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398 HISTORY OF THE ROS1CRUCIANS.
with fiends, raise tempests, ravage fields, destroy orchards,
assassinate and torture their neighbours by the infliction of
innumerable diseases.
The spirit which prompted these grotesque calumnies,
manufactured from the foulest gutters of black magic, is
easily discernible. The writers were Catholics incensed by
the Protestantism of the Rosicrucian manifestoes, meeting
violence by violence, and doctrines of Papal extermination
with charges of blasphemy, atheism, and devil-worship.
Gabriel Naude is the most reasonable of all the Franco-
Rosicrucian critics, but he is unendurably stupid, and
splutters in a seething sea of classical quotations.
In addition to the privileges and powers which are openly
claimed by the Rosicrucians, Naude enumerates the follow-
ing, some of which are to be found indirectly in their
documents, and others he has extracted by a somewhat
perverse interpretation :
" They affirm that the contemplations of their founder
surpass everything which has been ever known, discovered,
or understood, since the creation of the world, through
human study, divine revelation, or the ministration of angels.
" That they are destined to accomplish the approaching
restoration of all things to an improved condition before the
end arrives.
"That they possess wisdom and piety in a supreme
degree,
are undisturbed owners of all that is desirable
among the bounties of Nature, and can dispense her gifts
at will.
" That in whatsoever place they may be they know all
that takes place elsewhere better than if they were present.
"That they are subject neither to hunger, thirst, age,
illness, or other natural inconvenience.