SOURCE: "The Historical Faust," in their The Sources of the Faust Tradition: From Simon Magus to Lessing, Oxford University Press, 1936, pp. 81-126.

The documentary evidence which is generally advanced for the existence of a historical Faust^[1] is of varying value. The mixture of legendary matter with material that is really authentic is inevitable and increases as we get into the second half of the sixteenth century. Nor is it always easy to sift out the one from the other. Such evidence as we get from Tritheim, Conrad Mutianus Rufus, the account book of the Bishop of Bamberg, Kilian Leib, the Nuremberg and Ingolstadt records, Luther's Tischreden, and Philip von Hutten is first hand and genuinely historical, though Tritheim brings in some material that is probably hearsay. The evidence from the matriculation records of the University of Heidelberg is certainly historical but the question remains whether the "Johannes Faust ex Simem" is Faust the magician. In other cases the evidence is partly hearsay, but it is well to remember that the authors were frequently scholarly men and should be given credit for using due caution in what they wrote. To this group belong the Waldeck Chronicle, Joachim Camerarius, Begardi, Gast, Gesner, the Zimmerische Chronik, Wier, Lercheimer, and Philipp Camerarius. The evidence of Manlius would seem to belong somewhere between the two groups in view of the fact that he claims to be quoting Melanchthon who speaks, in part at least, from first hand knowledge. The Erfurt stories as told by Hogel seem at first sight to be distinctly legendary. This impression is strengthened by the fact that we find the same stories in the so-called Erfurt chapters in the enlarged Spies Faust Book. And yet there is reason to believe that Hogel uses as his direct source an older Erfurt chronicle whose author knew at first hand the events he is recounting. The historical value of Hogel cannot, therefore, be ignored.² What is offered in the Explicationes of Melanchthon, and by Lavater is decidedly hearsay.

The problems raised by all this material are not solved when it has been judged along the lines just indicated. The question still remains whether all these references are to one individual or whether there was more than one personage at the basis of the stories. Erich Schmidt held to the former view; Robert Petsch believes there were two Fausts. The matter is, of course, one for the personal judgment of the reader.

The Faust of history, as he emerges from the letters, diaries, and records of his contemporaries between 1507, when he is first mentioned, and approximately 1540, when all mention of him as still living ceases, remains at best a shadowy figure. That he was widely known, fairly well educated, and extensively travelled; that he had pretty generally an evil reputation; that he was a braggart, a vagabond, and something of a mountebank; that his contemporaries had a great contempt for him not unmixed with fear, all this may be inferred from the extant documents without too much stretching of the imagination.

The widespread interest aroused among contemporaries and succeeding generations by the historical Faust and the legends connected with his name is attested by the vast number of references to the alleged magician appearing in the various European literatures. The most complete collection of these references was made by Alexander Tille,³ who, with unbelievable patience and industry, gathered together almost 450 separate items which he published in Berlin between 1898 and 1901. Some ninety additional references, discovered since Tille's collection was printed, have been published in the Jahrbuch der Sammlung Kippenberg, Vols. 1, 4, 8, and 9.

I. Letter of Johannes Tritheim' to Johannes Virdung.⁵

—The man of whom you wrote me, George Sabellicus, who has presumed to call himself the prince of necromancers, is a vagabond, a babbler and a rogue, who deserves to be thrashed so that he may not henceforth rashly venture to profess in public things so execrable and so hostile to the holy church. For what, other than symptoms of a very foolish and insane mind, are the titles assumed by this man, who shows himself to be a fool and not a philosopher? For thus he has formulated the title befitting him: Master George Sabellicus, the younger Faust, the chief of necromancers, astrologer, the second magus, palmist, diviner with earth and fire, second in the art of divination with water. Behold the foolish temerity of the man, the madness by which he is possessed, in that he dares to call himself the source of necromancy, when in truth, in his ignorance of all good letters, he ought to call himself a fool rather than a master. But his wickedness is not hidden from me. When I was returning last year from the Mark Brandenburg, I happened upon this same man in the town of Gelnhausen, and many silly things were told me about him at the inn,—things promised by him with great rashness on his part. As soon as he heard that I was there, he fled from the inn and could not be persuaded to come into my presence. The description of his folly, such as he gave to you and which we have mentioned, he also sent to me through a certain citizen. Certain priests in the same town told me that he had said, in the presence of many people, that he had acquired such knowledge of all wisdom and such a memory, that if all the books of Plato and Aristotle, together with their whole philosophy, had totally passed from the memory of man, he himself, through his own genius, like another Hebrew Ezra,⁷ would be able to restore them all with increased beauty. Afterwards, while I was at Speyer, he came to Wurzburg and, impelled by the same vanity, is reported to have said in the presence of many that the miracles of Christ the Saviour were not so wonderful, that he himself could do all the things which Christ had done, as often and whenever he wished. Towards the end of Lent of the present year he came to Kreuznach and with like folly and boastfulness made great promises, saying that in alchemy he was the most learned man of all times and that by his knowledge and ability, he could do whatever anyone might wish. In the meantime there was vacant in the same town the position of schoolmaster, to which he was appointed through the influence of Franz von Sickingen,⁸ the magistrate of your prince and a man very fond of mystical lore. Then he began to indulge in the most dastardly kind of lewdness with the boys and when this was suddenly discovered, he avoided by flight the punishment that awaited him. These are the things which I know through very definite evidence concerning the man whose coming you await with such anticipation. When he comes to you, you will find him to be not a philosopher but a fool with an overabundance of rashness.—Würzburg, the 20th day of August. A.D. 1507.…

III. Letter of Conrad Mutianus Rufus¹⁰ to Heinrich Urbanus.¹¹

—Eight days ago there came to Erfurt a certain soothsayer by the name of George Faust, the demigod of Heidelberg, a mere braggart and fool. His claims, like those of all diviners, are idle and such physiognomy has no more weight than a water spider. The ignorant marvel at him. Let the theologians rise against him and not try to destroy the philosopher Reuchlin.¹⁴ I heard him babbling at an inn, but I did not reprove his boastfulness. What is the foolishness of other people to me?—October 3, 1513.

