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CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 


CORNELIUS   AGRIPPA. 


THE   LIFE 


HENRY  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA 

VON   NETTESHEIM, 

DOCTOR  AND  KNIGHT, 

©ommonlg  fenoton  as  a  JWagictan. 


BY  HENRY  MOELEY, 

AUTHOR  OF  u  PAIJSST  THE  POTTER,"  "  JEROME  CABDAK,"  6tC. 


CORKELIVS 


KEDTESHEYZn. 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES. 
VOL.  I. 

LONDON: 
CHAPMAN  AND  HALL,  193,  PICCADILLY. 

MDCCCLVI. 


[The  right  of  Translation  is  reserved.'] 


PREFACE. 


THIS  narrative  completes  a  design,  upon  the  execu- 
tion of  which  many  hours  of  recreation  have  been  occu- 
pied. It  was  not  intended  to  produce  an  indefinite  series 
of  the  Lives  of  Scholars  of  the  Sixteenth  Century,  but 
it  was  thought  possible,  by  help  of  the  free  speech  about 
themselves,  common  to  men  of  genius  in  that  age,  for  the 
lives  of  three  men  to  be  written,  in  whose  histories  there 
might  be  shown,  with  a  minuteness  perhaps  not  unim- 
portant to  the  student  or  uninteresting  to  the  miscella- 
neous reader,  what  the  life  of  a  scholar  was  in  the  time  of 
the  revival  of  learning  and  the  reformation  of  the  Church. 
These  biographies  it  never  was  proposed  to  unite  under  a 
common  title;  each,  it  was  felt,  must  make  or  miss  its 
own  way  in  the  world.  They  are,  no  doubt,  the  issue  of 
a  single  purpose,  but  they  are  not  necessary  to  each  other, 
and  there  is  no  reason  why  the  possessor  of  one  should 
possess  all,  or  incur  the  penalty  of  owning  a  book  marked 
as  a  fragment  on  the  title-page  or  cover. 


VI  PREFACE. 

It  may  be  convenient,  however,  to  some  readers,  and 
will  be  certainly  a  satisfaction  to  the  writer,  briefly  to  in- 
dicate what  the  intention  was  that  has  been  carried  out  as 
well  as  power  served  in  the  writing  of  the  trilogy  of  lives 
now  brought  to  a  conclusion.  It  was  desired  that  of  the 
three  lives  each  should  be  in  itself  worth  telling,  and  in 
itself  an  addition  of  some  new  and  well-authenticated 
matter  to  the  available  stores  of  minute  information  that 
give  colour  and  life  to  history.  It  was  desired  that  they 
should  treat  not  of  political  heroes,  but  of  scholars,  living 
in  the  same  age  of  the  world,  although  no  two  of  the  same 
country.  It  was  desired,  too,  that  they  should  be  not 
only  representatives  of  separate  nations  of  Europe,  but 
also  of  separate  and  absolutely  different  careers  of  study. 
Palissy  was  a  Frenchman,  with  the  vivacity,  taste,  and 
inventive  power  commonly  held  to  be  characteristic  of  his 
nation  ;  Cardan  was  an  Italian,  with  Italian  passions ;  but 
Agrippa  was  a  contemplative  German,  According  even  to 
the  vulgar  notion,  therefore,  they  were  characteristic  men. 
Palissy  was  by  birth  a  peasant;  Cardan  belonged  to  the 
middle  class;  Agrippa  was  the  son  of  noble  parents,  born 
lo  live  a  courtier's  life.  All  became  scholars.  Palissy  learnt 
of  God  and  nature ;  and  however  men  despised  his  know- 
ledge, his  advance  was  marvellous  upon  the  unknown  paths 
of  truth ;  he  was  the  first  man  of  his  age  as  a  true  scholar, 
though  he  had  heaven  and  earth  only  for  his  books.  No 
heed  was  paid  to  the  scholarship  of  Bernard  Palissy,  but 
the  civilised  world  rang  with  the  fame  of  the  great  Italian 
physician,  who  had  read  and  written  upon  almost  every- 


PREFACE.  Y5 

thing,  Jerome  Cardan.  Hampered  by  a  misleading  scholar- 
ship, possessed  by  the  superstitions  of  his  time,  bound  down 
by  the  Church,  Cardan,  with  a  natural  wit  as  acute  as  that 
of  Palissy,  became  the  glory  of  his  day,  but  of  no  day 
succeeding  it.  The  two  men  are  direct  opposites,  as  to 
their  methods  and  results  of  study.  In  a  strange  place  of 
his  own  between  them  stands  Agrippa,  who  began  his  life 
by  mastering  nearly  the  whole  circle  of  the  sciences  and 
arts  as  far  as  books  described  it,  and  who  ended  by  de- 
claring the  Uncertainty  and  Vanity  of  Arts  and  Sciences. 
The  doctrine  at  which  he  arrived  was  that,  in  brief,  fruit- 
ful must  be  the  life  of  a  Palissy,  barren  the  life  of  a 
Cardan; — since  for  the  world's  progress  it  is  needful  that 
men  shake  off  slavery  to  all  scholastic  forms,  and  travel 
forward  with  a  simple  faith  in  God,  inquiring  the  way 
freely. 

More  might  be  said  to  show,  but  it  is  enough  to  have 
suggested,  what  has  been  the  purpose  of  these  books.  A 
time  has  come  when  it  ia  out  of  the  question  to  suppose 
that  any  reasonable  student,  not  directed  by  some  special 
purpose,  can,  or  ought  to,  trouble  himself  with  the  careful 
reading  of  such  extinct  literature  as  the  works  of  Cardan 
or  Agrippa.  It  remains,  therefore,  that  these  men,  and 
others  like  them  influential  in  their  time,  types  of  a  most 
important  age  in  the  world's  history,  should  as  men, 
though  not  as  names,  be  forgotten  altogether,  or  remem- 
bered only  by  the  aid  of  any  one  who  will  do  what  is 
attempted  in  the  book  now  offered  to  the  reader. 

I  believe  that  there  is  here  told  for  the  first  time  the 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

exact  story  of  Cornelius  Agrippa's  life,  by  the  right  know- 
ledge of  which  only  it  is  possible  to  understand  his  cha- 
racter. His  works  include  a  large  pile  of  old  Latin  letters, 
written  by  him  and  to  him,  in  every  year  of  his  life  be- 
tween the  twentieth  and  almost  the  last.  Under  these  his 
pulse  still  beats ;  from  these,  by  help  of  his  other  works 
and  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  day  when  they  were 
written,  it  is  possible  to  gather  the  whole  story  of  his 
aspiration,  toil,  and  sorrow.  I  have  endeavoured  in  this 
book  not  only  to  narrate  his  life,  but  also  to  give  a  view 
of  the  true  purport  and  spirit  of  his  writings.  I  hope 
there  is  no  sentence  in  the  narrative  for  which  authority 
cannot  be  shown.  I  know  that  there  is  no  discoverable 
incident  that  has  been  kept  back  or  altered  in  significance 
to  suit  a  theory  as  to  the  character  portrayed.  Before  his 
death,  Cornelius  Agrippa  was  the  victim  of  the  calumnies 
of  priests,  because  he  denounced  their  misdoing.  They 
made  good  use  of  the  fact  that  he  had  in  his  youth  written 
a  volume  upon  Magic ;  and  to  this  day  he  has  come  down 
to  us  defiled  by  their  aspersions.  In  subsequent  literature, 
when  he  has  been  mentioned,  it  has  been  almost  always 
with  contempt  or  ridicule.  He  was  scarcely  in  his  grave 
when  Rabelais  reviled  him  as  Herr  Trippa.  Butler  jests 
over  him  in  Hudibras,  and  uses  the  Church  legend  of  his 
demon  dog: 

"Agrippa  kept  a  Stygian  pug, 
I'  th'  garb  and  habit  of  a  dog, 
That  was  his  tutor,  and  the  CUP 
Eead  to  th'  occult  philosopher, 
And  taught  him  subtly  to  maintain 
All  other  sciences  are  vain." 


PREFACE.  IX 

While  in  our  own  day  Southey  writes  a  ballad  on  another 
of  the  monkish  tales  against  him.  It  is  that  about  the 
youth  who  was  torn  to  pieces  by  the  fiends  when  con- 
juring in  Agrippa's  study  with  one  of  his  books : 

"  The  letters  were  written  with  blood  therein, 
And  the  leaves  were  made  of  dead  men's  skin." 

I  wish  to  show  how  the  man  really  lived,  what  the 
man  really  wrote,  of  whom  these  stories  have  so  long 
been  current. 

The  woodcut  portrait  on  the  title-page  to  this  volume 
is  copied  from  that  issued  by  Cornelius  himself  with  the 
first  complete  edition  of  his  Magic.  The  inscription 
round  it  appears  in  his  collected  works.  The  emblem 
on  the  title-page  of  the  second  volume  is  from  a  contem- 
porary book,  the  "  Margarita  Philosophica." 

London,  October,  1856. 


CONTENTS  TO  VOL.  I. 


CHAPTER  I.  PAGE 

FIRST  IMPRESSIONS       .       .  „   .   „     \       .       .       •      $ 

CHAPTER  II. 
TREATS  OF  A  BAND  OP  YOUNG  CONSPIRATORS        .       .       .       .15 

CHAPTER  m. 
THE  PLOT  AND  ITS  ISSUE .       .34 

CHAPTER  IV. 

How  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA,  BESIEGED  IN  A  TOWER  NEAR  VILLA- 
RODONA,  VANISHED  WITH  ALL  HIS  COMPANIONS  IN  ARMS— THE 
END  OF  THE  CATALONIAN  ADVENTURE 47 

CHAPTER  V. 

CORNELIUS  A  DOCTOR  OF  DIVINITY 58 

CHAPTER  VI. 

CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA  WRITES  A  TREATISE  TO  PROVE  WOMAN  THE 
BETTER  HALF  OF  MAN— IN  THE  SAME  YEAR  HE  TAKES  A  WIFE  95 

CHAPTER  VII. 

CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA  WRITES  THREE  BOOKS  OF  MAGIC— AN  AC- 
COUNT OF  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  MAGIC  CONTAINED  IN  THE 
FIRST  OF  THEM  .  113 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  Vni.                             PAGE 
OF  THE  PKACTICE  OF  MAGIC  AS  DESCRIBED  IN  THE  BEST  OF  THE 
FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  SCIENCE 137 

CHAPTER  IX. 

WHAT  is  CONTAINED  IN  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA'S  SECOND  BOOK  or 
OCCULT  SCIENCE 164 

CHAPTER  X. 
ON  THE  THIRD  AND  LAST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY     .       .  188 

CHAPTER  XI. 
Two  MONKS 209 

CHAPTER  XH. 
CORNELIUS  IN  LONDON 226 

CHAPTER  XHI. 

SERVICE  IN  THE  FIELD— WITH  THE  COUNCIL  AT  PISA  .       .       .254 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
DOCTOR  AND  KNIGHT-AT-ARMS 263 

CHAPTER  XV. 
BEGGARY  .  290 


CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 


CHAPTER  I. 

FIRST     IMPRESSIONS. 

AT  COLOGNE,  on  the  14th  of  September,  I4861,  there 
was  born  into  the  noble  house  of  Nettesheim  a  son,  whom 
his  parents  called  in  baptism  Henry  Cornelius  Agrippa. 
Some  might,  at  first  thought,  suppose  that  the  last  of  the 
three  was  a  Christian  name  likely  to  find  especial  favour 
with  the  people  of  Cologne,  the  site  of  whose  town,  in  days 
of  Roman  sovereignty,  Marcus  Agrippa's  camp  suggested 
and  the  colony  of  Agrippina  fixed.  But  the  existence 
of  any  such  predilection  is  disproved  by  some  volumes 
filled  with  the  names  of  former  natives  of  Cologne. 
There  were  as  few  Agrippas  there  as  elsewhere,  the  use 
of  the  name  being  everywhere  confined  to  a  few  indivi- 
duals taken  from  a  class  that  was  itself  not  numerous.  A 
child  who  came  into  the  world  feet-foremost  was  called 

1  Ep.  26,  Lib.  vii.  Opera  (Lugduni,  1536),  Tom.  ii.  p.  1041,  where  he 
says  to  the  senators  of  Cologne :  "  Sum  enim  et  ego  civitate  vestra  oriundus, 
et  prima  pueritia  apud  vos  enutritus." 

VOL.  I.  B 


2  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

an  Agrippa1  by  the  Romans,  and  I  know  not  what  ex- 
ceptions there  may  have  been  to  the  rule  that  all  persons 
who  received  this  word  as  a  forename  were  Agrippas 
born.  Since  ancient  writers  upon  medicine  and  science 
long  ranked  as  the  best  teachers  of  the  moderns,  the 
same  use  of  the  word  Agrippa  was  retained  till  many 
years  after  the  date  with  which  this  chapter  commences. 
The  Agrippas  of  the  sixteenth  century  were  usually  sons 
of  scholars,  or  of  persons  in  the  upper  ranks,  who  had 
been  mindful  of  a  classic  precedent;  and  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  a  peculiarity  attendant  on  the  very  first 
incident  in  the  life  here  to  be  told  was  expressed  by  the 
word  used  as  appendix  to  an  already  sufficient  Christian 
name. 

The  son  thus  christened  became  a  scholar  and  a  subject 
of  discussion  among  scholars,  talking  only  Latin  to  the 
world.  His  family  name,  Von  Nettesheim,  he  never 
latinised,  inasmuch  as  the  best  taste  suggested  that — if  a 
Latin  designation  was  most  proper  for  a  scholar — he 

1  The  word  itself  was  invented  to  express  the  idea,  being  compounded 
of  the  trouble  of  the  woman  and  the  feet  of  the  child.  So  Aulus  Gellius 
explains  it  (Noct.  Attic.  Lib.  xvi.  cap.  16) :  "  Quorum  in  nascendo  non 
caput,  sed  pedes  primi  exstiterant  (qui  partus  difficillimus  segerrimusque 
habetur) ;  AGRIPPJE  appellati,  vocabulo  ab  £egritudine  et  pedibus  conficto." 
The  following  passage  from  a  medical  writer  who  was  of  authority  in  the  year 
1700,  shows  that  the  original  use  of  the  word  was  not  then  obsolete :  "  Casus 
est  periculosissimus,  quando  pedibus  primb  prodit  infans,  ita  ut  etiarn  manus 
deorsum  versus  inclinent :  nam  sic  fit,  ut  egresso  tempore  orificium  uteri 
internum  circa  collum  iterum  se  stringat,  ita  ut  foetus  extra  uterum,  caput 
autem  ejus  adhuc  in  utero  haereat,  et  reddat  partum  difficilem.  Tales  foBtus 
dicuntur  AGKIPP^E."  Michaelis  Ettmulleri  Collegium  Practicum  Doctrirude, 
sect,  vii.  cap.  i.  art.  2.  Op.  (Frankfort-on-M.  1708),  Tom.  ii.  pars  1,  p. 
1015. 


VON  NETTESHEIM.  3 

could  do,  or  others  could  do  for  him,  nothing  simpler 
than  to  set  apart  for  literary  purposes  that  half  of  his 
real  style  which  was  already  completely  Roman.  Henry 
Cornelius  Agrippa  von  Nettesheim  became  therefore  to 
the  world  what  he  is  also  called  in  the  succeeding  narrative 
— Cornelius  Agrippa. 

This  is  the  only  member  of  the  family  of  Nettesheim 
concerning  whom  any  records  have  been  left  for  the  in- 
struction of  posterity.  Nettesheim,  or  Nettersheim,  itself 
is  a  place  of  little  note,  distant  about  twenty-five  miles  to 
the  south-west  of  Cologne,  and  at  about  the  same  distance 
to  the  south-east  of  Aix-la-Chapelle — that  is  to  say,  in  the 
direction  of  the  EifFelberg.  It  lies  in  a  valley,  through 
which  flows  the  stream  from  one  of  the  small  sources  of 
the  Roer.  The  home  of  the  Von  Nettesheims,  when  they 
were  not  personally  attached  to  the  service  of  the  emperor, 
was  at  Cologne,  where  many  nobles  lived  on  terms  not 
altogether  friendly  with  the  merchants  and  the  traders  of 
the  place.  The  ancestors  of  Cornelius  Agrippa  had  been 
for  generations  in  the  service  of  the  house  of  Austria ;  his 
father  had  in  this  respect  walked  in  the  steps  of  his  fore- 
fathers, and  from  a  child  Cornelius  looked  for  nothing 
better  than  to  do  the  same1. 

Born  in  Cologne  did  not  mean  then  what  it  has  meant 

1  "Et  pater  et  avi  et  atavi  et  tritavi  Csesarum  Romanorum  Austria- 
corumque  Principum  a  longo  sevo  ministri  fuerunt.  Horum  vestigia  et  ego 
insecutus,  Divo  Maximiliano  Csesari  et  pace  et  bello  non  segniter  inservavi." 
Ep.  18,  Lib.  vi.  (Op.  Tom.  ii.  p.  971).  Elsewhere,  after  a  fuller  recital,  he 
speaks  of  himself  as  "  D.  Maximiliano  Csesari  a  prima  setate  destinatus." 
Ep.  21,  Lib.  vii. 

B2 


4  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

for  many  generations  almost  until  now,  born  into  the 
darkness  of  a  mouldering  receptacle  of  relics.  Then  the 
town  was  not  priest-ridden,  but  rode  its  priests.  For 
nearly  a  thousand  years  priestcraft  and  handicraft  have 
battled  for  predominance  within  its  walls.  Priestcraft 
expelled  the  Jews,  banished  the  -weavers,  and  gained 
thoroughly  the  mastery  at  last.  But  in  the  time  of  Cor- 
nelius Agrippa  handicraft  was  uppermost,  and  in  sacred 
Cologne  every  trader  and  mechanic  did  his  part  in  keep- 
ing watch  on  the  archbishop.  Europe  contained  then 
few  cities  larger,  busier,  and  richer,  for  the  Rhine  was  a 
main  highway  of  commerce,  and  Cologne — great  enough 
to  be  called  the  daughter  of  the  Roman  Empire — was 
enriched,  not  only  by  her  manufacturers  and  merchants, 
but,  at  the  same  time  also,  by  a  large  receipt  of  toll. 

The  temporal  government  of  this  city  had  been  placed 
in  the  hands  of  churchmen  from  a  very  early  time1.  In 
the  year  953  the  rule  over  the  town  of  bishops,  subject 
to  imperial  control,  began  with  Archbishop  Bruno2, 
brother  to  Otto  the  First  and  Duke  of  Lorraine.  To  the 
imperial  brother  of  this  archbishop,  Cologne  was  indebted 

1  A  local  handbook — Koln  undBonn  mitihren  Umgebungen,  Koln,  1828 — 
compiled  from  the  best  authorities  accessible  to  a  scholar  on  the  spot,  con- 
tains a  good  historical  sketch  of  the  relations  between  Cologne  and  its 
archbishop,  drawing  for  information  on  a  public  report  against  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  city,  addressed  to  the  Kurfilrst,  and  published  at  Bonn  in 
1687  with  the  title  Securis  ad  radicem  posita,  oder  grundlicher  Bericht,  loco 
libelli,  worin  der  Stadt  Colin  Ursprung  und  Erbawung  klarlkh  dargestellt  ist, 
&c.     The  document  itself  I  have  not  seen. 

2  Biblioiheca   Coloniensis.   .   .   .   Josephi  Hartzheim,   fol.  Colon.   1747, 
p.  40,  for  his  eulogy;  but  the  little  handbook  just  mentioned  draws  the 
spirit  of  his  life  from  a  work  printed  in  1494,  entitled  Chronica  von  der 
Mligen  Stat  van  Coelkn. 


BORN  IN  COLOGNE.  5 

for  various  immunities  and  privileges;  but  the  chief  efforts 
of  Bruno  and  his  successors  had  in  view  the  extension  of 
their  personal  authority.  They  succeeded  so  well  in  the 
attainment  of  this  object,  that,  after  the  tenth  century, 
they  had  absolute  rank  as  masters  of  the  town.  Their 
subjects  were  even  at  that  time  noted  for  prosperity  as 
merchants ;  educated  among  the  luxuries  of  city  life,  they 
were  without  experience  in  the  affairs  of  war,  "  about 
which  they  discoursed  over  their  banquets  and  their  wine 
when  the  day's  trade  was  over1. " 

It  was  one  ^of  the  archbishops,  Philip  von  Heinsberg, 
who,  towards  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  enclosed 
the  city  and  a  part  of  the  adjacent  country  within  walls. 
Very  few  years  before  that  time  the  citizens  had  made  a 
weak  attempt  at  the  establishment  of  an  independent 
representative  constitution,  by  which  their  archbishop 
was  to  be  shut  out  from  interference  in  affairs  that  did 
not  concern  his  spiritual  office.  Commerce  is  the  most 
powerful  antagonist  to  despotism,  and  in  whatever  place 
both  are  brought  together  one  of  them  must  die.  Co- 
logne, in  the  middle  ages,  had  become  a  great  com- 
mercial port.  Its  weights  and  measures  were  used  through- 
out Europe2.  By  the  Rhine,  one  of  the  two  great 
European  highways,  there  was  conveyed  that  main  part 

1  "  Colonienses  ab  ineunte  estate  inter  urbanas  delicias  educati,  nullam  in 
bellicis  rebus  experientiam  habebant,  quidquid  post  venditas  merces  inter 
vinum  et  epulas  de  re  militari  disputari  solitas."     Lambert  von  Aschaffen- 
burg  in  Pistorius  (Rerum  Germanicarum  Veteres  jam  primum  publicati  Scrip- 
tores,  Frankfort,  1607). 

2  Fischer's  Geschichte  det  teutschen  Handels,  vol.  ii.  p.  235. 


6  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

of  the  traffic  between  east  and  west  which  passed  through 
Venice  to  the  Netherlands.  At  Cologne  all  merchandise 
that  passed  paid  toll  both  to  the  town  and  the  right 
reverend  lord  of  the  town ;  and  it  not  only  paid  a  direct 
toll,  but  had  to  be  transhipped  into  vessels  owned  by 
the  local  merchants,  who  thus  were  enriched  by  the 
monopoly  which  made  them  masters  of  the  Rhine.  While 
prosperity  was  secured  in  this  manner  to  its  merchants, 
the  manufacturers  and  traders  of  Cologne  took  excellent 
advantage  of  the  opportunities  for  commerce  offered  them 
by  the  position  of  their  town.  They  began  early  to  form 
strong  guilds,  and  with  trade  and  commerce  the  arts 
flourished J.  Except  Nuremberg,  there  is  no  city  in  Ger- 
many able  to  show  a  series  of  works  of  art,  dating  from 
the  earliest  times  to  the  sixteenth  century,  so  perfect  as 
that  which  may  still  be  studied  here.  The  goldsmiths 
and  painters  of  the  place  had  an  extended  reputation. 
In  the  "  Parcival"  of  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach,  written 
before  1215,  the  Cologne  painters  are  referred  to  as 
notorious  for  their  great  skill 2 ;  and  the  Cologne  builders 
were  in  even  more  renown.  It  is  proper,  also,  to  mention 
in  the  narrative  that  among  the  scholars  of  Germany  one, 
who  before  the  time  of  Cornelius  Agrippa  was  known  as 

1  F.  C.  J.  Fischer's  Geschickte  des  teutschen  Handels,  8vo,  Hanover,  1793, 
vol.  i.  pp.  945-947. 

2  Praising  a  knight's  great  beauty,  he  says — 

"Von.  Cbllen  noch  von  Mastricht 
Nicht  ein  Schildrer  entwarf  ihn  bass" — 

the  conception  of  a  painter  from  Cologne  or  Maestricht  being  assumed  as 
an  ideal  of  beauty  by  this  poet,  who  was  the  greatest  of  the  Minnesingers. 


THE  LIFE  OF  COLOGNE.  7 

the  most  famous  of  magicians,  belonged  to  the  same  city; 
for  there,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  Albertus  Magnus 
taught,  and  it  is  there  that  he  was  buried. 

Prosperous  Cologne,  then,  did  not  submit  humbly  to 
episcopal  direction.  A  shrewd  and  active  archbishop, 
Conrad  von  Hochstetten1 — the  same  who,  in  1248,  laid 
the  foundations  of  the  cathedral — secured  to  the  town 
fresh  privileges  from  the  emperor;  but  was  at  more  trouble 
to  secure  his  own  supremacy  among  the  townspeople. 
He  began  the  attempt  to  do  so,  like  a  wise  churchman, 
by  promoting  strife  between  the  resident  nobles  and  the 
citizens,  but  soon  found  himself  driven  to  the  necessity  of 
putting  armour  on,  and  leading  troops  against  his  stub- 
born flock.  At  the  last  he  triumphed  only  by  effecting 
an  alliance  with  the  tradesmen,  and  subduing  with  their 
aid  the  power  of  the  nobles.  Conrad  died  master  of  the 
town ;  but  his  nephew  and  successor,  Engelbert,  who 
vigorously  carried  on  his  policy,  was  involved  soon  in 
another  outbreak  of  the  civil  war,  for  three  of  the  leading 
nobles  had  been  kept  in  prison,  and  their  companions  in 
arms  engaged  in  a  new  struggle  to  wipe  out  their  dis- 
grace. Finally  they  got  possession,  not  of  the  town  only, 
but  also  of  the  person  of  the  archbishop,  whom  they  im- 
prisoned for  three  years  in  the  castle  of  Nydeck,  and  occa- 
sionally hung  out  in  an  iron  cage  for  public  mockery2. 

Peace  was  soon  afterwards  established  in  the  town,  but 
not  on  a  sure  basis.  The  increased  influence  of  the  trades 

1  Fischer's  Geschichte  des  teutschen  Handels,  vol.  ii.  p.  235. 

2  Pistorius,  Rer.  Germ.  Vet.  Script.  (Frankf.  1607),  pp.  260,  261. 


8  CORNELIUS  AGEIPPA. 

caused  the  establishment  of  a  new  system  of  corporate  go- 
vernment in  the  year  1321;  but  the  representatives  were 
chosen  from  the  noble  families.  Not  quite  thirty  years 
later  there  was  a  devilish  persecution  of  the  Jews  in  many 
parts  of  Europe;  and  the  Jews  of  Cologne,  alarmed  by 
the  sufferings  to  which  others  of  their  race  had  been  ex- 
posed, withdrew  into  their  houses,  with  their  wives  and 
children,  and  burnt  themselves  in  the  midst  of  their  pos- 
sessions. The  few  who  had  flinched  from  this  self-immo- 
lation were  banished,  and  their  houses  and  lands,  together 
with  all  the  land  that  had  belonged  to  Cologne  Jews, 
remained  as  spoils  in  the  hands  of  the  Cologne  Christians. 
All  having  been  converted  into  cash,  the  gains  of  "the 
transaction  were  divided  equally  between  the  town  and 
the  archbishop.  Twenty  years  later,  Jews  were  again 
suffered  to  reside  in  the  place,  on  payment  of  a  tax  for  the 
protection  granted  them. 

In  1369  the  city  was  again  in  turmoil,  caused  by  a  dis- 
pute concerning  privileges  between  the  church  authorities 
and  the  town  council.  The  weavers  took  occasion  to  ex- 
press their  views  very  strongly  as  the  maintainers  of  a 
democratic  party,  and  there  was  once  more  fighting  in 
the  streets.  The  weavers  were  subdued;  they  fled  to  the 
churches,  and  were  slain  at  the  altars.  Eighteen  hundred 
of  them,  all  who  survived,  were  banished,  suffering,  of 
course,  confiscation  of  their  property,  and  Cologne  being 
cleared  of  all  its  weavers — who  had  carried  on  no  incon- 
siderable branch  of  local  manufacture — their  guild  was 


THE  LIFE  OF  COLOGNE.  9 

demolished  *.  This  event  occurred  twenty  years  after  the 
town  had  lost,  in  the  Jews,  another  important  part  of  its 
industrial  population,  and  the  proud  city  thus  was  passing 
into  the  first  stage  of  its  decay. 

In  1388  an  university  was  established  at  Cologne, 
upon  the  model  of  the  University  of  Paris.  Theology 
and  scholastic  philosophy  were  the  chief  studies  cultivated 
in  it,  and  they  were  taught  in  such  a  way  as  to  win  many 
scholars  from  abroad2.  Eight  years  afterwards,  church- 
men, nobles,  and'  traders  were  again  contesting  their  re- 
spective claims,  and  blood  was  again  shed  in  the  streets. 
The  nobles,  assembled  by  night  at  a  secret  meeting,  were 
surprised,  and  the  final  conquest  of  the  trading  class  was 
in  that  way  assured.  Again,  therefore,  a  new  constitu- 
tion was  devised;  and  this  was  the  constitution  that  con- 
tinued still  to  be  in  force  during  the  lifetime  of  Cornelius 
Agrippa.  At  the  head  of  the  temporal  government  were 
six  burgomasters,  acting  in  pairs,  who  formed  three 
double  mayors,  ruling  in  rotation,  and  retiring  upon  the 
presidency  of  the  exchequer  at  the  conclusion  of  their 
term  of  office.  The  citizens  were  classed  into  two-and- 
twenty  liveries,  electing  thirty-six  councilmen,  who  added 
to  their  body  thirteen  aldermen  to  preside  over  the  several 
judicial  courts — the  petty  criminal  court,  court  of  appeal, 
&c.  Each  livery  placed  also  at  its  head  a  deputy — the 
banner-master — and  the  banner-masters  acted  for  the 

1  Gesckichte  des   Ursprungs  der  Stdnde  in  Deutschland.     Von  Karl  Die- 
trich UUman.     Frankf.  an  der  Oder,  1806-8.     B.  3,  pp.  140-149. 
-  See  Hartzheim. 


10  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

citizens  as  their  immediate  representatives  in  all  impor- 
tant deliberations1.  I  have  expressed  the  idea  of  this 
constitution  by  the  use  of  such  English  terms  as  are  most 
nearly  indicative  of  the  various  offices  appointed ;  and  the 
facility  with  which  this  can  be  done  shows  that  Cologne 
achieved  for  itself  a  municipal  government  of  a  tolerably 
perfect  kind.  Jurisdiction  in  the  high  criminal  court, 
and  the  power  over  capital  conviction,  remained  with  the 
archbishop,  whose  court  was  to  be  composed  wholly  of 
nobles  born  within  the  city.  Having  achieved  so  much, 
the  townspeople  proceeded  by  their  representatives  to  the 
formation  of  a  body  of  statutes  and  the  complete  defining  of 
their  own  judicial  system;  and  accordingly,  in  1437,  town 
and  archbishop  having  mutually  consented  to  the  scheme 
perfected  in  this  way,  it  was  confirmed  to  them  as  an 
addition  to  their  privileges  by  the  Emperor  Frederic.  By 
this  arrangement  the  archbishop  owned  himself  mastered, 
for  he  consented  to  hold  two  pakces  in  Cologne,  with  the 
condition  that,  when  he  entered  the  town,  he  was  to 
bring  with  him  only  a  small  suite,  and  that  he  was  to 
remain  within  the  city  walls  not  longer  than  for  three 
days  at  a  time.  Cologne  was  confirmed  in  its  indepen- 
dence of  all  external  authority,  except  that  of  the  emperor, 
and  the  inhabitants  agreed  to  swear  fidelity  to  their  arch- 
bishop on  condition  of  his  swearing  fidelity  to  them.  The 
decay  of  the  place  was  thus  arrested,  and  for  a  hundred 

1  This  account,  and  much  else,  I  take  from  the  little  handbook'^ofe  und 
Bonn,  the  author  of  which  here  founds  his  narrative  on  the  contemporary 
chronicle  of  Gottfried  Hagene,  published  in  Brewer's  Vaterldndischer  Chronik 
for  1825. 


COLOGNE  IN  AGEIPPA'S  TIME.  11 

years,  under  archbishops  of  the  house  of  Meurs,  this 
adjustment  of  the  old  dispute  remained  in  force.  Such 
was  the  position  of  affairs  in  Cologne  during  the  lifetime 
of  Cornelius  Agrippa.  I  am  convinced  that  the  spirit 
either  of  a  place  or  person  is  expressed  less  truly  by 
elaborate  description  than  even  by  the  very  simplest 
biographic  sketch.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  have  told 
in  as  few  words  as  possible  the  previous  life  of  a  town 
which  is  to  be  the  central  point  of  interest,  so  far  as  con- 
cerns places,  in  the  present  narrative. 

In  size  and  general  appearance,  Cologne  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  sixteenth  century  differed  not  much  from  the 
Cologne  of  our  own  day.  The  place  had  reached  the 
highest  point  of  its  prosperity  during  the  lifetime  of 
Cornelius  Agrippa.  The  great  changes  wrought  by  the 
discovery  of  the  New  World  and  of  a  sea-road  to  India, 
by  the  revolution  in  the  art  of  war,  and  by  the  revival  of 
letters,  soon  made  the  daughter  of  the  Empire  almost 
obsolete  as  a  commercial  port,  a  fortress,  or  a  seat  of  learn- 
ing. The  destruction  of  her  commerce  had  already  been 
hastened  by  an  increased  greediness  for  taxes  levied  upon 
merchandise.  Then,  as  the  trade  of  the  town  declined, 
the  spirit  that  had  beaten  down  the  worldly  despotism  of 
the  Church  departed  with  it,  and  the  archbishops  trampled 
out  in  their  own  way  what  little  life  was  left.  There  are 
signs  now  of  a  revival,  but  ten  years  since  the  city  lay  dead 
on  the  Rhine,  retaining  perfectly  the  shape  of  the  great 
mart  through  which  the  traffic  of  half  Europe  passed  three 
centuries  ago.  Nearly  as  large  as  it  now  is  it  was  then. 


12  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

Now,  it  is  of  no  mean  size  in  comparison  with  the  great 
seats  of  commerce  which  have  grown  while  it  has  moul- 
dered. Then,  when  a  scanty  population  yielded  ham- 
lets inhabited  by  dozens,  provincial  towns  by  hundreds, 
capitals  by  but  a  few  thousands,  Cologne,  issuing  her 
own  coinage,  and  a  foremost  member  of  the  Hanseatic 
League,  was  indeed  not  unworthy  to  be  flattered  by  suc- 
cessive sovereigns  of  Germany,  and  favoured  as  the 
daughter  of  their  empire. 

In  this  city  Cornelius  Agrippa  was  born,  as  it  has  been 
said,  of  a  family  belonging  to  the  noble  class.  His  parents 
at  his  birth  were  probably  not  very  far  advanced  in  life, 
at  any  rate  they  continued  to  reside  in  Cologne,  and  to 
maintain  a  home  which  he  occasionally  visited  for  some 
time  after  he  had  himself  reached  years  of  discretion1. 
The  Von  Nettesheims,  as  nobles  of  Cologne,  were  likely 
in  those  days  to  be  on  more  cordial  terms  with  the  arch- 
bishop than  with  the  burghers,  and  they  were  engaged 
directly  in  the  service  of  the  emperor.  In  both  respects 
the  life  of  Cornelius  was  influenced  by  his  position,  and  it 
may  not  be  considered  fanciful  to  suppose  that  the  cha- 
racter of  the  town,  as  it  has  been  here  briefly  suggested, 
acted  in  more  than  a  slight  degree  upon  his  own  character 
in  childhood  and  after  life.  In  his  first  years,  and  to  the 
very  last,  he  had  a  rare  aptitude  for  study,  and  was  dis- 
tinguished for  his  power  of  retaining  knowledge  once 
acquired.  Cologne  being  an  university  town,  he  had  but 

1  "  Sed  quoties  reversus  sum  in  vestram  urbem,  meam  autem  patriam 
.  .  .  .  -rix  inveni  .  .  .  .  qui  me  diceret  Ave."  Ep.  26,  Lib.  vii.  p.  1041. 


BOYHOOD  IN  COLOGNE.  13 

to  acquire  the  studies  of  the  place,  and  these  may  have 
sufficed  in  determining  his  bias  for  scholastic  theology.  He 
was  born  soon  after  the  discovery  of  printing,  and  the  use 
made  in  Cologne  of  that  discovery  shows  well  enough 
what  was  the  humour  of  the  students  there.  The  first 
Cologne  printer  was  Ulrich  Zell,  who  began  his  labours 
in  or  about  the  year  1463.  Between  that  year  and  the 
year  1500,  the  annals  of  typography1  contain  the  titles 
of  as  many  as  five  hundred  and  thirty  books,  issued  by 
him  and  by  other  printers  in  the  town,  but  among  these 
there  are  to  be  found  only  fourteen  Latin  classics,  and 
there  is  not  one  volume  of  Greek.  The  other  works  con- 
sisted wholly  of  the  writings  of  ascetics,  scholastics,  canon- 
ists, &c.,  including  the  works  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  and  of 
Albertus  Magnus.  Of  this  sort  were  the  springs  at  which 
as  a  boy  Cornelius  Agrippa  was  compelled  to  slake  his 
thirst  for  knowledge.  Among  writers  of  this  description 
it  was  only  natural  that  he  should  find  the  eager  fancy  of 
youth  satisfied  best  with  the  wonderful  things  written  by 
the  magicians,  and  accordingly  he  states  that  at  a  very 
early  age  he  was  possessed  with  a  curiosity  concerning 
mysteries2. 

But  there  were  successful  studies  of  another  kind  for 
which  also  Cornelius  was  remarkable  in  youth.  He 

1  Annales  Typographic^  ab  artis  inventce  origine  ad  annum  MJ).,  post 
MaiUairii  Denisii  aliorumque  ....  euros.  Opera  Georgii  Wolfg.  Sanzer 
(Norimb.  1793),  Tom.  i.  pp.  274-348. 

-  "...  Qui  ab  ineunte  aetate  semper  circa  mirabilium  effectuum  et  plenas 
mysteriorum  operationes  curiosus  intrepidusque  extiti  explorator."  Ep.  23, 
Lib.  L  Op.  Tom.  ii.  p.  703. 


14  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

became  versed  in  many  European  languages,  and  it  is 
most  probable,  that  while  the  position  of  Cologne  as  a 
halting-place  on  one  of  the  great  highways  of  European 
traffic  must  have  caused  the  gift  of  tongues  to  be  appre- 
ciated by  its  merchants,  the  unusual  opportunities  there 
offered  for  its  acquisition  surely  would  not  be  neglected 
in  a  family  like  that  of  Nettesheim,  which  sought  to  rise 
by  the  performance  of  good  service  to  an  emperor  whose 
daily  business,  now  war  and  now  diplomacy,  was  being 
carried  on  in  many  lands. 

After  some  years  of  home-training,  subject  to  the  in- 
fluences here  discussed,  the  age  arrived  at  which  youths 
destined  to  serve  princes  were  considered  fit  to  be  pro- 
duced at  court.  Cornelius  Agrippa  was  then  taken  from 
beneath  the  friendly  shade  of  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne, 
to  bask  in  light  as  an  attendant  on  the  Emperor  of 
Germany. 


SENT  TO  COURT.  15 


CHAPTER  II. 

TREATS  OP  A  BAND  OF  YOUNG  COSSPIBATORS. 

CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA  served  the  Emperor  of  Germany 
at  first  as  a  secretary,  afterwards  for  seven  years  as  a 
soldier1.  The  distinct  statement  of  this  fact,  and  the 
impossibility  of  otherwise  accounting  for  the  time,  compels 
us  to  interpret  strictly  the  accompanying  assertion  that  he 
entered,  while  still  very  young,  into  the  imperial  service. 
If  it  were  not  so,  we  might  suppose  that  at  the  age  of 
nineteen  he  was  perfecting  his  studies  at  the  University  of 
Paris,  and  that  the  wild  scheming,  presently  to  be  de- 
scribed, naturally  arose  there  out  of  the  enthusiasm  of 
youth  in  the  hot  blood  of  a  few  students.  It  would 
in  that  case  have  to  be  said  that  after  leaving  Paris 
he  first  entered  the  service  of  a  court,  by  which  his 
designs  were  countenanced  as  leading  to  a  chivalrous 
adventure,  from  which  some  political  advantage  might, 
perchance,  arise,  and  no  great  harm  could  follow. 

The  master  of  the  young  diplomatist  was  Maximilian  the 

1  "  Maximiliano  a  prima  aetate  destinatus  aliquandiu  illi  a  minoribus 
secretis  fui,  deinde  in  Italicis  castria  septennio  Uliua  stipendio  militayi." 
Ep.  21,  Lib.  viL  Op.  Tom.  ii.  p.  1021. 


16  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

First,  a  prince  at  whose  court  chivalry  was  much  in  favour, 
and  from  whom  bold  enterprises  had  at  all  times  ready 
praise.  As  emperor  it  had  not  seemed  to  him  beneath 
his  dignity  to  fight  a  duel1  in  the  presence  of  his  lords, 
and  to  give  evidence  therein  of  prowess  that  was  said 
by  his  courtiers  to  be  stupendous.  A  daring  man  at 
arms  undoubtedly  he  was,  but  he  was  more  than  that. 
There  were  fine  qualities  in  Maximilian  that  must  have 
given  him  strong  hold  upon  the  minds  of  the  young  men 
under  his  influence.  Late  in  development,  he  was  nine 
years  of  age  before  he  could  speak  clearly,  and  when  he 
was  twelve  his  father  thought  it  possible  that  he  would  die 
a  fool.  When,  however,  the  time  came  for  his  mind  to 
ripen,  it  had  a  distinct  flavour  of  its  own.  He  had  been 
ill  taught  in  his  youth  by  Peter,  Bishop  of  Neustadt,  a 
pedant,  who  worried  him  with  dialectics;  and,  forasmuch 
as  he  did  not  take  to  them  with  a  good  grace,  beat  him 
sorely.  "  Ah,"  said  Maximilian,  at  dinner,  one  day,  after 
he  had  been  crowned  King  of  Rome  (this  happened  in 
the  birth-year  of  Cornelius  Agrippa),  "  if  Bishop  Peter 
were  alive  to-day,  though  we  owe  much  to  good  teachers, 
he  should  have  cause  to  repent  that  he  had  ever  been  my 
master."  But  in  spite  of  all  bad  teaching,  Maximilian 
contrived  to  educate  himself  into  the  power  of  conversing 
fluently  and  accurately  in  Italian,  French,  and  Latin,  as 
well  as  in  his  native  German  ;  and  while  he  readily  con- 
fessed himself  to  have  been  ill  brought  up,  he  valued 

1  The  duel  was  with  Claude  de  Batre,  and  the  prowess,  says  Cuspinian, 
"conspectu  stupendum." 


"KAISER  MAX."  17 

learning,  and  was  liberal  to  men  of  letters.  He  caused 
search  to  be  made  for  genealogies  and  local  annals ;  he 
took  pleasure  in  entertaining  questions  of  philosophy  and 
science,  even  himself  conducting  some  experiments.  The 
master  of  the  young  Agrippa  was  also,  according  to  the 
humour  of  his  time,  a  sharp  arguer  upon  nice  questions 
in  theology.  In  his  latter  years  he  was  glad  often  to 
discuss  privately  with  learned  men,  and  acquire  know- 
ledge from  them. ,  It  may  even  be  said  that  he  was,  him- 
self, a  member  of  the  literary  body.  He  professed  to 
despise  poetry,  yet  it  was  he  who  wrote  in  verse  the 
allegorical,  "  Dewrdank,"  wherein  he  represented  himself 
as  having  overcome  envy  and  curiosity.  He  wrote  also 
"  The  Gate  of  Honour,"  to  induce  all  learned  men  in 
Germany  to  preserve  ancient  chronicles  from  loss.  He 
founded  on  his  own  story  the  narrative  of  "  The  White 
King,"  illustrated  with  honourable  reference  to,  and  pic- 
tures of,  almost  every  trade  followed  by  his  subjects ; 
and  finally,  some  of  the  finest  woodcuts  ever  executed 
were  designed  from  his  dictation,  to  represent  his  ideal  of 
a  triumph1,  which  should  sweep  before  the  eyes  of  all 
posterity  upon  a  pictured  page,  and  celebrate  the  glories 
of  his  reign.  "  His  bent,"  says  his  secretary,  Cuspinian, 
"  was  to  scholarship,  but,  having  been  ill  taught,  he  chose 
war  for  his  profession2." 

It  is  absolutely  certain  that  the  young  son  of  the  house 

1  Kaiser  Maximilian's  Triumph. 

2  The  sketch  of  Maximilian  in  this  chapter  is  chiefly  founded  upon  details 
given  in  Joanni  Cuspiniani  .  .  .  .  de  Ccesaribus  atque]  Imperatoribut  lio- 
manis  (Basle,  1561),  pp.  602-615. 

VOL.  I.  C 


18  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

of  Nettesheim,  who  being  a  scholar  by  taste  began  service 
to  his  imperial  master  as  a  secretary,  who  was  curious 
about  the  mysteries  of  nature,  relished  keenly  all  the  nice 
points  of  theology,  was  versed  in  languages,  and  as  am- 
bitious as  the  emperor  himself,  was  not  a  youth  whom 
Maximilian  would  overlook.  Already  disposed  to  smile 
upon  a  new  retainer  who  was  noticeable  among  courtiers 
for  the  extent  of  his  attainments  and  his  assiduity  in 
study,  the  emperor  would  quickly  have  discovered  that  the 
young  Cornelius  Agrippa  had  a  spirit  not  bound  wholly 
to  books,  but  that  he  could  enter  heartily  into  his  master's 
relish  for  bold  feats  of  arms. 

There  are  men  to  whom  it  is  natural  from  childhood 
upwards  to  assume  the  tone  of  a  leader,  and  in  whom  the 
excess  of  self-reliance  represents  the  grain  of  an  otherwise 
amiable  character.  It  is  so  subtly  combined  with  every- 
thing they  say  or  do  as  to  appear  but  rarely  in  the 
offensive  form  of  violent  or  obvious  self-assertion ;  it  is  not 
displayed  by  them,  but  it  is  felt  by  others  in  whom  the 
same  element  of  character  is  more  weakly  developed. 
They  are  not  by  any  means  necessarily  great  or  able  men 
who  go  through  the  world  as  centres  of  their  great  or 
little  circles  with  this  spirit  in  them,  but  it  must  be  a 
very  great  man  indeed  who  can  keep  any  one  of  them 
within  the  circumference  of  a  circle  whereof  he  is  not  the 
centre.  Cornelius  Agrippa  had  a  disposition  of  this  kind, 
and  as  a  youth,  it  might  be  said,  there  was  some  reason 
for  his  self-reliance,  since,  if  not  by  his  rare  abilities,  yet 
by  his  advantageous  position  near  the  emperor,  and  his 


CORNELIUS  WITH  THE  EMPEROR.         19 

activity  of  character,  there  seemed  to  be  assured  to  him  an 
enviable  future.  And  yet  clouds  gather  about  the  face 
of  many  a  day  that  gives  the 'brightest  promise  in  its 
morning. 

In  Cornelius  Agrippa  the  emperor  his  master  appears 
to  have  seen  nothing  but  promise.  The  quick  perceptions 
of  the  learned  youth,  his  acquaintance  with  foreign  lan- 
guages, his  daring  and  his  self-reliance,  were  no  doubt  the 
qualities  by  which  he  was  commended  most  to  Maximilian's 
attention,  and  there  was  no  time  lost  in  making  use  of 
them.  Cornelius,  even  at  the  age  of  twenty,  was  em- 
ployed on  secret  service  by  the  German  court,  and  the 
very  enthusiasm  of  his  character,  and  of  his  period  of  life, 
seems  to  have  been  reckoned  upon  as  the  edge  proper  to 
such  a  tool  as  the  state  made  of  him. 

The  relation  in  which  the  young  Von  Nettesheim  stood 
to  the  emperor,  and  the  character  of  the  influence  that 
may  have  been  exerted  on  him  in  the  court  of  Austria, 
will  be  sufficiently  indicated  by  adding  to  what  has  been 
already  said  the  little  sketch  of  Maximilian's  character 
and  habits  left  by  Cuspinian,  his  confidential  secretary. 
Though  not  a  perfect  picture  of  the  emperor,  it  shows 
him,  as  we  now  desire  to  see  him,  from  a  secretary's  point 
of  view. 

It  is  well  known  that  Maximilian  was  a  prince  in  diffi- 
culties very  often,  that  the  imperial  exchequer  was  more 
apt  to  weigh  as  a  load  upon  his  mind  than  upon  his 
pocket,  yet,  says  Cuspinian,  he  never  allowed  to  be 
touched  the  gold,  silver,  and  hereditary  jewels  left  him  by 
C2 


20  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

his  ancestors,  for  they  were  the  inheritance  due  to  his 
heirs.  Ferdinand,  after  his  father's  death,  was  amazed 
when  he  saw  what  was  in  the  treasury.  Maximilian  was 
a  square-built  man,  with  good  health,  capable  of  enduring 
heavy  labour;  he  wrote  sometimes  far  into  the  night, 
broke  a  lance  often  in  jest  with  his  princes,  or  in  earnest 
with  his  foes.  He  was  frugal  in  his  repasts,  "and  so 
clean"  (for  emperors  then  ate  meat  with  their  fingers) 
"  that  nobody  could  see  him  dining  or  supping  without 
pleasure."  He  drank  little  between  meals,  and  at  table 
drank  only  three  times.  He  was  of  good  morals,  but  loved 
to  dine  or  dance  in  company  with  honest  ladies,  not  be- 
having to  them  as  proud  princes  do,  but  accosting  them 
with  modest  reverence.  He  had  a  singular  love  of  music, 
"  and,"  says  his  indignant  secretary,  "  musical  professors, 
instruments,  &c.,  sprang  up  at  his  court  like  mushrooms 
after  a  shower.  I  would  write  a  list  of  the  musicians  I 
have  known  if  I  were  not  afraid  of  the  size  of  the  work. 
He  revived  the  art  of  war,  introduced  new  machines,  and 
was  the  only  general  of  his  time.  Some  say  that  he  was 
too  fond  of  hunting,  by  which  he  was  taken  into  great 
danger  while  following  the  wild  goat  up  the  highest  rocks. 
He  spent  largely  on  dogs,  hunters,  and  huntsmen ;  but 
that,"  Cuspinian  adds,  "  is  royal  sport.  Kings  cannot  walk 
in  squares  and  streets  (as  common  people  do,  who  sharpen 
for  themselves  their  hunger  by  that  exercise),  but  must 
follow  the  chase  of  wild  beasts  to  improve  their  bodies. 
This  emperor  was  affable  in  his  manners,  he  set  at  their 
ease  those  people  who  conversed  with  him,  and  as  he  had 


EMPEROR  AND  SECRETARY.  21 

a  good  memory,  pleased  them  by  showing  knowledge  of 
their  names  and  their  affairs.  He  did  not  mind  asking 
mean  persons  for  their  opinion  on  mighty  things."  He 
was  likely,  therefore,  to  flatter  greatly,  by  his  show  of  con- 
fidence and  frankness,  a  young  scribe  whose  temper  and 
abilities  he  meant  to  turn  to  some  account.  Once,  when 
there  was  a  conspiracy  against  him  in  his  camp,  he  went 
into  the  tent  of  the  chief  conspirator,  and  sat  down  cheer- 
fully to  dinner  with  his  wife.  Many  enemies  he  subdued 
by  kindly  speech,  and  sometimes  (hints  the  secretary)  paid 
his  soldiers'  wages  with  it.  He  turned  no  ear  at  all  to 
slander,  and  bade  Cuspinian  cease  from  addressing  him 
with  words  of  flattery,  reminding  him  of  the  proverb, 
"  Self-praise  makes  a  stinking  mouth." 

Such  a  man  as  this  was  master  to  Cornelius  Agrippa  ; 
surely  an  Austrian  diplomatist  as  well  as  a  brave  soldier 
and  not  unenlightened  prince.  Even  his  secretary  and 
admirer,  when  he  tells  of  the  match-making  feats  by 
which  Maximilian  laboured  to  extend  the  influence  of  his 
own  family,  talks  half-con  tern  ptuously  of  "  the  marrying 
house  of  Austria."  With  all  his  chivalry  and  all  his 
mother's  southern  blood  (she  was  a  Portuguese),  Maxi- 
milian was  an  Austrian  born,  son  of  an  Austrian  father. 
The  diplomatic  service  of  the  Austrian  court,  at  every 
period  of  history,  has  been  what  it  is  now  and  ever  will 
be,  slippery  and  mean.  It  may  spend  the  energies  of  a 
fine  mind  upon  base  labour ;  delude,  when  necessary,  its 
own  agents  into  the  belief  that  they  do  brave  deeds  and 
speak  true  words,  though  they  are  working  out  designs 


22  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

contrived  upon  no  honourable  principle.  In  this  way 
some  use  may  have  been  made  of  the  fresh  spirit  of  the 
youth,  whom  we  are  now  to  find,  at  the  age  of  twenty, 
with  the  cares  of  a  conspirator  upon  him. 

It  is  not  at  all  possible  that  this  conspiracy,  of  which 
the  precise  nature  can  only  be  inferred  from  overt  acts, 
distinctly  originated  at  the  court  of  Maximilian,  although 
it  was  fostered  there.  It  related  to  the  affairs  of  Spain, 
:and  the  political  events  of  the  time  appear  to  throw  some 
doubtful  light  upon  its  meaning.  Ferdinand  of  Spain, 
the  widower  of  Isabella,  was  excluded  from  the  crown  of 
Castile  after  his  wife's  death,  that  inheritance  having 
passed  with  his  daughter  Joanna  as  a  dower  to  her  hus- 
band Philip,  one  of  the  marrying  house  of  Austria,  the 
son  of  Maximilian.  Ferdinand  had  made  a  vain  effort  to 
retain  some  hold  upon  his  authority  over  the  Castilians ; 
but  he  was  repelled  by  them,  and  referred  to  his  own 
kingdoms  of  Aragon  and  Naples.  Suddenly,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1506,  news  of  the  death  of  Philip  startled 
European  politicians.  He  was  a  young  man  of  eight- 
and-twenty,  upon  whose  death  no  person  had  yet  begun 
to  speculate ;  over-exertion  in  a  game  of  ball,  at  an  enter- 
tainment given  by  his  favourite  Don  Manuel,  led,  it  is' 
said,  to  this  unexpected  issue.  A  wide  field  was  at  once 
opened  for  Austrian  diplomacy.  Those  nobles  of  Castile 
who  had  most  actively  opposed  the  claims  of  Ferdinand 
against  his  son-in-law,  partly  in  self-defence,  maintained 
their  opposition.  Ferdinand,  when  the  event  happened, 
was  not  in  Spain ;  he  was  engaged  upon  a  journey  to  his 


THE  MISSION  OF  COBNELIUS.  23 

Neapolitan  dominions.  The  country,  therefore,  fell  into 
confusion,  for  the  widowed  queen  Joanna,  overwhelmed 
with  an  insane  grief,  refused  to  perform  any  act  of  govern- 
ment ;  and  Maximilian  of  Austria  had  lost  no  time  in 
urging  strongly  upon  Ferdinand  his  own  right  to  be 
regent  of  Castile.  From  the  distracted  country  several 
Spanish  nobles  came  to  Maximilian's  court,  Manuel  him- 
self among  the  rest,  where  they  continually  urged  upon 
the  Austrian  more  measures  against  Ferdinand  than  he 
considered  it  worth  while  to  take. 

It  appears  to  have  been  during  this  period  of  excite- 
ment and  political  uncertainty  that  Cornelius  von  Nettes- 
heirn,  then  twenty  years  of  age,  was  sent  to  Paris,  perhaps 
in  company  with  a  superior  diplomatist,  but  probably 
alone.  His  unusual  power  as  a  linguist1 — his  learning, 
which  was  of  an  extent  far  beyond  his  years — the  quick- 
ness of  his  parts,  which  in  some  sense  was  as  valuable  as 
an  older  man's  experience — marked  him  out  subsequently, 
while  he  was  still  very  young,  as  a  fit  agent  to  be  sent 
abroad  on  confidential  missions3.  France  had  been  hostile 
to  the  son  of  Maximilian,  and  war  against  France  had 
been  declared  by  Philip  only  a  short  time  before  his 
death.  The  business  of  Cornelius  at  Paris  was,  I  think, 

1  "II  savait   parler  huit  sortes   de  langues,  &c.  &c.  &c.,  d'oii  je  ne 
m'ctonne  que  Paule  Jove  1'appelle  Portentosum  Ingenium,   que  Jacques 
Gohory  le  met  inter  clarissima  sui  sseculi  lumina,  que  Ludwigius  le  nomme 
Venerandum  Dom.   Agrippam,   literarum,    literatorumque   omnium   mira- 
culum."     Apoloyie  pour  tons  les  Grands  Personnages  qui  ont  este  faussement 
soupq&nnez  de  Magie.     Par  G.  Naudc,  Paris.     La  Haye,   1653,  pp.  406, 
407. 

2  Defensio  Propositionum   de  Beat.    Anna  Monoyamia.      Op.  Tom.  il 
p.  596. 


24  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

simply  in  accordance  with  his  duty  as  a  clever  scribe,  to 
take  trustworthy  note  of  what  he  saw  and  heard.  A 
political  crisis  had  occurred,  affecting  intimately  the  in- 
terests of  Maximilian,  and  the  relations  of  the  emperor 
with  France  were  thereby  placed  in  a  most  difficult 
position.  While  doing  whatever  else  was  needful,  Maxi- 
milian may,  very  likely,  have  considered  it  worth  while 
to  send  to  the  French  capital  one  of  the  young  men 
belonging  to  his  court,  who  could  for  a  short  time  take 
a  quiet  post  of  observation  as  a  scholar  in  the  University, 
and  make  himself  the  master  of  more  knowledge  than 
would  be  communicated  to  him  in  the  schools.  Foremost 
among  young  pundits  was  Cornelius  von  Nettesheim,  a 
person  apt  in  every  respect  for  such  a  purpose.  He  might 
go  to  his  own  home  in  Cologne,  and  proceed  thence,  as  a 
studious  youth,  to  Paris.  After  a  short  residence  there, 
it  was,  indeed,  in  the  first  instance,  to  his  father's  house 
that  he  returned l. 

Cornelius  was  engaged  on  secret  service  more  than 
once ;  but  all  his  great  or  little  diplomatic  secrets  were 
well  kept,  though  on  his  own  affairs  he  was,  in  his  pub- 

1  Ep.  2,  Lib.  i.  p.  682.  The  letters  of  Agrippa  are  in  the  second  volume 
of  the  Lyons  edition  of  his  works,  already  referred  to,  and  published  in  his 
lifetime  "per  Beringos  Fratres,"  in  and  about  the  year  1532.  It  was 
printed  and  reprinted  by  them,  probably  often,  certainly  once.  My  own 
copy  is  undated,  and  shows,  by  comparison  with  that  in  the  British  Museum, 
that  although  precisely  alike  both  as  to  general  appearance  and  as  to 
paging,  and  issued  about  the  same  time  by  the  same  printer,  the  whole  of 
the  type  must  have  been  distributed  and  set  up  afresh  in  the  interval 
between  the  issue  of  one  book  and  of  the  other.  The  second  volume  of  this 
issue  is  the  book  of  which  the  page  is  given  in  all  notes  referring  to 
Agrippa' s  letters. 


CORNELIUS  AT  PARIS.  25 

lished  works,  abundantly  communicative.  It  is  left  for 
us,  then,  'to  construct  what  theory  we  can  upon  his 
business  at  this  period  in  Paris.  We  know  only  that  he 
was  there  at  the  time  described,  and  that  he  made  himself 
while  there  the  centre  of  a  knot  of  students,  members 
with  him,  as  it  will  afterwards  be  seen,  of  a  secret  asso- 
ciation of  theosophists,  and  bent  upon  a  wild  and  daring 
enterprise  that  was  in  several  respects  very  characteristic 
both  of  the  age  of  the  schemers,  and  of  the  age  of  the 
world  in  which  they  lived  to  scheme. 

The  disturbances  in  Castile  had  extended  to  Aragon 
and  Catalonia.  The  Catalonians,  since  their  annexation 
to  the  crown  of  Aragon,  had  frequently  caused  trouble 
by  their  independent  spirit,  had  established  one  successful 
revolt,  and  were  at  this  period  violently  excited  in  many 
places  against  the  oppression  of  the  nobles.  From  the 
district  of  Tarragon  they  had  chased  at  least  one  of  their 
local  masters,  the  Sefior  de  Gerona ;  and  this  gentleman, 
while  holding  from  King  Ferdinand  the  authority  which 
he  appears  to  have  abused,  must  have  had  something  of 
the  traitor  in  his  composition,  for  we  find  him  among 
other  Spaniards  at  the  court  of  Maximilian,  by  whom 
the  interests  of  Ferdinand  were  at  this  time  especially 


At  Paris,  Cornelius  met  with  the  young  Spaniard,  who, 
perhaps,  was  then  upon  his  way  to  Germany ;  and  by  the 
conversation  of  Juanetin  de  Gerona2,  the  bold  spirit  of 

1  Ep.  4,  Lib.  i.  p.  683. 

1  lanotus  Bascus  de  Charona  ia  the  Latin  form. 


26  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

enterprise  was  stirred  within  him.  In  concert  with  some 
other  students  he  devised  a  plan,  not  merely  for  the  re- 
storation of  Juanetin  to  his  own  domain — itself  a  student's 
freak  of  tolerable  magnitude, — but  for  the  achievement, 
by  a  stroke  of  wit,  of  some  more  serious  adventure,  which 
seems  to  have  included  the  mastering  of  Tarragon1  itself, 
and  the  maintenance  of  that  stronghold  against  the  people 
of  the  district.  Upon  the  information  of  the  Senor  de 
Gerona,  Cornelius  Agrippa  based  his  plans ;  the  Spaniard 
had  doubtless  contributed  to  the  plot  suggestions  of  ad- 
vantage that  might  be  secured  to  Maximilian  by  the 
enterprise.  In  the  emperor's  discussion  with  King  Fer- 
dinand he  was  to  be  helped  in  some  wild  way  by  the 
young  soldier-scribe  against  the  Catalonians.  It  is  certain 
that  Cornelius  Agrippa  had  in  view  nothing  more  than 
the  advantage  of  his  master,  except  the  renown  that  was 
to  follow  from  the  magnitude  of  his  success,  if  he  suc- 
ceeded3. While  the  idea  was  fresh  with  him  he  must 
have  made  its  purport  known  to  a  friend  at  court,  whom 
he  calls  Galbianus,  who  most  strongly  urged  him  to  pursue 
it,  and  partook  of  his  enthusiasm3. 

After  a  few  months,  early  in  1507,  Cornelius  went  from 
Paris  to  his  own  home  at  Cologne,  his  absence  from  the 
University  being  considered  only  temporary4.  The  chief 
friend  whom  he  left  behind,  as  faithful  lieutenant,  to  com- 

1  The  Latin  form  used  by  Agrippa  is  Arcona. 

2  "  Neque  diffido  ....  me  clarissimo  hoc  facinore  immortalem  gloriam 
nobis  paraturum."     Ep.  4,  Lib.  i.  p.  683. 

3  "  Qui  in  hunc  labyrinthum  mihi  dux  fuisti"    Loc.  cit. 

4  Ep.  1  and  2,  Lib.  L 


CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  LANDULPH.  27 

plete  the  necessary  preparations,  was  an  Italian,  rwho 
studied  medicine  in  Paris,  Blasius  Cassar  Landulphus. 
He  lived  to  be  a  professor  in  the  University  of  Pavia1, 
and  wrote  upon  "  The  Cures  of  Fevers,"  with  some  other 
matter,  a  book  published  at  Venice  in  1521,  and  re- 
published  at  Basle  in  1535,  with  again  other  matter  added 
to  it. 

We  find  him  with  a  fever  of  his  own  still  to  be  cured, 
a  man  ripe  for  excitement,  who  has  hitherto,  as  he  says, 
been  leading  an  unsettled  life,  writing  from  Paris,  on 
the  26th  of  March,  to  his  accepted  chieftain  at  Cologne, 
that  he  can  send  no  pleasanter  tidings  than  news  of  the 
success  of  their  business,  so  often  desired.  He  writes  in  a 
tone  of  strong  affection  for  Cornelius ;  and  hints  at  a  wish 
also,  now  and  then  expressed  between  them,  that  after 
all  the  accidents  of  fortune  he  had  suffered,  Providence 
might  find  him  business  near  his  friend  in  Germany: 
"  For  you  know  that  I  plant  a  foot  not  altogether  fearless 
on  the  soil  of  Paris,  though  I  have  repelled  with  a  divine 
shield  the  various  bites  and  blows  of  serpents,  and  the 
greedy  wolves  who  were  armed  against  me  seem  only  to 
have  heaped  coals  on  their  own  heads.  Take  these 
matters  in  brief:  I  would  have  written  more  at  large, 
my  sweetest  Agrippa,  of  what  is  in  my  mind,  and  of  the 
course  of  my  life  and  business  in  hand,  but  those  things, 
on  account  of  the  danger  of  our  present  letters  and  con- 
sidering the  time,  I  put  aside.  Do  you  hasten  your 
return  as  much  as  you  can2." 

1  Jocher's  Gelehrten  Lexicon.     Theil  2,  p.. 2242  (ed.  Leipzig,  1750). 

2  Ep.  1,  Lib.  i.  p.  681. 


28  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

The  tone  of  this  letter  shows  how  strong  an  ascendancy 
Cornelius  Agrippa  had  established  over  its  writer;  it  was 
the  ascendancy  undoubtedly  of  friend  over  friend,  but  the 
young  diplomatist  seems  also  to  have  strengthened  his 
position  with  suggestions  of  a  means  of  settlement  in  life 
that  might  perhaps  be  discovered  for  Landulph  in  Ger- 
many. A  month  after  the  receipt  of  his  friend's  letter, 
addressed  to  him  at  Cologne,  Cornelius  thus  answered  it1 : 

"  Your  letter  written  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  March, 
my  most  faithful  Landulph,  I  received  joyfully  on  the 
twentieth  of  May.  It  grieves  me  much  to  have  been  so 
long  absent  from  you,  and  to  miss  the  enjoyment  of  your 
most  faithful  companionship;  but  I  do  not  in  absence 
follow  you  with  the  less  care,  or  yield  to  any  one  in  love 
for  you:  so  that  I  am  capable  of  neglecting  nothing  that 
concerns  the  defending  and  amplifying  of  your  honour, 
or  the  augmentation  of  your  worldly  welfare.  Day  and 
night  solicitous  on  your  account,  I  now  again  vehemently 
and  faithfully  warn  you  to  leave  your  present  place  of 
residence,  and  to  leave  straightway;  for  the  time  is  near 
when  you  will  either  be  glad  that  you  left  or  sorry  that 
you  stayed.  Take  these  matters  in  brief:  for  I  cannot 
safely  venture  to  commit  to  this  letter  all  that  I  should 
wish  you  to  know.  I  am  glad,  however,  that  you  have 
lately  overcome  the  wiles  of  so  many  serpents,  so  many 
Lycaons.  Yet  it  is  safer  to  fly  from  such  animals  than 
vanquish  them,  for  even  when  dead  they  are  hurtful,  and 
retain  the  poison  with  which  often  they  undo  their  victors. 
1  Ep.  2,  Lib.  L  p.  682. 


OTHER  CONSPIRATORS.  29 

My  happy  position  in  life  is  matter  of  mutual  satisfaction 
to  us,  for  whatever  good  fortune  may  have  befallen  me  is 
common  to  you  also,  since  our  friendship  is  of  a  kind  that 
suffers  nothing  to  be  proper  to  one  of  us  only.  I  await 
here  the  commission  and  command  of  a  certain  great  Jove, 
with  whom  I  shall  some  day  have  it  in  my  power  to  be 
not  a  little  useful  to  you.  I  am  living  here,  and  am  to 
return  again  to  France,  where  I  shall  see  you.  Meantime 
salute  in  my  name  Messieurs  Germain,  Gaigny,  and 
Charles  Foucard,  M.  de  Molinflor,  and  Juanetin  Bascara, 
Senor  de  Gerona.  The  happiest  farewell  to  you.  From 
Cologne,  the  twentieth  of  May,  1507." 

Of  the  friends  here  saluted,  Germain1  was  a  spirited  law 
student,  who  became  afterwards  an  advocate  at  Forcal- 
quier,  in  Provence.  He  published,  nine-and-twenty  years 
after  this  date,  the  "  Very  brief  History  of  Charles  V., 
ejected  and  paid  out  by  the  peasants  of  Provence,"  and 
wrote  also  a  macaronic  satire.  Gaigny3,  or  Gagnee,  was  a 
Parisian  born,  afterwards  known  as  a  good  theologian  and 
linguist,  as  well  as  a  tolerable  Latin  poet.  Nineteen  years 
subsequent  to  this  date  he  became  procurator  for  France  in 
his  native  University,  five  years  later  its  rector,  and  fifteen 
years  later  still — thirty-nine  years  after  the  present  date — 
its  chancellor,  which  office  he  held  till  he  died — three 
years  after  his  election.  He  also,  it  seems,  had  indulged 
in  wild  schemes  in  his  youth,  though  he  lived  to  be  known 
chiefly  as  a  scholiast  on  the  New  Testament,  and  was  made 

1  Jocher's  Gekhrten  Lexicon  in  Adelung's  Fortsetzung  (Leipzig,  1787). 
Theil  2. 

2  Jocher.    Theil  2,  p.  826. 


30  COKNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

first  almoner  to  the  king  Francis  I.  The  last  person 
named  in  the  list,  Juanetin  Bascara  de  Gerona,  was  the 
young  Catalonian  nobleman  of  whom  we  have  already 
spoken.  Landulph  speaks  again1 : 

"The  letter  that  you  wrote  me  on  the  twentieth  of 
May,  Henry  Cornelius,  ever  to  be  most  regarded  by  me, 
I  received  right  joyfully,  and  read  on  the  sixteenth  of 
June  :  for  which  I  can  scarcely  thank  you  enough,  espe- 
cially for  that  part  wherein  you  faithfully  and  vehemently 
exhort  me  that  I  shall  be  glad  to  have  left  my  first  resi- 
dence, or  led  to  penitence  for  still  abiding  there.  Certainly, 
with  a  warning  of  that  kind,  I  hold  you  to  have  pro- 
phesied by  some  divine  oracle  according  to  the  aim  of 
my  own  intention,  which  during  a  long  course  of  days  I 
have  been  whispering  to  myself  quietly.  I  will  expect 
your  return,  upon  which  we  will,  as  it  was  formerly 
resolved  between  us,  visit  Spain,  and  finally  seek  my 
native  Italy.  For  should  the  eagle  chance  to  fly  across 
the  Alps,  I  hope  that  we  may  count  for  something  there 
among  the  other  birds.  M.  Molinflor  salutes  you.  Juanetin 
has  been  absent  for  some  months,  and  is  not  yet  returned. 
Farewell.  From  the  University  of  Paris.  In  the  year  1507, 
on  the  day  above  mentioned." 

Landulph,  therefore,  who  had  nothing  to  wait  for  but 
the  coming  of  Agrippa,  answered  his  friend's  letter  in- 
stantly. The  absence  of  Juanetin  referred,  no  doubt,  to 
the  business  in  hand.  We  hear  of  him  next  at  the 
court  of  Maximilian. 

1  Ep.  3,  Lib.  i.  p.  €82. 


YOUTHS  OF  THE  PALACE.  31 

Nine  months  have  elapsed  ;  perhaps  Cornelius  has  half- 
repented  of  his  plan,  some  of  the  motives  to  it  may  be 
failing,  when  suddenly  we  find  his  credit  with  his  court 
staked  on  success.  The  matter  has  been  talked  about, 
and  he  is  forced  on  the  adventure.  On  the  road  to  it 
he  writes  thus  to  a  comrade  still  at  court1 : 

"  You  see,  my  Galbianus,  how  dangerous  it  is  to  make 
any  rash  boasts  before  those  youths  of  the  palace,  who 
blab  whatever  they  hear  to  their  princes  and  kings,  and 
hunt  up  for  them  pleasure  in  our  perils.  But  they, 
as  soon  as  they  have  begun  to  believe  anything  of  our 
mysteries,  desire  us  speedily  to  bring  them  to  the  proof  by 
deeds;  and  they  make  their  demand  upon  us  with  entreaties 
that  blend  hard  and  soft  together,  so  that  we  may  easily 
understand  how  those  services  which  are  not  obtained  from 
us  by  high  words  will  be  compelled  by  force  and  violence. 
I  own  that  thus  far  this  our  fortune  is  superne  rnulier 
formosa;  but  who  can  discern  her  tail  ?  We  quaff  honey 
so  mixed  with  gall  that  we  are  unable  to  judge  whether  it 
be  sweet  or  bitter.  I  own  that  thus  far  promises  are 
great,  and  there  are  great  rewards  proposed  :  but  against 
these  are  to  be  set  threats  and  dangers.  Have  I  not 
warned  you  from  the  beginning  not  to  lead  us  into  any 
labyrinth  from  which  we  could  not  escape  at  our  own 
pleasure  ?  You,  nevertheless,  wish  to  talk  big,  an  orator 
more  bold  than  prudent ;  and  the  Senor  de  Gerona,  by 
his  credit,  has  so  enforced  faith  in  your  words,  and  sug- 
gested to  the  king  so  great  an  opinion  of  us,  that  there  is  no 

1  Ep.  4,  Lib.  i.  p.  683. 


32  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

•way  left  of  drawing  back  from  what  we  have  begun.  Now, 
therefore,  I  am  forced  at  my  own  great  peril  to  redeem 
your  promises  on  my  behalf,  hard  bound  by  so  inevitable  a 
necessity  of  danger,  that  if  I  were  to  draw  aside,  or  if  the 
event  should  happen  otherwise  than  you  have  convinced 
yourself  it  will,  we  all  shall  have  lost  for  ever  not  our 
object  only,  but  our  fame  also  and  credit ;  we  shall  have 
enemies  instead  of  helpers,  accusers  instead  of  promoters, 
anger  instead  of  thanks,  and  be  enriched  with  persecution 
for  our  payment. 

"  But  if,  indeed,  we  obey,  and  the  matter  chance  to 
issue  well,  it  is  doubtful  whether  in  place  of  reward  we 
may  not  be  destined  to  new  perils ;  of  which  perils,  rising 
to  the  level  of  our  skill,  we  may  at  last  perish.  Thus  it 
may  happen  that  the  blow  prepared  for  the  head  of 
another  may  fall  on  ourselves,  unless,  indeed,  others  are 
destitute  of  contrivances  equal  to  ours,  or  better,  or  at 
least  not  by  us  to  be  foreseen. 

"  But  this  I  write  to  you,  not  because  I  seek  to  turn 
back,  but  that  I  may  signify  to  you  that  I  am  ready 
boldly  to  take  chance  of  life  or  death.  Nor  do  I  doubt 
that,  unless  fate  or  some  evil  genius  stand  in  the  way, 
I  shall  prepare  for  us  immortal  glory  by  this  brilliant 
action,  needing  no  other  forces  than  you  only,  of  whom 
I  have  often  heretofore  experienced  that  you  are  a  faithful 
comrade.  In  this  trust  I  now  approach  the  risk  and 
venture,  holding  already  in  my  grasp  that  golden  branch 
of  the  tree  difficult  to  climb.  If  you  are  by  my  side,  it 
readily  will  suffer  itself  to  be  plucked,  otherwise  I  could 


ON  THE  ROAD  TO  SPAIN..  33 

not  prevail  or  wrench  it  off,  even  with  hard  steel :  but  I 
should  cast  myself  as  a  bone  to  Cerberus,  by  whom, 
nevertheless,  I  would  rather  be  devoured,  than  like  Pro- 
metheus be  eaten  piecemeal  in  a  struggle  with  incessant 
dangers.  You,  therefore,  who  counselled  me  to  enter  on 
so  great  an  enterprise,  who  were  my  leader  into  this  maze, 
will  see  that  you  take  as  much  pains  in  leading  me  out, 
and  restoring  me  to  myself,  as  you  spent  in  urging  me 
thereinto.  Farewell,  and,  returning  with  the  bearer  of 
this,  let  us  have  your  presence  here,  so  that  straightway 
we  may  deliberate  and  put  our  plan  in  execution.  From 
the  Palace  of  Granges,  April,  1508." 

The  palace  and  lands  of  Granges,  or  Gran  gey,  on  the 
borders  of  Franche  Comte,  belonged  then  to  a  quasi-inde- 
pendent lord.  They  are  distant  about  eight  miles  from 
Chatillon-sur-Seine,  but  a  geographical  fact  far  more 
important  to  this  narrative  is,  that  they  are  a  third  of 
the  way  in  a  perfectly  direct  line  from  Cologne  to  Tar- 
ragona. 


VOL.  I. 


