Encyclopedia Masonica

This distinguished philosopher and amiable moralist, who has been claimed by many writers as the founder of the Rosicrucian Order, was born on the 17th of August, 1586, at the small town of Herrenberg, in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg, where his father exercised clerical junctions of a respectable rank.

After receiving an excellent education in his native province, he traveled extensively through the principal countries of Europe, and on his return home received the appointment, in 1614, of deacon in the town of Vaihingen. Four years after he was promoted to the office of superintendent at Kalw. In 1639 he was appointed court chaplain and a spiritual privy councilor, and subsequently Protestant prelate of a Adelberg, and almoner of the Duke of Wurttemberg. He died on the 27th of June, 1654, at the age of sixty-eight years.

Andrea was a man of extensive acquirements and of a most feeling heart. By his great abilities he was enabled to elevate himself beyond the narrow limits of the prejudiced age in which he lived, and his literary labors were exerted for the reformation of manners, and for the supply of the moral wants of the times. His writings, although numerous, were not voluminous, but rather brief essays full of feeling, judgment, and chaste imagination, in which great moral, political, and religious sentiments were clothed in such a language of sweetness, and yet told with such boldness of spirit, that, as Herder says, he appears, in his contentious and anathematizing century, 'ike a rose springing up among thorns.

Thus, in his Menippus, one of the ear1iest of his works, he has, with great skill and freedom, attacked the errors of the Church and of bis contemporaries.

His Herculis Christiani Luctus, xxiv, 18 supposed by a some persons to have given indirectly, if not immediately, hints to John Bunyan for his Pilgrim's Progress.

One of the most important of his works, however, or at least one that has attracted most attention, is his Fama Fraternitatis, published in 1615. This and the Chemische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreuz, or Chemical Nuptials, by Christian Rosencreuz, which is also attributed to him, are the first works in which the Order of the Rosicrucians is mentioned. Arnold, in his Ketzergeschichte or History of Heresy, contends, from these works, that Andrea was the founder of the Rosicrucian Order.

Others claim a previous existence for it, and suppose that he was simply an annalist of the Order; while a third party deny that any such Order was existing at the time, or afterward, but that the whole was a mere mythical rhapsody, invented by Andrea as a convenient vehicle in which to convey his ideas of reform. But the whole of this subject is more fully discussed under the head of Rosicrucianism, which see.

The Encyclopedia Masonica exists to preserve the wealth of information that has been generated over the centuries by numerous Masonic authors. As Freemasonry is now Speculative and not Operative, the work of a Mason is now conducted in the quarries of symbolism, literature, history and scholasticism. Freemasonry encourages intellectual exploration and academic achievement in its members and many Masons over the years have taken up this calling. The result has been that an incredible amount of philosophy, symbolic speculation and academic insights have been created. However, as Freemasonry teaches, human knowledge is frail and fragile. It is easily lost in the turnings of the ages and unforeseen catastrophes can result in great setbacks to human knowledge.

For too long these great works have sat on forgotten shelves, gathering dust and concealing the light that could be shed on the darkness of our ignorance. The Encyclopedia Masonica has been created to act as an ark, sailing through time, to ensure that future generations of Freemasons have access to the same knowledge that inspired the Brethren that came before them. It will contain the works of such Masonic Luminaries as Albert G. Mackey, Manly Palmer Hall, G.S.M. Ward, Albert Pike and many others. The Encyclopedia Masonica is a living work and the volunteers of Universal Co-Masonry will continue to labor until the most comprehensive Masonic reference work the world has ever seen has been created. The Encyclopedia Masonica is open to any who wish to use it and will remain open so that the treasures contained within may increase the wealth of all those who seek its wisdom.