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ROSICRUCIANISM

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 737 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ROSICRUCIANISM . What is known as the Society of Rosicrucians (Rosenkreuzer) was really a number of isolated individuals who See also:

early in the 17th See also:century held certain views in See also:common (which apparently was their only See also:bond of See also:union); for of a society holding meetings, and having See also:officers, there is no trace. So far as the numerous See also:works are concerned it is evident that the writers who posed as Rosicrucians were moral and religious reformers, and utilized the technicalities of See also:chemistry (See also:alchemy), and the sciences generally, as See also:media through which to make known their opinions, there being a flavour of See also:mysticism or occultism promotive of inquiry and suggestive of hidden meanings discernible or discoverable only by adepts. The publication of the Allgemeine and See also:General-See also:Reformation der ganzen weiten Welt (See also:Cassel, 1614), and the See also:Fama Fraternitatis (Cassel, 1615) by the theologian Johann Valentin See also:Andrea (1586-16J4), caused immense excitement throughout See also:Europe, and they not only led to many re-issues, but were followed by numerous See also:pamphlets, favourable and otherwise, whose authors generally knew little, if anything, of the real aims of the See also:original author, and doubtless in not a few cases amused themselves at the expense of the public. It is probable that the first See also:work was circulated in MS. about 161o, for it is said that a reply was written in 1612 (according to See also:Herder), but if so, there was no mention of the cult before that See also:decade. The authors generally favoured Lutheranism as opposed to See also:Roman Catholicism. Others, like See also:John Heydon, admitted they were not Rosicrucians, but under attractive and suggestive titles to their works sought to make Hermeticism and other curious studies more useful and popular, and succeeded, for a See also:time at least. The curious See also:legend, in which the fabulous origin of the so-called society was enshrined (that a certain See also:Christian Rosenkreuz had discovered the See also:secret See also:wisdom of the See also:East on a See also:pilgrim-See also:age in the 15th century), was so improbable, though ingenious, that the See also:genesis of the Rosicrucians was generally overlooked or ignored, but the worthy See also:objects of the fratres were soon discovered and supported by several able men; the result being a See also:mass of literature on the subject, which absorbs some 8o pages of See also:Gardner's See also:Catalogue Raisonne of Works on the Occult Sciences (See also:London, 1903). The See also:influence that Rosicrucianism had in the modernizing of See also:ancient See also:Freemasonry early in the 18th century must have been slight, if any, though it is likely that as the century advanced, and additional ceremonies were grafted on to the first three degrees, Rosicrucian tenets were occasionally introduced into the later rituals.

End of Article: ROSICRUCIANISM

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