IV. From the Account Book of the Bishop of Bamberg,¹⁵ 1519-1520.

The annual accounts of Hans Muller, chamberlain, from Walpurgis¹⁶ 1519 to Walpurgis 1520.

Entry on February 12, 1520, under the heading "Miscellaneous."

10 gulden given and presented as a testimonial to Doctor Faust, the philosopher, who made for my master a horoscope or prognostication. Paid on the Sunday after Saint Scholastica's Day¹⁸ by the order of his reverence.

V. From the Journal of Kilian Lieb,¹⁹ July 1528.

George Faust of Helmstet said on the fifth of June that when the sun and Jupiter are in the same constellation prophets are born (presumably such as he). He asserted that he was the commander or preceptor of the order of the Knights of St. John at a place called Hallestein²⁰ on the border of Carinthia.

VI. From the Records of the City of Ingolstadt.

1. Minutes on the actions of the city council in Ingolstadt.

   Today, the Wednesday after St. Vitus' Day,²³ 1528. The soothsayer shall be ordered to leave the city and to spend his penny elsewhere.

2. Record of those banished from Ingolstadt.

On Wednesday after St. Vitus' Day, 1528, a certain man who called himself Dr. George Faust of Heidelberg was told to spend his penny elsewhere and he pledged himself not to take vengeance on or make fools of the authorities for this order.

VII. Entry in the Records of the City Council of Nuremberg. May 10, 1532.

Safe conduct to Doctor Faust, the great sodomite²⁵ and necromancer, at Fürth²⁶ refused.

The junior Burgomaster.

VIII. From the Waldeck Chronicle.

Francis I by the grace of God, son of Philip II²⁸ by his second marriage, Bishop of Munster, on June 25, 1535, invested the city of Münster which had been occupied by the Anabaptists and captured it with the aid of princes of the Empire under the leadership of Hensel Hochstraten. John of Leyden,²⁹ the boastful pretender, who called himself King of Israel and Zion, was executed together with Knipperdollinck and Krechting, their bodies being torn with red-hot pincers, enclosed in iron cages and suspended from the tower of St. Lambert's Church on the 23rd of January, 1536. It was at this time that the famous necromancer Dr. Faust, coming on the same day from Corbach,³⁰ prophesied that the city of Münster would surely be captured by the bishop on that very night.

IX. Letter of Joachim Camerarius³² to Daniel Stibar.³³

—I owe to your friend Faust the pleasure of discussing these affairs with you. I wish he had taught you something of this sort rather than puffed you up with the wind of silly superstition or held you in suspense with I know not what juggler's tricks. But what does he tell us, pray? For I know that you have questioned him diligently about all things. Is the emperor victorious? That is the way you should go about it.—Tulbingen, the 13th of August, 1536.

X From the Tischreden of Martin Luther.³⁵

God's word alone overcomes the fiery arrows of the devil and all his temptations.

When one evening at the table a sorcerer named Faust was mentioned, Doctor Martin said in a serious tone: "The devil does not make use of the services of sorcerers against me. If he had been able to do me any harm he would have done it long since. To be sure he has often had me by the head but he had to let me go again."

XI. From the Tischreden of Martin Luther.

Mention was made of magicians and the magic art, and how Satan blinded men. Much was said about Faust, who called the devil his brother-in-law, and the remark was made: "If I, Martin Luther, had given him even my hand, he would have destroyed me; but I would not have been afraid of him,—with God as my protector, I would have given him my hand in the name of the Lord."

XII. From the Index Sanitatis of Philipp Begardi.³⁸

There is another well-known and important man whom I would not have mentioned were it not for the fact that he himself had no desire to remain in obscurity and unknown. For some years ago he traveled through almost all countries, principalities and kingdoms, and himself made his name known to everybody and bragged much about his great skill not only in medicine but also in chiromancy, nigromancy, physiognomy, crystal gazing, and the like arts. And he not only bragged but confessed and signed himself as a famous and experienced master. He himself avowed and did not deny that he was and was called Faust and in addition signed himself "The philosopher of philosophers." The number of those who complained to me that they were cheated by him was very great. Now his promises were great like those of Thessalus³⁹; likewise his fame as that of Theophrastus.⁴¹ But his deeds, as I hear, were very petty and fraudulent. But in taking or—to speak more accurately—in receiving money he was not slow. And afterwards also, on his departure, as I have been informed, he left many to whistle for their money. But what is to be done about it? What's gone is gone. I will drop the subject here. Anything further is your affair.

XIII. Letter from Philipp von Hutten⁴² to His Brother Moritz von Hutten.

Here you have a little about all the provinces so that you may see that we are not the only ones who have been unfortunate in Venezuela up to this time; that all the abovementioned expeditions which left Sevilla before and after us perished within three months.

Therefore I must confess that the philosopher Faust hit the nail on the head, for we struck a very bad year. But God be praised, things went better for us than for any of the others. God willing I shall write you again before we leave here. Take good care of our dear old mother. Give my greetings to all our neighbours and friends, especially Balthasar Rabensteiner and George von Libra, William von Hessberg and all my good comrades. Pay my respects to Herr N of Thiungen, my master's brother. Done in Coro in the Province of Venezuela on January 16th, 1540.

