The Sphynx Rosacea by Christophorus Nigrinus, 1618. A summary by Christine Eike

Sphynx rosacea, the rosy sphinx, was an early reaction to the publication of the Rosicrucian manifestos Fama and Confessio which caused intense discussions, pro and contra. The craze and furore were immense. This book is a testimony of the thoughts and knowledge people at this time were highly concerned about. Christine Eike from Pansophers.com has revealed for the first time its contents and offers in this post a translation of chapters and sections of note.

Christine said “It is an interpretation of the manifestos by one of their first readers. It is not to be considered as an indisputable proof as to the actual origins and meaning of the Rosicrucian movement, we know better now. But it provides a stable context for us to understand the politico-theological environment surrounding the ideas of the time. The nature of the Eucharist stands at the core of it all and seems of rather great significance. It should bear particular relevance for Western esotericism in general.”

The title page (translated by Christine) :

Sphynx Rosacea (the rosy sphinx) , that is an approximate assumption about the discovery of the fraternity of laudable Order of the Rosy Cross and their Fama and Confessio. Where the first authors or beginners of the Rosy Cross, their creed and many other therein hidden mysteries, secrets and characters are detected and generally made public for information.

Plautus in Poenulus:

This needs Oedipus, who interpreted the sphinx, as a diviner.

By Christophorus Nigrinus, lover of the muses and theologian.

Franfurt 1618

This is an English summary by Christine Eike after reading the book in original German.[1]

A lengthy foreword describes the author´s quest for the real meaning of the Fama and Confessio and the fraternity, pointing at Calvinists and the Reformed tradition . At the end of his foreword Nigrinus quotes Luther’s ”To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation” paragraph 25: about the reformation of schools and universities. So this must have been important to Nigrinus who obviously is a Lutheran. In his foreword he also hints at the Heidelberg Catechism of 1563 (confessional document teaching Reformed Christian doctrine, also called Palatinate Catechism) as a failed attempt to promote religious unity which was rejected by ”us” as a suspicious fraternity. And now this fraternity of R.C., he says, is a new attempt to make it all more attractive (by promising riches) and give it more esteem.

Throughout the book Nigrinus makes it clear that he has solved the riddle of the Rosicrucian sphinx and argues at length for his viewpoints. In essence, he states, it is all about the Eucharist controversies and the schism between Lutherans on the one hand and Zwinglians and Calvinists on the other.

Content given on page 17 and 18 in the Rosy Sphinx
Chapter 1: About the abbot and patron of this Order
Chapter 2: About the lion prince and monarch of eternal wisdom who shall take over the empire and everything
Chapter 3 About the old (questionable) suspicious paters, fathers and teachers and their mistakes in all arts and faculties.
Chapter 4 About the founders of the Order and its four first brothers
Chapter 5 About the others of the new order´s four first brothers and firstly about its beginner Fr. R. C., about his nobility, five travels, his end and epitaphs.
Chapter 6: Who the other three brothers of the first new order could have been.
Chapter 7: How these four brothers of the Rosy Cross came to an end.
Chapter 8 About the other three brothers who Fr. C. attracted in the beginning to his Order.
Chapter 9: Who Theophrastus probably is who is mentioned throughout the whole book.
Chapter 10 About the 6 laws which the brothers in their absence in foreign countries are to follow.
Chapter 11: About a number of names of the brothers which are suggested by few letters.
Chapter 12 What the riddles and sayings, that surround the gravestone, could mean:  1 nequaquam vacuum 2 Legis iugum 3 Libertas Evangelii 4 Gloria Dei intacta
Chapter 13: About the books and the new language of the fraternity of the Rosy Cross
Chapter 14 About the fraternity’s religion and confession of faith
Chapter 15 About the transformation of the metals, that is of the transmutation of the inferior metals to gold, whereby is indicated and rebuked the teaching of Luther about the Eucharist (Holy Communion)
Chapter 16 About the suspicious chemical books the Fama and Confessio warn about.
Chapter 17 About the secretly inserted Calvinist predestination and God’s election by grace.
Chapter 18 About the three noblest gems: the 1 axioms, 2 rotae mundi (wheels of the world) 3 and Proteus, what they are.

