ROSICRUCIANS.
(Vol. vii., p. 619.; Vol. viii., p. 106.)
We frequently see Queries made in these pages which could be satisfactorily answered by turning to the commonest books of reference, such as Brand, Fosbroke, Hone, the various dictionaries and encyclopædias, and the standard works on the subjects queried. Now it seems to me that "N. & Q." is not intended for going over old ground, and thus becoming a literary treadmill; but its mission lies in supplying information not easily found, and in perfecting, as far as possible, our standard works and books of reference. Mr. Taylor's Query affords an opportunity for this, as the ordinary sources of information are very deficient as regards the Rosicrucians.
According to some, the name is derived from their supposed founder, Christian Rosencreutz, who died in 1484. And they account for the fact of the Rosicrucians not being heard of till 1604, by saying that Rosencreutz bound his disciples by an oath not to promulgate his doctrines for 120 years after his death. The mystical derivation of the name is thus given in the Encyc. Brit.:—
"The denomination evidently appears to be derived from the science of chemistry. It is not compounded, as many imagine, of the two words rosa and crux, which signify rose and cross, but of the latter of these two words and the Latin ros, which signifies dew. Of all natural bodies dew was deemed the most powerful dissolvent of gold; and the cross in the chemical language is equivalent to light, because the figure of the cross exhibits at the same time the three letters of which the word lux, light, is compounded. Now lux is called by this sect the seed or menstruum of the red dragon, or, in other words, gross and corporeal light, which, when properly digested and modified, produces gold. Hence it follows, if this etymology be admitted, that a Rosicrucian philosopher is one who, by the intervention and assistance of the dew, seeks for light; or, in other words, the philosopher's stone.
"The true meaning and energy of this denomination did not escape the penetration and sagacity of Gassendi, as appears by his Examen Philos. Fludd, tom. iii. s. 15. p. 261.; and it was more fully explained by Renaudot in his Conférences Publiques, tom. iv. p. 87."
The encyclopædist remarks that at first the title commanded some respect, as it seemed to be borrowed from the arms of Luther, which were a cross placed upon a rose.
The leading doctrines of the Rosicrucians were borrowed from the Eastern philosophers[[4]]; the Christian Platonists, schoolmen, and mystics: mixed up with others derived from writers on natural history, magic, astrology, and especially alchemy. All these blended together, and served up in a professional jargon of studied obscurity, formed the doctrinal system of these strange philosophers. In this system the doctrine of elemental spirits, and the means of communion and alliance with them, and the doctrine of signatures, are the most prominent points.
Let me refer Mr. Taylor to Michael Meyer's Themis Aurea, hoc est de legibus Fraternitatis Roseæ Crucis, Col. 1615; the works of Jacob Behmen, Robt. Fludd, John Heydon, Peter Mormius, Eugene Philalethes; the works of the Rosicrucian Society, containing seventy-one treatises in different languages; the Catalogue of Hermetic books by the Abbé Lenglet du Fresnoi, Paris, 1762; Manget's Biblioth. Chem. Curios., Col. 1702, 2 vols. folio; and the Theatrum Chemicum, Argent. 1662, 6 vols. 8vo.
I must make particular mention of the two most celebrated of the Rosicrucian works; the first is La Chiave del Cabinetto, Col. 1681, 12mo. The author, Joseph Francis Borri, gives a most systematic account of the doctrine of the Rosic Cross in this interesting little volume. He was imprisoned for magic and heresy, and died in his prison at Rome in 1695 at the age of seventy years. On this work was founded one still more remarkable—
"Le Compte de Gabalis, ou Entretiens sur les Sciences Secrètes. 'Quod tanto impendio absconditur etiam solum modo demonstrare, destruere est.'—Tertull. Sur la Copie imprimée à Paris, chez Claude Barbin.—M.DC.LXXI. 12mo., pp. 150."
This work, thus published anonymously, was from the pen of the Abbé de Villars. An English translation was published at London in 1714.
The doctrine of the Rosy Cross entered largely into the literature of the seventeenth century. This applies especially to the masques of James I. and Charles I. To the same source Shakspeare owes his Ariel, and Milton much of his Comus.
It is strange, but instructive, to observe how variously different minds make use of the same materials. What greater contrast can we have than The Rape of the Lock and Undine?—the one redolent of the petit-maître and the Cockney; the other a work sui generis, of human conceptions the most exquisite and spirit-fragrant. Wieland's Idris and Zenide, Bulwer's Zanoni, and Mackay's Salamandrine, are also based on Rosicrucian principles. Mention of the Rosicrucians occurs in Izaak Walton's Angler and Butler's Hudibras—see Zachary Grey's note and authorities referred to by him. See also two interesting papers on the subject in Chambers's Edinb. Journal, ed. 1846, vol. vi. pp. 298. 316.
Eirionnach.
July 20, 1853.
P. S.—I may as well notice here a very curious book of Rosicrucian emblems, as I have it beside me:
"Atalanta Fugiens, hoc est, Emblemata Nova de Secretis Naturæ Chymica. Accommodata partim oculis et intellectui, figuris cupro incisis, adjectisque sententiis, Epigrammatis et notis, partim auribus et recreationi animi plus minus 50 Fugis Musicalibus trium vocum, quarum duæ ad unam simplicem melodiam distichis canendis peraptam correspondeant, non absq; singulari jucunditate videnda, legenda, meditanda, intelligenda, dijudicanda, canenda, et audienda. Authore Michaele Majero, Imperial. Consistorii Comite, Med. D. Eq. Ex. etc.: Oppenheimii, ex Typographia Hieronymi Galleri, sumptibus Joh. Theodori de Bry, MDCXVIII." Small 4to. pp. 211.
The title-page is adorned with emblematical figures. The work contains a portrait of the author, and fifty emblems executed with much spirit. Amongst others we have a Salamander in the fire, a green lion, a hermaphrodite, a dragon, &c. Every right page has a motto, an emblem, and an epigram under the emblem in Latin. The left page gives the same in German, with the Latin words set to music. After each emblem we have a "Discursus."
The following remarks on the title occur in the preface:
"Atalanta Poëtis celebrata est propter fugam, qua omnes procos in certamine antevertit, ideoque ipsis victis pro Virgine, præmio Victoriæ proposito, mors obtigit, donec ab Hippomene, Juvene audaciore et provido, superata et obtenta sit trium malorum aureorum per Vices inter currendum objectu, quæ dum illa tolleret, præventa est ab eo, metam jam attingente: Hæc Atalanta ut fugit, sic una vox musicalis semper fugit ante aliam et altera insequitur, ut Hippomenes: In tertia tamen stabiliuntur et firmantur, quæ simplex est et unius valoris, tanquam malo aureo: Hæc eadem virgo merè chymica est, nempe Mercurius philosophicus a sulfure aureo in fuga fixatus et retentus, quem si quis sistere noverit, sponsam, quam ambit, habebit, sin minus, perditionem suarum rerum est interitum," &c.—Page 9.
Footnote 4:[(return)]
The Jewish speculations on the subject of elemental spirits and angels (especially those that assumed corporeal forms, and united themselves with the daughters of men) were largely drawn on by the Rosicrucians. (See the famous Liber Zohar, Sulzbaci, 1684, fol.; and Philo, Lib. de Gigantibus. See also Hoornbeek, Lib. pro Convert. Jud., Lug. Bat., 1665, 4to.)