Masonic Research
The pages that follow have no direct link to Freemasonry but it is widely agreed that much of the core of Freemasonry dates its rise from the Great Alchemists some of which paved the way for the new scientists that formed the Royal Institution without which Freemasonry would have been a very different organisation. We thus owe a great debt to the Alchemists and philosophers from centuries ago and their influences are simply acknowledged within these pages.
Heinrich Khunrath (c. 1560 – 9 September 1605), or Dr. Henricus Khunrath as he was also called, was a German physician, hermetic philosopher, and alchemist.
Khunrath, a disciple of Paracelsus, practiced medicine in Dresden, Magdeburg, and Hamburg and may have held a professorial position in Leipzig. He travelled widely after 1588, including a stay at the Imperial court in Prague, home to the mystically-inclined Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor. Before reaching Prague he had met John Dee at Bremen on 27 May 1589, when Dee was on his way back to England from Bohemia. Khunrath praised Dee in his later works. During his court stay Khunrath met the alchemist Edward Kelley who had remained behind after he and Dee had parted company. In September 1591, Khunrath was appointed court physician to Count Rosemberk in Trebona.
Nicolas Flamel (c. 1330 – 22 March 1418) was a French scribe and manuscript seller.
The historical Flamel lived in Paris in the 14th and 15th centuries, and his life is one of the best documented in the history of medieval alchemy. He ran two shops as a scribe and married Perenelle in 1368. She brought the wealth of two previous husbands to the marriage. The French Catholic couple owned several properties and contributed financially to churches, sometimes by commissioning sculptures. Later in life, they were noted for their wealth and philanthropy.
After his death, Flamel developed a reputation as an alchemist believed to have created and discovered the philosopher’s stone and to have thereby achieved immortality. These legendary accounts first appeared in the 17th century.
According to texts ascribed to Flamel almost 200 years after his death, he had learned alchemical secrets from a Jewish converso on the road to Santiago de Compostela. He has since appeared as a legendary alchemist in various fictional works.