The whole book is an INTERPRETATION of the manifestos and the fraternity’s purpose by Nigrinus. He argues that the manifestos (Fama and Confessio) are texts with coded crypto-Calvinist messages. Throughout the book he calls the brethren ”Sakramentierer” = Sacramentists: During the reformation period this was the Lutheran label for those opponents who denied the true end crucial presence of the body and blood of Christ in Eucharist. By the way: The ”Sakramentierer” were greatly influenced by Erasmus von Rotterdam and humanism. Nigrinus mentions the Consubstantiation. There he does not agree with this term as the true Lutheran teachings. He talks about Zwingli “who started to refute the Catholic Transubstantiation and the Lutheran Consubstantiation, as the Sacramentists falsely call it.” (Page 52 main text). By the way: Some modern Lutheran theologians also reject the use of this term because of its ambiguity.

Starting out by making it probable that the patronage of the Order is the monarch of the British Isles. (He is not sure who is meant by the lion and monarch of eternal wisdom). The brethren with their admonitions to the unworthy are in fact the Calvinist elect, predestined to be saved. The four oldest brethren, he argues, are bound up to the history of Eucharistic Controversies, starting in the 9th century with Bertram (might be Ratramnus), Joh. Scotus (John Scotus Eriugena), Berengarius (around 1042) and finally John Wycliffe (14th century). All of them questioning the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Communion. But the real founder and father and brother Fr. R.C. is Andreas Karlstadt (Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt), Nigrinus agues. The three other brethren Karlstadt started out with, are Martin Bucer, Johannes Oecolampadius and Ulrich Zwingli. Karlstad, Nigrinus says, was the first who after 120 years after Wycliffe started the highly harmful dispute about the sacraments. In 1524 he fetched this controversy somewhat out of hell and awakened it again. He could rightfully be called all Zwinglians’ and Calvinists’ grandfather, Nigrinus says. The attitude of Nigrinus towards Karlstadt is not at all favourable. He calls him an ignorant, unlearned and stubborn man. He also quotes the epitaph from the clergy of Basel: “Carolstadius pestis Ecclesiae venenosissima, tandem a Diabolo occisus est” (Here lies Karolstadt, who was a poisonous plague to the Church until the devil killed him at last). He goes on to say that he thinks the “Theophrastus”, mentioned throughout the Fama, (who never joined the fraternity but read their important books), is Philip Melanchthon. Who never publicly declared himself as a Calvinist .

The fraternity’s statements concerning alchemical transmutation are a coded attempt to attack the true Lutheran doctrine concerning the Eucharist. This chapter (15)[2] gives a long explanation of why and how the Lutherans disagree so much with the Calvinists and the Zwinglians and all Sacramentists concerning the Eucharist. It gives us the flavour of a theological debate that must have been led with quite some fury and intensity in these days. The author is upright outraged by the things the Lutherans are called and the things the Calvinists claim. Nigrinus starts out by saying: “But here (what the brethren say about the transmutation of the metals in their Fama and Confessio ) is hidden a Calvinist mystery that anyone could see if only one puts the glaucoma aside. For hereby the author (of the Fama and Confessio) treats as clear as day the doctrine of the Holy Supper as practiced in the Lutheran churches, but very wrongly, and understands with the minor metals the elements bread and wine, and with gold the body and the blood of the Lord”. The Lutherans believed that with the blessed bread and wine the true body and blood of Christ will be received in a sacramental way, the Sacramentists instead thought of it symbolically. Nigrinus quotes a lot of sentences from the Fama and Confessio, where alchemy is dealt with, and interprets it all as a faul attack on the Lutherans.

The rest in the texts is also interpreted as being Calvinist teachings (e.g. the axioms). But the real purpose of the brethren in publishing their manifestos is to bring the Lutherans into closer alliance with the Calvinists in the empire, Nigrinus says. Something he is suspicious about.

At the end Nigrinus explains to us what the brethren meant by calling the axioms, the rotae mundi and Proteus the three most precious things or gems in their library. The Fama-text says (quote): “… that after the death of A. none of us had known anything of Brother R.C. and of his first fellow-brethren, except that which was extant of them in our Philosophical Bibliotheca, amongst which our Axiomata was held for the noblest, Rotae Mundi, for the most artificial, and Protheus the most profitable”.