34  CORNELIUS  AGEIPPA. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   PLOT   AND   ITS   ISSUE. 

To  Galbianus,  who  had  returned  to  court  after  visiting 
Granges,  in  obedience  to  the  summons  of  his  friend,  there 
came  Agrippa's  servant,  Stephen,  bringing  verbal  tidings 
and  a  letter  from  his  master,  dated  at  a  place  still  nearer 
to  the  point  of  action1.  In  it  Galbianus  is  reminded 
again  that  chiefly  to  him  and  Juanetin  the  writer  is  in- 
debted for  the  service  upon  which  he  is  engaged.  "  Did  I 
not  foretel  you  long  since,"  he  adds,  "  that  so  it  would  be, 
that  when  we  thought  to  depart  free  we  should  prove 
to  have  sold  our  liberty  for  misty  names  of  rank,  that 
under  the  pretext  of  honours  and  employments  we  should 
be  appointed  to  the  worst  of  perils,  and  that  new  work 
would  be  set  before  us  whereof  death  is  the  hire.  Let  it 
content  us  to  have  enjoyed  this  kind  of  lot  once  ;  why 
should  we  tempt  fortune  more?  Juanetin,  so  far  as  I  see, 

1  Ep.  5,  Lib.  i.  p.  684.  I  do  not  name  the  place  in  the  text,  because  I 
cannot  identify  it.  The  letter  dated  only  with  the  year  is  written  from 
Arx  Vetus.  The  nomenclature  is  so  barbarous  in  many  of  these  letters  that 
I  almost  fear  Arx  Vetus  may  have  been  Agrippa's  Latin  for  Clennont  in 
Auvergne ! 


IN  THE  SAME  BOAT  WITH  CHARON.        35 

would  rather  please  the  king  with  our  dangers  than  abate 
in  any  of  his  desires  out  of  regard  for  our  well-being.  By 
Jove,  I  fear  the  omen  of  that  Acherontine  name"  (he 
Latinised  his  friend — Charona) ;  "  our  Charon  may  some 
day  be  tumbling  us  into  the  Styx.  Do  you  there- 
fore straightway  put  your  mind  into  his  counsels,  and 
whilst  your  hand  is  near,  however  the  boat  may  turn, 
compel  it  to  the  right  shore,  before  our  Charon  can 
run  it  to  the  left.-  See  therefore  how  you  may  deaden 
by  some  means  the  strokes  of  Juanetin,  or  shorten  them, 
or  be  ready  with  a  stout  pull  of  your  own  at  the  right 
season :  otherwise,  while  we  must  obey  the  decision  of  one 
angry  king,  we  may  offend  an  entire  people,  and  even 
have  those  young  men  of  the  court  in  no  benignant  mood  to- 
wards us.  Do  you  not  remember,  my  Galbianus,  how  those 
youths  passed  their  opinions  upon  us  while  they  schemed 
against  our  independence,  telling  the  king  that  if  he  sent  us 
off  it  might  happen  that  our  work  would  recoil  upon  his  own 
head,  and  that  the  discomfiture  carried  among  enemies  he 
himself  at  last  might  suffer ;  with  more  in  the  same  vein. 
See  whether  we  ought  up  to  this  point  to  submit  our 
heads  to  their  counsels,  and  by  an  odious  subservience  pre- 
cipitate ourselves  into  greater  dangers  than  humanity  itself 
could  bear;  let  one  fit  of  insanity  suffice  for  us.  But  with 
a  profligate  conscience  to  wish  to  continue  in  such  cruel 
devices,  which  after  all  have  more  in  them  of  crime  than 
of  high  daring,  and  for  the  sake  of  the  rage  of  one  ill- 
advised  prince  to  expose  ourselves  to  universal  hatred, 
would  be  utterly  impious  and  mad.  Nothing  of  this  sort 
D2 


36  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

was  agreed  between  us  at  the  palace  of  Granges.  I  wish 
now  to  remind  you  of  our  deliberations  there,  and  to 
assure  you  of  this  my  opinion,  according  to  which  we 
must  depart  hence  while  all  is  well,  or  else  I  will  throw 
myself  into  some  place  where  I  shall  be  found  of  nobod}r, 
and  then  you  will  all  see  how  you  can  get  on  without  me. 
You  will  learn  the  rest  from  Stephen.  Farewell, — and 
reply  to  me  at  once  by  the  same  messenger."  From 
(Clermont?)1508. 

However  it  may  have  pleased  his  wit  when  put  before 
him  hypothetically,  it  is  quite  evident  that  the  enterprise 
to  which  he  is  committed,  when  it  has  actually  to  be  faced, 
pleases  Agrippa's  wit  no  better  than  his  conscience.  The 
court  of  Austria  has  forced  the  young  man  on  a  work  of 
which  the  main  features  are  cruelty  and  treachery.  The 
scheme  of  treachery  his  own  cunning  either  suggested  or 
perfected;  but  what  had  amused  him  as  an  exercise  of 
ingenuity  in  thought,  revolts  him  as  a  crime  now  that  he 
finds  himself  upon  the  brink  of  action.  The  revulsion  of 
feeling  is  assisted,  evidently  in  no  small  degree,  by  a  near 
view  of  the  perils  to  be  braved  for  an  unworthy  purpose. 
Noticeable  also  in  this  letter  is  the  impatience  of  forced 
action,  the  restless  desire  for  independence,  often  hereafter 
to  be  manifested  and  too  seldom  asserted  with  success. 

In  this  case,  the  effort  to  shake  off  his  duty  of  obedience 
to  the  emperor's  command  was  unsuccessful.  His  mes- 
senger returned,  bringing  no  favourable  response  to  his 
expostulation.  No  way  of  retreat  was  opened.  The  work 
was  to  be  done. 


TARRAGONA.  37 

Tarragon1  is  a  province  broken  up  by  mountain  chains 
that  come  as  spurs  from  the  adjacent  Pyrenees.  The  town 
of  Tarragon  stands  like  a  citadel  upon  a  rock;  and  on 

1  The  identification  of  places  in  the  narrative  of  this  Spanish  adventure, 
though  at  first  sight  difficult,  may  be  considered,  I  think,  certain.  Vallis 
Rotunda,  Arx  Nigra,  and  Arcona  were  the  names  to  be  interpreted.  There 
is  no  town  answering  directly  to  the  name  with  which  Barcelona  and  Va- 
lencia can  be  associated  as  is  necessary  in  the  story.  This  fact,  and  the 
whole  texture  of  the  narrative  which  belongs  naturally  to  what  Mr.  Ford 
calls  "  the  classical  country  of  revolt,"  pointed  to  Catalonia.  "  Hispanic  pete 
Tarraconis  arces,"  Terra  Arcona  must  have  been  Agrippa's  construction  of 
the  word  Tarragona.  In  the  Diccionario  de  Espana  of  Pascual  Madoz,  we 
find  etymologies  enough  to  justify  the  rough  assumption  of  Cornelius.  It 
is  from  the  Phoenician  tarah  and  gev,  a  citadel  and  strong,  says  one 
authority.  It  is  Hebrew,  says  another,  and  means  good  land  for  buyers. 
It  is  from  Tarraco,  or  Tabal,  of  the  family  of  Noah,  says  one ;  no,  says 
another,  Tarraco  was  an  Egyptian  chief  who  landed  here;  wrong,  says  a 
third,  it  is  Terra  Aeon,  the  land  of  the  Phoenician  Aeon.  Says  another,  it 
is  Latin,  and  was  called  the  Place  of  Fights,  Terra  Agonum,  by  the  Scipios, 
because  it  cost  them  so  much  fighting  to  subdue  the  natives  of  that  soil. 
Having  assumed  that  Cornelius  read  Terra  Arcona,  and  meant  by  Arcona 
Tarragona,  the  rest  of  the  names  fit  perfectly  with  this  interpretation.  Pre- 
cisely where  we  might  expect  to  find  Vallis  Rotunda,  we  find  Villarodona ; 
and  "Janotus  Bascus  de  Charona"  suggests  straightway  De  Gerona, 
Gerona  being  a  Catalonian  town,  of  which  the  bishopric  was  subject  to 
the  see  of  Tarragon,  a  place  to  which  a  governor  of  the  district  about  Tar- 
ragon, as  Janotus  was,  might  naturally  belong,  and  the  naming  of  men  of 
standing  by  their  towns  having  been  at  that  time  the  rule  in  Catalonia. 
We  then  find  that  at  a  very  short  distance  from  Gerona  is  Bascara,  to 
which  place  we  may  attribute,  though  with  less  absolute  certainty,  the 
origin  of  the  name  Bascus;  and  for  Janotus,  I  have  felt  reasonably 
safe  in  putting  Juanetin,  since  in  a  history  of  the  Guerra  de  Catalonia, 
which  refers  to  the  same  century,  I  find  that,  and  no  other  name  among  the 
Catalonians  answering  to  Janotus.  Error  in  such  points  is  unimportant. 
Of  the  essential  facts  I  feel  no  doubt,  that  Arcona  is  Tarragon ;  Charona, 
Gerona ;  and  Vallis  Rotunda,  Villarodona.  Having  identified  Arcona  with 
Tarragon,  it  was  a  satisfaction  to  be  led  straightway  to  the  meaning  of 
"  Arx  Nigra,"  which  is  a  locality  important  to  the  narrative.  In  the  ac- 
count of  the  fortifications  of  Tarragon,  by  Senor  Madoz  (Diccionario  de 
Enpaila'),  reference  is  made  to  the  Fuerte  Negro ;  and  we  have  also  its  locality 
defined.  Everything,  therefore,  tallies  with  Agrippa's  narrative. 


38  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

the  summit,  near  to  the  archbishop's  palace,  within  walls 
supposed  to  have  been  raised  by  the  ancient  Celts,  is  the 
Black  Fort— the  Fuerte  Negro.  The  seizure  of  this  fort, 
by  a  treacherous  device,  seems  to  have  been  the  opening 
act  of  the  adventure.  It  was  successfully  accomplished ; 
but  as  Cornelius  only  alludes  to  the  attempt  in  writing  to 
a  friend  who  knows  its  details,  we  must  be  content  simply 
to  know  that  it  succeeded.  After  remaining  for  a  certain 
time  within  the  Fuerte  Negro,  Cornelius  was  sent  with 
others  to  garrison  the  house  of  Juanetin  at  Villarodona, 
and  protect  it  from  the  wrath  of  an  excited  people.  The 
small  town  of  Villarodona,  in  the  province  of  Tarragon, 
and  district  of  Vails,  lies  on  a  pleasant  slope  by  the  river 
Gaya.  The  mountains  of  Vails,  which  are  not  very 
notable,  were  known  long  after  the  sixteenth  century  as 
an  unpeopled  wilderness 1. 

After  many  days  spent  in  discussion  of  their  perilous 
position,  the  conspirators  in  the  house  of  Juanetin  learnt 
that  their  associate  Landulph,  who  had  gone  back  upon 
some  mission,  had  recrossed  the  Garonne  and  was  upon 
his  way  to  Barcelona2.  For  sufficient  reasons  it  was 

1  ...  .*  Pueden  decirse  despoblados.     Madoz,  loc.  cit. 

2  Ep.  10,  Lib.  i.  pp.  687-695  is  the  authority  for  this  and  the  succeeding 
details.     It  is  very  remarkable  that  this  most  striking  narrative,  coherent 
in  every  part,  giving  names  of  places  and  people,  and  describing  a  thing  so 
extremely  credible  as  a  Catalonian  tumult,  should  have  been  neglected  by 
all  writers.     Because  the  Lyons  printers  (whose  edition  of  Cornelius  was 
unauthorised,  and  sometimes  mutilated,  in  submission  to  the  priests),  be- 
cause these  "  Bering!  fratres,"  misunderstanding  the  first  sentence,  and  re- 
garding their  author  simply  as  a  magician,  put  an  absurd  commentary  in 
the   margin,  to  this  day  nobody,  in  speaking  of  Agrippa,  has    referred  to 
these  adventures  beyond  saying  that  he  "  went  to  Spain,"  and  adding,  or 


ST.  JOHN'S  EVE  AT  VILLARODONA.  39 

judged  most  prudent  that  Juanetin  should  at  once  repair 
to  Barcelona,  and  there  meet  his  friend.  To  Villaro- 
dona  Barcelona  was  the  nearest  port,  its  distance  being 
about  forty  miles.  Leaving,  therefore,  Cornelius  Agrippa 
captain  of  the  garrison,  the  Serior  de  Gerona  set  out  on 
his  journey.  He  had  determined  that  he  should  be  back 
by  the  festival  of  John  the  Baptist ;  and  for  that  day  a 
feast  was  accordingly  appointed  by  him,  to  which  he  had 
bidden  sundry  of  his  friends,  the  Prior  of  St.  George's 
Monastery,  and  a 'Franciscan  priest  who  was  a  member  of 
his  family,  with  many  others.  Whether  Juanetin  did  at 
Barcelona  see  Landulph,  and  whether  anything  was  planned 
by  them,  the  little  garrison  at  Villarodona  never  knew. 
The  master  of  the  house  did  not  return.  The  day  of  the 
appointed  dinner-party  was  at  hand ;  and  when  the  sun 
had  set  upon  the  eve  of  it,  Cornelius,  expecting  still  in 
vain  the  absent  man,  and  pondering  the  cause  of  his  delay  ; 
anxious,  beset  with  terrible  suspicions,  uncertain  how  to 
act;  with  his  mind,  as  he  says,  disturbed  by  presage  of  the 
coming  ill  and  dread  of  the  approaching  night,  revolved 
in  his  mind  many  conflicting  counsels.  At  last  he  retired 
to  rest ;  but  when  all  in  the  castle  were  asleep,  night  not 
being  far  advanced,  the  abbot's  steward  came,  for  whom, 
when  he  had  given  the  password  to  the  sentries,  the 
drawbridge  was  let  down,  and  the  gate  opened.  He 
summoned  Cornelius  Agrippa,  Perotti  the  Franciscan, 

not  adding,  that  he  was  engaged  there  in  efforts  to  make  gold.  A  stupid 
man  scribbles  a  stupid  note  upon  the  margin  of  a  letter,  and  the  letter  is  a 
dead  letter  for  three  hundred  years  in  consequence. 


40  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

and  two  other  of  Gerona's  relatives,  to  tell  them  that  on 
his  way  home  from  Barcelona  their  chief  had  been  way- 
laid by  a  savage  crowd  of  rustics,  and  that,  two  of  his 
followers  being  killed,  he  with  the  others  had  been  bound 
hand  and  foot,  and  carried  up  the  mountains. 

"  Take  heed,"  added  the  messenger,  "  to  the  danger 
that  is  threatening  yourselves,  unless  you  can  be  strongly, 
suddenly  prepared.  Meet  instantly,  and  hasten  to  take 
wise  thought  for  your  affairs  here  and  your  very  lives !" 

The  receivers  of  these  tidings  were  astonished  and 
alarmed;  they  had  no  counsel  that  sufficed  to  meet  the 
suddenness  of  the  exigency  and  the  greatness  of  the 
threatened  peril — no  one  doubting  that  the  castle  would 
be  soon  surrounded  by  a  hostile  people.  "  And  I,  too," 
says  Cornelius,  "  the  counsellor  of  so  many  enterprises,  who 
had  recentlv  been  master  of  so  many  plots,  was  wanting 
to  myself."  All,  therefore,  agreed  in  begging  that  the 
abbot's  steward,  who  had  told  them  of  the  danger,  would 
also  tell  them,  if  he  could,  in  what  way  to  avert  it. 

Said  he  :  "  You  must  either  escape  by  making  a  well- 
managed  sally,  or  you  must  fortify  the  castle,  and  that 
strongly,  against  the  seditious  rustics ;  probably  in  a  few 
days  they  will  separate  for  want  of  any  guiding  head,  or 
else  be  put  down  by  the  rough  hand  of  the  king." 

Now  the  country  being  in  arms,  it  seemed  impossible 
to  escape  by  breaking  through  the  watches  of  the  pea- 
santry; and  for  a  few  men  to  defend  against  numerous 
besiegers  a  place  that  was  already  in  ruins,  was  an 
undertaking  perilous  indeed.  But  there  was  an  old 


AT  BAY  IN  THE  MARSHES.  41 

half-ruined  tower  three  miles  distant,  situated  in  one  of 
those  mountain  wildernesses  which,  as  it  has  been 
said,  characterise  the  district  of  Vails.  The  tower  stood 
between  Villarodona  and  Tarragon,  in  a  craggy,  ca- 
vernous valley,  where  the  broken  mountains  make 
way  for  a  gulf  containing  stagnant  waters,  and  jagged, 
inaccessible  rocks  hem  the  place  in.  At  the  gorge  by 
which  this  place  is  entered  stood  the  tower,  on  a  hill 
which  was  itself  surrounded  by  deep  bogs  and  fishers' 
pools,  while  it  also  was  within  a  ring  of  lofty  crags. 
There  was  but  one  way  to  this  tower,  except  when  the 
ground  was  frozen,  and  we  speak  now  of  events  happening 
at  midsummer,  the  midsummer  of  the  year  1508.  The 
way  among  the  pools  was  by  a  narrow  path  of  stone, 
hedged  with  turf  walls.  The  site  of  the  tower  made 
it  inexpugnable  in  summer  time.  It  was  tenanted  by  a 
poor  bailiff  of  the  abbot's,  who  was  set  in  charge  over  the 
fishponds ;  the  abbot's  steward,  therefore,  told  his  friends 
that  they  should  occupy  and  fortify  that  mountain  hold. 

The  advice  seemed  Rood,  and  was  adopted  instantly. 
Pack  and  baggage  were  brought  out,  with  every  accessible 
provision  for  munition  or  victualling.  Conveying  all  that 
was  most  precious  and  necessary  on  their  horses'  backs, 
and  themselves  bearing  the  burden  of  their  powder  and 
artillery,  the  little  band  marched  under  cover  of  a  dark 
night,  as  silently  as  possible,  by  devious  and  unfrequented 
ways,  to  the  appointed  place.  Having  entered  the  tower, 
they  entrusted  their  horses,  which  they  had  no  means  of 
keeping  by  them,  to  the  steward's  care.  He  rode  away 


42  CORNELIUS  AGKIPPA. 

with  them,  and  not  long  afterwards  day  broke — St.  John 
the  Baptist's  festival — the  day  appointed  for  the  banquet  to 
which  he  who  bade  the  guests  had  not  returned;  and  his 
bold  soldiers,  says  Cornelius,  had  been  transformed  into 
bats,  flitting  out  of  daylight  to  their  cavern. 

They  had  not  fled  too  soon.  At  early  dawn  on  that 
day  the  armed  peasantry  was  already  assembling  about 
the  walls  of  the  abandoned  dwelling  of  Juanetin.  Some 
bringing  ladders  scaled  the  crumbling  battlements,  others 
beat  with  strong  axes  at  the  doors;  the  house  was  seized, 
and  everything  it  contained  scattered  in  wreck,  destroyed, 
or  carried  away  by  the  people.  That  was  the  festival. 
The  people  ran  from  hall  to  chamber  in  vain  search  for 
the  companions  of  their  enemy.  The  women  and  children, 
who  had  been  left  quietly  asleep,  woke  in  alarm,  but  knew 
not  what  to  say.  They  could  not  help  the  search,  which 
was  maintained  most  fiercely  for  The  German.  Under 
that  name  was  sought  Cornelius  Agrippa,  for  from  all 
quarters  had  corne  the  rumour  that  he  had  been  the 
author  of  the  atrocious  counsel  of  the  cruel  deed,  that  it 
was  he  whose  arts  had  caused  the  fall  of  the  Black  Fort, 
impregnable  by  violence,  the  miserable  massacre  of  the 
garrison,  and  the  subversion  of  the  public  liberty.  Troops 
of  peasantry  descending  from  the  mountains  filled  the 
valley;  everywhere  were  to  be  heard  the  shouts  of  an 
angry  host  of  men  eager  to  put  an  end  to  the  'conspiracy 
against  their  public  rights.  The  hiding  place  of  the  con- 
spirators becoming  known,  the  flood  of  wrath  poured 
down  towards  the  tower,  but  the  strength  of  the  position 


BESET  BY  THE  POPULACE.  43 

was  then  felt.  With  a  barricade  of  overthrown  waggons 
that  had  been  used  by  the  bailiff,  the  sole  path  to  the 
besieged  was  closed,  and  behind  this  barrier  they  posted 
themselves  with  their  arquebuses,  of  Avhich  one  only 
sufficed  to  daunt  a  crowd  of  men  accustomed  to  no 
weapons  except  slings  or  bows  and  arrows.  After  suffer- 
ing some  slaughter,  the  peasantry  discovered  that  the  tower 
was  not  to  be  stormed,  and  altering  their  design,  they 
settled  down  with  dogged  perseverance  to  beset  the  place, 
and  by  a  strict  siege  starve  the  little  garrison  into  sur- 
render. 

There  were,  indeed,  among  the  besiegers,  says  Agrippa, 
some  whose  experience  of  sedition  had  been  great,  pro- 
fessing that  they  still  abided  by  their  customary  loyalty 
towards  the  king.  By  the  help -of  these  the  abbot  himself, 
who  always  had  enjoyed  a  high  repute  among  the  people, 
while  the  storm  of  rebellion  was  raging  called  at  Tarragon 
a  public  meeting,  pointed  out  to  those  who  gathered  round 
him  the  futility  of  their  efforts,  the  emptiness  of  their  pur- 
pose, and  persuaded  them  against  disloyalty  towards  the 
king ;  he  urged  also  the  restoration  of  Juanetin  and  the  rais- 
ing of  the  siege  laid  to  the  tower.  But  his  labour  for  his 
friends  was  vain.  If  by  the  abbot  here  mentioned  is  meant 
the  Archbishop  of  Tarragon,  it  was  Don  Gonzalo  Fernandez 
de  Heredia,  who  held  that  office  between  the  years  1489 
and  1511.  The  vicinity  of  the  Black  Fort  to  the  arch- 
bishop's palace  would  compel  that  dignitary,  if  he  was 
not  absent,  to  a  strong  feeling  for  or  against  the  party  of 
Gerona,  and  the  veneration  of  the  people  for  the  abbot, 


44  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

as  well  as  the  course  of  proceeding  taken  by  him,  would, 
in  a  slight  degree,  favour  the  opinion  that  under  this  name 
Cornelius  referred  to  the  archbishop  himself.  Archbishop 
or  not,  and  from  the  sequel  of  the  narrative  I  think  not, 
he  pleaded  to  deaf  ears ;  the  peasantry,  risen  in  arms, 
scarcely  allowed  the  upholders  of  the  king's  authority  to 
speak,  replying  promptly  that  their  wrath  was  not  against 
the  king,  but  against  Juanetin  and  his  tyranny,  whereby 
they  had  been  lorded  over  savagely,  contrary  to  all  former 
usage,  and  vexed  with  slavery  beneath  intolerable  burdens, 
so  that  under  the  name  and  form  of  the  protection  of  the 
king  they  had  been  robbed  of  the  liberty  inherited  from 
their  forefathers.  With  many  threats  of  vengeance  they 
urged  the  wresting  from  them  of  the  Fuerte  Negro, 
clamouring  with  the  bitterest  accusations  against  the 
Senor  de  Gerona  and  Cornelius  Agrippa;  against  the  one 
as  the  betrayer  of  his  country,  and  against  the  other  as 
the  man  who  by  detestable  contrivances  had  robbed  them 
of  their  fortress  and  their  liberty ;  against  both  as  men 
who  had  moved  the  king  to  cruel  exercise  of  his  authority, 
and  to  so  atrocious  a  use  of  his  victory,  that  their  blood, 
they  asserted,  and  their  lives  would  not  content  him. 
A  liberty,  regained  by  force  of  arms,  they  would  not 
barter  for  the  flattery  of  cheating  words,  but  they  would 
acknowledge  the  king  for  their  master  upon  those  con- 
ditions under  which  he  had  held  rule  over  their  elders : 
to  the  lowest  slavery  he  ought  not  to  compel  them,  and 
they  would  not  be  compelled.  All  with  one  voice  cried, 
touching  Juanetin  and  his  colleagues  in  the  tower,  that 


IN  A  CATALONIAN  REVOLT.  45 

they  would  rather  take  the  enemies  delivered  into  their 
possession,  than  dismiss  them  to  become  a  second  time 
avengers.  Surely,  they  said,  they  ought  not  to  prefer  the 
safety  of  these  people  to  their  own;  and  added,  proudly, 
that  in  their  being  loose  they  had  more  matter  for  fear 
than  in  the  anger  of  the  king,  that  more  help  could  be 
got  out  of  their  death  than  out  of  the  king's  promises. 
They  who  had  lost  relations  at  the  massacre  in  the  Black 
Fort  laboured  especially  to  keep  alive  the  fury  of  the 
people.  All  being  agreed  in  urgent  accusation  against 
Juanetin  de  Gerona,  all  determined  not  to  suffer  the 
escape  of  his  companions  closely  beset  in  the  tower,  the 
abbot,  or  archbishop,  parted  at  dusk  from  the  men  whose 
wrath  he  had  been  utterly  unable  to  appease. 

The  Catalonians  in  those  days  were  bold  asserters  of 
their  rights,  and  very  ready  to  chastise  the  nobles  who 
opposed  them.  Not  many  years  had  elapsed  since  they 
had  forcibly  set  up  a  prince  of  their  own  choosing,  and 
forty  years  afterwards  a  famous  Catalonian  war  was  the 
result  of  the  high  value  set  by  them  on  public  liberty. 
The  sympathies  of  Englishmen  can  only  be  against  Cor- 
nelius and  his  associates.  Juanetin  de  Gerona  was  a 
double  traitor,  probably ;  a  traitor  to  his  country,  as  the 
people  said,  because  in  the  name  of  the  King  of  Aragon 
he  became  its  oppressor.  But  if  he  was  not  playing  a 
double  game,  how  was  it  that,  while  professing  to  recover 
Ferdinand's  authority,  he  used  the  help  offered  him  by 
Maximilian?  There  was  so  much  bold  treachery  and 
petty  meanness  forming,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  a  part 


46  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

of  the  routine  of  statecraft,  the  relations  between  what  is 
done  and  what  is  meant  become  often  so  complex,  that  it 
needs  the  wit  of  a  sixteenth  century  diplomatist  fairly  to 
understand  the  significance  of  many  an  action  not  directly 
labelled  with  its  meaning.  Be  it  enough  for  us  here  to 
know  that  the  young  Cornelius  Agrippa  suffered  in  Spain 
merited  discomfiture  ;  that,  as  he  approached  his  under- 
taking there,  he  came  to  see  it  in  its  true  light,  as  a 
matter  not  of  glory,  but  of  shame,  and  would  have 
removed  his  hand  from  it  had  he  been  able.  Self- 
conscious,  ambitious  as  he  was,  much  as  he  yearned,  out 
of  the  largeness  of  his  mind  and  its  self-occupation,  for  a 
perfect  independence,  it  has  been  seen  how  he  allowed 
his  course  to  be  determined  by  the  pressure  from  without. 
Self-conscious  without  being  fully  self-possessed,  ambi- 
tious, powerful,  yet  failing  in  that  lofty  reach  of  power 
which  makes  poverty  a  source  of  wealth,  discomfiture  the 
root  of  triumph,  already  we  perceive  how  he  may  here- 
after— should  he  venture  on  an  independent  path — be 
hindered  by  the  opposition  he  begets. 


THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN  HOLD.  47 


CHAPTER  IV. 

HOW    CORNELIUS    AGRIPPA,    BESIEGED   IN     A    TOWER   NEAR    VILLARODONA, 

VANISHED    WITH     ALL    HIS    COMPANIONS    IN    ARMS THE    END    OF    THE 

CATALONIAN   ADVENTURE. 

PERILOUS  weeks  were  being  passed  by  the  adven- 
turers within  the  mountain  hold.  More  formidable  than 
the  actual  conflict  was  the  famine  consequent  on  their 
blockade.  Perrot,  the  keeper  of  the  fish-ponds,  and 
erewhile  the  solitary  occupant  of  that  old  tower  among  the 
rocks  and  marshes,  taking  cunning  counsel  with  himself 
to  help  his  guests  and  to  get  rid  of  them,  explored  with 
indefatigable  zeal  every  cranny  in  the  wall  of  rock  by 
which  they  were  surrounded.  Clambering  among  the 
wastes,  with  feet  accustomed  to  the  difficulties .  of  the 
mountain,  he  hoped  that  perchance  he  might  be  the  dis- 
coverer of  some  route  worthy,  at  least,  to  be  tried  by  men 
who  fled  from  an  extremer  peril.  At  length  a  devious 
and  rugged  way,  by  which  unconquerable  obstacles  of 
crag  and  chasm  were  avoided  and  the  mountain  top  was 
to  be  reached,  this  friendly  peasant  found.  Looking 
down  from  the  heights  he  saw  how,  upon  the  other  side, 
the  mountain  rose  out  of  a  lake,  known  to  him  as  the 


48  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

Black  Lake,  which  has  an  expanse  of  about  four  mile?, 
and  upon  the  farther  shore  of  which  his  master's  abbey 
stood.  Attempting  next  the  difficult  descent  upon  that 
other  side,  he  boldly  struck  into  a  gorge  by  which  the 
mountain  snows  had  poured  a  torrent  down.  But  Per- 
rot,  at  the  lake,  was  still  far  from  the  abbey;  and,  to  men 
without  a  boat,  the  water  was  a  barrier  yet  more  im- 
passable than  the  steep  mountain.  He  retraced  his  way, 
therefore,  and  by  sunset  reached  the  tower,  where  an 
assembly  of  the  garrison  was  held  to  hear  the  result  of 
his  explorations.  The  judgment  upon  it,  of  course,  was 
that  escape  was  impossible,  unless  the  boat  could  be 
obtained,  of  getting  which  there  was  no  hope,  unless  a 
letter  could  be  carried  through  the  midst  of  the  besiegers 
to  the  abbot's  hand. 

Now  the  besieging  army'of  the  peasants  posted  and  kept 
constantly  relieved  strong  guards  upon  every  path  into 
the  valley,  and  allowed  no  person  either  to  go  in  or  pass 
out  on  any  pretence  whatever.  Moreover,  from  the  tower 
no  path  could  be  reached  except  by  the  one  narrow  lane 
across  the  marshes,  barricaded  as  before  described;  and  to 
prevent  a  sally  by  the  doomed  band  of  conspirators,  the 
outlet  by  this  lane  was  the  point  best  guarded,  and, 
indeed,  held  by  an  overwhelming  force.  The  perplexed 
conspirators,  in  council,  saw  no  hope  for  themselves, 
except  through  any  further  help  Perrot  might  furnish; 
him  they  besought  accordingly,  and  he  informed  them 
that  there  was  a  way,  known  to  himself  only,  by  which 
the  marshes  could  be  forded ;  but  that  such  knowledge 


DESPAIR — A  STRATAGEM.  49 

was  in  this  case  of  no  use,  because,  once  across  them, 
there  were  still  guards  posted  upon  every  path  out  of  the 
valley. 

Under  these  desperate  circumstances  the  ingenuity  of 
young  Agrippa  was  severely  tested,  and  he  justified  the 
credit  he  had  won  for  subtle  wit.  The  keeper  of  the 
fish-ponds  had  a  son,  who  was  a  shepherd-boy.  Cornelius 
took  this  youth,  disfigured  him  with  stains  of  milk- 
thistle  and  juice  of  other  herbs,  befouled  his  skin  and 
painted  it  with  shocking  spots  to  imitate  the  marks  of 
leprosy,  adjusted  his  hair  into  a  filthy  and  unsightly 
bunch,  dressed  him  in  beggar's  clothes,  and  gave  him  a 
crooked  branch  for  stick,  within  which  there  was  scooped 
a  hollow  nest  for  the  concealment  of  the  letter.  Upon 
the  boy  so  equipped — a  dreadful  picture  of  the  outcast 
leper — the  leper's  bell  was  hung,  his  father  seated  him 
upon  an  ox,  and,  having  led  him  during  the  darkness  of 
the  night  across  the  marshes  by  the  ford,  deposited  him 
before  sunrise  on  dry  ground,  and  left  him.  Stammering, 
as  he  went,  petitions  for  alms,  this  boy  walked  without 
difficulty  by  a  very  broad  road  made  for  him  among  the 
peasantry.  Even  the  guards  set  upon  the  paths  regarded 
his  approach  with  terror,  and,  instead  of  stopping  at  their 
posts  to  question  him,  fled  right  and  left  as  from  a  snake 
that  could  destroy  them  with  its  evil  eye,  and  flung  alms 
to  him  from  a  distance. 

So  the  boy  went  upon  his  errand,  safely,  and,  returning 
next  day  at  about  the  first  watch  of  the  night  to  the 
border  of  the  marsh,  announced  his  return  by  ringing  of 

VOL.  I.  E 


50  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

the  bell.  His  father,  on  the  bullock,  crossed  the  ford  to 
bring  him  in,  and,  as  he  came  with  the  desired  answer, 
there  was  great  rejoicing  by  Cornelius  and  his  com- 
panions. 

They  spent  the  night  in  preparation  for  departure.  To- 
wards dawn  they  covered  their  retreat  by  a  demonstration 
of  their  usual  state  of  watchfulness  and  desperation,  fired 
several  guns,  and  gave  other  indications  of  their  presence. 
This  done,  they  set  forth,  in  dead  silence,  carrying  their 
baggage,  and  were  guided  by  Perrot  to  the  summit. 
There  they  lay  gladly  down  among  the  stones  to  rest, 
while  their  guide  descended  on  the  other  side  and 
spread  the  preconcerted  signal,  a  white  cloth,  upon  a 
rock.  When  he  returned,  they  ate  the  breakfast  they 
had  brought  with  them,  all  sitting  with  their  eyes  towards 
the  lake.  At  about  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  two 
fishermen's  barks  were  discerned,  which  hoisted  a  red 
flag,  the  abbot's  signal.  Rejoicing  at  the  sight  of  this, 
the  escaped  men  fired  off  their  guns  in  triumph  from  the 
mountain-top,  a  hint  to  the  besieging  peasantry  of  their 
departure,  and,  at  the  same  time,  a  signal  •  to  the  rescuers. 
Still  following  Perrot,  they  descended,  along  ways  by  him 
discovered,  to  the  meadows  bordering  the  lake,  entered 
the  boats,  and  before  evening  were  safe  under  the  abbot's 
roof.  The  day  of  this  escape  was  the  14th  of  August. 
They  had  been  suffering  siege,  therefore,  during  almost 
two  months  in  the  mountain  fastness. 

To  the  peasants  an  escape  like  this  seemed  a  pure 
miracle,  and  it  produced  among  them  much  anxiety,  for 


ESCAPE  OVER  LAKE  AND  MOUNTAIN.  51 

they  misdoubted  whether  the  same  cunning  arts  which 
opened  unknown  ways  out  of  the  tower,  might  not  by  a 
strange  road  bring  suddenly  an  army  of  the  king's  into 
their  midst,  to  plague  the  whole  valley  with  fire  and 
sword.  Insecure,  as  they  believed,  by  night  or  day, 
many  seceded  from  the  work  of  insurrection ;  but  the 
leaders  of  it,  who  had  scattered  the  goods  of  Juanetin, 
had  taken  him  and  kept  him  prisoner,  abided  firmly  by 
their  purpose,  for  they  thought  no  safety  possible  if  he 
were  free.  They  dreaded  not  only  confiscation,  exile,  but 
they  doubted  also  whether  life  even  would  be  spared  to 
them  and  theirs  if  the  Seiior  de  Gerona  were  restored  to 
power. 

Cornelius  Agrippa  being  safe  could  quit  the  scene,  and 
quitted  it  without  waiting  to  see  how  the  difficulty  would 
be  solved  between  the  Catalonian  peasants  and  their 
master.  It  perplexed  him  -much  that  he  had  no  tidings 
of  his  friend  Landulph,  who  either  had  been  or  was  to 
have  been  at  Barcelona ;  and  the  abbot  counselled  him, 
in  his  perplexity,  to  go  to  court  again,  where  the  favour 
he  had  formerly  enjoyed  would  be  regained,  and  he  could 
easily  repair  his  shattered  fortune.  He  declared,  how- 
ever, that  he  had  no  mind  to  risk  being  again  sent  upon 
hazardous  missions,  and  remained  several  days  in  the 
abbey,  doubtful  as  to  the  course  which  he  should  next 
pursue,  and  not  very  cheerfully  disposed  to  trust  himself 
in  travel  to  the  unknown  temper  of  the  people. 

The  German  youth  then  found  a  friend  in  an  old  man, 
E2 


52  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

Antonius  Xanthus1,  whose  advice  was,  that  he  should 
take  heart,  go  into  strange  countries  and  among  strange 
people,  see  the  world,  feel  his  way  in  it,  and  spread  his 
sails  for  any  gale  of  fortune ;  that  he  should  constitute 
himself,  in  fact,  knight-errant  and  adventurer,  with  not 
the  discovery  of  a  lady  or  a  giant,  but  of  his  comrade 
Landulph,  for  a  special  object  of  desire.  "Moderate 
your  concern,"  said  the  old  man,  "  explore  the  shores  of 
Spain,  look  for  your  friend  in  his  own  Italy,  and  I  will 
go  as  your  companion  on  the  way." 

The  person  thus  offering  his  companionship  was  an  un- 
lettered old  man,  who  had  seen  much  of  the  rough  side  of 
the  world,  and  appeared  to  Cornelius  worthy  of  especial 
patronage.  Though  he  was  no  philosopher,  he  had  a  vast 
store  of  experience.  Captured  by  Djem,  the  unfortunate 
brother  of  Bajazet  the  Second,  he  had  once  served  as  an  in- 
terpreter among  the  Turkish  galleys ;  he  had  lived  to  a  great 
age,  filling  his  mind  constantly  with  every-day  knowledge, 
and  was  therefore  useful  as  a  travelling  companion  in  strange 
regions.  It  was  his  merit  also  to  be  faithful  and  silent — 
one  who  might  safely  be  admitted  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
mysteries  in  which  Cornelius  indulged,  and  who  was 
content  to  be  instructed  and  sworn  into  the  league  of 
which  Cornelius  and  Landulph  were  important  members. 

With  this  singular  companion  and  his  servant  Stephen, 
the  young  courtier,  after  a  stay  of  nine  or  ten  days  at  the 

1  Ep.  8  and  10,  Lib.  i.  pp.  686,  694,  for  this  and  for  what  follows  until 
the  next  reference. 


THE  JOURNEY  OUT  OF  SPAIN.  53 

abbey1,  on  the  24th  of  August,  1508,  went  forth  to 
seek  an  independent  fortune  in  the  world.  Of  course 
their  first  visit  was  to  Barcelona,  where  they  hoped  to 
find  some  clue  to  the  position  of  Landulph;  but  after 
spending  three  days  in  the  town,  nothing  discovered, 
they  proceeded  to  Valentia.  There  dwelt  a  most  prac- 
tised astrologer  and  philosopher,  Comparatus  Sara- 
cenus,  the  disciple  of  Zacutus,  but  from  him  also  no 
information  could  be  had.  The  travellers  then  sold 
their  horses,  and  sailed  from  Valentia  for  Italy.  By 
way  of  the  Balearic  Islands  and  Sardinia  they  went  to 
Naples,  where  they  were  disheartened  by  their  ill  success, 
and  determined  to  pass  forthwith  into  France.  They  took 
ship,  therefore,  at  Naples  for  Leghorn,  and  travelling  to 
Avignon,  there  halted.  In  that  town  they  learnt,  after  a 
few  days,  from  a  travelling  merchant,  that  the  person  of 
whom  they  sought  tidings  was  at  Lyons. 

At  once,  therefore,  on  the  17th  of  December,  to 
Landulph  at  Lyons,  Cornelius  wrote,  from  Avignon,  a 
letter,  expressing  joy  at  his  friend's  safety,  and  giving 
tidings  of  his  own  happy  escape  ;  for  since  the  Italian  left 
Villarodona  to  procure  help  for  his  friends,  neither  had 
been  certain  whether  the  other  was  alive  or  dead.  From 
Villarodona  itself  Cornelius  had  dated  two  epistles  to  his 
friend1,  urging  him  to  make  all  speed  in  his  embassy, 
and  by  putting  a  prompt  end  to  their  dangers,  put  an  end 
also  to  the  state  of  compulsion  under  which  he  lived ;  but 
whether  those  letters  might  not  have  been  written  to  a 
1  Ep.  6  and  7,  Lib.  i.  pp.  685-6. 


54  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

dead  man  or  a  captive  lie  had  no  opportunity  of  know- 
ing. Writing  from  Avignon,  Cornelius  expressed  briefly 
the  magnitude  of  the  danger  recently  escaped,  announced 
that  all  was  well  with  him  again,  and  added,  "  Nothing 
now  remains  but  that,  after  so  many  dangers,  we  insist 
upon  a  meeting  of  our  brother  combatants,  and  absolve 
ourselves  from  the  oaths  of  our  confederacy,  that  we  may 
recover  our  old  state  of  fellowship  and  have  it  un- 
molested." He  undertook  to  advise  two  confederates  in 
Aquitaine,  MM.  de  Bouelles1  and  Clairchamps,  of  their 
safety  in  Avignon  and  Lyons,  while  he  left  to  Landulph 
the  business  of  sending  word  to  Germain  de  Brie  and 
another  delegate  in  Burgundy,  as  well  as  Fasch  and 
Wigand  \  who  were  at  Paris. 

Of  the  associates  here  mentioned  some  only  were  men 
active  enough  to  produce  work  remembered  by  posterity. 
Charles  de  Bouelles,  or  Bovil,  born  at  Sancourt,  in  Ver- 
mandois,  studied  at  Paris,  and  travelled  afterwards  in 
Italy,  Germany,  and  Spain.  At  Noyon  he  became  a 
canon  and  professor  of  theology,  and  he  died  in  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century.  He  had  already,  in 
1503,  published  a  book  on  metaphysics  and  geometry, 
the  quadrature  of  the  circle,  and  the  cubication  of  the 
sphere.  When  republished  in  1510,  a  year  or  two  after 
the  present  mention  of  him  as  one  of  Cornelius  Agrippa's 
fellow-searchers  after  wisdom,  the  character  of  the  work 
showed  that  he  also  must  have  been  at  that  time  an  active 
inquirer  into  curiosities  of  knowledge.  It  contained 
1  Ep.  9,  Lib.  i.  p.  687. 


ASSOCIATES  REJOINED  IN  FRANCE.  55 

recently-written  books  on  Sense,  on  Nothing,  on  Genera- 
tion, on  Wisdom,  on  the  Twelve  Numbers,  Letters  upon 
the  Quadripartite  Work,  and  so  forth.  Later  in  life  he 
wrote  a  good  deal  of  theology,  something  of  language,  a 
book  on  the  utility  of  arts,  and  collected  three  books  of 
common  proverbs. 

Germain  de  Brie,  native  of  Auxerre,  became  known  as 
a  canon  of  Paris,  who  was  a  good  linguist,  and  wrote 
excellent  Greek  verse.  He  translated  some  of  the  works 
of  Chrysostom,  arid  produced  before  he  died,  in  1550, 
Anti-Morum,  the  fruit  of  a  controversy  with  Sir  Thomas 
More.  Of  the  other  friends  I  find  no  trace,  unless — but 
that  is  not  in  the  least  likely — Wigand  was  the  Domini- 
can Wirt  or  Wigandus  who  quarrelled  about  the  Im- 
maculate Conception,  attacked  the  Minorites,  supported 
his  views  with  false  miracles,  and  was  burnt  at  Berne 
in  1509. 

Cornelius,  then,  having  arranged  concerning  these 
associates,  therewith  commended  himself  to  his  dearest 
friend,  who  on  receipt  of  his  letter,  twenty  days  after- 
wards, namely,  on  the  9th  of  January,  1509,  began  his 
reply1  with  "  Alleluia !  Alleluia  !  Alleluia ! "  and  a  com- 
parison of  his  joy  to  that  of  Mary  Magdalen  or  the 
apostles  when  they  learnt  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord. 
He  is  unable  to  express  the  energy  of  his  congratulations, 
and  has  also  to  relate  how  he  had  made  inquiry  for  his 
friend  across  the  Pyrenees,  by  sea  and  land,  by  lake  and 
river,  field,  city,  and  town ;  how  he  had  looked  for  him 

1  Ep.  9,  Lib.  i.  p.  687. 


56  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

through  the  entire  kingdom  of  Navarre,  through  Gascony 
and  Aquitaine  ;  had  learnt  nothing  from  De  Bouelles  and 
Clairchamps  at  Toulouse,  and  then  had  hastened  to  Lyons 
in  the  belief  that,  among  the  merchants  of  every  tongue 
and  clime  by  which  that  mart  was  visited,  he  might 
obtain  some  news  of  his  friend's  fate.  The  search,  so 
vaunted,  it  will  be  observed,  was  only  made  on  the 
straight  road  to  France,  the  home  of  the  conspiracy.  At 
Lyons,  said  Landulph,  he  was  panting  to  embrace  his 
friend  again,  and  when  Agrippa  came  there,  they  could 
talk  more  at  ease  about  the  renewal  of  their  confedera- 
tion. He  gave  information  of  the  movements  of  some 
comrades,  and  parted  with  the  expression  of  a  wish  that 
his  friend  might  live  long,  and  a  belief  that  his  fame 
would  surpass  even  his  labours.  He  had  asked  in  the 
course  of  this  letter  for  a  full  account  of  the  escape, 
which  Cornelius  sent,  adding  a  hope  that  Landulph 
might  be  able  to  visit  him  at  Avignon  and  talk  their 
secrets  over,  since,  being  detained  by  the  exhaustion 
of  his  funds  till  he  could  make  some  money1,  he 

1  He  says  :  "  Sumptuum  tenuitate  coacti  Avenione  nos,  instructa  solida 
nosti-a  chrysotoci  officina  tantisper  manere,  et  in  opere  perseverare  oportebit, 
quoadusque  longioris  iteneris  nova  fomenta  excubemus."  Which  manner 
of  speaking  gets  a  marginal  note  from  the  commentator  to  the  following 
effect :  "  Hoc  loco  fateri  videter  apertissime,  chrysopseam  se  exercuisse  cum 
sociis  foedere  sibi  adjunctis,  ob  quam  saepius  apud  principes  libertatis  jac- 
turam  ferine  fecisset,  captivumque  fuisse  ob  hanc  rem  detentum  in  Valle 
rotunda."  In  a  former  letter,  when  expecting  honour  from  the  expedition, 
he  said  metaphorically  that  he  seemed  already  to  hold  "  that  golden  branch 
of  the  tree  difficult  to  climb,"  meaning  success,  the  marginal  note  was 
"  Chymica  paratam  arte  putat  arborem,  de  qua  Paracelsus,  Lib.  de  natura 
rerum."  Now,  as  to  the  likelihood  of  young  Agrippa's  taking  it  into  his  head 


AT  AVIGNON.  57 

could  not  leave  for  Lyons  until  after  the  lapse  of  a  little 
time. 

to  stop  at  Avignon  till  he  had  made,  literally  till  he  had  created,  money 
enough  to  carry  him  on  further,  we  shall  see  that  in  a  book  written  about 
this  time  he  says,  "  apertissime,"  that  to  make  an  ounce  of  gold  out  of  an 
ounce  of  gold  is  the  extreme  limit  of  his  conjuring.  And  the  letter,  which, 
by  misreading  one  sentence,  under  the  influence  of  a  general  idea  that  it  is 
a  magician  who  writes,  the  commentator  seems  to  have  warned  all  subse- 
quent readers  against  noticing,  tells  a  true  chapter  of  life  surely  "  aper- 
tissime" enough. 


58  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 


CHAPTER  V. 

CORNELIUS  A   DOCTOR   OF   DIVINITY. 

THE  secrets  to  be  talked  over  between  Cornelius  and 
his  friend  related  to  that  study  of  the  mysteries  of  know- 
ledge in  which  the  Theosophists  assisted  one  another. 
Secret  societies,  chiefly  composed  of  curious  and  learned 
youths,  had  by  this  time  become  numerous,  and  numerous 
especially  among  the  Germans.  Not  only  the  search  after 
the  philosopher's  stone,  which  was  then  worthy  to  be  pro- 
secuted by  enlightened  persons,  but  also  the  new  realms 
of  thought  laid  open  by  the  first  glance  at  Greek  litera- 
ture, and  by  the  still  more  recent  introduction  of  a  study 
of  the  Hebrew  language,  occupied  the  minds  of  these 
associated  scholars.  Such  studies  often  carried  those  who 
followed  them  within  the  borders  of  forbidden  ground, 
and  therefore  secrecy  was  a  condition  necessary  to  their 
freedom  of  inquiry.  Towards  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century  such  associations  (the  foundation  of  which  had 
been  a  desire  to  keep  thought  out  of  fetters)  were  de- 
veloped into  the  form  of  brotherhoods  of  Rosicrucians  : 
Physician,  Theosophist,  Chemist,  and  now,  by  the  mercy 
of  God,  Rosicrucian,  became  then  the  style  in  which  a 


THE  CONFEDERATIONS  OF  THEOSOPHISTS.  59 

brother  gloried.  The  brotherhoods  of  Rosi crucians  are 
still  commonly  remembered,  but  in  the  social  history  of 
Europe  they  are  less  to  be  considered  than  those  first 
confederations  of  Theosophists,  which  nursed  indeed  mys- 
tical errors  gathered  from  the  Greeks  and  Jews,  but  out 
of  whose  theories  there  was  developed  much  of  a  pure 
spiritualism  that  entered  into  strife  with  what  was  out- 
wardly corrupt  and  sensual  in  the  body  of  the  Roman 
Church,  and  thus  prepared  the  way  for  the  more  vital 
attacks  of  the  Reformers.  When  first  Greek  studies  were 
revived,  the  monks  commonly  regarded  them  as  essen- 
tially adverse  to  Roman  interests,  and  the  very  language 
seemed  to  them  infected  with  the  plague  of  heresy.  In 
the  Netherlands  it  became  almost  a  proverb  with  them 
that  to  be  known  for  a  grammarian  was  to  be  reputed 
heretic.  Not  seldom,  indeed,  in  later  times,  has  John 
Reuchlin,  who,  for  his  Greek  and  Hebrew  scholarship 
was  called,  after  the  manner  of  his  day,  the  Phoenix  of 
Germans,  and  who  was  the  object  of  an  ardent  hero- 
worship  to  men  like  Cornelius  Agrippa,  been  called  also 
the  Father  of  the  Reformation1.  Certainly  Luther, 
Erasmus,  and  Melancthon  had  instruction  from  him  ; 
by  him  it  was  that  Schwartzerd  had  been  taught  to  call 
himself  Melancthon ;  and  many  will  remember  how,  after 
his  death,  Erasmus,  in  a  pleasant  dialogue,  raised  his  old 
friend  to  the  rank  of  saint,  and  prayed  to  him,  "  Oh, 

1  He  is  so  called  on  the  title-page  of  an  English  adaptation  of  Mayer- 
hofTs  JteucMin  und  seine  Zeit,  Berlin,  1830—  The  Life  and  Times  of  John 
Reuchlin,  or  Capnion,  the  Father  of  the  German  Reformation.  By  Francis 
Barham,  Esq.  Whittaker  and  Co.  1843. 


60  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

holy  soul,  be  favourable  to  the  languages;  be  favourable 
to  those  that  love  honourers  of  the  languages ;  be  pro- 
pitious to  the  sacred  tongues."  But  Reuchlin — for  the 
taste  of  smoke  in  it,  Reuchlin  quasi  Reekie,  his  name 
was  turned  into  the  Greek  form,  Capnio— Reuchlin,  or 
Capnio,  never  passed  as  a  reformer  beyond  detestation  of 
the  vices  of  the  priesthood.  Like  Cornelius,  who  began 
his  life  before  the  public  as  a  scholar  by  an  act  of  homage 
to  his  genius,  Reuchlin  loved  liberty  and  independence, 
cherished  the  idol  of  free  conscience,  but  never  fairly 
trusted  himself  to  its  guidance.  To  the  last  an  instinct  of 
obedience  to  the  Church  governed  his  actions,  and  the 
spiritual  gold  he  could  extract  from  Plato,  Aristotle,  or  the 
wonderful  Cabala  of  the  Jews,  was  in  but  small  proportion 
to  the  dross  fetched  up  with  it  from  the  same  ancient 
mines. 

A  contemporary  notion  of  the  Reformation,  not  with- 
out some  rude  significance  in  this  respect,  is  said  to 
have  been  obtruded  upon  Charles  V.  by  a  small  body  of 
unknown  actors,  who  appeared  before  him  in  1530,  when 
he  was  in  Germany.  He  had  been  dining  with  his 
brother  Ferdinand,  and  did  not  refuse  their  offer  to  pro- 
duce a  comedy  in  dumb  show.  One  dressed  as  a  scholar, 
labelled  Capnio,  brought  before  the  emperor  a  bundle  of 
sticks — some  crooked  and  some  straight — laid  them  down 
in  the  highway,  and  departed.  Then  entered  another, 
who  professed  to  represent  Erasmus,  looked  at  the  sticks, 
shook  his  head,  made  various  attempts  to  straighten  the 
crooked  ones,  and  finding  that  he  could  not  do  so,  shook 


THE  DAWN  OF  FREE  INQUIRY.  61 

his  head  over  them  again,  put  them  down  where  he 
found  them,  and  departed.  Then  came  an  actor,  labelled 
Luther,  with  a  torch,  who  set  all  that  was  crooked  in  the 
bundle  blazing.  When  he  was  gone  entered  one  dressed 
as  an  emperor,  who  tried  in  vain  to  put  the  fire  out  with 
his  sword.  Last  came  Pope  Leo  X.,  to  whom,  grieving 
dismally  over  the  spectacle  before  him,  there  were  two 
pails  brought ;  one  contained  oil,  the  other  water.  His 
holiness,  to  quell  the  fire,  poured  over  it  the  bucket- 
ful of  oil,,  and  while  the  flame  attracted  all  eyes  by  the 
power,  beyond  mastery,  with  which  it  shot  up  towards 
heaven,  the  actors  made  their  escape  undetected1. 

Now,  it  was  over  the  crooked  sticks  of  Capnio,  and 
many  other  matters  difficult  of  comprehension,  that  Cor- 
nelius and  his  confederates  were  bent  in  curious  and 
anxious  study.  "  The  bearer  of  these  letters,"  said  Lan- 
dulph,  in  excusing  himself  on  the  plea  of  illness,  from  a 
winter  journey  to  his  friend  at  Avignon2 — "  the  bearer 
of  these  letters  is  a  German,  native  of  Nuremberg,  but 
dwelling  at  Lyons  ;  and  he  is  a  curious  inquirer  after 
hidden  mysteries,  a  free  man,  restrained  by  no  fetters, 
who,  impelled  by  I  know  not  what  rumour  concerning 
you,  desires  to  sound  your  depths."  That  the  man  him- 
self might  be  sounded,  as  one  likely  to  have  knowledge 
of  some  important  things,  and  that  if  it  seemed  fit,  he 
should  be  made  a  member  of  their  brotherhood,  was  the 

1  Johann  Reuchlin  und  seine  Zeit.    Von  Dr.  Ernst  Theodor  Mayerhoff. 
Berlin,  1830.    Pp.  79,  80,  in  note.    He  cites  the  story  from  Majus. 

2  Ep.  Corn.  Agr.  11,  Lib.  i.  p.  695. 


62  CORNELIUS  AGEIPPA. 

rest  of  the  recommendation  of  this  person  by  Lanclulph 
to  his  friend  Agrippa. 

At  Lyons  were  assembled  many  members  of  his  league, 
awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  young  soldier-philosopher.  His 
early  taste  for  an  inquiry  into  mysteries  had  caused  him 
to  take  all  possible  advantage,  as  a  scholar,  of  each  change 
of  place  and  each  extension  of  acquaintance  among  learned 
men  who  were  possessors  of  rare  books.  He  had  searched 
every  accessible  volume  that  might  help  him  in  the  prose- 
cution of  the  studies  that  had  then  a  fascinatiop,  not  for 
him  only,  but  for  not  a  few  of  the  acutest  minds  in 
Christendom.  At  that  time  there  was,  in  the  modem 
sense,  no  natural  science ;  the  naturalists  of  ancient  Greece 
and  Rome  being  the  sole  authorities  in  whom  the  learned 
could  put  trust.  Of  the  miraculous  properties  of  plants 
and  animals,  and  parts  of  animals,  even  at  the  close  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  careful  and  sober  men  placed  as  accepted 
knowledge  many  extravagant  ideas  on  record.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  century,  when  a  belief  in  the  influences 
of  the  stars,  in  the  interferences  of  demons,  and  in  the 
most  wonderful  properties  of  bodies,  was  the  rule  among 
learned  and  unlearned — Luther  himself  not  excluded  from 
the  number — an  attempt  to  collect  and  group,  if  it  might 
be,  according  to  some  system,  the  most  recondite  secrets  01 
what  passed  for  the  divine  ordering  of  nature,  was  in  no 
man's  opinion  foolish,  though  in  the  opinion  of  the  greater 
number  criminal.  Belief  in  the  mysteries  of  magic,  not 
want  of  belief,  caused  men  to  regard  with  enmity  and 
dread  researches  into  secrets  that  might  give  to  those  by 


IN  ARMS  A  MAN,  IN  SCHOLARSHIP  A  TEACHER.        63 

whom  they  were  discovered  subtle  and  superhuman  power, 
through  possessing  which  they  would  acquire  an  influence, 
horrible  to  suspect,  over  their  fellow-creatures.  Detach- 
ing their  search  into  the  mysteries  of  the  universe  from 
all  fear  of  this  kind,  the  members  of  such  secret  societies  as 
that  to  which  Cornelius  belonged  gathered  whatever  fruit 
they  could  from  the  forbidden  tree,  and  obtained  mutual 
benefit  by  frank  exchange  of  information.  Cornelius  had 
already,  by  incessant  search,  collected  notes  for  a  complete 
treatise  upon  magic,  and  of  these  not  a  few  were  obtained 
from  Reuchlin's  Hebrew-Christian  way  of  using  the  Cabala. 
From  Avignon,  after  a  short  stay,  Cornelius  Agrippa 
went  to  Lyons1,  and  remaining  there  some  weeks,  com- 
pared progress  with  his  friends,  and  no  doubt  also  for- 
mally divested  himself  of  any  further  responsiblity  con- 
nected with  the  Spanish  enterprise.  Towards  the  end  of  this 
year,  a  friend  at  Cologne,  Theodoric,  Bishop  of  Cyrene2, 
wrote,  expressing  admiration  of  him,  as  of  one  among  so 
many  thousand  Germans  who  at  sundry  times  and  places 
had  displayed  in  equal  degree  power  to  labour  vigorously 
as  a  man  at  arms  as  well  as  man  of  letters.  Who  does  not 
know,  the  bishop  asks,  how  few  of  many  thousands  have 
done  that?  He  envies  those  who  can  thus  earn  the  wreath 
of  Mars  without  losing  the  favour  of  Minerva,  and  calls 
the  youth  "  in  arms  a  man,  in  scholarship  a  teacher."  To 
escape  the  soldier's  life  of  bondage  seems  to  be  now  the 
ambition  of  the  scholar.  With  the  world  before  him,  in 
the  twenty-third  year  of  his  age,  well  born,  distinguished 
1  Ep.  12,  Lib.  i.  p.  696.  *  Ep.  12,  Lib.  L  p.  700. 


64  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

among  all  who  knew  him  for  the  rare  extent  of  his  attain- 
ments, Cornelius,  attended  by  his  servant  Stephen,  quitted 
his  friends  at  Lyons,  and  rode  to  Authun,  where  he  was 
received  in  the  abbey  of  a  liberal  and  hospitable  man,  phy- 
sician, theologian,  and  knight  by  turns,  M.  Champier, 
who,  having  been  born  at  Saint  Saphorin-le-Chateau,  near 
Lyons,  was  called  Symphorianus  Champier,  or  Campegius, 
and  who,  not  content  with  his  own  noble  ancestry,  assigned 
himself,  by  right  of  the  Campegius,  to  the  family  of  the 
Campeggi  of  Bologna,  and  assumed  its  arms.  He  studied 
at  Paris  Litera  humaniora,  at  Montpellier  medicine,  and 
practised  at  Lyons.  He  lived  to  obtain  great  fame, 
deserving  little,  and  losing  after  his  death  all.  It  was  not 
until  five  years  after  this  visit  from  Cornelius  Agrippa 
that  Symphorianus,  acting  as  body  physician  to  the  Duke 
of  Lorraine,  was  knighted  on  the  battle-field  of  Marig- 
nano.  Among  his  writings,  those  which  most  testify  his 
sympathy  with  the  inquiries  of  Cornelius,  are  a  book  on 
the  Miracles  of  Scripture,  a  Life  of  Arnold  of  Villeneuve, 
and  a  French  version  of  Sibylline  oracles.  This  Cham- 
pier  then  sympathised  with  the  enthusiasm  of  the  young 
theosophist,  and  under  his  roof  the  first  venture  of  Cor- 
nelius before  the  world  of  letters  seems  to  have  been 
planned.  In  the  last  week  of  May1,  we  find  that  he  has 
sent  Stephen  to  fetch  De  Brie  from  Dole,  has  summoned 
Antonius  Xanthus  from  Niverne,  and  wishes,  in  associa- 
tion with  Symphorianus,  to  arrange  a  meeting  with  Lan- 
dulph,  at  any  convenient  place  and  time.  He  has  some- 
1  Ep.  12,  Lib.  i.  p.  696. 


PREPARATION  FOR  SUCCESS  AT  DOLE.  65 

tiling  in  hand  concerning  which  he  wishes  to  take  counsel 
with  his  comrades.  A  few  days  afterwards  he  and  Landulph 
are  at  Dole  together ;  and  while  Cornelius  has  left  Dole  for 
a  short  time  to  go  to  Chalon  (sur  Saone),  his  friend  sends 
word  to  him  that  he  has  engaged  on  his  behalf  the  interest 
of  the  Archbishop  of  Besan^on  (Antony  I.,  probably  not  an 
old  man,  since  he  was  alive  thirty  years  afterwards1),  who 
desires  greatly  to  see  him,  and  boasts  that  he  can  give  in- 
formation of  some  things  unknown  perhaps  even  to  him. 
The  archbishop  is  impatient  to  see  the  person  who  has 
stored  up  from  rare  books,  even  those  written  in  Greek 
and  Hebrew,  so  great  a  number  of  the  secrets  of  the 
universe.  Landulph,  to  content  him,  antedates  the  time 
appointed  for  his  friend's  return,  and  while  reporting  this, 
adds  that  there  arc  many  at  Dole  loud  in  the  praise  of 
Cornelius,  and  none  louder  than  himself2.  The  influence 
of  his  associates  is  evidently  at  work  on  his  behalf  among 
the  magnates  of  the  town  and  university  of  Dole,  and 
learned  men  in  the  adjoining  towns  of  Burgundy,  for  it 
is  at  Dole  that  he  has  resolved  to  make  his  first  public 
appearance  as  a  scholar,  by  expounding  in  a  series  of 
orations  Reuchlin's  book  on  the  Mirific  Word3.  At 
Chalon,  however,  Cornelius  fell  sick  of  a  summer  pesti- 
lence4, from  which  he  was  recovering  on  the  eighth  of 

1  Zedler's  Universal  Lexicon,  Art.  Besanqon. 
*  Ep.  13.     Lib.  i.  p.  696. 

8  H.  C.  Agr.  Expostulate  ....  cum  Joanne  Catilineti.    Opuscula  ed. 
1532.     Mense  Maio.  fol.  D.  iii. 
4  Ep.  14.    Lib.  i.  p.  696. 

VOL.  I.  F 


66  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

July.  As  soon  as  health  permitted  he  returned  to  Dole, 
where  there  was  prepared  for  him  a  cordial  reception. 

Dole  is  a  pretty  little  town,  and  at  that  time  possessed 
the  university  which  was  removed  in  after  years  to  Be- 
san§on.  Its  canton  was  called,  for  its  beauty  and  fertility, 
the  Val  d' Amour;  and  when  Besangon  was  independent 
of  the  lords  of  Burgundy  Dole  was  their  capital.  A 
pleasant  miniature  capital,  with  not  four  thousand  inhabi- 
tants, a  parliament,  a  university,  a  church  of  Notre  Dame 
whereof  the  tower  could  be  seen  from  distant  fields,  a 
princely  residence, — Dole  la  Joyeuse  they  called  it  until 
thirty  years  before  Cornelius  Agrippa  declaimed  his 
orations  there ;  but  after  it  had  been,  in  1479,  captured 
and  despoiled  by  a  French  army,  it  was  called  Dole  la 
Dolente. 

Mistress  of  Dole  and  Burgundy  was  Maximilian's 
daughter,  Margaret  of  Austria,  who,  in  this  year  of 
Agrippa's  life,  was  twenty-nine  years  old.  She  was  already 
twice  a  widow.  When  affianced  twice — once  vainly  to 
France,  a  second  time  to  Spain,  and  likely  to  perish  in  a 
tempest  before  reaching  her  appointed  husband — she  had 
wit  to  write  a  clever  epitaph  upon  herself.  Her  Spanish 
husband  died  almost  after  the  first  embrace,  and  she  had 
since,  after  four  years  of  wedded  happiness,  lost  her  true 
husband,  Philibert  of  Savoy.  She  was  twenty-four  years 
old  when  that  happened,  and  resolved  to  make  an  end  of 
marrying.  In  1506,  after  the  death  of  Archduke  Philip, 
her  father  Maximilian  being  guardian  of  his  grandson 
Charles  the  Fifth,  made  Margaret  his  governor  over  the 


EXPOUNDING  REUCHLIN.  67 

Netherlands,  and  appointed  her  to  rule  also  over  Bur- 
gundy and  the  Charolois.  Thus  she  came  to  be,  in  the 
year  1509,  mistress  at  Dole.  A  clever,  lively  woman, 
opposed  strongly  to  France,  and  always  mindful  of  the 
interests  of  that  house  of  Austria  to  which  the  family  of 
young  Agrippa  was  attached,  Margaret  was  well  known 
for  her  patronage  of  letters  and  her  bounty  towards 
learned  men.  It  would  be,  therefore,  a  pleasant  transfer 
of  his  loyalty,  Agrippa  thought,  from  Maximilian  to 
Margaret,  if  he  could  thereby  get  rid  of  what  he  regarded 
as  camp  slavery  under  the  one,  and  earn  the  favour  of 
the  other  in  the  academic  grove.  To  earn  Margaret's 
good-will  and  help  upon  the  royal  road  to  fortune  was 
one  main  object  of  Cornelius  when  he  announced  at  Dole 
that  he  proposed  to  expound  Reuchlin's  book,  on  the 
Mirific  Word,  in  orations,  to  which,  inasmuch  as  they 
were  to  be  delivered  in  honour  of  the  most  serene  Prin- 
cess Margaret,  the  whole  public  would  have  gratuitous 
admission l. 

Poor  boy !  he  could  not  possibly  have  made  a  more 
genuine  and  honest  effort,  or  one  less  proper  to  be  used 
by  evil  men  for  the  damnation  of  his  character.  Mar- 
garet was  the  princess  to  whom  of  all  others  he  was  able 
to  pay  unaffected  homage,  and  Reuchlin,  then  the  boast 
of  Germans,  was  the  scholar  of  whom  before  every  other 
he,  a  German  youth,  might  choose  to  hold  discourse  to 
the  Burgundians.  Of  Reuchlin,  JEgidius,  chief  of  the 

1  Dedication  prefixed  to  the  treatise  De  NoUUtate  Faminece  Sexus. 
Opuscula  ed.  1532.  Mense  Maio.  fol.  A.  i. 

P2 


68  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

Austin  Friars,  wrote  \  that  he  "  had  blessed  him  and  all 
mortals  by  his  works."  Philip  Beroaldus,  the  younger, 
wrote  to  him  :  "  Pope  Leo  X.  has  read  your  Pytha- 
gorean book,  as  he  reads  all  good  books,  greedily ;  then 
it  was  read  by  the  Cardinal  de'  Medici,  and  I  am  ex- 
pecting next  to  have  my  turn."  This  book,  which  had 
been  read  by  the  Pope  himself  with  eager  pleasure,  was  a 
wonder  of  the  day,  and  was  in  the  most  perfect  unison 
with  the  whole  tone  of  the  boy's  mind ;  he  really  under- 
stood it  deeply,  it  was  most  dear  to  him  as  a  theosophist, 
and  he  was  not  to  be  blamed  if  he  felt,  also,  that  of  all 
books  in  the  world  there  was  none  of  which  the  exposition 
would  so  fully  serve  his  purpose  of  displaying  the  extent 
and  depth  of  his  own  store  of  knowledge. 

Mainly  upon  what  was  said  and  written  by  Cornelius 
Agrippa  in  this  twenty-third  year  of  his  age  has  been 
founded  the  defamation  by  which,  when  he  lived,  his 
spirit  was  tormented  and  the  hope  of  his  existence 
miserably  frustrated, — by  which,  now  that  he  is  dead,  his 
character  comes  down  to  us  defiled.  This  victim,  at  least, 
has  not  escaped  the  vengeance  of  the  monks,  and  his 
crime  was  that  he  studied  vigorously  in  his  salad  days 
those  curiosities  of  learning  into  which,  at  the  same  time, 
popes,  bishops,  and  philosophers,  mature  of  years,  inquired 
with  equal  faith  and  almost  equal  relish,  but  less  energy 
or  courage.  For  a  clear  understanding  of  the  ground, 
and  of  the  perils  of  the  ground,  now  taken  by  Cornelius 

1  Quoted  from  Mayenhoff,  whom  Mr.  Barbara  oddly  enough  here  trans- 
lates, "  JSgidius,  general  of  the  Eremites,  wrote  to  the  holy  Augustio." 


DE  YERBO  MIRIFICO.  69 

Agrippa,  little  more  is  necessary  than  a  clear  notion  of 
what  was  signified  by  Reuchlin's  book  on  the  Mirific 
Word  ;  but  what  has  to  be  said  of  Reuchlin  and  his  book, 
as  well  as  of  other  matters  that  will  hereafter  concern  the 
fortunes  of  Cornelius,  requires  some  previous  attention  to 
a  subject  pretty  well  forgotten  in  these  days  by  a  people 
rich  in  better  knowledge  ;  we  must  recal,  in  fact,  some  of 
the  main  points  of  the  Cabala. 

The  traditions,  or  Cabala,  of  the  Jews1  are  contained  in 
sundry  books,  written  by  Hebrew  Rabbis,  and  consist  of 
a  strange  mixture  of  fable  and  philosophy  varying  on  a 
good  many  points,  but  all  adhering  with  sufficient  accuracy 
to  one  scheme  of  doctrine.  They  claim  high  and  remote 
origin.  Some  say  that  the  first  Cabala  were  received  by 
Adam  from  the  angel  Raziel,  who  gave  him,  either  while 
he  yet  remained  in  Paradise,  or  else  at  the  time  of  his 
expulsion,  to  console  and  help  him,  a  book  full  of  divine 
wisdom.  In  this  book  were  the  secrets  of  nature,  and  by 
knowledge  of  them  Adam  entered  into  conversation  with 
the  sun  and  moon,  knew  how  to  summon  good  and  evil 
spirits,  to  interpret  dreams,  foretel  events,  to  heal,  and  to 
destroy.  This  book,  handed  down  from  father  to  son, 
came  into  Solomon's  possession,  and  by  its  aid  Solomon 
became  master  of  many  potent  secrets.  A  cabalistical 

1  This  account  of  the  Cabala  is  derived  from  German  sources,  among 
which  the  chief  are  Brucker's  Historia  Philosophies  and  the  Kabbah  Denu- 
data,  a  collection  of  old  cabalistical  writings  arranged  and  explained  by 
Christian  Knorr  von  Rosenroth.  The  Germans  of  our  own  time  have 
resumed  investigation  of  the  subject,  and  a  volume  has  been  published 
on  the  Religions  Philosophic  des  Sohar,  by  D.  H.  Joel,  Leipsic,  1849.  The 
subject  has  also  been  discussed  at  large  by  more  than  one  French  Orient- 
alist. It  has  obtained  little  distinct  notice  in  England. 


70  CORNELIUS  AGBIPPA. 

volume,  called  the  Book  of  Raziel,  was,  in  the  middle 
ages,  sometimes  to  be  seen  among  the  Jews. 

Another  account  said  that  the  first  cabalistical  book 
was  the  Sepher  Jezirah,  written  by  Abraham;  but  the 
most  prevalent  opinion  was,  that  when  the  written  law 
was  given  on  Mount  Sinai  to  Moses,  the  Cabala,  or  mys- 
terious interpretation  of  it,  was  taught  to  him  also.  Then 
Moses,  it  was  said,  when  he  descended  from  the  moun- 
tain, entered  Aaron's  tent,  and  taught  him  also  the  secret 
powers  of  the  written  word;  and  Aaron,  having  been 
instructed,  placed  himself  at  the  right  hand  of  Moses, 
and  stood  by  while  his  sons,  Eleazar  and  Ithamar,  who 
had  been  called  into  the  tent,  received  the  same  in- 
struction. On  the  right  and  left  of  Moses  and  Aaron  then 
sat  Ithamar  and  Eleazar,  when  the  seventy  elders  of  the 
Sanhedrim  were  called  in  and  taught  the  hidden  know- 
ledge. The  elders  finally  were  seated,  that  they  might 
be  present  when  all  those  among  the  common  people  who 
desired  to  learn  came  to  be  told  those  mysteries;  thus  the 
elect  of  the  common  people  heard  but  once  what  the  San- 
hedrim heard  twice,  the  sons  of  Aaron  three  times,  and 
Aaron  four  times  repeated  of  the  secrets  that  had  been 
made  known  to  Moses  by  the  voice  of  the  Most  High. 

Of  this  mystical  interpretation  of  the  Scripture  no 
person  set  down  any  account  in  writing,  unless  it  was 
Esdras ;  but  some  Jews  doubt  whether  he  did.  Israelites 
kept  the  knowledge  of  the  doctrine  by  a  pure  tradition ; 
but  about  fifty  years  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
Akiba,  a  great  rabbi,  wrote  the  chief  part  of  it  in  that 


THE  CABALA.  71 

book,  Sepher-jezireh,  or  the  Book  of  the  Creation,  which 
was  foolishly  ascribed  by  a  few  to  Abraham.  A  disciple 
of  the  Rabbi  Akiba  was  Rabbi  Simeon  ben  Jochai,  who 
wrote  more  of  the  tradition  in  a  book  called  Zoar. 

The  truth  probably  is,  that  the  literature  of  cabalism, 
which  is  full  of  suggestions  derived  from  the  Neoplatonics 
of  Alexandria,  began  with  the  Jews  of  Alexandria  under 
the  first  Ptolemys.  In  the  book  of  Simeon  ben  Schetach 
it  went  to  Palestine,  where  it  at  first  was  little  heeded;  but 
after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  it  gained  importance, 
and  then  Rabbis  Akiba  and  Simeon  ben  Jochai  extended 
it.  It  is  indisputable  that  Aristotle  had  been  studied  by 
the  writer  of  the  Sepher-jezireh,  the  oldest  known  book 
of  the  Cabalists.  The  Cabala  went  afterwards  with  other 
learning  to  Spain,  and  that  part  of  it  at  least  which  deals 
with  Hebrew  anagrams  cannot  be  traced  to  a  time  earlier 
than  the  eleventh  century.  Many  rabbis — Abraham 
ben  David,  Saudia,  Moses  Botril,  Moses  bar  Nachman, 
Eliezer  of  Garmiza,  and  others — have  written  Hebrew 
books  for  the  purpose  of  interpreting  the  system  of  the 
Cabala;  but  it  was,  perhaps,  not  before  the  eighth  cen- 
tury that  it  had  come  to  receive  very  general  attention 
from  the  Jews. 

The  Cabala  consisted  of  two  portions,  the  symbolical 
and  the  real;  the  symbolical  Cabala  being  the  means  by 
which  the  doctrines  of  the  real  Cabala  were  elicited. 

In  the  Hebrew  text  of  the  Scriptures,  it  was  said,  there 
is  not  only  an  evident,  but  there  is  also  a  latent  meaning; 
and  in  its  latent  meaning  are  contained  the  mysteries  of 


72  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

God  and  of  the  universe.  It  need  scarcely  be  said  that 
a  belief  in  secret  wisdom  has  for  ages  been  inherent  in  the 
Oriental  mind,  and  in  the  Scriptures,  it  was  reasoned  by 
the  later  Jews,  all  wisdom  must  be,  of  necessity,  contained. 
Of  divine  authorship,  they  cannot  be  like  ordinary  works 
of  men.  But  if  they  were  taken  only  in  their  natural  sense, 
might  it  not  be  said  that  many  human  works  contain 
marvels  not  less  surprising  and  morality  as  pure.  No,  it 
was  said,  as  we  have  entertained  angels,  and  regarded 
them  as  men,  so  we  may  entertain  the  words  of  the  Most 
High,  if  we  regard  only  their  apparent  sense  and  not  their 
spiritual  mystery.  And  so  it  was  that  through  a  blind  ex- 
cess of  reverence  the  inspired  writings  were  put  to  super- 
stitious use. 

The  modes  of  examining  their  letters,  words,  and  sen- 
tences, for  hidden  meaning,  in  which  wholly  consisted  the 
symbolical  Cabala,  were  three,  and  these  were  called  Ge- 
mantria,  Notaricon,  Themura. 

