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A85092 The fame and confession of the fraternity of R: C: Commonly, of the Rosie Cross. With a præface annexed thereto, and a short declaration of their physicall work. By Eugenius Philalethes.; Fama fraternitatis. English. Vaughan, Thomas, 1622-1666.; Andreä, Johann Valentin, 1586-1654, attributed name. 1652 (1652) Wing F350A; Thomason E1291_3; ESTC R200745 45,529 134

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Ciprus and so never came to Jerusalem yet our Brother C. R. did not return but shipped himself over and went to Damasco minding from thence to go to Jerusalem but by reason of the feebleness of his body he remained still there and by his skill in Physick he obtained much favour with the Turks In the mean time he became by chance acquainted with the Wise men of Damasco in Arabia and beheld what great Wonders they wrought and how Nature was discovered unto them hereby was that high and noble Spirit of Brother C. R. so stired up that Jerusalem was not so much now in his mind as Damasco also he could not bridle his desires any longer but made a bargain with the Arabians that they should carry him for a certain sum of money to Damasco he was but of the age of sixteen years when he came thither yet of a strong Dutch constitution there the Wise received him as he himself witnesseth not as a stranger but as one whom they had long expected they called him by his name and shewed him other secrets out of his Cloyster whereat he could not but mightily wonder He learned there better the Arabian Tongue so that the year following he translated the Book M. into good Latin which he afterwards brought with him This is the place where he did learn his Physick and his Mathematicks whereof the World hath just cause to rejoyce if there were more Love and less Envy After three years he returned again with good consent shipped himself over Sinus Arabicus into Egypt where he remained not long but only took better notice there of the Plants and Creatures he sailed over the whole Mediterranean Sea for to come unto Fez where the Arabians had directed him And it is a great shame unto us that wise men so far remote th'one from th' other should not only be of one opinion hating all contentious Writings but also be so willing and ready under the seal of secrecy to impart their secrets to others Every year the Arabians and Affricans do send one to another inquiring one of another out of their Arts if happily they had found out some better things or if Experience had weakened their Reasons Yearly there came something to light whereby the Mathematica Physic and Magic for in those are they of Fez most skilful were amended as there is now adays in Germany no want of learned Men Magicians Cabalists Physicians and Philosophers were there but more love and kindness among them or that the most part of them would not keep their secrets close only to themselves At Fez he did get acquaintance with those which are commonly called the Elementary Inhabitants who revealed unto him many of their secrets As we Germans likewise might gather together many things if there were the like unity and desire of searching out of secrets amongst us Of these of Fez he often did confess that their Magia was not altogether pure and also that their Cabala was defiled with their Religion but notwithstanding he knew how to make good use of the same and found still more better grounds of his Faith altogether agreeable with the Harmony of the whole World and wonderfully impressed in all Periods of times and thence proceedeth that fair Concord that as in every several kernel is contained a whole good tree or fruit so likewise is included in the little body of Man the whole great World whose Religion policy health members nature language words and works are agreeing sympathizing and in equal tune and melody with God Heaven and Earth and that which is dis-agreeing with them is error falshood and of the Devil who alone is the first middle and last cause of strife blindness and darkness in the World Also might one examine all and several persons upon the Earth he should find that which is good and right is always agreeing with it self but all the rest is spotted with a thousand erroneous conceits After two years Brother C. R. departed the City Fez and sailed with many costly things into Spain hoping well he himself had so well and so profitably spent his time in his travel that the learned in Europe would highly rejoyce with him and begin to rule and order all their Studies according to those sound and sure Foundations He therefore conferred with the Learned in Spain shewing unto them the Errors of our Arts and how they might be corrected and from whence they should gather the true Inditia of the Times to come and wherein they ought to agree with those things that are past also how the faults of the Church and the whole Philosopia Moralis was to be amended He shewed them new Growths new Fruits and Beasts which did concord with old Philosophy and prescribed them new Axiomata whereby all things might fully be restored But it was to them a laughing matter and being a new thing unto them they feared that their great Name should be lessened if they should now again begin to learn and acknowledg their many years Errors to which they were accustomed and wherewith they had gained them enough Who so loveth unquietness let him be reformed The same