Would the Rosicrucians of 1614 have answered you?

The Fama Fraternitatis, printed in Kassel in 1614, gives the six articles the brethren “bound themselves one to another to keep”, and says who need not apply. Seven questions, beside the text.

The Fama announced a secret fraternity and invited “all the learned in Europe” to declare their mind. It names six rules, then one warning. Answer for yourself; nothing is sent anywhere.

1. Would you help people without being paid for it, and without claiming to be anything more than someone who helps?

First, That none of them should profess any other thing then to cure the sick, and that gratis.

Yes Sometimes No

2. Would you give up every outward sign of belonging — no dress, no badge — and live by the customs of the place you are in?

Second, None of the posterity should be constrained to wear one certain kind of habit, but therein to follow the custom of the country.

Yes Sometimes No

3. Do you keep a yearly commitment without fail — and send word when you cannot?

Third, That every year, upon the day C., they should meet together at the house Sancti Spiritus, or write the cause of his absence.

Yes Sometimes No

4. Have you started looking for someone worthy to take over what you know?

Fourth, Every Brother should look about for a worthy person who, after his decease, might succeed him.

Yes Sometimes No

5. Would you sign your work with a shared mark instead of your own name?

Fifth, The word R. C. should be their seal, mark, and character.

Yes Sometimes No

6. Would you work at something nobody will hear of in your lifetime?

Sixth, The Fraternity should remain secret one hundred years.

Yes Sometimes No

7. Are you looking for this for some reason other than money?

Whosoever shal earnestly, and from his heart, bear affection unto us, it shal be beneficial to him in goods, body, and soul; but he that is false-hearted, or onely greedy of riches, the same first of all shal not be able in any manner of wise to hurt us, but bring himself to utter ruine and destruction.

Yes Sometimes No

Fama Fraternitatis, 1614; English of 1652 as printed in A. E. Waite, The Real History of the Rosicrucians, London, 1887.

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What the Fama is

The Fama Fraternitatis was printed in Kassel in 1614 and tells the life of “Brother C. R.”, his travels in the East and the opening of his tomb after 120 years. It was followed by the Confessio (1615) and the Chymical Wedding (1616). Most historians attribute the three texts to a circle of Lutheran scholars in Tübingen around Johann Valentin Andreae, and read the fraternity as a literary invention rather than an existing society.

The Fama also condemns “the ungodly and accursed gold-making”: for its authors, alchemy pursued for gold was the mark of the impostor.

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