Gemantria  was  arithmetical  when  it  consisted  in  applying 
to  the  Hebrew  letters  of  a  word  the  sense  they  bore  as 
numbers,  letters  being  used  also  for  figures  in  the  Hebrew 
as  in  Greek.  Then  the  letters  in  a  word  being  taken  as 
numbers  and  added  up,  it  was  considered  that  another 
word,  of  which  the  letters  added  up  came  to  an  equal  sum, 
might  fairly  be  substituted  by  the  arithmetical  gemantria. 
Figurative  gemantria  deduced  mysterious  interpretations 
from  the  shapes  of  letters  used  in  sacred  writing.  Thus, 
in  Numbers  x.  35,  ^  means  the  reversal  of  enemies.  This 
kind  of  interpretation  was  known  also  by  the  name  of 


SYMBOLICAL  CABALA.  73 

Zurah.  Architectonic  geraantria  constructed  words  from 
the  numbers  given  by  Scripture  when  describing  the 
measurements  of  buildings,  as  the  ark,  or  temple. 

By  Notaricon  more  words  were  developed  from  the 
letters  of  a  word,  as  if  it  had  consisted  of  so  many  abbre- 
viations, or  else  first  and  last  letters  of  words,  or  the  first 
letters  of  successive  words,  were  detached  from  their 
places  and  put  side  by  side.  By  Themura,  any  word  might 
be  made  to  yield  a  mystery  out  of  its  anagram  ;  these 
sacred  anagrams  were  known  as  Zeruph.  By  the  same 
branch  of  the  symbolical  Cabala  three  systems  were  fur- 
nished, in  accordance  with  which  words  might  be  trans- 
formed by  the  substitution  of  one  letter  for  another.  The 
first  of  the  systems,  Albam,  arranged  the  letters  of  the 
alphabet  in  two  rows,  one  below  another;  the  second, 
Athbath,  gave  another  couple  of  rows  ;  the  third,  Ath- 
bach,  arranged  them  by  pairs  in  three  rows,  all  the  pairs 
in  the  first  row  being  the  numerical  value  ten,  in  the 
second  row  a  hundred,  in  the  third  a  thousand;  any  one 
of  these  forms  might  be  consulted,  and  any  letter  in  a 
word  exchanged  for  another  standing  either  in  Albam, 
Athbath,  or  Athbach,  immediately  above  it  or  below  it, 
or  on  the  right  hand  of  it  or  the  left. 

This  was  the  symbolical  Cabala,  and  the  business  of  it 
was  to  extract,  by  any  of  the  means  allowed,  the  hidden 
meaning  of  the  Scriptures.  The  real  Cabala  was  the 
doctrine  in  this  way  elicited.  It  was  theoretical,  explain- 
ing divine  qualities,  the  ten  sephiroth,  the  fourfold  caba- 
listical  worlds,  the  thirty-two  footprints  of  wisdom,  the 


74  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

fifty  doors  to  prudence,  Adam  Kadmon,  &c. ;  or  it  was 
practical,  explaining  how  to  use  such  knowledge  for  the 
calling  of  spirits,  the  extinguishing  of  fires,  the  banning 
of  disease,  and  so  forth. 

The  theoretical  Cabala  contained,  it  was  said  by 
Christian  students,  many  references  to  the  Messiah.  Its 
main  points  were:  1.  The  Tree;  2.  The  Chariot  of 
Ezekiel ;  3.  The  Work  of  Creation ;  4.  The  Ancient  of 
Days  mentioned  in  Daniel.  It  concerns  us  most  to  un- 
derstand the  Tree.  The  Chariot  of  Ezekiel,  or  Maasseh 
Mercabah,  was  a  description  of  prefigurements  concerning 
ceremonial  and  judicial  law.  The  doctrine  of  Creation, 
in  the  book  Levischith,  was  a  dissertation  upon  physics. 
The  Ancient  of  Days  treated  of  God  and  the  Messiah  in 
a  way  so  mystical  that  cabalists  generally  declined  to 
ascribe  any  meaning  at  all  to  the  direct  sense  of  the  words 
employed.  Of  these  things  we  need  say  no  more,  but  of 
the  Cabalistical  Tree  it  will  be  requisite  to  speak  in  more 
detail. 

It  was  an  arrangement  of  the  ten  sephiroth.  The 
word  Sephiroth  is  derived  by  some  rabbis  from  a  word 
meaning  to  count,  because  they  are  a  counting  of  the 
divine  excellence.  Otherwise  it  is  considered  an  adapta- 
tion of  the  Greek  word  Sphere,  because  it  represents  the 
spheres  of  the  universe  which  are  successive  emanations 
from  the  Deity. 

In  the  beginning  was  Or  Haensoph,  the  eternal  light, 
from  whose  brightness  there  descended  a  ray  through  the 
first-born  of  God,  Adani  Kadmon,  and  presently,  depart- 


THEORETICAL  CABALA.  75 

ing  from  its  straight  course,  ran  in  a  circle,  and  so  formed 
the  first  of  the  sephiroth,  which  was  called  Kethei,  or  the 
crown,  because  superior  to  all  the  rest.  Having  formed 
this  circle,  the  ray  resumed  its  straight  course  till  it  again 
ran  in  a  circle  to  produce  the  second  of  the  ten  sephiroth, 
Chochma,  wisdom,  because  wisdom  is  the  source  of  all. 
The  same  ray  of  divine  light  passed  on,  losing  gradually, 
as  it  became  more  distant  from  its  holy  source,  some  of  its 
power,  and  formed  presently,  in  like  manner,  the  third  of 
the  sephiroth,  called  Binah,  or  understanding,  because 
understanding  is  the  channel  through  which  wisdom 
flows  to  things  below — the  origin  of  human  knowledge. 
The  fourth  of  the  sephiroth  is  called  Gedolah  or  Chesed, 
greatness  or  goodness,  because  God,  as  being  great  and 
good,  created  all  things.  The  fifth  is  Geburah,  strength, 
because  it  is  by  strength  that  He  maintains  them,  and  be- 
cause strength  is  the  only  source  of  justice  in  the  world. 
The  sixth  of  the  sephiroth,  Thpereth,  beauty  or  grace, 
unites  the  qualities  of  the  preceding.  The  four  last  of 
the  sephiroth  are  successsively  named  Nezach,  victory; 
Hod,  honour;  Jesod,  or  Schalom,  the  foundation  or 
peace  ;  and  finally,  Malcuth,  the  kingdom.  Each  of  the 
ten  has  also  a  divine  name,  and  their  divine  names, 
written  in  the  same  order,  are  Ejeh,  Jah,  Jehovah,  (pro- 
nounced Elohim),  Eloah,  Elohim,  Jehovah  (pronounced 
as  usual),  Lord  Sabaoth,  Jehovah  Zebaoth,  Elchai  (the 
living  God),  Adonai  (the  Lord).  By  these  circles  our 
world  is  surrounded,  and,  weakened  in  its  passage  through 
them,  but  able  to  bring  down  with  it  powers  that  are  the 


76  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

character  of  each,  divine  light  reaches  us.  These  sephi- 
roth,  arranged  in  a  peculiar  manner,  form  the  Tree  of  the 
Cabalists ;  they  are  also  sometimes  arranged  in  the  form 
of  a  man,  Adam  Kadmon,  according  to  the  idea  of  the 
Neoplatonics  that  the  figure  of  the  world  was  that  of  a 
man's  body.  In  accordance  with  another  view  derived 
from  the  same  school,  things  in  this  world  were  supposed 
to  be  gross  images  of  things  above.  Matter  was  said  by 
the  cabalists  to  have  been  formed  by  the  withdrawal  of 
the  divine  ray,  by  the  emanation  of  which  from  the  first 
source  it  was  produced.  Everything  created  was  created 
by  an  emanation  from  the  source  of  all,  and  that  which 
being  most  distant  contains  least  of  the  divine  essence  is 
capable  of  gradual  purification ;  so  that  even  the  evil 
spirits  will  in  course  of  time  become  holy  and  pure,  and 
be  assimilated  to  the  brightest  of  the  emanations  from  Or 
Haensoph.  God,  it  was  said,  is  all  in  all ;  everything  is 
part  of  the  divine  essence,  with  a  growing,  or  perceptive, 
or  reflective  power,  one  or  all,  and  by  that  which  has  one 
all  may  be  acquired.  A  stone  may  become  a  plant ;  a 
plant,  a  beast ;  a  beast,  a  man ;  a  man,  an  angel ;  an 
angel,  a  creator. 

This  kind  of  belief,  which  was  derived  also  from  the 
Alexandrian  Platonists  led  to  that  spiritual  cabalism  by 
which  such  Christians  as  Reuchlin  and  Agrippa  profited. 
It  connected  them  by  a  strong  link  with  the  divine 
essence,  and  they,  feeling  perhaps  more  distinctly  than 
their  neighbours  that  they  were  partakers  of  the  divine 
nature,  and  might,  by  a  striving  after  purity  of  soul  and 


CHRISTIAN  CABALISTS.  77 

body,  win  their  way  to  a  state  of  spiritual  happiness  and 
power,  cut  themselves  off  from  all  communion  with  the 
sensuality  that  had  become  the  scandal  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  and  keenly  perceived,  as  they  expressed  strongly, 
their  sense  of  the  degraded  habits  of  the  priests.  It  was 
in  this  way  that  the  Christian  Cabalists  assisted  in  the 
labours  of  the  Reformation. 

Little  more  has  to  be  said  about  their  theory,  and  that 
relates  to  the  Four  Cabalistical  Worlds.  These  were  placed 
in  the  four  spaces  between  the  upper  sephiroth.  Between 
the  first  and  second  was  placed  Aziluth,  the  outflowing, 
which  contained  the  purest  beings,  the  producers  of  the 
rest.  Between  the  second  and  third  sephiroth  was  the 
world  Briah,  or  the  thrones,  containing  spirits  less  pure, 
but  still  not  material.  They  were  classed  into  wheels, 
lightnings,  lions,  burning  spirits,  angels,  children  of  God, 
cherubim.  Their  prince  was  called  Metatron.  The 
world  in  the  next  interspace,  called  Jezireh,  angels,  ap- 
proached more  nearly  to  a  material  form  ;  and  the  fourth, 
Asiah,  was  made  wholly  material.  From  this  point 
density  increases  till  our  world  is  reached.  Asiah  is  the 
abode  of  the  Klippoth,  or  material  spirits  striving  against 
God.  They  travel  through  the  air,  their  bodies  are  of 
dense  air,  incorruptible,  and  they  have  power  to  work  in 
the  material  world.  With  Catoriel,  Adam  Belial,  Esau, 
Aganiel,  Usiel,  Ogiel,  Thomiel,  Theumiel,  for  captains, 
they  fight  in  two  armies  under  their  chiefs  Zatniel  and 
Lilith.  Their  enemies  are  the  angels,  who  contend  against 
them  with  two  armies,  led  by  Metatron  and  Sandalphon. 


78  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

Lilitli  is  the  begetter  of  the  powers  striving  against 
light. 

The  nature  of  man's  soul,  said  Cabalists,  is  threefold — 
vegetative,  perceptive,  intellectual — each  embracing  each. 
It  emanates  from  the  upper  sephiroth,  is  composed  of  the 
pure  elements — for  the  four  elements,  either  in  their  pure 
and  spiritual  or  their  gross  form,  enter  into  all  things — is 
expansive,  separates  after  death,  so  that  the  parts  return 
each  to  its  own  place,  but  reunite  to  praise  God  on  the 
sabbaths  and  new  moons.  With  each  soul  are  sent  into 
the  world  a  guardian  and  an  accusing  angel. 

Now,  as  the  creative  light  runs  round  each  upper 
world  before  coming  to  ours,  it  comes  to  us  charged  with 
supernal  influences,  and  such  an  idea  lies  at  the  foundation 
of  cabalistical  magic.  By  what  secret  to  have  power  over 
this  line  of  communication  with  superior  worlds  it  is  for 
practical  cabalism  to  discover. 

The  secret  consisted  chiefly  in  the  use  of  names.  God, 
it  was  said,  gave  to  all  things  their  names ;  He  could  have 
given  no  name  that  was  not  mystically  fit;  every  such 
name,  therefore,  is  a  word  containing  divine  power,  and 
especially  affecting  that  thing,  person,  or  spirit  to  which 
it  belongs.  The  Scripture  tells  us  that  there  are  names 
written  in  heaven  ;  why,  it  was  said,  should  they  be 
written  there,  if  they  be  useless.  Through  the  knowledge 
of  such  divine  names,  it  is  affirmed,  Moses  overcame  the 
sorcerers  of  Egypt,  Elias  brought  fire  from  heaven,  Daniel 
closed  the  mouths  of  lions.  But  of  all  names  by  which 
wonders  can  be  wrought,  the  Mirific  Word  of  Words 


THE  MIRIFIC  NAME.  79 

(here  we  come  to  the  main  thought  of  Reuchlin's  book, 
and  to  the  central  topic  of  the  oratory  of  Cornelius)  was 
the  concealed  name  of  God — the  Schem-hammaphoraseh. 
Whoever  knows  the  true  pronunciation  of  the  name  Je- 
hovah— the  name  from  which  all  other  divine  names  in  the 
world  spring  as  the  branches  from  a  tree,  the  name  that 
binds  together  the  sephiroth — whoever  has  that  in  his 
mouth  has  the  world  in  his  mouth.  When  it  is  spoken 
angels  are  stirred  by  the  wave  of  sound.  It  rules  all  crea- 
tures, works  all  miracles,  it  commands  all  the  inferior 
names  of  deity  which  are  borne  by  the  several  angels  that 
in  heaven  govern  the  respective  nations  of  the  earth.  The 
Jews  had  a  tradition  that  when  David  was  upon  the 
point  of  fighting  with  Goliath,  Jaschbi,  the  giant's  brother, 
tossed  him  up  into  the  air,  and  held  a  spear  below,  that 
he  might  fall  upon  it.  But  Abishai,  when  he  saw  that, 
pronounced  the  holy  name,  and  David  remained  in  the 
air  till  Jaschbi's  spear  no  longer  threatened  him.  They 
said,  also,  that  the  Mirific  name  was  among  the  secrets 
contained  in  the  Holy  of  Holies,  and  that  when  any 
person  having  entered  that  shrine  of  the  temple  learnt  the 
word  of  power,  he  was  roared  at  as  he  came  out  by  two 
brazen  lions,  or  bayed  by  brazen  dogs,  until  through 
terror  he  lost  recollection  of  it.  Some  Jews  accounted 
also  by  a  fable  of  this  nature  for  our  Saviour's  miracles. 
They  said  that,  having  been  admitted  within  the  Holy  of 
Holies,  and  having  learnt  the  sacred  mystery,  he  wrote  it 
down  upon  a  tablet,  cut  open  his  thigh,  and  having  put 
the  tablet  in  the  wound,  closed  the  flesh  over  it  by  utter- 


80  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

ing  the  name  of  wonder.  As  he  passed  out  the  roaring 
lions  caused  the  secret  to  pass  from  his  mind,  but  after- 
wards he  had  only  to  cut  out  the  tablet  from  his  thigh, 
and,  as  the  beginning  of  miracles,  heal  instantly  the  wound 
in  his  own  flesh  by  pronouncing  the  Mirific  Word.  Such 
Jewish  details  were,  of  course,  rejected  by  the  Christian?, 
who  accepted  the  essential  principles  of  the  Cabala. 

As  the  name  of  all  power  was  the  hidden  name  of 
God,  so  there  were  also  names  of  power  great,  though 
limited,  belonging  to  the  angels  and  the  evil  spirits.  To 
discover  the  names  of  the  spirits,  by  applying  to  the 
Hebrew  text  of  Scripture  the  symbolical  Cabala,  was  to 
acquire  some  of  the  power  they  possessed.  Thus,  it  being 
said  of  the  Sodomites  that  they  were  struck  with  blind- 
ness, the  Hebrew  word  for  blindness  was  translated  into 
Chaldee,  and  the  Chaldee  word  by  one  of  the  symbolical 
processes  was  made  to  yield  the  name  of  a  bad  angel, 
Schabriri,  which,  being  written  down,  was  employed  as  a 
charm  to  cure  ophthalmia.  A  common  mode  of  conjura- 
tion with  these  names  of  power  was  by  the  use  of  amulets, 
pieces  of  paper  or  parchment  on  which,  for  certain  pur- 
poses, certain  names  were  written.  At  his  first  entrance 
into  the  world  such  an  amulet,  with  the  names  "  Senoi, 
Sansenoi,  Semongeloph,"  upon  it,  was  slipped  round  the 
neck  of  the  new-born  child,  so  that  the  infant  scarcely 
saw  the  light  before  it  was  collared  by  the  genius  of 
superstition. 

Another  mode  of  conjuration  consisted  in  the  use,  not 
of  names,  but  of  the  Psalms  of  David.     Whole  volumes 


JOHN  REUCHLIN.  81 

were  written  upon  this  use  of  the  Psalms.  The  first  of 
them,  written  on  doeskin,  was  supposed  to  help  the  birth 
of  children ;  others  could,  it  was  thought,  be  so  written  as 
to  make  those  who  carried  them  invisible  ;  others  secured 
favour  from  princes  ;  others  extinguished  fires.  The 
transcription  of  a  psalm  for  any  such  purpose  was  no 
trifling  work,  because,  apart  from  the  necessary  care  in 
the  formation  of  letters,  some  having  a  mystical  reason  for 
being  larger  than  others,  it  was  necessary  for  the  copyist, 
as  soon  as  he  had  written  down  one  line,  to  plunge  into  a 
bath.  Moreover,  that  the  charm  might  be  the  work  of  a 
pure  man,  before  beginning  every  new  line  of  his  manu- 
script, it  was  thought  necessary  that  he  should  repeat  the 
plunge. 

Such  were  the  mysteries  of  the  Hebrew  Cabala, 
strangely  blending  a  not  unrefined  philosophy  with  basest 
superstition.  It  remains  for  us  to  form  some  just  opinion 
of  the  charm  they  had  for  many  Christian  scholars  in  the 
first  years  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Reuchlin,  or  Capnio, 
was  of  such  scholars  the  leader  and  the  type ;  as  such,  in- 
deed, he  was  accepted  by  the  young  Cornelius  Agrippa. 
He  was  the  greatest  Hebrew  scholar  of  his  day,  and  had 
become  so  by  his  own  natural  bent.  Born  at  Pfortzheim, 
of  the  poorest  parents,  two-and-thirty  years  before  Agrippa 
came  into  the  world,  taught  Latin  at  the  town-school, 
and  winning  in  his  youth  a  ducal  patron  by  his  tunable 
voice  as  chorister  in  the  court  chapel  at  Baden,  by  his 
quick  wit,  and  his  serene,  lively,  amiable  temper,  he  never 
afterwards  lacked  powerful  assistance. 

VOL.  I.  G 


82  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

The  life  of  Reuchlin1  is  the  story  of  the  origin  of 
Greek  and  Hebrew  studies  among  learned  Europeans. 
He  was  sent  with  the  Margrave's  son,  afterwards  Bishop 
of  Utrecht,  to  Paris.  The  fall  of  Constantinople,  in  1453, 
had  caused  fugitive  Greeks  to  betake  themselves  to  many 
European  cities,  where  they  sometimes  gave  instruction  in 
their  language.  Reuchlin,  at  Paris,  learned  Greek  from  a 
Spartan,  who  gave  him  instruction  also  in  caligraphy,  and 
made  him  so  clever  a  workman  with  his  pen,  that  he  could 
eke  out  his  means  and  buy  books  with  money  earned  as  a 
Greek  copyist.  He  studied  Aristotle  with  the  Spartan. 
Old  John  Wessel,  of  Groningen,  a  disciple  of  Thomas  a 
Kempis,  taught  him  Hebrew,  and  invited  him  to  a  direct 
study  of  the  Bible.  At  the  age  of  twenty  he  was  en- 
gaged by  publishers  to  write  a  Latin  dictionary,  which 
he  called  Breviloquus.  At  the  age  of  twenty  he  taught 
Greek  publicly,  laying  his  main  stress  on  a  study  of  the 
grammar ;  the  good  sense  he  spoke  emptied  the  benches 
of  the  sophisters  around  him,  and  produced  complaints 
from  old-fashioned  professors.  It  was  then  urged  that  all 
the  views  disclosed  in  Greek  books  were  essentially  op- 
posed to  the  spirit  and  belief  of  Rome.  The  monks  had 
no  commerce  with  the  language;  and  when  they  came  to 
a  Greek  quotation  in  a  book  that  they  were  copying, 
were  used  to  inscribe  the  formula  "  Graeca  suntj  non  le- 
guntur."  Reuchlin  maintained  his  ground,  at  twenty- 

1  This  sketch  is  drawn  chiefly  from  Mayerhoff,  with  reference  also  to 
Jteuchlin's  Leben  und  die,  Denkwiirdigkeiten  seiner  Vaterstadt,  von  Siegm. 
Fr.  Gehres,  Carlsruhe,  1815,  where  the  citation  is  not  direct  from  Keuch- 
lin's  works.  Mr.  Barham's  book  has  also  been  before  me. 


REVIVAL  OF  GREEK  STUDIES.  83 

five  wrote  a  Greek  grammar,  lectured  at  Poictiers,  and 
was  made  licentiate  of  civil  law.  His  notion  of  law 
studies  was  expressed  in  a  formula  that  has  been  applied 
in  other  terms  to  other  things :  In  his  first  year  the  young 
lawyer  knows  how  to  decide  all  causes,  in  the  second  be- 
gins to  be  uncertain,  in  the  third  acknowledges  that  he 
knows  nothing,  and  then  first  begins  to  learn.  In  the 
last  of  these  stages  of  progress  the  licentiate  of  Poictiers 
repaired  to  Tubingen,  and  practised  as  an  advocate  with 
such  success  that  he  made  money  and  married.  At  Tu- 
bingen, Reuchlin  won  the  confidence  of  Eberhard  of  the 
Beard,  became  his  private  secretary  and  one  of  his  privy- 
councillors,  and  went  with  him  to  Rome  in  1482,  his  age 
then  being  eight-and-twenty.  At  Rome  he  distinguished 
himself  as  an  orator  before  the  Pope,  and  was  considered 
to  speak  Latin  wonderfully  well  for  a  German.  After 
his  return  to  Germany,  John  Reuchlin  remained  with 
Eberhard  in  Stuttgard,  became  assessor  of  the  Supreme 
Court  at  the  age  of  thirty,  and  a  year  afterwards  was 
elected  proctor  for  the  body  of  the  Dominicans  through- 
out all  Germany,  which  unpaid  office  he  held  for  nearly 
thirty  years.  At  the  age  of  thirty-one  he  received  at 
Tubingen  his  doctorate,  and  in  the  year  following,  that  is 
to  say,  in  the  year  of  Cornelius  Agrippa's  birth,  he  was 
sent  with  two  others  to  Frankfort,  Cologne,  and  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  on  the  occasion  of  the  coronation  of  Maximilian 
as  Roman  emperor.  Then  it  was  that  Maximilian  first 
became  acquainted  with  him.  Reuchlin  had  then  a  house 
at  Stuttgard,  and  was  known  as  a  great  cultivator  of  the 
G2 


84  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

learned  languages,  while  he  was  also  high  in  the  favour  of 
his  own  prince,  and  in  constant  request  as  a  practitioner 
of  law.  In  1490  he  was  sent  to  Rome  on  another  mission, 
and  on  his  way  through  Florence  enjoyed  personal  inter- 
course with  Giovanni  Pico  di  Mirandola,  the  scholar  who, 
although  a  determined  antagonist  to  the  astrologers,  was 
a  great  friend  to  cabalism  and  the  introducer  of  the 
cabalistic  mysteries  into  the  favour  of  Italian  scholars. 
By  him  Reuchlin  was  further  stimulated  to  the  love  of 
Hebrew  lore.  When,  two  years  afterwards,  Reuchlin 
was  at  Linz  on  state  business  with  the  Emperor  Frede- 
ric III.,  it  was  something,  indeed,  that  the  base-born 
scholar  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  count  palatine,  but  it 
was  more  to  Reuchlin  that  the  court  physician  was  a 
learned  Jew,  Jehiel  Loans,  who  perfected  his  intimacy 
with  the  Hebrew.  His  aim  then  was,  above  all  thing?, 
first  to  study  the  original  text  of  the  Old  Testament,  and 
secondly  to  read  the  writings  of  the  Cabalists.  The 
emperor,  whose  life  was  then  about  to  close  (he  died 
while  Reuchlin  was  at  Linz),  saw  here  another  way  of 
gratifying  the  agreeable  and  kindly  scholar,  for  he  not 
only  made  Reuchlin  a  count  palatine  (his  arms  were  a 
golden  altar,  from  which  smoke  arose,  with  the  inscrip- 
tion "  Ara  Capnionis"),  but  he  also  presented  to  him  a 
very  ancient  Hebrew  Bible,  written  carefully  on  parch- 
ment, a  treasure  then  worth  three  hundred  gold  crowns, 
which  is  to  be  seen  still  in  the  library  of  the  Grand  Duke 
of  Carlsruhe,  where  it  is  regarded  as  the  oldest  of  its  kind 
in  Europe.  With  the  knowledge  imparted  by  Jehiel 


THE  STUDY  OF  HEBREW.  85 

Loans,  and  the  actual  text  in  which  all  mysteries  lay 
hidden,  Reuchlin  went  home  enriched  as  much  as  he  had 
been  ennobled.  Hebrew  writing  was  at  that  time  very 
rare,  and  was  to  be  met  with  chiefly  in  the  hands  of 
Jews.  At  Hebrew  Reuchlin  laboured,  collecting  He- 
brew books  and  works  expounding  the  Cabala,  whenever 
possible ;  and  eventually  he  gave  life  in  Germany,  as 
Giovanni  Pico  di  Mirandola  was  giving  life  in  Italy, 
to  the  cabalistical  philosophy,  the  great  impulse  to  this 
German  revival  being  the  publication  of  the  book  on  the 
Mirific  Word.  It  first  appeared  at  Basle,  in  the  year 
1495,  the  author's  age  then  being  forty-one.  It  was  not 
published  at  Tubingen  till  1514.  The  book  was  regarded 
as  a  miracle  of  heavenly  wisdom.  Philip  Beroaldus  told 
of  the  Pope's  enjoyment,  and  wrote  word  also  to  its 
author  that  he  had  caused  not  only  men  of  letters,  but 
even  statesmen  and  warriors,  to  betake  themselves  to 
studying  the  mysteries  of  the  Cabala. 

The  death  of  Reuchlin's  patron,  Eberhard  the  elder, 
soon  after  his  elevation  to  the  rank  of  duke  in  1495,  was 
followed  by  a  period  of  misrule  in  the  little  state.  One 
of  the  first  acts  of  Eberhard  the  younger  was  to  release 
his  favourite,  a  dissolute  priest,  named  Holzinger,  from 
the  prison  in  which  he  had  been  kept  by  the  good  counsel 
of  Reuchlin;  and  for  the  further  discomfiture  of  the 
scholar  this  man  was  appointed  chancellor  over  the  uni- 
versity of  Tubingen.  Reuchlin  of  course  resigned.  He 
had  been  long  wanted  at  Heidelberg,  and  went  there  to 
be  cherished  by  a  new  patron  in  the  Elector  Palatine. 


86  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

He  showed,  as  usual,  his  lively  energy  by  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Greek  chair,  which  the  monks  pronounced  upon 
the  spot  to  be  a  heresy ;  and  by  venting  his  wrath  against 
Holzinger  in  a  Latin  comedy,  denouncing  dissolute  priests, 
which  he  called  Sergius,  or  the  Head  of  the  Head.  It 
was  written  to  be  acted  by  the  students.  A  Latin  comedy 
was  then  a  rare  thing  in  the  land ;  and  the  news  that  John 
Reuchlin  had  written  one  was  noised  abroad.  Prudent 
friends' counselled  him  to  beware  of  such  unscrupulous  and 
powerful  enemies  as  he  would  make  if  he  attacked  abuses 
of  the  priesthood;  he  submitted  to  advice,  and  as  he  was 
notoriously  answerable  for  a  comedy,  and  gossip  must  be 
satisfied,  he  suddenly  composed  a  substitute  for  that  first 
written.  When,  therefore,  the  day  of  the  performance 
came,  it  was  found  that  the  Greek  professor  had  composed 
a  comedy  against  abuses  in  his  own  profession;  it  was  a 
castigation  of  dishonest  advocates.  Scenica  Progymnas- 
tica  the  piece  was  called. 

After  two  years  of  misrule  Eberhard  the  younger  took 
its  consequences;  he  was  then  deposed,  and  Holzinger, 
the  monk,  sent  back  to  prison.  "  When  the  bricks  are 
doubled,  Moses  comes,"  said  Reuchlin,  and  returned  to 
his  old  post  at  Tubingen.  Hitherto  his  life  of  study  had 
not  been  unprofitable,  nor,  much  benefit  as  he  received 
through  patronage,  was  it  a  life  wanting  independence. 
"Whatever,"  he  says1,  "I  spent  in  learning,  I  acquired 
by  teaching1." 

1  "  Nam  universam  stipem  quam  discendo  impend!,  docendo  acquisivi." 
Preface  to  the  De  Rudiinentis  Hebraicis. 


POSITION  AND  CHARACTER  OF  REUCHLIN.  87 

% 

An  anecdote  of  this  good-humoured  scholar  may  be 
here  interpolated,  which  displays  his  character  in  half  a 
dozen  points  of  view.  He  was  detained  once  in  an  inn 
when  it  was  raining  very  heavily,  and  of  course  had  his 
book  with  him.  The  rain  had  driven  into  the  common 
room  a  large  number  of  country-people,  who  were  making 
a  great  noise.  To  quiet  them  Reuchlin  called  for  a  piece 
of  chalk,  and  drew  with  it  a  circle  on  the  table  before 
which  he  sat.  Within  the  circle  he  then  drew  a  cross, 
and  also  within  it,  on  the  right  side  of  the  cross,  he 
placed  with  great  solemnity  a  cup  of  water,  on  the  left  he 
stuck  a  knife  upright.  Then  placing  a  book — doubtless  a 
Hebrew  one — within  the  mysterious  circle,  he  began  to 
read,  and  the  rustics  who  had  gathered  round  him,  with 
their  mouths  agape,  patiently  waited  for  the  consequence 
of  all  this  conjuration.  The  result  was  that  Reuchlin 
finished  comfortably  the  chapter  he  was  reading  without 
being  distressed  even  by  a  whisper  of  disturbance. 

In  the  year  1502  Reuchlin  was  elected  to  the  post  of 
general  judge  of  alliance  under  the  terms  of  the  Suabian 
league.  His  office  was  to  adjudicate  in  all  matters  of 
dispute  among  confederates  and  vassals,  concerning  the 
interests  of  the  emperor  as  Archduke  of  Austria,  the 
electors  and  princes.  There  was  a  second  judge  for 
prelates,  counts,  and  nobles,  a  third  for  imperial  cities. 
This  post  he  held  during  eleven  years ;  he  was  holding  it, 
therefore,  at  the  time  when  the  young  Cornelius  Agrippa 
undertook  to  comment  publicly  at  Dole  upon  his  book 
concerning  the  Mirific  Word,  Reuchlin  then  being  fifty- 


88  CORNELIUS  AGR1PPA. 

five  years  old,  and  at  the  summit  of  his  fame,  high,  also, 
in  the  good  esteem  of  Maximilian.  Three  years  before 
this  date,  notwithstanding  the  great  mass  of  legal  business 
entailed  on  him  by  his  judicial  office,  Reuchlin  had,  to 
the  great  help  of  all  students,  published  a  volume  of  the 
Rudiments  of  Hebrew,  which  included  both  a  grammar 
and  a  dictionary1.  This  book,  he  wrote,  "  cost  me  the 
greatest  trouble,  and  a  large  part  of  my  fortune2."  Cor- 
nelius no  doubt  had  learnt  his  Hebrew  by  the  help  of 
it,  and  was  already  deep  in  studies  -which  a  few  years 
afterwards  brought  the  monks  of  Cologne  into  array 
against  Reuchlin  himself,  their  hostility  somewhat  embit- 
tered by  an  inkling  of  the  Latin  comedy  that  was  not  to  be 
quite  suppressed.  Cornelius,  however,  was  the  first  to  feel 
the  power  of  such  enemies.  By  the  Epistolas  Obscurorum 
Virorum  the  monks  were  destined  to  come  off  much 
worsted  from  their  battle  against  Reuchlin  and  the  scholars 
who  defended  his  fair  fame.  Of  their  fortune  in  the  battle 
fought  against  Cornelius  Agrippa  it  is  one  part  of  this  his- 
tory to  tell. 

Reuchlin  wrote  at  a  later  period  (1517)  a  book  upon 
the  cabalistic  art.     If  it  is  written  God  created  heaven 

1  The  volume  in  three  books,  De  Rudimentis  Hebratcis,  was  printed  by 
Thomas  Anshelm,  of  Pfortzheim,  in  a  handsome  quarto  of  620  pages."  The 
prefatory  address,   "  Ad  Dionysium  Fratrem  suum  germanum,"  contains  a 
brief  autobiographical  sketch.     Though  the  book  is  written  in  Latin,  in- 
terspersed with  Hebrew  letters  and  words  as  they  are  discussed,  the  paging 
is  inverted,  so  that  the  volume  begins  at  the  end,  in  Hebrew  style.     The 
last  words  are  "  Exegi  monumentum   sere  perennius  nonis  Martiis  Anno 
M.D.VI. 

2  J.  Reuchlin,  Phorc.  LL.  Dr.  in  Septem  Psalmos  Pasnitentiales  Hebraicos 
Interpretatio,  &c.,  in  preface. 


REUCHLIN'S  CABALISM.  89 

and  earth,  he  interpreted  that  to  mean  spirit  and  matter, 
the  spirit  consisting  of  the  angels  and  ministers  by  whom 
the  ways  of  man  are  influenced.  Magic,  he  said,  dealt 
with  evil  spirits,  but  the  true  Cabala  only  with  the 
good.  He  believed  in  astrology;  and  so,  indeed,  did 
Luther  and  Melancthon ;  Giovanni  Pico  di  Mirandola  at 
Florence,  while  adopting  the  Cabala,  was  very  singular  in 
his  hostility  to  a  belief  in  influences  of  the  stars.  His  own 
faith  in  cabalism  Reuchlin  enforced  thus:  God,  out  of  love 
to  his  people,  has  revealed  the  hidden  mysteries  to  some 
of  them,  and  these  could  find  in  the  dead  letters  the  living 
spirit.  For  Scripture  consists  of  single  letters,  visible 
signs,  which  stand  in  a  certain  connexion  with  the  angels, 
as  celestial  and  spiritual  emanations  from  God.  By  the 
pronunciation  of  the  one,  the  others  also  are  affected ;  but 
with  a  true  Cabalist,  who  penetrates  the  whole  connexion 
of  the  earthly  with  the  heavenly,  these  signs,  rightly 
placed  in  connexion  with  each  other,  are  a  way  of  putting 
him  into  immediate  union  with  the  spirits,  who  through 
that  are  bound  to  satisfy  his  wishes1. 

In  his  book  called  Capnio,  or  the  Mirific  Word,  ex- 
pounded at  Dole  by  Cornelius  Agrippa,  Reuchlin  placed 
the  Christian  system  in  the  centre  of  old  heathen  philoso- 
phies, considering  many  of  the  doctrines  of  Pythagoras 
and  Plato  as  having  been  taken  from,  not  introduced  into, 
the  wisdom  of  the  Cabalists.  The  argument  is  stated  in 
the  form  of  dialogue,  which  is  immediately  preceded  by  a 
summary  of  its  intention  that  may  very  well  suffice 

1  This  passage  is  quoted  through  Mayerhoff,  loc.  cit.,  p.  100. 


90  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

here  for  a  summary  of  its  contents1 :  "  Receive,  then,  in 
this  book  the  argument  on  the  Mirific  Word  of  three 
philosophers,  whom  I  have  feigned  to  be  holding  such 
dispute  among  themselves  as  the  controversies  proper  to 
their  sects  would  occasion,  as  to  the  best  elucidation  of 
the  hidden  properties  of  sacred  names.  Out  of  which, 
great  as  they  are  in  number  and  importance,  occasion  will 
at  last  be  the  more  easily  afforded  for  selecting  one  name 
that  is  above  all  names  supremely  mirific  and  beatific. 
And  thus  you  may  know  the  whole  matter  in  brief. 
Sidonius,  at  first  ascribed  to'  the  school  of  Epicurus,  but 
found  afterwards,  nullius  jurare  in  verba  magistri^  an  un- 
fettered philosopher,  travels  about  to  satisfy  his  thirst  for 
knowledge,  and  after  many  experiences  enters  Suabia, 
where  he  meets  in  the  town  of  Pfortzheim"  (Reuchlin's 
birthplace)  "two  philosophers  —  Baruch,  a  Jew,  and 
Capnio"  (Reuchlin  himself),  "  a  Christian,  with  whom  he 
disserts  upon  many  systems,  and  presently  upon  the  know- 
ledge itself  of  divine  and  human  things,  upon  opinion, 
faith,  miracles,  the  powers  of  words  and  figures,  secret 
operations,  and  the  mysteries  of  seals.  In  this  way  question 
arises  concerning  the  sacred  names  and  consecrated  cha- 
racters of  all  nations  which  have  anything  excellent  in 
their  philosophy,  or  not  unworthy  in  their  ceremonies ;  an 
enumeration  of  symbols  is  made  by  each  speaker  zealously 
on  behalf  of  the  rites  cherished  in  his  sect,  until  at  last 

1  Johannis  Reuchlin,  Phorcen.  LL.  Doctoris  de  Verio  Mirifid.     Libri  Tres. 
Ed.  Colonise,  1532,  fol.  A  iiii. 


REUCHLIN  EXPOUNDED  BY  CORNELIUS.      91 

Capnio,  in  the  third  book,  collects  out  of  all  that  is  holy 
one  name,  Jehosua,  in  which  is  gathered  up  the  virtue  and 
power  of  all  sacred  things,  and  which  is  eternally,  su- 
premely blessed." 

Here  was  a  vast  theme  for  the  oratory  of  a  youth  of 
twenty-three,  and  it  was  one  also  that  enabled  him  to  dis- 
play the  whole  range  of  his  learning.  The  newly  recovered 
treasures  of  Greek  literature ;  the  study  of  Plato,  that  had 
lately  been  revived  by  Marsilius  Ficinus  in  Italy ;  the  study 
of  Aristotle,  urged  and  helped  in  France  by  Faber  Stapu- 
lensis  (d'Etaples),  appeared  to  bring  the  fullest  confirma- 
tion of  the  principles  of  the  Cabala  to  men  ignorant,  as  all 
were  then,  of  the  Greek  source  of  more  than  half  the  later 
mysticism  of  the  Hebrews,  which  attributed  to  itself  an 
origin  so  ancient.  That  he  had  acquired  so  early  in  his 
life  Hebrew  and  Greek  lore,  that  he  was  deeply  read  in 
studies  which  were  admired  from  afar  only  by  so  many 
scholars  of  his  day,  and,  thus  prepared,  that  he  discussed 
mysteries  about  which  men  in  all  ages  feel  instinctive 
curiosity,  and  men  in  that  age  reasoned  eagerly,  would 
alone  account  sufficiently  for  the  attention  paid  to  the 
young  German  by  the  university  of  Dole.  Moreover, 
while  fulfilling  his  own  private  purpose,  he  appealed  also 
to  the  loyalty  of  the  Burgundians,  by  delivering  his 
orations  to  all  comers  gratuitously,  for  the  honour  of  the 
Princess  Margaret,  their  ruler,  and  opening  them  with 
her  panegyric.  The  young  orator  being  also  remarkable 
for  an  effective  manner  of  delivery,  the  grave  and  learned 


92  CORNELIUS  AGEIPPA. 

men  who  came  to  his  prelections  honoured  him  by  diligent 
attendance.1  The  exposition  was  made  from  the  pulpit  of 
the  gymnasium,  before  the  parliament  and  magistracy  of 
Dole,  the  professors  and  the  readers  of  the  university. 
Simon  Vernet,  vice-chancellor  of  the  university,  dean  of 
the  church,  and  doctor  in  each  faculty,  was  not  once 
absent.  The  worthy  vice-chancellor,  or  dean,  appears, 
indeed,  to  have  taken  an  especial  interest  in  the  fame  of 
their  visitor.  He  had  himself  a  taste  for  public  declama- 
tion, and  to  a  friend  who  was  urging  on  Cornelius  that  he 
should  seek  durable  fame  rather  by  written  than  by  spoken 
words,  expressed  a  contrary  desire  on  his  behalf.  He  pre- 
ferred orator  to  author2.  When  Cornelius  had  complied 
with  the  request  of  another  friend,  who  wished  to  translate 
into  the  vernacular  his  panegyric  upon  Margaret,  praising 
his  oratory  for  the  perfect  fitness  of  each  word  employed 
in  it,  and  its  complete  freedom  from  verbiage,  and  desiring 
that  through  a  translation  the  illustrious  princess  might 
be  informed  how  famously  Cornelius  had  spoken  in  her 
honour,  and  so  be  the  more  disposed  to  reward  him  with 
her  favour,  the  translation  came  back  with  a  note,  saying 
that  the  vice-chancellor  had  been  its  censor  and  corrector3. 
Vernet  was  diligent,  in  fact,  on  the  young  scholar's  behalf, 
and  his  interests  were  seconded  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Besangon.  Not  a  syllable  was  whispered  about  heresy. 
The  friend  who  urged  Cornelius,  in  spite  of  the  dean's 

1  Libellus  De  Nobilitate  et  Prcec.  Fcem.  Sex.  in  preface.     The  same  autho- 
rity covers  the  next  fact  or  two. 
*  Ep.  18.    Lib.  i.  p.  698.  3  Ep.  16.    Lib.  i.  p.  697. 


LECTURING  BEFORE  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  DOLE.   93 

contrary  counsel,  to  become  an  author,  gave  a  familiar 
example  from  his  own  experience  of  the  vanity  of  spoken 
words.  He  had  declaimed  publicly  from  memory,  and 
without  one  hitch,  upwards  of  two  thousand  two  hundred 
verses  of  his  own  composition,  yet,  because  they  were  not 
printed,  earned  only  a  temporary  local  fame.  Of  the  value 
of  the  written  word  evidence  very  soon  afterwards  was 
enclosed  to  Cornelius  by  that  other  friend  who  had  trans- 
lated his  oration.  Zealous  to  do  good  service,  he  had 
caused  a  copy  of  the  panegyric  to  proceed,  by  way  of 
Lyons,  on  the  road  to  royal  notice,  and  delighted  the 
aspirant  after  patronage  by  enclosing  to  him  flatteries  from 
John  Perreal,  a  royal  chamberlain1,  probably  the  same 
learned  Frenchman  who  became  known  twenty  or  more 
years  later  as  Johannis  Perellus,  translated  into  Latin  Gaza 
on  the  Attic  Months,  and  wrote  a  book  about  the  Epacts 
of  the  Moon. 

To  the  youth  flushed  with  triumph  as  a  scholar  there 
came  also  reminders  of  the  military  life  he  was  so  ready  to 
forsake.  A  correspondent  sent  him  news  of  a  defeat  of  the 
Venetians  by  the  French,  near  Agnadello,  the  first  fruits 
of  the  discreditable  league  of  Cambray.  The  French, 
it  will  be  remembered,  won  this  victory  while  Maximilian, 
their  new  ally,  was  still  perplexed  by  the  dissatisfaction  of 
his  subjects  evidenced  during  the  late  diet  at  Worms. 
Agrippa's  friend  wished  to  have  in  return  for  his  news 
any  knowledge  that  his  relation  to  the  emperor  might 

1  Ep.  18.     Lib.  i.  p.  698. 


94  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

give  him  of  intentions  that  might  be  disclosed  at  an 
approaching  diet1.  His  real  intentions  were  to  break  a 
pledge  by  marching  against  the  Venetians ;  his  fate,  to 
retire  ere  long,  defeated,  from  before  the  walls  of  Padua. 
He  was  renewing  with  his  enemy,  the  King  of  France,  the 
treaty  of  Cambray,  and  sending  a  messenger  to  Spire  to 
burn  the  book  in  which  he  had  recorded  all  the  injuries 
and  insults  suffered  by  his  family,  or  empire,  at  the  hands 
of  France.  Cornelius  cared  little  for  France  or  Padua ; 
his  hopes  as  a  scholar  were  with  Margaret  at  Ghent, 
though  she,  too,  being  another  member  of  the  league, 
could  have  employed  him  as  a  soldier.  Other  hopes,  as 
a  man,  he  was  directing  towards  a  younger  and  a  fairer 
mistress.  He  desired  not  only  to  prosper  but  to  marry. 

The  little  university  of  Dole  favoured  the  young  man 
heartily.  His  prelections  had  excited  great  attention,  and 
procured  for  him  the  admiration  of  the  neighbourhood. 
From  the  university  they  won  for  him  at  once  the  degree  of 
doctor  in  divinity,  together  with  a  stipend2. 

1  Ep.  19.     Lib.  i.  p.  699. 

-  Defensio  Propositionum  de  Beatce  Anna  Monogamid,  &c.  Op.  Tom.  ii. 
p.  596. 


DOCTOR  AND  SUITOR  TO  THE  FAIR.  95 


CHAPTER  VI. 

CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA  WRITES  A  TREATISE  TO  PROVE  WOMAN  THE  BETTER 
HALF  OF  MAN — IN  THE  SAME  YEAR  HE  TAKES  A  WIFE. 

ANGLING  for  private  patronage  was  in  the  sixteenth 
century  correlative  to  the  habit  not  very  uncommon  in 
these  days  of  using  baits  to  catch  the  public  favour.  Men 
who  once  lived  by  the  help  of  princes  now  owe  their 
support  to  the  whole  people,  and  the  pains  bestowed  upon 
a  cultivation  of  the  good-will  of  the  people  in  these  days 
are  neither  less  nor  more  to  be  reprehended  than  the 
pains  taken  by  scholars  of  past  time  to  procure  a  safe 
means  of  subsistence  through  the  good-will  of  a  prince.  It 
may  be  said,  with  a  fair  approximation  to  the  truth,  that 
as  much  as  a  man  may  do  now  with  the  intention  of  de- 
serving popularity,  and  not  discredit  himself  in  his  own 
eyes  or  those  of  the  great  number  of  his  neighbours,  he 
might  have  done  with  as  little  discredit  in  the  sixteenth 
century  with  the  design  of  earning  favour  from  the  great. 
We  have  seen  how,  in  the  case  of  Reuchlin,  a  poor  cho- 
rister was  fostered  at  first  by  small  princes  of  Germany, 
afterwards  even  by  the  emperor,  and  enabled  to  develop 
into  a  great  Hebrew  scholar,  when  one  patron  died  having 


96  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

another  ready  to  befriend  him,  and  enjoying  dignity  and 
wealth  with  a  complete  sense  of  independence.  That  age 
was,  in  fact,  as  far  removed  as  this  is  from  the  transition 
period,  during  which  the  patronage  of  letters  by  the  great, 
extinct  as  a  necessity,  survived  as  a  tradition,  and  the 
system  that  had  once  been  vigorous  and  noble  became 
imbecile  and  base. 

Nobody  at  Dole  was  ignorant  that  the  design  of  Cor- 
nelius Agrippa  was  to  earn  the  patronage  of  Margaret, 
a  liberal  encourager  of  learning.  Nobody  considered  it 
dishonourable  to  seek  this  by  showing  that  it  was  de- 
served. The  prevalent  feeling  was  so  far  removed  from  any 
such  impression,  that  from  many  quarters  the  young  man 
was  urged  to  magnify  his  claim  on  Mai-garet's  attention 
by  devoting  not  only  the  orations,  but  also  some  piece  of 
writing  to  her  honour.  Even  the  cordial  vice-chancellor, 
desirous  to  advance  the  interests  of  the  young  orator,  set 
aside  his  predilection  for  the"  spoken  word,  and  was  among 
the  foremost  in  admonishing  Cornelius  to  write.  Not  slow 
to  profit  by  advice  that  ran  the  same  course  with  his  incli- 
nations, the  new  Doctor  of  Divinity  set  himself  to  display 
his  powers  as  a  theologian  in  the  true  manner  of  the  day, 
and  with  theological  acuteness  to  combine  a  courtier's 
tact,  by  dedicating  to  the  most  conspicuous  example  of 
his  argument  a  treatise  on  the  Nobility  and  Pre-excel- 
lence  of  the  Female  Sex.  As  I  have  hinted,  too,  there 
was  a  private  example  of  it  known  to  his  own  heart. 

Before  following  him  into  this  new  field  of  study,  there 
is  a  private  letter  to  be  read — a  letter  of  recommendation 


QUESTIONS  OF  PATRONAGE.  97 

sent  from  a  friend  of  Cornelius  at  Chalon,  one  of  the 
mystical  brethren  perhaps,  by  a  servant  of  the  person  re- 
commended l. 

"  The  bearer  of  these  is  the  page  of  a  certain  nobleman 
in  Chalon,  sent  to  fetch  you  hither,  because  his  master  is 
in  want  of  help  and  counsel:  he  is  rich,  and  does  not 
spare  his  money.  I  have  warned  you  of  this  for  your 
gain's  sake :  but  just  attend  to  what  counsel  I  wish  to 
give  you  on  this  subject,  for  I  desire  to  promote  equally 
your  honour  and  profit.  If,  then,  you  can  come  hand- 
somely dressed,  so  come,  it  will  bring  you  trust  and 
advantage  "  (perhaps  the  young  scholar  was  a  little  negli- 
gent of  his  attire),  "  for  you  are  not  ignorant  how  much 
respect  and  confidence  is  put  on,  if  I  may  say  so,  with  a 
comely  garment,  especially  in  the  opinion  of  those  pur- 
blind people  who  see  only  outsides  of  men.  And  if  you 
come  directly  you  are  wanted  it  will  be  much  to  your 
hurt :  therefore  dissemble  if  you  can,  make  excuses,  put 
off  your  coming  to  another  time  :  meanwhile  I  will  pro- 
mote your  interests.  But  if  this  nobleman,  more  greedy 
to  have  you,  goes  to  Dole  for  you  himself,  mind  this,  that 
though  you  may  know  everything,  be  able  to  do  every- 
thing,— do  nothing,  promise  nothing,  unless  after  re- 
iterated urging.  Only  let  yourself  be  forced  to  receive 
favours.  Even  if  you  are  in  want  of  anything,  dissemble 
the  want.  The  man  grows  warm,  and  when  the  iron 
glows  is  the  right  time  for  striking.  Understand  these 
matters  secretly,  the  affair  is  yours,  the  counsel  yours ;  you 
1  Ep.  20.  Lib.  i.  p.  699. 

VOL.  I.  H 


98  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

hold  the  reins  of  your  own  fortune.  I  will  not  be  wanting 
to  you  with  my  help  as  the  occasion  serves.  Farewell." 

Angling  for  patronage  shown  from  another  point  of 
view! — mean  arts  used  by  mean  spirits  to  compel  the 
favour  of  the  rich  and  base.  But  to  secure  the  favour  of 
the  rich  and  noble  the  arts  used  were  not  to  be  accounted 
mean. 

Now  let  us  trace  in  a  brief  summary  the  argument  for 
the  Nobility  of  the  Female  Sex  and  the  Superiority  of 
Woman  over  Man,  written  at  Dole,  in  the  year  1509,  by 
a  Doctor  of  Divinity,  aged  twenty-three l.  He  sets  out 
with  the  declaration  that  when  man  was  created  male  and 
female,  difference  was  made  in  the  flesh,  not  in  the  soul. 
He  quotes  Scripture  to  show  that  after  the  corruption  of 
our  bodies  difference  of  sex  will  disappear,  and  that  we 
shall  all  be  like  angels  in  the  resurrection.  As  to  soul, 
then,  man  and  woman  are  alike ;  but  as  to  everything 
else  the  woman  is  the  better  part  of  the  creation. 

In  the  first  place,  woman  being  made  better  than  man, 
received  the  better  name.  Man  was  called  Adam,  which 
means  Earth ;  woman  Eva,  which  is  by  interpretation 
Life.  By  as  much  as  life  excels  earth  woman  there- 
fore excels  man.  And  this,  it  is  urged,  must  not  be 
thought  trivial  reasoning,  because  the  Maker  of  those 
creatures  knew  what  they  were  before  He  named  them, 

1  Henrici  Cornelii  Agrippw  de  Nobilitate  et  Prcecellentia  Foeminei  Sexus,  ad 
Margaretam  Augustam  Austriacorum  et  Burgundionwm  Principem,  &c.  &c. 
An.  M.D.XXXII.  Mense  Maio.  The  outline  is  made  from  this,  the  first, 
edition.  The  publication  of  the  work  was  delayed  for  reasons  that  -will 
afterwards  appear. 


TREATS  OF  THE  PRE-EMINENCE  OF  WOMAN.  99 

and  was  One  who  could  not  err  in  properly  describing 
each.  We  know,  and  the  Roman  laws  testify,  that 
ancient  names  were  always  consonant  with  the  things 
they  represented,  and  names  have  been  held  always  to 
be  of  great  moment  by  theologians  and  jurisconsults. 
It  is  written  thus  of  Nabal :  "  As  his  name  is,  so  is  he ; 
Nabal  is  his  name,  and  folly  is  with  him."  (1  Samuel, 
xxv.  25.)  Saint  Paul,  also,  in  his  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews, speaks  of  his  Lord  and  Master,  as  "  made  so  much 
better  than  the  .angels,  as  he  hath  obtained  a  more 
excellent  name  than  they."  (Heb.  i.  4.)  The  reader's 
memory  will  at  once  supply  the  next  passage  of  Scripture 
quoted,  I  do  not  like  to  cite  it.  Agrippa  then  dilates,  as 
well  he  may,  on  the  immense  importance  of  words, 
according  to  the  practice  of  all  jurists ;  he  tells  how 
Cyprian  argued  against  the  Jews  that  Adam's  name  was 
derived  from  the  initials  of  the  Greek  words  meaning 
east,  west,  north,  and  south :  dvaroXfj,  Svat?,  apKTis,  /leo-i/ijS/nos, 
because  his  flesh  was  made  out  of  the  earth,  though  that 
derivation  was  at  variance  with  Moses,  who  put  only  three 
letters  in  the  Hebrew  name.  For  this,  however,  adds 
Agrippa,  Cyprian  was  not  to  blame,  since,  like  many 
saints  and  expounders  of  the  sacred  text,  he  had  not  learnt 
the  Hebrew  language. 

Upon  the  word  Eva  it  is  further  maintained  that  it 
suggests  comparison  with  the  mystic  symbols  of  the  Ca- 
balists,  the  name  of  the  woman  having  affinity  with  the 
ineffable  Tetragrammaton,  the  most  sacred  name  of  the 
Divinity  ;  while  that  of  the  man  differed  entirely  from  it. 
H2 


100  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

All  these  considerations,  however,  Agrippa  consents  to 
pass  over,  as  matters  read  by  few  and  understood  by 
fewer.  The  pre-eminence  of  the  woman  can  be  proved 
out  of  her  constitution,  her  gifts,  and  her  merits. 

The  nature  of  woman  is  discussed,  however,  from  the 
theologian's  point  of  view.  Things  were  created  in  the 
order  of  their  rank.  First,  indeed,  incorruptible  soul, 
then  incorruptible  matter,  but  afterwards,  out  of  that 
matter,  more  or  less  corruptible  things,  beginning  with  the 
meanest.  First  minerals,  then  herbs,  and  shrubs  and  trees, 
then  zoophytes,  then  brutes  in  their  order,  reptiles  first, 
afterwards  fishes,  birds,  quadrupeds.  Lastly,  two  human 
beings,  but  of  these  first  the  male,  and  finally  the  female, 
in  which  the  heavens  and  the  earth  and  their  whole 
adornment  were  perfected.  The  divine  rest  followed, 
because  the  work  was  consummated,  nothing  greater  was 
conceived  ;  the  woman  was  thus  left  the  most  perfect  and 
the  noblest  of  the  creatures  upon  earth,  as  a  queen  placed 
in  the  court  that  had  been  previously  prepared  for  her. 
Rightly,  therefore,  do  all  beings  round  about  her  pay  to 
this  queen  homage  of  reverence  and  love. 

The  difference  between  the  woman  and  the  man  is  yet 
more  strongly  marked,  says  the  deeply  read  theologian, 
because  the  man  was  made  like  the  brutes  in  open  land 
outside  the  gates  of  paradise,  and  made  wholly  of  clay, 
but  the  woman  was  made  afterwards  in  paradise  itself; 
she  was  the  one  paradisaical  creation.  Presently  there 
follow  Scripture  arguments  to  show  that  the  place  of  their 
birth  was  a  sign  to  men  of  honour  or  dishonour.  The 


TREATS  OF  THE  PRE-EMINENCE  OF  WOMAN.         101 

woman,  too,  was  not  made  of  clay,  but  from  an  influx 
of  celestial  matter  ;  since  there  went  into  her  composition 
nothing  terrestrial  except  only  one  of  Adam's  ribs,  and 
that  was  not  gross  clay,  but  clay  that  had  been  already 
purified  and  kindled  with  the  breath  of  life. 

The  theological  demonstrations  Cornelius  next  confirms 
by  the  evidence  of  some  natural  facts  equally  cogent  and 
trustworthy,  which  were  held  in  that  day  by  many  wise 
men  to  be  equally  true.  It  is  because  she  is  made  of 
purer  matter  that  -a  woman,  from  whatever  height  she 
may  look  down,  never  turns  giddy,  and  her  eyes  never 
have  mist  before  them  like  the  eyes  of  men.  Moreover, 
if  a  woman  and  man  tumble  together  into  water,  far  away 
from  all  external  help,  the  woman  floats  long  upon  the 
surface,  but  the  man  soon  sinks  to  the  bottom.  Is  there 
not  also  the  divine  light  shining  through  the  body  of  the 
woman,  by  which  she  is  made  often  to  seem  a  miracle  of 
beauty.  Then  follows  a  clever  inventory  of  all  a  woman's 
charms  of  person,  written  with  due  reserve,  which  might 
be  here  translated,  if  the  English  language  had  the  terse- 
ness of  the  Latin.  In  short,  woman  is  the  sum  of  all 
earth's  beauty,  and  it  is  proved  that  her  beauty  has  some- 
times inspired  even  angels  and  demons  with  a  desperate 
and  fatal  love.  Then  follows  a  chain  of  Scripture  texts 
honouring  female  beauty,  which  all  lead  up  to  the  twenty 
thousand  virgins,  solemnly  celebrated  by  the  church,  and 
the  admiration  of  the  beauty  of  the  Virgin  Mary  by  the 
sun  and  moon. 

Texts  follow  that  must  be  omitted,  and  then  the  argu- 


102  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

ment  takes  anatomical  grounds  of  the  most  ingenious 
character,  and  hows  how  every  difference  of  structure 
between  the  man  and  the  woman  gives  to  woman  the 
advantage  due  to  her  superior  delicacy.  Even  after  death 
nature  respects  her  inherent  modesty,  for  a  drowned 
woman  floats  on  her  face,  and  a  drowned  man  upon  his 
back.  The  noblest  part  of  a  human  being  is  the  head; 
but  the  man's  head  is  liable  to  baldness,  woman  is  never 
seen  bald.  The  man's  face  is  often  made  so  filthy  by  a 
most  odious  beard,  and  so  covered  with  sordid  hairs,  that 
it  is  scarcely  to  be  distinguished  from  the  face  of  a  wild 
beast;  in  women,  on  the  other  hand,  the  face  always  re- 
mains pure  and  decent.  For  this  reason  women  were,  by 
the  laws  of  the  twelve  tables,  forbidden  to  rub  their 
cheeks  lest  hair  should  grow  and  obscure  their  blushing 
modesty.  But  the  most  evident  proof  of  the  innate 
purity  of  the  female  sex  is,  that  a  woman  having  once 
washed  is  clean,  and  if  she  wash  in  second  water  will  not 
soil  it  ;  but  that  a  man  is  never  clean,  though  he  should 
wash  in  ten  successive  waters,  he  will  cloud  and  infect 
them  all. 

Some  other  marvellous  peculiarities  I  must  omit,  and 
pass  to  Agrippa's  appreciation  of  the  woman's  predomi- 
nance in  the  possession  of  the  gift  of  speech,  the  most  ex- 
cellent of  human  faculties,  which  Hermes  Trismegistus 
thought  equal  to  immortality  in  value,  and  Hesiod  pro- 
nounced the  best  of  human  treasures.  Man,  too,  receives 
this  gift  from  woman,  from  his  mother  or  his  nurse ;  and 
it  is  a  gift  bestowed  upon  woman  herself  with  such  libe- 


TREATS  OF  THE  PRE-EMINENCE  OF  WOMAN.        103 

rality  that  the  world  has  scarcely  seen  a  woman  who  was 
mute.  Is  it  not  fit  that  women  should  excel  men  in  that 
faculty,  wherein  men  themselves  chiefly  excel  the  brutes? 

The  argument  again  becomes  an  edifice  of  Scripture 
text,  and  it  is  well  to  show  the  nature  of  it,  though  we 
may  shrink  from  the  misuse  of  sacred  words,  because  it  is 
well  thoroughly  to  understand  how  Scripture  was  habitu- 
ally used  by  professed  theologians  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, and  from  this  light  example  to  derive  a  grave  lesson, 
perhaps,  that  may  be,  even  to  the  people  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  not  wholly  useless. 

Solomon's  texts  on  the  surpassing  excellence  of  a  good 
woman  of  course  are  cited,  and  a  cabalistic  hint  is  given 
of  the  efficacy  of  the  letter  H,  which  Abram  took  away 
from  his  wife  Sarah,  and  put  into  the  middle  of  his  own 
name,  after  he  had  been  blessed  through  her.  Benedic- 
tion has  come  always  by  woman,  law  by  man.  We  have 
all  sinned  in  Adam,  not  in  Eve;  original  sin  we  inherit 
only  from  the  father  of  our  race.  The  fruit  of  the  tree 
of  knowledge  was  forbidden  to  man  only,  before  woman 
was  made;  woman  received  no  injunction,  she  was  created 
free.  She  was  not  blamed,  therefore,  for  eating,  but  for 
causing  sin  in  her  husband  by  giving  him  to  eat;  and  she 
did  that  not  of  her  own  will,  but  because  the  devil  tempted 
her.  He  chose  her  as  the  object  of  temptation,  as  St. 
Bernard  says,  because  he  saw  with  envy  that  she  was  the 
most  perfect  of  creatures.  She  erred  in  ignorance  because 
she  was  deceived ;  the  man  sinned  knowingly.  Therefore 
our  Lord  made  atonement  in  the  figure  of  the  sex  that  had 


104  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

sinned,  and  also  for  more  complete  humiliation  came  in 
the  form  of  a  man,  not  that  of  a  woman,  which  is  nobler 
and  sublimer.  He  humbled  himself  as  man,  but  overcame 
as  a  descendant  of  the  woman ;  for  the  seed  of  the  woman, 
it  was  said,  not  the  seed  of  man,  should  bruise  the  serpent's 
head.  He  would  not,  therefore,  be  born  of  a  man ;  woman 
alone  was  judged  worthy  to  be  the  earthly  parent  of  the 
Deity.  Risen  again,  he  appeared  first  to  women.  Men 
forsook  him,  women  never.  No  persecution,  heresy,  or 
error  in  the  Church  ever  began  with  the  female  sex.  They 
were  men  who  betrayed,  sold,  bought,  accused,  condemned, 
mocked,  crucified  the  Lord.  Peter  denied  him,  his  dis- 
ciples left  him.  "Women  were  at  the  foot  of  the  cross, 
women  were  at  the  sepulchre.  Even  Pilate's  wife,  who 
was  a  heathen,  made  more  effort  to  save  Jesus  than  any 
man  among  believers.  Finally,  do  not  almost  all  theolo- 
gians assert  that  the  Church  is  maintained  by  the  Virgin 
Mary? 

Aristotle  may  say  that  of  all  animals  the  males  are 
stronger  and  wiser  than  the  females,  but  St.  Paul  writes 
that  weak  things  have  been  chosen  to  confound  the  strong. 
Adam  was  sublimely  endowed,  but  woman  humbled  him ; 
Samson  was  strong,  but  woman  made  him  captive;  Lot 
was  chaste,  but  woman  seduced  him  ;  David  was  religious, 
but  woman  disturbed  his  piety;  Solomon  was  wise,  but 
woman  deceived  him ;  Job  was  patient,  and  was  robbed 
by  the  devil  of  fortune  and  family;  ulcerated,  grieved, 
oppressed,  nothing  provoked  him  to  anger  till  a  woman 
did  it,  therein  proving  herself  stronger  than  the  devil. 


TREATS  OF  THE  PRE-EMINENCE  OF  WOMAN.         105 

Peter  was  fervent  in  faith,  but  woman  forced  him  to  deny 
his  lord.  Somebody  may  remark  that  all  these  illustra- 
tions tend  to  woman's  shame,  not  to  her  glory,  Woman, 
however,  may  reply  to  man  as  Innocent  III.  wrote  to  some 
cardinal,  "  If  one  of  us  is  to  be  confounded,  I  prefer  that 
it  be  you."  Civil  law  allows  a  woman  to  consult  her  own 
gain  to  another's  hurt;  and  does  not  Scripture  itself  often 
extol  and  bless  the  evil  deeds  of  the  woman  more  than  the 
good  deeds  of  the  man.  Is  not  Rachel  praised  who  de- 
ceived her  father?  JRebecca,  because  she  obtained  fraudu- 
lently Jacob's  benediction?  Is  not  the  deceit  of  Rahab 
imputed  to  her  as  justice?  Was  not  Jael  blessed  among 
women  for  a  treacherous  and  cruel  deed?  What  could 
be  more  iniquitous  than  the  counsel  of  Judith  ?  what  more 
cruel  than  her  wiles?  what  worse  than  her  perfidy?  Yet 
for  this  she  is  blessed,  lauded,  and  extolled  in  Scripture, 
and  the  woman's  iniquity  is  reputed  better  than  the 
goodness  of  the  man.  Was  not  Cain's  a  good  work  when 
he  oifered  his  best  fruits  in  sacrifice  and  was  reproved  for 
it?  Did  not  Esau  well  when  he  hunted  to  get  venison 
for  his  old  father,  and  in  the  mean  time  was  defrauded  of 
his  birthright,  and  incurred  the  divine  hate?  Other 
examples  are  adduced,  and  robust  scholars,  ingenious 
theologians,  are  defied  to  find  an  equal  amount  of  evidence 
in  support  of  the  contrary  thesis,  that  the  iniquity  of  the 
man  is  better  than  the  goodness  of  the  woman.  Such  a 
thesis,  says  Agrippa,  could  not  be  defended. 

From  this  point  to  the  end  Agrippa's  treatise  consists 
of  a  mass  of  illustrations  from   profane  and  Scripture 


106  COKNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

history,  classified  roughly.  Some  are  from  natural  history. 
The  queen  of  all  birds,  he  says,  is  the  eagle,  always  of  the 
female  sex,  for  no  male  eagles  have  been  found.  The 
phoenix  is  a  female  always.  On  the  other  hand,  the  most 
pestilent  of  serpents,  called  the  basilisk,  exists  only  as  a 
male  ;  it  is  impossible  for  it  to  hatch  a  female. 

All  evil  things  began  with  men,  and  few  or  none  with 
women.  We  die  in  the  seed  of  Adam  and  live  in  the 
seed  of  Eve.  The  beginning  of  envy,  the  first  homicide, 
the  first  parricide,  the  first  despair  of  divine  mercy  was 
with  man  ;  Lamech  was  the  first  bigamist,  Noah  was  the 
first  drunkard,  Nimrod  the  first  tyrant,  and  so  forth.  Men 
were  the  first  to  league  themselves  with  demons  and  dis- 
cover profane  hearts.  Men  have  been  incontinent,  and 
had,  in  innumerable  instances,  to  each  man  many  wives  at 
once  ;  but  women  have  been  continent,  each  content  with 
a  single  husband,  except  only  Bathsheba.  Many  women 
are  then  cited  as  illustrations  of  their  sex  in  this  respect, 
or  for  their  filial  piety,  including  Abigail,  Lucretia,  Cato's 
wife,  and  the  mother  of  the  Gracchi,  the  vestal  Claudia, 
Iphigenia.  If  any  one  opposes  to  such  women  the  wives 
of  Zoilus,  Samson,  Jason,  Deiphobus,  and  Agamemnon, 
it  may  be  answered  that  these  have  been  unj  ustly  accused, 
that  no  good  man  ever  had  a  bad  wife.  Only  bad  hus- 
bands get  bad  wives,  or  if  they  get  a  good  one,  are  some- 
times able  to  corrupt  her  excellence.  If  women  made  the 
laws,  and  wrote  the  histories  and  tragedies,  could  they 
not  j  ustly  crowd  them  with  testimony  to  the  wickedness 
of  men.  Our  prisons  are  full  of  men,  and  slain  men 


TREATS  OF  THE  PRE-EMINENCE  OF  WOMAN.         107 

cumber  the  earth  everywhere,  but  women  are  the  be- 
ginners of  all  liberal  arts,  of  virtue,  and  beneficence. 
Therefore  the  arts  and  virtues  commonly  have  feminine 
names.  Even  the  corners  of  the  world  receive  their 
names  from  women :  the  nymph  Asia ;  Europa,  the 
daughter  of  Agenior ;  Lybia,  the  daughter  of  Epaphus, 
who  is  called  also  Aphrica. 

Illustrations  follow  of  the  pre-eminence  of  women  in 
good  gifts,  and  it  is  urged  that  Abraham,  who  by  his 
faith  was  accounted  just,  was  placed  in  subjection  to 
Sarah  his  wife,  and  was  told,  "  In  all  that  Sarah  hath  said 
unto  thee,  hearken  unto  her  voice."  (Gen.  xxi.  12.) 

There  follows  a  host  of  other  illustrations  of  the  excel- 
lence of  woman,  drawn  from  all  sources ;  among  others, 
illustrations  of  her  eminence  in  learning.  "And,"  adds 
Agrippa,  "  were  not  women  now  forbidden  to  be  literary, 
we  should  at  this  day  have  most  celebrated  women,  whose 
wit  would  surpass  that  of  men.  What  is  to  be  said  upon 
this  head,  when  even  by  nature  women  seem  to  be  born 
easily  superior  to  practised  students  in  all  faculties  ?  Do 
not  the  grammarians  entitle  themselves  masters  of  right 
speaking  ?  Yet  we  learn  this  far  better  from  our  nurses 

and  our  mothers  than  from  the  grammarians For 

that  reason  Plato  and  Quintilian  so  solicitously  urged  a 
careful  choice  of  children's  nurses,  that  the  children's 
language  might  be  formed  on  the  best  model.  Are  not 
the  poets  in  the  invention  of  their  whims  and  fables,  the 
dialecticians  in  their  contentious  garrulity,  surpassed  by 
women  ?  Was  ever  orator  so  good  or  so  successful,  that 


108  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

a  courtesan  could  not  excel  his  powers  of  persuasion? 
What  arithmetician  by  false  calculation  would  know  how 
to  cheat  a  woman  in  the  payment  of  a  debt  ?  What 
musician  equals  her  in  song  and  in  amenity  of  voice? 
Are  not  philosophers,  mathematicians,  and  astrologers 
often  inferior  to  country-women  in  their  divinations  and 
prediction?,  and  does  not  the  old  nurse  very  often  beat 
the  doctor  ? "  Socrates  himself,  the  wisest  of  men,  did 
not  disdain  to  receive  knowledge  from  Aspasia,  nor  did 
Apollo  the  Theologian  despise  the  teaching  of  Priscilla. 

Then  follows  a  fresh  stdng  of  illustrations  by  which  we 
are  brought  to  a  contemplation  of  the  necessity  of  woman 
for  the  perpetuation  of  any  state,  and  the  cessation  of  the 
human  race  that  may  be  consequent  on  her  withdrawal. 
Through  more  examples  we  are  brought  then  to  consider 
the  honour  and  precedence  accorded  by  law  and  usage  to 
the  female  sex.  Man  makes  way  for  woman  on  the  public 
road,  and  yields  to  her  in  society  the  highest  places. 
Purple  and  fine  linen,  gold  and  jewels  are  conceded  as  the 
fit  adornments  of  her  noble  person,  and  from  the  sump- 
tuary laws  of  the  later  emperors  women  were  excepted. 
Illustrations  follow  of  the  dignity  and  privileges  of  the 
wife,  and  of  the  immunities  accorded  to  her  by  the  law. 
Reference  is  made  to  ancient  writers,  who  tell  how,  among 
the  Getulians,  the  Bactrians,  and  others,  men  were  the 
softer  sex,  and  sat  at  home  while  women  laboured  in  the 
fields,  built  houses,  transacted  business,  rode  abroad,  and 
went  out  to  do  battle.  Among  the  Cantabrians  men 
brought  dowries  to  their  wives,  brothers  were  given  in 


TREATS  OF  THE  FEE-EMINENCE  OF  WOMAN.         109 

marriage  by  their  sisters,  and  the  daughters  of  a  house- 
hold were  the  heirs.     Among  the  Scythians,  Thracians, 
and  Gauls,  women  possessed  their  rights,  but  among  us, 
said  Agrippa,  "  the  tyranny  of  men  prevailing  over  divine 
right  and  the  laws  of  nature,  slays  by  law  the  liberty  of 
woman,  abolishes  it  by  use  and  custom,  extinguishes  it  by 
education.    For  the  woman,  as  soon  as  she  is  born,  is  from 
her  earliest  years  detained  at  home  in  idleness,  and  as  if 
destitute  of  capacity  for  higher  occupations,  is  permitted 
to  conceive  of  nothing  beyond  needle  and  thread.     Then 
when  she  has  attained  years  of  puberty  she  is  delivered 
over  to  the  jealous  empire  of  a  man,  or  shut  up  for  ever  in 
a  shop  of  vestals.     The  law  also  forbids  her  to  fill  public 
offices.     No  prudence  entitles  her  to  plead  in  open  court." 
A  list  follows  of  the  chief  disabilities  of  women,  "  who  are 
treated  by  the  men  as  conquered  by  the  conquerors,  not 
by  any  divine  necessity,  for  any  reason,  but  according  to 
custom,  education,  fortune,  and  the  tyrant's  opportunity." 
A  few  leading  objections  are  then  answered.     Eve  was 
indeed  made  subject  to  man  after  the  fall,  but  that  curse 
was  removed  when  man  was  saved.    Paul  says  that  "  Wives 
are  to  be  subject   to  their  husbands,  and  women  to  be 
silent  in  the  church,"  but  he  spoke  of  temporal  church 
discipline,  and  did  not  utter  a  divine  law,  since  "  in  Christ 
there  is  neither  male  nor  female,  but  a  new  creature." 
"We  are  again  reminded  of  the  text  subjecting  Abraham 
to  Sarah,  and  the  treatise  closes  then  with  a  short  re- 
capitulation of  its  heads.     "  We  have  shown,"  Agrippa 
says,  "  the  pre-eminence  of  the  female  sex  by  its  name,  its 


110  CORNELIUS  AGEIPPA. 

order  and  place  of  creation,  the  material  of  which  it  was 
created,  and  the  dignity  that  was  given  to  woman  over 
man  by  God,  then  by  religion,  by  nature,  by  human 
laws,  by  various  authority,  by  reason,  and  have  demon- 
strated all  this  by  promiscuous  examples.  Yet  we  have 
not  said  so  many  things  but  that  we  have  left  more  still 
'to  be  said,  because  I  carne  to  the  writing  of  this  not 
moved  by  ambition,  or  for  the  sake  of  bringing  myself 
praise,  but  for  the  sake  of  duty  and  truth,  lest,  like  a 
sacrilegious  person,  I  might  seem,  if  I  were  silent,  by  an 
impious  taciturnity  (and  as  it  were  a  burying  of  my  talent) 
to  refuse  the  praises  due  to  so  devout  a  sex.  So  that  if 
any  one  more  curious  than  I  am  should  discover  any 
argument  which  he  thinks  requisite  to  be  added  to  this 
work,  let  him  expect  to  have  his  position  not  contested 
by  me,  but  attested,  in  as  far  as  he  is  able  to  carry  on  this 
good  work  of  mine  with  his  own  genius  and  learning. 
And  that  this  work  itself  may  not  become  too  large  a 
volume,  here  let  it  end." 