XIV. From the Sermones Convivales of Johannes Gast.⁴⁴

[a] Concerning the Necromancer Faust

He puts up at night at a certain very rich monastery, intending to spend the night there. A brother places before him some ordinary wine of indifferent quality and without flavor. Faust requests that he draw from another cask a better wine which it was the custom to give to nobles. Then the brother said: "I do not have the keys, the prior is sleeping, and it is a sin to awaken him." Faust said: "The keys are lying in that corner. Take them and open that cask on the left and give me a drink." The brother objected that he had no orders from the prior to place any other wine before guests. When Faust heard this he became very angry and said: "In a short time you shall see marvels, you inhospitable brother." Burning with rage he left early in the morning without saying farewell and sent a certain raging devil who made a great stir in the monastery by day and by night and moved things about both in the church and in the cells of the monks, so that they could not get any rest, no matter what they did. Finally they deliberated whether they should leave the monastery or destroy it altogether. And so they wrote to the Count Palatine concerning the misfortune in which they were involved. He took the monastery under his own protection and ejected the monks to whom he furnishes supplies from year to year and uses what is left for himself. It is said that to this very day, if monks enter the monastery, such great disturbances arise that those who live there can have no peace. This the devil was able to bring to pass.

[b] Another Story about Faust

At Basle I dined with him in the great college and he gave to the cook various kinds of birds to roast. I do not know where he bought them or who gave them to him, since there were none on sale at the time. Moreover I never saw any like them in our regions. He had with him a dog and a horse which I believe to have been demons and which were ready for any service. I was told that the dog at times assumed the form of a servant and served the food. However, the wretch was destined to come to a deplorable end, for he was strangled by the devil and his body on its bier kept turning face downward even though it was five times turned on its back. God preserve us lest we become slaves of the devil.

XV. From the Explicationes Melanchthoniae,⁴⁶ Pars II.

There [in the presence of Nero] Simon Magus tried to fly to heaven, but Peter prayed that he might fall. I believe that the Apostles had great struggles although not all are recorded. Faust also tried this at Venice. But he was sorely dashed to the ground.

XVI. From the Explicationes Melanthoniae, Pars IV.

The devil is a marvellous craftsman, for he is able by some device to accomplish things which are natural but which we do not understand. For he can do more than man. Thus many strange feats of magic are recounted such as I have related elsewhere concerning the girl at Bologna. In like manner Faust, the magician, devoured at Vienna another magician who was discovered a few days later in a certain cave. The devil can perform many miracles; nevertheless the church has its own miracles.

XVII. From the Epistolae Medicinales of Conrad Gesner.⁴⁹ Letter from Gesner to Johannes Crato⁵⁰ of Krafftheim.

Oporinus⁵¹ of Basle, formerly a disciple and companion of Theophrastus,⁵² narrates some wonderful things concerning the latter's dealings with demons. Such men practice vain astrology, geomancy, necromancy, and similar prohibited arts. I suspect indeed that they derive from the Druids who among the ancient Celts were for some years taught by demons in underground places. This has been practiced at Salamanca in Spain down to our own day. From that school came those commonly called "wandering scholars," among whom a certain Faust, who died not long since, is very celebrated.

XVIII. From the Locorum Communium Collectanea of Johannes Manlius.⁵⁴

I knew a certain man by the name of Faust from Kundling,⁵⁵ which is a small town near my birthplace. When he was a student at Cracow he studied magic, for there was formerly much practice of the art in that city and in that place too there were public lectures on this art. He wandered about everywhere and talked of many mysterious things. When he wished to provide a spectacle at Venice he said he would fly to heaven. So the devil raised him up and then cast him down so that he was dashed to the ground and almost killed. However he did not die.

A few years ago this same John Faust, on the day before his end, sat very downcast in a certain village in the Duchy of Württemberg. The host asked him why, contrary to his custom and habit, he was so downcast (he was otherwise a most shameful scoundrel who led a very wicked life, so that he was again and again nigh to being killed because of his dissolute habits). Then he said to the host in the village: "Don't be frightened tonight." In the middle of the night the house was shaken. When Faust did not get up in the morning and when it was now almost noon, the host with several others went into his bedroom and found him lying near the bed with his face turned toward his back. Thus the devil had killed him. While he was alive he had with him a dog which was the devil, just as the scoundrel⁵⁷ who wrote "De vanitate artium" likewise had a dog that ran about with him and was the devil. This same Faust escaped in this town of Wittenberg when the good prince Duke John had given orders to arrest him. Likewise in Nuremberg he escaped. He was just beginning to dine when he became restless and immediately rose and paid the host what he owed. He had hardly got outside the gate when the bailiffs came and inquired about him.

The same magician Faust, a vile beast and a sink of many devils, falsely boasted that all the victories which the emperor's armies have won in Italy had been gained by him through his magic. This was an absolute lie. I mention this for the sake of the young that they may not readily give ear to such lying men.

XIX. From the Zimmerische Chronik.⁵⁸

That the practice of such art [soothsaying] is not only godless but in the highest degree dangerous is undeniable, for experience proves it and we know what happened to the notorious sorcerer Faust. After he had practiced during his lifetime many marvels about which a special treatise could be written, he was finally killed at a ripe old age by the evil one in the seigniory of Staufen in Breisgau.

