Societas Rosicruciana in Scotia

Study Group Paper No.1 - July

2021

Edited by R.W. Frs. James S. Rae;

Nigel T. Spike and Ian Barron
Care Fraters all,

I am delighted to share with you the first, of what will be, a series of study
papers, issued by our Director General of Studies, our Assistant Director
General of Studies and our Librarian General.

I commend their hard work and enthusiasm and I fully support their firm belief
that there is a real need for us all to go back to basics in our studies. To study
things that are new to us, or to revisit familiar materials requires us to do this
with a 'beginners mind' in order to glean more than we have before. As
members of our beloved Society, we must never assume that our Fratres,
whether old or new, ever truly understand the potential depths of where our
study can take us. This is especially true for members of our Adept and Ruling
Grades, because to be a true Adept, is not just to recieve a Grade, but to study
it and to constantly seek for further and deeper meeting within the Grade, and
our System as a whole. So we must always remain as students, realising that
the more that we know, the more that we become aware that there is so much
more now to know.

For future publications and for our web site, once professionally designed, we
will be adopting a modified version of the beautiful art nouveau border design
used in original SRIS publications from the 1920’s through to the 1970's. With
great pride, we will also in this new series Incorporate our newly matriculated
arms, unique to the SRIS and a wonderful legacy from two giants of our society
– our late Supreme Magus, M.W. Frater Doug Forbes IX°. and our late
Secretary General RW John Stirling .

LVX
Ian Robertson IX° July 2021

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 THE BEGINNINGS OF ROSICRUCIANISM

The earliest known document relating to Rosicrucianism is the Fama

I'ratemitatis benedicti Ordinis Rosae Cruris, or (to give the title of
Thomas Vaughan's English translation) The Fame and Confession of the
Fraternity of R. C. commonly called Rosie Cross. This pamphlet was
published at Cassel in 1614, and purported to give the histo ry of one
C.R.C. (Christian Rosenkreuz), and of his founding of the Brotherhood of
the Rosie Cross. According to this account, C R. C. was born in Germany
in 1378, of noble, but poor, parents. He was brought up in a monastery,
but, while still very young, he set out in company with a brother in the
same fraternity to visit the Holy Land.

His companion died on the way, at Cyprus, and C. R. C. proceeded

alone. He went to Damascus, and there he was welcomed by “The Wise
Men," who initiated him into their mysteries, and instructed him in their
esoteric wisdom. At the time of his initiation (1394) he was only sixteen
years of age, lie remained there receiving instruction for a period of
three years. Thereafter he went to Egypt, and thence to Fez in Morocco,
where, under other Masters, he studied the esoteric wisdom that that
Centre of occult learning had to impart. C. R. C. then travelled through
Spain and other European countries, and ultimately (in 1402) returned
to Germany. A few years were then spent in deep study of the wisdom
he had learned during his travels; and then he gathered around him
some congenial friends who were interested in those subjects, and
founded the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross. At first he chose only three
brethren from the monastery where he had spent his boyhood, but in a
short time another four were selected—making, with C.R. C. himself,
eight in all.

In order to have freedom from all interference he had selected a

retired spot, where he built the Domus Sancti Spiritus. In passing, it may
be remarked that in the Domus Sancti Spiritus, or House of the Holy
Spirit, we have probably an allusion, under a veil of symbolism, to a

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spiritual edifice rather than to a material fabric. Robert Fludd, a notable
English Rosicrucian of the seventeenth century, to whom reference will
be made later, says in his “Summum Ronum "The House of the Holy
Spirit is where the Spirit of Wisdom delights to have its habita tion with
men. . . . Let us ascend the Mount of Reason and build a house of
wisdom, the foundation stone is that corner stone, which is Christ."

The number of “founder members" (eight) who had this house as the
centre of their activities may also have a symbolical rather than an
historical significance. It will be remembered that the number of original
Knights Templar, who also came into contact with the esoteric traditions
of the East, was also eight.

The eight fratres were bound together by the following sixfold

agreement:—
First. — That none of them should profess any other thing than
to cure the sick, and that gratis;
Second.—That Members of the Fraternity should not wear a
distinctive kind of dress, but should follow the custom of the
country in which they were;
Third.—That every year, on a fixed day, they should meet
together at the Domus Sancti Spiritus, or write the cause of
absence;
Fourth.—That every brother should look out for a worthy
person who, after his decease, might succeed him;
Fifth. — The word C.R. (or R.C.) should be their Seal, Mark, and
Character; and
Sixth. — The Fraternity should remain secret one hundred
years.

The first of these pledges merely indicates that dedication to the

service of humanity which characterises all who have truly found the
Light, and have been initiated into the deeper mysteries of Life. In the
second, conformity in matters of dress may have been but a symbol of

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conformity in more important respects, e.g. that the fratres should not
openly proclaim their views when these differed from the accepted
doctrines of the people, thus attracting attention and provoking hostility.

CRC continued to live in the Domus Sancti Spiritus, and with him
always remained two of the other fratres— the remaining five departing
to carry out their work of service and healing. He lived to a ripe old age,
and died in 1484. His body was embalmed, and buried in a secret vault,
over the entrance to which were inscribed the words —

"POST CXX ANNOS PATEBO."

