Julius Sperber (1540-1616) who also wrote under the pseudonym 'Julianus de Campis ', died just as the Rosicrucian Fraternity was being made public through the publication of the manifestos.
In 1616 he published a lengthy work:
Echo of the God-glorified Fraternity, of the praiseworthy Order of the R. C. This is an exemplary proof that not only that which has now been published in the Fama and Confession of the Fraternity of the R. C. is possible and true, but that for nineteen and more years such great things of God have been communicated...
The preface to this is quite instructive.
It is a philosophical and theological work but with constant references to the emergence of Rosicrucian ideas. At its close, Sperber suggests that the Fraternity R.C., or at least some of their writings, had been in existence for some eighteen years before 1616. He indicates that he knew the author and leaves it open to the reader to see him as one of the seminal figures in the emergence of the Rosicrucian mythos.