(After 1539). About this time also Faust died in or not far from the town of Staufen in Breisgau. In his day he was as remarkable a sorcerer as could be found in German lands in our times. He had so many strange experiences at various times that he will not easily be forgotten for many years. He became an old man and, as it is said, died miserably. From all sorts of reports and conjectures many have thought that the evil one, whom in his lifetime he used to call his brother-in-law, had killed him. The books which he left behind fell into the hands of the Count of Staufen in whose territory he died. Afterwards many people tried to get these books and in doing so in my opinion were seeking a dangerous and unlucky treasure and gift. He sent a spirit into the monastery of the monks at Luxheim⁶⁰ in the Vosges mountains which they could not get rid of for years and which bothered them tremendously,—and this for no other reason than that once upon a time they did not wish to put him up over night. For this reason he sent them the restless guest. In like manner, it is said, a similar spirit was summoned and attached to the former abbot of St. Diesenberg by an envious wandering scholar.

XX. From the De Praestigiis Daemonum of Johanines Wier.⁶¹

John Faust was born in the little town Kundling and studied magic in Cracow, where it was formerly taught openly; and for a few years previous to 1540 he practiced his art in various places in Germany with many lies and much fraud, to the marvel of many. There was nothing he could not do with his inane boasting and his promises. I will give one example of his art on the condition that the reader will first promise not to imitate him. This wretch, taken prisoner at Batenburg on the Maas, near the border of Geldern, while the Baron Hermann was away, was treated rather leniently by his chaplain, Dr. Johannes Dorstenius, because he promised the man, who was good but not shrewd, knowledge of many things and various arts. Hence he kept drawing him wine, by which Faust was very much exhilarated, until the vessel was empty. When Faust learned this, and the chaplain told him that he was going to Grave, that he might have his beard shaved, Faust promised him another unusual art by which his beard might be removed without the use of a razor, if he would provide more wine. When this condition was accepted, he told him to rub his beard vigorously with arsenic, but without any mention of its preparation. When the salve had been applied, there followed such an inflammation that not only the hair but also the skin and the flesh were burned off. The chaplain himself told me of this piece of villainy more than once with much indignation. When another acquaintance of mine, whose beard was black and whose face was rather dark and showed signs of melancholy (for he was splenetic), approached Faust, the latter exclaimed: "I surely thought you were my brother-in-law and therefore I looked at your feet to see whether long curved claws projected from them": thus comparing him to the devil whom he thought to be entering and whom he used to call his brother-in-law. He was finally found dead near his bed in a certain town in the Duchy of Wurttemberg, with his face turned towards his back; and it is reported that during the middle of the night preceding, the house was shaken.

XXI. From the Von Gespdnsten of Ludwig Lavater.⁶³

To this very day there are sorcerers who boast that they can saddle a horse on which they can in a short time make great journeys. The devil will give them all their reward⁶⁴ in the long run. What wonders is the notorious sorcerer Faust said to have done in our own times.

XXII. From the Chronica von Thüringen und der Stadt Erffurth of Zacharias Hogel.⁶⁶

1. It was also probably about this time [1550] that those strange things happened which are said to have taken place in Erfurt in the case of the notorious sorcerer and desperate brand of hell, Dr. Faust. Although he lived in Wittenberg, yet, just as his restless spirit in other instances drove him about in the world, so he also came to the university at Erfurt, rented quarters near the large Collegium, and through his boasting brought it to pass that he was allowed to lecture publicly and to explain the Greek poet Homer to the students. When, in this connection, he had occasion to mention the king of Troy, Priam, and the heroes of the Trojan war, Hector, Ajax, Ulysses, Agamemnon, and others, he described them each as they had appeared. He was asked (for there are always inquisitive fellows and there was no question as to what Faust was) to bring it to pass through his art, that these heroes should appear and show themselves as he had just described them. He consented to this and appointed the time when they should next come to the auditorium. And when the hour had come and more students than before had appeared before him, he said in the midst of his lecture that they should now get to see the ancient Greek heroes. And immediately he called in one after the other and as soon as one was gone another came in to them, looked at them and shook his head as though he were still in action on the field before Troy. The last of them all was the giant Poly-phemus, who had only a single terrible big eye in the middle of his forehead. He wore a fiery red beard and was devouring a fellow, one of whose legs was dangling out of his mouth. The sight of him scared them so that their hair stood on end and when Dr. Faust motioned him to go out, he acted as though he did not understand but wanted to grasp a couple of them too with his teeth. And he hammered on the floor with his great iron spear so that the whole Collegium shook, and then he went away.