There are, again, lots of polemic overtones against both Zwinglians and Calvinists. He interprets the axioms as being Calvinist teaching (the axioms of the sacraments), and the rotae mundi – as the Zwinglian and Calvinist predestination, that God from the beginning of time had decided which ones go to Heaven, but most go to Hell (God´s wheels that turn). Something he does not agree with it seems. The last pages of this book, where Nigrinus deals with the third “gem”, the Proteus, were translated into English by Russel Yoder[3]. I have compared this translation with the German original and changed it somewhat plus added some explanatory words in brackets, to make it clearer as to what the author might have meant.

What to understand by the third gem ‘Proteus’

In the first place, it is written in the poets’ books about Proteus that he can transform into all sorts of things: So also the Brothers of the Rosy Cross / the Zwinglians know how to adapt to each man’s nature and to speak in phrases and ways with the mouth and pen; thus to moderate and to make the careless and simple-minded believe that they are the right and pure Lutherans themselves. Likewise they can benefit by their rule fol. 29: to dress with the clothing of all countries and to be in chameleon disguise, which, as they say, is both praiseworthy and useful.

Then Proteus is praised by the poets for having had a secret science of hidden things, and for being a good Pagan prophet and soothsayer.

For the seer knows everything, what is, what has been and what is to come.

Precisely this high wisdom the Rosicrucian Brothers boast about: that the far-flung people in India and Peru cannot hide their things and counsels from them (reference to Confessio chapter 4). They have already prophesied many years ago that Rudolph will be the last emperor from the House of Austria. They have prophesied about their Midnight Lion and Monarch of Eternal Wisdom and when he is to step in and reign.

Additionally:

that they can live every hour, just as if they had lived from the beginning of the world and should live to the end of the same.

Likewise that they can read, understand, and retain all of the books that have been, still are, and will yet come forth.

Likewise that they can sing so sweetly, far beyond even Orpheus, that instead of rocky cliffs, there are nothing but pearls and precious stones; instead of wild animals spirits – one might well suspect something of the black art in this – , instead of Pluto they could soften the mighty princes (references to Confessio chapter 4). What could be more useful for them than just this Proteus delivered to them by their Father?

Just as the nymphs honoured Proteus, so the Brothers of the Rosy Cross are honoured by their specified disciples and called the highly enlightened holy Friends of God; perhaps also because of the high Art (called) eminently gifted.

What there else is reported of Proteus, an Egyptian king who ruled at the time of the Trojan War, that he sometimes wore – in the same country’s habit of the kings – a foot, paw, or other limb from a lion, ox, or dragon on his hat; as well as sometimes a little flax plant, fire, and fragrant ointment; partly to frighten, and partly as ornament. This is unnecessary to apply. For it is dangerous for the Brothers R.C. to be accused of appearing as fruitful trees and fragrant shrubs from the outside, but bringing in bitter, smoky fruits that draw the heart together and noticeably hurt one. Likewise (to be accused of) by some secret crafty practicing to have shown their grim lions’ way, thrusting ox horns, and infectious dragon poison.

Chapter XV Sphynx Rosacea
De Mutatione Metallorum

Translated from the original German by Christine Eike

That is: About the transformation of the lesser metals into gold, which indicates our Lord’s Supper.

In that way, seemingly hidden and cautious, the Fama and Confessio blend the highest degree of alchemists in their Paracelsian secrets of transforming the lesser, imperfect metals into permanent and unadulterated gold, so that they have made several hundreds believe that the whole intention of their writing was that of the highly enlightened Theophrastus.

But there is hidden, Benevolent Reader, another Calvinist mystery piece behind that, which anyone would see if he put aside the glaucoma. For hereby the author treats as clear as day the doctrine of the Holy Supper as practiced in the Lutheran churches, but wrongly and corrupted, and understands with the lesser metals the elements bread and wine, and with gold the body and the blood of the Lord.

