 Chapter 4, Part 4 of Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Volume 1 by Charles McKay The Alchemist, Part 4, Trithemius The name of this eminent man has become famous in the annals of alchemy, although he did but little to gain so questionable an honour. He was born in the year 1462 at the village of Trithem in the electorate of Treves. His father was John Heidenberg, a vine grower in easy circumstances, who dying when his son was but seven years old left him to the care of his mother. The latter married again very shortly afterwards, and neglected the poor boy, the offspring of the first marriage. At the age of 15 he did not even know his letters, and was besides half-starved and otherwise ill-treated by his stepfather. But the love of knowledge germinated in the breast of the unfortunate youth, and he learned to read at the house of a neighbour. His father-in-law set him to work in the vineyards, and thus occupied all his days. But the nights were his own. He often stole out unheeded when all the household were fast asleep, pouring over his studies in the fields by the light of the moon, and thus taught himself Latin and the rudiments of Greek. He was subjected to so much ill-usage at home, in consequence of this love of study, that he determined to leave it. Demanding the patrimony which his father had left him, he proceeded to Treves, and assuming the name of Trithymius, from that of his native village of Trithym, lived there for some months under the tuition of eminent masters, by whom he was prepared for the university. At the age of 20 he took it into his head that he should like to see his mother once more, and he set out on foot from the distant university for that purpose. On his arrival near Spanheim, late in the evening of a gloomy winter's day, it came onto snow so thickly that he could not proceed onwards to the town. He therefore took refuge for the night in a neighbouring monastery, but the storm continued several days, the roads became impassable, and the hospitable monks would not hear of his departure. He was so pleased with them in their manner of life, that he suddenly resolved to fix his abode among them, and renounced the world. They were no less pleased with him, and gladly received him as a brother. In the course of two years, although still so young, he was unanimously elected their abbot. The financial affairs of the establishment had been greatly neglected. The walls of the building were falling into ruin, and everything was in disorder. Trothemius, by his good management and regularity, introduced a reform in every branch of expenditure. The monastery was repaired, and a yearly surplus, instead of a deficiency, rewarded him for his pains. He did not like to see the monks idle, or occupied solely between prayers for their business, and chests for their relaxation. He therefore set them to work to copy the writings of eminent authors. They laboured so assiduously, that in the course of a few years, their library, which had contained only about 40 volumes, was enriched with several hundred valuable manuscripts, comprising many of the classical Latin authors, besides the works of the early fathers, and the principal historians, and philosophers of more modern date. He retained the dignity of Abbott of Spanheim for 21 years, when the monks, tired of the severe discipline he maintained, revolted against him, and chose another abbot in his place. He was afterwards made abbot of St. James in Warsburg, where he died in 1516. During his learned leisure at Spanheim, he wrote several works upon the occult sciences, the chief of which are an essay on geomancy, or divinations by means of lines and circles on the ground, another upon sorcery, the third upon alchemy, and a fourth upon the government of the world by its presiding angels, which was translated into English and published by the famous William Lilly in 1647. It has been alleged by the believers in the possibility of transmutation, that the prosperity of the Abbe of Spanheim, while under his superintendents, was owing more to the philosophers' stone than to wise economy. Trothemius, in common with many other learned men, has been accused of magic, and a marvellous story is told of his having raised from the grave the form of Mary of Burgundy at the intercession of a widowed husband, the Emperor Maximilian. His work on steganographia, or cabalistic writing, was denounced to the Count Palatine, Frederick II, as magical and devilish, and it was by him taken from the shells of his library and thrown into the fire. Trothemius is said to be the first writer who makes mention of the wonderful story of the devil and Dr Faustus, the truth of which he firmly believed. He also recounts the freaks of a spirit named Houdkin, by whom he was at times tormented. The Marcelle de Ray. One of the greatest encourages of alchemy in the 15th century were Gilles de Laval, Lord of Ray, and a Marshal of France. His name indeed is a little known, but in the annals of crime and folly, they might claim the highest and worst preeminence. Fiction has never invented anything wilder or more horrible than his career, and were not the details but too well authenticated by legal and other documents which admit no doubt. The lover of romance might easily imagine they were drawn to please him from the stores of the prolific brain, and not from the page of history. He was born about the year 1420, of one of the noblest families of Brittany. His father dying when Gilles had attained his 20th year, he came into uncontrolled possession at that early age, of a fortune which the monarchs of France might have envied him. He was a near kinsman of the Montmorences, the Rances, and the Croixons, possessed 15 princely domains, and had an annual revenue of about 300,000 levers. Besides this, he was handsome, learned and brave. He distinguished himself greatly in the wars of Charles VII, and was rewarded by that monarch with the dignity of a Marshal of France. But he was extravagant and magnificent in his style of living, and accustomed from his earliest years to the gratification of every wish and passion, and this at last led him from vice to vice, and from crime to crime, till a blacker name than his is not to be found in any record of human iniquity. In his castle of Champ-Tochet, he lived with all the splendour of an eastern caliph. He kept up a troop of 200 horsemen to accompany him wherever he went, and his excursions for the purposes of hawking and hunting were the wonder of all the country around, so magnificent were the comparisons of his steeds and the dresses of his retainers. Day and night his castle was open all the year round to comers of every degree. He made it a rule to regale even the poorest beggar with wine and hippocrats. Every day an ox was roasted whole in his spacious kitchens, besides sheep, pigs and poultry sufficient to feed 500 persons. He was equally magnificent in his devotions. His private chapel at Champ-Tochet was the most beautiful in France, and far surpassed any of those in the richly endowed cathedrals of Notre Dame in Paris, of Amiens, of Beauvoir or of Rouen. He was hung with cloth of gold and rich velvet. All the chandeliers were of pure gold, curiously inlaid with silver. The great crucifix over the altar was of solid silver, and the chalices and incense burners were of pure gold. He had besides a fine organ, which he caused to be carried from one castle to another on the shoulders of six men whenever he changed his residence. He kept up a choir of 25 young children of both sexes, who were instructed in singing by the first musicians of the day. The master of his chapel he called a bishop, who had under him his deans, arch-deacons and vicars, each receiving great salaries. The bishop 400 crowns a year, and the rest in proportion. He also maintained a whole troupe of players, including ten dancing girls and as many ballad singers, besides morris dances, jugglers and multibanks of every description. The theatre on which they performed was fitted up without any regard to expense, and they played mysteries or danced the morris dance every evening for the amusement of himself and household, and such strangers as were sharing his prodigal hospitality. At the age of 23 he married Catherine, the wealthy heiress of the House of Tours, for whom he refurbished his castle at an expense of 100,000 crowns. His marriage was the signal for new extravagance, and he launched out more madly than ever he had done before, sending for fine singers or celebrated dancers from foreign countries to amuse him and his spouse, and instituting tilts and tournaments in his great courtyard almost every week for all the knights and nobles of the province of Brittany. Duke of Brittany's court was not half so splendid as that of the Marachel de Ray. His utter disregard for wealth was so well known that he was made to pay three times his value for everything he purchased. His castle was filled with needy parasites and panderas to his pleasures, amongst whom he lavished rewards with an unsparing hand. But the ordinary round of central gratification ceased at last to afford him delight. He was reserved