The Rose Croix.

THE ROSE CROIX .

BY THE EDITOR . TT is very difficult to give scientifically , so to say , a history of the " Rose J- Croix , " ancl for this reason . There is first the old " Fraternitas Roseee Crucis . " There is secondly the grade called that of CheA'aliers or Prince Rose Croix in the Ancient ancl Accepted Scottish Rite . There is thirdl y the

" Rosicrncian Society . " There was formerly a " Rose Croix " of Heredom , but that is , we fancy , practically incorporated in the grade of Rose Croix in the Ancient and Accej ^ ted Rite . As regards the old "Societas , " very little is known . Some writers have doubted Avhether it ever existed , and whether it be not the invention of Valentin Andrea . On the whole Ave have long come to the conclusion that an Hermetical Society existed , and that

they called themselves Rosierucians ; but what it was reall y deponent does not pretend to say . The onl y trace of such a society , except in the indistinct hints of alchemical writers , is in "Long Livers , " 1721 , where we certainly hai'e traces of an Hermetic and Alchemical , but not , as far as I can make out , Rosicrncian Society . It is said they had a ceremonial of admission , and signs of admission ; but if so , no such " formulos" have come down to us . In Ashmole ' s time the astrologers ancl adepts in England formed a very numerous body , ancl Nicolai , a German writer , ancl others have thence taken up a theory

of the Ashmolean Rosicrncian origin of Freemasonry . We need hardly add that such is a pure chimera . The CheA'aliers or Prince Rose Croix form part of the Ancient and Accepted Rite , and probably date from about 1735 or 1740 . We may dismiss at once the pretty fables of "being brought back from , the Crusades , " etc . Dr . Leeson had a notion , we remember , that it was an early Christian sociality , and that we haA r e in it a remembrance both of the "Disciplina Arcani" and the "A e " of the earlchristiansWe confess

gap _ y . that we cannot see it . There is nothing ' , so far as we know , in the Rose Croix ceremonial which betrays antiquity . It has no " archaisms , " it has no signs of " old age "; all seems young , " bran new , " and modern , that is to say , eighteenth century . The ceremonial is beautiful , per se , Avhen carefully elaborated ; but it is , to our idea , essentially late in all its terminology and . teaching , as well as in its ideas and symbolism . The " Ccena mystica " may be old

; it is , no doubt , very peculiar , and we are inclined to think that , whether this has been borrowed from the secret ritual of the Templars or not , as some have thought , it may be said to be antique both in theory ancl practice . The modern Rosicrncian Society is of the two last decades , we believe , and is an adaptation of an old name . Its ceremonial is equally modern . And though we have said all this as writers of history , we are not unprepared to listen to a good deal which may be said on the other side . It has always

struck us as a curious fact wh y so early in the eighteenth century all these high grades should suddenly start into life . They probabl y had , many of them , their counterparts previously , whether in secret knightly associations , in mystic sodalities , in alchemical confraternities , or in philosophic illuminati . Curiously enough , as regards tbe Rose Croix Grade of tbe Ancient ancl Accepted Rite , though its ritual would admit a good deal about the " mystic rose , " and the " rosa mystica" was an ancient Hermetic and Oriental emblem , find little

we or nothing- about it in the Rose Croix ceremonial . Thus far to-day we confess that recent studies have led us to doubt our own often expressed views and those of others , as regards the later period of Hermetic Masonry , ancl we shall never be surprised to hear , or unwillino- to concede the fact , that to Hermetic Masonry at any rate we must give an earlier date than our modern historians and handbooks have been for some time willing to allow to it . i , 2