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262 HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUC1ANS.
blaming and libelling the members of the Fraternity, but
rather to turn round and to love them, because they are
true seekers of the veritable wisdom.
In a Latin appendix to a tract entitled " Eons Gratise," by
Irenaeus Agnostus, Johann Valentin Alberti, alias F. G.
Menapius, alias Theophilus Schweighart,
Agnostus, published a short rejoinder in prose
alias Ireriaeus
and verse to
the defence of Valentia.
" Judicia de Statu Fraternitatis de Eosea Cruce " is a
melange of prose and verse, with addresses ad venerandos,
doctissimos, et illuminatissimos,
viros Dnn. Fratres iS. Rosece
Crucis conjunctissimos, and as the judgment is professedly
that of an outsider seeking initiation, it does not throw any
light upon the proceedings of the Society. It is crammed
with extravagant adulation of the pious, learned, and illu-
minated Brothers, but is otherwise not inelegantly written,
and has apt classical quotations. A lofty ambition is claimed
by the aspirant to association, who avers that he is in
search of no common and metallic gold, but that Philoso-
phical and Spiritual Treasure, one particle of which is suffi-
cient to transmute and perfectionise the soul, and conduct
it from illumination to illumination. This is that veritable
gold, says the alchemical enthusiast, none other than the
first and all- containing knowledge, whereby
Mens ptira et nullo mortali pondera pressa,
Libera terrenis affectibus, atria cceli
Scandit, et aetherea cum diis versatur in aula.
None can expect to attain it unless he shall first have
expelled
A sese omne nefas, purgatus crimine ab omni,
Quippe habitare negat fcedum Sapientia pectus,
Impurasque odit, cum sit purissima, mentes.