to be more absentious in the pleasures of the table and to neglect the beauteous dancing girls who used formally to occupy so much of his attention. He was sometimes gloomy and reserved, and there was an unnatural wildness in his eye which gave indications of insipid madness. Still, his discourse was as reasonable as ever. His ebannity to the guests that flocked from far and near to Roche suffered no diminution. And learned priests, when they conversed with him, thought to themselves that fewer the nobles of France were so well informed as Gilles de Laval. But dark rumours spread gradually over the country. Murder, and if possible, still more atrocious deeds were hinted at. And it was remarked that many young children of both sexes suddenly disappeared and were never afterwards heard of. One or two had been traced to the castle of Champ-Toché and had never been seen to leave it. But no one dared to accuse openly so powerful a man as the Marachel de Ray. Whenever the subject of the lost children was mentioned in his presence, he manifested the greatest astonishment at the mystery which involved their fate and indignation against those who might be guilty of kidnapping them. Still, the world was not wholly deceived. His name became as formidable to young children as that of the devouring ogre and fairy tales, and they were taught to go miles round rather than pass under the turrets of Champ-Toché. In the course of a few years, the reckless extravagance of the Marachel drained him of all his funds, and he was obliged to put up some of his estates for sale. The Duke of Brittany entered into a treaty with him for the valuable seniority of ingrant, but the heirs of Gilles implored the interference of Charles VII to stay the sale. Charles immediately issued an edict, which was confirmed by the provincial parliament of Brittany, forbidding him to alienate his paternal estates. Gilles had no alternative but to submit. He had nothing to support his extravagance, but his allowance as a Marachel of France, which did not cover the one-tenth of his expenses. A man of his habits and character could not retrench his wasteful expenditure and live reasonably. He could not dismiss without a paying his horsemen, his jesters, his morrist answers, his choirs and his parasites, or confine his hospitality to those who really needed it. Notwithstanding his diminished resources, he resolved to live as he had lived before and turn alchemist that he might make gold out of iron and be still the wealthiest and most magnificent among the nobles of Brittany. In pursuance of this determination, he sent to Paris, Italy, Germany and Spain inviting all the adepts in the science to visit him at Champ d'Aché. The messages he dispatched on this mission were two of his most needy and unprincipled dependents, Gilles de Sillet and Roger de Briffel. The latter, the obsequious panderer to his most secret and abominable pleasures, he had entrusted with the education of his motherless daughter a child but five years of age with permission that he might marry her at the proper time to any person he choose or to himself if you like to better. This man entered into the new plans of his master with great zeal and introduced him to one Prelati, an alchemist of Padua and a physician of Poitre who was addicted to the same pursuits. The marshal caused a splendid laboratory to be fitted up for them and the three commenced the search for the philosopher's stone. Though a soon art was joined by another pretended philosopher named Anthony Palermo who aided in their operations for upwards of a year, they all fared sumptuously at the marshal's expanse draining him of the ready money he possessed and leading him on from day to day with the hope that they would succeed and objected their search. From time to time new aspirants from the remotest parts of Europe arrived at his castle and for months he had upwards of 20 alchemists at work trying to transmute copper into gold and wasting the gold which was still his own in drugs and elixirs. But the Lord of Ray was not a man to abide patiently their lingering processes. Pleased with their comfortable quarters they jogged on from day to day and would have done so for years had they been permitted. But he suddenly dismissed them all with the exception of the Italian Prelati and the physician of Poitre. These he retained to aid him to discover the secret of the philosopher's stone by a bolder method. The Poitresen had persuaded him that the devil was the great depository of that and all other secrets and that he would raise him before Gilles who might enter into any contract he pleased with him. Gilles expressed his readiness and promised to give the devil anything but his soul or do any deed that the arch enemy might impose upon him. Attended solely by the physician he proceeded at midnight to a wild-looking place in a neighbouring forest. The physician drew a magic circle around them on the sword and muttered for half an hour an invocation to the evil spirit to arise at his bidding and disclose the secrets of alchemy. Gilles looked on with intense interest and expected every moment to see the earth open and deliver to his gaze the great enemy of mankind. At last the eyes of the physician became fixed. His hair stood on end and he spoke as if addressing the fiend. But Gilles saw nothing except his companion. At last the physician fell down on the sword as if insensible. Gilles looked calmly on to see the end. That's the physician arose and asked him if he had not seen how angry the devil looked. Gilles replied that he had seen nothing upon which his companion informed him that Balzabab had appeared in the form of a wild leopard growled at him savagely and said nothing and that the reason why the marshal had neither seen nor heard him was that he hesitated in his own mind as to devoting himself entirely to the service. Deray owed that he had indeed misgivings and inquired what was to be done to make the devil speak out and unfold his secret. The physician replied that some person must go to Spain and Africa to collect certain herbs which only grew in those countries and offered to go himself if Deray would provide the necessary funds. Deray at once consented and the physician set out on the following day with all the gold that his dupe could spare him. He never saw his face again. But the eager lord of Champ-Toché could not rest. Gold was necessary for his pleasures and unless by supernatural aid he had no means of procuring any further supplies. The physician was hardly twenty leagues on his journey before Gilles resolved to make another effort to force the devil to divulge the art of gold-making. He went out alone for that purpose but all his conjurations were of no effect. Balzebub was obstinate and would not appear. Determined to conquer him if he could he ambushed himself to the Italian alchemist, Prelati. The latter offered to undertake the business upon condition that Deray did not interfere in the conjurations and consented besides to furnish him with all the charms and talismans that might be required. He was further to open a vein in his arm and sign with his blood a contract that he would work the devil's will in all things and offer up to him the sacrifice of the heart, lungs, hands, eyes and blood of a young child. The grasping monomaniac made no hesitation but agreed at once to the disgusting terms proposed to him. On the following night Prelati went out alone and after having been absent for three or four hours returned to Gilles who sat anxiously awaiting him. Prelati then informed him that he had seen the devil in the shape of a handsome youth of twenty. He further said that the devil desired to be called Baron in all future invocations and had shown him a great number of ingots of pure gold buried under a large oak in the neighbouring forest all of which and as many more as he desired should become the property of the Marachel Deray if he remained firm and broke no condition of the contract. Prelati further showed him a small casket of black dust which would turn iron into gold but as the process was very troublesome he advised that they should be contented with the ingots they found under the oak tree and which would more than supply all the wants that the most extravagant imagination could desire. They were not however to attempt to look for the gold till a period of seven times seven weeks or they would find nothing but slates and stones for their pains. Gilles expressed the utmost chagrain and disappointment and at once said that he could not wait for so long a period. If the devil were not more prompt Prelati might tell him that the Marachel Deray was not to be trifled with and would decline all further communication with him. Prelati at last persuaded him to wait seven times seven days. They then went at midnight with picks and shovels to dig up the ground under the oak where they found nothing to reward them but a great quantity of slates marked with hieroglyphics. It was now Prelati's turn to be angry and he loudly swore that the devil was nothing but a liar and a cheat. The Marachel joined quarterly in the opinion but was easily persuaded