Song was also sang to him by other Nations the which moved him the more because it happened to him contrary to his expectation being then ready bountifully to impart all his Arts and Secrets to the Learned if they would have but undertaken to write the true and infallible Axiomata out of all Faculties Sciences and Arts and whole Nature as that which he knew would direct them like a Globe or Circle to the onely middle Point and Centrum and as it is usual among the Arabians it should onely serve to the wise and learned for a Rule that also there might be a Society in Europe which might have Gold Silver and precious Stones sufficient for to bestow them on Kings for their necessary uses and lawful purposes with which such as be Governors might be brought up for to learn all that which God hath suffered Man to know and thereby to be enabled in all times of need to give their counsel unto those that seek it like the Heathen Oracles Verily we must confess that the world in those days was already big with those great Commotions laboring to be delivered of them and did bring forth painful worthy men who brake with all force through Darkness and Barbarism and left us who succeeded to follow them and assuredly they have been the uppermost point in Trygono igneo whose flame now should be more and more brighter and shall undoubtedly give to the World the last Light Such a one likewise hath Theophrast us been in Vocation and Callings although he was none of our Fraternity yet nevertheless hath he diligently read over the Book M whereby his sharp ingenium was exalted but this man was also hindered in his course by the multitude of the learned and wise-seeming men that he was never able peaceably to confer with others of
THE FAME AND CONFESSION OF THE FRATERNITY OF R C Commonly of the Rosie Cross WITH A Praeface annexed thereto and a short Declaration of their Physicall Work By EUGENIUS PHILALETHES Jarch apud Philostrat {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Veritas in Profundo London Printed by J. M. for Giles Calvert at the black spread Eagle at the West end of Pauls 1652. THE Publisher to the Reader IT is the Observation of such as skill Dreams That to travel in our sleep a long way and all alone is a sign of Death This it seems the Poet knew for when the Queen of Carthage was to dye for Love he fits her with this Melancholy Vision Longam Incomitata videtur Ire Viam Now the use I make of it is this I would be so wise as to prognosticate I do therefore promise my present Work not only Life but Acceptance for in this my Dream and I know you will call it so I travel not without Company There were some Gentlemen besides my self who affected this Fame and thought it no Disparagement to their own but it was their pleasure it should receive light at my hands and this made them defer their own Copies which otherwise had past the Press I have Reader but little more to say unless I tell thee of my Justice and now thou shalt see how distributive it is The Translation of the Fama belongs to an unknown hand but the Abilities of the Translator I question not He hath indeed mistaken Damascus for Damcar in Arabia and this I would not alter for I am no Pedant to correct another mans Labours The Copy was communicated to me by a Gentleman more learned then my self and I should name him here but that he expects not either thy thanks or mine As for the Preface it is my own and I wish thee the full Benefit of it which certainly thou canst not miss if thou com'st to it with clear eyes and a purged spirit Consider that Prejudice obstructs thy Judgment for if thy Affections are engag'd though to an Ignis fatuus thou dost think it a Guide because thou dost follow it It is not Opinion makes Things False or True for men have deny'd a great part of the World which now they inhabit and America as well as the Philosophers Stone was sometimes in the Predicament of Impossibilities There is nothing more absurd then to be of the same mind with the Generality of Men for they have entertain'd many gross Errors which Time and Experience have confuted It is indeed our Sluggishness and Incredulity that hinder all Discoveries for men contribute nothing towards them but their Contempt or which is worst their Malice I have known all this my self and therefore I tell it thee but what use thou wilt make of it I know not To make thee what Man should be is not in my power but it is much in thy own if thou know'st thy Duty to thy self Think of it and Farewell E. P. TO THE Wise and Understanding READER WIsdom saith Solomon is to a man an infinite Treasure for she is the Breath of the Power of God and a pure Influence that floweth from the Glory of the Almighty she is the Brightness of Eternal Light and an undefiled Mirror of the Majesty of God and an Image of his Goodness she teacheth us Soberness and Prudence Righteousness and Strength she understands the Subtilty of words and Solution of dark sentences she foreknoweth Signs and Wonders and what shall happen in time to come with this Treasure was our first Father Adam fully endued Hence it doth appear that after God had brought before him all the Creatures of the Field and the Fowls under Heaven he gave to every one of them their proper names according to their nature Although now through the sorrowful fall into sin this excellent Jewel Wisdom hath been lost and meer Darkness and Ignorance is come into the World yet notwithstanding hath