The Society Of The Rose Croix.

quam Rex Hispania ? ex utraque India auferrat , Europa enim progunus est et robustum puerum pariet . " Valentin Andrea ? took upon himself to decide that this , robust infant , of whom Paracelsus speaks , ought to be understood not of an individual , but of a collective being or of an association . This was a point which might be well accorded to himwithout too much difficult

, y . After the successive labours of so great a number of " savans , " like Leonard Thurneyser , Adam de Bodenstein , Michel Toxitis , Valentin Antrapasus Siloranus , Pierre Severin , Gouthier d ( Andernac , Donzellini , Andre Ellinger , etc ., who all had sought to contrive separately to develope the system of Paracelsus , without being able to realise the great work , the founder of the Rose Croix might well think himself authorised to decide the

question in favour of a collective Elias represented by his paternity . The Rose Croix was then only , according to us , a reunion of enthusiastic Paracelsians constituted into a society . The founder * of this association , the editor of the manifesto , Valentin Andreas , took the title of Knight of the Rose Cross ; he even bore on his seal a cross with four roses . f By his opinions and his character , he was nevertheless far from answering

to the idea which is so commonly made of the innovators who realise in the world bad philanthropic p lans . He had no fanaticism of teaching , He was , above all , a man of mind and philanthropy . Animated by a vivid desire to perfectionate religious belief , ancl the social institutions of his age , J he sought only in persuasion and gentleness his means of " propaganda , " though espousing entirely the idea of a great man to verify them and extend them , he wished to be the first to mock at those enthusiasts who exaggerated his principles by an unintelligent zeal .

From the year 1605 , he had edited " Les Noces Chimiques , " the chemical wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz . He only composed this work to criticise and ridicule the alchemists and theosophs of that epoch . It has been urged more than once that he had equally composed in a spirit of satire and raillery the " Fama Fraternitatis , " which became the organ of the Society of the Rose Groix . § But this opinion cannot be upheld when we consider the subsequent actions of the author of this writing . In 1620 , Valentin Andrea ? laboriously

endeavoured to constitute a great relig ious society under the title of the Christian Fraternity , Fraternite Chretienne . It had for its object to separate christian theology from all the controversies which scholasticism had introduced into it , and then to arrive at a more simple and more pure religious system . Valentin Andrea ? had the idea to surround himself with all the precautions necessary to distinguish this new society from the fraternity of

the Rose Croix . || This fraternity which he had launched into the world had ended by displeasing him , and in the writing which he edited in honour of his new religious society , he turned actually into ridicule the credulity and the lies of the Rose Croix , who from that epoch commenced to play their great comed y in Germany . But vain precautions ! The success and the vague were then for the enthusiasts , and everything turned to their profit . The confusion which Andrea ? feared arrived of- itself . The Christian Fraternity was absorbed in the Society of the Rose Croix , and Andrea ? found himself , very much against his will , to have contributed to the number of these