by the cunning Italian to make one more trial. He promised at the same time that he would endeavour on the following night to discover the reason why the devil had broken his word. He went out alone accordingly and on his return informed his patron that he had seen Baron who was exceedingly angry that they had not waited the proper time ere they looked for the ingots. Baron had also said that the Marachel Deray could hardly expect any favours from him at a time when he must know that he had been meditating a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to make atonement for his sins. The Italian had doubtless surmised this from some unconscious expression of his patron for Deray frankly confessed that there were times when, sick of the world and all its pumps and vanities he thought of devoting himself to the service of God. In this manner the Italian lured on from month to month his credulous and guilty patron extracting from him all the valuables he possessed and only waiting a favourable opportunity to decap with his plunder. But the day of retribution was at hand for both. Young girls and boys continued to disappear in the most mysterious manner and the rumours against the owner of Champ d'Oché grew so loud and distinct that the church was compelled to interfere. Representations were made by the Bishop of Nantes to the Duke of Brittany that it would be a public scandal if the accusations against the Marachel Deray were not inquired into. He was arrested accordingly in his own castle along with his accomplice Prelati and thrown into a dungeon at Nantes to await his trial. The judges appointed to try him were the Bishop of Nantes, Chancellor of Brittany, the Vicar of the Inquisition in France and the celebrated Pierre Le Hoppetal, the President of the Provincial Parliament. The offences laid to his charge were sorcery, sodomy and murder. Gilles, on the first day of his trial, conducted himself with the utmost insolence. He braved the judges on the judgement seat, calling them simoniacs and persons of impure life and said he would rather be hanged by the neck like a dog without trial than plead either guilty or not guilty before such contemptible miscreants. But his confidence forsook him as the trial proceeded and he was found guilty on the clearest evidence of all the crimes laid to his charge. It was proved that he took insane pleasure in stabbing the victims of his lust and in observing the quivering of their flesh and the fading luster of their eyes as they expired. The confession of Prelati first made the judges acquainted with this horrid madness and Gilles himself confirmed it before his death. Nearly a hundred children of the villagers around his two castles of Shampdoshai and Mashku have been missed within three years, the greater part, if not all of whom, were immolated to the lust or the cupidity of this monster. He imagined that he thus made the devil his friend and that his recompense would be the secret of the philosopher's stone. Gilles and Prelati were both condemned to be burned alive. At the place of execution they assumed the heir of penitence and religion. Gilles tenderly embraced Prelati, saying, Farewell, friend Francis. In this world we shall never meet again, but let us place our hopes in God. We shall see each other in paradise. Out of consideration for his high rank and connections, the punishment of the Marshal was so far mitigated that he was not burned alive like Prelati. He was first strangled, and then thrown into the flames. His body, when half consumed, was given over to his relatives for internment, while that of the Italian was burned to ashes and then scattered to the winds. Note 39. For full details of this extraordinary trial, see Lobonael's Nova history de Brotown and D'Argentet's work on the same subject. The character and life of Gilles de Ray are believed to have suggested the famous blue beard of the nursery town, Jacques Kerr. This remarkable pretender to the secretive of Lossver's Stone was contemporary with the last mentioned. He was a great personage at the court of Charles VII, and in the events of his reign played a prominent part. From a very humble origin, he rose to the highest honours of the state with enormous wealth by peculation and plunder of the country which he should have served. It was to hide his delinquencies in this respect and to divert attention from the real source of his riches that he boasted of having discovered the art of transmuting the inferior metals into gold and silver. His father was at Goldsmith in the city of Borges, but so reduced in circumstances towards the latter years of his life that he was unable to pay the necessary fees to procure his son's admission into the guild. Young Jacques became, however, a workman in the royal mint of Borges in 1428 and behaved himself so well and showed so much knowledge of metallurgy that he attained rapid promotion in that establishment. He had also the good fortune to make the acquaintance of the fair Agnes Sorel, by whom he was patronised and much esteemed. Jacques had now three things in his favour, ability, perseverance and the countenance of the king's mistress. Many a man succeeds with but one of these to help him forward and it would have been strange indeed if Jacques Kerr, who had them all, should have languished in obscurity. While still a young man who has made master of the mint, in which he had been a journeyman and installed at the same time into the vacant office of grand treasurer of the royal household, he possessed an extensive knowledge of finance and had it wonderfully to his own advantage as soon as he became entrusted with extensive funds. He speculated in articles of the first necessity and made himself popular by buying up grain, honey, wines and other produce till there was a scarcity when he sold it again at enormous profit. Strong in the royal favour, he did not hesitate to oppress the poor by continual acts of forestalling a monopoly as there is no enemy so bitter as the estranged friend. So of all the tyrants and tramplers upon the poor, there is none so fierce and reckless as the upstart that sprang from their ranks. The offensive pride of Jacques Kerr to his inferiors was the theme of indignant reproach in his own city and his cringing humility to those above him was as much an object of contempt to the aristocrats into whose society he thrust himself. But Jacques did not care for the former until the latter he was blind. He continued his career till he became the richest man in France and so useful to the king that no important enterprise was set on foot until he had been consulted. He was sent in 1446 on an embassy to Genoa and in the following year to Pope Nicholas V. In both these missions he acquitted himself to the satisfaction of his sovereign and was rewarded with a lucrative appointment in addition to those which he already held. In the year 1449 the English Normandy deprived of the great general the Duke of Bedford broke the truce with the French king and took possession of a small town belonging to the Duke of Brittany. This was the signal for the recommencement of a war in which the French regained possession of nearly the whole province. The money for this war was advanced for the most part by Jacques Kerr. When Rouen yielded to the French and Charles made his triumphal entry into that city accompanied by Dunois and his most famous generals Jacques was among the most brilliant of his courtiers. His chariot and horses vied with those of the king in the magnificence of their trappings and his enemies said of him that he publicly boasted that he alone had driven out the English and that the valor of the troops would have been nothing without his goal. Dunois appears also to have been partly of the same opinion. Without disparaging the courage of the army he acknowledged the utility of the able financier by whose means they had been fed and paid and constantly afforded him his powerful protection. When peace returned Jacques again devoted himself to commerce and fitted up several galleys to trade with the Genoese. He also brought large estates in various parts of France the chief of which were the baronies of Saint Fagot, Minneton, Salon, Montbranche, Mignon, Saint Jérône de Vaux and Saint-Hon-de-Boussie, the earldoms or counties of La Palaise, Champagnol, Beaumont and Villenvaux-Lagonnais and the Marquessais of Tussis. He also procured for his son Jean Kerr who had chosen the church for his profession a post no less distinguished than that of Archbishop of Bourges. Everybody said that so much wealth could not have been honestly acquired and both rich and poor longed for the day that should humble the pride of the man whom the one class regarded as an upstart and the other as an oppressor. Jacques was somewhat alarmed at the rumours that were afloat respecting him and of dark hints that he'd debased the coin of the realm and forged the king's seal to an important document by which he had defrauded the state of very considerable sums. To silence these rumours he invited many alchemists from foreign countries to reside with him and circulated a counter-rumour that he had discovered