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Rosicrucian Society Of England.
ROSICRUCIAN SOCIETY OF ENGLAND .
YORK COLLEGE . A MEETING of this body was held at York , on 15 th November 1881 . There wove present at the opening of the College Fratres T . 13 . Whytehead Hon . IX . Ch . Ad ., T . J . Wilkinson VI . as Stiff ., Rev . W . C . Lukis VII . as Dopy ., J . M . Meek IV . Cel ., J . S . Cumberland Hon . VIII . Treasurer , W . H . Cowper I . Secy ., S . Middleton III . 1 st A ., C . Fendelow III . 2 nd A ., C . D . H . Drnry I . as 3 rd
A ., B . L . Mills I . as 4 th A ., A . H . H . McGachen I . G . T ., T . Trevor Las C . of N ., A . T . B . Turner IL , G . Simpson I ., & c . Fratres J . T . Belk , V . Fowler and W . B . Williamson , previousl y accepted , were inducted and took their seats . The Chief Adept then read a paper , entitled "A Few Notes on Some of the Older Rosicrncians , " as follows : —
W . CELEBRANT AND FRATRES , —I must guard myself from being misunderstood after my selection of the title of this short paper , because the term Older Rosicrucians would seem to imply that tho society under whose auspices we are meeting to-day is the descendant of an older organisation . Now this is not the case , and we do uot pretend to any antiquity beyond a quarter of a century or so ; and it
would be quite as foolish and profitless for n 3 to endeavonr to show that we have had our knowledge handed down to us exclusively from times mediaeval , as it would be for us as Master Masons to try to show a succession from the fifteen fellow Crafts of the Third Degree legend . The founders of our society chose the title because it was their intention that those who joined them shonld do so with the
purpose of investigating Masonic History , and , like the Rosiciucian Philosophers of the Middle Ages , devote some of their time to the examination of the arcana of the Craft , particularly as regardsits origin and organisation . There have been many writers who have asserted , moreover , that our speculative Freemasonry is a kind of modem outcome of Kosicrncianiam , and , therefore , it is not at all out of place
forns to consider the class of men who , for some centuries in this country and in Europe , were popularly known as Rosicrncians , or Brethren of the Eosy Cross . Before Andrea's time and tho promulgation of his legend of Kosenkrentz , to which I have alluded in a former paper , read in this College , nothing seems to have been said of any Philosophies Fraternity bearing
onr title , but as the later searchers after truth were simply a continuation of the former , the earlier scientists have just as much risrht to be referred to as Rosicrncians . Nearly all of them were members of the Monastic Orders , as might naturally bo expected in an age when most of the learning of the world was conserved within the walls of the monasteries , and therefore much of their teachings
partook of a reli gious tendency . Of course , from the remotest ages of the world ' s history , there have been societies of secret searchers after truth , although the knowledge and means at their disposal were so small that the results gained were not usually sitisfactory . In . tite clays of Abraham , for instance , and probably long before that , there were on the borders of
the Persian Gulf colleges of priests who practised the arts of divination and made astrological observations from thesnmmitsof hnge temples , whose crumbled remains are seen at the present day . Then we know that the Babyloniaus were great astrologers , as shown by their inscribed cylinders in existence in our own museums . The Israelites themselves were certainly devout believers in witchcraft and
divination . Every one knows that the Greeks and Romans had their own institutions of a similar character , some of which we of this era should call superstitions , others religions , aud others again secularist . And so the Saracens in Europe , and the liter Alchemists , and followers of Hermeticism on that continent , down to the VVitchfinders of New England arid , the weakest phase of all , the Spirit Rappers of
the present generation . Tho Orient was . of course , the birthplace of astrology and mysticism . As the cradle of the human race this was to be expected ; but something may also be attributed to the cloudless skies and brilliant canopy of stars , wliich nightly invited the watcher to an uninterrupted pursuit of his investigations . Nor must the reading member of this Society imagine that tho
Magi of the East no longer exist save in the pages of history and fable . At least , if we are to believe the daring statements of Mr . Sinnett , made in his " Occult World" some few years ago , the Society of Theosophists is in a very flourishing condition , aud is ruled over by some of the most alarmingly powerful magicians possible , personages who , being absolutely omniscient , are probably
watching our proceedings at the present moment , and who might indeed , if they chose , crush ns instantly by some horrible fatality brought about by the terrible agencies at their command . Bnt to our early Rosicrncians : — I think we may fairly regard as the leader of the procession of sages who , in the European History of Literature , has left hi * mark
most prominently upon the class which we represent Roger Bacon , the Somersetshire student , who was educated at the Oxford and Paris Universities and became a Franciscan Friar . The stories told of Bacon and his magical powers and feat ? are , of course , a tissue of rubbish , and most likely the inventions of a later age . Bacon was burn in 1214 , and it is a remarkable proof to my mind of his gigantic intellect
and of his recognition by educated men of the period , as being the hero of knowledge of his age , that at a time when his works mast have been circulated in very small numbers , they should have attracted an amount of attention quite unusual , and that their author should have twice found himself the inmate of a Papal dungeon . There waa no printing before the fifteenth century , and therefore Bacon ' s books must all have been laboriously copied by hand by his
Rosicrucian Society Of England.
