". . . the Fraternity
(of the Rosy Cross) has taken on a new significance
through the finding of the vault in which Brother Rosencreutz is buried. The
door into this vault was miraculously discovered, and it typifies the opening
of a door in
Europe which is greatly desired by many.
"The description of this vault is a central feature of the Rosencreutz
legend. . . . The tomb of Rosencreutz was under the altar in the vault. . .
"The discovery of the vault is the signal for the general reformation; it
is the dawn preceding a sunrise. 'We know. . . that there will now be a
general reformation, both of divine and human things, according to our desire
and the expectation of others; for it is fitting that before the rising of the
Sun there should break forth Aurora, or some clearness or divine light, in the
sky.' The date at which the vault was discovered is indirectly indicated as
1604.
"This very peculiar document, the
Fama Fraternitatis, thus seems to
recount, through the allegory of the vault, the discovery of a new, or rather
new-old, philosophy, primarily alchemical and related to medicine and healing,
but also concerned with number and geometry and with the production of
mechanical marvels. It represents, not only an advancement of learning, but
above all an illumination of a religious and spiritual nature. This new
philosophy is about to be revealed to the world and will bring about a general
reformation. The mythical agents of its spread are the R. C. Brothers. These
are said to be reformed German Christians, devoutly
evangelical. Their religious faith seems closely connected with
their alchemical philosophy, which has nothing to do with 'ungodly and
accursed gold making', for the riches which Father Rosencreutz offers are
spiritual; 'he doth not rejoice that he can make gold but is glad that he
seeth the Heavens open, and the angels of God ascending and descending, and
his name written in the Book of Life.'"
46:45-6
"Apart from
(Johann Valentin) Andreae. . .there are two writers who are
generally recognized as the chief exponents of Rosicrucian philosophy. These
are Robert Fludd and Michael Maier. Though both Fludd and Maier denied that
they were Rosicrucians, they both spoke with interest and approval of the
Rosicrucian manifestos, and their philosophies are, roughly speaking, in line
with the attitudes expressed in the manifestos. But the modes of thought which
are veiled in the fictions of the Fama, Confessio, and Wedding are developed by Fludd and Maier into whole libraries of weighty
books which were published in the years following the appearance of those
three exciting works...
"It is thus with a sense of satisfaction, as of a confirmation from
another quarter of the correctness of the historical line of approach followed
in the preceding chapters, that one notes that the major works of Fludd and
Maier were published in the Palatinate during the reign of Frederick V. . . Maier was a Lutheran. . .
46:70, 73
"Fludd. . .approves the manifestos. The Brothers, he maintains, are true
Christians. They are not wickedly magical or seditious. They would not have
trumpeted their message aloud had they been wicked people. Like Lutherans and
Calvinists they are against the Pope but are not therefore heretical. Perhaps
these Brothers are truly illuminated by God. . .
46:75
"When later defending himself from the charge made against him in England
that he had had his books printed 'beyond the seas' because the magic in them
forbade their publication in England, Fludd quotes a letter from a German
scholar stating that the printer (that is De Bry) had shown his volume before
printing to learned men, including some Jesuits, who had all admired it and
recommended publication, though the Jesuits disapproved of his sections on
geomancy and wished them omitted. They were, however, evidently not omitted.
Fludd is convinced that his volumes are not distasteful to the Calvinists,
amongst whom his printer lives, nor to the Lutherans 'which are his bordering
neighbours', nor even to the Papists, who have approved them, but he
ignores the fact that, according to himself, the Jesuits had not wholly
approved.
"The first of Fludd's Oppenheim volumes, the 'History of the Macrocosm' of
1617, is dedicated to James I, a most impressive dedication in which James is
saluted as 'Ter Maximus', the epithet sacred to Hermes Trismegestus, and as
the most potent and wise prince in the world. The significance of this
dedication stands out now that we more fully understand the significance of
the publication of Fludd's books at Oppenheim. Fludd and his
Palatinate publisher were assuming the interest of
James in a work published in his son-in-law's dominions. They were drawing
this most potent prince into their philosophy, assigning to him a Hermetic
role. If this book circulated much in
Germany, or in
Bohemia, it would have confirmed their
impression, or illusion, that thought movements in the
Palatinate had the approval of James.
"We can also not begin to see the situation more clearly from James's
point of view. His son-in-law, and that son-in-law's advisers and friends,
were not only trying to involve James in a political line of action of which
he disapproved--the activist polity which was leading towards the Bohemian
enterprise. They were also trying to involve him in a philosophy of which he
disapproved. James was desperately afraid of anything magic; this
was his most deep-seated neurosis. He had disapproved, of (John)
Dee, would not receive him, and relegated him to a kind
of banishment. And now, in his son-in-law's domains, there is published an
immense work on the Dee type of Hermetic philosophy, dedicated to him, and
attempting by that dedication to draw him into that point of view, or to give
the impression that he is favourable to it. . .