   Not long afterward the commencement for masters was held and [at the banquet given in connection therewith], in the presence of the members of the theological faculty and of delegates from the council, the comedies of the ancient poets Plautus and Terence were discussed and regret was expressed that so many of them had been lost in times gone by, for if they were available, they could be used to good advantage in the schools. Dr. Faust listened to this and he also began to speak about the two poets and cited several quotations which were supposed to be in their lost comedies. And he offered, if it would not be held against him, and if the theologians had no objections, to bring to light again all the lost comedies and to put them at their disposal for several hours, during which time they would have to be copied quickly by a goodly number of students or clerks, if they wanted to have them. After that they would be able to use them as they pleased. The theologians and councilmen, however, did not take kindly to the proposal: for they said the devil might interpolate all sorts of offensive things into such newly found comedies. And after all, one could, even without them, learn enough good Latin from those which still existed. The conjurer accordingly could not exhibit one of his masterpieces in this connection. He was accustomed to spend a good deal of his time while he was in Erfurt at the Anchor House of Squire N. in the Schlossergasse, entertaining him and his guests with his adventures. Once, when he had gone to Prague in Bohemia, a group of such guests gathered at the inn and, because they desired to have him present, begged mine host to tell them where he was. And one of the guests jokingly called Faust by name and begged him not to desert them. At that instant someone in the street knocks at the door. The servant runs to the window, looks out and asks who is there. And behold, there, before the door, stands Dr. Faust, holding his horse as though he had just dismounted, and says: "Don't you know me? I am he whom they have just called." The servant runs into the room and reports. The host refuses to believe it, saying that Dr. Faust was in Prague. In the meantime he knocks again at the door and master and servant again run to the window, see him, and open the door, and he is given a cordial welcome and immediately led in to the guests. The host's son takes his horse, saying that he will give it plenty of feed, and leads it into the stable. The squire immediately asks Dr. Faust how he had returned so quickly. "That's what my horse is for," says Dr. Faust. "Because the guests desired me so much and called me, I wanted to oblige them and to appear, although I have to be back in Prague before morning." Thereupon they drink to his health in copious draughts, and when he asks them whether they would also like to drink a foreign wine, they answer: "Yes." He asks whether it shall be Reinfal,⁶⁸ Malmsey, Spanish, or French wine. And when one of them says: "They are all good," he asks for an auger and with it makes four holes in the table and closes them with plugs. Then he takes fresh glasses and taps from the table that kind of wine which he names and continues to drink merrily with them. In the meantime the son runs into the room and says: "Doctor, your horse eats as though he were mad; he has already devoured several bushels of oats and continually stands and looks for more. But I will give him some more until he has enough." "Have done," says the doctor, "he has had enough; he would eat all the feed in your loft before he was full." But at midnight the horse utters a shrill neigh so that it is heard throughout the entire house. "I must go," says the doctor, but tarries a little until the horse neighs a second and finally a third time. Thereupon he goes, takes his leave of them outside, mounts his horse and rides up the Schlossergasse. But the horse in plain sight rises quickly into the air and takes him back through the air to Prague. After several weeks he comes again from Prague to Erfurt with splendid gifts which had been given to him there, and invites the same company to be his guests at St. Michael's. They come and stand there in the rooms but there is no sign of any preparation. But he knocks with a knife on the table. Soon someone enters and says: "Sir, what do you wish?" Faust asks, "How quick are you?" The other answers: "As an arrow." "No," says Dr. Faust, "you shall not serve me. Go back to where you came from." Then he knocks again and when another servant enters and asks the same question, he says: "How quick are you?" "As the wind," says he. "That is something," says Dr. Faust, but sends him out again too. But when he knocked a third time, another entered and, when he was asked the same question, said he was as quick as the thoughts of man. "Good," said Dr. Faust, "you'll do." And he went out with him, told him what he should do, and returned again to his guests and had them wash their hands and sit down. Soon the servant with two others brought in three covered dishes each, and this happened four times. Thirty six courses or dishes were served, therefore, with game, fowl, vegetables, meat pies and other meat, not to mention the fruit, confections, cakes, etc. All the beakers, glasses, and mugs were put on the table empty. Soon Dr. Faust asked each one what he wished to drink in the way of beer and wine and then put the cups outside of the window and soon took them back again, full of just that fresh drink which each one wanted to have. The music which one of his servants played was so charming that his guests had never heard the like, and so wonderful as if several were playing in harmony on harmoniums, fifes, cornets, lutes, harps, trumpets, etc. So they made merry until broad daylight. What was to be the outcome? The man played so many tricks that the city and country began to talk about him and many of the nobility of the country came to Erfurt to him. People began to worry lest the devil might lead the tender youth and other simpletons astray, so that they also might show a leaning towards the black art and might regard it as only a clever thing to do. Since the sorcerer attached himself to the squire in the Anchor House, who was a papist, therefore the suggestion was made that the neighboring monk, Dr. Klinge, should make an effort to tear him from the devil and convert him. The Franciscan did so, visited him and spoke to him, at first kindly, then sternly; explained to him God's wrath and the eternal damnation which must follow on such doings; said that he was a well educated man and could support himself without this in a godly and honorable way: therefore he should stop such frivolity, to which he had perhaps been persuaded by the devil in his youth, and should beg God for forgiveness of his sins, and should hope in this way to obtain that forgiveness of his sins which God had never yet denied anyone. Dr. Faust said: "My dear sir, I realize that you wish me well; I know all that, too, which you have just told me. But I have ventured so far, and with my own blood have contracted with the devil to be forever his, with body and soul: how can I now retract? or how can I be helped?" Dr. Klinge said: "That is quite possible, if you earnestly call on God for grace and mercy, show true repentance and do penance, refrain from sorcery and community with the devils, and neither harm nor seduce any one. We will hold mass for you in our cloister so that you will without a doubt get rid of the devil." "Mass here, mass there," said Dr. Faust. "My pledge binds me too absolutely. I have wantonly despised God and become perjured and faithless towards Him, and believed and trusted more in the devil than in Him. Therefore I can neither come to Him again nor obtain any comfort from His grace which I have forfeited. Besides, it would not be honest nor would it redound to my honor to have it said that I had violated my bond and seal, which I had made with my own blood. The devil has honestly kept the promise that he made to me, therefore I will honestly keep the pledge that I made and contracted with him." "Well," says the monk, "then go to, you cursed child of the devil, if you will not be helped, and will not have it otherwise." Thereupon he went to his Magnificence, the Rector, and reported it to him. The council was also informed and took steps so that Dr. Faust had to leave. So Erfurt got rid of the wicked man.

   However, this affair with the aforesaid sorcerer probably took place in this year or shortly before or afterwards, during the lifetime of Dr. Klinge.

