WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN ROSENCREUTZ

OPENING COMMENT

When contemplating this subject, I considered it too sacred for a Craft lodge. Then I thought, we are a Research Lodge let’s run with it. Some will be lost, or not able to make sense of what is being said, but at least we all should LEARN something. Therefore, with this paper, my aim is to strip away the veneer from CRC, just as scholars are now doing with Jesus. Is this wrong? I say No as my God gave me a brain to think with, and freemasonry informs me that I should study the Arts and Sciences.

CRC is reputed to mean CHRISTIAN ROSENCREUTZ

Many may still say; “What is a Christian Rosencreutz?” This leads us to - Is a Christian Rosencreutz, a human or what? This you could say is the nub of this paper.

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Let me quote from a passage of ritual of the masonic order known as Societas Rosicrucian in Anglia (SRIA), so as to indicate the course of this paper;

“To the Pious Memory of our Illustrious Founder, CRC”, hence I say - Who?

Let us begin by outlining what SRIA is.

Societas Rosicrucian in Anglia - is a Masonic Order (English Constitution) for those Craft Master Mason holden with a Trinitarian Christian belief, yet also considered to have an esoteric enquiring nature. It was founded on 1^st June 1867. My mother College (=lodge) was consecrated on 21^st Jan 1886 (the 3^rd college of SRIA in the world). I was a Foundation Committee member of Francis Bacon College which was consecrated on 5^th April 1983, so it is 20 years old. SRIA has a 9 grade (=degree) structure arranged in Three Orders. First Order - I, II, III, IV; Second Order - V, VI, VII; Third Order - VIII, IX. Briefly, the structure has a High Council (=Grand Lodge); led by a Supreme Magus (=Grand Master); with a Chief Adept (= Prov. GM); and a College (= Lodge) structure led by a Celebrant (= Worshipful Master). Generally there are 4 Meetings per Year.

WHAT DO OUR DICTIONARIES SAY OF CRC?

1) The Oxford English Reference Dictionary 1996

C - nothing; RC - nothing

Rosicrucian: a member of a 17^th- and 18^th century occult society, devoting itself to metaphysical and mystical lore, especially that concerning the transmutation of metals, prolongation of life, and power over the elements. An anonymous pamphlet of 1614, telling the story of a mythical knight of the 15^th century called Christian Rosenkreuz, is said to have launched the Movement.

2) The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary 1993.

Rosicrucian: a member of a 17^th- and 18^th century society, reputedly founded by Christian Rosenkreutz in 1484, devoted to metaphysical and mystical lore, as that concerning transmutation of metals, prolongation of life, and power over the elements and elemental spirits.

3) A Universal Critical and Pronouncing Dictionary of The English Language 1851 by Joseph E. Worcester.

Rosicrucian: One of a sect of visionary philosophers or speculators, that appeared in Germany, about the end of the 16^th century.

4) Macquarie - Australia’s National Dictionary, revised third edition, 2001.

CRC - Camera-ready copy; RC - Red Cross or Roman Catholic

Rosicrucian: a) one of a number or body of persons ( an alleged secret society) prominent in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, laying claims to various forms of occult knowledge and power, and professing esoteric principles of religion.

b) A member of a modern similarly named body, professing links to the older body.

5) The Rev. Castells definition is even more confusing when he uses terms/statements as:- ‘centenario major’; what CRC meant is not solved; the story of CRC embodied an allegory; and Michael Maier (1616) uses Rosenkreutz hence C.R.K, not C.R.C.!! One word springs to mind CHAOS.

They sadly do not explain that, which is our aim, that is, ‘What is a CRC?’

Hence is it (CRC)

1) a concept;

2) a person;

3) a philosophical idea;

4) a religion;

5) political party; or

6) is it an organisation, secret society, etc?

These dictionary definitions give us two historical reference points for Rosicrucian(s) - 1484 CE & 17^th, 18^th centuries CE - yet still no definition of CRC.

WHAT OF THESE DATES - ARE THERE ANY ASSOCIATED WORLD EVENTS?

Our first date is 1484, and this harks of Martin Luther (1483-1546). The man famous for nailing 95 (or 98) theses (religious points) on the door of the Wittenberg Church in 1517. Prior to 1517, which led to it, Martin Luther was influenced by the monastic beliefs of St. Augustine (354-430 CE, the Neo-Platonist mystic) and the writings of the German mystic philosopher, Johann Tauler (c.1300-1361), who in turn had been influenced by the sect, “Friends of God”, in Basel, Switzerland.