the secret of the philosopher's stone. He also built a magnificent house in his native city over the entrance of which he caused to be sculptured, the emblems of that science. Sometime afterward he built another, no less splendid, at Montpellier which he inscribed in a similar manner. He also wrote a treatise upon the hermetic philosophy in which he pretended that he knew the secret of transmuting metals. But all these attempts to disguise his numerous acts of speculation proved unavailing and he was arrested in 1452 and brought to trial on several charges. Upon one only, which the malice of his enemies invented to ruin him, was he acquitted, which was that he had been accessory to the death by poison of his kind patroness, Agnes Sorel. Upon the others he was found guilty and sentenced to be banished to kingdom and to pay the enormous fine of 400,000 crowns. It was proved that he had forged the king's seal, that in his capacity of master of the mint of Borgias he had debased to a very great extent the gold and silver coin of the realm and that he had not hesitated to supply the Turks with arms and money to enable them to carry on war against their Christian neighbours, for which service he had received the most magnificent recompenses. Charles VII was deeply grieved at his condemnation and believed to the last that he was innocent. By his means the fine was reduced within a sum which Jacques Kerr could pay. After remaining for some time in prison, he was liberated and left France with a large summer money, part of which, it was alleged, was secretly paid in by Charles out of the produce of his confiscated estates. He retired to Cyprus, where he died about 1460, the richest and most conspicuous personage of the island. The writers upon alchemy all claimed Jacques Kerr as a member of their fraternity and treat as false and libelous the more rational explanation of his wealth which the records of his trial afford. Pierre Borrel, in his antiquities Goliosses, maintains the opinion that Jacques was an honest man and that he made his gold out of lead and copper by means of the philosopher's stone. The alchemic ad-apps in general were of the same opinion but they found it difficult to persuade even his contemporaries of the fact. Posterity is still less likely to believe it. Memoirs of extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of Kraus Volume I by Charles McKay The Alchemists Part 5 Inferior ad-apps of the 14th and 15th Centuries Many other pretenders to the secrets of the philosopher's stone appeared in every country in Europe during the 14th and 15th Centuries. The possibility of transmutation was so generally admitted that every chemist was more or less an alchemist. Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain, Poland, France and England produced thousands of obscure ad-apps who supported themselves in the pursuit of their Chimera by the more profitable resources of astrology and divination. The monarchs of Europe were no less persuaded than their subjects of the possibility of discovering the philosopher's stone. Harry VI and Edward IV of England encouraged alchemy. In Germany, the Emperor's Maximilian Radoff and Frederick II devoted much of their attention to it and every inferior potentate within their dominoes imitated their example. It was a common practice in Germany among the nobles and petty sovereigns to invite an alchemist to take up his residence among them that they might confine him in a dungeon till he made gold enough to pay millions for his ransom. Many poor wretches suffered perpetual imprisonment in consequence. A similar fate appears to have been intended by Edward II for Raymond Lully, who, upon the pretense that he was thereby honored, was accommodated with apartments in the Tower of London. He found out in time the trick that was about to be played to him and managed to make his escape. Some of his biographers say by jumping into the themes and swimming to a vessel that lay waiting to receive him. In the 16th century, the same system was pursued as will be shown more fully in the life of Saturn the cosmopolitan. The following is a catalogue of the chief alters upon alchemy who flourished during this epoch and whose lives and adventures are either unknown or are unworthy of more detailed notice. John Townstone, an Englishman, lived in 1315 and wrote two treatises on the Philosopher's Stone. Richard, or as some call him, Robert, also an Englishman, lived in 1330 and wrote a work entitled Correctorium alchemy, which was much esteemed till the time of Parachelsus. In the same year lived Peter of Lombardy, who wrote what he called a complete treatise upon the hermetic science, an abridgement of which was afterwards published by Lachini, a monk of Calabria. In 1330, the most famous alchemist of Paris was Juan Audomar, whose work, the Practica Magistri, was for a long time a handbook among the brethren of the science. John de Ruppecissa, a French monk of the order of Saint Francis, flourished in 1357 and pretended to be a prophet as well as an alchemist. Some of his prophecies were so disagreeable to Pope Innocent VI that the pontiff determined to put a stop to them by locking up the prophet in the dungeons of the Vatican. It is generally believed that he died there, though there is no evidence of the fact. His chief works are the Book of Light, the Five Essences, the Heaven of Philosophers, and his grand work, the Confectione Lapidis. He was not thought as shining light among the adepts. Arthur Lani was another pretender who whom nothing is known, but that he exercised the ass of alchemy and astrology at Paris shortly before the time of Nicolas Flamel. His work on the practice of alchemy was written in that city in 1358. Isaac of Holland wrote, it is supposed, about this time, and his son also devoted himself to the science. Nothing worth repeating is known of their lives, but Heav speaks with commendation of many passages in their works and Paracelsus esteem them highly. The chief are the Triprisci Ordine Elixiris et Lapidis Theoria printed at birth in 1608 and Mineralia Opera, Seu de Lapide Filosofico printed at Middleburg in 1600. They also wrote eight other works upon the same subject. Kowsky, a poet, wrote an alchemical creatives entitled The Tincture of Minerals about the year 1488. In this list of orders, a royal name must not be forgotten. Charles VI of France, one of the most credulous princes of the day, whose court absolutely swarmed with alchemists, conjurers, astrologers and quacks of every description made several attempts to discover the philosopher's stone and thought he knew so much about it that he determined to enlighten the world with the trieties. It is called the Royal Work of Charles VI of France and the Treasure of Philosophy. It is said to be the original from which Nicolas Flamel took the idea of his Desi desire. Langlet du Fresnoi says it is very allegorical and utterly incomprehensible. For a more complete list of the hermetic philosophers of the 14th and 15th centuries, the reader is referred to the third volume of Langlet's history, already quoted. Progress of the infatuation during the 16th and 17th centuries, present state of the science. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the search for the philosopher's stone was continued by a thousand of enthusiastic and the credulous. But a great change was introduced during this period. The eminent man who devoted themselves to the study totally changed its aspect and referred to the obsession of their wondrous stone and elixir, not only the conversion of the base into the precious metal, but the solution of all the difficulties of other sciences. They pretended that by its means, man would be brought into closer communion with his maker, that disease and sorrow would be banished from the world and that the millions of spiritual beings who work the earth unseen would be rendered visible and become the friends, companions and instructors of mankind. In the 17th century, more especially, these poetical and fantastic doctrines excited the notice of Europe and from Germany where they had been first disseminated by Rosencruz, spread into France and England and ran away with the sound judgment of many clever but too enthusiastic approaches for the truth. Paracelsus D. and many others of less note were captivated by the grace and beauty of the new mythology which was arising to adorn the literature of Europe. Most of the alchemists of the 16th century, although ignorant of the rustic corrections as a sect, were, in some degree, tinctured with their fateful tenets. But before we speak more fully of these poetical visionaries, it will be necessary to resume the history of the hermetic folly and the trace of the gradual change that's still over the dreams of the adepts. It will be seen that the infatuation increased rather than diminished as the world grew older. Among the alchemists who were born in the 15th and distinguished themselves in the 16th century, the first in point of date is John Aurelio Agurello. He was born at Rimini in 1441 and became professor of the Beles Letres at Venice Entrevisas. He was highly convinced of