The Golden Builders Read online

  52 The ‘Oration on the Dignity of Man’, 1486. According to Ernesto Garin, Pico della Mirandola's Oratio is “the manifesto of the Renaissance”.

  53 Kristeller : Marsilio Ficino e Lodovico Lazzarelli, first published as an article in 1938 and expanded in Studies, pp.221-47; Ancora per Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio, Studies, pp. 249-57; Lodovico Lazzarelli e Giovanni da Corregio in Biblioteca degli Ardenti della Città di Viterbo, 1961.

  54 Sessorian Codex 413; Vittorio Emmanuele National Library, Rome.

  55 It should be held in mind that in this period Hermes Trismegistus was held by some informed ecclesiastical authorities to have been a largely respectable prophet of Christianity, a contemporary of Moses, mentioned with some approval by S. Augustine in Civitas Dei, and enthusiastically by the Christian theologian Lactantius, circa 400.

  56 Compare with François Rabelais' ‘Abbey of Thelema’ in Gargantua & Pantagruel (1535).

  57 Frances Yates has called Mercurio “a kind of Hermes Fool”, while Edgar Wind has described Lazzarelli's devotion to him as “notorious”. Neither of these statements is in my opinion adequate to this unique case.

  58 Viterbo Codex IID 14 (No.199).

  59 The figure of Poimandres (hence ‘Pymander’) only appears in the first treatise of the Corpus Hermeticum, but Ficino took it to be the title for the whole.

  60 Bibliotheca Historica 1,13sqq.

  61 The symbol of the baptismal bowl in which willing initiates are bathed in order to soak in and attain nous, has analogies to the mythology surrounding the Holy Grail. Joseph Campbell was fond of the analogy and asserted the connection as fact to his students. (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.The Holy Grail by C. Bisaillon. 1995).

  62 Prof. D.P. Walker. The prisca theologia in France. &c. Also Spiritual and demonic magic from Ficino to Campanella (London. 1958).

  63 De l'infinito universo e mondi Dialogue I. 1583.

  64 That is, spiritual creatures, not ‘devils’ in the vulgar sense, ie : in the Renaissance, one could describe one's ‘genius’ as one's daemon.

  65 Written 1507-1530 and held back so as not to offend the Church; published in 1543.

  66 La ‘Dignitas hominis’ e la letteratura patristica, in La Rinascita (Florence,1938), IV, pp.102-146.

  67 Meaning the ‘Fame of the Fraternity’ : the formerly hidden fraternity of the Rosy-Cross.

  68 Rose-Croix et Société Idéale. (Roland Edighoffer)

  69 Mostly published after his death by admirers, works such as theCompendium (Basileae, Petrus Perna. 1568), and the great Archidoxorum (Basileae,Petrus Perna. 1570)

  70 De vita coelitus comparanda (How to attain Life from heaven) by Marsilio Ficino, the third book of his Libri de vita (Bononiae, Benedictus Hectoris, 1501. First published : 1489).

  71 Published by Lazarus Zetzner in Strasbourg, 1616. The author was also responsible for the Fama Fraternitatis.

  72 Heinrich Khunrath. Born Leipzig 1520.d.1605.

  73 In fact, Johann Valentin Andreae regarded Khunrath as an obscurantist and a “mystagogue”, and his followers victims of the ‘demon of the savants’: curiositas. Andreae would play with the myth of the secret fraternity in order to generate a genuine and open fraternity.

  74 Much to the chagrin of its author. Andreae called Figulus “an adventurer and a charlatan”.

  75 Called in Andreae's Chymische Hochzeit (1616) a “Knight of the Golden Stone.”

  Part Two

  THE TRUE STORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS

  Manuscript c. 1610–1612

  Fama Fraternitatis

  Chapter Six

  The Fame of the Fraternity

  Sit Jessica. Look how this floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patens of bright gold; There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins. Such harmony is in immortal souls. But whilst this muddy vesture of decay, Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it. (The Merchant of Venice. Act V. scene 1)

  An innocent trip from Heilegenkreuz in the Tyrol to Innsbruck in the autumn of 1612 brought an unpleasant surprise to Adam Haslmayr, musician, theosopher, medical celebrity and notary public to the Archduke Maximilian. On the orders of the Jesuit inquisitor Hypolyt Guarinoni, Haslmayr was arrested and sentenced to slavery on the Mediterranean galleys.

