booknetsaWebster-secretSocietiesAndSubversiveMovements

It will be seen that, according to this Manifesto, Rosicrucianism was a combination of the ancient secret
tradition handed down from the patriarchs through the philosophers of Greece and of the first Cabala of the
Jews.
The " Grand Legend " of Rosicrucianism rests, however, on no historical evidence; there is, in fact, not
the least reason to suppose that any such person as Christian Rosenkreutz ever existed. The Illuminatus von
Knigge in the eighteenth century asserted that: It is now recognized amongst enlightened men that no real
Rosicrucians have existed, but that the whole of what is contained in the Fama and the Universal Reformation
of the World [another Rosicrucian pamphlet which appeared in the same year] was only subtle allegory
of Valentine Andrea, of which afterwards partly deceivers (such as the Jesuits) and partly visionaries made
use in order to realize this dream.(34)
What, then, was the origin of the name Rose-Cross? According to one Rosicrucian tradition, the word "
Rose " does not derive from the flower depicted on the Rosicrucian cross, but from the Latin word ros, signifying
" dew," which was supposed to be the most powerful solvent of gold, whilst crux, the cross, was the
chemical hieroglyphic for " light."(35) It is said that the Rosicrucians interpreted the initials of the cross
INRI by the sentence " Igne Nitrum Roris Invenitur."(36) Supposing this derivation to be correct, it would
be interesting to know whether any connexion could be traced between the first appearance of the word
Rosie Cross in the Fama Fraternitatis at the date of 1614 and the cabalistic treatise of the celebrated Rabbi
of Prague, Shabbethai Sheftel Horowitz, entitled Shefa Tal, that is to say, " The Effusion of Dew," which
appeared in 1612.(37) Although this book has often been reprinted, no copy is to be found in the British Museum,
so I am unable to pursue this line of enquiry further. A simpler explanation may be that the Rosy
Cross derived from the Red Cross of the Templars. Mirabeau, who as a Freemason and an Illuminatus was
in a position to discover many facts about the secret societies of Germany during his stay in the country, definitely
asserts that " the Rose Croix Masons of the seventeenth century were only the ancient Order of the
Templars secretly perpetuated."(38)
Lecouteulx de Canteleu is more explicit: In France the Knights (Templar) who left the Order, henceforth
hidden, and so to speak unknown, formed the Order of the Flaming Star and of the Rose-Croix, which in the
fifteenth century spread itself in Bohemia and Silesia. Every Grand officer of these Orders had all his life to
wear the Red Cross and to repeat every day the prayer of St. Bernard.(39)
Eckert states that the ritual, symbols, and names of the Rose-Croix were borrowed from the Templars,
and that the Order was divided into seven degrees, according to the seven days of creation, at the same time
signifying that their " principal aim was that of the mysterious, the investigation of Being and of the forces
of nature."(40)
The Rosicrucian Kenneth Mackenzie, in his Masonic Cyclopædia, appears to suggest the same possibility
of Templar origin. Under the heading of Rosicrucians he refers enigmatically to an invisible fraternity
that has existed from very ancient times, as early as the days of the Crusades, " bound by solemn obligations
of impenetrable secrecy," and joining together in work for humanity and to " glorify the good." " At various
periods of history this body has emerged into a sort of temporary light; but its true name has never transpired
and is only known to the innermost adepts and rulers of the society." " The Rosicrucians of the sixteenth
century finally disappeared and re-entered this invisible fraternity "-from which they had presumably
emerged. Whether any such body really existed or whether the above account is simply an attempt at mystification
devised to excite curiosity, the incredulous may question The writer here observes that it would be
indiscreet to say more, but elsewhere he throws out a hint that may have some bearing on the matter, for in
his article on the Templars he says that after the suppression of the Order it was revived in a more secret
form and subsists to the present day. This would exactly accord with Mirabeau's statement that the Rosicrucian
were only the Order of the Templars secretly perpetuated. Moreover, as we shall see later, according to
a legend preserved by the Royal Order of Scotland, the degree of the Rosy Cross had been instituted by that
Order in conjunction with the Templars in 1314, and it would certainly be a remarkable coincidence that a
man bearing the name of Rosenkreutz should happen to have inaugurated a society, founded, like the Templars,
on Eastern secret doctrines during the course of the same century, without any connexion existing
between the two.
I would suggest, then, that Christian Rosenkreutz was a purely mythical personage, and that the whole
legend concerning his travels was invented to disguise the real sources whence the Rosicrucians derived
their system, which would appear to have been a compound of ancient esoteric doctrines of Arabian and
Syrian magic, and of Jewish Cabalism, partly inherited from the Templars but reinforced by direct contact
with Cabalistic Jews in Germany. The Rose-Croix, says Mirabeau " were a mystical, Cabalistic, theological,
and magical sect," and Rosicrucianism thus became in the seventeenth century the generic title by which
Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I
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