Alexander von Humboldt - "Equinoctial Regions of America V3"

Samuel Johnson - "Lives of the Poets: Addison, Savage, etc."

Charles E. Morris - "The Progressive Democracy of James M. Cox"

E. F. Benson - "Queen Lucia"

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Books: Lives of the Necromancers

W >> William Godwin >> Lives of the Necromancers




Meanwhile Macbeth, remembering that the origin of his present
greatness consisted in the prophecy of the weird sisters, addicted
himself continually to the consulting of wizards. Those he consulted
gave him a pointed warning to take heed of Macduff, who in time to
come would seek to destroy him. This warning would unquestionably have
proved fatal to Macduff; had not on the other hand Macbeth been buoyed
up in security, by the prediction of a certain witch in whom he had
great trust, that he should never be vanquished till the wood of
Bernane came to the castle of Dunsinnan, and that he should not be
slain by any man that was born of a woman; both which he judged to be
impossibilities. [163]

This vain confidence however urged him to do many outrageous things;
at the same time that such was his perpetual uneasiness of mind, that
in every nobleman's house he had one servant or another in fee, that
he might be acquainted with every thing that was said or meditated
against him. About this time Macduff fled to Malcolm, who had now
taken refuge in the court of Edward the Confessor; and Macbeth came
with a strong party into Fife with the purpose of surprising him. The
master being safe, those within Macduff's castle threw open the gates,
thinking that no mischief would result from receiving the king. But
Macbeth, irritated that he missed of his prey, caused Macduff's wife
and children, and all persons who were found within the castle, to be
slain. [164]

Shortly after, Malcolm and Macduff, reinforced by ten thousand English
under the command of Seyward, earl of Northumberland, marched into
Scotland. The subjects of Macbeth stole away daily from him to join
the invaders; but he had such confidence in the predictions that had
been delivered to him, that he still believed he should never be
vanquished. Malcolm meanwhile, as he approached to the castle of
Dunsinnan, commanded his men to cut down, each of them, a bough from
the wood of Bernane, as large as he could bear, that they might take
the tyrant the more by surprise. Macbeth saw, and thought the wood
approached him; but he remembered the prophecy, and led forth and
marshalled his men. When however the enemy threw down their boughs,
and their formidable numbers stood revealed, Macbeth and his forces
immediately betook themselves to flight. Macduff pursued him, and was
hard at his heels, when the tyrant turned his horse, and exclaimed,
"Why dost thou follow me? Know, that it is ordained that no creature
born of a woman can ever overcome me." Macduff instantly retorted, "I
am the man appointed to slay thee. I was not born of a woman, but was
untimely ripped from my mother's womb." And, saying this, he killed
him on the spot. Macbeth reigned in the whole seventeen years. [165]


VIRGIL.

One of the most curious particulars, and which cannot be omitted in a
history of sorcery, is the various achievements in the art of magic
which have been related of the poet Virgil. I bring them in here,
because they cannot be traced further back than the eleventh or
twelfth century. The burial-place of this illustrious man was at
Pausilippo, near Naples; the Neapolitans had for many centuries
cherished a peculiar reverence for his memory; and it has been
supposed that the old ballads, and songs of the minstrels of the north
of Italy, first originated this idea respecting him. [166] The vulgar
of this city, full of imagination and poetry, conceived the idea of
treating him as the guardian genius of the place; and, in bodying
forth this conception, they represented him in his life-time as gifted
with supernatural powers, which he employed in various ways for the
advantage of a city that he so dearly loved. Be this as it will, it
appears that Gervais of Tilbury, chancellor to Otho the Fourth,
emperor of Germany, Helinandus, a Cisterian monk, and Alexander Neckam,
all of whom lived about this time, first recorded these particulars in
their works.

