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2I 4
HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS.
the sect which it represents, is derived from an unsatisfac-
tory notice by Professor Buhle, who describes the Militia
as a Protestant sect heated by apocalyptic dreams, and de-
clares the object of the assembly to have been apparently
"
exclusively connected with religion." But it is clear from
the life of Studion that he was passionately devoted to
alchemy, and the spiritual side of the magnum opus was
probably the aim of these enthusiasts, who are otherwise
identified in their views with the illuminati of the Eose-
Cross. Like these they believed that the books of Eevela-
tion and of Nature were intus et foris scripti, written within
and without, that is, they contain a secret meaning for
the initiates of mystical wisdom ; that the unaccountable
appearance of new stars in the sky was significant
of im-
that the last day
portant events in the approximate future ;
was at hand ; that the Pope was Anti-Christ and the Man
of Sin ; and finally, as Buhle himself confesses, the " Nao-
metria " contains a great deal of mysticism and prophecy
about the Rose and the Cross.
These points of resemblance are, I think, insufficient to
establish a connection between the Militia Crucifera Evan-
gelica and the Eosicrucians in a logical mind, but they are
certainly curious and interesting. It will be shown in the
next chapter why the symbolism of the Eose and the Cross
was common to both associations.
The antiquity of the Eosicrucians, as I have hinted, finds
few supporters at the present day, this view being chiefly
confined to the members of pseudo-Eosicrucian societies, and
to the pseudo-historian of the order, Mr Hargrave Jennings.
From the fictitious importance unaccountably ascribed to
the ill-considered and worthless work of this writer, it seems
nece ssary to conclude with a short notice of the incoherent