Documenta Latomica Inedita.

such riches , he hacl abandoned them , or rather hacl hidden them , leaving to posterity the trouble of discovering them , ancl contented to acquire a partial knowledge of all things ; after which he hacl resigned his soul to his Creator , without disease ancl without suffering , having lived some years over one hundred , etc . We find what follows in another dissertation concerning- the Brethren of the Rose Croix .

It is about 300 years ago that the society of the . Brethren commenced , ( or rather , was revived , as we shall see , ) in Germany . The conditions of the society were to swear to each other mutual faith , ancl to engage themselves by one and the same oath never to violate the laws of the Confraternit y . These laws consisted principally in being secret in all thing ' s ; not to speak or write but by _ enigmata and allegories . The plan of the Society was to reestablish disci

pline and science , above all medicine , of which they professed to have the secret . But that was not all . They boasted of possessing a great number of secrets , of which the least was that of the Philosopher ' s Stone . They called themselves the successors and restorers of several ancient confraternities , which , like their own , hacl the object of the research after virtue and the perfection of the sciences , and therefore they could well be termed the Ancient Rose Croix .

Suchlike were the mysterious priests ancl philosophers of Egypt , the Eumolpides , depositories of the mysteries of Ceres and the ori ginals of those of Scio . * These Eumolpides were the descendants of one Eumolpus , f the son of the poet Muassus , and who had the key of the mysteries of the goddess . Such , lastly , were the Magi , who passed their lives in studying Nature , and the Chaldseans , the Brahmins , and the Gymnosophists .

Originally , the Brethren were onl y four ; they increased afterwards to eight , and never moi e . They were never to many , and only make themselves known in the world under the name of the " Illuminated of the Rose Croix . " According to their laws and regulations they could only exercise the art of medicine " gratis , " ancl by a j > rinci ]> le of charity . It was ordained that they should be doers of good to all the world to stud

; y to acquire wisdom ancl piety ; to apply themselves to the reformation of religion ; _ to retrench superfluous expenses , and continually defend the truth of the maxims of their Fraternity , which , according to what they were bid to say , would last until the end of the world . Their usages and their opinions consisted , following the relation of Naudti , to dress themselves after the manner of the country where they found themselves ; to attend at least once a

year the assembly of the Society , unless they could give just reasons for their absence ; alwaj's to bear the character of Rose Croix as a mark or a symbol of the Fraternity ; to consider themselves destined to reform all things , and in virtue of this ri ght , as alone possessors of all the graces which Nature gives . They were bound to proclaim clearl y that the Pope was Antichrist , and that they would one day overthrow his triple throne . They condemned the doctrines of the Pope and of Mahomet , terming the one und the other the blasphemies of the West and East . They only acknowledged two sacraments , and for ceremonies those of the primitive Church , t

They called their fraternit y "The Confraternity of the Hol y Sp irit . " They pretended to have the ri ght of choosing their successor , and to be able to give to him their privileges and virtues , with the quality of representative .