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97 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Rose off sknmueller

connection with heretics, sectarians, and false prophets. Their philosophy was to be " Jesus on every side." They opposed the accursed transmutation of metals as a petty thing in comparison with the real glory of the true philosopher, who is able to see the heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending, and to know that his name is written in the book of life. The Fama was supplemented in 1615 by the Confessio fraternitatis R. C. ad eruditos Europm, printed at Cassel, both in Latin and German. While in general harmony with the Fama, it is more strongly apocalyptic and opposed to Roman Catholicism; and it suggests positive reforms and advocates a practical Biblical piety which would transcend the denominational barriers of Protestantism. Its fanciful history occupies a minor place, but at the same time it states that the name of the founder of the Rosicrucians was Christianus Rosenkreutz, and that he was born in 1378 (d., according to the Rosicrucian system, 1484).

These two works, the Fama and the Confessio, are the sole original sources for the Rosicrucians. They both had a phenomenal popularity, and evoked a flood of writings on, for, and against Sensational them. Some doubted the very exist-

Results. ence of the fraternity, and Descartes and Leibnitz vainly sought to make the acquaintance of a real Rosicrucian. From Ger many the Rosicrucian excitement spread to Eng land, France, and Italy; they were identified with the Spanish Alombrados (q.v.); under the pseu donyms of Irenmus Agnostus and Menapius a pre tended adept (probably really named Friedrich Grick) wrote again and again in pretended defense of the Rosicrucians, though really in mockery of them; and Johann Valentin Andrea added his seri ous warnings against them. Finally the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War centered attention on other matters and more discerning minds at least per ceived that the whole fraternity was nothing but a gigantic hoax. Henceforth the name Rosicrucian proved an attraction for secret societies and many sorts of impostures, and a century after its origin Rosicrucianism underwent a recrudescence in con nection with freemasonry, which not only deemed Rosicrucianism genuine, but even borrowed usages and `customs from the writings of those who had satirized the fraternity.

The Fama and Confessio have been ascribed to the most divergent sources, including Luther and Tauler, but it is now generally agreed that the real author was Johann Valentin Andrea (q.v.). Though, intended externally as a satire, the underlying motive of the works was, as in most saAuthorship tires serious; and though later Andrea and Motive saw himself forced to attack the unruly of the spirits he had unwittingly unloosed, he Fraud. never denied his authorship of the two writings in question. Moreover he criticized with equal severity his owls Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosenereutz (Strasburg, 1616), which is analogous in style, phrase, and content (even to the name of the hero) with the Pama and the Confessio. According to his own statement, the HOCK-leit was written about 1603, and was, therefore. Andrea's first essay in that development of the X-7

Rosicrucian hoax which was to lead to results so unwelcome to its author. The fantastic elements were drawn from romances of knighthood and travel, and from cycles of alchemistic legend, and were designed to arouse interest in the serious portions. The very name of the hero contains allusions to the author, " Christian " obviously referring to Andrea's Reipublicce christianopolitaner descriptio, and " Rosenkreutz " to his coat of arms, a St. Andrew's cross, gules, between four roses, gules, shadowed by two wings, argent. Under all this fantasy lay, as already noted, the most serious purposes: the combating of alchemy and Roman Catholicism, and the promotion of Christian truth as revealed in the Bible and the maintenance of the principles of the Reformation. The intermingling of jest and earnest finds its parallel in Andrea's own Menippus, which appeared in 1618. As early as 1617, however, Andrea was obliged to attack his creation in his Invitatio ad fraternitatem Christi ad amoris candidatos, but his attempt to found a Christian brotherhood, together with his introduction of Calvinistic elements into his own church, aroused suspicions of his orthodoxy on the part of strict Lutherans, especially when it became known that he was the author of the Hochzeit. In his own defense he pleaded that he was not a Rosicrucian in the accepted sense of the term, but his peculiar position in the Church of W Orttemberg, as well as his personal vicissitudes, forbade him either to deny or to admit the authorship of the Fama and Con-

fessio, the first of which seems to have been in his mind as early as 1604 and was in manuscript by

1610, or about the time when the Confessio appears to have been taking shape. (H. HERMELINg.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: For lists of the older literature consult: G. Kloss, Bibliographie der Freimaurer, pp. 174 sqq., Frankfort, 1844; and F. Katsch, Die Enstehung and der wahre Endzweck der Freimaurerei, pp. 116 sqq., Berlin, 1897. Consult: A. E. Warte The Real History of the Rosicrucians, London, 1887; G. Arnold, Unparteiische Kirchenund Ketzerhistorie, Part IL, chap. xviii., Frankfort, 1729; J. S. Semler, Unparteiische Sammlunpen zur Historie der Roaenkreuzer, Leipsic, 1786-88; C. G. de Murr, Ueber den wahren Ursprung der Rosenkreuzer and Freimaurer, Suizbaeh, 1803; J. G. Buhle, Ueber den Ursprung and die vornehmsten Schicksale der Orden der Rosenkreuzer and Freimaurer, G6ttingen, 1806 G. E. Guhrauer, in ZHT, 1852, pp. 298-315; F. C. Baur, Geschichte der christlichen Kirche, iv. 351 sqq., Leipsic, 1863; E. Sierke, Schwdrmer and Schwindler zu Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts, Leipsic, 1874; J. G. Herder, Sfmtliche Werke, xv. 57 sqq., xvi. 298 sqq., 591 sqq_ Berlin, 1877-99; H. Kopp, Die Alchemie 2 vols., Heidelberg, 1886; F. Hartmann, The Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, London, 1888; idem, Among the Rosicrucians, ib. 1888; idem, In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom, ib. 1890; idem With the Adepts, ib. 1909; W. Begemann in Monatshefte der Comeniuspesellschaft, viii (1899), 145 sqq.; J. Kvagala, in Acta et commentationes imperialis universetatis jurievien-

sis, Dorpat, 1899· F. B. Dowd, The Temple of the Rosy Cross, Salem, 1906 R. S. Clymer The Fraternity of the Rosicrucians; their Teachings and Mysteries according to the Manifestoes issued at various Times, Allentown, 1906; H. Jennings, Rosicrucians, their Rites and Mysteries, 1870, 4th ed., London and New York, 1907; KL, x. 1283-90; literature under ANDREA, JOHANN VALENI7N.

ROSIN BIBLE. See BIBLE VERSIONS, B, IV., § 9. ROSKOFF, GEORG GUSTAV: German Protestant; b. at Pressburg Aug. 31, 1814; d. at Obertressen, near Aussee (40 m. s.e. of Salzburg), Styria, Oct. 20, 1889. He was educated at the University