the truth of the hermetic science and used to pray to God that he might be happy enough to discover the philosopher's stone. He was continually surrounded by the paraphernalia of chemistry and expanded holy's wealth in the purchase of drugs and metals. He was also a poet but of less merit than pretentious. He is Crisopeia in which he pretended to teach the art of making gold he dedicated to Pope Leo X in the help that the pontiff would reward him handsomely for the compliment. But the Pope was too good a judge of poetry to be pleased with the worse than mediocrity of his poem and too good a philosopher to approve of the strange doctrines which it inculcated. He was, therefore, far from gratified at the dedication. It is said that when Agurello applied to him for a reward the Pope, with great ceremony and much apparent kindness and cordiality, drew an empty purse from his pocket and presented it to the Archimedes saying that since he was able to make gold the most appropriate present that could be made him was a purse to put it in. This curfew word was all that the poor Archimedes ever got either for his poetry or his Archimi. He died in a state of extreme poverty in the 83rd year of his age. Cornelius Sagrippa This Archimedes has left a distinguished reputation. The most extraordinary days were told and believed of his powers. He could turn iron into gold by his mere word. All the spirits of the air and demons of the earth were under his command and bound to obey him in everything. He could raise from the dead the forms of the great man of other days and make them appear in their habit as they lived to the gaze of the curious who had courage enough to abide their presence. He was born at Cologne in 1486 and began at an early age the study of chemistry and philosophy. By some means or other, which have never been very clearly explained he managed to impress his contemporaries with a great idea of his wonderful attainments. At the early age of 20 so great was his reputation as an Archimedes that the principal adepts of Paris wrote to Cologne inviting him to settle in France and aid them with his experience in discovering the Philosopher's Stone. Honors poured upon him in thick succession and he was highly esteemed to the learned man of his time. Melanchthon speaks of him with respect and commendation. Erasmus also bears testimony in his favor and the general voice of his age proclaimed him a light of literature and an old man to philosophy. Some men, by dents of excessive ecotism, managed to persuade the contemporaries that they are very great men indeed. They published their acquirements so loudly in people's ears and keep up their own praises so insensibly that the world's applause is actually taken by storm. Such seems to have been the case with the gripper. He called himself a blind theologian, an excellent consult and enable physician, a great philosopher and a successful Archimist. The world at last took his word and thought that a man who talks so big must have some merit to recommend him. That he was in need a great trumpet which sounded so obstreperous at last. He was made secretary to the Emperor Maximilian who conferred upon him the title of Chevalier and gave him the honorary common of regimen. He afterwards became professor of Hebrew at the University of Delay in France but quarreling with the Franciscan monks upon some naughty points of divinity he was obliged to quit the town. He took refuge in London where he taught Hebrew and cast nativities for about a year. From London he proceeded to Pavia and gave lectures upon the writings real or suppose of Hermes Trismes Jesus and might have lived there in peace and honour had he not again quarreled with the clergy. By there means his position became so disagreeable that he was glad to accept an offer made him by the Magisbracy of Metz to become the ascendic and avocate general. Here again his love disputation made him Hermes. The theological wise-acres of that city asserted that Saint Anne had three husbands in which opinion they were confirmed by the popular belief of the day. Agrippa needlessly ran full of this opinion or prejudice as he called it and thereby lost much of his influence. Another dispute more creditable to his character, accused soon after and sent him forever in the estimation of the Metz seasons. Finally taking the part of a young girl who was accused of witchcraft his enemies asserted that he was himself a soldier and raised such a storm over his head that he was forced to fly the city. After this he became physician to Luisa de Savoy, mother of King Francis I. This lady was curious to know the future and required her physician to cast her nativity. Agrippa replied that he would not encourage such idle curiosity. The result was he lost her confidence and was forthwith dismissed. If it had been through his belief in the wordlessness of astrology that he made his answer we might admire his honest and fearless independence. But when it is known that at the very same time he was in the constant habit of divination and fortune telling and that he was predicting splendid success in all his undertakings to the constable of Bourbon we can only wonder at his thus estranging a powerful friend through my petulance and perversity. He was about this time invited both by Agri the 8th of England and Margaret of Austria, governess of the low countries to fix his residence in the Dominus. He chose the service of the letter by whose influence he was made historiographer to the emperor Charles the 5th. Unfortunately for Agrippa he never had stability enough to remain long in one position and offended his patrons by his relentless and presumption. After the death of Margaret he was imprisoned at Brussels on a charge of sorcery. He was released after a year and quitting the country experienced many vicissitudes. He died in great poverty in 1534 aged 48 years. While in the service of Margaret of Austria he resided principally at Lovien in which city he wrote his famous work on the vanity and nothingness of human knowledge. He also wrote to please his royal mistress ladies upon the superiority of the female sex which he dedicated to her in token of his gratitude for the favors he had heaped upon him. The reputation he left behind him in these provinces was anything but favourable. A great number of the Marvellous days that I told of him relate to this period of his life. It was said that the gold which he paid to the traders whom he dealt always looked remarkably bright but invariable turn into pieces of slate and stone in the course of 4 and 20 hours. Of this purest gold he was believed to have made large quantities by the aid of the devil who he would appear from this head but a very superficial knowledge of alchemy and much less than the Markelde race in credit 4. The Jethrid Delirium in his book on magic and sorcery relates a still more extraordinary story of him. One day a grippa left his house at Luvian and intending to be absent for some time gave the key of his study to his wife with strict orders that no one should enter it during his absence. The lady herself strange as it may appear had no curiosity to pry into her husband's secrets and never once thought of entering the forbidden room but a young student who had been accommodated with an attic in the Philosopher's house burned with a fierce desire to examine the study hoping by chance that he might pull out in some book or implement which would instruct him in the art of transmuting medals. The youth being handsome, eloquent and above all highly complimentary to the charms of the lady she was persuaded without much difficult to lend him the key but gave him strict orders not to remove anything. The student provides implicit obedience and entered a grippa's study. The first object that caught his attention was a large grimoire a book of spells which lay open on the Philosopher's desk. He sat himself down immediately and began to read. At the first word he huttered, he fancied he heard a knock at the door he listened but all was silent. Thinking that his imagination had deceived him he read on when immediately a louder knock was heard which so terrified him that he started to to his feet. He tried to say come in but his tongue refused his office and he could not articulate a sound. He fixed his eyes upon the door which slowly opening this closed a stranger of majestic fore by scowling features who demanded sternly why he was summoned. I did not summon you said the trembling student you did say the stranger advancing angrily and the demons are not to be invoked in vain. The student who make no reply and the demon enraged that one of the uninitiated should have summoned him out of no presumption seized him by the throat and strangled him. When a gripper returned a few days afterwards he found his house beset with devils some of them were sitting in his pots kicking up their legs in the air while others were playing at leapfrog on the very edge of the parapet. His study was so filled with them that he found it difficult to make his way to his desk. When at last he had elbowed his way through them he found his book open and the student