The Reformation was the 16^th century movement to reform the doctrine and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, although The (Church) Institution did not recognise it. Aspects, of this Reformation, involved Lollards and Hussites (these were 14^th century), also humanists such as Erasmus (c.1469-1536) all involving the wealth and hierarchical structure of the Roman Church. Yet Erasmus of Rotterdam, for all humanism, was declared by his Church to be one of the auctores damnati (a damned person) in 1612.

MARTIN LUTHER.

He was a priest who by 1507 had gained his Degree of Biblical Bachelor then studied for his Master of the Sentences (Sententiarius) (Rhetoric) based on “Sentences of Lombardus” (Logic). His was of a critical logic of the Bible evaluation, as against Vatican engineered Blind Faith, which was based on Romans I: 16-17.

“16: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto

salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

17: For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith:

as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”

Although starting out as a devout pilgrim, on reaching Rome, he was painfully impressed by its secularized ecclesiasticism and its low moral standard. His struggle to find a gracious God lay in his personal temperament, his lofty religious and moral ideal alongwith the religious, the practical, and the theological teaching of the Medieval Church.

Let us remember that in 1447 the capacity of indulgence for increasing the papal revenues, was extended by Pope Calixtus III to incorporate souls in purgatory. This practice was based on the doctrine of the “Treasure of the Church”, consisting of the infinite merits of Christ and the superfluous merits of the saints, which was elaborated by Thomas Aquinas (a person of high moral standard, certainly not) and officially sanctioned by Pope Clement VI in 1343. The common term for this totally immoral practice by the Roman Catholic Church was the “Sale of Indulgences” to rid oneself, one’s family, and one’s deceased relatives of Sin.

Turning back to Martin Luther, in October 1512 he gained his Doctor of Theology and subsequently superseded the Vicar-General Staupitz as professor of biblical literature at the Black Monastery at Wittenberg.

LUTHER’S THREE REFORM TREATISES

Luther (c.Dec. 1520) set forth his three great reform treatises;-

1) An address to the German nobility.

The abuses rampant in the Church appeals to the German nobility to reform the Church re: its divine authority, its Christian character and its ethical functions.

2) The Babylonish Captivity of the Church.

Attacked the medieval sacramental system, reduced the number of sacraments from 7 to 3, and asserted the right of the individual Christian to emancipate themselves from priestly bondage.

3) The freedom of a Christian Man.

In non-controversial terms, it expounded his fundamental doctrine of justification, which involves alike; the freedom of the individual from the work-righteousness of medieval religion; obligation of self-discipline; and service for others; as the indispensable fruit of justifying faith.

NB: I suggest these three may be seen as the guiding ecclesiastical philosophy behind the “Rosicrucian” FAMA, CONFESSIO, and the WEDDING. More concerning this later.

“LUTHER’S CABAL”

On May 4^th, 1521, after the sitting of the Diet of Worms (Jan-May 1521), where he successfully argued his case against the Papal Bull of Excommunication, he was intercepted by horsemen, in the Thuringian forest, of the elector of Saxony. They led him furtively to the electors castle of the Wartburg. The heroic monk, while under Papal Excommunication, had won the sympathy and support of a large proportion of his (German) countrymen on material, economic and religious grounds. While at Wartburg he used the pseudonym of “Knight George” till 1522. If we are to look for an “Invisible Group” I suggest we look to Melanchthon, Occolampadius, Bucer, Hutton, etc., as the men behind Luther. Although not being a formal Cabal, later history may have seen it as such. More about this later.

LUTHERANISM

At the diet of Augsburg in 1530, Melanchthon presented a confession of the Lutheran faith, now known as the “Confession of Augsburg”. The rest is history. Luther died in 1546. Thus we leave Luther for now, and turn to Rosicrucianism.

ROSICRUCIANISM

A fraternity which endeavours to regain Christian Traditions NOT the dogmatic, institutionalised theology preached by that institution. The Church, hence allows for an involvement of Hermeticism, Cabalism, etc., which is/was part of the Renaissance/Reformation……….Surely this is almost Lutheranism!

John Ferguson defines Rosicrucianism as offering an esoteric mystical gnosis. Truth is the Great Architect of the Universe. Wow, if this is the case, then freemasons have no reason to set the requirement as Trinitarian Christian for their Rosicrucian membership.

ESOTERIC MYSTICAL GNOSIS = Secret Unexplained Knowledge including that of a spiritual nature.

Margaret Jacob in ‘Freemasonry and Politics in 18^th Century Europe’, quotes Yates as finding 17^th century actors and actresses advocating Rosicrucianism and using the stage as a podium to spread that mystical gospel. (pge 133). Eighteenth century mystical rituals of La Loge de Juste were quite possibly a 18^th century carry over from what Jacobs has referred to.