Such  was  the  treatise  written  by  Cornelius  at  Dole  for 
the  more  perfect  propitiation  of  the  Princess  Margaret. 
Many  years  elapsed  before  it  was  printed  and  presented 
to  the  princess;  doubtless,  however,  the  youth  read  the 
manuscript  to  his  betrothed  very  soon  after  it  was  written. 
Towards  the  close  of  the  year  a  friend  in  Cologne  wrote 
to  Agrippa  of  the  impatience  of  his  parents  for  their  son's 
return,  but  at  the  close  of  November  another  friend  in 
Cologne,  Theodoric,  Bishop  of  Cyrene,  asking  as  an  espe- 
cial favour  for  his  views  upon  judicial  astrology  so  hotly 


MARRIES.  Ill 

opposed  by  Pic  di  Mirandola,  says  that  his  expressions  on 
the  subject  had  appeared  to  him  ambiguous  when  they 
conversed  together1.  Probably  he  had  then  been  offering 
to  the  embrace  of  his  parents  not  a  son  only,  but  a  son 
and  daughter,  for  it  is  said  to  have  been  in  the  year  1509, 
when  all  was  honour  for  him  in  the  present,  all  hope  in  the 
future,  that  Cornelius  von  Nettesheim  married  Jane  Louisa 
Tyssie3,  of  Geneva,  a  maiden  equal  to  him  in  rank,  remark- 
able for  beauty,  and  yet  more  remarkable  for  her  aspirations 
and  her  worth.  She  entered  with  her  whole  soul  into  the 
spirit  of  her  husband's  life,  rejoiced  in  his  ambition,  and 
knew  how  to  hold  high  converse  with  his  friends3.  The 
marriage  was  in  every  respect  a  happy  one ;  there  was  a 
world  of  gentleness  and  loving  kindness  in  Agrippa's  heart. 
We  shall  have  revelation  of  it  as  the  narrative  proceeds. 
The  tenderness  of  his  nature  mingles  strangely,  sadly,  with 
his  restlessness,  his  self-reliance,  and  his  pride. 

So,  full  of  hope  and  happiness,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
three,  he  took  to  wife  a  maiden  who  could  love  him  for 
his  kindliness,  and  reverence  him  for  his  power.  He  was 
no  needy  adventurer,  but  the  son  of  a  noble  house,  who 
was  beginning,  as  it  seemed,  the  achievement  of  the 
highest  honours.  He  was  surrounded  by  admirers,  already 
a  doctor  of  divinity,  hereafter  to  attain  he  knew  not  what. 
Fostered  by  Maximilian's  daughter,  what  might  not  his 
intellect  achieve  ? 

1  Ep.  21.     Lib.  i.  p.  700. 

2  Thevet.  Portraits  et  Vies  des  ffommes  Ilhistres  (ed.  Paris,  1584),  Tom.  ii. 
p.  542.     "  II  espousa  Mademoiselle  Louyse    Tyssie,  issue    de  fort  noble 
maison,  1'an  de  son  aage  vingt  et  trois,  et  de  salut,  mil  cinq  cens  et  neuf." 

3  She  is  made  in  this  character  the  subject  of  verses  by  Agrippa's  friends. 


112  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

Poor  boy,  even  in  that  year  of  hope  the  blight  was 
already  settling  on  his  life !  While  he  was  writing  praise 
of  womanhood  at  Dole  to  win  the  smiles  of  Margaret, 
Catilinet,  a  Franciscan  friar1,  who  had  been  at  the 
adjacent  town  of  Gray  when  Reuchlin  was  expounded, 
meditated  cruel  vengeance  on  the  down-chinned  scholar. 
At  Ghent,  as  preacher  before  the  Regent  of  the  Nether- 
lands and  all  her  court,  Catilinet  was  to  deliver  in  the 
Easter  following  the  Quadragesimal  Discourses.  Against 
the  impious  Cabalist  he  was  preparing  to  arouse  the  wrath 
of  Margaret  during  those  same  days  which  were  spent 
by  the  young  student  in  pleasant  effort  to  deserve  her 
kindness. 
1  Expost.  contra  Catilinet,  and  Preface  to  the  De  Nob.  et  Prcec.  F.  S. 


STUDENT  OF  MAGIC.  113 


CHAPTER  VII. 

CORNELIUS    AQRIPPA    WRITES   THREE   BOOKS   OF    MAGIC— AN    ACCOUNT    OF 
THE  PRINCIPLES  OF'MAGIC  CONTAINED  IN  THE  FIRST  OF  THEM. 

STILL  in  the  year  1509  and  in  the  first  months  of  the 
year  1510,  in  that  year  of  activity,  twenty-third  only  of 
his  life,  which  set  a  stamp  upon  his  subsequent  career, 
and  is  the  most  important  date  in  this  biography,  Cor- 
nelius A  grippa,  with  the  courage  of  youth  and  the  am- 
bition of  youth,  compiled  into  a  system  all  the  lore  he 
had  been  gathering,  and  wrote  his  Books  of  Magic1. 
Magical  studies  were  for  the  most  part  discouraged  in 
those  days,  not  by  enlightened  scepticism,  but  by  ignorant 
credulity  and  superstitious  fear.  Only  a  few  men  of  that 
age  had  stepped  very  far  in  intellect  before  their  time, 
and  to  the  number  of  these  Cornelius  did  not  belong. 
But  the  part  of  his  own  time  which  he  represented  (I 
leave  out  of  account  its  foremost  pioneers)  was  certainly 
the  best  part.  Truth  was  better  served,  the  right  of  free 

1  They  had  not  only  been  submitted  to  the  Abbot  Trittenheim,  but  had 
been  read  and  were  criticised  by  him  on  the  8th  of  April,  1510,  in  a  letter 
which  is  both  included  in  the  correspondence  and  prefixed  to  all  editions  of 
the  work  itself. 

VOL.  I.  I 


114  CORNELIUS  XGRIPPA. 

inquiry  was  more  manfully  asserted,  by  the  writing  of 
those  books,  which  seem  to  us  so  full  of  error  and  ab- 
surdity, than  by  that  spirit  in  the  priests  and  in  the  popu- 
lace which  caused  the  writer  of  them  to  be  looked  upon 
with  a  vague  dread  and  with  aversion. 

We  must  know  now  what  the  young  man  wrote,  and 
in  what  spirit  it  was  written.  To  a  comprehension  of 
the  meaning  of  Agrippa's  life,  and  to  a  just  opinion  of 
his  right  place  in  the  history  of  literature,  a  careful  sur- 
vey of  these  books  of  magic  is  essential.  In  this  chapter, 
therefore,  and  in  the  three  chapters  which  succeed  it, 
an  attempt  is  made  to  represent  them,  of  course  very 
much  reduced  in  scale,  but  still  with  enough  fulness  of 
detail  to  suggest  their  scope  and  spirit.  Such  a  sketch, 
too,  may  not  be  without  an  adventitious  use,  by  showing 
how  much  wisdom  may  have  once  gone  to  the  begetting 
of  ideas  for  which  even  the  ignorant  are  now  either  pitied 
or  reviled ;  that  it  is  man*s  reason  of  yesterday  which  has 
become  his  superstition  of  to-day. 

Before  passing  to  the  following  scheme  of  Cornelius 
Agrippa's  Treatise  upon  Magic,  as  representing,  at  the 
period  of  his  life  which  we  have  now  reached,  an  im- 
portant feature  in  its  author's  mind,  it  may  be  well  to 
say,  that  we  must  imagine  ourselves  looking  over  it  as  it 
lies  finished  on  its  author's  desk.  It  is,  in  the  years 
1509-10,  a  manuscript  and  not  a  book1. 

1  There  were  translations  into  most  languages  of  these  Books  of  Occult 
Science  within  the  century  and  a  half  succeeding  their  first  publication. 
The  best  of  the  English  translations  (Three  Books  of  Occult  Philosophy, 
written  by  Cornelius  Agrippa  of  Nettesheim,  Counsellor  to  Charles  the  Fifth, 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          115 

Every  inferior  is  governed  by  its  superior,  and  receives, 
transmitted  through  it,  the  influence  of  the  First  Cause 
of  all.  There  is  a  threefold  world — an  elementary,  a 
celestial,  and  an  intellectual — and  these  three  parts  of  the 
universe  Cornelius  intends  to  treat  in  his  Three  Books  of 
Mastic.  Wise  men  conceive  it  in  no  way  irrational  to 
ascend  by  degrees  through  each  world  to  the  Author  of 
All  Worlds,  and  not  only  to  admire  the  more  exalted 
things,  but  to  draw  down  their  virtues  from  above. 
They  search,  therefore,  the  powers  of  the  elementary 
world,  by  studying  physics  and  the  many  combinations 
of  things  natural ;  they  inquire  into  the  harmonies  of  the 
celestial  world,  by  studying  the  mysteries  of  numbers  and 
proportion,  and  applying  to  a  contemplation  of  the  stars 
the  rules  discovered  by  astrologers.  Finally,  they  ratify 
and  confirm  this  knowledge  by  a  study  of  the  intelli- 
gences working  in  the  world,  and  of  the  sacred  mysteries. 
Upon  these  matters  Cornelius  says  that  he  intends  to 
treat.  "  I  know  not,"  he  adds,  "  whether  it  be  an  un- 
pardonable presumption  in  me,  that  I,  a  man  of  so  little 
judgment  and  learning,  should,  in  my  very  youth,  set 
upon  a  business  so  difficult,  so  hard,  and  intricate,  as  this 
is.  Wherefore,  whatsoever  things  have  here  been  already, 

Emperor  of  Germany,  and  Judge  of  the  Prerogative  Court.  Translated  by 
J.  F.  London,  1651.)  is  not  very  complete,  and  contains  numerous  blun- 
ders ;  but  I  have  had  it  before  me  while  making  the  succeeding  abstract, 
and,  as  far  as  the  sense  allowed,  when  using  Agrippa's  words,  have  often 
made  use  of  its  old-fashioned  phraseology.  The  first  Book  of  Occult 
Science  was  issued  before  the  rest,  and  it  is  to  the  first  edition  of  it  (Henrici 
Cor.  Agrippce  ab  Nettesheym  a  Cansiliis  et  Arckivis  Inditiarii  sacra  Ccesarece 
Majestatis.  De  Occulta  Philosophm  Libri  Tres  (ending  suddenly  at  Book  I.). 
Antwerp,  Joan.  Graphaeus,  February,  1531)  that  succeeding  notes  refer. 
12 


116  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

and  shall  afterwards  be  said  by  me,  I  would  not  have  any 
one  assent  to  them,  nor  shall  I  myself,  any  further  than 
they  shall  not  suffer  reprobation  of  the  universal  Church 
and  congregation  of  the  faithful1." 

In  the  second  chapter,  Magic  is  defined  and  lauded  as 
the  whole  knowledge  of  nature,  the  perfection  of  all  true 
philosophy.  For  there  is  no  regular  philosophy  that  is 
not  natural,  mathematical,  or,  theological,  one  teaching 
the  nature  of  those  things  that  are  in  the  world,  another 
teaching  the  quantity  of  bodies  in  their  three  dimen- 
sions, and  the  motion  of  celestial  bodies,  and  the  last 
teaching  what  God  is,  what  the  mind,  what  an  intelli- 
gence, what  an  angel,  what  a  devil,  what  a  soul,  what 
religion,  what  sacred  rites  and  mysteries,  instructing  us, 
also,  concerning  faith,  miracles,  the  virtues  of  words  and 
figures,  the  secret  operations  and  mysteries  of  seals. 
These  three  principal  faculties  Natural  Magic  joins  and 
comprehends ;  there  is  no  true  magic  apart  from  any  one. 
Therefore,  this  was  esteemed  by  the  ancients  as  the 
highest  and  most  sacred  philosophy.  Cornelius  cites  a 
roll  of  names,  and  adds,  "  It  is  well  known  that  Pytha- 
goras and  Plato  went  to  the  prophets  of  Memphis  to 
learn  it,  and  travelled  through  almost  all  Syria,  Egypt, 
Judaea,  and  the  schools  of  the  Chaldeans,  that  they  might 
not  be  ignorant  of  the  most  sacred  memorials  and  records 
of  magic,  as  also  that  they  might  be  imbued  with  divine 
things2." 

1  De  Occ.  Phil.  ed.  cit.  ad  fin.  cap.  i.  B.  (Pagination  is  by  the  lettering 
of  sheets.) 
'  Ibid.  ed.  cit.  B  2. 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          117 

The  next  four  chapters,  of  which  two  are  general  and 
two  are  special,  open  the  discussion  upon  natural  philosophy 
with  an  account  of  the  four  elements,  Fire,  Earth,  Water, 
Air,  whereof  by  transmutation  and  union  all  inferior 
bodies  are  compounded.  None  of  the  sensible  elements 
are  pure,  but  more  or  less  mixed,  and  they  are  convertible 
into  each  other ;  thus  earth  being  dissolved  produces  water, 
which  being  evaporated  becomes  air,  and  kindled  air  is  fire, 
and  out  of  fire  may  come  earth  or  stone,  as  is  proved  in 
the  case  of  thunderbolts.  Between  the  four  elements  there 
are  many  relations  of  likeness  and  unlikeness.  Thus  fire 
is  hot  and  dry,  earth  is  dry  and  cold,  water  is  cold  and 
moist,  air  is  moist  and  hot;  so  that  only  fire  and  water? 
earth  and  air,  are  perfect  contraries.  Plato  assigns  to  each 
three  qualities:  as  to  the  fire,  brightness,  thinness,  motion; 
to  the  earth  darkness,  thickness,  quietness  ;  to  the  others 
other  combinations  of  these  qualities,  while  by  them  all 
these  qualities  are  possessed  in  contrasted  proportions. 

But  beyond  such  necessary  considerations,  not  less  ne- 
cessary is  a  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  there  are  three 
separate  states  in  which  the  elements  exist.  First,  they 
are  pure,  distinct,  and  incorruptible,  in  which  state  they  are 
the  secondary  causes  of  all  natural  operations.  Secondly, 
they  are  compounded  and  impure,  but  capable  of  being 
resolved  by  art  into  their  perfect  form.  Thirdly,  they  are 
elements  that  were  from  the  beginning  interchangeable 
and  twice  compounded.  They  are  in  this  last  form  known 
as  the  infallible  medium,  or  soul  of  middle  nature,  through 
which  proceed  all  bindings,  loosings,  transmutations,  and 


118  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

which  are  operative  in  all  mysteries, both  mundane  and 
divine. 

We  treat  now  separately  of  the  power  of  each  element. 

Fire,  it  will  be  found,  is  spread  abroad  in  the  heavens, 
and  the  heat  of  it  is  sensible  in  the  water  and  the 
earth.  In  itself  it  is  one,  but  in  that  which  receives  it 
manifold.  Whatever  lives,  lives  by  reason  of  the  enclosed 
heat.  The  infernal  fire  parches  and  makes  barren;  the 
celestial  fire  drives  away  spirits  of  darkness,  and  our  custo- 
mary fire  of  wood  drives  them  away,  because  it  is  the 
vehicle  of  that  superior  light,  and  comes  through  it  from 
the  Father  of  Lights.  As,  therefore,  the  spirits  of  darkness 
are  stronger  in  the  dark,  so  good  spirits  are  more  powerful 
in  the  light,  not  only  of  the  sun,  but  of  our  common  fire. 
Therefore  it  was  ordained,  by  the  first  ceremonies  of  reli- 
gion, that  there  should  be  lighted  candles  or  torches 
wherever  worship  was  performed,  and  hence  the  symbol 
of  Pythagoras,  You  must  not  speak  of  God  without  a 
jight1.  Also  for  the  driving  away  of  evil  spirits  fires  were 
kindled  near  the  corpses  of  the  dead  ;  and  the  great 
Jehovah  himself  commanded  that  with  fire  all  sacrifices 
should  be  offered. 

But  in  the  earth  are  the  seeds  of  all  things.  Take  as 
much  of  it  as  you  please,  wash  it,  purify  it,  let  it  lie  in  the 
open  air,  and  it  will,  being  full  of  heavenly  virtues,  of 
itself  produce  plants,  worms  and  living  things,  stones  and 
bright  sparks  of  metal.  If  at  any  time  earth  shall  be 
purified  by  fire,  and  reduced  by  a  convenient  washing  to 
1  De  Occ.  Phil.  ed.  cit.  C. 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          119 

simplicity,  it  is  the  first  matter  of  our  creation,  and  the 
truest  medicine  that  can  restore  or  preserve  us. 

Water  is  the  seminary  virtue  of  all  things.  Only  earth 
and  water,  Moses  teaches,  can  bring  forth  a  living  soul; 
and  Scripture  testifies  that  herbs  did  not  at  first  grow, 
because  God  had  not  caused  it  to  rain  upon  the  earth. 
Such  is  the  efficacy  of  this  element  of  water,  that  without 
it  spiritual  regeneration  cannot  be  accomplished;  very 
great,  also,  is  the  virtue  of  it,  when  it  has  been  consecrated 
to  religious  worship. 

Air  is  a  vital  spirit  passing  through  all  beings,  filling, 
binding,  moving.  The  Hebrew  doctors,  therefore,  reckon 
it  not  as  an  element,  but  count  it  as  a  medium,  or  glue, 
joining  all  things  together,  or  as  the  resonant  spirit  of  the 
world's  instrument  It  receives  into  itself  the  influences 
of  celestial  bodies,  and  transmits  them  readily.  As  a 
divine  mirror,  it  receives  into  itself  the  images  of  all  things, 
and  retains  them.  Carrying  them  with  it,  and  entering 
into  the  bodies  of  men  and  other  animals  through  their 
pores,  as  well  when  they  sleep  as  when  they  wake,  it 
furnishes  the  matter  for  strange  dreams  and  divinations. 
Hence  they  say  it  is,  that  a  person  passing  by  the  spot 
whereon  a  man  was  slain,  or  where  the  carcase  has  been 
recently  concealed,  is  moved  with  fear  and  dread;  because 
the  air  in  that  place  being  full  of  the  dreadful  image  of 
manslaughter,  doth,  being  breathed  in,  move  and  trouble 
the  spirit  of  the  passer-by  with  the  like  image,  whence  it  is 
that  he  comes  to  be  afraid.  For  by  everything  that  makes 
a  sudden  impression  nature  is  astonished.  By  the  natural 


120  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

images  of  trees  and  castles  formed  on  clouds,  by  the  rain- 
bow, and  by  a  strange  way  of  reflecting  writing  back 
into  the  sky,  together  with  a  moonbeam  falling  on  it,  as 
well  as  by  a  reference  to  the  echo,  these  matters  are 
further  illustrated.  Of  air  in  motion,  or  the  winds, 
Agrippa  speaks  next,  using  chiefly  the  poetical  descrip- 
tions to  be  found  in  Ovid,  for  these  early  writings  of  his 
are  embellished  liberally  with  quotations  from  the  poets. 

After  the  four  elements  there  come  to  be  discussed  the 
four  kinds  of  perfect  compounds1  generated  by  them: 
stones,  metals,  plants,  and  animals.  Though  each  contains 
all  four,  in  each  one  element  predominates :  earth  in  the 
stone,  water  in  metals  (as  chemists  find  to  be  true,  who 
declare  that  they  are  generated  by  a  viscous  water,  or 
waterish  quicksilver);  with  air  plants  have  so  much 
affinity,  that  unless  they  be  abroad  in  it  they  give  no  in- 
crease, and  fire  is  not  less  natural  to  animals.  Then  in 
each,  according  to  its  kind,  and  even  in  parts  of  each,  the 
degrees  of  preponderance  are  varied.  Thus  in  plants  the 
roots  resemble  the  earth,  by  reason  of  their  thickness,  and 
the  leaves  water,  because  of  their  juice;  flowers  the  air, 
because  of  their  subtilty,  and  the  seeds  the  fire,  by  reason 
of  their  multiplying  spirit.  In  animals  the  bones  resemble 
the  earth,  flesh  the  air,  the  vital  spirit  fire,  the  humours 
water.  Nay,  even  in  the  soul  itself,  according  to  Augustine, 
the  understanding  will  resemble  fire,  reason  the  air,  imagina- 
tion water,  and  the  senses  earth.  The  senses,  too,  are  so 
divisible ;  for  he  sight  is  fiery,  acting  only  by  the  help  of 
1  Z>«  Oce.  Phil.  ed.  cit.  cap.  vii. 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          121 

fire  and  light;  the  hearing  is  airy,  for  a  sound  is  made  by 
striking  of  the  air;  the  smell  and  taste  resemble  water,  for 
they  act  not  without  moisture;  and  lastly,  the  feeling  is 
wholly  earthy,  taking  gross  bodies  for  its  object.  So,  too, 
with  man's  character,  for  as  the  elements  are  the  first  of 
all  things,  so  all  things  are  of  and  according  to  them,  and 
they  are  in  all  things,  and  diffuse  their  virtues  through 
them. 

For,  in  the  exemplary  as  in  the  corporeal  world,  by 
the  consent  of  Platonists,  all  things  are  in  all.  The 
elements  are  to  be  found  everywhere,  here  feculent  and 
gross,  in  celestials  more  pure  and  clear,  but  in  super- 
celestials  living  and  blessed.  There  are  earthy,  fiery, 
watery,  airy  angels,  devils,  stars;  the  elements  exist, 
also,  in  the  Great  Source  of  all. 

The  first  or  secondary  qualities  of  things,  natural, 
elementary,  or  mixed,  depend  immediately  upon  the 
first  virtues  of  the  elements  contained  in  them,  or  the 
proportion  of  their  mixture1. 

But  there  are  in  all  things  occult  virtues2,  and  the 
consideration  of  these  opens  up  a  new  division  of  the 
subject.  For  the  occult  virtue  does  not  proceed  from 
any  element,  but  is  a  sequel  of  its  species  and  form ;  so 
that,  unlike  the  operation  of  an  element,  its  being  little 
in  quantity  (hear  this,  all  homoeopathists !)  is  of  great 
efficacy,  because  these  virtues,  having  much  form  and 
little  matter,  can  do  much ;  but  an  elementary  virtue, 
having  much  materiality,  requires  more  matter  for  its 
1  De  Occ.  Phil.  ed.  cit.  cap,  ix.  »  Ibid.  cap.  x. 


122  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

acting.  The  universe  abounds  in  examples  of  these 
qualities,  called  occult,  because  their  causes  lie  beyond 
the  reach  of  human  intellect;  philosophers  attain  to  them 
by  the  help  of  experience  alone.  Thus,  in  the  stomach 
the  meat  is  digested  by  heat,  which  we  know;  but  it  is 
changed  also  by  a  secret  virtue  which  we  know  not ;  for 
truly  it  is  not  changed  by  heat,  because  then  it  should 
rather  be  changed  by  the  fireside  than  in  the  stomach. 
To  this  class  belong,  therefore,  all  accredited  marvels 
which  are  past  all  ordinary  comprehension.  There  was 
no  lack  of  them  when  Cornelius  Agrippa  wrote,  and  it 
is  hard  to  see  how,  without  some  such  theory  as  this  of 
occult  powers,  any  rational  attempt  could  be  made  to 
bring  them  into  harmony  with  other  knowledge.  For 
we  are,  by  this  time,  well  assured  that  nothing  is  in- 
credible by  reason  of  its  being  marvellous ;  we  call  things 
incredible  only  when  they  oppose  themselves  to  what  we 
know  to  be  the  universal  laws.  When  those  laws  re- 
mained yet  for  the  most  part  undiscovered,  and  the  eyes 
of  students,  dazzled  by  the  newly-opened  glories  of  Greek 
literature,  had  no  means  of  perceiving  that  its  science  was 
less  ripe  than  its  philosophy,  and  that  its  philosophy  was 
not  as  perfect  as  they  knew  its  poetry  to  be,  it  was  im- 
possible to  refuse  credence  to  records  left  by  the  Greek 
sages,  of  their  wide  experience  or  knowledge.  Nothing 
was  yet  known  to  refute  their  theories,  and  the  wisest 
man  could,  as  a  mere  scholar,  do  no  more,  till  the  old 
records  of  experience  were  practically  tested  by  a  genera- 
tion or  two,  and  found  wanting,  than  accept  the  au- 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          123 

thority  of  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  bring  their  opinions  into 
harmony  with  those  then  held  to  be  indisputable  by  the 
Christian  world.  If  it  was  right  to  make  any  attempt  at 
all  to  form  what  was  then  known  or  believed  of  the  uni- 
verse into  a  comprehensive  and  coherent  system,  there 
was  no  better  way  of  doing  it  than  this. 

At  the  basis  of  the  theory  of  occult  virtues,  as  stated 
by  Cornelius  Agrippa,  lies  the  Platonic1  notion  of  supe- 
rior ideas.  Everything  below  has  a  celestial  pattern,  and 
receives  from  its  own  idea  operative  powers  through  the 

1  Many  parts  of  this  philosophy  are  modifications  of  the  doctrine  to  be 
found  in  the  Timaeus.  The  basis  of  the  next  following  assertions,  for  ex- 
ample, may  be  found  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  chapters  of  that  exposi- 
tion of  the  views  of  Plato  on  the  constitution  of  the  physical  world ;  still 
more  distinctly,  however,  in  that  later  treatise  on  The  Soul  of  the  World  and 
Nature,  which  its  writer  founded  upon  the  Timceus  of  Plato,  and  palmed  on 
the  old  philosopher  himself,  Timaeus  the  Locrian.  In  Cornelius  Agrippa's 
time  this  treatise  of  Timaeus  the  Locrian  was  considered  genuine,  and  it 
had  been  at  least  twice  within  ten  years  translated  into  Latin.  Pliny's 
Natural  History,  the  translated  De  Mundo  Liber,  and  some  of  the  other 
works  of  Apuleius,  contain  more  of  the  doctrine  and  opinion  expressed  by 
Agrippa ;  and  he  had  read  the  most  famous  of  the  Alexandrian  Platonics, 
constantly  quoting  Plotinus,  Porphyry,  and  lamblichus,  but  Proclus  sel- 
dom. To  the  authorities  here  cited  Aristotle  must,  of  course,  be  added, 
and  modifications  by  him  of  opinions  cited  from  Plato  (6  yevvaio s  nXarwv) 
and  the  Pythagoreans.  Also  the  Orphic  Hymns,  and  sundry  books  pro- 
fessing to  be  by  disciples  of  Pythagoras.  Also  the  books  ascribed  to  the  half- 
mythical  Egyptian  sage,  Mercurius,  or  Hermes  Trismegistus,  of  which  the 
most  important,  Poemander,  was  one  of  the  first  things  that  came  up  with  the 
revived  study  of  Greek,  a  translation  of  it  into  Latin  having  been  published 
at  Venice  by  Marcilius  Ficinus  in  1483,  and  eight  years  afterwards  re- 
printed. Other  information  was  obtained  from  Avicenna,  whose  works  had, 
in  1490,  been  published  at  Venice,  translated  into  Latin  "a  Magistro 
Gerardo  Cremonensi."  Finally,  it  will  be  enough  to  name  one  only  among 
the  many  later  writers  in  whom  Cornelius  found  congenial  speculations, 
Albertus  Magnus  of  Cologne,  among  whose  works  the  De  Ccelo  et  Mundo, 
De  Secretis  Naturce,  De  Virtutibus  Herbarum,  &c.,  furnished  a  good  deal  of 
material  for  these  Books  of  Occult  Science. 


124  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

help  of  the  Soul  of  the  World.  For  ideas  not  only  give 
rise  to  the  thing  seen,  but  to  the  virtue  that  is  in  it,  and 
things  of  the  same  kind  vary  in  degree  of  power,  not 
through  any  variation  in  the  first  idea,  but  through  the 
various  impurities  and  inequalities — according  to  the 
desert — of  the  matter  into  which  it  is  infused.  And  soul 
being  the  primum  mobile,  as  we  say,  when  one  man  acts 
upon  another,  or  the  loadstone  on  the  iron,  that  the  soul 
of  one  thing  went  out  and  went  into  another  thing,  alter- 
ing it  or  its  operations,  so  it  is  conceived  that  some  such 
medium  is  the  spirit  of  the  world,  called  the  quintessence, 
because  it  is  not  composed  of  the  four  elements,  but  is  a 
fifth  essence,  a  certain  first  thing  Avhich  is  above  them 
and  beside  them.  This  spirit  exists  in  the  body  of  the 
world,  as  the  human  spirit  in  the  body  of  a  man ;  and  as 
the  powers  of  a  man's  soul  are  communicated  to  the 
members  of  the  body  by  his  spirit,  so,  through  this  mun- 
dane spirit  or  quintessence,  are  the  powers  of  the  soul  of 
the  world  diffused  through  all  things ;  and  there  is  nothing 
so  base  that  it  contains  not  some  spark  of  its  virtue,  but 
there  is  most  virtue  in  those  things  wherein  this  spirit 
does  most  abound.  It  abounds  in  the  celestial  bodies,  and 
descends  in  the  rays  of  the  stars,  so  that  things  influenced 
by  their  rays  become  conformable  to  them  so  far  forth  in 
nature.  By  this  spirit,  therefore,  every  occult  property  is 
conveyed  into  herbs,  stones,  metals,  and  animals,  through 
the  sun,  moon,  planets,  and  through  stars  higher  than 
the  planets.  If  we  can  part  spirit  from  matter,  or  use 
only  those  things  in  which  spirit  predominates,  we  can 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          125 

obtain  therewith  results  of  great  advantage  to  us.  The 
alchemists  attempt  to  separate  this  spirit  from  gold  and 
silver,  because,  rightly  separated  and  extracted,  it  will 
have  power  to  convert  into  gold  or  silver  any  other  metal 
into  the  substance  of  which  it  shall  be  properly  projected. 
Cornelius  says  that  he  has  done  this  himself,  but  that  he 
could  never  produce  more  gold  in  this  manner  "than 
the  weight  of  that  was  out  of  which  we  extracted  the 
spirit1."  The  extent  of  his  conjuring  was,  therefore,  that 
out  of  an  ounce  of. gold  he  could  make  an  ounce  of  gold, 
by  a  long  chemical  process. 

By  what  has  been  said  we  see  how  it  will  happen  that, 
apart  from  the  virtues  common  to  its  species,  every  indi- 
vidual person  or  thing  may  possess  peculiar  properties, 
because,  from  the  beginning,  it  contracts,  together  with  its 
essence,  a  certain  wonderful  aptitude  both  for  doing  and 
for  suffering  after  a  particular  manner,  partly  through 
the  influences  of  the  celestial  bodies  streaming  down 
from  particular  configurations,  partly  through  the  agree- 
ment of  matter  that  is  being  generated  to  the  concep- 
tions of  the  soul  of  the  world.  But  from  a  Divine 
Providence  these  influences  proceed  as  their  first  cause, 
and  by  it  they  are  distributed  and  brought  into  a  peculiar 
harmonious  consent.  The  seal  of  the  ideas  is  given  to  the 
governing  intelligences,  who,  as  faithful  officers,  sign 
all  things  entrusted  to  them  with  ideal  virtue.  "  Now  the 

1  Et  nos  illud  facere  novimus,  et  aliquando  vidimus,  sed  non  plus  auri 
fabricare  potuimus,  nisi  quantum  erat  illud  auri  pondus,  de  quo  spiritum 
axtraximus.  De  Occ.  Phil  ed  cit.  E  3  ad  fin.  cap.  xiv. 


126  COENELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

first  cause,  which  is  God,  although  He  doth  by  Intelli- 
gences and  the  Heavens  work  upon  these  inferior  things, 
doth  sometimes  (these  media  being  laid  aside,  or  their 
officiating  being  suspended)  work  those  things  imme- 
diately by  Himself,  which  works  are  then  called  miracles. 
And  the  reasons  of  these  operations  can  by  no  rational 
discourse,  no  magic,  or  occult  or  profound  science  what- 
soever, be  found  out,  or  understood,  but  are  to  be  learned 
and  inquired  into  by  divine  oracles  only1." 

These  first  principles  having  been  laid  down,  seven 
chapters  follow  on  the  various  means  of  discovering  occult 
virtues  of  things.  As  they  proceed  from  the  spirit  of  the 
world,  and  are  too  subtle  to  be  apprehended  by  the  senses, 
they  can  "  no  otherwise  but  by  experience  and  conjecture 
be  inquired  into  by  us2."  We  see  at  once  how  errors 
like  those  now  denounced  as  superstition  might  most  justly 
and  honestly  seem  truth  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  Greece  and  Rome  furnished  the  learned 
with  both  science  and  philosophy,  when  to  principles  more 
or  less  resembling  those  above  detailed^were  joined  records 
of  experience,  utterly  corrupt  with  fable,  yet  accredited 
by  the  most  cultivated  scholars  that  the  world  up  to  that 
epoch  had  known.  Things  now  incredible  were  stated 
by  them  positively,  believed  by  all  their  countrymen, 
and,  as  before  said,  up  to  the  time  when  Cornelius  was 

1  Op.  cit.  ad  fin.  cap.  xiii. 

2  Ibid.  cap.  xvi.     Quae  a  nobis  non  aliter  quam  experientia  et  conjec- 
tura  indagari  possunt. 


HIS  FIKST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          127 

writing,  uncorrected  by  the  mass  of  opposite  experience 
that  has  been  since  acquired.  It  is  proper  that  we  should 
not  travel  from  this  point  of  view  in  looking  through  a 
book  which  was  an  attempt  to  show  the  reasonable  origin 
of  that  whole  system  of  belief  whereof  many  a  shred  is 
still  religiously  preserved  in  Europe. 

Now  as  to  the  experience  of  signs  by  which  the  cha- 
racter of  occult  powers  may  be  detected.  In  the  first  place 
like  turns  to  like,  and  virtues  may  come  by  way  of  simili- 
tude. Whatsoever  -hath  long  stood  with  salt  becomes  salt. 
The  nutritive  virtue  in  an  animal  turns  into  animal  sub- 
stance, herb,  and  grain.  Fire  moves  to  fire,  water  to 
water,  and  he  that  is  bold  moves  to  boldness,  and  it  is 
well  known  among  physicians  that  brain  helps  the  brain 
and  lung  the  lungs.  Therefore,  if  we  would  obtain  any 
property  or  virtue,  let  us  look  for  things  or  animals  in 
which  such  property  or  virtue  is  most  largely  contained, 
and  use  them,  or  the  parts  of  them  in  which  the  property 
especially  resides.  Take,  to  promote  love,  some  animal 
that  is  most  loving,  as  a  dove  or  sparrow,  and  take  it  at 
the  time  when  these  animals  have  this  affection  most 
intense.  To  increase  boldness,  look  for  a  lion  or  a  cock, 
and  take  of  these,  heart,  eyes,  or  forehead.  After  the  same 
manner  doth  a  frog  make  one  talkative,  and  the  heart  of 
a  screech-owl,  that  is  talkative  of  nights,  laid  over  the  heart 
of  a  woman  when  she  is  asleep,  is  said  to  make  her  utter 
all  her  secrets.  Animals  that  are  long-lived  conduce  to 
life,  as  is  manifest  of  the  viper  and  snake ;  and  it  is  well 


128  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

known  that  harts  renew  their  old  age  by  the  eating  of 
snakes1. 

And  the  power  of  one  thing  can  be  given  to  another, 
as  the  power  of  the  loadstone  may  be  given  to  the  iron ; 
and  the  looking-glass  used  by  a  woman  who  is  impudent 
will  deprive  of  modesty  another  woman  who  looks  often 
into  it.  For  the  same  reason  rings  are  put  for  a  certain 
time  into  the  nests  of  sparrows  or  swallows,  which  after- 
wards are  used  to  procure  love  and  favour3. 

There  are  also  between  things  that  are  different  enmities 
and  friendships.  So  in  the  elements  fire  is  an  enemy  to 
water,  air  to  earth,  yet  they  agree  among  themselves.  So 
among  celestial  bodies  Mercury,  Jupiter,  the  Sun,  and 
Moon  are  friends  to  Saturn ;  Mars  and  Venus  enemies  to 
him.  All  the  planets,  except  Mars,  are  friends  to  Jupiter; 
all,  except  Venus,  enemies  to  Mars  ;  Jupiter  and  Venus 
love  the  Sun,  but  Mars  and  Mercury,  as  well  as  the 
Moon,  hate  him.  All  love  Venus  except  Saturn.  Mercury 
has  Jupiter,  Venus,  and  Saturn  for  his  friends,  and  the 
same  friends  has  also  the  Moon,  but  the  Moon  is  not  a 
friend  to  Mercury,  neither  is  the  Sun  or  Mars,  while 
Mars  agrees  with  Mercury  in  his  return  of  hatred  to  the 
Moon.  There  is  another  kind  of  enmity  among  the  stars, 
namely,  when  they  have  opposite  houses.  And  of  what 
sort  the  friendships  and  enmities  of  the  superiors  be,  such 
are  the  inclinations  of  things  subjected  to  them  among 
their  inferiors.  There  are  many  such  concords  and  dis- 
cords. The  dove  loves  the  parrot,  the  vine  loves  the  elm, 

1  De  Occ.  Phil.  Lib.  L  cap.  XT.  ed.  cit.  E  4.  *  Cap.  xvL 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          129 

the  olive-tree  the  myrtle.  The  emerald  draws  riches  ;  the 
agate,  eloquence.  If  any  one  eats  passion-flower  he  shall 
die  of  laughing.  We  learn,  from  the  use  made  of  them 
by  the  brutes,  virtues  of  many  things.  The  sick  magpie 
puts  a  bay-leaf  into  her  nest  and  is  recovered.  The  lion, 
if  he  be  feverish,  is  recovered  by  the  eating  of  an  ape.  By 
eating  the  herb  ditany,  a  wounded  stag  expels  the  dart 
out  of  its  body.  Cranes  medicine  themselves  with  bul- 
rushes, leopards  with  wolfsbane,  boars  with  ivy;  for  be- 
tween such  plants  and  animals  there  is  an  occult  friend- 
ship !. 

But  there  are  inclinations  of  enmities2  of  which  we  may 
make  use.  As  a  thing  angrily  shuns  its  contrary,  or  drives 
it  away  out  of  its  presence,  so  acts  rhubarb  against  bile, 
or  treacle  against  poison,  amethyst  against  drunkenness, 
topaz  against  covetousness  and  all  animal  excess.  Mar- 
joram loathes  and  destroys  cabbage;  cucumbers  hate  oil, 
und  will  run  themselves  into  a  ring  lest  they  should  touch 
it.  Mice  and  weasels  do  so  disagree,  that  it  is  said  mice 
will  not  touch  cheese  if  the  brains  of  a  weasel  be  put  into 
the  rennet.  Nothing  is  so  much  an  enemy  to  snakes  as 
crabs ;  wherefore,  also,  when  the  sun  is  in  Cancer  snakes 
are  tormented. 

There  are  properties  that  belong  only  to  individuals3, 
idiosyncrasies ;  as  when  a  man  trembles  at  a  cat,  or 
fattens  upon  spiders.  Avicenna  says  there  was  a  man 

1  De  Occ.  Phil  cap.  xviL  *  Cap.  xviii.  ed.  cit.  F  2,  3. 

»  Cap.  xix. 
VOL.  I.  K 


130  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

living  in  his  time  whom  no  poison  hurt,  and  that  what- 
ever venomous  thing  bit  him  itself  perished. 

Again,  virtues  that  are  natural  and  common  to  a  species 
are  contained  sometimes  in  the  whole  substance,  some- 
times only  in  a  part1.  The  civet  cat  hath  this  in  its  whole 
substance,  that  dogs  by  the  mere  contact  with  its  shadow 
cease  to  bark,  but  it  hath  in  its  eyes  only  the  power  to 
make  whoso  beholdeth  them  stand  still  and  amazed.  So 
in  a  man's  body  it  is  only  the  little  bone,  called  by  the 
Hebrews  Luz,  which  fire  cannot  destroy  or  time  corrupt, 
and  which  is  the  seed  of  the  new  body  that  shall  spring 
up  in  the  resurrection. 

Finally,  there  is  a  distinction  to  be  made  between 
powers  that  exist  only  during  the  life  of  the  thing  opera- 
tive and  those  which  remain  in  force  after  its  death3.  It 
is  only  when  alive  that  the  Echinus  can  arrest  the  course 
of  ships.  They  say  also,  that  in  the  colic,  if  a  live  duck 
be  applied  to  the  stomach  it  takes  away  the  pain,  and 
the  duck  dies.  Generally,  parts  of  animals  that  are  used 
should  be  taken  from  the  animal  while  it  still  lives  and  is 
in  fullest  vigour.  The  right  eye  of  a  serpent  being  applied 
relieves  watering  of  the  eyes,  if  the  serpent  be  let  go  alive, 
and  the  tooth  of  a  mole  will  be  a  cure  for  toothache,  if  it 
was  taken  from  a  living  mole  who  was  allowed  to  run 
away  after  the  operation.  Some  properties  remain,  how- 
ever, after  death,  attached  to  things  in  which  some  part 
of  the  idea  remains.  So  it  is  that  herbs,  when  dried,  re- 
tain their  virtue,  and  the  skin  of  a  wolf  corrodes  the  skin 
1  De  Occ.  Phil.  cap.  xx.  2  Cap.  xxi 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          131 

of  a  lamb,  and  acts  upon  it  not  only  by  contact  of  sub- 
stance; for  a  drum  made  of  the  skin  of  a  wolf  being 
beaten  will  cause  that  a  drum  made  of  a  lamb's  skin  shall 
not  sound. 

These  points  having  been  determined,  the  next  thirteen 
chapters1  are  devoted  to  an  exposition  of  the  influences 
of  celestial  bodies.  Things  are  solary  or  lunary,  jovial, 
saturnine,  martial,  or  mercurial,  according  to  the  nature 
of  strong  impressions  that  have  been  communicated.  Ac- 
cording to  the  doctrine  of  the  Arabians,  certain  parts 
of  the  body,  specified  by  them,  are  ruled  over  by  each 
planet.  Let  us  be  content  to  name  the  Sun,  who  rules 
over  the  brain  and  heart,  the  thigh,  the  marrow,  the  right 
eye,  and  the  spirit ;  also  the  tongue,  the  mouth,  the  rest 
of  the  organs  of  the  senses,  as  well  internal  as  external ; 
also  the  hands,  feet,  legs,  nerves,  and  the  powers  of  imagi- 
nation. A  royal  domain,  truly,  but  in  many  places  en- 
joyed only  with  divided  sway.  Two  or  more  planets  may 
be  set  in  government  together  over  one  part  of  the  body. 
Then,  again,  as  saith  Hermes,  there  are  seven  holes  in  the 
head  of  an  animal,  distributed  to  the  seven  planets.  Also 
among  the  several  signs  of  the  Zodiac  is  each  living  body 
parcelled  out  for  government,  and  there  is  the  same  re- 
lation between  the  parts  as  between  signs  or  planets  ruling. 
The  agreement  of  the  triplicity  in  the  case  of  Pisces  and 
Virgo  accounts  for  the  fact  that,  by  putting  the  feet  into 
hot  water,  one  may  sometimes  relieve  pain  in  the  belly. 
The  plants  also  are  classed  under  signs  and  planets,  and 
1  De  Occ.  Phil.  cap.  xxiL-xxxr. 
K2 


132  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

in  case  of  any  disease  help  may  be  generally  found  by 
using  things  under  the  same  sign  as  the  part  affected. 
Again,  not  only  are  the  characters  of  men  determined 
by  the  planets  under  which  they  have  been  born,  but 
according  to  their  character  trades  also  are  to  be  classed 
under  celestial  signs ;  as  old  men,  monks,  and  others 
under  Saturn ;  barbers,  surgeons,  soldiers,  executioners, 
and  butchers  under  Mars. 

Now,  it  is  very  hard  to  know  what  star  Or  sign  every- 
thing is  under.  It  is  known  sometimes  through  the 
imitation  of  the  superior  figure,  as  in  the  case  of  the  sun 
in  the  blossom  of  the  marigold,  or  the  fruit  of  the  lotus. 
Sometimes  it  is  known  by  imitation  of  the  rays  of  the 
superior,  by  its  colour,  odour,  or  effects.  So  gold  is 
solary  by  reason  of  its  splendour,  and  its  receiving  from 
the  sun  that  which  makes  it  cordial.  Balsamic  plants 
are  solary,  including  Libanotis,  called  by  Orpheus  the 
sweet  perfume  of  the  sun.  The  baboon,  also,  is  solary, 
because  he  barks  twelve  times  a  day,  that  is,  every  hour, 
and  marks  smaller  intervals  of  time  in  a  way  that  caused 
his  figure  to  be  carved  by  the  Egyptians  on  their 
fountains1. 

Among  lunary  things  are  the  earth,  water,  all  moist 
things,  especially  those  that  are  white;  silver,  crystal,  and 

1  "  Solaris  cst  Emocephalus  qui  per  singulas  boras  duodecies  in  die  latrat, 
et  equinoctii  tempore  duodecies  per  singulas  boras  mingit :  idem  et  in  nocte, 
unde  ilium  in  hidrologiis  sculpebant  ^Egyptii."  De  Occ.  Phil.  cap.  xxii. 
ed.  cit.  G  4.  Hermes  Trismegistus,  or  a  writer  in  his  name,  taught 
that  the  common  division  of  time  was  suggested  to  man  by  the  habits  of 
this  sacred  animal. 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          133 

all  those  stones  that  are  white  and  green.  Amongst 
plants  the  selenotrope,  which  turns  to  the  moon,  as  doth 
the  heliotrope  towards  the  sun,  and  the  palm-tree,  which 
sends  forth  a  bough  at  every  rising  of  the  moon.  Among 
lunary  animals  are  such  as  delight  to  be  in  man's  com- 
pany; and  the'panther,  which  it  is  said  has  a  spot  upon 
its  shoulder  waxing  and  waning  as  the  moon  doth.  Cats 
also  are  lunary,  whose  eyes  become  greater  or  less  accord- 
ing to  the  course  of  the  moon.  Lunary  also  •  are  am- 
phibious animals,  and  those  which  are  equivocally  gene- 
rated, as  mice  sometimes  are  bred  from  putrefaction  of 
the  earth,  wasps  are  bred  of  the  carcases  of  horses,  bees 
of  the  putrefaction  of  cows,  small  flies  of  sour  wine,  and 
beetles  of  the  flesh  of  asses1. 

Saturnine2  are  again  earth  and  water,  and,  among 
other  things,  the  heavy  metals,  such  as  gold  and  lead; 
plants  whereof  the  juices  stupify,  also  the  yew  and 
passion  flower  ;  among  animals  all  that  creep,  live  apart, 
are  dull,  or  gross,  or  those  that  eat  their  young;  also  such 
birds  as  have  long  necks  and  harsh  voices. 

Jovial3  are  the  air,  the  blood,  and  spirit;  things  sweet 
to  the  taste  and  with  a  piquant  flavour.  Gold  is  under 
Jupiter  as  well  as  Saturn.  Jovial  are  gems  with  airy 
colours;  lucky  trees,  such  as  the  oak,  beech,  hazel,  apple, 
pear,  and  so  forth ;  all  manner  of  corn,  raisins,  liquorice, 
and  sugar;  such  animals  as  are  stately,  wise,  and  of  mild 
disposition ;  such  as  are  gentle,  such  as  are  devout — peli- 

De  Occ.  Phil.  cap.  xxiv.  foL  H.         *  Cap.  xxv.  »  Cap.  xxvi. 


134  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

cans  and  storks,  for  example.  The  eagle  is  under  Jupiter 
especially. 

Martial1  are  fire  and  all  things  sharp,  or  of  a  burning, 
bitter  taste  that  causes  tears.  Among  humours,  bile ; 
among  metals,  iron  and  red  brass  ;  all  red  and  sulphurous 
things,  diamond,  bloodstone ;  poisonous  or  prickly  plants, 
or  plants  that  sting ;  animals  that  are  bold,  ravenous,  or 
warlike  ;  offensive  things,  as  gnats  ;  and  those  which  are 
called  fatal  birds,  as  the  screech-owl  or  kestrel.  These, 
and  other  such  things,  are  all  ruled  by  Mars. 

Venus3  rules  air  and  water,  over  blood  and  spirit,  over 
things  sweet,  unctuous,  delectable,  over  silver  and  brass, 
over  all  fair,  white,  and  green  gems,  over  violets  and 
maidenhair,  over  all  sweet  perfumes  and  fruits,  especially 
pomegranates,  which  the  poets  say  were  in  Cyprus  first 
sown  by  Venus.  It  is  this  planet,  also,  that  rules  over 
all  things  prone  to  love. 

Mercurial3  are  water  and  animal  spirit ;  among  hu- 
mours, those  which  are  mixed  ;  among  metals,  quicksilver 
and  tin ;  artificial  stones,  also,  and  glass  ;  and  things  of  a 
mixed  nature,  as,  among  plants,  those  that  have  much- 
indented  leaves  or  flowers  of  divers  colours  ;  among  ani- 
mals, such  as  are  quick,  clever,  and  inconstant. 

It  will  have  been  observed  that  the  same  thing  is  often 
ruled  by  many  stars  in  the  great  distribution  of  all  sub- 
lunary things  among  the  planets4.  Thus  in  fire  the  light 
is  solary,  the  heat  is  martial,  the  surface  of  its  stream 

1  Cap.  xxvii.  2  Cap.  xxviii.  3  Cap.  xxix. 

*  Cap.  xxx. 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          135 

lunary  and  mercurial.  Every  planet  rules  and  disposes 
that  which  is  like  to  it.  All  beauty,  for  example,  is  from 
Venus,  and  all  strength  from  Mars ;  therefore  in  plants 
the  flower  is  from  Venus,  and  from  Mars  the  wood ;  in 
gems,  the  fair  surface  is  from  Venus,  and  from  Mars  the 
hardness;  and  so  of  other  planets,  as  when  it  is  said  of 
stones  or  gems  that  the  weight  or  clamminess  is  of  Saturn, 
the  use  and  temperament  of  Jupiter,  the  life  from  the 
Sun,  the  occult  virtue  from  Mercury,  the  common  use 
from  the  Moon;  or  of  plants,  that  the  root  is  from  Saturn, 
the  fruit  from  Jupiter,  the  seed  and  bark  from  Mercury, 
and  the  leaves  from  the  Moon. 

Moreover,  all  the  kingdoms  and  the  provinces  of  earth1 
are  found  to  be  distributed  under  the  several  planets  and 
celestial  signs.  Britain,  France,  Germany,  Judaea,  and 
other  places,  are  thus  under  Mars  with  Aries;  the  Sun 
with  Leo  governs  Italy,  Phoenicia,  and  Chaldea;  Mercury 
with  Virgo,  Greece,  Assyria,  and  Babylon.  "  These," 
says  Cornelius,  after  citing  a  sufficient  number,  "  we 
have  in  this  manner  gathered  from  Ptolemy's  opinion, 
to  which,  according  to  the  writing  of  other  astrologers, 
many  more  might  be  added.  But  he  who  knows  how 
to  compare  these  divisions  of  provinces  according  to  the 
divisions  of  the  stars,  with  the  ministry  of  the  ruling 
Intelligences  and  blessings  of  the  tribes  of  Israel,  the  lots 
of  the  apostles  and  typical  seals  of  the  sacred  Scripture, 
shall  be  able  to  obtain  great  and  prophetical  oracles  con- 

1  Cap.  xxxi. 


136  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

cerning  every  region,  of  things  to  come1."  At  any  rate, 
there  was  a  good  deal  to  be  done  before  one  could  be 
qualified  to  prophesy. 

After  having  learned  the  influences  of  the  planets,  there 
are  still  the  influences  of  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac  and  of  the 
fixed  stars  to  be  studied2.  The  same  principle  extends 
throughout.  The  earthly  ram  is  under  the  celestial  ram, 
the  ploughman's  ox  under  the  heavenly  Taurus.  The  starry 
Ursa  governs  bears,  and  dogs  are  under  Sirius.  Apuleius 
has  also  assigned  particular  herbs  to  signs  and  planets,  as  the 
pimpernel  to  Sagittarius,  the  dock  to  Capricorn,  marigold 
to  the  Sun,  peony  to  the  Moon,  agrimony  to  the  planet 
Jupiter.  Again,  we  know  by  experience  that  asparagus 
is  under  Aries,  and  garden-basil  under  Scorpio ;  for  of 
the  shavings  of  rams'  horns  sown  comes  forth  asparagus, 
and  garden-basil  rubbed  between  two  stones  produceth 
scorpions3. 

But  no  inferior  is  ruled  by  one  superior  only,  whether 
star  or  planet.  Topaz  is  under  the  sun  and  the  star 
Elpheia.  Emerald  is  under  Jupiter,  Venus,  Mercury, 
and  the  star  Spica. 

Here  ends  the  detail  of  the  theory  of  nature,  upon 
which  were  based,  so  far  as  concerned  natural  things,  the 
arts  of  sorcery  and  divination.  From  theory  to  practice, 
therefore,  the  young  student  passes. 

1  Occ.  Phil  ed.  cit  H  4.  »  Cap.  xxxii. 

*  Jamque  etiam  experientia  cognoscimus,  Asparagos  subesse  Arieti,  et 
Basilicon  Scorpioni.  Nam  seminata  rasura  cornu  arietis  nascuntur  Aspa- 
ragi,  et  Basilicon  contritum  inter  duoa  lapides  gignit  scorpiones.  Cap. 
xxiL  H4. 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          137 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

OF  THE  PRACTICE  OF  MAGIC  AS  DESCRIBED  IN  THE  REST  OF  THE  FIRST 
BOOK  OF  OCCULT  SCIENCE. 

EVERY  star  has  its  peculiar  nature  and  property,  the 
seal  and  character  of  which  it  impresses  through  its  rays 
upon  inferior  things  subject  to  it,  and  of  the  several  stars 
which  govern  one  thing,  the  star  having  chief  rule  will 
set  its  seal  the  most  distinctly1.  Thus  marigold,  being 
solary,  shows  in  its  root,  when  cut,  the  characters  of  the 
sun;  so,  also,  in  the  bones,  especially  the  shoulder-bones, 
of  animals,  whence  there  has  arisen  a  kind  of  divination 
by  the  shoulder-blades.  Now,  these  characters,  or  seals, 
retain  in  them  the  virtues  of  the  stars  whence  they  pro- 
ceed, and  can  operate  with  those  virtues  upon  other 
things  on  which  they  are  reflected.  But  as  the  number 
of  the  stars  is  known  only  to  God,  and  of  the  diversity  of 
seals  and  operations  man  is  able,  with  his  brief  experience 
and  finite  intellect,  to  understand  only  a  few,  we  speak 
only  of  the  signs  that  are  upon  man,  who  is  the  com- 
pletest  image  of  the  universe. 

Ancient  sages,  who  inquired  into  the  occult  properties 

1  De  Occ.  Phil  cap.  xxxiiL 


138  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

of  things,  set  down  in  writing  images  of  stars,  their  seals 
and  characters  as  they  appear  in  plants,  in  joints  or  knots 
of  boughs,  and  in  members  of  animals.  We  set  down 
here  that  part  of  this  divine  writing  which  was  discovered 
by  the  ancient  cheiromancers  in  the  hands  of  men.  These 
are  called  divine  letters,  because  being  the  seals  or  charac- 
ters of  planets,  by  them,  according  to  the  Holy  Scripture, 
is  the  life  of  men  writ  in  their  hands.  Here  follow,  there- 
fore, successively,  line  under  line,  the  divine  letters  of 
Saturn,  Jupiter,  Mars,  Venus,  Mercury,  the  Sun,  and  the 
Moon: 


Wv3 


tX. 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.         139 

Now,  whoso  desires  to  receive  virtue  from  any  part  of 
the  world,  or  any  star1,  should  bring  himself  under  its  in- 
fluence by  the  use  of  those  things  that  belong  thereto;  as 
whoso  would  prepare  wood  to  receive  flame  should  cover 
it  with  sulphur,  pitch  and  oil.  In  this  way,  by  applying 
together  and  combining  wisely  many  things  conformable 
to  one  idea,  a  singular  gift  is  infused  by  the  idea  into  that 
combination,  by  means  of  the  soul  of  the  world.  With 
solary  things,  therefore,  bring  down  virtues  from  the  sun, 
and  as  all  solar  properties  are  not  in  one  thing,  but  one 
solary  thing  will  contain  one  property  especially,  another 
another,  so  to  bring  down  the  greatest  effect,  we  must 
combine  things  all  of  them  solary,  but  which  attract  the 
solar  influence  in  diverse  ways.  This  rule  applies  in  every 
case2.  Wonderful  effects  may  be  produced  by  the  union 
of  mixed  things,  and  a  more  noble  form  drawn  from 
above,  if  congruity  be  properly  observed3.  The  like 
happens  in  nature  by  unions  that  take  place  between 
bodies  through  what  the  Greeks  call  sympathies ;  divine 
powers  being  thus  drawn  down,  for  nature  is  the  great 
magician4.  "  So  we  see  that  when  nature  has  framed  the 
body  of  the  infant,  by  this  very  preparative  she  presently 
draws  down  the  spirit  from  the  universe.  This  spirit  is 
then  the  instrument  to  obtain  of  God  the  understanding 
and  mind  in  the  soul  and  body,  as  in  wood  the  dryness  is 
fitted  to  receive  oil,  and  the  oil  being  imbibed  is  food  for 
the  fire,  the  fire  is  the  vehicle  of  light.  By  these  examples 

1  Cap.  xxxiv.  *  Cap.  xxxv.  3  Cap.  xxxvi. 

•  Cap.  xxxvii.  fol.  K. 


140  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

you  see  how  by  certain  natural  and  artificial  preparations, 
we  are  in  a  capacity  to  receive  certain  celestial  gifts  from 
above.  For  stones  and  metals  have  a  correspondency  with 
herbs,  herbs  with  animals,  animals  with  the  heavens,  the 
heavens  with  intelligences,  and  those  with  divine  properties 
and  attributes  and  with  God  himself  after  whose  image 

and  likeness  all  things  are  created For  this  is 

the  band  and  continuity  of  nature,  that  all  superior  virtue 
doth  flow  through  every  inferior  with  a  long  and  continued 
series,  dispersing  its  rays  even  to  the  very  last  things :  and 
inferiors,  through  their  superiors,  come  to  the  very  su- 
preme of  all.  For  so  inferiors  are  successively  joined  to 
their  superiors :  that  there  proceeds  an  influence  from 
their  head,  the  first  cause,  as  a  certain  string  stretched  out, 
to  the  lowermost  things  of  all :  of  which  string  if  one  end 
be  touched,  the  whole  doth  presently  shake:  and  such  a 
touch  doth  sound  to  the  other  end:  and  at  the  motion  of 
the  inferior  the  superior  also  is  moved,  to  which  the 
other  doth  answer:  as  strings  in  a  lute  well  tuned1." 

Not  only  vital,  but  also  angelical  and  intellectual  gifts 
may  be  drawn  from  above3,  as  Mercurius  Trismegistus 
and  Saint  Augustine,  in  his  eighth  book,  "  De  Civitate 
Dei,"  relate  that  an  image  rightly  made  of  certain  proper 
things,  appropriated  to  any  one  certain  angel,  will  pre- 
sently be  animated  by  that  angel.  Celestial  spirits  may, 
in  this  way,  be  invoked  by  men  who  are  of  a  pure  mind, 

1  De  Occ.  Phil.  K  2.    I  have  preserved  the  punctuation  in  this  passage 
to  show  the  use  of  the  colon  before  semicolons  were  invented. 

2  Cap.  xxxviii. 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          141 

humble  themselves,  and  pray  secretly.  And  by  foul  and 
profane  men,  who  use  such  arts  profanely,  no  man  is 
ignorant  that  evil  spirits  may  be  raised1. 

Now,  there  are  bindings2,  as  of  a  mill,  that  it  can  by 
no  force  whatever  be  turned  round ;  or  of  a  robber,  that 
he  shall  not  steal  in  any  place ;  or  of  fire,  that  it  cannot 
burn ;  and  these  and  many  like  wonders  are  worked  by 
methods  that  have  next  to  be  detailed.  First,  there  are 
sorceries  as  that  of  which  Saint  Augustine  reports,  who 
heard  of  some  women  sorcerers  that  were  so  versed  in  these 
kind  of  arts,  that,  by  giving  cheese  to  men,  they  could 
presently  turn  them  into  working  cattle,  and,  the  work 
being  done,  restored  them  into  men  again3. 

Now,  I  will  show  you  what  some  of  the  sorceries  are4. 

1  Cap.  xxxix.  *  Cap.  xl.  *  Cap.  xli. 

4  Cap.  xlii.  The  most  wonderful,  necessarily  omitted  from  the  text,  is 
that  described  in  the  commencement  of  this  chapter :  "  Sanguis  menstruus, 
qui  quantas  in  veneficio  vires  habeat,  videamus :  Nam  ut  dicunt,  acescunt 
ejus  superventu  must  a  novella,  vitis  ejus  tactu  in  perpetuum  Uuditur  :  ste- 
rilescunt  tactae  fruges,  moriuntur  insitae,  exuruntur  hortorum  germina,  et 
fructus  arborum  decidunt,  speculorum  fulgor  aspectu  ipso  hebetatur,  et 
acies  ferri  in  cultris  tonsoriis  eborisque  nitor  praestriguntur,  etiam  ferrum 
rubigine  protinus  corrumpitur :  ses  etiam  contactum,  grave  virus  diri  odoris 
accipit,  et  eruginem  :  in  rabiem  aguntur  gustato  eo  canes,  atque  insanabili 
veneno  morsus  infigitur,  alvei  apum  emoriuntur,  tactisque  alveariis  fugiunt, 
linaque  cum  coquuntur  nigrescunt:  eques  si  sint  gravidae  contacto  eo  abor- 
tum  patiuntur,  abortion  etiam  facit  illitum  pregnantibus.  Asinae  non  con- 
cipiunt  tot  annis  quot  grana  hordei  eo  contacta  comederint,  cinisque  pan- 
norum  menstruorum  si  quis  eum  aspergat  lavandis  vestibus  purpuram 
mutat,  floribus  colorem  adimit.  Ferunt  tertianas  quartanasque  febres  fugari 
menstruo  in  lana  arietis  nigri  in  argento  brachiali  incluso.  Praeterea  ter- 
tianis  quartanisque  efficacissimum  dicitur,  plantas  segri  cum  eo  subterlini : 
multoque  efficacius  ab  ipsa  muliere  etiam  ignoranti :  sic  et  comitiales  impetus 
morbosque  sanari.  Inter  omnes  autem  convenit  si  aqua  potusve  formidetur  a 
morsu  canis,  supposita  tantum  calici  lacinia  menstruo  tincta  statim  metum 
eura  discuti.  Praeterea  ferunt  nudatas  in  mense  si  segetem  ambiant,  erucas, 


142  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

The  civet  cat  abounds  with  them :  for,  as  Pliny  reports, 
the  posts  of  a  door  being  touched  with  her  blood,  the  arts 
of  jugglers  and  sorcerers  are  so  invalid  that  the  gods 
cannot  be  called  up.  Also  that  they  who  are  anointed 
with  the  ashes  of  the  ankle-bone  of  her  left  foot,  being 
decocted  with  the  blood  of  a  weasel,  shall  become  odious 
to  all.  The  same  is  done  with  the  eye,  being  decocted. 
Also,  it  is  said,  that  the  straight  gut  is  administered 
against  the  injustice  and  corruption  of  princes.  Also,  it  is 
said,  that  the  sword  with  which  a  man  is  slain  hath  won- 
derful power  in  sorceries :  for,  if  the  snaffle  of  the  bridle, 
or  spurs,  be  made  of  it,  they  say  that  with  these  any 
horse,  though  never  so  wild,  may  be  tamed  ;  and  that  if  a 
horse  should  be  shod  with  shoes  made  with  it,  he  would 
be  most  swift  and  fleet,  and  never,  though  never  so  hard 
rode,  tire.  But  yet  they  will  that  some  characters  and 
names  be  written  upon  it.  They  say  also,  if  any  man 

ac  vermiculos,  scarabaeosque,  ac  cantarides,  et  noxia  quaeque  decidere, 
cavendum  vero,  ne  id  oriente  sole  faciant,  sementem  enim  arescere.  Similiter 
abigi  grandines,  turbinesque,  ac  contra  fulgura  prodesse,  horum  plura 
Plinius  ipse  recitat.  Illud  scias  majus  venenum  esse  si  decrescente  Luna 
accidat,  sed  vim  eius  maiorem  esse  si  in  silente  Luna  contingat,  si  vero  in 
defectu  Luna?  Solisve  evenit,  irremediabile  fieri :  Maximi  vero  ac  potentissimi 
vigoris  esse,  quando  purgatio  ilia  primis  annis  evenit,  atque  in  virginitate 
prima  sit,  id  quoque  convenit  tune  ei :  nam  tactis  omnino  postibus  domus, 
irritum  in  ea  fit  omne  maleficium.  Praeterea  ferunt  quod  fila  vestis  con- 
tactae,  ne  igne  quidem  vincuntur,  atque  si  in  incendium  projiciantur,  non 
dilatari  amplius :  dicitur  quoque  quod  si  radix  Peoniss  cum  castoreo  et 
litura  pannorum  menstruosorum  detur  patienti,  sanari  morbum  comitialem. 
Prseterea  si  stomachum  cervi  cremaveris,  vel  assaveris,  adjungasque  de 
pannis  menstruosis  suffitus,  eo  balistas  nib.il  proficere  ad  venationem: 
capillos  etiam  mulieris  menstruosaj,  si  sub  fimo  ponantur  generari  serpentes, 
ac  etiam  si  crementur  fugari  eorum  odore  serpentes,  tanta  vis  ejus  veneficii 
est,  ut  etiam  venenosis  sit  venenum." 


HIS  FIKST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.  143 

shall  dip  a  sword,  wherewith  men  were  beheaded,  in 
wine,  and  the  sick  drink  thereof,  he  shall  be  cured  of  his 
quartan. 

Some  suffumigations1  or  perfumings,  also,  that  are 
proper  to  the  stars,  are  of  great  force  for  receiving  celestial 
gifts  under  the  rays  of  the  stars,  inasmuch  as  they  work 
strongly  on  the  air  and  breath.  Wherefore  the  inhaling 
of  such  vapours  was  wont  to  be  used  by  soothsayers  to 
affect  their  fancy  and  dispose  them  for  reception  of  the 
influences  which  those  vapours  draw :  so  they  say  that 
fumes  made  with  linseed  and  neabane  seed  and  roots  of 
violets  and  parsley  make  one  to  foresee  things  to  come. 
Great  things  can  suffumigations  do  in  the  air,  as  the  liver 
of  a  chameleon,  being  burnt  on  the  top  of  the  house,  doth, 
as  it  is  manifest,  raise  showers  and  lightnings.  There  are 
also  suffumigations  under  opportune  influences  of  the  stars 
that  cause  the  images  of  spirits  forthwith  to  appear  in  the 
air  or  elsewhere.  The  author  gives  several  recipes  ;  this 
part  of  his  work  consisting  mainly  of  a  compilation  of 
those  secrets  by  which  wonders  were  said  to  be  worked, 
gathered  from  all  sources  and  given  to  the  world.  "  The 
fume  of  the  burnt  hoof  of  a  horse  drives  away  mice,  the 
same  doth  the  hoof  of  a  mule,  with  which  also,  if  it  be 
the  hoof  of  the  left  foot,  flies  are  driven  away.  And  they 
say,  if  a  house  be  smoked  with  the  gall  of  a  cuttle-fish, 
made  into  a  confection  with  red  styrax,  roses,  and  aloe 
wood,  and  if  then  there  be  some  sea-water  or  blood  cast 
into  that  place,  the  whole  house  will  seem  to  be  full  of 
1  Cap.  xliii.  L  2. 


144  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

water  or  blood ;  and  if  some  earth  of  ploughed  ground 
be  cast  there,  the  earth  will  seem  to  quake. 

Now,  with  such  vapours  anything  can  be  infected,  as 
the  poisonous  vapour  of  the  plague  being  retained  for  two 
years  in  the  walls  of  a  house  can  infect  the  inhabitants, 
and  as  the  contagion  of  plague  or  leprosy  lying  hid  in  a 
garment  doth  long  after  infect  him  who  wears  it.  There- 
fore were  certain  suffumigations  used  to  images,  rings, 
and  such-like  instruments  of  magic,  as  Porphyry  saith, 
very  effectually.  So  they  say,  if  any  one  shall  hide  gold, 
or  silver,  or  any  other  precious  thing,  the  moon  being  in 
conjunction  with  the  sun,  and  shall  fumigate  the  place 
with  coriander,  saffron,  henbane,  smallage,  and  black 
poppy,  of  each  a  like  quantity,  bruised  together  and 
tempered  with  the  juice  of  hemlock,  that  which  is 
so  hid  shall  never  be  found,  or  taken  away,  and  that 
spirits  shall  continually  keep  it ;  and  if  any  one  shall 
endeavour  to  take  it  away,  he  shall  be  hurt  by  them, 
and  shall  fall  into  a  frenzy.  And  Hermes  saith,  that 
there  is  nothing  like  the  fume  of  spermaceti  for  the 
raising  of  spirits ;  wherefore,  if  a  fume  be  made  of  that 
and  lignum  aloes,  pepperwort,  musk,  saffron,  red  styrax, 
tempered  together  with  the  blood  of  a  lapwing,  it  will 
quickly  gather  airy  spirits  together,  and  if  it  be  used  about 
the  graves  of  the  dead,  it  gathers  together  spirits,  and  the 
ghosts  of  the  dead. 

But  as  often  as  we  direct  any  work  to  the  sun1,  we 
must  make  suffumigations  with  solary  things ;  if  to  the 
1  Cap.  xliv.  L  4. 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          145 

moon,  with  lunary  things,  and  so  of  the  rest.  And  we 
must  know,  that  as  there  is  a  contrariety  and  enmity  in 
stars,  and  spirits,  so  also  in  suffumigations  unto  the  same. 
So  there  is  a  contrariety  betwixt  aloes  wood  and  sulphur, 
frankincense  and  quicksilver;  and  spirits  that  are  raised 
by  the  fume  of  aloes  wood  are  laid  by  the  burning  of 
sulphur.  As  Proclus  gives  an  example  in  a  spirit,  which 
was  wont  to  appear  in  the  form  of  a  lion,  but  by  the 
setting  of  a  cock  before  it,  vanished  away,  because  there 
is  a  contrariety  betwixt  a  cock  and  a  lion. 

It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  know  of  what  substances 
the  fumes  are  appropriated  to  each  planet,  and  a  list  of 
some  of  them  is  given  by  the  young  magician  in  another 
chapter.  He  then  passes,  in  his  forty-fifth  chapter,  to  an 
account  of  eye-waters,  ointments,  and  love-spells.  Our 
spirit  is  the  subtle  vapour  of  the  blood,  and  by  applying 
to  the  body  substances  which  mingle  with  that  vapour 
subtle  vapour  of  their  own,  the  natural  powers  of  the  spirit 
take  part  in  the  virtues  brought  down  by  the  collyrium  or 
unguent  used.  Very  great  is  the  power  of  a  collyrium 
or  eye- water,  because  the  sight  perceives  more  purely  than 
the  other  senses,  and  agrees  more  than  any  other  sense 
with  the  fantastic  spirit,  as  is  apparent  in  dreams,  when 
things  seen  present  themselves  to  us  oftener  than  things 
heard,  or  anything  coining  under  the  other  senses.  Where- 
fore it  is  possible  by  eye- waters  to  give  apparent  external 
perception  to  images  conceived  within  the  mind,  and 
images  of  spirits  so  formed  can  be  made  visible  in  the  air, 
"  as,"  says  the  youth,  "  I  know  how  to  make  of  the  gall 

VOL.  I.  L 


146  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

of  a  man,  and  the  eyes  of  a  black  cat,  and  of  some  other 
things."  They  are  the  passions  and  the  delusions  of 
maniacal  and  melancholy  men  that  can  by  these  means  be 
induced.  But  great,  also,  is  the  power  of  fascination, 
which  comes  from  the  spirit  of  a  witch1,  by  its  flow  out 
of  the  eyes  in  a  pure,  lucid,  subtle  vapour,  generated  of 
the  purer  blood,  by  the  heat  of  the  heart.  And  as  the 
vapour  from  blear  eyes  falling  upon  eyes  that  are  sound 
may  corrupt  them,  so  may  the  motions  and  imaginations 
of  one  spirit  be  poured  through  the  eyes  and  be  the  vehi- 
culum  of  that  spirit  through  the  eyes  of  him  that  is 
opposite.  Whence  Apuleius  saith,  "  thy  eyes  sliding  down 
through  my  eyes,  into  mine  inward  breast,  stir  up  a  most 
vehement  burning  in  my  marrow."  Thus  love  may  be 
lit  by  the  rays  of  the  eyes  only,  and  the  witch  uses  her 
power  of  fascination  which  she  makes  intense  by  mingling 
with  those  rays  the  power  of  colly ria  and  ointments,  using 
martial  eye- waters  to  strike  with  fear,  saturnine  to  procure 
sickness  or  misery,  and  so  forth.  Upon  the  same  principle 
can  use  be  made  of  potions. 

Upon  the  same  principle,  also,  are  made  charms  which 
may  be  worn  upon  the  body,  bound  to  any  part  of  it,  or 
hung  about  the  neck2,  changing  sickness  into  health,  or 
health  into  sickness,  and  rendering  those  who  wear  them 
terrible  or  gracious,  acceptable  or  abominable,  to  their 
neighbours.  In  like  manner,  we  see  that  the  torpedo 
being  touched  afar  off  with  a  long  pole  doth  presently 
stupify  the  hand  of  him  that  toucheth  it.  So  they  say, 

1  Cap.  1.  N  1,  2.  -  Cap.  xlvi.  M  2. 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          14Y 

that  if  a  starfish  be  fastened  with  the  blood  of  a  fox  and  a 
brass-nail  to  a  house  gate,  in  that  house  evil  medicines  can 
do  no  hurt.  It  is  necessary  that  we  know  the  certain  rule 
of  alligation  and  suspension — namely,  that  they  be  done 
under  a  certain  and  suitable  constellation,  and  that  they  be 
done  with  wire  or  silken  threads,  with  hair  or  sinews  of 
certain  animals.  And  things  that  are  to  be  wrapped  up 
must  be  wrapped  in  leaves,  skins,  or  fine  cloth,  chosen 
according  to  the  suitableness  of  things  ;  as  if  thou  wouldst 
procure  the  solary. virtue  of  anything,  this  being  wrapped 
up  in  bay-leaves  or  skin  of  a  lion,  hang  it  about  thy 
neck  with  a  golden  thread,  or  silk  of  a  yellow  colour, 
whilst  the  sun  rules  in  the  heavens ;  so  shalt  thou  be 
endowed  with  the  solary  virtue  of  that  thing.  But  if 
thou  dost  desire  the  virtue  of  any  saturnine  thing,  thou 
shalt  in  like  manner  take  that  thing  whilst  Saturn  reigns, 
and  wrap  it  up  in  the  skin  of  an  ass,  or  in  a  cloth  used  at 
a  funeral,  especially  if  thou  desirest  it  for  sadness,  and 
with  a  black  thread  hang  it  about  thy  neck. 

Like  to  this,  also,  is  the  use  of  rings1.  When  any  star 
ascends  fortunately,  take  a  stone  and  herb  that  are  under 
that  star,  make  a  ring  of  the  metal  that  is  congruous 
therewith,  and  in  that  fix  the  stone  with  the  herb  under 
it.  We  read  in  Philostratus  larchus,  that  a  wise  prince 
of  the  Indies  gave  seven  rings  made  after  this  manner, 
marked  with  the  names  and  virtues  of  the  seven  planets, 
to  Apollonius,  of  which  rings  he  wore  every  day  one, 
distinguishing  them  according  to  the  names  'of  the  days, 

1  Cap.  xlvii.  M  2. 
L2 


148,  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

and  by  the  benefit  of  them  lived  one  hundred  and  thirty 
years,  as  also  always  retained  the  beauty  of  youth. 

There  are  also  virtues  that  belong  to  places1.  Look 
for  the  footmark  of  a  cuckoo  in  that  place  where  he  hath 
first  been  heard,  and  if  his  right  foot  be  marked  about 
and  the  footstep  digged  up,  there  will  no  fleas  breed  in 
that  place  where  it  is  scattered.  Particular  places  are 
appropriated  to  each  star.  To  Saturn  foul  or  gloomy 
places,  churchyards,  caves,  or  fens.  To  Jupiter  privi- 
leged places,  as  consistories,  tribunals,  schools.  To  Mars 
fiery  and  bloody  places,  such  as  fields  of  battle,  bake- 
houses, or  shambles.  To  the  sun  light  places,  the  serene 
air,  palaces  and  thrones.  To  Venus,  pleasant  fountains, 
green  meadows,  and  wherever  those  under  her  rule  resort. 
To  Mercury,  shops,  warehouses,  exchanges.  To  the 
moon,  wildernesses,  woods,  rocks  and  mountains,  waters 
and  sea-shores,  highways  and  granaries  for  corn.  In  seek- 
ing to  draw  virtue  from  any  star  or  planet,  collect  things 
suitable  in  a  place  suitable.  Stand  also,  while  doing  any 
work  of  this  kind,  in  a  suitable  position,  for  the  four 
corners  of  the  earth  belong  to  this  matter.  Thus,  they 
that  are  to  gather  a  saturnal,  martial,  or  jovial  herb, 
must  look  towards  the  east  or  south,  partly  because  they 
desire  to  be  oriental  from  the  sun,  or  partly  because  their 
principal  houses — namely,  Aquarius,  Scorpio,  Sagittarius 
— are  southern  signs,  so  also  are  Capricorn  and  Pisces. 
In  any  solary  work,  also,  we  must  look  towards  the  east 
or  south,  but  rather  towards  the  solary  body  and  light. 