lying dead upon the floor he saw immediately how the mischief had been done and dismissing all the inferior imps asked the principal demon how he could have been so rash as to kill the young man the demon replied that he had been needlessly invoked by an insulting youth and could do no less than kill him for his presumption. A gripper reprimanded him severely and ordered him immediately to renovate the dead body and walk about with it in place for the whole of the afternoon. The demon did so the student revived and putting his arm through death of his unearthly murderer walked very lovingly with him inside of all the people at sunset the body fell down again cold and lifeless as before and was carried by the crowd to the hospital it being the general opinion that he had expired in a fit of apopoxy his conductor immediately disappeared when the body was examined marks of strangulation were found on neck and prints of the long clothes of the demon on various parts of it these appearances together with a story which soon obtained currency that the companion of the young man had vanished in a cloud of flame and smoke opened people's eyes to the truth the magistrates of Luvian instituted inquiries and result was that Agrippa was obliged to quit the town other authors besides Delivio relayed similar stories of this philosopher the world in those days was always willing enough to believe in tales of magic and sorcery and one as in Agrippa's case the alleged magician gave himself out for such and claimed credit for the wonders he worked it is not surprising that the A should have allowed his pretentious it was dangerous posing which sometimes led to the stake or the gallows and therefore was thought to be not without foundation Paulus Jovius in his aeologia doctorum virarum says that the devil in the shape of a large black dog attended Agrippa wherever he went Thalmas Nash in his adventures of Jack Wilton relates that at the request of Lord Surrey Erasmus and some other learned man Agrippa called up from the great many of the great philosophers of antiquity among others, Tully whom he calls to red-liver his celebrated oration for roscues he also showed Lord Surrey when in Germany an exact resemblance in a glass of his mistress the fair Geraldine she was represented on a couch weeping for the absence of a lover Lord Surrey made a note of the exact time at which he saw this vision and ascertained afterwards that his mistress was actually so employed at the very menus to Thalmas Lord Crommer Agrippa represented King Harry VIII hunting in Wisdor Park with the principal lords of his court Emperor Charles V he summoned King David and King Solomon from the tomb Naude in his apology for the great man who had been falsely suspected of magic takes a great deal of pains to clear Agrippa from the imputation cast upon him by the lyrios, Paul's Jominus and other such ignorant prejudiced priblers such stories demanded refutation in the days of Naude to be safely left to decay in their own absurdity that they should have attached to however to the memory of a man who claimed the power of making iron or buying him when he told it to become gold and who wrote such a work as that upon magic which goes by his name is not at all surprising Parachelsus this philosopher who was called by Naude the zenith and rising son of all the archimists was born at Anziden near Zurich in the year of 1493 his true name was Hoianim to which as himself informs us were prefixed the baptismal names of Aurelos Theoprasus Pombasus Parachelsus the last of these was for his commandesination while he was yet a boy and render it before he died one of the most famous in the annals of his time his father who was a physician educated his son for the same pursuit the latter was an apt scholar and made great progress by chance the work of Isaac Holandus fell into his hands and from that time he became smitten by the mania of the philosopher's turn all his thoughts henceforth were devoted to metallurgy and he traveled into Sweden that he might visit the mines of that country and examine the oars while they yet lay in the bowels of the earth he also visited three themes at the monastery of Spanheim and obtained his fraction from him in the science of alchemy assuming his travels he proceeds through Prussia and Austria into Turkey, Egypt and Tartary and then returning to Constantinople learn as he boasts the art of transmutation and became possessed of the elixir vitae he then established himself as a physician in his native Switzerland at Zurich and commenced writing works upon alchemy and medicine he immediately fixed the attention of Europe their great obscurity was no impediment to their fame for the less the author was understood the more the demonologist's fanatics and philosopher's turn hunters seemed to appreciate him his fame as a physician kept pace with that which he enjoyed as an alchemist owing to his having affected some happy cures by means of mercury and opium drugs and ceremoniously condemned by his professional brethren in the year 1526 he was chosen professor of physics and natural philosophy in the university of Basel where his lectures had practiced vast numbers of students he denounced the writings of all former physicians as tending to mislead and publicity burned the works of Galen and Avicenna as quacks and imposters he exclaimed in presence of the admiring and half-bewilder crowd who assembled to witness the ceremony that there was more knowledge in his shoe strings than in the writings of these physicians continuing the same strain he said all the universities in the world were full of ignorant quacks but that he Parachelsus overflowed with wisdom you will all follow my new system with furious gesticulations Avicenna, Galen, Razzis Montagnana, Mehmet you will all follow me year professors of Paris, Montpellier Germany, Cologne and Vienna and all year that were on the Rhine and the Danube year that inhabit the isles of the sea and year also Italians, Dalmatians Athenians, Arabians, Jews you will all follow my doctrines for I am the monarch of medicine but he did not long enjoy the esteem of the good citizen of Basel he said that he indulged in wine so freely and not unfrequently to be seen in the streets in a state of intoxication this was ruinous for a physician and his good fame decreased rapidly his ill fame increased in still greater proportion especially when he assumed the ass of a sorcerer he boasted of the legends of spirits and his command and of one especially which he kept in prison in the hilt of his sword Wetheras who lived 27 months in his service relays that he often threatened to invoke a whole army of demons and show him the great authority which he could exercise over them he let it be believed that the spirit in his sword had custody of the elixir of life by means of which he could make anyone life to be as old as the antedeluvians he also boasted that he had a spirit that is common called azoth whom he kept in prison in a jewel and in many of the old portraits he is represented with a jewel inscribed with the word azuth in his hand if a sober prophet has little honor in his own country a drunken one has still less Parachelsus found it at last convenient to quit Basil and establish himself in Strasbourg the immediate cause of his change of residence was as follows a citizen lay at the point of death and was given over by all the physicians of the town as a last resource Parachelsus was called in to whom the sick man promised a magnificent recompense if by his means he were cured Parachelsus gave him two small pills which the man took and rapidly recovered when he was quite well Parachelsus sent for his fee but the citizen had no great opinion of the value of a cue which had been so speedily affected he had no notion of paying a handful of gold for two pills although they have saved his life and he refused to pay more than the usual fee for a single visit Parachelsus brought an action against him and lost it this result so exasperated him that he left Basil in high dungeon he resumed his wandering life and traveled in Germany and Hungary supporting himself as he went on a crujility and infatuation of all classes of society he cast nativities told fortunes, aided those who had money to throw away upon the experiment to find the philosopher's stone, prescribed remedies for cows and pigs and aided in the recovery of soul and goods after receding successfully at Nuremburg, Augsburg, Vienna he retired in the year of 1541 to Salzburg and died in a state of abject poverty in the hospital that town if this strange charlatan found hundreds of admirers during his life, he found thousands after his death a sect of parachelsists sprang up in France and Germany to perpetuate the extravagant doctrines of their founder upon all the sciences upon alchemy in particular the chief leaders were Baudestine and Dorneus the following is a summary of his doctrine founded upon the supposed existence of the philosopher's stone it is worth preserving from its very absurdity and is altogether unparalleled in the history of philosophy first of all he maintained that the contemplation of the