the Lord God sometimes hitherto bestowed and made manifest the same to some of his Friends For the wise King Solomon doth testifie of himself that he upon earnest prayer and desire did get and obtain such Wisdom of God that thereby he knew how the World was created thereby he understood the Nature of the Elements also the time beginning middle and end the increase and decrease the change of times through the whole Year the Revolution of the Year and Ordinance of the Stars he understood also the properties of tame and wilde Beasts the cause of the raigning of the Winds and minds and intents of men all sorts and natures of Plants vertues of Roots and others was not unknown to him Now I do not think that there can be found any one who would not wish and desire with all his heart to be Partaker of this noble Treasure but seeing the same Felicity can happen to none except God himself give Wisdom and send his holy Spirit from above we have therefore set forth in print this little Treatise to wit Famam Confessionem of the Laudable Fraternity of the Rosie Cross to be read by every one because in them is clearly shewn and discovered what concerning it the World hath to expect Although these things may seem somewhat strange and many may esteem it to be but a Philsophical shew and no true History which is published and spoken of the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross it shall here sufficiently appear by our Confession that there is more in recessu then may be imagined and it shall be easily understood and observed by every one if he be not altogether voyd of understanding what now adays and at these times is meant thereby Those who are true Disciples of Wisdom and true Followers of the Spherical Art will consider better of these things and have them in greater estimation as also judg far otherwise of them as hath been done by some principal Persons but especially of Adam Haselmeyer Notarius Publicus to the Arch Duke Maximilian who likewise hath made an Extract ex scriptis Theologicis Theophrasti and written a Treatise under the Title of Jesuiter wherein he willeth that every Christian should be a true Jesuit that is to walk live be and remain in Jesus He was but ill rewarded of the Jesuits because in his Answer written upon the Famam he did name those of the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross The highly illuminated men and undeceiving Jesuits for they not able to brook this layd hands on him and put him into the Calleis for which they likewise have to expect their reward Blessed Aurora will now henceforth begin to appear who after the passing away of the dark Night of Saturn with her Brightness altogether extinguisheth the shining of the Moon or the small Sparks of Heavenly Wisdom which yet remaineth with men and is a Forerunner of pleasant Phebus who with his clear and fiery glistering Beams brings forth that blessed Day long wished for of many
true-hearted by which Day-light then shall truly be known and shall be seen all heavenly Treasures of godly Wisdom as also the Secrets of all hidden and unvisible things in the World according to the Doctrine of our Forefathers and ancient Wisemen This will be the right kingly Ruby and most excellent shining Carbuncle of the which it is said That he doth shine and give light in darkness and to be a perfect Medicine of all imperfect Bodies and to change them into the best Gold and to cure all Diseases of Men easing them of all pains and miseries Be therefore gentle Reader admonished that with me you do earnestly pray to God that it please him to open the hearts and ears of all ill hearing people and to grant unto them his blessing that they may be able to know him in his Omnipotency with admiring contemplation of Nature to his honour and praise and to the love help comfort and strengthening of our Neighbors and to the restoring of all the diseased The Preface IF it were the Business of my Life or Learning to procure my self that noyse which men call Fame I am not to seek what might conduce to it It is an Age affords many Advantages and I might have the choyce of several Foundations whereon to build my self I can see withall that Time and Imployment have made some persons Men whom their first Adventures did not finde such This suddain Growth might give my Imperfections also the Confidence of such another start but as I live not by common Examples so I drive not a Common Design I have taken a course different from that of the World for Readers I would have you know that whereas you plot to set your selves up I do here contrive to bring my self down I am in the Humor to affirm the Essence and Existence of that admired Chimaera the Fraternitie of R. C. And now Gentlemen I thank you I have Aire and Room enough me thinks you sneak and steal from me as if the Plague and this Red Cross were inseparable Take my Lord have mercy along with you for I pitty your sickly Braines and certainly as to your present State the Inscription is not unseasonable But in lieu of this some of you may advise me to an Assertion of the Capreols of del Phaebo or a Review of the Library of that discreet Gentleman of the Mancha for in your Opinion those Knights and these Brothers are equally Invisible This is hard measure but I shal not insist to disprove you If there be any amongst the Living of the same Bookish saith with my self They are the Persons I would speak to and yet in this I shal act