Brocardo's mystical and prophetic interpretations of the book of Genesis generally follow similar lines to those explored by Dee and Kelley. The difference is that in the works of Brocardo and Studion, number-mysticism and complex mathematics are brought to bear on the precise dating of apocalyptic history, in conjunction with other prophecies such as those of I & II Esdras. To a large extent Brocardo, like Studion, employs the framework devised by the Calabrian abbot Joachim of Fiore (c.1135-1202). While Joachim's division of history into the three eras of Father (Law), Son (Gospel), all to culminate in the final age of the Holy Spirit (revelation of God's secrets and an era of spiritual liberty), had made a major contribution to apocalyptic expectation in the thirteenth century, his basic ideas were to do much the same for the sixteenth century and beyond. Brocardo saw the date of Luther's birth (1483) as the starting point for the last age. This age would last 120 years (cf. the time to elapse given in the Fama with respect to the discovery of the tomb of Christian Rosenkreuz).
Hess obtained his copy of Brocardo's work in 1601 and was by this time in communication with Simon Studion, who lived in Stuttgart as a favoured scholar of Duke Frederick of Württemberg and who, incidentally, shared the same tutor at Tübingen as did Johann Valentin Andreae : Martin Crusius. Simon Studion completed his first draft of Naometria in 1592, a year after Hess became a doctor of civil and canon law at Tübingen. It will soon become apparent as to how the involvement of Tobias Hess was crucial to the genesis of the Fama Fraternitatis, its successor the Confessio Fraternitatis and the Rosicrucian movement in general. For Hess in 1601, the destiny of the world was definitely ‘hotting up’. According to the Naometria he was living at precisely the time when the “first seal” of the Apocalypse would be broken (in heaven): a time of bloodshed. Two years previously (1599), Tommaso Campanella had been incarcerated in a Naples dungeon. In 1598 he also had seen signs. His interpretation of the signs convinced him that a universal Hermetic-Christian Republic was imminent, and that he should help things along by participating in a rebellion against the Spanish Habsburgs. Like Dee, Kelley and Tobias Hess, Campanella had drawn inspiration from II Esdras, in particular chapters XI and XII which speak of a murderous many-headed eagle, a figure uncannily like the double-headed eagle of the Habsburg insignia. II Esdras promised revenge and justice :
And therefore appear no more, thou eagle, nor thy horrible wings, nor thy wicked feathers, nor thy malicious heads, nor thy hurtful claws, nor all thy vain body : That all earth may be refreshed, and may return, being delivered from thy violence, and that she may hope for the justice and mercy of him that made her. (II Esdras XI. 45-46).
The point is taken up in the Confessio Fraternitatis:
But we must also let you understand that there are yet some Eagle's Feathers in our way, the which do hinder our purpose.
II Esdras XI.37 ff. pits a “roaring lion” against the eagle. The lion speaks with a man's voice, and on hearing the speech of the lion, the horrible eagle is annihilated:
For thou hast afflicted the meek, thou hast hurt the peaceable, thou hast loved liars, and destroyed the dwellings of them that brought forth fruit, and hast cast down the walls of such as did thee no harm.
Likewise in the Confessio, false hypocrites and those who seek other things than wisdom from the Fraternity “shall certainly be partakers of all the punishment spoken of in our Fama; so their wicked counsels shall light upon themselves, and our treasures shall remain untouched and unstirred, until the Lion doth come, who will ask them for his use, and employ them for the confirmation and establishment of his kingdom.”
From the point of view of the authors of the Rosicrucian Manfestos, the Reformation could not be completed so long as the Pope and his political allies remained - and it was the completion of the Reformation in all its fullness that the authors of the manifestos sought. Nevertheless there are different areas of stress within the manifestos themselves - all part of their mystery and fascination - and it is more than likely that these areas of emphasis stem from the difference between the two minds which dominate the manifestos, namely Tobias Hess and the more subtle and ambivalent Johann Valentin Andreae.