perfection of deity suffice to procure all wisdom and knowledge that the bible was the key to the theory of all diseases and that it was necessary to search in the apocalypse to know the signification of magic medicine the man who blindly obeyed the will of god and who succeeded in identifying himself with the celestial intelligences possessed the philosopher's stone he could cure all diseases and prolong life as many centuries as he pleased it being by the very same means that Adam and the antedelivians patriarchs prolonged theirs life was an emanation from the stars the sun governed the heart and the moon the brain Jupiter governed the liver Saturn the girl Mercury the lungs Mars the bile and Venus the loins in the stomach of every human being there dwelt a demon or intelligence that was a sort of alchemist in his way a mix in the new proportions in his crucible the various elements that were sent into that grand laboratory the belly he was proud of the title of magician and bossy that he kept up a regular correspondence with Galen from hell and that he often summoned Avicenna from the same regents to dispute with him on the forced notions he had promulgated the respecting alchemy and especially regarding portable gold and the elixir of life he imagined that gold could cure ossification of the heart and in fact all diseases if it were gold which had been transmuted from an inferior metal by means of the philosopher's stone and if it were applied under certain conjunctions of the planets the mere list of the works in which he advanced these frantic imaginings which he called a doctrine would occupy several pages George Agricola this alchemist was born in the province of Misnya in 1494 his real name was Bower meaning a husband man which in accordance with the common fashion of his age he Latinized into Agricola from his early youth he delight in the visions of the hermetic science he was 16 he longed for the great elixir which was to make him life for 700 years and for the stone which was to procure him wealth to cheer him in his multiplicity of base he published as more treaties upon the subject at the cologne in 1531 which obtained him the patronage of the celebrated Maurice Duke Monsonny after practicing for some years as a physician at Joachimistl in Bohemia he was employed by Maurice as a superintendent of the silver mines of Chemnitz he led a happy life among the miners making various experiments in alchemy while deep in the bowels of the earth he acquired a great knowledge of metals and gradually got rid of his extravagant notions about the philosopher's stone the miners had no faith in alchemy and they converted him to their way of thinking not only in that but in other respects from their legends he became firmly convinced that the bowels of the earth were inhabited by good and other spirits and that fire damp and other explosions sprang from no other causes than the mischievous propensities of the letter and in the year 1555 leaving behind him the reputation of a very able and intelligent man and of Chapter 4 Part 5 Recorded by Daniele October 2008 Chapter 4 Part 6 of Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are available in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jeanne in Washington DC Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Volume 1 by Charles McKay The Alchemists Part 6 Dennis Zuccair Autobiography written by a wise man who was once a fool is not only the most instructive in his writing. Dennis Zuccair, an Alchemist of the 16th century has performed this task and left the record of his folly in infatuation in pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone which well repays Perusal. He was born in the year 1510 of an ancient family in Guinea and was early sent to the University of Bordeaux under the care of a tutor to direct his studies. He was born in the year of Grand Elixir and soon rendered his pupil as Madness himself upon the subject. With this introduction we will allow Dennis Zuccair to speak for himself and continue his narrative and his own words. I received from home, says he, the sum of 200 crowns for the expenses of myself and Master, but before the end of the year all our money went away in the smoke of our furnaces. My father died of a fever brought on by the parching heat of our laboratory from which he seldom or never stirred and which was scarcely less hot than the arsenal of Venice. His death was the more unfortunate for me as my parents took the opportunity of reducing my allowance and sending me only sufficient for my board and lodging instead of the sum I required to continue my operations in Alchemy. To meet this difficulty I returned home at the age of 25 and mortgaged part of my property for 400 crowns. This sum was necessary to perform an operation of the science which had been communicated to me by an Italian at Toulouse and who, as he said, had proved its efficacy. I retained this man in my service that we might see the end of the experiment. I then by means of strong distillations tried to calcinate gold and silver but all my labor was in vain. The weight of the gold I drew out of my furnace was diminished by one half since I put it in and my 400 crowns were very soon reduced to 230. I gave twenty of these to my Italian in order that he might travel to Milan where the author of the receipt resided and ask him the explanation of some passages which we thought obscure. I remained at Toulouse all the winter in the hope of his return but I might have remained there till this day if I had waited for him for I never saw his face again. In the succeeding summer there was a great plague which forced me to quit the town. I did not, however, lose sight of my work. I went to Cahors where I remained six months and made the acquaintance of an old man who was commonly known to the people as the philosopher. A name which, in country places, is often bestowed upon people whose only merit is their neighbors. I showed him my collection of alchemical receipts and asked his opinion upon them. He picked out ten or twelve of them merely saying that they were better than the others. When the plague seized I returned to Toulouse and recommended my experiments in search of the stone. I worked to such effect that my 400 crowns were reduced to 170. That I might continue my work on a safer method in 1537 with a certain abbey who resided in the neighborhood. He was smitten with the same money as myself and told me that one of his friends who had followed to Rome in the retinue of Cardinal d'Armagnan had sent him from the city a new receipt which could not fail to transmute iron and copper but which would cost 200 crowns. I provided half this money in the abbey the rest of my experiment expense. As we required spirits of wine for our experiments I bought a ton of excellent vending and yuck. I extracted the spirit and rectified it several times. We took a quantity of this into which we put four marks of silver and one of gold that had been undergoing the process of calcination for a month. We put this mixture cleverly into a sort of horn-shaped vessel with another to serve as a retort to produce congelation. This experiment lasted a year but not to remain idle we amused ourselves with many other less important operations. We drew quite as much profit from these as from our great work. The whole of the year 1537 passed over without producing any change whatever. In fact, we might have waited till Tuesday for the congelation of the spirits of wine. However, we made a projection with it upon some heated quick silver but all was in vain. Judge of Arsha Grin, especially of that of the Abbey who had already boasted to all the monks of his monastery that they had only to bring the large pump which stood in a corner of the cloister and he would convert it into gold. But this ill luck did not prevent us from persevering. I once more mortgaged my paternal lands for 400 crowns the whole of which I determined to devote to all of my search for the great secret. The Abbey contributed the same sum and with these 800 crowns I proceeded to Paris a city more abounding with alchemists than any other in the world resolved never to leave it until I had either found the philosopher's stone or spent all my money. This journey gave the greatest offense to all my relations and friends who imagining that I was fitted to be a great lawyer to establish myself in that profession. For the sake of quietness I pretended at last that such was my object. After traveling for 15 days I arrived in Paris on the 9th of January 1539. I remained for a month almost unknown but I had no sooner begun to frequent the amateurs of the science and visited the shops of the furnace makers than I had the acquaintance of more than 100 operative alchemists whom had a different theory and a different mode of working. Some of them preferred cementation others sought the universal alchohester dissolvent and some of them boasted the great efficacy of the essence of emery. Some of them endeavored to extract mercury from other metals to fix it afterwards and in order that each of us should be thoroughly acquainted with the proceedings of the others