pupils , yet he soon found himself an object of dread by that church which , even in these enlightened days , excommunicates those who are in search o the truth . Bacon made a collection of his w > rks and presented them to Clement IV ., who released him from the duiweon of Innocent IV ., under the title of Optts Majui . This work iv . s not printed until 1597 , and was edited by Dr . Jebb in 1733 , and
treats ef almost everything under the snn that in those days was considered to como within tho rango of the notice of the philosophic world . Theso included Divination by tho Stars , Geography , Geo . metry , Natural History , Metaphysics , and many other subjects . Bacon published several other works ; the ono by which he will always be rememhered is that in which ho treats of various kinds of
scientific instruments , mo 9 t of tho ideas he then shadowed forth having long ago been realised . There is no doubt that the Oxford Monk was far ahead of the days in which he lived ; and whist a great deal of the superstitions and nonsense of his age pervaded hia mind , his soul could not be bound down by any suoh trammels , but soared away in prophetio visions of what he saw must be iu the oourae of
the advance of knowledge . And yet in those days Bacon was not regarded as any necromancer . It was only in later times that the flavour of the Blaok Arc was discovered to bavehnng around his life j and the odd part of the matter is , that the very agency that produced this belief and revealed a luxuriant crop of previously unknown philosophical and magical societies and individual alchemists waa the
same force that some few hundred years later swept away the whole brood—I mean the Printing Press . The fact is , that it waa the invention of printing that enabled the world at large to become acquainted with tho so-called Magical Arts , and every dabbler in abstruse knowledge became known from the publication of hia works , not like Bacon for their intrinsic merits , but because the mind of
man , darkened and but little eduoated , caught at anything that seemed mysterious and grotesque , and wandering in searoh of truth after blind leaders , clutohed at anything in the vain hope of finding some solid foundation , regarding everything that appeared in print as thereby proved to be reliable . Leaving Bacon , we find no alchemist of note of hia day except
Albertus Magnns , whose real name was Albert de Groot , a Swabian . He lived eighty-seven years , and is said to have written twenty-one folio volumes of works , whioh were published three centuries after his death . He was a doctor and a Dominican monk , and seems to have believed at one time that he was on the track of the philosopher's stone . It seema doubtful if he really could have been the
anthor of the mass of literature attributed to him , and wo know that in later days the piracy of an author ' s name was no unusual trick . Arnold of Villanova was the next man of importance . He devoted himself entirely to alchemy , and died in 1314 . He is oredited with the discovery of many of the leading facts of chemistry of the present day , but like all the other Knights of the Crncible of that age , he
seems to have ohiefly spent his time in trying to find out the way to manufacture gold . Paracelsus , a native of Zurich , and bora in 1494 , was really a doctor , but in those days doctors were believed to deal in amulets and charms and to work magical cures . I fear we sometimes expect our doctors to work miracles eveu in oar XlXth century . He
publicly burned the works of Galen and claimed to have founded a hotter system of medioine . Michael Noatradamns , an astrologer of Provence , bora in 1503 , enjoyed some celebrity . Catherine de Medicia patronised him , which probably saved him from being regarded as a vulgar oharlatan . Porta , a well descended Neapolitan , born about the middle of the
XVIth century , was another learned man , who went at great detail into magical disquisitions . He formed a society , which he called " Secreti , " but this got him into trouble of course with the church . His great work is entitled "Magia Naturalis , aive de Miraoulis Rerum Naturalium , " which has been translated into most languages .
