ROSYCRUCIANS, ROSYCRUCIANS, or brothers of the rosy cross, a name assumed by a sect or cabal of hermetical philosophers, who appeared, or at least were first taken notice of, in Germany, in the beginning of the XVIth century. They pretended to be masters of all sciences, and to have many important secrets, particularly that of the philosophers stone.
Their society is frequently denoted by the abbreviations F.R.C.