DISSERTATION ON THE ROSICRUCIANS.

Just as that one is not contrary to us which the author of the Mysterium Iniquitatis Pseudo-Euangelicae, seu, Dissertationis Apologeticae, pro doctrina Arndii, aduersos Centauros quosdam Euangelicos & Sophisticam illorum Theologiam Mystery of Pseudo-Evangelical Iniquity, or, Apologetic Dissertation for the Doctrine of Arndt, against Certain Evangelical Centaurs and their Sophistic Theology, published in Goslar in 1621 (in 8vo), possesses. This writer first hid under the letters M. B. F. B., but later it was discovered that this was Mart. Brellerus, a Frank by birth and a physician by trade. In the mentioned book—which M. Iac. Werdenbergius, Prelate and Professor in Hamburg, called under censure because it vomited all kinds of insults against the Ecclesiastical Ministry (both books, together with many others pertaining to this, were communicated to me by the Magnificent D. Wernsdorfius)—he declares quite boldly, as if he wished to remove every doubt for us, that this whole scene became known to him in these words, which I thought it worth the effort to set down in full:

"You," he says (p. 100), "as many as are still concerned by the fame of those vain and theatrical men, I urge and warn you not to wish to waste your oil and labor further for the sake of exploring it. For that writing has three primary men who sought to ensnare others—of whom it was rumored that they were the possessors of the philosopher's stone—with this ingenious invention, and to successfully explore whether a true or false rumor was spread about them."

And this is not a conjecture, but the thing itself, contrary to which whatever others prattle is pure, unadulterated falsehood. Nor does this narrative support Arnold, because it cannot yet be gathered that the three primary men are the authors of this scene, therefore I. V. Andreae was among their number, since that is nowhere affirmed, neither by Brellerus nor by Andreae himself.

XII. Consonant with the third and fourth opinions is that which has invaded many minds today, whereby everything that is spread about this Fraternity is considered the invention of certain clever Alchemists who were able to arrogate to themselves the discovery of the lapis philosophicus philosopher's stone and to boast about it.