Editing Rosicrucianism (section)

=== Origins ===

Between 1614 and 1617, three anonymous manifestos were published, first in Germany and soon after throughout Europe:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Philalethes |first=Eugenius |url=https://archive.org/details/fameconfessionof0000unse |url-access=registration |title=Fame and Confession of the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |year=1997 |isbn=1-56459-257-X |location=City |page=9ff}}</ref> the ''[[Fama Fraternitatis|Fama Fraternitatis RC]]'' (''The Fame of the Brotherhood of RC'', 1614), the ''[[Confessio Fraternitatis]]'' (''The Confession of the Brotherhood of RC'', 1615), and the ''[[Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz|Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosicross anno 1459]]'' (1616).
[[File:Lutherrose.svg|thumb|The [[Luther rose]], an early symbol of both [[Protestantism]] and Rosicrucianism]]
The ''[[Fama Fraternitatis]]'' presents the legend of a German doctor and mystic philosopher referred to as "Father Brother C.R.C." (later identified in a third manifesto as [[Christian Rosenkreuz]], or "Rose-cross"). The year 1378 is presented as being the birth year of "our Christian Father," and it is stated that he lived 106 years. It is said that he studied in the Middle East under various masters – a story implying a possible link to Islamic mysticism or [[Sufism]], which influenced a number of Western esoteric traditions.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hermansen |first1=Marcia K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kvb7EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA85 |title=Sufism in Western Contexts |last2=Zarrabi-Zadeh |first2=Saeed |date=2023-07-03 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-39262-5 |language=en}}</ref>

During the lifetime of C.R.C., the order was said to comprise no more than eight members, each a doctor and "all bachelors of vowed virginity."<ref>[[Fama Fraternitatis|Fama Fraternitatis RC]]</ref> Each member undertook an oath to heal the sick without accepting payment, to maintain a secret fellowship, and to find a replacement for himself before he died. Three such generations had supposedly passed between c. 1500 and c. 1600: a time when scientific, philosophical, and religious freedom had grown so that the public might benefit from the Rosicrucians' knowledge, so that they were now seeking good men.<ref>Gorceix, Bernard (1970), ''La Bible des Rose-Croix'', Paris: a work of reference, containing translations of the three Rosicrucian Manifestos, recommended in ''Accès de l'Ésoterisme Occidental'' (1986, 1996) by [[Antoine Faivre]] (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Sorbonne)</ref>
[[File:Rose Cross.png|thumb|left|[[Rose Cross]]]]