2. Also the Lord God afflicted Dr. Klinge, the above mentioned obdurate monk and abbot in the Franciscan cloister in Erfurt, so that he despaired of his life. But he recovered again and, because it was reported to him that they said of him in the city that he had become Lutheran, he wrote and published his book called Catechismus Catholicus, printed in 1570 in Cologne. And in the introduction he bore witness that he would remain in the doctrine which he had preached in Erfurt for thirty-six years. And this was the monk who wanted to turn and convert the notorious Dr. Faust from his evil life. Dr. Klinge however died in the year 1556 on the Tuesday after Oculi,⁶⁹ on which Sunday he had still preached in the church of Our Lady. And he lies buried in that church opposite the chancel, where his epitaph may be seen.

XXIII. From the Christlich Bedencken of Augustin Lercheimer.⁷⁰

He was born in a little place called Knittlingen, situated in Wuirttemberg near the border of the Palatinate. For a time he was schoolmaster in Kreuznach under Franz von Sickingen: he had to flee from there because he was guilty of sodomy. After that he travelled about the country with his devil; studied the black art at the university in Cracow; came to Wittenberg and was allowed to stay there for a time, until he carried things so far that they were on the point of arresting him, when he fled. He had neither house nor home in Wittenberg or elsewhere; in fact he had no permanent abode anywhere, but lived like a vagabond, was a parasite, drunkard, and gourmand, and supported himself by his quackery. How could he have a property at the outer gate in the Scheergasse in Wittenberg, when there never was any suburb there, and therefore also no outer gate? nor was there any Scheergasse there.

He was choked to death by the devil in a village in Württemberg, not at Kimlich near Wittenberg, since there is no village by that name. For he was never allowed to return to Wittenberg after he had fled from there to avoid arrest.

I do not touch upon other trivial, false, and nasty things in the book. I have pointed out these particular things because it has vexed and grieved me greatly, as it has many other honest people, to see the honorable and famous institution together with Luther, Melanchthon, and others of sainted memory so libelled. I myself was a student there, once upon a time. At that time the doings of this magician were still remembered by many there.

The lewd, devilish fellow Faust stayed for a time in Wittenberg, as I stated before. He came at times to the house of Melanchthon, who gave him a good lecture, rebuked and warned him that he should reform in time, lest he come to an evil end, as finally happened. But he paid no attention to it. Now one day about ten o'clock Melanchthon left his study to go down to eat. With him was Faust, whom he had vigorously rebuked. Faust replied: Sir, you continually rebuke me with abusive words. One of these days, when you go to the table, I will bring it about that all the pots in your kitchen will fly out of the chimney, so that you and your guests will have nothing to eat. To this Melanchthon replied: you had better not. Hang you and your tricks. Nor did Faust carry out his threat: the devil could not rob the kitchen of the saintly man, as he had done to the wedding guests of whom mention was made before.

XXIV. From the Operae Horarum Subcisivarum varum of Philipp Camerarius.⁷²

We know, moreover, (not to mention Scymus of Tarentum, Philistes of Syracuse, Heraclitus of Mytilene, who as we read were very distinguished and accomplished sorcerers in the time of Alexander the Great) that among the jugglers and magicians who became famous within the memory of our own fathers, John Faust of Kundling, who studied magic at Cracow where it was formerly publicly taught, acquired through his wonderful tricks and diabolical enchantments such a celebrated name that among the common people there can hardly be found anyone who is not able to recount some instance of his art. The same conjurer's tricks are ascribed to him as we have just related of the Bohemian magician.⁷³ Just as the lives of these magicians were similar, so each ended his life in a horrible manner. For Faust, it is said, and this is told by Wier, was found in a village in the Duchy of Württemberg lying dead alongside his bed with his head twisted round. And in the middle of the preceding night the house was shaken. The other, as we mentioned a little while ago, was carried off by his master while he was still alive. These are the fitting rewards of an impious and criminal curiosity. But to come back to Faust. From those in truth, who knew this impostor well, I have heard many things which show him to have been a master of the magic art (if indeed it is an art and not the jugglery of a fool). Among other deeds which he performed there is told one in particular which may seem ridiculous but which is truly diabolical. For from it may be seen how subtly and yet seriously, even in things which seem to us ridiculous, that arch conjurer, the devil, undermines the well being and safety of mankind … It is reported that Faust's deception was of this kind. Once upon a time when he was staying with some friends who had heard much about his magician's tricks, they besought him that he should show them some sample of his magic. He refused for a long time, but finally, yielding to the importunity of the company, which was by no means sober, he promised to show them whatever they might wish. With one accord therefore they besought him that he should show them a full grown vine with ripe grapes. For they thought that on account of the unsuitable time of the year (for it was toward the end of December) he would by no means be able to accomplish this. Faust assented and promised that they should immediately see on the table what they wished but with this condition: they should all wait without moving and in absolute silence until he should order them to cut the grapes. If they should do otherwise they would be in danger of their lives. When they had promised to do this, then by his tricks he so befuddled the eyes and senses of this drunken crowd that there appeared to them on a beautiful vine as many bunches of grapes of marvellous size and plumpness as there were people present. Made greedy by the novelty of the thing and athirst from too much wine, they took their knives and awaited his orders to cut off the grapes.

Finally, when Faust had held these triflers in suspense for some time in their silly error, suddenly the vine with its grapes disappeared in smoke and they were seen, each holding, not the grapes which each thought he had seized, but his own nose with his knife suspended over it so that if anyone had been unmindful of the directions given and had wished to cut the grapes without orders, he would have cut off his own nose. And it would have served them right and they would have deserved other mutilation, since, with intolerable curiosity, they occupied themselves as spectators and participants in the illusions of the devil, which no Christian may be interested in without great danger or rather sin.

Notes

¹ For a discussion of the historical Faust see: Erich Schmidt, "Faust und das sechzehnte Jahrhundert." Charakteristiken I. Berlin, 1886.