(“after 120 years I shall be manifest") In accordance with th is

prophecy (or instruction) the tomb was opened in 1604. The allegorical
nature of this opening is hinted at in the Fama itself (pp. 20, 21): " For
like as our door was after so many years wonderfully discovered, also
there shall be opened a door to Europe (when the wall is removed) which
already doth begin to appear, and with great desire is expected of
many."

The vault was found to have been elaborately prepared and

decorated with symbolical devices, like another vault of which we have
heard. The roof was seven sided— probably supported by seven pillars.
In the centre, instead of a tombstone, was a round altar covered with a
plate of brass, on which certain inscriptions were engraved. We are told
that, though the Sun never shone in this vault, *' neverth eless it was
enlightened with another sun which had learned this from the Sun, and
was situated in the upper part of the centre of the ceiling." All this
certainly suggests an allegorical, rather than an historical, intention on
the part of the writer and the preservation of the vault intact recalls
another vault, to which I have already alluded, and in which other secrets
were preserved.

Shortly after the publication of the Fama Fraternatatis in 1614, there

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appeared another pamphlet called the Confessio Fraternitatis. This
contains a statement of the principles of the Fraternity, but it is more
than a mere elaboration of the teachings indicated in the Fama. It is
written from a different point of view from that of the earlier work.
Amongst critical students of the origins of Rosicrucianism, the opinion is
generally held that both pamphlets were written by Johann Valentin
Andreas, a noted theologian, mystic, and reformer. In this connec tion it
will be of interest to note the views expressed by Dr. Wm. Wynn
Westcott, S.M. in Anglia, in his brief history of the Societas Rosicrucian a
published in 1900:—
"The doctrines and notions expressed in this second work arc not
simply those of the earlier one more fully set out. If there is one thing
clear it is that in the ‘Fama’ there is no reference to the Reformed
Church, while in the Confessio the whole tone is Lutheran. . , . The
‘Fama’ treats of their form of Christianity as contrasted to
Mohammedanism and Pagan worship, while in the ‘Confessio’ there is an
adoption of Lutheran views as contrasted with those of Roman
Catholicism. From this change of attitude and from the different style of
the two texts, I conclude that though one man may have published and
edited both tracts, yet it is certain that one mind did not compose both.
This is a point that all the critics seem to me to have missed."
The publication of the two pamphlets aroused great interest
throughout Europe, and antagonists and protagonists of the Brotherhood
arose in great numbers. During the fifty years following the publication
of the Fama over 600 pamphlets were written on the subject.

No English translation of the ‘Fama’ was published till 1652, when

Thomas Vaughan, writing under the pseudonym of Eugenius Philalethes,
issued a translation under the title which I quoted at the beginning of
this notice. Thomas Vaughan does not appear to have been a member of
the Fraternity, but he was deeply interested in their teachings. In the
introduction to his translation of the Fama he says :—
"As for that Fraternity whose history and confession I have here
adventured to publish, I have for my own part no relation to them,

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neither do I much desire their acquaintance. I know they are Masters of
great Mysteries, and I know that Nature is so large they may as well
receive as give. I was never yet so lavish an admirer of them as to prefer
them to all the world ; for it is possible and perhap s true that a private
man may have that in his possession whereof they are ignorant. It is not
their title and the noise it hath occasioned that makes me commend
them.

The acknowledgment I give them was first procured by their books,

for there I found them true philosophers, and therefore not chimeras—as
most think —but men. Their principles are everywhere correspondent to
the ancient- and primitive wisdom, nay, they are consonant to our very
religion, and confirm every point thereof. ... It is true inde ed that their
knowledge at first was not purchased by their own inquisitions, for they
received it from the Arabians, amongst whom it remained as the
monument and legacy of the children of the East"
Though Vaughan's translation did not appear till 1652 the re is ample
evidence that the contents of the pamphlet were well known in England
prior to that date, and there is said to have been a College of
Rosicrucians in London in 1630. Some of the early members of the
Order— e.g. Elias Ashmole—are known to have become members of
Masonic Lodges when that fraternity ceased to be exclusively operative
and became speculative.

Associated with Thomas Vaughan was Sir Robert Moray, one of the
founders, and first President of the Royal Society of London. There is a
tradition that the Royal Society of London owed its inception to the
Brotherhood of the Rosie Cross, and it is interesting to note that, when
the Grand Lodge of England was formed in 1717, one of the three men
who shaped the destiny of the Order, and probably first compiled our
modern masonic rituals in which so much kabalistic symbolism and
philosophy are enshrined—J. T. Desaguliers — was a Fellow of the Royal
Society.

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 Probably the most important of the early English Rosicrucians was
Robert Fludd (1574-1637). He had been initiated abroad, and in 1616
published a defence of the Fraternity. He wrote many learned works on
kabalistic theosophy and Rosicrucian doctrines, the ‘Apologia’, just
mentioned; Tractatus Apologeticus Summum Bonum, from which I
quoted earlier; and others.