Il me paroit, que tout ce que l’on a dit des Frères de la Croix de la Rose, est une pure invention de quelque personne ingénieuse…
"How could we possibly appreciate the Mona Lisa if Leonardo had written at the bottom of the canvas: 'The lady is smiling because she is hiding a secret from her lover." - Stanley Kubrick
All das bedeutet nun nicht, dass das Rosenkeuzertum erst um 1600 entstanden sei. Es besagt aber, dass wir ab diesem Zeitpunkt schriftliche Zeugnisse von bzw. über sie besitzen. Die Spekulationen über das "wahre" Alter der Rosenkreuzer gehen weiter und machen um 1600 nicht halt. – Dr. Wolfram Frietsch in Newtons Geheimnis.
The author(s) of the rosicrucian manifestos remain obscure and the beginning of the movement is undetermined. However most modern scholars now ascribe the Chymische Hochzeit or Chymical Wedding to Johann Valentin Andreae.
Yes, the very word rosicrucian is subject to a considerable number of controversies. The name is generally, assumed to be derived from the supposed founder of the order, Christian Rosenkreuz (Christ of the Rose Cross), but according to others, it was taken from the coat of arms of the Andreae family, which is a St. Andrew Cross with four roses. Others again say, it is composed of Ros, dew and Crux which is supposed to mystically represent LVX or light. It is also interesting to note that the word Ras means wisdom, while Rus is translated concealment.
The Rosicrucian Order AMORC is reproached for its advertising and blamed by other occultists as un-rosicrucian like, though totally ignoring the fact that it once was the rosicrucians themselves who virtually invented the art of advertising and public relations!
The Invisibles invited new members to join their order through placards placed in the streets of Paris on 3 March 1623. (Some claim this was in August). For a long time, this strange placard was the sole topic of conversation in all public places.
According to the Mercure François the manuscript copies of the placards were passed round, hand to hand, and some were fixed to signposts at the crossroads - a fact that couldn't fail to have some magical significance!
"We, the deputies of the Principal College of the Brethren of the RoZe-Croix, 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 teach without books or signs and speak the language of any country where we wish to be, to draw mankind, our fellows, from error and death".
We leave it to the ingenuity of the discriminating reader whether these posters were the consequence of the earlier publication of a number of pamphlets on the rosicrucian controversy c.q. anticipating it and or whether we are dealing here with a ludibrium.
This caused a rosicrucian scare and the very first media hoax in history. Gabriel Naudé
in his "Instruction à la France sur la vérité de l'histoire des Frères de la Roze-Croix" speaks of a hurricane of rumour blowing through France. Others speak of Horrible Pacts made between the Devil and the Pretended Invisible Ones. (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). There are said to be six-and-thirty of these Invisible Ones and none less than Satan himself is the alleged head of their college. These rosicrucians were a confraternity of drunken imposters and secret people, hence the meaning of the rose in connection with them (rather an interesting suggestion). They have the power to transport themselves where ever they wished.
All of Paris was in alarm. No man thought himself secure of his goods, no maiden of her virginity, or wife of her chastity, while these rosicrucians were abroad. In the midst of all perplexity, a second notice appeared, which contained a statement to the effect that:
"If anyone desires to see the brethren of the Rose-Cross from curiosity alone, 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 the thoughts of 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."
It was generally believed that the six (out of total 36) emissaries who dwelt in France, were lodged somewhere in the "Marests du Temple", a quarter which soon afterwards acquired rather a bad reputation. It was figured by the populace that the members of this dreadful and secret brotherhood used to visit the inns and hotels of Paris, eat the best meals, drink the best wines and then suddenly vanished into thin air when the landlord came with the reckoning. Gentle maidens went to bed alone, awoke at night and found men in bed with them, more beautiful than Apollo (the Incubus?), though immediately becoming invisible when an alarm was raised. Others found large heaps of gold in their houses, not knowing whence it came.
Dr. Nicolaes Wassenaer: Historisch verhael aller gedenkwaerdigheden, Amsterdam, 1624: "They are transported from one place to another in the twinkling of an eye. They make themselves invisible, garb herbs and know how to read the secret thoughts of men."
The church very soon took up the question and the Abbé Gaultier another Jesuit, wrote a book to prove that, by their enmity to the Pope, they could be none other than the disciples of Luther, sent to promulgate his heresy. Yes their very name proved they were heretics: a cross surmounted by a rose being the heraldic device of arch-heretic Martin Luther.
It seems that the anonymous author of the "Effrayables pactions faites entre le Diable et les prétendus Invisibles" and the Pater Jesuit R.P. Garasse's "Doctrine curieuse des beaux esprits de ce temps, ou prétendus tels." are working up a witch-craze against the "invisible" rosicrucians with their pompous manifestos and their diabolical intentions. The rosicrucians, says Garasse, are a sect in Germany and Michael Maier is its secretary. Encouraged by this clerical authority, an anonymous writer published his "Examen sur l'inconnue et nouvelle caballe des Freres de la croix rosee, habituez depuis peu de temps en la Ville de Paris".
Such was the consternation in Paris that every man, who couldn't give a satisfactory account of himself, was in danger of being pelted to death; and disquieted citizens slept with loaded muskets at their bedsides, to take vengeance of any rosicrucian who might violate the sanctity of their chambers. The the police endeavoured in vain to find out the offenders. This row lasted well into 1624, by which time we may well imagine that the rosicrucians had long slipped out of France, as invisibly as they had arrived!
Apparently some of them headed to Holland, where in 1625 the "Hof van Holland" instigated the prosecution of some folks, who named themselves "Broeders van den Roosen Cruce" and came from Paris to this region and spread doctrines and do things detrimaental to the country and its citizens:
"in de religie seer erroneus ende ketters"
The verdict of a Judicium the theologican faculty of Leyden was crushing:
"In stumperige schuijten-praet, bruiloftslied en kleppermanswensch werden de pamfletten pseudoniem of anoniem aan den man gebracht"
The Dutch Grand Master, painter Torrentius was arrested on 29 august 1627, imprisoned, tortured and eventually banned to England with the aid of Prince Frederik Hendrik and King Charles I of England.
The rosicrucian renaissance is said to have begun in 1614, but as it should be clear to the reader by now, this was merely the externalization of their organisation.
