A member of certain secret societies who venerated the emblems of the Rose and the Cross as symbols of Jesus Christ’s resurrection and redemption. Rosicrucians claimed to possess secret wisdom passed down from the ancients, but their origin cannot be dated earlier than the 17th century. The anonymous Account of the Brotherhood published in Germany in 1614 may well have launched the movement. It narrated the tale of a mythical German knight of the 15th century, Christian Rosenkreutz, who travelled extensively to learn the wisdom of the East, and then founded the secret order. Robert Fludd subsequently helped to spread Rosicrucian ideas. In later centuries many new societies were founded under this name.