modestly I invite them not unless they be at Leasure When I consider the unjust Censure and indeed the Contempt which Magic even in all Ages hath undergone I can in my opinion finde no other Reasons for it but what the Professors themselves are guilty of by Mis-construction and this in Reference to a double Obscurity of Life and Language As for their nice or to speak a better truth their Conscientious Retirements whereby they did separate themselvs from dissolute and brutish spirits it is that which none can soberly discommend nay it is a very purging Argument and may serve to wipe off those contracted envious scandals which Time and Man have injuriously fastned on their Memory For if we reason discreetly we may not safely trust the Traditions and Judgement of the World concerning such persons who sequestred themselves from the World and were no way addicted to the Affairs or Acquaintance thereof It is true they were losers by this Alienation for both their life and their Principles were crosse to those of their Adversaries They lived in the shade in the calm of Conscience and solitude but their Enemies moved in the Sun-shine in the Eye of worldly Transactions where they kept up their own Repute with a clamarous Defamation of these innocent and contented Eremits The second Obstacle to their Fame was partly the simplicity of their style which is Scripture-like and commonly begins like Solomon's Text with Mi Fili But that which spoil'd all and made them Contemptible even to some degree of miserie was a corrupt Delivery of the Notions and Vocabula of the Art for Magic like the Sun moving from the East carried along with it the Orientall Termes which our Western Philosophers who skil'd not the Arabic or Chaldee c. did most unhappily and corruptly transcribe and verily at this day they are so strangely abus'd it is more then a Task to guess at their Original But this is not all for some were so singular as to invent certain Barbarous Termes of their own and these conceited Riddles together with their Magisterial way of Writing for they did not so far condescend as to Reason their Positions made the world conclude them a Fabulous Generation Indeed this was a strange course of Theirs and much different from that of Trismegistus in whose genuine works there is not one Barbarous syllable nor any point asserted without most pregnant and Demonstrative Reasons Certainly Hermes as to his course of life was public and princely in his Doctrine clear and Rational and hence it was that not onely his own times but even all subsequent Generations were most constant Tributaries to his Honour On the contrary if we may conjecture by Effects there succeeded him in his School certain Melancholy envious Spirits whose obscure inscrutable writings render'd their Authors Contemptible but made way for that new noyse of Aristotle which men call Philosophie I may say then of these later Magicians what Solinus sometimes said of those contentious successors of Alexander the Great That they were born Ad segetem Romanae gloriae non ad Haereditatem tanti Nominis It is equally true That some skulking Philosophers whiles they enviously supprest the Truth did occasionally promote a Lye for they gave way to the Enemies growth till at last the Tares possest the Field and then was the true Graine cast into the Fire Nor indeed could it be otherwise for this Bushel being placed over the Light the Darkness of it invited Ignorance abroad and now steps out Aristotle like a Pedler with his pack the Triumphs of whose petulant School had but two weak supporters Obscurity and Envie Both these proceeded from the Malignancie of some eminent Authors whom God had blest with Discoveries Extraordinary These to secure themselves and the Art judged it their best course to blot out the path that such as were unworthy might never be able to follow them It cannot be denyed but this Mystery and cloud of the letter carried with it both Discretion and Necessitie but what spoyl'd all was the Excess of the Contrivers for they past all Decencie both in the Measure and the Maner of it I could be numerous in Examples and proofs of this kind but that I hold it superfluous to pause at a point which is acknowledged on all
unto and did know or are able to believe or utter Wherefore to declare briefly our meaning hereof we ought to labor carefully that there be not onely a wondering at our meeting and adhortation but that likewise every one may know that although we do highly esteem and regard such mysteries and secrets we nevertheless hold it fit that the knowledge thereof be manifested and revealed to many For it is to be taught and believed that this our unhoped willing offer wil raise many and divers thoughts in men unto whom as yet be unknown Miranda sextae aetatis or those which by reason of the course of the world esteem the things to come like unto the present and are hindred through all manner of importunities of this their time so that they live no otherwise in the world then blinde fools who can in the clear Sun-shine day discern and know nothing then onely by feeling Now concerning the first part we hold this that the Meditations knowledge and inventions of our loving Christian Father of all that which from the beginning of the world Mans Wisdom either through Gods Revelation or through the service of the Angels and spirits or through the sharpness and deepness of understanding or through long