194 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 29, 1887 



the sick " thronged for cure notwithstanding the fact that 

 the Society remained unknown to Europe till the beginning 

 of the seventeenth century. Thus much we might even 

 be induced to swallow on the credo quia impossibile est 

 principle ; but the finding, in 1494, of the works of Para- 

 celsus, who had been born in the previous year at Ein- 

 siedeln, staggers our faith. Courtesy forbids the lie direct, 

 but, to use a phrase of Mr. Newell's, we incline to think 

 that if the author of the '"' Fama " ever wrote a work of 

 fiction it would sell. 



We have, then, to seek elsewhere for an explanation of 

 the Society's inception, and must do so in post-Lutheran 

 times ; the violence of its anti-Papal prejudices, and its 

 ultra-Protestant principles, prohibiting the attribution of 

 its origin to a more remote period. It will render the 

 comprehension of the case more easy if, before theorizing 

 as to the foundation of the Rosicrucians, we note the 

 varying opinions which have obtained as to the signification 

 of the letters F.R.C., which formed the title of the brother- 

 hood, and as to the badge which they employed. 



Michael Maier conceived that R. signified Pegasus, and 

 C. lilhanj others that R. was ros, dew, and C. crux, cross, 

 dew being deemed the most powerful dissolvent of gold, 

 and the cross being in chemical language equivalent to 

 light — the menstruum of the red dragon, the producer of 

 gold — since the letters L V X are all formed by the limbs 

 of the cross. Again, it has been imagined that F.R.C. 

 stood for Fratres Roris Cocti, or dew digested for the work 

 of transmutation. The Society's published documents, 

 however, sanction the generally received opinion that R. is 

 for rosa, rose, and C. for crux, cross, and that the letters 

 F.R.C. are the initials of Fratres Rosatae Crucis. 



The device of the Society is a red rose on a red or 

 golden cross, this being usually placed on a calvary. Mr. 

 Waite has some interesting memoranda upon the occult 

 significance of the rose as the feminine emblem contrast- 

 ing with the masculine cross ; of the Brahmanic rose, the 

 residence of the Deity, recurring with similar significance 

 in Dante's Paradise ; of Buddha and Indra crucified 

 for stealing the blossom ; of the identification of Jesus 

 with the crucified flower ; of the rose of Bacchus which 

 enabled Midas to turn all things to gold ; of that of Har- 

 pocrates consecrated to silence ; and so forth. He cites 

 the author of the " Summum Bonum," who sees in the 

 symbol "the cross sprinkled with the rosy blood of Christ"; 

 and the Abb^ Constant, who has identified the rose with 

 scientific initiation and the cross with religion, and beholds 

 in their conjunction that happy union the antithesis of 

 which has been chronicled by Mr. Draper. He is never- 

 theless fain to confess that the whole question of the 

 significance of the crucified rose in its connection with the 

 Society is one of pure conjecture, and that no presumption 

 is offered by the fact of its adoption for its connection with 

 universal symbolism. 



Mr. Waite divides the Rosicrucian theorists into three 

 categories. Firstly, such as accept the history of Christian 

 Rosencreutz as that of an actual personage and the " Fama 

 Fraternitatis " as a true history. These he regards as 

 impervious to argument. Accepting the dictum of De 

 Quincey, that the " Fama " is "monstrous and betrays itself 

 in every circumstance," he decides that the legend of 

 Christian Rosencreutz is not historically true, and that the 

 Society did not originate as described. In the second 



section he places those who regard both personage and 

 relation as mythical ; and, in the third, believers in the 

 existence of the secret Society, but who reject the " Fama " 

 as a fiction. 



The theorists of these latter categories have mostly 

 sought the author of the Rosicrucian manifestoes amongst 

 the literati of the period, whether they regarded him as a 

 hoaxer or a satirist or as the spokesman of a hidden 

 brotherhood. By them the publications in question have 

 been variously attributed to Taulerus, Luther, Wiegel, 

 Joachim Junge, ^gidius Gutmann, or Johann Valentin 

 Andreas. Mr. Waite considers that it is only in the case 

 of the last named that there is any sufficient evidence to 

 support the plea of authorship. The grounds upon which 

 that plea rests are, amongst others, that the writings of 

 Andreas show him to have uniformly favoured secret 

 Societies as a means for the reformation of his age and 

 country. He is the acknowledged author of a work entitled 

 the " Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz " — a 

 species of alchymical " Pilgrim's Progress," which, after 

 remaining several years in manuscript, was printed at 

 Strasburg in 16 16, and a translation of which occupies 

 97 pages of the present volume. The first manifestoes of 

 the Society had only borne the initials C. R. C. ; but the 

 issue of 1615 calls it the Bruderschafift des Rosen-Creutzes, 

 and it is hence argued that the manifestoes and the 

 " Chymical Marriage" had a common author. The hero 

 of the latter work binds a blood-red ribbon cross-wise over 

 his white linen coat, and sticks four roses in his hat— a 

 noteworthy coincidence, the arms of the Andreas family 

 being a saltier between four roses. The connection of this 

 escutcheon with the device of the crucified rose has been 

 urged, as also the identity of the acknowledged principles 

 of Johann Valentin with those set forth in the manifestoes, 

 in favour of his authorship. This opinion has gained 

 support from certain utterances of Prof. Besoldt, himself 

 an intimate friend of Andreas. Against this view it must 

 be remembered that Andreas describes the " Chymical 

 Marriage" as a ludibrium of his youth, though he must 

 have been aware that its alchymical contents would cer- 

 tainly be accepted seriously when published in his maturer 

 years ; and it is submitted that he, a man of known 

 intellectual nobility, could scarcely have perpetrated a hoax 

 the reprehensible nature of which he had himself stigma- 

 tized when dealing with the Rosicrucian manifestoes. 

 Again, the accepted symbol of the fraternity was never a 

 saltier between four roses, but either a Latin cross with a 

 rose at the point of intersection or a cross rising out of 

 a rose. The identification of the arms of Andreas with a 

 badge of the brotherhood, which forms one of the strong- 

 est arguments in favour of his authorship, thus falls to 

 the ground. These and other arguments elaborated by 

 Mr. Waite suffice to render it very uncertain that the 

 Rosicrucian publications emanated from Andreas. Mr. 

 Waite suggests that Andreas may have been associated 

 with the previously existing Militia Crucifera Evangelica, 

 and, when disgusted with its assumption of occultism, 

 have attempted to replace it by a practical Christian 

 association free from mysticism and its symbols, from 

 pretension to arcane endowments or transcendent powers. 

 But he admits that undoubted difficulties beset this theory, 

 and adds : " To my own mind it is far from satisfactory, 

 and, from a careful consideration of all available materials, 



