The Knights of the Rosy Cross and their legacy

"For we are the Brethern of the Rosie Cross, We have the Mason word and second sight; Things for to come  we can tell aright"

Who were the Rosicrucians and what possible relevance do they have to us today?

In the 1600's brutal (and in my mind pointless) religious wars were breaking out from within Christianity, from two ideological viewpoint - commonly known as Protestantism and Catholicism.  But within this turmoil a few individuals believed in religious tolerance - they couldn't see a problem with a having a friend of a differing religious persuasion.

These people who held these views, had to keep them very secret, If they had openly declared these beliefs they would have been tortured and killed for them.  In 1610 a new religious sect appeared, calling themselves Rosicrucians arose in Germany.  The Pamplet The Universal and General Reformation of the Whole Wide World was being circulated - this text told of an individual  had come across the grave of a Christian Rosenkrantz deep in the forest, he found beside the grave, three books that he had written.

The story goes that Christian Rosenkrantz had been born in 1384 and had lived 106 years (almost unheard of in that age) - he wrote about a future vision of paradise in which men believed in a God, or supreme being, who attached no importance to the subtleties of sixteenth - and seventeenth century religious controversies.  This was a God whom people of differing religions could worship - promoting religious tolerantion to all.

Im not sure exactly how much of this I believe is literal, but looking at it as a powerful allegory, the world today with its extremist attitudes of religion and politics need a message of tolerance.  Personally I believe in a God who will never turn his head or face away from any peoples or person, I believe in a very big God - Just and perfect in his actions.  His message is for us to uphold justice and truth, to be forgiving of our own faults and others, but to strive for perfection in attitudes of charity and interpersonal relationships.

That to me is the message of Rosicrucians and of Masonry