ABSTRACT
In the year 1623 placards are said to have appeared in Paris announcing the presence in the town of the Brethren of the Rose Cross.1
This announcement is thus quoted by Gabriel Naudé in his ‘Instruction to France about the truth of the Rose Cross Brothers’, published in 1623. Naudé thinks that some people had the idea of putting up such placards because there was not much news about, and the kingdom tranquil, so some excitement was needed. These people certainly succeeded if their aim was to create excitement about the R.C. Brothers. Naudé speaks of a ‘hurricane’ of rumour now blowing through France
at the news that the mysterious Fraternity, spread recently in Germany, had now reached France. It is difficult to decide whether these placards were really put up, or whether the excitement about them was generated by sensational books published in this year. Naudé should probably be believed about their reality and he is certainly right in thinking that these rumours were deliberately spread with the intention of creating a sensation or a scare.