  Why?

  In March, Haslmayr had published his answer to the Fama Fraternitatis – the Fame of the Fraternity – a manuscript which had been privately distributed to persons with an interest in the advancement of science and religion in a corrupt society. Was Haslmayr's ill-fortune a result of his interest in this document? What was so extraordinary about the Fama Fraternitatis?

  The Fama

  Seeing the only wise and merciful God in these latter days hath poured out so richly his mercy and goodness to mankind, whereby we do attain more and more to the perfect knowledge of his Son Jesus Christ and Nature, that justly we may boast of the happy time, wherein there is discovered unto us the half part of the world, which heretofore was unknown and hidden, but he hath also made manifest unto us many wonderful, and never heretofore seen, works and creatures of Nature, and moreover hath raised men, imbued with great wisdom, who might partly renew and reduce all arts (in this our age spotted and imperfect) to perfection; so that finally man might thereby understand his own nobleness and worth, and why he is called Microcosmus, and how far his knowledge extendeth into Nature.

  This elegant speech serves to usher the reader into the Fama Fraternitatis: a ‘god's-eye’ view of Europe in the first decade of the 17th century. A massive expansion of knowledge has taken place. Galileo has brought the craters of the moon into telescopic focus1. The Americas have been discovered and partly colonised. The globe has been circumnavigated. Copernicus has revolutionised the conception of the universe with his solar system. Giordano Bruno, burnt at the stake only a decade ago has declared the universe to be infinite.

  All of this, implies the Fama, is no accident. A certain mentality has been at work; a spiritual endeavour is afoot. It is God, the Fama declares, who has revealed Himself through Nature to the “men of great wisdom”, and through an allegory, the Fama will show what has really been going on, and why it is necessary to deepen and enlarge on what has been achieved.

  The second paragraph makes explicit the criticism of the present “spotted and imperfect” age. There is more to come, but certain vices must be overcome: “the pride and covetousness of the learned is so great, it will not suffer them to agree together; but were they united…” This is the main issue to which the Fama addresses itself: unity, co-operation. The learned could, if they would, “collect Librum Naturae, or a perfect method of all arts: but such is their opposition, that they still keep, and are loth to leave the old course…” We are then led swiftly into the main allegory - so obviously an allegory, but one which has for over three centuries (due largely to the nature of the circles in which the Fama has been transmitted) been seen erroneously as a statement of more or less historic fact.

  To such an intent of a general reformation, the most godly and highly illuminated father, our brother, C.R. a German, the chief and original of our Fraternity, hath much and long time laboured..

  The Myth of Christian Rosenkreuz

  At age five, brother C.R. (Christian Rosenkreuz) is put into a cloister to learn (indifferently2) Latin and Greek. At the first opportunity he escapes the monastery to journey to the Holy Land with Brother P.A.L. P.A.L. dies in Cyprus, whereupon C.R. heads for Damascus to find favour, due to his knowledge of medicine, with some wise men from Damcar in Arabia, where next he goes. Aged sixteen, Brother C.R. arrives in Damcar to be received “not as a stranger, but as one whom they had long expected.” - a marvellous touch, echoing the arrival of the ‘Thief Abu’ in the 1001 Nights who finds himself among “the relics of a Golden Age: golden because gold was nothing”. The wise men teach Christian Arabic. C.R. is thus able to translate the “Book M”.

  This is the place where he di
d learn his physic, and his mathematics, whereof the world hath just cause to rejoice, if there were more love, and less envy.

  He next goes to Egypt, observing its plants and creatures, and then moves on to Fez, as instructed by his Arabian teachers.

  And it is a great shame unto us, that wise men, so far remote the one from the 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 Africans do send one to another, enquiring of one 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 mathematics, physic and magic (for in those are they of Fez most skilful) were amended. As there is nowadays 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, brother C.R. makes acquaintance with the “Elementary Inhabitants”: the spirits of earth, air, water and fire, who reveal secrets of the inner nature of Nature to C.R3. C.R. finds the magia of Fez somewhat impure (demonic), and their cabala restricted by their faith (Islam), but he nonetheless intends to make use of the knowledge acquired; Rosenkreuz is no bigot. The knowledge is agreeable with the harmony of the whole world: a characteristically Renaissance Neoplatonic and Hermetic concept. Truth is truth and agrees with itself :

  might one examine all and several persons upon the earth, he should find that which is good and right, is always agreeing with itself; but all the rest is spotted with a thousand erroneous conceits.