These are merely a few of the scores of sages whose names appear in various lists as alchemists and Rosicrucians , and whose worka crowd many of the catalogues of the Loudon book dealers , but those I have named seem to have been the most quoted and beat known of their class at that time .
The XVIIth century waa prolific in these men , but concerning them there is really very little to be said . There is a strong suspicion of most of their works having been translations , or adaptations of those of older alchemists whose manuscripts had fallen into their hands . Their claims to have transmuted gold and to have performed various other impossibilities are usually backed up by the alleged
unimpeachable authority of princes and royal personages who , however , seem to have been perfectly satisfied with experiments ou a smill scale , and to have never conceived the simple notion of enriching themselves on the spot . Of those who flourished during this period there was William Lilly , a Derbyshire man , who seem 3 to have been a clever lad and an
adept in the Latin tongue , for he says in hia own "Hiatory of hia Life and Times , " published in 1715 , that when he was at school at the age of eighteen he was able to cap verses and dispute with any scholars , and that when scholars visited the school he was sent to speak Latin with them , and he often had to report to hia master , " noa bene intellegit linguam Latinam , nee prorsns loquitur . " He
married a rich widow in 1632 , and then went into the study of astrology . That he was undispatably a man of great erudition and attainments is shown by the fact that the Archbishop of Canterbury granted him a license to practise medicine in 1670 . In his " Christian Astrology , " published in 1617 , he describes his astrological system , and , as it were , lets the public behind the scenes . It has been fashionable to refer to many of thyse men as impostors and
charlataus , and the name of Lilly has been occasionally linked with that of Balsamo or Cagliostro as that of a criminal quack . I am by no means sure that this is fair in either case . We must remember the times and circumstances under which they lived , and for my part , I do not think they are any more to be gibbeted as malefactors than the brewer who makes bad beer , or the baker who turns out unwholesome bread , or the builder who carelessly pats in cheap
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Rosicrucian Society Of England.
ROSICRUCIAN SOCIETY OF ENGLAND .
YORK COLLEGE . A MEETING of this body was held at York , on 15 th November 1881 . There wove present at the opening of the College Fratres T . 13 . Whytehead Hon . IX . Ch . Ad ., T . J . Wilkinson VI . as Stiff ., Rev . W . C . Lukis VII . as Dopy ., J . M . Meek IV . Cel ., J . S . Cumberland Hon . VIII . Treasurer , W . H . Cowper I . Secy ., S . Middleton III . 1 st A ., C . Fendelow III . 2 nd A ., C . D . H . Drnry I . as 3 rd
A ., B . L . Mills I . as 4 th A ., A . H . H . McGachen I . G . T ., T . Trevor Las C . of N ., A . T . B . Turner IL , G . Simpson I ., & c . Fratres J . T . Belk , V . Fowler and W . B . Williamson , previousl y accepted , were inducted and took their seats . The Chief Adept then read a paper , entitled "A Few Notes on Some of the Older Rosicrncians , " as follows : —
W . CELEBRANT AND FRATRES , —I must guard myself from being misunderstood after my selection of the title of this short paper , because the term Older Rosicrucians would seem to imply that tho society under whose auspices we are meeting to-day is the descendant of an older organisation . Now this is not the case , and we do uot pretend to any antiquity beyond a quarter of a century or so ; and it
would be quite as foolish and profitless for n 3 to endeavonr to show that we have had our knowledge handed down to us exclusively from times mediaeval , as it would be for us as Master Masons to try to show a succession from the fifteen fellow Crafts of the Third Degree legend . The founders of our society chose the title because it was their intention that those who joined them shonld do so with the
