The Rosicrucians; Their Teachings and Mysteries According to the Manifestoes Issued at Various Times by the Fraternity Itself. Also, Some of Their ... and the Mystery of the Order Explained

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910. Excerpt: ... The Confession. The first literature on the Rosicrucian Fraternity to appear was the Fama Fraternitatis, which, as has already been stated, appeared in 1614 or 1615, it is not exactly known. In the same year, the CONFESSIO appeared, as also some other works of not as great importance. The following is the Preface to the Confessio and notes are added throughout the entire Confessio so that it will be easily understood by the average reader. PREFACE TO THE CONFESSIO. "Here, gentle reader, you shall find incorporated in our Confession thirty-seven reasons of our purpose and intention, the which according to thy pleasure thou mayst seek out and compare together, considering within thyself if they be sufficient to allure thee. Verily, it requires no small pains to induce any one to believe what doth not yet appear, but when it shall be revealed in the full blaze cf day, I suppose we should be ashamed of such questionings. And as we do now securely call the Pope Anti-christ, which was formerly a capital cffence in every place, so we know certainly that what we here keep secret we shall in the future thunder forth with uplifted voice, the which, reader, with us desire with all thy heart that it may happen most speedily. "FratresR. C." It will be noted that the author calls the Pope Antichrist. It is an easy matter to understand why this is. The Masonic Order has ever been Anti-Catholic and against the Pope. It is not positively known whether Andrea--(Christian Rcsencreutz) was a Mason or not, but it is a positive fact that the old Hermetics, later the Paracelsuians were at one time known as, and a part of, mystic Masonry, and therefore still had some sympathy in general with Masonry at the time of Andrea's writing the Confession and the Fama. Both these Orders s...