Tobias Hess and the Apocalyptic Numbers
John Dee was certainly not the only man alive in his time who had glimpsed the great import of the fiery trigon of 1584. Dr Carlos Gilly (the foremost authority on the Rosicrucians in the world) has made many discoveries in the last decade pertaining to their origins. Among them was the discovery of a cache of writings by Tobias Hess, commenting on Studion's Naometria, as well as a copy in Hess's hand of correspondence between Studion and Duke Frederick of Württemberg. Hess also copied Studion's judicium on the writings of Brocardo, in which Studion speaks of a series of seven fiery triangles, beginning with Adam and proceeding regularly through the times of Enoch, Noah, Moses, Babylon, Christ and Caesar Augustus, Charlemagne - all to culminate in 1584, the Great Year. Gilly has also examined correspondence between Hess and Studion in the Würtembergische Landesbibliothek wherein Studion defends his work by saying to Hess that should his (unbelievably complex) computations be denied, then the enquirer should recognise that they have been checked by the great mathematician Michael Mästlin, tutor in mathematics to both the astronomer Kepler and to Johann Valentin Andreae.
According to the diary of Martin Crusius (one of Andreae's tutors), Hess spent the years 1597-1605 delving deeply into the work of Studion and indeed anything he could find of value regarding futuristic apocalyptic prophecy. Hess agreed with Studion in 1597 that the Papacy must fall in seven years, according to computation. The key year was 1604. There must have been something wrong, if not with the mathematics, then with Studion's source of inspiration, for a year after the Papacy was supposed to have fallen (1604), Hess was getting into trouble with the theological authorities in Tübingen for discussing the theory of fiery triangles, while the Pope was still attending to his business in Rome. Nevertheless, something extraordinary had occurred in 1604. Apart from Studion's completing Naometria in 1800 unpublishable pages, the heavens offered yet another sign for the times. A trigonus igneus appeared in March 1604 in the constellations of Serpentarius and Cygnus, at which point I shall defer to the astrological wisdom of Dr Christopher McIntosh17:
At the time when the new stars appeared Jupiter and Saturn were in conjunction in the ninth house. As Jupiter was considered a good planet and Saturn a bad one, there was some speculation as to which was dominant. The general concensus of opinion, however, was that as the ninth house is Jupiter's house, and Jupiter rules Pisces, the sign which was in the ascendent at the time of the observation, Jupiter was therefore the dominant planet. Both planets were also favourably placed in relation to the other planets. When Saturn is well placed it brings forth thoughtful, serious men. The combination therefore, promised the advent of a prophet or prophets who would be wise, just and righteous. It was believed, moreover, that these astrological positions corresponded to the positions at the Creation. According to tradition the Sun first appeared on the fourth day of Creation when Aires was in the ascendent. From this it followed that Saggitarius must have been in the ninth house. Thus, the signs at the appearance of the new stars in 1604 were the same as those for the beginning of the world, proving that 1604 would also see a great new beginning.
For Tobias Hess this event assumed an extraordinary importance - and it must be to him that we must look for an explanation of how it came to be that the tomb of Christian Rosenkreuz, the “compendium of the universe” came to be revealed to the Rose-Cross Brothers in 1604, 120 years after he had been buried and almost exactly 120 years after the birth of Martin Luther, in which time according to Johann Valentin Andreae, the full Truth had been buried beneath sectarianism, academic pedantry, persecution of God's servants and widespread anti-Christian bickering and violence : those very evils which true Christians who most desired a reform of the Church had been expressly against. As Andreae's friend Christoph Besold observed : “Whereas before Luther we were r
uled by the Pharisees, now we are ruled by the Scribes.” The Rosicrucian Manifestos clearly suggest that the ‘old guard’ cannot be trusted and that a new attitude, a new openness, an altogether new heart is required : a refreshing spirit of Fraternity and understanding is waiting for the right men to fill its ranks to bring light to the world.
The Confessio Fraternitatis, written very probably in early 1610, looks back six years to the wondrous planetary event of 1604, an event which had moved the astronomer Kepler to prophetic poetry18 :
It was in March when the red orbs appeared
A birth of unparalleled redness
When the matchless ruby stars were brought forth
The wife a matchless golden girl…
Kepler was not sure what the event really meant, but he seems to have expected political catastrophes or a new religious sect. The Confessio takes the event as its own.