we agreed to meet somewhere every night and report progress. Sometimes at the house of one and sometimes in the garret of another not only on weekdays but on Sundays and the great festivals of the church. Ah, one used to say if I had the means of recommending this experiment I should do something. Yes, said another if my crucible had not cracked I should have succeeded before now while a third exclaimed without sigh if I had but a round copper vessel of sufficient strength I would have fixed mercury with silver. There was not one among them who had not some excuse for his failure but I was deaf to all their speeches I did not want to part with my money to any of them remembering how often I had been the dupe of such promises. A Greek at last presented himself and with him I worked a long time uselessly upon nails made of cinnabar or vermilion. I was also acquainted with a foreign gentleman newly arrived in Paris and often accompanied him to the shops of the goldsmiths to sell pieces of gold and silver, the produce as he said of his experiments. I stuck closely to him for a long time in the hope that he wouldn't part his secret. He refused for a long time but exceeded at last on my earnest and treating and I found that it was nothing more than an ingenious trick. I did not fail to inform my friend Diabe whom I had left it to lose of all of my adventures and sent him among other matters the violation of the trick by which this gentleman pretended to turn lead into gold. Diabe still imagined that I should succeed at last and advised me to remain another year in Paris where I had made so good a beginning. I remained there three years but notwithstanding all my efforts I had no more success than I had had elsewhere. I had just got to the end of my money when I received the letter from Diabe telling me to leave everything and joined him immediately at Toulouse. I went accordingly and found that he had received letters from the king in Navarre, grandfather of Henry IV. This prince was a great lover of philosophy full of curiosity and had written to Diabe that I should visit him at Pau and that he would give me three or four thousand crowns if I would communicate the secret I had learned from the foreign gentleman. Diabe's ears were so tickled with the four thousand crowns that he let me have no peace night or day until he had fairly seen me on the road to Pau. I arrived at that place in the month of May 1542. I worked away and succeeded according to the receipt I had obtained. When I had finished the satisfaction of the king, he gave me the reward that I expected. Although he was willing enough to do me further service, he was dissuaded from it by the lords of his court and even by many of those who had been most anxious that I should come. He sent me then about my business with many thanks, saying that if there was anything in his kingdom which he could give me, such as the produce of confiscations or the like, he should be most happy. I thought I might stay long enough for these prospective confiscations and never get them at last and I therefore determined to go back to my friend Diabe. I learned that on the road to Pau and to Luz there recited a monk who was very skillful in all matters of natural philosophy. On my return I paid him a visit. He pitied me very much and advised me with much warmth and kindness of expression not to amuse myself any longer with such experiments as these which were all false and sophisticated. But that I should read the good books of the old philosophers where I might not only find the true matter of the science of alchemy but I'd learn also the exact order of operations which ought to be followed. I very much approved of this wise advice, but before I acted upon it I went back to the Abbey of Toulouse to give him ale account of the 800 crowns which we had had in common and at the same time share with him such reward as I had received from the king of Navarre. If he was little satisfied with the relation of my adventures since our first operation I felt less satisfied when I told him I had formed a resolution to renounce the search for the philosopher's stone. The reason was that he thought me a good artist. For our 800 crowns there remained but 176. When I quitted the Abbey I went to my own house with the intention of remaining there till I had read all the old philosophers and of them proceeding to Paris. I arrived in Paris on the day after Saint's of the year 1546 and devoted another year to the assiduous study of great authors. Among others the turbophilosophorum of the good Treveson the remonstrance of nature to the wandering alchemist by Jean de Monde and several other of the best books but as I had no right principles I did not well know what course to follow. At last I left my solitude not to see my formal acquaintance the adepts and operators but to frequent the society of true philosophers. Among them I fell into still greater uncertainties being in fact completely bewildered by the variety of operations which they showed me. Spurred on nevertheless by a sort of frenzy or inspiration I threw myself into the works of Raymond Zuley and of Arnold de Villeneuve. The reading of these occupied me for another year when I finally determined on the course I should adopt. I was obliged to wait however until I had mortgaged another very considerable portion of my patrimony. This business was not settled until the beginning of Lent 1549 when I commenced my operations. I laid in a stock of all that was necessary and began to work the day after Easter. It was not however without some disquietude in opposition from my friends who came about me, one asking me what I was going to do and whether I had not already spent money enough upon such follies. Another assured me that if I bought so much charcoal I should strengthen the suspicion already existing that I was a coiner of base money. Another advised me to purchase some place in the magistory as I was already a doctor of laws. My relations spoke in terms still more annoying to me and even threatened that if I continued to make such a fool of myself they would send a posse of police officers into my house and break all of my furnaces uncrucible into atoms. I was buried almost to death with this continued persecution but I found comfort in my work and in the progress of my experiment to which I was very attentive and which went on bravely from day to day. About this time I played in Paris which interrupted all intercourse between man and man and left me as much to myself as I could desire. I soon had the satisfaction to remark the progress in succession of the three colors which, according to the philosophers always prognosticate the approaching perfection of the work. I observed them distinctly one after the other. The next year being Easter Sunday 1550 I made the great trial. Some common quicksilver which I put into a small crucible on the fire was in less than an hour converted into very good gold. You may judge how great was my joy but I took care not to boast of it. I returned thanks to God for the favor he had shown me and prayed that I might only be permitted to make such use of it as would redound to his glory. On the following day I went towards Toulouse in a bay in accordance with a mutual promise that we should communicate our discoveries to each other. On my way I called in to see the sage monk who had assisted me with his counsels but I had the sorrow to learn that they were both dead. After this I would not return to my own home but retired to another place to await one of my relations whom I had left in charge of my estate. I gave him orders to sell all that belonged to me as well as movable as them movable to pay my debts with the proceeds and divide all the rest among those in any way related to me who might stand in need of it in order that they might enjoy some share of the good fortune which had befallen me. There was a great deal of talk in the neighborhood about my precipitate retreat. The wisest of my acquaintance imagining that broken down and ruined by my mad expenses I sold my little remaining property that I might go and hide my shame in distant countries. My relative already spoken of rejoined me on the first of July after having performed all the business I had entrusted him with. We took our departure together to see a land of liberty. We first retired to Lausanne in Switzerland when after remaining there for some time we resolved to pass the remainder of our days in some of the most celebrated cities of Germany living quietly and without splendor. Thus ends the story of Dennis Zacare as written by himself. He was not been so candid at its conclusion as at his commencement and has left the world in doubt as to his real motives for pretending that he had discovered the philosopher's stone. It seems probable that the sentence he puts into the mouths of his wisest acquaintances was the true reason of his retreat. That he was in fact reduced to poverty and hid his shame in foreign countries. Nothing further is known of his life and his real name has never yet been discovered. He wrote a work on alchemy entitled The True Natural Philosophy of Metals.