1  Cap.  xlviii.  M  3. 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          149 

In  labouring  under  the  other  planets,  look,  for  the  opposite 
reasons,  in  the  opposite  directions. 

Because  of  the  subtlety  of  light1  and  its  quick  passage 
into  bodies,  and  especially  into  man  through  the  eyes, 
great  is  the  power  of  light  to  mar  or  make  enchantments. 
Therefore,  enchanters  have  a  care  to  cover  their  enchant- 
ments with  their  shadow.  By  artificial  lights  of  many 
kinds  and  colours,  properly  confected,  strange  things  may 
be  made  to  appear.  They  say  that  if,  when  grapes  are 
in  flower,  any  one  shall  tie  a  bottle  of  oil  to  the  grape- 
vine, and  so  leave  it  till  the  fruit  is  ripe,  that  oil  being 
thereafter  lighted  in  a  lamp,  a  vision  of  grapes  is  produced. 
Such  force  also  is  in  sepia,  that  it,  being  put  into  a  lamp, 
makes  blackamoors  appear.  It  is  also  reported,  that  a 
candle  made  of  some  saturnine  things,  if  being  lighted  it 
be  extinguished  in  the  mouth  of  a  man  newly  dead,  will 
afterwards,  as  often  as  it  shines  alone,  bring  great  sadness 
and  fear  upon  them  that  stand  about  it. 

Of  colours  of  lights  and  of  all  colours  it  should  be 
known  that  there  are  to  each  planet  certain  colours  that 
are  proper.  These  Cornelius  details. 

The  fifty-first  chapter  of  the  first  book  of  Occult 
Science  contains  notes  of  various  conditions  that,  if  they 
be  observed,  will  produce  wonderful  results.  Thus,  if  a 
man  have  ague,  let  all  the  parings  of  his  nails  be  put  into 
pismires'  caves,  and  they  say  that  that  which  began  to 
draw  the  nails  first  must  be  taken  and  bound  to  the  neck, 
and  by  this  means  will  the  disease  be  removed.  Also 

1  Cap.  xlix.  M  4. 


150  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

they  say  that  a  man's  eyes  being  washed  three  times  with 
the  water  wherein  he  has  washed  his  feet  will  never 
be  sore.  And  a  little  frog  climbing  up  a  tree,  if  any  one 
shall  spit  in  his  mouth,  and  then  let  him  escape,  is  said 
to  cure  the  cough.  It  is  a  wonderful  thing,  but  easy  to 
experience,  that  Pliny  speaks  of,  "  If  any  one  shall  be  sorry 
for  any  blow  that  he  hath  given  another  afar  ofi^  or  nigh 
at  hand,  if  he  shall  presently  spit  into  the  middle  of  the 
hand  with  which  he  gave  the  blow,  the  party  that  was 
smitten  shall  presently  be  freed  from  pain."  This,  we  are 
told,  hath  been  approved  of  in  a  four-footed  beast  that 
hath  been  sorely  hurt.  Some  there  are  that,  in  the  same 
way,  aggravate  a  blow  before  they  give  it  (as  to  this  day 
do  our  pugilists  and  our  spade-labourers).  Also  they  say, 
that  if  any  one  shall  measure  a  dead  man  with  rope,  first 
from  the  elbow  to  the  biggest  finger,  then  from  the 
shoulder  to  the  same  finger,  and  afterwards  from  the  head 
to  the  feet,  making  those  measurements  three  times,  if 
any  one  afterwards  be  measured  with  .the  rope  in  the 
same  manner,  he  shall  not  prosper,  but  be  unfortunate 
and  fall  into  misery  and  sadness. 

Countenance,  gesture,  gait,  and  figure  of  the  body1, 
conduce  to  the  receiving  of  celestial  gifts,  and  expose  us 
to  the  superior  bodies,  and  produce  certain  effects  in  us, 
no  otherwise  than  as  in  hellebore,  which,  when  thou 
gatherest,  if  thou  pullest  the  leaf  upward,  it  draws  the 
humours  upward  and  causeth  vomiting ;  if  downward, 
it  causeth  purging,  by  drawing  the  humour  downward. 
1  Cap.  lii.  N  3,  4. 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          151 

A  pleasant  face  spreads  joy  around,  a  gloomy  face  dis- 
comfort ;  certain  characters  are  formed  by  the  disposition 
of  the  heavens,  whether  martial,  mercurial,  saturnine. 
And  the  heavens  produce,  not  only  characters,  but  shapes. 
For  Saturn  rules  a  man  to  be  of  a  black  and  yellowish 
colour,  lean,  crooked,  of  a  rough  skin,  with  great  veins, 
hairy  all  over  his  body,  little  eyes  intent  upon  the  ground; 
a  frowning  forehead,  a  thin  beard,  great  lips;  a  heavy 
gait,  striking  his  feet  together  as  he  walks.  But  Jupiter 
signifies  a  man  to  be  of  a  pale  colour,  darkish  red,  a 
handsome  body,  good  stature,  bold,  with  great,  large- 
pupilled  eyes  that  are  not  altogether  black,  short  nostrils 
not  equal,  large  front  teeth,  and  curly  hair.  Thus  upon 
the  features,  and  the  marks  and  lines  upon  the  face  and 
body,  are  founded  physiognomy,  metoposcopy,  and  cheiro- 
mancy, arts  of  divination  not  to  be  slighted  or  condemned 
when  prognostication  is  made  by  them,  not  out  of  super- 
stition, but  by  observation  of  the  harmonies  and  cor- 
respondences of  all  parts  of  the  body.  And  whosoever, 
in  gesture,  countenance,  or  passion,  with  a  due  regard  to 
fitness  of  opportunity,  makes  himself  accordant  to  any 
one  of  the  celestial  bodies,  by  so  much  as  his  accordance 
is  made  greater  can  receive  from  them  the  larger  gifts. 

The  treatise  turns,  in  the  next  place,  to  divination,  by 
means  of  auguries  and  auspices1,  lightning  and  prodigies. 
To  a  compilation  of  the  belief  and  practice  of  the  ancients 
Agrippa  finds  matter  to  add.  There  is  Michael  Scot's 
twelvefold  division  of  auguries ;  six  on  the  right  hand, 
1  Cap.  liii.-lvi.  0-P  4. 


152  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

which  he  calls  Fernova,  Fervetus,  Sonnasarnova,  Sonna- 
sarvetus,  Confert,  Emponenthem ;  and  six  on  the  left 
hand,  which  are  Confernova,  Confervetus,  Scassarnova, 
Scassarvetus,  Viarum,  Herrenam.  When  a  flying  bird 
alights  on  the  right-hand  side  of  any  one,  then  it  is  Con- 
fernova, a  good  sign.  When  a  man  or  bird  passing  you 
stops  to  rest  on  the  left-hand  side,  then  it  is  Scassarvetus, 
and  an  evil  sign.  There  is  divination  from  the  cry  or 
song  of  any  bird,  and  there  is  divination  also  from  its 
nature.  Swallows,  because  when  they  are  dying  they 
provide  a  place  of  safety  for  their  young,  portend  a  great 
patrimony,  or  legacy,  from  the  death  of  friends.  A  spar- 
row is  a  bad  omen  to  one  that  runs  away,  for  she  flies 
from  the  hawk  and  makes  haste  to  the  owl,  where  she  is 
in  as  great  danger.  There  are  like  omens  from  all  other 
animals.  If  a  snake  meet  thee,  take  heed  of  an  ill-tongued 
enemy ;  for  this  animal  hath  no  other  power  but  in  his 
mouth.  Meeting  of  monks,  declares  Cornelius,  is  com- 
monly accounted  an  ill  omen,  and  so  much  the  rather  if 
it  be  early  in  the  morning,  because  these  kind  of  men  live 
for  the  most  by  the  sudden  death  of  men,  as  vultures  do 
by  slaughter. 

The  ancients  did  also  prognosticate  from  sneezings,  be- 
cause they  thought  they  proceeded  from  a  sacred  place — 
namely,  the  head,  in  which  the  intellect  is  vigorous  and 
operative.  Whence  also,  whatsoever  speech  cornes  un- 
awares into  the  mind  of  a  man  rising  in  the  morning  is  a 


Now  there  is,  as  saith  William  of  Paris,  in  most  animals 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.  153 

an  instinct  of  nature  more  sublime  than  human  apprehen- 
sion, and  very  near  to  prophecy.  This  manifestly  appears 
in  some  dogs,  who  know  by  this  instinct  thieves  and  men 
that  are  hid.  In  like  manner  vultures  foresee  future 
slaughter  in  battles,  and  gather  themselves  together  into 
places  where  they  foresee  that  the  heaps  of  carcases  will 
be.  The  animal  world  also  is  distributed  among  the 
stars. 

There  are,  moreover,  presages  to  be  obtained  out  of  the 
elements.  From  ,  colours,  motions,  forms,  and  celestial 
congruities  of  earth,  water,  air,  and  fire,  there  are  drawn 
those  four  famous  kinds  of  divination :  Geomancy,  Hydro- 
mancy,  Aeromancy,  Pyromancy1. 

In  the  next  chapter  upon  the  revival  of  the  dead2,  the 
sleeping  for  many  years  together, — as  it  is  said  that  Epi- 
menides  slept  fifty  years,  and  gave  rise  to  the  proverb 
against  sluggards,  to  outsleep  Epimenides, — of  these  things, 
and  of  long-continued  abstinence  from  food,  Cornelius 
says  that  they  are  hard  to  be  believed,  but  that  they  are 
to  be  credited,  inasmuch  as  they  are  certified  abundantly 
by  approved  historians.  He  accumulates  in  evidence  of 
this  a  great  number  of  cases. 

Divination  by  dreams3  that  are  not  vain  dreams,  but 
caused  by  the  celestial  influences  in  the  fantastic  spirit, 
mind,  or  body,  properly  disposed,  is  not  to  be  carried  on 
by  the  one  common  rule  provided  in  astrology,  because 
dreams  come  by  use  to  divers  men  in  divers  manners.  It 
is  proper  that  each  man  should  note  carefully  his  own 

Cap.  Ivii.  P  4.  2  Cap.  Iviii.  Q.  3  Cap.  lix.  Q  8. 


154  COKNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

manner  of  dreaming,  remembering  that  dreams  are  most 
efficacious  when  the  moon  passes  over  that  sign  which 
was  in  the  ninth  number  of  the  nativity,  or  revolution 
of  that  year,  or  in  the  ninth  sign  from  the  sign  of  per- 
fection. 

There  is  also  a  prophetic  madness  falling  upon  men 
who  are  awake,  and  so  great  is  the  force  of  melancholy1 
in  some  persons  that  it  sometimes  draws  celestial  spirits 
down  into  men's  bodies,  by  whose  presence  and  instinct, 
antiquity  testifies,  men  have  been  made  drunk,  and  spoken 
most  wonderful  things.  And  this,  it  is  thought,  may 
happen  in  three  ways,  according  to  a  threefold  apprehen- 
sion of  the  soul,  imaginative,  rational,  and  mental.  When 
the  mind  is  forced  by  melancholy  beyond  the  bonds  of 
the  members  wholly  into  one  of  these,  if  it  be  into  the 
first,  an  ignorant  man  may  become  suddenly  an  artist ; 
and  if  a  prophet,  prophesier  of  disturbances  among  the 
elements ;  but  if  it  be  with  the  second  he  may  become 
suddenly  a  philosopher,  physician,  orator ;  and  if  a  pro- 
phet, prophesies  mutations  of  kingdoms  and  the  work  of 
man  in  ages  yet  to  come. 

The  few  remaining  chapters  of  this  first  book  of 
Occult  Philosophy,  treat  of  the  nature  and  power  of 
the  human  mind  and  passions.  Man2  was  created,  not 
by  God  immediately,  but  by  the  heavenly  spirits  under 
his  command;  and  when  these  mixed  the  elements  to 
make  a  body  servant  to  the  soul,  they  built  it  up  with  all 
its  meaner  parts  in  lower  places,  and  the  highest  still  the 

1  Cap.  Ix.  Q  4.  -  Cap.  Ixi, 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          155 

best.  As  in  the  case  of  the  external  senses,  the  eyes, 
which  have  the  uppermost  place,  are  the  most  pure,  and 
have  affinity  with  fire  and  light;  the  ears  next  below 
have  an  affinity  to  air ;  the  nostrils  are  of  middle  nature 
and  watery;  below  them  the  mouth,  more  like  to  the 
nature  of  water ;  and  over  the  whole  body  the  touch, 
which  is  compared  to  the  grossness  of  earth.  But  the 
interior  senses  are,  according  to  Averroes,  divided  into 
four:  (1.)  Common  sense,  which  collects  and  perfects  the 
impressions  brought  in  from  without;  (2.)  Imagination, 
which  takes  and  retains  impressions,  and  presents  them 
to  (3.)  Fancy,  which  judges  what  the  things  are,  of  which 
representations  are  thus  brought  to  it,  forms  opinions 
upon  them,  and  gives  them  to  (4.)  Memory  to  keep. 
Common  sense  and  imagination  occupy  the  two  front 
chambers  of  the  brain  ;  Fancy,  or  the  cogitative  power, 
takes  the  middle  and  the  highest  place ;  and  memory  is 
lodged  in  the  hindmost  chamber.  There  are  three  appe- 
tites and  four  passions  of  the  soul.  The  Appetites  are — 
1,  natural,  an  inclination  of  nature  to  its  end,  as  of  a 
stone  to  fall ;  2,  animal,  which  the  sense  follows,  and  it  is 
subdivided  into  irascible  and  concupiscible ;  3,  rational1, 
the  will,  which  is  free  by  its  essence,  and  from  the  depra- 
vities of  which  the  four  Passions  proceed,  namely,  Oblec- 
tation,  which  is  a  disposition  to  effeminacy ;  Effusion, 
which  is  a  melting  and  pouring  of  the  whole  mind  into 
an  enjoyment ;  Vaunting,  and  Envy.  These  passions  are 

1  Plato's  division  of  the  soul  was  into  rational,  irascible,  and  concupiscible. 
Bepublic,  Lib.  iy.  cap.  xvi. 


156  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

movements  the  result  of  apprehensions1,  which  are  of 
three  sorts,  sensual,  rational,  and  intellectual ;  and  over 
passions  following  the  sensual  apprehension  Fancy  is  the 
ruler2,  but  according  to  the  nature  of  the  passions  Fancy 
acts  in  producing  sensible  mutations  in  the  accidents  of 
the  body.  So  in  joy  the  spirits  are  forced  outwards,  in 
fear  drawn  back,  in  bashfulness  moved  to  the  brain ; 
anger  produces  heat,  fear  cold,  sadness  a  sweat  and  bluish 
whiteness ;  anxiety  induces  dryness  and  blackness,  and 
how  love  stirs-  the  pulse  physicians  know  who  can  discern 
therefrom  the  name  of  her  that  is  beloved.  So  Naus- 
tratus  knew  that  Antiochus  was  taken  with  the  love  of 
Stratonica.  And  how  much  vehement  anger,  joined 
with  great  audacity  can  do,  Alexander  the  Great  shows, 
who,  being  surrounded  in  a  battle  in  India,  was  seen  to 
send  forth  from  himself  lightning  and  fire. 

Now  the  passions  produce  changes  in  the  body,  by  way 
of  imitation3,  as  when  he  who  sees  another  gape,  gapes 
also ;  and  William  of  Paris  knew  a  man  upon  whom  any 
purgative  draught  would  take  effect  at  sight.  So  Cyppus, 
after  he  was  chosen  king  of  Italy,  dwelt  for  a  whole  night 
upon  the  vivid  recollection  and  enjoyment  of  a  bull-fight, 
and  in  the  morning  was  found  horned,  no  otherwise  than 
by  the  vegetative  power  being  stirred  up  by  a  vehement 
imagination,  elevating  corniferous  humours  into  his  head. 
By  this  action  of  the  Fancy  (so  great  is  the  rule  of  the 
soul  over  the  body)  men  are  stirred  to  move  from  place 
to  place,  made  able  to  weep  at  pleasure,  to  simulate  the 
1  Cap.  bdi.  *  Cap.  Ixiii.  *  Cap.  bdiii. 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          157 

voices  of  birds,  cattle,  dogs,  or  of  neighbours ;  and 
Augustine  makes  mention  of  some  men  who  would  move 
their  ears  at  their  pleasure,  and  some  that  would  move 
the  crown  of  their  head  to  their  forehead,  and  could  draw 
it  back  again  when  they  pleased. 

But  the  passions,  following  the  fancy  when  they  are 
most  vehement,  can  not  only  change  their  own  body,  but 
can  transcend  so  much  as  to  work  also  on  another  body, 
to  produce  wonderful  impressions  on  its  elements,  and 
remove  or  communicate  disease1.  So  the  soul,  being 
strongly  elevated,  sends  forth  health  or  sickness  to  sur- 
rounding objects ;  and  Avicenna  believed  that  with  a 
strong  action  of  the  fancy  in  this  manner  one  might  kill 
a,  camel.  Such  is  the  known  action  of  the  parent  on  the 
unborn  child.  We  see  how  a  diseased  body,  as  in  the 
case  of  plague,  will  spread  disease.  The  like  is  true  of  a 
diseased  mind.  And  ever  of  bad  something  bad,  of  good 
something  good,  is  derived  from  them  that  are  nigh,  and, 
like  the  smell  of  musk,  adheres  for  a  long  time.  There- 
fore it  is  well  to  avoid  immoral  company,  to  be  much 
near  the  rich  and  fortunate  when  seeking  to  be  wealthy, 
or  with  the  virtuous  when  seeking  to  do  well.  Now  the 
passions  act  most  powerfully  when  the  influence  of  the 
celestials  is  co-operative  with  them,  and  by  conforming 
our  minds  strongly  to  the  nature  of  a  star2,  we  can  in- 
crease their  power  by  attraction  to  them  of  the  virtues  of 
that  star,  as  to  a  fitly-prepared  receptacle.  And  they  can 
act  strongly  only  by  help  of  a  strong  faith ;  therefore  we 
1  Cap.  Ixv.  2  Cap.  Ixvi. 


158  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

must  in  every  work,  of  whatever  sort,  if  we  would  prevail 
in  it,  hope  and  believe  strongly.  Physicians  own  that  a 
belief  in  them  is  more  potent  for  cure  than  even  medicine, 
and  by  a  strong  belief  in  their  own  power  of  curing,  they 
give  new  strength  to  their  remedies.  Therefore,  whoever 
works  in  magic  must  have  belief  strong  always,  be  credu- 
lous, and  nothing  doubting.  Distrust  and  doubting  dis- 
sipate and  break  the  power  of  the  worker's  mind,  whence 
it  comes  that  he  is  frustrated  of  the  desired  influence  of 
the  superiors. 

Let,  therefore,  every  one  who  would  work  in  magic 
study  to  conform  himself  in  such  manner  to  the  outer 
universe  as  that  he  shall  assimilate  to  himself  the  powers 
he  desires,  and  be  in  right  union  with  celestials,  or  with 
minds  of  other  men;  and  every  one  that  is  willing  to 
work  in  magic  must  know  the  property,  virtue,  measure, 
order,  and  degree  of  his  own  soul  among  the  powers  in 
the  universe1.  The  superior  binds  the  inferior,  and  the 
inferior  is  subject  to  the  superior3.  Thus  a  lion  is  afraid 
of  a  cock,  because  the  presence  of  the  solary  power  is 
more  agreeable  to  a  cock  than  to  a  lion;  loadstone  draws 
iron  because  it  hath  a  superior  degree  of  the  celestial 
bear.  Words3  are  of  power  in  proportion  to  the  worthi- 
ness of  the  tongue  speaking,  the  influence  of  the  voice, 
and  virtue  of  the  speaker  ;  and  they  are  of  most  efficacy 
which  express  the  greater  things — as  intellectual,  celestial, 
supernatural.  They  are  of  efficacy,  also,  in  proportion  to 
the  worthiness  and  holiness  of  the  language  in  which  they 

1  Cap.  Lxvii.'  2  Cap.  Ixviii.  3  Cap.  Ixix. 


HIS  FIRST  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          159 

are  spoken.  The  essence  of  things  signified  lies  in  their 
proper  names1.  Adam  first  named  things,  knowing  the 
influences  of  the  heavens  and  the  properties  of  all  below, 
so  that  he  named  them  perfectly  in  right  accordance  with 
their  natures  and  their  powers.  Every  name  is  signifi- 
cative by  the  celestial  harmony,  or  by  imposition  of  man ; 
when  both  significations  meet  in  any  name,  the  power 
then  is  double,  being  at  once  natural  and  arbitrary,  and 
great  is  its  influence  if  uttered  with  a  faithful  meaning 
and  belief,  in  proper  place  and  time. 

The  power  of  sentences2  exceeds  that  of  words,  inasmuch 
as  they  are  more  full  of  mind  and  purpose.  In  composing 
verses,  or  phrases,  to  attract  the  power  of  a  star,  set  forth 
and  extol  what  is  congenial  to  it,  vilify  what  is  in  anta- 
gonism to  it ;  invoke  it  by  enumeration  of  its  qualities, 
and  of  the  things  that  it  is  able  to  perform  or  has  per- 
formed. Thus  Psyche  in  Apuleius  prays  to  Ceres,  by 
her  fruitful  right  hand,  by  the  joyful  ceremonies  of 
harvests,  by  the  quiet  silence  of  her  chests,  by  the  winged 
dragons  her  servants,  by  the  furrows  of  the  Sicilian 
soil,  by  the  snatching  waggon,  by  the  clammy  earth,  by 
the  cellar-stairs  at  the  light  nuptials  of  Proserpina,  &c., 
&c.  Stars,  also,  should  be  called  upon  by  their  own 
names  and  by  the  names  of  the  intelligences  ruling  over 
them,  and  verses  so  framed  should  be  spoken  with  signi- 
ficance and  animation,  with  gesture,  motion,  and  affection 
in  full  harmony,  and  with  a  blowing  or  breathing  upon 
the  words  as  they  pass  out,  so  that  they  may  be  over- 
1  Cap.  Ixx.  *  Cap.  Ixxi. 


160  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

flowed  with  the  whole  virtues  of  the  inner  soul.  And 
from  the  use  of  sentences  so  formed,  even  by  writing  or 
pronouncing  any  of  them  backwards,  there  proceed  un- 
usual effects.  The  succeeding  chapter  on  the  power  of 
such  enchantments  is  composed  chiefly  of  illustrations 
quoted  out  of  Apuleius,  Lucan,  Virgil,  Ovid,  and  Ti- 
bullus. 

A  written  word  or  sentence  has  more  power  than  a 
spoken  one1.  It  is  the  last  and  most  emphatical  expres- 
sion of  the  mind.  Therefore  it  is  ordered  by  magicians 
that  to  give  force  to  the  expression  of  the  will,  when  they 
gather  a  herb,  make  a  figure,  or  do  any  work,  they  not 
only  think  and  say,  but  also  write  why  that  is  done3. 

Now  there  have  been  given  to  man  mind  and  speech : 
the  speech  in  divers  languages  not  formed  by  chance,  but 
from  above,  having  proper  characters  whereby  they  agree 
with  things  superior  and  celestial;  but  before  all  figures 
and  in  writing,  the  letters  of  the  Hebrews  are  in  matter, 
form,  and  spirit,  the  most  sacred3.  They  were  formed 
after  the  figures  of  the  stars,  and  the  profoundest  Hebrew 
Mecubals  do  undertake  by  the  figure  of  their  letters,  the 
form  of  characters,  and  their  signature,  simpleness,  compo- 
sition, separation,  crookedness,  directness,  defect,  abound- 
ing, greatness,  littleness,  crowning,  opening,  shutting, 
order,  transmutation,  joining  together,  revolution  ot 

1  Cap.  Ixxiii. 

~  So  Virgil,  of  this  duty  of  expression : 

"Necte  tribus  nodis  ternos  Amarylli  colores, 
Necte  Amarylli  modo,  et,  Veneris,  die,  vincula  nodo." 

3  Cap.  Ixxiiii. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  PLATO.          161 

letters  and  of  points  and  tops,  and  by  the  supputation  of 
numbers,  by  the  letters  of  things  signified  to  explain  all 
things,  how  they  proceed  from  the  first  cause,  and  are 
again  to  be  reduced  into  the  same.  Moreover,  they 
divide  the  letters  of  their  Hebrew  alphabet  into  twelve 
simple,  seven  double,  and  three  mothers,  which,  they  say, 
signify,  as  characters  of  things,  the  twelve  signs,  seven 
planets,  and  three  elements,  for  they  account  air  no  ele- 
ment but  as  the  glue  and  spirit  of  the  rest.  With  a  dis- 
cussion of  these  letters  and  an  illustrative  table  the  first 
book  of  Occult  Philosophy  is  closed,  the  last  topic  being 
the  occult  use  of  the  letters  when  employed  as  repre- 
sentatives of  number.  Upon  this  topic  the  writer  touches 
very  lightly,  and  so  passes  from  studying  the  power  of 
natural  things  in  his  first  book  to  the  direct  consideration 
of  the  power  that  belongs  to  numbers  in  his  second. 

We  must  not  pause  to  dwell  long  on  the  spirit  of  the 
scheme  of  nature  he  detailed.  Little  disguised  by  Hebrew 
admixture,  and  little  perverted  by  the  speculations  of  the 
Platonists  of  Alexandria,  Philo  the  Jew,  Plotinus,  and 
lamblichus,  whom  the  young  student  quotes  most  fre- 
quently, we  have  again  the  Attic  Moses,  Plato,  speaking 
through  a  young  and  strong  heart  to  the  world.  Very 
great  was  the  influence  of  Plato  in  this  period  of  wakening 
to  thought.  Nothing  was  known  by  experience  of  nature, 
for  little  had  been  learnt  since  the  time  when  Plato, 
theorising  upon  nature,  owned  it  to  be  impossible  to  arrive 
at  any  certain  result  in  our  speculations  upon  the  creation 
of  the  visible  universe  and  its  authors ;  "  wherefore,"  he 

VOL.  I.  M 


162  CORltfELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

said,  "  even  if  we  should  only  advance  reasons  not  less 
probable  than  those  of  others,  you  should  still  be  content1." 
In  this  spirit  alone  Cornelius  Agrippa  taught  his  age. — 
There  are  these  marvels  well  accredited ;  there  is  this 
cumbrous  and  disjointed  mass  of  earthly,  sensible  ex- 
perience, which  there  is  no  way  of  explaining  left  to  me 
but  one.  I  accept  the  marvels,  foolish  as  they  seem ; 
they  are  as  well  accredited  as  things  more  obviously  true. 
With  God  all  things  are  possible.  In  God  all  things 
consist.  I  will  adopt  Plato's  belief,  that  the  world  is 
animated  by  a  moving  soul,  and  from  the  soul  of  the 
world  I  will  look  up  to  its  Creator.  I  cannot  rest  content 
with  a  confused  mass  of  evidence ;  I  will  animate  with 
my  own  soul,  and  a  faith  in  its  divine  origin,  the  world 
about  me.  I  will  adopt  the  glorious  belief  of  Plato2,  that 
we  sit  here  as  in  a  cavern  with  our  faces  held  from  looking 
to  the  cavern's  mouth,  down  which  a  light  is  streaming 
and  pours  in  a  flood  over  our  heads,  broken  by  shadows 
of  things  moving  in  the  world  above.  We  see  the 
shadows  on  the  wall,  hear  echoes,  and  believe  in  all  as 
the  one  known  truth  of  substance  and  of  voice,  although 
these  are  but  the  images  of  the  superiors.  I  also  will 
endeavour  to  climb  up  out  of  the  cave  into  the  land 
flooded  with  sunlight.  I  connect  all  that  we  see  here 
with  Plato's  doctrine  of  superior  ideas,  I  subdue  matter 
to  spirit,  I  will  see  true  knowledge  in  apparent  foolish- 
ness, and  connect  the  meanest  clod  with  its  divine 
Creator.  I  will  seek  to  draw  down  influences,  and  to  fill 

1  Timceus,  section  ix.  *  Politeia,  Lib.  vii.  cap.  i.  ii. 


ASPIRATION.  163 

my  soul  with  a  new  strength  imparted  by  the  virtue  of 
ideas  streaming  from  above.  The  superior  manifest  in 
the  inferior1  is  the  law  of  nature  manifested  in  the  thing 
created.  My  soul  is  not  sufficient  for  itself;  beyond  it 
and  above  it  lie  eternal  laws,  subtle,  not  having  substance 
or  form,  yet  the  cause  of  form  and  substance.  I  cannot 
hope  to  know  them  otherwise  than  as  ideas ;  to  unborn 
generations  they  will  be  revealed,  perhaps ;  to  me  they 
are  ideas,  celestial  influences,  working  intelligences.  I 
believe  in  them,  and  'I  desire  to  lay  open  my  soul  to  their 
more  perfect  apprehension.  They  are  not  God,  though 
God  created  them  ;  they  are  not  man,  though  they  have 
by  divine  ordainment  formed  him.  The  more  I  dwell 
upon  their  qualities,  the  more  I  long  for  the  divine,  the 
more  shall  I  be  blessed  by  the  reception  of  their  rays. 
The  more  intensely  I  yearn  heavenward,  the  more  shall 
I  bring  down  heaven  to  dwell  in  my  soul. 

So  we  may  hear,  if  we  will,  the  spirit  of  the  young 
inquirer  pleading  to  us  from  across  the  centuries,  and  if 
our  own  minds  ever  yearned  for  an  escape  from  the  delu- 
sions of  the  grosser  sense  and  the  restriction  set  by  crowds 
on  free  inquiry,  there  is  no  true  heart  that  will  not  say, 
You  laboured  well,  my  brother. 

1  See  this  explanation  of  Platonic  doctrine  admirably  enforced  in  a  work 
published  while  these  sheets  are  passing  through  the  press,  the  late  Pro- 
fessor Butler's  Lectures  mi  the  History  of  Ancient  Philosophy. 


M2 


164  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

WHAT    IS    CONTAINED    IX    CORNELIUS  AGKIPPA's  SECOND   BOOK   OF  OCCL'LT 
SCIENCE. 

ARITHMETIC  and  geometry  are,  in  a  certain  sense,  u 
part  of  the  first  principles  of  magic.  To  show  this  is  the 
object  of  the  second  book  of  Occult  Science1.  After  a 
chapter2,  which  points  out  the  wonders  that  have  been 
achieved  by  those  who  have  made  only  a  mechanical  use 
of  the  principles  of  mathematics,  Cornelius  proceeds  to 
discuss  their  more  recondite  mysteries  and  powers.  He 
treats  first  of  Numbers,  by  the  proportion  of  which,  as 
saith  Severinus  Boethius,  all  things  were  formed3.  If 
there  are  so  many  occult  virtues  in  natural  things,  what 
marvel  if  in  numbers,  which  are  pure  and  commixed  only 

1  The  second  and  third  books  of  Occult  Philosophy  appeared  first  at 
Cologne,  preceded  by  a  new  edition  of  the  first  book,  in  July,  1533,  as 
"  Henrici  Cornelli  Agrippce  ab  Nettesheim  et  Consiliis  et  Archivis  Indltiarii 
sacrce  Ccesarece  Majestatis :  De  Occulta  Philosophia,  Libri  Tres."  There  is  a 
portrait  on  the  title-page  which,  inasmuch  as  it  is  authenticated  by  the  fact 
of  its  having  been  issued  by  himself,  is  the  one  chosen  for  transfer  to  the 
title-page  of  this  biography.  This,  being  the  first  of  the  Books  II.  and 
III.,  is  the  edition  cited  in  succeeding  notes. 

-  De  Occ.  Phil.  Lib.  ii.  cap.  i.  p.  xcix.  c.  3  Cap.  ii.  p.  ci. 


HIS  SECOND  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.    165 

with  ideas  in  the  divine  mind,  there  should  be  found 
virtues  greater  and  more  occult.  Even  time  must  con- 
tain the  mystery  Number,  so  also  does  motion  or  action, 
and  so,  therefore,  must  all  things  that  move,  act,  or  are 
subjected  to  time.  But  the  mystery  is  in  the  abstract 
power  of  number,  in  its  rational  and  formal  state1,  not  in 
the  expression  of  it  by  the  voice,  as  among  people  who 
buy  and  sell.  The  power  of  numbers  has  been  taught 
not  only  by  the  best  philosophers,  but  also  by  Catholic 
doctors,  Jerome,  Augustine,  Origen,  Ambrose,  Gregory 
of  Nazianzen,  Athanasius,  Basil,  Hilary,  Bede.  It  is 
asserted  also  in  nature,  by  the  herb  called  cinquefoil,  or 
five-leaved  grass ;  for  this  resists  poison,  and  bans  devils 
by  virtue  of  the  number  five,  and  one  leaf  of  it  taken  in 
wine  twice  a  day  cures  the  quotidian,  three  the  tertian, 
four  the  quartan  fever.  There  is  also  a  wonderful  expe- 
rience, that  every  seventh  son  born  to  parents  who  have 
not  had  daughters,  is  able  to  cure  the  king's  evil  by  touch 
or  word  alone.  The  Pythagoreans  profess  that  they  can 
discern  many  things  in  the  numbers  of  names ;  and  if 
there  did  not  lie  herein  a  great  mystery,  St.  John  had  not 
said  in  the  Revelations,  "He  that  hath  understanding  let 
him  compute  the  number  and  name  of  the  beast." 

Now  Unity2  is  not  a  number,  but  the  common  measure 
and  original  of  numbers;  multiplied  by  itself  it  produceth 
nothing  but  itself;  if  divided  it  is  not  cut,  but  multiplied 
into  parts,  each  of  which  still  is  unity,  not  more  nor  less. 
Therefore  some  call  it  concord  or  friendship,  being  so 

1  Cap.  iii.  p.  cii.  2  Cap.  iiii.  p.  ciii. 


166  COKlJTELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

knit  that  it  cannot  be  divided  ;  but  Martian,  according  to 
the  opinion  of  Aristotle,  calls  it  Cupid,  or  desire,  because 
as  one  only  and  beyond  itself  having  nothing,  it  bewails 
and  torments  itself.  From  one  all  things  proceed,  of  one 
all  things  partake.  In  the  exemplary  world  there  is  one 
God,  and  his  name  lod  is  written  with  one  letter ;  in  the 
intellectual  world  there  is  one  supreme  intelligence,  the 
soul  of  the  world ;  in  the  celestial  world  one  king  of 
stars,  the  sun ;  in  the  elemental  world  one  subject  and 
instrument  of  all  virtues,  natural  and  supernatural,  the 
philosopher's  stone ;  in  the  lesser  world  one  first  living 
and  last  dying,  chief  member  of  the  body,  the  heart ; 
in  the  infernal  world  there  is  one  Prince  of  Rebellion, 
Lucifer. 

Two1  is  the  first  number,  because  it  is  the  first  express- 
ing multitude ;  it  is  the  first  procreation,  the  first  form  of 
parity  and  equity.  It  is  called  the  number  of  science,  and 
of  man,  the  other  and  the  lesser  world  ;  also  the  number 
of  charity,  of  marriage,  and  society,  as  it  was  said,  They 
twain  shall  be  one  flesh.  And  Solomon  teaches  it  is 
better  that  two  be  together,  and  woe  be  to  him  that  is 
alone,  because  when  he  falls  he  hath  not  another  to  help 
him.  Two  is  sometimes  also  regarded  as  the  number  of 
confusion  and  uncleanness,  especially  unhappy  to  astro- 
logers when  it  occurs  under  a  saturnine  or  a  martial  influ- 
ence. Unclean  beasts  went  by  twos  into  the  ark.  Unity, 
it  is  said,  was  God;  duality  was  a  devil;  therefore,  say 

1  Two  to  ten  occupy  for  each  number  a  chapter,  and  extend,  therefore, 
to  cap.  xiii.  p.  cxxxL 


HIS  SECOND  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.        167 

the  Pythagoreans,  two  is  not  a  number,  but  a  confusion  of 
unities.  This  number,  it  is  also  reported,  will  cause 
fearful  goblins  to  appear  to  men  travelling  by  night. 
There  is  a  divine  name  of  two  letters,  and  it  may  here  at 
once  be  said  that  there  is  a  divine  name  answering  as  to 
its  letters  to  each  number  up  to  twelve,  and  to  each 
number  a  certain  set  of  things  answers  in  the  scale  of 
worlds  under  the  divine  or  exemplary,  namely,  the  intel- 
lectual, celestial,  elementary,  lesser,  and  infernal. 

Three  is  a  holy,  powerful,  incompounded  number  of 
perfection.  It  is  the  number  of  the  trinity.  Three  com- 
prehends all  time — past,  present,  and  future  ;  all  space — 
length,  breadth,  and  thickness.  There  are  three  states  of 
existence  for  a  man — under  nature,  law,  and  grace  ;  there 
are  three  heavenly  virtues— Faith,  Hope,  Charity;  there 
are  the  three  worlds — Intellectual,  Celestial,  and  Ele- 
mental; and  in  man — the  lesser  world — three  parts, 
which  correspond  to  them — Brain  to  the  Intellectual, 
Heart  to  the  Celestial,  and  the  viler  parts  to  the  Ele- 
mental. 

But  the  Pythagoreans  preferred  before  all  others,  as  the 
fountain  of  nature,  the  number  four,  called  the  Tetractis, 
and  by  it  they  swore.  It  signifies  solidity,  and  the 
foundations  of  all  things  are  laid  foursquare.  There  are 
four  elements,  four  corners  of  the  earth,  four  seasons,  four 
qualities  of  things — heat,  cold,  moisture,  and  dryness. 
Most  nations  have  written  the  divine  name  with  four 
letters.  There  are  four  evangelists,  and  in  Revelations 


168  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

there  are  said  to  be  four  beasts  full  of  eyes  standing  round 
about  the  throne. 

The  number  five  is  of  no  small  power,  inasmuch  as  it 
is  composed  of  the  first  even  and  the  first  odd  (unity  not 
being  regarded  as  a  number)  ;  but  odd  is  male,  and  even 
female.  Therefore  this  is  the  number  of  wedlock,  as  the 
Pythagoreans  say ;  and  they  call  it  also  the  number  of 
justice,  because  it  divides  ten,  the  number  which  contains 
all  others,  in  an  even  scale.  There  are  five  senses,  there 
were  five  wounds,  and  five  is  a  number  associated  inti- 
mately with  the  cross.  By  this  number  evil  demons  are 
expelled,  and  poison  is  made  harmless.  The  five-lettered 
name  of  the  Deity  is  the  name  of  omnipotence.  Under 
the  rule  of  nature,  the  divine  trigrammaton — the  three- 
lettered  name — was  used;  under  law,  the  tetragram- 
maton  ;  but  under  the  rule  of  grace,  the  pentagram. 

Six  is  the  number  of  perfection ;  having  this  perfection 
in  itself,  shared  by  no  other,  that  by  the  assemblage  of  its 
half,  its  third  part,  and  its  sixth  part,  three,  two,  one,  it 
is  made  perfect.  Therefore  it  is  connected  with  produc- 
tion, and  is  called  the  sign  of  the  world,  for  in  six  days 
the  world  was  made  complete.  It  is  also  the  number  of 
labour  and  servitude :  for  six  days  shalt  thou  labour,  for 
six  years  shalt  thou  till  the  earth,  and  for  six  years  the 
Hebrew  slave  obeyed  his  master.  There  are  six  tones 
also  in  all  harmony,  namely,  five  tones  and  two  semi-tones 
making  one  tone,  which  is  the  sixth. 

Very  many  are  the  powers  of  the  number  seven,  for  it 
consists  of  unity  and  six,  of  two  and  five,  of  three  and 


HIS  SECOND  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.        169 

four,  and  absorbs  into  itself  the  dignity  of  its  components. 
Pythagoreans  have  entitled  it  the  vehicle  of  life,  for  it  con- 
tains body  and  soul;  the  body  is  of  four  elements,  spirit, 
flesh,  bone,  and  humour,  affected  Avith  four  qualities, 
choleric,  sanguine,  phlegmatic,  melancholic;  but  the  soul 
is  triple,  made  of  reason,  passion,  and  desire.  Again,  from 
the  moment  of  conception  all  the  stages  of  man's  life  are 
performed  by  sevens,  and  with  the  completion  of  the  tenth 
seven  he  has  reached  the  appointed  number  of  his  years. 
The  extreme  heighf  to  which  man  can  attain  is  seven  feet. 
There  are  seven  main  parts  of  the  body;  beyond  seven 
hours  life  cannot  go  on  without  breath;  beyond  seven 
days  life  cannot  go  on  without  food.  The  seventh  days  in 
disease  are  critical.  The  moon,  the  seventh  of  the  planets, 
and  the  nearest  to  us,  observes  always  this  number  in  her 
courses.  The  sacred  power  of  this  number  is  great;  it  is 
the  oath  number,  and  among  the  Hebrews  to  seven  meant 
to  swear.  It  is  also  the  number  of  blessing  and  of  rest, 
for  on  the  seventh  day  He  rested  who  blessed  it.  It  is 
also  the  number  of  purification,  as  was  seen  when  Elijah 
bade  the  leper  wash  seven  times  in  Jordan,  and  the 
seventh  year  was  set  aside  for  penitence  and  remission  of 
sins.  Seven  is  the  number  of  the  petitions  in  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  and  it  is  the  number  not  only  of  prayer,  but  also 
of  praise,  as  says  the  prophet,  "  Seven  times  a  day  will  I 
praise  thee."  This  number  is  allied  to  twelve,  for  out  of 
three  added  to  four  comes  seven,  but  out  of  three  multi- 
plied by  four  comes  twelve.  A  very  long  list  has,  of 
course,  to  be  cited  of  the  sacred  things  and  mysteries 


170  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

associated  by  the  ancients  generally  and  in  Scripture  witli 
the  number  seven.  There  are  seven  planets,  seven  wise 
men,  seven  openings  in  a  man's  head,  seven  angels  stand- 
ing before  the  throne — Zaphkiel,  Zadkiel,  Raphael, 
Camael,  Haniel,  Michael,  Gabriel. 

Eight  is,  according  to  the  Pythagoreans,  the  number  of 
justice  and  plenitude.  If  divided  it  forms  perfect  and 
equal  halves,  and  if  twice  divided  there  is  still  equality  in 
its  division;  therefore  it  is  the  number  of  justice.  This 
number  also  represents  eternity  and  the  consummation  of 
the  world,  because  it  follows  seven,  which  is  the  symbol 
of  this  life  and  time.  Therefore,  also,  it  is  the  number  of 
blessedness ;  and  eight  is  the  number  of  those  who  are 
declared  blessed,  namely,  the  peacemakers,  those  who 
hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness,  the  meek,  the  per- 
secuted for  righteousness'  sake,  the  pure  in  heart,  the 
merciful,  the  poor  in  spirit,  they  that  mourn. 

Nine  is  the  number  of  the  muses,  and  of  the  moving 
spheres  that  sing  in  harmony  together.  Calliope  is  at- 
tached to  the  outer  sphere,  or  primum  mobile,  Urania  to 
the  starry  heaven,  Polyhymnia  to  Saturn,  Terpsichore  to 
Jupiter,  Clio  to  Mars,  Melpomene  to  the  Sun,  Erato  to 
Venus,  Euterpe  to  Mercury,  Thalia  to  the  Moon.  There 
are  nine  orders  of  blessed  angels,  and  the  number  has 
occult  relation  to  the  highest  mysteries,  for  it  was  at  the 
ninth  hour  that  the  Holy  Spirit  came.  Astrologers  ob- 
serve nine  years  in  a  man's  life ;  and  nine  has  also  relation 
to  imperfection,  incompleteness,  as  wanting  one  of  ten, 
as  St.  Augustine  interpreted  concerning  the  ten  lepers. 


HIS  SECOND  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.        171 

Nor  are  we  to  suppose  that  there  is  no  meaning  in  the 
length  of  nine  cubits  ascribed  to  Og,  King  of  Basan,  who 
is  the  type  of  the  devil. 

Ten  is  called  the  complete  number,  because  there 
is  no  counting  beyond  it  except  by  combinations  formed 
with  it  and  with  the  other  numbers,  of  which  every 
one  may  be  obtained  out  of  it  by  some  form  of  de- 
composition. Therefore  the  ancients  called  their  sacred 
ceremonies  denary,  initiation  being  preceded  by  ten  days 
of  abstinence.  There  were  ten  chords  to  the  psalter,  and 
ten  instruments  of  music  to  which  psalms  were  sung. 
The  first  effluence  of  the  One  source  of  all  was  ternary, 
then  denary  into  the  ten  sephiroth,  and  there  are  in  all 
tens  the  trace  of  a  divine  principle. 

The  number  eleven  is  not  sacred,  but  twelve  is  divine1. 
Eleven  exceeds  the  number  of  the  commandments,  and 
falls  short  of  twelve,  which  is  of  grace  or  perfection ;  yet 
sometimes  it  hath  from  God  a  gratuitous  favour,  as  in  the 
case  of  him  who  was  called  to  the  vineyard  in  the  eleventh 
hour.  Twelve  is  the  number  of  signs  in  the  Zodiac,  of 
chief  joints  in  the  body  of  a  man,  of  the  tribes  of  Israel, 
of  the  Apostles,  and  of  the  gates  of  the  Heavenly  Jerusa- 
lem. Of  the  numbers  above  twelve2  the  mysteries  are 
evolved  on  a  like  principle,  and  determined  also  by  a 
reduction  of  them  to  their  elements  as  multiples  of  the 
first  ten.  Cornelius  describes  the  most  important  from 
which  it  will  suffice  to  select  eighteen  and  twenty  as  un- 

1  De  Occ.  Phil.  Lib.  ii.  cap.  xiiii.  ed.  cit.  p.  cxxx. 
2  Cap.  xv.  p.  cxxxvi. 


172  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

fortunate,  because  in  the  former  Israel  served  Eglon,  King 
of  Moab,  in  the  other,  Jacob  served  and  Joseph  was  sold; 
twenty-two  as  the  fulness  of  wisdom,  for  it  is  the  number 
of  the  Hebrew  letters  and  the  number  of  the  books  of  the 
Old  Testament;  twenty-eight  as  a  number  favoured  by 
the  moon;  forty  as  the  number  of  expiation,  for  in  the 
time  of  the  Deluge  it  rained  forty  days,  the  children  of 
Israel  were  detained  forty  years  in  the  wilderness,  the 
destruction  of  Nineveh  was  put  off  during  forty  days, 
forty  days  fasted  Moses,  and  Elias,  and  the  Lord.  Fifty 
signifies  remission  and  liberty.  The  number  a  hundred, 
in  which  the  lost  sheep  was  found,  is  holy,  and  because  it 
consists  of  tens,  shows  a  complete  perfection ;  but  the 
complement  of  all  numbers  is  a  thousand,  which  is  the 
cube  of  the  number  ten,  signifying  a  complete  and  abso- 
lute perfection.  Plato  in  his  Republic  also  celebrates  two 
numbers,  which  are  not  disallowed  by  Aristotle  in  his 
Politics,  namely,  the  square  and  cube  of  twelve,  which 
last  number,  1728,  is  fatal:  to  which  when  any  city  or 
commonwealth  hath  attained  it  shall  decline.  And  let 
thus  much  suffice  for  numbers  in  particular. 

Certain  gestures  used  by  the  magicians,  seemingly  ab- 
surd, are  meant  to  express  numbers  by  notation  on  the 
body1.  Cornelius  gives  a  set  of  rules  from  Bede,  and 
refers  to  others  in  the  Arithmetic  of  Brother  Luca  de 
Burgo.  They  are  of  this  kind:  when  you  would  ex- 
press one,  bend  the  little  finger  of  the  left  hand  over 
the  palm ;  when  you  would  express  a  thousand,  put  the 

1  Cap.  xvi.  p.  cxxxviii. 


HIS  SECOND  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.        173 

left  hand  on  the  breast,  the  fingers  pointing  towards 
heaven ;  when  expressing  sixty  thousand,  hold  the  left 
thigh  with  the  left  hand,  fingers  downwards.  The  next 
chapter  is  on  the  various  notes  of  numbers  used  among 
the  Romans,  with  which  is  set  the  notation  commonly 
used  with  magical  characters — a  cross  to  represent  ten,  a 
small  horizontal  line  touching  its  lower  limb  to  represent 
another  five  ;  short  upright  strokes  for  units  ;  a  circle  for 
a  hundred ;  and  the  same  circle  placed  over  any  of  the 
before-mentioned  signs  to  represent  that  number  of  hun- 
dreds. The  next  two  chapters1  describe  the  notation 
by  letters  of  Greeks,  Hebrews,  and  Chaldeans,  and  in- 
clude the  depiction  of  a  peculiar  system  of  marks  used  for 
notation  in  two  very  ancient  books  of  the  astrologers  and 
magicians. 

By  extracting  the  significance  of  numbers  from  the 
letters  in  a  name,  occult  truths  may  be  discovered2,  as  was 
shown  by  the  Pythagoreans.  This  is  the  science  of  Arith- 
mancy.  If  you  desire  to  know  the  horoscope  of  any  one, 
compute  his  name  and  that  of  his  father  and  mother,  add 
them  and  divide  by  twelve;  if  the  remainder  be  one,  he  is 
under  Leo ;  if  two,  under  Aquarius,  &c.  Let  no  one 
marvel  at  these  mysteries.  The  Most  High  created  all 
things  by  number,  measure,  and  weight,  and  nothing 
that  was  done  was  casual,  but  all  was  by  a  certain  divine 
rule. 

Moreover,  the  Pythagoreans  have  attributed  certain 
numbers  to  each  god  or  planet,  and  each  element3 ;  one 

1  Cap.  xviii.  and  xix.       -  Cap.  xx.  p.  cxliii.       3  Cap.  xxi.  p.  cxliiii. 


174 


CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 


to  the  sun,  two  to  the  moon,  three  to  the  three  fortunate 
planets,  Sun,  Jupiter,  Venus,  and  so  forth ;  eight  to  air, 
five  to  fire,  six  to  earth,  and  twelve  to  water.  Each  of 
the  seven  planets  has  also  a  sacred  table1,  endowed  with 
many  great  celestial  virtues,  representing  the  divine  order 
of  numbers  impressed  upon  it  by  the  superior  Idea  acting 
through  the  soul  of  the  world,  and  the  most  sweet  harmony 
of  their  celestial  rays,  which  can  be  expressed  only  by 
images  that  represent  the  supramundane  intelligences, 
and  can  be  informed  by  them  with  their  power.  The 
sacred  tables  for  each  planet  are  then  given  with  the 
sacred  seals  or  signs  of  itself,  its  intelligence,  and  its 
demon  or  spirit.  The  tables  are  in  squares,  progressively 
enlarging ;  we  take  as  an  illustration  the  third,  that  of 
Mars: 


11 

24 

7 

20 

3 

4 

12 

25 

8 

16 

17 

5 

13 

21 

9 

10 

18 

1 

14 

22 

23 

6 

19 

2 

15 

Beside  this  is  placed  a  version  of  it  in  the  Hebrew  nota- 
tion, and  beneath  it  these  figures,  the  seals  of  Mars,  1,  of 
its  intelligence,  2,  and  of  its  demon,  3 : 


Cap.  xxii.  pp.  cxlv.-cliii. 


175 


Now,  if  these  sacred  tables  and  characters  are  engraven 
at  a  time  when  the  planet  is  auspicious  on  an  iron  plate,  or 
sword,  it  makes  a  man  powerful  in  war  and  judgment,  ter- 
rible to  enemies  ;  and  if  they  be  engraved  upon  cornelian, 
it  arrests  a  flow  of  blood  ;  but  if  the  tables  and  characters 
be  drawn  when  Mars  is  inauspicious  on  a  plate  of  red 
brass,  such  a  plate  causes  discord  among  men  and  beasts, 
drives  away  bees,  pigeons,  or  fish,  stops  mills,  deprives 
men  of  fortune  in  the  chase,  and  compels  the  enemies  of 
its  possessor  to  submit  themselves  to  him. 

From  arithmetic  we  turn  to  geometry.  Partly  from  the 
mystery  of  numbers,  partly  from  the  mystery  of  form, 
arises  the  power  of  geometrical  figures.  The  circle 
answering  to  unity  and  ten,  the  largest  and  most  perfect 
of  lines,  being  indeed  infinite,  is  judged  to  be  most  fit 
for  bindings  and  conjurations ;  whence  they  who  adjure 


176  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

evil  spirits  are  wont  to  environ  themselves  with  a  circle. 
A  pentangle  hath  also  great  command  over  evil  spirits, 
through  the  power  of  the  number  five,  and  through  the 
mystery  of  its  double  set  of  angles,  inner  and  outer.  The 
Egyptians  and  Arabians  affirmed  the  power  of  the  cross, 
which  they  said  is  inspired  with  the  strength  of  the  stars, 
which  strength  results  from  the  straightness  of  angles  and 
rays ;  and  stars  are  then  most  potent  when  they  occupy 
four  corners  of  the  heaven,  and  unite  to  make  a  cross  by 
the  projection  of  their  rays.  The  figure  of  a  cross  hath 
also  a  great  correspondency  with  the  most  potent  numbers, 
five,  seven,  and  nine.  It  is  also  the  rightest  figure  of  all, 
containing  four  right  angles.  The  power  of  these  signs, 
let  it  always  Be  remembered,  is  not  in  the  things  them- 
selves, but  in  the  reflexion  from  them  as  it  were  by  echo 
of  the  higher  powers,  which  they  attract  by  their  cor- 
respondency and  harmony.  We  must  not  pass  over  here 
the  figures  which  Pythagoras  and  his  followers  assigned 
to  the  elements  and  the  heavens — a  cube  to  the  earth, 
a  pyramid  to  fire,  a  dodecahedron  to  the  heavens,  and  so 
forth.  By  such  knowledge  many  wonderful  things  may 
be  done  with  glasses ;  and  I  have  learnt,  adds  Cornelius, 
how  to  make  glasses  by  which  any  one  may  see  what  he 
pleases  at  a  very  great  distance1. 

From  geometry  we  turn  to  the  harmony  of  music ;  and, 
in  the  first  place,  a  chapter  of  recorded  marvels2  illustrates 

1  "  Et  ego  novi  ex  illis  miranda  conficere,  et  specula  in  quibus  quis  videre 
poterit  qusecunque  voluerit  a  longissima  distantia." 
9  Cap.  xxiv.  p.  civ. 


HIS  SECOND  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.         177 

the  mighty  power  of  sound.  Then  follows  the  ancient 
theory  concerning  the  harmonious  tones  and  motions  of 
the  heavens,  with  a  slight  discussion  on  the  music  of  the 
voice, — which  carries  subtle  soul  with  it  into  the  souls  of 
others, — the  mechanism  of  the  voice,  the  music  of  instru- 
ments, and  the  air  as  a  condition  necessary  to  the  per- 
ception of  all  sound  by  human  ears.  After  this  we  are 
told  what  sound  and  harmony  is  correspondent  with  each 
star1.  Saturn,  Mars,  and  the  Moon,  have  more  of  voice 
than  music :  and  to  Saturn  belong  hoarse,  heavy,  and  slow 
words  and  sounds ;  to  Mars,  rough,  sharp,  and  menacing 
ones;  while  there  is  observed  by  the  Moon  a  mean  between 
the  two.  Jupiter,  the  Sun,  Venus,  and  Mercury,  possess 
harmonies :  those  of  Jupiter  are  grave,  sober,  and  yet 
pleasant ;  those  of  Mercury,  more  careless,  various,  merry, 
and  pleasant,  with  a  certain  boldness.  The  ancients,  who 
used  four  strings  only,  assigned  them  to  the  four  elements ; 
the  bass  was  earth,  then  followed  water  and  fire,  and  air 
was  the  treble.  This  part  of  the  book  goes  very  minutely 
into  the  correspondence  of  the  musical  laws  with  all  the 
harmonies  of  nature,  explains  the  belief  that  a  harmonious 
set  of  musical  intervals  will  denote  the  distances  between 
the  planets,  and  discovers  also  a  musical  harmony  in  the 
relations  of  the  elements  to  one  another.  A  chapter  of 
some  length,  illustrated  with  seven  woodcuts2,  then  dis- 
plays some  of  the  proportion  and  harmony  in  a  man's 
body ;  and  a  chapter  follows  that,  upon  the  harmony  of 
the  soul.  Man  is  the  most  perfect  work  of  God,  the  sum 

1  Cap.  xxvi.  p.  clviii.  2  Cap.  xxvii.  p.  clx. 

VOL.  I.  N 


178  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

and  image  of  the  lesser  world ;  in  whom,  therefore,  with 
the  most  perfect  harmony,  are  contained  all  numbers, 
measures,  weights,  motions,  and  elements.  On  the  number 
of  his  fingers  has  arithmetic  been  built ;  measures  and 
proportions  were  invented  from  his  very  joints ;  temples 
and  palaces,  by  divine  order  the  Ark  of  Noah,  have  been 
constructed  in  proportion  to  man's  body,  which  is  the 
microcosm,  or  lesser  world,  that  images  the  macrocosm, 
or  whole  fabric.  There  is  no  sign  or  star  that  has 
not  correspondence  with  some  part  of  man.  The  whole 
measure  tends  to  roundness ;  yet  again,  let  a  man  stretch 
out  his  arms,  and  his  feet,  head,  and  hands  touch  the  four 
sides  of  a  perfect  square.  Let  him  stand  within  the  cir- 
cumference of  a  circle,  with  his  feet  so  much  parted  and 
his  arms  so  much  raised  as  that  feet,  fingers,  and  head 
touch  its  circumference,  then  by  these  parts  is  there  de- 
scribed within  that  circle  a  perfect  pentagon.  Man  is  next 
shown  in  various  other  positions,  which  display  the  geo- 
metrical and  arithmetical  harmony  of  his  proportions.  A 
very  minute  detail  of  proportions  follows,  which  descends 
even  to  such  particulars  as  that  the  second  joint  of  the 
middle  finger  is  in  length  equal  to  the  distance  from  the 
lower  lip  to  the  bottom  of  the  chin.  There  are  also 
proportions  of  solid  form,  proportions  of  musical  harmony, 
proportions  of  weight  (in  a  sound  man,  eight  of  blood, 
four  of  phlegm,  two  of  choler,  one  of  melancholy). 

The  motions,  also,  of  the  members  of  men's  bodies  answer 
to  the  celestial  motions,  and  every  man  hath  in  himself  the 


HIS  SECOND  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.         1Y9 

motion  of  his  heart,  which  answers  to  the  motion  of  the  sun, 
and,  being  diffused  through  the  arteries  into  the  whole  body, 
signifies  by  a  most  sure  rule,  years,  months,  days,  hours, 
and  minutes.  Moreover,  there  is  a  certain  nerve  found 
by  the  anatomists  about  the  nod  of  the  neck,  which  being 
touched  doth  so  move  all  the  members  of  the  body,  that 
every  one  of  them  stirs  according  to  its  proper  motion; 
by  which  like  touch  Aristotle  thinks  the  members  of 
the  world  are  moved  by  God.  The  application  of  the 
same  rule  of  harmony  to  the  several  parts  of  the  mind  is 
made  on  the  same  principle,  but  with  less  fulness  of 
detail. 

We  turn  next  to  the  harmonies  of  the  celestial  bodies. 
No  magical  work  is  to  be  undertaken  without  observa- 
tion of  them1,  and  particularly,  in  all  works,  of  the  moon, 
also  of  Mercury  the  messenger  between  the  higher  and 
the  lower  gods,  who  when  he  is  with  the  good  increases 
goodness,  and  when  with  the  bad  increases  evil.  "When 
planets  are  most  powerful — in  exaltation,  or  triplicity,  or 
term,  or  face — and  how  to  observe  and  know  the  temper 
of  the  fixed  stars,  Cornelius  discusses  in  the  next  two 
chapters,  after  which  we  get  specially  to  the  sun  and 
moon,  and  to  their  magical  considerations2.  They  rule  the 
heavens,  and  all  under  them  ;  the  sun,  lord  of  the  elements, 
the  moon,  mistress  of  increase  and  decrease.  The  sun  is 
consonant  to  God  ;  in  its  essence  is  the  Father  imaged,  in 
its  light  the  Son,  and  in  its  heat  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  the 

1  Cap.  xxix.  p.  clxxi.  2  Cap.  xxxii.  p.  cxliiii. 

N  2 


180  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

moon,  as  the  receptacle  of  heavenly  influences,  and  as  it 
were  the  wife  of  all  the  stars,  is  nearest  to  the  earth,  on 
which  she  pours  the  superior  influences  which  she  hath  re- 
ceived; and  by  this  planet,  on  account  of  her  familiarity 
and  propinquity,  a  stronger  influence  is  exercised  on  the 
inferiors  that  here  receive  her  power  in  a  stream. 

Now  to  the  moon,  measuring  the  whole  zodiac  in  twenty- 
eight  days,  there  were  appointed  by  the  wise  men  of  the 
Indians  and  most  ancient  astrologers  twenty-eight  man- 
sions1, and  in  each  the  moon  obtaineth  some  especial 
power.  The  first  is  called  Alnath,  or  the  Ram's  Horns  ; 
its  beginning  is  from  the  head  of  Aries,  and  it  causes  dis- 
cords, journeys.  The  second  is  Allothaim,  or  Albochan, 
the  Ram's  Belly;  its  beginning  is  from  the  twelfth  degree 
of  the  same  sign,  fifty-one  minutes,  twenty-two  seconds  ; 
it  conduces  to  the  finding  of  treasures,  the  retaining 
of  captives.  In  this  manner  Cornelius  goes  on  to  define 
the  whole  twenty  mansions,  in  which  lie  hidden  many 
secrets  of  the  wisdom  of  the  ancients,  by  the  which  they 
wrought  wonders  on  all  things  that  are  under  the  circle  of 
the  moon ;  and  they  attributed  to  every  mansion  its  re- 
semblances, images,  and  seals,  and  its  presiding  intelli- 
gences, and  they  did  work  by  the  virtue  of  them  after 
divers  manners. 

It  is  necessary,  also,  to  observe  the  true  movements  of 
the  heavenly  bodies  in  the  eighth  sphere,  and  to  take 
note  of  the  planetary  hours2,  the  hours  of  a  day  being 
apportioned  successively  by  astrologers  to  planets,  begin- 

2  Cap.  xxxiii.  p.  cxlv.  -  Cap.  xxxiiii.  p.  cxlvi. 


HIS  SECOND  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.         181 

ning  with  the  one  that  is  lord  of  the  day.  Thirteen 
chapters1  follow  on  the  images  by  which  power  may  be 
drawn  from  planets,  stars,  signs  of  the  zodiac,  and  houses 
of  the  moon.  All  images  are  powerful ;  St.  Thomas 
Aquinas  says,  in  his  book  De  Fato,  that  even  garments, 
houses,  fountains,  do  by  their  form  receive  a  certain  quali- 
fication from  the  stars.  So  certain,  images  on  seals,  ring?, 
glasses,  do  bring  certain  powers  down,  and  that  most  effica- 
ciously, if  such  seals,  rings,  or  glasses  be  made  at  a  fit 
time  of  material  fitly  chosen.  The  stars  in  the  heavens 
form  traceable  images  that  have  been  set  down  by  the 
Egyptians,  Indians,  and  Chaldeans,  who  have  for  this 
reason  placed  twelve  general  images  in  the  circle  of  the 
zodiac.  The  pictures  of  such  signs  acting  in  suitable 
triplicities,  are  powerful  :  thus,  Cancer,  Scorpio,  and 
Pisces,  because  they  constitute  the  watery  and  northern 
triplicity,  prevail  against  dry  and  hot  fevers.  Then  there 
are  also  thirty-six  images  placed  in  the  zodiac  according 
to  the  number  of  its  faces ;  Cornelius  describes  each,  and 
states  what  its  power  is.  Thus,  in  the  first  face  of  Aries, 
ascends  the  image  of  a  black  man,  clothed  in  a  white 
garment,  large-bodied,  reddish-eyed,  strong,  and  display- 
ing anger.  This  image  signifies  and  causes  boldness,  for- 
titude, loftiness  and  shamelessness.  Each  planet  has  a 
variety  of  images,  and  for  the  power  of  each  image  it  is 
proper  to  depict  it  on  a  stated  sort  of  stone,  metal,  &c.  Each 
image  so  depicted  represents  and  exerts  one  of  the  virtues 
of  the  planet.  Thus,  Saturn  ascending,  draw  upon  a  Ipad- 

1  Cap.  xxxv.-xlvii.  pp.  clxxvi.-clxxxix. 


182  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

stone  Saturn  as  a  man  -with  a  stag's  face,  and  camel's 
feet,  carrying  a  scythe  in  his  right  hand,  a  dart  in  his  left, 
and  sitting  on  a  dragon ;  that  image  was  expected  to  be  pro- 
fitable for  the  lengthening  of  life.  An  image  of  Saturn 
on  cast  metal,  as  a  beautiful  man,  was  promised  to  foretel 
things  to  come.  The  Egyptians  and  Phoenicians  did  use 
also  a  certain  image1,  the  head  and  tail  of  the  dragon  of 
the  moon  (cause  of  its  eclipses),  to  introduce,  where  it  was 
worn,  anguish,  infirmity,  and  misfortune.  They  made 
also  images  for  every  mansion  of  the  moon;  as,  for 
example,  in  the  first,  for  the  destruction  of  some  one,  they 
made  in  an  iron  ring  the  image  of  a  black  man  in  a 
garment  of  hair  and  girdled,  casting  a  small  lance  with  his 
right  hand ;  they  sealed  this  in  black  wax,  and  perfumed 
it  with  liquid  storax,  and  wished  some  evil  to  come.  Cor- 
nelius specifies  in  the  same  way  the  images  used  for  the 
other  twenty-seven  mansions.  He  adds  the  images  used 
to  obtain  virtue  from  the  chief  of  the  fixed  stars,  or  con- 
stellations :  as,  under  the  Pleiades,  they  made  the  image 
of  a  little  maiden,  or  the  figure  of  a  lamp ;  its  power  was 
said  to  increase  the  light  of  the  eyes,  to  raise  winds,  as- 
semble spirits,  reveal  secret  things. 

There  are  other  figures  formed  out  of  arrangements  of 
stars  which  are  ascribed  to  elements,  planets,  and  heavenly 
signs,  which  have  like  power  to  that  of  images,  and  which 
are  described  in  books  on  Geornancy.  Cornelius  shows 
some  of  them  to  his  reader. 

Two  chapters  follow  upon  the  magical  use  of  images 

1  Cap.  xlviii.  p.  clxxxix. 


HIS  SECOND  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.       183 

not  drawn  after  celestial  figures1,  but  according  to  the 
worker's  thought :  as  when  to  procure  love  one  makes 
images  embracing  one  another,  to  procure  damage,  broken 
images  of  that  which  we  would  destroy, — all  which  Albertus 
Magnus  describes  in  his  Speculum.  Such  images  are  made 
diversely  and  sometimes  buried,  sometimes  hung  on  a  tree 
to  wave  in  the  wind,  sometimes  within  a  chimney  to  be 
smoked,  sometimes  kept  with  the  head  downwards  and 
sometimes  with  the  head  up.  The  art  of  making  these  is 
astrological.  Thus,  for  gain,  let  there  be  made  an  image 
under  the  ascendant  of  the  nativity  of  the  man,  or  under 
the  ascension  of  that  place  to  which  you  would  appoint 
the  gain,  and  you  must  make  the  lord  of  the  second 
house,  which  is  in  the  house  of  substance,  to  be  joined 
with  the  lord  of  the  ascendant  in  the  trine  or  sextile, 
and  let  there  be  a  reception  amongst  them ;  you  must 
make  fortunate  the  eleventh  and  the  lord  thereof,  and,  if 
you  can,  put  part  of  the  fortune  in  the  ascendant  or  second; 
and  let  the  image  be  buried  in  that  place,  or  carried  from 
that  place,  to  which  you  would  appoint  the  gain. 

The  next  chapter2  is  on  characters,  deduced  out  of  geo- 
mantical  figures  from  the  true  characters  of  the  heavens, 
which  are  the  writing  of  the  angels,  Malachim,  describing 
in  the  sky  all  things  to  the  man  competent  to  read.  There 
are  also  characters  not  taken  from  celestials,  but  adapted, 
as  in  the  case  of  images  lately  described,  to  a  thought  of 
them  within  the  mind3.  In  this  way,  the  characters  of  the 

1  Cap.  xlix.  L,  pp.  cxci.-cxciiil  -  Cap.  li.  p.  cxciiii. 

3  Cap.  lii.  p.  cxcvi. 


184  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

Ram  and  Bull  were  taken  from  their  horns,  <yi  ^,  that  of 
Aquarius  from  waters,  y«,  and  so  with  the  rest.  And  the 
sign  of  Saturn  was  deduced  from  a  sickle,  that  of  Jupiter 
from  a  sceptre,  that  of  Mars  from  a  bolt  of  war,  of  Venus 
from  a  looking-glass,  of  Mercury  from  a  wand.  In  the 
same  way  characters  have  been  formed  to  represent  various 
combinations  of  signs,  stars,  and  natures. 

Of  all  operations  in  occult  science  there  is  not  one  that 
is  not  rooted  in  astrology1,  of  which  science,  since  "  huge 
volumes  are  everywhere  extant,"  Cornelius  does  not  think 
it  necessary  to  detail  the  principles.  By  the  use  of  dice 
made  under  certain  celestial  influences  future  destinies  may 
be  divined.  Nor  is  it  a  blind  chance  that  works  in  divi- 
nation by  lot3,  by  throwing  cockles,  opening  a  page  of 
Virgil,  or  in  other  ways.  For,  as  the  Platonists  teach, 
accident  can  be  in  no  case  the  prime  sufficient  cause,  we 
must  look  higher,  and  find  out,  therefore,  in  these  matters, 
a  cause  which  may  know  and  govern  the  effect.  Now  this 
is  not  material  but  immaterial,  and  may  be  in  men's  souls, 
in  departed  spirits,  in  celestial  intelligences,  or  in  God 
himself.  The  power  of  man's  own  mind  strongly  exerted 
may  control  dead  matter  and  direct  the  lot  aright,  but 
lest  such  exertion  proved  too  weak,  the  ancients  were 
used,  before  the  casting  of  the  lot,  by  sacred  performances 
to  summon  the  divine  intelligences  to  their  aid. 

Now  the  heavens  cannot  exercise  so  many  influences  as 
a  mere  body,  but  they  must  be  animated  by  a  living  soul, 
and  upon  the  soul  of  the  world  depends  the  vigour  of 

1  Cap.  liii.  p.  cxcviii.  -  Cap.  liiii.  p.  cxcix. 


HIS  SECOND  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.         185 

inferior  things.  This  doctrine  has  been  held  by  the  poets 
and  philosophers1,  and  is  confirmed  by  reason2.  The 
World  has  a  soul  and,  as  it  was  said  in  the  former  book, 
also  a  spirit.  For  it  would  be  absurd  to  assume  life  in  parts 
of  the  world,  as  flies  and  worms,  and  to  deny  life  and  soul 
to  the  entire  world  as  a  most  perfect  and  noble  body ;  to 
say  that  heavens,  stars,  elements  give  life  and  soul  to 
things  below,  yet  themselves  have  not  that  which  they 
give.  The  soul  of  the  world  and  the  celestial  souls  partake 
of  the  divine  reason3.  The  -reason  of  terrene  things  is 
in  the  earth,  of  watery  things  in  the  water,  each  part 
works  in  its  place,  and  hurts  made  in  each  are  by  itself 
repaired.  Shall  we,  having  reason,  say  that  souls  higher 
than  ours  have  it  not;  and  when,  as  saith  Plato,  the 
world  is  made  by  very  Goodness  itself,  as  well  as  it  was 
possible  to  make  it,  shall  we  deny  that  it  is  endowed  with 
not  only  life,  sense,  reason,  but  also  with  understanding. 
For  the  perfection  of  the  body  is  the  soul;  and  that  body 
is  more  perfect  which  hath  a  more  perfect  soul.  It  is 
necessary,  then,  seeing  celestial  bodies  are  most  per- 
fect, that  they  have  also  most  perfect  minds.  They 
partake,  therefore,  of  an  intellect  and  a  mind.  This  also 
the  Platonists  prove  by  the  perseverance  of  their  order 
and  tenor ;  because  motion  is  of  its  nature  free,  it  may 
easily  swerve  and  wander  now  one  way,  now  another, 
unless  it  be  ruled  by  an  intellect  and  a  mind,  and  that 
also  by  a  perfect  mind  foreseeing  from  the  beginning  the 
best  way  and  chief  end.  "  For  bodies  resist  not  a  most 
1  Cap.  lv.  p.  cc.  2  Cap.  Ivi.  p.  cci.  *  Cap.  Ivii.  p.  ccii. 


186  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

powerful  soul,  and  a  perfect  mind  doth  not  change  its 
counsel."  So  writes  the  youth;  and  who  shall  scorn  him 
if  he  saw  a  living  soul  bestowed  by  God  where  we  see 
what  we  are  too  apt  to  forget  ourselves  in  thinking  are 
dead  laws  of  divine  ordinance  ?  Thus  he  goes  on :  "  The 
soul  of  the  world,  therefore,  is  a  certain  one  thing  filling 
all  things,  bestowing  all  things,  binding  and  knitting 
together  all  things,  that  it  might  make  one  frame  of  the 
world,  and  that  it  might  be,  as  it  were,  one  instrument, 
making  of  many  strings  one  music,  sounding  from  three 
kinds  of  creatures,  intellectual,  celestial,  and  incorruptible, 
with  one  only  breath  and  life." 

Then  follows  a  chapter  on  the  Orphic  names  of  the 
celestial  spirits  ruling  man1 — names,  says  Cornelius,  not 
"of  evil  deceiving  spirits,  but  of  natural  and  divine 
powers,  distributed  to  the  world  by  the  true  God,  for  the 
service  and  profit  of  man,  who  knows  how  to  use  them." 
Then  follows  a  chapter  of  the  epithets  and  various  names 
given  to  each  of  the  seven  governors  of  the  world,  the 
Planets,  in  magical  speech3;  chiefly  they  are  those  used  by 
Latin  poets.  Finally,  in  the  sixtieth  and  last  chapter  of 
his  second  book  of  Occult  Science,  Cornelius  shows  how, 
by  his  aspiration  towards,  and  his  invocation  of,  superior 
things,  man  may  ascend  into  the  intelligible  world,  and 
become  like  to  the  more  sublime  spirits  and  intelligences. 
He  represents  man,  as  it  were,  ascending  Jacob's  ladder, 
on  which  angels  throng,  striving  to  reach  to  the  thoughts 
and  to  the  purity  of  those  who  are  above  it,  at  the  very 

1  Cap.  Iviii.  p.  cciii.  -  Cap.  lix.  p.  cciiii. 


HIS  SECOND  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.        187 

gate  of  heaven  ;  seeking  to  strike  one  end  of  the  chord  of 
harmony  which  runs  through  spiritual  realms,  each  one 
holier  and  purer  than  the  last,  and  which  shall  vibrate  at 
length  even  with  his  thought  before  the  throne  of  God. 
He  teaches  that  we  must  aspire  upward,  but  even  upward 
only  to  the  souls  of  things  ;  not  to  the  visible  glory  of  the 
sun,  the  king  of  stars,  but  to  the  soul  of  it,  and  become 
like  to  it,  and  comprehend  the  intelligible  light  thereof 
with  an  intellectual  sight,  as  the  sensible  light  with  a 
corporeal  eye.  But  while  seeking  this,  his  closing  counsel 
is,  that  "  in  the  first  place  we  must  implore  assistance  from 
the  First  Author,  and  pray  not  only  with  the  mouth  but 
with  a  religious  gesture  and  a  supplicating  soul — also 
abundantly,  incessantly,  sincerely — that  He  would  en- 
lighten our  minds,  and  remove  the  darkness  gathering 
upon  our  souls  by  reason  of  our  bodies." 


188  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 


CHAPTER  X. 

OF  THE  THIRD   AND   LAST   BOOK  OF   OCCULT   PHILOSOPHY. 

EARNEST  thoughts  closed  Cornelius  Agrippa's  Second 
Book  of  Magic,  and  an  earnest  theme  engages  him 
throughout  the  third.  It  is  upon  the  secrets  of  religion. 
He  begins  with  an  exaltation  of  piety1,  passes  then  to  an 
enforcement  of  the  rule  of  silence2,  observed  in  all  ages  as 
to  the  most  sacred  mysteries,  and  accepts  the  necessity  of 
a  reticence  on  his  own  part  as  regards  the  most  occult  and 
sacred  of  the  truths  that  wisdom  has  discovered.  The 
student  of  magic  must  by  the  same  rule  secrete,  and  more 
than  that,  must  dignify  himself3  by  a  forsaking  of  all 
sensual  pleasures,  and  by  seeking  all  means  that  encourage 
high  and  holy  contemplation,  so  that  he  may  purify  and 
exalt  his  intellect,  while  he  at  the  same  time  purifies  and 
subdues  his  flesh,  avoiding  contact  with  unclean  things, 
taking  part  with  a  true  reverence  and  with  a  strong 
faith  in  all  rites  of  the  Church,  and  labouring  in  all  things 
to  become  as  meet  as  man  may  be  for  the  companionship 
of  angels.  Magical  operations  are  ruled  by  Religion  or 

1  De  Occ.  Phil,  Lib.  iii.  cap.  i.  (ed.  cit)  p.  ccix.          *  Cap.  ii.  p.  ccix. 
3  Cap.  iii.  p.  ccxi. 


