Rosicrucians. The mystery which has surrounded this brotherhood of Hermetic philosophers has afforded a wide field to romantic fiction, and has much exaggerated their own pretensions. A German pamphlet, Fama Fraternitatis of the Meritorious Order of the Rosy Cross, published at Cassel in 1614, advertised for the first time the existence of such an association, which then claimed an antiquity of over 120 years. From subsequent publications it is inferred that the fraternity was established, on its own showing, by Christian Rosencreutz in 1459. On this point there is no evidence outside Rosicrucian manifestoes, and all that concerns the founder is of fabulous or allegorical character. If the society existed as a corporate body when the Fama Fraternitatis appeared, that date may be accepted as marking at least the beginning of its public history. The other documents which claim to have been issued by the Rosicrucians are Confessio Fraternitatis R.C., addressed to the Learned of Europe (Cassel, 1615); Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz (Strasburg, 1616); Perfect and True Preparation of the Philosophical Stone, according to the Secret of the Brotherhoods of the Golden and Rosy Cross (Breslau, 1710; contains the unabridged laws of the order); and Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Altona, 1785-88). Whether the later publications emanated from the original society it is not possible to say, but it has been supposed that associations in imitation of the fraternity, bearing its name and emblems, were formed soon after the appearance of the first manifestoes. By these documents the Rosicrucians are represented as adepts in Hermetic mysteries, including metallic transmutation, power over elemental spirits, and knowledge of magical signatures—the signatura rerum of Paracelsus. They aimed at a general reform in arts and sciences, especially alchemy and medicine, and posed chiefly as professors of the healing art. They invited all students of nature to join them; but, as they gave no clue to their whereabouts, the manifestoes were by some regarded as a laborious hoax, an opinion which does not seem justified by a review of the entire evidence. An immense controversy took place at the time in Germany, whose literary centres became a battle-ground for rival pamphleteers on the merits of Rosicrucian pretensions. The foremost defenders of the order were Michael Maier in Germany, Robert Fludd, Thomas Vaughan, and afterwards John Heydon, in England. Among its adverse critics were Andrew Libavius, who afterwards changed his standpoint, and Johann Valentin Andreae (q.v.). The authorship of the original manifestoes has, at the same time, been generally attributed to Andreae, and he certainly wrote the Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz. The question of the authorship offers a curious field for investigation, and has exercised the controversial skill of many ingenious critics; but no satisfactory solution has ever been reached. Rosicrucians flourished in France during the period of the Revolution; there was a lodge in Mauritius about 1794; and there are traces of such a fraternity at the beginning of the 19th century both in England and Germany. A Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia was formed as an offshoot of masonry by Robert Wentworth Little about 1857, which is to be distinguished from the original order, and from the Rose-cross degree in freemasonry. The latter, notwithstanding its name and symbolism, disclaims all connection with the objects and history of the alchemical brotherhood.
Among works to be consulted on the subject of the Rosicrucian mystery a first place should be given to
Solomon Semler's Impartial Collections for the History of the Rosicrucians (Leip. 1768). De Quincey's Rosicrucians and Freemasons is brilliant but misleading. A review of the whole controversy, with the documents that concern it, is contained in The Real History of the Rosicrucians (Lond. 1887), by A. E. Waite, the author of the present article. A MS. Treatise of Rosie Crucian Secrets, attributed to Dr John Dee, and preserved among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, is a forgery of the 18th century.