Aug. 20. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



175 



2. The Indians is by William Richardson, Pro- 

 fessor of Humanity in the University of Glasgow, who 

 died in 1814. 



3. Andre is by William Dunlap, an American dra- 

 matist.] 



HigJi Commission Court. — Can any of your 

 readers>efer me to works beai-ing on the proceed- 

 ings of the High Commission Court ? The sort of 

 information of which I am in search is not so much 

 on the great constitutional questions involved m 

 the history of this court, as in the details of its 

 mode of procedure ; as shown either by actual 

 books of practice, or the history of particular cases 

 brought before it. J. F. M. 



[Some account of the proceedings of the High 

 Commission Court is given in Reeves's Hhtory of the 

 English Law, vol. v. pp. 215—218. The Harleian 

 MS. 7516. also contains Minutes of the Proceedings 

 of the High Commissioners at Whitehall, July 6, 1616, 

 on the question of Commendums, the khig himself 

 being present. It makes twenty-one leaves.] 



SR^yttCg* 



ROSICHUCIANS. 



(Vol. vii., p. 619. ; Vol. viii., p. 106.) 

 "We frequently see Queries made in these pages 

 which could be satisfactorily answered by turning 

 to the commonest books of reference, such as 

 Brand, Fosbroke, Hone, the various dictionaries 

 and encyclopedias, and the standard works on 

 the subjects queried. Now It seems to me that 

 "N". & Q." Is not Intended for going over old 

 ground, and thus becoming a literary treadmill ; 

 but its mission lies In supplying information not 

 easily found, and in perfecting, as far as possible, 

 our standard works and books of reference. Mr. 

 Taylor's Query aflbrds an opportunity for this, 

 as the ordinary sources of Information are very 

 deficient as regards the Roslcruclans. 



According to some, the name Is derived from 

 their supposed founder. Christian Rosencreutz, who 

 died In 1484. And they account for the fact of 

 the Roslcruclans not being heard of till 1 604, by 

 saying that Rosencreutz bound his disciples by an 

 oath not to promulgate his doctrines for 120 years 

 after his death. The mystical derivation of the 

 name Is thus given In the Encyc. Brit. : — 



" The denomination evidently appears to be derived 

 from the science of chemistry. It is not compounded, 

 as many imagine, of the two words rosa and crux, 

 which signify rose and cross, but of the latter of these 

 two words and the Latin ros, which signifies deiu. OP 

 all natural bodies dew was deemed the most powerful 

 dissolvent of gold ; and the cross in the chemical lan- 

 guage is equivalent to light, because the figure of the 

 cross exhibits at the same time the three letters of 

 which the word lux, light, is compounded. Now lux 

 is called by this sect the seed or menstruum of the red 



dragon, or, in other words, gross and corporeal light, ■ 

 which, when properly digested and modified, produces 

 gold. Hence it follows, if this etymology be admitted, 

 that a Rosicrucian philosopher is one who, by the in- 

 tervention and assistance of the dew, seeks for light ; _ 

 or, in other words, the philosopher's stone. 



" The true meaning and energy of this denomination 

 did not escape the penetration and sagacity of Gassendi, 

 as appears by his Examen Philos. Fludd, torn. iii. s. 15. 

 p. 261 . ; and it was more fully explained by Renaudot 

 in his Conferences Publiqnes, torn. iv. p. 87." . 



Tlie encyclopjEdist remarks that at first the title 

 commanded some respect, as it seemed to be bor- 

 rowed from the arms of Luther, which were a cross 

 placed upon a rose. 



The leading doctrines of the Roslcruclans were- 

 borrowed from the Eastern philosophers* ; the 

 Christian Platonists, schoolmen, and mystics : 

 mixed up with others derived from writers on 

 natural history, magic, astrology, and especially 

 alchemy. All these blended together, and served 

 up In a professional jargon of studied obscurity, 

 formed the doctrinal system of these strange phi- 

 losophers. In this system the doctrine of elemental 

 spirits, and the means of communion and alliance 

 with them, and the doctrine of signatures, are the 

 most prominent points. 



Let me refer Mr. Taylor to Michael Meyer's 

 Themis Aurea, hoc est de legibus Fraternitatis Roseau 

 Crucis, Col. 1615; the works of Jacob Behmen, 

 Robt. Fludd, John Heydon, Peter Mormlus, Eu- 

 gene PhlUiletlies ; the works of the Rosicrucian So- 

 ciety, containing seventy-one treatises In dIfForent 

 languages ; the Catalogue of Hermetic books by 

 the Abbe Lenglet du Fresnol, Paris, 1762 ; Man- 

 get's Bihlioth. Chem. Curios., Col. 1702, 2 vols, 

 folio; and the Theatrum Chemicum, Argent. 1662, 

 6 vols. 8vo. 



I must make particular mention of the twa 

 most celebrated of the Rosicrucian works; the 

 first Is La Chiave del Cabinetto, Col. 1681, I2mo. 

 The author, Joseph Francis Borri, gives a most 

 systematic account of the doctrine of the Roslc 

 Cross in this Interesting little volume. He was 

 Imprisoned for magic and heresy, and died In his 

 prison at Rome In 1695 at the age of seventy 

 years. On this work was founded one still more 

 remarkable — 



" Le Compte de Gabalis, ou Entretiens sur les 

 Sciences Secretes. ' Quod tanto impendio absconditur 

 etiam solum modo demonstraro, destruere est.' — 

 Terlull, Sur la Copie imprimee a Paris, chez Claude 

 Barbin. — m.bc.lxxi. 12mo., pp. 150." 



* The Jewish speculations on the subject of ele- 

 mental spirits and angels (especially those that assumed 

 corporeal forms, and united themselves with the daugh- 

 ters of men) were largely drawn on by the Rosicrucians. 

 (See the famous Liher Zohar, Sulzbaci, 1684, fol. ; and 

 i Philo, Lib. de Gigantibus. See also Hoornbeek, Lib. 

 pro Convert, Jud., Lug. Bat., 1665, 4to.) 