observation use and experience hath found out invented brought forth corrected and till now hath been propagated transplanted are so excellent worthy and great that if all books should perish and by Gods almighty suffrance all writings all learning should be lost yet the posterity will be able onely thereby to lay a new foundation and bring truth to light again the which perhaps would not be so hard to do as if one should begin to pull down and destroy the old ruinous building and then begin to enlarge the fore Court afterwards bring the lights in the Lodgings and then change the doors staples and other things according to our intention But to whom would not this be acceptable for to be manifested to every one rather then to have it kept and spared as an especial ornament for the appointed time to come Wherefore should we not with all our hearts rest and remain in the onely truth which men through so many erroneous and crooked ways do seek if it had onely pleased God to lighten unto us the sixth Candelabrum were it not good that we needed not to care not to fear hunger poverty sickness and age Were it not a precious thing that you could always live so as if you had liv'd from the beginning of the world and moreover as you should stil live to the end thereof Were it not excellent you dwel in one place that neither the people which dwel beyond the River Ganges in the Indies could hide any thing nor those which live in Peru might be able to keep secret their counsels from thee Were it not a precious thing that you could so read in one onely book and withal by reading understand and remember all that which in all other books which heretofore have been and are now and hereafter shal come out hath been is and shal be learned and found out of them How pleasant were it that you could so sing that in stead of stony rocks you could draw to the pearls and precious stones in stead of wilde beasts spirits and in stead of hellish Pluto move the mighty Princes of the world O ye people Gods counsel is far otherwise who hath concluded now to encrease and enlarge the number of our Fraternity the which we with such joy have undertaken as we have heretofore obtained this great treasure without our merits yea without any our hopes and thoughts and purpose with the like fidelity to put the same in practice that neither the compassion nor pity of our own children which some of us in the Fraternity have shal draw us from it because we know that these unhoped for goods cannot be inherited nor by chance be obtained If there be some body now which on the other side wil complain of our dis-creation that we offer our Treasures so freely and without any difference to all men and do not rather regard and respect more the godly learned wise or princely persons then the common people those we do not contradict seeing it is not a slight and easie matter but withall we signifie so much that our Arcana or Secrets will no ways be common and generally made known Although the Fama be set forth in five languages and is manifested to every one yet we do partly very well know that the unlearned and gross wits will not receive nor regard the same as also the worthiness of those who shall be accepted into our Fraternity are not esteemed and known of us by Mans Carefulness but by the Rule of our Revelation and Manifestation Wherefore if the unworthy cry and call a thousand times or if they shall offer and present themselves to us a thousand times yet God hath commanded our ears that they should hear none of them yea God hath so compassed us about with his Clouds that unto us his servants no violence or force can be done or committed wherefore we neither can be seen or known by any body except he had the eyes of an Eagle It hath been necessary that the Fama should be set forth in every ones Mother Tongue because those should not be defrauded of the knowledg thereof whom although they be unlearned God hath not excluded from the happiness of this Fraternity the which shall be divided and parted into certain degrees as those which dwell in the City Damear in Arabia who have a far different politick order from the other Arabians For there do govern only wise and understanding men who by the Kings permission make particular Laws according unto which example also the Government shall be instituted in Europe whereof we have a description set down by our Christianly Father when first is done and come to pass that which is to precede And thenceforth our Trumpet shall publiquely sound with a loud sound and great noise when namely the same which at this present is shewed by few and is secretly as a thing to come declared in Figures and Pictures shall be free and publiquely proclaimed and the whole World be filled withall Even in such manner as heretofore many godly people have secretly and altogether desperately pusht at the Popes Tyranny which afterwards with great earnest and especial zeal in Germany was thrown from his seat and trodden under-foot whose final fall is delayed and kept for our times when he also shall be scratched in pieces with nails and an end be made of his Asses cry by a new voyce The which we know is already reasonably manifest and known to many learned men in Germany as their Writings and secret Congratulations do sufficiently witness the same We could here relate and declare what all the time from the year of our Lord 1378. in which year our Christian Father was born till now