They tell us, that Virgil placed a fly of brass over one of the gates
of the city, which, as long as it continued there, that is, for a
space of eight years, had the virtue of keeping Naples clear from
moskitoes and all noxious insects: that he built a set of shambles,
the meat in which was at all times free from putrefaction: that he
placed two images over the gates of the city, one of which was named
Joyful, and the other Sad, one of resplendent beauty, and the other
hideous and deformed, and that whoever entered the town under the
former image would succeed in all his undertakings, and under the
latter would as certainly miscarry: that he caused a brazen statue to
be erected on a mountain near Naples, with a trumpet in his mouth,
which when the north wind blew, sounded so shrill as to drive to the
sea the fire and smoke which issued from the neighbouring forges of
Vulcan: that he built different baths at Naples, specifically prepared
for the cure of every disease, which were afterwards demolished by the
malice of the physicians: and that he lighted a perpetual fire for the
refreshment of all travellers, close to which he placed an archer of
brass, with his bow bent, and this inscription, "Whoever strikes me, I
will let fly my arrow:" that a fool-hardy fellow notwithstanding
struck the statue, when the arrow was immediately shot into the fire,
and the fire was extinguished. It is added, that, Naples being
infested with a vast multitude of contagious leeches, Virgil made a
leech of gold, which he threw into a pit, and so delivered the city
from the infection: that he surrounded his garden with a wall of air,
within which the rain never fell: that he built a bridge of brass that
would transport him wherever he pleased: that he made a set of statues,
which were named the salvation of Rome, which had the property that,
if any one of the subject nations prepared to revolt, the statue,
which bore the name of, and was adored by that nation, rung a bell,
and pointed with its finger in the direction of the danger: that he
made a head, which had the virtue of predicting things future: and
lastly, amidst a world of other wonders, that he cut a subterranean
passage through mount Pausilippo, that travellers might pass with
perfect safety, the mountain having before been so infested with
serpents and dragons, that no one could venture to cross it.


ROBERT OF LINCOLN.

The most eminent person next, after popes Silvester II and Gregory VII,
who labours under the imputation of magic, is Robert Grossetête, or
Robert of Lincoln, appointed bishop of that see in the year 1235. He
was, like those that have previously been mentioned, a man of the most
transcendant powers of mind, and extraordinary acquirements. His
parents are said to have been so poor, that he was compelled, when a
boy, to engage in the meanest offices for bread, and even to beg on
the highway. At length the mayor of Lincoln, struck with his
appearance, and the quickness of his answers to such questions as were
proposed to him, took him into his family, and put him to school. Here
his ardent love of learning, and admirable capacity for acquiring it,
soon procured him many patrons, by whose assistance he was enabled to
prosecute his studies, first at Cambridge, afterwards at Oxford, and
finally at Paris. He was master of the Greek and Hebrew languages,
then very rare accomplishments; and is pronounced by Roger Bacon, a
very competent judge, of whom we shall presently have occasion to
speak, to have spent much of his time, for nearly forty years, in the
study of geometry, astronomy, optics, and other branches of
mathematical learning, in all of which he much excelled. So that, as
we are informed from the same authority, this same Robert of Lincoln,
and his friend, Friar Adam de Marisco, were the two most learned men
in the world, and excelled the rest of mankind in both human and
divine knowledge.

This great man especially distinguished himself by his firm and
undaunted opposition to the corruptions of the court of Rome. Pope
Innocent IV, who filled the papal chair upwards of eleven years, from
1243 to 1254, appears to have exceeded all his predecessors in the
shamelessness of his abuses. We are told, that the hierarchy of the
church of England was overwhelmed like a flood with an inundation of
foreign dignitaries, of whom not a few were mere boys, for the most
part without learning, ignorant of the language of the island, and
incapable of benefiting the people nominally under their care, the
more especially as they continued to dwell in their own countries, and
scarcely once in their lives visited the sees to which they had been
appointed. [167] Grossetête lifted up his voice against these scandals.
He said that it was impossible the genuine apostolic see, which
received its authority from the Lord Jesus for edification, and not
for destruction, could be guilty of such a crime, for that would
forfeit all its glory, and plunge it into the pains of hell. He did
not scruple therefore among his most intimate friends to pronounce the
reigning pope to be the true Antichrist; and he addressed the pontiff
himself in scarcely more measured terms.

Among the other accomplishments of bishop Grossetête he is said to
have been profoundly skilled in the art of magic: and the old poet
Gower relates of him that he made a head of brass, expressly
constructed in such a manner as to be able to answer such questions as
were propounded to it, and to foretel future events.


MICHAEL SCOT.

Michael Scot of Balwirie in the county of Fife, was nearly contemporary
with bishop Grossetête. He was eminent for his knowledge of the Greek
and Arabic languages. He was patronised by the emperor Frederic II,
who encouraged him to undertake a translation of the works of Aristotle
into Latin. He addicted himself to astrology, chemistry, and the still
more frivolous sciences of chiromancy and physiognomy. It does not
appear that he made any pretences to magic; but the vulgar, we are
told, generally regarded him as a sorcerer, and are said to have
carried their superstition so far as to have conceived a terror of so
much as touching his works.


THE DEAN OF BADAJOZ.

