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ROSICRUCIANISM IN FRANCE. 395
contained the " Articles of Agreement between the Necro-
mancer Eespuch and the Deputies for the establishment of
the College of the Eosicrucians." The subscribers certified
before the most high to have entered into the following
compacts, namely, they promised
to receive with submis-
sion the orders of the supreme sacrificer, Eespuch, renounc-
ing baptism, chrism, and unction received in the name of
Christ ; detesting and abhorring all forms of prayer, confes-
sion, sacraments, and all faith in the resurrection of the
body; promising to proclaim the teachings imparted to
them by Eespuch through all quarters of the globe ; and
pledging their honour and their life, without any hope of
pardon, grace, or absolution, to perform all this ; in proof
of which they had opened each of them a vein in the left
arm, and had signed this parchment each with his own
blood. The magician, on his part, promised to the deputies,
severally and collectively, that he would transport them
at any moment from east to west, or from north to south,
and cause them to speak naturally every language in the
universe. By this agreement he bound himself to enable
them to enter and leave all palaces, houses, chambers, and
cabinets, through closed and locked doors, to endue them
with the most persuasive eloquence, to enable them to cast
horoscopes and to read the most secret thoughts, to make
them admired by the learned, sought after by the curious,
magnified above the prophets of old, and to give each of
them, on his signing the parchment, a golden ring enriched
by a precious sapphire, under which there should be a
demon who would act as their guide. Astaroth, assuming
the likeness of a radiant youth, caressed and embraced his
victims, who blindly mistook him for the apparition of a
powerful deity, and, being promised his continual provi-