The Theoretical Brothers, or the Second Grade of the Rosicrucians

are there not such [villains]?) were secretly bought, Continuing the sentence from the previous page: "Some villains among them (and where are there not such?)..."
who were meant to testify against the society and its prin-
ciples. — They were accused of the most
shameful crimes, they were im-
prisoned, their property confiscated, and because
in those times one only had to be a minor natural
philosopher In the medieval and early modern periods, scientific curiosity about nature was often suspicious to the Church and authorities. to be denounced as a sor-
cerer — without hearing their
defense, they were publicly
burned as such —

Burned! cried the ten-
der Nurmahal with horror — that is terrible!

Yes! my dear lady! State in-
terest original: "Staatsinteresse." This refers to the political philosophy that the interests of the state (or its ruler) justify any means, however immoral. has likely
prompted even greater villainy
than burning 60 knights for the sake of a few hun-
dred thousand purses. A reference to the massive wealth of the Templars, which King Philip IV of France coveted and eventually seized. —

These unfortunate knights, who sus-
pected their imminent downfall, hid their
writings and knowledge, and some of the
survivors collected these and continued their society
un-der another name. —

And the Rosicrucians? The Rosicrucians were a legendary secret order of sages and alchemists. In the 18th century, many "secret histories" claimed they were the direct successors to the Knights Templar. asked Shah
Gebal in a tone that was a middle thing
between boredom and annoyance. —