There is a story related by this accomplished scholar, in a collection
of aphorisms and anecdotes entitled _Mensa Philosophica_, which
deserves to be cited as illustrating the ideas then current on the
subject of sorcery. A certain great necromancer, or nigromancer, had
once a pupil of considerable rank, who professed himself extremely
desirous for once to have the gratification of believing himself an
emperor. The necromancer, tired with his importunities, at length
assented to his prayer. He took measures accordingly, and by his
potent art caused his scholar to believe that one province and dignity
fell to him after another, till at length his utmost desires became
satisfied. The magician however appeared to be still at his elbow; and
one day, when the scholar was in the highest exultation at his good
fortune, the master humbly requested him to bestow upon him some
landed possession, as a reward for the extraordinary benefit he had
conferred. The imaginary emperor cast upon the necromancer a glance of
the utmost disdain and contempt. "Who are you?" said he, "I really
have not the smallest acquaintance with you." "I am he," replied the
magician, with withering severity of countenance and tone, "that gave
you all these things, and will take them away." And, saying this, the
illusion with which the poor scholar had been inebriated, immediately
vanished; and he became what he had before been, and no more.

The story thus briefly told by Michael Scot, afterwards passed through
many hands, and was greatly dilated. In its last form by the abbé
Blanchet, it constituted the well known and agreeable tale of the dean
of Badajoz. This reverend divine comes to a sorcerer, and intreats a
specimen of his art. The magician replies that he had met with so many
specimens of ingratitude, that he was resolved to be deluded no more.
The dean persists, and at length overcomes the reluctance of the
master. He invites his guest into the parlour, and orders his cook to
put two partridges to the fire, for that the dean of Badajoz will sup
with him. Presently he begins his incantations; and the dean becomes
in imagination by turns a bishop, a cardinal, and a pope. The magician
then claims his reward. Meanwhile the dean, inflated with his supposed
elevation, turns to his benefactor, and says, "I have learned with
grief that, under pretence of secret science, you correspond with the
prince of darkness. I command you to repent and abjure; and in the
mean time I order you to quit the territory of the church in three
days, under pain of being delivered to the secular arm, and the rigour
of the flames." The sorcerer, having been thus treated, presently
dissolves the incantation, and calls aloud to his cook, "Put down but
one partridge, the dean of Badajoz does not sup with me to-night."


MIRACLE OF THE TUB OF WATER.

This story affords an additional example of the affinity between the
ancient Asiatic and European legends, so as to convince us that it is
nearly impossible that the one should not be in some way borrowed from
the other. There is, in a compilation called the Turkish Tales, a
story of an infidel sultan of Egypt, who took the liberty before a
learned Mahometan doctor, of ridiculing some of the miracles ascribed
to the prophet, as for example his transportation into the seventh
heaven, and having ninety thousand conferences with God, while in the
mean time a pitcher of water, which had been thrown down in the first
step of his ascent, was found with the water not all spilled at his
return.

The doctor, who had the gift of working miracles, told the sultan that,
with his consent, he would give him a practical proof of the
possibility of the circumstance related of Mahomet. The sultan agreed.
The doctor therefore directed that a huge tub of water should be
brought in, and, while the prince stood before it with his courtiers
around, the holy man bade him plunge his head into the water, and draw
it out again. The sultan immersed his head, and had no sooner done so,
than he found himself alone at the foot of a mountain on a desert
shore. The prince first began to rave against the doctor for this
piece of treachery and witchcraft. Perceiving however that all his
rage was vain, and submitting himself to the imperiousness of his
situation, he began to seek for some habitable tract. By and by he
discovered people cutting down wood in a forest, and, having no remedy,
he was glad to have recourse to the same employment. In process of
time he was brought to a town; and there by great good fortune, after
other adventures, he married a woman of beauty and wealth, and lived
long enough with her, for her to bear him seven sons and seven
daughters. He was afterwards reduced to want, so as to be obliged to
ply in the streets as a porter for his livelihood. One day, as he
walked alone on the sea-shore, ruminating on his hard fate, he was
seized with a fit of devotion, and threw off his clothes, that he
might wash himself, agreeably to the Mahometan custom, previously to
saying his prayers. He had no sooner however plunged into the sea, and
raised his head again above water, than he found himself standing by
the side of the tub that had been brought in, with all the great
persons of his court round him, and the holy man close at his side. He
found that the long series of imaginary adventures he had passed
through, had in reality occupied but one minute of time.


