awakening in the middle of the night found individuals in their bedchambers, who suddenly became invisible, though still palpable when the alarm was raised. Such was the consternation in Paris, that every man who could not give a satisfactory account of himself was in danger of being pelted to death; and quiet citizens slept with loaded guns at their bedside, to take vengeance upon any Rosicrucian who might violate the sanctity of their chambers. No man or woman was considered safe; the female sex especially were supposed to be in danger, for it was implicitly believed that no bolts, locks or bars could keep out would be intruders, and it was frequently being reported that young women in the middle of the night found strange men of surpassing beauty in their bedrooms, who vanished the instant any attempt was made to arouse the inmates of the house. In other quarters it was reported that people most unexpectedly found heaps of gold in their houses, not having the slightest idea from whence they came; the feelings and emotions thus excited were consequently most conflicting, no man knowing whether his ghostly visitant might be the harbinger of good or evil. While the general alarm was at its height, another mysterious placard appeared, which said:--"_If any one desires to see the brethren of the Rose-Cross from curiosity only, he will never communicate with us. But if his will really induces him to inscribe his name in the register of our brotherhood, we, who can judge of the thoughts of all men, will convince him of the truth of our promises. For this reason we do not publish to the world the place of our abode. Thought alone, in unison with the sincere will of those who desire to know us, is sufficient to make us known to them, and them to us._" The imposition thus perpetrated upon the credulity of the people had but a comparatively short life in Paris, a deal of controversy was engendered between those who regarded the whole affair as a stupid hoax, and those whose superstitious fears made them think there was truth in it, and the efforts made by its disciples to defend their theories overshot the mark, and exposed the fallacies of that which they were intended to support. The police were called upon the scene to try and trace out and arrest the authors of the troublesome placards, and the Church took up the moral and theological aspect of the sensation, and issued pamphlets which professed to explain the whole as the production of some disciples of Luther, who were sent out to promulgate enmity and opposition to the Pope. The Abbé Gaultier, a Jesuit, distinguished himself in this direction, and informed the public that the very name of the disciples of the sect proved they were heretics; a cross surmounted by a rose being the heraldic device of the arch-heretic Luther. Another writer named Garasse, declared they were nothing but a set of drunken impostors; and that their name was derived from the garland of roses, in the form of a cross, hung over the tables of taverns in Germany as the emblem of secrecy, and from whence was derived the common saying, when one man communicated a secret to another, that it was said, "under the rose." Other explanations were also freely offered, which we have not space to describe, but which may be reached by the aid of the learned works given in our list of authorities. The charges of evil connections brought against the Rosicrucians were repudiated by those people with energy and determination; they affirmed in the most positive manner that they had nothing to do with magic, and that they held no intercourse whatever with the devil. They declared, on the contrary, that they were faithful followers of the true God, that they had already lived more than a hundred years, and expected to live many hundred more, and that God conferred upon them perfect happiness, and as a reward for their piety and service gave them the wonderful knowledge they were possessed of. They declared that they did not get their name from a cross of roses, but from Christian Rosencreutz, their founder. When charged with drunkenness, they said that they did not know what thirst was, and that they were altogether proof against the temptations of the most attractive food. They professed the greatest indignation perhaps at the charge of interfering with the honour of virtuous women, and maintained most positively that the very first vow they took was one of chastity, and that any of them violating that oath, would be deprived at once of all the advantages he possessed, and be subject to hunger, thirst, sorrow, disease and death like other men. Witchcraft and sorcery they also most warmly repudiated; the existence of incubi and succubi they said was a pure invention of their enemies, that man "was not surrounded by enemies like these, but by myriads of beautiful and beneficent beings, all anxious to do him service. The sylphs of the air, the undines of the water, the gnomes of the earth, and the salamanders of the fire were man's friends, and desired nothing so much as that men should purge themselves of all uncleanness, and thus be enabled to see and converse with them. They possessed great power, and were unrestrained by the barriers of space, or the obstructions of matter. But man was in one respect their superior. He had an immortal soul, and they had not. They might, however, become sharers in man's immortality if they could inspire one of that race with the passion of love towards them. Hence it was the constant endeavour of the female spirits to captivate the admiration of men, and of the male gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, and undines to be beloved by a woman. The object of this passion, in returning their love, imparted a portion of that celestial fire, the soul; and from that time forth the beloved became equal to the lover, and both, when their allotted course was run, entered together into the mansions of felicity. These spirits, they said, watched constantly over mankind by night and day. Dreams, omens, and presentiments were all their work, and the means by which they gave warning of the approach of danger. But though so well inclined to befriend man for their own sake, the want of a soul rendered them at times capricious and revengeful; they took offence at slight causes, and heaped injuries instead of benefits on the heads of those who extinguished the light of reason that was in them by gluttony, debauchery, and other appetites of the body."[3] Great as was the excitement produced in the French capital by these placards, pamphlets and reports, it lasted after all but a very few months. The accumulating absurdities became too much, even for the most superstitious, and their fears were overcome by that sense of the ridiculous which speedily manifested itself. Instead of trembling as before, men laughed and derided, and the detection, arrest and summary punishment of a number of swindlers who tried to pass off lumps of gilded brass as pure gold made by the processes of alchemy, aided by a smartly written exposure of the follies of the sect by Gabriel Naudé, soon drove the whole thing clean off the French territory.