CRC

To our other “date” (1600-1629), let us now ask the same question - Were there any major world events?

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ROSE AND CROSS (potential) ORIGINS

Political and Religious problems in Germany during early 17th Century.

1) The ‘Old Holy Roman (Catholic) Empire’ was deeply divided by religious dissension.

2) Queen Elisabeth I (England) had strong allies with Protestant princes of northern Europe.

3) 1603, Queen Elizabeth I dies, James VI (of Scotland, son of Mary Queen of Scots) becomes James I of England.

4) 1613 Feb, German Protestants herald marriage of Princess Elizabeth Stuart (daughter James I of England) and Frederick V (Elector of the Palatinate) as a major Protestant alliance.

TUDOR Royal House - Red Rose

St. GEORGE - Red Cross

Here was the Marriage of the "ROSE and CROSS".

As the Royal couple returned to Heidelberg, after the wedding, there was jubilation of a new Protestant Europe. This was the inspiration for the authors of the Rosicrucian manifestos!!

THE ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHIES

The Rosicrucian philosophy in the 17th century was kept alive in Germany and England through the writings of:

Heinrich Khunrath; a Hamburg hermetic philosopher with cabalistic leanings.

(The author/creative philosopher, along with Dee, are the founders of rosicrucianism!!)

1609 - “The Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom” including the Cave of the Illuminati.

Michael Maier, personal physician to Rudolf II. Primary German defender of Rosicrucian thought.

Robert Fludd, an Oxford Graduate. Fellow, Royal College of Physicians. Writings such as;

1616 - "A Compendius Apology for the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross".

1617 - "Apologetic Treatise for the Integrity of the Society of the Rosy Cross".

Thomas Vaughan ("Eugenius Philalethes") was Fludd's primary successor. Writings such as;

1650 - "Anthroposophia Theomagica"

1652 - first English translation of "Fama" and "Confessio"

Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England in 1618.

His "Advancement of Learning" and "New Atlantis" contain the philosophy, symbolism and ideals of the Rosicrucian manifestos.

Others of the 15^th and 16^th centuries were;

Marcilio Ficino

Johann Reuchlin

Francesco Giorgi

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa

Their writings included a mix of, Renaissance Neoplatonism; Hermeticism; and Christian Cabalism. This saw writings such as those of, Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim (1493-1541) (Paracelsus). Not to be left out, Elizabethan England was influenced by these writings, and its most well known writer, of the time, being Dr.John Dee (1527-1608), son of a royal official (reign of Henry VIII). He was known as the "Elizabethan Magus".

The religious atmosphere of the era was horrendous:

1533 Henry VIII (applied Bible authority), then excommunicated by the Pope Paul III using Church authority,

1540 Society of Jesus (“Jesuits”) . Jesuit Mayrhofer states; “.. We will not be judged if we demand the killing of Protestant’s, any more than…. for (committing) murder (etc)…”.

1542 Inquisition powers widened to every Catholic territory

1545-1563 Council of Trent delivers:

i) Index of Prohibited Books (was to last until 1966)

ii) the Church had the sole and exclusive right to interpret scripture.

EPIDEMICS

We must remember that during the period of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) the population of Europe, according to some authorities, fell from 16 million to 6 million; starvation and disease being the combined causes. Yet, Wedgwood in “The Thirty Years War”, on page 452, suggests a more accurate figure would be closer to, from 21.5 million down to 13.5 million.

This was also a period of Scientific Revolution, eg.,

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), first true scientist (no connection to CRC).

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), views instrumental in founding the Royal Society.

Rene Descartes (1596-1650), “father of modern philosophy”.

Robert Boyle (1627-1691), founding member of the Royal Society.

Some other people of the period were:

Copernicus (1473-1543), Polish astronomer

Isaac de Luria (1533-1572) , “Founder of the modern Cabala”. A subject known as the ‘Purification of the Soul’.

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) ,Italian philosopher. He ‘grafted’ Cabala onto Hermeticism = Rosicrucianism. The Inquisition burned him at the stake.

Shakespeare (1564-1616), His ‘Works’ added 1,000s of new words to the English language.