purpose of investigating Masonic History , and , like the Rosiciucian Philosophers of the Middle Ages , devote some of their time to the examination of the arcana of the Craft , particularly as regardsits origin and organisation . There have been many writers who have asserted , moreover , that our speculative Freemasonry is a kind of modem outcome of Kosicrncianiam , and , therefore , it is not at all out of place
forns to consider the class of men who , for some centuries in this country and in Europe , were popularly known as Rosicrncians , or Brethren of the Eosy Cross . Before Andrea's time and tho promulgation of his legend of Kosenkrentz , to which I have alluded in a former paper , read in this College , nothing seems to have been said of any Philosophies Fraternity bearing
onr title , but as the later searchers after truth were simply a continuation of the former , the earlier scientists have just as much risrht to be referred to as Rosicrncians . Nearly all of them were members of the Monastic Orders , as might naturally bo expected in an age when most of the learning of the world was conserved within the walls of the monasteries , and therefore much of their teachings
partook of a reli gious tendency . Of course , from the remotest ages of the world ' s history , there have been societies of secret searchers after truth , although the knowledge and means at their disposal were so small that the results gained were not usually sitisfactory . In . tite clays of Abraham , for instance , and probably long before that , there were on the borders of
the Persian Gulf colleges of priests who practised the arts of divination and made astrological observations from thesnmmitsof hnge temples , whose crumbled remains are seen at the present day . Then we know that the Babyloniaus were great astrologers , as shown by their inscribed cylinders in existence in our own museums . The Israelites themselves were certainly devout believers in witchcraft and
divination . Every one knows that the Greeks and Romans had their own institutions of a similar character , some of which we of this era should call superstitions , others religions , aud others again secularist . And so the Saracens in Europe , and the liter Alchemists , and followers of Hermeticism on that continent , down to the VVitchfinders of New England arid , the weakest phase of all , the Spirit Rappers of
the present generation . Tho Orient was . of course , the birthplace of astrology and mysticism . As the cradle of the human race this was to be expected ; but something may also be attributed to the cloudless skies and brilliant canopy of stars , wliich nightly invited the watcher to an uninterrupted pursuit of his investigations . Nor must the reading member of this Society imagine that tho
Magi of the East no longer exist save in the pages of history and fable . At least , if we are to believe the daring statements of Mr . Sinnett , made in his " Occult World" some few years ago , the Society of Theosophists is in a very flourishing condition , aud is ruled over by some of the most alarmingly powerful magicians possible , personages who , being absolutely omniscient , are probably
watching our proceedings at the present moment , and who might indeed , if they chose , crush ns instantly by some horrible fatality brought about by the terrible agencies at their command . Bnt to our early Rosicrncians : — I think we may fairly regard as the leader of the procession of sages who , in the European History of Literature , has left hi * mark
most prominently upon the class which we represent Roger Bacon , the Somersetshire student , who was educated at the Oxford and Paris Universities and became a Franciscan Friar . The stories told of Bacon and his magical powers and feat ? are , of course , a tissue of rubbish , and most likely the inventions of a later age . Bacon was burn in 1214 , and it is a remarkable proof to my mind of his gigantic intellect
and of his recognition by educated men of the period , as being the hero of knowledge of his age , that at a time when his works mast have been circulated in very small numbers , they should have attracted an amount of attention quite unusual , and that their author should have twice found himself the inmate of a Papal dungeon . There waa no printing before the fifteenth century , and therefore Bacon ' s books must all have been laboriously copied by hand by his
Rosicrucian Society Of England.
