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.BACON'S "SECRET SOCIETY": THE EPHRATA CONNECTION
SECTION II — SLIDES AND RESEARCH ON EPHRATA
by Linda S. Schrigner, et al
51
SECTION II — SLIDES AND RESEARCH ON EPHRATA
by Linda S. Schrigner, et al
51
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The Rosicrucian aspect of the Ephrata Cloister had begun to decline as early as 1742, when one of the prominent Rosicrucian members Michael Wolfarth died, and also when some of the other Rosicrucian members, including Conrad Weiser, expressed dissatisfaction with Beissel’s policies and practices, and left. Weiser, who had joined the Kelpius-Mathaii group sometime in the 1730s after coming to Philadelphia from New York, had a wife and family, and had later followed his friend, Peter Miller to Ephrata. After the Revolution, and the fire and the deaths of so many from the epidemic, the Cloister never totally recovered. The Rosicrucians and Zionitic Brothers had no place in which to conduct their work and study, now that their building was gone. Concerning Beissel's doctrine of celibacy for the brother and sister orders, the Solitary Ones, there we’re fewer and fewer descendents to carry on. In addition, it became increasingly evident to those members who were left, that this cloistered way of life was not compatible with the new republic’s lifestyle. |
![Conrad Weiser [1696-1760]](09_Conrad_Weiser_51.jpg)
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