Galileo (1564-1642), Italian astronomer and physicist

Kepler (1571-1630), German astronomer

Campanella (1548-1639), Italian philosopher

Other pertinent writings of the period:

1550 Cremona text of Zohar (Book of Enlightenment - it dares to examine ones assumptions about tradition, God and self).

1558 Mantua text of Zohar.

1562 Mantua text of Yetzirah (Book of Creation).

1566 Zakut’s text of Yuhasin (genealogies).

Before we turn to Dee himself, let us remind ourselves that in 1550 there was large scale book burning held at Oxford and Cambridge ‘in the name of the Reformation’. Even Dee’s library of 3,000 manuscript volumes and 1,000 books were hit by arson during 1586, while Dee was in Europe. Remember this was the period of The Inquisition (1542 onwards). The World of Europe was in foment.

DR. JOHN DEE

In 1564, at Antwerp, he had published his "Monas Hieroglyphica". The book was a combination of geometric, cabalistic, astrological and alchemical symbolism. This was the First Generation Marriage where the Rose, the Cross, the separate philosophies of Renaissance Neoplatonism and Christian Cabalism were merged. From 1583 he spent six years, mostly in Prague, promoting his idea of a new Reformation.

The following three publications became collectively known as the "Rosicrucian manifestos", heralded the beginning of "Rosicrucianism" eliciting excitement, confusion, acclaim and denunciation by the Intelligentsia of Europe. This was the Second Generation Marriage.

CRC LITERATURE

Before we move on, what of these “manifestos”? Are they what they seem? Let us try to find out.

1614 Germany, printed by Wilhem Wessel at Kassel - ‘The Universal and General Reformation of the Whole Wide World: together with the Fama Fraternitatis of the Laudable Fraternity of the Rosy Cross Written to All the Learned and the Rulers of Europe’. Within this publication and much more famous - "Fama Fraternitatis dess Loblichen Ordens des Rosenkreutzes". The Proclamation of the Fraternity of the laudable Order of the Rosicrucians, ie., to proclaim to the world the existence of a benevolent secret brotherhood of Christian alchemists whose purpose was to initiate a new reformation. There was, within it, a description of the life of Christian Rosenkrautz, the alleged founder of the fraternity, his death in 1484 and rediscovery of his tomb in 1604. The new reformation was to be a scientific reformation as well as a religious and philosophical reformation. But remember, the ‘General Reformation’ first section appears to be nothing more than a translation into German of chapter 77 of Boccalini’s “Ragguagli di Parnaso”, ie., News from Parnassus (1612-1613), while the FAMA is the Rosicrucian manifesto.

The FAMA recounts the journey of CRC, the reputed founder of Rosicrucianism, who was allegedly born in 1378 and lived for 106 years. He is now generally regarded to have been symbolic rather than a real character; whose story provided a legendary expalanation of the Order’s origin. According to the Fama, CRC acquired secret wisdom on trips to Egypt, Damascus, Damcar in Arabia and Fes in Morocco.

In Dec. 1611, Prince Augustus von Anhalt receives a copy of the ‘Fama’ from Adam Haslmayr. Yet Haslmayr falls foul of the Inquisition, not realising that von Anhalt’s castle at Plotzkau, (East) Germany, contained a Rosicrucian library, so states Churton.

1615 "Confessio Fraternitatis R.C., Ad Eruditos Europae" (The Confession of the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross, to the Learned of Europe) This work contained within it a near word-for-word quotation (plagarism?), under the title "A Brief Consideration of the More Secret Philosophy" from Dee's "Monas Hieroglyphica". Can we ask if this, inclusion of “a brief consideration of the more secret philosophy” was an attempt to appease the Intelligentsia of Europe? That is an attempt to re-combine science and church.

1616 "Chymische Hochzeit" (Chemical Wedding) - a strange alchemical romance.

This text contained within it the symbol of Dee's "Monas".

Author: Johann Valentin Andreae is a Lutheran pastor and mystic, at Tubingen University.

Andreae's personal coat-of-arms, like Martin Luther's includes the ROSE and CROSS motif. Yet, according to Schuchard, “…current scholarship suggests composite authorship by Andrae and his colleagues at Tubingen”. Here we have an author who is very shrewd, he presents an appeasement (wedding), ie., a Marriage of Alchemy (Intelligentsia of Europe) with the new Protestantism of Europe for political acceptance of the Religious Brotherhood, just as was a similar case for brethren who formed the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster in 1717.

Why most authors only refer to three manifestos I do not know. The fourth (of 1617) being;

1617 Invitatio Fraternitatis Christi ad sacri amoris candidatos (1617/18).

All of the following were printed at Strassburg, Zetzner, written in 1617, published in 1629 (primary part), written in 1618, published in 1628 (secondary part); also “Babel, the judicíous chaos of the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross, published 1619. Refer: F. E. Held, “Christianopolis, An Ideal State of the Seventeenth Century”, Oxford 1916.

