Apologetic Treatise Defending the Integrity of the Society of the Rose Cross

TO THE READER.

I have prepared for you (kind Reader) a twofold DefenseOriginal: Apologia. In this period, an "apology" was a formal legal or philosophical defense of a position rather than an admission of fault. in this little work of ours. The first part was published during the spring Book FairOriginal: Nundinis. Specifically referring to the Frankfurt Book Fair, the primary international hub for the book trade in the 17th century. (under the title A Brief Defense). Because it served as a precursor and messenger for a fuller Defense intended to be produced and brought to light during these autumn Fairs, I have made it the Introduction to our greater Defense, which is now released. For as to the nature of this Society of the Rosy Cross, or who the Brothers of that wonderful Community might be—whether they are perhaps rebels, heretics, or practitioners of forbidden Magic—that earlier Prelude of ours explains clearly enough, using arguments drawn from their own Confession Original: Confessio. This refers to the Confessio Fraternitatis (1615), one of the founding manifestos of the Rosicrucian movement. and from words spoken, as it were, from their own mouths—