The Rosicrucian Manifestos

The term 'Rosicrucian Manifestos' is used to designate the two (or three) texts published between 1614 and 1616 in Germany: the Fama Fraternitatis or a Discovery of the Fraternity of the Most Noble Order of the Rosy Cross and Confessio Fraternitatis or the Confession of the Laudable Fraternity of the Most Honorable Order of the Rosy Cross, Written to All the Learned of Europe. Some historians also rank the Chymical Wedding of the Christian Rosenkreutz as 'the third item in the series which launched the Rosicrucian furore' (Yates). The texts were published in 1614, 1615 and 1616 respectively; the Fama and the Confessio in Cassel, the Chymical Wedding in Strasbourg.

The content of the manifestos is mystical and highly symbolic. The Fama announces the existence of the secret Fraternity, founded by the brother C.R., who traveled to the cities of Damascus and Fez and acquired there a body of secret knowledge. After returning to Europe, he set up a brotherhood which aim was to spread the real knowledge and wisdom, though remaining secret. The brotherhood was supposed to have been active throughout the 16^th century; 1604 is said to be the date when they discovered the hidden tomb of their founder C.R. this is presented as a parable of ‘the opening of a door in Europe’ and beginning of ‘great Reformation’. To sum up, the first manifesto announces great changes, religious as well as political, in Europe.

The Confessio in many ways repeats the message of the Fama; however, it is published in Latin, and not in both German and Latin like the Fama. Therefore, it must have been targeted at a more educated audience. In Confessio, the Fraternity claims to be Protestant and denounces the Pope as Antichrist. It also invites the learned of Europe to contact and join the Fraternity, as everyone who is worthy may do so. After this pamphlet, many intellectuals from all over Europe tried to contact the fraternity, but none received a reply. This gave birth to the interpretation that the Chymical Wedding was published either as a critique of the manifestos, or as a continuation of them. It has a different form, published not as a short pamphlet but as a fantastic story of the wedding of the King and Queen, who live in the castle full of wonders. The story is divided into seven days and is full of alchemical symbolism; it can be an allegory of an alchemical process.

Authors

The authors of the Fama and Confessio are unknown; it is however possible that Johann Valentin Andreae, the Lutheran preacher from Wurttemberg, might have been involved in writing them or drawing them up. The Manifestos are probably of several authors, and it is possible that they originated in the so-called 'Tubingen circle' – a group of intellectuals associated with the university of Tubingen, where Andreae was a professor. It is also probable that the Manifestos were not written in the same order as published – the Fama contains a couple of allusions to the content of the Confessio, which was published a year after it.

Even though the dates of the publication of the pamphlets are well known, the time of the composition of them is disputed. Andreae himself admitted to have written the Wedding when he was 19, that is in 1605. This undermines the thesis that it is the last item in the series of Rosicrucian Manifestos and contains themes developed in them. Frances Yates, however, argues there are obvious links between the two Manifestos and the Wedding; it has also been interpreted as Andreae's allegorical response to the Rosicrucian movement unfolding.

Influences

The Manifestos were a peculiar product of the early 17^th century intellectual evironment of Europe. They are heavily influenced by the contemporary alchemy, magic and Neoplatonic philosophy which were the crucial elements of the intellectual life of the period. Even though the manifestos themselves are believed to be written by German intellectuals, they might have been influenced by the sympathizers of alchemy from more remote parts of Europe: Frances Yates emphasizes the involvement of John Dee in the affair, she also stresses the importance of Czech nobleman Vilem of Rozmberk, who was Protestant, anti-Habsburg and a patron of Dee during the seven years Dee had spent in Bohemia. Other individuals who might have been involved are Oswald Croll – a Paracelsist intellectual who was a physician of Christian of Anhalt. This connection forms the link to the main, and most controversial, thesis devised by Yates. Anhalt was active on the court of Frederick V, the Elector Palatine; he himself advocated the acceptance of the Bohemian crown by Frederick, when it was offered to him in 1619. Yates speculates that he might have been campaigning for Frederick's election in Bohemia. That leads her to the conclusion that the same circle of people was involved in both the drawing up of the Rosicrucian manifestos and having Frederick elected the king of Bohemia. The manifestos were supposed to create a religious and philosophical furore around the event, as well as add a mystical dimension to it. The reign of Frederick in Bohemia was to be the prophesied victory of Protestantism and beginning of the new age in Europe. This thesis obviously involves a lot of speculation; since we are not certain about who were behind the manifestos or what do they mean, we can neither be sure about whether there was a political faction involved.

Yates’s thesis attracted a lot of criticism; most of it however is centered on the attributing the authorship if the manifestos to Andreae and his circle, as well as claiming that Dee was involved. The connection of Frederick V to the Rosicrucian manifestos has not been examined from another point of view than hers: the main argument for it is that the flow of pamphlets which the publication of the manifestos generated stopped suddenly about 1620, as well as the coronation of Frederick as the king of Bohemia at the highest point of the Rosicrucian furore. Following Yates’s argument, the fact that Bohemia had been chosen for the revival of Protestantism and the ‘new dawn’ is also meaningful – Prague was the biggest centre of alchemical and occult studies in Europe after the reign of Rudolf II. Moreover, some of the symbols used in the manifestos might imply a political connection – in the Confessio there is a mention of an 'Eagle' which impedes the 'Lion's' ambitions (a double-headed eagle was the coat of arms o the Habsburgs, whereas a lion was that of the Palatinate, as well as Netherlands, England and Bohemia, which were all Protestant domains; likewise Frederick V was often depicted as a lion in the pamphlets published after his fall in 1620). Election of Frederick was thus an open challenge for the main Catholic power in Europe – The Habsburgs, and here Yates saw the connection between the manifestos and the Bohemian revolt and defeat in 1620, which can be interpreted as a last struggle of Protestantism against triumphant Catholicism.

FURTHER READING:

Frances Yates, Rosicrucian Enlightenment, 1972.

Christopher McIntosh, The Rosicrucians: The History, Mythology and Rituals of an Occult Order, 1987.

Stanley Beeler, The Invisible College: A Study of the Three Original Rosicrucian Texts, 1991.

Brian Vickers, 'Frances Yates and the Writing of History', Journal of Modern History, 51, 1979, pp. 287-316. (JSTOR)

Donald R. Dickson, 'Johann Valentin Andreae's Utopian Brotherhoods', Renaissance Quarterly, 49, no. 4, 1996, pp. 760-802. (JSTOR)