As we now willingly confess, that many principal men by their writings will be a great furtherance to this Reformation which is to come…yea, the Lord God hath already sent before certain messengers, which should testify his will, to wit, some new stars, which do appear and are seen in the firmament in Serpentario and Cygno, which signify and give themselves known to everyone, that they are powerful Signacula of great weighty matters. …that great book of nature stands open to all men, yet there are but few that can read and understand the same.
That last line perfectly expresses the ambivalence of the manifestos, a quality of playfulness which can only have come from Andreae, the serious joker. Investigation of the Book of Nature is a Paracelsian term which can mean simply sensible scientific experiment and experience - an openness to what nature has to offer as an image of God - or something more mysterious, the interpretation of signs in an astrological or mystical sense. It will become clear that Andreae was definitely in favour of the former but ambivalent or hostile to the latter, while Hess could look both ways at once.
Studion completed his manuscript Naometria in the same year as the fiery trigon, and it was perhaps this event as well as Hess's public discussion of the import of the trigon that led to Tobias Hess's being accused of questionable interests by some of the theologians of Tübingen University. Studion himself had bitter enemies at Duke Frederick's court in Stuttgart and they persuaded the Duke to distance himself from Studion. On 2 July 1605, Hess, absolutely unrepentant, wrote an Apologia to Duke Frederick. While the academics of Tübingen found Studion embarrassing or even politically dangerous and inflammatory, Hess stood for decency and truth where it could be found, whether it appeared palatable or not. In his Apologia Hess maintained that all prophecies will be fulfilled in time, that the enemies of God will be destroyed and that the trigon of 1604 was one of the signs of the last times. He quoted Matthew V.18, “until heaven and earth fall apart, nothing will be taken from the law” and, most forcefully, Habbakuk II.3 :
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie : though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
Chapter Eight
Hess and Andreae
Johann Valentin Andreae was born of distinguished Lutheran parents in Herrenberg in 1586. His grandfather, Jacob Andreae had been a staunch and brave pioneer of the Reformation cause. The dreamy and imaginative young Johann was expected to advance the family tradition. The young Andreae seems to have been more interested in theatre, alchemy and mysticism than politics. He had great intuitive powers and an unerring nose for hypocrisy, like many dramatists. In youth he dramatised his own life and early struggles in works published when he was thirty, such as Turbo and the Chymische Hochzeit, both of which employ alchemical themes - a practice engaged in by the family - while the latter work introduced the character of Christian Rosenkreuz who, doubtless reflecting the family crest of a S. Andrew's cross with four roses, dons a blood-red ribbon bound crossways over his shoulder, and puts four red roses in his hat “that I might the sooner by this token be taken notice of amongst the throng.” The boy was clearly a genius, a quality which few either recognise or understand. It means that he was more intelligent than his own explicit thoughts, a condition necessitating irony and a sense of detachment. He found his equilibrium in the embrace of the purest Christianity he could conceive of : that of Christ Himself. It was perhaps this quality which drew him towards friendship with the older man Tobias Hess, the man who was prepared to stand for truth wherever he found it, no matter what sectarian interests it might offend.
Andreae entered Tübingen University in 1601 at the age of fifteen, at which time Hess is reported to have been in a black prophetic mood, deep into his studies of Brocardo and Studion. Had Andreae met Hess at this time the younger man might have found Hess to be rather old-fashioned. Andreae attended to his studies : classical languages, poetry, Renaissance literature, physics, mechanics and chemistry. He realised that in spite of his vast knowledge, he would never know all. This realisation may have brought the gnosis out in him : the sense that orbis non sufficit : the world is not enough.
