ROSE
193
ROSICRUCIANS
out food, save a draught of gall mixed with bitter
herbs. When she could no longer stand, she sought
repose on a bed constructed by herself, of broken glass,
stone, potsherds, and thorns. She admitted that the
thought of lying down on it made her tremble with
dread. Fourteen years this martyrdom of her body
continued without relaxation, but not without con-
solation. Our Lord revealed Himself to her frequently,
flooding her soul with such inexpressible peace and
joy as to leave her in ecstasy for hours. At these times
she offered to Him all her mortifications and pen-
ances in expiation for offences against His Divine
Majesty, for the idolatry of her country, for the con-
version of sinners, and for the souls in Purgatory.
Many miracles followed her death. She was beatified
by Clement IX, in 1G67, and canonized in 1671 by
Clement X, the first American to be so honoured.
Her feast is celebrated 30 August. She is represented
wearing a crown of roses.
Hansen, Vila Mirabilis (1664), Spanish tr. by Parra.
Edw. L. Aym£.
Rose of Viterbo, Saint, virgin, b. at Viterbo, 1235; d. G March, 1252. The chronology of her hfe must always remain uncertain, as the Acts of her canonization, the chief historical sources, record no dates. Those given above are accepted by the best authorities. Born of poor and pious parents. Rose was remarkable for holiness and for her miraculous powers from her earliest years. When but three years old, she raised to life her maternal aunt. At the age of seven, she had already lived the life of a recluse, de- voting herself to penances. Her health succumbed, but she was miraculously cured by the Blessed Virgin, who ordered her to enroll herself in the Third Order of St. Francis, and to preach penance to Viterbo, at that time (1247) hekl by Frederick II of Germany and a prey to political strife and heresy. Her mission seems to have extended for about two years, aiid such was her success that the prefect of the city decided to banish her. The imperial power was seriously threatened. Accordingly, Rose and her parents were expelled from Viterbo in January, 1250, and took refuge in Sorriano. On 5 December, 1250, Rose fore- told the speedy death of the emperor, a prophecy realized on 13 IDecember. Soon afterwards she went to Vitorchiano, whose inhabitants had been perverted by a famous sorceress. Rose secured the conversion of all, even of the sorceress, by standing unscathed for three hours in the flames of a burning pyre, a miracle as striking as it is well attested. With the restoration of the papal power in Viterbo (1251) Rose returned. She wished to enter the monastery of St. Marj' of the Roses, but was refused because of her poverty. She humbly submitted, foretelling her ad- mission to the monastery after her death. The re- mainder of her life was spent in the cell in her father's house, where she died. The process of her canonization was opened in that year by Innocent IV, but was not definitively undertaken until 1457. Her feast is celebrated on 4 September, when her body, still incorrupt, is carried in procession through Viterbo.
Bullar. Franc, l, 640; Ada Proc. Canonizationis, arm. 1456 in Ada SS., IV Sept.; Wadding, An/iales Min. (Rome, 1731), II, 423; III, 280; Andueucci, Notizie criticoistoriche di S. Rosa, Verg. Viterbese (Rome, 1750) ; Briganti, S. Rosa ed il suo secolo (Venice, 1889) ; Leon, Lives of the Saints of the Three Orders of S. Francis (Taunton, England, 1886). The best modern life is that by DE Kerval, Ste Rose, sa vie et son temps (Vanves, 1896); Pizzi, Storia della Cittd di Viterbo (Rome, 1887).
Gregory Cleary.
Rosicmcians, the original appellation of the al- leged members of the occult-cabalistic-theosophic "Rosicrucian Brotherhood", described in the pamph- let "Fama Fraternitatis R.C." (Rosce crucis), which was circulated in MS. as early as 1610 and first ap- peared in print in 1614 at Cassel. To the first two XIII.— 13
additions were prefixed the tract "Allgemeine und
Generah-eformation der ganzen weiten Welt", a
translation of Fr. Boccalini's "Dei Ragguagli di
Parnasso", 1612. Beginning with the fourth edition
in 1615, the third Ro.sicrucian rudiment, "Confessio
der Fraternitat", was added to the "Fama". According to these, the Rosicrucian brotherhood was founded
in 1408 by a German nobleman, Christian Rosenkreuz
(1378-1484), formerly a monk, who while travelling
through Damascus, Jerusalem, and Fez had been
initiated into Arabian learning (magic), and who con-
sidered an antipapal Christianity, tinged with theos-
ophy, his ideal of a religion. Concerned above all else
that their names should appear in the Book of Life,
the brothers were to consider the making of gold as
unimportant — although for the true philosophers
(Occultists) this was an easy matter and a parergon.
They must apply themselves zealou.sly and in the
deepest secrecy to the study of Nature in her hidden
forces, and to making their discoveries and inventions
known to the order and profitable to the needs of
humanity. And to further the object of the said
order they must assemble annually at the "Edifice of
the Holy Spirit", the secret head-quarters of the
order, cure the sick gratuitously, and whilst each one
procured himself a successor they must provide for
the continuance of their order. Free from illness and
pain, these "Invisibles", as they were called in the
vernacular, were supposed to be yearning for the time
when the Church should be "purified".
For two hundred years, while the world never had the least suspicion of their existence, the brotherhood transmitted by the.se means the wisdom of "Father" Rosenkreuz, one hundred and twenty years after the latter's burial, until about 1604 they finally became knowTi. The "Fama", which effected this, invited "all of the scholars and rulers of Europe" openly to favour the cause, and eventually to sue for entrance into the fraternity, to which, nevertheless, only chosen souls would be admitted. The morbid pro- pensity of the age for esoterism, magic, and confed- eracies caused the "Fama" to raise a feverish excite- ment in men's minds, expressed in a flood of wTitings for and against the brotherhood, and in passionate efforts to win admission to the order, or at least to discover who were its members. All of these endeav- ours, even by scholars of real repute like Descartes and Leibniz, were without results. From the mani- festly fabulous and impossible "History" of the brotherhood, it was apparent that it depended upon a "mystification". This mj'stification was directly ex- plained by an investigation of the author, who appears unquestionably to have been the Lutheran theologian of Wurtemberg, John Valentin Andrea (1586-1654). According to his own admission, Andrea composed in 1602 or 1603 the Rosicrucian book, "Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosenkreuz 1459", which ap- peared in 1616. This book, called by .\ndrea himself a youthful literary trifle in which^ he intended to ridicule the mania of the times for occult marvels (Life, p. 10), bears the closest intrinsic relation to the "Fama", which, in the light of this, is undoubtedly a later work of Andrea's or at leiist of one of the circle of friends inspired by him. Alchemistic occultism is mocked at in these works and in the "General- Reformation", the follies of the then untimely re- formers of the world are openly ridiculed. The fantas- tic form of the tracts is borrowed from contemporary romances of knighthood and travel. The "Rosy Cross" was chosen for the symbol of the order because, first, the rose and cross were ancient symbols of occult- ism and, secondly, occur in the family arms of Andrea. It recalls Luther's motto: "Des Christen Herz auf Rosen geht, wenn's mitten unter'm Kreuze steht" (Hossbach, 121). As a result of his satirically meant but seriously accepted works, which soon gave rise to occult humisuggery (opposed by him) in new Rosi-