For, as we hold the power of the eternally true words of Christ, and believe that with the blessed bread and wine the true body and blood of Christ will be received in the sacramental way, the Sacramentists distort that and instead of the vain transubstantiation and transforming of bread they will violently, contrary to their conscience and our thoughts, force upon us a consubstantiation, as if we taught: The lesser metals of bread and wine are mutated and transformed into the precious gold, the body and blood of Christ.

Which is more understandable from the Fama and Confession, further from improved axioms. For the Fama (fol. 47) says that this mutation of metals and fictitious bread- and wine-transformation into the gold, the body and the blood of Christ, has given many runagates and roguish people the opportunity to perform great villainies and misuse a lot of credulity.

But as she continues (fol. 48) that this mutation of metals and the making of gold is now considered by various persons to be the highest apex and summit of the philosophy, she blows the whistle with the old Sacramentists and asserts: the Lutherans (as is true) hold next to the promises of the Divine Word, the Holy Supper for the highest summit and peak, for the highest and most consoling thing of their whole philosophy of the spiritual or the supernatural, that is theology. On the other hand, the Rosicrucian brothers flippantly say that the point of the Holy Supper is of not so much importance, nor so much necessary for salvation, that if one agrees and harmonizes with the rest, one should not cause and maintain annoying separations. Hear about this the words Lava. in his history of the Sacramentarian Controversy (fol. 108. a) of 1553, translated into German. He writes that this split or the discord (about the Lord’s Supper) does not seem so important to him, Peter Martyr, as to dissolve the bond of Christian love.

Rather the brothers of the Rosycross, see Fama (ibid.) concerning us, think that we hold our doctrine, which is the same as that of the words of Christ, for a God who should be particularly dear to us, if only he could make large lumps of gold and shells, yes we, says the Fama, hope for, with reckless pleadings and pitiful gold searching, to persuade the omniscient, heartknowing God.

With your hands you can, favourable reader, seize the more than diabolical blasphemies of the Sacramentists, as they write (horresco referens – I shudder to report) without concealing it: Christ, yes even God the Father with his omnipotence, could not accomplish that one body was present more than in one place at the same time, and therefore (could not accomplish) that Christ’s body and blood were present in all places where the Lord’s Supper would be offered in the world. Karolstadt writes the same content in his dialogo de cena (dialogue on the supper) that he could as easily believe that Christ would be present in many places at the same time, as he can believe that S. Anna had five heads, and that one of the innocent children had a beard of twelve cubits.

And neither we, says the Fama, could, with our prayer and sour appearance (which in the Lord’s Supper is unnecessary concerning this substance), persuade the omniscient, heartknowing God (notice here how they, in a cunning and obdurate manner, deny in a puny manner the all-knowing knowledge of heart for the majesty of the human nature of Christ by eloquent and by a Nestorian separation of natures): Thus can our God, who must be especially dear to us, as the Fama mocks (certainly a thousand times better than all the godless deniers of his majesty and power), that is Christ, if he would love us even so much, could produce such masses and lumps of gold, that is, create no such great human body out of him, which could satisfy our avarice, that is, could feed and saturate our healing-hungry souls and comfort-hungry hearts. For this very sake of their godless unbelief and the binding of the hand and omnipotence of God and his Son, they reprove Christ Deum impanatum, a God incorporated in bread, a God of bread, but us Sarcophagos , cannibals, carnivores and bloodsuckers. Or ask with the annoying Sacramentists of Bremen, whether what and how much is still available from the body of Christ, of which one has eaten for a long time. Whether he is booted or clothed or naked? What kind of bread god is that? But should a Christian heart not justifiably stir up and be horrified by these terrible speeches?

But what kind of rough stone might stand in the way of the Calvinist Rosicrucian Brethren that they encounter, that they call the mutation of metals, that is, the pure doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, false and a fraud? Because, the Confession (fol. 76) answers, it does not always bring with it the knowledge of nature, that is because the Zwinglians and Calvinists, with their natural human ingenuity, cannot recognize and comprehend how such a mystery is in harmony with the true qualities of the human nature in Christ, yes, because here, as they dream, the knowledge of the same is eradicated, or deified with Eutyches and Schwenkfeld.

But, says the Confessio, our Calvinist opinion brings the medicine, that is, we teach the spiritual consumption of the absent body and blood of Christ, which plants into the heart of the believers the right fruit, that is the medicine, beside the other secrets and wonders.