46:77-78
"Maier, (was) a devout Lutheran Christian (Fludd was a devout
Anglican). . . Whatever else they may represent, Fludd and Maier are most
certainly Hermetic philosophers, representing a kind of Hermetic Renaissance
at a time when the original Hermetic impulses of the earlier Renaissance were
waning in some quarters."
46:82
"Maier may have been influenced by a
(Giordano) Bruno tradition as well as
by the
Dee tradition. We know that Bruno claimed to have
founded a sect of 'Giordanisti' among the Lutherans. (See Giordano
Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, pp. 312-13) Maier was a Lutheran;
his intensively Hermetic religious movement might therefore have
included some Bruno influence, might be an attempt at the
Hermetic reform of religion, the infusion of greater
life into religion through the Hermetic influences, such as Bruno
had so passionately advocated. On the other hand the strongly alchemical
aspect of Maier's movement points to
Dee as the major influence. Perhaps in the
Palatinate type of Hermetic reform, currents descending
from the
Dee type of Hermetic tradition mingle with a Bruno
type."
46:85
"Maier is activated by a very strong religious Hermetic impulse, as
strong, in its way, as that which had moved Giordano Bruno in the late
sixteenth century, though combined in Maier with Lutheran piety---the sort of
combination one might expect if Bruno's influence took root in Lutheran
circles in
Germany."
46:88
"The criticism of the R. C. Brothers. . .rests on the following points.
It is suspected that their activities may be subversive of established
government;. . . There is a frequently made general accusation of magical
practices. (ff. Defenders maintain that their magic is good and godly.)
Finally--and this is one of the most important points--their enemies complain
that the religious position of the R. C. Brothers is not clear.
Some call them Lutherans, some Calvinists, and some Socinians or Deists.
They are even suspected of being Jesuits.
"This is suggestive of what may have been one of the most important
aspects of the Rosicrucian movement, that it could include different
religious denominations. As we have seen, Fludd claimed that his work
found favour with truly religious persons of all denominations. Fludd was a
devout Anglican, friend of Anglican bishops; so was Elizabeth Stuart, the
wife of the Elector Palatine. The Elector was a devout Calvinist,
as was Christian of Anhalt, his chief adviser. Maier was a devout Lutheran,
as was also Andreae and many of the other Rosicrucian writers. The common
denominator which would draw all of them together would be the
macro-microcosmic musical philosophy, the mystical alchemy, of which Fludd and
Meier were the two chief exponents. . ."
46:97-98
"The R. C. movement collapsed when the Palatinate movement collapsed, when
those inspiring vistas opened up behind the Elector Palatine and his brilliant
alliances failed utterly with the flight of the King and Queen of Bohemia from
Prague after the Battle of White Mountain, when it was realized that neither the King of Great Britain nor
their
German Protestant allies would help them,
when the Hapsburg troops moved into the Palatinate and the Thirty Years War
began its dreadful course."
46:100
"Giordano Bruno as he wandered through
Europe had preached an approaching general reformation
of the world, based on return to the 'Egyptian' religion taught in the
Hermetic treatises, a religion which was to transcend religious differences
through love and magic, which was to be based on a new vision of nature
achieved through Hermetic contemplative exercises. He had preached this
religion, enveloped in mythological forms, in
France,
England, and
Germany. According to himself, he
had formed a sect in
Germany, called the 'Giordanisti',
which had much influence among the Lutherans."
46:136
"Johann Amos Komensky, or Comenius, born in 1592, was six years younger
than Johann Valentin Andreae, whose works and outlook influenced him
enormously. Comenius was one of the Bohemian Brethren, the
mystical branch of the oldest reformation
tradition in
Europe, that stemming from
John Huss. Comenius and Andreae had much
in common. Both were devout, reformed clerics; both were interested in new
intellectual movements which they grafted on to their native piety, the German
Lutheran tradition in one case, in the other, the Hussite tradition.
"Comenius received his first schooling in his native
Moravia
and afterwards attended the Calvinist
university of
Herborn, in
Nassau. In the spring of 1613, Comenius left
Herborn and made fro
Heidelberg to continue his studies at the
university. . .
"Comenius was attending the lectures of the
Heidelberg professor David Paraeus . .
.(who) was interested in uniting Lutherans and Calvinists; both he and
the other professors who lectured to Comenius were closely associated with the
Elector Frederick.
46:156
"The face
(of Frederick V) is not one's idea of a Calvinist face, but
Calvinism, in the Palatinate, was the
carrier of mystical traditions, of the
Renaissance Hermetic-Cabalist tradition which had moved over to that side.
Frederick's spiritual advisor was an 'orientalist';
perhaps, like Rudolph II, he sought an esoteric way through the religious
situation."
46:172
