Christoph Gottlieb von Murr on the True Origin of the Rosicrucians and the Order of Freemasons: Together with an Appendix on the History of the Knights Templar

I.

In what time should the true origin of the Rosicrucians be placed?

After the death of Paracelsus *), frequent writings on magic, theosophy, and alchemy spread due to the misinterpretation of individual passages in his works. Thurneisser in particular marked an epoch.

*) The appreciation of this "Luther of chemistry" can be found in his biography in the second part of my new literature journal, where, on pp. 177—285, I have tried to portray the man as he was. He was a man who laughed at gold-making and whom many a little doctor tends to slander, even though they often barely know how antihecticum Poterii a medicinal compound attributed to Pierre Potier came into being. One must attribute much to the taste of his times, and had a villainous priest from Basel not driven him away, his writings would look quite different.