The Offspring of the Manifestos was the Rosicrucian philosophy that influenced Protestant Europe for the next several centuries.

The "THIRTY YEARS WAR" (and its effect on the fledgling Rosicrucian movement)

1618-1648 The period of “The Thirty Years War” (the third and worst of the religious wars arising out of the Reformation), which was principally a religious war within Germany, but at the same time political quarrels raged within the religious question. It was the Protestant “Union” v. the Catholic “League”.

NB: The ‘other two’ were civil wars;

1) c.1522 - caused by the substitution of Roman laws for the old feudal law which removed the power of the Ritterschaft (the knighthood of the empire);

2) Peasant’s War (Baurnkreig) which was assisted by the knights.

1612 Death of Emperor Rudolph II caused a struggle for the Crown of the Holy Roman Empire. An Empire deeply divided by religious dissension.

1619 Bohemia in full revolt against the new Hapsburg emperor, Ferdinand II. Next came Frederick V, but his army was defeated by the Catholic league forces near Prague in Nov. 1620.

Wedgewood in the “Thirty Years War” (pge.7 Folio Edition) seems to sum-up the period quite well when he says; “Theological controversy became habitual reading of all classes, sermons directed their politics and moral tracts beguiled their leisure. Among the Catholics the cult of the Saints reached proportions unheard of for centuries, (Ed. Until the present Pope’s era), and assumed a dominant part in the experience of the educated as well of the masses; miracles once again made the life of everyday bright with hope. The changes of the material world, the breakdown of old traditions and the insufficiency of dying conventions drove men and women to the spiritual and inexplicable. Those whom the wide arms of the Church could not reach took refuge in the occult: Rosicrucianism had crept from Germany to France… Fear of witchcraft grew among the educated and devil worship spread among the populace. Black magic was practiced from the desolate north of Scotland to the Mediterranean Islands…”. Refer p.35 Andrae in “Thirty Years War” Folio Edition.

But let us not forget this was a period when Germany was both intellectually and culturally at its lowest. Hence the theologian Johann Valentin Andrae was seen to be a person of exception in his country.

A PERCEIVED PUBLIC MASONIC CONNECTION

Remember, 1598 gives us the extant existence of Aitcheson’s Haven lodge, Mid-Lothian, Scotland, and in 1638 with the publication, in Edinburgh, of Henry Adamson’s poem The Muses Threnodie, which included the following lines;

For what we do presage is not in gross,

For we brethren of the Rosie Cross:

We have the Mason word and second sight,

Things for to come we can fortell aright…….

Then in 1676 connection was made again when it was announced in the Poor Robin’s Intelligence, which satirized the Fraternity, by mentioning “the Modern Green-ribbon’d Caball, together with the Ancient Brotherhood of the Rosy-Cross, the Hermetic Adepti, and the Company of Accepted Masons”. This does not prove a connection between Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism but it does recognise a public perceived link.

Yates gives an interesting comment; “Although Shaw (of Statutes 1598 fame) was imbued with mystical Hermeticism of the late Renaissance, within a few decades freemasons also developed an affinity toward Rosicrucianism, an originally German form of mystical idealism that called for universal education and reform in terms that evoked the late Renaissance devotion to the Hermetic quest for human perfection. Sadly, all this was lost once London (England) by the early 1700s had transformed mystical masonry into a society of - Constitutions, Laws and Governance. A people more interested in party politics and parliamentary debate, than mystical mental expansionism!”.

FINAL COMMENTS

Hence, may we say that “Rosicrucians” were people who enjoyed the mystical and esoteric way of life which eventually led to the Church’s reform. To overcome the Church’s label of Heresy they enveiled their thoughts within the science of Alchemy. This concept (destruction of the total control of the Papacy) which began with Luther, included the 30-year War (1618-1648) and reached the public with the publication of the so-called ‘rosicrucian manifesto’, The FAMA.

CRC was NEVER a person, rather it was an Intellectual Movement (of 100 years) which roughly spanned 1517 (when Luther nailed his Theses to the Church door) to 1614 (production of the Fama).

Today’s freedom of thought negates the requirement for the old Rosencreutz but requires a NEW version for today’s world. SRIA fails in this respect that old thinking equates to the 16^th century hence the Canadian Experiment and disillusionment in Rosicrucian (masonic) circles worldwide. Throw out 18^th/19^th century Rosicrucian thought and create a 21^st century manifesto. Why not, the old manifestos were a creation of the human mind, at a period in history. With the sad state of the Christian Church we surely need a new manifesto.