Rosenkreutz, Christian

   Mythical Sect Founder.

   In the early seventeenth century, the Lutheran pastor J.V. Andreae published anonymously the Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosenkreutz and Confessio Fraternitatis. They were probably intended as a spoof and purported to be an account of the founding of an esoteric secret society by one Christian Rosenkreutz. The society was dedicated to learning about the wisdom of the East and the mysteries of nature. The books were taken seriously and several Rosicrucian societies were started including the Viennese Gold-und-Rosen-Kreuzer which only admitted senior Freemasons. Rosicrucian ideas were to become in- fluential and, through the Freemason network, they spread through the upper and middle classes of Europe and the United States of America. Together with Theosophy, they were particularly fashionable in the 1920s and 1930s.

   F. de P. Castells, Our Ancient Brethren: The Originators of Freemasonry (1932);

   A.E. Waite, The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross (1924);

   F.A. Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (1972).