pupils , yet he soon found himself an object of dread by that church which , even in these enlightened days , excommunicates those who are in search o the truth . Bacon made a collection of his w > rks and presented them to Clement IV ., who released him from the duiweon of Innocent IV ., under the title of Optts Majui . This work iv . s not printed until 1597 , and was edited by Dr . Jebb in 1733 , and
treats ef almost everything under the snn that in those days was considered to como within tho rango of the notice of the philosophic world . Theso included Divination by tho Stars , Geography , Geo . metry , Natural History , Metaphysics , and many other subjects . Bacon published several other works ; the ono by which he will always be rememhered is that in which ho treats of various kinds of
scientific instruments , mo 9 t of tho ideas he then shadowed forth having long ago been realised . There is no doubt that the Oxford Monk was far ahead of the days in which he lived ; and whist a great deal of the superstitions and nonsense of his age pervaded hia mind , his soul could not be bound down by any suoh trammels , but soared away in prophetio visions of what he saw must be iu the oourae of
the advance of knowledge . And yet in those days Bacon was not regarded as any necromancer . It was only in later times that the flavour of the Blaok Arc was discovered to bavehnng around his life j and the odd part of the matter is , that the very agency that produced this belief and revealed a luxuriant crop of previously unknown philosophical and magical societies and individual alchemists waa the
same force that some few hundred years later swept away the whole brood—I mean the Printing Press . The fact is , that it waa the invention of printing that enabled the world at large to become acquainted with tho so-called Magical Arts , and every dabbler in abstruse knowledge became known from the publication of hia works , not like Bacon for their intrinsic merits , but because the mind of
man , darkened and but little eduoated , caught at anything that seemed mysterious and grotesque , and wandering in searoh of truth after blind leaders , clutohed at anything in the vain hope of finding some solid foundation , regarding everything that appeared in print as thereby proved to be reliable . Leaving Bacon , we find no alchemist of note of hia day except
Albertus Magnns , whose real name was Albert de Groot , a Swabian . He lived eighty-seven years , and is said to have written twenty-one folio volumes of works , whioh were published three centuries after his death . He was a doctor and a Dominican monk , and seems to have believed at one time that he was on the track of the philosopher's stone . It seema doubtful if he really could have been the
anthor of the mass of literature attributed to him , and wo know that in later days the piracy of an author ' s name was no unusual trick . Arnold of Villanova was the next man of importance . He devoted himself entirely to alchemy , and died in 1314 . He is oredited with the discovery of many of the leading facts of chemistry of the present day , but like all the other Knights of the Crncible of that age , he
seems to have ohiefly spent his time in trying to find out the way to manufacture gold . Paracelsus , a native of Zurich , and bora in 1494 , was really a doctor , but in those days doctors were believed to deal in amulets and charms and to work magical cures . I fear we sometimes expect our doctors to work miracles eveu in oar XlXth century . He
publicly burned the works of Galen and claimed to have founded a hotter system of medioine . Michael Noatradamns , an astrologer of Provence , bora in 1503 , enjoyed some celebrity . Catherine de Medicia patronised him , which probably saved him from being regarded as a vulgar oharlatan . Porta , a well descended Neapolitan , born about the middle of the
XVIth century , was another learned man , who went at great detail into magical disquisitions . He formed a society , which he called " Secreti , " but this got him into trouble of course with the church . His great work is entitled "Magia Naturalis , aive de Miraoulis Rerum Naturalium , " which has been translated into most languages .
These are merely a few of the scores of sages whose names appear in various lists as alchemists and Rosicrucians , and whose worka crowd many of the catalogues of the Loudon book dealers , but those I have named seem to have been the most quoted and beat known of their class at that time .
The XVIIth century waa prolific in these men , but concerning them there is really very little to be said . There is a strong suspicion of most of their works having been translations , or adaptations of those of older alchemists whose manuscripts had fallen into their hands . Their claims to have transmuted gold and to have performed various other impossibilities are usually backed up by the alleged
unimpeachable authority of princes and royal personages who , however , seem to have been perfectly satisfied with experiments ou a smill scale , and to have never conceived the simple notion of enriching themselves on the spot . Of those who flourished during this period there was William Lilly , a Derbyshire man , who seem 3 to have been a clever lad and an
adept in the Latin tongue , for he says in hia own "Hiatory of hia Life and Times , " published in 1715 , that when he was at school at the age of eighteen he was able to cap verses and dispute with any scholars , and that when scholars visited the school he was sent to speak Latin with them , and he often had to report to hia master , " noa bene intellegit linguam Latinam , nee prorsns loquitur . " He
married a rich widow in 1632 , and then went into the study of astrology . That he was undispatably a man of great erudition and attainments is shown by the fact that the Archbishop of Canterbury granted him a license to practise medicine in 1670 . In his " Christian Astrology , " published in 1617 , he describes his astrological system , and , as it were , lets the public behind the scenes . It has been fashionable to refer to many of thyse men as impostors and
charlataus , and the name of Lilly has been occasionally linked with that of Balsamo or Cagliostro as that of a criminal quack . I am by no means sure that this is fair in either case . We must remember the times and circumstances under which they lived , and for my part , I do not think they are any more to be gibbeted as malefactors than the brewer who makes bad beer , or the baker who turns out unwholesome bread , or the builder who carelessly pats in cheap