More occult related stuff, sort of

Here is the first draft of a review that will be in No Quarter #2. Yes, the CPL has a copy of this book. Only one, which was irritating because the two times I took this out someone put it on hold so I couldn't renew it. Of course if I want to read more Frances Yates book I have to get them from the U of Calgary library. As a non-student I get them for two weeks with no renewals. Which makes reading books like this not a lot of fun.

Frances Yates - The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (1972, Routledge Classics 2001).
The Rosicrucian Enlightenment begins with a description of the wedding of Frederick V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine to Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of King James I of England. James was, for any of us a little foggy on the succession of English monarchs, the successor to Elizabeth I, who died without heir. The wedding between the Elector Palatine and Princess Elizabeth occurred in February 1613. To many this may seem like useless trivia, and you might be forgiven for thinking that this is not a very promising way to begin a book. Frances Yates was not, however, a conventional historian by any stretch of the imagination, and this is not a conventional book. It is not mired in the tradition of histories of great men and great deeds, of kings and generals. Rather it is about the history of ideas.
Frederick and Elizabeth’s wedding was seen as important because it cemented the support of King James, the most powerful protestant monarch in Europe, for his now son-in-law, who many saw as the great hope for protestants against the Hapsburg dynasty and the Catholic Church. Frederick was the focus of great excitement and a movement that placed millenarian hopes on his fortune. His wedding to Elizabeth was ascribed great political and mystical importance. Practically it also meant the strengthening of the forces of religious and political tolerance.
Shortly before the wedding Rudolph II, King of Bohemia had died. Despite being a Catholic and a member of the house of Hapsburg, Rudolph was a liberal and a champion of religious toleration. He was fascinated by alchemy, astrology and mathematics. Much to the chagrin of the rest of the house of Hapsburg, he moved his court from Vienna to Prague. Prague soon becoming a center of intellectual and political freedom. Rudolph received John Dee and Edward Kelley, the two great English Alchemists, Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher and hermeticist (who was later burned at the stake in Italy), and many others. Because of toleration for Jews, Prague soon became a center for Cabalistic Studies. The reformed Bohemian church and the Bohemian Brethren, a mystical brotherhood connected to the church, thrived. Despite tension at Rudolph’s death the issue was put off until 1617, when Ferdinand of Styria, a staunch Catholic, pupil of the Jesuits, and enemy of heresy became King of Bohemia. He quickly ended the period of religious toleration and intellectual freedom. Rebels in Bohemia declared that the crown was not hereditary, but rather theirs to give to whomever they should chose. If you are following the story so far it will be not surprise that they offered it to Frederick, the Elector Palatine.
Frederick interpreted this offer in a millenarian and mystical light and he accepted, indicating that he felt it was his religious duty. As unlikely as this sounds, there is every indication that he was sincere. Convinced of support from England and the Union of Protestant Princes Frederick wrote the rebels to accept the crown of Bohemia on Sept 28th, 1619. He and his family traveled from Heidelberg to Prague, arriving with much fanfare and excitement, with mystical prints and hymns in their honor. The arrival of Frederick and Elizabeth ushered in a period of tremendous excitement, religious tolerance, and intellectual freedom. Or so it would seem. The details are a bit hazy, as much of the evidence was destroyed in the brutal reaction that quickly ensued. Frederick and Elizabeth, the so called Winter King and Queen of Bohemia only ruled a few short months. Frederick had assumed that he had the political support of his father-in-law, King James, to accept the crown of Bohemia. In fact, he did not. And without James’ support the Protestant Princes of Europe got cold feet. Frederick was virtually alone against the might of the house of Hapsburg and was crushed. Frederick’s short reign in the Winter of 1619-20 was a bitter disappointment for so many, and it ushered in the brutal Thirty Years War.
The story might end here if someone else was writing it, but Yates is just beginning. She is not primarily interested in the actions of Kings and Queens. She examines the ideas that lay behind these events, and she traces the spread of these ideas back and forth across Europe over many years. Specifically this book is interested in the two Rosicrucian manifestos published in 1614 and 1615, and a third similar work published the following year. These three works purported to describe a secret order of magician/scientists (remember the distinction between the two was by no means clear at the time) attempting to bring about a reformation in religious and scientific knowledge and the bring about a new golden age. At the time many people attempted to contact these Rosey Cross brothers, but with no success. Today there are many groups claiming to be descended from this original fraternity. Yates purposely avoids the discussion of any subsequent fraternal groups, but points out that there is no evidence to suggest that any fraternity actually existed at the time of the manifestos. She argues that rather than being literally true, as some have assumed, the manifestoes were a sort of instructive theatre. In addition to their rich alchemical and hermetic symbolism they were basically anti-Jesuit and pro-Frederick propaganda. Propaganda that was ultimately used by their enemies to create anti-occult witch hunts in several countries.
Through careful scholarship Yates traces the roots of this movement that produced the Rosicrucian manifestoes and culminated in Frederick and Elizabeth’s short period in Prague to John Dee’s visit to Europe (especially to Prague in 1583). Similarly she follows the flight of the ideas and the people who held them dear after the reaction during the Thirty Years War to England and ultimately to the founding of the Royal Society in 1660. Its interesting to note that these same ideas which Dee helped introduce three quarters of a century earlier came back to England and were circulating during the Revolutionary period (1642-51).
The Rosicrucian Enlightenment is rich in detail about intriguing characters like Robert Fludd, English alchemist, mathematician, and physician whose work was largely printing in the Palatinate during Frederick’s reign. Another typically Rosicrucian thinker was Michael Maier, who grew up in Prague during the reign of Rudolph II. Maier’s work on philosophy, alchemy and hermeticism was also published in the Palatinate during Frederick’s reign. Both were published by the same firm, that of Johann Theodore De Bry. De Bry seems to have been and interesting character, and Yates mentions that he may have been a familialist; that is, a member of the Family of Love, a proscribed sect that influenced many of the radicals in the English revolution.
Yates shows us in The Rosicrucian Enlightenment why she has such a reputation as a historian by sifting through a prodigious amount of source material, in an area where many of the texts were written anonymously, the material often has multiple levels of meaning, and is often intentionally misleading or vague, and where the waters have been hopelessly muddied by uncritical occultists and enthusiasts. This is a truly wonderful book; a milestone in the study of the history of ideas.