THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 213 



angler more fortunate. But I stepped by chance into this dis- 

 course of oils and fishes' smelling ; and though there might be 

 more said, both of it and of baits for roach and dace and other 



compounded of Rosa, a rose, and Crux, is an error, yet it greatly helped 

 them, as it seemed to have a reference to Luther, whose arms were a rose 

 lying on a cross. 



The fraternity highly excited the curiosity of people, some supposing 

 that it aimed at a revolution in the church, and others that its object was 

 political — others again that it concealed some great chemical secret ; 

 but it received its death blow from Michael Bruler, who in his work On 

 the Mystery of the False Gospel, boldly declared that the whole was a 

 scheme contrived by some artful persons to impose on public credulity. 

 The mystery, however, continued to be affected by many chemists, who 

 were called by various names expressive of their pretensions, as Jtnmor- 

 tales, llluniinati, the Invisible Brothers, F. R. C, Fratres Roris Cacti. 



The doctrines of the Rosicrucians were warmly adopted and proclaimed 

 in England by Robert Fludd (or De Fluctibus), a physician, a man of great 

 learning, genius, and religious sentiment (born 1574, died 1637), who 

 sought to draw from them an explanation of the Mosaic history of the Cre- 

 ation, which was effectively answered by Gassendi. His writings found in 

 Germany a proselyte equally enthusiastic, Jacob Btihm, or Behmen, a shoe- 

 maker of Gorlitz, in Upper Lusatia, who from the strength of a highly 

 imaginative mind and religious fervor, became through his writings one 

 of the most renowned mystics of modern times. This man, having de- 

 voted himself to theological speculation, and enjoyed, as he thought, seve- 

 ral remarkable visions, accidentally heard of Fludd's doctrines, and struck 

 out of the element of fire, a form of theology wilder than that of the Pytha- 

 gorean numbers. He gained, as well as Michael Meyer, another disciple 

 of the same creed, many followers ; and, after writing many works, which 

 with all their errors show him to have had a mind of no mean powers, he 

 died in 1624. His works were first collected and published in 167.'), but a 

 more complete edition was issued at Amsterdam in ten vols., 1642, by 

 Gichtel, from whom the followers of Bohm, a sect much esteemed for their 

 quiet, charitable character, have derived their name of Gichtelians. 

 There was a sect of Bohmenites formed in England ; and in 1697, Jane 

 Leade established a society there under the name of Philadelphists, for the 

 explanation of his writings, which is said to exist even at this time. Se- 

 veral editions of his works have been published subsequently. William Law, 

 a non-juring divine, the author of The Serious Call to a Devout and Holy 

 Life, a work well known and highly esteemed among evangelical Christians, 

 a man of acuteness, talent, and learning, embraced the opinions of Bohm 

 with great ardor. He translated and commenced the publication of his 

 master's works, which wsis completed after his death under the title — 

 The Works of Jacob Behmen, to which is prefixed the life of the author. 



