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THE CASE OFJOHANN VALENTIN ANDREAS. 229
and he considers that the " Fama " and " Confessio " were
penned with the same purpose, namely to lay
bare the follies
of men's lives, and to set before them patterns of good and
pious living. He quotes an unmentioned writer as stating
that it was necessary that the brethren should be men of
unblemished lives, and zealous preachers, who, under the
appearance of a society, would try to lead the people to God.
According to Figuier, as we have seen, Andreas established
the order to fulfil certain prophecies of Paracelsus, and
to pursue scientific researches on purely Paracelsian prin-
ciples.
But Buhle, with all his shortcomings, and weighted
as he is by an extravagant Masonic hypothesis, is the best
exponent of these views, and it will be necessary to cite his
arguments at considerable length.
" From a close review of his life and opinions, I am not
only satisfied that Andrea wrote the three works which laid
the foundation of Eosicrucianism, but I see clearly ivhy he
wrote them. The evils of Germany were then enormous,
and the necessity of some great reform was universally
admitted. As a young man without experience, Andrea
imagined that this reform would be easily accomplished.
He had the example of Luther before him, the heroic re-
former of the preceding century, whose memory was yet
fresh in Germany, and whose labours seemed on the point
of perishing unless supported by corresponding efforts in
the existing generation. To organise these efforts and
direct them to proper objects, he projected a society com-
posed of the noble, the enlightened, and the learned
which he hoped to see moving, as under the influence of
one soul, towards the redressing of public evils. Under
this hope it was that he travelled so much :
seeking every-
where, no doubt, for the coadjutors and instruments of his