INSTITUTION OF FRIARS.

About this time a great revolution took place in the state of
literature in Europe. The monks, who at one period considerably
contributed to preserve the monuments of ancient learning, memorably
fell off in reputation and industry. Their communities by the
donations of the pious grew wealthy; and the monks themselves
inhabited splendid palaces, and became luxurious, dissipated and idle.
Upon the ruins of their good fame rose a very extraordinary race of
men, called Friars. The monks professed celibacy, and to have no
individual property; but the friars abjured all property, both private
and in common. They had no place where to lay their heads, and
subsisted as mendicants upon the alms of their contemporaries. They
did not hide themselves in refectories and dormitories, but lived
perpetually before the public. In the sequel indeed they built
Friaries for their residence; but these were no less distinguished for
the simplicity and humbleness of their appearance, than the monasteries
were for their grandeur and almost regal magnificence. The Friars were
incessant in preaching and praying, voluntarily exposed themselves to
the severest hardships, and were distinguished by a fervour of devotion
and charitable activity that knew no bounds. We might figure them to
ourselves as swallowed up in these duties. But they added to their
merits an incessant earnestness in learning and science. A new era in
intellect and subtlety of mind began with them; and a set of the most
wonderful men in depth of application, logical acuteness, and
discoveries in science distinguished this period. They were few indeed,
in comparison of the world of ignorance that every where surrounded
them; but they were for that reason only the more conspicuous. They
divided themselves principally into two orders, the Dominicans and
Franciscans. And all that was most illustrious in intellect at this
period belonged either to the one or the other.


ALBERTUS MAGNUS.

Albertus Magnus, a Dominican, was one of the most famous of these. He
was born according to some accounts in the year 1193, and according to
others in 1205. It is reported of him, that he was naturally very dull,
and so incapable of instruction, that he was on the point of quitting
the cloister from despair of learning what his vocation required, when
the blessed virgin appeared to him in a vision, and enquired of him in
which he desired to excel, philosophy or divinity. He chose philosophy;
and the virgin assured him that he should become incomparable in that,
but, as a punishment for not having chosen divinity, he should sink,
before he died, into his former stupidity. It is added that, after
this apparition, he had an infinite deal of wit, and advanced in
science with so rapid a progress as utterly to astonish the masters.
He afterwards became bishop of Ratisbon.

It is related of Albertus, that he made an entire man of brass,
putting together its limbs under various constellations, and occupying
no less than thirty years in its formation. This man would answer all
sorts of questions, and was even employed by its maker as a domestic.
But what is more extraordinary, this machine is said to have become at
length so garrulous, that Thomas Aquinas, being a pupil of Albertus,
and finding himself perpetually disturbed in his abstrusest
speculations by its uncontrolable loquacity, in a rage caught up a
hammer, and beat it to pieces. According to other accounts the man of
Albertus Magnus was composed, not of metal, but of flesh and bones
like other men; but this being afterwards judged to be impossible, and
the virtue of images, rings, and planetary sigils being in great vogue,
it was conceived that this figure was formed of brass, and indebted
for its virtue to certain conjunctions and aspects of the planets.
[168]

A further extraordinary story is told of Albertus Magnus, well
calculated to exemplify the ideas of magic with which these ages
abounded. William, earl of Holland, and king of the Romans, was
expected at a certain time to pass through Cologne. Albertus had set
his heart upon obtaining from this prince the cession of a certain
tract of land upon which to erect a convent. The better to succeed in
his application he conceived the following scheme. He invited the
prince on his journey to partake of a magnificent entertainment. To
the surprise of every body, when the prince arrived, he found the
preparations for the banquet spread in the open air. It was in the
depth of winter, when the earth was bound up in frost, and the whole
face of things was covered with snow. The attendants of the court were
mortified, and began to express their discontent in loud murmurs. No
sooner however was the king with Albertus and his courtiers seated at
table, than the snow instantly disappeared, the temperature of summer
shewed itself, and the sun burst forth with a dazzling splendour. The
ground became covered with the richest verdure; the trees were clothed
at once with foliage, flowers and fruits: and a vintage of the richest
grapes, accompanied with a ravishing odour, invited the spectators to
partake. A thousand birds sang on every branch. A train of pages
shewed themselves, fresh and graceful in person and attire, and were
ready diligently to supply the wants of all, while every one was
struck with astonishment as to who they were and from whence they came.
The guests were obliged to throw off their upper garments the better
to cool themselves. The whole assembly was delighted with their
entertainment, and Albertus easily gained his suit of the king.
Presently after, the banquet disappeared; all was wintry and solitary
as before; the snow lay thick upon the ground; and the guests in all
haste snatched up the garments they had laid aside, and hurried into
the apartments, that by numerous fires on the blazing hearth they
might counteract the dangerous chill which threatened to seize on
their limbs. [169]


ROGER BACON.