HIS  THIRD  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          189 

by  Superstition1.  Religion  is  a  steady  contemplation  of 
divine  things,  and  the  uniting  of  oneself  with  God  by 
good  works  and  household  worship.  It  is  obedience  to 
the  Church  as  a  mother,  and  to  God  as  a  father,  from 
whom  all  benefits  are  taken,  as  saith  the  Rabbi  Henitia, 
by  theft  if  not  with  thanks.  It  is  obedience  to  the 
teacher  of  the  nations,  who  said,  "  Whatsoever  you  shall 
do  in  word  or  deed,  do  all  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  giving  thanks  to  him,  and  to  God  the  Father  by 
him."  Every  religion  has  in  it  something  good,  for  it  is 
directed  to  our  Father  and  Creator;  and  though  God 
allows  of  one  religion  only,  yet  he  leaves  not  unrewarded 
those  who  have  performed  the  chief  duty  of  man,  if  not 
in  deed,  yet  in  intention.  Now  worship  that  is  different 
from  true  religion,  or  that  imitates  its  forms  but  contains 
not  its  true  meaning,  is  superstition,  as  in  the  excommu- 
nication of  locusts,  and  the  baptism  of  bells.  And  by  this 
method,  through  a  strong  will  and  belief,  Avonders  may  be 
worked,  superstition  working  by  credulity  as  true  religion 
works  by  faith.  But  in  superstition  there  is  evil,  and  the 
danger  of  yet  more  evil.  If  in  this  book  superstitious 
practices  are  described,  they  are  here  set  down  only  as 
records  of  error  from  which  to  elicit  truth. 

Religion  has  three  guides2 — Love,  Hope,  and  Faith. 
Love  is  the  chariot  of  the  soul — love  brings  us  near  to 
God,  gives  power  to  our  prayers.  Belief  that  is  faith  is 
above  science,  as  belief  that  is  credulity  is  below  science. 
It  is  the  root  of  miracles,  and  there  is  nothing  incredible 
1  Cap.  iiii.  p.  ccxiii.  "  Cap.  v.  p.  ccxv. 


190  CORKELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

for  him  who  believes  all  things  to  be  possible  with  God. 
Therefore,  our  mind  being  pure  and  divine,  inflamed  with 
a  religious  love,  adorned  with  hope,  by  faith  directed, 
placed  on  the  height  and  summit  of  the  human  soul, 
draws  truth  down  from  above.  So  we,  though  natural, 
come  to  perceive  things  that  are  above  nature,  and  by 
religion  alone  a  man  may  attain  to  power  over  spiritual 
things  and  shall  work  miracles1.  But  if  he  works  them 
by  the  sole  strength  of  his  spiritual  virtue,  if  he  persevere 
in  such  work,  he  cannot  live  long,  but  is  absorbed  by 
the  divine  power.  And  whoso  attempts  this,  being  im- 
pure, brings  judgment  down  on  his  own  head,  and  is 
delivered  over  to  the  evil  spirit  to  be  devoured.  No 
wonders  can  be  worked  by  him  who  knows  not  that  there 
is  a  supreme  God3;  and  among  the  heathens  Jupiter  was 
the  name  of  the  great  king  who  produced  the  soul  of  the 
world,  while  other  gods  were  secondary  gods,  or  second 
causes.  Augustine  and  Porphyry  testify  that  the  Platonists 
recognised  three  persons  in  God3 — the  Father,  the  Son,  or 
first  mind,  and  the  Spirit,  or  soul  of  the  world.  Agrippa's 
chapter  on  this  subject  contains  a  curious  account  of  the 
different  forms  of  belief  concerning  the  divine  nature,  re- 
corded as  having  been  entertained  of  old  time  in  various 
parts  of  the  world,  and  of  the  references  in  them  to  the 
Son  and  Spirit.  The  next  chapter4  devoutly  states,  in 
words  appointed  by  the  Church,  what  is  the  creed  of 
"  the  catholic  doctors  and  faithful  people  of  God." 

1  Cap.  vL-p.  ccxvi.         2  Cap.  vii.  p.  ccxix.        3  Cap.  viii.  p.  ccxxi. 
4  Cap.  ix.  p.  ccxxiii. 


HIS  THIRD  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.         191 


The  tenth  chapter  of  the  third  book  having  identified 
the  heathen  deities  with  attributes  called  by  the  Hebrews 
Numerations,  showing  analogies  between  the  Orphic 
Hymns  and  the  Cabala,  proceeds  to  describe  the  ten 
sephiroth  and  the  ten  divine  names  appertaining  to  them. 
Then  follows  a  cabalistical  chapter  on  the  divine  names, 
and  the  power  of  them,  including  notice  of  the  mystical 
properties  of  certain  sacred  words  with  which  even  the 
Pythagoreans  could  heal  diseases  of  the  mind  or  body. 
Also  Serenus  Samonicus  delivers,  among  precepts  of 
physic,  that  if  the  word  Abracadabra  be  written  as  is  here 
expressed, 


a 

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a 

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a 

b        r\a\ 

a 

b 

r 

a 

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a 

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a 

b       r    | 

a 

b 

r 

a 

" 

a 

d 

a 

b 

a 

b 

r 

a 

: 

a 

d 

a 

a 

b 

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a 

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d 

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.|. 

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a 

paper  or  parchment  so  inscribed,  and  hung  about  the 
neck,  will  cure  all  kinds  of  fever.  But  Rabbi  Hama,  in 
his  book  on  Speculation,  gives  a  sacred  seal,  composed  of 
divine  names,  more  efficacious,  since  it  cures  all  diseases 


192 


CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 


and  heals  all  griefs  whatsoever.     The  obverse  and  reverse 
of  it  are  as  here  depicted : 


HIS  THIRD  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          193 

But  all  this  must  be  written  by  a  most  holy  man  on  the 
purest  gold  or  virgin  parchment,  with  ink  made  of  the 
smoke  of  incense  or  of  consecrated  waxlights  mixed  with 
holy  water.  It  must  be  used  with  an  infallible  faith,  a 
constant  hope,  and  a  mind  lifted  to  communion  with 
Heaven.  Neither  let  any  man  marvel  at  this  power  of 
sacred  words,  through  which  God  worked  in  the  creation. 
The  influence  of  divine  names  flowing  through  middle 
causes  into  all  inferior  things1  is  next  discussed,  and  it  is 
shown  how  modern  -cabalists  among  the  Hebrews  cannot 
work  the  marvels  that  their  fathers  worked,  because  all 
things  are  now  obedient  to  the  one  divine  name,  which 
they  do  not  recognise.  The  ascription  in  Scripture  of 
the  names  of  limbs  to  the  diverse  and  manifold  powers  that 
abide  in  God  is  next  illustrated2.  Man,  it  is  said,  is 
made  in  the  divine  image,  with  such  limbs  as  representa- 
tives of  the  divine  powers,  as  signs  between  which  there 
is  kept  just  order  and  proportion;  whence  the  Mecubals 
of  the  Hebrews  say,  that  if  a  man  capable  of  the  divine 
influence  do  make  any  member  of  his  body  clean  and 
free  from  filthiness,  then  it  becomes  the  habitaculum  and 
proper  seat  of  the  secret  limb  of  God  and  of  the  power 
thereby  designated.  The  next  chapter  is  on  the  gods  of 
the  ancients,  as  described  by  their  philosophers,  and  de- 
tails the  several  places  and  countries  consecrated  to  them. 
It  is  then  shown3  that  the  Catholic  Church  believes  the 
stars  to  be  not  themselves  animated,  but  peopled  by  cer- 

1  Cap.  xiL  p.  ccxxxiiL  *  Cap.  xiiL  p.  ccxxxiiii. 

1  Cap.  xv.  p.  ccxxxviiL 
VOL.  I.  0 


194  CORNELIUS  AGEIPPA. 

tain  divine  souls  not  free  from  the  stain  of  sin.     Upon 
this  topic  various  authorities  are  quoted. 

But  of  intelligences,  angels,  and  infernal  or  subter- 
ranean spirits1,  there  are  angels  supercelestial,  who  work 
only  near  the  throne ;  angels  celestial,  who  rule  over  the 
spheres,  and  are  divided  as  to  order  and  nature,  according 
to  the  stars  over  which  they  have  rule.  Finally,  there  is 
a  third  class  of  angels,  who  are  ministers  of  grace  below, 
attend  invisibly  upon  us,  protect  us,  help  or  hinder  us,  as 
they  consider  fit.  These  are  divided  also  into  four  orders, 
according  with  the  four  elements  and  the  four  powers — 
mind,  reason,  imagination,  and  activity.  There  are  angels 
of  places,  as  of  woods  and  mountains,  whence  the  heathen 
drew  ideas  of  gods;  and  there  are  angels  diurnal,  noc- 
turnal, or  meridional.  There  are  as  many  legions  of 
these  angels,  it  is  said,  as  there  are  stars  in  heaven,  and  in 
each  legion  as  many  spirits.  Augustine  and  Gregory  say 
that  an  equal  number  of  unclean  spirits  correspond  to 
them.  Some  other  interpretations  are  given  of  their 
number  and  nature;  after  which  the  youth  writes  again 
an  orthodox  chapter,  to  correct  any  appearances  of  heresy, 
inscribed  "  Of  these  according  to  the  Theologians."  The 
next  is  a  long  chapter  on  the  various  or.ders  of  devils, 
which,  as  the  subject  was  a  dangerous  one  in  a  book  on 
what  would  be  denounced  as  the  black  art,  is  theological 
throughout,  but  shows  a  difference  of  opinion  among 
theologians  as  to  their  origin  and  classification.  Some 
think  they  are  all  fallen  from  light,  others  describe  them 

1  Cap.  xvi.  p.  ccxxxiiii. 


HIS  THIRD  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.         195 

as  all  black,  and  arrange  them  in  nine  companies,  to  the 
third  of  which  belongs  "  that  devil  Theutus,  who  taught 
cards  and  dice;"  while  of  the  six  demons  of  the  air,  the 
chief — prince  of  the  power  of  the  air — is  "Meririm:  he 
is  the  meridian  devil,  a  boiling  spirit,  a  devil  raging  in 
the  south."  Inquest  is  then  held  upon  the  bodies  of 
devils1.  The  next  chapter  is  on  the  annoyance  caused  by 
creatures  of  this  sort,  and  upon  the  way  of  obtaining  by 
a  pure  and  holy  life  the  sympathy  and  aid  of  purer  spirits 
who  excel  them  in  authority  and  power.  It  is  then 
shown  that,  by  paying  regard  to  the  kind  of  good  genius 
we  desire,  whether  solary  or  jovial,  or  any  other,  we  may 
seek  its  special  help,  and  have  from  it  help  only  according 
to  the  influences  in  connexion  with  which  it  exists. 

Every  man  hath  a  threefold  demon2:  one  holy,  which 
directs  the  soul  and  puts  good  thoughts  into  the  mind; 
one  of  nativity — his  genius — descending  from  the  stars 
which  ruled  his  birth:  and  some  think  that  the  soul  as  it 
comes  down  into  the  body  chooses  and  brings  with  it  a 
genius  for  guide :  they  who  have  a  fortunate  genius  are, 
it  is  said,  born  to  good  luck;  the  third  demon  that 
attends  a  man  is  that  of  profession,  namely,  one  pertaining 
to  the  profession  that  he  makes  of  sect  or  calling  secretly 
desired  by  his  mind,  and  chosen  when  the  mind  is  able  to 
take  dispositions  on  itself.  According  to  the  nobleness  of 
the  profession  and  a  man's  earnestness  therein  is  the  dignity 
and  power  of  his  demon ;  and  should  he  change  his  pro- 
fession, he  must  change  his  demon  also.  If  a  profession 

1  Cap.  xix.  p.  ccxh-fi.  *  Cap.  xrii.  p.  cclii. 

02 


196  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

suit  my  nature,  then  its  demon  agrees  with  my  genius,  and 
my  inner  life  is  the  more  peaceable,  my  outer  life  more 
prosperous.  If  I  undertake  a  profession  contrary  to  my 
genius,  I  shall  be  troubled  with  disagreeing  guides  and 
helpers.  Let  me  know,  therefore,  my  good  genius  and 
what  its  nature  is.  Having  found  in  what  path  it  is 
most  able  to  lead  me  forward,  let  me  direct  my  thoughts 
chiefly  to  that.  Jacob  excelled  in  strength,  Phineas  in 
zeal,  Solomon  in  knowledge,  Peter  in  faith,  John  in 
charity,  Magdalen  in  contemplation,  Martha  in  officious- 
ness.  Follow  not,  however,  the  bent  of  thy  genius  if  it 
disagree  with  thy  profession,  when  that  is  holiest  and  best 
which  the  demon  of  nativity  opposes,  that  mean  which  it 
seeks.  Follow  the  better  path,  and  thou  shalt  at  some 
time  perceive  that  it  is  well. 

The  means  by  which  angels  converse  are  called  the 
tongues  of  angels1  by  Saint  Paul;  we  know  not  how  they 
speak,  or  how  they  hear,  yet  there  is  a  spiritual  body  pos- 
sessed by  a  demon,  everywhere  sensible,  that  can  drink 
knowledge  in  at  every  pore,  as  sponges  drink  in  water. 
Then  follows  a  chapter  containing  the  names  of  spirits — 
and  their  addresses  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  names  of  the  stars, 
signs,  elements,  and  corners  of  the  heaven  in  which  they 
dwell  as  masters. 

The  twenty-fifth  chapter  is  on  the  cabalistical  method 
of  deducing  names  of  angels  out  of  Sacred  Writ,  and  in- 
cludes those  tables  used  for  the  commutation  of  letters, 
whereof  the  use  is  known  already  to  the  reader.  A  method 

1  Cap.  xxiii.  p.  ccliiii. 


HIS  THIRD  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          197 

is  then  explained  of  finding  out  the  names  of  spirits  from 
the  stars,  by  fitting  the  shape  of  a  Hebrew  letter  over  such 
of  them  as  it  will  cover.  Some  tables  are  then  given  and 
explained,  which  show  how  to  calculate  the  names  of 
spirits  written  in  the  sky,  by  a  strange  index  compounded 
of  Hebrew  characters  and  planetary  or  zodiacal  signs1. 
There  is  a  way  of  naming  spirits  from  the  stars  or  signs 
over  which  they  are  set, — as  from  Aries,  Ariel,  which  is 
in  other  languages  than  Latin,  Teletiel,  Betuliel,  Masniel, 
and  so  forth,  all  these  names  being  used,  but  those  formed 
from  the  most  sacred  languages  most  potent. 

The  next  three  chapters  are  upon  sacred  characters, 
which  contain,  in  a  form  mystical  to  us,  divine  knowledge 
and  power.  They  are  ancient  hieroglyphics,  whereof 
the  origin  is  figurative;  characters,  or  letters,  found  by 
cabalists  among  the  stars;  as  well  as  two  other  alpha- 
bets used  by  them,  one  of  them  called  Malachim,  and  one 
the  Passing  of  the  River.  They  also  divide  the  twenty- 
seven  Hebrew  letters  into  three  classes  and  nine  chambers 
representing  mysteries,  blend  and  again  dissect  them. 
But  let  it  be  understood  that  spirits  are  pure  intellect, 
and  cannot  be  marked  with  any  figures,  nor  do  any  marks 
we  make  belong  to  them,  or  draw  them,  as  marks  only; 
but  we  take  those  marks  to  represent  their  spiritual 
power,  and  by  strong  belief  and  veneration,  growing  to 
ecstatical  adoration  of  the  pure  intelligences  we  have  so 
expressed,  we  give  life  from  our  own  soul  to  our  material 
expression,  and,  by  undoubting  hope  and  love,  do  in  the 

1  Cap.  xxv.  p.  cclvL 


198  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

spirit  and  in  truth  receive  the  influences  we  desire. 
Some  of  these  characters  have  not  been  deduced  by  any 
of  the  means  aforesaid,  but  communicated  by  direct  reve- 
lation, as  when  the  sign  of  the  cross  was  shown  to  Con- 
stantine  with  the  inscription,  "  In  hoc  vince." 

The  summoning  of  good  spirits  is  easier  than  the  dis- 
missal of  them,  and  it  is  not  difficult,  by  certain  forms 
and  the  use  of  herbs  or  music  suitable,  in  places  fre- 
quented by  them,  to  cause  the  spirits  that  are  always 
near  the  earth  to  appear.  Such  are  the  fairies  of  the 
fields,  the  naiads  of  the  streams,  the  nymphs  of  the 
ponds  and  marshes,  the  dodonse  who  live  in  acorns,  and 
the  paleae  who  lurk  in  fodder.  They  are  easily  allured, 
most  easily  by  those  who  are  single-minded,  innocent, 
and  credulous,  wherefore  they  are  seen  most  commonly 
by  children,  women,  and  poor  rustics.  They  are  not 
offensive  to  the  good,  but  noxious  to  the  wicked ;  and  all 
the  more  evil  sort  may  be  made  impotent  by  those  who 
meet  them  with  a  strength  of  right  more  perfect  than 
their  strength  of  wrong.  Of  adjurations,  of  the  spirits 
corresponding  to  objects  of  old  hero-worship,  called  ani- 
mastical — or  by  the  Hebrew  theologians,  Issiin — of  mortal 
and  terrestrial  gods,  the  next  chapters  speak1 ;  and  then  is 
discussed  the  creation  of  man  in  the  Divine  image,  a  long 
chapter,  to  which  the  theologians  and  cabalists  contri- 
bute something,  Plato  more — the  world  the  image  of  God, 
and  man  the  image  of  the  world.  The  spirit  of  it  has 
been  expressed  already  in  this  sketch  of  Agrippa's  doc- 

1  Caps.  xxxuL-xaacy.  pp.  cclxxx.-cclxxxiii. 


HIS  THIRD  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          199- 

trine.  In  what  way  body  and  soul  are  joined  by  the 
celestial  vehicle  in  which  the  soul  at  first  descends,  and 
which  some  call  the  chariot  of  the  soul,  is  then  explained 
with  curious  minuteness.  Then  man's  body  having  been 
formed,  and  the  soul  joined  to  it,  we  are  shown1  what 
gifts  are  streamed  into  it,  through  several  planets,  and 
how  the  temperament,  whether  mercurial  or  jovial,  is  de- 
termined. It  is  shown,  also,  what  gifts  come  from  the 
thrones,  what  from  the  dominations,  what  from  the  che- 
rubim, or  rather,  what  through  each  of  these  from  God. 

Chapter  the  thirty-ninth  treats  of  the  origin  of  evil. 
How  can  evil  come  from  a  good  source?  It  does  not,  any 
more  than  blear  eyes  are  the  fault  of  light,  display  the  fault 
of  justice.  Evil  material  receiving  holy  influences  turns 
them  to  its  hurt;  but  this  is  due  not  to  the  error  of  the 
superiors,  but  to  the  baser  and  corruptible  material  of  the 
inferiors;  and  the  corrupt  element  in  a  man's  soul  is  sin. 
Only  because  of  this  can  Saturn,  with  a  holy  ray,  dispose 
to  anguish,  obstinacy,  blasphemy;  or  Mars  excite  to  arro- 
gance and  wrath.  If  the  ray  worked  on  a  pure  soul,  not 
upon  the  sin  in  an  impure  one,  nothing  grievous  would 
arise  out  of  its  operation;  Saturn  would  make  sound 
heads  steadier,  and  Mars  warm  generous  hearts. 

Again,  there  is  a  divine  character  imprinted  upon  each 
of  us2,  whereby  we  may  work  marvels.  Animals  shrink 
from  the  bold  front  of  man,  and  elephants  have  obeyed 
even  children.  Therefore  this  character  is  imprinted  on 
man  from  the  divine  idea  which  the  cabalists  call  Pahad. 

1  Cap.  xxxviii.  p.  ccxc.  *  Cap.  si.  p.  ccxciii. 


200  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

That  is  the  seal  by  which  a  man  is  feared.  There  is  also 
another  seal  imprinted  upon  some,  by  reason  of  which 
they  inspire  love.  That  is  called  Hesed. 

The  next  is  the  longest  chapter  in  the  whole  work, 
upon  a  topic  that  had  been  overlaid  by  the  speculations 
of  all  ages.  It  is  entitled  "  What  concerning  man  after 
death ;  diverse  opinions."  Perceptions  of  the  truth  pro- 
bably exist  in  the  opinions  of  the  ancients.  As  he  who 
lives  by  the  sword,  shall,  it  was  said,  die  by  the  sword, 
so  do  the  deaths  of  many  answer  to  their  lives,  and  so  does 
the  state  of  all  men  after  death.  Yet  do  the  cabalists 
refuse  the  doctrine  of  Pythagoras,  that  souls  which  have 
become  bestial  take  bestial  forms ;  they  say,  on  the  con- 
trary, that  they  return  to  earth  in  human  frames,  and 
thrice  have  the  opportunity  of  life  thus  granted  them. 
Sometimes  the  souls  of  the  wicked  reanimate  their  pol- 
luted corpses,  as  places  of  punishment.  Such  power  evil 
spirits  have.  But  when  the  body  returns  earth  to  earth, 
the  spirit  returns  to  God  that  gave  it,  and  this  spirit  is 
the  mind,  the  pure  intelligence  that  was  incapable  of  sin 
while  in  the  flesh,  however  sinned  against  by  passions  of 
the  soul  and  gross  delusions  of  the  body.  Then  if  the 
soul  has  lived  justly  it  accompanies  the  mind,  and  soul 
and  mind  together  work  in  the  world  the  righteous  will 
of  God,  partaking  of  his  power.  But  the  souls  that  have 
done  evil,  parted  after  death  from  the  mind,  wander  with- 
out intelligence,  subject  to  all  the  wild  distresses  of  un- 
regulated passion,  and  by  the  affinity  they  have  acquired 
for  the  grossness  of  corporeal  matter,  assimilate  to  them- 


HIS  THIRD  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.         201 

selves  and  condense,  as  in  a  fog,  material  particles, 
through  which  they  become  sensible  again  of  bodily  pain 
and  discomfort.  It  is  believed  also  that  the  souls  of  just 
Christians  preach  to  the  souls  of  the  just  Pagans  salvation 
in  the  name  of  Christ.  Of  this  tenor  seems  to  be  the 
belief  of  Cornelius ;  he  speaks  of  manes,  lares,  and 
lemures,  but  with  those  Christians  who  revel  in  gross 
images  of  vindictive  torture  after  death  he  shows  no  sym- 
pathy at  all.  He  sees  the  sorest  punishment  to  the  base 
soul  in  its  own  baseness;  and  as  to  the  literal  interpreta- 
tion of  the  fires  of  hell,  he  quotes  with  a  marked  approba- 
tion these  words  of  Augustine:  "It  is  better  to  be  in 
doubt  concerning  secret  things  than  to  dispute  about 
them  as  uncertain.  I  do  not  doubt,  for  example,  that  we 
are  to  believe  that  rich  man  to  be  in  the  heat  of  suffering, 
and  that  poor  Lazarus  in  the  cool  shade  of  joy;  but  what 
I  am  to  understand  by  that  infernal  fire,  that  bosom  of 
Abraham,  that  tongue  of  the  rich,  that  finger  of  the  poor, 
that  thirst  of  the  tormented,  that  drop  by  which  it  can  be 
cooled,  will  scarcely  be  discovered  by  the  patience  of  re- 
search, never  by  the  impatience  of  contention." 

Souls  after  death  remember  the  past,  and  retain  accord- 
ing to  their  nature  more  or  less  of  attraction  towards  the 
bodies  they  inhabited,  or  other  flesh  and  blood.  This  is 
most  true  of  those  souls  whose  bodies  are  unburied,  or 
were  subject  to  violence ;  as  in  the  case  of  malefactors,  and 
about  places  of  execution,  or  places  where  slain  bodies 
lie,  many  such  spirits  collect  by  choice,  and  more  are 
banned  to  them.  Therefore,  in  evoking  spirits  of  the 


202  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

dead1,  such  places  are  to  be  chosen,  or  churchyards  or 
other  ground,  to  which  these  spirits  most  resort;  and  in 
the  incantation  flesh  and  blood  must  be  used,  taken  from 
a  person  killed  by  violence,  since  it  is  with  corporeal 
vapours,  also  with  eggs,  milk,  honey,  oil,  and  flour,  that 
departed  souls  are  drawn  as  by  the  renewal  of  a  broken 
link.  Now  they  who  use  such  conjurations,  because  they 
perform  wonders  only  by  or  upon  corpses,  are  called 
Necromancers;  and  there  are  two  kinds  of  necromancy — 
necyomantia,  when  a  corpse  is  animated ;  scyomantia, 
when  only  a  shade  is  summoned.  But  for  the  reunion  of 
souls  with  bodies  occult  knowledge  is  required,  to  which 
no  man,  except  by  the  direct  gift  of  Heaven,  can  attain. 

The  next  chapter2  is  on  the  power  of  the  soul,  which 
consists  of  mind,  reason,  and  idolum.  The  mind,  of 
which  the  light  proceeds  from  God,  illuminates  the 
reason,  which  again  flows  into  the  idolum,  the  power 
which  gives  life  to  the  body,  receives  sensations,  and  pro- 
cures for  the  thoughts  bodily  expression.  In  the  idolum, 
again,  are  two  powers — phantasy,  before  described,  and 
diffused  natural  sense.  Now  the  mind  only  is,  by  nature, 
divine,  eternal;  the  reason  is  airy,  durable;  the  idolum, 
more  corporeal,  left  to  itself,  perishes.  And  of  the  divine 
light,  which  is  communicated  not  to  all  men  in  the  same 
degree3,  by  efforts  of  pious  aspiration  some  men  have 
obtained  so  full  a  ray,  that  it  has  poured  through  the 
reason  into  the  subtle  substance  of  the  idolum,  and  has 

1  Cap.  xlii.  p.  ccciiii.  *  Capi  xuji  p>  cccyi 

3  Cap.  xliiu.  p.  cccis. 


HIS  THIRD  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.         203 

become  manifest  in  its  more  corporeal  essence,  as  with  a 
visible  radiance,  so  that  the  whole  body,  or  the  nobler 
part  of  it,  appears  to  shine.  So  shone  the  face  of  Moses 
when  he  came  down  from  the  mountain;  so  have  the 
saints  also  been  sometimes  transfigured.  Yet  there  are 
some  men  altogether  destitute  of  mind,  and  their  souls 
wanting  the  immortal  part  must  perish,  though  they  are 
to  be  joined  to  their  bodies  again  in  the  resurrection. 
Happy  is  he  who  can  increase  the  light  of  heaven  in  his 
mind,  for  by  it  he  can  work  marvels.  Cornelius  dwells 
again  on  the  power  that  grows  out  of  holy  purpose, 
earnest  striving,  and  shows  by  an  instance  how  the  soul 
may  rise  superior  to  bodily  concernment.  Anaxarchus 
being  thrown  into  a  stone  basin,  and  pounded  with  iron 
pestles  by  order  of  the  tyrant  of  Cyprus,  is  said  to  have 
cried  "Pound  away,  pound  away  at  my  dress;  you  have 
not  yet  bruised  Anaxarchus."  Thereupon  the  tyrant 
ordering  his  tongue  to  be  cut  out,  the  philosopher  imme- 
diately bit  it  off  and  spat  it  into  the  tyrant's  face. 

Eight  chapters  follow1  upon  various  forms  of  prophetic 
power.  There  is  such  power  by  vacation  of  the  body 
when  the  spirit  is  enabled  to  transcend  its  bounds,  and  as 
a  light  escaped  from  a  lantern  to  spread  over  space ;  and 
there  is  the  descent  of  a  divine  power  imparting  itself  to 
the  mind.  These  forms  of  it  are  seen  in  prophetic  fury, 
in  rapture,  and  in  prophetic  dreams.  The  fury  is  a 
celestial  illumination  obtained  by  liberation  of  the  mind 
from  the  restrictions  of  the  body;  and  the  philosophers 

1  Cap.  xlv.-lii.  p.  cccs.-cccsxii 


204  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

have  described  four  forms  of  it.  One  proceeds  from  the 
muses.  Each  of  the  nine  muses  gives  prophetic  power  to 
a  certain  class  of  objects;  the  muses  act  severally  through 
the  seven  planets,  the  whole  heaven  of  stars,  and  the 
primum  mobile,  or  universal  sphere.  The  last  gives  power 
to  the  most  occult  mysteries  and  intelligences;  the  lowest, 
which  acts  through  the  moon,  gives  the  prophetic  powers 
that  are  found  sometimes  even  in  stocks  and  stones.  The 
second  of  these  furies  proceeds  from  Dionysos,  the  third 
from  Apollo,  and  the  fourth  from  Venus ;  each  is  de- 
scribed from  the  writings  of  the  ancients.  Then  are  de- 
scribed rapture  and  ecstasy,  which  represent  the  power 
of  the  soul  by  a  continued  yearning  heavenward  from  a 
pure  body,  to  be  carried  out  of  its  house  in  the  flesh,  to 
stand  apart  from  it  for  a  certain  time,  pervading,  as  a 
light  pervades  the  air,  all  space,  and  with  space  compre- 
hending all  time  also.  Of  prophetic  dreams  there  are 
four  kinds:  those  which  occur  in  the  morning  between 
sleeping  and  waking,  those  which  relate  to  another  person, 
those  which  include  in  the  dream  its  own  interpretation, 
and,  lastly,  those  which  are  repeated,  as  said  Joseph,  "  for 
that  the  dream  was  doubled  unto  Pharaoh  twice;  it  is 
because  the  thing  is  established  by  God,  and  God  will 
shortly  bring  it  to  pass."  But  with  prophetical  dreams 
there  is  more  or  less  of  accidental  and  vain  matter  always 
mixed;  neither  is  any  dream  prophetical  except  by  the 
influence  of  the  celestials,  with  whom  alone  is  knowledge 
of  the  future ;  and  he  who  would  divine  by  dreams,  must 
sleep  on  a  clean  bed  in  a  pure  chamber  that  has  been 


HIS  THIRD  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.          205 

exorcised  and  sanctified,  his  body  must  be  free  from  the 
vapours  of  gross  food  and  from  the  distorting  influence 
of  sin.  Retiring  so  to  rest  he  must  pray  for  the  counsel 
he  desires,  and  if  his  faith  suffice  he  will  obtain  it.  There 
is  a  prophetical  power  also  in  the  casting  of  lots  and  other 
such  observations,  which  the  ancient  fathers  used,  but 
never  lightly  or  irreverently,  since  they  could  obtain  an 
omen  from  on  high,  not  from  the  dead  matter  used,  but 
by  the  power  of  pure  souls  desiring  knowledge  through  it. 
Thus  it  appears  that  sacred  oracles  can  be  received 
only  by  those  who  have  rightly  disciplined  their  souls  and 
bodies,  and  who  make  use  of  all  sacred  rites  appointed  for 
the  strengthening  of  virtue.  To  show  in  what  this  disci- 
pline consists  is  the  remaining  purpose  of  the  book.  The 
spirit  of  it  is  that  which  we  have  seen  animating  the 
whole  body  of  doctrine.  Man  is  the  temple  of  the  Deity : 
he  can  attain  to  nothing  worthy  without  striving  step  by 
step  upon  the  way  to  purity1,  subduing  all  those  powers 
of  the  flesh  that  war  against  the  soul,  engaged  in  constant 
contemplation  of  divine  perfection,  constant  effort  to 
approach  it.  To  purify  himself  he  must  become  in  all 
things  clean2,  most  clean  of  all  in  heart  and  soul.  He 
must  not  exceed  the  necessities  of  the  body,  he  must  be 
abstinent  from  all  that  overclouds  the  mind,  temperate  in 
all  things,  and  dwell  much  apart  from  the  animal  crowd  of 
men  in  contemplation  of  celestial  things,  of  angels  and 
intelligences,  working  out  the  will  of  God3.  But  the 

1  Cap.  liil  p.  cccxxii.  »  Cap.  liiii.  p.  cccxxffi. 

»  Cap.  Iv.  p.  cccxxv. 


206  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

chief  part  of  inward  purification  is  repentance1,  as  even 
Seneca  has  said  in  Phyeste,  that  the  man  who  repents  is 
almost  innocent.  There  is  also  abundant  evidence  in 
Scripture  of  the  efficacy  of  almsgiving  upon  which  the 
philosophers  appear  to  have  said  little  or  nothing. 

Upon  the  consideration  of  these  means  of  inward  purifi- 
cation follow  a  few  chapters  on  extrinsic  lielps,  as  by  the 
ministries  of  the  church,  baptism,  exorcism,  benediction; 
and  it  appears  certain  that  material  things  can  become  active 
even  on  the  soul,  as  with  that  fire  in  Sicily,  whereof  Wil- 
liam of  Paris  witnesses  that  it  doth  cruelly  hurt  the  souls, 
but  does  not  affect  the  bodies  of  those  who  approach  it.2 
By  vows  and  signs  of  adoration3  the  soul  may  be  helped 
if  it  be  striving  inwardly,  but  only  when  it  is  striving 
Godward  and  towards  things  that  are  good.  Prayer  will 
not  extort  from  God  what  is  unjust.  Cornelius  describes 
next  many  recorded  forms  of  oblation  and  sacrifice4.  He 
speaks  of  them  as  typical,  as  helps  to  prayer,  because  they 
are  a  second  prayer,  the  petition  urged  by  the  beseecher 
first  out  of  his  heart  and  then  in  the  form  of  an  emblem 
which  encourages  his  heart,  and  adds  expression  to  his 
words.  All  heathen  offerings  have  been  abolished,  and 
their  whole  meaning  is  concentred  in  the  emblem  of  the 
Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  There  remain  but  two 
true  sacrifices — that  of  our  Lord  on  the  Cross  for  the  re- 
mission of  sin,  and  the  sacrifice  of  a  man's  own  heart, 
pure  and  contrite,  to  the  God  by  whom  that  offering  is 
not  despised. 

1  Cap.  Ivi.  p.  cccxxvii.  2  Cap.  Ivii.  p.  cccxxviii. 

*  Cap.  Iviii.  p.  cccxxix.        «  Cap.  lix.  p.  cccxxxi. 


HIS  THIRD  BOOK  OF  OCCULT  PHILOSOPHY.         207 

In  the  same  spirit  the  youth  treats  of  invocations  and 
rites1;  describes  the  modes  of  invocation2  and  of  con- 
secration, with  the  reason  of  them3;  describes  how  places 
are  sacred  when  they  are  of  divine  choice  and  ap- 
pointment, consecrated  by  divine  acceptance  of  man's  pious 
wish;  and  sacred  mysteries  are  those  things  to  which,  as 
is  the  case  with  sacred  names  and  characters,  the  divine 
power  has  communicated  occult  virtue.  There  are  sacred 
mysteries  connected  also  with  particular  places  and  parti- 
cular times,  as  with  the  days  called  black  days  by  the 
Romans4.  The  sixty-fourth  chapter  of  the  book,  which 
is  the  last,  contains  many  observations  upon  rites  and 
forms,  incense,  and  such  matters,  partly  drawn  from  the 
books  of  Moses,  partly  from  the  classics,  and  contains 
many  odd  stories  told  upon  the  testimony  of  the  ancients. 

We  know  now  the  spirit  in  which  all  these  things  are 
set  on  record  by  the  young  philosopher.  He  concludes 
his  chapter  with  an  amplification  of  the  warning,  which 
might  be  the  text  of  his  three  Books  of  Occult  Science, 
"  In  all  things  have  God  before  your  eyes."  He  adds,  how- 
ever, formally,  upon  a  last  page,  "  The  conclusion  of  the 
whole  work5."  It  is  to  say  that  he  has  endeavoured  so  to 
disperse  his  intention  through  it  as  to  make  it  clear  to  the 
wise,  though  it  will  remain  a  secret  to  the  foolish.  "  For 
you  only  I  have  written,  whose  souls  are  uncorrupted  and 
confirmed  in  a  right  way  of  life  ;  in  whom  a  chaste  and 
modest  mind,  a  faith  unwavering,  fears  God  and  worships 
Him;  whose  hands  are  removed  from  all  wickedness  and 

1  Cap.  Ix.  p.  cccxxxiiii.  »  Cap.  Ixi.  p.  cccxxxv. 

3  Cap.  Ixii.  p.  cccxxxvi       *  Cap.  Ixiii.  p.  cccxxxviii.       *  P.  cccxlvi. 


208  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

crime;  who  live  with  decency,  sobriety,  and  modesty:  for 
you  only  shall  be  able  to  find  the  doctrine  set  apart  for 
you,  and  penetrate  the  Arcana  hidden  among  many 
riddles."  To  the  malevolent  and  foolish,  he  adds,  it  will 
be  only  a  multiplication  of  confusion.  "Let  none  be 
angry  with  me  because  I  have  concealed  the  truth  of  this 
science  in  a  net  of  riddles,  and  dispersed  it  in  sundry 
places,  for  it  is  not  hidden  from  the  wise,  but  from  the 
depraved  and  wicked :  and  I  have  written  it  in  language 
that  will  of  necessity  keep  it  a  secret  from  the  ignorant, 
but  make  it  clearer  to  the  cultivated  intellect." 
So  the  work  ends. 


HOW  FAR  WAS  CORNELIUS  A  CONJURER  ?          209 


CHAPTER  XL 

TWO  MONKS. 

FROM  the  preceding  sketch  it  has  been  intended  that 
the  reader  should  obtain,  within  a  narrow  space,  nearly  as 
true  a  knowledge  of  Cornelius  Agrippa's  Three  Books 
of  Occult  Philosophy  as  would  be  got  by  reading  them 
in  detail.  They  alone  constitute  him  a  conjurer;  upon 
them  alone  is  based  the  popular  impression  fastened  to  his 
name — upon  them,  and  upon  calumnies  invented  by  the 
priests.  In  the  outline  of  the  books  here  given  absurdities 
have  not  been  softened  down,  indeed  they  may  have 
been  put  forward  unduly ;  they  mark,  however,  the 
ignorance,  not  of  the  man,  but  of  the  age  in  which  he 
wrote,  and  of  which  he  had  compassed  the  false  know- 
ledge. All  is  put  to  a  wise  use;  the  science  halts  over 
the  earth,  but  the  philosophy  flies  heavenward.  Of 
the  three  books,  it  may  be  said,  generally,  that  the 
first  is  Platonic,  the  second  Pythagorean,  the  third 
Cabalistical,  but  that  the  three  philosophies  are  modified 
and  fused  into  one  system,  under  the  influence  of  a  devout 

VOL.  I.  p 


210  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

study  of  the  Gospel.  The  opinions  ascribed  to  Pythagoras 
were,  of  course,  to  be  had  only  from  Aristotle  (who  cites 
Pythagoras  but  once,  and  refers  constantly  to  the  Pytha- 
goreans) and  from  the  fragments  of  Philolaus,  which 
Cornelius  had  probably  not  seen;  but  there  were  plenty 
of  forged  Pythagorean  treatises,  and  there  was  much 
Pythagorean  matter  in  the  writings  of  those  Alexandrian 
Neo-Platonics,  who,  as  before  said,  were  drawn  upon  by 
the  founders  of  the  Jewish  Cabalism.  In  the  writings, 
therefore,  of  the  Neo-Platonics,  and  especially  of  Plotinus 
and  lamblichus,  whom  Cornelius  Agrippa  studied  well, 
Ave  find  more  than  elsewhere  of  the  groundwork  of  this 
treatise  on  Occult  Philosophy.  Even  the  aspiration  God- 
ward,  by  contempt  of  the  flesh,  to  which  Cornelius  gives 
earnest  Christian  expression,  was,  in. a  heathen  form,  the 
doctrine  of  the  Alexandrian  philosophers.  Plotinus  would 
not  have  his  picture  taken  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of 
his  mere  flesh,  nor  would  he  make  known  the  time  or 
place  of  such  a  mean  event  as  his  own  birth  into  the 
world  of  matter.  Cornelius  did  not  adopt  the  doctrine  in 
this  temper;  but  it  is,  nevertheless,  right  to  remember 
thnt  it  was  the  philosophy  of  Plato  tempered  in  Egypt 
with  some  orientalism,  that  upon  the  revival  of  Greek 
studies  awoke  aspirations  in  the  minds  of  scholars.  This 
taught  them  to  rise  above  the  gross  and  sensual  delusions 
of  their  time,  and  to  compare  the  spiritual  religion,  which, 
the  new  Platonists  said,  had  been  in  all  ages  the  soul  of 
true  philosophy,  with  the  degradation  of  all  holiness  by 
ignorant  and  worldly  monks,  or  with  the  appeals  of  the 


THE  GREEK  WAY  INTO  TROUBLE.  211 

Church  to  base  perceptions  of  the  common  people.  So 
there  was  a  real  danger  in  Greek  to  men  like  Reuchlin 
and  Agrippa;  and  in  this  sense  the  priests,  who  had  an 
interest  in  the  continued  abasement  of  the  human  mind, 
found  out  instinctively,  and  rightly  felt,  that  the  Greek 
language  was  hostile  to  the  Latin  Church — that  to  learn 
Greek  was  to  set  out  on  the  high  road  to  heresy.  In  the 
Occult  Philosophy,  Cornelius  Agrippa  showed  that  he  had 
not  only  taken  this  Greek  road,  but  had  arrived  also  at 
that  point  of  opposition  to  corrupt  things  of  the  Church, 
whither  it  led  infallibly  the  boldest  and  most  honest 
minds.  Therefore  it  was  for  all  corrupt  things  of  the 
Church  to  stain  him  and  his  book  with  their  own  foul- 
ness; branding  the  man's  character  with  wild  inventions, 
and  holding  the  book  up  for  execration,  as  the  impious 
work  of  a  practitioner  of  magic  made  over,  soul  and  body, 
to  the  devil. 

But  the  work  is  not  yet  published.  Only  the  spirit  of 
its  teaching  has  been  set  forth  by  the  young  philosopher 
in  a  few  lectures  before  the  University  of  Dole,  on  the 
Mirific  Word  of  Reuchlin.  They  are  enough  to  raise  a 
monk  to  pitiless  hostility  against  him ;  but  of  this  hostility 
no  sign  is  yet  betrayed. 

All  prospers  with  Cornelius.  Elected  regent1  by  his 
University  of  Dole — flattered  and  praised  by  learned  men 
reverend,  right  reverend,  and  noble — heartily  believed  in 
by  congenial  friends— blessed  with  the  complete  sympathy 
of  a  young  wife,  good,  clever,  and  beautiful — he  has  been 

1  JDefmtio  Propoe.  de  Anna  Monog.    Op.  Tom.  il  p.  596. 
P  2 


212  CORNELIUS  AGEIPPA. 

happily  putting  the  last  touches  to  his  Books  of  Philoso- 
phy, and  sent  them  off  with  a  good  heart  to  receive  the 
criticism  of  a  lettered  friend. 

Of  his  personal  appearance  at  this  time,  or  any  time, 
there  remains  little  description.  His  portrait  shows  that 
he  had  a  thoughtful  and  large-featured  German  face,  in 
which1  the  one  thing  most  observed  seems  to  have  been 
the  placidity1.  He  was  not  only  wise,  but  gentle,  even 
to  the  tender  cherishing  of  dogs.  His  wife  he  honoured 
as  became  a  man  who  was  the  author  of  an  essay  upon 
the  Pre-eminence  of  "Woman,  and  the  position  held  by  her 
in  relation  to  him  won  for  her  the  honour  of  his  friends. 
Several  scraps  of  Latin  verse,  indited  in  her  praise  by 
different  acquaintances,  are  bound  up  with  her  husband's 
writings2;  and,  although  not  as  poetical  as  they  are  mytho- 
logical, they  do  unquestionably  prove  that  Cornelius  did 
well,  when  on  his  way  to  France  from  Italy — by  way  of 
which  country,  as  before  said,  he  came  from  Spain — he 
stopped  long  enough  at  Geneva  to  give  his  heart  in  keep- 
ing to  Louisa  Tyssie.  Geneva  lies  close  upon  Burgundy, 
and  while  Agrippa  was  at  Dole,  that  town  was  at  a  dis- 
tance from  him  very  inconsiderable  "to  a  youth  in  love, 
with  horses  at  command,  and  well  inured  to  travel.  He 
had  not  so  far  to  ride  as  Juno,  for  example,  of  whom  to 
this  effect  writes  one  of  the  young  Frau  von  Nettesheim's 
approving  friends: 

1  It  is  mentioned  both  by  Schelhorn  in  the  Amcenitates  Literarice,  and  by 
Paul  Jovius  in  his  Elogice. 

'  Hilarii  Bertulphi  Ledii  in  Generosam  Dominam  Janam  Loysiam  Tytiam 
em,  E.  C.  A.  conjugem,  appended  to  the  collected  works. 


AGRIPPA'S  WIFE.  213 

When  Juno  called  in  upon  Venus  to  borrow 

Her  girdle,  containing  all  kindness  and  love, 
Wherewith  she  might  hope  to  get  rid  of  her  sorrow 

By  winning  more  tender  attention  from  Jove, 
Sighed  Venus,  more  willing  to  help  than  to  grieve,— "Ah! 

The  thing  you  desire  from  my  keeping  is  gone ; 
It  belongs  now  by  right  to  a  dame  of  Geneva 

That's  washed  by  the  broad-flowing  stream  of  the  Rhone ; 
Go  to  her,  Jane  Louisa,  the  notable  wife 
Of  Henry  Agrippa,  the  peace  of  his  life." 

In  another  strain  another  writes1 : 

Grave  of  Agrippa's  cares,  his  rest,  his  bliss, 

Jana  Louisa,  you  his  solace  bright, 
Whom  as  a  sister  all  the  Graces  kiss, 

And  whom  to  crown  the  Muses  all  delight, 
Justly  did  Heaven  give  to  your  caress 

A  wise,  true  man.     Nobly  you  can  unite 
A  zealous  love  with  sober  faithfulness. 

Go  on,  and  ever  let  him  feel  the  might 
Of  your  great  faith,  to  guide  him  in  his  day. 

Join  kisses  with  him  while  ye  see  the  light, 
And  share  his  fame  when  both  have  passed  away. 

The  villanous  monk  Cutilinet  is  quietly  compounding 
his  thunder  while  we  follow  the  manuscript  of  the  Occult 
Philosophy  to  the  hands  of  the  friendly  scholar  whose 
opinion  was  asked  upon  it.  That  scholar  was  the  Abbot 
John  of  Trittenheim,  known  to  the  learned  as  the  Abbot 
Trithemius,  many  years  of  Spanheim,  afterwards  of  the 
monastery  of  St.  James,  at  Wurtzburg.  There  was  scarcely 
a  scholar,  or  a  patron  of  scholars,  living  in  his  day  whose 
life  could  be  told  without  naming  Trithemius.  Scholars 
and  mighty  nobles  went  on  pilgrimages,  princes  sent 
ambassadors  to  the  poor  monastery,  which  he  made 

1  Reverendi  P.  Magistri  Aurel'd  ab  Aquapendente,  Augustmiani  Epiyramma 


214  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

famous  by  his  love  of  books  and  the  good  use  he  made  of 
their  contents.  Cornelius  had  journeyed,  like  others,  to 
see  Trithemius,  had  seen  him,  and  talked  to  him  about 
magic,  which  the  abbot  studied,  and  of  the  wonders  of 
which  he  was  perhaps  even  more  credulous  than  his 
young  visitor.  Among  many  pious  works,  Trithemius 
published  one  or  two  touching  on  magical  subjects,  and 
he  was  the  first  who  told  the  wondrous  tale  of  Dr. 
Faustus,  in  whose  conjurations  he  was  a  devout  believer. 
With  this  good  man  Cornelius  had  discoursed,  imme- 
diately after  his  return  from  Spain,  about  occult  things, 
and  the  undue  discredit  cast  upon  a  study  of  them.  Now 
that  he  had  endeavoured  to  remove  some  of  that  discredit 
by  showing  in  a  book  how  worthy  they  were  of  attention, 
his  old  talk  with  Trithemius  suggested  to  him  that  he 
could  not  do  better  than  submit  his  treatise  to  the  abbot's 
criticism. 

John  of  Trittenheim  was  a  man  forty-eight  years  old 
at  that  time,  and  the  founder  of  his  own  intellectual 
fortunes.  He  was  born  at  the  place  in  the  electorate  of 
Treves,  from  which  he  took  his  name ;  his  father  was 
John  Eidenberg,  and  his  mother  was  Elizabeth  Longwi. 
His  father  dying  while  he  was  still  young,  his  mother, 
after  seven  years  of  widowhood,  married  again.  From 
his  stepfather  the  boy  got  no  help  at  all,  and  at  fifteen, 
with  a  great  craving  for  knowledge,  he  was  scarcely  able 
to  read.  In  spite  of  his  father-in-law's  menaces,  he  stole 
some  knowledge  from  a  neighbour,  and  at  last  ran  away 
to  feed  upon  the  crumbs  let  fall  at  the  great  schools  and 


TBITHEMIUS.  215 

universities.  He  went  to  Treves  and  Heidelberg,  and 
having  picked  up  some  little  knowledge  in  those  places 
and  elsewhere,  was  travelling  home  on  foot,  twenty  years 
old,  when  a  snowstorm  drove  him  to  seek  shelter  in  the 
Benedictine  monastery  of  Spanheim.  It  was  on  the  25th 
of  January,  1482.  There  was  no  great  temptation  to  go 
on  to  his  father-in-law's  house  which  he  could  set  against 
the  offers  of  the  monks,  who  were  a  small  set  of  men 
ignorant  and  poor,  made  poorer  by  recent  mismanage- 
ment of  affairs,  and  willing  to  have  the  help  of  a  bright 
youth  in  amending  their  condition.  He  remained  with 
them.  On  the  second  day  of  the  next  month  he  formally 
became  a  novice ;  towards  the  end  of  November  professed 
himself  one  of  the  body  of  the  Spanheim  Benedictines ; 
and  very  soon  afterwards  was  made  their  abbot.  It  was 
to  the  gates  of  this  poor  monastery  that  John  of  Tritten- 
heim  attracted  scholars,  nobles,  messengers  from  princes, 
not  only  by  the  fame  of  his  own  learning,  but  also  by  the 
famous  library,  consisting  of  two  thousand  books — a  rare 
possession — with  which  he  enriched  the  place.  How  he 
contrived  to  make  so  ample  a  collection  will  be  best  seen 
from  this  fragment  of  one  of  the  sermons  preached  by 
him  to  the  monks  in  their  own  chapel1:  "There  is  no 
manual  work  which,  in  my  opinion,  more  becomes  a 
monk  than  copying  books  for  devout  reading  and  pre- 
paring the  materials  required  by  those  who  write.  For  it 
is  allowable  freely  to  interrupt  with  talk  this  sacred 

i  Trithemii  Exhortations  ad  Monachal.    Omelia,  vii.    De  Lahore  Mona- 
chorum  Manuali.  (Ed.  Argent.  1516,  foL  xvi.  coL  2. 


216  COKNELIUS  AGBIPPA. 

labour,  and  to  take  thought  at  once  for  the  refreshment  of 
the  mind  and  of  the  body.  We  are  urged  also  by  neces- 
sity to  betake  ourselves  diligently  to  the  copying  of 
books,  if  we  desire  to  have  at  hand  matter  wherewith  we 
may  mutually  and  usefully  occupy  ourselves  in  spiritual 
study.  For  you  see  the  whole  library  of  this  monastery, 
which  once  was  notable  and  large,  was  so  scattered  by 
the  clumsy  monks  who  came  before  us,  sold  and  alienated, 
that  there  were  not  more  than  fourteen  volumes  found  in 
it  by  me.  The  industry,  indeed,  of  the  printer's  art, 
lately  invented  in  our  days  at  Mayence,  produces  to  light 
many  volumes  daily,  but  it  is  by  no  means  possible  for 
us,  who  have  hitherto  been  weighed  down  by  the  greatest 
poverty,  to  buy  them  all.  For  which  reason  I  admonish 
and  exhort  all  of  you  who  do  not  go  very  willingly  to 
out-door  labour,  that  you  should  work  as  industriously  as 
you  can  in  copying  books  to  the  honour  of  God :  because 
as  indolence  is  at  war  with  the  soul,  so  moderate  labour  is 
a  conservator  of  spiritual  life."  And  to  complete  the 
picture  of  the  abbot  and  his  men,  this  account  of  their 
work  is  added  from  another  of  his  writings1 :  "  Let  one 
correct  what  another  has  written;  let  another  ornament 
with  red  what  that  person  has  been  correcting;  let  this 
one  put  the  stops,  another  one  the  plans  and  pictures; 
that  one  is  to  glue  the  sheets  together,  or  to  bind  the 
volume  between  boards;  you  shape  the  boards,  and  he 
the  leather ;  some  one  else  shall  prepare  the  plates  to  orna- 

1  Trithemius  De  Laude  Scriptorum  Manualium.     (Quoted  through  Schel- 
horn's  Amcenitates  Literarice,  vol.  vii.  p.  285. 


COUNSEL  ASKED  OF  TRITHEMIUS.  217 

ment  the  binding;  one  can  cut  parchment,  another  clean 
it,  another  by  ruling  lines  adapt  it  for  the  copyist.  An- 
other makes  the  ink ;  another  takes  charge  of  the  pens." 

The  abbot's  literary  troop  rebelled  at  last,  in  spite  of  all 
his  exhortation.  Trithemius  being  summoned  by  Philip, 
Count  Palatine  of  the  Rhine,  to  a  conference  at  Heidel- 
berg upon  monastic  business,  the  Spanheim  monks  re- 
volted in  his  absence,  made  wild  havoc  in  their  famous 
library,  and  so  behaved,  that,  after  visiting  Cologne  and 
Spire  in  search  of  accurate  intelligence  and  counsel,  their 
abbot  abandoned  books  and  monastery  to  the  rebels,  and 
in  October,  1506,  received  possession  of  the  Abbey  of  St. 
James,  at  Wurtzburg,  where  he  lived  during  the  remain- 
ing ten  years  of  his  life.  It  was  to  Trithemius,  then, 
after  he  had  removed  to  Wurtzburg,  that  Cornelius  sent, 
by  special  messenger,  the  manuscript  of  his  Occult  Philo- 
sophy, together  with  this  letter1: 

"  When  I  had  some  discourse  with  you  lately,  Reverend 
Father,  in  your  monastery  at  Wurtzburg,  we  conferred 
much  together  about  chemical  matters,  magic,  cabalism, 
and  other  things,  which  at  the  present  time  lie  hidden  as 
secret  sciences  and  arts.  And,  among  the  rest,  it  was  a 
great  question  with  us  why  magic  itself — though  formerly 
by  the  common  consent  of  all  ancient  philosophers  it  was 
regarded  as  the  first  step  upward,  and  was  held  always  in 
the  highest  veneration  by  the  wise  men  and  the  priests 
of  old — should  have  become,  from  the  beginning  of  the 

1  II.  C.  Agripp.  Ep.  23,  Lib.  i.  p.  702.  Prefixed  also  to  all  editions  of 
the  De  Occ.  PhiL 


218  CORNELIUS  AGEIPPA. 

growth  of  the  Catholic  Church,  hated  and  suspected  by 
the  holy  Fathers,  at  length  exploded  by  the  theologians, 
condemned  by  the  sacred  canons,  and  at  last  proscribed 
by  every  sort  of  law."  He  records  next,  at  some  length, 
his  own  opinion,  that  sects  of  false  philosophers,  abusing 
the  title  of  magicians  and  giving  the  name  of  magic  to 
profane  and  evil  deeds,  had  caused  good  men  to  turn 
with  anger  from  words  thus  made  infamous.  Then  he 
goes  on  to  say :  "  The  case  being  so,  I  wondered  much, 
and,  indeed,  felt  indignant,  that  up  to  this  time  no  one 
had  arisen  to  vindicate  so  sublime  and  sacred  a  study 
from  the  accusation  of  impiety,  for  as  much  as  those  whom 
I  have  seen  of  the  more  recent  writers,  Roger  Bacon, 
Robert  of  York,  Peter  of  Abano,  Albertus  Magnus,  Ar- 
nold of  Villeneuve,  Anselm  of  Parma,  Picatrix  of  Spain, 
Cecco,  Asculo,  Florentinus1,  and  many  other  writers  of 
obscurer  name,  when  they  have  promised  to  treat  of 

1  Robert  of  York,  a  Dominican,  lived  about  1350,  and  wrote  De  Magia 
Cceremoniali,  on  Alchemy,  De  Mysteriis  Secretorum,  and  De  Mirabllibus 
Ekmentorum.  None  of  these  -works  passed  from  MS.  copies  into  print. 
Peter  of  Abano,  or  Apono,  -was  born  at  that  place,  near  Padua,  in  1250. 
He  was,  at  Padua,  the  first  professor  of  medicine.  Among  his  works,  fre- 
quently printed,  is  a  Heptameron,  including  Elucidarium  Necromanticum, 
Ekmenta  Magica,  &c.  George  Anselm,  of  Parma,  was,  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  a  famous  physician,  mathematician,  and  astrologer.  His  Institutes 
of  Astrology  are  among  the  MSS.  in  the  Vatican.  In  the  year  1256,  Pica- 
trix of  Spain  compiled,  from  two  hundred  and  twenty-four  old  books,  a 
Magical  work,  afterwards  translated  out  of  Arabic  into  Latin.  It  exists 
only  in  MS.  Cecco  d'Ascoli.  a  learned  philosopher,  was  burnt  for  his  Astro- 
logy as  heretic  at  Florence  in  1327.  Nicolaus  de  Asculo,  in  the  region  of 
Ancona,  nourished  1330,  was  a  Dominican,  and  wrote,  besides  theology, 
comments  on  Aristotle,  still  in  MS.  Thaddaaus  Florentinus  was  accounted, 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  another  Hippocrates  among  hia  patients  at  Bo- 
logna. He  did  not  begin  to  study  till  the  age  of  thirty. 


COUNSEL  ASKED  OF  TRITHEMIUS.  219 

Magic,  have  either  supplied  idle  matter  without  any  con- 
necting system,  or  else  have  published  superstitions  not  to 
be  received  by  honest  men.  Thus  my  spirit  was  aroused 
within  me,  and  through  wonder  and  indignation  I  too 
conceived  the  desire  to  philosophise,  thinking  that  I 
should  produce  a  work  not  unworthy  of  praise — inasmuch 
as  I  have  been  from  early  years  a  curious  and  fearless 
explorer  of  wonderful  effects  and  the  full  working  of 
mysteries — if  I  could  vindicate  against  the  ill  words  of 
calumniators  and  restore  that  ancient  Magic,  studied  by 
all  the  wise,  purged  and  freed  from  the  errors  of  im- 
piety, and  adorned  with  its  own  reasonable  system.  Al- 
though I  have  long  pondered  upon  this,  I  never  until 
now  have  ventured  to  descend  into  this  battle-ground. 
But  after  we  had  exchanged  speech  at  Wurtzburg  on 
these  matters,  your  rare  experience  and  learning,  and  your 
ardent  exhortation,  gave  me  heart  and  courage.  There- 
fore, having  selected  the  opinions  of  philosophers  of  tried 
faith,  and  having  purged  of  false  opinions  operations  de- 
tailed in  the  dark  and  reprehensible  books  of  those  who 
have  maligned  the  traditions  of  the  Magi,  dispelling  the 
shadows,  I  have  just  finished  composing  three  Books  of 
Magic,  in  a  compendium  which  I  have  called  by  a  less 
offensive  title,  Books  of  Occult  Philosophy.  These  I 
now  submit  to  be  examined  by  you  as  a  censor  who  pos- 
sess the  fullest  knowledge  of  those  things,  to  be  corrected 
and  judged:  that  if  anything  has  been  written  in  them 
by  me  which  may  tend  to  dishonour  nature,  offend 
Heaven,  or  be  hurtful  to  religion,  you  may  condemn  the 


220  CORXELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

fault.  But  if  the  scandals  of  impiety  have  been  purged 
out,  and  you  hold  any  tradition  of  the  truth  to  be  pre- 
served in  these  books,  as  in  Magic  itself,  let  nothing  be 
kept  hidden  that  can  be  made  useful,  while  nothing  is 
approved  that  can  do  harm.  For  so  I  hope  that  in  due 
time  these  books,  approved  by  your  criticism,  may  be 
worthy  to  appear  before  the  public  under  happy  auspices, 
and  not  fear  to  endure  the  judgment  of  posterity.  Fare- 
well, and  pardon  me  the  boldness  of  this  venture." 

Trithemius  kept  the  messenger  till  he  had  read  the 
manuscript,  and  then  returned  it  with  this  answer1 : 

"  Your  work,  most  accomplished  Agrippa,  headed,  On 
the  More  Occult  Philosophy,  which  you  offered  to  me 
for  examination  by  the  bearer  of  this,  was  received  with 
more  pleasure  than  mortal  tongue  can  tell  or  pen  express. 
I  am  led  to  the  most  admiration  of  the  more  than  common 
erudition  which  enables  you,  while  still  a  youth,  pene- 
trating such  secret  recesses  of  knowledge,  hidden  from 
many  even  of  the  wisest  men,  not  only  to  bring  light 
into  them  fairly  and  truly,  but  even  with  propriety  and 
elegance.  Wherefore  I  thank  you  in  the  first  place  for 
your  kindness  to  me,  and  if  I  am  ever  able,  I  will  un- 
doubtedly repay  such  kindness  according  to  my  strength. 
Your  work,  which  the  wisest  of  men  could  not  sufficiently 
commend,  I  approve ;  next,  I  ask,  exhort,  and  beseech 
you,  as  urgently  as  I  can,  that  you  continue  as  you  have 
begun,  in  upward  striving,  and  do  not*allow  the  excellent 
strength  of  your  intellect  to  become  dull  through  want  of 
1  Everywhere  printed  after  the  preceding. 


TRITHEMIUS  ADVISES  CAUTION.  221 

use;  but  always  spend  your  toil  on  better  and  better 
things,  that  you  may  demonstrate,  by  the  divinest  illus- 
trations, the  light  of  true  wisdom,  even  to  the  ignorant. 
Nor  let  the  consideration  of  any  clouds,  about  which 
truth  has  been  said,  withdraw  you  from  your  purpose. 
The  weary  ox  treads  with  a  heavy  foot,  and  in  the 
opinion  of  the  wise  no  man  is  truly  learned  who  is 
pledged  to  the  rudiments  of  one  study  alone.  But  you 
the  Divinity  has  gifted  with  an  intellect  both  large  and 
lofty.  Do  not, '  therefore,  imitate  the  cattle,  but  the 
birds :  nor  think  that  you  are  to  delay  over  particulars, 
but  confidently  urge  your  mind  up  towards  universal 
rules.  For  every  man  is  thought  learned  according  to 
the  fewness  of  the  things  of  which  he  is  ignorant.  But 
your  intellect  is  fully  apt  for  all,  not  reasonably  to  be 
engaged  upon  a  few  things,  and  mean  ones,  but  upon  many 
and  high.  This  one  thing  only  we  warn  you  to  abide 
by  the  counsel  of,  speak  of  things  public  to  the  public, 
but  of  things  lofty  and  secret  only  to  the  loftiest  and  the 
most  private  of  your  friends.  Hay  to  an  ox  and  sugar  to 
a  parrot :  rightly  interpret  this,  lest  you,  as  some  others 
have  been,  be  trampled  down  by  oxen.  Happy  farewell, 
my  friend;  and  if  I  can  serve  you  in  anything,  command 
me,  and  understand  that  what  you  wish  done  is  done. 
Moreover,  that  our  friendship  may  acquire  strength  daily, 
I  earnestly  beg  that  you  will  write  often,  and  send  me 
now  and  then  some  of  your  lucubrations.  Again  fare- 
well. From  our  monastery  at  Wurtzburg,  April  8, 
1510." 


222  CORNELIUS  AGEIPPA. 

A  kind  letter  in  the  high  epistolary  style  then  common ; 
a  wise  letter,  too,  as  the  reader  cannot  but  have  felt.  You 
have  done  worthily,  it  said;  ever  aspire,  but  know  that 
there  are  many  heights  to  scale,  and  upon  this  height  you 
must  needs  tread  very  warily.  As  for  your  present  in- 
tention you  must  give  it  up.  Publish  these  Books  of 
Occult  Science,  wise  as  they  are,  and  there  is  no  dolt  who 
will  not  have  you  down  under  his  feet. 

Cornelius  was  under  foot  already  when  the  warning 
reached  him.  Catilinet  had  made  his  rush.  The  Quadra- 
gesimal Discourses  were  delivered,  and  the  youth  was 
down.  Trithemius  was  one  monk,  Catilinet  was  another. 
Monks  like  Catilinet  were  unluckily  the  rule,  monks 
like  Trithemius  the  exception.  The  good  abbot,  as  we 
have  seen,  had  been  in  a  minority  at  Spanheim,  all  the 
monks  under  his  rule  had  shaken  themselves  free  of  him, 
scattered  his  books,  and  lapsed  into  their  natural  stupidity. 
Trithemius  was  honoured  of  all  learned  men  in  Europe, 
and  he  was  Agrippa's  friend;  Catilinet  was  one  of  those 
men  whom  John  of  Trittenheim  figured  as  cattle,  a  Fran- 
ciscan monk,  the  chief  indeed  of  the  Franciscan  monks  of 
Burgundy,  and  for  that  reason,  perhaps  also  for  some 
power  of  lung,  was  chosen  to  preach  the  Lent  sermons 
before  Margaret  at  Ghent,  but  who,  by  no  power  of 
brain,  has  left  a  mark,  though  but  the  merest  scratch, 
upon  the  annals  of  his  time ;  and  he  was  Agrippa's  enemy. 
Many  an  unknown  name  is  treasured  for  something  in 
ecclesiastical  records  and  dictionaries,  but  the  name  of 
this  Catilinet  I  can  find  nowhere  except  here,  as  that  of 


ATTACKED  BY  CATILINET.  223 

the  first  ox  who  trampled  on  Cornelius  Agrippa.  I  call 
him  ox  according  to  the  abbot's  parable,  not  as  a  word  of 
abuse,  but  as  a  representative  of  that  which  treads  heavily 
over  the  earth  in  an  appointed  course,  and  is  of  the  earth 
earthy.  Catilinet  may  have  been,  and  I  will  take  for 
granted  was,  an  honest  man,  who  conscientiously  believed 
that  there  was  heresy  and  danger  in  the  Greek  and 
Hebrew  studies  through  which  young  Cornelius  Agrippa 
won  so  much  applause  at  D61e.  He  was  the  man  who 
defends  against  every  hint  of  progress  all  established  rule 
and  custom — he  is  the  ox,  in  fact,  who  cannot  mount  into 
the  air.  Catilinet1,  at  the  beginning  of  Lent,  in  the  year 
1510,  was  delivering  at  Ghent,  before  the  Princess  Mar- 
garet, whose  patronage  Cornelius  was  seeking,  certain 
orations  called  the  Quadragesimal  Discourses.  He  at- 
tacked with  violence,  and  denounced  before  Margaret  the 
lectures,  impious  in  his  eyes,  that  had  been  delivered  by  a 
forward  youth  in  her  Burgundian  capital.  He  succeeded 
in  exciting  Margaret  to  wrath  against  the  cabalist,  who  was 
supposed  to  have  set  Christianity  aside,  and  sat  at  the  feet 
of  those  by  whom  the  Saviour  was  crucified.  Precisely  so 
did  the  monk  Pfefferkorn,  of  Cologne,  a  year  or  two  later, 
denounce  Reuchlin.  It  was  a  cry  of  the  time,  which 
Catilinet  is  not  to  be  considered  morally  to  blame,  but 
simply  ignorant,  in  having  loudly  uttered. 

Nearly  together  came  the  news  of  this  blow  struck  at 
Ghent  and  the  admonitory  letter  of  Trithemius.     What 

1  Expostulate  contra  Catilinet.,  Op.  Tom.  ii.  p.  510,  and  Dtfens.  Prop,  de 
Anna  Monoy.,  p.  596,  for  what  follows. 


224  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

could  be  done?  The  Occult  Philosophy,  by  which  he 
hoped  to  win  a  recognised  place  among  scholars,  was  to  be 
put  aside  and  shown  only  in  secret  to  his  nearest  friends. 
The  warning  against  publishing  it  was,  seeing  the  issue  of 
the  far  less  questionable  Dole  orations,  clearly  wise.  The 
treatise  upon  the  Pre-eminence  of  Woman,  written  for  the 
eye  of  Margaret,  must  also  "be  put  aside.  The  hope  of  a 
scholar's  life,  with  Margaret  for  friend,  must  also  be  put 
aside :  and  there  remained  to  him  only  the  barren  honours 
he  had  won  at  Dole. 

I  do  not  feel  that  here  the  difficulty  was  insuperable. 
There  are  men  who,  when  an  ox  blocks  up  the  path  on 
which  they  travel,  turn  aside  out  of  its  way;  and  there 
are  other  men  who  turn  the  ox  into  the  hedge  and  travel 
on.  Catilinet  might  have  been  faced  in  Ghent  itself,  and 
beaten  to  one  side  by  a  conflicting  energy.  A  more 
determined  spirit  than  Cornelius  possessed  would  not 
have  given  up  what  seemed  to  be  the  best  hope  of  a  life 
without  a  sturdy  battle.  But  Cornelius  was  not  deter- 
mined. He  was  a  brave  man  at  arms,  but  as  to  his  mind, 
sensitive,  gentle,  and  averse  from  strife.  We  shall  find 
him  presently  replying  to  the  man  who  has  disturbed 
painfully  the  course  of  his  whole  life,  in  a  calm  tone  of 
purely  Christian  expostulation.  Better  would  it  have 
been  for  his  fame  in  this  world  if  there  had  really  been 
sometimes,  according  to  the  fable  of  his  enemies,  a  devil 
at  his  elbow. 

Now,  therefore,  it  is  conceded  by  him  that  he  can 
advance  no  further  in  the  paths  of  pleasure.  Farewell, 


CHECK.  225 

scholarship  !  Farewell,  philosophy  !  Farewell,  kind 
princess,  for  whose  smiles  he  would  have  laboured 
worthily.  There  is  a  wife  to  support,  a  family  position 
to  maintain,  and  nothing  left  but  the  old  way  of  life  from 
which  he  had  endeavoured  to  escape.  He  must  resume 
his  place  among  the  young  men  of  the  court,  and  do  such 
work  as  may  be  found  for  him  by  Maximilian. 


VOL.  I. 


226  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

CORNELIUS    IN    LONDON. 

MAXIMILIAN  had  plenty  of  employment  on  his  hands. 
The  brave  little  republic  of  Venice,  not  to  be  crushed  by 
the  iniquitous  league  of  Cambray,  was  fighting  strenuously 
for  its  life  against  the  banded  forces  of  Pope,  Emperor, 
and  King.  There  were  distrusts  and  jealousies  among 
the  allied  plunderers,  and  there  was,  so  far  as  Maximilian 
the  Emperor  was  concerned,  trouble  and  discomfort  at 
home.  His  states  at  the  diet  of  Worms  declined  to 
guarantee  him  his  expenses,  and  were  not  to  be  brought 
into  a  love  for  the  Italian  war,  though  a  bold  orator  had 
been  obtained  from  Louis,  who  declaimed  to  them  at 
length  upon  the  infamies  of  Venice.  He  told  them  that 
the  Venetians  ridiculed  the  Germans  in  their  theatres; 
charged  a  year's  rent  daily  to  a  German  for  a  house; 
governed  their  own  citizens  with  cruelty,  driving  them, 
with  the  whips  used  on  bullocks,  to  the  galleys ;  that  they 
were  pirates,  poisoners,  and  so  forth1.  Nothing  of  all 

1  Hegewisch,  Geschiehte  der  Regierung  Kaiser  Maximilians  des  Ersten. 
Hamburg  and  Kiel,  1782. 


IN  PALACE  LIVERY.  227 

this  would  induce  Germany  to  back  its  Emperor  with 
money.  Maximilian  denounced  the  meanness  of  the 
states  in  an  Imperial  Apology,  but  he  continued  poor. 
Very  few  lines  will  show  sufficiently  what  his  position 
was  when  young  Cornelius  resumed  the  palace  livery. 

At  home,  the  Emperor's  second  wife,  Bianca  Maria, 
daughter  of  Galeazio  Sforza,  who  was  less  gentle  than 
fair,  was  wasting  to  the  grave,  within  a  year  of  death, 
caused,  some  say,  by  her  husband's  very  manifest  dis- 
relish of  her  temper — others  say,  by  her  own  too  great 
relish  for  snails,  which  she  consumed  till  she  destroyed  her 
powers  of  digestion.  Abroad,  the  Emperor  was  in  great 
trouble  about  the  Pope,  who  had  become  a  faithless 
member  of  the  league,  and,  bent  on  having  Italy  for  the 
Italians,  was  not  merely  seceding  from  the  foreigners 
whose  armies  poured  into  Italian  plains,  but  was  becoming 
anxious  to  expel  the  French  by  actual  hostilities,  and  to 
part  Maximilian,  if  possible,  from  Louis.  But  whatever 
might  be  promised  him  from  Rome  or  Venice,  Maximilian 
felt  that  he  could  never  receive  from  the  hands  of  Italian 
statesmen  trustworthy  security  for  the  accomplishment  of 
his  desire  to  hold  Italian  ground.  His  policy,  then,  was 
to  form  stricter  alliance  with  King  Louis  XII.,  to  help 
him  to  the  utmost  against  Julius  II.,  labouring  in  all  this 
not  merely  to  secure  his  own  imperial  share  of  the  Italian 
spoil,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  league  of  Cambray, 
namely,  Verona,  Roveredo,  Padua,  Vicenza,  Trevigi,  and 
the  Friuli,  but  to  accomplish  a  wild  private  scheme, 
which  was  no  other  than  the  transfer  of  his  own  dominion 
Q  2 


228  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

from  an  empire  which  he  meant  to  abdicate  in  favour 
of  his  grandson,  to  a  papacy  from  which  he  meant  that 
Julius  should  be  ousted1. 

Now  in  the  year  1510,  when  Cornelius  Agrippa  re- 
sumed service  at  court,  Louis  of  France  was  entering 
into  a  formal  alliance  (that  proved  very  short-lived)  with 
Henry  VIII.,  then  new  to  his  dignity  as  King  of  Eng- 
land. In  this  treaty  the  Emperor  of  Germany  was  in- 
cluded as  a  friend  of  each  of  the  contracting  powers.  For 
the  treaty's  sake  alone  Maximilian  would,  no  doubt,  find 
it  necessary  to  send  representatives  to  London ;  they  went 
ostensibly,  perhaps,  on  the  occasion  of  the  treaty,  but 
they  had  business  of  far  more  serious  import  entrusted  to 
them.  For  in  his  defection  from  the  league  of  Cambray, 
the  Pope  had  carried  with  him  Ferdinand  of  Aragon, 
Henry  VIII.'s  father-in-law.  In  the  very  last  Italian 
campaign  the  Pope  and  King  of  Aragon  had  secretly 
encouraged  the  Venetians  to  besiege  Verona,  the  town  by 
which  Maximilian  set  most  store,  and  to  maintain  boldly 
a  contest  in  which  the  Emperor,  without  money  enough 
to  pay  his  men,  could  obtain  no  solid  advantage.  On  the 
21st  of  February,  1510,  Julius  II.  formally  made  peace 
with  Venice,  showed  open  hostility  to  France,  and  made 
some  effort  to  induce  Maximilian  to  follow  his  example. 
The  Pope,  old  as  he  was  and  infirm,  put  armour  on  to 
take  part  bodily  in  the  siege  of  Mirandola,  and  at  the 
close  of  it  he  was  carried  through  the  breach  in  military 

1  Coxe's  House  of  Austria  and  Hegewisch  supply  the  foundation  for  the 
few  historical  reminders  necessary  to  the  text. 