Erich Schmidt, "Faust und Luther." Berichte der Berliner Akademie, XXV (1896), 567 ff.

Georg Witkowski, "Der historische Faust." Deutsche Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, 1896-97, pp. 298 ff.

Robert Petsch, "Der historische Doktor Faust." Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, 11 (1910), 99 ff.

Carl Kiesewetter, Faust in der Geschichte und Tradition. Leipzig, 1893. 2nd ed. Berlin, 1921.

Harold George Meek, Johann Faust. London, 1930.

² For a discussion of the historical value of Hogel see Szamatólski, Euphorion II, 39-57.

³ Alexander Tille (1866-1912), Die Faustsplitter in der Literatur des sechzehnten bis achtzehnten Jahrhunderts. Berlin, 1898-1901.

⁴ Johannes Tritheim (1462-1516), physicist, humanist, writer. Abbot of the monastery at Sponheim near Kreuznach from 1485 to 1506. Then, after a short stay in Berlin, abbot of the monastery of St. James at Würzburg. Tritheim combined great learning with an inclination to the fantastic, which led to a considerable reputation as a magician.

⁵ Johannes Virdung of Hasfurt was mathematician and astrologer to the Elector of the Palatinate, and a professor at Heidelberg.…

…⁷ Cf. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, tr. by K. Lane, London, 1926. Vol. I, V, viii, 461: "—for when the Scriptures had been destroyed in the captivity of the people in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, and the Jews had gone back to their country after seventy years, then in the time of Artaxerxes, the king of the Persians, he (God) inspired Ezra, the priest of the tribe of Levi, to restore all the sayings of the prophets who had gone before, and to restore to the people the law given by Moses." Quoted by Eusebius from Irenaeus.

⁸ Franz von Sickingen (1481-1523), imperial counsellor, chamberlain and general, greatest of the "free knights," friend of Ulrich von Hutten and by him interested in humanism. Supporter of the Reformation.…

…¹⁰ Conrad Mutianus Rufus (1471-1526). Canon of the Church of St. Mary's at Gotha. His real name was Konrad Muth. He led a studious life as a humanist and philosopher and was ranked by the humanists with Erasmus and Reuchlin, despite the fact that he never published any of his writings.

¹¹ Heinrich Urbanus, student and later friend of Mutianus Rufus, and through him interested in humanism. From about 1505 he was steward of the Cistercian cloister Georgenthal at Erfurt.…

…¹⁴ Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522). Capnio was the Greek form of his name. He was learned in jurisprudence and languages (especially Greek and Hebrew). For many years he was in the service successively of Count Eberhard of Wulrttemberg, Johann von Dalberg at Heidelberg, and Duke Ulrich of Wulrttemberg. In 1519 he became Professor of Greek and Hebrew at Ingolstadt and from 1521 held the same chair at Tübingen. In 1511 he was involved in a bitter quarrel with the theological faculty at Cologne.

¹⁵ George III Schenk of Limburg was Bishop of Bamberg from 1502 to 1522.

¹⁶ i.e. May Ist.…

…¹⁸ Saint Scholastica's Day fell on Friday, February 10, 1520.

¹⁹ Kilian Leib was the prior of Rebdorf in Bavaria.

²⁰ Hallestein. According to [Karl] Schottenloher … this is probably Heilenstein in Styria which at one time was the seat of the Knights of St. John.…

…²³ St. Vitus' Day fell on Monday, June 15, 1528.…

…²⁵ Cf. Tritheim's account of Faust's experience as a teacher in Kreuznach, No. I, p. 86.

²⁶ We have followed the suggestion of Neubert, Vom Doctor Faustus zu Goethes Faust, Leipzig, 1932, p. 16, that 'zu furr' is to be interpreted as "zu Fürth."…

…²⁸ i.e. Philip II, Count of Waldeck.

²⁹ John of Leyden, originally a tailor, became a leader of the Anabaptist movement in Münster and set up there the "Kingdom of Zion" proclaiming himself king. Krechting was his chancellor. Knipperdollinck was mayor of Münster during the Anabaptist regime.

³⁰ A small town in the principality of Waldeck, about eighty miles southeast of Münster.…

…³² Joachim Camerarius (1500-1574). His real name was Joachim Liebhard. 1518, teacher of Greek at Erfurt. 1521, he went to Wittenberg where he became a friend of Melanchthon. 1526, became teacher of Greek at the Gymnasium in Nuremberg. 1535, was called to Tübingen to reform the university. 1541, called to Leipzig for the same purpose. Camerarius' importance is beyond dispute. He was the best philologist of his time; and he wrote many works, mostly in the field of philology, but also of history and biography. He enjoyed an international reputation.

³³ Daniel Stibarus was a city councilman of Würzburg.…

…³⁵ Martin Luther (1483-1546), reformer and founder of the Protestant church. The Tischreden were published in Eisleben by Aurifaber in 1566. They give the comments and discussions of Luther in the informal circle of his family, friends, and acquaintances, as they had been recorded by Aurifaber himself and by numerous other intimates of Luther. The passage quoted is found in Chap. 1, § 47 of the Aurifaber edition of 1566.…

…³⁸ Philipp Begardi was city physician in Worms. The Index Sanitatis is of the year 1539.

³⁹ Thessalus was a Greek physician of the first century A.D. He lived in Rome during the reign of Nero and was buried there. He considered himself superior to his predecessors but Galen, while often mentioning him, always does so in terms of contempt.…

…⁴¹ Theophrastus, i.e., Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493-1541), physician and chemist. Bombastic in fact as well as by name, inclined to charlatanism, suspected of supernatural powers and himself promoting the suspicion, he is nevertheless credited by modern scholarship with genuine service in the fields of medicine, chemistry, and pharmacy.