His first acquaintance with Hess' name may date from 1603 when Studion sent a letter to Hess, asking for a copyist with good Latin to help prepare the final draft of Naometria. Hess may have suggested Andreae's brother Ludwig to execute the task. But it was to be another five years before the two masterminds of the Rosicrucian Manifestos actually met : in 1608, the year in which John Dee died in poverty in Mortlake, ignored and perhaps feared by Britain's King James I. By this time, Hess was beginning to look beyond the end of the world, and had taken a very deep interest in Theology, as well as in the iatrochemical medicine of Paracelsus. It is significant that healing was the basis for Andreae's and Hess's first encounter. It is said in the Confessio that the philosophy of the Rose-Cross Brothers “containeth much of Theology and medicine, but little of the wisdom of the law..” Hess had already healed Ludwig Andreae of an oedemitus knee, when Hess brought his skills to bear on a serious fever from which Johann Valentin was suffering. Hess brought Paracelsus and Apocalyptic to Andreae, and thus to the Fama. It was Andreae's genius tactfully to subsume these elements into an overall mystery-story which prevented the manifestos from coming out as yet another mystico-political pamphlet. The Fama is especially well-written, full of the dignity of language which one might expect from an illuminated being. Andreae clearly loved Hess, as can be seen from his Immortalitas, written on Hess's death, and published in 1619. “Hess listens to God and no-one else.” wrote Andreae of his friend. He was struck by Hess's attempts to live his Christianity, not to get bogged down in theological conflicts over doctrines and dogmas. He took the path of the Imitatio Christi, attributed to the medieval mystic Thomas à Kempis which Andreae would have found in his friend Besold's huge library, if he had not read it already.
Hess, originally an able lawyer and after that an even better doctor, eventually developed into an outstanding theologian, who (please take note) however knew about the older and the more recent scholarly opinions (he devoured their works in large quantities) and he also knew enough about various conflicts and heresies, but he was rather concentrated on the imitation of the life of Christ than on the defence of its teachings, more concentrated on its practise than on its purely scientific approach. (IMMORTALITAS. 1619)
We shall need to hear more from this beautiful work in memory of Hess, for nothing else shows as clearly what it was that the two men stood for and what the true intention of the Rosicrucian Manifestos consisted of, for there can be little doubt that the character and life of Hess informed Andreae's conception of Christian Rosenkreuz : the true Christian disciple on his way to the chemical wedding of his soul with God :
The world showed all its enticements and tried to win his noble talent with the promise of great glory. No doubt, there he would have reached important summits, should he have agreed to the laws of this world and said goodbye to his conscience. Melodious conceptions like ‘justice’ and ‘fairness’ have always attracted our man who was himself a jus
t man.
..with ardour he tried to grasp the idea of the greatness of God's book compared to the insignificance of the specialist's works. His house underwent a complete change. Bartolus and Baldus were thrown out, Hippocrates and Galen were welcomed. He let them in, being a free man himself. With no obligations and under condition that they were not allowed to affect the higher aspect of his mind, nor would they try to get hold of it. Since the purple clad teachers were too delicate, he added Paracelsus to their number, a man who would not give up so easily and who rightly shows suspicion where nature is not fully involved, but full of patience where hard work and experiments are involved and who, at last, has the courage to concentrate on research after the composition of things.
In the mean time, as a result of his wife's fertility, his house became rather crowded. With such a large number of children - by that time more than twelve - I doubt whether anyone else could easily have managed to run the household along the lines of fair and sacred standards. Anyway, to Hess it turned out to be something like the twelve labours of Hercules, not so much for the faults of that period he had to deal with, and with the problems young people usually bring along, but because some Pandora seemed to have thought up and let loose her proverbial flood of disasters.
Hess was “a friend of God, a servant of Christ, a brother to his fellow-creature, a herald of truth, an executor of goodness, a jewel of literature, a shining star in Tübingen, a treasurer of nature and also a stumbling-block for the world and an enemy of Satan.” While the Immortality of Hess stands as the greatest obituary and apologia a man could possibly wish for - and it was certainly earned - Andreae felt it necessary to address the issue of Hess's reputation, in particular with regard to Hess's interest in Simon Studion and, by implication, his involvement with the genesis of the Rosicrucian movement:
The Golden Builders Page 15