DESPATCHED  TO  LONDON.  229 

triumph.  Maximilian  and  Louis  were  thus  forced  into 
a  closer  brotherhood  of  enmity  against  the  Roman  See. 
To  secure  at  least  the  neutrality  of  England  was  important 
to  them  both.  The  young  king  of  that  country,  about 
nineteen  years  of  age,  and  fresh  to  the  throne,  as  husband 
to  Katherine  of  Aragon,  might,  if  his  father-in-law  grew 
a  little  warm  over  the  quarrel,  be  induced  to  take  part 
with  the  Pope.  To  watch  for  any  tendency  of  this  sort, 
and  to  establish  quietly,  as  opportunity  might  serve,  dis- 
trust of  the  Pope  and  of  his  cause  in  Henry's  mind,  was 
doubtless  the  "most  secret  purpose1,"  which  Cornelius 
Agrippa  speaks  of  in  connexion  with  his  London  mission. 
As  a  young  theologian  not  very  friendly  to  the  papacy, 
a  courtier  and  a  cavalier  as  well,  Cornelius  was  added  at 
once  to  the  English  embassy.  Thus  it  was  that  in  the 
late  summer  or  autumn  of  the  year  1510  he  came  to 
what  he  entitles  "  the  renowned  emporium  of  England2." 
The  London  of  that  day  was  hardly  larger  than  Co- 
logne. Country  roads  branched  from  Charing-cross.  Bay- 
nard's  Castle  had  not  long  been  rebuilt  as  a  beautiful 
and  commodious  palace  for  the  entertainment  of  great 
princes  and  favoured  nobles  by  the  king.  There  was  but 
one  bridge  across  the  Thames.  Fleet  Ditch  had  just 
been  scoured,  and  was  navigable  for  large  boats  laden 
with  fish  and  fuel  up  to  Holborn  Bridge.  There  was  no 
pavement  on  the  Holborn-street,  which  led  by  the  Bishop 

1  Corn.  Agrippze  Defensio  Prop,  de  Beatce  Annas  Monog.     Op.  Tom.  ii. 
p.  596. 

2  Expost.  contra  Catilinet.  ad  fin. 


230  CORNELIUS  AGEIPPA. 

of  Ely's  palace  and  strawberry-beds,  skirting  the  country, 
to  the  open  Oxford-road,  and  so  away,  passing  the 
hamlet  of  St.  Giles.  Chancery-lane,  Fetter-lane,  and  Shoe- 
lane,  were  unpaved  and  in  a  scarcely  passable  condition. 
Leather-lane  was  such  a  back-lane  to  the  fields  as  we 
see  still  in  many  market-towns.  The  city  had  its  walls 
and  gates,  the  cross  in  Westcheap  was  its  newest  orna- 
ment. Though  London  was  more  populous  eastward  than 
westward,  in  comparison  with  the  metropolis  of  to-day, 
Stepney,  nevertheless,  was  still  a  town  by  itself,  remark- 
able for  the  pleasantness  of  its  situation  and  the  beauty 
of  its  scenery,  and  chosen,  therefore,  as  a  place  of  resi- 
dence by  many  persons  of  distinction. 

Cornelius  Agrippa,  when  in  London,  lodged  at  Stepney 
as  Dean  Colet's  guest1 — the  wise  and  pure-hearted  John 
Colet,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  who  was  at  that  time  engaged 
over  the  foundation  of  St.  Paul's  School.  Colet,  beloved 
of  Erasmus,  and  decried  of  all  who  held  by  the  abuses 
of  the  Church,  was  very  careful  in  the  choice  of  guests 
and  house-companions.  "  We  are  all  such  as  our  con- 
versation is,"  he  used  to  say,  "  and  practise  habitually 
what  we  often  hear2."  We  know  Cornelius  the  better 


1  "  In  Britanniam  trajiciens  apud  Johan  Coletum  Catholicas  doctrinse  eru- 
ditissimum,  integerrimaeqiie  vitse  virum,  in  divi  Pauli  epist.  desudavi,-  et  quse 
nescivi  illo  docente  multa  didici,  quamvis  apud  Britannos  longe  aliud,  et 
occultissimum  quoddam  tune  agebam  negotium."     Defens.  Prop,  de  B.  A. 
Monoff.     Op.  Tom.  ii.  p.  596. 

2  This  is  placed  by  Erasmus  with  great  honour  among  his  adages.     For 
•what  is  said  in  this  chapter  of  Dean  Colet,  Erasmus,  writing  his  friend's 
life  in  the  Epistle  to  lodocus  Jonas,  and  elsewhere  referring  to  him,  is  the 
chief  authority.     But  all  that  was  said  by  Erasmus  was  brought  together 


WITH.  DEAN  COLET  AT  STEPNEY.        231 

when  we  learn  that,  while  engaged  on  his  court  errand, 
he  was  received  into  the  household  at  Stepney  by  John 
Colet  and  his  venerable  mother,  and  that  he  employed 
his  time,  as  we  are  both  pleased  and  amused  to  learn,  in 
studying,  under  the  influence  of  his  host's  enthusiasm,  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  Paul  of  all  men,  wrote  Colet,  seems 
to  me  a  vast  ocean  of  wisdom  and  piety1.  I  laboured 
hard,  writes  Cornelius  of  the  time  when  he  was  Colet's 
guest,  at  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul. 

The  young  Doctor  Cornelius  cares  not  to  talk  of  the 
amusements  of  the  court  in  which  he  was  required  to  take 
some  part.  Henry  VIII.  was  enjoying  gala  days,  pleasing 
himself  with  masks  and  tourneys.  In  the  dress  of  a  yeoman 
of  his  guard  he  had  been  to  the  City  on  St.  John's  Eve,  there 
to  see  the  pompous  watch  of  the  City  guard,  a  nocturnal 
procession  like  a  lord  mayor's  show,  which  marched  with 
nine  hundred  and  forty  blazing  cressets  through  streets 
garnished  with  flowers,  boughs,  and  lighted  lamps.  On 
the  following  St.  Peter's  night  he  took  his  queen  in  state 
to  see  the  pomp  repeated.  He  was  masquing,  too,  now 
as  a  Turk,  now  as  a  Robin  Hood's  man.  In  October, 
1510,  he  had  a  tournament  in  Greenwich  Park,  and  a 
mock  combat  with  battle-axes,  in  which  he  himself  en- 
gaged with  one  Giot,  a  tall  German.  A  week  or  two 
afterwards  he  went  to  Richmond,  and  proclaimed  a 

with  whatever  else  could  be  discovered  in  the  Life  of  Dr.  John  Colet,  Dean 
of  St.  Paul's,  ....  by  Samuel  Knight,  D.D.,  Prebendary  of  Ely,  8vo, 
Lond.,  1724,  to  which  book,  therefore,  it  is  sufficient  to  refer. 

1  In  a  letter  to  the  Abbot  of  Winchcomb,  printed  by  Dr.  Knight  in  the 
Appendix  to  his  Life  of  Colet. 


232  CORNELIUS  AGEIPPA. 

tournament  on  the  8th  of  November,  in  which  he,  with 
Master  Charles  Brandon  and  Master  Compton,  was  to 
hold  the  ground  during  two  days  against  all  comers,  with 
spear  at  tilt  on  the  first  day,  and  at  tourney  with  swords 
on  the  second.  Of  course,  he  was  royally  victorious,  and 
Cornelius  Agrippa  was,  no  doubt,  a  witness  of  his  prowess 
among  the  Almaines,  or  Germans  from  the  court  of  Maxi- 
milian, whom  we  find  to  have  been  more  particularly 
entertained  on  this  occasion.  "  The  second  night,"  Ho- 
linshed  tells  us1,  "  were  divers  strangers  of  Maximilian 
the  emperor's  court  and  ambassadors  of  Spain  with  the 
king  at  supper.  When  they  had  supped,  the  king  willed 
them  to  go  into  the  queen's  chamber,  who  so  did.  In  the 
mean  time  the  king,  with  fifteen  other,  apparelled  in 
Almaine  jackets  of  crimson  and  purple  satin,  with  long 
quartered  sleeves  and  hosen  of  the  same  suit,  their  bonnets 
of  white  velvet,  wrapped  in  flat  gold  of  damask,  with 
vizards  and  white  plumes,  came  in  with  a  mummery,  and 
after  a  certain  time  that  they  had  played  with  the  queen 
and  the  strangers,  they  departed.  Then  suddenly  entered 
six  minstrels,  richly  apparelled,  playing  on  their  instru- 
ments; and  then  followed  fourteen  persons,  gentlemen, 
all  apparelled  in  yellow  satin,  cut  like  Almaines,  bearing 
torches.  After  them  came  six  disguised  in  white  satin 

and  green The  first  of  these  six  was  the  king,  the 

Earl  of  Essex,  Charles  Brandon,  Sir  Edward  Howard,  Sir 

Thos.  Knevet,  and  Sir  Henry  Guilford.   Then  part  of  the 

gentlemen  bearing  torches  departed  and  shortly  returned, 

1  In  the  Chronicles  under  the  year  1510. 


AT  THE  COURT  OF  HENRY  VIII.  233 

after  whom  came  in  six  ladies,  apparelled  in  garments  of 
crimson  satin  embroidered  and  traversed  with  cloth  of 
gold,  cut  in  pomegranates  and  yokes,  stringed  after  the 
fashion  of  Spain.  Then  the  six  men  danced  with  the  six 
ladies ;  and  after  that  they  had  danced  a  season,  the 
ladies  took  off  the  men's  visors,  whereby  they  were 
known :  whereof  the  queen  and  the  strangers  much 
praised  the  king,  and  ended  the  pastime." 

Glad  of  its  ending  was,  no  doubt,  Cornelius  Agrippa, 
and  most  happy  to  return  to  a  house  where  time  was 
passed  in  wiser  occupation.  There  was  nothing  in  a  royal 
mummery  to  be  compared  for  beauty  with  the  tall,  well- 
shapen  form  and  spiritual  face  of  Agrippa's  host,  one  of 
the  handsomest  as  well  as  best  men  in  the  land.  As  for 
the  dean's  mother,  Dame  Christian,  who  lived  with  him, 
surely  she  was  more  royal  than  the  king.  "  I  knew  in 
England  the  mother  of  John  Colet,"  says  her  favourite, 
Erasmus1,  in  whose  visits  at  Stepney  she  took  rare  delight, 
"a  matron  of  singular  piety;  she  had  by  the  same  hus- 
band eleven  sons  and  as  many  daughters,  all  of  which 
hopeful  brood  was  snatched  away  from  her,  except  her 
eldest  son ;  and  she  lost  her  husband,  far  advanced  in 
years.  She  herself  being  come  to  her  ninetieth  year, 
looked  so  smooth  and  was  so  cheerful  that  you  would 
think  she  had  never  shed  a  tear,  nor  brought  a  child  into 
the  world  ;  and  (if  I  mistake  not)  she  survived  her  son, 
Dean  Colet.  Now  that  which  supplied  a  woman  with  so 
much  fortitude  was  not  learning,  but  piety  to  God."  She 
1  Ep.  16,  Lib.  xxii. ;  but  the  above  is  Dr.  Knight's  translation. 


234  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

had  lived  with  her  husband,  Sir  Henry  Colet,  wealthy 
City  knight  and  twice  lord  mayor,  in  a  mansion  called  the 
Great  Place,  surrounded  by  a  moat,  nearly  adjoining 
Stepney  Church.  Afterwards  she  lived  with  her  son 
John  in  a  smaller  mansion  within  sight  of  the  church, 
that  to  which  Cornelius  went.  It  was  bequeathed  to 
St.  Paul's  School  as  a  country  retreat  for  the  masters 
during  times  of  pestilence,  and  now  exists,  in  a  half 
remodelled  state,  as  two  ample  houses,  adorned  with  an 
effigy  of  the  dean,  at  one  corner  of  White  Horse-street 
and  Salmon-lane. 

In  this  house  host  and  guest  studied  the  works  of  the 
Apostle  of  the  Gentiles.  For  the  last  four  years  the  dean 
had  been  vexed  by  complaints  against  his  orthodoxy.  The 
Bishop  of  London,  according  to  a  divine  of  the  next 
generation1,  was  wise,  virtuous,  and  cunning  ;  yet  for  all 
these  three  good  qualities  he  would  have  made  the  old 
Dean  Colet  of  Paul's  a  heretic  for  translating  the  Pater 
Noster  into  English,  had  not  the  dean  been  helped  by 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  He  was  in  trouble,  and 
should  have  been  burnt,  said  Latimer,  if  God  had  not 
turned  the  king's  heart  to  the  contrary. 

Dean  Colet  was  a  heretic,  as  most  of  the  better  class  of 
scholars  in  his  day  were  heretics,  not  because  he  went  beyond 
the  pale  of  the  Church,  but  because  there  was  manifest  in  him 
the  tendency  of  knowledge.  After  a  seven  years'  training 
in  his  youth  at  Magdalene  College,  Oxford,  during  which 
period  he  studied  logic  and  philosophy,  and  took  degrees 

1  Tyndal.     Works,  fol.  Lond.,  1573,  p.  318. 


ST.  PAUL'S  EPISTLES.  235 

in  arts,  he  went  abroad  for  further  information,  and  spent 
three  or  four  years  in  France  and  Italy.  At  Oxford  he 
had  become  familiar  with  Cicero,  and  had  read,  in  Latin, 
Plato  and  Plotinus.  Of  Greek  he  knew  nothing,  because, 
even  in  England,  the  university  cry  was  Cave  a  Greeds,  ne 
fias  hcereticus — Learn  Greek  and  turn  heretic.  At  Paris, 
Colet  became  acquainted  with  Budaeus,  and  was  for  the 
first  time  introduced  to  Erasmus ;  in  Italy  he  joined  his 
countrymen,  Linacre,  Grocyn,  Lilly,  and  Latimer,  who 
were  at  work  on  the  heretical  tongue,  and  acquired  such 
knowledge  as  to  read  the  ancient  fathers,  Origen,  Cyprian, 
Ambrose,  and  Jerome ;  also  St.  Augustine,  of  whom  he 
had  but  a  mean  opinion.  He  looked  into  Duns  Scotus 
and  Thomas  Aquinas,  studied  civil  and  canon  law,  and 
did  not  neglect  what  English  poetry  there  was.  He  had 
early  received  rectories  through  family  interest,  and,  while 
away  from  home,  was  made  Prebendary  of  York  and 
Canon  of  St.  Martin's-le-Grand.  On  his  return,  after  a 
short  stay  with  his  parents  at  Stepney,  he  went  to  Oxford, 
and  there  read,  without  stipend  or  reward,  lectures  on  his 
favourite  subject,  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  to  a  great 
concourse.  These  lectures  were  continued  during  three 
successive  years,  in  one  of  which  Erasmus  came  to  Oxford 
and  renewed  his  friendship  with  John  Colet.  After  re- 
ceiving more  preferment  on  account  of  his  connexions,  in 
1504  Colet  commenced  D.D.,  and  was  made  in  the  next 
year,  without  any  application  made  by  him  or  on  his 
behalf,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's.  He  at  once  began  to  reform 
the  cathedral  discipline.  For  the  Latin  lectures  read  to 


236  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

the  clergy  only,  on  scholastic  theology,  he  substituted  the 
new  practice  of  giving  to  all  comers  divinity  lectures  on 
Sundays  and  festivals,  preaching  commonly  himself— in 
Latin,  indeed — but  with  a  grace  and  earnestness  that, 
from  a  man  comely  as  he  was,  served  as  mute  appeal  even 
to  the  hearts  of  the  most  ignorant.  For  the  piety  and  acute- 
ness  of  these  lectures,  he  was  renowned  as  one  of  the  best 
orators  of  his  time.  His  beauty,  his  serenity,  the  venera- 
tion inspired  by  his  every  word  and  gesture,  increased 
their  effect1.  By  such  means  inquiry  into  Holy  Scrip- 
ture was  substituted  at  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  for  an  idle 
school  divinity.  When  Colet  preached,  he  commonly 
was  to  be  found  expounding  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul, 
"which  contain  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  salvation, 
and  with  which,  We  are  told,  he  was  to  that  degree  ena- 
moured that  he  seemed  to  be  wholly  wrapped  up  in 
them."  Colet  expressed  great  contempt  for  religious 
houses  and  the  lives  commonly  led  by  monks;  he  set 
forth  the  danger  of  an  unmarried  clergy,  spoke  angrily  of 
immorality  and  covetousness  in  priests,  spoke  against 
auricular  confession,  warned  against  image  worship,  and 
called  irreverent  the  thoughtless,  hurried  repetition  of  a 
stated  quantity  of  psalm  or  prayer.  He  also  collected 
many  passages  from  the  Fathers  which  displayed  modern 
corruptions  in  the  Church.  He  did  not  believe  in  purga- 
tory. Such  opinions,  and  his  free  way  of  expressing 
them,  made  the  good  dean  obnoxious  to  the  clergy.  But 

1  PauliJovii.  Descriptlo  Britannia,  Scotia,  HibemvK  et  Orcadum,  ed. 
Venet.,  1548,  p.  45.  Erasmus  says  of  his  friend  "  Accesserat  his  fortunaa 
commodis  corpus  elegans  ac  procerum." 


JOHN  COLET.  237 

for  the  good  sense  of  Archbishop  Warham  evil  conse- 
quences might  have  followed.  As  it  was,  when  Agrippa 
lodged  with  him,  Colet  was  preparing  to  bestow  his  ample 
fortune  upon  the  foundation  of  a  grammar  school — the 
first  in  which  the  dreaded  Greek  was  systematically  taught 
to  English  boys.  He  chose  a  friend  who  was  a  good 
Greek  scholar,  William  Lilly,  for  the  first  head  master, 
and  MDX.  was  the  date  of  foundation  upon  the  inscrip- 
tion on  the  school  wall  facing  the  cathedral. 

We  see,  then,  sympathy  enough  between  Cornelius  and 
his  host  the  dean.  There  was  one  aspiration  common  to 
them  both.  Colet,  we  are  told  by  Erasmus,  had  naturally 
a  spirit  exceeding  high  and  impatient  of  the  least  injury 
and  affront.  He  was  also,  by  the  same  bent  of  nature,  too 
much  addicted  to  love,  and  luxury,  and  sleep,  and  mightily 
disposed  to  an  air  of  freedom  and  jocoseness ;  nor  was  he 
wholly  free  from  a  delight  in  money.  In  company  or 
with  ladies  his  joyous  nature  would  break  loose,  there- 
fore he  preferred  talking  Latin  with  a  friend,  so  that  he 
might  avoid  idle  discourse  at  table.  He  ate  only  one 
meal  daily,  and  then  but  of  one  dish,  taking  a  draught  or 
two  of  beer,  and  refraining  commonly  from  wine,  for 
which  he  had,  when  it  was  very  good,  great  relish.  He 
had  always  guests  at  table,  few  and  fit,  and  though  his 
provision  for  them  was  frugal,  yet  was  it  in  all  its  appoint- 
ments very  agreeable  and  neat.  He  did  not  sit  long  over 
meat.  His  custom  was  that,  after  the  first  grace,  a  boy 
with  a  good  voice  should  read  aloud  a  chapter  out  of  an 
epistle  of  St.  Paul,  or  from  the  Proverbs.  Then  he  would 


238  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

begin  a  pleasant  conversation  on  some  point  in  it,  and  if 
the  talk  grew  dull  would  change  the  theme.  There 
never  was  a  man  with  a  more  flowing  wit,  and  therefore 
he  delighted  in  companionship  with  lively  people,  but  he 
turned  his  light  and  cheerful  stories  always  to  a  serious 
and  philosophic  use.  With  a  congenial  friend  he  gladly 
would  prolong  discourse  until  late  in  the  evening.  He 
loved  neatness  and  cleanliness  in  books,  furniture,  enter- 
tainments, apparel,  and  goods,  but  he  despised  state,  and, 
for  himself,  wore  only  black  clothes,  though  others  of  the 
higher  clergy  walked  in  purple  raiment.  His  upper  gar- 
ment was  made  of  plain  woollen,  and  in-  cold  weather  he 
had  it  lined  with  fur.  His  ecclesiastical  income  he  spent 
on  the  wants  of  his  family  and  hospitality ;  his  private 
estate,  which  was  large,  he  put  only  to  charitable  uses, 
finally  devoting  it,  as  before  said,  to  the  foundation  of  a 
school.  This  school  he  did  not,  in  the  narrow  spirit  of  so 
many  founders,  open  only  to  a  certain  section  of  the 
people,  but  to  the  whole  country,  and  he  took  thought  to 
provide  in  its  first  rules  for  the  necessities  of  extension 
and  improvements,  and  for  whatever  changes  of  plan 
might,  by  the  progress  of  society,  be  made  to  appeal- 
proper  to  its  future  rulers.  Colet  was  a  great  lover  of 
little  children,  admiring  the  pretty  innocence  and  sim- 
plicity in  them,  and  he  would  often  observe  how  they  had 
been  set  before  us  by  the  Saviour  for  an  example.  Never- 
theless, he  shared  the  common  notion  of  his  time  upon 
the  propriety  of  not  sparing  the  rod  on  schoolboys,  and 


ON  THE  WAY  OF  HERESY.  239 

even  suffered  boys  in  his  school,  who  were  new  comers,  to 
be  flogged  severely  upon  little  provocation,  for  the  mere 
purpose  of  laying  in  their  minds  the  foundation  of  what 
was  supposed  to  be  a  wholesome  awe. 

Such  being  Dean  Colet's  character,  it  will  be  seen  that 
he  was  able  very  perfectly  to  sympathise  with  the  high 
aspirations  of  Cornelius,  and  that  he  did  what  he  could 
to  direct  and  purify  them  in  accordance  with  his  own 
sense  of  all  that  was  great  and  good,  by  setting  the  young 
man  to  work  on  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  In  a  contempt 
of  all  that  was  most  clearly  corrupt  and  unreasonable  in 
Church  discipline,  and  a  resolve  to  exercise  freely  the  right 
of  independent  study,  whether  at  Greek  or  any  other 
branch  of  knowledge  that  was  scouted  by  the  ignorant,  the 
young  German  doctor  could  only  have  been  strengthened 
by  his  English  host.  Let  us  not  omit  here  to  remark  how 
insensibly,  and  as  it  were  without  volition  of  his  own,  the 
life  of  Agrippa  has  begun  to  run  in  a  strong  current 
against  priestcraft.  He  has  not  merely  roused  against 
himself  as  a  student  the  bad  spirit  of  monkery  as  re- 
presented in  the  person  of  Catilinet,  but  no  sooner 
has  he  been  turned  back  by  Catilinet  from  the  career 
of  his  choice,  and  forced  on  a  career  of  action,  than 
he  is  put  on  the  high  road  to  excommunication  by  the 
Emperor,  who  happens  to  be  struggling  with  the  Pope. 
As  one  of  the  Pope's  antagonists,  he  is  despatched  to 
England,  and  when  there  the  friendship  he  wins  is  indeed 
that  of  one  of  the  best  men  of  his  time,  but  one  against 


240  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

whom,  nevertheless,  suit  had  been  opened  by  his  bishop  on 
account  of  heresy,  and  who  had  been  running  great  risk 
of  a  martyrdom. 

From  Dean  Colet's  house  Cornelius  wrote  a  letter  of 
Expostulation  on  the  subject  of  his  condemned  Exposition 
of  the  Book  on  the  Mirific  Word,  to  John  Catilinet, 
Doctor  of  Theology,  Provincial  of  the  Franciscan  Brothers 
throughout  Burgundy1.  It  is  full  of  character,  and  won 
for  the  writer,  no  doubt,  Colet's  respect,  as  it  will  that  of 
any  reader.  Considering  the  provocation  and  the  disap- 
pointment suffered,  it  is,  though  just  a  little  caustic,  mar- 
vellously gentle.  Thus  it  runs : 

"  It  is  the  part  of  a  Christian  to  do  deeds  of  charity,  and 
to  speak  truth,  which  he  who  fails  to  do,  wanders  so  far 
from  Christ  as  to  become  altogether  undeserving  of  the 
Christian  name.  I  write  this  to  you,  good  Father,  moved 
by  that  very  charity  and  truth  (in  which  we  ought  all  to 
be  joined,  as  members  of  the  same  body,  whose  head  is 
Christ),  not  out  of  any  false  opinion,  envy,  or  hatred, 
which  should  be  put  far  away  from  Christian  men.  I  will 
say,  however,  with  your  leave,  that  you,  by  many  false- 
hoods poured  out  before  public  assemblies,  have  not  feared, 
indeed  have  striven  your  utmost,  to  excite  envy  and  hatred 
against  me  upon  a  matter  wherein  I  deserved  no  blame. 

1  First  published  appended  to  the  first  edition  of  Agrippa's  "  De  Nobilitate 
et  Prcecellentia  Fteminel  Sexus  (Mense  Maio,  1532),  as  Henrici  Cornelii 
Agrippse  Expostulatio  super  Expositione  sua  in  librum  de  Verbo  Mirifico 
cum  Joanne  Catilineti  fratrum  Franciscanorum  per  Burgundiam  provincial! 
ministro  sacrae  Theologize  doctori."  From  this  edition,  fol.  sig.  D-D  iiiL,  it  is 
here  translated. 


EXPOSTULATES  WITH  CATILINET.  241 

I  wonder,  therefore,  by  what  right,  while  I  was  far  away 
there  in  Burgundy,  an  unknown  wayfarer,  always  harm- 
less towards  all,  seeking  of  no  one  more  than  honour  for 
desert,  you  were  moved  to  calumniate  me,  you  who  for 
your  calling's  sake  should,  as  Paul  teaches  the  Romans1, 
hate  evil  and  cleave  to  good,  be  kindly  affectioned  towards 
others,  blessing  and  cursing  not,  overcome  evil  with  good, 
and  as  much  as  lieth  in  you  live  peaceably  with  all  men. 
Truly  you  have  not  done  what  is  worthy  of  your  calling, 
or  of  a  Christian  teacher,  who  should  exhort  the  people  in 
the  name  of  Christ  to  those  things  that  are  Christ's,  to  the 
works  of  the  spirit — charity  and  peace,  and  the  other 
things  which  Paul  recounts  to  the  Galatians2.  For  he 
who  persuades  to  hatred,  wrath,  strife,  rivalry,  enmity, 
does  not  persuade  to  things  of  the  spirit  but  things  of  the 
flesh,  than  which  nothing  should  be  more  strange  to  the 
Christian,  and  nothing  more  incongruous  than  for  a 
Christian  doctor  to  teach  and  incite  to  them.  For  Christ, 
the  author  of  our  religion,  and  the  apostles,  and  the 
whole  sacred  writings,  as  you  must  know  better  than  I, 
call  us  to  peace  and  quietness.  Therefore  John  the 
Evangelist3  reports  Christ  to  have  said  to  his  disciples, 
Peace  I  give  unto  you,  my  peace  I  leave  with  you.  And 
Paul  says  to  the  Hebrews4,  Follow  peace  with  all  men, 
and  holiness,  without  which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord. 
Not  only  to  exhort  men  to  this  peace,  but  even  to  entreat 

1  Romans,  ch.  12.     I  cite  the  texts  as  they  are  cited  by  Agrippa  in  hi» 
margin. 

2  Galatians,  ch.  5.  3  John,  ch.  4.  4  Hebrews,  ch.  12. 

VOL.  I.  R 


242  COENELIUS  AGR1PPA. 

them,  ought  to  be  your  duty  and  also  mine.  Does  not 
the  apostle  say  to  the  Ephesians1,  Let  no  corrupt  com- 
munication proceed  out  of  your  mouth;. and  a  little  after, 
Let  all  bitterness,  and  wrath,  and  anger,  and  clamour,  and 
evil  speaking  be  put  away  from  you?  And  in  his  epistle 
to  the  Corinthians2,  he  so  detests  a  railer,  that  he  judges  it 
improper  to  sit  at  meat  with  him.  In  the  same  epistle, 
not  long  afterwards3,  he  puts  revilers  among  those  who 
shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  And  he  teaches 
the  same  to  the  Colossians,  saying,  Put  away  anger,  wrath, 
malice,  blasphemy,  filthy  communication  out  of  your 
mouth.  Peter  also4  teaches,  that  he  who  would  love  life 
and  see  good  days,  let  him  restrain  his  tongue  from  evil. 
And  .Tames5  says,  Speak  not  evil  one  of  another,  brethren. 
Thus  we  are  taught  everywhere  by  the  apostles  to  abstain 
from  maledictions  and  offences,  which  are  seeds  of  ill-will 
and  discord  of  such  kind  as  you  have  very  recently  been 
scattering  against  me  before  a  people  and  a  prince,  when, 
a  little  before  this  last  past  festival  of  Easter,  in  Ghent,  of 
Flanders,  before  our  most  illustrious  princess  and  all  the 
nobles  of  the  court,  called  to  deliver  gravely  and  wisely 
Quadragesimal  discourses,  you  broke  out,  forgetful  of 
Christian  modesty,  and  in  full  assembly  interrupting  the 
Gospel  of  Christ,  into  open  abuse  and  false  calumny  of  me, 
until  you  led  many  to  hate  me  and  wish  me  ill,  through 
false  opinion.  It  is  thus  that  even  some  who  were 
before  friends  of  my  name,  now  have  their  minds  averted 

1  Ephesians,  ch.  4.      2  I.  Corinthians,  ch.  5.     3  I.  Corinthians,  ch.  6. 
4  I.  Peter,  ch.  3.  5  James,  ch.  4. 


EXPOSTULATES  WITH  CATILINET.  243 

from  me,  so  taught  by  your  most  false  fancies  and  trucu- 
lent lies,  uttered  in  those  much-talked-of  assemblies,  in 
the  which  you  employed  against  me  maledictions  and  op- 
probrious words  of  shame.  For  among  other  things  you 
called  me  before  that  numerous  audience  once  and  again  a 
Judaising  heretic,  who  introduced  into  Christian  schools 
the  most  wicked,  damnable,  and  prohibited  art  of  the 
Cabala,  who,  in  contempt  of  the  holy  fathers  and  the 
doctors  of  the  Church  preferred  the  rabbis  of  the  Jews, 
and  twisted  sacred  letters  to  the  arts  of  heresy  and  of  the 
Talmud.  But  I  am  a  Christian;  neither  death  nor  life 
shall  separate  me  from  the  faith  of  Christ,  and  I  prefer  to 
all  others  Christian  teachers,  although  I  do  not  despise  the 
rabbis  of  the  Jews,  and  if,  as  it  may  be,  I  shall  prove  to 
have  erred,  yet  I  desire  not  to  be  a  heretic,  nor  do  I 
intend  to  Judaise,  and  it  is  so  far  from  me  to  teach  arts 
damnable  and  prohibited,  that  I  would  not  so  much  as 
learn  them.  The  sacred  scriptures  I  nowhere  distort,  but 
according  to  the  divers  expositions  of  divers  doctors,  take 
them  in  divers  ways  for  witness.  I  have  not  taught 
heretical  arts  and  errors  of  the  Jews,  but  I  have  ex- 
pounded, by  long  toil  and  vigils,  the  Christian  and  Catholic 
book  entitled,  On  the  Mirific  Word,  of  the  Christian 
Doctor  John  Reuchlin  of  Pfortzheim,  not  secretly  in 
closets,  but  in  the  public  schools,  before  a  public  audience, 
in  public  prelections  which  I  held  gratuitously  in  honour 
of  the  most  illustrious  Princess  Margaret,  and  of  all  that 
was  studious  in  Dole;  nor  were  there  wanting  in  my 
audiences  men  who  were  most  grave  and  learned,  as  well 
B2 


244  CORNELIUS  AGR1PPA. 

the  parliament  of  Dole,  the  venerable  fathers  of  the  sena- 
torial rank,  as  also  the  masters  in  that  University,  the  most 
learned  doctors,  and  the  ordinary  readers,  among  whom, 
the  reverend  Vice-Chancellor  Verner,  conservator  of  the 
church  at  Dole,  dean,  doctor  in  each  faculty,  did  not  omit 
attendance  at  a  single  lecture.  But  you  to  whom  I  was 
utterly  unknown,  who  were  never  present  at  one  lecture, 
and  never  heard  me  elsewhere  speaking  privately  about 
these  things — who  never,  so  far  as  I  know,  have  seen  me — 
yet  have  dared  to  utter  against  me  an  unjust  opinion,  that 
had  better  been  omitted,  and  might  have  been,  and  ought 
to  have  been,  not  only  because  it  is  most  false,  but  also 
because  it  is  not  fit  that  a  religious  man  should  dissemi- 
nate among  most  serious  and  sacred  Christian  congrega- 
tions such  calumnies  and  contumelies,  and  they  altogether 
misbecome  the  divine  office  of  the  preacher.  For  to 
disperse  contempt,  cursing  and  hatred  is  not  the  work  of 
sincerity  and  speaking  in  the  place  of  Christ,  but  in  a 
manner  (I  employ  the  words  of  Paul1)  to  handle  the  word 
of  God  deceitfully,  which  that  great  Apostle,  set  apart  for 
the  Gentiles,  says  that  he  had  never  done,  and  which  cer- 
tainly ought  never  to  be  done  by  any  one  who  seeks  to  be  a 
Christian  teacher.  You  nevertheless  have  done  this  with- 
out cause  and  without  fault  on  my  part,  you  have  con- 
trived evil  against  me,  robbed  me  of  my  good  reputa- 
tion, blotted  my  good  name  with  the  impurity  of  your 
hypocrisy,  and  out  of  the  rancour  of  your  mind  have 
borne  false  witness  against  me.  For  Christ  says,  in  Mat- 
1  II.  Corinthians,  ch.  4. 


EXPOSTULATES  WITH  CATILINET.  245 

thew1 :  Whosoever  shall  say  to  his  brother,  Raca,  shall  be 
in  danger  of  the  council :  but  whosoever  shall  say,  Thou 
fool,  shall  be  in  danger  of  hell  fire.  But  you  have  marked 
me  not  with  an  uncertain  reproach,  or  the  name  of  folly, 
but,  suspicious  beyond  measure,  on  account  of  your  igno- 
rance of  the  word  Cabalism,  and  want  of  information  about 
Hebrew  dogmata,  have  called  me  heretic  and  Judaiser, 
and  have  moreover  adjudged  me  to  the  fire.  But  I  rejoice 
that  I  bear  this  burden  for  the  sake  of  Our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  am  esteemed  as  a  sheep  to  the  slaughter,  or 
held  worthy  to  suffer  rebuke  for  that  mirific  word,  the 
name,  I  say,  of  Jesus.  By  that  pentagram  in  Matthew2, 
happiness  is  promised  to  those  of  whom  all  manner  of  evil 
is  said  falselv,  and  who  are  persecuted  for  His  name's  sake. 
And  Peter  calls  those  happy  who  are  reproached  for  the 
name  of  Christ. 

"  What  part  with  the  Jews  have  I  who  confess  Christ 
Jesus  the  son  of  God3,  and  most  devoutly  worship  Him  ? 
What  part  with  heretics  have  I  who  observe  with  my  best 
strength  and  teach  the  unity  of  the  Church  and  its  most 
salutary  precepts,  and  the  rites  of  sacred  councils  and 
canons  by  which  faith  is  assured  and  cleansed  from  here- 
tical iniquity  ?  Those  by  whom  I  was  heard  can  know — 
those,  I  say,  most  upright  and  learned  men  can  judge  and 
bear  witness  if  ever  anything  was  said  by  me  offensive 
to  the  Christian  faith  and  Church,  unless  perchance  you 
mean  to  say  that  they  shared  with  me  my  Judaising  and 
my  heresy.  For  it  would  have  been  neither  decorous  nor 

1  Matthew,  ch.  5.  -  Matthew,  ch.  3.  3  I.  Peter,  ch.  4. 


246  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

Christian  in  them,  hearing  publicly,  to  have  tolerated  by 
silence,  to  have  consented  with  by  not  contradicting, 
and,  what  is  more/ to  have  approved  by  rewarding,  what 
it  was  base,  Judaical,  and  heretical  in  me  to  have  read ; 
for  this  reading  was  the  reason  of  their  receiving  me  into 
the  college,  and  giving  me  an  ordinary  lectureship,  the 
position  of  regent,  and  a  salary.  This  evil  speaking  is  not 
then  against  me  only,  but  against  the  whole  senate  of  the 
parliament,  and  against  the  whole  University  of  Dole. 
See  into  what  pit  you  have  cast  yourself,  who  while  you 
wished  to  cut  me  up  with  calumny  have  cheated  with 
false  stories  a  princess,  her  nobles,  and  all  her  court — have 
exposed  to  ridicule  a  senate  and  an  university — have  pro- 
faned also  the  word  of  God.  Was  this  preaching  the 
gospel  of  Christ  before  so  illustrious  a  princess  and  court? 
Was  this  the  office  of  a  pious  and  religious  brother  ?  Is 
it  thus  a  brother  is  corrected  ?  Grant  now  that  I,  still  a 
youth,  not  yet  twenty-three  years  of  age,  had  brought 
forward  in  my  lectures  some  matter  imprudently,  and 
was  to  be  reprehended  for  it  (though  James  says1,  that  if 
any  man  offend  not  in  word,  the  same  is  a  perfect  man), 
yet  this  ought  to  have  been  done  far  otherwise,  and  in  a 
more  pious  and  Christian  way  than  you  adopted ;  for 
while  you  lived  in  the  town  of  Gray,  and  journeyed  fre- 
quently to  Dole,  if  I  seemed  to  you  to  have  spoken  ill,  or 
to  have  interpreted  childishly,  why  did  you  not  come  to 
me,  why  did  you  not  rebuke  me,  why  did  you  not  reason 
with  me  of  my  error  ?  For  heresy,  for  Judaism,  you  did 
1  James,  ch.  3. 


EXPOSTULATES  WITH  CATIUNET.  247 

not  check  me  to  my  face,  but  you  wished  at  Ghent,  in 
Flanders,  to  deliver  me  over,  lecturing  at  Dole,  in  Bur- 
gundy, two  hundred  miles  away,  to  the  ill-will  of  ally 
before  the  princess  and  her  court,  that  by  so  exciting 
against  me  the  hate  of  the  princess  and  her  courtiers  you 
might  indirectly  (as  it  is  said)  cause  my  expulsion  from 
the  whole  of  Burgundy.  Who  does  not  see  here  a 
treachery  laid  open,  calumny  manifest,  a  spite  detected? 
Had  I  sinned,  it  would  have  become  you  to  rebuke  me  in 
another  manner,  and  as  Paul  instructs  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Galatians1,  with  these  words  :  Brethren,  if  a  man  be 
overtaken  in  a  fault,  ye  which  are  spiritual,  restore  such  an 
one  in  the  spirit  of  meekness.  And  he  says  also  to  the 
Thessalonians3,  Count  him  not  as  an  enemy,  but  admonish 
him  as  a  brother.  This  fraternal  and  evangelical  manner 
of  admonition  would  have  become  you,  a  religious  man 
bearing  the  name  of  Brother,  as  having  professed  the 
rule  of  the  Franciscan  brethren,  and  it  would  have  been 
of  much  advantage  to  me,  while  it  would  have  preserved 
for  me  the  grace  and  favour  of  the  princess  and  of  others. 
Spare  me  then,  henceforward,  I  entreat;  let  there  be  an 
end  of  reproaches  and  detraction;  let  there  be  an  end  of 
the  discourses  that  provoke  to  hate  and  cripple  charity ; 
exhort  to  mutual  benevolence  and  concord  those  whom 
you  have  made  unfriendly  to  me';  restore  to  me  the 
wholeness  of  my  reputation ;  restore  to  me  my  good  and 
innocent  name ;  restore  publicly  what  you  have  publicly 
destroyed;  restore  to  me  those  things  which  you  have 
1  Galatians,  ch.  6.  2  Thessalonians,  ch.  3. 


"248  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

snatched  away  by  cruel  fraud  and  wicked  injustice.  Go 
not  before  you  are  reconciled  with  me,  your  brother  in 
J-esus  Christ,  with  a  stubborn  heart  resisting  the  divine 
spirit,  to  celebrate  the  divine  mysteries  of  the  mass,  and 
eat  the  body  of  Christ  to  your  own  damnation.  By  that 
holy  sacrament  I  conjure  you  to  restore,  for  we  are  both 
•Christians  and  members  of  Christ,  as  Paul  says  to  the 
Romans,  one  body  in  Christ ;  to  separate  us  and  to  make 
dissension  what  is  it  but  to  divide  Christ's  body,  and  in  this 
body  you  are  a  noble  and  a  chief  member,  who  are  doctor 
of  theology,  and  have  made  profession  of  the  rule  of  St. 
Francis.  I  also  work  in  the  same  body,  and  though  I  am 
but  a  mean  member,  yet  I  am  a  Christian,  and  learn  daily 
•with  pleasure  from  great  masters,  of  whom  you  are  one, 
the  things  that  belong  to  our  religion,  wherein  undoubt- 
edly I  delight  much  ;  let  us,  therefore,  love  one  another. 
In  this,  as  the  apostle  says1,  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law; 
nothing  is  more  excellent  than  truth  and  charity.  For 
the  apostle  writes  to  the  Galatians2,  If  ye  bite  and  de- 
vour one  another,  take  heed  that  ye  be  not  consumed  one 
of  another. 

"These  few  words  I  write  to  you,  good  father,  not 
moved  by  hatred,  ill-will,  or  anger,  but  conscious  of  my 
own  innocence,  in  a  good  and  pious  temper,  studious  of 
love ;  and  the  charity  that  I  am  asking  you  to  show; 
the  same  I  offer;  which  to  refuse — or  to  spurn  this  that  I 
have  written — can  neither  be  a  part  of  your  profession  or 
your  dignity;  for  he  who  refuses  charity  refuses  God. 
1  Romans,  ch.  13.  *  Galatians,  ch.  5. 


MONK  AND  CHRISTIAN.  249 

For  God,  the  evangelist  witnesses1,  is  love.  But  if  for 
talmudical  and  cabalistical  studies  which  you  distrust,  or 
for  any  other  things  which  may  have  been  erroneously  re- 
ported to  you  by  small,  unskilful  persons,  or  by  persons 
little  friendly  to  me,  you  have  concejved  any  suspicion 
of  me,  I  will  both  clear  and  justify  myself  to  you  most 
amply.  Farewell.  From  London,  the  famous  emporium 
of  England.  In  the  year  1510." 

Excellent  preaching  to  a  rock.  A  letter  running  over 
with  the  recent  study  of  St.  Paul,  and  in  which  there 
is  the  Christian  spirit  scarcely  less  to  be  admired  for  the 
drop  or  two  of  human  bitterness  infused  into  it.  Still 
there  is  the  generous  aspiration,  the  fond  yearning  upward 
of  a  contemplative  German  youth,  who  knows  that  there 
is  vigour  in  his  striving.  With  the  vigour,  weakness. 
Every  one  must  feel  that  with  such  letters  as  this  which  we 
have  just  read  it  is  vain  for  any  man  to  hope  to  grapple 
with  the  Catilinets  of  the  world.  Agrippa  began  life  upon 
enchanted  ground,  the  disenchantment  is  at  hand.  Against 
established  form  and  rule  his  aspirations,  noble  as  they  are 
and  true  in  essence,  certain  as  it  is  that  they  and  many 
others  like  them  helped  society  to  better  days,  seem  to  be 
powerless.  Everywhere  he  finds  men  treating  accepted 
opinions  as  if  they  were  the  height  and  depth  of  know- 
ledge, using  them  in  a  thousand  forms  as  arguments 
against  every  far-reaching  speculation.  The  day  will 
come  when  we  shall  find  him,  stung  to  the  quick,  hur- 
riedly and  angrily  turning  the  tables  upon  the  entire  con- 
1  I.  John,  ch.  4. 


250  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

ference  of  near-sighted  pundits,  and  hunting  them  all 
down  with  their  own  cry  of  Vanity,  in  the  last  years  of 
his  vexation.  The  days  of  a  simple  aspiration  are  already 
numbered,  and  the  days  of  provocation  are  begun. 

Having  finished  his  appointed  work  in  England, 
Agrippa  returned  to  Germany,  and — probably  entitled  to 
a  month  or  two  of  holiday — joined  his  domestic  circle  in 
Cologne.  Maximilian  would  soon  find  for  him  fresh  em- 
ployment, since  the  Emperor  was  busy,  and  had  need  of  all 
heads  and  all  hands  that  could  be  made  available.  Cologne 
was  to  the  young  Agrippa  but  a  place  of  rest  for  a  few 
months,  where  he  could  gossip  at  ease  with  his  wife,  his 
father,  and  his  mother.  His  parents,  having  given  him 
his  taste  for  astronomy,  could  sympathise  with  at  least 
some  part  of  his  studies1.  He  was  happy  as  a  son  and  as 
a  husband,  and  found  rest  at  home. 

But  inasmuch  as  an  entire  idleness  is  a  great  spoiler 
of  rest,  Cornelius  undertook  also  to  amuse  his  more 
learned  fellow-townsmen  by  delivering  the  lectures  called 
Quodlibetal  (or  What-you-Will),  on  questions  of  Di- 
vinity3. I  do  not  know  anything  more  than  can  be 
guessed  about  these  Quodlibetal  divinity  lectures  at  the 
Cologne  University.  It  is  reasonable,  however,  to  suppose 
that  they  were  like  the  Quodlibet  books — miscellanies 

1  De  Incertitudine  et  Vanitate  Scientiarum,   cap.  xxx.     De  Astronomia 
(ed.  Septemb.  1532.  p.  79):   "Ego  quoque  hanc  artem  a  parentibus  puer 
imbibi." 

2  Ex  Britannia  autem  recedens,  apud  Colonienses  meos  coram  universo 
studio,  totoque  Theologico  coetu,  Theologica  placita  (quaa  vos  vocabulo  non 
admodum  Latino  Quodlibeta  dicitis)  baud  non  Theologice  declamavi."  Def. 
Prop,  de  Monog.  B.  Annas.     Op.  Tom.  ii.  p.  597. 


AT  HOME  IN  COLOGNE.  251 

meant  to  show,  by  the  variety  of  topics  treated  and 
the  random  way  of  treatment,  a  great  range  of  agree- 
able or  useful  reading.  Whatever  they  may  have  been, 
the  Doctor  of  Dole  delivered  the  Quodlibetal  lectures 
while  upon  this  visit  to  his  family,  and  he  must  have 
heard  much  talk,  too,  upon  interesting  matters,  for 
the  pronunciation  against  Reuchlin,  on  the  part  of  the 
Cologne  theologians,  was  just  then  (1511)  growing  to  a 
head,  and  rabbinical  books  were  the  main  topic  of  dis- 
cussion in  the  University.  Thus  the  case  stood.  One 
Pfefferkorn,  a  Cologne  Jew,  turned  orthodox  priest,  and 
bitter,  as  most  converts  are,  against  the  brotherhood  he  had 
deserted,  had,  in  the  year  1507,  exhorted  Jews  to  "be- 
come Christians  in  a  book,  published  at  Cologne,  called  a 
Speculum.  In  1509  another  Jew,  turned  orthodox  priest, 
Victor  von  Carben,  published,  with  the  same  object,  also 
at  Cologne,  a  golden  work,  an  Opus  Aureum.  In  the 
same  year  he  held  public  disputations  with  the  Jews  (of 
course  discomfiting  them)  in  the  house  of  Hermann  Hass 
of  Cologne,  at  Poppelsdorf.  Pfefferkorn  and  his  ally  were 
for  the  destruction  of  all  Jewish  literature  as  so  much 
blasphemy,  and  they  attacked  Reuchlin,  of  course,  as  the 
chief  upholder  of  the  learning  they  contemned.  Pfeffer- 
korn and  Reuchlin  became  chiefs  in  a  great  tilt  before 
the  eyes  of  Europe.  The  matter  in  dispute  was  put  thus 
at  the  time  in  the  form  of  what  was  called  a  double 
Crinomenon : 

I.  Whether  all  Hebrew  books,  except  the  Bible,  are  to 
be  abolished,  burnt  ? 


252  CORNELIUS  AGEIPPA. 

Reuchlin  denies.     Pfefferkorn  affirms. 

II.  Whether  the  Cabala  propounded  by  Reuchlin  be 
contrary  to  the  word  of  God  ? 

Pfefferkorn  affirms.     Reuchlin  denies1. 

In  1509  an  order  was  extracted  from  Maximilian,  then 
in  camp  at  Padua,  to  John  Pfefferkorn  of  Cologne,  com- 
manding him  to  search  out  Jewish  books  and  extirpate 
them.  In  1510  a  like  order  was  sent  to  Uriel,  Archbishop 
of  Mayence,  who  forwarded  to  Pfefferkorn,  from  Aschaffen- 
burg,  a  list  of  the  books  he  had  seized,  and  also,  sensible 
man,  wrote  to  ask  Reuchlin  which  he  might  properly  de- 
stroy after  he  had  seized  them.  A  month  or  two  afterwards 
instructions  were  obtained  from  Maximilian  to  Jacob  Hoch- 
straten,  inquisitor  of  Cologne,  Victor  von  Carben,  priest, 
and  John  Reuchlin,  doctor  of  laws,  informing  them  of  the 
powers  conferred  on  Uriel,  Archbishop  of  Mayence2,  and 
ordering  them  all  to  furnish  him  with  counsel.  In  1509 
Pfefferkorn  had  attacked  Reuchlin  as  a  Cabalist  and  pro- 
moter of  blasphemy  in  his  Handspiegel,  to  whom,  on  the 
6th  of  October,  Reuchlin  replied  by  the  publication  of  his 
Augenspiegel.  About  this  famous  book,  which  they 
eventually  condemned  and  burnt,  and  about  Reuchlin's 
letters,  on  the  same  topic,  to  Conrad  Koellin,  then  just 
published,  the  theologians  of  his  native  town  were  mainly 

1  This  and  the  other  notes  on  the  controversy  as  it  stood  at  this  time  in 
Cologne  I  take  from  the  Prodromus  Historic^  Universitatis  Coloniensis,  quo 
exhibetur  Synopsis  actorum  et  scriptorum  a  Facilitate  Theologica  pro  EccL 
Cath.  et  Republ.  of  Joseph  Harzheim  (4to,  Cologne,  1759). 

2  This  Uriel  is  said  afterwards  to  have  died  of  regret,  because  when]  he 
once  by  chance  caught  the  cellarer  at  Aschaffenburg  stealing  his  wine,  he 
gave  him  a  blow  on  the  head  with  the  cooper's  adze  that  killed  him. 


TO  BATTLE.  253 

occupied  when  young  Agrippa,  fresh  from  the  stripes  of 
Catilinet,  spent  his  holiday  among  them.  There  was  no 
escaping  from  the  quarrel.  If  the  young  doctor  turned 
from  priests  to  citizens  he  found  among  them  other  matter 
for  anxiety.  The  discontent  of  the  townspeople  with  their 
chief  men  was  ripening  towards  rebellion,  and  only  two 
years  afterwards  the  heads  of  senators  were  rolling  in  the 
Grass-market1. 

There  was  no  rest  for  Cornelius — he  is  now  aged 
twenty-five — except  in  his  own  quiet  communion  with 
wife  and  parents ;  and  from  that  he  was  sooii  taken  by 
the  summons  to  lay  by  his  doctor's  cap  and,  taking  up  his 
sword,  join  instantly  the  army  of  the  Emperor  in  Italy. 

1  Mvtius  de  Germanorum  Prima  Orlglne  .  ...  ad  mensem  Augustum  anni 
1530.  Lib.  xxx.  p.  356. 


254  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

SERVICE  IN  THE  FIELD — "WITH  THE  COUNCIL  AT  PISA. 

SHINING  in  mail,  Cornelius  Agrippa  is  at  Trent  in  the 
spring  or  early  summer  of  the  year  1511,  preparing  to 
escort  some  thousand  of  gold  pieces  to  the  camp  of  Maxi- 
milian at  Verona1.  Doctor  of  divinity,  he  has  resumed 
field  service  ;  and  certainly  a  young  doctor  in  arms  is  not 
to  be  marvelled  at  in  1511,  when  the  year  preceding  saw 
an  aged  pope  with  harness  on  his  back.  The  tastes  of 
Cornelius  are  not  military.  His  friend  at  Trent  is  George 
Neideck,  the  bishop,  and  from  Trent  he  writes  to  his 
early  friend  Landulph  in  the  old  patronising  tone.  Lan- 
dulph  has  by  this  time  acquired  a  wife,  to  whom 
he  refers  by  the — perhaps  pet — name  of  Penthesilea  ; 
also  a  little  boy,  Camille,  and  a  girl-baby,  Prudence3. 
Landulph,  friend  of  Agrippa's  youth,  must  really  be 
helped,  since  he  is  still  waiting  for  a  favourable  open- 
ing in  life,  living,  apparently  in  no  very  satisfactory 
manner,  on  his  private  means.  The  Eagles  have  crossed 

1  Ep.  25,  Lib.  i.  p.  705.  2  Ep.  34,  Lib.  L  p.  709. 


JOINS  THE  CAMP  AT  VERONA.  255 

the  Alps.  Agrippa  joins  them,  and  Landulph  must  join 
them  too.  The  ingenious  soldier-scholar  has  again  a 
scheme  by  which  he  and  his  friend  are  both  to  compass 
glory,  praise,  and  profit.  If  Landulph,  hastening  by  sail 
and  oar,  will  only  meet  Cornelius  at  the  lodging  of  the 
Bishop  of  Trent,  in  Verona,  he  will  know  the  plan1. 
What  is  the  mystery?  No  more  than  that  the  learned 
captain  sees  how  he  shall  compass  for  himself  and  for  his 
friend  a  couple  of  Italian  professorships2. 

With  a  scheme;  then,  like  this  in  his  head,  Cornelius 
accompanied  the  chest  of  gold  to  Maximilian's  Italian 
head-quarters  at  Verona.  Verona  was  one  of  the  towns 
promised  him  by  the  league  of  Cambray,  and  the  one 
upon  the  possession  of  which  he  laid  most  stress  in  all 
public  or  underhand  negotiations.  The  gold  crowns 
were,  I  suspect,  French  coin.  On  the  17th  of  November 
in  the  preceding  year,  the  exigencies  of  their  relative 
positions  had  caused  Maximilian  and  Louis  to  execute,  at 
Blois,  a  treaty  of  strict  mutual  assistance.  It  was  agreed 
then  that  Maximilian  should  receive  from  France  a 
hundred  thousand  ducats  in  the  spring  for  military  use  in 
Italy,  and  was  to  cross  the  Alps  in  person  with  three 
thousand  riders  and  ten  thousand  foot,  which  were  to  join 
twelve  hundred  lances  and  eight  thousand  foot  supplied 
by  Louis.  Maximilian,  however,  was  a  very  much  em- 
barrassed prince.  He  could  not  raise  the  necessary  men, 

1  Ep.  25,  Lib.  i. 

2  Ep.  30,  Lib.  i.  p.  707.     It  is  distinctly  implied  in  the  second  sentence, 
which  should  be  compared  with  language  used  in  the  preceding  letters. 


256  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

and  did  not  cross  the  Alps  himself,  but  sent  the  money  to 
Verona,  and  despatched  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  late 
in  spring,  with  a  small  corps  to  overrun  the  Friuli. 
Wretchedly  supported  by  the  Emperor,  the  little  army  at 
Verona — which  sometimes  had  to  exist  a  whole  week 
without  bread  or  wine — must  have  delighted  in  the 
rumble  of  the  wheels  of  the  money-cart.  It  had — and 
Cornelius,  who  joined  it,  had — nothing  to  do  with  the 
Duke  of  Brunswick,  who  re-crossed  the  Alps  again  at  the 
approach  of  winter,  and  left  to  these  permanent  troops, 
co-operating  with  the  French,  the  burden  of  incessant 
toil.  Famine  would  now  and  then  breed  plagues  among 
them,  which  then  spread  beyond  the  German  camp  among 
the  Frenchmen.  The  cruel  incidents  of  war  were  per- 
petually present  to  men  holding  what  was  scarcely  to  be 
called  their  own  on  hostile  ground,  and  at  all  seasons 
harassed  by  a  busy  enemy.  When  history  may  tell  us 
only  now  and  then  of  an  important  battle  during  any 
period  of  this  long  and  murderous  Italian  struggle,  which 
began  with  nothing  higher  than  a  royal  lust  of  plunder, 
the  contemporary  chronicles  are  full  of  petty  details 
frightful  to  contemplate1.  Because  Cornelius  was  con- 
templative, he  was  quite  unfit  to  fight  in  such  a  cause  at 
such  a  time.  He  owed  service  to  Caesar,  and  he  paid  it ; 
required  to  fight,  he  showed  that  he  possessed  the  physical 
courage  in  which  few  men  who  are  young  and  noble  ever 

1  Of  the  same  period  Anquetil  •writes,  "  Pendant  ces  arrangements  la 
guerre  se  faisait  k  entrance  en  Italie  par  petites  actions,  souvent  plus  meur- 
trieres  que  les  grandes  batailles."  A  few  points  in  tliis  part  of  the  narrative 
rest  upon  the  Chronique  de  Bat/art  par  le  Loyal  Serviteur,  ch.  xlvi.-xlix. 


HIS  DISTASTE  FOR  WAR.  257 

have  been  found  deficient.  He  won  in  this  year,  1811, 
or  the  year  following — most  likely  the  year  following — a 
knighthood  in  the  field.  Nevertheless,  he  felt  that  he  was 
not  in  his  own  true  position1.  The  salary  paid  to  him  (or 
owing  to  him)  for  seven  years  from  the  Imperial  govern- 
ment was  that  of  a  soldier.  "  I  was  for  several  years,"  he 
afterwards  wrote,  "  by  the  Emperor's  command,  and  by 
my  calling,  a  soldier.  I  followed  the  camp  of  the  Emperor 
and  the  King"  (of  France):  "in  many  conflicts  gave  no 
sluggish  help :  before  my  face  went  death,  and  I  followed, 
the  minister  of  death,  my  right  hand  soaked  in  blood,  my 
left  dividing  spoil :  my  belly  was  filled  with  the  prey,  and 
the  way  of  my  feet  was  over  corpses  of  the  slain :  so  I  was 
made  forgetful  of  my  inmost  honour,  and  wrapped  round 
fifteenfold  in  Tartarean  shade2."  So  wrote  the  man  of  his 
Italian  war  service,  who  rode  out  to  it  dreaming  of  glory 
in  the  shape  of  a  professor's  chair  at  Pavia,  and  who,  no 
doubt,  thanked  heartily  the  Cardinal  of  Santa  Croce, 
when,  towards  the  end  of  the  first  summer's  campaign  in 
arms,  he  invited  the  young  doctor  Cornelius  Agrippa  to 
a  campaign,  which  proved  but  a  very  brief  one,  of  a  more 
congenial  sort,  as  member  of  the  Council  then  about  to 
meet  at  Pisa3.  The  acceptance  of  this  invitation  was  the 
climax  of  Agrippa's  opposition  to  the  Pope. 

1  See  next  chapter.  2  Ep.  19,  Lib.  ii.  p.  736. 

*  Def.  Prop,  de  B.  Ann.  Monog.  Op.  Tom.  ii.  p.  596.  "  Exinde  a 
Maximiliano  Csesare  contra  Venetos  destinatus,  in  ipsis  castris,  hostiles  inter 
turbas,  plebemque  cruentam,  a  sacris  lectionibus  non  destiti,  donee  per 
Reverendissimum  Cardinalem  Sanctae  Crucis,  in  Pisanum  Concilium  re- 
ceptus,  nactusque  si  concilium  illud  prosperasset,  egregiam  illustrandorum 
studiorum  meorum  occasionem." 

VOL.  I.  S 


258  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

The  Council  of  Pisa  was  begotten  at  Tours  of  an 
ecclesiastical  assembly  summoned  by  King  Louis  XII.  and 
attended  by  the  Bishop  of  Gurk  on  the  part  of  Maximi- 
lian, to  consider  whether  it  was  lawful  in  an  Emperor  and 
King  to  resist  Papal  aggression.  An  affirmative  answer 
led  to  a  revival  in  France  of  the  pragmatic  sanction  of 
Charles  VII.,  diminishing  Church  patronage,  and  induced 
a  request  on  the  part  of  the  assembly  that  a  general 
Council  might  be  summoned  to  meet  at  Pisa  for  the  os- 
tensible purpose  of  reforming  ecclesiastical  abuses.  Maxi- 
milian seconded  warmly  these  proceedings,  proposed  for 
Germany  a  similar  pragmatic  sanction,  and  in  a  manifesto 
from  his  own  hand  said,  "  As  there  is  evident  necessity 
for  the  establishment  of  due  order  and  decency  both  in 
the  ecclesiastical  and  temporal  state,  I  have  resolved  to 
call  a  general  council,  without  which  nothing  permanent 
can  be  effected."  A  general  council  of  German  bishops 
met,  therefore,  at  Augsburg,  but  it  refused  in  any  way 
to  co-operate  for  the  production  of  divisions  in  the 
Church.  It  was  but  by  a  certain  number  of  Italian  and 
French  ecclesiastics,  backed  with  the  authority  of  Maxi- 
milian and  Louis,  that  the  Council  of  Pisa  was  appointed 
"  to  reform  the  churches  in  their  head  and  in  their  limbs, 
also  to  punish  the  openly  guilty  who  had  left  no  hope  of 
amendment  and  had  long  given  great  annoyance  to  the 
Catholic  Church."  The  formal  summons  of  the  Council 
was  signed  by  nine  cardinals,  of  whom  Bernardine  Car- 
vajal,  the  Cardinal  of  Santa  Croce,  was  the  first.  They 
grounded  their  right  to  issue  such  a  summons  partly  on 


THEOLOGIST  TO  THE  COUNCIL  OF  PISA.  259 

their  rank  as  head,  limbs,  and  defenders  of  the  Church, 
partly  on  the  necessity  of  such  assemblies  being  held  from 
time  to  time  and  on  the  absence  of  all  hope  of  right 
ecclesiastical  assistance  from  the  Pope.  They  chose  for 
the  place  of  meeting,  Pisa,  because  it  was  a  neutral  spot, 
against  which,  as  a  locality,  the  Pope  could  not  justly 
complain,  and  before  their  appointed  council  they  required 
Pope  Julius  himself  to  appear  by  the  first  day  of  Septem- 
ber; but  as  nobody  liked  to  serve  the  summons  on  his 
Holiness,  copies  of  it  were  affixed  to  the  church  doors  in 
Rimini  and  other  great  Italian  towns. 

To  this  schismatic  council  Julius  appointed  an  opponent, 
in  a  council  summoned  by  himself  to  meet  at  Rome  in 
the  church  of  the  Lateran.  Of  the  five  Italian  car- 
dinals who  had  publicly  insulted  him  he  named  three  as 
the  most  obdurate,  the  Cardinal  of  Santa  Croce,  spiritual 
head  of  the  opposing  movement,  being  of  course  one,  and 
summoned  them  on  pain  of  being  stripped  of  all  ecclesi- 
astical preferment.  The  other  two  he  simply  warned 
and  summoned  to  the  council  in  the  Lateran. 

Thus  we  see  that  Cornelius,  in  accepting  the  post  of 
Theologist  to  the  Council  of  Pisa,  was  again  fingering 
the  pitch  of  heresy  with  orthodox  intentions.  Bernardino 
Carvajal,  his  patron,  chose  him  not  only  because  he  was 
an  able,  bold,  young  doctor,  known  to  many  of  the 
learned,  though  he  had  not  yet  published  any  writings, 
as  a  person  of  great  power  and  promise,  but  no  doubt, 
also,  because  he  was  a  German.  Not  one  German  bishop 
would  consent  to  go  to  Pisa  ;  it  was  well  as  far  as  possible 
S2 


260  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

to  cover  this  deficiency,  and  in  Cornelius  he  found  a 
doctor  who  would  represent  the  German  party. 

Carvajal  was  a  Spanish  priest,  and  very  active.  His 
brother  had  been  ambassador,  in  Portugal,  of  Ferdinand 
the  Catholic.  He  had  himself  studied  for  the  Church, 
partly  in  Spain,  partly  in  Italy,  and  being  at  the  Papal 
court,  in  Italy  he  had  been  made  nuncio  to  Spain  by 
Innocent  VIII.  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  then  sent  him  as 
ambassador  to  Rome.  In  1493,  Alexander  VI.  made  him 
Cardinal  di  Santa  Croce,  he  being  then  Bishop  of  Cartha- 
gena.  He  had  before  held  the  sees  of  Astorgas  and 
Badajoz,  afterwards  he  held  those  of  Siguenzia  and  Pla- 
centia.  Julius  II.  sent  him  to  Germany  as  legate  on 
Italian  business,  and  being  at  the  court  of  Maximilian, 
— where  he  perhaps  saw  Agrippa,  then  being  despatched 
to  England, — Carvajal  was  led  to  forsake  the  Pope,  and 
to  take  the  active  part  in  subsequent  affairs  which  placed 
him  at  the  head  of  the  Church  party,  summoning  its 
chiefs  to  Pisa.  He  then  held  the  see  of  Sabina,  one  of 
the  chief  Italian  bishoprics,  having  a  cardinal's  hat  con- 
nected with  its  mitre,  and  he  was  by  this  office  the  third 
in  rank  of  the  Pope's  six  assistant  bishops. 

Consenting,  then,  to  the  offers  of  this  chief,  Cornelius 
repaired  to  Pisa  towards  the  close  of  summer,  and  in  so 
doing  braved  the  terror  of  the  Pope's  excommunication. 
For  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  July,  1511,  Pope  Julius  had 
summoned  to  submission  the  three  cardinals,  Carvajal, 
Cardinal  of  Santa  Croce,  William  of  Narbonne,  and 
Francis  Cusentinus,  their  adherents,  entertainers,  and  all 


LECTURES  ON  PLATO.  261 

helpers  whatsoever,  on  pain  of  anathema,  as  guilty  of 
heresy,  schism,  and  lese  majeste.  Nevertheless  the  Council 
was  formed,  and  Cornelius  Agrippa  joined  it. 

Little  was  done.  On  the  first  of  September  the  Council 
opened,  but  was,  as  a  Church  assembly,  overmatched 
completely  by  the  Papal  power.  The  councillors  were 
mobbed  by  the  rabble  of  the  town,  and,  after  meeting 
twice  in  conclave,  found  it  necessary  to  adjourn  to  Milan  r 
every  man  getting  to  Milan  as  he  could,  across  a  hostile 
province.  They  made  some  faint  attempts  to  resume 
sittings  in  Milan,  and  did  in  the  following  year — but 
with  that  we  have  nothing  here  to  do — settle  for  a  while 
in  France.  Cornelius  seems  to  have  earned  some  credit 
by  displaying  his  ability  of  many  kinds  at  Pisa.  He 
taught  Plato  in  the  University.  He  delivered  also  a 
public  Oration  introductory  to  lectures  upon  Plato's 
Banquet;  the  topic  of  the  Oration  being  Love,  divine 
and  human.  His  office,  which  is  said  to  have  been  that 
of  Theologian  to  the  Council1,  ceased  when  Pisa  was 
abandoned.  On  the  twenty-fourth  of  October,  Carvajal 
was  deprived  of  his  cardinalate  and  his  see2.  He  was  not 
fully  reinstated  in  his  offices  until  the  accession  of  the 
next  Pope,  Leo  X.,  under  whose  rule  he  prospered  during 
the  remainder  of  his  days.  Cornelius  returned  to  military 
work  from  his  brief  theological  excursion,  with  the  formal 
excommunication  of  the  Pope  declared  against  himself 
and  his  discomfited  associates. 

1  In  JBayle's  Diet. ;  but  it  is  a  guess  of  Bayle's. 

»  Annales  Ecdes.  Od.  Raynaldi.     Tom.  xi.  p.  572,  etseq. 


262  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

Nevertheless  he  is  not  much  distressed.  We  find  him 
not  forsaken  by  his  kind,  for  we  next  hear  of  him  flattered 
by  a  courtly  friend,  who  finding  from  the  barber  that  he 
is  still  in  Gravellona,  lays  at  his  feet,  with  a  magnificent 
humility,  two  bundles  of  home-grown  asparagus1.  We 
also  read  a  letter  of  thanks  and  encouragement  to  an  in- 
genious poet,  who  has  forwarded  to  him  for  perusal  some 
extremely  stinging  satires  on  his  Holiness2. 

1  Ep.  26  and  27,  Lib.  i.  -  Ep.  28,  Lib.  i. 


EXCOMMUNICATED.  263 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

DOCTOR  AND  KOTGHT-AT-ABMS. 

THE  war  in  Italy  continued.  Bologna  had  been  taken 
for  the  French.  Towards  Christmas,  1511,  a  torrent  of 
Swiss,  carrying  the  great  standard  inscribed  "  Defenders 
of  the  Church,  and  subduers  of  Princes,"  had  been 
poured  by  the  Pope  into  the  Milanese  territory,  had  swept 
the  French  and  German  troops  before  them,  and  had 
marched  upon  the  capital,  from  which  they  were  diverted 
by  the  wit  rather  than  the  arms  of  the  new  governor  of 
Milan,  the  gallant  young  Gaston  de  Foix,  nephew  to 
Louis.  The  Pope  had  been  industrious.  Recovering 
from  a  most  dangerous  illness,  which  prostrated  him 
when  his  opponents  were  first  opening  their  Pisan 
Council,  he  obtained  the  help  not  only  of  Ferdinand  of 
Aragon,  but  also  of  the  son-in-law  of  Ferdinand,  Henry 
VIII.  of  England.  What  Maximilian  had  feared  then 
came  to  pass.  With  these  princes  were  joined  the 
Venetians  and  some  other  Italian  leaders,  anxious  to 
expel  the  French.  Spanish  troops  were  approaching 
on  the  side  of  Naples.  Henry  VIII.,  flattered  by 


264  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

the  title  of  Defender  of  the  Faith,  was  preparing  to 
make  a  serious  diversion  by  invading  France.  Maxi- 
milian paused ;  and,  while  he  paused,  the  Pope  plied 
him  with  promises.  The  Emperor  became  cold  in  the 
quarrel  of  the  French.  Nevertheless  there  were  still  his 
German  bands  in  Italy,  and  with  them  there  was  Cornelius 
Agrippa.  With  Jacob  von  Empser  for  their  leader,  they 
were  at  the  command  of  the  chivalrous  young  general 
Gaston  de  Foix,  who,  hurrying  to  Bologna,  took  there 
the  Pope's  forces  by  surprise,  and  raised  the  siege  of  the 
town;  then  hastened  to  Brescia,  and,  after  a  fierce  struggle, 
wrested  Brescia  from  the  Venetians ;  marched  then  to 
Ravenna,  and  on  Easter-day,  in  the  year  1511,  over- 
threw the  army  of  the  Pope:  but,  when  the  battle  was 
won,  perished  in  a  hasty  charge.  With  him — though  he 
was  but  a  youth  of  one  or  two  and  twenty — fell  for  a  time 
the  cause  of  France  in  Italy.  Had  he  lived,  he  would 
assuredly  have  taken  Rome.  He  fell,  and  his  successor  in 
command,  when  he  had  made  himself  safe  in  Ravenna, 
waited  for  instructions  to  be  sent  from  Paris.  Maximilian 
had  deserted  his  ally.  Before  the  battle  of  Ravenna, 
orders  had  been  issued  for  the  departure  of  the  German 
troops  out  of  the  French  army,  but  von  Empser,  their 
leader,  generously  urged  upon  Gaston  that  France  should 
give  battle,  and  use  his  services  while  he  was  still  there  to 
offer  them.  From  that  date  the  defection  of  the  Germans 
went  on  rapidly.  Maximilian  was  about  to  pass  from 
alliance  with  France  into  enmity,  and  to  participate  with 
the  King  of  England  in  the  imminent  invasion  of  the 


THE  BATTLE  OF  RAVENNA.  265 

territories  of  King  Louis.  Such  changes  of  side,  founded 
upon  motives  rarely  honourable,  form  throughout  a  notice- 
able feature  in  the  history  of  these  Italian  struggles.  In 
what  way  did  they  affect  the  fortunes  of  Cornelius 
Agrippa  ? 

He  seems  to  have  released  himself  as  much  as  possible 
out  of  the  whole  web  of  state  policy.  Not  only  did  he 
remain  in  Italy,  where  he  had  found  several  learned 
friends,  many  of  them  being  persons  of  high  social  im- 
portance, and  where  he  had  also  obtained  a  patron  in  the 
Marquis  of  Monferrat,  but  he  seems  also  to  have  abided, 
if  he  still  served  as  a  soldier,  by  the  cause  he  had  gone 
thither  to  maintain,  as  long  as  he  could  do  so  without 
formal  disloyalty.  In  the  summer  of  .the  year  1512, 
Maximilian  allowed  passage  through  the  Tyrol  to  a  body 
of  eighteen  thousand  Swiss,  who  were  main  instruments 
in  the  expulsion  of  the  French  from  Italy.  Jacob  von 
Empser  was  still  holding  by  the  cause  of  France  as  if  it 
were  his  master's,  and  when  news  came  of  the  descent 
meditated  by  the  Swiss  and  the  Venetians,  he  was  sta- 
tioned with  a  little  garrison  in  Pavia.  Cornelius  was  in 
Pavia  too.  The  Swiss,  Venetians,  and  troops  of  the  Pope 
advanced,  numerous  and  powerful,  against  the  wreck  of 
the  French  army,  which  was  soon  compelled  to  betake 
itself  also  to  Pavia  for  refuge.  There  it  made  speed  to 
add  a  bridge  of  boats  to  the  stone  bridge  already  existing, 
with  the  intention  of  so  opening  for  themselves  a  way  of 
flight,  should  further  flight  be  necessary.  All  was  done 
that  could  be  done  in  two  days  for  defence  of  the  town- 


266  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

walls  and  gates;  but  in  two  days  the  Swiss  were  at  the 
gates,  and  not  long  afterwards,  by  unknown  means  ob- 
tained an  entrance  through  the  castle,  and  were  in  the 
market-place.  A  deadly  struggle  then  ensued  ;  many 
united  with  the  Chevalier  Bayard  to  keep  the  enemy  in 
check  while  the  retreat  of  the  French  army  was  com- 
menced across  the  bridge  of  boats.  Presently  word  came 
that  in  small  boats  the  Swiss  were  crossing,  that  escape 
would  soon  be  made  impossible; — and  the  retreat  over 
the  bridge  was  hurried,  under  the  protection  of  a  body 
of  three  hundred  German  soldiers,  'who  defended  the 
approaches.  The  cavalry  had  already  crossed,  when  a 
misfortune  happened.  A  long  culverin,  named  Madame 
de  Fourly,  taken  as  a  trophy  from  the  Spaniards  at 
Ravenna,  was  being  dragged  across, — the  bridge  broke 
under  it,  and  the  three  hundred  Germans  were  left  in 
the  power  of  the  enemy.  Many  plunged  into  the  water 
and  were  drowned,  others  were  killed,  some  were  made 
prisoners1.  Cornelius  Agrippa  was  made  prisoner3. 

Reading  Agrippa' s  correspondence  by  the  light  of  these 
events,  we  come  to  the  conclusion  that,  diverted  by  his 
patron,  William  Palseologus,  Marquis  of  Monferrat,  from 
active  military  duty,  he  was  still  keeping  his  mind  on  the 
professorship,  and  labouring  to  push  his  fortunes  as  a 
scholar,  when  the  war  had  reached  its  crisis.  Certainly 
he  was  not  at  the  battle  of  Ravenna,  for  that  was  fought 

1  Chronique  de  Bayart,  par  le  Loyal  Serviteur,  ch.  55.     Memoires  de 
Fkurange,  cap.  31. 

2  Ep.  33,  Lib.  i.  p.  708. 


THE  FLIGHT  FROM  PAVIA.  267 

on  the  eleventh  of  April,  and  upon- the  sixth  we  find 
Agrippa  writing  to  Landulph1  from  the  castle  of  a 
learned  friend,  Bartholomew  Rosati,  at  a  little  place 
called  Lavizaro,  five  miles  from  Novara,  on  the  way  to 
Mortara.  He  was  staying  at  Lavizaro  when  the  present 
of  asparagus  was  sent  by  the  friend  in  the  adjoining  little 
town  of  Gravellona,  who  had  learnt  from  the  barber  of 
the  district  that  he  had  postponed  his  intention  of  re- 
turning instantly  to  Milan.  He  was  still  at  Lavizaro, 
meditating,  not  a  hurried  journey  to  Ravenna,  but  a 
leisurely  return  to  Milan,  when  writing  to  Landulph  six 
days  before  the  battle :  "  Mind  what  I  told  you  when  I 
quitted  Milan;  do  not  give  up  a  certainty  for  an  un- 
certainty; nothing  is  more  perilous  than  to  rush  without  a 
skilful  leader  into  the  house  of  Dsedalus.  Heed  my  advice, 
for  our  friendship  compels  me  to  be  solicitous  for  the 
safety  and  comfort  of  us  both.  Wait  but  a  little  while,  till 
I  come  back  to  Milan,  and  then  I  will  show  you  the  true 
way  to  glory,  long,  long  contemplated.  Either  yield 
to  my  wish,  or  do  nothing  without  telling  me  quietly 
what  you  mean  to  do."  The  house  of  Daedalus,  the  maker 
of  the  Labyrinth,  was,  possibly,  the  maze  of  European 
politics,  then,  as  we  have  seen,  in  a  dangerously  compli- 
cated state,  and  Agrippa  seems  to  have  been  afraid  lest 
his  friend  might  commit  himself  to  a  search  after  fortune 
in  the  midst  of  it.  The  answer  of  Landulph  reported  him 
at  Pa  via,  and  thereupon,  on  the  nineteenth  of  April3, 
»  Ep.  29,  Lib.  i.  pp.  706-7.  2  Ep.  30,  Lib.  i.  p.  707. 