For it is, of course, a wonderful mystery, a secret miracle, that the Sacramentists, with their foggy and hazy faith, swing through all material heavens and spheres into the very highest crystalline heavenly heaven and draw Christ down from there into their hearts, like the Virg. Sagae (the soothsaying virgins) and fiends the moon, of which Calvin’s words are thus: how is it possible (that Christ makes us partakers of his being) while Christ’s body is in heaven, but we on earth? Answer: he succeeds through the wonderful and secret effect of his mind. Similarly, Beza writes that we must seek Christ through the spirit and faith in heaven, where he calls to himself. But we rise to heaven by faith and hope, as if we were flying on two wings.

Moreover, that we might see even more clearly what keeps the Calvinists from our doctrine, the Confessio adds at the same place that it is justifiable that one should most of all seek the understanding of philosophy. But this is not at all in agreement with Augustine’s rule: credendum est, ut intelligas: non intelligendum ut credas. (You have to believe, so that you can understand, not to understand, so that you can believe). But: per inversione Calvinisticam: intelligendum est ut credas, non credendum ut intelligas (But by the Calvinistic twist: you must understand so that you can believe, not believe, so that you can understand). One must, because the Confessio learns above all from the Canon of Philosophy, from the Book of Reason, speak naturally of the Person of Christ and his human nature in accordance with the five senses, before one asks about the presence of his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper and disputes it. So must Christ, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge lie concealed and the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily, be put on the school bench and lectured by the blind foolish wisdom of the blind foolish humanity.

Yes, so that the Confessio can say it in plain language, it adds this appendix to the above: Excellent ingenia (talents), pure heads, should not be lead to the tincture of metals until they are well practiced in nature. These words remind us of the Calvinistic method and way of informing and teaching the youth in their schools, that one should train the prospective apprentices and theology students before they pretend to be professionals and are registered in the albums and records of the brothers of the Rosy Cross; firstly in the field of physiology, especially physics and mathematics, much of which is spoken throughout the booklet, by sufficient instruction and training, so that they understand how they can philosophize, talk about and discuss the human nature of Christ physice, localiter, circumscripte, inclusive (scientifically, locally, sharply delimited, including) height, depth, length and breadth, before they get to the tincture (because the transformation of metals would be forbidden to them by their teachers, or they would loose the Order). That is: before they assign to the words of the Lord´s Supper, from the simplicibus medicamentis philosophiae (simple drugs of the philosophy), a badly composed tincture or rational interpretation, something that awakens the gullibility in the careless.

But this tincture, this false ornament, this sad pretence of the substance of the Lord’s Supper, instantaneously vanishes and bares the nakedness of the Sacramentist bleachers and dyers, when only the breath of Christ´s words of the institution (of the Eucharist) blows under their eyes.

At this very point, in my opinion, the axiom rightly finds its place, with which the Fama (fol. 47) rejoices defiantly from the utterance: When their regime starts, there will be no more saying: Hoc per philosophiam verum est, sed per Theologiam falsum (this is true according to philosophy, but false according to theology), that is, the Calvinist doctrine of communicatione idiomatum (exchange of the properties) de Majestatet humanae naturae in Christo, in Coena (of the majesty of the human nature in Christ, in the Lord’s Supper): Thus, what the Calvinists write of the person of Christ, of the majesty of his humanity and the true presence of his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, and believe, would be according to philosophy similar to the truth, a philosophy that is adapted to human reasoning (that also teaches idiomatum communicatio realis ex Aristotelis Topicis – real exchange of the properties of Aristotle’s topics), but if one examines their opinions and writings according to the principles of the Holy Scriptures, they sound wrong, heretical and blasphemous. But this, as the Fama implores consolation with futile hope, is to be pushed aside in their society and will no longer be handed down in its true value, but, as the Fama continues to hope and order, as before (see fol. 15) ex communi arte (about the general art), where Aristotle, Plato, Pythagoras and others did hit the mark – that means to say – in what way these pagan masters have helped the Sacramentists with their physics and mathematics and where those inverted and forced sayings of the book of wonders of the Bible make a Sacramentist globe, whose total parts are equidistant from the centre and are in harmony, that sounds like the strings made of sheep or wolf intestines. This shall remain so, beginning with the Greek and not to be changed the slightest bit, but everything to be continued in motu perenti & perpetuo (eternally and continuously) in the old trot.