Roger Bacon, of whom extraordinary stories of magic have been told,
and who was about twenty years younger than Albertus, was one of the
rarest geniuses that have existed on earth. He was a Franciscan friar.
He wrote grammars of the Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages. He was
profound in the science of optics. He explained the nature of
burning-glasses, and of glasses which magnify and diminish, the
microscope and the telescope. He discovered the composition of
gunpowder. He ascertained the true length of the solar year; and his
theory was afterwards brought into general use, but upon a narrow
scale, by Pope Gregory XIII, nearly three hundred years after his
death. [170]

But for all these discoveries he underwent a series of the most bitter
persecutions. It was imputed to him by the superiors of his order that
the improvements he suggested in natural philosophy were the effects
of magic, and were suggested to him through an intercourse with
infernal spirits. They forbade him to communicate any of his
speculations. They wasted his frame with rigorous fasting, often
restricting him to a diet of bread and water, and prohibited all
strangers to have access to him. Yet he went on indefatigably in
pursuit of the secrets of nature. [171] At length Clement IV, to whom
he appealed, procured him a considerable degree of liberty. But, after
the death of that pontiff, he was again put under confinement, and
continued in that state for a further period of ten years. He was
liberated but a short time before his death.

Freind says, [172] that, among other ingenious contrivances, he put
statues in motion, and drew articulate sounds from a brazen head, not
however by magic, but by an artificial application of the principles
of natural philosophy. This probably furnished a foundation for the
tale of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungy, which was one of the earliest
productions to which the art of printing was applied in England. These
two persons are said to have entertained the project of inclosing
England with a wall, so as to render it inaccessible to any invader.
They accordingly raised the devil, as the person best able to inform
them how this was to be done. The devil advised them to make a brazen
head, with all the internal structure and organs of a human head. The
construction would cost them much time; and they must then wait with
patience till the faculty of speech descended upon it. It would
finally however become an oracle, and, if the question were propounded
to it, would teach them the solution of their problem. The friars
spent seven years in bringing the structure to perfection, and then
waited day after day, in expectation that it would utter articulate
sounds. At length nature became exhausted in them, and they lay down
to sleep, having first given it strictly in charge to a servant of
theirs, clownish in nature, but of strict fidelity, that he should
awaken them the moment the image began to speak. That period arrived.
The head uttered sounds, but such as the clown judged unworthy of
notice. "Time is!" it said. No notice was taken; and a long pause
ensued. "Time was!" A similar pause, and no notice. "Time is passed!"
And the moment these words were uttered, a tremendous storm ensued,
with thunder and lightning, and the head was shivered into a thousand
pieces. Thus the experiment of friar Bacon and friar Bungy came to
nothing.


THOMAS AQUINAS.

Thomas Aquinas, who has likewise been brought under the imputation of
magic, was one of the profoundest scholars and subtlest logicians of
his day. He also furnishes a remarkable instance of the ascendant
which the friars at that time obtained over the minds of ingenuous
young men smitten with the thirst of knowledge. He was a youth of
illustrious birth, and received the rudiments of his education under
the monks of Monte Cassino, and in the university of Naples. But, not
contented with these advantages, he secretly entered himself into the
society of Preaching Friars, or Dominicans, at seventeen years of age.
His mother, being indignant that he should thus take the vow of
poverty, and sequester himself from the world for life, employed every
means in her power to induce him to alter his purpose, but in vain.
The friars, to deliver him from her importunities, removed him from
Naples to Terracina, from Terracina to Anagnia, and from Anagnia to
Rome. His mother followed him in all these changes of residence, but
was not permitted so much as to see him. At length she spirited up his
two elder brothers to seize him by force. They waylaid him in his road
to Paris, whither he was sent to complete his course of instruction,
and carried him off to the castle of Aquino where he had been born.
Here he was confined for two years; but he found a way to correspond
with the superiors of his order, and finally escaped from a window in
the castle. St. Thomas Aquinas (for he was canonised after his death)
exceeded perhaps all men that ever existed in the severity and
strictness of his metaphysical disquisitions, and thus acquired the
name of the Seraphic Doctor.