268  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

a  week  after  the  battle  of  Ravenna,  Cornelius,  who  is  still 
at  Lavizaro,  expresses  his  great  satisfaction,  and  adds, 
"You  have  gone  there  as  my  precursor,  for  to  betake 
myself  thither  has  been  now  for  a  long  course  of  days  my 
secret  meditation ;  I  will  now  carry  out  my  thoughts  and 
soon  be  with  you.  When  I  am  come  you  may  set  care 
aside,  for  I  will  not  cheat  you  with  promises,  but  give  you 
a  real  help  over  your  doubts  where  it  is  needed ;  and  so, 
having  put  your  affairs  in  prosperous  condition,  we  will 
take  counsel  as  to  what  next  shall  be  done." 

The  patron  by  whose  help  all  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
a  convenient  settlement  at  Pavia  were  to  be  conquered, 
was  William  Palaeologus,  Marquis  of  Monferrat.  Mon- 
ferrat, which  sixty  years  afterwards  became  a  duchy,  was 
then  an  ancient  Lombard  marquisate,  close  upon  Pavia, 
having  not  quite  three  hundred  square  miles  of  domain. 
It  was  made  a  marquisate  by  Otho  I.  in  the  year  967,  and 
in  1305  the  original  main  line  died  out,  John  the  Just 
leaving  no  nearer  heir  than  the  son  of  his  sister  Violante 
by  the  Greek  emperor  Andronicus  II.  Thus  the  imperial 
name  of  Palseologus  came  to  be  that  of  the  Marquises  of 
Monferrat,  the  William  who  was  Agrippa's  patron  being 
descended  from  the  son  of  Violante,  Theodore  Comnenus 
Palseologus.  William  was  the  last  of  the  race  but  one. 
John  George,  his  successor,  who  had  been  Bishop  of 
Casale,  died  in  1533  while  making  arrangements  for  his 
marriage,  and  so  the  succession  was  thrown  open  to 
dispute.  It  was  generally  at  Casale,  the  most  important 
of  his  towns,  that  the  Marquis  of  Monferrat  had  Agrippa's 


MONFERRAT— CORNELIUS  AT  PAVIA.  269 

company,  but  when  Agrippa  was  at  Lavizaro  he  was  not 
at  a  great  distance  from  him. 

Having  written  to  Landulph  that  he  intended  joining 
him  at  Pavia,  Cornelius  very  soon  followed  his  letter. 
Before  the  close  of  the  same  month  he  is  with  his  friend, 
and  sends  a  cabalistical  book,  with  a  little  note,  from 
Pavia  to  a  learned  priest  who  had  desired  to  borrow  it. 
The  note  is  of  a  kind  to  prove  that  his  mind  has  not  been 
changed  by  the  attacks  of  Catilinet,  or  his  experiences  of 
the  theological  discussions  at  Cologne. 

"  I  send  you,"  he  says  in  it 1,  "  venerable  Father  Chry- 
sostom,  that  little  cabalistical  book  you  wished  for :  con- 
cerning which  I  would  not  have  you  ignorant  that  this  is 
the  divine  science  sublime  beyond  all  human  tracing, 
which,  if  it  become  intelligible  to  you  by  continual  re- 
flection, will  fill  your  entire  mind  abundantly  with  all 
good  things.  The  whole  art  is  indeed  sacred  and  divine, 
and,  without  doubt,  of  efficacy:  therefore,  my  Chrysostom, 
while  you  are  so  eager  to  exercise  yourself  therein,  cover 
with  silence  the  great  mystery  within  the  secret  depths  of 
your  religious  heart,  conceal  it  with  a  constant  taciturnity ; 
for  it  would  be  an  irreligious  act  to  publish  to  the  know- 
ledge of  the  multitude  a  language  so  full  of  the  majesty 
of  Heaven.  Farewell.  Pavia,  April  30,  1512." 

Not  very  long  afterwards,  Agrippa  being  still  at  Pavia, 

and  Landulph  having  gone  or  been  sent  to  Lavizaro,  very 

possibly  to  make  some  application  to  the  Marquis  of  Mon- 

ferrat,  the  storm  flies  towards  the  University  town.     The 

1  EI>.  31,  Lib.  i.  p.  707. 


270  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

German  garrison  is  first  put  in,  and  then  the  whole  camp 
hurries  to  take  shelter  behind  its  walls.  Affairs  being  in 
this  state,  Landulph,  writing  from  Lavizaro1,  says  : 

"  Greatest  Agrippa,  other  self,  anxious  about  your  po- 
sition, where  you  may  be,  what  you  may  be  doing,  and 
how  you  prosper  among  these  tumults  of  war,  unable  to 
reach  you  myself  safely — I  write  this  letter  that  you  may 
know  what  I  do  and  where  I  am,  for  I  am  here  to  watch 
in  person  over  my  own  welfare,  which  would  perish  were 
I  absent."  (The  welfare  over  which  he  watches,  as  his 
own,  includes  that  of  his  wife  and  his  two  little  ones.) 
"  Ascertain  whether  Francis,  the  son  of  George  Supersax, 
is  in  the  camp"  (George  auf  der  Flue,  called  Suprasaxus, 
was  a  Wallachian  chief,  who  obtained  great  fame  for  his 
prowess  in  those  wars,  and,  I  think,  at  this  time  was  in  the 
castle  of  St.  Angelo,  imprisoned  by  the  Pope  for  worrying 
a  bishop.  As  soon  as  he  was  released,  he  fastened  on 
the  same  bishop  again  with  a  fresh  relish.  He  had 
twelve  sons  and  eleven  daughters.  Of  one  of  the  sons, 
then,  Francis,  wrote  Landulph,  Find  out  whether  he  is 
in  the  camp  at  Pavia),  "  for  he  is  my  intimate  friend.  If 
there  be  any  other  friends  of  yours  there,  tell  me ;  for  this 
is  a  time  when  friends  are  needed.  I  heard  much  of  the 
tumult  at  Pavia"  (namely,  the  rush  of  the  French  troops 
to  the  cover  of  its  walls) ;  "  but  however  it  may  be,  if 
you  are  well,  I  am  glad.  Commend  me  to  our  common 
acquaintance.  I  suspect  that  Pavia  will  not  be  the  plea- 
santest  of  dwelling-places,  yet  I  would  not  have  run  away 
1  Ep.  32,  Lib.  i.  p.  708. 


PRISONER  OF  WAR.  271 

from  you  so  soon,  but  would  have  postponed  everything 
on  your  behalf,  as  I  have  done  before,  if  you  were  not 
relying  on  the  friendship  of  the  magnificent  Lancelot 
Lunate,  who  loves  you  before  everything.  As  soon  as 
the  road  is  safe  I  will  make  haste  to  come  to  you.  La- 
vizaro,  June  24,  1512." 

Before  Landulph  wrote  next,  his  friend  had  been  made 
prisoner  in  the  last  struggle  at  Pavia.  "  Most  excellent 
Agrippa,"  runs  the  letter 1,  "  Domitius  brought  me  word 
to-day  that  you  had  been  captured  by  the  Swiss,  but  had 
regained  your  freedom  without  much  difficulty,  and  re- 
turned to  Milan  with  the  magnificent  Lancelot :  most 
welcome  news  to  me.  He  also  bade  me,  in  your  name, 
having  heard  that  the  Swiss  are  gone,  make  speed  to  join 
you.  Therefore,  I  wish  to  know  what  you  propose  doing : 
Do  you  mean  to  be  at  Pavia,  or  with  the  Marquis  of 
Monferrat?  I  will  not  be  wanting  to  you  ;  only  tell  me 
what  I  am  to  do.  Lavizaro,  July  13,  1512." 

The  family  of  Lunate,  which  at  this  critical  time  yielded 
a  friend  to  Cornelius,  belonged  to  Pavia,  and  was  one  of 
considerable  importance.  Its  last  chief  had  been  Bernar- 
dine,  successively  apostolical  protonotary  and  cardinal 
deacon,  who  had  been  employed  by  Alexander  VI.  as  a 
legate  in  the  struggles  with  his  enemies  at  Rome.  He 
had  died  fifteen  years  before  this  time,  aged  only  forty- 
five.  Of  his  successor,  Lancelot,  I  know  only  that  in 
Agrippa's  correspondence  he  is,  whenever  named,  entitled, 
as  a  noble,  the  Magnificent. 

1  Ep.  33,  Lib.-L  p.  708. 


272  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

The  dangers  of  travel,  dreaded  by  Landulph,  were  at 
that  time  serious,  for  they  depended  not  only  on  the  pre- 
sence of  so  many  hostile  bands,  but  they  were  aggravated 
by  the  fury  of  the  Lombard  people.  Having  suffered 
from  the  licence  of  the  French  camp  grievous  wrongs,  the 
native  peasantry  fell  savagely  at  last  upon  every  French- 
man not  protected  by  the  presence  of  an  army.  In  this 
year,  1512,  fifteen  hundred  French  soldiers  and  merchants 
are  said  to  have  been  massacred  in  detail,  their  goods 
being  also  plundered,  after  the  departure  of  the  French 
general,  Trivulzio,  from  Milan.  Houses  and  shops  that 
belonged  to  persons  friendly  to  the  French  were  broken 
into  and  destroyed1.  In  a  little  house  at  Milan,  Landulph 
had  established  his  small  family.  Thither  he  journeyed 
one  October  day,  accompanied  by  his  brother  Gian  An- 
gelo,  who  had  but  lately  joined  him,  and  he  reached 
Milan  in  time  to  find  his  home  invaded  by  six  Swiss 
foot-soldiers,  to  whom  it  had  been  pointed  out  by  a  spy 
as  the  house  of  a  man  favourable  to  the  French.  But 
for  his  brother's  help,  he  says,  there  would  have  been  an 
end  of  everything3.  Landulph's  family,  however,  was  in 
safe  shelter  within  the  castle  of  his  friend  at  Lavizaro, 
which  contained  a  garrison  of  forty  fugitives  from  Pa  via. 
In  that  town  it  may  here  be  said  that  Galbianus,  who  had 
been  so  active  a  promoter  of  the  Catalonian  enterprise 
narrated  at  the  outset  of  this  history,  was  killed  when 
Cornelius  was  taken  prisoner3. 

1  Muratori,  sub  anno  MDXII.  -  Ep.  35,  Lib.  i.  p.  709. 

3  Ep.  34,  Lib.  i.  p.  708  ;  and  for  the  next  citation. 


LANDULPH  AXD  AGRIPPA.  273 

"Nothing,"  Landulph  writes  to  Agrippa,  "can  be 
clone  in  the  midst  of  this  confusion.  If  you  were  here, 
the  time  would  suit  for  doing  something  with  the  Marquis 
of  Monferrat."  Now,  Monferrat  was  in  arms  at  the  head 
of  his  own  vassals,  waging,  like  other  native  princes,  inde- 
pendent war1 ;  on  behalf  of  himself  in  the  first  instance, 
and — as  far  as  Milan  was  concerned — of  Maximilian 
Sforza.  The  cause  of  Sforza  was  that  of  the  Emperor  in 
a  great  measure,  but  in  no  degree  that  of  the  King  of 
France.  "We  are  all  well,"  writes  Landulph2,  "except 
my  brother  Francis,  sick  of  fever.  My  son  Camille,  who 
lives  in  you"  (Cornelius  had  won  the  heart  of  his  friend's 
child),  "  our  little  daughter  Prudence,  and  my  wife  Pen- 
thesilea  are  well.  Should  Pavia  prove  unsafe,  we  must 
find  a  better  place.  Take  care  of  your  health ;  nothing  is 
fitter  at  a  time  like  this  than  to  rest  under  the  trees 
in  this  rich  country,  and  care  only  about  being  well." 
Thus  he  wrote  to  his  friend  in  the  ripe  August  weather. 
But  Agrippa  was  no  man  to  sleep  through  the  hot  noon 
of  trial.  He  could  live  only  by  following  his  calling 
as  a  soldier,  and  though  his  camp  study  was  divine  philo- 
sophy, though  all  his  hopes  and  efforts  were  bent  on  an 
escape  into  a  pure  scholastic  life,  he  yet  knew  that  he  had 
bread  to  earn  for  wife  and  child3,  and  in  the  midst  of 
tumult  and  confusion  he  must  strive  to  earn  it.  His 
dependence  now  must  be  upon  Monferrat  and  Milan. 

There  was  an  end  for  the  present  of  the  French  in 
Milan.     By  the  close  of  the  year,  except  here  and  there  a 

1  Muratori.  3  Ep.  34,  Lib.  i.  s  Ep.  49,  Lib.  i.  p.  715. 

VOL.  I.  T 


274  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

little  garrison,  not  a  French  soldier  maintained  ground  in 
the  duchy.  The  French  being  expelled,  contest  arose  for 
the  possession  of  the  soil.  Emperor  Maximilian  desired 
it,  but  the  Pope  was  unwilling  to  favour  his  desire.  At 
the  same  time,  nearly  all  the  smaller  chiefs  of  Italy  chose 
rather  to  have  a  man  of  their  own  standing  than  a  lofty 
monarch  in  the  midst  of  them.  By  promises  and  bribes, 
therefore,  the  negotiation  ended  in  the  Emperor's  consent 
that  the  duchy  should  be  granted  to  its  proper  ruling  fa- 
mily; and,  accordingly,  on  the  twenty-ninth  of  December, 
1512,  Maximilian  Sforza,  who  had  been  an  exile  from  his 
ninth  year  to  his  twenty-first,  re-entered  Milan  as  its  duke. 
He  was  escorted  by  a  troop  of  Swiss,  and  their  great  orator, 
the  Cardinal  of  the  Swiss  town  of  Sion,  Matthew  Scheiner, 
a  man  of  the  people,  in  succession  street-singer,  school- 
master, curate,  canon  of  the  little  town  of  Sion,  who 
poured  the  violence  and  obstinacy  of  his  hatred  to  the 
French  into  fierce  words,  and  also  was  a  man  at  all  times 
ready  with  the  sword.  He  was,  indeed,  said  to  have 
obtained  his  bishopric  by  threatening  the  chapter  sword  in 
hand.  This  chief  of  the  Swiss  finally  was  made  Cardinal 
of  Sion,  in  the  Valais,  to  please  his  countrymen,  over 
whom  he  of  all  men  had  the  greatest  influence.  The  newv 
duke,  entering  his  capital  so  attended,  was  met  as  he 
rode  under  the  Pisan  Gate  by  more  than  a  hundred  gentle- 
men of  Milan,  attired  in  the  colours  of  his  livery ;  and 
preceded  by  this  escort,  he  rode  under  numerous  triumphal 
arches  to  the  ducal  court — there  was  a  French  garrison 
still  holding  the  castle — and  with  the  glad  consent  of  the 


NEW  MASTERS  IN  MILAN.  275 

people  was  then  formally  hailed  as  Maximilian  Sforza, 
Duke  of  Milan,  the  authority  being  bestowed  upon  him  in 
distinct  terms  as  the  gift  of  the  Swiss1. 

While  these  changes  were  in  progress,  Cornelius 
Agrippa  was  attaching  himself  formally  as  a  retainer-  to 
the  Marquis  of  Monferrat,  whose  cause  having  become 
that  of  the  Emperor  could  be  espoused  without  disloyalty. 
Towards  the  close  of  November  (1512),  he  was  settled  at 
Monferrat's  chief  town  of  Casale2. 

In  the  February  following,  Pope  Julius  II.  died,  and 
the  cardinals  making  haste  to  avoid  overt  signs  of  the 
Emperor's  ambition,  chose  their  Pope  from  the  house  of 
the  Medici,  Leo  X.  Louis  of  France,  having  made  peace 
in  Italy  by  a  treaty  with  Venice,  sought  to  be  reconciled 
with  the  new  Pope,  and  offered  both  to  abandon  the 
Council  of  Pisa — still  sitting  in  France — and  to  become  a 
good,  devout,  and  obedient  son  to  the  Holy  See,  if  only 
his  Holiness  would  revoke  the  censures  of  his  predecessors. 
With  the  king,  Leo  temporised,  but  what  the  king  did 
not  obtain  readily,  was  graciously  accorded  to  the  humble 
scholar.  On  behalf  of  Cornelius  Agrippa,  friendly  re- 
presentations had  been  made  by  Ennius  Filonardus, 
bishop  of  a  little  town  in  the  Campagna,  called  Veroli, 
and  in  the  first  year  of  the  new  pontificate,  a  kind  letter 
was  sent  to  Cornelius  Agrippa,  from  the  hand  of  Leo's 
secretary,  Peter  Bembo,  himself  a  good  scholar,  not  then 
known  as  cardinal,  but  as  the  author  of  a  book  of  love 

1  Storia  di  Milano ;  del  Conte  Pietro  Verri,  cap.  xxi. 

2  Ep.  37,  Lib.  i.  p.  710. 

T2 


276  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

dialogues,  the  Azolani,  well  studied  by  thousands  of  his 
countrymen.  Four  months  after  his  elevation  to  St. 
Peter's  Chair  thus  Leo  revokes,  by  the  hand  of  his  secre- 
tary, the  anathemas  of  Julius1 : 

* "  Beloved  son,  health  to  you  and  the  apostolic  bene- 
diction. From  letters  of  our  venerable  brother  and  nuncio, 
Ennius,  Bishop  of  Veroli,  and  from  the  speech  of  others, 
we  have  learnt  your  devotion  to  the  holy  apostolic  seat, 
and  your  diligent  care  to  maintain  its  safety  and  its  free- 
dom ;  which  information  has  been  very  welcome  to  us. 
Wherefore  we  commend  you  greatly  in  the  Lord,  praising 
that  temper  and  courage ;  we  also  exhort  you  to  remain 
in  the  same  mind  and  obedience  both  towards  the  seat 
itself  and  towards  ourselves,  ready  to  show,  as  occasion 
offers,  in  all  things  your  good  desert,  and  that  you  are 
received  into  the  bosom  of  our  paternal  charity.  Of  these 
things  our  before-named  nuncio  will  speak  to  you  more 
fully.  Given  at  St.  Peter's  at  Rome,  under  the  seal  of 
the  Fisherman,  on  the  eleventh  of  July,  1513.  In  the 
first  year  of  our  Pontificate." 

Reconciled  formally  to  the  head  of  the  Church,  Cor- 
nelius was  now  free  to  pursue  his  design  of  winning  way 
as  a  philosopher  at  Pavia.  He  wore  no  scholar's  dress, 
for  he  was  captain  of  a  troop  of  soldiers,  owning  Maxi- 
milian Sforza  for  their  master3.  The  new  duke  was  a 
young  spendthrift,  who  was  not  only  at  great  charge 
to  maintain  troops — paying  a  hundred  thousand  ducats 

1  Ep.  38,  Lib.  i.  p.  710. 

3  H.  C.  Agrippce  Orationes,  N».  II.     Op.  Tom.  ii.  p.  1075. 


RECONCILED  TO  THE  POPE.  277 

yearly  to  the  Swiss,  seventy-four  thousand  to  other  men- 
at-arms,  as  much  among  garrisons  of  castles,  and  so  forth 
— but  he  also  lavished  costly  favours  on  his  table-com- 
panions, among  whom  there  was  one  who  amused  himself 
especially,  and  no  doubt  paid  to  be  entertained,  with  the 
researches  of  Cornelius,  Oldrado  Lampugnano,  who  was 
made  by  the  duke  Count  of  Rivolta1.  Casale,  Milan,  and 
Rivolta  became,  therefore,  places  at  which  it  was  profit- 
able for  Agrippa  to  employ  himself.  Louis  of  France, 
while  engaged  in  meeting  the  invasion  of  his  territory  by 
Henry  VIII.  and  the  Emperor,  who  had  combined  by 
treaty  at  Malines  under  the  Princess  Margaret's  good 
auspices,  [to  fight  the  French, — Louis,  thus  occupied  at 
home,  had  sent  an  army  to  the  Milanese  when  he  heard 
how  ill  the  new  duke  sped  in  winning  the  affections  of  his 
people.  But  if  the  Italians  were  learning  to  despise  their 
own  prince,  they  had  learnt  to  hate  the  foreigner ;  and 
the  French  army,  beaten  at  Novara,  was  chased  speedily 
over  the  border.  Except  only  this  burst  of  war,  in  the 
year  1513,  there  was  little  to  demand  Agrippa's  service 
as  a  soldier,  either  in  that  year  or  the  next,  which  was  a 
year  of  general  accommodation  and  pacification.  Such 
leisure,  therefore,  as  the  times  afforded,  was  spent  in  the 
cultivation  of  congenial  friendships :  that  of  Augustine 
Ritius3,  the  astronomer;  that  of  the  more  enlightened 
bishops  and  priests  living  (as  far  too  many  did,  away  from 

1  Verri,  Storia  di  Milano.     Cornelius  is  said  to  be  living  at  Eivolta. 
Ep.  41,  Lib.  i.  p.  711. 

2  Agrippa,  De  Incertitudine  et  Vanitate  Scientianim,  cap.  xxx. 


278  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

their  own  sees)  in  Milan ;  finally,  that  of  the  great  lords, 
who  chose  to  derive  intellectual  amusement  from  his  know- 
ledge. Upon  some  of  that  political  business  of  the  duchy 
with  which  the  Swiss  were  from  the  beginning  so  in- 
extricably bound,  towards  the  end  of  the  year  1513,  or  at 
the  beginning  of  the  year  1514,  Agrippa  was  sent  to 
Switzerland1,  and  there  he  became  associated  in  the 
public  trust  with  Alexander  Landi2,  a  man  of  good 


1  Ep.  40,  Lib.  i.  p.  711. 

2  It  is  right  to  state  here  that  this  part  of  the  narrative,  so  far  as  con- 
cerns Alexander  Landi  and  the  Count  of  Rivolta,  is  not  perfectly  reliable. 
Agrippa's  letters  tally,  as  the  reader  may  perceive,  most  perfectly  with 
the  other  trustworthy  records  of  the  time,  but  I  find  in  the  forty-second 
letter  of  the  first  book  a  sentence  which  would  make  Alexander  Landi  the 
Count  of  Rivolta,  and  give  the  letters  I  ascribe  to  Landi  to  an  unknown 
friend.     (Many  of  them,  including  nearly  all  Landulph's,  are  headed  only 
Amicits  ad  Agrippam,  but  in  most  cases  the  writer  of  each  is  obvious  from 
internal  evidence.)    Now  against  Alexander  Landi's  countship  of  Rivolta 
have  to  be  set  these  facts  :  that  Count  Verri,  in  his  Storia  di  Milano,  gives 
Rivolta  at  this  time  to  Oldrado  Lampugnano ; — that  in  Agrippa's  corre- 
spondence the  Count  of  Rivolta  is  complained  of  as  a  man  "  qui  nostras 
vigilias  in  suam  trahere  debeat  lasciviam,"  a  notion  of  him  very  well  ac- 
cording with  Verri's  mention  of  Lampugnano  as  a  creature  of  Sforza,  and 
not  at  all  according  with  Agrippa's  mention  of  Alexander  Landi  in  his  De 
triplici  ratione  cognoscendi  Dei,  as  one  to  whom  the  depths  of  his  heart  were 
laid  open  in  spiritual  converse ; — again,  that  I  can  find  no  note  elsewhere  of 
a  Landi  of  Placentia  having  been  Count  of  Rivolta.     There  are  other  argu- 
ments drawn  from  internal  evidence  upon  which  it  would  be  tedious  to 
dwell.     Considerations  of  this  kind  appear  to  justify  the  clearing  up  of 
every  difficulty  by  changing  in  the  text  of  one  of  Agrippa's  letters  an 
accusative  into  a  dative  in  the  case  of  a  proper  name,  which  may  have 
been  written  in  a  contracted  form  and  developed  incorrectly,  as  indeed  it  is 
also  misspelt  (Laudum  for  Landum)  by  the  printer.     In  Letter  42  (Book  I.), 
instead  of  "  Nuperrime  mihi  relatum  fuit,  Alexandrum  Laudum  comitem 
Ripaltse  te  Placentiae  convenisse,"  &c.,  I  read,  "  Nuperrime  mihi  relatum 
fuit,  Alexandra  Lando,  comitem  Ripaltse,"  &c.     The  comic  formality  of  the 
"  to  me,  Alexander  Landi"  would  be  quite  in  place  here,  for  the  letter,  which 
is  not  a  long  one,  opens  with  a  joke,  and  in  this  part  the  writer  might  be 


DESPATCHED  TO  SWITZERLAND.        279 

family  from  Placentia,  a  friend,  having  like  tastes  with  his 
own.  The  Landis  of  Placentia  yielded  in  the  next  gene- 
ration a  professor  of  medicine  to  Pavia,  Bassiano  Landi ; 
and  another  of  the  house  was  Marquis  of  Casale,  and  a 
writer  upon  jurisprudence.  Alexander  complained  after- 
wards of  a  betrayal  by  Cornelius  of  his  learned  secrets  to 
the  Count  of  Rivolta.  They  were  at  the  service  of  any 
other  of  Agrippa's  friends,  but  the  Count  of  Rivolta,  said 
this  new  acquaintance,  is  a  libertine  unworthy  to  profit  by 
the  scholar's  vigils.  As  an  associate  of  the  young  Duke 
of  Milan,  he  most  probably  deserved  this  character. 

Complaint  of  this  kind  was  no  source  of  serious  dis- 
pute. Cornelius  is  busy  in  the  house  of  Landi,  at  Pla- 
centia, in  August  of  the  year  1514;  he  has  some  work  to 
do,  and  his  friend  writes  to  urge  that  he  will  get  it  done 
with  all  speed,  and  then  repairing  to  Milan,  do  what 
has  to  be  done  there — make,  perhaps,  the  due  report — 
and  get  his  travelling  expenses  for  an  expedition  to  the 
Papal  court.  Such  an  expedition  is  designed,  and  there 
is  no  reason  why  they  should  not  make  it  together.  There 
had  also  been  an  embassy  from  the  Duke  of  Milan  to  the 
German  court,  in  which  a  friend  of  Agrippa's  shared,  who 
would  have  been  glad  if  the  young  scholar  had  been 
associated  with  the  party. 

In  the  house  at  Placentia,  Cornelius,  as  busy  over  his 
own  private  study  of  the  Cabalists  and  of  Mercurius  Tris- 

glad  to  cover  with  half-joking  phrase  a  word  of  complaint  which  is  com- 
plaint, but  yet  on  which  he  does  not  wish  to  dwell  unkindly.  The  change 
here  made  may  be  wrong. 


280  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

raegistus  as  over  any  public  matters,  had  amused  himself 
by  sketching  a  large  Mercury  with  charcoal  upon  one  of 
Landi's  walls.  Upon  this  freak  followed  some  grim  jest- 
ing in  his  friend's  next  letter. — Mercury  is  a  flying  god, 
take  heed  that  the  black  charcoal  in  your  picture  of  him 
be  not  ominous1.  Your  philosophy  is  under  a  mutable 
and  often  unfriendly  patron,  and  there  does,  indeed,  go 
fire  and  fagot  to  the  tracing  of  it.  May  there  come 
nothing  worse  of  the  kind  near  your  skin  than  a  morsel 
of  cold  charcoal  between  the  fingers. — Such  was  the  pur- 
port of  the  joke,  that  played  with  a  real  terror.  But 
Cornelius  was  very  fearless.  Cabalism,  at  any  rate,  was 
likely  to  be  received  better  at  Pavia  than  at  Cologne ;  and 
by  the  help  of  Mercury  he  was  then  hoping  very  quickly 
to  achieve  the  object  kept  so  steadfastly  in  view  since  the 
first  day  that  he  set  out  from  Trent  for  the  Italian  wars. 

And  truly,  when  the  summer  of  the  next  year  came, 
the  year  1515,  Cornelius,  then  twenty-nine  years  old, 
seemed  to  have  entered  on  the  summer  of  his  life.  Lan- 
dulph  had  gone  before  him  to  secure  new  friends2,  and 
Monferrat  probably  had  influenced  his  brother-Marquis, 
John  Gonzaga,  who  was  then  at  the  head  of  the  University 
of  Pavia.  Such  influence  had  probably  been  sought,  and 
could  not  have  been  slight,  inasmuch  as  the  two  houses, 
Monferrat  and  Gonzaga,  intermarried  soon  after  this  time, 
and  for  want  of  nearer  heirs  the  domain,  together  with 
the  title  of  Monferrat,  passed  within  twenty  years  into  the 
hands  of  the  Gonzagas  of  Mantua. 

1  Ep.  42,  Lib.  i.  -  Ep.  45,  Lib.  i. 


AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  PAVIA.  281 

At  last,  therefore,  before  the  most  illustrious  Marquis 
and  the  most  excellent  Fathers  in  the  town  and  University 
of  Pavia,  Cornelius  stands  forward  as  a  scholar,  and  within 
the  precincts  of  the  University  displays  his  learning  and 
his  deep  research  into  occult  science,  especially  as  an 
exponent  of  the  Pimander  of  Hermes  Trismegistus.  His 
introductory  oration  is  among  the  printed  works  that 
have  come  down  to  us1.  He  tells  how,  beset  by  cares 
and  heavy  duties  during  the  past  three  years  of  miserable 
war,  he  has  desired  to  find  safe  passage  to  some  happy 
shore  across  the  sea  of  blood.  To  do  this  it  was  requisite 
to  find  some  duty,  and  a  worthy  one,  but  he  could  see 
none  better  or  less  inconsistent  with  his  profession  of  arms 
than  to  interpret  the  mystery  of  a  divine  philosophy  in 
that  most  flourishing  gymnasium.  His  natural  bent  had 
been  from  early  youth  to  a  consideration  of  divine 
mysteries,  and  he  had  never  known  a  more  delightful 
spectacle  for  contemplation  than  the  wise  ordering  of 
nature.  To  learn  these  mysteries  and  teach  them  to  others 
had  been  at  all  times  his  chief  ambition,  as  he  had  already 
taught  them  to  some  students  in  the  University  of  Pisa. 
Nevertheless,  he  feared  lest  the  consummate  scholars 
before  whom  he  ventured  to  ascend  the  chair  he  then 
was  occupying  might  resent  as  insolent  presumption  or 
temerity  the  attempt  of  a  barbarian,  a  soldier  in  the  dress 
of  strangers,  still  in  the  crude  immaturity  of  life,  to  teach 
matters  so  grave,  that  belonged  rather  to  the  practised 
skill  of  the  maturest  doctors. 

1  Oratio.  II.  habita  Papia,  &c.     Op.  Tom.  ii.  p.  1073. 


282  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

Then  he  speaks  confidently  of  his  power  to  do  that 
which  he  has  undertaken.  For  his  youth  he  says,  that 
the  young  can  sometimes  discriminate  as  well  as,  or  even 
better  than  more  aged  persons ;  that  good  wit  comes  by 
intelligence,  not  lapse  of  time.  He  refers  to  the  youth  of 
Samuel,  Solomon,  and  Daniel.  Neither  must  the  illustrious 
Marquis  John  Gonzaga,  that  brave  general,  wonder  at 
seeing  in  the  pulpit,  as  professor  of  sacred  letters,  one 
whpm  he  had  known  of  late  years  as  a  captain  over  sol- 
diers in  the  most  fortunate  Imperial  camp,  nor  must  that 
pure  audience  reject  as  profane  a  man  whose  hands  have 
been  imbrued  in  human  blood.  Among  the  old  poets  and 
prophets,  Pallas  and  Bellona  were  a  single  deity,  and 
there  are  many  examples  of  men  eminent  alike  in  arts 
and  arms.  To  say  nothing  of  Demosthenes,  strenuous 
orator,  who  in  war  cast  his  shield  away  and  fled  before 
the  enemy,  there  were  unconquered  Scipios  and  Catos, 
innumerable  Roman  and  Greek  chiefs,  above  all  there 
was  Julius  Caesar,  and  there  was  Charlemagne.  It  was  of 
a  centurion  also  that  our  Master  said  he  had  not  found 
faith  equal  to  his  in  Israel.  He  adds,  according  to  the 
way  of  the  time,  more  illustrations,  and  ends  with  the 
golden  sword  which  Jeremiah  the  prophet  was  seen  to 
present  to  Judas  Maccabaeus,  saying,  Receive  the  holy 
sword,  a  gift  from  God,  wherewith  to  smite  the  adversaries 
of  my  people.  "  With  which  words,"  says  Agrippa,  "  my 
unconquered  Emperor  did  consecrate  me  also  when,  having 
almost  as  a  boy  received  the  sword  from  his  hands,  I 
became  known  as  a  not  unsuccessful  soldier."  But  is  he 


LECTURES  AT  PAVIA.  283 

a  barbarian  ?  Barbarians,  he  urges,  are  rational  beings, 
who  breathe  God's  air  and  receive  His  gifts ;  as  for  his 
foreign  dress,  the  beard  and  tattered  cloak  do  not  make 
the  philosopher,  and  the  cowl  does  not  make  the  monk. 
Wisdom  resides  not  in  the  clothes.  He  has  been  urged, 
he  says,  to  prosecute  the  studies  of  his  choice  by  many 
hearers  with  most  cogent  reasons,  counselled  and  helped 
by  friends  who,  with  innumerable  helpful  kindnesses  have 
stimulated  him  to  continue  what  he  had  begun.  "  The 
Gospel,  too,"  he  adds,  "  compels  me,  lest  I  be  convicted  of 
ingratitude  towards  both  God  and  man,  by  burying  the 
talent  that  has  been  entrusted  to  me,  or  hiding  my  light 
under  a  bushel,  and  at  last  fall  under  one  curse  with  the 
fig-tree  that  yielded  not  its  fruit  in  the  due  season." 
It  is  just  to  the  young  orator  to  remember  that  in  his 
days  a  proper — or  more  than  proper — self-consciousness 
passed  commonly  in  the  public  addresses  of  the  learned 
into  what  we  should  now  consider  an  improper  self- 
assertion.  It  was  rare  for  a  great  scholar  to  be  at  once 
self-conscious  and  self-contained.  The  purer  aspirations 
of  Cornelius  are  mingled  with  a  great  deal  of  man's  com- 
moner ambition.  For  both  his  aspiration's  and  ambition's 
sake,  and  for  his  wife's  sake,  he  desired  to  achieve  at 
Pavia  the  object  of  his  wishes;  he  has  been  once  turned 
aside  by  a  harsh  opposition  to  his  effort  to  forsake  the 
military  road  to  fame,  and  follow  Jiappily  the  peaceful 
bent  of  his  true  genius.  Now  he  is  twenty-nine  years 
old,  and,  whatever  he  may  have  written,  he  has  published 
nothing;  he  is  bound  still  to  the  camp,  and  his  heart, 


284  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

young  still,  but  conscious  of  the  rapid  flight  of  life,  is  in 
its  own  depths  pleading  nervously  and  piteously  through 
the  words  of  this  oration. — May  no  Catilinet  arise  to  cross 
me  here.  Soldier  and  stranger  as  I  am,  my  soul  is  that 
of  a  true  scholar ;  I  can  learn  and  teach,  and  to  do  both 
unhindered,  living  happily  with  wife  and  family,  a  scholar 
among  scholars,  is  the  dear  wish  of  my  heart.  Grave 
doctors  of  Pavia,  do  not  quench  the  fire  upon  the  little 
hearth  that  I  have  lighted  among  you. 

Having  endeavoured  to  remove  objections  likely  to  be 
urged  against  himself,  Cornelius  briefly  refers  to  the  fit- 
ness of  the  time  for  his  discussions  now  that  peace  has 
followed  upon  war,  and  days  of  liberty  have  been  secured 
to  them  by  the  courage  and  wisdom  of  that  most  uncon- 
quered  triumpher  over  his  enemies,  Hercules  Maximilian 
Sforza,  eighth  Duke  of  Milan.  A  passing  compliment  is 
paid  to  John  Gonzaga,  and  the  subject  of  the  lectures  is 
at  last  approached.  They  are  upon  Mercury  or  Hermes 
Trismegistus,  and  will  give  the  spirit  of  his  dialogues  on 
the  Divine  Power  and  Wisdom.  Cornelius  explains  first 
who  Hermes  is,  and,  according  to  the  teaching  of  the 
Rabbi  Abraham  of  Avenazre,  identifies  him  with  Enoch. 
He  gave  laws  to  Egypt,  was  the  first  observer  of  the  stars, 
the  author  and  inventor  of  Theology ;  the  author,  too,  in 
a  material  sense,  of  twenty-six  thousand  five  hundred  and 
twenty-five  volumes  C;f  books,  wherein  were  contained 
stupendous  mysteries.  "  When  dying,"  adds  Agrippa, 
"  it  is  said  that  he  thus  addressed  those  standing  round 
about  him :  '  Thus  far,  my  children,  driven  from  my  own 


ON  THE  PIMANDER  OF  HERMES  TRISMEGISTUS-       285 

country  I  have  lived  a  pilgrim  and  an  exile,  now,  how- 
ever, I  return  in  safety  to  my  home.  When  after  a  little 
time,  the  chains  of  the  body  being  loosened,  I  shall  have 
departed  from  you,  never  weep  for  me  as  dead,  for  I  re- 
enter  that  best  and  happy  city  to  which  its  citizens  all 
come  through  the  corruption  of  death.  For  there  God 
only  is  the  great  Prince,  who  fills  His  citizens  with 
wonder-working  sweetness.'  But  enough  'of  the  author. 
We  will  now  speak  only  of  his  book.  Its  title  is,  Pimander ; 
or,  Upon  the  Wisdom  and  Power  of  God.  It  is  a  book 
most  choice  for  the  elegance  of  its  language,  most  weighty 
for  the  abundance  of  its  information,  full  of  grace  and 
propriety,  full  of  wisdom  and  mysteries.  For  it  contains 
the  profoundest  mysteries  of  the  most  ancient  theology, 
and  the  arcana  of  all  philosophy,  which  things  it  may  not 
be  so  much  said  to  contain  as  to  explain.  For  it  teaches 
us,  what  God  is,  what  the  world,  what  a  mind,  what  each 
sort  of  demon,  what  the  soul,  what  the  ordering  of  Pro- 
vidence, what  and  whence  the  necessity  of  Fate,  what  the 
law  of  nature,  what  human  justice,  what  religion,  what 
sacred  ceremonies,  rites,  temples,  observances,  and  holy 
mysteries ;  it  instructs  us  besides  in  the  knowledge  of 
ourselves,  on  the  soaring  of  the  intellect,  on  secret  prayers, 
marriage  with  Heaven,  and  the  sacrament  of  regenera- 
tion." This  sort  of  book  Agrippa  proposes  to  explain 
and  illustrate,  partly  theologically,  partly  philosophically, 
partly  dialectically  and  rhetorically,  enumerating  per- 
tinent texts,  authorities,  examples,  and  experiences,  and 
confirming  the  doctrine  of  the  book,  as  occasion  offers,  by 


286  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

the  sanction  of  ecclesiastical  and  civil  law.  With  the 
unpublished  books  of  Occult  Philosophy  among  his  papers, 
and  with  the  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  in  these  lectures 
he  desires  to  prove  his  own  accomplishments  as  a  phy- 
sician, a  lawyer,  and  a  theologian,  we  can  conceive  very 
well  what  these  lectures  upon  Hermes  Trismegistus  were. 
He  formally  and  carefully  disclaimed  the  heresy  of  any 
word  that  he  might  say  contrary  to  the  opinion  of  the 
holy  Church,  and,  with  that  reserve  upon  all  points  of 
philosophy  and  doctrine  that  might  happen  to  be  touched 
upon  in  the  course  of  his  demonstrations,  he  declared 
himself  ready  at  the  commencement  of  each  lecture  to 
reply  to  every  question  that  had  been  asked  verbally  or  in 
writing,  and  answer  every  objection  that  had  been  made 
at  the  conclusion  of  the  last.  But  the  questions  and 
objections  must  be  put  upon  substantial  grounds,  and  in 
good  faith  be  meant  to  correct  error  or  increase  know- 
ledge. For  at  the  same  time  he  declared  that  of  the 
vain  syllogisms  of  the  dialecticians,  who  care  not  for 
the  matter  discussed,  but  only  for  the  disputation,  who 
grind  truth  to  powder  with  their  altercations,  and,  there- 
after, care  not  by  how  light  a  wind  it  may  be  blown 
away,  of  any  idle  puzzles  contrived  for  him  by  persons  of 
this  class  he  should  take  no  notice  whatever. 

In  this  mood,  then,  Cornelius  proceeded,  and  with 
much  applause,  to  sketch  a  Mercury  before  the  University 
of  Pavia.  His  Mercury  has  lost,  through  later  criticism, 
the  divine  proportions  he  ascribed  to  it.  The  man  him- 
self is  now  regarded  as  a  myth ;  indeed  there  are  reckoned 


DOCTOR  UTRIUSQUE  JURIS.  287 

among  the  myths  of  Egypt  generally  two,  and  sometimes 
three,  fabulous  persons  of  the  name ;  the  oldest,  known  in 
his  own  land  as  Thoyt  or  Thoth,  being  the  first  form  of 
the  Hermes  and  Mercury  of  Greece  and  Rome.  He  was,  in 
brief,  the  inventor  of  all  human  knowledge,  and  the  source 
of  the  Hermetic  Art  of  alchemists.  The  Hermes  Tris- 
megistus,  so  much  honoured  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
came,  according  to  JElian,  one  thousand  years  later,  in 
the  time  of  Sesostris,  restored  lost  arts,  taught  observation 
of  the  stars,  and,  having  invented  hieroglyphics,  wrote 
his  wisdom  upon  pillars.  Others  bring  even  a  third 
Mercury  upon  the  scene,  and  consider  him  to  be  but  a 
third  manifestation  of  one  deity,  calling  him  Trismegistus, 
not  as  thrice  great,  but  thrice  born  to  sinless  life.  There 
was  one  Hermes  only  commonly  referred  to  in  the  writings 
of  the  Cabalist,  and  he  was  not  the  most  ancient, — old 
myth  as  he  was.  For  many  of  the  books  ascribed  to  him, 
and  certainly  for  the  Pimander,  we  are  indebted  to  the 
Alexandrian  philosophers,  who  combined  Jewish,  Greek, 
and  Christian  opinions  with  fragments  of  Egyptian  tradi- 
tion, and  produced  in  that  way,  by  the  manufacture  of  a 
prophet,  evidence  apparently  almost  as  old  as  man,  in 
favour  of  their  tenets.  Also  because  the  name  of  Hermes 
would  give  currency  to  any  book,  books  written  in  that 
name  were  very  numerous. 

The  Mercury  sketched  by  Agrippa  proved  auspicious, 
leading  him,  not  to  martyrdom,  but  to  the  best  fulfilment  of 
his  hope.  He  was  admitted  by  the  University  of  Pavia 
to  its  degree  of  doctor  in  each  faculty.  Doctor  of  Divinity 


288  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

before,  he  became  then  Doctor  of  Medicine  and  Law1.  Soon 
afterwards,  in  welcoming  as  orator  for  the  University 
an  after-comer  to  the  doctorate  of  law,  we  find  him 
expatiating  upon  jurisprudence,  quoting  Ulpian,  and 
speaking  throughout  the  language  of  the  lawyers2.  Ere 
long,  too,  we  shall  see  him  a  practitioner  of  medicine. 
Doctor  of  law,  physic,  and  divinity,  he  has  also  before 
this  time  earned  a  knighthood  on  the  battle-field. 

In  what  battle  he  won  that  distinction  we  are  not 
informed.  He  himself  says,  after  telling  of  his  acquisi- 
tion of  the  dignity  of  Doctor  "utriusque  juris"  and  of 
Medicine,  as  if  by  after- thought :  "Before  that  time  I 
was  a  knight,  which  rank  I  did  not  beg  for,  borrow  in 
foreign  travels,  or  secure  by  impudence  and  insolence  at 
the  inthronisation  of  a  king,  but  earned  it  by  valour  in 
war,  among  the  troops  in  open  battle3." 

He  has  secured,  therefore,  the  best  honours  attainable 
in  arts  and  arms.  He  is  acquainted  at  this  time  with 
eight  languages,  master  of  six.  He  is  distinguished 
among  the  learned  for  his  cultivation  of  occult  philosophy, 
upon  which  he  has  a  complete  work  in  manuscript,  and 
though  he  has  not  yet  committed  anything  to  press,  much 
has  been  written  by  him  upon  which  he  hopes  to  rest  a 
title  to  fair  fame.  He  is  not  now  unprosperous.  There 
is  a  lull  in  war,  during  which  he  receives  the  pay  to 
which  he  is  entitled  for  his  military  services,  and  can  earn 
money  also  as  a  teacher  in  the  University.  He  has  a  wife 

1  Ep.  21,  Lib.  vii.  p.  1021. 

2  Oratio.  HI.  Pro  Quodam  Doctorando.     Op.  Tom.  ii.  p.  1084. 

3  Ep.  21,  Lib.  vii.  p.  1021 ;  and  for  what  follows  until  the  next  reference. 


KNIGHT-AT-ARMS.  289 

whom  he  loves  dearly,  and  more  than  a  single  child. 
With  these  he  has  settled  in  the  town  of  Pavia.  His  wife's 
father  and  her  brother  are  there  also.  The  father  seems 
to  have  been  with  the  army,  and  to  have  shared  some 
of  his  son-in-law's  responsibility  in  the  matter  of  the 
Council  of  Pisa,  for  a  Franciscus  of  his  name  was  sent  to 
the  Pope  on  a  mission  from  the  Cardinal  of  Santa  Croce1. 
Cornelius  thinks  of  his  wife  with  the  utmost  tenderness. 
"  I  give,"  he  writes  to  a  friend2,  "  innumerable  thanks  to 
the  omnipotent  God,  who  has  joined  me  to  a  wife  after 
my  own  heart ;  a  maiden  noble  and  well-mannered, 
young,  beautiful,  who  lives  so  much  in  harmony  with  all 
my  habits,  that  never  has  a  word  of  scolding  dropped 
between  us,  and  wherein  I  count  myself  happiest  of  all, 
however  our  affairs  change,  in  prosperity  and  adversity 
always  alike  kind  to  me,  alike  affable,  constant;  most 
just  in  mind  and  sound  in  counsel,  always  self-possessed." 
When  he  said  that,  it  was  after  three  years  more  of  life 
than  have  been  yet  accounted  for, — three  years  of  severe 
trial,  among  which  the  sorest,  at  the  period  of  which  we 
now  speak,  was  at  hand.  His  Mercury  proved  truly  a 
winged  god.  The  ripe  fruit  of  his  ambition,  which 
Agrippa  counted  himself  happy  to  have  plucked,  crumbled 
to  ashes  in  his  mouth.  In  a  few  months  the  fire  was 
quenched  upon  the  little  hearth  at  Pavia,  and  he  who  had 
been  at  so  much  pains  to  kindle  it  went  forth  a  beggar, 
with  no  prospect  of  advancement  in  the  world. 


Annales  Eccksiast.  Odoric  Rinaldi.  Tom.  xi.  p.  581. 
2  Ep.  19,  Lib.  ii.  p.  736. 


VOL.  I. 


290  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


FORTUNE  of  war  changed  very  suddenly  the  tenor  of 
Agrippa's  life.  The  year  1515  opened  with  the  death  of 
Louis  XII.  of  France.  Francis  I.,  who  succeeded  him,  a 
youth  of  twenty-one,  directed  his  attention  promptly  to 
the  Milanese.  He  raised  a  considerable  army,  which  he 
proposed  to  accompany,  and  did  accompany,  in  person 
into  Italy.  The  hope  of  the  duchy  was  entirely  in  the 
Swiss,  and  the  fomenter  of  their  zeal,  the  Cardinal  of 
Sion,  moving  about  the  town  in  the  brown  dress  of  a 
civilian1,  was  so  much  master  there,  that  he  could  even 
venture  to  put  to  the  torture  the  duke's  cousin,  Ottaviano 
Sforza,  Bishop  of  Lodi,  upon  the  most  vague  suspicion  of 
communication  with  the  enemy.  The  Swiss  attempted  to 
defend  the  passes  of  the  Alps,  but  the  French  army  eluded 
them,  and  crossed  in  safety  by  a  perilous  way,  over  which 
the  enemy  had  set  no  watch.  The  Swiss  retired  to  defend 
Milan. 

Francis  had  leagued  himself  with  the  Venetians.  Empe- 

1  The  narrative  in  this  chapter  is  generally  made  out  by  collation  of 
Agrippa's  writings  with  Count  Verri's  Storia  di  Milano. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  MARIGNANO.          291 

ror  Maximilian  united  with  the  Pope  and  King  of  Naples 
to  maintain  Maximilian  Sforza  in  his  duchy,  and  the 
smaller  Italian  chiefs  opposed  the  prospect  of  a  powerful 
and  active  king  for  neighbour.  When  the  French  army 
approached  Milan,  all  the  force  available  was  mustered. 
On  the  tenth  of  September,  the  Cardinal  of  Sion  brought 
a  large  body  of  Swiss  into  the  town.  The  Duke  of 
Savoy,  the  Marquis  of  Monferrat,  the  Marquis  of  Saluzzo, 
and  others,  prepared  also  for  battle,  and  the  ill-starred 
Cornelius  Agrippa  was  called  to  the  field  again.  King 
Francis  had  in  succession  occupied  various  towns,  marched 
to  Binasco;  had  marched  thence  to  Pavia.  There  was  an 
end  of  study.  The  new  doctor  took  the  written  produce 
of  his  labours  with  him  into  Milan,  and,  on  the  four- 
teenth of  September,  met  the  French  in  arms  at  Marig- 
nano.  The  battle,  as  the  world  knows,  was  as  desperate 
as  it  was,  for  the  time,  decisive  in  its  issue.  The  Swiss, 
fighting  for  Maximilian  under  the  promise  of  eight  hun- 
dred thousand  gold  ducats  if  they  won  the  day,  fought 
the  day  through ;  when  night  closed  the  two  armies  lay 
down  on  the  battle-field  to  rise  and  end  the  struggle  as 
the  light  should  serve  them.  On  the  following  morning 
the  arrival  of  Venetian  reinforcements  secured  victory  to 
the  French ;  the  Swiss  and  the  Italians  were  routed,  and 
Cornelius  lost  in  the  rout  a  pocket-full  of  manuscripts. 
Among  smaller  writings  and  detached  notes  there  were 
thus  lost  his  commentaries  on  the  Epistle  of  Paul  to  the 
Romans,  completed  as  far  as  the  sixth  chapter,  besides  a 
small  bundle  of  commentaries,  as  yet  only  roughly  noted, 
U2 


292  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

on  his  own  Books  of  Occult  Philosophy.  There  was  a 
pupil  of  his  among  the  combatants,  Christopher  Schilling, 
of  Lucerne,  who  saw  the  sheets  departing  from  their 
owner,  and,  in  the  heat  of  battle,  mindful  of  the  cause  of 
scholarship,  plunged  forward  to  rescue  them.  Cornelius 
heard  afterwards  of  this,  and  that  some  papers  had  so  been 
saved;  perhaps,  therefore,  his  loss  was  not  irreparable1. 

His  position  otherwise  was,  by  the  victory  of  the  French 
at  Marignano,  rendered  desperate.  King  Francis  fixed 
his  military  residence  at  Pavia,  while  Maximilian  Sforza 
made  what  terms  he  could,  still  holding  the  citadel  of 
Milan.  Constable  Bourbon  was  governor  for  Francis  in 
the  town.  On  the  eighth  of  October  the  citadel  was 
ceded  to  the  French — two  years  had  not  elapsed  since 
they  last  quitted  it — and  Maximilian  Sforza  withdrew  to 
French  soil  upon  a  pension,  glad,  he  said,  to  be  quit  of 
slavery  and  the  Swiss,  the  Emperor's  caprices,  and  the 
thieves  of  Spain.  Sforza  might  so  retire,  the  neighbouring 
Italian  princes  might  accept  the  stern  arbitrement  of  war, 
and  ride,  as  they  did  on  the  eleventh  of  October,  with 
the  Marquis  of  Monferrat  among  them,  as  the  friendly 
escort  of  King  Francis,  into  his  new  capital  of  Milan. 
Cornelius  Agrippa  was  a  German  noble,  owing  strict  alle- 
giance to  the  Emperor.  He  could  make  no  submission 
to  King  Francis.  His  vocation  was  gone,  therefore,  as  a 
soldier;  hostile  to  the  new  rule,  he  could  no  longer  teach 
at  Pavia;  his  military  pension  ceased,  and  there  was  an 
abrupt  end  of  his  lectures. 

1  Ep.  14,  Lib.  ii.  pp.  732,  733,  for  the  preceding. 


PAPERS  LOST — OCCUPATION  GONE.       293 

King  Francis  proceeded  next  to  make  his  new  position 
the  more  sure  by  coming  to  an  understanding  with  the 
Pope.  Arrangements  were  signed  at  Viterbo  on  the 
thirteenth  of  October,  tending  very  much  to  the  propitia- 
tion of  his  Holiness;  before  the  year  was  out  the  Con- 
cordat was  signed  at  Bologna,  which  obtained  the  friend- 
ship of  the  Pope  for  Francis  at  the  price  of  rights  be- 
longing to  the  Church  in  France.  The  more  complete 
success  of  Francis  was  but  the  more  complete  ruin  to 
Cornelius  Agrippa.  Doubtless  there  was  a  seed  of  war 
sown  by  this  seizure  of  Milan.  Germany  must  resist,  and 
Italy  become  again  a  scene  of  military  tumult.  Here, 
however,  would  be  occupation  for  the  future  which  the 
scholar  had  no  wish  to  share ;  and  in  the  present  there 
was  absolutely  nothing  to  be  earned  or  done. 

Immediately  after  the  entry  of  King  Francis  into 
Milan,  Cornelius  Agrippa  made  several  applications  to  a 
friend  whom  he  had  known  at  Pa  via.  The  last  only  was 
delivered  duly,  and  was  thus  attended  to1 :  "  I  see  clearly 
enough  how  you  are  perplexed  by  fortune ;  but  you  must 
bear  this,  like  a  brave  man,  bravely.  I  have  assured  your 
safety  with  our  prince"  (Monferrat).  "  The  rest  is,  that 
you  must  go  to  him,  say  you  are  leaving  for  Casale,  and 
ask  his  excellency  to  give  orders  to  Galeotti  and  Antonio 
of  Altavilla,  the  masters  of  his  household,  that  they  should 
write  to  Casale  to  have  you  received,  when  you  get  there, 
among  the  pensioners.  I  must  remain  here  for  two  days, 
detained  by  some  business :  shall  find  you  afterwards  at 
1  Ep.  47,  Lib.  i.  pp.  714,  715. 


294  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

Pavia.  Farewell.  Commend  me  to  your  wife  and  other 
friends.  Milan,  Oct.  16,  1515." 

Help  had  from  Monferrat,  Cornelius,  as  we  shall  see, 
strove  to  repay  promptly  with  the  scholar's  coin.  A 
month  afterwards  he  has  been  wandering  up  and  down 
the  land  in  search  of  bread  that  may  be  eaten  honestly, 
has  struck  a  little  spark  of  hope,  and  hears  thus  from  a 
friend  in  Pavia  of  his  wife's  brave  bearing  and  uncon- 
quered  love:  "I  went  to  your  wife,"  the  friend  says1, 
"and  told  her  everything  according  to  your  order;  she 
replied  that  she  was  well  treated  by  her  parents  and  her 
brother.  When  I  offered  any  help  she  needed  from  my 
service  or  my  means,  she  made  no  other  reply.  I  will 
visit  her  again,  and  should  she  want  anything  within  my 
resources,  and  will  tell  me,  I  will  succour  her  for  you  as  if 
she  were  my  sister.  Contrive  that  you  come  back  soon,  very 
soon,  for  so  asks,  beseeches,  and  requires,  your  sweetest 
wife,  and  I  not  less.  From  Pavia,  Nov.  24,  1515." 

At  the  same  time  Cornelius  was  writing  thus  to  a 
"  most  learned  Augustine2 :"  "  Either  for  our  impiety,  or 
through  the  usual  influence  of  the  celestial  bodies,  or  by 
the  providence  of  God,  who  governs  all,  so  great  a  plague 
of  arms,  or  pestilence  of  soldiers,  is  everywhere  raging, 
that  one  can  scarcely  live  secure  even  in  hollows  of  the 
mountains.  Whither,  I  ask,  in  these  suspected  times, 
shall  I  betake  myself  with  my  wife  and  son  and  family, 
when  home  and  household  goods  are  gone  from  us  at 
Pavia,  and  we  have  been  despoiled  of  nearly  all  that  we 

1  Ep.  48,  Lib.  i.  p.  715.  2  Ep.  49,  Lib.  i.  pp.  715,  716. 


WISDOM  IS  STRONGER  THAN  ALL.        295 

possess,  except  a  few  things  that  were  rescued.  My  spirit 
is  sore,  and  rny  heart  is  disturbed  within  me,  because  the 
enemy  has  persecuted  my  soul,  and  humbled  my  life  to 
the  dust.  I  have  thought  over  my  lost  substance,  the 
money  spent,  the  stipend  lost,  our  no  income,  the  dearness 
of  everything,  and  the  future  threatening  worse  evils  than 
the  present;  and  I  have  praised  the  dead  rather  than  the 
living,  nor  have  I  found  one  to  console  me.  But  turning 
back  upon  myself  I  have  reflected  that  wisdom  is  stronger 
than  all,  and  have  said,  Lord  what  am  I  that  thou  shouldst 
be  mindful  of  me,  or  that  thou  shouldst  visit  me  with 
mercy  ?  And  I  have  thought  much  concerning  Man  in 
this  unwelcome  idleness,  and  in  the  sadness  of  absence 
from  my  children,  and  have  discussed  with  myself  as  I 
used  with  Landi  of  Placentia."  Mindful  of  old  talk  with 
Landi,  he  had,  in  fact,  written  a  dialogue  on  Man,  and 
asked  his  friend  Augustine  to  revise  it,  that  it  might  be- 
fit for  presentation  to  the  Marquis  of  Monferrat.  He  was 
paying  for  the  charity  accepted.  Augustine,  in  reply1, 
bade  him  not  grieve  at  a  reverse  of  fortune  that  had  tried 
and  purified  his  soul.  He  admired  greatly  the  sublime 
thoughts  in  his  dialogue,  "But  this,"  he  added,  "I 
would  have  counselled  you,  if  you  desire  this  work  to  be 
safe  from  the  strokes  of  those  who  strive  to  make  a  stag- 
nant and  immovable  Theology  obnoxious  to  every  sign 
of  stir  or  change,  you  should  have  thrown  the  onus  of  it 
on  a  man  more  learned  than  I  am,  and  of  weightier 
authority."  The  dialogue  on  Man  was  then  sent  by 

1  Ep.  50,  Lib.  i.  p.  71tJ. 


296  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

Agrippa  to  the  marquis,  with  a  letter  of  dedication, 
carefully  saving  the  credit  of  his  orthodoxy  in  one  special 
clause1.  What  argument  was  deficient  in  it,  he  said, 
would  be  supplied  in  his  forthcoming  notes  on  the  Pi- 
raander.  That  Agrippa  was  at  this  time  protected  and 
helped  by  the  marquis  is  sufficiently  clear  from  the  last 
words  of  the  dedicatory  letter,  which  entitle  him  "  sole 
refuge  of  the  studious." 

But  Agrippa's  effort  to  repay  his  patron's  kindness  was 
not  at  an  end.  His  spirit  was  disturbed,  his  heart  was 
overcharged,  and  he  must  find  relief  in  earnest  utterances. 
After  the  dialogue  on  Man,  he  wrote  at  the  same  period, 
and  also  for  Monferrat3,  a  little  treatise  on  "  The  Triple 
way  of  Knowing  God."  The  dialogue  on  Man  was  not 
preserved,  the  other  treatise  has  come  down  to  us  among 
his  works,  and,  short  as  it  is,  contains  the  essence  of  its 
author's  mind.  It  was  a  longing  Godward  from  the 
depths  of  suffering,  full  of  an  earnest  aspiration,  with 
which,  however,  there  had  at  last  come  to  be  joined  a 
bitter  scorn  of  those  who,  never  rising  heavenward,  pull 
heaven  down  to  their  own  sphere,  and  standing  in  the 
churches  and  the  monasteries  bar  the  upward  way. 

"  The  voice  of  God  cries  out  of  heaven,  from  his  sacred 
mount:  Contemplate  my  creatures,  hear  the  angels,  listen 
to  my  Son,  that  ye  may  become  just  and  pious."  This, 
says  Agrippa,  is  the  triple  way  of  knowing  God3.  He 

1  Ep.  51,  Lib.  i.  pp.  717,  718.  2  Ep.  52,  Lib.  i.  pp.  718,  719. 

3  De  Triplici  Ratlone  Coynoscendi  Deum.  Illustrissimo  Excellentissi- 
moque  Sacri  Roraani  Imperil  Principi,  ac  vicario,  Gulielmo  Palseologo, 


ON  THE  TRIPLE  WAY  OF  KNOWING  GOD.  297 

divides  his  treatise  into  six  chapters.  In  the  first  he 
treats  of  the  necessity  of  seeking  to  know  God.  In  the 
second,  he  states  this  triple  way  of  knowing  him.  In  the 
third,  fourth,  and  fifth,  he  treats  successively  of  each  of 
the  three  ways,  and  in  the  last  he  sums  up  formally  with 
the  creed  of  the  Church,  whereby  to  save  himself  from 
risk  of  being  taken  for  a  heretic. 

One  passage  will  show  the  spirit  of  the  chapter,  which 
points  out  the  way  of  learning  to  know  God  through  con- 
templation of  His  works — study  of  nature.  "  The  human 
soul  (as  Hermes  says)  seizes  and  penetrates  all  things;  it 
mingles  by  swiftness  with  the  elements,  penetrates  the 
depths  of  the  great  sea ;  to  it  all  things  yield  light,  the 
heavens  do  not  overtop  it,  no  dense  mists  of  the  air  can 
shroud  its  purposes  in  darkness,  no  density  of  earth  im- 
pede its  action ;  from  the  depths  it  can  look  up  to  no  tall 
wave  by  which  it  shall  be  overwhelmed.  And  elsewhere, 
Cast  your  soul  forth  (he  says),  it  will  fly  faster  than  you 
can  urge  it.  Command  it  to  pass  into  the  ocean,  it  is 
there  before  your  bidding,  although'  all  the  while  never 
departing  from  its  home.  Bid  it  fly  up  into  the  heavens, 
and  it  needs  no  wings  to  mount,  nothing  shall  stay  its 
course;  the  sun's  hot  ray,  the  ample  space,  the  giddy 
height,  the  influencing  stars,  shall  not  delay  it;  it  shall 
penetrate  to  the  last  region,  visit  all  the  heavenly  globes, 
and  to  what  there  is  beyond  them  nothing  hinders  it  from 

Marchioni  Montisferrati,  Domino  Suo  Beneficentissimo,  Henricus  Cornelius 
Agrippa  beatitudinem  perpetuam  exoptat.  (Opuscula :  De  Nob.  et  Prcec. 
Fam.  Sex.,  &c.  &c.,  ed.  1532,  Mense  Maio,  sig.  fol.  E  vii.-G  vu.) 


298  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

passing  on.  Think  only  of  the  power  of  the  soul,  its 
courage  and  its  swiftness.  Therefore  the  man  is  inex- 
cusable who  knows  not  God.  More  inexcusable  is  he 
who  knowing  God  in  any  way,  gives  Him  no  worship 
and  no  reverence."  The  second  way  of  knowing  God  is 
by  the  hearing  of  his  angels,  and  the  chapter  which 
explains  this  is  entirely  cabalistical.  It  expkins  with  an 
undoubting  faith  the  principle  of  that  Cabala,  which  gave 
to  the  Jews  "  as  it  were  a  shadow  of  the  true  knowledge 
of  God ;  the  true  and  perfect  knowledge  (as  the  whole 
school  of  the  Cabalists  bears  witness)  was  reserved  for  the 
advent  of  the  Messiah,  in  whom  all  things  are  perfected." 
He  says,  as  a  Cabalist,  "  If  you  apprehend  no  more  than 
the  literal  sense  of  the  Law,  apart  from  the  spirit  of  the 
future  light,  truth  and  perfection,  nothing  is  more  ridi- 
culous than  the  Law,  or  more  like  old  women's  fables  and 
mere  wanton  talk.  Afterwards  came  Christ,  the  sun  of 
righteousness,  the  true  light,  shining  truth,  the  true  per- 
fection of  the  life  of  all  men  who  are  believers  in  His 
name.  By  Him  the  law  was  fulfilled,  so  that  in  a  manner 
we  need  not  the  mists  of  creation,  or  the  shadows  of  the 
Jewish  law  through  which  to  perceive  God,  but  have  true 
knowledge  of  Him  by  the  light  of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.'' 
We  come  thus  to  the  final  way  of  knowing  God,  that 
through  the  Gospel.  This  chapter  is  the  longest  and  the 
best.  It  is  bold,  too ;  all  (except  the  last)  are  bold,  but 
this  is  boldest.  "If  you  would  be  borne  up,"  writes 
Agrippa,  "to  the  perfect  doctrine  of  Christ,  you  must 
pass  over  the  doctrine  of  initiation,  in  which,  namely,  are 


NATURE— THE  CABALA— CHRISTIANITY.          299 

discussed  the  principles  and  grounds  of  divine  wisdom, 
the  repentance  from  dead  works,  baptism,  the  sacraments, 
imposition  of  hands,  authority  of  absolution,  resurrection 
of  the  dead,  eternal  judgment,  and  the  like,  which  all  lie 
in  the  bark  of  the  tree  of  life,  and  are  discussed  in  the 
schools  by  scholastic  Theologians,  and  are  brought  down 
for  disputation  and  discussion  to  the  form  of  problems. 
But  those  things  which  belong  to  better  wisdom  and  more 
perfect  doctrine,  namely,  what  is  the  gift  of  heaven,  the 
secret  manna  known  to  him  only  by  whom  it  is  received, 
and  what  is  the  good  word  of  God  better  than  that  which 
is  in  parables  delivered  to  the  people,  and  what  is  the 
mystery  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  all  this  is  given  to  be 
known  only  by  those  studying  in  secret.  And  what  are 
the  powers  of  the  future,  what  the  origin  and  end  of  the 
soul,  and  the  ministration  of  angelic  spirits,  what  the  con- 
dition and  nature  of  that  immense  glory  and  happiness 
which  we  expect,  which  neither  eye  hath  seen,  nor  ear 
heard,  nor  the  heart  of  man  conceived,  all  these  things 
are  contained  in  the  marrow  and  core  of  the  Gospel,  and 
known  only  to  the  more  perfect  to  whom  is  given  the 
knowledge  of  powers  and  virtues,  of  miracles  and  pro- 
phecy, and  other  things  upon  the  trace  of  which  men 
cannot  come  by  their  own  strength,  but  only  they  who 
are  subject  to  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Where- 
fore such  persons  are  chosen  and  deputed  to  bear  rule  in 
the  Church,  that  they  being  illuminated  by  Faith,  ac- 
quainted with  the  will  of  God,  instructed  by  the  Gospel, 
according  to  the  words  of  Paul  may  be  leaders  of  the 


300  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

blind,  a  light  to  those  sitting  in  darkness,  teachers  of  the 
ignorant,  masters  of  infant  minds,  having  the  form  of 
knowledge  and  truth  in  the  Gospel,  of  which  sort  are  in 
the  Church,  pontiffs,  bishops,  prelates,  doctors,  and  those 
to  whom  is  committed  the  cure  of  souls.  .  .  .  Wherefore, 
if  pontiffs,  prelates,  doctors,  have  not  in  them  the  pro- 
phetic spirit  of  our  divine  wisdom,  and  have  not  proved 
by  its  effect  displayed  in  them  their  profession  of  a  divine 
power  in  the  Church,  certainly  the  spirit  of  such  men 
has  not  the  light  of  the  mind,  its  faith  in  Christ  is  weak, 
and  languishes  because  over  the  spirit  the  flesh  dominates 
too  much.  For  which  cause  all  they,  as  barren  souls,  shall 
be  judged  and  condemned  as  impious  and  unjust.  He 
who  desires  to  know  God,  and  merit  truly  the  name  of  a 
Theologian,  must  seek  to  hold  communion  with  God,  and 
meditate  upon  His  law  by  day  and  night.  But  there  are 
some  who  speak  with  tongues  inflated  with  human  know- 
ledge, who  do  not  blush  to  belie  God  in  their  life  and 
language,  who  by  their  own  spirit  impudently  distort  all 
the  Scripture  into  their  own  falsity,  and  narrow  divine 
mysteries  to  the  method  of  human  argument ;  who  having 
arranged  the  Divine  Word,  adulterated  with  their  glosses, 
under  heads  of  their  own  invention,  establish  their  own 
monstrous  fancies,  and  by  theft  and  rapine  dare  to  usurp 
the  sacred  name  of  Theology,  wherein  they  give  room  only 
for  contentions  and  brawling  disputations,  of  which  Paul 
writes  to  the  Philippians:  Some  indeed  preach  Christ 
even  of  envy  and  strife  ;  and  some  also  of  good  will.  .  .  . 
Carnal  and  earthly  is  the  entire  doctrine  of  that  ambitious 


PRELATES  AND  DOCTORS  MAY  BE  BARREN  SOULS.  301 

race,  arrogantly  trusting  in  its  own  wit,  thinking  to  know 
God  by  its  own  strength,  and  to  find  the  truth  in  every- 
thing; these  are  men  before  whom  nothing  can  be  said 
upon  which  they  are  not  ready  to  make  choice  dispute,  it 
matters  not  whether  on  one  side  or  another,  and  put  for- 
ward a  provable  opinion  ;  an  astute  race  rich  in  the  lite- 
rature  of  other  people,  and  at  the  same  time  relying 
insolently  on  a  certain  artificial  dialectic;  though  they 
of  themselves  know  nothing  whatever,  they  wish  to  be 
thought  learned,  therefore  they  dispute  openly  in  the 
schools,  strong  over  little  shifts  with  sophisms,  calling  and 
thinking  themselves  wise.  Miserably  deceived!  That 
which  they  take  to  be  their  help  is  their  impediment.  .  .  . 
True  wisdom  does  not  consist  in  clamorous  disputes,  but  is 
hidden  in  silence  and  religion  through  faith  in  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  whereof  the  fruit  is  life  eternal.  Urban,  the 
Pope,  writing  to  Charles,  says  :  Not  by  dialectics  has  it 
pleased  God  that  His  people  should  be  saved;  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  with  simplicity  of  faith,  not  wordy  con- 
tention. The  inventor  of  this  pestilent  art  is  the  devil; 
he  was  the  first  cunning,  pernicious  sophist,  who  pro- 
posed his  little  questions,  invented  disputations,  and,  as  it 
were,  founded  a  school.  Not  content  with  having  lost 
himself,  he  discovered  an  art  wherein  others  might  be 
lost,  to  the  increase  and  propagation  of  hurt  like  his  own. 
Therefore,  not  suffering  man  to  abide  in  simple  faith,  he 
chose  to  propose  a  question  upon  the  divine  commands, 
judging  this  to  be  the  cleverest  contrivance  for  the  over- 
throw of  man.  So  he  first  approached  Eve  like  a  sophist, 


302  CORNELIUS  AGRIPPA. 

and  invited  her  to  a  contest  of  argument  by  asking, 
Why  hath  God  said,  Ye  shall  not  eat  of  every  tree  of 
the  garden  ?  ....  In  imitation  of  that  old  sophist,  the 
serpent,  some  of  the  more  recent  Theosophists  arose,  the 
chiefs,  authors,  and  propagators  of  so  much  that  is  in- 
famous in  this  our  age,  whom  innumerable  other  men  of 
the  same  sort  daily  follow  to  their  misery.  Hence  has 
arisen  that  horrid  and  entangled  wood,  that  dark  forest 
of  disputation,  in  which  with  sordid,  weary  labour,  damn- 
able work  is  done  for  little  fruit ;  in  which  nothing  is 
done  by  faith,  hope,  charity,  in  imitation  of  Christ, 
neither  by  prayers  and  fastings,  watching,  seeking, 
knocking  that  the  gate  of  the  armoury  of  divine  know- 
ledge may  be  opened,  but  like  the  Titans  these  men 
warring  against  Heaven  think  that  by  the  intricate 
machines  of  sophistry  the  gate  of  sacred  letters  may 
be  burst  for  them."  Cornelius  goes  on  to  reprove,  with 
equal  emphasis,  the  habit  of  citing  endless  authorities, 
from  authors  alike  ancient  and  modern,  for  the  purpose 
of  parade,  by  men  whose  only  wit  it  is  to  produce 
the  wit  of  others.  "  Not  so,"  he  says,  "  did  those  early 
theologians,  men  solid  in  wisdom,  venerable  in  autho- 
rity, holy  in  their  lives,  in  whose  writings  citations  are 
simple  and  infrequent,  occurring  only  when  they  are 
required,  and  then  chiefly  from  the  Old  Testament,  the 
Gospels,  the  apostles,  or  remote  antiquity;  they  were  not 
boastful,  though  truly  having  trust  in  divine  grace,  con- 
scious of  their  own  wisdom,  and  the  best  of  teachers,  who 
feared  no  man's  criticism.  They  spoke  truth,  not  flinch- 


MEN  EEALLY  DEVOUT  MAY  BE  CALLED  HERETICS.   303 

ing  before  the  face  of  man,  and  have  bestowed  upon  us 
largess  from  their  own  resources,  imitating  Christ,  who 
like  a  good  master  of  the  house  produces  what  is  good 
and  needful  out  of  his  own  treasury,  in  all  things  ripening 
for  us  the  fruits  of  true  religion  and  a  saving  faith." 
Returning  then  to  his  deprecation  of  the  new  form  of 
Theology,  he  bewails  the  loss  of  a  pristine  simplicity. 
"  Nobody,"  he  says,  "  with  pious  mind  asks  knowledge  of 
God ;  we  are  all  professors  of  ignorance ;  we  have  a  new 
theology,  new  doctors,  new  doctrine,  nothing  ancient, 
nothing  holy,  nothing  truly  religious,  and,  what  is  worse, 
if  there  be  any  who  devote  themselves  to  this  pristine 
theology  and  religion,  they  are  called  mad,  ignorant, 
irreligious,  sometimes  even  heretics,  and  (as  Hermes  says) 
held  to  be  hateful ;  there  is  even  peril  of  their  lives 
decreed  against  them,  they  are  marked  with  contumely, 
often  put  to  death." 

Bold  speaking  to  the  doctors  of  the  Church,  and  yet 
Cornelius  takes  heed  never  to  break  loose  from  their 
company.  The  last  chapter  of  the  treatise  declares  God 
to  be  known  according  to  the  most  ecclesiastical  of  the 
creeds  used  by  the  orthodox,  and  declares  formally  by 
copious  citation  that  in  this  creed  believes  Cornelius 
Agrippa.  His  position  with  regard  to  the  orthodox 
Church,  resembles  that  taken  by  Dean  Colet  in  London ; 
and,  indeed,  so  great  is  in  many  respects  the  resemblance 
between  some  of  the  language  of  this  tract  and  the  preach- 
ing of  Colet,  that  when  we  add  a  consideration  of  the  fact 
that  up  to  this  time  Cornelius  had  of  late  been  writing 


304  CORNELIUS  AGEIPPA. 

commentaries  on  St.  Paul ;  and  that  in  this  work,  as  in 
the  appeal  to  Catilinet,  written  in  London,  St.  Paul  is 
cited  with  unusual  frequency  and  earnestness,  we  may 
fairly  conclude  that  John  Colet's  influence  was  great  over 
Agrippa's  mind,  and  the  impression  made  on  the  young 
scholar  by  residence  within  the  Stepney  household  still 
abides1.  The  complaints  of  heresy  made  against  Colet 
may  have  been  in  his  mind  when  speaking  of  the  shame 
and  peril  to  which  they  were  exposed  who  sought  the 
restoration  of  a  pristine  theology. 

Of  this  dissertation,  written  at  Casale  for  the  Marquis 
of  Monferrat,  copies  went  to  other  .  learned  friends,  and 
there  were  not  wanting  influential  persons  ready  to  ad- 
mire the  work  and  honour  the  fine  spirit  of  the  man  who 
could  apply  himself  to  such  writing  for  solace  in  the  day 
of  trial.  In  the  mean  time,  Cornelius  was  seeking  a  way 
out  of  want,  and  the  best  hope  of  finding  it  depended  on 
the  friendship  of  Monferrat.  The  marquis  had  great  in- 
fluence ;  his  good  will  was  sincere ;  he  was  a  patron  worthy 
of  respect.  There  was  just  reason  for  hope,  then,  that  by 
his  assistance  some  new  means  of  subsistence  might  be 
found  for  a  man  well  born  and  nobly  bred,  who,  having 
obtained  his  knighthood  in  the  field  and  earned  his  doc- 
torate in  every  faculty,  was  now,  at  the  age  of  thirty, 
ruined  by  the  chance  of  war. 

1  Compare  p.  236. 
END  OF  VOL.  I. 

C.  WHITIXG,  BEAPFORT  HOUSE.  STRAND. 


m 


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