Listen, however, o favourable reader, how the author of the Fama and Confessio is well trained in the Spagyrics from the Archidoxes of Theophrastus, since he notes and knows how to differentiate the crude old Zwingli brothers from the subtle new Calvinists. For as the Fama calls gold (according to fol. 47) godless and cursed and scolds the ones occupied with it runagates and roguish people, says that people with futile hope, which they were talked into, expect great treasures, that is the body and blood of Christ with the metals and elements of bread and wine in the Lord´s Supper, but are cheated. The Confession, however (fol. 76), lets gold making be a parergon (by-product) and a gift of God, if one understands the transformation of metals spiritually and not as real, that is, when in the Lord’s Supper bread remains bread and wine wine, but the gold, that is the body and blood of Christ, is taken in spiritually by faith.

So the old Swiss Zwinglians have thoroughly denied the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, that with the lesser metals bread and wine, the gold of the body and the blood of Christ should be received, and scolded it a godless cursed opinion. The new subtle Calvinists, however, allow such art to be possible and to be a gift of God, speaking with us by mouth and pen, writing that the true body and blood of Christ are united, vere, essentialiter, realiter (truly, essentially, really), as Hardenberg deceitfully and dangerously speaks, is consumed in the Last Supper.

But the Confessio cannot hide the trickery. The Fama speaks loudly of what their heart is full and strips its freak, the Confessio, off its sheepskin. They declare publicly that the present Calvinist brothers are at heart of no other opinion and no other faith than their beloved father from Karolstadt and their saint Huldrych from Zürich. We, says the Fama (fol. 48), say with our father phuy aurum nisi quantum aurum (condemn the gold), that is, we would want to curse and spit out the bread and wine in the Lord´s Supper (o os, o frons – oh impertinence), if we should believe that we received more than mere bread and wine. Whether they are not secretly carrying these thoughts and vile talk about the gold, that is, the human nature of Christ, in their bosom, when they should think and believe more about these created gifts, I give every Christian heart to think about. And these are the black paws of the monstrous beast, as shown by their holy father Karolstadt at Jena at the colloquium.

To what has hitherto been said, I would, oh an undaunted reader, find a small interpretation in the last letter (fol. A iii a). The author gives especially the reason why manducatio Sacramentalis so oralem uni spiritualem (spiritual eating of the sacraments as through the mouth and spiritually), as the Lutherans teach, that is the oral and spiritual enjoyment in the Lord’s Supper, is inferior to the solely spiritual enjoyment, as the Calvinists teach. For, he says, it is impossible for the power of the elements of bread and wine to equal the sidereal and the heavenly ones concerning glory, splendour and virtue, those which the Calvinists, with their flippant faith can catch in heaven. That is, when bread and wine are already blessed by prayer and the word of institution, and separated from common use.

You will find it more clearly in the following sheet (A. iii. b), when he says about the problem: Nequaqam vacuum (nowhere a vacuum), they do not believe in an empty supper. Likewise about the minuto Mundo (the small world). And that is the purpose of his magnificent pretension, as especially A. iiij. a remarks, that he wants to show how Christ is spiritually united with man, the microcosm or Minutus mundi, the little world, through the spiritual enjoyment of the Lord’s Supper. That heaven is found on the earth and earth in heaven, that means that Christ lives in man and man in Christ in his own way, suo modo, by faith in a Calvinistic way. Thus: that a great and understandable is actually represented by a very small understandable, and presented as the same image. Anyone who does not want to see the Calvinistic songs, types and figures that they introduce into the Lord´s Supper must be very blind, since they are so clearly figured out by the representation and image. If anyone wants to understand the doctrine of the Holy Baptism likewise in these and other points, they will find their marks and signs now and then.

[1] You will find the German original digitalised here:http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de
[2] The translation of the whole chapter 15 is included at the end.
[3] Published at academia under the name of Radiant Ra: The_Rose_Sphinx_or_Sphyngis_Rosacea_1618_Excerpt