Search

Andreae, Johann Valentin, * 17 Aug 1586 (Herrenberg (Württemberg)), † 27 Jun 1654 (Stuttgart) Johann Valentin Andreae was the fifth son of a dean of the Lutheran Church. His grandfather was Jakob Andreae, Chancellor of the University of Tübingen and one of the principal authors of the Formula of Concord, which was to become the doctrinal basis of Lutheran orthodoxy. After losing his father at age 15, the young Andreae began a brilliant career as a student at Tübingen, became Magister artium in 1605, and following in his ancestors' footsteps, studied theology. During this tim…

Comenius (Komenski), Jan Amos, * 28 Mar 1592 (Niwitz (Moravia)), † 15 Jan 1670 (Amsterdam) Comenius' family belonged to the Fraternity commonly known as the Moravian Brothers and named Jednota Bratska in Czech, that is, Unity of Brethren. From the 15th century, this ecclesiola had greatly developed despite persecutions, and it had received some of the Vaudois driven out of Brandenburg. After studying Latin and theology, Comenius went to Hess, in Herborn, then to the Palatinate, in Heidelberg, and experienced the double influence of Calvi…

Bacon, Francis (first Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans), * 22 Jan 1561 (London), † 9 Apr 1626 (Highgate) Bacon was the son of a renowned attorney. Gifted with rare precocity, he had a brilliant student career at Cambridge. While he was still young (1576-1579), Elizabeth I entrusted him with a diplomatic mission to France, then appointed him Queen's Counsel; he became a member of Parliament in 1584. In 1597, he published Essayes or Counsels Civill and Morall. After the Queen's death, her successor James I elevated Bacon successively to the positions of Attorney Gener…

Haslmayr (or Haselmayer), Adam, * ca. 1560 (Bolzano), † 1630 (Augsburg) (?) Haslmayr was born around 1560 in Bolzano, South Tyrol. By 1588 he was the organist in a Cordelier convent, while teaching Latin and fulfilling the duties of an imperial secretary ( Notarius Caesareus). In 1593, Archduke Ferdinand of the Tyrol granted him a patent of nobility. According to Haslmayr's own account, in the following year he began to discover the works of → Paracelsus. It was the latter's belief that God reveals himself to mankind both through his Word…

Sincerus Renatus (ps. of Samuel Richter), * end of 17th century (Reichau), † year and place unknown A native of Reichau, a village of the duchy of Brieg in Silesia, Richter is said to have worked as a tutor for noble families and studied medicine, then theology, at Halle, before becoming a Lutheran pastor at Hartmannsdorf, near Landeshut (also in Silesia). His first publication, dated 1709, published 1710, and presented by the author as an ancient manuscript transmitted by initiates, was called Die Warhaffte und vollkommene Bereitung Des Philosophischen Steins (The True and Perfect …

Lewis, Harvey Spencer, * 25 Jan 1883 (Frenchtown (New Jersey)), † 2 Aug 1939, (San Jose (California)) Of both Welsh and German descent, Lewis was raised in Protestantism. Gifted with a fertile imagination and motivated by a boundless ambition, he devoted most of his life to promoting various Rosicrucian societies [→ Rosicrucianism]. Having accompanied his father in 1909 on a business trip to France, he devised a first legend. Perhaps influenced by the “Society of the Tower” in Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship), but more probably in r…

Rosicrucianism I: First half of the 17th Century The phenomenon known as “Rosicrucianism” has its origin in 1614, with a volume that appeared in Kassel, Germany, containing three texts: Allgemeine und General Reformation der gantzen weiten Welt (Universal and General Reformation of the Whole Wide World), Fama Fraternitatis, Deß Löblichen Ordens des Rosenkreutzes, an alle Gelehrte und Häupter Europae geschrieben (The Fame of the Fraternity of the Praiseworthy Order of the Rose-Cross, Written to all the Learned and Rulers of Europe), and Auch einer kurtzen Responsion (Also a Short…