⁴² Philipp von Hutten (1511-1546) was one of the leaders of the Welser troops in Venezuela, where he met his death. The letter would seem to indicate that Faust had made predictions concerning the fortunes of the expedition in Venezuela.…

…⁴⁴ Johannes Gast (t 1572) was a Protestant clergyman at Basle. His Sermones Convivales were very popular. The quotation is from the second volume, published in 1548.…

…⁴⁶ Philipp Melanchthon (Greek for Schwarzert) (1497-1560) was a co-worker of Luther and after him the most important figure in the German Reformation. From 1518 on he was professor of the Greek language and literature at Wittenberg. After Luther's death he became the head of the Protestant church.

The Explicationes Melanchthoniae, or Postilla Melanthoniana, as they are called in the Bretschneider and Bindseil edition of Melanchthon's works, were published by Christopher Pezelius, a former student of Melanchthon, in 1594 ff., and they reproduce Melanchthon's commentaries on the Scriptures, delivered between 1549 and 1560.…

…⁴⁹ Conrad Gesner (1516-1565), a Swiss teacher, physician, and scholar. His scholarly activity was enormous. His main fields were zoology and botany, but he did tremendous work also in medicine, in philology, and in the editing and translating of Greek and Latin writers. His writings in these fields are encyclopedic.

The letter quoted is dated Zurich, August 16, 1561.

⁵⁰ Johannes Crato was Physician in Ordinary of the Emperor, Ferdinand 1.

⁵¹ Johannes Oporinus (1507-1568), a Swiss teacher, physician, and in later years publisher and bookseller. The name Oporinus is a translation of Herbst or Herbster.

⁵² See note (41).…

…⁵⁴ Johannes Manlius (Mennel) of Ansbach was at one time a student under Melanchthon. In the Locorum Communium Collectanea (1563), Manlius gives extracts and quotations "from the lectures of D. Philipp Melanchthon and accounts of other most learned men." The passages cited are quoted from Melanchthon.

⁵⁵ i.e. Knittlingen, not far from Bretten, Melanchthon's birthplace.…

…⁵⁷ i.e. Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486-1535), author, physician, and philosopher. He, like so many others, was also suspected of being a sorcerer.

⁵⁸ The Zimmerische Clironik is a Swabian chronicle of the 16th century. The authors were Count Froben Christoph von Zimmern (t 1566 or 1567) and his secretary Hans Müller (t ca. 1600). The work centers about the history of the Swabian noblemen who later became the Counts of Zimmem. It contains an invaluable store of legends and folklore.…

…⁶⁰ Compare the story cited above from Johannes Gast.…

⁶¹ Johannes Wier (1515-1588) was a Dutch physician and particularly known as an opponent of the prosecution of witches. The De Praestigiis Daemonum (1st ed. 1563) was an appeal to the emperor and princes in Wier's campaign against superstition. The passages relating to Faust appear for the first time in the fourth edition (1568). For a study of the historical value of what Wier has to say, see the introduction to van't Hooft, Das Hollindische Volksbuch vom Doktor Faust. Hague, 1926.…

…⁶³ Ludwig Lavater (1527-1586), for many years preacher and finally head of the Protestant church in Zurich. His work Von Gespänsten (1569) was very popular and was also translated into French and Italian.

⁶⁴ Literally: pay for course and steed, and money for shoeing and saddle.…

…⁶⁶ Hogel's chronicle was written in the 17th century. Its source, however, is the Reichmann-Wambach chronicle of the middle of the 16th century. This latter work is now lost. The parts relating to Faust were entered in the chronicle by Wolf Wambach, who continued the work which had been begun by his brother-in-law Reichmann. The story of the efforts of the monk Klinge to convert Faust probably came to Wambach fairly directly. For a discussion of the historical value of Hogel's work, see Szamatólski, Euphorion, II, 39 ff.…

…⁶⁸ An Istrian wine highly esteemed in Germany in the middle ages. The derivation of the word is uncertain but the form Rheinfall is merely the result of popular etymology. The earliest German form of the word is "raival" from the Latin "vinum rivale."

⁶⁹ 'Oculi' is the fourth Sunday before Easter.

⁷⁰ Augustin Lercheimer von Steinfelden (1522-1603) was professor of Greek at Heidelberg from 1563 to 1579. From 1579 to 1584 he held the same chair at Neustadt on the Hardt. From 1584 to his death he was again at Heidelberg as professor of mathematics. His name was really Herman Witekind, originally Wilcken. He assumed the pseudonym Lercheimer in his work Christlich bedencken und erinnerung von Zauberey (Heidelberg, 1585; 3rd edition, Speyer, 1597).

In the third edition of his work, from which our quotations are taken, Lercheimer added a vehement denunciation of the Spies Faust book, resenting as he did the unknown author's assertion that the magician had been brought up in Wittenberg, had received his degrees at the university there, and had resided in the city. Lercheimer himself had matriculated at Wittenberg in 1546.

For a complete discussion of the connection of the historical Faust with Wittenberg, see Walz, "An English Faustsplitter," Modern Language Notes, XLII (1927), 353 ff.…

…⁷² Philipp Camerarius (1537-1624) was the son of the Joachim Camerarius previously mentioned. He was trained in law at Leipzig, Tübingen, Strassburg, Basle, and in Italy. From 1581 to his death he was prorector of the university at Altdorf. His Opera horarum subcisivarum was first published in 1591 ff. (enlarged edition 1602-1609). It was translated into French, Italian, English, and German.

⁷³ The magician referred to is Zyto.…