  From Fez C.R. departs for Spain, expecting widespread rejoicing at his discoveries, discoveries which will henceforth lead to a firm foundation for all scientific endeavour :

  He showed 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 acknowledge their many errors, to which they were accustomed, and wherewith they had gained them enough.

  This great theme of the perversion of knowledge is never lost sight of throughout the Fama. It is the keynote.

  C.R., much to his innocent surprise, finds the reaction to his discoveries everywhere the same. No one wants to know. So he dreams of “a Society in Europe”, fully endowed with sufficient wealth to provide solid guidance for the good governance of the continent.

  Meanwhile Brother C.R. returns to Germany and looks forward to a reformation. He could have bragged of the transmutation of metals but instead “did esteem more Heaven, and the citizens thereof, Man, than all vain glory and pomp.” His view of Man is transcendental and universalist: Hermetic Man is the Great Miracle who has fallen into darkness. Five years of ruminations, mathematics and construction of fine instruments follow until he decides again to attempt the “wished-for reformation”: the return to first principles and the harmonious unity of the cosmos. He recruits three brothers from his “first cloister” whom he carefully instructs in the necessary arts: Brothers G.V., J.A. and J.O. Thus begins the Fraternity of the Rose Cross.

  In the House of the Holy Spirit

  The Brothers set about compiling a dictionary of the “magical language” (Cabala?), producing the first part of Book M and constructing their house, called “Holy Spirit”. The work is hard and further constrained by the huge numbers of sick people who come to be treated, so more members are recruited - “all bachelors and of vowed virginity” until they number eight. They produce a book “of all that which man can desire, wish, or hope for.” Having ordered things and learned fully the Axiomata of the Fraternity, the brothers spread out into many countries to secretly impart their learning and to correct errors from as many divers sources as possible, and to communicate their discoveries one to another. They have six rules:

  They must cure the sick gratis.

  They should dress in the fashion of the place where they live.

  They should meet once a year or write a note explaining their absence.

  Each should find a worthy successor.

  The letters C.R. should be their mark and seal.

  The Fraternity should remain secret for one hundred years.

  C.R. remains with two brothers, hoping for the cleansing of the Church and thinking of her with “longing desire”, while every year they meet “with joy”. They tell of all the inventions of the world and all the new revelations of His world that God has delivered to men's minds.

  Everyone may hold it out for certain, that such persons as were sent, and joined together by God, and the heavens, and chosen out of the wisest of men, as have lived in many ages, did live together above all others in highest unity, greatest secrecy, and most kindness one towards another.

  The first brother to die is J.O., much learned in Cabala and a resident in England where he was much known and famed for curing a young Earl of Norfolk of leprosy. The Fraternity no longer knows where some of the brothers are buried but each did, we are told, find a fit successor. There follows a reference to a document to come, the Confession wherein readers may learn 37 reasons why the Fraternity has decided to open itself to the worthy.

  Also we do promise more gold than both the Indies bring to the King of Spain; for Europe is with child and will bring forth a strong child, who shall stand in need of a great godfather's gift.

  Meanwhile, time has passed and the present brothers no longer know when brother C.R. died or where he is buried, or even if they have the entirety of the original wisdom. We are next informed of how the “high illuminated man of God, Fra. C.R.C.” was found.

  The death of Brother A in Gallia Narbonensis (Languedoc) makes way for his successor N.N., an architect, who in the course of renovations to his ‘building’ uncovers a memorial tablet inscribed with the names of the original brethren. In the tablet is a nail which when pulled out dislodges some of the masonry behind it, revealing a hidden door on which is written POST ANNOS 120 PATEBO, prophesying the precise time of the discovery of Father Christian Rosenkreuz. (“I shall be revealed after 120 years”4)

  From information given in the succeeding Confession, we can put a date to this ‘event’ as being 1604. (C.R. having been born, according to the Confessio Fraternitatis, in 1378 - the Year of the Great Schism of the Church - and having died in 1484). The allegory continues:

  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.